"Well, if the shoe fits..." he trailed off before the little vampire loli created the gate to her homeworld in front of them all. Bats. Why'd it have to be bats? Those things were so damned annoying to deal with...

He didn't have time to argue, though, as Saber quickly followed the little girl through the gate to the world everyone else called "Nox."

Didn't that mean... Like... Darkness or something?

As the temporary disorientation of passing through worlds messed with his sense of spatial perception for a moment, Gintoki found himself staring at what was an incredibly stereotypical mansion for vampires. Why did he not expect anything less?

"Okay. Great. Another stereotype. What next, you going to give someone a whip and expect us to clear the defenses that you conveniently forgot to turn off? Or kneel next to a random wall and pray for a tornado or something?" he joked half-heartedly before staring at the decorations adorning the mansion. "Though, that aside, I have to admit the place looks pretty detailed. If you're gonna go cliche, guess you might as well go all out... I guess."


"Alright! Let's do this!" Suwako announced energetically as she stomped on the ground once, using a pillar of sand to launch the nearby space marine into a boat before shoving it down the waterslide. She quickly followed by pushing the boat Misaka and the girl were on onto the slide before leaping into the boat Black Rock Shooter was waiting in and launching it in with a small array of stone fists from behind it.

"Here we go!" Suwako yelled in amusement, raising her hands in the air as the boats slid and whirled around, occasionally doing seemingly impossible feats that defied the laws of nature...

Especially given that everyone was somehow able to safely remain in the boats even when they were upside down. Twice.

"Man, I never get to do this kinda stuff back at the shrine!" Suwako laughed, looking at the end of the slide that was rapidly approaching. Shoot. That wasn't good. No pool.

"Uh... Shoot. Nope nope nope NOPE!" she panicked before clapping her hands together and touching the water they were all riding on. There was an immediate surge of water behind them, which created a massive wave that launched everyone into the air on their respective boats and creating a giant indentation where they would end up, which was immediately filled by the water that did so; this effectively turned the sand that they were about to crash into into a giant pool of water instead.

The subsequent splashes of water drenched everyone, which gave Suwako a good laugh. After all, th last time she had pulled these kind of shenanigans was when Sanae was still a grade schooler...


Nodding to 10032 as she dropped the gate, Kakine quickly reeled in the Dark Matter clone and turned it back into its base state (whatever the heck it could be called) before diving through the portal himself. The feeling of switching dimensions was one that he would probably never grow used to, but given his mission he couldn't do much about it. Well, maybe if he tried to stabilize his...

No, that wouldn't work. Modifying his body's hormone output and built-in regulators might cause him irreparable harm; restoring a limb or his body was bad enough, but who knew how badly customizing his body would go?

As soon as those thoughts left his head, though, Kakine found himself tossed out of the portal along with 10032 and Marisa. The gate promptly closed behind the three, and as Kakine turned to face the researcher he expected to be there he instead found himself staring at another Misaka clone.

"'Misaka 15656 confirms the safe extraction of Kakine Teitoku and Misaka 10032. However, Misaka is also wary of the third person that Misaka and Kakine have returned with.' says Misaka as she walks off to report to her superiors."

"Huh. Well. Figures we'd meet a Sister once we got back here." Kakine shrugged as the clone exited the laboratory. Glancing at 10032 and Marisa, though, his relatively neutral expression turned to a frown. "Though... You know, you might want to get out of those suits and all that. Just in case."

Extracting the Dark Matter from Marisa's suit, Kakine was caught off guard by the ringing of a cellphone inside of his pocket. An unknown caller... With this kind of timing? Warily, he answered the call and raised the device to his ear.

"You've brought a guest, I see...?"
Great. Of all the people to be...
"Mr. Crowley. How are you today?"
"As usual. Though I would usually be adverse to avoiding pleasantries with other... Beings, that one you two brought back seems to be an existence that harnesses an ability that differs greatly from the magic you have undoubtedly witnessed..."
"And...?"
"Bring our... Guest to the Windowless Building. I will have a Teleporter ready to move the three of you inside once you arrive."

With a click, the call ended. Silently putting away his phone, Kakine massaged his forehead for a moment before turning to the two girls next to him.

"10032, new mission. We're to escort our new acquaintance here to the Windowless Building. Direct orders from Crowley."

Guts' head slowly turned towards the weird albino. He knew it was hard for some people to figure things out, but this was ridiculous.

"You put one foot in front of the other. Now get going; it's dangerous here." he said, his thick black cape flowing in the breeze. With this, he put a single foot on the edge of the building, and scanned the horizon. The nearby city was large, and made with odd, blocky architecture he didn't quite recognize. It was too utilitarian to be normal housing, and much larger as well. A city this large must have no doubt been ancient.

Guts tried to fill in the blanks in his mind. A city this large must have required magical means to build. Naturally, they messed with things they didn't understand, and summoned these monsters, which proceeded to decimate the population. It was times like these Guts wondered why he himself traveled alongside a mage.

Julius Aldo twiddled his thumbs impatiently. These five minutes were going on far too long! He needed something to do. Maybe he could get some intel on this "Nox" place? Hey, didn't Sindibad say he had a list of a whole bunch of big evil organizations and their contact information?

Julius roughly tapped Sindibad on the shoulder, and spoke with determination.
"Hoi, Sandstorm. I heard you've got some yellow pages full of villains. Know of anyone from a planet called 'Nox'?"

Sindibad scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"You know, I think I do. Here, I had the whole thing scanned, so anyone with access to this wifi network can read the addresses."

Julius carefully searched through the file that was Sindibad's address book, until he found what he was looking for. Sure enough, it was stationed on a planet called Nox. An address to one... Hecuba, a half-ogre necromancer with a network of demon minions.

Apparently, the address connected directly to something called the "Orb of Nox", which she used as both a weapon and a seerstone. Apparently, it could be used as a two-way radio, as well. Ah, the wonders of technology!

Julius decided to try his luck, and opened a connection between the pizzeria's HAM Radio and the Orb of Nox. In just a short while, a sultry, haughty, definitely female voice answered.

"Who dares speak to me--Hecuba, Queen of the Necromancers? I, who know all of Nox? You, fool... your voice reeks of one from out of the realm. I have known only one of those before-- the wretched disciple of that damned Captain! Tell me who you are, now! Speak quickly, fool, before my Death Knights track you down and find out for me!"

Julius scoffed. These necromancers always acted so high and mighty. Little did they know, a hollow-point round through the sternum always beats any primitive magical defenses they could cook up. For the time being, however, Julius decided to remain diplomatic.

"I am no one but a man seeking to aid you. I have reason to believe that a powerful artifact exists. One that will, uh--one that will increase your powers to the level of a GOD! This mighty artifact is known as the Eye of the Serpent, and lies under lock and key in your land of Nox! Please, my Lady of Darkness, if you could use your limitless knowledge to find this gem, I would be happy to risk life and limb to seize it for you!"

Hecuba's tone appeared to soften considerably. Greed filled her voice, intermingled with confusion.

"You're proactive... I like that. However, your information is wrong-- there is no Eye of the Serpent. I have consulted my all-seeing imps, and not one has heard tales of this 'Eye'. You have been lied to, outworlder. However, I do have a task for you that you can complete. It's simple, all you have to do is--"

Julius cut in suddenly. "Sorry, lady. Don't wanna hear it. You have a good one, now!"
With a quick flick of his finger, he turned off the HAM radio, and left Hecuba to fume impotently. Laughing heartily, he spoke to Sindibad.

"Ho-ha, I haven't crank-called someone like that in years! Yeah, I think we got the wrong Nox on that list. That necromancer chick didn't hear anything about the Eye of the Serpent, but ow-ee is she mad right now!"

Sindibad laughed along. Screwing with primitives was loads of fun! Soon after, a sneaky thought creeped into his head.

"Hey Julius," Sindibad said, "do you think we could set her up to invade the other Nox?"

Julius stared at Sindibad, his bushy eyebrows perked. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean, she's pissed off right now, yeah? And, since necromancer-types are always war-happy morons, she's probably looking to find you and turn your kingdom into a necroplois, right? Well, all we have to do is give her the name and coordinates of a place we want gone, and then say that we're from it!"

A sinister grin crept across Julius's face. "I like that idea, Sandstorm. Yeah... that's real good! When I rip the coordinates of whatever shithole the Eye of the Serpent is kept in out of this Arragoz guy's fingers, we can stage a distraction using this necromancer chick's army, and steal the Eye without any worries! All we need to do is make sure she can teleport there!"

"Well, that's easy," Sindibad said, "Necromancers always have portals! Just tell her how to use them to get between worlds, and we're set!"

Julius's grin became toothy. "That's the best plan I've heard out of your mouth since you joined up, Sandstorm! Yeah... let's do it!"

Exciting journey to the bottom aside--and child held protectively tight in case gravity decided to reassert itself--the brunette was increasingly confused by the frog-hatted girl's ability. The sheer power outdid anything she'd seen accept the Number One's and he wasn't anything near as flashy about it.

When their journey came to its annoyingly wet end, the Railgun climbed out from the leaf boat and pointed in the same direction as the metal mass, "I can detect metal there."

---

Was this guy dense or something? It seemed quite likely to be the case, since she'd stated that she can't walk home and his assumption had been that she was an invalid. Not that, in many respects, it was an unfair conclusion to get from her appearance and ability (or lack thereof) to take damage, but she was quite clearly standing there.

"You might as well tell me to walk to the sun. It's as close to here as my home is," Mokou answered, not really having much idea to get back to Gensokyo even if this was somehow the familiar outside world, unlikely as it seemed from the overabundance of youkai, due to her first arrival being pretty much accidentally wandering into it.

Her opinion of the view, looking around the muscular obstacle, was pretty much in the opposite direction: definitely some modern city, which raised the question of how something so obviously supernatural could have been so immensely present. Maybe they were in some other place? She wouldn't put it past the Lunarians to set up something crazy like this for some reason. Messing with people was the entire reason that the damned Elixir had been created...

Jericus "Ing" Ignace Client World 576143290-B

To say the imperial guardsman was having an off day is quiet accurate fist he woke up on some unknown desert planet, have to fight some weird creature, and then after find some a young girl in a coffin he was stab by a masked samurai. Due to his mental distraction he failed to notice that people were voting on how to get to the date. When the ground shifted as the oasis went up into the air shook the guardsman out of his thoughts. Before Ignace could react he was launch into a small left boat by a sand pillar face first. "The frak is happening!?" he yelled as the boat went down the slide. He ride came to an abrupt end and he was launched into a a pool of water. Pulling himself out of the pool he mumble "thank the Emperor that my prosthetic leg is water proof," he looked around at the desert around them. "So were is the gate?" he asked to Misaka as he trying to get water out of his lasgun.

Geo and Omega-Xis - Castle Tepes

Geo was a bit unnerved by the bat-porter the little queen had summoned for the group. It reminded him of gateways into Noise Waves, and those were honestly really creepy to travel through. Always pitch black, sans the lighting produced by the spasming floor... The creepy Noisms... Well, mostly creepy. Some of them were a bit friendly, but Noise Waves were always filled with dangerous enemies, so it wasn't like a stroll through the creepy park.

What was he doing again? Oh, right, entering the creepy doorway. And so Geo stepped through the portal, feasting his eyes on the world they were in now. What a sight, he had to admit. "Looks real... 'Halloween-y,'" he thought aloud.

"Halloween-y? We haven't celebrated Halloween yet, have we?" Omega-xis inquired from Geo's Hunter-VG, "Lemme see what this place is like!" And on that note, the alien materialized next to Geo, forming together with what appeared to be blocks of data stacking atop each other. "This is stuff you see out of Halloween flicks, right? ...I guess it looks creepy."

Arragoz Plizgin - 'Ome Base -> Da Bar

As the Boss provided intel, the Ork reached into his backpack, withdrawing a small notepad and a Calixian Infantryman's Portable Communications Transcription Device, the latter of which the Ork referred to as 'Da righty fing,' with both being the former property of an Imperial Guardsman. With the comically undersized implements in hand, Arragoz carefully scribbled the necessary info down, in Ork runes, naturally, while making some mental comments along the way.

Bottum uv' da manshun, eh? Gonna be diggin' through lotsa floors.

Magick s'kurity? I'z busted inta dem panzy Elfdar Kraftwurlds afore, dis shoodn't be any 'arder.

Plenty a guards jus' meens dere's more gitz ta krump, iz all.

As for the remaining information, the Kommando figured he could look at that after meeting up with Aldo. "Fanks fer all dat, Boss, I'z gonna go 'n' gavva da Skwad." The Greenskin was already halfway out the door as he said this, briskly plodding over to the Tellyporta room. Following a brief spat of yelling and brandishing of weapons, the employees managing the devices set the Ork's desired coordinates in, and he was sent sailing through space, before being deposited in the bar.

Or, to be precise, in one of the bar's restrooms. Arragoz couldn't be arsed to check which, not that he'd be able to tell the difference in the first place. "Eh, close enuff." Shrugging his massive shoulders, the Greenskin made his way over to the door, opened it halfway, and yelled out.

"Oi, Aldo, ya 'ere?"

Julius cracked his knuckles and flexed his neck muscles, in preparation of breaking Arragoz's knuckles and cracking his neck. It was show time. He slipped on his Shadow Eternity ID badge and company-sponsored helmet, and headed to the teleporter room. He nodded to the Jawa in attendance, and stepped into the teleporter.
"Take me down to these coordinates. If anyone tries to come here from that area, I want you to alert the others. I've got an appointment with a trusted stooge of the glorious Leader."

In a flash, Julius was gone.


Bathrooms. Why do the indoor coordinates always take you to the bathrooms?
Julius stepped out of the bathroom just in time to hear Arragoz Plizgin calling out for him. Stepping lively, Julius snuck up behind Arragoz, and gently tapped him on the shoulder.

"Right here, sir. I've got the rest of the platoon on standby, waiting for a mission goal and a destination. What, exactly, do you need done?"

A sly grin crept across Julius's face. Here came the fun part!

"Of course, before we talk objectives, we can talk special offers. Yes, the Commandos is offering a very special offer just today only! Would you like to hear it, sir?"

Julius chuckled deeply, his voice lacquered with raw implications.

"A word of warning, sir: you might not like our offer."

Shivani - Freddy Fazbear's

Shivani had been traveling alone for a while. She knew not where she was or what was going on. It was night, that much was obvious, and there were tables of some sort with what appeared to be plates of paper and conical paper pieces that she didn't know what to do with. She saw a pair of hallways and went down one, ending up by a door to another, smaller room. "Hello?" she called out, looking for at least one other person.She figured that if nobody else was here, she would have to find a way out on her own. "Hello?" she called again, looking into the room.

As her first clone dissolved, Blake was already on the move, generating another clone a split-second before Cinder's kick connected. It didn't even have time to form completely before the blow disrupted it, a vague humanoid blur in the air recoiling and fading, but it took the hit. Blake herself spun around Cinder's side, blades slashing as she went past, ending up behind the older woman - only to repeat the same move again, dashing around and behind with a passing slash. This time, she flipped backwards several times, putting space between herself and her opponent.

Cinder would realise why immediately. In her place she had left another clone, this one empowered by a shot of Dust from her pistol - a Blake-shaped fireball that detonated a second later.


Subaru listened, her face falling into a serious frown. The men who had attacked the long-coated stranger had been harvesting blood to use in some sort of medicine, which was bad enough. Only the blood was also apparently contaminated with a disease as well. Subaru swallowed, clenching one fist at her side. She'd had some training with responding to epidemics, but she'd never had to actually use it. Still, this was serious, and she knew that acting quickly was vital.

"Mach Caliber, can you pass this on to HQ right away? We need to get on top of this fast." She said, glancing down at her device.

"Alright." The gemstone flashed, Subaru nodded, then waved the head of the local police over.

"Lieutenant? Have your team searched the crime scene yet? We need to track down who the attackers might have been in contact with, or where they might have a base." She turned back to Gerhadrt. "Can you tell us the symptoms of this disease? If we can track anyone who looks infected we can isolate them quite easily."

Nono, Council Tower, Yggdrasil -> Castle Tepes

Nono was quiet as things wrapped themselves up in the Council chamber, the agreement to go through with the mission not contested in spite of the efforts of Gintoki to ruin things. Well, she could punish him for that later if no one else did, since he wasn't being very nice anyway. No one would blame her, and she'd learned useful stuff like that which she could use. If she went through with it, anyway.

Soon enough a sort of portal had been formed of bats, rippling black in the center. Normally that sort of thing would have been a tad offputting, but with Saber going through Nono wouldn't hesitate either, swiftly following on her heels and into the portal. Time to see where they were going this time.

The transit was...weird, with no other way to put it, before they emerged back into the real world. Still, it wasn't terrible, she supposed. There were worse ways to travel through the multiverse, and this one hadn't even included any actual pain, so it was that much better.

Arriving though, they found themselves at practically a stereotypical vampire castle, a large gated mansion with a town seemingly below, torches, night, leafless trees and craggy rocks. It was exciting enough to give Nono the chills!Sure, the Queen looked like she had been going for that effect, but the gynoid certainly wasn't going to complain about it.

"Wow," she said, eyes wide. "This is amazing!" She hadn't seen anything like it, at least in her reality. For some reason, people didn't go for super spooky mansions. She advanced up to the gate then, ready to go and see what it was like on the inside.

Always a brave soul, she was.

---

Misaka 10,032, Academy City

Misaka killed the engine as she came through the portal, pulling to a halt before she could hit anything. Kakine and Marisa came through shortly thereafter, and the portal flared shut before any hostile elements could follow through. All in all, a fairly successful mission.

The room was relatively large, with monitors and computer banks for processing power, power lines feeding the large portal mechanism from generators further inside the facility, with whites and metallic greys to go with the bright lights and the myriad of flashing screens. The lack of scientists wasn't unexpected, given protocols and the fact that she had informed them that they would have a guest ahead of time.

Instead it was one of her Sisters, 15656. Not a surprise either, since they were the most qualified to deal with any intruders outside of a legitimate Level 5, most of whom probably would not want to be on guard duty if they could go through the portal instead. They were less expendable as well, so this really was not hard to determine.

Misaka watched emotionlessly as her Sister walked off to report to their superiors, before looking over at Kakine. "'Agreed," Misaka confirms as she reluctantly takes off her power armor," Misaka said as she deactivated the suit and began to take it off. Scientists wold end up pouring over it to see what advances could be taken from it, adding further to the data that she had collected. All as part of their job.

She was about finished by the time Kakine had finished his phone call, and had relayed their new mission. "'Understood,' Misaka replies as she moves to keep Marisa from fleeing through the portal in the event of an escape attempt," Misaka said, bag of weapons once more on her back. With that said she would follow the Kakine and their guest to where the Teleporters were waiting, for their meeting with Mr. Crowley.

---

Cinder Fall, Museum World

The first wolf died with a yelp as it was struck by lightning from Kanji's attack, the body soon dissolving into nothingness like all Grimm tended to do once they had died. Cinder didn't mind too much if she had even been paying attention, since their purpose in the first place was to die. No one would shed any tears to some dead Grimm.

The second would meet the same fate, but the third was fast enough to get past and charge at Kanji once more, angry for the death of it's companions, with teeth ready to bite, eyes red, and claws ready to rend as it attacked.

Meanwhile Cinder's fight went on, much to the woman's annoyance. It wasn't that in particular, but rather the fact that Blake would not stand still, and simply kept using those clones of hers as a distraction to get in hits, which were chipping away at her already weakened Aura. She struggled to think that even the version from her reality was this annoying.

"Tcch," she grunted as she recovered from the Dust empowered fireball, blown off her feet for brief moments before rising once more. Well then, if that was how they were going to do things....

She acted then, firing off her bow before moving in, blades flashing with the additional application of Fire or Ice Dust where needed. If it weren't for the wounds she had already sustained, Cinder knew that this would barely have been a contest. There was no way that a simple Huntress could have kept up with the powers that she had to wield. Instead though, she was looking at a defeat in the making if she couldn't turn the tide.

So they went on. Attempts to catch the black swords in stone would end with the Dust removed and reforming for barely an interruption, removing that as a strategy. In the meanwhile Cinder drew heavily on her own Dust, crystallized shards flying out like bullets to accompany her swift attacks. Things had gotten a lot more serious, and it was time to see how well this version of the kitty could dance.

"Haaah, that was awesome!" declared Marisa cheerfully as she clambered out of the suit, surveying her surroundings as she did. It was... more tech stuff! But somehow different tech stuff then what she'd seen in the other world. It looked more... Well, Marisa wasn't exactly good at technology beyond what she had seen in manga, but this seemed kind of different... somehow! She paused for a moment when she noticed who was waiting for them there, tilting her head briefly before hopping completely out of the suit and... poking her in the cheek.

"Is this what you meant by a complicated family situation, Misaka-san?" Marisa asked, looking back over her shoulder at the other Misaka, "Because she looks just like you! If she's got the same name, that'd be pretty damn confu... sing..."

The perfectly ordinary witch trailed off when Kakine mentioned escorting her somewhere, and Misaka talked about cutting off her route of escape. Anyone saying that kind of thing probably didn't have their best intentions in mind.

"... Er... what? Uh, what's this building exactly? Where are you planning on taking me?"

It'd be very easy to just pull out her broom, nice and quick... these walls probably weren't Spark-Proof, right?



Black Rock Shooter, at least initially, sat calmly with her hands folded on her lap. This seemed quite normal, right? It certainly wasn't unusual for the Otherworld, and who would say that such a thing was impossible in the Human World? Having never truly seen the Human World herself prior to this made it difficult to judge. Needless to say, when the boat started going upside-down and doing such unusual motions, her slender hands tightly gripped the sides. She didn't want to go tumbling out before they reached their destination, after all. The Otherself was, however, unprepared for the outcome.

Moments later she was totally soaked, sitting in the boat and blinking, reaching up to prod her dripping wet pigtails and then looking down at herself.

"... Ah..."

The little girl, however, was clapping her hands excitedly and laughing. "Wow, that was great! I've never been on a water slide before... and I feel a whole lot cooler after that landing!"

She giggled at how soaked everyone else was, and took a deep breath. "Whew... I was kind of angry when you woke me up, but... this is way too fun! ... Aside from those scary guys before."

As Shivani stepped through the door, all eyes in the pizzeria were on her. Who was this cat person? Why was she here?

Jack Morgan, meanwhile, grinned. Clearly, the job fair on Athas was already bearing fruit. Of course, she'd have to be dealt with before the animatronics caught wind of her. Moving quickly and purposefully blocking Shivani's view of the stage, Jack Morgan firmly dragged her back through the threshold of the door she had just entered.

Once they were back in the parking lot, Jack stepped back from Shivani and addressed her with professional pride.
"Good work showing initiative coming here, recruit! You very nearly got yourself killed back there-- what were you thinking, showing up without a mask?! Did the recruiters not tell you about the guardbots' facial recognition software?"

Jack sighed. He wished those damn idiots in charge of the job fair actually gave the new recruits information. Little did he know that Shivani wasn't a resident of Thunderbolt City or even Athas in general.

"Ah well, none of that matters. You got here, I guess we better get to the next step in the recruitment process."

This is always the hardest part, Jack thought to himself, The damn recruits never prepare for any of this! Better hope this one knows what she's doing...

"Alright, recruit... Question One!"

"Are you currently using-- or have you ever used-- addictive drugs such as:

• Moon Sugar
• Psycho
• Mr Bones
• Joy
• Deathsticks
• Novacoke
• Deepweed
• Bouncy Bubble Beverage
• Deathweed
• Slow-Mo
• Refrain
• Red Eye
• Stimutacs
• Salt
• Cat Food
• Hyperzine
• Glistening Oil
• Electromagnetic Particles
• Red Spice
• Blue Spice
• Orange Spice
• Baby Spice
• That Blue Meth from Breaking Bad
• Nuka-Cola Quantum
• Hist Sap
• Mindbreaker Toxin
• Ambrosia
• Demon Horn
• Human Horn
• Hyper Potion
• Venom
• Estus
• Estrus
• Rumble Balls
• Plasmids
• Vigors
• Cyber-Modules
• Triptocaine
• Fairy Dust
• Angel Dust
• Dust
• Blue Herb
• Slappers
• Slab
• Slide
• Slunky
• Slush
• Skooma

if you have taken any of these drugs at some point in your life, you will need to take a bimonthly drug test. If not, we can continue to the next question."

Gerhardt, Yggdrasil crime scene

"It's a blood borne disease, as I said, communicable thought direct blood contact or ingestion of infected blood. Initial symptoms of infection are marked by a feeling of euphoric invigoration, followed almost immediately by nightmarish hallucinations lasting...hmmmmm. I'm honestly not sure, hehehehehe. Felt like an eternity. Anywhere between moments and hours. The infected awakens feeling like a new man, with new found strength and endurance. What follows is, and this a purely conjecture from this point on based on personal observation, a muddying of the line between man and beast. In humans it begins in the mind, increased aggression, feelings of paranoia, a sharpening of the killer instinct, bloodlust. From there it seems the body begins to change to better reflect the mind. An increase in size, elongation of the limbs, sharpening of the teeth. All the while the mind continues to degrade until there is no difference between man and beast. The change may be gradual, but I've also observed it to occur incredibly quickly. As though the beast had suddenly thrown off their guise of humanity. I do not know if it is possible to resume a human guise after discarding it completely but I do have reason to believe that," he stops for a moment, looking down at his bound hands. He clinches one of them into a fist a few times before looking back up at her. "That the beast can be used without surrendering to it fully. Just dipping your toe into the well, as it were, instead of plunging right in. Those that have a handle on their infection are essentially indistinguishable from the uninfected except in one regard. There is a sure way tell if someone is a carrier of Beast Plague."

"I'm sure you've noticed that distinctive odor filling this cramped little alleyway." He said, looking around. "That's the smell of beasts. If you smell this that means an infected is nearby. But as terrible as the plague is it is not what I fear most. What I fear most is an outbreak in this city drawing the attention of that I believe to be the origin of this plague. You do not want them here."

Suwako flashed a huge smile at the small girl, giving her a thumbs up as she casually leaped out of the boat and swam to the edge, at which point she pushed herself out of the pool and snapped her fingers. The water drenching her clothes immediately flew off- through by what means even she didn't understand- and sent itself back into the pool of water.

"Glad you liked it!" Suwako said, rubbing the back of her head nervously. "That was some crazy stuff we put you through, so it's only natural that we'd try to make it up to you. Well, I did, at least."

Misaka's mention of metal, though, immediately perked Suwako's attention. She had meant to send them in the general direction of whatever the heck gate the girl was talking about earlier, but for her to hit the jackpot... Now THAT was rare.

"You want me to pull it up to ground level or something? Or is it too heavily ingrained in the ground for me to not try that kind of thing?"


"The Windowless Building is where the General Superintendent of Academy City, Aleister Crowley, resides. It's the most notable building in the city... And is more or less indestructible because he's there. He wants to meet you... At least, that's what he said. Don't worry, from the tone of his voice it didn't seem like he thought you were a criminal or anything of the sort... Actually, this is Crowley we're talking bout- who am I kidding, he never shows any sort of emotion anyways. Either way, the city can be a bit hectic, so it's better we bring you there instead of you getting lost somewhere..." Kakine trailed off before sighing. "Or disappearing on us and causing some public disturbances. Bad things happen when you get Anti-Skill and Judgement hunting you down like a pack of rabid dogs."

With that said, the mechanical door in front of the three clicked open and Kakine walked through, waiting for Marisa and 10032 to follow. Given where they were at the moment, a short train ride would probably be enough to get them to the building... Barring any unforeseen incidents, of course.

------
Aleister floated on in quiet contemplation, the giant tube surrounding him constantly surrounded by holographic screens presenting new information to him as it did every day. The incident with Fraulein Kreutune was... Unexpected, if anything; though he was fully aware of Imagine Breaker's capabilities, the fact that he had managed to...

No, that incident shouldn't have had to weigh on him more than it already was. The incident had been resolved, and the breach in security was repaired and fortified to prevent future eventualities. But that Imagine Breaker... With Kreutune and now even that Othinus (however depowered she was now) and, as always, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, at his side, it was no wonder that more and more magicians came into this city seeking his destruction. After all, he was the largest single threat to their plans, because in one way or another things seemed to magically fall into place to send him off and resolve the incident... Quietly, of course.

That was what made him so valuable, though; with Imagine Breaker, Crowley could manage the development of the city without having to worry about things like the Church interfering for very long; with that boy's ability to negate the supernatural, all that needed to be done was direct him in the right way and the problem resolved itself.

This newcomer, however, was a different story. Though the guest that 10032 (a clone that he had taken a bit of interest in prior to the Level 6 Shift incident) and Beetle 05 had brought in seemed to be a regular human at first glance, his radar had immediately detected an incredibly abnormal surplus of pure magical energy emanating from her. She could easily create an incident on par with that of a Level 5 rampaging through the city streets- maybe even moreso- and that bothered him. If the Church could sway her to their side, then it was very likely they could cause another shift in the ever-so-delicate balance of power... But if he could gain her allegiance instead...

The man tending the stall raised an eyebrow within his beekeeping helmet. Chainsaw. Vocal device. Definitely too high-tech for the natives.

"Well ma'am, Shocker+ is always hiring. But this specific job fair is mostly to acquaint the natives to jobs that aren't... well, soldier. So technically we're looking for independent troubleshooters to... well, shoot trouble."

---

"That restroom didn't even have a handicap stall..." Takahara grumbled, already taking out the Smart Buckle and pretending to fiddle with it. Really he just needed to get to the notes section and remember the transformation codes. Ah, right. Cheeky references as always. He pocketed the phone and gave a short bow to Arragoz, handing over a business card.

"Hello Plizgin-san. My name is Sentou Takahara, and I have a business proposition for you. However, I understand the broader points of Ork culture due to doing some accounting work for Renraku and having to deal with many orc clients. So I hope you won't mind if we skip the pleasantries and get straight to the fighting so I can do the presentation while asserting dominance."

With that, he placed the briefcase on the ground, a number of faceless corporate drones opening it and preparing some charts. Takahara inhaled deeply before taking a fighting stance- legs away from the enemy, leaning in, holding a machete overhead, and shouting 'EEEE!'.

Sometimes, King Dedede wished these distances weren't so darn long.

Upon arriving at the crime scene, Dedede bent over, leaning on his large mallet, placing the head on the ground and panting. "I'm outta shape!" Dedede wheezed to himself. Catching his breath, he wiped his brow and hefted his hammer over his broad, robed shoulder. Approaching Gerhardt and Subaru, Dedede placed a hand on his round hip. "Now, this here looks to be some curious criminal conundrum. I just got here; you mind giving me a bit of a brief on the situation with this beastly blight I heard on the way in?" Dedede took his mallet off his shoulder. "Dedede," he said, jabbing a yellow-gloved thumb at himself. "King Dedede. That's me, by the way."

Shivani - Freddy Fazbear's

Shivani walked with the man until they were outside and frowned at him. "Whatever group you think I'm with, I'm not. I'm a lone traveler and I don't know how I got here. I am not a recruit of your alliance, I am the Dovahkiin. I hope I need not test my skill against those, what did you call them, Animal-tronics?"

She drew one blade to show the man she was no kitten before sheathing it again, and looking back at the building. "I don't know where I am. This does not seem to be Skyrim or anywhere else in Tamriel. This doesn't even seem to be anywhere on Nirn. Tell me, sir, what is this place?"

Nanoha - Castle Tepes

Nanoha had travelled across dimensions enough both in service with the TSAB and since she'd been seconded to UMMA that the trip through the portal didn't really faze her.

The castle, on the other hand, did make her a bit apprehensive, but given the decor, she figured that was probably the point.

"Well, compared to the Garden of Time I guess this isn't that imposing."

Saber - Castle Tepes

As Saber quietly regarded the castle and its grounds, she recalled that Tepes was a name shared by one of her own universe's possible Servants. As a Servant, Saber gained vast amounts of knowledge of both the modern world and of history beyond her time. Vlad the Impaler, the source of the legend of Dracula... his surname was Tepes. Perhaps in this world, their version of Tepes was the origin of the young girl who appeared before them?

Queen Tepes raised an eyebrow for a moment at Gintoki's comments, before making a comment of her own. "Just don't go checking my walls for pot roasts."

Pot... roasts...? Saber couldn't help but be confused. Why would anyone check the walls for pot roasts? Would they not go bad if stored inside the walls? Unless there was some form of preservation... That would be convenient and delicious, to be able to produce pot roasts from any given wall whenever hunger struck her... "... Do you store other foods in your walls?"

She couldn't help but ask. The stare she got in return was a rather perplexed one, as Queen Tepes certainly had not expected anyone to take that comment so seriously.

"... No... no I don't," she childish vampire replied. However, she was distracted by Nono simply strolling up to the gate, so fast! She smiled at the comments about the looks of her mansion.

"Of course it's amazing," she said, confidently, "The Tepes Castle has been in my family very since... since... er... um... since..."

Her voice trailed off for a few moments as she screwed up her face in concentration. It seemed that the exact date had slipped her mind. "Er... ever... Ever since my Father, Lord Vlad Dracula Tepes, had it constructed!"

Well, there was Saber's answer. It seemed this girl was indeed related to this world's version of that individual... It was about then that an at least at first relatively normal sight appeared.

Behind the gate, there was a dark-haired maid.

"Welcome home, your highness," she said softly, bowing her head.

"Ah, Shirley!" replied Queen Tepes cheerfully, "Open the gate for my guests and I~"

The maid nodded, and Saber noticed that not all was normal with the girl. No, she was just slightly transparent, an extremely faint view of whatever could be seen beyond her was clearly visible.

The gate creaked slowly open, and they were beckoned inside.



There was the sound of quiet footsteps between the pale girl and the grizzled warrior.

When either of them turned to see who had appeared, they would be greeted with the sight of what appeared to be a girl in her mid-to-late teens, somewhat small, with black hair. Her body was shrouded in her cape, obscuring any equipment she may be carrying.

"Greetings," she began. While her body was untouched, looking closely enough would reveal that she left a series of bloody shoeprints behind her, leading to where she had stopped, "I mean you no harm. I am simply glad to see anyone well in this particular location. Are you lost?"