June 2011
The feeling of stepping between worlds was an odd one, even for one who had done so countless times before. Looking around the alley she found herself in this time, a nine-tailed fox girl with long red hair and steampunk-esque clothing found herself wondering if she had actually gotten the coordinates right for once.
She had been trying for over a century to get back to her home, mostly because there was a galaxy-spanning war going on in the dimension she was summoned to for the hundredth time, and she didn't want any part of it.
Sighing, Aiko looked up between the buildings to check the sky while she reminisced about the latter part of her adventures in that universe. "There's only so many times you can build system-destroying super lasers before you get bored of people asking for the same damn thing but bigger."
After walking out of the alley, she noticed that the people were yelling about something — or someone blocking the middle of the road.
Reaching up to her ears, she turned the background noise volume up on her headset just a bit, so she could assess the situation. Upon doing so, she heard the loud honking of horns, and much louder yelling, which caused her to cringe for a moment.
Walking over to the nearest human standing on the corner of the sidewalk, Aiko figured she should ask what was going on. Her ears perked up and her tails wagged innocently as she clasped her hands in front of her in an attempt to be seen as cute. "Hey, Mr. Suit guy. What's happening here?"
The suited man turned away from his vigil, a single eyebrow raised as he regarded the otherworldly woman next to him. "Miss… May I see your dimension-jumping license? Because I do believe you aren't from around here." His brown hair was fairly short, and receding from his forehead, yet despite this, he appeared to be just above his prime in terms of age, his dark blue eyes having a keen edge to them despite the peaceful expression on his face.
It took a moment for her to register that statement, but considering all the crap she had been through, she figured that she probably should have known better. "Dimension-jumping license? Ah! I didn't know I actually needed one of those. You mean to tell me what I've been doing so far is illegal?"
His expression slowly changed to one of relief. "Ah, don't worry about it. If you'll just come with me, we can get that taken care of, register you in our system, and all that. Procedure, you know." He winked, smiling a genuine smile as he waved his hand in the general direction of a parked car nearby.
Nodding with a small smile, Aiko shifted some of her tails back inside her and put her thumbs in her pants pockets. Doing the math in her head, she realized she would need to build up some more quest points soon so that her goddess didn't chastise her again later. "Right, I'll follow you then. Better to get this stuff out of the way quickly so I can go find myself a few quests."
The man didn't even blink at the strangeness in front of him, opting to guide the fox girl towards a nondescript black sedan. "I hope you don't mind that I call my boss. To let him know to expect you, you know." His eyes were full of mirth as if remembering a good joke. "I'm Coulson, by the way. Phil Coulson." He extended his hand for a shake.
Taking his hand in a gentle grasp, she shook it twice professionally, making sure it wasn't too hard, or too soft. It was unfortunate that she based this on a world full of physically and magically superhuman individuals, so it might have been just a bit much for the average human. "Aiko Tsuniki! You can call me Aiko."
"Nice to meet you, Aiko." Coulson nodded, holding open the car door for the fox girl. She stepped into the car, not seeing anything wrong with doing so.
The window was rolled down, and he slid into the driver's seat with haste. "So, what do you do, Miss Aiko?" He began chatting, drawing out his cellphone and hitting speed dial.
"I assume a woman such as yourself has some hobbies or work that draws your interest." He held off on hitting the call button for her answer but started the engine and began driving down the road.
With a smile as bright as the midday sun, Aiko began to speak in an excited tone. "Yup! I fix things. And build stuff for people that can help their society! Really though, I mostly just go on quests to get enough materials to build cool stuff for people. Hell, I brought a space-fearing civilization to the stars for my first main quest line, and they love me for it!"
"That's quite the achievement." Coulson complimented. "It should only be a ten-minute ride, so feel free to listen to the radio while I give my boss a head's up." He pushed the call button and was soon engrossed in the conversation over the phone, words like 'DH-101' and 'Dimension-jumping license' were thrown around, but otherwise, it sounded like a completely natural conversation.
After they parked at a spot in the underground parking lot, Aiko waited for Phil to open the door. She didn't have to wait long, as he soon made his way over to her door to open it. Exiting the vehicle, she followed him to the elevator and rode it with him until they reached his desired floor.
"Now… My boss can be a bit… Direct." Coulson chuckled to try and diffuse any tension. "He might ask you a few more questions, but it's strictly routine." They were walking side by side as they exited the elevator. Near the end of the hallway was a single suited individual standing in front of an unmarked door on the left.
"But just a word of caution." He eyed her from the side, the smile still on his face. "Don't ask about the eyepatch. He's a bit sensitive."
Turning towards Phil, Aiko gave a slight smirk and a wink. "...Aye aye captain." She breathed to him in a near silent whisper.
Coulson's lips tightened, but he said nothing more as he led her into the office of Nick Fury himself, the man already sitting behind a desk and reading a written report. Looking up at the two of them when they entered the room, the dark skinned man almost looked bored. "So this is the illegal dimension jumper you told me about?"
"It's an easy mistake to make." Coulson agreed, a light hint of humor in his tone. "Please take a seat, miss Aiko, and we'll have this sorted out in no time."
Sitting in the offered chair with her hands on the table, Aiko put the rest of her tails away since they'd only be in the way, ready to take whatever documentation they might need her to read through to get her license.
In her experience, it was generally better to play along. Besides, if they already had a system set up specifically for dimensional travelers, it had probably happened quite often, and she did not want to end up on the bad side of interdimensional time cops or something. "I never realized that even dimensional travel would need paperwork. I guess you really can't escape bureaucracy."
"Yeah, we hear that a lot." Coulson began laughing, which prompted the boss to do so as well.
"My name is Nick Fury." The dark man with the eyepatch said, peering at the dimension jumper. He offered his hand for a shake. "I'm glad you could meet with us on such short notice… Not all dimension jumpers are as considerate as you."
Tapping a finger on the desk while she thought about that for a minute, Aiko nodded. "Well it would make sense. Not every universe has the same common sense we do. Hell. There is even a universe where a sentient vending machine is carried through a dungeon to provide food and drink for those who have the coin."
The confessions caused both men in the room to slightly widen their eyes, Coulson leaning forward and asking a quiet, "Really?" While the boss kept silent, but seemed to be chewing his tongue.
Shrugging, Aiko nodded with a flat expression. It was one of the more mundane examples she knew of. She really didn't want to tell them about the dimension that swapped your sense of taste with your sight while you were there, or other such embarrassing mishaps. They probably already knew about them anyway, so there was no need to bring up past trauma. "Yup. That's not even the strangest one to be honest. Luckily you probably won't need to worry about most of the nasty ones. After all, those universes are pretty isolated and hard to get into, let alone out from."
"Well… It's my job to worry about stuff like that." The dark man offered, his mouth set in a line. "That's why I work here." The side of his lip rose minutely as it became apparent that this… fox girl didn't seem to have hostile intentions.
Looking over to the laptop on the desk, Aiko decided she'd offer her assistance. "Well, if you need a brief rundown of what I've seen, I can whip up a connection to my phone to send you the stuff I've recorded, but most of it is pretty mundane. Humans are literally everywhere for one."
Seeing a chance to get a deeper look into the fox girl's recent past, Fury smiled, turning the laptop around to show the standard green field windows background. "Go ahead. I'm sure you've had some interesting experiences."
Aiko nodded, before connecting to the laptop via an ad-hoc wireless connection to her phone, since it didn't even have a tight beam laser connection, let alone the hyper quantum connections she was used to. Watching the progress bar slowly move, Aiko's ears slowly began to droop. "Bruh, it's so slow."
"Maybe for you." Coulson soothed. "This laptop was bought less than three months ago, so it's literally among the peak of what we are capable of in terms of mobile computing speed. Our stationary devices have a bit more processing power, but it seems you are on a different level."
Hesitating for a moment, Aiko shrugged. "Yeah, I'll have to find someone with the resources to build some better stuff soon. At least that way if someone from my dimension follows me, they won't just walk off out of frustration." Making a face to show she was joking, she put on a senior citizen voice and spoke with a hint of irony. "Feh, kids these days. They're all very impatient."
"I might be able to set you up with someone…" Fury's lone eye widened as his harddrive filled up. For the size of her device, it seemed to have an incredible amount of storage space. "For now, we'll print out a Class 1 Visa that you'll be carrying around at all times for identification purposes."
Checking to see if her pouch would have enough room to hold it, or if she'd need to move some stuff to her Secure Subspace Storage System, she found it had more than enough. "Alright, I'll be sure to hang on to it."
Fury seemed to look both directions to make sure they really were alone in the room, before lowering his voice a bit. "Your fox-like features… Could you just pretend you are a cosplayer or something? Unless you are able to hide them, of course… Humans aren't really used to seeing them in daily life, you know."
Winking at the Bossman, Aiko responded back in hushed tones. "That's what I usually do in worlds that don't have contact with either aliens or the supernatural. It tends to actually work surprisingly well. People seem to believe me when I tell them it's just my kink."
"That's good to know." Coulson sighed in relief, having come back at the tail end of the discussion. "With the Visa you also have our contact information in case you have any questions or concerns… I suppose we'll also set you up with the local currency so you won't be stranded here without any means of providing for yourself." He handed over the laminated plastic card that had Aiko's picture, name, a serial number and the 'Class 1 DH' in big letters.
Taking it carefully, she pulled a lanyard from her pouch, and slipped the ID into it absently while she decided to put a data cube near the computer, switched the download processes over to it, and let it run. "It is probably gonna take too long to download from my phone, so you can remote into this and browse from there as needed. Don't worry bout charging it. It won't need it for about a decade."
"K1tsu_N3-hotspot-1?" Fury questioned as a new wireless connection option popped up on his laptop. "Suppose this will be my sunday entertainment, then." He lightly patted the cube. "Coulson will show you out. Thank you for your time, Aiko." Fury extended his arm for a handshake, signifying the end of the meeting.
Shaking his hand, Aiko responded with a smile. "Thanks. I'm sure Inari will bless whatever projects you have in the near future. Maybe try your luck sometime!"