Cranagan, Midchilda -> Hikaru's Refuge - A twist of Fate
Fate looked serious as she started her report to Hayate. "It's the same across all dimensions I and other enforcers have visited. There is always that same hole that we have also spotted here. They appear to in different stages of advancement and although there hasn't been any real damage yet, it's very clear that significant dimensional distortions are happening all over the place."
Although her superior and friend attempted to remain calm, it was easily to tell that she was also worried. "Reports by several admirals have been the same, including Chrono. This is rather troubling. Despite all our technology and ways to transfer across dimensions, no one has been able to reach the origin of those phenomena or ascertain their cause, let alone counteract them. And if this is happening all across administrated worlds as well as some observed unadministrated ones, if this is left unchecked, it could be become very dangerous very soon."
Fate shared the same worried expression and tone as she replied, "It's probably happening on Earth as well, although that has been verified yet. That would be understandably very worrying for some of us as well. So I won't stop until I have gotten to the bottom of this."
With a serious expression, Hayate gave a brief nod and said, "I understand your dedication, Fate, after all this is a rather serious matter ,but you have done more than enough for now. You have been gone in this search for a while and it's not like it was the only thing you were involved while at it. And you need to rest if you are to accomplish anything more. We also have plenty more enforcers and dimensional ships out there currently doing it as well. Don't make me have to order you, because I'll if I need to."
The blond enforcer hesitated a bit before nodding and saying, "Alright. I thought that it would go like this. I could really use seeing Vivio again after all that and also contacting Caro and Erio for longer than I have been able to so far."
Hayate smiled and said, "I'm glad you agreed. Report back in a few days and not before then unless you are ordered otherwise. If you don't have any more to report, I think you are dismissed," then a bit informally, "I hope we can meet and catch up a bit when we're off-duty."
"I hope so too. See you later." She did a brief salute and then went to leave the room. However, no sooner had she stepped out in the corridor, with the door automically closing behind her, than a strange magical circle appeared under her. It was not of any pattern she recognized.
She was pretty agile even without using Sonic Move or her Barrier Jacket, but no matter what she did, the strange circle homed in on her and always reappeared below her.
She pulled out Bardiche, still in his triangle-like standby mode and asked, "Bardiche, can you get a reading on this?"
Her Device then intoned in response, "Yes, sir. Readings indicate a dimensional transfer. It would also would be not unlike a summoning spell."
Fate's eyes widened in shock as she said, "A forced dimensional transfer? Is there any indication of where it is coming from?"
"No, sir. Signatures are unlike anything that has been detected before. Determining it would take at least several minutes. The transfer is about to be completed."
Almost as soon as this was said, there was a bright flash and they both vanished, then quickly reappearing somewhere else.
They seemed to have showed up at a type of field, which looked like it stretched almost endlessly. There was also a building in the distance, as well as the same phenomena that had been observed on so many other worlds, the mysterious black spot, althought it seemed much smaller than anywhere else.
More importantly, it seemed that she wasn't alone. There was quite a group of other girls surrounding her. Most seemed to around her age, give or take a few years, though it was a bit harder to tell with a few of them, such as the girl with most of her head concealed or that other one with some sort of huge metal attachment on top of hers ...
"Just what is going on here?!" she asked out loud exesperately, to no one in particular, before switching back right into enforcer mode, ready to get to the bottom of this strange situation. As such, a bit more more seriously, she asked all of the others present, "OK ... Did anyone else here get caught by a strange, inescapable circle before ending up in this place?
edited 31st Mar '17 7:38:10 PM by JamesShields
King of Lame-Style
Oddity Club Office, Hermit Stones=>Hikaru's Refuge
There was a tense silence in the meeting room for the Hermit Stones' Oddity Club "We're seriously not going to talk about this?" Said from her patched up couch Nell, a tad irritated by this point at her friends.
"Nothin' to talk about it, its a black dot in the sky" Said Edith, lounging as she tuned up her guitar "Mari couldn't get up to it, we can't bash it or blast it outta the sky, I say we wait and see what it is, then we do something about it"
"What if its the Black Sun again?" Proposed Mari in concern "Its not only showing here, my patron noticed it too, it is beyond her reach"
"Yeah but your patron is lazy, she could've just said it was to screw with us" Said Nell, Mari raised a finger and opened her mouth "Wouldn't be the first time" a mouth was shut and a finger lowered.
"If it is the Black Sun it would be already be here, it doesn't lord over you" Said Henry "Can't we just call your Mom and have her deal with it" He looked at Nell
"No, we have to start taking care of business ourselves!... Besides Mother's not even in town, she and Dad went to the faewild for their anniversary, we can't contact her, interdimensional calls are crazy expensive" Said Nell.
"And she hasn't noticed anything?" asks Henry, taking a brownie from the tray in the table in front of them all.
"yeah, the speck is there too, it said so in her last letter" Said Nell
"Wait, your mom's gone? then who made the brownies we're eatin'?" Asks Edith bringing one them to her mouth "You?" she said stopping and looking at the brownies
"Nah, I've been teaching Egen how to cook." Said Nell plainly.
"That's even worse, that wooden... thing shouldn't cook!"
"You didn't complain until now E." said Mari, giggling as the small talk resumed among the group. The meeting petered out with no real conclusion reached, Henry would ask his friends on the otherworlds if the speck was there too and Mari would try to reach it again. Nell looked at the speck as she walked home. She worried, but she also worried she could be making a fuss about nothing. She wondered what her mother would do in her situation, probably something reckless that ends up saving everybody, because she was right to worry all along. Yet Nell didn't have that certainty, only evidence, her wits, and a tote bag filled with books and magic candy. Maybe she was making a fuss, maybe it was just another cosmic level thing that doesn't concern her, maybe- Was that a rune? she noticed it and stopped walking, then jumped to the side but the glyph followed. Ok, maybe she was right to be concerned, she began walking back to the club's offices, as the rune progressively grew more complex. She didn't even get halfway there before she was gone.
In a flash of light she was somewhere else, a field perpetual, a trail to a mysterious house, and, most odd of all other girls, of around her age no less. She looked around confused and pensive until one of them spoke up. Nell raised her hand "Yup, happened to me too" she said in a mildly worried tone.
The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.
It was, indeed, breakfast time in the Class household, and that meant time to watch television. In the early morning before people had to work, there was one screen available and two sets of prying eyes desperate to get something that they enjoyed on the tube. Today, unfortunate for everyone else, it was Wo's turn. That meant digging out those ancient discs she found, hooking up a mass of wires to a jerry-rigged device capable of reading them, and watching anime.
Truly, unfortunate.
Our heroine, Wo, eagerly chewed away at her breakfast while watching the adventures of these brightly-shaded girls with frills and staves doing their thing. In this case, their thing was fighting some dastardly villain outside of their "high school," some building whose usage had been forgotten along with the human race, to save their yearly "culture festival," which Wo had deduced was some kind of event dedicated to animistic worship of various costumed peoples from folklore.
This had been the 29th time she had watched this particular episode, and her awe hadn't abated.
"No, come on! It's my morning to pick, so we're watching Destiny Sailor Kiri-Kiri's Magical Voyage! If it bothers you so much, I'll give up my next spot," Wo said, pointing to the screen as Destiny Sailor Kiri-Kiri declared her friendship to be stronger than the villain's hatred of cultural festivals.
Nu,
◊ her loving brother whose family resemblance was uncanny, couldn't really understand her obsession and didn't want to. "It's not that, it's...I'm trying to be polite, I know this is your thing, but it's...kind of..."
He paused. "What's that?"
Wo raised an eyebrow. "What, that? That's a transformation sequence, so they can turn into magical girls. I've gone o-"
"No, no! Not the television! That!" He pointed down at the strange rune beneath her, glowing brightly in the dim interior of their apartment.
"...Oh, uh-"
Wo was now, and forever, cut off from her anime. A group of strange, unadorned-looking people in a place that was considerably dryer than her home. In fact, it was so dry it must've been on the ground, Wo's sharp detective mind quickly deduced.
She was sitting there, tray of strange and monochromatic food and everything, when one of them decided to ask an important question. "...If that's what it was, yes?"
edited 31st Mar '17 5:16:24 PM by wikkit
The black spot in the sky had appeared a week or so ago, and most people in Alatoz didn't give it that much of a thought. A lot of Guernica's scientist friends, on the other hand, theorized what it could be. A portal to the realm that had somehow opened in the sky, some sort of meteorological phenomena they hadn't seen before, or even a sign that the gods themselves were angry at their creations.
That thing, whatever it was, grew larger each day and although Raquel had more important things to do than look at the sky for hours, it was starting to freak her out a bit. Speaking of, she was working on a rooftop on in some godforsaken part of the city. Luckily, it was a warm night so she could work on her stabilizer for hours without worrying about getting sick.
Things continued as usual for a while, until one of her spiders saw there was a strange circle under its master's feet. Raquel noticed it thanks to her affinity with the arachnid and decided to examine it. She took out her glasses to have a better look at it and touched it. It didn't feel like chalk or paint. In fact, it didn't feel like anything was there.
At first, Raquel thought it was a sign someone had left the previous day while she was gone. Which was odd, because she had been in that rooftop for months now and she was sure no one, except for the occasional rat, lived in the building. Raquel put on her glasses again and started walking away from the sign, still puzzled but more concerned about what she was working on.
To her surprise, what she believed to be some sort of graffiti moved and caught up to her. Things had gone from "odd" to "fucking weird" in the blink of an eye.
Raquel took a step to see what the white circle would do and, as she had feared, it followed her. Whatever it was, it had started to glow now and she wasn't interested in spending one more second standing over it.
Thinking quickly, she ran up to her replication of Guernica's contraption and climbed over it. The circle, which now had an intricate pattern inside it, was most curious and Raquel really wanted to find out what it was but, when she looked, it wasn't there anymore. Somehow that thing had climbed all over the machinery just to be under her feet.
Before Raquel could do anything else, she was gone.
Raquel found herself in a grass hill filled with an admittedly impressive collection of plants. She didn't recognize most of them but, then again, she was never interested in that sort of thing. More importantly, it was nighttime just a second ago but now the sun was up.
"What the hell happened?" she said to herself, being a bit too surprised by the teleportation to notice there were other people there.
But when she finally did, she was both impressed and terrified. No one looked normal—or at least her definition of normal. They all seemed to be on the same boat, though, if the words from one of the blonde girls were to be believed.
"What's going on here? Where are we?"
Hikaru's Refuge
ERROR"Uh-oh," Inori said to herself as the holographic rectangle popped up. She tried to shake it away as more and more warnings, errors, and debug prompts flooded the virtual screen. And she had just fixed everything too. Now her diagnostics were trying to report that it had lost a connection to everything. And not just the figurative 'everything' she used when it was just a couple networks. It was literally everything. All the wifi, satellite, radio, cellular - everything. Even the longwave signal for clocks that she never actually used wasn't showing up.
If she were to believe the logs, it was like she had been completely removed from Earth. What were the odds of that?
Looking around, she started to wonder if maybe it wasn't an error after all....
"Uh, hello?" she asked the other girls who seemed to be standing near her.
The Flamebringer
The consensus had been give her a house in Last Hope, send her to the Arcane College there, make her an honorary Councillor, to become a full Councillor on arriving at the appropriate age and level of skill, and train her. Her training was supplemented with the skills necessary to become a Councillor: That is to say, an aptitude for politics.
Then the black dot in the sky appeared. And everyone panicked, assuming an imminent attack by the Ravening. Then nothing. And nothing further. Eventually, everyone stood down from high alert, deeming it to be some sort of not-Ravening connected phenomenon. Concerning, to be sure, but not of immediate concern, not with the Ravening at their door near-constantly.
Engrossed in her book, a treatise on the nature of the Ravening by a past Archmage, she failed to notice the white rune below her as she paced. A rune which she would, had she noticed it, have been able to discern as some sort of summoning spell. Preparing to leave for class, she grabbed her bag, likewise full of books, and went to replace the book on its shelf...
She gave a small wave, quickly putting the book in her bag before she dropped it. She brushed her robes down, quickly glancing around at the others. "Hello!" She looked around at the world around them. "We appear to have been summoned here involuntarily." She shook her head, and said to nobody in particular, "If the one who did this could kindly inform us what in the hells you want, that would be great." She assumed it wasn't any of the girls here. One, how would they have that sort of power, and two, that person would look remarkably less bewildered than the rest.
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.
Hikaru's Refuge - Investigation Time
Well, that about confirmed it, at least from the ones that answered it at all. Still, that was a majority of them and even with ones that were, rather understandably, panicking too much to give a response either way, it was not hard to assume that the same had happened to them.
Looking up at the black speck up in the sky once again, Fate pointed towards it and asked, "Then I assume you all have witness something like that back home as well?" Given it had been spotted in every dimension the TSAB had been able to come across ever since the phenomen had started appearing, it was a more than reasonable assumption.
She shared the concerns of the girl in robes and armor. The pattern here was too clear for it not be something intentional. Someone or something, clearly rather powerful, had brought them all here for some purpose. Exactly how powerful and what that intention was would be what they needed to figure out quickly, or they could be all in grave danger.
Turning her gaze to the only, large building in sight, she then said, "In anycase, the answers we seek almost certainly lie withinh that structure. It could be possibly very dangerous to set foot there unprepared, however ... Fortunately, I do have a way to find out at least some of what may lie in wait for us beforehand," lifting up the hand that was still holding her Device and holding foward, her palm grasping him facing upwards, she asked, "Bardiche, could you please give me a reading on signatures in the area, focusing primarly on the building ahead of us?"
To which he responded, "Yes, Sir. Commencing scanning."
Bardiche's scan would have picked up quite a few odd magical signatures from various plants in the garden, most of which looked as if they didn't originate from the same world. However, none of these signatures were particularly strong, possibly lesser still since they weren't the focus of the scan. Chances were they were natural features of the plants in question.
The house itself, and most of the things in it, appeared to be completely mundane. However, there were a few odd signatures in one room towards the back of the first floor that appeared to be some kind of highly advanced technology. These seemed to be inert at the moment of scanning, and probably had been for a while. More noticeably, there was a considerably stronger version of the same kind of signature in the front center room of the house. This one appeared active or at least was active not too long ago.
The latter signal also seemed to be moving slightly....
...Which was likely because it was Hikaru's PMD.
For the past couple moments Hikaru had been kneeling on the floor, trying to regain her energy from her spell. Then she heard voices coming from somewhere outside. Besides the fact they were outside and she was inside, and thus the sound was muffled by the walls around her, they were too distant for her to make out completely. However, she could tell that they sounded like the sorts of people she'd been trying to summon.
She weakly smiled and let out a small sigh of relief. All she had to do from here was go out and greet them, and then they could learn about her plight and hopefully decide to help her, and then everything would be just fine. It was going to be just fine.
So she thought as she tried to get back to her feet. She managed a standing position for all of a second before she stumbled and had to lean against a wall to keep herself from falling over again, all while still trying to catch her breath. Unfortunately, she still wasn't in any state to be walking around, let alone greeting people and trying to explain things. It made her wish she'd thought to put some chairs in this room.
"Damn it," she wheezed out in between gasps.
The spell had never taken this much out of her while she was devising and practicing it. How typical of her to underestimate just how tiring it would had been to cast it for real. She could only hope that there weren't any other bugs she missed on top of that.
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
It was clear, as one of the girls pointed out, that whoever was responsible for this was inside the only structure in the entire field. Echoing the thoughts of one of the other girls, Raquel voiced her concern for how mindblowing this experience was.
"No kidding. How is this even possible?" she looked up after being asked if any of them had seen the black spot in the sky back in their homes "Wasn't it nighttime just a second ago?"
The house was small and unremarkable which just made things a lot weirder but luckily Raquel didn't need to be physically present to examine the place. The blonde girl with the polearm beat her to the punch, though, since she explained she could analyse the place with her tool.
Indeed, after she spoke to it, the triangle she had started talking back with a masculine voice and said it had 'commence scanning'. Unless a small man was living inside it, had some sort of recording (it would need to be much much bigger to house something like that), it made no sense at all.
"How is that thing talking?"
edited 2nd Apr '17 12:35:59 PM by DeisTheAlcano
Awaking from her early-morning, anime-induced stupor and deciding that this place was most definitely anywhere in her lovely home town, Wo made a play action call: breakfast could wait.
She quickly got up, ready to announce her intentions...but decided it was best to hold out on telling them all to let her go on pain of death. Because, for the first time in her life, she could see the constant and powerful surging of magic going through each of these girls as it did her! These were true magical girls, the only other ones she's ever seen!
And besides, she didn't really mean pain of death. That was just an exaggeration.
It wasn't time to wave her arms around while spiked lines appeared next to her face like in the animes, however. Excitement could also wait, because this was still a situation she knew nothing of.
The hooded girl offered a question about another's triangle thing that could be easily answered. "It's just a second head or a drone or something, what's strange about that? The real question is, if the one among us who thought it was okay to kidnap people would please speak up now, I promise I won't hurt you."
A pause. Her eyes shifted to the side, and it seemed that the bright glowing eyes on top of her head seemed to move along as well. "...That wasn't a question, was it? Ahem."
Wo straightened up, and put on a smile. "Let's do that again. Introductions." She brushed the hem of her skirt and waved to the assembled group. "I'm Wo from the 7th District Capital, who are you all and what city are you from?"
edited 2nd Apr '17 9:20:47 AM by wikkit
I have no idea why I'm using a location header when we're all at Hikaru's Refuge
Inori panicked internally. Someone had already introduced themselves, and here she was, just standing around gawking. She knew very well that the first person to introduce themselves was the person who won. Won what? Everything. Life. It was like that whole ordeal with that fox bitch all over again. She wasn't going to let herself be dead last in this - well whatever this was she didn't want to be an outsider. She wanted in. And that meant it was time to go all in, double-or-nothing."Hi! Inori Aizawa, Internet Explorer Extraordinaire!" she said hurriedly. "I'm glad to meet all of you, and resolving problems is what I do so I'm willing to be your best friends as we figure out what's going on. If you want. Okay? Please? Yes? Good! I'm from Tokyo! ... and Washington. I like karaoke, cats, and ice-cream."
The Flamebringer
"... Where in the Hells is that?" She says, to nobody in particular as it applies to all of the answers given so far.
edited 2nd Apr '17 3:26:52 AM by Izshta
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.
Hikaru's Refuge
A few didn't seem to have gotten the question, possibly due to still being bewildered with this whole situation. Still, the response she did get, coupled with such a thing have been spotted in every world they had been able to reache so far made a rather worrying conclusion practically undeniable.
As the girl with the hood that expressed concerns about what time it had been when it had been when she had been taken, Fate then said, "It was still day where I was at. But that can be easily explained by the fact that we are probably from completely different worlds. It is entirely possible that none of us come from even remotely the same place ... In anycase, it seems that it is really like we feared back home ... Whatever that thing in the sky is, it is practically everywhere ... That could be potentially very worrying ..."
Even if it wasn't the focus of the scan, as the group of girls around was currently closest to them, Bardiche still managed to get results from them and sent it directly to her mind. It seem that nearly all of them had some artifact of unknown magical signutares and though it was clear that they weren't exactly mages as she knew it, as none of them had linker cores, it was evident that they all had magic themselves. That was rather surprising, specially since that going by their introductions, none of them could be coming from any administrated worlds and it seemed unlikely that were would be so many active magic users in unadministrated worlds without it being noticed. The most puzzing case of it all was Inori's ... She was pretty sure that Tokyo was of one of the major cities of Nanoha' and Hayate's home country. To have another magic user appear there without it being noticed was extremely unlikely ... Just what was going here?
"So you all have some sort of magical ability as well, huh? That can't a coincidence either ... It has to have to do with why we were all brought here. For what reason is what we to find out .." She then said, sighing a bit in frustation, before adding, "I'm Fate Testarossa Harlaown and this is Bardiche, my Intelligent Device. I'm coming from Mid-Childa, although I'm almost certain that won't mean much to any of you. It is very clear that we are all coming from very distant dimensions ..."
By then, Bardiche's scan had been completed and he gave his report. "Faint magical signatures being picked up from the surrounding flora, almost none of which anywhere nearly matching signatures with any others. More relevantly, readings on the structure revealed signals from advanced, magical technology of the far end of the first level, though they appeared to have remained stationary for an undeterminate, but extended period of time. A stronger, non-stationary signal of the same nature is coming from the forefront of the structure."
Fate frowned in worry quite a bit at that and she asked, "Lost Logia?"
"Negative. It should be more approximate to a Device, although not one of either Mid-Childan or Belkan make.
" I see ... Whoever or whatver is wielding it must be a rather powerful summoner to do all this and we have no idea of what else they may be capable of or even their intentions with us..." She said, before turning to the others and saying, "Well, you hear it. The one responsible for all this is probably moving towards us as we speak, given their current location. We need to all get ready," she then finally called out, "With that in mind ... Bardiche, set up!"
"Yes, Sir. Get set." , he then replied, before starting to glow with a bright golden light
She was briefly enveloped by the same by the same light and once it faded, instead of her black uniform, she was now clad in a more elaborate, armor-like outfit of similarly color. Her hands and feet were covered in silver, knight-like armor, with gold colored bands on top. Her long, white cape fluttered gracefully from the soft breeze blowning by. In her hands, she held Bardiche, now appearing as a silver and black, almost entirely metallic axe. What most set him most apart from any other such weapons were the large cilinder at the top the shaft, the large, round gem-like core appearing at the either side of his head and the pistons on top of it.
Fate then moved slightly towards the path leading to the house, before stopping and standing her ground, getting into a battle ready position.
edited 3rd Apr '17 9:28:32 PM by JamesShields
One of the girls brushed off Raquel's question and simply answered that whatever Fate was holding was probably another head.
"What? That doesn't make any sense" she said, noticing her giant metal hat "What are you wearing?"
The blonde girl, who called herself Fate, explained that the black spot on the sky was "everywhere" and that it was dangerous even when she herself wasn't quite sure what it was.
Speaking of introductions, Wo—the pale girl—stated her name and place of origin. The other girls followed suit and introduced themselves. They were all from weird-sounding places that made no sense to Raquel and now she found herself wondering what the hell a karaoke was. Noticing Maia's confusion, Fate theorized that they were all from different worlds, their powers being the reason they. Now that was news, did they all have powers? What would someone want to do with them anyway?
"That's... hard to believe"
She paused, trying to think of an explanation that would make sense.
"But yeah, I've never heard of those places" she said, agreeing with Maia's sentiment "I'm Raquel. I come from Alatoz"
Thanks to her tool-thingy, Fate concluded that someone was inside the house. She was enveloped in a flash of light and came out wearing a light armor. Her tool, Bardiche was now some sort of axe. The sudden transformation made Raquel instinctively take a step backwards to avoid getting hit by her polearm. After she recovered from the initial surprise, though, she realized Fate's plan could use some help.
"You don't need to do that"
Immediately after saying that, she knelt on the grass and created a small portal with tons of spiders pouring out of it. The arachnids marched to the house entering through every hole they could find.
"See?"
After her failed earlier attempt at getting up, Hikaru had settled for sitting with her back against the left wall, still breathing quite heavily. Eventually, she managed to get herself to a point where she wasn't gasping for breath anymore, which was enough for her to try getting back to her feet for a second time.
She still stumbled a little upon standing fully straight, and she was still rather shaky, but she successfully managed to stay standing without having to hold onto something for support. She made a small, relieved smile, and then tried to make her way over to the door...just in time to see a bunch of spiders crawl in from underneath it.
She was fairly certain there wasn't any fauna in this place when she found it, unless she counted herself. At least, she didn't remember seeing anything like insects. Even if there was, they probably wouldn't have come in such numbers. Chances were they came from one of the people she brought here. This wasn't exactly how she was planning to first meet them, but it'd have to do.
"Um.... Assuming there's somebody you're...working for?" she said to the spiders, "...And assuming you're even able to understand what I'm saying.... I'll be with all of you in a minute. I'm...." she paused to take a breath, "I'm just...a little worn out right now. Or you're welcome to just come in.... Whatever makes you feel more comfortable.... Either way, I promise I'll explain everything."
Hikaru appeared to be a sixteen-year-old human girl of average height and build for her age, and of apparently Japanese ancestry. She had gray eyes and straight black hair that reached her shoulders, with straight bangs and two sidetails on either side of her head. She was dressed entirely in a white outfit, consisting of a bow in her hair, a vest with detached sleeves, a short pleated skirt, knee-high socks, and buckled shoes.
In her right hand she clutched a long, silver staff with a sunburst symbol at the upper end. On the right side of her chest was her PMD, which was a palm-sized device apparently made of some kind of green gemstone. It had a circular center, surrounded by three spokes and three crescent shapes, alternating in such a manner that one of the spokes pointed straight up with a crescent opposite to it. The two crescents on the side each had a single spoke through it, while the bottom crescent had two spokes spaced equal distance apart from each other.
The room she was standing in had walls painted brown with a gray carpet. There was a single entrance to other rooms on the left and right walls. Two leafy potted plants sat on either side of the door, while the back wall had three paintings. They all depicted women dressed in regal clothing that bore a resemblance to Hikaru, with the painting in the middle being the largest and most detailed.
The spiders trying to enter from elsewhere would find that for the most part all other potential entrances were sealed off. That being said, some of the spiders would find a back door they could squeeze under, finding themselves in a back hallway that looked similar to the entry hall. An open door revealed a clean bathroom on the otherside, and next to this door was a set of straight stairs. On the far ends of the hallway were another two entrances; to the right from the spider's perspective was what looked like a dining room, while to the left appeared to be some kind of utility area.
edited 3rd Apr '17 9:28:50 PM by Yomegami
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
Also, much more important, one of them was from Tokyo. Well, at least claimed to be from that one place. Maybe she was referring to a Toekio, or a Tohkiho? There was no way she could be talking about the real one. The Center of the Universe, the Seat of Human Government, The Big 東京!
But, as much as she wanted to distract herself with this whole kidnapping business, things were mentally falling into place. A bunch of strangers from inexplicably named cities, and not an ounce of metal on their skin...
She could check if they had it under their skin, but that would be rude.
Lost in these deeply troubling thoughts for a moment, Wo snapped into reality when Raquel asked about her clothes? She was the one dressed strange, all she had was some sandals and a nice dress on. Though, she was looking upwards to the top of her head...
She dragged her tentacles around up there, smooth flesh rubbing against the rough metal. "Is there something on my head? I don't feel anything."
Hikaru's Refuge - Heading Towards Her House
"Eeek, web crawlers!" Inori said under her breath, looking a bit uncomfortable as she saw the spiders march ahead. She made sure that the robots.txt in her root directory listed the places she didn't want any spiders going - everywhere. And then she double-checked her actual defenses, since you couldn't trust spiders to be polite about how they carried on. She may not have been back on Earth, but she figured it was a safe assumption to trust no spiders. Although that lady with the spider-thing on her head might prove to be trouble....With that matter settled, she looked straight ahead and kept up the pace with the others. The freaky black spot in the sky was a bit disconcerting, but one problem at a time. First, other people. Second, that weird house. Third, the thing that was probably a horrific tear in space-time floating so casually above their heads.
She trotted over towards Fate, casting a long glance at Bardiche. "That's a pretty cool device you got there. You know, um, miss Fate, I... I've developed my own software interfaces and operating systems for all sorts of hardware, and I'm real good at fixing up firmware real fast. If you wanted to use it I could, I mean, maybe I could give you a copy?" she asked the other magical girl shyly.
The Flamebringer
Most of the time, at least.
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.
Wo didn't see what the problem was with her clothes and even checked her metal hat to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. Of course, she did so by moving her tentacles and rubbing them against the top of her head.
"...please don't do that. You are freaking me out"
Luckily, her spiders' mission managed to take her mind off of Wo's extra limbs. Why would someone have tentacles? Were her parents the same way? Thinking about that was just making Raquel more uncomfortable by the minute.
There wasn't much to talk about the inside of the house since everything was as normal looking as the outside of it—aside from a few paintings that maybe could explain who the house belonged—but there indeed was someone there. A girl, about the same age as Raquel, wearing some weird clothes—then again, everyone else was. It was hard to tell if she was behind everything but her existence was noteworthy enough.
"There is a girl inside"
Before Raquel could try and make a plan or simply talk further about what she was seeing, the girl started talking to her through her spiders. It was an odd experience because the last thing people thought about when looking at her spiders was that they were being controlled by someone else. How would she even know that?
More disconcerting than that was her reaction. She plainly told the spiders that she would meet whoever was outside in a minute or they could choose to get in themselves if they didn't want to wait. Oddly hospitable for a kidnapper.
"She, uh... she wants us to get in"
The Flamebringer
"She wants us to meet her? Let's go, then." She started striding towards the door, not waiting to see if the others followed. She charged a spell, Instant Runes appearing above her tome, held open in her right hand, and in a number of circles around her left forearm. Her left hand had arcane energy sparking between her fingertips, held loosely by her side.
All are significantly abnormal in a normal world... All are significantly normal in an abnormal world.
Hkaru's Refuge
Raquel turned out to be some kind of summoner as well, as she made a huge number of small spiders appear from a portal and sent them into the house. Was it supposed to be some sort of reconnaissance? The summoners she knew of back home did possess bonds with their bonds that extended somewhat to the senses. Even if this girl came from somewhere else entirely and clearly used a whole different magic system for it, it was not unreasonable that she would perhaps be able to see, maybe even hear through her summoned creatures.
Meanwhile, Inori came up to and made an interesting offer. Fate seemed to consider it all for a bit, before saying, "That sounds impressive and it is nice of you to offer that ... Although I'm afraid that, mostly likely, Bardiche's AI and others system from where I come from won't be much compatible with your programs. In anycase, that is something we will better able to verify once we are no longer in possible danger," while sounding as nice as possible about it. She also wanted to ascertain some details about the nature of Inori's abilities and her homeworld, but that would have also to wait until they had fully investigated this strange situation they found them in.
It was then that Raquel gave her report, confirmimg the presence of their captor inside the building and informing that she had apparently invited them in. One of the other girl seemed to prepared so sort of powerful spell and rushed towards the building, but for herself, she needed to find out more about the apparent intentions of the one seemingly responsible for this whole scenario.
"Really? What exactly did she say?" she then asked, frowning quite a bit and brow raised in questioning and as she edged only slightly through the path towards the house.
edited 8th Apr '17 10:11:45 PM by JamesShields
"Okay, okay, I'll stop rubbing my head if that's what bothers you," she said, holding back a chuckle at Raquel's expense. "It's not every day I meet people like you all..."
Yes, let's not beat around the bush for much longer. These were humans. Bonafide homo sapiens sapiens, and one of them was even Japanese! Of course, her first thought was to jump for joy and start asking all sorts of banal questions about culture and their daily lives, but she realized why Raquel might find her actions disgusting. She was, after all, some kind of monstrous pale hybrid in their eyes. The same kind of thing that Magical Girls purify, or exterminate, or kill.
Wo could note one thing: all of their eyes were a lot smaller than in the old shows she watched.
Most importantly, it was time to meet their host. Wo wasn't going to go into this show empty handed, so like some of her level-headed companions, it was time to arm up before walking into the house of this unarmed girl.
Whispering "Miracles, transform me," under her breath, her outfit changed in an instant. Where there were sandals, now lay pointy boots. Sundresses became tights, hands were now gloved, and her metal thing remained much the same. Wo took ahold of a charcoal-black stick that appeared alongside her, and pointed it houseward.
"Why don't we just ask her ourselves? We're gonna be speaking with her anyways," she said to Fate. And, barring a catastrophe, Wo steadily and inexorably started to float along the wind towards Hikaru's house, ready to fling open that door and say hello.
After hearing about the girl inside the house that had invited everyone to come inside, Maia prepared herself. Some sort of symbols started floating over her forearm and walking to the door. Fate, on the other hand, wanted to know exactly what Hikaru had said before entering the house.
"She said she was too tired to come out right now but that we could enter and talk to her. She said she was going to explain all this"
Meanwhile, Wo finally figured out what everyone was talking about and stopped rubbing her metal not-quite-hat. She also claimed that she had never met people like them.
"Yeah, that makes two of us"
The pale girl also decided to head to the house but not before changing her attire to something a little darker and gaining some sort of stick, presumably to club the girl inside if she tried to pull a fast one on her.
"How come everyone here can transform?" Raquel said, slowly walking to the door behind the other girls.
Hikaru hadn't been entirely certain if talking to the spiders would do anything. However, before too long she heard someone step up to the door and open it up. In the short time she had before the door opened and the summoned group entered, she stood up as straight as she could and brushed a few spots of her outfit down in an attempt to seem somewhat presentable. Then she turned towards the door and made the most welcoming smile she could muster, right as her guests made their appearance.
"Welcome to my humble abode," she said to the entering group, before offering them a quick bow, "My name is Hikaru. It's, uh...." As she stood back up, her eyes settled on the spell Maia apparently charging, and her smile promptly turned into a frown. "...All right, I'm not going to sugercoat it. I'm the one who kidnapped you. But I promise I won't hurt you, whether you want to believe me or not."
She stepped aside to allow the group room to enter. "Um...I guess you were able to hear me through the spiders. Do try not to step on them; I'm guessing they belong to one of you." She shook her head and continued. "...Anyway, I'll explain everything. But first...I could make you some tea, if you'd like? The dining room's that way, if you want to come in. If you want to."
She pointed to the left entryway with her staff, before again offering the group what she hoped was a welcoming smile.
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The time had come.
As she walked around her garden to take one last look at her work, Hikaru thought about how much time had passed since she first hatched this plan. After some thought, she concluded that she didn't even remember. So much effort had gone into locating the little pocket of grassland, yet more time had gone into making it a suitable home for herself and for those she was about to summon, and even more time had gone into devising and practicing the spell she needed. At long last, she felt she was ready.
It wasn't a moment too soon, as her eyes gazed upwards. In the otherwise clear blue sky above her, there was a black speck. She frowned heavily as she gazed upon it. Fortunate as she was to not have to witnessed the destruction of any world but her own, the idea that so many other worlds had ceased to exist because of that abominable thing was difficult to stomach. The idea that even more would suffer the same fate if she continued to do nothing was harder still.
She closed her eyes and shook her head. Even if her plan went flawlessly, she knew she wouldn't be able to save every last world that existed. Some of them were doomed even before all this. The best she could do was minimize the casualties.
By this time, her walk had returned her to the front door of her house. She pushed the door open and stepped into the entry hall. Her eyes fell upon the painting of her world's first queen that hung on the back wall. Upon this, another question came to her: Was she really doing the right thing here?
The Alpha Devices had scattered themselves across reality. She didn't trust herself to find them all in any reasonable amount of time, so therefore her next best option was to summon a group of warriors from other worlds and have them help her track them down. Summoning wasn't anything she hadn't done countless times before, and with so many worlds on the line surely they'd help her. It was simple.
Yet, now she couldn't help but second guess herself. What if these warriors, in fact, weren't willing to help her? What if they were angry with her, for tearing them away from their homes for a task that really should be hers and hers alone? There had to be a better, more ethical plan. Sadly, Hikaru knew she wasn't the person to come up with it. Such was her lot in life.
She shook her head. The longer she delayed, the more worlds would die. Any plan was better than doing nothing. If she was going to do this, she needed to do it now.
At that, she moved to the center of the room and faced the doorway. Then she held her staff with both hands in front of her, perpendicular to the floor. Then she closed her eyes and focused on the sorts of people she wanted in her mind.
"Please, for the sake of my ancestors...."
Her PMD started to glow bright green, and a large, circular white rune appeared beneath her feet.
"...For the sake of everyone who has been lost...."
The rune started to rotate as it became steadily more and more complicated in design.
"...And for the sake of everyone...no, everything that exists and will exist...."
The rune started spinning ever faster and started to glow brightly.
"...Let me make this right!"
There was a brilliant white flash that obscured everything in the room. After a moment, it was gone. The rune had vanished, and Hikaru's PMD stopped glowing. Then Hikaru herself fell to her hands and knees, breathing heavily. After a couple of moments, she used her staff to help push herself back to just her knees.
Her task was done. Now all she could do now was wait to see if she had succeeded.
The black speck Hikaru could see from her current residence was not an uncommon sight across reality. In fact, it could be seen in the skies of practically every world. For some worlds, it was almost indistinguishable from any number of objects in the sky. For others, the speck was more of a small spot. For an extremely unlucky few, it was large enough to be seen as a swirling black vortex.
No doubt the residents of these worlds were trying to figure out exactly what it was. Unless they had the ability to cross multiple worlds and see the phenomenon in each one they visited, chances were they weren't able to grasp the full scope of it.
For Hikaru's chosen, they were likely going about their daily business. They probably noticed the black spot or at least heard about it, but perhaps they hadn't thought much about it or simply considered it out of their control.
However, they'd find the white, circular rune randomly appearing beneath their feet to be a more immediate concern. No matter how much they moved, it would remain centered on the ground beneath them. A few moments would pass as the rune completed itself and started glowing, and then in a bright flash they would find themselves in a new world entirely.
The place before them was a garden, filled with a wide variety of flora, some or perhaps even most of which was likely very unfamiliar to them. Numerous pathways made of squares of dark stone meandered through the garden, though one path lead straight to the front door of a large, white house.
They'd might feel a little disoriented from the journey itself, but then they'd likely be wondering what was going on, where they were, and who these other people were alongside them.
Who were Hikaru's chosen? They were capable of using magic or at least some kind of superpower; a not unreasonable requirement given what Hikaru was trying to do. What was likely a little strange was that they were also all female and on the younger side. Perhaps they weren't the most likely people for a quest to save reality, but as far as Hikaru was concerned they would do just fine.
As the chosen started coming to terms with what had just happened, one thing became clear....
edited 30th Mar '17 6:11:18 PM by Yomegami
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