A Self-Indulgent Chain of Cross-Universal Hops

by Raltsnake

An adventure of fun, exploration; excitement and glory- and... No stakes. Huh, this is- why do you get everything for free? How does this thing have any interesting conflict or events at all? Multi-Cross/Jumpchain SI/OC. Lots of Headcanon- like, all the headcanon.

2. Weekly Jumpstory 2

I wasn't annihilated from on high for posting the last lot, but that might be simply because this will fall into complete obscurity. Regardless, here's the next batch. Two more weeks, I may mix it up next week because not only are these pointless but they're also getting a bit hard to keep on track.

---

I hid in my Warehouse the whole Jump.

What? Did you seriously expect me to not do that when faced with those Drawbacks? Hey! My core philosophy is based around moderation and taking the path to most logical benefits for all, I didn't need to physically waltz out there and get myself killed for utterly zero upsides because I couldn't do anything more than stand still for the entire ten year duration.

Who decided their personalities anyway? Careless and Paranoid? Really?!

Still, it was clearly the only logical choice- I had strength but what did that really amount to really? The Drawback would be an undeniable blessing if it weren't for the other voices, considering that I couldn't even trust myself to do anything without finding some way to screw it up- excluding breathing or blinking. I was very much strapped for reasons to risk myself!

Besides, It wasn't like I came alone or anything. I've been slowly gathering a small group of followers/employees over the years- very exclusive and they were mostly all CP bought but they were real people I could trust to have my back and I had no qualms relying on them in this case.

I had my impact on the setting- just far less directly than normal.

Aratha, Lao and now also The Doctor were very active during the Jump, mostly cleaning up after my Drawback messes. Beyond that it wasn't very hard to miss out on being summoned by the Multiverse court or whatever considering that I could barely bloody move for a decade.

I really wish I'd been able to get out there, though! Totally would've gone to see the Celestialsapiens or- ooh! The Time War! My new doggies were getting restless with only one time period to run around in, you can't even begin to imagine how jittery I was getting in one spot!

I'd have been killed instantly, Ben 10 rivals Marvel and DC for inane things becoming mind-bogglingly dangerous. Eldritch beings, literal God-Aliens and a vast array of disparagingly super-powered space faring sapient organisms the universe over? Suicide!

Yeah. Let me just wiggle aggressively at them in my base form- as that's all we could ever agree to do.

Pffft, I could have taken them. You two are too negative! Those ten minute transformations just mean we have ten minutes chunks of screen time slotted in for all our wonderful abilities!

Yeah, and neither of you could make your minds up! Oh, I'm under attack? 'Let's charge at them as Medicham!', 'noooo, we must turn into literal stone and cover our eyes- if I can't see them, they can't see us!'.

…/…

Oh, sorry, what's this? Cat got your tongue? Hey, Carelessness, why'd you try to get us to fling ourselves out of an airlock again?

Buzzkill! That's totally unfair! All I wanted to do was see what Vilgax's blood tasted like, just a wee sip- sheesh…

WE WERE LITERALLY RIPPED IN TWO/WE WERE LITERALLY RIPPED IN TWO!

Jinx!

…Shut up.

0.0.0

Aratha stared down at the small bug-like creature as The Doctor flitted around the room with a manic air, tilting her head to the side, the Pokemon-born Anodite watched in bemusement as the ancient man flew from tabletop to tabletop.

She had picked out her build for this 'Jump' with fun in mind, having spent years roaming far beyond her original sphere of comfort- wandering worlds with her best friend and usually getting into lots of fights. As a Pokemon she had no issue with a good brawl no and again but it got a bit much when every time she had to dedicate her focus on simply keeping up with the new location her and her friends would be whisked off to.

She loved helping people and did not even consider altering that part of herself but was it too much to ask to have a little bit of fun for herself?

Hence, magic.

Pure power and political acuity was all well and good but sometimes you needed a more esoteric means of defence. That was something she had been limited away from, rather exclusively as an Aggron, her 'Special' stats not being anything to write home about.

As a being of pure energy, this 'Anodite' form was very different to her birth form- far closer to the horrid stone-time creatures from the last world… If she knew what she was getting into with that one she would never have caved to the selection request from her friend, he was usually very good at judging risk but sometimes…

Turning her attention away from the incomprehensible actions of her newest friend, Aratha floated down the hall away from the laboratory and passed the rooms of the 'Warehouse'. That was a bit of a misnomer, Aratha found, whilst at the start of this grand exploration it may have been a fitting name- now?

Now it looked more like a building, despite not having ever been really outright altered to take such a shape- it had adapted as things were added, applied and twisted. Actually, it was more like a ship than a building- a world travelling sky-ship.

Travelling through space was an experience- no, not just space but also time. It was exciting, yet also rather scary! If she didn't have her new shape there were many moments she may have been done in for good.

Their fearless leader had adapted incredibly well once more, easily sliding through the social customs of dozens of civilisations and blending in whilst locked in that horrifying form… She had to admit she was a little jealous of his comparatively easy going nature.

Well, that and the mystery decade he had spent running around in space previously. She hadn't quite forgiven him for that, yet.

She had spent the decade so far exploring, getting back to her roots as an explorer of Mystery Dungeons- something that had waned in enjoyment value in the last place, but was rekindled here now that she was more used to the type of setting.

The 'lighter tone' helped- reminded her of home, some of these places weren't very nice and she had been informed that they apparently hadn't even been thrown into any of the 'nasty' places yet! Gosh!

So, yes, diversifying her skillset and readying herself for the next stage on their grand exploration was a very appealing idea to the Aggron-turned-Anodite.

0.0.0

The Doctor on the other hand had gone the opposite direction, free for perhaps the first time in his life- truly free from obligations and paired with a group of people that mirrored his own adventure structure so closely…

It was a bit much, even for the titular Time Lord.

He'd taken the news that his reality had been viewed as nothing more than a TV show in a myriad of others- well, about as well as one might expect a secretive, paranoid loner like The Doctor to.

Not that well.

However, with his vast intellect and life experience The Doctor didn't simply discard the concept and high his head in the sand- at least he didn't do that for all that long. All things considered, how quickly he subsequently came to a personal epiphany and changed tracks entirely was rather impressive. Even for him.

Still, he knew a chance when it struck him over the head with a wrench- and this was a wrench. I mean a chance. Getting on board alongside his trusty Tardis had been a baffling experience for the Millenia old man and the intelligent machine alike. The subsequent 'Jump Document' perusal was worse.

He had, eventually, selected his choices all the while far more bewildered and overwhelmed than he had been in centuries. Caught flat footed as he was, his filled out form was tentative and non-committal, however he'd taken the chance to do something long lingering in the back of his mind that he had never had the opportunity to do before.

He'd decided to cosplay as a human for a bit. You know, just to see reality from the perspective of the silly little people he'd been waffling about for hundreds of years, if you catch my meaning?

Well, in all honesty it's hard to tell if he'd have picked anything else- even for me. The Doctor had hundreds of years of experience as being 'more than human', he had never been human at any point. His view of what was normal was entirely skewed compared to, for example, our Jumper.

Thus, the thought that he would be eschewing a chance for more 'power' only really hit him in the blatant cases, such as the Celestialsapien option. Or in contrast to what his new travelling companions had selected.

Or- not his anymore. He was one of the Companions now, an odd role reversal, especially after the ten relative years he had spent alongside the trio and how he had realised… certain things only after the fact- the end of that journey and the start of this one.

…That was a concept he was going to have to mull over for a lot longer than he had already, even for him.

0.0.0

Lao stood atop a balcony overlooking his new property, arms tucked behind the back of his high-tech ablative armour. The shaded hood pulled taut over his face rustled slightly in the wind as he turned slightly to watch a new group of hired mercenaries appear from the gate leading into his new property.

He'd gotten this place for cheap, having left Earth as quickly as he could into the stars- inspired by the last 'Jump'- he quickly found Undertown and fled the planet and the easy grasp of his… friends.

Turning slightly, glowing eyes peeking out from underneath the hood, he follows their progress with a sharp, unerring gaze.

As they complete the journey to the designated area, meeting up with a number of on-site technicians, they lower the package they were carrying onto the plate. Stepping backwards after completing this task, the leader turns in askance to Lao who nods in acknowledgement.

As the curious techs pile upon the proffered device, milling about like ants in an ant hive- the mercenaries start to walk towards the building Lao is standing in. As they move, Lao turns around and moves inside to prepare a greeting.

"Returning heroes deserve a heroes welcome, after all, do they not?" He smirks to himself in triumph, allowing a small chuckle to escape him as he turns towards the door. His smirk evolves into a full blown grin as his chuckle follows suit- a slightly disturbing cackle emanating from his throat.

Then he starts to monologue, to thin air of course.

"Soon. Soon, I will have what is owed to me- my due will be paid and I will stand in my rightful place at the top of the totem pole. Just as it was meant to be, while the fools occupy themselves with the minnows and guppies drawn to their haphazard power-gathering efforts- I shall land a whale." Gesticulating grandly, arms raised in a beholding pose, he slams his head backwards and laughs even harder- his horrendously evil laughter echoing throughout the high-profile suite.

So unlike his normal countenance- why anyone who knew him would be shocked at this clearly entirely out of left field development!

Closing his eyes and breathing deeply, he calms himself- his smile goes from crooked to delightful as perverted and unethical thoughts flood his mind. Opening his eyes once more- just in time to hear the high-tech alien door-alarm buzz for his attention, a final line is left floating in the still air.

"They will rue the day they ever heard the name Lao!"

0.0.0

"Ok, I've got three things to say about this and I'll only say them once- so listen well! The first is I'm fabulous! The second orange juice and the third- WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, FOOL?!" I screamed at the corrupted Servant- tied down under layers and layers of magically enchanted chains each weighing roughly a city block as he wiggled around in the accompanying straightjacket.

"Hnnngrh!" The Archer Servant growled like a feral animal, snarling hatefully up at us as we all gathered around his captured form. The others looked at me as if I had just grown three extra mouths and spoken in an ancient eldritch tongue unknowable to mortal minds.

Or that I had just screamed in their ears, take your pick.

"Right, this is all well and good- truly, wonderfully superb. Slight query, though, I don't suppose you'd know what happened to… well, all of this?" The Doctor spoke up from beside me, gesturing out towards the burning landscape.

"Indeed, it's most disturbing. Those moving corpses as well… this place is incredibly wrong, please tell me you know where we have been relocated?" Aratha pleaded, visibly on edge as she took in the sight of the Fuyuki city apocalypse around us.

We were in Fate/Grand Order this time, which was… exciting. The destruction of Humanity all throughout time heralded by a swathe of Solomon's Demon's, lead by Goetia. I remembered that much, at least.

I could remember my build, as always, including Drawbacks- however my information was limited. Select things on the document were available for my perusal, simple things such as what Command Seals were or why the Beasts are scary bad things to not get involved with without a lot of very powerful backup.

You know, the essentials.

Intriguingly I seemed to have a handful of other Magus related abilities as well, though my origin didn't particularly delve too deep into the mindset seemingly... It was odd, in all honesty.

As I began to turn to address my Companions, movement above caught my eye- considering our location I prudently turned my gaze skyward only for my eyes to widen as I whipped my head up fully, taking in the disturbing sight rewarded to me.

Hercules. Hercules was right there.

Standing atop a nearby building, the giant form of the ancient Greek Heroic Spirit loomed over the neighbourhood. Small mercies, he hadn't spotted us directly, staring unerringly… northward. Could that be the direction of the Einzbern castle…?

I hadn't actually found a chance to get around to the Fate series on any of my Jumps as of yet, this was just typical timing for a Fate Jump! Hmm… I bet I could take him though, I mean, Archer was pretty weak physically for a Servant- and his luck is the pits but surely an insane Hercules would be no match for one such as myself.

Blinking back to the moment, I noticed that it had gotten eerily quiet- even the Grail-corrupted EMIYA had ceased his struggling… Oh, wait, no- there was just a conveniently sized rag stuffed in his mouth.

"I'm supposing from your behaviour that, that fellow up there is… Not likely to sit down with us for tea and biscuits…?" The Doctor whispers, his words a statement of grimly determined fact as opposed to a genuine question.

I wordlessly nod.

"What do we do then? Can we take him?" Aratha puffs up visibly, seemingly a split second from assuming her original form and charging- held back by her keen combat senses and intelligent mind.

At their words, I look around the local area for anything that would have caught the Berserkers' attention. My memory of the plot was sparse- to the point that had I not been given the name of the setting we'd been slipped into this time, I would not likely have recognised it until we'd been set upon by Artoria Alter and attracted the remaining Servants to us like moths to a flame.

A giant, distorted divinely-powered Excalibur flame. Shooting at us with murderous intent. Fun.

"What are you doing here!? How are you alive? Explain yourselves this instant!" An imperious voice broke the sudden silence, somehow having snuck up on us. Spinning around I'm brought face to face with an oddly dressed white haired girl.

Aratha steps forward, a frown on her face at the sudden appearance as The Doctor conversely steps backwards, arms raised in an instinctively placative manner. Meanwhile I'm still left rather dumbfounded by the incredibly unlikely event that an in-experienced Magus psychopath could have evaded my superior senses.

Frowning in thought, I struggle to remember a key plot point from the story… Ah- right! She's not here, is she? This is an echo? Or just her soul… I can't remember, didn't something utterly horrific happen to her? I suppose I should take steps to avoid that, it would be a trivial effort all told.

An imperious eyebrow is raised in my direction and I feel incredibly insulted, irked by this slight of a ghost's self absorbed attitude I step past my Companions and get up in her face.

"Oh, and what do we have here, a lost little girl? Hmph, I believe that question would be better suited directed at yourself. How, exactly have you survived." Looking put off by my rebuttal, though mostly indignant, the white haired woman puffs herself up with anger.

She looks like a squirrel. A white-furred squirrel with a horrendous fashion sense.

"My name is Alga Marie Animusphere, leader of the Chaldea organisation and Magus!" At our uncomprehending, or in my case simply indifferent, stares she fumes in frustration. Pointing at us individually, she continues.

"You would do well to remember your place, I demand a full explanation as to what is happening and who you four are. Do this and I will ignore the grievous insult you levied upon myself and my family name. You aren't meant to be here, neither for the Grail War or as a part of Chaldea, so I shall repeat the question: Who are you?" She spews forth a rant that left us all blinking. The Doctor moves forward to speak- having long experience in the art of socialisation and placation.

"Wait, four?" I query, looking around for whoever she could be referring to, my sight finding the still tied-up Corrupt Archer who was still struggling like a wild animal caught in a beartrap. Which I suppose he was…

I was utterly ignored by both parties.

Aratha steps back, pulling on my sleeve to allow him to work his magic. Begrudgingly, I back down, staring her in the eyes the entire time. To her credit, she doesn't flinch but she does avert her eyes first.

"Hello, I'm The Doctor! There are my friends and we're a tad lost, you see! We took a right instead of a left, terrible business, that. If you don't know which direction you're going how are you ever supposed to get to your destination? That's us, that's what happened and that's who we are. Now, who might you be?" Visible confusion was his only response, the last few minutes seemingly catching up to her.

They continue to talk and I lose interest, searching around in hopes of spotting the Protagonist and Mash… Mashu? The purple haired girl who… was dying. Wow, this place is just a bundle of fun, isn't it? Thankfully I have something for that, a few somethings. I just plan ahead like that, no biggie.

My genius and pre-preparation skills astound even myself…

Wait, weren't we up to something before this unwanted interruption? Ah, right the completely insane with anger, Greek Demigod Heroic Spirit hanging out above the… Buildings to our immediate rear.

Oh, dear.

A roar cuts off my coincidentally timed thought and immensely distressing thought, Hercules having gotten much closer to us since the last time I checked and I cursed myself for not keeping direct tabs on him at all time.

He'd also blatantly spotted us and was screaming his head off as he sped at us with incredible speed, bloody murder on his mind, cleary as day.

"FLEE! I SHALL DEFEAT HIM IN YOUR STEAD!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, shifting into water vapour mid sentence, the words garbling in a distorted echo. Ramping my strength up eleven and dropping a Calm Mind, I flung myself at Weeping Angel speeds at the Berserker Hero.

My strike bit into his A-rank Servant flesh, enhanced by the Grail as it was, barely managing to knock him off course but otherwise not doing anything else to him. Eyes widening, I remember his God Hand and the stats he possesses as a Servant pop up in my vision as I inspect him with one of few inherent things all Masters obtain- the ability to see a Servant's status.

My next attack is blocked and I'm forced to slide around his retaliation, biting into his flesh with my Lightsaber- enhanced with all my Chi and Force abilities to cut off his head. It works, for a moment, before I can get comfortable I'm launched off my feet at incredible speed.

The regeneration is already over by the time I'm up again, Hercules in my face again- a massive fist about to crush me like a grape, or would if I wasn't literal water. Flowing around him, I solidify slightly and grasp onto his back. I couldn't remember if Hercules had any specific anti-water feats, he probably did so I would have to be cautious…

I almost didn't see the next attack, coming a hair's breadth from connecting to my cranium- only stopped by the timely intervention of one of my Companions. Looking up I find Aratha holding onto the fist, still in human form, though clear now thanks to our new Bond as a summoned Servant of her own.

"Just like old times?" I sigh in response, staring forlornly at the still struggling Berserker before shrugging and offering a smirk at my first friend on this wild ride.

"Just like old times."

0.0.0

Shuten Douji giggled as our clash met, mystical Oni flesh vs eldritch Weeping Angel stone- both infused with marital intent, differing magical energies and our will. I'd swiped at her with a clawed hand as opposed to my Lightsaber and as expected, been easily matched.

Only matched though, of course, she was tough but there was no way she would be capable of overwhelming someone of my calibre quite so easily- which was seemingly unlike what she was expecting, judging from that surprised look on her face.

I do love it when they underestimate me. Even in smaller cases like this- it makes their baffled realisation

Our arms remained locked in position for a moment longer, her face strained in concentration as she tried to overwhelm me through brute strength alone- to her credit, despite my own incredible power I was forced to fall back on my decades of fighting experience to fully deadlock her strike.

"Well… this is a surprise, I'm not sure what you are. But I like the chaos you've wrought! My name is Shuten Douji, Boss of this mountain! All the demons you see here are gathered under my banner, we are the strong and the strong do whatever they please!"

Stepping forward, jabbing swiftly past her guard into the underside of her chin- I spin around and throw out a sweeping kick that forces her to disengage. While our physical powers were roughly even when I leveraged a good chunk of my strength perks, I clearly had the higher skill rating.

"Gyyack- ha! You have a strong fist, and even more skill! You would be welcome here, on Mt. Oe- assuming you can keep it up." Smirking up at me, the Oni caught my next strike forcing us both to back away.

I grimace internally as the Oni-in-child-form poses in what might be considered a provocative manner on an adult, her 'charm' completely failing to get past my mental barriers. Sighing in frustration to myself, I reminisce on the events that lead up to this situation.

It had been a simple, everyday morning in Chaldea- we'd shown up during the midst of the Fuyuki Singularity, which I recognised rather quickly as it was something I had minor meta-knowledge on before any of this started.

I'd been seated alone in the cafeteria, about to take a bite out of some toast when it happened- I was usually given a wide berth by the majority of the Servants that frequented the area for EMIYA's famed cooking. For one reason or another.

For some, I seemed entirely insufferable; an egomaniacal, narcissistic jerk- though much like the famed King of Heroes, I was considered to at least be capable of backing up a lot of my immense pride.

Didn't help that I was seemingly everywhere- what with those Drawback miniature clones and the actual full on alternates of myself that were… everywhere. It was even getting a bit bothersome for me and I love looking at myself!

For others I was weird, or creepy- those tended to be the Heroic Spirits who lived life in particularly supernatural straits, the weaker Magus' and those of less combat oriented Legends accompanied by enough magical sensing to notice something… off with me.

Not that there was anything as such happening, I was perfect after all. They were probably picking up traces of my biological vampirism, or the fact that I was a timeless abomination from the depths of space- weak willed children, the lot of them! That stuff was nothing!

Still, I was magnanimous in my understanding- some people are simply unable to appreciate my grace and power, it was a burden being so forgiving, truly.

So, there I was, right? Had this delicious plate of scrambled eggs on toasted white bread- mmm, wondrous cooking- not that I'd ever let EMIYA know that… I held the bread up to take a single bite of the scrumptiously simple dish…

Then, within a blink everything had changed!

Now, I'm not a stranger to spontaneous isekai transportations- oh, no, no- that's essentially a good 70% of my life! So I adapted instantly, of course, taking in my new surroundings with a practised eye in less time than it would take a mortal to blink.

What I found confused me.

To preface, the situation was relatively run of the mill- I'd been summoned into the Heian Period of Japan inside a local Lord's palace. His kid had been kidnapped by a Fox Demon or whatever and he'd decided to call up Minamoto-no-Raikou and Sakata Kintoki to go get his kid back?

Which was, um, ok… Somewhat questioning your judgement and state of sanity, mortal.

What was tripping me up is that I apparently had a history and not only that- I could remember this from the Jump Document. Which was weird because I had, had all memory relating to the specifics of the Jump removed when I showed up- hell, I didn't even get this the last time this happened!

I was a bizarre third addition to the Oni-slaying party- not only had my, I guess in-Jump-in-Jump identity been an otherwise completely normal human- without any special heritage or prestige. For some reason I had been hanging around with the two of them for a few months?

I mean, I was something of a good 'mage' at least for the time period- a stereotypical spell caster you might see in a typical fantasy story. Glass canon, low stamina and high range? Ring any bells?

So, yeah, I split from that mess faster than a banana- that was a joke. Lacking in allies, however gaining perfect information on the general order of events about to go down- I concocted a cunning plan.

Completely unprepared for my sudden change of mind and transformation in power, my old allies had no chance to even notice something was wrong- before I'd left them on the trail. Moving in on my one true foe, the vile creatures at the top of the mountain, the Oni.

However a brilliant mind such as myself would not forgo planning- this? This was merely stage one of my scheme…

"Woo! Get her! Kill her dead! You can do it!" Oda Nobunaga yelled from the sidelines, having for some reason been summoned to this time and location directly after the last random solo-singularity I was tossed at bereft of my allies.

Annoyingly, my 9 Yin palm was somewhat useless- although she did use some kind of instinctive reinforcement, the magic that allowed the Oni to be as disgustingly powerful as they were was not an active effect I could simply toggle off with some pressure point jabs.

Thus it was barely any use.

Leaping forward, I ducked out of sight by activating a neat invisibility gizmo I'd gotten made up just for occasions like this- deciding to keep my rather broken time-related abilities in reserve. The moment she lost sight of me, my speed increased dramatically- unbound as I was from the corporeal universe.

My subsequent strike completely knocked Shuten Douji off her feet, bowling her into a wall at speeds she could only begin to perceive at her current level of power. Let alone her flunkies. I didn't stop there, either, having not realised the weakness of my form and begun to trust her other senses over sight- she was wide open for a flurry of attacks into her admittedly durable weak points.

Lying on the ground groaning, the peanut gallery ooh'd and ah'd at the appropriate moments, Ibaraki literally glowing a molten colour signifying her volcanic rage, as I stood above the groaning demon.

"Hmph, you sure do talk a lot. It is the height of arrogance to believe yourself to be my match, Oni or not, child of a god or not- I am simply beyond you. That is simply how it is, and I shall defeat you with as much effort as it would take for me to pluck an errant hair from my perfectly groomed head." I taunted, before the eyes of the crowd found my still form- my clawed stone arm frozen in her direction laying down some harsh truths on the demon- Oni hated lying, right?

Shuten actually paused as she pushed off the floor for a moment to stare up at me in confusion, her drunk expression sobering into a hilariously confused expression of bewilderment. A moment passed as I stood pointing at her in statue-form.

Squinting at me as if I had suddenly transformed into some sort of incomprehensible sight, she visibly mulled over my last few words before snorting in bemusement. Gathering herself, an insufferable smug expression covering her face as she glared at me in challenge.

"Is that so? Well then, you've done pretty well so far- let's see how you stack up to this!" Shuten Douji leapt at me

My Weeping Angel form might seem a little odd pick during straight combat with a creature at full power- entirely capable of matching my speeds even when unseen. I would agree, I had plenty of other alt-forms or just straight up abilities to handle this fight in a myriad of ways. I also had the benefit of preparation and meta-knowledge.

Which was why I'd picked this form, my energy levels had reset upon Jump start, unfortunately but it had been child's play to hook myself up to a natural faucet of Gaia's power on the down low at some point in Fate's timeline, though ducking and dodging Alaya was… a challenge, to say the least- even for me.

All that power I was absorbing permanently this time, thanks to my Energy Mutant pickup from Ben 10- I was growing at a slow, yet steady rate. The power I gained from this world funnelled neatly into my other abilities, such as the hive-mind and memetic functions of the race.

After all, this was just a distraction… And Weeping Angels never hunted alone.

0.0.0

The unexpected arrival of the Solomon singularity was a mess- everything had gone wrong so horrifically quickly.

Considering that I had functionally absorbed the Beast of Calamity and his Demon Gods during a moment of weakness in a previous singularity- this should not have been possible. I was rather miffed to see all my hard, future-proofing work wasted like this.

When we Rayshifted into this final Singularity, my meagre meta-knowledge utterly exhausted by this point, it was not to a victorious Goetia or a gloating Lev Lainur Flauros- no, a sight far more shocking awaited us.

"Did you think that, that was all?" A hooded Chinese man in long, ornate flowing black robes stood before us- within this realm of Demon Gods was a sight that I could not comprehend.

"That you had just swooped in and saved the day, without care and on a cloud of whimsey- your selfish actions perverting the name of good deeds and morality the world over?" Ritsuka, Mash and the rest of the servants shifted in varying states of confusion- some recognising our long-time ally and others… not.

"Lao! What happened to you?!" Aratha was close to tears, screaming out in betrayed shock- It took me a moment to realise that another voice had shouted out that pleading question alongside Aratha.

My own. Lao… he, no- he hadn't betrayed us, he wouldn't. We were friends, best friends, as close as family! He might have been a pain at the start with those Drawback mandated decisions but he was more than that! I had raised him up from mediocrity! Given him new meaning in life and the choice to make it!

"They must have taken him over- it's the only way it makes sense, but how?! We combined those perks perfectly! This shouldn't be possible…" I shouted, still stock still steadfastly refusing to believe what I was seeing- eyes unerringly locked upon Lao's shifting form.

In response he simply starts to laugh at my bewildered proclamation.

"Ah, there it is, your patented unwarranted arrogance. You really are an idiot, you know that, right?" Wiping an imaginary tear away from his right eye, he favours our group with a lopsided smirk. It quickly morphs into a more serious- and sinister expression as the ground starts to mould into different shapes.

"You trick and deceive yourself into thinking you know what's best- that you have reached some form of enlightenment, that you understand yourself… You couldn't be further from the truth." An arm raised outstretched now, Lao takes full advantage of the time our group is giving him to speak.

Although a lot of the Servants look as if they want to charge him and be done with it.

"Not everything fits neatly into your little black and white, one or the other, me and them mindset- after all." Glowing with power now, alien power- abilities he did not possess the last time I saw him working in tandem with his Jump-sourced ones, including those I had granted him, as he focused on his effect whilst spewing vitriolic words in my direction.

There was no doubt, this was certainly his body- but… his soul, how? Why?!

"You… You and your 'enlightened' humanity- your self-indulgent fantasies of fulfilment, of hubris in viewing yourself perfect…" Trailing off, he seemed to gather himself, the peaking emotions almost literally shoving themselves under his warbling, darkness engulfed hood.

"Day in, day out you do nothing but repeat the same things, over and over and over again! Worlds saved, people rescued- the bare minimum accomplished. But never any more! No, NEVER any more than that!" Lao screams in defiance, his words and power rolling over our gathered force in shock- the power only growing as he gets more and more heated.

"What have you done with all that power?! You travel from Universe to Universe, world to world- society to society AND YOU CHANGE NOTHING!" At the peak of his righteously building rage, corrupted Servants and other entities appear from the mounds, shaped as if borne from the cursed mud of the Fuyuki Grail- or shaped clay from the hands of a god.

Hood folding back, Lao starts to shift- body altering from the relatively mundane, if expensively clad, Chinese man into something more… Bestial.

My own and others eyes widen in realisation as the Power, the aura of eclectically mixed malice and righteous indignation washes over us in droves. The forces at work discharging energy from the surroundings in tandem with his rising Presence.

His legs vanished, replaced by a wispy trail of purple-black not-fire- the large ragged cloth covering skeletally thin limbs and bones championing the same patterns present upon his initial outfit. An eerie purple-red light emanated from the darkness he possessed in place of a face- expressing nothing but the most bone-deep, primal and personal of homicidal loathing.

"You take the easy way out, never pushing too far- never going that extra mile or putting in a modicum more danger to help someone else. It's all about you- even those you 'save' are left eternally aware that they were helped by you solely for your own selfish reasons." As he spat those last words like a curse, eyes now glowing alight shadowed within the confines of the dark hood that had adapted to fit his form.

"Cowering away within your hidden dimension, or under the earth- or in a local motel that let you in for free out of emotional connections you manipulated. You hide from it, hide from responsibility- anything that forces you truly FACE WHO YOU REALLY ARE!" As the battle is joined around us, Lao vanishes from his place- I'm just capable of twisting out of the way of his first strike as it lands beneath me, disintegrating the discordant floor beneath me.

Leaping backwards out of the way, I'm forced into a lethal dance of dukes and dodges- intimately aware of the pure power behind each strike, densely magical with smatterings of Divine power coursing through them.

I stretched my sensing capabilities to the full- calling on my years-long forgotten experience with Detect and every Martial or combat related Perk I had ever possessed- trusting them to keep me aware, not allowing my wits to wander as it quickly became apparent that I was in immense danger.

"A glory hound and a liar! A thief! Stealing from those unaware they even had it to begin with, then you dress it up- justify it to yourself unironically as 'for the greater good' or 'for their own benefit' and the cycle continues anew." Acidic, purple spittle flew from the warped beings mouth- his power still rising- pushing me further on the backfoot. My cool only kept through years of drilling and practice, I was dancing on a razor's edge.

His strikes were heavy- undisciplined, as if he wasn't used to his new form but was quickly adapting- stranger still was the power behind them, whilst ludicrously dangerous to me, wasn't fully realised.

He wasn't holding back, either… So where was the rest of that titanic and unrivalled magical power reserve even going…?

Our 'battle' raged on as I pondered these thoughts, I got very few hits in and even less managing to actually damage what I was now certain was a Beast of Calamity- Gaia's very own murder-weapons. How had Lao become one?

What had transpired to cause this- his, his words- they were too heartfelt to be fully fabricated. Why-

I flipped backwards through the air as he swung another blunt strike at me with insane speed, pulling on the dead winds and strangling all the use I could get out of the barely breathable atmosphere. Eyes quickly darting over the battlefield, the set and prepared and surprisingly intact war-hosting battlefield…

Oh no. This whole place is a trap- that's where the power is going!

I hadn't noticed it before, too focused on not dying- yet now that I saw it, it became clear. The enemies that had been summoned en-mass were powerful, I'd written them off almost instantly as weaklings or fodder- but that was untrue. My eyes bugged out as I watched a tag team of three different Artoria's get beat down by a duo of corrupted Artoria Alter and-

Was that Fairy Knight Tristan- what the hell- that doesn't even make sense! It's most likely an approximation, there's no way a Fae manifested in this location like this, is there? That must be false- *guaaak*-

My attention, slightly waned as it was summoned back to the fight as a gout of scorching black sand flung itself at me- catching me in the chest as the ground itself starting to warp massively under his command. A massive wave of black, pulsating grains flooding towards me with blatantly malicious intent.

My body shifting instinctively into vapours in an attempt to moisturise the scathing black death approaching- my eyes widened as I saw the sands ignore me, flowing towards the figures of Mash bravely defending Ritsuka.

Swinging my head back towards Lao, I caught his gaze- a dreadful pressure descended on me and I felt his emotions. Warped, jovial satisfaction- a smug sense of immense joy mixed with a burning, sweltering blaze of hate and rage. They struck me, as if physically and I was rocked back on the spot- struggling to keep my gaze steady and locked on the madman.

I would not back down here.

"You are NO Hero!" His words struck me to the core- shocking me out of my self-flanderizing hype, I realised that for just a second I had forgotten about the two of them. Twisting my head back, I was just in time to spot Mash deploy her Noble Phantasm at full power, shielding the two of them from the sands.

I watched, helpless as more Servants- both from our side and his, swarmed the area- the black sands rising once more, even more power funnelled into their miasmic construction. Oozing physically manifested hatred and malice that made Angra Mainyu look tame.

"You aren't even a Villain, at least they sometimes get it right- I should know, huh? You're worse than that, you're nothing. Take all that gifted power away and what are you?" My head snapped back around to the now loitering Lao- floating erratically upon his necrotic ethereal support.

"Will you prove me wrong? Can you save them- if the Master goes down, then what will happen? I know I can't kill Aratha or The Doctor until I get rid of you but how many of these Servants are connected to Fujimaru?" He cocked his head whimsically, dismissively- as if the words he was speaking meant nothing- as if he knew what I would do.

As if he was stating it just for completion's sake- mind already made up, reality decided.

It grated on me terribly, my teeth clenched and for the first time since the fight began I felt more than just prideful indignation or betrayed shock. My iron-clad self control flared for just a moment as the sands surrounded me- their miasmic presence eroding my mental walls with their horrors.

"Who are you, really?" He whispered, the sands rising above me as I finally realised his plan- I had simply allowed him to talk to me, standing still to weave his trap. Moron! They were just words- I did help people, I was a Jedi Master and a pacifistic Air Nomad-

Then why am I in the middle of a war? I'm enjoying this, aren't I? The fight? The thrill- the adoration of my admirers and fans, rightfully heaped upon my glorious august self.

No- wait…

Screaming in frustration I stopped thinking- picking the direction the other Master last stood and rushing into action, I took a risk, bursting through the thick congregating necrotic sands. My skin, flesh and bones burnt as the solidified granules of Gaia-backed Divine necrosis washed against me.

Powering through the pain, I sped off- shifting into a half-Weeping Angel form and back for the speed boost, crashing directly into a group of the uber-powered Corrupted Servants- bowling them over.

Fighting back into the established lines, I frantically searched for Lao- unable to find him, his warped and distorted voice emanating from my surroundings as the thick black smog encroached.

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

"CUT IT OUT ALREADY!" I twisted my head around in search, coming up fruitless.

"YOU. ARE. NO ONE!" The words cut though the fog, my frantic attacks and heightening tenseness growing further as no clear target presented itself for my vengeful retribution. The monologue striking an chord between annoying and cutting.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled in frustration- anger peaking through my continually eroding defences. Spotting and catching the eye of the nearby Aratha, I nodded to her, mouthing the agreed-upon title of an old plan we'd used against a similarly overwhelming foe.

Focusing, I bolster my defences momentarily- taking advantage of the lack of direct fighting to flood my body with Chi and the Force- grabbing deep into myself, I pulled out all my power- trusting my allied Servants and Aratha to protect my form from sneak attacks.

"I didn't want to have to do this- Gaia is going to hate me after this, even more than it already does." I mutter to myself under my breath, clicking my tongue at the thought. I was incredibly thankful to the insane range of abilities Weeping Angels possessed- it was the core element of this final, private bug-out strategy.

The titanic wave of power I summoned, drinking deep on my syphoned energy reserves from the very World itself, was overwhelming. I infused it with everything; The Force, Airbending, Chi, my control over vapours, even my own hive-minded and memetic properties- every thing I could apply in any way was crammed in there.

The battlefield was cleared in an instant- the black necrotic miasma-encompassed sands screaming out in tumultuous rage as they were purged, Lao screaming alongside them as he was revealed from within the smog-filled sandstorm- then swiftly ripped apart into his component black-sand molecules.

My own power skyrocketed, now- feeding directly on Gaia was a risk, a terrible one for a lot more people than just me or… well, it. But that was the weakness of having an entity conceptually existing as the planet but unable to fully control everything, wasn't it?

I mean, one of her Beasts was literally right in front of me and it wasn't like Alaya would step in now with its Counter-Force, either...

The pause in the battle dragged on, the pregnant silence lasting only a moment before both sides began calling out taunts and jeers. Lao reconstituted himself with a sneer present within his empathic broadcast- hunched over and warier of my now.

"Hmph- exactly as I said- you hypocritical monster. The others didn't need to be here, I only want you. I stopped Goetia- that threat to Humanity is over. But it wasn't the only one." He shakes hooded head- a skeletal, jackal-like face briefly peeking out through the non-euclidean folds.

"You- are the threat. Gaia figured this out the moment you got here, of course but I'm not doing it for that thing. At least not entirely- you are a danger to not only this world but the next, and the next- to the entire Multiverse. No- no, you're beyond that, this Multiverse is finite within The Root anyway- the Omniverse is at threat with your continued existence." He intones with finality, pure, unadulterated confidence within his speech and not an iota of self-doubt.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spot the Doctor carried lightly over on Saint Georges shoulder, running towards me- a gaggle of other allied Servants surrounding me looking unsure but not hostile. Aratha is nearby, placing a supporting hand on my shoulder.

Lao lets loose a wheezing, ghastly laugh as he witnesses these interactions.

"So you surround yourself with sycophants and broken men who are so lost they can only see themselves in you! In your perverted, twisted image- lacking in reason, true emotion or anything of substance at all. You aren't even a real person at this point!" His cruel words wash over us and my face warps into a deeper frown.

Growing agitated now, his laughter distorts into an even more discordant cadence- his miasmic, black-clad form now twitching with restrained, blinding rage. His freely open emotional output rising from it's curiously dead state further and further- snowballing into a frothing hate that eclipsed his prior heights.

"You are a disgrace! A fool who struck gold and thought it was dirt! What have you amounted to in the past one hundred years!? What have you achieved!? Nothing. You have done nothing because you are nothing- and that's all you'll ever be." Raging on the spot now- his warping, flowing form alternates between shapes of varying dimensional qualities. Non-Euclidean physics merges with the rising corona of Magic, Power and Hate.

Growing higher and higher- his form growing denser- compacting and multiplying until he was once more at my level of strength. At this point we could shatter mountains with the ease it would take a child to push over a sand-castle, and we were only growing stronger still.

He watches me for a moment, seemingly taking in my heightened power and continuous syphoning, turning inwards once more he pulls the plug on… something, and my intake decreases by a not inconsiderable amount. Eyes widening I realise with some self-deprecation that we were obviously pulling from the same source.

Except, whilst I was stealing this power; he was getting it for free- sponsored even by the source…

"Just a collection of… personality traits, vaguely constructed in the shape of a man- or a Mon, or statue. A childish daydreamer playing pretend, running away from your problems- never facing them. Putting them off, or buying a new free power to get your ass out of the fire. That's it! THAT'S ALL YOU ARE! Unlimited power GIVEN TO YOU FREELY! AND YOU SQUANDER IT PLAYING GAMES!" Screaming to the heavens, his power skyrockets once more in vitriolic hate- the world shudders, all present feeling the shift in tensions- sensing, seeing, feeling- hearing- knowing.

Tensing my metaphysical, biological and mental muscles I fling myself towards him- slicing through the impromptu lease in the fight- tailed by my allies, I'm met by my enemy. We clash once more, shattering the previous heights of our conflict as the battle is joined for the final time.

0.0.0

After the disaster that was Fate/Grand Order, this Jump was a comparative balm on the soul gifted from the heavens flown directly to my doorstep by angels made out of cotton candy and apple pies.

Thankfully, or perhaps not so thankfully, one thousand years was a long time to think about something.

Yes, this Jump lasted just around ten times the length of my entire Jumpchain thus far- I… I was not the same person leaving this place as I was arriving. Though in all honesty? I wasn't all that different- but, I'm getting ahead of myself, let's… I guess start with the background information.

Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Kai, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super are all owned by- wait, sorry, wrong series.

My Little Pony. One thousand years prior to the first episode, that was where and when we were. Beyond that I had little idea, nor did I particularly care.

I could remember all of my selections by the end of the first week but my mysterious Benefactor was really keen on the whole 'first impressions for the second time' thing as we got to try to figure out what we'd selected all on our lonesomes…

We- that list including Aratha, The Doctor, Oda Nobununga and… one of my clones- appeared in this new world after a decade long waking nightmare. I'd obviously retrieved all twenty of my variants, but it had been a genuine challenge at first- something I was not willing to admit to anyone.

…But not Lao. Never Lao.

My first big break was, ironically enough, when I found a handful of them in the same place- locked in vicious combat for one asinine reason or another. Their 'altered' nature taking them further away from me than they already were, causing friction where they may have been comrades.

The 'weeb' one kept screaming utterly cringe worthy, butchered Japanese- either not possessing or caring to use our perfect communication ability. Jumper Alter was a neurotic ball of Dark Side contradictions, and Jumpako… Ah.

Nyan-nyan traumatised me- Nope.

The 'bride' was- no, no- I'd repressed all that. It's not coming back up again! No.

Santa? Santa. Santa and the squirrel- yes, those are safe options that take me back to a happier time.

Anywho, I only ended up bringing one along; Mystery Heroine Z- so, you know. We all popped up in the middle of a desert, feeling a wondrous mix of betrayal and depression. It was fitting then, that we entered this new world as an eclectic mix of magical races.

Very, very distinctive magical races that cleared up any confusion with almost all of our number with just a single glance. I mean, come on, how many places have pastel multi-coloured sapient magical horses just running about the place?

The Doctor, now in Earth Pony form, had bolted instantly, throwing us only the reasoning of; 'I've been spoilt by well dressed chaps with wonderful accents keeping an eye on things.' referring to his meet and greet with his Ben 10 expy; Professor Paradox during that Jump.

Lao's last minute mania and subsequent confiscation of the singular Time Egg I'd kept in reserve had shaken him far more than Chaldea's haphazard and horribly inefficient method of chronal displacement. His own words, not mine.

And considering the nature of time in this world, I couldn't think of a good reason to deny him- in fact had this been a normal Jump I may very well have joined him the moment we showed up. As an aide, or gofer, as despite my not-inconsiderable knowledge of the Space-time continuum, I was still small potatoes compared to a Time Lord.

Let alone a Time Lord Companion on the Jumpchain…

I'd imported as an Alicorn… are mare as well- which was, I guess I wanted to mix things up? Probably not any deeper psychological ramifications from our little shindig in the last world and this was certainly not me digging myself as far away from my current self as possible… No siree.

As much as what he had said was pure nonsense, I had to admit that a few of the things he said had struck a chord with me. Most likely why he had said them to start with, but it got me looking at things a touch more critically. Leading to my selection of the Alicorn race- the most powerful full-on race in the setting with incredibly ranging power levels.

I'd decided almost immediately I would try to fix some of my mistakes, starting with my lack of care for general society and people on a more general basis. By taking over the nascent Equestrian society through the glories of scientific advancement!

Setting out into the land with Aratha and my alternate dimensional counterpart- Oda having run off somewhere on their own- we plotted a course to Equestria, scheming all the while.

A week later my full memories of the Document returned and I let out an incredibly relieved sigh.

The day we got here a large part of me wanted to use my ability to walk through Time, to cut my losses and skip to the end of the series- whispers of pain lingering in my mind and soul.

Had I done this, taking advantage of the wording- I would have been capable of skipping right to the end of the Jump. I also would have failed the rather simple Scenario by not dragging along a certain Lunar Princess with me but that's besides the point.

This hadn't really changed our course at all so we kept trotting our way to the land of horse-puns, now with new things to distract ourselves with. Not that I needed the time- I was perfectly ok, alright?

Nothing wrong at all.

0.0.0

I gazed out at the rolling pastel hills and lush verdant meadows from my perch upon a large, pliable cloud. The fluffy, physics defying float had to be made up specifically through Pegasus magic to support my size- and on a normal day I'd say it was worth the effort.

It was hard to work up that energy now, though.

The morning sun was peeking through

Absently poking a hoof into the magical, spongy cloud-stuff, I sigh morosely to myself, eyes redirecting to the higher cloud line and finally the sun. I watch its motion for a moment, still unused to this place's cosmological structure- the celestial bodies were especially mind-numbing.

Despite the fact I had been to some very, very odd places so far- there was just something inherently alien about this system… The sun revolved around the earth- planet- thing, how was that not inherently incorrect?!

Shaking my head in bemusement, I tilt it slightly as my blank stare trails off again. Sighing again I slump down on the cloud with a soft thud, idly marvelling at the cloud for a few moments more before a voice interrupts my wallowing.

"Ah, Wet Statute, dost thou fare well this morn? We hath not spotted thou von yonder! A-hah- ha…" Squinting as I turn my head to the interrupting voice, I'm met with an odd sight. Floating in the air besides my cloudy resting spot is a midnight purple Alicorn; bolting upright I blink confusedly at her nervous- actually sheepish form…

"Am I dreaming? I do not remember falling asleep." I query, curious at her actions and appearance. Now that I take in her appearance more closely, she's clad in a frankly gaudy set of black armour with matching tiara and bright purple accents.

"Thou art still within the land of the waking, friend, We simply desired to take our morning flight from Our castle yor! Catching your form within the pearl of Our eye was a most fortuitous occurrence indeed!" Gesticulating grandly with her surprisingly flexible pony hooves, she straightened out into

Tiling my head in question, she seemingly picks up on the object of my interest, gathering herself for an explanation. "Ah, indeed, Our apparel was chosen by Our most trusted advisors- and Celestia- doth you find it as glamorous as We do?" She poses, stiffly strutting around on the spot, floating in the air- her tone humorous.

A laugh escapes me at the silly scene, smiling for the first time in a while. Looking inordinately pleased with herself, she smiles back. Looking at me intently for a moment she nods to herself- drawing up as much confidence as she starts to speak- sincerity laced within every word.

"We must- no, I must thank you for your timely aid and intervention. Had you not shown up when you did…" She pauses as a grimace crosses her equine features, closing her eyes as she gathers herself as if admitting a deep, dark secret. "I may have done something… rash."

Nodding calmly at her, I offer a small but genuine smile in response. My knowing yet non-judging look seems to galvanise her as she perks up further- searching within herself visibly for a moment before brightening further at my words.

"It was no problem, neither myself nor my Companions had any issue with taking time out of our… voyage, to render assistance upon fellows- especially those with such long life expectancies." I reply somewhat stiffly, losing interest again as I look out towards the rising sun- tendrils of Sun-Magic grasping onto the now rapidly rising orb.

"Celestia hath raised the sun, and my duties end once more…" Luna sighs sadly, though with hints of exasperated love more dominant an emotion. I nod once more in response, offering her my well wishes. She hesitates, however, turning to look me directly in the eye.

"I know thou intends to leave once more, in spite of thou assurances I know within my heart and soul that thou group shalt move along to the next adventure. We- I, no, Celestia and I both- when that time comes, when thou art prepared to leave yonder." She breathes deeply, pausing to allow me to register her words.

I think I see where this is going.

"Please allow us to accompany you!" Princess Luna, one half of Equestria's newly solidified Diarchy, poses a heartfelt request upon the rolling hills that would one day in the far future become the location of Ponyville.

"I know that we're connected to the celestial bodies- thou spoke as much thyself, however thou also said there existed alternate paths. Other, potent reasons to live- just like everypony else. Thou- not just thou alone but Doctor and Heroine too… What thou offered… We want to experience that life firsthoof!"

Staring directly at her- holding her gaze intently until she starts to get nervous, I smirk. An immortal Alicorn she may be but she's a few hundred years too soon to be playing the elder with me. And with such childishly adventurous desires…

How can I say no to such an earnest request?

Shaking those thoughts away internally, I finally nod my affirmation, breaking the tense staredown. "But of course, we would be delighted to have you on board." A wide, beaming grin covers her face at my answer- the Lunar Princess literally bouncing around in the sky out of pure, abject joy.

I suppose we'll see how long that lasts, eh?

Sighing to myself, I offer a tired smile. "Well, we have another few hundred years left to decide… and besides." My smirk grows back, now positively devilish. Pausing in her celebration, the pony princess blinks back at me owlishly.

"I intend to take Equestria with me, anyway."

0.0.0

Ahhh, Ancient Egypt- a place of wonder, mystery and a flying green person who raises the sun every morning after escaping from a world-destroying snake-god with the help of all his friends and followers…

This was the Egyptian Mythology Jump! Meaning that one of those crazy, kooky early civilisations of sun-worshippers turned god-centric cults was right! At least here, in this world- and probably other places too but let's take things one step at a time, shall we?

My only real experience with any Ancient Egyptian… business prior to this Jump could be counted on one hand. Seriously, I did some vague tomb raiding in the Spider-man Jump to test a theory- avoiding it like the plague in Kung Fu Hustle, because duh. Leaving only my vague interactions with Grand Orders Nitocris, Cleopatra and Ozymandias.

Only two of which were based on confirmed existing people; based on. Being Heroic Spirits, not the original individuals reincarnated or revived- or such, not fully.

Gods, more Gods- oh, look at that over there! More Gods! And that one is the Creator God responsible for all this, oh look at him go, isn't he cute? Woah, what's he doing?! Why is he absorbing all his kids- eww, mythology why…

So, yeah, I think it's safe to say this place was pretty crazy- yo. Wack, off the wall- absolutely mega nuts bro! And oh so easy to knock clean off its vaguely arranged seating with a single, incy wincy widdle shove. Oh, yes, that last thing was incredibly simple!

As we found out first hand.

It all started just after our import, though we wouldn't realise this for at least a year following. Princess Celestia, having freshly appeared after her first ever cross-dimensional Jump had been overwhelmed by the influx of sensations- both given by the import as well as her absence from a 'normal' reality…

Reaching out to stabilise herself, she had instinctively tapped into her power over the Sun- freshly boosted beyond all reasonable doubt by her new nature as an outright God… And, well, let's just say things got a little hectic for all the people of the land!

Beyond seeing the sun start doing somersaults and flipping from day to night rapidly, at least. It went far, far deeper than that. Luna also did the same with the moon… but, well, the sun was a much bigger deal in Egyptian Mythology.

We'd arrived… vaguely just before the four sibling Gods would depose Ra from the throne of the world, Osiris taking his place.

I'd dragged Equestria with us and thanks to Jump-fiat shenanigans it had somehow imported into a slightly off-kilter dimension adjacent to earth. Full of mystical fae-like shenanigans packed in like odd entry and exit points with ludicrously specific opening requirements. Magical residents that defy the norm, the Ponies- of even the current 'magic' myths-as-world Ancient Egypt.

The entire Patheon was running around like headless chickens before long, the nature of our imported land mixing with our new godly status hiding us from their scrutiny- at least for a time…

Everyone was in a tizzy, including the mortals. Questions ranged from 'who did this?!', 'why is this happening…?!' and 'Is it time to start mutilating our corpses for postmortem profit and power yet?!'.

…This place is wack, yo.

In all seriousness, however, it was pretty rough to start with- we got ganged up on a lot due to completely unrelated reasons and when the truth came out… Well, things got spicy. Thankfully we only had to put up with it for a decade, which also neatly put off most of the non-Fiat backed issues coming from other Gods as they simply assumed they had a larger time frame to work with.

It was made worse because we all had in-Jump identities- our bodies had lived in sort of a haze-like autopilot, making us all very obscure but still existent gods of the Pantheon. Yes, almost all of us. Only two picked something other than a type of Neter and both Aratha and the Doctor had gone with Pharaoh anyway… so, slightly moot point.

The two Pharaohs toddled off with their new followers, as we'd decided in the end to have Aratha take up the ruling position of Equestria due to her new in-Jump life reflecting that. The Doctor… Well, ruling wasn't really a card up his sleeve, sorted into his usual deck- or on his agenda, but he gave it an admirable go.

What's this? Character development?!

Eventually the divine peanut gallery cottoned onto the tiny factoid that a whole bunch of seemingly diametrically opposed Gods and mortals were just chilling in the weird side-dimension that had been canonised as part of their myths and legends as if it was completely logical, and, who knows- maybe it was.

I didn't claim to understand Amun's mind, that guy was insane. Like, proper balls to the walls nutso- he did not subscribe to human definitions of common sense, you just couldn't predict that kind of crazy. He was like Discord on steroids, actually, despite his nature as a Creator God- they all were like that actually.

Deities swapped personalities and power dependent on the overwhelming tides of their own desires or mortal faith in a completely convoluted chain of chicken & egg scenarios with no clear reasoning or purpose.

To the point that the supposedly chaotic ones were pretty rote with their destruction, Apophis was perfectly happy to chill and try to slow down Ra every morning, for example. No matter how many times his chest cavity exploded in a blast of gratuitously gore and divine-filled wrath.

And us too, eventually.

We had a few months more of relative stability before someone figured out the immense increase in our powers and abilities and finally put two and two together. Ra showed up, Apophis allegedly threw a hissy fit, ha, and we all got shoehorned into doing his job for him.

Poor snek, he had no idea what he was in for. We just ganged up on him with all of our OCP and new godly abilities, then had Oda eat him. The other Drawbacks got a similar handling; one of my Companions finding and ganking the mortal that figured out my True Name- which was impressive because even I wasn't sure what it was.

The Usurper Drawback mutated weirdly into making it Celestia that did the Usurping, so- that combined with Red Sands made things, Sekhmet showing up at getting her ass handed to her in a kitty bowl and… tense.

A curious thing to note was that I was actually rather irrelevant for a lot of this Jump, while a God myself- having my own following, it was rather minor and incredibly niche in comparison. I'd put in just enough effort to remain relevant out of the slight possibility that falling into obscurity or changing too much in the legends would end my Chain.

Beyond that I tried to help with uplifting… It was rough. The problem was that Egypt was the location of one of the earliest civilisations in human history- had I shown up in Japan or, I don't know, one of China's re-arrangements I'd probably have had an easier time of it.

The fact was though that these people were brand new to civilisation and with the Gods actually being responsible for it this time as opposed to hot air to breathe credence into humanities oddly masochistically prideful self opinion. Even back then, especially back then.

Then were were the Aliens! BLOODY ALIENS! They just kept appearing- all sorts, they rarely were outright violent but they had this awful tendency to act like overbearing latecomers to a group project- showing up and changing things willy nilly to suit their whims irregardless of purpose or meaning.

They weren't inherently bad- at least not all of them because, yes, we had a few different types. The first few were a bit more stereotypical eventual-genocidal tropes with thinly veiled plots behind a facade of uplifting.

Which got under Horus' and Osiris' skins but was otherwise ignored- my popularity ranged wildly at this time, as a lot of what they were bringing to the table was skewed in just the right way so that the 'primitive apes' didn't think too hard about it but their underlying society was of immense interest to me.

For a while, in some places that had a lot of alien activity I was almost considered one of their gods- or members. Weird socio-techno-sorcery mashup that the world was at that point- we all ended up getting into a one-upmanship contest on who could make the best civilisation.

It devolved into open warfare a few times but I really tried to curb that as I was left in a bit of a pickle, how did I introduce higher concepts and guide them towards a better future in A) 10 years, B) when someone else was already attempting to lead them in their own direction and C) that other person was incredibly powerful and influential?

Those were the questions that dominated my time here, trying to make the changes I wanted to see in myself was a lot easier now- Lao was wrong. I had matured, all that time and effort and self mastery… It had a purpose- this was it.

So I ended the Jump as a relatively obscure God of Liquified Solids- or to the populous as that one God that kept saying he was trying to 'build a foundation of morals'. Shifting, uncentered and rough like the sands they lived upon. Haaah, you win some and you lose some, I suppose.

The others? Ohohoho! Now that is another matter entirely…

0.0.0

Celestia tore across the sky in her official Barque, dragging the very sun along the sky as she went. It was a novel method of bringing the day, she supposed, though not required by any means for the Sun Alicorn. It was curious for this world's sun to be moved at any reasonable pace using it exclusively, however.

She was rather experienced with moving celestial bodies, be it her own or covering for Luna on an off day- the act of simply connecting his vast magic reserves to the burning orb and dragging it across the Equus skyline was far, far simpler than this involved method.

This sun was much larger than her own, strangely, it was quite a shock to discover how 'small' the sun she had been connected to originally was in comparison to this new one. Or others, if the others were to be believed- to think she and Luna were the odd ones out.

Suddenly… Statue, or is it Robert- no, that wasn't her- his True Name either. How overly complex… His confusion over the mechanics of our world's geocentric system was very strange- even comparative to this somewhat similar one was very, very different.

The mini-sun disc she now had accompanying her was an interesting addition, it didn't seem to do all that much beyond counting as a manipulatable 'sun' mystically, specifically a sun and not a 'star' as she was told was relevant. Celestia wasn't stupid by any means but she hadn't really been given all the context and whenever she asked The Doctor things devolved into heated debates on other subjects.

Floundering along on her daily passage, idly stoking her powers and flaring the raw power she possessed to ward off some of the more ambitious creatures lurking in Duat.

Celestia tilted her head to see the side as a speck of movement in the distance caught her eye, her Alicorn… God-enhanced senses easily pick out the cause. A very, very large snake was slithering towards her.

Eyes widening with recognition, Celestia powered up the trinket she carried to warn the others before turning the Barque towards the slithering serpent-god. It appears as if their hunted foe had finally shown itself.

Flashes of light heralded the arrival of her fellows, their supposed 'Ennead' of seven rather than nine assembling themselves through various manners of transportation. Their nameless leader arrived without fanfare, suddenly standing beside her as if she- he had always been there.

A blue phone box transporting Aratha and The Doctor materialises on Ra's Barque, alongside Z and Oda Nobununga. Everyone took a moment to gather their bearings, minds focused on the task ahead- they had been working together for at least half a millennia at this point and required little in the form of words to organise themselves.

Even with the new dichotomy of power.

Two hours later, after a gruelling battle, Celestia stood beside Luna and 'The Doctor' as they all took in the disturbingly eye-catching sight before them. It was morbidly fascinating for the herbivore species- in a sense.

The squelching, chewing moans of food being consumed lathered the desolated portion of Duat- the group had gathered up around the remaining portions of the snake-god rival to Ra.

Oda had swallowed Apophis and was slowly consuming him, distended jaw drooling potent acid onto the black sands below- a look of bizarrely expressive satisfaction on her serpentine face.

"Ferocious, isn't she? You can see how she earned the moniker 'demon king' with dictation like that, eh?" The Doctor speaks up from the side, face blank and tone slightly strained.

"She wasn't like this before- what caused such… bloodlust?" Celestia answers back, face grim and voice wavering slightly before being brought under control.

"I wouldn't know, whilst I've met my fair share of famous individuals throughout this world's history I haven't met all of them- nor their alternate reality counterparts now that I think about it." The Doctor pauses in thought, tone questioning before shrugging and continuing. "Mine probably didn't summon a giant red skeleton to cleave his enemies in twain."

Luna, having remained silent in her observations until this point, interceded. "We art more concerned about that." Pointing with one of the bipedal hooved arms present on her 'battle form', Luna directed the others' attention away from Oda.

Aratha in Aggron form was off to the side, swallowing a large chunk of Apohpis' flesh, discarded from the fight.

Eyes widening at the sight, jaws dropped in show as the metal goliath continued to slurp down the chunks of gore like stringy noodles, smacking her titanic metal mouth around the flesh- ripping and tearing massive gouts, painting her face red.

As the group stood in varying states of frozen disbelief, the nameless leader and Heroine Z walked up behind them, taking in the scene- magically lifting up some of the discarded waste- and eyeing the two others munching down, the two variants shrugged in unison and stalked off again.

"What is even happening anymore?"

0.0.0

At the end of the Jump I was judged. I will not delve too deeply into the process as it was highly personal. I had been aware of this eventuality since I started the Jump and had spent the time in-between preparing myself as best as I could.

After… his betrayal I'd been forced to reevaluate my choices- at first this was a fun, mindless thing; I was nothing at the start and the first few Jumps hadn't really been that outrageous. That was a trapping of both mind and soul, it seemed in retrospect.

I gained power at vast rates but was stuck in the mindset of a weak, mortal man who couldn't affect anything meaningfully or lastingly- my proto-nihilistic mindset slowly waning and wavering over the years as I 'mastered' myself, in reality only striking away confounding and misleading illusions for purposes of self congratulating gratification.

I'd chased power more concretely after that; deducing my limit as being an artificial set of choices- but not truly trusting myself with unlimited power. I wanted power but not responsibility and wasn't naive enough to ignore how they were intrinsically linked for anyone of any remote moral scrupulosity.

So, there I stood- before Anbuis, my very Soul laid bare and my choices and opinions questioned. I didn't particularly care or subscribe to all of their teachings- archaic and sourced from mortal minds or not, but it was irrelevant.

This was a gatekeeping moment, fully imposed by my own will.

If I made it through the trial? Good, until the next time- I would go all out, fully aiming for greater and greater heights, now prepared to drag everyone up by the hem of their shirts alongside me.

And if I failed?

Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end…

0.0.0

"Just according to Keikaku." I cackle hysterically, leaning back in my comfy Apophis leather swivel seat, one hand resting upon Alexander Demetrious Wilfrum The First who was comfortably resting as my mahogany desk in my massive office.

"Why did you say the last word in Japanese but the rest in English?" A voice breaks me from my self indulgent laughter, turning my head slightly I spot Luna poking her head over one of the other couches with an eyebrow raised inquisitively.

"Oh, you poor, sweet summer child. Of course! This is your first time in the modern era! My, oh my- that will not do, you poor thing!" I shake my head in obviously exaggerated pity, earning a bemused frown from the previously-Pony Princess.

"I understand you are making a reference to something but I am unsure as to what." She states plainly, looking lost but slightly amused.

"It's a meme- we're probably a good few years too early still to see the reference…"I sigh wistfully, shaking my head back at her as I nod towards my laptop. A moment passes before I perk up with a smile as I realise something.

"Hold on! I can just show you, duh!" Playfully knocking myself on the head with my knuckles I start to concentrate. Utilising some of the illusion magic I'd picked up over the years- I wasn't very good at it but I had worked out enough of the few systems I had over the MLP Jump to project my memories.

Pulling the spell away and focusing it into one of my items, I leave her to watch that as I get down to more… business-related work. You know I'm not entirely sure what my goal is here- a lot of my free time is getting eaten up by vague investment related things, it's…

Uh, a hobby, I guess? Kind of lame now that I think about it but I've done a lot of what modern earth has to offer time travelling tourists over the years.

Blowing some neon pink hair out of my face, I lean back in the chair a bit closer to Alexander the Sky Bison- the expansive halls we'd purchased this time around thanks to my gratuitous abuse of both my new enhanced intellect and our sheer experience with this kind of thing.

Being smarter, unequivocally more intelligent as opposed to just mastering yourself to a point of immense wisdom, was odd. I'd gained demonstrable increases on and off over the years- some Perks sneaking it in when they thought no one was looking, or some just coming with the nature of the powers being thrown at us.

But, well, Bleach had some pretty big brained individuals. These mega-minded masterminds were famous- Aizen specifically was a meme because of how much of a dumb idiot he looked like in retrospect, you know, once the shock value of whatever 'smart' thing he'd done had worn off.

His intelligence was less 'I'm smart, really smart' and more 'I read the script, installed cheats and have hacks on'- which, to be fair, that kind of describes me down to a T- but I was the odd inter-dimensional invader, not the main villain of the story!

Aizen was essentially the personification of 'No, I sunk your battleship times a thousand, you stink, no takebacks!' It was made worse in this mad place full of crappy fanfiction tropes and dumb, one dimensional 'characters'. Though I really shouldn't let him work uninterrupted for that long regardless…

A flash of irregular movement catches my eye, breaking me from my musings.

Blinking down at the papers on my desk, I frown as I absently give one of my Living Poltergeist extensions a metaphorical bonk on the head- as it had gotten bored and started doodling in the margins. Sighing, I reached out and rolled back time to remove the drawings.

"No, shut up you aren't upset you lost those- here, have this…" I fork over a blank sheet of paper, totally not caving to a partition of my own goddamn mind, shhhh!

Glancing down at my fancy wristwatch, I nod to myself before pulling away from the desk- granting Alex a final head-pat. Luna blinks up at me, realisation spreading across her face.

"Alright, I'mma head out."

"That time already?" She asks, referring to the plan we'd all put together after they found me wandering aimlessly around West Rukongai 16.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go shank Aizen finally. Loser has had enough time to prepare, I'll gank him with my Zankpanktoething- whatever this is." I yoink the materialised blade up by the shaft, squinting at it- still rather annoyed that my Lightsaber hadn't been imported into it.

It started screaming at me to kill everyone and revive our Dark Master Lao.

"Ugh, dumb sword, shut up. Can't wait for this Jump to end so I can eat you." That shut it up and I had to shake my pink-clad head in exasperation at it's almost scripted-behaviour. Some Drawback…

0.0.0

Fresh off the utterly unequivocally tense, unnerving and downright nerve wracking experience of having my very soul judged and not found wanting by an Egyptian Jackal God guy, I wasn't quite expecting to pop up in what appeared to be a feudal Japanese town.

I'd instantly noticed something was off, taking stock of myself as my memories updated in a very familiar process to me now. Having done this, what, 13 times by this point? I wouldn't claim to be 'old hat' but with the Jumpchain you could be reasonably called ludicrously, unfairly and stupidly overpowered by like, the third Jump- fifth at max- assuming you didn't intentionally sandbag your picks…

Oh- update time and there, yep… Oh goodness. Yeah, there- that was a problem.

Feeling around the nooks and crannies of my body, it was different. Something I recognised- oh, god's no, my perfect memory! Pulling a strand of hair up with a hand revealed a bright pastel lime colour as opposed to the vaguely blueish-brown hair I allowed myself normally.

Pausing I re-ran the numbers, trawling through my selected choices again- just allowing the pure kid at a candy shop energy the whole list was radiating.

So, yes wow, that build… I guess I took the whole 'no more squandering power' thing to heart, perhaps a bit too much so. How am I meant to survive this? Why did you pick the 'leave this place to get your Perks back' with the 'no sense of direction lol' one, that is such a blatant trap- you utter imbecile!

…Welp, nothing to do now but get a move on. Maybe it won't be that bad and I'll be out within a week, tops, despite what the flavour text is saying- nah, I won't be spending thirty years wandering around this run down dump.

…

I spent thirty years wandering around that accursed expanse of feudal Japanese 'civilisation'.

Thanks to a Drawback my 'genius' of a previous self took, I was thrown into the middle of North Rukonagi 80 stripped down to nothing but my metaphysical underpants. Body mod and my new race, with all the Drawbacks that entailed.

I managed to get out and re-obtain my first Perk by the end of the first week; mainly through insane luck and initial placing- it was Restraining Order, which was like- perfect. Allowing me to completely avoid the bigger entities from noticing or caring about me at my weakest.

Those first few months were the hardest, naturally, having to survive as a pretty weak- and entirely unforgettable random person in one of the hardest relatively mundane places in the setting?

It actually reminded me uncomfortably much with my very first fight for my life all the way back in Rise of Kyoshi against those thugs- but this time I wasn't an overwhelmingly powerful Airbending prodigy.

The thugs and desperate people that made up my foes just drove it home further, especially with how low on potential they so blatantly were- that even I, in my body mod, could annihilate them in one on one combat with ease thanks to my self mastery. Yeeesh- it was a good thing I was at least a good one thousand two hundred years old with all the experience that entailed by this point.

Otherwise I might have died! And not gotten back up again!

The next Perk was Demi-Servant, which was… oddly thematic, actually. It was a sizeable buff at least. Then a bit later I picked up Chi-Blocker and it continued from there… Aizen's mooks started showing up a couple years into it- I'd gained a lot more Perks by that point, though, and by the time the Extinction Drawback kicked into gear I was back to a relatively terrifying level of power.

Not my full… but close enough.

When my two imported Companions for the adventure, and boy was I kicking myself for not arguing more against most of their decisions to refrain from the power-gaming- showed up and saved me I had gained 27 Perks and Powers back- ranging from the previously mentioned Perks all the way up to my Egyptian Godly Domain.

We skedaddled, Luna as a Quincy having not been entirely subtle in her entrance to the Soul Society- taking immense advantage over Aizen's penchance for ridiculously overly complex and long lasting plots to manoeuvre ourselves into a more comfortable position.

Then, thanks to our knowledge of the character and our relative power levels… And the Jump-fiat, it was mostly the Jump-fiat, we allowed the Drawbacks to drain the heat away from us- probably not fooling Aizen, but considering we lived entirely mundane lives for the next hundred years…?

He didn't get much info on us. Meanwhile, I had read the series!

Jump-Done.

0.0.0

Ranma ½ was an interesting place.

It felt like I said that a lot, and to be fair I most likely did- it was true almost every single time I repeated it, however as I went to some really weird places. Kind of comes part and parcel with the whole 'Jumpchain' thing, y'know?

I knew Ranma ½ - at least vaguely. I'd watched the first couple dozen episodes in my original life when I went on a rather shameless gender bender anime binge- shut up, I was starved for content at the time and the jokes appealed to my monkey brain for whatever reason.

It was one of the most obvious examples of a fictional setting having a ludicrously easily abused mcguffin- that actually touched upon that fact. To an extent at least; the Springs being immensely important to the story and crammed into every backstory, event or goal possible.

Despite most of the story taking place in an entirely different country. In a fictional city.

Martial artists, Chinese amazon martial artists, ki martial artists- look, the list goes on. Nermia was a typical cartoonishly 'active' locale, filled with inane plots and insane characters. The whole works, really.

I, of course, had a blast… well, blasting through them all. Having selected some of Martial Artist options alongside my Drop In Origin to shore up some of my weaker points, long having mastered all of my Kung Fu Hustle styles and becoming incredibly advanced in my usage of Airbending- not to mention all the magical and otherwise, styles I'd grabbed over the years the old fashioned way.

Martial Arts were a key tenant of my code of self-discipline, they grounded me around so much insanity and vice- even without the use of my Perks to keep me in a desired mindset, or my body's god-like constitution.

The lack of muscle contractions, being bereft of uncontrolled sweat or ever reaching the point of exhaustion with a physical body… It was a mental thing and it brought me some modicum of peace.

As well as the fact that it really wasn't all about the physical form- or at least my original body, and no matter how many corners I could fairly cut- that was a bad analogy. It didn't matter if I found a 'shortcut' because my path of growth was entirely independent and even alien to what a human body would require in turn.

I was shoved into this reality directly above one of the Cursed Jusenkyo Springs- thankfully, I had expected this and also completely gamed the system to turn this 'curse' into a blessing.

Ranma himself was pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things too, that wasn't an insult- just a statement of fact. I think he peaked at fighting a… what was it, Phoenix? He hit quite far above his obvious weight class and was a ludicrously good fighter but that was about it.

For an 80's manga series turned anime I was fairly certain it was kind of light on the exponential escalation of external threats. Hmm… alliteration. Most of the time it was just lethal threats against Ranma's person or some other assorted violent or otherwise undesirable act.

A bit dismissive of me, that, now that I think about it- has my worldview become a bit skewed…?

Nah, no way!

0.0.0

Items were another thing I had… neglected to focus on as much as I perhaps should. Oh, don't get me wrong- we used the stuff we picked up but it was only very rarely our go-to method within a setting.

The more general Perks, blatant Powers or the general abilities granted to the in-verse Races were far, far more lucrative and useful on the whole for solving problems. They were instinctive; something that became a part of us, easily used, understood and then improved.

It was elementary level logic to solve our problems with them; the more we got, the more things slotted together and stacked- or allowed us to take an… alternate view on things.

As I said- simple logic.

This time, however, I was curious. Now, as you may or not remember, I was a Time Traveller. Capital letters, there, while I had never picked Timelord in Doctor Who- having opted to become one of the eldritch monstrosities that were the Weeping Angels in its stead- Ben 10 had immediately rectified this hole in my defences with the expy Timelord, Timewalker Origin.

From then on I made gratuitous use of the Fiat-backed open-endedness of my Paradox-style Time Travel; within reason, of course, I travelled with The Doctor- to support our efforts in tandem and away from

So, I could pretty easily snatch up any interesting keepsakes or interesting display pieces- as my Warehouse allowed me to bring everything in it but everything not Fiat-backed with CP was mostly useless for any original purpose.

For example if I had gone to Skyrim and dropped the Eye of Magnus through a Warehouse portal, I would keep it for as long as it was in there but it wouldn't actually do anything. Actually that's a bad example, it'd probably just explode and destroy the universe…

Um- ah, a practical example; one of the few non-standing around things I was capable of doing on my 9th Jump was that I took an Omnitrix from a timeline in which all life on the Ben 10 Earth had been wiped out beyond my power to stop.

That was kind of a jerk move, in retrospect. I'm just going to blame my quartered consciousness for that. But it was useless- a fancy paperweight in the visual shape of an Omnitrix that would only ever work- maybe, if I showed up in another Ben 10 Universe. It acted more like a glitched item in a video game, loading old textures than anything else, honestly.

Anyway, the point of this discussion was a certain item I had seen on the document and almost bought just out of interest- the Nanban Mirror. Ignoring the hi-jinx I got into for the decade with my curse, my perfectly reasonable uplifting attempts somewhat went sideways when the weirdness of the world got involved and all the people that those two implied…

The Tardis reminded us that it had intelligence for a rather long time; dragging us all across time and space to the point in which the Mirror had first been used in the series. I assumed, at least, as it turned out it was Happosail that caused it.

This was the first time we had interacted with any of the 'main characters', and in a more general sense one of the first times I'd been dragged into the plot of a 'story' without a Drawback related or world-threatening reason.

Considering this Jumps free Import for all- I had the whole gang with me, somewhat, entirely overkill for this world… but we were all chilling out in the Tardis when it happened. Whilst I could have left another way, it hadn't attempted to contact us since the Doctor Who Jump and whenever I asked The Doctor about it he'd endeavour to give an evasive non-answer.

I eventually stopped after the first few decades and whilst not forgetting about it, as that was impossible for me, I otherwise put it out of my mind. Allowing The Doctor such privacy with his items and affairs.

Ranma ½ was, as I stated before, rather superfluous in its danger rating for an entity like myself- that wasn't overconfidence- rather a fact at this point. I was cautious nonetheless, however, I didn't enjoy being arrogant when it was forced on me and attempted to stem it wherever it might bloom.

The idiots we ended up interacting with made that incredibly hard to keep under control.

The Chinese Amazon's were very rude, Happosail was ruder and the rest were just confused. Ranma and Akane's constant fight-crush anime back and forth or Genma's immense stubbornness didn't help matters much either.

That 'adventure' was… trying. Personalities in my group clashing with both the others and amongst ourselves eventually forcing us all to completely sandbag beyond reasonable measure and it was just a huge mess.

Lessons were learned- for all involved, I believe.

Wrapping back around to the original point, I ended up confiscating the Mirror anyway. And whilst It would be yet another fancy paperweight and had no use to me personally- I decided to bring it with me.

Whilst I could theoretically have purchased the Mirror due to a quirk in my Jumping rules and the 400cp I still had stored in the 'bank' thanks to my Doctor Who Scenario- I decided against it for a number of reasons.

The first being that this thing was ludicrously dangerous; it's version of time travel being the typical, open ended magical variant that was stupidly out of balance with the rest of a settings magic system.

There was no time agency, or even much of a magical protection system to thwart attempts like this- it was utterly broken! In all senses of the word; whilst it was a stable artefact, neither myself or The Doctor liked the idea of this random Mirror having all this power.

After long discussion and rumination, calling on all our experience and power, we decided that Time itself was just as weird as the rest of this world- so we couldn't rule out the possibility that the Mirror might become a threat to reality if left unchecked.

Through one means or another.

There was also the matter that if I had left this one here and took one of my own- not only would I would likely never find use for it but I would be leaving that mirror with the locals… And after our experiences?

Yeah, I didn't have the highest opinion of this lot's intelligence levels- or that of a lot of people in this world, as we had experienced.

Perhaps that was my arrogance peeking through but it was just that kind of world, you know? So I took the assurance of the Jump Document stating there was only one, grabbed the thing and wandered off whilst the group weren't looking. My Companions following suit.

I found out far later on that all of the 'main cast' had teamed up, scouring the planet for us and the Mirror. They never found us, of course, but some of the 'security footage' we recovered was endlessly amusing.

The sight of that old crone bouncing around, following only her innermost superstitious fears on a chain of events that were entirely fabricated within her mind…

Ahh, I hadn't even been around her for that long; she got what she deserved.

0.0.0

"Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange?" A softly singing figure stalked through a graveyard, followed by an entourage of ghostly spirits. They were trailed by a full camera crew of skeletal beings, though no one watching the recording would be able to tell as such.

Skipping past the grave stones, dancing around with joviality- giggling alongside the ghosts, the figure continues to sing- ignoring the camera crew.

"Come with us and you will see; this our town of Halloween. This is Halloween, this is Halloween! Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!" Spinning around on the spot, the spindly skeletal being gestures wildly.

"This is Halloween, everybody make a scene! Trick or treat till the neighbours gonna die of fright! It's our town, everybody scream. In this town of Halloween…" The ghosts flood through the gates, concealing the skeleton from view- flowing through a broken window before vanishing.

Suddenly in the room, a half-stone figure is spotted slowly and hesitantly lifting up the lone bed, entirely with a single water covered-stone hand.

"I am the one hiding under your bed, teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red. I am the one hiding under your stairs, fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair." The bed explodes upwards, a wolf-like creature popping out with a boo- the statue stares back, unmoved- until a hand with literal snakes for fingers lands on his shoulder causing the half-statue to jump in shock before giggling as the trench-long, spider infested hair tickles him by leaning over.

"This Is Halloween! This is Halloween!" The perspective vanishes from the house alongside the statute within a blink, appearing once more on the streets as a gaggle of varied, unusual creatures gather under the song.

"Halloween, Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! In this town we call home, everyone hail to the pumpkin song. In this town, don't we love it now? Everybody's waiting for the next surprise." Dancing around in dizzying patterns, the veritable menagerie of mythical, halloween-inspired beings bounce, hop, slither and crawl their way through the streets filled with their own special brand of cheer.

"Round that corner, man hiding in the trash can. Something's waiting now to pounce, and how you'll scream!" Leading the pack is a winged unicorn; purple-black fur and magical glowing appendages.

"This is Halloween! Red and black! Slimy green!" A seemingly normal man in a trench coat takes over from there, waving around an odd screwdriver-like device as things spark and frazzle to punctuate his singing.

"Aren't you scared? Well, that's just fine! Say it once, say it twice! Take a chance and roll the dice! Ride with the moon in the dead of night!" A bone-white furred Alicorn interrupts, flying up and snatching away the shaking camera- flanked by witches on brooms.

"Everybody scream. Everybody scream! In our town of Halloween…" The crowd roars alongside one another, as a sinisterly dressed woman with snake-like eyes and a skeletal ribcage manifested behind her- shading her with an eerie red glow. The camera is deposited into her rapidly growing jaw.

"I am the clown with the tear-away face! HERE IN A FLASH AND GONE WITHOUT A TRACE!" A masked skeleton appears in a gust of red smoke in a dramatic pose, alternating between equally silly poses as she goes.

"I am the who when you call, 'who's there'? I am the wind blowing through your hair." The trench-coat wearing man walks into view but is pushed aside by the original skeleton who winks at the camera before vanishing again.

"I am the shadow on the moon at night, filling your dreams to the brim with fright." The camera man shakes, whipping the device around frantically- just in time to land on the midnight black Alicorn as she rapidly approaches him with every blink.

"This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! HALLOWEEN!" Staggering back, the cameraman almost falls backwards under the guillotine as a pumpkin is sliced in half.

"Tender lumplings everywhere, life's no fun without a good scare." Backing away from the creatures singing, he rapidly turns to flee before bumping into the snake-eyed woman. The group surrounds him now, slowly stalking towards him with the rhythmic beat.

"That's our job, but we're not mean, in our town of Halloween." A few others arrive, causing the group to flow into another mob- this time led by a rotund, mechanical individual with a top hat and a rosy smile.

"In this town down we love it now, everyone's waiting for the next surprise." A separate group leads a wooden horse with two 'scarecrows' upon it- they all blink as they realise they're seeing two.

"Skellington Jack might catch you in the back and scream like a banshee! Make you jump out of your skin! This is Halloween! Everybody SCREAM!"

"Won't you please make way for a very special guy?" Erupting into motion, one of the scarecrows grasps a torch and sets itself alright- whilst the other splits apart into water molecules and flows over the area.

"Our man Jack is king of the pumpkin patch - everyone hail to the Pumpkin King!" The flaming skeleton in scarecrow guise somersaults into a well- everyone watching on in awe at his dexterous moves. The other, meanwhile, floods into the vague shape of a skeleton, standing directly inside one of the larger torches- gases emanating from his slowly evaporating form.

"This is Halloween! This is Halloween!" Then, at once, together they simultaneously rise from the waters and reconstitute themselves from the vapours- the infamous twin Skellington brothers.

Jack and- ah, it doesn't say?

"Halloween! Halloween!" The song continues unabated, the crowd after all these years paradoxically still not sure what to call the second figure opt to sing Jack's name instead.

"Halloween! Halloween!" The crowds dance around in adoration as the songs climactic ending comes calling- the camera man remains stock still upon the floor as the gathered individuals wave their arms about.

"In this town we call home everyone hail to the pumpkin song! Ahahahahaahahahaha-" A raucous wave of laughter takes over all involved, thunderous applause ringing out as the two Skellington's bow, wave and smile atop their respective podiums.

The plaza glowed with a vibrant sorting of neon-bright colours, bathing the aesthetically gothic town in a bright light. If one were to look towards the vapoury, lithe and skeletal figure as his head rose from a bowing position, a small smirk on his face- those with the senses to spot it would swear that they were looking at 15 different faces.

An Egyptian God, a Jedi Master, a forgoing monk- the artist formerly known as Wet Statue- Dr Robert Allison Fritspatrick… The Nameless Skellington? And many, many more- flowing, twisting and alternating upon the bone-smooth surface of his face.

A wide, toothy smile engulfs his face as he spots his viewers- before winking, blinking and vanishing into the darkness. A disembodied, hallowing final sentence echoing in the nights chill.

"This… This is Halloween."

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Sorry if I butchered any of these settings, despite enjoying quite a varied amount of content my memory is kind of awful and the nature of these snippet thingies meant that I didn't really have the time to sit down and properly refresh my memory beyond a cursory set of wiki-walking and clip watching moments throughout each day.

Also a bit less chunk to most snippets as I was struggling for ideas pretty much immediately, had a bit of a bad week and didn't know a whole ton about most of the settings. At least not enough to convincingly feign deeper knowledge.

Example: I don't know much about Fate, I really like what I do know about it though so I tried to make it as logical as possible- but die-hard Fate fans would likely have a few aneurisms reading it, I imagine. Let alone the barebones one I puked up for the Egyptian Mythology Jump. It's been over a decade since I last refreshed my memory on Egyptian Mythology, cut me some slack- or don't.

Probably won't. Anyway, I'm having fun with this so I'm gonna keep going no matter how garbage they turn out. Here's a list of the Jumps themselves:

Ben 10, Fate/Grand Order, My Little Pony, Egyptian Mythology, Bleach, Ranma 1/2, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

So, all stuff I'm at least peripherally familiar with but by no means an expert, even less so in MLP's case. Whatever, lol.