Arcuied Brunestud.



Snow covers you body, blocking your vision, muffing the sounds. The earth below you quakes slightly, the wind screams as it rent asunder by a titanic construct moving at the divine speeds.

You hear thunder of metal grinding against metal and it's source is moving toward you.

Follow it. Survive.

As you rise your head, you see the source of the sounds.

Piercing through snow like a spear, creating wing-like formation of frozen particles in air, a train trudges on through the hostile terrain, the only sign of ominous man-made light in the endless frozen desert in nowhere.

And as it still moving toward you - it seems to stumble on something, as with a screech, and a groan of metal, a fair few of it's wagons detach from the constructions, as high-speed metallic projectiles threatening to destroy anything they impact.

Mag Prime.






You hear thunder.

Confused, and disoriented, you feel like you just left the cryosleep again; you movements feels sluggish, your body unusually cold, and more importantly, you can't remember why you are here... And where “Here” is.

You try to move, to shake off the sluggishness in your body, but you every effort is met with resistance...

You are underwater, you realize belatedly. Slowly sinking deeper, face up, looking at the white sheet of ice covering the surface of whatever body of water you found yourself in.

A deep, resonating groan vibrates through the water, from darkness below.

You need to get out now.

Kyuoko Sakura, the Lancer.



It takes a few moments to come back to your senses, to take in the picture of your surroundings. – and with them, something hits you.

Escape.

The strength of impact is great enough to bodily flung you aside, and bury you in the snow on the landing.
Suprisingly, or perhaps, not so much you are mostly unharmed – and from position you were flung into, you can see your attacker.

You got hit by car. A small truck, to be accurate – which, proceed to take a sharp turn of the road and straight into one of the trees surrounding the road, where it is stopped cold.




Princess Zelda.



A moment of exploration later, you discover yourself lying on the golden table, covered with a sheet of snow.

A circle of golden columns inscribed with mystical symbols surrounds you, giving the impression of locking something inside... But whatever mystical power was in these columns, it's long gone, and cannot separate you from the outside of the circle – an endless sea of snow-covered trees, with rare, strange red-coloured flora peeking out from uder the snow. An ancient, magical forest... Cursed, something inside of your whispers. Sleeping still, it adds, in warning.

Find the Church.

From the east, you faintly see some kind of lights, faintly glowing in the distance – it seems to be some kind of a road.

From west, you feel a magical presence – something orders of magnitude kinder to strangers, yet unfamiliar still.






Maribel Hearn.



A sensation of being shacked like a sack of potatoes marks the return of your senses.

"...Вставай и убирайся отсюда. Если планируешь умирать, умирай не на территории парка.»

A grumbling figure dressed in heavy clothing is not-so-gently shaking your awake, letting you go only after confirming what you are not asleep anymore.

Find the shelter.

Somehow, despite not understanding the language, you understand the meaning behind the words said; you are prohibited to stay here, and if you want to die, please do that elsewhere.

As you look around... You recognize nothing. You don't know where you are. There seems to be a be a map of sort hanging few steps away from the bench you are sitting on.




Alexandra.



You wake up.

No trace of snow. No trace of freezing wind. Just calm, rhitmic sound of working machinery.

It's dark; only a few pale yellow lights barely illuminate the wagon. Most of the space is taken up by small, empty spaces, and only in a few separated places you can make out heavy, closed windows.

Prepare yourself. Survive...

Nobody else seems to be in wagon... Besides a single man, in some kind of uniform, leaning against the wall few steps away from you. Near him, a bag – for a moment, you think you saw something yellow peeking out out of it, but as you blink it's gone.


As you look around, for a moment, the enviroment shifts – and a great many eyes bore into you.

Thin, exhausted faces are looking at you, begging you...

You blink, and the mirage ends. All specters vanish – except for that one man in uniform.

Ramirez.

You wake suddenly, almost collapsing on the floor. You are sitting on a floor, in what seems to be sort of a train. Quick check confrimes what you bag and your weapons are with you.

Nobody else seems to be inside, besides a single woman sitting in the crevice at the end of the wagon.

A minute later after your awakening, a horrible groan resonances through the metal of the train; at the same time floor under you seems to shudder as the wagon starts to tilt.

...Survive the crash.


Darth Spectra.



You first seconds in this land starts with a heap of a something cold – snow, you realse a second later – falling through ruined glass of your Tie-Fighter on you.

On the bright side, through the same cracks, you can observe the enviroment beyound the metallic shell of TIE-Fighter and, although it's great many kilometers below, there seems to be signs of civilizations below.

Reach the city.

Sadly, there is a problem – there is a dragon. A winged reptile, comparable in size with Kryat Dragon is currently sleeping barely few steps away, in a nest made from what most likely were a small plane, previously. It seems, the dragon decided to use your TIE as a part of it's metallic nest.




Mirai Kuriyama



First you hear once you came to your senses – people screaming, calling, desperate.

Something roars. The sounds of gunshot blaze through the cold air, only to be quickly and violently silenced.

Somebody bodily picks you up, and starts runnings, only to stumble barely moments later, dropping you onto the ground, and as you fall, you get a glance on what the man carrying you was running away.

It's nothing trully horrible, really. Just crowd of disfigured, fish-faced cultists with torches, seething with bloodlust in your general direction.

Survive the Cult.



Suwako, wandering Goddess.

You snap into concuscioness in what looks like long abandoned church – vandalized interior looks suitably trashed, and if not for the signs of recent fight, it truly could be mistaken for the abandoned church.

It doesn't take you long to understand what is going on.

The smell of burned flesh and screams permeats the air. The arcane energies of Faith are almost palpable – directed toward a god you can't quite identify, or even feel.

Just outside the building ritual of human sacrifice to unknown god is happening; a small crowd of disfigured, hunched people are chanting in unknown language, as people who looks like owners of this church are slowly put to fire one by one.
 
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Mag Prime.






You hear thunder.

Confused, and disoriented, you feel like you just left the cryosleep again; you movements feels sluggish, your body unusually cold, and more importantly, you can't remember why you are here... And where “Here” is.

You try to move, to shake off the sluggishness in your body, but you every effort is met with resistance...

You are underwater, you realize belatedly. Slowly sinking deeper, face up, looking at the white sheet of ice covering the surface of whatever body of water you found yourself in.

A deep, resonating groan vibrates through the water, from darkness below.

You need to get out now.
Mag struggled unavailingly, her body languid and weak like that of a newborn as she gradually sank to the forebading abyss below. Mag glance her eyes at her oxygen reserves as it dwindles rapidly, thr crushing water pressure and the groan below her further cementing the dire reality she is faced with. If she had been a regular human, she would have long passed from this realm.

A glint from the corner of her helmet's receptors rapts her attention, it's untarnished glaze and ornate beauty shining like a beacon in the deep seas of Earth.

Seizing the moment, Mag channeled whatever vestige of power she has within her as she pulled her weapon towards her, her lithe fingers effortlessly grabbing the hilt of the sword and holstering it on her back where the blade magnetically attached itself.

Pushing herself despite the strain on her mutated body, Mag spreads her arms and legs in an inverse fashion, making a slow and steady progress against the pressure pushing her down like an angry fist of a god.

Barely conscious as she touched the freezing sheet of ice that lids the body of water she was in, Mag swiftly pulls out her Dakra Prime and starts to stab and carve up the ice at a prodigious rate. Inwardly, she hoped, prayed even, that her efforts are enough to escape the watery doom that threatened to swallow her.
 


You wake up.

No trace of snow. No trace of freezing wind. Just calm, rhitmic sound of working machinery.

It's dark; only a few pale yellow lights barely illuminate the wagon. Most of the space is taken up by small, empty spaces, and only in a few separated places you can make out heavy, closed windows.

Prepare yourself. Survive...

Where am I?

Alexandra comes awake with a jolt, the realization that she has no idea where she is and how she got there kicking her heart beat into overdrive and causing her hands to clench into fists. She has seen enough of the world to know that this state of affairs rarely leads to anything good. She has to quickly assess the situation and...

I'm on a train. That is a new one. Certainly better than a jail cell or a hospital room, I suppose, but...a train? How in the name of God...

She frowns, trying to remember just what exactly she did before retiring last night. E-mailed my story to the Guardian, had a glass of wine, laid down... And woke up on a train, fully dressed. Was she abducted? To what end? The idea is grotesque, absurd. How would someone break in, dress her, and then carry her off without ever waking...drugged? But how? Dread possibilities caper at the edge of her thoughts, whispering hints of what might have happened while she was...no.

No, there is absolutely no point in such speculation at this time. The first priority is to get her bearings. A quick search of her person turns up her keys, wallet (traveler's checks, American dollars, and Brazilian reals still present. So, just a kidnapper, not a thief) lighter, pack of cigarettes, folding knife, and portable phone...which of course is dead.

She stares poisonously at the useless piece of machinery for a moment, and then and only then notices the train car's other occupant.

An American serviceman? In Curitiba? What would he be doing here? She opens her mouth to ask just that, and then...

A hideous throng rush out forever, and laugh, but smile no more. The snatch of doggrel echoes inanely in her thoughts as pale faces, dozens of them, hundreds of them, fill her field of vision. It's only for an instant, but it rattles Alexandra more than anything else in this bizarre chain of events.

What was that?! I saw...I saw...drugged. Definitely drugged. Oh, not good. Not good at all.

A minute later after your awakening, a horrible groan resonances through the metal of the train; at the same time floor under you seems to shudder as the wagon starts to tilt.

...Survive the crash.

And before anything else can happen, the world goes sideways. For a moment, she thinks it's another hallucination, like the faces, but no, this is real, it's happening, she's been drugged, abducted, placed on a train, and now the train is derailing.

Alexandra dives for one of the berths, with a split second flash of inspiration that there'll be less space for her to be thrown around in if she can quickly take cover in one of the cramped sleeping compartments.
 
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Arcuied Brunestud.



Snow covers you body, blocking your vision, muffing the sounds. The earth below you quakes slightly, the wind screams as it rent asunder by a titanic construct moving at the divine speeds.

'Ah?'

I wake up, but it's not easy. An intense chill sears my skin, the sensation of lost heat almost painful. I'm tired, my body sluggish and unresponsive, as if I hadn't moved in ages and my muscles have deteriorated. I feel... weak. That's the only way to put it, and even raising my head is an effort.

However, all of that is drowned out by something far more primal.

'Where am I?!'

I don't recognize this place. I've never been hear before. I'm tired and cold and there's no sign of... of human...

Oh. Ohhhhhhhh.

You hear thunder of metal grinding against metal and it's source is moving toward you.

Follow it. Survive.

As you rise your head, you see the source of the sounds.

Piercing through snow like a spear, creating wing-like formation of frozen particles in air, a train trudges on through the hostile terrain, the only sign of ominous man-made light in the endless frozen desert in nowhere.

That's a sign of human civilization. A train. A vehicle invented by humans back in the 19th century. Moves along predetermined tracks at high speeds. In a way, seeing it is a relief. It means that so long as I follow it, I should make it back to a city of some sort eventually. Unless I die of the cold first.

'Wait a second.'

Something... something is off about this situation.

My eyes are drawn downward again after raising my head, and I realize with horror that I'm standing- no, laying on the tracks, covered by snow. If I don't get out now, I'm going to die.

'Move move move move move!'

I'm still sluggish and chilled. It hurts to move. But I absolutely, definitely have to move right now or I'll die for sure. One of my armss tears free from the snow, which to my weakened body, felt packed and dense, like shackles pinning me in place. But with one of my arms free, I'm better able to make the effort. My other arm and my legs spasming, my hands gripping into the ground, I rip myself free from the prison bars, moving farther than I would have expected. I'd veritably launched myself off the tracks from the force of my pull, leaving the ground completely. Odd. I feel weak, not strong. That shouldn't have happened. Still, I'm off the tracks. If the train comes by I shouldn't get hit.

And as it still moving toward you - it seems to stumble on something, as with a screech, and a groan of metal, a fair few of it's wagons detach from the constructions, as high-speed metallic projectiles threatening to destroy anything they impact.

Unless that happened. Time freezes as a small part of me understands that one of those masses of metal is heading right towards me. It's flying through the air. With that much force, it'll take off the upper half of my body and grind the entire thing into paste if I don't move.

'What a strange thought.'

I feel tired, but all this is going through my head much faster than it should. An adrenaline rush? Maybe. It seems I have a lot more time to think when I'm about to die.

I can't move back to where I was, or directly away from the flying wagon. Both would get me crushed. Other cars are flying in the direction away from the tracks. I can't move left, right, forward, or back. All lead to death. So...

-A switch clicks in the back of my head. Operating completely on instinct, no conscious thought fueling the action, I tense my legs, and leap-

...up is the only way to go to survive. I feel weak, but logic doesn't seem to agree with that assessment. I veritably fly upward, and things stop moving as slowly as they were in my perception. The immense mass of green-painted metal that had been about to kill me passes under me, and I giggle at the impossibility. I had just dodged a crashing motor vehicle by jumping straight up. Completely impossible. Even like this, I feel sluggish and weak. What's wrong with my senses?

The crash doesn't take long to run its course. As I start to fall, the movement of large metal objects has run its course. I land gently in the snow on my feet, the chill of extreme cold biting into me once again. With death no longer a few seconds away, I have more time to think about the situation, and look at myself, getting my third shock of the minute. This was definitely new. A white sweater, a purple skirt and... female parts. The hair that falls into my view is blonde, and coupled with the contradiction of feeling weak and being extremely strong...

A few memories rush through my mind, of things that happened to a certain someone, and I say out loud.

"I'm Arcueid Brunestud."

Another giggle bursts out of my throat as I try and take in that silliness. Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. But it's what my senses are telling me. And my memories. So, I have to accept it as true. I know that I'm not crazy, so whatever I'm seeing and feeling has to be real. I suppose it could be coma or something with an inane situation, but would good would acting like it was fake do?

Of course, now there's something else I have to do.

Follow it. Survive.

The train. I need to follow the train. It doesn't matter that I dodged the crash if I die out here in the cold wasteland. Arcueid should be able to survive such a thing indefinitely, but I simply feel so weak. I don't trust that thought. The burst of strength from before has left me, and I stumble slightly when beginning to move after the locomotive. The front part of the train is still moving. If I can keep it in sight, I'll reach civilization, eventually. I start out walking, my legs still unresponsive, before I begin to try and run. I'm stumbling and unbalanced, but I'm managing to speed up.

It's a bit slower right now. If I can catch up to it, I can just grab on to it and avoid getting stuck out here.

I am not dying out here today. More energy pours into my limbs, and I'm able to start keeping up after it. I can reach it. I'll definitely reach it. Just a little longer, and I can rest.
 
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Ramirez.

You wake suddenly, almost collapsing on the floor. You are sitting on a floor, in what seems to be sort of a train. Quick check confrimes what you bag and your weapons are with you.

Nobody else seems to be inside, besides a single woman sitting in the crevice at the end of the wagon.
Ramirez blinks into consciousness as he suddenly finds himself awake once more. He barely catches himself in time to prevent falling flat on his face on the floor, and winds up in a sitting position on it. His face feels a few hits, stinging a tiny bit, and Ramirez recovers enough of his focus to see a Minion trying to get his attention. Ramirez nods, and the Minion satisfied scurries back into the bag and climbs back in.

Slowly turning his head over to see if anything came with him, Ramirez finds his rifle and equipment bag - the same one the Minion went into - lay right next to him. A quick check of his belt reveals the rest of his armaments are on himself, and he pulls out his pistol, slowly going through the chamber. Finding it loaded to his satisfaction, he holsters the weapon and slowly gets up, picking up his rifle – which he slings around his shoulder – and his bag, fastening it around himself securely.

A rumbling in his bag reveals a Minion popping out his head, tapping Ramirez on his shoulder to indicate his checking on Ramirez's well-being. "O-kay?" It asks. Ramirez turns his head slightly and gives a thumbs-up, and the Minion nods with a hum before ducking back into the bag. At the same moment, Ramirez hears – or what he thinks he hears – his internal radio activate. His NCO – one Sergeant Foley – speaks to him.

"Ramirez, are you okay? You wound up going out for a while. Just sit tight and stay safe for now. We'll see about getting you to your destination soon enough."

Ramirez then turns his attention to the rest of the setting – figuring that he is in a train doing so – and notices a woman on the other side, which seemed to just recover from a similar state he himself might have been in. In fact, while he doesn't show it, Ramirez has utterly no idea of what is actually going on; all of his actions have been done mechanically, as if he were supposed to do it all the time. There were questions that needed answering, but for now the main issue was making sure his immediate vicinity were safe.
A minute later after your awakening, a horrible groan resonances through the metal of the train; at the same time floor under you seems to shudder as the wagon starts to tilt.

...Survive the crash.
And judging by the sounds that were being emitted by the train, he was very much not safe. Slamming into the other wall, Ramirez strains to keep his focus on a very much deteriorating situation, watching out for his footing as the very ground seems to now be unsafe. Several muffled screams and panicking can be heard coming from the back-pack, the shuffling of the bag increasing in intensity, but what grabs Ramirez's attention is his radio – or what he thinks is his radio.

"Ramirez! The train's gonna crash! There's not enough time to get off. Try to find a way to survive!"

Ramirez looks, and sees the woman dive into one of the compartments, watching the action in a seemingly slowed down pace – whether it actually slowed down or it was his mind slowing down, though, he wasn't sure.

But whatever the reason was wasn't important. For now, he needed to get to safety, and that woman looked like she had the right idea.

Getting help from the Minions inside his bag to push off the wall, Ramirez scrambled, rifle in both hands – with the safety on, of course – and pushed himself into a compartment bag first, falling over and rolling to a stop inside - or what he hoped would be a stop.

With his choice, he'd made either the smart choice to have basically done the same thing, or the foolish one for committing himself to the same type of death. Either way, there was no turning back around for him now.
 
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Suwako, wandering Goddess.

You snap into concuscioness in what looks like long abandoned church – vandalized interior looks suitably trashed, and if not for the signs of recent fight, it truly could be mistaken for the abandoned church.
I awoke feeling like the time i'd challenged Suika to a drinking contest only without the pleasant memories. The last thing I remembered was going to bed after Sanae's birthday party...and now i'm in a church.

'But the only church in Gensokyo belongs to the Scarlets and this certainly isn't it.'

But a more pressing question was what happened to my faith income? I still had enough stored to keep myself from fading away but what happened to the rest, i'd need to keep any uses of my powers on the small side and scrounge up what extra that I could find until the problem was solved.

It doesn't take you long to understand what is going on.

The smell of burned flesh and screams permeats the air. The arcane energies of Faith are almost palpable – directed toward a god you can't quite identify, or even feel.
For now i'll just have to settle for finding out where I was and what was causing that massive amount of faith, whoever it was directed at they weren't any god I was familiar with. So grabbing a broken metal pole, probably used to be part of a flag, I crept towards to the door to get a look at what was going on.

Just outside the building ritual of human sacrifice to unknown god is happening; a small crowd of disfigured, hunched people are chanting in unknown language, as people who looks like owners of this church are slowly put to fire one by one.
When I saw the ritual and the people preforming it I felt only disgust. Not by they're appearance, I lived around Youkai and they could get pretty ugly at times, what disgusted me was the type of ritual and how they had chosen to carry it out.

Whoever they worshiped clearly didn't understand the benefits of a sustainable model when it comes to faith gathering, human sacrifice was great when you wanted a quick jolt of faith but in the long run it wasn't sustainable, you could easily get almost ten times that amount per person if you were willing to wait. Plus it made it so much easier to expand your worshiper base since most don't take kindly to their loved ones being sacrificed which was another reason she didn't like the method as most people didn't have the conviction to do it themselves, they always had to sacrifice people outside of the group who had nothing to do with it.

So in an effort to educate them I decided that a little theatrics were an order. As quietly as possible I crept out of the church into an unwatched alleyway before flying back over the ritual, specifically right in the middle of the entire thing, and after taking a moment to ensure that my arrival will make me the center of attention I rocketed back to the ground surrounded by the most menacing aura I could muster on my meager faith reserves.

With a crash I landed letting the aura take the form of a monstrous mix between the frogs I loved so much and the Mishaguji that have served me loyally since I tamed them so long ago. To the hunched cultists it probably looked like they had summoned some sort of great spirit even if in the end the entire thing was merely a fancy illusion, still it should leave an impression.

Taking a deep breath I spoke adding just a drop of power to make myself at least partially understood and to add a bit of menace to my words. "WHO DARES AWAKEN ME FROM MY SLUMBER!! WHO CALLS MY WRATH UPON THEMSELVES WITH UNFAITHFUL BLOOD!!"
 
Darth Spectra.



You first seconds in this land starts with a heap of a something cold – snow, you realse a second later – falling through ruined glass of your Tie-Fighter on you.

I groan, and shake off the powdered ice. I fumble with the controls for my life-support suit, and pull off my helmet, gasping at the cold air.

I try to remember the sequence of events that brought me here. A jump into hyperspace. A ripple in the fabric of time and space that wasn't there before. A rough, hellish journey that burnt out the core and deposited me in the atmosphere of a planet, heading towards the ground at orbital velocity. Pulling out of the dive just enough to turn it from something that would vaporize me upon hitting the ground into a (barely) survivable crash landing.

I snort, sending vapour rolling from my nostrils. This whole situation reeks of some sort of attempt to get rid of me.

However... Retribution can wait. Living long enough to prove whatever tale there is of my unfortunate demise as wrong, however, is something that needs to start happening now.

Before I exit my TIE fighter, I check to see what can be seen through the windows. Which are cracked.

I quietly thank the Force and Sienar Systems for shatter-proof transparisteel.

On the bright side, through the same cracks, you can observe the enviroment beyound the metallic shell of TIE-Fighter and, although it's great many kilometers below, there seems to be signs of civilizations below.

So it appears that this frozen wasteland is inhabited.

But by whom? Who would want to live in this blasted ball of ice? Outcasts? Prisioners? Criminals? Madmen? People with little choice on the matter?

I shake my head. Such thoughts are irrelevant. There is civilization here, and civilization means survival.


An easy task... Provided that I take sufficient precautions.

Before I move, I quickly check the surroundings with the Force. And I encounter a problem.

– there is a dragon. A winged reptile, comparable in size with Kryat Dragon is currently sleeping barely few steps away, in a nest made from what most likely were a small plane, previously. It seems, the dragon decided to use your TIE as a part of it's metallic nest.

Dark Lords of Korriban, why.

I shake my head again. Priorities! Focus on now, and turn to later when you have time and energy to spare!

As silently as I can, I undo my harness and quickly start preparing. I'm wearing my robes under my flight suit, which I don't remove save for the wing sleeves for the added insulation it gives. I have a stash of emergency supplies in my fighter; rations, utensils, water filter, water condenser, fishing kit, survival blaster, hyperspace beacon and a completely redundant firestarter. I pull it out from under my "seat" and stuff it, along with the wing sleeves, into a set of saddlebags that contain the rest of my possessions. I buckle it on.

Lastly, I arm myself. Four lightsabers; one clipped to each foreleg, and one to each wing. A lanvarok on my right foreleg, and several reloads in my saddlebag. A communicator on the right. My armourweave cloak goes over everything, and I count the ceramic knives hidden in it with the Force. Thirty of them, all sharp as razors.

One can never have too many stabbing implements.

And now, for the dragon. The first thing I must consider is if it is, in fact, a problem. It is asleep, after all, and though it is too close for comfort right now, I do not intend to stay much longer.

However, this is clearly a carnivore. And a large and flying one to boot. It needs food, and it will consider me as such. If I leave it alone now, it will attack me later, when it's awake. Better to kill it now that I have an advantage than fight it on a battlefield of its choosing.

But how to kill it? The most obvious answer is to climb on top of its head and stab through its skull. But what if it is the sort of animal whose hide is resistant to lightsaber strikes?

I frown. Weak points. The eyes are two, and the roof of the mouth is another. The eyes would require a certain.... suicidal daring to reach, and the roof of the mouth even more so.

Another possibility would be to use overwhelming force.

My fighter!

The Twin Ion Engine that gives the TIE its name is one of the most precise, resilient and brilliant pieces of engineering to have ever been designed. It is also laughably easy to sabotage; all you have to do is move an energizer out of alignment and the whole thing becomes a bomb. Couple that with the highly radioactive, highly pressurized gas which it uses as fuel, and you have a very deadly bomb in your hands. My TIE Avenger is also carrying ordinance. Concussion Missiles and, more importantly, Proton Torpedoes.

Which gives me a much more simple, and safer solution to the problem of the dragon. But...

My fighter...

This... this craft. It and I have been through so much... I modified it with the help of my then Master, I fought in countless battles and killed even more with its guns. It was with it that I made myself known as an agent of the Empire. It was with it that I saved Piett and the Executor, the closest thing I have to a home.

It was in the solitude of its cockpit that I grieved the death of Anakin Skywalker.

I cannot bring myself to destroy it... But what other choice do I have? Should I just let this animal live to prey upon me later? And even if it doesn't, should I just leave my fighter here, for it to keep as some sort of trophy?

I curl my forehoof. Then I sigh, and lower it. With a wing, I gently touch the controls.

As much as it breaks my heart... I cannot in good conscience leave my fighter to this beast.

With haste and silence, I make my preparations. I download its flight and navigation computer into a memory chip that I stow into one of my saddlebag's hidden pockets, and then I reprogram and re-wire it for it's last mission. But before I do so, I check to see if the warheads can be fired.
 
It takes a few moments to come back to your senses, to take in the picture of your surroundings. – and with them, something hits you.

Escape.

The strength of impact is great enough to bodily flung you aside, and bury you in the snow on the landing.
Surprisingly, or perhaps, not so much you are mostly unharmed – and from position you were flung into, you can see your attacker.

You got hit by car. A small truck, to be accurate – which, proceed to take a sharp turn of the road and straight into one of the trees surrounding the road, where it is stopped cold.
As my senses came back to me and I blearily rubbed my eyes as I looked around, I though 'Huh...am I in Cana-' and then I was hit by a truck.

Thankfully one of the perks of being a Magical Girl was ridiculously inhuman durability, after all, when falling off a skyscraper was a minor annoyance at worst, it made sense that getting hit by a truck wouldn't do much to me.

And yet...I definitely felt a certain nervousness around here, as if there was something dangerous near my location and that my gut was screaming at me to get as far away as possible.

Unfortunately for whoever was in that vehicle, unless they're the threat of course, I make a habit of listening to my guts.

So I sprinted off from the side of the road towards the woods, and once I was a good bit away I would leap up towards one of the tall towers of wood and greenery, using it as a springboard to leap to another before repeating the process, continually jumping from tree to tree, higher and higher with each leap as I followed along the road from within the woads.

That was the plan anyway, hopefully it worked out as I hoped.
 
Mirai Kuriyama



First you hear once you came to your senses – people screaming, calling, desperate.

Something roars. The sounds of gunshot blaze through the cold air, only to be quickly and violently silenced.

Somebody bodily picks you up, and starts runnings, only to stumble barely moments later, dropping you onto the ground, and as you fall, you get a glance on what the man carrying you was running away.

It's nothing trully horrible, really. Just crowd of disfigured, fish-faced cultists with torches, seething with bloodlust in your general direction.

Survive the Cult.

Mirai Kuriyama's eyes flutter open as her body hits the snow-covered ground. Odd, it wasn't winter when she fought Beyond the Boundary. Even odder is the fact that she's still alive. All she remembers is plunging her sword into the powerful youma, diverting all of her blood into a final attack, and then... nothing. Her memories of whatever happened afterwards is a frustrating blur.

The schoolgirl slowly stands up, dazed. First thing's first, she needs to get her bearings. She appears to be in some sort of alleyway, dirty and empty like any other, but covered in a thick sheet of snow. She could be in any alley in the world, and she wouldn't even notice.

But as her gaze drifts to the other end of the alleyway, her half-lidded eyes widen. The very sight is enough to freeze the very blood in her veins.

Dozens of fish-people marching towards her general direction, full of blood-lust and full of hatred, while bearing pitchforks and torches. Mirai would note the obvious relation to H.P. Lovecraft, if she wasn't so terrified to see them in person. Did that mean she failed? Did Beyond the Boundary win, reforming the world into some twisted parody of her favorite author's work for some inexplicable reason? Possibilities are made and discarded within moments of forming, each getting more ridiculous than the last.

Mirai shakes her head, clearing her mind of unnecessary thoughts. Now isn't the time for theory and conjecture. There's an angry mob of Lovecraft rejects heading her way, and she needs a plan -- any plan.

Combat is out. Mirai is confident (well, somewhat) in her ability to fight. But without knowing exactly what she's dealing with, she's hesitant. They seem like youma, but... for all she knows, the fish-people could actually be people. Living beings with their own hopes, memories, and dreams. Mirai wouldn't fight them unless she's absolutely sure she could do it with a clear conscience.

Then a groan catches Mirai's attention, making her notice the man splayed out on the snow-covered ground. He must be the one who carried her, before he tripped.

"C-Come on, we have to go! Please, get up!" Mirai urges the man, kneeling down and shaking him vigorously. "I,I don't know if you can understand me, but we need to go!"
 
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A sensation of being shacked like a sack of potatoes marks the return of your senses.
My eyes slowly flicker open, the very effort excruciating. For it felt as if the lids were frozen together.

"R-r-renko?" My voice shakes with confusion as I try to distinguish just who has shaken me awake.

A mistake, for when I looked upon the man. My eyes were flooded with hundreds of borders that sent a searing pain through my temple. I nearly fainted before I could cover my eyes and let them adjust at a steadier pace.

"...Вставай и убирайся отсюда. Если планируешь умирать, умирай не на территории парка.»
A foreigner of some kind? The language did seem familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I slowly move my hands away from my eyes as the rate of information started to drop. My sight was still blurry but I had enough clarity to discern the man who has awaken me.
A grumbling figure dressed in heavy clothing is not-so-gently shaking your awake, letting you go only after confirming what you are not asleep anymore.

Find the shelter.

Somehow, despite not understanding the language, you understand the meaning behind the words said; you are prohibited to stay here, and if you want to die, please do that elsewhere.

As you look around... You recognize nothing. You don't know where you are. There seems to be a be a map of sort hanging few steps away from the bench you are sitting on.
My confusion quickly morphed to fear at the rising unfamiliarity of my surroundings.

Just how did I even get here? The last thing I remember was walking towards the train station and... just what happened at the station? I arrived there and was buying tickets, then everything became a messy blur.

Have I been drugged & kidnapped? I shudder at the thought, but why would they leave me on this bench. Maybe they were going to ransom me but came to an understanding that I'm just a everyday college student slaved to her student loans and who lived off ramen for the majority of the year. They would probably cut there losses and dump me somewhere.

I had so many questions but so few answers. Why is it this cold in spring? Where is Renko? Why did my eyes have to readjust to every border I could comprehend? Why is this man speaking a forige-

A gust of ice-y wind brushes against me and I nearly jump out of my skin. It felt like someone jammed a Icicle into my spin and rubbed sandpaper over my exposed legs. The cold reminded me of the mans words, I couldn't understand them, but I wasn't wanted here. And If I wanted to die... go somewhere else to do it.

Those last words put me on edge, I couldn't just understand why. But the "If I wanted to die" just kept echoing in my head over and over as I shuffled over to the map. He may just be blunt in the way he tells people to do things. But it wasn't about him, just those four words. Had I or Did I?

I rid myself of that thought and give a hurried thank you to the man. I quickly look over the map and try to find something that resembled a shelter. If I couldn't find some refuge from this cold, I would drop dead anyways.
 
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A moment of exploration later, you discover yourself lying on the golden table, covered with a sheet of snow.

A circle of golden columns inscribed with mystical symbols surrounds you, giving the impression of locking something inside... But whatever mystical power was in these columns, it's long gone, and cannot separate you from the outside of the circle – an endless sea of snow-covered trees, with rare, strange red-coloured flora peeking out from uder the snow. An ancient, magical forest... Cursed, something inside of your whispers. Sleeping still, it adds, in warning.


I grasp my head head, wincing at the drums that pound the soft insides of my skull. Loud and proud is what they are, like the world's worst hangover. It can't be though; even if I drank it would be impossible to get a hangover. That is one of the benefits of being a Servant, a legendary figure of the past returned to the world through the power of the Holy Grail. As King Arthur, my legendary sheath would keep me protected from such a thing. As mundane as such a thing may be.

Yet here I am, and worse is the dread that assaults me the instant I wake. It has a similar feeling to the times I hunted for the leftovers of Casters monsters in the Sewers. Like icicles running down my spine in the middle of a nice summer day.

I reach down and push myself up from the hard surface that I've been laying on. My hands press against an uneven surface, something far too smooth to be completely natural. Although without looking at it it's hard to tell just what kind of patter or shape it's in.

That it was covered in snow made me want to kick and scream and rage at Merlin again. Although the calm and rational part of my mind correctly judges that there's no point to such whining. Right now I need to find out where I am before I freeze to death.

I push myself up to my two feet, and am rewarded by an unexpected dizziness. Almost vomit inducing dizziness that forces me to double over with my hands on my knees as I wait out the sudden bout of vertigo.

Find the Church.

From the east, you faintly see some kind of lights, faintly glowing in the distance – it seems to be some kind of a road.

From west, you feel a magical presence – something orders of magnitude kinder to strangers, yet unfamiliar still.

"Of course there's a mysterious voice that's behind all of this." My voice comes out softer than I'm used to, and shakier though that's most likely the result of the dry heaving. "There always is. Why not, that seems to be my lot .I get jerked around by one voice and then a new one comes when the old gets tired of messing with me."

'Unless I'm going crazy.' A not so irrational thought, but it rings false regardless of how I might feel. Experience tells me to err on the side of 'not crazy'. The Fourth War had shown me what real insanity is and that certainly had a mystery god behind the scenes. 'I guess mystery voices have a thing for messing with my life.'

The wind breaks me from my contemplation. Cold doesn't even begin to describe it, and looking down at myself I can see why. Before I woke up here, I was dressed in my usual wear, the black dress that just appears whenever I remove my armor. Now, I appear to be armored again. Only this time my armor just so happened to be little more than a dress with armor slapped onto it…

'Hm, then again my blackened armor was also just a dress with bits of armor on the torso and hips. Huh…'

I take a few steps and straighten myself out from my position and rub my arms in a feeble attempt to warm myself after the biting wind passed through. It's a brief respite from the terrible situation that I've found myself in. I have no doubts that I'm physically weaker than I was. In spite of gaining a few inches in height, my body just feels frailer than I'm used to.

Although, truth be told, I feel more magically powerful than I had ever thought I could be. It's not just the result of my own magical energies either, there's something here that seems to be making me more magically potent.

'Almost like a magic crest. Hmm, that doesn't sound right though. I wonder…'

No matter what, I have to get moving. Staying here is a death sentence. Either I die from exposure or these woods prove themselves to be just as unfriendly as they seem.

'But which way should I go? The road is safer, but the safe path is usually the least rewarding. The presence that I feel doesn't seem to be evil… but…'

I close my eyes and concentrate. There's something on the tip of my tongue, some way to deal with the temperature for now, or maybe just something I can do to figure out what would be best.



'Huh, who would have thought that raise the sun could be a real answer to a problem'. I think as I try to sort through the images that shine in my mind. It's a lot less painful than the first time, whichever god merged the two of us this time had a lot more finesse to the merging process it seems. Though perhaps it's only my own experience that makes it smoother, Zelda and I just slip together seamlessly. Highly unlike the tug of war that waged the last time.

Not that I would do it right now, in the middle of god only knows. I'd rather not get every magus on the planet to hunt me down. I'll test that when I return to Fuyuki.

"Oh fuck, Fuyuki!" I yell out as the realization dawns on me.

'How is everyone going to recognize me when I get back? I look nothing like myself! Maybe… maybe if I tell Illya something only I would know. Maybe Kuro instead, Illya isn't good at keeping secrets and she knows it.'

Oh god, Irisviel is going to want to play with my ears when I get back. She's going to bust out the silly dresses! The one with the pink frills, bows and ribbons! FFFFFFFFF-

"God damn it Merlin!" I shout, pulling my sword from my hip and pointing it into the sky as I curse the wretch's name.

'Well, at least I have a sword.' I think in the midst of my rage. It's not at all what I'm used to. The polished rapier seems extraordinarily fragile in comparison to Excalibur. Already I miss the feeling of power that came from simply holding the blackened blade. The knowledge that I hold the biggest stick in almost any situation I may find myself in was something comforting. Now it's gone, and I'm left with nothing but this.

Until I searched the bag that came with me that is. I half expect to hear the classic Zelda fanfare as I pull from my bag an object that provided a similar feeling. The rapier, though comfortable in my hand, simply didn't hold a candle to the object. A baton that felt far, far too familiar in my hands.

'The Wind Waker…!' I realize as I examine the baton. A powerful artifact that allowed one to control the wind, perhaps not something as overwhelmingly powerful as Excalibur, but with the right applications…

I quickly put the baton back in my magic bag. There's no doubt in my mind that it will be helpful in the future, as will the harp. I wonder though.

'If I play Epona's Song, assuming I can figure out the exact notes I need to play, will the magic work for me?'

A simple question really, and one not really important now that I think about it. I really need to get moving, before I freeze to death. East towards the road, or west towards the grump.

'I am a brave and gallant knight, west it is. I can always go east towards the road later.'

As I make my way west, towards the magical presence, there's one thing that I'm really hoping for. In the middle of this freezing weather, a stray thought pops into my head.

'This had better not take me towards and ice temple.'
 
This took awhile.

------

Mirai Kuriyama's eyes flutter open
As you shake the man, the messy details of his injury reveal themselves; the man is unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon, as his blood is leaking vigorously on the snow from the wound on his head; the curly red hair making it hard to say how heavy the injury is without deeper examination.

A moment later, you hear a grunt and something heavily hits your shoulder, enough to make you feel pain despite your augmented physique, and take a reflexive step away from the man; a shattered brick lies near you leg, and it isn't hard to figure out the source of this projectile.

The crowd wasn't content to just watch as you try to shake the injured man awake - and now, a row of ugly, horribly figures moved closer, some holding weapons...

A gunshot rings across the clearing, and you see a first row of the crowd pushed back, the grim gray of their clothes marred with blossoming bloody wounds.

"Go. Go. Го!" a desperate voice with a fairly terrible accent thunders across the street, and with it, another shot pushes the crowd away another step back " Chego zamerla kak idiotka, dvigai!" Even as it slips into another language, you understand the meaning well; he wants you to get away from here.

The golden sparkes unnaturally shed from the skin of the golden man as the metal ricochet off his skin doing as much damage as rain; even so, he does not fail to stare somewhere to the roof above you, where a vague figure in a long black clergy cloth is barely visible.

"The false god has no powe..." The unnatural man speaks in a strange language; you can't recognize it, but you understand it perfectly nonetheless. But you never get the chance to hear what he wanted to say, as he never gets a chance to finish.

A third shot thunders through the air, producing yet another small cloud of sparks as it impacts; but this time skin of the seemingly invulnerable man cracks like glass under the impact instead of deflecting in harmlessly like previous shots. Almost instantly, before the golden man gets the chance to do anything, the sounds repeats for the fourth time and fairly sizable chunk of his head explodes, transformed into fine red mist by mysterious shooter.

... And then, the damage starts to heal as the injury starts to rewind itself.
Fith shot, sixth shot, seven, eight - the cracks and wounds appear all over the body of the man, but seemingly utterly fail to deal any meaningful damage, as barely a moment after barrage of gunshots started, he screams an inhuman command, still without most of his brain.

Meanwhile, momentary stunned by injuries of their leader but encouraged by his seemingly immortal endurance, the crowd charges you, Jumping over the bodies of their previously injuries comrades - stabbing, tearing and clawing at you endlessly.

As my senses came back to me
The snow falls the the disturbed branches shake and sometimes snap as you forcefully push away and fly from one to another.
The voices of people echo behind you, as you move away from the car. Worried, panicky completely mundane voices; about three different ones, all male.

A few minutes later, you think you see some lights in the distance; you might be able to get there in about twenty or thirty minutes if you hurry, but you are not completely sure if you will manage to get there before freezing to death. Still, most likely doable.

As you jump from branch to branch, in a flash of caleidoscopic colors, you senses are overwhelmed with a sensation not unlike that of a witch barrier; it opened not that far away from you... Rather closely to the place you found yourself in few minutes ago.

Suddenly, you realize what while the echoing voices of the people arguing with each other what were following your escape are now silent. In fact, almost all sounds ceased around you.
I groan, and shake off the powdered ice.
...
With haste and silence, I make my preparations. I download its flight and navigation computer into a memory chip that I stow into one of my saddlebag's hidden pockets, and then I reprogram and re-wire it for it's last mission. But before I do so, I check to see if the warheads can be fired.
As you carefully tinker with miraculously working machinery, the dragon perks up, slightly, and looks at you.

The noxious liquid drips on the ground, melting the stone and metal aggressively, as it slowly - lazily even - starts to move toward you.

You start feeling disturbance in the force, and then something cracks above you. The light wave of snow rushes from above as some sort of a thunder lightly resonates through the mountains. There is a gap in Fource; though, "A gap" probably would be a wrong term; the familiar energy was there, but... different.

Regardless, the anomaly was visible to the nacked eye as a small crack in the sky, shining gap into... somewhere opened with an incredible gap; the force of exploding energies, you realize, created the sound which you heard few moments ago.

As you check, the torpedoes are intact. In fact, you could launch them right now, if you want to; they are not pointed at the dragon, however, who is currently slowly moves toward you, not bothered in the slightest by the unusual weather.

"WHO DARES AWAKEN ME FROM MY SLUMBER!! WHO CALLS MY WRATH UPON THEMSELVES WITH UNFAITHFUL BLOOD!!"
For a a short imperceptible moment, everybody stands still, except the slowly spreading fire.
The first thing you know, before the time moves again, is the sudden influx of images, words, feelings - disjointed, chaotic and uncertain prayers for salvation, for a savior...

The second is the flow of power around and away from you; a vague impression of a sleeping god buried under the the clear, frozen waters of the lake, a terrifying deity which purifies... You can't manage to percieve more as It blinks at you, it's undivided attention chilling you down to your bones, moves under the water, shattering it's prison, tearing it's way to freedom - but then, the permafrost grasp at it again.

The vision takes barely a moment. "Kill." You hear a gentle, familiar voice. "Lull it back to sleep and butcher it, until no trace whatsoever remains."

Then, as nothing happened, the vision ends. You blink, and the picture of a place you were moments ago returns.

Dozens of cultists fall on their knees, afraid - but a greater many still stand, and a among them, a man in robes; golden skin covers his face, a stuff of shifting bone in his hands, words of punishment and aggression fly out his tongue, as he starts to trace symbols in the air with his staff.
Arcane symbols of imprisonment empowered by distinctly divine energies shudder as come into life, and the dark shapes move behind the windows of the church. You don't think what escaping now would be easy.

There is a thing you notice, however; one of the trapped man, a youth with a blond hair and clothes way to expensive for this occurrence managed to direct the fire so it burns his bounds somehow, and is now trying to free other prisoners. Cultists have yet to notice what in a few moments their evidently not-so-helpless prisoners are going to be as free as possible under the circumstances.

I am not dying out here today. More energy pours into my limbs, and I'm able to start keeping up after it. I can reach it. I'll definitely reach it. Just a little longer, and I can rest.

You run - the screaming wind and snow try to hinder you, but your run nonetheless. It would be rather hard to outrun a train in your conditions, but thankfully, you don't need to do that.

As you move closer, it's clear what that is no mundane train, but a great phantasmal machine of metal and ether; moving along the rails inscribed upon the world. You rush, and grab onto it, holding dearly onto the cold metal which tries to tear itself out of your grasps - and then you feel as a insect caught on a windshield as the space rips.

As you awaken, the train drifts gently through space several dozens of meters above the ground, it's machinery rhythmically working, moving the arcane device through the strange dimension you found yourself in into unknown, but... strangely familiar lands.



Trees of limestone and ice, glowing in eeriely below you; and in the distance above you, thousands of kilometers away, behind the cracking sky of this alien world a familiar light of the planet you were born you shines onto you.

The space in here in an unstable, precarious state; cracks running along very existence of the World. Your nature allows your to feel that, and understand what unless a being of power comparable to your old self forges a path, it's should normally be impossible to breach the way between two worlds like that.

Still, the fact remains; this train breached the fragile walls of one world and spilled onto another, systematically moving on onto destination which is barely visible in a horizon; a darker place, full of intermixed golden mechanisms and smells of sweat and blood.

...It seems, there is a door opened in the last wagon, artificial insides of the metal beasts are trying to fight of the strange reality of the place you found yourself in; you probably could sneak inside if you desire so. Otherwise, there is a number of other cracks in space; it would take much effort to slip into them if you desire.

One the cracks leads to a foggy, cold place, barely illuminated by electric lights and barely tamed by newly-built constructs of concrete and steel.

Third is cold; through the cracks, you smell the working engine and smells of the forest.

There are many more, a prismatic kaleidoscope of dimensions, but details are hazy. They wouldn't last for too long though, as this lunar dimension seems to be healing the tears in space already; It wouldn't take too long for these ways to vanish, so if you desire to depart, you better do that quickly - unless you wish to remain, which seems to be strangely, unnaturally attractive prospect...
The shining edge of the Orokin blade cleaves through steel and flesh with same ease; however strong, ice is nothing before the structures what could endure the vastness of space... Or that's that you knew; and yet, this ice required actual effort to breach, not unlike ice infused by the void energies of the Tenno.

You slice at it, and then displace cleanly shaved shards of ice to make space; a process which you repeat more than once; you work quickly despite the weakness, and even as the ice layer begins to regenerate you move upward. Every movement is a struggle flowed by the the cracking of ice, as some force tries to turn you in a frozen statue.

It takes less than a minute - less than a minute of a desperate struggle but you manage to get out before you are crushed by the cold embrace of the growing ice-crystals.

The ice breach you went through freezes solid quickly, as you leave; no trace of your recent struggle remains.

You take moment to look around - you are on some sort of a frozen lake; mere hundred of meters away is the shore, the details obscured by the thick fog.

You move, carefully; even after you got out, the sheet of crystallic growths, strange and unnatural ice cling to your Warframe, cracking with every movement and regenerating back, like some sort of crystallic hide, trying to hinder every move; pitifully weak and yet relentless.

The ice below you quakes slightly; and then, a moment later, a bit stronger. You probably need to move.

Wade/Cheese said:
For a long moments, nothing happens. Then, the metals turns into liquids momentary as gravity reverses, and a caleidoscope of dimensions streams through your very being as you flow through the cosmic space of many alien words, toward the the painful white and blue.
...your brain tears itself apart as the images are burned into your mind, and your eyes close themselves; where are you going, you don't need them to see.

...It feels like a small eternity, but in truth, the disorienting, confusing mess of altered laws of physics is altered almost in non-existence almost instantly as the causality and your native laws of reality are restored.

Thankfully to some power or just coincidence, your body is still mostly in the same shape. Some kind of a liquid slowly dripping from your eyes, you smell blood and you can taste it in your mouth - but you sanity seems to be surprisingly intact, and if there any life-threatening injuries inflicted on your body, you are not feeling the pain right now.

That, however, can't be sad for the warped phantom limbs spearing out of the walls, clawing at you, reaching out for you; vaguely recognizable as ghostly beings what you saw before seems to have not endured the trip into this chaotic dimension as well as you did, and were warped and fused to the structure.

Thankfully, most of them seems to be currently either inactive, or anchored to the metallic structures; very few what kept the bodily integrity seems to be moving sluggishly in the small compartments of the wagon, not quite awake.

The wagon is almost untransformed, ghostly limbs and screaming faces fused to the walls here and there aside; whatever arcane mechanism or deity keeps reality inside is currently relatively stable. Baleful pale light streams from the windows, but the walls don't seems to be in hurry to come apart in a fractal patterns what taste like light. Though, that might change soon.

You currently find yourself painfully pressed against the metallic construct of the heavy metallic door you are currently lying on together in a heap of limbs with a another relatively normal-looking human being and a big bag.

Above you, a gaping, ten meters long verical tunnel leads to a door to outside, which is currently is wide open; a gap in space which is painful to look at, energies what defy the law of physics streaming into the wagon through it, slowly destroying the artificially imposed laws of reality; if this continues, you doubt what anything in here is going to survive for much longer inside of the steel carcass of your current vessel for long.

'This had better not take me towards and ice temple.'

You walk across the strange forest for some minutes in the direction of a magical force you detected. Between deep snow, and the freezing temperature, it's not an easy trip, and strange red flowers which seems to be taunting your by persisting in these conditions somehow do not help.

Worriyingly, besides the obvious problems you cannot find anything weird about them, though you hadn't found a moment to deeply examine them.

Still, eventually, you stumble upon the clearing, and the source of magic reveals itself.

It's a house. Small wooden house. There is smoke rising from the small stovepipe on the roof, and an outline of human figure could be seen through the window covered by a curtain on the other side.

It's also seems to be intensively magical, and the smoke rising from it seems to be containing trace amounts of some kind of magical potion, though you couldn't indentify neither the nature of potion or magic surrounding the house more specifically right now.

As you circle around the house, a soft, pleasant voice calls out to you.

"You sure you want to get in? She is a bit grumpy right now. No visitors for awhile, you see. "

It's a cat. Giant black cat, lying on a roof of the house, it doesn't' seems to be bothered by cold; it's eyes are unusually intelligent, and observing you with a calm curiousity. A powerful magical being, connected to something inside... No, it is a familiar of whoever is inside.

"Though, it seems what you are going to freeze otherwise, so you might as well try you luck with the old hag. " He follows, his tails swinging slightly as he speaks "Or, maybe, we could come to an alternative arrangement?"

It stretches, lazily, jumps down from the roof; despite it's size, the snow under it's paws is undisturbed.

"I have been stuck here for awhile, and you seems to be talented enough to support my existence... Yes, I wouldn't mind taking a short tour to the places more civilized than this..." he speaks the as there is dirt in his mouth "...Place. I assure you, this is going to be far more pleasant and satisfying solution than being eaten by the old hag."

I rid myself of that thought and give a hurried thank you to the man. I quickly look over the map and try to find something that resembled a shelter. If I couldn't find some refuge from this cold, I would drop dead anyways.

The map, somewhat obscured by a light layer of snow constantly accumulating on it despite all efforts to opposite seems to offer your a few options. The old paper, somewhat damaged, marked by a great many marks and changes and a great many multi-colored lines what where added considerably later makes the map looks like a picture drawn by a five years old child. Still, it's is in a good enough condition to be mostly readable.

One road ahead of you seems to be leading to some sort of a church. The small picture seems to be marked red.

Second location seems to be marked with golden paint; the small, barely readable text - thankfully, there is an english version which wasn't obscured by ever present multicolored marks - seems to be saying what that is supposed to be local hotel. No details beyond that.
And a third seems to be some sort of a service building for the local workers. Nothing particular remarkable.

A fourth... that part of the map seems to be map seems to be damaged, so you can't say what was supposed to be there. As you study it, with a flesh of thunder and a wave of a hot air following barely a moment later, in the distance somewhere around the place what destroyed part of map is supposed to show, a gap in you perception seems to open; neither empty or calm, it's a pathway somewhere into another world, completely unfamiliar to you.

Once you take your attention off the map, man with whom you were speaking just a few moments ago vanished, like he never existed, any possible traces of him destroyed by ever-growing layer of snow.
 
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And then the world went mad.

For a moment, Alexandra simply stares- drugged LSD maybe this can't be real - and then she smells the graveyard mold reek of the emaciated figures now sharing the compartment with her, hears the shriek of metal as the ones bound into the walls begin to stir, and it really doesn't matter, does it, if this is real or merely a vivid delusion, if the delusion can create the blood dripping from her lips and the lightning-crackle pain behind her eyes this well she does not want to see what it makes of the ghoul things sinking their ragged talons into her flesh or being touched by the light that is eating away at the metal of the train like acid.

Sinking ship you get away from the hole where the water comes in the door is a hole...

@A Melted Cheese Sandwich
"Up! Up and run!" She grabs the American serviceman and shakes his shoulder vigorously, and that's all she takes time for, then she's moving, a staggering lope that slowly takes on something like her usual grace, away from the devouring light and the damned souls, she doesn't have a destination, doesn't need one right now, away from that will serve her perfectly well.
 
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Kyoko Sakura
The snow falls the the disturbed branches shake and sometimes snap as you forcefully push away and fly from one to another.
The voices of people echo behind you, as you move away from the car. Worried, panicky completely mundane voices; about three different ones, all male.

A few minutes later, you think you see some lights in the distance; you might be able to get there in about twenty or thirty minutes if you hurry, but you are not completely sure if you will manage to get there before freezing to death. Still, most likely doable.

As you jump from branch to branch, in a flash of caleidoscopic colors, you senses are overwhelmed with a sensation not unlike that of a witch barrier; it opened not that far away from you... Rather closely to the place you found yourself in few minutes ago.

Suddenly, you realize what while the echoing voices of the people arguing with each other what were following your escape are now silent. In fact, almost all sounds ceased around you.
To help, or to flee.

I saw the light in the distance, and I knew I could get there in time. There at least, I could gather my wits and figure out what was happening.

But if I left...those three men would die. I mean...I had done worse, but I actually gained something from that, I was doing it to survive. Here, I gained nothing from this, I couldn't even claim I was getting to safety. Their car would still be warm and the men should know the area. Not to mention the advantages of potentially having a Grief Seed to burn through.

So in the end, all that kept me from heading back and helping them was fear, and I'd be damned if I let that get in my way.

So with a sigh I turned back towards the crash-site and began heading back with spear in hand, even as I grumbled 'This better be worth it.'
 
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The shining edge of the Orokin blade cleaves through steel and flesh with same ease; however strong, ice is nothing before the structures what could endure the vastness of space... Or that's that you knew; and yet, this ice required actual effort to breach, not unlike ice infused by the void energies of the Tenno.

You slice at it, and then displace cleanly shaved shards of ice to make space; a process which you repeat more than once; you work quickly despite the weakness, and even as the ice layer begins to regenerate you move upward. Every movement is a struggle flowed by the the cracking of ice, as some force tries to turn you in a frozen statue.

It takes less than a minute - less than a minute of a desperate struggle but you manage to get out before you are crushed by the cold embrace of the growing ice-crystals.

The ice breach you went through freezes solid quickly, as you leave; no trace of your recent struggle remains.

You take moment to look around - you are on some sort of a frozen lake; mere hundred of meters away is the shore, the details obscured by the thick fog.

You move, carefully; even after you got out, the sheet of crystallic growths, strange and unnatural ice cling to your Warframe, cracking with every movement and regenerating back, like some sort of crystallic hide, trying to hinder every move; pitifully weak and yet relentless.

The ice below you quakes slightly; and then, a moment later, a bit stronger. You probably need to move.
Everything feels wrong.

Mag have never felt this weak and feeble; even when the Lotus woke her for the first time in a millennia she still had the power and ferocity to massacre and silence the Corpus treasure hunters that had chanced upon her pod. Now, she felels neutered, like a Kubrow without its claws. Something had happened to her, yet she is without answers. What had transpired for her to be reduced to such a state?

Mag surveys her surroundings, looking for any landmarks or any trace of civilisation that may hint her of the location she is in. Her first theory is that she is on Europa, but she swiftly shot that down for there is nary a trace of the hued sunlight the frozen planet is well known for. Instead, black fog consumed everything around Mag like a miasma.

The biting cold clashes against her augmented shields, icy crystals unnaturally penetrating them and grafting onto her suit, but the damage remains superficial. Even so, she risks much standing out in the open with little information to go by.

The ice sheet below her quakes and groanes, and with each passing moment a bit stronger. Something is afoot. She needs to get away now.

Even in her weakened state, Mag was still able to break into something resembling a sprint and heads towards a vague-looking shore. Mag raises her Dakra. Even in her haste, she dares not drop her guard. Something is lurking around the grounds, that she is certain.
 
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For a a short imperceptible moment, everybody stands still, except the slowly spreading fire.
The first thing you know, before the time moves again, is the sudden influx of images, words, feelings - disjointed, chaotic and uncertain prayers for salvation, for a savior...


The second is the flow of power around and away from you; a vague impression of a sleeping god buried under the the clear, frozen waters of the lake, a terrifying deity which purifies... You can't manage to percieve more as It blinks at you, it's undivided attention chilling you down to your bones, moves under the water, shattering it's prison, tearing it's way to freedom - but then, the permafrost grasp at it again.

The vision takes barely a moment. "Kill." You hear a gentle, familiar voice. "Lull it back to sleep and butcher it, until no trace whatsoever remains."

Then, as nothing happened, the vision ends. You blink, and the picture of a place you were moments ago returns.
Inside my illusionary construct I stumbled as the vision fades leaving behind a sensation I had not felt in a long time, fear. What I had seen reminded me of the legendary youkai Yamata no Orochi. If something like that were to get loose....I'd have to investigate that later once the current situation was dealt with.

Dozens of cultists fall on their knees, afraid - but a greater many still stand, and a among them, a man in robes; golden skin covers his face, a stuff of shifting bone in his hands, words of punishment and aggression fly out his tongue, as he starts to trace symbols in the air with his staff.
Arcane symbols of imprisonment empowered by distinctly divine energies shudder as come into life, and the dark shapes move behind the windows of the church. You don't think what escaping now would be easy.

There is a thing you notice, however; one of the trapped man, a youth with a blond hair and clothes way to expensive for this occurrence managed to direct the fire so it burns his bounds somehow, and is now trying to free other prisoners. Cultists have yet to notice what in a few moments their evidently not-so-helpless prisoners are going to be as free as possible under the circumstances.
Turning my attention back to the cultists I was pleased to see that my little display had managed to cowl at least some of the cultists, which was nice at least except for the fact that the rest still weren't convinced at it appeared that their leader, who you assumed to be golden boy since he was the one with the fancy staff and magic which you found rather annoying!!

But thankfully it looked like the sacrifices were freeing themselves while the cultists were distracted with you, good for them you enjoyed seeing people actually take the initiative. For now you had to keep all eyes on you and deal with golden boy.

"YOU THINK TO IMPRISON ME!!" I shouted with the same mystical filter from earlier "BEGONE FROM MY SIGHT!!" was the only warning I gave before I made my move, conjuring 6 rings of iron rings reinforced with divine power I threw them at the cultists. Specifically 3 went directly for the golden man while the rest flew into the crowd of cultists that hadn't bought my act slicing through a few before expertly bouncing against the walls to strike the Golden man assuming he wasn't already dead from the first 3.
 
You run - the screaming wind and snow try to hinder you, but your run nonetheless. It would be rather hard to outrun a train in your conditions, but thankfully, you don't need to do that.

As you move closer, it's clear what that is no mundane train, but a great phantasmal machine of metal and ether; moving along the rails inscribed upon the world. You rush, and grab onto it, holding dearly onto the cold metal which tries to tear itself out of your grasps - and then you feel as a insect caught on a windshield as the space rips.

As I caught up to the great machine, more power starts to flow through my limbs. The sensation of running is helping me run, I'm getting more used to what I'm actually capable of right now. It isn't taking too long. I'm getting closer, close enough that I'll be able to grab hold soon, and-

'What is that?'

The train wasn't a train, or at least, not a normal one. Having got this close, it was obviously phantasmal in nature, only partly 'real' at best. It was surprising enough that I almost stopped, slowing for a second before picking up the pace again. Even if was something strange, following it would still be the best way to get to safety. Right. I mean, probably. Maybe? I had enough time to think one last thing as I grabbed on to the metal railings and the World distorted.

'Maybe this wasn't such a good id-'

Then blackness.

As you awaken, the train drifts gently through space several dozens of meters above the ground, it's machinery rhythmically working, moving the arcane device through the strange dimension you found yourself in into unknown, but... strangely familiar lands.



Trees of limestone and ice, glowing in eeriely below you; and in the distance above you, thousands of kilometers away, behind the cracking sky of this alien world a familiar light of the planet you were born you shines onto you.

The space in here in an unstable, precarious state; cracks running along very existence of the World. Your nature allows your to feel that, and understand what unless a being of power comparable to your old self forges a path, it's should normally be impossible to breach the way between two worlds like that.

Still, the fact remains; this train breached the fragile walls of one world and spilled onto another, systematically moving on onto destination which is barely visible in a horizons; a darker place, full of intermixed golden mechanisms and smells of sweat and blood.

I wake up. At the last second, it seems like I managed to pull myself to stability. Instead of clinging to the railing, I awoke laying on a flat surface. It looked like it was for a work crew to move between cars; stylized into the trains particular nature of being not completely real.

Pulling myself upward, I get a better look at the place the train has brought me to, a frozen white forest, with no real plants to be found, with a seeming full moon shining overhead. This isn't the world I was just in, but somehow, it still feels somewhat like home. That, that scares me. That sensation of belonging.

'I can't stay here.'

Even if this place feels fine, I don't want to find out what that place in the distance is. Shadowed, and smelling of blood and sweat even at this distance means there's something definitively off about it. How to get away? It seems what allowed the train to shift from the World to this one is still in effect. I don't know where it'll take me, but...

...It seems, there is a door opened in the last wagon, artificial insides of the metal beasts are trying to fight of the strange reality of the place you found yourself in; you probably could sneak inside if you desire so. Otherwise, there is a number of other cracks in space; it would take much effort to slip into them if you desire.

One the cracks leads to a foggy, cold place, barely illuminated by electric lights and barely tamed by newly-built constructs of concrete and steel.

Third is cold; through the cracks, you smell the working engine and smells of the forest.

There are many more, a multicultural kaleidoscope of dimensions, but details are hazy. They wouldn't last for too long though, as this lunar dimension seems to be healing the tears in space already; It wouldn't take too long for these ways to vanish, so if you desire to depart, you better do that quickly - unless you wish to remain, which seems to be strangely, unnaturally attractive prospect...

...I can at least head for the one that looks the most survivable. I can dimly recognize the second clearly visible crack as leading to a human city. The first leading to a place that's under attack, the third to someplace in the middle of a forest where human. The second and third are probably the best choices; each leading to a reasonably familiar place where there's a strong possibility of friendly contact.

Urban or Forest. Human or Nature. I only have a split second to decide, and I go with what feels right to my body. Shooting off the edge of the train with a leap, I dive for the third crack.

'It seems I went to Gaia instead.'

As I fly through the air, definitely heading for that one, I brace myself for some level of pressure; the last time I went through one of these twists in space, it hadn't been pleasant. I had recovered relatively quickly, but I don't know how it'll be the second time around on such short notice.
 
A few seconds pass, and all is still. It seems that the warning might have been a fluke-

then the shock shudders through his body, and with a single shift, everything rapidly goes black and quiet. He wouldn't know it, but he's been stunned for what seems like an eternity. But as he comes back to consciousness, it feels as if it was only mere seconds ago that he had just waken up in this entirely unknown location. A slow dazed turn reveals that his accomplices are, indeed, okay. This is confirmed when a Minion pokes its head out just enough for the bottom of its eyes to be visible, and it turns to find its friend still okay. A small cheer is followed by the Minion once again vanishing back into the bag, and that is when Ramirez realizes what his surroundings entail.

And it is quite the ghastly sight. Ramirez has no reaction - likely due to his still somewhat dazed nature - but a small scream ("Eeeeeyaaaahhh!!") indicates a Minion that is rather squeamish finds the sight to be too much. There is no time to give more than a passing thought, however, for the attention is put up to a light that seems to be very much unfriendly. If he stays, he might not be conscious again for very long. And there is plenty of encouragement to move him.
Getting up with the help of a push, Ramirez sees a woman - likely the woman he saw before the crash - and sees her starting to seemingly go somewhere. At that moment he hears from his radio (or what he thinks is his radio) a very clear order:

"Ramirez! The place is falling apart - get the hell out of there with that woman, now!"

And he needed no further encouragement. Swinging the large bag around his back, and gripping his rifle tightly, Ramirez lurches forward, his legs feeling like they are being dragged forward, and slowly picks up his pace in an effort to catch up to the woman, as quickly as he could. Wherever she was going, it was away from whatever that light was, and from the feeling said light was giving, that was a good thing.
 
You walk across the strange forest for some minutes in the direction of a magical force you detected. Between deep snow, and the freezing temperature, it's not an easy trip, and strange red flowers which seems to be taunting your by persisting in these conditions somehow do not help.

Worriyingly, besides the obvious problems you cannot find anything weird about them, though you hadn't found a moment to deeply examine them.

Still, eventually, you stumble upon the clearing, and the source of magic reveals itself.

It's a house. Small wooden house. There is smoke rising from the small stovepipe on the roof, and an outline of human figure could be seen through the window covered by a curtain on the other side.

It's also seems to be intensively magical, and the smoke rising from it seems to be containing trace amounts of some kind of magical potion, though you couldn't indentify neither the nature of potion or magic surrounding the house more specifically right now.

As you circle around the house, a soft, pleasant voice calls out to you.

"You sure you want to get in? She is a bit grumpy right now. No visitors for awhile, you see. "

It's a cat. Giant black cat, lying on a roof of the house, it doesn't' seems to be bothered by cold; it's eyes are unusually intelligent, and observing you with a calm curiousity. A powerful magical being, connected to something inside... No, it is a familiar of whoever is inside.

"Though, it seems what you are going to freeze otherwise, so you might as well try you luck with the old hag. " He follows, his tails swinging slightly as he speaks "Or, maybe, we could come to an alternative arrangement?"

It stretches, lazily, jumps down from the roof; despite it's size, the snow under it's paws is undisturbed.

"I have been stuck here for awhile, and you seems to be talented enough to support my existence... Yes, I wouldn't mind taking a short tour to the places more civilized than this..." he speaks the as there is dirt in his mouth "...Place. I assure you, this is going to be far more pleasant and satisfying solution than being eaten by the old hag."

My ears twitch, twice, as the magic of the woods settles around me. I almost want to sigh in nostalgia, a magical forest with an equally magic dweller living in them. It reminds me of days gone by, from Arthuria's lessons with Merlin, and Zelda's memories of the lost Woods.

It's enough to make me hum Saria's song.

Or it would have been enough if I wasn't confronted by Cheshire.

Strangely, I don't particularly feel like readying my sword for battle. The familiar is certainly magical, powerful too, but it doesn't feel like it intends harm to me yet. Certainly, it's not evil.

I rub my arms, a pleasant warmth battles the cold for an all too brief moment before being consumed.

"Grumpy? No visitors for awhile you say? Strange, does that mean she's grumpy and doesn't want any visitors? Or that she's grumpy 'because' she hasn't had any visitors?" I ask with candor, emphasizing the 'because'.

I continue after pushing back yet a lock of hair, which had whirled around and whipped me in the face a second after my question.

"I mean no offense, but I'm also not in the business of accepting deals with creatures that I'm not familiar with. In the spirit of good faith, I am Saber...no I am Arthuria. Hmm…"

Huh… what am I supposed to call myself? So many memories, all mixing together like soup.

"Well, it appears I've been ensorcelled. I suppose it may be more convenient to simply refer to myself by the recent set of memories I've acquired. That... makes me Zelda, Queen of Hyrule. May I have your name?"
 
As you carefully tinker with miraculously working machinery, the dragon perks up, slightly, and looks at you.

The noxious liquid drips on the ground, melting the stone and metal aggressively, as it slowly - lazily even - starts to move toward you.

You start feeling disturbance in the force, and then something cracks above you. The light wave of snow rushes from above as some sort of a thunder lightly resonates through the mountains. There is a gap in Fource; though, "A gap" probably would be a wrong term; the familiar energy was there, but... different.

Regardless, the anomaly was visible to the nacked eye as a small crack in the sky, shining gap into... somewhere opened with an incredible gap; the force of exploding energies, you realize, created the sound which you heard few moments ago.

As you check, the torpedoes are intact. In fact, you could launch them right now, if you want to; they are not pointed at the dragon, however, who is currently slowly moves toward you, not bothered in the slightest by the unusual weather.

I very definitely do not curse.

Quickly.

I set the warheads to be triggered by the self-destruct sequence, and the self-destruct to be armed by the ejection sequence.

I return to my seat, strap myself in, and brace myself. I wait, counting down the seconds until the dragon close enough. And then, I pull the eject lever.

In a sudden symphony of pyrotechnics, the hatch is torn away by explosive bolts, rockets on the seat ignite, and I'm flung high into the air.

When I reach the peak of my arc, I release my restraints, spread my wings, and fly towards the breach as fast as I can (which is quite fastn if I do say so myself).
 
Even in her weakened state, Mag was still able to break into something resembling a sprint and heads towards a vague-looking shore. Mag raises her Dakra. Even in her haste, she dares not drop her guard. Something is lurking around the grounds, that she is certain.
The frozen surface benelth her shakes again, as she runs across the plain of ice and snow. What is unacceptably slow for a Tenno, is still a breakneck pace for lesser beings, and all obstacles aside - be it the ice which grips her frame or the difficult terrain, or anything else - Mag is still a Tenno.

However, even Tenno is not invincible, especially as weakened.

Ice starts to lance out of the smooth surface of the lake randomly behind you, not quite quickly enough to keep up with you speed. Ice below your vibrates constantly, sometimes cracking dangerously.

A small ice spike almost perforates your leg before you jump away, droplets of blood quickly freezing in the air; another draws an angry line across your back, only your speed saving you from a deeper wound. A number of spikes would have shaved off you head or penetrated or torso, if not for your masterful skill with a sword ensures what your defense is the strongest up-front.

These are tortuous moments of desperate struggle, as it's painfully clear what you couldn't keep this up for long; even as your goal is in your sight, shore of the lake closer with every step - the slowly accumulating injuries start to wear you down.


...



You understand what you reached the shore only once the attacks slowly begun to lessen in intesivity; and even so, it takes a few few seconds for them to cease entirely, the frozen surface trying to eviscerate you even once you left it's grasp.

Few moments later, nothing betrayed the painful struggle of yours but an unusual spears of ice growing in a hazardous patter which marks your recent path and rare traces of your blood drawn by the frozen spears.

You check your wounds; despite their numerous nature, they are not too serious, the worst of them is the bothersome wound on your leg which makes running and walking much more unplesant and much less effortless than it should be. However, important muscles and bones remain mostly undamaged, for now.

Thankfully, your wounds do not bleed; perhaps because of the self-regenerating Orokin technology, or perhaps, simply because at this temperature, there is no chance for them to remain unfrozen; rare red crystalline scale covers your wounds like some sort of a cursed armored hide...

As you slowly walk away from this challange, a blinding ray of light hits you, penetrating the night and the snow - and speech, somewhat reminscent of the Grineer dialect by so much different rings through the air.

"Кто там? Посторонним вход на территорию культа запрещен под страхом смерти!"

As your visual organs adjust, you see a small group of people armed with primitive weapons - pointed at you. You don't understand the words - but somehow, you understand the meaning behind them, the threats of death and grip the blade tighter, and push yourself to ignore the insignificant wound and your own temporary weakness.

Even so, your condition might be worse than you though as on the fringe of your mind, you hear a murderous whisper.

"Kill them all, Tenno. Destroy Apostles of this twisted doctrine. "

"Up! Up and run!" She grabs the American serviceman and shakes his shoulder vigorously, and that's all she takes time for, then she's moving, a staggering lope that slowly takes on something like her usual grace, away from the devouring light and the damned souls, she doesn't have a destination, doesn't need one right now, away from that will serve her perfectly well.
You stumble down, and away from the light, as the wagon slowly twists in ways not meant for a human body to endure. Fueled by adrenaline and survival instincts, it's a fairly short struggle - you tear though the grasping limbs and ignore biting faces on the floor in a desperate run for survivial.

The door to the next wagon open effortlessly, and as the pair of you jumps inside, closes behind you with a final "Clack" and unseen mechanisms start to rumble, ensuring what the door is tightly sealed.

Looking forward, observing the only possible path which lies before you, you find the wagon you currently find yourself in... looking fairly normal. In comparsion to the shining hole in the reality as you know, at least.

As the machinery behind you finally stops, from an unseen microphone accompanied by a wave of audio-static, a woman's voice cuts into the normal rhytmic sounds of working train; after speaking in what seems to be a few different languages, she switches to something more easily understandable.

"It's is really surprising to see guests boarding this train in the middle of transit, honestly. If you spent this much effort on not dying while getting on, could you please, make a few more steps toward your survival and do me a favour? I forgot something in the wagon you are in, and I need it. Retrieve my journal - it is on my table, near the lamp - and bring it to me."

Despite the static and inteference, you can make out what the voice is speaking about - a voice of power and authority, there is a distinct note of interest and worry in it; she is speaking english, and though her accent is a bit thick, her speech is understandable.

This wagon is big; about thrice longer and wider than a previous one. The half-dead lights providely just barely enough lift this section of the train... It seems like a working place of a mortician, or, perhaps, some murderous maniac.

Metallic operational tables lined up pedantically on the sides of wagon, strange creatures lying on them - closest to you is a strange golden hybrid of a man and a fly, which still seems to be twitching weakly; strangely enough, it looks like it's limbs were fused to the table, making escape either imposible or extraordinary painful.

"Do try not to get distracted by my humble work; you have a task to do, and lives to save."

Closer to you, however, is a solitary wooden table with a lit oil-lamp illuminating the book filled with an atrocious example of kalligraphy what might inspire one to poke his or her eyes out. It is likely to be some sort of a medicine text, but could only guess that thankfully to a much better drawn pictures of dissected creatures and strange arcane procedures. The text seems to be unfinished, and there is a black dirty ink mark on of the opened pages, which combined with dissarai of items what seems to have been abandoned in the middle of something, makes you think what this place was abandoned recently in a great hurry.

"Actually, do try to salvage whatever you can, but a priority on books; the materials are not that important." On this microphone goes silent, before erupting with sound for the one last time.

...There is, in fact a number of books spreaded through the wagon, lying in chaotic dissaray on the tables and floor, reinforcing the impresion of somebody being abandoned for some reason.

The voice continues to speaks slowly, regardless of your actions or attempts to communicate back; it seems, this link goes into one direction only.

"Oh, I almost forgot to say - I strongly advise you to hurry, whoever you are, as in about a minute, we are going to lose last three wagons to the strange dimension outside as the local Reality Marble fails. I don't need to explain what there is no reason for you to be there once that happens, I presume."


"YOU THINK TO IMPRISON ME!!" I shouted with the same mystical filter from earlier "BEGONE FROM MY SIGHT!!"
"You know..."

As you concentrate your divine energies, you understand what you do not have enough energy to use such attack frivolvously - but something makes you pour a fair part of your reserve into this; regardless of anything, you most assuredly can do that several more times without endangering yourself.

As rings fly, golden man shows a surprisingly quick reaction as he rises his staff, starts to utters something - all futile, as rings pulp and rips his body apart with unpleasant souns of tearing meat and cracking bones.

"...What you need..."

Numerous cultist who were daring to follow him weren't even that - rings just scythed through their bodies like air.

The man doesn't fall, however, as his visibly start to vanish, and blood drown begins to evaporate - no, simply vanish as the time curse restores the body to the previous condition.

A fireball produced by the boy from earlier hits the regenerating man, slowing down the effort; and then more impact the man, if not dealing further injuries than preventing him from regenerating.

It took bare moments - moments you bough for the boy - in order for him to free his comrades; he and other formely captured victims haven't lost even a moment of time since then, slaughtering the cultists with brutal effiency, equal part fist and magic, cutting a bloody road through the enemy, even if not with same ease as your own previous attack.

Then, the windows break, and the air is filled with buzz of flying yellow shapes.

"...It is in your nature as a God..."

Giant insects; the eyes of ruby, the body of golden chitin, size of a small child; The crowd scrambles as soon as they hear the insectoid sounds, some failing to the ground, in hope to remain unnoticed, some congregate around the golden man - and a few of those who bowed their head rushing toward you, behind you - their minds rich with raw, primal wants, and you understand them on a deepest level.

"Save us. Protect us. Please, oh merciful God, save us."

"...To desire to be an object of humanity's worship."




As I fly through the air, definitely heading for that one, I brace myself for some level of pressure; the last time I went through one of these twists in space, it hadn't been pleasant. I had recovered relatively quickly, but I don't know how it'll be the second time around on such short notice.
As you fly through the air, the feeling of belonging only intensifies.

A desolated planet, left by it's only child. You brace yourself as you enter the breach, and then your mind is lost in painful infinity; something deeply in your darkening mind painfully resonates with the weakening call; a half delirious memories of the same thing happening before rise to the surface, as your mindless body swims through the blind eternities.


There was a creature, who spent eternity walking on this lonely land. She was the only child of a realm, a precious creation of an immense being, created to be the jewel of the world.

She walked among the limestone forests and empty plains of white dust for milennia, but found nothing to hold her here, and her heart grew wistful at the signs of distant realms...

Truly, she had no love for the land which birthed her, and with time, she become used to spending her time in lonely silence, wistfully watching the blue World beyond the borders of her Lunar dimension.

Then, a Blue World called, and she left...

filling you with jealously

She left you

And you let her go

A lonely, barren realm which can never give life to anything again

Not once you tried to recreate her

Not once you begged her to return

Every time she turned toward you, yours only dear child, her eyes not unkind to your plea but innocent like child's cruelity...



Eternity of frozen time passes, as something so simular to you and yet completely different looks at you.

"Who are you?" She asks, her finger tracing your features gently, her touch warm and familiar, reminscent of memories you never had.

It makes you want to remain forever in the forest of the silvery trees.

As your mind freezes like buttefly impaled on a pin, you fall deeper and deeper into delirous darkness.

"Wake up."

You wake as you body crashes limply on something, sound of breaking glass and metal bringing your mind of the feverous sleep. In a brief respite, you feel as something painfully pokes you cheek - like a broken spring in a old matress, you want to just roll on your back and...

The roof of the car caves in, and, and with small shower of glass and broken metal you fall into the warm cabin of the car; as you rise your head from the soft seat you landed yourself on, you see as small toy mascot of a rather strict, vaguely familiar lady cheerfully waving at you with a small plastic gauntlet-clad hand under a ruined windshield.

"No magecraft inside the vechicle." reads the sign dangling above it.


Kyoko Sakura
So with a sigh I turned back towards the crash-site and began heading back with spear in hand, even as I grumbled 'This better be worth it.'
It took barely a few minutes to return, but what you had seen is not what you have expected. Or, perhaps exactly what you have expected.

The passengers are sprawled randomly on the ground; snow around them is bloodied, and it is hard to say whenever they are alive or not. Their car is in a pristine condition, though.

...Before you can do anything, a figure of the woman flies through the entrance to the Witch's Barrier(?) with a speed fitting for a puella magi, and with a screech of protesting metal, breaks straight through the roof of the car.

Your perception of magic isn't tied to any of the five normal senses; but if any particular way to describe how do you percieve the woman who is currently inside of the car, a best way to answer would be - she reeks of alien magic of a breach, of eldritch realms of witches, and horrible inhuman things.

...

As the unknown woman starts to move in a now-damaged car, one of the bodies currently lying on the ground groans pathetically, but otherwise doesn't move.

"Grumpy? No visitors for awhile you say? Strange, does that mean she's grumpy and doesn't want any visitors? Or that she's grumpy 'because' she hasn't had any visitors?" I ask with candor, emphasizing the 'because'.
He starts slowly walking circles around you.

"A little bit of both. It's a rather disgusting matter, I'd rather not..." he answers evasively, before stopping himself; his tail swishes once - hard to say, because of frustration or other reasons - as he begins again.

"...I guess that wouldn't be a particulary satisfying answer, wouldn't it? Well, to be honest, the reason for her foul mood is fairly mundane; she interested only in a certain kind of visitors, and it's been... Awhile since she was visited by a beautiful young man who finds her character to be agreeable, and most of the previous meetings ended up on a somewhat unpleasant note; dare I say, fiery, even. Since then, she has become far less pleasant to her guests."

You get the feeling what he might have meant that in a very literal sense; but despite never outright lying he certainly, certainly doesn't say everything and certainly makes whoever he is talking about look as bad as he can, at least partially because out of pure disgust.

" As for a name..." He keeps silent for a moment. "A name? I am a learned cat, a storyteller. A name isn't something I need, so call me whatever you wish as many did before you. "

The hut shakes, slightly; the cat throws it a disinterested glance in a very human manner, and walks up closer to you, looking into your eyes.

"I am afraid, we might not have that much time; seems she is pretty close to finishing the brew she is cooking. Do you agree to the offer of mine, or do you wish to try and face that foul woman and hope not to end up in a oven?"

When I reach the peak of my arc, I release my restraints, spread my wings, and fly towards the breach as fast as I can (which is quite fastn if I do say so myself).

As you rise, the mountains shudder, slightly. Or maybe that's just the rest of the snow mass what is coming down in a brute tide which consists of hundreds tons of snow coming down on your previous location.

You don't look back, but you don't need to do that to know what the monsters what slowly walked toward you just a moment ago was showered in molten metal and heat enough to destroy a small space capable vessel.

Likewise, you don't need to turn to see it being swept up in a while wave of death, it's painful screams drowned out by noise of the natural disaster you invoked by your explosive escape.

And you don't need to see with your eyes to be aware of a mangled corpse which bursted out from the snow like a rocket and flew toward you even as it neck and what remains of it's skull continued to fall apart, and it's wings, to small, to weak to truly support it weight without supernatural assitance started to tear under it's effort.

As you desperately fly closer to the anomaly, you start to feel a weak pull on your body into the direction of the breach.

It's not mere wind or any lesser force; it feels like gravity itself is behaving strangely, as you feel what as you move closer to the breach, you would have to exert actual effort in order not to get pulled into the breach like an apple falls from a tree.
 
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Kyoko Sakura
It took barely a few minutes to return, but what you had seen is not what you have expected. Or, perhaps exactly what you have expected.

The passengers are sprawled randomly on the ground; snow around them is bloodied, and it is hard to say whenever they are alive or not. Their car is in a pristine condition, though.

...Before you can do anything, a figure of the woman flies through the entrance to the Witch's Barrier(?) with a speed fitting for a puella magi, and with a screech of protesting metal, breaks straight through the roof of the car.

Your perception of magic isn't tied to any of the five normal senses; but if any particular way to describe how do you percieve the woman who is currently inside of the car, a best way to answer would be - she reeks of alien magic of a breach, of eldritch realms of witches, and horrible inhuman things.

...

As the unknown woman starts to move in a now-damaged car, one of the bodies currently lying on the ground groans pathetically, but otherwise doesn't move.
@Xellos

That woman is...wrong, horribly, unbelievably wrong...just like a powerful witch. At the same time though, neither Witches nor Familiars take that kind of form, and while that didn't really mean she wasn't one....I could afford for her to make the first move.

That would normally mean I wouldn't actually go up and help those saps, but I did come back to help them, so it'd be a waste if I just let them bleed out here when I could be nice and warm in a city...or something.

So with that in mind I quickly strode up to the man who'd groaned and begun pushing magic into his body, almost certainly not enough to actually darken my Soul-Gem to any significant degree, but hopefully enough to at least help close whatever wounds he may have. Once that was done, I'd do my best to identify any remaining open wounds and, if none were visible, carefully turn the man over to examine the rest of his body for any wounds that escaped my sight prior.
 
The map, somewhat obscured by a light layer of snow constantly accumulating on it despite all efforts to opposite seems to offer your a few options. The old paper, somewhat damaged, marked by a great many marks and changes and a great many multi-colored lines what where added considerably later makes the map looks like a picture drawn by a five years old child. Still, it's is in a good enough condition to be mostly readable.

One road ahead of you seems to be leading to some sort of a church. The small picture seems to be marked red.
Maribel's attention is captivated by the mention of a church. While it may not be the best place to look for help at this time of night. It was a place where the young woman could temporarily boost her abilities. And that might be here only way out this world if it came to it. She keeps a mental note of the directions.

Second location seems to be marked with golden paint; the small, barely readable text - thankfully, there is an english version which wasn't obscured by ever present multicolored marks - seems to be saying what that is supposed to be local hotel. No details beyond that.
And a third seems to be some sort of a service building for the local workers. Nothing particular remarkable.
Maribel leans in at gets a better read of the location of the local hotel. They would probably have an international phone in there somewhere, and may even a ATM! Money wouldn't be a problem then, to say her family was well off was a understatement. The blond woman started to feel optimistic despite being stranded in the middle of a foreign country. Some weird kink in her power must have sent her here, it didn't feel like a world hop. But more like moving somewhere else. To be able to travel anywhere in the world at a blink of an eye would certainly be useful and paired with Renko there would be no limits to where they could travel.

By far the Hotel seemed to be the most appealing of the options so far. The government building made Maribel feel apprehensive, the last time she interacted with authority they wanted to throw her in into a Asylum after that Chimera incident.
A fourth... that part of the map seems to be map seems to be damaged, so you can't say what was supposed to be there. As you study it, with a flesh of thunder and a wave of a hot air following barely a moment later, in the distance somewhere around the place what destroyed part of map is supposed to show, a gap in you perception seems to open; neither empty or calm, it's a pathway somewhere into another world, completely unfamiliar to you.

Once you take your attention off the map, man with whom you were speaking just a few moments ago vanished, like he never existed, any possible traces of him destroyed by ever-growing layer of snow.
At that moment, Maribel realized that there was something very wrong going on. All optimism and hope devoured by a feeling of horror and apprehensiveness. She has felt this way only twice in her life, once when she hopped worlds her first time and encountered the world of unified souls and when she found herself on the spaceship infested with Chimera's. Something was there and she couldn't see it, and that was by far the most terrifying thing she could ever encounter.

The icy bite of the wind shook Maribel from her daze and reminded her that if she didn't get somewhere safe soon. That snow will consume her too. But as much as she disliked this new slip in reality, it might be her only way out. Vowing to come back here later once she has something that can withstand the cold. Marbiel sets off towards the hotel in her search for shelter, avoiding every shadow as if it would eat her alive.
 
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You stumble down, and away from the light, as the wagon slowly twists in ways not meant for a human body to endure. Fueled by adrenaline and survival instincts, it's a fairly short struggle - you tear though the grasping limbs and ignore biting faces on the floor in a desperate run for survivial.

The door to the next wagon open effortlessly, and as the pair of you jumps inside, closes behind you with a final "Clack" and unseen mechanisms start to rumble, ensuring what the door is tightly sealed.

@A Melted Cheese Sandwich

Alexandra slumps against a wall. A normal, no damned souls writhing out of it, not twisting in physically impossible ways, not dissolving in strange unlight metal wall. She is as happy to be leaning against the nice, normal, mundane wall as she has ever been in her life, and the reporter manages a relieved smile at the soldier, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Well, that was certainly a thing that just happened, wasn't it?

"It's is really surprising to see guests boarding this train in the middle of transit, honestly. If you spent this much effort on not dying while getting on, could you please, make a few more steps toward your survival and do me a favour? I forgot something in the wagon you are in, and I need it. Retrieve my journal - it is on my table, near the lamp - and bring it to me."

"Yes, today is a day of surprises all around, it seems. Since we are to do favors to one another, I have questions that require answers. Where the Hell am I, why am I here, and why did that last traincar turn into ghouls and melt!"

The half-dead lights provide just barely enough light to illuminate this section of the train... It seems like a working place of a mortician, or, perhaps, some murderous maniac.

Metallic operational tables lined up pedantically on the sides of wagon, strange creatures lying on them - closest to you is a strange golden hybrid of a man and a fly, which still seems to be twitching weakly; strangely enough, it looks like it's limbs were fused to the table, making escape either imposible or extraordinary painful.

"Do try not to get distracted by my humble work; you have a task to do, and lives to save."

Then the lights came up, and Alexandra was no longer certain she wanted answers. This car was an abattoir, gleaming stainless steel and splattered blood in every direction one looked. Even worse than that was the smell, a chemical cocktail of antiseptics and disinfectants overlaid on the odors of meat, muscle, and internal organs laid bare. Alexandra had a cast iron stomach...you didn't live the devil may care life she had without developing one, but she still recoiled, breathing through her mouth to try and not vomit, but then the taste...

"Actually, do try to salvage whatever you can, but a priority on books; the materials are not that important."

The reporter can barely hear the words, she's too busy fighting back the partially digested food rising up her throat- IwillnotpukeIwillnotpukeIwillnot - gripping her left forearm with her right, fingers fumbling for a pressure point that a nurse she dated swore would keep you from throwing up during a hangover if you kept pressing on it, which she always thought was nonsense but any port in a storm! And the woman on the intercom did all this? Blood of Christ!

Either she finally finds the pressure point, or her own resiliency lets her weather the crisis, and her nausea recedes - perhaps I judge too harshly? The working area of a coroner or a biologist would look much the same, after all, perhaps she isn't a criminal madwoman, oh yes of course, and those were just unusually dedicated dieters in the other car, assuming the worst? The worst I can assume is most likely a pleasant day at the seashore compared to what is happening in here!

"Oh, I almost forgot to say - I strongly advise you to hurry, whoever you are, as in about a minute, we are going to lose last three wagons to the strange dimension outside as the local Reality Marble fails. I don't need to explain what there is no reason for you to be there once that happens,I presume."

Words like 'strange dimension' and 'Reality Marble' mean little to the reporter, but "lose the last three wagons in about a minute"? That, she understands, she understands it very well, and she's moving, trying to get through the car as quickly as possible while simultaneously keeping as far away from all the specimens as she can.

She grabs the journal and two books that happen to be near her chosen path and tucks them all under one arm bargaining chip, perhaps the criminal madwoman will let me off somewhere pleasant if I humor her and ask nicely and she also grabs the largest cutting blade she can lay hold of in her other hand, because it may become necessary to NOT humor the criminal madwoman and ask FORCEFULLY, and then she breaks into a run again, controlled breathing, steady pace, a minute how many seconds had it been 50 left? 45? Three wagons to go hustle Lexy hustle!

What the American did was his business, she had her own affairs to attend to, important, very vital affairs like Idon'twanttobeaghoulstucktothefloor he was a grown man and military trained, good luck, mon ami!
 
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The frozen surface benelth her shakes again, as she runs across the plain of ice and snow. What is unacceptably slow for a Tenno, is still a breakneck pace for lesser beings, and all obstacles aside - be it the ice which grips her frame or the difficult terrain, or anything else - Mag is still a Tenno.

However, even Tenno is not invincible, especially as weakened.

Ice starts to lance out of the smooth surface of the lake randomly behind you, not quite quickly enough to keep up with you speed. Ice below your vibrates constantly, sometimes cracking dangerously.

A small ice spike almost perforates your leg before you jump away, droplets of blood quickly freezing in the air; another draws an angry line across your back, only your speed saving you from a deeper wound. A number of spikes would have shaved off you head or penetrated or torso, if not for your masterful skill with a sword ensures what your defense is the strongest up-front.

These are tortuous moments of desperate struggle, as it's painfully clear what you couldn't keep this up for long; even as your goal is in your sight, shore of the lake closer with every step - the slowly accumulating injuries start to wear you down.


...



You understand what you reached the shore only once the attacks slowly begun to lessen in intesivity; and even so, it takes a few few seconds for them to cease entirely, the frozen surface trying to eviscerate you even once you left it's grasp.

Few moments later, nothing betrayed the painful struggle of yours but an unusual spears of ice growing in a hazardous patter which marks your recent path and rare traces of your blood drawn by the frozen spears.

You check your wounds; despite their numerous nature, they are not too serious, the worst of them is the bothersome wound on your leg which makes running and walking much more unplesant and much less effortless than it should be. However, important muscles and bones remain mostly undamaged, for now.

Thankfully, your wounds do not bleed; perhaps because of the self-regenerating Orokin technology, or perhaps, simply because at this temperature, there is no chance for them to remain unfrozen; rare red crystalline scale covers your wounds like some sort of a cursed armored hide...

As you slowly walk away from this challange, a blinding ray of light hits you, penetrating the night and the snow - and speech, somewhat reminscent of the Grineer dialect by so much different rings through the air.

"Кто там? Посторонним вход на территорию культа запрещен под страхом смерти!"

As your visual organs adjust, you see a small group of people armed with primitive weapons - pointed at you. You don't understand the words - but somehow, you understand the meaning behind them, the threats of death and grip the blade tighter, and push yourself to ignore the insignificant wound and your own temporary weakness.

Even so, your condition might be worse than you though as on the fringe of your mind, you hear a murderous whisper.

"Kill them all, Tenno. Destroy Apostles of this twisted doctrine. "
Glided fingers tightened their grip around the hilt of the gold-edged sword. No, Mag finalised, standing defiant against the voice in her head, not until I seek the information I require.

The biting snow gnawed at her frozen wounds, a testament to the piercing power of the ice lances. Such power is unnatural in nature, and could only be created and shaped by the supernatural. Or a Warframe. Mag Prime shook those thoughts out of her head. She had more pressing issues to attend to.

Amidst her pondering the primitive humans closed in, barking out in their indecipherable language and waving their weapons at her in the futile hope of intimidating her. Sloppy, she called them. They lack the discipline and formation of the Grineer, or the cold and impersonal nature of the Corpus and their robotics. The group before her are nothing more than bandits believing they are bigger than they truly are. Even in her weakened state they are far less threatening than even the greenest of Grineer Lancers.

Slowly sheathing her sword in false deference to their demands, lulling the fools into a false sense of security and complacency, Tapping into whatever reserves of energy she still had within her, Mag raised her hand, and she pulled.
 
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