Resident shithole.

Mithias the vampire stood silently. The woman didn't answer. No one else was there, yet their scents lingered. He knew this room had been filled with life not so long ago, at least it seemed so. Now they were gone. His black brow furrowed ever so slightly in frustration at the lack of answers. Was he really needed for some universe-saving mission? ...hardly. Three portals stood open like gaping mouths.

Finally convinced there was no other exit, Mithias chose at random the zombie apocalypse. As he walked through, his boots found pavement. A pleasant afternoon light greeted him as did the contrasting odor of smoke and decaying garbage. His yellow-gold eyes found the corpse of civilization before him, buildings abandoned, vehicles left askew in the streets, and not a soul nearby to make a sound.

It was depressing really, a vision he had hoped to never witness in his own world, the bitter end of humanity. Wind blew some trash around, and Mithias began walking. Inspection of graffiti warnings and billboards gave alarming information. Mithias swallowed, fear creeping up even the back of his neck. Was every single human on earth dead? Was this all a metaphor for some spiritual lesson he had not learned in life? He trudged on, thankfully unaffected by the need for things like sleep and water.

Some time later, a movement in the distance caught the vampire's keen eye. It was a human, no... it was a zombie. A pale-skinned woman wandered with whitened eyes in front of a rundown Walmart building. A sign for ammunition still hung in the window. Mithias focused on the zombie woman as he approached curiously. Instinctively, he avoided making any sound with his supernatural grace and came right up to her. She didn't appear to see him, didn't react. Baring his fangs he sniffed and sneered at her in disgust, anguish in his eyes. What a waste. Her life was gone and her blood was completely putrid. It seemed the zombies didn't have a taste for vampire.

Passing her, Mithias entered the broken and ransacked store. Tearing into the guncases caused some noise, but he was now armed to the teeth. ... Hell, it never hurt.

Back on the street, he continued to walk. If normal, living humans still existed in this world, he had to find them. He had to find out what had happened and protect them, and eventually, he'd have to drink. He headed at random toward the group that had a girl in a monowheel and someone around 10' tall in full armor. At some point he would be approaching the human compound, having been led by a faint scent of warm blood.

Goldibanne smiled pleasantly at the men in front, and kicked her feet cheerfully as the van drove along. This was a downright unpleasant world, to be certain. All the animate dead, all the fire and burning, all the highly unpleasant odors that seemed to rather permeate the air... ah, this was really quite awful. It was in dire need of sprucing up... and of some serious cleaning. Very bloody cleaning, but cleaning none the less. The living doll patted the huge wolf lying on her with a smile, humming a little to herself as she did. Certainly their surroundings were miserable, but there was no reason for her to be miserable herself, was there?

Upon their arrival, Goldibanne noticed that there were a few more people who had appeared, definitely seeming to be others who had been summoned by Lydia. Well, it was time to get out.

"Okay, wolfy," she said, brightly, patting Sif again, "I need to get up, so it'd be nice if you got off of Goldibanne's legs~"

”Ah! You’re right, that’s not important now.” Shotaro shook his head, disappointed in himself for getting distracted by something so relatively small when there was the whole “world at stake” deal in front of him.

”I still stand by that this would be an interesting topic to talk about,” Philip defended himself in his typical straightforward tone, ”But you are right, we should be more serious about this. Another time then.” He closed his eye again to focus on the bookshelves flying past within his mind. ”Keywords if you please, Shotaro.

So as not to fall behind and start losing time, Shotaro slung his arm around Philip’s shoulder and started walking with him to follow Satori. ”Keywords: New York City; Popular Locations; Underground.”

”Rather vague terms… But I’ll see what I can look up with it.” Philip remarked. The shelves in his mind narrowed significantly to just a few, but there was still a great number of books and information to sift through.

"Murgle." Tailred's face turned pale as she saw Arakune engulf the two girls and did SOMETHING to them. Judging from the fact that there was no struggling and the mass looked the same as before disappearing itself, she assumed the thing acted as some sort of transporter- taking the two of them somewhere. That was both good and bad- good because no immediate harm would come to the two (hopefully) and bad because now she knew naught where they went. Well, rule of thumb in this situation would be to check places like warehouses or out of the way buildings or abandoned factories since that was how villains often did things. "Hup." Bending down low for a moment, the girl then launched herself several hundred feet up before using her pyrokinetic abilities to transform her slight frame into a fiery falling star towards the nearest group of any such suspicious places.

Now that they had arrived, one of the two humans that had been more or less rescued from the horde of what was frankly cannon fodder had gone off, and Artorias took a minute to evaluate the buildings around them: too small. At least, too small for him to fit comfortably whilst standing erect, which was more than could be said for if Gough had been in his place. So he waited calmly for their remaining guide to actually show them where to go.

Sif, meanwhile, gave Goldibanne a reproachful look at being called 'wolfy', but moved when Artorias--taking note of the wolf's continued immobility--said their name, jumping off and sitting beside the wolf knight.

With another sigh, Shirabe disengaged her monowheel, settling back onto the skate-gears in her boots. The soldiers around the base were making her slightly on edge, even though her FIS days were long behind her and this was another universe entirely.

While Akuma's throw had been mostly successful, his attempt to strike the fop in the process failed. To make matters worse, he was caught off guard by a sudden shockwave emanating from the doll. The blast sent him back a fair distance, leaving Akuma unable to reach Relius prior to the latter's retreat. Thus, the martial artist was deprived of a fulfilling battle for the second time today.

"We will conclude our duel in the future, then."

With that, Akuma's attention shifted to his supposed allies. The gold-clad man had mysteriously vanished, perhaps through some unknown sorcery. Two of the young girls had been engulfed by the black mass, and appeared to have been killed. While they were mere children, they had chosen to become combatants, and met a violent end. Such was the life of a warrior. As for the red-haired child, she had chosen to abandon them entirely, for reasons unknown to Akuma. Finally, the youth in the black coat seemed to be heading towards the din of battle in the distance. Viewing this as the only sensible course of action, Akuma fell in behind him.

Perhaps he'd find a worthy opponent in this world yet.

The sounds of fighting grew louder and louder, and the ever-familiar sounds of combat were unmistakable as they echoed throughout the place. As the scenery transitioned from one of modernity to a place surrounded by plant life, the pathway that led further up into the city seemed to grow more ruined with each step. Craters dotted the pathway, and though none were ever truly in the way, their size grew larger and larger the further on the two went.

Eventually, two figures made themselves clear: one, a young woman in stylized black clothing, her eyes seemingly glazed over as she let out slash after slash at her opponent; the other, a man wielding a large black zweihander. The man seemed to be parrying the woman's blows, but with every attack she made, the man was forced further and further back, much to his chagrin.

"Dammit...! Jin was supposed to arrive a few minutes ago! The hell's keeping him?!" the man complained, attempting to shove his opponent back before noticing the two new arrivals out of the corner of his eye and frowning.

"How the-?! I though Kokonoe had gotten all the civilians out! Hey, you two! Get out of here! It's too danger- Gah!"

As the man was shouting, the woman launched a heavy kick towards the front of his weapon before bashing it with the strange shield in her left hand. The force caused the man to tumble back, and though his grip remained firmly on his weapon, the extra impact caused him to fall back even further, this time, near a small grove of trees. Before the woman could launch another attack, though, he jumped to his feet and pulled his blade out from the ground as if it weight almost nothing and, with a single swing, caused two of the trees to his side to fall in front of him. The woman seemed to hesitate for a moment before the man leaped out of the brush and in front of the two new arrivals, his face grim as he readied his blade in an attempt to protect them from what was to come.

"Don't worry, backup should be arriving soon. I'll try to protect you as best I can, but I can't guarantee anything."


The ground seemed to shake as the red-haired girl made her landing in the middle of a few buildings, causing quite a few heads to turn as the debris seemed to rain to the ground in the aftermath. The combination of flames and wood wasn't a very good one, but what stood out the most was that Tailred had landed right in front of someone that seemed to be wearing a cat-themed hoodie, their face obscured to the point where nothing but a pair of beady red eyes and a mouth were visible. Or, well, more importantly, that the ensuing collision had caused the food the person had been eating-a stack of meat buns-to be covered in stone dust and burning wood.

"...NYAAAARGH! You! You'll pay for that! Boobie lady gave me those for dinner, and Tao's not going to let Washboard Girl leave until she's paid it back!" the girl shouted before getting into a battle stance and pouncing at her now-opponent.


Arakune, thoroughly not used to having been blown up from the inside, quivered for a moment before releasing one more torrent of insects towards the nearest girl before falling flat to the floor, unmoving. Unlike the other creatures on the streets, though, the bugs seemed to be much more durable, though not by much, and managed to fill at least half the room with their mass. Relius, however, seemed to be preoccupied on his own, and thus paid it no heed as he continued repairs on Ignis and his own... "Preparations" for what he expected to come.


As Aaron walked away from the truck, Chris leaped down from the mounted weapon stand on the top of the vehicle and helped move the wolf out of the back and off of the last guest within. One look inside, though, and he let out a sigh; the place was covered in infected blood, which meant that the seats would have to be cleaned out for safety purposes. What a chore. Well, not his, at least.

"Alright, that should be everyone... I think," he said, eyeing the man who had been lazing on the back of the truck with a bit of disdain before turning to the group.
_{"Though why I've been designated tour guide here, I'll never know."}

With that final statement muttered under his breath, Chris shrugged and motioned for the group to follow him to the building in the center. The sound of guns being readied near the gates wasn't exactly a good one, but... It was better than hearing dead silence. Dead silence was never good.

Leading those who had come to his aid into the center of the compound, Chris motioned to one of the women at a desk overseeing a computer, who at this point turned away from whatever it was she was handling to greet them all.

"It's a pleasure to meet you; my name's Claire Redfield. Thanks for saving my brother, by the way. He can get a bit... Reckless at times. The situation is as follows: a large majority of the world has been attacked by bioterrorists, and while this would have normally been dealt with, their last attack was on such a large scale that the world governments haven't been able to contain it. As a result, we've been reduced to fending off the things and reclaiming land slowly as we try to shore up an assault on the ones responsible to prevent another mess like this while trying to get everything back together. Problem is, though, that it requires us both finding their location and making contact with the other military bases in the region... And, well, eventually the rest of the world, of course, but right now that's our top priority. We've been a bit understaffed ever since the last fight, so even though I admit I'm really wary of your miraculous appearance here, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Can you help us out here?"

As that dialogue was going on, the guards posted on top of the gate were now fully wary of the strange man walking up to the base, fully decked out in guns and ammunition.

"Stop right there!" one of the guards shouted, his weapon aimed straight at the newcomer's head. "This is a military zone! Anyone without prior clearance or approval is to be withheld from entry until they have been examined! Put down your weapons and put your hands in the air! Now!"

It appeared the humans in this world were quite organized. Mithias approached a gated complex that resembled a Soldier outpost from his own world, a highly militaristic organization charged with the mission of keeping peace, the price of which was often blood. Could these people have been Soldier as well? He looked around, able to see in the dim light. Power for electric lighting was probably hard to come by in this ravaged modern setting. No, none of the symbols on the buildings or trucks were recognizable to the vampire, and Mithias began to wonder exactly how these people felt about his species.

He put his hands up, a multitude of rifles hanging from shoulder straps on both of his arms. "I come in peace!" He shouted back then began to set all his gear on the ground beside him. A backpack filled with ammo was set down as well. Clearly he was intelligent and not a zombie, but perhaps they still needed to verify he was not a danger.

Mithias stepped to the side. There wasn't too much they could do to him if he wanted to escape them, short of catching him with a bazooka. He was far stronger than any mortal and bullets would not likely do enough damage to stop him. Humans certainly would try to kill him, if they were afraid, but he knew their habits well and how to assuage their fears. First, he'd have to get past their reaction to his appearance.

Standing a short distance from the pile of weapons, Mithais stood with his back straight and hands clasped behind him as they approached. He made no sudden moves. It was only as they got closer that they could see the details of him: the certainly non-military haircut he had, the very light skintone and eyecolor -granted it was dark outside, and his significant height and build. He could probably pass for a human until someone shined a brighter light on him, but by then he would have explained himself.

"My name is Mithias. Take these weapons as a token of my good will. They are of no use to me. I have been sent by the Astral Administrator, Lydia, to return stability to this world." In all honesty, Mithais had no idea how he was going to do that or even if these beings knew who that was. Fuckit, what harm was there in honesty? He looked at the soldiers. "You seem to be in quite the predicament."

Hibiki straightened, in time to see the way that insects had spewed from the incapacitated blob creature's body in such great numbers, filling half the room. The boosters on her right arm died down, the handle shifting back into its standard position as she turned entirely to face them. So that thing had managed to send out even more before it collapsed? That didn't matter! They'd taken out a whole bunch of these bugs before, they'd take out the rest and get out of here, wherever here was!

"Miku!" she called, raising both her fists. "Let's break through the rest!"

The music kicked in again. She thrust her fist forward, scattering insects and smashing through several. But this time, it didn't seem like they were giving way so easily!

---

"Aww, did you not like being called wolfy?" Goldibanne questioned, giving a small frown at the huge canine's apparent disappointment. Oh well. She hopped out of the van, and followed along, briefly glancing back to the newcomer before continuing on her way. Ah, what a dour place. It was the sort of location that could really use some serious sprucing up. Some nice furniture, perhaps. That would be lovely.

After they reached the central compound, and the woman introduced herself and explained the situation, the living doll raised her skirt and curtsied with a cheerful smile.

"Goldibanne thinks that's exactly why we're here," she replied, "So of course I'm willing to help~"

She leaned back to glance at the others. "It'd be aaaaaawwwwfully silly if any of you said no when it's so obvious."

The living doll grinned.

---

"I apologize," Saber said, inclining her head slightly. She hadn't meant to make such a distraction. She had simply realized she had made no proper introduction of herself previously. The blonde girl who was the King of Knights simply proceeded onwards as the group began to move, taking brief notice of the way that Philip seemed to be searching his mind for information. Unfortunately, she was uncertain how much she was able to contribute to this portion of the investigation. She didn't have much experience with solving mysteries.

Even so, the slender girl in armor utilized her skills of observation. Her eyes traveled across their scenery as closely as she could manage, keeping a lookout for anything that seemed unusual in a town of unusual things.

The strange kidnapping blob was fortunately defeated... and unfortunately released a cloud of yet more bugs, which seemed to be far harder to take down. Her response to being almost directly in the crowd once more was to try and retreat backwards to some clear space, even if this put her by the crazy scientist for a moment, and to keep utilising Shanguang: making up for lack of power in each attack by sheer number. Nothing compared to what many other Symphogear could pull out, but they were bright lights...

... and insects were known to be attracted to bright lights, even in the face of imminent death. It might make the hail of weak beams more useful if the things attacking them were going for the attacks rather than the two girls, that was for sure. Once they were gone, they could get out of this laboratory; it was already starting to unnerve Miku a little.

---

"Indeed, that doth seem like our appointed task," Artorias stated, kneeling in order to not risk headbutting (and thus potentially damaging) anything in this completely human-sized room. To aid in finding the source of this plague would surely fix any such destabilisation in the world--or doubtless lead them towards it. A world-consuming plague could surely not be irrelevant to their appointed journey, no matter how simple it was for them to deal with the dead as they came.

"Doth thou not have some inclination for the refuge of these 'bioterrorists'?"

They seemed to be hiding more than the Abyss had, from her description.

Satori nodded as the group proceeded down the streets, the hustle and bustle of the city growing with each passing step. The more they walked, the more distinct the place became. The distribution of humans to non-humans was about 50/50 for the most part, but regardless of how different every being was from one another, nobody really paid it any mind. It was interesting, especially for Satori, who had spent all her life being looked at as an aberration.

"This place certainly is... Interesting, though," she mused, glancing around at the storefronts and buildings around them (which actually seemed to grow taller the farther away they went from the park from which they started). "I've never seen such buildings before... And what could let them reach so high into the sky anyhow?"

Eventually, the group came to an intersection with a little coffee shop that seemed to stand out among the hustle and bustle. A few patrons seemed to be going in and out, but nothing in particular stood out about it. And yet...

Well, to be frank, Satori was a tad parched from all the walking; a drink of some sort would be appreciated.

"Would it be fine if we took a break inside? That place seems to be serving drinks, and we might be able to detail everything out a bit better if we're not moving around as much... Or maybe hear some gossip from the other patrons there."

Having recovered from her slight outburst at the two good friends... Well at least it appeared to her that Shotaro and Philip were really good friends... She had worked her way just behind the Satori... who's also called Satori...

Yeah I gotta ask about that at some point... Oh hell might as well socialize with her right now... Guh she probably hears my thoughts anyways...

"They're possible because of improved understanding of the laws of physics and advancements in material and construction technology..."

She replied in answer to Satori's earlier question about modern engineering and the megastructures possible

"Komeiji-san, Uhh I hope you don't mind me calling you by your name, It just doesn't sit right with me calling you by your species you see... And yes I agree, we really should take a break, I don't know about everyone else but Lydia-san did spirit me away from a rather hot place and I haven't had a drink since..."

Guhh... I hope getting spirited away haven't changed anything about my body, would seriously suck... Ahhh... Here I am sidetracking myself again... I'm not gonna hear the end of it if Hime finds out about this... Hmm, I wonder how they're taking my disappearance...

And there goes the question that will haunt her for the day... Why her? She had friends just about as capable if not more capable than she is, so why is she the only one to be spirited away to do such an important task as save the entire freakin universe... Well multiverse... If it's such a problem why not just get literally everyone from everywhere to try and fix it?

”Ehhh... Basically people just figured out how to build better.” Shotaro answered Satori plainly to contrast Kotoha’s more complicated sounding answer. Were Philip unoccupied rifting through all the information in his head, he might have answered it even less plainly and with even more complicated sounding words. Instead he merely noted, ”Shotaro, did you know? The Statue of Liberty was not originally the green it’s known for. It’s actually made of copper that rusted away over the decades.”

”Oh, I didn’t know that actually… Geh!? What’re you looking that stuff up for, Philip?! Besides, why the heck would our guys wanna go all the way out to the Statue of Liberty island?!” Shotaro shook his partner as punishment for his off-topic research, but it didn’t seem to faze Philip in the slightest.

”It wouldn’t hurt to entertain the possibility. Perhaps they’ve been hiding out there instead of being on the mainland?” Philip shrugged indifferently, but when Satori offered to stop for a small break he opened his eyes back up. “A break sounds good. I see no harm in stopping for a drink. What about you, Shotaro?”

Shotaro inhaled deeply, though he didn't let out a full sigh so it wouldn't look like he was complaining about it. Even if he had his reservations about it, it's not like everyone could/would keep at the same pace as him. Had they really walked that much by now, though? Ah- well, the Kotoha girl had her excuse at least. There was definitely no way he could say no if that’s what she was up to until just now. Satori had a point too, they might be able to get some kind of gossip or plan of action out of it. ”Alright then, a break can’t hurt us,” he said with a bit of resignation to his voice. And with that, he and Philip started toward the coffee shop.

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

On the way towards the brawl, as he sprinted in inhumane speeds and leapt over obstacles, Alex wondered how exactly he and his allies were to deal with these 'distortions' Lydia had them pursue. Were the distortions concrete? Were they objects or people that needed to be destroyed? Or were they situations that needed to be straightened out? Like a relationship gone awry or the opposite. The virus figured he would know once he found it but therein lied the problem, he needed to find it. In this undoubtedly huge world. He realized he was going to need information. Maybe some non-hostile locals can help?

The scenery changed, from modern clockwork to one where plantlife held dominion. Alex saw two individuals in a fight, wielding weapons and wearing clothing that was alien to the virus but he was used to that by now. One was a female in black attire wielding a red blade, a color that matched her hair. She also has a shield that strangely has an eye to it. Her headwear also had an eye on it. The other was a black-haired male who wore a dark cape and wielded a black, large, rectangular sword.

The two fought until the man temporarily blocked the woman with some fallen trees and placing himself in front of Alex.

"Don't worry, backup should be arriving soon. I'll try to protect you as best I can, but I can't guarantee anything."

"Survive." Alex told the man with a commanding tone. "I have questions for you after this."

The virus felt he did not need to activate his Powers as there were multiple of them against the redhead woman. There was also the fact that he might hit his allies with the Powers as they were not exactly designed to fight alongside allies.

Thus, Alex crackled his fists as he prepared to fight the woman with only his natural, superhuman strength.

After a surprisingly brief trek, the martial artist and his 'comrade' reached their destination. In a departure from the mechanical mish-mash of before, this district seemed to consist of a monolithic garden. The plant-life was arranged in complex and abstract patterns; and would likely be described as beautiful by most. As for Akuma, he was much too focused on following the trail of destruction to stop and smell the roses. Before he could seek out the source, however, it came to them.

Two outlandishly dressed individuals -natives of this realm, presumably- were engaged in a duel. One was a red-haired woman clad in black, wielding a short sword and bizarrely shaped shield. The other was a young man with an evident fondness for the colours black and red. As for his weapon, Akuma could hardly call it a sword. It was better described as a metal plank with a handle, or some sort of combat oar. From what the warrior could discern, the former of the two had the battle firmly under her control. The man had been forced onto the defensive, and would likely be felled before long.

The black-haired man suddenly took notice of their presence, and enacted a peculiar manoeuvre involving the surrounding foliage. For whatever reason, the man had mistaken them for civilians, and taken it upon himself to protect the mutant and the martial artist. Akuma, naturally, had no interest in being treated akin to a defenseless villager. After cracking his neck, the martial artist stepped ahead of his self-appointed 'saviour.'

"Reserve your chivalry for the truly helpless. I am Akuma, the Supreme Master of the Fist. As my comrade has stated, we need you alive, so that you might answer our questions."

Turning his attention towards the red-haired girl, Akuma moved to assume a fighting stance.

"Come forth, wench, and face a warrior who has transcended his humanity!"

Mentioned: @VitaVitaAR @Raineh Daze @PKMNB0Y

---

Sol quietly followed the group inside the compound with his Fuuenken resting upon his shoulder and acting as a makeshift headrest as his head seemed to lazily tilt against it. Introductions were made and the only point when he actually decided to start listening was when Claire Redfield asked for his and the group’s help.

“Hm…seeing as those guys looked a bit dead back there…” Sol cast his maroon eyes up at the ceiling as though he were reading thoughts scribbled across the back of his head. He muttered softly to himself, “Zombies…things that don’t die twice…army of them…undead army…”

Goldibanne thinks that’s exactly why we’re here…

“Speak for yourself sister,” Sol gruffly replied.

Lowering his sword, he waved his hand out and said frankly, “I’ll handle this problem for 3 million world dollars. I’ll take half now. You can pay me the rest after I solve your problem.”

He had no idea how he wound up with these bozos. One was a little girl and the other talked funny. Then there was a giant wolf and the robochick. Well…it wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before. Actually…yeap…nothing new. Even his world had characters who didn’t exactly make much sense.

"Okays, it's time to-" Whatever Tailred was going to say upon her rather harder than normal landing was shortly curtailed when seemed to be jumped by a tanned girl in a cat hoodie. "Waaaaahhhh, I'm sorry!" Hugging her twintails and performing frantic dodging that would make veteran martial arts superstar Jackie Chan proud, the girl ran around randomly while being pursued by the angry cat girl to keep her hair out of the angry woman's claws. And given that this place operated on an entirely different currency than she was used to, the poor magical girl couldn't do things the easy way. Turning around and mentally apologizing in her head at the last second, the girl used pyrokinetic thrust to nitro boost a flying kick at Taokaka's way, hoping it would stun her long enough to beat a hasty retreat.

"H-hey, what are you two--?!" the man asked, bewildered at the actions of the two he was trying to protect before sighing. "Ah, damn it all! Forgot this place is full of hot-blooded fighters. If you two are planning to fight, then I'm going to have to request that you only disable that girl! Something's really wrong here, and I've got my hands full here with damage control. I've got some questions of my own to ask, but I guess that'll have to wait."

Standing tall, the man planted his blade in the ground as he stood against the opponent in front of the group.

"My name is Kagura Mutsuki, the head of the Mutsuki family. If you two are intent on fighting, then lend me your strength. I'll answer as many question as I can afterwards."

With that little self-introduction, Kagura pulled his weapon from the ground as the enemy rushed forward, her blade aimed at his neck. With a quick kick, Kagura quickly tossed his weapon up to parry the blow before shouting.

"Let's do this!"


"Nya?!"

A surprised cry left the "Tao"'s lips as Tailred shot a kick towards her, narrowly dodging the blow before stomping her feet. The fact that Washboard Girl had destroyed her food and was trying to run away brought back vague memories of a similar incident, but she, of course, didn't really care much about that at all.

"Tao's not going to let you go that easily! Take this! Mean Bun Justice Slash!"

With a loud cry, the catgirl crouched down and, with surprising speed, pounced towards Tailred with her claws outstretched. By now, a few onlookers were watching from their rooms of in the windows, but with nobody actually on the streets there wasn't really any major chance of innocents being harmed.

Not that it mattered, of course.


As Miku had predicted, a large chunk of the insects had begun to go after the bright lights rather than their original targets, and about three quarters of those that remained were blown away by Hibiki's own attacks. The path outside was clear now, though it was nothing more than what seemed to be a hallway that led into... Well, probably more hallways, all things considered. Still, it seemed that it would be all that was there, and for all intents and purposes the absolute lack of any footsteps signaled that Relius had not even bothered to respond to the incident at hand.

---

While the little girl and the larger-than-life male (and, by extension, his pet wolf) seemed to be completely ready to help deal with their problems, the man with the strange weapon and bandanna seemed to be... A different story. Mercenaries, it seemed, seemed to exist everywhere, regardless of time and place. Claire sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"You really think we're going to keep money on hand in the middle of an apocalyptic crisis? Where would we keep it in the first place? And why would we keep it instead of using the area to store something more practical?" she asked him expectantly before turning to the other two. "As for you... Thanks for accepting. We know that there are a few bases scattered about the world, but from what we've gathered, hitting their main bases should flush them out. The only feasible way for them to keep this up would be to have one on each continent, so right now we're at least focused on finding the one here in North America. Problem is, though, that we don't have enough data to pinpoint their coordinates, and we haven't been able to capture any agents to interrogate, so all we're really trying to do right now is retake some group and wait for the next attack."

Outside the compound, however, the guards seemed to be much more on-edge about the new visitor. Unlike the guests that had come along with Chris, this one seemed to be ... Well, much more suspicious. Having been decked out in weapons and now speaking about something that sounded like the ramblings of a crazy man (which, given everything that happened so far, usually wasn't a good sign), the visitor seemed to be worthy of the utmost wariness. One of the guards took the initiative and quickly radioed in towards the main base out of caution.

"We've got a crazy outside. What should we do?"

"Details?" Claire responded, activating the radio to transmit the dialogue from the room back, just in case the new guests had anything to say.

"Armed to the teeth. Rambling on about being sent by some outside force. Signs of insanity. No clue how long he'll stay put, but I don't want to risk losing any men just in case."

"Hrm."

Claire looked to the side for a moment before sighing.

"Should we look into it, or do you want to deal with it? You can deal with the infected fine, but I'm not sure how well you can handle a possibly-crazed armed lunatic..."

The insects were all gone... Hibiki, without thinking, grasped Miku's hand to take her out of the room, and get a good look at their surroundings. There weren't any guards or anything, really... it was an empty, long hallway, leading towards the outside. The blob creature wasn't going to be following, either... they had a straight shot out of here!

"Let's go, Miku!" she said, looking back at the other girl.

---

"Haah, how mercenary~" Goldibanne commented, leaning back in a manner that seemed likely to be impossible for anyone with a real spinal column, her neck clicking as she looked back at the man who was demanding cash. How incredibly selfish, if this was the problem threatening the multiverse, it only made sense to do everything they could to stop it, didn't they? It was just so rude to demand payment for this entire situation, wasn't it? It was. "The entire reason we're here is to help with things like this, Goldibanne thinks it's awfully rude to demand money~"

The living doll straightened, once again facing the woman who had introduced herself as Claire. A man with weapons, who seemed crazy? Well, there was only one way to deal with that.

"Goldibanne can solve that problem~" she continued, with a giggle, as molten gold twisted out of the palm of her hand, then receded back in. With that, she twirled, and gracefully headed out of the compound...

Bringing his head ought to do it, right?