Jumpers
Jumpers
A mercenary group that's well known for one thing: mercenary work in other or fictional worlds, most of the time this organization is focused in the anime branch. That doesn't mean that they don't branch to others though. Time to time they would also "jump" to video games, cartoons and even the occasional realistic drama. Their facility in unknown to anyone and only the employees in this company are the ones that know of its whereabouts.
Like a mercenary group, jumpers can also be hired with money. The difference between them though is the amount of money you pay them. For instance, you want to protect a character but you only have so much in you pocket, Jumpers would barely even lift a finger to protect your character and would only intervene from time to time. Pay them with a generous amount on the other hand they would protect this character from anything and would always give it their all.
Jumpers usually come garbed in a simple pure white jumpsuit, while the attire would look unsuspecting it's not the suit you should be looking at but the person itself. Jumpers has this power called the "Core". This "Core" is their weapon, its function is simple, imagine the weapon and it will appear; you want Kratos' blades? Done. Saber's Excalibur? Easy. Any weapon the Jumpers know they can conjure it. Not only that they can also use the Core to give their bodies upgrades, modified bodies from the Spartan 2 program in Halo, to Alex Mercer's Blacklight parasite to Naruto's shadow clones.
That's not to say that the Core has no limits. The only limit that the Core had was "lore". Each and every weapon that Jumpers conjure contain a story, a history, a reason as to why they were made. If a Jumper were to summon the Invective shotgun from Destiny, they would need to know the backstory behind such a weapon, the reason why it was created if they don't then the weapon is next to useless. Of course, the Jumpers could just say the Invective was created to battle the Darkness. While this would make the weapon usable, Jumpers still wouldn't be able to harness its full power.
It's natural for Jumpers to fight with each other, this usually happens when two Jumpers are hired but from different clients with opposing goals. While Jumper fights happen rarely, it has been agreed that to win they only have to beat the enemy Jumper to submission.
One thing's for sure is that Jumpers are people that one should never ever underestimate.
[Jumper 0008, please proceed to a briefing room A078 as you have a client,] the PA system said.
Said Jumper got up from her bed and started her usual morning routine, after a quick brush of her teeth and a shower, she left her room and walked towards her designated briefing room. The white, tidy hallway spanned so far, she almost thought that the hallway wouldn't end. As she walked she observed the side wall watching as the room numbers for each Jumper passed by. Her footsteps echoed through the hallway telling her that most Jumpers as still asleep, waiting for someone to hire them or are doing their job in the world that they're assigned to. She stopped her walk when the door for the room 0046 opened. A girl shorter than her came out of the room while reaching up with her arms giving a sigh as she stretched her body. Behind the white Jumpsuit that she wore bore the numbers that were the same with her room.
"0008! Good morning!" she said cheerfully
0008 smiled at her childish attitude, after exchanging greetings the two decided to walk together. From what 0008 could understand she too was hired by someone and was told to go to the briefing room B495. After walking for a while, they finally reached the end of the hallway to see multiple pathways that were split into letters starting from A all the way to Z. 0008 and 0046 said their farewells and walked alone to their designated briefing rooms.
A075…A076…A077…
0008 stopped just in front of her designated room and gave a knock. The door was bisected diagonally before opening with a sound that resembled a snake hissing. 0008 entered the room while the door behind her closed and sealed itself to the point where the door even disappeared. It was a small room that was only five cubic meters and just like the hallway, it was covered in nothing but white. In the middle was a white table with a piece of document that sat on top of it. Walking towards the cliched scene she opened the folder to read the details of her mission.
0008, you have been hired by a client that goes under the name of Michael.
The statement of Michael is on the disc in front of you. Please listen to it before proceeding.
She followed the folder's instructions and pressed a button of the disc. The disc flared open and showed a flatline that began to move as sounds entered its microphone.
System: Please state your purpose, why do you want to hire a jumper?
Michael: I want to hire one because I'm sick and tired of Myne!
System: Checking character information… Myne… unknown name, please state character's real name.
Michael: Oh… uh… I think it was Malty Melromarc and her father!
System: Names match from the anime: "The Rising of the Shield Hero". Question, what do you want the Jumpers to do with them?
Michael: Simple… kill them!
System: Alert, please understand that killing these characters would be a detriment to the protagonist of the anime, Iwatami Naofumi.
Michael: Detrimental? How? All they eve did was bring suffering to him!
System: It was this suffering that made Naofumi who he is now. Killing these two would result in the entire balance of their universe to be altered.
Michael: Altered how?
System: Removing these two would result to Naofumi partying alone, eventually he would find a party and he would never have met the other two protagonists: Raphtalia and Filo. He would also never have met Fitoria and would never have discovered the "Cursed Series" of his shield. The best solution would be to ease his suffering even in a small amount. I ask again do you want to continue with killing Malty Melromarc and Aultcray Melromarc XXXII?
Michael: I see… Okay I'll go with the second offer. Try and ease his suffering… even if it's a little.
System: Thank you, a Jumper will be sent to the world of "The Rising of the Shield Hero" as soon as possible.
The message finally ended. 0008 finally turned the page to see the personal information of Iwatami Naofumi. Skipping that part, she kept skimming through the text to see how much this mission was. Her eyes opened to see the price.
Mission: Assist Iwatami Naofumi
Jumper No.: 0008
Amount to be paid: 95,000,000$
"Must be a die-hard fan to give me that much money to protect him…" 0008 thought.
Closing the folder, she looked around the room to see something new that wasn't there when she first entered the room, a wide platform. Knowing what to do she stepped on it and waited for the "Jump" to commence. Eventually the device platform known as a teleported slowly hummed to life. The pitch of the humming slowly rose up. When the humming reached its peak a text box appeared in front of 0008 out of nowhere.
[You are about to jump to the world: The Rising of the Shield Hero]
[Do you wish to proceed?]
[Yes/No]
Without hesitation, 0008 thought of "Yes". After another second the teleporter's pitch increased before engulfing 0008 with a bright light.
A/N:
So what do you all think? It's been a pet project that I've been working on for months now and only managed the courage to show it now. I would like some thoughts about this and some opinions so without further ado I hope you all enjoyed this story.
Peace~