[IC]TotMG:V2 - Hyperdimension: Return of the Four Felons

[StormLord]

After returning from her session around the Castle's workshops and lab Spicy HG steps off to the side, apparently taking some kind of call.  Eventually she returns and relays a similar message to anyone willing to stand around and listen.

"I just got a message from my Oracle.  One of his old associates contacted him asking for any possible aid, something about a their own Goddess being missing and things not going well.  I'm...I'm going to be honest I don't think I'm ready to go back to my own world yet.  I know it's not much to go on, but if you could help me take care of this I'd be extremely grateful."

The party, or those who chose to tag along, are all gathered to a slightly unstable looking tear in space-time.  On the other side they could see a strange looking room with violet walls and magenta floors all covered in odd pulsing lines, the muted hum of some machine can be heard on the other side.

"Alright this is your last chance to back out, but for those that don't I thank you so very much for going, we'll pick you up in the Castle when you're done."

Once on the other side the group quickly finds out that the room wasn't as large as it looked and was more of a glorified closet than a proper room and with eight people cramming in through a one-way portal things get cramped fast.  Eventually though, someone manages to find the door(which of course opens inward) and squeeze to open it, after which the party practically pours out of the tight space.

The room beyond is much larger though, carved violet stone makes up the walls, expensive rugs cover the floors, and most of the ceiling is covered in murals gilded with gold and silver.  A center isle with three rows of pews on either side, all facing left, fills most of the room.  At the far left wall stands a lectern in front of some kind of shrine.

Two figures stand(err sit? float?) in the room, the first to speak could've been mistaken for a child if it hadn't been for the large techno-fairy wings sprouting from her back or the massive floating magical book she was sitting on, otherwise she seemed to be wearing fancy purple and white clothes and a matching vaguely nurse-esqu hat.

"Oh my.  We didn't expect so many of you." She spoke in a calm, slightly nasally voice with a hint of stressed panic in the background.

The second figure, an oversized house cat sitting on one of the pews with grey skin that looked like it had just gotten over a horrible case of mange leaving only a few stray tuffs of blue-grey fur over a thin, bony frame spoke while licking one of his paws and not even looking up at the party.

"Well what did you expect?  I told you she wasn't going to be bothered to come herself."

"Hmph, well you don't have to be so rude about it." The fairy turned to address the party as they picked themselves up "My name is Histoire, I am the Oracle of Planeptune and I called you here to help.  Our Goddess Neptune has gone missing not long ago and on top of that there is an anti-Goddess citizen group protesting here and in the other nations.  Furthermore there are reports of an international crime syndicate the Goddesses stamped becoming active once again despite its leaders being dead.  All of this has me concerned something more is afoot and I'd like you to look into it."

She paused for a moment, thinking.

"I'll try to answer any questions you may have."

[DragonRage]

"So what you're saying is you want us to rescue a living pagan idol, suppress lawfully gathered protesters because they don't agree with your religion, and then fight mobsters?"  Iowa lights up a cigarette, and then gives Historie a look that expresses exactly how dubious she finds this whole pitch.  "Telling the people they can't have their freedom of assembly or freedom of speech is a step towards tyranny.  Not to mention violating the Bill of Rights at least twice, and probably more.  There is a distinct and disturbing lack of safeguarding the rights of the people in this shindig.  And if the opulence of our surroundings is any indication, more than a bit of corruption.  Maybe if you were spending money on useful things instead of locking it up in wannabe-Catholic churches, the people would be more inclined to like you.  As things stand, it looks a lot to me like they've got legitimate grievances that you, the tyrant and possible theocrat, are trying to sweep under the rug."

[rustytengo]

"Ummm...not nice to say. This isn't your world so things that may be true in your world might not be true here. " Bridgett quietly said to Iowa. "And anyway it's just rude to treat people who invited us to there world like that without learning anything about it or them. What if these goddesses are really important to the world? What if the protesters are being violent? what if these mobsters are inflaming the unrest in order to profit from it in some way or ..something." Bridgett continued as she hid behind others as she spoke.

[Yours Truly]

Atton looked a mite bit miffed from being packed like a sardine in that closet, and he wondered exactly how he was supposed to get a whole half track in here before he said, "I'm going to have to agree with the extremely patriotic woman on principle here, extradimensional paramilitary organizations shouldn't be called in to curtail anyone's right to protest, and honestly the police should be the one handling international crime syndicate you mentioned, and honestly, everything except for locating the goddess seems to be a job the proper authorities should be dealing with...except of course for the catch I presume you are going to tell us all about next?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Mira

 

For the most part, listening to all of this, Mira nearly sighed. She was already annoyed due to the closet situation, which she nearly kicked down the door once she learned that it was an INWARD opening door, but she had managed to restrain herself enough to prevent needless damage.

 

Now, she was standing in a room while not one, but two people already began to question why they were even here. Granted, they had sound logic, but perhaps the situation was dire enough for this... Fairy to summoned them here in order to assist.

 

She could never be sure, but for now, she merely stood where she was, folding her arms in silence as she observed the briefing in front of her.

[StormLord]

Histoire huffed and puffed indignantly as she tried to keep up with Iowa's wild accusations.

"Oh.  Tyrant?-well I nev-Hmph."

But the look Iowa got was nothing compared to the scowl the cat garnered with his comments as he continued cleaning behind one of his ears.

"I told you this would happen...you didn't listen."

"You said nothing of the sort! and bathing in front of everyone isn't helping the situation!"

The cat visibly shrugged and then without a word smiled, a massive grin filled with yellowing chipped teeth. Next it began rapidly evaporating, starting with his tail until nothing but his eyes and smile were left and those too popped out of existence.

Histoire sighs and takes a deep breath before trying to explain things in better detail.

"I don't know where you come from, but here threatening borderline terrorism and violence to the head of state within a day of their disappearance isn't something I'm willing to let play out without trying to at least defuse the situation before anyone on either side gets hurt, but I don't even expect any of you to help with any of that."

 

"The crime syndicate I mentioned isn't just a bunch of normal mobsters either, last time they were in power they nearly killed four of the Goddesses and tried to summon an ancient deity bent on world domination and total anarchy.  They are the reason I called for help, sending normal soldiers after something like that would be a death sentence."

 

The cat reappeared, this time several pews down and cleaning the other ear with as much disinterest as before.

"A sighting was called in, apparently CFW Judge was seen rampaging through a nearby village and forest.  The candidates and local militia have been notified, but you may want to finish up here before he turns them into wet-food."

 

[Yours Truly]

Atton took a couple of deep breaths to center himself as the oracle as brought him up to speed, "Alright now that I have learned more about the situation, I now feel that I should apologize for our previous comments Miss Histoire, and I hope that you understand that this was all just a misunderstanding, at least on my part, since if the criminal syndicate you speak of is as dangerous as you say they are, then I don't think that this is a problem that we can just ignore, especially since we already did agree to help." 

He straightened out his uniform a little and put his hat back on before he continued with, "Now if what I'm assuming is correct, and that this 'CFW Judge' fellow is a part of the syndicate attempting to plunge the world into chaos, then I feel that it would be wise to hasten our introductions, my name is Richard Atton and I'm going to have to ask for my half track and crew to be sent over here as well, since there's no reason for us to give the enemy an advantage this one time."

[ElfCollaborator]

Gabriel looks more than slightly confused as he looks around at the veritable rogues' gallery of people around him.

"Uh. Wait. Judge? Goddesses? What? Please explain a little more for those of us who uh.....don't come from.....Planeptune?"

[StormLord]

"Yes CFW Judge is part of the origin- Wait that can't be right?!  He's been dead for several years."

"I was wondering when you'd notice that.  Apparently something brought him back, or created something enough like him to fool our operatives."

"Oh, well I guess it isn't the first time something like this has happened, but it is troubling...  As I was saying though CFW Judge is one of the original members of the Arfoire Syndicate for International Crime.  My data bank is telling me he joined because he was looking for a "Real Challenge", he hits hard and enjoys fighting, but might just wander off if he decides the fight is boring."

Histoire looks kind of nervous and confused at Atton's question reguarding his Half-track, but the cat answers for him.

"So that's who owns the vehicle in reserved parking 15C, I'll...cancel the tow truck."

He gives Atton a large smile before disappearing again for several seconds and reappearing on yet another different pew.

While this happens Histoire takes a chance to answer Gabriel's question.

"Neptune, she is the Goddess and leader of Planeptune, she is also currently missing but I still have several leads to explore there."

Once she finishes she floats over to a nearby doorway, which opens automatically, and ushers in two guards clad in purple armor with simple swords on their waists.  Between them they carry a heavy create which they set down gently before returning to the hallway they'd been in before.

"I had these gathered up so you had something to help with your quest, you're welcome to take them all."

Spoiler

(x2)Healing Circle: Restores 10 HP to four targets, usable once only, doesn't require a loadout slot.

(x1)Healing Pod: Restores 4d4+20 HP to one target, usable once only, doesn't require a loadout slot.

(x1)Life Shard: Revive one fallen ally to 25% HP, negates any wounds they would've received, usable once only, doesn't require a loadout slot.

(x3)Observation Scope: Looking through this allows you to other peoples heart rate, temperature, and...stuff.  Libra one target revealing their HP and a short blurb if able, usable once only.

 

[DragonRage]

"I suppose I can reserve judgement until I see for myself," Iowa allows grudgingly, "Bah, why can't people be rational and stick with democracy?  Nothing else works half as well..."

 

Iowa declines to take any of the probably heretical items.

[Powder Miner]

Perlita reflected that if she hadn't been used to supernatural nuttiness already, she probably would have squinted at the mentions of "goddesses" being thrown out. As is she mostly just quietly listened to everything. Kind of just sticking around Gabriel (and blinking confusedly at Iowa on account of not having seen her before), Perlita eventually piped up with another question. "Okay, um, I guess I should ask if we're going to be fighting him, but what exactly is this CFW Judge? Is he just some guy with, I dunno, a sword or something?"

 

When the heavy crate of items was set down, Perlita reached in and grabbed the Life Shard. "Since I'm usually the healer, I hope nobody minds but I'll take this..."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Mira

 

When the items were offered, Mira merely waved them off. She didn't need to use them, her own would suffice, "My own question: If we are to take care of this 'CFW Judge', do you want him brought back dead, or alive?" she asked, having barely moved from her initial position since the talks began. She didn't care either way they wanted his condition, it was simply her job. She would've asked what this man was capable of as well, but thankfully, Perlita was taking care of that for her.

[Twinwolf]

6D had been fairly quiet, listening to the mission and not really giving her thoughts. After the discussion and after Perlita took one, she did. "If nobody minds, I will be taking something. Just in case."

 

Take a Healing Circle

[StormLord]

Histoire tries her best to ignore Iowa, but was still somewhat visible peeved by her.

"CFW Judge is very large in stature being at least fifteen feet tall, practically a giant.  He seems to be some kind of cyborg as the low half of his body was replaced with a large wheel mechanism.  He wears heavy black and blue armor and uses a long double axe in combat."

The cat looked up and answered Mira's question.

"You can kill him if you like, but don't waste an opportunity to get information.  Even if you do spare him I expect he'll self destruct over the shame of defeat again anyway."

"Now since you already have a vehicle I'll simply have a small escort sent to guide you as soon as you're ready.  If you'll excuse me though, I have several other matter to attend to and you may direct any further matters to Mr. Dark."

With that, and assuming no one had anything pressing to keeping from leaving, Histoire politely floated out of the room through one of the side doors.

Mr. Dark, the cat, yawned and slowly stretched out his front legs and paws as cats are want to do.

[DragonRage]

"Only an axe?  Shouldn't be any trouble then," Iowa asserts, "We've got enough guns among us he'll never get close enough to use that.  And since when was being defeated a reason to commit suicide?  That's quitter talk, that is.  Uh, what's a cyborg?  I can't seem to find that word in my dictionary either.  It must be some more of that future lingo."

[rustytengo]

"Umm... a cyborg is usually a human with robotic upgrades or parts. " Bridgett said as she looked through the crate of things "If he is anything like the combat cyborgs from my world he probably has some special abilities that are really dangerous." Bridgett pulled out some of the items from crate "So...ummm...its probably not a good idea to underestimate him....I'm going to take these things since they should be helpful." she said sort of hiding behind the items she grabbed from the crate.  

 

Bridgett takes the Healing Pod and 2 Observation Scope

[StormLord]

"Ha!  Something tells me he's wearing more than enough armor too ah...bounce a few rounds?"

He reaches up and starts raking one claw through a small tuff of fur left at the tip of his chin, obviously contemplating something.

"Now your chariot awaits!  and you wouldn't want to be late would you?  This way please."

He hops down from the pew and wanders to one of the doors on the far right side of the room, where the rows of pews terminate and give way to a wider walking space.

 

Beyond the door is a large hexagonal room with a proportionally large desk in the middle, on the opposite side of the room a revolving door accompanied by normal double doors on either side.  Many people in many types of dress are buzzing through the room, asking questions at the desk, taking elevators, entering side rooms, etc.

Most people seem to be wearing fairly standard business attire, some guards in armor are sprinkled about, at least two priest-looking fellows wander by, and a few look almost as strangely out of place as your own group.

 

The cat, Mr. Dark as he was called, leads you all out the front door without more than one or two brief second glances from the surrounding people.

Outside a long set of steps leads down to a busy street and tall buildings raise up in practically every direction, purple, grey, and off-white dominate the color schemes of various buildings and many of them hold a sort of futuristic architecture style with no shortage of neon lights or bizarre tech.  Behind you some distance away a massive tower dwarfs the surrounding landscape, being three or four times the height of the average building and a good many stories taller than the next tallest.

 

Directly in front of the party on the street is Atton's Half-track taking up nearly three whole partying spaces, flanked by two groups of at-easy guards and occupied by Atton's two nervous looking men.

Spoiler

 

 

Punch:

 

You're fall, and falling...and falling.

Not much around here.  Lot'a empty space, some bright light, not much.

You think back you how you got here, seems like a while ago, but you're not really sure about time in this place.  You were just going about your business when suddenly BOOM! a portal opened up and you got here, falling.  Falling.

 

But now something is changing, the white is turning to light blue, clouds are appearing, you can hear again!  You can hear cars, the murmur of city life, all sorts of things.

You turn over to look down, twisting your body mid"flight", but it's too late the only thing you see is the glimpse of dark armor before you come crashing into it.

 

You come too a few seconds later where you landed, unharmed, and surrounded by strange people in a strange city.

 

 

Everyone:

 

You're all starting your walk down the stairs when you catch a hint of a blur at the edge of you vision, just at that second something large collides with Mira knocking her to the ground(though her armor seems to have prevented any injury).

The object, or more specifically person that landed on Mira turns out to be a young woman sporting strange dress, three fox tails, and fox ears.

[Endlessblaze]

Punch sits up, having not yet noticed the presence of the armored Mira under her, and rubs her face.
"Oof...." 

The white ears on her white haired head twitch, as blue eyes start to focus.
She was presently wearing a strange black cross of a tunic and dress, with jeans. The grey straps which formed an X over the front of the dress looked like they might be useful for attaching equipment to, if they actually had something on them.  With a belt and bag loosely wrapped around her waist. The belt seemed to be made out of leather that had been stained red, while the bag was just a plain tan leather.

"Oh dear. Where have I wound up now?"   

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Mira

 

As soon as Mira's question had been answered, the mercenary merely nodded, falling silent as the briefing began to finish. An armored opponent, larger than her, and a large axe. From the explanation, Mira could conclude that they were a power focused fighter, just like her. Of course, people could be deceiving, but at the very least, she knew she could kill him if she needed to. Which was good, she preferred not having to deal with further problems.

 

And, from his appearance, it shouldn't be hard to find them.

 

However, soon enough, the group was on the move, moving out of the building and into the city... Which upon her first sight of it, caused Mira to pause. She had seen plenty of cities in her time, and yet this was far different than the ones she had seen. This one was far too bright, and far to loud for her tastes. But, she had no room to complain. She was just meant to do a job, not care about the look of a city.

 

So, Mira followed the rest of the group, keeping an eye on the streets and its citizens, scanning for potential threats, even if it was needless.

 

The one place she forgot to check, however, was the sky.

 

A flicker of movement was the only warning Mira got before a body crashed into her, knocking her roughly to the floor and onto her back. Thankfully, her armor took most of the force... Yet she had gotten hit while on the stairs, which dug her armor into her back. Overall, not a pleasant experience for the mercenary. It only took a second for Mira to get her senses back, her "blood red" eyes visibly moving to glare at the woman/fox that had landed upon her, and seemed oblivious to the fact that she had.

 

"Get off" Mira growled, and in clear frustration brought her hand up, pushing the woman off of her so she could get up.

[Endlessblaze]

"Huh? Woah."
At Mira's sudden push the woman fell onto her back, lightly hitting the concrete before tumbling down the last few stairs. Once she lands, she sits back up, hair tussled but looking no the worse for wear and starts looking around. Eyes landing on Mira first, and the rest of the party second. Quickly putting two and two together.
"Oh, sorry, didn't see you there. I should of reacted sooner and done something about my trajectory. I promise I don't usually go around face planting into people."


 

[Powder Miner]

Perlita glanced around the city with a look of surprisingly mild wonderment — the alien spaces (Abductions? Coming up with a name for them had always been hard) she was used to being in were, well, much more alien than this was, with geometry that got downright like that guy with the upside-down staircases at times. Perlita didn’t remember his name, but the point here was that even though the city was worth a little gaping, it didn’t really stun Perlita.

 

What did stun Perlita was a girl suddenly following out of the sky and slamming into Mira, knocking the armored girl down and causing something of a scene. Perlita just sputtered for a few moments, at first. ”A— b— wh— y— no... no, nevermind, this is basically normal at this point, isn’t it? Uh...” She fell silent for a moment, gesturing into the empty air meaninglessly, before she sighed and shrugged, and approached the two fallen girls. Well, they LOOKED uninjured, but... ”Um... could either of you use any healing?”

[ElfCollaborator]

Gabriel, standing right next to Perlita, is also looking in mild awe at the city. He hadn't seen places like this except in paintings and in the alien spaces, but it was the fact that this was practically dime-a-dozen for them at this point that made all the difference.

 

Then suddenly, people.

"Uh....do people normally fall out of the sky here? I'm pretty sure that's not how that works. Right?"

[Twinwolf]

"I fell out of the sky on the ship. Maybe it is normal in other places." 6D noted. "Are you both alright?"

[DragonRage]

"People just fall out of the sky without an aeroplane?  All the time?  And they aren't hurt by the fall?" Iowa asks, "The future is strange."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Mira

 

"I don't need any healing. I've survived worse" Mira said, noting how her Magra was already getting to work on fixing any discomfort she was feeling from being a makeshift cushion for this... Woman's fall. Speaking of which, Mira turned towards her, giving her a rather visible glare despite wearing a dark helmet, "I don't care if you don't make a habit of it. Just make sure it doesn't become a habit" she stated. Quite frankly, she didn't know where this woman came from, but judging from the general trend of randomly appearing people, she could say that either she was part of this world, or sent her as "backup" from those in charge against the Trespassers.