Surprised by the lack of damage from her electricity, the schoolgirl would have been a sitting duck without Black Rock Shooter's intervention shocking her back into awareness. Including that the feudal samurai appeared to be controlling the cloud of metal shards that were aimed right at an apparently defenceless child, even one that had tried for an impressive punch scant seconds before.

Though not fast enough to interpose herself between the gleaming pink tide and Suwako, Tokiwadai's Ace was certainly more than capable of closing most of the gap and doing her best to prevent any damage. The only visual clue was an arc of electricity, before the forces around the uncountable blades of Senbonzakura abruptly shifted. There was no fine control like the Zanpakuto spirit could wield over the teeming masses given the time to act and the sheer number, but there was an immense magnetic field pushing all the blades that came rushing towards Suwako in one direction:

Right back at Senbonzakura himself.

As he finished off the last of his meal, Gintoki noticed his little phone...Thing... Ringing inside his yukata. Fumbling for a moment as he took it out, Gintoki took note of the message written on the machine in Japanese and at least twenty other different languages that he didn't recognize. Well, what mattered was that he could understand it in the first place. Returning the item to its original position, Gintoki got up and paid for his meal before walking back to Saber and Nono, the former of whom seemed to be looking at the message on her respective device.

"I guess we're being called to duty, then?"


"Reckless? Quite the contrary." Suwako smirked, staring at the shield of metal in front of her as her punch was blocked. As she reached for another spellcard to use, though, Suwako noticed the sudden interference from a girl in a schoolgirl uniform. She reminded Suwako of Sanae before they had moved to Gensokyo, but similarities were of the least concern right now. Given her actions just now, she was pretty sure the electric girl was an ally. If she could use electricity to the extent of that oarfish youkai, then surely she could help her out with the samurai in front of her. That premonition quickly turned to reality as the person's sword fragments redirected themselves back at him. An opening--!

Releasing an immense wave of energy, Suwako shot out the now-reformed Mishaguji straight at her enemy, quickly followed up by a pair of iron rings and an array of small iron bullets. The magnetic field quickly amplified the effect of the latter two attacks, causing them to be pulled even faster towards her enemy, even moreso than the sword fragments. This was the one thing she needed to finally break past his annoying defensive barrier without having to use any more strength... Even if she was just trying to knock him out to question later.

"Check~."


Kakine nodded and quietly followed behind, glancing around and eyeing the equipment suspiciously as the trio entered the room. Though space travel had been available to Academy City for quite a while, the suits used here were, surprisingly enough, ahead (in terms of capability) of those of Academy City. He wasn't keen on digging through another person's goods, but such equipment definitely required more research. The city used the standard space suits of most nations, save for the modifications here and there in regards to the advancements the city itself had made, but something of this design being able to increase mobility in space...

Taking the opportunity to do so, Kakine quickly sent out a stream of Dark Matter onto one of the suits, taking note of its composition and design before returning back to where it came from. So THAT was how it was...?

Forming a small microchip of Dark Matter in his hand, Kakine handed the item off to 10032 as he began to walk out of the room.
"Exact molecular composition and design schematics. Your goggles should be able to access the information on there." he stated before noticing Marisa looking around sneakily for something to steal. Quickly making a U-turn, Kakine grabbed Marisa by the collar of her outfit and began to drag her to the door.

"Those eyes of yours remind me of a certain thief... I'd rather you not look around like one, Ms. Kirisame."

Nono, Restaurant Dsistrict, Yggdrasil

Nono was prepared to provide whatever further reassurance Saber needed in order to have Onee-sama not doubt herself. It seemed that she had gotten over it for the moment though, and Nono smiled as Saber went back to the food that had been placed before her. Not that the gynoid was placing bets on the amount she would be eating in total, but that was beside the point, and it would be relatively unfair. So it didn't matter too much to her.

She was prepared to begin eating as well when her communicator went off, indicating that the briefing was going to begin soon, and demanding their attention as such. She'd known, but had hoped that they wouldn't be sending a memo just yet.

"Aww," she pouted, visibly, as she slumped a bit in her seat. She'd been hoping to spend more time enjoying herself without having to worry about this sort of thing. But she quickly perked back up, not willing to let something so silly get her down. "Well, guess we better get going," Nono commented, looking to her side for confirmation from the bold. She'd drag Onee-sama i necessary, but for the moment she would give her the opportunity to avoid such indignity. IT was the least she could do.

---

Misaka 10,032, Client World Macross

Misaka looked about the room with some interest, examining what she could see, while noting what Marisa and Kakine were doing. She made to response to the expressed gratitude, busy in looking about and simply unsure how to answer, given that their meeting had been as much chance as anything. certainly the two of them had made no effort to locate the thief currently accompanying them.

"'Acknowledged,' Misaka says with curious interest," Misaka replied as she took the offered chip from Kakine. She loaded it up, quickly checking the data and what she could determine of its accuracy as her two companions interacted. It seemed to be correct, so once she had handled that she dismissed the information from her field of sight.

Having looked over everything, she turned to depart. Kakine and Marisa were passed by as the door swung open to admit them to hallways once more. These were not like the ones they had been in though, instead wider, brighter, and obviously made more for transit. They appeared to be in the ship proper now, which offered greater chances for detection, but also was necessary if they wanted to discover anything useful.

Lacking no real method, she picked a direction and began walking, her weapons still carefully balanced on her back as she led them along, past men going about their business. She would be lying if she said she wasn't looking forward to what they could find, as they neared an area in the ship significantly louder than the places they had been in previously, which could only promise good things. Hopefully.

---

Cinder Fall, Shadow Eternity HQ

"Perfect," Cinder replied, more to herself than the person she was talking to given that the Leader had gone back to staring at her tube. She was definitely fixated by that girl, and while it was annoying the half-Witch wouldn't complain. The more distracted she was, the more Cinder could go about her own plans after all, and the future she wished to create.

She spun about on her heels then, leaving the room and proceeding down to the lower levels so she could be transported to her destination in question. Her supplies of Dust had been restored, she was ready to fight, and any UMMA members that got in her way would find it most unfortunate for them.

So, with everything ready, she input the coordinates of the world she aimed to go to before stepping onto the teleporter pad. It was a different method than a ship, involving piggybacking data routes or some method that was quite complicated, from her understanding. But it worked, and that was what mattered. With a push of a button she was engulfed in blue light and whisked away to her destination. TIme to have some fun.

"What the-" Senobonzakura exclaimed in surprise as something disrupted his Bankai, making it harder to control and causing it to fly back toward him. He had noticed the electricity that sparked in it, which meant that the lightning entity was behind it.

Now a hell of a lot more annoyed, Sebonzakura halted his Bankai's progress back toward him, instead causing to swirl around him as a sphere, which the ghost snake things flew into and were shredded into bits once more. The iron rings and bullets were briefly stopped in place by the swirling mass of sword petals before sinking into it. Fortunately, none of his sword petals were able to reach him and therefore harm him due to his finer control over his Bankai as well as the Absolute Safety Field, which forced the sword petals to maintain a certain distance away from him unless he wanted them to come closer.

At this point, though, he was beginning to get exhausted. Using a Bankai for so long was tiring even for him, and the magnetism was certainly not helping. His Bankai was slowly losing its rhythm, and it probably wouldn't be long until he was too exhausted to fight. Damn them for being so resilient. This embarrassment wouldn't go unpunished forever.

He opened up a hole in the sphere of sword petals, then Flash Stepped down to the girl they were supposed to retrieve. "We're leaving, now." Senbonzakura stated before his Bankai reformed itself to his standard katana, then he Flash Stepped away, carrying the girl with him.

Black Rock Shooter - Client World 576143290-B

Black Rock Shooter lept back when her attack was deflected... and paused for a moment when lightning seemed to spring from no-where and strike her foe. Her clue eyes swiftly tracked the location that the electricity seemed to originate from... and found a girl, in some kind of school uniform. That was an unexpected sight in a desert, but there had already been many other unexpected sights. As her opponent ran towards the newcomer, the otherself sprang into action!

Pouring speed on to outrun the blast from her enemy, she spun herself in front of it and lashed out with her katana. The black steel clashed with the burst of energy, and there was a crackling sound as she forced the edge through it, tremors running up the girl's arm as she did. With an ear-splitting crack, Black Rock Shooter split the energy blast and sent it dissipating into harmless particles. Lowering her right hand, her left snapped up as blue light gathered to form Rock Cannon.

"You are my opponent."

The moment Rock Cannon appeared in full, the immense black barrel gleaming in the desert sun, blue energy gathered in the end and erupted out in a burst of light!

Seeing the lethal blast of blue energy heading straight for him once more, Kiba raises his still active energy blade and strikes at the the burst of light, attempting to cleave it apart, like what she did to his own attack moments ago. He staggers slightly against the blast's force, and was then forced back two steps. He then pours more effort into overpowering it and pushes back. His right arm begins to tremble as he starts to carve apart his enemy's blast and with another burst of strength, he slices it apart. Both halves of the energy flew past him and a thundering explosion was heard shortly afterward.

"You should realize that's useless by now!"

Jericus "Ing" Ignace Client World 576143290-B

"Emperor protects," was all that Ignace was able to say before Senbonzakura attacked landed. The tendrils launch the guardsman into the air towards Suwako and Misaka. He landed with a crunch his lasgun flying from his hand and landed a few feet away. "I can't feel my body. Oh wait yes I can ohh the pain," he said trying to sit up. He struggled for a bit trying to get his pack off he manage, he dug around it for a few minutes before pulling out a medical kit. "Do any of you know how to use this?" he asked Suwako and Misaka.

King Dedede, self-proclaimed ruler of Dream Land, sat on his throne, arguing with Customer Service on a video call. The King slammed his pudgy fists onto the arms of his throne before pointing at the man on the screen.

"Look, I ain't askin' for much! Just send me a monstah that can clobba Kirby! And non 'a these duds you keep sendin'!"

"Sorry, Triple-D, no can do. We can't send you a new monster until you settle your account's balance, an-"

"Cram it! You've got that money-back guarantee for a reason, aintcha?!"

"Sure, King Dedede... but you have to actually give US money to get any back."

Sighing and pinching the bridge of his beak, Dedede returned his attention to the screen.

"Look, what've ya got fa cheap? Somethin' big, an' powerful!"

"King Dedede, I'm afraid NightMare Enterprises just doesn't do powerful monsters on the cheap."

"After a hundred monsters that turned out to be flops, I don't think you do powerful monsters at ANY price." A snail by King Dedede's throne spoke up. "Look, this isn't the King's limousine, so we don't need your latest model! Dontcha have something cheaper? Say, a used monster?"

The man on the screen thought for a moment. "...A used monster you say? Sorry, but I'm afraid that's a little out of NME's ballpark. But there's this guy who used to do accounting for us. He's opened up a service that might have what you're looking for. I'll call him and get things set up, so sit tight."

The screen faded to black, retracting into the ceiling. Escargoon leaned in to whisper to the King.

"Your majesty, are you really sure this is actually a thing? I mean, all the monsters we use explode when they're beaten! There's no way they can get used monsters!"

"'A course there ain't no way they could get a used EXPLODED monsta! That means the monstas ain't exploded, which means they ain't lost! No more 'a those duds! Yessiree, this is gon be a bone-a-day-fee junkyard dog of a beast!"

The King laughed as his retainer rolled his eyes. After an awkward silence, the screen descended, showing a white-furred dog-man in front of a two-headed eagle symbol. "Greetings, your majesty! My name is Finster, and I am a representative for Shocker+'s monster rental service. It is an honor to have royalty as our first customer. I'm pleased to say that I have been authorized to give you a free sample from our monster catalog. It's the least we can do for such an incredible patron."

"Aw, shucks, Fido! Just lemme see that there catalog and we'll call ya back when we're ready to order."

The screen shut off again, a Waddle Dee bringing the catalog to King Dedede. After a few moments thumbing through, he turned to Escargoon.

"Ya know, a lot of these monstas look mighty different from the ones NME gives us. Might be good to try somethin' new! Like... Frytrap! Half carnivorous plant, half flamethrower!"

"Ugh, pass, your majesty. You want to deal with Fire Kirby again?"

"That's a good point. How about... Snow Wolf?"

"Ick. Probably just a pallete swap of Flame Leo. How about... this! Starfish Hitler!"

"...I dunno. I don't like the look of it"

"...Now that you mention it, I'm getting serious bad vibes from it too."

"Movin' on. We're lookin' at this all wrong Escargoon. We shouldn't be basin' this decision on keepin' Kirby from gettin' a power... We just need to give him a useless one! Like... this."

The two began snickering, before diving headlong into a hearty maniacal laugh.

---

"This stinks!"

"Come on, sis, it's just a game."

"Yeah, a game set up by that nasty ol' King Dedede! Who knows what he's planning?"

"A hundred monsters later and you can't guess? Just enjoy it before he starts trying to go after Kirby."

Tiff and Tuff continued bickering as the tournament progressed.King Dedede had announced a surprise pool tournament today, with the prize being not only a fancy trophy, but a pool table. Kirby's house was a little bare, so he'd been eager to participate after seeing just how shiny the trophy was. However, judging by the fact that he was currently sitting on the table clacking two balls together, it was readily apparent Kirby had no idea how to play. Conversely, there was that strange out-of-towner... The one who won his last match by hitting the cueball so hard it exploded... causing the shards to sink all the pool balls in a single shot. In the second round, the two would be matched against each other.

The little pink puff, Kirby, Hero of the Stars, struggled to climb onto the table before lining his break shot up... and whiffing terribly, flinging the cue ball off the table.

"Excellent try, little one. But..." The out-of-towner reached over and placed Kirby on the table. "NOW IT'S MY TURN TO BREAK!"

With that, the out-of-towner cackled, planting his cuestick firmly between kirby's eyes... causing him to launch into the pool balls and ricochet around the table before finding himself stuck in a hole. "Chalk up another victory for the magnificent... BILLIARDSHADOW!"

Tiff rushed forward, shouting at King Dedede and pointing to Billiardshadow, who was currently trying to use his cuestick to force Kirby down into the hole. "Hey! That's against the rules!"

"Not here it ain't, little lady! You'd best re-read the sign!"

With that, a section of tape over the center of the sign fell away, revealing the words:



"That's dirty even for you, Dedede!"

"Put a sock in it! I'm finally gonna clobba Kirby, and there ain't a thing you can do about it!"

"We'll see about that! Kirby, suck up this- um..." Tiff looked around. No torches. No weapons. No ice or water or leaves or anything. For once, Castle Dedede was completely devoid of weapons.

"Badness! Are you having trouble little lady?" Billiard Shadow asked, now using a plunger to attempt to force the marshmallowy menace down. "It's almost like we took that copy ability into account!"

Tiff was obviously nervous, a bead of sweat running down her cheek. There wasn't anything Kirby had copied before in here. No way to know if this would work. But for now... she grabbed the cueball that Kirby knocked off the table. "Kirby! Suck up this white ball!"

Reflexively turning to correct someone ignorant about the sport that was his life, Billiardshadow pointed his cuestick at Tiff. "Wrong! That's actually called a cueball! It's-"

The long-winded speech about the nature of pool balls was interrupted by a loud, tremendous suction as Kirby opened his mouth, a windstorm kicking up as he inhaled the ball and shot out of the pocket. Turning over and over, his arms and legs vanished, leaving him momentarily dazed... before he began rolling around. And then bouncing. Faster and faster, he bounced around, before coming to a dizzy stop. He had become... BALL KIRBY!

"...an interesting trick... but I, the magnificent Billiardshadow, can handle balls of any size! En guarde!"

Billiardshadow took another cueball out of his bag, setting up a shot as Kirby began bouncing around.

Okay Billiardshadow. Easy does it. Angle of incidence equals angle of refraction. It's all in the timing. aaaand...

"BREAK... SHOT!"

The monster smashed into the cueball with such strength it exploded forward, the racked-up pool balls exploding into shrapnel and flying about, hoping to catch Kirby in his bounce. However, the pink sphere of doom was moving too quickly, shattering through the shrapnel and toward Billiardshadow, causing him to explode into a cloud of darkness.

"BILLIARDSHADOW... CORNER POCKEEEEEEEEEET!"

"..." Saber did not appear to notice those speaking to her for the moment. Instead, she was looking with distress from her food to the communicator. Indeed, she did not just want to abandon what was left of her meal... the pointless waste of food was surely dishonorable! Time had been spent crafting such a delicious meal, and now she had to leave it... but she simply could not. She truly, truly could not... When the waiter returned, he looked at them with confusion for a few moments before finally speaking.

"Do... do you need a box?"

Saber looked up and immediately nodded. Yes! Now she would no longer have to abandon her meal... Soon enough, she had paid and her food had been boxed up. Saber rose to her feet, carrying several boxes under her arms as she looked from Nono to Gintoki, and then back again.

"I am ready."



"Ah-ha-ha-ha~"

Marisa waved her hands when she was suddenly grabbed by the collar. Jeez, he was really watching, wasn't he? Some other thief? Damn it, now he was going to be watching her like crazy to see if she was going to try anything... Misaka had a point, now she had to be subtle, and the only way she was going to nab anything with this guy watching was either by being as sneaky as possible or by going loud, and the latter wasn't an option at all. "Me? Steal anything? You're being kinda silly, Kakine-san."

She looked down at the boy's hand around her collar, and placed both her hands on his wrist.

"Do you make a habit of dragging off cute girls or something? Sorry, but you're waaaaay not my type," she said, glancing briefly at Misaka. Hopefully she would take that seriously, or at least break things up in case they disrupted the stealth portion of this mission, or whatever it was.



Black Rock Shooter simply stared dispassionately at her opponent as he sliced apart her shot. The girl she had lept to protect was now defending the child with Suwako... She could not join them while he was in the way. His deflection of her attacks was drawing the fight out, and while she felt she had a large chance of overwhelming him, the otherself also felt the need to end the fight quickly for the sake of the little girl. Without hesitation, she lowered the end of Rock Cannon to aim at the armored man's feet, and fired another blast. This shot would not hit him, but the sand at his feet. Her plan was simple, to force him off his footing as well as obscure herself from his vision.

Immediately she charged. If this tactic did not work, she could begin attacking anyway, in a bid to wear him down. Her goal was haste, to end their battle as quickly as she could.

He'd... stopped the attack? What sort of power did this guy have to be able to overwhelm a Level 5 in their area of expertise? The last time... but it couldn't be anything like him, since they'd all be dead already if that was the case. Working out how to get past the apparent shield he had was definitely going to drag this out, unless she just overpowered--

Then Senbonzakura moved, much faster than Misaka thought anyone thought possible, traced only through senses other than sight as he moved towards the girl that had been staying out of the fighting. His attempt to speak, as well as to run off with the child, was interrupted by an electric shock that quite clearly demonstrated how the earlier one had been toned down: Senbonzakura had easily shrugged off something that should have incapacitated any normal person and the power rose in response.

"I don't know what's going on, but if you think I'm going to let you take her..."

Black Rock Shooter - Client World 576143290-B

Black Rock Shooter simply stared dispassionately at her opponent as he sliced apart her shot. The girl she had lept to protect was now defending the child with Suwako... She could not join them while he was in the way. His deflection of her attacks was drawing the fight out, and while she felt she had a large chance of overwhelming him, the otherself also felt the need to end the fight quickly for the sake of the little girl. Without hesitation, she lowered the end of Rock Cannon to aim at the armored man's feet, and fired another blast. This shot would not hit him, but the sand at his feet. Her plan was simple, to force him off his footing as well as obscure herself from his vision.

Immediately she charged. If this tactic did not work, she could begin attacking anyway, in a bid to wear him down. Her goal was haste, to end their battle as quickly as she could.

Kiba quickly dashes to his right as she fired, and plans to head straight for her right after, but the blast's explosion threw up a lot of smoke when it hit the sand, which results in losing sight of his foe. He figures she'd come to him anyway and waits until the smoke starts to clear. As it does, he sees her coming closer towards him, as expected. He welcomes the challenge, but then his partner stated they were leaving. Apparently he got what they came for and truthfully, Kiba forgot what they were after in the first place in the midst of all this fighting. Much as he hates to just back away from a fight, he still has to try to cover his partner's retreat.

The dark red energy blade enveloping his right hand dissipates and vanishes, then he quickly fires a blast at his incoming enemy, stronger than the previous one. She might be able to stop it, but that doesn't matter as long as it gives him time. As soon as the blast was fired, he dashes towards his ally's location at full speed.

Gintoki stared at the assortment of packaged food Saber had stored, shaking his head and chuckling a bit to himself as he turned to look at the girl's face.

"Y'know, you're gonna have to put those down if we get sent somewhere that isn't the main tower, right?" he asked, glancing at the boxes once more. "You sure you can fit that into your locker in time?"


Suwako's face became visibly annoyed when her enemy stopped her attacks once more. She didn't detect any sort of 'divine protection' or any blessings of any gods that SHE knew of, so such defense seemed implausible at best. Her mind quickly shifted, though, then he instantaneously jumped to the girl she had spent all this time trying to protect. What absurdity- not even the tengu moved that quick after such a sustained fight! The weird hi-tech man seemed to be in pain, but there were definitely bigger issues at hand than a sore body and a broken bone or two.

Taking the opportunity that the schoolgirl had made for her by shooting another bolt of electricity, Suwako created a lifelike projection of herself in front of the spirit from the sand, which proceeded to grab hold of his legs before turning into dense metal and sinking into the sand dunes. Though the earlier shock didn't work, Suwako could feel the energy emanating from this bolt. Hopefully it'd be able to paralyze him long enough to make it over there and rescue the girl. The other adversary was a nonfactor to her at the moment; as long as she could immobilize the samurai, rescuing her would be much simpler.


Kakine glanced at Marisa with an irate expression before releasing her and placing his hands in his pockets. Such an action would make them seem even more suspicious to those who seemed to be working here, so the logical action was to not do that. Of course, their outfits made them stand out as-is, so that wasn't really relevant...

"Uh huh. Alright." he said, sighing as he looked down the brightly lit hallway. The feeling was quite similar to those research labs back at home, which was a tad annoying... But he didn't think too much of it. After all, this was a different place in a different world with different technologies. Of course some similarities were to be expected.

"I should hope that we come to a mutual agreement soon, Marisa. I'd rather you not get us all imprisoned for your apparent kleptomania, thank you very much."

As Senbonzakura slung the girl over his shoulder, he noticed the lightning being shot at him. Senbonzakura knew how powerful this one was compared to the last one, and decided not to take his chances with this one, intending to dodge the blast. As he proceeded to move, however, something had grabbed hold of his legs. He looked down to see these metal hands emerging from the ground, holding on to his legs.

Senbonzakura barely had enough time to think "Damn," before getting struck by the lightning, which electrocuted both him and the girl he was carrying. Senbonzakura yelled out in pain as he was electrocuted, then stabbed his sword into the ground to prop himself up. Even though it was now difficult to stand, sparks of electricity coming off him occasionally, he was not going to fail his mission so easily.

As Kiba was approaching, he had an idea. "Catch!" he yelled as he tossed the girl over to Kiba with what strength he had left. Senbonzakura would try to stall for as long as he could to ensure their escape.

Kiba sees his partner being rooted in his place by metal hands that shot out of the ground, and then being electrocuted by the same one who unleashed those lightning bolts earlier.

Shit, I'm too late. I still have to do something though.

Then his partner tosses him the mission objective. Unexpected, but Kiba goes along with it and leaps forward, attempting to catch the girl. Hopefully, the blast at least stalls the black-haired girl back there.

Nono, Restaurant Distrct, Yggdrasil

Nono breathed an inwards sigh of relief as Saber managed to resolve the food situation without eating it all. Thank goodness for timing on the part of that waiter and for take out. She couldn't suppress a giggle though as Saber ended up carrying several boxes under her arms, the King of Knights very determined to see her meal through to the end, it seemed.

They didn't move just yet, and Nono grinned as she addressed Gintoki's concerns. "Don't worry, I can handle it if Onee-sama is going to be late for the briefing," she informed him, as well as her Saber, with a grin. After all, she could miss a bit of a briefing, while it would be more important with someone like her Older Sister, who was more oriented towards command and such

Of course, that also left the fact that not all the food might make it there intact, but that was just a risk Saber might have to accept if she did take the gynoid up on her offer.

---

Misaka 10,032, Client World Macross

Misaka paid little attention as the two of her companions resolved their issues, deciding in the favor of stealth rather than dragging along the thief and making sure that they didn't steal anything. "'That would be favorable,' Misaka replies quietly as she looks about," Misaka said as she advanced.

Fortunately for the three of them, this place was not all that well patrolled, for no discernible reason. So in return, all hat meant was dodging people going along on their business. Not too difficult with advanced warning, and they made their way through the ship.

Now she could more easily see the flow of electricity in the walls, the reminder of labs and such present but just a secondary concern as she looked about. She was focused more on examining these things. And there was plenty to look at, though they had not reached anything majorly significant.

That would change soon though as they entere danother room, one which she could tell was drawing a lot of power. What was there was interesting though. There were lockers, smaller ones and larger ones, as if for the giants - the Zentraedi - that they had seen outside, with uniforms and such. Of more interest was the other major item in the room though, large tubes slanted against the wall with two segments. One portion was smaller, for a normal sized person, and it jutted out from the tube itself, while the larger tube sat behind it, filled with fluid, and a door inset to allow entrance and exit into that larger tube.

Misaka looked at it curiously, noting the larger door against the far wall. "'It appears to be some sort of size altering device,' Misaka notes with a curious expression," Misaka said as she stood in front of the thing. Well, this might be useful.

---

Cinder Fall, Client World [???]

Arriving in a flash of light, Cinder stretched a bit, recovering from the matter transport across dimensions. That was always uncomfortable, but she could live with it. After all, she didn't have much of a choice in the matter. She had to get around, and she had to do so before major UMMA reinforcements could show up and make her life more miserable.

Stepping out of the alleyway she had found herself in, Cinder looked about and smirked. "Well, this is cute," she commented to no one in particular. She appeared to be in a modern city, buildings piercing the heavens and showed off the progress of the city. For a brief moment, the vision of the entire place aflame, glass shattered and people screaming, flickered across her vision, but she dismissed it. No, that would come in time, and she would have to wait.

With little else to do, she began to walk, weaving her way through crowds as she began to look for the museum in question, so she could find this item she was supposed to get. Well, this couldn't be too hard. It wasn't as if anyone could stop her.

Holding the boxes of food under her arms, Saber considered what Gintoki said for a moment. Of course, she could not take this food on any kind of mission... It would have to be stored. Thankfully, agent quarters were not far from the official areas of Yggdrasil where they would be briefed. After a few moments, she replied.

"I will place it in my room for storage," the blonde girl said, simply. There was also the chance of bringing it home as well, so she could enjoy it in her current place of residence as well as when she was on duty. Indeed, that would be ideal... she glanced at Nono when the gynoid made her offer. Should she accept?

"... I will not be late..." she responded, insistently, as she adjusted her grip to get the food in her hands better. The King of Knights could surely complete this duty without difficulty. It would be wrong to damage such excellent food... However, it was also wrong to be late for an occasion of such importance as the briefing for their next mission. "You need not feel obligated to do any such thing."

With that, Saber proceeded out of the restaurant, food tucked under her arms, determined to make it back to her room and to the briefing in time.



"Kleptomania?" Marisa shrugged with a wide and cheerful grin, ideally painting an image of total ignorance. "I don't even know what that word means!"

With that, she proceeded along with Kakine and Misaka, noting her surrounds and trying her best to look as innocent as possible. To those who did not know her, such a thing may have worked. After all, how could a short blonde girl in a witch's outfit possibly be that hazardous? ... Except all the myriad ways that the Perfectly Ordinary Witch was, indeed, a hazard. Still, this place was kind of fascinating, so that was a good excuse for all the looking around, right?

Especially when they came to all the lockers with the clothes for the huge people... and the weird machine with the tubes and go? Marisa strolled closer, leaning forward to inspect it. Misaka's guess at its nature seemed pretty awesome... "You think it's for the big people outside so they can be normal-sized? Or maybe it's so normal-sized people can be huge!"



Black Rock Shooter narrowed her eyes as her blade cleaves nothing but air. He's fleeing... fleeing back to his partner, and the girl! There was no time to waste, now. Pouring on speed, she attempted to catch up to him, but the blast of energy he hurled her way forced her to dart to the side, and watch it carry on past her and scream into the sands beyond. A cloud of sand was tossed into the air as the otherself skidded along it, and spurred herself onward towards her enemy. He was close, she had to catch up as fast as she could...!

The girl shut her eyes as she was thrown like a ragdoll. She'd tried to get away, but it happened so fast... still, there was time. Time to intervene before the other bad guy could get her...

"I'm guessing this is the console we need. Who's got the cards?" said Jack Morgan, staring blankly at the console in front of him. On the console were three small slits, each with a picture of a pawn piece on them.
Hu Ameye cleared his throat nervously. "Uh, you do, sir."
There was a pregnant pause. Jack Morgan spoke up. "So I do. Right, then!"

Jack gingerly inserted each of the Pawn Cards into the console. As soon as the last card was slotted in place, the console began rumbling. An array of lights flashed across the room, as panels on the wall began sliding away. Finally, with a disappointing "ping" sound, a card popped out of the back of the console. It had what looked like a Queen chess piece emblazoned on it. Shrugging, Jack took it and put it in his breast pouch. "Alright, team. Now we just have to find Simmons and the main control console!"

The lights all around the console room suddenly switched off, except for one bright floodlight at the west edge of the room. A booming, threatening voice resounded off the walls, coming from the direction of the floodlight.
"I'm afraid this is where your little investigation ends! I've got a vial of a special strain of our most valuable product, and I'm not afraid to use it! Now, if you would kindly surrender to the security forces lined up just outside this door, I can get back to my--Aaaargh!"
The figure's threats were suddenly cut off by a gunshot. "Target down," said David Leatherhoff, his rifle trained on the slowly-crumpling body of the man who was just speaking, "rubber slugs used. Closing in for capture."
David sprinted over to the fallen figure, and quickly stuffed his hands in electro-cuffs. "Employee ID tag says 'Richard Simmons'. This our guy?"

Jack Morgan grabbed Richard Simmons by the collar, hoisting him up. He bent down and gingerly picked up a small glass vial that evidently contained the 'special strain of [their] most valuable product'. "Good work, lieutenant. Looks like we've got two of our objectives right here! Private Ollanius, go check out that white light. Take this card with you, too." Jack handed Ollanius Pious his Queen Keycard, and off he went.

Just beyond the threshold of light was a dimly-lit console room. Apparently, a floodlight had been installed purely so that villains could silhouette themselves on a gleaming-white backdrop. Ollanius, knowing a console bank when he saw one, inserted his Queen Keycard into a conspicuous slot just below a microphone attached to the bank. Almost instantly, the color of the room's lights turned a soothing green, as a text parser appeared on the largest monitor in the room.



Ollanius took hold of the microphone and began speaking into it. "Uh... download yourself into a portable format. Uh, two portable formats. Please?"



"Uh... Y, I guess."



Two small flash drives, each the size of a finger, shot out from just above the microphone. Ollanius Pious gladly took them, briefly musing on the wonders of technology.
"Hey, team. I got our last objective... twice! We can probably use the other one as a bargaining chip, huh?"

The voice of Jack Morgan crackled over the radio. "Good work, private. Come on back, and we'll turn in. Who's up for Double-F's?"

Ollanius made his way back to the group, who were already unwinding. As soon as Jack saw him, he spoke into his radio.
"This is The Cap'n. All done and ready for the afterparty. We'll meet at the Party Palace."

"This is Little Green, roger that. Prepping the lightshow... now!"

A soft white light bathed everyone in the room, as a low humming sound grew steadily louder. The sound grew louder and the light grew hotter, until nothing could be seen but a burning corona of energy. When the light and heat and sound faded, there was nothing in the room.



The room was relatively barren, save for three capsules. One was about the size of an adult human, the other two were scarcely bigger than a human's fist. Just on the other end of the room was a man wearing a hazmat suit and wielding an electronic tablet. It seems that he was waiting for something to happen.

Hampus, Ollanius, Jack, David, Escherichia, Appule, Microcline, Hu, Julius, Sindibad, Ingvar, Flint, Otik, Arby's, Ronly, Pelinal, Rimanahson, and Richard Simmons appeared in the middle of a room, in a bright flash of light. Jack Morgan was the first to speak, and the first to move.

"Quick, get them into their capsules! I've got the VIP!"
With an unusual amount of force, Jack shoved the unconscious Richard Simmons into the largest of the three capsules. Just as soon as the capsule's transparent door sealed around Simmons, he was cryogenically frozen. At the same time, David Leatherhoff safely sealed away the vial of virus taken from Simmons, and Ollanius Pious sealed one of the flash drives he had taken from Red Queen. In just fifteen seconds, every one of their mission's objectives was now safely stored and frozen. The suited cargo technician at the edge of the room clapped, and spoke.

"Good work, boys! I'll write that mission off, and your payment should be processed within the hour! In the mean-time, feel free to have some well-needed R&R. You'll know when Shadow Eternity has need of you, again."

Jack Morgan breathed a sigh of relief, and slapped Hampus and Julius on the back in brotherly camraderie. "Alright, guys. You know what that means... break time! Go on and do whatever needs to be done, I'll text you guys when we get a new job. Hey, Hampus... since you're new here, I figure I might show you one of the best bars in the multiverse. Silverback, I'll let you punch in the sequence."

Julius Aldo grunted. He pressed a very specific sequence of numbers and letters into his tablet: one sequence to send them to a barren death-world on the edge of the multiverse, one sequence to send them to an incomprehensible world of white lines and freakish monsters, and one sequence to slingshot them between these two worlds, sending them to their ultimate destination. The trio disappeared in a flash of light, and began their journey. Though it was instantaneous, it appeared to go on forever.


"We're here," Julius grunted, stepping out of the cramped bathroom the three of them appeared in.
Jack Morgan grinned at Hampus, and followed Julius. "C'mon, kid, I'm gonna show you the single greatest source of recruits for the Commandos in the multiverse."

The three of them stepped out into the bustling smog of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, thronging with ne'erdowells and mercenaries from across the multiverse. Julius Aldo sauntered over to a free arcade machine, while Jack led Hampus to his favorite person in the whole building: Takahara.
With a cheery voice and a withering slap to the back, Jack greeted Takahara.
"Hey, Takahara! How's it been, man?"

With the girl being flung almost as quickly as she'd been scooped up--and thankfully unharmed by the electricity that had never been expected to be that close to her in the first place--there was no time for any more attacks at Senbonzakura, or checking to see that the second armoured figure behind wasn't launching some sort of sneak attack. There was time, though, to move to intercept the airborne girl before the distinctly untrustworthy people ran off with them.

With a complete lack of bracing, and being a schoolgirl, there was only one inevitable result for having a child slam into you at high speed: Misaka fell over, landing with the child in her arms.

"Are you okay?"

Gintoki watched Saber as she walked off before letting out a sigh. Girls with big appetites and the ability to retain an impossibly thin waistline had always boggled him; maybe Saber was an Amanto like Kagura...?

No, that was impossible. The administration had confirmed as much; for all intents as purposes, he was to consider her a genderbent King Arthur with supernatural abilities. That... Would probably explain the ability to down so much food without so much as gaining a single ounce. Well, all the better for her, then.

"I guess that's fine." he said, walking out the restaurant door and towards the main elevator. "I'll meet you two up there, then."

That being said, Gintoki pressed a button and began to wait. Man, wouldn't they have teleporters instead by now...?


Suwako's attention immediately shifted to the girl as she flew through the air, immediately moving off of her offensive attacks and flying over Misaka's side. She had gotten too caught up in the heat of battle, which she hadn't felt in ages... But protecting the girl came first; it's why she had jumped into the fight after all.
...
Well, that and Shooter's spontaneous leaping into action.

"Is she hurt right now?" Suwako asked, keeping a wary eye on the two adversaries facing her now. "We can force them to back off, but we need to keep her safe if we try. Do we just defend for now...?"


Kakine sighed at Marisa's behavior, massaging his forehead as he continued following the two girls down the hallway. He stopped abruptly as the other two found themselves admiring what seemed to be some sort of apparatus for... Well, he honestly wasn't quite sure. Marisa's conjecture seemed reasonable enough, though Kakine himself wasn't quite sure how it was done... And, well, to be fair, he wasn't apt on letting either of the two try it out. His body was made up of Dark Matter, so it was quite unlikely that whatever it was inside those tubes would affect him, if at all.

"I would recommend caution against using things without precaution. I would rather not have to explain to the city why you were caught up in an... Incident, so to speak."

Takahara coughed a bit. While he WAS a cyborg, getting clapped on the back like that still hurt like hell for an old man.

"Ah, Jack! I'm guessing those texts came at a bad time."

He stretched out, before clearing his throat and going full business mode- adjusting his glasses, standing up, and making a move for the soda. This was usually a sign that the conversation was about to take a turn for the boring.

"The gist of it is that Shadow Eternity left me stranded in a post-apocalyptic hellhole for a week. I had to forage for food and water among the ruins of a dead civilization with monsters that had literal black voids in their torsos which destroyed all organic matter. During that little excursion, there was no follow-up search, no backup, no checkup when communication stopped for a weak after one of those things ate my communicator."

"That isn't just incompetence. It's a sociopathic disregard for the safety and well-being of your employees. That is NOT the behavior of an Evil Organization- you should know that from my drunken spiels about Shocker and Dai-Shocker. Employees are people, not resources, and we know that the goals of the leader are counterproductive and self-defeating... and given the objectives she's chosen and her insistence that we not question her orders on many things, and considering my experience working for previous Evil Organizations... Well, we all know the goals. But the pay's decent. So we've been counting on her incompetence with logistics, stupidity in choosing mission objectives, and her seeming hatred of initiative to guarantee her goals fail."

"I want to offer a chance to make actual money, with rewards for showing initiative rather than punishments. A chance to work for an evil organization like the ones from my glory days- so the image isn't forever tainted by Shadow Eternity's policies and leadership. I've got investors- a bunch of old friends and employers. Now I just need people I can trust."

===

"-look we'll do the color commentary, just don't break ou- This is Mack Metaphor, live from the dMP's new HQ! We can't give you an exact location, since they kind of stuffed us in a van at knifepoint to get us here! As always, joining me for this series of matches is Doc Nagano!"

"Always a pleasure, Mack! Tonight's matches continue a long tradition of surprise returns- first Sunshine's return to the dMP, and now the Black Mist wrestlers are showing up after nearly sixty years!"

"Just who is this Black Mist Federation, Doc? I don't remember hearing about them ever facing the Muscle League OR the dMP before."

"Well Mack, I think it's time for a history lesson! Way back in 1975, Japan's first superhuman wrestling association started up- but even then, the Black Mist Federation had been banned from professional sporting events- all the way back in the first Superhuman Olympics in 1959! Their cruel wrestling style was a terror to both human AND superhuman wrestlers. Of course, it was later revealed that the wrestlers were using performance-enhancing black magic granted to the federation's leader, Satan Demon, by an ancient Aztec demon known as Luar. It took a wrestler using the mystic powers of the Star of Aztec to face them down in 1985- and it was thought that this was the end of the BMF!"

"Weren't the rules altered to allow for performance-enhancing black magic when it was revealed Buffaloman sold his soul to the Devil to become more powerful, and the Brocken Family got their superpowers from the Skull of Mystery?"

"That's right Mack, but this was a different time- ANY form of performance enhancement was forbidden. However, even with that rule change, the BMF's wrestling was deemed too brutal to allow them back in the league!"

"But.. what about Ramenman tearing Brockenman Sr. in half in the ring? Or any of Super Pheonix's wrestlers? or-"

"Mack, I want you to read my lips here. In a league where tearing an ex-Nazi in half was rules-legal, ripping the arms off of Terryman was part of a match, and who knows how many shattered spines, skulls, and dreams, the BMF wrestlers ARE CONSIDERED TOO BRUTAL."

"Doc... are we sure that we can even show this on TV?"

"...We should probably check... During this word from our sponsors!"

Nono, Restaurant District, Yggdrasil

Nono wasn't disaappointed with the rejection of her offer, though she had to wonder if Saber was saying that simply because she didn't want help. It was a thought that earned a quick rejection. Onee-sama would never be like that, and if she said it, then she meant it. There was no other option worth considering in the gynoid's mind.

She did shoot a pout at Gintoki, as if he were somehow responsible, but had returned to a smile before he could notice. Seriously, as if Saber wouldn't have thought about that without him bringing it up. But again, she wasn't exactly unbiased in this situation.

"See you there Onee-sama," she called before moving after Gintoki, joining him in riding up the elevator. She knew where Onee0sama was going, and would see her in a few minutes anyway. There was no point in slowing her down.

"Well that was fun," she commented with a warm smile as she waited for the elevator to arrive.

---

Misaka 10,032, Client World Macross

"Yes," Misaka confirmed succinctly as Marisa expanded on what she had just said. She'd have to do a bit of digging, but that was what it seemed for at the moment. There wasn't exactly the time to go in further, especially in the middle of potentially hostile territory. Academy City could look into it further once official contact had been established.

She glanced over to Kakine then as he suggested not using the thing. "'That is a good idea,' Misaka agrees with a serious expression," Misaka replied. She then stepped away, moving for the far door to see what was beyond it. Given that it was for the Zentraedi as well as humans, it had to be interesting.

Stepping through, she did indeed find something interesting. That being, a hangar bay. It seemed to stretch on for some length, and was filled with gear to interact with an examine. Large fighter craft sat waiting, ready to be attended to by mechanics or to be flown by pilots, and along with that there was the equipment to go with them. There were things like forklifts as well, to move those machines, and racks of oversized weapons against the far wall that presumably were to be used by those machines. Somehow.

The hangar bay wasn't empty, far from it, but at the least no one had noticed them yet, giving Misaka the opportunity to look around and record things, the various fighter craft there, the people, the equipment. Of special note were the exoskeletons stored nearby in suitcase form, if what she was watching was any indication. They acted as frames, providing strength, speed, and they seemed to be able to interface with the fighters somehow. These would definitely be interesting to look at back in Academy City.

'"They appear to have power armor derived technology," Misaka says with an impressed tone in her voice," Misaka commented as she pointed to Kakine. Yes, if they could avoid getting noticed and removed, there would be a wealth of information here.

---

Cinder Fall, Client World [???]

After a bit of searching, and some inquiries with local citizens that was aided by her feminine charms and personality, as it were, Cinder had managed to locate the nearest museum from where she had landed. While it might not have been the one she was looking for, it would at least give her a start for her search, and if she wasn't there then the staff might be able to tell her where she could find the throne she was searching for, which was good enough.

So, a destination in mind, she headed for the museum. It was a decent sized building, not as impressive and seemingly older, but she supposed it would do. It would make getting in easier. For that though she simply moved in, going through Admissions and paying for a ticket like the average person. Mundane, but blasting her way in wasn't viable when she wasn't sure if it was in here. If it was, then blasting her way out would definitely be on the table.

So for now she entered the museum and began to wander, seeking the throne that she had been sent for. It couldn't be that hard to find.