Private/Closed Bootleg Bros. Ultimate - The Sumeragi Campaign

[Psymallard]

Officer Howard
The two made it into the hospital room safely. Akira looked back at the bard, making sure she was unharmed, and then heard a metallic tinking at her feet. She looked down, freezing up at the sight of the grenade. Luckily, Kiwi came in clutch, and swept the explosive down the hallway where it exploded. Only then did the officer snap out of it. She looked at the bard, confused, but managed to give a nod of thanks.

Immediately after the explosion, though, there was a crash in the next room. Through a fist-sized hole in the wall, Akira caught a glimpse of some sort of red inhuman humanoid. A Chimera? No, more mechanical. Akira huffed, and then leapt back into action. She burst back into the hallway, firing shots at the soldiers. Trailing behind her was her Legion, which zipped forward, and quickly moved to circle around the soldiers to bind them in the Astral Chain. Not only would it restrain them, but also knock them unconscious.

The chain that bound the soldiers broke off from the main chain that connected the Legion to its owner. Speaking of, the Legion then wrapped its leash around its right blade, and yanked Akira over to stand in the doorway that separated the Sumeragi from the robot. She holstered her blaster, holding out her hand to try her hand at making peace with the machine. The Sword Legion still hovered behind her at the ready.

"Stand down!"

 

[comic]

FRISK DREEMURR​

A grizzly sight awaited Frisk out of the subway - bodies strewn about of all varieties. Didn’t seem to matter the age, color, sex... they were all “minos.” Frisk blinked and looked away, turning her gaze to the ground. ‘Genocide’ seemed to be the right word for it. But why? SOUL-users — or ‘Adepts’ if she’d been gathering all this correctly, were the dominant people now. But... Everyone had a SOUL. It just mattered whether you could be attuned enough to use it.

This probably wasn’t a SOUL thing.

‘Evolution.’

Evolution...

“Once we get to the wall, we'll get you properly identified and taken home afterward. What was your name again? Any family or guardian to contact?”

Frisk nearly winced, realizing she hadn’t come up with that kind of info yet. Of course they’d be asking for it, how stupid could she have been for not thinking so?

“U-Um,” Frisk swallowed. “Sadie. It’s uh, Sadie. Brexin.”

Sorry, Sadie. Your name would be borrowed for now. Frisk doubted she’d mind.

“I uhm, I don’t have any parents. I’m... I live in an orphanage.”

She really hoped orphanages still existed.​

 

[PaprusTeuton]

V2

The Machine had dashed away from the grenade, but before they could destroy the gunners and the grenadier, some kind of chain bound them and a human appeared in front of them, holstering their blaster, with a hand in front of them. "Stand down!" the human ordered.

Ordered.

"Why should I listen to you?" the Machine asked, pulling out their Piercer revolver and charging a shot. "I helped destroy your kind once before. I don't know how you came back, but there's a reason you all had to die." The Machine aimed the revolver directly at Howard. "Give me one reason you shouldn't do the same."

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Tracy Rinehart

"I need to be ready to fight? I can't fight!" Tracy whispered back to the Nobleman of Crossout.
"You must! Those men are killers, I can sense it." The knight whispered back. Tracy felt a chill go down her spine. And that other girl had just walked off with them!
"Mr. Miracle!" Tracy whispered, but turned back to find the man had vanished. She looked around frantically, but couldn't see him! Okay. Okay, this was bad. She was now on her own, in a strange place, with psuedo-military killers walking around. Ones that had giant robots, machines that could have jumped right out of Bob's deck! She took a moment to steady her breathing. Okay. She could do this.
"Look just... be quiet for right now, and stay out of sight." Tracy ordered the Nobleman. The knight looked as if he was about to say something, but simply nodded and faded away.

The spirit gone, Tracy was able to turn her attention back to the situation Frisk was in. With practiced stealth, Tracy silently tailed Frisk and the soldiers. She stuck to the shadows, being sure to keep the group within earshot. Her steps were silent and careful, being sure to avoid making any noise from the trash that littered the subway, and even controlling her breathing to stay quiet. It suddenly occurred to Tracy that, in a strange sort of way, it was thanks to Weasel that she could follow behind with such stealth. Spending so much time tailing that menace, and investigating those raiders, had made the student quite adept in the skill of stealth. It also helped that the other girl was doing a good job of keeping these men's attention on her.

Finally, the group had made it to the surface of the subway. Tracy was still down the stairs, crouched behind a pile of trash. She couldn't see the area around the subway, but as her eyes adjusted to the light she was able to see something that was yet another shock. The top of a ruined skyscraper. Just where were they?

Tracy listened to the men as they spoke to the girl, and frowned. This was a problem, one she should have anticipated. Asking for identification. The other girl appeared to be just as surprised as Tracy had when they saw the year in the newspaper. The girl had given good responses, ones that could buy them some time. But if this really was the year 2134, who knows what technology these people could have to search and document citizens? Things could be about to go south. Tracy tensed, readying herself... for what, exactly? What could she do, if these men started shooting?! If that robot attacked?! Running up there would get her killed instantly!

The duel disk...

Nobleman's voice whispered once more, and Tracy looked at the device on her arm. The Nobleman of Crossout was here. Speaking to her. Something that never happened, not even when she had been in the sub-basement of Duel Academy. Could it really be possible? That here, the creatures she summoned and spells she used were real?

Tracy narrowed her eyes and let out a breath. It was something she couldn't test out right now, but there was an advantage. Even if her duel disk still just created holograms, that was something she could use. A distraction, something for those guys to shoot at if she needed to run up, grab this 'Sadie' (which probably wasn't even her real name), and run for cover. Tracy silently activated her duel disk, drawing six cards, and got ready for whatever was going to happen next.

 

[Mokko]

Terrence Boom
If Terrence had visible eyes, they would probably be looking pretty unamused right now as he listened to the gripes of the fire-using boy. Without turning toward Blaze, Terrence offered a simple hum under his breath as he attempted to de-escalate yet another situation before it had a chance to get too bad.

“My mistake,” he said simply. “My name is Terrence.”

That was when the two remaining soldiers began offering him an explanation, but Terrence could feel his shoulders sink in disappointment. It wasn’t a satisfactory answer at all, not that he really knew what he was expecting or hoping for.

“Superior how?” he asked, trying to mask his disgust with the word they’d used to describe themselves. “There’s nothing superior about what you’re doing. You don’t have any more right to be alive than the people you’re trying to kill,” he stated, finding this situation eerily similar to the Messiah’s stance on monsterkind. Shaking his head as he eyed the grenade, he brought his katana forward.
“I'm not making a mistake. There's no way I'd want to join a cause like that. Leave all your weapons,” he told them. They were outnumbered, and the limited cooperation they’d offered already seemed to suggest they didn’t have the strength to defeat everyone in the room. Even if they threw that grenade, the dog didn’t seem to have any issues with disposing of explosives.

 

[DevVoid]

Terry Hagen
Oh, that's not what he was expecting at all. So those soldiers that other girl ran off to talk to.. those were the real danger around here, huh? Well, considering that big, strange weapon-machine thing they had following them around, Hagen should've honestly seen that coming. But it was what she spoke of at the end of her reply that made his blood run cold. Minos.. Adepts.. so if logic holds sound, Minos were just.. ordinary folk, while Adepts were those with powers, like he had? No, no- He wasn't anything like them. He didn't want to compare himself to the likes of adepts, given all he's learned so far of them.

"I.. yes and no. See.. where I'm from, these 'adepts'.. they live in relative harmony with regular people. We just call them supes.. or at least I do. I do have powers, if that's what makes a difference between Minos and Adepts, but I assure you that I'm not like that. Here, since you helped me, it's time I repay the favour."

Hagen replied on back, his face having briefly swapped into a downturned frown, then a hardened expression of contemplation before having his brow furrowed in determination. Standing back up, the man had skid back into the darkness until he was completely invisible to the naked eye - before having twirled back out, now dressed properly as Mr. Miracle, the miraculous, magical superhero. With a reach behind the cape now draped from the back of his fancy, formal-appearing outfit befitting of a stage performer adapt at using smoke and mirrors, Terry produced a gift-wrapped box and a small smoke bomb, placing both before the girl. The box itself was one of the many gift boxes his management team came up with for merchandising his likeness - this one suited as gifts for survivors and victims alike. It was like an MRE, filled with Miracle-branded supplies one would need. Dried snacks, a plush one-size-fits-all cloak, bottles of energizing soda and more, specially designed to go in tandem with his hero work - to both sport a good rep and to aid those in need.

"Take this here with you, to share amongst your friends once you join up with them. Now.. I want you to grab this little smoke bomb here. I want you to think of the safest place around here you can imagine being in. Then, I want you to tell me its location, and to throw this little thing onto the ground as hard as you can, okay?"

Miracle had spoke with a nod, before stepping a bit away to give this lone survivor some space to concentrate. He had, of course, intended on using his Vanishing Act to transport the girl to wherever she'd up telling him to, including the gift box. If there WAS going to break a fight out here or anywhere near - and there likely would, given that weird knight guy's words - he couldn't just let bystanders stay here and get potentially hurt. Especially not when they're the ones being hunted in the first place.

 

[Psymallard]

Akira Howard
"I helped destroy your kind once before. I don't know how you came back, but there's a reason you all had to die."

Akira's breath caught in her throat. This thing... killed humans? That was the Chimeras' goal. Did it kill all those soldiers that went upstairs singlehandedly?

"I helped destroy your kind once before."

The machine's words rang in her head. Was this automaton from the future? Had the Chimeras succeeded in wiping out humanity completely?

"...destroy your kind..."

The red robot leveled the barrel of its gun with Akira's head, telling her to plea for her life. Her hairs stood on her end. Both her breathing and heart rate quickened, as a cold sweat broke out under her uniform. As these distressing questions swirled around her head, and she stared down a robotic death-dealer, the officer forgot her training. In this instance, it was fight or flight.

Exasperated, she shouted, "No... I won't let you-!"

The Legionnaire dodged to the side and her Legion tore forward, fast as a bullet. It assailed V2 with an onslaught of slashes from its arm-blades, intending to rip the machine apart. Akira exercised nonlethality on humans, but a killer robot would not receive the same grace.

 

[ArmedBlue]

Wrecked Building
​

"Superior because of our Septimas, of course," the man responded to Terrence's initial question. The boy in the blindfold continued to make requests, both Grenadiers standing their ground as they looked around the room, taking in the fallen units around them. Both glanced at the yellow soldier, then at each other – and finally, they complied. The shields they carried collapsed into more compact metallic discs, the energy shimmering around the devices fading, before each of them unattached a metal container from the back of their waists, containing a handful of grenades each. All the weapons were then laid at their sides, before they helped the Homing Launcher to his feet.

"Have it your way, then. Don't say we didn't warn you."

With that, they began to move towards the stairwell they'd come from, presumably headed back to whatever area Sumeragi and their soldiers called a base.​

Sapporo Station
​

"M-Mister... thank you."

The little girl stared intently at Miracle and the gifts he provided – most likely in awe more than anything. Slowly, she picked up the gift box in with her left hand, tucking it under her right arm slightly awkwardly, as it seemed she was already holding something in that hand. With her left hand free again, she grabbed the smoke bomb, looking up at Miracle.

"...Okay. There's an underground hideout not that far from here, where my friends and I live. I think it's... five blocks to the east, and one south. A little lower than this place, too."

Hoping that would be enough, she threw the smoke bomb straight down with all her little might – and it burst into a curtain of smoke, enveloping her completely. Miracle's magic did its thing, and when the smoke dissipated...

The girl had vanished, presumably now at that hideout she described.​

City Slums
​

"Ouch," one of the soldiers behind Frisk hissed, and she could hear him get an elbow to the side from the other man behind her. The soldier in the lead, meanwhile, let out a sigh.

"Well, Sadie, that's going to make things a lot more bothersome. Paperwork to fill out, calls to make, systems to manage... At least part of that won't be our problem. You wouldn't happen to know the name of this orphanage, would you? Going through our records would just be yet another hoop to jump through..."

As they walked, a few soldiers and vehicles sped past the group, some turning this way or that, all coming from the wall Frisk was being led to. It was likely this wall held not just the civilian Adept population, but presumably the bulk of Sumeragi's army as well. If things happened to get too out of control while she was too deep in there... there was no telling what could happen.​

 

[Gamingfan]

Amaterasu
Ammy's reflector sent the missile launcher skittering across the floor. Having sucessfully disarmed the soldier, the sun goddess jumped off the man and maneuvered her reflector over him. The soldier would feel pressure on his torso, not enough to be uncomfortable, but firm enough that they wouldn't be able to rise easily. Now that most of the danger had been taken care of, Amaterasu sat on her haunches and yawned. Her tail began wagging as Thorn approached, and though her naturally vacant expression made it hard to tell, the praise seemed to make her happy. But as she let Thorn pat her, the sun goddess had mulled over what the Sumeragi soldier said.
Superior? As a goddess, she could sense differences between these soldiers and the "Mino", but both looked and acted like humans as far as she could tell. Even up to their tendency towards violence....
Well, Terrence summarized their stance pretty well. Amaterasu lifted her reflector off the soldier to let him leave and laid on the floor, relaxing as she watched how the others would act.

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Tracy Rinehart

Tracy stood at the top of the subway steps. She stared, frozen, at the war-torn landscapes. The bodies, strewn about the street. Men. Women. Even children.

Minos just get craftier and craftier each time we do one of these.

Tracy felt like the world was beginning to spin. She reached out a hand to lean on a broken lamp post.

Gonna make wiping them out so much easier.

Wiping them out.
Wiping them out.

"They're people." Tracy whispered. "Oh my god. They're people."

They stumbled into a genocide.

Tracy felt like she was going to be sick. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to breath. She had to push past this. If she didn't, she would die. Those men, or another group, would find her and kill her. She had to fight, had to fight through this. Had to think through this. Tracy opened her eyes. She forced herself to look away from the bullet-ridden corpse of nearby man, and looked in the direction that Sadie and the patrol had gone. Sadie had all the same info Tracy had, more or less. For some reason, the men had thought Sadie was an Adept, not a Minos. There was some difference, but what was it? Tracy gave it some thought as she moved to catch up with the patrol.

The newspaper had said Adept births were on the rise. Why was that news? It would be news... if it was something important. Something people cared about, new information. Which meant... Adept births were originally low. There hadn't been any mention of Minos, just Adepts.

The Sumeragi Institute. The soldiers had mentioned them. Record high profits, now being used to hunt down people. It reminded Tracy of the stories she had heard about the old KaibaCorp. Before Seto Kaiba had become CEO. A company so powerful, developing military weapons, and one that could bankroll entire conflicts. Was that what was happening here?

This sneaking was a bit more difficult. One one hand, on these streets it was easier to keep track of the patrol. But on the other, it was bright and open, with less places to hide. Tracy moved carefully and quickly, darting from overturned car to pile of rubble to narrow alleyway. They were heading towards a massive wall, one that vehicles and soldiers were emerging from. It was getting dangerous, if Tracy got closer, she knew her chances of getting spotted would go way up! If only there was some way to get Sadie's attention, let her know that she was near in case they wanted to make a break for it.

Wait, there was something she could do!

Tracy pulled out her cell phone. She may not have Frisk's phone number, but she could still use it to get the girl's attention. Tracy tilted the phone, using to reflect a beam of sunlight. She aimed it carefully, shining the sunlight at Frisk's face to get her attention, hopefully without alerting the guards she was with.

 

[comic]

FRISK DREEMURR​

The teen glanced back at the man, still unable to get a reading past his visor. “Uh... sorry...” she said apologetically. “I’m... new there... my parents only... just...”

She turned her face away to give the impression of disquietude and somberness. Hopefully the act would be enough for her to at least get through the wall. Her developing story did let her figure out a more concrete one.

Her name was Sadie Brexin, her parents had just died for reasons she didn’t know, she was taken to an orphanage, and ran away under the guise of “exploring” in her grief.

Yeah, that sounded good.

Not that it would hold too much water under the scrutiny of records...

Frisk glanced at a passing truck as it went by. These people were active in the pursuits, hunting down people to kill. But what was the reason?

...

Evolution.

Frisk furrowed her brow as she thought about it, a few more pieces of the puzzle clicking together in her mind. Minos were those who hadn’t evolved, whatever that meant. Adepts were supposed to be superior, as evolution is supposed to make one. But they’d mistaken her for an adept, because of her SOUL. Unless... there was something else to her, maybe?

Maybe... she just didn’t know for sure, yet.

This awkward conversation would hopefully be over soon.

Frisk squinted as she thought, something in her eye. She closed one of her eyes, frowning when she realized what it was and looked in the direction it was coming from, before glancing another way, tilting her gaze up slightly. It had been that Tracy girl trying to get her attention. Frisk didn’t want her gaze to redirect her escort’s attention.

Subtly using her right hand, which Tracy could see, Frisk made a flat palm and lightly shook it to signify “no.”

If Tracy would be detected as a minos, then those men would attack her on sight. If her fellow teenager could just stay hidden, Frisk’s infiltration could go off without a hitch. Or at least much of one.​

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Boboiboy - Blaze & Thorn


"...Yeahhhh you weren't kidding about those guys. They were pretty mean." Thorn said in the open, geared towards Kyota.

"And lover boy here let them go. And they'll be back to kill us when they get some more guns. Great." Blaze steamed, the grinding of his teeth acting like flint and steel, creating sparks. "Why the hell would you let them go?!"

Thorn stayed out of the conflict, scooching closer to Amaterasu for comfort as Blaze went off on Terrance. Seemed as though their personality types just didn't mesh that well.

Who died and made this guy king of the streets? It's like he doesn't know how enemy factions work! We should have knocked them seven ways to Sunday, beating them till they couldn't move anymore! What's with this peace and love tree hugger crap?! Who does he think he is, some kind of monk wannabe or something?? Ohhhh he's looking nightly flammable right now.

 

[Fraseandchico]

The Bard

"He-Wait!" Kiwi watched as the fighting seemed to continue, only to hear talking. They peeked a head out of the room to listen, seeing the red-metal thing in full now. Besides that, it gave a moment for Akira to take down the remaining attackers, only to try talking to the strange thing.

And it spoke back. It (They?) spoke of Humanity's end, of having assisted it, how humanity 'had' to die. And asking for one good reason why the same didn't apply here. Officer Howard didn't react well, sending her beast to attack the machine.

And Kiwi was stunned for a second by the statements, but let legs carry forward and voice ring out.

"WAIT!!!"

Before the Bard even knew what they were starting, he shouted. With a gulp, pleading eyes shut and began to speak.
"Don't fight! We can talk about this, and we should!" Kiwi reasoned, putting a hand out. "I don't get what you mean by us Humans being gone, nor what you mean by there being a reason. As far as the case is for me, Humanity is still around... But we're not of the same worlds, are we?" A further explanation, coupled with rememberance of how the Bard arrived.
Right, searching for her, in the last sort of idea they could've expected.

"Think about it...This place feels off, doesn't it? And those people - They attacked us out of something I don't get - They attacked you too, right?" It was a guess, of course, but it seemed right? The strange creature that Kiwi didn't quite understand what it was, it seemed to be fighting those attackers without hesitation. A look was then moved to Akira. "So that means we should work together! We stand a better chance getting past them with each other than apart, especially if you kill each other..." A small hum, looking back at V2. "Besides! If you give it a try, maybe we'll see why our kind doesn't need to go!" Getting back into this comfier position of talking led a smile to the Bard's face.

 

[PaprusTeuton]

V2

V2 blasted the Legion in the face as it charged towards him, at the same time very quickly dashing to the side, before the Bard rushed forward and cried out for them to stop. V2 listened intently (although kept their gun trained on the Legion) as Kiwi explained that destroying Howard would be a bad idea, and that they had a common enemy- the Sumeragi.

V2 paused for a moment after the Bard finished speaking. Finally, the machine said "Good Reason," and turned the pistol to the chained Sumeragi soldiers. "I still don't exactly trust you two- you are Human after all- but you seem more reasonable than the Sumeragi. And speaking of those bastards, what should we do with these soldiers?"

The machine seemed tense. As though humans in general seemed... distasteful/annoying/threatening to them.

 

[Mokko]

Terrence Boom
Terrence watched as the armored men disappeared, but not before mentioning something about their Septimas. What, like their eyes? No… that was corneas. Septimas, like… the Skyrim currency!? Wow, he was suddenly really wishing he’d paid better attention in school, because he had no idea what they were referring to. That was fine though, he could get some more information out of-

Oh, great. The fire boy was on his case. Terrence allowed the fury of his katana’s blade to die down now that there were no enemies, his focus fixed on the pile of items left behind- shields and grenades. He supposed it wouldn’t be the worst idea to take one of the shields with him, should he somehow exhaust his magic, but it was necessary to be cautious when using enemy tech.

“If you can solve a problem with your words… I think you should,” Terrence said simply, the magic blade dying out, leaving only the katana hilt in his hand. “Even if we’d knocked them out, the result wouldn’t be much different- only that they’d come back with a personal grudge against us,” he said, looking over at his backpack, deciding not to even mention the possibilities of crippling or killing the enemies, hoping nobody else in the room was wanting to take things that far.

“tEMPURA!!!- ate AAAALL of the rice!!!” a voice announced from his backpack, the Temmie popping out, seeming to realize there wasn’t any current danger. The catlike monster looked around the room, seeing all the unfamiliar faces, her eyes vibrating. “hOI!!”

 

[Psymallard]

Serve and Protect
The Sword Legion showed why it was considered to be the quickest of all Legions as it bisected the bullet in the air as it charged. The attack had slowed it down a bit, but it was quick to lash out at V2 once again.

"WAIT!!!"

The Legion halted mid-attack, as mentally commanded by Akira. The police officer heard Kiwi out, but still shuddered as she couldn't take her eyes off of the robot. Nothing the bard said changed the fact that this machine had claimed to have destroyed humanity in his own world, and displayed no qualms with doing it all again. The robot lowered its weapon, and Akira called her Legion over to her, once again blocking off the door. V2 asked what they should do with the guards... she assumed that was its way of suggesting that they should be killed. She ignored his question, shaking her head as she stewed in her negative thoughts. She pulled out her X-Baton.

"How can you expect me to work with a killer?! It might be easier to work together, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take! Besides, I swore an oath to protect humanity from these kind of threats! This has to be dealt with before people- ...more people are killed. ...I'm sorry, but the best I can do is neutralize it. Maybe we can find somebody to reprogram it."

The Sword Legion's arm-blades disappeared as it gently attempted to pull Kiwi away from V2 and Akira. It seemed as though the RAVEN captain just couldn't let go of the whole destroying humanity thing.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Boboiboy - Blaze & Thorn


Blaze was prepared for a crass remark about Terrence, but before the short fused brawler could respond, a new face popped up - a little cat like creature emerging right from their bag. The appearance of 'tempura' instantly caught thorn's eyes, enamoring him.

"Uwaah! So cuuuuute~!"

Blaze rolled their eyes at the display, but the interruption made the boy lose his spark of conflict, extinguishing his flames over his fist. He sure didn't like this Terrence guy, and this dog seemed okay. At least they didn't want to hurt the kid. Speaking of kid.

"Yo. Squirt." Blaze motioned to the kid. "You got some 'splainin to do. Why the hell you getting involved with people like that? Shouldn't you have been far away from this place by now?"

 

[ArmedBlue]

Wrecked Building
​

With the invaders gone, Kyota cautiously approached the group, his eyes wide in shock after what he'd just seen unfold. Thorn's comment about the soldiers being mean got a nod from the boy in response, before Blaze's own remark prompted him to finally speak up.

"Duh, dude! If there was anywhere for Minos like me to go, we'd be long gone by now. It's Sumeragi that keeps comin' to wreck stuff up. The slums might be pretty huge, but you got any clue how much of them Sumeragi's destroyed? How many of us they've killed? We're lucky to even have a hideout to hole up in!"

Kyota grit his teeth as he went on, getting right in Blaze's face – as well as he could anyway, given the difference in height. After a moment, he took a deep breath, and he backed away slightly. He certainly didn't want to get on the bad side of someone who'd sent Sumeragi soldiers packing.

"But, but, you guys weren't like them at all. Sure, you've got Septimas and stuff too, but..." he added, before a certain excitement flared up in his eyes. "Man, you guys were AWESOME! It was like straight outta a movie! You kicked those soldiers so hard they blew up, your bro tossed a grenade back at 'em, then that dog froze it solid, the big guy with the cool sword beat 'em up without looking...!"

He then pointed at Tempura, mouth agape.

"And there's another dog! That can TALK!"​

City Slums
​

At Frisk's words, the soldier in front of her sighed once more. He'd been doing that quite a bit.

"Great. Looks like you'll probably be in for some extra wait time. If anythin', someone at the wall should be able to identify it easier based on a facial scan and a look at your Septima. Still, for them to let a civilian so far out of sight like this... Been a while since I last heard of something like this happening."

They drew closer to their destination, and some more features of it became visible. An array of cameras was embedded into various sections of the wall, monitoring the nearby exterior. At the very top of the structure, even above the various supply pipes, sat some sort of metallic device with an almost spherical shape, some parts of it missing. It had to be fairly large for it to be visible from all the way down here – and it appeared to have a series of machines hovering about it. Sparks of light flickered from the thing in short intervals.

Sumeragi was building something atop the wall, but its purpose was hard to discern as of right now.​

 

[Fraseandchico]

The Bard

"Oh!" It was working! It was working! "I was thinking we-"
IT WASN'T WORKING! IT WASN'T WORKING!

Officer Howard just...couldn't trust V2, from the sounds of it, and the points mentioned were fair at first hearing. She couldn't bring herself to work with a killer, unwilling to take the risk in case they elected to do what V2 claimed to do prior. Instead, Akira had acted, sending her large creature to try and gently pull Kiwi away from the conflict. As much as the Bard wished otherwise, they did...not have much physical strength. At all. Let alone enough to resist a much larger creature that fights in melee combat trying to pull them, even if said pulling was rather gentle.

"No wait! There has to be a way...!" They continued to try and speak while being pulled away, wastefully struggling.

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Tracy Rinehart

And Sadie was waving her off. What could she do? Was Sadie really that confident in herself that she believed she could survive in that place? Tracy couldn't allow the other teen to go into that wall alone. Even if she managed to give the guards the slip, once they discovered Sadie wasn't really an orphan, they'd be on the hunt for her. There were so many troops making their way out of the Wall, this place was probably where the main force was.

Tracy's options were limited. She considered jumping out, trying to pass herself off as a friend of Sadie's who had also ran away. Too risky. If they decided she was a Minos, they'd kill her for sure. Sadie also was determined to get into the Wall, so that ruled out trying to rescue her with a distraction from her Duel Disk.

"I told you. We are more than just holograms here."

The spirit of the Nobleman of Crossout appeared once more, leaning against the wall next to Tracy.
"The very example of me speaking to you should be proof enough! Ever since I first found you, I have made it my duty to protect and serve you. My lady, you must trust me! "
"And why, huh?!" Tracy hissed back. She pointed to the knight. "You were always too eager for a fight. How many duels have I lost because I drew you at the wrong time?!"
The knight winced.
"Lady Tracy. I swear to you, I have only used what little power I had in your world to help you." The Nobleman said. Tracy sighed, and watched Sadie walk closer and closer to the wall.
"I know, Crossout. I'm sorry."

Tracy couldn't let Sadie go into that place alone. She just couldn't. Risking being spotted, Tracy waited until the truck of troops passed before she stealthily darted down the street, ducking into a ruined storefront. She picked one of the cards from her hand and held it close, whispering to it.
"Listen carefully. You are a Trap Monster, so I expect you to act like one. I need you to protect that girl, the one surrounded by those men. You must remain hidden from those enemies, staying out of sight of them and only revealing yourself if Sadie gets attacked. Please. She needs your help. Dahlia told me of your reliability and strength, please help me in the same way." Tracy said. She glanced to the card with uncertainty, and made sure no soldiers or guards were looking in her direction. With hesitation, Tracy placed the card on her duel disk, and activated it.

On the street, behind a pile of rubble, an oozing goo of liquid metal appeared. Silently, it pulsed for a moment. The Metal Reflect Slime flattened itself into a puddle, and taking the shape of a narrow flow of liquid, began to flow towards Frisk and the soldiers. It's metallic appearance helped it, allowing the creature to easily blend in with other pieces of rubble and detritus should a solider glance in its general direction. As the Metal Reflect Slime oozed towards Frisk, Tracy once again signaled to the other teen with her phone. She pointed towards the Metal Reflect Slime, giving Frisk a thumbs up and okay sign before ducking back behind cover. Hopefully, that would be enough to convey that the Slime was an ally.

The Metal Reflect Slime oozed closer and closer to Frisk. Should the Trap Monster reach the other teen, it would attempt to attach itself to Frisk's leg. From there, the slime would attempt to climb up Frisk's body and hide itself under the girl's jacket, easily taking the form of some sort of reflective undershirt.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Boboiboy - Blaze & Thorn


These sumeragi guys sure did seem like a piece of work. Just because some of them had powers didn't make it an excuse to bully let alone kill the weak. Blaze was getting peeved at the situation, but as soon as Kyota had begun to praise him, it went straight to his head. He put his hands on his hips, eyes looking upwards at nothing in particular, he had a very satisfied look on his face.

"I was pretty cool, wasn't I?" He snorted pridefully. "You know what kid? Sure, we'll take care of that Sumeragi problem of yours. They'll be yelping home back to mama in no time!"

Thorn at this point had snapped out of his cuteness overload trance, tilting his head over at his hot blooded counterpart.

"Uhm, Blaze? Shouldn't we reform before you make a call like that?"

Blaze let out an audible laugh, cocking a whimsical brow at Thorn.

"Ha! Talking like I answer to a chain of command or somethin'! Besides, those soldiers folded like a cheap lawn chair, how bad can they be?"

 

[PaprusTeuton]

V2

"Maybe we can find somebody to reprogram it," said the human.
Somebody to reprogram it.
Reprogram it.
It.

V2 was furious that the human referred to it them as such. And to reprogram them so callously- Mankind clearly had learned nothing. Except... this human hadn't been there.
It was still a human. It was still a threat. But one with a conscience in the form of the other one. Perhaps they could convince them to be less hostile.

"You don't want to work with a killer. I don't want to work with someone who calls me an "it" and wants me reprogrammed. Our enemy is the same, but we are not." At this, the machine pulled out a vicious-looking gun (as it happens, it was called the Malicious Railcannon), and blasted a hole in the wall on the opposite side from the Bard and Akira. "I bid you adieu. May we never meet again." The machine stored the gun away in one of their wings and bowed, before leaping through a hole in the wall, right out of the hospital.

V2 walked through the streets of the slums, looking for a suitable hiding spot. They hadn't taken much damage since they found the room with the blood in the hospital, but blood is still fuel. The sound of stone against steel wasn't the quietest thing in the world, but V2 didn't have much to work with- and besides, it was certainly quieter than sliding.

 

[Mokko]

Terrence Boom
Terrence was conflicted- of course he wanted to help out with this horrible situation that was going on here. The Sumeragi sounded as bad as the Messiah, if not somehow even more openly evil, and he’d just experienced firsthand how twisted and corrupted their mindsets were.

But on the other hand? He had responsibilities that he hadn’t been able to fulfill due to being transported here. That battle… that battle that could have changed everything…
Not to mention, he also needed to somehow steer Frisk away from… a dark fate that awaited her.

“I really… really need to get back to China soon,” he admitted, his ‘gaze’ fixed on Kyota. “But right now, I’d like to help against these… Sumeragi,” he added, before pointing over toward Tempura, who was prancing around the room, seemingly interested in Amaterasu in particular, letting out the occasional “wOAH!!!” whenever she passed by the dog. “That’s Tempura.”

“YES!!” the Temmie confirmed, gradually picking up speed as she zoomed around the room, her legs no longer moving as she did so.

“Is there any chance you know where their base of operations is? Their leader? This horrible mindset they have has to come from somewhere,” Terrence asked, folding his arms.

 

[Gamingfan]

Amaterasu
By this point, the group had been talking long enough that the attention-deficit goddess had curled up, seemingly having fallen asleep. Still, she was listening to every word they said, and quietly decided to spread her blessings among this world. She has felt something call her here, and even having spent less than an hour here, she understood why. Amaterasu could sense almost no faith, no love, no praise for the gods here. She could faintly sense a prayer or two, none directed at her, but this world felt dark and abandoned. And with the way humans were behaving, she could understand why...
The sun would shine it's warm light onto this land, and Ammy hoped her new companions would be able to help. They didn't seem particularly devoted to the gods, but Amaterasu sensed they had good hearts. Perhaps dealing with this Sumeragi was a good first step.
Her meditative sleep was interrupted by a loud "HOI!", causing Ammy to raise her head groggily. It seemed Terrence has released his strange backpack creature, and it greeted Ammy before sliding around the room, steadily gaining speed as it moved.
The wolf replied with a bark before rising to her feet. Ammy gave chase after the Temmie, leaving trails of golden flora behind her wagging tail.
Amaterasu was a sun goddess, yes, but she still greatly enjoyed playing.

 

[Psymallard]

Not A Big Fan of Robots
The killer robot was seemingly offended by being given the status of an object, which Akira disregarded. It was trying to escape!

"Huh?! Not on my watch!"

Dismissing her Legion, Akira whirled around and leapt onto her nearby motorcycle. She donned her helmet, disengaged the parking stand, and then began peeling out to make a sharp U-turn in the relatively narrow hallway. The Legionnaire lined her bike up with the hole in the wall, and took a short pause to prepare for the ensuing action. She had to stop that thing before it killed again! She had to-

The officer looked over at Kiwi. She couldn't leave the Bard alone in this dump. As far as she knew, everything in the area was out to kill this "Minos". A war zone was no place to leave a civilian. Akira very badly wanted to stop the robot, but to abandon her primary duties as a police officer was reckless. After a moment, she took her hand off the accelerator, turned, and backed the bike up until she was next to Kiwi.

"Come on. We shouldn't stick around here."

 

[comic]

FRISK DREEMURR​

Facial recognition scans... her ruse would be up soon enough. Getting into the thick of it right at this wall might not be the best idea for an enemy she knew so little about. They were supposed to be evolved, so that probably meant each and every one of them were beyond any normal person. More like... Messiah lieutenants.

...Hopefully not THAT severe. Frisk had had just about enough of those.

Frisk’s gaze rose to the top of the wall, now having to crane her neck due to how close they’d gotten. There was commotion up there, machinery, extended metal arms for carrying heavy objects. Those were called cranes, right? Something was being built.

“Having fun?” Chara mused, and Frisk looked down to see the spirit girl leaned against the wall of a building they were passing, arms folded as she watched them march along.

Frisk didn’t answer, not wanting to tip off these guys to anything fishy. Chara stepped away from the wall and fell into step beside Frisk, glancing about, then back at the two men, and she smirked. “This isn’t the future.”

That caught Frisk’s attention more than anything else would have. “What do you mean?” she whispered under her breath.

“Huh?” Chara’s eyes were practically glowing mischieviously. “I didn’t hear that.”

Frisk knew damn well Chara had. She didn’t reply, so Chara shrugged. “Alright, keep your secrets.”

With that, she faded from the spot, leaving Frisk mildly frustrated at how pointless that entire interaction had been. Getting a fast-track to the answers she wanted through the spirit would have been nice, but Chara was likely going to let Frisk figure most of it out by herself anyway.

Her irritation was cut short by more reflective phone flashing. Didn’t Tracy get the memo the first time? She needed to steer clear of these guys. Frisk glanced once more in her direction to find Tracy pointing at something before ducking out of sight as one of the soldiers looked about, following Frisk’s gaze.

“See something?” He asked.

“Uh... no...” Frisk said, her eyes on where Tracy had been pointing. A liquid, sliding along the ground toward her, shiny and metallic... it was like that liquid metal guy from Executer 2 starring Arvold Schwarzengrebber. “Just... no, it was nothing...”

Frisk turned back forward, earning an almost quizzical look from the soldier, but he kept marching along. Frisk felt something touch her ankle, the cold liquid sliding up the side of her leg and to her waist, before it spread over her. She shivered, feeling totally freaked out by this point, held together by the simple fact that she needed to maintain her current position.

What the hell was this?

Chara didn’t seem to find it necessary to tell Frisk what the purpose of this chilly metal was, leaving Frisk to worry over it alone. Surely Tracy wouldn’t send this... whatever it was with ill intent. Where had it come from? Was it some future thing, like Executor 2? No, no, Chara said this wasn’t the future, so... was Tracy warning her of it, or sending it to her?

She sure hoped it was the latter.​

 

[Fraseandchico]

The Bard

V2 left, talking down in their final words of not wanting to work with someone aiming to reprogram them. Officer Howard began to give chase, allowing the Bard free from the grip of the Legion, leaving her slowly panting. Akira then stopped it seemed while this was going, and talked as though not much happened.

"Oh...Um, alright. You didn't need to say that to them, though..." She said, but relented. "But alright, you're right - We shouldn't stay here." Making an assumption, they climbed onto the back of the bike. It wasn't clear to Kiwi just what the vehicle was, but it was fast and it was fair to guess it wouldn't be left behind.
...The back of the bike was cold, but they decided not to mention that.

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Tracy Rinehart

The Metal Reflect Slime had made it to Sadie, and that was all Tracy needed to see. Now it was time for her to get the heck out of there. Tracy carefully and silently moved through the ruined storefront, slipping out the back entrance and into a narrow alleyway. Her next move. What was her next move? Couldn't follow Sadie. And what had happened to Mr. Miracle? The one adult in this situation had up and vanished. Perhaps he was still at the Subway. She'd head back there and try to find what had happened to him. Right now, she needed all the allies she could get.

Squish.

Tracy slowly moved her foot aside.

It was a human hand. She had stepped on a severed human hand. Tracy had been so lost in her thoughts, she hadn't been paying much attention to her surroundings. Slowly, she moved her gaze to the road before her. Not too far away, a crater from an explosion was in the street. On the edge of the crater was a mess of blood and gore.

Tracy felt a wave of nausea wash over her. The gravity of her situation struck fully, and her world began to spin. It took all of her strength not to pass out. She was stranded, in a strange city, in the future, in the middle of a genocide. Alone. The few people she had met had abandoned her, disappearing or jumping into the jaws of the lion. At any moment, one of these wandering patrols could find her. Would they kill her? Shoot her, crush her with one of those robots, blow her up? Or worse? Tracy felt like she was going to be sick.

Move forward. She had to move forward.

Tracy supported herself on the wall of the alleyway, blindly moving forward. She had to get out of here. Tracy stumbled against some trash, making a loud clatter. Still, she walked on.

The student didn't hear the clank of metal against stone until it was too late. In the middle of the stree, dazed, Tracy turned in the direction of the noise. A robot, moving quickly down the street. It was humanoid, more humanoid than the robot that patrol had. Painted red, with human-like proportions, and armed with guns. More notable was its wings, eight fins of yellow metal. Tracy stared at V2 weakly.

 

[ArmedBlue]

Wrecked Building
​

Kyota's smile grew at the group's offer to help with Sumeragi.

"...You'd do that? Hell yeah!" he exclaimed, pumping a fist. "I'm not sure where China is, but pretty much all the Adepts live in their own district a short walk from here, Sumeragi soldiers or not. There's like, a huge wall in the way. Can't miss it. Their leader, uh..."

The boy then put a fist to his chin, thinking hard for a moment.

"Aw man, I know for a fact I saw it on the Under-net a while back. Something about an AI? Maybe you can beat up another one of those soldiers and get them to tell you. Or, I bet Jin knows about it too–"

His eyes went wide, having been so caught up in the action that he'd momentarily forgotten about something very important.

"Jin! My friends! We all got split up when Sumeragi attacked today! They might be in trouble, we gotta go lookin' for them, dude!"​

City Slums – District Wall
​

"We're here."

Metal Reflect Slime's arrival seemed to have gone unnoticed by the soldiers, fortunately for both Frisk and Tracy. Just in time, too – before them was now a light gray gate built into the wall, standing about twelve feet tall, its slightly different color the only remarkable thing about it. The soldier leading the group stepped forward, walking towards the right side of the metallic gate. There were grooves in the walls, none sticking out in particular, but he raised a hand, moving it closer to the wall––

"Sergeant!"

A voice called out from their left, and he stopped. Rapidly approaching the group was a vehicle carrying three more soldiers, two donning green armor, the other one wearing yellow. Unlike their comrades, they lacked weapons, and their suits looked slightly beat up.

"What– where are your weapons?" he questioned, torso shifting to face the newcomers. "Don't tell me you managed to somehow lose them to a Mino!"

"Not Minos," the one in yellow said. "This squadron brings reports of a group that has recently appeared in the sector, using abilities skin to Septima. They're Adepts, particularly combat-equipped ones at that. Squad C has also become unresponsive at the moment, possibly due to a similar group's actions."

The soldier by the door turned towards them a little more, casting a glance of mild suspicion at Frisk, before he focused on his ally.

"And they have no intent of joining us?"

"Negative."

"Then they'll probably be beaten into submission soon enough. Higher ups have already begun deployment of a Fazent unit in search of that rogue machine. Any resistance will be quelled." he replied.

"And... if that fails?" one of the soldiers in green inquired.

"Low chance. If that were to happen... We might see a Falcon get involved." the man said. "Either way, we're in the middle of something here. This civilian needs to get identified."

He finally pressed a hand against the wall, and a section sunk in slightly. A sky blue light shone from the hidden panel, moving along the man's palm in a scanner-like fashion, before a loud groan came from the gate nearby them, and it began to slide open. Bright white lights shone from within, and the sound of numerous footsteps, whirring machinery, and chatter could soon be heard coming from indoors.

"This is your stop. Follow the line to the right into the customs booth and cooperate. Being outside the district's already trouble, and you don't want any more than that."​

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Boboiboy - Blaze & Thorn


Jin? Another kid being chased by soldiers? Thorn thought to himself. Poor guys, they must be scared to death out there. Blaze might be a bit over the top, but he does have a point. We gotta stop this, I'm sure the team would understand if we took a little detour, right?

"Then we should go looking for them, we'll try our best to find them, Kyota!"

Thorn seemed very much on board with this, but maybe not so much the dismantling of an entire government. Blaze however, wasn't going to let anyone else decide for him.

KABOOM!

Blaze incinerated a wall next to him, blasting an opening loudly to the outside with a hefty punch. Smoke billowed out from the opening like a bonfire, Blaze audibly laughing and looking back to the group. He held up his clenched fist, surrounded in orange wisps of heat.

"You guys gonna join me and find these creeps, or are you just gonna stand there and wuss out?"

 

[comic]

FRISK DREEMURR​

The teen listened intently to the conversation between the soldiers, gleaning for details to help solidify her understanding of this not-future (if Chara hadn’t been lying).

Combat-equipped adepts, suddenly appearing around the place, fighting back against Sumeragi...

Frisk pursed her lips, thinking, before she caught one soldier glancing toward her. She could sense his suspicion, and quickly averted her gaze.

People like her had just suddenly appeared in the middle of this genocide. Maybe Tracy really wasn’t a Minos, and Miracle as well. That gave Frisk some small assurance that those two could probably handle themselves without her. So this was an event outside of Sumeragi’s control, and they weren’t taking it very seriously just yet. Frisk guessed she was ahead of the curve, then. Thankfully, the soldier’s suspicion regarding her didn’t evolve into more questions.

She’d gotten this far, but to be honest, Frisk wasn’t the best at keeping track of lies, especially if she had to elaborate them. Her head was already filled with all kinds of junk, from memories of countless defunct timelines, to a spirit girl taking up space she didn’t need to.

“I heard that,” Chara’s voice whispered to her.

A ‘Fazent’ unit had been deployed into the region to fight these Adepts, possibly other SOUL-users... hopefully. This Fazent was apparently more impressive than what had already been thrown into the region, which had successfully slaughtered countless Minos. So they were bringing out the big guns... and they had bigger guns, too. A ‘Falcon,’ if Fazent failed.

Attention was returned to her, the soldier directing Frisk through the door he’d just opened. “This is your stop. Follow the line to the right into the customs booth and cooperate. Being outside the district's already trouble, and you don't want any more than that.”

Frisk gave an obedient nod. “Y-Yes sir,” she said timidly, and did as ordered, walking her way along the line and out of sight, trying to take in her bearings before coming to another brash decision - she was being let free behind the wall. That was fortuitous, she could actually try and slip her way around now, once she was sure those soldiers were done with her.​

 

[Psymallard]

Akira!
The bard climbed on, but took the robot's side in its offense of being called an "it". Assuming the civilian was some sort of hippie activist, the officer elected not to argue. After all, they had bigger fish to fry. Akira took off her helmet and handed it back to Kiwi.

"Here, put this on for safety. ...And hold on tight."

As soon as Kiwi got situated, the RAVEN captain accelerated down the hall, and dropped through the hole in the floor at the end of it. As they fell, Akira held her arm back, and caught Kiwi if she started to fall off. Then, she zipped down the street.

...

This was a genocide. Corpses of all ages littered the streets. Buildings were utterly demolished. It was a sight that made her sick to her stomach. She came to assume this was the doing of both the killer robot and the soldiers. Akira had to put an end to what was happening here, but she was already getting overwhelmed by the atrocity of it all. To ground herself, she inquired, "What's your name?" Hopefully the small talk would help take the bard's mind off of the grim sights as well.

As they zipped around town, the Legionnaire spotted a great wall in the distance. This place appeared to be sectioned off from a larger city, just like Zone 09 back home... her birthplace. However, the Ark had only abandoned the area due to the huge chimeric outbreak, not razed it to the ground themselves. She would avoid the wall for the moment, as it was probably owned and protected by those soldiers she had neutralized. She needed to find somewhere safe to set up camp and figure out the next course of action.

KABOOM!

...That was nearby! Akira turned the corner, and, sure enough, there was debris clattering against the road, having been blasted off the top of a nearby building. She didn't want to risk the life of her passenger, but there was a likelihood of more survivors under attack. Akira quickly pulled into a nearby alleyway, with plenty of rubble to hide behind. The policewoman parked the motorcycle behind one such pile of rubble.

"I have to go investigate... whatever that was. There might be more survivors around here. Hopefully I'm not too late..."

 

[ArmedBlue]

District Wall Interior
​

The interior of the wall was, as expected, quite massive. Frisk had walked into a bright spacious corridor that stretched a dozen feet high, various screens lining the wall to her right, while the left wall had a series of large, rectangular, slightly tinted windows. Despite the slight obscurity and blur to them, many soldiers could be seen moving in a more open space beyond, accompanied by robots similar to the one that had been following the SOUL-user earlier. Alongside these people were a few men and women wearing white coats or mostly-black uniforms, likely members involved in more out-of-combat matters. The noise she'd been hearing outside was mostly coming from there.

Stretching throughout the pristine white floor before Frisk was the line she'd been instructed to follow, holographically displayed in blue. It continued to run a short distance in front of her before it split into various off-shoots, stopping at the doors of a few small rooms – the customs that she was supposed to go through, almost certainly. A few other lines were also visible, red, yellow, and purple in color. Red took an almost immediate left turn into an intersecting corridor and deeper into the structure, while yellow instead went the opposite direction of where Frisk was headed, continuing along the wall's perimeter.

Purple, on the other hand, headed both directions, continuing a little further before turning inward. Looking a little closer would reveal it went up a ramp, to parts unknown.

By now, the gate behind Frisk had closed shut, but an access panel of some sort was embedded into the nearby wall, serving as a potential way to get it open again (the requirements to open it weren't as clear, however). After all, there were no other obvious methods of entry or exit, assuming similar gates didn't exist at other sections of the district wall. Despite the soldiers having stayed outside, she wasn't entirely in the clear yet – looking up would reveal the presence of multiple security cameras scattered about the ceiling. Whether they were being actively monitored was up in the air.

The screens to her right flickered with various imagery. One showed high-up live feed of the slums outside, an explosion ringing out from a building in the distance, sending pieces of an already decayed wall to the ground. Another screen showed the blueprints of a large drone, lines of incomprehensible code displayed alongside it, while larger text at the top read, in green: "Fazent Status: Initiating Deployment".

She was at the very edge of the enemy territory, out of direct physical supervision for the moment, but there was no telling for how long.​

 

[Mokko]

Terrence Boom
Terrence frowned when he heard that Kyota didn’t know where China was- it wasn’t that he blamed the boy for a lack of knowledge, but he was just starting to think that getting back to where he belonged was going to be a lot more difficult than he initially thought. Why was he here, exactly? The more optimistic side of him wanted to believe that it was destiny, that he was here because he had a chance to do a lot of good against this Sumeragi group. The pessimist in him, however, couldn’t help but wonder if this was a Messiah trick. All those machines at the Chinese Sect’s HQ… he could remember, very clearly, the explanation he’d been given when he first laid eyes on them.

‘Tools that can guide one to the Mountain. A well of magic and possibilities that never, ever dries…
Aren’t they beautiful?
Aren’t they perfect?’

His head was filled with worry. For Mosu. For Blair. For the Xiangzi. Most of all, for Frisk- he felt like just by being here, he was failing her somehow.
…but it would be better to just focus on the task at hand. Focus on the possible. Pray that things back home would hold steady until he could make his return. Otherwise, a dark future awaited them, and that was something he was unfortunately certain of.

“Of course. The more people we save from the Sumeragi, the better,” Terrence nodded in agreement to both Kyota and Blaze, walking over to retrieve his bag. If Kyota’s recollection was accurate, it sounded like they’d be dealing with some kind of AI? Terrence bit the inside of his cheek, a tiredness nipping at the back of his mind. He was still pretty fresh off of fighting and negotiating with a different AI back home… he would do it again, if it meant helping out Kyota and his friends. But boy, could artificial intelligences be stubborn.

Taking inventory and making sure he still had his laptop, Terrence turned his attention toward Tempura and Amaterasu. It hurt him to interrupt their playtime, truly, especially because it was super adorable- Tempura occasionally doing a flip mid-dash, just for the sake of it.

“Come on, Tempura, and- hm… I don’t really know how to address this dog…” he admitted in regards to Amaterasu. “But she sure is a good one- I’ve never seen a dog take out a grenade before!” he praised with a wide grin, slinging his bag over his shoulder and walking toward the hole Blaze created.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Boboiboy - Blaze & Thorn


"Yeah that's a good question..." Thorn poked his cheek. "How would we address her or you? I sorta thought she was your dog but looks like I totally got it wrong."

Thorn rubbed the back of his head, completely forgetting about introductions earlier on in the conversation.

"Oh! I'll start! I'm Thorn, and that guy punching through walls is Blaze. We are like, kinda the same person but not really? Dunno, gets weird, but I don't think about much. Who are you, and uh, doggie?"

Thorn didn't know if Amaterasu could speak like the Temmie could, but thought he'd chance it anyway. Meanwhile, Blaze had already leaped from the hole in the building, landing down in the concrete jungle below.

"Alright you Sumeragi scumbags! Step right up for a pounding! I'll take you all on!!!"

Blaze yelled out at the top of his lungs, openly inviting all enemies that could hear him to face him, somehow thinking this could find Kyota's friends while also satisfying his undying battle lust.

 

[comic]

FRISK DREEMURR​

Diverging paths... oh boy, that induced a bit of anxiety. Blue meant customs, splitting into various doors. She could keep trying to play this whole thing up, but she’d be found out FAST if she went in those. Then again, considering all the cameras... she’d probably be found out fast, anyway. Probably better to risk diverging off the yellow-brick road, she had more options that way. Er—blue-laser road... whatever.

A red line split away to lead deeper into the structure itself. Undoubtedly there’d be more soldiers there, and... uh... yeah, she didn’t really know what to expect. Maybe there was a way she could nab some armor and hide in plain sight for a little bit? It was risky, but like, wasn’t everything she was doing? Not just here, but for the past few months. She was fighting a war against a world-spanning cut, and consistently putting herself on the frontlines. She’d almost been killed more times than she cared to admit, and... actually HAD been killed already. It was only thanks to her new friend that such a fate had been reversed.

That timeline was now abandoned, but it probably still existed somewhere. How badly had things gone in that world, without her in it?

Uh, probably better if she just didn’t think about that.

Okay. Blue line is customs, red line is the belly’s beast, yellow was... probably a patrol perimeter? And purple... uh... yeah, she had nothing. It was the only one that seemed to serve multiple purposes. Probably a guiding line? Or maybe it was only revealed deeper within.

Frisk wasn’t deemed an issue at the moment, and she would guess that the Sumeragi were a little more focused on the Fazent deployment and the newly-surfaced ‘adepts.’

She could risk it.

Her gaze turned away from a screen showing a wall exploding, the teen disinterested in what it had to show as she veered left and followed the red line, feeling her heart thumping in her chest. Chara offered no guidance or warnings.

Pace quickening, Frisk stayed on the lookout for anything—and anyone—of interest.