~~000~~
Tales of the Multiverse Bit 178
Help me! Help me! Get me down! Get me down!
Nico Yazawa flies around uncontrollably thanks to her spinning pigtails, Maki Nishikino, Rin Hoshizora and Hanayo Koizumi runs around in panic, and on a bench a few distance from them, we see Eustace Bagge reading a newspaper and the old man rolled his eyes in annoyance.
~~000~~
It was a nice day in the skies of Neo-City where we see the larger-than-life starship called Central Command making it's way towards the city with Eddy Skipper McGee reporting that they're ready to settle down.
"This is exciting!" Hikari Karibuchi expressed in delight, "I wonder what kind of people that we'll meet in this city." she thought out loud.
"I suggest that all of you should put on something to cover your legs." spoke out the voice of Suzuka "Suzie" Takahashi which got Hikari's attention.
"Eh? Why?" Hikari asked dumbly while turning to Suzie.
Suzie who was in the middle of writing the last sentence of her essay of apology looked up from her work and turned to the Brave Witches, she stared at them silently for a few moments before speaking, "Well..." she uttered, "... with the exception of Sasha-san, most of you look like you're streaking with your lower undergarments exposed." she pointed out bluntly much to Hikari, Nikka "Nipa" Edvardine Katajainen, Georgette Lemare, Sadako Shimohara and Edytha Rossman's embarrassment while Waltrud Krupinski just shrugged her shoulders and Gundula Rall laughing things it off.
Naoe "Nao" Kanno, on the other hand, not only blushed but wasn't happy about that remark, "Hey!" she yelled angrily.
Suzie raised up her hands in defense, "I'm just stating the facts here." she defended, "If you remember, Joey explained to you a couple days ago that things are different here when it comes to having a..." she trailed, "... ahem!" she coughed, "State of dignity." she reminded, "Which is why I propose all of you should put on something before we land." she stated.
Yoshika Miyafuji then approached the Brave Witches, "That's fine, they don't have to worry about that." she reassured.
Suzie turns to Yoshika in confusion, "What do you mean?" she asked before taking notice that Yoshika is not wearing her skirt, "Umm..." the raven-haired girl uttered, "... why are you not wearing a skirt?" she asked.
Yoshika chuckled in response, "You see..." she uttered, "... aside from Miss Tyris Flare, we had new recruits that are far more scantily-clad than us witches and since none of them are willing to change how they dress, they officials had no choice but to normalize this kind of attire." she explained.
"You mean they won't mind us walking around without pants?" Hikari assumed.
"Pretty much." Yoshika confirmed.
As this is going on, Suzie is seated on one of the couches with her friends seated right beside her. Oswald "Ozzy" Wizner sat at the other end of the couch and he was lying back with his head facing upwards as he comically looked white with his ghost floating out of his gaping mouth, Kylie Hollard sat on Ozzy's left and she was slouched on the couch with swirly eyes on her and she was laughing weakly and Joey Hollard was sitting on Kylie's left and Suzie's right and like Kylie, he too was slouched in the couch but he was holding an ice pack on his head after the headache he got from making the essay and right in front of the remaining members of the Mississippi Four were their finished essays and Suzie just finished writing the last sentence of her essay before rearranging her papers, thus having all of them finished with their essays.
Rex Salazar came by and checked their essay, "Wow..." he uttered with a raised eyebrow, "... how did you guys finished writing your essays that fast?" he asked rhetorically.
"Kylie created a slow motion field around the four of us, slowing down time, allowing us to write faster." Suzie explained.
"Yet you're still burned out." Rex pointed out.
Tomomichi Motayama then joined them, "You used some sort of magic or spell while writing your essay?" he uttered in disbelief.
Joey turns to the bespectacled boy, "Y-Yeah..." he confirmed, "... we call it 'Rush Mode'." he shared while still holding the ice pack on his head.
Tomomichi then grabbed their essays and left, much to everyone's confusion and a minute later, Tomomichi came back with a fresh sheet of papers and placed it in front of the Mississippi Four.
"Redo it!" Tomomichi ordered.
This taken the Mississippi Four by surprise, "What?!" they exclaimed, "But we've just finished it!" Kylie argued.
"You guys used magic or a spell while writing your essay." Tomomichi mentioned, "Writing that essay is a form of disciplinary action and we can't have you all doing it the easy way out." he explained, "You should have known this Joey-dono and Kylie-dono since both of you were raised by people working for the law." he chastised.
"Yeah." Rex uttered in agreement, "Even Marcus had to write an essay when he disappeared one night and he managed to finish his essay by simply writing it." he revealed.
Joey groaned loudly, "Ano ba naman yan?!" he complained.
Tomomichi tips his glasses, "That's what you get from not reading the rule book." he chastised, "I already told Eddward-dono about this and he'll be giving the four of you new rule books after you passed to him your essays.'' he stated before walking off.
"Great job, Joey..." Ozzy grumbled in annoyance.
"Bakit ako...?!" Joey muttered.
A few minutes later, the Central Command landed at the hangar where some of the trainees came to welcome the Union Vanguards back. Some of those who got down the ship, carried Mahiru Shimokamiyama to the Science and Research department, the 502nd Joint Fighter Wing watched as their friend was being taken away to the lab making them worry for her but Rex reassured them that they'll do their best to bring her back.
Hector Vanguard Jr. and Andres "Singko" Alvarez then approached their friends, "Hey guys!" the former greeted, "How was the mission?" he asked though he noticed that Luna Loud looking a bit pale, "Ugh, Luna, are ya all right?" he asked in concern.
Before Luna could answer, Malvina Rasputin placed a hand on her shoulders which made the girl flinch in response, "Luna dear, let's not waste anymore time, let's go and meet Nodoka.'' she beckoned before dragging away the rockstar from Royal Woods.
Junior and Singko watches them go away in bewilderment, "What's up with them?" the latter questioned in confusion.
Gertrud Barkhorn then approaches the two, "Don't mind them." she advised, "According to Malvina, Luna is having some sort of 80's flash back.'' she stated with a blank look.
Junior looks at her in utter disbelief, "What?'' he squawked.
Meanwhile, the Mississippi Four exited the ship and waiting for them were none other than Luluco, Willem Kmetsch, Nephren Ruq Insania alongside the Campbell siblings, Alexander "Xander" Campbell II and Claudia Campbell, and their butler Cedric Gordon.
"Guys! You're okay!" Luluco exclaimed in joy.
"Hey Luluco, we're back." Kylie greeted with a smile.
"You guys gave us quite the scare when we heard from Luluco, Xander and Claudia that you got taken by the giant blue hand." Willem admitted.
"Yeah, sorry for worrying you but we're back and we're all okay." Joey reassured.
Claudia then walked towards Kylie, "Thank goodness you're alright, Kylie." she expressed, "Xander and I have been so worried about you!" she exclaimed.
"It's okay, I'm fine now Claudia." Kylie reassured.
"Oh! You're the Campbell siblings aren't you?" Joey pointed out, "You know Kylie?" he asked.
"Indeed, we are." Xander confirmed while fixing his glasses, "My name's Alexander Campbell II but please refer to me as Xander, hello and privet, the one who greeted your sister is my older sister Claudia." he said introducing himself and Claudia.
"Hello and privet~" Claudia greeted, "Kylie's mentioned you quite a lot and it's wonderful to finally meet her brother and friends." she said cheerfully.
Cedric then stepped forward, "And my name is Cedric Gordon, young master Xander and young mistress Claudia's assigned butler, it's a pleasure to meet you." he said introducing himself with a bow.
"Nice to meet you too." the rest of the Mississippi Four greeted.
"And as for your other question, Claudia and I met Kylie when she joined the fencing club, she became partnered with Claudia and let's say we hit it off quite well." Xander explained.
As this was going on, Hikari along with Nao, Nipa and Sasha approached them, "Joey, who are these people?" Hikari asked..
The group turned to the Witches, "Oh! These are our friends Luluco, Nephren, Willem, Xander and Claudia Campbell and their butler Cedric." Joey introduced, "Guys, these are the friends we met on the world we ended up in and it so happens to be the same world where Yoshika comes from." he explained, "These are Hikari, Nipa, Naoe and Sasha, members of the 502nd Joint Fighter Wing." he introduced back.
"Hello and Privet" Xander and Claudia greeted, "A pleasure to meet all of you." Cedric followed with a bow.
"Hello there." Willem greeted as well, "It's nice to meet you all." Nephren added.
"I don't know about you guys but I'm kinda peckish." Ozzy admitted, "How about we go to the Rabbit Cafe and get some to eat?" he suggested.
Everyone murmured in agreement and were about to leave when Suzie said something that made the rest of the Mississippi Four stop on their tracks.
"Shouldn't be working on our essays first?" Suzie reminded.
"I hate it when you're right." Ozzy grumbled in response.
Bzzzttt...
Later that day, we see the Mississippi Four inside Eddward "Double D, Edd" Marion Smith's office and all four of them are sporting extremely tired expressions.
The four then simultaneously pulled out exactly 50 pages of paper each that depicts their essay and hands them to Double D while the beanie-wearing handed the four of them rule books which they accepted, "Here's our essays, we apologize for breaking the rules and we promise it won't happen again." Joey apologized.
Double D with a deadpanned expression began to look at their essays while giving it a few good nods, "This is good." he accepted, "You may go." he beckoned without looking at them.
And with that, the four exited the young COO's office when Ozzy let's out a sigh, "Hopefully, mister blue hand doesn't come back and make us break the rules again." he stated as they walked down the halls.
"Hoy, hoy, don't say things you shouldn't say sergeant." Joey chastised, "There's a big chance that you could jinx us after saying that and we'll have to write another essay." he told him.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry man." Ozzy apologized while waving his hands in defense.
A minute later, the four arrives at the lounge somewhere in the Training Camp where they saw Luluco talking to Nephren, Willem and the witches composed of Hikari, Nao and Nipa, so they decided to approach them.
Just when he was gonna follow the others to Luluco's group, Joey took notice of Marcus "The Kane" McGee and Aria "Arinah" Sakurada talking to someone but he couldn't see who it was clearly, shrugging his shoulders, he decided to approach them "Hey Marcus, can I ask you something?" he called out to which got Arinah and the other person's attention while Marcus had his back turned to Joey.
"What do you want?" Marcus questioned in monotone voice.
"I'm gonna be blunt with you." Joey said, "Is it true you kissed the Summoner before?" he asked.
"Yeah, I did." Marcus confirmed rather bluntly, "What's it to you?" he asked.
Joey raised his hands up in defense, "Nothing." he replied, "Just curious." he reasoned.
"Who's this Marcus?" the other person asked nervously.
Joey then got a good look at the person clearly and it was none other than Akane Sakurada, the shy princess from the anime Castle Town Dandelion, much to his surprise.
"Uhh, this is uhh..." Marcus muttered like an idiot while trying to remember Joey's name, "From what I remember he's called the Joe the Creeper.'' he recalled rather nonchalantly.
"That's just my somewhat alter-ego, sir!" Joey pointed out, "I am Joey! Joey Hollard!" he corrected while baffled that Marcus already forgotten his name but when he think about, the blue-haired philanthropist only calls them by their nicknames that he gave to them, so he speculated that Marcus doesn't know their real names yet.
The rest of the Mississippi Four alongside Luluco's group and the witches joined them, "Hey Joey, watcha talking to Marcus about?" Ozzy asked.
"Yeah, whatcha talking aaabooouuu..." Kylie trailed when her eyes landed on a certain low pigtailed red head.
Joey, Ozzy and Suzie noticed this and followed her gaze and their eyes widened, "Uh oh..." they uttered in unison.
In Kylie's mind, she was staring at Akane with pure excitement, "Ohmygosh! It's Akane! It's Akane! It's Akane! It's Akane! It's Aka-!" she thought in excitement and without a warning, Kylie dashes forward and engulfed Akane in a tight hug, "KYaaaaa!" she squealed, "She's soooooo cuuuuuuttttee!" she exclaimed happily while rubbing her cheeks at the redhead's face.
"Hwawwawawawa! Let go of me! Let go of me!" Akane cried out in panic.
"Kylie!" Arinah shouted, "Please let go of her now!" she demanded, "She's not use in getting hug by someone she doesn't know!" she pointed out.
Joey then took notice that Marcus was standing motionless but half of his face was darkened with a single red dot blinking at the right side of his eye while two of his fingers were shaking. He silently gasped upon remembering Marcus shove two fingers inside Sasha's nose now fearing for his sister's nostrils.
Before Joey could do anything Suzie went to Kylie and emitted a dark and scary aura, "Hey Kylie, you know that she's a princess right, and Arinah said that she's not use to being hugged by strangers?" she reminded darkly while her hazel yellow eyes glows.
"Yep! I just don't care! And Nope! I didn't know!" Kylie replied and kept cuddling the crying red head.
Suzie then grabbed the younger Hollard's ear, "That's enough or Daddy Kane might give you two fingers in the nose!" she scolded.
"Ow! Owowowowowowowowowow!" Kylie yelped in pain while squirming.
"Alright, that's enough hugging for you!" Suzie exclaimed while dragging Kylie away from the shivering princess.
Joey bowed in apology, "I'm sorry about that, my younger twin sister tends to hug people who she finds cute and she can't control herself sometimes." he said.
Kylie let's out nervous chuckle while clapping her hands together, "I'm sorry about earlier, you were so cute and adorable that I couldn't help myself." she reasoned, "So if you don't mind, can we be friends?" she asked.
"I think you should ask that for another time...'' Marcus replied, ''... once her trauma is gone." he pointed out while Akane is seen shaking behind Arinah in fear.
Kylie let's out another nervous chuckle, "Ahehehe..." she uttered, "I guess so...'' she acknowledged.
bzzzttt...
Later that night in the Dormitory Village and inside one dorm, we see Marcus making his way towards the room that she shares with Malvina, Raya Amanda and Sylvia Van Hossen.
When the blue-haired philanthropist entered the room, he was surprised to see his roommates alongside Luna, Karizza Stronghold, Yukino Yukinoshita and Nodoka Takehara waiting for him.
Marcus then asked them what's going on, Nodoka took a deep breath and told him one of her future sights, she then told him that in the future that he is going to marry more than twenty girls, much to his shock.
"Wait..." Marcus uttered, "... are you serious?" he asked, "You're not making those up?!" he exclaimed in disbelief.
Nodoka nodded, "Yes..." she uttered in confirmation, "... what I saw was short but it was clear." she stated.
"But she had no idea who the girls are to be honest.'' Luna added.
Malvina then steps forward with her arms crossed, "Marcus-sama..." she called out, "... we really need to talk about this now." she beckoned, "It's not just about the two of us, it involves all of us.'' she declared while referring to Raya, Karizza, Sylvia and Yukino.
Marcus was getting nervous, "I-I-I..." he stuttered, "... I think my roast is burning!" he exclaimed before trying to bolt out to the door but only to find it closed and locked from the outside, "What the?!" he gasped before noticing that Luna and Nodoka are gone from the room.
"Sorry Marcus-bro!" Luna called out from the outside, "But this is something you guys need to solve!" she beckoned.
"We're sorry!" Nodoka apologized.
"Luna-chii! Nodo-chii!" Marcus cried out while banging on the door, "Open the door!" he pleaded while shaking the doorknob, "My heart and soul are not ready with this kind of situation!" he cried out.
"Then tell your heart, your soul and yourself to man-up!" Luna jabbed back.
Marcus gave up before taking a deep breath, she then turning to the five girls who has feelings for him, "So..." he uttered, "... what do you want to talk about?'' he asked.
Malvina took a deep breath before speaking, "Marcus-sama..." she uttered, "... I was so happy when you chose me as your girlfriend but at the same time, I feel guilty." she admitted, "Why?" she asked, "As much that I love you but I know for sure that Raya, Sylvia, Karizza and Yukino all feels the same thing." she pointed out, "When you and I become a couple, I felt that I've taken something important from them.'' she shared, "That's why...'' she trailed before looking at him seriously, "I decided to stop being so selfish and decided to share you with everyone!" she declared.
Marcus was taken a back by this, "What?" he uttered, "Are you serious?" he squawked in disbelief.
Malvina nodded in response, "Hai! I'm serious." she confirmed.
"But going with this kind of relationship is very unbecoming!" Marcus reasoned, "What will other people think about us?" he asked.
"We've held our feelings for so long because of our pride, Marcus." Yukino reasoned, "But this time around, there is no holding back." she stated.
"Marcus, we love you with all our heart and we can care less what other people think." Sylvia expressed.
"To hell what everybody thinks!" Raya exclaimed, "This is us, not them!" she pointed out, "They can't judge us all they want but were doing nothing wrong!" she declared with a grin.
"As long as were happy together, then that's all that matters." Karizza said with a cheerful smile.
"As you see Marcus-sama..." Malvina uttered with a smile, "... all of us are serious about this." she pointed out.
Marcus stares at them in disbelief before letting out a breath, "I understand..." he uttered, "... but I had to be honest with you, I still don't know if I can take on this many relationships and there's no guarantee I can make it work well." he admitted.
"Don't worry." Raya reassured, "If you want things stay the way it was then it's fine as long as you love us back." she stated.
"I'm all right with that." Sylvia said in agreement, "Now that we've all confirmed our feelings, all that's left is to let them grow." she pointed out.
Malvina then claps her hands together, "Saa! So now, it's safe to say that we're all Marcus-sama's girlfriends!" she declared, "Why don't we have our beloved boyfriend kiss each of us turn?" she suggested.
"I-I-I-Isn't it a bit too soon for that?!" Yukino stuttered in shock.
"Shouldn't we get marry first?" Sylvia reasoned.
"Maa! I don't mind, I've always want to smack my lips against him for quite some time now." Raya admitted with a grin.
"Well then let's start the kissing!" Karizza exclaimed in excitement.
"Girls! Girls! Calm down!" Marcus pleaded in panic, "We're still new to this kind of relationship, we should be all modest." he tried to reason only for the girls to pounce on him to the floor, "Oh! MICHAEL JACKSON!" he cried out.
Outside the hallways, we see a smiling Luna and Nodoka leaning at the door with the former holding a baseball bat in hands, in case someone tries to enter the room.
"Looks like everything is doing fine." Luna pointed out, "Weird noises aside." she dismissed, "I guess Marcus is in paradise, whether he likes it or not.'' she commented.
Nodoka giggled in response, "I'm so happy for them." she expressed.
"Still..." Luna uttered, "I'm still baffled that Marcus will end up marrying more than twenty girls and we still don't know if Malvina and the others are among those girls." she admitted.
Nodoka nodded in response, "Yeah..." she uttered in agreement, "... it's a mystery but I believe we'll get answers some time in the future, all we can do is wait." she declared.
Note: Some parts of this chapter are written by XD Warden, so some props goes to him.
A/N: Inspired from someonestupED, damnlastwords, Jamesdean5842, Hope the Victor and Ace Neptune. All OCs and concepts not created by moi were given permission for me to use by it's respected creators.