So many fanfics give their otherwise well-developed characters a billion different abilities, one way or another. What do I think? Leave that to the gods.

That said...

Chapter 9: Faster than a speeding bullet

Blowing forward, both of us launched ourselves from the starting line at once. A visible trail of wind followed my opponent while a glowing aura of thunder was left in my wake, brightening the early-morning forest.

Aya was apparently far faster than I was currently, at least 10 feet and counting ahead of me. Of course, I hadn't even used my danmaku externally yet, and proceeded to do so.

With it, an ear-shattering noise filled the area, while my sudden speed increase brought me right up to my opponent in a split second. Just in time for us both to hit 50 feet, and her to launch the first blow

A simple wave of bullets in a fan shape to match the weapon she had launched it with was suddenly before me, luckily with just enough room under it to slide through.

"Whoah!"

A sudden outcrop of rocks from the ground put some distance between us as we avoided it.

Perfect.

With a new burst of power, I got a few feet ahead and took a low hop, planting my feet squarely on the side of a tree, and returned to the air a split second later, performing a danmaku-charged spinning flip in my opponents' trajectory.

"It's not that easy!"

She stopped instantly once more, letting my attack pass her by, then sent even more danmaku my way, more basic shots.

"Don't-" I quickly jerked to my left. "-you-" I jumped over one. "-have-" I slid under another. "-anything-" I twisted right, barely avoiding the last in the pack. "-stronger?"

"But we can only use one spell card." She swung her fan, sending a whirlwind in my direction.

"I didn't say anything about skill cards." I jumped ever so slightly to the left of the vortex, slingshotting around it and into my opponent.

"Are you trying to make this harder for yourself?" She ducked this as she talked, her mouth telling me she wouldn't have it. Her eyes, though...

I turned around to face her, beginning to run backwards. "Exactly. Neither of us has hit each other yet, and I don't feel tired at all. We'll take all day at this rate."

"If you say so!" A card appeared in her hand, between her middle-and-forefingers. Seriously, HOW DO YOU DO THAT?!

"That's more like it!" I picked up speed, preparing for a new tactic by giving myself time to read it.

"Domination Dash!" She held it up as it dissipated. Soon after, she began to fly after me with renewed speed, a more solid trail of wind behind her.

Slowing down a bit, I returned to her level before attempting to simply ram her from the side in a sheer test of strength.

For a few seconds, the energy mixed and collided, preventing any actual contact but resisting the opponent nonetheless.

Then, with an almost metallic sound, we were forced apart by a burst of energy. It sent Aya reeling back, more from unexpected momentum than shock.

I took the opportunity to come to a sudden halt, waiting until my opponent was barely behind me. Then, I took a high spin jump, making a direct hit.

"Finally!" The hit sent her spinning through the air, barely returning to control before I jumped once more, this time using boost rather than my typical spin attack energy.

"Don't expect to get so lucky twice!" She flew up slightly, kicking my back straight downward as I came to her previous location.

There wasn't as much force behind that one as the first, but there's still plenty... I doubt she'll be reckless enough to use a spell card at this point.

"Let's try this again!"

I attempted to ram her a few more times, this time with Aya doing the same. Knockback was instantaneous this time, but no other differences.

"Bored as hell. You?" I sent out a few lightning bolts, not hoping to do damage but hoping she thought they would.

"Yup." Damn. She ran right through them. So much for bluffing.

"Want to end this quickly?"

"I thought you'd never ask! How so?" She flew up for a bit, then went into a spinning dive-bomb.

"We both just use our spell cards at the same time and see who overpowers who." I rolled under, swinging from that to a flip as I took another shot at jumping into her. To no avail.

"It's not exactly complex, but it sounds reasonable enough."

I didn't think I'd be able to come up with a spell card to use both of my energy cores so fast... or that it would be so simple.

"Let's go then!" I took a flying leap, landing gracefully about 100 feet away from my launch point, on one side of a clearing. Aya followed suit, bringing herself down on the opposite end.

She held up another card, this one's border gold. Definitely a spell card.

"Squall: Sarukahito's guidance!" She went into a pose that telegraphed a whopping tackle. Alright, I definitely played too many video games back as a kid if I can read attacks that easy.

"Storm sign: Vortex charge!" Without a card, because this was a new one, I got down into a sprint-ready position in a split second as an airy blue aura began blasting out of me.

The air calmed. No movement, no sound, nothing. All of the world seemed to be focusing on us. Not even the field we were in, just... us.

Then, she charged.

I only let her go first so we could collide in the middle.

A pure white trail followed me as I caused a sonic boom at launch, my charge meeting Aya's at the center of the field in a split second. The sound of the impact rattled the field... and then we were head-to-head. Literally. My trail had gone in front of me, turning blue in the process.

Her wind had done something similar, and as if reacting to my energy, turned red in perfect contrast. Our auras were flying out behind us, dwarfing us in size as they changed shade in sharp, fast waves. Our legs were moving, but our bodies weren't. We were pushing against each other with equal force.

Then, the balance of power shifted.

More power.

She was pushing me back, draining me to the point that I could FEEL it.

MORE.

We leveled out, our power matching.

Full power. NOW.

I swore I could almost make out a look of equal parts confusion and struggle as my danmaku complied, pumping every ounce of power it could into moving forward.

Then... In one final jolt, it all came at once. The energy felt like a solid object forcing itself through my body from my stomach, but it was worth it. My aura receded into me for a split second.

An instant later, a perfect beam of blue propelled me to speeds that I couldn't even reach when I WASN'T slowed down. In that single, insignificant moment, all of my energy flew out of me and I used its force to ram my opponent.

I came to a perfect stop across the field from where I began my charge. Turning around, I saw gensokyo's fastest reporter spiralling through the sky, coming to a momentary halt, and then violently coming to rest just left of me. Completely knocked out, of course.

"Oh, sh-"

I fainted too.

(POV switch: Third person in a large, otherwise featureless hall, decorated with many unique gates and doorways that appeared to have nothing behind them with light gray floors and walls. Light permeates the area, but no source is visible.)

"...One. Explain this." A small wisp of a lighter gray than the surroundings hovered near one such gate, a red torii with waving, branching, spiralling blue lines stretching over it.

"That? I made it." A different floating flame of an almost skin-toned shade floated close by, its slow bobbing movement occasionally interrupted by small shivers. Its voice matched that of the first.

"It's giving off a dangerous combination of energies. What paramaters did you set for it?"

"Paramaters?"

"You didn't set any limits for how it's created? This is bad, but I still wonder how it turned out..."

"You said something about dangerous energies?"

"Oh, right... Well, six told me his machines were sensing both chaos and spirit energy seeping out of the place. Chaos energy is specific to one universe, but judging by the gate, it only took sources of it, not the planet as a whole. Several subjects were spiritually passed on as well, and trace amounts of other miscellaneous universes were found."

"So what's the actual main planet?"

"Earth. Well, Earth duplicate. Not the same as earth 00-02-E."

"And which Earth IS it?"

"Because more than two alternate dimensions exist within it, we can immediately assume that it is Earth 11-01-T."

"So, I created a universe that has an earth that both followed all the lore of Mobius along with some others mixed in, but using humans, and with gensokyo on it as well."

"Pretty much it in a nutshell. When did you create it?"

"'couple hours ago... but it's progressed a few thousand years in there already. The important spiritual successors were only going to be born past 1900 A.D., so I just skipped forward until then. 's 2025 now. Want to watch Sonic's reincarnation?"

"Eh, maybe later."

"But he's about to get taken to Gensokyo for the first time~"

"I said later. Why do you pay any heed to time? We're technically god, remember. Just rewind it if you want."

"But it's so much more fun to watch the present!"

"There's no such thing as the present to a time traveller."

A ring of runic symbols began to appear around the silver flame.

"Oh, wait, seven. There still isn't an antagonist."

"What? How in high hell did you manage that?"

The circle disappeared.

"Eggman didn't get reincarnated."

"Oh, for fuck's- Do you want me to destroy this universe?"

"NO!"

"Fine, then just pick any manipulative, powerful type, send their Tails to land near them when they're first taken, and you'll be set. But don't use Yukari unless absolutely necessary."

"Aaaaw, but-"

"NO BUTS."

"Why are you even letting this place be? You said it was dangerous."

"For once, I'm trying to be like you. Two said I needed to loosen up, have some fun every once in a while. But if they ask, I'm as rigid as ever."

"Got it."

"NOW can I leave? The airbornes are fighting over turf again, and I don't want to miss it."

"Who's giving me a lesson on caring about the time stream again? But seriously, that look is really wierd to living beings. Pick something less... spiritual-ish before you go."

"If you insist."

White lines began to expand from the silver flame, filling with color to take the shape of a suited man. Silver, calm eyes, smooth skin, hair that, as he'd been told, was darker than night itself, and clothed in a simple blue suit, a tie to match his eyes, with gray pants of a darker shade than the walls.

"Close enough. At least they'll recognize you."

With that, a red set of four lines appeared above "Seven" as he dissolved into particles. A white light manifested in the center of the square red frame, and the particles entered. With that, it all disappeared.

(POV switch: Bowen, after the fight)

And I thought I was reckless.

I was walking along with Ray and Aya in tow, each held over one shoulder by their legs.

"Well, it must have taken all of his strength..." I looked over at the unconscious runner. "...but he got revenge for me. Still not quite as satisfying, but I can just work that out."

After the battle, which had taken all of seven minutes, they spent a few hours unconscious. It took me about 3 more to find them. I was smart enough to pack the house during the fight, so I had just set it up on the spot.

"One thing still bothers me, though... Where did Ray get the second part of that spell card? Thunder was a given, but wind? That sounds like Aya, not him."

I shrugged it off. This was gensokyo, after all. I had seen crazier.

Setting Ray down on the bed that was nonverbally claimed by him, I hesitated for a second in throwing the cause of our current troubles out the door.

What do I do with her?

Well, she's unconscious... I eyed her tenatively. Fuck, fuck. No, brain. Stop. Fuck. Wrong. NO. I brought my fist to my head several times.

"Well... eh, I don't need a bed. This had better be worth it."

I chose to set her down on what's usually my bed.

Now where do I sleep? The floor?

"Ah, to hell with it. At least it's carpeted."

Turning off the light, I lowered myself to the floor at the foot of Ray's bed, bracing myself for the worst sleep I'd have in days.

(Time passes, it's morning now. I'm not writing some clever transition for it anymore, it gets hard to be original)

(POV switch: Ray)

"Oh, *god*. My head is KILLING me..."

My body worked in an uncharacteristically sluggish manner, turning to get up.

"Well, can't feel anything else. No bones broken, no bruises..."

I looked over myself from my sitting position on the side of the bed. Lift left leg, lift right. No problems there. Wiggle fingers. Same as always. Arms? Weak as ever. I was in surprisingly acceptable condition, for the fight I had been through.

My blue jacket seemed unscathed, apart from the expected occasional tear from too close a graze. Black sweatpants have their waistband intact, the anklebands not so much. Still no big deal.

Glancing at Bowen's bed, I saw a mass of blankets.

Must've covered his head... wonder if I was sleep talking or something.

Lowering my feet to the ground, I walked over to the bizarre combination of a cot and a normal bed.

"Bowen. Come on, time to get up." The bed's occupant stirred.

"Wake up, come on." I raised the blanket.

Bowen wasn't there.

"Uwah!"

I fell over backwards. What is she doing here?! Instead of my companion, the one I had seen sleeping in his bed was yesterday's opponent.

From my new vantage point on the floor, I saw Bowen sleeping in the fetal position at the foot of my bed.

How did I miss that? And why did he bring Aya here, if he hated her so much?

"Eh... Where am I?"

Oh, she's waking up.

"Uh... hi?"

The blanket flew to the ceiling, and she fired multiple bullets at me, each thankfully missing.

"Whoah, calm down. No, I'm not sure why you're here either, before you ask, and no, nobody raped you in your sleep. Just so you don't murder either of us."

She calmed down, assuming a sitting position without her legs leaving the bed's surface.

"The question still stands where I am though."

"No, it doesn't. This is our house... I guess. It isn't much, but we sleep here."

She studied the featureless home, eyes snapping from place to place, all without moving her head.

"Well, I'd better go now. Yesterday's paper never got delivered, and I didn't report at all then either. There won't be any stories for tomorrow if I don't hurry!"

And she leapt off the bed, straight into the door.

"It's still locked, and he must have the key." I gestured to the only one of us still asleep. "Last time anyone tried to take something of his in this sort of situation, they were never heard from again. Since you rely on open space to fight, you'd be roasted right quick in here. Just wait it out."

"Well couldn't we blow it open?"

"No matter how much force they explode with, Luke's machines are incredibly sturdy. Not a chance of that happening."

"Luke?"

"Oh, right. Long story short, Bowen and I were dropped in here near Hakurei shrine, but our third friend and the reason we're in here, Luke, is god knows where. He builds complicated machinery and technology, like this place."

"But it's just a small metal house..."

"When deactivated, it fits in the palm of your hand in a small cube shape."

"How did he manage that?" She had her notebook out, poised to write.

"Well, once upon a time, he was doing an early experiment on rift energy. This was the first time he had acquired a chaos emerald-" I held up my emerald fragment. "-as a fuel source. When he ran the machine, it overloaded, and the resulting excess energy created a few alternate dimensions. He's figured out how to make portals to them. Perfect for storage space, but not safe for living beings to travel through unless they have a fair-sized source of neutral chaos energy on them."

"So, the machine's parts are stored in another dimension when it's not on, but when it is, it takes them out and makes this out of them?" She stopped writing a second, having turned to a new page at least four times.

"Yes. By the way, why doesn't the concept of machinery in itself not phase you?" The amount of writing she was doing honestly worried me a little.

"The kappa do stuff like this too. And we sometimes get random things dropped in from the outside world."

"Ah."

"Anyway, was the 'airship' also something of his?"

"Yes. We're not sure why it tried to destroy that mansion though."

"Is it a possibility that he's still making things?"

"More than a possibility. He's definitely still in business."

"Do you mind if I follow you two in case anything else interesting happens? Outsiders make great scoop bait."

"While that title offends me, no, I don't mind. Bowen probably does though."

"No, I don't mind." Speak of the devil...

I snapped around to find bowen standing behind me. "How long have you been awake?"

"Just got up. Why?" Tension. Rising.

"Uh... No reason. Anyway, are you sure? Didn't you want Aya dead about 12 hours ago?"

"About 12 hours ago, yes. Now, not so much."

This was both confusing and relieving, but I had stopped questioning events like this a few days ago.

(AN: You know what? Fuck making a seamless story. I'm cutting mundane discussion and bland descriptions up until the point everything's packed up and I can MOVE THE PLOT ALONG.)

"Are you sure you want to stay with us?"

"Well, I won't be there all the time. I have to do the actual writing too." She was beaming, most likely over her recent gain of a steady source of news.

"Leave whenever you want. Just please stay out of our fights."

"Fine."

"Wait a minute. Can I see your notes on the instant shelter for a minute? You wrote more words than I remember saying." Aya looked a little shocked, but eventually turned the notepad over.

"Why is it written in Japanese? You're speaking fluent English right now, why not write that?"

"What are you talking about? "Eeng-rish"? I'm speaking Japanese. So are you!"

"I've never spoken or understood Japanese in all my life. Shouldn't we just shrug this kind of thing off? We're in a world of fantasy, here."

"No! You're speaking the same language as me without even knowing it, there has to be something interesting behind that!" Her reporter's spirit is the dominant trait in her personality. I can really see her as the inquisitive child type.

"Wait, Ray... What exactly did those brain implants Luke gave us a few years ago do?" We had been Luke's favorite lab rats for quite some time, looking back. And since nobody ever died, we didn't object to it.

"Nothing like this."

"So, back to square one."

"Not necessarily. Aya, do you know anyone in Gensokyo who could mess with sound, minds, or both?"

"Well, there's Yukari... actually, that seems like the only possibility here. You're both speaking Japanese and hearing "Eeng-rish", whatever that is, and the only person here with either of those powers that even knows of you is her."

"So, she made our minds automatic translators without us ever feeling like we're not speaking English?"

"It seems like the only possibility."

"Once more, my complete disregard to all punches in the face logic is receiving comes in handy."

"Oi, you two. Plan on moving anytime soon? YOU'RE supposed to be the impatient one, Ray."

"Alright, alright. I think I can still run, but it sure won't be too fast for now. At least tell me our next goal is close..."

"Yes. The village is out of the question, because Luke wouldn't have gone unseen by us even if he tried to in such a small place. The next destination is about 3 miles in the opposite direction."

"Well, let's get going then!" Aya began to fly, eventually stopping a few feet above the tree line.

"OI. We can't fly. How about you get down here, and we explain how this has worked for us."

"You can't fly? How were you even getting around?" She began lowering herself.

"I just said we'd explain it." She reached the ground.

"So, how?"

"Well, it's just sort of been Bowen piggybacking me while I cruised. But with you here, that might be a problem."

"How so?"

"I don't think I can actually CARRY two people. That, and there's no more room on my back with Bowen there."

"What if I carried my own weight while on his back? You wouldn't feel a thing."

"Good idea! Alright, Bowen, you get on first."

He hopped on, quickly attaching himself to me.

"Now you, Aya."

She floated just above my rider, grabbing him tightly by the shoulders but remaining airborne.

"Ready? Again, not top speed, but this will still be pretty fast."

My two companions nodded in unison.

"Hold on tight!" I drew back...

GO! And then I flew forward. It was only cruising speed, but it was better than a car.

I weaved through the trees, across the rolling hills, this time taking in the scenery rather than blowing through it.

Never thought a place like this existed in a time like now.

This feeling of content was short lived, as we soon arrived at the mouth of what appeared to be a tunnel, embedded in a cliff.

"Well, this must be the place."

"Considering previous events, this is labyrinth, mystic cave, or hydrocity. Any bets?"

This earned a confused look from Aya, but an understanding one from Bowen.

"We can only hope to chaos it isn't the first."

Venturing inside, Bowen lit a small flame in his palm. Using the light source, we eventually reached a point at which the cave branched in 2 directions.

He pulled out the energy tracker, checking for directions.

"No use, guys. This place's chaos signature is constant, and everywhere."

"Well then. Bowen, you take that one on the left, and I'll take Aya through this one. If it turns out that our side has nothing important at the end of it, we'll come back here and go through yours."

"Why do I go alone?"

"Because."

Bowen opened his mouth to speak.

"THAT IS FINAL."

Mouth closed.

I took out my emerald fragment.

"What do you plan to do with that?" Aya was inquiring this time.

"Something pretty much everyone learned how to do at a young age in my town. Every thing in existence has a small amount of chaos energy flowing through it. There are three types; Positive, which flows through most living things, Neutral, which is in everything from rocks to stars, and Negative, which fuels and is fueled by evil hearts. Anyone can funnel their natural chaos energy through an emerald to do all sorts of things, but I'm going to use it for light."

"You could have just said "for a light"."

"But we needed exposition."

"Exposition?"

Six white lines faded into the wall next to us, extending to touch each other at one end. Flowing white energy filled the hexagon, and a small human, looking to be a child, poked his head out.

"Fourth wall is my turf. If you value the fact that you are not in the specially created fifty-third circle of hell, don't break it." After its mildly-disturbing warning, the white hexagon and the figure attached turned into an energy matching the inside of it, and contracted into nothing.

"Who was that?" Me and Bowen spoke at once.

"Never seen him..."

"Want to write it off as "Gensokyo"?"

"Sure."

With that, we went our separate ways.

Know what I hate about so many OC-centric fanfics? Yukari is never in character.

She's always popping in to rattle on about the fourth wall whenever it's broken or ferrying the hero where he needs to go. Whatever happened to "lazy"? Or even just "doesn't give two shits about what an outsider is doing"?

Seriously guys, Yukari is not a taxi or comic relief. She is a half-serious, somewhat lazy, and omnipotent being who pulls strings behind the scenes to indirectly affect peoples' courses of action.

Also, for the sake of the story, we won't be cutting here and there to watch her actions either, we'll only see their effects and have it revealed exactly what it was she did later, like at the end of each arc or some midway point.

One more OC in here. Actually originally thought up as *shudder* a sonic character. Then a lot of things happened. He eventually became a being of absolutely godlike power who is only imperfect due to self-imposed disabilities and problems. But hey, everyone's gotta have some excuse for crossovers right?