A thundering storm cracked the sky, the landscape decimated, scorched and burning. But one stood. Her clothes burned down to mere scraps, their remains fluttering in the faint wind. Her revealed skin was caked in a dark crimson, her breath raspy and shivering. Her dulled eyes met that of another standing mighty above the bodies that surrounded the one who defied him, his position shifting slightly with a slight huff echoing in the shadows.
The one who vehemently stared back, embers of fire in her eyes, clenched her fists; bared her fangs and released what she could of a feral roar, faint cracks of electricity encompassing her body. Dust kicked up as she leapt toward the one on the rocks above, a blinding light covering the corrupted land.
Several days prior…
"Yer kiddin' me, Star...again?" A tall, motherly woman sighed as she dropped a piece of paper onto her lap, running a hand though her hair. Rem Altezio, a hero to many, wasn't one to let her kids of all people get violent. Adjusting her burgundy hoodie as she patted the spot next to her on the sofa, the legendary fighter then leaned back into it, her several feet long ponytail resting on her lap, the crown its origin was hidden in messy and unkempt "Come on. We need to talk."
The 8 year old Star sighed as she sat down next to her mother, desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the titan of a woman, even though Rem's facial expression showed no signs of what she feared they did. Her features almost matched that of her mother entirely, save for the hair that looked like she had permanent bedhair. "I'm...sorry, mum."
Rem shook her head, putting a hand on Star's shoulder "I'm not mad, just...a little frustrated. It's the third time, Star, you can't just go punching other kids who're insulting Mysteeri, fu-..." she paused "...messed up as it is. If that happens, what do you do?"
"Tell a teacher..." Star huffed "But it's not right, mum! You sort out all the bad guys showing up by fighting them! I wanna be like you!"
Rem chuckled "Kid, if you do wanna be like me, I'll support you every step of the way, but I can't help you when you're hitting kids. They know who you are, just tell 'em to back off. Don't want Mysti to get mad, either..." She shook her head "Regardless, Star, we're lucky they let you stay the first time it happened. I don't think we'll get another chance should it happen again. I got sent home way too often because I did what you're doing. My Mum was...well, she loved us, but she could have gone without encouraging me and your aunt."
Star couldn't help but smile in response, though it quickly faded "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"
Rem sighed and leaned back again, lightly biting her finger "Hmm...no games until Sunday."
"Muuum..." Star whined.
"Star." Rem responded, her voice firm and arms crossed.
Star nodded slowly as she got off the sofa "Yeah..."
Rem frowned as she watched her daughter trudge off upstairs, eyes shifting over to a picture of her and Callie "...She's doing fine, Cal." She spoke to the picture "She still misses you, but..." She cracked her neck as she stood up "Marcus is handling it all just fine. We'll make ya proud, girl."
"You're still struggling with punishments?" A trail of aquamarine zipped into the room, revealing a shorter, somewhat chubby woman with messy royal blue hair. Rem barely reacted to the sudden entrance, looking down to her younger sister. A white and red baseball baseball jacket, black cargo shorts and red sneakers, Ix hadn't changed her look a bit in the past few years "You hate seeing them upset, don't you?"
Rem didn't respond and simply looked away.
"You're scary and all when you're mad, I understand." Ix shrugged "Just gotta try and...take things a bit more seriously."
"I try." Rem replied, looking down at herself. Or, well, what she could see beyond her chest "But, well, you know me and my anger."
Ix patted her sister on the back, a reaffirming smile on her lips "Hey, you've been doing real good at keeping it under control since the Metro. Besides, she'll be fine, it's only Wednesday."
Rem hummed and nodded, fingers tapping against her other arm "Mmm..."
"Hungry?"
"Kinda..."
Ix chuckled as she turned around "Marie's cookin' tonight, I'll see what she's got in mind." The younger of the two sisters left the room, humming a tune to herself as she strolled down the hall, Rem eventually finding her way into the kitchen and sticking her hand into the fridge. Just as her fingers wrapped around a bottle of beer, she was interrupted by the sudden blasting of heavy metal and buzzing from her pocket. With a sigh she closed the door and yanked the phone from her pocket, tapping the screen and putting it to her ear "Yeah?"
"Ah! Good, you're home." The voice of her husband, Treble, brought a smile to the woman's face "How're the kids?"
Rem sighed "Star punched a kid again...she and Rocka are still being real protective of Mysteeri. Leo and Tiki, though, yeah, they're fine. Letter said Tiki's been more social lately, too."
Treble chuckled in response "Kids, eh? I'll be home by 6. You want me to cook tonight?"
"Nah," Rem shook her head "Marie's up for it this time."
"Ahh, got it." Treble replied "Oh, right, I nearly forgot why I even called you. You don't have any twins, right?"
Rem paused, brow furrowed at the question "No…? I mean, not beyond Tenta and Tek, but they're not that kind of twin."
"Right..." Treble's response was slow, a third voice in the background of the call "Because I just ran into two women who look a lot like you and Ix. They sound just like you, too."
"...That's impossible." Rem stood up from the counter she had leaned on "The things the Break lets through are from this universe and the Squidly's one. Are you sure they're not...superfans?"
"Did she just call us imposters!?" Rem heard an exact copy of her own voice on the other end of the call.
Treble grumbled and pushed the other Rem away "Well, they don't look like Inklings, I can tell you that. Almost...human."
Rem's look of shock turned to a scowl "Fucking humans..." She muttered.
"What was that, love?" Treble inquired.
"Nothing." Rem quickly switched back to her usual tone "Anything beyond...not being one of us?"
"Well, they claim to be angels for one thing-" Treble was cut off by the sounds of a brief struggle before Rem's own voice yelled back to her.
"Hey, motherfucker, who're you to call us an imposter!? That ghost we were fighting probably just made a mirror world that's all kinds of fucked up! Now tell us who we have to kill to get outta this shithole!"
Rem looked to either side of her, hand over her phone. No kids around. She turned her back to the entryway "Look, you, I don't know who the fuck you are, but if you've even laid a finger on Treble, then so help me god there is no god I haven't killed that will be able to fix what I do to you. And don't even get me started on you talking to me like that."
"Ha!" The mirrored voice scoffed "You and what army? Me and Ix have taken down ghosts capable of wrecking the planet! And what kind of gods have you killed? Anubis? Please!"
"Whatever this kind of place is, I only hope this Rem isn't as talkative as you are." Ix's voice came in the back of the call.
"And-" The other Rem was cut off by Treble yanking his phone back, shoving the copy back.
"You think you should be...introduced? Just in case?"
Rem muttered to herself for a second "Yeah, I'll sort this out in person. I'll get Ix, too. Where are you guys?"
Treble hummed as he looked around "We're outside the art gallery."
"Got it." Rem nodded "Be there in 5." She swiftly hung up, leaving Treble with the two copies of the sisters staring at him.
"Well?" The human Rem raised an eyebrow "Is she coming?"
"Yeah." Treble sighed, stepping away from the two of them "Give them a few minutes."
"Hmph." The other Rem huffed, looking around the street "You got a strip club round here?"
The copy of Ix growled, slapping her sister on the arm "Really!? We're trapped in a mirror dimension and THAT'S what your first thought is? Well, beyond finding out who this guy is and why he knows us."
"Yeah, now you mention it, I ain't never seen this guy before, even if everyone here looks like some weird squid people." The copy Rem crossed her arms as she sat down on a nearby bench.
Treble said nothing as he sat down on the steps leading up to the gallery "Funny you'd mention that, because we are squid people."
"Oh look at that, Ix, tentacles everywhere, your favourite."
"Shut up, hoe."
"Well at least you've got a nice tan. Pink hair's a bit off, though." The copy Rem winked at Treble. He didn't even flinch in response, simply looking away from the two of them.
"Jeez, and he's apparently meant to be your husband or something?" Ix's copy quipped.
Treble gestured behind her with his head, Ix turning around to be met with this place's versions of herself and Rem. Her deep black dress, black and blue stockings and ankle length hair were a stark contrast to the appearance of the version of herself that stood before her. And her hair certainly wasn't as shiny, either.
The two Rems, though, immediately locked eye contact, both of them glaring the other down. Like the two versions of Ix, the copy of Rem was dressed in the kind of clothing you wouldn't catch the original dead wearing: a shining red dress that went down to her thighs and heels of a matching colour. The only similarity they had was the ponytail and eye colour, but even then that was distinctly human hair.
"Hiding something you want to tell us about?" The copy of Rem stood up, hands reaching down to her legs "You really look like you like to keep secrets."
Rem's reply was a simple burst of fire encompassing her, demonic horns piercing through her hair and a large red tail flicking out from behind her, both it and her ponytail beating against the ground.
"HAH!" The copy of Rem suddenly manifested a bow of cyan light from seemingly thin air "I knew it! Not only are you a ghost, you're a straight up demon!" She jumped straight toward the squid at incredible speed, bow splitting in two midway. Before she could bring the now bladed weapons down on her cephalopod copy, Rem found her wrists gripped by the demonic woman, the two of them snarling directly at each other's faces as they pushed against each other's force, the ground rumbling and cracking beneath them.
"That's enough!" The two Ixes yelled, kicking their sisters apart "Can we at least try and sort this out BEFORE killing each other!?" The squid Ix snarled.
The more human of the two Rems dusted herself off as she stood up "Well, at least you didn't ruin my dress. This shit's expensive." She then looked over to the other one of her as she got back on her feet, demonic features fading in a puff of red smoke "So not only are you fake as hell, you're also part demon? What about this one?" She gestured to the squid Ix with her now reformed bow "Anything we should know about her?"
The original Rem snarled as she wiped a spot of dirt from her cheek "I'm just going to ignore the first part of that...ack, no, the only one who's got anything you apparently hate is me."
"Ahem." Treble firmly cleared his throat as he walked up to the group "My wife's demonic influence and your inability to stop talking aside..."
"Bitch..." The human Rem muttered beneath her breath.
"Who are you? Where are you from?" Treble questioned, arms crossed.
"Well I'm pretty sure you know our nicknames." The human Ix spoke up "But since you clearly use the same for these two, that's Pantrem." She looked over to her sister briefly "And I'm Stockix."
"And I thought Remoras and Ixnition were weird..." The squid sisters whispered to each other.
"Children of Anarchy, at your service." Pantrem smirked and shrugged "Now...as for where we're from..."
Well now...guess who's back? By the way, I couldn't fit it all in the bio, but this'll be a Splat X/Panty and Stocking/Monster Hunter crossover.
I can't explain why I suddenly decided to start writing again. I guess I've just...taken an interest in people here out of sheer boredom and decided to see if I can still pull this off. This is an idea I've had in my head for a while now. As for why it's here and not in the crossover section? More people are here...probably. That and triple crossovers aren't allowed by the website's definition.
Honestly don't expect this to be updated often, I'll try, but I'm a busy man. But hey, if you decide to stick along for the ride, I'd be grateful. Reviews are appreciated, too, I always like to know what I'm doing well and not so well at.
That'll be all. Until next time.