"You have no idea where we are."

"I know exactly where we are. We are… halfway between where we were and where we're going."

"We were in another universe."

"I thought you didn't believe that part."

"No, I believe it. It makes sense, considering how different this place looks. I just don't believe we were in a dating sim. That's stupid."

"Yeah, cause a dating sim would never have a club of four single girls waiting around for a nondescript guy to show up and woo them."

Natsuki and Vezon had been arguing for the past ten minutes. Monika had to put a stop to it. "Every tunnel here looks exactly the same. How do we know if we're getting anywhere?"

"I don't know." Vezon looked over his shoulder. "You're the one who can inexplicably read the alien language."

"Oh, yeah… they're called Wraith, by the way." She looked behind her to see Sayori and Yuri staring at her. "It said so on the console. You know, in the room with the gamma radiation experiment?"

Yuri allowed herself a small smile. "Wraith. This universe could make for a great horror novel."

"Actually." Vezon cleared his throat, preparing to impart knowledge. "One thing I've picked up in my travels is that a lot of universes are in fact fiction stories in other universes. So this thing about you all being from a dating sim is probably true. This place could be a video game or a television show."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that, actually." Yuri stopped and leaned against the damp wall of the tunnel, taking a moment to collect her thoughts before asking the question. "What… how is it you travel between universes? You came to our universe and took us with you when you left, but how did you do that?"

Vezon stopped as well, halting the procession, and turned to face her. He pointed at the mask on his face. "See this here? This thing is a powerful Kanohi mask. Where I come from, these things impart wondrous powers. There's a mask of levitation, a mask of telekinesis, mask of gravity, mask of light, mask of time, and a whole bunch more. This one is the Kanohi Olmak, the great mask of dimensional gates. I got splashed with some energized protodermis, which goes against all sorts of metaphysical sensibilities, and now it's fused to my face. To make things just that much more fun, it's broken, so I can't even control when it opens a new portal and where that portal takes me. And it doesn't give me a choice either. Just sucks me right through like a ghost into a vacuum cleaner."

Natsuki frowned. "That sounded like it was supposed to be a reference, but I don't get it and it sounds really dumb."

"Aww, but that was one of my favorite games when I was little." There was a pause, during which everyone gave Sayori their own weird looks. She shrunk back. "What? You guys never played that game?"

"What game?" Vezon shook his head. "Well, anyway, it was starting to suck me through another portal when 'Monsquid' froze the world to talk to me."

Monika shrunk under the inquisitive looks of her friends. "I, uh… may have been working on manipulating the game's code."

Vezon continued. "Yeah, and I guess the mask follows the rules of whatever universe it's in. She froze the world, so the portal froze with it. She convinced me to take you all out of there because, I dunno, I guess I figured once you were free we'd go our separate ways. Which reminds me, why are you all still following me?"

"Why are we following you? Uh, hello?" Natsuki waved frantically at the setting around them. "Everything about this place screams unfriendly to innocent schoolgirls!" She pointed at the dark, damp walls and the strange webbing hanging from it. "It's like some freaking horror game!" She pointed at the thick fog rolling along the floor. "Almost like it was designed with the very purpose of frightening us to the maximum amount before killing us!" She pointed at Yuri.

Vezon looked around at the various features of the tunnel. "Hmm… you're right, it is a bit dreary. Normally I'd be worried about something really big and scary coming to eat me, but it's pretty clear that those tiny alien dudes are all that live here."

"Wraith."

He nodded to Monika. "Yeah, those."

"No, Wraith!" She ducked down and hid behind one of the ridges protruding from the side of the tunnel. Catching on, Yuri and Natsuki hid as well.

"Wha- Oh no! Where do I hide?" And then Sayori got hit in the face with another stunner blast.

Vezon finally turned back to see several more of the alien guards had amassed ahead of them. They were firing their stunners near continuously, pounding on his armor. He was already starting to feel a tingling sensation seeping through to his muscles. He really didn't care to find out what they would do to him if they managed to subdue him, so he began to move. Suddenly, more shots hit him from behind. At this rate, he might actually go down…

The three guards behind them advanced, seemingly aware that Vezon couldn't spare the time to turn around just yet or he would never reach the ones in front of him. They were getting dangerously close to where the girls were hiding. Nothing stood in their way, and then they were standing right over Monika and Natsuki. Panicking, Natsuki jumped up and tried to run, abandoning Monika. One of the guards shot her in the back, watched her fall face first onto the ground, and then turned back to Monika.

"Hey! D-don't touch her!" Yuri stammered, trying her best to look and sound intimidating. The guards turned their weapons on her. She struck a pose with all four pilfered knives held with the blades between her fingers. They didn't seem to care and opened fire. "Oh, shit!"

Yuri ducked under the stunners and threw the knives. She hadn't practiced throwing knives as much as she now realized she should have, but all of them hit the lead guard. Three simply bounced off, either deflected by the guard's armor or simply because it was their handles that struck it, but one of them found its place in the guard's shoulder. Still, it didn't seem to care much, and just adjusted its aim.

There was the sound of fabric tearing, and a low rumbling echoed through the tunnel as Natsuki got back to her feet. She stood up to a frightening height, and the guards on the other side of Vezon could see her over his head. Yuri saw it as well, and stumbled back and tripped over herself, confused and terrified.

"Now you've done it." The Wraith guards turned back to Natsuki, immediately backing away. She growled at them. "Now I'm really pissed!"

Monika tried to speak, but the words got caught in her throat. The sleeves on Natsuki's uniform had split open, and the muscles all over her body had begun to bulge unnaturally. Her eyes were burning with rage, but her mouth was stuck in a maddened grin. Thankfully, her waist hadn't grown enough to bust out of her skirt, though there might be a problem once she shrunk back down to normal size. That was assuming she would return to normal size. Monika hoped she would return to normal size. She didn't think she could get used to a fourteen foot little girl.

The Wraith fired their staffs at Natsuki, but she didn't even show the smallest reaction. She just brought her arm down on top of one of the guards, crushing it into the ground. She swiped her arm across the hall, flattening another guard against the wall. Just when Monika thought that it couldn't get any more impossible, Natsuki grabbed the last guard by wrapping her hand around its head. She swung it around like a rag doll, smashing it into the floor and walls haphazardly. Finally, she turned and threw it over Vezon's head, where it crashed into the others.

Vezon looked behind him, glad that the guards had stopped shooting. He saw Natsuki and his brain lost part of its ability to function. "Bloody wot fragtub?"

"NAT-SMASH!" Bellowing at the top of her lungs, Natsuki leaped over Vezon and landed on the remaining guards, crushing them. She proceeded to pummel them into the ground with her fists, over and over again continuously until it was hard to believe there was anything left, and no one really wanted to check to be sure.

There was silence. Vezon let out a low whistle.

Yuri stood up. "Holy shit. What have I done?"

Monika jumped up. "Oh my god! Sayori's unconscious again!"

Vezon turned around, immediately forgetting Natsuki. "Oh, yeah. Again. Get buff-cake girl to carry her."

"Problem." They all looked to see Natsuki was already shrinking down to normal size. "Yeah… I kinda have mood swings when I'm hungry."

"Oh." Vezon pointed over to the crushed Wraith guards. "Plenty of fresh meat."

Natsuki turned around and promptly threw up. "Oh god!" She dashed off and emptied her scarcely filled stomach into the corner.

Vezon turned back to Monika. "Is there some underlying greater issue going on with her that I'd in some way benefit myself by knowing?"

"Yeah…" Monika nodded slowly. "She, uh… her dad wasn't very good to her."

"Yeah. Don't care. We need food. Who's volunteering?"

They were interrupted by distant gunfire, echoing through the halls. Monika rushed to the intersection ahead of them, trying to hear which direction it was coming from. Yuri stepped over Sayori, picking up her knives and putting them back in their sheaths. Letting out a long sigh, she picked up Sayori and flopped her unconscious friend over her shoulder.

Monika pointed down the path to their right. "I think it's coming from that way!"

Vezon blocked her with his arm. "Just a moment. You want to go running towards the gunfire on an alien space ship. I'm supposed to be the unhinged one here." He stepped ahead of her and led the way. The girls followed cautiously, looking to him to keep them safe.

It was then, staring at the back of Vezon's head, when Monika spotted something peculiar. "Vezon, I think… I think you have something on the back of your head."

He didn't stop, which told her that the panicked tone he put on was fake. "What, is it a spider? Get it off!"

"No, it's not a spider. It's… well, it's kinda glowing and it's blue."

"So is it a glowing blue spider? Get it off!" It didn't look like he actually cared.

She got closer and squinted up at it. It was under the back ridge of the mask that was stuck to his face, and every second or so it seemed to change a little. Suddenly, she realized it wasn't changing about every second, it was changing exactly every second. She gasped. "It's a clock!"

Vezon finally stopped. "A… um, a clock spider?"

"Yuri, come look at this!" She cleared her throat. "It looks like it's a digital clock display on the inside of the mask. I think it's counting down."

Yuri and Natsuki looked up at the blue display. Yuri frowned. "A countdown? Do you think perhaps it is counting down to the next time the mask activates?"

Monika nodded. "That's what I was thinking. If I'm reading it correctly, we've got about five minutes before we're out of here."

"Which means we don't want to get separated now. We need to be together when we go." Natsuki pushed them all onward. "I want to find out who's shooting. Bullets mean Humans, right? Humans are good, right?"

"Maybe they'll have food. I'm hungry."

Yuri groaned and put Sayori down. "Those stunners don't last very long."

Sayori smiled, but with a noticeably droopy look in her eyes. "Maybe I dthuth recover really quickly!"

Vezon shook his head. "My nipples are still numb from the first time."

"Tho are mine." Sayori turned to Monika. "And tho ith my fathe! Monika! Monika! Are we going to meet new people?"

Monika didn't look certain. "Are you sure you're okay? Every time we run into someone here, you get knocked out again. It could be causing brain damage we don't know about."

"That'th tho thilly, though. Dthuth becauthe my fathe ith methed up doethn't mean I have brain damadthe."

"Good lord." Natsuki facepalmed.

"Hey, I'm all for meeting new people. Worse comes to worse, I can just eat 'em." Vezon shrugged. "But not the gonads. Only losers eat gonads."

"Hey." Yuri held up a finger. "Listen for a moment." Everyone stopped whatever thought processes were running through their minds. They weren't entirely sure what they were listening to, and there wasn't much of anything to hear anyway, so Yuri had to point it out. "They've ceased fire."

They could hear footsteps. Someone was running their way. Monika pulled Yuri and Sayori down behind the corner. Natsuki hid behind Vezon. Yuri drew her knives, waiting for the time to strike.

A man ran around the corner, stopping the instant he saw Vezon. He raised his weapon, a P90, a weapon from Earth. Natsuki peered around Vezon to see who it was. When he saw her, he stepped back. He had clearly never seen anything like Vezon before, but they could only speculate at what he thought of Natsuki. Monika slowly stepped out from behind their cover with her arms raised over her head. He quickly switched aim to her, then back to Vezon.

"Who are you? And what… what the hell is that thing?"

Vezon grimaced. "That's not very nice." He looked down at Natsuki. "She's just a kid."

"It can talk? You can talk?" Now that he knew Vezon could talk, he was talking to Vezon. "What are you?"

Taking a deep breath, Vezon started to answer. "My name is Vezon. I'm a bio-mechanical life form that was actually the result of an experiment gone wrong. There was this device, see, that was supposed to merge two people into one, but the guys using it were all idiots and they messed up, splitting a dude in two instead. I'm one of those halves. The other guy is, well, a lot meaner and a lot farther away than I am. Anyway, I'm wearing this mask, and it accidentally got fused to my face and broken. So now I'm stuck with it and it keeps opening portals to other universes and sucking me through. That's how I ended up here. Last place I ended up is where I picked up these girls. And we're about three or four minutes from getting sucked through another portal. We only know this because Squid Girl here noticed there's a clock on the back of the mask."

He blinked slowly, just a little stunned. "Squid… Girl?"

Monika waved and forced a smile. "He probably means me. My name is Monika. This is my friend Natsuki, and, uh…" She waved the others over. "And this is Sayori and Yuri. We haven't been here very long, and the Wraith keep on attacking us, so…"

Vezon patted her on the head. "Hush for a moment." He turned to the armed man. "From the sound of your weapon's discharge, I deduced that you are no accomplice of these foul miscreant aliens. There is no need for you to come into conflict with us, and we shall be on our way shortly."

Suddenly, the entire ship began to shake violently. It was like something hit them, and then another, and another. Whatever it was, it wasn't letting up. The girls all fell over, leaving only Vezon and the man standing. The man looked up at Vezon.

"You said you're getting out of here in a couple minutes? I don't think I have time to reach the hangar. Take me with you."

Vezon gave him a thumbs up. "You got it. Is, uh… is this place about to explode?"

"I think so. I've pretty much got nowhere left to go, so I guess it doesn't matter where you're headed or how you get there." He stumbled his way over to them. "How does it work?"

Natsuki bolted upright. "You believe him just like that?!"

"Hey, I've seen some weird stuff. If he can get me out of here, I'm game."

Vezon nodded in agreement. "Well, this'll be only the third time I've taken something living with me, so I don't know all the ins and outs really, but for sure if we all hold hands. That didn't end badly last time."

Monika stood up, clamoring over to Vezon before another hit sent her reeling into his back. "Ow! Fucking hell!" Struggling through the pain, she looked up, trying to get a good look at the timer in between times when the ship was shaking. "I think… we're actually about… twenty seconds away!"

Yuri patted herself down quickly, making sure all her knives were secured. "Okay, I'm good!" She grabbed on to Sayori, who grabbed Vezon's arm.

Natsuki took Monika's hand, and Monika wrapped her other arm around Vezon's leg. Natsuki looked over her friend. "Monika! Your forehead is bleeding!"

"I'll be okay. We're with Vezon."

The man reached out and took Natsuki's other hand. "I sure hope this works."

Vezon wheezed. He wasn't sure he really wanted to say this now. "I sure hope that countdown indicates when it goes off next."

He looked up. "What?"

Natsuki shouted in surprise. "What?!"

Monika allowed herself a small smile. "And… time."

With an audible pop, they disappeared. A moment later, the Wraith hive ship defeated its opponent, another hive ship. The resulting explosion destroyed both ships.

The six of them hit the ground with a series of thuds. Natsuki and Sayori had landed on their rears, which was painful, but they were fine. Yuri, Monika, and their new friend landed on their faces. He got up quickly, brushing it off easily. Yuri and Monika took their time getting up. Vezon had landed on his feet.

"Well…" Vezon looked down at the man. "I guess we all win. What's your name, then?"

"Lieutenant Ford, United States Marine Corps."