Eternal City Crystal Tokyo

Space

The Earth Base at the planetoid Xena bustled with activity, people coming and going constantly. Taken over from Nergal and Mesa, the original construction had been razed to the ground, then rebuilt to be sure of no traps or other surprises. Now it served as a central depot for mining in the nearby debris belt, as well as a outpost of civilization in the lawless outer reaches of the solar system.

Kei smiled as the redhead lead the way into the bar, followed by her partner Yuri. "Bit of a dive," Yuri noted, he long black hair flowing down her back.

"Only been open a few months too," Kei agreed, taking in the seedy atmosphere and well armed residents. Reminded her of the last time they had been to Roanapur, actually.

"Let's get something to drink," Yuri said as they headed up to the old fashioned, wooden bar. Well, it LOOKED wooden. Probably was pressed, colored plastic, as real wood would be expensive as hell to ship up here.

Anna Dewitt smiled as the two women in miner's jumpsuits headed up to her bar. The brown haired woman had opened her bar after two others on the rock had opened, but she had ended up putting them out of business with better booze and staff.

"Hey, good to see you again," Anna grinned as she poured rum for them both.

"Thanks," Kei calmly took her drink and tossed it back, while Yuri sipped at her's bit more daintily. This was decent rum, no reason to chug it.

"So, why are the cops checking into me?" Anna asked politely.

"Who says we're cops?' Yuri drawled.

Anna scoffed. "Oh come on... I know you're trying to be undercover, but you're too damn clean to be real miners," she pointed out. "Besides, I ran a visual check on you... Lovely Angels," she added with a slight smile.

Kei puffed out a breath, glad she hadn't used their usual nickname. Things could have gotten kind of messy. "You must have a very unusual computer... we went to a lot of trouble to erase our history," she noted.

Anna smiled back wryly as she explained, "Let's say I have some interesting sources and leave it at that."

"Fair enough," Yuri conceded.

"Anyway, you aren't who we're interested in right now," Kei offered as she tapped her glass with a finger for a refill.

Anna poured a half shot as she said a bit coolly, "I could help, in return for a bit of consideration on your part."

"Oh?" Yuri drawled, studying the attractive woman thoughtfully.

"Well, I'm looking for someone myself," Anna admitted as she continued, "you scratch my back, I scratch yours."

"As long as it's not illegal, I think we could help," Yuri conceded thoughtfully. "But you help with out little problem first."

"You're after the drug trade," Anna said, not making it a question.

"Yeah," Kei nodded, "a version of Bloodfire. Good news is it's not lethal, like the old version, but it's addictive as hell and has mutagenic qualities."

"Oh that sounds lovely," Anna grimaced. "There has been a rise in drunk and disorderly complaints, guess this is involved?"

"Yeah, higher likelyhood of violence too," Yuri agreed. "We need to find the dealers, before this gets any more out of hand."

"I've heard some rumors about Fitzroy's operations," Anna offered, "she runs a mining operation, but only seems to ship stuff in, not out."

"This isn't a 'let's you and him fight' thing is it?" Kei wondered.

"Do you think I would deliberately send you against a business rival?" Anna asked as she tried to look innocent.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean the info is bad," Kei admitted as they put credits on the bar then headed outside.

Anna swept the money up and put it away, even as she nodded to her partner in the place, Eleanor. "You think it will work?" Eleanor Lamb asked, the tall, muscular brown haired woman walking to Anna's side.

"No idea," Anna sighed. She smiled tiredly, "You angry that I dragged you into this?"

"Nah. It's MUCH more interesting than just settling down in hiding," Eleanor smiled, giving the other woman a wink.

Anna rolled her eyes at that.

Meanwhile, the Fitzroy mining company seemed pretty active, on first notice. There certainly were plenty of people about. But as Kei and Yuri cased the joint, they quickly confirmed what Anna had pointed out, there didn't seem to be much actual mining going on.

The building itself was a prefab, much like a lot of buildings up here. Main entrance, a shipping receiving area, and several rooms for storage. No way to get in other than those two, short of cutting into the back wall. And that would, probably, be alarmed.

"Wonder why this wasn't mentioned in the mission brief?" Yuri wondered as they watched sober people go in and possibly drugged people go out.

"Might be too recent to reach Lady Venus," Kei offered. "She may have the best spy network in the solar system, but even she has data lag."

"Fair enough," Yuri conceded. She snapped several shots with a concealed camera in her mining jump-suit as she asked, "What's the plan?"

"You're asking me?" Kei asked with a grin.

"We used my plan last time," Yuri shrugged casually.

Kei snorted at that. "Go in posing as customers?" she offered. "Hopefully we can get a sample of whatever they're dealing then shut it down."

"Crude, but I think it could work," Yuri admitted.

The two women joined the line, men and a few women looking tired and run down. A older man looked skeptically at a younger, "So, what is this stuff?"

"I heard it's called Vigors," the man answered softly, "supposed to pep you right up."

Yuri raised her eyebrows slightly. That didn't match what Anna implied... tho admittedly she could have lied. Either way, they needed to carry on.

Inside looked like a typical processing area, but without any ore samples, scales or anything else. Clearly they weren't trying to hide THAT much. Instead a attractive young woman handled reception, with a curtained off area in back she was sending people into.

Softly Kei noted to Yuri, "This place has better shielding than I thought. Now that we're inside I'm picking up exotic particles and energy fields."

"Something weird is going on," Yuri agreed softly.

"Do you have any allergies or preexisting conditions?" the bored sounding woman asked as Kei and Yuri stepped up.

"Does incurable hotness count?" Kei joked.

The woman ignored that, "Head on back, please."

Behind the curtain was a dark skinned, somehow faintly angry woman. She was dressed in the usual mining jumpsuit, but looked uncomfortable in it. "You two are new," she noted, "I'm Fitzroy. The first dose is free, to show you the benefits of Vigors."

"I've heard about it, but what does it do?" Kei asked as Yuri covertly edged towards the table covered in vials.

"Whatever you want," Fitzroy smiled, "we can tailor vigors to help you succeed in whatever you want to do..."

Yuri grabbed at the vials, even as a alarm went off. "Crap," she yelped.

"Stop!" Fitzroy yelled even as Kei and Yuri bolted by Fitzroy towards the shipping dock.

They ran by a covered door, and out of curiosity Kei yanked the cover back. She literally froze, blinking as she looked through some kind of... tear in space. On the other side was a city ravaged by war as men and women in strange outfits fought, while off in the distance buildings were held aloft by what looked like balloons.

"What in the...?" Yuri blinked.

"Get them!" Fitzroy yelled as several minors hopped up on the Vigors charged them.

"Shit," Kei cursed softly as she drew her pistol from under her jumpsuit and fired, then again as the first stun blast barely staggered them.

"We have to get out of here," Yuri added as she drew her own gun, firing away. Whatever the Vigors were they appeared to make the user damn near immune to shock.

Before the two could be overwhelmed, a loud crash came from the reception area. "What now?" Fitzroy cursed, then the dividing wall fell with a loud crash.

Anna Dewitt stood just behind Eleanor Lamb, who was wearing a armored suit vaguely similar to a Hardsuit. Her gauntlets smoked faintly as she smiled grimly and said, "Why, Daisy, fancy meeting you here."

"Get away from the tear and surrender," Anna ordered, her hands glowing mysteriously.

"Damn you, Elizabeth! Leave me in peace," Fitzroy cursed as she bolted towards the tear.

"Stop her!" Anna yelled, but it was too late. Fitzroy jumped through the hole then it just snapped shut behind her.

The controlled miners just dropped like puppets with their strings cut. As the silence stretched on Yuri sighed and asked, "Okay, WHAT is going on?"

They ended up at Anna's bar, where she poured booze as she explained, "Daisy Fitzroy is from a alternate universe, where she tried to rebel against her cruel bosses. She lost, but acquired technology that could open tears in reality. She's trying to use them to rally a new army or steal advanced technology."

"And you're dimensional cops?" Kei wondered.

"HA! No," Anna shook her head, "just someone trying to help."

"And you?" Yuri asked Eleanor.

Eleanor shrugged, "Someone not too different than Fitzroy messed up my life, I don't want it to happen to anyone else."

"Fair enough," Kei accepted that. "You two sticking around or...?"

"We're going after Fitzroy, as you can probably guess," Anna shrugged. She poured everyone a drink, "Last call..."

To be continued...

Notes: Yes, that's a crossover with Bioshock Infinite and Bioshock 2. May or may not expand this into a one shot...