Another one of those Danny's, eh?
Fierce and Swift Chapter 1
- Location
- UK
Fierce and Swift
Waking up in the body of a fictional race, in a fictional world that is on the verge of destruction seems like a really bad joke. The worst part of it is, it might just be one.
Waking up in the body of a fictional race, in a fictional world that is on the verge of destruction seems like a really bad joke. The worst part of it is, it might just be one.
This…is an interesting idea. It started out with the MC just being dropped in as Feixiao, but has since evolved into something a lot more interesting. We'll see how things go. Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 1
Atop the Imaginary Tree, the Elation stood, staring down at the tiny spark THEY held in their hands. It was an impossibility, a bodiless soul with nothing to hold it together that had slipped into this world through a tiny gap that led out beyond the view of the Aeons into the wider multiverse, beyond even the Tree itself. Under normal circumstances, this Soul would have simply melted into the endless cycle, eventually becoming a part of a new being somewhere, but against all odds, this one had slipped through. What's more, it had brought with it CHANGE.
Aha could see it as THEY held the soul, watching as timelines twisted and changed, new parts of it forming as if they had always been there. In fact, had THEY not seen and caught this soul in THEIR hands, THEY would have been completely unaware of the changes.
What an interesting little spark this was! Such potential for raw chaos and amusement for THEM. Now, what to do with it?
Aha extended THEIR view, taking in the changes and musing on how THEY could best shake things up. THEIR gaze eventually fell on a tiny, blue world far from the normally travelled parts of the Universe where a branch of Humanity had evolved thanks to some long forgotten seeding and a bit of retroactive alteration to the timeline. It looked like any other pre spaceflight world, except…
Oh, now that is just WRONG!
The world was under siege from some kind of disgusting space slug that looked like the unholy love child of the Propagations spawn and one of Abundence's abominations. Aha reached out and burst out laughing when THEY beheld the creature and its goal. Such a fascinating and utterly foolish dream! Apparently, they also held a spark from Qilpoth and Fuli. They were also incredibly stupid and dangerous in the extreme. Fortunately, they were also alone thanks to the circumstances of their arrival in this Universe, but could spread if left alone. On the up side, Aha had just the thing to fix it. Now, how best to get this done?
THEY turned their gaze back to the spark and dove in, flicking through the dormant Souls memories until…oh, well wasn't THAT interesting? This little one had knowledge of a potential future, both of THEIR own universe and the new planet. THEY turned their attention out, watching the silver streak of Akivilis train for a moment, before looking back down at the Soul in THEIR hands. THEY could work with this, all they needed was… AHA, perfect!
Aha cracked THEIR knuckles and reached out, plucking a ship away as it was struck as it entered a Warp jump. The pilot was already dead, but their Soul had yet to escape, so Aha grabbed it and slammed the two together.
Souls, by their very nature, were utterly inviolable, even to Aeons and beings on their level. They could not be affected without the owner giving consent, not even by beings that held Souls under their control, so there was very little that Aha could do to alter the Soul, however, there were workarounds to that, namely, by slamming Souls together like this, it tended to leave imprints. THEY had no idea exactly what would happen or even if this would work, but it was funny and thats all that mattered. Aha tossed the spare Soul away, letting it pass on into the Void Beyond, and took the Outsider Soul gently in hand. With a bit of careful manipulation and some percussive maintenance, Aha got the Soul settled in its new body and sent it and the damaged ship on its way with a fond farewell.
With that done, THEY wiped a tear from THEIR eye and turned THEIR attention back to what they were doing before, namely, trying to figure out how to sneak a divine whoopee cushion under Qilpoths hammer. Very important things for the embodiment of Elation to consider.
Brockton Bay is a weird place. Its the sort of place where a dragon can fight a living scrap heap and a werewolf made out of swords and no one will bat an eye. That said, flaming balls falling out of the sky are unusual in the extreme, even with Lung hanging around.
The fact that it landed in the middle of the downtown district didn't help.
Fortunately, it landed late at night so no one was hurt, but the emergency services quickly made their way over to make sure that nothing went wrong. Then, the PRT was called in when they discovered that the fireball wasn't anything so mundane as a meteorite.
Armsmaster pulled his bike up alongside the taped off crater, followed by a few PRT transports, and stepped off, grabbing his halberd from its storage port as he did. He ignored the uniformed officers guarding the site from rubberneckers as he ducked under the tape and made his way up to the very edge of the crater, looking down at the cause of the impact.
Sitting in the middle of the crater, surrounded by emergency workers, was a ship that looked bizarrely like a perfectly normal boat like you'd seen floating on a river in a period drama, albeit made of materials his scanners couldn't identify. It was difficult to get a good idea of what it actually looked like as the impact had broken it in half, but a faintly glowing golden wheel that seemed to be made of some kind of silicate that appeared to be a computer system of some kind. It was clearly some kind of Tinkertech, although not any he had ever seen.
After allowing his systems to get a full scan of the crashed vessel, he turned his attention to a group of paramedics surrounding the apparent pilot of the vessel. From his vantage point, he could see past them to get a good look at the Tinker.
She looked young, with a fair complexion and long, salmon coloured hair that faded to a pale peach at the ends and was wearing silver and blue armour of a truly impressive design, although its impressive appearance was only vaguely visible under the blood and damage it had sustained. However, the most eye-catching features of the Cape were the tall fox ears sticking out from her hair and the long, fluffy tail sticking out of the seat of her pants.
Armsmaster frowned. Despite the damage to both the Tinkers vessel and armour, it was clear that both of them were well made and very clean in a way that Tinkertech rarely was, especially among newer Tinkers. While it was possible that this woman was a foreign Cape, he didn't have any records of anything like any of her equipment appearing in his system. He made a note to inquire with Dragon later to see if she knew anything.
"Huh, I can't say I was expecting that," said Assault as he stepped up next to Armsmaster, "Who'd have thought that aliens would be so cute."
"She isn't an Alien, shes a Case 53 Tinker," said Armsmaster.
"Thats not what PHOs saying," said Assault, pulling out his phone and flicking the screen.
Armsmasters eye twitched at the utter lack of operational security, but he didn't say anything. Its not like they could actually keep something like this secret for long, not when the crash was this public. Instead, he turned his attention to the lead paramedic as he approached from where his team was beginning to move the unconscious Case 53 into their ambulance.
"Report," said Armsmaster.
"We've stabilised the girl, but you might want to get Panacea to look at her," said the Paramedic, "Theres a limit to what we can do with those Monster Capes without potentially making things worse."
Armsmaster nodded.
"Very well, we'll send her along," he said.
That done, he turned away and started down the crater towards the ship, ignoring the glare he got from the paramedic, already composing the message to send to New Wave.
Amy Dallon was tired. That was a fairly normal state of affairs for her, but tonight was especially grating. She'd actually managed to get to sleep at a reasonable time for once, only to be woken up at oh god o'clock by a loud explosion. At first, she thought it was just the Gangs being their usual evil selves, only to discover that it was some unknown Tinker crashing their souped up flying machine in the middle of town and nearly getting themselves killed.
Considering that, she very nearly refused to go in and heal them, but her conscience quickly made her change her mind.
Thankfully, Vicky was willing to fly her down to the hospital and before long, Amy was making her way through the familiar halls, following the PRT agent who had met the sisters on the roof.
"So, who's Amy's healing?" asked Vicky, "Anyone we know?"
"No," said the agent shortly and left it at that.
They arrived at the room where the new Cape was being held, guarded by a couple of Troopers, just in case, and Amy stepped inside where she found Armsmaster and Miss Militia waiting for her, along with Dr Murphy, her main contact in the hospital.
"Alright, what's so important that you had to get me up at this hour?" asked Amy.
"Sorry about that," said Dr Murphy, "We normally wouldn't have called you at this hour, but she was badly injured in the crash and she's a Case 53, so we have no idea if normal medicine will help or do more harm than good."
Amy perked up at that. She'd worked with Case 53s a few times before and it was always incredibly interesting to see how their powers changed their bodies. She turned to the bed and looked her patient over, raising an eyebrow at the unusual hair colour and foxy features.
"Huh, she got lucky," muttered Amy.
Compared with someone like Weld or, god forbid, Garotte, some fluffy ears and tail was positively minor. She reached out and took the woman's hand and…
"Oh…my…god," breathed Amy, her eyes wide and unseeing.
"What's wrong?" asked Armsmaster.
"Y-you said that she was injured in a Tinkertech jet crash, right?" said Amy, eyes still glazed as she slowly worked her way through the alien woman's biology.
"That is correct," said Armsmaster.
"I suggest that you give that a second look," said Amy, "Because this woman isn't Human."
It wasn't uncommon for Emily Piggot to have a headache. Whether caused by her ill health, the ever spiralling state of the city or the antics of certain people under her command, she was well used to headaches. This time however, things were much worse than normal.
"So, you've confirmed this?" she asked.
"We have," said Armsmaster, "We've run her DNA through multiple different techniques, both mundane and Tinker derived, and there is no doubt at all that the woman is not from Earth."
"And we are sure she's not just an extremely unusual Case 53?" asked Piggot with just a hint of desperation in her tone.
"We are," said Dragon from her computer screen, "No matter how mutated, all Case 53s that have a biological form have DNA that is recognizably of Human origin. This woman's genetic code has absolutely nothing in common with any lifeform that has ever existed on Earth. It even uses slightly different chemicals and has some truly mind blowing error checking abilities."
Emily ruthlessly strangled the urge to groan and bash her head against the desk.
"What about her ship?" she asked.
"We've collected it and transferred it to one of the PRT buildings' secure garages," said Armsmaster, "Dragon and I have done some scans of both it and the equipment we found on board and confirmed that its not Tinkertech. Its extremely advanced and some of it uses principles that are only theoretical at best, but none of it has the typical Tinkertech black boxes."
Piggot took a deep breath through her nose and massaged the bridge of her nose.
"So, we have a literal alien in medical who crash landed their spaceship in the middle of Downtown and we have no idea where it came from, what its intentions are or if it has friends waiting in the wings," she said, "As if I didn't have enough to deal with."
She sighed.
"Alright, thats enough," she said, "I get the general picture. Send me the full report once you have it typed up. Dragon, have you kept the Chief Director appraised?"
"Yes, she has decided to wait for now," said Dragon, "She'll probably send the official orders later, but wants to wait until we know more from our guest before doing anything permanent."
Piggot opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, her desk phone rang.
"Piggot," she said as she picked it up.
"Ma'am, its Dr Franklin," said the voice of the PRTs resident doctor, "Shes awake."
And thats as good a place as any to leave this. A bit different from what I normally do for these, but I figured I might as well.
And thats how Outsiders affect reality. It makes retroactive changes to history, although that is somewhat limited in certain ways. Like the fact that, while it brought Earth Bet into the Star Rail universe, it did not make it so that Entities always existed. Or maybe it did and they all got eaten by Leviathans. Or maybe they WERE Leviathans. It might be relevant later, but for now its not really.
Its always nice when a universe has a built in ROB, this time in the form of Aha. I'm sure that his antics will have no lasting damage. Probably.
I wonder if anyone can guess where I got the design for our foxie MC? I pulled a Hoyo for it since I don't know enough about Chinese naming rules to come up with something of my own.
And with that, I'm going to leave this here. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!
GeekGod_of_Speed
He Who Enjoys The Big Words
If you continue this please have some effort shown when they begin communicating to really drive home the "not human" thing
either take the starfire route with her having a random superpower for languages, or she needs to do charadesfor a bit to get her back to her ship to get a universal translator or have a small time skip of like a week to give her a reasonable excuse to know about it and think of the issues in hindsight
I don't know much about if this is a crossover but it's always fun when the self insert has to learn the language, it adds depth to the multiverse theory that any Isekai relies on if the SI English is different to the settings English This Fic does a really great job of showcasing it (even if it went on for way too long) by having the origin of modern language be Greek instead of Latin (I assume) because the olympians were real and there was an immortal society that continued to use it plus Atlantis splitting of from them
either take the starfire route with her having a random superpower for languages, or she needs to do charadesfor a bit to get her back to her ship to get a universal translator or have a small time skip of like a week to give her a reasonable excuse to know about it and think of the issues in hindsight
I don't know much about if this is a crossover but it's always fun when the self insert has to learn the language, it adds depth to the multiverse theory that any Isekai relies on if the SI English is different to the settings English This Fic does a really great job of showcasing it (even if it went on for way too long) by having the origin of modern language be Greek instead of Latin (I assume) because the olympians were real and there was an immortal society that continued to use it plus Atlantis splitting of from them
Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
There could be one of those on the ship.
...There's also that to consider...
Fierce and Swift Chapter 2
- Location
- UK
Fierce and Swift
Waking up in the body of a fictional race, in a fictional world that is on the verge of destruction seems like a really bad joke. The worst part of it is, it might just be one.
Waking up in the body of a fictional race, in a fictional world that is on the verge of destruction seems like a really bad joke. The worst part of it is, it might just be one.
And we are back. Nothing much to say here, other than enjoy!
Chapter 2
Consciousness returned to me slowly and with PAIN. My entire body ached and my head felt like someone had taken a hatchet to my skull, filled my head with broken glass and then shook me as hard as they could. For a long moment, I could do nothing but lay there, waiting for the pain to fade. After an indeterminate amount of time, the pain in my head faded to a tolerable level and I cracked open my eyes. The ceiling above me was white and the air was filled with the sharp scent of antiseptic.
"Hospital?" I thought, "What happened?"
My head throbbed as I tried to think, but I vaguely remembered an uncomfortably close encounter with a delivery truck while walking home from work. Yeah, that made sense.
I took a deep breath, some part of me strangely noting that something was…off somehow about the scent of the disinfectant used. I couldn't put my finger on it and my pounding head didn't help. Thankfully, it was starting to ease off, but that only made the ache in my body more obvious. Hell, even my EARS seemed to ache, which felt remarkably strange. I shifted a little, trying to get comfortable and, in the process, winced as my sensitive tail twinged. Damn, I must be really badly injured if…
Wait, TAIL!?
Ignoring my aching body, I sat up and pulled the sheets away, revealing two things that were remarkably worrying. The first, and most obvious, was the long, fluffy fox tail covered in salmon coloured fur that lightened to a pale peach colour at the tip. The second was that my legs looked…odd. For a moment, I couldn't put my finger on why, before I looked further down and…I did NOT have tits this morning!
I looked wildly around the room and spotted a door I'm pretty sure led to the bathroom. I scrambled out of bed, ignoring my body's protests, and stumbled over, my body feeling remarkably unwieldy. Sure enough, the door led to a bathroom that had a mirror over the sink that I quickly stumbled in front of and stared at my reflection.
Looking back at me was a young women with salmon hair, teal green eyes and fucking FOX EARS sticking out of the top of her head. She…I also looked oddly familiar and, after a moment, I realised that I looked a lot like Yanfei from Genshin Impact, only with fox ears instead of antlers.
The moment that realisation crossed my mind, the dull throb in my skull suddenly flared into blinding agony. The broken glass from earlier was back and MOVING, shredding the inside of my skull in a way that was pure agony. I think I might have collapsed, possibly vomited and definitely screamed as the moving glass slowly pieced itself back into memories. They were fragmented and out of order, but still more than enough to piece together what was going on.
I was Yanfei, a Lieutenant and field medic for the Verdant Knights of the Xianzhou Yaoqing. My last memory was being involved in a skirmish with the Borisen that had ended when the Reignbow Arbiter had fired a Lux Arrow. What exactly happened afterwards, I'm not sure, but I think that I had been in the middle of engaging a warp jump when the Arrow struck, resulting in my ship being…
I jolted awake again, the memories settling back into my head as if they had always been there. It would probably take some time for them to fully return, but I knew enough for now and at least my head didn't hurt any more. Well, no more than the rest of my body at least, that still ached. Now however, I recognized it as the feeling of my natural regeneration dealing with large scale injury without proper treatment. That was concerning since it meant that I likely wasn't aboard any of the Xianzhou ships and most other friendly factions would have some idea of how to treat an injured Foxian. The fact that I was in a hospital meant that I hadn't been captured by the Borisin, but that didn't mean I was safe.
My fingers curled under the covers as I cracked my eyes open and looked around without moving my head. I was still in the same room and wasn't restrained in any way, which was mildly surprising, but now there was a man sitting in the corner. He was working on some paperwork and didn't seem to be armed, other than a handgun at his side. His uniform appeared to be unarmoured, but that didn't mean it wasn't made of something exotic. The uniform in question was black, with insignia that likely indicated rank and a symbol depicting the letters PRT over a winged shield. Wait a second, I know that symbol…
OH SHIT!
My shock was enough to make me take an involuntary sharp inhale and a small flame sparked in the palm of my hand. I managed to get a handle before I accidentally started a fire or summoned Heaven Scorcher. It looked like I was currently being treated as a guest and summoning a giant flaming halberd would not look good. Nor would setting the sheets on fire.
Despite that, the trooper in the corner noticed my reaction and sat up, eyeing me warily. Deciding that there wasn't much point in pretending and opened my eyes.
"Ah, you're awake!" he said, "I'll just…"
He dropped his paperwork and bolted for the door. I shook my head and worked a finger in an ear (a VERY weird sensation considering the change in location, made worse by the fact it also felt familiar) as my Synesthesia Beacon registered the new language and went to work. In less than an hour, it would have the new language added to its database. Less if I kept interacting with people. The creations of the Genius Society are complete bullshit.
I sat up and stretched, wincing at the ache. I really hoped that my gear was still intact and I could get it back.
A moment later, the door opened again and a dark skinned man with short cropped hair and a doctors coat entered, followed by the trooper who had been keeping an eye on me. I also noticed that a couple of fully geared troopers were outside, one armed with what was probably a confoam sprayer and the other with a gun. Smart, I'd be offended if they had not included some security like that.
Before the doctor could say anything, I held up a hand.
"Before we start with bad charades, I can understand you," I said, "It might sounds a bit…weird for a bit, but that shouldn't last long."
The doctor looked a bit taken aback, but quickly rallied.
"I see," he said, "Well, that makes things significantly easier, although I do admit that there's not much I can actually do for you. We didn't want to risk doing more harm than good."
"Probably wise," I said, "I'm mostly fine anyway."
"Mostly?"
"I'll be sore for a bit longer, but my injuries are healed," I said, "I could use a painkiller, but I'll be fine without."
The doctor sighed.
"Well, I'll have to take your word for that," he said, "As far as I can tell, you're correct, so I'll sign you off."
I smiled.
"Great, any chance I can get some actual clothes?" I said, "I assume someone wants to talk to me and I'd rather not deal with potentially dicey political situations or dramatic escapes from vivisection in a backless hospital gown."
Two hours later, I was sitting in a meeting room across from who can only be Emily Piggot, now wearing a slightly oversized spare set of fatigues they'd found from somewhere. Looking at the infamous Director in person and with the benefit of more than a hundred years of experience (which was something I was intentionally not thinking about. I could have a breakdown later), it was easy to see why Piggot was still in charge, despite her clear ill health. While perhaps not entirely suited for command, she still had a bearing like I'd seen in many commanding officers among the Cloud Knights. As a field commander, she'd probably be among the best, although the current position was probably a little out of her comfort zone.
The woman on the screen behind her on the other hand could probably meet General Feixiao face to face and not back down, even without her powers. Chief Director Costa-Brown might be part of one of the most ineffective conspiracies in fiction, but I couldn't deny that she had the scary Commander glare down pat and I could clearly see that she had very much earned her reputation.
Much to my surprise, other than Armsmaster, Dragon on another monitor and two faceless goons stationed behind me, no one else was present.
"Lets get this started," said Rebecca, "I am Rebecca Costa-Brown, the Chief Director of the Parahuman Response Team. With me is Dragon of the Guild, Emily Piggot, the director of the Protectorate ENE department and Armsmaster, the leader of the Protectorate of the same."
"Lieutenant Yanfei of the Xianzhou Yanqing Cloud Knights, Verdantia Fleet," I said, "I would have thought there would be more people here. I get the impression that your world hasn't seen much in the way of first contact."
"You would be correct," said Rebecca, "You are the first alien we've encountered."
A part of me really wanted to call her out on that lie, but this wasn't the time or place to upend the Capinartie. Nor did I honestly care to. Frankly, if I wanted to fix Earth Bet, introducing them to the rest of the Cosmos was probably the best bet. The IPC might be sketchy as hell, but a bit of backup from the Xianzhou would go a long way to get Earth Bet setup with an actual fair shake in the wider Universe.
Assuming we could deal with the space tapeworms, but that was something I'd leave for the Generals to figure out.
"I see," I said, "So, since I'm here and not locked up in a blacksite it means that you've decided that being on my good side is preferable to vivisection?"
"That remains to be seen," said Piggot, "There are some people who wanted you locked up, but cooler heads prevailed."
"Well, that's a relief," I said.
"So, judging from your rank, you're a soldier?" said Rebecca.
"That's right," I said, "There's a bit more to it than that, but my service history isn't relevant here."
Piggot looked like she wanted to protest at that, but kept her mouth shut.
"I see," said Rebecca, "In that case, I'll just ask, why are you here?"
I sighed.
"I don't actually know where 'here' is," I said, "I think my Starskiff got caught in the backlash of a Lux Arrow as it was entering a Warp Jump. My best guess is that I got blasted across the Galaxy. I can say that the Xianzhou has absolutely no interest in invasion though."
"How can you be sure of that?" asked Armsmaster.
"Because thats not what we do," I said, "We aren't an expansionist force. We simply don't have any need to do so."
"I see," said Rebecca, glancing at something off screen.
"Do you have a way of contacting your home?" asked Dragon.
"My Starskiff has an SOS beacon onboard," I said, "Its designed to be pretty much indestructible, so I can activate that. I probably ought to check the remains anyway, just in case."
"Is it dangerous?" asked Piggot.
"Probably not, the Jade Wheel engine is generally pretty safe," I said, "But it is armed, so I need to check the armaments."
"We have it in our underground car park," said Armsmaster.
"Before that, we have more to discuss," said Rebecca, getting the conversation back on track.
I nodded and leant forward.
"Alright, lets get started," I said.
And I think I'm actually going to leave this here. Its a bit shorter than what I'd normally post, but this seems like as good a place as any to end it because I don't really want to spend more time writing this scene.
Yanfei is one of my favourite Genshin characters, both in terms of design and play style, so I figured I might as well do a Hoyo and co-opt her design for my character. She isn't the same, obviously, but her looks are identical, other than the obviously different animal bits.
Incidentally, if anyone wants to guess what her weapon is based on, feel free.
If it seems that shes taking this whole thing rather well, shes basically faking and intentionally not thinking about her situation as much as possible. She'll have a breakdown once she gets somewhere more private than the PRT medical bay.
I actually checked the article on the Synesthesia Beacon and, while I might have read it wrong, I'm pretty sure that only one party actually needs to have one in order for it to do its job. Not that its actually needed here since Yanfei can speak English, but its still cool. And bullshit.
Costa-Brown might be a bit passive here, but on the other hand, what she has on her hands is a genuine alien who is, as far as she can tell, not an intergalactic parasite. That implies that theres other species out there who could potentially help Humanity. They want to keep an eye on her, but making potential enemies out of an unknown power is not a very sensible thing to do. Like she said, there are some people in the command structure who want to be more…firm with Yanfei, but shes told them all to shut up.
Now all I have to do is figure out if the PRT would keep the fact they have an alien on their hands quiet or announce it. Either one seems plausible since the villains are going to know in short order and Coil is almost certainly going to be getting a pointed visit very soon, but I'm not sure which they'd do.
And with that, I'm done. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!