CONNECT... NOW!

A second Kamen Rider Mage- a palace guard- was using the Connect Ring to open a portal in order to deliver the card to its destination. As the portal closed, Takahara raised his sword, preparing to signal the firing squad of thirty rapid-fire weapons pointed at a seemingly empty wall.

"Ready... Aim..."

---

"If that's a no, this is going to suck for you."

As the wolves continued snapping at the target they had been dropped on, another portal opened. This one let a playing card flutter through before vanishing. The ninja caught it and jumped away as the Mage opened the Connect portal once again.

CONNECT... NOW.

The first portal opened directly behind Kiba...

---

...just as the second one appeared in front of the firing squad. Takahara brought his sword down and gave the order:

"OPEN FIRE! TOKUSENTAI, GET READY TO MOVE IN!"

---

From the portal, from unseen targets, came a hail of bullets at-point blank range from behind Kiba. The chorus of gunfire, however, was not the only thing that could be heard through the portal:

Ginyu Force Rules. GINYU FORCE RULES. GINYU FORCE RULES! GINYU FORCE RULES!

Dlanor paused for the briefest of moments when her target managed to sidestep her charge. However, it didn't matter. He was an offender, a member of Shadow Eternity who clearly had little regard for the lives of any civilians who could be caught in harm's way. The small girl wasted little time in raising her golden-armored left arm and swinging it towards him, her blow becoming a golden blow as it hurtled towards the side of his head. However, there was little time to follow throw, regardless of if it hit or not.

For at that moment, a portal opened behind the both of them and a hail of bullets erupted from it. All Dlanor could really do to avoid it was propel herself to the side, the burst of red light around her feet sending her to the left of the portal. Still, a bullet tore through her arm. As she came to a halt, she briefly regarded the wound. Blood trickled from it, and it was certainly not comfortable... but it was not as if it was anything she would divert attention to. Instead, she immediately spun to face Kiba, but her next address was to all the non-UMMA forces present.

"This is your last WARNING," she said, simply. As she continued to speak, her catlike smile returned. "I will use lethal force if you do not stand DOWN."

Museum

Kiba faced his new opponent. He wondered if him fighting little girls is going to become a trend. Then again, he originated from a dimension with Precures in it, so he supposes this is the multiverse's odd way of compensating for him not managing to fight one of them. Not like it matters, he's more than willing to fight anyone in his way, regardless of gender or age. The girl took a swing for his head but before Kiba could attempt to respond, he immediately heard gunfire, coming from behind. Reflexively, he dodged as fast as he could, bolting towards his right as he does so. However, quite a few of the bullets found their mark, and his back is covered with a number of bullet wounds. His blood starts to drip on the floor below, and the pain was as sharp as expected from receiving gunfire, but fortunately not debilitating.

I'll have to do something about those damn portals. If I can only find who's making them...

The girl then spoke. "This is your last WARNING," she said, simply. As she continued to speak, her catlike smile returned. "I will use lethal force if you do not stand DOWN."

"Don't waste your breath. None of us are going to surrender, especially not to someone like you," he responds.

Cinder's strike cleaved right through the Snakeman's Heavy Plasma rifle, containment system and all. As the myriad electromagnets holding the internal plasma engine in critical mass found themselves separated, the roiling inferno inside the weapon grew out of control and rapidly expanded outwards!

Instantaneously, Cinder and the Snakeman were engulfed in a sizzling corona of green plasma fire. Flesh and metal alike boiled away under the intense onslaught released from the Heavy Plasma rifle. When the cloud of vaporized matter settled, the Snakeman was nowhere to be found and it was likely that Cinder was in a very poor state.


"Get down!" Sindibad screamed, as Takahara's plan went into action. All of a sudden, the room had become a killing field! Throwing himself into a prone position, Sindibad narrowly avoided being caught in the Ginyu Force's cone of fire.


Being largely out of the Ginyus' field of fire, the Trandoshan freely took potshots at Kiba and Dlanor. With another eerily-cathartic PKREENG, he fired a less-than-lethal blue blaster bolt straight into Dlanor A. Knox's back. The hoop-shaped bolt juddered against her armor, shaking Dlanor's body with paradoxically-cold electricity.


"Hey guuuuys, I finished transformiiiing!"
An octet of gigantic, dark-purple metal legs shot forward from the area where the Roidmude disappeared. With a blinding flash of light, the Roidmude reappeared, in the shape of a gigantic metal spider! The Roidmude took a short while to draw himself up to his full height, shaking his harsh, angular head-analog in relief.

Now... the Roidmude thought, who exactly was I supposed to be fighting again? Oh! There was that bright flash of green light next to Sixty-Six Twenty-Twenty-Two One! I'll bet that was a transformation!
"I'll GET YOU!" the Roidmude screamed, lancing a single pillar-sized leg into the concrete just inches from Cinder Fall's position.

Guts holstered his greatsword, and stepped between tongues of flame. Kneeling down, he examined the butchered corpse of the pyromancer.
"Let's see what you have on you..." he said to himself. If his instincts were right, she'd have a badge, an emblem of some kind relating to the Band of the Hawk. The hammer was some long, entirely metal thing. It was like a warhammer, but longer. It couldn't have been a lucerne. Additionally, the shaft was far too thin, placing too much weight on the oversized head. Almost ironically, Guts felt it was imbalanced by all means. Going over her garments, Guts saw no sort of armor, not even a hidden layer of mail. This one must have been either a greenhorn or very stupid, to enter battle without armor.
His calloused fingers ran over the device she presented earlier, some kind of strange device meant to track his movements. Whatever it was, he didn't like it. Placing it on the ground, he lifted one heavy boot, and stomped it, shattering the device.

Working with the local police, Blake had helped evacuate as many civilians from around the museum as she could. As their focus switched to setting up a perimeter and evacuating the surrounding buildings, Blake turned and made a beeline towards the museum proper. The locals could handle things now, and she had been getting increasingly worried as the sounds of battle from inside continued to escalate.

She had just reached the top of the stairs when a horribly familiar sound joined the muted chorus - an unmistakable snarling howl that set her hackles rising. Grimm? Here? But how... Gripping her weapon tighter, she ran towards the sound, skidding to a halt at the last doorway and puting her back to the wall.

Peeking around the corner, she took in the chaos around the exhibit at a glance. Dlannor was fighting a half-dozen assailants, but her eyes were immediately drawn to two things. One, the Beowolves savaging one of the combatants. Two, the woman in the red and black dress, slinging Dust projectiles across the room.

"Cinder!" Blake hissed under her breath, eyes wide in shock. Before she could process anymore, the room erupted into fire and bullets, and the Faunus had to throw herself to the floor as several rounds shredded through the wall where she had been standing. Almost immediately, she was on her feet again, a shadow clone darting in one direction and her real form in another, her only goal right now to change position before more fire came her way.


"Heya, Bullet. I'm Subaru Nakajima." The blue-haired age glanced up and waved as the medics arrived. "These guys will patch you up and get you somewhere you can report."

Subaru stayed by the girl's side until the first of the medics came to take over, after which she got right back out of the way. Mach Caliber was already setting up a report, and Subaru spent a few moments conferring with one of the spare medics, making sure her UMMA serial number and contact details were attached to their case files.

The murder bulletin flashed on her holographic screen, and she frowned. "Hmm... Mach Caliber, can you check to see if we're close enough to deal with that?"

Cinder Fall, Museum World

Cinder had a moment, a split second to react after slashing through the weapon with her swords, and it was enough for a reverse course before the ensuing explosion blasted her off her feet. It sent her tumbling, ending with a groan from the woman. Distantly, she was aware of the gunfire from the portal, and the other ongoing fights, but she was a bit distracted at the moment.

It was a good thing she had Aura, or she would have been as dead as the snakeman was now. As it stood, she could feel the pain in her bones, the plasma burns and the like. The Dust was healing it, but it would take time. Time she could not afford.

In the meanwhile, the Beowolves yelped as they found themselves going through a portal and landing on Kiba. They didn't attack though, recognizing him as not the person they had been sent to attack. So they backed off, instead moving once more for Sindibad, tearing with claws and snarling once more as he hit the ground, in spite of not being in the line of fire.

Shaking her head, Cinder began to rise back to her feet, bracing against the cracking of her burns. There was no time to wait,, and she could deal with any pain from it. That turned out to be a good idea as the spider came in, and she rolled out of the way with a hiss as the leg came slamming down.

She reacted then, grabbing her swords and forming them into a bow. A trio of arrows were launched, created to explode on impact, whether that be with the ground or her current attacker. She couldn't wait to heal, she had to get back into the fight.

Gintoki sighed as the elevator ride went without incident, the smooth jazz in the elevator being heavily offset by the murder notice that had just popped up in front of him. Well. That was nice. Not.

"O-oi, shouldn't we be...?" he asked as the doors opened and Saber stepped out into the hallway. Well, there went that. It was probably better this way, in all honesty; there would be less blood coming out of random wounds on his body, for sure. Sighing, he quickly followed behind Saber, not wanting to be delayed from whatever the heck was calling them there in the first place any more than they had.


"Hm? What about my hat?" Suwako asked, tilting her head at Misaka's question. "Pyonta is a hat; nothing else to it."

Suwako smiled towards Misaka, and Pyonto seemed to have a similar somewhat happy expression... Or, at least, it seemed like it had one. Black Rock Shooter's comment almost made Suwako laugh, though; of course they had to get out of this desert! The small girl's mention of a gate piqued her interest, though; gates usually meant entrances, and right now most places were better than the middle of a blazing desert that could easily turn ice cold if they took too long.

"A gate? Know the general direction, then?"


Kakine rolled his eyes at Marisa's comment, sprouting some Dark Matter wing from his back as he turned to 10032 for instructions.

"I'll leave the decision to you, then- fight, run, or both?"

The longer they took, though, the more his beetle supply was running thin. Shoot. They would find them soon enough; that much was certain.

"Marisa, you might want to figure that thing out soon if you're going to fly out with it. I give it another 5 minutes before they collapse on us, if not less."

Nono, Yggdrasil

Nono hummed to herself as she listened to the music on the ride up the elevator. Yggdrasil was fairly large, comparable to any building the humans in her time had done, and she had to wonder where it had come from, who had been the first to try and build a meeting spot like this between the multiverse. Well, she'd look it up later.

She noted the bulletin, glancing over at Saber in the process to see what she thought, but given the lack of action, it seemed they wold continue. That was fine, since there were agents to handle that sort of thing already. That was fine, and she dismissed the worry from her mind as they continued onwards.

At last they arrived, doors sliding open to reveal a triangular hallway that led to their destination. She walked happily besides Saber, ready for whatever this meeting would be about.

---

Misaka 10,032, Client World Macross

Misaka finished affixing the power armor and activating it, noting the various readouts, displays, and the way her movement was augmented. It provided a more detailed analysis than what Marisa had given, which wasn't exactly a bad thing for the Sister Network to receive from afar. At the very least it would provide a baseline for comparison with their own that could not be provided otherwise.

She shifted to look at Kakine, noting the dark matter wings as he asked them what they were going to do. "Leaving would be the most optimal choice," Misaka says with hidden desire and anticipation," Misaka said, wanting to have a chance to test this power armor out.

Walking over and ignoring any commotion she caused, Misaka found herself on a smaller type runway. A handlebar unfolded, rising from the ground with footpads beside it to add as a launch mechanism for the power armor. At that point she activated the flight function, engine whirring to life as wings unfolded behind her. A push of the button and she shot off.

The track quickly ran out and she found herself thrown into the air, a process Marisa could repeat if she wanted and/or could figure out the flight function. It took Misaka a bit of getting used to, but soon she was flying around and away from the large robot.

The dodge she had made to avoid the gunfire made her attack miss. Very well.

Dlanor raised the Red Key, the crimson blade of Red Truth humming as she held it out to point towards her enemy. Well, not her only enemy. Many of the people here were her opponents. Few of them seemed concerned for the potential damage they could cause, or for the lives of civilians who could be trapped inside. Dlanor's catlike smile grew wider.

Yes... Yes, she would stay to her word. Their further resistance would lead to their deaths. She did, after all, state she would use lethal force. And what was an executioner for, other then using lethal force to slaughter all those she was deployed against?

Of course, it was then that some kind of strange projectile struck her in the back, causing what felt like cold electricity to crackle through her body. It did not, however, cause any actual damage to her. She turned to look back over her shoulder briefly and attempt to locate the shooter.

There was a reptilian gun-wielding figure, and Dlanor began to move, stepping to her side as she kept her focus on her other enemies in the room. If she adjusted her positioning she would be able to keep an eye on almost all of them.

"Very well," Dlanor said, her catlike smile growing, as the thoughts of their deaths filled her mind, "As an executioner of heaven, I will stop at nothing to kill YOU."

With that, she erupted forward, the red haze around her feet igniting for a moment before she landed on the ground and sprinted the rest of the way towards Kiba. He was still the main target, as he had at the moment used the widest-area attack. Therefore, he should die first to prevent harm to any civilians.

Yes, he was, at the moment, the first victim of Dlanor's Execution.



Bullet nodded. Good, her report could get through... that was the most important thing was that her report got through. The medics were quick to set her onto a stretcher, but it seemed she would recover fairly easily. The arm would have to be replaced, of course, but her injuries could be treated.

Meanwhile, Mach Calibur's report would return that there was a quickly and easy path towards the lower levels nearby. Of course, it was a maintenance shaft, but as she was an agent she did have permission to use any means necessary to reach her destination if it was official UMMA business.



The Leader sighed. She had, of course, known about the secession of those now calling themselves Shocker+. However, she was not aware that they would so quickly mount an attack on her forces. Prior to this she had been content to let them... do whatever as long as they did not interfere, but now...

They would need to be dealt with.

At that moment, there was a request at her door, someone else desired to see her.

"Come in, I'll address you shortly," she said, the door sliding open on its own.

Looking at the man who had survived a firing squad of lasers and plasma at point-blank range, the psychotic child, and the self-aggrandizing Cinder Fall, Kurokage raised his hand, tossing down a smokebomb that began filling the room.

"Know what? Screw this. We know our limits. You jackasses want to kill each other, fine by us. That's at least one less of you power-mad psychos to deal with. We'll leave peacefully before the civilians get killed. Men- Formation Zero-Six-Alpha!"

CONNECT... NOW.

The Shocker+ members formed up, standing close. Magic circles opened beneath the Shocker+ members, though Kurokage dropped the playing card- which Mage promptly shot, sending it to the ground in burning tatters as the mooks vanished.

---

In the men's restroom, the mooks poured into the handicap stall from Mage's portal... sans the Rocket Grunt, who had ended up in the women's restroom. When they headed into the restaurant proper, Takahara was waiting with a smile and cold drinks for everyone.

"Nice job on your first mission. I'm proud of all of you, and you've earned a rest. When you're done, head to the stage so we can discuss what to do with the throne as a compa- wait a second." Takahara looked over the present mooks, before turning to Sindibad, an expectant look of dread and sorrow on his face. "Where's 662221?"

---

As the card continued to smolder, the zubat continued their semi-blind fumbling about the museum. As the flames dancing across the playing card reached the edge, smoke billowed out, shortly before solidifying into the form of a humanoid bat. With a hissing shriek, it raised its wings... and the flight of the zubat got a lot more orderly, beginning to circle above it. It began walking toward Kiba and Dlanor, slowly.

Jericus "Ing" Ignace Client World 576143290-B

The guardsman shrugged has the group turned down his offer. He couldn't blame them ration bars are like eating an old leather boot with the taste of one. Once Ignace was done he set about repairing his prosthetic that was damage in the fight with the masked samurai. "Well if we can't get off this planet before night fall I have my stove we could use it for heat." he said standing up to see if his leg worked. "So their's a way off this planet we need to hurry to find it before out those people come back," He said getting his compass out.

"Pull out, members of Shadow Eternity! Leave the traitors to their due rewards!" shouted Sindibad, narrowly rolling out of the way of the Beowolves and into the mooks' teleportation circle. In a flash, he was gone.


The Trandoshan laughed heartily at the upcoming slapfight going on between Kiba and Dlanor, but noticed his comrades preparing to leave. Crossing his arms over his shoulders, Hasse teleported away. However, his destination was not to the Pizzeria. He had other operations he needed to be doing.


The Roidmude glared at Cinder Fall, as a trio of her shots exploded against his mighty legs. Just who the hell was she? First she transforms without wearing a Rider suit, bright flash and everything, then she uses a damn bow and summoned animals to fight? This is the worst Rider ever!

"You're BORING, you shitty Rider! I'm done playing! Byyyye!"
With a disappointing 'FEEWOOP', the Roidmude returned to his humanoid form, and teleported away in a bright flash of light.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sindibad appeared alongside his brothers in arms in the bathroom. He filed out alongside the reinforcements that very nearly caught him in the crossfire, politely refusing to make a scene about it. As Sindibad looked around, he realized one thing: the Roidmude and Trandoshan weren't here!

Sindibad turned to face Takahara, and nervously scratched the back of his head. "66221 is... gone, boss. That one chick with the pink hoodie and white scarf was dumb enough to sunder his weapon, and he got caught in the reactor. Uh.. Hasse and 96 aren't here either, but I don't think they're dead. We'll have to find them later."
Sindibad perked up, a smile crossing his face.
"But hey! We did what we needed to do and pissed off some of the psychos up top! All's well that ends well, r-right?"


Hampus stared at the Throne in the middle of the stage. It was certainly a gaudy affair, with anonymous buttons and hunks of electronic spread about higglety-pigglety around the device. Why did Takahara want this thing? It's so ugly! Hampus called out to Takahara, disdain laying heavily on his tone.

"This chair is hideous! Mister Takahara, would you mind if I made this thing into scrap? I mean, if the leaders wanted it, it can't be anything more than a useless weapon or a vanity piece, right?"

Hampus flexed his fingers, preparing to unleash any number of spells that could disintegrate the Throne. He could go for the classic Earth-Earth-Arcane-Fire, though that could cause some unnecessary collateral damage. Maybe a straight Arcane-Lightning-Water-Fire beam? Whatever it was he did, he hoped he could do it soon.

Kanji, feeling disorientated, picks himself up and looks around the room noticing no one was in it. Another feature he notice was that it was made of metal. Where the hell am I and why is this place made of metal? Kanji picks up his steel plate and leaves the room. He looks down all paths of the hallway and shouts. "HELLO? IS ANYONE HERE?" After yelling the thought of maybe he shouldn't of done that pops into his head. "Damn it!"

Deep behind the innumerable shadowy corners of the club's "personal" rooms and beneath a cloud of deathstick vapor, a foul deal went down. On one end of the table, a massive, evidently female Hutt twiddled her fingers, greedily. She was flanked by a pair of heavily-clothed humanoid guards. Though they wore heavy sack-cloth robes, they barely attempted to conceal the powerful weaponry and exotic armors hidden underneath.

On the other side of the table was Hasse, who dutifully opened a satchel slung over his shoulder. Carefully, he withdrew a small, unassuming novelty padlock, and placed it on the table. The Hutt regarded the Lockseed with pleasure, fully aware of its potential power. With a squeaky-croaking voice, the Hutt chortled bubbily and smiled at the Trandoshan.
"You're doing well, Hasse. With these... toys, my little boys will make mynocks of that pervert in no time! Your payment will be forthcoming, under the usual account. So, tell me... what does this one do?"

Hasse grunted, and leaned forward. It pained him to steal from his colleagues like this, but the prices she offered were enough to dissuade his guilt.
"For what you're paying, I decided to treat you a little. I've swiped it off one of my more... secure colleagues, at extensive personal cost. Evidently, this little toy provides the usual armor and weapon... supposedly themed after a foul-smelling Earthman fruit. The weapons, of course, come in pairs-- in the form of two blades. They're heavy and unwieldy, but sharper than a vibroblade."

The Hutt clasped her hands together in glee, and snatched the Lockseed from the table.
"Good work, Hasse! Yes... I know just who to give this to. Keep the toys coming, and I'll keep the credits flowing. We're done here. Boys, load me into the hoverchair-- I'm taking us on a special trip!"

Hasse was out of the room before the Hutt could shanghai him into hoisting her bloated form up, and fled into the bustling neon-lit streets of Coruscant. Hasse hoped his comrades wouldn't note his absence. Perhaps they'd think he was off celebrating?


"It's the FREAK SHOW, THE FREAK SHOW-- See the STRANGE and BIZZARE!
Step right up we'd love to see you-- WE THINK YOU COULD BE THE STAR
WOOHOOHAHAHAHA!!"

096 was quite happy that his good friend's advice had turned out to be correct-- this was the greatest show on earth! Other circuses always threw him out when he showed up without a ticket, but this one didn't! In fact, all the workers laughed and smiled and tried to play with 096 in the way he liked best! They didn't fight too well and fell apart at the slightest touch, but these guys really put passion into their work!

Laughing gleefully, Roidmude 096 crushed a hideous half-human fly under his feet, firing energy blasts wildly at the crowd of freaks and monsters swarming around him. This was so fun, he had almost totally forgotten about how terrible that Rider in the pink hoodie and white scarf was!

Left unattended in his joyous ignorance, Roidmude 096's teleporter sent out a blaring dimensional signal across the multiverse. Were anyone to be searching for the people responsible for the attack on the museum, they'd find Roidmude 096's signal first and foremost.
"Today is the best day ever!"

Arragoz Plizgin - 'Ome Base

Once the door finished opening, the hulking Greenskin walked in, and took a look around the room. He glossed over the rather uninteresting furniture and decorations, while taking note of two inhabitants. Both were fairly weedy looking humies, with one floating in a tube-contraption of some sort, seemingly asleep. Figuring that neither of them could possibly be the boss, the Kommando decided to make an inquiry with the one that wasn't currently napping.

"Oi, ya know where da Boss iz at? I'z 'erd dis wuz 'is room, 'n' I came lookin' fer sumfing ta do. Figger'd 'e might want sum bitz stolen, or wunna dem Ummey gitz krump'd."

Blake reached the cover of a display cabinet and waited a moment before peeking out again. By the looks of things, one side of the bizarre inter-factional skirmish they'd stumbled in on had retreated. Dlannor was engaging the armoured figure, leaving Blake to deal with Cinder before she attacked the the inquisitor's flank or escaped. Rolling out of cover, Blake switched Gambol Shroud to its pistol form and threw it, ribbon trailing through the air behind it. With a well-timed gunshot, she sent the weapon lassoing around Cinder's legs.


Subaru read through her Device's report, nodding to herself as she traced the access shaft down into the lower levels. "Okay, partner, tell dispatch I'm on the case."

Closing the holographic window, the agent had one last word with the medics and gave both Bullet and the well-meaning knight a farewell wave before setting off.

[WRONG THREAD]

Cinder Fall, Museum

Cinder grunted as she watched her arrows have little effect on the thing that had attacked her. Well, that was a problem. It seemed that she would have to get serious if she was going to make them pay for attacking her like this.

...Or perhaps not, as she watched the traitors beat a hasty retreat, at last realizing how outgunned they were. She would have felt satisfied if it weren't for the fact that they had stolen the throne that she had come here for. Most likely without good intentions for it in mind. It was enough to get her blood heated in annoyance.

Still, she supposed she should help Kiba before the idiot got himself killed, though taking a few seconds to heal some more couldn't hurt. Those plasma burns were a nuisance at best, even with a healing ability augmented by Dust and Aura.

She'd gotten back on her feet before she noticed the interloper, and just as the sound of a gunshot rang out. Her bow split back to swords as she slashed horizontally, aiming to knock the ribbon off course with the impact whilst flipping over it at the same time in moves that sent jagged spikes of pain through her muscles in protest. A dodge was a dodge though, and she came up as she slowly advanced towards the Faunus with swords held almost casually now.

"Well well, what have we here," she mused to herself with a smirk, which was not helped by the still healing plasma burns. "Blake Belladonna." Not her version given her current garb, but it was possible that she was going easy on her. Which was a mistake, but one could always fault heroes for stupidity.

At the same time, she snapped her fingers, the trio of Beowolves returning to her side to face down Blake, snarling and eager to kill. This was going to be an interesting fight, that much she could tell.

Subaru Nakajima - on the move!

Subaru read through her Device's report, nodding to herself as she traced the access shaft down into the lower levels. "Okay, partner, tell dispatch I'm on the case."

Closing the holographic window, the agent had one last word with the medics and gave both Bullet and the well-meaning knight a farewell wave before setting off.

Lower Yggdrasil - Shady Clinic/Crime Scene

Three things stood out to Gerhard when the local constabulary arrived. Number one was their dress and equipment, the like of which he had never seen before. He watched them seal off the building from outside with yellow tape, and a man with a box walked about taking what he could only assume was pictures. Their manner was strange as well, in that they hadn't beaten him and carted him off yet. He'd been bracing himself for a knock about, but they seemed content to shackle him and post guards upon his surrender, a pair of large men holding nasty looking metal stick that crackled occasionally with electricity. They watched him like hawks as he sat on the sidewalk, primed to take him down should he even think about suddenly changing his mind.

The seconds thing he noticed was when a nice, smart looking young officer ran from the building and deposited his lunch and probably last nights dinner on the ground. Pale faced he took one look at Gerhardt and wandered out of the alley to catch some air. Gerhardt grimaced when he imagined what that young man must think of him after seeming that mess in the elevator. At least the blood on his clothes had completely faded. That, at least, made him feel less dirty. But even the other officers, veterans from the look of it, seemed wary of him. He heard one of them refer to him as "a real Outworld style butcher," whatever that meant. Things like this didn't happen often in this place.

Third was, of course, that anyone had shown up at all.

To him this all but proved his hypothesis: this was another world. Truly another world, not just another blood soaked nightmare like what he was used to. This was polite society. They did not stand for what he had done in there in polite society. He would perhaps hang for this, but that was not important. What was important was getting someone to listen, and they were more likely to listen if he cooperated. So far as he could tell this world was unspoiled, and that was worth anything to protect.

He saw the man that had ordered him shackled step outside the clinic, rubbing his temple with his fingers, and called out, "Sir, about the plague..." but the man just held up a hand to silence him. "Inter-dimensional diseases are above my pay grade. We got someone from the UMMA coming, you can explain it all to them."