Shivani - the Ice Moon

Shivani immediately dove face, first into the snow, letting them bounce off her steel armor before drawing one blade as she rolled to slice through any that were within reach. "What are these creatures?" she asked the men that had stopped to fight the monsters as she drew her other sword. "What are they weak against?" She swung again, attempting a power attack that would cut most mortal men in half. With a bit of intuition she leapt back and reeled back for a Thu'um. Trying her best not to hit either of her supposed allies, she let go a might, "Yol toor SHUL!", a wave of flame pouring from her mouth towards the attackers.

The gate was rather distant from the castle, and therefore those inside would not yet have heard the knocking. However, that was precisely what a certain ghostly individual was present for.

The air shimmered briefly, and Shirly abruptly left the mansion, gliding to the gate and reappearing, seemingly from no-where. She hesitated for a few moments, standing at the gate and regarding the newcomers with mild confusion. Certainly, her highness had not mentioned anything about further guests... perhaps there were more UMMA reinforcements...?

"Ah... I... well..." swallowing in spite of a lack of a need to, Shirley took a deep(and also unnecessary, but old habits quite literally died hard) breath before continuing, "I... d-did not know her highness was expecting further guests... W-welcome to Castle Tepes."



Black Rock Shooter was silent as she watched Mikoto approach the large cylinder and seem to tinker with it, somehow. The otherself was only unsure of what the girl was doing for a moment, before reasoning that her control over electricity may have allowed her some ability to interfere with the device. The blonde girl, meanwhile, watched with rapt attention, seemingly fascinated by what was occurring.

There was a crackle, and then a loud whirring sound as the systems inside the generator were revived by the input of exterior power. It flowed through the (at least seemingly) ancient machine, pouring electricity into places that had long been dry, filling it with power. There was a hissing sound from the ring, and then an ear-splitting crack as a strange, hazy energy abruptly flashed to life inside of it. It was unclear where the portal seemed to lead. In fact, it seemed to lead no-where.

Thankfully, there was one certain thing. The console too sprang to life, a simple screen appearing upon it.

A single sentence was displayed over a series of flags, many recognizable but some unfamiliar.

"Please select a language."

Beneath the flags there was an apparent label for the software involved.

"IDPOS v. 2.9.3"



The girl sighed. She supposed that, yes, there was no large chance of civilians still being within the school at this point. Who would remain in such a place? As the man advancing, ripping apart the zombies with his immense sword, the white-haired girl remained behind, seemingly to avoid the blood.

The girl swept her cape aside, the hilt of an elegant katana visible protruding from the sheath on her hip. In a flash, it was drawn, and she sprinted into the swarm without pause. Each motion was swift and to the point, a combat style based entirely around speed and skill. With every flash of steel, another of the undead fell in pieces, now permanently felled or rendered useless. It was a dance through the flesh-eating corpses, a bloody dance that left gore in its wake.

No wonder the girl's shoes had been stained in blood.

Reaching into his coat, Dante pulled out and twirled a sawed off shotgun. Cracking a grin, he pulled the trigger, firing two barrels of buckshot point blank into the wendigo's mouth. As the beast's momentum was deadened, Dante' flicked his wrist, breaking open the gun and ejecting a pair of smoking red shells. Another flip closed it, and he aimed it forward. After a short moment, the coach gun crackled with red energy, and a second pull of the trigger unleashed a torrent of magically enhanced pellets, knocking the wendigo back.

"Watch it! I got some precious cargo here, buddy." he said, pointing the shotgun at his bag.

As the flames of the dragon shout reached one of the wendigoes, the other three of the main pack recoiled away from their smouldering comrade. It was instinctual, clearly, but there seemed to be a great fear within them. Though the alpha did not back away from his target, chomping down on the buckshot that was in his teeth and cackling, the other three not-on-fire wendigoes turned tail and fled. Fire was bad for wendigoes. VERY bad. Seeing his pack flee, the Alpha let out another upset howl and sliced at Dante's chest, attempting to draw blood.

Dante reached back into his coat as well, pulling out a hunting shotgun with a sawn off bore. He fired off a normal shot at the wendigos charging the man, and began charging up another shot. "Nice gun, hotshot. Mine's better." He yelled out as he let the shot fly out of the shotgun's barrel at the running pack of wendigoes, making Dante's chest recoil back in an attempt to control the gun's power. The shot may fly into a wendigo, and bide its time until it would explode, approximately four seconds after landing in its target. There is a slight chance of it dying, but it was more of a crowd controlling ability. If the shot were to miss, it would simply run its course until finally exploding far away from anyone. He swapped the shotgun for his dual pistols, "Alright, ladies, let's get to work." He aimed the pistols at the Alpha and shot rapidly at it in an attempt to further stop the wendigo from wounding the man.

Jack stepped into the Castle interior, and was immediately impressed with its extravagance. He looked to the Queen "This is certainly a befitting home for one of royalty such as yourself. I am humbled to be in its presence." The Queen mentioned moving on the the Eye's chambers, which Jack gave a curt nod to in reply "We should not tarry. The Shadow Eternity forces could be here at any moment." He began to eye the rooms a bit more cautiously, keeping a hand close to the hilt of his sword.

"HYAH" Dante spun around, delivering a reverse roundhouse to deflect the beast's claws. Reaching into his coat, he spun out a silver gun, outfitted with all sorts of customizations. Twirling it at speeds Ocelot would be proud of, the devil hunter pointed it at the wendigo's schnozz.

"Sweet dreams."

BANG.

Hi-Hat grinned widely at Doctor Facilier, and turned to look at Shirley.
"May we know where the master of the castle is? We have pressing matters to speak to them about. We've come to offer our help in the coming attack."

Xiangshi leaned in and whispered to Doctor Facilier, keeping her tone professional.
"We'll need you to keep your cool, Doctor. We'll get to business later."


Life on the station was just as chaotic as it always was. Corpses littered the lobby outside of the absent Geneticist's office, tides of grey-suited terrors stalked the corridors, assaulting and disarming anyone with a job to do, and bear-sized spiders stalked maintenance and the Xenobiology lab. On a brighter note, fierce shapeshifting Changelings patiently waited for their time to strike, slaughtering and absorbing the DNA of their victims.

This shift's Captain, a giant, purple, and horny man in an ill-fitting blue-gold jumpsuit, gripped his antique laser pistol tightly, always ready for a Changeling attack. He was a Changeling.

An astonishingly-musclebound Shaft Miner with what appeared to be fairy wings warned the only other Shaft Miner on shift to stay away from him. Both he and his shift-buddy were Changelings.

A dark-skinned Scientist decked in full skull-shaped facepaint aimlessly drifted through space, hunting for artifacts and derelict ships. He was a Changeling.

A filthier-than-usual Assistant with rotting skin jammed his makeshift spear into a Giant Spider's dripping thorax, and brought it down. He was a Changeling, among other things.

A semi-robotic Bartender made up of a metal endoskeleton and a dully-glowing canister tended to the bar, and mixed yet another horrifyingly foul drink up for the bored Assistants and Medical Doctors attending. He was a Changeling.

The Chief Engineer, a Russian fellow wearing a white hardsuit, did his best to fix up a long-abandoned station using nothing but his toolbox, his wits, several Mobile Man-Machine Interfaces, and the fact that he was a Changeling.

The Captain turned to a large, console with a blue screen-- the Communications Console. With a stern look, he typed a message into the Console, and sent out a Stationwide Announcement.

The Class of Ginyu 20XX will meet in the Thunderdome.

Across the station, five individuals caught the message, and nodded grimly. With a flourish of their hands, they activated their teleporters, and disappeared from the face of Space Station 13. The Captain did so, soon after.


A haggard-looking deliveryman pushed a large crate stacked on a dolly down a suspicious alleyway. At the end of the alley, a strange armored figure approached the deliveryman.

The deliveryman, somewhat unnerved, addressed the figure.
"A-are you M-mister Oberweiss?"

The figure grunted, and nodded.

"U-uh, I've got a package for you."

The figure stared at the crate, and looked back to the deliveryman. "How many?" he said.

"T-twenty Goku Uniforms... custom design, 20% Fiber, emblazoned with your company's logo."

The figure appeared to be smiling behind his fearsome gas mask and helmet. "Good. Thank you. Leave."

The deliveryman, at a complete loss for words, moved the crate to the ground and pulled out of the alleyway.

The armored man, one Sturm Oberweiss, ran his hands along the crate. Peeking inside, he saw four stacks of black-and-white uniforms, with Shocker+'s logo emblazoned on the chest. Hiding a smile behind his mask, Sturm slapped a teleporter on the crate and activated it. In a flash, both Sturm and the crate were gone.

The deliveryman turned to see an empty alleyway smelling of ozone. Was that an alien? he thought, No, couldn't be. Aliens don't exist. Idly picking at his 10% Life Fiber suit, the deliveryman got back in his truck, and drove off. He had many more packages to deliver today, and wasn't going to let one space alien screw him up.

With her emergency power boost having started up whatever was actually supposed to power the device--probably some sort of nuclear power source, from what the Railgun knew, though why that would be buried so deeply under a desert was as confusing as anything else--and consequently breathed new life into the machine, the Railgun rejoined the others. Seeing that nobody else seemed eager to interact with the technology, Misaka stepped forwards and scanned the panel for a flag representing a familiar language.

After an awkward pause whilst every language on Earth and then some was represented, she found the Japanese flag and selected it.

---

The immortal trailed behind as they got to the bottom floor, mentioning that she was going tos tart the fire now that the other two were--effectively--outside. It wasn't going to be an easy thing to get the building burning, since its walls were composed of some stone-like substance*. The furnishings and the floors would be easier, though, and then the whole place would be gutted by the conflagration. It might even get hot enough to make the thing collapse.

Now having ascended the stairs again, and surrounded by the gory mess of the passage through the building, Mokou set about actually getting the place to burn. It wasn't something that she needed to put much thought into any more; if you spent centuries practising the same old tricks again and again it became second nature. Besides, not setting the scenery on fire was the part she normally had to try for. Burning a stationary object...

It couldn't have been more than a minute or two before the long-haired girl walked out the entrance, with an ominous orange glow behind.

*concrete

"Good answer. Shows concern for the child AND a desire to advance your own position. You might just be Shocker+ Material after all!"

Starfish Hitler was at work with a pair of scissors, before handing Raditz a Shocker Combatman's mask with a section cut out of the back- presumably for his absurd amount of hair.

"Velcome to ze team. Head on in and meet your coworkers!"

---

The animatronics on stage were going through another jaunty tune about friendship. Meanwhile, Kelly the Rocket Grunt was sitting across from Mage. An extra-large pizza and an order of garlic breadsticks sat between them.

"So Kelly, how come you didn't go along for that thing with Ginyu?"

"Dude, I am NOT a fighter. That's why I pamper my babies the way I do. Love and affection do more for a Pokemon than any amount of browbeating, and my Babs is proof of that. 'course, sometimes you get a stubborn one, and the only way to get through to them is a mix of fear AND affection. Like that thing I caught on the Lockseed Run with the Kurokage Troopers."

"NANI?!" Cried out Joseph in sheer surprise, his facial expression matching his confused tone as he appeared no less than 20 meters in the sky, behind his figure, appeared a human sized circular portal, able to fit the 6 foot 4 tall man through, as had recently just happened. Holding his arms in front of himself, Joseph plummeted toward the snowy landscapes winter ground, and performed a nimble roll upon landing so as to not cause himself any injury, the Joestar quickly rolling down one of the many snowy hills situated around the area, before grinding to a pleasant halt on his back.

Joseph panted, confused and bewildered, he gazed up toward the sky, drenched in fog like vapour, as foggy as his mind right now, where was he? Switzerland? Somewhere entirely different? Wherever he was, he probably wouldn't want to stay out here in the cold for too long. Joseph slowly rose to his feet and surveyed the area, fog, a few abandoned buildings, and lots and lots of snow...

"HOY!!" Joseph called out, hoping to get a reply from someone perhaps hidden in the practical snow storm that was brewing, and as he should have expected, he received no reply from within the fog, no hello, or greeting, just the winds frigid breaths. Joseph sighed, and simply decided to smile, heading off in a direction, hoping it would lead him to some sort of civilisation, upon close inspection of the buildings, it seemed like nobody lived here, the buildings were completely destroyed and or close to their own destruction, thanks to the snow.

Joseph slowly breathed, using the power of Hamon to conserve the temperature in his blood and ensure he wouldn't get a cold from the terrible winter circling around him, a light yellow aura coursing through his being.

"These types of locations bring back a lot of memories...!" Joseph contemplated, before tightening the curious headband on his forehead, a smile never escaping his visage, he pumped his fist close to his side, and stared upward.

"Look out for me, eh, Caesar-chan!"

Joseph, content with himself, proceeded, until he heard the sound of gunfire along with shrieks and growls. Joseph instantly got prepared, and proceeded to get into a battle ready stance, noticing what appeared to be a flicker of fire ahead.

"Huh?" He let out, perplexed, ready to charge head and fight his way forward until he noticed what appeared to be three Wendigo charging at his direction! Or rather... AWAY from the direction they came from...! Their fangs and claws bared, ready to attack Joseph no doubt, they appeared hungry, starved, and ready to kill. Joseph grinned, and prepared, he waited for a moment, he was going to show them just who's the boss! ....

At the speed of a sports car, Joseph turned a total 180 degrees and sped like his life depended on it away from the three monsters charging straight in his direction, yelling at the top of his voice, comically, which @Incrediblebee DANTE, the other DANTE@nobiscum deus and the KHAJIIT@belwicket can hear.

"I'M SKEDADDLING OUTTA HERE!"

Shivani - The Ice Moon

Seeing the fleeing Wendigos, Shivani ran after them, pulling out her enchanted bow of flaming, loosing arrow after arrow. Whether or not they hit the Wendigos, she would try her best not to hit the man they were chasing. Once enough time had passed, "Wuld nah KEST!" She flew along the ground to the Wendigos, took aim and fired an arrow at each of their heads. With the arrows on fire, they would be killed easily.

"Ah..."

Shirley was quick to give a respectful bow, before straightening. After all, if these people were assisting... Though they did not seem to be from around here. They were neither one of those of the night, as far as she could tell, nor did they appear to be any of the townsfolk. While assistance from the townsfolk would be as appreciated, Shirley feared(as she did many things) that it would not be very useful as all they ever seemed to have was farm implements. Usually the only reason townsfolk ever appeared at the castle was, well...

They always left quite lightheaded and somewhat richer. They were at least compensated for their time and... difficulties. To directly refer to just why Queen Tepes required their presence was rather impolite.

To discuss your mistress's eating habits would be quite strange in any case.

"Well... well, Her Majesty Queen Tepes is currently busy with her other guests," Shirley replied, another unnecessary breath taken to calm herself, "They were sent from... u-um... some... where to assist in halting the attempted thefts."

Shirley was not among those particularly able to understand the UMMA. Nox was indeed part of it, but had not volunteered for much in the way of active assistance. Similarly, they had rarely required any assistance from the UMMA. Shirley was hard-pressed to recall a time when the Queen had ever requested any kind of assistance at all from anyone outside the castle. Well, aside from when it came to matters of food.

One of the Wendigoes fell as the flaming arrow pierced it's head, but the other two continued their pursuit of the strangely dashing (in both uses of the word) man. One of them jumped so as to bite onto the muscular stranger, but found it's mouth full of a tougher substance than it could handle. Was this the work of an enemy stand? No doubt the wendigo thought so. Unfortunately, however, despite it's utter inability to do damage, it held on, flapping about in the breeze as Joseph's art swung up and down rhythmically. The other wendigo stopped it's pursuit at this point to cackle, sincerely out of amusement this time, at the fate of it's poor comrade.



The Alpha wasn't dead, exactly, but it wasn't precisely alive either anymore. Rather, it lay twitching on the ground, not properly killed, as no fire had been used, but horribly injured and incapable of continuing to fight. It let out a mournful whine-laugh, trying to communicate the great pain it was in, but to no avail. It flopped a bit, sadly attempting to continue movement. Unfortunately, it didn't manage to get very far at all, collapsing with exhaustion a mere three inches further from the Dantes than it had previously been.

Nono, Castle Tepes, Nox

Nono grinned as they entered the mansion at last, buoyed by reinforcements and her own attitude as the group went inside. She was looking forward to seeing what this place was like, and the Shadow Eternity attack was but a small concern right now. Not to say that she had forgotten entirely, but with no sign of their arrival as of yet, she didn't see the need to be overly worried about it. They would face that problem when the time came.

She paused a bit at the new maid, easily able to pick out the stitches and bolts in addition to the fangs. Well, that was odd. Perhaps she was an artificial construct like Nono herself? It made sense at least, moreso than a ghost did. After all, robots and things like that she could relate to. Less so supernatural beings.

"Hello," she waved in return as she stepped inside, still following close by Saber in the process as they entered. "Whoa," she commented aloud as she looked about, noting the architectural style, what was shown off, and fully taken in by the impression of royalty and nobility. She wouldn't even hold such things as the plush bats against the current occupants, given where they had to live.

She nodded in agreement at what the Queen said, before frowning as she looked at Gintoki. "Geez, how could you think something like that? Why would the Queen bring us here just to defend a fake?" That said, she looked back to the Queen, good mood undiminished. "I'm ready to go." The sooner they got it done, the sooner they could prepare for the attack.

---

Misaka 10,032, Academy City

The walk towards the Windowless Building began, Misaka silent as they went on their way. Even if she were tired from everything, she would not have said so. At least not while they were on a mission anyway. Off the clock the Sister could be just as much a handful as the original, as had been seen before. But for now, she was focused and disciplined, fulfilling the task she had been given to the utmost.

At least they were soon able to hit a road and begin the trek to the city through the hills and such. A long walk, but one they had little choice about. At least the thief wouldn't be able to run away in an open space like this, if she didn't want to get shot (by rubber bullets) So it was doubtful that they had anything to worry about.

"Yes," Misaka confirmed without adding anything to that that would be indicative of emotions or feelings otherwise. That would be because she didn't see the need to, focused on walking, watching Marisa. and interfacing with the Network at the same time. If Kakine was bored then he would come up with something to amuse himself. That was as far as her consideration of that went.

---

Ilyasviel von Einzbern, Shadow Eternity HQ

Ilya sighed as she relaxed in the Shadow Eternity HQ, feet propped up as she rested on a couch. Boring, definitely that, but she'd have her fill of action soon enough, if the Leader had anything to say about it. But while Ilya didn't necessarily have to listen to her at this moment, she chose to anyway. She liked living, and soon enough she'd find her way back to her reality to settle the score with her copy. Until then, she;'s park it here.

"Boring," she said to herself in annoyance, after a quick check of her prana levels to see if she needed to go harvest some before the coming fight. But what she had would probably be enough, if she didn't throw around anything too powerful. Miyu had been pretty useful for topping her up, but sadly she didn't have access to that particular source any more. And nothing else was really enough to get her back to full strength. But she'd manage, like she always did.

Indeed, she couldn't seem to stop her thoughts from wandering, remembering the angry memories of her life after her rebirth, and how insistent everyone was on denying her, rejecting her. It was all she could do to keep her cool. Why couldn't they see that she was the real Ilya, the one that was meant to exist? Her place belonged in the supernatural.

Fortunately, a sigh took her away from that as she lounged in the break room, simply waiting for the call. No, they didn't want her, but she would deny them. One way or another she would survive, and she return to how things should have been. There was no other choice.

Shivani - The Ice moon

Looking back, she saw the Alpha laying on the ground. With a single shot, unless it moved, a flaming arrow would pierce its chest, igniting it. She would then quickly turn back to the one closer to her and loose another arrow for it. Whether or not the arrow hit, she would then use her flame breath shout, "Yol toor SHUL!" at whichever Wendigo was closer and alive.

"It's not a fake, you don't have to worry about that," clarified Queen Tepes, clasping her hands behind her back and leaning forward slightly with a smile. "I'm an honest queen, not some weirdo who thinks they need to build their rule on lies! Besides, I don't even know if I could move it."

With that, the Queen turned away, beckoning for everyone to follow. Naturally, Saber proceeded without a word. The Queen headed to the left, through an ornate doorway into a room with one surprisingly anachronism. In spite of their surroundings, it seemed that not only did the castle possess working electricity, but also a massive TV equipped with a variety of what the blonde knight recognized as video game consoles. She was surprised to see such a thing in a place that, while seeming more developed then the time she originally hailed from, was far behind the modern world she now lived in. Still, she followed without comment.

There were red velvet couches, frilled curtains, bat plush toys, elegant candles burning on desks and tables... and maids. The variety of maids was rather notable. A home such as this surely required extensive care. All of the maids, however, exhibited unusual features. There were curving horns and batlike wings, skin so pale the one it belonged to had likely died at some point, and a plethora of beings that, while certainly resembling human females, were likely not.

The vampire Queen's maids were something of a monster menagerie. Granted, none of them were too distant from human in appearance, but very few of them appeared to actually be human, and many of those who were human appeared to be undead humans.

Their path took them deeper, down a spiral staircase into the depths of the castle. Here it was stone, not furnishings. To Saber, it resembled some form of dungeon, torches lining the walls and wooden doors with faint glimpses of chains and... skeletons...?

"Ah, don't worry about that," said Queen Tepes, waving her hand dismissively to one doorway. "No-one's been tortured down here since I ascended to the throne. I can't stand treating people like that. Now it's just where Clark lives."

Without any explanation of 'Clark', the childlike vampire continued on, leaving Saber to attempt to speculate on who Clark was. At least, until the reached it.

"My family jewel," declared the Queen, gesturing to it with a smile, "The Eye of the Serpent."

It was, to put it simply, enormous. It was at least as big as a house, the size of the chamber vast enough to hold it. A huge, perfectly spherical gem, crimson and seemingly putting off a slight glow.

However it would be possible to steal it was a mystery, but there must have been some way for the Queen to be so concerned.



All operatives assigned to the Eye of the Serpent mission were swiftly ordered to report to the hanger. A plethora of soldiers, as well as several more powerful figures, made their way there.

Soon the mission would proceed.

Arragoz Plizgin - Freddy Fazburr's Pizzeria -> Shadoo Foreva HQ

As the saiyan's chat with the two odd lookin' blokes came to a close, the Ork took note of a beeping noise emanating from his pack. Ah zog, did I'z set off a Melta again? Thankfully, this was not the case, which became apparent when he withdrew the offending object: his Shadow Eternity Communicator. It seemed he was being ordered to report back to the hangar and prepare for the misshun to nick the Eye of the Serpent.

"Uh, I'z gotz ta go. 'Portant fings ta do, see you'z Shokka Plus gitz on Nox, I sa'pose."

Hitting the handily built-in recall button on the communicator, Arragoz instantaneously travelled back to the bunker's teleporter room. After taking a minute or two to pore over his requested intel, the Greenskin sent a message to the Umber Hulk to meet him in the hangar. As for the chemmed-up biker humie, the Kommando decided against it, figuring he'd have plenty of distractions as is. Finally, the Greenskin popped in to meet with the Grots. Conversing in the Blood Axe dialect to prevent any eavesdropping, the Ork instructed his lesser kin to gather up their possessions, along with the loot from Arragoz' room. When this was done, they were to move it outside, hopefully without attracting any unwanted attention, and await further orders.

With that out of the way, Arragoz arrived in the hangar, and made some final preparations for the mission. From what he could understand, most of the gitz he'd be up against wouldn't be affected by Fungus Gas or Stinkbombs, due to somehow being dead and alive at the same time. While this would limit his employment of some of the more amusing ordinance at his disposal, it gave him an excuse to bring out the really killy stuff. It'll be like krumpin' Nekrons, takes longa ta kill em good 'n' proppa, so you'z getz ta 'ave more fun. If his 'comrades' were killed in the crossfire, then all the better. It would make his job easier when the time came to reveal his treachery. Da stoopid gitz'll nevva see it kummin.

The Ork knowingly snickered to himself, and decided to do a routine check of his arsenal as he waited for the mission to begin.

Well... there were plenty of options here... sure, Misaka had a gun, but if Marisa just went off and booked it...

"Whew, it's pretty warm, isn't it?" she asked, taking off her hat seemingly to use it as a fan... and then her broom slid out. Now, after all, was her chance. Hopping on her broom as quickly as possible, there was a strong burst of air as she rapidly ascended, shooting off the ground in a bid to get out of reach before anyone could really react.

"I'LL SEE YOU SOON!" she called back to Kakine and Misaka, waving as she looked back over her shoulder with a grin, "Don't worry! I'm just gonna explore a bit, okay?!"

With that, she was off like a shot towards the city. For once she was being honest, she intended to come back and meet Crowley or whatever. But no way in hell was she bothering with that before seeing the city!

Seiga - Imperial Treasury, Capital City, AgK

Seiga slithered into a vault, a quadruple-locked solid steel construction deep within the heavily-guarded imperial treasury. Apparently, there was some sort of mystic weapon of incredible power hidden here, but from where she was standing it didn't look too impressive. Within lay naught but a small scroll and a locked chest. She took a look at the scroll.

"Garuda-", she mumbled aloud, "Living-type Teigu. Eats any organic matter, becomes larger as it eats. Instinctively seeks to destroy any and all manmade structures. V. high regeneration potential. Extremely dangerous. Do not use under any circumstances."

She cut a small hole and reached inside the box, withdrawing from it what appeared to be a small, one-eyed, half-developed bird foetus, a red gem faintly visible at the back of its mouth. It shrieked with unfathomable hunger and rage against the world that had locked it up. Seiga was unimpressed.

Holding the Teigu by its torso, she exited the vault, tunneling through the foundations of the city and into an abandoned basement on the far side of town, appearing from the wall.

"Nyan Nyan!", Yoshika called, "You're back, Nyan Nyan! Back from, uh..."
"The vault, dear.", Seiga said, petting her jiangshi.
"The vault!"
There was a pause.
"Nyan Nyan, what's a vault?"
"It's nothing you have to worry about, my darling subordinate.", she held out the Teigu, "Here, Niang Niang has brought you a snack."
"Oh boy!", Yoshika said as Seiga shoved the creature into the zombie's mouth, "Ank fo a foo!"
"You shouldn't speak with your mouth full, dear.", Seiga said as she dabbed at Yoshika's mouth with a napkin, "It's poor manners."
Yoshika swallowed the Teigu, "Roger!"
"You're such a good girl, Yoshika."