Title: Incursio
Written By: Mr. Omelette
Disclaimer: I'm not smart, artistic, enlightened and awesome enough to make either of them
Spoilers: The Rebellion and Avengers (2012) movie
A/N: ...italicized conversations mean that it's spoken in Japanese. I searched what Yuma's soul gem looks like transformed, and personally it looks like a jigglypuff.
Summary: Homura observes all other possibilities with her new powers. And Madoka just wants cake.
CHAPTER 10
"You've seen the universe been reborn at least three times, haven't you?" In a plane of reality that wasn't really a plane of reality, in an area that wasn't really an area, the [Demon] looked at [The Hero That Could Be You]. One moment, Homura was waiting for Madoka in a cafe, the next is she's talking to the waitress that isn't the waitress. Well, technically it is still the waitress but her psyche's been overridden by an 'echo' of one Captain Universe.
The waitress, who isn't really a waitress, smiled, "Maybe."
Their faces might be impassive, their stances cool and composed, but Homura sensed the unease of Ibari, Mie and Ganko, and Homura saw Noroma, Yakimochi and Nekura ready their push pin spears. A few Luiselottes even stopped from their patrol to watch the stalemate.
Captain Universe, in turn, made all the living beings around Homura to stop whatever they were doing. Slowly, oh-so eerily, their faces turned and met Homura's impassive face.
"I take it that this isn't a social call?" Homura ran a finger at the lips of her coffee mug.
"Someone wishes to have an audience with you." The fact that a cosmic being was used as a messenger meant that they were either trying to really intimidate the new-born cosmic entity known as Homura Akemi, or, someone so powerful that should the being physically manifestation in her - Homura's - plane of reality could mean the annihilation of that reality.
This being couldn't be Eternity. If it was Eternity, he would've been less tactful as to use a messenger. Like the first time he made himself known.
It could also be a trap of some sort. There were beings whose power could rival or eclipse even Madoka herself, and they somehow all wanted to grab hold of her best friend and take her potential.
Actually, with the Incubator race at her disposal, she rerouted the race's efforts of stopping [Entropy] to containing (or, at least, trying to), and safeguarding the multiverse from threats like Shuma Gorath and Chthon. Her Luiselottes actually started to giggle whenever an exhausted and mind-fvcked Incubator would show up and report on the new multiversal crisis they stopped. Which, in turn, earned Homura the respect of the Living Tribunal. In fact, the [Demon] was now sort of working with (or for) the powerful being.
However, the [Demon] was aware that the [Guardian of Eternity] fought for the good, so that's got to mean something. Right? Even if Homura was now bordering in neutrality when it came to alignment.
Neutrality because her partnership with the Living Tribunal was only so the Living Tribunal wouldn't think of undoing what she did to Madoka - or to 'Godoka', to be precise.
Homura made that decision to meet the challenge head-on. Summoning Liese Matrona, the biggest Liese in her stable, Homura then formed her wooden chair on the bird's back and sat on it. "Lead the way then, oh great Uni-Power."
Before she left, she sent a text message to Madoka that something came up and she might not be able to meet her today.
"JARVIS," Iron Man might be busy keeping the air clean from space aliens but the thought that someone possesses way more advanced technology - or is it? - that could override his company's technological prowess bothered him, "Any leads as to how the communication line got cut?"
"I can only guess one thing, sir."
"Oh yeah?" He sent an energy beam to a flying footsoldier that tried to enter a subway tunnel.
"I have been snooping around," by that, JARVIS usually meant he hacked his way through every known government and evil organization database, "and I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this." A panel popped up from his screen and saw the blonde woman from earlier running with two black circles beside her.
"...and this is?" Iron Man was currently being chased by another flying whale.
"Live footage. Communication lines one hundred feet away from them seems to become noise." Another image popped up from his screen, this time a satellite image from the same view. "As you can see, even the satellite images we use for corporate espionage still can't override the image blocking thingy-"
"Watching those Buffy episodes I told you to watch?"
"Yes sir." came the dry reply of JARVIS.
Homura sat in his wooden chair as Liese Matrona flapped her wings. The bird was following the ethereal figure of Captain Universe. It didn't take long actually. Or rather, it took an eternity. It didn't actually happened. Or it did. But one moment they were flying in a spatial reality that wasn't natural or hers, and then Homura realized that she was outside of the cafe now.
Liese Matrona shrunk her size, smaller than the nail of Homura's thumb. She then flew to one of Homura's pockets and snuggled herself in the warm, dark area.
The [Demon] looked around and saw that they were in a cafe that wasn't the cafe from earlier. Then, like a [Witch] changing the environment to suit her mentalscape, it turned into a park. An empty park on a warm weekend afternoon. She was standing in a wooden bridge, quite like the same bridge that she, Madoka and Sayaka passes every morning to school, and the small river beneath the bridge had the cleanest and bluest river she's ever seen. The trees never looked so vibrant before too. It felt... safe, and had a nice ambiance to it, but Homura has been in her fair share of [Witch's Barriers].
"It's finally good to meet you, Homura Akemi." It was a man's voice. Sounded awfully like..
"Kaname-san! What're you?"
Tomohisa Kaname waved a hand, "I'm not actually the human named Tomohisa Kaname."
Homura tilted her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw three of her Clara Dolls - Okubyou, Manuke and Higami - feeding the ducks with bread by the river. The others, however, were playing on the grass all around. She watched as Namake, the Clara Doll of [Neglect], near the man. The brunet man simply smiled and patted the doll's head before looking at Homura.
"Who're you, exactly?" This man, who wore her best friend's father's face, felt strong. A power that dwarfed anything she's ever seen. Stronger even than the presence she felt around the Living Tribunal.
"That doesn't really matter." 'Tomohisa' smiled. "But if you want to see me..." And Homura saw the everything in his eyes. A sense of vertigo, a pinch of demetia, a taste of power and a teaspoon of benevolence was what she felt. And an overwhelming sense of intense, mind-boggling force.
"I suspect you would rather see me in Tomohisa Kaname's form, yes?" And this... [-indescribable-] changed into Tomohisa Kaname.
"Why him?" Tomohisa Kaname and Akemi Homura rarely crossed paths. In fact, among the Kaname family, he was the one who interacted with her the least. In all of her timeline resets and the time before she dethroned the [Law of Cycles], she's never spoken more than five words to him. In fact it was only now, right after her rewriting the universe, did she ever have conversations with the man.
"You will have a more... intense reaction should I use the form of one Junko or Tatsuya Kaname." 'Will have'? Homura noted how he said 'will have' instead of 'would have'.
'Tomohisa' plopped back into a bench that wasn't there earlier. Completely imitating how Madoka's father would sit. 'He' looked at her, "I do believe we have something to talk about."
"What is this about?" Homura too summoned her wooden chair. It was plain, rickety-looking and weathered, but she liked it. She sat in front of 'Tomohisa' and honestly, it felt like she was in a job interview.
"Are we going back to the subway tunnels again, Roberta?" Yuma asked as she used her staff to send the ground shaking. Five footsoldiers shook at the controlled earthquake, and Kyoko used that moment of distraction to turn them to minced meat.
Roberta herself had stabbed an enemy alien on it's stomach before looking at the kid, "We are."
"Why?" Yuma whined, using her huge weapon to smack a nearing enemy.
Roberta grunted as she flipped back to avoid lasers being sent to her direction, "Because it's safe there." Kyoko then jumped to the foes who were using guns and diced them too.
The skirmishes were quick, usually not lasting more than a few minutes.
Kyoko swished her spear, letting the oil-like liquids from the aliens paint the pavement. The redhead then walked to Yuma and checked her [Gem].
She bit back a curse when she saw it was turning murkier by the minute. "You have to purify your [Soul Gem]. Now."
Yuma actually rolled her eyes, "Fine..." Yuma then reached for her pockets and brought out a few [Grief Cubes]. She then plucked her [Gem] from it's place. Meanwhile, Kyoko surveyed the area for a place where Yuma could do the purifaction. She settled for a nearby McDonalds.
"Let's go in there." She told the two females.
"Hey," Roberta placed a hand over her hip, "I'm running things around here. You do everything I say."
Kyoko let her spear vanish. "We do everything you say and you'll be left with no one to protect."
"What was that?"
Kyoko crossed her arms and huffed, "Whatever. Yuma, let's go." And Yuma walked to the deserted McDonalds. The green-haired child looked at the retreating figure of Kyoko then to Roberta. She didn't think twice; she ran after Kyoko.
Groaning, the Mockingbird followed Kyoko's lead.
"What're you doing?" Roberta watched as Yuma placed this Jigglypuff-like green object on the cashier counter.
"Purifying my [Soul Gem]!" The kid told her, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Beside Yuma, Kyoko had raided three cheeseburgers from the food rack, and had even poured a tall glass of coke for the herself and Yuma. The three were huddled together, Kyoko silently watching Yuma place her [Grief Cubes] strategically around her [Soul Gem] and Roberta watching with undisguised interest.
When the formation was done, Roberta noted that Yuma set these black cubes around a Jigglypuff-like thing in a heart-shaped formation, grotesque-looking black squiggly lines formed from the black cubes and towards the Jigglypuff object. Roberta actually thought it was a bad thing but the Jigglypuff object looked more lustrous than before, glimmery too. It was a slow process, and the three of them actually ate free McDonalds food, while they waited. Yuma had to do it three times because the black cubes turned grey and no longer seemed to absorb the murkiness of the [Soul Gem].
A few running people passed them by, but they ignored the three females because of the carnage happening around them.
Roberta even saw Kyoko rob the cashiers of their money. She was about to say something about it when Yuma shouted 'it's done' to the two of them. Roberta was only distracted for a moment, she only looked at the younger child for just a second, but when she turned back to Kyoko, Kyoko was already leaving the area.
Steve Rogers has never felt anything like this before. He fought with so much ease, so much finesse, it was startling. His movements felt well-oiled and composed too, and his punches and blows were stronger than ever.
He saw his reflection earlier when they passed a boutique shop that hasn't got it's windows smashed. He saw what he looked like; his suit turned like... a blue-themed Robin Hood costume. With a billowy turquoise-colored cape. The cape in his opinion felt a little too much for him. His clothes might've been turned less constraining, but on the few laser beams that was sent to his direction that wasn't deflected by his shield, it didn't hurt as much as compared to earlier. His ducks, rolls and somersaults didn't tire him as much as well.
So this is what magic feels like?
He still couldn't believe that Kyoko and Yuma could use magic. And fight. Actually, it didn't bother him that much that they could both use magic - Yuma and he actually had a cartoon marathon that featured this genre called 'Magical Girls'. It was a week's worth of watching shows like 'Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha', 'Card Captor Sakura', and, according to Yuma, a cult classic named 'Sailor Moon' over at Netflix and Youtube. He actually liked the one about Nanoha due to their cool fighting scenes, even if their clothes (on all of the shows that they watched) should be less revealing to him. From the era he was from, you would've been called a lot of bad things if one were to dress so scantily those Sailor Soldiers.
Though he has to admit that while the notion of fighting for 'love, friendship and justice' using beams of pink light was a little out of there, it did soften the bomb that the two children gave to everyone.
The thing that bothered him more, however, and what's more pressing, was the fact that the two could fight. And fight good. How could someone let children learn how to fight? Watching about children fighting using love and friendship might have it's appeal, but it shouldn't be like that in real life.
"Captain?"
Steve Rogers jumped down to see if Natasha was alright, seeing as she just single-handedly defeated a dozen footsoldiers by herself.
"This fighting isn't going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."
"Do you think guns could touch it?" Steve would be the first to admit that the technology advancement of today was a little out of his league. Not a little. A lot. Anyway, back then, if you don't know how to turn something off, you just blow it up.
Now? He isn't so sure.
"I'm thinking it's not about guns." Steve looked at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, her eyes fixed not on the portal in the sky but on the beam that seems to keep the portal open.
"You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride." If Loki hadn't destroyed their jet.
Steve looked at Natasha as she looked at the flying foot soldiers. "I got a ride."
No way.
"I could use a boost though."
Steve looked like her like she was crazy. "Are you sure about this?"
Natasha actually joked, "Yeah. It's gonna be fun."
She walked a few feet away from Steve, and when she was far enough, ran back to him. She then stepped on his shield and with his new-found strength, propelled her at least ten feet in the air.
A flying enemy was nearby and Natasha landed right behind the pilot.
The swarm of enemies was getting out of hand. Sure the three of them, thanks to Kyoko's superior fighting abilities, could fight a mob of a couple dozen of enemies at a time, but the farther they tried to go away from the source, the more enemies they seem to encounter.
Roberta theorized that the most of the enemies weren't in the skies or in the surface, where the Avengers team fought them. Quite possibly, a lot of them were in the subway tunnels, using the tunnels as means of travel. Roberta could only hope that most of the civilians were already evacuated there.
Currently, their path has been made difficult by a sea of footsoldiers walking in formation to them. Roberta and Kyoko both agreed that the best plan was to run away from them. But running away from them meant going back to the hole in the sky because somehow, they were in a street that had no resisting force from the enemies.
Roberta looked ahead, nearing as the got closer and closer to Stark Tower.
Maria Hill couldn't believe what she was hearing. The Council wanted to nuke New York City.
That was one of the most dumbest thing she's ever heard today. And today was a weird day, with aliens and gods and all.
The colonel was arguing with the Council that no, a nuke is a bad idea, and yes, it could be used when their team couldn't contain the threat. But no, that option should be only be considered when it's actually hopeless. And, no, doing it in a very populous area is severely stupid.
Agent Cotton and Maria Hill could only sigh in relief when Nick Fury killed the call.
'Tomohisa Kaname' looked at Akemi Homura.
Their conversation might have lasted for a second. It might have also lasted for a lifetime. One can never tell.
"Tell me, Homura Akemi." His relaxing vibe was slowly dissipating, leaving behind an overpowering sense of infinitesimal power, and truthfully, it made Homura tear a little in its majesty and fear a little due to making her feel so minutely small.
"What do you know of the [Infinity Gems]?"