Disclaimer: Don't own the characters or anything, they all belong to the owners of Disney, Ben Ten, Tsubasa Chronicles and Danny Phantom, yada yada yada.
The Ruined City
Throughout the interdimensional pathways, the worlds one could come across varied immensely. Some were primitive, others well developed beyond most. Many societies worked in developing science and technology, while just as many relied on the art of many different types of magic. Some could be filled with cheerful, peaceful societies, some plagued with entire cultures based on war and bloodlust. Some weren't inhabited by high intelligent life at all, their natural beauties untouched by the wrath of humanoid progress, while some were barren, not showing the slightest suggestion of ever supporting life before. Through her travels, Namine had seen it all.
Unfortunately, even the barren worlds had a higher standing in her list of preferences than the one she was in now.
The portal that allowed her arrival had barely closed, wisps of light still flickering around behind her, but she was already filled with sadness and despair. Whatever world she had arrived in now was not dissimilar to the one she called home. Or rather, it used to be that way. She only hoped that her home never turned into this.
Whatever world this was, she had appeared in what was once an enormous city. Walking down what was once no doubt a bustling road, her eye caught sight of a sign being protected by a fallen piece of sheet metal. The board was well damaged and faded, but she could just make out the Japanese letters spelling out Tokyo.
"So, another Tokyo. A modern one this time." It was strange really, how something as simple as a name could cause both hope and dread to fill her. This was the third Tokyo she had visited in recent months, a fact that she hoped meant that she was close to one of the worlds she seeked, her home. Not only that, but this one appeared to have been around her world's level and type of development, quite different from those she'd found before it. One had a culture similar to her home's ancient Japan, though it relied heavily on unusual magic and warriors to defend it from demons, while the other seemed to be at the beginning of the industrial revolution, without a shred of magic to be seen. This one appeared much closer to what she was looking for and that filled her with hope.
However, she was also desperately hoping that this was not her home, or its very possible fate. For this Tokyo existed in a world of ruin and despair.
The entire city was in a state of destruction. Not a soul could be seen in any direction, which Namine found herself actually glad about. If someone was found out there, the state of their dead body was likely to be horrendous.
Every building that she could see was wrecked, though by what, she couldn't say. Many had crumbled completely, but others still stood, sort of. Most were missing huge pieces and were falling, large chunks already separated or bending over. The ground was covered not only in debris, but sand and what looked like droplets of metal. Many rocks could still be found, but all of them were unnaturally smooth, like all the roughness had been purposely burned away. It was like the entire city and everything in it was being slowly melted.
"I wonder what horror the people of this world set off?" It was a horrible thought, but this had to be the result of something. The size of the city immediately told her that it was once a long standing and prosperous once, and that meant that the fate this world had suffered couldn't be natural. There were of course some worlds where it could be, but none of them showed signs of a melting away metropolis. This city and its people weren't prepared for what happened here, their city wasn't built to handle it, despite the fact that it had stood there for a very long time. That meant, whether by a powerful curse or going too far with destructive technology, this was an unnatural event caused by the living. Whether it was their intent or not, someone or many people had destroyed their home.
Normally, it would be easy enough to tell if it was done magically or scientifically, but something about this world had her senses all messed up. The place radiated with strong magic, that was a definite, and the very same feeling seemed to be coming from different places, but while it was pressuring, she wasn't sure that it was causing the problem. And in reverse, the city ruins she'd found herself in definitely showed the advancement needed to mess something up scientifically, but no evidence of the cause remained either, not that she could see. It really was up to anyone's guess.
'I just hope the whole planet doesn't look like this.' Letting one more sigh pass her lips as she stared out at the wasteland, Namine uped her pace and moved on. Whatever did this wasn't necessarily gone and even if it was, all the remains of the buildings around her were about ready to fall and crumble. She was going to need a safe place to rest for a while, something she knew for sure was going to be hard to find. Whatever was going on had clearly affected the outside of the buildings first, a few decent looks at the structural damage had quickly informed her of that, so heading for an open area was likely to be a death sentence. However, most of the cover was about ready to fall, leaving the constant risk of crushing her if she hid beneath it. It was a rather tricky dilemma, one that almost had her deciding that she should just open a portal to the next world right there and then.
"But that could cause all new problems." She muttered, scowling as she tripped on a pile of rocks, though quickly regaining her balance. "The next destination could be just as crap as this one, or actually in the middle of a warzone. Best not to waste the extra power or potions."
Passing under an old, well broken bridge ten minutes later, one that used to hang over a road rather than water, she was about to give up and settle near its edge when the grey clouds above started releasing their stored water. At first, Namine didn't pay it much mind. In fact, she actually smiled. She loved the sound of rainfall, it was one of the most soothing things in any world, an opinion that she was sure she'd gotten from Kairi. Her redheaded Other loved to listen to the waves lapping on the shore. The sounds of water were peaceful, comforting. It allowed her to finally relax.
EEUURRRRRHHHH!
However, all thoughts of peace completely disappeared as the also very familiar and much less desired sound of loud, groaning metal that always accompanied mass destruction in cities set her eardrums pounding. And to make it even worse, the screech was coming from all around her.
"Oh my God!" Her eyes widened in horror as she looked up. Up, to the left, to the right, wherever she looked, she saw the same thing. Smoke was coming off everything in sight. Everything the rain touched. "Acid rain! AAHHH!"
Not a second after she made the realisation, a part of the bridge, the very part she was hiding under, finally gave out to what must have been hundreds of torrential downpours of destructive liquid and plummeted to the ground, right down on her. The blond didn't even think as it fell, her body just reacted instinctively, and with a flash of light from her hand, she disappeared through a portal beneath her just seconds before she would have been crushed.
A blinding flash pierced the gloomy day again a moment later a hundred feet away, releasing a gasping Namine before disappearing after its counterpart. Resting on her knees, she took a few deep breaths and thanked whoever was listening that her new location was still out of the rain and momentarily free of the threat of being crushed as she forced herself to calm down. Not the easiest feat when you're watching the place you'd been only moments before being slammed by a thousand tonnes of metal and concrete.
"That...that is unreal." Finally managing to stabilise her breathing, Namine jumped right up to her feet and whirled around, focusing on all of her surroundings in much greater detail. If she had to guess, she say that where she was now was once an entryway to an underground train station, though since it had had a cave in about twenty feet down, she couldn't be sure. Still, despite that, she allowed her body to relax a little in the comfort of knowing that she was at least temporarily safe. The entrance seemed to have been covered before the disaster began and was relatively good condition. She was sure that it would hold for a while yet. And that relief gave her plenty of time to marvel at the realisation the world had just shoved in her face.
"This place...it's all been destroyed by acid rain." She couldn't believe her eyes, and yet at the same time, she couldn't be more sure. It perfectly matched the world around her. The way the buildings were all melting and breaking from the outside in, the way the rocks all looked so abnormally glossy and smooth so often, why there wasn't the first since of life, alive or dead, in the entire area. For it to be this horrific, this must have been going on for a long time, countless rainfalls, not one of which, Namine was willing to bet, was safe, normal rain. Walking outside, unprotected, it was life threatening.
"And that's only the obvious." Her horror only grew as she watched the rain only grow heavier, realisation striking hard in her deep blue eyes. "For it have poured enough to do all of this...every source of food and water would be contaminated! Rivers would send this downstream to anywhere lucky enough to be beyond the rain's domain and out to the ocean with a huge concentration. How far away would have to be to be safe? Actually, scratch that, first I'd need to know just how far these acid clouds spread!"
Now she was really keen to leave. Just standing in this world was dangerous. There was no conceivable way that she could be at peace there. Maybe in the next world she could find a way to get a bed and a hot bath. At the moment, such simple things sounded like paradise. Just about anything was better than both rain and shelter that could kill you.
It was only as she rubbed her upper arms, trying to dispel the sudden chill running over her skin, and her fingers hit a band imbedded with small diamonds and purple gems that she stopped herself from opening the portal. Groaning, she spent a moment simply rubbing the cold stones before conceding to her previous point of staying. She needed to regain strength. Creating portals from one place to another was easy enough for her, but to actually break one through the interdimensional pathways was another story entirely, one that only became even more taxing depending on the distance of the next world she intended to travel to. Normally, that was bad enough not to try too often without serious rest between each portal, but Namine didn't even know where she was, meaning her jumps, while succeeding in maintaining a general direction down the pathways, were random, with no idea of the distance and exact power needed to make it. Normally, she was confident that she could make it, with enough power to spare to protect herself if she arrived somewhere dangerous, but she always made sure that her reserves were at their peak to be safe. It was simply too risky otherwise. On top of that, the last jump had been a surprisingly big one and taxed her much more than she was visibly letting on. That settled it, it was simply far too dangerous to attempt. If she ran out of power before reaching the next world, she could be lost forever in the pathways between the worlds and if she appeared in the middle of a fight, she was guaranteed a quick death. There was nothing for it, for now, she had to stay.
'I just hope the rain won't last too long.' Staring out at the once comforting, pattering rain, she slipped her duffle bag off her shoulder and opened it up, pulling out a very familiar black cloak. More grateful than ever that Roxas had mentioned leaving one of these behind at Twilight Town with a few friends he'd managed to make while spending so much time there, Namine slipped on the slightly big cloak and zipped it up, instantly relishing in the warmth and security it provided her. The fabric was strong and designed to protect the wearer from darkness itself. It was in no way perfect protection, but it would be plenty resistant if something were to force her into the rain, especially in comparison to her sleeveless shirt and shorts. Pulling up the hood, she zipped up her bag again and settled down against the wall, bundling herself up into a ball and resting her head on her arms as she watched the rain. That was all the rest she was going to allow herself for now. Food and sleep could wait until the rain had passed. At least then she'd know that her cover wouldn't be as likely to crash down on her.
...
Unfortunately, the rain continued well on into the night. Normally, Namine would have gotten fed up and created a portal to a more suitable place to weather it out, but not only had she been too new to this world to have a clue where anything was, she doubted that anywhere was really safe. Maybe wherever the magic was radiating from.
Luckily however, experience, something she'd had a great deal of since she randomly found herself in a Guild Hall in a world called Earth Land, had taught her to be well prepared whenever moving from one dimension to the next. Her bag was filled with a few clothes for different climates, a blanket, big bottles of water, packets of long lasting food, a few sketchbooks with pencils and paints of every colour and a number of items she'd picked up or made along the way. It was heavy and hard to get anything out, but it was well worth it. She was well prepared for most worldly conditions and the weight had proven great for strengthening her muscles.
Setting up camp, though making sure to keep everything close in case her shelter did collapse, she only waited long enough to carefully eye the other partially dilapidated buildings for a place to go before digging into her chocolate bars and sketching the bleak world she'd found herself in this time. Even at only halfway through, the detail was amazing. Every drop of rain looked so real, every detail of the ruins well detailed. By the time it was done, a perfect photo couldn't have done it better justice.
She'd taken to doing that in every world she saw, whether she liked it or not, and jotted the world's name, its location as best she could guess and the basics of the world's condition and culture. She knew Sora kept a journal of his adventures throughout the worlds, what she did was pretty similar to that. She liked that fact, it made it feel a bit closer to him. She really did miss the sweet goofball.
She was just setting the pencils back into their place and back into her bag when the clouds finally receded, revealing a large, full moon and blanketing the ruined town in a silvery glow. It was eerily beautiful, Namine had to admit, to the point where she was tempted to sketch it all over again, but thought better of it.
Rising to her feet, she quickly headed out of her little shelter, carefully checking it out both from the outside and the inside. Her sneakers were not thanking her for this as she stepped through the puddles of acid, but other than that, she was very happy with how the subway entrance had held out. There was no way it was anything close to what it once was, but there was still no sign of it collapsing on her.
"Not that I'm a carpenter or anything ." She grinned to herself, shaking her head at the thought. She had an eye for detail but that didn't make her a professional at determining structural stability. Still, her little hidey-hole would suffice just fine for now.
"Although..." A bit of a frown grew across her face as she stared at the ground. Specifically at the pools the rain had left behind. They weren't much of an issue to anything but her shoes right now, but if it rained again, they could grow and reach into her shelter. "That won't do."
Taking a keen eye around the area, she raised her hands and created two small portals at once, both of them underneath and sucking away decent sized piles of rocks that immediately returned to the world through exits that appeared right at the mouth of her resting place, effectively creating a physical barrier up to her knees. It wasn't much, but she only intended to stay there long enough to get a good sleep and probably consume her entire supply of food before taking off for the next world.
Moving back in, she set out her blanket, placed her bag on it to use as a pillow took off her cloak before settling down and draping it over herself. It was hardly the most comfortable place she'd ever slept, but she could make do. A fact that couldn't be disputed when she closed her eyes and dozed off, only holding on long enough to do a quick mental sweep and assure that there were still no signs of any animal minds anywhere within her range.
...
By the time Namine awoke, it was safe to say that not only had the sun been up for a while, but it had rained again, something that freaked her out a little bit when she made the realisation. It only got worse when she realised that this time the wind had blown toward the entrance. Fortunately, the rain hadn't quite made it to her, so all she really had to worry about after a few moments was the incredibly stiffness and soreness of her body.
"The sooner I get back home, the better." She grunted as she forced herself to sit up, tensing as a spasm travelled right up her back. "I have got to get a bed capsule from Capsule Corp. That would be heaven right now."
Shaking and stretching, she quickly set to work packing up. Piling up everything she'd taken out of her bag as neatly as she could, she opened her bag and dug out a bag of jerky before putting everything away. She'd have a quick, admittedly lousy, meal and then she'd go on her way, leaving this dead world far behind.
That was the plan. But of course, fate took great joy at throwing a monkey wrench into the works. Opening the bag, she barely managed to swallow one piece before the ground beneath her rumbled.
Panic flaring, she immediately shot up, ignoring the stiffness and pain completely as she snagged her bag and ran out the exit of her little shelter, just a mere moment before it imploded.
"AAHHHH!" Screaming, Namine dived into an army roll as debris shot her way, almost taking off her head, before springing herself back onto her feet and leaping back to the left as more cement and metal scraps barrelled in all directions. If she ever got back home, she'd have to remember to thank Kim and Jake for teaching her the basics for how to manoeuvre and evade, it was only those now well developed skills that were keeping her alive. Portal transport was useless, debris was flying from all directions. It would follower her through before she could close any portal she went through and too much would curve around any portal shield she could put up. Making two required too much focus for this instance, evasion was all she had. Needless to say, it was an enormous relief when it finally stopped.
Or rather, it would have been if it wasn't for the sight of what caused it in the first place.
"...What...the HELL?" Eyes wide, Namine could only gape, shocked still, at the tubular, slimy body as thick as a double-decker bus that was rising and curling from underground. "Since when do worms get that big?"
For that's exactly what it was. A giant worm that Namine was sure was going to push for a mile in length if it kept rising out of the ground. And if that wasn't enough for you, there was one other difference, one that had Namine breaking out into a cold sweat and gritting her teeth in fear. This thing not only had a mouth big enough to fit a cow in it, it was apparently a carnivore. Assuming from the rows of teeth the size of the average human head and so sharp looking that they'd make a shark jealous, of course.
Either way, though it had no eyes, it was looking down and baring them at Namine like a rabid dog. Its intensions were painfully clear.
'I...I can't sense its mind at all.' Her whole body shook as she took a step back, wild hands already moving to the daggers strapped to her forearms. Not that any thought was put to them or any hope was placed on their blades, they'd be about as useful toothpicks against that something that size. No, all her conscious mind was focusing on her telepathy and the increasing fear that the total absence of another mind was causing. 'I don't get it, there's always a mind. Even drone creatures like bees have something! Why is this thing completely blank?'
So distracted, she almost missed the fact that it lunged at her. However, quick reflexes kicked in just fine as she leapt back, giving her all the time she needed to get her head back into it. Before her feet even returned to the ground, both of her daggers were already glowing as she swung them around, both releasing energy that swirled to the point as she brought them together behind her head.
"Magical ball!" Swinging her arms forward, she flung a large, white, purple outlined ball like a rocket. It came in so fast, the giant worm didn't even know what hit it, let alone how to dodge.
What almost sounded like a growl left its mouth as the ball struck its head, flinging the head back up before it coming back down, more due to gravity than anything else. Taking advantage of the disorientation, Namine charged in, her daggers poised at her side. The moment the beast hit the ground, she swung her arms up, quickly and effectively cutting two trails down the body.
However, the beast wasn't so keen to just take it and Namine's act set herself right up for its trap. Continuing on her way down the body, Namine was actually growing optimistic about her chances. It wasn't until she was halfway to the hole in the ground the worm was coming out of that she realised her mistake.
"AHH!" With a quick flex of its body, the worm sharply curled itself, leaving Namine to run flat into it. "Crap, I forgot, no bones!" Stumbling back, she quickly moved to retreat only to gasp as the head curled back around after her, effectively trapping her in place as it lurched for her once more, with speed comparable to a snake.
Pinned down, Namine quickly created a light portal with a flick of her hand and jumped back into it. However, her sense of safety did not follow.
"How'd you even fit?" Screaming in terror, Namine found herself almost completely helpless, falling through the air thanks to a poorly planned portal and being followed by the a mouth full of fangs. She couldn't comprehend how it was possible, her portals weren't normally big enough for something that size, but she didn't have time to figure out the answer. Self preservation instincts taking charge, Namine immediately created another portal and passed through it, closing it the second she passed through it. However, she may not have needed bother.
BOOM! BOOM!
"Huh...oh my, oh!" It took a moment for her freaked mind to register what just happened, but once realisation hit, her face turned green and she almost puked as she watched every part of the monster worm that had passed through her portal crash into the ground, as did the severed end of the rest of it.
"I...I..." Bile threatening to rise and fly, Namine, whipped herself around, facing away from it as she took deep breaths. Her knees not really keen to support her weight, she let herself fall down, trying to get over the shock and figure out what happened. She hadn't intended to do...that. "I...panicked, I didn't expected it to follow me through the portal and responded by focusing on another portal...oh." A very dramatic grimace crossed her face as the answer presented herself. In her panic and need to create a new portal, she hadn't focused on maintaining the old one. Sever the portal and you sever anything that hasn't finished passing through, hence in this case, a beheading. That was bad, she had to work on that. What if wasn't a rabid beast next time? What if it was an innocent? What if it was a friend? No, that could never happen again.
"My my, that was rather messy, now wouldn't you say?" All the air left Namine's lungs as a man's voice met her ears. A familiar voice, one that couldn't be mistaken. Not after the events that caused her to meet him and not with that cheery tone filling it despite the gory scene he'd just walked in on.
Looking up, Namine could only stare in amazement. There he was. His grey hair was still up in the same style, he still wore the same lab coat, slacks and blue, button up shirt. He still had that old pocket watch clasped in his hand. and most of all, he still had that serene smile on his face as he offered her his hand. "Professor Paradox."
"Hello Namine." Taking her hand, he gently pulled her back onto her feet, letting his chipper smile turn into a much more warm one. "It is a pleasure to finally see you again, my brave young lady."
AN: And there's the beginning of VG8! As you will have already noticed, Namine is a bit different from the others, far more aware and grown noticeably in skill and power. Trust me, you'll see more of it soon.
Anyway, this story basically is going to have two parts. Part 1 is being written alongside VG7 while part 2 will be done alongside VG9. For the first part, I recommend getting a basic understanding of Tsubasa Chronicles, particularly the story 'Tokyo Revelations. You don't have to know it, but it will make some parts easier to understand.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.