Samus sidestepped a puddle of blood as she made her way through the streets of Japan, the skyscrapers looming over her, blocking her view of the ommonusly glowing moon. City landscapes weren't her specialty. While she had experience dealing with them, she found they clashed with her skill set. She had a knack for finding her way through cramped environments that enemies oftentimes couldn't transverse, and excelled in combat in open arenas. Cities allowed her to utilize neither of these advantages, and thus she avoided bounties from them, leading to further unfamiliarity in the settings.

Luckily, it seemed she could do most of her work in her suit, another issue she sometimes had in city settings. The planet was under a curious affliction, where every day it would fall into an altered state of being. Every sentient creature on the planet would find themselves comatose in a coffin, blood would replace water, and all electronic devices would stop functioning. Strange creatures, which she had begun referring to as N-forms until she discovered more, would prowl the streets, hoping to devour the psyche of the now defenseless humans.

Most interestingly, life hadn't been disrupted for the natives. It seemed when they awoke from their comatose they no longer had any memory of the event, even if they were nearly preyed upon. Their time keeping devices seemed to completely skip the hour without disruption. If it weren't for her suit preventing the effects, she doubted she would have even noticed the occurrence at all.

She walked to a news stand, once again picking up a paper in disbelief.

November 11th, 2009

It shouldn't have been possible. She was in an incredibly ancient era of earth, so old they hadn't even switched to the cosmic calendar. It was an age of fairy tales, when humans arrogantly believed they were the only sentient life in the universe. It was a time before nuclear power was widely adopted. She was closer to the first human civilization than she was to the founding of the Galactic Federation.

She put it down, careful to line up the edges perfectly to avoid any trace of her being here. Time travel wasn't as finicky as ancient humans initially believed, an insect flapping its wings wouldn't cascade into a natural disaster. However, the entire civilization was like walking through a museum. It felt wrong for her to influence it, like it lost its authenticity.

Something moved on the outskirts of her vision, and her attention immediately snapped to an N-form making it's way to a coffin. Immediately symbols began dancing around her vision as her suit analyzed the creature.

It was a weak being, little more than a black blob with an odd blue mask. It seemed to have trouble against extreme heats, and was resistant to extremely low temperatures. It had little arm-resembling appendages it used to pull itself towards its destination with an almost adorable amount of effort.

Almost being the keyword. It was a parasitic extra-dimensional creature that fed off of her kind without any semblance of sentience. It was an invasive species at best, an eldritch affront to nature at worst.

Her left arm began shifting, and a sensation of warmth covered her forearm as plasma began running through the suit. The creature seemed to notice her finally, and began shuffling after her with surprising speed.

The creature posed no threat to her. Realistically, she didn't know if this was a natural part of history, one of many that didn't make the history records, or a result of the reason she was here. If she thought rationally for half a second, it was clear she should just walk away.

There was a flash of light and the creature was incinerated, not even ashes remaining.

Unfortunately for the N-form, it had caught her on a bad day.

The bottom right of her visor began flashing red as a countdown alerted her to the end of the temporal anomaly. She sighed in annoyance. Earth might as well be in the stone age when it came to battle suits, and it was easier to move through cities when blending in to a degree. She needed

She looked in the direction of her target. After several occurrences of the anomaly, she had triangulated the origin to a high school on a japanese island. Making her way there in daylight was a real hindrance. Japanese was a dead language in her time, and there were no universal translators yet, so the language barrier was a real hinderance without her suit.

She would manage though. She always did.

Minato enjoyed walking home alone, music running through his headphones.

He didn't dislike being with people. However, the past couple months were an onslaught of social interactions. He had filled as many of his waking moments as possible with friendships he thought could bloom the most in order to enhance his powers. The next fight had always been his primary concern, pushing him to squeeze every ounce of value out of his time. Combined with trying to maintain his grades and leading the SEES team through Tartarus, moments alone were few and far between.

It was curious, he had never been that social before coming here. He hadn't been a loaner, he had always been welcomed in the social circles he traveled. However, he had always primarily listened in group settings and never really got to know anyone on any deep level. Now he was pinballing between intimate friendships and heartfelt moments like no one's business.

He felt another pang of guilt as he reflected on his actions. He had dropped so many people. Yuko had been his most recent friendship he didn't think he would pursue anymore. If he was being honest with himself, he regretted going as far as he did with her. However, she had seemed interested, and he had extra time to fill. She hadn't been a bad girlfriend. In fact, a lot of guys would have been lucky to have her. She was kind enough, attractive, and very respecting of his space.

He wished she had been horrible if he was being honest. Maybe it would have dissuaded him from dating both her and Fuuka at the same time. Even better, if one of them had been less understanding, maybe he wouldn't have pulled it off. Neither of them had deserved that. He even denied them both the ability to catch him.

Fuuka didn't feel as wrong if he was being honest. She knew what she was getting into. She had seen him with other girls. She had filled their time with largely meaningless banter and cooking. He was a springboard for her confidence like she was a springboard for his power. If he squinted he could pretend it was mutually using each other. It certainly made him feel better when he did. Sometimes he wondered what his next feat of mental gymnastics was going to be to twist his actions into something less morally reprehensible.

He stopped as he noticed someone out of place walking the opposite direction. She had to have been one of the tallest women he had ever seen, solidly over six feet tall. She was clearly a foreigner, blond hair, blue eyes, and incredibly pale skin gave that away immediately, but for the life of him he couldn't place where from. She had a simple outfit that could have been from any number of stores, in fact the most remarkable part of it was how incredibly unremarkable it was. If she were japanese, she would have disappeared into a crowd in an instant.

He sighed to himself. He was going to do it again wasn't he?

However, it was clear she was going to be easy. An outsider trying to fit in with all her might, not unlike Bebe. Perhaps she was actually born here, but her appearance made her stand out in a way she didn't like. Maybe she was just born with the body of a supermodel, and no one ever saw the real her, and was having trouble expressing her individuality because no one had ever explored it with her.

He glanced at the sun, which was just setting. Orchestra had gotten out a little early, so he had time before he needed to be back at the dorm. However, did he want to do this? There wasn't a shadow coming the next full moon. He had something he legitimately enjoyed going on with Yukari. Something he wanted to see play out for real. Maybe this time urgency wouldn't make him ruin it. Especially with someone who's age placed labeled her as more Kenji's type than his own.

The dark hour hadn't disappeared though. His friends were still in danger. They could very well end up relying on his power, maybe more than ever. No one knew what was going to happen on the next full moon.

And he had actually wondered what his next excuse was going to be. What a joke.

What if the dark hour wasn't going to go away. Was he supposed to spend his entire life flitting through girls? No. Now was as good a time as any. He needed to stop. Now. This time he would just keep walking.

To his surprise, she actually approached him first and motioned him to stop. The height difference was more clear than ever, with her being a near half foot taller than him, forcing him to look past her more feminine assets to see her face. To his great relief she knelt down a little so they were eye to eye before pulling out a map. To his frustration, he couldn't notice her femininity becoming more pronounced with the help of gravity.

Well fuck you too fate.

"I am sorry I don't speak Japanese and am lost," she said slowly in English, pointing at the map. "Do you know how to get to Gekkoukan High? I can't read the street signs."

His mind blanked for a moment as he struggled to translate in his head. He was suddenly very thankful he stayed awake as often as he did in English class as he deciphered her words in his head and began rolling with the situation. He pointed on the map where they were and then where Iwatodai station was.

"Three stops," He advised, pointing towards Port Island station. Using fewer words was probably better for overcoming language barriers, less chance for miscommunication. From there he traced his normal route to the school.

She looked confused for a second. "One stop?" She asked, pointing from where they were to the high school. Alarm bells were ringing in his head.

Something was off about her. Not understanding english was one thing, not understanding trains was another. She was far closer to Aigis or Elizabeth than she was Bebe.

"Train," he replied, again pointing to the stations. For a split second, her eyes widened in what seemed like disbelief before nodding.

"Understood, thank you," she said standing up. She hesitated for a moment. "Do you study there?" She asked, again slowly for his comprehension.

"Yes."

"Be careful there at night."

He felt his heart stop as she walked away. Did she know about the dark hour?

He turned to face her, but she was gone.

Even worse, he felt himself awakening a new social link.

Shit.