Burger

Altera: Of Departures and Deliverance

It sucked. It was so much worse than fighting a goblin. The strength and speed was on a whole other level. The ice made it incredibly hard to stand her ground. She wasn't even trained to fight like a swordsman. She had her bow and her arrow, could track animals, and was a great asset while outside of combat, but inside? She couldn't do much. It was dangerous to fight on ice. A danger that was as equal to herself than it was to others.

As the two had their momentary duel, Ash was disarmed as the swordsman used his armor to slap her dull blade out of the way. She was unarmed in a hostile world. She had her quiver on her back, but what use was old worn leather and arrows in such a melee? The skeletal swordsman went for a brutal thrust—to skewer Ash on the blade that he possessed.

It was a joke. A cruel joke. Every waking moment in this world was terrible. Getting sick, allies in debt, almost dying to a goblin, being constantly forced to the ends of her wit; her life lead to nothing but misery. It was a massive trial. No, that was a misnomer. A trial would imply some level of fairness. This was an execution.

But Ash didn't want to die.

She couldn't.

She wouldn't.

As long as she could think, she would refuse to die. Her thoughts all echoing that sentiment. Her actions, all echoing it. No matter what. She. Would. Not. Die. With a healer, getting stabbed was fine. She could take it. Not well, though. Long enough so that Gwyn could do her duty and get rid of the skeleton that was assailing her. If she had to take a sword in the process, she would.

The ice was a curse, but it could also be a blessing. Her wrists hurt, but she could still manage all of her strength. After all, one could break their limits if they had no other options. With the thrust coming her way, she kept her arms outstretched in front of her. She didn't need to catch the blade. She just needed to push it off center. Once it was off center, she could grab and control the skeleton as best as she could. Wrist, arm, hand, blade, anything that would let her survive, she tried to grab. If they skeleton tried to move with her latched on, she could just abuse the ice and slide on top of it. If the skeleton would demand Ash to fall, then he would too. Ash refused to go out like this.

Wareware wa tada betsu no sekai ni tsurete ika reta!

With the boomer whom Erin was thinking of calling gramps conversing with the nekomimi, their little emperor throwing a massive hissyfit after the green shorty set her up to massively save face, a pair of equally excited mages, some people whose abilities basically were five instances of 'gun', a woman who DARED TO MENTION HARRY POTTER IN THE PRESENCE OF ERIN, the twunk rabbit-man being a stereotypical rabbit (and subsequently bad-touching the emperor alongside another), she watched the receptionist leap over the desk. Really, she could have literally taken those ten steps to go around the desk. She was r00d to the carpenter who made that desk! Desks didn't grow on trees! Wait a moment...

As much as Erin wanted to goad the emperor a bit more, she ran out of emperor names already. She literally only knew the one. She couldn't call him Copernicus, after all. Was Copernicus even an emperor? Erin didn't actually know who Copernicus was. Better not to say, lest she be called out as dumb. Well, dumber than she already was.

The receptionist was an absolute legend and gave them all the quick and dirty run down. The world was oddly familiar to Erin. Actually, it was very familiar. The classes were straight out of an MMO, with Warriors as Tank/DPS, Mages as Healer/DPS, and Rogues and Gunners as Straight DPS (TALK ABOUT USELESS). Physical actions took stamina (made sense) while spells took mana (straight outta MMOs). The guild system was similar to... 90% of isekai adventures? The skill learning system was pretty new. See a skill and use a skill point. Unless a blue mage blessed this world, it kinda just made sense that way. A lot more sorcery than wizardry, though. Thank god. Erin didn't want to study. Apparently, there was mana sickness and exhaustion too. Don't do too much or you'll be paralyzed. Solid advice.

The receptionist showed off their first spell.「Enflame」created a ball of fire, which didn't really make much sense. Didn't enflame mean for something to catch fire? Wouldn't this be more like...「Baby's First Fireball」? But what was MUCH more important was the fact that Erin had an ability called Inflame. Inflammation. One letter off, but what did it do? Would it cause swelling or fire? Who knew. That single letter change was powerful, though.

But what was absolutely the pinnacle of importance was the equipment offered. Free stuff? Erin would take as much as she could! She was first like before. Actually she wasn't. The boomer got to the equipment before her. BUT SHE WAS AHEAD OF THE EMPEROR AND THAT WAS IMPORTANT!

"I'll uh," she said under a thinly veiled guise of getting the best stuff before the emperor, "test to make sure that this equipment is all usable for... uh... your emperorship!" As the first person up, she geared herself as best as she could! The high-collared and open-yet-closed shirt on her body was plain, but it concealed what was important. It was incredibly bland, though... So first, she took a vest-type garment and wore it over it. With a thin leather corset acting as a belt, it instantly turned her fashion from a 3 to a 7. If course, that wasn't all. What was clothing without efficiency? Her puppies were already breathing (as her feet seemed to not like any shoes), so she took a nice pair of leather shin guards and stuck them on. The same thing was with her hands. Regular gloves didn't seem to work, so she grabbed basic brown gloves and leather armlets. They would surely protect her from something! Additionally, she needed not just efficient clothing, but clothing that could be utilized for other purposes than protection and fashion! A bag! She grabbed a nice leather bag and hooked it around her waist alongside a utility belt that went around her shoulder. It was super duper cool! It made her look like an actual mage! But not mage was complete without... a cape! She grabbed one and slung it around her back. Only then did she realize of a critical flaw; the tail prevented the cape from properly unfurling. She really wanted that cape... There was a second just like it... If there was a split down the middle for her tail... It was as simple as wearing two capes! Her fashion was launched from a solid 7 to a STRONG 11.

Now for her equipment, she needed both utility and defense. Offense? Something like that. A knife was her side-arm. It was a decent knife, but seemed poor for combat. Much more of a cookware or survival-type item. A knife would allow her to do pretty much anything while they adventured! She easily slapped it onto the bag, its sheathe fitting perfectly onto the outside. For her primary arm, she needed something that could keep enemies off of her. If she was low on mana, she didn't want to zonk out and die there. She wanted to protect herself using her stamina reserves! A staff! One that was hard and could slap someone silly! She equipped herself nicely.

"Equipment seems good, chief!" She told the emperor.

While Boomer McOldcountryroad went on a tirade about learning to shoot, Erin went to test out her magic! After all, waltzing into combat without knowing a single spell was dumb as heck! With the straw dummy some distance off, Erin lifted her hand. Simple enough. Just think of what you want to happen, say the name, and do it...

"Inflame!" she yelled out with hand outstretched, thinking of both fire enveloping the target and the target requiring an NSAID. She felt a bit of herself leaving the palm of her hand as a spark was formed on the outside of the dummy. First, a smolder. But it quickly erupted into a thin wall of flame surrounding it. Surprisingly, there was zero smoke. In fact, ignoring the flame particles stuck on the straw dummy model, there was not a hint of burning. It was just... on fire.

"Cool... er... hot! That's hot stuff!"

@Firestorm

Lostman Grafitti

Marina chuckled when she heard Yasuo suggesting that Marina do some special forces type smash and grab. "As fun as that sounds, I'm not that nefarious. Not really that talented, either." Her chuckling had been replaced with a short, empty stare at nothing. "I do want to make sure that it is him, most importantly." She briefly shook her head to stop thinking for just a moment. To reset. "But I didn't just bring some sudoku."

From within a paper bag, she partially pulled out a bottle of vodka. Only enough so that, with the bag tilted and aimed directly at him, Yasuo could surmise the brand. "Saw this shit at the store. Felt pretty nostalgic to buy it and maybe day drink like when we were in high school."

After handing Yasuo one of the thick books with a pen attached to the cover, she pulled out her book. It had already started. She had filled in maybe half of a page of puzzles on the way over.

"Last one to finish is a rotten egg."

And she was off. Already, she was filling in numbers like a maniac. Most of them was wrong, but it was a race. She was bound to get a few actually correct, wasn't she?

Wareware wa tada betsu no sekai ni tsurete ika reta!

The city was neat. Actually, it felt rather familiar. While she was familiar with the entire isekai craze, she thought it felt like something else. A popular MMO, perhaps? One of the three starting areas. One was a ocean-themed dock or something with marble everywhere, another was a sandy gladiator area, and the last one was... just a forest, innit? Well, that didn't really matter. What mattered was the guild! Stixxy-boi had been leading the gang to it. As according to isekai law, it was hella important for them to join the guild. The guild would be their primary source of fianances, jobs, and everything in between. Weren't those similar concepts? Whatever, capitalism was confusing.

Ignoring the flirting of Stixxy-boi and the receptionist (a thought that made Erin think 'die normies die'), the receptionist explained everything. It was hella important information. But the most important info was the cards. Just draw one, Erin thought. And that Erin did.

Being first was a talent of Erin's. That's what she thought, anyways. She really wasn't the first for anything, though. In fact, she was the third child. That kinda rendered her talent useless, as she was born to not be first. Well, she had to go first. She had to beat out the emperor. But it wasn't an act of malice or disgust in the sad elf's actions. It was, in fact, entirely because she wanted to dab on the sad elf.

Stepping up first, Erin sprung into action. She dashed forwards past everyone else. Hand on crystal and other hand yeeting a card from the deck, she took it with a display of such inane vigor that it was, in fact, rather sad. She was becoming the very menace she was meant to destroy.

"With me being first," she said, "does that make me the new emperor?" She looked directly at the sad elf. "Eat it, Elagabalus." She decided to read her card out loud, lest the MERE MORTALS (especially the ye olde emperor whomst she just assassinated) not know what was going on. "I gained... Mage! I have fire plume, inflame, lesser object control, cure wound, and... cleanse!" She paused for a moment to digest her abilities. "Oh god, I'm a healer."

Altera: Of Departures and Deliverance

Her plan failed. Skeletons were much tougher than she had thought. They were unstoppable forces of malediction. Her plan instantly went into stage two. Discarding her bow to the ground (as it as entirely useless), she leapt to Gwyn's aid. If Gwyn needed the time to bless the 'un' out of undeath, then Ash would buy her that time. Sword vs Machete wasn't the most difficult match up. The large size of the sword made it easier to block, as compared to the dagger of a goblin. Even if the blows were harder, she would stop them. She could do that much, at least. After all, she considered herself stronger than the healer. If they were evenly matched, then Ash could easily deal with the sword skeleton. Enough time, at least, for Gwyn to do what she had to do.

Lostman Grafitti

"Thanks," Marina told Kenshin, "you've been a great help."

With her hail-mary attempt to gather information a surprising success, she had left the hostess club feeling a bit better than she came in. She had left enough money to cover the bottle of sake, but didn't even bother to drink any more than that one glass. Back into the drizzling streets of the red light district, she pulled out her phone. It was cheap and obviously prepaid. In an attempt to see if what Kenshin had said was true, she searched up what he had told her. The Quartermasters, Galaxy, and everything else. He wasn't lying. While the pictures on the internet weren't conclusive, they were similar enough. She needed to confirm it was him. Face to face. Tapping a number into the phone, she held it up to her ear as it rang.

Then it clicked with a characteristic hello.

"Hey, Yasuo. Ever hear about a place called Galaxy?"

---

She needed supplies for her afternoon with Yasuo. After all, just walking and going to town on someone's torso with a knife wasn't a very effective strategy. Well, historically it was. The problem was that it worked just once. But that was besides the point. Her goals lied with revenge first and foremost. An incomplete revenge was better than no revenge, but total revenge was better than incomplete. So she entered a convenience store on her way to Tenoroshi North Park—the place where she would meet Yasuo.

From the stands of magazines and books, she chose two thick magazines without caring about the contents. She made sure that they were the cheapest magazines possible. Not out of any frugal desires. Rather, it was the result of needing a specific kind of paper. Paper made to hold colour and retain the quality of images were out. The paper was too waxy, plastic, or whatever they were coated with. The best choices—and the ones she took—were two of the same puzzle book. A book filled with Sudoku that was made for people who actually enjoyed filling in numbers.

To her surprise, she found a familiar brand of vodka in the drink cooler. It kind of brought back a few memories. It was the same brand that she and Yasuo had drank the night after they had graduated from middle school. They hid behind a concrete jump and took turns swigging it straight from the bottle. It tasted nasty and made them sick with alcohol poisoning from two kids swigging too much, but it was still something that brought a slight smile to Marina's face. She grabbed two bottles and prepared to check out.

At the cashier, she grabbed two cheap, disposable lighters from a small stand by the checkout. The cashier rung up the items and put them in a small bag. Marina paid the apathetic cashier, who didn't really care enough to card her, and headed down south to meet with Yasuo a bit early. He probably would have got a few kicks from swigging that terrible vodka again.

Wareware wa tada betsu no sekai ni tsurete ika reta!

Arriving at the elf on a shelf—er, on a log—Erin wasn't the first to arrive. A handful of people had already arrived. A really short woman (had she been more stout, Erin would have considered her a dwarf!), a teenager who managed to keep the bright look in his eyes, a wildfire looking fellow whose hair managed to be practically standing straight up (even without product), a boomer with a Clint Eastwood inspo, a—as the Japanese would say—nekomimi, a small womanly lookin' dude that reminded Erin of a RPG/lifesim she played, one horny girl, a very sad elf screeching about things such as bowing and emperors, and a bear.

The people who had already arrived were talking about things. Erin didn't really interject herself into the conversation, as introducing yourself to a group before everyone was there was a pretty r00d move. You'd have to introduce yourself again later, and that was dumb as heck. Plus, she wasn't really able to read the room—er, clearing—over all of the screeching. As more people arrived after Erin, she decided that she would converse with people... a bit after? Whenever the womanly man elf was finished talking.

With his quick introduction out of the way and a portal opening up to a new place, it was obvious that this wasn't Earth. Well, it had been obvious since the entire 'reincarnated as a squirrel girl' thing, but this was confirmation that it was a fantasy world. As opposed to a futuristic world in which Erin was transported into a terrarium for the enjoyment of the future overlord that went by Alaela. Well, a wormhole was hardly a fantasy marker. Maybe it was some future tech. Erin kept the thought in her mind. Even if she didn't tell anyone her crackpot one in a trillion theory, she would know deep down that she was right. If she was wrong? Well she'd forget the theory in 5 minutes so it didn't matter.

The short green-haired woman and a few others remained in a strange conversation as the sad elf girl had her bizarre spiel about being emperor and doing things first. Something about touching the bear moose's fur. Erin snubbed the idea. Her tail was at least 50 times better. It was like having Mike Tyson in his prime fight an elementary school child; her tail was Mike Tyson, of course. The sad elf girl bravely leapt first into the portal, resulting in Clint Boomwood to disapprove of her actions. He immediately implied he should have went first because he had a gun. Ignoring the fact that Aloe Vera went in first and if it was a trap, he probably wouldn't have bothered to open the portal in the first place.

He must have been from the USA, Erin thought as she ignored the entire 'is that just a Texas thing' comment. Normal people didn't enter wormholes with the plan to shoot whatever threats popped up. Normal people also didn't really enter wormholes, so there was really no standard for behaviour.

"I'm, uh, going to make sure this boomer," she worryingly assured the others with a dab to enunciate 'boomer', "doesn't shoot friendly elves." Actually kind of worried that the man would actually shoot the first thing he saw as a threat, Erin ran into the portal. The time to talk was later; she had elf children to protect.

My Hero Academia: Another Story

Quinn Leiurus || Anarchy Red

---

---

With the rest of the villains arriving at the hideout, Quinn began to size up her future compatriots. After all, trusting people you instantly met were the actions of a fool. The first to arrive after her was a woman who wore coveralls. She seemed to be a bit more normal than the average villain and raised regular concerns about trust. A more typical villain would have run in with a bloody weapon out talking about darkness or something of that sort; maybe they would have brought a vaudeville act along. Then again, most people who wanted All-Might dead weren't theatre kids who went bad. From the woman in the jumpsuit burning her garbage in an act of environmentally friendly posturing, it was obvious the woman had some sort of control over fire.

The second to arrive was more of the same sort. Cautious, smart thinking. He either sent in some dumb bird first to scope the room out or it was some coincidence. Highly likely to be the former, Quinn could surmise that he could control a bird. Either that or he trained a bird to scout things out for him. Either way was weird. When he came in, he was really well dressed. In fact, he wore a top hat. In this modern age. Seeing how he wasn't some theatre kid who went bad, he probably wore it unironically. Yikes, was Quinn's only thought.

The third to arrive was... a villain alright. Preceded by the sounds of a chainsaw, she certainly was edgier than everyone else. Actually, incredibly edgier. She entered the room with a chainsaw revved up only to power it down when she arrived. Her outfit seemed to be something that was meant to be a touch scary, but in all honesty, it wasn't. Quinn thought it was more similar to babby's first murder outing. Like some child who lacked social skills, she didn't say anything when she entered. However, unlike herself who did the same, her silence was practically audible. In some laughable move, she revved up her chainsaw again in an act of posturing. Quinn instantly let a chortle out, trying her best to conceal it as she looked away from her.

The final one who entered was another edgy boy. In fact, they were all pretty edgy with the exception of the woman's bright orange jumpsuit. The old man had his Victorian edge, the chainsaw girl had whatever was going on with her, and this new boy wore a high collared black jacket. Quinn's clothing was also afflicted by a certain level of edge, but at least she was somewhat punk. This boy who entered, also with a mask that only covered his mouth, was instantly talking about murder. That was kind of sad, in all honesty. His attempt to make small talk was a humble brag on how he's wanted for murder. Strange flex, but okay.

Their fearless leader had handwaived whatever opening each of them had. She instantly derided them for not being professionals; this was a sentiment that almost shot Quinn into rapid laughter. Imagine not expecting a bunch of villains to be the dregs of society. Still though, she did her best not to die from laughing too hard. Her little speech wasn't that much. It wasn't some amazing speech in which she managed to rally every villain on to her side. Rather, it simply stated the truth. They were all there because they had a reason to be. To get rid of Enterprise in order to further their ideals.

And that's all that Quinn needed for a reason to stay.

With their plans unfurled on the table and their fearless leader asking for questions, Quinn let the bird man ask his bizarre question of 'will we fight school children'? and followed up.

"Ignoring what this guy thinks is important, don't you all think that there's a bigger issue pressing us right now?" Her tone was drenched in a thick layer of sarcasm. "None of us know each other's names~!" She joked with a gross level of false pleasantries. Almost instantly, her tone turned back to snark. "I think we should go around and say our names and a fun fact about ourselves." She clapped, enunciating whatever point she was making. "After all, why would we all go and risk our lives with people we don't even know the names of? I'll go first," she took a brief bow, "My name, or at least what I go by, is Quinn. What media likes to call me is Anarchy Red, so that's my super villain act now. All about anarchy! That little fun fact about me... Hmmm... I would say that I want All-Might and his influence gone, but that's a bit obvious, don't you think?" Her vaudevillian act completely dropped. "I have 'demolished' and sabotaged enough infrastructure to know how to permanently cripple a municipality. Anyways, who wants to go next? Chainsaw girl, shark twunk, old man, jumpsuit, or our fearless leader?"

Neo Sorairo

Strikers lead the way. Or was that the rangers? Really, it didn't matter too much. The well timed R&R had been replaced by another mission. This time, it was actually serious. Rather than the bog standard training missions, they were to sortie into a search and rescue. 12 officers and 30 technicians, meaning 42 in all. If Yui had to do the math, it would turn out to be... some number of people that every group had to rescue. After the briefing, they were to rappel downwards onto the rig in the middle of a typhoon. Tian-Gui had leapt off. Yui was not to be outdone by this man's brazen danger seeking. Well, that and Yui wanted to catch her boy's transformation.

With her sword in hand and a hop, skip, and a jump, Yui leapt off of the helicopter in similar fashion to everyone's favourite sentai. Rather than having some extremely cool glowing transformation that everyone loved, she just fell through the air. Her technique was fine, but compared to getting a super suit in mid-air, it was rather lacklustre. Thankfully, Yui wasn't hit by her boy's flashbang of friendship this time, as she managed to block it out with her hat.

Her landing was kind of depressing, compared to Tian-gui's. She just landed on bent legs and rolled forwards. It wasn't anything flashy. It certainly faster than her boy's landing, but it was considerably less cool. Which sucked. With Tian-gui surveying their landing zone, Yui followed suit. With a swing of her blade, the sheath slid off. She was combat ready. Ready to rescue some nerds who made it their job to be nerds and beat up some nerds who she just labelled as nerds (they were in fact death robots from another dimension or something like that).

She was part of the vanguard. The mission was to rescue as many people as possible, smash as many invaders up as needed, and help team senpai get whatever they were looking for. Simple enough.

Wareware wa tada betsu no sekai ni tsurete ika reta!

What a beautiful forest! That was Erin's first thought. Really, rather than do anything of note, her first instincts were to gauge the new world she was in. What better way to test the water than literally test the water? With her feet, now without shoes, letting water wash over them, she relaxed in this new world. Whatever threat the goddess had described obviously didn't affect this creek? That was to say, unless the water was some sort of clear blood that looked and smelt like water. That would be incredibly awkward, but super unlikely. Though... Maybe it was better to not drink the water. Not yet, anyways.

Her patient bathing had been interrupted, though. Breaking the treeline, a pillar of light projected into the sky. Was it the call from the goddess telling them where to go? Maybe. It might have also just been part of her terrible evil world theory. That pillar of light was actually calling down was actually an orbital strike meant to demolish the world. Erin waited for a few seconds. Well, there wasn't an earth-shattering kaboom. Her theory was bunk. Thus, it was probably a good idea to head towards the light. It was probably a waypoint of some sort.