Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the infinite void of space, there was nothing and no one except one man; Liu Kang, God of Fire and Time. He was far from any form of civilization, standing on a rock in the middle of space, whiling away the time by practicing his kata, while using his mind to think about his circumstances.

“With Earthrealm and the other realms in balance, I’ve found myself with more time than I ever need.” A chuckle rippled from his throat. “But what to do with it? Training is always good, but without purpose I find that it becomes meaningless. Perhaps I could observe the Shaolin Temple? Raiden and Kung Lao would welcome me anytime, but I would like to not be rude. Johnny Cage? He’s almost always happy to see me, though his ego may be enough to give me a headache. Or what about Kenshi? He has been rebuilding his clan for quite some time now, and I would rather not disrupt his dedication for my own selfish ends.” A sigh followed, as he paused mid-pose. “And I doubt anyone else would be entirely interested in seeing me, even if it was for entirely social purposes…”

Lord Liu Kang… A voice echoed from the ether, halting the Fire God in his tracks.

“Who is there?” He shouted out calmly, staying still even as he spoke to the vast void of space. “Why do you call out to me?”

We are the Society of Multiversal Administrators and we watch over the multiverse, across time. All beings who can see across timelines are a part of our circle; The being you knew as Kronika was one of our admins, until she was replaced by you. The voice answered back, which caused a bit of tension to form in his body.

With practiced ease, he crossed his arms behind his back and closed his eyes. “I see. Do you seek revenge for her demise?”

Absolutely not. You have inherited her role as a master of time, and you have done a masterful job of maintaining your universe. As such we deem you worthy of joining our ranks as an admin. The voice countered, slightly easing the tension from his body, though the addition of another voice shocked him back.

It also helps that you are far more friendly than that bald bi-

LILITH! You can’t say that!

Oh what, it was true!

The two voices started to argue with each other for a hot minute, during which Liu Kang held a slightly nervous expression on his face; The two of them reminded him of Johnny Cage and Kenshi, which would have been fun to watch were they not voices from outside the void. “Am I losing my mind?” he asked aloud quietly, under the assumption he wouldn’t be heard.

He was wrong.

Oh, apologies, Lord Liu Kang. I forgot to give you the complimentary package.

Instantly, a slim metal-and-glass object appeared before the God of Fire, which he picked up with ease. “A… Smart Phone?” He inspected the phone for any strange additions, before it lit up and rumbled once in his hands. As much as he was a master of his fists, Liu Kang was not a master of technology, taking a few minutes to remember how to use a phone before unlocking it. ‘May Johnny Cage never learn of my fumbles with technology…’ He prayed as he finally got to the Home Screen, before finding the source of the rumbling from earlier; a text message.

>[S] League of Union of Club of Alliance of SoMa

>[C] Newbie-Chat

MiriOnTheWall: Hello again, Lord Liu Kang. I have taken the liberty of preemptively adding you to the Admin Server, where we can chat with each other freely. 

<<

He looked at the message for a moment before looking back to the horizon, where he had kept his eyes on earlier before everything. “I see. What sort of name is… Miri on the wall?” He asked aloud, hoping for the voices to answer once more, only to get a second rumble from the phone.

>[S] League of Union of Club of Alliance of SoMa

>[C] Newbie-Chat

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Come on, man, how ancient are you? It’s a nickname, for gods sake!;

MiriOnTheWall: Lilith, stop being rude. He has far more experience than the both of us.

MiriOnTheWall: My name is Miriam, and I am a Demon Hunter who was forced to become a host for a demonic curse, courtesy of a long-defunct Alchemist’s Guild. I was put into a coma by the attempt, though once I woke up I found that I could use the curse to use demonic magic in the form of shards, which made me a shardbinder. 

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Again! What’s with that intro?! It’s sooo booooring!

MiriOnTheWall: Well, I’m trying to explain my circumstances to Lord Liu Kang, so that he may understand how we got here.

#09131993: Indeed, I am grateful for Miss Miriam’s effort to share her backstory with me. 

#09131993: If I may ask, who is 09131993?

#09131993: Wait, is that me?

PunkNiEEEEVIL: HAH! You did forget something, Miriam! New guy’s gotta change his name!

#09131993: Why is my name #09131993? 

MiriOnTheWall: Lord Liu Kang, you can change your name in the settings, which is under the account icon. If you’re in the chatroom, you can go there by pressing the back arrow in the top left.

MiriOnTheWall: There, I have done it, Lilith, now can you please introduce yourself? Or should I do it for you?

PinkNiEEEEVIL: Like HELL I’m letting ya do my intro!

PinkNiEEEEVIL: Listen up, fire guy, cuz you’re about to meet the great and powerful Punk-02, Also known as… LILITH!

PinkNiEEEEVIL: I was born on a small little island called Egghead Island, as a satellite/clone of a scientist named Dr. Vegapunk. As a Satellite, I embody the ‘Evil’ within him, namely his ruthless side, though I’ve tried to tone that down, especially since my sister Lami’s starting to actually make friends now. Oh, I’m so proud of her!

PinkNiEEEEVIL: Back to me, I’m a scientist, with all of the smarts that came from the OG Vegapunk, but unlike the old man, I’m a hell of a fighter, and I don’t back down from anything!

MiriOnTheWall: So long as it isn’t a [INFORMATION REDACTED FOR SAFETY]

PinkNiEEEEVIL: Hey, fuck you! Those things are scary AF!

LordLiuKang: I see. I thank you for sharing your story, Miss Lilith.

LordLiuKang: As for you, Miss Miriam, thank you for inviting me to this group. I will endeavor to be a far better admin than Kronika ever was.

PinkNiEEEEVIL: pff, Endeavour.

LordLiuKang: What was so funny?

MiriOnTheWall: Nothing important, Lord Liu Kang. 

MiriOnTheWall: OH! I almost forgot! There IS something you can assist us with.

MiriOnTheWall: There’s a new Admin we’re looking to add to the team, but she is rather inexperienced in the ways of… Administry, as it were, and I would like to give her a mentor in dealing with the problems that come up with managing multiple universes.

MiriOnTheWall: Yes, I am well aware it is strange asking someone who is almost just as new to this role, but the things she struggle with are skills you have in abundance.

MiriOnTheWall: Managing a ragtag group of heroes, dealing with conflicts, everything like that. It also helps that you have a… millenia’s worth of experience and wisdom from crafting the world, so I’d figure you’d be able to assist her greatly. That, and your demeanor will help her when she curls in on herself.

MiriOnTheWall: Err, not literally, of course.

LordLiuKang: Ah, I see. I am more than willing to help. 

MiriOnTheWall: asdhkasdhkj

PinkNiEEEEVIL: HEY! Miri did her first keysmash!

MiriOnTheWall: LILITH, SHUT UP!

MiriOnTheWall: As I was going to say… Thank you, Lord Liu Kang, for helping us. She’s… a friend of mine, and I would like to make sure she finds her place in the world.

LordLiuKang: It is nothing upon me.

LordLiuKang: What do you mean by ‘curling in on herself’? I assume that it was simply a metaphor. I am well aware that I am not the most well-versed in modern ways of talking, but even I wouldn’t take that literally.

MiriOnTheWall: You… you will see.

<<

“You will see?” Liu Kang asked aloud with a raised eyebrow, before sensing a portal appear to his left. Unsummoning the phone from his hands, he turned to face the portal, ready to face whatever came from it. He had seen many strange sights, whether from his universe, or from the other multiverses. Still, it didn’t stop him from raising his eyebrows in shock upon seeing an anthropomorphic cat walk through the portal. 

“Are… Are you… Lord Liu Kang?” The cat asked, her voice filled with apprehension, likely at his gaping mouth. Upon realizing that, Liu-kang shook his head clear and nodded.

“Yes, I am. Apologies for my lack of manners, I was… shocked by your appearance.”

The cat giggled in response, covering her mouth with her gloved left hand. “I’ve been told that my appearance would be a shock to you by Miriam, so I guess a gaping mouth is the least of my concerns.”

Liu Kang shook his head with a solemn expression on his face. “Still, it was highly improper of me to forget my manners, despite your appearance.” He then clapped his hands together before bowing to her. “My Name is Liu kang, God of Fire, and Admin of this universe.”

The cat-lady bowed before him in turn. “Well, my name is Blaze the Cat, Princess of the Sol Empire, and Guardian of the Sol Emeralds. And I have come here for your guidance.”

Chapter Text

“So…” Liu Kang said aloud, nodding as he heard Blaze’s backstory. “You are the princess of the Sol Empire, and the Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, correct?”

“Indeed. I am the daughter of Erica the Wise, the current empress of the Sol Empire; as such, I possessed both the powers of Pyrokinesis, and the responsibility to protect the Sol Emeralds, which keep the Sol dimension stable.” She affirmed him, before looking away sheepishly. “To be honest, I don’t really see how that makes me worthy of the role of Admin of my… ‘section’ of the multiverse, especially since I can think of a few more people who would be far more effective at the role. Especially in comparison to you, Mr. God of Fire.”

Liu Kang was thinking up an answer to Blaze’s doubts, when his new phone buzzed in his hammerspace pocket. Pulling it out, He saw a new message from the server.

>[S] League of Union of Club of Alliance of SoMa

>[C] Newbie-Chat

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Don’t forget! Blaze is also the protector of the Jeweled Scepter, which DOES allow her to see through other dimensions, unlike everyone else. 

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Ergo, she fits our criteria to be an admin!

PunkNiEEEEVIL: That, and the guy we initially considered for Admin declined, though don’t tell her that!”

<<

“I see.” He said aloud, before putting his phone away and going back to his standard pose. “I will admit that I do not know you well enough to judge you perfectly, Blaze the Cat. That being said, I do know of a way to understand you enough to make that judgement.”

Blaze perked up at the comment. “You do? What is it?” 

Liu Kang stepped away from her, before raising his fists towards her. “We spar.”

“Huh?!” Blaze gasped in shock before shaking her head. “Your eyes still look sane… You really mean that, but why this?”

Liu Kang smirked at her question. “Simple, really; Even before I became a god, I trained daily, with a variety of people, from wise-cracking hollywood stars, to hat-throwing martial artists, to chain-throwing ninja and even gods. I have millenia of experience in fighting, both from when I was human and now, which led me to a realisation; When one fights, they cannot lie. Their fists tell of their experience in life, in a way that cannot be described by words or even actions.”

“And if you want to give me an honest answer…” Blaze continued for him. “Then you must understand me fully, and you think… no, believe that a spar will do it, correct?”

Liu kang nodded at her. “Indeed.”

“Very well then.” Blaze said, before going into her own fighting stance. “If you wish to know everything about me, then I will go all out!”

“I would ask for no less!” Liu Kang barked, ready to fight her… up until a buzzing came from his phone once more. “Hmm… Excuse me, but I believe Lilith is texting me.” And then he looked down at his phone once more.

>[S] League of Union of Club of Alliance of SoMa

>[C] Newbie-Chat

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Sorry, Liu Kang, but I figure that you’d want some music to fight to, or just for ambience. 

PunkNiEEEEVIL: I’ve installed a special program that’ll play music when appropriate. Don’t worry about using it; it’ll activate automatically!

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Thank me later!

<<

As Liu Kang put the phone back away (after finally remembering that the blasted things had a mute function) He turned back to his partner, who simply crossed her arms. “Lilith… She’s annoying, at times, but she is smarter than she looks; that, and she has a surprising sense of timing.”

“Hmm, you are not wrong.” Liu Kang shot back, before going back to his fighting stance. “Now, where were we?”

BGM: Velanova (Sonic Rush OST - Melakira Remix)

“We were about to fight…” Blaze said quietly, before bowing before him, which he reciprocated. The two of them waited for a minute, before tensing up. “Let’s go!” Blaze screamed, before running right towards Liu Kang. As for the God of Fire, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and leaped into the air, kicking right as Blaze dove down with a kick of her own, causing their legs to clash.

Princess of the Sol Empire

Blaze the Cat

Vs.

God of Fire

Liu Kang

The impact sent the two of them flying back, with Liu Kang rolling backwards and Blaze landing in a spin ball. However, Liu Kang recovered first, allowing him to pull his arms back, and charge up a ball of blue-and-orange fiery energy called a Cosmic Flame, which he launched in Blaze’s direction. Blaze was not defenceless, as she summoned red flames to her hand, before coalescing them into a fireball of her own called the Flame Orb, and launching it right towards Liu Kang’s fireball, cancelling it out. Despite this, Liu Kang charged up another fireball, and launched it in Blaze’s direction, which she countered with her own while dodging to the side to flank Liu Kang, only for the God of Fire to dodge the followup fireball as well. This led into a vicious war, where both sides launched fireballs at the other while dodging, like a slightly more dangerous version of dodgeball but where getting tagged meant getting pummelled. 

But Blaze was starting to become impatient, and decided to follow up her next fireball with a new technique; the Fire Boost, which teleported her right up to Liu Kang. He had just launched a Cosmic Flame earlier, which left him wide open for a barrage of punches and kicks from Blaze, ending in an overhead kick that bounced him off the ground, and a side kick that sent him flying away. Once she recovered, she launched a Flame Orb after him, before using another Fire Boost to cover the distance

Liu Kang was quick to recover, blocking the fireball and the double kick Blaze launched his way, leaving her open to a simple but effective three kick combo that kept her in the air, followed up by another Cosmic Flame of his own. He followed that up by summoning a flaming dragon that flew its way towards her, biting down on her ankle to keep her in place, before launching her away with a flying dragon kick, knocking her back once more. 

“Not bad.” Liu Kang praised her as he flicked his nose, before gathering fire in his hands. “Now try this!” He threw the fire to the ground, causing it to bounce off of it like a tennis ball. This low fireball was slow, but Blaze quickly figured out that it was a hair more dangerous due to the fact that it tracked her movement with ease, making it impossible to stay still for even a moment. But Blaze would not be curtailed by it for long, as she pulled out another technique from her arsenal; the Axel Tornado, a powerful spinning kick engulfed in flames. This move allowed her to not only dispel the low fireball, but also allow her to move forward, right back into Liu Kang’s face. 

This time, Blaze held nothing back as she pummelling Liu Kang with punches and kicks, doing everything to keep herself glued to him. The first barrage of punches was ended with a few kicks via the Axel Tornado, while the second was ended with a Fire Boost due to Liu Kang Blocking. She followed up by grabbing him with her hands before throwing him over her body in an over-the-shoulder throw, before adding onto it with a 3 hit combo followed by a Flame Orb. After the third barrage of punches, she launched him back once more with a side kick, before waiting for his next move.

Liu Kang tumbled and rolled on the ground from the force of her kick, coming to a stop by rolling onto his hands and popping up via a handstand. Back on his feet, he looked at her for a moment before smiling and throwing his fists down. “Very good, Blaze. That is all I need.” And with that, the fight was over.

Stop BGM

“So, what do you think, Liu Kang?” Blaze asked him, walking up to him with a bit of apprehension despite their earlier fight.

He held his arms behind his back and smiled. “You are kind and noble, with a proud heart that seeks to defend all that it cares about, whether it be your friends, or your empire. To others, you act calm and formal, but you are driven by your emotions, which burn like the sun. You wish to help those who are helpless, and yet you tend to work alone due to your position. You can be blunt and even ruthless at times, though I can tell you mean well when you do so; You value honesty, and you would never hold back against your foes, especially when it comes to defending what you care for. All in all, you have skill and potential to grow that skill; I would be happy to train you, both in Kombat, and in dealing with other multiverses. What say you?” He then placed a fist into his palm, ready to bow before her.

“Well, I have a question…” Blaze asked with hesitation. “Why did you say ‘Kombat’?”

Liu Kang opened his mouth to speak, only for a thought to come to his mind, which started an endless war over it, until he finally quelled it and came to an answer. “I believe it is a habit that comes with my neighbourhood of the multiverse.” She then bowed before him, accepting his offer. “Now, what shall we do first? I was told I need to mentor you, but beyond that it seems that it's up to you to decide.” Blaze opened her mouth to speak, but was swiftly interrupted by two occurrences.

The first was a pillar of sand forming on the platform to Liu Kang’s right, coalescing until it formed into the shape of a man with dark skin and glowing eyes. “Lord Liu Kang, I have sensed a disturbance in the timelines. It seems that multiple universes are converging on our own.” Geras told his master, before locking eyes with Blaze. “You are from one of those universes. What are your intentions?”

The second was a portal opening to Blaze’s left, from which a hedgehog with silver fur covered in green energy emerged. “Blaze! I sensed you were in danger, what happened?” Silver the Hedgehog then turned his head towards Liu Kang and Geras, and crossed his arms. “You two… who are you? Were you attacking Blaze?”

Liu Kang held his hands out to pacify Silver, before turning to his ally “Geras, these two are allies. This one is Blaze the Cat, and she seeks my help as a mentor.” 

“That’s correct.” Blaze spoke up, before turning to Silver. “And I was sparring with Lord Liu Kang to prove my intentions to him.” She then turned back to the god of fire, pointedly looking at Geras in the process. “Well, I believe we should introduce ourselves, then. I am Blaze, Princess of the Sol Empire and Guardian of the Sol Emeralds. I have been chosen to gather a group of people from other dimensions and have them interact, to see what changes they may bring.

Geras then placed a hand to his chest before speaking. “I am Geras, Keeper of Time, and the maintainer of Liu Kang’s vision for the timeline. As a fixed point in time, I have seen events from across all points in time, and I use the wisdom I gain from it to help Liu Kang.”

“All of that is to say that he is one of my closest friends.” Liu Kang summarised for him before pointing to himself. “I am Liu Kang, God of Fire and Protector of Earthrealm. I was contacted by a few people outside of this universe to help guide Blaze, as her mentor.”

Silver wiped a beat of sweat from his face before speaking. “I am Silver the Hedgehog. I am a traveller from the future, who seeks to keep it safe by righting any wrong that comes from the past… which is basically Blaze’s present.” 

Blaze raised an eyebrow at him, but quickly moved on in favour of focusing on what she came here to do. “Well, with that out of the way, I need to get in contact with the other universes, or more specifically the people in them. Miriam gave me a list of people to contact, and the… IDs to use.” She then pulled out a purple and red smartphone, navigated to a specific photo, before showing it to everyone else.

“Huh? What’s with that messed up one in the middle?” Silver asked, scratching his head in the process.

“To be completely honest, I thought Miriam had bad handwriting, but she said that no matter what she did, the name always came out wonky.” Blaze explained, while Silver gasped silently. “She believes that some other force is hiding the name, though she doesn’t know why.”

Geras crossed his arms and scratched his chin in thought. “It is possible that this person has enough influence over the multiverse to hide their identity, but for what reason is beyond me.

“Could they be an enemy?” Liu Kang pondered aloud, only for Blaze to shake her head.

“Impossible. Miriam said that these people were ALL heroes in one way or another. Sure, they may have their own views, but they’re all on the side of good. We just need to hope for the best. That’s what you’d say, right Silver?”

Silver nodded in turn. “Y-yeah. Now, why don’t you contact them?”

Blaze considered doing so, but instead looked at Silver suspiciously. “Silver… Why are you so nervous? It’s not usually like you to be like this.”

Silver scratched his head, sweating in the process, before sighing loudly. “I was hoping for this to not come up, especially after I rejected them, but…” Silver then took a deep breath, before saying the truth to Blaze.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three se-

“THIS WAS YOUR JOB?!” These were the last words Blaze screamed, before the platform they were on was engulfed in flames.

Chapter Text

Blaze’s Multiversal Journal: Log 1

This shouldn't be my journal.

Silver was supposed to be the Admin of our world. He was offered the job by Lilith and Miriam due to his ability to travel across time, space, and with enough work dimensions. However, he rejected their offer, citing that there was someone else that could do the job better; that person being me. I like it when people, given a job, recognize that there are people better suited for it and delegate it to them; I can’t count the number of times I’ve done that, when it comes to the tax forms we need to collect in the Sol Empire.

What I don’t like is when that delegation is done behind a person’s back. I don’t like it when I am forced to take up more work because they think “I” am the best because I am the princess. And I don’t like it when SILVER ACTS LIKE A COWARD!

…I can’t blame Silver for doing that. For having Miriam and Lilith make me the admin instead. He’s travelled through time and space, yes, but going across dimensions is far harder for him; something I can do easily with the assistance of the Jeweled Scepter. That, and he genuinely believes that I am the best candidate for admin, since I actually work with people often, in comparison to him only doing so during the Eggman War.

I just wish that I could truly believe that I’m the best choice for this…

Still, we’ve got other things to worry about. For one, the transfer of the Administrator role to me caused a few issues with the server we’re using to host our ‘multidimensional chat room’; namely, it hasn’t connected with any of the people we want to connect with. Ergo, We need to travel to their dimensions, and add them to the server manually, either by adding the software to their phones, or by giving them phones in the first place. They are normal smartphones, just with the added capability of cross-dimensional communications; given that one of our candidates lives in what I can only describe as medieval times, I have a feeling she’ll be in a bit of a bind compared to everyone else.

Now that I think about it, I need to interrogate Sonic about that time he called me “Sir Percival”. He said that name with far too much conviction for me to believe that it was just a joke. But that’s not relevant for now.

Silver and Geras are joining Liu Kang and I in meeting up with the first of these candidates; one Dante Redgrave; the younger Son of Sparda, and the more sociable of the two. Let us hope that nothing strange comes out of it…

Meanwhile, in the Devil May Cry universe…

2015, Underworld, Earth-D-54285

“Man… I’m bored.” Dante grumbled to himself as he laid upon the floor, which was made out of some sort of regolith; not like he was going to nerd out over the stuff, unlike his brother. 

“Well, if you’re so bored, then why don’t you go back to the human world?” Vergil asked back, doing his damnedest to keep his focus on the rock that he was inspecting.

“Wow, that’s a great idea, Vergil! All I need is a portal, perhaps made with a very, very sharp katana!” Dante then turned his head towards his brother, a shit-eating grin plastered onto his face. “Know where I can find one?” His sarcasm was met with nothing, as Vergil continued to glare at the rock. “Seriously? How the hell are you not bored right now, Verg?”

“It’s better than fighting for the nth time, and it’s much better than wandering around hell for days.” Vergil spoke before finally looking at Dante with a glare. “Besides, going back means paying Nero back in child support, and dealing with those demons you call your partners.”

Dante waved him off, but only after looking around out of paranoia. “Well, I guess you have a point. Then again, I want to make sure they didn’t burn my place down - or racked up a big-ass bill in my name!” He hoped that his older brother was going to snipe back, if only because talking shit was a good way to deal with boredom.

But there was some good news; A portal opened up!

Of course, given that it wasn’t opened by Vergil, there was only really one possible option: Demons. As such, the Sons of Sparda got up from the ground and pointed their swords at the portal; Vergil drawing his katana, Yamato, from its sheath, and Dante summoning his own sword from the ether. “What the hell is this?” Vergil asked, before shaking his head out of disappointment, something Dante relished in for a moment. Before he could make a quip, someone appeared before them.

The figure was a man of Chinese origin with dragon tattoos all over his arms, with glowing white eyes and an outfit that screamed “God of Martial Arts”. He was followed by a dark-skinned man with sand-like tattoos and cracks in his skin, and by two humanoid animal people that were half their height; a purple cat woman and a silver hedgehog-thingie. The cat-woman wore more clothes than the hedgehog, and the quality and cut of them made it clear she was royalty of some kind; Still, this didn’t phase Dante, who merely shrugged at the group. “Look, if you’re going to curse Sparda for sealing you in hell, you can skip the introductions and try to kill us; We’ve heard that sorta speech far too many times to care.”

The dragon-tattoo guy walked forward and held his hands up in a peaceful gesture. “We are not here to fight you, Dante Redgrave-” He turned his eyes towards Vergil, giving him the same gesture. “-nor you, Vergil, Son of Sparda.”

“So you say, but you also could be lying to us.” Vergil pointed out, though he had slightly lowered his katana in the process. 

“Then, let us introduce ourselves.” The dragon-tattoo guy said with a smile, putting his hands behind his back. “My name is Lord Liu Kang, God of Fire, and Protector of Earthrealm. These are my companions, Geras, Blaze the Cat, and Silver the Hedgehog.” The now named Liu Kang gestured to the other man, the cat, and the hedgehog, solidifying their identities. 

Of the three, the first to step forward was Geras. “I am Geras; I maintain the Hourglass, and protect the universe from any interdimensional threats.” Dante raised an eyebrow at that, though he kept silent as Geras stepped back to give space to Silver.

“I am Silver the Hedgehog, and I come from the future - or if I were to be more accurate, I come from a future related to my world. I make sure that any threats to it are stopped by going back to the present, of my world.” The gears in the Devil hunter’s head started to turn, as he knew that something was up.

“And I am Blaze the Cat, Princess to the Sol Empire, Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, and Admin of the Multiverse.” She said the last part with a glare aimed at Silver, and Dante knew he had an opportunity to ask his own questions.

“Ok, so let me ask the obvious question; Are you screwing with us?” Dante asked the four of them, only to earn a sigh from Vergil as he sheathed the Yamato. 

“They clearly don’t come from this world, Dante. Of all the demonic texts I have read, I have seen nothing about an ‘Earthrealm’ or ‘Sol Emeralds’. The demons call the human world the Human World for a reason; As for the Sol Emeralds, I can only assume that they carry some strange power, simply by the reverence in her voice  when she spoke about them. Wouldn’t there be a few records about a demon searching for them, much less using them?”

“Heh, says the guy who raised TWO things from the Demon World into the Human World!” Dante joked before quickly dodging a summoned sword from Vergil.

“Enough of that.” Vergil growled at Dante with a glare. “Besides, the Yamato can tell that they are not from this world, or have you forgotten that it is capable of cutting through universes?”

“Well, if that’s the case…” Dante then turned his attention to the group from out of hell. “...then what are you four here for? And how do you know our names?”

It was Blaze’s turn to answer, pulling out a phone in the process. “Like I said, I am an Admin of the Multiverse, charged by the Society of Multiversal Administrators to manage connections between universes. We know who you are because another Admin gave us a list of people to connect with, and details about all of them. We know the basics about you both, like Dante’s penchant for pizza… or Vergil’s lust for Power.” She glared at Vergil, though it did nothing to weaken the interest in his eyes.

“Oh Hell yeah! Count me in!” Dante instantly agreed, a mad grin on his face. “It’s been boring as hell here.” He then leaned into Blaze while turning his mouth away from Vergil. “And between you and me, I don’t want to go back to the Human World anytime soon; There’s a birthday party that I DO NOT want to be anywhere near anytime soon.”

“While I do not share Dante’s extreme… enthusiasm for dealing with people, the multiverse may have more knowledge… and more powerful foes. Consider me interested.” Vergil asked, scratching his chin in the process. 

“Indeed, though the invitation is for Dante alone.” Blaze clarified, only for Silver to point at Vergil.

“Hey, we have a lot of phones, and I bet not everyone’s gonna need one. Why don’t we bring Vergil in as well?”

Blaze glared at Silver with the fury of a solar flare. “Did you forget what the files said about him? He raised the Temen-ni-Gru for the sake of his own power, not caring about the consequences of such an act! We’re supposed to be working with heroes, not people like him!”

Before she could continue, Liu Kang held his hand out towards her in a pacifying gesture. “I would not be worried. Vergil has done terrible things for power, yes, but he is nowhere near as terrible as you may expect, Blaze the Cat.” He then exhaled from his nose while a frown formed on his face. “Trust me, I have seen charlatans do far more damage than he has - or ever would.”

“Indeed.” Geras spoke up after his master. “He has a strong code of honour, and he is known to work with others when necessary. The fact that he has helped Dante in clearing the roots of the Qliphoth is proof.”

Blaze hummed to herself at the arguments, but was shocked out of it by a scoff, courtesy of Vergil. “Do not worry, Blaze . I clearly see this is not an invitation open for me, so I see no reason to join along with this misadventure Dante is clearly getting wrapped up in.” He then tried to walk away from the group, only for Dante to reel him back in with his hand.

“Ah, hell no, you’re not getting away from this, Verg! Besides, it could be fun!” Dante wrapped his arm around Vergil’s shoulder to hold him in place, though the elder Son of Sparda merely crossed his hands and frowned.

“No.” Vergil answered bluntly.

“Yes!” Dante shot back, a grin on his face.

“No.”

“Yes!”

“No.”

“Yes!”

“No.”

“No!”

“Yes.” 

“And you heard it first from Vergil - He wants to join!” Dante proudly crowed, while Vergil merely sighed out of annoyance, an emotion shared by Blaze if the hand rubbing her brow said anything about her state.

“Fine, you can join us…” She then glared and pointed a finger at Vergil. “But do not think about going after the Sol Emeralds, or I will end you!”

“You can try.” He challenged her, leaning back proudly and defiantly. 

She decided to merely sigh in annoyance, before pulling out two more phones and handing them to Dante and Vergil, who took it with varying degrees of interest. “I had a feeling that you lack any sort of ‘smart device’, so I took the liberty of getting a few phones from my fellow admins. They said that some of the worlds I plan on contacting will not have access to devices powerful enough to communicate across dimensions, so I’m giving those people smartphones to do so, with the communication app installed; Otherwise, I would’ve just added the apps to your existing phone.”

Dante immediately started playing with the phone, testing out every function he could find, while his brother merely inspected it once before looking at Blaze. “And these ‘smart devices’, do they only work across dimensions?”

Blaze shook her head in response. “They have all the abilities of a normal smartphone, though they also have the ability to communicate across dimensions. I’ve no clue how they work beyond that; you will need to ask Lilith, if you can ever get in contact with her.”

Vergil seemed to have no more questions, at which point Blaze then turned to the rest of her group to convene at the barest of whispers. “Well, we got Dante, and Vergil.” Silver summarised for the group. “Let’s go to the next world, and get Ichiban added to the group chat.” Sadly, both devils had supremely good hearing, and heard exactly what he said.

“Next world, you say?” Dante asked, leaning in towards the four of them, before turning to Vergil. “Yo, Verg, wanna join them on whatever they’re doing? It sounds like fun!”

“Th-that would be a terrible idea, Dante.” Blaze countered with a shake of her head. “The portal needs to be stable for all of us to get to the right place.”

Geras looked at the Yamato for a moment before speaking. “If I may, the Yamato is capable of cutting portals between dimensions, due to having an extremely sharp edge; in turn, the portals are far more stable than what Lord Liu Kang can summon with the Hourglass, or what you could summon with the Jeweled Scepter.”

“I see…” Liu Kang nodded before looking at Vergil. “Vergil, Son of Sparda, how precisely can you cut a portal?”

“To a millimetre from a destination, even across dimensions.” Vergil answered proudly, showing off the Yamato in the process.

Liu kang smiled at the answer. “Perfect. We can use the Yamato to summon a portal to Blaze’s world, and test for its stability. If it is stable enough, then we can return the Scepter to its rightful place, and move onto the world of Ichiban Kasuga.” 

“I guess that means… welcome to our impromptu group, Dante and Vergil.” Blaze told the two of them, earning a smile from Dante.

“Alright! Multiverse, don’t come-a knocking, cuz Devil May Cry’s a rockin’!” Dante shouted out, while Vergil drew the Yamato from its sheath. 

“Do not celebrate so early, Dante. We still need to see if they have the right coordinates.” Vergil then focused, before raising his katana up and slashing it down.

Meanwhile, in an unknown universe

It was in the middle of cleaning up the ship he called home that he sensed something was wrong; more accurately, the sensors on the ship picked up something strange. “Hmm?” He hummed in his robotic voice before flying to the ship’s console like an owl, and scanning the date being output. “Q1, 2, and 4 are clear, the Grineer are invading Venus, … Huh?! WHAT THE FUUUU- Ordis needs to let the Operator know about this.” He tried to ping his master, but all of them were rejected, the error message coming up in his mind. “Error #2013, Do Not Disturb, Oh… she must still be locked up in her room.” 

Swiftly, he flew out of the navigation room, down the ramp, past the Foundry and Arsenal and Relic Manager, right until he was at the back-end of the ship, right in front of the most important room on the ship; the Transference Room. He took a deep breath (as best a robot could do) before using a function to open the door. “Sorry, Operator, but I need to tell you… something.”

Right in front of him was a woman, sitting in front of a chair with white branches behind it and facing the door with her eyes closed, meditating on something. Her blonde hair was tied up with an elastic band, and she was wearing nothing barring the bare minimum required to keep her powers in check; a simple transference suit, coloured in red, black and white. Notably, unlike his operator, she was much older, as she appeared to be in her late 20’s and early 30’s, though once she opened her eyes and mouth any doubts he had were swiftly dissolved. “Hey, Ordis. Are you looking for little me?”

“I am, Operator, though it seems she has yet to take over.” The robot, now named Ordis, responded with a saddened edge to his voice.

“She’s still mourning him, but I can’t blame her; she knew him for far longer than she knew me.” Her green eyes looked down to the floor out of sadness, before she shook her head and returned to look at the floating robot, standing up in the process. “But she and I know the same things; I can act in her stead, for now.”

Ordis nodded before speaking. “There is a strange void signal being produced, and I do not know why. It has an expansion range of 25.413 parsecs, which is -IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE- is exceedingly far from the Origin System, and even further than Tau.”

“I see. Ordis, bring the Orbiter close to the signal, I’ll prepare my loadout while you fly us there, alright?” The woman known as the Operator walked out of the room before walking to the Arsenal, which she played with before settling on a loadout. As for Ordis, he commanded the ship to fly towards the signal, the anomaly he picked up on; As he did so, he could only speculate on what he was sensing.

“A Sentient invasion? Grineer expansionism? An Alternate Universe?” Ordis thought aloud, before laughing loudly. “The last one would be impossible, even if the Operator is proof of such. Still… It should not be that strange… right?” Ordis was very, very wrong, though he would not know it until much later.

Chapter Text

Blaze’s Multiversal Journal: Log 2

We’ve connected with the first person on my list, Dante Redgrave, and now we’re on our way to see the second person on our list; Ichiban Kasuga, the Rock-Bottom Dragon.

I cannot say I’m entirely… enthused by the idea of bringing a gangster onto the party. Yes, Miriam said that all of the members of the chat are heroes in their own way, and Lord Liu Kang has told me that one's circumstances in life does not necessarily define their morality, having apparently worked with a gangster-turned-hero. Still, I don’t believe it will be easy for me to accept him as a part of our group; yakuza are like a gang, and gangs have been a problem I’ve had to deal with in the Sol Empire, simply because the cracks in the system are too large for us to easily fix, or even seal up. That’s just what happens when you have an empire as big as mine; you never have the resources or time to fix every issue, and so people are left behind.

Still, even if gangsters or yakuza claim to be helping the poor, their actions say otherwise, as they use their positions to take even more from them in the process. For example, a corner store in a poorer part of the empire is underprotected, either because the police officers lack the resources to help, or because they are too greedy to care. The corner store has to resort to asking less honest people to help defend themselves, which leads to them being forced into paying criminals for protection against other criminals. 

Perhaps I’m in the wrong, and that they are a necessary evil for our empire to run, but I still can’t help but wonder if there is something I can do; could I shift some resources around, to make it easier for the less fortunate? Could I change a policy, so that corruption in the police force is less noted?

Maybe I’m just a bit more antsy, given that Dante and Vergil are fighting sparring against Liu Kang nearly every chance they get. Despite how much the Yamato has helped us cross dimensions, and despite the fact that training is especially useful since we don’t always know what we might face, I still need my sleep, and those two do not shut up.

I wonder if I could get away with lighting Dante’s pants on fire…

Get Silver to steal his jacket? lift his pizza? Make it speak?

I will workshop an idea later. For now, I need to gather information about this world and about Ichiban; he is about to be released from prison, and Liu Kang is sure that we’ll need it to bring Ichiban around to the group.

Meanwhile, in the Yakuza Universe…

2019, Tokyo Prison, Tokyo, Earth-Y-54285

Eighteen years. 

It had been eighteen years since Ichiban Kasuga was last a free man. On his 24th Birthday on New Years Day, He had been called into the office of his patriarch, Masumi Arakawa, who asked him (bowed before him as well!) to take the fall for the murder of a member of another Yakuza family. Ichiban accepted it without hesitation, wanting to do right by the man he had admired for a large portion of his life; Hell, he admired him so much that the fifteen year sentence for the man’s murder was extended to eighteen, all because he wouldn’t let Arakawa’s name be dragged through the mud.

But now he was free, and now he was about to see his patriarch once more; that’s what he had been promised when he first agreed to turn himself in. Adjusting the cap that covered his now-long hair, Ichiban smiled before walking out the exterior door of the prison. As the sun glared into his eyes, he closed them and took off his hat before bowing down with his hands on his thighs

“Oya-san, I’m so sorry! I should have thought about how you’d feel waiting for me to get out! I’m such an idiot for making you wait an extra three years! I’m so, so sorry! I kept you waiting for so long! But Ichiban Kasuga is finally back!” Our red-coated hero, Ichiban Kasuga, screamed at the top of his lungs before waiting in silence. Not even a thought had entered his mind, as he waited for the response from his boss.

“What a heartfelt apology. I can tell you really care for this Oya-san, Ichiban Kasuga.” An unfamiliar voice spoke before him, and Ichiban looked up in shock. He was Chinese, with long black hair and an outfit straight out of a martial arts film; Ichiban could sense an odd amount of power from the man which was a bit strange to him, though not much stranger than what the man said next. “Or should I say… Masumi Arakawa?”

Ichiban’s eyes widened upon hearing that. “Huh? Who are you? How in the world do you know about Arakawa-san? How do you know about me?” Ichiban questioned him, before glaring at him. “Wait a minute, are you with one of those Chinese mafias that Arakawa-san told me about?” 

The mysterious man shook his head before answering. “No, I am not. My name is Liu Kang, God of Fire, and Protector of Earthrealm.” The man went silent, as Ichiban stayed silent upon hearing all of that.

“...What?” Ichiban said, after a hot moment. Who was this guy, and what sort of drugs was he using? Ichiban thought these questions and more, slowly but surely coming to a realisation… that this guy was clearly on some sorta drugs. “Alright, you know what? I’m not dealing with this crap, I have to find Arakawa-san!”

“I do not believe he will be coming here anytime soon.” Another unfamiliar voice spoke, this one with a deeper timbre than the high-as-balls Chinese guy in front of him. The source was quickly revealed to be an African-American man with glowing eyes, cracks on his skin, and wearing nothing but pants and wrappings around his hands and shins; of course, the strangest thing was that he formed himself out of nothing but sand. “From what I understand of this world, the ‘Yakuza’ you speak off have been cracked down upon greatly, so much so that it would be near impossible for a man of Masumi Arakawa’s status to simply drive here, Ichiban Kasuga.”

“What?!” Ichiban asked in shock, only to feel a hand on his shoulder, which happened to be from the prison guard that opened the door for him.

“As much as I want to say that we’re both hallucinating, he is right; the Yakuza have been going into hiding after the police cracked down on them; I doubt that your boss would be able to come out to greet you, out in the open.” He quickly explained, before walking back to the door. “Now if you excuse me, I’m going back inside, I’m going to find the nearest washroom, and then I’m going to have a mental breakdown.” The man calmly said, before closing the door on Ichiban.

What the hell?" Ichiban whispered to himself before turning back to the strange Chinese man; before he could speak, however, another voice spoke up.

"Yeah, honestly, I'd do the same as the other guy if I saw a guy manifest out of sand." Another unfamiliar man spoke, though to Ichiban's pleasure he seemed to be a normal japanese person; much to his displeasure, he also seemed to be a police officer going by the jacket he wore. "Sadly, I don’t have a washroom conveniently nearby, so I'll have to hold it in until later."

"Who the hell are you?" Ichiban blurted out, to which the officer guy was about to answer... until Liu Kang spoke up first.

"Koichi Adachi, of the Kanagawa Prefecture Police Department. You were a police officer, until you caught your superior attempting to unjustly punish an innocent man for the sake of his position, which led to your demotion. You know he works with Masumi Arakawa, hence why you are here, in the hopes that Ichiban Kasuga here will help you find him."

"What the shit?!" The now-named Koichi cried out loud, before pointing at Liu Kang. "Look, I can accept you knowing who the hell Kasuga-san is, but knowing who the hell I am before I even spoke to you is bullshit, Mr. Lord of Fire!" He then continued to ramble in Liu Kang's face, and Ichiban would have been interested, but he had better things to worry about.

"Well, it was nice tripping for a bit, but I have a patriarch to find." He spoke, before turning to the right and walking. "See ya-"

"Would you like me to bring you to Masumi Arakawa, Ichiban Kasuga?" 

Ichiban halted in place upon hearing those words come out of Liu Kang slowly turning around to face the strange man. "What do you mean by that?" 

Liu Kang smiled before crossing his arms. "You are loyal, and any attempt I could make to convince you of the truth will be rebuffed, no matter how much I try. The only way I can make you understand is to let you find the truth, so I shall help you do that." He then extended a hand towards Ichiban. “So I ask you once more: Would you like me to bring you to Masumi Arakawa, Ichiban Kasuga?" 

If Ichiban was completely honest with himself, he was a pretty weird guy, outside the whole tough-guy yakuza shtick. He was a fan of Dragon Quest, playing every entry religiously, even more so after he got into the Arakawa family. He was honourable to a fault, only taking money from those who could afford to lose it (and never taking it in a cowardly way) so much so that he frequently got in trouble for never making enough. Hell, this even extended to fights, where he would let his enemies get a good hit on him after he struck them, all to give them a fair chance (even if smarter people would just keep punching until their foe’s on the ground). He was a dork, a dumbass, and possibly a dweeb, and yet not a single person could even phase him, since he strongly believed in himself and the Arakawa family.

So when he got teleported to the nearest cemetery in a swirl of flames, only to see two white-haired Americans that looked closely related, and a pair of standing animals , he had a feeling he was tripping on some terribly bad drugs. “What the hell sorta drugs did I take?” At least that police guy didn’t come with him; Even though Ichiban could sympathise with his goal, he wasn’t going to bring a cop to his bosses face.

“You took no drugs, Ichiban Kasuga.” Liu Kang answered quickly, with a slight frown on his face.

“You sure about that?” Ichiban asked, shocked at the man’s nonplussed attitude. “I’m seeing a purple cat with heels and a white spiky-thingie with neon gloves and boots!” 

“I’m a hedgehog!” The Spiky-th- Hedgehog shot back. “And I’m actually Silver; It’s my name, by the way.”

“Ok, uh, Hi, my name’s Ichiban.” Ichiban responded somewhat politely. “Ichiban-

“Kasuga.” The purple cat spoke up, with a cold tone somewhat akin to Sawashiro. “Member of the Arakawa family, and recently released from prison. 

“Alright, how the hell d’you know about that? First that weird police guy, now you? What, did all of my info get leaked to the press?” Ichiban asked in shock, only to get a chuckle from the Americans.

“Not really, but it’s pretty easy to find out if you pressure the right people.” One of the white-haired Americans, this one wearing a red coat, quipped at Ichiban before turning his attention to Liu kang. “Speaking of which, Liu-ey, why in the world did you ask us to look into that Adachi guy? I know Ichiban here’s important to Blaze, but the other guy’s got nothing going on!”

“I will admit that it is only a gut feeling… but I believe that he will be important to Ichiban, sooner or later.” Liu Kang said to the group, much to their shock.

“Eh, I can see it.” Ichiban nodded his head at the reveal. “I trust my gut a lot, and it’s almost never gotten me into trouble.”

“Almost?” The red-coated American asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t ask about it. The less I can remember about the noodle man, the better.” Ichiban explained with a shudder, only to realise something. “Wait a minute!” He then spun to face Liu Kang with an accusatory finger. “You said you would bring me to Arakawa-san! Where is he?”

Liu Kang seemed to be taken aback by his outburst, though this was proven wrong when he turned around and paused, before turning back to face Ichiban. “Well… It seems you will be seeing him now.” He then stepped aside, letting the young yakuza come face to face with…

Masumi “The Killer” Arakawa. It had been years since Ichiban had seen him in the flesh; There were more wrinkles on his face, and his once-clean shaven face had a goatee, to say nothing of his greying hair. He also seemed to be surrounded by unfamiliar men, two of which were walking side-by 0sde with Arakawa. Despite all of this, The scar on his face was more than enough to confirm his identity to Ichiban, at which point he bowed deeply before his oyabun. “Oya-san! I’m so sorry for being late, but I finally got out of prison! Now, allow me to pay amends, and help the Arakawa family once more!”

“Wh-what?” He gasped out with a surprising amount of shock, especially given how cool-headed he could be in Ichiban’s experience. Looking up, he saw a large shadow appear on his boss’s face, though it seemed to come from something above; in fact, the shadow seemed to be covering Ichiban as well. Looking up even further gave Ichiban his answer; There was a giant thing falling from the sky, right towards himself and Arakawa. At that point, there was only one thing he could do.

“Oya-san, look out!” Ichiban screamed before throwing himself at Arakawa, launching the both of them out of the way of the thing, though two of the men besides his boss were unlucky, as they were crushed by the thing, their screams of pain the last noises they ever made. Landing on the ground, Ichiban looked down to make sure his boss was safe, before turning around to look at the source of the shadow. “What… the hell is that?!”

It was a large, squat dragon, with golden scales, white spines along its back, and fearsome wings that were a much shinier gold compared to the dragon’s scales. The claws at the end of its hands and feet were long and sharp, and the muscular tail was heavy and assuredly lethal, with the right movements. It stared down at Ichiban for a moment, before reeling its horned head back and roaring to the heavens. “RREEAAGGH!!!” roared the dragon, before fire started to accumulate in its gaping maw.

“Shit, Ichiban! Get outta there!” The Red-coated American from earlier screamed out, which shocked Ichiban into action. He grabbed the hand of Arakawa, before pulling him up onto his feet, and into a run towards the dragon’s left. As he did so, the dragon leaned forward and unleashed a breath of fire onto the grounds of the cemetery, burning the rest of the men accompanying Arakawa in the process. It was only luck that Ichiban ran right into the group, at which point the dragon stopped breathing fire to instead growl at the team.

As he got back onto his feet, Ichiban could only look at the Dragon in shock, though he was cognizant enough to see the rest of the weird group observe the dragon. “So, are Dragons supposed to be common around here?” The American asked Liu Kang, who looked to be deep in thought.

“Metaphorical Dragons, perhaps, but not a literal fire-breathing dragon.” Blaze brought up, before growling to herself. “So why is it here?” 

“Someone brought it here.” The other American, with slicked back hair and a black coat, finally spoke up in a cold tone, before lifting up the sheathed katana in his left hand. “I can tell as much, since the Yamato is reacting to its very presence.”

“Is someone attempting to interfere with the timeline?” Liu Kang asked aloud, though any further thinking was halted by the dragon roaring. “Damn it all! There is no time to think about it; We must defeat it now, or it will terrorise the city.”

“I doubt I’ll be of much help.” Blaze noted dismally. “I can tell its hide is heat-resistant by the scale pattern; it’ll absorb my flames with ease.” 

“Dante, you have an ice-weapon, right?” The Black-coated American addressed the Red-Coated American, who was apparently named ‘Dante’. “That stupid three-headed Dog?”

“Of course I do, Verg!” Dante quipped back, before pulling out- Was that a Tripartite Nunchaku? With Ice all over it? “Ever since I got the king, I’ve kept him on hand; I miss the old pooch, and he reminds me of him, to say nothing of his… nice abilities.”

“Make your jokes later, Dante. We have a dragon to vanquish, apparently.” Verg’ chided Dante with a sigh, before looking at Ichiban. “Kasuga-san! If you wish to live, get the hell out of the way. The same applies to you, Arakawa-san!” He then placed his hand on the handle of the Yamato before going into stance. Ichiban wanted to help, but Arakawa lightly tugged on his jacket, which spurred Ichiban into running right behind a big grave. As they got into place, he could see the weird group of people get into fighting stances.

“Yo, Silver! Get an ice truck, or something like that; I wanna freeze this thing solid!” Dante hollered up to Silver, who saluted to him while floating in the air.

“I won’t let you down, Dante!” Silver hollered back, before flying off into the distance.

“Geras! Prevent the dragon from escaping the cemetery! We can fix any damages afterwards!” Liu Kang called out to the African-American man, who apparently was named Geras; He proceeded to do as his companion commanded by turning into a tornado of sand and expanding. He grew and grew in size, until the tornado was large enough to keep the Dragon, the group of heroes from another world (apparently) inside, though Ichiban could still see them fight inside.

Finally, Blaze got into a stance alongside Liu kang. “I won’t be able to do much damage, but I’ll do my best to help!” 

BGM: Pellagra (Yakuza: Like a Dragon OST)

“Any help is greatly appreciated!’ Dante smiled at her, before waving his hand out and replacing the nunchaku with a large sword via a flick of his hand, though Ichiban would sooner compare it to a slab of iron over a sword. Still, he wielded it like it was nothing, spinning it around before pointing it at the dragon. “I’ve always wanted to slay a dragon; guess now’s the time, huh!” He hollered at the dragon, and the dragon roared back.

From Out of Fucking Nowhere - Great Dragon

Dante dashed forward, hollering “Trickster!” in the process, before swinging his sword upwards, deflecting a claw from the dragon in the process. While the dragon was off balance, Dante teleported (teleported?!) up to the dragon’s head before swinging his sword wildly, slashing into the flesh with ease. Slamming his foot into its maw, Dante flipped off the dragon before pulling out a pair of pistols and yelling out“Gunslinger!”, shooting them downwards while flying away from the beast. It tried to retaliate with a bite aimed at Dante’s body, but another shout of “Trickster!” teleported him away from the dragon’s face, leaving someone else in its place; Liu Kang.

He quickly showed off his godly nature by rapidly kicking the dragon in the face, ending the quick combo with a flurry of bicycle kicks. As the dragon’s head reeled back into place, Liu Kang teleported to its feet before launching a barrage of projectiles from his hands, some flaming orbs and other bouncing dragons, right at the beast; like Blaze said, they did little to harm the dragon, but it was enough to draw its attention towards him. It quickly raised its left arm up before slamming it down on Liu Kang’s position, though the God of Fire quickly cartwheeled out of the way, kicking it in the elbow in the process. He rolled towards the back of the Dragon, dodging a tail slam in the process, before kicking upwards, sending a burning dragon up and across the dragon’s back. It turned to face him, but the smirk on his face showed that he was in no danger. “Vergil, he’s open!” Liu Kang hollered, with a barrage of slashes ripping through the horns on the dragon’s head afterwards.

“Finally.” The now named Vergil said with a smirk, 20 feet in the air and well above the head of the dragon, before diving down and slamming the edge of his katana into the back of the dragon, gouging it viciously. On the ground, Vergil slashed at the dragon three times, before drawing the Yamato back into its sheath, which allowed him to summon another barrage of cuts like the first one, this time aimed at the front of the dragon when it turned to face him. Blinded by the cuts, Vergil snapped his fingers and summoned a ring of ghostly swords around his body, before teleporting them to above the dragon’s head, at which point they rammed into it with a vicious amount of force. This aggravated the dragon so much that it charged fire in its mouth before spewing it out-right towards Ichiban and Arakawa.

“I got it!” Blaze hollered out, before collecting the fire with her hands into a ball somehow. The dragon continued to spew, causing the ball in Blaze’s hands to grow larger and larger, until the dragon exhausted its breath, which led to the ball in Blaze’s hands being larger than herself. She brought her hands together, condensing the ball into an orb of pure blue flames, before launching it right towards the dragon, where it proceeded to burn the dragon’s mouth severely despite its supposed resistance to fire. “Huh, I guess it had its limits, then.” Blaze then charged fire in her hands, though she quickly stopped in favour of looking off into the distance, where Silver had flown off.

“I GOT SOMETHING!” Silver screamed out from outside the storm of sand carrying something indeed; a massive truck, with a logo for a refrigerated-delivery company. “Dante, will this help?”

Said red-coated American smiled with glee upon seeing the truck in Silver’s ‘hands’. “Oh, like a cold beer on a hot day! Throw it at the dragon!” Dante hollered out before switching his sword out for the nunchucks from earlier, doing a quick kata and kiai in the process. As he did so, Silver threw the truck at the dragon with some unknown cyan force, causing it to slam into the dragon and cover it in ice and near-freezing water. 

It coughed from the cold, though its condition got worse when Dante started swinging the nunchucks at its body. Each swing cracked like lightning against the thick hide, bruising it and leaving an icy mark in the process, and this was amplified even more by the constant swings Dante did with the chucks. From spinning them around his body to flipping in the air like a buzzsaw, the chucks were practically beating on the dragon like a drum, rapidly applying ice to the dragon’s body. Within seconds, the dragon was covered head-to-toe in frost and ice, though the biggest effect came when Dante slammed the chucks into the ground, freezing the dragon in a solid mass of ice akin to a miniature glacier. “First heat, then cold!” Dante quipped, before switching out the nunchucks for a set of metal gloves and boots. He then started to dance in place, slowly building up heat on his feet to the point of igniting them, before transferring the heat to his gauntlets and crouching down to prepare a vicious uppercut. “Now, how about I blow you up with some-”

“Slay all…” Before he could finish, Vergil teleported above the dragon and rested his hand onto his katana, summoning a faint-blue spherical aura around himself, which also enveloped the dragon and Dante. Within a blink, Vergil vanished from Ichiban’s eyes, with a massive barrage of slashes appearing in his place and filling up the aura-sphere. Dante was still in the aura’s range, but none of the slashes hit him at all; or more accurately, the slashes were blocked with a simple wave of his hand and a loud “Royalguard!”

The dragon was not so lucky, as the slashes ripped through its body like a hot knife through butter; in an instant, the ice that contained it turned a bright red, before it fell apart, blood spurting out of it in the process. As for Vergil, he merely landed behind Dante with a three-point landing, sheathing his sword in the process.

Stop BGM

“Verg, what the hell?! That was my kill!” Dante complained like a brat, ignoring the fact that he was well within the aura of Vergil’s kill sphere, or whatever it was.

“Well, if you were faster, dear brother, then you could have taken the kill yourself.” Vergil shot back, before pointing at Dante. “Besides, we’re still keeping count, aren’t we? I got the kill between the two of us, and so the point is mine; I am up one, to use your own words.” As he spoke, the rest of the strange group approached the brothers, though they seemed to lack the carefree nature either brother had.

“Vergil! Why would you use a Judgement Cut End when Dante was in range?!” Blaze screamed at Vergil, angry at his carelessness.

“First of all, Blaze, it was well-telegraphed, and the only people in range was Dante; if he couldn’t dodge it, or block it, then I wouldn’t have used it in the first place.” he then gestured to Dante, who flicked the lapels of his undamaged coat. “As you can see, there is not a scratch on his coat, ergo I have no need to be worried.”

“Even still, you could have warned him about your plans.” Liu Kang chided him with a frown. “You both may be strong, but you have a tendency to work poorly with others. Both of you.” He glared at both of them in the process, cowing them somewhat.

Any further talking was halted by Arakawa walking out from behind the grave to observe the damage, at which point Ichiban joined him without hesitation. “Oh my… look at all of the damage.” he said mournfully at the state of the cemetery; indeed, the gravestones were damaged either by the dragon, or by the attacks used to defeat it. The ice from Dante’s attack had shattered the ground beneath it, with slabs of ice embedded into it as well. To say nothing of the dead, who were either crushed by the dragon, or burnt to a crisp by its breath. Even as Geras snapped his fingers and undid the damages to the ground, the smell of death lingered in the air a bit longer.

“Hm… I cannot do anything about the dead, without disrupting the timeline, but I can fix the cemetery, at least this little bit.” Geras spoke loudly, looking mournfully at the dead bodies.

“I see…” Arakawa grumbled to himself, before looking at the group, keeping his eyes on Blaze and Silver for a moment longer. “I… I have a few questions about… you all. First of all; Who are you?” he asked with a frailty Ichiban never heard from him, and Liu Kang stepped forward.

“I am Liu Kang, God of Fire and Protector of Earthrealm. I am here with my associates to get in contact with Ichiban Kasuga.” he gestured to Ichiban in the process, though it reminded Ichiban of what he needed to do.

“Oh, right, the Arakawa family!” He gasped out, before standing back from Arakawa to bow before him. “Apologies for the disruption, Oya-san, but I humbly request to rejoin the Arakawa family!” 

Before he could react, Arakawa firmly grabbed him by the shoulders and straightened him out. As soon as he did, he gently laid a hand on Ichiban’s shoulder. “Ichi… I’m grateful to see you out of prison, after all these years. I’ve missed your presence in the family headquarters, how your speeches would bring everyone’s moods up, even Sawashiros. Despite all of the fights you’d get into with him, he too missed your presence, even if he would dance around his answers. Even knowing that, even with what happened with my men just now… I cannot allow you to rejoin the family.”

The answer made Ichiban go cold, as his legs started to wobble. “Wh-what?! Oya-san, why not?! I can still fight! I can still help the family!”

“Of course you’d say that.” Arakawa noted, before closing his eyes. “You would say that you could help the family, and I know you could, but the issues lie not with you; it lies in our very systems.” He then looked off in the distance, where a massive skyscraper stood. “Over the last few years, the yakuza have been scrutinised by the government more and more; raids on family offices have skyrocketed, and so have arrests of our members. Even if our members get out of jail quickly, the government keeps a close eye on them for recidivism, even if they merely get back in contact with us; even more so with murderers, like… you. If you joined up with the Arakawa family once more, there’s a chance you might be arrested, or even thrown back into prison. I would not want you to waste your time out here rushing yourself back into a cell.” he then turned his eyes back onto Ichiban’s, locking pupils with him. “Please, Ichi, stay out of the Yakuza… stay out of trouble.”

“Wh-what?” Ichiban asked once more. “Why would you want me to-” He tried to ask a question, only to spot something on Arakawa’s lapel; A yakuza pin, belonging to the Omi alliance. “Wait… that’s an Omi Alliance pin. Boss, why the hell do you have an Omi pin?”

“Because I’m a part of the Omi Alliance.” Arakawa simply replied, before shaking his head. “No, it would be more accurate to say that the Arakawa family as a whole is under the Omi Alliance. It became as such when we outed the Tojo Clan’s biggest families to the police, and let the Omi Alliance take over Tokyo." Ichiban was left speechless upon hearing that, forced to reconcile his image of the boss with his actions. However, the moment Arakawa tried to walk away, Ichiban finally found his voice.

‘WHAT?! WHY? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” Ichiban screamed loudly, inconsiderate of the fact that they were in a cemetery; not like he could care, not when his boss had betrayed everything the Arakawa Family stood for! “What about the family?! Did they have any choice in the matter? What about Sawashiro?! He was your right hand man-I went to prison to protect him! Did he agree?! And what about the Young master?! He looked up to you, both as a father and as a boss! Did you betray him as well?!”

Arakawa turned upon him, glaring at him furiously. “I did not!”

Ichiban had his attention, and his fury forced out his next question. “Then what happened?!

“Masato is dead!” Arakawa yelled out, silencing Ichiban in an instant. “Masato… he… he died three years into… into your sentence.”

Ichiban could feel his heart go cold as he heard those words. “The young master… the young master is…” As it did, he fell to the floor, hands upon his knees. Within seconds, tears started to fall from his eyes, as he learned about his friend. As for Arakawa, he walked up to Ichiban and sat down in front of him.

“Three years into your sentence, Masato needed a surgery to deal with complications from his illness; his lungs started to fill up with fluid, and they needed to clear it out. During the surgery, however, illness took him, and his heart failed; the doctors tried everything to save him, but fate itself took his life despite their care. I was angry at the doctors, and nearly killed them in my rage, but Sawashiro pulled me away from my rash decision. After that, I chose to isolate myself from the world, so that I could take the time to heal. Once I did that, I came to a single conclusion; I needed to keep those I cared for away from danger. I needed to keep you safe, Ichi, from any threat that could come to you because of me.”

Ichiban felt a fire burn within him once more, and glared at Arakawa. “What sorta threat?! Illness? Some other family?!” And in turn, Arakawa lost his temper.

“I will not lose another son! Not to my own weakness, or to their own!” He yelled at the top of his lungs, silencing Ichiban once more. In fact, not a single noise was made by anyone else in the group; not by Liu Kang, nor Geras, nor Blaze, nor Silver, nor Dante or Vergil. The only thing that Ichiban could hear was the wind blowing leaves around, and the wind pushing him away from Arakawa. It was a summer day; Ichiban knew that it was a warm day, but all he could feel was the cold wind on his skin. As for Arakawa, he merely sighed, before standing up and walking away from Ichiban. “Ichi… No, Ichiban. Do not follow me. Live your own life, away from the yakuza, or I will kill you.” 

As Arakawa walked away, Ichiban suddenly found a reserve of strength, and got up onto his feet. “Oya-san, don’t leave me-!” 

A bang rang out in the cemetery, and Ichiban went silent.

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

Blaze couldn’t believe what happened.

Ichiban had gotten up, took a step towards Arakawa, and within an instant the man had turned around and shot Ichiban in the chest. The two men stood silently for a moment, before Ichiban stumbled forward and fell to the ground. Blaze dashed towards the man’s body, turning him over to make sure he was alright, while Dante and Silver ran towards Arakawa, who looked upon the scene with grief.

“HEY ASSHAT! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!” Dante roared, the Devil Sword Dante in his hands roaring with demonic energy; Blaze couldn't see his eyes, but she was sure they were crackling with demonic energy.

“He’s your son!” Silver screamed loudly, his voice cracking from the heartbreak. The ground around him was cracking too, his psychokinesis pulling out rocks to throw at Arakawa.

Both were ready to throw down, but they were stopped by Liu Kang, who ran up to Ichiban with concern on his face. “Masumi Arakawa is not our problem for now. We need to help Ichiban Kasuga first!” The two turned their attention to the God of Fire, their vengeful looks turned upon him, but Liu Kang’s patience won out and pulled them towards the dying Ichiban. “The bullet never passed by his heart, Blaze the cat. We just need to heal him.”

“I might have something for that!’ Dante hollered out before digging in the pockets of his coat and pulling out a golden crystal. “A Gold Orb! Perfect for reviving the nearly-dead!” 

“Perfect indeed.” Liu Kang smiled, and held his hand out. “Let me give it to Ichiban.” The two then worked together to heal Ichiban, while Blaze turned her attention to Arakawa, who had taken the time to walk away from the group; from the terrible act he had committed.

“Blaze, attacking him from here will not help anyone.” Geras warned her, and it was that very warning that revealed to her that her hand had been raised at the man, engulfed in flames. Chokingly, she pulled her hand away from Arakawa and extinguished the fire, while Silver saddled up to her and patted her on the back. She wanted to scream, to do something, but the gasping cries of Ichiban pulled her back to reality; that she had something else to do.

“Wha-What happened?” Ichiban cried out, and Vergil relayed what happened to him; the dragon, the rejection by Arakawa, and then the gunshot through his chest. After that, the yakuza-actually, ex-yakuza, curled in on himself and started to cry. “Oya-san shot me… why? Why would he do that?”

“If you ask me, I think he’s up to something.” Dante said aloud, and Ichiban turned his attention onto him. “Well, if you’re going to ask, I can tell that he’s lying, just from his… aura, to say. He cares for you, I can tell you that much; why he shot you is beyond me.”

“What you can do next is not.” Vergil spoke up over his brother, before looking down onto Ichiban. “Ichiban Kasuga, your… oyabun kicked you out because he did not wish for you to die because of your weakness. In turn, the only way to convince him otherwise is to become strong, and defeat your weakness.”

Liu Kang saw an opportunity and walked in front of Ichiban. “Ichiban Kasuga, the reason we came to find you is to invite you to something special. As you can plainly tell, we do not come from this universe; our powers should be proof enough. There exists a multitude of universes, all with their own unique traits and histories, and Blaze has been tasked with connecting a few of them in the form of a… multiversal chat group. I believe that they can help you become stronger; strong enough to stand alongside your patriarch.” He then held a hand out towards Ichiban, with a smile on his face. “Join us, Ichiban Kasuga, and I promise you will find a purpose for yourself yet.” 

Ichiban looked down at the floor for a moment. He took a deep breath and sighed. “What else do I have? Oya-san shot me, the Arakawa family is a part of the Omi Alliance, and the Young Master is dead. I have nothing here, not my dead father, and not my family in the Yakuza.” He then looked up and grabbed Liu Kang’s hand pulling himself up to a standing posture. “Fine. I have nothing better to do, and… maybe I can figure out what to do with my life now.”

Blaze took the opportunity to step forward and inspect Ichiban. “I will admit, Ichiban Kasuga, that I have a poor opinion of your kind; that of a gangster. They claim to help the poor, the ones who fall beneath the cracks, and yet they prey on them just as much, if not more, than the system. As a ruler, I believe it is my duty to help those in unfortunate conditions, not the duty of criminals and gangsters.” She then took a deep breath before continuing. “But I can see how much you adore Arakawa-san, and I cannot help but compare it to my relationship with my father… or my mother, for some reason. I cannot hate you because of that, despite my own distaste for the yakuza. I will do my best to judge you on your own merits, and not because you are a gangster.” She then pulled out a smartphone before offering it to Ichiban. “Now, take this phone, it will allow you to contact the others across the multiverse.”

Ichiban was silent, taking in what she said about her views on the yakuza. “I see… Well, alright! I’m in!” He snatched the phone from her hand with a smile, only for it to fade upon looking at the device. “Uh… how do I use this thing? Where’s the keypad?” A giggle bubbled up from the group as Ichiban fumbled with the device, before Liu Kang stepped forward to help the ex-yakuza with the device.

As for Blaze, she was approached by Vergil. “Alright, we’ve gotten Ichiban Kasuga onto our side. Who’s next on your list?”

Blaze pulled her phone  from her pocket before inspecting the list once more. “After you and Ichiban-san… Ah, we need to go find one… Eric Myers.” She then looked at Vergil pointedly. “We’ll need a portal to Silver Hills, Washington.”

Vergil grunted, and within moments a portal formed in front of the group. Ichiban was eager to join them, and so their little gang grew by one more member.

Meanwhile, in an unknown universe…

As the orbiter exited the portal, Ordis knew that something was up. "Activating scanners... looking for Void Anomalies..." as he finished his scans, Ordis knew that something was up. "Operator, Ordis has finished his scans, and I've determined that -WE ARE LO-O-OST- We appear to be in a completely different area, far from the estimated location." 

The Operator-his Operator was facing the outer window of the Orbiter, though upon hearing Ordis speak she turned her head ever slightly towards his robotic drone. "Do we still have our tether?" 

Ordis flew to the back of the ship in an instant, before flying back to the Operator with a smile. "Origin System Tether is still intact! Recall functionality is verified and fully functional." 

"Good." His Operator shot back with a smile before looking back to the planet, which looked an awful lot like the Earth from the Origin System. "We're in a completely different universe, and yet there's a planet that looks like Earth without any of the pollution from the Grineer... or the Orokin." Ordis knew his Operator was fond of the planet, if only because it was where she found a lot of the things that intrigued her the most. Still she shook her head and turned hermfocus back onto the Navigation console. "Ordis, continue your search into the void anomaly; find out how to find it more directly. I want to get to the bottom of it." 

"Absolutely, Operator!" Ordis cried out, before flying to the back of the ship; he would need to recalibrate the Orbiter’s scanning and triangulation software, if they were to have a chance at finding the anomaly.

Chapter Text

Blaze’s Multiversal Journal: Log 3

Ichiban Kasuga, the second person on my list, has been connected to the system, and he has joined us in our quest to connect the rest of the group together.

I will admit that I’ve been proven somewhat wrong about my opinion on gangsters; namely that they are all greedy, or that they do not care for those beneath them. Over the few days I’ve known him, he has proven himself to be kind and generous, more than willing to give the shirt off his back to someone in need; literally in some cases. He is like Silver, in how optimistic they can be, and in how they see the best in people. Maybe that’s why they have gotten along so well. 

His patriarch, Masumi Arakawa, is kind in his own way, as per Ichiban’s words, but I cannot agree with him less; He shot his own man without hesitation, and left him dying on the ground. As far as I can tell, he only did it because he wanted Ichiban to stay away from the dying world of the yakuza, but Ichiban has only known about the yakuza for the vast majority of his life; his single minded focus on returning to the Arakawa family kept him sane in prison. To simply cut him out, to simply shoot him without a second thought… It is a cruelty that I have never seen, especially when Ichiban more-or-less sees him like a father. Dante said he was lying back then, but it doesn’t make me any less mad than before. But obsessing about Arakawa’s treatment of Ichiban is unhelpful, especially when Ichiban himself is trying to focus on our multiversal problems.

Speaking of which, we had to deal with a dragon in Ichiban’s version of Tokyo. While he knows of a few weird stories during his time as a yakuza, he is just as shocked to see a dragon in the middle of Tokyo, especially one from Dragon Quest. That led to a tiny moment between me and the other admins, as I needed to make sure I didn’t hear him wrong, and that he did in fact play Dragon Quest, AKA the series with art from Akira Toriyama, when he was younger.

As it turns out, some universes can interact with others by being fiction in those worlds. For example, Castlevania is apparently a world connected to SOMA, but merely a fictional novel series in Miriam’s world. Incidentally, one of my other colleagues future colleagues has a world under her sway that exists as a manga in another, and as a TV-show that inspired a girl in another world to become a… lady-bug themed superhero. I cannot say it is the weirdest thing I’ve heard of, but it is up there.

Still, Liu Kang is worried about the fact that a creature can go from one world into another; even if it’s just an accident, it’s potentially proof that the multiverse is falling to pieces, which would be no good for any of the universes. Of course, there’s a chance that this is being caused by another multiversal traveller, and that opens up many more questions; Why are they doing this? What is their end goal? What sort of power do they command? Liu Kang is stressing about it, though Ichiban of all people got him to calm down by throwing his own advice back to him.

He’s quite a special person, Ichiban Kasuga. And knowing who we’ll be picking up next, I hope he can do something to curb his attitude…

Meanwhile, in the Power Rangers universe…

2002, Silver Hills, Washington, Earth-R-54285

Silver Hills. Known for its beautiful skylines populated with the odd Clock Tower, chain jewellery stores (which seem to be constantly harassed by criminals, time lords, and time criminals), and the Bio-Lab Corporation, which was the dominant corporation in the city. This would be a problem, if it weren’t for its major philanthropic efforts towards lifting up the poor, scientific discoveries to advance the human race, and for its efforts to protect the city via the Silver Guardians

They are a group of Law Enforcement Officers that keep the peace, and deal with any mutant criminals that try to escape to the 21st century. Of the force, there are two men who are considered the best of the best; Wesley Collins, the commander of the Silver Guardians, and Eric Myers, his Second-in-Command. They are also known as Time Force Red, and the Quantum Ranger, members of the Time Force Rangers, and the only ones to live in the 2000’s.

Of course, the peace was being kept surprisingly well, and so the two found themselves eating lunch outside their car.

“Man, Everything’s going great!” Wes said, taking a bite out of his burger, which was rather delicious. It was so delicious that it was only slightly ruined by the sighing of his partner. “What’s wrong?

“Wes… how many times have I told you… don’t say that.” Eric growled out, keeping his own burger in his hand in the process. “Every time you do, we get wrapped up in some sorta bullshit.”

“What do you mean?” Wes asked his friend, shrugging dramatically, before pointing his burger at him. “Give me one good example of things going wrong.”

Eric glared at him, before putting his burger away. “We have had to deal with five Time Criminals, a Robo-Biker, and a spree of bank-robberies, all in the last few days. And funnily enough, they only happened after you said ‘Everything’s fine’ or something like that.” 

“Well, what are the odds that I’m right this time?” Wes asked hypothetically, and Eric shook his head.

“Well, given that of the ten times you’ve said that in the last month, We’ve had to deal with eleven different crimes, I would say that-” Eric’s attempt to counter his friend’s logic was halted by a portal opening up in front of them, forcing them to shelve the topic. “Contact!” Eric hollered out, pulling out his pistol and aiming it at the portal, while bringing his hand to his Quantum Morpher.

Wes, despite his laidback, easygoing nature, did not earn his position entirely due to the fact that he was the son of the Silver Guardian’s commander; no, he had lead an entire team of Power Rangers against the forces of Ransik and his mutant army, which earned him the right to lead purely out of respect for his skills in leadership. As such, when the portal opened up, it took him no time at all to draw his own pistol, throwing his burger right back into its box perfectly in the process. “Freeze! Do not approach, or we will open fire!”

“Peace, Wesley Collins, Eric Myers. We mean no harm.” A calm voice echoed from the portal, and the two of them faltered for a bit. 

“How do you know our names?” Eric asked aloud, keeping his pistol aimed at the portal.

“Because… we both seek to protect the lives of the innocent.” The voice was followed by a man stepping through the portal, hands held together in a calm, non-threatening way. The two of them lowered their pistols, though only Wes put his away in favour of appraising the man and his allies; Eric could tell that the man was far more powerful than either of them could guess.

“So you say. Who are you? Are you from the future?” Wes asked calmly, and the man smiled.

“I am Liu Kang, God of Fire, and Protector of Earthrealm. While I am familiar with your adventures across time, and I too have travelled time long ago, it would be more accurate to say that I have travelled dimensions.” He unclasped his hands as he spoke, putting one tattooed arm behind his back while gesturing at them with the other. “Tell me, are you familiar with the butterfly effect?”

Wes nodded at the strange man. “Of course we do. Change something in the past, and the future is changed drastically; It’s one of the major rules that Time Force-” 

“But why do you ask that?” Eric spoke up before Wes could continue. When Wes tried to interrupt, Eric elbowed him in the ribs before he whispered. ‘Wes, don’t say anything about Time Force. We don’t know if he’s an ally or not.’

Liu Kang gasped before pushing his hand into his pocket. “I almost forgot that we would need to establish trust between us for any sort of communication to work. Here…” The man pulled out a very familiar medallion before presenting it to the duo. “A badge from Time Force.”

“No way…” Wes gasped in shock before picking up the badge and inspecting it with fervour.

“Is it real?” Eric turned to Wes, as his partner pulled the medallion close to his eye.

“Well, the metal is impossible to make with current technology,-” He pulled it closer to inspect the front. “-The lights inside shouldn’t be possible-” Finally, he moved it to his ear, pulling out his earbud in the process. “-And the hum is both quiet and faintly musical.” Wes then pulled out a nearly-identical badge and compared it with the one given by Liu Kang, before he turned to Eric and nodded his head. “It’s the genuine article. And they don’t just give these badges away.” He then turned back to the strange man. “Alright, Liu Kang… We’ll hear you out.” 

“Good.”  A feminine voice echoed from the portal, before it rippled once more. “I thought we’d be taking much longer, if I am to be honest.”

“Show yourself!” Eric cried out, only to be shocked by the person behind the voice. “Wait, you’re not-”

“I am well aware I am not human.” The cat-headed woman spoke with a regal register, though she definitely seemed younger than Liu Kang. “But I figured that it would be better to have Liu Kang prove our goodwill to you before explaining how we know you, and why we need you in the first place.”

Eric sneered at her before crossing his arms. “So who are you? Why are you looking for us?

“I am Blaze the Cat, Princess of the Sol Empire, Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, and future Multiversal Administrator. I am tasked with contacting specific individuals from specific universes, which we know about through our archives and our own research into specific universes. Notably, that includes you, Eric Myers.” She pointed at the Quantum Ranger, who raised an eyebrow in shock before schooling his expressions

“But why me? Why choose me over Wes?” He asked harshly, keeping an eye on the strange cat-woman.

“I dunno, man. You’d have to ask Blaze’s friends.” Another person spoke from behind the portal, at which point Eric groaned loudly.

“Are you KIDDING me? How many people are behind that portal?”

“Hmm… five others…” Blaze had the decency to look embarrassed, but Eric was too annoyed to care.

“Bring them out; I’m tired of dealing with more surprises.” As soon as he finished, five others of various races came out and introduced themselves to the two Rangers. After a few minutes of introductions, Eric nodded firmly. “So… there’s a silver-furred hedgehog who can lift things with his mind-”

“Yep!” Silver enthusiastically responded while psycho-kinetically playing with a couple of rocks.

“A Time-deity made of sand and charged with… maintaining the timeline-”

“That is my job.” Geras answered before manifesting an hourglass-like statue out of sand.

“A half-demon devil hunter whose father sealed the underworld to protect mankind-”

“Go-i’ ih uo’!” Dante mumbled out while eating a slice of pizza, only to get elbowed by his brother into swallowing his bite. “Got it in one.”

“And his twin brother who is… pretty cool.” Eric nodded at Vergil with a smile on his face.

Vergil crossed his arms and smiled smugly. “At least someone knows his betters.”

Eric’s face fell immediately afterwards. “You’re not my better.”

“You are a mere human.”

“A mere human who stopped a time-travelling criminal. Beat that!” 

At that point, the two of them continued to argue with each other over their skills, while the last member of the gang-Ichiban-looked at them in confusion. “Hey, uh, guys?”

“Shut up, Ichiban!” The two of them quickly shut Ichiban down, only to earn a slap on the back of the head from Blaze.

“Will you both stop arguing with each other? This isn’t a contest of measuring di-”

“Wait, Blaze-san!” Ichiban cried out in shock before pointing at Eric. “How can he understand me? Wait, how can I understand him? I’m speaking Japanese and he’s-”

“Translation Expert in Kommunication and Kommand External Neuralism.” Blaze and Liu Kang said in unison.

“It was a spell created by one of the earliest administrators as a way for universes to communicate despite differing languages. It works by modifying the neural network inside the brain, or equivalent organ/device, of any person in range so that the language is understood without changing the actual words. ” Blaze quickly explained, before snapping her fingers and summoning a long sequence of letters arranged into a sentence. “Think of them like subtitles, for those who cannot hear.”

“Wait, is it like a spell?” Ichiban asked with a dumbfounded expression. “Like, uh… Kraatoo Baraka Niko?”

“First of all, it’s Klaatu Barada Nikto .” Dante grumbled out. “Damn, I just realised this, but we really got to get you on some Sam Raimi. That shit is-” He was then silenced by Vergil whacking him with the Yamato’s sheath.

“Silence, fool!” He then turned his ire to Blaze. “And why did you not tell us earlier? You have been manipulating our minds behind our back!”

Blaze raised an eyebrow before gasping in shock. “Oh… oh I see what you mean.”

Dante raised an eyebrow himself before walking between them. “What are you talking about…” he slowed down as he looked between both of their eyes, before slowly breathing in sharply. “Oh… oh shit, that’s basically what Mundus did…”

“This is… this is nowhere near what Mundus did to me, Dante.” Vergil calmed down surprisingly fast, but continued to glare at Blaze. “But my worry is that this spell could be modified to control our minds… our actions.” He pointed out in a strained tone, only for Liu Kang to walk up to him with his phone in hand.

“I understand your concern, Vergil, and I voiced something similar to our friends when they showed it to us. Luckily, they have proven my concerns unwarranted.” He then turned his phone to Vergil and the rest of the group (plus Wes and Eric), showing off the admin group chat to them.

>[S] League of Union of Club of Alliance of SOMA

>[C] Newbie-Chat

PunkNiEEEEVIL: And that’s how it works! Any questions?

LordLiuKang: If I may voice a concern, how exactly does the neural network modification work?

GearsofTime: More accurately, how much of an influence does it have on the mind? 

GearsofTime: Could it be used to control others?

PsychoSoldier: Would people really try to do that?

FlamePrincess: Absolutely. Eggman, for one, has shown that he’ll do anything to control the world, and mind control is one method he could easily use.”

MiriOnTheWall: The T.E.K.K.E.N Spell cannot be used to give any suggestions or commands to anyone affected by it; the spell cleans the input language to prevent any commands from reaching the mind. 

MiriOnTheWall: I tested it with the original creator thoroughly, and we could not find a way to force commands onto anyone.

FlamePrincess: You could not find anything, but it’s highly possible that someone else will.

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Well, it’s fine as far as they say, and we can deal with any other issues later!

<<

“Hmm…” Vergil grumbled to himself. “So there is a chance.”

“But it’s nearly impossible for the spell to be cracked, right?” Ichiban pointed out, much to Vergil’s chagrin. 

“Nearly impossible does not mean it is, Kasuga-san.” Vergil responded curtly, though this didn’t phase Ichiban in the slightest, as he turned his attention to Blaze.

“Wait, that means we could talk to aliens! Or maybe even a dragon!” He quickly figured out before bouncing on his heels. 

Wes scratched his chin while smiling smugly. “Well, the technical definition of an alien is something that does not come from one’s home planet, which would technically make you-”

“Enough!” Eric silenced Wes with a wave of his hand, before focusing on Blaze. “You mentioned that I was chosen to join your little group, over Wes. Why not him, why me? He’s the one who leads Time Force here, and he’s the leader of the Silver Guardians.”

“Technically, Jen’s the leader. I’m only the second-in-command.” Wes corrected his friend, before turning his attention to Blaze. “But yeah; Why Eric?”

“For one, you have acted as a part of a team for a long time, even before becoming a Ranger. Eric on the other hand has almost always worked as a lone wolf, only recently choosing to work under you as a part of the Silver Guardians, which makes him important towards rounding out the roster, or so Miriam tells me.” Blaze explained, before sighing loudly. “For two, your aggressiveness would be a perfect contrast to the other members of the group, though something tells me I’m going to get nothing but a headache with you in the group.” Her eyes were focused on Vergil, who turned away with a huff. “And third… well, I have a feeling it’ll come up soon enough.”

Eric raised an eyebrow, while Wes walked forward. “What do you mean soon enough?” As soon as he said that, however, his communicator started to ring, and Wes reinserted his earbud into his ear. “Yes, sir… W-what do you mean, sir… No, I haven’t… WHAT?!” Wes screamed at the end, before clearing his throat. “Yes sir, I’ll get on it right away.” Wes now had a fine sheen of sweat on his face as he ended the call.

“Wes, what’s going on?” Eric asked his friend with genuine concern. “What is it? A new problem? More mutants?”

Wes slowly turned to his partner, lowering his glasses in the process. “Eric… I have a mountain of paperwork to finish.”

Eric slapped his forehead before pointing at Wes. “I TOLD you to finish the paperwork before we went to lunch. NO, even before that!”

“And I was going to get to it! I never thought I’d be dealing with… all of this.” He gestured to the multiversal visitors, before diving into the car they shared. “Now, I gotta go back to the base; I can’t procrastinate any longer!” Within a second, he turned on the car, shifted it to drive, and sped off back to the base, conveniently forgetting that he had left his sandwich on the roof; it was only reflexes that Eric’s lunch wasn’t thrown to the floor, but he was not going to worry about Wes’ lunch in this case.

He kept his eyes on the car as his friend drove off into the distance like a madman, before turning back to Blaze. “Well, I can see what that third reason was.”

Blaze sighed loudly before shaking her head. “With that out of the way, Eric Myers, are you willing to join our multiversal group chat?”

Eric snorted before pointing his burger at them. “What of Wes? Will he be able to join?” He then took a bite out of his lunch, letting the others explain.

“The other admins allow for other people to join after the chat’s established.” Silver quickly explained for Blaze. “I would be surprised if he couldn’t.” Eric smiled at that.

“Oh, and maybe you can join us and see the other universes!” Ichiban blurted out, only to earn an elbow from Vergil.

“Fool, why would he agree to-”

“You are a fool, if you think I would hesitate to join you.” Eric shot back, before bringing the Quantum Morpher to his face. “Wes is strong, and the Silver Guardians will allow him to protect the city for a little bit. That, and he can get reinforcements from Time Force.” He then focused on Blaze before nodding. “I can take a few days off to help; He would want me to do so anyways.”

Blaze bowed in return. “Perfect. I believe the Quantum Morpher should have the space to hold the communication programs, and the T.E.K.K.E.N Spell with ease, or so Ms. Scotts told us. Lend me your hand, and I can install everything in an instant.” As he held his hand towards her, and as she looked over the morpher herself, Eric thought to himself.

‘If there is anything suspicious about Blaze or Liu Kang, I’m damn sure that I can’t see it. Besides, Silver and Ichiban are far too gulli… no, they seem smarter than they let on, and yet they seem to trust them with ease. Perhaps I just need to be more like Wes for a bit and let them show their true colours.’ He then turned his mind to Vergil, and subconsciously scowled. “I’m still better than that bastard, and I will prove it!’

But before long, Blaze finished the modifications, and Eric made sure to test everything before reporting back to command. Once that was done, Eric only had one more thing to do before leaving; Paperwork.

“I am not going to be like Wes.” He simply explained, before using the portal generated by Blaze to return to the Silver Guardian HQ.

Meanwhile, in an- wait a minute, in the SAME universe.

As the portal opened up into another universe, Ordis immediately started a scan hoping to find the reason behind their little void-portal-hopping adventure.

“Ordis! How close are we to the disturbance?” The Operator asked once more, as they entered this new universe.

“We -WERE SO DAMN CL- just missed it!” Ordis replied, his owl-like body bouncing in frustration. Indeed, they had been close, merely milliseconds behind, but just as they caught up to the source, it had teleported away to another universe.

“Dammit all!” She cried out in frustration, slamming her fist into the floor of the Landing Craft and causing one of the Floofs-a rare Emperor Condroc Floof-to fall off the Market Console. It was placed there by the Operator-the ‘original’ operator-before the New War and their banishment from the Origin System, but the way she carefully put it back into place was just another way that they were absolutely similar. “Ordis! Do you know why they left What about where?”

“_EAZY PEEZY LEMON- Ordis can find that easily!” He cheerfully flew up once more, his ‘eyes’ rotating upwards in the process; As he did his little dance, he preemptively started the engine and ran the calculations, ready to make their next move.

“Then send us there!” She yelled at him with a little more force than he knew she’d like, but they needed to find the source ASAP.

“Ordis will be right on it, Operator!” He flew back to his original spot, while the ship fully activated its engines. Within seconds, A void portal opened up, and it was chasing down the anomaly once more; as they did, a rather strange thought came to Ordis’ mind. ‘What is a lemon… and why am I expecting them to be explosive?’

Chapter Text

Blaze Multiversal Journal: Log 4

Eric Myers has joined our group, and my headache has gotten even worse.

Dante and Vergil fight constantly, but they are siblings; it’s expected for them to fight, even more so given their history.

Liu Kang fights with both of them, but he’s a practitioner of kung-fu at heart; it’s natural that he would spar with them.

Eric is skilled in martial arts himself, but he’s constantly challenged either Dante or Vergil (mostly Vergil) to fights, seemingly because he wants to prove himself better to the latter. Vergil welcomes these challenges, at the very least, but I’d like for them to not fight so often - or to fight so loudly that I can’t sleep. 

I can’t entirely blame him for wanting to prove himself, though. He was born in a family with very little to their name, and his position in life - from his education to his training - has all come from his own hard work and sacrifice. He’s admitted that he hates people who waste their resources frivolously, which contributed to his initial disdain for Wes due to supposedly wasting his blessings as the son of a business magnate, but Wes proved Eric wrong by fighting off an invasion of mutants from the future when pretty much all hope had been lost. With the way he speaks of Wes now, I can’t help but see how close the two are, even if Wes tends to get on Eric’s nerves at times.

Ichiban’s gotten close to Eric too, despite their rockier start, since both came from poor backgrounds. Eric’s not a big fan of the Yakuza, but he respects Ichiban’s honour and work ethic; not to mention that Ichiban always seems to be able to get back up after sparring, despite how horribly he can lose to Eric. He’s nice to everyone, it seems, and wears his heart on his sleeve, just like Silver; it’s no wonder they’re basically best friends at this point.

Still, it seems that we’ll be having even more headaches joining our party before I can get a break, if my list is anything to go by.

Frederick Bulsara, AKA Sol Badguy. He was a former magi-physicist working on a way to enhance mankind via fusing magic to living cells, only to be forcefully transformed into a monster all to make him immortal. He’s surly, and more than willing to punch someone if they annoy him barring certain individuals, but his intellect could be useful in convincing him to join us, if only because he could be intrigued by multiversal power systems. Then again, he is retired, so he could choose not to join; and even if he did, I have the odd feeling he’d make it everyone’s problem.

Let’s just hope that’s all I have to deal with there…

Meanwhile, in the Guilty Gear Universe...

2188, Iseo Isolation Zone, Illyria, Earth-G-54285

It was a sunny day in the Iseo Isolation Zone, and Frederick Bulsara was chilling in the front lawn of his cottage with a beer in his hand. “Ah, perfect temperatures, just the right amount of wind, and not a cloud in sight… Perfect!” He then took a swig from his bottle before putting it back down, picking up a manual in the process; this one on raising children. Manuals, in his eyes, were used to learn HOW to do something, like building a rocket or turning a bunch of junk into a weapon lethal enough to make the Geneva Conventions look like a suggestion - assuming they weren’t deleted during the Crusades. Frederick knew how to do both of those, however, and he’d beat up anyone who suggested otherwise; He would have beaten up anyone who’d have suggested he was a terrible parent as well, but they weren’t exactly wrong there, hence the manual.

“Oh, Frederick!” A happy-go-lucky, feminine voice cried out from his cottage, which put a smile on his face. Not a few months ago, he would have punched a hole in ANYONE who used his real name in front of him, but after giving up the Flame of Corruption and retiring from the life of a Bounty Hunter to be with his loved ones, he… Well, he wouldn’t be happy, but he wouldn’t be pissed to hear his real name. Besides, the woman that called out to him was special to him.

“Jack-O?” He turned around to see his girlfriend/future wife, walking towards him in a pair of jeans and one of his T-shirts, which was stretched around her pregnant belly. “What’re you doing out here? I thought you’d be modifying the rocket’s code.”

She stretched her arms upwards, emphasising her body unintentionally. “I finished that a few minutes ago.” She noticed him staring and winked at him, which caused him to blush profusely. “Besides, we’re gonna have guests real soon.”

Frederick raised an eye-brow at that. “Guests? Who, Ky?”

She shook her head cheekily. “Nope. Think younger.”

Frederick was going to guess when he heard a motorcycle rev in the distance, the noise getting higher-pitched due to the doppler effect. Within a minute, the bike came into the pathway leading up to his cottage, allowing him to see the three occupants of the vehicle.

“Yo, Dad!” Unika, his daughter from the future, waved at him from the front seat of her bike, turning it off as she did so. She had apparently travelled to the past to stop a great calamity via Axl, but she had yet to find the source of the calamity in the first place, hence why she was staying with her sister in Illyria. She could prove as much with her sword, the AC-43 'Thunderstruck', which had an identical copy of the Thunderseal inside; He knew that because her sword was in his workshop, undergoing maintenance under his watch.

Incidentally, it was also her usual form of transportation, which meant she needed to borrow one from the Illyrian Army, though the spray-paint and stickers made it clear that it was hers despite the active-service license plate; Just like himself, she had a proud history of stealing shit from Ky, and he was more than willing to help with that. Speaking of the bike, the second most notable person he recognized was Sin, his grandson (and occasional pain in his ass) who was waving from his seat in the sidecar of Unika’s bike, his hand holding a giant drumstick like a flag. "Old man! Hey!" He screamed like an idiot, though Frederick didn't mind that when he saw how it annoyed the last individual on the bike.

Said last individual was a woman who was such a pain in the ass that it made the feeling of Asuka beating him in RageRouge (despite having less time in the game than him) feel like a mere itch in comparison. She was riding behind his daughter, and the heart-eyes that Unika gave her on occasion were enough to sour his mood; He was happy that she had a crush, but why it had to be someone that cold was beyond him. As they finally approached him in his lawn chair, He sat up and greeted them.

“Ah, if it isn’t my lovely daughter, my only-slightly-moronic grandson, and Lucy. ” He grumbled out the last name, which earned a glare from Jack-O.

“Frederick! You said you’d be nice to her!” She scolded him, glaring at him despite her usually silly demeanour.

For what it was worth, he raised his hands in surrender. “I am being nice! I didn’t even insult her!”

“Well, yes, but there’s this thing called tone, you old gonk.” Lucy countered, playing with her rainbow-coloured hair in the process.

“First of all…” Frederick raised his finger before countering. “I am older than you by a century, but more importantly, if I really wanted to insult you, I’d say that… ah, a real hacker keeps water and electronics far apart."

Lucy growled, pinching her nose in the process. “I have told you this multiple times; I am-was a Netrunner. There is a lot of chrome I needed to do Deep Net dives effectively, and that makes my body overheat, which can leave me flatlined. Going into a freezer keeps my body cool, nixing any chances of that happening.” She then snapped her fingers at Frederick. “But you have a computer in the lake nearby, right? How is that any different from me?”

“Well, that’s a server for doing all of the pathing for the rocket; much easier to do it with a program over pen and paper.” Frederick quickly countered, only to flounder a second later. “As for how it’s different… uh…” 

Luckily for him, a portal opened up nearby, and he could focus on something else, like who the hell was opening portals at three in the afternoon. “What the hell is it this time? A… iunno, a god of Kung-Fu, or something?”

“A close guess, if a tiny bit inaccurate.” A chinese man with dragon tattoos walked through the portal, hands clasped together. “I am Lord Liu Kang, God of Fire, and Protector of Earthrealm.”

“Whuh?” Was all that Frederick could say as he laid his eyes on the god. As for everyone else, they had rather mixed reactions to his guess.

“Huh, I didn’t know you could see the future, Frederick.” Jack-O joked, bumping her hips into his shoulder.

“I know, right?!” Sin piped up, before shaking Frederick. “Yo, Old Man, wanna tell me what’ll come next?”

“I’ll beat the shit out of you if you don’t stop shaking me!” He threatened Sin, though it had little of the edge he usually used when he threatened people. ‘Damn, I really am becoming old, aren’t I?’ Finishing that through, he looked up to see Unika walking up to Liu Kang with her arms crossed.

“So, are you like, uh… an actual God of Kung-fu, or…?” She asked the tattoo-ed man, at which point Frederick intervened by pulling her back.

“Oi, kid, you don’t know what he wants. Maybe he’s a cop, or something.” He pointed out to her, at which point Liu Kang rested his chin onto his fist.

“I would not call myself a ‘God of Kung-Fu’, despite what some of my allies have said. Even after thousands of years, I still find myself learning more about the art of Kombat every day, and in turn I evolve my own style to improve myself; But that is not here or there.” He then clapped his hands, at which point a group of people walked out of the portal behind him, including what looked to be a white-furred anthropomorphic hedgehog and a violet-furred anthropomorphic cat.

“What the hell am I looking at?” Lucy muttered aloud, speaking for everyone barring Liu Kang and his people. 

The cat-person stepped forward before speaking for the group. “I am Blaze the Cat, Princess of the Sol Empire and Guardian of the Sol Emeralds. As for the rest of my group…” She took a few minutes to talk about the rest of her allies, before walking up to Frederick. “Frederick Bulsara, also known as Sol Badguy. You, alongside your ex-fiance Aria Hale and your best friend Asuka R. Kreutz created Gears to advance humanity only to become a Gear because Asuka wanted to make you immortal. You sought revenge against him, only to become a hero to the world due to your actions. After letting him win your last encounter, you have retired to this place, giving up the name of Sol Badguy in the process.”

Frederick grunted as he crossed his arms together. “Ok, so you know who I am. Why should I care about your bullshit?”

Blaze smirked before putting a hand on her chest. “Simple. I am a Multiversal Administrator, who manages relations between people of multiple universes. You are one of the candidates chosen to be a part of my group, where you will interact with other individuals from-”

Her explanation was halted in her tracks by a hand in her face courtesy of Frederick. “Alright, I’ve heard enough, and I don't care for your Bullshit. I already have enough trouble dealing with one multiversal asshat-” He aimed a glare at Lucy before leaning back and continuing. “-And I don't want to deal with 20 more.” Lucy, for what it was worth, opened her mouth in shock before glaring at Frederick, ready to tell him off for dismissing her; however, she was interrupted by the arrival of a new voice.

“Ah, so my Multiverse Theory is true!” Everyone turned their attention to a strange, blue-skinned man with horns and strange glasses, who was clapping his hands in excitement. “Oh, I can feel the drama, the plot-twists rolling around in my gray matter! The interactions! The reality!”

“Happy Chaos… I had a feeling you’d return.” Frederick name-dropped the man, getting up from his lawn chair in the process.

“YOU!” Unika growled loudly, before putting her dukes up, ready to fight the man. “You were there when Sis went mad! When the Crusades began anew, all to satisfy your sick desires!”

Chaos was not disturbed by the threat, merely laughing at her in the process. “Oh, I remember you! It was… 2192, I think? Yeah, I was just about finished giving my message to the Axis of Time, when I saw that the world was becoming too… peaceful.”

“Oh, so you got bored, didn’t you? Was killing mom and dad funny? Was breaking Dizzy’s mind worth it?!” Unika yelled back, pointing her gun at the man. “What are you, a sadist?!” But Happy Chaos smiled and took a deep breath.

“I wouldn’t call myself a sadist. Sadism requires that I enjoy suffering, and I do not enjoy suffering. Suffering involves inflicting pain, unnecessary pain upon others. But pain is not inherently bad; Building strength requires one to tear the muscles at a microscopic level to make them stronger, and learning a new concept requires rigorous studying to understand the basic formulas and its applications in the theoretical and real worlds. This is struggling, or pain that is necessary for growth. I want people to struggle, not suffer; Struggling leads to growth, while suffering does not.” 

He then bowed before the group. “I wish for Mankind to grow, and so I choose to be the antagonist, at least for now!” 

“But you are still choosing to defy peace.” Liu Kang summarised for him, only to earn a hearty laugh from Happy Chaos.

“You could say that, but you cannot deny that I am right!” He pointed at the God of Fire with the resolution of a soldier. “I can tell that you have created a universe before, and I can tell that you have had to make some lives worse, if only to make others better. Are you any better than me, playing with the lives of mortals for the sake of ‘peace’?”

Liu Kang was tongue-tied, but Geras stepped up in his place. “Liu Kang never sought to control mortals, but merely to guide them to a better path. He saw their evil from where it was rooted, and sought to cleanse the roots so that they could be better. Peace is a nigh-impossible concept to reach, I will admit, but to use some of Liu Kang’s words, It is a concept worth fighting for.”

Chaos merely raised his hands up to the sky in a casual manner. “Well, it doesn’t matter if I’m right or wrong.” He then clapped his hands, summoning a trio of monstrous beings that Frederick knew very well. “I need to see what you got, so here you go! Have some fun!” He then teleported away, leaving the monsters for the group to fight.

“Shit, what are those things?” Ichiban cried out in shock, while Eric and the rest of the team got into a fighting pose, drawing weapons in the process; As for Frederick, he took the opportunity to summon Unika's sword to his hands via magic, before handing it to his daughter.

“Gears!” Frederick clenched his hands, cracking his knuckles in the process. “And these ones look like they’re not under Dizzy’s control.” He then looked towards his lover, and a disturbing thought came to mind. ‘Is… is he targeting Jack-O?’

“That’s a Gear?!” Eric asked afterwards, keeping his eyes moving between the three Gears. “I thought they were humanoids?”

“These Gears are mindless, genetically modified organisms made for war by the US!” Unika answered in tandem, popping open her rifle and aiming it at the Gears. “They perverted Dad’s research to make a few bucks. The Gears that were sapient attempting to strike back via a war of their own, up until we found a way to pacify them via sealing their leader. We’re only just starting to make peace between our kinds, and that blue-man bastard’s threatening to reignite it all for his own amusement!”

“Urgh… dammit all… first a dragon, now this?” Ichiban growled, which earned a chuckle.

“What, are you gonna run away?” Vergil taunted him with a smug smile on his face.  

“The hell I am!” Ichiban shouted before putting his dukes up, joining the rest of the team in the fight. “Alright, any tips on kicking their asses?”

Sin was the first to respond, scratching his head in thought. “Uhh, I think that blue one’s weak to electricity, the green one’s weak to fire, and the red one’s weak to ice!” he quickly rattled off, before pumping his fist out of enthusiasm. “Anyways, leave these guys to us! They’re our monsters to deal with, so you just hang back!”

“Again, the hell I am!” Ichiban raised his fist, and in turn the rest of the gang joined in the fight. “If they’re a danger, then we oughta fight!”

“Lord Liu Kang and I will deal with the Green Gear!” Geras said with authority, snapping his fingers to pick up said Gear in a sand tornado, which quickly moved far away from the cottage. How it was possible was beyond Frederick other than through timey-wimey magic a la Axl or I-no, but any thoughts like that melted away as Liu Kang and Geras flew after it, ready to beat it to a pulp.

Dante put his sword away with a flick of his hand. “Alright, seems like that red one’s mine!!” he then smirked before pulling out what looked to be a tripartite nunchaku, covered almost entirely in ice, and flailing it around himself wildly. “Woo! Woahaa! Waoh!”

Vergil smirked before pointing his sheathed sword-Katana-at the Gears languidly. “Dante, if I defeat this… ‘Gear’ before you, then you pay for my dinner.”

“You’re on!” He shot back, before running towards the Gear alongside his brother; within seconds, Dante had launched the beast far from the cottage, the only sounds being his loud kiai.

Silver shook his head before floating into the air lifting a massive pair of boulders that he pulled from… somewhere. ”Sorry about the grass, but I need this!” Frederick looked down and noticed a pair of suspiciously-boulder-shaped holes in the ground, and growled at the hedgehog.

“Dammit, I JUST fixed the lawn!” He cried out at Silver, but he was far out of sight, leaving behind his friend.

Blaze merely summoned flames in her hand before launching herself into the air. “I will assist Lord Liu Kang with dealing with the Gear.” She then quickly boosted forward like a fiery comet, leaving everyone else to deal with the remaining Gear.

Eric, the other arrogant-looking one, raised his left wrist upwards, bringing the strange device on it to his mouth. “Quantum Power!” Within a flash, his clothes had changed and he was now in some sorta skin-tight suit, with a strange helmet with an arrow on its face on his head. “Quantum Ranger, Hah!” he cried out, going into a fighting pose in the process. 

All that was left was Sin, Lucy, and Ichiban; Sin pulled out his flag from a hammerspace, while Lucy whipped out her whip-thingies (“Monowire!” A Mini-Lucy inside his mind reminded him, only to get dog-piled by an army of Mini-Sols) and Ichiban… he just raised his fists. “Wait, are you just going to fight that thing with your fists?” Lucy asked in shock.

“Uh, what else would I use? A ball and chain?” Ichiban asked sarcastically, but Frederick knew better as he turned to his lover, who had a silly smile on her face. Before he could stop her, she unchained her familiar, Dopros, from her ankle before throwing it at Ichiban.

“Yo, Ichiban, Catch!” She hollered at the top of her lungs, which made the Japanese-looking fellow jump. 

Much to his surprise, however, Ichiban turned around in record time to catch the familiar, though he hesitated to use it immediately. “Wuh- uh, you sure I can use this?” He stuttered out, flicking his eyes between Jack-O and the familiar for all of one minute before his lover nodded at him.

“I doubt Frederick’s gonna let me fight in my condition-”

“No one would!.” Frederick, along with Eric, Ichiban, Lucy, Unika, and Sin of all people, called her out, before Unika pointed at her belly.

“Especially me, given that I’m in there.”

“Yeah-yeah-yeah!” Jack-O silenced them by waving her hands rapidly, before pointing at Ichiban. “So give em’ hell with Dopros! There’s instructions on how to use him on the back.

“Alright!” Ichiban gave Jack-O a thumbs up, before turning back to a fight, only to pause and look at Unika with a strange, confused expression on his face. “Wait, Unika-san, what do you mean by-”

“Long story, we’ve got Gears to fight!” Unika summarised for the group, before running towards the last Gear, motivating everyone else to catch up. Frederick considered staying and watching, but a simple wave from his wife lover sent him sprinting back into the cottage with glee as he looked for his sword.

BGM: Trigger (In Flames)

‘You know, we’re doing pretty well, aren’t we?’ Ichiban thought to himself as he fired Dopros at the Gear, while the rest of the team attacked it with their own ranged weaponry. Eric was firing a laser pistol that sorta looked like a dinosaur at the Gear, moving around to dodge its sticky, spit-like attacks. “Damn, how much can this thing take?”

“It’s weak, I can tell! Just keep firing!” Unika was peppering the Gear with bolts from her rifle, only for the Gear to try and attack her with a claw; before it even got close, Lucy grabbed the claw with her arm-whips and threw it aside. “Thanks, Lucy.”

“I should be thanking you.” The strange woman - even by the standards of this universe - responded, inspecting her arms for a moment before continuing to fire with her pistol. “Your uncle might be a gonk when it comes to talking, but his work on my chrome is some preem shit. He’d make even the most nova ripperdocs look like gomi !”

Ichiban had almost no clue about what she said (barring Gomi), but Unika understood her perfectly “Yeah, Uncle Asuka’s keen as shit when it comes to understanding technology, old or new; Hell, he helped my dad come up with the program he used to propose to my step-mom!”

“Really?” She asked, genuine curiosity burning through her usually disaffected face.

“Yep!” Unika shot back, before gasping once she saw the Gear’s injured state. “Oh, it’s almost down! Sin!” She cried out to the eyepatch guy, who threw his flagpole into the air.

“Alright! Charge it up, man!” he called out, which led to Unika firing at the pole to charge it with lightning. As they did, Ichiban couldn’t help but think about everything that had happened.

‘When I got outta prison, I thought that I’d simply meet up with Arakawa-san, and rejoin his family. But here I am, fighting a giant dragon-thingie in another universe, along with a bunch of people that come from their own universes themselves!’ His smile faded from his face as he thought about his patriarch once more. ‘Oya-san… what would you think of me now?’

“Red-guy!” Sin’s voice broke through his thoughts, as the young man shoved him to the grass in a hurry, before a glob of what looked to be water smacked into his back. While Ichiban had been reminiscing, the Gear had gotten a second wind and spat a glob of water at the weakest (and closest) link in the group; Ichiban, who had been daydreaming not a second earlier. Sin had covered for him, but now he was embedded in the earth underneath a glob of water, or perhaps it was saliva, given what the Gear did.

“Shit! Sin get up!” Unika yelled at him, while Sin did his damndest to pull himself out.

“I can’t! This thing’s far too sticky!” He yelled back, as he was stuck in the glob like molasses. 

Lucy and Eric looked at the Gear in shock, before the hacker-lady turned her head towards Sin’s flag, which was both charged with electricity and falling towards the ground. “Crap! It’s gonna discharge if it doesn’t hit the Gear!”

“We just need to stab it right? That’s what Unika said!” Eric pointed out before running at the Gear, heedless to Lucy’s warnings. “Formation-Sword!” He leapt into the air, transforming his gun into a sword with a loud command, before diving down towards the Gear, where his blade connected with the Gear’s body. However, the sword got stuck in the beast’s skin, which happened to have a rather thick layer of mucus all over it; the Gear took advantage of Eric’s state by spinning around rapidly, throwing the super hero back into a tree, where his sword was glued to a branch. “Dammit, I’m stuck!”

As everyone focused on their dwindling fighters, Ichiban’s mind went into overdrive. ‘So melee attacks can’t do anything against that Gear’s saliva… but why is Lucy so focused on Sin’s flag?” he turned back to the Gear, which was looking at the falling weapon. ‘That’s right! It’s weak to electricity! And if its skin is covered in that slime…’ Instantly a plan formed in Ichiban’s mind.

Throwing Dopros to the floor, Ichiban sprinted forward, doing his damndest to reach the weapon in time and ignoring everyone’s shouts in the process. As he got close, he leaped into the air with everything he had to catch the weapon in time; but that wasn’t the most painful part.

“GRLGHGGHG!” Ichiban screamed through gritted teeth as electricity surged through his body and lit every nerve in it on fire. He was twitching and shuddering in the air from the pain, which would make it nearly impossible to land safely without discharging the weapon; Luckily, the Gear saw his twitching body as food and ran towards him with reckless abandon. Grinning through the pain, Ichiban pointed the pointy end of the flag (it wasn’t pointy, but it was the end you’d usually stab into the ground) at the Gear, and fell towards it, quickly moving his legs to avoid losing them to its jaws. As it missed, Ichiban pulled his legs towards its head, landed on it with ease, and slammed the flagpole into its skull.

“EAT SHIT!!!!” Ichiban yelled at the top of his lungs as the electricity discharged into the Gear and himself; if the pain from earlier was a 5, then the pain now was far more closer to a 10 as he could feel his body get fried. Still, Ichiban powered through the pain of the electricity, and was rewarded by the Gear roaring in pain, and then exploding in a powerful blast, killing it instantly. 

Stop BGM

Of course, he was now airborne, but that was a different issue; He had killed the Gear, despite his lack of weaponry. ‘Now, how am I going to survive this?' he thought to himself as he fell.

“I gotcha, ICHIBAAAN!” What could only be described as demonic scream was heard throughout the field, which Ichiban quickly connected to one Dante Redgrave, who was now apparently a demon of some kind; Ok, Ichiban knew he was, and that this was his ‘true form’, but that wouldn’t stop him from gushing. No, what stopped him from gushing was the excruciating pain he was in from the electricity, which still affected him even as Dante brought him to the ground and placed him there. “Ooh, you don’t look too hot.”

“Oh, it’s nothing…” Ichiban groaned out as he sat up. “My muscles are twitching constantly and my head feels funny, but I’m not worried about it.”

“You idiot!” Unika yelled at him, causing him to wince. When he recovered, the red-eyed girl was right in front of his face, her gun resting in her hands. “Why did you grab Sin’s flagpole? It was charged with over 10000 volts of electricity, you wouldn’t have survived, much less escaped without any injuries!”

“Bu-but Lucy-san said that… that it would discharge if it touched the ground.” Ichiban did his best to justify his actions. “If it did, then we wouldn’t have been able to kill that thing.”

Her eyes were wide in shock before she shook her head rapidly and opened up her gun. “Look, Ichiban, look! You see this flashing thing in the centre of my gun?” He looked at where her finger was pointing, which happened to be a solid-white cross-shaped block with a blue light. “This is what powers my sword; it's got over 700,000 magi-amps, and I only used 10000!”

Ichiban’s head bobbed as he tried to focus on her. “Uh... what does that mean?”

“You didn’t need to keep the staff charged; she could have recharged it easily.” Frederick spoke up, walking up to the group with a strange red box-like sword on his shoulder. “Still, gotta give you points for balls, even if you’re just a human. Gotta do that, given what happened to your, uh… hair. ”

“Huh?” Ichiban muttered as he moved his hands up to his head. “What do you mean by my hair…” His hands touched his hair, and it was far curlier than he expected. He gasped loudly, pulled his phone out of his pocket, turned on the camera and got a good look at himself. “HUH?!”

His hair, usually straight and tied back into a ponytail after leaving prison, was now standing up on end, slightly waved back due to the influence the ponytail had on it. He tried to comb it down with his hands, but the mess of spikes was damn near untamable. “What the hell happened to my hair? It’s all spiky and curl-GAH, SHIT!” he cried out as static electricity stung his fingers, which he quickly realised came from his hair. “How the hell did my hair become so… static-ky?”

The rest of the gang had arrived at the scene, and quickly got filed in on Ichiban, at which point Vergil appraised him. “It’s a little crude, but it's similar to how I keep my hair immaculate." Electricity crackled in the half-devil's hand before he combed his hair with it, removing any flyaways in the process. "Static Electricity does wonders for hair, especially when combined with demonic magic.”

“Crude?!” Ichiban barked back at Vergil. “My hair looks like a goddamn ball of steel wool!” That drew a few peals of laughter from the group, though Dante of all people had simply looked at him oddly.

“You know… it does kinda look like something Toriyama would draw, wouldn’t it?” Ichiban turned to face the devil hunter, who pointed above his own head. “You know? Spiky hair pointed upwards?”

Ichiban looked at him flatly. “My hair’s curly, not spiky.”

“Well, it’s either that or an obscene amount of hairspray or other stuff to keep it up, and there’s no way Goku’d use any product; it’d get in the way of training!” Dante countered before slapping Ichiban on the shoulder. “Kid, didn’t you say you wanted to be a hero, or something like that? This is the haircut of heroes, at least according to Toriyama-sensei!”

“First of all, that was when I was a child, and second of all, you’re 2 years older than me!” Ichiban countered, though Dante didn’t seem to care.

“And why should being a hero be limited to little kids? You got nothing better to do, so why not go for it?” Dante pointed out, at which point he stepped back to give Ichiban time to think. Ichiban considered punching the hunter in the face, but his words reached out to Ichiban, who started to think aloud.

“Hmm… becoming a hero… at this age? I’m too old, aren’t I… but why does that matter? I defeated a damn Gear-thingie just now!” He then turned to the sky and took a deep breath. “ALRIGHT! I’M GONNA DO IT! I’M GONNA BECOME A HERO!”

“At least you have the idiocy to be one; and the durability too.” Lucy grumbled out, before showing a holo-screen towards the group. “Despite all the voltage Ichiban took, his body’s no worse for the wear. I’d say he’s got some sorta chrome or other BS, but he’s completely organic.” She had a tiny smile on her face despite the insult, and Ichiban took it in stride.

As for Frederick, he merely sighed before looking at the group. “You know what? I changed my mind. The fact that he could survive a voltage that high without any augments is interesting enough, and the Magi-Physicist in me wants to analyse all the weird types of magic that people could use. Joining this group chat or whatever will be perfect for that.”

“You could join us on our trip! We still have a few more people to meet up with!” Silver quickly offered, much to Blaze’s displeasure.

“Even better!” Frederick gave him a thumbs up, only to look down on himself. “Shit, I need to get my clothes if I’m gonna be travelling with you guys.”

“Oh, Old man! Want us to come?” Sin quickly spoke, wrapping a hand around Unika and Lucy in the process.

“Nope. I’m gonna be outta the house, so someone’s gotta keep an eye on Jack-O for me.” Frederick’s lover glared at him in the process, to which he raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, don’t get mad at me. I just want to make sure you’re safe!”

Jack-O’s face softened into a smile, while her hands went to her hips. “Ok, Frederick. But you BETTER not get injured! You won’t have Doctor Faust on call, y’know?”

“Speak of the Devil.” Dante muttered to himself, though Vergil elbowed him in the gut. With that, the rest of the team started to laugh and joke about what happened, including Ichiban’s rather strange amount of durability. After a few minutes, a strange thought came to Ichiban.

“Hey, now that I think about it… Unika-san, what was that all about earlier?”

“Unika-san?” She turned to face him with a raised eyebrow. “Oh wait, that’s a Japanese thing. What ‘that’ are you talking about?”

He scratched his now spiky head as remembered what she said. “What was it… oh! What was that thing earlier about you being in… Jack-O? Aren’t you like, twenty?”

Unika’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh… oh, that’s going to be a really complicated subject…”

It was Ichiban’s turn to be confused.” Huh? Why so?”

“Well…” She then leaned towards his ear and explained everything in a rather abridged format.

“YOU’RE ONLY FIVE?!” And that was all Ichiban took from it.

Chapter Text

Blaze Multiversal Journal: Log 5

After a bit of time spent in his world to recuperate, Frederick Bulsara has joined our group. 

He is surly, and opinionated, fully willing to threaten a beating over a difference in opinion. He likes to stand alone, believing that people should be free to live as alone as they wish to be, despite how many people have come to call him family and kin. He’s tried to justify this, saying that they bashed their way into his world, but the soft smile on his face says otherwise.

He is quite proud of his PhD’s in Magi-physics, which are surprisingly helpful when it comes to our techniques. He’s helped Silver figure out a new application for his Psychokinesis based around Shadow’s Chaos Spear attack, even though neither of them have met, and he’s teaching Ichiban the basics of magic, even though he gets annoyed when it comes to explaining a concept, which has meant that progress seems to be very slow.

In a way, he reminds me of my grandfather. He too was surly, and always fought with father over policies in the empire, despite having abdicated before my birth. He was a graduate as well, though he focused on natural sciences and biology over physics and the like, and he made it a point to bring it up whenever necessary, if only to justify whatever point he wanted to make at that time,and asking him to explain his point would earned an annoyed growl and a demand to learn it themselves. But he was kind to me growing up, always willing to teach me about the world we lived in when something came before us; I was the very reason he abdicated in the first place. It was rather painful seeing his body all those years ago, when he finally passed in his sleep, and even now I have to wonder if he’s proud of my actions as princess.

But that’s irrelevant to our mission, isn’t it.

With Frederick added to our group, We’re now in the universe of Kyo Kusanagi, which wouldn’t be so important if his name wasn’t right before the strange name we got from Miriam. She’s looked into it a bit more, and knows that it’s some sort of language, but it's nearly impossible to figure out what it means, at least with only one sample. That's on top of the issues Happy Chaos pulled in Frederick's universe, and the situation in Ichiban's universe. I hope we can find more to work with, but for now we’re on our own in that regard.

It would be easier to move on and find the person after that strange name - Tiki, I believe - but a part of me wants to figure it out as soon as possible.

I feel my headache coming back once more…

Meanwhile in the KOF Universe…

2010, Nagoya, Japan, Earth-K-54285

“I can’t believe it…” Ichiban muttered aloud as they walked out of the portal onto the sidewalk of a city that was clearly Japanese if the signs were anything to go by.

“What’s hard to believe?” Frederick asked him, adjusting his jacket in the process. “Gears were made to age rapidly to become combat-viable quickly, and immortal to prevent unnecessary deaths. The traits apply to both mindless and sentient gears, despite what the US wanted from the Gear program.”

Ichiban then used his fingers to gesture. “Yeah, but… She’s here… but then there’s another version of her in Jack-O…” He was then silenced with a chop to the head from Frederick.

“Don’t think about it too much, dammit!” He chided him, before rubbing his head. “I don’t wanna deal with people being too confused about shit. I hate explaining shit to other people… OW!” he quickly rubbed his head after it had been chopped in return.

Blaze retracted her hand from where it had been resting after chopping Frederick, all to rub her temples. “And I don’t want to deal with you being abrasive. I thought you were supposed to be less abrasive, compared to everyone else.”

Ichiban, for what it was worth, raised a finger. “I’m not that abrasive.” He helpfully supplied, only to wither away from Blaze’s scathing glare. No one sought to trigger that bomb, not even Liu Kang or Silver. Of course, they did have things to do, and it was Dante who got Blaze back on track.

“So… who are we looking for today?” He calmly asked, hands behind her head.

Blaze sighed loudly, before pulling out a sheet of paper that was becoming familiar for the group. “Kyo Kusanagi. Current head of the Kusanagi Clan, he is a part of a group known as the Sacred Treasures, who seek to stop the machinations of the Earth God Orochi, and the cult that worships him, known as the Hakkeshu.” She then looked up to the rest of the group. “He lives in Nagoya, which is why we’re in this part of Japan.”

“Nagoya, huh?” Ichiban uttered loudly as he looked around the place. “Man, I’ve never been here before, but Oya-san always told me lots about this city.”

“Really, now?” Eric asked with genuine curiosity in his voice, having turned his attention from the city to face Ichiban.

“Yeah, he said that its Baseball team, the Nagoya Wyverns, were rising stars, though he stopped following them near the end of the 1990’s; A new family took over the place, and both the Omi and Tojo were kicked out of it. I wonder if Oya-san ever got back into baseball..” He took a deep breath to calm himself down, tears nearly falling from his eyes until Eric, of all people, patted him on the shoulder. Ichiban cleared the tears from his eyes before pounding his fist into his hands. “Arigatou. Now, let’s find this Kyo guy! Uh… where do you think he’d be?”

“You can start by going to Hell.” An unfamiliar voice growled out from the group’s left, belonging to an edgy-looking guy standing across the street. He had a red mop of hair covering his left eye, and a rather stylish crimson outfit marked by a dark-grey leather jacket and a guitar case in his left hand. For a moment, he was unfamiliar to the group until Blaze spoke. 

“Iori Yagami.” Blaze spoke, before clenching her fists. “Wields the power of the Yasakani Gem, and Kyo’s rival. He most likely knows where he is.” She then quickly crossed the street, regardless of traffic, and came up to the man, who looked at her curiously. Ichiban quickly ran after her along with the rest of the group, catching up to her just as she finished speaking to Iori.

“I don’t care why you need to speak with him, because what I want you to do is to piss off, pussy cat.” Iori shot back at Blaze, glaring at her like she had offended him. For Blaze’s part, she simply shook her head and walked away, gesturing to everyone else to join her. 

Frederick, however, was far less patient, and got into his face. “You clearly know where he is, kid, you’re a terrible liar. I’d recommend telling us where the brat is, or you’re gonna get a pounding from me.”

“Do you wish to be turned to ashes?” Iori growled back, bringing his hand up to Frederick’s face. Within a second, purple flames erupted from the red-haired man’s hand, nearly burning the scientist’s face had he not moved back.

“Purple flames… so that’s why you reek of Strontium and Alcohol.” Fredrick noted, before rolling his shoulder and adjusting his weapon - the Outrage Mk 2, if Ichiban remembered correctly. “That’s not gonna scare me, kid. I know a thing or two about fire, and I can damn well say that I’m better than you, brat.” The two smashed their foreheads together, ready for a brawl. But before they could do that…

“Enough, Iori.” A new voice entered the fray, as a Japanese woman wearing a white and red double-breasted dress and black jeans walked up to the group. Iori and Frederick looked at her for a moment, before stepping away from each other when she came close, where she started to glare at Iori. “I can condone your rivalry with Kyo, but I cannot allow you to fight random people on the street. “ She then turned her scalding glare to Frederick, who stepped back in response. “No matter how annoying they can be.”

Blaze quickly recognised the woman, smiling at her in the process. “Chizuru Kagura. The ‘Mirror’ of the Sacred Treasures… and the only one to have a level head.”

Chizuru quickly responded with a bow and a smile. “That I am. Unless NESTS decided to go into animal modification, I can only assume you are from another dimension, a la Heart-san?”

Blaze nodded her head in response. “Indeed. I am looking for Kyo Kusanagi-san to extend a special offer to him; namely to join the Multiversal… Chat Group I am running.”

“You’d have better luck playing something from Dragonforce perfectly on the first try than getting that bastard to listen, especially now.” Iori pointed out with a growl, only to get chopped on the head courtesy of Chizuru.

“Iori!” She chided him, though her own expression fell swiftly. “Then again… you aren’t wrong.”

Ichiban finally found the courage to speak, and walked up to her. “Um… what happened, Kagura-san?”

She stared at him intensely, though she quickly calmed down. “Nothing, it’s just… Kyo has been isolating himself from the world ever since the end of the 15th tournament, and practically nothing has made him come out, not even Iori.”

“I see. Do you know why?” Liu Kang finally took the opportunity to speak up, turning Chizuru’s attention to him.

“I just realised this, but I didn’t get all of your names. May I ask for them?” She politely asked, which left everyone on the team to awkwardly realise their mistake. After quickly doing so, Chizuru finally answered Liu kang’s question. “I do, but… I believe it is something best left for him to say.”

“Do you know where he lives, at least?”

“I do. I can show you, at the very least, though I doubt he’ll hear you out.” Chizuru explained, before walking down the street. The team (And Iori) followed her in the process, which led to a nice walk down the streets of Nagoya, where Blaze explained the details of their little quest to their guide. The walk continued up until they found themselves in the suburbs of the town, which happened to be on the side of a hill. If there was any exhaustion present from the climb up, it was quickly made irrelevant via the killer view of the blue sky over the hilly valley beneath them; that, and they had arrived at their location in the process.

It was a traditionally-Japanese styled building, even more so than the houses that were just a few metres down the road, with tall walls made out of dark wood and a roof made out of sand-yellow tiles. The wood was slightly aged but not rotten, while the ceramic tiles had a few chips in them here and there, suggesting that the building was more well maintained than any of them thought. Notably, it was also not isolated, as two people were waiting outside the house; a man and a woman. 

“Yooo, Kyoooo!” The man, who was wearing a blue tracksuit, was yelling loudly at the house, waving his arms in the process. “Come out, Kyo! We can train together!” He definitely knew Kyo, especially when he nudged the woman beside him. “Kushinada-san! Help me out here, he listens to you more than I listen to him.”

The woman shook her head. “I doubt it, Yabuki-kun. Ever since he set that goal, he’s made it a point to work towards it no matter what; Not even I could get him to bend away from it.” She then smiled brightly and turned to face the sky. “But that’s why I love him so much; when he really wants something, he’ll go for it with everything he has.” Her eyes then landed on the team, which happened to include their guides from this world. “Huh? Iori-san? Chizuru-san?” 

Everyone on the team quickly jumped upon being spotted, though their shock was abated by ‘Yabuki-kun’ running up to them with a smile. “Yo, Iori-san! Who’re your friends? Are they strong?” He then raised an eyebrow at Blaze and Silver. “And why am I seeing mascots here?”

Iori cracked his neck before pointing a thumb to the cliffside. “They’re a pain in my ass. Want to help me get rid of them?” Frederick was about to threaten Iori once more, up until Chizuru chopped the purple-flame wielder on the head.

Satisfied with her disciplining of Iori, she turned her focus to ‘Yabuki-kun’. “They’re travellers from another dimension, Shingo-kun. They hope to ally with Kyo for some sort of… group chat?”

Blaze nodded. “Correct. He is a strong fighter, and we would like to see how he would fare when it comes to communicating with other people, from other dimensions. As for why we are here, we need to directly contact him to establish a connection between his universe and the others, hence why I am here; Everyone is more-or-less a tag-along.”

The energetic man - Shingo - started rubbing his chin with a smile on his face, before pointing a finger at the group. “So what you’re saying is… that you’re all aliens from another world, right?”

Dante shrugged in response, before speaking up for the team. “Uh…yeah, that sounds about right. Oh, wait!” he then snapped his fingers before pointing back to the man. “We never did introduce ourselves, did we?”

“Oh, you’re right, We should! My name is Shingo Yabuki, and I-WAIT A MINUTE, I HAVE AN IDEA TO TEST OUT!” Shingo halted himself in his tracks before running back to the Kusanagi household and bashing his fist against the door. “KUSANAGI-SENSEI! KUSANAGI-SENSEI!!! I’ve got some good news! Really good news!” He then continued to bash his fist against the poor door, up until it opened up and a hand flew out to grab the man’s arm.

“Shingo…” An older man with silver-streaked brown hair and a fine beard walked out into the light, his dark-green kimono shining as he stepped out. “...Pray that your news is as good as you think it is, or I will make you do a hundred repetitions of the Kusanagi Conditioning Arts!”  

“We’ve finally been visited by weir-I mean, aliens, and th-they want to meet Kyo!” Shingo blabbered out, stumbling over his words in the process.

“Aliens, you say?” Kusanagi-sensei asked with a raised eyebrow, before pulling Shingo to the side to look at the team, including Ichiban, before pulling Shingo back in place. “And they wish to speak to Kyo?”

“Yep!” Shingo replied, and after that, the two became silent. The elder Kusanagi, who was known as Saisyu Kusanagi via the archives, glared at Shingo for a couple of minutes, at which point sweat started to form on the boy’s face.

“THAT’S PERFECT, ME BOY!” Saisyu screamed at the top of his lungs, a smile painting itself onto his face while the scream blew off any sweat from Shingo’s face. “Kyo will not be able to ignore us now, not with this ‘threat’ in mind!” He winked at Shingo in a playing (read: lying) manner, before he took a deep breath and turned his head back into the house. “KYO!!! ALIENS ARE INVADING JAPAN! THEY HAVE LANDED ON THE FRONT LAWN!!!”

“Wait, what?!” A faint voice could be heard from inside the house, at which point someone started pounding their way to the front door. Within seconds, a brown-haired man wearing a white shirt poked his head out of the doorway, however, unlike his portrait they had, his hair was combed down, instead of the usual curtains. “Alright, where are those ET’s? I’m gonna send them to the moon, except it won’t be a pleasant bike ride!” He then caught a glimpse of the group and frowned. “Old man, please tell me you lost a few brain cells.”

“I have not! These are aliens, and they wish to speak with you!” Saisyu reassured his son, before turning to the team. “That is correct?”

Blaze stepped forward towards Kyo and bowed before him. “Kyo Kusanagi, head of the Kusanagi Clan and the Sword of the Sacred Treasures. Many years back, you alongside Iori Yagami and Chizuru Kagura sealed the nature deity Orochi once more using your powers, only to fall unconscious from the process. You would be captured by an organisation called NESTS shortly thereafter to be used as clone-stock, where you would take them down alongside your old teammates and former members of NESTS. After that, you dealt with another cult that worships Orochi and had time manipulation powers, and most recently helped a young man control his powers, defeating a multiversal entity, correct?” Kyo nodded, and Blaze continued. “I am Blaze, princess of the Sol Empire, Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, and Multiversal Administrator; I would like to have you join our group, so that we can see how you may interact with other fighters from other worlds.”

“So you read up about me, huh? If you really need a ‘me’ to join your little club, you can go ask NESTS; I think they’ve got a few… thousand.” He pointed out to them before frowning. “Now can you please piss off?” He then turned around to leave, only for Saisyu to grab him by the shoulder and turn him around.

“What? Boy, there are people here who want to talk to you; strong people! Are you really going to not listen to what they have to say?” He scolded Kyo with a vicious-but-caring glare which Kyo waved off.

Kyo raised an eyebrow at his old man. “Strong, you say? How?”

“I can tell. I haven’t fought them myself, but I can tell.” Saisyu rubbed his beard as he spoke, his voice sure of his statement despite the lack of evidence at hand.

The younger Kusanagi rubbed his chin in thought, mirroring his old man. “Hmm… I have an idea. If any one of you losers can beat me in a fight, then I’ll consider your offer.” The team was silent upon hearing that, most likely thinking about who should go against him, however, before anyone could even begin to deliberate, Eric stepped forward.

“Deal. Let's fight!” Eric spoke quickly, his body already in a neutral stance with his fists aimed at Kyo.

“Wait, what?” Ichiban uttered out at the challenge, only for Kyo to laugh.

“Ooh, someone’s eager! Let’s take this to the dojo.” Kyo said, before waving him inside.

“What in the actual fu-”

THE DOJO

“So apparently the Kusanagis have an entire-ass dojo built into their house, huh?” Ichiban uttered out, as everyone had gathered inside the dojo. It was built like the rest of the house, though an open roof let the sun beam down on them. It would have looked like a normal courtyard if it weren’t for the training dummies and other implements that were present in the room, though they had been moved aside to leave a large space in the middle of the wooden floor, where Kyo and Eric were facing each other. As for everyone else, they were on the sidelines, where Kyo’s mother joined them and stood by Saisyu and Yuki Kushinada, Kyo’s Girlfriend. “I wonder how much money you’d need to maintain this sorta place…” Ichiban thought to himself aloud as he watched alongside Shingo and Silver.

“Enough money to keep it maintained, but not enough to keep the drywall from peeling off.” Kyo and Iori shot back towards Ichiban, only to realise that they spoke at the same time, which led to the two of them arguing until Chizuru bonked Iori and Kyo on the head via a shadow clone. After that, Eric let Kyo recover for a minute, while everyone found someone else to chat with. Ichiban for example, turned to face Shingo alongside Silver; the former was writing something down in a journal, while the latter was juggling a group of rocks with his mind. 

“So, Yabuki-san, was it? What are you doing?” He asked jubilantly, curious about what he was jotting down.

“Oh, I’m taking notes. I’m learning from Kyo-sensei, and seeing him fight someone from another world should be a really great learning experience!” Shingo rapidly explained, before bowing towards Ichiban. “I gave you all my name before, but let me introduce myself properly; Shingo Yabuki, Student of Kusanagi-Ryu Martial Arts, and Kyo’s greatest student!”

“Ichiban Kasuga. Former Yakuza, and current multiversal traveller.” Ichiban introduced himself in turn, bumping a fist into his chest.

“Silver the Hedgehog, Warrior from the Future, and friend of Blaze.” Silver introduced himself afterwards.

Shingo’s eyes widened at the reveal, as if it was a big shock. “A Yakuza?! But you seem so nice, unlike those weirdos on Kabuki street!”

“That’s what shocks you?” Silver asked out of curiosity. “A yakuza? I thought I would be more shocking-oh, but the psycho soldiers!”

“Yep! I’ve fought Athena-san multiple times, and I’ve even trained with her and her group fro a bit, but I haven’t been able to manifest any sorta psycho power.” Shingo quickly supplied an answer. “Still, it’s pretty good training, all things considered, and I’m not gonna say no to that.”

Ichiban scratched his head in response, not entirely sure about what to do next. “Back to the yakuza, did they have an irezumi?

“Uh, like the back tattoos?” Shingo asked back, before shaking his head. “Not as far as I could tell. They mostly tried to get me to pay some sorta fee for walking, but I was able to fight back!” He responded with a few mock punches, mostly for effect. 

As for Ichiban, he merely shrugged his shoulders. “Eh, then they’re probably just punks.”

“Hey, you two! Shut up, the fight’s about to start!” Dante called out to them from the middle of the arena, right between Eric and Kyo, but he was not wearing his usual leather outfit; instead, he was wearing a red suit with a black tie and white dress shirt.

Of course, Ichiban was not the only person who noticed the change, as Eric relaxed for a moment. “Wait a minute, where did you get that suit? And how did you put it on so quickly; I saw you in your normal clothes not one minute ago!”

“Don’t ask about it, it’s too complicated for you.” Dante shot back, before turning to Kyo to deflect. “Kyo, are you ready to fight?”

“I’ve been waiting all day, old man!” Kyo shot back, cocking his fists in the process.

Dante shook his head in annoyance. ”You don’t need to be so rude about it… Eric, are you ready to fight?”

Eric steadily returned back to his fighting pose, keeping his eyes locked on Kyo. “Are you going to keep me waiting?”

Dante laughed before hopping out of their way with an air trick, teleporting to one of the railings of the deck surrounding the dojo. “Alright, I want a good clean match! Anything goes so long as it doesn’t kill!”

“Not how that works, Dante!” Vergil whisper-screamed beneath his breath, massaging his temples like his life depended on it; it probably did, given how easily Dante got under his skin. As for the younger Son of Sparda (coolest title ever, in Ichiban’s opinion), he pulled out a megaphone and took a deep breath.

HEAVEN OR HE-!

“WRONG UNIVERSE!” Almost everyone from the crowd called out, beating out even the power of a demonically-enhanced megaphone. As for Dante, he rubbed his ears with a finger before rubbing it on his suit jacket.

“Damn, you guys are loud.” Dante muttered back before taking another deep breath.

SINGLE MATCH! THERE IS NO ESCAPE!!!

READY?

G-

CRACK!

Before either of them could fight, a loud noise came from above, which seemingly came from a major crack in the sky. Everyone was on edge upon seeing it, even more so when the crack got larger and larger. Blaze was the first to speak. “Liu Kang, do you have any idea what that is?”

CRACK!

“Absolutely not, but I have a bad feeling about it.” He said back, as the crack got wider and wider. 

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRA- BOOM !

The crack was blown open via the front of some sort of spaceship, which flew through the crack-turned-portal until it was completely outside it, at which point the crack receded into nothing. Its underside was obscured due to the ship covering the sun, but a flash of light was all the warning they had before something launched from the bottom of the ship and smashed directly into the ground just to the left of the two fighters. 

“What the hell?” Dante’s voice was the only thing Ichiban could hear other than a faint ringing in his ear. His eyes were no more helpful, as a dust cloud covered the entire arena, blinding everyone inside the dojo. This lasted for a solid minute until a sand tornado courtesy of Geras swept it all away, giving everyone a glimpse at the thing that impacted the ground, or more accurately the person.

It looked human, with a feminine figure and wide hips, but the jets on its arms, the spiky cages surrounding its thighs, and the massive pillar of fire coming out of its horned head like a mohawk said otherwise. It stood up slowly, before looking at everyone in the area with a confident, appraising look, though there was nothing on the head to suggest how it was able to see. Still, there was some hope that whatever this thing was, it was on their side at the end of the day.

And then it pulled a revolver-like pistol from its right hip and pointed it at Kyo.

“Alright, Who the hell are you, and why the hell are you opening void portals outta nowhere?” The warrior spoke with a feminine voice, keeping the gun trained on Kyo.

“Who the hell are you, a space-cop?” Kyo sniped back with no regard to the revolver aimed at his face. “Nah, wait, that’s a revolver! Space-Cowboy!”

“There’s a better warframe for that idea… ” The warrior spoke underneath her breath before returning her focus on Kyo. “Wait a goddamn minute, that doesn’t matter!” The warrior shouted out, before slightly dropping her gun. “Oh, you’re from this world, aren’t you? You can’t be the one to have created the portal in the first place, right?” She then turned her head to look at the rest of the group, her eyes landing on Blaze and Liu Kang. “No… the energy, it’s coming from you, isn’t it?”

Liu Kang and Blaze lifted their eyebrows in shock, looked at each other for a moment before focusing on the strange warrior. “What energy are you talking about?” Liu Kang asked for the both of them.

“Void Energy. I’ve been tracking your signature ever since…” The woman looked down at her wrist like there was a watch on it, before looking up at the both of them. “A week or so ago, assuming we use earth time.”

“Alright, question, what’s a void energy?” Dante asked while making quotation marks with his hands.

“Void Energy? How do you not know what that is?” the warrior asked aloud, before shaking her head. “Wait, are you guys even from the Orogin System?

“No? What the hell is that?” Ichiban spoke up, and that caused the warrior to spaz out.

“I-uh-wha-?” She muttered unintelligibly for a minute, only for another warrior to land on the ground beside her, standing up with a calm demeanor. “Da-Umbra, what the hell! Warn me before you land, dammit!” The warrior who apparently was named Umbra grunted at her before looking away, somehow looking both annoyed and embarrassed by the woman’s outburst. She seemed to only be the latter, as she looked away and rubbed her arm, before shaking her head and walking towards the team. “Alright, let’s start again, from the top. Who are you guys?”

“Ah, My name is Lord Liu Kang, God of Fire and Protector of Earthrealm.” Liu Kang introduced himself to the warrior.

“And my name is Blaze, Princess of the Sol Empire, Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, and Multiversal Administrator. And you?”

“I am-” The warrior started before slapping herself in the head. “Woops, I nearly forgot my manners.” A ripple came from the front of the warrior’s body, before a young woman walked out of the body, causing it to go ramrod straight. The woman messed with her blonde hair for a moment, and adjusted her red, white and black space suit, before holding her hand out. 

“Uhh…” Blaze and Liu Kang were shocked by the woman’s appearance, bouncing back in the process; however, through a rather strange and totally not contrived series of coincidences, the paper which contained the list of allies fell from her coat, and landed by the woman’s feet.

“Oh, you dropped something!” She said forcefully, before crouching down, incidentally becoming invisible. “Lemme get that… for you.” She got up with the paper, but her voice slowed as she looked at the paper. She looked and gazed and inspected the paper over and over again, each time her face becoming more and more shocked. “No way…”

“Er… excuse me?” Blaze found the courage to speak. “Could… I have my paper back?”

“How do you know Tennobet?” The woman asked with shock in her voice.

“Tennobet?” Blaze asked aloud, before realisation appeared on her face. “Wait, is that-is that the strange set of symbols on the page?

“Yes… yes they are.” The woman admitted, before glaring at Blaze. “Now tell me; how do you know Tennobet?”

“W-we don’t.” Blaze admitted. “A friend of mine gave me a list of people to find, and one of the names was heavily obscured. We’ve been looking for that person, or at least a clue to figure out how to translate it.”

“It’d be near impossible, at least for you. You’d need to be void-touched in some way to read Tennobet clearly.” The woman admitted, before turning to her. “But I DO know it.”

“Then do you know who we are looking for?” Liu kang questioned her, with hope in his voice.

“That’s the funny thing…” She spoke wistfully before looking at the two of them. “You’re looking right at her.” The two of them looked at her intently, and she looked down at the paper. “Vo-kh-sa-ria-h.” The woman intoned loudly, before looking up at them. “Or to say it properly…” 

“Voxaria. That is my name.”

Chapter Text

2010, Kusanagi Household, Nagoya, Earth-K-54285

“Sluurp” was the only noise heard in the room, as Voxaria consumed the cup of tea. Despite her initial impressions on the group, she clearly had some room for politeness, given how cleanly she sipped on the cup, before she brought it back down to the table. “DAMN! That is some good-ass tea. Not like any tea I’ve had in Duviri, but it's still pretty good!”

Everyone was intrigued by her reaction; well, there were a few who were not, like Kyo, who was resting his head on his hand. “So the space-alien enjoys tea… what a world we live in.” Kyo quipped loudly, only to get bonked on the head by his mother.

“Kyo-kun, be nice!” His mother, Shizuka Kusanagi, scolded him, before turning towards Voxaria. “Apologies for his behaviour, he tends to get snippy when stuff like this happens. In either case, I’m glad that you enjoyed it, Voxaria-san.”

Voxaria waved her hands at the matriarch. “Oh, please, just call me Vox. It’s much easier.” She then raised the tea cup back to her lips, only to realise it was empty, at which point she gestured towards Shizuka for a refill

“So… what are you?” Ichiban asked slowly, earning Vox's attention. “I mean, you look human, so I’d assume you are, but are you like… an astronaut? A pyromaniac?”

“Oh me?” Vox asked in return, before shaking her head. “Oh, no, I’m not… that human. Not anymore, at least.” She then stood up and placed a hand on her chest. “I am a Tenno. Space Ninja, Connoisseur of Strange Weaponry, and Survivor of the Zariman Ten-Zero.”

The group was silent, looking at her like she had revealed that she was an alien from another planet, which she was, but this was different. They were silent as they processed the declaration, before Eric shuffled forward and held his hands out at her. “Ok, I think we need to disassemble that statement a little bit, and by a little bit I mean a lot.”

Vox raised her arms up in a shrug. “What’s there to disassemble? The Space-Ninja part? The weapons? The surviving-a-ship-full-of-crazy-adults part?”

Everyone raised their eyebrows at the last part, but Frederick spoke first. “I’d like to hear about the weapons.” Frederick asked with a raised finger, only for Blaze to silence him with a wave of her hand.

She then turned to Vox and pulled out the list from earlier. “More importantly, could you tell us about Tennobet? More specifically, how was Miriam able to write it even though she had no idea about it?”

Vox nodded her head and threw a disc onto the table, which projected a holographic screen onto the table. There were a few shocked gasps from the few people in the group that weren’t used to such technology, but Vox held a hand up to silence them before waving it around, drawing wave-like letters onto the screen. “This is Tennobet, a language created by the Tenno. Tenno as a term comes from the Zariman Ten-Zero, a colony ship aimed at our version of Tau-Ceti, which got stranded in the Void for a long time. The Adults on the ship either went mad, or died for some other reason, leaving the kids on the ship to fend for themselves. We nearly shared the same fate as them, had I not struck a deal with an entity from the Void to return us back to the Orogin System. Of course, that wasn’t the end of our troubles, but…” Vox went silent for a moment, giving a tiny bit of time for everyone to take in what she said, only for her to shake her head and point at the screen.

“ANYWAYS! Tennobet is a language we created to communicate with other Tenno, using the calligraphy lessons we got alongside our combat training to write messages to each other. Of course, given that ALL Tenno are connected to the void, the language was quickly picked up by the same entity that saved us, which means it's basically the official language of the Man in the Wall.” She then leaned in and placed her hand to the side of her mouth. “We like to call him Wally, he sometimes haunts our orbiters.”

Everyone took in what Vox said, and Liu Kang stood up to inspect the image. “This… Man in the Wall… Can He communicate across universes? Interfere with them?”

Vox nodded. “Eternalism allows him to do that.” She then realised that everyone was curious about the concept, and waved her hands to switch the screen from a board filled with Tennobet letters to a slide. “To summarise the concept, Eternalism states that all possibilities exist in the Void, and exist at the same time. If I were to compare it to another concept-”

“It’s the Trolley Problem on crack.” Dante muttered out. “Usually you have to choose between sacrificing one person and five, or something like that, but this Eternalism allows both to exist at the same time.”

“Exactly!” Vox snapped her fingers at him, before switching slides. “Here’s a similar example from a class aboard the Zariman; Lintana's parents have been captured, but she has a choice. The button that opens her mother's cell door will flood her father's cell with deadly radiation, and vice versa. She presses one of the buttons. What happens?”

“One of them dies, assuming she doesn’t figure out a way to save both.” Eric answered, before rubbing his chin. “Wait a minute… does that mean you can use it to… travel through time?”

“Travelling through time… shooting fireballs from a flesh puppet, don’t ask about it, I know you have questions… and so much more.” Vox waved her hands to the side in a showy pose. “The logic that makes all of it work, the logic that allows me to even exist as I am… that is Eternalism in a nutshell.”

Everyone nodded their head at the explanation, before Blaze shook her head and pulled out her phone. “Miss Vox, could you write your name out in Tennobet once more? If the Man in the Wall can interfere in other universes, then he… it might be the reason that she wrote your name in your language. It may also be why we never were able to cross reference it before.”

Vox nodded and wrote her name in the curved letters of Tennobet, before letting Blaze take a picture with her phone, which she quickly sent to Miriam via the admin’s group chat.

>[S] League of Union of Club of Alliance of SOMA

>[C] Newbie-Chat

FlamePrincess: @MiriOnTheWall Sorry to interrupt, but I think I have an explanation as to what the strange text was, Miriam.

User FlamePrincess has uploaded a file: StrangeTextFound.png (A picture of Tennobet written by Voxaria)

MiriOnTheWall: Huh? What’s this?

MiriOnTheWall: OH! That’s the text I always wrote when I was trying to write the names down for you!

MiriOnTheWall: How in the world did you find it? What does it mean? Who wrote that in the first place?

FlamePrincess: To save time, the text is a language called Tennobet, and it’s a name like we suspected; Voxaria. She’s a Tenno from someplace called the Orogin system, and she’s telling me now that it’s not a typo. Apparently, there’s a deity there that can interfere with other universes, and that has a grasp on Tennobet due to its connection to the Tenno, hence why you were always writing her name in the language.

MiriOnTheWall: Wow…

MiriOnTheWall: That’s a lot to take in.

MiriOnTheWall: Could you get her to send more data? I’m looking through the Archives, and we don’t exactly have anything on a Tenno, or the Origin System.

M̴̨̗͍̟̏̈ã̴̡̘̫̰̺̦̟͉̳͓̒̇̽͒̈́̌͝͝ń̸̡̛̻̟̜̝̼̼̫̂̔̇͂̿̿̚͜͝Ǐ̵̼͐̽ñ̶̳͕̹̗̩̖̯̗̥̜̣̎̒͂̌́̔͑͐͊͛̃͛͘͠T̴̢͚̦̟̻̝͚̝̥͓̮͕̟̙͋͒̈́̑h̷͇͚͉͂̃̅͛̍͂̆͘͠è̵̡̛̪̖͐̊́̋̋̉̓̕̕͠W̵͎̯͔̼̞̳̪͓͔̝̆̆̒̅̔̈́̒̋̐͝ͅâ̶̢̞̻̻̱̣l̶̘̱̮̼̠̙̲̣͈̲̞̻͙̠͒́̄͊̈̿́ͅl̶͔̰̄́̀͊̀̆̓̒̕̕: O̴̡̥͚̞̣̰͖̫̓̈́͒̽͛̀̓̃̓͑͌̆̽̋͝r̵̲͈͈̦͍̠̖̱͉͊͗̿̂̑̅͑̂̈͌̚ö̴͍͓͚̖̟̳̪̈͜ͅĝ̷̼̈́̈́͋̀̾́͋̽͗̽̍͘̕̕ỉ̷̧̧̗̮̠̖̅͂̈́̅̀͒́͒ņ̷̻̼̦̹̠̈́̄͐̆͂͛͊̉̈́͘̚͜ͅ ̷̹̬̜̯̞͚͎̈́͂̾̅̽͛͌̎́̔̄͌ͅS̶̥̆̋̍͊̊͝y̶̡͎͍̰̤̏̈́̽ͅs̴̢͍͈̙̦̝̻̖̳͕̝̈̃͑̔̂̍̐̽̓̄͛́̊̽͐t̷̯͖̲̭̳̻̥̻̗͗͆̕ȩ̵̨̰̣̟̗̘̲̦͈̗͈̫̂̿̓̀ͅm̸̠̞͚̮̻̯͔̥̯̼͙̦͐̄̓̾͜

God: M̴̨̗͍̟̏̈ã̴̡̘̫̰̺̦̟͉̳͓̒̇̽͒̈́̌͝͝ń̸̡̛̻̟̜̝̼̼̫̂̔̇͂̿̿̚͜͝Ǐ̵̼͐̽ñ̶̳͕̹̗̩̖̯̗̥̜̣̎̒͂̌́̔͑͐͊͛̃͛͘͠T̴̢͚̦̟̻̝͚̝̥͓̮͕̟̙͋͒̈́̑h̷͇͚͉͂̃̅͛̍͂̆͘͠è̵̡̛̪̖͐̊́̋̋̉̓̕̕͠W̵͎̯͔̼̞̳̪͓͔̝̆̆̒̅̔̈́̒̋̐͝ͅâ̶̢̞̻̻̱̣l̶̘̱̮̼̠̙̲̣͈̲̞̻͙̠͒́̄͊̈̿́ͅl̶͔̰̄́̀͊̀̆̓̒̕̕: has uploaded a file: W̵̱̙̙̗̲̻̫̙͓̽̑̅͋́̒̂̎͛́̓a̵̧̬̱͎̱͂̄͆̓̊͆̓̒̚͝r̵̼̘͊̈́͗͝f̶͓͔̮͍̼͉̪̩̥̊́̑̿̕ṛ̶̡̊̅̿̂͋͊̂̿̅̀̅̏͝a̴͇̝̯̭͔̐̊̓̈́͂̈͜m̵̡͚̱̣̺̦̪͔̻͓̆̄̅̋̉̆̾̂͋̀͜͜͠͝ȅ̸̹̼̹̱̥̞̯̭͒̎́͊̕͘͝͝Ļ̶̪͕̼̼̻̺̲͍̖̠̱͍̻͝o̵̢͍͚̫̰͆͐̉̈́̓̔͐͌̈́r̷̢̪̻̞͎͂̉̀̅̑̾͋̐̈͌ȩ̷̪̭̙̝̪̗̜̯̠͛͊͌̓͒̓̋͝͝͝.zip (A 10 GB Zip folder containing the lore)

MiriOnTheWall: WTF?!

FlamePrincess: Who are you?!

<<

Everyone had gathered around Blaze’s phone, shocked at the intrusion into the Admin’s group chat, though none were more shocked than Blaze or Liu Kang, who were sure that the chat was immune to hackers. “By the Elder Gods…” Liu Kang uttered, his fists clenched in worry.

Of course, not everyone was shocked by the Man in the Wall’s appearance; namely Vox, who merely shrugged her shoulders. “Eh, that’s Wally for you. Loves to get into places that he really shouldn’t.” She kept her eyes closed, but quickly opened them once she realised that everyone was silent. “Guys… what’s up?”

Frederick slowly sighed before pointing his hands at her. “I’m going to say this for everyone in the group, but what in the actual f-”

“Language!” Shizuka cried out, annoying Frederick even further.

“We just saw an eldritch god break into a system that’s supposed to be impenetrable - I know because I tested it with Asuka before I left my world - and the thing you’re worried about is my mouth ?” He asked her sarcastically, before waving his hand at her. “Get outta here.” Kyo and Saisyu got up to say fighting words, but they were instantly stopped by Vox.

“Says the guy who looks like he dressed at Hot Topic.” She insulted his coat, earning a few chuckles from the group.

“Says the girl that’s dressed in nothing but a bodysuit.” He shot back, pointing at her suit in the process.

“BITCH, this is Fashion Frame!” She shouted in return before wrapping her arms around herself. “Besides, I have more Fashion Frames back on the Orbiter; I only chose this because I was too focused on this multiversal crap to change.” She then grumbled to herself, before calming down and turning towards Frederick once more. “Wait… the Asuka guy you mentioned… is he a twink? With white hair and a flower in his right eye?”

“Yep.” Frederick simply replied before pointing behind himself. “And if you have an issue with him, you better wait; there’s a line of people who owes him a beating, and I’m going first.”

“Wait, I thought you guys made up after the incident at the White House?” Ichiban asked curiously. 

“What? Hell no, that’s a drop in the bucket.” Frederick shot back, glaring at ichiban. “I still gotta beat his ass for the shit he pulled over the years.”

Vox, however, did not care and stepped up to face him. “Well, I’m cutting the line then. He kept me in your universe with some bullshit magic that held my Orbiter in place and rambled about universes and gravity for five hours before I left. I know it’s not that bad, but I could have met you guys earlier, so I'm taking offense to his BS. Don’t worry, though; it’ll take a minute for me to be done with him.”

“Ah hell no, you’re not stealing my spot, dammit!” Frederick growled and butt his head against Vox, ready to throw down with the Eldritch Void-empowered woman… before Blaze slid between them and used fire to push them back.

“Let’s ignore that for now.” Blaze got in between the two of them, before turning to Vox. “Miss Voxaria, despite the weirdness surrounding you and your universe, Miriam assured me that you were a hero of some kind.”

Vox nodded in response. “Of course I am. The Tenno work to safeguard the Orogin System from the advances of the Grineer, Corpus, and any other threats to its people.”

“I assume this extends to preserving life?” Liu Kang asked in turn, and Vox nodded.

“Well, we ARE warriors, and warriors do warrior things, like killing soldiers, but we never turn our blades against the innocents.” Vox proudly stated, before turning in on herself. “We were like them once, and I doubt that there is a single Tenno who would raise their blade for any corrupt cause.”

Blaze smiled and offered a phone to Vox. “Well then, I would like to invite you to the Multiversal Group Chat. It’s an experiment headed by the Society of Multiversal Administrators to see how characters from other universes interact, and I’d love to have you join us.”

Vox picked up the phone with ease and inspected it with her eyes, before Ordis flew right beside her and scanned the device. Within seconds, he came to a simple conclusion. “Operator, this device is rather primitive, compared to the systems on the Orbiter. I can emulate the device’s functions and allow you to communicate to the group through the Transponder System.”

“Ah, perfect.” Vox smiled before pocketing the phone. “Well, I have no reason to say no, so consider this a big fat yes. Oh! Almost forgot, but with Ordis routing comms through the Orbiter, that’ll mean that he’ll be seeing things you send to me, so keep that in mind.”

Everyone in the chat nodded their heads at the info, though Ichiban was the first to come up with an idea. “Hey, why don’t we just… add Ordis to the chat? He’s gonna see it anyway, so there’s no reason not to.”

“While I agree with your logic, Ichiban Kasuga, we would need to allow all members of the chat to bring in secondary members, for the sake of fairness.” Liu Kang pointed out, only for Blaze to point at him in turn.

“Yes, but we already have quite a few members who have two members in the chat; I have Silver, you have Geras, Dante has Vergil, and Eric has Wes. We are already bringing in two members per world, and we DO have the bandwidth for multiple people per world anyways.” Blaze pointed out, opening up the floor for anyone else in the group to make their suggestions.

“I’m adding Jack-O as soon as I can.” Frederick said bluntly. “Well either her or Dizzy, either one works.”

“I know a guy from my world who could join us!” Ichiban pointed out in turn, only to rub his chin once more. “Now the real question is if he’ll be available…”

Kyo, as the last member of the group without a second member, looked towards the rest of the people in the room; Shingo was praying towards him, Iori looked at him dismissively, and Yuki and Chizuru were sitting calmly. “Well, I’d like to add Yuki or Shingo to the chatroom, but I doubt they’d fit in. Iori-”

“No.” He simply replied, daring anyone to speak up in turn.

“I wasn’t going to ask, you asshole.” Kyo shot back, before ducking a fireball aimed at his head. “And ignoring my parents for now, that would leave me with… Chizuru-san.”

Blaze smiled lightly in response. “I would not be opposed to the suggestion. Chizuru Kagura, would you be willing to join the Multiversal Group Chat?” She turned to face Chizuru, who nodded gently.

“As one part of the Sacred Treasures, it would be important to know about any threat to this world, whether it be from this world or another.” She answered, before handing a cellphone to Blaze. “I would gladly join your group.” And with that, the group became quiet as Blaze worked on Chizuru’s phone, until Silver has a brilliant idea.

“Hey, why don’t you join us on our trip?” Silver asked Kyo and Chizuru, which led to Blaze glaring at him once more.

“Again?!” Silver backed away from her, but before she could scold him Kyo stepped in.

“Oh? Where are you going?”

Blaze sighed in annoyance before pulling out her own phone. “Due to a system issue, we need to directly connect with the people on the list before we can add them to the group. This means we need to travel to other universes to do that.” She then turned on Silver once more. “And now that we have 12 people in total, we need to keep track of everyone while going through dimensions, which will be nearly impossible while we go on foot.”

“We could just ride in the Orbiter!” Vox helpfully suggested. “It’ll be a bit of a squeeze, but we do have the space for it.” Before she could elaborate, Ordis flew right towards her and voiced a concern, which led into an argument between the two of them that Blaze ignored in favour of Kyo, who was counting something with his fingers.

“Kyo Kusanagi, what’s wrong?” She spoke loudly, drawing everyone’s attention to her and Kyo.

“Ah, what the f-! Oh, nothing.” He tried to counter, only to realise that everyone had their eyes on him. “Damn it, I was trying to keep this on the down-low…”

Liu Kang stepped forward and held out a supporting hand. “We aren’t going to judge you for your issues, if you are concerned.” 

“I am.” Iori unhelpfully supplied, earning a smack to the head courtesy of Shizuka. 

After glaring at Iori, Kyo rubbed his hands together. “Well, if you must know… I’ve been studying to pass the GED.” 

He then got up and put his hands in his pocket. “As you may or may not know, I was about 17 years old when I fought Orochi with Chizuru and Iori, defeating the bastard with the help of Yagami rioting about. I was about to graduate High School at the time, but between being used as material to create a clone army for two years and dealing with the bastards behind it, along with another world-ending calamity, I… never really had the time or the need to go back and get my diploma. I made enough money from odd jobs for the things I need and want, and it wasn’t as if I needed to make more to survive.”

He then paused and looked up. “But… things change, and so did my circumstances. After a brat I know called Shun’ei defeated the latest in a long line of godly figures at the last KOF tournament, I realised that I’ve got a lot of time on my hands. Along with that, Yuki’s just got her PhD at 29, and it makes me, a 30-year old without a diploma, look kinda sad. Not to mention the fact that costs are going up and we don’t exactly have much of an income to work with, given that the Dojo’s only student is practically the only one paying for our bills.”

“And I’m more than happy to!” Shingo happily added, only to get bonked on the head by Frederick.

“Don’t be a goddamn bootlicker, kid. You have your pride to keep.” Frederick chided him, only to get a sandal to the face for his troubles.

Kyo glared at the two of them for a moment before sighing and continuing. “Which is why I’ve been locking myself up and studying the exam rigorously; I want to pass it first try, and that means I need to focus on it at all costs.”

“Well shit, That sounds pretty awesome!” Ichiban spoke up. “I mean, I dropped out of High School when I was fifteen to join the Yakuza, and I got myself sent to jail when I was 24, so I don’t really have a place to act better than you. But dammit, I want to see you succeed, kid; You’re a good 12 years younger than me, and a hell of a lot smarter than me as well!”

“Aw, don’t say that, man. You’re plenty smart!” Silver reassured him, though his voice was plenty shaky. “At least I think you are!”

“Aw, thanks Silver!” Ichiban thanked the Psycho-kinetic hedgehog in turn, before snapping his fingers. “Say, why don’t we study together! I have a feeling that I’d need to do it if I want a job in my world, so if we work together, then the chances of the both of us passing will double!”

Ichiban’s optimism was infectious, but Vergil merely scoffed in response. “While that sounds amenable, I have a feeling that the curricula of both of your worlds are completely different, even if you both are Japanese.” He got a few glares from the group, but he simply shrugged his arms in response.

“Well, is that all?” Vox asked, before pulling out a remote. “If I’m gonna be your space-driver, then I kinda need to clean up the Orbiter; I haven’t exactly cleaned it in a while.”

“But-” Blaze uttered out loud for a moment before centering herself once more. “But I haven’t even agreed to do that. Then again…” She looked at everyone in the group, and didn’t see a single look that screamed ‘no’ to her. “I have a feeling that everyone will agree anyways, so sure.” Vox pumped her arms in response before gathering Ordis and Umbra (who had stayed silent throughout the entire conversation for some reason) and teleported away. As for Blaze, she turned her attention to the two newest members of the group.

Chizuru shook her head before speaking. “Someone has to keep an eye on the Orochi seal, and I doubt that Yagami will be able to do it alone, especially with Team Orochi in play. I must stay here, but I believe Kyo will join you.”

Kyo, for what it was worth, shrugged his shoulders in response. “Fine, but I’m not curtain-ing my hair. I’m only gonna do it once I pass the GED, so you’re gonna have to deal with ‘Hair-down’ Kyo for now.” And with that, the group descended into meaningless chatter, while Blaze took the opportunity to massage her forehead.

Blaze Multiversal Journal: Log 6

Within the world of Kyo Kusanagi, we have added two of the people listed to the chat; Kyo Kusanagi himself, and Voxaria.

Kyo Kusanagi is as big of a pain as I expected him to be; brash, cocky, and more than willing to fight even with the slimmest of justifications. Still, there are good things to say about him, despite all of that; He’s devoted to his family and his girlfriend, even when they get on his nerves. He’s a surprisingly good trainer from what I’ve seen of him and Shingo, and despite how he uses Shingo as an errand boy more often he makes it a point to push Shingo towards thinking for himself. Most importantly, he can be surprisingly dedicated to doing something, even if he doesn’t like it; from working with Iori to deal with the threat of Orochi even with their rivalry, to studying so he can pass the GED, he has a surprising amount of grit to him.

Perhaps that’s why he and Eric have built a bit of a rapport with each other; They’re abrasive as sandpaper, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were pushed to blows, but Eric respects Hard work above all, and Kyo’s drive to become a better person for Yuki is admirable. It’s drawn Ichiban to him as well, if only because the both of them never graduated High School in the first place, but Ichiban is also a rather easy person to be around; It would be one hell of a surprise to meet someone that hates him at all.

But Kyo wasn’t the only one we met today, and Voxaria is a mystery unto herself.

Voxaria, or Vox as she calls herself, is the survivor of a ship called the Zariman Ten-Zero, and due to the training of the Orokin she’s become a warrior of peerless skill, if her duel with Dante was anything to go by. Still, I can tell that she has quite a bit of trauma behind her skills, if the way she flinches when she remembers certain details of her universe; She’s mentioned that the Orokin are long gone, with one of the executors dead at her hands, but I have a feeling that I would like to… violently dispose of them if I ever came across one.

She’s gotten along with Silver, if only because he’s the only one other than Geras to understand her exact situation in relation to space-time; I still haven’t gotten it correct completely, and I’d like to say that I have a firm-ish grasp on quantum Mechanics. Perhaps that’s a skill that develops when you travel through time a lot… Well, she’s also becoming fast friends with Dante, though that might just be because the two of them are the same kind of idiotic at times. And here I thought that she’d give us a well-earned break from lunacy… and my headache.

Anyways, once we’ve all recovered, we’ll take her ship towards the next universe, and our next person; Tiki, the daughter of the Dragon Goddess Naga.

Wait.

If Ichiban is a fan of Dragon Quest, and Tiki is a dragon, would that mean… No, that’s impossible. There’s no way Ichiban would ever tick her off.

Chapter Text

2615, Ylisse Halidom, Ylisse, Kaga-F-54285

In the halidom of Ylisse, there were a lot of things to see. The large, rolling plains, filled with wild grasses, beautiful flowers, and the occasional dense forests and tall mountains. The many towns and villages, once damaged by the many problems facing Ylisse, were restored to their former glory, all thanks to the Exalted Ruler (also known as the Exalt) and his lovely wife. Speaking of the Exalt, the capital of the halidom, the city of Ylisstol, had grown rapidly in the aftermath of the war, as people and ideas flowed through it freely through the hands (read: policies) of his wife, who was not only queen but also the chief magician of the court. 

It was this country, in the middle of a grassy field, that a portal opened to the world of the Fire Emblem.

The first to step out of his portal was Vergil, followed by Ichiban who bounced around with glee. “Oh, man, this is going to be so awesome!” He whisper-screamed to himself, earning a growl from Vergil.

“Calm yourself, fool. We’re just adding another member to this chat, this isn’t anything to get excited over.” Vergil slicked his hair back with his right hand, 

This did nothing to abate Ichiban’s excitement, as he continued to hop on his heels. “Just another member?! Every member we get is cool! And even better; this lady’s a real dragon!”

“Technically speaking…” Blaze spoke up as she popped through the portal. “Tiki is a Manakete; a Dragon who has sealed off the power of their true form into a Dragonstone, all to avert the fate of all dragons; Degeneration.”

“Huh? What’s that?” Ichiban asked, turning around to face Blaze, only for Kyo to pop through the portal and explain.

“It’s when a dragon goes coo-coo, or something like that.” Blaze glared at him for a moment for his explanation, but he simply shrugged before walking out to the field.

Blaze sighed before explaining properly. “It’s a bit more specific than that. The mind of a dragon, like any living being, degrades over time, which can cause a loss of memory and an increase in uncontrollable behaviour. A terrible fate for anyone, but worse for a dragon, given that they become feral, without any ability to control themselves.”

“So it’s like Dementia…” Frederick noted as he stepped out of the portal, before rubbing his chin. “The neurons in the mind degrade over time due to the proteins folding over themselves in the wrong way, and when that happens everything goes down the drain. Only difference is that when dragons get it, they don’t just go mad; they go haywire.” 

“So, is there a cure, or something?” Ichiban asked. “I mean, other than the Dragonstone, or whatever Blaze-san was talking about.”

“Manaketes can sleep to regenerate their mind, though I doubt it’s a perfect mechanism given that they aren’t going to be taking in more matter while they sleep, not to mention the complexities of brain matter in the first place.” Frederick explained, before glaring at Ichiban. “Wait, why the hell am I explaining this to you? I wrote it down on the manifest, you should have read that there!”

“Well…” Ichiban scratched his head in hesitation. “I… don’t really know how to read english. I dunno why, but the translation spell-thingie isn’t doing much to help me there.”

“It’s not the spell, Ichiban.” Eric pointed out as he stepped through the portal, alongside Dante. “Frederick’s handwriting is garbage, so it’s likely that the spell just didn’t pick up what he wrote.”

“The hell do you mean by that?” Frederick growled at the power ranger, who merely crossed his hands and smiled smugly.

“I’ll say it again, since you clearly didn’t get it; Your. Handwriting. Is. Garbage.”

Frederick stomped up towards Eric, fury etched onto his face. “Oh, you wanna go, pal?”

Before Eric could respond, Dante pushed them both back, looking at them carefully. “Come on, now. We don’t need to injure each other over a little thing like hand-writing. Mine is not the best, for your information.”

Vergil laughed loudly in response. “Ah, so you do admit that you can’t write!”

“Ah ah ah.” Dante waved his finger at his twin. “I said my handwriting isn’t the best, not that I cannot write!” This led to the two of them arguing among themselves, up until Vox stepped through the portal.

“Oh, shut up you two! It doesn’t matter who has the worst hand-writing, when we’ve got tech to do that shit for us.” Vox barked back, patting the lapel of her new jacket. During the time that the team was stuck in Kyo’s world, she had changed out her outfit for one more fit for exploration, with sleek, armoured sleeves, and a worn pair of pants with baggy boots on the bottom. The only armour she had was a pair of shin-plates, shoulder plates, and a back-plate that shared the same industrial design, though they had been coloured the same grey, gold, and purple scheme as her jacket. This fit, this fashion-frame, was finished with a brooch attached over the left side of her chest, and a pair of pince-nez glasses pinned to her nose. “Still, sleep is a pretty good healer, whether it be injuries or mental trauma; I’d know, given that’s how the Tenno healed after the Old War. ALSO!”

She snapped her finger at Vergil. “Thanks for the portal, man! It’s a helluva lot more efficient to use that than to get everyone out one-by-one with the Landing craft’s door… which also applies going into it, huh?” Vox rubbed her chin in thought before snapping her fingers. “Ordis, leave a note about the door; I’m going to upgrade it one of these days.”

“A good idea for the future, Miss Voxaria.” Liu Kang spoke up as he exited the portal alongside Geras and Silver, making them the last members of the team. 

“But we’ve got more important things to worry about for now.” Geras continued after his master. “We need to find Tiki, Daughter of Naga, and convince her to join our cause.”

“Alrighty, then! We have our plan!” Ichiban summed up cheerfully, before looking around. “Now where should we start looking?”

“Well, there’s a lot of us here, so we should be able to cover a lot of ground with ease, right?” Silver suggested, earning a few nods from the team, though none were as vigorous as Ichiban.

“Right! Let’s go!” Ichiban screamed loudly before running off towards the sun… for all of 5 seconds before tripping and falling. “OW!”

“Ichiban! Are you alright?” Silver cried out as he, along with the rest of the team, ran towards Ichiban’s position, just as he got back up.

“Yeah, I’m fine, but… what did I trip on?” He scratched his head for a moment before looking down to the ground, where there was grass, a few stones, more grass, a flower, even more grass, and a tail. Wait, what?

Indeed, ichiban had tripped on a tail, which had yellow scales, white fur on the top, and a golden bangle around the tip as an embellishment. It was connected to a yellow-scale body with large legs, feathered wings, and a long neck with a white mane, which happened to be connected to a reptilian head with Red eyes aimed right at them. How did anyone know that last part?

Because the Dragon was very much awake, and that Dragon’s name was Tiki.

“Who are you, and why must you so rudely awaken me?” A feminine, high-pitched voice came from the dragon’s maw as she interrogated the group, though her gaze was initially locked on Ichiban. “Furthermore, why have you infiltrated the Divine Dragon Grounds? Humans have…” she slowed down as she looked around, the annoyed expression on her face shifting towards concern. “No place here… Wait, this isn’t my home. Where am I?”

At that moment, Vox stepped forward and decided to help her out. “Well, you’re still in Ylisse, Tiki. In fact, you’re only a few miles out from Ylisstol, right about that way.” She pointed to the east, earning a sigh from Tiki

“So Ylisstol still stands… but wait! What year are we in? Who is the current ruler? How do you know my name? ” She asked while glaring at Vox suspiciously,

Blaze stepped in to speak for her. “The year is 2615, during the rule of Exalt Chrom; To be specific, we’re on the 20th day of the 12th month. As for how we know your identity, Lady Tiki, that is a long story, though the simple version is that we are a group of heroes from across the multiverse, and we have been looking to recruit you.”

Tiki calmed down considerably upon hearing what Blaze said, looking towards the city wistfully. “So it has only been a few days since I was last conscious, instead of a few years… good, I would hate to leave mar-mar’s descendent alone.” She then turned to face the group with appraising eyes. “Mother told me about the existence of other worlds, with differing magics and histories. This must be further proof of her wisdom, and her foresight. With that in mind…” She glowed with a bright-pink light for a moment, before she shifted back to her human form, replete with green hair, pointed ears, and a red-dress. “Tell me your names, and your purposes.”

Everyone quickly introduced themselves to the divine dragon, each making sure to highlight their own strengths in turn; Dante hyping himself up only to get into a fight with Vergil, Kyo launching flames from his hands, Ichiban nearly telling his life story until he was silenced by Eric, and Vox… who showed off a quad-barrel autocannon. Despite the team’s insanity, both in concept and their general state of mind, Tiki took it all in with grace, giving everyone a small but genuine smile despite how crazy they all were. Finally, Liu Kang introduced himself to Tiki, whose eyes widened in response.

“Oh, Mother told me about you!” She then shyly looked away when everyone stared at her for a moment, before regaining her composure. “Well, she told me about you through a dream she had; A man-turned-god, wreathed in fire, with dragons wrapped around his arms, followed by many strange people. There is no doubt in my mind that you are that very person.” 

Everyone was shocked by the prediction, but none more so than Silver, who leaned towards Blaze. “So Naga herself saw us coming?” He whispered conspiratorially to her.

“Seems so, but I have to wonder if this means something bad might happen…” Blaze whispered back, though her next bit was cut-off by Tiki coughing loudly and glaring at the two Mobians.

“I can hear you, and I will not allow you to insult my mother’s character!” She had her fists on her hips, her glare causing Silver, along with Ichiban and Kyo of all people, to step back.

Blaze took it as calmly as she usually did, bowing to placate her. “Apologies, Lady Tiki. We-by that I mean myself and Silver-have dealt with a god that used a prophecy to manipulate us in the past. While I doubt that you’d do the same, I simply wish to make sure of it.”

Tiki quickly calmed down, before bowing herself. “Ah, I see. I have seen good men manipulated into doing evil via a false prophecy before, so I can understand the concern.”

“Ah, yes. Like I said earlier, we’re a group of people from various different worlds, though there is a bit more to the story. I am known as a Multiversal Administrator, and my role is to gather information about universes, make connections between universes to generate interactions and change, which in turn generates Ripple Energy that can be used to maintain the stability of the Multiverse.” Tiki nodded along like it made perfect sense to her, but everyone else barring Liu Kang and Geras looked at her like she grew a second head.

“Cat… When the hell were you going to tell us about that?” Frederick growled out, succinctly summarising what everyone else was thinking, to some degree or another.

“Well…” Blaze started to speak, a drop of sweat going down her forehead. “I only really learned about it yesterday, courtesy of another admin…”

>[S] League of Union of Club of Alliance of SOMA

>[C] Newbie-Chat

FlamePrincess: Hello everyone. I hope you are all having a good morning.

FlamePrincess: I have a simple question to ask; what is the purpose of SOMA?

MiriOnTheWall: Good morning to you, Blaze. I am doing well!

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Morning, Blazey!

MiriOnTheWall: The purpose of SOMA? I thought Silver would have explained it to you.

FlamePrincess: Silver?! He knew?

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Oooh, something tells me he’s going to get his ass handed to him. Possibly well done, knowing our little Flame Princess’ power.

MiriOnTheWall: Well, we might as well answer your question.

MiriOnTheWall: and by we, we’re actually going to ask someone else far more competent to explain for us

FlamePrincess: You too seem competent enough, as far as I can tell.

PunkNiEEEEVIL: WellYesButActuallyNo.png

MiriOnTheWall: Thank you for the compliment, but our contact

MiriOnTheWall: She knows far more about the multiverse than either of us combined.

PunkNiEEEEVIL: And that’s saying something given A) my skills in building crap and B) Miri’s skill in surviving crap.

MiriOnTheWall: Anyways. 

MiriOnTheWall: Tiny warning, she does tend to go into a lot of detail when it comes to this stuff, so I hope you have a chair to sit in. This will be a lot.

MiriOnTheWall: @X4-1997B

X4-1997B: You called?

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Yo, Iris, explain SOMA to the newbie.

FlamePrincess: Wait, what?

X4-1997B: Sure. Fair warning, it might be a tic, so I do hope you have tea ready. 

<<

“Now that that memory is fresh in my mind…” Blaze growled out, as smoke started to pour out of her ears.

Everyone was wary of her, but none more so than Silver, who raised his arms up in surrender. “Blaze, if this is about SOMA…”

“Oh, it’s not about SOMA-OF COURSE IT’S ABOUT SOMA!” She snapped her head towards Silver, fire blazing in her eyes. “I’ve been going blind when it comes to explaining the purpose of this group, and here you are, knowing exactly what I need to know without telling me anything!”

“I didn’t mean to!” Silver defended himself. “It’s just that… you get… really fired up-er, mad- when we talk about this whole multiverse thing.”

Blaze was about to yell once more, but she quickly took a deep breath, which stopped the smoke pouring out of her body. “You’re right, Silver. Sorry for blowing up at you… I just… wish I didn’t have to go through this so blindly. That I wasn’t thrown into this madness without my knowledge.”

“We cannot always control the means by which we are dragged into conflict; only how we react to it.” Liu Kang spoke up once more, his calm aura radiating out like a ray of sunshine. “While I admit that I do have my grievances with how Silver has been informing you of your role as an admin, his decision to make you one in place of himself has been nothing but good, especially with how much you've grown in the little time you’ve had this role.”

“I don’t feel like I’ve grown all that much, to be honest.” Blaze grumbled out in return, only for Geras to finally step forward and speak.

“A tree does not grow when you look at it closely, but given time and distance it will become massive in a blink of an eye.” Geras uttered out a shaolin proverb that was said at least once in the infinite timelines he has lived through, before gesturing towards her. “Take a step back, let yourself grow, and you will see results.”

Dante stepped forward to add onto the support. “You make it sound like you need to be some sorta Perfect God to be considered an Admin, and yet I can damn well guarantee-I can bet-that none of the Admins you know are perfect, gods, or perfect gods.” He then looked at Liu Kang and Tiki before bowing showily. “Present company excluded, of course.”

“Pff, what are you talking about, I am perfect!” Vox boasted loudly, before giving Blaze a slightly crazed look. “If you’re worried about me judging you, then don’t worry. We all have our little quirks, like Dante’s love of screaming out his styles, or Eric’s love for his gun, or my love for more weapons, with all sorts of strange gimmicks and shit, before modding the shit out of them and pumping up the multipliers with Arcanes! Ooh, and if there’s stuff for my Warframes, then more the merrier! HA HAHAHAHAH!” Vox started to laugh madly, scaring everyone present (including Geras, the IMMORTAL SAND GOD WHO MAINTAINS TIME), but she simply did not care as she turned towards Frederick, her next victim. “Speaking of weaponry, Hey Frederick, you wanna let me look at the-”

“No.”

“But I could-

“No!”

“Imagine the-”

“For the last damn time, no!” He shot back before pulling the Outrage off of his back. “This thing can destroy mountains at 50%, and adding a supercharged Zeal battery will allow it to output an infinite amount of energy. Do you wish to see it destroy the universe? Hell, the multiverse?”

Vox quickly stepped back, waving her hands as she did. “Well no, but… big damage numbers!”

Frederick slapped himself on the head before waving his hand at Vox like she was a specimen. “The great Voxaria, Space Ninja and supposed pacifist!”

“Hey, I never said I was a pacifist! I’m a Connoisseur of Strange Weaponry!” Vox pointed out, before tapping her chin in thought. “Though now that I think about it, I technically have a warframe that both pacifies and fists enemies, so maybe you could call me that? I still need to optimize the mods on Baruuk Prime, not to mention blahblahblah… ” And then she started to ramble to herself, build-crafting a new loadout for Baruuk regardless of everyone else in the vicinity. 

Most were terrified of her, but Tiki simply shrugged her shoulders and looked at Blaze. “So, if that’s the purpose of SOMA, then why are you here directly?”

“Like I said, we need to recruit you.” Blaze explained before pulling out a smartphone. “The system we’re using had a problem, forcing me and Liu kang to go to each world directly and connect them to it, whether by modifying their communication methods with a spell or giving them actual hardware, like in your case.” She then handed the phone to Tiki, who inspected it thoroughly.

“And this… obsidian device will help me connect to other universes?” She asked aloud, incidentally pressing the power button in the process. The screen turned on in an instant, causing her to drop the device in shock, though Blaze caught it with her deft reflexes.

“These devices are surprising, both in their durability and their capability. Trust me, I was just as confused looking at them as you are now, Lady Tiki of Naga.” Liu Kang spoke to her, giving the phone back to her while adjusting her grip on the device. “Allow me to help you through the basics of this device while I am right here with you, if that is alright.”

“Oh, I would be more than happy to accept. I always like to meet new people, even if they can be a bit… strange.” She looked at Vox pointedly, who was now drawing on a blackboard courtesy of Ordis while Silver, Ichiban, Dante, and Frederick were all listening to her lecture about the benefits of “Crit Tiers” or something like that. “I always tend to outlive the friends I do make, which is a bit saddening, but I know that it is better to have them and lose them, than to not have friends at all.”

“A Feeling I can agree with, Lady Tiki.” Liu Kang responded, before helping her go over the inner workings of the smartphone in her hand. 

Blaze Multiversal Journal: Log 7

We have recruited Tiki to the cause, which brings us to a total of  9  10   13 allies from 9 worlds. 

Myself, Liu Kang, Silver, Geras, Dante, Vergil, Ichiban, Eric, Frederick, Kyo, Vox, and Ordis, along with the aforementioned Tiki. 

It’s a lot of people residing on one ship, though at the very least we’re only together for a short bit; once everyone has been connected to the chatroom, there’s no reason to keep everyone together. 

To be perfectly honest, I believe it’s for the best that everyone stays in their own universes. Yes, we’re interfering by bringing them all together, which is important given SOMA’s mission, but it’s highly likely that we’ll cause some reverberations in their universes that are… unwanted. If not unwanted, then highly dangerous both for ourselves and for the people residing in the other universes. 

I told Liu Kang of my own apprehension with everyone working together, but he gave me a second opinion. He had crafted his own universe to remove any chance of certain figures committing evil, by changing the threads of their fates, but a villain from his past-another universe-had found their way into his set of universes, leading to the suffering of many. He admitted to feeling a bit of grief at the pain that he could not stop, but he’s come to accept that even some things are out of his hand, that they are written in already despite our efforts. In his eyes, all we can do is work together to limit the pain that comes from the bad, and embrace the joy that comes from the good; the best way to do that is to allow for interactions between the universes. 

Tiki herself has agreed with Liu Kang, and I cannot stop myself from praising her. As a woman, she brings a sense of calm that I am dearly missing with all of the Testos  ‘Fighting Spirit’ that’s raging about in the air. I thought that Vox would be a breath of fresh air, and she is, but she’s also VERY into showing off her arsenal, which has led to the multiverse showing off how much it can make my head hurt, even through all of the aspirin.

Still, she’s made a few friends among the group. Silver has bonded with her over his optimism, Vox has bonded with her through their shared experiences with immortality and sleep, and Ichiban has practically begged her for training, which she has more than willingly agreed to, so long as he becomes stronger himself. I was worried that Ichiban’s obsession with Dragon Quest would lead him to target Tiki for some reason, but he’s pointed out that the dragons faced in the games tend to be highly evil, unlike Tiki; Tiki herself has also faced evil dragons before, whether it was alongside King Marth or his successor Chrom. 

With all of that in mind, We’re now focusing on finding our next ally; Makoto Yuki, the Sealer of Nyx. Let’s hope he’s as easy to find as Tiki…

Chapter Text

Outskirts of Inaba, Japan, Earth-56070526 "A Ripple Among Stars"

On the outskirts of a rather familiar town was where the Orbiter had been parked for the night, as everyone was sleeping; well, everyone except Blaze, who found sleep rather elusive. To be fair, neither Liu Kang nor Geras slept, though that was simply due to their immortal, time-ignorant nature; Blaze’s mind was racing despite her exhaustion. 

“Damn it…” She said quietly before slowly getting up from the sleeping-bag Vox manufactured for her and sneaking out of the lounge-room where the girls were sleeping; she considered tying her hair up, but figured that no one would see her if she was stealthy enough. The door hissed open, but neither Tiki nor Vox woke up from the noise, which was perfect for Blaze as she snuck out of the back-section of the ship, past the arsenal and associated stuff in the middle hallway, and right to the ramp. It lowered with a quiet hiss, allowing Blaze to hop out of the ship and right onto a nearby tree, where she sat on a branch. Assured that no one had followed her, she pulled out her journal and started to write in it.

Blaze’s Multiversal Journal: Log 8 

It’s been a few days since I’ve last written in this, and they have not been very easy for us. With Vox’s ship, it’s been trivially easy to travel to other worlds with very little downtime, which is nice given that we’ve yet to find the Makoto Yuki we’re looking for.

If it sounds like I’m talking less about a person and more about an object, that’s because there are FAR TOO MANY OF THE SAME MAN!

…Apologies.

One of the more… annoying parts about the multiverse is the popularity of some universes/stories. While infinite possibilities means infinite universes, not every infinity is created equally, which is a concept that has given me more headaches than anyone here has. Some universes may have a few notable variants, while others have more; ours has a trio of major variants, with minor variants connected to it. But Makoto Yuki’s Universe? The Amala-verse?

THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF THEM.

The Amala-verse, for some reason, is incredibly popular, which means that quite a few of the admins are looking over some variation of a Persona-focused universe, including myself. To make sure that we don’t have any corruption issues, the Person universes have an additional condition applied to them before being put under the watch of a given admin; namely the compatibility score, which is the relative compatibility an admin has with that specific world. 

Every admin and every world has a score, and Admins must choose the world with the highest compatibility above all, to minimize multiversal corruption; luckily, this score never changes, so there’s never a need to re-evaluate compatibility, at least. However, the calculation is incredibly difficult, which is why Liltih, of all people, has volunteered to do the math for me. I don’t really trust her NOT to get me killed, but she is incredibly smart, which will help us out greatly.

But even with all of that, we still can’t find the exact universe we need; for some reason, we’re finding universes with more and more compatibility with me, which means we need to explore each of them to make sure it will work… which usually doesn’t work.

For example; there was one where SEES were Demon hunters, a la Dante and Vergil…

March 5th, 2012, Iwatodai Dorms, Earth-44998 “Inaba Devils”

It was calm in the dorms, or more specifically in the dorm’s living area. Ken, as the sole permanent resident of the Dorm, was sitting on a couch and petting Koromaru while Shinjiro-san and Fuuka-san were getting changed in their old rooms, back when they went to Gekkoukan High. How Mitsuru was able to keep this space for SEES alone was beyond him, but he was grateful for her support; then again, she was the leader of SEES, so it made sense that she’d do something like that, especially after his death. But other than the noises he could hear from above… It was calm in the dorms.

And then it wasn’t, as a strange man in a red suit barged into the dorm building. “Yo, is there a…” he looked down at a sheet of paper before looking up. “Makoto Yuki?”He then turned his head, at which point his eyes locked onto Ken’s. “Oy, kid, do you know a guy named Makoto Yuki?”

Ken was silent for a moment as he contemplated the situation. ‘A strange man with a haircut I can only describe as Afro-like and a slightly-garish suit has barged into our home and is looking for some guy who sounds really familiar for some reason… but we DID leave the door unlocked, and it’s not like I couldn’t beat him up myself…” He then looked down at Koromaru, who was eyeing the guy warily, but not outright growling at him. ‘And Koromaru doesn’t seem to think that the guy is anything to be worried about…’ He then looked at the guy and gave his answer.

“Sorry, sir, but I don’t know anyone by that name.”

“Oh, alright!” The strange man replied before walking out the door and softly closing it, leaving Ken and Koromaru in the living area alone, and in peace. “OI! THERE’S NO MAKOTO YUKI HERE!” Well, mostly in peace, as a large whirring noise was heard from outside. Ken ran out to see what was going on, but by the time he opened the door, there was nothing but a black burn-spot on the ground. Before Ken could take a breather, He could hear footsteps from behind him, which with a turn of his head were revealed to be his guardian.

“Yo, Ken, who was that?” Shinjiro-san asked him, his fists balled up and ready to fight. He was wearing a simple suit jacket and trouser-pair over his Body-Regulator suit, though the thin material of the suit made it look more like a shirt, even with his larger frame.

“I dunno, but they were looking for a… Makoto Yuki?” Ken replied, earning a growl from Shinjiro-san. “Wait, do you think they were-”

Shinjiro-san grunted while shaking his head. “I doubt it was Kotone’s family. Mitsuru threatened legal action if they tried to harass her about her brother.”

“Hmm…” Ken hummed to himself as he thought about any other reason. “Mistaken Identity?” 

“Probably. Makoto is a pretty common first name, and it’s possible that there is another Yuki family.” Shinjiro supplied, before turning to face Koromaru. “Hey, boy. Did you see anything suspicious?” Koromaru barked loudly, and Shinjiro nodded. “Hmm, I see.” he then turned back to Ken. “I’d be a bit more concerned, but we’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

Before Ken could refute, he could hear steps coming from the stairs, which he knew could only belong to Fuuka-san. “Did someone come to the door?”

Ken considered telling her everything, if only for due diligence, but given that he couldn’t sense anything strange from the outside, he figured he shouldn’t worry her too much. “Just some guy looking for someone else. Shinjiro-san believes it’s a case of mistaken identity or a wrong address.” Shinjiro grunted alongside him, and Koromaru barked as well.

Fuuka-san, for what it was worth, simply activated her Henosis to scan the area, before sighing. “Well, I can’t sense anything off about the area in our vicinity. It must have been a mistake.” She then clapped her hands together and smiled. “Well, shall we go visit him?”

Ken considered for one last moment if he should worry about the man, before looking up to the clock, which read 11:55 AM. “Yeah… Let’s go visit Minato-san.”

In another world, there was a variant of the phantom thief named Joker, with a strange symbol marked on his left hand…

June 10th, 2016, Tokyo, Earth-339664 “Dishonor Among Thieves”

Clang!

Clang!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

That last series of attacks was enough to knock the two fighters back, right into a pair of light sources that revealed them to the world.

One was a mysterious masked-fighter, whose movements and knife-work branded him a thief. His outfit was far from practical, with pointed shoes, red gloves, and a high-collared black trench coat, with a white domino mask marking it all off; if there was any term that could be used to describe him, it would be showy. But in the words of this thief, this Joker, if the world wanted to silence him for doing the right thing, then he’d defy it as loudly as he could.

The other was Vox, who was piloting the Volt Prime Warframe, coloured in bright blues and golds and decked out in the finest of armour; In comparison to that, the mysterious thief was practically practical. 

“What the hell are you?” Joker asked, pointing a smartphone of some kind at Vox. 

Vox simply stood up and clapped at him. “Good shit, Joker. Good shit.” She was smiling underneath the armour, appreciating the boy’s fighting skills. “For someone so young, you’re surprisingly good at keeping up with my speed.”

He smirked in response, spinning his knife around his finger. “Gotta thank the people that took me in; without their training, I wouldn’t have survived this long with the warrants that’re on me.”

“I see…” Vox drawled out, looking at the combo counter at the edge of her HUD, or what counted as one while she was using transference; It was more than enough to use the ultimate technique of her own melee weapon, the Innodem. “However! This fight has gone on long enough!” She then pulled her left hand behind her, rummaging around the Hammerspace she was using to hold her gear. Smirking as she found the item she wanted, she pulled it out, and threw it at Joker. “Now, allow me to give you… this pear.” He caught the pear, but before he could react, she flicked the Innodem down, activating its Incarnon mode.

Instantly, the half-moon-esque dagger shifted forms, as strange, void-touched metal expanded from the knife until it was completely covered in the substance, at which point it started to change. The handle curved and bended until it looked less like a human-forged handle, and more akin to a piece of metal molded by the universe into something that was barely holdable by human standards. The hand-guard and pommel, fused as they were in the normal form, shifted too, until it looked like something that was not forged, but grown, but that was not the weirdest part. It was the blade, but not because it had shifted shape from a half-moon-like blade into a talon of pure void-touched steel.

No, it was the fact that it was 10 metres long.

…

…

…………………………………………………………….

…Oh, you think I’m japing, aren’t you?

You probably think that I, PyromaniacalSunrise, am setting up for a Sephiroth joke, and I am, but I want to you realise-

I 

WANT

YOU

TO

REALISE

How bullshit this is.

How implausible this is. And yet-

I want you to realise how… insane Warframe’s weapons are.

Because I can damn well guess that not all of you are familiar with the bullshit of Warframe. And BOY HOWDY is there some bullshit in this game!

In Warframe, there is a stat called Range, which refers to how far a melee weapon can hit, relative to the player’s position. Most weapons have ranges that make sense to them; Polearms have relatively long ranges at 3 metres or so, and daggers have about a metre. Sure, it’s not quite realistic, but bullet jumping isn’t real either, and we still think it’s cool, so suck it.

Now, the Innodem has a range of 1.8 metres, which is big in real life, but not that big in the context of Warframe HOWEVER there are a bunch of things that need to be considered. FIRST: the Incarnon Mode AKA the ‘super state’ of the Innodem increases the range by 3 metres, simply by hitting stuff alot. SECOND: One of the perks of the Innodem, Orokin Reach, increases it by another half-metre. And FINALLY: by adding the mods Primed Reach and Spring-Loaded blade to the Innodem, you can add an additional 5 metres of range. So, with all of that in mind, the Innodem allows Voxaria here to attack about…

Beep-beep-boop-boop-

BGM: One-Winged Angel (Final Fantasy 7 OST)

10.3 METERS AWAY!

Even if we assume that some of that range is being consumed by the handle, and I am assuming about 30 centimetres must be used, then (Assuming the average Warframe is about 2 metres tall) Vox is hitting with a blade that is FIVE TIMES AS LONG AS SHE IS TALL! The Sephiroth joke writes itself.

ACTUALLY!

SEPHIROTH CAN EAT A DICK!

The Masamune is a measly six-to-eight feet long.

Translating 10.3 metres into nonsense units gives us a length of 33.79265 nonsense units-I mean feet.

VOX’S KNIFE OUTRANGES THE MASAMUNE BY FOUR-TO-FIVE TIMES!

Holy shit, this is NOT a matchup that is in Joker’s favour, AT ALL! Even with the most bullshit powers the Outsider could give him (Technically Philemon in this universe, but who’s counting), Vox outspeeds him with Gauss, outguns him with practically ANY gun in her arsenal, and OUTRANGES him with a KNIFE! There is NO way he could survive this fight, and he goddamn knew it. How in the world could he even escape? How could he run, when Vox had a knife that was more than 5-times his height in length?! For the love of god, how could he?!

BONK!

Stop BGM

Frederick had bonked Vox on the head with his fist, instantly forcing the Innodem back to its normal form in the process. “Fire God figured out that this isn’t the world, so we gotta go.”

She flicked her head back to him, dismayed at the news. “But Frederick! I was doing a bit!”

“Yeah, and the bit’s too old to be funny!” He growled back before grabbing Vox by the Volt Warframe’s collar  (Wherever that is) and dragged her back to her ship. “Stupid zoomers and their Sephiroth jokes…”

“B-But my bit…” Vox pathetically cried out as she was loaded onto her ship alongside Frederick before it flew out of the atmosphere via its rocket boosters.  

As for Joker, he was left dumbstruck and silent, while his phone vibrated in his pocket until a ghostly mist flew out of it, flying around his body until it gathered by his left side, at which point it coalesced into the form of a young woman about his age, with bright red hair that was segmented and torn up all the way down to her waist, and red eyes that were covered by broken glasses. 

“Senpai?” The ghost girl asked her lover. “Is everything alright?”

Joker slowly turned his head to his girlfriend, and slowly took off his mask to look at her. “I’m going back to the Velvet Room, I am going behind the counter, and I am dragging out the biggest, strongest bottle of alcohol I can find. I don’t care that Margaret will kill me, I need to get this night out of my head, NOW!”

In another, a world where a group of thieves have gone back in time, and where the multiverse has folded in on itself… Well, mostly.

April 28, 2017 , The Hollow Forest, Earth-41999103 "Echoes"

As Kyo walked down the path in the forest, flashlight in hand, he couldn’t help but shiver, even with Eric and Vergil walking beside him. “Damn, you guys aren’t getting the Heebie-Jeebies from this place?”

“Nope.” Vergil and Eric shot back, confident as they walked forward. 

Kyo sighed loudly in response. “Seriously? I know I like to act tough, but I’m really getting bad vibes from this place.”

“See, that’s the difference between you and I, Kusanagi-kun.” Vergil explained to Kyo with a snarky grin. “You say you’re tough, but I’ve dealt with far worse than you.”

“Weren’t you dead for a few years?” Kyo pointed out.

“Weren’t you also under the control of some demon lord? What was his name again?” Eric added to Kyo’s point, raising his hand to his chin to think for a bit before realising that Vergil was pointing his sword at him.

“Do not talk about Mundus. He may have taken control of me before, but I will never be under his spell again! If he ever returns, I will make him pay.”

Both Eric and Kyo were rendered silent by Vergil’s proclamation, but Kyo shrugged his shoulders and continued forward. “Well, unlike both of you, I’ve actually killed a god before. Lit him on fire and everything!”

“And then you were cloned by a secret society who was led by a man with a god complex.” Vergil had a smug smile on his face as Kyo sputtered for a moment before recovering.

He pointed at the Son of Sparda with an angry expression on his face. “Hey, if we can’t talk about your time as Nelo Angelo, then we don’t talk about the clones!”

“Excuse me, but what in the actual hell are you talking about?” 

The three of them shuddered upon hearing the voice, before turning to face the source; This source was a monstrous woman, with black armour, a cloak made out of white feathers, and a helmet with wings attached to it covering long red hair and black eyes. She had sheathes on her hips, though the only thing she was holding was a pen of some kind.

“Yeah, c-could you tell me more?” The man beside her was much less intimidating, even with his cheap suit and slick-back hair. “Hell, I’ll pay ya! Straight from my own back account-from the coffers of the great Junya Kaneshiro!”

The three of them looked at him once, before turning their attention to the much more intimidating woman. Kyo and Vergil stayed silent, while Eric coughed into his hands “Well, uh, we’re looking for a guy named Makoto Yuki… you wouldn’t happen to know a guy like that?”

“There is no Makoto Yuki, not in this universe.” The monster answered truthfully, earning a hurt gasp from Kaneshiro which she answered with a glare, a pen thrown at his face and a hand through his chest. “Tell me, you who come from other worlds, do you bring trouble to Inaba?”

“Not at all.” Eric answered with a clam tone, though his shaking fist betrayed his true feelings.

Kyo leaned in towards him, and started to whisper. “Why. aren’t. you. Morphing?”

Eric took a deep breath and leaned towards him in return. “Something tells me… that not even Quantum power will help us here, Kyo.”

“Heh, Fools.” Vergil spoke loudly before pointing the Yamato at the woman. “You may be scared of her, but I have nothing to fear from her. If she were to attack us…”

“Nope!” And then Kyo and Eric grabbed Vergil by the collar, before running away from the demoness.

“Wait, no! I could take her! I could take her in a fight!!!” And Vergil’s screams were all that was heard, as Eric and Kyo ran back to the Orbiter, leaving the monster with the cooling body of an irrelevant gangster

And finally, the world we are in currently. Labrys, a Anti-Shadow Weapon, is a part of the Dojima family, having been adopted by Dojima himself and is close to Yu Narukami.

This also happens to be a world that Iris of all people governs over, which is both helpful and aggravating. Helpful in that we can stay here for a bit to recuperate, but aggravating given that-

“Yo, Blaze!” Blaze’s ears flicked upon hearing her name whisper-screamed by Vox, which caused her to turn her head towards the drifter. She was right beneath the branch that Blaze was sitting on, though she had also brought Tiki, and two other people who were both robots in a sense. One had cyan hair tied up into a ponytail and red eyes, with a Seifuku as her clothing and a giant axe on her back, who Blaze instantly recognized as Labrys Dojima.

The other had much longer brown hair tied near the middle and green eyes, with a blue and red dress, red and blue armor-pieces around her cylindrical legs, and a red beret to cap it off. This woman was someone Blaze knew well, for she was Iris, former member of the Repliforce, current member of the Maverick Hunters, and fellow Admin.

“I thought you were asleep… and why is Iris here?” Blaze asked, hopping down from the branch to speak to them on eye level.

“Well, I’m a pretty light sleeper, all things considered. You might think you’re silent, Blaze, but the moment you got out of your bag was the moment I woke up.” Vox explained quickly. 

“As for me, I was woken up by a certain someone accidentally stepping on my tail.” Tiki glared at Vox, who shrugged cheekily in response. “Upon hearing that you woke up, I wanted to make sure you were alright, Lady Voxaria.”

Iris then stepped forward and bowed with a cocky grin. “And I was going to check on you when I saw that two of your group-chat members were looking for you. With Labrys’s scanners, we were able to find you quickly.”

“Sorry about dat, Blazey!” Labrys quickly apologized, before pointing at her head. “Also, love the hair-down look on ya! You make it look great!”

Blaze blushed for a moment before shaking her head. “Well, if you were wondering, I couldn’t fall asleep, so I was writing in my journal.” She then yawned loudly, throwing her arms up in the air for a moment before putting them back down. “It’s definitely helped me feel a bit sleepier; perhaps now I can finally fall asleep.”

Vox, despite her usually insane cheery demeanor, looked at her with concern. “Blaze… I know it’s been a rough few days looking for the guy. If you want to talk about it, we’re all open to do so.”

Blaze shook her head in response. “It’s nothing, Vox. I’ve dealt with worse before.”

Tiki frowned and crossed her arms. “I may not be the most well-versed in topics related to the multiverse, but I have worked with kings and queens before, your highness. A ruler cannot rule without their advisors… their friends; not without causing far more problems than such an isolated rule might solve. You may think that this is a burden that you must bear alone, but neither mar-ma-Marth nor Chrom took on their foes alone.” 

“It seems like everyone wants to tell me the same thing… that I cannot do this alone.” Blaze growled out, looking away in response. “Why are you all obsessing over me like that? Why are you reminding me so much?”

“Because it’s important, love.” Iris pointed out. “From what I’ve gathered, you tend to work alone, whether in regards to your role as princess and guardian, or in regards to all of the adventures you’ve been on. Even then, you’ve gotten help before, if my recollection of the incident with Captain Whisker is anything to go by.” Iris then patted Blaze on the shoulder gently. “Don’t think that you need to be an admin alone; Hell, I’ve found that I rely on my own chat members just as much as they rely on me.”

Blaze hummed to herself, trying to find something to say, something that would counter what Iris said; what all of them were saying. But even with all of her thinking, she couldn’t find anything to say back, leaving her in silence. A minute passed, and all of them stayed silent as Blaze ruminated on the conversation before sighing and turning around, defeated by their logic. Before hse could speak, however, a buzzing came from her jacket.

“Oh, a text…” She noted as everyone else slumped their shoulders, though the next bit perked them up once more. “From Miriam?!” She quickly opened up her phone, as Vox, Tiki and Iris peered over her shoulder

>[DM] PunkNiEEEEVIL

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Yo, Blaze! 

PunkNiEEEEVIL: You awake?

PunkNiEEEEVIL: I’ve got good news, and bad news.

FlamePrincess: I am. Give me the good news first.

PunkNiEEEEVIL: I found it!

PunkNiEEEEVIL: I found the exact persona-verse you need to go to! It’s got perfect compatibility with you far within the standard deviations, and the coordinates for it are REALLY close to Iris’s Persona-verse!

Admin PunkNiEEEEVIL has uploaded a file: Coordinates.txt (A text file containing... well, coordinates)

FlamePrincess: Wait, that’s perfect!

FlamePrincess: And these coordinates are close to Iris’ version of Inaba! We can go there quickly!

PunkNiEEEEVIL: Uh… don’t get too excited about this. I haven’t even told you the bad news.

<

Blaze and the others looked at the last message curiously. “What bad news?” Vox asked aloud, and Blaze typed out a similar message to Lilith, before waiting for a response.

The Great Seal, The Sea of Souls, Earth-P-54285

“What?” Blaze uttered out, as she along with the rest of her crew looked upon the sight in front of them; a statue of a young man, guarding a strange door. 

“Yeah, so it turns out that the universe that has the best compatibility with you ALSO happens to be one where Makoto Yuki is… dead.” Lilith spoke up from behind Blaze, while standing to the right of a woman in blue; Elizabeth, the Velvet Room Attendant of Makoto Yuki.

“Are you kidding me, Lilith?!” Blaze screeched loudly as she turned to face her, which caused the Vegapunk’s purple jacket to flutter for a bit. “How in the world did your math lead us to a universe where Makoto Yuki is DEAD?!”

“Hey, I’m not dead!” A mysterious, ethereal voice echoed in the air, though everyone could tell it was coming from the statue. “Well, my body is technically a pile of ashes in a pot buried a few feet under the earth, so I guess I am dead, but I carry on nonetheless!”

“Ah, makoto-kun. You are awake!” Elizabeth spoke up, looking at the statue. “How are you doing today.

“Eh. Still a statue, still can’t do much.” he responded. “How is everyone on earth?”

“They are doing fine, though they don’t know of our conversations; not even your sister.”

“Really? Not even her?” he asked curiously. “I figured you’d tell her about me.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Despite my feelings for her, I realise that telling her would invite the same trouble that telling anyone else in your group would bring; that being the risk of them attempting to break the seal, freeing Nyx up in the process.”

“And we would not want that.” Another mysterious voice spoke, which caused everyone to ready themselves for a fight.

“Who the hell is that?” Dante asked, the Devil Sword Dante right in his hands.

“That would be Nyx, the Night Queen, and the Eater of Worlds.” Elizabeth answered calmly, while noting the concern on everyone’s faces. “While I do agree that she shouldn’t be seaking with Makoto, she has also kept Makoto company from behind his seal.”

“Do not worry, Children of Other Stars. I seek not to betray the confidence Makoto has in sealing me away, despite the desires of certain gods…” Nyx spoke in turn, while a burbling noise came from behind the team. They all turned around to find a pool of darkness in front of the statue, where a bulge in the centre was slowly growing in size. In an instant, the bulge exploded, revealing a large dog-like creature that was composed of a series of shadowed, stitched together parts, with a horned head on each end of the beast.

“I, EREBUS, WOULD LIKE THAT!” The beast known as Erebus screamed at the top of his lungs, causing everyone to wince at the volume; everyone except Elizabeth, who summoned a powerful spell and launched it at the bastard to silence him.

“Silence, foolish consort.” Nyx spoke for her, while everyone else looked at the cooling body of the beast. 

“I will not allow you to hurt Makoto-kun and break the seal.” She responded coldly, while the rest of the crew looked upon the smoking body of Erebus.

“Damn, that’s a messed-up dog…” Kyo said grimly, while Ichiban stared at him with his mouth agape.

“That’s what you think? He looks more like a demon, man!” Ichiban shouted out, only for Vox to crack her knuckles.

“Ooh, a demon, huh? I dunno about you, man, but he might be fun to kill.” Vox pointed out, before summoning a cowboy-er, cowgirl-esque warframe and drawing a strange biological-looking rocket-launcher from her back.

“I like the way you’re thinking kid!” Dante shouted back, switching out the DSD for his pistols of choice, Ebony and Ivory.

However, before anyone could join in, Geras held his hands out to stop them. “I think that will not be necessary, Dante Sparda; Elizabeth’s attack has destroyed his body completely. We do not need to worry about him… for now, at least.”

“How perceptive.” Elizabeth praised the god, while Blaze sighed loudly.

“Still, for the purposes of this chat, Makoto’s dead. He’s in no shape to use a phone, much less contact us efficiently.”

“There might be another option, Cat-lady.” Makoto spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention to him. 

“Wait, really?” Silver asked the seal eagerly. 

Makoto hummed in response. “Yep. As the great seal, I’ve got a neat little connection to other people who act as the seals of Nyx in other universes. It’s a bit strange talking to myself, and even more so talking to others that sound like my sister, but it is really useful for telling me about other worlds… or other persona users. Nyx, if you would.”

Nyx then took a deep breath (which was rather strange for an eldritch-ass deity) and started her explanation. “The world Makoto-kun comes from, the world he was born and raised in, is linked intrinsically to another; indeed, for all possible variants of this universe under the Amala-verse, there is a linked world that existed alongside it. One that has laid ruin while this one continues to churn along. It is known as the Innocent World, for the mistake that led to its ruin was naught but an innocent sin. While the people that lived in that world would find freedom in this, there is one who has been stuck in that world.”

 “What’s his name?” Liu Kang asked while crossing his arms.

“Tatsuya Suou.” Makoto answered, with a sad tone in his voice. “He was a high-schooler, like I was, until he awakened his persona in self defense. He made friends, investigated the mysteries of his town, and even fought an evil dictator of all people, but he failed to stop an eldritch being from manipulating him and his friends into destroying the world. Through the hands of another god, he was able to re-create the world and save everyone, but he was left behind, forced to survive with nothing but his body since… I think 15 years ago or so. Didn’t even get to keep his memories…”

“Oh, my…” Tiki gasped aloud, while the rest of the team grimaced at the world that Tatsuya was living in. Dante looked away, Sol grunted, Kyo crossed his arms and everyone else had their own ways of showing their grief and horror at Tatsuya’s situation, but none were as angry as Vox, who was clenching her fist in rage.

“Guys…” Vox growled out before looking everyone in the eyes. “I know I like to act like I’m some happy-go-lucky gunslinger nutjob, but I’ve been in Tatsuya’s shoes… I was once trapped in a hellscape, one that I was forced to loop through for thousands of years. Sure, Tatsuya hasn’t been living in one for anywhere near that long, but I’m not letting him suffer like that any further. I’m getting the Orbiter and finding him; anyone wants out, they can stay here.”

Almost everyone looked at her with shock in their eyes, but it was Ichiban who chuckled in response. “That’s the craziest shit I’ve ever heard in my life, and I’ve heard some crazy shit back in Kamurocho. BUT!” He pointed at Vox and matched her intense glare. “I’ve never seen such a determined look on anyone else, man or woman. You’d have to kill me to make me not come and help you.” Vox turned her eyes to everyone else, and saw that they had gained a similar level of determination to Ichiban.

Despite her attempts, she couldn’t help but feel tears fall from her eyes, even with the smile that was growing on her face. “Well… dammit, I shouldn’t be so emotional, but thanks you guys.”

Frederick grunted before pointing at her. “Yeah, and don’t think we didn’t hear that shit about the thousand years of torture. You’re probably the one who needs the most therapy, out of all of us.”

“That can come later, Freddie.” She replied, earning a sputtering from Frederick. “But for now… We’ve got a person to save from hell.”

Ruins of Sumaru, Xibalba, Earth-P-54285-IS

As Tatsuya drew his sword-his katana-from its saya and pointed it at the inhuman foes in front of him, he began to speak. “I was born in 1981 in the City of Rumors; Sumaru City, Japan.”

One of them, a being composed almost entirely of tentacles, crawled towards him at breakneck speeds, only for Tatsuya to cut it down with a single slash. “I am 31 years old, and I am alone, with nothing but strange beasts to keep me company.”

Another one quickly crawled towards him, with a flying tentacled monster flying right afterwards. Tatsuya slashed through the grounded being with ease, before raising his sword to parry an attack from above, at which point he leapt into the air and sliced through his attacker. “For decades, I have fought these strange beings, with no refuge in sight.”

A pair of flying monsters, along with one swimming in the ground rushed towards him, ready to kill him. Tatsuya simply spun in the air like a top, ripping through the two aerial monsters before diving down and impaling the one in the floor. “I do not remember why I am here, or where I came from.” 

A few more ran at him, but a few well placed slashes put them down quickly. “I have seen strange sights in this ship, and I have seen stranger sights in my mind, when I find a few hours of rest and reprieve from these monsters.”

The last slash made him fall to the ground, breathing heavily from exertion. There were still a few more foes in front of him, and despite their many eyes he could tell they were hungry for his death. Slamming the edge of his sword into the ground, he pushed himself up onto his feet before glaring at them viciously.

“I am Tatsuya Suou, and I will not go silently.”

The gang of tentacled monsters rushed him like rabid dogs, and yet he calmly sliced through each and every one of them with practiced ease, making sure to control himself so that he didn’t expend too much energy defending himself. For every monster he cut down, two, three, no four monsters took its place, and yet Tatsuya continued to fight, knowing that he would eventually find his freedom. Indeed, it was only a matter of time before the monsters started to thin out, as the monsters that tried to kill him were slowly whittled down by his blade until only a few were left, which he quickly took down in turn.

As the final monster rushed at him, Tatsuya drew his Katana back for a moment before dashing forward, slashing the monster in the process. The two skidded in opposite directions before coming to a halt, Tatsuya breathing heavily and the monster dead-still. He spun the katana in his right hand before slowly sheathing it in its saya held in his left. “In the End… there can only be One.” He clicked the sword in place, and the monster exploded in a blast of black-and-green blood. With that, Tatsuya had earned himself a bit of reprieve, at least until the next group of monsters found him. “God… I need to stop quoting Highlander so much… Then again, it’s not as if anyone else is here to hear me.”

Of course, that was exactly when the Orbiter flew into the city, shining a spotlight onto his body. He raised his hand up to block the blinding light, which was even more so in the relative void that surrounded the destroyed city. Slowly but steadily, his eyes adjusted and he got a good look at the ship, just as it landed on the ground while the front portion of the ship flew upwards to act as a hatch. 

Tatsuya looked at the ship with a fair bit of apprehension, taking a deep breath before speaking. “W-Who are you?” He asked aloud, which was answered by three people leaping out of the ship and landing in front of him; Two Japanese men, and a mysterious warrior that looked like a doll… if it had a dozen knives stabbed into it. He didn’t know it, but Vox had chosen Kullervo for a very notable reason.

“Yo, you’re Tatsuya Suou, right?” One of the Japanese men, dressed in a Red and White suit, asked him, and he nodded numbly.

“Good…” The mysterious warrior spoke with a feminine voice, before a strange rippling came from it, at which point a female with blonde hair stepped out of the body. Tatsuya drew his sword at her, but she held her hands up in a peace-making pose. “Cool it, Tatsuya, I’m not here to harm you.”

“T-t-then what’s with th-the rippling thingie?” He croaked out, finding it hard to speak to another person.

The woman smiled before bringing her right hand towards him. He recoiled for a moment before slowly coming closer, which allowed him to see the lines of energy pulsing through it, akin to a scar. “Let’s just say that I’ve dealt with being alone in a small-ass universe; one that loved to hurt me in turn.”

Tatsuya looked at her with an abundance of caution; While he hadn’t seen a human in years outside of the old films he had been able to peruse, there was still a chance that whatever was hunting him could be trying something new, even if he didn’t know WHY it was hunting him. Still… it had been so long since he’s seen anyone new, and Tatsuya… he was hella tired.

“W-what do you want from me?” he asked the mysterious woman, slowly lowering his sword in the process.

She smiled, genuinely smiled in response. “Well, it’s a bit of a long story, but how about we let you rest for a bit, no?” Tatsuya wondered if he should trust her, given that she had appeared out of nowhere on an alien ship, with two mysterious men, one of whom had yet to speak. And yet… his gut feeling didn’t say anything was wrong with her; indeed, it was saying that he could trust her, despite the weirdness surrounding her.

“S-Sure.” He finally answered, putting his katana back into its saya . As she led him onto her ship, he prayed that his trust in her would not be a mistake.

Chapter Text

Blaze’s Multiversal Journary: Log 9

We've gotten a new member, but it’s not who we expected it to be. As it turns out, the Makoto Yuki that lives in the most compatible Persona-verse is actually dead, which left us without options until he gave us a suggestion; one Tatsuya Suou.

To summarise his situation, he was a Persona user who sought to uncover the mysteries of his town, only to fulfill the plans of an ancient deity, destroying the world in the process. Eventually, he would restore the world and defeat the deity properly, sealing him away into the depths of the Sea of Souls, but to do both he was forced to destroy any memories of his friends. Even more tragic, due to a simple mistake-an “innocent sin”-he was left trapped in the old world, in the only place that didn’t get destroyed by the deity’s plan; Sumaru City, atop the alien ship Xibalba. Vox was the one to spearhead his rescue, using the Orbiter to travel to that old universe and pick him up from the ship. But that’s not the end of our issues.

As it turns out, Personae are the other selves of people, derived from their experiences and sense of self; without his memories, he cannot summon a Persona at all. It says alot about his skills, that he was able to survive for all those years in Sumaru with nothing but a sword, though there is another complication; his… immortality. For some reason, he cannot die, as he proved via ramming his katana into his abdomen. He quoted an old film named Highlander, which Dante had watched a while back, which is both apt and concerning, in the sense of how he became immortal in the first place. While we let him recover alone, Tiki wondered if we should try to help him recover his memories, and both Silver and Ichiban chimed in to support her. However Liu Kang pointed out that his memories were the exact means by which the god was sealed, and to help him recover them would lead to the end of his world. I wish we could help him there, or even that I did not need to hide the truth from him, but Liu Kang is right; he cannot remember his memories until we can find a way to stop that god. 

At the very least, he’s interacting well with the members of our crew. Tatsuya and Frederick have a thing for lighters, of all things, with Frederick showing off the capabilities of his weapon via lighting a cigarette… for all of 5 seconds before he was doused in revolite courtesy of Ordis. Ichiban and Tiki were more than empathetic to his situation, with the latter talking about her own spotty memory after waking up from her naps.

Now that we have Tatsuya in place of Makoto, we’re now going to the final universe for our last member; Korra, Daughter of Tonraq and the latest incarnation of the Avatar.

Meanwhile, in the Legend of Korra Universe...

174 AG, Spirit Realm, DK-A-54285

The team had found the world of the Avatar fairly easily, though finding their target, Korra, was going to be much harder. Not necessarily because they didn’t know where she was, but rather because of the exact realm she was in; the Spirit World, a parallel plane to the material world of that universe. The plane was both beautiful and wild, with concepts like ‘distance’ or ‘a general idea on where things are supposed to be’ being foreign to the realm; As such, the team had decided to stay in one place and wait for the Avatar to arrive. Luckily, there was a person nearby that could help them pass the time, and his name was Iroh; former leader of the White Lotus, and current owner of a teashop in the Spirit Realm. Iroh was more than willing to let the team wait with him, and so Liu Kang, Geras, Vergil, Tiki, Tatsuya and Voxaria of all people were gathered around his table and drinking tea with him. 

“I thank you for this cup of tea, Master Iroh.” Liu Kang praised the spirit of the Dragon of the West, who responded with laughter.

“High praise coming from one as mighty as you, Liu Kang!”

“Mighty as I may be, even I have weaknesses.” The God of Fire admitted, before lifting the cup of tea to his face. “For one, even over the thousands of years I’ve spent as a god, I have never been able to make a cup of tea as fine as this.”

Geras hummed while sipping on his cup, before giving Liu Kang a rare smile. “You did have that period when you were obsessed over perfecting the art of tea-brewing.” In response, Liu Kang frowned before pointing at him.

“Silence, Geras. We do not talk about that time.” Liu Kang threatened him, albeit lightly, before looking down at his cup. “Those were… dark times.”

“Eh, not the darkest I’ve seen.” Vox pointed out before sipping on her cup, sighing happily as a result. “I’ve had strange teas in Duviri, but this cup is just divine.”

“Agreed.” Tiki concurred, taking a sip out of her cup before noticing that Ordis’ glare was upon her. “Sir Ordis, are you still mad about… yesterday?”

“Not mad so much as annoyed. Ordis never thought that a dragon trying coffee for the first time would be SO BRUTAL, FOR FU- pair so… bloodily with eldritch abominations knocking on the door of the Orbiter.” He explained, before shuddering. “Ergh… Ordis cannot count the number of hours it took to simply scrub the orbiter’s exterior, much less make it sparkling. SPEAKING OF COFFEE!” He then turned to face Frederick, who was looking off into the distance with an annoyed expression on his face.

“If you’re gonna blame me for her reaction to my brewing, that’s on her.” He quickly explained before returning to his vigil at the edge of camp. 

“YOU RIPPED U- Frederick Bulsara, you ripped the Orbiter up for parts to create your coffee machine!” Ordis quickly shot back, though before he could continue Vox held her hand up to stop him.

“Don’t worry about it, Ordis. We got spare parts, and I’ve always wanted a coffee machine, even if I’m more of a tea person.” She finished by sipping from her cup once more. 

Kyo looked at her funny before clearing his throat. “Say, speaking about that, how in the world are you a tea person?” 

She shrugged in response, “Well, it was a common drink in Duviri, so I had it a ton during the loops.” 

“Yeah, how didn’t you get sick of it?” 

“You’d think that, but even though I got sick of the loops fairly quickly, I never did get sick of tea.”

“Hah!” Iroh guffawed at the comment before composing himself. “You can never get sick of tea! Not even if you’re stuck in a time-loop!” 

Tatsuya fidgeted with his cup, taking a sip before speaking. “I-I dunno about tea, but alcohol… leaves a bad taste in my mouth.” Tatsuya admitted, earning a gasp from Ichiban.

“Wait, really? What about Sake?”

Tatsuya sighed before mumbling out an explanation. “W-water on the ship was always dirty unless it was in bottles, but… those started to go bad. I switched to Sake, but being drunk meant more injuries, so I chose not to drink anything.” Tatsuya explained, before slurping down his tea like a dog. “I hated the first few days, but I tolerated it after a bit… I guess that’s one more ‘perk’ to my immortality.” He looked at Ichiban, who was giving him the most sympathetic puppy eyes possible, and sighed.

“I don’t mind… that I am immortal, even more so when it has saved me from death, but my life… It means nothing without my memories. No matter what I try, I can’t recall them, and it hurts so much, like there’s a part of me that’s missing.” His head was leaning down on the table, which was fortunate for the team at large, as they did their damndest to hide the grimaces from their latest member. Iroh, despite being completely unaware of what they were all talking about, could absolutely intuit what was going on and opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the rustling of a bush nearby.

“Who is it?” Eric called out almost immediately, which was quickly answered by a pair of women walking into the area, one with dark skin and a blue outfit, and the other wearing dark reds and black. Instantly, every member of the group smiled as they realised that Korra had waltzed right into the group.

“Ah, just in time…” Blaze muttered to herself before taking a deep breath. “Korra, Daughter of Tonraq, and the current Avatar. We’ve been waiting for you.”

Korra raised her eyebrow in response, looking over everyone in the group before coming to the reasonable conclusion of “Asami, I think we’ve been in the Spirit World for too long.”

Asami looked at her girlfriend with confusion written on her face, though it was Iroh who grabbed Korra’s attention first. “Ah, Korra! These lovely people have been looking for you!”

“Really?” Korra asked in confusion. “These aren’t spirits? Not even the Cat-like one?” Blaze glared at her in response, and Korra raised her arms in surrender. “Sorry, you don’t look human!”

“No, we are people, though not from this world.” Liu Kang quickly explained, before gesturing to an empty pair of seats. “Please, sit down. It will take a moment to explain everything.” The two of them sat down, and Liu Kang told his story to them, alongside Blaze and the others. It took a bit for everyone to say their parts, but once they were done, they stayed silent so that Korra and Asami could take it all in.

“So… let me get this straight.” Korra spoke after a few minutes of silence. “There are a bunch of universes out there, outside of our own, which can be like or unlike this one, right?” She got a nod from Liu Kang, and continued. “And there is an organisation of people who ‘administer’ these universes, to make sure that they stay stable, via getting people from different universes to interact.”

Asami took the chance to step into the conversation. “Not only that, but you’re visiting our world to recruit Korra to your… group-chat, was it?”

“Exactly.” Blaze answered succinctly. “Now, I am well aware that this is quite the strange series of events, and I wouldn’t be surprised if-”

“Sure, I’m down!’ Korra quickly spoke, interrupting Blaze in the process.

“Hack! Gah!” Blaze choked on her own spit for a moment before clearing her throat, incidentally spitting out a hairball in the process. When she recovered, she glared at everyone in the area

It was Vox who spoke first, leaning towards the Avatar. “Seriously? You’re just gonna accept our story? Just like that?” 

Korra shrugged back. “Well, it is a bit strange, but it’s clear you’re not from the Spirit World, or the Human one. That, and the mechanical owl-thingie clearly isn’t Future Industries tech.”

“Ordis’ Name is Ordis!” Ordis corrected Korra, earning a laugh from Vox and the rest of the gang. As soon as they stopped laughing, Korra continued her explanation.

“And if I have to be honest, your story is a bit insane, but I feel I have an obligation to help you. The role of the Avatar is to keep the balance and peace between the four nations, but I believe that it goes beyond that; it means keeping balance between not just the nations, but between humans and spirits. And given what you told me about the multiverse and SOMA’s role in it, it’s kinda like my own role; I might as well help you guys out, especially if it means that I can ask for your help in turn.”

“Of course, Avatar Korra.” Liu Kang gave his answer, which earned a smile from Korra.

“I’ll admit that I have far less in this than she does, but I’ve got to make sure that she stays safe.” Asami admitted. “She is my best friend of a few years, and my girlfriend of a few days; I’m not leaving her side.”

“Well, it’s good that you guys are taking this well.” Ichiban spoke in between sips of his cup of tea. “-Because I was far too obstinate to accept until AFTER I got shot.”

“Wait, what?” Korra asked flatly, though Blaze stopped Ichiban from answering her question.

“It doesn’t matter for now, we should focus on getting Korra integrated.” Blaze coolly answered before pulling out a smartphone and showing it to Korra. “I believe that neither of you have seen this, right? It’s called a smartphone, and it’s the main way we’re communicating with each other across universes.”

Korra took the device from Blaze’s hand, and looked it over with curiosity on her face, while Asami looked over her shoulder with amazement, gushing over its design. “Wow, a device this small, with nothing but a glass window… and you say this can communicate across dimensions, right,?” Blaze nodded in response, and Asami looked at the device with wonder. “There’s a prototype that I’ve been working on to send communications over longer distances faster, and all of them are the size of a backpack, at minimum! To think that technology could advance so greatly in other universes…”

Blaze coughed into her hand, which caught Asami’s attention. “While I am impressed by your deductions, Asami Sato, I believe it will be prudent to show you how these devices work on a basic level so that you can communicate with us. We can go into greater detail later.” She then proceeded to guide Korra through the basics, before giving her two devices, one for herself and another for someone else in her group of allies. After a few minutes of that, Blaze returned to the group, where she grabbed everyone’s attention with an explosion of fire. “Alright, everyone, with Korra finally being added to the group, we’ve gotten everyone for this ripple. With that, we have no need to keep you all in the same place, so we’re just going to send you back to your own worlds.” Everyone was a little disappointed, but quickly accepted the news; well, almost everyone.

“Uh, not that I’m against going back to the underworld, or hell even my version of the human world, but what about him?” Dante spoke up, before pointing at Tatsuya. “All he’s got is that bombed-out version of Tokyo.” Everyone quickly realised the issue and tried to think of an answer to Tatsuya’s problem.

“Well, I might be able to house him.” Vox spoke up first, earning everyone’s attention. “In my world, Tenno frequently complete missions in groups of four, but Tenno can also create these groups called Clans to ally with more than 3 other Tenno for longer periods of time. These Clans are headed by a Warlord, and they have a home base called a Dojo. I created a Clan with a few fellow Tenno, though over time we drifted apart, leaving me as the sole owner of the Dojo. Since we have a few beds, I can have Tatsuya stay in my world, until he has better accommodations.”

Ichiban was the first to raise a complaint. “Wait, why not let him stay in any of the other versions of Tokyo? There’s like, a ton of them, right?” 

A few nods came from the group, including Tatsuya who cleared his throat and took a calming breath before speaking. “I mean-” 

“Not in my world.” Frederick interrupted the Persona user. “Asuka blew up Japan to stop the Universal Will.” He then spat on the ground, ignorant of everyone’s shock. “Now that I think about it, the first thing I’m doing after kissing Jack-O is beating the shit out of Asuka.” Despite the fact that everyone HAD heard Frederick explain it before, they still couldn’t wrap their head around the idea that… well, a country had been wiped off the face of the earth.

“Not… quite the issue that I’m going for here, Freddie.” Vox said after a bit, before refocusing herself. “No, my issue with bringing Tatsuya to another version of Tokyo will be the shock of seeing other people. He’s been alone for quite some time, and I doubt he’d want to deal with people before he’s gotten a chance to truly recover. In the Dojo, he’ll only have to deal with Ordis and me, along with the occasional visit from Umbra, though he’s not going to cause too much trouble for him.”

“I-I see.” Tatsuya noted with a smile. “I’d… I’d like to have a quiet place, at least for now.”

“Oh, it’s really quiet. Beautiful too, given how much effort I’ve put into making the place look good!” Vox proclaimed, before turning to the side and whispering, “And Platinum… god, the amount of Plat I’ve spent on it…”

“Well, problem solved.” Kyo quipped, getting up and dusting his hands, before looking around. “Shall we all go home?”

And so they did, laughing as they went back to Vox’s ship, barring Dante and Vergil who returned to their world courtesy of the Yamato.

BGM: Coming Home (Guilty Gear Xrd Sign OST)

In the Devil May Cry Universe…

“Surprised you didn’t send us right back to the Underworld.” Dante quipped as he stepped out of the portal created by the Yamato, followed shortly by Vergil. A quick look around was enough to tell Dante that he had brought them to Fortuna, right outside Nero’s home. “Wait, how in the world did you know where Nero li- Oh wait .” He then glared at Vergil, and more specifically the Yamato, which Vergil switched back into a demonic arm.

“To answer your question, If our little adventure to the other worlds didn’t take so long, then I would have.” Vergil explained, before a slight smile appeared on his face as he switched the Yamato back to its normal form. “But… I have become a bit… curious about the human world with all of that talk in Korra’s world. Our Human World.” He then turned to see the excited grin on Dante’s face, and flicked it off with his finger. “Besides, I want to see how Nero is doing. See if he has actually grown any stronger.”

“HEY ASSHOLES!” Nero’s voice broke the two of them out of their bickering, which they did by turning their heads towards the young quarter-demon.

“Yo, my lovely nephew that totally isn’t a deadweight! How are you doing?” Dante yelled out while waving his arm at him, as Vergil simply crossed his arms and smirked at Nero.

But Nero did not stop walking towards them, which caused the two of them to falter.

“Uh, Nero?”

“What are you doing?”

“What I should have done ages ago…” Nero growled out before pulling his devil trigger, going into his devil form and summoning a secondary, spectral set of hands. Dante switched into Royalguard Style and Vergil raised the Yamato to guard himself, but neither technique helped either of them as Nero grappled the two of them with a Buster claw. “THIS IS PAYBACK FOR NOT CONTACTING US!” Once he screamed in their faces, he spun them clockwise and buried them head-first into the ground, piledriver-style. 

He then un-triggered before crouching down, just as the two of the pulled their heads out of the ground. “And that’s for being assholes in general. Now come inside; Kyrie’s cooking dinner, and this time I’m making sure you join us.” And then the Sons of Sparda were dragged inside.

In the Like a Dragon Universe…

As Ichiban was dropped off in his world, he came to a shocking, earth-shattering realisation.

“Shit, I’m homeless, aren’t I?” he said calmly, as he looked around the streets of Kamurocho, where people were walking around with phones in their hands. “I did ask Vox-san to drop me off in Kamurocho, but… the Arakawa Family is a part of the Omi Alliance, aren’t they? I don’t wanna join those assholes, and even if I did, I don’t think they’d appreciate a bum like me.’ He then pulled his new-ish smartphone from his pocket and considered his options. “I could call Vox-san and ask if I could stay with her but… would she think I’m being a bum?” Before Ichiban could consider the option, he heard someone approach him from behind.

“Well, if it isn’t Ichiban Kasuga. Surprising to see you here, after dropping off the face of the earth for a few days.” Ichiban turned around to come face-to-face with the cop who tried to talk to him outside the prison; Adachi, if he remembered correctly.

“You again… What do you want?” Ichiban asked aggressively. 

Adachi started to chuckle in response. “Heh, heh, heh… Remember what that strange chinese guy that kidnapped you said?”

“Hey, Liu Kang-san didn’t kidnap me, he brought me right to Oya… Arakawa-san. Who then shot me…” He took a moment to breathe in, remembering how everyone else had become friends with him, before speaking. “And now that I think about it… you wanted to find Arakawa-san, since he worked with that guy you want revenge on.”

“Huh, you’ve got a good memory for a yakuza. Oh, sorry, former yakuza.” Adachi corrected himself. 

“Well, forget about it. I’m not a part of the Arakawa family, and you’re not getting anything from me.” 

Adachi smirked before leaning in. “Yeah, that’s bullshit. You and I both know that you’ll do everything to look for him, all so that you can get right back into his good graces. And when you do that, I will be able to get the information I need.” 

Ichiban nodded at Adachi’s plan, before snapping his fingers. “Hey, wait a minute! You’re a cop! why don’t you use everything you have at the station to search for him yourself!”

“So, funny story…”  Adachi scratched the back of his head. “But I might be out of a job…”

“Wait, what?” Ichiban asked flatly.”

“Yeah, so looking around for you earned me a few more enemies in the Kanagawa PD. Not to mention that I accidentally revealed that I was looking for Arakawa in front of my superior, who told his superior, and after a whole chain of bullshit, I got fired from my job… and just a few days before my pension, too!” 

“Well, shit, my bad, man.” Ichiban consoled Adachi, even if the latter didn’t really need it. 

“Eh, it’s not all bad. Even if I miss my pension, I’ve got a bit of money in the bank, and I’ve got a roof over my head. Hell, I’ll even let you stay at my place for a bit, until you get a job.” 

“Wait, really?” Ichiban gasped, before squinting his eyes. “Wait… you just want to keep an eye on me, don’t you?”

“Well, you said you were homeless. Are you really going to say no to a bed?”

Ichiban wanted to say no badly, if only to preserve his pride as a Yakuza… but he was no yakuza, not anymore. “Dammit, you’re right. Where are we going?” 

Adachi smiled in response, leading Ichiban out of Kamurocho. “Well, it’s in a little place called Isezaki Ijincho…” 

In the Power Rangers Universe…

Hopping out of the Orbiter mid-air, Eric saw the Silver Guardian Building below him and smirked. ‘If I did the calculations right now, I could probably figure out how long it’d take me to land… Ah, that’s too much work. I’ll just morph and absorb it through the suit!” And so he did.

“Quantum Power!” Eric cried out in the air, activating the Morphing sequence mid-air while pointing his fist to the ground. Instantly, he was surrounded by binary code, as his fist was transformed into the gauntlet of his ranger suit. A series of gold rings followed, slowly but steadily covering him before dissipating, revealing him as the Quantum Ranger. With only a few seconds until he impacted the ground, Eric flipped in the air before pointing his feet downwards, bending his knees to prepare. Despite the noise of the landing, Eric didn’t even leave a mark on the ground, much less a crack; such was the power of the suit’s fall-dampening capabilities. 

“Woo, nice landing!” Eric heard Wes praise him, to which he smirked silently underneath the helmet before bringing the morpher to his mouth and powering down. Looking up, he saw Wes carrying a cup of Coffee in his hands and a few papers.

“Wes, good to see you. Is everything well here?” Eric asked Wes, to which he got a smile from the commander.

“Yeah, Sun’s out, no major incidents, and I got a coffee from the Bohemian for free!” Wes took a sip out of his cup before looking at Eric sympathetically. “I, uh, I would have gotten you one if I knew you were coming soon, ESPECIALLY with the paperwork on your desk…”

“What do you mean by paperwork…” Eric raised an eyebrow before running past Wes, right into the building. Flashing his card at the desk, he vaulted over the gate before running right towards the stairs, which he ran up three at a time until he got to the third floor; that was were the offices were. Running into the hallway, he took a left and a right until he got to his specific office, which he unlocked with a kick, at which point he was confronted with a most horrifying sight. 

A mountain of Paperwork, which had piled up in the time he was out.

Falling to his knees, he slammed his fist to the ground and screamed, “DAMMIT!” in response.

In the Guilty Gear Universe…

Landing on the ground, Frederick cracked his neck before standing up, right in front of his cabin in the woods. Sitting in a chair on the porch was Jack-O, beautiful as always, while Sin, Unika, and Lucy were sitting with her; Notably, their little group had grown by two courtesy of Dizzy… and Ky.

“If it isn’t the King and Queen of Illyria. Or was it Via-something?” Frederick scratched his head to remember, but his attempts were thwarted by hugs, courtesy of Sin (Frederick punched him in response) and Unika (he hugged her back). “And where’s Ram and Elphelt?”

“Ramlethal’s doing some paperwork back in Illyria, so she couldn’t come, and Elphelt has a concert going on.” Dizzy quickly explained the latter, while Ky glared at Frederick for the former.

“It’s Vialattea, So-Frederick.” Ky corrected himself before looking at Sin, who recovered from being punched extremely quickly, even for a half-Gear or whatever percent of Gear he was. “Also, could you not punch Sin?”

“Hey, he turned out fine!” He defended himself, with Sin nodded in response.

“Times. Tables.” Ky flatly countered, to which Frederick floundered for a moment before responding.

“He knows that!” 

Dizzy shook her head in annoyance before walking up to her father. “Father, how were the other dimensions?”

“Eh, not bad. Not all that different from our own.” He admitted, even though there were quite a few differences, such as some having magic unlike their own, or the fact that the Dawn of Revival never happened in their worlds. ‘Not like I’m going to say that now, not while I’m so tired.’

Sin gasped in shock before looking at his mother. “Hey, Mom! Didn’t you say you wanted the Old Man to fish with you? At the lake nearby?”

“Sin!” Dizzy scolded Sin with a glare before looking at Frederick wistfully, causing the former magi-scientist to sigh.

“Well, I’ve not got much experience fishing, so it’ll probably be more you teaching me, kiddo.” He admitted, to which Dizzy giggled in response.

“Oh, sure! I brought some fishing rods from Illyria! Let me get them!” She then ran off towards a car, which Frederick guessed was how they got to his place. Taking the opportunity to sneak towards Jack-O, he kissed her on the lips before hugging her, placing his hand on her swelling belly to see if he could feel their child’s heartbeat, which he found rather quickly.

‘Shit, didn’t I say I was going to kick Asuka’s ass or something?’ Frederick thought to himself as he looked up, where the sun was right over his head. ‘Nah, that’s too much work. I’ll kick his ass later.’ And then Dizzy returned with the rods, and the extended family of Frederick Bulsara went off to do some fishing.

In the King of Fighters Universe…

Stepping down on Earth, Kyo waved at the Orbiter as it flew out of the atmosphere before turning around, where he saw a few people waiting outside his home; Yuki, Shingo, Chizuru, and… Iori? ‘What the hell is this asshole doing here?’ Kyo questioned internally, before wiping it away with a smile. ‘Nah, that’s for later.’ 

Walking forward, the first to greet him was Yuki, who embraced him before giving him a chaste kiss on the lips. “Kyo, you’ve returned! How was everything?”

“Hey, Yuki. It wasn't bad.” He answered, giving her another kiss as well. 

Shingo was next to greet Kyo, howling to the sky as he did. “Kyo! It’s been so long!”

“It’s only been a few days, Shingo.” Kyo pointed out before smiling anyway. “But… It's nice to see you too. Say, did you get the groceries like I asked?”

“Yes I did!” Shingo reported before realising his foolishness. “Hey, wait a minute, I didn’t promise that at all!” Kyo could only laugh in response before looking at Chizuru, who was smiling at their reunion.

“Kyo-san. Did Liu Kang and Blaze-san get everyone required for their experiment?” Chizuru asked him and he pulled out his phone.

“Why don’t you check?” He asked in response, and she pulled out her own phone before opening the app, which earned a smile on her face.

“Well, that’ll be good. The ability to communicate across dimensions will be perfect for helping us all get stronger.”

Kyo smirked before looking at the last member of the greeting party, who was glaring at him like usual.

“Say, Yagami, what are you doing here?”

Iori raised a hand up and summoned purple flames in it. “I’m here to kick your ass.” And with that, everyone sighed in annoyance. with Yuki stepping forward to confront Iori.

“Iori Yagami! You said you wouldn’t fight Kyo as soon as he returned!”

 He rolled his shoulder in response. “ You said that, Kushinada. I promised jack-shit.”

Yuki raised her hand and was about to walk forward when Kyo placed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back. “Don’t worry, Yuki. I don’t mind fighting him here and now. I got cock-blocked from fighting Myers-san earlier, and we didn’t get anything challenging on the way, so I’m down for a fight.” He then got into stance, while Yuki and everyone not named Iori stepped back.

For once in his life, Iori had a smile on his face as he got into his fighting stance, though anyone else would say that it was closer to a slasher grin than a smile. “Kusanagi! I will obliterate you, once and for all!”

“Hah, in your dreams!” Kyo shot back, and the two rushed each other with flames in their fists, ready to brawl for the nth time. As they proceeded to rampantly beat the shit out of each other, two figures outside the greeting party looked at the two fight from a distance.

“Fa-General Heidern, you wanted to talk to Kyo about his adventures, right?” The first one asked the second. “Should I interject?”

“No, It’ll be best for us to wait, Leona.” General Vernon Heidern responded. “Let Kyo burn some of his energy out, and then get the answers we need.”

In the Orogin System AKA the Warframe Universe…

“To think Tiki could just… teleport.” Vox noted aloud as she looked out the window of the Personal Quarters, where she and Tatsuya were resting after translating back into the Orogin System. “Kinda annoying that she could do that the whole time, especially since we could have used her magic to recharge the Orbiter… but I guess it’s not that bad. We got to spend a bunch of time with each other, and see a bunch of cool places.”  

“E-excuse me…” Tatsuya uttered out, breaking Vox out of her thoughts. 

“Yo?” She turned around to see him sitting on the couch, with the Somachord and the Tea-set She bought for Umbra. “What’s up?”

“Umm, not that I want to interrupt you, but…” He paused awkwardly for a moment, which Vox patiently waited out until he was ready to continue. “When are… When are we going to your… dojo?”

“Ah, about that.” Vox chirped before walking towards him, kneeling by the tea set so that she’d be smaller than him. “I need to craft something for you before I bring you to the Dojo; a Clan Key.”

“A.. Clan Key?”

She hummed affirmatively. “Every Dojo is locked with a Clan Key, which not only unlocks the front door but every door in the Dojo. While guests are allowed in, and I usually do for trading, they don’t have full access to the place; hell, if I leave, then the Dojo kicks them back out to their ships. If I want you to live in the Dojo, then I gotta give you a Key to let you use the doors, which in this case will take a bit.”

“A-ah, I see…” Tatsuya nodded his head before leaning back on the couch. “Then all I have to do is… wait?”

“Yeah, it’ll take a few hours, so kick back and relax!” Vox suggested before picking up the tea set. “Say, what about some tea? I can whip some up right now!” 

“Didn’t we have a cup a few minutes ago?” Tatsuya smirked, which was surprising for Vox, though she returned a bright smile in response.

“Eh, you can never have too much tea, in my opinion.” Vox explained before lifting up the pot. “So? Shall we?” Tatsuya nodded, and they did.

In the Fire Emblem Universe…

A portal opened up high above the lands of Ylisse, which lasted just long enough for Tiki to fly right through before closing. Once she was through, Tiki took a moment to take the land in with all of her senses. She looked up to the blue sky, and down to the verdant land beneath her. She heard the wind whip around her like a melody, and took a deep breath to appreciate its clarity. “Those other worlds… they are so interesting, and so are the people in them. All the same, I am glad to be home…”

She then looked down to her chest, where a felt-bag was wrapped around her neck with string, courtesy of Vox. “The material this pouch is made out of is soft; far softer than any I’ve seen in this world, and yet it’s carrying the phones with ease! I must thank Lady Voxaria when I get the chance.” Looking back to the land, Tiki scanned the area until she sensed where her target was. “Alright, there she is! Let’s go!” and with that, Tiki flew off to the City of Ylisstol.

In the Legend of Korra Universe…

After the group had left for their own worlds, Korra and Asami had decided to continue their vacation in the Spirit World, though the winding nature of the plane made it difficult to tell where exactly the two of them were. They had been walking in silence, hand in hand, when Asami finally broke the silence with a question

“So, what do you think of those people? Liu Kang, Blaze… the others?” Asami asked aloud as the two travelled the land.

Korra looked back at her lover with a curious expression on her face. “What do I think?” Korra tapped a finger onto her chin. “Well, They seem like good people, fun too! Not to mention that they seem to have good vibes around them, even Dante and Vergil.”

“Didn’t they say they were demons?” Asami noted, to which Korra nodded.

“Yeah! They said that, and they do have an aura around them akin to a dark spirit, but they feel completely balanced; as if the darkness is something they can bend like an element.” 

“I see…” Asami then pulled out the smartphone she was given from her pocket, inspecting it thoroughly.

“And here I thought we were going to put work away until after we returned.” Korra teased her partner, earning a blush from the woman.

“Can you blame me? This device is thinner than my notebook, and it’s got almost everything one could think of; A calculator, a planner…” She then turned the phone towards Korra, at which point a clicking noise came from the device. She then showed the screen of the phone towards Korra, showing the woman with a confused expression on her face. “And a camera that beats every other one I’ve seen in Republic City.”

“Kinda wish I didn’t look lost…” Korra grumbled to herself with a frown on her face, before looking around for something to distract herself. Luckily, there was something right in the middle of their path; a giant rock formation. “Hey, look! Maybe we can get a better picture up there!” 

Asami smiled in response, putting the phone away before going into a sprinting pose. “Last one up there is a rotten egg!” And then she ran towards the formation, leaving Korra in the dust.

“HEY! Wait up!” Korra blasted forward with a burst of wind; despite how much she loved Asami, she was not going to lose to her.

In the World of Mobius AKA the Sonic Universe…

Walking through the Portal, Blaze and Silver took in the sights of Station Square with a smile, such as people walking down the streets, or the ocean view via the nearby dock. “It’s good to be home… well, even if this isn’t really my city.” Silver noted with a smile.

“Indeed.” Blaze responded before pulling out her phone.

Silver raised an eyebrow in response. “Are people already talking? I thought you planned on opening up the server later?”

“No, I’m checking on the Sol Empire. After we got Dante and Vergil on our side, I connected my phone with the communication systems of the empire to keep track of it across dimensions.”

“Oh, cool!” Silver looked over her shoulder, though she pushed him back with a hand. 

“This is classified, Silver. Just because we’re friends does not mean that I can just show you detailed information on the state of the empire.”

“Didn’t Tiki and Vox tell you that you can rely on us?”

“Yes they did.” Blaze spoke through gritted teeth before glaring at Silver. “I don’t know how you know about it, but they did.” 

“Well, they told me.” He simply admitted, and Blaze smacked her forehead out of annoyance. 

“Of course they did.” Blaze sighed loudly before  putting her phone away. “Either way, there is a difference between relying on them and letting you see what I see. One is necessary, and the other will start a scandal that I do not want to deal with.” 

“Fine, fine.” Silver relented, before a strange noise could be heard; Police Sirens. “Huh, what’s going on?” He turned to face the noise alongside Blaze, and saw the source; A chase, with police chasing a green vehicle.

“Some sort of crime going on?” Blaze tilted her head out of curiosity, before realising who was right beside her. “Wait, don’t tell me you’re going to-”

“Yep!” Silver hovered into the air with Psychokinetic power and launched himself towards the chase, leaving Blaze alone. 

“Do I leave this to him?” She considered her options for a moment, before sighing and walking off. “I can trust him to not be too destructive. I’ll just go see Cream and Ms. Vanilla; I haven’t talked with them for a while.” And so she did.

In the Mortal Kombat Universe…

Sliding back, Liu Kang lowered his arms from their guard position only to deflect three punches from Geras, which he followed up with an attempted grab. The God of Fire ducked low to dodge the attack before spinning around and uppercutting Geras, launching him up and back. With distance between the two of them, Liu Kang shot out a Cosmic Flare fireball and a Low Dragon to harry his opponent, though Geras simply teleported past them, coming right into Liu Kang’s face. Before he could block, the Guardian of Time punched him twice, followed by a shoulder charge and a blast of chrono-mantic energy, locking Liu Kang in place and allowing Geras to drop down on him with an elbow. As Liu Kang got up, Geras punched his fists together before jumping towards Liu Kang with a drop-kick, which the god of Fire countered with an uppercut, though Geras was simply returned to his previous position, the only sign of damage being a slight bruise on his cheek. 

“Even now, you are still strong, Geras.” Liu kang praised his ally, who merely crossed his arms in response.

“This is merely the advantage of time and patience, Lord Liu Kang.” Geras responded. “Still, all of that is meaningless in the face of the infinite possibilities of the multiverse.”

“That is why we are training now. To sharpen our skills for the next threat to this universe, or the others.” 

“Very well.” Geras uncrossed his arms, and the two returned to their fight.

Stop BGM

Back in the Warframe Universe…

It had been a few hours since Vox finished the Clan Key, and Tatsuya had finally gotten a chance to settle in the building. Well, it was more of a spaceship, but the layout was closer to a classical building, with floors, elevators, and a single direction for gravity to fall. Tatsuya had taken off his Red-and-black jacket and placed it on a chair Vox had placed for him when he sensed that someone was nearby. “V-Vox-san? Is that you?”

“Not in the slightest, Tatsuya Suou.” An unfamiliar, feminine voice came from behind, and Tatsuya spun around to face the person. The person looked like a woman, with a curvy-yet-muscular figure, short platinum-blonde hair in a pixie cut and yellow eyes that seemed to glow for some reason. She wore a Deep-blue button-up shirt that had the sleeves ripped off and the buttons undone, revealing the blueish-black sarashi covering their chest. Below that were a pair of tight trousers in the same colour with a black belt holding it up, silver knee-plates wrapped around her knees, and pointed black boots covering their feet. The other notable things were the blue bandana wrapped around their head, and the thick book held in their left hand.

“Who are you, and how do you know me?” Tatsuya asked the person, tilting his head in the process. “Actually… are you a woman, or?” 

The person placed a hand on their chest. “My name is Agatha, and I am… Well, I don’t particularly care what you call me, so long as you do not use it. Ah, but I am also aware of your issues surrounding your lost memories.”

“My memories?” Tatsuya raised the obvious question. “Wait, you said I lost my memories. Do you know what happened? Do you know how I can find them?” 

“I cannot necessarily say how you can recover your memories, but I can say why you lost them in the first place.” Agatha said, before pulling out a strange card, with a demonic skull on it and the number XV. “You gave them up years ago to seal away an evil, eldritch god in the depths of the collective unconsciousness. You were then returned to the ruins of the land that he destroyed, forced to fend for yourself against the monsters left behind.”

“So those monsters I fought… they were the Gods creations then?” Tatsuya guessed, only to realise something horrible. “Wait, but… if he was sealed with my memories, then I have a feeling that no one would have remembered me. How did Vox… No, No it couldn’t.” He kneeled to the floor in shock as the only answer that could fit fell into place. “Did… did Vox and the others know about my memories? Did they know everything, and not tell me anything?”

“Do not blame them, Tatsuya Suou. They were only acting in the interests of both yours and their dimensions.” Agatha kneeled down to come eye-to-eye with him. “The god sought the destruction of Mankind via their own actions, which he did via manipulation and deceit. Even though you sealed him, he still exists, and regaining your memories early may give him a way to escape. To keep the worlds safe, Liu Kang and the others cannot allow you to regain your memories, not until they have a way to stop the god.”

Tatsuya slowly nodded his head, before he glared at Agatha. “Wait a minute. If my memories are the key to that god’s lock, then wouldn’t telling me about my memories in the first place lead to his freedom?”

They smiled at him and nodded. “Indeed. Simply telling you the reason for your lost memories will set in motion the eventual freedom of that god. Luckily for you, I’m not looking to free him for my own gain; I intend on guaranteeing his permanent imprisonment, by your hands and the hands of your friends, now and past.” They then opened their book to a specific page, which had the following words upon it.

You will strengthen myself to face the foe that took away your memories

In turn, this Agatha will forge your body and sharpen your skills to bring you to a god-shattering edge, and help you recover your memories.

I agree to these terms, and I choose this fate of mine own free will.

“This is a contract between the two of us. By signing, You and I will work together until you are strong enough to face the god.” Agatha explained. “Sign, and we can begin.”

A pen appeared in the air, and Tatsuya brought his hand towards it, only to hesitate. ‘Do I really want to sign this contract? To trust this woman… person?  They have done nothing but help me, and their words seem trustworthy, but they appeared in Vox’s dojo without any alarms, and they don't even seem to be from this world. But…’

“I want my memories back. That’s all.” Tatsuya admitted to the strange person. “I don’t know whether I can trust you, and yet you’ve told me more about my memories than anyone else, Liu Kang and friends included.” He grabbed the pen forcefully, and scribbled his name onto the line at the end of the contract.

Tatsuya Suou

Agatha smiled before closing the book and standing up. “To face the god now would be a fool’s errand, even with the assistance of all the people you’ve met. With this contract, I will make you a Fool worthy of legend.” They then held a gloved hand towards him. “Well then… Shall we begin?”

Chapter Text

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

Admin FlamePrincess has invited 13 people to the server

User  07182014 has changed their name to “Ordis”

03252013: Alrighty people! Sound off!

03252013: What the hell is this? A nickname for robots?

08232001: Ha! Didn’t know they had Zoolander in the future!

03252013: The hell’s a zoolander? 

03252013: Wait!

03252013: Is that some sorta weapon?

04212001: It’s a movie, and it’s not that good.

08232001: What? C’mon, man! You can’t just diss Ben Stiller!

04212001: I can, and I will

04212001: Also, how in the hell does he exist in your world?

08232001: I dunno.

FlamePrincess: @Everyone Hello, and welcome to the Chat Room! I am Blaze, and I am the admin of this subsection of the Rippleverse. You can change your nickname, though I’d ask that you’d wait until after you introduced yourself.

User 03252013 has changed their name to “RegisteredL-User”

RegisteredL-User: FIRST!

RegisteredL-User: Also, why do we need to introduce ourselves?

RegisteredL-User: We’ve seen each other before!

FlamePrincess: First up is @08232001

FlamePrincess: Gods dammit.

07301996: Blaze and Liu Kang gathered us one at a time, so our introductions were not the best. 

07301996: This is a perfect way to introduce everyone on even ground.

FlamePrincess: Yes, that.

User 08232001 has changed their name to “Dante”

Dante: Hello, everyone, This is Dante, the Legendary Dark Knight, Son of Sparda and proprietor of Devil May Cry, the coolest Devil Hunting Service this side of the universe! Give me the Password, and I’ll be there on time!

01242006: you’ve never told anyone the password, not even Nero.

Dante: What? It’s Eva, you dumbass.

Dante: woops

01242006: Heh.

01242006: Also

User 01242006 has changed their name to “SonOfSparda”

SonOfSparda: I am Vergil, the Son of Sparda, and Wielder of the Yamato. Do not stand in my way, or you will perish.

Dante: Wow, great intro, bro.

Dante: Really makes you sound like an actual person and not a psychopath.

Dante: Also.

User Dante has changed their name to “CoolerSonofSparda”

CoolerSonofSparda: Fixed.

SonofSparda: foolishness.

User SonofSparda has changed their name to “CoolestSonofSparda”

CoolestSonofSparda: Behold! The ultimate nickname!

CoolerSonofSparda: Are you sure about that?

LordLiuKang: Enough!

LordLiuKang: Do not make war with your nicknames!

LordLiuKang: There are better places to fight.

LordLiuKang: If you do not stop, we will set your names for you.

CoolerSonofSparda: Fine

User CoolerSonofSparda has changed their name to “PizzaTime”

CoolestSonofSparda: Very well…

User CoolestSonofSparda: has changed their name to “Alpha&Omega”

LordLiuKang: Good.

01062020: Sheesh, Liu Kang-san’s really scary when he’s pissed off.

01062020: Kinda reminds me of Sawashiro-san when he’s mad, except less… knifey.

FlamePrincess: Ah, perfect timing, Ichiban. Please, introduce yourself.

01062020: Oh, ok

User 01062020 has changed their name to “Itchybum”

Itchybum: Yo, I’m Ichiban Kasuga. I’m a former Yakuza who was a part of the Arakawa Family, and now I’m currently looking for my place in life at 42 years old. Please, take care of me.

RegisteredL-user: Itchybum? 

RegisteredL-user: You’re using that as your nickname? 

RegisteredL-user: I thought you hated it?

RegisteredL-user: Also, what’s that thing about ‘taking care of me’?

RegisteredL-user: You’re not an object, man.

Itchybum: Well, I hated the fact that you mispronounced my name, but I kinda thought it was funny. I also needed a nickname, since I thought using my own name would be a bit lame, so Itchybum.

07301996: As for your second question, Voxaria-san, the concept of the phrase “Please, take care of me” or in Japanese “ yoroshiku onegaishimasu” is a bit complicated.

07301996: Translated literally, Yoroshiku means “please treat me favourably”, while onegaishimasu is Keigo , or Formal Japanese, for Please.

07301996: Conceptually, it’s effectively “Please and Thank you”. It’s a softening word, meant to show gratitude, and to apologize for mistakes pre-emptively.

RegisteredL-user: Ah, I see.

FlamePrincess: With that impromptu lesson in Japanese out of the way, @04212001, please introduce yourself.

User 04212001 has changed their name to “EricMyers”

EricMyers: My name is Eric Myers, the second-in-command of the Silver Guardians, the protection-agency of Silver Hills. 

EricMyers: Our job is to defend the city of Silver Hills from any major threats, though nowadays we assist the police in stopping crime and helping citizens.

EricMyers: Via the Quantum Morpher, a device on my wrist coded to my voice alone, I can become the Quantum Ranger, which gives me increased strength and durability, along with extra firepower. I reserve this for said major threats alone.

EricMyers: Speaking of Rangers..

EricMyers: Blaze, do you mind if I invite Wes to the group?

FlamePrincess: Ah, I’ll do that for you. We set the permissions to only allow admins to invite people to the server, so that we would not be overwhelmed via a large number of people at once.

Admin FlamePrincess has invited 02102001 to the server

02102001: Yo, what’s this?

EricMyers: “Yo What’s this?”

EricMyers: Wes, Is that how you introduce yourself in emails?

02102001: Well, no, Eric. This is a groupchat, clearly, and not an email to the higher-ups, or my dad.

02102001: Thank god.

02102001: Speaking of groupchats, what sort of nickname is “EricMyers”?

EricMyers: I am trying to be professional.

02102001: You are trying to be boring.

02102001: Wait a minute.

User 02102001 has changed their name to “WesSide”

WesSide: perfect.

LordLiuKang: Wesley Collins, will you introduce yourself?

WesSide: Yeah, of course!

WesSide: Yo, name’s Wesley Collins, but you can call me Wes. I’m the leader of the Silver Guardians, which Eric has described, and the Red Ranger of the Time Force Rangers, a group dedicated to stopping threats from the future. 

WesSide: Though, with all of them sealed up in the future, we really don’t have much to do now. 

WesSide: Me and Eric just do patrols in Silver Hills, and everyone else is chilling in the future.

WesSide: Need me to say more?

FlamePrincess: Nothing I can think of. Alright, Let’s move onto Frederick

FlamePrincess: @05141998

FlamePrincess: Frederick?

05141998: woopsie, hey! This is Jack-O, speaking for Frederick.

FlamePrincess: Wait, what?

Liu Kang: Where is Frederick Bulsara?

05141998: Oh, Frederick’s on the magi-computer. Illyria found a bug in their systems and called Frederick to look into it.

05141998: He tried to get them to find someone else, but Ky accidentally insulted Frederick’s pride as a Magi-scientist, so 

05141998: yeah.

Itchybum: Hey, know that I think about it, where is everyone else? We haven’t heard from Korra-san, or Tatsuya-san, nor from the other admins!

PsychoSoldier: Sorry, Ichiban! I was dealing with a cat in a tree.

FlamePrincess: Really, Silver?

PsychoSoldier: I was! And it was so cute!

Admin PsychoSoldier has uploaded a file: CuteCheetahPic.png (A Picture of Silver holding up a small cheetah to the camera, with an old lady and a Chao in the background)

FlamePrincess: …I see.

LordLiuKang: Geras is observing something in Earthrealm for me, so he will be busy for a while.

Itchybum: Aw, look at the cute Cheetah!

05141998: Ooh, what’s that cute blue thing in the background?

PsychoSoldier: The Chao? They’re cute creatures that people take care of as pets. They’re known to be quite intelligent, and they can adapt to their environments with ease.

FlamePrincess: Indeed. One of my friends, Cream, has a Chao of her own called Cheese. They are quite tenacious, even fighting enemies in Cream’s place.

Alpha&Omega: Seriously?

Alpha&Omega: She needs more power. 

PizzaTime: Without strength you cannot protect anything.

PizzaTime: Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this before.

FlamePrincess: Do not mistake Cream as weak, Vergil. She is quite strong herself, despite her pacifistic nature.

05141998: Yeah, I know a gal who’s got nothing but a Yoyo and a teddy bear, and she’s one of the most feared bounty hunters besides Jack-O and me.

LordLiuKang: Ah, Frederick, you have returned. 

Itchybum: Wait, how did Jack-O use your number? Aren’t your phone's magic circles attached to your head?

05141998: Ask her yourself. I ain’t explaining that shit.

05141998: Blaze! You wanna invite her?

FlamePrincess: Fine.

Admin FlamePrincess has invited 05262016 to the server

User 05141998 changed their name to “Grumpy”

Grumpy: If you don’t know, I’m Frederick Bulsara. 200 years old (stopped counting) and a retired Bounty Hunter. Don’t ask me for shit.

Grumpy: Hey, wait a minute

Grumpy: Jack-O!

User 05262016 changed their name to “Jack-O-Lantern”

Jack-O-Lantern: hehe!

Jack-O-Lantern: Frederick is also known as the fearsome Sol Badguy! He fought against the menace of the Gears, even though he created them, and saved the world a lot!

Grumpy: Hey, wait a minute! I only worked on the Magi-Physics! Aria worked on the Cell-physics, and Asuka melded our work together!

Grumpy: akjbfafbkjaf

Jack-O-Lantern: Oh, no, I’m really in it, now! ;)

08251994: Didn’t know Emoticons still existed 200 years or so in the future. 

Grumpy: they really shouldn’t have stayed.

RegisteredL-user: They exist in the Origin System too! :) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

08251994: Oh, if we’re doing this by meeting order, then I believe I’m next.

User 08251994 has changed their name to “Esaka”

Esaka: yo, name’s Kyo Kusanagi! Current leader of the Kusanagi Clan, Bearer of the Kusanagi Sword, and the one with the hottest flame! Currently, I’m studying to pass the GED, so you better not get in my way, or I’m gonna burn ya!

Esaka: Oh, and I love to ride my motorcycle everywhere in my free time. If the opportunity comes, I wouldn’t mind showing off my skills to everyone here.

PizzaTime: ah, hell yeah! I’d be down for a Motorcycle meetup!

Alpha&Omega: if you consider that weapon of yours to count as a Motorcycle

PizzaTme: It totally does!

PizzaTime: It also counts as a chainsaw, hair-clipper, Bush-trimmer, and weed-whacker

Alpha&Omega: Dante, you are going to kill someone with that thing. And I will be eating popcorn.

PizzaTime: Mean.

07301996: And if you two are finished…

User 07301996 has changed their name to “CKgura”

CKgura: Hello, everyone. My name is Chizuru Kagura, and I am the current head of the Yata Clan, Bearer of the Yata Mirror, and the Owner of Kagura Enterprises. In my free time, I like to participate in Motorcycle races; I’ve even won a few races myself.

CKgura: Shit, I misspelt my name!

Esaka: Ha, Chizuru said shit!

Esaka: Also, don’t change your name, it makes you look less stuck up. 

User CKGura has changed their name to “CKagura”

CKagura: Well, I just did.

Esaka: Dammit.

RegisteredL-user: Ooh, me next!

RegisteredL-user: My name’s Voxaria, though you’re all free to call me Vox! I’m a Tenno from the Origin system, and I like to collect and mod weaponry! Feel free to ask, I’m pretty sure I can turn your weapon into a nuke.

Grumpy: Yeah, no.

Grumpy: The Outrage is already capable of destroying a god with the right fuel source, I do NOT want to destroy the planet, thank you very much.

ItchyBum: Sheesh, do you have any hobbies outside of mass destruction?

RegisteredL-user: Uh…

RegisteredL-user: I like to read? I guess?

CKagura: Oh, really?

RegisteredL-user: Well, it’s more accurate to say that I like recalling an old storybook of mine from the Zariman.

RegisteredL-user: The Tales of Duviri… great book, and bad memories.

04201990: Ah, you did mention that place a few days ago. Looping through time does not sound fun in the slightest.

RegisteredL-user: yeah.

RegisteredL-user: Wait, Tiki? Where were you

04201990: Yes! 

04201990: I was helping my friend set up her phone, and only just looked through the previous messages.

04201990: I should probably change my name as soon as possible, but I believe that Ordis needs to do his introduction. 

Ordis: Indeed.

Ordis: thank you, miss Tiki.

RegisteredL-user: Huh? Ordis?!

RegisteredL-user: When did you change your name?

Ordis: Operator, Ordis changed his username the very millisecond the server opened.

RegisteredL-user: Wait, really?

RegisteredL-user: DAMMIT

RegisteredL-user: NOT FIRST.

Alpha&Omega: And so, your pride has becometh your downfall

RegisteredL-user: Shut up! I’m eating metaphorical ice cream here !

Ordis: But Operator, Ordis does not have ice cream on the Orbiter.

Ordis: Ordis does not even know what ice cream is. 

LordLiuKang: Ordis, your introduction?

Ordis: Apologies, Liu Kang.

Ordis: I am Ordis, Cephalon of Voxaria. I run the systems aboard her Orbiter, manage data and communications, and occasionally act as mission control.

Esaka: So, do you have any hobbies?

Ordis: Outside of keeping the Operator safe? 

Ordis: Not particularly.

PizzaTime: man, between you and Vox, you might be the most traumatized people I’ve ever seen.

Esaka: Do you guys have nothing outside of your roles?

Ordis: Well, I’m programmed not to.

Itchybum: “programmed”? What do you mean by “Programmed

RegisteredL-user: It’s a long story, and one Ordis doesn’t like to tell

RegisteredL-user: To sum it up; the Orokin are some messed up people, and we pray you guys never have to deal with them.

Itchybum: Shit…

RegisteredL-user: Don’t worry about it, Itchy. We’re all messed up in our own ways.

RegisteredL-user: Hey, Tiki, you wanna introduce yourself? I’m gonna find Tatsuya, get him to log on.

04201990: Very well.

User 04201990 has changed their name to “Tiki”

Tiki: Hello everyone, my name is Tiki.

Tiki: I am the daughter of Naga, and ally of the Great King Marth in the past, and the Exalt of Ylisse, Chrom. I have acted as the Oracle of Naga centuries ago in a land known as Valm, and I try to make friends, despite how short human lives are.

LordLiuKang: There is a phrase I once heard while entertaining a friend of mine.

LordLiuKang: “Half as long, twice as bright.”

LordLiuKang: It was in reference to a piece of fiction, where a subset of humans gained elemental powers. One character said it meant to live life to the fullest, despite his own short life.

Esaka: Huh, Oracle of Naga….

Tiki: Yes, Sir Kyo?

Esaka: No, it’s just

Esaka: There’s a technique in the Kusanagi Martial Arts, called the Orochinagi.

Esaka: Also known as the Great Serpent mower.

Esaka: your title, it sounds similar.

Tiki: I see…

User Tiki has changed their name to “OracleNaga”

OracleNaga: There, a more fitting name.

OracleNaga: Oh, and I need to invite my friend to the chat.

OracleNaga: Lady Blaze, I have sent her data to you!

FlamePrincess: I appreciate that.

Admin FlamePrincess has invited 04192012 to the server

User 04192012 has changed their name to “Robin”

Robin: Hey everyone! I am Robin, Queen of Ylisse, consort of Exalt Chrom, and High Mage of the Court of Ylisse.

Grumpy: A mage? What, do you wave a wand and cast spells

Robin: Well, I use a Levin sword, but my role is more than that; I also run the Royal Magic Experimental Laboratory, a subsection of the government dedicated to the development of new spells.

Grumpy: Finally, someone who speaks my language. Mostly.

Robin: Wait, are you a mage?

Grumpy: Magi-Physicist. I study the Physics of magic, and figure out applications for them, though I’m long retired from that role.

Grumpy: Now I just build rockets in my spare time.

Jack-O-Lantern: And help out the government when they get a bug in their systems

Grumpy: She doesn’t need to know that!

Robin: Well, damn. I guess I am in good company!

Robin: Not that everyone else here isn’t but…

Robin: Y’know, Mage-stuff.

Robin: Hmm?

Robin: Tiki? What sort of name is “OracleNaga?

OracleNaga: Oh, Sir Kyo inspired it.

Robin: Alright… scrolling back, scrolling.

Robin: check this out!

User Robin has changed their name to “RobinHood”

RobinHood: Boom! My name’s Robin, and I have a hood!

RobinHood: RobinHood!

PizzaTime: pff, it’s perfect!

Esaka: Perfection!

RobinHood: Uhh, what’s up?

WesSide: So, uh, there’s this old fairytale that I’m pretty sure quite a few of us knows…

EricMyers: Robin Hood. Archer and Thief who stole from the rich and gave back to the poor.

EricMyers: It was adapted many times, though my favourite version is the movie with Sean Connery

PizzaTime: Well, my favorite version is the one by Mel Brooks, with Cary Elwes!

EricMyers: Oh god, you’re just like Wes.

WesSide: Hey! That’s my favourite one too!

06241999: Yo.

PizzaTime: Oh, we should watch it together!

WesSide: Yeah!

RobinHood: Oh, that does sound intriguing. If I am not swamped in paperwork, then I might try to come.

RobinHood: ooh, but should I change my name? I like the concept, but the queen of a kingdom probably shouldn’t be associated with a thief…

06241999: Um… Hey?

RobinHood: Tiki, what do you think?

OracleNaga: While I would agree that a queen shouldn’t be associated with the name of a thief, this is a private place, so we aren’t at any risk of anyone misunderstanding your name.

OracleNaga: also, I believe someone is trying to speak

06241999: How is everyone doing?

PizzaTime: Tatsuya? 

PizzaTime: You alive?

06241999: Yeah, sorry about not talking

06241999: I was training.

EricMyers: Training?

WesSide: At this time of year! At this time of day! In this part of the country! Localized entirely within-

WesSide: Where is he?

RegisteredL-user: He’s staying in my Dojo, until we can find a more permanent home

RegisteredL-user: No, but if y’all are curious

RegisteredL-user: Yes, he was in-fact training

RegisteredL-user: I bounce and flip around my dojo like a kavat on drugs, looking for this asshole, and do you know what I find?

RegisteredL-user: Him on the floor, sweating, doing sit ups

EricMyers: Good for him

WesSide: Of course you’d say that

Alpha&Omega: Training is important to maintaining one’s strength. The very fact that Suou-san survived the hellscape he was in for so long is a testament to its efficacy

06241999: I mean, I also couldn’t die…

Alpha&Omega: Well, yes, but irrelevant.

06241999: Ah, I guess so.

User 06241999 has changed their name to “Tatsuya”

Tatsuya: Hello, I am Tatsuya. Tatsuya Suou.

Tatsuya: I’m… well, I was a survivor and the last living person in Sumaru City, up until you all picked me up from there. Now I’m just… trying to find my place here.

Esaka: Aren’t we all?

PizzaTime: Hey, Tatsuya, didn’t you mention watching Highlander alot?

Tatsuya: yeah? 

Tatsuya: It was one of the only movies I had in Sumaru City available.

PizzaTime: Well… given your situation…

OracleNaga: Sir Dante!

PizzaTime: What?!

OracleNaga: he was stuck in that place for a long time! 

User Tatsuya has changed their name to “Highlander”

OracleNaga: You can’t just bring it up so casually!

OracleNaga: akjsdadshjkb

Highlander: What?

Highlander: it fits.

OracleNaga: Still!

OracleNaga: you cannot just take your situation so… unseriously!

OracleNaga: You were alone for a long time!

OracleNaga: Well, less than my time asleep, but still!

RegisteredL-user: Well, I guess some of us deal with our traumas differently.

RegisteredL-user: Some cry and eat ice cream, some beat the shit out of people.

PizzaTime: Some of us do both!

Alpha&Omega: i do not want to know how that’s possible

PizzaTime: If you stretch the definition of “Eating ice cream” to “Drinking Whiskey”, then you’ll see how.

FlamePrincess: You all need therapy.

PsychoSoldier: Speaking of people who need it, where’s Ichiban? 

PsychoSoldier: Figured he’d have something to say to Kyo, or even Tatsuya.

RegisteredL-user: And where’s Korra, now that I think about it?

03242012: Hey, I’m so sorry for not talking!

03242012: I was really busy today…

03242012: To be honest, I’m totally exhausted from all of the bullshit that happened.

OracleNaga: Oh, what happened?

03242012: Well, I shouldn't say it.

03242012: I’ll get really riled up if I do.

LordLiuKang: None of us will judge you for letting out your emotions

FlamePrincess: Trust me, I’ve dealt with headaches before.

LordLiuKang: All that I recommend is taking a deep breath, before you speak.

LordLiuKang: Er… type.

03242012: Oh, I just realised I should change my nickname…

User 03242012 has changed their name to “Korra”

Korra: Hey, I’m Korra, Member of the Southern Water Tribe and the current incarnation of the Avatar, who has the ability to bend all four elements and uses that power to keep peace and balance between the nations.

Korra: Incidentally, my role was also to act as a bridge between the human world and the Spirit World, and keep the peace between them.

Korra: A few years back, the portals between the two worlds located on the poles opened up again, and after dealing with a guy that wanted to abuse them, I left them open and relinquished that responsibility, believing that humans and spirits should live in harmony instead of being separated.

Korra: But if you’re wondering, they’re not the exact reason I’m pissed off.

Esaka: oh?

Korra: See, a few days back, One of the greatest Earth Kingdom generals, Kuvira, took over the Earth Kingdom and named it the Earth Empire, before attempting to take over Republic City, since it was on Earth Kingdom land.

Korra: Used a giant Mecha-suit with an arm cannon powered by Spirit Vines, a type of plant native to the Spirit World, to do so; Even tried to fire it on me when I defeated her, though it nearly hit her.

Korra: I used the power of energy-bending, one of the purest forms of bending I have access to, to stop it from hitting her, but I couldn’t simply absorb or dissipate the attack, which caused it to devastate the surrounding area and create a new spirit portal, right in the middle of the city.

Grumpy: Hm, so Conservation of Energy still exists, even when people are able to bend the elements.

Grumpy: But unlike Magic, you need the element nearby to use it, right?

Grumpy: Firebending requires fire nearby to work, and the same with Water, Wind, and Earth?

Korra: Funny enough, Frederick, Fire benders can actually generate fire with their Chi, unlike the other elements

Korra: Though they can also manipulate already existing sources, like a torch for example

Grumpy: So it all comes down to Chi, huh?

RobinHood: What is Chi?

RobinHood: Not to mention, what do you mean by “Conservation of Energy”, Sir Frederick?

RobinHood: Oh, your name is the exact same as our Knight Captain.

Grumpy: Yeah, I don’t care.

Grumpy: As for your second question, the Law of Conservation of Energy says that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only transformed. Same thing with mass.

RobinHood: I see.

RobinHood: So, how would a wooden torch create a flame, under those rules?

Grumpy: It’s not that difficult to figure out, It’s basic chemistry

RobinHood: I have the odd feeling that you’ll be a real pain to get any answers out of.

Jack-O-Lantern: yeah, Frederick hates explaining things.

Korra: Hey, not to interrupt, but can I finish my rant?

RobinHood: Oh, my apologies. 

RobinHood: Please, continue. 

Grumpy: Sure.

Korra: Anyways, Asami and I used that portal to go to the Spirit World, where we met you guys, before going off on a vacation together.

Korra: Bullshit occurs, we decide to return to Republic City, and that’s when the headaches truly start.

EricMyers: And what could possibly cause even more headaches than a place that’s more confused about the layout than Wes on Donut Fridays?

WesSide: Hey!

WesSide: I have to choose between so many good ones, man!

WesSide: You ever heard of Choice Paralysis?

Korra: ANYWAYS

Korra: It turns out that the Spirit Portal is on the land of a guy named Wonyong Keum, a business owner in the city.

Korra: He wanted to build an amusement park on the land, all to make even more money

Korra: A friend of mine, Jinora, got into an argument with him over his plans, due to seeing it as desecrating sacred lands, which another spirit agreed with.

EricMyers: I’m sorry, but I don’t see where the headache starts?

Korra: What do you mean? That guy was disturbing the spirits!

EricMyers: Oh, no, I agree with you there.

EricMyers: he had no business trying to profit off the lives of others.

EricMyers: I’m wondering why you didn’t just… demolish him.

EricMyers: You are the avatar, correct?

EricMyers: Why not just… exert your authority over him?

Korra: I did, and I got him to leave, but…

Korra: It’s just that more an more people are unhappy with my decisions it seems.

Korra: Some of the spirits were fine with the northern and southern portals, but the one in Republic City crossed the line, even though that one was an accident.

CKagura: So why not close the portal yourself?

CKagura: Is it outside of your abilities?

Korra: Not really, but I’m trying to have humans and spirits work together, in harmony

Korra: To close it feels like I’m going back on that promise.

LordLiuKang: I would argue that you are keeping that promise just as much by closing the portal.

LordLiuKang: If the portal brings up rage in the Spirits against the humans, then you are contributing against peace by keeping it open.

CKagura: Yes, and I agree with you fully on keeping the spirits appeased.

CKagura: With that in mind, consider this:

CKagura: What if closing the portal causes more discontent, due to the human’s feeling like they aren’t being listened to?

CKagura: You would still cause discord, but in the opposite direction.

LordLiuKang: Indeed. One must keep both sides happy; Human and Spirit

Korra: Sounds easier than it actually is.

LordLiuKang: It never is easy

LordLiuKang: I may have recreated my universe, did everything to keep everyone on the path to peace, and yet conflict and tragedy arose all the same. 

LordLiuKang: Balance is never easy to maintain, and in turn it is very easy to lose.

GearsofTime: But do not think that you must force balance upon the people.

GearsofTime: That is what led to the downfall of Liu Kang’s predecessor, Kronika.

LordLiuKang: Geras, you have returned.

LordLiuKang: Is everything alright in Earthrealm?

GearsofTime: Indeed, Lord Liu Kang. I can go into more detail in a Direct Message.

Esaka: Back to you, Korra-san. 

Esaka: Is everything Ok, now?

Korra: Yeah, it’s good.

Korra: I’m back at Asami’s place, while she smooths over stuff within Future Industries.

Korra: Our place.

Korra: Damn, that’s weird to say.

Esaka: Yeah, it’s weird the first few times staying the night with your girl, but you get used to it.

Esaka: happened with me and Yuki, the first few times.

Korra: Do you really think we’d go that far?

Esaka: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Grumpy: More emoticons…

Itchybum: yo, guys, what did I miss?

RegisteredL-user: Itchy! You’re back!

PizzaTime: Where the hell have you been?

Itchybum: Well, it’s a bit half-and-half. Got good news at least!

OracleNaga: Good News?

Itchybum: I got someone to add to the chatroom!

EricMyers: So what’s the bad news?

Itchybum: Er…

FlamePrincess: @Itchybum

FlamePrincess: What’s 

FlamePrincess: The

FlamePrincess: Bad

FlamePrincess: News?

Itchybum: MMM

Itchybum: I…

Itchybum: Might have gotten shot?

FlamePrincess: WHAT?!

<<

Chapter Text

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

Esaka: Holy shit!

PizzaTime: Holy Shot!

OracleNaga: Is now really the time to make a joke?

RobinHood: Ichiban, don’t pull out the arrow! It’ll bleed more if you do!

Itchybum: Arrow?

Itchybum: I got shot with a bullet!

RobinHood: What?

PizzaTime: You know, it’s times like these that I realise you really are behind when it comes to tech.

EricMyers: To put it bluntly, Queen Robin, a Bullet is much smaller and faster than an arrow.

EricMyers: It can be more damaging, yes, but the wound will bleed less, usually. 

Korra: Shit, give me a moment, Ichiban, I can come over and look it over.

Korra: My waterbending teacher was a master healer and taught me how to do the same.

Korra: Give me a pure enough source of water, and I should be able to heal your wounds.

Itchybum: Wait, seriously?

Korra: yeah, seriously

Korra: SHIT!

Korra: Big problem at the Republic City Portal; some asshats are attacking it, and the Air-benders staying there.

Korra: Sorry Ichiban, but I gotta do that first.

Itchybum: No problem, Korra-san!

Itchybum: Go do that first, you can look me over later!

RobinHood: Still, is it a good idea to leave your injuries like that?

RobinHood: I know a healer, back in Ylisse. She’s my Sister-in-Law, and she lives in a village a bit away from Ylisstol. 

RobinHood: it should be easy to find her… assuming she hasn’t gone off on another “adventure”...

LordLiuKang: I can also help. 

LordLiukang: Are you kidding me

FlamePrincess: What’s wrong, Liu Kang?

LordLiuKang: An incursion from a similar universe.

LordLiuKang: We assumed it was all over, but it seems they’ve come back.

LordLiuKang: With a vengeance.

LordLiuKang: Apologies, Ichiban Kasuga, but Geras and I will need to attend to this as well.

Itchybum: Again, don’t worry!

Itchybum: I got stitched up by my new friend!

Itchybum: Speaking of which, I got to add him

FlamePrincess: Really? You’re going to just…

FlamePrincess: Add someone you just met?

PsychoSoldier: Yeah, I know I support you, man, but is that really a good idea?

Itchybum: Of course it is! 

Itchybum: I’ll admit that I’ve only known him for a bit, but my gut’s telling me to trust him!

PsychoSoldier: Well, if you say so!

Admin PsychoSoldier has invited 01061978 to the chat

FlamePrincess: SILVER!

PsychoSoldier: What?

01061978: Uhh…

01061978: What’s this?

Itchybum: So, remember what I said about meeting people from other universes?

01061978: Uh, yeah?

01061978: You sure you’re feeling fine?

01061978: I know only gave you a small amount of Ketamine to knock you out, but I know for a fact that it can cause hallucinations

CKagura: Ketamine?!

CKagura: You gave him Ketamine?!

RobinHood: What’s a Ketamine?

Grumpy: It’s a type of drug.

Jack-O-Lantern: It can be used as an anesthetic agent to induce unconsciousness, specifically for Surgical use. 

Esaka: What are you, some kind of Quack?

Jack-O-Lantern: Hey, don’t say that like a slur! I know an underground doctor, and he's amazing!

01061978: Hey, I was a nurse!

01061978: I needed something to sedate this idiot while I removed the bullet, so I had this police guy following him hold him in an arm lock while I sedated him, before taking the bullet out and stitching him back up.

PizzaTime: Wait, Police Guy?

PizzaTime: Was his name something like Koichi Adachi?

01061978: Yeah, that’s his name.

01061978: How’d you know him?

FlamePrincess: That doesn’t concern you.

01061978: It kinda does, given that he said that this idiot was staying with him for the moment.

Itchybum: Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention.

Itchybum: He’s the guy I’m staying with at the moment.

01061978: Wait, you really gave my number to these people over… the guy you’re staying with?

01061978: No, wait.

01061978: I can’t believe this!

01061978: This can’t be some sorta multiversal chat!

01061978: You’re clearly scamming this idiot out of his cash!

RegisteredL-user: What? 

RegisteredL-user: No we’re not!

01061978: I know a scam when I see it. 

01061978: Besides, there’s no such thing as another universe!

RegisteredL-user: Alright, bet.

User RegisteredL-user has uploaded a file: Orbiter.png (an image of Vox taking a selfie, with Ordis and her Orbiter in the background)

01061978: Photoshop.

Esaka: Ok, wise-ass, try this!

User Esaka has uploaded a file: Yami-Burai.png (an image of Kyo and Iori launching Yami-Burai projectiles at each other)

01061978: More Photoshop.

01061978: The flames don’t even look real.

Esaka: Seriously?

PsychoSoldier: What about this?!

File failed to upload due to unsupported file type.

PsychoSoldier: DAMMIT!

01061978: So you block video files, huh?

01061978: Clearly, you’re doing it to make it hard for Ichiban to cheat his way out of paying you.

01061978: I’ve seen that before.

WesSide: Now that I think about it, wouldn't it be EASIER for Ichi to trick us, if he couldn’t send videos?

EricMyers: Yes, because as you said, you mysterious quack, Ichiban could easily photoshop a payment.

Itchybum: I wouldn’t!

EricMyers: You probably should. I do it when it comes to my taxes.

WesSide: Eric, that’s Tax Evasion.

EricMyers: Says the rich kid!

WesSide: Just because my dad does it, doesn’t mean I do.

Alpha&Omega: weak.

PizzaTime: Vergil, you don’t pay taxes.

PizzaTime: At all.

Alpha&Omega: Do you?

PizzaTime: Touche.

FlamePrincess: ENOUGH!

FlamePrincess: Ichiban

FlamePrincess: Tell me

FlamePrincess: WHAT

FlamePrincess: THE HELL

FlamePrincess: HAPPENED

Itchybum: Alright, I’ll tell you!

Itchybum: After I started rooming with Adachi, I decided to get a job to pay the bills, when I happened across an alleyway, which was where Nanba was squatting.

Itchybum: Oh, his name’s Nanba, if anyone’s curious!

01061978: Why the hell are you telling these scammers about me?

Itchybum: They’re not scammers, man!

Itchybum: They helped me out!

01061978: Bullshit.

FlamePrincess: Ichiban!

Itchybum: Shit, right!

Itchybum: Anyways, I heard some noises and went in to investigate, only for Nanba to hold me back and tell me I shouldn’t go in there.

Grumpy: Lemme guess, you ran inside?

Itchybum: Of course I did!

EricMyers: Of course you did.

Itchybum: I thought people were in trouble!

FlamePrincess: Ichiban.

Itchybum: So I ran inside to help, and I saw Arakawa-san of all people threatening a guy!

PizzaTime: Wait, him?!

Itchybum: Yeah, I didn’t believe it, either!

Itchybum: He was shocked too!

Itchybum: Shocked so much that he accidentally fired his gun at a wall!

Itchybum: The bullet bounced around the area.

Itchybum: And then it landed in my stomach!

EricMyers: Bullshit.

Itchybum: Bullshit?!

Itchybum: Why would you call that bullshit?!

Alpha&Omega: Because it is unlikely, even with your… particular brand of insanity.

Alpha&Omega: It is far more likely that you, in an attempt to reconnect with your patriarch despite his warnings, tried to accidentally run into him while looking for a job.

Alpha&Omega: He shot you in response, and then this…

Alpha&Omega: Nanba.

Alpha&Omega: Person fixed you up.

01061978: Yeah, actually, that did happen.

01061978: Hell, I even got the video to prove it

User 01061978 has uploaded a file: Gunshot.Mp4 (a video showing Ichiban running into an alley, with Arakawa pointing a gun at a man. Ichiban calls out to Arakawa, which causes the man to turn his head and accidentally fire his gun, missing his shot and causing it to bounce around the area like a pinball, until it lands in Ichiban’s stomach).

01061978: Wait, I thought videos couldn’t be shared?

Esaka: So did I.

PsychoSoldier: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

FlamePrincess: Good to know that even you can get headaches.

Itchybum: Well, it doesn’t matter. I got fixed up, so it doesn’t matter.

Itchybum: Kinda wish I could have actually talked to him, but still.

Itchybum: I’m alright, and I got someone keeping me alive. 

Itchybum: Don’t know why we’re at the local homeless camp though.

01061978: Yeah, the only reason I’m keeping you here is to make sure you don’t die on me.

01061978: I mean, I don’t care about you, but I’d get a bad taste in my mouth if you died after I fixed you up.

OracleNaga: Excuse me, Sir Ichiban, but what do you mean by “Homeless camp”?

FlamePrincess: Why are you staying with a homeless guy?!

FlamePrincess: Hell, why are you accepting treatment from a Quack?!

FlamePrincess: We can have Vox bring you to any of our other universes!

FlamePrincess: SHE CAN HEAL YOU INSTANTLY HERSELF!

Itchybum: Well, yeah, but.

Itchybum: Adachi-san said I need to pay the bills if I want to stay with him, so I gotta get a job soon.

FlamePrincess: I can pay you!

FlamePrincess: Wait, we don’t use currency in the Sol Empire.

FlamePrincess: I have some old jewelry you can sell.

FlamePrincess: Solid Gold, too!

01061978:  Oh, I get it now.

01061978: You’re acting like some sorta Nigerian Prince, aren’t you?

01061978: Lemme guess, you’re gonna ask him to pay a little cash for transport, and then you’ll pay him?

FlamePrincess: What?

FlamePrincess: Why would I want him to do that?

01061978: You’re sick, y’know that?

01061978: Here he is, with barely a yen to his name, and you want to profit off of him while he’s injured.

01061978: Just like those damn assholes from Centra-life.

01061978: Shit.

01061978: Shouldn’t have talked that much.

User 01061978 has left the chat.

Itchybum: Wait, Nanba!

Itchybum: Come back!

FlamePrincess: Why did he seem so…

FlamePrincess: offended?

Itchybum: Well, Centra-Life is an insurance company here in Japan known for their price-gouging… Oya-san had a few choice words about them back in the day

Itchybum: And by choice words I mean Swearing as bad as Sawashiro… on a bad day.

EricMyer: Even with that in mind, we don’t entirely know what his deal is.

EricMyers: But if it’s true that he’s homeless, then you offering help could be seen as insulting.

FlamePrincess: What do you mean by insulting?

EricMyers: Well, you’re rich. You probably have a lot of wealth, and survival would be rather easy for you

EricMyers: Inversely, someone who lives in poverty, or those who are outright homeless, have to fight to survive. Every little thing they gain is a source of pride; that’s how it was in our household.

EricMyers: Circumstances led to my father and mother being poor, and the debt they accrued trying to survive made them even poorer. 

EricMyers: Everytime we managed to break closer and closer to freedom was a celebration, from a promotion on my father’s side, to a new job on my mother’s, or even my enrollment into Silver Eye Preparatory School.

EricMyers: If someone were to pay our debts, it would be objectively helpful for all of us.

EricMyers: But my parents were proud, and so was I, for surviving as we did. To be helped like that would injure what little pride we had.

WesSide: Wait!

WesSide: Back at Silver Eyes, I’d try to buy lunch for you when you didn’t have any, and you’d always say no.

WesSide: Was all of that why?

EricMyers: Yep.

EricMyers: Thought it was worth going hungry to keep my pride.

EricMyers: Thinking back on those days now, I really want to punch my past self for being so prideful.

Grumpy: Y’know, I know a guy who’s got time-manipulation and that shit.

Grumpy: He’s met a future version of himself; been in that position himself.

Grumpy: He’d probably tell you to be nice to your past self, or something like that.

WesSide: hey, I didn’t think you’d be so insightful, Frederick

Grumpy: And now I want to punch you.

WesSide: Oh, don’t hurt me, please! ;)

EricMyers: Feel free.

WesSide: Eric!

FlamePrincess: Frederick, don’t punch Wes.

FlamePrincess: Eric, don’t encourage him.

FlamePrincess: Ichiban, where are you? Are you ok?

Itchybum: I’m doing fine! Nanba’s glaring at me, but he’s mostly keeping an eye on me for my injuries

Itchybum: Oh, he’s telling me to stop texting. It’s dark out here in Ijincho.

Itchybum: Night, everyone!

FlamePrincess: Good night, Ichiban

EricMyers: Good Night, Ichiban

Esaka: Nighty-night, Ichiban. Don’t let the obvious bedbugs bite!

CKagura: Good Night Ichiban.

PizzaTime: Night!

FlamePrincess: with that in mind, I’m probably going to do the same. 

FlamePrincess: I…

FlamePrincess: I have a lot to think about.

Alpha&Omega: Clearly

User 04282012 has changed their name to “Asami”

Asami: Sorry for taking so long, I’ve had a lot to deal with in Republic City.

Asami: What’s going on?

Asami: ...

Asami: No seriously, what the hell is going on?

Highlander: Don’t ask about it.

<<

Chapter Text

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

Alpha&Omega: Children are exhausting.

WesSide: Well, that came out of nowhere.

Alpha&Omega: Apologies. 

Alpha&Omega: Nero, my son. He runs an orphanage, and said that I needed to help if I wanted to stay with him.

PizzaTime: Surprised you didn’t beat any of them.

Alpha&Omega: I am not going to dishonor my promise to Nero. 

Alpha&Omega: He wanted me to watch them, and NOT to attack them, not even to train them.

Alpha&Omega: I will teach them how to fight, though it will be with Kyrie’s permission.

PizzaTime: Kyrie?!

Alpha&Omega: Yes.

Alpha&Omega: She reminds me so much of… her.

Esaka: her?

Alpha&Omega: Do not ask further.

Korra: Well, ain’t that mysterious.

CKagura: Korra-san, it’s good to see you.

CKagura: Is everything alright?

Korra: Yeah, more or less.

Korra: The guys attacking the Spirit Portal were part of the Triple Threat Triad, an old enemy of mine.

Korra: Their leader’s this guy named Tokuga. Not a bender, but he knows how to chi-block people.

Korra: They were pushing the Air-benders back, up until a friend of mine used Earthbending to blockade him.

Korra: Of course, the spirits got agitated and decided to attack us, saying I failed to protect the portal. Even disfigured Tokuga when he flew through him.

Esaka: Shit.

Esaka: That’s rough, bud.

Korra: Yeah.

Korra: On the bright side, I kissed Asami!

Asami: And all of our friends were supportive of us.

Korra: And all of our friends were supportive of us.

RegisteredL-user: Is it just me, or do I smell Maple Syrup?

Korra: What are you talking about?

RegisteredL-user: Sappy.

RegisteredL-user: kidding, of course.

RegisteredL-user: Love you both, and we love love.

WesSide: Amen.

Grumpy: What are you, Canadian?

RegisteredL-user: Uh, what do you have against them?

Grumpy: War Crimes.

Grumpy: Far too war crimes.

CKagura: Like, in general?

Grumpy: Yes, but also the Crusades.

Grumpy: Gear’s feared their asses. Ran away every time they heard a Canadian was on the field.

Jack-O-Lantern: The Holy Order, the group that fought the Gears, tried to fake it once, but their lie was caught fairly quickly.

Jack-O-Lantern: The nightmares…

EricMyers: Miss Jack-O, were you a part of the conflict?

Jack-O-Lantern: Technically, yes.

Jack-O-Lantern: Got Aria’s memories due to fusing with her, so that also means I got her memories as Justice.

RegisteredL-user: Wait, but I thought Freddie was engaged to Aria?

Grumpy: I was.

Grumpy: Then she died.

Grumpy: don’t look into it.

Jack-O-Lantern: It’s… complicated.

Grumpy: Thinking about Aria makes her depressed, and I hate seeing her sad.

Korra: I think I get it.

Grumpy: Do you?

Korra: It’s people having expectations of you, isn’t it?

Korra: People seeing you as someone else, right?

Jack-O-Lantern: How would you know that?

Korra: You know that I’m the avatar, right?

Korra: That I’m a reincarnation of all others before me?

Grumpy: Yeah, that’s what Blaze told us.

Korra: The Avatar doesn’t keep the world at peace alone. It’s expected that they have a team to help them do so.

Korra: I’ve got a team in Asami, Mako, and Bolin.

Korra: and my predecessor, Aang, had a team too.

Jack-O-Lantern: Wait, are they still alive?

Korra: Yep.

Korra: Zuko abdicated from the role of Fire Lord a few years ago, but he was the one who taught Aang how to Firebend. Tried to kidnap him for a bit, but that’s mostly because of a complicated relationship with his family.

Korra: Toph, One of his rivals and  his earth-bending teacher, is living it up in a swamp. Helped me remove mercury from my body when it stopped me from poisoning me.

Korra: And my water-bending teacher…

Grumpy: Taught him as well?

Korra: Well, she was actually his wife.

Korra: But yes. She was his teacher, in a sense.

Korra: They knew him extremely well, and when he died and I was born, they took an interest in me. It’s terrifying, really terrifying trying to keep up with their expectations.

Korra: Ran away for a bit, when I nearly died at the hands of some people who wanted to end the Avatar Cycle entirely.

Grumpy: Well, if you think I have any expectations about Jack-O, then you’re wrong.

Grumpy: She’s her own person. Simple as that.

Jack-O-Lantern: Still, thanks for the support! I guess it would be hard to live up to those sorts of expectations

Korra: Mostly from Katara, even though she’s the nicest!

Korra: Toph, on the other hand…

Korra: Think Frederick, but less angry and more snarky..

Grumpy: I’m not angry!

Korra: Ok, Grandpa.

Jack-O-Lantern: Holy shit, you gave him a heart attack!

Jack-O-lantern: Like, that’s literally impossible.

Jack-O-Lantern: Gear Cells would have prevented that.

Jack-O-Lantern: But you did!

Esaka: Shouldn’t you, y’know, check in on him?

Jack-O-Lantern: Eh, he’ll be fine.

Itchybum: Sheesh, what the hell happened here?

LordLiuKang: Ah, good morning, Ichiban Kasuga.

Itchybum: Actually, it's nearly evening here, but thanks!

EricMyers: It seems time is different for all of us. Even those who live on essentially the same planet.

Korra: Ichiban! How’s your wound?

Itchybum: Good! It’s healing well, which is slightly worrying Nanba for some reason, but it doesn’t really matter.

Itchybum: Didn’t get opened during the fight I had earlier, so I’m not worried.

Asami: Fight?

Itchybum: Yeah, fought some creeps from a Chinese Mafia that worked in Yokohama. Tried to extort the homeless out of their cash for “protection”.

Asami: Ichiban, should I be worried?

Itchybum: Nah, don’t be!

Itchybum: Nanba and I beat the shit outta them soundly. Got them to piss off when I pointed out that they’d be the laughing stock of their crew if they said that they were beat up by a pair of homeless guys.

EricMyers: Ichiban, what are the odds that they could lie?

Itchybum: Impossible! They’ll be too nervous when they lie, and I know from experience that their bosses are the sorta guys who can sniff out a lie easily.

Itchybum: And even if they did lie to them and got them to send reinforcements, they’ll get their asses beat up when their higher-ups find out who kicked theirs in the first place.

RegisteredL-user: You seem confident in your knowledge.

Itchybum: I have to be, since I was in the Yakuza for almost a decade!

Itchybum: Arakawa-san taught me a lot about the underworld, even if I ignored what I learned from just seeing shit happen.

Esaka: Say, Ichiban. How’s progress on finding a job?

Itchybum: Not bad! Didn’t get a permanent one yet, but I got a job at a bar!

PizzaTime: Oh? 

PizzaTime: What are you, a bartender?

Itchybum: Nah, Nanba an I are just hired muscles.

Itchybum: *and

Esaka: Hired muscles?

Itchybum: To give a bit more detail, the bar’s been dealing with an electricity thief. Wires are being added to the bar’s electrical lines, allowing them to steal power from the bar.

Korra: That sounds dangerous…

Korra: like, cause an electrical fire to the surrounding buildings, dangerous.

Itchybum: Yeah, that’s one issue, but the Mama of the bar is planning on cutting access to it

Itchybum: The real reason we were hired was because the people stealing power are part of a gang called the Geomijul.

Itchybum: They’re a Korean gang that controls a part of Ijincho; Their name is based on the area they control, or so Nanba says.

Itchybum: Actually, I think they own a third of the town.

PizzaTime: Not bad for a first gig, but why is a gang that controls a third of a town harassing businesses by stealing electricity?

Asami: Well, I’ve seen this before in the poorer parts of Republic City

Asami: If a gang has an illegal operation that requires a lot of electricity, like drug manufacturing, the police can catch them by finding buildings that use far more electricity than needed.

Asami: If they steal electricity from other buildings nearby, they share the load, and make their work less suspicious. Especially so if they do it over a really wide area.

Itchybum: Some suspicious guy walked in just now.

Itchybum: Gotta go dark!

Asami: Good luck, Ichiban!

Alpha&Omega: He will not read it.

Asami: I can at least wish the guy, right?

Alpha&Omega: Still, he will not look at his phone.

FlamePrincess: Vergil, please don’t pick a fight with Korra’s Girlfriend. She will mess you up.

Alpha&Omega: Korra?

Alpha&Omega: Good. I’ve been waiting for this.

FlamePrincess: No, Asami. She’ll mess you up.

FlamePrincess: And then Korra will kick you below the belt for good measure.

CKagura: Princess Blaze, it’s good to see you. Is everything alright?

FlamePrincess: Other than the headache and the piles of paperwork and the headaches induced by the piles of paperwork…

FlamePrincess: Yes, yes it is.

Esaka: Should you normally have headaches?

FlamePrincess: No, but this is the normal amount of stress for me.

PizzaTime: I dunno, boss.

FlamePrincess: You do not run an empire.

FlamePrincess: You do not have to deal with bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy.

PizzaTime: Well, I guess if Trish and Lady count as Bureaucracy…

Alpha&Omega: Speaking of which, how is your establishment? 

PizzaTime: My own brother? Asking about me?

PizzaTime: Alright, I have to know what shit you pulled this time

Alpha&Omega: Oh, I’m not asking out of concern, at least for you

Alpha&Omega: I’m wondering if your shop is… 

Alpha&Omega: Covered in garbage, perhaps?

Alpha&Omega: Or, now that I recall, your shop had been out of power when I visited last.

PizzaTime: Yeah, as V. You told me this, already.

PizzaTime: Still can’t believe you can just… summon him.

WesSide: Hold up.

WesSide: I don’t know why.

WesSide: But I can already picture what he looks like.

PizzaTime: Wes, my man!

PizzaTime: Speak, man, speak!

WesSide: Two words

WesSide: Hot Topic

PizzaTime: askhjdbakjsdbajd

Esaka: ashkjdfbsdhjkfbh

PizzaTime: HA!

PizzaTime: That’s exactly what he looks like!

Alpha&Omega: Well, I actually stole the outfit from a punk who was attempting to harass me.

Alpha&Omega: I still don’t know where he got those sandals from…

Alpha&Omega: Even now, I can feel the pain from walking in them, even though I’ve regained my power.

PsychoSoldier: Man

PsychoSodier: You are…

PsychoSoldier: not that great of a person.

PizzaTime: Not that great?!

PizzaTime: Buddy, that’s the under-estimation of all time!

Alpha&Omega: I raised a tower from hell to become more powerful.

PizzaTime: TWICE!

Alpha&Omega: Are you blind, Dante?

Alpha&Omega: The Qliphoth is a tree.

PizzaTime: It’s tall.

Alpha&Omega: It grows from the ground!

PizzaTime: So did the Temen-ni-gru!

Alpha&Omega: It was sealed!

Itchybum: Yo, I’m back!

Itchybum: got the suspicious guy out, and got the Geomijul to back off from the bar!

Itchybum: what’s going on?

PizzaTime: Nothing!

Alpha&Omega: You will not escape this Devil’s conversation, Dante.

Alpha&Omega: Correction: You will escape this Devil’s conversation, Dante.

Alpha&Omega: Kyrie is making a casserole.

Esaka: Nice.

Esaka: And moving the conversation back to Ichiban.

Esaka: Sweet!

PizzaTime: Any injuries?

RobinHood: What the hell am I walking in on?

PizzaTime: Ichiban got into a fight with some gang or something.

PizzaTime: You can scroll up and read the details.

RobinHood: Thanks, but is Ichiban alright?

RobinHood: @Itchybum

Itchybum: Ah, don’t worry, Robin-san!

FlamePrincess: I should probably worry.

Itchybum: Only got a slight scratch on my cheek.

Itchybum: Nanba here, got Adachi to restrain Kasuga for me.

Korra: Wait, why did you steal his phone?

Itchybum: Idiot forgot to mention this, but he stood right in the open, taunting the Geomijul while they had crossbows aimed at him.

Itchybum: Crossbows!

Itchybum: Sorry, guys! Nanba stole my phone for some reason. 

Itchybum: God, I swear he’s paying off Adachi for some reason.

OracleNaga: You probably should not be so calm about this… Nanba stealing your phone.

OracleNaga: Also, ICHIBAN!

Itchybum: What?!

OracleNaga: You got injured!

Itchybum: Helping people!

OracleNaga: Screw it.

OracleNaga: Korra, are you free?

Korra: Yeah, surprisingly.

OracleNaga: Vox?

RegisteredL-user: Firing up the Orbiter, ma’am!

Ordis: Wait, is the Operator really going to use the new drive? Ordis has not completed testing on the device!

RegisteredL-user: We’ll figure out on the way

Ordis: IF WE BECOME THE NEXT LIMBO, I’M BLAMING YOU

Ordis: Oh my, it seems Ordis cannot delete his message.

RegisteredL-user: Itchybum, we’re on our way

RegisteredL-user: *

<<

Just Out of Orbit, Earth-Y-54285

Taking the Orbiter to Ichiban’s dimension took a bit of time, given that Vox had to travel to both Tiki’s and Korra’s dimensions, but once Vox picked them up it took very little time to bring them to him. Still, very little time is not equal to zero, and so the girls took the opportunity to chat, mostly just girl things like appearances and the insane amount of plushies on the ship.

“They’re not plushies.” Vox clarified to her passengers. “They’re called floofs, and if she were here, she’d probably shoot at you for the insult.”

“You mean, your alternate self, right? The one from the Origin System, who wasn’t left alone.” Tiki asked, and Vox nodded in response. “I see.”

“These things are cute, though.” Korra noted as she inspected one, though she simply looked at them instead of touching them. “Kinda wanna see if I can buy one for Asami.”

Vox’s eyes widened with glee as she ran to the console on the right-side of the landing-craft “Oh, I can do that… What?” She then began to talk to herself for a moment, before shaking her head. “Despite the fact that I am technically older in terms of experience, Little Vox will not let me spend an ounce of our Plat on floofs… for other people.”

Korra leaned forward and sighed loudly. “Dammit…” After that, a silence came over the trio for a moment, before Vox snapped her fingers and pointed at Tiki.

“Hey, now that I think about it, you teleported back to your realm, right Tiki? How did you do that… and why couldn’t you have used it to teleport Korra there?” 

The manakete leaned back a bit in shock, before nodding her head. “Oh, it’s a power from my mother. She got in contact with a multi-dimensional traveller of her own, and gave it to me after we dealt with Grima. As for why I can’t just teleport Korra…” Tiki’s voice slowed down as she looked away. “It’s… Bad things occur when I bring multiple people with me. Vergil seemed exhausted, and I have a feeling he’d simply let Ichiban get himself killed, so you were my next best option, Lady Voxaria.” 

“Still, I wonder why you’re so focused on getting him healed.” Korra noted aloud.

“Well, he did say he wanted to learn from me, so in a way he is my student. I will not let one of my students die, or at the very least not let them stay injured for long, not when I have the means to help them. I fully intend on scolding him when I get the chance.” She turned her head towards Korra. “Besides, weren’t you demanding to see him yourself?”

Korra looked away sheepishly before shrugging. “Fair.”

“Back to what you said earlier, Tiki…” Vox interjected to ask the manakete a question with curiosity in her voice. “Do you still talk to her? From what you’ve said, I assumed she was dead.”

“She IS dead.” Tiki clarified, before holding her hands up to placate Vox and Korra. “But she can contact me, since the power she carried while alive carried into the afterlife.”

“I see…” Vox mumbled out, before silence descended upon the ship.

“Are you an orphan yourself?” Tiki asked, drawing the Tenno’s attention. “From what I’ve heard, you’ve implied as much.”

“Yeah… though I don’t like to think about what happened…” Vox dejectedly said, just as the Orbiter flew out of the void portal and stopped right in front of a planet. “Hey, we arrived!” She then took the convenient escape and got the Landing Craft ready to land in Yokohama, while the others got themselves ready for landing.

“Fine, escape this question, but when you do wish to talk about it, you’re more than free to come see me.” Tiki simply said, before rolling her neck. 

Once the Landing Craft entered Yokohama air space and freaked out a few air controllers, Vox quickly found Ichiban via a use of an ability she added to her landing craft called Orokin Eye, and got the ship to hover over the homeless camp, causing quite a few of the population to… well, faint.

Three people, however, just looked at them:

Yu Nanba, who looked at them in shock.

“Holy shit… so Ichiban wasn’t lying, huh?

Koichi Adachi, who sighed in resignation before taking a sip out of his beer bottle.

“I told you that he met aliens, and this is the proof.”

And Ichiban, who got up and greeted the trio.

“Hey, Tiki-san, Vox-san, Korra-san, you’re all here!” He yelled out excitedly, only to be stopped by Tiki via her outstretched hand.

“Ah-ah-ah!” She scowled while holding Ichiban back. “You don’t get to go ‘You’re all here’ to me, not when you nearly got yourself killed!”

“To be fair, he nearly got the both of us killed, so…” Nanba quickly added, earning a glare from Ichiban.

“You were hiding behind a bridge wall, I was getting the Geomijul to back off!” He pointed out, only to earn a glare from Tiki.

“Ichiban…”

However, before she could speak, a pair of thugs coughed at them, both dressed in all black.

“Yo, uhh, lady?” Everyone turned to face them, which caused them to stumble a bit before recovering. “Uh.. We were actually going to kill him now, to be honest.” 

His partner stepped up to the plate, but then immediately shoved his foot into his mouth while rubbing his hands together. “But while you’re here, ladies… nae jib-e dasi ogo sip-eo? (Wanna come back to my place?)”

“Not interested.” Korra said while creating a ring of water to threaten them.

“Nope.” Vox said, summoning her Chroma Prime Warframe and possessing it with transference.

Tiki… said nothing, simply transforming into her true form and roaring at them.

“Message received!” The two members cried out before running away, leaving the group alone and silent, even after Tiki transformed back into her normal form. 

“I might have crapped myself.” Nanba admitted, causing everyone to groan.

Tiki looked at him like he had offered to do the same thing as the Korean thugs, though she also held her nose closed. “I would say yes, but you smell bad regardless.”

“Just the life of a homeless guy, ladies. It’s not a glamorous one, as you can clearly tell.” He pointed out, only to be blasted by water courtesy of Korra, who did the same to Ichiban as well. 

“Yeah, we can tell…” Vox grumbled out, before gasping and grabbing Ichiban by his wet-but-clean jacket. “Oh, wait, you said that the job at the bar was a temporary one, right?”

“Yep, but the lady who hired us had another job for us!” Ichiban answered with a smile, wrapping an arm around Nanba in the process. 

“Really?” Vox asked, crossing her arms in the process.

Ichiban nodded enthusiastically. “Her name’s Hamako-san, and we’re cleaning her office today!”

“Her office?” Korra asked skeptically, only to get her answer when Ichiban ran off towards said office, dragging Nanba behind him in the process. “Hey, wait!”

The run to the offices wasn’t a difficult one, even with the amount of thugs that decided that the group was the perfect size to harass (They got their asses handed to them for their troubles), but that wasn’t the problem. The office building was grey concrete, with windows placed in a straight pattern on each wall, which showed off the rooms that were inside. They didn’t seem to have any cubicles in them, nor did they have anything that would scream ‘office’ in them. But it was when a large group of women walked out of the building on Hamako’s orders, and the smell hit all of their noses that they knew what was going on.

“You’re cleaning a brothel?!” Korra screamed loudly, for they were in-fact cleaning a brothel.

Chapter Text

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

CKagura: "Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted." -Aldous Huxley

EricMyers: Not that I mind waking up to Aldous Huxley, but why in the world are you quoting him now?

CKagura: I have a cold.

WesSide: Ah, that explains it.

CKagura: It’s not the worst, but my nose is both runny AND stuffed.

CKagura: My trash bin is nearly full of tissues, and even if I clear it completely, I somehow fill it back up in an hour.

Esaka: Gross, but relatable.

CKagura: At the very least, I’m making it a point to bump up the pay of my janitorial team by a good bit for their service.

Korra: At least in their case, they’re only dealing with mucus…

Esaka: oof, what’s up with you?

Korra: I’m taking a break from helping Ichiban and his friend clean up the “offices” of his friend.

Korra: Can you tell that I’m using air quotes here?

Itchybum: Hey, they’re not that bad. I’ve seen worse!

Korra: We’re cleaning a Brothel.

Korra: And what do you mean by ‘seen worse’?

Itchybum: Well, I’ve said it before, but I was raised in a soapland.

Itchybum: Found by its owner, Jiro Kasuga, and raised by the women who worked there.

Itchybum: Let’s just say the shit I saw there makes this look like spilled water.

Korra: Yeah, and I don’t want to hear it.

OracleNaga: Are you not both in the same building

Korra: Well, yes, but I want to complain here.

OracleNaga: Fair enough.

Itchybum: Hey, if you have time for talking, you have time to help me wash the floors!

Korra: Only if Nanba actually picks up the slack and gathers up the tissues.

Korra: I am going to take a long-ass bath when I get the chance.

Korra: WAIT A MINUTE

Korra: @OracleNaga @RegisteredL-user Where the hell are you?

RegisteredL-user: Buying stuff.

Korra: I thought you guys were going to find a place for Ichiban that wasn’t under that Adachi guy?

RegisteredL-user: We are, but we found a store on the way.

RegisteredL-user: Did you know there’s a machine that sells plushies?

Itchybum: Does it look like it has a claw, coming from the top?

RegisteredL-user: Yes!

Esaka: So you're playing a Claw game?

RegisteredL-user: Oh, so that’s what that was!

RegisteredL-user: Yeah, I was! Got quite a few floofs out of it!

Itchybum: Was it in a store with a steel panel and Neon letters?

RegisteredL-user: yep! You familiar with the place?

Itchybum: Saw it while I was walking around earlier. I wanted to play Fighting Vipers 2, but I didn’t have any coins on hand at the time.

Itchybum: Wait, did you see what other games they had there?

RegisteredL-user: Don’t think I saw that, but I saw a game called Sonic the Fighters.

FlamePrincess: aksjdbakhjsda

Esaka: Blazey-cat, what’s wrong?

CKagura: Really?

Esaka: Hey, someone’s gotta give her a nickname, and Flame Princess is not it.

EricMyers: Blaze?

FlamePrincess: Apologies, it’s just that I forgot that some universes may exist in others… as fictional media…

Itchybum: Oh, yeah, That makes sense.

FlamePrincess: You’re not at all phased by the idea that your entire existence could be fiction in another world?

Itchybum: Well, you mentioned that Dragon Quest exists in other worlds, and Frederick mentioned hearing about Marth through a game released before all the crap in his world, so it’s not that hard to believe that ours is also fictionalised.

Itchybum: Hey, would that mean you’d have… played my story?

FlamePrincess: Well, no, but I wouldn’t tell you how it goes.

FlamePrincess: SOMA policy dictates that we do not expose our members to the canon of their universes, since it could lead to… unsafe changes.

FlamePrincess: Of course, this obviously doesn’t apply if the person happens to have already experienced those events, as most of the people in the chat here have.

Esaka: Shit, didn’t think we’d be getting existential today over 

Esaka: @Grumpy you wanna chime in?

Grumpy: Not my wheelhouse, brat.

Grumpy: I’m more of a practical thinker.

Jack-O-Lantern: Like, if some big mean Mother-Hubbard tries to tear you a structurally superfluous new behind?  

RegisteredL-user: Gun, Gun, and more Gun.

Grumpy: They have Crew Castle 2 in your universe?

RegisteredL-user: Huh? What are you talking about?

RegisteredL-user: I just came up with it.

Grumpy: Damn…

CKagura: Not that I want to derail this interesting and not at all existential conversation, but I have to ask something, and it might be weird.

CKagura: Is it possible for waterbenders to push water through the sinuses?

Korra: Funnily enough, Yes!

Korra: Healers would move purified water through the nose gently to dislodge any blockages from illness. There’s also a device that looks like a tea-pot, that can be used to do the same thing with gravity.

Korra: A friend of mine, if you could call him that, has been trying to make something that can do that without the need for bending.

CKagura: So a netipot.

User CKagura has uploaded a file: Netipot.png (an image of a Netipot)

Korra: Exactly.

Korra: One moment, I’m hearing something from outside.

Korra: They look to be… protesters?

WesSide: What are they protesting about?

Korra: Seems to be called Bleach Japan, which is the weirdest name I’ve ever heard of in my life. They’re protesting against prostitution, of all things.

Itchybum: Nanba here. They’re a Non-profit Group, who want to eliminate Grey Zones like red-light districts.

OracleNaga: What’s a grey zone?

Itchybum: You know how there are some crimes that aren’t exactly prosecuted, like prostitution? Since it’s victimless?

Itchybum: That is what a Grey Zone is, and Bleach Japan wants to crack down on all crime, no matter if it hurts anyone or not.

Itchybum: It was founded by Ryo Aoki, the governor of Tokyo, before he got into politics. Even after he left, he still sang their praises, and between that and cleaning up the Yakuza in Kamurocho with the Kamurocho 3K plan, he’s become the top candidate for the role of PM. 

Korra: Wait a minute, Ichiban’s yelling about something, to that loser in white.

Korra: Holy shit!

RegisteredL-user: Korra, the hell’s going on?

Korra: Ichiban tricked them into running off with the bucket!

OracaleNaga: Which bucket?

Itchybum: Oh, I just used the one we were holding the tissues in.

EricMyers: Tissues with what?

Itchybum: Uh…

Korra: We don’t talk about that.

Itchybum: Hamako’s shouting. We should get back to work.

<<

Later, in Ichiban’s universe…

As Korra ducked under the knife of a street thug, she couldn’t help but think about how similar they were. ‘Near the ocean, loud… and full of assholes. All that’s different is that the tech is better, and that bending doesn’t exist.’ She stomped on the ground to launch him in the air with a block of earth, before shoving him back with a blast of wind, right into Nanba’s cloud of pigeons. The pigeons ripped him to shreds (metaphorically) while Ichiban punched one guy into another like a pair of dominos.

Within seconds, the group had been taken down, and looked at the group fearfully. “Holy shit… who the hell are you geezers?” One of the thugs spoke, clearly frightened of them. 

Korra frowned before placing her hands on her hips. “Do I look old?” 

“Oh, and don’t get me started on you, lady!” The thug yelled out. “At least the guys fought like normal people, but you’re throwing around water and earth and shit!”

Korra smirked before summoning fire to her hand. “Wanna see what else I can do?”

“Nope!” They all screamed aloud before running away, leaving her, Ichiban, and Nanba outside Hamako’s ‘office’. The trio were taking a breather when they heard footsteps belonging to the woman in question.

“Well, damn, you guys are good at this.” Hamako walked up to them with a smile on her face and a cigarette in her hand. “Especially you, lady. Saw you doing that magic thing with the water earlier. Already thought it would be useful around the office, but seeing you fight is a whole other thing.”

“Thanks, but I’m not interested.” Korra quickly explained. “Not that I’m going to stop you or anything, but I’ve got my world to worry about as well.”

“Wait, then why are you here?” Nanba asked, slouching over dismissively.

“To make sure this idiot isn’t dead!” Korra looked at Ichiban pointedly. “No offense, but even if you stitched him up, I still need to make sure he isn’t going to die because you used some knock-off drug to knock him out!”

“Hey, lady! I saw this idiot get shot, and I was the only one in the area who could help him!” Nanba shot back. “Look, I might have used a little Ketamine, but that’s the best I could have gotten as someone on the streets. Don’t act like you could have done better, with what I had.”

“If I had what you had…” Korra considered for a moment before pointing a finger at the homeless bum. “Well, I would have brought Ichiban to the hospital.”

“He’s former Yakuza, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they denied treating him because of that.”

“That’s not how hospitals are supposed to work!”

“Well, allow me to be the bearer of bad news and say it; Yeah, that’s how they work here in Japan. In our Japan.”

“Man, I thought you guys were fighting some randos, not each other!” Vox interrupted, entering the area alongside Tiki and Ordis. All of them were carrying a few small bags, with Ordis carrying a bag under his robotic body and Vox holding a strange hoverboard that she called a K-drive, though that wasn’t the most notable change; The two humanoids were wearing completely different clothes.

“Hey, you guys are back! What did you buy?” Ichiban called out to them, before leaning towards them. “And where did you get those clothes?”

Vox pulled out an inordinate amount of plushies from one of the bags, which hung from the shoulder of her new white-plaid jacket. “Got these floofs for the Orbiter! Little Vox wouldn’t let me leave without them!” She cheerfully replied, before an annoyed expression came onto her face as she turned around. “Don’t act like you weren’t a brat, little me. I know what you said back there… Don’t you dare randomize my tea-bags!”

The group slightly leaned away from the tenno, before focusing on Tiki. “These garments? Lady Voxaria found a store that sold them to us, and we bought them with money we found.” Indeed they had, as Tiki was now wearing a blue button-up underneath a cream sweater, black skirt with leggings and a pair of black boots underneath, and a Tan trench-coat to top off the look. Vox was wearing a grungier outfit, with a black turtleneck, a yellow sweater wrapped around her waist, grey jeans with a pair of purple boots, and a sweater of the same colour wrapped around her waist. 

“Huh, I’ve seen that sweater before,” Hamako said aloud. “That’s from La Chatte Blanche, isn’t it?” Nanba quickly started choking on his own spit, at which point Ichiban slammed his hand on the former nurse’s back to help him.

“What was that all about?” Ichiban asked Nanba, who cleared his throat and looked at him incredulously.

“That’s one of the more expensive places in Ijincho. In the order of hundreds of thousands of yen.” Nanba quickly explained, before glaring at Vox and Tiki. “How’d you even get the cash to buy all of that? Not just the clothes, but the plushies?” 

Tiki and Vox slowly looked at each other. “Uh…”

“HOLY SHIT! You’re so fluffy!” The pink-haired woman cried out as she petted and floofed the fur around Tiki’s neck, much to the manakete’s displeasure. Vox and Tiki had fought off some thugs, using their abilities in the process, when they were stopped by a pink-haired woman and her white-haired friend. Of course, she saw Tiki in her dragon form, and proceeded to drop everything to pet her, which was now starting to get on Tiki’s nerves. “Ooh, who’s a good girl? Who’s a good destroyer of my men? You are!”

Tiki was trying to pull her head away from the crazy woman, looking at Vox and the white-haired man, who were both looking at the situation with numb shock and resigned embarrassment respectively. “So… what should we do? Your boss seems infatuated with my friend, and something tells me that she’ll put a collar on her if we don’t do something soon.” Vox asked the man, leaning towards him in the process.

“I got this.” the white-haired man confidently answered, before shivering greatly and bowing towards the pink-haired woman. “S-Seonhee-nuna… Are you going to release her-” 

“ WHO ARE YOU TO ACCUSE M-?! ”

“Nothing!” Ordis quickly answered for Vox and Tiki, before the former added onto it with her explanation.

“Leeeet’s just say that there were a bunch of thugs attacking us, and we got a lot of money for beating them up!” Vox had a forced smile, which made the others a bit suspicious. However, the clear discomfort on their faces was enough for the group to change the topic, though it was not much better for either.

“Uh… did either of you find a place for Ichiban to live? Korra asked, and both Vox and Tiki shrugged.

“Sorry, we uh… never found a place.” Vox quickly explained.

Tiki rubbed her forehead. “For every corner we turned, we either found ourselves beset by foes, or we came across a strange occurrence. Or both. Nearly impossible to find a place within budget, however.” 

“Ah, that’s Ijincho for you.” Nanba noted plainly. “Always something around the corner, and it’s never what you want.”

“If that’s the case, then we have nothing to worry about!”  Ichiban shouted out, much to everyone’s confusion.

“What do you mean, Ichiban?” Nanba asked, voicing everyone’s general confusion. “They didn’t find a place for you to live outside of Adachi-san’s place.”

“Well, if you say that there’s always something around the corner, then there’s a chance that I’ll find a place to live soon!” He explained cheerfully, before looking up at the sky. “Ah, it is kinda dark. We better go back to the camp… unless you think I’m healed enough to go out of your sight?”

“As if. The wound is still red; I need to keep an eye on you until it goes down.”

“And I need to make sure you did a good job.” Korra glared back, which was more than enough to cow Nanba, up until Ichiban got in the way.

“Alright, alright, cool it, you two. We can talk about my injuries later.” he calmed the two down, before walking off towards the camp, with everyone else following behind.

“Hold it.” Everyone except Hamako, who halted everyone in their tracks with a couple of words. “Are you looking for a place to live, Ichiban-san?”

Ichiban turned around before nodding. “Yeah, my current place is kinda shit, plus my roommate is a bit of an asshole.” He explained, just for said roommate to enter stage right.

“HEY!” Adachi hollered out from a distance, closing it quickly before glaring at Ichiban. “I am NOT an asshole!

“First of all, you’re a cop. Second of all, you’re making me pay all the rent!” He argued back, which led to Adachi sighing out of annoyance.

“Former detective, and I don’t have any savings to work with!” Adachi quickly pointed out. “Well, savings that aren’t saved for my beer-fund.”

“Wow, and here I thought an officer of the law would be more responsible…” Korra noted with a frown. Adachi was about to open his mouth to argue back, when Hamako spoke.

“Enough. I still need to make my offer.” She pointed out, before pointing a thumb at her ‘office’. “Ichiban, if you ARE looking for a place to live… Why not one of the rooms above?”

He stepped back in shock, before recovering quickly. “I, uh… I don’t want to sound ungrateful, because I am, but aren’t those the rooms that your employees use?”

“Yes, but letting you live here has one advantage for me.” Hamako smiled. “Right of Residence.”

“What is that?” Tiki tilted her head to the side, and Hamako chuckled.

“Heh, I guess not all of us are from Japan, or this world.” The elder woman took a drag of her cigarette before explaining. “If you live in any building in this city, you’d get a right of residence, which means that you’d be able to legally assert the right to live somewhere.”

“And why does that help you?” Vox raised an eyebrow in response, only for Adachi to chuckle.

“Ah, I see. You don’t live here, don’t you?” He interrupted, waiting for a moment to grab everyone’s attention before continuing. “And judging by the smell, these ‘offices’ aren’t really offices, aren’t they?”

“Heh, so you do have the skills.” Hamako explained. “If someone wanted to evict me and my girls from this building for any reason, they’d have no problems going to the land-owner and demanding him to do so.”

“But if Kasuga-san lives here, then they can’t demand the land-owner evict you, not without getting into hot water with the city.” Adachi finished, which led to Hamako smiling.

“Right you are, Badge.” She then turned to Ichiban (ignoring Adachi’s frustrated grumblings) and held a hand out towards him. “So, what do you say?”

“Cheers!” everyone cried out as they clinked drinks with each other, in Ichiban and Nanba’s new home. Technically, it was just Ichiban’s home, but he convinced Hamako to allow Nanba to stay with him as well, which she was more than amenable to so long as he paid rent. Once the area had been thoroughly cleaned by Korra, and once she looked Ichiban over with some waterbending, the sextet (real word, look it up) popped open some drinks and relaxed.

“Ah, four walls, a roof, and a soft throne for each of us!” Ichiban sighed out as he looked up, smiling like a child.

“Not to mention that the throne is dry as a bone.”  Nanba rolled over to pat the mattress, before nodding at Korra. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

Korra waved her hand at the nurse. “Yeah, much as I don’t like you for the whole ‘Quack-Surgery’ thing, I’m not gonna let someone sleep on something damp. Got far too much experience with that before…”

Ichiban raised an eyebrow at her. “You were homeless?”

She shrugged in response. “Ran away when I had been poisoned with Mercury. To put it bluntly, my head was… not in the right place.” Ichiban nodded back, and didn’t question it further, leaving the floor open for others to speak.

“Still kinda surprised you let this Adachi guy join us.” Vox pointed a thumb to the man, who had reached for a curly fry at that moment.

“Hey, I brought Beer.” He justified his presence by raising a six-pack. “I know how to be a good guest.”

Ichiban smirked, taking a can after draining his bottle. “Yeah, I guess you do, even if you are a bit nosy.” 

“It’s called intuition, kid. Every good detective needs it.” Adachi explained, which ticked Ichiban off.

“Kid?” Ichiban gasped out before glaring at him. “I’m 42, asshole!”

“And I’m 59, kid. I’ve got over 17 years of experience on you.” Adachi coolly pointed out, which nearly led to an argument, up until Nanba spoke up.

“So you’re a year older than me, huh Ichiban?” Nanba asked him, and Ichiban nodded.

“Yeah, I am.” After answering, Ichiban’s eyes widened before he elected to ask a question himself. “Hey… now that I think about it, you were a nurse in the past. Why did you stop?” Nanba shrugged, and Ichiban took it as an opportunity to continue. “You must have been really good if you saved me with nothing but some illegal drugs and a knife.” 

Korra rolled her eyes, but Nanba ignored her in favour of answering. “Yeah, I guess I am. But… I got fired. Wanted some more money, and I decided to sell some drugs on the side. Illegally, mind you.” He added that detail for the half of the group that didn’t come from Japan, before continuing. “Got all the way up to selling internationally, up until I got caught and well… lost my license after that.”

“Wow…” Tiki spoke softly. “That was quite the story. However, I do wish it was actually true.”

Nanba turned to face her suspiciously. “How’d you know?” 

“Well, A), you just said you lied.” Vox pointed out, and Nanba shook his head dismissively. 

Tiki took the opportunity to explain herself. “I learned how to sense heartbeats many, many years ago, so that I could tell if someone was lying. And you, Sir Nanba, are lying.” 

“Hah, I didn’t know we had a lie detector!” Adachi laughed out loud, clapping his hands as he did.

“Technically, we have two.” Vox pointed out as Ordis scanned Nanba.

“Processing… LIAR LIAR PANTS OF- The probability that Yu Nanba’s statement is false is 99.99%!” Ordis cheerfully replied, which led to a sigh from Nanba and a laugh from everyone else.”

“What is the real reason behind what you did? Er, if it isn’t too painful to ask.” Tiki asked Nanba, pointedly looking at Vox all the while.

“Well, if you want to know the truth…” Nanba paused to take a deep breath before speaking. “I had a colleague in the hospital I worked at. She was younger than me, but she and I shared the same inspiration; Florence Nightingale, the Lady with the Lamp, and the Mother of Modern Nursing. My colleague, she had a drive for helping people, and I could tell that she could go so much farther than me in the industry, especially when I had become so exhausted dealing with the bullshit. When I learned she was selling drugs to pay off some debt her family had accrued, I covered for her, even when it cost me my job.” He sighed and leaned back onto his hands. “And that’s my story.” 

“Giving up your dreams, to save someone else’s… Damn, that’s rough.” Korra spoke with an empathetic tone, while Vox patted Nanba on the shoulder.

“Eh, it stopped being my dream a few years back, when the work became more stifling and the money did nothing to catch up.” Nanba admitted, which led to Adachi chuckling.

“Heh, I can feel that. Working because it was your dream, only to get bent over because of it...” Adachi  interjected, grabbing everyone’s attention. “I became a cop to take down criminals and help the innocent. Did quite a bit of the former back in the day, but it was always helping someone get justice that brought the biggest smile on my face. One of those people was a guy named Kusumi, who had been arrested in connection to a murder; double homicide, to be correct. I learned from a witness that Kusumi had been seen far from the scene, which was a pretty solid alibi… up until a man by the name of Juro Horinouchi coerced the witness into perjury and got Kusumi sentenced, which led to him leaving behind his wife and kid to spare them the shame. I tried to expose the injustice, but he prevented the evidence from coming out while also demoting me to the DMV to prevent me from investigating further.” 

“What the hell? Who was that bastard?” Korra asked, a wrathful expression on her face, which was shared by everyone else.

“Juro Horinouchi… That’s his name.” Adachi explained once more. “He was my superior at the Kanagawa PD, and he got a promotion offer from Tokyo, which would have been in jeopardy if the truth behind Kusumi’s case had been revealed. He silenced the evidence, all so that he could get a cushy office and a clean slate, where no one would assume he had ever been paid off by Yakuza or the like.”

“A fiend, through and through.” Tiki growled out, her teeth becoming jagged as a result. “He is no better than a fraud, and yet he has come into power that he does not rightfully deserve!”

Vox, however, was much more… vicious in her condemnation. “Just another cheap, dirty bastard stomping on anyone in his way for more power… Want me to kill him?” 

“Woah!” Nanba shouted out, as everyone else pulled back.

“Isn’t that a bit excessive?” Korra pointed out, as Ordis nodded aggressively.

“Indeed, operator! Even an unmodded gun would do far more damage than people here would expect; You would cause far more damage than necessary!”

“He got an innocent man killed to propel himself up. Killing him wouldn’t be too far-fetched.” Vox justified, before looking at Ordis. “And I can make it a stealth mission. No guns, just Loki and a Dagger.”

“Even still…” Tiki glumly said, only to jump as Adachi chuckled.

“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t want to see him dead.” Adachi calmed her down with a hand, before leaning forward. “Besides, It was injustice that led to Kusumi’s death; if I want to be able to look him in the eyes when I see him at the pearly gates, then I gotta make it right, through legal means. I don’t want his head, per say; I want his ass behind bars, for all the crimes he’s done.”

“Shit… I can respect the hell out of that, man.” Ichiban exclaimed, punctuating the remark with a pat on Adachi’s back, which he returned with vigour.

“So, what about you, Ichiban?” Vox focused the conversation onto the man in question. “Did you want to be a Yakuza growing up?”

“Heh, not really. I met Arakawa-san by mere chance when he saved me from a gang, and I stayed outside the offices for a hundred days until he allowed me to join.” he told the group, before taking a sip of his beer. “Nah, but the thing I wanted to be the most when I was a kid… was a hero.”

“A Hero?” Nanba asked, raising an eyebrow in the process.

“You know, a Hero who could save people, like in Dragon Quest!” he exclaimed, before looking around and seeing the confusion on the lady’s faces, and the mirth on the guy’s faces. “Oh, come on…”

“Bwa-hahaha!” Adachi laughed like a madman. “Like-like the video game?”

“H-How would you do that?!” Nanba barked afterwards, before the two of them laughed for a bit, all the while Ichiban glared at them.

“Could you guys stop? It’s my dream.” He scolded them, before looking up towards the ceiling. “And a dream is what keeps you going. At least, it does for me…”

“And dreams can lead you to places  you’ve never seen before.” Vox interjected. “At the very least, it’s how Little Vox and I met, in a sense.” 

Nanba slapped his hands on his knees and scooted towards Ichiban. “You know what… you’re right. Take the chance, and become a hero!”

“At 40? Are you mad?” Ichiban asked Nanba incredulously. “That was a dream I had as a kid. Besides, I need a job; money on the table and all that.”

“I would think not.” Tiki spoke before Nanba could answer. “Mar-Mar… Chrom, Lucina… They all believed that they would not live storied lives when they were young, that they would not become heroes, and yet they did. Marth slayed Medeus twice and brought peace to Archanea, while Chrom and Lucina took down Grima, saving Robin and Reflet from their fate in the process. They only had dreams, and yet they did great things in their lives.”

Vox leaned forward and took over. “Ichiban… you know I’m not the most… stable person here. I look at weapons of mass destruction, and think ‘Hey! What if I bump up the crit-chance of this thing beyond 3000%?’ or crap like that, and Ordis is… not much better. And, as a Tenno, my arsenal makes me feared all across the Orogin System, with the forces of the Corpus and Grineer screaming in fear once I lay waste to them. Even when I help some citizens out by clearing out the local forces or doing a few bounties, I’m only really doing it for the standing and weaponry that comes from it. Even still… people call me a hero.”

She leaned back to gesture to herself wildly. “Me, the Weapon-slinging, clearly mentally-unstable asshat Space Ninja, and yet they call me a hero!” She then leaned forwards once more and pointed at Ichiban. “Ichiban Kasuga. You are MUCH weaker and much more stable than me, and yet I can say without a doubt that you can definitely become a hero.”

Korra took a swig of her own drink before joining the conversation. “Look, compared to me, the literal reincarnation of a bending master who is destined to wield all four elements and keep balance between humanity and spirits, you practically have nothing but raw strength and wit.” She paused to lean in further. “Asami… She's not a bender, but the reason I love her isn’t that; it’s her ability to do the right thing, despite how little strength she seems to have. You, Ichiban, you’re just like her in a sense, and I can tell you now that you’ll definitely go on to do great things.”

“And now that I think about it…” Nanba interjected once more. “In the game… in Dragon Quest, if you destroy a lot of slimes, you level up quickly, right.” Nanba thought aloud, before looking Ichiban dead in the eye. “Now, what about doing it here?”

“Leveling up in life…” Ichiban came to a conclusion. “That… that could work.”

“Why not become a hero at forty?” Vox proclaimed. “I became one after a thousand years, so forty is nothing!”

Ichiban looked excited at the prospect, and turned his head to face Adachi. “What about you man?”

Adachi chuckled and opened a new can. “If I remember my Dragon Quest, the hero finds himself fighting all sorts of bad guys on the way to his destiny. If you want to be a hero, then there’s a chance that you’ll come across Horinouchi, and if that’s the case, then I gotta join you. Besides, I got nothing better to do, so why not wear armour and beat the shit out of ‘slimes’?”

Ichiban grinned like a mad man. “Right! Then let’s level up together! Save people, and create a brand new age of heroes!” He then picked up a glass of sake before raising it to the air. “Who’s with me?”

“I’m with ya, Ichiban!” Nanba raised his glass.

“Sure, Kasuga-san!” Adachi raised his can.

“Let’s go, Itchybu-Ichiban!” Vox raised a glass, while Ordis generated a small arm to give a thumbs up.

“Count me in!” Korra raised her can.

“We’ll support you on your quest, brave hero!” And Tiki raised her can.

Ichiban looked at everyone in the group and took a deep breath. “Let’s raise a toast, to our new era of heroes, from this world and beyond!”

“Yeah, to the Heroes of Tomorrow!” Nanba called out, before pushing his glass forwards along with the rest of the group, who all screamed the same thing when their drinks collided.

“Cheers!”

And so… the Heroes of Tomorrow was formed. They didn’t know it yet, but great and terrible things would happen to the group. But those adventures will be told another day.

Chapter Text

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

Itchybum: Morning everyone!

Itchybum: need to add a couple of people from my world to the chat. Do we have the space for that?

FlamePrincess: A couple as in 2?

Itchybum: yep!

Alpha&Omega: Is one of them that quack nurse you added because he stitched you up?

Itchybum: Hey! He patched things up with Vox and Korra-san!

RegisteredL-user: Can confirm. Shared drinks and celebrated the Legaue og Heroes or som shit.

Itchybum: It’s Heroes of Tomorrow!

RegisteredL-user: I can’t remember the details, too tired.

Grumpy: hungover, then.

RegisteredL-user: Yeah, that.

Highlander: I thought you would have more resistance to alcohol.

RegisteredL-user: Ordis, if you would?

Ordis: The Operator and Tiki are being treated for excessive acetaldehyde accumulation and dehydration, also known as a hangover.

Korra: I’m helping with the Dehydration part with my bending. Katara taught me a technique to deal with that herself.

Grumpy: How much did they drink?

Chizuru: That’s what you’re thinking about?

Grumpy: Hey, I gotta know. Wanna see if they’re lightweights or not.

Jack-O-Lantern: Frederick.

Grumpy: Just asking!

RobinHood: Tiki hasn’t been known for her… drinking ability. Actually, she’s a bit of a lightweight.

RobinHood: Ordis, did Tiki light anything on fire?

Ordis: Ordis cannot sense any fires in the surrounding area. Scans for any excessive combustion byproducts are returning negative.

Ordis: Ordis theorizes that she has not done anything of the sort.

RobinHood: Good. Not like we couldn’t do anything about it, but you know what they say; Prevention is the best medicine.

RegisteredL-user: What, so people shouldn’t drink?

EricMyers: Yes, but if you must, drink some water for every bit of alcohol you consume.

WesSide: Ah, so the bar-hops are coming back to you.

EricMyers: If I recall correctly, I was the DD, to make sure you wouldn’t get in trouble.

WesSide: But I never get in trouble!

EricMyers: Because I make sure you don’t, unlike you.

WesSide: Aw, thanks!

EricMyers: You are the commander, Wes. As your second in command, it’s my job to make sure you’re a good example for the Guardians. 

EricMyers: It’s a thankless job, but someone has to do it.

FlamePrincess: You know, sometimes I feel that way when it comes to my duties….

Itchybum: Uhh, Blaze-san?

FlamePrincess: Sorry, I was dealing with a headache

PsychoSoldier: When are you not?

FlamePrincess: SILVER

PsychoSoldier: Sorry!

FlamePrincess: >(

FlamePrincess: Anyways, can you send me the numbers, Ichiban?

Admin FlamePrincess has invited two people to the chat.

01061960: Huh? What’s this supposed to be?

01061978: This is the Chat room Ichiban and the others were talking about.

PizzaTime: Yo, Nanba! Didn’t think you’d return here.

01061978: …If that was intentional, then A) How the hell do you know my name, and B) please don’t.

PizzaTime: It is a gift and a curse.

Alpha&Omega: It’s actually just a curse, but please continue to delude yourself for our sake, Dante.

PizzaTime: You hate me because I am a genius!

Alpha&Omega: I hate you in general.

01061960: Sheesh, there’s a lot of hostility here

Esaka: They’re twin brothers

01061960: And that explains everything.

EricMyers: Are you not going to introduce yourselves?

Itchybum: Yeah, you can change your nickname and everything!

01061978: Well, might as well

User 01061978 has changed their name to “Nanba”.

Nanba: Hello everyone. You’ve seen me here before, but to reintroduce myself, my name is Yu Nanba. I’m a former nurse who covered for a colleague selling drugs from the hospital. After that, I became homeless, and that’s how I met Ichiban.

Esaka: Ah, yes, the Homeless Quack who stitched up Ichiban

Esaka: Surprised Korra didn’t kick your teeth in. Or Tiki…

RobinHood: Again.

RobinHood: Fire.

RobinHood: Breathing.

RobinHood: Dragon.

Esaka: Woman, have you seen the legs on her true form?

RobinHood: I have, and I’m hoping she never kicks me with them.

Jack-O-Lantern: But what about leg-chokes?

Grumpy: Down, girl.

Jack-O-Lantern: What?!

RobinHood: …Shit, now I’m curious.

Highlander: Wait, why?

01061960: Ok, best to change the topic before it gets too weird.

User 01061960 has changed their name to “Adachi”.

Adachi: Name’s Adachi, Koichi Adachi. I was a detective in the Kanagawa Police Department, up until my asshat superior got me demoted to prevent me from exposing a scandal in the department surrounding a false sentencing. I’m trying to get evidence on him so he can be arrested, and so the guy that got sentenced will be at peace in the afterlife.

Grumpy: Well, shit. Don’t we have other cops here?

EricMyers: Technically, we’re supposed to defend Silver Hills from any threats from across time, though with the Mutant threat over, we’ve taken up the role of defenders in the city.

EricMyers: But yes, you could say we are ‘Cops’.

Adachi: Alright then; How many of these Mutants were actually criminals?

WesSide: Quite a few, though many of them turned to crime due to discrimination and circumstances. It’s not pretty, and honestly I want to do something for them, even if they’re mostly under the jurisdiction of Time Force in the future.

RegisteredL-user: Ok, got better, I have one question;

RegisteredL-user: Why the hell are your nicknames so boring?

Adachi: What do you mean?

RegisteredL-user: It’s just your names!

Nanba: As if yours is any better!

Nanba: Neither of us knows what yours is supposed to be!

RegisteredL-user: It’s a meme!

Adachi: Well, it’s a ‘meme’ neither of us know.

RegisteredL-user: Does it matter? It’s fun!

Itchybum: Yeah, it’s fun!

Nanba: Alright, how the hell did you come up with ‘Itchybum’?

Itchybum: Vox mispronounced my name, and it stuck.

Vox: Yep.

Nanba: So, do we wait for her to misspell our names or something?

RegisteredL-user: I would never misspell your name, Yu Nanab

RegisteredL-user: *

Highlander: heh, you did the thing.

RegisteredL-user: TATSUYA!

RegisteredL-user: Holy shit, I forgot about you!

Esaka: I think we all forgot about him…

Alpha&Omega: Absolutely.

CKagura: I don’t think that’s something to be proud of…

Alpha&Omega: Do I look like I’m proud of the fact?

Itchybum: You uh… You seem like the guy to do that..

Highlander: Nah, don’t be mad. I’ve not really come online all that much.

Highlander: To be honest, I’ve been napping a whole lot.

Highlander: Not a lot of opportunities to do that back in Sumaru.

Ordis: How are the food tubes? They are primarily designed for the Corpus, so neither Ordis nor the Operator knows how well they’ve worked for you.

Highlander: Well, they’re not bad, though I’ve wondered if it was possible to just… grow food in the gardens?

RegisteredL-user: Well, they’re technically meant to be decorative, though I think you might be able to do something with them! 

RegisteredL-user: But I can’t help you beyond adding some dirt; You’ll need to find someone who knows how to work a garden.

Adachi: Hey, now that I think about it, wasn’t there that game that used something called a Nanab?

Itchybum: Wait, what now?

Adachi: Oh yeah, you were still in prison, weren’t you?

Adachi: there was a phone app that blew up in 2016, where you caught creatures on your phone. Sujimon Go, or something like that.

Adachi: There was an item in it called the Nanab Berry, which could be used to calm the monsters down and make them easier to catch.

FlamePrincess: Oh god.

Ithcybum: What?

FlamePrincess: Pokemon Go exists in your world.

Itchybum: Well, then.

Itchybum: Nanba!

Nanba: No.

Itchybum: It’s a fun nickname!

Nanba: over my dead body.

Nanba: Besides, we need to go to Hello Work. Find jobs and all that.

RegisteredL-user: Uh… Ichiban?

Itchybum: Yeah, Vox-san?

RegisteredL-user: When the hell were you going to tell me that Void fissures exist in your world?

Itchybum: What the hell is a void fissure?

Ordis: It is a phenomenon where the Void enters our dimension through tears in the rift, which can cause corruptions to occur, either in the form of corrupted enemies from the void, or through the corruption of already existing forces in reality.

LordLiuKang: are these Fissures supposed to exist in your universe alone?

RegisteredL-user: yes, which makes them occurring here… well, confusing.

PizzaTime: Not unless we’ve seen nonsense like this happen before.

RegisteredL-user: What?

PsychoSoldier: Yeah, when we tried to meet Ichiban for the first time, a massive dragon appeared in the middle of a cemetery. We even defeated it… before Ichiban got shot.

GearsOfTime: It appears that the occurrence of objects from other universes was not an isolated incident.

GearsOfTime: Lord Liu Kang. We must investigate this phenomenon, if we are to keep the multiverse in check.

LordLiuKang: Indeed. Perhaps one of the others would have a good idea as to what is happening.

RegisteredL-user: Shit, Ichiban, be careful. If you see any yellow/golden lightning coming from nowhere, RUN!

Ordis: We have no frame of reference for what might happen if a human were to be hit by a Void Fissure, and we would prefer it does not end in death.

Itchybum: Thanks! We’ll keep an eye out!

<<

Despite the rather… terrifying conversation the burgeoning Heroes of Tomorrow had read just a few minutes ago, spirits were high as the trio of men waltzed out of Hamako’s “office” building, which was now their home for now. Adachi and Nanba were yapping about the strangeness that had come into their lives with Ichiban (and the multiverses) arrival, but Ichiban could not care less as he took in the sunny ambience of the slums of Yokohama, which happened to include the occasional homeless man, the strangest of smells, and a bat embedded into the ground.

“Huh, what the hell is this?” Ichiban asked aloud as he walked up to the embedded bat, alongside Adachi and Nanba, who surrounded the bat alongside Ichiban.

“Looks like a bat…” Adachi explained obviously, before placing a hand under his chin. “Now, who in the world would put a bat in the ground? And why?”

Nanba snorted before getting closer to the bat. “Well, I dunno, but I think we should get it out. We could probably pawn it off for a few hundred yen at one of the shops nearby.” He then crouched down, gripped the bat tightly, and attempted to pull the bat up, grunting as he did.

“Shit, is it stuck?” Ichiban asked as Nanba struggled, who continued to grunt for a moment before slowly letting go of the bat.

“Yeah, it seems really stuck in there.” Nanba admitted before turning his head to face Adachi. “Hey, you seem strong, Adachi-san. Wanna help me pull this thing out?” 

Adachi grinned as he spun his arms in circles. “Of course. I might have been sitting down for a few years now, but I still got the muscles that won me the Kanagawa PD Power-Lifting competition. I know it!” Unlike Nanba, his form was much closer to proper technique, with a focus on trying to rip the bat out with the force of his legs instead of his arms or back, which were instead dedicated to holding the bat close to his body. Even still, he failed to pull it out, flying away from the bat in the process. “Damn, this shit won’t budge!” 

Ichiban scoffed before approaching the bat. “You guys are pathetic. Lemme show you how it’s done.” With that, Ichiban crouched before the bat, and held on with both hands. 

Now, this would have simply resulted in Ichiban flying back due to the bat STILL being wedged in the ground, but there were two factors that made his attempt different; His unending optimism and desire to do good in the world, and the Golden Lightning that was sparking above his head.

“Ichiban… you should let go.” Adachi warned him, slowly stepping away from the ex-convict as he did

“Ah, hell no! I know you want me to give up!” Ichiban shot back as he continued to struggle, heedless to the lightning above him.

“No, you really ought to let go, man.” Nanba corroborated Adachi’s warning, which earned a quick but fierce glare from Ichiban.

“I got this in the bag, I’m so close!” Ichiban scolded him before throwing his everything into pulling the bat out of the ground, so much so that the golden lighting finally decided to strike something, that something being himself. “Arrghghgharghrg! Shit!”

“We tried to warn you, man!” Adachi hollered back, though the tone of his voice betrayed how annoyed he was by the situation.

Nanba looked at him in shock. “You really letting him get electrocuted?”

Adachi crossed his arms in response. “Are you forgetting who we’re dealing with?

“Fair enough.” Nanba relaxed as the freak lightning storm electrocuted Ichiban for a moment, only to hum to himself. “Hey, didn’t Vox-san say something about the lightning?”

“Yes, to RUN!” Vox shouted at them as she flew towards them on her hoverboard, alongside Tiki and Ordis. “Now I gotta worry about Ichiban being corrupted!”

“I got this!” The man being electrocuted hollered out in between screams, the bat creating cracks in the ground as he slowly pulled it out. “HRRAAAAAGH!” Ichiban roared as he ripped the bat out of the ground, throwing it into the air where it became the new target of the void lightning. After a few seconds of continuous striking, the lightning faded away, allowing everyone to look at the new weapon in Ichiban’s hands.

It was… well, it was still a bat, but it was now entirely made out of a Gold-like metal, with a density to match. The handle was wrapped in a black cloth that happened to extend below the knob into a tail-like structure that most Tenno knew to be a Sugatra, while the barrel was wrapped in barbed silver chains that resembled barbed wire. Underneath that was a flaming decal

“Woah…” Ichiban slowly gasped, before grinning wildly and pointing the bat up into the air. “WOO! I’m the man!”

“I guess you are.” Vox gasped out before she remembered what had happened before. “HEY, wait a minute! You still got shocked by all that Void Lightning!”

Ordis flew around Ichiban, before pointing his chassis towards Vox. “May Ordis suggest scanning THE IDIOTIC FU- Ichiban? We can confirm if the Void has corrupted him in any way.”

Tiki hummed worriedly as she inspected Ichiban herself. “Are you alright, Sir Ichiban?” 

“I feel great!” Ichiban shouted out, before swinging the bat around to test it out. “And this bat… it feels weighty, and in a good way!” 

“Bat?” Tiki asked curiously, to which Ichiban explained the silly circumstances that led to him acquiring the bat. Once she was satisfied, Adachi slowly butted into the conversation with his own query. 

“Anyone have any theories as to how Ichiban got the bat out? Or hell, why in the world did all that “Void Lightning” come down and electrocute him?”

“Heh, maybe only the ‘Chosen Hero’ could pull it out. Like a Holy sword!” Ichiban suggested, much to the consternation of Nanba and Adachi.

“A Hero?” Adachi grumbled out. “Yeah, I know we were all drinking to that Hero stuff yesterday, but that can’t explain how you’re the only one who could pull the bat out of the ground and shit.”

“Maybe he wished to be a hero so bad that he pulled the bat out with his mind?” Nanba suggested, which earned a chuckle from Adachi.

“As if!”

“Actually, that’s not necessarily a bad theory.” Vox thought aloud, drawing everyone’s attention as she held her chin with her hand. “There’s this concept in my world, called Conceptual Embodiment. When emotions and thoughts mingle with the Void, then reality can change in… implausible ways.” 

“So, what was once a prank became a test of one’s heart?” Tiki summarised in her own way, before smiling. “Hmm, I like that

Nanba hummed to himself, rubbing his chin as he did. “I wonder if I could… I dunno, shoot fire out of my hand…”

Adachi was much less curious, looking the bat over dismissively. “Well, if you’re some great hero… why didn’t the bat become, Iunno, a sword?”

“I don’t know.” Vox answered for Ichiban, shrugging her shoulders in the process. “Conceptual Embodiment is strange; even the lady who told me about it doesn’t fully understand it!”

“You know what? I don’t care.” Adachi held his hands up in surrender. “We’ve gotta find ourselves a damn job. C’mon, you knuckleheads!” He then tried to walk towards the direction of the building, until three guys dressed in shitty clothes walked up to the group, blocking the path.

“Yo, you having a good time, guys?” The first guy asked, before his eyes locked onto the ladies of the group. “And ladies~.”

Vox and Tiki shivered under his sight, though it got worse when the second one opened his mouth. “Well, we’re Dad hunters. We make sure old people like you don’t have too much fun, mostly by stealing your shit. So how about you give us your cash… or maybe let those ladies join us for the day, hmm?”

“Yo, dude. What the fuck?” The third one broke the pattern by glaring at his compatriots, much to the surprise of our heroes.

“What? Two hot ladies are right in front of us!” The first guy, er, Dad hunter, asked his buddy. “What do you want us to do, not flirt with them?”

“Yeah, they’re harmless!” The second guy supported their leader, though it was clear he didn’t have an original thought to add to the conversation.

“Wanna bet on that?” Vox growled out, summoning Void energy to her hands while Tiki clenched her dragonstone fiercely. The two guys considered their options, only for the third Dad hunter to hold them back.

“We’re Dad hunters, not idiots.” He assuaged them, before looking at Ichiban and the other guys. “Like my friend said earlier, Give us your cash, you geezers, and no one will be hurt.”

“Uh, we don’t… actually have any cash.” Nanba quickly explained, much to the guy’s shock.

“What?! In this economy?! In this job market?!” The third hunter screamed aloud, before pointing at him. “Bullshit! I can get a job easily, so much so that I chose to become a Dad Hunter for fun! You should come up with a better lie, you old bastard!”

Nanba sighed before looking at Ichiban. “Shit, the truth hurts, especially when the guy saying it is a liar.”

Adachi rolled his shoulder before cracking his fists. “So, Mr. Hero ; Wanna test out that sword or yours on some slimes?”

Ichiban grinned as he got into a combat stance with the bat. “Yeah, that sounds cool. Let’s rock!” 

The Robbers of Today - Street Thugs

BGM: Yokohama Crackhouse (Yakuza: Like a Dragon OST)

The other guys, along with the Dad Hunters, got ready to fight, when another orb of Golden lightning appeared right in the middle of them, which unleashed 7 bolts into the world. “SHIT!” Vox cried out as she hopped back, pulling Tiki away from a bolt aimed at her feet. As for everyone else, they were hit by a bolt themselves, changing them instantaneously.

“Ow!” Adachi was changed the least, with only a pair of batons appearing in his hands.

“Argh!” Nanba looked about the same barring the fact that his hood was pulled up, and that his umbrella seemed to be shimmering for some reason.

“Jeez!’ Ichiban similarly looked the same, though the sleeves of his jacket/shirt had been rolled up, and he got a new red scarf wrapped up underneath his shirt. 

Of course, the biggest changes were reserved for the Dad Hunters, who were changed into a large fat man with a 2x4, a muscular man with a white T-shirt, and an assassin with a knife. 

“Holy shit, those guys transformed!” Ichiban summed up the situation, his eyes bulging at the shocking turn of events.

“Yeah, so did we.” Adachi gloated, only for Nanba to look at him with annoyance.

“You sure about that, Adachi-san?”

He smacked his torso with a stick. “You can’t see it, but all the fat I got over the years has vanished! I’m as toned as I was when I was in my 20’s!” As for the Dad Hunters, they too had been shocked by the transformation, though for slightly different reasons.

“Hey, fuck-ass! Why did you make yourself look fat?”

“Hey, I like Sumo! And now I can get the bod without any of the work!”

“C’mon, you idiots, we got some old bastards to rob, so let’s rob ‘em!” The sensible one with a knife shouted out, before glaring at Ichiban and the gang.

As for Tiki and Vox, the two were on the sidelines, though only the former seemed worried. “Sir Ichiban, do you require our help?” The Oracle of Naga asked, only to get a chuckle from Ichiban. 

“Nah, don’t worry about us. These guys look weak, even with all that void bullshit helping them!”

Are we sure they don’t have Rabies? - Void-Corrupted Street Thugs

One of the thugs, the one with the knife, tried to rush towards Nanba, only for the former nurse to smack him back with a THWACK of his umbrella. Instinctually, Nanba held his hand out towards the man, and a Purple fireball flew right out of his hand and lit the man on fire for a moment. “HOLY SHIT!” He screamed out in shock before looking at his hand.

“Since when could these old farts shoot fire out of their hands?” The Muscular Man screamed out, only to get punched in the face by Adachi, who then proceeded to swing his baton at the man’s face before finishing the combo off with a kick. As for Ichiban, he had taken on the Fat Man with his bat, swinging wildly at him. The two clashed their weapons against each other like swords.

“So, not that I care about you guys beyond your money, but how the hell are you not shocked by… you know, your friend shooting fire?”

Ichiban shrugged in response. “Nah, this isn’t that strange. I’ve seen weirder.”

“If you say so…” The Fat Man noted before breaking the clash with his body. With Ichiban stumbling, he swung his 2x4 down onto him, though a well-timed block prevented Ichiban from being sent flying. His opponent took advantage of his opportunity to continue pressuring Ichiban, though he kept his eyes on the battlefield. “Yo, how are you guys doing?”

“Great!” hollered the Muscular Man as he held Adachi in a head-lock.

“Absolutely not!” screamed the assassin, who was running away from Nanba and his blasts of fire. “I didn’t sign up for this!”

“Well, neither did I.” Nanba admitted, before running up towards the scared punk. “But I did say I wanted to be able to shoot fire earlier; guess I should take this as a gift!” He then swung at the man’s head, knocking him out instantly. Nanba took a look around the battlefield himself, and saw Ichiban on the floor, with the Fat Man ready to strike him down with his bat. “Oh no you don’t.” Up until Nanba threw a barrage of beans at him, which led to Pigeons attacking him from all directions.

“Thanks, man!” Ichiban hollered out as he got up, before looking at Adachi, who had broken out of the grasp of the Muscular Man. An idea came to Ichiban, just as the pigeons were flying away from the Fat Man. “Yo, Adachi, throw him here!”

“You got it!” Adachi then grabbed the man by the torso, spun around like a top, and threw him right towards Ichiban, who was charging up a devastating swing. When the Muscular Man got close enough to the Fat Man, Ichiban released his attack.

“Batter up!” Ichiban swung his bat around his body twice, hitting both foes brutally, and knocking them out in an instant. After confirming that they didn’t die (It would be bad for the former prisoner to be found with a few dead bodies) Ichiban jumped into the air and screamed loudly. “Hell yeah, we won!”

Stop BGM

“And hoo-boy am I exhausted…” His enthusiasm waned as he landed, breathing heavily like his allies. “You’d think I’d be less tired from fighting, especially with how much I’ve done it before…”

“Agreed.” Adachi grumbled out before looking at Vox. “Hey, lady; why the hell did those punks get a buff like us?”

Vox put a hand on her chin once more. “I… don’t really know. This sorta crap never happens in my world.”

Ordis quickly beeped before flying around the trio of men, scanning them in the process. “ Processing … Scans show Void Corruption to an extent, but Ordis cannot obtain further conclusions.” Vox scrunched her face in thought, while the others went silent.

“I… might have an explanation.” Nanba spoke up, grabbing the group’s attention. “If the Void can change reality through thoughts and emotions… What's not to say that Ichiban’s love of Dragon Quest caused us all to transform in some ways. Hell, given how well he knows me and Adachi-san, that might explain why we only got buffs, while the thugs from earlier got changed… drastically.”

“Not like they stayed that way.” Ichiban noted as the group looked to the rapidly-waking thugs, who had returned to their normal forms. 

“So what you’re saying is…” Adachi summarised, before glaring at Ichiban. “Your imagination has gone off the rails.”

“I didn’t say that; I said that his imagination might have influenced the void.” Nanba explained, earning a grateful gasp from Ichiban.

“Thank you!”

“But you also aren’t wrong about Ichiban.”

“Oh, come on!”

“Enough!” Vox hollered out, ending the argument. “We still don’t know what the hell happened earlier, and Ordis’ scan gave us nothing new; We need information, and there’s only one place I know that can help.”

“Is it in the Orogin System, or wherever you come from?” Adachi asked dismissvely, to which Vox let her mouth hang.

“First of all; how the hell did you get that right the first time? And second, no.” She then pulled out her phone. “I’m using the chatroom.” And then she did.

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

RegisteredL-user: Guys, big * problem; Ichiban, Nanba, and Adachi were struck by Void Lightning.

Grumpy: Shit, what happened to them?

Nanba: We were fighting some punks trying to take our non-existent money when we got struck; I got the ability to shoot fire out of my hands, Adachi got buff, and Ichiban

Itchybum: I got a cool-ass sword!

Adachi: It’s a bat!

Itchybum: Well, close enough!

RegisteredL-user: Yeah, with the right stances, you can do that.

RegisteredL-user: Wait a minute! We’ve got better things to worry about!

RegisteredL-user: Lotus, I’m going to bring them to the moon on Frederick’s world. I’m gonna get Asuka to look the guys over once.

RegisteredL-user: He’s got a hell of an understanding of the Void for a guy who’s just seen it once, and his theories might have an answer as to why Ichiban and his friends weren’t corrupted.

Lotus: Accepted. 

RegisteredL-user: Ky, I know Darryl's about to have a headache about me bringing the Orbiter to orbit, but we need this information NOW, so apologies.

Ky: Fine, but when he does ask about this, and he will, you’re going to help me explain it to him.

RegisteredL-user: Fine. Can’t be that difficult to explain it to him

FlamePrincess: Not that this is something I want to stop, but SOMA Policy tells us that we should minimize the number of people that know of the multiverse’s existence.

RegisteredL-user: Yes, but that becomes unimportant when phenomena from one world crosses over into another, right?

FlamePrincess: Well, you aren’t wrong.

Itchybum: Hey, hold a damn moment!

Itchybum: I just checked the member list, and there’s like 

Itchybum: 7 more people now!

Itchybum: Did you get more bandwidth or something, Blaze-san?

PizzaTime: ooh, we never told you about that, didn’t we?

Highlander: Huh? What’s going on?

Esaka: Well, shit happened, and we dm-ed Liu Kang some… people we know that happen to be both powerful and level-headed.

FlamePrincess: That, specifically.

LordLiuKang: Apologies, Ichiban Kasuga. We have not been entirely honest with you.

LordLiuKang: After an incident on the earthrealm of Kyo Kusanagi’s world, we realised that it would be best to establish a channel to share information and threats with one another.

LordLiuKang: As such, we have created a second chatroom, focused on those who would have the influence and power to help out, and the mind to keep the existence of the multiverse a secret, at least for now.

FlamePrincess: Informally, we call them the masters.

Nanba: What the shit.

RegisteredL-user: Ey! Get in the Orbiter first, then we’ll explain!

<<

Chapter Text

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

Itchybum: So… what happened?

Esaka: Right, well, like I said earlier, Shit happened.

Adachi: Of course shit happens! It happens all the time.

Adachi: What do you mean by ‘Shit happened’?

Esaka: Well, after our little trip across the multiverse, asking everyone and their mother to join us, I returned to my home in a little town called Nagoya. Kissed my girlfriend, fist-bumped my bud, beat the shit out of Yagami.

CKagura: I distinctly remember him winning after a prolonged fight.

Esaka: Eh, that’s not important.

Esaka: Anyways, after our fight that I totally won, I was approached by a guy called Heidern. Not all that important, runs a military group called the Ikari warriors.

Heidern: After the fight you lost, I approached you to ask about your disappearance, and about the alien ship that was seen around your house.. 

Heidern: Second, the Ikari Warriors are a mercenary group that seeks to keep the peace in the world, or at least in our world. We were originally a part of the United Nations, up until the 80s when we became our own group.

Adachi: Ok, the history lesson’s nice and all, but why the hell were you interrogating Kusanagi? Isn’t he basically a civilian?

Nanba: Wouldn’t be surprised if they tortured him into giving up the chat.

Esaka: Contrary to belief, I was not tortured, or anything like that.

Esaka: Heidern wanted to talk, Mom made him a cup of tea, he asked about my disappearance, and I gave him Liu Kang’s number when he wanted more information.

Heidern: Reports from nearby civilians said that Kyo Kusanagi had been kidnapped by aliens. 

Heidern: Despite his civilian nature, Mr Kusanagi’s connection to the Seal of Orochi has made him a POI, even more so after his hand in the defeat of both NESTS, a terrorist organisation which wanted to dominate the world, and Those From the Past, A cult that followed the Will of Gaia.

Itchybum: Absolutely none of those terms make sense to us.

Esaka: Yeah, I wouldn’t blame you.

Esaka: But to sum it up; I’m pretty important.

Nanba: So you gave Heidern Liu Kang’s number after he asked about your kidnapping. What next?

RegisteredL-user: Well, that’s where I step in.

RegisteredL-user: After our escapade, which included getting Tatsuya settled in the Dojo, I got into contact with the Lotus and told her about what happened.

RegisteredL-user: The Lotus is the guide and friend of all Tenno, and acts as our mission control. As for how she’s able to do that for nearly 50 million Tenno… Uh, don’t ask me.

Lotus: Voxaria… your nickname.

RegisteredL-user: Yes?

Lotus: Did you have to use… that?

RegisteredL-user: Well, yes! It’s a famous meme among Tenno!

Lotus: I would like not to recall it. Ever.

Lotus: Speaking of recalling memories, I never authorized your exploration of the Void Tunnel.

RegisteredL-user: You were mourning Mynki, just like little me.

RegisteredL-user: Didn’t know if the void portal was a sign of something bad, and I figured it would be best to look into it.

CKagura: I’m sorry for your loss.

CKagura: Who is this… Mynki?

RegisteredL-user: One of the OGs, even older than me. He was not a tenno in the traditional sense, but he helped us out greatly, even as we grew into our powers. Beyond that, he was a hell of an artist. 

RegisteredL-user: While he had an extended lifespan due to Orokin tech, He lacked a connection to the Void, and thus Eternalism. After a long time living, his body started to break down, and after a point… he died.

PizzaTime: I see…

Alpha&Omega: How does this have anything to do with your story?

PsychoSoldier: Dude, what the hell?!

Korra: You really are an ass, aren’t you?

RegisteredL-user: It’s OK, it’s OK. 

RegisteredL-user: Yes, we miss him still, but mourning him can come later.

RegisteredL-user: Basically, I told her about the chat, she wanted to know more, and I redirected her to Blaze, due to her being the Admin.

FlamePrincess: After we got the requests from both Kyo and Vox, respectively, we contacted Heidern and the Lotus to explain what was necessary, though Liu Kang suggested that we bring more people in to share the information with.

LordLiuKang: With the increase of cross-universe disturbances, We realised that it would make sense to share information, and threats that occur across the other universes.

FlamePrincess: We then asked each member of the chat if they knew someone that was trusted, and that could keep a level head when it came to crises.

FlamePrincess: Remove Tatsuya for obvious reasons, and we have a list of people to work with, as follows.

FlamePrincess: Nero, Son of Vergil and the Proprietor of Devil May Cry Fortuna.

FlamePrincess: Lieutenant Jennifer Scotts, Officer of the Time Force.

FlamePrincess: Ky Kiske, First King of Illyria, Co-Monarch of Vialattea, and Former Commander of the Holy Order of Knights.

FlamePrincess: Vernon Heidern, Commander of the Ikari Warriors.

FlamePrincess: The Lotus, the Guide of all Tenno, and former member of the Sentients.

FlamePrincess: Chrom, Exalt of Ylisse, and Husband of Robin.

FlamePrincess: and finally,

FlamePrincess: Tenzin, Leader of the Air Nation, and Korra’s Airbending Master.

Itchybum: Hey, hold up, what about Arakawa-san?

Itchybum: he’s pretty level-headed!

EricMyers: He shot you. Twice.

EricMyers: How many times do we need to bring this up?

PizzaTime: Seriously, you really gotta find a better mentor figure, man…

FlamePrincess: Yes, all of these were reasons why we… didn’t choose to contact him.

Itchybum: Oh, come on…

Korra: Didn’t you want to find your own path, or something like that?

Itchybum: Yeah, but Adachi-san was looking for him. To look for Horinouchi or whatever his name is.

Adachi: Again.

Adachi: He shot you.

Adachi: Twice.

Adachi: You have a terrible habit of getting hurt for stupid reasons. Or at least getting into trouble.

Esaka: Now that kinda hurts for all of us.

CKagura: For you, maybe. I don’t get into trouble

Esaka: Ash.

CKagura: Don’t bring him up!

Heidern: Agreed.

Heidern: We still don’t know how his powers work fully, and he even agreed to doing a few tests for us.

Ky: Perhaps we could send Asuka his way?

Ky: He was able to analyse the Void from a few samples courtesy of Miss Voxaria, so perhaps he can come up with a good theory

RegisteredL-user: First of all, nix the Miss part, I don’t care. Hell, just call me Vox, like everyone else here.

Lotus: Excluding me

RegisteredL-user: Excluding the Lotus.

Itchybum: Ok, but can we get introductions, or something like that? 

Itchybum: I scrolled up quickly and got nothing on these new guys.

Nero: Shit, we never did that, did we?

Nero: Well, since I’m here, I’m Nero. I’m the Son of Vergil, as Blazey said, and thus Dante’s nephew.

Esaka: Hey, he called her Blazey too!

Nero: I also apparently have more brain cells than the both of them combined, hence why I got recommended to ‘the master chat’

PizzaTime: Hey, you’re doing a great job with these people.

Nero: Because you chose to dump the responsibility onto me.

PizzaTime: Again. 

PizzaTime: Level-Headed, and we trust you!

Alpha&Omega: and you happen to be in the Human World full-time, which means we don’t need to worry much.

Nero: asdhjkasdkh

Nero: Well, Kyrie’s asking for my help, so I might as well give the mic to someone else

Jen: Which would be me!

Jen: I am Jennifer Scotts, Lieutenant of Time Force, and the ‘leader’ of the Time Force Rangers during the Mutant crisis started by Ransik.

WesSide: She is also my girlfriend.

Jen: I am also your girlfriend.

EricMyers: Gross.

WesSide: C’mon, Eric, you’d be the same way if you had a girlfriend.

WesSide: Or Boyfriend, I don’t judge.

EricMyers: This is a chat-room made so that we can share information on our threats, in case they appear in other dimensions, like we have heard right now.

WesSide: It’s also meant to share experiences, and have us interact!

WesSide: We can’t just always be work work work.

RegisteredL-user: Agreed!

RegisteredL-user: Also, memes!

User RegisteredL-user has uploaded a file: PrimedSoon.png (an image of a Legendary-type Mod, with a White border, and an image of a smug woman inside)

Grumpy: Who the hell is that?

RegisteredL-user: No clue, but her smug aura is hilarious.

Ky: Is it my turn now?

FlamePrincess: Oh, yes, please go ahead.

FlamePrincess: Please.

Ky: Hello. I am Ky Kiske, First King of Illyria, and apparently the representative of our world.

Jack-O-Lantern: Isn’t that be Fredericks role?

Grumpy: Please, take it.

Grumpy: I don’t want to deal with these asshats.

RegisteredL-user: But didn’t you say you wanted to see my guns?

Jack-O-Lantern: And now, we see the Tsundere at its most silent, as they try to find an answer that protects them from opening up.

Grumpy: Did you really type that out in a David Attenborough voice?

EricMyers: Wait, David Attenborough exists in your world?

Grumpy: Did.

Grumpy: Died years ago to cancer.

CKagura: Saddening, but it makes sense given his age…

CKagura: Now, I believe it’s Heidern’s turn?

Heidern: I am Vernon Heidern, Commander of the Ikari Warriors. 

Heidern: As Kusanagi-san mentioned earlier, I questioned him about his disappearance, and afterwards I got into contact with Lord Liu Kang, hence the formation of the Master Chat.

WesSide: Sheesh, real professional type, this one.

Heidern: For someone who claims to be the head of a law enforcement organization, you aren’t very professional at all.

EricMyers: It’s not a claim if it’s true.

Heidern: Then how did he become the commander of the Silver Guardians?

EricMyers: Despite how much he acts like a clown, he’s able to focus on the threat in front of him, and rally us whenever a crisis occurs. 

EricMyers: It’s how he became the leader of the Time Force Rangers. And it’s what made him far more fitting for the role of commander over me.

EricMyers: Also a tiny bit of nepotism but at least he earned it.

Jen: Technically speaking, I’m the leader of the rangers.

EricMyers: True, but I’ve always said that a leader on the ground does more than a leader behind a desk.

EricMyers: Not only can he contribute in a conflict, but troop morale is increased when they see their leaders risking their lives for the mission.

EricMyers: And as we all know…

RobinHood: Morale wins the war.

EricMyers: Morale wins the war.

Chrom: And logistics!

WesSide: That is also true!

RobinHood: Agreed!

Heidern: Hmm… I might have under-estimated you…

Heidern: Even still, you should hold yourself to a higher standard. This chat is meant to help us deal with interdimensional threats, even if only as a secondary reason.

FlamePrincess: We actually have a channel meant for serious threats, though we have locked it down for now.

Itchybum: huh, so that was what that channel was for…

WesSide: Not that I want to derail this clearly important conversation, but don’t we have more people to introduce.

FlamePrincess: Yes, yes we do.

FlamePrincess: @Lotus

Lotus: I am the Lotus, friend and guide to the Tenno. 

Lotus: I acted as Voxaria’s Mission Control, up until my capture and injuring at the hands of Executor Ballas, at which point Voxaria’s alternate self took command and freed the Orogin System from his control.

Adachi: Ok, new name. Who the hell is this ‘Ballas’?

RegisteredL-user: An Asshat.

Lotus: A remnant of a darker time, that should stay in the past.

Ordis: SOMEONE WHO SHOULD DIE!

Ordis: We don’t talk about him.

Esaka: …I see.

Chrom: Well, guess I’m up next.

Chrom: You’ve probably heard of me before, but I am Chrom, former head of the Shepherds, and current Exalt of Ylisse.

OracleNaga: Are you not still the head of the Shepherds?

Chrom: I created the Shepherds as a means to protect Ylisse via more precise means.

Chrom: With the peace we now have, I figured it would be more efficient to find someone else to run the Shepherds, while I dealt with the paperwork in the capital.

Chrom: hence, I gave it to Sully. Though I swear there was someone else besides her… Like, someone from the Shepherds…

RobinHood: I know… 

RobinHood: Shit, I forgot his name.

OracleNaga: Kellam?

RobinHood: That’s the bastard!

Grumpy: How the hell did you both forget the guy’s name? I thought you were close as their leader

Chrom: I was, but Kellam is a special case.

Chrom: He’s massive, and his armour makes him even larger. Even still, everyone in the Shepherds forget he exists, with a few exceptions.

OracleNaga: namely, me, another Manakete named Nowi, and a Taguel warrior named Panne. 

Highlander: What’s a Taguel?

RobinHood: A race of shapeshifters. They were allies of Ylisse, but were later killed in a genocide perpetrated by an unknown group of humans.

RobinHood: I’ve had my theories about who that group was, but I’m not getting any proper conclusions.

Tenzin: To think that another group of people would be killed for a single trait… Despicable.

Korra: Tenzin?

Tenzin: Ah, my apologies. I have not even introduced myself. 

Tenzin: I am Tenzin. Head of the Air Acolytes in Republic City, Airbending Teacher of Korra, and the oldest living airbending master. My father, Aang, was actually the Avatar before Korra, and he was the sole Airbender of his time before my birth. The reason he was the sole airbender… was because the Fire Nation had tried to slaughter them.

WesSide: Wait, why? Did they want no one to airbend?

Tenzin: More than a hundred years ago, the Fire Lord at the time, Sozin, wanted to make the Fire Nation a worldwide empire, and thus sought to conquer it. Only the Avatar would be capable of stopping him, which led to the attack on the Air Temples, slaughtering their inhabitants in the process.

Tenzin: Korra might have given you an impression about the Avatar Cycle, but there is one detail that is key; The Avatar reincarnates as a specific type of bender. Water, Earth, Fire, and Air; That is the cycle from which all Avatars follow.

RegisteredL-user: And if no Airbenders were alive, then the Avatar would never appear.

PizzaTime: If the Fire Nation did eliminate all of the Airbenders, wouldn’t a new one have been born anyways?

Tenzin: You forget that they would have had to learn Airbending by themselves, given that all of the masters would have been eliminated.

Tenzin: Then again, it matters not. My father was born a good few years before the attacks; In fact, the only reason he was able to survive was because he dove into the seas of the Southern Water Tribe, and froze himself in the Avatar State.

Tenzin: Though even after defeating Ozai and ending the war, he was the only Airbender in existence, and I carried on his legacy alone until my children were proven to be benders themselves.

Tenzin: That, and the Harmonic Convergence making more people Airbenders, including my elder brother, Bumi. 

Itchybum: Hey, I don’t wanna be the dumbass here, but did you say that your father froze himself unconscious?

Grumpy: Cryopreservation, kid. That’s the term you're looking for.

Grumpy: That’s nearly impossible to do, at least in the sense of freezing and then restoring a body to full working condition, mind and all. 

Grumpy: So to see it work perfectly, through natural means like bending… It’s far too interesting not to be curious about.

Tenzin: That was a technique only accessible to an airbender. You would need to be born one to even consider doing something like that.

Grumpy: Not like I’d care. I’m more a firebending guy, for reasons.

Ky: I am curious if there are ways to lightning bend.

Korra: Absolutely, though it’s much harder than Fire-bending. Even though people in Republic City use it to generate power, it’s still incredibly rare.

Tenzin: Lightning-bending is a purified form of Fire-bending, that requires the wielder to have a mastery over their emotions. They use it to separate the Yin and Yang energies within themselves, which in turn crash back together due to the imbalance caused by separation. With a bit of direction, a bender can launch lightning in a chosen direction.

Grumpy: So an electrical difference… Huh, guess the Thunderseal does a lot of that automatically…

Ky: It’s times like these when I remember that some of the strongest weapons in our universe were created by you… as a hobby.

Grumpy: The Outrage was designed to stop Justice, though the output was a bit much for me to handle. That’s why I split it off into individual elements.

Grumpy: The hobby part came WAY later.

Chrom: Wait, Justice?

RobinHood: Frederick’s Fiance, turned into a war-weapon.

RobinHood: Oh wait, we also have a Frederick.

Chrom: Think they’d get along?

Grumpy: Hell no, I’m not dealing with a guy who’s got my name!

Asami: Hey, guys. I’m back.

Korra: Babe!

Korra: What happened?

Asami: Had to deal with some trouble in the city. 

Tenzin: You mean that woman from the triad?

Korra: Triad?! Which one?

Asami: The Creeping Crystals. Their leader, Jargala Omo, came up to me and offered to protect my stuff from the turf wars… for a price.

Asami: I gave her an electrified middle finger and told her to piss off.

Korra: ASAMI! 

Korra: You could have been hurt… and I wouldn’t have been anywhere near you!

Alpha&Omega: Asami has her phone, and it wouldn’t be difficult to cut a portal between Ichiban’s world and your world, Korra.

Korra: Still!

Korra: I could have done better than her.

Korra: I can do better than that bitch!

Asami: Korra, don’t worry about it.

Asami: I hired security for the site; High-level, reputable help from a local group that’s not fond of either triad.

Korra: I’m still worried.

Asami: Tell you what; When you return to our world, how about a date?

Asami: Fan's Dumplings, followed by… a turtle duck ride?

RegisteredL-user: Sap.

Asami: Shut it.

Jen: Did a spaceship just… pass by our world?

RegisteredL-user: Woopsies! That’s me!

RegisteredL-user: Vergil cut a portal from Ichiban’s world to Eric’s world, and the Orbiter passed through Eric’s world to Freddie’s world. I just needed to expand the hole created by Vergil to fit the Orbiter, and then it would be easy sailing to the world we want!

OracleNaga: Is that why it took so long to get from our worlds to Ichiban’s world?

RegisteredL-user: Yep! Had to dig a tunnel between them, though it’ll be much faster to travel between your worlds now!

LordLiuKang: Is it possible to dig these tunnels for all of the worlds?

RegisteredL-user: Yes, but it’ll be boring as *

RegisteredL-user: Pun unintended.

Ordis: Operator, Ordis can calculate the time required now, if you would like!

RegisteredL-user: Good idea, but do that a bit later; We’re almost at Asuka’s base.

RegisteredL-user: Open up a coms line; We need to make sure he knows we’re approaching.

RegisteredL-user: And hopefully I can figure out how the hell he was able to catch my ass earlier.

Ky: Is it just me, or is Ordis french?

<<

[S] Master’s Chatroom

[C] General

Ordis: Ordis has finally compiled the results for the tests!

Ordis: Results are as follows!

User Ordis has uploaded a file: VoidReport0134.pdf (A file containing scans of Ichiban, Nanba, and Adachi)

N.Irving: Ok, I’m probably being a dumbass, but what the hell am I looking at? What are these values?

J.Scotts: Don’t worry, Nero. I’m just as confused as you are.

Ordis: Ah, Ordis forgot that the Void is a new concept to everyone in the chat excluding the Lotus.

N.Lotus: Ordis, summarise the Nodule Corruption and Void Radiation sections of the report.

Ordis: The nodule corruption shows the number of Lymph Nodes that have been corrupted by the void, and the Void Radiation shows how much Void radiation a person emits per second.

Ordis: All of them exhibit a high amount of Corrupted Lymphatic Nodes, though in comparison to our world they are relatively small. Similarly, All three emit radiation in the 1200 Void-Micron range, though Ichiban has the highest at 1167 VMs.

V.Heidern: Is that good, or bad?

N.Lotus: From what Asuka has told us, their minds are their own. The void has yet to worm its way into it, despite the high numbers.

N.Lotus: They should be fine, but I would advise caution. There could be more instances of the Void crossing over into their world, or even the other worlds.

V.Heidern: Could we have them stay at Kreutz’s Base on the Moon?

T.Thich: I must admit that I do not have the strongest grasp on the concepts of the multiverse, but I believe it would be far wiser to return them to their home world as soon as possible; their absence could cause further imbalances to occur.

K.Kiske: Not to mention, the legal challenges with keeping three individuals from other worlds here would be substantial. We’re already having issues with Asuka’s base on the moon, and the issues that come from our work with smoothing out relations with Gears and Humans.

V.Heidern: But what if more imbalances occur with them staying in their world?

V.Heidern: What if something akin to the catastrophe that occurred in Mr. Suou’s world occurs again?

Liu Kang: While it is a tragedy, we know for a fact that it was only triggered by the hands of a malicious god. We cannot assume that Ichiban Kasuga is the cause, not when the data suggests otherwise.

N.Lotus: There is such a being in our world, and his power is immense; so much so that I suspect he is behind the void incursions. However, I doubt he is as malicious as this Nyarlathotep.

E.Chrom: Even if he is, it doesn’t mean he can’t be beaten. Grima was proclaimed to be unstoppable, and yet we were able to defeat him once and for all with the help of Robin and Reflet. 

K.Kiske: That’s an attitude I can get behind myself.

J.Scotts: Do we know anyone else who would know more about the incursions?

Ordis: The Entrati Family on Deimos may be the best known source of knowledge on the Void, due to their legacy of innovations and research regarding the void.

Blaze: That would mean explaining the multiverse to them, and SOMA in turn. Policy doesn’t necessarily restrict this, but we should try to minimize the number of people who know about the multiverse at once.

Blaze: While I agree with the idea, we should keep them out of this until a greater incursion occurs. 

V.Heidern: I would prefer to have the information now over later, but I recognize that discretion may be necessary when it comes to this matter. If too many people know, we could have a crisis borne from the resulting panic.

Ordis: I have informed the Operator already, and she is bringing them back to their original worlds. 

Liu Kang: Good. 

Liu Kang: As for the Entrati Family, let us hope we will not need to call upon them anytime soon.

J.Scott: You know that by saying that, the chances of that happening increase greatly, right?

Ordis: The Operator has bet 50,000 Credits on needing to talk to the Entrati family.

E.Chrom: and Robin added 500 gold on that as well.

Blaze: Goddamnit.

<<

Chapter Text

2015, Devil May Cry America, Earth-D-54285

“Ahh…” Dante sighed as he leaned back in his chair. “No jobs, no demons, and Lady and Trish aren’t pulling some nonsense on me today.” Indeed, Dante was alone inside the offices of Devil May Cry, and he was enjoying it by kicking back, eating pizza and drinking whiskey. 

Of course, his peace and quiet was interrupted by a strange noise coming from his desk, which sounded suspiciously like a song about pizza.

“Huh, someone’s calling me?” He slammed his foot into his desk to knock his new phone towards him, catching it with his hand before bringing it to his face, which allowed him to see the caller ID and pick it up. “Yo, Nero, what’s up?”

“Hey, Dante. Nothing much.” Nero answered. “I actually wanted to ask you a question; About you specifically.”

“Me?” Dante leaned forward in shock. “What would you want to know about me?”

“Well, I was curious about your relationships. For the longest time I assumed you were my father, but after my arm and the Qliphoth, that… evidently wasn’t the case. With that in mind, I wondered if you…. Well, dating anyone?”

“HAH! So that’s your question, huh?” Dante barked out a laugh at the question. “Well, I’d like to say that I’ve been around the block before, but to be perfectly honest… I haven’t exactly been in a relationship before.”

The sound of Nero spitting out a drink brought another laugh to Dante, but he quickly schooled himself as Nero returned to the mic. “You’ve never dated anyone? Not even… I don’t know, Lady?”

“Ha, as if!” Dante refuted. “She’s far too expensive, far too insane, and I make it a point to not date anyone who’s shot me before!”

“Wait, she what?!” Nero cried out, before scoffing on the mic. “Nah, I can see it. You are an asshole.”

Dante’s jaw dropped at the admission. “Not even ‘kind of an asshole’, just straight-up an asshole?”

“Yep.” Nero said, and Dante sighed to himself. For a moment, the line was quiet before Nero broke the silence with a question.

“Did you expect to join the group chat? To meet other people?”

“Nope, but it’s hella fun talking to them.” Dante answered quickly, before a question came to his mind. “Hey, I never asked, but are Ichiban and the others alright?”

“Yeah, Ordis or whatever his name is said as much, though the extent of the changes are beyond him.” Nero explained, and Dante hummed.

“Good…good.”

“Why are you interested? It’s not like you to be this concerned.”

“Well, I feel an odd connection with the guy, so I feel I gotta be concerned when he gets shocked by shit from another universe.” Dante explained, before his voice dropped. “That, and I’ve got a concern regarding the Yamato.

“What do you mean?” Nero asked with concern in his voice.

“To put it bluntly, there’s a bunch of its shards all over the underworld. Not just from when Mundus shattered it, but also just because it sharpens itself automatically. There’s a… chance that some asshat could get a shard, and attack the other worlds with demons. Hell, it did happen; Balrog had a shard before I kicked his ass!” The devil arm in question waved his hand from nearby, but Dante ignored him in favour of his nephew.

“And you want to make sure everyone’s prepared.”

Dante hummed once more. “Yeah. They’re all strong, but I feel they need to get stronger if they want to deal with demons. Kyo and Ichiban, especially.”

“Still can’t believe that we have other universes to deal with, even with the chat rooms and all that…” Nero muttered to himself. “You know, Blaze mentioned that there are other universes out there, like our own. Alternate universes, she called it. Do you… do you think you and Lady would have… gotten together?”

Dante guffawed at that. “As. If.” 

Meanwhile, in the Inaba Devil Universe…

April 5th, 2012, Karaokekan-Kamuro, Earth-44998

“AH-CHOO!” Dante sneezed into his elbow, interrupting his lovely wife as she was picking out a song.

“What’s wrong?” Lady asked him, her attention on him completely.

“Ah, it’s nothing. Must have been some dust.” He answered swiftly before looking around, dragging a finger on the wooden edge of the couch he was in. “Though I will admit this place is damn-near immaculate for a hole-in-the-wall Karaoke joint.”

“Maybe someone was thinking about you.” Lady suggested, and Dante shrugged in response.

“Perhaps.”

Her face gained a smug smile as she leaned sultrily towards him, giving him a glimpse of her cleavage from beneath the white-dress she wore. “I hope you aren’t thinking about another woman~.”

“As if, when I’ve got a few dates to make up for, with my lovely wife, and mother of our child?” Dante shot back, which earned a laugh from Lady for a few moments, before anxiety took over.

“D-do you think V is alright? Staying with Trish?” she shuffled from side to side, nervously glaring at Dante as she spoke.

“Trish loves her like a granddaughter, despite how much she says otherwise.” Dante reassured her. “Not to mention her little menagerie of demons; There’s not a damn thing that’ll get close to her.”

“Fair enough.” Lady sighed aloud, before returning her attention to the console. “What to pick, What to pick… Ah! Didn’t think this would be here!” She then selected the track in question, while Dante raised an eyebrow.

“And what caught your eye?”

“It’s a newer band, but… I like what they got.” Lady answered, just as the song started to play on the speakers, with the synth chords hitting Dante’s ears like waves.

BGM: Jaded (Spiritbox, The Fear of Fear)

2019, Isezaki-Ijincho, Earth-Y-54285

“Goddamn, that took a while…” Ichiban grumbled out as he and the boys walked down the streets of Kamurocho.

“First that Sujimon guy, then the guy that was pissing in public…” Adachi narrated for the group, just as annoyed as Ichiban. 

“Yeah, that’s what you find in Ijincho.” Nanba explained. “Then again, I think I speak for all of us when I wish that we didn’t need to deal with all the crap that came from Asuka-san’s scans.

“Are you kidding me, guys?” Ichiban groaned upon seeing Nanba glare at him. “He had a valid reason to be worried with what Vox-san told us.”

“It’s less that, and more your idiocy getting us shocked in the first place.” Adachi grumbled back, before a smile came on his face as he inspected his arms. “Buuut, I ain’t gonna say no to having a shit-ton of strength now. I think I’m even stronger than I was in my prime! Hooah!” He flexed his body, before continuing to walk.

“Yeah, shooting fire out of my hand has been a dream of mine…” Nanba thought aloud as he juggled a fireball in his hand for a moment, before extinguishing it and looking at Ichiban. “Say, you think we’d be able to get jobs in the other worlds? I wouldn’t mind getting paid to launch fireballs out of my hands or something like that.”

“Yeah, that would be cool…” Ichiban imagined what could be for a moment before punching his fists together. “But we cannot fear! There are jobs in this world, so I say we go get them! Onwards, to Hello Work!” With that cheery speech, Ichiban turned around, stepped forward into the light, and ran face-first into someone else. “Woops, sorry…” Ichiban’s voice slowed down as he saw who he bumped into.

It was a woman, wearing a black shirt, white skirt, and a white suit-jacket on top, with a brown handbag slung over her shoulder. She had a small amount of makeup on her face, which was only slightly soiled by the scuff she got from accidentally headbutting Ichiban. Even with that, there was only one word that could describe the woman in front of Ichiban; Beautiful.

“Yo, my eyes are up here!” Her voice snapped him out of any thoughts, as he quickly shook them clear. 

“Oh, right, sorry for running into you.” He quickly apologised with a bow. “I was too focused on my job application to notice.”

The woman hummed to herself “Sure…” She then started to walk around the group dismissively, causing both Adachi and Nanba to scowl at her from behind her back. Ichiban was about to simply walk away when the woman spoke up again. “Oh, I do hope that you get that job, man.” He turned around to see a smile on her face, before she walked away. Ichiban couldn’t help the smile that formed on his face as he walked towards Hello Work for all of 5 seconds before he was accosted by some two-bit gangsters, who quickly morphed into caricatures via the Void.

Not like he wasn’t going to beat them up with a smile.

2002, Silver Hills, Earth-R-54285

“Yo, Eric, can you cover my shift? I got a call with Jen happening soon, and I don’t wanna miss it!”

Eric couldn’t help but replay the conversation in his head as he patrolled Silver Hills. Wes had begged him to take over when he learned of the conflict, and like the friend he was, he took it without question. Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t going to complain about it in his car.

“Goddammit, Wes…” Eric grumbled to himself as he approached the turn-signal, ready to take a right turn. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me about your date earlier? I’d have taken your shift anyways, but… goddamnit, I was just about to have lunch in my office…” He then glanced at the passenger seat, where his lunch - a Burger and fry combo - was waiting for him. “At least I only have to do a few more miles, and then I can finally have lunch…” 

Suddenly, a yellow convertible flew past him from the other street, nearly clipping his patrol truck in the process. “Woah! That was way too fast! And far too dangerous for these streets!” He turned on the light bar and sirens in an instant, before swerving around the bend to set his sights on the offending car. Fortunately for him, it slowed down rather quickly before stopping on a safe curb, at which point he did the same. Stepping out of his car, he picked up a notebook and ticketbook before walking to the Driver side of the car, where he noticed that the driver was a woman.

“Lady, do you know how fast you were going?” He asked automatically as he inspected her. She was caucasian, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a yellow shirt underneath a… unique yellow vest.

“Sorry, you se-”

“Uh-huh.” He interrupted her, uncaring for her bullshit. “License and registration, please?” She quickly gave it to him, and he quickly wrote it down, before quickly writing up the ticket for her. “10 KM over the Speed limit, reckless driving… and there.” He quickly gave her the ticket before walking back to his one vehicle, entering the driver's seat just as the yellow car drove away. With that, Eric sighed and reminisced on the encounter.

“At the very least, I won’t have an empty report to write, but… why do I have the feeling that Wes would tease me about this?”

2188, Iseo Isolation Zone, Earth-G-54285

“Yo, Jack-O, I’m decorating the Popcorn. What do you want in your bowl?” Frederick called out from the Kitchen, which led to Jack-O bouncing up from her place on the couch.

“I want my popcorn to have candy and chocolate and caramel and-!” 

“Alright, Alright, chill.” He calmed her down before grabbing practically everything sweet he could find in the cupboards and throwing them into her bowl of popcorn; As for himself, he just threw in some melted butter, and tossed it until it was mixed. 

With that, he brought the two bowls to the living room, where Jack-O was bouncing on the couch with a blanket over her belly. The smile on her face became blinding to look at the moment she spotted her bowl, and it became very difficult to keep Jack-O away. “Give it to me, Frederick! Gimme!”

With a lunge, she grabbed the bowl from Frederick, which caused a few kernels to land on her blanket, though she picked them up near-instantly. Frederick, for what it was worth, chuckled before sitting down. “Jeez, you are just a ball of energy, aren’t you?”

Jack shrugged as she finally calmed down. “It’s probably the baby. Unika also has a thing for sweets, so I wouldn’t be surprised if our kiddo’s the same.”

“You know, I’ve heard theories that the tastes of the mother gets passed down onto their kids, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she got it from the version of you in her timeline.” He theorized quietly, though he was quick to notice the apprehension on her face. “What’s wrong, Jack-O?”

“D-do you think we should use the name we planned to use?”

“You mean Mercury?” Frederick answered quickly. “Why are you asking that?”

“Well… Unika’s real name is Mercury, and she’s been going by Unika ever since she’s come here, alongside Lucy.” Jack explained. “Would it be strange to steal her name for our kid?

“Oh, I see what’s going on.” Frederick held a hand out. “We gave her her real name in the first place, or at least a version of us did. She’s just as much our kid as this one is. Second… You’re still having those thoughts about your worth as a mother, huh?” 

“How do you know? She gasped as he got it right, but he interrupted her by placing a hand on the back of her head and pulling her in gently to kiss her on the forehead. 

“You’re going to be a great mother, so don’t doubt yourself, alright?”

Jack-O started giggling once more, before looking at him fondly. “When did you become so good at being a father?”

“You’d be surprised at how helpful those parenting guides Ky sent us are; I know I was when I first read through them.” He could hear the logos for the movie studios playing in the background, and turned his head towards the TV. “Now, how about we watch our movie for now, and think about our kid a bit later?”

And with that, the movie started to play, and Frederick and Jack-O got a little bit closer.

2010, Nagoya, Earth-K-54285

Walking down the streets of Nagoya at dusk, Kyo couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the city; The sun colouring the city a bright orange as it went down over the western mountains, the few lights turning on and adding a bit more colour to the world, or even the slowly-growing scent of food as small shops opened up for the nightlife of the city. However, it was nothing compared to his date, who was clinging to his arm gently, but firmly.

“It’s so beautiful…” Yuki whispered in awe, her letterman jacket crinkling as the leather sleeves rubbed up against the sleeves of his own jacket.

A smart idea came to Kyo upon hearing those words- “Not as beautiful as you.” -And he was swiftly rewarded by the sight of Yuki’s blushing face.

“Kyo!” Yuki gasped loudly, looking away in an attempt to hide her blush (and failing miserably, though Kyo would never voice that thought in front of her). She realised she was failing, and pouted when Kyo started to laugh, though she quickly joined in the levity. After a few minutes, the two continued their walk when they came across a store advertising some products.

“Oh, this is stuff Chizuru’s company sells…” Kyo noted as they passed by the store, which earned a hum from Yuki.

“You know, we did tell her about our date in the main chat, but she never answered my question about her plans… I wonder what Chizuru-san is up to?”

Kyo shrugged in response. “Probably working her ass off instead of relaxing.”

As the two of them continued their walk, the woman in question was in-fact relaxing in her house, putting on a romantic movie for herself. Despite what Kyo thought of her, she knew that she needed to relax at times, and so she had taken the opportunity to watch one of her favourite novels; Desert Hearts. She had watched it first with her sister when it came out in America, and it had been one of the last films she had watched before her death; Chizuru made it a point to watch it on Valentine’s Day as a reminder.

Currently, she was watching the scene where the two heroines, Vivian and Cay, were driving away from the wedding to Pyramid Lake, and she couldn’t help but smile when the two talked.

“Oh, I love this scene… I love all of them, but… I love seeing them together.” Chizuru softly said to herself, smiling as the two women chatted each other up. It was only during the fade to black, towards the next scene, that Chizuru’s smile fell away.

“If only I could have it myself…” she whispered as the two walked along the lake, enjoying the other’s company.

2615, Ylisse Halidom, Kaga-F-54285

“Ugh…” Chrom groaned as he looked at the piece of paper in front of him, before looking up to the piles of paper that littered his desk. “Yet another suggestion that’s absolute garbage.”

“It’s not the worst that we’ve dealt with.” Robin’s voice interrupted his dismal thoughts, and he turned his head to look at her. She was dressed in rather casual wear, though that was more out of practicality due to the obscene amount of paperwork she was working on herself.

“Don’t say that, Robin.” He warned her with a glare (a soft one at that), though she shrugged with a carefree smile.

“What? Will Frederik come in with more paperwork?” She snarked back, only for a knock to come to the door. Chrom sighed before calling the person in, at which point Frederik (the member of the Shepherds and not Sol Badguy) calmly stepped into the room, gave each of them a pile of paperwork, took whatever paperwork they had finished with him, and bowed gently before leaving the room to the two of them.

Chrom could feel a smile come onto his face, but he schooled his expression upon seeing the frown upon his wife’s face. “Didn’t I say not to tempt fate?”

“I wasn’t trying to.” Robin defended herself. “I’m just saying that paperwork isn’t all that bad, especially compared to the war.”

“Heh, you’re not wrong on that front.” Chrom conceded with a chuckle before signing the paper in his hand and moving it to the finished pile of papers. “Ylisse is at peace, we are allies with Plegia and Valm - Even more so with the former through your brother - and Grima has been dealt with, along with the Grimleal. If this is the price to pay for peace, then I am happy… Well, it’s still boring, but I can live with it.”

“And so can I, especially with you as my husband.” Robin followed up with a tease, which brought a smile to Chrom’s face.

“If you’re trying to lure me to the bedroom, then you’ll need to finish your share of the paperwork.” Chrom shot back. “And don’t get mad at me; It was your idea to lock us in this room until we plowed through all of this.”

“It was Ky’s idea!” Robin countered weakly, though she had already tore through a ton of her papers during their little spat. Either way, the two of them worked in silence; Well, Chrom worked, while Robin looked down at the paper in front of her. After a few minutes, she sighed silently, though it was enough for Chrom to stop writing.

“Robin? Everything alright?” He asked aloud, and Robin stopped pretending to work.

“D-did you expect…” Robin started to ask, pausing for a moment before continuing. “Did you expect to become Exalt? To interact with other worlds?”

“Absolutely not.” Chrom replied almost instantly. “I knew that Emmeryn was going to be Exalt, so I resigned myself to act as her loyal brother, making sure her reign was unchallenged by Plegia; It’s why I created the Shepherds, after all.” He was working on paperwork all the while, but he paused to sigh as well. “But… you know what happened; She died, I took up the role, we got married, had Robin and Marc, fought off Valm, the Grimleal and Grima, and then had a peaceful few years before you and Tiki got involved with Blaze and the others.”

Robin had turned her focus upon him, “You know, I don’t want to sound unsupportive, but you agreed to work with Blaze and Liu Kang rather easily, even though you barely know them.”

“And I’d do it again in a heartbeat, if I had to.” He answered just as fast. “You know I can’t refuse to help someone, and I’m not one to refuse help. 

“And yet…” A dark look came into Robin's face. “Validar assisted us too, up until he raised Grima from the dead…”

“And to quote the other Frederick, we kicked his ass back to hell.” Chrom said, before chuckling to himself. “Oh, we really shouldn’t let Frederick meet our Frederik. They’d drive each other nuts!” Robin started to cackle loudly, and the two laughed for a few minutes before stopping. Chrom sighed for a moment before looking down at the papers in front of him.“Ah, we’ve been slacking. Let’s pick up the pace!”

“Naga dammit.” Robin swore as they went back to the paperwork.

3052, Vox’s Dojo, Sol-System-W-54285

“Oof!” Tatsuya groaned as he hit the floor, ass-first, in the middle of the Dojo. He tried getting up, but the constant ass-kicking had left him tired, and so he continued to stare up at the ceiling, up until a familiar face walked their way in-between.

“This flooring may look nice…” Agatha softly spoke, hand on their hip as they looked down on him. “But it is no place for a nap.”

“H-How about… you tell me that when my body doesn’t hurt.” Tatsuya shot back, and they simply opened up their tome in response.

“Diarahan.” She casted the spell, and Tatsuya felt rejuvenated once more. Standing up slowly, he rolled his shoulder and stretched his body, smiling as he noticed a distinct lack of strain. 

“Thanks for that. Even if you are kicking my teeth in.” He backhandedly complimented her, and she giggled in response

“Perhaps, but you are still getting up even after all of our attempts. Your strength of will is commendable, even in the face of all your suffering.” Agatha explained, before a frown came onto her face. “Still, I must wonder why you have not said anything about your condition to your friends?”

Tatsuya’s face fell as he was reminded of the very reason for their training. “Friends… I want to call them that, but they’ve kept this secret from me; For good reasons, yes, but it’s my issue. I can’t expect them to help me with this.”

“Do you think they would be unable to help?” Agatha wondered aloud. “That woman who appeared in this place earlier… Voxaria, I believe… She is quite kind, letting you live in her realm. Not only that, but she is quite strong herself.”

“Perhaps… but it was you who told me that I could recover my memories, by myself. All I need is strength… and all things considered, I’m far weaker than all of them. I can barely talk to them; I can only talk so long with you, even with your help.” Tatsuya admitted. “That’s why I signed that contract in the first place, right? You’d help me become stronger, so that I could face myself… and that damned god that took my memories from me.” He then shook his head before raising his fists up. “But that’s something I can worry about later. I’m back up, so let’s go another round!”

Very well.” Agatha shrugged her shoulders, before letting her tome dissipate and raising her fists in a combat stance. “To quote my younger sister… Prepare for a kicked ass!”

In Republic City…

“Where is she?” Korra asked herself as she looked around the area outside Fan’s Dumplings, waiting for her girlfriend as she did. She tapped her foot against the pavement impatiently, which if she had to admit it was a bad thing, but A) Asami was her girlfriend, which meant B) She was worried for her.

“Maybe I should call her…” Korra thought before looking for a payphone, only to realise that she had a better option. “Wait, We both have smartphones!” She then opened up the device and opened the phone app, at which point she started to call Asami. “C’mon… pick up, Asami.”

Ring ring ring…

Ring ring ring…

Ring ring ring…

Your call has not-

“Dammit!” Korra ended the call in a fit as she started to wonder what could have happened. ‘Could she have been stuck in traffic? No, the streets don’t look all that clogged. Could she be injured? Could she have been kidnapped?’ The thought was dark, but a quick breath was enough for Korra to calm herself down. “Wait, calm down, it’s not like Asami couldn’t defend herself if she was attacked.” She tried to reason, though the doubt still crept up. “But… she didn’t pick up… and I know she’s far less negligent about these sorts of things compared to me.” With that, Korra started to feel her heart race, and not in a good way, as she tried to figure out what to do next; It was while she was staring at her phone that she got an idea.

“Wait a minute… Blaze told me how this thing works. It’s unlikely, but… could I send a call from here to a landline?” Korra voiced the idea, and decided to punch in a number she knew very well; the landline at Mako’s place. Now, she knew that phones in her world required an operator to link your phone with another, but these devices were capable of things that Korra could only dream of; What were the odds that they could work here?

“Who’s this?” Mako’s voice came through her phone, but Korra didn’t give him any time to speak (or to celebrate the little victory that was calling a landline without an operator) before continuing.

“It’s Korra. Asami didn’t show up at Fan’s Dumplings, and I’m starting to get worried.”

She could hear him gasp slightly on the other end before speaking. “Shit, that’s not good… Where do you think she last was?”

“Her office.” Korra quickly said. “That’s where she was when I ran off to get changed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she walked from it to the dumpling place.”

“Then that’s where we’ll look. I’ll get Bolin as well.” He replied before hanging up, and Korra could feel her heart calming down, just that little bit.

“Let’s hope she’s not in any real trouble, then…” Korra reassured herself, before taking a page from Blaze’s book and boosting herself forward with fire.

3052, Vox’s Orbiter, Sol-System-W-54285

I've never found a way to be honest

As the Somachord played a song Jack-O recommended in the personal quarters, Vox looked out to the stars alone. Her usually tied back hair was let loose, falling past her shoulders messily, while her pince-nez had been placed on the table, right alongside the phone Blaze gave her. With everyone having plans of some kind, Vox was left alone, free to talk to herself about her life.

All I know is a place where I haunted 

“I’ve worked with so many people in this system… the Ostrons, Solaris United, the Entrati Family, even the Holdfasts… Hell, I helped Ticker out with the debt bonds for Star Days “ She mumbled to herself. “And that’s not even talking about the others in the chat… Blaze, Frederick, Ichiban, Tatsuya…”

Memories faded

She took a deep breath to calm herself reflexively, recalling the lessons she took on the Zariman to control her emotions. “But do I mean anything to them? Am I really friends with them… family? Or am I just a good killer that they tolerate because they need me?”

Love is jaded.

“It’s not like I’m a good friend myself. I’ve let Ichiban get shocked by Void lightning twice, even if at the end of the day he’s alright. And what about Tatsuya? I said he could live in my Dojo, but I forgot about his ass while running off to see Ichiban!” Her hands were shaking as she screamed, until she clenched them in an attempt to calm herself down once more.

Stop BGM

“Sis?”

Vox’s eyes widened in shock, before they returned to their half-lidded appearance. ‘Little me… so you’re awake.’

“Did you think I’d sleep forever?”

“Just long enough for me to stop feeling like an ass.” She grumbled out

“Are you having another moment?”

“What do you think?” She immediately felt bad for throwing that hatred at herself; she wasn’t the one that felt out of place.

“I think… you should hug Umbra. He makes me feel better, just as I do for him.”

She was trying her best to help Vox, and Vox did give the idea a momentary consideration, before shaking her head. “He likes you; He barely tolerates me.”

“That’s not true…”

Little-her tried to reassure the elder Vox, but the one in real-space wasn’t going to listen; not now, at least.

“I… just want to be left alone.” Vox said quietly, and she could hear her other self sigh in exasperation.

“Fine…  just talk to me when you feel ready.”

Her presence was missing from Vox’s mind, and once more she was all alone.

2015, Devil May Cry America, Earth-D-54285

“Oh, I think that was the best date ever…” Kyrie wistfully said as the two of them approached their home.

Nero nodded his head in agreement. “Food was good, no demons attacked us, and the kids are safe… for the most part.” He conveniently ignored his father’s attempts to teach the kids how to use a sword as he guided Kyrie up the single step towards the front door, where she rummaged through her hand-bag to find the keys. “Still can’t believe he’s… alright with kids.”

“You did say he needed to ‘earn his keep’, so to say.” She answered back while rummaging through her bag. “And he’s quite honourable; he promised to take care of them, so I doubt any harm came to them in the first place.” With keys in hand, she opened the door, and Nero stepped inside, where the first thing he saw was Vergil sitting in a plastic chair in the middle of the living room and reading a book.

“Old man. Everything alright?” Nero asked curtly, to which Vergil nodded in response.

“The children have eaten dinner, and they have been put to bed. The curly-haired one has holed herself in her laboratory with your… sword, and I would not be surprised if she has fallen asleep on her desk, or she has killed herself in her research.” He bluntly answered, before returning his focus to his book.

“Nico’s not that careless.” Nero defended his friend, before a small doubt entered his mind. “Then again…” He slowly turned to Kyrie, who smiled back at him and kissed him on the lips chastely.

“I’ll check on Nico, and then the kids.” She then walked towards the garage, leaving behind Nero to deal with Vergil and the silence that grew between them.

“So, what did you make for them?” Nero asked in an attempt to break the silence.

“The pasta recipe your lover taught me.” Vergil answered curtly, his eyes locked onto his book constantly. 

Nero chuckled to himself in an attempt to keep the conversation going. “What did you read for the kids? I know they sometimes have a hard time falling asleep, and-”

“I read some poems from William Blake, and they fell asleep.” 

Nero cursed silently as Vergil answered his questions so efficiently that asking anymore was difficult. As he looked around for something to talk about, Nero couldn’t help but notice the state of the furniture.

“Damn, this place is spotless. Did you clean the place yourself?” Vergil hummed in response, and made it clear he wasn’t going to answer any more. Nero resigned himself to the silence and walked around the room, finding no errors in Vergil’s work, which only brought more frustration onto himself.

“You’re such a damn neat-freak, you know that?” Nero grumbled to himself as he approached the corner opposite where his father was sitting. “Whether it’s combat or cleaning, there’s not a single weakness or detail you miss, and Dante says that you were practically the same when you first came here. How the hell can you be like that and then knock up some random whore?”

The air in the room became oppressive, and Nero turned around to find his father standing up, the novel in one hand and the Yamato in the other. “What… did you just say?”

Nero, despite the danger, couldn’t help but become aggressive. “Oh, is your hearing going out, too? Well, lemme break it down for you; You’re a detail-obsessed asshole, and yet somehow you decided to knock up a prostitute before leaving his place!”

“And how would you know your mother is a… harlot?” Vergil grimaced, as demonic energy poured out of his body subconsciously.

“Did Dante never tell you how I was found?” Nero asked in a barely-contained whisper. “I was found on the steps of an orphanage, wrapped in a black blanket; Hell, that’s how I got my name, if you were wondering. No one knew who my mother was, and so everyone just assumed that my mother was a prostitute; A real son of a bitch I was.”

At that moment, Vergil drew the Yamato and pointed it at Nero’s throat, which led to the young man summoning his spectral arms in defense. “How… dare… you call your mother a bitch , when you know nothing of her.”

“Oh, and you know better?” 

“Of course I do.” Vergil countered his statement effortlessly, “Karina Holland was a brilliant woman, able to match wits with me without fail, able to follow me even when I faced demons, and even helped me deal with the Supreme General. She was studying to become a journalist, and yet every one of my senses told me that she would have dropped everything to raise you, Nero.”

Hearing the response made Nero feel weak in the knees, but even still he couldn’t let his father be right. “You say that, but you were 18… 19 when you knocked her up? Dante told me about your shitty decisions back then, like the Temen-Ni-Gru or Arkham. What are the odds that she was lying about everything?

Vergil sighed as he lowered his blade from Nero’s throat. “You are right that I was a fool back then… and perhaps I have not grown much beyond then, but I know for a fact that she was… perfect, even when I factor in my foolishness.” He slowly sheathed the Yamato as his voice cracked for once in his life. “If I had the chance to rewind time, prevent myself from knocking her up, and give myself a chance to live a normal life… I still would have done everything to make her my wife, and I know she would have loved to call me her husband… and you, her son.”

Nero fell to his knees in shock at the revelation; For years he had been called nothing more than a whore’s son, or a bastard, and it had been beaten into his head for so long that he had grown accustomed to the hate. He hated himself, and he hated Fortuna; even now, years after saving it, he couldn’t help but find himself only really caring about Kyrie, the kids, and maybe Nico. But to know that the woman who birthed him was far from a mere prostitute… to put it bluntly, it hurt.

The room was silent once more, though this was because the two Spardas were letting the information mull between them. After a few minutes, Nero sat on the floor, and thought aloud. “Mom… she was smart enough to deal with you, didn't fear demons at all… and she stood up to the Supreme General?” his voice wavered at the idea of a loving mother, and he wondered about his father’s story. “Who even was that guy, anyways?

“Hmm, a fool by the name of Sanctus.”

“Sanctus? Him?!” Nero asked incredulously. “I know that he was the Supreme General before Credo, but I didn’t think he was active when you were here. Then again, I didn’t think he’d try to use me as a power source…”

“He did what now?” Vergil asked, and Nero quickly filled him in on the events surrounding the Savior and the Fortuna Crisis. “So my original assumption about him was correct; He was a power-hungry fool, who got the death that he rightfully deserved. Good.”

“But if he was like that in the past, and he saw you and… her together…” Nero thought to himself. “Did he know who you were?”

“He saw me wield the Yamato, he saw me bleed, and I unlocked my Devil Trigger defending Karina, right in front of his eyes.” Vergil answered. “If he did not figure out that I was related to Sparda at the very least, then he was either blind or dumb, and he was clearly neither.”

As Vergil spoke, Nero recalled something Nico told him earlier. “Nico… she told me a theory about the mother carrying the blood of their child’s father after they give birth for a short while.” Nero suggested, before an idea came to his mind. “Do you think that… he did something to her? Capture her just when I was born? Harvest your cells from her?”

“It would be trivially easy.” Vergil noted. “The only way onto this island is by boat, so they would have an easy time tracking what’s on every vessel. I might have escaped via the yamato, but she… she would not have gotten out, not when she was pregnant with you, and not even after your birth.” He paused for a moment to breathe before continuing. “And your friend’s theory about cells… the power that would have come from Sparda would have lasted for far longer after your birth. It would be beneficial to harvest them, if they wished to claim Sparda’s power.”

A realisation came to the two men, as their theories gave them one dark, twisted conclusion.

“What’s going on?” Kyrie asked from the hallway, interrupting their impromptu discussion about Nero’s mother. The two looked at her intensely, and told her exactly what happened.

“I… learned about my mother,” Nero explained.

“And we believe she may be alive.” and Vergil finished for them both.

Chapter Text

3052, Vox’s Orbiter, Sol-System-W-54285

Looking at the Navigation console, Vox inspected the available missions. “Hmm… Mobile Defense, too slow. Regular Defense, even worse with all the Overguard…” She grimaced as she inspected the list. “Is there not a single good Fissure mi-”

And then she found it.

“Aha! A Void Relic Capture Mission! In the Void!” She exclaimed in glee as she moved the console’s view to the Void Tower section. 

Now, I would bet a good deal of money that a lot of you don’t know why Vox is so happy, so let me break it down for you. Capture Missions are focused around taking down a priority target quickly, and capturing them. These targets are equipped with a variety of defenses, such as Invisibility-Casting Smoke Bombs, Ability-Nullification fields, Seismic Shockwaves, and even Genetic Abominatio- I mean Kubrows, but in the comparison to Warframes, they’re nothing more than dead meat. Their squishiness, along with the general movement speed of Warframes make Capture Missions valuable for their speed, with many a Tenno completing them in under a minute; Some even doing it in under twenty seconds. TWENTY!

Now, the rewards are generally kinda mid, but the Void has two things that make them very good; Void Relics, and Argon Crystals. Relics are… well, they’re just weird. Basically, they can contain a rare part that can be used to craft powerful weapons and frames (or sell for plat), but the part they give is unknown until it is exposed to Void energy via a Fissure in a mission, at which point “all the possibilities collapse, each one falling away until the Relic cracks open and exposes one, singular thing.” (Ordis, 2019). Alongside that, Argon Crystals are a rare resource that is required to also build certain weapons, but they decay over time, which makes going to the Void a near-necessity for all Tenno. If you’re wondering why Argon, a Noble Gas, has a Crystalline form in the Warframe universe… Your guess is as good as mine.

So, with a Void Fissure active on a Capture node set in the deep void, Vox has the ability to get A) A Void Relic B) A Prime Part C) Argon Crystals and D) Void Traces; All in one mission, and one that only takes at most a minute to complete. With the ability to repeat it multiple times within an hour, it is a popular spot to farm loot, and Vox was no exception as she selected the Ukko node on the map.

“Operator, is this really a wise idea?” Ordis decided to play the role of said exception, flying into frame just before Vox could select her relic.

“C’mon, Ordis, do you think a Capture mission will be bad?” She argued back, only to get a call from a well-known source. “Huh, what happened, Lotus?”

“Operator, do not go to the Void Towers. They are dangerous.” The Lotus told her imperiously, though Vox was unconvinced. 

“Oh? And what would that be?”

Ordis flew into frame, projecting an image of a Void Tower in front of her. “The towers in the ‘Ukko’ section are experiencing unusually high Void-fissure activity; Even more than a normal fissure mission.” The image faded away as Ordis continued to speak. “Ordis cannot predict what might occur if you go in!”

“Do you think that’s going to stop me?” Vox growled out as she tapped on the mission, selecting a random Void Relic in the process.

“Tenno…”

“Lotus!” She nearly screamed. “I… I need to get some energy out, and this is the best way I know how.”

“...Fine, but come back safely.” The Lotus looked apprehensive, but Vox knew that she couldn’t truly scold her, especially after the Narmer War. Vox looked away guiltily, checking her loadout one last time; Gauss Prime, Phantasma Prime, and the Kuva Brakk. Confirming her choices, she ordered Ordis to chart a course for the Ukko sector, ready for a Capture mission.

Entering the Tower via a teleporter, Vox looked around the starting area with a smile. Her Gauss Prime Warframe was coloured Yellow and Silver, with the finest of armors fitting its design. “Ah, this place looks normal; as normal as an Orokin Tower can be.” With nothing better to do, she activated Gauss’s first ability, Mach Rush, and ran forward. 

The layout of the tower was unknown to her, but the rooms were the same as any other tower, which made navigation so much easier for her; Still, even with the Death Orbs and the traps, there was one thing that seemed off to her. 

“Where is everyone?” She asked aloud. “Why are there no Grineer, no Corpus? They should be infesting this tower… they should be corrupted by the Neural Sentries… Is this what Ordis meant by ‘Unusually High Fissure Activity’?” Frowning internally, she tried to contact Ordis, but got nothing but static; the same occurred with the Lotus. “Void dammit… What did I get myself into?” She noticed that the Capture target was close via her rader, and shelved the thoughts to chase him down.

Turning around a corner, she came face to face with him; A corpus goon, most likely a tech with his red suit and Supra Energy Machine Gun, though the most notable thing was the strange backpack he wore that looked an awful lot like a Surator Syandana. “Didn’t know the Corpus wore Tenno Fashion…” Vox muttered to herself as the guy turned around and spotted her.

“OH SHIT! A Tenno!” He screamed in fear before turning around and running away, which led to her grinning sadistically.

“Oh, please, try and run away.” Vox stood back for all of one second, letting him get a few meters farther, before activating Mach Rush once more and charging forward. Once she was in range, she pointed the Phantasma Prime at her target, ready to pull the trigger on him.

And that’s exactly when a gold ring appeared before her, swallowing her up.

“What?!” She screamed as she went in, finding herself in the cyan light of the Void. For a moment, She was weightless in the void, until gravity returned and plummeted her downwards, where there was nothing beneath her up until there was. 

THUMP!

THUMP!

THUMPTHUMP!

Despite piloting a Warframe, Vox could feel the impact, though luckily the damage was minor enough that it would repair itself quickly. However, that didn’t stop her from questioning everything as she slowly got up. “What the hell was that… and where the hell am I?”

The area she was on looked alot like the Void tower, with the floor exactly replicating the tower’s layout, though the walls had been removed to show off the Void-sky, with only a sheer cliff in front of her and strange loop-like things in the background as decorations. “What are those things?” Vox asked aloud, only to hear someone groaning to her left.

“Ergh… where am I?” A blue anthropomorphic animal person with green eyes slowly got up, standing on his red shoes and rubbing his large-ass head with white gloved hands. He looked around for a moment before locking eyes with Vox. “Who the heck are you? Did you bring me here?”

“I could say the same for you, weird pobber-thing.” Vox said to the thing. ‘Then again, He looks like Blaze, albeit with a lot more blue… and he isn’t a kav-cat. She’s a cat, not a kavat. Even beyond that, he seems really familiar...’

“Huh, wait, you know Blaze?” He asked her, and she looked at him in shock.

“Yeah. How do you know her?”

He smiled at her before slapping his chest. “We’re friends, though I’m definitely faster than her.”

Vox smirked, leaning a hand on her hip. “Alright, what’s your name, man?”

“I’m Sonic!” He exclaimed, spinning around in the process. “Sonic the Hedgehog!”

She patted the chestplate of her warframe before responding. “Voxaria the Tenno, though you can just call me Vox.”

“Not that I don’t mind the introductions-” An unfamiliar voice spoke next, causing the two to turn their heads to the next person; A red-eyed, white-haired man with strange black and white clothes, and a massive blade connected to his right arm via belts. “-But where the hell are we?”

“Crude, but I must agree.” Another unfamiliar voice, this time feminine, spoke up, belonging to a woman with long green hair and eyes of the same colour, a blue dress that was open enough for combat, and a Nikana-like blade strapped to her hip. “Where are we, Sir Sonic… Sir Voxaria?”

“Sir Sonic… now that brings back memories…” Sonic muttered to himself, while Vox looked around once more.

“Well, I’m not entirely sure, but this place looks a lot like the Void Towers of my home.” She quickly explained, though she frowned beneath her Warframe. “Still don’t know why there are all of those insane loops here, so don’t ask me about that.”

Sonic took the opportunity to step in and answer. “Well, they look familiar to me alright. We’ve got all sorts of loops in my world; Hell, I can even see a few rings and dash panels in the distance! Say…” He then took the opportunity to look at the two other people with them. “Who are you guys?

“Name’s Chipp Zanuff!” The white haired man - Chipp - introduced himself in a grandiose manner. “Master of Tsuyoshishiki Ninjutsu, and President of the Eastern Chipp Kingdom!” 

“Wait, Eastern Chipp Kingdom?” Vox asked curiously. “I swore Frederick told us about that place a while back…”

“You know him?!” Chipp gasped out in shock, and Vox nodded.

“Same way I know Blaze.” She explained. “Hell, I’d say we’re pretty good friends, even if he can be an ass at times.”

The ninja chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest. “Well, ain’t that something… Far as I’m aware, the only people who could call him that are Axl and the King, and even they tick him off.”

Vox chuckled aloud. “Well, I wouldn’t say I don’t piss him off, but I’m not that afraid of him.

The woman chuckled at the introduction before speaking “As for me, I am Lyndis of Caelin and the Lorca. You may call me Lyn, if it is easier.” She then looked at their surroundings before glaring at Vox. “Now, with those out of the way… How did we get here? I was running through the plains when a strange portal flew right towards me, swallowing me up. I fell for a little bit, and then I landed here.”

“Same for me.” Chipp stepped in. “I was doing some patrols of the Eastern Chipp Kingdom on foot when I got sucked into a portal.” 

“On Foot?!” Lyn shouted out. “How large is your kingdom that you can travel it on foot?”

“Eh, it’s not that bad. I can easily hit a hundred kilometers per hour, so it’s not that difficult to do.” he quickly explained, which earned an impressed nod from Lyn. Before she could speak, however, another voice spoke up.

“Oh, Void dammit!” It came from above, and everyone looked up to see the Capture Target above them. “I already had to deal with that damn Tenno; Why do I have to deal with more freaks?!” 

Sonic raised his finger in response. “Well, I dunno about you, but-”

“I don’t care, you mutated Pobber!!” The Corpus screamed out, being rather racist (species-ist?) in the process. “I don’t want to get captured! Why don’t you beat the shit out of each other?”

“Uh, because that’s a bit cliched?” Vox pointed out. “Just because we met each other doesn’t mean we’ll just punch each other unconscious.”

“I would like to hope not.” Lyn admitted, before inspecting her Nikana. “Though, if we were to fight, I would not go down easily.”

“Oh, please, do kick each other’s asses!” The corpus hollered up from above. “As for me, I’ll just-”

And then the cliff slid downwards, putting him on level ground with the team. He looked at the team; The group looked at him. “Run awaaaaaay!” Well, he ran away.

For a moment, the four didn’t know what to do, until Vox sighed. “Well, I have to capture that bastard, so I’ve gotta go.” She then looked at the group, and a silly idea came to her head before pointing at Sonic. “Y’know… Blaze mentioned that you’re pretty fast, Sonic.” She then pointed a finger at Chipp and Lyn. “And you two do look pretty fast, all things considered. With that in mind…” She then held her hands out dramatically.

“Wanna race to see who can catch him?”

“Ooh, that does sound fun!” Sonic was the first to agree. “I’ll catch him with sonic speed!”

“Oh, don’t think you’ll beat me, you damn rodent!” Chipp shot back. “You may claim to be faster than sound, but no one can escape from a master ninja!”

“Nor a Warrior of Sacae!” Lyn proudly boasted, and Vox smiled from beneath the Warframe.

“Well then!” She then got into a crouching pose, alongside Sonic, who was taking the opportunity to stretch his limbs first. As for Chipp and Lyn, they readied their weapons before going into a limber pose “Music…”

BGM: Gauss: Redline (Matthew Chalmers, Warframe)

“And with that…” Everyone tensed up as Vox counted them down.

3…

2…

1…

GO!

An explosion of dust followed, as all four of them blasted forwards. The four quickly split into two groups; Vox and Sonic, followed by Chipp and Lyn. Lyn was probably the slowest of the group, but she was not far behind Chipp, who could keep pace with a car; However, both of them were blown out of the water by Vox and Sonic, who were both approaching the sonic barrier.

The two of them were also crashing into each other, in an attempt to take first place.

“You’re pretty fast!” Vox praised Sonic, before slamming right into him. “For a blue rodent with terrible fashion choices!!”

“I’ll let you know that I have a great sense for fashion!” He retorted with a smile, before sliding away to pick up some gold rings that Vox saw Blaze use occasionally. “Red shoes, the occasional sunglasses; it’s perfect!”

“Doesn’t make you any faster!” Vox called out, only to see a floating rail ahead of them. Before she could react, Sonic ran away from her before bouncing on a red spring, which got him high enough to home onto the rail, giving him an advantage over Vox. She growled to herself, though she became much more angry when she looked forward.

“What, you mad?” Sonic called out from above, and she shook her head

“No, look ahead!” Pointing forward, she directed Sonic’s attention to the group of enemies in front of them; There were humans alongside weird robots and monsters that resemble the Gears of Frederick’s world, none of which came from the Orogin System. Despite that, all of them lacked colour, and had strange golden masks over their faces.

“Monsters, weird humans… Egg Pawns?!” Sonic exclaimed as he looked at the approaching group. “What’re they doing here? Is Eggman behind this?”

“I dunno who that is, but those masks are Neural Sentries!” Vox quickly called out. “They burn through the mind of anyone or anything they attach themselves to, with no way to return them to normal; Your best bet is to destroy whatever they’ve attached themselves to.” There was a bit more nuance to the drones (like their inability to corrupt anything powered by the void, a la Tenno), but keeping everyone safe mattered more in this context.

“So it’s just like the Metal Virus…” Sonic sadly noted as he approached the end of the rail, at which point he leapt off of it right towards a group of egg fliers. Before they could hit him, he curled into a ball and homed right onto the closest, smashing it in an instant and allowing him to attack the next one and the one after that, which acted as a chain to bring him to an upper platform. 

As for Vox, she simply ran forwards towards the centre of a large platform, where she was quickly surrounded by Corrupted enemies. Unlike Sonic, she was quick to blow them back with another one of Gauss’s abilities; Thermal sunder. By slamming her fists together, she could either drain the kinetic energy of an area, freezing everything in range and pumping up her own battery, or draining her battery to light the area on fire; However, by combining the two effects, she could create a massive explosion, which in this case allowed her to destroy everything in range.

As they faded away, both Chipp and Lyn caught up to Vox, where they saw the carnage instantly. “What the hell happened here?” Chipp asked, before looking at the enemies. “And why are there Gears here? Is Asuka up to something?”

“These were bandits…” Lyrn growled at the remains, before staring at the rest. “though I will admit that I have no clue what these monsters or robots are.” 

“It doesn’t matter what they are; Those gold masks on their faces are actually drones designed to take over the mind and bodies of anyone in range.” Vox explained. “I don’t want to ask you to do this, but don’t hesitate to kill them; they can’t be saved.”

“Fair enough.” Chipp said solemnly, before a curious expression came onto his face. “Say, what are those gold orbs?”

Vox followed his finger to see 3 of them floating around her, though they quickly flew towards herself and the two humans, where they were quickly absorbed.

“Huh?! The hell is this?!” Chipp cried out as the orb entered him, flailing around for a moment. 

“That’s reactant! They’re created inside the bodies of people corrupted by the void!” Vox quickly explained, inspecting the both of them in the process. Like Ichiban, neither seemed to be affected by the energy, which was… good, at the very least. “ At least it seems that the Void isn’t corrupting them like the Grineer… Yo, if you defeat enemies and pick up ten of them, then you’ll get a buff!”

“What’s a buff?” Lyn asked in confusion, quickly drawing her sword to cut down a corrupted soldier and release another piece of reactant, which split into three pieces that each flew into all of them.

“It’s a Video Game term! Like a strength increase or something like that!” Chipp shot back, before grinning. “Hey, do you think it’ll be a speed increase?”

Vox shrugged. “I dunno?” She then turned around to see Sonic in the distance. “But we can’t let Sonic beat us, and by we, I mean I, so seeya!” With that, she re-activated Mach Rush, and ran past the platform to catch up. As she did, she noticed that Sonic was frowning to himself, and hailed him.

Pause BGM

“Not a fan of killing?” She called out to him, drifting alongside him to make a turn. 

Sonic sighed loudly, attacking a few Egg Pawns before speaking. “I like Freedom, and I believe that all people should have the freedom to choose what they want to be; Baker or Chef, Teacher or Banker, Good or Evil, that sorta thing. As such, if someone chooses to be Evil-”

“Then they can choose to be good.” Vox finished for him, before pulling out the Kuva Brakk to quickly cut down a corrupted bandit. “But that assumes everyone has the ability to make that choice in the first place. Some people are born into societies that demand evil acts, and some don’t even have the ability to choose in the first place.”

“Well, it’s not the most realistic thing to believe in, and there are quite a few people who call me out on letting some people survive…” Sonic pointed out resolutely. “But I have my speed, I have my ability to choose, so I choose to help people, stop Evil, and let them choose to become good.”

“It’s not as if ALL Grineer or Corpus are evil…” Vox said, thinking of a few of her friends. “But you are right; they need to choose, and I’m not exactly the best at giving them a fair chance. You know, what with the absolutely crazy power I have.”

“But you can help people.” Sonic looked at her. 

“And I do.” Vox quickly replied, punching a pair of enemies unconscious alongside Sonic before she saw a rail that was in her way. Instead of dodging, she hopped onto the air and landed on the rail, grinding on it haphazardly.

Resume BGM

“I guess we do have our own styles, huh…” Sonic snarked as Vox tried to gain some balance, before looking at his hand. “Say, some of the Egg  Pawns have been releasing these weird gold orbs, and a few of them flew right into me. What are they?”

“Reactant!” Vox called out from above. “You defeat corrupted enemies, take the reactant from within, and get-”

Before she could finish, a green blur flew past them, screaming with glee. A quick glance told them that it was Lyn, who was now able to crack the sound barrier alongside Vox and Sonic. “WOAH! THIS IS FUUUUN!” She hollered out like a madwoman before passing the two of them, leaving them in shock.

“What was that?!”

“Lyn… and that was her buffed by the Void…” Vox whispered out. ‘Holy shit… Ichiban might become as cracked as me… he has the insanity, at the very least.’

“Well, damn! Guess I better collect those Reactant, then!” Sonic then peeled away to focus on the Eggman robots, while Vox blew up the Bandits and Gears with her own weaponry.

“HELL YEAH!” Chipp screamed from far away behind them, before catching up to the duo in nearly an instant. She wondered how the hell he did so, only to turn her head and see him do the funniest sequence; a Jump, followed by a strange forward-moving attack and an explosion of energy that conserved the momentum from the attack. It reminded her of a bullet-jump, which itself was like a cracked-out version of a bunnyhop in Frederick’s words, though the explosions were cute nonetheless. Before she could speculate on how he was doing it, he spelled it out for her. “INFINITE TENSION! INFINITE ROMAN CANCELS!! WOOHOO!!!!” By screaming like a howler monkey as he flew past, temporarily destroying the microphones in her Warframe’s systems before they regenerated.

“Usually it’s just a weapon buff, infinite ammo or doubled ability strength and range…” Vox thought aloud as she ran forward, before she grinned sadistically. “But if that’s the shit they’re getting… What about me?” With that bit of motivation, she blasted forward, demolishing enemies, bouncing on springs, grinding on rails, and doing her best to catch up with Chipp and Lyn.

Well, Chipp, Lyn, and Sonic, who just got his last reactant. Instantly he started to float in the air, his blue fur going completely gold while his green eyes were now a stark, bright red. He looked at himself and grinned happily. “A super form? Without the Chaos Emeralds?! Colour me impressed!” He then blasted forward like a missile, destroying everything that got in his path.

“Huh, I’m surprised there isn’t any blood on him.” That was the thought Vox had upon seeing the destruction, before looking behind her. “Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve seen any blood since we fell in here. But that’s not important…” She started to cackle madly, even though she was in last place. “A speed buff, Infinite Tension… a Super form! Imagine what I could get!” And imagine she didn’t need to, as once she blew up a group of enemies with a combination of a hot-and-cold Thermal Sunder, she got her last reactant. 

Infinite ammo.

She just got infinite ammo for her Phantasma Prime.

She looked down at the now glowing gun, thoroughly unimpressed. “They got all that shit… and the best you could give me was infinite ammo?!” While it could be fun in an Extermination mission, she had no reason to shoot anything outside of the Capture Target, and so simply put it away before focusing on her competition. “Fine, I’ll win with my own speed!” And with that, she blasted forward, catching up with the rest of the team and the Corpus guy she was hunting down.

He had run quite a bit ahead of them, but his lead had been killed by the speed buffs everyone got; that, and he found himself trapped between a rock (a massive cliff blocking his path) and a hard place (them!). Before he could turn around and attack, Lyn slid to her knees and slashed at his heels with her Nikana, knocking him off his feet and into the air. He was helpless up there, but then Chipp slid up to him and got into a crazy, crossed-arm pose.

“Sayonara!” He screamed before vanishing into thin air, rapidly slicing at the Corpus with his arm blade and juggling him up higher and higher. As he did, Sonic flew in and launched him even higher with his super form, even taking the time to throw him around like a ball with Chipp as his opponent. 

Once he was nearly done, Vox used a bullet jump to go up, catching the Corpus by the back before flipping over and diving down head-first, spinning as she did. “IZUNA DROP!” She screamed as she slammed the both of them into the ground, defeating the corpus and only slightly damaging her frame. Getting up, she held her hand over the Corpus’ body and beamed him with a golden light. “Alright, come to me, buddy.”

Stop BGM

Instantly, his body was turned into data, which was slowly being absorbed into the Warframe’s systems; While this was happening, he was screaming bloody murder. “WAIT!!! You’ve got the wrong person! AAAAARGGHHH!!!” This didn’t matter much, as A) There was A LOT of evidence against him, and B) He was already digitised, at which point the data was quickly absorbed, which allowed Vox to sigh in relief. “Ah… now with that done…” 

She turned to face the others, only to come face to face with their gawking expressions; Chipp’s mouth was practically on the floor, Lyn had a horrified look on her face, and Sonic had raised a hand. “Uh… what was that?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I just turned him into Data so I could transport him easily; I’ll return him to normal once he’s in the Lotus’ custody.” She explained with a wave, though Lyn was quick to raise her hand. “Ok, so it’s a bit more complicated, but know that he’s safe.” With that, Lyn lowered her hand, and all of them seemed to calm down, with Sonic returning back to his normal colours.

“Still, you’re a real Ninja, aren’t you?” Chipp pointed out with a reverent tone in his voice. “That was a perfect Izuna Drop; The only person to even approach that level of skill was Answer, and he only figured that out himself!”

“Hehe…” Vox chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head through her warframe, though she quickly realised that it was a bit itchier than expected. With nothing better in mind, Vox transferred out of her Warframe to scratch her head “Well, I did get training, after all.”

“You’re human…” Sonic gasped out, to which Vox shrugged at him.

“No, she is a ghost!” Lyn corrected him. “She came out of that body, like a ghost wearing a suit of armour!”

“So she’s an Onryo!” Chipp butted in. “I heard about these beasts from a friend of mine! They died horribly, and come back to kill those who wronged them with anything they can get their hands on!”

“Alright alright alright!” Vox hollered out to grab everyone’s attention and correct the horrible misconceptions they had. “Sonic! Technically, I am a human, though Lyn has a point in comparing me to a ghost; the Void has made my existence a bit… wonky to say the least.” She then pointed towards Chipp and glared at him. “And I’m no Onryo! Hell, I don’t think you even know what that is!”

“Do you?” He countered, and she glared at him harder.

“Well, no, but I know I’m not an Onryo!” Vox shot back, before crossing her arms. “I am a Tenno, simple as that!” Chipp moved forward to argue with her, though Sonic jumped between them and pushed them back.

“Hey, wait a minute, we have bigger fish to fry!” Sonic called out to the both of them. “We need to get outta here, and get back to our homes!

“He is right. I may have had fun, but I do miss Sacae.” Lyn admitted, before looking away. “I miss her…”

Vox took the opportunity to look around them, only to focus on the rock wall where they stopped the target. Looking up at it, she saw that it was hilariously tall, though that wasn’t what put a smile on her face. “Well, I think I might have found our way out…” She told them as she pointed at what she saw; a quartet of gold rings, just like the rings that brought them here.

“Alright, the exit!” Chipp exclaimed. “Now we just need to climb it!”

“Say… since Vox won our first race… why don’t we make this a rematch?” Sonic suggested to the group.

“A Race?” Lyn asked with shock in her voice. “We have an opportunity to return to our worlds, and you want to make it a race?

“Yeah, I agree.” Vox said, before smiling at Sonic. “But… I do have the coordinates for your world from Blazey. When I come over there, we'll have our rematch, ok?” He gave her a thumbs up, before hopping onto the rock wall. Chipp and Lyn did the same, and Vox transferred herself into her Warframe before running towards and then up the wall.

She quickly caught up to Chipp and Lyn, due to gravity somehow reversing, before all three caught up with Sonic. Within seconds, the group were close to the rings, which now showed their worlds through them.

“That’s the Extraction room for me!” Vox cried out, before aligning herself with her ring, which showed a room with four grey panels that had human-shaped cutouts in them.

“That’s Green Hills! I know it!” Sonic pointed at another ring, which had a world filled with checkerboard-patterned cliffs and grass.

“And that’s my home; the Eastern Chipp Kingdom!” Chipp yelled as slide towards another ring, while Lyn did the same with the last one.

“I cannot say if we will see each other, but I can say that this was fun.” Lyn admitted to the group. “I pray that we can see each other again!”

“Knowing how the Multiverse works, we’ll most likely do that!” Vox hollered as she was steps from her portal. As she entered it, she waved goodbye to her companions, and that was that.

3052, Ukko Sector, Sol-System-W-54285

“WOO!” Vox screamed as she entered the extraction room, only to get a crackle from her coms, which she immediately picked up. “Yo, what’s-”

“OPERATOR! YOU’RE ALIVE!” Ordis’ voice loudly screamed through her mic, causing her more hearing damage.

“Ordis, ORDIS!” She screamed, getting him to shut up before speaking. “Ordis, I’m alright. Where were you earlier?”

The next person to speak was the Lotus, who looked worried. “We lost contact with you after you entered the tower. What happened while you were inside.

“It’s a long story, Lotus.” Vox summarised. “But to sum it up; Wally’s up to some shit.”

“So the Man in the Wall has attacked again…” Lotus grumbled to herself, before glaring at Vox. “Return to your orbiter, we need to tell everyone about this.”

“Agreed.” Vox resolutely said, as she approached her Landing Craft, which was docked to the wall of the Orokin Tower. “Oh wait! I need to see what I got!” Vox pulled the relic out of somewhere, and looked at the seam. “Let’s see… Wait a minute, this is just a Braton Prime Barrel!” She yelled as she entered the Landing Craft, before sighing in disappointment. “Welp, you’re going into the Ducat pile.”

2188, Outskirts of Eastern Chipp Kingdom, Earth-G-54285

“Nin!” Chipp rolled on the ground to recover before running forwards, right towards his hut in the Kingdom. Right behind his desk was his Chief of Staff and Personal assistant, Answer, doing some sort of work, only too

“Boss, you’re back!” Answer called out to him, before putting away the papers in an organised manner. “Where have you been? We’ve heard conflicting reports from everyone; Some say you were fighting bandits, some say you were defecting, and some were just plain nonsense, like saying you fell into a portal!”

Chipp chuckled upon hearing the bit. “Funny thing about that last one, Answer; that’s what happened.” He took a moment to explain everything to Answer, who was rubbing his forehead in frustration

“So… you fell into some sort of Golden Ring, which acted as a portal to another realm. There, you met three others, and with their assistance found a portal back here. Am I correct?” Chipp nodded, and Answer sighed aloud. “If it weren’t for the fact that your eyes are telling the truth, I would have thought you relapsed into your old drug habits…”

“As if!” Chipp angrily told him off. “I swore to never do drugs when I learned under my master, and there’s nothing that’ll make me do otherwise!”

“And I am very aware of that, President Chipp.” Answer reassured him. “Still, it’s quite fantastical. Who would even be able to help us with this problem…”

“Frederick Bulsara.” 

Answer gasped loudly, slamming his hands on the desk. “HIM?! B-but-”

“Yeah, I know that he’s in hiding, but one of the people there, Voxaria, name-dropped him while we were introducing ourselves.” Chipp explained, before looking out to the horizon. “If there’s some nonsense going on, then he most likely has answers for us; Either him, or the Gear maker.”

“But no one knows where he resides! And we have no way to get to the moon, to find Mr. Kreutz!”

“Both of those problems have the same solution; Illyria, and their High King.” Chipp pointed out to his assistant, who rubbed his chin in thought.

“Ky Kiske… he’s worked with both of them.” 

Chipp nodded. “He’ll know where Frederick lies, or how to contact the Gear Maker personally.”

Answer took a moment to think about their situation, before activating his own phone spell. “Shall I make contact with the Illyrian Government? Ask for an audience with the King and Queen?” 

“Sure, but I’ll just go there while you do that!” Chipp then got on all fours and blitzed out of the office, much to Answer’s shock.

“You need a Visa!” He called out, and Chipp grimaced before yelling back

“Then work quick! We don’t have time to wait!” With that, he ran towards the border, and his meeting with the king.

2615, Ylisse Halidom, Kaga-F-54285

Landing on the ground, Lyn had hoped to land in the plains of Sacae, where the land was full of grass and life, where the sky was clear, and where the one who claimed her heart resided.

But this was not her home.

The sky was clear, and there were trees on the streets, but the town she was in was far too developed to be like her homeland. It was closer to the capital city of Ostia, though there were far too many differences for it to truly be that city. She slowly turned around, feeling more lost and alone than she had ever been before; With despair in her heart, she kneeled onto the floor, and shed a few tears, holding herself up with the Mani Katti

“Hey… are you alright?!” A feminine voice spoke to her, and Lyn looked up, coming face to face with a couple; A woman with white hair and a man with azure hair. The clothes were fancy, but it was the guards that followed them that clued her in on their true identity.

“Are you… Are you the lord and lady of this town?” She asked them, and they nodded

“I am Chrom, Exalt of the Kingdom of Ylisse.” The azure-headed man - Chrom, pointed at himself, before hugging the woman beside him. “And this is my wife, Robin.

“Queen, and Head of the Royal Magic Experimental Laboratory of Ylisstol!” She cheerily explained, before she realised something. “Oh, wait… that’s not a place you know, do you?”

Lyn shook her head sadly, as she slowly got up and looked around. “No… I’m far from home.”

199X, Green Hill Zone, Mobius-G-54285

Back in Green Hills, Sonic looked around and smiled. “Ah, Green Hills… good to see a familiar face.

“Should I be worried about that portal stuff? Or the fact that Vox knows about Blaze…” He then shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “Nah, it’s probably not important!” With that he rolled his shoulders and looked at the horizon.

“Well, onto the next adventure!” And then he ran off.

Chapter Text

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

RegisteredL-User: Good Morning, or whatever to everyone! How are we doing?

Grumpy: Well, I had a lazy morning with Jack-O after a long night, to say the least.

Itchybum: We got a job at Hello Work!

Adachi: What he means is we got duped into being private detectives.

Itchybum: Hey, he genuinely needed our help! And he cares about his workers!

Adachi: Does it really matter if he’s a Soapland owner?

RegisteredL-User: Uhh, Context?

Nanba: a guy named Nonomiya asked for people from Hello Work to investigate one of his employees, who had been taking a lot of time off for an unknown reason.

Adachi: Said reason’s that she’s paying off this guy to keep her father at some bougie retirement home called the Sunlight Castle.

Nanba: Of course, the front desk wouldn’t let us go inside at all, and the security made it too risky to go further, so we left for the day.

Itchybum: Now we need to find a way inside, and I have a feeling Hello Work will help us out!

RegisteredL-User: I mean, I could help you!

RegisteredL-User: I’ve got a few ways to sneak into places! Hell, with Ash, I should be able to apply Invisibility to a group!

Itchybum: Wait, really?! That’s perfect!

Nanba: Ichiban, this is our job, not hers.

Itchybum: But she could help us!

Adachi: No, dumbass! If Nonomiya finds out, he’s liable to not pay us, or complain to Hello Work outright!

FlamePrincess: Along with that, the power difference between Vox and your world is staggering to say the least. 

FlamePrincess: I’m not against the idea of our worlds helping each other out, but we have to consider the consequences when doing so, whether it be destruction of property or harm to one's reputation. 

Itchybum: Aww… Fine.

RegisteredL-User: Maybe another time.

RegisteredL-User: Anyone else?

Esaka: Just did some Weight lifting, and sparring with Shingo

Korra: Just saved my girlfriend, nothing too big.

RegisteredL-User: I’m sorry, what?

PizzaTime: Oh, you missed that part, didn’t you?

PizzaTime: yeah, so Korra’s Girl went missing, and she texted us for help. I was busy with a Job, but Verg was kind enough to cut a portal to her world to help.

Alpha&Omega: What he means is that he was busy eating pizza like a slob.

PizzaTime: asdjadskaklnfds

PizzaTime: BETRAYAL!

PizzaTime: From my own brother!

Alpha&Omega: That assumes I made a promise in the first place, Dante.

PizzaTime: Alright, tell me this; Why did you help Korra?

RegisteredL-User: Yeah actually, I’m surprised too.

Ordis: From previous data gathered, you do not seem to be the sort of person to assist someone out of ‘Good Will’, Vergil.

Alpha&Omega: She needed my help, and I am trying to be a better role model, at least if I use Kyrie’s words.

PizzaTime: Whipped.

RegisteredL-User: Whipped.

Esaka: Whipped.

Ordis: Based on data gathered, Ordis believes that you are indeed ‘whipped’.

Alpha&Omega: Silence!

Alpha&Omega: @RegisteredL-User do you wish for me to not finish my story?

Korra: I can do it… once I get an idea of what whipped means.

Mako: You, when Asami asked you to not attack Jargala.

Korra: Mako!

RegisteredL-User: And who’s this?

Mako: oh, I’m one of Korra’s friends! I got added after Asami got saved, courtesy of Lord Liu Kang.

RegisteredL-User: Wait, for real?

RegisteredL-User: Liu Kang added you?

LordLiuKang: Mako is a member of Korra’s team, and he and his brother have shown a strong friendship to Korra that reminds me of my own friendships… in the past.

EricMyers: You wanted another martial artist who uses fire.

LordLiuKang: I wanted another martial artist who uses fire.

PizzaTime: Are we going to ignore the “In the Past” Thingie Liu Kang brought up?

LordLiuKang: In becoming a god, there were many that became lost to me, over millennia. I have chosen to focus on serving the people of my universe, and of the other universes that I rule, as best I can. Even still, I do miss them, from time to time.

RegisteredL-User: Wait, what about Asami?

Asami: Tokuga held me hostage to stop Korra from beating his ass, but he didn’t account for Vergil teleporting behind his man and… well, eviscerating him.

Asami: After that… 

User Asami has uploaded a file: Vergil.mp4 (A video showing Vergil judgement nutting cutting Tokuga repeatedly, for a whole 5 minutes)

RegisteredL-User: Holy shit! 

RegisteredL-User: That lizard-man’s getting cooked!

Esaka: yeah, that’s what we all said when we saw it!

Mako: Surprisingly, Tokuga’s still alive, though I have never seen a man who resembles pulled pork so closely in my life…

Korra: Yeah, Tenzin got a little pissy, and decided to retire to the Air Temple to meditate after all the nonsense went down.

Tenzin: What do you mean? Dad’s still meditating!

RegisteredL-User: Dad?

Tenzin: Woops! This is Jinora, Tenzin’s daughter! He gave me his phone to keep tabs on everything while he’s meditating the stress away.

RegisteredL-User: Is it working?

Tenzin: Well… you tell me.

User Tenzin has uploaded a file: Scream.mp4 (A peaceful vista, with the occasional screaming in the background)

PizzaTime: Holy shit, that man can howl!

RegisteredL-User: Damn, I can’t imagine his mental state when I fly into Republic City.

RegisteredL-User: If I do, of course.

Grumpy: Say, Vox. You free right now?

RegisteredL-User: I mean, I have a lot of stuff to do…

Grumpy: Ky and Dizzy are visiting, and I need something to distract them. Show off your guns or something.

Ky: Frederick, you do realise we’re in the same chat, right?

RegisteredL-User: Absolutely!

Itchybum: Can I come?

RegisteredL-User: Sure!

PizzaTime: I’m joining this party for sure!

EricMyers: Sadly I cannot. I have paperwork to deal with.

Ordis: But Operator! The Alertalyst is growing beyond the Landing Craft’s window!

Adachi: Ichiban! We still need to figure out how to get into that place!

Ky: Frederick?

RegisteredL-User: That can come later!

Itchybum: Yeah, Adachi, we don’t need to do shit immediately!

Lotus: Operator, we still need to consider the portal that occurred during your last mission to the Void Towers, and any problems that might have brought upon the other universes.

RegisteredL-User: Oh come on, Lotus. What problems?

RobinHood: A foreign woman landed in front of us while we were walking, and her name is Lyn.

RegisteredL-User: Oh Mother * Piece of * Wall-shaped asshole!

Ky: I have the strange feeling I am being ignored…

FlamePrincess: I’m sorry, what?!

<<

2188, Illyria, Earth-G-54285

Looking out over the balcony of his ship, Ky couldn’t help but feel anxiety rain viciously onto his heart, even against the backdrop of the clear sky. His hands were wrapped around the balcony handrail, though it would be more akin to crushing it if the material wasn’t designed to stand up to nuclear levels of force. The storm inside his heart was so loud, so terrifying, that he couldn’t hear who was approaching him until it was too late.

“Ky, is something wrong?” Dizzy, his wife, called out to him, and he gasped loudly as she came up to his left and bumped him on the shoulder. He couldn’t find the words to say for a moment, and so merely sighed, letting her lean on him as he came up with an answer

“I wish I could lie, and say that I’m fine.” He started with a soft tone. “This sky… it’s so clear, so blue, there’s nothing on it other than a few white clouds, and yet… there is so much more occurring behind them.”

“Happy Chaos… those travellers from the other worlds..” Dizzy finished for him, before looking at him curiously. “But they all seem so nice. Father thinks as much.”

“It’s not just that.” Ky countered, before pointing at the horizon “I’ve said before that I feel the world has grown much larger than my sword. But now, it feels like it goes even beyond the sky; Literally, in this case.”

“But is it any different than what we deal with here, in our kingdom, in our world?” Dizzy suggested, wrapping her arms around his left. “There are people who need our help, and there are people who wish to stop us.”

“I fear this may go beyond just simply helping people, my love.” Ky turned to face her, frowning as he did. “The logistics, for one… not to mention that we’ll probably need to do a whole host of diplomatic meetings so that the multiverses can interact meaningfully, which will mean dealing with Darryl’s absurd amount of paperwor-” He was promptly interrupted by Dizzy kissing him on the lips, which shut him up in an instant. With that, she pulled away and smiled at him.

“Even if our world becomes more complicated…” Dizzy answered innocently as she rubbed a hand against his cheek. “We'll work as we usually do.”

Despite the calming answer, Ky couldn’t help the cheeky smile from coming to his face, as he remembered a rather comedic moment during the early days of their reign.

“So you’ll lock me up in the office with Leo until either we finish the papers or the papers finish us?” She grimaced at the joke before slapping him on the shoulder, while he laughed at the absurdity of the situation. Eventually, Dizzy joined in with him, and the twin peals of their laughter echoed out through the horizon, until they drew close and hugged each other, sharing a kiss as they did. Of course, all good things had to end, and their kiss ended when Ky got a call from someone, which he promptly answered. “Hello-”

“KY!!!” The loud and boisterous voice of Leo Whitefang, Second King of Illyria, gave Ky a momentary bout of tinnitus until his ears healed and his hearing returned.

“Leo, why are you screaming?” Ky angrily asked. “Did someone blow up the gates?”

“More like leaped over them!” Leo shouted back. “The president of the Eastern Chipp Kingdom just flew over our gates, and he’s heading straight for your ship!”

“Chipp Zanuff?!” Ky gasped loudly, though an idea was already brewing in his mind. ‘Hmm… if what I heard from the Chat is correct, then there’s an opportunity to get more information about that event.’

“I’ve got Millia and her damned assassins intercepting the bas-the President.” Leo told him imperiously. “Don’t worry about him for now; If it’s urgent then-”

“Tell Millia to stand down.”

Within an instant, he got an answer. “Have you lost your mind, Bambino?!” 

“No, but there have been some developments.” Ky shot back. “I’m… not at liberty to explain them properly, but know that nothing bad is occurring.”

He could hear Leo grumble on the other end, before sighing. “Are these the developments that I should be concerned with, or are they Darryl’s problems?”

“Unfortunately, this is more in Darryl’s field, so if I could ask you to keep quiet-”

Before Ky could even finish, Leo grunted in approval. “My lips are sealed, and my ears are muffled.”

“Thank you, now can you send Chipp onto our ship?” Ky asked, and Leo accepted before ending the call, leaving the two of them alone on the ship.

“And here I thought we’d be able to have a family-bonding moment…” Dizzy bemoaned softly. “I was really hoping to take Father fishing, too…”

Before she could finish her thought, a hook lodged itself into the railing to their left, and a white blur flung itself up and over them. It landed on the roof above them, and Ky finally got a good look at their assailant.

“Chipp Zanuff.” Ky spoke to him icily; it was unwarranted given their allyship, but he did interrupt their little trip.

“Your majesties.” He bowed lightly, even though he stood above them.

“Why do you seek my husband?” Dizzy asked firmly, and Chipp looked at her before responding.

“What do you expect?” Chipp asked back with a shrug. “I got kidnapped by some portal nonsense, and there are only two people who could give me an explanation; Frederick Bulsara, and Asuka R. Kreutz.”

“And I’m the only person who’d know where either of them are.” Ky finished the thought, and Chipp nodded.

“Now, where can I find them?” He glared at the king, and the king glared back for a moment, before calming down and closing his eyes, knowing that Chipp would not attack them.

“Actually, I might have a better solution.” Ky suggested to the president. “Do the names Voxaria, Sonic, and Lyn mean anything to you?”

He opened his eyes when Chipp gasped, and Ky knew he had him hooked. “So you DO know something about all this!”

“I know a lot more, in fact.” Ky stated. “We’re actually going to visit Frederick right now, and it seems that Miss Voxaria is ‘crashing the party’, so to say. If you can be patient, I may be able to answer your questions; if not me, then Voxaria definitely will.” A precious, delicate moment passed between the two of them, before Chipp broke the silence.

“Fine.” Chipp answered, before hopping off the roof and landing on the railing. “At the very least, maybe I can challenge Vox once more for ‘Fastest Ninja Alive’.”

Ky paused for a moment before speaking. “I’m sorry, what now?”

“It’s a long-ass story, and I’m still pissed about it…” And that was all Chipp said about that.

2615, Ylisse Halidom, Kaga-F-54285

Walking towards the guest house, Robin slipped between butlers, knights, butler knights (hello Frederik!) and other staff (who all gave her the proper reverence, even if she would prefer them not) before approaching the door. It was in the middle of the morning, between sunrise and noon, and she had yet to see their guest in the common lunch hall.

“Ms. Lyn, are you awake?” Robin called out, after knocking on the door thrice-firmly. 

“Yes, Lady Robin?” A warm voice came from behind her, and Robin jumped up slightly and gasped.

“Holy shi-” She schooled herself from years of dealing with children before turning around and composing herself for their guest. “Ms-err, Lady Lyndis. I didn’t see you at the lunch hall. Wait, are you a Lady here, or… ” Robin whispered that last part to herself, though Lyn’s laughter told her that A) Lyn heard her, and B) she didn’t seem offended in the slightest.

“Like I said, I gave up my title of Lady a long time ago to live in the plains of Sacae… thought if I am correct, then technically my title would be Mrs.” Lyn whispered to herself in turn, before shaking her head and speaking. “As for my absence, I took the moment to run for a bit. I find that exercise is good when I am anxious; That, and I seem to have gotten faster since my trip to that other dimension.

“Faster?” The scientific part of Robin’s brain took over upon hearing that. “In what way?”

Well… if I was considered fast before, then it is nothing compared to what I can do now! I could outrun a wyvern - Keep up with a pegasus!” Lyn excitedly explained, though the joy she felt quickly melted away into sadness, as she was reminded about her current condition.

“Oh, dammit… I shouldn’t have brought it up, not while it’s so fresh…” Robin cursed herself, just as Lyn started to cry. While she was quiet, the mother in Robin would not let the girl cry alone and so she wrapped her arms around her and rubbed her back. It looked a little silly, given that she was taller than the mage by a few inches, and she was also only a few years younger than her, but she would support her all the same. After a few minutes, the crying stopped, and Lyn pulled away.

“Thank you, Lady Robin.” She thanked her with a warble in her voice, before looking around cautiously. “Though… I think we have a bit of company.” 

Robin looked away from her, and found that all of the people had stopped to look at the two of them; some with concern, some with curiosity, and some with disgust. Robin glared at the few people who looked disgusted, before taking a deep breath. “Alright, people, you don’t need to keep your eyes on us. Go back to whatever you were doing!” They all quickly did so, bar Frederik, who took the opportunity to approach the two ladies and bow.

“Lady Robin, Lady Lyndis. Do you need anything?” he asked politely, and Robin was tempted to shoo him away, but then a small growling noise came from Lyn, who blushed furiously.

“Ah, you said you ran, didn’t you? Did you eat anything at all?” Robin questioned, and Lyn thought for a moment before she silently shook her head. At the confirmation, she turned her head to face Frederik with her orders. “Bring us some tea and, uh… what would you prefer, Mrs Lyndis?”

The Sacaen Warrior hummed for a moment before responding. “I will let you choose the tea, but… if you have any sort of carrot cake, then I will take it.” 

“Very well, then. Frederik, if you would?” The butler-knight raised an eyebrow, but then he bowed and ran off, likely to complete their order. With that, the two were left alone for a moment, before Robin decided to guide her to the tea-house.

“Carrot cake… Now that I recall, Sumia and Cordelia love it too, if only because they can feed it to their steeds.” 

“It was also the choice of my beloved, for much of the same reasons.” Lyn quickly explained, and Robin sighed in realisation.

“I see… I may not necessarily understand how the multiverse works perfectly, but I’m not one to be stopped by a challenge, or by fate. I will find you a way back home, no matter what.”

“I’ve said this before, but thank you.” Lyn replied, and the two walked on to their destination.

2188, Iseo Isolation Zone, Earth-G-54285

As Dizzy looked at the line in front of her, she couldn’t help but think about what had occurred. After arriving at her father’s house, they had quickly been drawn into a weapons showcase courtesy of Voxaria, a member of the same chat her father was a part of. There, she had proven herself to be quite well-armed, with a variety of guns and melee weapons at her disposal, from electricity-spewing beam rifle and Machine guns that launch a bouncing ball of death, to wrist-mounted slab-launchers that could cover its targets in a variety of status conditions, and even a Katana that could make its wielder invisible upon landing a stealthy attack. ‘It’s all so wonderful but… why would Ms. Voxaria need it?’ Dizzy thought to herself. ‘What sort of world does she come from where she needs something like that?’

“Yo, Earth to Dizzy, you there?” Vox called out to her, and Dizzy snapped out of her thoughts. 

“Oh, Miss Voxaria!” In an attempt to recentre herself, she thought about what was currently going on; After showing off a harpoon gun that could reel enemies in, Dizzy had asked if Vox had fished before, to which Vox practically dropped her guns in favour of running to the nearby river, dragging Frederick along in the process. Now, they were all fishing on the river, with Ichiban, Dante, and Vergil in the middle of a fishing competition. As for herself and Vox… “Is something the matter?”

“Oh, don't call me that. Voxaria sounds too formal!” Vox corrected her quickly before continuing. “No, but you were looking at your line for so long, I thought you fell asleep!”

Dizzy giggled in response. “Well, it’s not efficient, but sleeping on the line isn’t too bad, so long as the line isn’t picked up by a particularly ornery fish… or a teenager…” Dizzy couldn’t help but remember the first trip she went on after reawakening, where Sin had attempted to pull on her line as a prank; she also remembered punishing him greatly for said prank. “But your tool is… well, I don’t want to call it a weapon, but…”

In Vox’s right hand was a fishing spear, while bags of bait and luminous dye hung from her hips. “Well, I’ve heard stories of someone using a spear to kill a few big guys in my world, but that would require a hellishly optimized loadout. No, this is meant for fishing, first and foremost.” She then spun it around her finger a few times before throwing it into the water, pulling on its connected rope for a moment before pulling a bass out from the water. “This specific one is best used for smooth-skin fish, though I’ve got spears for fish with carapaces, or thicker scales.”

“I’m curious, but why a spear?” Dizzy and asked, which led to Vox taking a deep breath.

“Oh, so on my version of Earth, there’s a group of people called the Ostron, who live in a place called Cetus. They live in the shadow of this sentient tower called the Unum, who protects them from the Grineer, infested, and other threats in the area. The tower also acts as their form of sustenance, as they use the flesh inside the walls for meat and for trading; These spears are actually derived from spears used in the process, courtesy of a woman named Fisher Hai-luk.

“I see…” Dizzy gasped in awe, before looking at Vox’s back, where more spears were held. “A-And what of the spears on your back?”

Vox switched out her spear for an orange one, with mechanical components on the end. “This orange spear is the Shockprod Mk2 AKA the ‘Stunna’, meant to disable the systems of the Servofish AKA aquatic drones that maintain the coolant systems of our version of Venus. Its creator, The Business as we call him, was inspired by the work of the Ostrons, and so made his shockprods in the same vein.” 

She then switched a red-and-purple spear that looked infested with some sort of fungus/mold. “And this is the Ebisu spear, crafted by Kaelli of the Entrati Family. It’s designed to pass through the exocrine of Deimos, which is thick enough to stop normal spears. As for its tip, it’s designed to take down the infested fish of Deimos, without making any noise; perfect for not alerting any others in the area!”

“Woah… That’s incredible.” Dizzy spoke, though before she could speak the others had approached behind her.

“Well, damn, if that’s not a spear, then I don’t know what is!” Chipp gasped out, while Dante was rubbing his chin while inspecting his fishing rod.

“You know… I’ve been using this rod for a few hours, and I’ve gotten nothing. Maybe I just need to use something different…” He thought aloud, only for Vergil to sigh loudly.

“None of us have gotten anything, Dante.” He explained, before looking at the buckets beside Dizzy and Vox. “Except the queen… and Vox.”

“Maybe spears are pretty useful…” Ichiban wondered aloud, while Dante pulled out a white cowboy hat which seemed to have eyes printed on the front of the crown. “Dante-san? Why do you have a cowboy hat?”

“Oh, this is not just any cowboy hat, kiddo.” Dante japed, though Dizzy did not miss Vox shuddering upon hearing that. “This… is Dr. Faust, a weaponized version of a Faust demon.”

“Like the doctor?” Dizzy whispered to herself, though the hat spin Dante did with his finger said otherwise.

“Wait for it… wait for it… THERE!” He threw the hat into the water, where it somehow went far deeper than the river should have been. The group waited for something to happen, doing so for five minutes or so, up until the hat returned, dry as a bone. He caught it and struck a pose, glowing red as he did. “Woo!”

“Uhh, Mr. Dante?” Dizzy asked the demon hunter out of curiosity. “Is that supposed to do something?” 

“Well, there’s this technique I got called Hat Trick, which allows me to pull sh-stuff in given a few conditions. A) It needs to have a hat on it, which I can do by throwing a hat onto it. B) I need to catch it with proper timing. And C)-” Before Dante could finish, a gurgling noise came from the depths, and everyone turned to face the noise. As it got louder, bubbles started to form at the surface, but for all of their preparations, they were not prepared for what came next.

A fish. It was an open-mouthed bass, like the others, but this one had a white hat that was almost exactly like the hat Dante was wearing now. It was also flying right towards Dante’s face.

“Mpph! MMPH!” Dante's screams were muffled by the fish that was latched onto his face, while everyone else looked upon the scene in shock; Well, everyone except Vergil, who looked more annoyed at the situation than anything.

“Ergh, If only you’d learn from your foolish showboating, dear brother.” The elder Son of Sparda groaned, before pulling out a summoned sword of his own as he approached Dante.

199X, Spagonia, Mobius-S-54285

Running through Spagonia, Sonic couldn’t help but smile at the sights. “Man, it’s been a while since I’ve been here… I wonder if Josef’s shop is still around?” Sonic talked aloud as he passed by a few cars, before seeing the street signs ahead. “Now that I think about it, it should be pretty close by. Maybe I could make a trip there!” He took a left and a few other turns, quickly running until he found himself in front of where the shop was, or rather where it should have been; instead of the shop, there was now an empty building, with a sign saying ‘For Rent’.

“Oh, are you looking for Josef’s?” A random civilian asked him, and Sonic nodded.

“Yeah, where’s Josef’s shop?”

“Oh, he moved to a new place! It’s much larger than this old joint.” The civilian explained, before leaning back with a smile. “You know, he was a bit reluctant to move, since he loved to greet people outside, but all the business he got started to clog the street. It was only a matter of time before he moved out, and I have to say the new place is amazing!”

“Ah, nice! You know where it is?”

“Down the street, take a right, and it’ll be on the corner!” The guy explained, and Sonic gave him a thumbs up in response before blasting off, finding the store rather easily; it was larger, with a massive sign up on top. Sonic saw the wares that were inside, and grinned before looking towards the front door, where he got a strange sight.

“Huh, Is that… Shadow, and Silver?” He asked aloud, before approaching them, just as they were talking. He was rather quiet approaching them, though Silver still saw him coming all the same.

“Hey, Sonic! How are you doing?” Silver greeted him, waving his hand happily in response.

“The Blue Hedgehog…” Shadow growled dourly, glaring at him with a mean case of side-eye-syndrome.

“I’m doing great, Silver! Even better than Shadow, I’d say!” Sonic replied, taking the opportunity to take a shot at Shadow, who glared at him even harder.

“What are you doing here?” He curtly asked, taking the opportunity to face Sonic in the process.

“I could say the same thing!” Sonic shot back at his rival. “What’re you doing here in Spagonia? Last I checked, you’re not one to travel abroad.”

“Well, we were doing some shopping, actually.” A new voice replied, though Sonic knew her just as well; Rouge the Bat, Professional Jewel Thief, Occasional GUN Agent, and currently carrying a bundle of bags in each hand. “Hey Sonic~. How’ve you been?

“Great, though…” Sonic pointed at the bags in her hands. “How much did you buy?”

A thumping noise came from the shop, and another friend - E-123 Omega - stomped out of the shop, with a bundle of bags in each of his arms as well. “3 pairs of shirts, 5 trousers, 4 dresses, 1 cake, 2 pairs of-”

“Ah-gah-geh-geh! Don’t list my entire receipt, Omega!” Rouge yelled out, a slight blush on her face as she did. “A girl’s gotta have secrets, y’know?”

“Are you done?” Shadow growled out, before looking at Silver. “I have an important conversation to get back to.”

“What conversation? Is it about me?” Sonic teased, hoping to get a rise out of him.

“No.” Shadow shot him down, before glaring at Silver. “It’s about the White Space incident. You were facing the doctor, and I was dealing with my own mission-”

“Which you’ve never talked about - at all !” Sonic pointed out, only for Shadow to shove him aside.

“Like I said, I was looking through my records of the incident at the GUN base, when I found my interview with you post-white-space. Back then, you said that you were up to nothing, and yet I could tell that something was up. What are you hiding?”

Silver was unusually quiet, kicking the ground beneath him in the process. “Well, it’s a bit complicated, and if I want to tell you that, then I’d need to tell everyone involved. If I want to do that, then I’ll need everyone in one place!” He explained, though before anyone else could speak, a loud rumbling came from the hedgehog. Silver rummaged his hand into a pocket before pulling out a strange device that kind of looked like a vertical version of the Miles-Electric, and looked at it. Out of curiosity, Sonic snuck up behind him, alongside Shadow and the rest of Team Dark.

>[DM] X4-1997B

X4-1997B: Cheers, Silver! I wish I could say this is a pleasant call.

X4-1997B: We have a real dog’s dinner here.

X4-1997B: HOW AND WHY IS THERE A GIANT GAPING HOLE IN YOUR CANON?!

PsychoSoldier: Oh, are you talking about Solaris?

PsychoSoldier: Yeah, it’s a bit messy, especially after what Eggman did with the Time Eater

X4-1997B: No, I’m talkin’ about the Ripple Drain in your universe.

X4-1997B: OI, WAIT A TIC! The events of ‘06 were nullified by the erasure of Solaris! You shouldn’t know that!

X4-1997B: You shouldn’t know about Solaris in the first place! Blaze shouldn’t have either…

X4-1997B: Hell, the only person who MIGHT know a lick about that would be Sonic, and even then he’s been coy!

PsychoSoldier: Blaze told you about the Time Eater Incident?

X4-1997B: YES!

X4-1997B: And then she told me to ask you about it like the smarmy little minx she is!

PsychoSoldier: Ok, calm down.

PsychoSoldier: What’s a Ripple Drain?

X4-1997B: You’re familiar with the Master Record, right? It’s the history of a given universe, or Star, and the primary events that make it up -what we term as ‘canon’, which is completely unrelated to the bollocks Miguel gobs about in his corner of the multiverse.

X4-1997B: When an event is recorded in the Master Record, we can generate Ripple Energy from any universes and timelines that differ from it. 

X4-1997B: It doesn't matter which universe the record comes from; So long as we have one version to consider the basis, we can use it. As you also know, Ripple Energy can be expended to charge Gate Points; transport people, magics and technologies; force changes and resurrections; a variety of tricks. From there, we generate further Ripple Energy, and the cycle begins anew.

X4-1997B: Furthermore, if any extensions to a given Star allows it to progress further, say a followup to a Master Record appears in our archives, we can use that to generate further Ripple Energy, derive further Sub Records and timelines and generate even more Ripple Energy, and the cycle continues further. An example would be Rockman X4 for me, which added onto Rockman X ; and Sonic The Hedgehog for you, which I shouldn’t have to tell you where I got that from..

X4-1997B: The problem starts when there’s an event in a universe’s Canon that isn’t recorded in any manner, and does not occur in any Master Record

X4-1997B: When that occurs, a hole is formed in Canon, which slowly absorbs Ripple Energy to repair itself.

X4-1997B: Small holes are fine, and unique Records are also fine if we have something to compare them to. That’s how the Alterna Senshi; Star Servants; the Ripple Kombat Towers; the Danganronpa Trials and so on are possible. We can call these Sub Records, though feel free to add your own terminology.

X4-1997B: However, if the holes become too large, then we stop getting Ripple Energy from that Star

PsychoSoldier: And if you don’t get energy from it, what happens?

X4-1997B: The Star stagnates, stops, and collapses. And if it’s left unattended for too long…

X4-1997B: The Network collapses and dies, affecting not just your own Star -your own Universe- but any and all variant universes connected to your Star will collapse in the process.

X4-1997B: If a Star collapses, we expend a lot of Ripple Energy initializing Conception to reset the world and try again, but if the Network collapses with it…

X4-1997B: Then there won’t be anything left to initialize Conception on . A Crashed Network. Annihilation .

PsychoSoldier: Oh.

<

The group was silent as they looked at Silver’s phone, up until Sonic broke the silence. “So, uhh, Silver… who was that, and why were they talking about ‘Annihilation’?” Sonic emphasised his point with air quotes, though Silver hopped back in shock.

“Ah! Don’t look!” He shot out instinctually, before a thoughtful look came to his face. “Actually, this might work…”

“What might work? What are you talking about?” Shadow asked, and Silver pointed at him.

“Shadow. You wanted to know what happened in White Space, right?” The Black Hedgehog nodded, and Silver continued. “Well, I’ll tell you, and Sonic, and everyone else involved. In fact…” He then turned to his phone and started to type on it, making sure to point a finger at the group so they wouldn’t look over his shoulder.

>[DM] X4-1997B

X4-1997B: “Oh” is underselling it, mate. Try “Oh, seven Hells, no.”

PsychoSoldier: Iris. If I told you what happened, would that plug the hole?

X4-1997B: Cor, that’s a great idea! 

PsychoSoldier: Great! Mind if I bring a few people, so they can hear the story at the same time?

PsychoSoldier: They’ll need to know about Solaris eventually, and this is the best way to tell them!

X4-1997B: Going off what I know about 06… That would mean Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Blaze, Amy, and yourself, right?

X4-1997B: Her highness Elise, as well.

X4-1997B: Blaze is an admin, and Tails is a part of ACE’s group, but… that’ll be a lot of people who would learn about SOMA aside from Sonic and maybe Knuckles and Amy.

PsychoSoldier: They’re good people!

PsychoSoldier: And it’s not like we aren’t telling people about the Multiverse in the first place.

X4-1997B: Fair cop.

PsychoSoldier: Ooh, maybe some of the guys in our chat might be interested!

PsychoSoldier: Can I invite them too?

X4-1997B: Sure, but where are we going to meet?

X4-1997B: That’ll be a lot of people, bruv.

PsychoSoldier: Oh, I can just bring them to Vanilla’s house!

X4-1997B: Vanilla-san?!

X4-1997B: I know she’s a great host, as far as Blaze’s told me, but how the hell is she going to cook up food for…

X4-1997B: say, twenty or so people.

PsychoSoldier: You underestimate her power.

PsychoSoldier: She has the high ground, or something like that.

X4-1997B: Don’t you start quoting Star Wars to me, Silver-kun!

X4-1997B: We have this one bloke, Vile; he is literally Boba Fett but purple and carrying a shield and he won’t stop making Star Wars references every time he fights X. Vile MK. III even has green armour just to drive it home!

X4-1997B: Sigma’s first beam saber was literally just a Lightsaber he nicked off of some robed fuck’s corpse!

X4-1997B: I’m sick of hearing about Star Wars!

PsychoSoldier: hehe

<

>[DM] Vanilla

Silver: Hello, Miss Vanilla. I have a friend called Iris, who comes from a different world, like Blaze. I need to tell a story to her, and I know that Sonic and the others would like to hear it too. May I bring them over to your house?

Vanilla: Oh, absolutely! How many people are you bringing?

Silver: Maybe 20 people, at most?

Vanilla: I see. I can prepare the backyard for them, and make a lot of food!

Vanilla: When do you plan on bringing them over?

Silver: Not today, but sometime in the next week?

Vanilla: Ah, then tell Blaze and everyone to come over in three days time.

Silver: Perfect!

Silver: Thank you, Miss Vanilla!

<

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

PsychoSoldier: Hey guys, There’s something I need to tell you.

Highlander: You’re secretly an alien?

Itchybum: Are you secretly the prince of a mysterious nation of telekinetic hedgehogs?

PizzaTime: You’re going to jail for Tax Evasion?

PsychoSoldier: No!

PsychoSoldier: Dante, why do you think I’m going to jail for Tax Evasion?

PizzaTime: Vergil.

Alpha&Omega: Unlike me, you’d get caught.

FlamePrincess: Enough!

FlamePrincess: Is this about the incident in White Space?

PsychoSoldier: Yep!

PsychoSolider: I figured I could help Iris out by telling everyone at the same time!

RegisteredL-User: Wait, New Silver lore dropped?

PsychoSoldier: Dropping in three days!

PsychoSoldier: Who wants to come by?

FlamePrincess: And who’ll bring them over?

Admin PsychoSoldier has uploaded a file: Begging.PNG (An image of Silver with a crying face, specifically the one from Lythero)

PsychoSoldier: Please?

FlamePrincess: You can’t see me but I’m having a headache now.

FlamePrincess: Fine. Who wants to come?

Grumpy: Count me in. I’ve had enough of my world.

Ky: We were talking for only five minutes!

Grumpy: That’s five minutes too long.

Itchybum: Mind if I join?

Esaka: Count me in! I’m actually free that day!

Adachi: What about the job?!

Itchybum: It can wait a bit!

Korra: I’ll have to decline. That’s the first day we’re free after dealing with Tokuga’s shit, and Asami’s making it a point to actually go on a date. 

Korra: Something about actually relaxing for once, which I honestly doubt given my luck.

RobinHood: Is Sonic going to be there, by any chance?

PsychoSolider: Yep. Why do you ask?

RobinHood: Lyn’s feeling homesick, so I figure a friendly face will be helpful for a little bit.

OracleNaga: Apologies for being gone for so long. I was in Chon’sin, catching up with Say’ri. We took a bit longer than I expected.

RobinHood: Does she know?

OracleNaga: Know what?

RobinHood: She does not.

RegisteredL-User: She does not indeed.

RegisteredL-User: Anyways, I’ll do my best to come with.

RegisteredL-User: @Highlander You wanna come with?

Highlander: Sorry, I’m busy.

Highlander: Er, I just don’t feel like it.

RegisteredL-User: Ok…

Highlander: Will you write it down or something?

FlamePrincess: Yes, I’ll share the record later.

Highlander: Thanks.

EricMyers: Unfortunately, I have EVEN MORE paperwork to deal with!

WesSide: I dunno why, but I feel like someone’s glaring at me.

<<

Silver looked up, only to find that everyone was once more looking over his shoulder. “Do you guys mind?” They all flew back, with Sonic giving him a disarming smile.

“Sorry, man.” He said, and Silver sighed.

“Well, you practically read over my shoulder, but I’ll tell you guys everything at Vanilla’s house in three days.” he then pointed at Sonic. “Sonic, I need you to tell Tails, Knuckles, and Amy to come too! They need to know my story!”

“Ok!” Sonic gave him a thumbs up, before running away, leaving him with Team Dark.

“Vanilla’s house, in three days?” Rouge repeated his statement, and he nodded.

“Fine, but you will speak.” Shadow growled, and skated off, with Rouge and Omega flying after him. With that, Silver sighed and looked off to the distance.

“Alright, Now I need to get to Soleanna.” And with that, he flew off.

3052, Vox’s Dojo, Sol-System-W-54285

Docking the Landing Craft on the entrance to her Dojo, Vox was teleported into the main hall, which was barren as usual. “Much as I would love to give all these fishies to Hai-Luk, I can tell that something is up with Tatsuya. Now, where are you?” She whispered to herself as she got up, before moving toward where she expected him to be.

Moving up past the barracks (which were being used by Tatsuya), Vox found herself in the Garden, which was being maintained by Tatsuya for the time being. “The plants seem to be in good shape.” Vox noted aloud, before she heard a faint noise from her right, where the Dueling Room was. She slowly approached the room, where she heard a strange voice from inside; namely, a rather feminine voice.

Upon hearing that, Vox bullet-jumped towards the door, where she finally got a good look at the situation. Namely, a shirtless Tatsuya, doing pull-ups, while a strange white-haired woman (probably?) was cheering him on.

“15, 16, 17… 18-”

Before she could continue, Tatsuya let go of the bar, falling on his ass in the process. The woman ran up to help him up, using a healing spell on him as she did. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” He replied with a smile, before rubbing his bicep. “Though my arms are sore, even after that healing spell of yours.” 

Holding her hand out towards his shirt, she yoinked it towards her (kinda like Mag’s Pull), before handing it to Tatsuya. “Still, you are making great progress. Soon, we might be able to-” And that was when Vox had enough.

“WHAT THE SHIT?!” She screamed out loud, and the two of them froze in place before slowly turning towards her; Tatsuya's mouth was gaping silently in shock, while the woman looked only a tiny bit flustered by the situation.

“Oh, now this is awkward.”

Chapter Text

199X, Vanilla’s House, Mobius-S-54285

Leaning into the hard-wood chair Vanilla placed down, Shadow took a moment to breathe in, if only to centre himself once more; After a few deep breaths, He started to speak to himself. “We’re at Vanilla’s place to learn more about what Silver did during the White Space Incident.” He then turned his head to see the rest of his team interacting with the other people there; Omega with Cream, Cheese and Gemerl, and Rouge with Vanilla, and two other individuals. The former was a scarecrow-esque individual, who was working on the stove over what smelled like bacon, while the latter was a feminine robot of some kind that helped Vanilla with the cookies. He saw Vanilla call Cream over, who quickly ran towards her and picked up a tea-cup, before bringing it towards him.

“Mr. Shadow?” The cup contained coffee, and Shadow was quick to accept it, giving her a silent nod in thanks before taking a sip. The aroma was perfect, hints of chocolate and hazelnuts, with a tiny bit of cinnamon in the mix; the taste was even better, with just the right amount of astringency and bitterness. All things considered…

“Is it good?” She asked, while Cheese floated beside her, and he could only smile in response.

“Perfect, as always.” He replied, only to hear a sonic boom in the distance. “Now if only he came later…” He growled to himself, before seeing the discomfort on their faces. 

“Is everything alright between you and Mr. Sonic?” She was concerned for him, and he was grateful, but he had annoyances to deal with, before it ruined this cup of coffee.

“I’m fine. Just need to-” Before he could finish, he could sense something approaching him, and the rippling of the wind told him everything he needed to know. Before he could even get close, Shadow pulled out his secret weapon. 

“CHAOS CONTROL!” The world turned grey, with not a sign of movement in sight; Even Sonic the Hedgehog, fastest thing alive, was no match to its power over time. Noting that his rival didn’t have a Chaos Emerald handy, Shadow scoffed before slurping down the cup of coffee at a rate that was a bit too fast for his liking, though it was fast enough that he finished just as Chaos Control ended, causing Sonic to skid to a halt, and for the sonic boom following him to hit the party. Soon enough, he was followed by three others; Amy, Tails, and Knuckles.

“Hey, guys! What’s up?” He called out, before looking around the area with a smile on his face. “Man, I’ve not been here in a while! Vanilla’s house is as beautiful as it always has.”

“Agreed, not to mention that it’s been a good bit since I’ve seen my house here.” Tails followed up. “It’s good to see that it’s in fine shape, even if there’s a layer of dust there.” Knuckles chuckled at this, while Amy glared at him like a disappointed mother, though Shadow was quick to interrupt their farce.

“Do you have to be this annoying at…” Shadow looked up to the sky, where the Sun was lazily rising to its apex. “10-something in the morning?”

Cream was less annoyed, however, waving at Sonic with a friendly smile. “Hello, everyone! How are you doing today?”

“Chao-Chao!” 

“I’m feeling good, as always! Just destroyed some Badniks on my way here, that's all.” He explained, before turning his head to see the other people in the yard. “Yo, Omega! Gemerl, what’s up?” With that, the two robots approached Sonic at a steady rate before speaking.

“ALL SYSTEMS ARE FULLY OPERATIONAL, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. YOUR CONCERN IS NOT NECESSARY.” Omega reported with a stiff wave.

“All of my family is safe, and the two unknowns have been accounted for.” Gemerl stated curtly, before the two robots turned their heads towards the house.

“Huh? What-cha talking about?” Amy asked, her eyebrow raised up out of curiosity, up until Cream gained his attention with Cheese.

“Oh, Ms. Blaze brought two of her friends from another universe to help Mother cook for everyone!” She quickly explained before tapping her chin. “What are their names again?”

“Toby and Nancy.” Shadow finished for her, his eyes still locked onto the place. “Toby is some sort of Scarecrow-like creature, and Nancy is a ro-Gynoid of some kind. They have shown no signs of aggression, though I have Rouge keeping an eye on them just in case.”

Sonic couldn’t help but snicker at the explanation. “Ah, Shadow. You’re being Paranoid; If they’re friends of Blaze, then they’re friends with me.”

“It doesn’t make them beyond surveillance.” Shadow curtly replied, only to hear someone else approach them from the house; Rouge, in an apron of all things.

“Oh, I finally got out of there… Vanilla may seem nice, but she’s one hell of a boss.” She bemoaned, wiping her forehead with a glove, before realising that they had company. “Oh, if it isn’t Sonic and friends. Oh, and what’s this? Knuckles, without the Master Emerald? Is today my lucky day?” She had stars in her eyes, which were quickly snuffed out by Knuckles.

“Nope.” He then pulled out a familiar gem from his back. “The Spirits taught me how to pull the Master Emerald out of the Altar while letting Angel Island fall down slowly; I can keep the Emerald with me at all times, and the island won’t cause a tsunami when it lands.” Rouge slowly brought her hand towards it, but he put the emerald away before giving her a glare. “You still can’t have it, no matter how close we’ve become!”

“Oh really?” Rouge’s voice had a sad tone to it, though it was clear she was acting when she leaned dramatically. “It seems I’ll have to pull a page from Amy’s book, then; Knuckles the Echidna, Marry me!”

“What?!” He spat out in shock, before shaking his head. “No way!” This led to one hell of an argument between the Echidna and Bat, which was entertaining for everyone in the area; Hell, Shadow was smiling, though he was quick to cover it up when one of them looked at him. Unfortunately (for him) Sonic HAD seen him smile, and the smile on his face told him that he was absolutely going to tease him for it.

Of course, something else had occurred before that; Namely, a portal appeared to his left.

It was made of orange flames, which were lightest at the edges; Notably, the flames obscured the centre, and in turn obscured what was behind it. Amy had moved in front of Cream, while Omega and Gemerl had pointed their weaponry at the portal. As the others got ready for a fight, Shadow pulled out the Chaos Emerald for another Chaos Control, though it was evidently clear that his concern wasn’t necessary.

“Ceasefire!” Blaze’s voice echoed from the portal as the princess walked out of it, hands up for a moment before putting them down, much to the joy of everyone there.

“Miss Blaze!” Cream cried out before running around Amy to hug Blaze alongside Cheese, which the princess returned while walking forwards slowly.

“Sorry, Cream, but there are more people coming through.” She explained before looking at Gemerl pointedly. “Friends, if I needed to be clear.” The two robots lowered their hands, though Omega only stood down once Rouge gave him a scathing glare. As that happened, a few individuals popped out of the portal; Dante Redgrave, Kyo Kusanagi, Ichiban Kasuga, Frederick Bulsara, Tiki, and Lyndis.

 “Man, and here I thought we were coming in under friendly circumstances.” A White-haired man grumbled as he stretched his arms above his head, before gazing upon Shadow and the others. “Y’know, Blaze… I know you said everyone here would be like you in a sense, but I still feel like Alice in Wonderland…”

“Guess we’ll have to get used to it, huh Dante?” A man with short brown hair and a white-jacket responded, before Blaze sighed.

“I might as well get introductions out of the way.” Blaze pointed at the Mobians, speaking their names in turn. “These are my friends, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Rouge, Omega, and Gemerl.” She then started pointing at each of the foreigners in turn.

“This is Dante, a Devil Hunter of some fame.” She pointed to the man in question, who waved his hand in a friendly manner.

“Hey, kids!” 

“This is Kyo Kusanagi, Heir to the Kusanagi Clan, and Defender of Humanity.” She pointed to the man in the white jacket, who gave them a salute.

“Yo!”

“This is Ichiban Kasuga, Former Yakuza and current ‘Hero of Tomorrow’, assuming I got that right.” Blaze used air quotes before pointing at a man with a red suit and wild, frizzy hair.

“Hey, everyone! Man it’s so cool to meet you all!”

“This is Frederick Bulsara, Bounty Hunter and Scientist” She pointed to a man with a red jacket, who adjusted a massive weapon that laid upon his back.

“I don’t do introductions.”

“This is Tiki, Divine Oracle and Daughter of the Divine Dragon, Naga.” She pointed to a tall woman with long green hair and a pinkish-red dress.

“Hello, everyone!”

“And this is-”

“Lyn!” Sonic waved his hand at the last-ish member of the group (two more unfamiliar women had waltzed out of the portal) and ran up to her. “How’s it hanging?”

“Hanging?” She tilted her head in confusion, before Kyo whispered something into her ear. “Oh! Well… I will not say that I am perfectly fine. I am far from my homeland, and even the kindness of my hosts do little to push this sadness in my heart away.” Sonic and the others looked worried when she heard that, though before he could speak she smiled at him. “I will say that seeing you again makes my heart feel much lighter.”

He smiled at the answer, giving her a thumbs up. “As I always say, stories only end when I stop running! If you keep at it, you’ll find your way back home!”

“And as I always say…” A mysterious voice spoke up, before another white-haired man (in Ninja garbs, of all things) popped out from behind Lyn. “A Ninja never loses! Now get ready, Sonic! I’m not losing to a blue rat again!”

“Chipp!” Sonic’s grin became taunting, like he was preparing for a race. “All we need is Vox, and we’ll have a full rematch on our hands!”

“That… will be unlikely.” Blaze spoke up, before pulling her phone out of her pocket. “She texted me earlier, saying that she couldn’t come due to some problems in her own universe.”

“Yeah, she wouldn’t give us a lick of information, but I guess we all have our problems.” A woman with long brown hair and a blue-and-red outfit (or perhaps plating) explained, before realising that everyone was looking at her. “Oh, I might as well introduce myself! Lt. Iris Thorne. Reploid, former Member of the Repliforce, and fellow Administrator alongside Princess Blaze.”

“And how are they going to know what that means?” Another voice, belonging to a red-skinned woman with a robotic left arm (Well, she also had horns and hooves, though no one was going to comment on that), echoed out as said woman stepped out of the portal. “Oh, I’m Anastasia Corbyn Ellie, Also known as-”

“ACE!” Tails, of all people, cried out, waving at her in turn. “I didn’t think I’d meet you in person!”

“And I never expected you to know about a SOMA Admin.” Blaze glared at the twin-tailed fox. “How do you know her?”

“Oh, he’s one of mine.” ACE waved the concern off. “One of the fine inventors/tech heads at the Forge, a multiversal crafters initiative dedicated to chatting about inventing, and sometimes building crazy shit.”

Blaze looked at her with an annoyed expression on her face, though it was Frederick who spoke up first.

“A crafting union?” Frederick looked at her curiously. “Got any place for a hobbyist Weapon developer?”

“Hmm, we’ll see if I can do that.” ACE said before quickly launching into an explanation of SOMA and the Multiverse. We’ve all seen the explanation before (and if you haven’t, re-read Chapter 9), but everyone who hadn’t known about the Multiverse now very much knew about it.

Now, back to the nonsense.

“Wait a minute, you said that Vox couldn’t come?” Chipp barked out while pointing at Blaze, who nodded firmly. “Damn! It’ll be no fun if I can’t go up against her!” Chipp decried the situation, though before he could continue, Shadow stepped forward.

“Much as I’d like to hear about this, and I really do, We did come here for something far more important.” He gave a harsh glare to make his point apparent.

“Now that I think about it, where is Silver?” Sonic looked around, only for the Hedgehog in question to shout out from above.

“I’m up here!” They all looked up, and Silver was hovering in the air; more notably, he had a red-haired woman in his hands, slowly bringing her down to ground level, where she slowly got out of his hands. She wore a black suit, with white stockings, black heels and a white fur-lined coat in about the same colour. Her hair was a little frazzled, on closer look, though she quickly patted it down once she stood up fully. As she patted her hair back into place beneath her feather-like crown, Blaze took the opportunity to glare at Silver.

“Silver, did you fly all the way here from Soleanna… with her in your hands?!” 

“Look, the ship was taking too long at the border!” He explained swiftly, holding his hands up in surrender. “I didn’t want to be late to the party, especially when I was the one who set it up!"

“No… I believe the fault is mine…” The woman took the blame with a soft voice. “Had I been able to deal with all of those meetings sooner, we wouldn't have had to rush here.” A genuine smile appeared on her face, despite it all. “Still, I needed the rush of Adrenaline; I never get out much, even with my exercise regimen.”

“Wait a tic… You’re Princess Elise!” Iris spoke up, only for Elise to giggle.

“Duchess, Actually.” Elise corrected her. “I was properly named as such when I turned 18.”

“What…?” The Reploid slowly gasped out in shock, though before she could ask anymore questions a giant Twinrotor-esque airship flew over the group and pointed a spotlight at Silver, blinding everyone in the process.

“HEY ASSHAT! THAT’S OUR DUCHESS YOU KIDNAPPED!” A soldier’s voice screeched out from the ship’s speaker. “DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH DANGER YOU PUT HER IN?!”

“But she’s fine!” Silver shot back, waving his arms in her direction. “See?”

“See?! SEE?!?!” The soldier screeched out once more, before sputtering violently. “Why I oughta-”

He then proceeded to swear up a storm, while Amy covered Cream's ears with her hands and Shadow did much of the same with Cheese. As for Silver, he sighed before looking at Elise. “Say, can we get this chopper outta here? We’ve got no use for this guy.” 

“Oh, I got a runway at my place! I can guide him there, your Majesty!” Tails added on, and Elise gave him a smile before pulling out a radio from her pocket.

“Soldier.” Elise’s crisp voice cut through the ranting in an instant, leaving only silence. “While your concern for my life is appreciated, do realise that there are times and places for such a… veracious, if crude rant. Please, follow this fox; He will guide you to a landing spot. I will call you when I need your assistance.”

“Yes your Majesty!” He cried out, and the ship flew off after Tails. While he did that, Cream guided everyone to the chairs, which were arranged into a circle, while Vanilla, Toby, and Nancy brought out the food for everyone. There was enough for everyone, and the variety of food that the trio had cooked up meant that everyone had gotten something different; Hell, Omega and Gemerl were guzzling down oil like it was beer. It was during this wait that a question came to Silver.

“Say, Blaze.” Silver asked his friend, who was mid-bite of some cake. “Where’s Liu Kang? And Robin for that matter?” 

Blaze swallowed her bite swiftly. “They’re off training in their world. Unlike the rest of the group, they’ve seen the event unfold, due to the Hourglass. Robin’s dealing with some political problems in Ylisstol, so she couldn’t come.”

“Ah, I see…” Silver nodded his head before returning to his Chilli Dog, which had coleslaw of all things as a topping. Of course, once Tails returned to the backyard and found a seat, Silver took to the centre with a few pieces of junk floating beside him like props. ACE summoned a camera robot before giving the hedgehog a thumbs up, at which point Silver took a deep breath.

“Our… no, MY Story starts… in the future!”

Chapter Text

Our… no, MY Story starts… in the future.

The future was bright and sunny that day, and I had taken the opportunity to… co-opt the roof of a skyscraper for myself. I had brought a sunchair, and I had planned on taking a long, relaxing nap under the gaze of the sun. And so, there I was, relaxing atop a skyscraper, when I got a headache!

“GAH!”

As I did, I saw a strange vision; Myself, flying through a burning city, with Blaze of all people with me; Back then, I didn’t know why she was there, but that’s not important for now. No, I shot out of my chair and rubbed my forehead in an attempt to clear my headache, only to be met with a strange and terrible sight. The city was glitching, with the clear skies and pristine buildings somehow giving way to rubble and flames. I didn’t know how it was possible, but I needed to find a way to fix it all. I walked towards the edge of the building and looked around, only to find a rather strange sight; A ring-like portal on the side of the building. With nothing better to do, I flew down the side of the building, and right through the portal.

“Woah! That’s so cool!” Ichiban interjected with a smile on his face.

“Ichiban! Don’t interrupt him!” Blaze chided him, though instead of getting the group to quiet down, it inspired Dante to speak.

“Still, it’s not as cool as… throwing a sword down a demonic tower fast enough to burn through the atmosphere, run fast enough to catch up to it, and defeat a bunch of demons in the process.” He then shrugged casually, putting his arms behind his head.

While that was received well by the group, it was Iris who pointed out the flaw in his story. “Hey, Wait a tic. Didn’t you get swallowed by that Leviathan fellow afterwards?” Everyone gasped in shock, while Dante looked like he was caught red-handed, though he simply shrugged again.

“Well, you win some and you lose some. And let me tell you, I lost a LOT when I was younger.” He finished his bit, and Blaze gave a nod towards Silver, who breathed in before speaking.

“Like I was saying…”

I ran down the building, through the portal, and found myself in a strange city that was cut through by a river; This was Soleanna, though I’d only learn that later. Unlike my city of the future, it was a lot more rustic, even with the clear renovations being done to the area. Still, I could tell the distortions were somewhere else, and followed them without abandon. I blasted through the town with my psycho powers, hovering above the ground and throwing boxes out of my way when I needed to; even a Teleport Smash, to get around some hostile egg-robots. 

“Hmm… I just realised that none of you know what that is…” Silver paused to rub his chin. “How do I explain it…”

Before he could think, a loud clunking noise came from outside the gate, before an orange robot hopped over it, right into Vanilla’s backyard. “Ah! An Egg pawn!” Tails cried out, only for more robots to hop over the fence, one by one, until 12 Egg Pawns surrounded them all. 

This didn’t stop the group from getting ready to fight, though some were more eager than others. “EGGMAN ROBOTS IDENTIFIED!” Some being Omega, who turned his arms into miniguns before pointing them all around him. “THIS WILL BE GOOD!”

“Wait! This is perfect!” Silver stopped him with a hand, before hopping into the air and orienting himself towards the one near the gate. With a blast of energy, Silver teleported right to the Pawn, and used its body like a vertical pole before orienting himself towards another pawn, with his feet aimed at his unfortunate victim. With a kick, he launched himself towards the next pawn, repeating what he did again, and again, until all of the pawns had been crushed by his kicks. He landed right back in the middle of the makeshift stage, at which point he raised a hand above his head and clenched his fist, causing all of the pawns to fall apart.

ACE grinned seeing all the advanced scrap metal.. “Nice! Dibs!”

“I WANTED TO DESTROY THEM!” Omega roared petulantly, before squatting down on his chair forcefully.

“Heh, Sorry, Omega.” Silver, for what it was worth, gave him an apologetic shrug as everyone sat down, before continuing. “Anyways, that’s what a Teleport Smash is. Now, where was I? Oh!”

After the town, I found myself in a castle, which was full of people. I had to dodge around them to keep my speed, but it wasn’t that difficult at the end of the day. Through the castle, I followed the trail of energy, which led me down the castle's stairs, and right into the basement, and a large room underneath the castle.

The room was industrial, with a bunch of devices surrounding a strange pedestal. If I were a smarter hedgehog, I’d be able to tell you what they did, but it’s also not that relevant to the plot. There were a bunch of scientists in the area, though the most important person there was Elise, though I had no clue who she was back then. All I knew was that she was strange, and that she had a Chaos Emerald in her hands; Metaphorically, of course. She locked eyes with me, and said-

He was about to continue when Elise, of all people, raised her hand politely; Silver was more than happy to let her speak up. “It might be a bit presumptuous of me, but could I say my lines? I’d like to think I have a good memory, and I figure that people would be interested to hear more than one voice, given that this will take a few hours to complete.”

“Oi, oi, oi.” Iris interrupted, “Apologies for interrupting you, Elise–ojousama, but we need Silver’s recollection to be as accurate as possible! If we don’t get a good baseline, then we won’t be able to generate enough Ripple Energy!”

“To be fair, I doubt a few missed lines matter, Iris.” ACE countered, leaning towards Iris as she did. 

With no other concerns raised, Silver looked towards Elise and bowed. “Well then, take the stage, my fair lady!” 

With encouragement, Elise stood up, walked to the centre of the stage, and posed dramatically.

“Silver the Hedgehog… I didn’t expect to see you so soon… ”

She spoke softly, before a maniacal grin came onto her face.

“But I am glad you’re here.” 

Imagine my surprise when she spoke to me like that. I didn’t know who the hell she was, and here she was acting like an old friend; or maybe an enemy? I’m not entirely sure, but I needed answers.

“Who are you? And how do you know who I am?”

But she didn’t give me any answers, simply giving me a sad shake of her head.

“Oh, Silver, so you don’t remember me… If I could tell you now, I would, but the burden on your mind would be too great; It would crumble from the pressure of time.”

She snapped her fingers, and soldiers appeared with weapons aimed at me. 

“Capture the Hedgehog. He must be taken alive.”

I didn’t know who she was, I didn’t know what she wanted, but I did know this; I couldn’t trust her, not when she looked at me like a pawn. Her scientists looked at me with curiosity, and the soldiers were ready to attack me. I was not going to let them stop me, not while I needed answers.

They fired their guns, in an attempt to take me down, but I wasn’t worried at all; A little psychokinetic shockwave, and they were all defeated. Elise herself had been knocked down by the shockwave, and the Chaos Emerald had rolled out of her hands, right by my feet. I picked up the Emerald, and I inspected it once more. With it in hand, I was hoping to interrogate her for answers, when suddenly…

BOOM! BAM! SHWAP! A purple portal opened up, and a giant black ghost with blue eyes popped out, right into the middle of the room!

“And that was the Time Eater.” Sonic finished for him, and Silver nodded.

“And that was the Time Eater.” He rubbed his chin in thought. “My last memory before it attacked was grabbing the Chaos Emerald in Elise’s hand. I was trying to take it off her, though that was quickly stopped by its pulse.

Before he could continue, Frederick waved his hands around with a frown on his face. “Ok, go back a bit - What the hell is this Time Eater? How did it get into… wherever Silver and uhh… Princess Whats-her-name were at?”

“Elise…” Blaze grumbled out. “And she’s a duchess, at that!” 

Frederick merely shrugged at that, though it was Tails who answered his original question. “We didn’t know it at the time, but it was a Temporal deity that could travel across time! Eggman found it after Sonic stopped his Amusement Park plan, and harnessed it with the assistance of his past self!”

ACE facepalmed with her metal hand, shaking her head. “Always with the pacts, Robotnik.” She whispered to herself.

“WHAT?!” Frederick cried out, only for Knuckles of all people to give him a reassuring pat on the back.

“Yeah, it kinda went over my head when Tails told me about it.” He admitted with a shrug. “Mind you, I’m not an idiot, but it’s not my sort of thing to understand.” Quite a few people agreed with him, but that was ignored by Frederick. 

“No, That’s not my issue!” Frederick grumbled out before looking at Tails once more. “How in the world did that idiot NOT destroy the timeline?! If he got access to a power that could manipulate time-”

“I did!” Sonic proudly boasted before scratching his chin. “Well, Me and my past self, but yeah!”

“With the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds, Sonic and his Past Self activated their Super forms, which allowed them to take down the Eggman-modified Time Eater. Once that occurred, everything returned back to normal, and we were able to celebrate Sonic’s Birthday once more!”

All of the Mobians understood that part perfectly (Elise excluded), but the outworlders were justifiably confused, as Kyo raised his hand to prove. “Should we talk about that part?”

“Eh, it’s not that relevant.” Silver waved it off before continuing. “Anyways, the Time Eater appeared before us, before dragging us into… the White Space.”

The place we were dragged into was known as White Space for its… lack of anything. It’s a void in between universes, where places that were ripped out of place by the Time Eater were sent to. My section of White Space was akin to a walled garden, with everything drained of colour, including the buildings that resembled the town I was in. Specifically, I was on a plateau that stood above three areas. All of them were lifeless, barring the lowest one; There were a number of fiery creatures flying around it, with two specs of Pink and Green running about.

Leaping off the plateau with the ruined version of Soleanna, I flew towards them, using a grind rail and a few springs to get me towards the two specks, who I quickly realised were two people; Espio the Chameleon, and Jet the Hawk. 

“Espio?!” Sonic cried out in shock. “How’d he get there? I thought he was frozen in time!”

“I believe he was getting to that, Sonic.” Shadow grumbled out, glaring at him in the process.

“Uh, guys?” Silver asked quietly, and the two jolted for a moment before looking away in embarrassment; With that over, Silver took the opportunity to continue. “To answer your question, Sonic, He had apparently found a portal that led him to my version of White Space, where he’d meet Jet. The two were about to fight when they were harassed by all of those Iblis creatures, which is where I found them.”

Sonic seemed placated by the answer, though it inspired Rouge to speak up. “Now that I think about it, you and Espio worked together, didn’t you?”

Silver nodded his head in response, while Shadow asked another question. “Your version of White Space… It sounds suspiciously similar to what I dealt with. Did you have any strange capsule-like devices in your zone? Perhaps… tall, filled with some sort of fluid?

“Y-yeah!” Silver shouted out. “They had some sort of gas in them, but we did!” “They were called… Memory Orbs.”

After clearing out the creatures, and getting the two to not fight each other, I ran around the area and found two strange dioramas, which represented two very different Zones; Aurora Icefield, and Splash Canyon. I had no clue where either of those places were, but Espio and Jet knew those places well, and so approached the dioramas that they knew best, while I focused on the other strange thing; a giant glass ball, with a strange green-ish gas inside. Err, that would be four, but the orbs were practically the same thing. The glass ball I approached was closest to Espio, closest to the Diorama that represented Aurora Icefield, though Jet had joined us to see what was up. 

“What is this strange thing? It feels wrong.”

That’s what he said when he saw it, but I felt something else inside of it; something familiar.

“It… it calls to me…”

The presence was deep within the ball, and I couldn’t break the glass with just a Teleport Smash; luckily, there was some rubble nearby I could use as a battering ram. Once I did, the gas flew out of the ball, and flew right into me, which led to a headache as visions of a place I’ve never been to; An Eggman base, hidden deep in the snowy mountains above Soleanna. I saw myself and Blaze run into it, all because we believed that Eggman had a connection to an entity known as the Flames of Disaster.

Silver stopped speaking, as quite a few people curled up in pain; Namely, All of Team Sonic, Team Dark, and Amy.

“Hey, what’s wrong?!” Ichiban cried out, before running up to Tails and shaking him on the shoulders. The fox quickly shook his head after a moment, and looked at Ichiban.

“Sorry about that… I just remembered something.” He reassured Ichiban, as the Yakuza helped him up. “Sonic and I, we went to one of Eggman’s bases to free Elise from his clutches… Sonic even gave up the Chaos Emerald so that he’d release her… but we were sent somewhere else instead.”

“White Acropolis…” Shadow spoke up after him. “I was sent there to free Rouge, who had been captured by Eggman after raiding his databases.”

“The Flames of Disaster…” The agent continued for him. “He was researching the Flames of Disaster, for some plan of his. What that’d be is beyond me…”

“And I followed Sonic to that base, only to find Elise.” Amy took over, having been helped up by Cream and Cheese. “I found Elise, and brought her back to… Soleanna, I think.”

As for Silver, he turned to Elise and gave her a look which she reciprocated, before walking up to Ichiban.

“Their memories are returning, Sir Ichiban.” She explained. “Slowly but steadily, the events that were… erased by Sonic and I are slowly returning to their minds.

“Erased?!” Ichiban cried out, only for ACE to walk up and pat him on the shoulder.

“Not erased, but… To put it bluntly, the events of the Solaris Incident got erased due to Elise blowing out the Flames of Disaster years ago, preventing all sorts of shit from happening.” She explained to Ichiban, who raised a finger in response. “And before you ask, yes they’re being coy, and it’s for a very good reason; Chronological Paradoxes.”

Blaze sighed loudly. “When… someone experiences an event, the event creates a memory. When the event is erased from time, the memory is suppressed, but not outright erased. If something related to the event is brought up with the right context, it is possible for that person to recover the memory, albeit with a bit of pain from the recollection.” She paused to take a breath before continuing. “The problem occurs when the memory is recovered, without the right context; When that occurs, the mind fails to reconcile the memory with everything else, and they feel pain, even more than what they would have felt if they recovered the memory correctly.”

“And too many memories recovered in that way, all at once, would cause severe damage to the person; Even death.” Elise finished for her, looking down glumly as she did. “I would know, of course; One of my plans banked on Blaze’s death.”

“Wait, what?!” Everyone cried out in shock at the admission, with Shadow teleporting up to Elise with a frown on his face.

“Why would you want to kill Blaze?!” He pointed a finger at her, only for Silver to knock his hand away.

“We’ll get to that part!” He cried out, getting everyone to shut up for a moment. “I know it’s shocking, but there’s a good reason for it! Now, can we sit down, and can I continue?” They all looked at each other hesitantly, though they eventually took their places, though not without a few foul glances courtesy of Shadow, Omega, Frederick, and Cream of all people. With that, Silver continued.

As the memory rocked me, more of the creatures surrounded us, though just when they were about to attack us, I unlocked a new power; Psycho Drop.

Stomping the ground, I unleashed a wave of psychokinetic energy around me to paralyze the group, before I launched myself into the air, well above all of them. With a wave of my hand, I gathered the monsters into a ball in front of me, before slamming them into the ground with my body. I’ll admit that I didn’t intend on spinning around, or having them spin around my body, but Espio practically made me take the name, since it was a dead-ringer for one of his techniques.

He was also the one to name the glass balls, once I told him what I saw in my head. 

“So you saw a vision of Blaze and you together, tearing through one of Dr. Eggman’s bases… and you say that this vision felt like something you have done before, correct?” 

Espio asked me, and I nodded my head in return.

“I see. For the sake of clarity, we should give these objects some sort of name.They are able to give you visions akin to memories, and they are shaped like orbs… perhaps we should call them Memory Orbs?”

I didn’t see anything wrong with the name, and Jet said nothing in turn, so I gave him the thumbs-up on that bit. After that, I went towards the closest Diorama, and entered the Aurora Icefield Zone.

“One moment!” Iris cried out, halting the story. “How many acts were in Aurora Icefield?”

“Acts?” Silver asked, before snapping his fingers. “Oh, one of the acts was like a long pathway, with all sorts of traps…”

“So a Speed-based section, a la Sonic’s Act 2, and Shadow’s Act 1…” Iris jotted it down on a notepad.

“And the other was filled with puzzles.”

Iris stopped writing and slowly looked up at Silver. “Puzzles… What kind of puzzles?”

Silver rubbed his chin with his gloved hand. “Uhh, they’re different in every zone, but Aurora Icefield had a bunch of icy-blocks in it!” 

With that, almost everyone groaned out in pain, barring Tiki and Lyn, for reasons.

“Oh boy, Ice Block puzzles…” Kyo mumbled out a comment while waving his head.

“They weren’t THAT bad!” Silver cried out, only to earn more groans from the group.

“Agreed!” Tails joined in with a smile on his face. “Even in the context of a Game, a different style of play can be good for challenging different parts of the mind!” Sonic opened his mouth to tell Tails off, only for Shadow to speak first.

“Enough of this! I wish to hear more.” He growled before giving Silver a glare. “Is that all you saw in this… Aurora Icefield?”

“Well, There were the towers…”

Inside the second act, I had to deal with ice blocks, though they weren’t just used as a puzzle; I also had to use them to avoid the spotlights of a bunch of watchtowers. I wasn’t sure how they were able to do that, but by using my Psychokinesis on them, I could move them into just the right places, giving me enough cover to get around the area. Of course, when I brought Espio into the area for a challenge, He said something that intrigued me.

“These towers… I don’t recall seeing them in Aurora Icefield. Bark would have made a big fuss if he saw these towers here.”

I turned towards him in shock, even though we were caught by a spotlight, leading to a bunch of enemies landing on us. They weren’t a threat, however, as I asked a question mid-fight.

“Huh? What do you mean by that? And who in the world is Bark?”

“Bark the Polar Bear… He was a Chaos Emerald Guardian.”

He looked embarrassed saying that, but that didn’t stop him from speaking.

“It’s a silly name, but we kept the Chaos Emeralds safe from Eggman’s hands, even when he attempted to use his robots to take over the world. Of course, we stopped him, and after that we went our own ways. As for Bark, he’s a gentle soul, though he finds himself working with the wrong people; namely Fang the Hunter, and Bean the Dynamite…”

“Sounds like he just needs to meet the right people…”

After that bit, we dealt with the robots easily, and continued on towards the exit.

---

“Eggman’s base… he had watchtowers set up, to catch any intruders…” Shadow noted. “But what of Splash Canyon? And what of the Memory Orb you found near it?”

Silver hissed at the question, scratching his head as he did. “Ah, I was hoping to wait a bit, let you guys recover from what you learned before… especially with what Elise said.”

“But there’s no point in keeping it from them for much longer.” Elise siad, interrupting him. “They seem more than ready to recover those memories.”

Silver looked around, and noted that they all seemed fine; with that, he knew that he could bring up the caustic memory once more. “Hmm… in that Memory Orb, I saw myself in a train yard, outside Soleanna. A being by the name of- Ah, I was ordered to hunt down Sonic in the area, and I ran through the yard to find him. I was able to catch up to him just as he freed Elise from the clutches of Dr. Eggman, though Shadow stopped me before I could execute him. As the two of us fought, we used our Chaos Emeralds against each other, but-” 

Suddenly, more groans from the group, as Sonic, Shadow, Rouge, Omega and the rest doubled over in pain, though unlike before they recovered quickly. As they stood back up, it was Sonic who spoke first, an easy smile gracing his face.

“I remember I returned to Soleanna from a portal, and Eggman was trying to escape with Elise. He set up a train full of people on a crash course, all to slow me down.” Sonic reminisced before smiling. “I mean, I did stop it, and I did save Elise, but then you appeared, and she got captured again.”

Shadow grunted as he stood up. “I was hunting down the good doctor, all so that I could find out about-” Before he could finish, he screamed in pain before crumpling to the floor. Everyone saw him on the floor, though before anyone could get close, Silver teleported up to him and held his hands out.

“EVERYONE! STAY BACK!” A blast of Psychokinetic energy pushed the party onto their asses, giving the two hedgehogs a wide berth. Still, there were some who were far more worried about Shadow’s condition.

“Silver, he’s in pain!” Amy cried out, before attempting to approach the two of them. Silver grimaced before grabbing her in a psychokinetic hold and pushing her back.

“Sorry, Amy! If I’m correct, then you can’t hear what he’s going to say next!” Silver shot back, glaring at everyone as he did; Sonic and Knuckles tried to approach, though another Psycho-hold was enough to make them stand back. With the area clear, Silver could inspect shadow, who had a thin line of blood running out of his nostril. “Shadow, what do you remember?”

The Ultimate Lifeform rubbed his nose with his glove before whispering. “I… remember Mephiles… I wanted to stop his destruction, even when he claimed I would become the enemy of the world… I fought him once in the ruins of the Dusty Desert, and again in White Space.”

“Wh-” Silver nearly screamed, though he was able to cut himself off before anyone else could hear him. “You fought him in White Space?! Was Eggman able to-”

“I don’t know about the Doctor, but Mephiles was sealed off deep in the underground of my area.” Shadow rubbed his forehead as he spoke. “While I doubt that he wouldn’t have tried to use his power, the fact that Mephiles was hidden away in the first place has to mean something.”

Silver made an anxious noise as he processed the information, though he knew that he couldn’t keep quiet for long. “Do you remember anything else?” 

Shadow shook his head in response. “Bits and pieces, though I have the feeling I’m going to remember more from your story.”

“Are you sure you can handle it?” Silver asked, and Shadow gave him a firm, silent nod. With that, Silver helped Shadow up, and brought him to his chair. “Mephiles will be brought up again, I’m sure of it. Until we get to that point, you’re going to have to wait to speak about him.”

“Fine.” Shadow quietly said, and Silver stepped away from him, just as Rouge and Omega approached their friend with worry in their eyes. Still, they weren’t crumpling over in pain once more, so Silver deemed it fine to return to the centre, where Elise leaned in towards him.

“Should we continue?” she asked and he reluctantly nodded.

“We have to.” With that, he let everyone settle down, though it was clear that there was an unease across the group, between what just happened, and Elise’s earlier confession. Before it could become too oppressive, Sonic clapped his hands and gave Silver a look.

“So… you’ve gotten an ability from the first memory orb. What did you get from this one?”

Silver couldn’t help but smile at that. “Oh… I could just talk about it, but what fun would that be?” With that, Silver leaped into the air, pulling up a few metal scraps from the area as he did. Letting go of them, Silver wound his legs up, before flying right at them, spinning his lower body around as he did. “PSYCHO TOP!” He hollered at the top of his lungs, smashing through each of the piles and turning them into even finer pieces of scrap, before landing to the sound of applause, courtesy of Sonic.

“Yo! That’s almost like my Humming-Top Technique!” He noted, only for Amy to whack him on the head.

“OUR technique!” She cried out, as he rubbed his head from the impact. “I helped you develop it, I deserve at least half-credit!” The two continued to argue, leaving the rest of the party to focus on the more important matters

“Hey, Psycho-guy!” Chipp cried out, grabbing everyone’s attention “This Jet fellow! Is he fast?”

Silver was surprised that the president didn’t remember his name, but he didn’t care much to correct him. “Yeah! He’s a pro on his Extreme-Gear, dodging and weaving around stuff while keeping pace; Hell, I think he’d be able to keep up with Sonic, if he went full pace.”

It was at that point that Sonic and Amy stopped arguing, and focused on the conversation at hand. “Oh hell no! If I was going at it on foot, I’d leave him in the dust! The only way he’d beat me is on a board!”

At the confession, Silver couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh, now that I think about it, he said the same thing…”

We were deep into Splash Canyon, clearing our way through an army of Badniks. Specifically, I needed to do so with boxes, which admittedly took a bit longer than I expected; Still it allowed me to get some stress out, at the very least.

“It’s no use!”

I cried out on instinct as I demolished a Badnik, before hopping onto a grind rail. Beside me was Jet, who was using his board to grind on a rail beside me.

“You say that alot, don’t you?” 

I couldn’t help but sigh at the comment, even when more Badniks ran at us.

“So I’ve been told, and yet everytime someone else says it, I get annoyed.”

One of the Badniks leapt at me, but all that did was leave me with a target to hit. With some nearby boxes, I swatted it out of the sky before throwing more boxes at the rest, clearing them out. 

“Then again, I believe we all have our catchphrases; It’s no use, I’m the Ultimate Lifeform, Gotta go fast.”

“Ha! So Sonic still says that.”

Jet scoffed loudly, even as we flew through the air, him with his board, and me with a Psycho Top. Even still, he felt the need to boost; Eyes closed, at that.

“Unlike Sonic, I’m always fast! I was faster in the past, I’m faster now, and when I see him again, I’ll show that I- BUOAH!”

And then he slammed himself face-first into a cliff wall, leaving me alone.

“You probably shouldn’t boast when your eyes are closed…”

“Heh, must have sucked to be Jet back then!” Sonic quipped, before a thought came to him. “Say, did you see anything from the Time Eater? Like, Gates?”

“He had to.” Shadow growled, even through the headache. “He was in a White Space like my own, which would mean he had to have Boss Gates, and Challenge Acts. Right?”

Silver quickly nodded to both questions. “Yep! Those bits with Espio and Jet were actually when I was trying to get the keys for the gate. We had a feeling that the gates were the key to unlocking the rest of the area.” He then chuckled at the accidental pun, which led to a few people joining in on the fun

“So, who did you fight?” ACE spoke up for once in a while. “From the Archives, I know Sonic’s first boss was the Death Egg Robot, even if it was his past self, and Shadow dealt with the Biolizard, but who did you fight?”

Silver went silent, folding his arms in before speaking. “Say, Sonic? Remember when I called you a faker?”

“In White Space, right?” Sonic quickly answered, and Silver nodded.

Inside the gate, I found myself in a strange place; Sky Sanctuary, though I wouldn’t know what it truly was until many years later. More specifically, I was in a circular terrace like area, with vines wrapped around the stone pillars of the area and the odd box. It was a beautiful place, but before I could appreciate it for long, I heard the sounds of footsteps, intermixed with a strange metallic thump. Turning towards it, I was met with a friendly sight; Sonic of all people.

“Hey Bud! What’s up?”

He called out to me, and I waved back, even as my gut said something was wrong with him. 

“Hey Sonic! So you’re trapped in here too?”

He nodded back to me before walking up.

“Indeed! I was wandering around this place, looking for a certain someone. Running around is fast, but with the Chaos Emeralds I can be even faster! Would you… happen to have one?”

He held his hand out, and flashed me a jaunty smile. He looked like Sonic… He sounded like Sonic… He even acted like Sonic… but something told me he wasn’t Sonic. Was it the memories I recovered? I knew instinctively that they were real, but none of them explained why I was hurting Sonic back then. Still, I needed to get proof

“I do, but…. What’s my name?”

“Your name? Why would that matter?”

And the fake sealed his fate, when he said that. I slowly pulled my hand behind my back, and focused on a crate right behind him. With a flick of my fingers, it lifted itself into the air, before slowly moving to a point above this faker, while I pulled out the Chaos Emerald as slowly as I could. His eyes were glued to the emerald once it got into his line-of-sight, and his fingers started to greedily waver as I did. Just before I could bring it near his hands, I took a deep breath

“Before I give this to you… TAKE THIS!”

I slammed the Box down on the faker’s head, though all it did was make a loud shattering noise occur. The world fractured, and I found myself on a long walkway, with nothing around us other than the sky and Angel Island. As for the faker, it was clear that he was a robot, designed to look like Sonic, though the bright-red mono-eye and heel-based wheels said otherwise. I wondered if he was made by Eggman, though I wasn’t sure of that yet. He slowly got up, and glared at me.

“So you can see through the disguise. And here I thought the doctor's tech would help me here…”

The robot spoke, and he more-or-less confirmed his allegiance.

“Who are you? And why do you want the Chaos Emerald?”

I called out to the robot, who merely chuckled in response.

“Oh, Silver the Hedgehog, my name is unimportant to you, and my purpose even less so. However, I am feeling a bit generous today, so allow me to elucidate you.”

He took a deep bow before me.

“I am Mecha Sonic, and when I bring that Chaos Emerald to my master, he will reward me handsomely! I will become the TRUE Sonic!”

I grimaced at the monologue, but I simply shoved the Chaos Emerald back into my pocket before floating above him.

“Well, it sucks to be you, pal, because I’m not giving it up, much less to the likes of you!”

BGM: "The Doomsday" for Doomsday Zone (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Remix by Jahn Davis)

He chuckled again, before it turned into mad laughter. I was a little unnerved by his actions even more so when he put a hand behind his back.

“It seems we are at an impasse… good thing I was able to grab this beforehand.”

My eyes widened as he pulled out the master Emerald from somewhere before raising it above his head. It pulsed as energy flew from it into him, empowering him by the second; Before long, it had been fully drained, while his metal plating became a bright, glowing gold, almost akin to a Super State.

“Now, with this power… I’LL CRUSH YOU!”

SUPER MECHA SONIC

He flew towards me, though I swiftly dodged him without a second thought and threw a box back, which he deflected with a punch. Still, the box did a little damage, which led to a very simple strategy forming; Dodge his attacks, and retaliate with some makeshift-projectiles. Luckily for me, there were a bunch of boxes on the road, so it was easy for me to keep pestering him for a few seconds before he slowed down.

“Is this… the limit of the Master Emerald’s energy?”

He growled out, but I wasn’t going to let him relax. With him in place, I slammed into him with a teleport smash, before kicking off of him towards a different direction, at which point I proceeded to attack him from all sides before sending him flying with a Psycho Top. He flew right into the floor, bouncing off it once before landing on his feet.

“Do you think that’s enough to stop me?!”

Mecha Sonic pulled out the Master Emerald once more and drained it of its power, returning to his Super form once more. With that, he flew away, forcing me to chase after him, even as the ground crumbled away beneath my feet. I dodged around hazards and pitfalls to approach him, some of which he threw at me; unfortunately for him, it was easy enough for me to throw them back at him for a little damage. The damage also slowed him down, making it easy for me to close the distance and stun him with a paralysing stomp, at which point I could put him into a psychokinetic hold.

“No! You won’t defeat me here!”

Before I could throw him, he punched me out of my hold, giving him time to fly away and pester me once more. He continued to launch hazards and other stuff at me, though they were easily reflected towards him, slowing him down enough for me to close the distance, though I chose to use a Psycho Top on him instead of a grab. Just before he recovered, I grabbed him once more, and suplexed him right into the ground, dealing a major chunk of damage.

“How’d you like that?!”

I cried out as he recovered, now back to his normal form. He was heavily damaged now, though that didn’t stop him from drawing on the power of the Master Emerald, even as the energy caused his body to twitch from the pain.

“T-t-t-t-this isn’t over! I WI-WI-WI-LL crush you!”

The ground was practically non-existent, and the two of us had to use our means of flight to stay in the fight; Me with my psychokinesis, and him with a pair of boosters. Even with the strain he was putting on his body, he did everything he could to make me suffer; bombs, spike traps, even the occasional laser. All of that was thrown right at me, and yet I dodged around it with ease, all while throwing the occasional object back towards him. After a while, he exhausted himself of power, and I took the opportunity to spam Teleport Smashes into him, battering his body over and over while capturing a bunch of boxes and other junk with my psychokinesis.With him near death, I moved them around until I surrounded him in a sphere of junk, all aimed right at him.

“Take this!”

“NOO!!!”

Before he could escape, I slammed all of it right onto him, crushing him with the mass of everything, before teleporting right up to it and kicking it into the stratosphere. The ball flew for a solid few seconds before exploding with the fury of a bomb, leaving me with some lovely fireworks to celebrate my victory.

Stop BGM

“Man! That was cool as hell!” Dante hollered out, while the rest of the group joined in on the clapping.

“Thank you, thank you!” Silver bowed to the praise of the group. “Though that’s just the beginning of my story!”

“To think he was able to steal the Master Emerald while I was frozen…” Knuckles grumbled to himself, before slamming his fists together. “Dammit! How did he do that?”

Tails patted him on the shoulder. “It must have been a version of him from the past. Sonic had to deal with the past version of Metal Sonic, so the same has to be said with Silver.”

“Still…” Knuckles grumbled out, though the party quickly returned their focus to Silver.

“What happened next?” Tiki asked, resting her chin on her palm, only for Sonic to scoff.

“Ain't it obvious?They get closer and closer to… whatever Elise here was up to.” He gestured towards the duchess, who merely looked away with anxiety. Before she could speak up, Silver took the attention from her. 

“You’re not far off, Sonic.” Silver fixed up his quills before continuing on with his story.

-Meanwhile…

3052, Vox’s Dojo, Sol-System-W-54285

Holding the cup of tea up to her nose, Vox gave it a good whiff, appreciated the flavours, and took a sip, before putting it down on the saucer.

“So… lemme get this straight.” Vox turned her glare to the intruder. “After I left Tatsuya in my Dojo, you snuck inside, and told Tatsuya about his memories. You then agreed to train him so that he could recover his memories… correct?”

The Intruder - Agatha - took a sip from her own cup before answering. “Well, I only told him about the fact that you and your friends hid his memories from him, but yes that sounds about right.”

Vox glared at the… woman? ‘Is she - Are they a woman?’ Vox thought before shaking her head. ‘No, that’s irrelevant for now.’ She turned to Tatsuya, who seemed more confused by the situation than angry, but that didn’t mean jack with what she did to him.

“First of all-” She bowed before him. “I need to apologize to you, Tatsuya. Not only haven’t I been here for you, I’ve been keeping secrets from you, especially since they’re tied to your memories. I’ve treated you poorly, and-”

“Hmm!” Tatsuya interrupted her, and she looked up to see him holding a hand out towards her. She stopped speaking for a moment, and he gave her a glare before it softened. “I… should be mad at you. I have every reason to be mad, and yet… I can’t. I can’t get mad at you, or Ichiban, or anyone else in the group, not when you all have a good reason to be wary.”

“What? Why?!” Vox started to get angry at him. “We knew about your memories, and we made it a point to keep you from finding out about them. Hell, I don’t think we even tried to keep in touch with you! You have every right to be angry!” 

“I am angry.” He mumbled out, his brows furrowed. “But there are better things to be angry at; No matter how much you may think you haven’t done for me, it’s nothing compared to the shit that god did to me. If you want me to say it… then I accept your apology.”

Vox found herself unable to speak in the face of Tatsuya’s smile, only able to babble like a baby for a solid minute. “You may have accepted my apology, but I can’t accept your acceptance, not while I’ve done jack shit for you.”

Tatsuya looked pensive for a moment, up until Agatha opened her mouth to speak. “If you want to do something for me…” He spoke, interrupting his friend. “Then all I can ask of you… is to help me get my memories back.”

Vox was stunned by the declaration, though just as quickly a wide smile came to her face. “You know what… Yeah, let’s do that.” She looked right into his eyes with a resolute glare. “Let’s get your memories back.”

Chapter Text

As I exited the realm, I hoped that I would find more answers to my questions; Maybe even find myself back in a peaceful future, no matter how unlikely it was. I landed down on the stone of the gate, and realised I was still in White Space; I looked up in the hopes of seeing Espio or Jet, but the person I saw first was… not someone I wanted to see.

“Silver, you have returned.”

Elise was waiting on the platform, her hands in front of her and crossed over. She had a smile on her face, and at a glance she seemed friendly enough, but I knew better.

“You! What do you want?!”

“Is it not obvious?”

She asked as if we were friends, before holding her hand out. 

“The Chaos Emerald. I want the Chaos Emerald in your possession.”

I was stunned by the question, before a thought crossed my mind.

“Wait… that robot inside wanted the Chaos Emerald too! Are you… working with Dr. Eggman?!”

“And who would that be?”

She lied as easily as she breathed, and for a moment I believed her; Technically speaking, she wasn’t lying at all, but that bit comes later.

“Even if you’re not working with him… I can’t let you have the Emerald, not when I don’t know who you are.”

I asked calmly, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, even if there was a lot of doubt to ignore. As for Elise…

“And that is a question I cannot answer.”

She gave me a dismissive answer, before turning away from me.

“I see you have… recovered some of your memories from those orbs. Even still, you have not recovered everything, and until you do, I cannot say anything; Not without hurting you greatly.”

She paused for a moment, before walking away from the platform, back to the dioramas representing Splash Canyon and Aurora Icefield.

“Still, I will get the Chaos Emerald from you, and save my people, no matter what.”  

With that, she walked away, leaving me alone for a bit… up until Espio and Jet returned.

---

“Huh, well that’s not creepy at all.” Sonic mumbled out, in a completely non-sequitorial way. Now, whether non-sequitorial is even a real word or not is beyond the scope of this story, even if we consider that all language is made up of babbling that is used to give meaning to random shit. Instead, we’ll just let Sonic get whacked in the back of the head by Amy, with her hammer.

“Sonic, that’s incredibly rude!” She cried out, her hands holding onto her hammer with an iron grip. “She probably had a very good reason for doing that!”

“No, no, he’s got a point.” Elise countered, shaking her head sadly. “Even now, I still can’t believe that I let myself become so deluded in my search for a solution.”

“But what was the problem?” Dante wondered aloud. “Why would she need a Chaos Emerald?”

“Well, I didn’t necessarily need a Chaos Emerald.” The Duchess quickly clarified for the hunter, taking a sip of her tea to catch herself. “I needed its power. I had another plan, if I couldn’t get it back from Silver.” Before she could continue, Silver held his hands out to stop her.

“But that’s a good bit further into the future - or the past.” Silver raised his eyebrows in confusion. “ANYWAYS! After I defeated Mecha Sonic, White Space expanded, and I got a good look at the new area…” Everyone was quickly roped back into Silver’s story, and he quickly continued from where he left off.

With the defeat of Mecha Sonic, the White Space had expanded, allowing me to see two new areas; a sandy desert with buildings interspersed through it, and a medieval castle with plains and forests surrounding it. Going towards the middle of the two zones, I found two people fighting off more of the fiery creatures, who I helped out rather quickly, though they were much stranger than Jet or Espio. The first was a floating woman with bouncy purple hair and flowing clothes, or so I assumed; The second was a floating, talking sword, with a giant bushy mustache atop his crossguard.

“Sir Galahad? What in blazes are you doing here?” 

The sword spoke first, mistaking me for someone else he knew. I wasn’t going to let him continue to confuse me for someone else, and spoke up.

“Uh, are you looking for someone else?”

The two of them looked at me in confusion, then each other for a hot minute, with the sword crossing the mustache ends like arms. I had… no clue how he did that, but I couldn’t come up with an answer before the lady spoke first.

“It seems we’re not in our worlds anymore.”

She seemed sad, and not just in a general sense; She looked like she missed someone dear to her. Despite that, and what I wanted, I had to confirm her suspicions.

“ That’s exactly the case. I don’t know how it happened, but time has gotten a lot more twisted, to say the least.”

They looked terrified at the implications, but I knew that worrying about it would help no one, and so I introduced myself to them.

“But you are friendly faces, so I figure we should do introductions. I’m Silver. Silver the Hedgehog! Who are you?”

With that, the two perked up, and it was the Sword who spoke for them both, waving his musta.

“I am Caliburn, Head Advisor of the Kingdom of Camelot, and this is Lady Shahra.”

“Just Shahra is fine.”

“Shahra and Caliburn…” Sonic gasped out as Silver took a break to chug down some water. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen them… and to think they were so close.”

“Wait a minute!” Amy cried out, waving her hands out as she did. “You mean to tell me that whole bit with Camelot all those years ago was real?!”

“Yep! And so was the whole thing with you as the Lady of the Lake.” Sonic quickly explained. “Hell, I think I could name every person that had an alternate version, from both the Arabian Nights and Camelot!”

“Weirdest Arthurian analogue, and that’s including the football player.” ACE muttered to herself.

“And if you still don’t believe him, we have the records!” Iris proudly proclaimed, pulling out a tablet from… somewhere. As for Amy, she gave Sonic a harsh glare, then gave Iris a… less harsh glare, before coming to a single conclusion.

“I still don’t believe it.” Sonic face planted on the floor, and Iris started to ramble in Welsh gibberish, while everyone else laughed at the situation. Once they calmed down, Ichiban took the opportunity to ask a question. 

“Back to White Space, you unlocked two areas, right?” Ichiban asked Silver, who nodded his head. However, before he could answer properly, Shadow barked out a question in turn.

“More importantly, what memories did you unlock from them?” 

At that, Silver scratched his head and grumbled to himself. “If I tell you now, then I’ll have to tell you what memories I unlocked, and that’ll mean that you’ll all get two headaches in a row.” The hedgehog explained, tempering the expectations of the group, or at least the members that had the issue. 

Tiki spoke up next, glaring at Shadow in the process. “And with what happened to you, Shadow…”

“It was only a headache.” He shot down her concern with a glare. “Besides I doubt anyone will have much of the same reactions as I had.”

“Fine…” Silver mumbled out, still unsure if it was a wise idea to do so, but carried on anyway. “The Memory orbs I found near Sand Oasis and Camelot Castle gave me memories of two places; Dusty Desert, and Kingdom Valley.” He saw Shadow’s eyebrows raise up in shock, though with everyone looking at him, he couldn’t just leave them hanging. “In Dusty Desert, I was searching for the Iblis Trigger, where-”

“Gah!” Amy cried out in shock, alongside Omega, and Rouge, though Shadow merely rubbed his forehead in annoyance. Once the four of them got back up, Amy took a deep breath and spoke. “I was with Silver… I was helping him find who he was looking for…” Her eyebrows furrowed before she pointed an accusatory finger towards him. “And you attacked Sonic back in Soleanna! You let Dr. Eggman capture Elise!”

“Hehehe… Well, I was hunting down the Iblis Trigger, even though I was eventually proven wrong…” Silver admitted, though this didn’t stop Amy from glaring at him further.

“Yeah, but did you really need to attack me twice?” Sonic grumbled out, rubbing his head. “I know it's a memory from the past, but I can still remember you kicking my butt! Hell, I can feel the pain right now…”

As for Rouge, she remained silent, while Omega whirred his arms. “DATA RECOVERED. MISSION FILES 09: DUSTY DESERT. OBJECTIVE: STOP MEPHILES.”

“Who’s Mephiles?” Knuckles asked, resting his chin on his gloves, though his question was waved off by ACE, of all people.

“He’s important, but not for now.” ACE explained, before looking at Silver. “Kingdom Valley, Silver?”

He nodded before continuing. “I landed there after travelling to the past, having found the truth about Iblis. Sonic was going through the area at the time, and we tried to stop Eggman from escaping with Elise, though his ship crashed before we could get to him, killing him and Elise in the process.”

More groans came from the group once more, as their memories regarding the place returned to them, with Sonic speaking first. “Yeah, and when that happened, we both used Chaos Control to create a time portal, allowing Knuckles, Tails, and I to go back in time and stop Eggman.” He rubbed his glove against his nose, wiping up a tiny bit of blood from his face in the process.

“As for us, GUN had chosen the area to act as our extraction zone, after recovering the Scepter of…” Rouge continued, before slowing down as her eyes widened in realisation. “Oh! Mephiles was freed when Eggman shot the Scepter out of my hand! We were sent somewhere after that, but…”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll get to that part soon enough!” Silver reassured her. “Still, it’s good to know that you guys can take all of that…”

“Hey, what sorta powers did you get from those orb-thingies?” Chipp wondered aloud, only for someone to scoff.

“They’re called Memory Orbs.” The voice pointed out before a swirl of leaves appeared in front of Chipp, manifesting into Espio the Chameleon, much to everyone's shock. “And for someone who claims to be a Ninja, you have a rather poor memory.”

“Espio!” Silver cried out, clearly happy to see his friend (of sorts), though it was Chipp who grabbed the ninja’s attention first.

“Claims to be a Ninja?!” Chipp cried out, before growling at pointing a finger at Espio. “Look at you! You’re bright purple! Everyone knows a true ninja wears black! It’s a part of the Hayabusa Ninja Code!

Espio, for what it was worth, sweated bullets at the accusation, though more out of exasperation. “Hayabusa Ninja Code? What are you, six?” And with that, the two of them started to argue over what a real Ninja was, leaving everyone else in the dust.

“And now I’ve seen everything.” One of those people being Frederick, who grumbled to himself, only to sense someone beside him.

“Eh, I’ve seen weirder.” A new voice grumbled from behind him, and the scientist got up, only to be accosted by… Vector the Crocodile, and Charmy the Bee.

“AH! A Crocodile! And a… absurdly large bee!” he cried out before putting up his dukes, though that wasn’t what Charmy or Vector were concerned with.

“Huh, for once in my life, someone hasn’t called you an Alligator.” Charmy’s eyes were wide as he spoke to Vector, which led to Frederick dropping his dukes respectively.

“What do you mean by that?”

Vector shrugged before speaking, “Well, you’d think people would know what I am, but apparently everyone and their mother can’t figure it out, Vanilla excluded.” He pointed to the Rabbit before asking Frederick a question. “Say, How’d you know?”

“I know a fair few things about biology, given that it was the focus for one of my PHDs.” Frederick explained with a smirk, before pointing a thumb at Chipp. “And it’s something that dumbass over there doesn’t know.” At that, almost everyone gasped at the man’s crude language, with Vector getting ready to kick his ass. However, the most shocking reaction was Cream, whose gaping mouth turned into a wicked smile, before she flew inside, coming back with a comically large jar. “Uhh, kid… what’s that Jar supposed to be?” Frederick asked, clearly confused by the object.

“Naughty Word Jar!” She happily explained.

“Chao Chao!” Cheese joined in, smiling just as widely as Cream was.

As for Frederick, he looked at the dynamic duo for a hot minute, before looking up in glum annoyance. “Do… Do I really have to do it?”

“Frederick…” Blaze growled, locking eyes with him as she did, though that was very much an underestimation of the situation; Her irides were red, and her pupils were made out of literal fire. To put it simply, she was very, very mad.

“Fine, mother. ” He shot back, causing her to choke on her own spit for a hot minute, while he pulled out a coin from somewhere, before looking at it. “Say, what’s the value of a World Dollar here? What could I buy with a couple hundred?”

Everyone scratched their heads at the question, while Iris merely smirked before pulling out her phone. “Well, SOMA has already thought of this, and baked a Currency Transfer System right into the software! Of course, the only people with access by default are the Admins, and given that yours is dying at the moment… I’ll just do it for her.” Iris then took the coin from Frederick and scanned it with her phone, at which point it transmuted into a pile of rings, which Cream was more than happy to take.

“Oh, and Frederick?” ACE calmly interrupted, before flatly glaring at the former Gear. “Yara told me to tell you that you’re on thin ice.”

“For what?! And who the hell is that in the first-” He cried out, only for the sound of cracked knuckles to appear behind him. He slowly got up and turned around, before coming face-to-chest with a tall, extremely muscular woman.

“For swearing in front of little girl.” The woman known as Yara explained, before grabbing Frederick, and suplexing him into the dirt. She then pulled him out of the ground, and teleported away, leaving the group feeling a mix of emotions between perplexed, vexed, and emotionally suplexed.

“Uhh… he isn’t going to die, is he?” Ichiban whispered out after a few minutes, and ACE shook her head.

“Well, no. Yara isn’t going to kill him, but she’s definitely not going to leave him unbruised.” Despite how calm her voice was, it was clear that no one was entirely sure of her statement, and so she chose to focus on something else; Silver. “Say, Silver, about those powers of yours…”

“Ah, yes, my powers!” He snapped back to attention. “The first power I got was a little air boost I call Psycho Lift!” He hopped into the air, before summoning a carpet beneath him and stomping on it, bouncing off of it multiple metres into the air. After landing safely, Silver held his hand out and took a deep breath. “As for my second power…” He drew psycho-energy into himself, before manifesting a small, dagger-like blade before everyone. “I call it Psycho Knife.”

Floating into the air, I gather psychokinetic energy into my hand before throwing it towards one of the fiery creatures, slicing through it with a wave of energy. I proceeded to do the same to a few more of the strange creatures, before holding my hand up high, revealing the mirage-sword in my hand, and cutting down the rest of the creatures surrounding us.

“HRAGGH!”

With that, I landed on the ground, to the applause of Shahra, and the shock of Caliburn.

“Impossible… That’s the Balincinque!”

I turned towards the floating sword-man with a raised eyebrow, before looking down at the mirage-sword in my hand.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Caliburn sputtered for a bit before giving me a harsh glare.

“The Balincinque, Sir Galahad’s Sacred Sword! Not to mention, your sword technique is eerily similar to his own, no matter how rough it may be!”

I couldn’t help but frown at the accusation from the sword, no matter how nice he was.

“Well, I don’t know who he is, but I’m not this Galahad guy!” 

The two of us glared at each other, up until Shahra interrupted us with a cough; Once we gave her our attention, she asked her question. 

“Silver… Do you happen to know of an Orange fox with two tails?”

It was a question I could answer easily, and I didn’t hesitate to do so.

“That’s Tails/The Blacksmith!”

Of course, I didn’t account for the fact that there was someone in Caliburn’s world that resembled Tails as well.

“Huh? Who’s this Blacksmith guy?!”

“Only the finest artisan in all of Camelot! To call him a mere Blacksmith is an insult to his intelligence, and craftsmanship!”

“Before you start, you should know that a fox with twin-tails also describes a fellow from my world; Ali-Baba.”

Shahra interrupted us once more, throwing out an argument that neither of us could deny.

“It’s clear that the same individual can appear in the other universes under a different identity; thus, this Galahad might just be an alternative version of yourself, Silver.”

I couldn’t help but think about what she said for a few moments, but I knew that I couldn't focus on it for long, not when I had so much more to do.

“Well, that’s a problem for another time! I’ve got more places to go to, and more answers to find!”

And with that, I ran towards Sand Oasis, ready to take it on.

“So, you went to this… Sand Oasis, right?” Kyo interrupted with a question, and Silver nodded, only for his ears to flick in response to some muttering. He turned his head towards the source, only to find Tails obsessing over a chalkboard, with a bunch of equations on it.

“If I want to cross the barrier between dimensions without missing by a long-shot, then I’ll need to keep the radius of the exit portal’s location within 0.0015 percentile points of the Standard Deviation. Of course, I also need to balance accuracy with the radius, since if I go beneath the schwarzschild radius…”

“Yo, buddy?” Sonic asked, slowly approaching his friend with his hand stretched out. 

“GAH!” Tails cried out as he was brought back to reality, before getting a good look at the concern on everyone’s faces. He slowly returned his attention to the chalkboard, before slamming it right into his hammerspace. “Don’tworryaboutthis! Thisisnothingyouneedtoworryabout!”

“Er… should we?” ACE asked, and Iris shrugged.

“So long as he doesn’t do something stupid, we should be fine.” Iris countered, and ACE sighed in response. Before anyone else could bring up any points, A portal opened up out of thin air, and Frederick appeared out of it.

“I SENSE PHYSICS GOING ON!” Frederick cried out, before Yara grabbed him by the skull and pulled him back into it. “RAAGH!”

With that bit over, Silver shook his hand and continued. “Ok then. Well, Sand Oasis was normal, but Camelot was… a good bit weirder.”

Rouge raised an eyebrow at that. “Strange how?”

BGM: Camelot Castle (Sonic & the Black Knight, DnB Symphonic Metal KITSUN3POWR REMIX V2)

Going into the area, I found myself in a canyon that connected right towards the front gate of the castle. There were these strange, shadowy monsters harassing the people, which Caliburn called the “Knights of the Underworld”, though he didn’t finish before I started to take them down; They were harassing people, and I wasn’t going to have it. After a bridge, I found myself deep in the castle, where there were these massive weapons he called “Ballistae” which I used with my telekinesis to create rope-paths through the world; Hell, I even took down a few of the big guys using one. Near the end, I aimed a Ballistae at a wall, and quickly got on the rope, grinding on it like usual.

BGM: Camelot Castle (Sonic & the Black Knight, DnB Symphonic Metal KITSUN3POWR REMIX V2) (From 2:11)

“MWA-HA-HA-HA!”

But that was when everything became absolutely weird.

“Huh?! What’s going on?”

Suddenly, the world started to shift towards a new zone; the sky became pitch black, Silver-skyscrapers smashed their way through the castle, and the rope I had been grinding on had turned into a red-cable, which was slowly drooping down towards a platform. I jumped off of the cable before teleporting towards a spring, bouncing off of it and landing on another platform that gave me a good look of the changed landscape.

“Woah…”

The gravel roads had merged with modern asphalt, and the castle towers now had red-beam structures above them, connected to each other like bridges. More importantly, the Knights of the Underworld were working with these strange black monster creatures, though I’d later learn what they truly were; Black Arms.

Ah, but that didn’t matter to me, back then; What I needed to do was get out.

“I dunno what this place is, but I have to get to the goal!”

“So Black Doom’s influence extended further than I thought…” Shadow grumbled to himself, a slightly smokey aura forming around him as he did. “Wait, how do you know what the Black Arms are?

“Well, that’s something I’m going to talk about later. I needed a certain power that I haven’t talked about yet, and I don’t wanna jump around alot.” Silver quickly explained, before waving his hands in surrender when Shadow glared at him harder. “ Don’t worry, Shadow, I’ll get to it!”

“Yeah, Shadz! Give him a break!” Sonic backed the Psychokinetic Hedgehog up. “But back to your story, did you get a chance to chat with Shahra and Caliburn? What have they been up to?”

“Oh, they’ve been up to a lot of stuff!” Silver bounced on his heels as he spoke. “Shahra became the advisor of a guy named ‘King Shahryar’, and Caliburn became much the same to a guy named Lancelot!” 

Despite the news, Sonic looked a lot more dismayed by the news. “So Shahryar’s still the King of the Arabian Nights, huh?” He grumbled out, before his expression perked up once more. “Still, it’s good to hear that Lancelot’s still in charge of Camelot!”

“Wait, Lancelot’s the King of Camelot?” Dante interrupted. “I’m not the most well-versed in my Arthurian legends, but didn’t Lancelot betray King Arthur?”

“In a sense, he did.” Iris answered his question. “Though the King Arthur Sonic fought was a clone created by Merlin, that was corrupted by the power of Excalibur’s Sheath. Sonic defeated Lancelot, alongside the rest of the Knights of the Round Table, and used their Sacred Swords to defeat the power of Excalibur’s Sheath, and thus King Arthur.”

“The sacred swords?”

“Ah, yes. Arondight, Laevatein, and Galatine.”

Meanwhile…

“AH-CHOO!” Vox sneezed, falling out of the Kala Bhairavasana (Destroyer of the Universe Pose) in the process. 

“Are you alright?” Tatsuya asked, having only barely been in the pose himself; In fact, the only one who was doing it perfectly was Agatha, who only raised her eyebrow while still remaining all scrunched up like rubber.

“Yeah, don’t worry…” Vox nodded as she got back up, before returning to her best attempt at the pose. “If anything, I’m more worried about how I’m supposed to do this…”

“In a sense he led to the King’s downfall, even if Sonic is the true king of Camelot by virtue of being worthy enough to wield Caliburn.” Iris finished, and the group nodded their 

“Wait, you were a king?!” Ichiban cried out, drawing everyone’s attention to the blue blur, who looked around in shock before shrugging.

“I was, but I gave the title to Lancelot before I left.” Sonic answered the question casually. “You know me; I go wherever the wind takes me! I don’t stay in one place.”

“That doesn’t mean you can leave shit alone. You were chosen by the sword to become the ruler of a kingdom, you can’t just up and leave it to someone else.” Chipp scolded Sonic, glaring at him as he did before pointing a thumb at himself. “I would know; I’m a politician, after all. Oh wait.” He then pulled out a coin from his pocket before flicking it at Cream, who caught it before throwing it into her Naughty Words Jar.

“And not to mention, how would you know that this ‘Lancelot’ was worthy to rule?” Shadow growled out, also glaring at Sonic, before giggling from ACE threw him off.

“Funny you say that, Shadow.” ACE chuckled before throwing a device on the ground, which caused a holographic display to appear before the group. The display showed a few of Sonic's friends dressed up in medieval outfits; Amy in a blue dress, Tails in an apron, and Knuckles, Shadow, Blaze, Silver and Jet in knightly armour. “Lancelot is an alternate version of you.”

Shadow’s eyes widened in shock at the appearance of his alternate self, but Sonic chuckled. “I didn’t just drop it on them, I helped them out for a bit before I had Merlina send me back here with a spell. As for Lancelot, I had Caliburn choose my successor, since he was the one who chose me.”

Silver hummed in response before quoting Caliburn. “Gawain was a tough warrior but lacked the patience for paperwork. Percival was a master of diplomacy, but she was more passive when it came to defending the lands. Lancelot could balance everything; at ease behind the desk as he was in front of an army.”

“So what of Galahad?” Tails asked, while Amy glared at her other self. “He has to be an alternate version of you, like the Blacksmith is of me. What was he like?”

Silver looked down and held his chin between his fingers before speaking. “Well…”

We were back in Camelot, defending some of the citizens when I popped that exact question.

“Say, who IS Galahad? You keep comparing me to him, but I don’t know anything about him.”

Caliburn’s eyes widened at the question, before he smiled gently.

“Sir Galahad was a hero of the people, first and foremost. He would help even the lowliest of peasants with whatever they needed; In his eyes, no soul was unworthy of his help. To most of the Knights of the Round Table, their honour came from serving the King, and then the people; To Galahad, it was to the people, and then the king.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a Soldier-One getting ready to attack, and launched a Psychic Knife at it to stun it, before grabbing it with Psychokinesis and throwing it away, right into a different group of soldiers nearby.

“As you might guess, when King Arthur was corrupted by the scabbard and turned on the citizens, Galahad had none of it and attacked King Arthur in revenge, which led to him taking on the rest of the Knights of the Round Table. He single handedly defeated all of them, and the only reason Arthur won was because Sir Galahad showed him mercy, though all that did was enrage him further.”

Moving towards the next group, I couldn’t help but worry about Galahad, especially with what Caliburn said about him.

“Did… Did King Arthur get his revenge?”

But Caliburn simply laughed at my question.

“Absolutely not! Sir Galahad survived, all the way up to Sonic’s victory over King Arthur and subsequent victory over Merlina. When he heard that Sir Sonic had become king, he flew back to Camelot to challenge him, in the hopes of seeing whether he was worthy of the title; Sir Sonic more than proved himself as such when he dove into a canyon to save a young soul without any hesitation. After that, Sir Galahad rejoined the Knights of the Round Table, with a gift in hand; the Holy Grail!”

“The Holy What-now?”

“Oh, it’s nothing you need to worry about.”

As for Shahra, we were collecting these strange orbs called Soul Pearls in Sand Oasis, which wasn’t the most fun, so I took the opportunity to ask her a few questions.

“So, what’s it like to be an advisor to a King?”

Shahra jumped a bit when I asked the question, though she quickly recovered when I used a Psychic Lift to grab one of the bigger pearls. 

“Well, there’s a lot of paperwork, for one. King Shahryar is proud and rash, but he hates paperwork greatly, so I and a few others do that part for him.”

I couldn’t help but wince at that fact, if only out of sympathy for her.

“Oof… That sounds rough…”

Sympathy that didn’t seem to be needed, since she just shrugged it off.

“To be perfectly honest, I didn’t mind it, since I joined it to give myself a change of pace after… Sonic helped me.”

She looked saddened by that fact, as if she missed him greatly. At that, I could not help my own curiosity.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“An old flame… that I pray never comes back to haunt me…”

I didn’t know it at the time, but she was talking about Erazor Djinn, who is… someone I hope I never see again. However, before I could ask about him, she shook her head and continued.

“Ah, but in trying to do my best, I got into a bit of a rivalry with another member of his cabinet; Another genie, who handled his finances. She wanted to keep the kingdom well-funded, and the initiatives I suggested to the King didn’t help with that, so we practically argued with each other whenever we were in court. Though… if there was any sort of moral that fitted our situation, it would be this; There is a very fine line between hatred, and love.”

I wasn’t really sure what to make of it at the time; Her rivalry seemed really heated, and yet she was blushing a lot. Well, up until she noticed me looking, at which point she just stopped talking.

“Rrragh…” A loud growl came from Sonic, startling everyone in the group in the process. It wasn’t one of hunger, since he had been eating Chilli Dogs all the while; No, this was from pure, unadulterated rage.

“Sonic?” Tails whispered out, clearly disturbed by the anger on his friend’s face.

“Such a dark aura…” Lyn was worried as she looked at Sonic, her hand on her blade ready to draw it.

“Jeez, you’re not usually that riled up…” Knuckles raised his fists, ready to fight, though he put his fists down when Sonic took a deep breath.

“Sorry…” Sonic held his hands up, before looking Silver deep in the eye. “Silver, Did you defeat him in White Space?” He asked, his voice far more serious than usual, though it was Silver’s equally serious nod that sold the situation.

“Yeah… though I’ll admit that I only learned everything about the situation from Shahra afterwards. Even still, I could tell from a glance that he was bad…”

After getting the keys required to open the gate, I walked inside to find myself in a palace of some kind, made out of glass. Walking around the area, I found myself accosted by more of the spirits from Sand Oasis, though it was trivially easy to defeat them with my powers. As I did, I sensed a powerful force running towards me, ready to attack, though I dodged just in time to see that it was Sonic. He looked like the real deal, but I could tell that all I was seeing was an illusion; Even more so when the faker spoke.

“You’re not that blue rat…”

“And you’re not Sonic! Who are you?”

The faker chuckled evily as he turned around, the illusion dissipating to reveal his true form; a purple genie with wild red hair and white clothes.

“I am Erazor Djinn, Genie of the Lamp and Master of the Arabian Nights. Give me the Emerald, and I will spare your life. Give me Shahra, and I shall even grant you one wish; Anything you desire!”

He held his hand out, as if he was expecting me to give it to him. Of course, I had no plans on giving him what he wanted.

“If you’re going to try and take the Chaos Emerald from me, then you better work on your Sonic impression. Not only that, but why are you asking for Shahra? Are you that genie she works with, under King Shahryar?”

His eyes widened when I said that, only for sheer rage to take over, veins popping across his face as she gritted his teeth.

“That harlot! That fiend! I’m sealed away in that lamp by that RAT, and she has the gall to take another lover? To leave?!”

An oppressive aura surrounded him, and it was clear he was not willing to stand down.

“She can never be complete without me! I won’t allow it! She is mine, mine, MINE!!!”

“Well, she’s not yours, so you better stop yapping about it!”

I shut him down with a wave of my hand, though instead of screaming more, he started to giggle like a lunatic.

“Ge-ha-ha-ha-ha…. HA HA HA HA!!!”

He laughed for a solid minute before throwing his hands out, summoning seven rings of various colours around him, all of which had a strange bit of energy radiating out of it.

“Unlike before, I have full control of the seven World Rings! I will not be defeated! Not by that blue rat, and not by YOU!!!”

With that, he screamed loudly as his body was consumed by a bright light, which blinded me thoroughly. Even though I couldn’t see him, I heard the sounds of his body crunching and folding, morphing under the power of the rings. When the light faded, I opened my eyes, and came face to face with his changed form; He was a monstrous thing, with six arms, three eyes, and a grey, twisted body. 

“I AM ALF LAYLA WA-LAYLA! THE ARABIAN NIGHTS! I WILL NOT BE ERASED; NOT BY A RAT, NOT BY TIME ITSELF, AND DEFINITELY NOT BY YOU!”

And with a wave of his many hands, the world crumbled away into a dimension akin to an oil painting, and he flew right at me.

ALF LAYLA WA-LAYLA

BGM: Seven Rings in Hand (Sonic and the Secret Rings, NateWantsToBattle Cover)

I dodged to the right, turning around to see that a few platforms had manifested from the ether, made out of some kind of glass. Landing on one, I saw him in the distance, and quickly started to make my way towards him, only for Erazor to summon six purple orbs, one in each hand.

“DODGE THIS!” 

He cried out as he lobbed the balls at me, one by one, hoping that he could land a hit on me. Of course, I dodged them with ease, even catching one of the balls and launching it back at the djinn, dealing a little damage to him.

“Too easy!”

While he recovered, I moved across the platforms until I was closer to him, at which point he glared at me with hatred in his eyes.

“DO YOU THINK YOU ARE A MATCH FOR ME?! FOOLISHNESS!”

He swiped his arms at me twice, creating a pair of white lines that smelled faintly of gasoline. Looking around, I saw the ends light on fire, and I swiftly moved out of the way with a jump up. As I did, Erazor swiped twice again, this time setting one of them slightly above me. I dodged downwards with a stomp, only to realise that the two slashes would be impossible to dodge with a normal jump, which led to me using Psycho Lift to avoid it. As I did, I couldn’t help but notice the manic smile on his face, a ball of white energy building up above his body.

“IT WOULD TAKE A MIRACLE FOR YOU TO AVOID THIS!”

He lobbed it at me, assured that I wouldn’t be able to dodge it; I didn’t need to, since a well-timed usage of my Telekinesis caught the ball, allowing me to launch it back, right into his face. The explosion stunned him, and I was in the perfect position to use a Teleport Smash on him, which caused three lights to fly out of him; Purple, Red, and Green.

“HOW?! HOW CAN YOU AFFECT ME?! YOU DO NOT HAVE THE POWER OF THE WORLD RINGS!”

He screamed from far away, charging up even more of the purple orbs before throwing them in my direction.

“I don’t need them, not to defeat you.”

I moved towards him once more, dodging his attacks and sending more of the orbs back, which not only damaged him but created a bunch of rubble, which I was more than happy to pick up and throw him at for extra damage. I got close once more, though instead of trying to slash at me, he summoned a barrier of blue energy before flying away, likely in an attempt to prolong the inevitable.

“This won’t stop me!”

With a few well-placed Psychic Knives, I broke through the barrier, giving me the freedom to approach him once more. He used the slashing attack once more to stop me, though a combination of my own levitation abilities and Psychic Lift allowed me to dodge it again, putting me in a position to fly towards him. He teleported away before launching another massive ball of white energy, though I quickly threw it back towards him before following up with a Teleport Smash, throwing in a Psycho Top at the end to deal even more damage. This was enough to launch three more lights out of his body; Yellow, Cyan, and Blue.

“NO! I WILL NOT FALL HERE!!!”

He flew away once more, though I could tell that he was on his last legs. He launched another barrage of the purple orbs, though he also added another attack to the onslaught; A moving trail of yellow orbs, akin to a line of rings. I dodge the trails with ease, while returning the purple orbs back to sender wholesale, bringing him closer and closer to defeat. He seemed to know that, summoning a series of cyan-coloured whirlpools that tried to suck me in, though a series of well timed Psycho Tops allowed me to avoid their influence and get within range of the djinn.

“YOU WILL NOT COME ANY CLOSER! I COMMAND IT!”

He arrogantly declared, though the waver in his voice made his fear clear to me. He tried to slash at me again, this time trying to smother me in attacks; I simply teleported out of range, ending up right in his face. Raising his hand, he charged up a final blast, in the hope that it would eradicate me; I let him have that sliver, before grabbing it from his hands and slamming it into his body, releasing the last light; a white ball, which transformed into a shattered ring. With that, his body dissipated, until he was returned to his normal form, on his knees in front of me.

“I cannot be defeated, not like this! I need to have Shahra once more! I wish to see that blue rat kneeling before me!”

He begged for mercy, and I couldn’t help but wonder why he was so obsessed with Shahra at the time. Had I fought him after learning about what he did to her, I would have made sure to make his end far more painful for him, but even without the knowledge, I knew he couldn’t be allowed to live. Still, his demands did remind me of what he said earlier.

“You said you’d give me a wish, didn’t you?”

He nodded pathetically, as I spied debris in the void around us. Waving my hands, I summoned the debris towards me, before placing it around his battered body.

“Fine! Here’s my wish!”

His eyes widened as I pulled the debris back, charging them up with extra energy.

“I WISH FOR YOU TO BEGONE!”

I crushed him with the debris, defeating him instantly; the only thing left behind being letters of some kind spraying out of the mass. With that, Erazor Djinn had been defeated…

Stop BGM

“Holy shit…” Kyo uttered, mouth agape at the reveal. “I knew you were powerful, Silver, but I didn’t think you’d be THAT ruthless…” Practically everyone else had the same reactions, outside of a few; Blaze and Elise, who knew about the events beforehand, Sonic, who looked grateful, and Shadow, whose lips curled upwards ever so slightly.

“Hmm… To think you could be so merciless… I’m impressed.”

Silver's eyes widened at the praise, before he bounced around with joy. “Oh wow, a compliment from Shadow? Thanks!”

Shadow’s smile went away in favour of annoyance, as he glared at Silver once more. “You could stand to be less excitable. You don’t want to be him.” He then pointed a finger at Sonic, who perked up at that before laughing.

“Oh come on, Shadow, lighten up!” He quipped, earning a scoff from Shadow.

“Weren’t you the one growling in rage at the mention of Erazor Djinn?” Rouge asked, and Sonic’s expression darkened once more.

“Yeah… but knowing what he did to Shahra, I’m not going to throw any sort of fit over this.” He said resolutely, which unnerved all of those gathered. 

One of these people was Cream, who was hugging Cheese for comfort. “Mr. Sonic, you’re… really scary, when you want to be.”

Sonic looked at her in shock, before approaching her and kneeling down, all to make himself as un-intimidating as possible.

“Don’t worry about me. I just don’t like it when people want to control others.” He explained to the girl, before rubbing her head. 

“Oh, that’s more like you!” She exclaimed, before gasping loudly. “Oh, I almost forgot!” She then pulled out her swear jar once more, before approaching Kyo, who could only shake his head in exasperation. 

“Heh, Someone’s got a sharp memory.” He then threw in a small amount of Yen into her jar, just as two people appeared nearby; Yara, who was standing, and Frederick, who was crumpled up on the floor.

“Ugh, what is with idiots and swearing around little girls?” Yara asked aloud, glaring at Kyo, who merely raised his hands in defense. As for Frederick, he slowly got up, assisted by Ichiban, before speaking.

“And what’s with big strong women beating the-” Frederick caught himself before he swore, taking a minute to think before speaking. “The… living daylights out of people?”

“Yara doesn’t like when people swear near small child.” She explained, crossing her arms and looking like a badass in the process. As for everyone else, they had sweat dripping from their faces from either sheer terror, or sheer intimidation... except for Cream and ACE, the former having a look of awe on her face and the latter simply smiling at her adoptive aunt. "Well, I have places to be, so I must go. Yara-away!" 

And with that, she teleported away, leaving everyone dumbstruck until Sonic asked Silver a question. “Now that I think about it, how did you learn about Shahra’s situation?” 

Silver opened his mouth, before closing it and looking down. “Well… after I defeated Erazor, I returned to the White Space and came face-to-face with Shahra and Caliburn, who were concerned for me. I asked Shahra about her past, she tried to be vague, and Caliburn spelled it out for her.”

Everyone was enraptured by the event, even Frederick (who for the last few minutes had been getting his ass handed to him by Yara), though it was Amy who asked the first question. “Why do you look down?” Silver took a deep breath, and looked right at her.

“Because Elise was right outside it, too.”

Chapter Text

As I exited the portal, I saw Shahra and Caliburn waiting outside, looking at nothing until I approached them, at which point the two of them flew towards me.

“Sir Gal-Silver! You have returned!”

Caliburn hollered out, having started to not call me Galahad, though at that point he still had a long way to go. As for Shahra…

“So, you faced Erazor Djinn…”

She was dejected, and when I saw the name of his super form above the gate, I figured she had an 

“He was demanding that you return to him for some reason. Why?”

Shahra looked down, her eyes closed in sadness, before she looked back to the area we were in. 

“He and I were… together, for quite some time. I devoted everything to him, but he… he did not return my affections. If anything, he strung me along with praise, only to hurt me for his own pleasure.”

“Ah, so he treated you poorly.”

Caliburn succinctly stated, causing her to jump from shock.

“What? How did you…?”

She whispered in response, and he sighed deeply, closing his eyes before he answered.

“I am a sword, and I recognize that people would consider me more akin to an object, than a living thing.”

He then opened his eyes and looked at Shahra right in the eyes.

“Even still, tools must be maintained well, and the fool who mistreats his sword mistreats his life, doubly so for those who are closely related to him. To know that Sonic helped you with him fills me with joy.“

Shahra nodded her head at that, crossing her arms as she did.

“Indeed he did, though I have no reason to focus on Erazor anymore, nor do I want to. The hole he left in me has long been healed, and I would rather move on.”

“Hear hear… ”

We all jolted at the voice, and turned towards its source; Elise. She was waiting on the side politely, though the expression on her face said everything about what she wanted.

“You again!”

I ran in front of Shahra and Caliburn, glaring at Elise while keeping tabs on a few pieces of Debris nearby, if needed.

“Indeed. I want to hope, but is it too much to ask for-”

“As if!”

I shot her down before she could ask her question, and her expression soured at my answer.

“Why do you insist on denying me the emerald?”

“You’re asking for a Chaos Emerald. That’s reason enough, especially since I know nothing about you!”

She was getting angrier, as her glare became far more aggressive.

“And I have told you before; I cannot tell you anything while you do not remember what happened.”

“But I do remember, even if it’s a tiny portion!” 

I countered, before an argument came to my mind.

“And besides that, It’s not like I need to remember everything to know anything about you. What’s your name? What do you do?”

She looked absolutely mad, but instead of exploding at me, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment before speaking.

“You aren’t… wrong. I cannot tell you my name, since knowing that might cause you to… learn far too much, far too quickly. But, I can tell you why, at least a little; I need the power for my country.”

We all gasped at the reveal, though none of us spoke, leaving the floor to Elise.

“I am a ruler, a duchess if you will. My country has been at peace for quite some time, with good relations to our neighbours, and I’d like to attribute it to my willingness to compromise over anything else.  Even still, our situation isn't perfect; we lack energy-generation facilities, so we are forced to import the vast majority of it through other countries. Alongside that, a good portion of my cabinet doubts my potential, and they’re making it difficult to make any major changes in the country. For a while, I was… not in a good place.” 

I could have sworn that her eyes looked wet, but  before I could ask anything, she shook her head and continued.

“All of this changed when I got contacted by a mysterious individual, promising the answers to my issues; an Energy system that would solve my country’s energy crisis, all based around a Chaos Emerald. That is why I had one when you first arrived, and that is why I want it back.”

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

“Oh my…” Amy gasped out, before giving Elise a pitying look. “To think that you had to deal with all of that…”

“Hold on!” Shadow interrupted her with a wave of his hand. “Who is this mysterious individual? And why did they give her the knowledge she needed?”

“Hey, what’s with all the doubt?” Ichiban asked, clearly confused by the situation. ”Maybe they did it out of the kindness of their heart?”

“No, he’s got a point.” Dante mumbled out. “There’s no way whoever helped her did it out of the kindness of their heart; They clearly had an agenda.”

“Agreed.” Vector joined in, clearly invested in the story after being quickly caught up alongside Frederick. He chewed on a Chilli Dog, topped with gumbo, before looking at the food table. “Say, is it just me, or is someone taking a bit more than usual?” Despite his comment, no one seemed to follow up, even when a bird or something peeped from a nearby wall.

As for Ichiban, he was conflicted by the answer, though Lyn was the one to speak first, this time directed at Elise. “I can sympathise with your troubles, Lady Elise; I was elevated to the role of Marchioness when my grandfather was nearly poisoned to death, though many of his advisors saw me as inferior, compared to him. Still, I would not consider trusting someone whose identity you don’t know especially wise.”

“And from the way you’re saying it, it sounds like you’ve never seen that guy face-to-face! Everyone knows the only way to make a trustworthy deal is to do it face-to-face!” Chipp chimed in, as if he had any experience in making such deals.

“And how would you know that?” Frederick gurumbled out, glaring at Chipp as he did. “Don’t you run away from your country to fight people all the time?”

“Well, you have to know these sorts of things when you’re a politician, you know?” Chipp explained, before pointing at Frederick. “And I don’t run away! I prefer dealing with people over paperwork! Besides, I got my secretary to do all of that for me.”

“I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing…” Elise pondered aloud, while Blaze grumbled to herself.

“Oh, don’t worry, Answer loves paperwork!” Chipp replied, entirely sure of his answer.

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

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Chipp Kingdom

“I HATE PAPERWORK!!!” Answer cried out, as he balanced FIFTEEN Budgets, NINE phone calls, and an annoyed Potemkin, all at the same time.

---------

Everyone was sweating at Chipps delusion confidence, except Ichiban, who was practically just as insane as the Ninja President was. Of course, the story had to go on, and it was Charmy who asked the next question.

“Hey, if you defeated that Erazor Djinn guy, wouldn’t that mean you’d have… Iunno, unlocked a new area, or something like that?”

“Yep!” Silver affirmed before taking a deep breath. “Though unlike all of the others, it was a bit unique, since it came from a point in time that I had yet to visit; Namely, Luminous Forest.”

---------

Flying into the new area (which was a bit smaller than the others), I found someone else fighting off the fiery creatures once more; she was by herself, though her tail was absolutely helpful in keeping her safe. Still, I couldn’t let her stay in trouble for too long, and so I used my powers to take down the rest of the creatures. I was prepared to introduce myself, as usual, when she talked first.

“Silver, is that you?” 

Tangle called out to me as I landed. 

“Oh, heck yeah! A friendly face! It’s good to see you here!”

Now, we all know who Tangle is, and I don’t need to introduce her, but the problem is that I met her after the Eggman Resistance War. Which happened after the Time Eater Incident. Which meant that I didn’t know who she was. 

Luckily, I reacted to her in a completely normal way.

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

“You tried to crush her with debris.” Espio filled in for Silver, causing the Psycho-kinetic hedgehog to sputter for a hot minute.

“ESPIO!” He cried out after finally returning to his senses. “Why did you say that to them? I thought we agreed to keep it a secret!”

“I agreed to keep it a secret from Blaze, not from everyone else.” Espio calmly explained, before a jolt of realization hit him, and he turned around to a clearly infuriated Blaze. “Shit.” He calmly said, before pulling out a few rings and putting it into Cream’s Naughty Word Jar.

As for Blaze, she was taking the news very well.

“SILVER, YOU IDIOT!”

And by very well, I mean poorly, and by that I mean she was choking the life out of Silver with her bare hands, which is surprising given how much more effective her flames would be at this. Cream and Amy were doing their best to calm her down, while everyone else could only just watch as Blaze all but murdered the poor man.

Kyo was watching alongside the rest of the group when he saw a strange sight; Ace sighing as she handed Iris a small money pouch with a frown on her face. “Oh? Was there a bet I didn’t know about?”

ACE nodded her head gumly. “Yep. We betted on when Silver would make Blaze lose her composure. I said it would be before six months, and she said it would be-”

“After that!” Iris finished for her as she pocketed the change, pleased as punch. “I’m chuffed to bits, I’d say! Well, maybe not entirely so, given what’s happening to Silver, but still!”

“Still feel like this would have been my win if this party wasn’t going for more than a month…” ACE grumbled back, and the two returned to watching Blaze chew Silver out with her hands. Of course, some of the people got bored (or wanted to change the topic), and one of them was Ichiban, who turned towards Sonic.

“Say, who’s Tangle?” Ichiban asked, and Sonic chuckled before speaking.

“Oh, Tangle’s a friend of ours.” Sonic explained to the ex-yakuza, before he rubbed his chin in thought. “I still can’t believe that he’d meet someone from the future, or at least the future from then…” Sonic thought aloud, which led to Shadow mumbling to himself.

“So he had access to the Luminous Forest…” 

Unfortunately for him, Sonic had heard enough, and was now very curious about his side of the story “Say, did you get anything from the future?”

Even more unfortunately for him, Omega was more than willing to answer that question “WE FOUND TWO LOCATIONS; SUNSET HEIGHTS AND CHAOS ISLAND.” 

“Huh…” Sonic mumbled out dumbly, before looking up in thought. “I mean, you did a few missions in Sunset Heights, but I didn’t see you on Chaos Island, at all. Then again, Cyberspace gave me a recreation of Radical Highway, and Sky Rail Zone, so maybe you influenced it? What do you think, Tails?"

Tails had pulled out his Miles Electric and did a few Calculations before speaking. “Well, there’s a chance that Shadow has yet to go to Chaos Island, and its appearance in his White Space will have some sort of reason.”

Shadow looked at the floor, disturbed by the implications of that statement, though before he could speak about these doubts, Knuckles had asked Iris a question, and the android answered in turn.

“Well, Silver is a part of the Diamond Cutters, so perhaps Tangle-san was pulled to the past because of his bond with her.”

At that point, Blaze had been pulled away from Silver, and he had been healed up by Tiki and Lyn, which was enough for him to speak. “Yeah, it was confusing as heck, if you were all wondering.” He muttered, before something in him perked him right up. “Buuuut… we got along perfectly fine, even with our awkward introduction; Even got a bit of a friendship going on before my White Space faded away.” His good mood burned out rather quickly, however, as a pensive look came onto his face. “Though, it did make our first meeting on Angel Island a bit awkward, but that was pretty awkward for everyone, wasn’t it?”

Everyone nodded in understanding, “Wot? Is he talking about Neo Metal’s takeover of Angel Island?”

Blaze had walked up to her, and nodded grimly before whispering conspiratorially. “Yes, though if you’re wondering, we had a few… intruders defeat Master Overlord, before they disappeared.

“By intruders disappearing, what does that mean?”

“Portals to other dimensions. We didn’t know what happened back then, but now that I’m a part of SOMA, I know better.”

“What did they look like?”

“Humans, all three. Men, all dressed strangely. One had a shaved head and wore a green parka. The other had a black suit, though he had taken his shirt off to let a pair of draconic wings loose, though it allowed me to see a strange tattoo on his back. The strangest of them had an eyepatch over his left eye, a snakeskin jacket, and tattoos over his back, arms, and chest.”

Iris’s eyes widened in shock “Bloody hell, you can’t mean-”

Blaze sighed before speaking “I did my research, and yes. They are who you think they are.”

“But how did they get to your world? Before SOMA?” Iris asked, and Blaze shrugged.

“I have no clue, though with what we know of Voxaria’s foe, IT might have had a hand in their misadventure in our world.” She explained, before looking around at the party. “Still, we should table this discussion until we can get in contact with the trio.”

“Ah, and Ichiban will meet them in the future, after all.” Iris nodded, and the two ended their discussion, just as Silver was finishing his bit on Tropical Jungle, of all places.

“-and after that, I found myself outside the jungle, where I bumped into Amy of all people!”

Instantly, Sonic, Omega and Rouge all reeled for a moment, before Sonic took a breath and spoke. “I was… escorting Elise through the jungle, after I saved her from Eggman for the second time. We got far enough to escape from him, though he then threatened to level Soleanna if you didn’t go with him, which led to me running to Kingdom Valley.”

Rouge recovered next, telling her side of the story. “Shadow had been trapped in the future somehow, and I needed to get a Chaos Emerald to him; Luckily, I knew that Omega had the means to go there, and so I searched for him in the jungle.”

Omega then took over her “AS A ROBOT, I DO NOT NEED SUSTENANCE. I AM IMMORTAL, AND THUS I WAS MOST ABLE TO BRING THE CHAOS EMERALD TO SHADOW VIA WAITING IN STANDBY MODE.”

“Waiting in standby mode?” Tiki wondered, before an idea crossed her mind. “Wait, did you sleep until you could meet Shadow?”

“INDEED.” Omega answered, and everyone looked at him in shock.

“To be alone, for so long…” Tiki gasped in shock, though Omega seemed unphased by it all.

“I AM UNCONSCIOUS WHEN I ENTER STANDBY MODE. I DO NOT EXPERIENCE THE PASSAGE OF TIME, THOUGH MY SENSORS RECORD THIS DATA AUTOMATICALLY. HOWEVER, I AM LACKING CERTAIN MEMORIES OF THIS EVENT. CONCLUSION: WE NEED TO GO DEEPER.” He then turned to Silver and glared at him. “SILVER. CONTINUE YOUR STORY.”

Silver was unnerved, but this didn’t stop him from speaking. “Well… after I got my memories of the place - Still have the odd feeling that I got shafted, somehow - I got myself my final-ish ability.” He then threw his hand up, causing a cyan-coloured rope to fly out of it, towards the sky. “Psycho Wire!”

-----

Psycho Wire. That’s the name of the ability I got from the Memory Orb. By throwing it towards red targets, I could use it to swing across gaps and redirect my momentum, which made movement so much easier. Along with that, certain objects that were too heavy for my telekinesis could be pulled out with the power; How that works is beyond me, but the fact that it does is good enough.

Either way, the areas within Luminous Forest gave me a lot of practice with these powers, and a good chance to chat with Tangle.

“So, You’re a part of these… Diamond Cutters?”

“WE are!” 

She corrected me, before using her tail to crush a group of Badniks in a single sweep.

“But yeah, we’re a part of the same team!” 

I gasped in understanding, before a question came to my mind.

“Team? Is it just the two of us, or are there any others?”

She looked at me like I had grown a second head, before she giggled to herself.

“Oh, I forgot that you haven’t met them yet… or you will…”

While she was distracted, an Egg pawn aimed its gun at her, but a quick Teleport Smash was enough to stop it from firing.

“Anyways, there’s Lanolin, our leader, and the one who proposed the idea of the Diamond Cutters as a team! Jewel, she’s my best friend and the current leader of the Restoration! And Whisper…”

She drawled off, a slight blush growing on her face. I waited for a few moments, for her to recover, before I shook her shoulder.

“Whisper?”

“Oh, she’s our gunslinger!” 

She quickly replied, clearly out of it, though it wasn’t enough to stop her from fighting off the Badniks.

----------

“Wait, why was Tangle hung up on Whisper?” Sonic asked in confusion, twirling a Chilli Dog between his fingers. “I’m pretty sure they’re best friends, right?”

“Uh, best friends?” Knuckles asked him, scratching his head with his massive gloves. “Aren’t they dating?”

“They’re what now?” Sonic shot a question back, his voice flattened out of shock, which earned a screech of rage from Amy.

“What?! How did you not know that?!” Amy screeched out before pulling out her phone, where she scrolled through it until she found a specific picture; That of Tangle and Whisper giving each other a chaste kiss. “They’ve been dating for a year now! This was their latest post, on their anniversary!”

His eyes were wide for only a moment, before he grinned at the picture and began to clap. “Oh wow! I didn’t know that! Good for them! Good for them.” He proclaimed with glee, only for Shadow to scoff.

“You aren’t slick, no matter how much you support them.” Shadow taunted him, only for a harsh noise to come from Omega, akin to a chiding click.

“YOU ARE ONE OF THE FEW ENTITIES I RESPECT, SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG. YOU DO NOT KNOW MERCY, NOR DO YOU DEMAND I CARE ABOUT SUCH METRICS.” The robot told him,  which put a smile on the Ultimate Lifeform’s face.

“HOWEVER, THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU AND I ARE PERFECTLY IN SYNC. I CAN LIST 19 REASONS WHY, BUT FOR THE SAKE OF MY ARGUMENT, I WILL USE REASON NUMBER 4: YOU CAN BE JUST AS UNINFORMED AS SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. MORE SPECIFICALLY, THE RESPONSE YOU GAVE UPON LEARNING OF TANGLE’S AND WHISPER’S RELATIONSHIP AND THE RESPONSE SONIC JUST GAVE HAVE A SIMILARITY RATIO OF 86.94%. CONCLUSION: YOU DO NOT QUALIFY FOR STATUS: SLICK.” 

Shadow was silent. Rouge was Silent. The entirety of the party was silent, which included Vanilla, Toby and Nancy (thought I forgot about them, didn’t you. I totally didn’t), for all of a solid minute, until Dante guffawed loudly.

“Oh, BURN!” Dante hollered, and the group quickly descended into giggles and laughter at Shadow’s misfortune; Even Elise and Cream were laughing, despite their usually proper demeanors.

“Hey, Tails, do you think we can ice that?” Sonic asked, giggling as he did.

“No way!” Tails answered, in between his own chuckles. “It’s 3rd-degree, at the very least!”

“Enough, already!” Shadow growled out, getting everyone to calm down before pointing a finger at Omega. “What does your database know about 'being slick'.”

“I AM SLICK.” Omega responded, before an oppressive aura leaked from him as he clenched his claws. “SLICK WITH THE BLOOD OF MY ENEMIES! AND PRIDE!”

Everyone was quick to scoot away from the practically-murderous robot, mostly out of instinctual fear, though Silver took the opportunity to focus on Shadow.

“Say, Shadow. Remember when I said I was going to talk about the Black Arms?”

Shadow quickly snapped out of his fugue to look at Silver with disbelief on his face, before shaking his head and focus. “Yes. How did you know about the Black Arms? Did they have even more influence in your part of White Space?”

Silver nodded grimly. “In the other half of Camelot Castle, in the Puzzle Act, there was a strange device that I couldn’t interact with, until I got access to Psycho Whip.”

“It was a grapple point, wasn’t it?” Shadow finished, and Silver nodded once more.

“Using it, I found myself in an area that looked infested with the Red Steel beams, and the Black Arms aliens.” He explained. “They were no match for my Telekinesis, though that wasn’t what drew my attention; That would be the strange switch I found by them.”

“What did it look like?” Rouge asked almost instantly, and Silver grumbled

“Well, it's like a weird ball thing, hovering over a platform, with rings of light hovering around it.” Silver tried to explain, before waving his hand at some debris, bringing it over. Within seconds, he molded the pieces into a crude approximation of the object in question. “Like this!” Upon making it, two people gasped in shock; Shadow and Tails

“A Time Switch… from the Ark.” Shadow muttered in shock, though he was quick to offer an explanation. “Dr. Gerald Robotnik created these things as a way to understand Chaos Control, so that I could learn it easily.”

“Aw, I didn’t think he’d do something like that!” Tails bounced around in glee, though he quickly stopped when Shadow glared at him harshly. “Anyways, the Ark has quite a few in storage, even to this day! Ah, but that’s not relevant to your story, is it, Silver?”

Said hedgehog nodded before continuing. “I pressed down on the Time Switch, which opened a portal back to White Space. Once I was back, I noticed a bunch of Red Bridge bits appearing above Camelot Castle, just like the ones I saw inside. Climbing up the scaffolding, I found myself in front of a strange portal, to some kind of base under the ocean…”

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

Landing into the area, I was immediately bombarded by a strange vision; that of myself and Shadow, running through some sort of underwater laboratory, fighting off the fiery creatures from White Space. As the vision passed me, I heard a deep voice call out to me.

“Silver the Hedgehog…”

I turned around in shock, though I saw nothing in front of me, or around me in general, which led to me asking the obvious question.

“Who are you? And how do you know my name?”

As soon as I asked, the voice chuckled darkly, all around me

“So you do not recognize me… But of course you wouldn’t. You and I have yet to meet.”

The voice explained, and I couldn’t help but feel rage building up in me.

“We’ve yet to meet, you say?” 

I asked back, before lifting a bunch of boxes and pulling them towards me.

“Then show yourself, why don’t you? We can get to know each other very well!”

The room was silent for a solid minute, as I kept myself ready to slam the boxes down on anything that came close. 

WOOSH!

BAM!

A strange black alien, in the shape of Shadow, had appeared right in front of me without warning. Black sclera and orange eyes, purple scales with red markings, the works. He sneered at me with yellow teeth, and I growled back, ready to crush him with my powers.

“Ah, ah ah… I wouldn’t do that, if I were you… not in your position, at least.”

I looked down, and saw a serrated blade, made out of his flesh and pouring out of his arm resting on my neck. He had teleported right in front of me, and put me in a checkmate before I could even use my powers. 

“So… you have me at your mercy. What do you want?”

He sneered once more before speaking.

“Simple. I wish for the revival of the Black Arms, though this is hardly the place for that discussion.”

He then dropped the blade, before looking around at the base.

“I can sense Black Doom in this realm; sense my Brother fighting him. And with the energy I’m feeling… I must be in the past, when he tried to revive the Black Arms…”

I raised an eyebrow at what he said, before slowly lifting up more boxes, asking a question to distract him.

“Black Doom?”

Before I could react, he turned around and destroyed all of the debris with a strange sound-based arm-cannon, before chuckling to himself.

“I should kill you now. You do not know it now, but you will become quite the problem for me in the future. However…”

He paused to stroke his chin.

“It is by your hand that I was able to meet my Brother, despite what Black Death says. If I want to have a chance to revive the Black Arms, with him by my side, then I will need to let you live.”

I wondered if that meant he wasn’t looking for a fight, but his next words said otherwise.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t defeat you.”

BGM: Radical Crossroads - vs. Eclipse theme (Original Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTyc9KhANk8)

The lab opened up, and we saw that the area around us looked like a fusion between the ocean, and the red-bridge pieces I saw in Camelot and White Space. Looking around, I saw a golden speck off into the distance; the shine of a Goal Ring.

“A Goal Ring… whoever touches it first will most likely be sent back to their time…”

He observed, before blasting off towards it with super speed. I wasn’t going to eat his dust, and so I blasted forward myself, catching up to him within an instant.

“What’s your name?” 

I called out to him, and he scoffed in return.

“I am Eclipse the Darkling, though your importance to me makes you my enemy, and irrelevant!”

And with that, our race began.

Stop BGM

-----

“Woah…” Ichiban gasped out, as did everyone else at the party. “That eclipse guy sounds really tough.”

Silver simply scratched his head and laughed. “Oh, he was! We were neck and neck throughout the race, and I wasn’t sure I would win at times!”

“But did you win?” Tiki asked out of curiosity, and Silver nodded.

“Yep! Though it was very close. By a hair, I’d say!” He explained, and everyone made noises of amazement, barring three exceptions; Shadow, Rouge, and Omega.

“Black Death…” Shadow grumbled to himself, his face furrowed in worry. “Another member of the Black Arms? And one I didn’t know about?”

“Not to mention this Eclipse fellow…” Rouge followed up, with just as much concern in her voice. “It seems you may have a bigger problem on your hands than we thought…”

“NEW OBJECTIVE CREATED: GATHER INFORMATION ON SUBJECT: ECLIPSE THE DARKLING. GATHER INFORMATION ON SUBJECT: BLACK DEATH.” Omega cried out, before slowly getting up from his chair, up until Shadow held his hand out.

“Not now, Omega.” Shadow told him. “We still need to complete our memories of the unknown event, and Silver is our best bet.”

Omega stood still for a few seconds before sitting down and staring at Silver. “CONTINUE YOUR STORY.”

Silver took a moment to swallow down any anxiety caused by Omega’s glare, before he continued. “Well, after beating him in the race, and returning to White Space, I got enough Keys to open up the gate to the next foe, which happened to be the last one I faced before Sonic.”

“And who was that?” Charmy asked, and Silver gave him (and everyone else in the area) a solid look before answering.

“King Arthur.”

----

Inside the gate, I found myself on a strange walkway that reminded me of a more complex version of the architecture in Camelot Castle. With no one around, I walked forward for a short bit, until I came face to face with Sonic, though it was clear this wasn’t him; He was holding onto a strange sword, which he had embedded into the ground, and there was a Scabbard on his hip that was emitting a strange power.

“Sir Galahad…”

That, and he had mistaken me for Galahad, though it was enough to tell me who he was.

“You… You’re King Arthur, aren’t you?”

He clenched the handle of his sword even harder before he growled at me.

“Galahad… you poor imitation of a knight! You defeated all of us, all by yourself, only to dishonour the Knights of the Round Table, dishonour me, by sparing us, and running away. And now you have the gall to come back and challenge me?! Without your armour or blade?”

He was trying to get a rise out of me, and in a sense he did, though not in the way he expected.

“You clearly need glasses… I’m not Galahad, and I won’t afford you the same mercy he did!”

He started to chuckle, as dark magic swirled around him. It covered him for a brief period of time, before he waved it off, revealing his true form; a giant man, decked out in a massive suit of armour. Along with the change in clothing, he had summoned a massive horse, which he got on swiftly before pointing his newly transformed sword at me.

“Then come at me, fool! I will destroy you, and regain the honour that I lost all those years ago!”

King Arthur

BGM: Fight the Knight (Sonic and the Black Knight, Silent Dreams Remix)

His very first act was to run down the walkway, away from me. Thinking back on it, there’s a joke in there about a knight running away and calling it an honourable fight, but I wasn’t going to let him get away. Without hesitation, I flew after him, though it was clear that he would not go down easily.

“Suffer!” 

He summoned a barrage of red-and-black energy orbs into his hand before launching it at me, though with some nearby rubble I was able to throw them at him, slowing him down greatly. However, before I could land a hit on him, the walkway ended, bringing us right into a strange circular arena. He teleported off to the side and snapped his fingers, summoning a bunch of Knights of the Underworld around me.

“Do you think that’ll stop me?”

I taunted him, before destroying all of them with Teleport Smashes and thrown objects, which caused both gates to open up. As I did, I saw him teleport to one of the gates, before running through as soon as they opened up; I followed suit, though I noticed that there was a yellow Wire Target on the gate itself.

Keeping that in mind, I caught up to the king, who tried to stop me with another barrage of orbs, though a well-timed series of Teleport Smash brought me not just right up to him, but a good bit past him. He tried to charge me, but a Psycho Knife aimed right at his face slowed him down enough to keep him in the back, just as we entered the second Arena. Looking at the end, I saw a Wire Target at the edge of the gate and dashed towards it, before yanking it and the door down onto the ground. I turned around, wondering what he would do.

I did not expect he would run the other way, though.

“Hey! Get back here!”

I chased after him again, doing everything I could to get ahead of him; To his credit, he did everything to slow me down, which included a new attack. 

Once he was in range, I slammed into him with Teleport Smash after Teleport Smash, dealing damage to him over and over until he launched me away from him with a dark pulse of energy.

“Be cursed by lightning!”

He raised his sword high into the sky, which caused it to charge up with electricity. With a command, his horse hopped into the air and spun around, allowing him to swing his sword at me and send waves of electricity towards me, which I dodged with jumps, stomps, and Psycho Lifts. All of that had also brought me closer to the knight, who tried to run away from me again, this time over a bridge he destroyed with his sword. However, a Wire point nearby allowed me to cross the river and get close enough to attack him.

“Take this!”

Without hesitation, I bombarded him with Teleport Smashes, and Psycho Knives, doing as much damage as I could before he could launch me back, though it was clear that I was doing more damage than he expected. Either way, I launched myself off of him, right into the first arena we entered earlier, and took the opportunity to slam the gate down, preventing him from escaping that door. He was stunned for a moment, before turning his horse around to run towards the exit.

“Not so fast!”

I saw a nearby Wire Point and used it to fling myself towards the other door, reaching it just before he did. Before he could run through, I slammed the door down, locking us both in the arena.

“Ha! Try and escape now!”

King Arthur merely glared at me before pointing his sword at my chest.

“You wish for death? Fine!”

He summoned another group of orbs and launched them at me from the centre, before also making lightning fly from the tip of his sword to the ground, in an attempt to prevent me from getting close, though a quick teleport brought me right into his face. With that, I was free to pummel him with reckless abandon, assured that he was close to being defeated. He readied up another dark pulse of magic to push me back, though with a single shove I threw him off his horse, which vanished into thin air as he tumbled onto the ground.

“No, this isn’t the end… You cannot defeat me, Galahad!”

Landing on my feet, I couldn’t help but cross my hands and stare at him.

“Well, you’re on the floor, and your horse has gone to the pasture. You lose. I won.”

He started to darkly chuckle, before pulling out the scabbard from earlier. 

“I have the Scabbard, fool. You cannot defeat me, while I still have it. I am immortal.”

My eyes widened at the tool, before an idea came to mind.

“While you still have it, you say?”

Before he could react, I used my Telekinesis on it, pulling it towards me. He did his best to keep a grip on it, but that was his biggest mistake; He didn’t keep an eye out on the rest of the arena. While he was focused on the scabbard, I had lifted up a bunch of vases around him, before pointing them at him.

“Look up!”

I called out towards him, at which point he played himself by both ignoring me, and letting go of the scabbard. Dropping the vases, I threw the scabbard far behind me before flying towards his dropped sword. He saw it too and tried to get to it first, but the sword got into the range of my telekinesis before it got into his hand, allowing me to pick it up.

“This’ll end it!”

And with that, I rammed the sword through him, turning him into a pile of dark motes, before letting the blade hang by my side, and giving him a cool one-liner!

“And that’s the end of the road for you, your Highness.”

Stop BGM

------

“Whooee… that was one heck of a fight, Silver.” Sonic praised Silver, while clapping his hands together. “I mean, I would have done something like ‘Long Live the King? Not in your dreams’ or something like that, but your line was pretty cool.”

“Long live the king?” Frederick critiqued Sonic with a grumble. “You trying to say that’s cooler than what Silver said? It’s just as lame!”

“Hey, it’s totally cool!” Sonic defended himself, before he deflected by looking at Silver. “Say, when are we going to get to the part where I kick your butt?”

“What, can’t take a little heat?” Shadow quipped right afterwards, and everyone got a good chuckle at the blue blur being humbled, though Silver didn’t hesitate to answer Sonic's question. 

“Funny you bring that up; Just after I defeated King Arthur, I got teleported into your White Space, where you ran into me.” He explained, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “I called you a faker, we fought, and you beat me, taking the Chaos Emerald from me in the process.”

Sonic scoffed before pointing a hand at him. “All of those powers, and you didn’t use them?”

“Hey, I did use a few of them!” Silver defended himself. “And besides that, I had just come out of the fight with King Arthur! I was tired! If I had a chance to recover, then we would’ve been far more evenly matched.”

“Sure…” Sonic snarked, and Silver grumbled to himself for a moment. With that, the group was quiet, up until Iris rubbed her chin and thought aloud.

“Now that I think about it… Rouge-san joined Shadow after Sonic defeated him. If the pattern stays the same-”

“You would be correct.” Blaze finished Iris’ thought, finally entering the story as she did. “I saw Silver in the distance, for the first time since our ‘first’ meeting on Sweet Mountain, during Dr. Eggman’s Planet Park Plot.”

“Heh, Alliteration.” Espio interrupted her, before holding a hand out towards Vector.

“Oh, hell naw!” The Crocodile spat out, annoyed for some reason. “That’s only three syllables, and she called him Dr. Eggman! That doesn’t count!”

Everyone was confused by this exchange, with Kyo being the one to voice it with a question. “Do we… wanna know?”

“It’s a thing between the two of them.” It was Vanilla, of all people, who gave them an answer. “Something about Alligators or something.” 

“ENOUGH!” Blaze cried out, fire crackling around her just as Vector opened his mouth. “We still have one more section to go through, and I will not be interrupted!”

“Anyways, I followed Silver into the area where he fought Sonic, before following him right into his version of White Space; It was there that I came into contact with Elise…”

And with that, Silver took over.

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

After my fight with Sonic, I used a portal to return to my White Space, where I found all of my new-ish friends waiting with each other; Espio and Tangle chatting about something, Shahra and Caliburn joining in, and Jet hanging off to the side on his hoverboard. Despite his general demeanor, Jet was the one to see me first, though his reaction was just the tiniest bit off.

“Hey, look out!”

He pointed at me, and I looked around for a hot minute before sensing something coming from behind me. I hopped towards the team, away from the threat, and turned around to come face-to-face with Blaze, though I didn’t know her as well as I did now.

“You… you’re from that Amusement Park!”

I told her, as that was when I first met her. Even still, There was something inside of me that knew otherwise; that our connection ran deeper. She felt the same way, nodding at me before speaking politely.

“Your name is Silver, right?” 

I nodded my head at her, being just as polite as she was.

“I do remember you from Sweet Mountain, but… ever since I came here, I started to see visions that imply that we’ve a deeper connection than that. When I saw you fighting Sonic, I knew that this was an opportunity to confirm my memories.”

And now she was here, and she had that chance. I opened my mouth to speak…

And then something rattled beneath me, and I looked down; a grenade had landed at my feet, right at the centre of all of us.

BOOM!

The grenade exploded, leaving us all stranded in the air. It was a Type-19 Soleanna Armature, designed to capture troublesome individuals with Chrono-toxic fields based on Chaos Control, though I didn’t know about that at the time; I only learned that while I was flying here with Elise.

Speaking of her, she had appeared off to the side, walking towards us with a frown on her face.

“Silver the Hedgehog… You are far more annoying than I had expected.”

She was clearly done with my nonsense, having brought a few soldiers with her for the ride. With my body helplessly floating in the air, she approached me in an attempt to grab the Chaos Emerald; Unfortunately, my hands were empty.

“Where is the Chaos Emerald?”

She asked me with a bunch of stress in her voice, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at her.

“Well, let’s just say that after dealing with so many fakers, I was finally able to see the real deal.”

Her eyes opened in shock, before she looked down sadly.

“So you met Sonic, and gave him the Chaos Emerald… If only I could have seen him one more time…”

Instead of dwelling on it for too long, she eyed Blaze and sighed.

“Blaze the Cat… to see you here is both worrying… and helpful.”

“What?! How do you know my name?!”

Blaze immediately asked, and Elise smiled before walking towards her.

“I know a lot of things; Who you are, the role you play in the Sol Dimension, and your history with Silver. More importantly, I know that you have a power that came from our world, that the Principality of Soleanna once used in an attempt to control time. And while our god was removed from the timestream by myself and Sonic… its power still lingers; in you.”

I didn’t know why I was feeling so terrified at the time; Elise was creepy, but it wasn’t like she was going to harm Blaze, right?

I was dead wrong… sort of.

“What are you doing?”

Blaze growled out as Elise approached her.

“Nothing too grand… I just need you to… tell you the truth.”

And with that she leaned into Blaze’s ear and started to whisper. Despite my hearing, I couldn’t understand a thing Elise was saying, and neither did anyone else in the group, though we could absolutely understand Blaze when she started to curl up in pain.

“Ngh… gah!”

The Chrono-toxic field dissipated, which led to all of us landing on the ground. I looked towards her, though before I could approach her, a wave pushed us all back, keeping away from her as energy gathered in her body.

“RRAAGH!”

An explosion of energy erupted from Blaze’s body, as a fiery orb flew out of her and into the sky. With the shockwaves ending, I dashed towards her and caught her before he landed on the ground, though she was rendered unconscious by the explosion.

“Blaze?! Blaze, wake up!”

It was at that moment that I remembered something Elise told me before our adventure even started.

‘If I could tell you now, I would, but the burden on your mind would be too great; It would crumble from the pressure of time.’

In hindsight, Elise’s goal was simple; Find a source of incredible power to generate energy in Soleanna. The Chaos Emeralds each output a nearly-limitless amount of power, and using one would be more than enough. However, there were other means that existed, namely the power of a being named Iblis, which Blaze had sealed within herself during the events in Soleanna that I was remembering. With all of that, so long as Elise could release Iblis from Blaze, and gather its power for herself, at the cost of Blaze’s life. 

Of course, I only know about that now due to knowing the entire story, but back then, my emotions were swirling around my head, like a furious storm. 

Was this what she meant? That if I knew about everything that happened in Soleanna, that this would happen to me? I didn’t know the whole story, and yet I felt a great sadness seeing Blaze like this; was she dead? Could this have been avoided had I given her the Chaos Emerald? I was about to scream when she started to cough.

“Ugh, Hagh!”

As she coughed, I couldn’t help but be thankful, as I helped her up.

“Blaze! You’re alright!”

“Thank you for your concern, but…” 

Blaze then pointed towards the flaming orb, which was now close to the ground. Elise was walking towards it, a manic look within her eyes.

“Oh Iblis… The Flames of Disaster, the Wrath of Solaris… You may have been separated from your will, but you are more than enough for me. Come to me, and I will save Soleanna! We will save it, together!”

We were all shocked by how gleeful she was looking at the orb, er, Iblis, though from where we were seeing her, we also saw another sight; a metal egg-like vehicle, flying at top speed towards the two of them. Without a second though, I grabbed Elise with my Psychokinesis and pulled her away from the orb, just as a metallic capsule flew out of the vehicle and captured it.

“Don’t mind if I do!”

A strange voice that reminded me of Eggman cried out as the capsule flew back to the vehicle, while we all looked at it in confusion. Elise had gotten up from the ground, and glared at the vehicle in shock.

“Wait! Who are you?”

As for me (and most of the others), I had an idea of who was behind all of this.

“Dr. Eggman!”

I yelled at the vehicle, only for the voice to laugh, and focus on Elise first.

“Dearest Duchess, it is quite hurtful that you do not recognize your dear friend. Did I not give you the tools to use the Chaos Emeralds? To save your kingdom?”

She gasped loudly, as I realised who this person was. However, before I could speak, he turned his attention to me, as the vehicle’s front opened up.

“As for you, Silver the Hedgehog… You insult me with that name.”

The person inside looked like Eggman, though there were a lot of changes - He had a white mustache that curled in the centre, a pair of red sunglasses and a strange black and dark-red coat over a white vest-thing and red jumpsuit. The strangest thing about him was the fact that he had mechanical limbs with wrists and ankles made out of silver balls; In fact, the fact that his mouth was mechanical suggested that he was not human at all, though he was more than able to smirk at me.

“Though I once went by the name of Dr. Eggman Nega, I have grown and evolved.“

He then held his hand up, before slapping it onto his body, creating a loud metallic thunk.

“Behold, my new and evolved form; Dr. Neo Robotnik!”

----

Meanwhile, with Vox…

“Close your eyes… take a deep breath… and open your mind…” Agatha whispered into the air, as the three of them were sitting on the floor of the Dojo, legs crossed and eyes closed. The reason they were doing this was simple: Agatha had figured it would unlock Tatsuya’s old memories, or at the very least bring him closer to it. Vox, despite what most people thought of her, agreed with the attendant’s idea due to having experience with meditation before; Indeed, she had a blissful expression on her face, as she ran through her memories with a calm, detached opinion.

The same could not be true for Tatsuya.

“Mmm…” He could empty his mind with ease, as he had an easy technique; He would think of four white squares against a black background (and only those four squares) before slowly making them disappear, leaving him alone in the dark. However, the darkness was filled with jeering laughter, as he saw images of people dead at the hands of strange creatures; People he did not, and yet did know very well. 

“Dammit!” Tatsuya cried out as his concentration broke, startling the two other members of the group

“Tatsuya, what’s wrong?” Vox called out to him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder as she did.

“Sorry… I…” Tatsuya felt his answer slip away from his mind for a moment before he took a deep breath. “I… had a vision, though It was more like a nightmare than anything else.”

The two of them looked at him with sympathy, with Vox taking the opportunity to comfort him. “Nightmares, huh? Yeah, I get them too, sometimes. What were they about?” She asked, and Tatsuya took a few minutes to fill them in.

“Well, it’s a start…” Agatha summarised, and he started to growl.

“Start… a Start…” His voice started to rise as anger boiled inside him. “That’s not good enough!”

The two immortals blinked out of shock, before Agatha tried to reason with him. “Tatsuya-kun…” 

“Don’t ‘Tatsuya-kun’ me, Agatha!” He cried “We’ve been doing this for so long, and yet I haven’t unlocked my persona! How am I supposed to defeat that god if I can’t do something as simple as-”

BOOM!

The Dojo rumbled, as an explosion rattled from somewhere. An alarm started to blare, as red lock-symbols appeared over all the doors.

“What the hell is happening, Ms. Vox?” Agatha asked the Tenno, who looked around frantically.

“A lockdown; Someone’s trying to get into the Dojo. ” She explained quickly, before rubbing her chin forcefully. “But that’s a stupid idea… no one’s foolish enough to attack a Tenno Dojo; There’s just too much protection to risk it! So who would try it?”

More explosions rattled the area, getting louder and louder each time; Evidently, the person causing this wanted in, and they didn’t care about the lockdown. But the three of them weren’t going to simply wait for their intruder to come; Vox got up, while Agatha readied her book and looked to the Tenno. “Well, Ms. Vox; We might be getting our answer soon.” 

Said answer came as the door to the room was forcefully bashed open, creating a final explosion that shook the three of them before a person stepped through the smoke. They looked a lot like Umbra, in that they had the general shape of an Excalibur Warframe, coloured almost entirely in black. Unlike Umbra, they lacked the flowing, tattered ribbons, and the golden spikes that signified Prime-level refinement, but the most notable thing about them was their helmet; a swept-back, spiked affair, with a diamond-like symbol on their face painted a bright blood red.

Despite the infiltrator’s intimidating appearance, the only one who understood the threat they posed was Vox, whose eyes widened as she spoke.

“That… is-”

The Stalker

Chapter Text

We all stared at the strange man, shocked by his appearance, and his bold play with regards to the power of Iblis. However, I was more concerned by the fact that he was out here, nevermind his change in appearance.

“Impossible… How did you escape that place? You were trapped in there!” 

I whispered to myself in shock, and the rest of my friends there (and I’m including Elise, no matter what you’re all thinking) looked at me in turn. Jet, of all people, was the one to ask me what I was talking about.

“Trapped? What in the world do you mean by that?”

All of their eyes were on me, though  before I could explain myself Dr. Neo Robotnik pointed at Espio and I before speaking.

“Ah, these fools left me trapped under rubble, leaving me stranded in a hellscape!”

He blamed the two of us, and everyone looked at us in shock, up until Tangle shook her head and glared at the doctor.

“That’s impossible! The Silver I know wouldn’t-”

“He is correct, though we had good reason to do so.”

Espio spoke for the both of us, which caused Tangle to gasp. With that revelation, I continued as I remembered the events on that day, during Dr. Egg-Dr. Neo Robotnik’s scheme with the Chao.

“He sought the power of a being known as Ifrit, all to utterly destroy the world. He unlocked the gate that led to its ruined home dimension, the Chaotic Inferno, and we followed him inside to stop him. After he awoke the beast, we took him down, though the good doctor had been trapped underneath a lot of rubble; knowing how much damage he could do, we left him there.”

Everyone looked at the two of us in shock, while Dr. Neo chuckled and clapped at us.

“Now do you see how ruthless your friends are?”

He taunted us, though Caliburn merely crossed his mustache-arms in thought.

“Perhaps it is ruthless. But that man is pure evil, without a doubt! I can tell just by looking at him.”

He then glared at Dr. Neo Robotnik harshly.

“To quote my good friend, Sir Lancelot; He who would seek death for all, is only fated for death in turn.”

The doctor was clearly annoyed by Caliburn’s words, especially so when everyone else glared at him in turn, now clearly seeing his attempt to manipulate us for what it was.

“So not even that can make you rip each other to shreds… how annoying.”

Dr. Neo grumbled at us, before smiling as he pointed at one of the gold buttons embroidering his vest.

“Even if they all agree with you, I was still trapped in that dimension for quite some time.”

He then pressed one of his gold buttons, which caused his torso to open up. We were then treated to a shocking sight; a mechanical body, hidden underneath his skin. I was stunned into silence, and so were the rest of the group bar Blaze, who pulled herself off of me to glare at him.

“What? How did we not know of your true nature?”

He couldn't help but chuckle before closing his chest up.

“I had done my best to hide it from the world, but since we’re here, I’ll give you that information; You won’t live to tell the tale anyways.”

He then cracked his neck and looked up to the sky.

“Years before, my master was built by the great Dr. Eggman, as his greatest creation. He loved her, and she loved him in turn. However, he was weak, and after many years, he perished at the hands of one of his schemes. Out of grief, my master created me in his image, all to maintain and further his goals. She made harsh demands of me, to make me the perfect replica, and punished me even harsher for not reaching her tyrannical goals. I started to resent her, and Dr. Eggman in turn. As she wanted more control, I wanted the opposite; Chaos, Mania…”

His face had snarled into a wicked grimace, as he looked at us with gleaming red eyes. 

“Destruction.”

As he did, a thought came to my mind, and I voiced it out to everyone there.

“Ifrit… now that I think about it, it sounds an awful lot like Iblis. Would that mean…”

He chuckled darkly in response.

“Indeed! The Ifrit is merely a fragment of the Power of Solaris, though even a Fragment could do massive damage to a universe; just look at the place you locked me in! But if Ifrit could only do it to one, then Iblis has the power to destroy all universes with only a thought. Without the mastermind that made up Solaris, it would have no direction… which makes my mind, my intellect, my GENIUS the perfect master for it!”

He then started to cackle like a madman once more, before stopping suddenly and glancing at Elise.

“Oh, and before I forget, oh Duchess: Give my thanks to Daniel for his assistance!”

We were confused by what he said, though it was when Elise clapped her hands over her mouth that we understood something was up. Even more so when he cackled even louder before flopping back into his flying machine.

“Anyways, I have places to be, and machines to build! If you have the gall to stop me, then come and find me!”

With that, we were all left to our devices, shaken by his declaration of war; Elise shaken the most, given that she fell to her knees. 

“Elise?” 

I called out to her as I approached, ready to give her some form of comfort, only for her to run off, with something in her hand. I was ready to give chase when Jet made his opinion known… by walking away.

“Welp, I’m outta here. This is way above my paygrade!”

We all looked at him, surprised by his defeatism, with Shahra being the first to call him out..

“Wait, what?! What do you mean by ‘This is above your paygrade’?”

“Did you not hear what he said? This Iblis thing is capable of destroying universes, UNIVERSES, and you expect us to defeat it with… iunno, an Extreme Gear, Ninja-garbage, extendable tails, a giant talking sword and whatever in the world she has?”

He pointed to Blaze, who could only help but chuckle in response, even as she leaned on me.

“Funny you say that, since I do have something that might turn the tides.”

We all looked at her out of surprise, though it was Tangle who seemed to know exactly what she was talking about.

“THE SOL EMERALDS! If you use them, You can go into that Burning Blaze thingie, right?”

Blaze looked at her with a mix of apprehension, and caution 

“Yes… the Sol Emeralds would allow me to do just that. How you know about that is beyond me, but it should be enough to defeat him… No, not just defeat him, but seal Iblis aw-”

She slumped onto me again, and I helped her back up. As I did so, she patted herself down, only to become more and more frantic as she did. After a moment, she looked up slowly, terror filling her eyes.

“The Sol Emeralds… they’re missing!”

We were all shaken by the news; our best weapon, to defeat the doctor, was missing. I turned my head to look around, when my eyes landed on a white gem, which I quickly pulled towards me with a bit of Psychokinesis.

“Is this one of them?”

I showed it to her, and she pulled it out of my hands, a smile gracing her face.

“Yes! It is!”

She kept it close to her body, while Espio rubbed his chin in thought.

“And if Silver found one here, then…”

“The rest are most likely in the area.”

Shahra finished for him, and I took the opportunity to come up with a plan, looking at everyone in the process.

“That makes our plan simple; Find the Sol Emeralds, and use them to stop Dr. Eg-Neo Robotnik! Let’s do this people!”

And with that, we ran off to find the emeralds.

“So he came back…” Sonic whispered to himself, as everyone took in what Silver said. “But given that I didn’t hear about it until now, you guys had to have gotten the Sol Emeralds, right?”

Silver nodded in response, though before he could elaborate, Lyn raised her hand with a question on her mind. “I’m so sorry for asking this, but who in the world is this… Nega guy? Neo Robotnik?”

“An alternate version of Eggman, from my world, or so we thought.” Blaze explained, rubbing her forehead as she did. “We’d later learn that he was actually a descendant of Eggman during the Onyx Island incident, who came to my world through means… we’re going to talk about it soon enough.”

“But that’s not important!” Knuckles interrupted her, before pointing at the Duchess. “You! What were you thinking, sacrificing Blaze for power?!” With that, the entire group turned their attention to him.

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Ichiban asked, and Vector continued after him.

“The Duchess here told Silver that learning too much about the events in Soleanna within a short-enough time frame would cause his mind to die, or something, right?” He reminded everyone, and they started to nod. “And from what Silver said, Blaze held onto the power of Iblis, right? If she were to die…”

“Iblis gets released, yeah yeah yeah.”  Chipp finished for him. “Didn’t Silver just say that?”

“Oh he did, but Elise nearly killed Blaze!” Knuckles accused the duchess. “She wanted to kill Blaze for the sake of her power.” 

“Not to mention, Blaze is the ruler of a foreign country.” Shadow pointed out. “Had she died to fuel Soleanna, it would only have been a matter of time before the Sol Empire found out, and with the power of the Sol Emeralds, that would have meant war with Soleanna; perhaps our world in its entirety.” With shadow spelling out the problem for everyone, everyone was hit by the gravity of the situation. Some looked towards the ground, some looked between Blaze and Elise, and some just glared at the Duchess. 

“If you’re going to villainize her for trying to do her best, then I would ask that you stop.” Blaze spoke authoritatively, her arms crossed over her chest.

Everyone looked at her in shock, though it was Vector who questioned her behavior. “You know, for someone who nearly got killed, you’re acting very casually.”

“Yes, I can understand what she nearly did to me, and I can understand why you’re all apprehensive about her being here because of that.” She glanced at everyone as she spoke. “But that was well in the past, and that she was doing this for her country. It’s why I allowed Silver to bring her here; if I couldn’t look past her actions and the reasons she did them, then I would be nothing more than a hypocrite.”

“Not to mention, she helped us out with finding the Sol Emeralds!” Silver joined in, excitement rising in his voice. “Oh, wait, that’s perfect for our point! Lemme catch you all up, alright?”

Finding the location of the last Emerald was rather easy, given that it was at one of the highest points in the area, overlooking the diorama that contained the final location. The real problem, however, was Elise, who was sitting over the edge, holding onto the red-coloured gem with a firm grip. I approached her calmly, though she spoke first.

“Are you here for the Emerald?”

She asked me, and I gave her an affirmative nod in response.

“If we can get all the emeralds, I can use them to defeat Dr. Eg-Neo Robotnik.”

I explained our plan to her, and she chuckled darkly before looking at me.

“How ironic. I’ve been hounding you for the Chaos Emerald in your possession for all our time here, and yet the moment I find one, you come around and ask me for it, for your own purposes; Not to mention that this isn’t even a Chaos Emerald in the first place.”

She held the Emerald up to the stark-white sky, which caused it to shine an eerie colour. 

“Then again, if what I’ve overheard is true, there is a power inside of these too… but it’s not like I could use it, given how much instability hides beneath the surface.”

I remember being confused by what she meant, and her laughter when I voiced it to her. She patted on the ledge to her left, and I walked over before sitting down right beside her.

“Look at this Emerald. you can tell that it doesn’t belong here. The only reason it isn’t reacting is because time isn’t moving at all; No velocity, no acceleration, no reaction. If I brought this back to Soleanna, when our world returns to normal, this Emerald would reject its surroundings, harder and harder until it destroys everything.”

She put the Emerald back down, and looked down at the rest of the White Space, clearly saddened by the truth. Even still, a thought came to my mind.

“But… Why did you choose the Chaos Emeralds, or even Iblis as a source of energy?”

A part of me expected her to say something crazy, or that she didn’t know any better, but her answer surprised me all the same.

“You’re not wrong. Soleanna is close to the water, so we could have used the ocean to power us via its currents or the winds that created it. It would be far cheaper than securing a Chaos Emerald… it would be far more peaceful than using Blaze and the power of Iblis. But even that is not enough for them.”

She looked at the horizon with a disgusted expression on her face, and I couldn’t help but remember something.

“Didn’t you say something, about your cabinet doubting your potential?”

To that, she nodded her head.

“I did… even though I’ve done so much for my country, even though I have achieved a lot of victories, they still do everything to stifle me, as if I am nothing more than a child in their eyes… Though if what he said about Daniel is true, then I might be dealing with something far more problematic.”

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow as I asked the obvious question.

“Who’s Daniel?”

“Daniel Humphreys… The Prime Minister of Soleanna.”

“Son of a bitch!” Rouge screamed at the top of her lungs before pulling out a transponder from in between her boobs. Turning it on, she swiped through the screens, throwing a ring towards Cream as she did, before pointing her device to the centre of the area, where a bunch of articles appeared before the crowd.

“Prime Minister of Soleanna arrested for treason…” Amy read the headline aloud before gasping loudly, hands going to her mouth out of shock. “I remember seeing articles about that!”

Tails leaned in, before plucking one of the Holograms out of the air. “If I recall correctly, Daniel Humphreys was arrested after an investigation found out that he had made secret deals with other countries and the HEXAeco Corporation, all in an attempt to overthrow Elise…”

“It made waves in GUN, too.” Rouge added on to the fire. “We were worried about the implications of a major politician working with HEXAeco, especially in terms of instability, and sent some resources to help in both the investigation, and with the arrests.”

Everyone looked worried, though there was still some confusion among the group, chief of which was Chipp raising a hand.

“Uhh, first of all; what’s a Hexaco?” He asked for the outworlders, and Espio took the opportunity to explain everything.

“HEXAeco is a ‘Clean Energy’ company centred in Grand Metropolis, which uses a proprietary energy source called the HEXAcell to generate power. Grand Metropolis was taken over by Metal Sonic in the guise of Eggman a few years back, but between all of us, we were able to clean them out.”  

“Only problem with that is they’re not all that clean.” Vector interrupted him. “After we got a tip from a whistleblower that… didn’t survive, we learned that the HEXAeco Corporations main technology didn’t actually generate enough power, and so the company would use other, unclean sources of power to supplement them. In fact, the Whistleblower came from the research team, which was being gutted just as they created a much more powerful version of the HEXAcell. It would have only cost them a few more pennies, but they weren’t willing to pay up.”

“Not to mention, their connections to Dr. Eggman, both during the Eggman War, and the Restoration Conflict.” Espio finished for Vector, glaring at him as he did before looking at Chipp. “And that’s what HEXAeco is, and the controversy surrounding them.” 

“So a Clean Energy company that’s not only proven to be a scam in everything but name, but one that halts any attempts to make their main product more effective in the name of profit?” Frederick grumbled out before snickering. “Now where have I heard that before? Oh wait; every company before the Crusades… actually, I’m pretty sure there’s a few that still act like that, even now.”

“Uh, guys?” Sonic barked out with a raised hand. “While that’s nice and all, don’t we have a story to get back to?” With that, the group’s focus returned to Silver and Elise, who returned to their story.

Back in the White Space, she told me all about the stuff she had to go through to earn even a scrap of respect from the Cabinet. I’m not going to go into the details because they… Well, they were bad, but that’s not the focus of this story. 

“I believed that he simply didn’t believe in me… but if he allied with this… Dr. Neo…”

“Dr. Neo Robotnik.”

I filled in for her, and she nodded.

“If he allied with Dr. Neo Robotnik, then there's a chance he was trying to play me for a fool. Perhaps try and remove me from the throne… and take power for himself, the people be damned.”

With that, she was silent for a moment, before shaking her head and looking

“I have been playing too nice for too long, trying to earn the respect of him and the rest of the cabinet when they were never worthy of it. When I get back… I’m going to tear him down, and make sure that I can rule… that my people are safe, and free to grow.”  

And with that, we silently looked down upon the White Space where our adventure had been set for a few moments. Despite all that Dr. Neo Robotnik did to her (and all that Dr. Eggman did with the Time Eater), there was a peacefulness that I couldn’t help but smile at. Of course, we couldn’t stay there forever, and soon the rest of my friends approached, Blaze leading the pack.

“Silver, did you get the Sol Emerald?”

She asked me, and Elise gasped out loud.

“Ah, I almost forgot what you were here for.”

With that, she held out the Sol Emerald to me.

“Take it.”

I took the emerald from her and gave her a smile, only to realise something as I spoke.

“Thanks, uhhh…”

At that moment, I realised I never actually got her name, but she just giggled before saving me from asking the question.

“Elise. Duchess Elise the Third.”

She gave me her name (finally), and I turned my attention to Blaze and the others, who were holding the Sol Emeralds.

“Do you think you can use them?”

I asked Blaze, and she shook her head.

“I could, but I still haven’t recovered. I wouldn’t be strong enough to defeat him, especially when he’s likely using the power of Iblis.”

We were all a bit dismayed by that, though Jet merely gave Elise a cocky glare

“And it’s all thanks to you, your highness- GAH! . ”

Before he could continue, Caliburn whacked him on the back of the head with the flat of his blade.

“You cur! You’re just as foolhardy as Sir Lamorak!”

“Again, I ain’t him!”

“Indeed! You are worse than him!”

The two got ready to argue, though they were stopped by Blaze lighting herself on fire for an instant.

“Enough! We need a solution, or we won’t be able to deal with Neo Robotnik!”

With that, the group was silent, up until Elise started to stand up.

“Now that I recall… you were able to use the powers of the Chaos Emeralds, Silver. All seven of them, with the assistance of Sonic.”

At the time, I didn’t remember everything about the… Soleanna incident, so that was a shock to me; it was much the same with the others, though I was the one who spoke first.

“I did?”

She nodded her head before turning her attention to Blaze.

“And as far as I can tell, these Sol Emeralds are… similar to the Chaos Emeralds. Lady Blaze, Could Silver go into an equivalent super state with them?”

“Perhaps… but it wouldn’t be a ‘Burning’ State.”

Blaze paused for a moment before she continued.

“In essence, the Sol Emeralds do not give a flat boost to one's power, like the Chaos Emeralds, but instead enhance already existing abilities to god-like levels. For myself, it enhances the flames I can produce, which allows me similar abilities to Sonic, like flight and durability, in a sense.”

“So if he were to use the Sol Emeralds… they would enhance his Psychokinesis, correct?”

Blaze nodded, before rubbing her arms anxiously.

“Even with the current circumstances, I am… reluctant to give them to you, Silver. They ARE my responsibility as the Sol Empire Princess to handle, and I feel uneasy at giving them to someone I do not know.”

We all understood her reasons, though Shahra did her best to convince her otherwise.

“But are you not rather close to him?”

To that, Blaze glared at her for a moment, before her eyes softened.

“I met him at an amusement park. There would need to be a lot more between us before I could even begin to trust him.”

Blaze gave her an apologetic look, before letting silence take over once more.

“Perhaps there is more to this story than any of us realise…”

Elise thought out loud, and everyone turned to her, begging for elaboration. 

“I know Silver came from the future, and I know that he wanted to stop Iblis from destroying it. Beyond that, I have no clue about his history, other than the assumptions I can make from his actions here.”

She then turned her focus towards me, and clasped her hands together.

“Silver, what do you remember? Of the incident with Iblis?”

With that question, I racked my mind for everything I could remember.

“Well, I travelled to the past, and landed in a forest. After escaping it, I came face-to-face with Amy, who brought me to a desert in my search for the Iblis Trigger. We confronted Sonic, though she helped him escape. I met up with Blaze… again? I met up with her before breaking into one of Eggman’s bases, in the mountains. Then, I confronted Sonic in a train yard, before Shadow fought me. After that, the two of us created a portal to the past, to a lab of some kind, before finding the truth about a being known as Mephil-GAH!”

And with that, memories flooded my mind once more, filling in the rest of the gaps in my memory.

“I remember! I went back to the past with Blaze to stop Sonic because Mephiles told me that he caused Iblis! I learned the truth, and I helped him save Elise in a valley, before I went back to the future with Blaze to stop Iblis!”

My excitement was high, though it faded away when a question reached my mind.

“But… Why was Blaze with me in the future? Nothing in my memories answers that for me.”

“Perhaps… that is what that Memory Orb is meant to answer.”

Elise spoke up, pointing to a Memory Orb that stood in the centre of the area. Unlike the others, it was wrapped in strange cables that glowed a bright red; following them with my eyes led to a diorama of a town in ruins, with technology reminiscent of Eggman’s devices and the words ‘Soleanna’ floating above it.

“It seems Neo Robotnik has tied up the Memory Orb with some sort of device…”

Espio observed aloud, and Tangle ran forth and slammed her fist into her palm.

“So all Silver has to do is smash through that area, and he’ll gain access to the Memory Orb, right?” 

I crossed my arms, and hummed to myself as I looked at the portal, smiling as I did.

“Seems so… Let’s do this!”

“Soleanna…” Shadow grumbled to himself. “While I remember going there during the incident with Mephiles, I can’t remember actually fighting inside the town.

“Well, it wasn’t quite Soleanna.” Silver admitted to the group. “It was two locations related to Soleanna across space and time; Crisis City, the ruins of Soleanna New City, and Flame Core, the lava pit where the Castle Town once stood. For me, Crisis City is where we met Mephiles, where he gave us our mission to kill Sonic, while Flame Core was where my mission ended, when Blaze sealed Iblis away.”

Instantly, Team Sonic and Dark all held their heads in pain, as the memories of the Solaris Incident played through their minds. “Eggman teleported us into the future, into Crisis City, then Sonic and Shadow used Chaos Control in Flame Core to return us to the present.” Knuckles relayed his memory of the event (and by extension Team Sonic’s view), while Rouge rolled her head and coughed.

“Mephiles sent Shadow and I to the future, but that’s more or less how everything happened for us.” She explained in turn, before gasping loudly. “Oh! Shadow trapped himself in the future to confront Mephiles! That’s why I had Omega go into standby mode in the first place!”

“I confronted Mephiles.” Shadow corrected her. “I wanted to know more about the future, and Mephiles revealed that I was blamed for its state. He tried to convince me that seeking vengeance with him would be better than being trapped, though I disagreed, picking a fight with him with Omega’s help.” 

“Seems like this mystery of an incident is almost solved.” Kyo commented, before looking down with a contemplative look on his face. “So why do I feel like we’re missing something?”

“Wave Ocean, though Silver never visited an equivalent in his White Space.” Blaze answered with a clam look on her face. “After agreeing to Mephiles’ plan, we were sent to the past, though to two very different locations; Silver was sent to Tropical Jungle, and I was sent to Wave Ocean.”

“Oh, yeah! Eggman kidnapped Elise, and we tried to stop him at the shores, but he got away!” Tails spoke up in turn, explaining Team Sonic’s role in all of this.

As for Omega, he whirred loudly before recalling Team Dark’s perspective. “MEPHILES APPEARED IN WAVE OCEAN, AND I HUNTED HIM DOWN. HE REVEALED THAT I WAS THE ONE TO SEAL SHADOW, WHEN THE FLAMES OF DISASTER RUINED THE WORLD.”

“That’s… that’s completely wrong!” Amy cried out. “Shadow has saved the world countless times. There’s no reason for people to hunt him down!”

“When something is too powerful, people tend to fear it.” Frederick grumbled out, his hands crossed over his chest. “Gears were feared so much that we had a war to stop them. 

“Just the way the world works.” Dante added on with a shrug. “All we can do is keep on living, and kick the… butt of anyone who wants to say otherwise.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t, or shouldn’t do anything.” Amy shot back. “Just because the world works a certain way doesn’t mean we can’t work to change it.”

“Hell, yeah!” Ichiban cried out, holding his hand up out of excitement; before anyone could point out the awkwardness of the move, Amy gave him an equally excited high-five, alongside Silver, who took the opportunity to add on to her point.

“You know, back in the future, people said I couldn’t stop Iblis, that it was more a fact of life than a tragedy to be stopped. I wasn’t willing to believe that, and I proved them wrong; once by sealing Iblis, and twice by defeating So-Mephiles!” Silver accidentally slipped up, though a cursory glance showed that almost no one had caught on, other than Shadow or Sonic. ‘Not like I won’t talk about Solaris, but we need to finish my story first…’

“While we’re on the topic of your future, how did you and Blaze become friends?” Sonic asked in turn, and Silver rolled his head in thought.

“Oh, it’s one heck of a story…” Silver started to explain, before looking at Blaze. ”...But Blaze would be better suited to telling it to you all.”

Blaze was… not impressed with Silver, and the glare she gave him said everything. “Are you going to make a habit out of thrusting responsibility onto me?”

“I’m sorry, Blaze!” Silver apologized, hands held up in surrender. ”It’s just… this is your story, after all!”

“Fine… you have a point.” Blaze grumbled out, before taking a deep breath and holding her hand out, summoning a tiny flame in the centre of her palm. 

I have known everyone here for some time now; those from Mobius for much longer. And you all know me well, though if I were to guess what you all know the most about me, it would be the flames I wield, and the ease at which I wield them; it was how Iblis was sealed during the incident.

But it was not something I had from birth.

Sure, I practically grew up with my powers, but I lacked control over them. My powers came from my mother, and she too had control over them, though I could never tell you how much; she passed when I was young. My father cared for me as best he could, but there were limits to his ability, and knowledge about my fire was one of them; for all he knew, he only knew so much of what my mother knew about her flames. As such, I was taunted for my failings.

One day, the insults brought me to tears, and I ran away with no direction in mind; All I wanted was to get away from my world. Whether by instinct or by their power, I ran towards the Sol Emeralds, and the Jeweled Scepter, and when I got close, they reacted to my wish, teleporting me out of the Sol Dimension, and into this one… into Silver’s future. The emeralds had been scattered by the teleportation, though I was unable to grab any of them before I landed on the ground, and was knocked unconscious by the fall.

Silver found me first, and gave me some food and shelter, which I lacked the energy to reject. We were swiftly attacked by some of Iblis’s creations, but Silver tried to scare them off; Most of them were, but a few remained, clearly determined to end the both of us. Despite my fears, I couldn’t let someone die on my behalf, and I launched my flames at them, destroying them in the process. I still lacked control over my flames, but the only expression Silver was that of amazement, as he asked me all sorts of questions about my powers. I fended him off as best as I could, before I spotted something important; one of the Sol Emeralds.

Silver saw it too, and he was able to sense them with his powers far more precisely than I could. He offered to help, and while I didn’t want to involve him, I knew I needed his help to find them quickly; I could only have imagined the amount of fear and stress my father felt while I was gone. As such, I took his hand, and the two of us ran through the ruins of his world to find the emeralds, which took less time than I expected. With all seven in hand, I was able to open a portal home and said my goodbyes to Silver before leaving, returning to my grateful father.

But that wasn’t the only thing that returned with me.

You see, Dr. Neo Robotnik had also been tracking the Sol Emeralds due to their power signatures, and followed us as we gathered them. He was ready to take them from us, but seeing me use them to open a portal home inspired him to follow me to the Sol Dimension. My Father had sealed off the Sol Emeralds to keep me safe, but they called out to me, to go to Silver’s world and help. I could not deny their wishes, but using them to go to Silver’s future gave Dr. Neo Robotnik data, until he made a portal device that sent him to my world, at which point he began to cause trouble for me and my people.

I would face him anyways, alongside helping Silver out, eventually meeting Mephiles, who gave Silver the task of ending Sonic to save the future. We found out the true goals of Mephiles, and we went to the future to stop Iblis, though I was required to seal it within me, which forced me back to the Sol Dimension, which led to my memories of Silver disappearing.

I retained the control over my flames, but I lost my memories of Silver, and in turn my memories of gaining that control; The Effect was saved, but the Cause was gone. I questioned why I gained such control over my flames quietly, even after helping Sonic with Dr. Eggman multiple times. It was only after I had seen Silver’s memories of Crisis City that I learned the cause of my control; Between the bond I had built up with Silver over those years, and the trust that everyone else had in him, I was convinced that he was worthy of wielding the Sol Emeralds.

“BLAZE!” Silver cried out, interrupting her story. “We agreed that I was going to reveal that part!”

“I thought you already did.” Blaze countered. “And even if you didn’t, you made me tell that part of the story, and your usage of the Sol Emeralds is important. You can’t make me tell only a small part of it, after all.”

“Hey, can we back up for a bit?” Sonic interrupted in turn, Chilli Dog in hand. “You mean to tell me you used the Sol Emeralds?”

“I mean, yeah?” Silver asked, scratching his head in confusion. “Didn’t Blaze and I say that earlier?”

“Yeah, but you’ve never used them afterwards? Even with the Metal Virus?”  Sonic shot back, and Silver shrugged.

“Blaze wasn’t involved. There was no way I could’ve used them.”

Rouge coughed loudly before speaking. “Not to mention, the only way you two could have removed it was through the Chaos Emeralds. Even if the Sol Emeralds boosted Silver’s Psychokinesis, I doubt it would have given him the immunity to the virus that the Chaos Emeralds could.”

The group was silent after that, up until Ichiban raised his hand. “Well, could you show us the transformation?” Ichiban asked the Psycho-kinetic Hedgehog. “Like, right now, only for a few seconds?”

“Absolutely not.” Blaze shot his idea down with a harsh glare, which only led to Silver pouting at her.

“But Blaze! It’s so cool! And I’ve been showing off every other ability I got, so I might as well show THAT off!” 

She turned her fiery glare towards him before answering his questions. “Silver… we agreed that you could only use the Sol Emeralds in an emergency. This is not an emergency.”

“Oh, come on, Blaze-san. Lighten up!” Kyo barked out, only to wither away when she glared at him.

“I bet it would be cool as hell!” Dante pointed out, while Blaze glared at him in turn. Of course, he was more focused on Cream, who ran up to him with her jar. “How is Hell a swear word? It’s an actual place in my world!”

“It’s a naughty word here!” She pointed out, as Dante threw in a single coin. “Oh, and you said it twice, Mr. Dante.”

“Twice?!” He cried out, before relenting and throwing another coin into her jar. With that, the dynamic duo turned their attention to Blaze.

“Ms. Blaze, couldn’t you please let Mr. Silver transform? I would love to see his new form.” Cream asked with her bright brown eyes, alongside Cheese and their dark-blue eyes. Blaze tried to look away and ignore them, but even she was not heartless enough to deny them their wish.

“Mmfh… Fine.” Blaze relented, before pointing a finger at Silver. “But if there’s another emergency right after this, and I can’t use them, I’m blaming you!”

“Don’t worry! There won’t be an emergency with me!” Silver cried out, before holding his hands wide. Blaze pulled the Sol emeralds out from her coat before throwing them at Silver, who caught them all with his Psychokinesis. Channeling energy into them, Silver slowly floated into the air before he roared.

“PSYCHO-BOOST!”

Silver’s fur was tinged cyan directly, though that was mostly due to the thicker psycho-kinetic aura surrounding him, which also made his five forehead-spines flutter more aggressively. More noticeably, the bangles that were placed on the cuffs of his gloves and boots had broken apart, becoming a set of rings that swirled around his newly-phantomized limbs, while an absurd amount of rubble floated around the pair of spines on his back in the shape of a pair of hands.

“Woah!” Tails, Sonic, and quite practically everyone gasped out at the sight of his new form, though that didn’t prepare them for Silver lifting ALL of them without a sweat.

“Your power! It’s amazing!” Tiki cried out as she floated through the air, having transformed to take advantage of her other form’s improved hearing and balance.

“Huh, you remind me more and more of Nero everyday.” Dante jested, before rubbing his chin in through. “I wonder what he and his old man are up to?” Of course, he didn’t get much of an opportunity as Silver gently lowered everyone back into their seats, before powering-down and returning the Sol Emeralds to Blaze; still, the group was in awe of Silver’s new form, and there were many more comments about it.

“While this is very interesting, I believe we still have a fight to talk about.” Shadow silenced everyone with a glare, though that didn’t stop Sonic from interjecting.

“Yeah! What about your fight with the guy?”

“I’ll get to that point! I just need to explain how I used the Sol Emeralds on him!” Silver gasped, before he took a deep breath and continued. 

The Sol Emeralds were most attuned to Blaze, given that she was their guardian for so long, but with Iblis ripped out of her soul, she wouldn’t have the strength to seal Iblis away. However, given how we’re in a void outside of time, Elise had come up with a plan; That being to seal Iblis in White Space, to prevent it from harming anything. Of course, the Sol Emeralds required rings to keep their power active, which meant I only had a limited amount of time to defeat him.

Once I got a grasp on the power of the Sol Emeralds, It took me no time at all to find the final portal, which led to a pocket dimension that contained nothing other than rocks and Dr. Neo Robotnik himself. He was waiting for me, sitting on his hovercraft acting all smug, as if he was superior to me. 

“Ah, if it isn’t Silver the Hedgehog. Have you come to stop me?”

“I won’t let you get away with your plan! I won’t let you destroy the universe with Iblis, not when it’s done so much to my world before! To the Chaotic Inferno!”

I frowned at him with an expression of rage on my face, though all that did was make him laugh loudly.

“Oh, that’s wonderful! But I’m afraid you’re too late. I’ve already integrated the power of Solaris into my machine!”

With that, he hopped backwards, right off the edge and into the abyss. I swiftly ran after him, though before I could get close, a machine flew up and hovered before me. 

BGM: Wrapped in Black (Sonic Rush, Silent Dreams Remix)

It was long and serpentine, almost resembling the Ifrit that I fought alongside Espio years ago. However, it was coloured pitch black, with red accents all along the frame, and alongside the upper pair of wings was a pair of massive hands that had claws on the end of each finger.

“Behold! The Egg Ifrit!”

I couldn’t help but smirk at the creation, no matter how intimidating it looked. 

“Nice toy you got there! Too bad it won’t stop me, Dr. Neo Robotnik! I will seal Iblis away, no matter what!”

I could tell I had ticked him off from the comment, as he started to cackle before powering up the machine.

“Hehehehe! Bow before its power, and be destroyed!”

With that, he flew off, leaving me alone on the platform. With a sigh, I summoned the Sol Emeralds and used their power to boost myself, before flying after him.

EGG IFRIT

The first thing he did was fly through a field of floating rocks in an attempt to keep me away, though I was easily able to dodge them and catch up with him. Just as I got close however, he turned around and charged up energy in the mouth of the machine.

“Take this!” 

A massive fireball flew out from the machine, headed right towards me. Without a second thought, I caught the orb and threw it back, though that didn’t stop him from firing two more. I dodged them by a hair, though it allowed Dr. Robotnik the chance to move back. With the distance gained, he then made the robot fire a beam of fire at me, which I was forced to dodge once more. With every attack, he was getting farther and farther away from me; It would be nearly impossible for me to catch him, and remove the soul of Iblis from the machine.

“You’re not getting away!” 

With a surge of energy, I blasted right towards the mech, pulling it towards me as I did. Despite the fact that Iblis powered his robot, he was getting closer and closer to me, eventually bringing him close enough that I could pummel it with a barrage of Teleport Smashes, dealing a massive amount of damage to it. I was quite surprised by how close it looked to being destroyed, which made Dr. Robotnik’s laughter all the more terrifying.

“Heeheeheehee! This isn’t the end! You’re not even close to defeating me!”

With a blast of fire, the mech started to repair itself, though it looked more like the damage was reversed instead. Without a scratch on the machine, Dr. Robotnik attempted to run away once more, though with some quick thinking I summoned a wall of debris in front of him. He slammed right through it, but it was enough to deal a little damage, and slow him down to the point that I could catch up. 

“Get a load of this!”

Instead of launching fireballs, Dr. Robotnik fired a gout of flame at me, which I dodged with a barrel roll. 

“Aileron Roll!” Frederick interrupted, before being suplexed into the dirt courtesy of Yara once more.

After dodging the blast with an ‘Aileron Roll’, I looked around for debris to throw at him, though I found that he was a step ahead of me; the flamethrower had melted the debris around us.

“Try your little psychokinetic tricks now!”

He knew about my powers, but clearly he didn’t know enough as I landed a Psycho Knife on the torso of his mech, stunning it long enough to fly in and maul it with a barrage of punches and kicks, followed up by a Psycho Top to knock him back. Once more, I had dealt an absurd amount of damage, and once more he used the power of Iblis to repair the robot, though this time not all of the damage was reversed by the blast. Knowing that there was a limit to his healing was motivating, but that wasn’t what I was concerned with at the time.

I was running out of rings.

Without the rings, I wouldn’t be able to keep the Sol Emeralds power active. Without the power, I wouldn’t be able to seal Iblis in the White Space, which would allow Dr. Robotnik to do what he pleased. I knew this, and he knew this just as well.

“It seems you’re running out of energy, you annoying hedgehog!”

He taunted me, though the anger in his voice was poorly disguised.

“You’re running out of energy too! You can’t hold onto Iblis’ power for too long!”

I shot back, as I flew back towards him to do my best to finish him off. I rushed towards him, attacking him wildly to deal as much damage as I could. The power of the Sol Emeralds protected me from his attacks, but they still affected me all the same, slowing me down. I threw every piece of rubble and debris I could find at him to scratch him, even though most were incinerated by the power of his mech. Even still, there was a point where I was almost out of rings, and he still had an ounce of energy in the tank; I could barely hit him, and he was about to run away, victorious.

But I was not alone.

“Not on my watch!”

Espio cried out as he hit the mech from behind, forcing him back towards me.

“I’m not letting you lose until you lose to me!”

Jet caught me with his board before throwing me a few rings, which helped me keep my super form active. As for Dr. Neo Robotnik, he was furious as my allies poured into the realm

“So you think you can win? In your own words, TAKE THIS!”

He launched a barrage of tracking missiles towards me and the others.

“As the Genie of the Ring, I command thee to heel!”

But Shahra summoned a wave of handkerchiefs, which tricked the rockets into exploding in the middle of the sky harmlessly.

“Sir Silver! You mustn’t falter, not when we’re so close!”

“Agreed!”

Caliburn appeared by my side, along with Tangle, just as Dr. Neo Robotnik recovered and launched a barrage of fireballs at us. With a wave of my hand, I used a bunch of debris as a shield to defend us, before looking at his mecha closely. Indeed, despite his boasts, it was almost done, and a single hit would be enough to release the power of Iblis, and allow me to seal it away forever.

“He’s almost out of energy! We just need to steal it from him!”

I called out to everyone, and we quickly moved to attack. Espio blinded the doctor with a smoke bomb while Jet damaged the cockpit with a high-pressure beam of air from his board. Shahra used a wave of sand to gunk up the joints of his machine, while Caliburn and Tangle used her tail to create a makeshift slingshot, which I used to launch myself towards the Egg Ifrit. 

“This isn’t over!”

Dr. Neo Robotnik cried out as I approached, creating a massive explosion of fire centred on him in an attempt to stop me. 

“Don’t try me, Dr. Robotnik!”

Blaze appeared above me and waved her hands, drawing all of the flames to her before throwing them at the mech, giving me a clear shot right through the core of the machine, destroying it in the process. Grabbing the Soul of Iblis on the way out, I smirked towards him for a hot minute before channeling the power of the Sol Emeralds one last time. With a silent prayer, I converted Iblis into a solid orb, before casting it into the void. With that, he had been defeated, and I was out of energy.

“And with that, Iblis was sealed once more. This time, much more permanently!” Silver finished the fight, to applause from the audience.

“Bravo, Silver, Bravo!” Sonic praised the futuristic hedgehog loudly, much to his embarrassment.

As the audience clapped, Vector took the opportunity to ask Espio a question. “Say, how did you guys help Silver out? Last I remember, the portals only worked for the Sonics… and I presume Silver.”

Espio hummed to himself before answering. “Technically speaking, I found a way into the arena other than the portal Silver used, and we entered from there.” he explained, before snapping his fingers at Silver. “Also, you forgot to mention that Elise stopped you from falling into the void with an Armature grenade.”

“Ahh, I knew I forgot something!” Silver cursed to himself, before pausing to think. “Now that I think about it… did I forget anything else?”

“What happened to Dr. Neo Robotnik?” Shadow quickly asked, his usual glare much more pensive than usual.

“He escaped the destruction of the Egg Ifrit by a hair, hanging on a stray piece of rebar.” Silver sighed as he remembered what happened to him, before he explained. “I was out of energy from using the Sol Emeralds, but even still I tried to help him up. He simply shook his head and laughed as he fell into the void… if I could-”

“Don’t blame yourself, Silver.” Blaze interrupted him before he could finish the thought. “That madman sought the destruction of the universe, so we would have destroyed him anyways. The fact that his pride led him to his demise says everything about him, and nothing about you.”

“You’re… you’re right.” Silver hesitantly accepted before looking around for more questions.

“I got one!” One of which being Sonic, who was holding his hand high. “What happened after all that? You were there when I confronted Dr. Eggman and his past self, so you didn’t stay with Elise, right?”

Silver nodded his head. “Yep. With Dr. Neo Robotnik’s defeat, the White Space started to fade away. With Time returning to normal in that area, Shahra, Calburn and Tangle started to fade as well, as they were returned to their normal times, and dimensions.”

“So it happened with those individuals as well…” Shadow muttered to himself quietly, under the assumption that no one heard him. Unfortunately, Sonic did, though before he could speak, Rouge interrupted with a thought of her own.

“Now that I think about it, that means that there was a robotnik involved with each of the White Spaces.” Rouge muttered aloud, grabbing everyone’s attention in the process. “Gerald made the deal with Black Doom to create Shadow and was thus brought to Shadow’s White Space alongside Maria in an attempt to manipulate his mind… Neo Robotnik had been created in Silver’s time, before using Blaze’s accidental dimension-hopping to go into her world, and Eggman… well, I don’t need to explain his part, right?” Everyone hummed in acknowledgement, and Rouge gave Shadow a sly wink.

“Hold up, I have a question.” Frederick grumbled out before pointing at Elise. “How the… How in the world did you deal with your energy problems? The Chaos Emerald you had was given to Sonic, and you lost Iblis to that nerd from the future.”

“Yeah, I am curious about that too…” Dante muttered to himself. “You can wave away all that political… uh, stuff, but you can’t just ignore an energy crisis.” 

“Oh, we helped with that!” Silver spoke up, before waving to himself and Blaze. “After Sonic’s birthday party, I took Blaze to Soleanna to see if we could deal with Elise. We talked with her for a bit, only for Blaze to get nervous. I thought she was worried about Elise doing something, but-”

“There was an enormous amount of energy underneath the town.” She interrupted him. “I followed it, and found a Magma chamber deep underground, near the town; the source of the flames in Flame Core. While Iblis was the one to make it erupt, it still had a lot of power, enough to cause a lot of damage… or to create an obscene amount of energy.”

“Ah, so you guys used Geothermal Energy to solve the crisis.” Kyo finished for the two of them, which earned him a few stares. “What? I use energy from the Sun, but I know a fair few people who use Gaia energy, and I did my research to keep up with them!”

“Kyo-san is right.” Blaze spoke up, drawing everyone out of their trances. “The Sol Empire has quite a few vents, and we have the science and the technology to harness it fully; I was more than willing to give Elise and Soleanna access to it, so long as we got access to their research about the Chaos Emeralds, and the Chrono-Toxic grenades.” With that, everyone nodded to themselves, and it looked like the party would return to normal conversations

“Ah, well, all's well that ends well.” Sonic quipped loudly before leaning back. As he did, a thought entered his head. “Say, what about Solaris? Aren’t you going to talk about him?” With that, the group was silent, all of them staring at Sonic for a variety of reasons; Some were confused, some were just about to have headaches, and some were Silver.

“Wait a minute…” Silver whispered slowly, gears turning in his head as a single realisation entered his mind; Sonic knew about the Solaris Incident! That’s why his reaction to the events felt off! Silver stared at Sonic, and Sonic knew that Silver knew that he knew about Solaris, at which point he got ready to bolt. Silver was ready to grab his ass, when something far more sinister appeared behind him; Mephiles the Dark. “Sonic, look out!”

“Huh?” Sonic turned around, just in time for Mephiles to summon his hard-light blade and thrust it at him. Before it could even touch the hedgehog, the Darkness of Solaris was trapped in a sandstorm. 

“No! What is this?!” Mephiles cried out as his captor manifested beside him.

“Mephiles the Dark… Mind of the Sun God Solaris.” Geras recited his name reverently, before a frown appeared on his face. “Your existence is a threat to this world's timestream. Return to the Void beyond Time, from whence you were sealed.” Mephiles tried to scream, but with a snap of Geras’ fingers, the Dark being was sealed away once more, leaving everyone confused , and in some cases scared.

“Who was that scary man?” Cream whispered from behind Blaze, who had flames in her hands at the ready.

“Mephiles… I sealed him away in White Space.” Shadow grumbled before crossing his arms. “How did he escape the Scepter a third time?”

“The gaps between the Universes allowed him to escape.” Liu Kang explained as he appeared beside Geras. “It is only luck that we came here just in time to prevent his plans from succeeding.”

“Uhh… Liu Kang?” Silver asked for everyone. “What do you mean by that?”

Liu Kang nodded to Geras, who created a cylindrical object out of sand. “All Universes are surrounded by a ‘Corridor of Time’, which acts as the canonical events of that universe.” Another cylinder crashed into the first one, creating cracks in its surface. “However, if people from other universes were to travel into this one, cracks would appear in the corridor, allowing beings like Mephiles, who are sealed out of time, to escape. The same is true in reverse.”

Everyone was silent for a moment, before Dante huffed loudly. “So… because we portaled here multiple times…” 

“He got a chance to escape because of us.” Frederick finished the thought, clearly peeved by the situation. 

“So because I accepted the role of Administrator…” Blaze muttered to herself in blank shock. “I have given Mephiles the opportunity to escape, and there’s no way to stop him from doing so.”

“So what?” Sonic asked her calmly, and she lit herself on fire out of rage.

“So WHAT?! There’s a Dark God of Time that clearly wants to hurt you, especially given what Shadow likely did to him during the incident.” Blaze explains, before looking down with worry in her eyes. “What if he attacks you, kills you? What if he pulls something that I cannot stop?”

“You have us!” Sonic gestured to the Mobians before gesturing to the rest of the members from the other universes. “And you have them! If Mephiles wants to face me, he’s gonna have a hard time stopping us when we’re together!”

“Speaking of together…” Kyo spoke up, picking up a Chilli dog as he did. “How exactly are we going to communicate? It’s not like everyone here has a phone.”

“That’s not the concern I’m worried about.” Blaze shot the idea down before explaining. “We only have so many data lines to work with, and while I know ACE, Iris, and Lami could give me more, I don’t want to ask for too many. For now, I can only add maybe three… four people to the chat. Still, I’ll think about who I’m adding later.” She looked at the table, where there was a massive pile of food. Blaze was ready to suggest that they finish it, when her phone started to ring; pulling it out, she answered, and nearly exploded “MOTHERFU-FHGHFHF” Blaze censored herself before she nearly swore, though it was clear that everyone at the party heard that, including Vanilla.

“Ms. Blaze, what’s wrong?” She asked the princess, and Blaze sighed loudly before explaining herself. 

“I’ve been absent from the Sol Empire for quite some time, and some stupid pirates decided to take advantage of that, and raid the Central Museum. As you might guess, I need to deal with that.” She finished, and Sonic was the first to get up, cocking his fists as he did. 

“Need a hand?” he asked, and Blaze rapidly shook her head.

“N-no, I…” Blaze tried to find a reason to give him, before coming up with an official-ish lie.“This is Sol Empire business, and you have no reason to step in and help!”

“We’ve been sitting on our behinds for the better part of a few hours.” Dante complained loudly before summoning the Devil Sword Dante into his hands. “And I want to stretch my bones for a good minute.”

Blaze, for what it was worth, tried to find a reason to say no, only to find that every reason she could give was completely nonsensical. With a sigh, Blaze summoned a portal beside her, and waved her hands towards it. “Anyone who wants to help me with the bandits, please come on through.” Almost everyone got their weapons ready, while Frederick pulled out a tupperware box and held it towards Vanilla.

“Save me some of the churros. I want to compare it to my own recipe.” He lied very obviously, as he had eaten quite a few during the story. Vanilla obliged him anyways, as she did with the others who requested some of the leftovers for other reasons.

As for Silver, he slowly walked towards Geras before leaning in towards him. “Say, Geras. How in the world did Sonic and Elise remember everything with Solaris.”

“Sonic and Elise were the ones to erase the events of the Solaris incident from the timeline, and so retained a partial memory of the events within.” Geras whispered back. “Given time, the two of them would remember everything.”

“Though I figured that it would be best that everyone else didn’t know.” Sonic interrupted the Guardian of Time, before leaning towards Silver conspiratorially. “And to be perfectly honest, I hope they never remember Solaris; I do not want a reminder of what Elise did with me.”

“Agreed.” Shadow grumbled out before stepping through the portal, leaving Sonic stunned and then swiftly mortified. As for the rest of the partygoers, they charged through the portal, with ACE waving her hand in a random direction, leaving Vanilla, her helpers, and Cream behind to clean up. Inside the Sol Dimension, Blaze would find herself VERY grateful for them, given that the ‘few Pirates’ just so happened to be an entire goddamn army.

Of course, they weren’t the only ones doing things, and it’s only fair that we see the rest of the cast and their lives…

In the Arabian Nights…

“Hah…” Shahra grumbled to herself as she looked over the two-hundredth piece of paper on her desk. “Even more requests that King Shahryar won’t listen to, much less work on…”

“It’s not all that bad.” Her lover, a genie by the name of Scheherazade, smirked at her before  hopping over the desk and landing in Shahra’s lap. “At least we get to do it together.”

“You… are very right.” and with that, they kissed, and then suffered through even more paperwork.

In the World of Camelot…

“What in the world is this request?” Caliburn grumbled to himself as he looked over the piece of paper given to him by the noble, before turning his attention to his liege. “Do I need to say it?”

“No need.” King Lancelot grumbled to him before glaring at the noble. Before he even needed to open his mouth, the man ran off with his tail between his legs, and Lancelot sighed out of boredom. “What I wouldn’t give for something interesting to occur…”

“There is a reason why we consider ‘interesting times’ to be a curse, my liege.” Caliburn advised him and Lancelot nodded.

“Fair enough.” Lancelot grumbled out, and gestured for the next request to be heard.

In Spiral Hill Village…

“Hmm…” Tangle hummed to herself as she cuddled with her girlfriend underneath the blanket, as they watched a movie together.

“What is it, Tangle?” Whisper asked, and Tangle sighed once more.

“I wonder what Silver is up to…”

“He’s probably up to something fun.” Whisper suggested, before a smug smile appeared on her face. “Maybe we should do the same.” With that, Tangle blushed furiously, and the two of them were not cuddling anymore.

On the Babylon Blimp…

“Man…” Jet muttered to himself as he relaxed in his chair, feet on his desk, in the middle of his crib/office. “I’m bored.” He declared for all of one second before the door to his crib/office was busted open, courtesy of his subordinate.

“BOSS! BOSS!” Storm the Albatross cried out, waving an envelope in his hand as he ran to Jet’s desk. “You got mail!”

“Mail?!” Jet screeched loudly, as his other subordinate, Wave the Swallow, walked into the room. “Who would send mail in this day and age? And how did they get our shipping address?” 

“The only person who would be smarter than you… other than me.” She stole the envelope from Storm's hand before opening it and throwing its contents onto the desk. Said contents was a strange circular device, which projected a hologram of an older hawk-fellow wearing an admiral’s outfit into the room.

“Hello, Jet.” Heinkel the Hawk greeted his son, who snorted in response.

“Oy, old man.” Jet answered dismissively, though he had stopped resting his feet on his desk. “What sorta news are you dropping on us?”

“Rumours, actually.” Heinkel corrected his assumption before explaining himself. “The King of the Donpa Kingdom, Dodon Pa, has suggested that he wants to host another race. He’s offering a rather high prize to the winner, and- ”

“Not interested.” Jet interrupted his old man, causing Wave and Storm to gasp loudly.

“Are you not even going to hear him out?” Wave asked him, only to be rudely pushed aside by Storm.

“What about the prize money?!” 

“Prize Money?” Jet asked, glaring at his subordinate. “It doesn’t matter how much Prize Money’s on the table, if I can’t use my Extreme Gear. And knowing how the last time we used Extreme Gears went, I doubt they’ll allow us to use them.”

“I was… just getting to that point.” Heinkel interrupted the two with a glare. “Dodon Pa has confirmed that he wants to bring Extreme Gears into his race.”

“THEY’RE ALLOWING EXTREME GEARS?!” Jet cried out in shock, a wide smile appearing on his face, before clenching his fist and thrusting it into the air. “Wave! Storm! Get your Extreme Gears ready, cuz we’ve got a race to win!” He concluded his speech with a cheer that the two of them copied, before they walked out of the room. As for his father, he gave him some cursory goodbyes before his hologram faded out, and the device destroyed itself with a small explosion. With that, Jet sat back down in his chair, and looked at his hand.

“I’m coming for you, Coinstar…”

In an Eggman facility…

“So that’s what happened with my descendant…” Eggman muttered to himself as he rewatched the footage one of his Newtron Badniks captured for him, on his 50-inch display. Despite the confirmation of people coming from other universes (and the obvious conclusion that multi-dimensional travel was possible), there was one thought that consumed his powerful mind. “The only creation I could even begin to call my greatest would be Sage… but what would have caused her to go mad?” he whispered to himself, only to hear the sound of a door opening behind him. Turning around, he saw Sage float into the room with a slim smile, and smiled to himself, knowing that she was successful. “Sage, report.”

“The tracker has been successfully sent to the phone of Princess Blaze, without her knowledge. Once she adds another person from this world to her chat, we’ll gain full access to the room, as an administrator.” She reported, before summoning a panel in front of her. “Do you wish for me to create a Virus, to send to all members of the chat?”

“No, not yet at least.” Eggman shot down the idea firmly. “Much as I love your boldness, Sage, we do not know the extent of the powers that these people have. We will use this backdoor to gather data about them, come up with countermeasures, and then let them tremble before our might! HEHEHEHEH!” He cackled loudly at his genius (technically Sage’s genius too, but she knew that herself), before calming down and sitting back in his chair. “Sage, check on Orbot and Cubot. I need to know if they’re screwing something up.”

“Of course, Father.” Sage bowed before him before teleporting off, leaving him alone in the room, free to ponder his plans for his foes.

“Hmm… Now, how could I stop Mephiles… or even my annoying descendent?”

Chapter Text

3052, Vox’s Dojo, Sol-System-W-54285

“That… is…”

Tatsuya heard Vox whisper, though the mad smile that appeared on her face suggested anything other than fear. “A nerd whose ass is about to be kicked! Flamebringer!” With that, she snapped her fingers, and a Warframe appeared before her; It was feminine, coloured white and red and gold like the sun, with a massive flaming Mohawk on top. This was Ember Prime, a Warframe focused around fire, and Vox entered it before rushing towards the Stalker. 

Once she was close, she drew out her melee weapon, which was a sharpened three-bladed disc known as the Glaive Prime, and slashed it down upon the assassin who broke into her Dojo. Before her attack could land, he raised up a wicked-looking scythe, and caught her strike though that did nothing to lessen her mood. “Hey Stalker, my buddy! You ever heard of knocking?” Vox taunted him, before the two of them became a whirlwind of clashing strikes and parried blows.

Despite all of this, Tatsuya knew that he needed to help her and slowly got up, reaching for his sword as he did. “Shit, we need to help-

“Don’t try it!” Agatha interrupted him with a hand aimed at his chest. “Something’s wrong.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“This foe… He seems to be from this universe, and yet the power he wields feels familiar, somehow…” Agatha pondered loudly, before their face hardened and their book appeared in their hand. “Even still! I will deal with this threat, alongside Miss Vox. Please stay back, Tatsuya-san, for your own safety.” Before he could even argue, they ran forward and thrusted their book in between Vox and the Stalker, breaking the stalemate in the process. “Miss Vox, do you know this fellow?”

“Oh, yeah, this is the Stalker!” Vox casually explained as she launched a fireball at him, which he deflected effortlessly. “Tried to kill me ages ago for… some reason, but we worked together to defeat Ballas, and end his reign over the Origin System. Figured that would make us even, but SOMEONE HAS TO KEEP ATTACKING ME!” She forcefully glared at him while she screamed, though it was clear that she was less angry and more annoyed.

“Is he known to break into your dojo?” Agatha asked out of curiosity, and Vox shook her head.

“Not really… which makes me wonder what’s going on…” 

“Either way we must be careful.” Agatha stated before strutting towards the assassin, book and magic in hand, while Vox spun the Glaive in her hand. With that, Agatha attacked the Stalker in time with Vox, smothering him in a barrage of attacks, though he had blocked them all effortlessly. He retaliated with a blast of dark energy, which shocked Agatha even though the two of them dodged it.

“Impossible…” Agatha uttered out, as they recovered from her roll.

“What’s impossible?” Vox asked, charging up a fireball in her hand.

“This Stalker… He’s being possessed by the God!” Agatha revealed, and the fireball in Vox's hand faded away as she gasped in shock.

“You mean-” 

“Get… OUUUUUTTT!!!” A terrifying roar escaped the Stalker, as he held his head in pain while massive waves of black energy poured out of him, pushing Vox and Agatha back. The two tried to deflect it, but the Stalker was ahead of them, teleporting between the two of them and slashing at them with his scythe before snapping his fingers at Vox, covering her in a painful-looking aura. With a wave of his hand, Agatha was lifted into the air while he rammed his scythe into Vox, dealing Damage to her and Agatha via an explosion from the Tenno, knocking them to the floor. Agatha tried to stand up, but a stab through her back was enough to immobilise her, if only for the moment, cementing the Stalker’s victory over them.

Very good, my naive pawn… go towards the one in red… and kill him…

Tatsuya heard a mysterious voice echo through out the Dojo, and he held his head in pain. “That voice… it’s so familiar…”

“No…” the Stalker growled out, his body twitching as if it was being piloted by someone else. “You… you have no control over me…”

Despite the pulsing energy that surrounded him, the Stalker slowly moved towards Vox, his scythe dragging through the ground as he approached her. Vox slowly got onto her hands and feet, trying to surge the Warframe with power, though the Stalker stopped moving when a certain cephalon flew in front of him.

“I will not allow you to harm the Operator, or Tatsuya any further!” He declared, before his eyes turned red, and weapons emerged from his body. “PURG-”

Before he could finish, the Stalker speared through his body with his scythe, disabling it completely, before throwing it to the side. He then turned towards Vox once more, before grabbing the warframe by the neck. Slowly, he pulled Vox out of the Warframe, bringing her up to eye-level. “Tenno… You are.. Not my target… but I… will not let…” Before he could finish, he was wracked with pain once more, which forced him to let go of her.

You fool! Do you think I have no control over you?! Destroy the boy, free me from my prison!

As this was happening, Tatsuya was watching with horror, though the manic movements of the Stalker had emboldened him into picking up his sword, and pointing it at the assassin. When he twitched with pain once more, Tatsuya dashed towards him, blade held high, before swinging it down… right as the Stalker swung his arm, shattering Tatsuya’s katana with his forearm.

“What…” Tatsuya uttered as he saw the shards, before the Stalker punched him, sending him flying away. He tumbled ass-over-kettle on the ground, up until he landed on his hands and feet, which allowed him to see the Stalker hold his head in pain once more, before he slowly looked at Tatsuya.

“Ah, Tatsuya Suou… Even without your memories, you are still an annoyance; a mosquito, biting at my skin.” The voice from earlier whispered to him, as the Stalker stared at him blankly.

“Who… who are you?” Tatsuya asked, rage barely contained. While Agatha named him as the god who stole his memories, Tatsuya wanted to be sure.

“I could tell you, but that would be unnecessary for my… revival.” The voice replied with a bored edge, as if this entire conversation was pointless. 

“What?” Agatha gasped out loud, clearly shocked by the reveal. “But… all of my data… It said that you would be awoken when the one-”

“-containing the memories of me remembers, yes.” The voice finished for her. “But that would require the assumption that I need him alive. He has nothing to live for, and so I just need to kill him to free myself.” The statement was shocking, but Tatsuya focused on something completely different. 

“Nothing?” He asked the voice. “What do you mean I have… nothing?”

“No friends, no family… none that remember you, at least.” The voice answered neutrally, though Tatsuya swore it had a smug grin on its non-existent face. “For you have forgotten them, and they have forgotten you. As the folklore of Ancient Mexico would say, you are a corpse waiting for its death. All I need is for you to die, and I will be free.” 

“No… you’re wrong.” Vox whispered out, slowly getting up as she did. “Tatsuya isn’t alone… he has-” Before she could finish, a mass of tentacles wrapped around her limbs and started to contort them, before a final one entered Vox’s mouth and ripped her tongue out. As for the Stalker, he tried to go after Vox, though another set of tentacles held him in place.

“This body is attempting to defy me, and the work I must put in to reign him in is growing tiresome. Please, Tatsuya Suou, do something useful with your life and end it.” He finished, and the room was silent for a moment. Tatsuya looked down, and the shattered sword he once held was now a sharp wakizashi, positioned as if he was about to commit seppuku. A part of him wanted him to be correct, but…

“No.”

He spoke up, before looking at the Staker dead in the eye, or at least his equivalent. 

“I’m not alone… I may have forgotten my friends and family from my world, but I’ve made friends here… Ichiban, Frederick, Voxaria-san.”

“Can you call them friends when they have kept my existence from you? Your memories, from you?”

“I can…” 

“I don’t care!” Tatsuya cried out. “Because I will do it to spite you! No! I’ll kick your ass, and live to tell the tale… all to spite you, you damn bastard!!!”

And then a new voice joined the conversation.

BGM: Willpower (Persona 5 OST)

That fire… I have yearned to see it for so long

“Gah!” Tatsuya gasped in pain, his eyes turning a bright, unnatural yellow in tune with the voice… his shadow.

“No!” The god, speaking through the Stalker, tried to move towards him, but the Stalker resisted him anyways. 

An unfamiliar stage… an unfamiliar tune, but the lyrics are still the same… We have faced this god before, sealed him away, even at great costs to ourselves.

The voice echoed in Tatsuya’s mind, as he fell to the floor, every nerve in his body aflame with pain.

Are you truly going to let him dangle all you have lost in front of you?

“No…” Tatsuya uttered out, spittle falling out of his mouth as rage filled his core. “I want it back… Give them back!”

Very well… Let us right our wrongs, and write a new page in our shared story…

With that, a blank mask appeared on his face, fully covering it; it was a solid, shining black, with a singular hole that looked like it was punched out of the mask over where his left eye should be, and a devious clown-like smile plastered over the bottom. 

“I am Thou…” Tatsuya growled, as he reached up to the mask, gripping it tightly.

Thou art I…

The voice echoed after him, laughing as Tatsuya pulled on it sharply.

Bring the spotlight onto me once more, Tatsuya!

He yanked on it, over and over, each pull slowly and steadily ripping the flesh off his face in the process until the mask was barely attached by a few strands of flesh.

“Come to me… APOLLO!!!” And with that, Tatsuya ripped it off completely, and was engulfed in a gout of blue flames.

BGM: Awakening (Persona 5 OST)

When the flames subsided, Tatsuya was left standing, wearing an outfit akin to a Bosozoku gangster, with a long black trench coat covered in Kanji, over a pair of baggy black pants tucked into white pointed-toe boots with a brown belt wrapped under the heel. He was bare-chested, barring a tan sarashi wrapped around his abs, and there were golden belts connecting the tops of his boots to a white belt with a gold belt-buckle. The most notable change about him was the clean shave, alongside the hachimaki with a red sun over his forehead, and tied-back hair.

He solemnly pointed his finger at the Stalker before speaking. “I am Tatsuya Suou, son of Nanaya Suou and Brother of Katsuya Suou. You tricked me once into letting you destroy the world, and I fought to undo your machinations, even giving up my memories to do so. But you have returned, and I… I will defeat you… Nyarlathotep.”

A growling noise came from the Stalker, up until a blast of dark energy took over for him. “Die, Tatsuya Suou!” the now-named Nyarlathotep screamed before he dashed towards the Persona-wielder with fury, the scythe in his hand ready to cut Tatsuya down. Despite this, Tatsuya was ready, as he held his hand out and summoned a blade of flames, before swinging at the Stalker, which caused their weapons to clash.

“Nah, I’m good!” Tatsuya barked out before pulling his blade away, rapidly slashing and clashing with the Stalker for a solid few seconds, before stepping back and charging magic in his hands. “AGIDYNE!” With a flick of his hand, he launched a fireball at the Stalker, consuming him in a massive explosion of flames. When the flames died down, the Stalker was on his knees, lacking both burn marks and the oppressive dark aura courtesy of Nyarlathotep.

“T-th-th-thank… you…” The Stalker growled out before teleporting out of the Dojo, leaving Tatsuya alone with Agatha and Vox. He looked at the place where the Stalker once stood, before remembering what happened to Vox, and running towards her, just as Agatha used healing magic on the Tenno. “Shit! Vox-san! Agatha-san! Are you alright?”

Stop BGM

Vox spat out blood from her mouth, revealing a restored tongue, before speaking. “Yeah, but… your memories… I-I’m so-”

“If you’re going to apologize, then don’t.” Tatsuya cut her off before smiling at her. “You kept Nyarlathotep at bay, even if it meant keeping me out of the loop. I’m far more grateful for that, Vox-san.” And with that, Tatsuya felt some sort of throbbing in his head, and he fell to his knees, only to be caught by Agatha. “Whu?”

“You’re exhausted, Tatsuya-san. Even if you have used Apollo before, time has weakened your bond with him” They explained bluntly, though a smile graced their face. “Still, the strength you have shown is quite admirable, and it is clear that you are on the path to destroying that go-er,  Nyarlathotep.”

“That’s… cool.” Tatsuya mumbled out before rolling onto the attendant, his eyes heavy with sleep. “If you don’t mind… I’m going to sleep.” and sleep he did, right on Agatha’s very supple thighs, and much to the attendant’s shock.

“Nice.” Vox couldn’t help but snark, even when Agatha glared at her.

“Silence.” She grumbled, though the two of them quickly became serious upon looking at Tatsuya.

“Hmm… on a more serious note… we’ll need to get everyone caught up with Tatsuya, Nyarly, and the Stalker.” Vox noted, before snapping her fingers. “Ordis!”

The Cephalon quickly flew to her side, in a new body no less. “Yes, Operator?”

“Send a DM to Blaze and Liu Kang. Tatsuya has come to.”

Chapter Text

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

FlamePrincess: Alright, we dealt with the pirates, everyone’s back home and I just read Vox’s message.

FlamePrincess: Tatsuya, I need to apologize for keeping Nyarlathotep’s existence and in turn your memories from you. Even with the threat that he posed to your world, and in turn ours, it was not right to keep you in the dark.

LordLiuKang: Indeed. While it was the best we could do against his power, it is something that is both cruel and regrettable.

Highlander: Like I told Vox-san, don’t worry about it. Nyarlathotep is a monster who can manipulate anyone; I’m not going to get mad about my lost memories because you guys were worried.

OracleNaga: Even still, please accept our apologies.

Highlander: Blaze-san, are you going to invite Agatha to the chatroom?

EricMyers: Who’s Agatha?

Highlander: They were training me, so that I could unlock my persona, and in turn my memories. Vox-san caught us a few days ago, and she wanted in on training me, though before we could do much, the Stalker showed up.

RegisteredL-user: He’s a joke, normally, but he got possessed by Nyarly, who tried to get Tatsuya to kill himself, so that he could be freed. Tatsuya said no, ripped a mask off his face, and got the Stalker to f*** off with his persona! It was so sick!

Lotus: Voxaria, how did the Stalker break into your Dojo?

Ordis: The Stalker had increased strength and speed, along with access to strange powers, which believe are the source of his ability to defeat the Dojo’s defenses.

Highlander: No, not access. Nyarlathotep had control over him, hence the upgrades. The real question we need to ask is how he was able to take control.

Esaka: How? I thought you’d know, given that you fought the guy.

Highlander: Yes, I did fight him, but his ability to control people comes from his ability to exploit their vulnerabilities. For example, one of my friends had his memory manipulated to think I had burned another of our friends by Nyarlathothep; combined with the death of his father, he became a killer for him. 

Highlander: Not to mention all the crap he pulled with my friends, and the whole ‘resetting the universe’ nonsense I went through, but you guys know about that, don’t you?

PizzaTime: Yep, and it’s one hell of a story.

Highlander: To sum everything up, we need to know what Nyarlathotep used to control the Stalker, so that we can prepare against it.

Highlander: Oh, but I do want to get Agatha added to this server.

Highlander: Blaze-san?

FlamePrincess: I have quite a few people who would like to join us, and only so many slots.

FlamePrincess: however, I did get some upgrades to the server, so she should be able to join. Send me her contact information, and I should be able to add her.

VRA Agatha has invited herself to the chat.

Agatha: Hello mortals, and not-so-mortals! How are we doing today?

FlamePrincess: I’m sorry, what the hell?

FlamePrincess: How did you get here?!

Agatha: We have our memes.

Agatha: I mean our means.

Agatha: Means!

RegisteredL-user: All your memes are belong to us.

PizzaTime: Ay, a Zero-Wing reference!

OracleNaga: Zero-Wing? What is that?

PizzaTime: it’s an old game.

OracleNaga: And what is a game?

PizzaTime: Dammit, I always forget you live in the medieval ages.

Flame Princess: I’ve been meaning to introduce it, but there is a system the Admins at SOMA created as a database for information.

FlamePrincess: We call it the Codex, designed to explain the lore of the universes we administrate.

FlamePrincess: wiki.codex.net/w/Video_game

FlamePrincess: Here you go, @OracleNaga, @RobinHood @Chrom

OracleNaga: Thank you, Princess Blaze.

RegisteredL-user: Huh, I did not think you guys would have had a codex of your own.

RegisteredL-user: Then again, it probably runs on a different architecture compared to what we have in the Orbiter.

Ordis: Operator, Ordis believes that it is possible to create a translation layer to read the SOMA Codex from our Codex, so long as we can understand the Architecture.

FlamePrincess: I should be able to get documentation for that from Iris and ACE sometime soon.

RegisteredL-user: Thank you, Blaze!

PizzaTime: Now that I think about it, it’s kinda surprising how much our universes have in common.

RegisteredL-user: Maybe because we’re being written by a guy who needs easy interactions between the characters?

PizzaTime: Nah, that’s bullshit. I’m calling bullshit on that.

WesSide: More specifically, the intro to the game. I think it got poorly translated when it came stateside.

Itchybum: Yeah it did. 

Itchybum: It’s been a bit, but I think the original phrase was: 'With the help of Federation government forces, CATS has taken all of your bases.’

Highlander: Alright, that’s enough. We don’t want to bully them too much.

Highlander: God knows the amount of times they threw me over her shoulder… and they were smiling. I do NOT want to see what she’s like angry.

Agatha: Thank you, Tatsuya, for being so kind.

FlamePrincess: Moving on, I’ve got two people from my world who I need to add.

FlamePrincess: Well, Sonic’s world, but you get the point.

Admin FlamePrincess has invited two people to the chat

User 11211992 has changed their name to “Tails”

User 06192001 has changed their name to “JewelThief”

Tails: Hey, everyone! I’m Tails! I’m a friend of Blaze, and a member of the Forge! A Consortium of Creators who chat about inventions, and sometimes making them!

Tails: A lot of you have seen me at the party, but I figure that a proper introduction would work, especially for Tatsuya-san.

Highlander: Thanks, man. 

Highlander: Oh, Silver, are you going to upload the data on your story? I didn’t get to hear it.

Psychosoldier: I believe Iris or ACE did some sort of summary about it, or so I heard.

FlamePrincess: They did, and they sent the file to me.

Admin FlamePrincess has uploaded a file: SilverGenerations.pdf (A PDF describing the Gameplay and Story of Silver Generations)

RegisteredL-user: Thanks, Blaze!

JewelThief: My name is Rouge the Bat, expert treasure hunter, professional jewel thief, and occasional spy for GUN.

Esaka: Finally! Someone with a nickname!

Esaka: I swear, everyone wants to use their normal name here, like it's some sort of ‘business’ chat.

Agatha: Should I come up with a name?

Esaka: Eh, on your own time.

Tails: Well, my name’s a nickname!

FlamePrincess: It’s true. His real name is Miles Prower.

WesSide: Wait, like Miles per Hour?

Tails: Yeah, the other kids on West Side Island were… rather cruel about it…

Tails: Though, I got my name from Sonic! Ever since, I’ve kept that name for myself!

Itchybum: Ah, nice!

Itchybum: Yeah, people tend to be cruel, but owning what makes you you is important as hell!

Itchybum: Wait a minute, aren’t you like 12?

Tail: Yep! Even have thirteen doctorates!

FlamePrincess: I just remembered, but you owe Cream a dollar for saying Hell during the party, Ichiban. Well, 100 yen, actually.

Itchybum: Shit, for real? Should I send a check?

FlamePrincess: She’d prefer cash.

Tails: I have a multi-dimensional item transporter from the Forge, if you want to borrow that Ichiban-san!

JewelThief: Oh, Blazey, I should warn you. I’m gonna send the logs to Abe; National Security and all that.

Grumpy: Abe? Who’s that?

JewelThief: No clue who you are, but he’s the commander of the Guardian Units of Nations. Cheeky name, I know, but they protect the world from threats within and without.

JewelThief: Well, up until the Eggman War, where he dismantled them by force, but they’ve been coming back.

FlamePrincess: How did I forget that we have an equivalent leader there?

LordLiuKang: Are you sure you want to add him to the chatroom?

FlamePrincess: Lord Liu Kang, is something wrong?

LordLiuKang: Forgive me, I wanted to make sure.

LordLiuKang: I just remembered an old friend from before I became a god. He was an actor, though he’d later join the Special Forces as a consultant.

LordLiuKang: Though at first, he did not know it, he was a hero.

JewelThief: Abe is a hero, though he’s one to stay out of the limelight.

JewelThief: I’ll send your contact information to him, Blaze. I have a feeling you want to invite him, sooner or later.

FlamePrincess: Absolutely.

FlamePrincess: Oh, and I added a tab in the chatroom for nicknames.

FlamePrincess: You’ll be able to see each person’s profile, which includes their names

JewelThief: Thank you!

JewelThief: And as for you, Freddie, you’re welcome.

Grumpy: Don’t call me Freddie, bat.

JewelThief: Wow, he really lives up to his nickname, huh?

Jack-O-Lantern: Why do you think I gave him that nickname? ;)

Grumpy: askjahdsjk

Tails: If you’re going to invite more people, why not ACE?

FlamePrincess: I’d… I’d rather not.

FlamePrincess: She’s a lovely ally, but I’d like to keep this chat under my watch alone. 

Korra: Yo, what’s up everyone?

Itchybum: Oh, Korra-san! How’s everything on your end?

Korra: Well, we just woke up, and by woke up, I mean we finally got coffee.

Asami: Sweet, sweet coffee.

EricMyers: Ah, Caffeine.

EricMyers: One of the only things I can tolerate.

WesSide: Am I on that list?

EricMyers: No.

EricMyers: You switched out my coffee for decaf.

EricMyers: Suffer and Die.

PizzaTime: Dude, what the hell?

RobinHood: Nope, I’m with Eric. I would kill a bitch for Coffee.

Chrom: Perhaps you could go to bed early?

RobinHood: Nope!

RobinHood: I don’t need sleep! I need answers!

FlamePrincess: Oh no… who taught her about the Big Band Theory?

RobinHood: The what theory?

RobinHood: No, Vox showed me a meme, I believe it’s called?

RegisteredL-user: From before the Orokin!

RegisteredL-user: Still can’t believe I got the image from a radshare.

RegisteredL-user: Kinda wish I got that Tekko part, but whatevs.

Asami: Hey, I’m just backreading here, but what did Blaze mean by pirates?

FlamePrincess: While I was with Silver at Vanilla’s house, a LITERAL army of pirates attacked the kingdom, specifically the Central Museum.

Korra: Shit, do you need our help?

FlamePrincess: We dealt with the Pirates, barring a certain problem regarding the Sol Emeralds.

PsychoSoldier: How was I supposed to know that the Pirate’s draining device only worked on the Emeralds if they were recently used?!

Tails: Guess we’re pretty lucky that the Master Emerald could be used to power them back up!

FlamePrincess: And we will run out of luck eventually. We’re dealing with cross-dimensional phenomena, and there’s a chance we’ll mess up somewhere. 

FlamePrincess: We need to prepare.

LordLiuKang: We need to train.

RegisteredL-user: Oh, void, now I’m getting flashbacks to the Ambulas commercials.

Grumpy: What the hell are you talking about?

RegisteredL-user: Three words.

RegisteredL-user: Growth.

RegisteredL-user: Profit.

RegisteredL-user: Grofit.

Esaka: Oh that’s absolutely terrible

Grumpy: I need a drink.

Itchybum: Hey, I just got an idea. 

Itchybum: @Highlander, how about you come to our universe and I’ll buy you a drink? What would you say to that?

Nanba: Ichiban, we really should focus on the job.

Adachi: Yeah, but it’s late at night.

Adachi: Honestly, it’s the perfect time to knock one back with the boys.

FlamePrincess: Shouldn’t you be resting? Don’t you still have that job to do?

Adachi: We could… or.

Adachi: We could have a bit of fun!

Adachi: Besides, I did some looking, and it turns out that the Sunlight Castle is being run by the Seiryu Clan. I dunno about you guys, but I’m not dealing with them without a drink the night before.

Highlander: You know what? Why not?

Highlander: Especially if you’re going to pay for them; All of the beer in Sumaru was bitter as hell, now that I think about it.

Itchybum: All the more reason to have a drink!

Tiki: Sir Ichiban, are you not… broke, was it?

Tiki: Robin, is that the term?

RobinHood: Yep! Vox told me all about it!

Itchybum: A) I got a lot of rings from beating up those pirates. Even with the rings I’ll have to give Cream, I’ll have more than enough to pay for Tatsuya.

Itchybum: B) I don’t have a second point.

RobinHood: Now that I think about it, I’m actually down for a drink myself.

RobinHood: I’ve been cooped up in the castle for so long, that I’m starting to go crazy.

Chrom: Wait, what about the paperwork? The kids?

RobinHood: Frederik can handle the paperwork.

RobinHood: And it’s been a while since Lucina and Marc have seen their aunt and uncle, so we might as well let Lissa look over them.

Chrom: Fine…

Grumpy: And I am unfortunately reminded that there is someone else with my name.

RobinHood: He doesn’t have a c in his name.

Grumpy: Don’t care, it’s on-sight.

Ky: Sol, please don’t attack someone from another realm, especially one connected so closely to the rulers of a powerful kingdom.

Grumpy: Shut up, Ky. There can only be one!

Jack-O-Lantern: Frederick. What did we say about attacking people?

Grumpy: Fine, I won’t attack him.

Jack-O-Lantern: Good!

RobinHood: Alrighty then! We’re drinking in Ichiban’s world! Who’s coming?

RegisteredL-user: Tatsuya’s the whole reason this is happening, and I have to bring him there, so I might as well bring everyone else. I swear there’s a term for this.

CKagura: Designated Driver, or in this case Designated Dimension Hopper.

Esaka: I’m surprised you’d know about that.

CKagura: I know a lot more than you think.

Agatha: I would like to see these other worlds, and this is an opportunity I cannot miss out on.

CKagura: Honestly, I could wind back a bit. I will need to prepare.

Esaka: Coolio.

Esaka: Honestly, I’ve been neglecting my training, so I’m staying in my world for that.

Korra: Well, I haven’t joined in any interdimensional nonsense in a while, and I have the odd feeling Ichiban’s gonna get in trouble with that job he’s about to do, so I might as well come with.

OracleNaga: I believe the same, hence I will come with Lady Robin and Sir Chrom.

Korra: Plus, I know a Waterbending technique for dealing with hangovers.

Tenzin: Wait a minute.

Tenzin: How do you know about the ancient Su zuì Palm Technique?

Korra: Katara taught me before I left for Republic City for the first time.

Tenzin: Of course she would.

Asami: Much as I’d like to come… let’s just say that some annoying idiot from another company is demanding my attention, and I need to put him in place.

Asami: But don’t let me stop you, babe. Just don’t be irresponsible.

Korra: Of course.

JewelThief: It’s basically a girls night out, excluding Ichiban and Tatsuya.

Adachi: Huh, didn’t think we’d count as a part of the girls.

Nanba: We’re not.

JewelThief: You were implied.

WesSide: Damn, that’s cold!

JewelThief: Of course, I wish I could come, but I have paperwork to do.

JewelThief: And by paperwork, I mean completing everything that Shadow and Omega don’t want to do, which is practically everything.

JewelThief: You’d think Shadow would love paperwork, but surprisingly all he wants to do is run.

JewelThief: And he says he’s not like Sonic…

EricMyers: So we both have someone who skimps on their work…

EricMyers: As for me, I’m not one for drinks, in general. Don’t like my mind being clouded.

EricMyers: And even if I was, I’m not one for drinking in public.

WesSide: You’re boring.

EricMyers: I’m responsible.

EricMyers: Also, don’t even think about joining them. We have a meeting to deal with.

WesSide: Is it necessary?

EricMyers: I wish it wasn’t.

RobinHood: Well, that’s basically everyone.

RobinHood: Let’s drink!

Grumpy: Amen!

RegisteredL-user: Not drinking, but WOO!

FlamePrincess: And I lost control over the chat again.

Nero: Honestly, I’m surprised Dante didn’t suggest it.

PizzaTime: Let’s get wasted!

Nero: And I spoke too soon.

Meanwhile, in the Yakuza Universe…

2019, Survive Bar, Isezaki Ijincho, Earth-Y-54285

As Osamu Kashiwagi looked over the floor of his bar, he couldn’t help but wonder what turn of fate brought a bunch of people from out of this world here. Well, he could think about how everything happened - Adachi calling ahead to say he was bringing a party, the inevitable shock that came with seeing all of them, and then the orders - but it didn’t change the fact that there were people from outside this planet relaxing in his bar. Not to say they were bad guests, but it was strange all the same.

For one, Yanagi had been dragged into a Karaoke session with the women + Chrom, with the loudest among them being a very happy white-haired woman (Robin, if he was correct) clinging onto the arms of a greenette (that also happened to be a dragon, though he was not going to think about it). He wasn’t going to stop them, since Iroha enjoyed singing with them, even if most of them couldn’t hold a tune, bar Kagura-san, who actually knew Japanese.

“Hey, Bartender. Can we get another round?” Ichiban Kasuga, one of Adachi’s friends, broke him out of his thoughts, clinking a pair of glasses together. Kashiwagi huffed before taking the cups from them and filling them back up with alcohol; Sake, specifically. “Say, I’m surprised you’re so unfazed by everyone here.” Kasuga questioned him as he placed the drinks in front of the two men.

“Perhaps.” Kashiwagi answered calmly, rubbing a free glass with a cloth as the two of them drank up.

“Yeah, he really has seen everything, if what I’ve heard about him is true.” Adachi explained. “Hell, this place is the safest place in Ijincho for those in the underworld. You could come in here with a bounty on your head, and still get a peaceful night’s sleep; Look at Nanba, you need proof.” He pointed to their friend, who was resting on the bartop peacefully.

“More importantly, more than half of you natively speak Japanese; I can tell just by how you speak.” Kashiwagi continued, regardless of their shock. “That, and you’re all ordering normal drinks, though I can tell that whatever Robin-san and Tiki-san call ‘Ale’ is a lot lighter than the beer I have here.”

“Not like you could tell, at least with Tiki-san.” Adachi noted, looking at how the woman was handling Robin with Korra.

“From what I’ve heard, Dragons, Er, Manaketes have a higher alcohol tolerance or something.” Kasuga continued, only to get a huff from Bulsara, who was nursing a glass of whiskey.

“That’s mostly likely because Tiki has a higher concentration of Alcohol Dehydrogenase in her Liver. Though… if I were to apply Gear physiology to her, and I can because her cells are brimming with magic, then that’s also helping her metabolize the Alcohol into stuff that’s easily passed through the body.” He finished his explanation by pointing thumb at Robin, who was being helped by Korra. “Though, water does help, which is my best bet for what that ‘Suzui’ technique Tenzin was yakking about is.”

“Damn, you really do know a lot.” Kasuga praised him, and Bulsara huffed once more.

“Well, I am a Magi-Physicist, but I do have an eye for Biomechanics. Had to, with my work on the Gear Project being so multifaceted.” He proudly boasted, a smile on his face which quickly faded as Kasuga and Adachi pestered him with questions. Seeing no point in listening in, Kashiwagi turned his attention to the remaining patrons; Suou and Agatha were drinking happily with each other, while Dante was slowly chugging down an entire bottle of whiskey by himself. 

“Seems you’re enjoying that bottle.” Kashiwagi quipped, and Dante hummed after taking a sip.

“Well, like Tiki, I happen to have quite the resistance to Alcohol. Gotta drink a lot to get a buzz.” Dante explained, before leaning closer to the bar and whispering. “Though, I’ll be honest, I’m starting to run out of energy. Love the taste, but I always get in a bad mood with alcohol.” Kashiwagi raised an eyebrow, hands tensing for a fight, though Dante waived him off. “Not violent, or angry… Sad. I always think about the past, and I don’t like it.”

“As someone who’s survived a lot, I find that it’s best to think more about the present, and all that you have.” He advised the half-devil, before looking around his bar. “It’s why I named this bar Survive, after all.” 

“Yeah, you’re right.” Dante admitted, though he kept the bottle close. “Still, gotta keep up appearances for now; Maybe afterwards I’ll mope by myself.” And with that, Kashiwagi left him alone, and returned to keeping the bar clean.

After an hour, the guests were looking to leave, with Tiki hoisting a very drunk Robin over her shoulder, and the rest giving their thanks to him for his service.

“Thank you, Bartender!” Kasuga gave his thanks last, and was about to leave when Kashiwagi made an observation about him.

“I may be wrong, but you’ve got a way with people. Adachi isn’t one for drinking with a smile on his face, and yet here you are laughing with him like it’s nothing.” He explained, before making his request known. “Keep him close, won’t you?”

“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind.” Kasuga quickly agreed, before getting up and bowing before him. Within a few seconds, everyone had left, leaving him alone in the bar with Yanagi.

“Huh, I didn’t think you’d strike up such a rapport with someone so new.” She pointed out as she cleaned up the table where Suou and Agatha were sitting.

“Hmm… he just reminds me of an old friend… one that lost his way. I’m just hoping that I don’t see something like that happen to Kasuga.” He muttered out an explanation, much to Yanagi’s shock. “You look surprised.”

“You’re not one for talking about your past, boss.” She quickly recovered before looking at the door. “But if you were to ask me, then I’d say you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

He paused in the middle of cleaning a glass to look at her. “And how would you know that?

“Just a hunch.” 

“Fair enough.” And soon enough, the only noise inside the Bar was the soft droning of a recorded saxophone.

Chapter Text

>[S] Multiversal Chat Room

>[C] General

User Agatha has changed their name to “AggsBenedict”

AggsBenedict: Hello everyone! How are we doing this morning?

Adachi: Morning! We all got up, and we’re getting ready for our jobs at the Sunlight Castle.

Jewel Thief: Good morning! What’s with the new name?

AggsBenedict: Last night, I saw a small building with an egg on it that intrigued me. After I woke up, I dragged Tatsuya to that place to try out some meals!

Highlander: And her favourite was the Eggs Benedict.

FlamePrincess: Not that I want to be concerned, but how exactly did you pay for the meal?

AggsBenedict: Oh, my sister, Elizabeth, gave me a bag that allows me to exchange one universe’s currency for another!

Alpha&Omega: Elizabeth… She was there when we learned the fate of one Makoto Yuki.

FlamePrincess: And she’s the one who’s maintaining Makoto Yuki’s seal.

PsychoSoldier: Blaze, do you still think about him?

Highlander: Huh? What do you mean by that?

FlamePrincess: I never told you this, Tatsuya, but when I was assigned as the Admin of this chat group, I was given a list of people to add to this chat.

FlamePrincess: There’s an infinite number of variations of each person, but I was tasked with finding the one variant with the most compatibility with my universe.

FlamePrincess: Makoto Yuki had a ton of variations, but the one that had the most compatibility… also happened to be dead. 

AggsBenedict: More specifically, he used his soul to create a barrier between Nyx, the bringer of the Fall, and Erebus, the God of Death.

Highlander: oh.

FlamePrincess: But, he led us to you, and you were compatible enough to join us.

Highlander: So… was my addition a mistake?

Itchybum: What?! Hell no!

PizzaTime: Of course not! You’re a lovely addition here.

LordLiuKang: While your addition was unexpected, neither Blaze nor I can say your addition was unwarranted.

RegisteredL-user: And even if that were the case, I wouldn’t have let you stay in Sumaru City, even if Blaze or Liu Kang told me no. Not with what I’ve gone through.

FlamePrincess: Tatsuya Suou, even if you weren’t the initial choice, I am not going to regret adding you here.

Highlander: Thanks for that. I just wanted to be clear.

Highlander: Oh shit!