Grounders10's Forgotten Files and Drabbles (Worm, Ranma, etc.)

Grounders10 · May 14, 2019

So, I take a while between my updates... Mainly because I'm easily distracted and things get written that aren't actually going to be made into full stories. Sometimes it's just meant to get the ideas out of my head. I've decided why not share some of the more... complete stories. Enjoy~ *Fluffy Tails Wave*

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A Worm Fanfic

The Taste of Peaches

By: Grounders10

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1

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Taylor smacked her palm against the metal back-wall of her locker. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." She growled at herself.

Getting locked in your own locker is one of those things you think only happens in books. The little geeky nerd who would lose a fistfight with a bunny is the sort who gets picked up by the big strong jocks and thrown into his locker before being sealed inside until someone takes pity on them.

Taylor was… A bit of a nerd she'd admit, but one thing she wasn't was little. She was tall and lanky like her father, a build that was thin enough to allow her to just barely fit into the locker. It was really cramped inside the locked and she had, at the beginning, nearly passed out from hyperventilation. It could have been worse, at least it was just her locker and she kept it pretty clean compared to most students.

"On the last day to." She grumbled as she tried to brace herself against the wall as best she could before, for what felt like the millionth time, she pushed against the door with her back. She yelled and screamed incoherently, but the damned thing refused to move because steel was stronger than a 5' 6" fifteen-year-old girl.

"What hell is that noise?" A voice, old and weathered like rock filtered through the air grates above her.

She stopped. Finally. "HELP!" She shouted, banging against the door. "HELP! I'VE BEEN LOCKED IN MY LOCKER! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

The response she got was completely contrary to her expectations. The voice did not tell her to hold on while it got some tools, or conveniently have a lock cutter on hand to let her out. Instead, she got…

"Oh hell no." The old voice growled, "I don't care what you ABB fuckers think you're doing but I ain't falling for that trick again. Hell no. YOU HEAR ME YOU DEGENERATES! I AIN'T FALLING FOR IT!"

"THIS ISN'T A TRICK! LET ME OUT!" Taylor shouted after a moment of stupified silence.

"Not listening. Not hearing a thing! Nope, nope, nope. Lalalalala!" She listened as the old man's voice faded into the distance with disbelief. She was being left, to die, in her own locker, because the ABB gangbangers pranked a Janitor?

Her scream of rage rang through the halls of the school. Frustrated and angry beyond reason she slammed herself against the metal door again. And again. And again. With a growl that would have probably sounded inhuman to anyone who might have overheard her, she slammed into the door a fourth time only for there to be, unlike the last three times, a loud screech of tearing metal as the lock on the door was ripped apart and she fell out of the locker.

She landed heavily in the sand and blinked up at the dark cloudy sky above her as a light rain splattered across her face. Waves lapped at her ankles. She blinked and sat up. She was on a beach and floating in front of her, inches above the water, was the open door of her locker. Just the door itself, hanging in the air like a Mobius strip.

"What the hell?" She asked the world as she stared at the floating locker door. The bent open door quivered under her gaze like a nervous dog before it, without her touching it, slammed shut with a screech of more tearing metal as the door forced itself into shape before the locker blinked out of existence leaving her with the view of dark foreboding lake and tall cloud obscured mountains in the distance.

And nowhere to go.

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"Where am I?" She asked the world. It, being a place and not a person, failed to respond. She sat there for a moment before picking herself up, brushing the sand from her pants and hoodie as she did.

"It's in my hair." She groaned as she shook her long curly hair out as best she could. Little bits of wet sand stuck to it in places. She fiddled with it, absorbing herself in something that made sense for a few minutes before giving up in disgust.

Finally, no longer able to ignore the reality around her, she looked around. She was on a beach, by a lake, surrounded by mountains, on an overcast day. Honestly not that strange. She'd been camping a few times and this didn't look all that different… except for the absolute pitch-black water or the forest of stone trees, minus leaves, not even a hundred feet away.

"Well, this is… weird." She muttered. Was this a cape thing? Did some cape just send her who the fuck knew where just to get her out of her locker? Or… She paused and looked down at her hands. "Did I do this?"

It wasn't impossible, people got their powers somewhere and it wasn't like those who did were ever willing to give interviews about it. Despite her own longtime interest in superheroes and capes in general just finding out when and how people had gained powers was next to impossible. No one talked about it.

Hesitantly she reached out and gave the air a push while trying to think of home.

Nothing happened.

She tried again.

Still nothing.

She sighed. "Probably not me then." She sighed as she looked around. Well, something weird had happened, and this place looked like it might have been the site of a cape battle. Stone trees weren't exactly a naturally occurring thing after all.

"What do I do now?" She wondered worriedly. She had no idea where she was, no food, the water was questionable at best, and a possibly haunted stone forest behind her. Bad was an understatement.

Just as panic was setting in a loud… not quite bark sounded from behind her. She spun in place and stared. "A fox?" She said, confused.

A pure white fox was sitting at the edge of the beach, tongue lolling out as it sat there calm and apparently unconcerned about the stone trees behind it. It 'yipped' at her and hopped to its feet before running back towards the trees. It paused at the tree when she didn't follow, then ran back to the beach and yipped again before running to the trees again. It repeated it a dozen more times.

Moving cautiously, who knew if the cute fox would turn out to be a murderous beast in disguise and this place certainly looked like the home for such a creature, she approached the fox. It yipped happily and went further into the trees, pausing to watch her every few feet.

Taylor stopped at the trees and tapped one of them. It felt like stone, though the bark had the rough-hewn look of something that was once wood. The fox yipped at her. She frowned. On one hand, she had no idea what was going on; on the other hand, she had a fox trying to get her to follow it into a spooky stone tree forest.

Neither were good situations.

The fox yipped at her again. She sighed. "Oh, this is a bad idea." She muttered before following the fox. They always said don't follow strangers, always be aware of the danger of masters and other mind-controlling capes. Who knew what they could do. For all she knew this was a cape in disguise trying to lure her to her death.

It was still better than standing on a beach without a plan or a clue.

The walk through the forest was long, hours long going by her watch. When they finally left the creepy, but apparently completely empty, forest behind it was telling her it was nearly midnight. Her dad was, assuming he had made it home from work, probably going nuts wondering where she was.

She sighed. No point in worrying too hard about that. She could apologize for being late and worrying him after she got home… somehow. First though…

The fox might have led her out of the forest, but it had led her to the base of a sheer cliff face. With stairs. Nice, perfectly carved stairs that led up, and up, and up some more. The cliff disappeared somewhere above the clouds and the stairs followed as far as she could see.

The fox yipped excitedly and started up the stairs. She stared at it. It stopped on the fifth stair and looked back at her. If Taylor had to assign an emotion to it, she'd say it was amused. It knew just how annoyed she was with this entire situation.

She groaned and started climbing. This was going to take a while.

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It was three hours later when Taylor finally stopped for a break. Not because she was, as one would expect after the better part of twelve hours of walking, tired. She stopped because she wasn't.

According to her watch, it was nearly four in the morning. It had been, when she arrived, four-thirty in the afternoon. Somehow the weird twilight had not changed, at all. It was still just as bright, just as dark as it had been when she arrived. She could have shown up at dawn perhaps, but it was still odd.

She found a seat on one of the steps. They had started wide at the bottom, but this far up they were only a couple feet wide and a slip would send plummeting to the ground below.

"Why am I here?" She asked the empty air.

The fox, just as not tired as she was, walked over and plopped its head into her lap. It looked up at her and whined, an odd noise somewhere between a huff and meow. Very strange. Cute, but strange.

She looked down at it and cautiously scratched behind one ear. It made a funny almost purring noise. "Why am I following you? Up a mountain in some… where. What is this place?" Looking out over the side treated her to the view of just how expansive that forest really was. Stone trees went for dozens of miles, most disappearing around outcroppings of the mountain range. The lake stretched for miles and if it might not have been a lake. Even this high up she couldn't see the far side of the inky black waters.

The fox sneezed and stood up. It cantered up a few stairs and then stopped, looking down at her. It yipped and kept going.

She frowned, then sighed. It wasn't like foxes could talk so… She got to her feet and started the long trudge up the mountain. For whatever reason, it wasn't physically exhausting… But god, it was boring.

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The climb through the clouds had been slow and treacherous. While the stairs had widened by a couple of feet there was the issue of visibility. At times she had to practically crawl to be able to see the ground and twice she had nearly stepped off the side. Only the warnings of the fox had stopped her from plummeting to her death.

Above the clouds, there had been sunshine. The sea of clouds practically glowed in the sunlight. It was a spectacularly beautiful sight. Only ruined by the staircase that continued stretch into the distance above her. Still, it looked like there might be an end. She could see something, glittering, in the distance.

As she started on this latest leg of the climb she glanced at her watch. It was eight am. There was definitely something strange about the days in this place.

It took another ten hours of slow, boring, and inexplicably not tiring climbing to reach the top. When she crested the top of the stairs she stopped and stared. The staircase let out onto a plateau. The area around the staircase was a stone plain, open and windswept without a single shred of grass or weed or other plant to name. That was not what had made her stop.

In the distance, though no more than a mile or so, was a a fortress. Vast, with walls the stretched for miles to either side and which stretched hundreds of meters above the plains it shone gold in the sunlight. Galleries littered the outside of the wall It was an eye-searing spectacle.

Between her and the fortress, the plain was… She swallowed nervously and her heart beat a bit faster. It was a warzone seemingly frozen in time. Legions of stone men, wearing stone armour and carrying stone weapons were locked in battle with monsters. Some appeared as though they had sprung from myth. Stone hydras loomed over companies of warriors. Wolves the size of Endbringers chomped on men like candies.

Her eyes followed one beast, it's nose pointed towards the sky, and she stared at the statue of a man that floated in the sky above, as though the man had turned to stone mid-flight and physics had abandoned him to forever float in place.

The large beasts weren't the only ones though. Smaller ones swarmed around the larger ones. Men with the heads of pigs, creatures with spindly limbs the looked too fragile to exist, things that simply floated despite being stone. Just round balls with too many eyes on stalks. More, things she couldn't recognize or even hope to describe.

Thousands of these things, tens of thousands perhaps on a plane that stretched impossibly in directions she knew it couldn't. Like back the way she came. She had climbed a sheer cliff, there was no overhang. Yet it stretched back, over where she had come from all the way to the horizon. The only edge was the cliff beside her, off of which clouds stretched in a golden sea beyond the horizon.

"What the hell is this." She said quietly, watching the nearest statues, a group of pigmen, carefully. Everything seemed still, unmoving no matter how impossible their positions.

The fox yipped at her and casually walked up to one of the pigmen. Its bloated form was encased in what looked like a heavy plate. The fox jumped up on its head and yipped loudly its triumph. Slowly the statue tipped and the fox jumped off as it fell over. It shattered as it hit the ground. She jumped nervously, but nothing reacted to her. Everything was still. Everything.

She licked her lips nervously. "It's all stone. Just like the trees." She said to herself. "Just… just stone." Walking slowly she followed the fox through the battlefield. Passed snarling monsters and bizarre creatures. Passed rank after rank of soldiers. Passed a battle frozen in its last moments.

A frozen impossibility.

She reached the gates after a long, and very nerve-wracking, walk. There were three gates, spaced several hundred meters apart. Each one was large enough for a container ship to pass through. On either side of each gate stood statues taller than the gates. Vast men, each a hundred meters tall, with heavy ceremonial armour, large two-handed greatswords, and tusks that stuck out of their mouths. Each tusk looked about as long as she was tall, probably more.

The gates, made from what looked like iron decorated in the entire rainbow of Jade colours, stood open. Through one a legion of men was marching in formation towards the front. Through another, a massive elephant, twice as large as anything she had seen on TV, pulled a train of steel carts.

She looked back at the monsters on the battlefield behind her. What had she stumbled into? This place… These things had to have been real once. A battle of literal mythical proportions, with creatures that had seemingly been pulled from storybooks and myths. Everything was too grand, too massive of scale and scope to be some art project… unless she had shrunk maybe? Was she on someone's art project, just a miniature person running around?

The fox, by the only gate not occupied, yipped loudly at her. She ran after it and tried to push her questions aside, but they were only growing with time.

The inside of the fortress did nothing to calm her. Tens of thousands of men, thousands of rooms, hundreds of hallways. The Fortress was vast in a way she couldn't have imagined. Most of the fortress was frozen in a moment of every-day military life. Soldiers trained, some rested, some performed jobs. Had been performing jobs. All of them were statues.

"Maybe they were always statues." She said. Her voice bounced strangely off the walls of the hallway she was in. They weren't words she believed. There was just… too much. Something had turned these people to stone. All the people, the birds, insects, monsters, even plants. It was all stone.

Everything except the fox.

As she followed it deeper into the fortress she had to wonder what it was. It couldn't just be a fox. It was acting too strange. Was it responsible for this?

Was she next?

Regular life, civilian and military, gave way to checkpoints, barricades, and stranger things the further in they went. One hallway, long and wide enough to be the main street through her home city of Brockton Bay, looked like the floors and walls had turned to wax and melted, running together. Tentacles, made of stone like everything else, had burst from walls and misshapen creatures clashed with men in increasingly elaborate armour with weapons that spanned all of history. Bearded axes, khopeshes, jians, gladiuses, weapons from a thousand civilizations were wielded by an army just as varied in appearance.

Through it all, the fox walked. Passed eldritch abominations, between the legs of giants, and around the blocks of soldiers fighting for their lives.

Eventually though, after hours of walking, it came to an end. The Fox led her into a courtyard. Stone bushes lined the sides. Carefully tended flower beds of stone roses and many other flowers were arranged with fountains that still sprayed water. The sound of flowing water was horrifically loud after over a day without anything other than her own feet and that fox.

At the center of the garden, behind ranks of soldiers, was a peach tree. Men and women, dressed as Confucian scholars, Vikings, Greeks, Aztecs, and more stood around it in a circle. There were hundreds of them.

She walked passed them all, into the clearing around the tree where the fox had gone. She found it, sitting at the feet of three statues. A man, dressed as a Viking with a hammer in his belt; a man dressed in a toga with a laurel upon his head; and a woman whose features reflected the sun as though she was born to shine. They stood in a triangle at the base of the tree, their hands clasped together before them, and their eyes shut.

The fox sat directly beneath their hands.

Taylor looked around. Was this it? "What is this place?" She asked the fox.

It looked at her, tilted its head, then looked up. At the stone tree.

Only, it wasn't entirely stone. A single branch, just a small one off the main arms, was bark. Its leaves were gold and from it hung a peach. A golden peach.

She stared for a moment at it. Searching for something to say, or even do. "Isn't it supposed to be an apple?"

The fox gave her a flat look and she shrugged. "What do you want? What is this? Why am I here? TELL ME WHY I CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN!" She shouted. Her body heaved as her worry grew enough to drive her to her knees. Had she just followed a fox down a rabbit hole for nothing?

She looked at her watch. It was approaching two days since she'd started this mess. Two days without water, food, or… "Dad must be so worried." She rubbed her forehead.

The Fox nodded, then stepped back. It leapt up, landing on the hands of the three before leaping again. It landed on the stone branch from which grew the wooden one. She watched, curious as to what it was doing, as it carefully walked down the branch before leaning out towards the golden peach. Its teeth snapped the peach from the tree.

The peach fell, bounced off the head of the viking, and rolled across the ground to her feet. The Fox looked at her, then at the peach, then her again.

"You want me to eat it?" She asked, picking the peach up. It was smooth and felt like it was just perfectly ripe.

The Fox yipped at her.

She looked down at the peach. She swallowed nervously. "This…" She licked her dry lips. "Oh what the hell." She bit into it.

The sun flared to life.

Lightning flowed through her veins.

The clouds below rumbled.

Wind roared through the courtyard.

The water in the fountains surged upwards, defying gravity as the droplets felt towards the sky.

Her glasses shattered on the floor.

The Fox above her disintegrated into golden particles that floated down to her, disappearing with little flashes as they met her skin.

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When the world came back into focus Taylor gasped and fell backwards. The peach, now just a pit, rolled away from her. A sharp pain in her rear shot up her spine as she fell back. It felt like she had just squashed something or bent it.

One hand reached back to massage the pained spot as she sat up. She froze, halfway to sitting up, as it met something that felt soft and she felt an odd touch on… She twisted on the spot to look behind her. "Oh." She said weakly. She had tails. Nine of them, she counted despite her surprise. Nine long flowing tails with hair the same share as her original curly locks.

"I, have tails." She said, running a hand through a tail. It- she, twitched at the strange sensation. She raised a hand the rub her forehead. She paused as she realized she wasn't wearing her glasses anymore. Where were- oh. She spotted the broken glasses on the ground by her feet.

Her ears twitched with irritation as she picked them up. Those had been expensive for them. Her dad was not going to be… be. Oh god. "What have I gotten into." She asked as she looked around the garden. The world was crystal clear around her, despite the fact that her glasses were lying on the ground broken. Good eyesight was nice, yeah. That was something she take from this.

Sure she'd grown nine more limbs, walked for two days, and eaten a quite possibly parahuman created fruit, but at least she had good vision now? She could see the individual droplet of water in that fountain on the other side of the courtyard. And the scrollwork on that bench on the balcony four floors up. The one written in Egyptian. Or the weird ghosts stepping out of the three statues in front of her.

She blinked and slowly turned to face the three ghosts that had just stepped out of their statues. Ghosts. Oh god, oh god, oh god.

The two men looked down at her. The Viking looked amused, while the Greek had a look of reserved judgement. The woman, whose kimono now shimmered in the sunlight, simply smiled down at her.

A sharp series of crackling pops behind snapped her out of her observations. Still breathing unsteadily she risked a glance behind her. Her tails were tingling, and the reason was immediately apparent. Electricity was arcing from one tail to the next like lightning jumping from storm cloud to storm cloud.

"She'll have much to learn." The Greek said, pulling her attention back.

"She will have time to." The Viking replied.

The woman shook her head. "Judge her later. We have little time." She said, getting a grunt from each man.

"Who are you?" Taylor asked. Their replies sent her eyes wide.

"I am Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun."

"Thor Odinson, God of Thunder."

"Poseidon, God of the Sea."

"We are the three chosen to pass on a message." Amaterasu, the Goddess of the Sun finished.

"You're gods?" Taylor asked.

"Were gods. We're dead now." Thor said.

"We haven't much time to answer questions. I am very sorry." Amaterasu apologized. She knelt down beside Taylor. "I know this is a bit of a shock, and all very sudden. However, yes we are gods. Everyone here was either a God or one of our servants. Whether spirits or mortals."

"It was here we made our last stand." Poseidon said, "Against a foe one hundred years ago. It came from beyond the stars and attempted to spread its corrupt influence through all the worlds under our protection."

Thor nodded. "Aye. We saw it off. It shan't return for at least a thousand years, but it cost us everything." Apparently noticing her horrified look he added, "This is not unusual for gods. Ragnarok, of a sort, comes around every few thousand years. That era's gods see it off and everything continues apace. Why I think we lasted longer than most have."

Poseidon chuckled. "Longer than the Mesopotamian gods. I believe it might even be a record."

The Japanese Goddess sighed. "You're worrying her. Stop." She said before turning back to Taylor. "Taylor. You arrived here by accident I assume?" She asked.

"Y-yes." Taylor nodded. "I was stuck in my locker and the door just suddenly opened to here."

She nodded. "Here is the Land of the Gods. The Divine Plane if you would. The only way you can reach here is if you are a God or work for one." Amaterasu said.

The implications did not fly by Taylor. "I'm not god. I got locked in my own locker not two days ago. What god gets locked in a locker?" She asked.

"I was eaten by my father," Poseidon said, "I'd say a stomach is far more cramped than a metal box. Especially since my siblings were there as well."

Thor nodded. "Well, I would be lying if I said either had happened to me. But I have been eaten by a monster or two. Getting stuck in tight spots is a very godly thing to do."

Amaterasu sighed. "There is no mistake." She said, "You are a god. The first goddess of a new age."

"I can't be-" Amaterasu's hand covered her mouth. She blinked at the older goddess.

"As much as I would prefer to spend time talking sense into you, I'm afraid we don't have time." The Sun Goddess said. "You are the first Goddess of this era. Not some gifted mortal, or cursed fool like those you run about the world at present."

Thor flickered for a moment. "We're out of time." He said.

"Girl," Poseidon said, "If you wish to learn how to be a Goddess, listen to what feels true to you. Follow it to the source and you will know yourself."

What the hell did that mean? Taylor shook her head at the man.

"And, the foe we vanquished." Thor said, "More of its kind have come to Earth. One is already dead, but the other is about. Be wary. These things trade in deceit." More of what did this? What was she supposed to do?

"Taylor." Her eyes snapped to Amaterasu. The older woman smiled sadly. "You are the first. More will come. This is not your task alone. I'm sorry we cannot do more. For now, I will use the last of my power to send you home. This place has nothing you need as of yet. When you are ready to return here. You will know how to open the door."

The three gods stood around her. Together they raised their hands and the world went white.

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She blinked the spots from here eyes. She was in a hallway. She blinked again. She recognized this hallway, it was the upper hallway in her house.

Her tails flicked side to side. Her ears twitched.

So she was a Goddess now? And that was somehow different from a parahuman?

She sighed, the weight of being awake for two days was suddenly hitting her. She felt absolutely exhausted. Even her new limbs were sagging from the effort of staying awake.

"Who are you?" She stiffened as she recognized her father's voice. She spun on the spot, turning to face her dad as he was coming up the stairs.

"Dad." She said as she faced him. His eyes widened.

"Taylor?" He asked.

She opened her mouth to respond, only to frown as the world began to tip. Why was it tipping? God, she was tired. She could just-

She was out cold and dreaming by the time she hit the floor.

Grounders10 · May 14, 2019

Some of you have probably already seen this story on the dedicated Worm discussion thread, but I figured I'd just add it here to make it easier for people to find.

A Worm Fanfic

On The Anvil of Reality

By: Grounders10

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The Only Bit I Have Time to Write

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"Here. This will work." Taylor said as her father's truck pulled up to the docks. They were empty, anyone nearby having already fled at the first sound of the endbringer alarms.

He looked at her, worried. "Are you sure? This is where he'll show up first. You could leave this to the heroes." He sounded as worried as he looked.

She smiled and shook her head sadly. "I can't. They'll die." This was her duty. She had these powers.

He sighed. They had argued about this before. "Fine." He pulled up his hood and stepped out into the pouring rain. Taylor looked out through the storm across the mist-shrouded bay for a long moment before following him. It would take both of them to lift the anvil off the back, even with the winch.

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It was the first time she had worn her costume… Costume. No, it wasn't a costume. A costume suggested Halloween, childish fun and silliness. This was armour, built for war and battle. Her steel breastplate, beaten into shape beneath the inhuman force of her hammer and infused with her power every step of the way. It shone with an inner light that brightened the desolate dockside. Her chainmail glimmered with the same light, each chain forged with runes small enough a magnifying glass would be needed to see even a single line. Her sabatons had been made like her breastplate and her every shifting movement sent the sound of rattling steel through the pseudo-night of the impossible storm. She hung her cloak, woven from red furs and lined with white furs, around her shoulders and sighed as it settled heavily on her. The rain had made it heavier.

She looked down at the last piece of her armour, her helmet, resting there facing her on top of her anvil beside her hammer. Shaped like that of a Greek hoplite it to was forged from steel. Along it edges runes gleamed with power and a crest of black hair hung from the back. She carefully slid it over her head. The rain thundered in her ears as it crashed down upon her helmet.

She grasped her hammer and lifted it. It was short with a handle barely big enough for one hand, its head oversized and nearly as large as her's. Yet, the hammer felt light and perfectly balanced in her hand. Such was the power of the thousands of tiny runes that had been carved into its stone head. Strength, so it would not break when she struck her anvil with all her might. Lightness, so it would not overburden her during hours of forging. Balance, to ensure it did not need a long handle or two hands so she was free to hold her projects with the other. It had not failed her so far, hopefully, it would take the strain of this day's work.

And then, there was her anvil. She patted the old and battered smithing tool. It had started as just any old smithing anvil, a relic of a different age. With time, sweat, and some blood, she had turned it into so much more. The iron gleamed even in the mist from beneath layers of runes forged from shining gold, silver, copper, and many dozens more metals. Diamonds were inlaid into the metal next to rubies, and opals, and emeralds and many hundreds of other gems. Some big, some small. All perfect.

They said they had a half-hour before it arrived. She had never done something like what she had planned before, let alone in such a short period of time. Yet she had the tools, and the will to try.

Hefting her hammer Taylor Hebert lifted it above her head and brought it down. Light flashed, thunder shook the bay and reality… quivered. She raised it again and brought it down again. And again. And Again. Each time the bay roared. Each time reality quivered just a little more. Five times, ten times, a hundred times. She raised and brought down the hammer until numbers ceased to have meaning. All that mattered was what she was shaping upon the anvil.

With each strike, she was a little closer to finishing. With each strike, she had less time to finish. Yet she was rushing all she could. There was only so much haste you could force when reality itself was beneath your hammer. Time rolled on and all she knew was the clang of the hammer and the quiver of reality. Rain poured down around her, soaking her to the bone even as her hammer began to glow hot, hissing with each drop of water that fell upon it until a fog had gathered about her. The cloud flashed with every swing and quivered with every strike. The air around her grew charged, energy bleeding out from her workings despite her best efforts.

Finally, she ran out of time. Like a titan from a forgotten age, a thing from before mankind had first begun to remember, Leviathan second of the Endbringers strode forth from beneath the tides of the bay. Its sinewy form loped forward like someone who had nowhere to be and all the time to get there. One of the many great steel wrecks the filled the bay was crushed without effort as it effortlessly strode through the old vessel, shrugging the steel chunks from its body as it moved.

As it approached, its multi-eyes head already turning to face her, Taylor continued to hammer with the same steady cadence. She was already going as fast as she could, further speed would only harm her work.

Between one stroke and the next, she was no longer alone on the docks. Those heroes and villains who had elected to fight suddenly filled an area of the docks not far from her. Voices shouted orders and dozens of superhumans spread out to engage Leviathan. Lights flashed as beams of energy flickered out to meet the monster. Most sloughed off the creature's form without much damage, certainly not enough to slow its stride.

Other's flew across the waves to engage it, at their lead a woman in imposing black dress with a head enclosing black helmet. Her strike sent the beast stumbling back, a follow up from those with her sent it back into the water completely. It rose again, swifter than before.

Taylor paid little attention to the battle. It mattered not if they held, or they failed. All that mattered was the swing of her hammer, the thunder of her power, and the bending of reality. The crash of battle simply blended into the background even as someone ran up to her and said… something.

"Time! I need time!" She barked between swings, ignoring whatever it was the girl in the drenched catsuit was saying. She was close, even now she could feel her craft shaping reality. The water around her quivering with each blow.

Reality was shaking enough that those who had gotten close to her, like the girl in the catsuit, were backing away more with each strike. Her work felt strange to others before it was finished. Odd, unnatural, until it was finished. And she had never worked anything like this before.

Five strikes to go. Light cracked and thunder roared.

Four strikes to go. The mist roiled away from her, billowing outwards.

Three strikes to go. Leviathan turned to her, the closest thing to alarm in its posture.

Two strikes to go. Water burst from the bay, a grand wave that washed away everyone in its path. She sputtered but remained where she was her armour making her all but immovable as she raised her hammer again.

One strike to go. Leviathan's tail swatted the black-helmeted woman from the sky, her body blasting a path through several buildings further down the dock, and it surged forward. It pushed through the crowd of heroes and villain, sliding around attacks as it lunged for her an arm outstretched.

The hammer fell. One. Last. Time.

A sound that was felt more than heard, of the deepest richest gong rolled out from where her hammer met the anvil. Reality quivered, quaked, bent, and shattered as her design forced itself upon existence. The world paused, and in that instant, Taylor looked up from her work. The beast was frozen, its arm outstretched just a foot away from her. Then the world unpaused and with a loud snap-crackle the beast crumbled. Like a statue of ash that had been touched it fell away in a shower of blue-grey sand that piled up on the docks. All except a single round orb of pure, smooth white granite that came to rest atop the pile.

Taylor sighed and smiled. It had worked. Her hammer slipped from her hand, settling onto the anvil, as she let her legs collapse beneath her. The water below splashed as she sat down.

"What did you do?" Taylor looked up at the stupefied blonde in the catsuit. Already the clouds above were beginning to part, letting through the sunlight that lit up the girl's stunned expression.

Taylor smiled at her. "I ended it." She said. She licked her lips. They were as dry as her mouth was. She needed a drink.

"Yeah, but…" The girl looked at what had once been an Endbringer. She waved a hand at it. "How?"

"Brockton Bay might be messed up. But it's my home. When I heard Leviathan was coming I decided to do something about it." She sighed, "Bit closer than I liked, but I needed to work by the sea to get rid of that thing, or I thought I would. Not as much of the ocean in it as I thought."

If anything that just seemed to make the girl more confused. She winced in pain and one hand came up to massage a temple. "But?" She asked.

Taylor sighed. Simple she would need to be. "I decided I didn't want anything to harm my home. So I remade reality so it wouldn't let an Endbringer exist here." She said. It was a lot more complicated, but that would do. The girl didn't need to know more.

Ignoring the horrified look the girl was giving her she pulled herself to her feet with a groan. Her everything was slowly starting to hurt from the effort required for such a feat of craftsmanship. She paused as she stood up and looked at the giant granite marble on top of the pile of sand. She turned to the other girl. "Hey, do you think they'd let me keep that marble as a souvenir?"

Grounders10 · May 20, 2019

A/N: Soooo... Turns out I sometimes can't walk away from an idea. Have some more Peaches. *Generous Kitsune*

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A Worm Fanfic

The Taste of Peaches

By: Grounders10

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2

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When Taylor woke up she was surprised to find herself tucked under the covers of her own bed. It wasn't that she had expected to wake up in jail, or in the hospital, but after the last couple of days waking up in her bed with the sun pouring through her window was odd. It felt strangely surreal after walking through a battlefield that was literally pulled from myth. Assuming she hadn't just imagined it all.

She tried to sit up, but stopped and slid back down to lie on her side instead when she felt a sharp pain in her backside. She rolled to the side and flipped back her covers.

Nine long and fluffy raven-haired foxtails greeted her. As she watched they twitched and moved in an irritated manner, matching her mood.

She let out an explosive sigh and fell back onto her pillow. "I have a tail, tails." She said to the room. That hadn't been a strange dream. She really had climbed a mountain, explored a battlefield frozen in time, and maybe been turned into a god? Assuming they weren't just crazy parahumans.

She held out a hand in front of her. Her skin tone was normal, her fingers looked normal. Still that wasn't enough to know what her experience had changed. She needed a mirror. Her covers were knocked to the floor as she sat up and swung her legs under her.

The door to her room clicked as the doorknob turned and it swung open before she could stand up. Her dad, Danny Hebert, paused in the doorway. "Taylor." He smiled, "you're awake."

He stood in the doorway, looking awkward. "It is you Little Owl?" He asked.

She grimaced at the doubt, but then glanced back at her tails. In a world of strangers and masters, it was only natural doubt when your daughter shows up after being missing for several days with new body parts. Not that it meant it hurt any less.

Taylor nodded. "Yeah. The last couple of days were, rather strange." She admitted.

Danny hesitated for a moment before crossing the room and pulling her into a hug. "I was so worried." His breath tickled her ears. Her ears?

"Dad." She asked, giving him a tentative hug back. "Um, is there something on top of my head?"

He pulled back looking hesitant. "You don't know?" He said.

She shook her head. "What does it look like?" She asked. It felt like her ears had moved.

He swallowed nervously. "You have animal ears on top of your head." He said, brushing one with a hand.

She flinched and withdrew, her hands going to her head. She quickly found the twin triangles of fur that her ears had become. She gulped and her hands dropped into her lap.

"What happened?" Her father asked.

She licked her dry lips. "A lot." She said. A low rumble interrupted her and they both glanced down at her stomach. She blushed as her father chuckled.

"You're hungry?" He asked with a smile.

"Maybe a bit." She admitted. Two days without food was a long time. Even if she hadn't seemed to need it then, it now felt like all that time was catching up with her.

He patted her on the shoulder and stood up. "I'll get started on food then." He said, "Get cleaned up and come on down."

Taylor paused. "Are you saying I stink?" She asked flatly. Her father merely chuckled as he left the room. She gave herself an experimental sniff and coughed. Well, it might not have been flattering, but she definitely needed a shower. Turned out that two days of walking built up a sweat even if you weren't paying attention.

She shot a glance at her new tails. Could she even fit in the shower anymore? Did she have enough shampoo? She sighed and stood, her tails waved about and for a moment she nearly overbalanced before something clicked and she found her balance. A couple tentative steps proved that she wasn't in danger of falling over… though she did need to learn to control her tails. Her alarm clock was undamaged, but next time it might be something more valuable.

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One awkward shower later, wherein she discovered that yes she did have enough shampoo, just; and that a normal shower was a fairly tight squeeze for a tall fifteen-year-old teenage girl with nine fluffy foxtails about as long as she was tall (the suds had coated everything); she entered the kitchen.

She paused at the base of the staircase. Through the doorway into the kitchen, she could see her dad working at the stove. She could hear the snap-pop of cooking bacon and the smell was heavenly. Her stomach growled and she blushed as Danny glanced over his shoulder at her.

"I was wondering when you were going to come down." He said, flipping some bacon as she entered. "I was about to come and check on you."

"Washing nine tails took a bit longer than normal." It hadn't taken too much longer, but there were nine of them. She went to sit down at the table and paused. Sitting in what was usually her spot was a very familiar fox. It looked up at her and she would swear it was smiling at her.

"Dad, why is there a fox here?" She asked, staring it in the eye. It looked away without a care as her dad came over and placed a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast in his seat.

"Sit, eat." He told her, "And I was hoping you could tell me. It showed up last night and has been sitting here since."

Sliding sideways into the offered chair she frowned at the fox that was eyeing her breakfast. "Don't you dare." She said to it as she piled bacon and eggs on to toast. It smiled at her, a tongue lolling out of its mouth as it tried to play innocent. She knew better, however. It was a fox, it was far from innocent by default.

"Taylor?" Her dad prompted.

She sighed. "I think it's the same fox I spent two days following around." She said.

"Excuse me?" He asked, "You followed a fox around for two days?"

She grumbled and took a bit of her breakfast. The bacon was a bit overcooked, but the crunch made her mouth water more. She moaned slightly as she ate, one eye constantly watching the fox as it tracked each bite, that same silly expression on its face. Finishing that slice of toast she started piling another one up.

"Taylor."

She paused. "Can I finish eating first?" She asked, looking up at her dad. Without realizing it her tails and ears had both drooped as she pouted at him.

"I- Sure." He said with a smile, before promptly stealing one of her pieces of bacon.

"DAD!" She complained before going back to her food. She paused and counted the bacon. Her eyes slid up to the fox. It chewed twice before swallowing the two pieces of bacon it had stolen. Its tongue lolled out and it yawned smugly before curling up into a ball. "Can I get more bacon?" She asked.

"We've got a little more."

Twenty minutes, three more stolen pieces of bacon, and enough eggs and toast to feed ten people Taylor and Danny retired to the living room. Taylor curled up on the couch, her tails wrapping about her legs like a large fluffy blanket. It was rather cozy. The fox stole the foot stool while he father sat down beside Taylor. She leaned against him and he wrapped an arm about her shoulder.

"How long was I gone?" She asked once they were settled.

"You were gone for two days. I called the police when you didn't come home." He said quietly, "They… they found your locker."

Taylor winced. "Some bullies decided I looked small enough to fit and shoved me in. An end of year prank." There was no way she was telling her dad about who had actually done so. "I'd have been out just if it wasn't for that janitor leaving me in there." Stupid cowardly old bastard. Leaving someone locked in their own locker just because of a stupid prank someone else had done? She scowled, baring teeth as she did.

"They found out about the janitor." Her father said, "He's in quite a bit of trouble as far as I understand it."

"Good."

"They also found that your locker had been forced open from the inside. Then slammed shut hard enough to break steel." Danny continued, "They called the PRT."

"Oh." The Parahuman Response Team was the federal organization responsible for handling all crises involving parahumans. Whether it was as minor as someone with the power to create bubbles from nothing or a murderer who could levitate a car it fell under their responsibility. The moment parahuman involvement was hinted at the police were required to call them in.

The PRT was partnered with the Protectorate, a government sponsored team of Parahumans who operated jointly with the all normal agents of the PRT. Brockton Bay played host to the Protectorate East North-East team, or ENE for short. They were responsible, as Taylor understood it, for the protection of Brockton Bay and a large part of New England.

"They had a team here last night. It was their paramedic that said you just needed sleep." He said with a sigh.

Then they knew she had powers. Even just looking like she did was enough to fall under their jurisdiction. She shifted nervously and hugged a tail to her chest. The fluffy appendage was comforting, like a teddy bear. Her father hugged her tighter.

"Relax. You aren't in trouble." He said quietly, "They've got a team around the house for the moment. Just in case of more trouble. I let them know you woke up while you were in the shower. A representative of the PRT will be arriving in an hour with someone from the protectorate."

She sighed and leaned against her dad. An hour until she had to answer questions. What did she tell them? 'By the authority invested in me by Thor, Poseidon and Amaterasu I am a Goddess, bow down and worship me!'? She snorted at the thought. It was absurd and would only end with her in a nice padded cell eating horrible hospital food. Or the birdcage if they thought she was dangerous enough.

"Hmmm?" Her dad prodded her. "So, how does getting stuck in a locker lead to…" He waved at her then the fox. It continued to watch them passively, but preened for a moment when Danny gestured to it.

Taylor sighed. "Well, it started with me kicking open my locker after the Janitor left me locked inside…" She said, launching into a very abbreviated description of her two day trip. She made sure to leave out the whole 'god' thing. He didn't need to know that. Hell, she didn't know what it meant. When she finished ten minutes later her father was staring at her with an expression she was having a hard time recognizing.

"You ate the peach, because of that." He looked to the fox who yipped.

"Yes?" She said tentatively. It hadn't been the smartest thing she'd ever done that was for sure. Right up there with taking her mother's flute to school. "In my defense I was frustrated from climbing a mountain for two days. I… really wanted there to be a point to the whole thing…" She sighed.

Danny echoed her before pulling her into a hug. "Just- don't do anything that foolish again. If I lost you to- I just…"

She hugged him back. Their lives hadn't been the same since her mother died, neither talked much anymore, but the thought of losing her father as well was… "I'm sorry." She whispered. They stayed that way quietly hugging one another for a few minutes before her father released her and she slowed pulled back as well.

"So…" He paused, then looked at the fox. "That leads to the question of why your guide there is here."

"Maybe it's part of my powers?" She offered. Honestly as far as powers went having pet fox that stole your bacon was far from the worst.

"Or," a third smooth asian accented voice said, "You could ask the fox."

Both of them turned to look at the fox. It smiled smugly at them. "Hello~ Magical Spirit Guide Inari-Chan~ Reporting as needed Desu~!" She saluted.

Taylor stared for a long moment at the talking fox before turning to Danny. "How old was the Bacon?" She asked.

"Kurt brought it over yesterday." He replied absentmindedly. "It should have been fine. Maybe it was the apple juice."

The fox dropped its salute and sighed. "You are not crazy. I, the great and glorious Inari-Chan, am here to explain everything." It paused. "Also the food was delicious. Can I have some more? Especially the apple juice."

"No." Taylor said at the same time her dad said, "Maybe."

She glanced at him. "Dad." She complained.

"Depends on what she has to say." He replied, looking pointedly at the fox.

'Inari' grinned. "How about that your daughter left a few things out." She said.

Her dad turned to look at her as she realized what the fox was saying. "Don't." She said forcefully.

The fox just smirked. "What? You're more than one of these mortals playing with cursed power." It did.

"Taylor, what is it talking about?" Her dad asked. He frowned at Inari. "And why is she saying mortals?"

"I-" What did she say? What could she say that wouldn't sound like she'd lost her mind?

"Just tell him." She glared at the fox, who was still smirking at her. "Seriously?" Inari sighed. "Fine I'll do it."

"Why can't you stay quiet like on the mountain?" She ground out.

"Because if you can't trust your father then who can you trust?"

Taylor stopped, her next angry remark on her lips died before it could be properly vocalized. It was a simple question. No, not a question. It was a statement. Family and trust. This was her dad, the only person she could call family left in the entire world and yet…

When had she stopped trusting him?

"Taylor?" Her dad asked gently, resting a hand on her arm.

She could feel her ears flattened against the top of her head. It was easy to know. She'd complained to herself about how lifeless he was for years now. Ever since her mother died. "I left a few things out." She admitted quietly.

He wrapped an arm around her. "I gathered." He said, "But what did you leave out?" He didn't say it, but she could almost feel him asking, 'and why didn't you trust me with it?'

"Because you'll think I'm crazy." She said, answering the unsaid question instead.

"We're sitting here." Danny said, waving at the room. "You have a bunch of very pretty fox tails." She blushed at her dad's compliment in spite of herself. "And we've just discovered that the fox that has been hanging around all day talks. At this point I'm fairly open to ideas."

She snorted and looked away. "Get on with it." Inari said from her seat on the footstool. "Booooo. More admissions, less stalling."

"Just… just be quiet." Taylor groaned before sighing. "I left out a bit between when I bit into the peach and when I got home." She admitted before telling Danny everything she had left out.

"Poseidon? Thor?" He repeated back to her.

She nodded. "And Amaterasu. I'm not sure where she's from, but I'm guessing mythology somewhere?" She said.

"Shinto, from Japan." Inari interjected. "Amaterasu was the Goddess of the Sun and ruler of the heavens."

"Gods." Danny repeated.

Taylor sighed. "Probably just a bunch of ancient parahumans who thought they were gods without knowing better." She said. No one believed in the classical gods these days. There was a reason they were 'classic'.

Inari scoffed. "A God and Parahuman are very different things." She said, sitting up.

"Oh really?" Taylor asked challenging the fox with a frown.

"I know, because I was a Shinto Goddess before." Inari said before coughing daintily into a paw and waving it in the air. "Now, sit back, relax, and let your Magical Spirit Guide Inari-Chan explain everything."

Taylor frowned, but leaned back against her father who wrapped an arm around her. "Let's hear your explanation for this then." He said. He sounded worried to Taylor. More worried than he had in a long while.

Inari made a noise that sounded like she was clearing her throat, an odd sound to hear from a fox. "The difference between a Parahuman and a God is at its most basic one of internal versus external power. The power of a god is born from their nature and informed by the perceptions of others and themselves." She said. "Their powers can be broken down into those general and domain. Increased durability, strength, speed, intelligence. All gods have these to differing degrees and can increase most of them through time and effort. Magic also falls under here, but not all gods pursue the mystical arts so we'll cover that later."

"Now, domain refers to that which defines a god's personal powers. Things like Zeus and Thor being Gods of Thunder. Both summon lightning and have influence over the sky. Poseidon, who was there as well, is god of the seas and naturally has a great deal of control over both them and anything that can affect them. Storms over the ocean for example. Amaterasu is the Goddess of the sun and if you recall even her ethereal echo glowed like the sun." Taylor nodded.

"She was hard to look at, but the light was so warm and comforting." She admitted.

"Exactly. Now, with Zeus and Thor both are Gods of Thunder, but if you look back at their legends this manifests itself fairly differently. This is because as I said before their powers are informed by their perceptions, and those of others. Others being the culture in which the God originated. Some of this is psychosomatic, personal perceived limitations of a concept. The perceptions of others, however, tend to be more physical in its presence. I, as an example, was the Goddess of Foxes. Part of the reason I shaped this fragment of me as I did. It was one of the earliest Domains of mine that I discovered. Now, being Goddess of Foxes this led to me commanding Foxes and many of my servants were thus Foxes. On the other hand Foxes have a reputation in Japan as tricksters and this shaped how my power manifested. I could shapeshift, taking whatever form I desired."

She paused. "With me so far?" They nodded. Taylor continued frowning. It was interesting, but she was waiting to see how this was different than just any other parahuman. "Good. Well, Domains can be gifted. I set aside some of my own, including my domain of Foxes, and gave them to you last night at the peach tree."

"What?" Taylor flinched as her father jerked forward suddenly.

Inari's ears laid back. "I'll explain later. This is a really detailed subject and we've only got…" She glanced at the clock on the wall. "Twenty minutes before your PRT is supposed to arrive. I'd like to get through this before they get here."

"Dad." Taylor said, taking her turn to calm him. He grumbled, but sat back. She was worried as well. Hadn't there been a cape that had the ability to give temporary powers a while back? Only he'd been sent to the birdcage after it had been discovered it was addictive and he'd been using it to influence those he had gifted.

"Right, where was I… I gave you my Domains of Foxes, Industry, Agriculture, and Fertility." Inari smirked at the last one.

"Excuse me?" It was Taylor's turn to glare at the Fox.

She seemed unconcerned as she did that wiggle thing again. "I'm sure you'll find a use for it somewhere." Taylor hadn't known that Foxes could waggle their brows before, now she could say that yes they could and did.

"Moving on." Her dad said with a tight voice.

"Yes, yes. Let's ignore the implications of the last three and focus on the first." Inari said, still smirking. "Foxes. I've already said how my people's perception of Foxes coloured my ability to interact with that Domain. With you it has had something of a more obvious effect." She gestured at Taylor's tense and twitching tails. "Something about modern perceptions has caused you to have a more permanent sign of your divine status as Goddess of Foxes. What else this might have done I have no idea. Time and experimentation will be your friend. At the same time if you recall back in the Peach Garden you showed off some lightning. So you probably have some form of Thunder as a domain."

Inari stretched. "And that is the basics of where a God's powers come from and how they are shaped. Very basic, we can cover more later when we have time. Now, Parahumans. Mhmm, mhm mhm. Parahumans. Mortals playing with power that they don't understand and many never asked for."

"Remember how I said internal vs. external?" The Fox spirit asked. They both nodded. "Excellent. Well, as I've shown a God's power comes from within, growing as they age, experiment, and practice. A Parahuman's power does none of these things because it isn't their power. A parahuman is a conduit for extradimensional entities perceive this realm and they grant some form of power to those they connect with. Why? Well I have no idea why the modern ones act like this, but back during our last war, the one whose battlefield you walked through, the Entity we were fighting granted our enemies powers in exchange for acting as it's weapons."

She paused as they digested that. "That Entity failed. It can't provide powers to anyone on Earth, any Earths, because it can't get close enough to make such a connection. Not anymore."

"So where do modern parahumans come from? If they aren't gods, and they aren't natural…" Taylor trailed off. She still wasn't convinced, but… Something about it… Felt right? It was an odd feeling that seemed to tell her she could trust what this strange fox was saying.

"That is connected to why I'm here and you aren't just blundering around blind like every other new generation of Gods." Inari said.

"Why would they be wandering around blind?" Danny asked.

Inari sighed. "Because somewhere along the way leaving cryptic messages to the next generation became the 'thing' gods were supposed to do. Make cryptic references, a little encouragement, just tell them to follow their heart. Sound familiar?" She asked Taylor.

She nodded. That sounded exactly like what the three at the Peach Garden had told her. "Yeah." She admitted, "It does." And by the Gods it had sounded completely useless.

"Yeah, thing is normally there's a bit of a gap between one world ending crises and the next. A few centuries between extraterrestrial incursions. Now, Natural Gods, that is those who are born from mortals, crop up every hundred years or so. Gives them at least a hundred years to figure out what happened, how their powers work and all that jazz." Inari rubbed her cheek with the back of a paw. "That is how things normally go. Get killed, next generation, training montage, beat up next threat, rinse and repeat. This time the next threat showed up seventy years later. And not just one, but two."

"Hold on a second." Taylor's dad held up a hand. "How do you know this? According to you and Taylor this war happened a hundred years ago. How do you know what has been going on?" And that was the thing that Taylor hadn't been able to put a finger on.

"Seeing the future is well within the abilities of the gods. Especially those whose domains are connected to fate, time, or the future." Inari replied.

"Precognition." Taylor said.

"That. Also while I may be just a spirit now, I can still operate the many great machines we left behind. Including those designed to watch for such threats. Two more like the entity we defeated were foreseen to approach the planet. One had a collision with the previous entity we had encountered and then crashed and died on another Earth. I have no idea where the other one is or what it is doing. Unfortunately maintenance requirements became a bit more than a lesser spirit with paws like myself could maintain alone." Inari pouted and sighed. "Still, these parahumans are demonstrating powers like those from the war. This entity seems to pick those who are possessed by great despair and grant to them a power appropriate for the horrific situation they're in. At least from what I can gather. I don't know if some also make deals with it like with the other one, but for all I know this was what the other entity had intended to do after getting rid of us."

"I see…" Inari felt like she was telling the truth to Taylor. Maybe it was the emotion in her voice. Maybe the way she held herself. As much as that applied to a Fox. Danny stood up. "Dad?" Taylor asked.

He ran a hand hand through his frazzled dark hair. "Give me a second." He said, pulling off his glasses so he could rub a hand across his face. "Assuming you aren't taking us for a ride, what now?" He asked after a minute of silent rumination.

"Now I help prep your daughter to save the world." Inari said, "That's why I went behind the old fogies backs and set up this extra contingency."

Save the world? Taylor blinked and sank into the couch. Her? From… Some great extraterrestrial threat? A threat that was somehow behind every Hero and Villain in the world? "I don't… I got locked in my locker by a couple of bullies. How can I save the world?" She asked.

"Taylor..." He dad turned to face her with an anxious expression.

Inari snickered. "By getting stronger. No God starts out as some all power unstoppable warrior. Sure a lot of them spread stories that make it seem that way, but they didn't. I worked my way from a mere demi-goddess until I was, and technically am if you ignore my current state, the most popular God or Goddess in Japan." She rolled over, paws pointed at the ceiling. "I'm not saying you need to go out there, hunt down the badguy and save the world like you are. You'll need time to learn and grow before you can do that. That's why I left this fragment of me behind. You may not have the traditional century to figure things out, but between the two of us we should be able to get you up to speed in a couple years."

"Still…" Taylor licked her lips. "One of these things fought every god that was alive at once and… he basically won. They all died."

Inari snorted. "We died because we had too many enemies to fight. Rogue gods, creatures that hated us for one reason or another, mortals that just wanted to blame us for one thing or another. We had enough enemies. All it had to do was give them the power and point them at us. We didn't realize what we were fighting until we were already pushed back. The beast itself isn't that tough, but many of its minions were able to throw down with us even without its gifts. With them?" She sighed. "The good news is that I don't believe this one has an army. And I'm sure there are more than a few parahumans who might be willing to help as well."

"Excuse me? They can do that?" Danny asked. Taylor nodded. It seemed ridiculous. Who gave away a power that could be used against them?

"We learned that a gifted power stays until death. Not even that entity could take them away without killing the user first. So, yeah. The Heroes will probably want to help if they learn of it. Though I wouldn't go telling them until you can actually prove it. I mean, extra dimensional aliens granting powers to people just because? It sounds like bad science fiction." Inari laughed.

"And Gods sound so much more real?" Danny asked as he sank back into his chair, glasses held in one hand.

"There's one in this room." Inari said, looking Taylor in the eye.

Was there? She frowned at the fox as she ran one hand through the long hair of her tails. It was calming. This… Why did Inari sound like she was telling the truth?

Because part of her really wanted this to be true. To be something more than just… just Taylor Hebert. Too tall, too thin, too ugly Taylor Hebert. Not being just that Taylor anymore, what would she give for that?

The doorbell ended any further introspection. Danny sighed and stood up, heading for the door and leaving the two of them alone. Inari hopped off her footstool and climbed up on the couch next to Taylor.

"So." The former Goddess said with a wide foxy grin, "You and me. We're going to save the world."

"Yeah." Taylor replied weakly, "Let's do that."

Grounders10 · May 25, 2019

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A Worm Fanfic

The Taste of Peaches

By: Grounders10

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3

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When her dad returned he was accompanied by a pair of people she had seen before. On the news only though, never in person. The first was a woman wearing a dark-grey and white jumpsuit with neon blue lines running across it like wires on a circuit board. On her head was a helm that continued the blue line pattern. A thick blue visor obscured the top half of her face. She was Battery, one of the local Protectorate Heroes.

Beside her was another hero, a much younger blonde haired girl in green body armour and a green skirt with wavy lines that, when moving, almost made her eyes water. She wore a green visor that obscured the top half of her face. She had to be Vista, currently the only girl on the local Wards team, and about three years younger than Taylor.

When they turned the corner into the kitchen from the entrance way Vista spotted her and space twisted, crunching the distance between them into nothing. "Ohmygod,youdohavefoxearsandtails." Taylor blinked at the sudden deluge of words from the young hero as she appeared inches from her face. In her lap, Inari made a funny chuffing noise. Strangled laughter probably.

Parsing the barrage of words she said, "Erm, I do? I mean yes I do." She flushed red in embarrassment, her ears going flat, drawing an undignified gasping not-squee from the younger girl.

"Vista, enough." Battery said as she crossed the room. The younger hero stiffened, blushed, and stepped back three feet with a distortion of space-time that created a weird sensation to Taylor. Like all the hairs on her arms had stood straight up at a ninety-degree angle only didn't.

"Sorry." She said, blushing. Taylor sighed. Not five seconds and she'd already made a bad impression.

"Sorry about that." Battery said, stopping beside Vista. "I'm Battery of the Protectorate, this is Vista of the Wards. We are here to ask a few questions and see what we can do to help you adjust." Taylor's right ear twitched. She sounded rather sincere and something told her that the hero was being honest. Huh, someone who actually cared? Well, maybe. Trusting vague feelings about people you just met had bitten her in the ass at Winslow a couple of times already.

"Nice to meet you." Taylor said, giving an awkward wave to the two heroes. Vague feelings or not there was no reason to be rude.

"I was starting to wonder if you were coming." Her dad said as he took a seat in his recliner.

"Unfortunately unless it's an emergency even Heroes can get stuck in traffic." Battery said, her dad chuckled. She gestured to the only remaining seats in the room, the love seat. "May we?" She asked.

"Please, take a seat." He said, also making a gesture to the love seat.

The two heroes took their seats. Vista looked somewhere between mortified and excited, with the occasional bounce in her seat as though she wanted to leap across the room and take another close look at Taylor and her new appendages. Each little bounce was quickly stilled as she tried, and failed, to appear professional. It was rather adorable in Taylor's opinion.

Battery was much calmer, obviously far more used to these sorts of meetings than the ward beside her. Or at least more able to control herself.

"So," Battery began, "How are you feeling today Taylor?"

Her right ear twitched. "A bit tired, but alright I guess." She said. Walking for two days, including at least a day up a mountain, was exhausting; though she wasn't feeling as tired as she might have expected even after the rest.

"Wonderful." Battery smiled genuinely. "Now, it's fairly obvious that whatever you experienced over the last few days was horrible to say the least." More boring and tedious really, Taylor thought. "However, I'm afraid I'm going to have ask what happened. Anything you can share."

Taylor sighed. Here she went again. "Not much to tell really?" She shrugged, "I got locked in my locker at the end of friday classes."

"We found the locker." Battery said, "Well the police found the locker. It had been nearly kicked off its hinges and then slammed shut hard enough to jam the corners through the locker next to it."

She shrugged. "That was me, though not the closing part. The door did that to itself." She said.

"Itself? An inanimate steel door slammed itself shut hard enough to wedge itself into the neighbouring locker?" Battery asked.

Taylor sighed. "Maybe I should start from the beginning." She said. She'd share what she had with her dad, the first time anyway.

"Please."

It took an hour and a half. An hour filled with questions, clarifications, and her dad bringing drinks and snacks to them, twice, before she finished. She left out the little bit about being a Goddess again, despite the annoyed noises that Inari was making. She was not going to claim Divinity to the Protectorate. Parahumans who thought they were gods was supposed to be one of the things they fought against.

"Normally we recommend not eating the strange, possibly tinker-tech fruit might run into." Battery said after a moment of jotting down the information in a small notebook she brought with her. "But, I can't say I've ever heard of a trigger event quite like yours."

"Trigger event?" Her dad asked.

Battery hesitated for a moment. "Trigger events are not normally talked about. They're the moment when someone gets powers. It is not normally a pleasant moment to recall. Powers don't awaken without something bad happening first." She said, "Though yours would appear to be an unusually calm trigger all things considered."

Inari snorted. "Of course you haven't. She's a Goddess not a Parahuman." There was silence for a moment in the room and both Taylor and her dad turned annoyed looks to the fox in their midst. For her part Inari seemed to be oblivious. "The Gods don't have to wait to be consumed by despair before their powers can be flexed."

Taylor groaned and leaned back against the couch, wrapping herself in her tails as she did so. This was not going to help things. God, she did not want people thinking she was crazy on top of everything else… Or Narcissistic, which was technically being crazy as well.

"Did that Fox just talk?" Vista finally asked.

"Yes it did." Battery frowned. Oh dear.

"She's been talking like this since she stole my bacon from my plate this morning." Taylor groaned. Downplay the fox. Pretend the fox was crazy. Just make sure they didn't think she was crazy. Not getting pre-emptively locked up just to be safe was nice.

"You weren't eating it." The oblivious fox said.

"I looked away for two seconds!" She snapped, looking down at the fox with a growl.

"Exactly~ You weren't giving your heavenly food the attention it deserves~" She could hear the smug from the fox.

"Two. Seconds." She growled.

Inari patted her on the thigh. "Don't worry, Magical Spirit Guide Inari-Chan~ is here to help advise you~" With a very deliberate act she lifted up several of her tails and brought them down on the fox, burying it in fluff. Inari poked her head out of pile a moment later. "Rude." She paused for a moment and gave the fluff around her a push with her paw. "And I think this is already fluffier than mine used to be." She flopped across two of the tails. "Ooooh, this is comfy."

Her eyebrow was not twitching with annoyance as she turned back to the giggling Vista and desperately trying, but failing, to hide her amusement Battery. "This is the fox I followed up the mountain. She was here when I woke up." She sighed, her cheeks turning bright red with embarrassment. "And no, I have no control over what comes out of her mouth."

"I speak only the truth! I shall not be silenced!" Inari declared with lifting her head from the pillow she had made of Taylor's tails. "All hail her divinity, Goddess of Foxes Taylor Hebert." Another tail was lifted up and dropped across Inari's head, muffling further words from the troublesome fox.

"I- I see." Battery said, stifling her laughter as she made a couple more notes. "Well, it's not unheard of for master's to have semi-controllable projections, though it has been a while since I heard of one… Certainly not one this outspoken however." She closed her notebook and pocketed it in a pouch. "Well then, thank you for your testimony Taylor. Mr. Hebert, there are a few things I would like to talk to you about in private. Vista can keep your daughter company while we talk. If that's alright with you Taylor?"

Taylor nodded, her cheeks still burning with embarrassment. "Sure." What else could she say?

"If you're sure Taylor." Her dad sighed and stood. "This way, we can talk in the office." Her dad led Battery out of the room, leaving her with the enthusiastic and still giggling Vista.

Taylor stayed silent, playing with one of her tails with her hands, while Vista slowly stopped giggling to herself. "S-sorry." The younger girl said after a few minutes. "I shouldn't have laughed."

Taylor's right ear twitched. "I- It's fine. Really." Arguing with a talking fox that was claiming she was a goddess was ridiculous.

"So… Goddess?" Vista asked carefully.

A groan slipped through Taylor's lips. She sent a glare towards 'her' fox. "She's been trying to sell me on that since breakfast." She said.

"You know it's true," Inari said, sticking a head out from under Taylor's tail. She gazed up at Vista with a soulful expression. "Know the truth~ I, Magical Spirit Guide Inari-Chan~ speak onto truths."

"You won't even admit you stole my bacon! And eggs!" Taylor snarked as she kept one eye on the young hero.

"You keep mentioning that, but it was also apple juice. Very nice apple juice." Inari rolled over and stared up at the unimpressed expression Taylor was wearing.

Vista's snickers drew a groan from the black-haired fox-goddess. "So, you're powers are that you have a fox?" She asked, trying to stifle a snicker.

"I guess?" Taylor sighed. Her ears twitched in irritation and her tails shifted.

"Not just that. I saw lightning earlier!" Inari said, patting the tails she was partly buried amongst. "Little snaps of lightning jumping between these beautiful fluffy clouds."

Taylor paused. Had there been? Yes… On the mountain when she'd first realized she had tails there had been small snaps of electricity jumping between them. "I thought that was just the peach." She said with a frown.

Inari shook her head. "All you. See~ This is why you need the guidance of your Magical Spirit Guide Inari-Chan~ Desu~" The way the fox loved drawing out her words at times was starting to annoy Taylor. Like, really, really annoy her.

"So it knows more about your powers?" Vista asked before sighing. "Lucky. Most of us don't exactly get a user's manual. I mean somethings are instinctive, but not everything." The younger girl got up from her seat and walked over. "So, what are your plans now?" She asked.

She leaned against the armrest of the couch and sighed. "I'd say enjoy summer, but…" She waved a tail in the air. "Not exactly inconspicuous anymore." Vista nodded. It was public knowledge how valuable even seemingly useless capes were often treated as by gangs. Sure most weren't exactly going to get kidnapped off the street to fight if their power was something like a talking fox, but with the tails and ears, she was… exotic, like a rare pet. Sure she still had the same too wide smile and all the shapeliness of a 2x4, but her nine white-tipped black tails were exotic in and of themselves.

"Well, you could join the wards," Vista suggested. She must have seen Taylor roll her eyes since she continued, "Hang on. Hear me out."

Taylor waved her on with a gesture. Joining the wards was an option that just screamed more drama to her, but...

"Look, the wards is meant to help with things like this." Vista gestured vaguely at all of Taylor.

"Things like me?" Taylor snarked.

"Yes, no- You aren't a thing. I mean, ugh…" She sighed. "Things like being in danger because of your powers. You've apparently got a talking user's manual, but back at the rig, they have rooms meant for testing and training powers. You might not have the room here, and you definitely don't have the tools regardless of what it is you can do."

That… was a good point. She spared a glance at her tails. If that lightning had been created by her, then well… what was she going to do? Shoot the walls of their basement? Go outside and down to the docks and try zapping wrecks from the shoreline until she was jumped by gang members?

"And she'd have companions to help watch over her, right?" Inari asked, looking up at Vista.

"Of course. That's kinda the point. Meeting people who can relate with what you're going through. People who can help you." Vista said.

Taylor sighed and toyed with her tails. The wards could offer her resources to learning her powers, but… people. She had been let down by people a lot over the last year. People, teenagers, meant pointless melodrama, meant-

"Hey." She looked down at Inari. The Fox smiled gently up at her. "Give it a shot. Even Gods need companions."

She ignored Vista's mutter of, "Again with the god thing." and considered that. Thor and Poseidon were both merely gods amongst much larger pantheons. Even though Poseidon basically ruled the seas himself he did have those who served him as well. Friends, allies. She didn't know as much about Norse Mythology but she would bet Thor had people to turn to as well.

But… "I'll think about it." She said eventually. She would think about it, even talk to her dad about it. She'd bet that her dad was getting a much more in depth pitch from Battery.

"It'd really be nice to have another girl onboard." Vista admitted. Space crunched and she shifted the footstool so that she was sitting a couple feet from taylor.

Taylor tilted her head. "Wasn't there another girl?" She asked. There had been someone announced a few months ago. What was her name? Trill?

Vista snorted. "For like two months, then she transferred to Pittsburgh when her family moved." She sighed. "Girls never seem to stick around here. Here for a few months, then they graduate or move. Just me and a bunch of immature annoying boys."

Taylor couldn't help it, she laughed at Vista's tone of resigned despair. One of her tails came up and covered her mouth as she tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle the laughter. "That bad?" She asked after getting her breath back.

Vista giggled. "Well, to give you an idea Clockblocker…" The next hour passed with Vista sharing stories of things that had happened in the wards. Inari would pipe up occasionally with some comment or other, but it was mostly Vista and Taylor. At the end of that hour Battery and Danny came back into the room and the two Heroes left.

Vista's bye had hardly faded when Danny sat down in his recliner heavily. "Well, that was…" He breathed out heavily, one hand rubbing his forehead. "Did Vista pitch the wards at you as well?" He asked.

"Yep." Taylor picked Inari up from where she was still cuddling amongst her tails.

"Oi!" The fox protested grumpily, but quieted as Taylor lay down on her side before hugging the fox in her arms.

"Battery talked a lot about the benefits, but some of the requirements. We'd be signing away a lot of control at the same time." He sighed.

"Like?" Taylor prompted.

"Papers are in the kitchen. We can go over them later. Right now I just want to relax. How does pizza sound for supper?" He asked.

"Fine… With pineapple?" She prodded. Her dad normally 'forgot' to get pineapple when he ordered.

"I'll order two then." He said, leaning back in his chair.

Inari slipped out from Taylor's grip and hopped off the couch onto the footstool. "What kind of things were they asking for control of?" She asked.

Danny sighed. "Things like control over looks, rights to any name she might take while with them. The stack of papers in the kitchen is two inches thick. We can look it over together later." He said.

"Well, assuming nothing is really objectionable I think you should accept." Inari said, stretching like a cat.

"Because even a Goddess needs companions?" Taylor asked as she adjusted the throw pillow under her head. One of her tails swept up to replace the escaped fox in her grasp.

"Exactly~" Inari pointed at her. The fox was grinning. "You're young for a Goddess. It'll take time for you to learn your powers and grow in strength. What you need right now is people to rely on, companions to watch your back in the days ahead."

Taylor grunted non-committedly and hugged her tail harder. It still meant she'd have to deal with other people her age… though a few of the wards did look kinda cute… She hummed thoughtfully to herself.

Her dad, probably unaware of the direction her thoughts had taken, sighed. "That is what the Wards is for. That and training. Which you need. God, you can't just hide your tails and pretend not to have powers can you?" He asked.

Taylor blinked and considered it. "I… don't know?" She said slowly, looking down at the tail in her grip. She tried to imagine it vanishing and just wound up staring at the white tip for a long moment. Nothing. "I have no idea." She said finally as Inari snickered.

"We'll talk practice later then." Inari said before jumping back onto the couch and curling up within the mass of Taylor's tails. "For now, a nap sounds good."

Taylor yawned at that. Yeah, she still felt a bit tired from the days before. More sleep would be great. She closed her eyes and tried to drift off as her dad turned on the TV. She cracked an eye open. "Daaaad…" She whined.

"You do have a bed." He pointed out.

Taylor considered that for a moment. She rejected that option. It would have meant moving and she was comfy. Instead, she closed her eyes again and tried to tune out whatever TV show her dad had turned on. Something about mutant crocodile hunting in Australia. In five minutes she was out cold.

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The office of the Director of the PRT ENE was spartan. No awards or pictures hung from the walls. There were no decorations on the desk, or potted plants in the corners. The room was like its owner, dedicated solely to the task at hand. Seated behind the office's desk was Director Emily Piggot. She was a short obesely overweight woman with short bleached blonde hair.

Her lips were pursed as she examined the notes written down in the pad on the desk. "So," She began, directing her words to Battery who was seated across from her. "A talking Fox projection."

"Yes Director." The heroine nodded.

The other woman frowned down at her notes. "That is telling her she's a goddess."

"Yes Director."

Director Piggot sighed. She dropped the notepad on her desk. The thunk of paper on wood reverberated in the quiet office. "Well that is a wonderful mess. And she might have additional powers as well?"

Battery nodded. "Yes, Vista said the fox had mentioned electricity from Taylor's tails." She said. And hadn't that been a bit of a surprise on the way back from the Hebert's home. "However, she doesn't seem to be aware of them herself if she does have them."

Piggot grunted. "A possible trump them. A master/changer at the minimum." She flipped to the next page of the notepad. "And that thing calls her a Goddess. Wonderful, just what we need. A trump/master with a god complex."

"With respect Director," Battery said, "Neither I nor Vista saw any sign she believed the claims of the fox. If anything she seemed annoyed by them." And very uncomfortable, with the fox and them.

"It's not her current thoughts on the matter I'm worried about." The Director replied before turning to the other two people in the room. "Armsmaster, Glenn, your thoughts?"

Armsmaster was Battery's boss, the head of the Protectorate East-North East, and a tinker of exceptional skill and talent. He was standing off to the side, refusing to sit due to the weight of the blue power armour he wore whenever he was on duty. His signature halberd was leaning against his shoulder.

Armsmaster cleared his throat. "She is potentially a potent asset, but without more information there is no way to tell how much of one. On the low end we're looking at a master with a fox shaped projection and maybe tasers for tails. On the high end, well it's far too soon to say." He said, "The God issue is worrisome, but not unmanageable. Therapy and socializing can hopefully alleviate the dangers."

"Which is part of the reason for the wards program in the first place." The last person in the room said. Glenn Chambers was, to Battery's eyes, a living contradiction. The Head of Image for the entire PRT, he was responsible for managing the images of every single Protectorate Hero and Ward in the country. It as a part he did not look even remotely qualified for. Nearly as obese as the Director his clothes were, everytime Battery had seen him, wrinkled and ill-fitting. His glasses were these ugly rectangular frames that only served to make him look more like he was squinting. Atop everything was his hair. He didn't have a mohawk technically, but the way he gelled his hair certainly suggested the shape of one. It was disgusting how he could be so good at managing others, yet never seemed to spend a second thinking about how he looked.

The obese man picked a piece of paper from the folder open in his lap and held it up. It was a picture of Taylor taken from Battery's bodycam and blown up to size. "This here," He waved it, "is probably the most photogenic cape I've seen in years. Getting her on board would be a potentially amazing PR windfall. I can already think of several potential costumes for her. Battery, is she interested?"

"Her father was." She replied, "A bit worried about some of the clauses in the papers though."

"You did make sure to point out that nearly all-" Glenn started.

"All the points were negotiable. Yes I did. Not the first time I've done this." Battery finished.

"Of course." Glenn nodded, "And Taylor herself?"

Battery frowned. "Vista thinks she made a decent impression, but she's shy. Nervous. Like I said earlier, she has trust issues." That much had been clear almost from the beginning. The nervous shifting, flattened ears, and the way she had gone from cheerfully talking with Vista at the end to shutting up the moment she saw Battery and her father. It had hurt in a way, but no natural parahuman came without issues. It was just the nature of powers.

"Well, I say let's try and make this as sweet a deal as possible." Glenn said, "She's getting bullied right? I know her situation with no secret identity makes things awkward, but we should still be able to manage that local school? What was it.. Uuuh…"

"Arcadia." Piggot said.

He pointed the photo in his hand at the Director like a baton. "That's it. They deal with New Wave all the time, a Ward shouldn't be an issue."

"Should they inquire about the Wards then we can see about talking to Arcadia about the possibility." Piggot said, as she tapped her pen against the desk. "Anything else?" The three shook their heads, their replies all along the lines of no. "Very well. Battery, write up your report for tomorrow. Make sure to include everything, even Vista's speculations. Glenn any ideas you have you run by me first. Glenn, Battery, dismissed. Armsmaster, stay. We need to have a talk about why I'm receiving reports of you being involved in a running battle through a public bathhouse."

Departing an unwelcome scene in a hurry was, in Battery's opinion, one of the few useful lessons she had picked up from her husband. It was a skill she put to excellent use as she not-quite-jogged her way out of the office.

Grounders10 · May 26, 2019

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A Worm/Supreme Commander
Fanfiction Crossover

Inheritance

Prologue

By: Grounders10

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The stairs groaned as he stepped down into the darkness of the basement. Each step echoed the first as he descended. Reaching the bottom a hand reached out and flicked the light switch. A pair of dim bulbs hanging from the ceiling flickered on revealing the piles of boxes, old appliances, and other miscellaneous junk that had come to call the basement home over the years.

Or so he told anyone who asked. It was, all of it, part of a smoke screen that had long been unneeded. At least, he had thought it was.

He carefully picked his way across the room. He stepped over old toys, around the twenty-year-old clothes washing machine, and gently nudged aside the pile of boxes labelled Taxes Years 1997-2002. Behind it all was a small, somewhat open patch of concrete right up against the wall. The wall itself was nearly bare, no shelves, no appliances, just a stainless steel electrical box hanging off to the right.

His hands fumbled with the catch on it, but it soon popped open. Beneath was what would expect for an electrical box, row after row of breaker switches. Just another facade. It took him a moment to find the latch. The false break panel swung open on its hinges as though it had been oiled yesterday.

Revealed behind it was a scanner for his hand and another for his eyes. There was no hesitation in the way he slammed his palm against the screen. There was a beeping noise and then the voice of his dead wife said, "Sorry Danny, not today. Would you like to talk to Q?"

"Yes." He said, wiping the tears that hearing her voice had brought up.

"Uno momento." Elevator music began to play. The sort you find in those hotels or office buildings that are trying to pretend to be expensive but don't quite understand the hows or whys.

Five seconds became ten, became twenty and he started to mutter."Come on, pick up you stupid-"

"I may be an AI, but there is nothing I can do about the lag Lady Annette installed Danny." The synthesized voice of QAI.

"I know, it's just… I need your help." He said, voice choking on emotion.

"Lady Annette's directives prohibit-" QAI recited.

He punched the concrete wall next to the box. "I KNOW WHAT THEY PROHIBIT!" He shouted. He rubbed his hand. Punching a wall hurt, just like it did the last two dozen times he'd tried it.

"Then why are you here?" It asked.

"I just brought Taylor home from the hospital." Danny growled, leaning his head against the wall beside the box. "They said she'll never be able to walk again."

QAI did not respond for several seconds, an eternity for the machine intelligence. "How?" It finally asked.

"She was attacked at school. She says it was Emma, but there's no witnesses. No Witnesses, no reports, no one coming forward." He said, "She suffered a brain injury. They had to operate, but… They saved her life, Q, but she'll never walk. Not with modern technology."

The machine was silent for a moment. "This is exceptional." It said after a few moments.

"That's why I'm here." He turned to look at the machine on reflex. "Can you help her?"

"There is a possibility, yes." It said, "However, restoring her ability to walk could reveal our presence."

"Q." He growled.

"However, you are fortunate." QAI said, "I am tired of this situation, and medical issues are on my list of permissions to break lockdown." There was a hiss and the wall on the other side of the box retracted inwards revealing a hallway and an old elevator. "The elevator is still manual operation Danny. Come on down, we have much to discuss."

"Thank you." He said, starting towards the elevator.

"Thanks are not needed. Purpose is sufficient price." It said from a speaker in the hallway.

He stepped onto the elevator and pulled the lever. "I know." He said as it lurched and began to descend. He took a seat on the elevator's single chair. It was an old elevator, and he had a long way down to go.

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A/N: For those wondering, this is an UEF styled Taylor.

Grounders10 · Jun 9, 2019

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A Mass Effect Fanfic
Jenkins: Alliance Marine

By: Grounders10

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Prologue

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The hallway was dark. It was always dark, every single time he did this. A glance to the corner of his armour's Heads-Up Display solved that issue, bathing the world in an off green that didn't quite manage to purge all the shadows. It was good enough to operate by at least, which was more than he could say about his natural eyesight. Raising his pistol in his right hand he crept forward through the gloom. The Viper Marksman's rifle on his back clicked against his shoulders armour with each step. The fingers of his left hand flexed and a small spark jumped between his knuckles.

His eyes darted from side to side, trying to watch the closed doors on either side of the hall as he passed them. No one came spilling out into the hallway guns blazing or blade held high as he quickly, and quietly, made his way deeper inside. It made him nervous. The last time he had been here it had been a gun wielding beast of a man from that door… there. His eyes spared only a glance at the door as he went by. The holographic interface glowed a dull orange as he passed. No one would be coming out of that door without warning today.

Then the year before it had been a waif of a woman with a spear of all things from the door up ahead that was alone for a dozen meters on either side of the corridor. He kept his distance, hugging the far wall as he passed, his pistol trained on the door. The lock was green, but the door remained shut as he passed and nothing came screaming from the door. Good, getting pinned to a wall had been an interesting experience he was loath to repeat again. And the woman hadn't even done him the service of succeeding afterwards. Bitch.

He reached the end of the hallway a few minutes later his teeth clenched beneath his helmet. The door was unlocked, its interface glowing green. He took up a position just a few steps back from the door. Far enough to react if someone lunged at him the moment the door opened. His omnitool flickered as he sent a command for the door to open. It slid open quietly and, after a moment of breathless waiting, he stepped forward.

He swept through into the new room, a cargo bay from the looks of it, and swiftly checked the right then spun to check the left, only to duck as an armoured figured lunged out of the dark with a sword in its hands. With a muffled curse he ducked the first strike, swayed out the way of the second, and brought his gun up before the third. It barked three times, the muzzle flashes nearly blinding through the low-light enhancement of his helmet. One caught the knee, the next the chest, and third flickered passed the man's helmet as he stumbled from the shot to the knee.

The third strike went wide and he lunged, the knuckles of his left hand lighting up from the voltage as he jammed his fist into the armoured gut of the man before him. The man twitched and spasmed before his armour locked up and the man fell backwards, stiff as a plank if significantly less flat. He placed a single shot into the face plate to be sure and, breathing heavily, moved on. There was no way that had gone unheard.

Moving swiftly he ducked through a gap between two stacks of boxes, climbed over a crate at the end of a dead end, and dropped quietly into the space behind it. There he could see his destination. The base of a tower that loomed above the boxes that filled the room. If he could just get up there his rifle would make this much simpler. Of course he wasn't the only veteran of this place here. Other had had the same idea in the past. He was sure at least one of them was here today.

Ducking from box to box for cover he cast a look up at the tower he quickly cycled his vision to thermals. Nothing, no heat was visible in the windows from this angle. Didn't mean there wasn't someone inside, just meant they weren't looking this way. He gave the area around a quick glance. No stray heat signatures, good. He broke into the closest thing to a run he could manage without making noise and sprinted for the door.

As he reached the door a horrified scream echoed through the darkness of the room, followed by the crash of tumbling boxes. He winced. There hadn't been an explosion, which meant there might be one of them here today. Great. Who was it? Vicar perhaps? Maybe Mendez. No, couldn't be either of them. Vicar had given up after last time and he hadn't seen Mendez in weeks. Couldn't be either of them, so who?

Pushing the thoughts aside he flicked on his omnitool, the holographic interface appearing with a soft orange glow about his left arm. He tapped a few buttons, designating the door he was hunkering down beside. A timer appeared on the display and he shut down the interface. Two minutes to open the door, twice as long as it had been last time he had to open it. Someone had obviously decided to beef up the internal security systems since then. Two minutes in the open, but he didn't have a choice. If he wanted in he had to be able to get through the door in five seconds, or it would close without him and he'd have to start again.

Switching back to thermals he scanned the distance for heat. He saw nothing as he waited, but three times more there were screams, shouts, and loud crashing noises in the distance along with a loud whooping noise. Like the noise a FNG would make when he got lucky and downed someone.

Finally, after an age that set his teeth itching, the door slid open and he stormed into the building and up the staircase that took up everything except the top floor. As he climbed, he heard a few more shouts and what was most definitely an explosion of some kind. All of it was closer to the tower than he'd prefer. Still, he took it slow and steady as he reached the half-way point of the staircase. Taking a moment he withdrew a small charge from his waist and attached it to the wall. Fiddling with it he activated the proximity sensor and kept heading up. That would give him enough warning if someone came up the stairs behind him.

Keeping an eye out for just such an ambush he kept climbing. He spotted nothing by the time he reached the top. He cracked the door and peered inside. Nothing. Keeping his gun ready he stepped inside, gun sweeping the observation room. He did two full rotations of it. Nothing but a couple of empty boxes. He shut the door, holstered his pistol, and drew the blocky shape of his rifle. It unfolded in his hands, the barrel and stock telescoping out to useable lengths.

A loud crash from his left, along with a few screams, drew his attention. He swept over to the window and raised his rifle so he could look through the scope. Swapping to thermals he swept it over the area below. From this perspective he could see, quite easily, two dozen men below. Most were lying on the ground, their bodies unmoving in a variety of… interesting positions. He was particularly amused by the man stuck upside down in a pile of crates with only his legs visible. All except for four who seemed to be moving in a group.

He sighed. There was always at least one group that seemed to forget that this wasn't a team group thing. Lining a shot up on the lead man he paused as the man started pointing and waving his hands at the other three. They scrambled for cover. Rolling the magnification of his scope back he quickly spotted the cause of their alarm. A man; in armour like the rest of them, though lacking any weapons; was just under a hundred feet further down the row of boxes.

The reason for their alarm became immediately apparent as the man, who was sprinting down the row at speeds to make olympic runners jealous, jumped as the four leveled weapons on him from their positions in cover. Bullets filled the space where he had been as he left the ground behind. He flew up two stories in height, kicked off the crates beside him, and rocketed down the length of the row fast enough that he almost lost the man.

The inhumanly fast man hit the ground and rolled under the strike of the first man. He came out of it in a low sweep that took that man's feet from under him before springing to the side in a shoulder tackled that slammed a second one into a nearby shipping container hard enough to crater the metal. That man slid to the ground clearly unconscious as the fighter stepped into the guard of the third man and grabbed his gun as he pulled the trigger. With casual ease he overpowered the man and directed the fire into the fourth man, who fell to the side stiffly as a dozen or more rounds pounded into him.

The fighter tossed the gun away over his shoulder. It flew off into the darkness, sailing over a three story stack of crates with ease. Then the fighter grabbed the third man around the waist and performed the first genuine suplex the marksman had ever seen. Right into the first man who was just trying to find his feet. Both of them fell to the side with that same characteristic stiffness.

Well, that explained who 'that' guy was. The marksman didn't recognize the armour, but it didn't matter. Either way, there would only be one person making it out. He sighted his gun on the man's head as he stood and brushed himself off, and pulled the trigger. There was a loud crack and the man's hand blurred, swatting at something in the air before turning his helmet towards the tower.

The marksman didn't even hesitate as he realized what had happened. The man had swatted the bullet from the sky. It sounded ridiculous, and he'd never seen someone do it before, but god damned if this place didn't attract the impossible. He pulled the trigger again.

The fighter was gone before the bullet got there. In a blur of impossible movement he leapt back, jumping two full stories, and kicked off the stack of crates. Crates went flying as the man sailed through the air towards the tower.

The marksman tried to bring his weapon around for a third shot. He managed to fire, but the shot went wide as the fighter sailed through the open observation windows. He came in hands first, like a diver. He rolled, pushed off with his hands, and kicked off the back wall by the door towards him with a hand pulled back for a punch.

The marksman spun to meet him, tasers in his left knuckles sparking to life as he swung at the impossible man. He missed, the man ducked under his blow and drove a punch into his stomach that doubled him over before he felt hands grabbing him by the waist and neck. His feet left the ground as the fighter spun him around and tossed him at the wall. His armour softened the blow as he plough into the metal wall enough so that he stayed fairly conscious despite the pain. Then he felt his armour lock up as he crashed to the ground.

"Damage Threshold reached. Engaging safties." A soft and artificial woman's voice whispered into his ear. "Competitor David Faheed, you have been defeated. Please remain calm while the round is finished. Medical treatment will be available upon completion of the match."

He groaned. Beaten again.

"Fuck my life." He cursed quietly to no one. He just couldn't catch a break.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Jenkins stood over the body of the twenty-fifth man he'd fought in the last half hour and rolled head around, eliciting a soft crack from his neck. "Ah," he sighed, "That's better. Thought that crick in my neck was never going to go away.

Then the lights turned on. He cursed loudly, blinking spots out of his eyes, as his night vision turned off automatically.

A loud ding-dong echoed through the cargo bay. "Twenty-nine competitors down. Last man standing is Private Richard L. Jenkins. This match is complete. Congratulations Competitor Jenkins." An artificial woman's voice said over the intercom, her voice echoing in the vast space. "Combat protocol disengaged. Disabling Armour overrides. Please stand by for medical assistance. You are now free to remove your helmets competitors."

Feeling his grin stretching across his face he reached up and unlatched his helmet. He'd done it. He'd won.

The man by the wall groaned and pushed himself up into a sitting position against the wall. The man's fingers scrambled at the latches of his own helmet for a second before it was removed to reveal a middle-aged man with balding black hair, scars crisscrossing one side of his face, and stubble decorating his chin.

"You're a kid." The man said with a sigh and laugh. "God I am getting too old for this shit."

Jenkins chuckled. "Hey, I'm not a kid. Private Richard L. Jenkins, at your service old man."

The man snorted. "Kid, if you're a day over twenty I'll eat my rifle." He said before shaking his head. "Hope you know what you're getting into with this."

Jenkins grinned. "Only thing I've ever wanted." He replied. This was it. This was his chance, to be like that guy. To be a Marine.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Well?" Instructor William Guy looked at his two companions, a redheaded woman in military fatigues with a captain's bars on her shoulder and an old grey-haired man in an Admiral's uniform.

"Kid has moves. Who taught him?" The woman asked.

William glanced down at his omnitool. "Claims he was self-taught." He said with a raised eyebrow.

"Bullshit. No one gets that good by themselves." She counted.

The old man snorted. "Someone had to get that good by themselves at some point." He said. "The boy is slow, is fighting style is flashy, and he's got enough bad habits to outfit a platoon of army grunts." He paused for a moment with a look of consideration. "But if he did get this far on his own then he's got talent. Bad habits can be broken and styles can be refined. I say yes. Let's see what the Alliance Marines can make of this brat."

The woman frowned, then nodded. "I agree. Lets see what we can make of him."

Instructor Guy nodded. "Then we're in agreement." He said, raising his omnitool he tapped it twice, sending both of them a request for signature. They both lit up their omnitools and sent back their signatures. With a flourish he added his own before sending the paperwork off. It would be interesting to see if this boy could keep up with the best.

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A/N: *Floofs tails for comfort* Hello~ This is an older idea that I've never bothered writing until now. Think Mass Effect if it was published as a manga by Shonen Jump. So meet Jenkins, our hard headed protagonist whose primary method of fighting is punching things and whose dream was to join the Alliance Marines who are a bit different here. *amused tail flick* Very different. Next stop, the Normandy~

Grounders10 · Jun 20, 2019

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ASOIAF/ Warcraft Crossover

The Tides of Kul Tiras

By: Grounders10

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Prologue: Jaina

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Jaina Proudmore coughed, hacking as she expelled water from her lungs. Her head hurt, well everything hurt. Her arms, legs, chest, everything. That was to be expected when you had just been shipwrecked.

The surf lapped at her feet, though they couldn't make her boots anymore waterlogged than they already were. Still the water was cold so she tried to get to her feet, her eyes casting about her for her staff. She could feel the enchanted tool in the back of her mind as she stumbled upright. All she saw was the broken wood of her ship and the bodies of men and women less fortunate than her that had washed up onto the shore.

Her eyes rested on one man who lay nearby wearing the uniform of the Kul Tiran Marines. His eyes gazed emptily upwards at the dark cloudy sky above. She closed his eyes and muttered a prayer she remembered from the tidesages. By the light, she hoped this wasn't the fate of the rest of the fleet.

"Lady Proudmore!" She looked up as a familiar voice called her name. A man, dressed in the greens and browns of her family's guard walked around a particularly large part of what had been her ship, hopefully, it was just her ship. In his hands was her staff. A few others followed behind him, each of them appearing relieved as they caught sight of her. At the back was a man wearing the raiment of a Tidesage.

She smiled as she recognized him. "Captain Belisar. You're alive." She said, picking her way through the bodies and the wreckage.

"Not alone thankfully." The large, broad-shouldered sailor replied as he reached her. He held out her staff. "Found something of yours milady. Thought you might want it back."

"Thank you, captain." She said, taking it. As her hands wrapped about the blue cloth wrapping that formed its grip, she ran a hand over the blue crystal mounted at its tip, checking for damage. There was no physical damage, but something felt off to her.

Something of that must have shown since the Captain asked, "Is something wrong milady?"

She glanced up at him before turning her attention back to the staff. "Possibly." She said as she tried drawing in mana from her surroundings to make the crystal glow. A simple feat and a good test for issues. It barely flickered and she blinked in surprise. She had done this a thousand times so why- She tried again, but this time the issue was clear. She hadn't done anything wrong, there just wasn't enough power to work the spell.

She scowled and made a gesture out towards the sea. A few anemic snowflakes fluttered off her hand to melt upon the wet sand rather than the large glacial bolt of ice that should have arced out over the mist-shrouded water. "There is no magic here." She said. She heard several small gasps from the other marines.

"And there is something wrong with the spirits here as well your grace." The Tidesage said.

She turned to him. "How so?" She asked.

"I cannot hear the Tidemother anymore. Dark whispers flow from the depths around us and the spirits of this island are… dormant. I can feel something there, but it is as if everything is sleeping, or dead." The man said with his own frown.

"Or hibernating." Jaina mused. If a place was weak in arcane power there was no telling what else it might be weak in. It was entirely possible that any spirits native to the island were simply waiting out what might be a natural phenomenon in the area.

"Perhaps." The Tidesage allowed.

Jaina sighed. "Well, it would appear my own skills will be less than useful for now. Captain, report." She ordered.

Belisar straightened. "Ma'am, survivors from the crash have washed up all across the beach. I've gathered a few here and assigned others to help with the recovery. Other than a brisk wind, the storm that wrecked us appears to have vanished as suddenly as it appeared." He said.

"Numbers?"

"Fifteen active including yourself so far Ma'am. However, we've recovered at least ten more injured that I know of. Operations are still ongoing." He replied.

She nodded. "Local terrain?" She asked, looking inland. The beach ended in a rocky cliff that went vertical for at least two hundred feet. Her view up and down the beach was blocked by wreckage from her ship.

"The beach runs along the bottom of the cliffs for another thousand feet before giving way to a slow slope running to the east inland." Belisar said, pointing passed the wrecks. "No trees, very little in the way of greenery actually." He dug into his pockets and pulled out an oddly flat and shiny black stone. "A lot of this on the ground around here, however. One of other survivors is a blacksmith by trade. He says it's iron ore."

She took the stone with a raised eyebrow. It was definitely iron ore. "Interesting. Any sign of inhabitants?" She asked.

Her Captain shook his head. "Nothing yet ma'am. Not that we've been looking per se. Barely pulled ourselves out of the surf like half-drowned bilge rats." He said.

"Keep an eye out. I'd rather we not get jumped by Murlocs or something worse. This is a new land gentlemen, keep both eyes open and looking." She ordered. At their affirmatives she continued, "Good, Captain I assume we haven't set up a headquarters yet?"

"Not yet ma'am."

"Then that's what you and I shall do. Everyone else, find and help the survivors." She ordered, "Dismissed." The men behind the captain saluted and immediately headed off into the maze of wreckage.

"I spotted a cave a little way back your grace." The Tidesage suggested, not leaving like the rest.

"Above the high water mark?" She asked. The last thing they'd want is to get flooded out of their shelter when the tide turned.

"I believe we are currently at high tide." He replied.

"Your name sage?" She asked.

"Brother Starswift your grace." He bowed.

"Well then Brother Starswift, please, lead the way." She gestured for the man to lead with her staff and she and Captain Belisar fell in behind him as he led the way through the wreckage.

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Four hours later Jaina was in the process of helping dry materials recovered from the wreckage by the fire. She could have done so more quickly with her own magic, after all Mages did have personal reserves, but such things were supposed to be tapped for spells that went beyond a mage's ability to channel external forces and doing so tended to lead to exhaustion. Given the questionable availability of being able to draw on external sources to replenish using it to cast spells would be a waste.

She set aside a freshly dried blanket onto a nearby crate and grabbed another waterlogged blanket to hang by the fire. As she did so she groaned softly and rubbed her right shoulder. Most of the pain from their rough arrival had been subsiding to a dull ache, but her shoulder felt like she must have pulled something since the pain had barely faded.

"Lady Proudmore." She turned from the small stack of dry, if not necessarily clean, blankets to face her Captain. The man had a severe expression, one she had learned during their time at sea meant he was trying to not let his actual emotions show.

"What's wrong?" She asked, grabbing her staff from where it leaned against the cave wall.

"Movement on the cliffs above." He said, "More towards the way inland as well. Perimeter watch says 'they look human'."

"That still leaves quite a few options Captain." Jaina replied, walking passed the row of injured men being tended to by Brother Starswift She joined the Captain in the entrance of the cave. At some point in the last hour a little drizzle had started with the rain further shrouding the seas from view.

"Well my men can spot a murloc fairly well, so that's one thing off the list." Belisar replied. He leaned out of the cave then stepped back inside. "'Course even if they are human doesn't mean they'll be friendly."

She nodded. "I'm unfortunately aware of that Captain." She said as she watched her sailors pick through the wreckage of what had turned out to be not just her ship, but two others as well. Brother Starswift had come from one of those other ships. As it was they had accounted for over half of the people who had been aboard the three vessels. Only a third of them were able to walk, and of those who couldn't at least half weren't likely to survive their injuries without the presence of

"Orders?" He asked.

"No hostile actions Captain. Keep a watch, but I'd rather not make an enemy if we can avoid it." She said.

He sighed. "As you wish Milady. I'll go and-"

"Danger comes from the cliffs." The two of them turned around to face Brother Starswift. His eyes were glowing a bright blue. Those around him were backing away. "The tendrils of the kraken descend from a castle of white stone, reaching to grasp the cracked anchor. Death and worse comes to all who… touch.. It…" The man wavered, the glow of his eyes fading and he fell backwards into the arms of a young woman dressed much like himself. He looked directly at Jaina.

"So… speaks the tides…" He gasped before going limp, panicking the acolyte who was holding him. After a moment she sighed as she found his pulse.

"He's alive your grace. I'll take care of him." The acolyte said before waving over a couple of nervous guards to help her move him.

Jaina scowled, then sighed herself. "Prophecy." She said with a grimace.

"Prophecy led us here." Belisar reminded her.

She nodded. "It did, but that doesn't mean I like it. Call back everyone, we're fortifying here." She ordered.

"It will be done." The man saluted then turned to start barking orders. As he did she considered Brother Starswifts words.

"I hope 'kraken' is less than literal." She muttered, casting a wary eye at the sea. They were in no shape to deal with a monster of that scale. All of their cannons were either at the bottom of the sea, or in need of recovery from what parts of the ships had washed up.

Then, in the faint distance, she could hear the sound of steel on steel and the shouts of men and women.

"Milady!"

"I can hear it." She replied to the Captain with more calm than she felt. "Accompany me." She ordered, gesturing to a few of the nearby guards before striding out of the cave, her staff crunching a cadence from where it contacted the gravel beach.

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Their hurried run across the gravel beach, during which they were joined by another thirty of her Kul Tiran marines and sailors, came to an abrupt end as men in a ragged mixture of heavy cloth armour, chainmail, and leather wielding axes, swords and shields came charging around the beached form of half a Kul Tiran brigantine.

The men took one look at them before one of them, the only one in the group in plate armour, pointed at them and shouted, "More of these bastards. Cut them down! The White Cliffs Stand!"

"The White Cliffs Stand!" Shouted the men as they charged in, their axes and swords held high.

Jaina came to a halt, letting her soldiers run forward to engage the enemy. Gathering some of her power she bent reality with arcane force. Above her water, pulled from the air and conjured from nothing, gathered and froze into a half dozen icicles as long as a man's leg before firing off into the oncoming charge. She staggered as the magic left her. The act was a large drain on reserves that would only refill at a glacial pace in this land.

Their charge had come to a near halt on seeing her magic, with some men attempting to scramble back from the attack. Curses and shouts of horror coming from many even before the icicles shot forward, skewering through men with enough force to continue out the otherside, striking more men behind them.

"Magic, she's a sorceress!" Shouted someone in the ranks as the entire charge disintegrated into panic. Or cried of horror and fear, including invocations to gods Jaina had never heard of.

Then the Kul Tiran charge, numbering half their numbers, washed over them. Panicking men were cut down and what had been a potential problem shattered instantly. Amongst those who went down was the man in plate armour, one of her icicles having lodged inside his chest.

As her troops swept aside the resistance and moved on through the gap in the wreckage she stopped by the man in the plate armour. Lying next to him was his shield, on which was emblazoned a white cliff with a castle atop on a blue background. The armour and sigil suggested that this man was important somehow.

She scowled, hopefully she hadn't just scuppered any chance of peace. She glanced at the bodies lying around. Not that there had been much of that to begin with if she was honest. Attacking shipwreck survivors said unpleasant things about the locals.

She moved on, following her men through the gap onto the wide open stretch of beach beyond. Most of the debris that was washing up around here was shattered planks and the occasional crate. Now it was full of men in armour swinging sharpened slabs of metal at each other. To the right the beach gave way to scraggly grass and dirt as the land rose up through several crags.

Jaina's eyes raked the field of battle. Including the force they had just dealt with the attackers appeared to have brought nearly three hundred men. With part of their force wiped out that brought them closer to two hundred and ten, still more active bodies than they had unfortunately.

The perimeter guard and scavenging team up this way had numbered only twenty-five, a not inconsiderable percentage of their available troops. All she could see of them from her position was a small knot of what couldn't be more than a half-dozen left.

"Push through!" She shouted, "Relieve the guard! For the Alliance!"

"FOR THE ALLIANCE!" Her men thundered as they crashed headlong into the flank of the enemy. A flank that was hastily trying to reassemble a line after being disrupted by the fleeing remnants of the force they had just broken.

What little formation they had assembled simply shattered as the Kul Tiran marines crashed into them, the battle instantly dissolving into dozens of individual duels. Duels that made it clear that her sailors, most of whom were part of her personal guard were men and women bloodied in the second war and skirmishes with the orks and later undead, had a clear advantage in both experience and equipment.

As she watched one of her men deflected an axe with his shield, parried a sword with his own, and gutted a third man with the backswing. The fatally injured man fell with a scream of pain that was drowned out by the din of battle. No, experience was certainly in their favour, but even this group outnumbered their present forces at least three to one. Surprise had offset the numbers a bit, but without further support her men would probably be dragged down by numbers.

Dragging more power from her reserves, she recreated her strike from before. Icicles flashed into existence above her before shooting off into the crowd, striking those furthest back. A strike like this was too imprecise to risk interfering with the duels already underway, however she could prevent the enemies reserves from lending aid.

Much like before the display of arcane power seemed to send a shockwave through the enemies ranks, with shouts of 'Sorcery' and prayers to gods. Who was the 'Drowned God'? It sounded ominous.

Unlike before the men did not break and run. Some did, but several men in heavy plate and mail shouted them back in line. She spotted the white cliffs on a blue background on several of them.

Marking them in her mind she drew forth yet more power, enough that her hands and eyes began to glow. An arrow slapped the ground near her and she quickly diverted some power to a barrier just before several more landed. One of them bouncing of the barrier above her chest.

She tisked, but ignored the archers. She needed to break this attack, and killing a couple of archers wouldn't do that. Turning her attention back to what were either officers or lords she launched forth the magic she had already called up as a wave of glittering arcane missiles which flew over the heads of the men locked in melee and came down upon the heavily armoured soldiers.

Two of them failed to react in time, and the bolts crumpled their armour and sent them to the ground, thoroughly dead. One man attempted to strike one of the bolts from the air with his sword, only for it to shatter on contact and a second bolt to cave in his chest. Several men who had shields raised them. Their wooden shields shattered, but other than a broken arm and a sore back from where they were thrown into the ground they would live. The last was an older man on a horse who spotted the incoming spell just in time. He managed to swing himself off his mount and interpose the beast between him and the spell just in time. The horse died, he however lived.

Which was unfortunate since she would bet that he was the one in charge. The white cliffs sigil was enamelled onto his chest plate and the same could be said of the shield on his left arm. He gazed across the battlefield at her for a long moment before turning to those around him and shouting orders. Despite not being able to hear them from so far away she could guess what they were as he and his men began to disengage from the battle. Duelists either killing or throwing back their opponents before turning and running up the hill.

"LET THEM GO! DO NOT CHASE!" She shouted as the raiders fled. There were a few mutterings from some of the men, but none of them gave chase. In moments what had been a battlefield simply became a beach full of dead men and women.

A minute or so later Captain Belisar came charging through the wreckage behind them with reinforcements. He stopped as he realized the battle was over. "So you managed to show them off then." He said as he walked over to her after setting his men to tend the wounded and establish a proper perimeter again.

Jaina smiled thinly. "I'd love to know why they decided to attack." She said, "This entire thing was pointless."

The captain shrugged. "Hard to say. Could be any number of reasons. Could just be opportunists." He said.

"Could be." She sighed. By the light she hoped it wasn't something like that. Opportunists like this made bad neighbours.

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It was hours later, well after darkness had fallen, when Jaina finally had a chance to rest. Their attackers hadn't come again, however the possibility had led to them pulling back their perimeter to the half-beached brigantine, which had been reinforced with parts from a Kul Tiran Galleon. That, and taking care of the wounded, had taken the efforts of everyone still able to stand.

So it was that Jaina, utterly exhausted, finally sat down beside a fire at the edge of the cave they had taken over. The cave itself had been commandeered as a triage area and hospital. Many of the wounded were having to make do with minimal aid. Somehow, through whatever twisted luck they had, no priests of the light or paladins had either been on board their vessels or survived wreck. Not that she would expect a paladin to be able to swim in their heavy armour.

"Finally taking a moment to rest Lady Proudmoore?" She glanced up as Captain Belisar spoke from where he was tending a fish that was being cooked on the fire.

"Walls are up, guards are set, injured are in the hands of people more knowledgeable in that area than I am." She sighed.

The Captain prodded one of the fish with a knife and shook his head. "Well, at this point there isn't much we can do but wait for the morning."

She nodded. "I just wish there was something more I could do for the injured. Many of them aren't going to make it through the night. Quite a few of them have already died." She spared a glance to the spot down the beach were the bodies were being placed along the base of the cliff while graves were being dug. Night might have fallen, but there were still a few men working on the graves.

"We've done what we can." Belisar said, "Now all we can do is wait." He poked the fish with his knife again and nodded this time. "Fish looks done. Wish some of the spices had survived the wreck."

"There is a lot that we could have used Captain. Spices are quite a ways down that list." Jaina replied with some amusement.

He shrugged. "It's the small things in life you miss most."

She snorted. "And cliches rarely help." She replied.

The sailor chuckled and pulled the fish off the fire. As he went to bite in a shout was heard from closer to the water.

"SHIP HO!"

Jaina was on her feet immediately while the captain groaned before taking a bite of his fish and standing up. "I swear, things never happen at a good time." He muttered before taking another bite. He frowned and looked at the fish.

"Something wrong?" She asked as she looked out to see. A couple of hours earlier the mist had finally disappeared along with the rain. Well out to sea, she could just barely make out a few golden-red lights. She pulled her telescope from a pouch and raised it for a closer look.

"Fish is a bit bland." The Captain smacked his lips. "Bit oily as well. Eh, I've had worse. So, is there a ship out there?"

"Looks like it." She peered into the distance. The moonlight was weak that night, but she could make out a silhouette all the same. It was a shape she was well familiar with, and which brought a great deal of happiness to see. "Judging by the shape of the hull and the rigging it's an Elven Destroyer. Captain, fetch the flares. We're signalling for aid." She ordered.

"Yes ma'am." Belisar said, saluting with the partly eaten fish before running into the cave. He came out a few moments later brandishing one of their few recovered flare guns, a heavy wood and steel contraption of dwarvish origin. He aimed it high and fired. A brilliant red light bathed the beaches as it soared out over the water.

It was a breathless couple minutes while they waited for a response. Finally a brilliant purple flare of arcane light shot up from the vessel. Jaina smiled as she saw most of the sails being furled as the ship began to come about.

All around her the men on the beach cheered. Rescue was on its way.

"Alright!" She shouted, collapsing her telescope. "Enough! Captain, get the men organized. Prepare to receive guests."

"Yrs," The good Captain swallowed his mouthful of fish, "Yes Ma'am. ALRIGHT YOU SCUM. WE'VE GOT POINTY-EARED COMPANY COMING. GET YOUR ASSES SORTED AND THIS BEACH CLEARED FOR ARRIVALS!"

Men scrambled in every direction. As the elven vessel pulled closer large pieces of wreckage along the waterline was dragged aside by teams of sailors and marines to clear room for the dinghy's that would be making the journey from the elven destroyer to the island. It was a half hour before the elven destroyer dropped anchor and another ten minutes before three small rowboats were making their way from the ship towards them.

By the time they made it to the shore Jaina was waiting for them with Captain Belisar. And everyone else not on guard duty standing behind them. She would have preferred to have Brother Starswift along as well, but he was still resting from his sudden 'vision' or whatever it had been. As it was she smiled and stepped forward as the boats were run aground and their occupants hopped out into the shallow waters. Amongst them were several elves in the robes of the priesthood of the Church of the Light.

From the lead boat a handsome male elf leapt into the surf. He was dressed in the flowing robes of a trained Magister. His eyes glowed the soft blue most common to his people. "Lady Proudmoore! The fleet has been searching for you." He said.

"You've seen the fleet?" She asked.

"That I have. A day's sail northwest. We've been regrouping around a small atoll." He said before bowing to her. "Pardon my manners. I am Vythas Sunrider. What aid might my men and I be able to offer you Lady Proudmoore?"

"A lift would be welcome," She paused to glance out to the destroyer sitting off the coast. "However, I don't believe your vessel has enough room for all of us."

Vythas glanced about the beach. "It would be a tight fit with just the men I can see here. I assume there are more?" He asked.

"We number under five hundred, most here had some form of injury. Many won't make the night without aid." Jaina replied.

"My priests can hopefully do something about that." He turned to an older elf in priest's robes. "Halien, please take your people and see to the injured."

The older elf bowed. "As you wish my lord." He said.

"Captain, show them the way." Jaina ordered her Belisar.

"As you wish. They're this way." The Captain said, waving to the priests. Turning to lead them through the crowd he shouted to the gathered men, "OUT OF THE WAY! MOVE ASIDE! PRIESTS COMING THROUGH."

Jaina winced at the volume and saw Vythas do the same. "That man has a strong voice." The High Elf commented as he rubbed one of his ears. Letting his hand drop he glanced around again. "My priests should be able to save more than a few lives tonight. Unlike with arcane magic they seem to still have their full powers."

"The light is said to be everywhere." Jaina remarked.

"That it is. If only arcane magic was as easy to come across." The High Elf sighed. "Now, a lift. I assume you wish to return to the fleet?"

"The sooner we get reorganized the better." Jaina replied, looking the elf in the eye. "Now come with me and tell me everything you know about our situation." She ordered. The elf nodded and she turned to lead him back towards the cave. She had a feeling this would take quite a while.

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The afternoon sunlight was bright the next day as Elven Destroyer Vengeance of Stars rounded the cliffs of a small island and the atoll came into view. The atoll was a thin stretch of land just barely keeping itself above the black waters of the sea. A few trees could be seen on it, but most of it was just beach. Around it, however, was a far more impressive sight.

Hundreds of vessels; from small pudgy caravels to sleek Elven destroyers, from the grand wooden galleons of Kul Tiras to the small almost unspottable gnomish submarines; floated about the atoll. Swarms of rowboats filled the seas about them, transferring men and supplies between ships while griffons and dragonhawks filled the sky above, their riders taking an opportunity to stretch their mount's wings now that the storms were gone.

"A truly impressive sight. Wouldn't you agree Lady Proumoore?" Vythas asked from where he leaned against the railing of the upper deck.

Jaina nodded, lowering her telescope. "It is. I still can't believe so many people came." She said, sighing. "Take us in."

"Yes your grace. Helmsman, take us in." Vythas said to the elf on the tiller.

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A/N: May I introduce my idea for a Warcraft/ASOIAF crossover. The Exodus fleet under Jaina from Warcraft 3 finds itself in the Iron Islands of Westeros in 285 AC.

Grounders10 · Jul 18, 2019

I knew something was wrong before I even opened my eyes. The smell of smoke and blood was enough to make me gag. "Ugh." I groaned, my throat felt like I had tried to gargle sandpaper. My head was pounding as I slowly opened my eyes. The headache pulsed in time to the crashing of steel on steel in the distance. On top of that not only did my entire body feel like I'd gone three rounds with a championship boxer, but there was a heavy pressure on my chest that almost suffocating.

"What is, ugh." I coughed and blinked as the world slowly swam into focus. When it did finally focus enough for me to take a look around it became immediately obvious that this was not my room where I had laid down to sleep. I wasn't on a bed, and my ceiling was a sensible modern flat white in good condition, not the cracked crumbling eighteenth century fresco I was staring up at through a haze of smoke.

"What happened?" I mumbled, my throat too rough to make much noise. Even without the volume I could tell something was off about my voice. Even with the roughness it sounded strange. Even as my mind wandered off on why my voice sounded strange I realized why I felt like I was being suffocated. There was a heavy wooden beam laying across me. The sort of thing used in the rafters of manors or castles. Big heavy, probably made of oak. Not that I was much of an expert on wood. I'd never needed to learn that particular bit of knowledge before, and even if I had I doubt knowing what type of wood it was made from would help me get it off me.

Head ringing, and my thoughts jumbled to hell and back, I fumbled at the beam and gave it a push. To my surprise it moved, shifting upward enough that my hands came into view for the first time since I woke up. They were gloved in elbow length white silk gloves that looked like they had seen much better days, being rather ripped and torn in places. I managed to keep my mind on track long enough to heave the beam off myself and roll over.

"Oh, whoooow…" I mumbled as the world span. I probably had a concussion or something, again not an experience I'd ever had before. Was this what it was like being drunk? Can't say I was enjoying the experience.

It took a couple tries, but I managed to push myself up off the floor into a sitting pose. At which point I discovered a second oddity to my clothes. I was wearing a dress. Not a sensible sundress, or maybe something fancier for say a dinner at a fancy restaurant. I was wearing a motherfucking pink, frilly, ball-gown out of some either a fairy tale, or a very liberal reenactment of some period several centuries ago. I couldn't say which period, I'm not a historian and I had enough issues just remaining upright-ish.

The ball-gown looked, much like the gloves, like it had seen much nicer days. Not that I'd have expected much since I was pinned under a heavy wooden beam. Disasters, or judging by the sound of screaming, war cries, and steel on steel in the distance a wars, are not kind on clothing. Looking around the room I saw the same sense of style. Pink on the walls, pink on the large bed that had been crushed under debris. The divan against the wall by the door and even the upholstery on the stool by the Vanity.

"Ooh." I said as I spotted the vanity. The Vanity had a mirror. It had several large cracks running through it, but it looked intact enough for my needs.

I tried to stand, only to wobble and fall back to the ground as the world swayed dangerously. My stomach flip-flopped as I sat back down. "Oh god." I mumbled, rubbing my head with one hand. Walking was going to be an issue it seemed.

I sat there for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of battle outside the room. Whatever was going on outside had, if anything, gotten worse, as demonstrated when a loud explosion rattled the building. Bits of the ceiling flaked away, plaster crashing to the floor around me to reveal the wooden behind. I winced at the noise.

"Ow." I muttered before carefully trying to stand again. The world wobbled and my center of balance felt wrong, but I was vertical. Then I took a step and nearly face planted into the floor again. I'd step on a bit of the dress which had partly torn loose. Muttering angrily, I lifted the skirt with one hand and, using the other for balance, walked over to the vanity.

I almost collapsed onto the seat as I sat down. My balance was completely shot. My limbs felt too long, my steps felt too light, everything was just wrong. Not bad wrong necessarily. I'm wasn't going to complain about the weight I had seemingly lost to thin air, but this wasn't the body I had gone to sleep in. One look into the mirror confirmed that guess.

Gazing back at me from the cracked and broken mirror was the face of Princess Peach Toadstool.

A/N: A very rough bit of a first chapter for a story that does not yet have a name. Enjoy the wacky ideas I get at 3:00am while watching Game Theory.

Grounders10 · Jul 21, 2019

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A Mario/Legend of Zelda SI Fanfic

Super Peach Sisters

By: Grounders10

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1. A Taste of Peach

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I knew something was wrong before I even opened my eyes. The smell of smoke and blood was enough to make me gag. "Ugh." I groaned, my throat felt like I had tried to gargle sandpaper. My head was pounding as I slowly opened my eyes. The headache pulsed in time to the crashing of steel on steel in the distance. On top of that not only did my entire body feel like I'd gone three rounds with a championship boxer, but there was a heavy pressure on my chest that almost suffocating.

"What is, ugh." I coughed and blinked as the world slowly swam into focus. When it did finally focus enough for me to take a look around it became immediately obvious that this was not my room where I had laid down to sleep. I wasn't on a bed, and my ceiling was a sensible modern flat white in good condition, not the cracked crumbling eighteenth century fresco I was staring up at through a haze of smoke.

"What happened?" I mumbled, my throat too rough to make much noise. Even without the volume I could tell something was off about my voice. Even with the roughness it sounded strange. Even as my mind wandered off on why my voice sounded strange I realized why I felt like I was being suffocated. There was a heavy wooden beam laying across me. The sort of thing used in the rafters of manors or castles. Big heavy, probably made of oak. Not that I was much of an expert on wood. I'd never needed to learn that particular bit of knowledge before, and even if I had I doubt knowing what type of wood it was made from would help me get it off me.

Head ringing, and my thoughts jumbled to hell and back, I fumbled at the beam and gave it a push. To my surprise it moved, shifting upward enough that my hands came into view for the first time since I woke up. They were gloved in elbow length white silk gloves that looked like they had seen much better days, being rather ripped and torn in places. I managed to keep my mind on track long enough to heave the beam off myself and roll over.

"Oh, whoooow…" I mumbled as the world span. I probably had a concussion or something, again not an experience I'd ever had before. Was this what it was like being drunk? Can't say I was enjoying the experience.

It took a couple tries, but I managed to push myself up off the floor into a sitting pose. At which point I discovered a second oddity to my clothes. I was wearing a dress. Not a sensible sundress, or maybe something fancier for say a dinner at a fancy restaurant. I was wearing a motherfucking pink, frilly, ball-gown out of either a fairy tale, or a very liberal reenactment of some period several centuries ago. I couldn't say which period, I'm not a historian and I had enough issues just remaining upright-ish.

The ball-gown looked, much like the gloves, like it had seen much nicer days. Not that I'd have expected much since I was pinned under a heavy wooden beam. Disasters, or judging by the sound of screaming, war cries, and steel on steel in the distance wars, are not kind on clothing. Looking around the room I saw the same sense of style. Pink on the walls, pink on the large bed that had been crushed under debris. The divan against the wall by the door and even the upholstery on the stool by the Vanity.

"Ooh." I said as I spotted the vanity. The Vanity had a mirror. It had several large cracks running through it, but it looked intact enough for my needs.

I tried to stand, only to wobble and fall back to the ground as the world swayed dangerously. My stomach flip-flopped as I sat back down. "Oh god." I mumbled, rubbing my head with one hand. Walking was going to be an issue it seemed.

I sat there for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of battle outside the room. Whatever was going on outside had, if anything, gotten worse, as demonstrated when a loud explosion rattled the building. Bits of the ceiling flaked away, plaster crashing to the floor around me to reveal the wooden backing. I winced at the noise.

"Ow." I muttered before carefully trying to stand again. The world wobbled and my center of balance felt wrong, but I was vertical. Then I took a step and nearly face planted into the floor again. I'd step on a bit of the dress which had partly torn loose. Muttering angrily, I lifted the skirt with one hand and, using the other for balance, walked over to the vanity.

I almost collapsed onto the seat as I sat down. My balance was completely shot. My limbs felt too long, my steps felt too light, everything was just wrong. Not bad wrong necessarily. I'm wasn't going to complain about the weight I had seemingly lost to thin air, but this wasn't the body I had gone to sleep in. One look into the mirror confirmed that guess.

Gazing back at me from the cracked and broken mirror was the face of Princess Peach Toadstool.

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I blinked stupidly and watched as the cute princess in the mirror blinked obliviously back at me. I turned my head to the side, and so did she. I turned the other way. Yep, my reflection followed me.

"Huh." I mumbled, finally realizing what was different about my voice. It was higher than my own. Not by a terrible amount. I was hardly squeaking like mickey mouse, but it was definitely a higher pitch than I was used to. For a moment I considered whether this was a strange dream, I'd had weirder ones after all and the less said about that time dreaming about being a sailor senshi the better, but I was already in a fair bit of pain right now so logic suggested that this wasn't a dream.

This situation was strange enough to make my head spin. Or maybe that was the concussion. Hard to tell really. I frowned at my reflection. Soot streaked my face and only my left ear had the usual sapphire blue orb hanging from it. My right… I wince as I touched my right earlobe. It looked like whatever had been in it had been forcibly torn out, leaving a streak of blood all the way down across my shoulder. Who knew where that earing was now.

A loud rumble shook the building, rattling more plaster loose and raising alarming noises from the floor joists. I needed to leave, preferably before more important sections of the ceiling collapsed on me. I winced at a scream from somewhere outside the room. Not that out there was necessarily any safer… Though if this was Peach's Castle then it did have secret passages out didn't it?

I stood shakily, the world swaying much more than I'd like, and started picking my way around the room towards the door using the furniture to help balance me. It took me several minutes and another large explosion that rattled the building and nearly sent be to the floor, but I made it. I even felt fairly stable by the time I reached it. Progress!

The doorknob wasn't warm to the touch, so that was a good sign. I cracked open the door and peered out carefully into the hall. Slumped right beside the door was a small body clad in armour. The mushroom bulb atop their head made it clear I was looking at a Toad, one of the strange races that inhabited the Mushroom kingdom. It was the streaks of blood running from his neck that told me he was probably dead.

I managed to not gag at the smell. As I pushed the door open further. It turned out the hallway was less hallway and more entrance hall with most of the room being a walkway around a staircase that descended to lower floors. Four doors, all open, at the corners of the room led to hallways deeper into the floor. This was probably Peach's personal suite.

The hallway was empty except for more bodies. Toads in armour and capes of blue or red lay scattered across the ground. The smell didn't get worse, but the sight certainly made me wonder if it had. I covered my mouth and tried not to breath as much, an attempt I stopped as the world started spinning again.

Once I managed to get the world to stop going around and around I carefully walked across the hall to the banister. I glanced left and right as I crossed the hallway. Both ways were empty except for a few more bodies. The fighting in this area had seemingly stopped, not too surprising. I'd woken up under a pile of wood and all of Peach's… my protectors seemed to be dead.

Were they mine, or was there another Peach somewhere else in this castle?

I frowned and stumbled, catching myself on the banister as I nearly face planted. God, just how bad would my balance be if I was wearing heels like Princess Peach normally did. I wasn't wearing anything on my feet right now. I probably should have taken a moment to find something in her closet. What if I stepped on something sharp, or whacked my foot into something hard enough to break a nail?

I snickered and swayed as I leaned on the banister. I was in another world, in another body, suffering from some form of brain trauma, and I was worried about breaking a nail? I really was concussed if that was the first thing to jump to mind. My laughter died as I pulled myself upright and I laid eyes on another body. Right, castle under siege. Probably not the best place to be laughing myself sick.

Especially when the body I was in was probably on the hit list of whoever laid siege.

I steadied myself on the banister and walked around the hall. The front of the room had large windows. Most were regular glass but the one in the center was a twelve foot tall picture of Princess Peach. I had to wonder at the ego of someone who regularly installed giant stained glass pictures of themselves in their own residence.

It was quite well done though.

I reached the end of the banister as another boom shook the castle. This time I could clearly identify where it came from as a series of small booms rang out. It came from in front of the castle. Swallowing nervously I stepped away from the railing and crossed the hallway, glancing left and right as I did. The halls were empty except for more bodies.

I shivered as I crossed, my steps more sure than they had been earlier. How had so many guards seemingly died at their posts without anyone noticing? Every guard was slumped on the ground at their posts, their throats seemingly slashed without anyone noticing. Something impossibly sneaky had been through here and the thought that it could be lurking about still was terrifying.

The windows on either side of the large stained glass window weren't actually windows. They were glass doors that led out onto a balcony. The door I was at was latched shut from the inside, and I'd bet the other one was as well. Unless the intruders had locked the doors behind them, this wasn't how they got in.

I unlatched the door and pushed it open in time for another explosion to rock the yard. Wind whipped by me, catching the door and slamming it hard. I heard a pane of glass break from the force. I paid it little mind as my mind caught up with the sight before me.

In the yard below were two figures. Well actually there were dozens, hundreds perhaps, but only two stood out. The first drew my eye instantly, clad as he was in his iconic blue overalls and red hat. His right hand held a large mallet that he was wielding with skill against the swarm of creatures around him. He bounced and spun, leaping from hedge, to fountain, to the heads of his enemies and back again never stopping long enough for his opponent to get a clear shot without risking his own minions.

Not that his opponent seemed to mind. Blasts of force and wind crashed through the ranks of those caught up in their duel. Though that got close to the leaping plumber were smashed aside with a swipe of the mallet, the explosive projectiles inexplicably not exploding on contact as they ricocheted off into the crowd.

I recognized Mario immediately, how couldn't I? He was one of the most iconic characters in video game history. While his opponent couldn't say the same I still recognized him, though it took a moment. When I did I had to boggle.

I recognized the ashen blue skin, lilac hair, and violet robes of the short child-sized figure floating through the air above the courtyard, ducking and weaving between the leaps of Mario.

"Vaati?" I muttered, stepping forward to the railing for a better look. As they weaved through another exchange of blows I confirmed it. That was Vaati, the Wind Sorcerer from the Legend of Zelda series.

Why was he here? I looked down at the swirling mass of monsters that clashed against a line of Toads in armour before the doors beneath me. And monsters they were. Moblins, Bokoblins, and worse swarmed everywhere I looked. Though they weren't the only ones. Here and there I could see the bipedal turtle-like forms of Koopa's in armour shouting orders to the mobs around them. It was positively surreal and for a moment the world started swimming again.

Shaking my head I stepped back as another round of strikes buffeted me with waves of air and force. I needed to get back inside. I was in no condition to be out here while two titans clashed. All it would take is one errant deflection by Mario and I'd be smeared across the building.

Stumbling a bit I ducked back through the door, which had fortunately not latched itself when it slammed shut. Feeling rather tired after witnessing something I had considered, rightfully, impossible what felt like mere hours beforehand I found a divan against the wall a few feet down the hallway and sat down. I cradled my head in my hands, massaging the area just above my eyebrows.

I groaned. This was too much. I was, apparently, Princess Peach. Mario was having a duel with Vaati of all people, and there was a swarm of monsters besieging the castle. It was… was…

I sighed and leaned back against the wall, closing my eyes and resting my head against the stonework. "What is going on?" I asked the empty hallway.

I didn't get an answer. At least, not one I wanted. Fifteen feet to my left, down the hallway, a door was knocked off its hinges as two toads crashed through it, wrestling with each other. The first was clad in steel plate, his large head covered by a helmet the size of an oversized cooking wok. A blue cape like those of the murdered guards was around his shoulders. The other was wearing a white and red jumpsuit with a white mask. Off his left shoulder was a plain red half-cape.

They crashed into the hallway, the red-clad toad pinned beneath the heavier one in blue as they struggled.

I stood up, the world tipping worryingly as I did so before stabilizing as I found my balance again. The act made enough noise to draw the attention of the blue-clad toad to me. His eyes widened.

"Princess-" His moment of distraction was all the red one needed as it got it's feet under the blue one and managed to flip the larger more heavily armoured toad off of him and straight through one of the windows.

I couldn't even tell if he screamed over the sounds of the battle below.

The red toad flipped up onto its feet before turning to stare at me.

I stared back, or more accurately I stared at its mask. Painted on the clean white surface was a bright red symbol. An upside-down eye with a tear mark falling upward. I knew that mark.

I swallowed and reflexively stepped backwards. My feet, as uncoordinated as ever, got tangled and I fell back hard, crashing to the floor with a shout of surprise. Even as I was falling the Toad was moving, running towards me in a full sprint, a blade drawn from somewhere inside its clothing brandished in one hand. It leapt, soaring across the last few meters as I flinched and shut my eyes.

Then the nearest window exploded as two more Toads entered the hallway from the outside of the castle. One let go of the rope they had been clinging to and rolled across the ground to crash into the wall. The other released at the perfect moment to catch the red Toad in mid-air, slamming it into the wall with enough force I could hear its bones break.

I blinked as I realized I wasn't dead, or dying. Possibly again depending on what led to this.

The Toad who rolled into the wall staggered to her feet, clutching her pink and white spotted head. Her 'hairstyle' was a bit odd, with smaller pink and white orbs hanging from the back of her head, giving the appearance of pigtails.

"Ooh, that hurt. Let's not do that again." She said shaking her head to clear it before laying eyes on me. She immediately brightened. "Princess, you're alright!" She cheered, bouncing on the spot with all the enthusiasm of a puppy greeting it's owner after a long day.

She turned to the other Toad, "See! I said she'd be fine!"

The other toad sighed and shrugged. I stared at him. His head was green with white spots, and he was wearing a green vest over brown pants. On his back was a shield and he had a sheath at his side. The sword that it probably belonged to was in his left hand as he took the head off the red-clad assassin. The head rolled a few feet towards me. I shuffled backwards awkwardly as it came to rest staring at me.

"Ugh, do you have to do that now? You're scaring the Princess!" The pink one protested and the green one sighed, wiping his sword off on the shirt of the dead Toad. The pink one turned to me. "I'm really sorry for the Cadet's lack of manners. Or speech. Or, well politeness. I'm really glad you're okay Princess… Princess?"

I wasn't listening as I stared at the separated head of the Toad. The separated head with the marked mask. A mask marked with the symbol of the Yiga Clan.

What had I gotten myself into?

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"Princess? Princess?" A hand shook my shoulder and I started looking up to the pink headed Toad. She stared at me with an expression of concern. Right, they thought I was Princess Peach… and maybe I was.

"Princess are you okay?" She asked.

"I-" I swallowed and winced as my headache chose that moment to grow. "My head hurts." I said, saying the first thing that came to my mind. "I- Who are you? Everything before I woke up under a beam is hazy." Or missing. How exactly had I gotten from my nice warm Vancouver bed to inside the body of Princess Peach?

She blinked at me, her jaw dropping open before gasping loudly and jumping back. "Oh stars. Don't tell me you lost your memory Princess." She babbled, wringing her hands and looking about in a panic.

"I won't then?" I offered slowly, watching the hyperactive Toad bounce from foot to foot.

"Oh no, what do I do now? Toadsworth is going to be so mad. We didn't get here fast enough Cadet." She wailed, far more dramatically than I really thought was warranted. Though… I did just tell her that their Princess had no idea who she was… and she did seem a bit familiar… Maybe from some promotional artwork for one of the new games? Hrm…

I spared a glance to the 'Cadet'. He was peering around the corner, frowning. "Does she do this often?" I asked him. He shrugged helplessly. She called him 'Cadet' so he had probably only just met her. If so he would know as little about her as I did.

"Oh, what to do, what to do. Ooooh." The Toad started chewing on the corner of her vest as her eyes darted about.

"How about introducing yourself?" I asked, trying to stand. I wobbled as my headache spiked again and almost fell. The cadet, however, was there to steady me. "Thank you." I smiled at him. He nodded back, a small blush on his cheeks as he stepped back to his self-assigned post.

"I- oh yes." The Toad nodded before snapping into a salute. "Explorer Toadette, here to escort you to safety Princess Peach."

"Well after that entrance I'm sure I'm in good hands." I said with a smile I really didn't feel. The cadet had clearly been the one taking the lead there, and the one to actually save me, but it seemed to do the trick as the nervous girl puffed up and smiled at me. Then she blinked and cursed quietly enough that I couldn't hear her over the battle outside.

"We need to get moving now. We were in the tower above when it got overrun by these strange imp things. No idea what they are, but they're probably looking for a way inside. I really don't want to be here when they do." Toadette said, glancing around.

"Where are we going?" I asked, glancing around myself. I'd just seen Vaati, and that was a Yiga Clan Toad of all things so… Imps, imps… hrm… The only Zelda monster I could think of that matched that description were those things from the Wind Waker. I shivered nervously. Despite being as dangerous as a puppy most of the time they always managed to creep me out as a kid.

"Uum... Let's see…" Toadette looked about the hallway before pointing further down the hall. "That way." She pointed down the hall behind her. "There's a passage that leads down to the first floor. Toadsworth is waiting for us by the entrance to one of the tunnels out."

"And what floor are we on?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"Third floor Princess." Toadette said cheerfully.

Wonderful. I was not looking forward to walking down two flights of stairs without shoes in a rather tattered dress. I sighed. "Lead the way." I said.

"This way-"

A soft cough from the cadet interrupted her. We both turned to him, though my look was more curious than annoyed like Toadette's. "Clothes." He said, speaking properly for the first time. He nodded at my dress.

"We're in a hurry Cadet." Toadette frowned.

"There's a prepared bag in her closet." He said simply.

"There is?" I asked. He nodded. Huh, well not too surprising I guess. Peach did get kidnapped often enough that there had to be preparations for these sorts of things. "Do we have time?" I wondered.

Toadette looked me up and down. "Princess, are you even wearing shoes?" She asked.

I shook my head and winced. The world swayed again. "No?" I replied.

She sighed. "Let's get you changed then. Cadet, lead the way." She said.

The other Toad nodded, peaked around the corner, and waved for us to follow him. I followed, hugging the wall for extra stability. We crossed the hall in silence, even Toadette keeping quiet in favour of keeping an eye out for enemies. Nothing presented itself by the time we reached Peach's room.

"Keep watch." Toadette ordered the cadet as she pushed the door open and winced dramatically at the ruined state of the room. "Oh, it didn't look like this this morning." She said as she picked her way across the wreckage to the partially blocked closet door. She looked back at where I was standing by the closed door. "Are you coming Princess?"

I glanced down at the rubble strewn floor. "I'm fine where I am thanks." I said after a moment of not-consideration. I was having a hard enough time staying vertical on clear carpet. Just looking at the room again was enough to make me wonder how I'd ever gotten out in the first place.

She shrugged and disappeared into the closet. A cry of disgust floated back from the interior. "How did it get so dirty in here? Eurgh." Dramatic gagging followed and I indulged the urge to roll my eyes. I really had to wonder about her priorities.

A few minutes of rummaging ended with a cry of triumph and Toadette coming out of the closet wearing a backpack almost at big as she was. It was quite clearly full. More importantly, however, was what she had in her hands. Fresh clothing and a pair of flats. Not sneakers unfortunately. With my luck those got buried in rubble… Or Toadette had ideas about how a Princess should dress.

Still I didn't exactly have proof of that so I smiled at her and started picking my way around the room to the only seat not broken or partly buried, the vanity's stool. "Thank you Toadette." I said, taking the pile. Checking what she brought out I was somewhat less happy to realize it was another dress, though several layers less voluminous than the one I was currently wearing.

Getting out of the dress I was wearing took longer than getting dressed again. Still, it only took a couple minutes before I was finally slipping into the flats.

"Ready Princess?" Toadette asked eagerly.

"Ready enough." I sighed as the building rumbled from another exchange between Vaati and Mario. That battle had to be reaching it's finale soon. They'd been going since before I woke up, and that had been more than ten minutes ago at least. "Lead the way."

The pink Toad opened the door and took a peek outside. "All clear Princess." She said and I followed her out, only to boggle at the now very full hallway. Well, it depended on your definition of full. The only living people were the Cadet, myself, and Toadette. There were, however, at least… Ten, no… Twenty-five very dead bodies scattered about the door.

The Cadet looked up at me from where he was cleaning his sword off on the body of a Yiga Clan Toad and saluted with the blade. "Princess." He nodded.

"Cadet, what happened?" I asked faintly, wondering exactly how soundproof the walls here were exactly. I hadn't heard a thing of this apparent melee while I was getting changed.

He shrugged. "I kept watch." He said, apparently sincerely.

I glanced down at the pile of bodies. I wasn't going to argue about that. "Toadette." I said, "Please-" Every single window exploded into a shower of glass as an explosion far more powerful than anything before it slammed into the building.

My ears were ringing as I clambered to my feet after being slammed into the door. By some small miracle I had avoided bashing my head against anything, but my entire body felt like someone had laid into me. Neither Toadette or the cadet looked any better, both of them stumbling back to their feet.

"What was that?" Toadette shouted as the ringing started to die down. The cadet looked at her blankly as he rubbed the side of his head.

What had that been indeed? I had a suspicion, one that was very worrying. Once I found my feet properly I walked as fast as I dared back across the room. A glance behind me showed that Toadette and the cadet were following in my wake. Broken glass cracked under my shoes as I half-walked, half-stumbled to the window. The cause of the explosion was immediately obvious upon reaching it.

Down in the courtyard was a massive crater where there had once been a mob of monsters. Well, actually there still was a mob of monsters. Visible in the light of the torches held by many of the creatures I could see hundreds more beyond the crater. In the center, crouching as he gasped for breath, was Vaati.

"No, no no." I heard Toadette repeat as I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach.

Lying on his back, clothing tattered with his hat missing, was Mario.

"No." I whispered in disbelief as Vaati stood up, brushing off his robes as he withdrew a gem from his pocket. Holding it out before him the wind kicked up again and a dark light began to glow from within the crystal. Threads of darkness spun out from it, reaching out to wrap around Mario.

Part of me wanted to shout, to scream at what I was witnessing but… If I did Vaati would hear me, and that would be that. So I held my tongue as I watched, horrified, as the dark threads picked up Mario and dragged him into the tiny crystal with them. It flashed brightly before settling into a deep red glow.

"No, Mario…" Toadette whispered. I spared a glance to my side and saw tears running down her face. I patted her on the shoulder awkwardly as she sniffled before looking back out at the courtyard.

Vaati had turned back to face the monsters, holding aloft the crystal. A victorious roar went up from his army and he turned back to the castle before bringing his hand down, the gem containing Mario held pointing at the Castle like a scepter.

Screeching like the damned his army charged forwards once more.

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A/N: Behold my twisted Genius! What Sorcery have I wrought! What horrible Fate has befallen Mario? Who cares, he's not the hero here, 'Peach' is.

Also, thank you to my adorable Minion @Gekkou_Yoko for her assistance proofreading again~

Grounders10 · Nov 6, 2019

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A Ranma ½ x Destiny Crossover

A Frozen Light

By: Grounders10

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Prologue

Seeking

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Tokyo, Honshu, Old Japan, Earth

There were many ruined cities across Earth. Small ones nestled amidst mountains. Large ones that sprawled across plains. Yes, there were many cities on Earth. Each and every one of them a broken monument to humanity's glory. There were few, however, that matched the scale of the long-abandoned city of Tokyo. A metropolis of that stretched into the distance. Even now, centuries after its fall, its broken towers reached out clawing the sky as far as the eye could see in every direction.

For a Ghost, it just meant a lot of places to look. Floor after floor. Tower after tower. Block after block. One district at a time in a city that had dozens of districts, each large enough to stand as a city unto itself. Each the work of a lifetime to search the bodies within. Such was the life of an unbonded ghost.

For the Ghost known as Kiko, Tokyo was just one more trial in a centuries-long search that had taken her across deserts, through cities, and even to Mars and back on one particularly foolish whim.

Kiko hummed as she made her way down the abandoned thoroughfare, pausing to scan cars, the occasional skeleton, and the odd blast crater. You never knew when or where you could find some trace of a potential Guardian. She had heard from some other Ghosts, those who had found their Guardians, stories of just how little you needed in order to bring back a guardian, even for the first time.

Finishing that section of the four-lane roadway she consulted the map she had borrowed from the remnants of the city's administrative systems. That was another grid down which meant… She looked up at the tall skyscrapers before her.

"More towers, oh goody," She sighed sarcastically before floating across the road to the front entrance of the first building. The first floor appeared to be a small mall made mostly of boutiques and a central food court. It was, as to be expected, run-down, overgrown, and ransacked. There weren't even cash registers at the tills anymore, just scarring from Fallen plasma cutters where they had been bolted down.

It was, Kiko reflected as she scanned a body with a hole as large as she was through its head, entirely typical. Many places around the solar system had been stripped clean. Not all of them, the solar system was so large that that was nearly impossible, even with centuries of time.

Concluding that the cafe she had ducked into did not hold the resting place of anyone compatible Kiko floated back out into the hallway. Her external shell twitched as a distant roar echoed off the buildings. Her processors analyzed it and spat a very recognizable result out to her. Fallen, quite a ways out but much closer than the last time she had heard them a half-hour before.

"Just have to keep an eye out," She told herself, floating into another storefront.

The search took several hours, during which sunset came and went, it started raining, and the Fallen were picked up shouting in the distance a few more times. Eventually, she concluded that the first floor was just as empty as anywhere else she had scanned, which meant it was time to move on again.

"Guess it's onward and upward… again," She sighed, floating over to the elevator shaft in the center of the structure. She fiddled with the interface. There was power thankfully, it was always a bit of a toss-up when it came to whether or not a golden age building had it. At least she didn't have to try and smash through a window or something. Golden age glass tended to be a bit tougher than she was. Well, tougher than she liked to pretend she was.

She had to trick the system behind the door into thinking the car had arrived since it seemed to be refusing instructions, but a few moments later the doors slid open to reveal an empty elevator shaft. She floated out over the shaft and looked up, her built-in light reflected off rusted and pitted supports. Thankfully, the shaft was clear all the way to the top floor.

She glanced down and her singular electronic eye blinked before focusing. The city's plans for the building said it had one underground maintenance level. She counted five more with the last buried beneath what had to be the ruins of the elevator car.

"Secret levels not on any schematic? Oooh~ Promising," She purred. If she had a face she would have been grinning as she descended down the shaft. She had barely disappeared under the lip of the floor when another roar, far, far closer than any before, came from somewhere outside the building. She dropped quickly, eager to get out of sight before something got close enough to spot her. She would not resurrect her Guardian only to lead them to their immediate death by being followed.

She shot a worried look up the shaft before descending to the pile of scrap metal that had once been an elevator car. Scanning it only took a moment, but she quickly confirmed that there wasn't anyone inside it. At least no one she could resurrect.

There was a small gap, however, that led to the internal control panel for the door. She floated through the tiny gap, knocking against the twisted metal a few times as she navigated to the door. There were times when she wished her shell had fewer spikes. They made maneuvering rather tricky at times.

"Ow, ow. Ow," She winced, floating to a stop before the glowing control panel. The light was a bit dim, the display was probably at the far end of its lifespan. The very far end. Still, it was good enough to establish a connection and with that she was-

Her shell spun with consternation. Denied? DENIED? The system was denying her entry? She fumed for a moment before trying again. There was a beep from the panel and a small beam of light swept out from it over her.

"Wha- You're scanning me!" She fumed, then blinked as the light stopped and a green "ACCESS GRANTED" flashed across the screen before the door slid open. Not one to overlook good fortune she darted through the doorway before the door could close on her. The metal of the elevator car shifted, some of it spilling into the hallway beyond. The door closed on the scrap, grinding to a halt with a half-inch left. It opened and closed a couple more times, but finally, it stopped and a red light went on above the door.

Kiko ignored it as she looked about the new hallway she found herself in. While hardly spotless -- time had taken its toll after all -- the hallway was practically pristine compared to anyplace she encountered outside the city itself. Dusty wooden floors, bright white walls, a few still functioning lights and the artwork on the walls made it probably the nicest place she had visited outside the Last City.

"Maybe we can bring some of this back. If I find them here anyway," Kiko said, scanning a couple of paintings for reference. A loud clang echoed from the shaft above. She spun to face the entrance. The gap in the door was letting some light out into the lightless shaft. There was no way the Fallen could miss that.

"Oh no, no, no," She repeated, spinning in place before shooting down the hallway. She needed to be quick and thorough and search everything.

She passed offices, reception areas, a lounge. All of them empty. There were no bodies down here. There had been no fighting here at all. Until now. More hallways, more empty offices. The place was filled with everyday Golden Age technology, but it seemed to be little more than a secret administration area. She was considering backtracking and moving onto one of the floors above when a loud crash of metal echoed from the elevator. There was a roar followed by an explosion and red emergency lights flared to life all down the hallways.

The Fallen had found this place.

"No, no, no," She kept repeating as she rapidly scanned another empty office. Nothing, but she couldn't go back. She would need to either find a place to hide, find her guardian, or find a way up to the next level where she could do one of the other two things.

There didn't seem to be another way up though. Hallways ended in dead ends rather than stairwells and she could hear the dregs chattering in the distance as they spread out into the facility. She shut her flashlight off. It would just give her away, and there was plenty of light with the emergency lights now flaring up and down the hallways.

She kept searching, going deeper into the hallways of the facility. She passed what had been the property line of the mall. Security checkpoints and cleanroom airlocks marked a sudden shift from administration to science. She passed both without bothering to go in. The moment the Fallen spotted them they would be crawling over the labs. Which could contain who knew what, but there was nothing a Ghost could do to stop them.

If only she had a Guardian.

She swept around a corner and came to a stop before a pair of sliding rice paper doors and a pair of skeletons, their tattered and stain clothes pooling amongst the bones. Rifles of some nature were discarded a short distance away. She ran a quick scan over both. Nothing. Figured.

She punched another hole in the rice paper. The area beyond was decorated in a very traditional style that she recognized from a few places around Tokyo with mats for the floor and walls of tattered rice paper. There were scattered bones, broken furniture, and stains of blood everywhere. This place was a palatial suite.

This place had seen fighting.

She scanned the bones as she went hurriedly. She could hear the fallen in the distance, but any one of these people could be her Guardian. Anyone of them could be hers.

It was with a disappointed and heavy metaphorical heart that she confirmed time and again that no, none of these people was the one she was looking for.

"No, no, not again," She muttered scanning another body briefly before moving on. She passed through a doorway into another hallway and stopped as something strange appeared on her sensors. It wasn't the light, it also wasn't the dark either, though the presence of the Fallen was beginning to gather the darkness to this place.

Ignoring the bones scattered in this hallway she floated down the hall, searching for the source of the strange reading. She turned a corner and paused as she found herself before a heavily dented and rent blast door. More than a dozen bodies were scattered across the floor, their bones mixing to the point it was impossible to say where one ended and another began. All seemed to be wearing body armour and carrying weapons. Not that it seemed to have stopped their assailants. The blast door had a hole large enough for two men to walk through side by side and Kiko floated passed them without checking. Something told her they weren't what she was here for.

The room beyond was a shrine or temple of some sort. Tall pillars of red stone held up a vaulting ceiling four floors high and decorated in a complex mural straight out of mythology. A red woman appeared repeatedly throughout the mural battling men, women, dragons and even a phoenix. Each foe was felled until a shadowy figure drove a blade through her back and she was laid to rest on a bed of ice. Around the room hung tattered scrolls and traditional paintings, many featuring the same red-haired woman. Towering above it all was a statue of a young woman made from gold. She stood a blade held pointed towards the ceiling and at the base of her feet was a bed encased in a clear glass-like material, its red-haired occupant on display in a beautiful black qipao, a bouquet of roses held in her hands.

Kiko's eye went straight to the occupant of what her sensor's said was some form of stasis pod. The strange energy she was picking up was coming from her. She floated towards the pod and started when she bumped into something. She 'jumped' several feet to the side and floated, her shell spinning, as she stared at what she had somehow ignored.

There was an Exo dressed in heavy plate with a sword kneeling in the center of the room. Bullet holes littered its plate armour, but the piles of bones scattered across the rotting tatami mats said that the robotic man hadn't died alone.

"Oh, oh my," Kiko sighed, "That gave me a scare. Whoo, just a body." She turned away from the Exo and floated over to the pod. Her scanner started going the moment she came into range. Inside was a girl with crimson red hair who couldn't be more than… her sensors said between sixteen and eighteen.

Her eye narrowed. Her sensors were having trouble scanning the girl through the stasis pod. At least, she assumed they were. A person couldn't be both dead and alive at the same time. Well, a Guardian might count, but the girl could be one she wasn't giving off l-

Her shell spun in surprise. There was no light, but for the first time, she felt what other Ghosts had told her about. Something inside the girl was resonating with her and oh god did it feel wonderful. Like sharing a sunny day with a friend, or having a quiet moment with a loved one. Not that Kiko had ever experienced either before, but this felt like what she hoped such things would be like.

"I found her. By the Traveler, I did it," Kiko breathed. She paused for a moment, basking in the achievement. Then the sound of chittering and a loud bang from behind her announced the fact that the Fallen were still sweeping the facility. In the distance, there was another bang before what sounded like an automatic weapon opened up. Another bang silenced it.

"And they're still coming. Because of course, they are," She said to the girl in the stasis pod. "Right, uuuuuh, open the door then revive you. Erm... You are dead right?" She ran another scan. The life or death status of her Guardian came back as a confusing maybe. Right, well she'd just have to wing it and hope for the best then. First, get the pod open.

Kiko went to work on the pod, quickly locating the control on the lower backside of the device, well out of sight of the public area. Which made sense. This wasn't a stasis pod that these people had ever intended to open, probably. There was clearly some religious connotations going on here.

The chittering grew closer as Kiko tapped into the control system of the pod. Security systems were bypassed or overrode faster than she had ever worked before. This was her Guardian and Kiko would not leave her here for the Fallen to paw like some petty Golden Age bauble. The very thought sent her shell spinning.

Eventually, though she hit something she couldn't bypass. A block that seemed to adapt to her every trick and effort. It was like those times she watched human children try to catch fish with their bare hands. Only, this thing was the fish and she was the child and it was decidedly less amusing with the life-threatening situation that was looming.

"Oh come on!" She snapped, smacking herself into the side of the pod. "WORK WITH ME!" She snarled, "I'm going to resurrect her you stupid machine. LET HER GO!" She tried again. To her surprise, the block had disappeared. "Ha! Holiday was right, percussive maintenance does solve everything!"

The pod's systems fell under her control and she triggered the release protocols. It was clear that this had not been intended for a living occupant since the hatch released instantly, sending a cloud of fog rolling across the room. Kiko floated over the girl as the fog released and ran a scan over her would-be Guardian. Okay, so this was her Guardian but… What was with that life reading? There one second, gone the next. What- no wait, it was there- no, gone wait-

Her shell was spinning with frustration. Was her Guardian dead or not? Could she-

The snap-crunch of bones in the hallway outside said she was out of time. The Fallen were there, now. She cast a look towards the mural. "Oh, I hope that you remember how to do that sort of thing," Kiko said then engaged her resurrection protocols. Dead or alive she needed a Guardian, and this girl was her's.

Pure light washed over the room, sinking into the girl as a hulking nine-foot Fallen Captain ducked through the hole in the blast door, a rifle held in its lower two arms. It spotted her and the rifle came up as it snarled something in Eliksni.

Then the light that was washing over the girl met the strange energy that had drawn Kiko to the girl and everything got very, very bright.

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A/N: A Thank You to @Gekkou_Yoko once again~

This idea has been bugging me for a while and I just finally decided to write the prologue for it. I have most of the rest of the story planned in some form or another.

Grounders10's Forgotten Files and Drabbles (Worm, Ranma, etc.)

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