Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Recording starts.

“Boss, did we really have to go out of our way just to spray our gang sign on top of that statue?”
“Yes, you idiot! How else are we going to do that to prove to the rest of the Syndicate that we are a force to be reckoned with?”
“Yes, a real gang with just three peop- hey, what happened to Mike?”
“Mike, you wuss, did you dare to abandon us?! Wait, someone is out there!”
“Boss, Mike is dead! There is a shuriken in his throat!”
“That fool, I told him to wear at least some sort of neck protection! We must now retr- ah!”
“Boss, sorry to leave you but I must really save my own skin!”

The audio recording stops and the room goes silent for a short amount of time.
“Wow. Whatever these assassins were, they sure terrified these guys.” Hella broke the silence, being a bit surprised by the terror in the gangster’s voice.
“There were multiple other assassinations of minor gangs like this.” Hecate commented as Che took out Chief’s letter and handed it to Zoya. “Zoya, we ask for your and the Legion’s assistance in this manner on behalf of the MBCC.”
Zoya, showing relative disinterest, finally cracked a smirk and said “What’s the big deal with a few small gangs getting wiped out? Even if mania weapons are likely involved?”

Hecate blankly stared at Zoya in response, but she stopped as everyone’s focus shifted to Earl who had just entered the scene, who seemed to be unusually nervous.
“Uh, Commander? I have bad news.” he said, trying to keep his composure.
“What is it Earl?” Zoya asked, shifting her sitting position straight.
Earl took a deep breath and said: “The item of interest in our possession… was stolen from us.”
Zoya flew into a rage that has shaken everyone in the room, but after a few moments managed to calm down. She, as well as everyone else in the room, soon noticed that Hecate was focused on a mysterious lady-like blue haired figure who just entered the room. “Her dress looks too good for Syndicate and too plain for Eastside, she’s clearly not from here.” she thought to herself. “These boots of hers also seem to be both stylish and practical. Plus the peach on her hat, does it hold some sort of special meaning to her?”

Hella asked: “Hecate, what’s wrong? You just keep staring at her without saying a word.”
Hecate did not initially respond to Hella, for both she and Nightmare felt something from her.
“Whatever she is, she is extraordinarily powerful.” Hecate said quietly, still full of shock and awe of her aura.
“So, you must be Zoya.” she said as she pulled out a sword seemingly out of nowhere and pointed it towards her. “My name is Tenshi and I have come here to challenge you!”
The room stood in silence, until Zoya smirked and said: “Very well, I accept your challenge.”

As the two were getting ready for the duel, Zoya thought to herself: “Whoever is this girl, she looks far too young and soft to be a proper fighter, even if she can summon a sword to defend herself. I should go easy on her, I will knock her out with one punch!”

Suddenly she felt someone tapping on her back and saying: “Excuse me, I’m right here.” Zoya looked back and forth. Why was her opponent now behind her and her left arm was extended? She must have launched the punch, missed, and zoned out, she concluded after thinking to herself. To her the follow-up strategy was clear.
Zoya laughed, trying to hide her frustration. “Well then, I shall hit you with all I’ve got!” she yelled as she lunged forward at Tenshi with multiple punches and kicks.

“It is no use, she already lost.” Hecate said upon seeing the flurry of blows and looked up towards the ceiling with a disinterested look.
“Yeah, there is no way anyone can handle these many strikes from Zoya!” Hella replied and yelled: “Go get her Zoya!”

SMACK!
Zoya has hit Tenshi with a punch with all her might directly to the face. But to everyone’s surprise, save for Hecate and Tenshi herself, she hardly moved, with her boots firmly holding her in position, and quickly tilted her head back to its original position pushing Zoya back. Zoya looked in shock and anger and said: “What are you?”
Tenshi gave her a smug look and snapped her fingers saying: “We’re done here.”
Che, after a quick look at the situation and at Hecate’s eyes said “Oh! I see now.”

CRASH!
A large piece of stone with a rope around it fell on Zoya, knocking her out and pinning her on the floor.
“Are you ready to give up?” Tenshi said, pointing her sword at Zoya. Zoya only grumbled, confirming to Tenshi her victory. “Wahoo, I won!” Tenshi said proudly and looked towards the audience of the fight. “So now I am the Queen of this Syndicate place?”
Everyone stared at her in dumbfounded silence, until it was finally broken by Che. “No, it doesn’t. Nobody is really in charge of Syndicate unless someone powerful brought all of the gangs to heel...”
Tenshi smiled and said “Great idea, I should announce to everyone here that I, Tenshi Hinanawi, am here to challenge these thugs!” and left flying out of the room, to the surprise of everyone.

“What the f-” Hella said, bewildered by Tenshi’s ability to fly before getting her mouth covered up by Hecate.
“Well, whatever she’s up to we should follow her.” Che said trying to process the situation “Zoya will be fine without us. To the car!”
“Right!” Hecate and Hella said in unison.

The trio went on pursuit of the mysterious girl, for her great power is seemingly great enough to either destroy or save DisCity.

Chapter Text

“Good morning, darling. I hope you are ready to join me for breakfast.”
Agnes did not respond to the redhead woman and simply looked towards the ceiling.
“Don’t be such a spoil darling, I brought these delicious grapes just for you.” said the woman as she sat on the chair in front of her.
Agnes resisted the woman’s attempts to feed her grapes. She decided to change her approach.
“I forgot to properly introduce myself. My name is Cabernet. Your outfit is simply amazing. I especially love the green, where did you get it?”
Agnes finally decided to speak. “Mephilia, she was almost as crazy as y-” she said right before Cabernet put a grape into her mouth.
“Good girl.”

Agnes gulped and swallowed the grape whole, and then said: “Can you please let go of me now? I had enough of this and I need to leave.”
“But we have hardly even begun. Surely you jest?” Cabernet said laughing, but quickly noticed that Agnes’ eyes were quickly moving back and forth between two points. “You rascal! You were up to something after all!”
Agnes, seeing the conflict can no longer be avoided, yelled “NOW!”

Lights went out and the room suddenly became pitch black. The moment Cabernet managed to turn back the lights, she noticed the absence of both her guest and one of the silverware knives.
“I suggest you reveal yourself at once and give me back my knife. Someone can get hurt, you know.”

Agnes stood up from behind the table, revealing herself. However, instead of a knife the only thing she was holding was a crystal pendant. With a determined look she told Cabernet: “You are going to let me leave in peace, or else you’ll be the one who’s getting hurt!” as she pointed it towards her.

“And I thought your soul was a noble one, but it appears you are quite a fighter too! Of course I can’t just let you go like that.” Cabernet replied, being visibly frustrated

“That is simply… UNACCEPTABLE!!!” Agnes yelled out loud as she was summoning a fighter by pure instinct. Before Cabernet could have launched an adequate counterattack, she got faceplanted by the two feet of an unseen foe right into the face, knocking her back to the floor.

“No need to concern yourself, I can take care of her for you.” said the recently summoned warrior as she showed her her hand “Rita Rossweisse, at your service.”

“If you say so.” Agnes quickly left, but not before quick glance back to the battle playing before her. Rita was fighting against the redhead with a scythe and ice powers, treating this as more of a game rather than a serious fight. As she left the dining room, she thought to herself “It seems that she doesn’t need my help after all.”

Agnes, not wanting to remain in the mansion for much longer, ran as fast as she could outside of the mansion. Once she got out on the street she started getting a lot of attention from passers by, which she didn’t mind too much since she was in a hurry.

Once arriving at a safe location, a cafe called “Carmen’s Cappuccino”, Agnes noticed a shadowy figure in the corner.

“You can come out, Garrett.”
“You really shouldn’t have put yourself at risk like that.” Garret told her as he came out of the shadows.
“You are right, I shouldn’t have put myself under such unnecessary risk.” Agnes replied. “What did you manage to find out?”
“Well, you are right, the city is indeed massive. Even the smaller western, or Syndicate as they like to call it, is too massive for an ordinary man like me to thoroughly search through alone.” he paused as the waitress delivered them their cups of coffee and croissants. Agnes, being the hungrier of the two munched on the croissant as Garrett continued.

“Plus it is full of crime and gangs vying for power with less than savoury means. Luckily I managed to make contact with a relatively sane guy by the name of Tony. I think we need to have more people than the mere two of us in that kind of place.”

“You mean three of us?”

“Rita! So you did manage to come!” Agnes exclaimed.
“How did you even win and track us down?” Garrett asked.
“Well, tracking you down was relatively straightforward given that you dropped this postcard right as you left.” Rita responded as she showed a business card. “And how did I win? By getting her to… chill out.”

“I see that our ride has arrived.” said Garret, as a smug blue-haired woman in sunglasses entered the scene.

“Good to see you, summoner. My name is Faye.” she told to the group, smiling with confidence. “And for low-low price of showing off your capabilities I’ll give you a ride to your destination in Syndicate.”

“Sounds reasonable, even though you shouldn’t be saying this like this out loud.” Garret commented.

“Okay okay, I know just the place here where she can do her thing in private.” Faye responded and told Agnes: “Follow me.”

“If you do summon someone, I suggest you summon a blonde friend of my who is also of my skill level.” Rita whispered to Agnes as she was led by Faye to the basement of the cafe. She pondered if the friend Rita spoke of was similar to someone else she knew as she prepared herself for the ritual in the basement.

“Alright, here goes.” Agnes started summoning, but as a curious waitress unexpectedly fell down upon her she summoned someone completely unexpected.

“Violet Evergarden, reporting in.” said the blonde woman holding a really large axe while giving a military salute.

“That’s… not who I was asking for.” Rita commented as she was helping the waitress get back up on her feet. “But I have a feeling that she is quite capable in her own right.”
Faye, however, was quite pleased and offered Violet some chips, which she gladly accepted and nodded in thanks.

Garrett, who was standing near the entrance to the basement overlooking the situation, thought to himself: “These women are going to become the death of me.”

Chapter Text

“Whew, it feels like such a long day.” said Tenshi, whipping the sweat from her forehead. “All these fights, but I still have yet to see a real challenge in anything other than my stamina.” her thought got momentarily interrupted by a grunt from below, but then she continued “Still, something feels strange about this place.”
“Oh, why can’t I feel my everything?” quietly said an unusually large thug, on whom Tenshi was standing. She did not say anything in response, and continued to ponder about the current situation.

Suddenly, a group of five thugs dropped a large bag of cash before her feet and dropped on their knees. “Please don’t hurt us, we will never rob banks without your direct permission! We need a strong boss like you to protect us against our foes like the shuriken killers!”
“Shuriken killers, huh?” Tenshi said and then thought to herself: “Now that they mention it, I did hear about them a few times. It’s the best lead I have right now in an effort to find out what’s the true cause of wrongs in this place.”

After a few moments of thought, Tenshi told the thugs. “I don’t need this much money, so instead let’s all eat some lunch together while we discuss how we’ll work together, deal?”
The thugs quickly stood up and said “You got it, boss!”

As she was making way to the nearest place with food that she could find, she felt a strange wave of energy and told the thugs. “Head to the corndog stand over there, I must look into something first.”

The thugs heeded her command, and as she headed to the apparent source of the energy, she thought to herself. “It can’t be all one elaborate prank by Yukari against me, can’t it? No, this source of energy has to be from something I’ve never felt before! It could be a clue.”

“AAGGHHHHHH!” was the scream Tenshi heard right before a large man fell on her, knocking her on the ground.

“Are you okay?” said the large muscular man as he stood up.

Tenshi, after drooling on the ground for a bit, quickly stood up. “I’m fine. Plus I can’t be too mad, you managed to land both a solid hit and knock me on the ground. That was way better than what even that yakuza woman and that poisoned blade guy could do!”

“I see.” he said. “My name is Sam, Serious Sam.”
“Your family name is Serious?” Tenshi asked.
“No, I mean yes! Of course I’m serious!”
“Really now?” Tenshi asked, looking rather unamused.
“Actually it’s Stone, my full name is Samuel Herbert Stone.” he answered, knowing his ruse is up. “Serious is just a nickname people used to differentiate me from all the other Sams.”
“Good to know. Tenshi, Hinanawi Tenshi.”
“Is Hinanawi also your nickname?”
“No, it is my family name!”
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” Sam responded with gestures to make sure she didn’t get too angry.
“It’s okay.” Tenshi told him with a smile on her face and then realized something. “Oh right, corndogs! Come with me, Sam!”
“Roger that.” he said.

The duo quickly headed to the corndog stand, and Tenshi decided to enquire about Sam as to how he got here.
“So Sam, how did you get here? Who teleported you to this place?” she asked him.
“The Bigheads teleported me here, they said that I can find a clue to defeat my archnemesis so I can save the Earth from my timeline.” he replied. “They also said that they are going to teleport me near someone who matches your description.”
“I think this place is also in need of saving, because something is off about this place.” Tenshi commented. “Well, whatever our reasons, we seem to be in the same boat now.”

As the duo was getting closer to the corndog stand, one of the thugs waved towards Tenshi and told the stand owner to get him another corndog.
“There you go, enjoy.” said the stand owner as he handed over the corndogs to Tenshi and Sam. “Anything else you want?”

Sam thought carefully for a few moments, and after making up his mind said: “I would like to know where I can get some serious firepower in a place like this, I just know that I’m going to fight lots of monsters pretty soon.”

The thugs were dumbfounded, Tenshi was too focused on her corndog to care, but the stand owner had one simple response: “Password, please.”

Sam, after thinking for a few moments, responded with: “And I thought the peanuts grew on trees.”

The stand owner smiled, said “Close enough.” and took out a two-way radio saying: “Rider, take over, I’ll deal with the special customers myself.”
He put the radio back into his pocket and said: “You two, follow me.”

As the stand owner led them into a nearby garage, he said to the duo: “What are you wishing to acquire? I got all sorts of home defence tools and offensive wea- hold on, it seems I got visitors.”

The store owner, despite being less cautious than his typical self, was still careful and went to see who was coming himself, but to his relief he found out that the person was someone he knew all too well. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Hey buddy.” Faye said, entering the garage confidently without the need of consent. “I am here with the summoner. Oh, I brought a couple of her friends including Garrett.”
“Excellent,” he replied and then looked towards Sam and Tenshi. “I suppose my customers won’t mind if I let them in.”
“Your place, your rules.” said Sam as Tenshi lightly nodded.

Following Tony’s signal the four in the order of: Agnes, Rita, Violet, and Garrett entered the room. Sam then whispered to Tenshi: “Hey, which one do you think is the summoner?”
Tenshi, without hesitation, pointed towards Agnes and said: “You must be the mage, and that crystal in your pendant is the catalyst for summoning!”

Agnes was shocked and gasped: “How did you know!?”
Tenshi, with a smug look, put a pencil on her nose and told her: “How could I not? I felt its presence from the moment I got here… if only faintly, except for the two times where it spiked in energy. With the sunglasses woman’s words it can be easily deduced that you are the summoner!”

Garrett, however, was not satisfied with her answer. “Based on what Agnes said to me, I must be especially cautious with her.” he thought to himself. “I must test her somehow.”

After short deliberation Garrett stepped forward, and then said to Tenshi: “Very well, let us test your power. Step outside with one of them” he pointed towards his group and continued: “and then tell us the exact moment you notice that spike in energy.”
Violet stepped forward next to Garrett and said: “I’ll go.”
Before Agnes or Garrett could object, Rita stepped up next to Agnes and said to her: “Trust me, they’ll be fine.”

As Violet and Tenshi left the garage, Sam thought to himself: “Feels like a dream, I haven’t had a chance to experience a situation like this in a long time.”

***

“So Violet, what’s the deal with the huge axe of yours?” asked Rider, as bored Tenshi was playing around with a pencil.
“It’s something I use to defend myself in dangerous areas, it deters potential attackers.” she replied and showed a couple of swings to him.
“Impressive, most impressive.” he said. “With these kinds of swings I can see you taking on multiple corruptors with ease.”
“Corruptors?” Violet asked.
“Ah, right. I forgot you were summoned from another world or something of that sort.” he commented. “They are one of many consequences we have to deal with ever since the fall of the Shattered Star.”

Upon hearing this, Tenshi interjected.
“Shattered Star you say? And where exactly did it fall?” she asked.
Rider replied: “I don’t know where it fell exactly, but I do know that it lies somewhere beyond the Broken Frontline.” and then pointed saying: “Which lies in that direction.”
“I see.”

As Tenshi was pondering on her next course of action, she noticed a familiar group of three faces approach her. Rider, on the other hand, was visibly worried.
“Violet, be on your guard.” he whispered to her. “Sinners are approaching.”
“Sinners?” she asked quietly, and quickly deduced that the trio of Hecate, Hella, and Che were what Rider referred to. Although she was not yet aware of what makes them special.

Tenshi, realizing this was her best chance to ask what sinners are, she waved towards them.
“She noticed us.” said Hecate softly.
“Well, she seems to be friendly. We should be able to talk things over easily enough.” said Che. “Let me handle this.”

Che, seeing Rider being uneasy, told him: “Relax, I’m just here to talk with her.”
As Che approached Tenshi, she asked him: “Great. So, could you do me a favour and tell me what this whole Sinners thing is?”

Rider stared at Tenshi in silence, Hecate looked at her in confusion, Hella made an eyeroll. Che stared at her in silence and then, after thinking for a few moments, responded: “You must have fallen out of the sky or something.”

Hecate then stepped forward, and told Tenshi: “Us Sinners are wretched souls cursed with power as the result of human infection with mania.”
Che signed and then, looking at Hecate, said “Gee, you didn’t have to put it that way. Now you managed to make me feel bad. Hold on, I got an incoming call.”

Click.

“Hello, Che speaking.”
“Did you get anything on the whereabouts of the mysterious swordgirl?” a female voice said.
“Yes.” he replied. “You wouldn’t believe me how much of an anomaly she is.”
“Oh?” Nightingale responded. “How so?”
“Well, she single-handedly beat up at least three thousand thugs over the past six hours while we’ve been chasing her. To top all of it off, it doesn’t seem like she killed even a single one. Most impressive of all: her mania readings came as negative.”
“Really, and where can I find her to test this?” Nightingale inquired, feeling intrigued.
“She’s right… here.” Che said as Tenshi, to his surprise, was gone.

“She seems to have gone to the Broken Frontline, since I mentioned it to her.” said Rider. “I suggest you go there if you want to follow her.”
“There is no need.” Nightingale commented. “You’ve done more than enough here. Che, you will take Hella and Hecate to the Rust for a far more pressing mission. While you are at it, you will also make a delivery of a package Christina requested. I sent the details to you already.”
“Got it.” Che said as he ended the call.

Che, Hecate, and Hella left. Rider breathed a sigh of relief. After watching the trio leave, Violet looked at the note Tenshi gave to her and read it out loud to Rider: “Fourteen, twenty seven, zero five.”
“It seems that she felt it at that time. Well then, I may as well pack up shop now and see who was summoned, would you help me out?” Rider asked Violet.
Violet had one simple answer: “Of course.”

Chapter Text

Rain. The cloaked stranger has been long accustomed to it. He wasn’t very tall, being no more than 155 cm in height, and the clothing he wrapped around himself to shield himself from the rain and the prying onlookers, hiding everything except for his glowing red eyes. While he didn’t particularly like it pouring down on him, he was willing to tolerate it for the ten minutes it took as long as the surroundings shielded him from it. This “Rust” place was strange for him, but no matter the place he still patiently waited until the right time came.

“Hey you, freak!” a mania junkie screamed at the stranger. He was far larger, being around 2 metres tall. More than that, he was also not alone. For he had two other large, but slightly shorter, companions. The stranger avoided the provocation, for he did not want to get wet from the rain.

“It looks like this welp doesn’t want to listen. Time to kill him!” the giant of a man yelled and started running towards the stranger. However, just as he started running the stranger jumped up and threw something into his eye, causing to scream in pain. The giant swung at him in retaliation, but missed.

A couple of seconds later, as he continued to scream in agony, he saw two green flashing slashes, got struck, and then he fell lifelessly silent.

***
Tony was sitting in his chair in his garage’s second floor office. While it wasn’t as spacious as his penthouse office in Eastside, it was sizable enough to host meetings of roughly twenty people.

“Tony Stromboli, at your service.” he formally introduces himself, showing a hand.
“Agnes Oblige.” she replied, and accepted his handshake, quickly glancing at Garrett.
“Very well, you may proceed with your duties, summoner. Bring me forth a hero who is capable of defending me and this city, someone who won’t shy away from crime and filth, someone who will best in duel even the strongest of foes.”

Agnes, taking a deep breath, and summons.

The man standing before them was very tall, wearing white armor and brandishing a red blade. He had a few scars, showing his age and battle experience.
“My name is Samuel Rodrigues, that is all.” he introduces himself.
“Excellent, my name is Tony S-” Tony says, but is soon cut off.
“I will take a look around.” Sam says and then leaves the garage, closely examining his right arm.
“I will also leave.” says Garrett, and departs.

Garrett leaves the room. Rita, being the only one around, decided to ask him: “Will our noble lady be able to get what she is looking for?”
“To be honest, I have no idea.” Garrett replies.

A scream was heard, and something was thrown out right of Stromboli’s office.

Rita catches something, which the duo could easily see being the garage’s owner: Tony.
Agnes, looking unusually angry, leaves.

“Looks like things didn’t work out.” Rita comments.
“We need to go with her, lest she gets lost in this huge city.” Garrett tells her.
Rita, after putting Tony down on a couch, follows him.

***

“Well, we are here.” Che said as he parked his car. He soon got out of the car with the item he was meant to deliver, Hella and Hecate soon followed suit.

“Looks like you made it.” K.K. commented. “And you brought it as well.”
“Say, how is an umbrella going to help anyway?” Hella asked. “I know it rained a few hours ago and will rain later this evening, but still.”
“Before that, I want to know one thing. How is Bai Yi doing?” Che asked K.K., ignoring Hella’s question.
“She’s fixing her motorcycle a few blocks west, she should be back soon.” she replied.
“Well then, time to make my delivery.” Che said as he entered the mansion.

“Hey, Christina, here is the item you ordered.” Che said as he handed her over the object of his delivery: a black umbrella.
“Thanks, Che.” Christina said. “In return, I will show you something. Let’s go to the balcony, I’ll lead the way.”

Che followed Christina into the mansion and up the stairs. The large two story building was somewhat run down and looked like it needed urgent repairs in a lot of places, but it was otherwise intact with the windows and doors being fully functional, if a bit dirty.

Upon setting foot on the balcony, Che got to witness two things: the sunset and the rainbow.
“Looks pretty amazing, does it?” Christina asked to gage Che’s reaction.
“Yeah, it looks nice and all, but what are you searching for in this mansion specifically?” Che asked.
“Elementary, my dear Watson!” Christina replied, jokingly. “I am here on the trail of the mysterious shuriken killers that plague the Syndicate, for their lair is right below us!”
“Really, below us?” Che asked, being confused as to how she managed to reach that conclusion.
“That’s right, and they will come out sometime soon.”

While Che and Christina were busy discussing the sunset and the investigation, Hella began growing ever more restless.

“So we are just supposed to stand guard until Christina finishes her investigation?”
“Yes.” Hecate and K.K. replied in unison.
“You two can do so then, I’ll grab a few snacks from Che’s car.”

Hella took the keys from Hecate and opened Che’s car. To her dismay, there was nothing edible to be found.

“Huh, where the hell did all the snacks go?” Hella said in frustration. She closed the car and started looking around. Soon, she quickly noticed scurrying sounds and a short figure that was carrying the stolen goods!

Hella, seeing a suspicious figure, decided to jump into action and yelled: “You won’t get away!” She threw the car keys to K.K. and ran after it.
“Hella, wait!” Hecate yelled, and ran after her.

With Hella running after the suspicious stranger and Hecate running after Hella, K.K. knew that she had to act. She called for Che who quickly rushed out of the building.

“K.K., what’s wrong?” he asked.
“Hella and Hecate ran off, and I have a bad feeling about this.” she replied.
“Alright, after them!” Che yelled and both he and K.K. ran off to the two of them.

Christina, meanwhile, tried to call Nightingale and Bai Yi due to the potential dangers of the situation. But alas, she failed.

“No signal? At a time like this? I better get in contact soon.” she thought to herself.

She tried to run to the balcony to get a better signal, or an opportunity to yell to Bai Yi. To her surprise, the balcony door was locked and she heard the entrance door slam shut.

“This is bad, really bad.” she thought to herself. “I have only one way out now!” and ran towards the attic, where she would then get to the roof.

While Christina was stuck in the mansion by unknown force, Hecate almost caught up to Hella, who in turn almost caught up to the snack thief.

“You won’t get away!” Hella yelled as she continued to pursue him.

“Hella, watch out!” Hecate yelled to her. She noticed that, in her reckless pursuit, didn’t notice the trap that was set up for people like her. In her attempts to summon Nightmare, she too was reckless.

“Heyyya!” a voice yelled, and a figure emerged out of the shadows, outside of Hecate’s blindspot, and with a swing at her back she was pushed into the hidden pit she wanted to warn Hella of!

Hella stepped on a piece of cloth that was covering the nothingness, but managed to grab the nearby ledge just in time. She quickly got out of the pit less than happy for getting into that trap. “Now you’ve done it!”

Hella noticed two options: she will either continue her pursuit of the snack thief or chase after the assailant that hurt Hecate. She knew that she could not chase two rabbits, or in this case rats, as Hella managed to finally take a proper look at what she has pursued. The assailant looked like a humanoid rat, hunched and carrying a shield and a spiked club similar to Hella’s.

“You will pay for this.” Hella said, and with tranquil fury in her eyes leaped over the pit, chasing after the rat!

The rat, knowing he had little chance to win against her alone, ran away as fast as he could. Hella persisted chasing the rat through narrow alleyways, until she caught him in what seemed to be a dead end. The rat, knowing that he’s cornered, took up a fighting stance and faced Hella.

“I’m going to make you pay for what you've done!” Hella yelled as she ran towards him. The rat threw his attack, but Hella swiftly blocked these shots with her pipe. “Shurikens? You have to do better than that if you want to beat me!”

Hella suddenly stopped. Having learned from Hecate’s mistake, she braced herself for an ambush.

“Heya!” a rat, more heavily armed than the two Hella has seen prior, charged at her with a sword. Hella, being ready, easily parried this attack.

“Alright, you have chosen to get killed first!” she yelled in anger. The armored sword rat blocked her path, allowing her former target to climb up the buildings. Using the vantage point, it started throwing shurikens in an attempt to distract her.

Thunder strikes, rain starts falling once more, and two more rats charge at Hella, landing two clean hits while she was too busy being preoccupied with her primary opponent!

Meanwhile, Christina at the roof, readied her cane and thought to herself: “It seems that I can't deny my fate anymore, can I? The Mastermind would have killed me the moment I stepped outside of the mansion after all, for the evidence I have found here is too great. The least I can do is to make sure that the only one to fall on this day is me. After that, the umbrella I cleverly hid and him is the only hope I have left.”

Seeing two shadowy figures scurrying around her, she yelled at them “I know you are sending your henchmen to kill me, Mastermind! But know that even if I fall here, my legacy will take you down!” After inspiring herself with these words, she charged into the fray.

As Christina was fighting on the roof, Hella was struggling against four rats.

“Great, I am stuck fighting four giant rats.” Hella said in frustration. She felt unusually dizzy, as if something was gnawing on her nerves and body, effectively annulling her regenerative abilities. “What else is life going to throw at me? An even bigger rat?!”

“Rawr!” and a rat far larger than the ones that she was fighting appeared, and charged straight at Hella!

“Shit.” was all Hella could say before a strong blow to the head knocked her out. Then, to ensure she remained down, the giant rat grabbed Hella and started thrashing Hella around.

As Hella's consciousness faded, a familiar cry was heard. “Get away from her!” It was K.K.! She charged at the giant rat, forcing it to drop Hella!

While Hella was knocked out, Christina’s fortunes were hardly better. Her opponents were equipped with wolverine claws and were very nimble, making her struggle to get a clean hit. But then “Got you!” she yelled, as she obliterated her opponent with her special magical attack. But soon she found out that an unseen third opponent obliterated her as well.

Martyrdom was not something Christina was striving for, but as the poisoned blades between her ribs pierced her and her vital organs, she used the last of her strength to say: “Well done, well done.” and fell off the roof, dropping her cane.

“Silly she-thing.” the rat spoke. “But you-you do good-well enough for the uplift-promotion, yes-yes. You are now-now a gutter runner.”

Chapter Text

K.K. charged at the giant rat. Despite being far smaller in size and stature, she managed to push it back. Soon after Che, using her as cover, slipped around it and attacked one of the armored rats in order to get closer to now unconscious Hella. As it groaned in pain, Che told his partner: “I’ll hold these three off and try to retrieve Hella, you stall off the big one!”

“You got it!” K.K. responded, and upon hearing the chittering from the rats, warned Che: “Be careful, they seem smarter than they look! They must be scheming something!”

Che, parrying the attack made by one of the rats, responded: “Alright. Our plan is as follows: if Bai Yi shows up, we finish them off. If the enemy is the one who gets reinforcements, we run!”
As he continued fighting the ratmen, he then thought to himself: “They certainly are an elite fighting force for a gang. No clue why they look like giant rats, but if they managed to bring down Hella so easily they must have some tricks up their sleeve.”

The ratmen, meanwhile, weren’t too enthusiastic in the fight either.
“We are going to die-die!” the masked one by the name of Azhkin groaned, for he was injured by Che’s thrown axe.
“We-we must fight-fight them until the boss comes to kill-finish them off!” Snatz the quick, arguably the luckiest of the three, squeaked to bolster the morale of the group. “We have-got boss’ rat ogre Spinetaker on our side! We-we must hold the line!”
“Foolish man-things think they can fight us-us, but they will soon die-die! Fight-fight!” said the toughest by the name of Crittcin, who used the brief respite to coat his blade and gave the command for the two clanrats to attack the seemingly vulnerable woman with their clubs.

Che and K.K. became entangled in a brutal one against three contest of attrition, the one that would surely be won by their elite swordmaster… for whichever side would prevail in the end.

Meanwhile Bai Yi, fairly oblivious to the fight up to now, heard something other than the renewed rain.
“Sounds like there is a fight going on without me. I should hurry to their aid.” Bai Yi left her partially fixed motorcycle and ran towards the sounds of the clashes. But soon after, she stopped.

“Something is off. First my motorcycle had a malfunction out of nowhere, then this.” she thought to herself. “Something is off, as if someone is watching me in the darkness.”
Bai Yi took up the stance, readying herself for the inevitable attack.

She stared into the darkness, as both the rainclouds and dusk made the surroundings very dim, and the darkness stared at her in return.

A shuriken was thrown, Bai Yi blocked.

A second shuriken was thrown, also blocked.

Bai Yi took up the stance for the inevitable third strike, looking around the dim surroundings.

And then two green blades struck at Bai Yi, which she parried. She striked back but, to her surprise, the assailant quickly sidestepped from the attack. The attacker then struck again, forcing Bai Yi to parry the attack.

The intense repeating clashes of their blades repeated for roughly a minute. The Master Assassin knew and could assess the following: his opponent had a significant advantage in raw power and speed, forcing him to be on the defensive after the initial clash. On the other hand, it was he who still held the trump cards in battlefield awareness and initiative, for the battlefield was of his choosing.
He was well aware of his opponent’s arrogant attitude of seeing him as nothing more than a rat-like swordsman, a weakness which he intended to exploit.

“There! I see an opening!” Bai Yi thought to herself. “It lowered the blades far too low to counter mine, by striking there I can land a clean kill!” and, by striking at her opponent, unknowingly set a trap.

As Bai Yi’s opponent stepped back she tried to follow, but her left leg refused to follow, she fell off balance and started to fall, and the clash of blades was forced at a far lower angle than she intended.

Seeing his foe down on the ground and helplessly immobilized, he used this opportunity to gloat to his defeated but still living foe: “Foolish man-things of Whitestone think they can beat strong-mighty warband Stab-Kill Man-Things! Know-know that strong-mighty assassin swordmaster Viskt Gnaw beat-triumphed you-you! Soon-soon the Syndicate-place will be-be solely the domain of the Deathmaster of great-mighty Clan Eshin!“ and with these words the assailant cut some sort of rope and, as a bunch of barrels tumbled onto Bai Yi, escaped.

Meanwhile, a loud noise was heard from the distance. Che, who was pushing back against his three opponents, noticed that the ratmen’s use of poison weapons and concoctions puts them ahead in the contest of attrition. Narrow space further put him in a disadvantage since he had little room to maneuver around them for better attacks. Worse yet, his intuitive sense told him that Bai Yi won’t come to their rescue, but the opponent that fought her instead.

He yelled to his partner: “How is it at your end, K.K.?”
“The big one refuses to go down, especially with the distractions in the way!” she responded, striking back at the rats to her flanks.

Che could sense it, the best opportunity for a safe retreat was now.

“We run, now!” Che yelled to K.K.

As he grabbed Hella’s unconscious body, he struck at the giant rat, ran past it, and then retreated along with K.K.

“Man-things run-run!” Snatz exclaimed.
Azhkin groaned in pain, for the enemy’s retreat saved him from taking heavier, and potentially fatal, injuries.

Failing to entice Spinetaker to pursue their foes, Crittcin turned to his packmates and said: “Greyfur, Blight, our mission-objective is done-done. Me-me saw a big beer barrel-thing, let’s take-take it and drink at our lair-place!”

Snatz Greyfur and Azhkin Blight cheered on that idea in unison, for they weren’t enthusiastic about pursuing their enemies without the rat ogre to back them up in the fight, so they got to work on retrieving their well deserved loot.

***
Hecate woke up. Looking at her surroundings she noticed that she was underground and, based on the smell, in an abandoned section of the sewers.

“Looks like you finally woke up.” an elderly female voice told to Hecate.

With these words Hecate jolted and quickly stood up as if she had a bucket of cold water poured on top of her head. She could not explain it, but something about the woman terrified her deeply.

The elderly woman, despite being blind, noticed that Hecate was in a terrified state. She decided to release the tension by saying: “Don’t be afraid, child. At least you have one functioning eye unlike the dear old me.”

Hecate, having regained her composure to make words, asked her: “Just how old are you?”
“How old am I, you ask?” the old woman, saying this, smiled. “I am incomprehensibly old. In fact, my age is more than a billion years!”

Hecate was stunned by the hag’s words, who followed up saying: “Just kidding, I am only one hundred and forty!”

Hecate was still taken aback by the woman’s words. Nothing about her made any sense. Not that Hecate hasn’t seen unusual and bizarre things before, but so many things all at once pointed to Hecate that the old blind woman is far more than meets the eye. What’s more, her cane looked suspiciously a lot like Christina’s. Her sixth sense desperately told her to not mention that detail lest she be in serious danger.

“What is your name anyway?” Hecate asked.
“I have no name, but if you had to call me something, call me granny.” the hag told her. “Come with me, there is someone that you must meet. And what shall I call you?”
“My name is Hecate. Looks like I have no choice but to follow you.” Hecate commented. The old woman, upon hearing these words, smiled.

Hecate then proceeded behind the old woman, despite knowing full well that there is almost certainly danger ahead. She couldn’t help but worry about her allies, but she held onto hope that they were okay.

Chapter Text

“Hey girl, what are you doing here?! This is a restricted area that has no place for civilians!” a masked soldier yelled and quickly ran towards the blue haired woman.

Tenshi quickly turned around, and casually replied: “Civilian? I am a Celestial! I am here to resolve the incident!”
“Why you! I will force you to-” the soldier got massively irritated and tried to threaten Tenshi with his gun. Despite him pointing straight at her, she wasn’t intimidated in the slightest and continued to inspect the area.

“Hold your fire, we were warned that she was coming this way!” the second soldier caught up to his partner, who lowered his weapon.
“Oh right, we were warned that a powerful being was coming this way. So, what are you looking for?” he asked.
“I am here to investigate Shattered Star.” Tenshi replied.
“Uh, most of us call it the Perishing Star, and it fell somewhere that way.” the second soldier replied and pointed in a direction further from the city.
“Yeah, whatever.” Tenshi said and flew up to take a better look at the surroundings.

As she flew up, she thought to herself: “I wonder what Violet and Rider are up to. Oh well, I bet we’ll have something exciting to talk about the next time we meet!”

***

While Tenshi was busy at work on incident resolving, Violet and Rider were hanging out together.

“Thanks for helping me out Violet, I really couldn't have done all of this without you.” Rider tells Violet and scratches off a few names on his notebook. “I doubt I would have made that delivery on time without you to back me up.”
“Don't mention it, I am always ready to help out my friends and allies.” she casually replied.

The two were, despite the relative danger of the area, walking quite casually together. Rider knew that he could easily bluff the local gangs thanks to his connection with Tenshi, plus a bodyguard with a giant axe couldn’t hurt. Then suddenly, Rider stops as if he was pierced by something.

“Perfect, you are just the type of person I was looking for.” a voice familiar to him says.

These words sent shivers down Rider’s spine for he knew whose words they were. He, nervously trying to hide his fear, turned around and saw a familiar visage.

“Well hello Doctor Iron, what brings you here to this place?” Rider replied, trying to keep his cool as best as he could.

“I urgently need some additional personnel for guard duty for this evening.” Iron replied “You know that I can have very rowdy patients at times, and unfortunately I have urgent business elsewhere.”
“But why me!?” Rider complained.
“I need someone reliable that is both literate and perceptive enough to handle these duties, and you are the only one who I can take on such short notice.” she responded.
“Can’t your assistant handle it without me?” Rider asked, desperately trying to weasel himself out of this.

Little did Rider know, but the Doc has needed him and his compliance, and fast.
“Do you at least know the name of the one who defeated at least 60 different gangs in the Syndicate today?” she asked, hoping to get him to take the bait.
“Oh yeah, it must have been Tenshi’s doing!” Rider quickly replied. “She reminds of how my group’s work when we just rode across the wastelands an-”
“So you were part of the notorious Desert Raiders!” Iron said, seeing an opening.
“Desert Rangers, Doc. And next time- ah!”

Rider, despite protests, is dragged by the neck to the hospital, while Violet cautiously follows from a distance.

After being dragged around for a while Rider eventually loses consciousness and later wakes up on a hospital bed.
He looks around and sees Violet sitting on the chair in front of him. Seeing that he has a friend to watch his back, he breathes a sigh of relief and stands up from the bed.

Violet, seeing that he is now awake, decides to fill him in on what happened: “The scared doctor with the prosthetic arm says that she accidentally choked you out.”
“Yeah, accidentally, right.” Rider says, and massages his neck to make sure it wasn’t too damaged.
“Has this happened before?” Violet asks.
“Yes, I was forcibly volunteered for this type of guard duty a few times before.” Rider replies. “I did my best to avoid them during these times. At least my boss compensated me for my hard work, unlike team SALVA over here.”
“Did you share some sort of history with these two?” Violet asks.
“Not really, as far as being neighbours of sorts is concerned.” Rider replies. “If anything, almost all of it involves my boss and one of his relatives. Apparently something happened around two years ago.”

Hearing these words reminds Violet that she was waiting for him to wake up to tell him something important.
“Speaking of your boss, he wanted to send you the message that his deal with Agnes failed to go through. He also said that he’d hope that you won’t mind if his other client gets to sleep on your bed.”
“Sure, of course I don’t mind.” Rider says as he sends the text message to his boss, seeing no need to keep that type of secrecy from the more standard electronic communication. “I just hope he isn’t going to offend Tenshi the same way I think he offended Agnes.”
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“Let’s just say that there is more than one good reason causing my current employer to hire me as a precaution.” he replies.
“And what were you doing before? What caused him to hire you?” Violet asks.
“Vigilantism and courier work, nothing too special compared to what I do nowadays.” he responds. “I actually first met him in a far nicer hospital in Eastside.”

He then looks towards the window and says: “Crap, it is dark already!”

Rider then hands over a pistol to Violet.
“Take this, you may need to deal with enemies from afar.” he says. “There are a lot of crazies in places like this. Not that I doubt your skill with the axe, but let’s just say you want to stay as far away as possible from some of them.”

Violet takes the pistol from Rider, quickly examines it, and hides it near her waist.

“Looks like you do know your firearms after all.” Rider comments. “I’ll communicate with you on short-wave radio from now on. Stay on the first floor while I take the second and third, be ready to call for help whenever you see anything slightly fishy.”
“Got it.” Violet says and the two parted ways.

Over the hours of their respective patrols Rider and Violet frequently went on to check each other’s status.

“I see nothing of the ordinary.” Violet says to Rider over the radio. “Is this hospital always like this?”
“No, it is never this quiet.” Rider replies. “I usually get to kill a monster or tranquilize a rowdy thug by now.”

Some time has passed and it was now midnight.

Rider, who was anxious all this time, has had enough.
“The air surrounding this place is bothering me. I know that there is something massively wrong with this place! I had enough of this, I am going to kill the witch and anyone who gets in my way!” he said to himself as he put on his gas mask and got his submachine gun ready to strike at anything that came his way.

The halls felt incredibly empty compared to how many patients it was supposed to have. Worse still, now power went out on the third floor, where he was on. He relayed this info to Violet and then thought to himself: “I always knew that there was something intrinsically wrong with this place. Now that I can confirm this, I will go all out.” and aimed his gun forward.

Despite it being fairly dark, Rider noticed the enemy first. He quickly took a few shots at the creature in front of him. “Finally!” he thought to himself. “I get to kill some- wait, I should control my bloodthirst in this type of place. Best to keep my cool lest I make a mistake, or worse, lose myself in the fight.”

Hearing some sort of painful groan and clanking sounds of metal, he fired a few more shots in the same direction.

He ran out of bullets in his first clip, and as he was reloading heard the sounds of choking in one of the nearby rooms. Despite knowing of it being a sign of almost certain danger, he ran towards it. His gas mask certainly boosting his confidence.

On his approach he noticed that there was some sort of large rat-like figure with a dagger which was about to finish off a fallen foe. He fired towards it, and by groans, could tell he heavily wounded the creature rather than outright kill it. “It ran off before I could finish it off, dammit!” he said out loud without much thought.

Rider, because of the poor visibility, had to rely on sound to figure what was happening around him. The choking of patients on the beds and a body lying on the floor told him that some form of poisonous gas was in the air and quickly filling up the floor.

“It seems that she’s breathing just like me, but not for long.” he thought to himself. And as the door slammed shut behind him, he had only one option left. “The only way out now is down!”

Rider took out his emergency explosives, quickly placed them on the floor. He ducked and detonated them, opening a hole in the floor. He quickly jumped down while carrying the woman off in his arms.

While still being in the air, Rider took a brutal stab to the back and fell off balance landing upon the woman he rescued.

Rider desperately tried to get up despite the wound in his back, but after the short struggle it seemed as if his struggles were in vain.

“Foolish man-thing!” said the voice from behind. “You-you tried to kill me-me! But you-you deal none other than the great-mighty Sneek Quikstab! You will stop-deny me-me from getting my prize no further-longer! Night runners, kill-kill them!”

In a still moment, Rider desperately tried to gather all the strength that he could to face his foes. But yet again, he failed.

And then, just about to give up, he heard a voice: “You need to continue fighting, lover boy!”

Somehow these words enraged Rider, and it forced him to stand up and face the accuser. He tried to reply, but ended up choking out nothing but blood. He saw two ratmen-like creatures standing in front of him, turned towards the would-be accuser.

Sneek, being insulted far more than Rider or his two henchmen, yelled at the mysterious stranger: “Who are you-you to stop me-me?!”

The mysterious stranger, being of very tall built, crouched and showed a small crystal ball in his left hand with some sort of green gas inside to Quikstab. He then said: “Dropped this?”

The ratmen forgot about their intended two targets, and charged at the stranger.

After a split second, Rider saw two flashes of a crimson blade, and both Quikstab along with his two Night Runners were slain.

“Thanks, Samuel.” Rider said as he was recovering, assuming the man in front of him was the client of his boss. “But I thought you were more of a gun over blade guy.”
“It is Rodrigues, you are mistaking me for someone else.” Sam replied. “The Sam that you know as well Violet has informed me about the matter at hand.”

Violet has entered the room, carrying her now bloodstained axe. She then said: “The enemy has used jamming to interfere with the communication in this building.” and handed over some sort of electronic device over to Rider. “Almost nobody was injured on the first floor, but save for us everyone on the second, third, and fourth floor are dead.”

While listening to Violet, Rider notices that somehow his back pain is gone, and upon taking off his gas mask he managed to recognize that his healer was none other than-
“Anne?” he said, to his surprise. “You of all people are going to heal me?”
“Well, of course, you are the one who saved me from the cloud of poisonous smoke and shielded me from these assassins.” she replied.

“Assassins, right.” Rider, desperately not wanting her to find out that he was out to kill her less than five minutes ago, yelled out to Violet: “Violet, help me out!”

She responded: “Helping those you love is a noble cause, for I too would readily throw myself in danger all the same.”

“Crap!” Rider thought to himself. “I caught this woman’s interest! Last thing I want is to attract a Sinner’s long-term interest! I need to try something else.”

“Hey Sam, do you know anything about these ratmen?” Rider asked. “I have never seen anything like them before.”

Samuel held his chin, and responded: “Well, if you want to know who we just fought right now, then remember these creatures by their name: Skaven.”

Chapter Text

“The City of Sinners, it has been a week since I first came here. So, how did I get there? Well, Agnes summoned me. Told me about her past and why she needed a petty thief like me in this world. I couldn’t refuse, knowing that I was stuck having to help miss puppy eyes anyway.”

Garrett takes a couple of quick looks around. As nobody has taken the note of his behaviour, he continues monologuing.

“The first thing I did for her? Help her with directions. Trivial, really. After that we had a run-in with some of the dangerous elements, but we managed to persevere. Despite the differences between us as to who we are, we managed to get along pretty well.”

Garrett steps into a shady alleyway. He then continues walking down while making sure that he isn’t being watched.

“Knowing that we needed local allies, I got to work. While she played the role of some travelling singing idol, I lurked in the shadows collecting whatever the secrets of this world that I could.”

Garrett drops down into the storm sewers. He crouches to get through the pipe and does his best to avoid stepping into the recent rain’s water.

“Eventually, after robbing a few of the affluent locals, I found someone who could resell the goods I stole that I didn’t need. Compared to everyone else I’ve met in this city, Tony is the most reliable ally I could find in this type of place. After I performed an errand for him by stealing a powerful artifact from a rival gang, a job that was trivial for me, he asked me to bring Agnes to him. The sole problem with that being is that my absence caused her to get captured. Luckily for her, she didn’t even need my help all that much.”

Garrett climbs out of the sewers into another alleyway, and takes a look around at the surroundings. He starts positioning himself for an angle to his next destination.

”Well, she did need to summon Rita’s help instead, the frost maiden with a scythe. From my understanding she’s sort of a warrior that dealt with a situation similar to that of this world. With the sight of her battle prowess I could tell that Agnes decided to take on my advice of summoning a few additional fighters to bolster our ranks for the inevitable fights. I could also tell that she was now accepting summoning for the bodyguard for Tony that could beat anything that the Syndicate could throw at him in a one-on-one duel, as I promised to him that I would get Agnes convinced to do so.”

He stops, fires a rope arrow, and starts climbing up on it.

“Alongside Rita, the two warriors summoned were named Violet and Sam. Violet, a woman of the soldiery type, went with Tony’s subordinate entirely out of her own will as well as to monitor the powerhouse that is Tenshi. Tenshi also has a mysterious ability to sense when Agnes uses her pendant, but that is something beyond my understanding. Sam, the duelist, was someone I had trouble getting a read on. There is one I could tell, he is getting along with his namesake pretty well, and has agreed to be Tony’s bodyguard at least for the moment. The other Sam, Tony’s client, is definitely someone I should keep an eye for.”

Garrett is now on the roof. He cautiously approaches his final destination.

“Tony, as good of a boss for this place is, has some tendencies that made work between him and Agnes difficult. I was listening to his conversation with her. Tony, from the sounds of it, must have done something that greatly offended her. I barely managed to dodge Tony’s body as Agnes threw him out of his office within his garage, but fortunately Rita was there to catch him. After that, she simply left in anger along with Rita. Seeing that reconciling the two was not possible at the time, I left as well. Just as all hope was lost, Faye has chosen to give me the critical info herself. I could clearly tell that there was some catch, but she just brushed me off. So, a challenge meant to test me it is.”

Garrett sneaks into the 9th Agency from the roof. “Now, onto the passcode.” Garrett says casually and takes out a keycard. He swipes it at the magnetic lock, and opens the roof door.

Garrett spent minutes sneaking around the building to get anywhere near his intended destination, trying to avoid being caught on camera, he then thinks to himself: “This building is suspiciously empty. I thought that a place in a large densely populated area of high importance would be far more guarded, even on a weekend night. There is something about the placement of these cameras. Did they replace all the night guards with these? Of course not, then that means…”

“There you are!” a female voice was heard and a flash almost blinded Garrett. Thinking quickly, Garrett dropped a smoke bomb and ran from the scene.

Garrett, upon seeing a few scattered folders on the floor, says to himself: “I finally managed to find someone in this building, but since I only have one pursuer I may as well take the opportunity to gather whatever is useful on my way.” He then picks a few of them and hides it in his possession.

Garrett then ran for a while until he managed to trick his pursuer to run past his new hiding location: a janitor’s closet. In the closet Garrett managed to catch a glimpse of his pursuer: a masked woman that looked like she belonged on the local streets rather than a secret organization.

Garrett knew that a place like this would ordinarily be locked when unattended, but with the janitor being dead inside it that wasn’t the case.
“Poor guy, all he was is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Garrett said quietly. “I must do my best to avoid his fate.”

Seeing that the coast was now clear, he exited the closet and thought to himself: “I can’t really tell this kind of crazy woman as to who I am and why she should give up the pursuit of me, so best I steal the info I came to get and get out of here. Worse yet, she might think I’m the killer and try to hold me in place long enough for the real killer to strike.”

He double-checked to see if his trick worked, and surely enough his path to his ultimate destination was clear.

To Garrett’s convenience, the Central Data Room was unlocked. But Garrett knew that it came at a price: being caught in the sight of the one who was inside would end him instantly. The trail of blood into the room told him that.

“Tony says all I have to do is put this stick into the right slot, but the problem is that I have to do so in such a way that won’t get me noticed.” Garrett told himself, and then, upon hearing a scream inside the room said: “Worse yet, I don’t have the luxury of time.”

Garrett had only one thing he could do. He drew an arrow from his bow, and fired it.

Splash!

The already darkened room went pitch black, and Garrett had to use the precious few seconds to do what he came to do.

Swoosh!

Garrett, upon placing the item he came in with where he needed to place it, he quickly ran out of the room while the assassin he could tell was inside was still distracted.

He quickly runs out of the building through the nearest side exit, using smoke bombs as cover against the newly placed cameras.

But, just as Garrett left, he got caught in a trap. As soon as he exited the building, a flash of light blinded him.

“There, I finally caught you, assassin!” the masked figure yelled at Garrett, who was still recovering. “If you dare to run now, I and Garofano will finish you off!”

The masked woman swept off Garret’s mask, making him fall downstairs. She then pulled hers down to yell something into the building.

“Crap, I recognize her now, that’s the nosy journalist Pine I heard about.” Garrett thought to himself as his senses recovered, hearing someone running to their position. “She must have been so fixated on trying to catch me that she didn’t notice the presence of the real killer in the building. Luckily for me she is waiting for her partner to show up to apprehend me, a hesitation I must exploit. I cannot fight her with my bow at this range and angle, I must either fight her up close with my sword or flee!”

He tried to stand up, but a projectile struck him down and pushed him from the exit further. Forcing him to groan in pain, Pine must have yelled something at him, but he couldn’t hear out what it was.

And then, Garrett’s opponent paid the ultimate price.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Garrett saw the shocked expression of Pine as she was stricken down by three sharp green projectiles. She was now falling towards him.

His opponent barely clung to life, but Garrett knew that she would be finished off by the assassin quickly along with him. Using this opportunity, Garrett forced himself through the pain to stand up.

In a flash, the assassin strikes the blow against Pine, finishing her off. Garrett, in desperation, draws his sword and blocks the sword strike meant for him.

To Garrett’s surprise the assassin had a third blade and it was aimed right at him. He knew that he couldn’t block it in time.

Just then, as all hope was lost, a phantom that Garrett saw Rita employ earlier appeared to block the assassin’s third blade!

“We-we will see each other again, Snikch will return.” the assassin says to Garrett, and disappears from the scene.

Garrett, who felt that he was a hair away from death, breathed a sign of relief, and then said: “Rita, so you were watching me after all.”

“Well, only to make sure that nobody went after you after the mission was done.” she replied. “Can’t let our best espionage expert die so easily.”

Garrett raised an eyebrow, but then Rita continued.

“Well, I am actually here to relay a message to Agnes from Master Stone; he discovered a lot of information about our enemy: Skaven.” she said. “Like the one you fought off just now.”

“Yeah.” Garrett thinks back about what just happened as he drinks a healing potion Agnes made for him. “We should get out of here, because I doubt we could explain this to the local authorities so easily.”

Rita and Garrett flee from the scene, eventually parting ways.

A couple of hours later, Garrett makes it to the rendezvous point to meet Tony at Carmen’s Cappuccino cafe. Having a spare key in his possession, he makes it in through the back entrance.

Garrett, hearing noises that he finds suspicious, approaches carefully.

He finds a red-headed woman with four goons questioning him.

“Macchiato, I told you that I don’t want this place to become like THAT place.” Tony said to the woman. “I must have at least SOME standards.”

“Oh, really? Minutes earlier you were telling me that you were more than happy to make me your new girlfriend and whatnot.” she replied. “Because if we are to become a couple, you must be able to satisfy my urges, just like I must satisfy yours.”

She licks her whip in an attempt to coerce him, either through intimidation or allure. Garrett, seeing this, decides to take the action of rescue onto himself. “Looks like I need to save him. That man is a walking hazard to women when he is left unsupervised.”

He takes out his blackjack and sneaks up to the woman as she’s self-indulging. He swings and knocks her out.

Thump!

As Macchiato lay on the floor unconscious, her goons gave an angry look towards Garrett’s direction, who quickly fled the room.

As they were about to run after him, Tony decides to intervene.
“Excuse me, but I believe that you have some unfinished business with me.” Tony told them.
“Oh, really?” one of the goons told him. “You and what army?”

Tony smiled, and snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, the room was brightly lit and the four goons were surrounded by eight of Tony’s goons.

A fight ensued, and without Macchiato’s support her demoralized and outnumbered goons were quickly beaten. Two fled the scene, two were accidently KO’d onto her unconscious body.

Rita claps to Tony and the gang “Well, it seems that you didn’t need my help here. But for you boys, I will take care of the clean-up.”

Knocked-out Macchiato and two of her goons get tied-up and thrown into the basement by Rita, giving them the peace of mind for their upcoming meeting.

***

Langley returns to the 9th Agency, with pure horror and shock as to the gory sight that was before her eyes: an arrangement of various heads of men and women lay before her, along with a distinctive triangular symbol in the front of the collection painted in blood.

After the initial shock waned down, her emotions were quickly replaced with pure rage.
“Who the hell did this!? These were some of the best hundred men I’ve had! Two Sinners executed just so easily on top of that too?!” Langley yelled out loud.

“We don’t know ma’am, there wasn’t any indication of anything being wrong until the malfunction in the Data Center!” one of the men on the scene told her.

“Get to work.” she said, grinning with her teeth “I need you to find anything and anyone that can tell me what happened here, and find any potential survivors of these events!”

“Yes, ma’am!” multiple of her subordinates said in unison and scattered all around the building.

Langley finds something that catches her eye. She then picks it up. She smirks. “It seems that someone has answers to our questions after all.”

Chapter Text

After a long walk through the sewers, Hecate finds herself next to the sewer exit.
“There you are, the destination will be in front once you climb up this ladder.” the blind hag says.

Hecate walks up to and checks up on the ladder. She then realizes something. “Wait, who am I supposed to-” Hecate says as she turns around, only to find that the hag was no longer there. “...look for.”

Knowing that she wants to leave the sewers anyway, Hecate decides to climb up the ladder. She opened the hatch and noticed that it was now the sunrise of a new day. She then looks around and sees a lot of sand and construction equipment, as well as a large house that looks like it had better days.
She tries to assess the situation: “The beach looks like it is under construction, the house must have been standing here for quite a while. It was probably marked for demolishment, but apparently someone still lives here.”

She exits the sewers onto the beach. Taking a look around again she then cautiously walks forward on the sand towards a beachhouse.

As she makes it to the building, she then knocks on the door.
“You may come in.” an elderly male voice was heard from the building as soon as she finished knocking.

Hecate then checks on the door, and seeing that the door was seemingly safe and unlocked, walked in.

The interior of the house and the elderly man in front of her were creepy, especially with the staff he was holding. She looked at this man with great suspicion, but since the old man in front of her nonetheless seemed hospitable enough she decided to relax herself.

“Kemmler. Heinrich Kemmler.” he politely introduces himself to Hecate and offers her his right hand.
“Hecate.” she politely replies and reluctantly shakes his hand.

“Would you like to drink some tea, Hecate?” Heinrich asks.
“No, thank you.” Hecate responds.
“I insist.” Heinrich says, “You need to be fully awake for what I am going to show you.”
“Okay, I do feel a bit sleepy.” Hecate accepts, reluctantly.

Heinrich smiles and says: “Please wait in the guestroom to your left, I will be right back.”
He then leaves the room.

As Heinrich left for the kitchen, Hecate decides to heed his request and left to the guestroom.

As she entered the room, Hecate’s eye caught onto a large skeletal figure inside. Then, after a bit of examining of the mostly ordinary room, what initially looked to be a decorative statue then suddenly twitched its bloody fist, making Hecate feel unnerved.
As she was about to summon Nightmare, Heinrich yelled from the kitchen: “Please don’t upset Krell, he doesn’t like when sorceresses he doesn’t know look at him funny!”

Krell silently stares at Hecate, his eyes seemingly glowing in eerie blue light, forcing her to look away from him as she sits down on the couch in front of the TV. She remained motionless until Heinrich entered the room.

“I see you are already accustomed to the magic box.” Heinrich said and handed her a cup of black tea. “Krell, hand me the remote.”

Krell tossed him the remote with his left hand, which Heinrich easily caught to Hecate’s amazement. Heinrich then turns on the TV.

Hecate notices that the TV isn’t displaying an ordinary TV channel, as it was showing a group of ratmen similar to the one that she saw previously in what seems to be an interior of a submarine.

“The doctor-sage said-said that it-it must be here!” yelled the rat in red armor and a distinctive trophy rack. “Ska, how many slaves do we-we still have left-left?”

“These rats can talk!” Hecate exclaimed, and upon seeing Heinrich’s unamused face said “I apologize.” while looking away.

“One, he has his breathe-air gear-thing ready-ready!” Ska, the very big rat in red armor, said proudly.

“Doc-doc, is the thing-thing really here in this location-place?” the ratman with the trophy rack asks the human skull that he is holding. “It is close-close, yes? You say-speak that I must dive-dive for it myself? No-no, I hate-hate dive-swimming!”

“Queek, are you-you sure this place has much-much warpstone?” the warlock engineer asks, unamused at Queek’s behaviour.

“The doc-sage says yes-yes!” Queek yells and throws the last skavenslave into the diving pool, accidentally hitting the camera which was secretly recording the affair in the process.

“Well, that ended abruptly.” says Heinrich and switches the channel.

On the new channel, Snatz and Crittcin discussing seemingly trivial things while drinking beer with each other and eating some sort of strange meat.
Upon taking a closer look Hecate notices that the meat indeed is of Corruptor origin, causing her to feel nauseous.

“Mister Greyfur, do you-you know what time-hour it is?” asks Crittcin.
“Mister Throatcutter, it is five in the morning-dawn.” says Snatz.
“And what are we-we going to do in sixteen more-more hours?” asks Crittcin.
“We-we are going to stab-kill them all, and take their precious thing-thing!” says Snatz.
“And what-what is their precious thing-thing?” asks Crittcin.
“It is their sh-.” replies Snatz, but suddenly stops and turns around with Crittcin.

“Precious thing, what could they possibly refer to.” Hecate says as her heart was

“What are you-you doing?” asks the Skuttle Slynker, the frustrated Eshin Sorcerer, to the duo. “You two-two need to prepare for the mission, as Lord Gnaw has to rest-rest.”
“Who will lead-lead?” asks Crittcin.
“It will be led by Snatz...” the sorcerer replies, causing Snatz to look up in delight.
“...Blight.” finishes the sorcerer, causing Snatz to silently grumble.

“That’s enough.” said Heinrich, turning the TV off. “So, Hecate, what did you learn?”

“That the rats can talk.” said Hecate dryly.

Heinrich laughs. “You need to look deeper and…”
He stops and then looking at his staff says: “We don’t have much time left?”

“Okay, I’ll go.” Hecate says, as she turns towards the exit.

“Before you go, young one. Remember: you must not tell of our conversation to anyone else, for both your safety and mine.” Heinrich says. “You are free to return whenever your wish to test your knowledge.”

Hecate departs, thinking of what the old man told her.
“Now then.” Heinrich says seeing Hecate out of sight. “For YOUR test.”

***

Tony’s office. The man himself was sitting in the big fancy chair on audio call with two participants that were on the need to know basis with him: Faye and his designated hacker affably named Munchkin. Rita and Samuel Stone were standing in front of the presentation screen. Samuel Rodrigues, Agnes, and Violet were sitting on the left side of the large table. Rider was sitting at the back of the table next to the projector, with Anne sitting next to him on his right on a spare chair. Four of Tony’s personal bodyguards were also in the room, as was Garrett.

“Good morning everyone. As you can see, this is an urgent meeting.” says Rita and looks at the speaker next to Tony. “Can everyone hear me?”
“Loud and clear!” Faye’s voice echoes across the room.
“Okay, Master Stone, you may now start.” says Rita and gives Rider the wink.

Rider turns on the projector, allowing Sam to start the presentation:
“During my leisurely stroll from the previous evening I discovered a piece of strange graffiti.” says Sam and continues his story. “Thanks to NETRISCA’s analysis it was quickly deciphered and that it was left by a race alien to this world: the Skaven.”
“While many of us in the room are also not of this world,” interjects Rita, “it is still our duty to prevent a calamity that this world is unable to bear.”

Rider changes slides, and Stone continues his speech. “Skaven motives are fairly simple. They desire two things: food and the substance they call warpstone.”

Anne looks at the slide that was detailing warpstone in detail and raises her hand.
“Is that mania essence by chance?” she asks.

“Not really, the chittering of these mad evil rats tells me that it is merely a substitute for the real thing.” a voice behind Anne answers.
Rider turns around to see who it was and says: “Oh hi, Tenshi.”

“You’re late.” Garrett scolds her as she enters the room proper. “Rita went out of her way just to find you.”
“Sorry about it, I got lost.” Tenshi says as she sits down, and proudly displays a green rock saying: “I finally found the thing you were asking me about.”

“So that’s warpstone. It feels like a twisted parody of what I know from my world.” Agnes comments, silently staring at it with disdain.

“How different from mania essence is it?” Munchkin asks.
“Not much.” Tenshi replies. “A spade is a spade whether it is red or green.”

“Ahem, now back to our topic at hand.” Rita says to gain the attention of the audience. “The Skaven are more than mere ratmen of rabid hunger, they are a race consciously led to destruction by an evil god.”
“The high priests of their race, the wizards known as Grey Seers seek to bring their god to this reality.” Stone comments.
“Fortunately for us they also seem to be quite cowardly, and thus have remained underground up to now.” Rita says. And, after a moment adds: “In most cases.”

“So, how many of these Skaven are there?” Tony asks.

“Well, Stone?” Rita asks Stone.
“Somewhere between 2.1 to 20 million.” Stone replies.

Tony grins and stands up from his chair, and turning to Samuel Rodrigues asks: “And how many did you kill in the hospital?”
“I don’t know, all you asked me there to do was to, and I quote: not let my subordinate be killed, by any means ne-”
“Fortyseven.” Violet interjects.

Tony says “Oh.” and quietly sits down. He then remains silent for a minute as Sam and Rita present various types of Skaven they managed to dig the info about.

Nobody in the room was nervous at all about the Clanrats. Similarly to Clanrats, the only notable reactions to Skavenslaves were that of pity and disdain. Stormvermin got some attention, but the only two people who expressed any concern were Garrett and Rider. Night Runners got Tony’s bodyguards nervous, since their great speed and stealth was something difficult for them to account for. “Wolfrats” got far more attention, with their biological abomination traits making Anne and Rider visibly nervous as well.

As soon as the presentation came to the Poison Wind Globadier, Anne audibly gasped. Knowing that he was no longer the most nervous person in the room, Tony regained his confidence.

“Well, it seems we got a sizable info on the types of enemies.” says Tony.

“Correct.” says Rita. “But there is one type of Skaven we managed to meet. The type that mastered their affinity with the shadows. The Skaven Assassin. Their scrying suggests that there is also an elite rank known as Master Assassin, of which there are multiple. And the one on top is known as the Deathmaster…”

“Snikch.” Garrett comments by saying the dreaded name.

“Well, it seems that we will need to train the newbies on how to best deal with them.” says Tony. “Show of hands, does anyone in the room have military training?”

Sam Stone, Violet, and Rider raise their hands up.
Upon seeing the show of hands, Tony proclaims: “The three of you wi- Rider, check the door.”

As Rider got close to the door, Iron barges in, slamming Rider in the face and forcing him to roll over on the floor. As Violet rushed to his rescue, he gave the sign that he was fine and got up by himself.

Iron gives Anne a hug.
“Are you okay, did they hurt you?” she asks. “I hope he didn’t try to brainwash you with this nonsense.”

Seeing the hostile attitude from Iron towards Tony, everyone save for Tenshi braced for an inevitable. While very few knew what where the circumstances that led to their feud, and there was no time to speculate as to how it came to be.

Tony signals his men to hold fire, trying to avoid further.

However, Iron mistaken this as an order to put her down,. And in a mix of rage and desperation she strikes at Tony in rage.

Slash!

All eyes were on Tony, who to almost everyone’s surprise was seemingly fine. The man himself was the most surprised of them all, with only both Samuel Stone, Rita, and Tenshi doing more than barely a flinch.

“You are looking towards the wrong direction.”

Everyone’s eyes shifted to Samuel Rodrigues, and then they shifted down onto the floor that he was looking at. It was Doctor Iron lying knocked out cold on the floor, with her mechanical arm separated from her body.
Stone was the first one to comment on the sight: “You know, the last doctor I met lost his arm in a freak accident too.”

As Anne storms out of the building in anger, Rider runs after her.

As Rider departed, however, he found himself under the barrel of a gun.
“You are coming with me, whether you like it or not.” the voice said, to which Rider promptly surrendered.

Tony dismisses Sam with Rita assigned to watch over him.

“So, Master Rodrigues, it seems that we will be working together for now.” comments Rita.
“Yes, we do.” replies Sam.
“I have a proposition, Master Rodrigues.” says Rita. “If we are not in a position to play the hero, then perhaps the way forward is to play the villain?”
“And what do you propose?” he asks.
“I overheard of one person who is the keystone that holds the chains of reality together.” she says. “So we must kidnap her tonight.”

Samuel smirks.
“Well, I do like the way you think.” he says. “Besides, I do have a plan…”

Chapter Text

Eastside, early evening.
A colourful trio consisting of a brown-haired blue-robed mystic, a blonde man in heavy red armor, and a beautiful woman of dark complexion and a green modest dress.

“Hour of doom approaches, for Death and the Moon are on the approach." says the mystic as he takes out a round talisman and puts it back into his pocket. “Leon, you will get the duel you sought soon enough.”
“Great.” says Leon. “Valerio, but I don’t imagine you brought us to the so-called good side of town just for that, did you?”
“Right you are.” says Valerio. “We are here because our help will soon be needed.”
“Really? That’s odd.” says Leon. “But I trust you on this one, boss. I bet Yasmin feels the same way, right?”
“Yes, but what should I do?” Yasmin asks.
“Stay in reserve.” says Valerio. “You’ll never know when someone unexpected tries to ambush us, such as the ratmen…”

He then looks at the building known as the Bell Tower, as it was built by an architect of that name and it towered above most of its nearby buildings.

Meanwhile in said building, Hecate entred an elevator and pressed the button to go to the 29th floor. Her task was simple: protect the one she cherishes the most - the Chief of MBCC. As she started to go up, she got a call from Nightingale.
Naturally, she answered.

“Hecate, are you still sure you want to be part of this mission?” asks Nightingale. “Considering what happened last night it was a miracle that you managed to come back alive, let alone unscathed.”
“I am fine, I won’t let myself fail again.” Hecate says.
“We lost many people as missing, wounded, and even dead last night, including Pine and Garofano.” says Nightingale.
“Because I am the only one who can protect Chief.” Hecate said with complete confidence.
“Right.” says Nightingale. Before she could say anything further, she now was the one receiving a call. “Hold on, I am getting an incoming call from Faye, I’ll put her on now.”
“Hello there, I just need your permission for something.” says Faye. “You know the list I sent to you earlier today?”
“What do you need this much alcohol and food for?” asks Nightingale.
“You see, I happened to have hired a few bodyguards, but they don’t trust the local currency.” Faye says.
“But that much food would be enough to feed a thousand people for a month, and- Faye?” Nightingale questioned her, but Faye quickly hung up before Nightingale could further question her.

Hecate exited the elevator. She saw that Rahu and Angell were already at their posts, blending in with the more mundane security guards. Labyrinth took a more relaxed approach by serving as a waitress, serving Hamel who was there as well. Additionally Matilda was in a nearby building providing sniper support.

She knew that there would be some sort of plot at work, and she was the one who had to thwart it.

The one who was brewing this plot? It was none other than Grey Seer Thanquol. He managed to convince a group of evil humans led by a man named Hans to kill the Chief for their own ends, and with the help of Clan Skryre’s technomancy he is able to help them to coordinate this scheme-plot.
“We are ready, boss.” Hans says.
“Yes, yes.” says Thanquol. “As soon as you-you start, we-we will join you in this fight.”

As soon as Thanquol hung up on the receiver, he told his co-conspirator Fylch Sharptail: “Once they killed-slain the she-Chief, kill-slay them all. These man-things are not to be trusted, especially with warpstone.”

Fylch grinned and readied his lightning claws, for he would have done much the same.

Meanwhile, Rita Rossweisse and Samuel Rodrigues had their own plan they were about to implement, with the help of one local known as “Munchkin” for they were unfamiliar with this city. Being nowhere near as powerful and fast as the duo, Munchkin was assisting them remotely.

“Artemis, Minuano, the target is in sight.” Munchkin says over the comms. He then looks at the main monitor at his computer and continues: “I see that she has at least five bodyguards. It also seems that they have a sniper in one of the nearby buildings that’s currently under construction. It serves as a great vantage point for a professional assassin, but I doubt it is that much of a concern to the two of you.”
“Not at all,” replies Sam. “In fact, that is very helpful.”
“Good, I will continue giving you updates during your mission, good luck!” says Munchkin.

Rita then began to ponder on how to approach their target.
A second after Munchkin once again opened the comms and said:”Hold on, I see a dozen suspicious armed men riding up on the elevator. It looks like they are headed to the party on the floor below you.”

Rita chose to seize the initiative.

Concrete breaks, glass shatters.

Everyone starred at Rita in disbelief. Rahu and Angell in contrast to everyone else around them immediately draw their weapons, while Labyrinth switches herself into battle mode. The distance between Rita and Chief, who was covering herself from the debris, was marginal.

But the first to act was Hecate, who instantly unleashed Nightmare against Rita. Before Nightmare could as much as touch Rita, she casually sidestepped this attack and knocked out Chief in one swift motion.

Hecate was initially shocked by why her target would sidestep her attack. She then realized why: her Nightmare was frozen in place by Rita’s Crescent Harvest.

While everyone was distracted by Rita, one of the elevators opened.
Before anyone could as much as blink, Rita has used this opportunity to grab knocked-out Chief as she ran with her towards the exit!

“Open fire!” Hans yelled to his henchmen, who still were stuck in an elevator, through the radio.

The henchmen aimed and fired at Rita, but Samuel, coming out of seemingly nowhere, blocked all of their attacks and charged right towards them!
Just as he had done so, a shot from outside was fired, forcing him to change directions and retreat from the fight. The henchmen were either too injured to counterattack or were outright dead.

Labyrinth and Angell tried to follow after Rita, but they found their way blocked off by the doors frozen into ice. At the same time Rahu, seeing him as a target, pursued after Sam instead who ran towards the fire exit.

Hans, finally arriving to aid his men, fired his pistol towards Hecate’s direction. She took cover and chose to stay with the local security to fight off the other seemingly unrelated terrorist threat.

As Rita and Sam were climbing on their respective staircases, Munchkin chimed in: “Artemis, Minueno, report! What’s your status?”
“We got the Shrimp,” said Rita.
“But we are being pursued by very insistent guards.” says Samuel as he destroys the stairs behind him. “And it seems they find us to be more of a threat than them.”

Munchkin started to worry about the situation, but something within him told him that it was still going according to plan.

Rita and Samuel were now on the roof of the building, and had now stared down against their pursuers. Rahu and Labyrinth were the first to catch up, quickly followed by Angell.

The trio, seeing their Chief being tied-up, were angry. However, despite their anger, they remained hesitant to strike first, not knowing what the other side was capable of.

But then, before Sam could punish their enemies, Rita said this:
“Wait, I don’t think it is fair to our opponents if we both were to fight them.”
“What do you propose?” asks Sam, stopping the charge of his blade.

Rita takes out an old rusty coin with two sides - that of some seemingly important figure and that with an eagle.

“Eagle or heads?” asks Rita.
“Eagle.” Sam responds, instinctively knowing what Rita’s plan was.

Rita tosses the coin, but Sam wins the contest as it fell on the eagle side. She politely stood back, and Sam stood forward.

Sam starred down his three opponents.

“It looks like it is just me against the three of you.” he says. He then took out his sword and leaving himself somewhat open said “Ladies first.”

Labyrinth starred blankly forward, Rahu stood in the centre, Angell prepared herself to launch a decapitating strike from his left flank.

“There is something strangely familiar about this trio.” Sam thought to himself. “The maid is of the devoutly loyal type, and has undergone extensive cyberization. The scarred woman seems to be a drilled but of uniform, her shields reminding me of someone who would angry if I broke all of them. The assassin trying to flank me undoubtedly killed several people, for I have done much the same.”

Despite his limited intelligence, or perhaps because of it, Munchkin began to worry that this would end in an unfavourable bloodbath.

“Whatever you do, Minueno, don’t kill them!” Munchkin yelled through the comms, being worried that he’ll get in trouble for getting too many people killed.
“Who are you talking to?” a female voice said from Munchkin’s end.
“You know, just a couple of my new friends.” said Munchkin.
“Great.” the female voice said. “You are great at making new friends on this computer of yours.”
“Who is that?” Rita asked Munchkin, surprised by the tone of their dialogue.
“Just a gardener we hired.” Munchkin quickly responds, and quickly mutes his microphone.

“A gardener, in the middle of the desert?” Sam thinks to himself, leaving himself wide open for an attack.

Rahu, seeing an opening, chose to strike first. Angell then quickly followed suit.

Sam effortlessly parried, and mockingly taunted them in return.

In rage, both went berserk towards him, leaving themselves open to attacks. Sam used it to his advantage, for he had done this many times before.

Dozens of slashes later, and both Rahu and Angell were wounded with their weaponry also being heavily damaged.

Labyrinth was also enraged by Sam’s taunt, but before she could act she fell down, for all of her limbs were destroyed, for she was the real first target.

To avoid them being executed, Rita promptly froze the trio into place.
“Well done, you managed to beat all three of them.” she told to Sam. “All we have to do now is to wait for…”
“One minute.” Munchkin said, unmuting himself.

In a last-ditch attempt to save Chief, Matilda chose to fire multiple shots of desperation at Samuel Rodrigues.
But Sam once again quickly blocked the shot without much effort.

Worse, as she was reloading, she saw with her peripheral vision: a cybernetic ratman ninja by the name Veskit, hired by Thanquol to prevent people like her from taking the building. Matilda could tell that it was going to be a desperate struggle.

“Crap.” she said, and started to run from the assassin.

Shots were fired, but nobody except Matilda and Veskit could tell it was an exchange between the,

“Strange.” Sam says. “There is something happening in that building.”
“No time to worry about it,” Munchkin said in response. “Just get Shrimp and yourselves out of there first!”

At the same time Hecate, along with the security guards, managed to fight off the evil men. Seeing their minions fail them, Thanquol chose to send in his small Skaven force to kill off any and all witnesses.

“Die-die now!” Fylch yelled as he charged at Hans from behind with his claws, finishing him off in the process.

Worse still, around sixteen Gutter Runners burst into the room, but there was one other far graver danger…

“Hecate, over there!” Hamel yelled, and pointed towards the horned ratman who just entered the room behind his assassins: Thanquol.

Chapter Text

“Looks like our ride has finally arrived.” Sam says as the one they see the one whom they’ve been waiting for: Tenshi.

Once she has arrived on one of her keystones to the rooftop, she asks: “So, the two of you want me to assist with your kidnapping plot?”
“Yes.” Rita said.
“I’m all in.” Tenshi replied without any hesitation. “Trying to study a world that I just arrived to is hard, so much so that I’d rather fight someone instead. Just give me that… Shrimp person.”
“May I go in for the ride as well?” asks Sam.
“Sure, hop in onto my keystone, Sa-Minueno.” Tenshi replies.

Sam takes Chief into his arms and hops onto Tenshi’s keystone.
“Going down, hold on!” Tenshi says and the keystone carrying them quickly descended down.

“I’ll meet you on the other side!” Rita said to them as they departed.

Rita wasted no time and went towards the stair exit. However, she stopped as she felt a heavy pressure on her soul.

“Hello again.” said a voice behind Rita.
Rita instantly turned around and saw a foe she bested the day prior: Cabernet.
“Now then.” she continued. “Now that I can fina-”
Rita charges straight at Cabernet and headbuts her, causing her to fall down.
After knocking her down she gave her no respite and then proceeded to repeatedly punch her in the face, with such ferocity that it seemed that she forgot about her scythe.
However, she didn’t even need it as she continued beating up the redhead.

Meanwhile Hecate was fighting the fight of her life against a far more versatile magic of Thanquol. Even with the best of Hamel’s assistance, the best that Hecate could do was to slow the onslaught now.

Thanquol was laughing maniacally, knowing that he was winning. He thought to himself: “Yes, yes, foolish she-things! Try to slow down me-me with petty tricks-illusions. I’ll obliterate them all with warp lightning!”

Thanquol charged and unleashed a hellish green bolt and obliterated Nightmare, leaving Hecate in jeopardy.

“Yes, yes! Kill-slay the man-things!” Thanquol cackled as his ratmen slaughtered their way through their foes in a death frenzy. Those who did not escape before then were cut down to a man.

Thanquol once more prepared to cast hellish bolts of green lightning, trying to finish off Hecate, Hamel, and the one wounded security guard who still remained.

Then, a loud sound of glass shattering.
“Chekov’s umbrella!” someone yelled out.
“Cheko-wha!” Thanquol screamed as a massive flying machine of unclear making fell upon him, knocking him aside and disrupting his spell.

Thanquol, despite the initial shock, quickly stood back up and took a look at his two new opponents. The first was a woman who looked like a Nuln Gunnery School dropout and a Metal Wizard, who was more concerned about her creation which would even intrigue Ikit. The second one, however, stared him down right in the face: Christina.

Seeing Thanquol stare at him in disbelief, Fylch quickly ran to fix his mistake. For an opponent that he failed to slay meant dangers to his reputation, especially since it was someone he claimed to have gotten her killed.

And then, out of nowhere a lot of large pieces of debris fell on the ratmen, killing them. The fortunes have twisted against Thanquol, and it was just him, Fylch, and a single Gutter Runner left.

Who could have possibly saved them in that instance? Hecate looked out of the now completely destroyed window and she saw Tenshi, who waved at her and quickly left.

“Is that friend or foe?” asks Eureka.
“Both.” Hecate answers, for she saw that Tenshi was accompanied by Chief’s assistant kidnapper.

Seeing his foes distracted, desperate Thanquol pressed a red button and yelled out “You all die-die now!”
To his shock and frustration the button did nothing and in a single “Bamf!” he teleported out of there before he got killed.

This in turn gave the opening that Fylch needed, and he ran for his escape too.

As he ran down the stairs the arrogant Gutter Runner got executed right before him. The executioner was Angell.

Both heavily injured, they had to fight.
Not for their life, but for the other’s death.

Rider rides at full speed with Violet.
“How is your new armor on you, Violet?” asks Rider.
“It fits fine, and it is better than wearing normal clothes for a fight.” Violet answers. “But where did you get this motorcycle from?”
“Uh, I borrowed it.” Rider answered, doing his best to hide his nervous laughter. “Langley was nice enough to leave my interrogation cell unlocked. She grumbled something to her sleep as I left it, giving me an opportunity to look around in her pockets. But since I wasn’t looking as I searched them, she somehow woke up. I quickly filled her mouth with her half-finished coffee, grabbed some keys, and ran for the hills.”
“So you stole it.” asked Violet.
“Yeah, she's definitely going to kill me when she wakes up, but…” Rider replies. “Munchkin, can you hear me? What is going on?”
“Loud and clear.” Munchkin replies. “Thanks to our new friends’ work we’ve been able to get the Shrimp under our control.”
“That’s good, but what are the bad news?” Rider asks.
“Well, we have a Skaven problem, a group of them are currently are i-” Munchkin informs but gets cut off as someone fires at Violet and Rider. Violet did her best to block any shots as the duo stopped, using the motorcycle as cover.

Unbeknownst to any of them, there was more than one group of Skaven that was at work.

As Skuttle Slynker was riding Spinetaker, he noticed a fork in the road of the tunnels they were traversing. Snatz the assassin, Snatz, Crittcin, Azhkin, and several Verminkin halted. Skuttle, knowing that taking a wrong turn could potentially be waste of time, just like hesitating chose the simple route: forward. Luckily for him, he had recently acquired more than enough explosives to make his way through.
“You-you, Azhkin, place explosive-things over there-there.” the sorcerer said.
Azhkin took up the explosives from Snatz and Crittcin and placed them in front of the wall. He quickly runs away behind the wall towards the rest of his group.

Rider, meanwhile, threw a grenade amidst the gunfight.
“Get down, Violet!” he yelled right before the kaboom.

To his shock and surprise, the explosion that followed was far bigger than what was even possible with a single grenade.

Once the smoke and initial shockwaves had cleared, Violet and Rider saw a massive pile of debris and dead bodies.
“Shit.” he said, finally recognizing who the people they were fighting were. “We are the enemies of the Legion now. I may join the warrior heaven soon enough.”

Then, out of nowhere, Horo almost gave Rider his untimely death, but Violet knocked him out of the way just in time using the motorcycle to parry the attack and blocked the blow.

Horo, intrigued about fighting another woman with an axe of incredibly large size, especially for their stature. She gave her a stance indicating that she is ready for their axe-to-axe duel.

But then Violet drops her axe and quickly draws out a pistol. Then, without giving her opponent a briefest window of opportunity to react, she fires.
And again.
And again.
Until she used up all ten shots.

Horo fell down, but she then realized why.
Violet purposefully avoided all her vital areas, and focuses specifically on both of her knees. Seeing her opponent angrily crawl towards her, Violet picked up her axe and Rider and ran away.

Meanwhile, Viskret's pursuit of Matilda bore fruit. Having been forced into a corner, he tore into her with his metal claws and thrown her out from the building.

Badly injured and falling from a massive height, she closed her eyes to accept her fate.

Matilda, no longer feeling the force of her fall, opened her eyes. To her surprise she fell safely.
“Hi.” Tenshi said, still holding on to her.
“Hello.” Matilda awkwardly replied, seeing Sam carrying the kidnapped Chief.

As Violet made it to their intended destination, Rider recovered from his stunned state.
“Great, we now have to fight the Legion now.” Rider said, trying to laugh off his worries. “What’s next, their boss is going to go after us too?”

“The one you should be concerned about is me.” a heavily armored man yelled towards Zoya as
Much to her surprise and frustration, her attacks kept failing to land while his slowly chipped her away. Her rage and frustration made the Legion focus on Leon in turn.

Before any of the Legion members could reinforce their leader, a massive blast of wind knocked them to the ground.

“Why you!” Zoya yelled at the wizard and charged at him with murderous intent. However, the wizard

“Get on the ground and face me, you coward!” Zoya yelled at the flying wizard.
“Ha, no.” the wizard replied as Zoya continued to hurl several objects at his direction for several minutes.

Eventually, the wizard hurled a bolt of lightning against Zoya. But it soon turned out to be a faint, as he used this opportunity to land safely.

“You won’t dare to strike me, our battle is over.” the wizard said and, turning his back, walked away.

Zoya was about to punish the wizard for his arrogance, she felt someone tapping on her shoulder saying: “Hi there!”

Zoya jumped in shock from seeing Tenshi sneak up on her. Her men being unenthusiastic in picking a fight with her. Before she could do anything, one the men yelled towards her: “Hey, boss! The cops are here!”

A chaotic scene ensued as police were trying to keep order and find out what the hell was going on.
Nightingale threw accusations to Sam’s direction, Sam merely yawned in boredom, Matilda desperately tried to calm her down, Tony with his bodyguards arrived to protect his subordinates, Langley and Zoya menacingly starred into Rider’s direction, Rita’s cold aura dissuaded them from attacking, Tenshi picked her nose, Rahu carried broken Labyrinth to the nearby medics, Hecate and Hamel helped out the wounded.

Angell threw a ratman’s head: “Everyone, attention please!”
But despite her feat of slaying a Master Assassin, the chaos of the bickering continued, for she could hardly grab anyone’s attention.

“I am here.” Macchiato said, trying to reassure her allies and to intimidate Tony. Unfortunately for her, she attracted the wrong kind of attention.
Leon came out of nowhere and landed right on Macchiato’s head, knocking her down and stunning her.
Before she could stand up, Yasmin kicked her in the face, letting Leon continue beating her up. Valerio quickly joined in with them. Nobody came to her rescue, as the arguing resumed.

The arguing once again continued as no side would stand down.
It seemed as if no man could end this.
“Oi! Stop what you are doing, and listen to me!” a loud voice yelled.
Everyone turned around.
The one who said that looked superficially similar to a man, but was far larger.

“Who are you?” asks Nightingale.
“My name is Golgfag Maneater, pleasure to meet ya!” the ogre says.

Nightingale, as just about everyone, was weirded out by that answer.
“Uh, miss, we couldn’t find any of the bodies from that explosion.” one of the policemen told her, using the opportunity of long-awaited silence.
“I ate them.” Golgfag confessed.

Silence.
Many onlookers looked in shock and horror as to what he had just said, but it wasn’t too surprising for someone who introduced himself as “Maneater”.

“You have to excuse my friend here.” Faye said. “He says stuff like this all the time, like him wanting to eat a horse.”
“But I would want to eat a horse, it is very fine meat.” Golgfag replies.
The attention now shifted onto Golgfag and Faye, giving time for Tony’s side to give Chief into Matilda’s hands and skedaddle.

Once they were out of the way, Tony directed his team.
“Well, that was certainly a meeting. Rita, Sam, please don’t do anything that reckless, I have a reputation to uphold.”
He paused and turned to a trio of his recent acquaintances.
”And you three…” said Tony pointing at Valerio and Leon. “Are hired. Welcome aboard. Your new orientation will be conducted by…”
“I’ll be taking him.” Tenshi said and, grabbing surprised Valerio, left.

Tony has looked around and just then he realized that his top supporter used the commotion to make a quiet escape.
“Well, boss. It seems we are going to get along just fine.” Leon said, patting Tony’s shoulder.
"Could have been worse, could have been worse." said Tony.

Chapter Text

After hours upon hours of bickering and general confusion, Faye and the reawakened Chief managed to calm all sides down. The two sides came to agreement that they’d settle their differences in a fair and non-violent manner: in a friendly game of baseball.

Tony Stromboli chose Samuel Stone as his captain. Sam, having the practical leadership experience and tactical expertise, began to organize his team.
He chose his namesake to be the starting pitcher and batter, followed by Rita the vice-captain at third base as the second batter, with himself at first base as the third at bat.
Tenshi jumped with joy and hugged Sam when he announced her as the fourth batter at short stop, but a frowned look from Valerio forced her to calm herself down.
Sam then called Violet to the fifth at bat and catcher positions, giving her the additional gear.
Due to the both of them being his fellow outworlders, Sam placed Leon at second base position as sixth at bat and Valerio at centre field and seventh.

Sam pauses for a moment and looks at the last of the eight people in the room: Yasmin.
“Damn, we are one short.” he said.

Garrett bursts in and drags Agnes, who is dressed in a ninja outfit into the room. Once he gets the room’s attention, he then says: “Sorry I’m late, it took me ages to find her.”

Wasting no time, Rita quickly grabbed the two of them and said: “Captain, we got the players we need.”
After much grumbling, Garrett accepted his position on the team and changed into a uniform provided by Tony, taking the eighth spot in the batting order and left outfield in the field; while Agnes took the last position in the batting order and right outfield in the field. Yasmin is placed on the bench.

As the team headed to their dugout, an elderly scared man greeted them: “Hello, I am Gunther and I will be your coach for the day. Generally I only teach kids and teenagers how to play, but today I’m making an exception. I can assume that all of you know how to play?”
Everyone save for Yasmin nods. In response Gunther says: “No worries, I can teach you the basics while you watch the others play. Speaking of which, it is time for you to meet your opponents.”

Both teams exited their dugouts.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for arriving here today on this warm and cloudy August afternoon.” Faye announced to an audience of a few thousand people. “Today you shall witness a titanic clash you won’t see between any other amateur teams! Captains,”

The two captains shake hands, but due to their significant height differences the home team’s captain had to get a stepladder to do so.
“Stone.” Sam says.
“Dolly.” the captain replies.

Tony tries to do the same with Nightingale, but she pouts. However, seeing Chief and Gunther shake hands she decides to repay the favour. The initial lineups of both teams also shook their hands with each other.

As the home team goes back to the dugout, save for their two leading batters, the Outworlders disperse across the field to their positions.

“Play ball.” Golgfag the umpire shouts, and Bai Yi gets ready to bat.

Rodrigues threw his first pitch, which Bai Yi managed to bunt, getting to first right as Violet rapidly threw it to Stone.
“Safe!” yelled Golgfag.

Rodrigues threw his second pitch.
“Ball!” yelled the umpire.
Violet quickly threw it to second base, but Bai Yi got to it before Leon could tag her out.

Rodrigues threw another pitch.
“Ball!” yelled the umpire.
Violet instantly threw it to third base, but the speedster was still declared safe.

Just as Bai Yi gets ready trying to steal home, Sam throws it to Rita instead.
“Out!” yelled Golgfag, as Rita tagged her out.

After the two balls, Sam threw a proper pitch, and Dolly gets a slap hit, but it gets caught by Sam jumping in the air.
Before the enraged captain could try harming the pitcher, she gets dragged away by the umpire as the third batter comes onto the field.

Hella hits a grounder and gets to first base.

Eureka, comes up to bat with a secret weapon: a hollow aluminium composite bat. While only legal by technicalities, it allowed her to easily strike the ball far into the air.
Eureka ran as if she hit a homerun… until Tenshi caught it in the air, forcing switch sides.
“What a bummer, but now I know the bat works.” Eureka says as the sides get switched.

Rodrigues sets up to bat. The lead-off pitcher for the home team is Levy.
“Who is that guy?” Yasmin asks.
“I don’t know, but I definitely find something distasteful about him.” Leon replies.
“There are many you should worry about, but the right outfielder and third baseman seem to be relatively fine people.” Gunther says. “And the catcher too provided you don’t provoke her.”
“They are Matilda, Che, and K.K., correct?” Yasmin asks.
“Correct.” replies Gunther as he checks the lineup sheet. “But there is something bothering me.”
“Eureka?” asks Leon, seeing Gunther point towards second base.
“No,” he replies. “I am worried about the one behind her, Christina.”
Sam Rodrigues gets onto first base.
“What about her? She seems completely fine to me.” Leon replies. “Unless you see something wrong with her, old friend?”
“Hard to say.” Valerio replied. “What worries me more are the ones in their dugout. Her behaviour is that of that of a siren.”

As the discussion went on, Rodrigues hit the ball and got to first base. It was now Rita’s turn. Unlike any of the batters before her, she took the position in the right batting box. The discussion about the opposing team in the dugout continued.
“I see that you can see something that normal men cannot.” said Gunther. “The woman that you are pointing to has indeed caused massive amounts of problems in the past.”
As Gunther said it, Sam used the ball call to steal for second.
“Aside from her, I think our biggest problem is Bai Yi at shortstop.” said Leon.
As he said that, Rita swings and gets on first while Sam takes the other corner.
“Well, good thing we have our own speedsters.” he added. “Without them we’d be in a big trouble.”

As his team in the dugout quietly watched, Stone swung and hit a grounder to third base, getting the bases loaded.
It was now Tenshi’s turn.

Tenshi confidently strolled up to the home plate, received a pitch, and hits a home run, making the score 0-4

Once the Samuels, Rita, and Tenshi finished their victory laps, Gunther came forward as Violet was getting ready to bat. He then told her: “Play it safe, we have a sizable early lead. But do your best to get on base.”
“Got it.” Violet replied.

Violet gets a slap hit, but is out once it gets caught by Hella. She taunts the opposing team as Violet is forced back into the dugout.

Leon manages to get to first base, but once his friend Valerio gets a grounder, Bai Yi and Dolly’s effort get them both put out in a double play.
“Well, we’ll get them next time.” Leon said, being somewhat disappointed in himself.

Starting at the top of second, Christina gets on base for a single.
Levy gets struck out after hitting a couple of fouls.
Che advances the runner to the corner, with himself getting to first base.

Knowing that a dangerous player is coming up, Sam gives K.K. an intentional walk. She feels a bit insulted, but still accepts.

Matilda gets an assist by hitting a grounder to first base, but gets herself out for a 1-4 score.

Bai Yi tries to play the same trick against the pitcher-catcher team, only to get tagged out by Violet after her bunt.
“Out.” Violet says as the umpire yells for the changing of the sides.

Starting from the bottom of second, Garrett gets struck out.
Agnes gets a slap, but due to a running error gets out as well.

“I did my best, we should prepare for our next inning.” Garrett says.
“But Garrett, we have just only started!” Agnes replied.
“Yeah, right. It will take a miracle for this inning to give us any results!” he cynically replied.
Before the home team could get disheartened, Rodrigues gets himself a home run for 1-5 score.
“See? We still have to keep going!” Agnes told him.
“Yeah, it was just a lu-” he says and stops mid-sentence.
Not to be outdone, Rita hits a homer too for a 1-6 score.

Stone hits it far into the right field, and thanks to Matilda’s error he gets to third.
She gets substituted for EMP, as the home team visibly nervous as their initially perfect inning was turning into a disaster.

Tenshi returns to bat only to make another home run, making the score 1-8.

Not to be out done, Violet, Leon, and Valerio all manage to get on base.

As Garrett gets to the plate for the second time in the inning, home team’s dugout is in panic mode.
“This is terrible, we are losing badly.” Nightingale said. “They are having a repeating batter!”
“It’s alright, it is just a game after all.” Chief tries to calm her down. “We just have to play our best. We’d lose nothing if we lose, we are just here to have fun.”
Nightingale calms down somewhat, seeing that Garrett is on his second strike.
Garrett, with some unexpected luck gets Violet to the score and avoids tacking a tackle to get safe on first base, making it 1-9.

As the bases were loaded and Agnes sets up to bat, the wizard at second thinks to himself: “Most people don’t seem to notice, but our luck was not a mere happenstance. While a few may suspect as to that being my doing, only a true mage could see what exactly I’ve been doing. With that power, she could even get us to score.”

Agnes manages to get a solid hit, but due to a running error gets out before she could make it to second base, but not before Leon and Valerio made it to home for a 1-11 score.

Starting at the top of third, Dolly returns to bat and gets to first base.
Hella continues the advance, with the two of them taking the corners.

Eureka gives Dolly her first score due to Anges’ error of throwing it in the wrong direction.
The captain of the home team, despite not being particularly thrilled, was relieved to finally be able to score for 2-11. After all, they too could rally.

Christina loads the bases. The home team felt almost as if the fortunes were finally back on their side.

Levy tries to advance the runners with a line drive, but it then gets caught by the Tenshi who manages to instantly throw it to Rita to out Hella who in turn throws it to Leon to out Eureka.

After the triple play and an early exit made the morale of the home team plummet.
They had to switch tactics.

Bottom of 3, Rodrigues once again manages to get on base.

A time-out is called for a lineup change
Levy replaces KK as catcher, while K.K. is being substituted by the new pitcher: Hecate.

As Rita stepped up to bat, Hecate had said: “Oh, you are approaching me? You think you stand a chance against me?”
“We’d win, keep dreaming.” Rita replied.
“Then come as close as you’d like.” Hecate had said as she threw her first pitch.
Hecate stuns everyone after using the power of Nightmare she catches the ball and pulls off a double play against Rodrigues.
“Out and out!” Golgfag yelled.
“Give me a break.” Rita says, and somewhat disappointedly returns to the dugout.

The captain remains unfazed however, and manages to land a solid hit with a grounder to get past first base, so he ran to base two.
Seeing that it was going to be a close call, slid towards the base.
The second basewoman leapt to catch him with the ball in glove, tackling him.

It was now the moment of truth, did Sam make it?

“Safe!” the umpire yelled.

The Away Team cheered on their captain in unison, while the attendees of the game started whispering at the sight.
Eureka, now weary of the people looking at her lying on top of a Sam in an awkward position, quickly jumped up and returned to her position.

Trying to overcome her embarrassment, she asks Sam: “So, captain? What made you captain, perhaps you have been a captain before?”
“Yes, in fact I was a captain of a spaceship.” Sam calmly replied.
Eureka was intrigued, but she had to focus on Tenshi who just stepped up to bat.

Tenshi’s heroic willpower overcame Nightmare and it flew through it out of the stadium, and she scored a home run for both herself and Sam making the score 2-13.

Violet tries to make a follow-up and almost gets on first base with a grounder, but is out’ed by Dolly.

Top of 4, Che is now the lead-off hitter. He got to second base.
Hecate advances it further, but EMP gets struck out.

It was now Bai Yi’s turn, who with a proper hit advanced to second base and got Che to score for 3-13.

Team captain loads the bases.

Hella goes for an ambitious attempt at a home run, only for it to end with yet another double play from Tenshi and Rita. Hella was visibly disappointed in herself.

Bottom of 4, Leon mirrors Che and gets on first base.

Valerio, seeing that he is about to engage in a mage duel, turned his back towards the catcher and told him: “Do not interfere.”
“And what if I do?” he asked.
The wizard showed him nothing but a flock of his own hair. He then added: “You would not be able to ever get out of your terrible fate.”

Intuitively knowing that the wizard's words were far more than empty threats, Levy was set back.
The umpire had to bring back the sense to them. “Enough fighting, boys. Play ball!”

Hecate threw the pitch, but the wizard didn’t even try to swing at it.
“Strike!” the umpire yelled as Leon quickly rushed to second base.
Hecate threw another pitch, but the wizard remained still.
“Strike!” the umpire yelled as Leon ran to third base.

“What the hell is this man thinking?” Hecate thinks to herself and throws the third pitch.
“Strike!” the umpire yelled, but the ball flew right out of Levy’s glove. Valerio quickly ran to first base and passed it before anyone could find the ball.
“Out of play!” Golgfag yelled as the wizard stole his way to second.

Garrett fails to hit the ball and is struck out.

Agnes is forcibly substituted with Yasmin.
“Go forth and conquer.” Gunther told her as she exited the dugout and stepped up to the plate.
Yasmin gets hit with the ball due to an error, advancing her. Hecate facepalmed out of embarrassment.
“Good job!” yelled Gunther as Yasmin limped to first base.

Sam gets a triple, advancing the trio to home. 3-16
As Leon and Valerio cheered with Yasmin on their mutual win, Rita calmly steps up to the plate

Rita gets to third, getting Rodrigues to score while Stone gets a single, letting Rita score for 3-18.

Hecate, fearing yet another home run, intentionally walks Tenshi.

Violet hits a grounder past third and loads the bases.

Leon gets ready to bat for the second time in the inning.
Ball!
Ball!
Strike!
Foul!
Ball!
Foul!

And then, it struck. The stars have aligned and Leon hit a mighty strike in a perfect position, getting the ball out of the park.
Leon got a grand slam for a 3-22 score.

Valerio and Garrett fail to make any follow-ups, as both got struck out.

Top of 5, the desperate home team substitutes Hecate for Chameleon after Levy’s hit got caught out.

In response, the away team made a pitcher switch for Rita, with Rodrigues now being at third base. Catcher was also swapped for Valerio, with Violet taking his outfield position.

As Chameleon ingloriously gets struck out, she took out her pocketwatch in an attempt to convince the ogre umpire to let her advance.
However, just as she faced him a strong beam of unusually hot and shining light blinded her.
Valerio and Tenshi barely held back their massive laughter as Chameleon’s eyes burned and Golgfag pulled out a red card saying: “Attempting to bribe the umpire is against the rules… but I’ll take your watch anyway.”

The demoralized trailing team failed to score any runs, leading to a mercy rule early victory to the away team. The team captain of the home team, Dolly, was not happy.

Just as Dolly was about to go on a rampage against the opposing team, someone grabbed her from behind.
“Let me go! Let me go!” she yelled and tried to get out of the hold, but much to her surprise and frustration the one who was holding her was far too strong.

She turned around to see who was holding onto her, only to see Tenshi smile upon her. Both teams found the sight amusing.

“Good job, Outworlders!” Tony yelled, and quickly shook hands with all of his players save for Tenshi.
Faye approached him with a stack of cash saying “Here is your cut.” and quickly left.

“Well, can’t say much about our innocence but at least we won’t treat each other as enemies.” says Samuel Rodrigues.
“Agreed.” replies Samuel Stone.

Chapter Text

Hecate is carrying a bunch of flowers. It was a small task, but she and Hella were set out to check on the wounded from a mission that occurred during their game. But then she saw a familiar face of a man that she was desperate to question.
“Wait!” Hecate yells and throws the flowers to Hella.

Leaving Hella far behind, she ran up the stairs to the roof in pursuit of the man she saw.

“So you managed to find me this soon, impressive.” Heinrich comments as Hecate runs up to him.
“No, I was here to see someone else.” Hecate responds.
“Well, so did I then.” he says.

“Mr. Kemmler, about what happened two nights ago. I wanted to ask you a few things.” Hecate asks nervously.

“Fine, I will let you ask me three questions, but be quick about it.” he responds.

“Who are you?” she asks.
“Just an old man who gives advice. That is all.” Kemmler responds.

Hecate, however, remained unconvinced at such a simple answer, and stares back at him in annoyance, indicating that she knows that Heinrich is far more than he leads to believe.

“Fine, I concede.” Heinrich relents. “I came here around six months ago with nothing but my basic possessions and my old friend Krell. For I am not of this world, you see. You have seen others like me, have you not? It is Year 115 in these lands, correct? Regnal years and that of foundings of their nations are common from where I’m from. Seems like your nation is younger than I am.
Next question.”

“What do you know about the hag that led me to your place?”
Kemmler’s response: “I don’t know much about her myself. What I do know from about a month ago when I first met her? Well, she is not of human origin, for her face is more of a mask. It is best for the both of us if you do not provoke her by trying to gaze into her secrets during such a time. Next question.”

“Why are you giving me this information?” Hecate boldly asks. “What is your game here?”
Kemmler snickers. “I just wanted someone worthwhile to talk to.”

As Hella finally catches up to Hecate, she asks: “Who were you talking to?”

Hecate looks around, but all that was of Heinrich disappeared into the mist and shadow.
“An old man, I’m certain we’ll see him again.” Hecate responds.

Hella and Hecate return to their mission: delivering flowers.

“Hey, Enfer, we brought you some flowers!” says Hella, showing her the flowers.

But, contrary to their expectations, Enfer screamed and threw herself out of the second floor building, injuring herself further.
“But these are perfectly normal flowers.” Hecate comments on them, which are completely mundane.

“Quite a puzzle, isn’t it?” a voice behind Hecate commented. “Much like a suspicious letter someone sent me.”
“Oh, Shalom.” said Hecate.
“I have come to pick up Rahu and question her about what happened, but I suppose it won’t hurt if you got to know as well.” she says.

Hecate looks around to try to find out who was where. Looking around she saw four familiar faces: Macciato with a dislocated jaw, Langley with a broken nose and right hand, Zoya with a broken leg, and Rahu with multiple bruises.

“Tell us what happened.” Hecate asked Rahu.
“The green monster beat us.” Rahu says. “It has utterly annihilated us, and captured Mantis once she tried to escape.
“Who could have possibly beaten her in sadism, Zoya in close combat, Langley in ranged combat, you in defence, Mantis in flight and Enfer to make her deeply afraid of flowers?” asked Shalom.
Questioning continued for roughly half an hour, and after then Shalom signed Rahu out of the hospital.

Meanwhile, Assassin Adept Viskt Gnaw, having finally recovered from his wounds a few nights prior, was preparing for his own fight against his new hated rival of Bai Yi.
As he was discussing how best to kill her with his sorcerous sidekick, Deathmaster Snikch himself showed up. He then told them:
“Your new target is a she-thing by the name of Cothelique.”

Viskt could do nothing but silently nod in agreement, and the Deathmaster disappeared.

***

The day that followed it was uneventful. It was now 23:03, August 17th.
Tony has called for a council amongst his most trusted and valuable subordinates. The ones present with the host being his aging and less active father Victor, his old advisor Gunther, recent hires Valerio and Leon, as well as Garrett.

“Gentlemen, I have gathered all of you here this evening for it is an urgent event. Unfortunately, some of us are late, however. Master Serlio, you may begin.”

“Yes, Lord Stromboli.” Valerio responds. “There is a great disturbance in the Aether. The city is doomed, for the end will soon begin. But even if”

“Master Serlio, you said that this city is doomed, what makes you think we still have hope?”

Valerio takes out a bunch of cards and rearranges them. He takes a deep breath, as says:
“When the Almighty Fool proclaims his victory,
When the Devil makes pact with the Sun,
When the dark Strength fells upon the World,
When the hidden Emperor gets Justice’s boon,
When the Hermit seeks the destruction of the Dark Tower,
When the Chariot pulls forth at Empresses’ wake,
When Temperance is brought forth by Death,
When the Mage is guided by the Moon,
When Lovers grants blessings to the Star,
When Hanged Man and High Priestess face their sin once more,
When the Hierophant of Stone finds his Fortune’s Wheel,
The Nameless Judgement shall purify the land.”

Tony was stunned by this kind of fortune telling.
“So, I take it I am a hidden Emperor?” Tony comments.
“Well, I don’t know, I am doing my best to interpret these cards.” Valerio replies.

“Divination, yeah, right.” Garrett commented with a cynical tone. “Please give us something substantial.”
“Of course, I prepared a special map for this after all.” Valerio responds and rolls out a hand-drawn map.
Valerio shows on the map on the city with various tokens representing the activity of various Skaven forces labeled as Clans Eshin, Mors, Rictus, Gruttnik, Skryre, Skrittlespike, Pestilens, Skurvy, Moulder, Verms, Mordkin, Volkn, and Ferrik.

He then says: “As you can see on this map, the Skaven race is trying to recreate their Under-Empire in this world much like they did in my own.” Valerio comments. “Eshin is assassinating various opponents who would get in their way, Mors and Rictus are fighting over territory, Gruttnik is scheming to take over the mines from humans, Skryre is involved in unsavoury research, Skrittlespike and Pestilens are involved in a recent disease outbreaks in the nearby towns, Skurvy is responsible for multiple missing shipments, Moulder and Verms are involved in capturing the nearby wildlife, all while Clans Volk and Ferrik with Mordkin’s assistance are trying to expand into other cities.”

“This is not good, I’m going to call our dear friend Munchkin and see what our computer wiz- expert can confirm.” says Tony.

As Tony was calling Munchkin, Rider finally enters the room. To not disturb the meeting, he tries to quietly sit in the corner.
“Well, if it isn’t our dear friend Art, you made it just in time.”
“Gunther, please don’t call me like that on the job.”
“Please don’t call me that in a formal meeting, Teach.”
“Yuki is the one who we should thank for this, because otherwise we’d be toast.” Munchkin chimes in.
He then continues: “I did manage to get some footage of our foes.”
“Very well, show us.” Tony asks.

Munchkin shares some footage of a grey ratman with visible cybernetic enhancements and other scientific instruments. He was speaking in a tongue none in the group could understand, but then, when shown human prisoners, he spoke:
“Well then, man-things.” the ratman says. “I, Ikit Claw, am seeking-searching for a brave test subject.”

“I will go.” said a teenage-looking boy, stepping up in front of the group.
“Good-good, I like willing test subjects.” Ikit commented. “Send everyone in except for the no-fur boy.”

The entourage, much like in the group watching, was horrified.

“This Ikit Claw is terrifying. The two names I managed to make out, Skrolk and Throt, don’t sound too pleasant either. Only Dragonslayers can save us now.” Munchkin commented to the silent room, deciding to cut the footage here.

“I like this name.” Tenshi exclaims, bursting into the room.
Regaining his senses Tony proclaimed: “Rider, Garrett, we…”
“I’ll go with Tenshi.” said Rider.
“No, I’m staying here, I need to look into something.” Garrett replied.
“Fine, it will be just me and my guards.” Tony said, feeling somewhat disappointed.
“No worries, we’ll catch up.” Valerio comments.

As the two groups were travelling, Violet was having a dream.
Violet finds herself in some sort of a temple.
“Rise, oh luminous one!” a voice says.
“Who are you?” Violet asks.
“Myrmidia.” the figure replies. “Oh, the one who has life within you. We don’t have much time, but I want you to be a vessel of my power. Oh, rather, the power invested by those devoted to me.”

Violet thinks for the moment, and reaches her out in acceptance.
“Excellent. We shall make for a great partnership, now all you have to do is wake up.”

“Wake up.” Rita tells Violet.

Violet stands up and thinks about her dream, it felt a bit too real for her but she still wasn’t sure what it meant. She then looks around.
Samuel Stone, being the only other one around experienced in military matters, was organising the groups while Rita and Rodrigues were waking everyone up.

Leon, Valerio, Rider, and Tenshi also arrived.

“Have no fear, Tenshi is here!” Tenshi exclaims as she enters the room along with the group.
“What do you know, flying on this thing is way faster than driving.” Rider commented as he looked around at his and his boss’ troops.
“And the boss is?..” Rodrigues asks.
“Oh, he will be here soon.” Rider replies.
“I was talking about Agnes.” says Rodrigues.
“Never fear, for I am here!” Agnes steps into the garage, donning a suit of armor, as if waiting for someone to call her by name.
“Not bad.” Rodrigues comments.

Yasmin hands over a spear and a shield to Leon.
He then says: “Thanks, I am still lacking in a horse though.”

“Leon, you will lead the newbies while I lead my old guard, okay?” Rider asks.
“Of course!” Leon replies. “I’ll take my wizard, but I’ll leave the elite units: Tenshi, Rita, Violet, Agnes, Sam, and Sam to do their own thing.”

Rita, looking at the rest of the group of six, asks: “So, what shall we call ourselves?”

Tenshi, eager for the battle, yelled out: “Dragonslayers, move out!”