---

---

Lucifer's brow furrowed as the irritating tapping continued to chip away at his skull, disturbing the dark solace of his rest, yet he remained mostly unaware of the world around him. After a while, however, he managed to claw his way back to consciousness, only to find a young boy staring down at him. Letting out a low groan as he feebly swatted at the kids hand, trying to get him to stop tapping his forehead, the fallen one slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position.

Gritting his teeth, doing the best he could to ignore the pain currently surging through his body, Lucifer spoke.

"Who art thou?" he inquired with a wince. "And what doth thou want with me?"

---

As they continued walking through the forest, Skulduggery and Valkyrie suddenly heard an ungodly monstrous roar rang out from the direction they had come from. Their first instinct was to hide again, and so they did.

Valkyrie dived behind a boulder that was luckily large enough to conceal her for the most part while the slender frame of Skulduggery hid behind a nearby tree. The two detectives waited carefully for a couple short minutes before coming out from cover.

”What the hell was that?!”

”I have no idea. Though, it doesn’t sound good, as you could probably tell.” Skulduggery looked back at the direction the roar came from, scanning the area with his vision. After not seeing anything that would pose a threat to either of them, Skulduggery turned his attention back to Valkyrie briefly. ”We should get away from here as soon as we can. I, for one, wouldn’t want to stick around in case that creature comes back.”

Just as the two detectives were about to set off again, Skulduggery stopped all of a sudden, which caused Valkyrie to stop as well. He was listening, as he thought he could hear the faint sound of footsteps. His suspicions were proven right when a man wearing a boar mask jumped out at them from the tree line. In response to this, Skulduggery flexed his fingers and both him and Valkyrie were pushed backwards by the air. Valkyrie hadn’t expected this and ended up falling over backwards onto her ass. Skulduggery, on the other hand, landed on his feet and quickly pulled out his revolver from inside his coat, pointing it at their attacker.

”Do you know it is quite rude to attack someone out of the blue like that. At least you had the common courtesy to shout out to us as you did. Now, do me a favour and tell me who you are.”

---

The Commander was surprised at Chief’s insistence that THEY be the ones to drop their weapons. ”We have you outnumbered six to one. I’d suggest you surrender.”

The Commander motioned to the rest of his squad and the other stormtroopers moved to surround themselves around Chief. They kept their blasters steadily aimed at all times, watching for any sudden movements. ”This is your last warning. Drop the weapon or will we be forced to fire upon you.”

With the Doom Slayer charging at them and with Dante accepting to battle, the demonic horde let out their enraged war cries as they began to battle with their fated nemeses.

One imp proceed to chuck a fireball at the armored warrior, however he effortlessly dodged and prompted it to lunge at him. He would later find himself getting shot straight in the head and falling dead as three more took the fallen's place. The first one was quickly shot down by the Slayer, however the other two attempted to grab onto him - with one grabbing his arm and the other his face. The Slayer would swiftly put an end to this nonsense as he elbowed the demon grabbing his arm down and squashing its face, before choking the one latched onto his face. He squeezed and squeezed before its head popped like a balloon, spraying blood and guts all over his suit.

Another imp proceeded to sneak up behind the Slayer, only for the latter to turn around and turn him into yet another exploding meat pinata, before a charging hell knight proceeded to slam into him just a moment after. The armored warrior found himself pinned by this massive hunk of demonic muscle, but was quick to stun it momentarily with a well-placed shot into his body. The demon reeled back in pain, trying to gain back its belongings before being socked in the jaw and kicked back onto the ground. He was well accompanied in killing these brutish guys, who were normally a big pain in the ass to those rather unfamiliar.

With it dead, the Slayer began to combat a ragtag squad containing various imps and possessed soldiers, shooting them one by one at close range.

In the meantime, accompanying Dante's familiars, several possessed began shooting their arm cannons at the unknown figure with a few other imps running in to try and soften him up.

---

---

The first to wake up was Gabriel. He picked himself up from the cold stone floor of the castle, groggy and holding his head. "Aaagh... where am I?" He looked around, trying to get his bearings, only to find his faithful assistant lying just a few feet away.

"Nathalie!" Gabriel rushed to Nathalie's side, rousing her awake as he helped her up. "Nathalie, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"No, sir, I-I'm fine." Nathalie brushed the dirt from her clothes before moving to do the same for Gabriel. She stopped herself short, however, and slowly brought her arms back to her sides. "Is this the doing of an Akuma, sir?"

Gabriel brought a hand to his chin. "Possibly, although I don't remember creating one, nor being targeted..." As the two mulled over their situation, an electronic tone sounded - Nathalie's phone. She fished it from her pocket and, reading it over, pointed the message at Gabriel. "It seems as if something else is responsible for this," she said. "'Crossroad', 'tokens', this is all too much for just one Akuma."

"Hmm." Gabriel looked at his feet. Two small stacks of poker-chip-like tokens sat on the floor, purple and blue, one for both of them. He knelt down to collect his five, and handed Nathalie's to her. "One hundred tokens for a wish." He paused to inspect the tokens before a smile spread on his face. "This is it, Nathalie. No more chasing after Ladybug and Cat Noir. This is our big break!"

Nathalie offered Gabriel a warm smile and closed her fist around her tokens. "Well, then, how should we start?"

---

---

Meanwhile, a young girl found herself waking up on a tall building's roof. She didn't panic right away, though; instead, she yawned and stretched as if she were simply getting out of bed. A second to take in her surroundings, though, made her jolt right onto her feet.

"Waaah! Who, what, where-- how did I get up here?!" She scrambled to the edge of the roof, peering over the lip for a split second, before throwing herself back to more-or-less safety. "This isn't Paris! It must be Hawk Moth's doing. Tikki?" Marinette opened her small purse, and out from inside floated the little ladybug kwami herself, yawning as well.

"Yaaaaawhh... What's wrong, Marinette?"

"I don't know, but we have to figure it out! Tikki, Spots On!"

As soon as she turned into Ladybug, the heroine brought her Yo-yo up and flipped it open like a phone. "Let's see if Cat Noir picks up... wait, what?" The first thing on her tool's screen was a message, not one she opened, detailing the rules of the Crossroads. She was even more confused than before. "Tokens? Is this some kind of weird game?"

"If it is, we're a shoo-in to beat it!" Cat Noir leaped onto the roof right then, nearly scaring Ladybug clear off. "Thought I heard your sweet voice, milady! Lucky you, you wouldn't have been able to handle yourself if you got taken here by yourself." Cat Noir leaned on his staff, flashing Ladybug with his trademark grin.

It took all of Marinette's will to not roll her eyes. "Please, you're the lucky one here. You're useless without me, like a cat in the rain."

Cat Noir did roll his eyes, letting the jab roll off him. "I've been awake for a few minutes now, and nothing's tried to take my Miraculous, so I don't think Hawk Moth has anything to do with this. Maybe it's one of those hidden camera reality shows?" Cat Noir looked around, smiling at any place he thought a camera could be hiding.

"Hmm, maybe. But stay on your guard, we can't be sure of anything yet."

"Some reconnaissance then, milady?"

Marinette nodded, and the two leaped from the roof, swinging and vaulting to the streets below!

Current Location: City
Interacting With: Ladybug and Cat Noir @TruthHurts22
Current Token Count: 5

Without any other terminals in the area, 2B and 9S were forced to explore the city blind. No puns intended. So far, they haven't run into any hostiles, or machines luckly. Though, what if they ran into any humans? The thought hadn't really crossed the androids minds till later. Neither of them were sure what to do if they had to face a human. They were designed to protect and obey their human masters, after all.

"Alert: Two unknown lifeforms approaching."

Once Pod-042 spoke up, the androids noticed two figures zipping down from the rooftops near them. Cautious, they slowly approached the other pair, readying their weapons until they realized something. They were humans. Just as the androids feared. "Ah, sorry! We thought you were machines or something..." 9S apologized to Ladybug and Cat Noir, putting his sword aside. "It's rare for us to see humans not on the moon. I'm 9S, and this is 2B!" the scanner introduced himself and his companion to them.

"Do you have any idea why we're here?"

---

---

Tsukasa's eyes widened.

He's awake!

Pupils constricting to excited pinpoints, the spirit giggled when Lucifer batted his hand away, clicking the pen closed and slipping it back into his pocket. Tsukasa shimmied back away from him a pace, smiling to himself as he rested his cheek in one of his palms, getting a closer look at the man in front of him. He had a weird energy about him, something the noirette couldn't exactly put a name to. He seemed fun to annoy, though.

Whoever it was, they spoke in a weird dialect, and Tsukasa simply stared at him with an open mouthed smile, inhumanly sharp canines glistening in the dark as he tried to process what he just said.

"...Oh!" He chirped. Bringing both index fingers up to press into the dimples below his cheekbones, Tsukasa continued. "I'm Yugi Tsukasa! I saw you just laying here, and I thought you were dead or something! I wanted to double check, though. Guess you're not! This doesn't seem like a great place to sleep, though. Anyway, who exactly are you?" The boy tilted his head, a thin smile on his face as he dropped his hands to rest in his lap again.

---

---

What the hell just happened?

Inosuke barely stopped himself from faceplanting in the snow, managing to right himself at the last second, still landing a little clumsily, however.

Turning a solid 180, Inosuke's gaze dropped to the gun, towards the girl, and back to the gun again before finally raising his eyes to meet Skulduggery's behind the blank stare of his mask.

Dropping his swords, Inosuke brought both his arms up, crossing one over the other, with both thumbs pointed toward himself.

"Inosuke Hashibira! Don't you forget it, Skull Face! And you, girl! Stand and face me! I'll defeat both of you!" He crowed, lowering ever so slightly to pick up his swords, holding the blades aimed behind him, but muscles taut and ready for a fight.

---

---

"...Oh!" He chirped. Bringing both index fingers up to press into the dimples below his cheekbones, Tsukasa continued. "I'm Yugi Tsukasa! I saw you just laying here, and I thought you were dead or something! I wanted to double check, though. Guess you're not! This doesn't seem like a great place to sleep, though. Anyway, who exactly are you?" The boy tilted his head, a thin smile on his face as he dropped his hands to rest in his lap again.

Lucifer's face contorted in pain as he blinked away the tiny spots of light that were obscuring his vision. After a few minutes of impact induced silence, however, the fallen cherub finally managed to compose himself enough to form coherent sentences and thoughts.

"My name?" he echoed, pausing a moment to think. "I have many, though thou mayest refer to me as Lucifer."

Inhaling sharply, a side effect of the unseen healing going on just beneath his skin, he took a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing.

"Now, seeing I hath told thee mine name stranger," he said, propping himself up a bit more. "Perhaps thou wilt be so kind as to give me thine?"

This caught DIO's interest. The vampired raised an eyebrow and uncrossed his legs, leaning forward with a keen smile. "Dracula? The one and only? Fascinating. I did not realise I was in such esteemed company. Unless of course, it is simply a moniker you adopted to intimidate your foes." He leaned back, skeptical but still intrigued.

"But who am I to question anything? In this vast and unfathomable universe, the possibilites are endless. The only way to learn is to explore and ask questions. This is why I seek all knowledge, which is another reason I, DIO, have invited you into my home besides it being proper etiquette." DIO took a brief sip of his wine before continuing.

"How long have you lived, Dracula? No doubt a long time. If you truly are the one and only Dracula then I am sure my lifetime of one century pales in comparison to your medieval origin. Forgive my skepticism. In my world, you, Dracula, are merely a fictional story written by a man named Bram Stoker, loosely inspired on a long dead warlord named Vlad the Impaler. Vampires existed a long time in human folk lore, and I assumed they were merely stories until I myself found the means of becoming one."





Eltariel watched as the mad dark warlord took on the incredible beast. She wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. The massive lizard was far larger than any Graug or Cave Troll she had ever seen. Was this a natural predator of these lands? Or had it too been drawn unwillingly into the Crossroads?

It did not take long for the creature to defeat the man who had mortally wounded her. As he seemed to want to leap directly into it's mouth it revealed the ability to spew some kind of energy from it's mouth that the elf could feel the heat from here. Eltariel watched as he wisely fled into the forest, assumably leaving the elf to her fate at the teeth and claws of this gigantic creature. But the elf was filled with hope. Regaining her composure, the assault on her Tower had been interrupted. The only danger to it now was the dragon-beast accidentally swiping it with it's tail, but the Tower was resilient to blunt force trama. It would take the beast effort to destroy the inert structure- and why would it? Most likely it would just leave it alone, right? Eltariel wasn't done yet. She actually laughed, the spike of hope surging through her body before she gasped and fell onto her back once more.

Then the thing roared. Eltariel covered her ears and grimaced. She hardly noticed it was over, her ears were ringing so loud. Opening her eyes she startled at the sight of creature spotting her. Well, so be it. She'd been eaten by things before. Not the worst way to die. As long as she got to come back...she could actually do this. The 100 tokens, despite being down to one, were not out of her grasp. If she could just collect them and return to Middle-Earth she could accomplish her goals.

Eltariel still had a hand on her lower abdomen, her wounds undoubtedly fatal. The creature approached and merely began to sniff the area inquisitively. She sucked in a breathe and spoke. Why not, right? It may even be able to understand her. The creature was certainly large enough to have a brain that could store intelligence within. Really she had no reason to assume it was a dumb predator other than the fact that most creatures on her homeworld were.

"You...s-saved my Tower. Th-thank...you." She managed, body trembling. Her face was pale and her eyes were gaunt and baggy. Very obviously someone in the throes of death, though she faced them with remarkable and practiced composure.

As the giant beast sniffed the wounded girl, he could tell that she was heavily injured. The faint smell of burnt flesh coming from the cautarized wound was still warm and no doubt would be slowly killing her already. The fact that the kaiju was taking time to inspect her was already odd enough for someone like him. After all, in his world, humans were usually disrupting the natural balance in his world, and while he often doesn't engage them so as long as they don't actively try to kill him, it still didn't help how they treated his territory...

But somehow, he seemed to feel rather sorry for her. And the fact that she later thanks him for saving her tower was something he usually doesn't hear from people or monster alike, either benevolent or malevolent. He gives a soft snort before looking back at the tall structure behind him. It was as if a baby bird had fallen from her nest, and with no sign of her mother or allies in sight, her chances of surviving were even slimmer. Yet for a split second, he considered in trying to get her back onto the tower...

Yet he knew all too well that she was upon death's door.

With a sorrowful moan, the beast rose his head and left the girl to nature's mercy. Being already tired enough from traveling here, he decided to rest at the base of her tower, enough so that he could regain his strength and move on. He slowly lies down, as his body seems to wrap around the tower, his tail almost reaching the tip of his snout. He gave one last look towards the woman's body before giving out a yawn and closes his eyes as he descends into a deep slumber...

---

---

Dracula tilted his head to the side, quietly contemplating Dio's words. From everything he'd heard, it seemed as though the other vampire's world was very different from his own, with the biggest variation being his own lack of existence in it. Assuming he was telling the truth, of course. After all, this creature could have been lying through his teeth. Although, given everything he had seen and experienced since arriving in this desolate place, as well as the overall tone and body language of his host, the old vampire doubted that was the case.

"I see," he replied, giving the crystal goblet he held a small shake, causing its rich crimson colored contents to swirl around lazily. "Well in my world, I am the only Dracula. So far as I know, anyway."

He pauses to take a sip of his drink before continuing.

"As for my name being a moniker, in a way it is."

He leans forward to set the glass down, then reclines back into his seat, idly drumming his inhumanly long claws against the table.

"It is not, after all, my birth name," he explained, calmly meeting Dio's gaze. "But, if you do not mind, I will refrain from saying more on the topic. The man I once was is dead. Has been for nine hundred and sixty-six years. Now..."

Dracula ceases his tapping on the table and steeples his long, pale, fingers beneath his stubble covered chin.

Leaning forward, his eyes narrow as his expression becomes more curious.

"I've told you a bit about myself, how about you? What's your world like?"

---

---

Tsukasa raised two thin eyebrows, inquisitive, as Lucifer gathered his bearings, pupils constricting again when the man opened his mouth to speak.

The boy's expression dropped into something unreadable; mouth a flat line, and eyes nothing more than wide, yellow disks.

"Lucifer, mm?" He recited, exaggerating his pronunciation of the 'fer' at the end. After a moment of thought, tapping his chin, Tsukasa's expression finally melded into a wild, almost comic smile. "Sounds exciting. You say you have others, though? What other names do you go by?" He lilted, tipping his head to the side, his hat near to falling off his head.

His name-- Did he not hear him?

Tsukasa grew as concerned for the man's health as a sociopath possibly could.

"Did you hit your head or something--? I'll repeat it, then. I'm Yugi Tsukasa, but everyone calls me Tsukasa. There--! You can't call me a stranger anymore, Lucifer!" He beamed, sitting back up straight and crossing his arms behind his head.

---

---

"Did you hit your head or something--? I'll repeat it, then. I'm Yugi Tsukasa, but everyone calls me Tsukasa. There--! You can't call me a stranger anymore, Lucifer!" He beamed, sitting back up straight and crossing his arms behind his head.

Lucifer blinked, his expression becoming confused until the fog in his mind cleared enough for him to recall the previous part of their conversation.

"Ah, yes, my apologies. If I am being honest with thee, then yes, I did hit mine head when falling through that building over there," he said, feebly raising a finger to gesture towards the ruined apartment complex he had fallen through, while simultaneously hating how forgetful he was. Granted, this would wear off once his body was fully restored, but that could take hours given the shit he just went through. Until then, however, he had no choice but to suffer through the haze in which his mind currently found itself.

"Anyway," Lucifer continued, doing his best not to slip back into unconsciousness. "Moving on from that, my other names are... well, numerous to say the least. More like titles at this point really."

The fallen cherub shrugged, grunting in pain as he did so.

"Still, I fail to see how they matter given the circumstances in which we currently find each other, Tsukasa," he said, meeting the spirits gaze.

@Majoras End

---

---

The two androids' cautious approach was met in kind, as Ladybug and Cat Noir landed on the ground in front of them, Yo-yo and Baton at the ready.

"Fighting already?" Cat Noir playfully scoffed. "Guess it won't be too hard to get outta here!"

But the other two lowered their weapons and explained themselves. It only served to make Ladybug and Cat Noir confused.

"Humans? On the moon? I mean, sometimes astronauts are sent there, but..." Ladybug shook her head and relaxed, dropping her battle-ready stance. "I guess that's not so important right now. We're as clueless as you two are, probably, we just woke up. My name is Ladybug, and this--"

Cat Noir sprung forward, closing the distance between them and giving an incredibly theatrical bow. "Cat Noir, at your service!" He raised himself back up with a smirk. "What's up with these floating box things?" He asked, prodding at one of the Pods with his staff.

Current Location: City
Interacting With: Ladybug and Cat Noir @TruthHurts22
Current Token Count: 5

"Hm. Glad we're not the only ones at a loss here." 2B said to Ladybug. The other masked girl expressed confusion at the mention of humans residing on the moon. Were these two left behind? Or is this a part of the "multiverse" theories human scientists studied? Either way, it seemed best to explain what the androids meant. Though they quickly took a step back when Cat Noir introduced himself after Ladybug with style.

When he asked about the pods, 9S was first to speak. "Oh, these are our Support Pods, 042 and 153. They were assigned to us for our recon missions." the scanner explained, pod 153 moving out of the way of being poked. "They also serve as our ranged weapons, but I guess we left the rest of their program chips back at camp."

Pod 042 then displayed a hologram, showing a small summary of the war against machines. "Long ago, aliens and their machines had invaded Earth. As much as humans fought back, they were driven from their homes to reside in the moon. Soon enough, the Council of Humanity was established, and with it came YorRHa." the battler explained along with the hologram. "We YoRHa units were made to combat the machines, so that one day, this war might end. However, for many years, we've been stuck in a stalemate, and there has been no sign of our other adversaries."

"Until we found out that the machines had evolved. Eventually killing their alien masters." 9S continued. "Somehow, we ended up fighting a pair of twin machines advanced enough to match us androids, appearance and combat wise." Once they finished, Pod 042 turned off the hologram.

"It's...pretty complicated now that I think about it. Most machines we faced just tried to mimic humans, but yeah. We're trying to get back before anything bad happens. Or we get excommunicated as deserters."

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

@Lmpkio

Dante slowly started stepping towards the demons in a nonchalant manner. He knew these guys in and out, so he figured he would wait for them to make the first move. The first one struck, a Hell's Pride with a downward diagonal slash of it's scythe. However, before it could even bring the scythe down far enough, Dante already whipped out his pistol and shot it in the stomach. Hah, too slow. As the Hell's Pride fell lifeless to the ground, Dante continued his casual walk towards the rest of the demons without missing a step, as if the Hell's Pride hadn't even attacked him at all

The next Hell's Pride came at him from the left, delivering an underhanded swipe of it's own scythe. In one smooth motion, Dante immediately dodged the slash with a casual sidestep, leaving him now standing behind the demon, and playfully tapped in on the shoulder. The Hell's Pride quickly swung the scythe in Dante's direction again, the inertia of the scythe swing turning its body towards Dante. Dante immediately saw the swing and reacted by making a quick leap into the air before the scythe could reach him. He then landed on the handle of the scythe as the demon finished its swing and stood on it for a second. "From here, you can get a great look at my boots!" Dante said right before performing a forward spinning kick straight into the demon's face. The Hell's Pride was launched backwards and landed unconscious about 10 feet away from Dante, who himself landed on his feet and continued his way towards the demon horde. Piece of cake

The final Hell's Pride came rushing at him from the right and made a swift sideways strike at chest level. Dante countered with his sword, and 2 blades immediately clashed together. Sparks flew as Dante ground his sword against the scythe, pushing it in just a way in an attempt disarm the Hell's Pride. It worked, and as the scythe flew out of the demon's hands, Dante made a series of fast sword slashes of his own across its chest. He finished flurry of attacks with an upward swing, which launched the Hell's Pride straight into the air. Before the Hell's Pride landed, Dante then pulled out his second pistol and unloaded a storm of bullets into it. As it got shot it flew even farther in the air, the force of the constant barrage of bullets keeping it in the air, and then finally landed a bloody, bullet riddled mess of a corpse

Dante turned to face the final demons and held out his arms in a 'come at me' kind of pose. "If that's the best you got, this'll last all of 30 seconds!" Dante bragged with a smirk of confidence on his face. However, as he spoke he was blindsided by the feeling of a fireball hitting him from behind. As he staggered forward, he quickly turned around to get a look at the assailant. It was one of those other demons that came out of the portal, one of the ones from Doom Slayer's world. Well, Dante presumed they were anyway. It looked faster, more crazy and aggressive than the ones Dante was used to fighting. Suddenly, Dante's mind flashed back to the beginning of the fight, remembering when Doom Slayer put away his shotgun, and had an idea. Before he could do anything however, the strange demon had already closed the distance between the 2 and made a swipe at him. Dante quickly shifted his torso to the side to dodge it at the last second, and then turned towards Doom Slayer. "Yo, crazy soldier guy! Toss me that shotgun! Y'know, the one you aren't using!" Dante shouted across the battlefield to Doom Slayer. Dante figured he could probably take this thing on his own, but where was the fun in that?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

@Hokagae

It looked like the troops weren't backing down, and were insisting that he should drop his weapons. Chief had already made up his mind that wasn't gonna happen, and he didn't like the idea of a fight but he had no idea who these guys were and he wasn't willing to put his trust in a squad of soldiers who immediately aim their weapons at him, especially in the place he was in right now. Waiting any longer was just delaying the inevitable

Chief fired the first shot, a well aimed three round burst at the hands of the front soldier in the group. As he fired the shots, he quickly started taking steps backwards, both to make him a harder target to hit as well as to make his way towards the air conditioning unit behind him for cover

---

Skulduggery kept his gun aimed at the strange man, who he now knew as Inosuke Hasibira. He found the name a little strange but it wasn’t quite the weirdest he had heard in his time.

Valkyrie had picked herself up off the ground and stood beside Skulduggery. She was somewhat annoyed at being attacked for no reason, especially by some guy wearing a boar mask over his head.

”Are you going to shoot him?” Valkyrie quietly whispered to Skulduggery.

The Skeleton Detective turned to his partner upon hearing this question. ”Most likely not. Why, did you want to use that new power of yours?”

Valkyrie gave him a little nod and stepped forward towards Inosuke, white lighting beginning to crackle in her hands and without a second wasted, she shot the lighting out at their boar-masked attacker.

---

Toph, as usual, was finding it rather difficult to move in this desert sand. She tried making it easier on herself by condensing the sand so he could walk on it without worrying about falling over.

Suddenly, she heard the noise of something landing in front of her followed by a voice. The voice did not sound like anyone she has heard before and her immediate reaction was to jump back and get into a fighting stance just in case things turned out bad. Though Toph knew that if things did turn into a fight, she would most certainly be at a disadvantage because of the current terrain.

”Who are you? Why do you sound like that?” Toph asked, confused on why whoever she was talking to squawked like a bird.

---

Before the troopers could get close enough to Chief, the squad leader had his weapon shot out of his hands. The Commander noticed this hostile action and ordered his troops to open fire.

”Take him out!”

Blaster shots zoomed through the air as the stormtroopers tried to hit their enemy. They couldn’t quite get a clear shot on Chief by the way he was moving and soon enough, he had taken cover behind an air conditioning unit. The troopers recomposed themselves and slowly begun moving towards where they last saw their enemy.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

@Hokagae
Chief watched as the troops opened fire on him and the shots got absorbed by his suit's energy shield. His shields were dropping fast, he had to move quickly. He finally dove behind the air conditioning unit after 3 seconds and hunkered down behind it, reloading his battle rifle and watching his shield indicator on his HUD

As he waited for the shield indicator to fill back up, he noticed something: their weapons were using energy. Chief was somewhat familiar with energy based weapons for human troops, but most of them were high powered heavy artillery. He had never seen or even heard of any standard issue human rifles that used energy based ammunition before, especially like the ones these troops were using. And were they laser or plasma? Chief couldn't tell because they flew through the air and didn't appear instantaneously, much like plasma rounds, but at the same time they sure did have the appearance of laser based ammunition. Chief had no idea how to assess these troops

Chief felt like maybe the odds were maybe a little less in his favor than he thought. He looked down at the token in his left hand and thought, maybe it was time to make the odds a little more even. He clutched the tokens in his left hand as he raised them up. "A squad of ODSTs in drop pods" Chief said fairly loudly, but not loud enough to hear over the blaster fire. Chief felt the tokens in his hands slowly deteriorate into shapeless smoke before fading away entirely

A couple seconds passed and nothing seemed to happen. Chief was wondering maybe the tokens were just fake and didn't actually do anything, but then he soon caught something out of the corner of his eye (as well as the troopers if they were paying attention). In the sky, there were 5 mysterious silhouettes flying down in the direction of the building at an alarmingly fast speed. As they flew closer more detailing could be seen, appearing to be some kind of metallic pods. Closer and closer the flew before all of them finally impacting on the roof of the building with a series of loud 'CRASHES' and debris flying everywhere. As the dust settled, the troopers would be able to see them in clear detail. Each pod was oblong shaped and about double the size of a human. They appeared to have some kind of hatches on them, indicating the pods were holding something inside

---

---

Tsukasa simply hummed and nodded as the other spoke, gaze following where Lucifer's finger pointed over his shoulder, blinking owlishly at the battered apartment building. Turning back his attention on the man, one of the ghoulish black orbs drifted away from his side, nosing through the rubble, before it vanished into the building.

The supernatural lowered his arms back to his side, drawing his shoulders up in a languid shrug.

"I'm just curious, I suppose. Amane always did call me nosy. Furthering that thought-- You aren't human, are you? There's no way a normal mortal would have survived, well, falling through an apartment building. What are you?"

---

---

Inosuke grinned at the growing promise of a fight,-- he'd finally goaded someone into one! It's been so long! --dropping into his typical low to the ground attack crouch, flipping his blades to face the two.

The two conversed for a second, frustrating Inosuke, before the girl finally shot a blast of lighting at him. What the hell? Was she a demon or something? Taken off guard, the masked man barely managed to dodge the attack, sandals slipping on the snow as he darted out of the way.

"The hell was that?" Dropping himself low again, Inosuke propelled himself in their direction, tipping the back of his blade in the girl's direction and making a swipe for her ankles in an attempt to put her off balance, wary of the man and his gun. Maybe if he could unbalance her, he could use that to shove her in the skull faced man's direction, and stagger him too! He's a genius!

"I like you two! You both make me have to think!" He cackled.