Persona Effect

Whatever I was expecting when I got sucked into my TV while playing Mass Effect, being confronted by my dark half was not it. I also wasn't expecting to get spat out into the Mass Effect world with powers I thought were fiction. I really should have stayed in bed. OC-insert, slight Persona crossover.

Point one, this is not a self insert. Instead its and OC insert. A rather flimsy disguise I know, but since I know for fact I wouldn't survive ten seconds in the MEverse, I can't use me. This also has a slight crossover with Persona, but other than the fact the Main character has one and the Velvet Room will be making an appearance, it won't have that much bearing on the story. My final point is that this story will start at Freedoms Progress rather than Eden Prime because I prefer ME2 to 1. ENJOY!

I DON'T OWN NOTHIN'!

Chapter 1

"Phew, finally done!" I said, dropping my controller next to me and tilting my head back as the credits for Mass Effect began to scroll.

I had just finished the game for something like the fourth time, this time on Hard, something I regretted immensely since I had to put up with the awkward cover mechanics and the irritating cooling weapons for far longer than normal. While I was a fan of the series, I didn't really like ME1, preferring the mechanics, story and pretty much everything else in ME2 and 3. The only reason I played 1 was to get the whole experience. I sighed and got to my feet, stretching the kinks out of my muscles, before ejecting the disk and replacing it with ME2. I slumped back down on the sofa and took a sip of tea while I waited for the loading screen to finish. After a few minutes past, I frowned as the loading screen was still there, the rings of the Mass Relay spinning endlessly. Surely it should have finished by now? I got up and walked over to my console, intending to reset it in case the game had frozen. Just as I was reaching for the reset button, I felt something brush against my legs. Looking down, I saw my black cat, Blake, rubbing against my legs. I smiled and bent to scratch the feline behind the ears, earning a purr as she rubbed her head against my palm. I stood and reached for the console again, only for Blake to let out a loud yowl and but her head against my legs, clearly not happy with me for stopping my scratching. Unfortunately, I hadn't been expecting it and staggered slightly, only for my foot to slip on a wrapper that had been left on the floor. I fell forwards, windmilling my arms as I tried to avoid falling on my expensive electronics. Sadly, it was not to be as I tipped forwards and slammed into my TV screen. Or at least, thats what should have happened. Instead, I found myself falling through the screen and down a swirling tunnel to land face first on a hardwood floor with a crack.

"OW! Fuck me that hurt," I groaned, slowly pushing myself up and gingerly prodding my bloody nose to make sure it wasn't broken.

Once I had confirmed that I had not infact broken my snout, I looked around at my new surroundings.

"OK, now where the hell am I?" I asked.

It actually looked a lot like my apartment, if a mad axe murderer had come charging through and smashed all the furniture to bits, slashed up the wallpaper and splattered blood up the walls. The whole place was also covered in a slight yellow tint and full of low-lying fog.

"Hmm, well this is strange," I muttered as I got to my feet.

I made to move to the door, only for my food to strike something that clattered across the floor. I looked down and saw a Katana with a simple black sheath. I picked up the weapon and drew the blade a few inches, revealing the razor sharp edge and shining steel of the weapon. Abruptly the door slammed open, making me jump and spin in place, losing my balance and falling on my ass.

"Who are you?" asked a voice, making me look to the door, only to freeze in shock at what I saw, "Your not Sensei, how did you get here?"

I didn't answer, being far too busy gaping and trying to figure out if someone had managed to spike my tea supply and, if they had, what in the hell they had used because whatever it was had to be good. The reason for my shock was because the being stood in the door was an anthropomorphic bear with blue fur, a red and white jumpsuit and what appeared to be a large zip around his neck. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, before pinching myself, hard.

"OW, Ok, so I'm not dreaming," I muttered.

"HEY, don't ignore me!" yelled the bear, getting right in my face and forcing me to lean back, "Now who are you?"

I placed a hand on the bears head and shoved him off so I could get up.

"I could ask you the same thing," I growled, "Isn't it polite to introduce yourself before demanding anothers name?"

In truth I could probably guess his name, having just finished a marathon of Persona the previous weekend, but I wanted to be sure.

"Harumph, not that its any of your business, but my name is Teddie," said the bear, confirming my suspicions.

I groaned and dropped my head into my hands, rubbing my eyes.

"Lovely, I'm in the fucking TV world," I muttered.

"Hey, I introduced my self, now its your turn!" yelled Teddie, pointing his paw in my face.

I growled and batted the paw away.

"My names Lock," I said shortly.

"Hmm, Lock eh?" asked the bear, looking at me intently, " Now what are you doing here? "

I looked blankly at him.

"I have no idea how I got here, only that my cat knocked me into the TV."

"Is that so?" asked Teddie, not taking his eyes off me, "Thats beary suspicious."

My response was to whack him with the sheathed katana that was still in my hand.

"Whats suspicious about not having a clue how I got here?" I demanded and Teddie held his newly aching bonce.

"Sorry, but a lot of people have been finding there way here lately," said Teddie, "Most of them end up being killed by shadows and I'm a little on edge."

I sighed and let myself fall back and my head bounce gently of the wooden floor.

"Oh thats just wonderful," I groaned, "So not only has my Mass Effect crashed, but now I find myself in mortal danger in a video game."

"Hmm, what do you mean video game?" asked Teddie.

"Never mind, not important," I said, "So, how do I get out of here?"

"Oh thats right, we need to get you out of here!" exclaimed Teddie, "Come on, put these on and follow me!"

He handed me a pair of glasses and ran for the door, leaving me to dash after him, sword in one hand and putting the glasses on with the other. As expected, the world outside the twisted mirror of my apartment was yellow tinted and full of fog, along with having a large amount of silhouettes visible through the fog. My glasses allowed me to easily see through the fog and keep track of Teddie with relative ease. I skidded to a stop as my guide stopped in front of me. I looked ahead of us and saw strange, blob like monsters rising from the ground and walls with gaping mouths and long tongues.

"Oh man, this is bad!" said Teddie, "The Shadows are already starting to gather! This is Beary bad indeed!"

"And I bet thats where we need to go isn't it?" I asked, pointing down the hall at where the Shadows were congregating.

Teddie nodded and I sighed.

"Perfect," I grumbled, "Well, guess I'd better see if I still remember how to use this thing."

I widened my stance and rested a hand on the hilt of the sword.

"Wait, you're not actually planning on fighting them are you?" asked Teddie.

"Do you have a better idea?" I asked, "We need to get past them, unless theres another way around."

I didn't wait for the bear to reply, instead pushing off with a foot and shot down the hall. The Shadows took notice of me and began to move towards me, tongues trailing behind them. An instant later and they fell to the ground, sliced neatly in half as I flicked their black blood off the sword and sheathed it.

"Wow, that was amazing Lock-Sempai!" yelled Teddie as soon as he had picked his jaw up off the floor, "Where did you learn to do something like that?"

"I've been learning how to use a sword since I was a kid," I said, looking down slightly.

"Sempai?"

"Nothing, lets go," I said, dashing off and leaving a confused bear.

Eventually we reached the bottom floor of the building without running into any more Shadows. The ground floor of my building was a large foyer with cracked marble tiles on the floor, slightly rusted mail boxes and a tatty looking desk for the manager. Or rather, that was what the TV version of the place looked like as in the real world, it was all kept in good condition by the buildings handyman. As soon as we entered the room, Teddie and I skidded to a stop as we saw that someone was blocking the way out. He was dressed in a black t-shirt and slacks under a long black coat with silver lining and a pair of black combat boots on his feet. He had pale skin, a sharp face and dark brown hair that brushed his shoulders with his bangs swept to the sides. His eyes were glowing yellow and a sharp toothed smirk was on his lips as he stood in front of the door.

"Hello Me, I've been waiting for you," said the Shadow.

I narrowed my eyes at the yellow eyed mirror of me, before sighing and moving forwards to the center of the room. The Shadows smirk grew slightly as he moved forwards until we were stood almost nose to nose in the center of the room.

"Alright, I know how this usually goes, so lets get this over with," I said, "Hit me with whatever you've got."

The Shadows smirk widened into a full on grin.

"I don't think that will be necessary," he said, "After all, since you already know that to beat me you need to accept me, you have already won. I have no problem with that though. At the end of the day, all we want is to be acknowledged by our orginal."

The Shadow held out a hand, his grin turning into a smile.

"So what d'ya say, Partners?"

I sighed before grasping the other mes hand.

"Better than having all my dirty laundry aired in front of the bear I suppose," I said, rubbing the back of my head, "I'm sorry I ignored you for so long."

"Ah, don't worry about it," said the Shadow, "Its human nature to deny what they don't like, even if it happens to be a part of them."

The Shadow lit up with a blinding light and seemed to expand upwards, transforming into a huge knight clad in golden armour with crimson cape and a bear head. His face was stern and handsome and seemed to have been forged from the same gold as his armor, with the only other colour being his crimson eyes.

"Thou art I and I am Thou...I am Gilgamesh, the God of Heros."

The Persona began to glow again and transformed into a Tarot card and floated down into my hands before vanishing into my chest.

"Well, now that that's over, we can go," I said, turning back to Teddie to see him standing where I left him with a gobsmacked look on his face, "What?"

"I have never seen anything like that!" he exclaimed, "You sure are beary powerful Sempai!"

"Its not power that allows one to acknowledge themselves, but wisdom," I said, turning away from the bear, "Now lets get out of here."

I headed off, not caring if Teddie followed me or not. Eventually, we reached a place I recognised in the form of the platform with the target and silhouettes of bodies that the Investigation Squad used as an entrance in the games. In front of me was the trio of TVs that would take me back to the Real world. I hoped.

"Thanks for the help Teddie," I said, holding out a hand to the bear.

"What do you mean, you did all the work," pointed out Teddie.

"True, but without a guide I'd still be wandering around this place, so thanks," I said.

"You're welcome," said the bear, shaking my hand, "If you're ever around again, look me up and I'll introduce you to my friends!"

"I'll do that," I said, inwardly wondering if I would ever be back. I actually hoped I would, even if it was just so I could meet some of my favorite characters in Gaming.

"Well, I'm off," I said and turned to the TVs, before leaping forwards and diving straight in.

The experience going back was just as disorienting as coming in and, when I finally reached the end of the swirling tunnel, I was launched bodily from the TV to slam into something that was somehow both soft and hard, sending both me and whatever it was tumbling. I hit the wall hard and slid down, seeing stars from my impact as my nose throbbed. A moment later, the TV spat out my sword, the sheath hitting me in the face and the blade, that had somehow come out, slammed into the wall an inch from my head with enough force to embed it into the steel. I glanced at the blade and the few hairs it had cut of and gulped at how close I had come to losing my ear. It was at that point that I became aware of the fact I wasn't alone as the sound of guns being cocked reached my ears. My head snapped around, only to freeze at the sight before me. What I saw was most definitely not my apartment. For starters, the walls were plain steel and for second, the entertainment system that had shot me out in a cannon ball impression was lacking any recognisable consoles and seemed to instead be a holographic orange screen. But what really tipped me off that I wasn't in London or the TV world any more were the four beings pointing futuristic looking assault rifles at me. They were covered from head to toe in armoured envirosuits in different colours and had a plain violet coloured faceplate that hid there entire face other than there lightly glowing silver eyes.

"Freeze," said one of the Quarians.

I slowly raised my hands to show I was unarmed, keeping a wary eye on the armed aliens.

"Can't we talk about this?" I asked.

"Silence!" shouted the Quarian, keeping his gun trained on me. I shut my mouth with a click.

"Good, you can follow orders," he said, "Now stand up, nice and slow."

"This is completely unnecessary," I said as I obeyed, slowly getting to my feet, only to get a gun barrel shoved in my face.

It was at that moment that I realized I had been sitting on something as it let out a gasp. I glanced down and saw that I had been sitting on another Quarian who seemed to be a little dazed and clutching at her stomach. I felt a little guilty as that probably meant it was her I slammed into when doing my missile impression out the TV. Thinking quickly, I did something I would probably regret later, but right now was my only chance at getting information. Moving quickly, I grabbed the hilt of my sword and yanked it from the wall, before grabbing the female alien by the back of her suit and dragging her in front of me, placing the razor edge of the sword an inch from her neck. The Marines surged forward, only to freeze in place as I twitched the sword.

"Alright, now can we please have a civilized conversation?" I asked, "I have no idea where I am or how I got here, so if you could answer question one, I'll be on my way."

I could see the Quarians eyes narrowing behind there visors and they didn't let up there stances.

"What do you mean you don't know where you are?" asked one of the soldiers, "Aren't you a resident of this colony?"

"In case you didn't see, I just came out of the TV," I said, indicating to the screen behind me that was now showing the pause menu of a game, "Now if you don't mind, answer the question."

"Your on Freedoms Progress," said one of the other marines, only to get a glare from his commander, "What? If we don't answer he might hurt Tali!"

I stiffened slightly at that and subtly glanced at the Quarean I was currently holding hostage, recognising the purple hood.

"Aw crap, I would take my favourite character hostage, wouldn't I?" I grumbled in my head as I registered the fact that she was apparently over her dazed state from getting a 20 year old male human slammed into her stomach at high speed and was now glaring at me from the corner of her eye. I shook myself and focused. I could worry about this later, for now I had to confirm my location and time, although it didn't really take that much of a jump to realize that if there were Quaerens on Freedoms Progress, that probably meant that it was the start of ME2.

Before I could ask my question though, the door behind me opened, making me flinch slightly and shift my sword away from Talis neck. The young Quaren instantly acted and slammed her elbow into my gut, bending me over as she grabbed my sword arm and twisted, forcing me to let go and slammed a fist into my face, cracking my nose yet again. My last thought before losing consciousness was:

"I really hope my nose isn't broken."

And there we have it. Now, a few points before I sign of.

Before people start giving me grief over the whole Persona thing, its no worse than those ones where the main character goes to the Warframe universe first and comes out a fully trained badass armed to the teeth with weapons and a Frame that can be anything. Its less so in fact since all hes really gained is a Persona he has no idea how to use yet. That will change after some sessions in the Velvet Room though.

Locks Persona. Its basically Gilgamesh from Type Moon only bigger. Its powers are also similar, in other words, shoot a crap ton of different weapons at his opponent.

Locks confrontation. I don't really think it would be all that believable to have someone who knows how to deal with their Shadow denying its existence.

Locks sword. that will be his main weapon as he is crap with guns. I plan to make him a Biotic as well so he can close the distance easily.

Not the best meeting with Tali, especially when I plan to have the two of them hook up eventually.

Finally, and this is a question more than anything, should I have Lock get back into the TV world at some point and maybe give some of the other members of the Team Personas? I've been considering that but I'm not to sure whether or not I should.

OK, now that thats sorted, please leave me a review and I'll see you next time!