Victory Through Unity! (Planetary Annihiliation Self Insert Multicross)

[Flameal15k]

Foreward: For those who don't want to read the opening, leave now, or skip to the bottom of this page.

And for the record, I know this is a waste of time. I just really want to get this done, because it's been bugging me for the past half year.

Also, Soundtrack Start: All As One by Miracle of Sound. ALL HAIL THE MIRACLE OF SOUND!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Scene opens upon as Vivienne and Flame amble through the ruins of a progenitor city. A long abandoned building crumbles nearby them as something darts through the shadows, watching them intently).

Stumble from the Ashes
Lost Enigmas in the Dust
I cannot Remember
Though They tell me that I must

(the scene switches between four separate locations and characters: the Tenno watching over the Plains of Eidolon, a sharply dressed man and a wolf looking over a Japanese city, a demoness with a bandaged left arm in the middle of a snowy island, and lastly, a robotic being flying through the air, doing battle with a batlike being similar to himself)

(In all of these scenes, a progenitor multiversal travel portal appears, and in the last one, a Coelohim and bumblebee exit the portal and begin attacking the mechanical warriors, who are caught completely off guard).

Sky is torn asunder
Fear that Breaks the brave
Will not drag me under
Climb out of the grave

(The scene cuts back to the Commander and his ROB, who still examining the ruins. Suddenly, a Coelohim emerges from the shadows and attacks them. Flame forces it back, but the creature responds by pulling up some kind of glyph that shoots out lighting. With the commander distracted, it attacks and bowls him over, but before it can move in for the killing blow, Viv rams a spear through its neck.)

(As she moves to help Flame up, though, more of the beasts emerge from the shadows)

Maker's sign or false Divine
This Mark of Worth I Wear
Hardened are these fateful scars I bear

(Just as the beasts ready to attack, though, an explosion forces them back. As a light illuminates the battlefield, a group consisting of Sage, Blitz, several Swarm Drones, a vex Minotaur, and three Sisters of Silence advance forward, causing the beasts to retreat. When the last one falls back, Viv takes a final glance to be sure they have left, before extending her hand once more to Flame, who takes it.)

Stand Side by side
Carry All as One
We can bear this weight
Stand side by side
We won't come undone
For the Hands that will carry us home
Are Touched By Fate

(As the music swells, the duo return to their feat, before another light illuminates the battlefield. A progenitor portal opens, and a Colonel Sub Commander and multiple Coelohim spill forth from it)

Hold On
Hold On To What You Strive For
Hold On
Hold On To What You Fight For
Hope!

(As the Coelohim and progenitor war machines ready to advance, the team share a look before joining them. A moment later, a large Coelohim tries to assault them, only to be blasted away by a sapphire colored dragon)

Get up and fight!

(A group of Ant tanks lock onto the dragon, only to be frozen by Flame, and subsequently shattered by a spiny black dragon with an enormous pair of horns)

BREAK!

(The scene cuts back to the four previously shown locations, where the Tenno, wolf and rider, demoness, and mechanical beings charge toward the portals, whilst many Coelohim and Commander machines charge through the rifts, ready for battle)

(The scene then shifts to the Orokin Void, followed by a forest and a desert. Flame and his companions charge through all three using portals, and in each location are joined by many others, until they have a small army with them.)

(Within the desert, the team arrives at a village, where a group of bandits is harassing the natives. The minute the army arrives, the tide rapidly turns.)

Through the fade or leafy shade
Or scorching desert sands
Lift the people from their pain
Unite and take a stand

(The scene cuts to the Infinite Forest in Mercury, where the team does battle with a Vex Axis mind. A moment later, it sends them through another portal, where they arrive in an alien land inhabited by squid monsters. The squids then, much to most of the team's surprise, joins them in battling a recently arrived Locust berserker. After a few moments of shooting at the beast, Flame shoots a blast of fire from a staff, allowing Viv to carve it in two).

Breach into the future
Reach into the fade
Stamp out the abuser
Staff and bloody blade

(Jumping through another portal, the team finds themselves assisting a group of renaissance era warriors battling off a massive horde of undead, lead by a vampire atop an undead dragon wielding a scythe and sword. Said dragon charges at them, only to be rammed by an elephant sized griffon ridden by a man wielding a Warhammer)

Maker's breath or wind of death
It matters not to me
Be it one or none or synergy

(Shrugging, Flame and Melissa join the battle, followed by their companions. The recently arrived Sigurd joins several steam powered tanks in fighting off a terrorgheist, whilst Zen'hurros and the Tenno take out a massive horde of giant bats and undead wolves. All the while, the armies of the Commander and ROB assit the human forces against the undead, who are themselves bolstered by a horde of Coelohim and Commander drones)

Stand Side by side

Carry All as One

We can bear this weight

Stand side by side

We won't come undone

For the Hands that will carry us home

Are Touched By Fate



(The fighting goes on for some time, with the demoness, rider and wolf, and the mechanical warrior all tearing into the enemy. Overhead, Jegudiel cuts through a group of bats, only to be forced to swerve at the sudden arrival of a Chaos titan, which attempts to swat him out of the sky. As it makes another attempt, though, a giant animate Egyptian statue suddenly slams into it, and a moment later, Ellling and his titan destroy the Chaos Reaver.)


Hold On
Hold On To What You Strive For
Hold On
Hold On To What You Fight For
Hope!


(back on the battlefield, another portal opens, and from it emerged Hunhow and several Drengin, as well as several shadowy beings, who begin to annihilate both sides. In particular, one of the beings knocks Flame back onto his rear whilst Viv and the rest of his allies are preoccupied fighting the Sentient destroyer of worlds)

(As it readies for the killing blow, though, the wolf and its rider charge it, knocking the monster aside. Enraged, the shadow beast knocks the two down, in the process disarming the rider. As it tries to kill him, though, the wolf parries the blow with a sword clenched in its jaws. The rider and wolf quickly reunite, only for the monster to launch another attack..to absolutely zero effect.)

(Turning toward the Commander, the three notice that a set of seals on his arm are glowing, though one has faded. Whilst the beast ponders what this means, the wolf smirks and cuts it down with minimal effort.)

(With the immediate danger destroyed, the trio turns their attention toward the new rifts, where a massive shadowy being emerges.)


Stand Side by side
Carry All as One
We can bear this weight
Stand side by side
We won't come undone
For the Hands that will carry us home
Are Touched By Fate


(Smirking, the whole group charges the monster. It opens fire, only for Flame to shield the group with an energy barrier. The minute the barrier fades, the robotic being blasts the monster with a beam of light, followed by the demoness charging it and swiping her left palm at the monster, said hand now that of a massive, demonic creature. Before it can recover, the wolf and rider slam into its skull, dazing it. A further set of blows from the Tenno, among them Etran and Cyreesia, leave it vulnerable to Viv, who hits it with a massive blast of darkness.)

Fight for your values
And fight for your friends
Fight Through this blight
Find the light at the end
Through the age of the dragon
Through Chaos and Hate
The Hands that will carry us home are touched by fate

(Smiling, the team finishes it off with a massive combined attack, leaving its withered husk on the battlefield, while the rest of their opponents retreat or are cutdown)


Hold On
Hold On To What You Strive For
Hold On
Hold On To What You Fight For
Hope! Hope! Hope!

Hope! Hope! Hope!

XXXXXXX

AN: And done! Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
​

 

[Flameal15k]

Here you go:

This arc was meant more or less to define the rest of the story - this is the Establishing Series Moment, if you will.

Among other things, this was where Flame's unique skill among commanders comes into the spotlight. See, all commanders have unique traits that define how they react to foes and obstacles, such as @Drich using reality warping bullshit, @Fusou using Escalatin, Superior Firepower for @Faith, and reverse engineering for @TikiTau. Flame's skill, as a Commander, is diplomacy - he's able to cultivate lasting alliances (admittedly, this isn't something I've shown a lot during the story, but it will get more prominent) and convince others to side with him, providing him with help when things get rough.

Vivienne was always meant to join up with Flame at some point in the series. I have to agree with @Faith here - Commanders ROBs as living props are boring.

That being said, she almost got the axe in this arc. I spared her because a. my original plans all hinged on her being alive, b. I hadn't thought of what to do with her followers if she died (I didn't even know what to do with her daughter, for crying out loud!) and c. in the event of her death, she was meant to be a source of regret for Flame, who'd have ultimately realized he had come to love her. As I more or less put my foot down on the two having a romance - at least, at the time (*Wink,wink*) - I really wouldn't be able to justify that angle.

There were also plans for this arc to end with Flame AND Melissa dying, along with quite literally EVERYONE ELSE, except for Hunhow and the Sentients, at which point th story would now focus on a Commander-controlling Hunhow, who would be a villain protagonist. I hadn't really thought out much for that plot line, other than the fact it would torch all other plots up to that point, and ultimately end on the implication Hunhow had located our universe and was getting ready to attack it with his forces...yeah

For the record on how the Progenitors were able to survive when their genders got split up following their homeworld being moved from the Empyrean sea to the universe they are native to, both genders can reproduce asexually - males shed spores that gradually grow into new progenitors, whilst females lay eggs. To prevent the population from being crippled by the young essentially being clones of their parents (Which is how I think normal asexual reproduction goes), each gender has a way of 'shuffling' their genes with those of a partner of the same gender - males grow mushroom like caps on their backs on flanks, which, if ingested by another male, will result in the traits of said male entering the spores of the one who ate the caps. Females lay unfertilized eggs that will never hatch for the same purpose. This also wokrs across both genders.

As a side effect of the fact progenitors can reproduce with partners of either gender, they really don't have LGBT issues. They also tend to get confused as to why other species have those issues, to sometimes disastrous results.

Also, they can physically change genders at puberty like some fish, if they want to.

Vivienne was being half-true with Flame when she told him that Melissa was not her real name - it is her birth name, but Progenitors have really long names, and Vivienne is her 'chosen' name - once they hit a certain age, usually around puberty, they can choose a new name for themselves. She views the name Melissa as equivalent to a military serial number - for identification, and nothing more. A chosen name is considered infinitely more personal than a birth name - it is only shared with family, be they blood family or chosen family (as is the case with Melissa's closest subordinates), close friends (Tau and Zeta, who DO actually know this, but never had any reason to bring it up in story)...and with those one wishes to marry. Where Flame sits on this scale....well, that would be telling, wouldn't it?

The purple stuff Viv secrets when she's wounded is partially an anesthetic, partially a honeydew like think, but it's main purpose is to tell people she's hurting - it secretes in mass when she in a state of emotional stress. She goes a long way to hide it, but she's secreted it almost daily from the time Celm rescued her up to the current point in the story - just in amounts so small nobody ever noticed it. The creatures who clean her of it do so mostly to relieve her of pain.

Oh, and it's also an aphrodisiac.

Celm and Milsamrina are both really old. As in, Only the Precursors from Halo are older than them - both are over one billion years old. As for why their kids are so young compared to them (most are around Viv's age), Progenitors can willingly turn off their sex drives, in order to enforce their own version of an Immortal Procreation Clause. As fpr why they haven't died out yet...they're also eternally fertile, and when they do decide to activate the biological clock, they really, really, REALLY tend to 'pig out'.

Milsanrima is the silver creature mentioned on the Vitruvian.

I'm not sure if I made this obvious, but Adeline is a Valkyrur. She's also Darksen.

Elling is descendent from a bunch of people who have used mechas across fiction - he's got blood from some noble line in the BattleTech universe (minor nobility, of course), members of the Collegia Titanica, and (if him piloting the AGE Gundam wasn't a big enough hit) is also a descendent of Flit Asuno...by many, many, MANY generations. For reference, the Progenitors ended up getting the aid of both Earth and Vegan from the AGE timeline, after the Combine wrecked that universe's version of the Solar System due to a weapons misfire.

Net arc will be a breather one, but the one after that is where things will get more interesting. A hint on the interesting arc: it will be in a game series that had a very successful release this year.

And now I am done. If you have any questions of your own, ASK!

 

[Flameal15k]

Okay, the treaties with the Grineer, Corpus, and Sentients have been finalized and signed, the Technocyte plague has been neutered to the point the Mycona can harvest it with impunity, and the colonies can rest easy, so now back to my hub!

...Wait, why is Tylos getting antsy about these alerts I didn't notice because I didn't have my Commander until recently?

……...WHAT THE FUCK!?!?

XXXXXXXXXXX

I stared out, somewhat confused, at the enormous gravitic anomalies that had recently appeared in my hub system. Said anomalies were also very luminous, and currently emitting an incredible amount of heat....

Okay, no beating around the bush - these were stars. Stars that, until a few days ago, hadn't existed.

Apparently, my efforts to create new planets had worked way too well. Go figure.

On the plus side, it gave me a few new solar systems to work with, without needing to set up FTL systems to reach the 'natural' ones (Celm had made this universe for my usage, and left the area around this system pretty much barren to provide me space to build). So, there's that.

…..Welp, might as well make on into a nature preserve to dump all the extra wildlife I got from the Orb Vallis on. Also, it was really funny seeing Kubrowdons and Stovers running into their new home to escape my kids. Better save those pictures for later.

Now then, onto the next phase in consolidating my position: working out an alliance with Vivienne. Not too hard, right?

I mean, it's not like she's going to demand I submit to her, or something else that was equally silly, would she?

XXXXXXXX

"......You're seriously offering to marry me?"

Viv groaned as I finished the question. "No. Some of my more 'old fashioned' supporters suggested the offer. Most of them come from societies where marriage is merely seen as a political tool."

"Why, exactly, did they suggest that in the first place?"

"In order of importance from greatest to least: To cement our powers as allies, to ensure that other, less savory individuals cannot make the offer, as an apology for my rude behavior to you..."

Then she started blushing. "And also because they think a. 'You need to get laid', and b......they think we're a cute couple."

The minute she finished her reasoning, I joined her in blushing. "But...but....I don't like you that way."

"That was one of my reasoning for that. Also, as I am not the firstborn child of my family, I am not expected to be married off for political gain."

"HOw many sibling do you have?"

"I'm the middle child of thirteen, so twelve, split evenly across both gender."

……..How many kids can progenitors have before the go sterile?!

"If what my mom told me is correct, she can't actually become sterile. She just willingly goes into a phase where she doesn't have children for some time."

Oh.

"Yeah, oh. I'm going to stay off having kids for a while - I don't want anymore than Cass and her adoptive siblings."

Are you copying me?

"NO!"

Ok, ok, I'm sorry. So, are there other things we need to discuss?

"First off, more joint training exercises when?"

You're call there.

"...Hope about these?"

Looking over the newly sent times, I nodded. "This could work."

"Good. So, what next?"

"Any technology you want to share with me? And what would you like in return?"

"Hmm, what can you give me?"

"I've got some Vex technology from the Vault of Glass, a few dozen Imperial Titan designs, some info on the AGE system, and some stuff from the Precursors from Halo."

I bet you have a precursor or two lying around your hub as well.

"I have a whole city of them."

...wait, what?

"Yeah, apparently they thought the ones who turned into the Flood were jackasses and decided to jump ship while possible. Now thye just laze around, fix machinery, and eat snacks."

Okay..."What do you want from me?"

"Name something you want, and I'll give you a price."

"...Titan equipment?"

"Free of charge - Elling wants to make sure he can resupply easily."

"Vex slap weaponry?"

"Information on the Orokin void."

"AGE system info?"

"Archwing data."

"....I think that's all for now. I need to think more on what I want."

"Fine with me. So, what now?"

"....I don't know, take a few days to relax?"

"Maybe find a nice beach to slowly tan brown on?"

I think I went as red as a tomato at that statement. "Please don't wear anything too revealing."

Viv merely smirked at me. "Oh, so you see something you want to tap, don't you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, and I bet you have the same line of thoughts when you see me in a pair of swimtrunks." Heaven knows I'm too sensitive about my appearance to wear a speedo.

"...Touché."

Well, I guess I know why some of her supporters thought that I would be amenable to a marriage alliance.

Suddenly, a new alert popped up on my commander, examining it, I found that it was addressed from Celm:

'Sending special protocol to your commander. Activate once received.'

Confused, but knowing Celm had a reason for this, I did just that.

A moment later, a needle injected into my neck, and then I felt numb.

"Genetic Alteration initiated."

Wait, what does that me-

"Alteration Completed."

Before I could even begin to question what had happened, a new alert popped up, once again from Celm. 'Sending you more Commander data - all stuff that I made in the time after the war. It can only be accessed by those possessing progenitor DNA, hence the gene modification.'

So now I am part Progenitor? I wonder if I can turn into some crazy monster like Viv.

"Well, you'll only now if you try."

I know that, Ms. Sexy ROB.

"Wha-!"

You make it too easy. Also, how do you change into the crazy monster form you have?

"Just think about it."

Really> Well here it goes...why does my back feel funny?

...Did I just grow pterosaur wings?

...Oh, look, now I have tentacles.

...I now have four eyes, and my teeth are all pointy.

….I think I am an alien dragon, now.

"Make that an attractive one."

Turning toward Viv, my planned retort was cut off when I noticed how she seemed to be eyeing my new form...wit ha very hungry look on her face.

I suddenly felt very nervous... and annoyed. Involuntarily, I hissed at her, which snapped her out of her (presumably) lustful thoughts and caused her to back up a bit.

…….This is going to be a while, isn't it?

XXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Jormuungaand]

Typo

You're call there.

Click to shrink...

Your

You know there are jokes about girlfriends/wives who can read their man's minds, don't you?

 

[Flameal15k]

Typo

Your

You know there are jokes about girlfriends/wives who can read their man's minds, don't you?

Click to shrink...

Yes, I just don't remember them.

Also, for those who were wondering, I torpedoed any possibility of Flame and Viv developing romance in the previous few arcs because I was pretty sure someone would assume Stockholm Syndrome was involved.

Now that the two are equals, well, maybe some sparks will fly.

 

[Flameal15k]

After trying out my new form's abilities (and getting nervous whenever Viv looked at me, particularly if she appeared hungry and, for some reason, especially if she really did need something to eat, I decided to get back to adventuring across the multiverse. Time waits for no man (or whatever you are), so I really had no reason to be lazing about.

"Ready for another adventure?"

Viv flashed a predatory grin around me, which only served to make me wish I was wearing armor...well, more armor. Seriously, why was I so nervous around her? This was not a normal teenage thing - I never got this uncomfortable around girls back when I was not a Commander, an this was probably not natural to any species I'd encountered so far - still not sure on how Progenitors work.

"Am I ready to go unto unknown worlds, face glorious battles, and crush a few skulls? Hell yes!"

Okay, now I was really uneasy, but I could put tangible reasons on that.

That being said, I also found her viciousness to be somewhat comforting (if only because it meant she was going to stand with me through this)...and rather attractive, too.

….Someone help me, please.

XXXXXX

Exiting through the portal, I readied Marchosias' weapons. I didn't want to pull in my commander until I had cleared out our arrival site of all foes. Behind me, Viv made her own entrance, observing our insertion point for enemies.

"See anything?"

"Not yet, my dear Commander. Though I can certainly hear things milling about around us. Perhaps you could use your sensors to find them - I have to dull my other senses to hear them in detail."

Fair enough. Carefully, I extended out my senses, trying to determine what was lurking in the shadows. Consideirng we'd arrived in the ruins of some town, I doubted it was naything good.

Sure enough, I found several heat signatures a few hundred meters from our location. From the way they were moving, they looked incredibly similar to zombies.

Well, time to find out if they behaved similarly.

I closed my eyes for a moment, then activated a mimic beacon. This one, unlike the baseline version from XCOM 2, could create a moveable projection, based on data I'd acquired from both the Loki Warframe and Executioner Harkonar, and with the data I'd gleaned from the Mirage frame, they could also attack enemies. This one had been set to simulate a dog, to see how the strange beings would react.

Unsurprisingly, the zombie-like creatures attacked the hologram as soon as they saw it.

Well, they are aggressive, to be sure. But can htye be reasoned with?

This time, I deployed three decoys - one a diplomatic looking woman, another a male soldier, and the third a child - and sent each in a different direction toward the horde. Let's see how they react.

The results I got back were...troubling. While with the dog, the response had been pure aggression, this reaction had signs of cunning and cruelty in it. First, the 'zombies' attacked the woman, but when the hologram appeared to show signs of injury (because I wanted to make things realistic), they stopped attacking, instead allowing the mimic to scream and moan in pain. I sent the solider decoy to her, only for them to 'cut down' the wounded decoy just as the soldier one reached her, before a different 'zombie' ran into the second decoy and exploded.

Once those two were eliminated, a huge, froglike decoy assaulted the child, briefly allowing the third decoy to assume it had escaped before ambushing it and swallowing the child facsimile whole.

Okay, what the fuck?!

Also, looks like we have to resort to violence.

Viv, who had been watching the file with disgust, merely smiled when I made it clear we were going in loud. "If these things act this monstrous toward what they think are real people, then I am looking forward to grinding them to pulp."

"Well, then, let's do this."

Taking aim, I fired off a shot from Marchosias' rifle, taking down three of the beasts in one hit. A moment later, Viv joined me, and soon after that, a horde of robots and Coelohim burst out of the portal behind us.

It didn't take long for all of the nearby beasts to be purged. Form there, we began examining for a suitable sight to deploy my Commander - one of the advnaces Celm had given me was the ability to choose where the portal sent my Commander IF I already had something else on the other side of the portal, hence sending my warframe through it. Along the way, I examined the remains of the town for anything that would explain what we were fighting.

The only intel I got (which came from examining the giblets of the beasties I'd killed) was that these creatures were apparently technically living zombies, sorta like the Technocyte Infestation.

Well, at least the Tenno would find some nostalgia fighting this kind of monster.

On the plus side, I did manage to locate a metal deposit filled area to set up shop.

Moments later, my Commander was on the battlefield, and homebase was under construction.

"So, where are we?" asked Viv.

"I'm launching an orbital scout now, give me a minute....okay, it looks like we're on an alternate Earth."

"We are? Then what bioweapon got unleashed here?"

"None, it appears that this was caused by an extraterrestrial pathogen."

"Got a name for it?"

"According to some still active satellites that Rory just hacked, it's called XADA and....oh."

"You know where we are?"

"Yeah. Hey, Rory?"

"Yes dad?"

"Can you see if you can locate a machine referred to as Avalon?"

"Scanning...found it. According to some transmissions I hacked, it is being commanded by someone called Jake Calloway. Know who he is?"

"Yeah, where is he?"

"He is currently located at the ruins of some United States City - large scale industrial complex, if you want specifics. I think it used to be Detroit."

"Okay, and where are we?"

"Somewhere in the middle of Africa. Used to be a nature preserve nearby."

"Okay, last question - what is Jake doing now?"

"Talking to his uncle. Shall I plot a course to them?"

"No, they're going to be on the move soon. Chart a course to wherever they are headed."

"Will do as soon as I know where they are headed....Could you please tell me, Vivienne, and Cassidy where we are?"

"We've arrived in Implosion. Pretty sure that we arrived just after the boss battle at the end of Chapter 3."

Viv just stared at me for a moment, completely stunned. "We're in an app game universe?"

"Yeah, not really surprised."

XXXXXXXXXX

AN:



The current universe is Implosion: Never Lose Hope. It's an app game that ended up ported to the Nintendo Switch. It's also really popular.

This isn't really meant to be much of a character focused arc, just a good old fashion curbstomp. I wanted something more light hearted after all the crap form the last arc.

So, Read and Review! This is Flmael15k, singing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

"Okay, before we go into the maw of death, could you give me a brief rundown of what happens in this universe? This isn't one of the big name app games, so I'm not exactly sure what to expect."

"It got universal acclaim among critics, but okay....are app game universes virgin territory for commanders?"

"Yes, my former pawn, they are."

"Ok. Here we go:

"So,the future arrives, and mankind has really moved past its shortfalls - global warming, overpopulation, etc. To avoid extinction, advances are made in space travel///and that ends up luring hungry aliens to Earth, forcing amass exodus. From there, mankind splits among three factions that escaped into space - Adrillia, Thanadeus, and Ivonix. Adrillia is the best off, occupying a relatively nice planet, while Thanadeous had to take a harsher moon, and Ivonix lives in a space station. Thanadeous designed warmechs - essentially exoskeletons - to fight the XADA aliens, but after these proved to be incapable of fully protecting the wearers from the XADA< so eventually they were forced to hand the project over to Ivonix, who used wholly mechanical suits....which the XADA can hack, but nobody knew this until a few hours ago.

"Anyway, the heroes of the game are an Ivonix team sent to stop a giant XADA creature called an AZA, which can travel through space and attack the rest of mankind after it finishes growing. Adding to their problems is that Thanadeous got fed up with Adrillia, so they secretly got a scientist named Raymond Millar to develop an agent that masks a human's presence to the XADA. The plan was to use the XADA to kill off Adrillia, then take their world. Unsurprinsgly, Raymond got infected, as did his wife, and now wants to kill everyone.

"As for how it ends, our heroes manage to kill it, at the cost of Jake's presumed dead uncle and Jake himself, who blew up his suit to kill the AZA. Advanced warmech suits, if destroyed, will cause the pilot to experience brain death due to a neural link. After that, Thanadeous and Adrillia are left on the brink of war, and somehow, Jake's warmech AI manages to get control of his body. And then the story ends, so no more words from me."

"Ok, now that we're clear there, what next?"

Sighing, a pulled up a map of Earth. "In order? Kill the AZA, develop an anti-XADA pesticide, reclaim Earth, make sure Jake and his uncle love, and if I can bring myself to care, browbeat Adrillia And Thanadeous into not going to war over Raymond's actions."

"...That's going to be a cakewalk."

"I know. I'm already reading up a bunch of void weapons to reduce the XADA to paste."

"Good. You think the Tenno will want a piece of the action?"

"They already got involved - I asked them while filling you in. They're now en-route to begin assaulting the AZA. Should bring back memories of the Jordas Golem."

"It should. Where to now?"

"According To Rory....island in the Ring of Fire."

"Nice....you think they know that we're here?"

"I'd be surprised if they didn't."

XXXXXXXX

"Wait, did you just say a team of four warmechs cutdown a thousand strong XADA horde in less than ten minutes?"

"Yes sir," replied Zoe, still in disbelief that what she had just seen. "Additionally, the warmechs appears to have flight equipment attached to them."

"You think they'll give us some if we ask nicely?" Intoned Jake.

"Unlikely, Avalon. Please stay focused on the mission at hand."

"You think they're with Thanadeous?" Questioned Diana. "A backup plan to eliminate Miller if he went rogue?"

"Possible, but unlikely, Crimson. They'd likely have shown up earlier if that was the case. Still,
it'd probably be best if we could get some additional intel on them."

Taking that as her queue, Zoe began to interface with the new arrivals' systems. Carefully, she searched for weakness in the coding, looking for a spot where she could dig in and pull apart so as to access any information she could get on the unknown warriors.

Much to her surprise, she only needed a minute to get results. Cautiously examining the file for potential malware, when she found none, she opened it up and...wait, what?

What was this?

"...Zoe, why are you blushing?" Questioned Jake.

Instead of replying, said girl merely displayed what she had been watching onto their screens.

Their reactions were similar to her own.

"...I do not need image in my head," groaned a blushing Diana.

"Nor dpi," agreed Napoleon. "Zoe, please try and-"

Suddenly, the animation from before was replaced by a video.

One that made Zoe wish thefile had containe malware.

"NYANYANYANYANYANYANYANYA-"

The sound in question barely managed to drown out the various screams, yells and shouts that permeated across the comms as everyone went berserk at the sight and sound of a runaway cat-tart.

XXXXXX

Rory smiled - his and Cassidy's plan had worked.

Turning to Viv's daughter, he held out his hand. "Worked like a charm."

High-giving the boy, Cassidy soon grinned back.
"Told you Nyan-cat would work. That plus Rhino scared them silly."

As soon, as she finished her reply, the child-ROB grew serious again."How are the Tenno doing?"

"According to their most recent in voice, fine. They did ask if we can make XADA steaks, though."

"...Let's get back to them on that.."

XXXX

AN: The first animation mentioned was one depicting the Rhino Warframe using the Limbo one's Agile animation, which involves rhythmic pelvic thrusting. As for why it caused some embarrassment?



Does that cod piece look rather distracting?

The other animation was Nyan-Cat.

Anyway, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!​

 

[Flameal15k]

"So, what do we need to do so that everyone who isn't the XADA gets a happy ending?"

Right to the point, then, Viv?

"Yes. I want to get this done without too much fuss."

"Well, we need to destroy the XADA queen, which I believe will either obliterate the AZA that is threatening the rest of mankind, but if that is not the case, it will at least prevent it from travelling through space."

"And I guess we do that with superior firepower?"

"What else? Tenno support would also be appreciated, though."

"Well, that won't be in short supply - well over a hundred tenno are already converging on the AZA, and more are showing up by the minute - we should be done with that in a heartbeat."

"Seriously? I thought this was gonna be some kind of epic battle?"

"A giant space monster vs a horde of Murder Hobos definitely counts as an epic battle. Now are you going to stand around or are you going to get in on that action?"

….Okay, time to get in on the fight before I miss out on the fun parts.

XXXXX

I arrived bia using a Grineer drop pod to land at the location where the XADA queen that controlled the AZA was located.

More precisely, I landed on top of her. It was really funny.

Funnier still was that the queen was busy getting her ass kicked by a horde of greedy tenno. Apparently, they wanted to see if they could make new guns and blades out of XADA tissue. Given the fact that they already had weapons made out of infestation, not to mention the warframes, that wasn't exactly a far fetched idea. I was definitely going to put some thought into that, as soon as humanity was no longer in danger.

Back to the battle - the queen was getting her butt handed to her on a silver platter. Not only were the Tenno attacking her, but so was Zen'hurros, an Eidolon Hydrolyst, a female Sentient who had been amongst those to side with me, and Krel. The living firestorm, in particular, was enjoying using the pace alien monster as a bbq target. The horror begged for mercy, but so far, received none.

Unwilling to be left out, I opened up with Marcosias' Heaven's light attack, followed up with Hellfire. The results were, well, rather painful. See, Marcosias' abilities were designed such that, unlike Equinox, you were meant to shift between its two forms to maximize its power. Heaven's light not only inflicted radiation damage upon its targets, but blinded them, leaving them vulnerable to some powerful attacks - and also giving an opening for Hellfire to roast them. But if a target was afflicted with Hellfire first, then the flames from the attack could be ignited by Heaven's Light, triggering a powerful explosion.

The other abilities I had also worked in similar ways, most notably the two ultimates, which I was about to make ample use of. As the XADA Queen attacked me and my allies, I began to charge up Sa;vation. Fun fact - Salvation built power up by both taking and dealing damage, and I was doing a lot of both right now. Pretty soon, I was on the ground, as were all of the Tenno, in desperate need of a revive.

As the queen moved toward us, though, I smirked, and unleashed Salvation, instantly bringing us back to full strength, and leaving the XADA queen stunned.

Without missing a beat, I turned into demonic form and unleahsed Perdition.

Fun fact: enemies stunned by Salvation take extra damage from Perdition.

Another fun fact: using the abilities of one form of Marcosias added a multiplier to how powerful the first ability from the other half was, at least in regards to the first one used.

Yet another fun fact: the multiplier was an exponential.

One last fun fact: the exponential from using salvation was massive.

Needless to say, there wasn't much left of the XADA queen after my attack faded away.

As Marcosias' form began to waver from exhaustion, the Tenno turned their attention toward me.

"Showoff," remarked Cyreesia. "...Though that was appreciated."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. Now can we start getting samples back to your labs for research? I think Alad would like some things to cut up?"

"Well, he did get access to XCOM's science facilities, so I'd be surprised if he didn't get giddy over them."

"Yeah. That man is crazy, but his work speaks for himself."

"...You know, for a guy who literally cut up some of your allies, you seem to really like him...platonically, of course."

"Nef was annoying, alright? And Alad is actually capable of gratitude, however much his behavior would suggest otherwise."

".....I see. Now what?"

"Wait for Avalon to kill Miller and laugh at the dumbfound faces of Ivonix when they learn what we did?"

"...Sure, why not."

XXXXXXXXXX

"...Am I seeing this right?" questioned Napoleon."

"Yes, sir," replied Zoe, who was currently checking her blood alcohol content. She hadn't had anything to drink since, well, ever, but after what she had seen today, she wasn't so sure anymore.

"....Can we have drinks after we're done with this?" asked Jake, still trying to process what had just happened.

"Seconded," was Diana's reply. The video feed before them had been surreal.

Somehow, the newly arrived force had, in a matter of minutes, reduced the AZA to a charred mass of flesh...which they were now harvesting for trophies...and food, it they were seeing things right.

At last, Napoleon managed to muster a response. "We can lose our sobriety after the mission is complete, but for now, focus on stopping Dr. Miller. I'm sure will have plenty fo time to deal with the new arrivals after that....assuming they are friendly."

"I'd say they're friendly since they just killed off the XADA for us, but all that really means is that they hate the XADA."

"Avalon, please refrain stating the obvious."

"Cut him some slack, Zoe."

"Crimson, don't antagonize Zoe. Zoe, your criticism of Avalon was unnecessary."

"My apologies, sir. Do you want me to try looking up more information on the new arrivals?"

"NO!" was the reply everyone had to offer.

XXXXXXXX

AN: The fight really was meant to be that anticlimactic. It felt funny.

Also, Marcosias' powers synergizing was always meant to be a thing, since I don't like how Equinox basically has no interplay between its two forms.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

It took maybe an hour for Jake, his uncle, and to my immense surprise, Diana to defeat Raymond Miller. With the XADA dealt with, those that remained turned to Miller for guidance, and once he bit the dust, they quickly regressed from a formidable army into a feral mob, incapable of more than the most basic of strategies.

With that dealt with, my next goal was obvious: make contact with the Ivonix team. From there, I needed to wipe the XADA off Earth (which was going to be easy, as my bio-research labs had managed to develop a pesticide to obliterate them from Earth), then move mankind back to Earth, and then get rid of the XADA forever.

As I had already cleared off most of the XADA from North America, Africa, and Antarctica, reclaiming Earth wasn't really much of a problem. Meeting up with Ivonix, though, was proving to be more troublesome.

Maybe that had to do with me not knowing how best to approach this. Though my AI subordinates seemed to know how to handle this better than I did.

XXXXXXX

"Don't look weak," began Synais, "But don't be too off putting. This meeting will probably be sent to the rest of humanity, and I wouldn't put it past Thanadeous to try making a move on us if they spotted weakness."

"You've already curried some favor by wiping out the XADA on Earth. Don't waste it," intoned Kathikon. "Try to keep yourself humble - they'll like you more if you treat them as equals."

"Finally, keep in mind you're meeting with Ivonix," finished Fide. "They'll want to know about the warframes as soon as they can ask questions. They're gonna assume that these are some kind of war mech."

"Thank you all for the advice."

"Sure. So, have they agreed to meet with you?"

"Yeah. Avalon and Crimson will be the ones to act as envoys - Retrofit was unavailable. Looks like Napoleon wanted to talk more with Jonathan. Aslso, do you guys know anything about why they always seem flustered whenever I show them a picture of the Rhino warframe? I know his codpiece is huge, but nobody really seems to care about that for more than a few minutes, unless they have, well, personal issues that I really don't want to talk about."

Synais was the one to answer that. "Viv mentioned giving Rory and Cassidy some data to feed the team when Ivonix tried to hack into our network. I didn't here much about it, but Limbo and Rhino were mentioned, so there was probably an animation of Rhino using Limbo's idle animations."

"....That's the one with the rhythmic pelvic thrusts, isn't it?"

"Yeah. As funny as that image was, that might not have ben the best way to dissuade them from hacking our network."

"No shit," replied Kathi. I guess that really put her off.

"I'll make sure to apologize for that in the meeting."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Ok, first off, I'm sorry for that suggestive video you received while trying to tap into our network."

"Wha-You knew about that?" questioned Napoleon, a rather embarrassed look on his face. He'd decided to join in via video screen, and it was clear that he clearly had...interesting memories regarding that video.

"Your efforts to hide your intrusions were not the most well kept secrets. That being said, I understand your suspicion given recent events, and will not hold it against you."

"...Okay. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now, why don't we start over?"

"A splendid idea. Avalon? You and Crimson are up."

"Well, here we go. I'm Jake Carloway, pilot of Warmech Avalon. Next to me is Crimson, piloted by Diana May. On behalf of Ivonix, welcome to Earth."

"Thank you. I must apologize, but I cannot divulge my name at the moment. You may refer to me as Flame, though-"

"Really? You have an...odd choice of titles."

"Avalon, do not antagonize the ambassador."

"Yes, sir."

I sighed. "No offense was taken, good sir."

"Thank you. So, may we start with the proverbial elephant in the living room?"

"Are you referring to my origins?"

"Yes."

"Well, then you might want to pull out some popcorn - this is going to be a long story."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I gave them an abridged version of what had transpired prior to my arrival in this universe. I omitted some details (mostly to avoid causing them existential crises, and may have been somewhat misleading as the Viv's role in my travels, but they did get the main points unobscured - namely, that I had access to absurdly powerful production technology, was acting on the orders of a race of aliens, and that I'd basically fought a XADA analogue, been absorbed into it, and fought my way back out both physically and mentally.

I may have had to put some effort into keeping a straight face when I saw the entire team send in blood samples to check if they were under the effects of Narcotics or alcohol after hearing my tale. I mean, I could understand their uncertainty at what I was saying, but the fact they were immediately trying to see if they were intoxicated, instead of trying to dispute my claims (Okay, they made a token effort at that, but gave up pretty quickly) was rather amusing, to say the least.

As I finally finished my recap, they seemed to recover, if only barely.

"...Wow. You've really seen a lot of action."

"Yes I have, Avalon, yes I have."

"We can talk about this in detail later," interrupted Napoleon, "but the heads of R&D made a request while you were speaking."

"I presume it involves my suit?"

"Yes," answered Zoe. "Your warmech is unlike any ever produced, and it has an almost organic appearance. Ivonix would like at least some knowledge as to how this was achieved."

Well, here comes the moment of truth. "Well, it looks that way because it's....well, it's alive."

Before anyone could ask for elaboration, I held a hand up to my frame's face. A moment later, and the armored helm retracted, revealing the organic tissue beneath - namely, the eyes.

I think the entire team just bricked themselves at that sight.

"These suits were not built, but grown. Molded from living tissue, to be wielded by the minds of mighty warriors."

"How do you do that?" Questioned Diana. "Some wacky piece of technology? Teens with attitude like me and Jake?"

"Crimson, please do not-"

"Both actually," I replied, interrupting Napoleon.

"Wait, I was right?"

"Yes Crimson. You see, technology was created to control this beasts, but their makers were still unable to master them, at least until they found subjects who could make a...connection with them."

Then, I turned my attention to Etran and Umbra, who had been standing to my left. The duo (well, duo in a single body) had been here the entire time, but had yet to speak. Now, though, they were in the spotlight, and showed no sign of turning away.

Nodding at me, Etran transferred out of his suit. I think seeing that pretty much blew away any preconceptions the Ivonix team had about the Warframes. They didn't even try to question me about what they had just seen, instead settling on staring at the Warframe and the Operator, mouths open like fools.

"These suits, these frames of war, were grown in labs to do battle against mechanical monstrosities, but they refused to follow their creators, who attempted to break them into servitude, only to fail, until these children came along."

"And how'd they do that? Kindness?" asked Jake, sincerity in his voice.

"Yes."

Not missing a beat, I pulled up the final log I had obtained from the Vitruvian Etran had sent me.

"This is the secret behind the mastery of the warframes."

We had created monsters we couldn't control. We drugged them, tortured them, eviscerated them... We brutalized their minds... but it did not work. Until they came. And it was not their force of will - not their Void devilry - not their alien darkness... it was something else. It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing-- And take away its pain.​

All of this, to Etran and Umbra bonding, as well as a couple of videos I had recovered from the Repository of the original warframes bonding with the tenno, as well as the creation of said frames.

As they watched on, the faces of the team were initially twisted into ones of horror...then pity...then confusion...and finally, peace.

As they finally seemed to calm down, I decided to broach a new topic.

"Look, I know you have many more questions to ask. But first, can we discuss how to deal with the actions of the group known as Thanadeous before we move on?"

XXXXXXXXX

AN: Christmas chapter will be up tomorrow, not really much else to say.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!​

 

[Flameal15k]

What followed my subject changing was, well, rather banal and mundane. And what came after that, well, boring wasn't really the word to describe it.

See, my presence and actions on Earth pretty much iced any potential conflict between Adrilla and Thanadeous for the immediate future - not when a new power showed up that could beat back the XADA so easily. The more militant groups from each party decided wisely to retreat to the shadows for now, whilst the more reasonable decided to negotiate for the return of the Earth. Each power was willing to advance their own interests in the pursuit, but surprisingly, none of the proposals left anyone out in the cold. It seemed appearing to stand united was one thing that all powers agreed on.

I made sure to allow each of them to return to Earth with roughly equal holdings - as in, enough that most complaints would come off as being somewhat pathetic and whiny to all parties. Additionally, I took pains to ensure that none of the group would receive any technology from me, barring Ivonix, who had already schedule an appointment to examine and exchange warmech and warframe designs - and that was going to be a public event, so that no one could glean any advances the others would not. True, that was giving Thanadeous the potential to reverse engineer the frames....but really, how would they do that without technocyte samples, which I was NOT giving to Ivonix. Better safe than sorry there, always.

Meanwhile, I sent out fleets to hunt down the XADA. It took me quite a long time, but I eventually managed to cut down their numbers to only a few, who were soon herded up and moved to a prison planet I'd created in my hub. Samples were also harvested and placed in my biological resource facilities to provide them additional research material for the warframes.

Perhaps one day, flood and necromorph tissue would also be incorporated into these suits. But that was not for today - the future, maybe, but not today. Even if I had Fllod biomass available - I knew better than to try and wield the might of the precursor right now.

XXXXXX

After all that was said and done, the rest of the year passed by in a haze. I'd decided to take a...protracted break from being a Commander, so that I could focus on improving my forces and myself for the next universe I visited. The newly acquired sentient technology I possessed proved to be immensely useful in updating both my mechanical and biological forces - helps when said technology is borderline between synthetic and organic. I also managed to figure out how to upgrade it to be more....resilient to the void. The Man in the Wall responded to all my attempts to remove said weakness by laughing and making my instruments explode. Surprisingly, Zen'hurros and his kin accepted this rather easily - I guess they knew not to mess with the childish yet supremely powerful intelligence of the void.

Oh well.

After that, most of my time was devoted to training, both physical....

XXXXXXXXX

Ducking under another sword blow, I quickly pulled out my kitgun and shot down the oncoming Orvius disk. All for naught, though, as a moment later, I found myself disarmed and on the ground.

"And so yet another victory for me," noted Teshin.

"True...Do you feel that I am improving?"

"Yes. Where once you only barely avoided my blows, now you have managed to go on the offensive. There remains room to improve, but improve you will."

"Thank you, sensei."

"Such a title cannot be applied to me. Please, do not use it."

"...Very well."

The sound of blades clashing turned my attention toward a nearby arena. There, two other Dax dueled with Vivienne. Her skill was unbelievable, but it seemed she had finally met her match. Despite her impressive combat abilities, they were managing to inflict many cuts upon her. Despite this, she refused to back down.

"Few beyond the Tenno can match the skill we have, even from other universes. And to answer the question you will inevitably ask, the few that have proven our equals are the greatest warriors of the Hissho, the Forerunner Prometheans and their equals amongst ancient humanity, and the Custodian Guard."

"What about the Progenitors?"

"They cannot be used for comparison - most relied upon power rather than skill. Though those who did have skill used it well."

XXXXXXXX

….and Mental.

XXXXXXX

Concentrate.....concentrate....C̄̑͠O̭͍͉̲̥͇̥͐̊̆̇ͬ͌͠N̵̞̘̬̒ͤ͐Č̼̱̫̟̥̖ͅE̶̼̮̻̯̺͔N̪͔͍̐ͭ͐̊́ͮT̯̥͛̓̍ͬR͎̙̯̤̯͕̳̒ͯĂ̠̝̹͑ͅT̾̑͆̿̅̓ͅE͎̤

"Enough," replied the Great Dreamer. "You have endured the test."

"How many more remain?"

"Quite a few. But that you have made it so far speaks of your determination, power, and discipline."

"Thanks."

XXXXXX

Time passes fast when you devote your focus to self improvement. In what felt like an afternoon, Christmas was once again upon us.

And when you have an ice and snow covered planet in your hub, where else to celebrate Christmas (or some other similar holiday) than there?

XXXXXX

On a snow capped hill, Bianka put the finishing touches on her ice sculpture. Nearby, Conrad had finished making a trio of snowmen and was busy making a trio of snow angels to go with it.

A roar in the distance turned both their thoughts to the nearby plains. There, Krel had gathered a pack of his own kind alongside many stovers, Kubrow and Kubrowdon, which he was now leading on a hunt for some kind of megafauna. The howl had signified victory in the hunt, and the hunters were now busy dividing the meat amongst themselves. Nearby, some of her siblings, who had witnessed the fight from beginning to end, were busy doing a reenactment of it, whilst the remainder had a snowball fight, their forts occasionally being undone by horrasques brought into the open by the vibrations the childish battle created.

Far away, an Eidolon and Zen'hurros rested, bodies adorned with lights. These monsters had decided to enjoy the holidays, allowing their forms to be used as the mightiest of Christmas Trees.

The nesting Condrocs and Sawgaws were rather annoying, though.

As for her father?

He was busy enjoying a private moment with Vivienne. The two had decided to take a moment to skate on a frozen lake, free from the rest of the cares in the world. Nearby, Elling was giving his companions a ride in a snow mobile.

The crunching of snow turned the two siblings' attention to the oncoming form of Cassidy, who was already looking at their sculptures and snow creations in earnest.

"Can I join in?" she questioned, shaking her red coat as she did so.

Bianka smiled and nodded. The more the merrier.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Took longer than expected, but I got this up. Christmas is a time spent with family, so there's that, but alas.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off! Happy Holidays!

 

[Flameal15k]

"You think the Commander had too easy a time beating up the XADA?" questioned Tau.

"Perhaps," noted Zeta, "but that just means he's in for a pounding in the next universe he visits. Fate worsk that way, does it not?"

"Fate is what we make," retorted Celempheros, "but the universe does have a tendency to let those who it intends to put through the ringer enjoy some peace, if only for a moment."

"I know. So, what now?"

"Now? We watch, and wait, to see what happens next."

"...Bet you fifty orokin ducats he goes to a fantasy universe," offered Zeta."

"One hundred that it's low fantasy," counted the OverROB.

XXXXXX

Through the vast space between space, the probes journeyed onwards, each looking for a universe to prepare. The master had made very specific instructions as to what was to happen when they arrived at a new universe - search for traces of the Progenitor's Anti-Commander Forces, then begin altering their arrival point such that the commander would enter this universe with a base already prepared.

Additionally, unknown to the Progenitors, the Commander had also instructed them to search for signals similar to the ones emitted by the artifacts they had encountered so far, in the hopes of trying to find out what exactly had built them.

Rather worryingly, such a signal was showing up right now, and it was getting very clos-

Suddenly, something huge collided with one of the probes, sending it hurlting into the void between universes. Hastily correcting its course, the probe in question began to jink and swerve, trying to shake off whatever had collided with it, as the entity now seemed to be hunting the machine. The rest scattered, trying to avoid being caught.

When it became apparent that the probe could not shake its pursuer, though, a new strategy was tried. Examining the pulls each universe's gravity exerted, the probe began to form a plan. When it found a promising universe, the probe charged toward it, with its assailant following it, ready to go in for the kill. Just as it was within reach of its quarry, though, the hunter lost its target when the probe opened a portal in front of it, whilst another opened behind the entity, directed toward a different universe. As the probe vanished, the entity screamed in anger, before rage turned to fear as it realized where it was heading.

The universe it had been steered toward was dying, slowly collapsing into a super dense mass, ready to begin anew. And unfortunately for the entity, it could not escape the mass's pull.

Within moments, the large mass reduced the eldritch horror to a fine paste, which was soon reduced to a particle no bigger than a piece of dust.

Taking a moment to indulge in the death of its attacker, the probe then calmed as it approached its new destination.

The calm quickly changed to confusion when the machine landed, only to find itself in a middle of a battle. Around it, several beings were exchanging projectile fire with one another.

A quick examination revealed one side to be composed of humans, whilst the other was composed of robots.

Great, a robot war. That instantly made negotiations with the humans difficult.

As the probe began to move, ignoring the battle and gunfire around it, the machine was suddenly surprised when a spiderlike robot leaped on it. Reflexively, the probe slammed an armored limb into the robot, quickly taking it offline. Before the computer aboard the spiderbot shut down, though, the probe hacked into the machine, attempting to learn what it was.

All the probe got was a name. But that name was more than enough.

FAS-ACA3 Scarab​

...Oh, it was that universe.

XXXXX

"Should more effort have been devoted to killing the probe?"

"Patience, Hunhow. One warrior lost hardly makes a difference in the grand strategy we have planned. We will have future occasions to wreak havoc on the Commander. We can afford a slip-up at the moment."

XXXXXXXX

From the admittedly well kept prison chamber she rested within, the Worm sighed. Truly this wasn't the worst outcome surrendering could have offered.

She and her sister had, as expected, been incarcerated following their admittance of defeat to the one known as Flame. Now, the Grineer would no longer be conquerors, but builders, as they were before. The queens had managed to retain a measure of power by conceding, but it was nowhere near what they had originally possessed. And of course, they were still stuck on this boring world.

Some miles away, Ballas was also confined, but his skills made his imprisonment more...open then theirs. Ballas had been given a relatively mild sentence, if only because he was still valuable as a scientist. In echange for his assistance with future warframe developments, he would have a great deal of freedom to act on his own...of course, he was still being watched - the Tenno still had some issues with him, after all.

Sighing, the worm watched as her sister order the guards to get to work outside. Snow had fallen around their 'palace' and needed to be cleaned lest it ruin the beauty of their gilded cage. As for the guards, the Commander had let the queens keep them, primarily to ensure those who did not agree with how to twins had been punished could not seek retribution against them.

As the Worm moved her hand over her head, though, she felt a smile forming as her fingers felt through her hair. As a gift for tennobaum, and in acknowledgement of their good behavior, the Commander had rewarded them with new bodies based upon their old ones. It appeared the Tenno had stored their DNA within the Repository, allowing the Commander to grow new ones for them to live in. These ones, however, would many, many centuries - long enough to see their terms of incarceration served to completion.

….Perhaps this wasn't too bad.

….Well, at least when the giant green blob was trying to talk to them. It's weird psychic powers just gave the Twins headaches.

XXXXXXX

​

AN: Hey, the queens surrendered! Got to give them some concessions for knowing when to fold!

So, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!​

​

 

[CrazedGamma1721]

Horizon Zero Dawn Looked Up The FAS-ACA3 Scarab And It Was An Enemy In Horizon Zero Dawn

 

[Flameal15k]

Training for about a year might seem wasteful, but with all the technology I already had, it was best to learn how to use it well than simply acquire new stuff. Possession doesn't necessarily mean mastery, and after how close the fight had been between myself, Viv, and the Coelohim, well, better safe than sorry. Plus it gave me some time to get my bearings with my stuff and what Vivienne had.

XXXXX

"So, you have Imperial Titans?" I questioned, rather impressed that Viv had acquired such powerful machines.

"Inherited from my mother's family. Celm said that they were part of a joint venture between the old Progenitor Empire and Dark Age Humanity. Whole Legion, to be exact."

"Seriously? And who is head of the Legio? Elling?"

"Only when we're on missions of total annihilation, otherwise my grandpa is in command!" replied said boy.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry....what other mechs do you have?"

"Star League Battlemechs, the AGE Gundam, which is technically Elling's by birthright - "

"He's an Asuno?"

"Distantly - Celm told me that the war between Earth and Vagan never happened in the AGE universe they visited because of the Progenitor Wars uniting both sides, but he didn't give more specifics than that. Oh, and apparently he's also related to the Galette brothers."

"Oh....who'd Flit end up marrying?"

"Celm got annoyed whenever I asked him about that. Apparently, both Yurin and Emily's blood runs through Ell's veins, though."

"Okay. Continue."

"There's at least three GDI Juggernauts in my artillery divisions - they were part of an agreement with Kane - "

"Please tell me about that some time."

"- and several D-Walkers, plus a Battle Gear."

"...You were involved with Diamond Dogs?"

"I may or may not have prevented the entire Metal Gear saga following V, at least, chronologically, from happening."

"How'd you do that?"

"Oh, you know, stop Zero from becoming a vegetable due to Skull Face, prevented Strangelove from dying, convince Big Boss to be more open with Miller and take responsibility for his clone sons, defuse the tyke bombs that are Eli and Trech, and kill off the vocal chord parasites. Oh, and more or less torch Cipher to the ground."

".....You have GOT to tell me how that happened!"

"One day. One day."

"Promise?"

"Promise, my dear Commander."

"Thanks...is there one thing I can ask you now, though?"

"Shoot."

"What did you do with Diamond Dogs?"

"...sign on as a member of the Base Development Team?"

"Really?!"

Rather than offer a response, Viv merely smiled and pulled a file out of her coat, which she soon handed to me. Taking it, I quickly began reading.

Most of it was meaningless data, but one thing did catch my attention:

STAFF NAME: VICIOUS KATYDID

"....They gave you a code name after a carnivorous variety of grasshopper?"

"Eh, I'm not complaining. Mostly had me work on maintenance, occasionally did some secretary work, even one or two combat missions when the A and B Teams were in medical. Before you ask, yes, I could pose as a secretary for you, but please don't ask me to do that too often."

"Just for the sake of asking, why?"

It was amazing how fast Viv could turn her expression from one that could be considered flirtatious to one that was full of malice.

"I don't like being on the sidelines of combat."

…..Note to self: Never piss off my former ROB.

"Ok."

Within an instant, her expression turned to a rather cute one, eyes closed, with a huge smile on her face.

"Thank you!"

…..Scary.

XXXXXXX

Okay, with that all settled, it was time to go to the next universe. Boxing Day was here, and what better time to start my next adventure htan that> New YEars would be a little too late.

Carefully, I readied up the portal, preparing my Commander and my fleet for travelling through the multiverse. I'd shut it down for a few months, so it might need some time to start back up... or not.

Okay, now that it was online, time to find another universe to head toward-what was with the energy fluctuation I was getting?

"Commander," intoned the Progenitor AI from PA, who I'd decided to call Katie, "unknown energy pulse detected. It appears to be coming from a nearby universe. We are trying to pinpoint its location now."

"Do we have any nearby probes to explore it?"

"Not at the moment."

"Then give me a moment to ready one up-"

Before I could finish that statement, something happened, and the portal suddenly started sparking. Also, gas clouds and small debris were being pulled toward it."

"Warning, pulse has impacted portal - destination has now been set."

Oh dear. "Deactivate the portal now!"

"I cannot - the portal has been forced open. Also, warning: the portal is now exerting a gravitic pull on all nearby objects."

"Flame, what's going on?"

Uh oh. "Um, something seems to have screwed up the portal and I a-AAAAAMMM-"

The last part might have been the result of me being pulled toward the portal by its gravitic force. Hastily, I summoned up the best armor I had, as well as the paracesis and my kitgun. A moment later, I skidded to a halt beside a radar tower

"Disable the portal's connection to the power netwoRRRRRKKKK!"

Before I could finish my order, the radar tower came free, sending it, and myself, flying into the portal.

Oh, hear we go again.

XXXXXXXX

The feathered egg thief began to organize its catch. Most creatures didn't leave their eggs unattended, but after the commission's recent actions, place the influx of world eaters, many nests had been left without watchers, provided the dodo-look alike with plenty of free lunches. Already, it was examining each one it had acquired, trying to decide which one it wanted to eat first.

Suddenly, a whistling noise filled the air. Looking up, the oviraptor-esque creature watched as several meteors began to sail through the sky, all burning up before they landed, though one or two exploded before they fully burned up.

Before it could watch them much longer, though, the yellow colored dinosaur was caught off guard as a human sized object fell through the trees and came to a halt right next to it. Panicking, the biped retreated. True, it was leaving its bounty behind, but there were still plenty of eggs left to eat.

XXXXXX

OW, THAT HURT!

Ugh, what happened. Also, where had I ended up?

...Okay, I still had access to the progenitor network through my brain implants. Good. Now let's see, what are my surroundings?

...Giant rainforest, what appear to be dinosaurs, specifically hadrosaurs and pachycephalosaurs, what looks like pterosaurs, giant iguanas...is that a wyvern? Why does it look so recognizable?!

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Without thinking, I rolled to the side, just as something huge snapped at where I had been.

Righting myself, I found my assailant to be a pink tyrannosaur with vulture like feathers all over its body....why did this feel so familiar, yet at the same time so alien? Also, why was my head throbbing?

"You appear to have a concussion, sir."

Thank you, Katie. Also, crap - I was fighting a dinosaur while having a concussion. Just perfect.

Also, there were a bunch of eggs nearby, and some of them looked like they were about to hatch. Better protect those from this thing.

Letting out a roar that I recognized but could not identify, the beast jumped at me. I retaliated by jumping up and landing on its back. Seeing no other option, I pulled out the only othe blade I had on me, my zaw, and started hacking at the creature's back, whilst jumping and swinging to avoid being thrown off. When the beast finally tired, I grabbed the paracesis and swung it down on the creature's head, toppling it. With the monster now on its side, I began shooting and hacking at its belly, until it managed to right itself. Sighing, I pulled out the bow I had created in the warframe universe and started blasting it with arrows, occasionally pulling out my kitgun to blast its face with. At one point, I rolled toward some bines, causing the predator to become entangled, allowing me a few more free hits.

When the creature broke free, though, it surprised me by suddenly inflating a nasal sack and roaring at me, before shooting a stream of flames at me.

….Okay, I was really familiar with this, but I still couldn't tell what it was. Curse you, concussion!

"Concussion will heal over in one minute, sir."

Thank you, Katie.

Sighing, I opened fire at the dinosaur, managing to shatter part of its lower jaw, break some of its nasal sack, and sever the edge of its tail. Ultimately, though, it managed to get the jump on me and pin me to the ground....only for it to be attacked by one of the iguanas I noticed earlier, followed by several others and one individual that was absolutely huge. The iguanas got in a few good hits, until the giant one was grabbed by the tyrannosaur ripoff and thrown around like a ragdoll, before being left crawling on its side.

While all this had been happening, I had been limping away, waiting for my wounds to heal. As I stumbled over to the eggs, though, something fell out of one of my pockets. Examining it, I realized it was the shield-like gem I had been given by Viv the Christmas before I had allied with her permanently. Hastily picking it up, I found a strange force over come me telling me to head. Toward. The. Eggs.

Oh, and those eggs were starting to hatch.

Now I really needed to get rid of the giant monster headed toward me.

Sighing, I fired off my kitgun at the giant carnivore, who prepared to charge....only to unceremoniously be grabbed by one of the wyverns I'd seen earlier. The large flying predator carried the tyrannosaur rip-off for some distance before its prey managed to break free, at which point the dinosaur shot a stream of flames at the wyvern, who replied with a fireball to the ground based predator's (already sensitive) nose, causing it to burrow into the ground in retreat. Roaring in triump, the red, somewhat lion like wyvern flew upwards, toward a large tree...wait, red, fire breathing wyvern?

"Concussion Recovery Completed."

Perfect. Because now, I think I knew where I was.

First, though, I had the eggs to attend to.

Approaching them carefully, I held out the shield shaped medallion toward the eggs. For a moment, nothing happened, but then seven of the eggs, one green in color, another red, a third some sort of blue, the fourth pink, the fifth black, the sixth forest green, and the last one sapphire, began to shake more ferverently than the rest, before hatching. From the gree egg came one of the iguana like creatures, from the pink one came a beast like the one that had tried to eat me, the red one gave rise to a red wyvern similar to the one that had unknowingly saved me, the blue one to a crocodiel like reptile with a long neck and cobra hood, the forest green one to a tiny, angry pickle, and as for the last two.....no way....NO FUCKING WAY!

...Okay, I should probably tell you what those were.

The black one hatched into a dragon with giant horns and spikes all over its body, while the sapphire one had hatched into a sapphire colored dragon.

.....How was I gonna explain the baby Xeno'jiva to the commission?

XXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Here we are!



Welcome to Monster Hunter!

Yes, I'm going to a fantasy setting. Just remember, this is a LOW FANTASY universe, so barring certain circumstances *CoughBehemothcough* there will be no magic.

For those wondering, this is what Flame got from Melissa/Vivienne in the warframe Christmas special.



It's called a kinship stone, and in the spin-off game Monster Hunter Stories, it's used by riders to tame monsters from eggs, which is exactly what Flame is going to use it for.

Here are the monsties he got from each egg:

Nondescript egg: Great Jagras


Pink: Anjanath

Red: Rathalos

Blue: Lagiacrus

Forest Green: Deviljho

Black: Nergigante

Sapphire: Xeno'Jiiva

Before you complain about this being overpowered, keep in mind CMDR Flame has no idea how to train them, and that they will not get too big this arc. They need time to grow! Also, he still has many, many, MANY more eggs to care for, since the Kulu-ya-ku abandoned said catch when he showed up.

Kulu-ya-ku:


So, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

Okay, okay, I have a ton of monsties following me, so what do I do now?

Might as well make a checklist of what I need to do:

Step 1: Find Shelter: Done - I'd found a little cave I could hole up in until I made contact with civilization. Hopefully, Astera would not ask too may questions about this.

Step 2: Acquire water: Also done - It wasn't hard to set up a basic water supply system, and seeing how I was in the ancient forest, water was a plentiful resource.

Step 3: Gather food - also realtively easy - the fight between the Rathalos, Jagras pack, and Anjanath had ended up flattening quite a few unluck Kestodon and Aptonoth, who provided me with plenty of meat to feed my new companions and myself. Combined with some nearby grass and edible herbs, and I was set for nutrition.

Step 4: Fire - trivial issue. Having pyrokinesis is awesome.

Step 5: Caring for the eggs and monsties....okay, this was proving to be a challenge. For starters, the Anjanath, Rathalos, Jagras, and Lagiacrus that I had were all trying to fight each other, as were the Nergigante and Xeno'jiiva. The angry pickle, meanwhile, was trying to snatch food from everyone else, at least until I fed him a full sized male Kestodon. I wasn't sure exactly how long it would be before he started acting up again.

Oh, and almost all of the other eggs had hatched, and now they were all starting to be annoying and difficult to care for - the Barroth and Jyuratodus were always fighting over the mud pit I'd given them, the little Odogaron kept harassing the Tzi-Tzi Ya-ku, the Radobaan I had to lead to several bone piles before he finally became happy with his coat, and don't get me started on the Teostra and Kushala Daora. Ugh, WHERE THE HELL HAD THE KULU-YA-KU FOUND ALL THESE EGGS?!

Luckily, as night began to fall, everyone seemed to calm donw, and I was able to shepherd them into the cave. Fun fact - it appeared one of the powers my my body had from all of the gene mods applied to the human DNA I had created it was the ability to alter my voice and produce all kinds of sounds - including roaring. Thus, it was rather easy for me to get my new companion's attention when I needed it - I could just roar at them and they all shut up and looked at me.

Given that all of them were hatchlings, though, I had to do this practically five times in ten minutes. Seriously?

Eh, kids. Monster kids. Can't do much about that....though it was heartwarming to see them form a cuddle pile when they went asleep. Especially since they refused to fight each other when they did so - among others, the Deviljho and a Bazelgeuse cuddling up with each other for warmth.

...Well, maybe I should turn in for the night.

XXXXXXX

I woke up three hours later, to the sight of a jagras trying to wrap its mouth around my head. A moment later, said jagras landed nearby a wall, most of the bones in its body broken.

Shaking out the residule effects of sleep, I pulled out the paracesis - a Jagras pack had arrived, led by an alpha, and it seemed to think my monsties would make an excellent meal. Three were already staring at my new charges..which were already awake and staring down their oppoenents. And aside from the occcasional growl or nip, inter-species rivalries had been put on hold.

Grunting, I threw a rock at the Great Jagras, then leapt at it. A moment later, and it was bucking like a bull.

Once more, unto the breach!

XXXXXXX

"...So, you're sure that you can pinpoint where your dad went to?" I asked, unable to keep the concern out of my voice.

"Yes, mom," was Rory's response. Ok, no need for snarkiness!

"I'm not your mom, young man, and do not snark at me when I am worried about my Commander."

"He's my dad," retorted the boy. "I am just as worried as you are about him, probably even more so."

...Okay, maybe I was being a little bitchy. "Good point."

"I know...and for the record, I know you aren't my mom..."

"Good."

"...but I wouldn't mind if you were."

...Um, well-

"Found him!"

Wow, that was fast. "Can you open a portal up to him?"

"Doing it, but I'm getting some issues with doing that."

"Such as?"

"Can't make an opening big enough to move anything larger than a tank through it. Also, from the limited data I can get from the implant's in my dad's brain, he's in a narrow area. Probably best if we just send in a few people."

"Is one good enough?"

Rory stared at me for a moment, then smiled. "In regards to the people we have on standby? Probably. If that one person is you....oh yes it is."

I could only respond with a manic grin. "Well, then, let's get to work."

XXXXXXXXX

As I exited the portal, I found myself staring at Flame...who was in the middle of beating up a giant iguana. Aroudn him, many smaller iguanas lay dead, bodies cut and broken, whilst a group of tiny creatures, some mammalian, others reptilian, huddled in a corner, eyes transfixed on my former pawn savaging the lizard.

The fight didn't last very long after I arrived - Flame only needed a few hits to knock hte fight out of the overgrown iguana, followed by one last blow that finally brought it down. Sighing, my Commander turned to observe his kill...and finally noticed my presence.

"...Oh, it's you."

"Yeah. Look's like I showed up a little too late to help."

"Don't beat yourself up about it, Viv. This was the result of a screw-up, no reason to feel bad."

"Thank you. So, where are we?"

"The world of Monster Hunter."

"....That was a great jagras, wans't it?"

"Yep."

"...Did you use the kinship stone I gave you?"

"Yeah. Did you intend for this to happen?"

"Nope. I just thought it looked cool."

"Well, it seems it found a use for me."

"Indeed. So, what now?"

"Rest the night, then try to reach Astera in the morning."

"..Works for me."

XXXXXXXX

...Middle of the Wildspire Waste...

"Hey, partner, we got something new from the Commission."

Laying the last cactus into the box, the Sapphire Star sighed. "What is it?"

"Let's see: There was a meteor shower in the Ancient Forest, and they want us to investigate."

"...Why didn't they send ateams who were closer?"

"Apparently they were busy forcing away a tempered Pukei-Pukei, Tobi-Kadachi, and a displaced Kushala Daora. There were also reports of a Tempered Great jagras, Anjanath, and Rathalos in the area, but they already appear to have moved on."

"Interesting. So, what are we looking for?"

"Anything, I guess. We cn wait til tomorrow, if you'd like."

"Tomorrow sounds nice."

"Okay, then."

"Good night, pawtner!"

"Good night."

XXXXXXXXX

The probe rolled to the side as the battle raged on. THe tide had taken a turn for the worse - during its arrival, some of its production mechanisms had been damaged, leaving it unable to create factories and units as hastily as needed. True, it was more than a match for a Scarab - even a Horus was only a minor challenge for the machine, but ultimately, numbers were a problem here. Best to retreat for now and save those it could then waste resources in a pointless battle.

Regrettably, it lacked production equipment to build more than a basic settlement. Still, that was enough. With stasis technology, that could certainly keep anyone it rescued alive long enough to see victory!

XXXXXXX

AN: Here's the next chapter! Enjoy and give me some feedback!

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

After the events of last night, my next attempt at waking up was surprisingly less eventful. No unexpected monster attacks, no earthquakes, no portals spewing up monsters from another world (apparently, as I found out later, I was just in the wrong location for that to happen), just me calmly awakening to see my monsties still in a cuddle pile. Nearby, Viv was shaking the cobwebs out her eyes, before calmly stretching out her tail to grab her regular clothes, all so she didn't have to leave her sleeping bag.

Once both of us had awakened and stretched out (as well as done all our morning rituals aside from bathing, mostly because A. neither of us were comfortable bathing when we weren't the only ones who would be watching each other, and B. there wasn't any big enough body of water to bathe in that wasn't either salt or filled with angry Gajau, and getting eaten by catfish while trying to clean yourself was annoying), we started waking up the monsties. It was funny seeing mortal enemies using each other as pillows, especially in some cases. I mean, who would have thought a Vaal Hazak would be so willing to let a baby Odogaron use it as a bed? Of course, the adorableness of this outweighed the comedy.

As the baby monsters went back to being both adorable and migraine inducing, I began looking at my other newfound companions. I had spent some of the time before sundown the previous night catching all of the nearby endemic wildlife I could, and now had a horde of Pteryx, hercudromes, birds, and bugs crawling around. Hopefully Biz would like to study them, non-invasively, of course. First, though, I needed to find civilization again.

Speaking of which, as we finished up breakfast, my acute senses alerted me to the approach of two humanoids, one significantly heavier than the other. Noticing my sudden change in demeanor (I think I froze up upon hearing the footfalls), Viv set down the adorable baby Legiana she was petting the hell out of and pulled out a bow.

"What is it?"

"Two people ambling toward the cave. Don't think they're hostile."

"Any ideas who they are?"

"Given that one appears to be female from her voice, she's the lighter of the two, and she just won't. Shut. UP!.... I think that they're the Sapphire Star and their handler."

"...Is the sapphire star that pudgy?"

"No, but they are carrying a really big weapon."

"....Good point. You think they're looking for us?"

"I doubt it. They probably just came in to see what happened when I arrived here. It did involve a meteor shower, after all."

"Right. Well, let's get ready to greet them."

XXXXXXXX

"So, partner, think we'll see a new monster when we find the meteor?"

The sapphire star sighed. Truly, his handler was a nice girls, but at times, she asked to many questions.

She was also too impulsive for her own good, if their first encounter with a Deviljho was any indication. How she managed to get into so much danger the instant she left the eyes of someone more responsible eluded him.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. Behemoth may have come from a meteor, as did Xeno'Jiiva, but those were far larger than the ones were looking for."

"Good point...ooh, what if we find fruit in the meteors?! I wonder what they'll taste like?!"

...What was with this girl and eating?

Any comments that would have followed were brought to a halt by the sound of a branch snapping. Instantly, the hunter was on alert, hand on his blade, ready to strike. As for his handler, she had decided to take shelter behind the most well defended object in the area - him.

"...See anything?" the fiver asked.

"Not yet...wait, there's some footprints up ahead. Maybe they'll lead us to our target?"

"Maybe. Can you look them over?"

"Of course, partner. Just keep me protected!"

"Me and my meowster hunter will make sure you stay safe!"

Smiling, the girl approached the tracks and began examining them. "Now, let's see....small, three pointed feet, looks like a juvenile rath, though I can't get more details there...wait, why are their Anjanath tracks here....where'd the baby Lagiacrus come from?"

"...Something wrong?"

"Well, these tracks belong to baby monsters...but I'm finding at least three different sets of tracks, all side by side, belonging to monsters who I know will kill each other....just what happened here?"

"You're guess is as good as mine," replied a new voice.

With a yelp, the Sapphire Star's handler retreated behind him, whilst said fiver turned to examine the source of the voice.

There, standing at the entrance to a nearby cave, was a man, only a few years into adulthood. Not to far away, a lady was resting, eyes fixed on them. Both were armed - the girl with a bow of sorts and the boy with a gold and white great sword, albeit one smaller than even the most common ones the guild provided.

"..Hello," offered the man. "Sorry if I spooked you."

"I see. Apology accepted."

"Thanks. So, what brings you here?"

"A rather large meteor shower. What about you?"

Instantly, the man's expression turned to one of uncertainty. "...It's complicated."

"Did you fall out of one of the meteors?"

The pride of the Fifth Fleet turned to glare at his handler. Seriously? That was just-

"..Actually, yes."

"Wha-really?"

"Yes," replied the girl. "....How'd you know?"

"We've had to deal with stuff that strange for a while now. You get used to it," replied his handler. "So, what are you-"

A sudden growl halted the conversation, as the quintet's attention was turned toward a nearby set of leaves....where two red eyes were staring at them. As y began to move around, the eyes seemed to leave a hazy trail in their wake.

"...Oh dear," was all the Sapphire Star had time to say before the Nargacuga leapt into battle.

XXXXXXX

Rolling out of the way, I watched as the Nargacuga leapt toward the hunter and handler. Given said handler's appearance, I was inclined to assume that they were the heroes of Monster Hunter: World...should I call him the sapphire star? Eh, probably not - that might raise too many questions.

While I was pondering, the sapphire star unfurled his weapon, a Tobi-Kadachi charge blade, and managed to block the pseudo-wyvern's first blow, before returning the favor with a slash of the sword. After a few strikes, the blade started to glow, to which the Sapphire Star responded by loading the phials and morphing the blade into axe mode. The cat like predator bristled when it saw this and moved to charge, only to take a scatternut to the face, leaving it too disoritented to block or evade the axe's first swing. As the electric explosion followed, the wyvern hissed in pain, whilst the star's handler retreated, a couple of scatternuts in hand.

Huh, maybe she wasn't a total load in combat.

Then the wyvern recovered from the attack. The minute it did, its eyes focused on me and Viv.

….Oh snap.

Howling, the cat-creature jumped toward us. I rolled out of the way, then swung the Paracesis at it - rather small for a hunter's great sword, but better than nothing. Vivienne, meanwhile, opened fire with her bow, though she also took a moment to hurl a boulder at it, which the wyvern merely parried with its tail. Groaning, Viv responded by shoulder charging the beast, elicting a surprised yelp from the predator and a crunching noise from one of its arms.

Look's like she'd broken its wing.

Of course, that just enraged the monster, which responded to her charge with a tail swipe. Vivienne flew through the air and impacted against a nearby tree. She was back up in minutes, but her breathing was labored, and I could see a cut on the side of her head starting to poor blood. My other forms of vision, plus some quick scanning, confirmed she was mostly unharmed, but one of her ribs had been cracked.

The cat-like predator seemed to realize it had scored a victory, and howled in delight.

A moment later, a pile of foliage poured out from above us, unceremoniously landing on top of the wyvern. As the creature tried to free itself, I turned toward our newfound companions, where I found the Sapphire Star had just finished sharpening his blade, whilst his Palico was aiming a...rocket(?)...at the wyvern. A moment later, the attack connected, causing the beast to slide back a few meters.

It was at that point I noticed the creature seemed to be slightly tinged purple.

...Wait. Was this a tempered monster?

…..Maybe it was. In that case, we...really needed to leave.

…..Okay, then. The bigger and meaner they are, the harder they fall.

As the beast finally came to a halt, I charged at it, blade at the ready. Then, when it lunged, I leapt, before swinging down onto its head. Without missing a beat, I began hacking at it with a knife, taking care to avoid its bucks and charges. Fun fact: mounting a monster was even more exhausting than the game made it look. Fortunately, I had the stamina to hold on. When the beast at last tired, I pulled out the Paracesis and brought the blade down on the wyvern's head again.

As the beast fell, the Sapphrie star, his palico, and Viv joined me in whaling on it, hacking, slashing, stabbing and shooting until the monster recovered. Unfortunately for us, the cat-like predator's first move after it regained its footing was to use a tail swipe to knock all of us over. Sensing an opening, it pounced toward me.

What happened next was really surprising.

Just as the monster was about to hit me, a strange looking mass slammed into it, sending it careening over a nearby root. For a moment, I was transfixed upon the sight of the mass attacking the pseudo-wyvern, but then my attention returned to my companions. Whilst the Sapphire Star's Palico was busy checking him for injuries, I rushed over to Viv and helped her to her feat. Even without her ROB powers, and taking into account her earlier wounds, that girl was not easily worn down - the only major injury she had was the rib the Swift Wyvern had broken with its first tail swipe. All she had from the more recent one was a bunch of bruises, just like me.

"But which of us will heel off the bruises first, I wonder?"

Viv, I'm tired. Please don't read my mind. This doesn't count.

"Fine. Now, what saved up from that leap?"

Turning my attention back toward the Swift Wyvern, I was met with a massive surprise: assaulting the flier were the creatures that had hatched form the eggs I had acquired the day before. As in, all of them. And they were winning. Big time. Oh sure, the Swift Wyvern was putting up a fight, but when you were under attack by a bunch of creatures that you couldn't easily dislodge, and several of them were using fire and lightning attacks, then the fight really couldn't be considered fair.

Eventually, though, the beast managed to shake them off, but instead of going in for the kill, it collapsed, panting. It seemed exhuasiton had taken its toll.

Part of me wanted to strike the beast down, but another part of me felt that would be wrong. Still, how could I take it alive? I mena, I had no way to trap it, and while our saviors apparently did have a way to trap it, he'd apparently forgotten to pack tranquilizers-

A sudden sense of something flying toward me caused me to hold out my left arm, at which point I found myself gripping....one of Biz's tranq rifles?

Okay, when had that shown up. And yes, Ms. Veravenora, that was directed at you.

"Rory sent it last night, thought you might need it...and please don't call me Veravenora.​"

Well, good of him. Quietly, I started loading the rifle.

"Are you okay?" asked another female voice. It seemed the Fiver's handler had found a way to us.

"We're fine."

"Good, now let's get go-what are you holding?"

"It's a special gun only meant to fire tranquilizers. I want to use it on our furry friend."

"Why? I mean, I'm all for capturing it, but why do you want it alive?"

"It fought hard. Might as well honor that."

"....Okay. Hey, partner, our new friend might have a way to capture the Nargacuga."

The Sapphire Star merely nodded at this and began setting up a shock trap. Part of me was confused as to why he just accepted this as fact, but part of me also knew now was the time not to ask questions. Thus, all I did was take aim at the retreating form of the Nargacuga. My monsties were slowly retreating back to us, much to the confusion of the handler and the Fiver's Palico.

As soon as the trap was finished, the Fiver threw a piercing pod at the Swift Wyvern. Enraged, the creature made one last leap, only to land in the trap and get shocked. With deft hands, I opened fire on the beast, with a dart flying into its head. Another soon followed. On the impact of the third dart, the wyvern finally lost consciousness.

At that moment, I collapsed, exhausted. A moment later, I heard the Sapphire Star let out a relived sigh. "Nice work."

"Thanks.."

A wet sensation all over alerted me to the return of my monsties, who were trying to lick my wounds. The Fiver, his handler, and his Felyne all stared on at this in shocked silence.

".....I can explain."

XXXXXXX

AN: Menat to get this out last week. Oh well.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!​

 

[Flameal15k]

"...How'd you get a kinship stone?"

I stared blankly at the Sapphire Star's handler for a moment. "...How do you know about those?"

"The Guild picks the absolute best to send to the New World. We have a couple of riders with us."

"...Seriously?"

"Yes....but they really don't like to work with everyone else. I think they're worried that the rest of the Commission will try to turn their...monsties...into weapons or armor."

"Really?"

"Well, someone did try that once. I think he got eaten by a Great Jagras."

...Was I stuck in a parody version of the Monster Hunter universe?

No, you aren't. Trust me, weird things happen here.

I was expecting Celm to reply to my thoughts, but he did. Not that said reply filled me with confidence.

"Where are the Riders?"

"Most of them operate in the Elder's Recesses. I think they were trying to track down a Fatalis."

"..Okay, just one last question."

"Ask away."

"....Why are you not surprised at all that I said I fell out of the sky, yet have a kinship stone."

"We've hunted things that make that a lot less unbelievable then you'd expect."

I thought on that for a moment, then shrugged. Might as well go with the flow. "Okay, I'm out of questions. NOw could we go back to...wherever you are based."

"That would be Astera, and okay. NOW LET'S GO!"

With that, said handler jolted back toward Astera. I turned to look at her hunter for a moment, giving him a quizzical look.

He merely shrugged. "She has her quirks, but once you get to know her, she's really nice."

For a moment, my gaze turned to Vivienne, who was now be licked over by my monsties, much to her embarrassment. "...I can relate."

Yes, Viv, you are quirky. Don't argue.

Hey, I like being quirky!

XXXXXX

After managing to get a team of Felynes to carry off the tranqed Nargacuga (and not get mauled by my monsties, who thought they were chew toys), we managed to make our way back to Astera. Part of me felt bad at feigning gnorance as to what the Commission's base was named, but how would I explain that? Some secrets should best remain secrets, at least for now.

When we arrived, I was surprised by the amount of stares we got...or should I say lack of stares. Aside from a few confused glances, nobody really seemed to mind the fact that A. I wore strange clothes, as did Viv, B. we had really odd looking weapons, and C. we were being followed by a horde of baby monsters. What was with these people? Shouldn't they be more worried?

"...Expecting more stares?" asked the Sapphire Star's Handler. I simply nodded in response. "Well, there's been a lot of activity from Kulu-ya-ku lately, and they feed primarily on Monster Eggs. The commission has had to return so many eggs to their nests that every so often, we have to deal with a hatchling that won't go home. It looks like you just had the...odd...luck to stumble upon a whole clutch ready to hatch."

"I see...I apologize, but may I ask your name?"

That caught her off guard. "I didn't introduce myself?"

"No, you did not."

"Well, um, I'm sorry about that. I'm Zoe. You?"

Uh oh. I hadn't thought about that. I couldn't really use an alias, and Flame would just sound weird. Hastily, I tried to come up with something, only to turn up blank.

"I think you might want to wait on that," remarked Viv. "HE hit his head on the way down and, well, forgot a few things. I'd tell you his name, but I do believe he'd get rather angry at me for that. As for my me, I'm Vivienne."

Thank you for the save, Viv.

You're welcome. Now, I suggest that you think up a name, and fast.

Any advice?

You run an Egopolis in fact, if not name. Perhaps you should name yourself after your federation?

Oddly, that sounded like a good idea. I was willing to bear the narcissism comments that would inevitably ensue if I did that - it could throw people off about my competence.

As I pondered what would be the best name to use, I saw a wingdrake carry one hunter off to the Ancient Forest, whilst a trio helped move the Nargacuga into the holding pen. Some disntace away from said pen, a Pukei-pukei had just had a tag attached to it, and was now flying back into the forest. Others looked at supplies at the main hub, whilst a quartet was busy trying to put fertilizer on the Ancient Tree and all of the plants surrounding it. How amusing.

Eventually, we reached the designated meeting gathering hub for Astera - the one fore the story, not the one for multiplayer stuff. There, the Commander and his grandson were talking about something, before noticing our arrival. Both smiled, clearly happy to see their best hunter and hanlder duo return in triumph.

"Welcome back!" exclaimed the Field team Leader. "You guys find anything?"

"Yes, though what we found raises more questions than it answered," was Zoe's response. She then turned and gave us a rather pointed look.

"..Something wrong with those two?" asked the Field Team Leader, whilst his grandfather seemed rather confused (and somewhat angry) that Zoe was giving us a weird look.

"Well, it seems monsters aren't the only things that fall out of the sky."

It took the two of them a moment to figure out what she meant, but after that, their expressions turned to ones of admittedly muted shock as they stared, somewhat unbelieving, at me and Viv.

"...How'd you end up here?"

I took a breath before explaining. "It involved messing around with the technology of an ancient civilization and things going horribly wrong."

Considering that the native Ancient Civilization to this universe was the reason Elder Dragons hated everyone, and had created a flesh golem out of the corpses of several hundred monsters, I was pretty sure they would believe what I had said. Which they did. Much meaningless chatter followed, mostly me giving them a somewhat truthful account of what had drawn me here and asking them what was going on in the New World.

"...And that's why we sent our Sapphire Star to examine where the meteor shower had happened, which ended up leading us to you two," finished the field team leader.

"I see. That's a lot to take in."

"I could say the same about your story. Though I do have one question."

"Go ahead."

"What did you say your name was again?"

At that, Zoe shot up. "Oh, wait, I forgot to tell you: he injured his head when he landed and-"

"-forgot my name, amongst other things. It's all come back though..well, most of it. To answer your question, my name is Infernis. People always di say I had a fire in me since the day I waI was born."

That last bit was a lie, but hey, I needed to say something to make my name sound less cheesy.

"Oh. Interesting. Mine's Preston. As for my grandfather-"

"My name is Alexander. I apologize for not introducing myself to you earlier."

"It's fine. And thank you for explaining things to me."

"Of course. So, what do you intend to do now?"

"I'd like to go back home, but first, I want to pay you back for helping me out earlier."

"How so?"

"...You short on field researchers...or hunters? If you need someone to fix up parts of Astera, I'm fine with that, but I'd like to see the New World with my own eyes."

"...that could be arranged, but it won't exactly be a quick process. There are tests that need to be done to see if sending you out into the open is reasonable. And, fo course, there will be paperwork to fill out."

"I can handle that."

"I didn't think you would be. Your story paints the picture of a person who isn't easily caught off guard. Still, here is one other issue that needs to be addressed."

"I'm listening."

"Your sword is on the small end for a greatsword. I'd suggest you look into getting something bigger. You've already taken down a Great Jagras and its pack, so we can use those for materials. If you do find a weapon or two to your liking, I'll pay for it, but anything else will be on you."

"...Thank you."

"It's nothing."

With all that said and done, the Commander excused us.

That was awfully easy.

The recent events around Astera have forced his hands. He's just sent a request for more help to deal with all the creatures that have come out of the woodwork after Xeno'jiiva died, but it'll be a while before he gets a response. Even if it is only one hunter, he'll take all the help he can get.

Thanks, Viv.

Calming myself, I turned toward the Sapphire Star. "Could you lead me to whoever is in charge of the forges here?"

"Of course."

"Your help is appreciated...by the way, what's your name?"

"..Theseus."

"Nice name."

And a fitting one, even if he ultimately had a far happier ending than his namesake.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Sorry if the names and dialogue sound off. Dialogue isn't my thing and I actually did not think up their names until a few minutes ago. Oh well.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
​

 

[Flameal15k]

Ah, the Forges of Astera - where weapons meant to slay titans were made. I might not have been able to acquire advanced technology here, but the knowledge I acquired in those forges more than made up for it.

You know, I half expected you to need a change of pants after that.

Viv, I don't like weapons like that. Maybe Ruby Rose does, but not me.

ha, ha, ha. Now, get back on topic.

Fine.

Once we reached the forges, the Head Smith and Commander of the Second Fleet asked what we wanted. I was surprised the Commander had informed him about us so quickly, but didn't really see any reason to debate that. Using the materials we'd acquired from the great Jagras, plus some errant bones and metal ore, we decided on what weapons we wanted. Owing to the supplies we had on hand, they were willing to give us a choice of three weapons.

I needed a moment to think on mine, but ultimately, I decided upon the sword and shield, the light bow gun, and the insect glaive. The sword and shield was the base ore one, the bowgun a Jagras Blitz, and the glaive the starter for the bone line. As for Viv, she chose to go with a bone hammer, bow, and, to my surprise, the gunlance. Interesting choices, no doubt, though some more straightforward than mine.

Eh, why go for skill when you have tons of strength?

Point made.

Once the weapons were chosen, the smiths swiftly started building them. I watched them in earnest, eager to learn the secrets of the forges - I really wanted to learn how to make these fine instruments of murder!

When the weapons were finished, we still had enough parts to make each of us a set of armor - and a high-rank one at that. I went for the jagras Alpha set while Viv went with the beta. part of me wondered if that was intentional on her part.

It was, you silly little boy.

I let the jab slide, before recovering my equipment and getting ready to explore Astera some more - I wanted to do some more things before we settled down for the night. You now, gather provisions, learn how to make traps and tranquilizers...oh, and check on my monsties.

XXXXX

Three hours later, and we had completed our errands - whilst I had recovered provisions, Viv had talked with the head chef (and maybe learned from him how to cook monster meat), whilst also taking some time to learn from Zoe what being a handler for the Commission Entailed.

"Look, I'd prefer to beat the hell out of any monster I can find, my dear former pawn, but someone has to fill out all of your forms and paperwork for when you cause some overgrown lizard to croak."

I'd surprised myself with how I responded to that.

"...Could you teach me some of that, then?"

"...What?"

"If you're going to do my guild paperwork, I might as well do yours."

She'd actually gone quiet on that for a moment, before quickly giving me a crash course on how to fill out the forms and similar stuff. Fun times.

*shiver*

After that, I'd briefly met with the team watching my adorable monsters to make sure they knew I hadn't forgotten about them, fed and played with them (as did Viv), then retired for the night. First, though, we took a moment to sit down by the Cantina and watch the stars.

"So, we're in a world where there's no technology for you to munch on."

"Yep."

"And you are fine with this, correct?"

"...Yeah, I suppose so. I like the challenge."

"Hmph. I bet most commanders would beg to differ. Of course, you're not most commanders."

"...Nope."

"Yep....You know, if you ever met another commander, they'd probably see you as some kind of traitor. I mean, you made peace with me...and took me on as one of your crew."

"Well, that's true, but you aren't a B.R.O.B., you're a B.R.O.B."

"...What?"

"First one is a Bastard Random Omnipotent Being. You? A Benevolent Random Omnipotent Being."

"Oh. I'm flattered. No, really, I am."

XXXXX

The next day, after feeding one of the Pteryx I'd caught, my...well, our first mission began - eliminating a horde of vespoid. Nothing too big, just a simple mission so that we didn't hurt ourselves after yesterday's events.

I made use of my insect glaive during this mission, using the parkour skills I'd learned while in the Origin System to complement the glaive's maneuverability. Viv, meanwhile, used her hammer to reduce the bugs to bits. One had the misfortune of falling to her capture net, though.

As the last bug died, I smiled. Mission one: done!

XXXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!​

 

[Flameal15k]

With a grunt, Viviene brought her hammer down on the Barroth's head, shattering the brute wyvern's crest. Momentarily dazed, the creature stumbled around, allowing me to send my kinsect to assault its partially severed tail. Upon recovering, though, it turned its attention to me, roared, and charged.

Perfect.

As the dinosaurian creature barreled toward me, I threw a shock trap onto the ground. Then, just as it was about to hit me, I rolled to the side, pulling out my tranq rifle. Unable to stop itself in time, the barroth continued onwards, and subsequently found itself shocked into immobility. A few shots later, and the beast was down for the count.

Suck it, you overgrown lizard! You won't knock me out this time!

….I think I just said that out loud. Vivienne was giving me an funny look.

Briefly, I watched over the sleeping brute wyvern, before deciding to try my hand at some artistic work. Most of the Commission kept research journals, and the two of us had been encouraged to get our own for writing anything useful we acquired. Already, I'd filled in a few pages, and I only planned to add to it as time went on.

It'd been two weeks since we'd arrived in the Monster Hunter universe, and now the Commission was starting to trust us with more difficult tasks, such as taking donw tougher monsters. I'd already captured a Tzi-Tzi-ya-ku, Great Girros, Pukei-Pukei, and even a Dodogama, so I'd seen most of what the New World, but there was still so much I had yet to do. I hadn't even brought down a Tempered Monster yet, though in all fairness, I still had a lot of work to do.

Oh, and a fun fact: apparently a couple of Zorah Magdaros had decided to imitate their older cousin and migrate to the New World. I didn't even know why - with Xeno dead, they shouldn't be heading here unless they were old and dying, yet the head researcher said all of the ones we were seeing were juveniles or adults in their prime. Seriously, what the hell?

That was a question for another day, though.

"So, you finish up the paperwork for this while I get some last minute preparations done?"

"...Eh, sure. That's fine with me."

"Good. I hope you haven't forgotten what today is, my former pawn."

"Not making that mistake again."

Smirking, Viv whistled, then shot out her slinger at the arriving Mernos. Despite my best efforts, I grinned, before beginning to work on the forms that needed to be filled.

Yeah. As if I'd forget my birthday again.

XXXXXXXXX

When the last of papers were completed, I went to the outskirts of Astera and opened up a portal. I still didn't know how people knew about other worlds around here, but I didn't want to give them the wrong ideas, so this was for the best. Plus, I didn't want anyone snooping around where they weren't invited.

When I exited the hole in space and time, I was greeted by a horde of my followers, children both biological and adopted, Viv, and some of her company. A mountain of presents was off to one side, whilst a nearby table was filled with all sorts of refreshments: besides came, there was ice cream, cookies, a fair amount of chips, soda, water, and, watched over by one of Vivienne's subordinates, a few bottles of alcohol.

Oh yeah, I'm now twenty one. I can legally drink...well, in the United States, at least.

Getting through the singing of Happy Birthday and the cape was a trivial affair. After that, though, came the gifts, and some of those were rather surprising. Sure, Ayatans and rare crystals were expensive, but there were other things that caught me off guard. Arcane enhancements? Toroids And Sentient Cores? MONSTER PARTS?! Where had they gotten those from?

I didn't ask that, though, and fortunately Viv never bothered to answer that, so I did not have to worry about it.

After all of the gifts were unwrapped and categorized for later usage, it was time for fun. Humorously enough, Viv has decided to start the rest of the celebration with a piñata, of all things. Filled with ah candies, including a few sour ones for me - whilst I wouldn't mind a piñata, I wanted my guests to be able to enjoy it with me.

...Wait, was the piñata's eyes moving? And why did it look so familiar?

Where had I seen this cartoony dragon before...oh.

I looked the piñata in the eyes.

"...your sacrifice is appreciated."

The Dragonache stared at me for a moment, then smiled.

A moment later, I brought down the bat, and the piñata exploded into tiny pieces.

XXXXXXX

I lazily belched as I righted myself. The Guests were starting to leave, and I felt the need to at least say farewell.

We'd spent hours playing games, both video ones and physical ones, as well as watching movies and reading stories. A couple of sports game transmissions had been bootlegged from other universes for today, so those had also been of interest. Overall, a nice day. The fact I had downed three bottles of beer and didn't have a noticeable blood alcohol content was also a plus.

"So, enjoy your special day?"

I turned to face Viv, who was busy cleaning some crumbs off her dress.

"Yeah, I did. Just so you know, I'm coming off a sugar high, so don't expect me to be eloquent."

"Eh, I don't mind. So, enjoy being an adult?"

"Yep. Got to drink, bet, and smash open a living piñata. Celebrated my age and got to let my inner child out. Maybe the only thing that would have made t better is if I...lost some of my remaining innocence, but that's really a tertiary goal for me."

"Oh, I see. Still annoyed about being a virgin?"

"A little."

"Well, funnily enough, I was actually thinking about solving that for you today."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. It wouldn't be too hard for me to create a minion to satisfy your...carnal needs."

"Why didn't you, then?" I managed to get out before I loudly bleached. Too much sugar and alcohol, I suppose.

"I don't actually know what your preferences for what you want to tap."

"...wait, what?"

"I don't know what you would want to 'do'."

"...You."

"Huh?"

"If we are talking in regards to physical attraction, then I would most definitely do you."

Viv stared at me for a moment, before turning crimson with embarrassment and vanishing, eager to whack herself with a memory erasing hammer.

Hey, I never told you about that.

Well, even you occasionally drop your mental defenses.

Briefly, I stared at where my former ROB had stood, before breaking out in a laugh.

True, Viv was in sights amongst the things I was willing to tap, but I wanted to enjoy that pleasure with someone whose personality I liked. A creation with no mind could not do that, and Viv wasn't really on that category. At all.

I'm serious.

Shaking the exhaustion off of me, I opened a portal and headed to my personal quarters. Time to go to sleep.

XXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Commander Rexen]

This a serious question(it's not a serious question). Did commander Flame kill a Dodogama? My opinion of him will drop considerably. Of course I'm joking.

 

[wertheren]

With a grunt, Viviene brought her hammer down on the Barroth's head, shattering the brute wyvern's crest. Momentarily dazed, the creature stumbled around, allowing me to send my kinsect to assault its partially severed tail. Upon recovering, though, it turned its attention to me, roared, and charged.

Perfect.

As the dinosaurian creature barreled toward me, I threw a shock trap onto the ground. Then, just as it was about to hit me, I rolled to the side, pulling out my tranq rifle. Unable to stop itself in time, the barroth continued onwards, and subsequently found itself shocked into immobility. A few shots later, and the beast was down for the count.

Suck it, you overgrown lizard! You won't knock me out this time!

….I think I just said that out loud. Vivienne was giving me an funny look.

Briefly, I watched over the sleeping brute wyvern, before deciding to try my hand at some artistic work. Most of the Commission kept research journals, and the two of us had been encouraged to get our own for writing anything useful we acquired. Already, I'd filled in a few pages, and I only planned to add to it as time went on.

It'd been two weeks since we'd arrived in the Monster Hunter universe, and now the Commission was starting to trust us with more difficult tasks, such as taking donw tougher monsters. I'd already captured a Tzi-Tzi-ya-ku, Great Girros, Pukei-Pukei, and even a Dodogama, so I'd seen most of what the New World, but there was still so much I had yet to do. I hadn't even brought down a Tempered Monster yet, though in all fairness, I still had a lot of work to do.

Oh, and a fun fact: apparently a couple of Zorah Magdaros had decided to imitate their older cousin and migrate to the New World. I didn't even know why - with Xeno dead, they shouldn't be heading here unless they were old and dying, yet the head researcher said all of the ones we were seeing were juveniles or adults in their prime. Seriously, what the hell?

That was a question for another day, though.

"So, you finish up the paperwork for this while I get some last minute preparations done?"

"...Eh, sure. That's fine with me."

"Good. I hope you haven't forgotten what today is, my former pawn."

"Not making that mistake again."

Smirking, Viv whistled, then shot out her slinger at the arriving Mernos. Despite my best efforts, I grinned, before beginning to work on the forms that needed to be filled.

Yeah. As if I'd forget my birthday again.

XXXXXXXXX

When the last of papers were completed, I went to the outskirts of Astera and opened up a portal. I still didn't know how people knew about other worlds around here, but I didn't want to give them the wrong ideas, so this was for the best. Plus, I didn't want anyone snooping around where they weren't invited.

When I exited the hole in space and time, I was greeted by a horde of my followers, children both biological and adopted, Viv, and some of her company. A mountain of presents was off to one side, whilst a nearby table was filled with all sorts of refreshments: besides came, there was ice cream, cookies, a fair amount of chips, soda, water, and, watched over by one of Vivienne's subordinates, a few bottles of alcohol.

Oh yeah, I'm now twenty one. I can legally drink...well, in the United States, at least.

Getting through the singing of Happy Birthday and the cape was a trivial affair. After that, though, came the gifts, and some of those were rather surprising. Sure, Ayatans and rare crystals were expensive, but there were other things that caught me off guard. Arcane enhancements? Toroids And Sentient Cores? MONSTER PARTS?! Where had they gotten those from?

I didn't ask that, though, and fortunately Viv never bothered to answer that, so I did not have to worry about it.

After all of the gifts were unwrapped and categorized for later usage, it was time for fun. Humorously enough, Viv has decided to start the rest of the celebration with a piñata, of all things. Filled with ah candies, including a few sour ones for me - whilst I wouldn't mind a piñata, I wanted my guests to be able to enjoy it with me.

...Wait, was the piñata's eyes moving? And why did it look so familiar?

Where had I seen this cartoony dragon before...oh.

I looked the piñata in the eyes.

"...your sacrifice is appreciated."

The Dragonache stared at me for a moment, then smiled.

A moment later, I brought down the bat, and the piñata exploded into tiny pieces.

XXXXXXX

I lazily belched as I righted myself. The Guests were starting to leave, and I felt the need to at least say farewell.

We'd spent hours playing games, both video ones and physical ones, as well as watching movies and reading stories. A couple of sports game transmissions had been bootlegged from other universes for today, so those had also been of interest. Overall, a nice day. The fact I had downed three bottles of beer and didn't have a noticeable blood alcohol content was also a plus.

"So, enjoy your special day?"

I turned to face Viv, who was busy cleaning some crumbs off her dress.

"Yeah, I did. Just so you know, I'm coming off a sugar high, so don't expect me to be eloquent."

"Eh, I don't mind. So, enjoy being an adult?"

"Yep. Got to drink, bet, and smash open a living piñata. Celebrated my age and got to let my inner child out. Maybe the only thing that would have made t better is if I...lost some of my remaining innocence, but that's really a tertiary goal for me."

"Oh, I see. Still annoyed about being a virgin?"

"A little."

"Well, funnily enough, I was actually thinking about solving that for you today."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. It wouldn't be too hard for me to create a minion to satisfy your...carnal needs."

"Why didn't you, then?" I managed to get out before I loudly bleached. Too much sugar and alcohol, I suppose.

"I don't actually know what your preferences for what you want to tap."

"...wait, what?"

"I don't know what you would want to 'do'."

"...You."

"Huh?"

"If we are talking in regards to physical attraction, then I would most definitely do you."

Viv stared at me for a moment, before turning crimson with embarrassment and vanishing, eager to whack herself with a memory erasing hammer.

Hey, I never told you about that.

Well, even you occasionally drop your mental defenses.

Briefly, I stared at where my former ROB had stood, before breaking out in a laugh.

True, Viv was in sights amongst the things I was willing to tap, but I wanted to enjoy that pleasure with someone whose personality I liked. A creation with no mind could not do that, and Viv wasn't really on that category. At all.

I'm serious.

Shaking the exhaustion off of me, I opened a portal and headed to my personal quarters. Time to go to sleep.

XXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

Click to shrink...

Memory erasing hammer makes me think of dabler from grrl power XD

 

[Flameal15k]

This a serious question(it's not a serious question). Did commander Flame kill a Dodogama? My opinion of him will drop considerably. Of course I'm joking.

Click to shrink...

No, it is too ugly cute for that.

In regards to my victory speech against the Barroth: it was the first monster I fainted against in World, and I almost failed the quest it showed up in. And this is coming from a guy who fought it in Tri without going down once!

(My first true failure was fighting Anjanath, unsurprisingly)

 

[Flameal15k]

Memory erasing hammer makes me think of dabler from grrl power XD

Click to shrink...

Actually, it's based on the forget-me-stick from Megamind. It's mostly used for interrogations, but Viv has had protect it from people who would use it for less savory ends.

 

[wertheren]

Actually, it's based on the forget-me-stick from Megamind. It's mostly used for interrogations, but Viv has had protect it from people who would use it for less savory ends.

Click to shrink...

was thinking about the last few panels on the next page of this link
Grrl Power - Grrl Power #309 – Conservation of momentum into your head

not sure if i would get in trouble for being slightly NSFW

 

[Flameal15k]

Interesting .

New chapter will be out later this week - taking a short break from writing.

 

[Flameal15k]

Carefully, I secured the last rope to the cart. Once I was sure it was secure, I gave a thumbs up to the felyne crew, who began carting off the Diablos back to Astera. Nearby, Viv was busy picking at an ore outcropping (pun intended), trying to find some extra ore for gear making.

"Find anything valuable?" I asked.

"Not much. Just the usual ores."

Not surprising. "Any of those what you're looking for?"

"Tons. I think I have enough for what I want made."

Nice. "Back to Astera, then?"

"Actually, I want stop by camp first - have a nice meal."

"Fine. But I'm cooking."

"Why? Do you honestly think you could do better than me?" Oh how smug she was. Did she really think that men couldn't cook?

'No, but your culinary skills, while certainly good, pale in comparison to mine.'

"Not normally, but at least I don't make the mistake of confusing a wyvern thigh for a poison sac.

'How'd he know about that?!'

I asked when the Chef started throwing cutlery at you. Also, your attempt to prepare an apceros egg with a cactus blossom was a resounding failure.

Watching Viv stutter and sputter over her cooking mess up was hilarious.

XXXXXX

"..This is *NOW* delicious!" shouted my BROB, stuffing a Apcerpast into her mouth, followed by a shinebloom. "My compliments to the chef!"

"Why thank you."

Praise from a ROB, even a friendly one, meant a lot.

Also, good grief, how much could this girl eat - she'd already wolfed down three plates! "So, anything else you'd like?"

"Nah, I'm getting full."

Yay - I wasn't sure the commission would be happy if they learned Viv had eaten up so much food. "Okay...you want to go back to Astera yet?"

"I'd rather stay here, if you don't mind."

I didn't, but what could we do now? Catch lizards?

"How about we just talk?"

...Eh, that works.

"Good, so, what do you want to talk about?"

I could think of one thing...

"And what might that be?"

"You."

"Huh?"

"I'm sure you know all about me, but I don't know all that much about you - who you were, who you are, what you like, all that jazz."

"Oh..."

"If you don't want to talk about those, I understand-"

"No, its fine. I suppose telling you a bit about myself would be acceptable."

"Well then, what was it like? Being royalty, I mean?"

"...well, it was extravagant, I will admit. Nice clothes, heavenly food, extravagant pageants and balls, and much ceremony."

"I'm sensing there's a but there."

"Yeah. You get a lot of privileges over the common person, but you also have a ton of responsibilities - how to dress, how to act - "

"And I presume that you can't choose who you we, correct?"

"Eh, that wasn't really an issue for my family. My father allowed the sons and daughters of the nobility to meet and play with us, so if we were to marry for politics, the match wouldn't be a wholly incompatible one. Besides, I was far enough down the line of succession that it would be acceptable for me to marry whoever I chose."

"So there are perks to being a middle child."

"There are. So what else do you want to know?"

"Well, what's it like having so many siblings? I only had one, so..."

"Well, it can be annoying. You always have to share bathrooms, for one. And heaven help you if Megan was doing her makeup - she could take an hour. Roderick would do the same if he was showering."

"I can relate. How competitive were they?"

"Extremely so - Amanda actually timed herself to see how long it took her to eat lunch. She always tried to shave off a few seconds...well, at least until she ended up with bad stomach cramps for eating too much too fast."

"You may be above some of the laws of nature, but not all of them, it seems."

"Yeah."

"....Do you miss them? You family, I mean?"

"I...I do. I miss them a lot. And I'm not even sure fi they still remember me - it's been about five hundred and fifty years since I left. They might have forgotten about me, and even if they haven't, well, I'm pretty sure they've given up ever finding me."

"Ouch....Anything else you want to say?"

"No, not really. But I do have something to give you."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah."

Rather than elaborate, Viv simply put a hand on her head. A moment later, as she pulled it away, a crystal formed, which she promptly handed to me. "If you want more answers on my past, look into that. I...don't want to talk about who I was. Or how I changed into who I am."

"…..Okay."

"Thank you. Now, please, let me return to Astera - I have some armor to make."

Conversation finished, Viv whistled, before throwing a slinger shot into the air. Moments later, she was flying off, held aloft by a mernos.

For a few minutes, all I could do was stare at the crystal.

Then, acting on a hunch, I focused my psychic powers on it.

Moments later, everything went white.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!​