Mordred eyed the girl who had stepped forward. She seemed silent for a moment as Nanoha spoke. What was she going on about, anyway? Fictional? Hah, how was that even possible? There was no way anyone here was fictional. It was nonsense that you would be able to summon something truly fictional. Wouldn't the act of summoning it make it exist, anyway? Whatever. She didn't care. What mattered was what was going on right now, and-

"W-wait, does that mean you're really Mordred?!"

The soldier was looking right at her, now.

"... Well, of course I-"

Before Mordred could continue, the girl seemed to explode.

"I SPENT SO MUCH SAINT QUARTZ TO GET YOU!" she declared, leaving the blonde knight in stunned silence for a moment, "I rolled and rolled and when I got you I was so happy I almost died! Aaaah, the way you say 'teiku zhatto yuu-..."

The other soldiers were all staring at her. Mordred found herself staring too. The girl's cheeks were bright pink, and she swallowed after a moment and composed herself, taking a deep breath.

"I-I'm not sure what's going on, but you're all from works of fiction in our world," she said, continuing as if she had not made such an outrageous outburst. "I don't know how this could have happened, but... could it be you're all from other worlds?"

@KoL@Dezuel@Raineh Daze@Rin

Really, what was that idiot doing now? Backing up to the soldiers... like that would matter. If they got involved it would be absolutely trivial to remove them nonlethally; she could fight through a group like this even without enhanced strength. He had to have seen how easily they could be disarmed. Except for attacking the soldiers, which would just repeat the earlier fight with less mercy.

Being recorded as fictional wasn't entirely new to her, at least--and with other worlds coming into it as already made obvious... well, maybe this could be used to their advantage: "Do any of you know about someone called Menomaru?"

He wasn't a useful source of information himself.

---

"Eh? But how would we get something to eat without any money to pay for it?" the teenaged girl asked, getting quite aware that even knowing where she was would be of little use when she hadn't been expecting to be caught outside. And she really needed something to eat... being woken up early was one thing, but being woken up early with no promise of breakfast...

"Low ranked?" the Captain asked Emilio, eye twitching for a moment before coughing and clearing his throat. "N-never mind, that was unbecoming of me. Regardless, young man, given the odd circumstances that have occurred tonight, I will likely be the highest person on the military hierarchy that you will be able to speak with tonight. If you have a headache, though, I can get you an aspirin later; you seem familiar enough with modern Japan to know what that is, at least—probably more than the rest of this group."

With a cough, Captain Yamazaki turned towards Alberich, whose rather chaotic outbursts already made him more than wary. Screaming about gods and god-warriors and all manner of other things... Well, given the circumstances, he would half-excuse it, but that sort of mentality was far from conducive to actually getting any meaningful information out. Rather, the rage and the manner with which he spoke almost made it feel like he was trying not to be believed.

"You, on the other hand, should choose your words more carefully. If you wish to make this nation your enemy, then I will be the first to pull the trigger towards you," he said, shaking his head calmly as a rather plain-looking black car pulled up near the truck. "Well, our ride is here. I do hope this will do for the rest of you. In the meantime, though, I will send a group out to search for this so-called 'teleporting guy'. More details would be appreciated, though that is currently less of a priority."

Tenshi, on the other hand, cocked her head at Emilio's question. She knew that she had said 'Heaven', but... Did that imply some other connotation within the Outside World?

"Erm... No, I'm just a Celestial. An existence... Beyond humans, I guess you could say? We're not oddballs like hermits, though, so don't lump me in with that group," she said, her attention quickly shifting towards the vehicle soon after.
Out of curiosity, Tenshi walked towards the car and tentatively tested the handle to open the back door. She had seen multitudes of these things on her last time out of Gensokyo, but this was the first that she had even actually ridden in one. With a shrug, the young woman slipped into the back seat and waited for the others to enter.

As soon as the rest of the group had entered (bar Alberich, of course, who was now alone in the back of the armored van), the vehicles took off. Their destination, of course, was the National Diet Building.

Or, more specifically, a building nearby. The ride itself wasn't long, given how the area was now cordoned off, but as short as the ride was the tension in the air didn't seem to fade. Once both vehicles arrived at the scene (along with the entourage surrounding them), the group was calmly escorted out and into the building's interior. As far as it seemed, the room they were all led to was built more like a meeting room than any sort of government office—probably because it was, in fact. There were a few older men in black suits all seated around the table, each staring at the comparatively colorful cast in turn as they were ushered in. Tenshi frowned for a moment and, looking at the others before shrugging, took a seat opposite the suited men before glancing around warily.

"Uwaaah, it feels like father's about to lecture me for some reason..." she complained as one of the men stood up from his seat and began to speak.

"Thank you for cooperating with the JSDF and coming here. My name is Kawamoto Fukuchi, and given the urgency of events that has just transpired, I will be leading the discussion here tonight. All matters will henceforth be kept as confidential as possible unless stated otherwise. With that statement out of the way, let me begin with matters of national security."

With a slight motion of his hands, the old man pointed towards the giant monitor behind himself. On screen showed scenes of anime and games that the group had been featured in. The Celestial, of course, stared at the screen intensely as those colorful images came and went before he continued on.

"Once we were told of your names and places of origin, a cursory data search found that you all appear in some form of... How to say... 'Digital' culture, in a sense? Ironically enough, one of the younger members with us today also happens to be somewhat invested in that field of entertainment, and began to mention something about creators or whatnot. But as of right now, we wish to talk to you about the safety of the nation.

I presume that you are not the first people that have been dropped into this world, and I think you will not be the last. What I want right now is to secure your cooperation in case any threats to national safety come about. Of course, we will provide a place to live, a stipend with which to use for your own services, and any necessary identification you might need if you choose to accept this offer. But I leave it to you to decide whether to not to accept. There will be more formal documentation right now, and I do realize how big a gamble it is to ask this of complete strangers, but given the amount of possible destruction that could be caused unto the city and its people I wish to resolve this with you peacefully, if possible. If there are any questions you wish to ask, we will try our best to answer them."

The Celestial, realizing that she had come to her feet as she was staring at the screen, meekly sat down and began to think quietly to herself. With all of this chaos happening in quick succession, she wasn't particularly inclined to want to get involved with this mess, but at the same time...

There was no other way to put this other than 'a giant incident', right? Which meant that this was well beyond the scope of what the shrine maiden usually did, right?

But at the same time, even she had the mind to wait for the others' reactions, though. With everything that was playing on screen, it was a given that people might remember that mess she had caused with the Scarlet Weather incident... But if there was any time to clarify what was to be done, what better a chance was there than this?

"While this offer does seem very interesting, I should ask about what bearing our past deeds... Or, well, misdeeds, have on what we might be given or what freedom we might have," she stated, trying to remember every bit of formal dialogue points her teachers (namely, Iku) had tried to drill into her head. "Will there be issues based on, say, what I have done in the past?"

"That will not be a problem, Miss Hinanawi. We will judge everyone on a case-by-case basis, but as far as I know the only one who is truly at risk of having liberties taken away is the man named... Alberich? In his case, though, he might be in something you might find as a mix of house arrest and parole if he continues to blindly seek power. We will continue to provide, of course, but sufficient caution is necessary when involving... Everyone here, quite honestly. I will be frank, however, and say that this is a mutual relationship; if you show us that we can trust you despite everything you may have done in the past, then the only things that might limit you are the laws that govern us. Is that clear?"

Nodding, Tenshi closed her eyes and began to think. At this point, she was already inclined to accept the offer, come hell or high water, but maybe the others would bring up an issue that she had forgotten.

---

One of the soldiers near Eva's group, on the other hand, would soon receive a message on his own radio, telling him to quickly bring the others near his position over to the Chiyoda ward as quickly as possible. With a slight grimace, the soldier shrugged his shoulders before responding that one of the newer recruits had already attempted to make casual contact. The amount of screaming that could be heard from the other side of the device was enough to cause a few heads to turn for a moment, but no more than that.

"...Well, that's all the better. If that soldier succeeds in convincing them, then all the better. But don't think that means they'll get off easy. Let them know as soon as you can to bring them over; the higher ups are already negotiating with the first group of contacts," the gruff voice on the other end of the radio responded before it clicked off.

With a nod, the soldier who had taken the message nodded once and broke formation to speak to the female soldier, who seemed to be in thought over Eva's question. Said soldier, of course, seemed to waver for a moment before coughing and speaking up.

"I, personally, do not know who that person is, but as far as I know there is already a group of people in a similar situation to your own who are discussing the issue with my superiors. If you do not mind, could I ask you to come with us? It is very likely that, given the situation until now, they might have the answers that you seek," he said before moving over to whisper into Private Minami's ear.

"Captain said that it's your problem handling with these people now. If you can convince them to come over, then maybe you won't have hell to pay later."

With that, the soldier quickly retreated to let the group decide on their own on what to do.


As soon as he had managed to free the family from their car (which took a surprising amount of effort on both sides), Leo let out a sigh of relief as he collapsed on the ground. By some miracle or another everything had... Kind of turned out all right. He couldn't rest for long, of course—not with the problem that was occurring in front of his eyes—but at the very least there didn't seem to be any injuries.

"Thanks, uh..."

"Leonardo. Leonardo Watch. Don't worry about it," he said, smiling as he looked up and shook hands with the mother and father who were inside. "But, really, you should be thanking that white-haired girl just as much. I'm sorry you had to get mixed up in all of this."

"Well, I'm not going to lie about the fact that I'm quite angry right now about my car, but I'm just happy that we're all alive. If you see her again, please pass on those thanks to her as well, Leonardo."

With a nod, Leo got to his feet and began to chase after the white-haired samurai girl again, only to notice that Sonic was... Missing. Again.

"Ah, he'll find some way to me," he sighed to himself before continuing onward. It wouldn't take long to meet up with that girl again. Hopefully.

Sonic, of course, had decided to follow alongside Youmu, and was only barely able to keep pace with the young woman as it scampered forth. Just as she began to make her own attack, the monkey leaped into action, clutching onto the face of one of the other criminals and causing them to flail around in a panic at the sudden animal on their face.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Dezuel@KoL@Rin@TheFake

Ben looked around before settling on a transaction to watch. After several moments he lifted a hand and pulled what appeared to be a handful of 500 yen coins from the air. A very simple application of illusion. He handed them to Hibiki and they even had the weight that would be expected of them.

"I think that some hot food would be best. We will be able to plan better with full stomachs."

@Raineh Daze



The man was, predictably, flattened before he could even complete his turn. He pulled the trigger before even bringing the weapon to bear, spraying the side of a building with a burst of gunfire that caused the pedestrians on the street to erupt into panic.

While posessing reactions far from the reflexes of trained soldiers, the others managed to turn around before before the last of the gunshots had finished echoing between the buildings. One of them caught some sort of miniature, demonic primate to the face. Fortunately this one accidentally dropped his weapon in his blind panic.

The others aimed their weapons at Youmu and then took a collective step back in fear.

"Sh-Shit. It's her."

Flagg disregarded the situation behind him, breaking into a run without a backward glance. The Walking Dude knew to run when he had to. He did however give voice to some parting words.

"It was nice knowing you gentlemen."

@VitaVitaAR@PKMNB0Y

Menomaru

Cosplay? Movies? What are those things? Some weapons perhaps.

Menomaru turned his gaze to Nanoha and stopped in his tracks and gave a low. "Hmm.."

"Threatening a captive. Is that befitting of someone seeking to aid these humans?" Menomaru mused.

Menomaru didn't quite understand what the soldier was talking about until she said that they were all from works of fiction. Fiction? The very idea came to Menomaru with utter disgust. That he would have been created by humans? That he a greater demon would be somehow made from humans?

He narrowed his eyes the more he pondered on it. The soldier asked if we could be from different worlds. That must be it. I couldn't be a creation of a human. It's impossible. It's wrong. He calmed himself down abit as the grass around him had begun to blow slightly due to his rage building.

The soldier woman had however given him a name for the heavily armored girl. Mordred. That and having some outburst about saint quartz? What is that? The small blonde girl with the ice powers had also had the gall to ask these humans about himself. How dared she not ask him herself. He was way above these humans in terms of power and intellect or so he believed.

As if they would know anything about him anyways. But there was a turn in his luck just now. The humans were trying to persuade them to come with them. This was a welcome sign which he could make use of. Taking him to their castle he could bargain with their leader. Humans easily submit to greed and power.

"Nanoha. Mordred." Menomaru said out loud, having obtained their names just recently. "You do want answers to your questions. Do you not?"
The humans wanted to take them to their superiors. Perfect. Soon he could turn the tide and have the entire city wage a war against these people which had taken him prisoner. Humans were weaker in comparison to demons. But in sufficient numbers they would certainly do.

Emilio

Emilio pondered on the situation. The army didn't know of Wong. But they would surely know the commander? The one who Wong refered to as his excellency. Wong wouldn't have wanted him to kill humans who were in the army. Though NOA psychiccers, NOA sympathizers and renegade psychiccers would be free for him to chase down and kill.

There were many questions in his head right now. More than he could handle. He had to find some answers. Tenshi seemingly were at ease in going with them, and also saying she were a celestial. An existance beyond humans. A psychiccer then? Emilio couldn't gaze into her heart though like psychiccers could do to oneanother unless guarded actively, like people such as Wong did.

Emilio shrugged abit and moved to sit down in the back of the car alongside Tenshi. Being in a vehicle like this was uncommon to him. Usually he was flying when needing to go somewhere. They were all driven to a building, one which Emilio had not seen before. Led into a room where many men sat about clad in black.

Tenshi said a word which had Emilio feel abit of sweat. Father. Emilio didn't like the word. He didn't want to think about it either. Whereof Tenshi went ahead to sit down, Emilio remained standing. The voice of one of the men snapped Emilio out of his thoughts and his head would move up to the screen above displaying different scenes, some of places and people he had never seen before. But then he saw familiar faces.

Wong.. and... Emilio raised his hands to his head as if having a cluster of headaches pouring in. The girl with the pink hair, the young man with the tall blonde hair with a red stripe. He knew them. They were very important. If only he could remember. Pain filled his head further. He saw a man in white hair and blue attire. He knew who that was. The leader of NOA.

"Hngh....Keith" Emilio rocked his head back and forth with his right hand at his forehead. His eyes twitching as he tried to keep his mind intact. Something deep within his mind was reaching out to him, at the same time he felt another force pushing it back. Then finally his eyes flung open wide as he heard the word. Past. Past deeds. The word past flung back and forth inside his head. As his facial expression went blank.

He could hear it again from Tenshi. "what I have done in the past?". Emilio then saw flashes from his past. The pink haired girl and the blonde young man. The fights they had been in. The time he spent as a test subject for the army and the pain that involved. The time when that woman died. The time when he had killed his family in self-defense after they realized he was a psychiccer, or as they saw it. A demon. He couldn't make out who it was right now, only that they were important to him.

"Haah... aaaaaahhhhh!" Emilio yelled out in pain as emotional parts of his past was being surfaced, things that the brainwashing he had been through had done it's best to suppress but could not erase.

The brainwashing that Wong had put him through was effective however, it wouldn't let him go so easily. Though it could not hold back the amount of power he held within. The horrible power which he regarded like a curse, two years ago before he was caught by Wong during the explosion of the old NOA headquarters.

But now he was in a room with black clad men. Whose striking resemble reminded him of those which headed out to capture psychiccers.
It was too much. Too much. They had stopped talking but the amount of things flooding to his head was too much.

Suddenly and without much warning after his yell his spectral, angelic looking wings would spread out of his back and stretch out across the room. They were not physical in nature and could be moved through without problems. They were only manifestations of his power. The power of light.

Emilio put his both hands close to oneanother and as he did, light began to gather inbetween them. "I-I don't believe it!" He screamed out and three rays of light energy would fly out from him. One to his left, another to his right and one straight ahead straight towards the giant monitor. The force of each of these rays was enough to blast through a cement wall or send anyone caught in the way flying and take quite the damage. They also emitted a sound while travelling through the air.

He would have a slightly panicked expression, like a cornered animal who were locked up and faced with seeing it's abuser again. He quickly darted for the door in which they've entered and started running down the corridor to any nearby room to collect himself.

Alberich

Alberich was about to give the captain a reply of his own when the latter had already turned around and was walking away.

He narrowed his eyes as he walked towards the van and got into the back. Whereof the soldiers would carry his sword or leave it behind. He knew he could call it to him if necessary, it was after all a part of his god robe. His armor.

The ride in the van was decently quiet. Alberich felt like a prisoner. Him? A god warrior. All he had done was defend himself against those women which had stalked him. As the drive finally came to a stop and he was released from the van. Alberich inspected his surroundings, as if memorizing the building and then he was led inside alongside the rest.

Still with his makeshift cuffs on him. "My sword." Alberich stated coldly to a nearby soldier.

Alberich was the last one led into the room and placed himself on the far right in the room. Before him were many men dressed in black suits, sitting by a table. He felt like a prisoner indeed. Or a slave on an auction. It irritated him. He was from one of the noble families of Asgard. He found this to be highly irritating.

Alberich thought just about moving up to also sit down on a chair but stopped in his tracks on seeing the screen.

"What the-" Slipped from his lips as he saw images and scenes from his fights against Athena's saints and of his fellow god warriors aswell as Polaris Hilda. The title read Saint Seiya?

Alberich's eyes widened for each passing moment and his mouth opened whereof he wanted to place his hand at it but couldn't due to the cuffs. These people had watched him in Asgard already. They were there watching him while he was fighting and... what? They had recorded his thoughts on that! How was that even possible? He didn't think out loud that allowed others to hear.

He was baffled. These people had somehow pulled him from his own world into theirs? Then this wouldn't even be the same world? But another dimension? Alberich thought that maybe he would get more answers as time went on but now even more questions have popped up in his head. The other young man in the room, who had been brought in with him seemed about as surprised as he was as he glanced to the side.

Though he was holding unto his head, likely suffering from some sort of concussion or migraine as far as Alberich could decipher.

Then they've began to talk about him. Alberich turned his attention to the men by the table and he collected his thoughts and assumed his colder and more calm demeanor. "How exactly does that make me different from yourselves? If you didn't have ambition and influence you wouldn't even be here. Then you know all this about us and have somehow dropped us into this place."
Alberich eyes narrowed further and he gave a cold stare ahead to all the black suited people by the table. "I, Delta star, Megrez Alberich shall consider your terms with one of my own."

His eyes flickered for a moment. "Set me free. Give me my sword and give me access to your largest library, and in turn I shall aid your homeland until I find a way to return to mine."

Before he could ask them what they thought his attention snapped to Emilio who had begun to suddenly scream out and reveal some form of wings. The whole thing catching Alberich abit offguard, he began to stumble backwards abit and on seeing the young man shoot a ray of light towards his direction Alberich threw himself out of the way, landing on the floor out of harms way but with a expression of sudden surprise.

The trip had given Vita chance to calm down, at least to some extent. She had no intention of forgiving the man for destroying her hat, but eventually she had realized that it was likely best to cooperate with the JSDF for now. After all, that was the usual course of the TSAB, though... something seemed off here. It didn't stop the tiny redheaded girl from sitting and pouting the entire drive to the National Diet building, seated beside the blue-haired girl who had wielded an energy sword of some nature. She had reverted to her usual clothing, in this case the white skull t-shirt with the black skirt and striped stockings. Ideally, the coming meeting would would show Vita the path back to Hayate's side, the place where she belonged...

... And the answer after the meeting had concluded was both yes and no. Yes in that she now understood the situation, as bewildering as it was to her. No in that it didn't give her any clear path at all. This was not the universe she called home. Somehow, through some form of powerful magic perhaps, her and several others had been transported to an entirely different universe. One that did not natively hold any kind of magic. One that, against all odds, depicted everyone here in works of fiction.

After the initial wave of shock and confusion, the tiny redhead felt herself stewing in irritation. Not only was she taken to some other universe, as far from Hayate as seemingly possible, but they had produced this kind of thing about her, about Hayate, without even knowing of her to ask her permission? It made her angry and confused at the same time. On one hand they didn't know she existed, but that didn't mean they should just make this sort of thing recklessly, did they?!

However, Vita wasn't so annoyed that she didn't pay attention to the offer the man was making. Even if this was an entirely different universe, the TSAB made a point of cooperating with local governments(in part so they'd willingly step aside when the situation was beyond their ability to handle). This case should be considered as just the same.

"... As a representative of the Time-Space Administration Bureau," Vita begin, stepping to her feet, "I'll cooperate with your offer until this whole thing is averted and everyone is returned to their proper universe. Hmph, whoever did this is going to p-"

And then one of their number fired off a volley of lasers into the walls and screen. Vita immediately gripped Graf Eisen and prepared to transform, but before she could go any further he had already run out into the hall.

"What the hell was that?!"

@PKMNB0Y@Dezuel

---

Mordred couldn't exactly recover from the perplexed stare she gave the female soldier, who had now fallen silent after her 'temporary Master' had asked about Menomaru. At least, until she heard the shouting over the communications system. That jolted the soldier out of her thoughts almost immediately. And then when her superior whispered in her ear, well... that left her looking quite nervous before she returned her attention to the red knight and the others.

"... Er... well... Menomaru?" she paused for a moment. To her own admittance, she didn't know as many anime and manga from before 2000, but she seemed to recall her father watching an Inu Yasha OVA at some point that featured a character with the same name... "I think he mgiht be from Inu Yasha? I never watched the series myself... er, I mean, I guess from the universe Inu Yasha was accidentally based on? That... must be how that works er..."

Realizing her nerves had gotten the best of her, Private Minami coughed and cleared her throat. She had to try not to explode over the fact that she was talking to Evangeline from Negima now as well. Though that wasn't as big a deal as Mordred for her.

"I-In any case, er, I know you must all be very confused!" she continued, taking a deep breath, "But I want you to understand that we want to help you in any way we can. It's..."

She paused for a moment. How can she put this? It wasn't exactly easy to conduct a briefing in the middle of a park... Oh, that was it!

"It's hard to conduct a briefing in the middle of a park! But if you come with us, we can try and fill you in on the situation. Hopefully we can even get started on getting to the bottom of this incident!"

Private Minami jutted one finger into the air and immediately winced. This wasn't going to work at all was it...

Mordred folded her arms. She wasn't too sure how she felt about this, to say the least. But at the same time she wanted to get back to her true Master as soon as possible. It wasn't like she wasn't in the least bit thankful towards Evangeline for volunteering herself to serve as a temporary Master, but at the same time that was nothing like being with her proper Master now was it? Besides, the method through which the contract had been forged was still... even now it made her flush a bit with embarrassment just remembering it.

"I'm all for any kind of answers you can give," Mordred replied, finally, her desire to return to her Master overcoming her wariness. "But I guess I gotta consider what everybody else wants."

@Dezuel@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze@Rin

---

Ah? He'd fired into the building? If anyone got hurt because of that... Youmu couldn't allow something like that to happen again! So that meant that the first thing she had to do was to destroy those weapons, cut them to pieces before they could shoot again! Roukanken flashed, slicing apart one of their guns in an instant before she swung her foot forward and brought her heel directly into his stomach, sending him hurtling backwards until he collided with a street sign, a dull 'thunk' resounding as he collapsed into an unconscious heap.

Every movement had to claim one of their weapons. Every single one. Youmu knew their 'danmaku' was hardly the same as her own. If it hit anyone, they could die! So she wouldn't let that happen, not as long as she could help it. Any single misstep here would be utterly shameful. As another of the men panicked and attempted to fire, she brought Hakuroken and sliced apart his weapon down the middle, leaving him to drop it uselessly in terror. Another gun cut apart, and another...!

She had to destroy each one!

@PKMNB0Y@TheFake

Inuyasha? Hm, it sounded somewhat familiar... maybe it would have been useful if Chisame had been drawn along with her, implausible though that would have been--that girl would certainly have been more useful about understanding what sort of game the soldier was going along with. But, as interesting as it might have been to go find out all about this foolish demon, he had a point that to get answers would mean going along with the soldiers. However...

"If we come with you, leave keeping that one in line to us."

---

"Eh?" Hibiki's response was less than eloquent, blinking a few times as the coins were placed in her hands. Had she been slightly more alert, then it was likely that even she would realise that someone that couldn't recognise Tokyo had no business carrying around a bunch of shiny Japanese coins. Fortunately for Ben's deception, he'd managed to get lucky on not getting the most perceptive relic user... and one that had until recently be in bed. Which also made this a good stand-in for breakfast as she rushed off to the nearest vendor.

Returning with an armful of takoyaki, there was certainly one thing to note: she'd bought more than was needed for two people. Well, two people normally. "Ah, I'm a bit hungry, sorry."

---

"We are fictional in this world?" Nanoha repeated the words of the soldier in a thoughtful voice before crossing her arms and turning her gaze at the ground. It didn't take her a long time to piece everything together; as was expected Nanoha's frightening intelligence. Everything was actually so obvious, especially after Evangeline's comment about them probably being from different worlds, the fact that none of their magical powers worked under any rules, and the fact that she couldn't contact anyone except Vita.

As soon as all the pieces clicked together inside of Nanoha's brain, she took a step forward. Her smile was back at her face as she said, "Well, I think all of this makes sense now. I don't see a problem with being fictional, if that is really the case."

"You are going to take us to the Diet Building, right? At least that's where Vita is right now, so it's a logical conclusion," Nanoha asked after taking a moment to check the location of Vita's signal. She paused for a moment, before adding, "If that's the case, I'll have to ask you do as Miss Evangeline said and leave the custody of this subject," Nanoha pointed to Menomaru, "to us. It's to risky to have someone like him anywhere close to someplace as critical as a public building. Is that alright for you?"

Nodding her head as if in agreement with Vita, Tenshi was about to make her own statement of agreement before the young man next to her decided to go through a mental breakdown. Ducking down to dodge the projectiles flying out of his back was an instinctual reaction for her, though the same couldn't necessarily have been said for a few of the old men sitting opposite them. It took them a moment to process what had just happened, and though the only real collateral damage that was taken was the monitor, a few of the politicians who had never actually ever felt the fear of being on the receiving end of such a thing were a tad rattled, to say the least. As Emilio dashed out of the room, a few of the soldiers began to attempt to block his path, but Fukuchi simply rose his hand and motioned for them to stop, shaking his head no in the process.

"It's fine; quite frankly, I had expected more fallout from this situation. We can send someone to pick him up later. For now, we should resolve the matters of those who are here right now," he stated, turning his attention back to the others. "In any case... One yes, and one conditional yes, was it? Then what of you, Ms. Hinanawi?"

Tenshi paused for a moment to stare at Fukuchi, whose demeanor despite what was had just transpired felt more... Odd than anything. It was probably something to poke into later, but for now...

"I will accept your preliminary terms, but the sooner you have the details in place, the better. I would rather not be chained down, after all."

"I shall accept that as a yes, then," the politician stated before turning towards Alberich, his face stone-cold as he closed his eyes. "As for your demands, though... Your sword will be returned to you once the contract is fully drafted, as legal contracts hold more sway than a simple verbal promise; the issue of libraries is not an issue with the existence of the internet, but that aside... Yes, you, as well as every other person in Japan, has access to the various libraries across our nation. As mentioned before, though, an escort will be necessary if you wish to visit in person."

With a cough, the old man rose from his seat and gave a slight bow towards the group; a few of the other politicians (not all of them, of course) followed suit. Brushing off his suit and edging away from the dangerously-broken monitor behind them, the other people (minus Fukuchi, of course) began to leave the room.

"Ahem. In the meantime, we've managed to prepare a place for all of you to stay. The fine soldiers who brought you here will escort you to your new homes for the duration of your time here, where the other goods are waiting. I should trust that you will follow on your side of matters as well?" he asked, walking up to the group with a fairly faint smile on his face.

"I will do as I please; if that happens to coincide with what you desire, then so be it," Tenshi said. With a slight laugh, the politician nodded and turned towards the others before nodding and leaving the room with the others. Tenshi, however, sighed and snapped her fingers, causing the "restraints" on Alberich to crumble into dust and disappear.

"Hm... Well, I guess it can't be helped right now, if those are the terms of the contract that old man wants to form," she commented, shrugging as she followed the soldiers who had brought them there back to the vehicle they had rode in earlier. "But now... Now they have me curious. I hope that what they have prepared won't be disappointing, at least."

Boarding the vehicle, Tenshi (and the others) rode off, the lights of the nightless Tokyo illuminating the road as they were brought along. The scene was... Amusing, but not foreign to her. At the very least, she'd have a chance to explore it more in the future.

A while later, the car that she was riding in came to a slow stop, and the young woman quickly hopped out of the vehicle to look around where they had been brought. It seemed to be a more suburban area, and the building that they had been brought to felt more like a small apartment complex than anything.

"This is... The place that they told us to head to. All things considered, it looks fairly normal," Captain Yamazaki said, stepping out of his vehicle and closing the door behind him. Handing Tenshi and the others each a key with a number on them, the officer coughed and nodded his head. "Right. Anyways, there's probably things waiting in your rooms for you. If there's any issues, well... We'll probably find out one way or another."

With that, the Captain got back into his vehicle and drove off with the rest of the escort, leaving the group standing in front of the complex with just a key in hand.

"That was... Rude," Tenshi complained, fiddling with the key in her hand before looking at the number on it and shrugging her shoulders. It didn't take a genius to realize that the numbers on the door corresponded with the ones on the keys, after all, and Tenshi took the chance to be the first to check out what place had been prepared in such order. With a flick of her wrist, the Celestial walked up the stairwell to the third floor and, after checking the room numbers over, opened the one that matched with her key.

The room itself was fairly plain and... Somewhat small for her liking, but it would do for now. She would have time to explore it more later, but... Again, later was later.

"This will do. For now."

---

The soldiers in the area began to chatter for a moment as Nanoha and Eva stated their claims, but in the end it was the soldier who spoke into the radio earlier who spoke out above the rest to them.
"Understood. For the moment, we will relinquish control of that person to you. Now, if you would kindly..." he trailed off, motioning towards the nearest military vehicle. The implication, of course, was clear, and once the group had boarded, the convoy sped off towards the Diet as well.

Though it took a while, the vehicles soon arrived at the same location as a small cluster of other vehicles that had just left, one of which Nanoha would be able to detect Vita's signature from. The few shattered windows on the side of the building weren't much of a good omen, but they themselves weren't much of a matter. As before, the small group was led to a room—different from the one that had just been damaged, but still structurally similar—but with only three suited politicians waiting for them.

"My apologies for the rather... Unsightly facade we might have at the moment. Our earlier negotiations resulted in a little bit of trouble, and the more faint-of-heart decided to skip this introduction. In any case, my name is Kawamoto Fukuchi," the man in the middle began, going through the entire short speech he had presented just minutes earlier, with much of the same unflappable demeanor as before. As with that time, the same deal was proposed, and he left himself open for questioning from the group.

Unlike last time, however, he had a feeling that things wouldn't be as simple to resolve with this set of guests.


Running off after the girl (and Sonic), Leo gritted his teeth as he pushed past the fleeing (and occasionally rubbernecking) crowd, squeezing through gaps of the chaos to make his way further in towards the sounds of battle. It didn't take long to get there, for better or worse, and once he arrived and saw Sonic already helping to try and stop the problem, Leo decided to take a step forward and help resolve the issue as fast as possible.

With a deep breath, the young man opened his eyes, causing a pair of magical circles to appear in front of them. A second later, the rest of the escaped convicts seemed to have a pair of them pop in front of their eyes, causing a bunch of them to go into a panic and attempt to get their bearings straight. Sonic, noting the change, jumped off the face of the one he was on and made its way back to Leo.

"Now, miss! While their eyesight is shuffled!" he shouted, holding his eyes open as long as he could to give the green swordswoman a chance to take down all of the enemies in front of her.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Dezuel@KoL@Rin@TheFake

Ben nodded his thanks. He ate with his back to a wall, looking around slightly furtively. This city was... huge. Ordinarily he would be moving with a Malazan army or camping in the wilderness on his own. With the size of this city it was hard to imagine there being anywhere to go.

"So..." He said after a while. "We should work on finding some shelter first and then find out why we've both ended up here."

@Raineh Daze


Halfway down the next block he disappeared down into a subway entrance. Without breaking pace he pushed through the crowd with people fall to the ground in his wake. Flagg hopped the turnstile and ran straight onto the subway car, waving the doors shut behind him.

As the train eased into motion he leaned forward with his hands on the glass, staring at his reflection. Not a spectacular start to things but he did find some interesting people here. With any luck there might be some from his side of the fence, apart from the usual fodder.
@VitaVitaAR@PKMNB0Y

Having gathered himself after having been forced to throw himself to the floor, Alberich found that the men in suits had seemingly agreed to most of his terms. Apart from his sword. But that was no big matter, Alberich had means to teleport it to him. Or rather to his god robe, the armor he was wearing.

He had also been freed from his makeshift cuffs that had his arms restricted and told that he was free to access their libraries and places of knowledge. Pondering on his next move carefully while he followed the others to the vehicles that would take them to where they were going.

What he had seen in that room the moments the screen had remained intact was troubling him. There had to be an explanation for all of it. Someone or something had to be responsible for him being located here. Searching the libaries and the internet was a start. Alberich knew that outside of Asgard there were all these things which he had witnessed in this world.

Cars. TV's. These attires.

Asgard however was in a more simple form, people lived lives akin to how one would do during the medieval times. He could recall the vast amount of times he would spend reading into tales, stories, history books and more. Alberich was known to the other god warriors as the brain of Asgard. The most cunning and sly of them all.

It was clear to him now though, that if there was anyone here capable of figuring out what was going on it had to be him. Perhaps in the end he could come out on top of it. Perhaps he would find a way to realize his dreams of grandeur, to rule over Asgard. No. The world.

In this place perhaps he could find allies or the knowledge needed to make his victory a certainty. Though as it had been shown so far he had only gotten into a fight. Though it had yielded some fruit. He knew now what these girls were capable of and to some degree also that young man. Then at the same time, they've knew what he was capable of aswell. A thought gnawed in his head though and that was.

Who else has come to this place?

The men had left him with the three girls outside of some building. At least the young man was not with them. That one was a loose cannon.
Alberich received a key, as did the others. To a room in the building. Alberich did not waste any time but made his way towards it, right after Tenshi.

Keeping as much a distance as he could. He did not want anything to do with them right now. Knowledge on the other hand, that was something he had to obtain. Alberich kept his mouth shut and threw a cold stare, more like a glare to whomever found themselves near him.

He twisted the key in the locked door, leading to the room he had been assigned. The room was simple. The most remarkable thing in it was a TV on the wall with a controller lying on the TV-table with a couple of magazines piled on top of oneanother. First thing first. He closed the door and then locked it. Alberich had the suspicion that they were being watched. There was just no way they would be left unmonitored within the city, some would surely keep them under close watch.

The idea of being watched did not come as a likable feeling to Alberich, especially not after seeing those scenes on that screen before.
He walked up and grabbed hold of the curtains over by the window and pulled them to obscure the view into his room.

Throwing a glance over the TV and then to the controller, he took time to figure out how to make it work. It wasn't a tricky thing for someone of his brains. After starting it and putting on a news channel, Alberich mused to himself in self-admiration for his intelligence.

Looks like this is where the city receives its news. Quicker than letters by far, but like most who lived in Asgard, Alberich was not fully willing on throwing their way of living away. What mattered the most in the end was power, and the best way to obtain it was by possessing more knowledge than everyone else.

Perhaps the news would yield some information of strange occurances within the city. If people came to learn about himself and the others there would surely be widespread panic and chaos throughout the world. There would be elements for certain which would try to capture them or kill them. Though if there was a larger threat...

He pondered on the possibility.

If there is an enemy which reveals itself in plain sight then people would panic and try to protect themselves, thus they look for someone to provide them with it.

"Heheheh..." He laughed softly, more like a giggle really.

If I can get an enemy of the world to play the role of a antagonizer then I could reveal myself in turn as their saviour and through that become their god. He gasped to himself slowly and widened his eyes as they've glimmered. If I can obtain a strong champion, whose more brawn than brain to aid me in this it would be ideal.

But who could fill that role?
He first pondered on Tenshi.

No. She is suspicious towards him, clearly the second most intelligent after himself. Though with enough of a motivation she just might, but surely more trouble than it's worth. The next he thought of was Vita. She was strong indeed. But too hotheaded and unable to heed his commands. She would not do at all.

Then there was the girl which he had first met. Tohka. That girl was appearantly dimwitted, yet powerful. But not in the useful way, more like the annoying way. The kind of person which could in an instant change sides if someone seemed just. She wouldn't do either.

Lastly there was the young man, Emilio. He was seemingly powerful, but completely unstable. There was just no way that Alberich could rely on him to do anything for him. That young man was surely only beginning to be a problem. Best way to deal with him and the other three was to stay clear of them as much as possible.

His thoughts were cut off by a rumbling sound.

What the-?

It was his stomach. He was... hungry? He couldn't recall the last time he had felt hungry? Had he ever felt hungry? He stood there for a moment in shock.



Menomaru did not like the ride to the building. The metal carriage that took them there was strange to him, the entire city was odd overall. Much different from the feudal era mythological setting he came from himself. He however had to accompany these people for now. It irritated him greatly, but not as much now as he knew that he was getting closer to having some allies that could do his bidding.

It was hard for him not to smirk while he visualized stabbing all of these people, draining their souls from their lifeless corpses. The building which they stopped in front of was seemingly damaged from something, with some of the windows shattered.

Menomaru wasn't impressed. Feudal japan did not need glass for their buildings.

The room they were shortly afterwards brought into caused him to widen his eyes in disbelief at what he saw as he stood there. He wouldn't sit down with humans and be friendly, he decided to stand and see the horror unfold. He saw that half-demon Inuyasha and others from where he had come from! He also saw some scenes with himself which caught him completely offguard.

Had he underestimated these humans? What kind of power did they have that allowed them not only to spy on him but on all of them? And those words before.

Work of fiction.

The sentence flew all across his mind and didn't seem to stop. "How could this..." Menomaru said out loud.

It angered him. More than anything ever could. That he... a great moth demon would be a creation! A creation of human hands! That all he had been doing up until now had been part of a play. A game. Where he had been a pawn meant to play out a role he had been given to be an opponent to Inuyasha. Who was meant to win?

It was unfair. He couldn't ignore it any longer. It had to be the truth. That or a horrible nightmare that for a demon would seem impossible. Then a wave of emptiness. A feeling of purpose lost came over him. If all he had ever strived for had been somehow expected and put up to him, and meant for him to fail in. Why would there even be a purpose for him to even live? Coming into realization of that he spoke out again as he had heard the talking during his own pondering.

"What possible purpose would it serve aiding you? What is in it for me?" He said the last few words with disdain.

"From what I can gather you are saying we are nothing but pawns made to play out roles you have decided for us."

He felt ill. Very ill. As if his world had crumbled around him, and in a manner of speaking it certainly had. Having been beaten up and told that his entire existance is but a fabrication of a human mind. Menomaru couldn't help but sink down and sit on the floor with his legs slightly crossed. He felt like it all did no longer matter to him. A look of defeat overtook him. His head would be slightly facing down at this moment.

At least now he knew the truth. That bitter truth which had begun to eat away at his core. His motivation was driven from high down to the bottom in just a few moments.

"It is all meaningless." He blurted out before following it with another sentence. "All the things you people considered 'evil'. It would appear these humans are the ones responsible for all the things that has happened to your worlds. And you call me evil. No... the evil is right here in this world and they have used you like pawns. What will you do now that you know this?"

that moment he however felt slightly content in knowing it. Would he die now at least it would be resisting the fate that had been written for him.



Having taken a few moments to calm down and gather his composure, once more withdrawing to the identity that Wong had granted to him. That the brainwashing had done. Creating a person which he truly was not, or at least not fully. The wings had disappeared and his manifestation of using his powers had seized for the moment and he turned around to walk out to look into the room the others were in prior. They had all left.

It took some moments until he found some people. He entered the room as if nothing had occured before, as if the entire thing would had been like throwing a soda can in a trash bin or taking a breath. Emilio entered the room which housed another group of people aswell as Kawamoto Fukuchi and a couple of other men. He entered the doorway calmly, with his chin and mouth slightly lowered down inside of the collar of his vest.

His both arms crossed over his chest as he inspected the gathering. "Heeh." He let out a elongated 'eh' sound, which may have been regarded to sound curious.

"I see, I see. You must be others who also ended up in this place. Where is Hinanawi?" Emilio said in a serious, but calm tone as he thew a sideway glance away from the five 'newcomers', towards Kawamoto Fukuchi.

"Shall I capture the teleporting guy?" Emilio offered a slight grin as he asked Fukuchi. It was a grin which meant he was excited, but willing to lend a hand in tracking down the person in question.

"Is it really allright for you to go after him alone?" He raised his left hand and placed a finger on his chin, before tapping at it.

Ah...?

For a moment, Youmu was surprised when the men suddenly reeled, their eyesight eclipsed by blue magic circles. However, the boy from earlier calling to her quickly clarified what the situation was. Somehow, in some manner, he had interfered with their eyesight. That made things much more simple.

"Thank you!"

With that, Roukanken flashed out, and in an instant the short white-haired girl had divided the men's guns apart, each falling into three neatly divided chunks before she pressed her assault. Hakuroken's hilt smashed into one man's temple and sent him to the ground, another man knocked to the floor by Roukanken's hilt. In a blur of nonlethal violence, the men were all disabled on the ground, without weapons and knocked senseless. It was only now, however, that Youmu realized the one who seemed to be the leader had long since fled the scene. Damn it, there was no way to tell where he'd gone, either! After a moment's pause, she nodded towards her phantom half, which swiftly ascended into the air. Even if she couldn't spot him, at least she could try!

"These ruffians were no match for my blades," she added as she sheathed both Roukanken and Hakuroken.

@PKMNB0Y@TheFake

---

"Dumbass."

Mordred's elbow rather sharply found itself buried in Menomaru's side, hopefully completely knocking the wind out of the idiot. He sees all this and automatically assumed that nothing mattered at all and everything was fictional? What an idiot. She definitely wasn't fictional. It was creepy learning there was a reality that had this much insight into her existence, but that didn't mean they created her. She didn't really get all the branching universes nonsense in detail, but she knew enough to understand that those unvierses stretched on into infinity. So some creepy universe that had way too many details on all of them was hardly impossible, right?

"Don't pay attention to that moron," she added, before stepping forward herself. "What I wanna know is how hard you're gonna try to get us back home. I'm not staying here any longer then I need to."

Her Master needed every Servant she had, and Mordred had sworn her services. What kind of knight would she be if she went back on that? Sure, it's not like she left intentionally, but she wasn't feeling very patient with this situation. Mordred didn't particularly see much of a reason not to put up with their demands for now, but she wasn't going to agree if they planned on keeping her there.

@Raineh Daze@Dezuel@Rin

Inuyasha opened his eyes to sights that he hadn't seen in years. There were tall metal and glass buildings on both sides of him, and he was laying on a tar and rock surface he remembered Kagome calling "asphalt". He looked around. He must be in Tokyo, he realized, in the future. Strangely, he didn't remember falling down the well and even if he had, he would be at the bottom of it, not on a road.

There was a squealing noise as one of those "car" things quickly stopped, almost hitting him. "Get out of the road, idiot!" the man said. "I'm going to be late!" Inuyasha walked over to the sidewalk and the car sped away.

Well, if this is the future, he thought, then I just need to go back to Kagome's house and use the well to get back. He climbed a nearby lamppost and stood on top of it, looking for something familiar. He recognized a restaurant just down the road from the shrine, though the name "Mcdonald's" didn't sound quite right, and jumped from lamppost to lamppost to get there. Once there, he jumped down and looked around for the hill her house was on.

"Nice Parkour," said a kid with a wheeled board that was standing in front of the restaurant, "I've never seen someone jump between lampposts before. Sometimes they swing from them to get onto higher objects, though. And in an Inuyasha cosplay outfit too." The kid nodded in approval.

Cosplay. He'd heard that word before when he was he was in the future, but how did they know his name? "I am Inuyasha." he responded. "How did you know my name? Are you one of Kagome's brother's friends?"

The boy laughed. "Wow, you're really into the role. See you around "Inuyasha"." he said, laying the board on the ground, standing on it, and pushing it with one foot to gain speed.

Things seemed even stranger now than they had when he arrived. He would get answers from Kamome's family, though. Seeing the hill in the distance, he ran to it and up the steps. Instead of a shrine, though, he saw a traditional building with people practicing martial arts inside. A military camp? he thought, though surely they wouldn't tear down the shrine to build a place like this. He had to be sure, though, so he went inside.

---

Tony found himself standing on a sidewalk in an area he didn't recognize. "Jarvis," he said. "Where are we?"

"New York City" replied Jarvis.

"Can you be a little more specific?"

"I believe this is Brooklyn, though I can't be sure."

"Well, that would explain it. I don't go to Brooklyn that much," then he realized what Jarvis had said. "What do you mean you can't be sure? You can connect with my satellites still, right?"

"Unfortunately, I am unable to connect to any Stark Industries, Avengers, or SHIELD satellite at this time, sir." Jarvis answered. "My assessment of our position was made using ordinary GPS."

"Strange. The teleportation must have damaged your electronics. Call Pepper and have her send Happy to pick me up. I don't want to fly with your system's malfunctioning."

"Unfortunately, neither I, nor your cell phone, can make a call at this time. Other than the communications systems, I appear to be functioning normally."

"Strange." Stark said. "In that case, I'll fly to Stark Tower. Something unusual is going on here. An EMP from the device would have burned out more than just your comms equipment." He took off and made his way to the location of Stark Tower, but everything was a bit off. Some of the buildings on Park Avenue were correct, but some were different.

"I believe, sir, that I now have enough information to say that the Inter-dimensional gateway was a success. This is not our New York."

"I'll have to agree with you. That means that I'll have to find a WIFI hotspot for you to log onto the internet." Stark landed at a Starbucks near where Stark Tower should be and took off the suit. "Just follow me in. You can just pretend to be a person in a suit of armor and use their internet."

"Oh, I'm sure this will work marvelously." said Jarvis sarcastically.

"Don't be such a pessimist. Besides, I need to see if my credit cards still work."

"Perhaps you should let me try them online, sir." Jarvis said, "It will be less suspicious than trying multiple failed cards at a coffee shop."

"Good idea." With that, Stark opened the door and they walked inside.

---

Tyr woke on the sidewalk of some backwards planet, his weapons laying beside him. He stood up, put on his gun belt, and slung the rifle across his back. This world, whichever world it was, appeared to be technologically primitive. He saw no signs of ships in the sky or holographic displays, just airplanes and neon signs. Unsure how he arrived here he walked into a nearby bar. "Barman," he said, walking up to the bar, ignoring the large number of leather-clad men inside, "I need some information."

"You wanna buy a drink first?" the man asked.

"Oh, of course." Tyr said, half sarcastically. If it helped him fit in then he would buy a drink. He threw a few coins on the bar.

"What's that?" the man asked, pointing to the coins.

"Money."

"Well, it's not any kind I'm familiar with."

"Then how about a trade?" Tyr pulled out his knife, spun it around his finger a few times and stuck it in the bar.

The man poured him a drink and set it in front of him. Normally Tyr wouldn't drink, as alcohol could impair his mind and body, but it seemed necessary to blend in with this culture, so he took a sip. "So, what do you want to know?" the barman asked, putting the knife behind the counter.

"Well, first of all, I'd like to know what planet I'm on."

"Uh, you're on Earth of course." The barman looked confused.

"Impossible." Tyr said with a scoff, "Earth is a Magog breeding ground, and these buildings don't appear to be built from scrap. Unless I've went back in time again." Tyr started to think and a muscular man that was over six feet tall pushed him out of the way to get to the bar. Tyr grabbed the man's shirt and shoved him backwards, crashing into a table. "You wait your turn until after I'm done asking questions." Tyr said loudly. Then the man's friends, over a dozen in total, stood up and looked at Tyr menacingly. Tyr smiled and removed his gun belt and rifle, laying them on the bar. "Hold onto these for me, will you?" he said to the barman. "It seems I need to teach these men not to anger their betters."

The screens on display were quite interesting--if only to try and work out a little bit about the others that had arrived in the park with her. This was easier said than done from the clips available; though Nanoha and Menomaru were clearly animated, in her case there were simply manga panels--and not much would ever be learned by looking at the RPG screen featuring Mordred. Honestly, it was surprising that their own worlds could be noticed in so many different methods--and from the animation displaying, over so many separate years.

The vampire was taking this pretty well, all things considered, but why wouldn't she? She'd met a time traveller from the future before and it was a basic consequence of time travel that you would have to consider diverging timelines at some point. If time travel could cause it, then surely some other significant difference could cause parallel realities... and it was hard to disbelieve your own eyes when looking at such a thing.

The offer given was hardly a tempting one; get drawn into cleaning up after official ineptness in exchange for three things Evangeline could do without if pressed. There seemed to be a missing catch with the villain wannabe around.

"And if we don't accept?"

---

Hibiki paused, partway through devouring the delicious fried balls. Find shelter? Her phone didn't seem to be working but they were still in Tokyo, it would only be so difficult to get back to somewhere she could find her way home, "If I can get home from here, then I'm sure I'd be able to help with that!"

The young woman watched silently as the policemen continued to chatter around the radio, hoping for a sliver of information to slip by and make its way to her. Of course, the second that the issue was "resolved" she would be out the door, but until then, this was about as far as she could take it. Mind controlling people willy-nilly would get her absolutely nowhere, of course, so at the moment it was more a matter of finding out what sort of insanity could cause this commotion in the first place.

That matter soon died down, however, and the policemen seemed to all act more or less relieved after... Something. Quietly peering into one of the policemen's mind, Misaki soon found out that whatever had been causing the chaos earlier had been resolved... Which meant that she was out of excuses in terms of staying here any longer.

"Oh, right! It seems as if things have calmed down for the moment. Do you need an escort home?" one of the policemen asked, turning towards Misaki before noticing that she was already shaking her head no.

"Thank you for the offer, but I will be fine on my own," she responded, smiling towards the men before standing up, bowing, and leaving the station. With that chaos mostly averted for the moment (and one of the policemen now noted in her memory for the future), Misaki quietly slipped back into the streets in an effort to try and find... Well, at the very least, some place to stay for the night. Once more, the police station was an option, but all things considered that might bring more troubles on her than not.

"Okay, let me rethink the situation... I would rather not steal away into someone's house for the night, because that might end up problematic... Do I have enough money on hand to rent out a room somewhere?"

Stepping off to the side to check her bag again, Misaki noticed a familiar face—the man who had tried to not-so-subtly kidnap her earlier—speaking with another girl. At the very least, neither had noticed the fact that she was looking at them, but for the moment Misaki decided it a better idea to act somewhat oblivious and discreetly pay attention to them whilst digging through the various remotes held within. Even if Academy City did prefer cards, it never hurt to have some amount of hard cash on hand.

"Come on... I can't remember the last time I had to actually sort through this thing..." she mumbled to herself as she continued sifting through all the remotes and such she had inside.


With a cursory glance at the room, Tenshi looked behind her to see that all the other people she had come with had already slipped into their own rooms. It was to be expected, all things considered, but the Celestial didn't seem to mind it as much. Shrugging her shoulder, the young woman quietly walked into her home and, locking the door behind her, casually took off her shoes to walk further inside. There wasn't anything particularly off about the place, at least; it seemed as if the kappa had taken a shine to renovating a house within the Human Village, if there was any way for her to describe it. There seemed to be a few things lying on the table in the center of the room past the sliding door in front of her, at least—some documents, a black object with a great deal of buttons (the kappa had called that a 'remote'), and a small hand-written note. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, Tenshi casually sat down and began to read the note.

"Get up early tomorrow. You'll need pictures for an ID."

Unlike the other documents, which seemed to detail the function of a few of the things in the room (such as the television in front of her and the 'refrigerator' in the kitchen), this seemed to be far less formal. All things considered, it was likely a last-minute addendum by whoever was charged with setting this location up, but that was less of an issue.

"Hm... There's a futon behind that door, and some cold water bottles in the... 'Fridge', too?" she asked, cocking her head before walking over to check the validity of those statements.

They were, obviously enough, true as true could get. The abnormally fluffy futon was a higher quality than she could get back in Gensokyo without having to pester the kappa to make something WITHOUT adding any odd augmentations, and the cold water inside the fridge quenched her thirst without much trouble.

"The Outside World... I really don't understand this whole 'real' or 'fiction' problem, but this place is passable enough for me," she said, casually pulling out a peach before beginning to eat it.

Of course, it was hard to beat a heavenly peach in terms of taste, but the cold water made it all the better.

---

Fukuchi watched quietly as the group threw their own questions out in turn, but before he could make any response, Emilio's return promptly caused him to shift his focus there for a moment. After all, given the prior incident, the old man knew that he couldn't act as callously as he did the first time around.

"Rather than that, young man, I would rather you rested up for the night. Once matters here are done, I'll have the people who escorted our current guests here show you to your temporary home. Miss Hinanawi is likely already getting settled there as well. But first..."

Trailing off his sentence as he turned back towards Eva, Nanoha, and Mordred, the politician nodded his head towards Eva, fully acknowledging that they had all the reason to be wary. But that was why he was here, after all.

"I am pleased to see that you aren't one to take things at face value, madam. However, I must reiterate that there is no real 'downside' to not accepting this offer. Though we would much prefer for this to be a mutual partnership, forcing your hand would only lead to more troubles for us in the future, would it not? All we can do is do our best in providing for you within the boundary of the law, so long as you agree to protect our nation. We cannot stop you from refusing, of course, so this is something we shall leave to your discretion. I would rather you not try to endanger any residents of the city, though; a fight is something I believe we would both like to avoid at this point," he stated, turning towards to Mordred before continuing on. "As for a way to return to your own world... That is more a matter of if we can find any means of doing so in the first place. We won't stop searching if that is one of your conditions, though; I am sure the other people you will meet likely wish for the same, after all."

With a cough to clear his throat, Fukuchi finally turned to address Nanoha. She, at the very least, seemed to be somewhat accepting of the situation and the circumstances, odd as they were. Her desires, at the very least, weren't anything too unreasonable; in fact, they were mostly in line with what he had been planning anyhow.

"Of course, we graciously accept your help; your companion—Vita, I believe her name was?—had already accepted by the time you had arrived. It is somewhat late, but we can prepare the necessary identification documents and whatnot tomorrow. As for the soldier you had spoken to... It has already been decided that she will be assigned as an 'overseer' of sorts to your group. By no choice of her own, of course, but this is more a result of her insubordination. Please, do understand," he said, glancing over at the young woman off to the side who seemed to be anxiously shuffling her fingers before continuing on. "She'll be living in the same building as you and be handling anything involving official matters that you or anyone else needs handled. You'll have plenty of time to speak from then on. Now, if that is all, then I shall have you escorted to your homes for the duration of your stay here—assuming, of course, you wish to accept. You are free to leave if you choose not to."

With that, the politicians bowed to the group before leaving the room, the screens behind them shutting off as they left. Assuming that anyone other than Nanoha 'accepted' the offer, of course, they would be escorted to the same building that the earlier group had been dropped off at before being handed keys of their own.

If not, well... They were free to leave as they wished.


With a sigh of relief, Leo let his shoulders sag as the young woman cleaned up the rest of the escapee's weapons in short order. With no more direct threat in front of them, the young man could finally address the person who had been attempting to handle this mess.

"Erm... Good job, miss," he said, nervously laughing as he held out a hand towards her. "My name is Leonardo. Leonardo Watch. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Of course, seeing the young woman bow instead was a bit odd, but not as much as the distant sound of sirens converging on their location. Shaking his head, Leo quickly apologized to the young woman before grabbing her by the hand and running off onto a different street.

"Sorry about being abrupt, but I don't know how the police will react to all of this!" he said, moving along the roads—familiar as they were—in an effort to dodge any incoming policemen. It would be much more troublesome to try and explain themselves to authorities in the current situation, especially considering how this definitely wasn't Hellsalem's Lot. After moving and weaving through a few blocks, though, Leo came across a group he didn't expect to see again—the family that he and the young woman had helped earlier.

"Ah, it's you two!" the father said, waving his hand as the two walked closer. "I didn't expect to see you again so soon. Why do you look so out-of-breath?"

Leo, of course, was a tad winded (his companion, far less so), so after taking a few moments to breathe, he began to speak.

"Well... Honestly, I'm worried that we might be tossed in jail or something for helping solve that problem. I... Kind of jumped some police lines to get to the situation in the first place, and my friend here... Well, you know how it goes."

"Hm... That is rather troublesome. Well, I'm sorry I can't be of much—"

"Daddy, can the nice lady and closed-eyes guy stay at our place for a little while? Pretty please?" the young child chimed in, causing the father to have a pained look on his face. A few glances between the two and his child quickly stole away at his willpower, and he sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Fine. If you want, you can stay in our home for a few days—I can tell you're not from around here, so if it means anything to help you get back on your feet, I don't think it'll be too bad. My daughter seems to have really taken a shine to you, though, ma'am," he said, laughing a little before turning to look at the building behind them. "Right. In any case, we live here. Let me show you inside, since I've already told my boss I can't exactly make it to work today on account of... Well, you know by now."

With the family of three unlocking the door to their home, Leo finally let go of the young woman's hand and followed them inside. There was nothing too fancy about the place, though it definitely was a tad larger than he was used to living in.

"Oh, right, before I forget: my name's Michael Leaton. My wife's name is Sharon, and my daughter's is Nina. We hope that these few days of hospitality will be enough to make back what occurred just now, Mr..."

"Leonardo. Leonardo Watch. You can just call me Leo. And, uh... Thank you very much for your consideration. I'll make sure not to be a bother during my stay here."

---

It wasn't a question that Tony Stark walking into a Starbucks would turn a lot of heads, and the fact that it looked and... Sounded so realistic meant that a few people more or less stopped what they were doing just to gawk. It wasn't any sort of cosplay simply by appearances, of course; there was no way something with that much weight and sheer presence could be anything but the actual suit. Of course, it was firmly ingrained in their minds that Iron Man wasn't anything real, after all, but even so...

"Er... Excuse me," one barista finally asked, staring at the suit's eyes with some degree of focused resolve (as opposed to the other onlookers). "Could I ask if you could, uh... Please not block the entrance? I'm not sure if this is a publicity stunt for a new Avengers movie or something, but I'd rather not inconvenience the other customers..."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Dezuel@KoL@Rin@TheFake@TheUnknowable

Tony wasn't sure how to respond. "Publicity stunt? Jarvis?" He looked at the suit.

"It seems that in this universe, we already exist as characters in comic books, video games, and movies. Your movie actor, Robert Downy Junior, looks exactly like you. Apparently she is confusing you with your Double."

"What actor uses "Junior" in their stage name?"

"This one, apparently."

Stark shrugged, then looked back at the barista. "Actually, this isn't a publicity stunt. I am not Robert Downy Jr, I'm the character he plays, from another universe. Obviously some people in this world have the ability to see the events in my world."

"Or we could be thought forms, sir." added Jarvis.

"Possibly." he responded, then continued talking to the woman. "I was just hoping to get a low-fat mocha latte and to use your wi-fi."

The Barista smiled. "Of course, Mr. Downy." she said, then rang him up. After paying for and receiving his coffee, making sure to stay out of the way of the other customers and the growing crowd, he managed to take one sip before being interrupted by Jarvis.

"Sir, I just picked up something on police frequencies. Apparently, there is a bar fight in the Bronx, and one of the men has bone spikes sticking out of his forearms."

"A Mutant? He's probably from our world, then, since this one only has them as fiction."

"At the very least, he's from a world more similar to ours than this one."

"Right. Let's go meet him." Tony threw away the coffee and ordered Jarvis to open the suit. The crowd gasped as he put it on, but refused to move to let him leave. He eventually pushed his way out into the street, only to find and even larger crowd. "Doesn't look like we can walk there. Let's go." He straightened his arms out and Jarvis activated the thrusters, sending them into the sky, much to the surprise of the gathered fans.

"Maybe he really is Iron Man." one of them said as he flew away.

---

Within a few minutes the fight had spilled out onto the streets. Several of the men were charging him, but he grabbed the lead one and spun him around, sending him crashing into his friends. Another man then jumped him from behind, trying to hold his arms so that he couldn't fight, but Tyr jumped up, pushing off of another fighter, and landing on the man that was holding him. This broke the man's grip, and he was able to take a few steps away from the group.

One of the men decided that a fair fight wasn't good enough and pulled a gun. "No one make a fool of us," he said, pulling the trigger. A man in red and gold armor landed in front of him at the last second, though, and the armor deflected the bullet into the sidewalk. The armored man then grabbed the gun from his hand, crushed it, and lifted him by the front of his shirt, throwing him into the motorcycles that were parked nearby, knocking him out.

Seeing this new combatant, the others ran and jumped on their bikes and left, leaving their unconscious friend behind. Tyr went back inside and, not seeing the bar tender, went behind the counter and grabbed his gear. The man in armor walked in behind him. "I wasn't expecting to find someone in a powered exoskeleton on this backwards planet." Tyr said.

"I wasn't expecting to find a mutant with gauss weapons either." the man responded. "Tony Stark." He held out his hand.

"Tyr Anasazi." Tyr responded, shaking his hand, "But I'm not a mutant. I'm a Neitzchean. We are genetically engineered to be superior to mere humans."

"In that case, I could use a partner in my attempt to return to my world," said Stark. "An ubermensch could be helpful."

Tyr smile. "It does seem to be my best chance so far at leaving this place. Very well. We might want to leave before the police show up."

Tony nodded. "Well, that guy outside did try to kill you. You could take his bike and money."

"I guess he does owe me." Tyr said. He went outside and grabbed the man's keys and cash, then hopped on the motorcycle and drove off, knowing that Stark could follow him in the air.

---

As soon as he entered the dojo, a woman stepped in front of him. "I'm sorry, but the Kendo classes are tomorrow, and we don't practice with real swords."

"I was just wondering what this place was. I saw men sparring in here. Is it some sort of training camp?"

"It's a dojo," the woman said, with a look of disbelief.

"Oh," he said, not understanding, "do you mind if I watch?"

"You'll have to leave the sword out here."

Well, that wasn't possible. Without the sword, he might transform. "No, that's okay. It's a family heirloom." Well, it was his father's sword. Unable to study their techniques, he turned and left, the receptionist looking disappointed.

He went down the stairs and started wandering aimlessly down the streets. He passed a park where he could swear he smelled moths, but he didn't see any and moved on.

Quick Ben finished his portion and rolled his shoulders. For a moment he looked up at the buildings, judging the best to gain a vantage point from. After a frowned expression he seemed to come to a decision. "I guess you can eat while we travel. Lead the way."

He had already used the imperial warren too much as things stood. Much more and he might risk attracting unwarranted attention. Well, it wasn't as if he hadn't done a great deal of walking with the Bridgeburners.

---

---

"I guess that's what I would call irony," Meteora Österreich, the Great Sage of the End of the World, thought as she adjusted her glasses and observed the commotion caused by a certain man in a Starbucks Store. Things were developing just as she expected, however, an explanation about how this situation got to the point it is now would be good; if only to make the narrative feel less contrived.

A few days ago...

Meteora had finished the manuscript for a follow-up novel in the critically acclaimed series she began writing as soon as the Military Uniform Princess incident was resolved. While her work was undoubtedly good, it still lacked mass-market appeal, or so her editor said. Perhaps, if they could convince some investor to back up an anime project, the series could reach new heights of recognition.

There was only one problem with this idea, the domestic market was way too overcrowded. All major studios were booked full for the next two or three years and no media company wanted to back a project that didn't involve little sisters, parallel worlds, stupidly long titles, or all of these combined. In fact, Meteora's greatest nemesis in the editorial market was an obnoxious series named: "No way!? Are you saying that I got sent to a Parallel World where a frilly-dressed dragon is my little sister?"

Which such kind of low blow competition, there was no way that Meteora's work would get the eyes of the domestic industry. Her ray of hope came from the fact that the overseas sales of her series were growing exponentially in the past few months, which prompted Meteora's editor to arrange a trip to an anime convention in New York, where Meteora would be holding an autograph session for her newest novel and possibly try to convince some foreign backers, to invest in an anime adaptation.

Everything was well and good until Meteora's plane met an unexpected storm right before arriving in New York. The last thing she remembered from the flight was a blinding flash as the aircraft was hit by a lightning bolt.

Once Meteora woke up, she found herself sprawled on the roof of an unknown building somewhere in Manhattan. How she arrived there, or what happened to the remainder of the passengers where mysteries that she didn't have the answers for. However, she knew that at least something was out of order: She had her powers back, as was evidenced when she found the Book of a Thousand Miles right by her side, along with her hand baggage from the flight.

Whether this was the Hair Mop Princess' fault once again, or someone else's, the only sensible thing to do was to lay low and find a place where she could get information for free and something to eat. Considering that her phone didn't have any reception, but still worked in perfect order, what would be a better place to begin than a Starbucks store?

And so we get back to the present time and to Meteora's newest adventure, which was about to begin with she walking to the same barista that was currently dealing with mister not-celebrity and asking, "Excuse me for the interruption, could I have another one of these, please?" while pointing to what must have been her fifth or sixth breakfast order in the span of less than a half hour.

While Meteora waited for the woman's reply, she turned to mister not-celebrity and gave him a critical look from head to toes to ascertain that this armor wasn't a hoax. "That's a fine costume. Would you mind if I ask where you bought it?" Meteora asked in a casual way, to gauge 'Iron Man's' reaction.

---

The only respectful and polite way to finally greet the boy who had aided her was to bow. However, before she could really do anything else, he suddenly apologized and grabbed her by the hand. Surprised, Youmu couldn't really do much to resist for a moment as she was pulled along. The... police? Why would they react poorly? Hadn't she just helped them take out a bunch of ruffians who were hurting people and causing panic? Youmu simply couldn't fathom why that would be the case. However, she didn't resist, either, feeling that he likely had no ill intent. However, that didn't mean she was exactly happy with this arrangement either.

"... You could have just asked me to follow you, you know..." she complained as she was pulled through the alleys. Soon enough, however, they came across a family it took a moment for Youmu to recognize. However, once they spoke, the recognition dawned on the small white-haired girl. The family that had been in the vehicle she'd prevented from crashing. She elected to remain silent for the moment, part of her mind still focused on the information being relayed to her by her phantom half. This outside world city was truly enormous... However, when the girl seemed to look up at her with shining eyes, Youmu gave her a smile.

They were allowing them to stay in their home? Well... Until Youmu figured out how she return to Yuyuko-sama, she reluctantly agreed to the idea of needing somewhere to stay. Still, it wouldn't be long. She had to make her way back to Yuyuko-sama's side! Her duty was to Yuyuko-sama! Her life was sworn to Yuyuko-sama's service!

She bowed again.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Leaton-san," she began, before straightening and beginning to follow Leonardo and the Leaton family. After a moment's pause, she continued to speak.

"I apologize for having not introduced myself, ah..." she scratched the back of her head, somewhat awkwardly. "My name is Konpaku Youmu, and thank you once again."

There wasn't anywhere to put her shoes before fully entering the house... so she slipped off her footwear and left them as close to the doorway as possible.

@PKMNB0Y

---

She had a room to herself.

She didn't like it. Oh, it's not that the room itself was bad in any way. Far from it. It was a very nice room. But she was still stewing in frustration from the earlier, and now... Well, Hayate wasn't here. It couldn't be her home if Hayate wasn't here. It was where she'd be while she waited until she could return to her own universe, but it wasn't her home. Still... shuffling for a few moments, the tiny redheaded girl realized she kind of wanted to take a bath.

At least that was something she could do here.

Soon enough, Vita has undressed and gotten into the bath. At least being in comfortable, warm water was a little bit soothing at least. She still found herself feeling... lonely, though...

And then...

"Nanoha?"

She paused for a moment.

"They told you about all that weird stuff too, right? This is some kind of other world, but it's sort of creepy that they have stories about us here."

She let out a huff.

"Hmph. Just watching stuff about our lives like that..."

@KoL