Author's Notes:

Another crossover shortfic for you guys to read while I'm busy writing Chapter 38. (It's almost done, btw! Like, 80% finished. :D)

Anyway, this little piece here... I actually wrote this a couple weeks before I wrote "Advice and Answers" (y'know, the short story featuring Joshua Renalia and Ever Riley, which is now the previous chapter). But I never really thought about putting this one up until now, since it was meant to be a writing exercise after all.

Specifically, a writing exercise meant as a trial run for me on writing combat scenes that involve Joshua in a state where he's more proficient in using his Element.

I'm hesitant on posting this because of some spoilers it holds for the main story, plus I really don't want to get people's hopes up for a "multiverse" thing when that was never in the plans to begin with. Why do you think I renamed this as "Meaningless Crossovers" to begin with?

But I guess it'll be safe. Good luck finding those spoilers! Because NONE OF THIS IS CONSIDERED AIMLESS CANON. It's just me having fun! XDDD

Enjoy!


Second Entry: Aimless x Firelight


Unexpected Hostage

"Don't wait until you're in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan."

- Phil McGraw


"You again."

Joshua unsheathed his sword. He gave it a spin. It was lighter than his old swordbreaker, plus he had to watch the edge. He growled. He didn't have a good chance of getting out of this one.

The human faced the person before him, sixth sense concentrating on their sphere of life. The blade shone brightly with the familiar purplish-white glow of the Unknown Element. The other person's life signature remained calm at the sight of his power. This wasn't someone he should take lightly.

"I didn't expect someone to follow me here."

They were cloaked in heavy garments. A hood covered their face, but it couldn't conceal the tan fur lining their muzzle. "We just made a major investment in the Second Transcendent." A female voice. "There's no way we're letting you go this easily."

Joshua grunted, frustrated by her answer. She knew what he was. That was never a good thing. "Who are you working for?"

She smirked. "Why should I tell you? You're just trying to buy yourself some time."

Joshua eyed their surroundings. A dead medieval city. Roads made of cobblestones, characterized by signs of destruction and conflict. Pieces of stone were missing from their places and some had been scattered to the side. Decrepit buildings the color of sand, all overtaken by nature. He could feel a pulse of life a quick run away, and another one, deeper in the dead city. Distance, a kilometer perhaps. The first one hovered next to a fountain in another courtyard, with four stone dragons built around it. Joshua couldn't see the person in the real world. Whoever it was, it was observing them both, employing magic similar to Joshua's own imperceptibility. He could sense anger and incredulity in their swirling sphere.

"And why would I do that? We're the only ones here. Nobody's coming to help me anytime soon."

"If it makes things more interesting, I pulled the strings to orchestrate your jailbreak. It took a while, but I eventually did it. You actually should be thanking me. I made sure their trackers couldn't find you."

"What?" Joshua's eyes popped open. He snarled. "Wait a goddamn minute! I wanted to be free, but I didn't want that to come at the expense of—

Hooded Girl reproached him. "Wrong answer, Second!" Her hands—both covered in gloves—shone with light as they circled the air in unrecognizable patterns.

Small portals the size of basketballs materialized above them. They ejected scores of flaming rocks and hurled them to the ground. Meteorites! Joshua could sense Hooded Girl's mana maintaining the tiny portals, but there were just too many to sever. He had to fight her directly. The human sprinted to his enemy, raised his blazing sword, and cried out.

The furred muzzle sneered at him.

A fierce blow to the side came out of nowhere. Incomprehensible force blindsided Joshua and sent him flying into the air. The Unknown Element scattered instantly. He landed gracelessly on the ground and rolled a few times. Joshua spat out blood. "F*ck! What the hell was that?"

Hooded Girl's cloaking spell wore off at the attack. It dissolved like water, revealing a magic golem that looked like a walking tripod with a teardrop-shaped center. Its lone eye shone ominously down at him. A deep, blood red. An intimidating sight. Joshua had already reached his maximum height of 1.7 meters as an adult and he was less than half as it was tall.

Definitely bigger than an adult dragon. Joshua growled. All he could pick up from it was static, with brief—very brief—flashes of something he could work on. Something he could manipulate. He had a very, very long way to go before he could sense raw magic.

"I came prepared. Never underestimate a witch. How about you give up and come with me? My mistress—

"Your mistress can go to hell!" He dashed sideways, concentrating on a picture of draping Harry Potter's invisible cloak around himself.

"Discernment, deliberation, determination," flowed Joshua's murmurs while he raised his left hand. A white lance appeared in his grasp. He visualized throwing it at Hooded Girl and watching it split into three pieces as it punched into her at the speed of light.

"Hiding yourself from my senses won't work!" Hooded Girl raised her glowing hands and clapped, emitting a sound strong enough to distract Joshua and give him a stinging headache, his head rattling with tolling bells.

"Must keep the pictures together," he told himself. "Gotta, keep... the, the pictures together!" Pain prickled his nose. Joshua cursed. Goddammit, he didn't expect the bleeding to start so soon.

Joshua threw the lance like an Olympian throwing the javelin. As though moved by an act of God, it accelerated faster towards Hooded Girl with no mercy. This one was meant to seriously hurt. A well-placed strike could easily cause organ failure.

The tripod golem charged right at him. A red beam shot out its eye, aiming straight at Joshua's location. The man dived into a roll and barely evaded the charge. He raised his sword to obstruct the next attack. Something that shouldn't have mass bore heavily down on Joshua's sword and caused his muscles to quake. He felt his head ache as he manipulated the energy lance and split into three pieces, giving Hooded Girl no room to dodge. The migraine worsened.

The mantra. He had to say the mantra! "Discernment, deliber—AAHHHH!" Joshua screamed from searing pain on his hands. He swung the sword and threw it to the side. One brief glimpse, and he saw it melted beyond recognition. Now he had nothing left to defend himself with. He didn't have any armor on—his clothes scavenged from dead Apes his size—and the attack had done precisely what it was supposed to do: destroy Joshua's mental picture and dissolve the Unknown Element.

"Shit." They knew his weaknesses.

"Give it up, Second," Hooded Girl said, as though reading his mind. "Mistress will be forming a portal at my coordinates in five minutes. Ten at most. You—

She suddenly twitched and turned to the side. Joshua saw a long, furry ear tip out from beneath the hood. A rabbit? This bitch was a f*cking rabbit?

"Hold on. We have an intruder among us." Hooded Girl frowned. "I don't like spies." One wave of a hand and an invisible force took hold of the imperceptible life form observing them from afar and drew it towards them. Joshua sensed its sphere of life going frantic at the sudden turn of events, wildly shrinking, radiating intermittently as it cast some sort of magic on Hooded Girl in complete, utter futility.

"Let's see what we have here."

The space in front of Hooded Girl seemed to shatter into countless fragments, revealing a small animal as big as a bobcat back on Earth. Its limbs were pressed into its body by the same ethereal force that pulled it here to begin with. Joshua eyed the feathered wings on its back suspiciously, recognition entering his gaze as he focused on its bright, blue eyes, its blue mouth, and the way it looked just like a fox.

The poor thing bared its teeth. "Let me go! I didn't do anything!" It—she snarled, her voice higher than Hooded Girl's but just as feminine. "I was just watching, I swear! I wasn't going to do anything."

"I believe you."

"Then release me already!"

Hooded Girl snorted. "No. You should've just flown away." Her magic hummed in the air, weaving into a frightening, translucent sickle. "Vulpalas are extinct where I'm from. I'm sure my mistress will find a use for your soul."

"W-w-what? No! You can't be - Why?" The fox squirmed. She struggled harder to escape. There was no use.

Meanwhile, memories of a bygone past hammered Joshua's head. Memories he had long forgotten, after all the time he had spent away from Earth and the glory that was the Internet. Astonishment couldn't begin to describe his feelings. He simply did not expect a development like this.

"...Nuala?" Joshua tested, hoping it wasn't true. God sure had a way of playing tricks on him.

The winged fox snapped her head at him, to his horror. "H-how... how did you know my name? Answer me, you... you furless ape!"

Hooded Girl cackled like the witch she was. "Oh Joshua, you are full of surprises! I don't know how in the Realms you pulled that off, but what a coincidence. Just when I needed a hostage! See, we couldn't steal Kilat from Warfang now that it's under heavy guard, but this pest will do just fine. She's much weaker than your sister."

Joshua clenched his fist and ransacked his brain for ideas, for anything he could use to get out of this situation.

He was at a loss. What the hell was he going to do now?


Author's Notes:

...TBH that bit with Nuala came out as totally random. So if she's OOC... eh, then she's OOC. Like I said earlier, this is just me having fun.

But hey, it works. I guess.