Dusty pounded down the vast tracts of sun-blasted sand that so many of Athas's worst creatures call home. Though a number of creatures were plenty of monsters dwelling within these sands, only one would fit Shazay's purposes-- only one held enough edible meat to be sent to the Necbromancer: the Mekillot.

A beast thirty feet long and weighing six tons, the Mekillot is one of Athas's most infamous theoretically-domesticated animals. Though it is often put to good use pulling mobile cities and caravans of impossible worth, a Mekillot is never truly tamed unless actively controlled by a powerful psionicist. If not, it retains all the same animal dumbness and stubbornness commonly found in cattle-- stuffed into a body as big as a school bus and weighing the same amount. Mekillots are famous for both their fantastic weight capacity and their habit of crushing and eating their masters.

The Mekillot Shazay was hunting for had, until recently, been one of Thunderbolt City's premier beasts of burden and mascots. Where most mascots have friendly or inspirational names like "Scaly" or "Stalwart", this one had a name that encompassed its role in life quite well: "You Bastard". You Bastard was presently engaged in mortal combat with a lesser Earth Drake. The Earth Drake, bleeding from several gaping bite wounds, did not appear to be appreciating the important lessons it was learning from this experience. For the moment, You Bastard was occupied.

Shazay Jordan stared intently at the radar on the dashboard. It depicted a set of green dots on a circular framed landscape, much like the last eight times Shazay checked it. Confident that he would not be evaded by a reptile the size of a school bus, Shazay grinned madly. As Dusty crested the immense dune in front of him, the Mekillot's form gradually showed itself.

Shazay thumped on Dusty's metal roof, trying to catch Frederick and George's attention.
"Ay! We got our target! You see the big lizard up there eatin' the other big lizard? We're gonna throw barrels at it! Nut up an' get ready!"


It was just a short trip through the teleporter room to reach Antagarich. A quick transfer of coordinates to the attending Jawa, a flash of light, several infinite expanses of space at extra-relativistic speeds travelled, and there they were.

Describing Antagarich is nearly impossible, though the most concise word that describes it is "convenient". It's quite convenient how almost all of the land is traversable on horseback. It's quite convenient how the only resources one could find on the magic-blasted earth of Antagarich is the only resources needed for, say, one warlord to wage wholesale war on another. It's quite convenient how nearly every life form on the planet is not only entirely willing to fight to the death for glory and gold, but that it is willing to do so for a small one-time payment. It is especially quite convenient that the inhabitants of this world are so skilled at creating immensely valuable and immensely useful trinkets, but are so awful at actually holding onto them. This last point would serve the party present quite well.

By the standards of the many warlords (known as Heroes, after their penchant for leading vast armies and dying horribly in narratively-appropriate ways), Julius Aldo and his army was far from up to snuff. In the world of tobacco metaphors, Julius' army was a plug of coca leaves: certainly unable to compete with the others, but they didn't need to. For Julius' needs, Sindibad Darude and Jack Morgan would be more than enough.

All that Sindibad (and, by extension, Julius and Jack) needed from this world was a pendant: The Pendant of Death. He didn't know what it looked like, but "a necklace with a skull on it" would be a fairly good start. In due time, Sindibad would realize, with equal glee and disappointment, that his assumption was wholly correct. Unfortunately, the sheer quantity of lost trinkets scattered across the world would mean that Sindibad could end up with several dozen priceless artifacts long before he even saw a glimpse of the Pendant. For all he knew, it could be in the possession of the greatest Hero on the continent, or it could be in the possession of a shipwrecked survivor, or it could be trapped deep in the bowels of a mighty dragon's ship. Luckily, Sindibad would not have to spend much time on foot.

With another bright flash, a very nice aerial vehicle came into being right behind Sindibad.

With room for three plus half a ton of cargo and controls so simple a lobotomized alien could fly it, the Combine Hunter-Chopper is the one useful thing Shadow Eternity had ransacked from its respective universe. However, the orange crystals that glowed when you shot zero-point energy into it were a very interesting party favor, for what little other use they had.

Sindibad whistled reverently at the Hunter-Chopper. He ran his fingers along the chopper's canopy-- glass reinforced with elements hitherto-unknown to mankind, and now used exclusively for tempering the materials used in police helicopters. For some, it was the perfect sign of phenomenal scientific advances being used for bloodshed. For others, it made the glass reflect light in a very fascinating way and blocked more bullets than regular bulletproof glass. Whatever its effects on the human psyche, Sindibad was absolutely thrilled at the possibility of using this mighty vehicle.

As Sindibad stepped into the pilot seat, Julius and Jack settled in wherever they could find space. Without its supply of mines, the inside of the chopper was uncomfortably roomy. It cried out for someone to fill it-- with explosives, with riches, with corpses... anything would do.

Blake had to admit, Cinder's surrender caught her somewhat by surprise. She hadn't expected her to go down fighting, but retreating to wherever she'd set up her base had been her first assumption. Cinder had to have attacked the museum for a reason, she must have some plan in motion, and the Faunus doubted she'd throw that away just because she was outnumbered.

"Be careful." She warned her allies, voice cold as she kept her weapon trained on Cinder. "She's up to something. She's always up to something."

George Melons was feeling ten feet tall at that moment, and all he heard was 'throw barrels'. He saw the giant fucking armadillo monster eating the hell out of the dragon-y monster. Clearly, this was one hell of a creature. "We're gonna kill the SHIT outta that thing!" And with a wild, howling laugh, George Melons let loose the first barrel, directly into the Mekillot's face. "Oh man, oh man, I bet you ten bucks I could carve that thing's balls off. I could totally fucking do it!" Whatever that liquid had been, it seemed to be having a rather serious effect...

Sir Frederick, on the other hand, was having difficulties with the roughness of the ride. As he saw the Mekillot, though, his eyes opened wide with delight, and his face twisted into a grin. "I can do this..." he readied his rifle to fire. "Yes, I can do this!" and with that, he let loose his first bullet.

As the sickly-green barrel of anonymous fluid slammed against You Bastard's face, the barely-stable equilibrium between the caustic acid inside and its active counterpart rather suddenly shifted to the latter side. Exploding in a brilliant starburst of anonymous chemicals and rapidly-igniting toxic gasses. You Bastard, being a beast of simple mind and simple pleasures--not having acid splashed in one's face, for one--did not appreciate the first-hand look it was getting of this terrific display. It also did not appreciate the high-powered rifle bullet that effortlessly pierced through its corroded flesh.

You Bastard shrieked hideously as the barrel's toxic payload began to eat through his facial chitin. Blinded and rapidly disintegrating, You Bastard lashed out at anything it could reach. The Lesser Earth Drake, being the one thing You Bastard could reach, shrieked equally hideously as You Bastard messily trampled it.

Shazay, laughing hysterically at the show going on around him, wheeled around to strafe You Bastard from a relatively-safe distance. Knowing Mekillots, it would almost certainly attempt a charge the moment it could get a bead on Dusty. If that happened, there was little they could do. In all honesty, there was quite a bit that they could do-- it just wouldn't help at all, beyond making the ensuing massacre somewhat more entertaining to look at. Shazay, being a hopeful man, prayed that Frederick and George could bring You Bastard down before he charged.

"Doin' good! Keep shootin' an' I'll keep drivin'!"

@Boomrocker

"That's the spirit... I think. Come on, muscles, we're going on a monster hunt."

Heading to the security room, she handed off a punchcard to the Jawa. Chittering under his or her breath, the inscrutable beast began twisting dials and knobs. Kelly pulled off her mask, letting her dyed pink hair fall down. Reaching to her belt, she released her Crobat and Shedinja from their balls. She reached up, grabbing Raditz by his armor's collar, and pulled him down to eye level so she could glare at him like a disobedient Raticate. It was surprising just how intimidating this girl could be when it came to work.

"Alright, rookie, listen up and listen good. We're starting from the entrance because this is unlike anything you've ever faced before. This is the citadel of the Lord of Darkness, Dracula. Satan, Cthulhu, Bigfoot, Skunk-Apes, Jiang-Shi, Oni, any supernatural entity you can name works for him in that universe. We are going to be killing or subjugating all of them and taking their house. It will be us against an army of the damned. You want to back out, now's the time. You want to make more money than you've ever seen in your life, taste rare delicacies secreted away by Dracula's fiendish army, and maybe earn yourself a stateroom? You come with me and you show me just why TV-Fly and Starfish Hitler let you in. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

Gintoki sprang to his feet as he noticed the sobbing maid returning to him with his water, and as she started to cry about the situation of the mansion he immediately felt as guilty as they came. Well, technically, it was Frankenmaid's fault for misunderstanding basically every sign he had given off, but as they were he definitely couldn't leave things off as they were now. Downing the water in one gulp (damn, even the WATER felt spooky!), Gintoki rushed off to block the maid's crying return to wherever the hell it is that she would go and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Okay, this is going to seriously give me a bad time tonight if I don't straighten this out right now. Look. I do not hate the mansion. I do not dislike it. It is fine. But not everyone has the same tastes as you or your mistress do. Alright? You did FINE keeping the place nice and tidy. Listen. I spend a lot of time outside. Fresh air? It's nice. It's calming. The atmosphere in there, especially knowing that there's an incoming invasion? Tense. Do. You. Un. Der. Stand. Me? This is nobody's fault. Just. Stop. Crying."

Okay, that... Well, if he had to be blunt, might as well go the whole way, right? Maybe with this, he'd get this Frankenmaid to stop bawling her eyes out (literally AND figuratively). Hopefully, at least.


Just as Kakine was about to answer the blue-haired girl, 10032 conveniently stepped in and saved him the trouble. Well, that certainly resolved the issue much faster than he would have... At least, without looking half as awkward as he had been just now.

"...Right. As my friend here said, my name is Kakine Teitoku. We've been sent here to report on some sort of temporal anomaly that happened to occur right here... And, as you've probably guessed already, that's you. That aside, the place you are right now is labeled as District 15 of Academy City. If it's not too much of a hassle, I can fill you in on some more details... In a bit. My colleague and I were initially on our way to deal with another disturbance in the region as per some orders from the higher-ups, so if you'd accompany us that'd be in our best interests."

Well, it wasn't exactly the smoothest of explanations, but for now it'd have to do. Heck, if Crowley wanted to see Marisa the second she leaped through the gate, who knows what kind of hell she could unleash on the city if left unchecked?


"Dress me up?! I am not a toy for you to play around with! Not a dog, nor a cat- I AM NOT A PET!" Othinus yelled from inside the witch's pocket, kicking and pounding away at the cloth she could never hope to break. "I demand to be let out this instant!"

As Othinus was busy kicking up a storm and Touma was busy trying to shove all of the assorted junk off of his body, Index found her way towards the pile of good and began to sift through them curiously. her eyes widened in shock as she began to recognize a few of the tools scattered around the floor.

"The Necronomicon, the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, an original copy of the Book of the Dead...! You shouldn't even have these! What kind of thief...?!" Index asked incredulously, staring at the pile. "And in a HAT, no less! You have no respect nor fear for any of these artifacts! Just who are you to...?!"

By then, Touma had finally made his way out of the assortment of stuff dumped on top of him and was gasping for breath off to the side. Though definitely winded from that unexpected barrage, he definitely had enough to stand back up and keep on moving.

"...I'll explain it if you let Othinus go. Regardless of your intentions, if she goes missing, then the world will tip towards war again!"

Though that statement was a biiiiit extreme, it did have a hint of truth to it... Especially after what happened before Othinus became so dang tiny.


Uh... Huh. Well, that didn't look... Quite legible at all, really. But luckily, he had resources to spare. Coming into contact with language that had no semblance to what he was used to was apparently a common occurrence when working with interdimensional colleagues, so if worst came to worst he could just run it through a tranlator. Damn, those SE goons had some pretty spiffy tech. A grimoire would've been more convenient, but damn it all if those weren't too overspecialized for their own good. His first job there, after all, was to make a fuckton of grimoires for the personnel higher-up on the 'food chain' to use, so he at LEAST knew that much. That repurposed tablet, though... That'd do nicely.

Seiga's spell didn't really disorient him much, if at all; given that Terumi had spent who knows HOW long floating around in the Boundary, such a site, though irritating, reminded him that he still had another job to do... Elsewhere.

"No problem, no problem at all." Hazama said, turning around to leave the basement through the stairwell to the ground level and scanning the letter with the tablet. "Something something Crown Prince, huh? I'll be right back."

With that, Hazama pulled out a small, one-button remote from his coat and activated it, causing a portal to appear in front of him towards an old mausoleum. Well, hopefully the dialogue interpretation of the system didn't flip the fuck out on him, because a place of the dead was probably nowhere near where he wanted to go to look for a prince.

Well, actually, there was that one Hamlet kid... Oh, whatever. Crazy hermit had a fucking zombie at her side, nothing was too far-fetched at this point.

"I'll leave this thing open if you need me." he said, stepping through the gap in between dimensions and in front of a large ornate building.

"Welp. Let's get this over with."

Well, that's one way to explain something. "Perhaps you can call me something other than 'anomaly,'" Lucina said, somewhat indignantly. "My name is Lucina. And I have a question before we go..."

Lucina turned to Misaka. "Do you always narrate what you do?" she asked with a deadpan expression.

Lucina felt somewhat agitated; if they had to check if she was a threat, then where was she? She had no comrades backing her up...

Lucina, regardless, followed Kakine and Misaka to wherever-they-were-going, hoping for some information.

Seiga - Abandoned Basement, Capital City, AgK

Seiga closed the hole in dimensions, pinching the bridge of her nose in mild irritation. No matter, this would be fine. She picked up the tablet Hazama had left on the floor next to his hologram machine. Noting his destination, she fiddled with it for a bit, finding a call button. She pressed it, Hazama's side picking up immediately.

"Excuse me, Mister Incompetent? You seem to have come to the wrong address. I'm looking, and... yes, I'm afraid that's nowhere NEAR the right universe.", she sighed, "You know, if you're illiterate, you could have just told me. Trust me, it couldn't lower my opinion of you any further. Of course, had you just taken the hole I went to the trouble of making for you, it wouldn't be an issue, but you didn't, so I suppose you'll be taking the hard way around. See, from what I've been told, the place I've asked you to deliver to? It has a... field, of sorts, around it that stops conventional travel. My holes can make it through, but your little thing? Yeah, not going to happen. Take it as a test of your resourcefulness, I suppose."

With that, Seiga nonchalantly hit the end call button, crushed the tablet, and chucked it into a corner.

"Where does he have to go, Nyan-Nyan?"
"Oh, the home of some forgettable organization that takes care of stragglers like him. I think they call it... Yggdrasil."
"Are we gonna wait for him?"
"Pfft, no. I'm taking one more trip, then we're leaving. If he does complete that wild goose chase I've sent him on and tracks us down afterwards, well, I suppose we'll have to fulfill our end of the bargain. Till then, we've no further obligation to him."
"What's a wild goose chase?"
"It's a task to get something that's very hard and very stupid to get hold of. In this case, the signature of a high-ranking official, Ms. Knox. She's known for being... uncooperative, to say the least. Say, Yoshika?"
"Uh?"
"'Prince' is the proper term for one such as that, is it not?"
"If Nyan-Nyan says so, then it's true for definite!"
"You're such a good girl, Yoshika. Now then, guard the house while I'm away.", Seiga grabbed a large burlap sack, "I'll just snatch a few and we'll test them at home, okay?"
"Okaaaaay!"

Seiga slipped into the floor once more, gliding through the earth. Luckily, they weren't recognizing anyone's achievements in outstanding cruelty or some such thing today, so it would be a painfully easy task to stuff a few Teigu in a bag and bail. Of course, had Seiga been a normal thief, she'd find this vault more or less impossible, given that it was plated in a metal thought to be indestructible, kept on around-the-clock watch, and was located deep underground within the palace treasury. Seiga was not a normal thief.

Indeed, had they been out on display, under the watching eyes of the prime minister, his guards, and one or more of his loyal retainers- that'd be some serious trouble. The kind of thing a master thief would go after. Seiga was not a master thief, either.

She simply burrowed through the treasury wall once again, into the nigh-impenetrable orichalcum-plated vault which had been the death of many a spy. She hummed quietly as she snatched up anything that seemed interesting and relatively easy-to-carry. A book, a breastplate, a paintbrush, a ring, a mask, all stuffed into a sack with no real ceremony. Her work finished, she tunneled back to meet Yoshika.

"Come, Yoshika.", Seiga said as she opened a hole in the wall between worlds, leading to her secret retreat, "Our work here is done."
"Sure thing, Nyan-Nyan!"

And with that, they left, hole closing behind them.

Misaka 10,032, Academy City

Misaka glanced over to her companion as Kakine finished the explanation to the new arrival, who was looking somewhat confused by all this. Misaka could have done the same herself, but given her penchant for third person narration it would have taken a lot longer to do so, and presumably they all wanted to be out of here sooner rather than later. At least the two of them did, since they still had a kleptomaniac witch to catch.

Once that had been finished, the strange woman introduced herself, and Misaka logged the information away for the Network. This would be another interesting experience, even if it served as a distraction from the main mission itself. And every bit of data helped when it came to this sort of thing.

She gave Lucina a blank look when asked about her speech, before answering that. "Yes." With that she set off, moving besides Kakine as she kept tabs on the Network, angling in on Marisa's location and the ongoing feud with Touma. Despite having picked up another guest, this mission would be accomplished, one way or another.

Kanji kept his distance from cinder on edge just in case she was going to attack. "What do we do now? I don't have any handcuffs on me or any of those hand tie things. I hope you do."

"I understand! There is no need to shout!" Raditz shouted in response. He looked at the Jawa twisting dials and knobs and wondered why in HFIL he had liet this girl manhandle him so. He could crush her with a thought! But it was the allure of delicacies from a foreign land, and fights of glory beyond all reckoning that drew him in. Soon, people would remember why they feared the name Raditz.

"Let us proceed! There are enemies to be slain, and we are wasting time!" He had zero luck keeping the impatience out of his voice.

Chuck Greene easily finished another pair of laps as the Camera-operator was working with the small portal. Noticing that, the portal was not established Chuck parked the hover-bike near him. "Great, what's the trouble?" The armored camera-man focused on Chuck Greene before returning the small device back onto his belt.

"Oh, Chuck! Good news. You know how this course was, just flat and lacked the cool obstacles and such?" Chuck just stared at the camera-man, "Came to mind after hacking those tentacles away." The camera-man kept his attention on Chuck and spoke a bit. "Yeah, well we got a way better place. It's gonna be the official spot for when Athas 500 comes around now. Called the Ivory Plains. It's a bit away, but anyway, we probably should take a look. You got the map feature right? Got it pinged there. Don't worry! I'll be sure to get there shortly before or after you arrive there, cause you got another segment."

"Right." Chuck noted as he activated a mini-map located on the hover-bike. And so, would begin the treacherous journey to the Ivory Plains.

"There's been a period of two days between each attack prior to this," explained the Queen, glancing towards the rather eager being that seemed to have ties to the boy. "However, they've probably gotten impatient with failure and may be using a more powerful force under a shorter period of time. So everyone should be ready, but not too ready. After all, you might end up sleeping over here or they attack could happen in five minutes!"

The latter was, of course, unlikely, and Saber guessed it was 'hyperbole'. For the moment, the important thing was to ensure that they had a plan. The King of Knights paused for a moment, weighing her options. She had military experience, naturally, and therefore believed she could be of some assistance beyond simply defending the castle and the Eye of the Serpent. She stepped forward, gesturing to herself as she did.

"If I have permission, and the consent of my fellow operatives," she began, "I will contribute in organizing the castle's defenses. This would mean having access to the defenses already in place as well, Queen Tepes."

The vampire cocked her head to one side for a moment, then gave a fang-exposing smile. "If your allies like you enough to give you the job, why not?"

Saber turned to face her remaining allies. Gintoki, too, would be asked when he was located.



"..."

The maid dabbed one eye, sniffling. Really...? It was all okay...

Anette took a deep breath before speaking.

"S-so... e-everything is really okay?" she asked weakly, quivering. The wrong answer seemed like it would most likely cause the sitched girl to explode into tears again. Perhaps literally this time, though she seemed adamant before that her stitches would hold her together perfectly earlier. Still, it was likely the best idea to try and keep her calm and not falling to pieces over the issue. She seemed the emotional type, regardless. The incredibly emotional type.

Meanwhile, Shirley was repeatedly attempting to speak and failing. It seemed she needed further prompting.



The maids were really quite baffled. But... these people did not seem to be Shadow Eternity, at least, and even if they were not exactly what they'd expected from the 'you-em-em-ay', they did not seem to have any intention to attack. After some further hesitation, the wolf-eared maid decided to simply continue her line of questioning.

"Are... any of you here to defend the Eye, at least? Appearing so suddenly like that and everything..."



"Eh? Well of course you're not a pet," said Marisa, flashing a quick grin towards the pocketed Othinus. Nah, she wouldn't consider any person a pet. That was kinda weird. Still, for the moment, the tiny girl was 'hers' in terms of being someone she was going to dress up for sure and there was no-way anyone was going to stop her. "It's kinda like... you have a really cute friend, right? And you wanna see her in cute clothes, right? That sorta thing!"

When she noticed the blue-haired nun's complaints about the treatment of the various artifacts that had shot violently from Marisa's storage hat, she waved her hand dismissively. "They're tools, right? Just tools. Any magician knows how to use a tool. Especially a witch like me!"

.. To be honest, she'd forgotten she had those in her hat. But hey, tools were tools, right? However, it was right about then that the recovering Touma made his way out of the pile of storage.

"... Eh? You're not gonna explain? Jeez, fine fine," Marisa sighed, and reached into her pocket. Well, the one that was free of tiny girls. The one that had something... special inside. Marisa's grin widened as she drew it out, and a light glow emanated from the hexagonal object she raised up and trained on him. The best way to test a defense was to throw an attack at it, right? And why not try a strong one? Not her strongest of course, but...

"I guess I'll just have to make my own theories! Love Sign!" cried the blonde witch gleefully, as magical energy crackled from the core of the Mini-Hakkero. It swelled and built, and the brilliant multicolored magic circle spread out from the center, shimmering like a rainbow. It was a bit of a signature technique, adapted from the original user's technique and made oh so much flashier and more wonderful.

"MASTAAAAA...

The light in the center flared dramatically, growing and swelling in brilliance.

"SUPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKU!"

And then it erupted outwards, a blazing beam of magical energy tearing towards the boy with an enormous crack. Granted, it wasn't tuned to lethality, by default any spell card was ultimately nonlethal if you weren't a fairy. Sure, Marisa could make it kill, but why would she right now? She just wanted to see if he could block it.



Dlanor's expression shifted to what could almost be called disappointment for only a moment, before she lowered the Red Key. Blood dripped from her gaping chest wound as she approached, still leaving a trail on the ground beneath her. The time it would take to heal would be an irritant, but it would not be that much longer.

"... Detain HER," she said, simply, raising the Red Key to point towards the woman once more. It was to ensure she would not try anything unusual.



The girl sighed, then shook her head.

"I'm not intending to be a bodyguard. You certainly don't seem to need it, for one," she said. Certainly, there was no denying that she had been misunderstood. It was not so surprising given the nature of the universe the man seemed to come from. Judging by his appearance, it was likely he did not trust easily. Those injuries conveyed that much.

"I wish to, if I can, help the both of you return to your home worlds, so-..."

She trailed off as a what appeared to be a helicopter descended in front of them, drowning out her voice.

"... What"

Oh, geez. This Frankenmaid was seriously a crybaby, wasn't she? As if ghosts wasn't enough... He'd have to deal with what was essentially a child in a stitched together body. This was the furthest thing he had in mind when he signed up for all of this crap.

"Yes. It's fine. Everything's fine. Just... Let's leave it at that, alright?" he said, forcing as much of a natural smile as he could. "You're coming apart. Quite literally, in fact."

Well, at this point, this was the best he could do. He hadn't a clue what kind of bullshit caused Frankenmaid's limbs to function, nor why they were able to in the first place, so it was proooobably best if he didn't have to try. That would probably end like something out of a crappily made computer game... And he wasn't too keen on having THAT on his track record.



On the upside, this person was being MUCH more rational that Marisa was, regardless of her attitude just now. To be fair, it was understandable, given how he had just explained things, but... Well, the fact that she was willing to comply meant that she was already much less of a headache than Marisa was being.

"My apologies for being so... Blunt, Ms. Lucina. The other guest currently in the city decided to take liberties and... Well..." he trailed off before seeing a giant rainbow-colored beam of energy through the eyes of his two spectating beetles and watching as it shattered into nothingness. Was she really picking a fight with that blockheaded fool...?

"Erm... Uncooperative would be the best way I can describe her right now. Anyways, this is Academy City, home to Tokyo's one and only Esper Developmental Program. Though I guess... A more apt way to describe it would be 'a curriculum designed to create and train espers'. Though they do seem like magic to most at first glance, these espers are all based upon the principles of scientific theory."

Well, that sounded like he was talking exactly like a tour guide. Riding on Fremea's backpack with a beetle did seem to have its uses (other than to protect her) after all. But there had to be a better way of explaining how she popped up here all of a sudden...

"The city is also the site of many scientists and, as a result, experiments are conducted daily to determine results. More likely than not, you ended up here as a result of a side-effect of one of the more recent ones. I'd apologize on behalf of the city itself, but that's outside of my domain."

Better. Well, the three of them were rapidly closing in on Touma and Marisa, so hopefully the situation wouldn't last long enough for some to get seriously injured. Hopefully.



"But kidnapping a person is NOT how you go about that sort of thing!" Othinus retorted as she felt herself jostle around as Marisa went to grab her mini-hakkero."The way you just described things is NOT how this is supposed to work!"

Index, too, was quite miffed. Not only that, though, but she was also astonished beyond belief. These tools had the possibility to ruin the world hundreds of times over, and she treated them like... This...?!

"Touma, we have to return these back to the Church's care for safety! It's too dangerous to let this petty thief keep them!" she cried out, to which Touma only had a short nod with which to reply.

"Yeah, if even I've heard of those magic artifact, they've gotta be pretty famous. Though I really don't care much for them right now..." he trailed off as a glowing rainbow-colored energy began gathering in front of Marisa's tool. Well, this... felt familiar.

"That... A railgun...? No, there's no metal..." Touma muttered to himself as Marisa declared her attack and fired off the giant multicolored beam of energy at his face. Instinctively, Touma raised his right hand in front of himself, causing the beam (all the way back to its origin where Marisa was holding that thing) to shatter and dissipate into nothingness with the usual sound that followed it. Huh. So it WAS supernatural!"

"Regardless of that fact, I can't leave you alone with Othinus." he said, taking a few steps towards Marisa. "Let her go already, alright? I'm really not in the mood for this today."


Wait. Shit. She was right. It wasn't the translation feature that he had been using, it was the handwriting ID tool. Fuuuuck. This is what he got for skimming over the damn profile that came with it. Son of a bitch. No wonder she had taken him for a fool this time. Every other time was planned, but this... This was his own folly. Shit. There had to be a way to salvage this.

In his rage, though, Hazama accidentally closed the portal that had been his link between where he was now and the Capital. Well, that was just fanTAStic, now wasn't it? God, ever since that fucking Hakumen--!

"...Fuck. okay. Calm yourself, kiddo." Hazama muttered taking a deep breath as he looked at the letter again; miraculously enough, it was still relatively uncrumpled. "Just gotta re-analyze this..."

With his regular green-black aura flickering around him, Hazama checked over the letter again, this time with the CORRECT tool.
Dlanor A. Knox. Well. What a bitch. A high-ranking UMMA official. And he, an SE operative, had to get her to sign it.
Fuck, when he finally sorted out this shit there would be hell to be had. Fuck the Black Beast; making a failure took too much out of him. No, after he got this shit done that hermit would be in for it. Nah, this shit was his fault, but making him go after that insane murder-doll? Absolutely fucking not. Nope, he needed someone to forge this bullshit. Well, that'd be easy enough, but he'd need to have a reference document to get it done right, and who fucking knew how hard THOSE were to come across.

"...Okay. That's it. That bitch is gonna fucking get this job done for me or I'll have her soul. Wonder if she'll like being like Phantom for the rest of time?" he mused to himself as he cracked open a portal to SE's HQ and stepped through it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Things were gonna get real bloody real fast, and hew as gonna love it. Every. Last. Second.

Whilst Sir Frederick attempted to reload his gun, George Melons had prepared an... Alternative ammunition for the catapult. Namely, himself. "THIS IS GONNA BE FUCKING AMAZING!" he screamed, reaching down to pull the lever and fire it, himself atop the corrosive barrel. As he flew through the air, his body began to undergo a change. He twisted and shifted on the barrel, screaming in agonizing pain, as hair sprouted from all over his body. His hands turned into claws. Soon, he was...



A fucking werewolf, heading right towards the eye of the Mekillot!

"That's what I like to hear! We're going to rip this castle a new one!"

"UTINI!"

With that, the Jawa gave a thumbs-up. A portal fizzled into being, the same smooth edges as the one that took Raditz out of the space bar. Kelly smiled and clapped Raditz on the shoulder before jumping in.

"Well then, let's get us some pudding."




Towers of white stone shot skyward. Behind them, a drawbridge separating the castle from an endless ocean of clouds and a night sky in eternal twilight. Ahead, stairs led down into a corridor where a horde of zombies shambled about blindly, chewing on everything in sight. One managed to impale itself on a candle tree... only for more to pull themselves from the pool of blood.

Of course, at the other end of the hall, was an archway leading to a room with a huge rock in the middle and the sound of running water. Kelly let out her Crobat, nodding in approval as she looped her hands around the bat's back.

"Okay, you're with the PTO, so I assume you can fly, right?"

The great Mekillot howled in pain as a ballistic George Melons slammed into its face; a barrel of corrosive acid followed soon after. As a blast of acid further dissolved its faceplate, George Melons managed to land right in the pit of its eye socket.

You Bastard stamped madly and thrashed its head in vain, desperately attempting to dislodge George Melons. It feverishly scraped its ragged face against the ground, further damaging itself. It seems that You Bastard, the mighty Mekillot, was at the end of its rope.

"C'mon, grandpa!", screamed Shazay, "Either get busy shootin' or get busy dyin'!"



The Combine Hunter-Chopper's rotors thudded mercilessly as the landscape below sped by. The Chopper's unusual glass-bottom canopy design allowed Sindibad to observe the ground even as he flew, searching for... he honestly didn't know what to search for. Any landmark would do.

Far below the Chopper, an abandoned ship lie still, its main deck split in two by a massive rock. Whatever had happened to it, it must have been quite a while ago, as there were no signs of life on it whatsoever.

Jack Morgan, ever a man of the sea, was enthralled by this abandoned ship. On the Grand Line, abandoned ships were a dime a dozen... and they always held either treasure or adventure. Grinning from ear to ear, he tapped Sindibad on the shoulder.
"Hoi, Sandstorm! Look down there!", he said.

Sindibad pulled the throttle back, bringing the Chopper into a hovering position. With no particular ceremony, he looked through the canopy's glass bottom, and scanned the land below for whatever it was that Jack had been looking at. His eyes fell upon the unassuming shipwreck.
"It's a ship, Cap'n."Sindibad said, "You showed me the last five ships too!"

Jack grinned eagerly, and said, "Yeah, but this one is abandoned!"

Sindibad gave Jack a very demonstrative look, and pushed air out his lips in exaggerated frustration. "And?"

"And I need you to bring us down over it. Dead ships means treasure!"

---

The Chopper hung low, flying just above the ship's ruined deck. A rope ladder hung just over the side of the Chopper, extending down to the ship's deck. On either side of the deck was Julius Aldo and Jack Morgan. Julius, with no appreciation for the wonderful feeling of rotten wood and salt underfoot, grumbled irritably.

"The treasure's gotta be either in the foc'sle or belowdecks," said Jack, with a strange sense of authority. "I'll check the former, and you'll check the latter."

_{"The forecastle, the forecastle!"}

"Okay, fine. If you don't want to check the belowdecks, I'll do it. You're being really difficult right now, Julius!"

"I didn't say anything, Jack."

"Don't try to pull that 'ghost ship' bullshit on me, Julius! I know when there's ghosts around!"

"Oh? What's the first step, then?"

"Well, first things get cold..." A line of goosebumps spread along Jack's left arm, and a deathly chill spread across his shoulder.

"Then, you start hearing voices. Ghosts are really talkative when you get them going."
_{"The forecastle! The forecastle!"}

"Would you shut up, Julius!? Thank you! Finally, they form an apparition."

There was an uncomfortable pause, as Julius nervously looked around. Thankfully, no ghosts appeared.

Julius furrowed his brow, and scratched the back of his head. "Uh, any other steps?"

Jack nervously scratched at his goosebumps. "Well, not that I know of. I mean, ghost behavior isn't uniform, you know? For all we know, there aren't any ghosts here."

"Yeah, probably. You had me going for a moment, there." Chuckling mirthfully, he turned to open the door to the belowdecks. As the door opened, Julius peered into the darkness below. No ghosts here, either. He supposed that, even if there were ghosts here, they weren't nearly powerful enough to do much more than make Jack a little bit chilly. He turned to face Jack once more, and immediately noticed the other ghosts.

For some reason, there were three of them in each corner of the ship's main deck. Clad in dark-grey rags and chains, they were the very model of a spooky ghost. With a terrifying howl, they charged.

Blake's expression was grim as she nodded and stepped forward, circling around behind Cinder as Dlanor held her at sword-point. She restrained her like she'd tied up the Shadow Eternity agent back on the Tangrissnir - she forced the woman's arms behind her back and bound her wrists and forearms with the ribbon from Gambol Shroud.

''The local authorities should have something more... long-term,'' She thought to herself as she started patting Cinder down for any more weapons or Dust vials.



Subaru looked up at the leather-clad hunter and smiled, the expression lighting up her face. "Of course you can help us - you're the only one here who's familiar with the disease." She clapped the man on the arm. "I'll authorise you as a, uh... an expert asset!"

"Now, the first place to look would be the facility behind us, where Mr Gerhardt was summoned." She said, turning back to face her small party as a whole. "Even if you already searched it, you're right - there might be leads you didn't have the experience to recognise."

With that, the blue-haired girl waved one of the local agents over, and son the trio were being led back towards the crime scene...

Nono, Castle Tepes

Nono nodded in understanding as the Queen pointed out that they didn't actually know when the Shadow Eternity would show up. Well, she could deal with that, since she was patient. And then she would have the opportunity to help out around the Castle too, which certainly wasn't a problem. She had to earn her keep somehow, even if they were providing security already.

"Right," she agreed before glancing over at Saber as she spoke up, offering her services in organizing the defense. Well, that hardly needed any discussion, given her skillset and her history. If anyone was qualified to do this sort of thing, it would be her. And this time the comment was not biased in any way.

She smiled, nodding her approval. "Of course. I can't think of anyone better," she admitted before looking back to the Queen. "Is there anything else we need to know?" If not, then she was prepared to help out in any way that she could. Better to be prepared now than taken by surprise, though those sorts of details could be left to Saber in the end, and she rocked on her heels as she waited for an answer

---

Cinder Fall, Museum

Cinder was calm as her captors debated what to do before Blake approached. Calmly, she offered up her arms for whatever they choose to restrain her with. She didn't mind either way, since she was more looking forward to seeing what her permanent incarceration would be like. This sort of thing was no long term hindrance, and so she gave it the little concern that it was worth.

"Careful there," she advised as Blake pulled her arms behind her back, adding a wince to it from the plasma wounds that had not healed yet, a surge of pain running through her back. It didn't matter too much, since the pain only served as an incentive, but she didn't exactly say as such. She had a feeling they wouldn't appreciate it, and letting them know would probably hinder her overall plan. She couldn't risk it.

Extra weapons there were not, but there were vials of Dust strapped to her belt. All the usual colors that one would expect, as well as a stranger Black Dust, which gave off a disturbing feeling within a close radius. That would indicate that it was not a good thing, but fortunately there wasn't much of it. When she had finished, Cinder shifted on her feet, quiet as she waited for them to lead her away.

Geo and Omega-Xis - Castle Tepes

Geo gave Saber a thumbs up for his consent. It's not like he knew anything about organizing defense anyway, he was more of a fighter than a planner really. "I agree, I think you'd be the best for this, Saber." Omega-Xis had no qualms with it either. Planning was boring to him, and if he had his way, everybody would just charge in and let loose. That's not typically a winning strategy, unfortunately. The alien crossed his arms and nodded in agreement as well. "Just go for it."