Voyage Through the Multiverse (Ended) [IC]

[Demincia]

Secrets of the Raven
Lilith von Brandt

It seemed that Lilith was not destined for much sleep today. Her eyes were forced open again by the sound of an argument in the abandoned building. She was planning to ignore it, but then she recognized one of the voices as Elizabeth's. Arbeiten Sie schon wieder daran? she thought. This time she sounded like she was in distress, compared to when they last met. She listened in to the conversation, still clinging to the ceiling as a noctule bat. Mit denen hat's mir gereicht.

Despite her annoyance, she couldn't allow any harm to come to Elizabeth and her group. At least not while she was able to stop it. She transformed into a cloud of mist again and entered the ventilation shaft, traveling through the ducts until she was underneath the living room where the man was. She paused for a moment, debating on whether this was the right thing to do. She'd only just met Elizabeth, maybe what this man said was true about her killing civilians? She would have to trust the woman for now, and find out what was going on after.

She entered the room, then coalesced back into her normal form behind the man. She wrapped one arm around his body, pinning his arms down to keep him from fighting back. Her other hand covered his mouth to stop him from yelling, and also moved his head to the side. She positioned her teeth over the Usher's neck, then bit down, driving her fangs into an artery causing her mouth to fill with warm blood. She let it flow for a bit, until she'd drained a little over a pint. She backed away a bit, and licked the wounds both to clean the excess and start the healing process.

She turned the man around, and forced him to look into her eyes. They took on a slightly golden glimmer as she stared at him. "You will forget about both encounters today." she commanded. "You never found Elizabeth. You never saw her or anyone else from her group. You never met me. Those two marks on your neck are insect stings, that's why you're dizzy. You will leave here and not return." she said, and started to turn, but hesitated. "Give me the keys to Elizabeth's bindings." she said, then took they key from the man. "Now go." she said, pointing towards the door.

She climbed the stairs and opened the door to the room where Elizabeth was held. "Nanu, dass Sie hier sind!" she said, approaching the witch. "I don't know who is a bigger magnet for trouble, you or I." She walked around the cuffed woman, looking at her bound wrists. "Do not worry about your... associate Fräulein Ashwood. He will not be of bother to you any more." she said, while she spoke Elizabeth could see that her mouth was stained a sanguine color. "Before I release you, I must know what it was he was talking about, because he seemed to believe that you were putting the lives of the innocent at risk. I'd hate to go to these lengths to defend you and this be true." she cautioned, holding up the key to the cuffs in front of the witch.

[Menschenfleisch]

Secrets of the Raven | Jacquelyn and Kyle

Kyle slid the coat back onto the rack, jostling the plastic and cloth resting on it. Something was off. Jacquelyn looked toward the entrance, paranoid as ever. Something was coming. He pulled her aside, drawing her toward the exit. She didn't resist, putting back whatever she'd been clutching, and partially clenching her hand, a faint and sterile glow beaming from her palm. People were coming, it was all going wrong. From around the corner an officer's baton reflected the light of the mall. From there, a thin glimmer of light hit the display window; beaming straight into Kyle's eye. It was tens of thousands of times duller than the light around him but his eyes could still pry the differences from the jumble of photons.

"Something's up. Officers. Main entrance, four of them, approaching fast. Do we run or stay?"
"We can't get out without raising suspicion. Stay here, I want you to be a bystander. Get to the side, remove yourself."
"Alright. I don't have the Astra, I'll be improvising from now on. They don't have guns but their hearts are racing. They're expecting trouble."

Kyle scurried off to another part of the store, walking between endless shelves and rows of clothing, careful to always stay in the officers' blindspots. He followed a circuit, able to see their fields of vision like clouds of smoke in the air. He had to stay out of that zone, keep himself hidden. Jacquelyn, meanwhile, turned and faced the officers, coming closer, fingers fidgeting on their batons. What did they know? She smiled, lowering her head and baring sharpened teeth. Her eyes swam with sunlight, her hair danced with unfurled energy, coiling through every inch of her body. Glowing, with barely restrained power.

"Hello there, officers. What seems to be the problem?"

Of course, she already knew why they were here. Her mind spun with thoughts, Kyle trotted into view, giving her a quick glance from behind a shelf covered in woollen products. He was safe, he could get away. Jackie turned back to the talking officers. They were green, never worked a truly hard day in their lives. No scars, that was to be expected. She didn't want to kill normal people, not without a good reason. Especially when the audience was watching. One of the officers reached forward with one hand, trying to grab her. She twisted his wrist, pulling his arm over her shoulder and clutching his neck with the other, holding him hostage. Her eyes now steamed, aqueous humour bleeding from her tear ducts. She leaned forward, whispering into his ear. Intimidation. Drawing their attention.

"Don't touch me. I'm a little bit unhinged, you know. A little bit... obsessed with heat. I burnt that building down because I wanted to see people scream. You know that feeling? That tightness in your chest, the feeling of ripples squirming through your blood, the roar and vibration of an explosion coursing through your jiggly insides. So I suggest you three back off, before I have to rip your man's head in half, capische?"

They were shocked, scared, one was reaching for his baton; problematic, she didn't like it when people reacted to a threat by going berserk. She threw the hostage forward, flicking her finger and releasing a precise burst of light. It burnt the officers' retinas, searing their eyes and blinding them for a few precious minutes. Of course, light was just light; there was no obvious attack going on. For all anyone knew, those officers had simply began screaming and clutching their faces for no reason. She gave a short and severe glare at Kyle, her message clear.

"We need to split up!"

Kyle turned toward the nearest exit, a fire escape, and kicked it down with one foot; the flimsy wooden thing slamming open, leaping down a staircase and rolling to the bottom. Jacquelyn ran, her body beginning to noticeably warm up, running through a staff-only door; a holding area for the mall's stock. Their next chapter of vagrancy began.

Kyle Hearse

He ran into an open brick alley, dripping with water and covered in filth. The pipes here were caked in rust and he didn't have a weapon. He looked one over, piecing together the last twenty years of its life. Exact patterns of metal fatigue, impacts from various events, the weakest joints; he grabbed it and with an impossible precise twist it came loose. He took two steps before a team of baton-wielding officers chased after him, apparently having been stationed here to cut off his escape. They really pulled out all the plugs for this one, huh? Maybe the crimes he and Jacquelyn were being accused of weren't just arson. Of course, running was his only option, no matter what they were chasing him for. Getting in trouble with the law was something he was used to; but being caught was something that he'd never done. He didn't want to have a first-time experience with it, either.

"You small fry! Get out of my way!"

Seven opponents. Trained, veterans, obviously soldiers; disguised? They were too physically active to be regular officers. Metal batons, steel, 1.2% carbon, weighted with lead-copper cores. Not regular weaponry, then. One took an experimental swing at him, exposing his arm. Kyle's eye took it all in. The nerve clusters, scars from old battles, a patchwork of arteries and bones. He ducked beneath the swing, standing up and grabbing the officer's arm with his own, swinging his opponent with their own weight, and slamming them against a wall, raising his knee upward as he swung the man's arm down, hitting his elbow and breaking the joint. Another tried to leap at him. He stepped to the side, bending over like he was playing limbo. He struck the officer's chest with two fingers, aiming for a bullet wound he'd sustained long ago. His fingers struck a chord, a major and barely healed artery. Unbelievable pain was probably coursing through the man's entire body at the moment, but he'd live.

"I can see you. Your entire histories. Jack Arnolds, is that your name? Two wives and yet unmarried. Those markings on your ring finger are kind of hard to miss. Beat your son, huh? I bet that same son's the one who put a hole in your chest when you were forty two. Brent Hughes! Took a bullet to the jaw when you were twelve. Burnt your hand trying to pull your daughter out of a fire. You're like books to me, and that means I know every way your bones can break!"

Three at once. Kyle sidestepped their attacks effortlessly, watching as individual synapses and channels fired, seeing their muscles twitching like enormous tremors in the air. He grabbed one's wrist, easily twisting the arthritic man's weapon from his hand. He rolled beneath one's swing and sent a series of jabs aimed at his legs and back, punching through his nerves and major blood vessels. If his body could even possibly do it, he was more than able to plan it out. It was like he saw two minutes into the future, thinking an entire fight through before it even began.

A glint of metal. The click of a trigger, muffled on concrete but still clear as daylight. A bullet was already on its way, the copper's reflection giving Kyle a good look at the shooter's face. He saw countless ways this could end. He walked around the frozen scene, looking at his body from the outside. A red line came from the shooter's barrel and went straight through his brain. There were three other fighters, each one a melee obstacle. Three separate arcs of red light curved through the air; predicted trajectories. Reality snapped to one moment, his mind was focused like a dagger, muscles already moving.

He let the bullet pass through his chest, twisting his body so that it passed through the empty area between his large intestines, a gap in the coiled up organ going straight through his body. It went through soft tissue, dampening the otherwise devastating compressive shock it would've sent racketing through his insides. It punched through a few capillaries but his momentum meant the bullet only skimmed a major artery. He could keep going; he could keep fighting! The projectile passed through him entirely, hitting the hip of one of the officers. He fought with unprecedented ferocity, taking only five more swings to knock out the remaining officers. Adrenaline overwhelmed him, tinting his vision red, filling his body with unnatural strength. Now, to deal with the shooter.

Kyle turned to his challenger, a young blonde woman clutching a pistol, a lock of hair concealing one eye and a long coat hiding whatever she was hiding under her belt. .45 ACP pistol; unfamiliar make; barrel was well worn; polished often with an unfamiliar concoction of grease and fluid. Either he didn't recognise the brand, or it was custom. Another twitch in her finger. He turned to the side, letting the bullet pass through where his head had once been. Another bullet. The baton in his hand deflected it, his wrist twisting and curving backward as the weapon nearly spun out of his hand. Even with his incredible vision and dexterity, there were some things he just couldn't do.

"Who the hell are you? You don't look like police and I can't seem to find anything about you on your person. No wallet, no uniform, no identification. Just who the hell do you work for?"

She gave him a smile, tilting her head and smirking. The pistol never left her hand, its barrel never shifted away from Kyle's heart. In his mind's eye, a solid red line connected the next bullet in the chamber and his aorta. This girl was good.

"That's not important. What matters is that you come with me, Kyle. Your friends have gotten in a lot of trouble. You don't want Elizabeth to get hurt, do you?"

Was she bluffing? Well if so, two could play at that game.

"Ha! Elizabeth's a bitch. I don't need her. Do what you want with that psychopath, all I want is to know who the hell you are."
"The Ushers. We deal with troublemakers like you. You're not a regular person, are you?"
"Oh, very funny. You must work for the government. The asbestos and dust on your jacket, that's from the Finsbury sub-district, right? Is that where you're planning on taking me?"
"So you're as skilled as they say. Sorry kid but you're not going to impress me. The omniscient are a helluva lot more intimidating in that regard."
"Oh yeah? Well all I see is a scared little military girl with a gun. I don't need omniscience to smash you into pulp!"

He ran toward her, raising his weapon. Four shots in the clip and one coming at him through the air. Kyle raised his hand, parting his fingers so that the bullet hit the centre of the baton, splitting the metal weapon in two. The skin on his hand was covered in lacerations and cuts but he fought through the pain. He had to do this. Another shot came toward him. He threw the weapon, deflecting the bullet just a few degrees to the right; sending it through his hair, clipping a bit off his ear. Another shot, flying over his head as he fell to his knees and slid beneath the trajectory. He had a pretty good idea of how his opponent was shooting. She was aiming for his centre of mass so it was impossible to miss. Her hand was steady but her eyes moved just a little bit quicker than her fingers. He slid off his coat and flung it to his left side, taking into account the quarter of a second during which she could react. Her finger twitched slightly toward the left, correcting itself and moving to the right; just as Kyle jumped into the air and turned on his side, making himself as small as target as possible. The bullet spun by beneath his horizontal body.

"You should've surrendered, Kyle. Espers like yourself are notoriously hard to deal with. All you're going to do is make both of our lives a lot harder."
This guy is obviously competent but unfamiliar with how we operate. That means he must be some kind of off-worlder. Right now he thinks I'm just a regular person. He'll learn the difference soon enough.

Two shots left in the chamber. Another came at him and this time he spun on his heel, letting it tear through his chest. It spun off one of his ribs, leaving a deep gash in his chest but not damaging either his lungs or heart. The last shot was aimed right between the eyes. He panicked, trying to turn away. A copper slug smashed into his cheek, ripping a good chunk out of his face, revealing his teeth as it shredded the skin covering that side. He clutched his chest and head, running toward the woman. He had thirty seconds of consciousness left before blood loss set in. He couldn't treat his wounds while he was still facing her and that meant he had to end the fight quickly. He twisted through the air, his foot knocking the weapon from her hand and bruising her knuckles.

"Oh yeah?! Well maybe I would've listened if you hadn't shot at me first!"
Shit. She's fast and obviously out for my blood. If she'd actually planned on talking then she wouldn't have immediately tried to kill me. That means she's just trying to distract me. Well, two can play at that game.

Think! Think! His mind raced, blood roared in his mind. Her arm hadn't moved; she'd loosened her grip at the last second to prevent her entire upper body from behind pushed to the side. That meant her eyes were still set straight ahead. Any smart fighter would try to find their optimal range and disable the target's arms. His arms were longer and that meant she'd try to get close. She swung her leg, trying to sweep him off the floor. He let her, falling through the air and correcting his own fall by doing a full backflip, landing while facing away from his enemy and delivering a powerful elbow blow to her chest. She grabbed his arm with both hands, turning him around to face her. His fingers came crashing into the bottom of her neck, just as his foot slammed into her knee. She was thrown off balance while her head snapped backward, unable to draw breath. To her credit the woman recovered; grabbing Kyle's shoulder and swinging herself around with the force of her own fall, hitting the back of Kyle's knee with her own and forcing him onto the ground. That must've hurt. Kyle was certain his kick had dislocated her knee.

"You know, I once fought someone like you! He was really fucking clever, he could tell someone their entire life story just by looking at them! You're no different. I don't need to beat you, just keep you occupied long enough that a situation arises that you can't escape, no matter how smart you are!"
You're smart but not all-seeing. You could've easily avoided the bullet I fired earlier if you had caught sight of me while I was still running over. That means that your vision is limited.

Her hands clenched around his neck, threatening to crush the life out of him. He was exactly where she wanted him. There was no point in fighting her, she had him pinned. Instead, he waited and focused. Clarity, like polished diamond. He saw each individual cell in her body, all the little processes going on to keep her alive. Her heart beat once, exposing the blood vessels in her abdomen for just a split second, the arteries bulging as blood pushed through. His fingers were bruised and cut up from the impact of the bullets earlier, meaning the skin was looser around certain parts. If he did this right he could kill her on the spot. He dragged his index and middle fingers across the ground, deliberately catching them on a shard of broken glass. The pre-existing cuts on his hands gave way, allowing him to essentially slide the flesh off his limb. Now with two exposed fingers, he plunged them into the back of her neck, aiming for the interface of the basilar artery where it approached the back of the spinal nerve. Two long stretches of bone plunged into her neck, instantly compressing and cutting off blood flow to her brain. The blood hit his fingerbones like a dam, instantly cutting off her brain's supply of oxygen. The woman jerked like a harpooned fish and fell comatose on top of him, like a ragdoll with its strings cut.

Or that's what should've happened. Instead, a knife intercepted his attack mid-air, going straight through his palm and pinning it to the floor. The woman leaned in, one hand still squeezing his windpipe shut, the other holding down the blade that'd gone straight through his hand. She grinned, tilting her head to reveal the eye that her hair had been covering up until then. It was scarred but unmistakably luminant. Glowing, with dappled lights; just like Jacquelyn.

"Nice try. The last guy tried the same move, too. Bet you didn't count on me being an esper like you, huh? That fight played out the way I predicted, pretty much atom-for atom. You're nothing, Kyle. Just a cocky little kid. I lost the love of my life to your special kind of scum. It brings me no pleasure to kill but oh damn, does it make me feel happy to make you suffer."

He opened his mouth, trying to croak a name.

"Jackie? Oh, you'll see her soon enough. If you live, that is. But I wouldn't hold my breath, pun intended."

Kyle fell unconscious. His mind became clouded with impenetrable smoke. His blood stained the floor. His body was dragged away. His story ended.

Kyle Hearse acquired, specialised agent Cassidy King injured. Seven other operatives incapacitated. Mission successful.

Jacquelyn Vanth

Staff were gawking but that was to be expected. She didn't want to make a scene, only look like a regular deviant running through a restricted area. Were there people following her? Surely, there must've been more officers than those four back there. Someone slid into view, stepping out from behind a row of cardboard boxes. He was closer than he looked. Heavy hands dragged her behind the shelf, struggling to keep her in place. She easily tore his hands off her arm, shaking him off with superhuman strength. He grabbed her by the shoulder, eyes full of panic.

"Wait! You have to listen to me! Your friends are in grave danger. Listen to me. Elizabeth is your enemy. She's trying to kill you!"
"Wait, what the hell are you talking about? Is she here?"
"Yes! Those officers earlier were possessed. Listen carefully, alright? The woman you know as "Elizabeth" is actually the leader of a cult known as the Iverian Thaumaturgic Society. They're the ones who took you here."
"But... what does she want with me?"
"You're powerful. Not of this world. You can use flame-based powers without conforming to the rules of this dimension. It's likely she was trying to gain your trust, find a way to replicate or steal your powers."

Jacquelyn pushed herself away from the man and looked him over. He was unkempt but intense, with scarred eyes and firm facial features. He was ragged, holding a pistol in one hand and a sheaf of papers in the other. They bore her name. The Ushers? Were those the people this guy worked for? He saw her looking at the folder in his hands. His body stiffened for a moment. Jacquelyn thought for a while. Should she trust this guy? He was obviously an important character. He had all the trappings of a mentor-type character. He probably served as an introduction to the setting at large. In fact, it was likely that the story was going to be about his battle against Elizabeth and Jacquelyn's effects on the conflict. From a meta-perspective, he seemed trustworthy enough.

"So you've been spying on me? Creepy, but whatever."
"Oh, yeah. I did a bit of research on you. The monster you fought earlier, when you burned down that building, that was one of Elizabeth's informants. Luckily, I managed to link its senses to my own. I know a lot about you, as well as your friend Kyle. Do you know where he is? He might be in trouble."
"I don't know where he might've gone. But, if he's in as much danger as you say, then we have to find him."
"Alright. Then that's our first priority. Jacquelyn, I know we just met, but I need you to swallow this pill."
"What?"
"I know it's weird! But there's a whole world of anomalous stuff out there that you need to see to believe. Most of the magic in this world is invisible, hidden by The Mist. If we're going to find Kyle, you'll need to be able to see the world in all its colours. Come on, Jackie. Are you going to save him, or just stand here?"

The man handed her a thin blue pill, shaped kind of like an egg. It was completely opaque and surprisingly heavy. It occurred to her that she didn't even know his name. Oh well. Probably an oversight on the authors' part; or someone they'd introduced earlier from another character's perspective. She knew that any sane person wouldn't have swallowed the pill, but she was part of a story now. A big, world-spanning narrative that she was almost certainly the main-character in. The authors wouldn't have given her a pill and an exposition-heavy mentor for nothing, right? If she didn't swallow it now, then the authors would find some other way to introduce her to the world. Yes! This had to be the right choice! The authors demanded it!

Jacquelyn swallowed the pill, and immediately collapsed.

"Oh, wow. I didn't expect that to work. Agent Mesmer to Ush-Command, I've got the primary target."
God, I'll have to ask for another suicide pill. Gotta get her treatment. Otherwise, she'll suffocate.

Jacquelyn Vanth acquired. Agent Edgar "Mesmer" Plymouth uninjured.

[Prusselanden]

Empty Wallets
Julian was too into her operation at first to care about what the purple woman was saying, but a glimpse of the flashing lights outside snapped her out of her trance.

"H-huh? Oh...yes, I'm in the way. I should move inside." Julian grabbed the man around the waist and moved more inwards in the ship, settling in a pretty empty room. She knelt down and laid the driver on the ground, continuing to work on him.

[Da Klan]

Empty Wallets
Harvard followed the woman who took the driver to the empty room and coughed a bit.

"You think he can make it?" Harvard asked. He eyed the driver. More blood than a third world butcher's apron, that's for sure.

"Also uh where is this aircraft takin' us?"

[Apto]

Secrets of the Raven, Sayaka Miki
Shopping Mall

"So, you two spoiled for choice?"
"Don't want to spoil your fun but we should head back soon. Elizabeth doesn't even know where we are. She might think we took her money and ran off with it."

"You could say that," Came Sayaka's reply, still in her school uniform, but now equipped with a beaming smile from all the bags of clothing she carried. Shopping in foreign countries was something she always wanted to try, and while her friends weren't here to enjoy it with her like they originally promised, Sayaka wasn't gonna pass up on the chance to indulge a bit.

Alas, all good things had to come to an end, and though she hated to cut her fun short, her companions had a point. Let it be said that Sayaka would never stoop so low as to be mistaken for a thief. "Aww," Still, did they have to do it so soon? "But I was just starting to have fun!" She mock-whined, her pout exaggerated.

The other officer looked at the others. "We also have reports of you flee from the crime scene as well." The cop said to Kyle as another cop took out cuffs. "You two are coming with us to give us your testimony on what happen during the night is the fire." The cop said.

"We need to split up!"

Kyle turned toward the nearest exit, a fire escape, and kicked it down with one foot; the flimsy wooden thing slamming open, leaping down a staircase and rolling to the bottom. Jacquelyn ran, her body beginning to noticeably warm up, running through a staff-only door; a holding area for the mall's stock. Their next chapter of vagrancy began.

It all happened too fast. What was once a idyllic scene quickly turned to chaos even as she rushed towards Jacquelyn and the cops, a stream of words exiting her mouth in a vain attempt to deescalate the situation. This was bad, really bad. "I can explain-" Too late, the policemen were on the ground, and Jackie and Kyle had bolted away from the shop. "Alice!" Sayaka screamed her only remaining companion's name even as she knelt besides the injured policemen, hands aglow with magic as their wounds seemingly disappeared. "Go after Kyle! I'll get Jackie!" Without waiting for a answer, the girl then blasted off, a blue glow trailing her path as her uniform transformed with a blue flash of bubbles and sparkles.

She was breaking the rules by showing magic so openly, but this was a emergency damnit!

Staff were gawking but that was to be expected. She didn't want to make a scene, only look like a regular deviant running through a restricted area. Were there people following her? Surely, there must've been more officers than those four back there. Someone slid into view, stepping out from behind a row of cardboard boxes. He was closer than he looked. Heavy hands dragged her behind the shelf, struggling to keep her in place. She easily tore his hands off her arm, shaking him off with superhuman strength. He grabbed her by the shoulder, eyes full of panic.

Jackie was fast, but not fast enough for Sayaka to lose sight of her or her pursuers. Hell, Sayaka outran her pursuers. The only trouble came in the form of not bumping into the faceless mass that was the customers of the wall. Still, that didn't stop her from spotting Jackie suddenly take a turn. Hope blossomed in her heart as its beats threatened to hammer out of her chest, and as she crashed into the hiding spot-

Jacquelyn swallowed the pill, and immediately collapsed.

"Oh, wow. I didn't expect that to work. Agent Mesmer to Ush-Command, I've got the primary target."
God, I'll have to ask for another suicide pill. Gotta get her treatment. Otherwise, she'll suffocate.

Jacquelyn Vanth acquired. Agent Edgar "Mesmer" Plymouth uninjured.

Only to be met by the sight of Jackie unconscious in the arms of a stranger. A second passed as the only conscious occupants of the room stared at each other in confusion, before Sayaka's wits returned to her and she opened her mouth to ask "What in the wor-"

She didn't get to finish that sentence as whatever words the man spoke was lost in the air as pain suddenly wracked Sayaka's body, forcing her to her knees. Gritting her teeth even as she felt her body was burning inside, her skin seemingly melting as blood poured out from her pores, Sayaka shouted in defiance as the man ran past her, carrying his victim. Alas, it was for naught, as an overflowing amount of magic flowed from Sayaka's Soul Gem, not only reversing the effects of the curses, but outright surpassing them as their damage was undone and neutered completely.

Sayaka's quarry let out a string of curse words as a little girl's blade nicked his cheek drawing blood from the clean cut. If he were a few centimeters closer, then that would have surely been fatal. In retaliation, the man threw himself back, using Jackie's unconscious body as a shield as he drew a pistol and pulled the trigger. For her part, Sayaka stood her ground, arcs of silver lashing out to meet each shot as her sword struck like a viper, cutting the bullets in twain.

Blood poured from her thigh.

Cutting most of the bullets in twain.

Yet, that didn't slow Sayaka one bit as she then rushed forwards, a shout from her lips as the man's expression shifted from concern to full-blown panic. "Wait!" Sayaka stopped midswing, the flat of her blade inches away from the man's skull. His chest rose and fell visibly, sweat pouring from his brow as the girl's gaze was torn towards the pistol aimed at Jackie's skull. "Make any sudden moves and I blow your friend's brains out."

Was she fast enough to knock the man out before he pulled the trigger?

More importantly, was she willing to gamble?

No, the answer was no. Sayaka backed away hands falling to her side as she fixed the man with a glare, desperately wishing for magic eye lasers or something. Alas, she had no such thing unstead had to watch helplessly as the man backed away with her companion until he suddenly turned, going for a full blown run.

That was her chance! Magic pumped into Sayaka's legs as she shifted her weight for a sprint. One, two, thr- "Gack!" She cried, face planting onto the tiled floor.

"Took you long enough!" Came the shout from Jackie's kidnapper. Backup. Since when did he have backup?! The girl forced herself to look up, spotting the distinct clothing of a crowd of people she pushed aside moments ago. "Leave the kid! We've wasted enough time here!"

Damnit damnit damnit DAMNIT!

[Kentucky Fried Land]

Ryder and Lamar
Abigail's Apartment
Secrets of the Raven

"The fuck is this shit?" Ryder scowled, looking at the picture of the orange haze and dark silhouettes standing amongst it. "Man, fuckin', Lamar! You still got that flip phone? Need you to take a picture of something."

Lamar, however, was busy. "Give me a fuckin' second nigga! I'm tryin' to get shit done, I ain't got time for taking pictures!" Lamar grumbled, fiddling with the old school camera and the roll next to it. "The fuck? How's this shit even work?" Behind him, Ryder stood up out of the chair and approached him. "Nigga, I'll handle this. I know how this shit works. You just take a picture of that otha' shit." Lamar held his hands up, mocking defense while he backed away from Ryder. "Fine then, massa. Want me to suck yo dick too?" Ryder looked at him with disapproval, shaking his head before turning back to the camera. "This shit's from, uh, this world's idea of the past right? Man, this bitch was old school."

"Yee-yee ass motherfucker, thinkin' he smooth an' shit." As Lamar snapped pictures of the pictures on Abigail's computer with his Badger smartphone, something caught his eye. "Hol' up..." He muttered, finishing up the picture taking and glaring over at the closet. "Oh, not today mothafucka." He reached into the back of his pants, pulling his Glock out and aiming it at the door. "Time to die mothafucka! Time to fuckin' die!" His battle cry sounded out, as he ripped the closet door open and stuck the gun into it.

[Mundeo]

---

Secrets of the Raven

---

Abigail's Apartment

As Trevor read the journal, the dream suppressants made more sense to him. This girl was haunted by her dreams, the first in the journal being a gruesome retelling of her sister's untimely death. Trevor had lost his family as well, and reading Abigail's journal made that grief swell up within him. Then he turned to the next dream, where things turned to the bizarre. The dream portrayed a vision of a cult sacrifice, fell of robed figures and demonic creatures that all bore the resemblance of the girl's late sister. The end of the dream remained unknown, as the end of the page was torn off. This must have been done by the girl herself; if the cult had gotten their hands on the journal, they surely would have taken it and destroyed, not tear off a piece of a page then carefully put it back where it belongs. But why would she do it? Was what followed too horrendous for her to even allow to remain in the form of ink? This girl was tormented, and in the end she had met her unfortunate demise at the hands of this cult. The more he learned of this case, the angrier he became. He didn't care about some mystery in some universe that wasn't his own, and yet he was angry. These cultists were playing with forces far beyond their control, and slaughtering innocents that didn't want to be involved. It all reminded him too much of Dracula, and he wanted to see these cultists pay.

Lamar and Ryder were arguing again, like an old married couple. At this point Trevor realized he was going to have to learn to tolerate it. He looked over at the computer and saw the last image that was on the screen. It was blurry, but after reading through the journal, it was clear that both the dream and the picture were depicting the same thing. That could mean that what Abigail saw in her dream was in fact another retelling of something she had actually witnessed in the waking world, just like the previous dream with her and her sister. Perhaps this was why she was killed - she had stumbled into something she had not meant to, and couldn't be left alive.

Attention was then turned to the closet, where of course Lamar was overreacting and kicking down a closet door with his pistol out. Trevor waited to see what might come out, if anything, with his hand on the handle of his whip.

[Naval Monte]

Secrets of the Raven
Abigail's Apartment

As the closet door was open the light in the room would shine through the darkness to reveal more paintings within the closet, these being the more recent creations of Abigail before her disappearance and murder. The paintings still possessed an otherworldly quality to them but while her much older paintings felt as though they were images from a fantastical dream these appear to be from a surrealist worst nightmare.

The geometry and dimensions of the landscape looked wrong and distorted, all bent and shaped in impossible angles. All structures in ways that appear to be impossible even by human imagination, yet somehow Abigail manage to give form to what should be an impossible landscapes. A few of the eldritch landscapes bare a resemblance to the town, distorted and deformed as though seen from the eyes of a twisted soul or demon. However the eldritch sceneries were only matched in their general wrongness by the grotesque creatures that inhabited them.

Many of the creatures were beings with numerous limbs, eyes, and mouth that by all accounts should be impossible to possess in nature. Like the landscapes they all seem to be heavily distorted and their proportions and angles all bent in wrong directions, some barely looking like living entities and more like abstractions made to resemble a bizarre lifeform. Only a few had body shapes that made them barely resemble anything from Earth, yet the few resemblance only served to strength the more alien traits of the creatures.

On the center of the paintings was the blurred image, only now it was clear on what the photograph was meant to show. On the painting was a group of hooded figures performing a ritual in front of an ebony, cylindrical, monument with strange hieroglyphs and runes etched on to it. From the bone fire smoke can be seen and following the smoke up to the sky Lamar and Trevor can see a creature with many tendrils floating above the cultists, it's many eyes all staring back at him. Trevor would see that it was the creature described in her dream and just like in the journal there were human shaped heads on the end of some of the tendrils, yet others look decidedly less human.

The longer the two men stared at it the more they would feel as though the massive, misamic, amorphous, being and the many other eldritch beings in the paintings were staring at them. More surprising they would find that all of the paintings possessed a startling degree of realism to them despite the absurd subjects they depict, each looked as though the artist took a photo of other worlds and the things that lurked within them. However an intense migraine would begin to emerge follow by feelings of dread and anxiety, the visions of both men would begin to blur and become watery, as though the paintings was harming their vision, each feeling their eyes ache in pain along with their heads. Amiss the paintings that could easily be misses what appear to be a simple paint brush lying next to the paintings, the same paint brush Abigail used to make the paintings.

[Mundeo]

---

Secrets of the Raven

---

Abigail's Apartment

All there was in the closet were more paintings, but these were even more grotesque and surreal then all of the others that were in the room. What they depicted were things that no human should be able to perceive, yet here they were, brought into reality through oil and the brush. Some of the paintings even shared the exact same scene that Trevor saw both in the dream journal and in the photograph. At this point it was obvious that this ritual was of extreme important to the case. As Trevor looked closer at the paintings, however, why these paintings were kept in the closet then revealed itself. The huntsman was struck with a terrible migraine, making him stumble back and hold onto his head. As he keeled over from the pain, he spotted something within his blurred field of vision: a paintbrush lying on the floor. Instinctively, Trevor lunged down, grabbed the brush, got back up and quickly slammed the door to the closet shut.

[Jraden]

Secrets of the Raven
Simon and Hope were exploring the mall and charming everyone within a fifty mile radius with their charming attitudes, as they were hyperactive and had nothing better to do. "Hey Dad," Hope began as she watched several police officers approach the group that Simon and Hope conveniently saw in the distance. "I think Jackie is about to be arrested."

"Hope..." Simon began. "I don't think they're police officers."

"What?" Hope questioned, absolutely befuddled.

"Look, that's Morgan Kessler!"

Morgan Kessler was an Usher that the Kents had ran into years ago, back when they were still in Texas. She had been sent to investigate several disturbances involving wraiths (Surprisingly enough, Skylar was not the cause of it) mainly concerning the wraith of a murdered abusive mother of one of Skylar's friends. The Kents remembered her fondly (Then again they remembered everyone fondly) They were absolutely certain Kessler reciprocated those feelings.

"You think she's angry about Mom turning into an Angel and saving people from the fire?"

"No, they're probably going after Elizabeth and Jacquelyn because they started the fire." Simon explained. "Now we haven't done anything wrong, but if Morgan saw us, she might think we're involved, so we should avoid her, even though I'd like to say hello to Morgan again-"

"Because she has a crush on you!" Hope teased.

"She does not have a crush on me!" Simon denied. "She is a professional, forty year old woman! Or is she thirty? I don't remember..."

"You went on a date!"

"It was not a date! I was simply taking her to nice, respectable location where I could diplomatically explain your mother's situation-"

"She kissed you on the cheek!"

"Because she's friendly!"

"An Usher gives people friendly kisses on the cheek?" Hope questioned. She had a wide smile on her face.

"Well you know me, I'm charming. And besides, we did much more later-"

"Much more?" Hope questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"You don't know about that? Oh right, this was before you were 18, before you, me and your mother..." Simon shook his head. "Never mind that, I'll talk to your mother and we will fully explain the details-" Simon was once again cut off, but this time not by Hope, shockingly enough. Instead, the interruption of Simon's sentences were caused by a fight had broken out as Jackie, Kyle, Sayaka, and Alice attempted to resist arrest, with varying degrees of success that ultimately all led to the same result: Being arrested.

"You see Hope, this is why you should never break the law." Simon explained as they looked at the scene of chaos in front of them. "Now I know me and your mother have already taught you that, and these police officers aren't police officers, and in some situations laws can be broken, but ultimately the point is that resisting arrest is a foolish idea-"

Gunshots began to ring throughout the mall, causing the civilians to scatter in terror. "Those are gunshots!" Hope screamed in terror, clutching onto her father as they instinctively ran behind cover. Screams and other various noises of violence were heard in the distance. Without Skylar to protect them...they were pretty fucked if they were shot.

"Okay, first, we will call the local authorities to ensure that the proper medical personal arrive to treat the wounded, then we will talk to Morgan about what's going on, and if all else fails we will follow the necessary evacuation procedures and meet your mother back at the hotel..." and just like that, the sounds of violence had stopped, and so had Simon.

"Oh. They're gone." Hope said out loud, almost sounding disappointed. "We should probably see if there is anyone hurt, call the proper-OH MY GOD A LITTLE GIRL HAS BEEN SHOT!" She screamed, bolting towards Sayaka, who had been shot with a bullet, a curse, and even worse, paralysis! She immediately ripped off a nearby first aid-kit off the wall and begin to fix Sayaka's bullet wound as she could, doing her best to comfort and reassure the girl, believing her lack of response was due to shock.

Meanwhile, Skylar had conveniently stumbled across the sight of Elisabeth being arrested. After laughing for a bit, where followed the police car in hopes it would lead to the police station, where she would ask Simon and Hope to attempt to bail her out. But much to her shock, the police station was actually an abandoned, run down building! What a twist!

Much to her surprise, another "police" vehicle was seen in the distance. Skylar immediately left to investigate it, and saw an unconscious and captured Jackie and Kyle. To be honest she would have been fine with letting them arrest Jackie for arson, but the rest of the detained "Criminals" were probably innocent. But her thoughts were thrown even further out of whack when she saw Morgan Kessler, the vehicle's driver, who was busy being muttering. "Shot a little girl...I fucking hate this job."

Much like Morgan Kessler, Skylar also hated the job of being an Usher. A few years ago, back when Her family was still in Texas and Hope was in High School and not old enough to be sleeping with her parents, Morgan, was investigating the town because of it's supernatural conspiracy tomfuckery. More specifically, the actions of a wraith named Jezebel who was the abusive mother of one of Skylar's friends named Alexander. Jezebel had been murdered by Alexander's own father...who was also abusive. Yeah, Alexander wasn't exactly the most stable child, and required lots and lots of therapy. He had made himself better of course, with the Kent's' help, and he loved Hope ad she loved him back. Too bad she loved her parents more.

Morgan had been investigating Jezebel, who had manifested as a vengeful specter that was beginning to haunt her former husband and son, both of which she despised. Unfortunately, Morgan had confused Jezebel's actions for Skylar. Thankfully, she and Simon had been able to convince Kessler of their innocence. The exact method they did to win over her trust was...a bit too inappropriate to say.

Skylar's mind was rocked back to the present as she realized a very agitated Kessler was on the phone. After a lack of sound, she hung up and called again, and over thirty seconds later, whoever she was calling finally responded. "The fuck is up with you, Rickard?" Kessler questioned, utterly annoyed with "Rickard's" behavior.

"I...what?" Rickard eloquently responded.

Kessler made a noise that could only be described as a growl. "What happened to the woman you captured and put into this building!?" She practically spat out. "Has your mind been fucked with?" Kessler asked in a condescending tone.

"No!" Rickard denied. "It was the building! There was... mold in it!"

Kessler was too dumbfounded by Rickard's explanation to even be angry, she was too baffled to coherently form a sentence for nearly a minute.

"Mold?" She asked, snorting as she tried to stifle a laugh. "You mean to tell me..." her voice had become calm. It was a bit frightening. "That mold, fucking mold, gave you amnesia!" She screamed.

Skylar meanwhile, was long gone, while as entertaining as it would be to see Kessler tear Rickard a new one, Skylar needed to investigate the house Elizabeth was trapped in before Kessler and the Ushers arrived. It didn't take her long to find Elizabeth, considering she was one of two people in the "police station", Which wasn't that suspicious, she was a detective after all. But was suspicious was Lilith the Vampire. Well she wasn't actually suspicious, she was pleasantly surprised!

"Hello! I'm Skylar!" Skylar said cheerily, introducing herself with a handshake to Lilith, because while she technically she had already met Lilith before, but she had been impersonating Elizabeth, and Skylar thought it would be in poor taste to pull that (Hilarious!) prank again. So now Skylar was just in her normal appearance, that of a tall, borderline angelic looking blonde woman in denim.

"So I saw Elizabeth being arrested..." She began. "And I realized I would probably have to help bail her out, but I didn't know where the local police station was, so I chose to follow the police vehicle, and what do you know, the police station Is actually located in a run down, abandoned building!" Despite her obvious joke, she still retained her cheery tone. "It's a real fixer upper! I know that the government wants to save the taxpayers money, but I do think this is ridiculous...anyway, the Ushers are on their way over, they're a bit suspicious about what's going on, but they don't know you gave one of their guys, his name is Rickard, amnesia. Well I'm assuming you did that. The Ushers will also probably assume that. So anyway, we've got a bunch of Ushers on their way over, you got any plans?" She asked casually.

[The Intergalactic Russian Empire]

DTTM

Eleutherius stiffened when he heard Eldrad's introduction, quickly spinning and drawing his bolter on the Eldar Farseer. "Eldrad Ulthran. I have heard your name before spoken, Farseer. Drop your weapon and I might give you the luxury to explain why I shouldn't kill you where you stand." If this Eldar was anything close to the legends about him, Eleutherius thought, then they were now in a *very* risky situation. Eldrad had to be one of the most powerful psykers in the galaxy, rivalling even the strongest of Chaos Sorcerers.

AGA

So like that, the battle had ended; Alena felt almost underwhelmed by how easy it was. She quickly joined with her fellow God-Tier companions. "Well that fight was a lot easier than I had expected. Honestly I don't see why the Wanderer was making such a big deal about some low-budget sci-fi villains." She glanced over as the others talked to T'challa, but turned away as she did not wish to interrupt their current conversation.

[Wysten]

Empty Wallets

Viktor Walker

The “former” SS NCO stood there almost unmoving. His Peaked cap stood proudly atop his head it's skull and crossbones reflected what little light there was in the undercity. The rest of his outfit was the standard SS dress uniform which looked surprisingly well kept given the environment Viktor was in. Though the quality of his uniform was the least of his worries for he was more concentrated on the spectacle in front of him between what he used to be shooting at a couple weeks ago. The two representatives of the United People’s Front and the Liberty Union were at each other's throats again arguing over what to do once this whole deal is over with. The Communist argued that they should at the very least seize the factories and give it the workers for which Viktor almost groaned at though had it been a private meeting the only sound coming from him would be his pistol. What he would called a Tommy back during the war responded with that the total seizure of the means of production would jeopardize the whole rebellion by giving the corporations an almost valid reason to defend themselves. Then there was Viktor who stood there a slight grin at the two wondering when Antionnette would arrive with the package so this whole deal is over with.

[Mundeo]

---

The Grand Adventure

---

Wakanda

T'Challa lunged forward, catching Ingis as she fell. "Are you alright?" He asked, looking into the eyes of the woman he held in his hands. Without an answer, the Wakandan King looked out over the rest of the group. "We'll go to my palace so that your wounds can all be cared for. Please, come with me"

T'Challa motioned for the group to follow. Flanked by several members of the Wakandan guard, they all then began to slowly make their way to the capital, all the while the Black Panther carried the unconscious Ignis. As they walked, Wanderer surveyed the group. With the exception of Ignis, everyone seemed to have suffered minimal injuries. He had to do a second take when he saw a Sontaran walking beside them, but he was able to put together that it was Ben in the guise of a Sontaran. He wasn't sure why he would choose to take the form of the enemy everyone was fighting against just moments ago, but Ben must have had his reasons. Wanderer then spotted three newcomers the group, who he had beforehand not seen. The one that caught his attention most, however, was a girl in soldier's uniform, talking to one of the fallen Sontarans. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but it couldn't have been good for the girl.

Wanderer approached the two, and gently asked to Z-1, "Excuse me, miss. What do you think you're doing?"

---

The Multiverse’s Most Dangerous Game

---

TARGET: DEFEATED
LOCATION: INKOPOLIS

Samus let the helmet portion of her armor recede, revealing her head underneath.

“Samus, that was so cool! You beat godzilla!”

As great as it would have been to agree and take all of the credit, that was simply was not the case. "I didn't beat Godzilla; all of us did. I hate to admit it, but... if it weren't for all of you, I probably would have been killed out there. Myself, and this city, all owe you one"

The helicopter then landed, and Callie, Marie, and Sheldon all came out and rushed towards the group. "That was so fresh!" Marie said.

"Yeah! I didn't know humans were so cool!"

While the rest of the group celebrated, Samus turned to Adrian, who was still on the rooftop. "What do you think of that?"

---

RESPITE

---

Waka jumped backwards with each swing thrown by Julian, always keeping a distance between the two of them. "Why so aggressive, ma cherie? I'll have to clean your mouth out with soap!" The strange swordsman rolled to the side, taking another swing with Pillow Talk to the back of Julian's leg.

[Kraicia]

-(A GRAND ADVENTURE)-

Z1
WAKANDA

"So yür' seying dat yü and yür' volks cem' in piys?" Z1 asked, confirming whether or not what she heard from the dying [Sontaran] soldier was correct.

The [Sontaran] soldier simply nodded, understandably out of breath from talking now and then when he could. So far, the soldier explained that his race were called the Sontarans, among with how they landed on Earth. They were a warrior race indeed confirmed all too easy by the dying Sontaran's arrogance and stubbornness; however, that was not to forget that he was kind of metaphorically beating around the bush with some of his details - something which the mechanical clockwork robot detected.

"But, yü sed yür' volks ver a Kriegermenschen." Z1 insisted as she sat near the Sontaran's side on her knees while her notebook and pencil were in her hands; however, her thick German accent was extremely prevalent in her speech as usual, "Vhat I still don't understand is hou' yü and yür' volks bin ausrotten'ed to de last mann. Surely vun of us had fier'ed de first shot, but dat vas eider us menschen ... or yü. Vich is vhy eim telling yü dat yü didn't ans'er my fünfte question."

"It was your kind that shot first." The Sontaran grumbled back, "We simply came here ... hoping that we can make new friends in our war with the Rutans."

"I know about dies Rutans yü and yür' volks kept talking about, but dat still duz not eksplain hu' feir'ed de first shot. Unless yür goin' to die in any minut', den dat only mak's me even more untrustverdy of yü."

"Say what you want..., human. If that ... is what you believe, then... this conversation ... might as well ... be over." The Sontaran breathed, slowly becoming increasingly slower and shallower the more he spoke.

Z1 only paused for a minute as she blankly stared on the dying Sontaran soldier, only as it slowly and quietly lost consciousness in the next few minutes that Z1 grumbled inaudibly, "So sei es."

Her only lead to finding out what decisively happened to the Sontarans and their ship fell from Z1's fingertips. So, it was only right for Z1 to write down her findings in her diary, regardless to the Sontaran's stubbornness and arrogance; however, as she wrote her first sentence, Z1 suddenly stopped as she heard and felt footsteps converging on her direction from behind. So when the footsteps stopped, Z1 was not entirely startled by the introduction of a new human voice:

Wanderer approached the two, and gently asked to Z-1, "Excuse me, miss. What do you think you're doing?"

"Untersuchung." Z1 simply replied as she turned her head towards the person in question asking her; however, like always, her English was heavily laced with her thick German accent, "I had to find out vhat happened her', unless you can fill in de blanks für me and ba'k dis ... uh ... dead man's story."

[Legokiller]

The Shape of the Nightmare to Come

“Indeed we shall Captain.” Rei replied.

Rei focused her attention towards the battle ahead, but the sheer fact that her allies are desperate enough to destroy two stars to wipe out the whole swarm made was awe inspiring. Despite this terrific superweapon, the breech is still open and the engineers needed to be protected. “All ships, engage the incoming swarm while our mecha and drone wing will protect the engineers. We’re almost done here men.” Rei commanded, which the Silverdalean fleet concrete firepower at the incoming swarm ships.

“Roger that admiral.” Ichigo replied. She was glad to show off how Silverdalean mechas can do in this universe so far. But the focus now is the engineers, which Ichigo led the mecha wing and drones to the engineer’s location. The quick snope form her particle laser rifle was overdoing it, but this had to buy some time for the engineers to repair that barrier.

The Secrets of the Raven Traps
Shopping Mall


“A simple confusion of a boy to a girl huh? How does that make one gay…” Alice’s finger, once raised up, went down as she revealed the deception part of the trap. “Right. Ahem, let’s not get distracted by that stupid thing and let’s enjoy our meal, shall we?”

After her decent meal, she is off to the shopping block to get some clothes in the mall. “Um… Sayaka… Is there a smaller storefront for us to visit instead?” Alice asked. To be frank, she was cold feet on how… different this place is from the usual stores back in the small human village. Alice knew about England of course, but those were years ago and had nothing like this before. It was practically a century ago!

Despite this, she awkwardly tries to shift through the crowd towards the nearby shop of… something. She wasn’t too sure about it, but there were tons of sales around the store, so Alice did her best to get a couple of pairs of clothing for… how long she would be in this universe? Still, Alice did her best to manage her budget and gotten something adorable to impress Sayaka.

It was a button up dark naval jacket, with a tan sweater, and a light sandy scarf to match her red ribbon and headband. This included a red checkered mini skirt and long pantyhose to cover her tights. Alice smiled as she figures this would be fitting around the modern-day fashion sense of twenty first century, and she bought other clothing to surprise her newly acquaintance Blueberry and… If only Marisa was here, but she would have caused something utterly reckless in this universe that would gave Elizabeth a bad time!

Alice held up her Marisa Doll and seemed to carry it for a moment as she walked down with Sayaka and the gang. All is fine and dandy until… SPACE DANDY… wait that’s the wrong subject right there motherf*! Ahem, all is fine and dandy until everything changed when the Ushers arrived with the police!

“Oh, what now?!” Alice barked as Sayaka shouted at her to find Kyle. “Oh, fine then, I’ll get that human back Sayaka.”

As Sayaka broke the rules of this world, Alice prepared her dolls to leap into action as she ran forward to find Kylie! When she rushed over to the scene of the fight, it was too late: Kylie was defeated and that blue-eyed human was victorious. The only option now is to bust this operation and get that lump of a body out.

“Hey!” Alice called out the Usher. “Let go of that human-” Alice groaned in annoyance as she almost forgot his him. “I mean Kylie.”

“Sorry girl, but this boy is coming with us.” The Lady then gestured for four Usher goons to come over. “And so, will you.”

“The hell I won’t!” Alice waved her hands as strings were pulled for her dolls to come into action. “Besides, your ordinary humans are no match for my magic.”

Alice spared no time to waste as the Marisa doll and four doll others fired small rainbow laser beams at the goons, forcing them to dodge. Alice leaped into the air to fly and raised up her twenty-seven dolls to form the cutie phalanx of shields and lances to block the incoming bullets from the goons.

The phalanx held, but the shot pierced the first rank itself with almost the entire first column. Alice knew she had to overwhelm them with numbers to win! The wing of magic dolls hover over the first man and focused fire their magic laser beams at him! It was unfair, but who cares, the man collapsed from the dolls’ power!

“Good job Marisa doll, but we’re not done yet.” Alice commanded as she commanded the cutie phalanx to break up and charge! The Usher goons, realizing that with the lasers taking another one down and the incoming swarm of dolls charge forward, decided to retreat and deploy a smoke scream to cover their tracks. Just before Alice can take an advantage, the vehicle started to drive off towards the streets.

Alice cursed as any attempt to fly would only cause trouble and not only expose herself, but Elizabeth would be furious. But this incident with these goons already placed Alice in hot water as members of the investigation was taken away!

[Korhal IVV]

The Shape of the Nightmare to Come
Small Magellanic Cloud

The Swarm forces streamed from the crack in the galactic shield; however, most were immediately shot down from long range by Intergalactic Alliance forces. As the Silverdalean mechas and fighters swept in, the Swarm cruisers that first encountered them did not even acknowledge their existence at first; the Silverdaleans were completely new to them. The cruisers scanned and analyzed the incoming mechas and fighters, but by the time they were done so, it was already too late. A concentrated beam attack from the Ensari warfleet annihilated the Swarm vessels twenty ranks deep, the blue light concentrates slicing through them cleanly like a hot knife through butter. Valhallan tachyonic beams slammed onto others, piercing and cutting them with utter violence. The weapons of the Republic did equally as well, killing quite a number of the enemy.

The engineers were swift and well accustomed to their work. They repaired the malfunctioning wave motion engine wire by wire. As they did so, the crack began to shrink; some of the enemy were even destroyed as the powerful shield filled its gaps, the grotesque forms of the Swarm obliterated by the shield’s energies.

Soon enough, all of the enemies within the shield were annihilated, and the barrier was restored to full functionality. As their grueling trial was seemingly finished, a transmission came into all of the present ships from the United Council, which is the collective administrative body of the Intergalactic Alliance. There was another dire situation.

“All officers with the rank of admiral and above that are out of combat are to appear holographically in the United Council Building immediately.”, the person on the screen said with great urgency. “The Messier 87 Galaxy has lost contact with the rest of the Local Group. Furthermore, we have a contingency plan to discuss as well. Make haste! The Council expects you all in five minutes. Also, our newfound allies are welcome, of course.”

Five minutes later

All of the one thousand admirals of the one thousand fleets of the Intergalactic Alliance appeared holographically in the United Council Building, with the Council of the Alliance sitting on a circle with the admirals behind them. Should Admiral Nalora and Rei Umumura be “present” as well, they would be mixed in with the rest of the Intergalactic Alliance admirals as well.

The holographic form of a man in a lab coat walked over to the podium at the very front. It appeared he was a little nervous, speaking both to the leaders of the Alliance and those who command its fleets.

“Uhm… greetings to everyone present. I am Dr. Mizurak Vers, Head of the Intergalactic Alliance Science Division.”, he started. “I would like to inform everyone of the most important progress of the Science Division so far.” He then paused a little before speaking. “The Divine Annihilator has been pieced back together. The ancient superweapon used by the Envara so long ago to avert the destruction of the universe once before has been found and reconstructed with the help of the Ensari. While we have found a way to power it and thus activate it, we so far have been unable to decode its database, but we are making rapid progress. However, with the recent incursions in the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Triangulum, I fear that our time is running out. It is clear by this point that these incursions are just the beginning. When High Command lost contact with the distant Messier 87 Galaxy, the barrier was immediately sealed there, as it was clear who did it. The Swarm. Abyssus Dominatus.

As for the Divine Annihilator, as soon as we figure out how to program its database, we will have to use spatial gateways in order to replicate its effect in every galaxy, thereby allowing us to destroy the Swarm once and for all. However, the price would be predictably high. In order for this to work, we will have to lure the entire Swarm into the area of effect, which automatically means a massive price. I fear that not all of us will see through this war.

As soon as we finish our work, High Command will upload the plan Operation Phoenix Rises into every ship. It will detail how our plans goes once the Science Division finishes its job.”

Someone would suddenly whisper to Mizurak’s ear. As he took in the information, he would recoil in shock.

“... the Swarm sent a message?”

“Yes. Patching it to audio now.”

A very erie voice then crackled through the entire hall. It was unsettling and threatening at the same time. It was the Voice of the Swarm. The wicked Hive Mind.

“Hear now, puny fools of the pathetic Intergalactic Alliance. Your little barrier is nothing more than a tiny inconvenience. Your ramblings of unity are no more than a candle in the eternal darkness. For we are the Swarm. I am the Swarm. You are our prey, and we the predator. We are the hydra, for if you cut off one head ten will take its place. You foolishly cling on to hope when there is none. Billions upon billions of corpses are nothing but a tiny loss. No matter how many of us you kill, we will keep coming.

So fight, our nourishment. Prey is best hunted when backed to a corner and is fighting back.”

Triangulum
Laurentia System

As Azrael slaughtered the enemy, Hana would sigh. “Ah, even I can never do that.”, she smiled in her cockpit. “Alright, let’s hold off the incoming horde while the civilians evacuate! Remember, everyone! Laurentia Ultima is home to the smartest people of the Enclaves! Let none of our enemy pass! Let vengeance and fury be our song as we slaughter the enemy with no mercy! Fiat Justitia!”, she cheered to everyone in the intercomms. Soon enough, the Reaper Squadron, alongside other battlesuit squadrons, were holding off the horde… barely. One of the Reapers were killed as an Aberration grabbed him and threw him into the middle of the horde. The unfortunate Reaper was lynched as a hundred claws and acids killed him within moments. Meanwhile, the mass produced Panzer-Sturmeters were holding fairly well on their side, but since they were nowhere as durable as Black Reapers, they would get killed in larger numbers. One swipe from a Behemoth is sufficient to destroy a Panzer-Sturmeter, and the Panzer-Sturmeters always have to be careful to maintain their distance.

Out in space, the fleet fought the Swarm forces from long range, as Swarm ships are more dangerous on close quarters. However, a massive reading appeared on the radar…

“Admiral! I am getting a huge reading here! It is extremely abnormal!”, one of the bridge crew said as Nova looked over. “What is it? Visuals on it?”

“It-its devouring Laurentia Tertius! The planet was simply engulfed by it!”

As soon as those words came out the visuals came in.

“By God…”, Nova gasped as the massive reading manifested in physical form. It was a massive Swarm creature, about the size of two Jupiters. It was like a giant octopus in space, if not a thousand times more grotesque in appearance. Its mouth was lined with moon sized teeth, with which it grinded the remains of Laurentia Tertius. “I… declare this system lost. There is no way we can defeat that thing. We will have to rearrange the barrier in this sector. All forces, evacuate as many civilians as you can in 45 minutes. After that, we are leaving.”

Sol System
Earth

“If you are here to help us, then it is appreciated.” The Chancellor said as the UU Crisis Fleet warped in. “We have many more things to discuss, however. Can you help us decode this superweapon?”

Drawn Through the Multiverse

“That would be ill-advised, Space Marine.”, Eldrad said almost casually as Eleutherius threatened him. “Perhaps you should know that I sent the terrible Abaddon the Despoiler crying back to the Eye of Terror after he attempted to invade Ulthwe. And don’t be so presumptuous to be so aggressive. I do not recall telling my warriors to kill you. Nor do I seek to do any harm to you and your friends, in any case.”

[Prusselanden]

AGA
Ignis groaned and opened her eyes a little when she felt herself being carried by T'challa. For a second, she suddenly opened them wide and choked up, unbelieveing of what was happening.

"Y-y-your Highness....." She stuttered, shocked. She couldn't even talk anymore out of sheer disbelief.

Ignis then started to turn red, spouting some gibberish before passing out again like a fizzing fire.

[Petrokovia]

Rise of the Masked Man

New Bark Town Outskirts
"I seen some strange men walking about the forest."

Yeah, me too. Ty thought to himself, still suspicious of the men. He was especially wary of them, given the rather gross, withered appearance of one of them. It was clear that the man was not the type to take up hiking.

"Uh, yeah. That would be great. Lead the way." Ty stated.

Clearly wherever these two were going to lead the group, it was a trap. However, they might as well follow the lead they have-otherwise they would be stuck back at square one.

---

Courtroom
The prosecutor turned to face Avarice during her spiel, then to the judge.
"Objection, Arguing the Law."

The judge turned to the prosecutor.
"Reasoning?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ms. Famei is trying to argue how the law works and applies to her, instead of using evidence-based argumentation."

He then turned to Avarice, a notably more frustrated look.
"And may I remind the Defense that the law is the supreme rule of the land; It does not matter if you are from a foreign country, and it matters equally little if you are from a foreign planet or a foreign species. You are not a diplomat, so you do not get any immunity."

The judge nodded, looking between the defense and the prosecution.
"Sustained. Though I will also caution you not to do the same action you have just accused the Defense of." she scolded. "Continue."

The jury gasped when Avarice pulled the Team Rocket member's flesh from her stomach, continuing her argument. The prosecutor looked puzzled, as he listened to the woman.

"Conceptually charged matter? You gain power by eating things? Where is your proof for this? This all seems like you're coming up with childish hogwash as you go." the prosecutor dismissed.

He pressed his hand against his temple for a moment, before continuing.
"It doesn't matter. The point is that her focus was on eating the victim, and not on getting out of the situation. The incident happened on Mt. Silver, meaning that she should have had ample opportunity to escape."

Then Wright brought up castle doctrine, and dropped Gold's name.

Shit.

The prosecutor's brow furrowed, as a nagging, stressful feeling began occupying the back of his mind. This case seemed air-tight, open-and-shut! But now, everything seemed to be flipped on its head!

The prosecutor thought for a moment, before looking back up to the judge.
"I would like to call my first witness to the stand." he said, eliciting a nod from the woman.

"Go ahead."
"I would like to call up Madison Goodwill to testify."

This should be good for my case. She seemed distraught, and certainly biased against the defendant. If I can use her testimony to manipulate the emotions of the jury, it won't matter what Wright says!

---

Drawn Through the Multiverse

Wilfre's Wasteland
Fay looked down towards Kirby, giving a small wave and a smile; she had no idea what the pink thing was, but it was cute.

Suddenly, another rift opened up, and spat out another person, this time in robes. Multiple, in fact.

Tadayoshi looked at the new arrivals, with only a small amount of surprise; seeing people coming through rifts lost its shock factor after the first few times. He took a step forward, beginning to explain the situation with a friendly demeanor.

"Oh, it's a long story, but you're in a place called Wilfre's Wasteland. We were-"

He paused, color draining from his face as Eleutherius drew his bolter and aimed it at the Eldar.
This is bad...

Seeing the scene play out, Fay and Miyu slowly walked backwards, returning to their downed arwings with hesitant expressions, mentally preparing their reactions for when shit inevitably hit the fan.

Kongou and Maya looked at the two space marines, confused. Maya was the first to speak up.

"Why are you pointing your gun at him?" she asked innocently. "Do you know him? Did he do something wrong?"

She thought for a moment, and something seemingly clicked in her mind.
"Oh! Maybe the Admiralty Code told you-Oh, wait, that wouldn't work. Nevermind."

"Maybe we can resolve whatever issue you two have peacefully?" Tadayoshi suggested, speaking up. "It would be in everyone's best interests. We could go somewhere where we could sit and work things out."

"Or at least explain what's going on." Miyu piped up with a slightly facetious attitude, leaning against her arwing. "You know, for those of us that don't know your beef."

---

Greßland
Wilfre's portal led out to a bustling city. Right off the bat, it would be apparent that the area around them was in the Medieval Period; small, connected buildings with various signs above their doors lined uneven cobblestone streets, commonfolk walked around with gray and brown clothes, and there was the occasional horse and cart pulling goods such as hay, barrels, or other people. Patrolling the city were pairs of man in darkly-tinted steel plate armor, indicative of Germany in the mid-1200's. However, certain aspects of their technology seemed comparatively more advanced.

A sharp eye would notice that the quality of the metallurgy and woodworking in the town was far higher than would be expected in the middle ages, some of the soldiers carried halberds (a weapon that was not developed until well after the 1200's), and there seemed to be a strange rubber-like lining between the armor and the troop's gambesons.

Wilfre looked around, and it was quickly apparent to him that several of the soldiers were headed their way.

"It seems they spotted us." he said, calmly. "I suppose this works for my plan."

A group of five soldiers approached Wilfre and Advrick, hands on the hilts of their not-yet-drawn swords. One of them began speaking in a strange language.

"Great, I suppose I should have expected this, but I don't understand a word that they are saying."

Another one of the knights turned to the leader of the squad, and spoke briefly, before turning to Wilfre and Advrick.
"I see you speak Trade Language. I will translate what you say for the Captain."

"Oh..." Wilfre said, put at ease. "Well, how fortuitous. In that case, I request an audience with your king."

The group of knights began laughing.
"Oh, we'll tell him a midget stormcloud and a travelling jester want to talk with him, he'll be very interested!" the translator cackled.

Wilfre turned to Advrick, clearly impatient with the situation.
"These men seem like a waste of time. I don't think they'll be easily convinced."

---

Secrets of the Raven

Agent A looked at the men dragging the carpet from the corner of his eye, with some interest. He placed the menu down next to his drink, and looked at the bartender.

"Keep my tab open, I'm just going to the bathroom. Thanks." he said, his attention on other things.

Agent A headed towards the bathroom, making sure to be out of sight before changing routes.

Third floor? he thought to himself. If Elizabeth is getting new activity, then maybe this is related. I should find the room that carpet belonged to and scope it out just in case.

Agent A made his way up to the third floor, and looked around. He figured that it should be easy enough to find the room, seeing as workers would be removing the carpet; they most likely wouldn't bother closing the door until the work was finished.

For this reason, the man looked around the floor, to try to spot an open room. However, it seemed that all of the rooms were closed.

Whatever was on that carpet reeked horribly all the way across the bar. I doubt it was from some simple prank. he thought to himself. If this was the work of that serial killer, that would mean the room isn't Elizabeth's. It would mean that the serial killer is nearby, and considering how much I stick out, that could be troublesome...

Agent A worked through his thoughts methodically, as if he had the mind of a machine, rather than a man.
So, it's likely that this room is not Elizabeth's, but it is still a place of interest. Most people don't use the bathroom for half an hour, so I only have a few minutes to look at one room before the bar tender becomes suspicious. I would rather him not think ill of me, since I will need repeated access to this place.

He thought for a moment, then began looking around the hall. It seemed that he would need to take more active measures to find Elizabeth's room. Agent A approached a room at random, and knocked on the door.

---

Empty Wallets

Teru was trying to think of a solution to the situation, coming up with nothing, and hoping that this living suit of plate mail could take out the roller... However, like the hand of God coming down from heaven, a strange, purple-haired girl arrived in a VTOL aircraft almost reminiscent of a V-22 Osprey. Teru was in the middle of thinking back to IMPDO's technology, trying to think of the name of a similar concept vehicle he had seen flown on the news, when he noticed something else.

All of the cars around him had stopped moving. Apparently, this girl also hacked the system the flying cars were a part of, stopping all of them dead in their paths. Teru, trying not to panic, jerked his steering wheel to the left, swerving around a stalled car in front of him. He never thought he'd see the day he was thankful for using "old" technology, but he also never thought he'd be teleported to a different universe, either.

Teru slowly drove his car into the bay of the aircraft, turning it off and setting the parking brake. He leaned backwards into his seat, sighing and gripping his hair.

Ugh, what is even happening? he wondered to himself.

After a few seconds, another thought popped into his head, and he started rummaging around his car, opening the glove compartment, opening a compartment in his door, and looking through the seats. After some time, he stopped, assured that nothing had been stolen from his car while it was in the parking lot.

The man got out of his car and locked it, before approaching the rest of the group. Immediately, he noticed another man (was that a car stereo in his pocket?) carrying a person that looked like a limp target practice dummy, with more bullet wounds than could be counted. The former man didn't seem very concerned with the latter's health, which immediately set off a red flag in Teru's mind.

Teru went to his car and opened the trunk, pulling out the standard issue medical bag, and bringing it back, opening it and looking inside.
"I think this might have some clotting agent in it, but I don't know if it'll be enough to do much... At the very least, it's got a lot of gauze."

The man placed the bag down, looking at the bleeding driver; in all honesty, this man seemed doomed to die, but there wasn't any other pressing issue for the group, now that they were on board the aircraft, so they might as well try to save him.

[Skylus]

Rise of the Masked Man - Madison Goodwill

Courtroom

Madi stood up when the judge called her name and took a deep breath, then started talking.
"Before I get started, I'd like to apologize for my outburst earlier. I have never been inside a courtroom until now, nor have I been in a court case before until now. I now realize how things are supposed to go and I realize that my outburst wasn't needed and that it was very out of turn...With that out of the way...."
Madi turned to Avarice.
"Avarice, I....I'm not exactly sure if I like you or not. It might be legal on your world or in your head to eat people and everything in site, but in most places, in most worlds, in most universes, it is illegal and counts as murder. I don't care if you killed the guy in self defense - well, okay, I do care, it was either them or us - but to eat him alive?!"
Madi paused for a second, then continued.
"I wish I could figure out why you believe it's okay to eat people and other things, but it's not okay to do that here, or anywhere else, I guess."
She turned to face the Judge.
"As for what happened up on Mt. Silver, I can tell you that, or...at least my version. Someone else that I met i their own universe went through another portal, I followed him, we ended up on Mt Silver in the huge snowstorm. The two of us somehow found Gold's tent, and then others started to show up. Not long after that, Team Rocket attacked, we fought them, and then the giant bird flew off, and then Team Rocket followed the bird away from us. As for what I did...well...It turns out that I can use magic."
Madi then broke a major rule of the Wizarding World by summoning magic in front of least 20 Muggles before de-summoning it.
"I used my magic to conjure protective shields for those that were fighting Team Rocket and provide healing to those that needed it. I did not attack any of the Team Rocket members, nor their Pokemon. I believe I already said what I saw Alice do, so I don't thin k I need to repeat it, but if you need me to repeat it, just say so."
Madi waited to hear what the Judge had to say before she said anything else.

A Grand Adventure - Amaterasu

Wakanda

"Hey, Ammy! You can stop acting like that, there's no one left to fight!"
Ammy stopped running and skidded to a halt, then turned around to look at the growing crowded of people nearby.
The wolf-goddess cocked her head in confusion, then began to trot over to the group. When she reached the cat like person (who was carrying an injured lady), Ammy barked to get the man's attention. If that didn't work, she'd run in front of him to try and get the man to stop walking. She simply wished to know what was going on, where she was, and what were those creatures that she had fought.

Empty Wallets - Banjo & Kazooie

Aircraft of some sort

The Bear and Bird weren't really sure what they were supposed to be doing. On one hand, there were injured people everywhere. On the other they were in a whole other universe.
"You think we should ask someone what we can do?"
Banjo nodded and looked around the hangar bat until he spotted someone who looked like they were in charge. What was this lady's name? Oh, right, Hex.
The bear made his way over to Hex and asked,
"Hello, My friend and I were wondering if there's anything we can do to help?"

[United Territories and States]

Ranger
Secrets of the Raven
Elizabeth's Room

The Ranger was jolted awake, by an unknown sensation within the deepest confines of his mind. Flashes of color and indiscernible voices barraged his mind, but as soon as they came they dissipated into nothing. The Ranger clutched his head as a shooting pain reverbated throughout his whole body. He stumbled up from the musty corner of an unfamiliar hotel room, it had the familiar scent of burnt flesh that he was all-accustomed to. The Ranger grunted, he had enough of the smell of flesh that reminded him of Shub-Niggurath's realm and sought for the exit of the room. But before he could leave, a black, viscous liquid on a table caught his interest. What the hell is that?, thought the Ranger. It was on a table, and some of it was spilled onto the floor, leaving ugly discoloration on the already dirty carpet. From the depths of the Ranger's mind, a soft and assuring voice began to tempt him. It gave one single command and it was to consume the black liquid. The Ranger shook his head, to him that stuff looked disgusting, it's the type of stuff Shamblers would eat when there was no meat around. He twisted the knob of the hotel room, but he could not open it. The voice tempted him again, the softness had been distorted into a harsh whisper. The only thing it said was, Consume the offering, for the All-Mother.

The Ranger's eyes locked onto the black liquid, externally there was nothing dangerous about it. The liquid on the table was beginning to dry, it seemed to have become sticky in some areas. Whatever the liquid was, he thought to himself the repercussions and benefits of consuming it. There's better things to eat here., thought the Ranger, he faced the mini fridge with the intent of getting something from there. But his body remained stiff, his eyes continued to stare at the liquid. A terrible hunger formed within the pits of his stomach, the Ranger felt ravenous and famished. The one voice that commanded him became one million was they chanted in unison, they all chanted for him to eat the disgusting fluid. His ears rung while his senses dulled, his vision began to blur, and his tactile sense became numb. The Ranger's body and mind was submitting to the horrible desires of the All-Mother, the same one that was supposedly killed long ago. The voices in his mind were clamoring to ingest the black liquid. He could feel his mind crack and crumble under all the pressure of the millions of voice screaming their command. The Ranger closed his ears, trying to block the sounds out, but once he did the voices only grew louder. Their chants became frantic bellowing, a wave of anxiety came over him to consume the liquid overpowered any other thought within his poor mind. Finally, he capitulated to her whim.

"I'll do it!"

With the flick of the wrist, the Ranger scooped a size able amount of the liquid with his fingers. The liquid oozed from his fingers, it's terrible odor set upon his unaffected nostrils. He unfortunately lapped up the liquid from his fingers as a feeble act of desperation. The taste of the liquid was extremely repugnant as the Ranger sputtered and coughed before finally collapsing to the floor. The voices in his mind roared in thunderous laughter, they had succeeded in humiliating him. The Ranger felt nauseous, he laid ajar on the stained floor of the apartment. The malignant voices disappeared as the foul taste of the slime brought him back to his senses. The Ranger blinked, the voices became quiet as the world started to became clearer. He groaned and lumbered back up to his feet, clutching his head. The Ranger felt the bareness of his head as he realized he forgot his helmet. The Ranger scoured the apartment, looking under the room's two beds, and the drawers of the accompanying nightstands. He stepped into the hotel room's bathroom, there the stench of burnt, rotten flesh was ever more pervasive.

The Helmet was lying haphazardly underneath the sink. The Ranger shook his head in contempt as he grabbed his helmet and wiped off a strange stain off of it. He stared into the corpses's face that was leering at him through the reflection of his helmet. This was a grisly reminder for the Ranger of why he was still breathing, I've got to find a Slipgate out of this place.., he thought. The Ranger stepped to the front door of the hotel room, No alcohol is ever worth this,grumbled the Ranger as he twisted the doorknob and stepped outside the room. Judging by the height of hallway he was in, it looked like he was standing on the third story of the Hotel. Climbing down the stairs proved to be difficult, as his armored boots were thick for the thin stairs. The Ranger wobbled as he went downstairs, this whole matter drew the attention of several people who stared at him. Their glares gave the Ranger mixed feelings of anger, anxiety, and fear. The Ranger would have ought to shoot their ugly, gawking faces with his Super Nailgun. No, no!, thought the Ranger he quickly shook the feelings of extreme violence as he successfully managed to climb all the way down.

The Ranger made no attempt to make himself known when he walked through the lobby and towards the exit. He trudged out of the building, while reflecting on what happened in the hotel room. Once he stepped outside the Ranger took the time to feel the sun and breathe fresh air, it was a long time since he had experienced both. The Ranger exited through the parking lot began to walk down a long road that stretched for miles. After what seemed like an hour, he stumbled across a bridge stretching over a canal. Across from the bridge, the Ranger could see a plethora of abandoned buildings, this place appeared to be a ghost town. It's cozy.., the Ranger dubiously thought. As the Ranger crossed the bridge he could make out the finer details of the area, it was more suspicious the more he looked at it. This place has to be a trap.., hiss hand reached for his invisible holster, eyeing the buildings for anyone trying to get the drop on him. The building that caught his attention the most was a run-down apartment that was three stories tall. The building looked like free shelter to the Ranger as he walked towards into the building. Upon getting closer to the car, the Ranger noticed a lone police car parked in the parking lot. The Ranger cocked his head and took a stealthier approach. As he entered the building's condition was more apparent as rusty hinges laid on the floor, there wasn't even a door at the front entrance. The Ranger explored the place, he kept his footsteps as quiet as possible as he strolled through a corridor. The Ranger found stairs, not wishing to kill his desire for exploration, he groaned and opened his hand. A crackling ball of purple energy floated above his palm, the Ranger cocked his arm back and flung the Orb several floors up. The Orb stuck to the wall of a higher up floor and teleported in place of it. The loud crack it made eclipsed the creak of the floorboards as he landed on them. The place was even more dilapidated than it was downstairs. The Ranger, wishing to hide from whatever was in there opened a random door and stepped inside.

[Naval Monte]

Secrets of the Raven

Elizabeth was surprised to see Lilith appear from the front door but she was glad to see her since she can help her get out of the cuffs, the fact she has the keys and made the Usher in the building leave was better. "It wasn't me. There is someone in the group who has powers similar to the sun and they set the roof of a building on fire trying to kill a monster that was spying on us, I told you that one before and you saw the eye all of the monster too." Elizabeth told the vampire.

"The Ushers are pissed because of that and of course because I'm the unofficial leader they think I should be held accountable to Jackie's crime simply because I didn't tell her the rules of this world. Hard to make someone who thinks they are a fictional character living in a fictional world care about the rules." Elizabeth turn her back to Lilith and gesture her fingers to the cuffs. "Look we can talk about this later, right now I need these cuffs off."

After she said those words Skylar suddenly appeared and told her that the Ushers were coming over. "Shit. Yiu want to know what is my plan? First I need to get out of these cuffs, second is deciding rather staying here to fight the Ushers is a good idea or running away. Well I like to think we have the freedom to pick but if we run than we will leave ecrtyine else the Usher's capture alone with them, so we have to stay and fight them to save whoever they caught." She explained to the two undead women.

Elizabeth suddenly sensed the energy from the orb, feeling it's power long before she heard the crackling of the sparks it produced. "Damn it we're not alone. Lilith free me now!" The witch demanded, worried that the Ushers have either arrived much earlier or they sent someone to come after her, or worse the cult sent someone to kill her before the Ushers return.

Back in the Drinking Crow the door would open up to reveal a balding Asian man wearing glasses crookly, he covered his nose once he sniffed the odor out in the hall. "I told you I already paid for my license, we can't you vultures leave me alone?" He complained, mistaking Agent A for a government worker. But when he got his glasses on straight he realize that Agrnt A wasn't the government worker that was bothering him. "Sorry about that, I thought you were someone else. What do you want?"

[Demincia]

Secrets of the Raven
Lilith von Brandt

Lilith listened to Elizabeth's answer, though she wasn't totally satisfied with it. If this person was as much of a danger as Elizabeth insisted, than allowing her to run free was irresponsible, and Elizabeth was not innocent from whatever harm she caused. But they did not have time to argue semantics, as Skylar appeared suddenly warning of Ushers arriving soon. Lilith leaned forward and unlocked Elizabeth's cuffs, then stuffed them into a pocket in case they came in handy later.

"These... Ushers..." Lilith began. "Would they try to kill your friends?" she asked. She'd hoped that she would not have to cause anymore harm today, but it was not looking like that would be the case.

She didn't have time to wait for an answer, though, as her heightened hearing picked up the sound of someone sneaking through the house shortly before a burst of electricity and creaking floorboards. "They are above us." she warned. "Frau Kent, Fräulein Ashwood, whatever you must do to prepare for company, I suggest you do it. I will attempt to buy us time."

She approached a window and looked out it. She held arms straight out to her sides and leaned her head back as her eyes began to take on a golden glow. The clouds overhead started to gather and darken, and the wind picked up until it was howling. Lilith kept her pose, and rain began to fall increasingly hard. A bright bolt of lightning flashed, followed by the crack of thunder. Dense fog rolled into the area, and Lilith lifted her arms more and drew them closer.

The fog began to fill the lower floor of the house, and started creeping its way up the stairs and the weather outside worsened. Lilith dropped her arms and turned back to the two younger women. "That should slow them down some," she said "Though if nothing else, at least it has made the sun go away." She pulled down her hood now that there was less danger of getting burned, letting dark brown hair fall to her shoulders.

The vampire knelt down on one knee and lifted one palm as her eyes started to glow again. Rats began to enter the room and surround her, until there was a swarm all looking at the woman. "Die Ratten will assist us for a little while, they can distract anyone that comes for us." the vampire reported before standing up.

"I have done all I can do now, the only thing left is to wait until they arrive when I can deal with them more personally..." she said, trailing off a little. "Any one of them that comes in alone or separates from their group... I can take care of." she said, knowing that the meaning of her idea was clear even if she was reluctant about it.

[Naval Monte]

Secrets of the Raven

Elizabeth began to rub on of her wrists after they were released. "That would depend if they don't like the answers they get from the others. If they find them too much of a threat then they will kill them." She told the vampire. What Elizabeth left out was that the Ushers would make an example of the others to remind everyone else why they should keep their magic in their pants less they are paid a visit by the occult underground's "favorite" boogeymen.

When Lilith responded that they were on top of them the witch cursed. "Fine, I already got something for those bastards." The witch knelt down on the floor and took out both a piece of chalk and charcoal that she took with her just encase she would need them, she began to draw a large circle on the floor, within the larger circle she began to draw two more circles within it. The first was a large white one with many symbols and sigils that interconnect with each other while the smaller black one above was a triangle with a small circle in the middle with sigils both inside the small circle and within the triangle. Elizabeth took off the glove on her left hand and took out a regular knife, kneeling down in the larger circle she stretch both her arms towards the black circle and cut her hand with the knife, letting the blood drop into the center.

"Alka labiru genii mannu ina etuti asbu. This magus who walks upon the world of twilight requires your guidance, protection, and power. I offer my precious blood to open the gateway between the realm of light and shadows, to act as the beacon to draw you to my humble abode and to act as payment for your continual service." Elizabeth spoke in a calm voice. During her work she paid little mind to Lilith's display of power as she needed to get her spell done before the Ushers arrive.

The room would suddenly begin to grow cold as the three women can feel a general sense of uneasy and anxiety build within them, not at all helped by the movement of dark shapes by the corners of their eyes. Elizabeth smirked at the changes in the room. "I called over some friends to help us." Elizabeth brought her hands close to the ground and recited a short chant in Sumerian. The witch winced in pain as she felt several appendages reach out and thrust into her wound, draining the blood that was coming out of it.

Within the hallway where the Ranger was walking in a few patches of shadows would grow darker but for most those changes would he entirely ignored, especially sense most would not know that within those shadows were entities residing inside the shadows watching them. The shadowy beings began to watch out for the Ushers arrive and to deal with them once they come, a few spotted the Ranger and began to observe the man. The temperature in the house began to plummet but do the the sudden storm outside most would think the change in temperature would ne a result of the weather, not because of the tenebraes.

[Aeternabilis]

Tales of Trebizond; Trebizond

Ann watched as Eric's axes soared up into the air, waiting for them to hit their apex before using her powers on them. Out of the corner of her eye, though, she noticed the cyborg beast they were fighting collapse to the ground. Just in time, the Maid yelped and surrounded Eric and herself in a sphere of wind that protected them from the splash of blood, mostly for the benefit of her boyfriend. For her, being sprayed with blood would have been a really gross inconvenience, but for Eric it would likely have been debilitating. When the assault of bodily fluids stopped, Ann let the winds calm back down. "Wow, that was really gross!" She then spun around to face Eric, ignoring the disturbing mess that was happening around the cyborg's corpse. "Are you okay, babe? Should I get a bucket or trash can or something?"

A Grand Adventure; Wakanda

Ji-yeong, Jonah, and Ivan reconvened with Alena now that the battle was over. "You are not wrong," Ji-yeong said, agreeing with Alena. She had actually been having a little fun messing with the Sontarans and was a little bummed that it was over. "Maybe the next threat will be more substantial?" "Let's hope there isn't a 'next threat'," Jonah grumbled. "I thought this was going to be a pleasure cruise of the multiverse on our way home." Ivan slapped his back and cracked a grin. "Remember, zhis vas your idea, comrade." "Yeah, yeah. So what now?" Ivan shrugged and looked at the others, where Ignis had just passed out and was now turning red. "I am guessing zhat vill have to be dealt vith."

[Slenderman The CreepyPasta King]

Rise of the Masked Man

New Bark Town Outskirts
"I seen some strange men walking about the forest."

Yeah, me too. Ty thought to himself, still suspicious of the men. He was especially wary of them, given the rather gross, withered appearance of one of them. It was clear that the man was not the type to take up hiking.

"Uh, yeah. That would be great. Lead the way." Ty stated.

Clearly wherever these two were going to lead the group, it was a trap. However, they might as well follow the lead they have-otherwise they would be stuck back at square one.

Atem was suspicious of this person that just came out from a forest and just offered to lead them. Especially the withered one that looked like a decade old mummy without its wraps. But as Ty and co. followed them, he followed as well. However when he started following, he felt his connection to the shadows rekindle. He stopped in his tracks and gasped before saying and looking down at the mellinum puzzle, “no, that’s not possible, this cannot be the real thing. But how else do I explain the shadows talking to me.”