Fictions Mentioned:
Episode 3
OP Insert Song:
Spy | "Who Can You Trust" Ivy Levan Music Video [HD] | 20th Century FOX
Insert Song: Start
Max Payne 2 - Main Theme
DCMK Universe-Prime—Pocket Dimension 101.
One of the many infinite pocket dimensions of DCMK Universe-Prime. Pocket Dimensions in general, aside from the fact that all are in the same universe, are more or less universes of their own. These dimensions vary in size and the rules of each of them may not be the same as the Main Dimension. These dimensions are also different in regards to their environment which make each dimension inhabitable by different types of individuals that ranged from extraterrestrials, extradimensionals, extrasensories, extraordinaries, and many others.
The car had finally made landing on the hangar bay in a slight touchdown as the wheels quickly replace the hovering gravitational feature. Many different types of hovercraft, many of them carrying the Foundation logo, were lined up in an orderly fashion like a parking lot.
Then, Agent Shiage Hamazura and Agent Jiang Haoyi stepped out of the car and headed to the back part of the car in order to assist the women who are with them from exiting the door. As they open the doors, they would see the admittedly speechless ITEM girls who were all looking at Agent Hamazura who simply asked with a serious expression.
"So what do you make of what just happened?"
The ITEM girls didn't respond. There were a few side glances towards each of the girls, but all eyes were currently turned to Agent Hamazura. They couldn't answer as their question as they were numb and speechless.
For what was perhaps the very first time in their life, the girls couldn't make a witty comeback or a side comment. What they had just seen had blown all of their minds away as they saw the following: casual travelling from one universe to another and the appearance of non-humans by the dozens. In fact, there were non-humans of many shapes and sizes that were all walking by from the hangar bay itself and just going about their own personal business.
"Considering that all of you are unable to answer, I'm guessing you weren't expecting something quite like this on your first road trip," Agent Hamazura said. He was still speaking seriously but showed a subtle, softer expression.
All of the ITEM girls simply nodded immediately. If one can imagine a Looney Toon BGM, it can pretty much accompany the nodding.
"Well, we should probably get going and head to the main lobby. Come one ladies, your first day of work doesn't wait for you after all," Agent Hamazura.
The ITEM girls all hopped out of the car and explore the vast white-greyish hallways, with silver walls and neon lights. and entered another hall that was large. To describe this place, it was a huge, multileveled atrium, futuristic in design, sleek, uncluttered, manned by humans and non-humans who were MIB Division Agents that were carrying out the role of immigration officers. There were some MIB Division Agents that had scientist lab coats that were examining a few hovering screens, showing images of...a giant worm that was sleeping.
The girls looked amazed at the vast diversity of species that were just walking right past time. For Kinuhata, this looks like something straight out of a B-movie plot about aliens being among them. They all walk slowly as they see an alien with five legs, a floating flame with cartoonish-looking features, an eight-ball-eyed-looking human, and many others. This place felt more like immigration control.
And then, ITEM heard the following conversation between a male MIB Division Agent from the table and a humanoid with a tail. They were a few meters close to them.
"Welcome to DCMK Universe-Prime: Pocket Dimension 101," the MIB Division Agent said with a professional tone as he was checking the little booklet that the alien handed over. "Purpose of your trip?"
The alien said. "Diplomatic mission."
"Length of stay?" the agent asked.
"A few weeks and two moon cycles," the alien said.
"Anything to declare? Are you carrying any fruits and vegetables?" the agent asked.
The alien simply grabs something from his bag and showed a couple of bananas.
"...This feels oddly super like we're watching an immigration service, Mugino," Kinuhata whispered, bewildered and excited.
"I noticed," Mugino responded numbly, raising an eyebrow.
They continued walking towards where the scientists are at. Agent Hamazura and Agent Haoyi were greeting a scientist with brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a pair of glasses. He appeared to be quite young, somewhere between sixteen and seventeen, with a black business suit and a scientist lab coat that has the Foundation logo on the shoulders.
"Doctor Handschuh," Agent Haoyi greeted the scientist who was now noticing them.
"Ah," Doctor Thomas Handschuh noted the two agents and company. He spoke with a German accent. "Agent Haoyi, Agent Hamazura, last I've heard, The Wall called for the both of you to her office."
"Well yeah, we had something to take care of," Agent Hamazura gestured subtly towards the ITEM girls who were just right behind them, looking around the place. Eventually, all ITEM eyes landed on the agents and the scientist.
"Ah, I see," Doctor Handschuh made an amused smile, understanding the situation, before turning professional. "In any case, I would like to show you all what we have found ou so far."
And at that point, the scientist turned around as the screens were showing something. It remained static before showing a few specific images. The images were shaking in the light of the first-person viewpoint. The ITEM girls all looked at the screen and see the erratic pulse from some of the screens showing signs of heartbeats going a bit too fast. The worm was being shocked by some kind of electroblaster rifle with silver lines with three red dots from each of the sides that were blinking profusely every single time it was fired. And there were people that were carrying it...if you could call them people. The images stood still and the appearance would slowly clear, revealing strange humanoids with blue-pink skins and starry faces and one single eye, appearing to have neither nose nor mouth...that is, until their faces burst to reveal grotesque-starfish features and revealing their sharp-edged mouths.
"...Well, shit," Agent Hamazura muttered, narrowing his eyes and with his arms crossed.
"Wha-What are those things?" Frenda asked in curiosity while at the same time becoming a bit disturbed by the grotesque features of the creatures, pointing at the latter who were at the screen making clicking sounds that reminded one of a predator.
"DNAstaros," Doctor Handschuh answered grimly. "They are a hostile alien species that is bent on interuniversal conquest. They have been quite a nuisance on DCMK Universe-Prime for the past few decades or so."
"Did the tech boys manage to trace their last known location?" Agent Hamazura asked.
"Yes, we have traced them. As of now, they are being engaged by the MTFs from multiple locations in pocket dimensions," Doctor Handschuh said. At the same time, multiple screens were showing multiple combat personnel with black-greyish armored futuristic gear engaging in a clear all-out firefight with the alien menaces. Blue and green beams were hurled at each other, the aliens gaining more casualties as they get picked off from the head.
"Woah..." Kinuhata muttered, blinking at the fire fight.
"I would suggest that you head back to the Mainline. That would be where the largest concentration of enemy forces seemed to be detected. I feel that it could be a good field test for the girls who are with you," Doctor Handschuh suggested.
"Anyone there who could be waiting for us?" Agent Haoyi asked.
"There is one..." Doctor Handschuh confirmed with a nod.
One drive later...
Agent Hamazura and Agent Haoyi, along with the ITEM girls, were coming out from a door and heading toward the rooftop where everything was rather clear. The Tokyo Tower was seen just a few kilometers away and the brightened early morning sun was seen hovering over the sky.
The ITEM girls were all looking around. All they find is a deserted rooftop that was basically over three floors away from the ground. In short, there was nothing.
"Hey, Hamazura, just who the hell are we exactly waiting for out here?" Mugino asked, raising an eyebrow. She was looking at Agent Hamazura who was simply putting his hands behind his back and watching the morning sun. Agent Haoyi was more or less by Agent Hamazura's side to the left.
"For me."
"WAAAH!"
"What the fuck!"
All of ITEM, with Mugino cursing in surprise as she feels more than irritated at this point due to getting sneaked on for like the second time, all looked somewhere to the top of the door that they exited, revealing...
Wait...?
A boy...?
But they also noticed something else.
The young boy was wearing what appeared to be a magician's outfit. It was of a dark blue color scheme that appeared to compliment the orange-looking bright skies that were being permeated by the rays of the sun. His cape was seen blowing gently from the right direction because of the incoming winds. He had a dark blue top hat and business suit, with a dark blue bowtie from the center. He also had a pair of white gloves that he wore on both of his hands that were all tucked into his pockets. He was wearing a pair of black formal shoes that were of the same size. The boy's wardrobe as a whole was one that felt very noir-ish. Like he can fit well in a black-and-white screenplay that creates a vintage feel.
His expression was strange and hard to decipher especially in light of the non-reflective glasses that he wore and covered his eyes, for it was a blank one, one that you couldn't find any hint of emotion at all that could determine a weak spot. By the facial expression alone, he was no mere boy. Not even close. Well, ITEM wouldn't really be surprised to see a young boy that was strange in appearance and demeanor that doesn't seem to be natural for someone of his age due to experiences with the Dark Side of Academy City. However, there was something strange and eerie about him that just made ITEM feel a bit over the edge. This boy, by face alone, was no mere boy, and the expression that he pulled quite masterfully was one that required years of mental fortitude and training.
Agent Haoyi was looking straight at this boy with a smile. Agent Hamazura never turned around but smiled knowingly first as he immediately recognized the sound of his voice.
"Ah, Night Baron, good to see you again," Agent Hamazura turned around just as Night Baron would lower himself down gracefully as if it were a magician with light footsteps, one that made the ITEM girls blink in curiosity. "By the way, thanks for the assist with the Waxzyme."
Night Baron simply gave a soft hum and a nod. Now, he was looking at the four new girls that were looking at him with intrigued expressions.
"I can see that Councilwoman Waller had already implemented her plan based on these four girls being here, all of them who are members of ITEM, one out of many organizations in the Dark Side of Academy City," he said.
"Hmm, so you know about the Dark Side, huh boy?" Mugino made an amused expression, one that was more so of a cover-up to show just who's boss. In fact, looking at it from one angle, she was clearly taller than him. Maybe she was just trying to fool herself, thinking that this boy wouldn't really be that much of an intimidating figure based on his clothing that reminded her of cosplay, and that's not even getting to his height. "And that's quite cute? What's with the outfit? Are you all dressing up like some kind of mysterious magician? What's the occasion because I didn't know about Halloween starting this early?"
Agent Haoyi was only looking at this with an amused smile. Agent Hamazura was the same as his partner, only looking at this conversation with amusement, trying his best not to laugh while his arms were crossed.
"("Really...Intimidating the Dark Knight? Yeah, he's face and fought through worse than you, Mugino. It's gonna take a lot more than that to scare him.")" Agent Hamazura thought.
Night Baron simply looked at her with a blank expression. If he wasn't impressed, he didn't show it much.
"First: Halloween hasn't happened in my world as it would be about a few months later. Second: This is simply how I look when it comes to my line of work in the field. Third: I've read your file. Mugino Shizuri. Also known as Meltdowner which is an ability that made it act like a particle wave canon, to put things mildly simply. Date of birth and origin is classified and unknown, and yet I know. Born from a wealthy family and attended to by a personal butler at a young age. Recruited into the Dark Side at least sometime later by the time you entered Academy City, with your esper powers cultivated by the scientists who only see you as expendable or a means to an end, and a few incidents later that contributed to whatever you believed about the world, and hindered your thinking and mentality as if everything applied to the city itself. You were trained and inhibited to think of anything else but the mission, the job where you only serve at the beck and call of the higher-ups. You never think about anything else, except for the mission. If even one of your fellow members is a hindrance to that, then they will be terminated without prejudice. Of course, there is a certain level of prejudice that you have with people that have lower levels of esper development, one in particular would be the Level 0s, and one that you generally consider to be people to be stepped on as their lives didn't matter. To them, they were less than people. If they get in the way, they die, simple as that. ...Did I leave anything out?"
Most of ITEM didn't like where this conversation was going as they showed grimaced expressions, feeling a bit of sweat on their foreheads. Mugino...well, she was a little ticked off and disturbed by just how much this boy knew about her intimately just by as he claimed, looking at her file, and the fact that he was simply speaking this casually with no hint of emotion at all.
"...You know," Mugino's tone made a rather strange tone, with eyes narrowed in displeasure. "From someone who said that he read my file, that is an awful lot of personal details for you to know, boy."
"The Foundation's files on Individuals of Interests (IoIs) are quite remarkably precise and on point, one that I tend to borrow from time to time. Of course, I tend to do some personal investigation myself in order to verify the files that I would use," Night Baron simply said, not looking scared in the least, and carried on with speaking in the same cold emotionless tone.
Now, Mugino could very well just blast this little pipsqueak to kingdom come for even daring to face her like this. And the fact that he wasn't even afraid of her at all. He was just looking at her in the eye, and Mugino couldn't even tell what his eyes look like as they were hidden from those glasses that he wears. But of course, she remembered the deal that she had with Councilwoman Waller and it was something that she would need to honor if she doesn't want to experience a few worse things that she had implied in their last conversation. So she would simply play as the good girl for now.
And then...there was the fact that Mugino was genuinely curious about this boy who didn't seem to be judging her and simply recited everything about her life in summarized form. She had a great gut feeling that this boy knew more than he let on regarding her, but refused to divulge it.
"...Wow, this kid isn't super afraid to stand up to Mugino, even when she's super giving him that glare," Kinuhata whispered to Frenda, looking at this conversation with a mixture of awe and trepidation.
"...Even I could never do something like this, really," Frenda whispered to Kinuhata, looking at this conversation with a mixture of awe and trepidation.
"Just who do you think this kid is, Frenda?" Kinuhata asked.
"Heck if I know, but that kid is giving me the chills," Frenda said, looking only at the boy-would-be-magician who wasn't afraid and just kept looking at Mugino. From what Frenda's first impressions are regarding this Night Baron character, he seems to be a lot more mature and mysterious. And yet, there was something else. Odd as it is, she felt that this boy wasn't just a boy even in age. Even children from the Dark Side weren't like what this boy was.
"Girls, in case all of you are wondering, this is Night Baron, your genuine honest to god superhero of this universe," Agent Hamazura decided to butt in on the conversation. "And by the way, I wouldn't be intimidating the boy, Mugino."
"Huh? Why? Afraid that I might do something to him?" Mugino asked with a depreciating smile towards her parole officer.
"No, I'm more worried about how something would happen to you," Agent Hamazura spoke with a deadpanned tone while making a strange smile. His expression was like he was saying: "("You couldn't really kill him if you want to. He's out of your league in several ways.")".
That really pissed Mugino off more than anything. Here was a boy who had the sheer audacity to tell her about her entire life as if it were no big deal. And adding the fact that a Level 0 was subtly suggesting that this boy would be someone you wouldn't want to mess with...
...Honestly, if it weren't for this deal with Waller, she had to say screw it blasted the boy to smithereens, to hell if he was a child or not because he was pissing her off and pressing a few buttons.
And now that Mugino thought of it, maybe that was intentional. The pushing buttons part. And that made Mugino slowly realize just what type of person this boy is as she takes a few steps back. The boy doesn't give a reaction to her movements, only carrying that blank expression that just adds to the edge. She felt like she was being stared at, eye to eye, probing deeply into her own soul.
Was it merely just all in her head? Maybe. But she didn't want to take chances with this boy that she now realizes was quite dangerous when taking into account of this situation.
"Hey, Baron, Dr. Handschuh said that we'd meet you on this rendevous point in order to discuss about the plan to deal with the DNAstaros," Agent Hamazura said, breaking the tension with a professional tone that was cut to the chase.
Night Baron simply nodded and turned around. "If you were to all please follow me."
Night Baron walked inside the door that lead to the stairs. Agent Hamazura and Agent Haoyi were following close behind, with the latter being first to enter while Agent Hamazura stopped his tracks because he heard Frenda calling for him.
"Oi, Hamazura, just who the heck is that kid?" Frenda asked the same question that ITEM more or less has been pondering ever since their encounter with Night Baron.
Agent Hamazura only smiled subtly and answered with an ominous phrase. "He's Vengeance."
And that would stay in the minds of every single ITEM girl when thinking about the boy-would-be-magician.
Insert Song: End
ED Song:
The Batman 2004 - Intro & Outro Remastered
Main Companion Protagonists:
Shinichi Kudo/Conan Edogawa/Night Baron II - VAs: Kappei Yamaguchi, Minami Takayama
New Characters:
Doctor Thomas Handschuh (SCP Foundation)