(A/N: Very minor spoilers for the first ten chapers of the Elfen Lied manga. If you haven't at least watched the anime up until about the third episode yet, you have been warned.)
Alternate Reality Michael's House, 2:37 PM
"So, lemmie get this straight... You're cat is now a... catgirl. Omega Zero, the Devil Reploid-"
"I'm NOT a friggin' reploid! Hell, even X over there can tell you: I'M. A. ROBOT! Model DWN-INFINITY! Alright? So, I'm alright being called a robot, but don't you DARE compare me to those rejects!"
"Okay, Omega Zero, the Devil ROBOT, is your biometal, and you live with a... fox lady?"
After a few minutes of stopping Lil' Red from trying to scare away Clover (which was obvious that it was a bad idea to have both a 'dog' and a 'cat' in the same room) and Kitsume briefly transformed into a small snow white fox in fright of seeing Red, which was pretty small and cute, and fluffy, and - seriously, it was the cutest thing in the room at that point, and everyone was surprised that had just happened, even Michael #1, who was pretty adjusted to weird stuff happening in his life, had not expected that.
Safe to say, the situation defused on that moment, and now Clover was playing with Red, and both Michaels, Omega, X, and the still in fox form Kitsume, were sitting (or in her case, laying in Mike 1's lap) on the couches that were in the corner of the living room.
"I ain't just a fox lady, Michael number two. I am a kitsune. That means magic and illusions, and you saying that I'm just a fox lady means you really need to see what I can do, like say... this."
Kitsume then pulled one of her famous tricks of transforming, and guess how it looked after she morphed back into her humanoid form.
"Ya know, I can do things other than just transforming", she then started to use her hands to list what could do, while still being held bridal style by an increasingly flustered Michael, "like fire magic, creating almost life-like illusions, cooking, and a little bit of gaming. Oh, and I'm over a thousand years old, so I could teach you a thing or two about all the history of Japan, or at least the parts that I remember."
Michael 2 looked somewhere between confused and surprised at both the position she took, and the fact she was way, way, WAY older than she initially seemed.
"Hey, me numero dos, you still with us?"
Michael 2 snapped back to reality, realizing that his doppelganger was talking to him.
"Oh, oh yeah, I am. Still, that, all of this, just seems too... strange to be real..."
That's when our Michael came with his retort:
"Really? Really? THIS is strange? Says the person who has both X as a biometal AND has a werewolf AS A PET. How is THAT anymore strange than my biometal being Omega, my cat being turned into a catgirl, and having a freaking kitsune house me? Tell me, what part of that seems any stranger than what you got going on?"
"*giggle* Ouch, you need some ice for that burn?", Kitsume said with a sly look on her face.
"Kitsume... just... why? Why did you have to say that, to the closest thing to me, in front of me?"
"Because I could."
"And this is why I just can't win..."
At this point, both Michaels looked pretty downtrodden, Clover and Red looked over at the current group of five that were at the coffee table, Kitsume then shifted to our Michael's right, both getting off of his lap, and 'accidentally' sat on top of Omega. Taking absolutely no pleasure in this whatsoever, Omega, being squashed between two soft surfaces (you should know which two), he told Michael 1, and the author quotes:
[Get her off me. This is just... Uncomfortable. No, seriously. Michael. Help. NOW.]
'Hey, Omega. Remember what you told me this morning? Yeah... You're on your own, 'Useless God'.'
[Okay, THAT'S IT, YOU ASKED FOR IT!]
'Hey, wait, Omega-'
Omega then forced Michael to megamerge with him, and proceeded to punch him in the face, repeatedly, until he realized where he was just a moment ago, and went through the still open wormhole between the two houses, not giving a single look back into Michael 2's house for any reason.
Red, finally piping up after answering most of Clover's questions, asked the trio that were still on the couches, "What made him leave like that?"
"Oh, ya know, he was just feeling a dirty, so he went to take a shower. He'll be back in a few minutes."
-x-x-x-x-x-
Omega stormed through the house, looking for the bathroom. Michael was surprised at Omega for wanting to take a shower NOW of all times, considering how dirty he got back when they fought Carnage. Seriously, being thrown around in an alleyway won't do you any favors if your goal is to stay smelling clean. Now he knows how Spider-Man feels whenever he gets thrown into a dumpster.
Omega, finally finding the bathroom, went inside and prepared to take a shower, selecting some body soap, shampoo and conditioner for his wash-down, all the while Michael, while currently being in the back seat, was doing his best trying to suppress his snickering and his giggles, which he was doing a great job of. He then was surprised at the fact that Omega was taking off his helmet, which released his golden blond hair from it's ponytail somehow, removing his vest, which just revealed more of his black bodysuit-looking armor that made up about 80% of his body, as well as taking off his silly codpiece, which, to no one's surprise, hid absolutely nothing. It was just smooth. Nothing was there. Period. Next were the gauntlet pieces, and then the boots.
If you saw him like that (which Michael couldn't), you'd think Omega didn't look that much different from a human. Heck, you probably couldn't guess that he was a male, due to there not being many, if any, physical indicators for actual gender, the only real way for you to know would be him talking to you.
Getting back on what's going on, Omega, taking the cleaning supplies that he brought with him, and started to wash off every nook, cranny, and crevice that was on his body, wanting to clean and rid himself of anything that got on him. So, he was just eradicating every single germ on his body, using up about half a bar of soap, and a third of each bottle of shampoo and conditioner. He was that serious cleaning himself off, that the smell of flowers and fruits was overpowering, to say the least.
[Did Kitsume really get you that bothered? Or are you finally taking my advice to shower seriously? I mean, I didn't expect you being able do that with your armor.]
'Michael, shut up. I'm removing the filth that was on me a minute ago. Eugh...'
[I... don't follow. I need some clarification here.]
Omega shuts off the shower and starts to towel off the water still on him. It was quite easy due to his various combat upgrades, one of which is getting waterproofed, which, to this day, Omega thanks Wily for giving him this advantage.
'Alright, you REALLY wanna know? Then I'll tell you.', saying this into the mirror, where Michael could be seen in the reflection, seemingly sitting down on the stool by the shower section of the bathroom.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Back with Michael 2...
"Alright, since both you and Clover are starting to get along, Lil' Red, I just wanna ask something."
"Yes, my Alpha?"
"Why are you getting along with Clover? A cat? Aren't dogs and cats, or in this case, a werewolf and... a catgirl-?"
"'Neko', the term is 'Neko', Michael."
"Neko, aren't supposed to get along very well?"
That's when both Clover and Red gave their answers, with Red first speaking up.
"Well, for me at least, I've... never really seen any cats, so when Clover showed up from that portal, instinct took over, and yeah... I didn't know how to react to her, so I went with my instincts, which are usually right... most of the time. So, I didn't think she was, well, like this."
"As for me, I didn't know how to react when I was around other animals, especially the more louder ones. I was just never around anyone, unless it was Master. So, I just felt scared when I heard her growling. I just didn't know what to do, so I just ran for Master. I didn't know Ms. Red never seen a cat before, so I allowed her to ask questions about us cats, as far as my experience goes. I never knew she was this fun to be with, and to be this fluffy too!" Clover then hugs Red without prompt, rubbing her head on Red's arm, purring all the while, the size difference making the moment feel cute. Red face gained a slight blush from the attention she was getting from her.
Michael 2, feeling that their answers were satisfactory, had just nodded in understanding.
"Okay, that clears up a lot. So, it's been about, let's see... 20 minutes. Kitsume, mind trying to find him?"
"Okay chief, I'll drag him back here before dinner gets cold!" Kitsume said with a silly smile on her face, knowing that he's just probably trying to do something, that something being unclear.
Kitsume, knowing her house layout like the back of her hand, walks up her bathroom's door, and takes a peek into the room. Her expectation of who would be in there was broken the moment she saw the person.
'Who the HELL is she? How did she get into my house?! I'm pretty sure that the front door is locked! Why don't I ask her some questions...'
"Hey! What the hell are you doing in my house?! I don't know you, and if-"
"KITSUME! It's just me! Omega! Now stop yelling at me, and let me put on my damn armor before you storm into here again, okay?!"
"Wait, Omega? Jeez, you really don't look like how you do with your armor on... and you're pretty cute, too."
"Kitsume, out, NOW."
"Okay then, cutie...*giggle*"
Omega then throws a small hairbrush at the door, which then closes with a slam, and Kitsume was laughing at the fact that Omega was out of his armor.
[...'Cutie'? Really?]
'Michael, remember when I told you to shut up? Start doing that more.'
-x-x-x-x-x-
So, Omega was clean 'again', he de-megamerged for Michael to get back to both Clover and Kitsume, considering that they REALLY shouldn't have a wormhole between two houses for more than an hour, or else there might be unintended consequences. It was a risk having it open for this long.
"Hey Clover, I know you like playing with Red, but we kinda have to go back to the house. I'm sorry about us needing to leave, but maybe we could visit her again sometime soon, okay?"
Once Clover heard Michael say those words, she then had a somber look on her face, as well as her ears folding down to show her current emotion. Michael could practically hear his heart breaking into a million pieces.
"...Okay Master, I'll go... See you sometime soon, Ms. Red..."
"Um... See ya Clover, hope to see you soon." Red replied somewhat hesitantly, as this whole situation happened so suddenly. Two Michaels? Another... 'Megaman', whatever that was, and to top it off, instantaneous travel was a reality. So much for things getting any simpler than they had. Now, hopefully her Alpha hasn't forgotten about his little promise.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Back at Sakura House...
10 Minutes Later, Michael's Room...
Michael, reeling back into the reality he remembers, that being there was only one him, had settled down onto the seat of one of the desks and had picked up one of the manga sets that were on the bookshelf that Kitsume left behind. It helped that he could read the kanji that made up the dialogue very well, almost as if he was reading something written in English.
He decided to give reading manga a go a couple of days ago, and chose a series that seemed interesting: Elfen Lied. Michael had asked Kitsume her opinion on it, and she told him it was a really good read, but also told him that the cover wasn't a good indicator of what happens in the story, but other than that, she just told him to enjoy reading it. So, after their little chat, he decided to at least read the first chapter when he felt like it. Now that he finally got away from the mindfuck that was a second him, Michael thought it would be a good time to read something to take his mind away from everything before Kitsume started on dinner.
'Alright, it's just like a comic book, except I have to read it right-from-left instead of left-to-right.
'Okay, let's read this onelittle chapter, and then go back to entertaining the thought of vigilante-ism with Omega for two seconds. Huh,Elf". Interesting name for a first chaper, wonder what it's all about?'
Safe to say, he didn't know what he signed up for once he opened the first volume.
-x-x-x-x-x-
After Ten Chapters...
'...Well, I should probably bookmark this before I put it away...'
"Clover! Michael! Dinner!"
'Damn, it dinnertime already? Time sure does fly when you got a good read. I wonder what's gonna happen now that Lucy's awake... Again...'
Michael, having read at least up to chapter ten of the series, could now say for certain that he was hooked. It helped that there was plenty of mystery surrounding what was going to happen. Seriously, who would ever expect a girl who could be so innocent one second become a cold-blooded killer in the next? That's some major split personality disorder right there. Thank god that's not how his bond with Omega worked, or else there would be some major-
"Hey, did you guys not hear me? I said Dinner's ready!"
Oh yeah, dinner, right! Time to wake up Clover, before she misses dinner, again.
"Hey, sleepyhead, wake up, dinner's ready."
"Mmnn... mnm... One second Master... I'll be up..." She then rolled around to her front and stretched out before eventually getting up and walking to the kitchen with him, prepared for another tasty meal that Kitsume cooked up for them this time.
-x-x-x-x-x-
After dinner...
Kitsume, with the help of a certain nearly white-haired teen, had cleaned the kitchen in a orderly fashion. After the obvious need to clean up the room, she had asked the question that was kinda lingering in the air after their previous talk about books.
"So Michael, how's the manga?"
"Well, just like you said, the covers don't reveal anything, and it definitally was an interesting read. I might just be hooked on it, so yeah... Heh..."
"Oh? How far are you into it?"
"I'm done with chapter ten, and I'm gonna read chapter eleven tomorrow, and I'm gonna guess that I'm nowhere near the end, am I?"
"Nope, but I am glad that someone else is reading around here. Seriously, do you know just how many series I have? I mean, you're welcome to ask for more if you want."
"Nah, I'll stick with reading Elfen Lied until the end before I start up another series, but thank you for the offer."
"Alright, but don't start reading for too long, okay? You should at least get 8 hours of sleep, which you've had no trouble of doing. So please don't pull an all-nighter, okay?"
"I won't, I promise. Goodnight." And with that statement, he slunk up the steps and gently walked into his shared bedroom, and crawled into the bed, welcoming the warmth of the blankets, and of a very sleepy kitty.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Screams.
All he could hear were screams.
Screams for various things: to die, to live, to make it all end, and screams for mercy. Of pain, agony, and anguish.
Blood.
All he could see was blood, bone, limbs, and corpses.
Blood painted the walls like a crude, macabre expresionist's paint on a canvas of metal. Corpses littered the floor like confetti at a new year's celebration, not to mention to bullet casings that had to number in the thousands, or at least, as far as he could see.
The room itself was bathed in a eerie glow of crimson from the blazing emergency lights. What wasn't bathed in red was covered in shadow.
But, admist all of this, standing in the middle of all the gore and the blood, was Michael, or at least, it looked like him, but there were notible differences between Michael and it: it's hair was a shade of nearly-white pink, it's skin a shade lighter, and it's gaze...
It had eyes the color of pure red, and it's stare held no kindness, no fear, no disgust at the scene before it. It only had the feeling of a burning hatred at anything and anyone, should they be unfortunate enough to catch it's attention, and currently,
It stared back.
-x-x-x-x-x-
4 AM, Sakura House...
Michael awoke with a start, breath ragged and gaze confused, as the the nightmare had played through his head.
'It was only a nightmare, it was only a nightmare... It was only... A nightmare...', he repeated in his head as Michael couldn't think of a reason why he could've had a nightmare that visceral. Sure, it could've been from the manga he read yesterday, or from the investigation and subsiquent defeat of Carnage, but that was so long ago.
It couldn't be the second, because if it was, then he'd have that nightmare at least a week before he started the manga. The only logical explination would be that the night terror came from his reading last night, but why? He wasn't scared of blood and gore, if anything, he was, at most, a little disturbed whenever it happened in a work of fiction, which would be the intended effect of said blood and gore.
But that dream was different. Why did it feel... Well... Real? It almost felt like he was there, watching that whole... THING happen, and he was just a passenger along for the ride?
He needed some water and something to keep his mind off of whatever his nightmare was about.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Michael, with water in hand, had ascended the steps that led to the upstair rooms, and walked back into his own, gently closing the door behind him.
Knowing that he still had a manga to read, he searched the shelf for the specific volume he had left off of. Thankfully, he had remembered which book he had left a bookmark in. After taking out the manga, he flipped through the pages until he reached where he left off.
There, he took out the piece of paper where the eleventh chapter would start, but there was one slight, tiny, miniscule, itty-bitty problem:
You know how Michael flipped to where chapter eleven would begin? That was the problem, the keyword being 'would', as every page after chapter eleven's cover was blank. There wasn't a single drop of ink where it was supposed to be. He knew that this was an old series, but there was no reason why it doesn't have the rest of the chapter printed in the book.
That's when the day went from a little odd, to ridiculous, as Michael had just collapsed, right on the floor, unconsious. His body was enveloped in a blinding white light, before disappearing in a flash, not to be seen from again.
-x-x-x-x-x-
??:??, Kamakura, Japan...
'I need to find Lucy. Once I do, then he'll love me forever! No more pain! No more tests! I'll become his favorite, and no one will hurt me again!'
A mysterious teenager walked down a shadowed alleyway, unknowing of where to go, was following a lead that a pink-haired horned girl was spotted near Kamakura. If that could be Lucy, then the Institute couldn't take any chances.
That's why they couldn't send that failure Bandoh out to try it again. He was already in recovery in their clinic receiving bionics to replace his missing eyes, his severed arm, and to heal his other broken arm. That was also the reason why they thought, or at least the director had thought, of sending a second diclonius after her. The first one they sent out, Number Seven, hadn't had any luck finding her in the past twenty-four hours, and they knew that if she were to roam any longer than needed, she'd needed to be disposed of.
That's where this diclonius, sent under secret orders from the Director himself, fits into this. If Number Seven couldn't find her, then Number Thirteen will. Thirteen, or as called by the staff, Michael, had been sent as a field test to see if one of the very few male diclonius could face against the female offspring.
Michael, by far, was a excellent member of their species, and the one of the only ones who had survived the vector testing, as he had awakened to his before he was shot with a low caliber firearm. The appearence of the vectors had surprised the scientists, as the vectors numbered and length similar to Lucy's. This was the only time they could see their hypothesis be proven or debunked. If male diclonius could face off, and win against, a female diclonius, then they would need to rethink entire months worth of testing.
They, after further testing, had placed a control chip into his brain. They knew just how dangerous any diclonius who awakened to their vectors could be, one only had to look at Lucy to see just that. Number Seven didn't obey to anything until 'Papa' had come to watch. Michael, on the other hand, was just a blank canvas that had yet to be stained by an artist's brush, the control chip was just one of many strokes they had put onto the blank canvas.
They had sent Number Thirteen in hoping to not only observe the performance of the one male that wasn't another failure, but to see if he could capture Lucy when the other couldn't be relied on.
They knew that the control chip could survive smashing, slashing, and stabbing, so it was going to take something else to destroy it. What they couldn't account for were sudden spikes in neural transmissions, as the sheer amout of information it would have to process would short-circut and fry the chip in it entirety.
But, in either cosmic irony or by extream chance, it had fried, not because of something that could be accounted for, but because of a new variable that had been thrown into the mix:
The conciousness of the megaman named Michael, had overwritten Number Thirteen's own, not that he had much of one in the first place.
Their data that was being fed to them had suddenly went blank. They knew full well what this meant, and it wasn't good.
"Agh! AUUUGH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHH!", the diclonius had roared out in the last seconds of it's life, not knowing where the sudden pain came from.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Omake:New Game Plus, Part 2After Omega had beat Megaman Zero 4...
Kitsume had went downstairs to start on tonight's dinner, and was currently chopping some scallions into tiny pieces for what she was planning on.
Omega was planning on giving back Kitsume's copy of the game, as well as her DS. He had stealthly walked behind Kitsume, as if he was her shadow himself. He, unknowingly to her, had snuck up onto Kitsume and put his hand on her shoulder, which had the effect of her shrieking in terror and stabbing the air mere milimeters left of Omega's face, who had grabbed the blade with his left hand, put his right forearm in front of her neck, and jerked his left hand backwards, disarming the freightened kitsune, while giving her a second to process who had just snuck up on her.
"You know, if you stabbed a few centimeters to the right, you've might've killed a mortal, but not me. You're a long way from being able to take a life, but not mine." Omega said with a smile that screamed 'you couldn't kill me, even if you tried, but I wouldn't want you to fo that anyways'.
"Oh! Hey Omega, you scared me half to death! I'm guessing you're returning the game?"
"Yeah, at least, if you didn't try stabbing me with a flimsy piece of stainless-steel metal. I'm not gonna be harmed by that, so try something bigger, or even plasma-based. And yes, here you go."
He handed Kitsume the closed mobile gaming console, having beat the games, and having a mini identity crisis during the fight with... well... himself. (In his defence, he was having Vietnam-style flashbacks! What was he supposed to do?!)
After letting go of the knife, Omega took his right forearm down to his side, while giving back Kitsume the knife, which she continued to chop scallions
"You know, you should tell someone before they have to relive parts of their life by literally fighting themselves in a game. Other than that, they were... decent, I guess."
"'Decent', huh? Is that all? Not 'good', not 'alright', but decent? Gee, you really know how to charm me...", She said with a pout on her face, which both of them knew wasn't real.
"You and I both know you'll stop with that stupid face of yours soon. It's just a matter of when."
After a few short seconds of an awkward stare-off, Kitsume's facade of seriousness had faded rather quickly.
"..pfft...Hahahaheh! Okay, you know me too well! Alright, I'll take this back to my room, so could you take over with the scallions while I do it?"
"Sure. Sliced, diced, or chopped?"
As soon as he asked, Kitsume was already at the bottom of the staircase before she responded.
"Chopped preferrebly. I'll be right down!"
Omega had a few seconds to chop up the scallions, and he felt like his skills at accurately slicing things was starting to get rusty, so, to spice up the next twenty-or-so seconds, so, with a wicked smile on his face, he had pulled out his saber and started to chop the green vegitable without mercy.
-x-x-x-x-x-
One Jack Chop-esque commercial sequence later...
"Oh hey, Omega, you done with- OH INARI, WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Kitsume exclaimed as she saw that her kitchen had essentially been turned into a warzone, probably literally, as there were flames on the counter-tops, the stove, and even the sink! The kitchen sink, for crying out loud!
"I am not responsible for any of this, I swear", he responded with absolute certainty, as he had no idea how the sink caught on fire, among other things.
"Be thankful I can just do this", she had said with annoyance dripping from her voice.
With a glow to her eyes and a snap of her fingers, the flames around the kitchen had extinguished with little effort on Kitsume's part.
"So, mind teaching me how to do that?" he said with vague interest.
"If you mean having a machine learn magic, AKA: the Impossible, happen, then no, besides, you got a kitchen to clean."
Omega, feeling cheated out of something that he had just learned of, had begun to clean up his little warzone begrudgingly.
At least Weil got what he deserved in the end.
End of Omake.
-x-x-x-x-x-
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this next chapter of 'A God's Hijinks Across the Multiverse'! It was taking a bit for me to properly put a cliffhanger for this kind of thing, but Writer's Block can't stop me now! Ha Ha!
But seriously, now this is something that would come out of left field: an Elfen Lied Crossover!
Now, I know what you're thinking: 'But why Elfen Lied'?
Well:
1) Not only will this be the first of many forceful expiditions caused by the enthropy backlash of Omega's wormholes and portals to other universes, but it's going to be a stepping stone for our beloved/ plot-slave Michael's development as a whole. How? Well, just wait for it to happen.
And
2) It's a freaking crossover with Elfen Lied! I've seen many a crossover that involved the two worlds that are being crossed over being treated as one world, but I wanted to try something different. Plus, Lucy needs a little love too. She ain't all bad.
So with those reasons, Michael is stuck in Number 13's body until either he can find a way back to his own universe, or a certain group of people come to bail him out of whatever trouble he'll get into!
Omega, signing out and having to plan out what's in the syringe!
