You might be wondering why I decided to write this fic when Stories and Tales finished a long time ago...
Because I can.
A portal opened in the middle of some unknown dimension, and a voice spoke as a shadowy figure fell down from it:
"Alright, third grade candidate 289, your test will begin now. You're expected to perform as good as the average third grade class hunter, alright? The rules will be further explained later, but for now, are you fully ready to commit to your test, candidate Lyle?"
The shadowy figure landed, and promptly revealed herself to look like an older version of Lily. As old as Lori, in fact.
"I'm ready!"
And then the dimensions seemingly turned on, and revealed she was surrounded by skeletons, mostly heads of skeletons, which made her flinch a little bit. However, the trainee remained calm at the disturbing sight. She walked to the nearest skeleton head and examined it.
"Hmm, notable buck teeth, scratch marks, this was probably a Luan counterpart," she threw the head away and examined another two. "And this one, with the extreme wear and tear, seems to be a Lynn one. And this other one feels fairly light and hollow, so I'm gonna be bold and suggest this was a Leni counterpart-"
"Having fun examining the dead?"
The third grade candidate threw the heads away and looked around until she saw another person fly down to the ground. This person was none other than a counterpart to Luna, but it wasn't just any counterpart.
It was the "mother of all Lunas", Prototype Luna.
"Greetings, alternate counterpart to my sister, Orobas," Proto-Luna greeted with a calm, yet subtly condescending tone. "I'm Luna, but you may call me Samael to not confuse me from my counterpart. And trust me, you don't want to do that. Anyway, how can I help you today?"
"I-I'm a third grade candidate from the Anomaly Elimination Unit-"
"Ah yes, that worthless organization," Proto-Luna spat in disgust. "First, they insult us by hiring counterparts to the lord and savior, and now they send yet another third class candidate to annoy us. Do they want to be destroyed or something?"
"W-Whatever! I'm Lyle Loud, from dimension ZX-289 and I-!"
"ZX-289... You mean the Reversal Dimension?" Proto-Luna pondered. "I remember now! Our counterparts over there were so adorable!"
Then, with a mocking smirk, she added, "Too bad we had to assimilate them."
Lyle felt her rage surging up as she reached for her duel disk and tried to activate the "Sogen" field. However, when she tried to activate it, the disk simply glitched.
Proto-Luna giggled. "Yeah, I'm afraid that's not going to work this time, darling,"
"W-What are you talking about?" Lyle asked.
"In order for you to not be considered yet another worthless counterpart of ours, you need to be able to fight without your little duel disk thing," the proto-priest folded her arms. "Survive for a minute in our natural dimension and you pass. Fail to do this-"
"And I fail the test and go back to the organization, I assume?" Lyle pondered.
"Oh no, I'm just going to break you 'till you turn into a chain breaker," Proto-Luna casually answered. "And if I fail to break you, then I'll either just kill you... Or put you through a third option. I'd probably just kill you, though."
Proto-Luna took a step forward, and crushed a skeleton head under her feet as she added, "Just as we did to the rest."
Frightened by the threat, but still feeling determined, Lyle took out her sword and rushed straight for Proto-Luna as the timer began. She jumped up high in the sky, and the prototype musician just smirked as Lyle tried to slash her in half, but her strike was blocked by a shield made out of musical notes, which Samael seemed to have produced out of freaking nowhere. And no matter how hard Lyle tried to hit it, the shield didn't even get a crack or anything.
"Darling, I know you're focusing on destroying the shield, but I'm afraid that won't work," Samael blurted in the middle of Lyle's berserk rampage. "How about you calm down a bit and we fight in a more civilized manner?"
Hearing the prototype's words, Lyle landed on the ground and caught her breath as Proto-Luna snapped her fingers, causing the shield to vanish from existence. With that done, Lyle promptly struck... And Proto-Luna blocked the sword with one hand. She swung her sword again, but the proto-priest just blocked again. Then came another barrage, which, again, Proto-Luna blocked with seemingly little effort.
And once Lyle stopped to catch her breath again, Proto-Luna blurted, "You know what? This is way too unfair for you. How about this: I won't use my arms to fight, therefore, there's probably no possible way I could block your sword."
"That sounds too easy," Lyle muttered. "What's the catch?"
"I'll use my feet instead," Proto-Luna grinned. "Are you up for the handicap?"
Lyle nodded, and Proto-Luna folded her arms behind her back and allowed Lyle to swung her sword. However, Proto-Luna promptly kicked the sword to shard, it shattered in half, shocking the third grade nominate. Lyle took a couple steps back and glanced between her broken sword, and the prototype's smug smile.
"H-How..." Lyle blurted. "How did you-"
"Oh, is the third grade nominate upset because I broke her toy?" Proto-Luna mockingly asked, with a tone that sounded all too familiar to Lyle. "Do you wanna go back home to cry to your mommy?"
"...S-Sister?!" Lyle stuttered in disbelief.
"Oh? So you still recognize her voice?" Proto-Luna raised an eyebrow. "That's quite interesting. I had figured that after not seeing her for years, you would've forgotten all about her."
"Don't be ridiculous! My whole family was precious to me! I would never forget them so callously!" Lyle snapped back, holding back tears. "I... I would do anything to see even one of them again."
The prototype rocker smirked. "Then allow me to make your wish come true!"
Suddenly, Proto-Luna powered up, with a purple aura promptly appearing. However, this aura was a bit different in that, instead of being just purple, it was also surrounded by several screaming, agonizing counterparts to Luna, who cycled all over the aura and desperately tried to escape, to no avail.
Naturally, Lyle was horrified at the sight. "Can you spot her, Love?" Proto-Luna mockingly inquired. "Can you see her among the punished sinful counterparts of my own counterpart? 'Cause this is her home now. And she ain't leaving."
Realizing this is where her sister went, and getting an idea as to where the others went, Lyle shed tears as she leaped and blindly attacked the prototype priest in a rage, which barely even seemed to faze her that much.
"You know, there are alternatives to blindly attacking the eternal, unaging, super powered, immortal shell right in front of you," Proto-Luna remarked as she casually blocked every single attack. "How about we talk for a bit and see if I can convince you to join Lincolnism?"
"Not even in your dreams!" Lyle spat. "After what you did to my sister, I would never join whatever stupid religion you serve!"
That apparently struck a nerve, since Proto-Luna caught Lyle's sword and shot a glare at her. "Of course."
And then her aura intensified. "Of! Fucking! Course!"
It was in that moment, Lyle knew she had messed up.
"It's always the same with you, sinful counterparts!" the proto-priest spat as she slowly overpowered the surprised hunter. "I give you the chance to redeem yourself, and save you from damnation! I give you the chance to be on good terms with your god! Your father! Your god-father!
Finally, Proto-Luna fully overpowered Lyle and threw her to the ground, before breaking her sword as she spat:
"And yet you refuse my offer every time, unless you're at the very worst moment of your life, in which case you're already a lost cause!"
Without hesitation, Proto-Luna created a rainbow sword out of thin air and lifted it, fully prepared-and willing-to deliver a fatal blow.
"No wonder the lord and savior gave up on your kind."
Lyle closed her eyes and waited for her seemingly inevitable end... Only for Proto-Luna to cancel her attack and state:
"I'm bored now."
Lyle opened her eyes and shot a confused look at the prototype priest, who added:
"You have officially depleted your entertainment value to me, so, I will no longer fight you. Congratulations, darling."
Proto-Luna smirked. "You passed by a technicality."
Both offended but also relieved, Lyle took a deep breath as the prototype priest promptly continued to talk:
"You should consider yourself lucky, I'm not nearly as ruthless or merciless or whatever you wanna call my sisters. Many other third grade candidates have been taken to our dimension. And you will be the first one in a decade to actually pass the test."
Upon hearing that statement, Lyle couldn't help but suddenly ask, "What was the third option? You mentioned something about a third option if I didn't passed the test, and you didn't turn me into a chain breaker or killed me?"
"Hehehe... Well, you know those anomalies running around, causing havoc?" Proto-Luna chuckled, narrowing her eyes. "Let's just say, those who don't pass, nor die, nor become chain breakers, deserve to go somewhere else, wouldn't you agree?"
"Wait a minute, you know about the anomalies?!" Lyle asked, narrowing her eyes. "Why did you or your sisters never try help us deal with them, then?!"
"We're a bunch of assholes, darling," Proto-Luna bluntly answered. "And besides, I believe that a sinful existence such as yourselves deserve your homes to be overrun by said anomalies. It's not like you're entirely lost, either, you join that organization afterwards. When you have nowhere else to go."
Lyle gritted her teeth, and the timer officially reached zero seconds, meaning Lyle had passed her test. With that done, a portal opened, and Collin's voice spoke through it, "Good work, Lyle, you're officially a class 3 hunter now. Return to HQ for your next assignment."
The alternate Lily nodded and headed to the portal, only to stop when she heard Proto-Luna say:
"You may think being third class makes you one of the best the organization has to offer. And that is true. However, in the large scheme of things, that means absolutely nothing. The multiverse is vast, ever expanding, with dimensions rising as other dimensions fall and cease to be. Their inhabitants can be from weaklings you could crush under your heels, or incomprehensible abominations who would blow up your sanity with their mere presence."
Lyle turned around and threw an intimidating glare to the prototype priest... Who didn't even flinch as she added:
"And me and my sisters are close to the latter category, as I have subtly proven to you today. I mean, be honest, do you really think you'll come out of this place mentally well? Do you think anybody who ever goes into this place leaves mentally well? The only people who come here and live to tell the tale, are those whose minds have been completely broken. Or at least, have a part of it be shattered."
Lyle tried to keep the glare, but her shivering and breathing made it clear Proto-Luna's words were affecting her.
"But only one, minuscule crack is needed, in order to start a chain reaction to ultimately break whatever has been cracked. All you need is to set it off, and watch as your sanity fades away. And it will happen, for we are always watching. So, simply put, remember your place in the great chain of being."
Proto-Luna narrowed her eyes, and hissed, sounding legitimately pissed off for the first time since Lyle entered the dimension:
"And pray to Lincoln."
Unable to take it anymore, Lyle jumped through the portal, which vanished from existence just as Proto-Luna laughed to herself. That was probably the most fun meeting she's had in quite some time.
Too bad it was both the first, and the only time...