The Canon Bringers were able to bring Doctor Doom to join the Starstorm, alongside the girls of Magicami. It was funny to see the transformed girls getting their streetwears by Deadpool's meddling. But Tony Stark, the Iron Man of Reality-616, were nowhere to be found - instead, it was Aigis and Metis, and even then acted rather out of character... 2025!Penny is saved and people are fine, but the hostile Shadows around sure ain't hell to forget what they're planning to... and sure enough, the Darkbolts restarts the P-1, fusing the Dark Hour and the Metaverse with the TV world, now assimilated all reality to become one with a whole new... shall we say, battlefield?


Dreamcatcher Crystal Reincarnate

IVY COMET (Persona: - )

Cross-Dimensional Guardian Angel

IVY JOLICOEUR (Persona: - )

vs.

The Phantom Thief of Hearts

REN AMAMIYA (JOKER) (Persona: Arsene)

It starts with Shadow Joker showboating without directly saying anything besides spells. But being a Persona fighter, the fake was starting to hit damage. Ivy and Ivy avoided the blast, and saw through the down-shot of the fake. But he was fast, and he was agile, just like a great thief on action. Ivy Comet parried, and managed to close the distance.

"Ravage you!" Shadow Joker is just getting started.

A grayscale-plus-red burst of energy came from the Persona Arsene, bombing right in front of Ivy Comet and knocking her off. He didn't forget Ivy Jolicoeur, who zoned up and blasted the angel trying to beat her down from afar. Few of the opposing couple even hit each other instead and exploded from impact. Shadow Joker continued to shoot any of the two Ivies, while clearly showboating.

Yes, he may have the skill to back it up, but that doesn't mean Ivy or Ivy can tolerate that. After all, he's not the real Joker. He is not Ren. He is just a Shadow. So of course, Ivy Comet steeled up and ambushed the fake thief, whose evasion limited the hit. Ivy Jolicoeur dragged the fake down with her dream power, but the thief still smirked as he handles the dual bust. He cut some off with his own blade - a knife for a thief - and struck both girls with one swipe and then another swipe again.

"It's that all you've got, freaks?" Shadow Joker did get hit a bunch in the process, but he was able to recover and then evade. "A lucky dozen of hits?"

"Instead of kindness, it's your arrogance." Ivy Jolicoeur did a shot with dream blast on Shadow Joker. "I am sorry. You are completely out of character."

"Where is the Ren Amamiya?!" Ivy Comet called the fake out.

"I am! Now you die!" Shadow Joker fired cheap shots from his handgun and a backup handgun out of spite.

Since Ivy Jolicoeur is technically in the base form of Ivy, the gunshot was serious to her, for hitting hard enough to get her bleeding. This was compensated by the healing factor that the dreams promoted. Both Ivies is stunned, and Shadow Joker tried to take advantage.

"You're done! I'm the great!" Shadow Joker showboated, indirectly slowing him down.

Ivy and Ivy, both recovered, caught him on the rush. Ivy Comet clashed with the fake, and he shoots her with the last bullets, before pulling out his knife to stab her. The sword blocked the fake's blade, and Ivy Comet threatened to vibrate it out to take the knife out.

"Enough!" Ivy Comet forced her sword down, seemingly breaking the knife. "Get down, false thief!"

The sword was blocked by a force field Shadow Joker has casted on the fly. Ivy Comet is knocked away, and Jolicoeur's burst could not reach the false body. Shadow Joker reloaded while laughed, and shot all over the place.

"We blast him back!" Ivy Comet suggested. "Those bullets would disintegrate!"

"Ivy, what are you doing?!" Ivy Jolicoeur noticed.

Ivy Comet rapid-fired her palm to cast a rainbow wave that disintegrated the bullets and bombarded Shadow Joker. The fake screamed in pain from the power of the spatiotemporal Unity, but he's too stunned to evaded.

"I won't question it." Ivy Jolicoeur recovered.

The angel then tried to suspend Shadow Joker with Strand, but he was just pushed by it. No tangle. Then Ivy Jolicoeur tried to suppress him with a freaking' Nova Bomb, but he's only knocked away.

"Ivy! He's resistant to paracausality!" Ivy Jolicoeur realized.

Ivy Comet was able to grab the fake, only for him to counter with a knife. Cue Arsene casting a lot of gray-red burst as weaponized curses, trying to kill both.

"Enough is enough! I am impressive! I am the great thief! I am the Phantom! Phantom! Phantom..." Shadow Joker is enraged.

Despite his rage, he's still full of grace, as evidenced by him doing an extended down-shot, moving around and shooting so accurately, especially for the movement that it shouldn't have been possible to hit anyone easily. Threatened by the bullets, the two chased the fake and resisted the projectiles, trying to pinpoint the Shadow. The fake was fast and acrobatic, yet berserk and vicious, so the two ended up sustaining gunshots and... crap! Shadow Joker just stabbed Ivy Comet!

"C'mon!" Ivy Comet turned around and pulsed.

"Persona raze THEM!" Shadow Joker flew out, but was able to...

Boom! Arsene rains curses all over the ring. Shadow Joker landed down, right behind Ivy Jolicoeur, and grappled for a neck snap. Swift yet vicious, it took Ivy Comet a pulse and then a quick slash to knock him away and free the angel.

"C'mon!"

The two unloaded their magic on the fake, who's is trying to overclock his Persona, as indicated by his mask burning. Ivy and Ivy, both had enough. They approached while firing, for they had to finish this fight quick, for the fake Phantom has killing intent.

"Die, Shadow!" Ivy Comet pulled out her sword.

Shadow Joker bounced back and brawled Ivy Jolicoeur, selling both her death as well as the moment his Persona... yeah.

"Persona, Persona, he-"

Ivy Jolicoeur whacked Shadow Joker down, but Arsene grabbed her and unloaded curses to get her down. Ivy Comet rushed but was able to crouch away from Arsene's legged backhand. Shadow Joker immediately retaliated: a knife on the hilt.

Shadow Joker tried a headshot on Ivy Comet. All he got there was a Solar Light spit from her mouth. Rude and crude, but heated, and so the handgun exploded right on his face.

"Impressive, trash!" Joker flipped back and healed out with Arsene. "Enough of your performance! I am the MVP! The ultimate-"

"Shut up!" Ivy Jolicoeur recovered, having gone Transcendent. "You are a fake! Engineered to kill!"

"Ivy, the Persona!" Ivy Comet warned of...

"PERSONA!" Shadow Joker crushed the chain... with his own hand. (*1)

A burst of blue flames engulfed him and the Persona, as it rises up berserk. (*1)

"Dreamcatcher Warrior Smash..." Ivy Jolicoeur casted a big dream sphere, similar to the light sphere of power Pechy tends to. "LIGHT!" (*2)

A massive explosion ignited, causing oncoming shockwave and raining sparks all over the place. (*1) The angel threw the sphere and tethered it with Strand immediately, and instinctively did the reincarnate tethered the sphere with Strand as well. A blinding flash flooded the entire landscape.

A massive Persona emerged, like a superior fallen angel with black feathers following by. Adorning a mask derived from that Joker (that the fake is based on) and a detailed halo...

Satanael.

The storm is raging. The Persona descends.

"This is the end." Shadow Joker slowly pointed up the sky... with the handgun. "You die."

Satanael slowly rises its gun up. But the two Ivies emerged Transcendent, having supercharged the light sphere with both the Unity light and paracausality itself.

"Begone."

Shadow Joker pulled the trigger, causing a sinful shell of a demonic bullet to blast the storm, causing a frenzy. The two rushed with the superior sphere to blast him. Two slowly converged as they blitzed.

"RETURN TO YOUR DARKNESS!"

The storm spiked, the frenzy fell. The three is clashed, the ring is blasted. A nuked explosion rises up and shockwaved the entire reality.

...

...

...

...

...

Location: Gravity Falls(?)

"We're... alive?" Ivy Jolicoeur got up. "Then..."

"We win."

Ivy Comet is detransformed. "Yes! It worked!"

Everything seems to be back to normal here. The ring is lost, but the fight is won. No more invisible walls. However, the combined strain and the collective nuke from earlier has tired up.

You did it! You overcame the hostile Shadow!

"What is this voice?" Ivy Comet looked around.

Ivy Jolicoeur noticed Shadow Joker bursting into sludge of black, melting into back goop and then evaporated into light.

"Yikes." Ivy Comet noticed.

"Gross..." Ivy Jolicoeur is disgusted.

A hostile Shadow, reshaped into the Joker himself.

"The real Joker would spill actual, red blood." Ivy Comet added.

You are lucky you don't have a Persona and don't need them to fight. Rumor has it that a traitor Shadow are hoarding Personas and reconverting them into hostile Shadows.

"It seems he fought quite similarly to the real deal in-game." Ivy Jolicoeur noted. "Ivy, to further!"

"Let's go. Cannot waste any time!"

"Yeah!"

Good luck, mortals. I look forward to... true salvation. Not this.

Both Ivies left the scene.


Location: Pre-Crisis Earth-2

"Hello?" 2025!Pechy is stumbling atop a lost world.

Hey, 2025. 2027!Pechy voiced.

The Corridors of Time are decaying. Corrupted by the Dark Hour. 2044!Pechy voiced.

We have to hurry- 2023!Pechy voiced.

"Great. Now where's your bodies?" 2025!Pechy noticed.

The Velvet Room's corrupted too. 2023!Pechy added. Next time, we must reason with an attendant, no matter how little we know. I'm so shocked.

"Apparently, somebody at Darkbolts merged reality itself with the TV world and the Metaverse." 2025!Pechy recalled. "Even the Velvet Room seemed wrong. Not only an Igor (*3), but the entire room."

The red fog is too messy right now. One wrong move, and we will all die. 2044!Pechy warned. That's coming from us, who only knew about stuffs like these from Deadpool himself. He spoils the pop culture.

"Ok... let's get to..." 2025!Pechy rushed.

Gotham.

"Gotham of pre-Crisis Earth-2. This place is... outdated." 2025!Pechy arrived. "Good old..."

The red fog. "Yeah. Where should I..."

It's a maze. The radiolaria became sparse. The Dreamcatcher princess had to carefully wade by. She passed by...

"Yu... Narukami?"/"鳴上...悠?"

The silver-haired boy from 2011-2012 heads to the Arkham Asylum.

"Mr. Narukami, wait!"

2025!Pechy followed Yu through.

Location: Arkham Asylum (pre-Crisis Earth-2)

"Mr. Narukami, where are you going?" 2025!Pechy caught up.

Yu stopped. "Oh. Hey. Nice to meet you."

"My name is Pechy Comet. I am from 2025. I am from the future." 2025!Pechy introduced herself. "Therefore, I am your junior. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Yu Narukami. Moved to Inaba for..." Yu recalled.

"Do you miss the Investigation Team?" 2025!Pechy asked. "I knew of them from someone who broke the fourth wall almost constantly."

"Hmph. Nanako is the best." Yu smirked. "I never want to be alone, so befriend me now. And protect Nanako-"

"What!?" 2025!Pechy noticed.

Out of character! Yu is acting like the Investigation Team is worthless!

"Were you... really of the Investigation Team?" 2025!Pechy is taken aback.

"I don't care. It's really nothing too significant. Just my friends I need." Yu scoffed. "Plus... take a look at that."

2025!Pechy looked back. The landscape is spliced. This place is getting calcified. And ever worse... Shadows are lurking from behind.

"What?"

And behind all that... a dark red eclipse that appears to be otherwise indistinguishable to both the sun eclipse AND the lunar eclipse. Below that is the ground of the reality - city, towns, all the ground - tattered and aflame, with smokes that's oddly shaped like human heads, just like the Witness's collective head.

"Don't tell us..." 2025!Pechy groaned.

"Do you understand the rules? Now you know where to aim." Yu responded. "If you want to save all of existence, never hold back."

The fog thickens. And suddenly, Yu got busted with Shadow energy. This prompted Pechy to transform into her Dreamcatcher princess form.

"Persona."

Izanagi.

Yu is revealed to be... a Shadow. A fake.

Watch out!

A feminine voice echoed. 2025!Pechy dodged a lightning strike.

"Huh? Who are you?" 2025!Pechy noticed.

Don't be fooled! You're up against a fake! A hostile Shadow!

"Get out, thanatological bitch!" Shadow Yu.

2025!Pechy retaliated with an outright blast with the dream power of her, using her wand to unload even more.

Shadow Yu parried it out, but got hit by the last sphere.

"Damn! It's am engineered Shadow!" 2025!Pechy realized. "That's it! General Teddie set them all up! It's P-1 all over again! I knew it!"

Shadow Yu clashed with 2025!Pechy, with his blade against her wand. Then the powers rebounded, forcing a distance between the two.

"So this is the P-1 that Yu and David (*4) were into..." 2025!Pechy got it.

"You're not only going down... You're going to DIE!" Shadow Yu declared. "Now... bring on the ring! It's one-on-one time!"

Everything gets calcified into a patch of battleground, where 2025!Pechy must fight Shadow Yu - the fake one.

"Oh, and I guess I'll tell you something else..." Shadow Yu added. "Ignoring me and trying to run ahead will get you nowhere."

"To save the world... the universe... no... the multiverse... no, all of existence... I will fight you and move!" 2025!Pechy declared.

"Yes. And you're already in the ring now." Shadow Yu smirked.

"Finally! You finally got it!" General Teddie appeared as a projection. "You gotta go fighting, even when you're not against any of your friends! Also, this one is a fake!"

"Hey!" 2025!Pechy shouted.

"Yes, yes, it's the lovely General Teddie!" General Teddie moaned. "I've been watching all this time, and what am I seeing!?"

"Why doppelgangers like this?" 2025!Pechy questioned.

"I poured my heart into making fakes who look exactly like the real deal, all to set up a good fight." General Teddie explained. "What more do you want!?"

"Answers." 2025!Pechy suggested.

"Pechy, how rude!" General Teddie complained. "I just want to feel your fighting spirit!"

Great. The other Pechies within.

"Though this is fine with me, you know." General Teddie added. "At such a leisurely pace, all existence really will all be destroyed."

General Teddie then distorted his voice. "Now, hurry up and fight to the death!" *psychotic laughter*

General Teddie disappeared. Shadow Yu is just standing there, grinning evilly.

"I'd like to meet the real Mr. Narukami." 2025!Pechy got up. "You're just a doppelganger. A doppelganger deserving of destruction."

Witchcraft of the Wishing Star

PECHY COMET (Persona: - )

vs.

Sister Complex Kingpin of Steel

YU NARUKAMI (Persona: Izanagi)

First up is 2025!Pechy and Shadow Yu combo'd each other, knocking them off. 2025!Pechy rolled, and erupted the ground with the power of weaponized dreams she specialized as the Dreamcatcher princess. Shadow Yu sicced Izanagi, blasting lightning on the way. He immediately set his sight for a mixup for 2025!Pechy to fall in as well, ready to anti-air or get his Persona sweeping. Again, 2025!Pechy countered, and both were forced to clash.

Hectic and rapid, Shadow Yu immediately risen and then pivoted to subvert 2025!Pechy, and then went for a melee beat-up. Only merely enough to stun, but not truly faze her. 2025!Pechy denied the following punish with a counter, before pulling out her Golden Gun. Three headshots while he's stunned. But it only damaged like normal, not vaporized the fake.

Yes, he is resistant to paracausality. Cue a punishment and a lightning blast. (*5) Except she has the Sentinel Shield to put into good use.

WHACK! 2025!Pechy threw the shield onto Shadow Yu.

"Urgh!" 2025!Pechy get electrocuted from the lingering electricity.

"Nanako!" Shadow Yu groaned.

The fake's Izanagi tried beating the princess down. She crouched, and passed through. Grappling with Strand, she managed to pull Shadow Yu to her and winds up her dream-enhanced punch - the same kind as what she once used to try killing 2025!Amaya. (*6)

PWN! A direct hit on the face.

"Zio, Zio, Zio..."

He electrocuted her on the spot, and then kicked her down. He hacked her with his katana, believing that he's pretty quickly a winner. But it couldn't kill 2025!Pechy yet.

BGM: Warsaw (Battlefield 4)

Shadow Yu was shockwaved away with the dream power. He crashed on one invisible wall, and dropped down.

"Shit!" Shadow Yu got recover.

"Dreamcatcher Warrior Smash LIGHT!"

2025!Pechy fired a dream laser on the fake. She did it by applying her marksmanship through paracausality to her light sphere which has been her main finisher.

"Shut up! You're on my way!" Both in coincidental unison.

Shadow Yu pounced and then dived down to the princess, giving the fake option to either strike the head and try to decapitate or simply go to the back and immediately ambush. This is not one-dimensional: 2025!Pechy side-stepped and clashed elsewhere. He was a lunatic templar acting like a puppet-shoto (*7) hell-bent on winning the deathmatch lethally in a fair-and-square way. But 2025!Pechy isn't gonna back down either.

More combo'd and more damage later to exhaust both slowly and slowly, especially since normally they're not exactly supposed to combat - even though this Yu is a doppelganger Shadow. He had enough, and quickly went for the end.

BURST! He frenzied. He went for a lethal combo, but 2025!Pechy bursted in light. She anticipated when he would assume Shadow Frenzy. This is because as Deadpool said, once a false Shadow go frenzy, they would tend to go for a fancy yet lethal combo before going for an instant-ive finisher, something that shouldn't have been possible. (*8)

BGM intensifies.

"Now!" Shadow Yu thrusts his katana into the floor.

The entire ground is surged with electricity, and a storm is spawned. Izanagi evolves into a white god, spinning the weapon and rises.

"May the thousand lies protect us." Shadow Yu went on laughing like a maniac. "Now burn thy witch with what's left of the myriad truths! Hahahahaha!"

Izanagi-no-Okami strikes the entire battlefield with a colossal column of light. A massive nuke.

But her? She's unharmed. She is the Goddess of the Wishing Star, and she's tanking the entirety of... Myriad Truths. 2025!Pechy walks to Shadow Yu, who kept it going.

"Return to your darkness!" 2025!Pechy countered.

Cue an opposing light, made of the pure dreams, directed at the fake. He was consumed by dreams.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

BGM ends.

Everything is reverted down to normal. Shadow Yu is left melting into black tar that evaporated into light.

"It really was engineered." 2025!Pechy detransformed.

Indeed- Wait... you were telling me a mercenary known as... "Deadpool"...

"You need to meet him. He breaks the fourth wall all the time." 2025!Pechy suggested. "Also... have anyone else tried to fight... false Shadows."

You adopted Ivy Comet as her mother. She and her past life defeated the false Joker. The Phantom.

"Mr. Amamiya?!" 2025!Pechy is baffled.

That Shadow is like him being a showboat secretly traumatized by the unfair conviction led by external forces... (*9)

"They stuck to the rules while being maniacs..." 2025!Pechy added. "Deadpool was right. Those engineered Shadows are something to call out."

Just like all the previous editions, this P-1 is not what it seems. So please-

"I know. I'm on my way." 2025!Pechy rushed out.

The place and the way is less distorted, allowing 2025!Pechy to go faster. This leads to...

Location: Corridors of Time

A dojo named "Kenjutsu Crossing", sitting on one corridor 2025!Pechy is heading. It's dark, not light like normally, and the dojo is vandalized, followed by a massive, bizarre tower looming over the rooftop.

"Is that... Tartarus!?" 2025!Pechy recognized it. (*6)

AAAAAHHH!

"What's that?" 2025!Pechy rushed in.


Location: Nakabachi Kingdom, Metaverse

"Erina!"

"Toshiro! We're stuck!"

A couple of unknown exact relationship other than friendship are in what seems to be dead end of this corrupted, rifted and spliced version of a Kingdom, in the now-overgrown Metaverse. The man wears a navy suit with a white collared shirt, along with a striped tie. He also has a large gash scar he received from the incident when he was a teenager. And a metal mask that covers his left eye, which seems to be important. (*10) The woman has light gray/light violet hair that covers her right eye. She has red eyes and a single visible earring on her left ear. Her outfit resembles a military dress uniform, with her right arm having it's sleeve rolled up with a fingerless glove on her right hand. She has a torn red skirt that's knee-length with a belt and her partly-rotten left leg is covered entirely by a removable metal greave.

"So this is a blockage that adapts to our rebellion..." Toshiro Kasukabe (春日部統志郎) added. "No wonder why were stuck between crossroads. We're getting nowhere."

Erina (エル, Elle) is back! Except this time, she is actually Eri Natsuhara (夏原恵利), who's accompanying Toshiro on the way out. The two are at loss of directions, but suddenly an afterimage of unknown source passed by. Toshiro caught on, and chased after it. Erina followed suit.

Unfortunately, it led to a familiar battlefield.

"I'm back. And I have a good friend of mine."

"Huh?" Toshiro noticed.

"No way!" Erina pulled out her spear with a rebel flag in it. "No..."

"Why are you acting like a control freak, idiotic one?"

There's three on the ungrounded side of the battlefield, all standing in a floating platform. One is General Teddie at the center, and two looked identical to the couple save for Toshiro with white glowing eyes and Erina having a broken Eri Natsuhara face (multi-color eye included, *11), all complete with black sclerae. Cue the real couple freaking out briefly.

"Welcome to the fray! It is none other than I, General Teddie!" General Teddie declared. "Where's your salute?"

"You look too similar to a certain mascot creature that protected Yasoinaba for years!" (*12) Toshiro recognized the shape.

Erina reluctantly saluted.

"Seriously, what a bear-den you are." General Teddie groaned. "If you keep dawdling around, all of existence will go kablooey!"

Toshiro saluted just to please this mysterious version of that one mascot (*12), for Meta-sake.

"I'm sorry, but you are acting like certain oppressors that I rejected." Toshiro refuted. "I, as the Prime Minister and a rebel in good heart, will not allow you to go ahead!"

"Oh? What a rigid man, saying such things after I try to be kind." General Teddie scoffed. "Well then... I'll tell you something especially good."

General Teddie teleported, creating afterimages of... a Vex conflux infused with Shadows, much to the real confusion. It does not matter whether there's an impostor in the first place. Have you known that you've been Shadows, at some point or another... just like me.

"Yeah... you remember us." Shadow Toshiro (もうひとりの統志郎) has spoken. "Me and my Erina. They have existed, especially me."

They jumped to the goddamn ground, landing in front of the real deal.

"Your rebellion had gone too far. Now I have no choice but to be a killer." Shadow Erina (もうひとりのエル) grinned. "You reap what you sow, two!"

"Hmph... Tell us this:" Shadow Toshiro scoffed. "What would your life have been if you just accepted everything and stop fighting against it?"

"Huh?" Toshiro is surprised.

"Really?" Erina is surprised.

"If you are still unable to see how dangerous your rebellion would become... Would you accept the truth..." Shadow Toshiro questioned. "...or would you avert your sight and lie to all?"

"Th-That's...!" Erina is shocked.

-*chuckles* "Don't worry, it's not only you." Shadow Erina scoffed. "All those worthless freaks rebelling are going against the quo, and that's dangerous to all. I have to become a tyrant, in order to end that shitty wave of forced change!"

"You reject the status quo, finding madness within by breaking away..." Shadow Toshiro dismissed. "Deep in this rotten rebellion, you avert your eyes from the truth."

"That's not how rebellions work!" Toshiro refuted.

"We want to weed out corruption and make our world a better place!" Erina refuted. "Just look at the Phantom Thieves of Hearts!"

"Regardless... we will follow the General." Shadow Toshiro declared.

"We will kill you both, and return you and your Persona back to Shadows." Shadow Erina declared.

"Now, bring on the ring!" The two fakes rises.

Cue the battlefield locked with invisible walls. Everywhere else is calcified.

"What's the matter? Scared?" Shadow Toshiro scoffed. "Well then... how about a wager? Two-on-two... Whichever side wins will take over... and become 'real'... Hahahaha!"

"If you lose, we will kill you both and assimilate your respective, naive corpses, so we can never begone!" Shadow Erina then laugher like a lunatic.

"Like we'd let that happen!" Erina stanced. "There's no way other than that we'll win!"

"You corrupted beings need to be wiped out from everyone's life!" Toshiro declared. "Persona!"

Ernesto rises. Shadow Toshiro rebutted by calling Ernesto... as well. Two Ernestos, against each other...

Prime Minister of Rebellion

TOSHIRO KASUKABE (Persona: Ernesto)

The Resistance Incarnate

ERI NATSUHARA (Persona: ?)

vs.

Prime Minister of Rebellion

TOSHIRO KASUKABE (Persona: Ernesto)

The Resistance Incarnate

ERI NATSUHARA (Persona: ?)

Toshiro's not exactly a fighter, but Ernesto is. So he and his fake sicced their respective Ernesto to blast each other's team. There's no cover though (unlike last time), so Toshiro rushed and slid through between gunshots. Letting Erina do the melee.

Shadow Erina intercepted the Shadow rebel with her spear, and so the two clashed and then traded blows through combos. Erina whipped up pistol, but Shadow's Ernesto knocked said pistol off her hand. Not to be deterred, Erina knocks her doppelganger off and grabbed her pistol back, and then shot Shadow Toshiro and his Ernesto.

"Fire at will destroy that!" Shadow Toshiro roared. "I should've been able to kill that bitch earlier!" (*10)

Shadow's Ernesto targeted Erina, and gatling that and aims for that gunshot kill. Erina rushed away from the gunshot, even managed to wall-run an invisible wall, while Shadow Toshiro restrained his counterpart with those familiar bandages to keep him down.

The real Ernesto shot down the bandages, freeing Toshiro.

"The rebellion within our hearts!" Toshiro rushed to his fake.

"End!" Shadow Erina tried to whips her spear to Toshiro's face.

Toshiro slides down, sweeping Shadow Erina and ambushed Shadow Toshiro. The two Toshiros ended up brawling, leaving both Ernestos to shoot all over the place and the Erinas to go bust.

"Baywell 45!" Shadow Erina rapidly headshotted her counterpart.

Erina handled the headshots by walking in struggle, yet valiantly gripping her spear. She stabs her fake with the tip, and shot back. The fake knocked the spear away using her own spear, only for Toshiro to grab that. This caused Shadow Toshiro to accidentally sucker-punch his Erina.

"Got it! Now!" Toshiro pointed at the two fakes.

Cue Ernesto shooting the two engineered Shadows down. Shadow's Ernesto did not ignore.

-*blam!* Two Ernestos clashed over gunshots. Two Toshiros snatched their respective Erina's pistol and furiously shot each other at the same time, rapidly and so bleeding.

"You have to be audacious enough to think true rebellion rejects corruption. But what's its nature?" Shadow Erina threatened her counterpart. "Rebellion turned me into a tyrant and a killer. And I know that."

"That's not how rebellions work!" Erina sucker-punch stabbed with her spear, right on the lost right eye of her fake.

Ernesto and Erina turned to crystals with Ernesto's falling right to the side of collapsed Toshiro. As Shadows, the two fakes were shrugging off everything and recovered. Unfortunately of them, their Ernesto shooting the crystals out of spite proceed to be quite a mistake.

The crystals exploded, healing the real deal and allow the two to recover. Cue Toshiro tripping his fake the moment the latter approached.

"You! You!" Shadow Erina is pissed.

Ernesto suplexed the fake counterpart and shot Shadow Erina down. It broke, while the real Ernesto just kept on shooting. The real duo cued and so rushed to give Shadow Toshiro a beatdown.

"Break down, you monsters!" Erina looked around and continued the beatdown, letting Ernesto rapid-fire her fake down.

Seconds later, Ernesto them landed on Shadow Erina's face to crush her along with gunshot. Erina got her pistol back, and Shadow Toshiro's at the gunpoint.

-*blam!*

The real deal pulled all triggers, point blank.

End. Toshiro and Erina recovered, and got their shits back, victorious.

-*pants* *gasp* "We won..." Toshiro is exhausted. "Fighting as a whole myself... even with the help of you..."

"Me too. I'm crippled, and the Shadow enhancement alone can only... do so much." Erina panted. "Both physically and mentally. This is probably the most dangerous things directly threatening us... since both the train incident and Kingdoms like this."

The Kingdom returned back, seemingly to normal. The accompanying red fog also thinned. Both fakes melted down into Vantablack-looking poison, while General Teddie came back.

"Hmph... Well, that'll do." General Teddie conceded... for now. "Your rebellion didn't seem to... corrupt you."

Shadow Toshiro and Shadow Erina finally, both evaporated into light.

"C'mon, what are you staring at?" General Teddie is baffled. "Your partners are already on a multiverse near you! Why aren't you on your way to meet them!?"

"I am the Prime Minister, so I am the boss here." Toshiro scoffed, still not fully believing in General Teddie's bullshit.

"Where exactly are we supposed to go?" Erina questioned. "Also, why aren't you acting like you actually are: corrupted and tyrannical?!"

"Your complaint make even less sense that that one bear's." (*12) General Teddie scoffed. "Anyways, just hurry up and come to the nearest checkpoint! Then we can settle everything once and for all there!"

General Teddie then disappeared again.

"W-wait!" Erina shouted.

"Checkpoint... We gotta go." Toshiro tried to run away.

"Hey! Look!" Erina pulled Toshiro off.

A mysterious red eclipse, accented by the smokes shaped like human heads (again, just like the Witness's collective head). This landscape of what remains of the rest of the Nakabachi Kingdom is in the clear.

"I get it. Let's get going." Toshiro ran away.

Erina followed suit, and both leaving the ruined Kingdom.


Location: Kenjutsu Crossing, "Asteria" Island

The Invader of Next Possibilities! Cross-Dimensional Observation System No. XX! (*13)

"Huh?" A diamond machine woke up. "Did I... overslept?"

The last time System No. XX (交差次元観察システム ) was active was helping Sonic's unified army kill Shatter the Hedgehog. (*14)

"What's time is it?"

11:45 P.M., or 23:45 (P.M.)

"Great. It's almost midnight..."

System missed out on the first 5 days of Darkbolts' return. After all, she overslept.

"Change!" Because System needs to interact...

A beautiful adult woman, with gradient eyes (blue, yellow, purple, red), long white hair with highlights and inner of the same coloring and bangs, and wearing silver hooded shirt and skirts incorporating black engravings and polygons (mainly diamonds), and same color scheme plus metallic accents, and transparent bodystocking underneath. And then, a transparent gradient (blue, yellow, purple, red) dress on top of her shirt and skirt, and a physically-simple bomber sukajan with the same engravings and details matching that of the shirt, skirt and of her machine form. She's wearing that off-shoulders, exposing the (shirt's) hood as well, and finally a similarly mechanical boot completed the uniform.

Kousako Kansatsubi (観察美交差子, かんさつびこうさこ) have missed out on the first 5 days, and...

"Uh... hello there, those from beyond the fourth wall. It's me, System, but you can call me Kousako. I am designed to create new possibilities, but soon I hosted the Keystone Scramble tournaments myself. A lot has happened from there on out. But now... I felt like... last day... Yeah, I'm 5 full days late. How about you tell me about what happened during those 5 days for me? I need the infos so badly. I overslept so I could properly observe what happened. So please-"

You decide. But then again, System is talking to no one at all. It's a psych.

"Huh? No. Where?"

The machine girl is confused. "Hello? Hello? Where are you?"

10 minutes till midnight, but nobody listened because not even Rachel Alucard - an Observer of this shit of a continuum in this world - herself noticed.

"Rachel! RACHEL! I need you! I NEED YOU!"

System resorted to peeking onto the goddamn existence, only to find realities being corrupted by the Darkbolts' machinations. At the moment, System didn't even know Darkbolts has returned.

5 minutes till midnight.

"Keystones are still there. Now I can get out."

System herself then tried to escape, only to be fuzzied by one sentence:

Can't escape from crossing fate!

"What's that!?" System shook off.

She ignores the echo afterwards and teleported out. She landed in a calcfied area, infested by the calcified monsters: the Dread.

"At least I have toys to break." System finally got something to do.

A bunch of Tormentors and Subjugators - themed after two Disciples, Nezarec and Rhulk, respectively - targeted the machine girl. Being the multiversal crap that she is. System is confident that thanks to the Keystones and the spawn, she pretty much can end the Dread in one swipe. But before she could start fighting... the same commercial as what the CXA is shown just got into her head. (*15)

"Shit!" System is shocked.

10 seconds to midnight. System puked in front of the Dread. "Not... the... P-1... again...!"

System is severely afflicted, just in time for the midnight. Moments later... *bell*

"Ugh..." System recovered. "Huh?"

Not only System is hallucinating due to be out of touch due to oversleeping, and that the Dread never really appeared in the first place, but that said Dread have suddenly been replaced by... red fog. Everything's also darker, with only the fog illuminating hazily.

"Red fog... not again..."

Oh, and literally no lifeform nearby System even appeared. Not at all.

"Th-there's no way I would malfunction so easily. What was I thinking?" System laughed hysterically. "Ahaha..."

The laughter seemed to be consumed by the fog, so System stopped. She looked around, and found a mysterious eclipse that look both like lunar and solar ones. And a bunch of fire and headed smokes resembling the Witness's head.

"What's that?"

System instinctively blitzed towards a certain spot around. Unfortunately, she appears to be repeating a dead end over and over, even when her navigation turned out to not only be working perfectly, but is on full force to pinpoint everything. And yet, it's more than equivalemt to the inescapable Greek-difficult labyrinth on human... Uh oh. Also, nobody's there.

Thankfully, she arrived at...

Location: Corridors of Time

"Hey!" It's still the patchy-looking Tenma Jumpson, the wielder of the Umbra force. (*16) "You're...!"

"Thanks goodness, you're alive!" System bumped friendly on Jumpson.

"Oh god... This place is ruined!" Jumpson looked around afterwards. "It's now dark!"

"P-1 Grand Prix... Cross Edition... back?" System recalled. (*13)

"It's P-1 Special now..." Jumpson is exhausted. "This exhaustion is from me, a Shonen Jump master... and mangaka... and multiversal warrior..."

Jumpson sits down on the ground. "The TV world... the Metaverse... the Dark Hour... the radiolaria... Pandora's Box... Zero Point... all gathered... into one... phenomenon... I can feel all of it..."

"And these posters... distorted commercials..." System looked around.

All those posters introducing the participants, the wacky, tacky decorations, and graffiti introducing the P-1 were all from... both the original P-1 editions (both original Grand Prix and the Climax edition) as well as Cross Edition, have been placed all over. And there's Kenjutsu Crossing, looked over by a rifted version of Tartarus (*6), which happened to be the very second alternate-universe locations that Pechy got to since the Hyper Genesis Wave.

"Is someone there?" System looked around.

Aigis and Metis, two Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons with Personas, both came by.

"Is that you... System?" Aigis recognized Kousako herself. "You look like a human now."

"Yeah, but that's beside- wait, Aigis!" System is pleased. "Oh, thank goodness! I overslept for five days, and then got mentally disturbed, and had to rush in!"

"And this is my mental sister, Metis!" Aigis introduced what's basically her true Shadow self to System. "Say hello to... uh... System No. XX!"/"こんにちは...えーと...システム です!"

"Welcome, miss No. XX!" Metis bowed.

Aigis giggled. "Glad to get you back! You're probably among the best on my list, after all."

Aigis seemed... talked like as if System No. XX herself, machine or not, is preferable to Jumpson, who's technically a stranger to both weapons. Also, the two are ignoring Jumpson altogether, much to his suspicion. Aigis and Metis wouldn't have easily ignored him, and would probably even trust him alongside System, whether or not System is being a villain there. All that shit caused System to harbor suspicion herself, following Jumpson's mental note. That smug face of Metis and the strange smile of Aigis didn't help matters.

"No... you're both just a weapon and her berserk Shadow." System instinctively rebutted. "Who are you!?"

Aigis suddenly broke out a psychotic laughter.

"You don't have to worry. We were never intending to deceive you." Metis suddenly combined rudeness with humility. "We need you to all die for us, fair and square."

Suddenly, both weapons bursted with Shadows, revealing themselves to be fakes: Shadow Aigis and Shadow Metis. Sharing the yellow eyes, the fakes laughed.

"Wha-wait a tick!" System is baffled. "Are you from P-1!? Why are you after us!?"

"Why? Ah..." Shadow Metis scoffed. "You see, we're your enemies. We were made to annihilate you and your friends."

"Made?" Both System and Jumpson heard it.

Yes, you got it. Now you destroy them before they kill you!

"Uh, Miss Death, may I-" System picked up.

General Teddie appeared as a projection. "This sounds like a good time for me, General Teddie, to explain what's going on!"

"General Teddie, how did you...!" System recognized General Teddie.

"Blah blah, so nitpicky!" General Teddie complained. "With that level of nagging, I worry that you're already becoming obsolete, Kousa-chan!"

"Wha-!?" System is shocked.

"Look, it doesn't matter!" General Teddie reassured. "Anyway, that's neither Aigis-chan nor Metis-chan. It's both total fakes that I made. So there's no need to worry at all! You can pulverize them both to your heart's content!"

"That's coming from the one putting a former tournament host into two shitty fighting tournaments using perfect engineering!" System rebutted.

"Oh, really? Then hurry up and get destroyed." General Teddie threatened.

General Teddie disappeared.

"Persona!" Both fakes shouted.

Palladion and Psyche.

"Same Personas as the originals. I'll give you that." System noticed. "Persona!"

Pallas Athena, Aigis' ultimate Persona. Meanwhile, System already tanked a quick strike from Shadow Metis and avoided Palladion's bullshit from Shadow Aigis.

"Oh, and also, how do a normal person use a Persona in real world unassisted?" System asked.

General Teddie came back. "Ohh, sorry! I forgot to tell you. This is P-1 Special, so I wanna do these matches fair and square, as equals. Which is why I've made your worlds a combination of the one in TV and the entire Metaverse!"

"Hey! Who in the hell thought of... P-1 Special!?" Jumpson complained.

"Ugh, so many questions. That's just how things are!" General Teddie groaned. "So hurry up and give us a nice, heated battle!"

General Teddie disappeared again.

"Hmm? I'm sorry, I forgot that the gong hadn't sounded yet." Shadow Metis giggles, hinting at her sadistic nature. "Well well, well, start this shit for real. Bring on the ring!"

System and Jumpson are trapped with the fakes, and the surroundings around the new ring got calcified.

I'm not in the mood to drag this out, so I'll just give a short rundown. General Teddie noted. The rules are simple: win and you get to live and move on; lose and you die. By the way, the year 2025 are captive in the big tower right in front of you, Kousa-chan and Mr. Jumpson. But never mind that: if you and your allies don't win before time's up, everything ends. Do you get it?

"Huh? What did you just say?" Jumpson is confused.

It's all up to what you do from here. General Teddie then went away.

"You finally understood everything! Now it's time to rip!" Shadow Aigis grinned.

Jumpson pulled out two katanas and surged with aura. "How about we destroy those pieces of shit?"

"Yeah, I get it now." System to combat. "I get that those Shadows are our enemies and that this is just more of the P-1 Grand Prix: Cross Edition!"

"Amazing! Now you're fucked!" Shadow Metis put in her visor and gripped her axe.

"Well, SORRY for everything!" System grinned. "Geez, this is harder to do when I'm up against corrupted versions of one of my subjects... But you're doomed!"

The Invader of Next Possibilities

SYSTEM NO. XX (Persona: ?)

Legendary Hero behind the Jump Force

TENMA JUMPSON (Persona: (Umbra))

vs.

The Heartless Armed Angel

AIGIS (Persona: Palladion)

Menace of Repressed Humanity

METIS (Persona: Psyche)

Shadow Aigis gatling on both, who rejected the bullets their way and walked to the fakes. Jumpson clashes with Shadow Metis, while System threw a volley of summoned weapons from her datas straight into busting Shadow Aigis. It was time for metal for metal, brawl for brawl. Pallas Athena targeted the two fakes' Personas, and everyone started trading blows.

System was a boss, and it shows half a minute in after the gatling ends, with red laser from the ground, knocking Shadow Aigis off. Shadow Metis managed to tank both ki and anti-magic, and bludgeoned the hell outta the hero. He didn't back down, and grappled her down.

"Now for the end!" System spinned her innate sword into a blade, and grinded Shadow Aigis with it.

This prompted Shadow Aigis to activate Orgia mode and start pummeling System down. Meanwhile, Jumpson was doing Kamehameha to Psyche while keeping track of Shadow Metis, who rushed around and tried to trip him with her axe.

"Shadow Clones!"/"影分身の術!"

Cue Shadow Metis gleefully hacking down commissioned clones of Jumpson, believing every time that she's easily killing the "weaker" opponent. She even activated Orgia mode to boost herself up immensely, allowing her to wipe the floors with all the clones of Jumpson.

"Wind and Lightning Style: Hurricane Lightning!"/"風遁雷遁・颶風雷旋丸!"

One-person combination of Rasengan (螺旋丸) and Chidori (千鳥), stabbing Shadow Metis on the back. "Gear Fifth."

Cue the hero twisting his hand brutally using the extreme flexibility for a toon-like shit, causing the sphere to explode and shockwave Shadow Metis from the inside out.

Meanwhile, Shadow Aigis unleashes the most powerful of the original arsenal, ready for what one would call an Instant Kill. Palladion evolves into Athena (*17) as Shadow Aigis charges up.

"Annihilation commends."

System vibrated with lightning as Shadow Aigis was about to make a destructive move.

"Watch out, Jumpson!" System shouted.

Activated. *blast* The entire battlefield exploded from Shadow Aigis' laser. The sound echoed onto the dojo, heard by someone...

...

"Huh..."

Jumpson has blocked the collateral damage off him. Shadow Aigis collapses, overheating.

"Target... destroyed..." Shadow Aigis cooled off.

"Too late. Speed Force here." System came back, surging with yellow-coded lightning on her, as well as seven other "Insulators" - those red-bladed katanas in primal shape each - "I adapt to everything you do. You know what I was made for. Now you-"

System skewed Shadow Aigis with those. "...get lost, fake combatant."

"Aaaaaaaah!" Shadow Aigis screamed.

Both the fakes melted down and evaporated into light.

"OMG, it's No. XX!"

"You alright? We're here!"

"Is that... the Comet familia, from a distant realm?!" System noticed.

"Who are they?" Jumpson doesn't know who they are.

"Whoa whoa whoa, keep it easy!" Ivy Comet braked.

"We fought some fakes. Glad that's you're safe, miss." 2025!Pechy panted.

"Oh... I'm worried that you're all fake... Goodness, you are real!" System is relieved.

"We had to deal with the fakes." Ivy Jolicoeur explained. "And then, there's that maternal voiceover warning us."

"Whose fakes did you defeat?" 2025!Pechy asked.

"Aigis and Metis. One subject and her true Shadow." System recalled.

"Huh? Those... appearing instead of Mr. Stark from Reality-616?" 2025!Pechy recognized. "And acted out-of-character!?"

"Yes, they acted out-of-character. They are actually insane and psychotic." System confirmed. "Actually, what's going on? Is this reality itself? Or is it just-"

"Technically, though there are Shadows freely running around, and Personas, all that." Ivy Jolicoeur replied.

"But this! This is like merger of the TV world and the Metaverse in the Dark Hour!" System complained. "What's going on everywhere!?"

"Calm down, miss. We only know everything before all this." 2025!Pechy suggested.

With the help of the Weave psychics, 2025!Pechy explained everything that happened in her perspective since her stranding at Middle-earth beach. Ivy and Ivy both added their perspectives to expand the recollection, as well as taking the sources to expand said recollection even further.

"Possibility, processing..." System closed her camera eyes.

"And then the Midnight Channel came on all over existence itself, and General Teddie suddenly declared war on us." 2025!Pechy explained. "Afterwards, all realities got swallowed up in that red fog."

"The Midnight Channel... just like all P-1... and that murderous crap in year 2011..." Jumpson recalled. "I see... why am I roped into this again..."

System opened up and glanced at the three.

"Did you see the Midnight Channel?" 2025!Pechy asked.

"Uhh, ahahaha..." System is nervous.

"Me neither, but she thought she saw it." Jumpson shrugged.

"Seriously!?" Ivy Comet is baffled. "Not only you were missing, but turns out...! It came up so many times! Why didn't you check!?"

"N-No one said specifically to watch for it! All this happened suddenly and I overslept until just over a dozen minutes till midnight!" System complained. "Haven't you known that I had to do my part on Shatter's end!? That evil hedgehog tried to shatter all of existence! His presence threatened me!"

Ivy Comet sighed. "Fine... Anyway, all of existence is in serious danger right now."

"Just like P-1 Climax, General Teddie said about... all realities ending." System recalled.

"True. General Teddie said that if we don't win this tournament within the hour, everything will end. Literally." 2025!Pechy recalled. "And apparently, he and Darkbolts are holding all my 2025 friends except Earla, Akia and Penny, along with Sadie and Queen Charlene, all captive in that strange tower."

"WHAT!?" System is shocked.

"They want us to fight to the death." Jumpson looked up to the tower.

"Actually... where's my familiar subjects!?" System panicked.

"I don't know where each and every of those subjects of your are anywhere." 2025!Pechy shook her head. "We don't have any time right now. Let's leave those to the others - we need to go rescue my friends at once."

"Believe in them. They did save possibilities from certain doom for some time now." (*18) Ivy Jolicoeur reassured.

System is surprised. This is not a selfish matter. She needs the three and Jumpson now, and she can no longer just reach out for her original subjects. Heroic or evil, those subjects she used to shove into fighting had already known how to fight. They must have been winning against engineered Shadows and insignificant mooks on their way by now. They might as well be all alive right now.

And so she nodded to the three heartily. She have all reality to save, because possibilities are what she carves and thus are meant to cherish for. "Let's go, Comet!"

A strange girl looking like a teenaged or young-adult looking Awoken, exotically beautiful even by Awoken standards (as evidenced by her face), and with heterochromia, clapping and on the top of the dojo. She has Stasis boots and limbs overgrown with vines that's glowing with the Light of the Traveler, and green medium-long hair with the same green glow as Strand, but the tips of those hair are basically Solar incense that never runs out, complete with little smoke and those nuclear embers. Her limbs are segmented akin to the Dread, which is the biggest thing that defies normal beauty and human anatomy. She's wearing a strange fit consisting of female's Gekkoukan High uniform's tops strapped in Strand, and female's Yasogami High uniform's skirt imbued with Void Light, both also subtly covered in Solar embers and Arc currents. Another distinguishing feature is the heterochromia: her left eye is bluish light gray, and her right eye is light brown-and-orange hue, matching the bourbon color. Both eyes are glowing as the girl claps.

"Yeah yeah, you're gonna team up to win the P-1 Special, is that right?" She speaks in the same legion-tandem reverb-echo as the Witness, only with feminine inflection and normally emotive. "Playing 'partners' here? That's frickin' lame..."

The girl pounced down to the area of the ring that was. She walks to, saying "The daughter of the Second Knife. And you are in the Metaverse with us."

The girl then stopped. "C'mon, no need to be creeped out. I came here to say hello!"

The girl's eye gleamed with the energy of both the Light and the Darkness, which 2025!Pechy picked up as signals of hers.

An invisible barrier is now standing between her and the rest.

"What the hell!?" Jumpson noticed.

"Shit! We're stuck!" System is frustrated.

The invisible barrier has become a dome, trapping the five.

"Hmmm? You look like you're in pain, seeking true salvation!" The girl laughed. "The look on your faces is just... epic! Majestic! Ah, yeah, that's what people are looking for!"

"You seems like experiment No.14 to me." 2025!Pechy cut to the chased. "Then you... you killed the Guardians'...!"

"Oh right, midnight blessings. I'm Hortus. Hortus Zankyo." (残響ホルタス) "A good friend of the General Teddie you mocked of."

The five are shocked.

"That's right! I'm the one invited you here, and I'm showing myself right now." She smirked. "Now that I've shown you the way here, it's time for a showdown will the Shadow of the Garden! Ahahahaha, get it?!"

"Bull...shit...!" Jumpson groaned.

"Hm? What's the matter?" Hortus pulsed all else away, getting Jumpson for offer. "Laugh. Wasn't it funny? Just laugh already! Ahaha..."

Hortus put a Hand Cannon - stylized Desert Eagle from the Island itself - on the hero's head. "I guess I'll shatter one of them. I doubt that'll matter much..."

Miss, is she really experiment No.14, and how did she... 2025!Pechy thought. Oh c'mon! Do something! But how?

She sounds like the Witness as a magical girl. That's strange... 2023!Pechy commented.

Uh, that maternal voice, can you comment? 2044!Pechy asked.

"Oh... Bummer prism. Why right now...?" Hortus picked up something from seemingly nowhere. "Mmhm..."

She stored the Hand Cannon and immediately turned around, sparing Jumpson and seemingly calling for someone. Half a minute later, she finishes and then laughed.

"Sorry, we got more guests of honor." Hortus walked away. "You guys are just the ginger on the side plates, so all you get to do is look for your allies in the tower."

"Bitch!" System got up.

"But we have plenty of fun in store for the Starstorm - you'll sher-lock forward to it!" Hortus then laughed like maniac as she walks away. Disappearing into the red fog, while the five recovered.

"Wheeeew! Damnit!" Jumpson got up. "What's with that girl!? Is she really General Teddie's beloved!?"

"W-we have to hurry and go after her!" Ivy Comet panicked. "She's way too dangerous to leave her be!"

"...No. That Hortus just disappeared. Also, all our friends are still in the zone." 2025!Pechy refused. "Someone's bound to help them get out eventually."

"So we're gonna leave that bitch to others?!" Ivy Comet is baffled. "Mom, I mean, Mike, Clover and Clarie might find their way here, but...!"

"Not only no. That paracausal freak said they have 'more guests of honor' now." 2025!Pechy rebutted. "At the very least, she's not after us for the time being."

"Who?" Jumpson raised his hands.

"We've got Doctor Doom, Mr. Wilson, Logan, a Warlock named Shayura, Meowscle, a librarian-" (*15)

"Angela!? From the Library to the case of David Martinez!?"

"The gods from Greek mythology too. Oh, and not to mention the Persona users. Shadow Operatives, the Investigation Team, and the Phantom Thieves." (*15)

"That might explain why the CXA couldn't contact the latter teams..." Ivy Comet recalled. "The Darkbolts may have kidnapped them all."

"Also... both this and Cross Edition are masterminded, according to the files, by a threat known as the Zerobreaker." 2025!Pechy recalled. "Could this tournament be hinting at her new return? The CXA recalled when she was a Realitiers at the Order of the Pariah which originated from the Dark Multiverse." (*19)

"Also, Hortus seems to be suspiciously like... I don't know, experiment No.14, as Mom suspected..." Ivy Comet suggested. "Right now, after the death of the Vanguards, it seems she's underestimating us at the moment."

"Well, time is of essence. Let's get to the tower and rescue everyone we can think of!" Jumpson declared.

"Yeah!" System rushed.

The five rushed to the dojo to enter Tartarus.


Location: Tartarus

Tartarus is even more distorted than the Fall and the P-1 Climax and Cross Edition and the Palaces all combined. Even the Tartarus 2025!Pechy briefly camped in is only to the level of the 2009, not this bullshit. Vex radiolaria is splattered throughout the messed-up hallways. Heck, even the arts of what's known as Meow Wolf were implemented in a creepy way - a horrific subversion of the permanent installments made for immersive art experience in real life. There's also twisted recreations of the rooms of the Last City as well as the ungodly remains of the Prism Land capsuled within radiolaria-infused Brainiac technology. Even the hallway from Yasogami High is at its most twisted, with pixelation of calciforms integrated within the very surface, brimming with splices of what the school normally is, regardless of timeline.

"It's the same as the corridors..." System complained. "Everything is all out of whack."

"I wonder how long the road goes on... We keep passing by the loops and the loops, dead end all over the place..." Ivy Jolicoeur complained. "Is this Yasogami High, the Last City, or the Convergence Station?"

"It's Tartarus." 2025!Pechy refuted.

"It was!" System refuted.

The strange paths continued. Even the possibility navigation of the System didn't help at all.

"...So, who do you think is the true culprit?" Jumpson asked.

"Who knows? It's pretty suspicious that a possible friend of General Teddie is taking credit for all this, if you ask us." Ivy Comet replied. "But then again, everything's suspicious anyways... except for us."

"Hortus seems to be Prismatic from the inside out, not just in power like through the Guardians." 2025!Pechy commented. "Not to mention the Darkbolts are still on their terror business."

Along with the restoration of recollection from easily, everyone recalled everything in their respective perspectives and sorted out details regarding both Darkbolts and P-1 Special. This includes Hortus, who's possibly THE experiment No.14 herself.

"Hey, wasn't she wearing the tops of Gekkoukan High and the skirt of Yasogami High?" System noted.

"Huh? Oh..." Jumpson realized. "Now that you mention it, it did kind of look exactly like it."

"I'm sure of it! Some of those Persona users wore either of respective uniforms at their time at their respective high school!" System recalled. "But who wear both uniforms' stuffs all at once?"

"Wha-you're serious!?" Ivy Comet is baffled.

"Mm... and experiment No.14 was raised by the Second Knife with the help of the Darkbolts." 2025!Pechy recalled. "If Hortus was really experiment No.14, that would explain why she called herself the daughter of the Second Knife."

"And how did she get both uniforms from?" System questioned.

"I can feel it." Ivy Jolicoeur noticed.

"Wait... you now are powerful?" 2025!Pechy noticed.

Ivy Jolicoeur casted her hands with dream power, and rushed. "Ivy! Miss! Miss! Mister!"

"What's it?" Jumpson noticed.

"Be on guard... Don't leave our side." System gleamed her eyes.

The five rushed onto the red fog. But then they stopped, for a feminine figure is approaching. Wearing the full female's Gekkoukan High uniform, and she has dark blue hair, unkempt at the front with bangs covering her right eye, blue eyes, and a light build. She's roughly the same height as System's human form (170cm/5'7"), and her face is very much a thing of beauty, similar to but more conventional than that of Hortus.

"You're kidding me?" Ivy Comet noticed.

"You... look like Makoto... Yuki." System noticed. "Miss Death."

"Hello, all who dwelled." The figure bowed.

"Are you serious?!" Ivy Comet recognized the voice.

"Are you... Nyx?" 2025!Pechy couldn't help but see the beautiful woman with gentle expression.


Note: The P-1 Special has started, and while it's leaning towards Pechy and Ivy, this one also saw fights that I curated in writing, as well as returnees of all kinds, some new and some old. First up, It's 7th anniversary of Fortnite Battle Royale (2017), 4th anniversary of Genshin Impact (2020) and 10th anniversary of Destiny (2014-)!

Starting up, the Ivy vs. Joker fight continues off the prelude from the previous chapter, and while it's technically 2-on-1 which should be mostly forbidden, however, Ivy Comet and Ivy Jolicoeur are now both linked up and connected as one life as of IVY: World of The Future (2024), so instead that's 1.5-on-1 (one-and-a-half-on-one), with indirect compensation though Ivy Jolicoeur as an angel to match Arsene, Joker's Persona. Except the Joker is not real there: it's Shadow Joker l, a showboat traumatized by Shido's bullshit that got the real deal falsely convicted at the very start of Persona 5 (2016). The Shadow Joker is a Shadow-type through and through from Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (2013), and yet he and then some tried to Instant Kill. This isn't possible in-game, which is a hint towards the expanded nature these Shadow-types assumed. More on that... down now.

Pechy vs. Yu. Shadow Yu is the same as in Ultimax, but is shown extremely caring for Nanako Dojima (堂島菜々子) to the templar level while hating loneliness. This is a combination of the power-hungry and brother-templar Ultimax characterizations with the Persona 4 Animation's aversion to loneliness, for Yu didn't want to leave Inaba. This fake Narukami wants to protect Nanako and be with his friends - the Investigation Team - no matter what, even if he has to enjoy the power that the real deal fears he has and to lie about stuffs just to stay in Inaba. Both don't truly care about the real truth-seeking overall, and just want everything to be with him, including both his godly powers (courtesy of Izanagi-no-Okami) and his friends. The real Yu is able to leave Inaba while still being friends and trusting with the Investigation Team, and not forget Dojima residence, without sacrificing truth or killing anyone willingly. I was to reconcile the two sets of characterizations, and so it's interesting. Also, Shadow Yu further shows that the engineered Shadows are better than ever, now that they can use Instant Kill and Shadow Frenzy.

While the addition of Persona 5 Tactica (2023) seems separate, they do get the message with... but first, Eri Natsuhara is back to the combat now, taking the role of Erina; her cane becomes Erina's spear once she becomes Erina herself. Toshiro Kasukabe himself still has the original Erina - Ernesto, his Persona - and it's after Strikers (2020), so he's already the Prime Minister of Rebellion (hence the P-1 nickname) who's slowly regaining the trust of the public, with the help of Eri herself. It's Toshiro and Erina all over again, and thus time, Shadow Toshiro is back and now accompanied by Shadow Erina, whose face is almost a copy of the bloodied form of Eri that Shadow Toshiro once assumed. And both fakes think that Salmael was right. After defeating the fakes, Toshiro and Eri(na) had to get going, and here's the hint for the moment: they're now in Tartarus.

A 2-on-2 akin to BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (2018), this time featuring two Cross Edition veterans: former tournament host System No. XX (from BBTAG herself!) and an Shonen Jump fic-original, Tenma Jumpson! System/Jumpson vs. Aigis/Metis saw the same robots that acted out of character in the Island reveals themselves on the battlefield to be fakes, forcing the two to destroy the Shadows. Both has Orgia modes (Aigis originally lost hers when she first became a Wild Card in "The Answer"; you can use it in fighting games where she appears in) which were both used to boost all the robots' outputs, but the multiversal forces were able to adapt. The veterans knows the goddamn fighting, since they were at least once gotten into a fighting tournament themselves! It happened in front of Kenjutsu Crossing, where Pechy and Ivy reunited and met the two multiversal ones, only to be confronted by Hortus Zankyo (Zankyou Hortus if Japanese order), whose name translates into "Echo of the Garden" ("hortus" is "garden" in Latin, and then there's Episode: Echoes (2024)).

And finally, for the nicknames. "Phantom Thief of Hearts" for Joker is very much a riff on the possession of his, spoken in a way that may paint him as the true criminal that Shido thinks he was in Persona 5 media. Ivy Comet has "Dreamcatcher Crystal Reincarnate" which mocks her nature as her own clone, while Ivy Jolicoeur's "Cross-Dimensional Guardian Angel" riffs on her demise at the hands of Amaya Shadow (who wasn't even from Taylor Jolicoeur's Dreamcatcher Crystal Universe All-Stars). Yu keeps "Sister Complex Kingpin of Steel", while Pechy Comet's "Witchcraft of the Wishing Star" is a reference of Renee Jaillet's former bullying of her (Renee also used to mock Penny Luna's nature as an alien; Amaya painted Pechy as "witchcraft" villain in Dreamcatcher: The Last Dream Wish (2023) in an attempt to trap her in nightmares). Toshiro's "Prime Minister of Rebellion" combines the themes of politics and rebellion, a mockery of his rebellion which dumped much of his reputation down at the end of Tactica's main story. Erina's "The Resistance Incarnate" is a joke on the original Erina herself, thus effectively mocking Eri Natsuhara and her (and Toshiro's) will. Aigis retains "The Heartless Armed Angel" and System and Jumpson retained their technically ironic/cringily mocking nicknames from Cross Edition ("The Invader of Next Possibilities" because of her actions/"Legendary Hero behind the Jump Force" because his home game, Jump Force (2019), was poorly received), while Metis' "Menace of Repressed Humanity" makes fun of her nature as Aigis' repressed human emotions during the events of "The Answer".

The maternal copy of Makoto Yuuki (結城理) of Persona 3 (2006, 2024)? More of P-1? Hortus and General Teddie? Darkbolts? The friends? Be sure to promote the entire crossover project as well! Confused? Here's how you can do it: share the project and the fanfiction to social media, TV Tropes pages, appropriate forums and conversations, and get everyone to know and help! (No drama please!)

Until next time...

Cross-trivia:

(*1) - References to the Satanael awakening at the end of 2nd semester portion of Persona 5 (2016). Satanael is the 2nd-tier Persona of Ren Amamiya (雨宮蓮) "Joker", the protagonist.

(*2) - "Dreamcatcher Warrior Smash LIGHT" is the original reading of the finishers of Comet familia's dream powers in Dreamcatcher-awake series.

(*3) - Yaldabaoth, the God of Control, impersonated Igor (of the Velvet Room) during the first two semesters of Persona 5 (2016).

(*4) - David Martinez from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) was one of the combatants at P-1 Cross Edition from Beyond the Edge.

(*5) - Ziodyne!

(*6) - See Prologue #2.

(*7) - Yu Narukami's playstyle in fighting games, essentially "shoto"-based movesets with puppet being his Persona, Izanagi.

(*8) - In-game, Shadow-types cannot use Instant Kill. This trivia shows that there's more to today's Shadow-types (in-universe) this time around.

(*9) - Referencing Ren's backstory in Persona 5 (2016).

(*10) - Dreamcatcher: Warzone takes place after the events of Persona 5 Strikers (2020), which in turn took place after the main story of Persona 5 Tactica (2023). Toshiro got his Persona - Ernesto, the original Erina awakened - at this point.

(*11) - Shadow Toshiro's second phase, which takes the appearance of a bloodied corpse of the teenaged Eri Natsuhara in giant size. Shadow Erina has basically the same face as that, but as adult and also with intact mouth instead.

(*12) - Teddie (クマ) from Persona 4 (2009-2012).

(*13) - System No. XX from BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (2018) was forced to participate in P-1 Cross Edition in Beyond the Edge. Also, one member of David Martinez's version of the Investigation Team.

(*14) - See Sonic Prime Overclocked.

(*15) - For the commercial in detail, see the previous chapter (#7, the one where it's Metis and Aigis out-of-character instead of Iron Man)!

(*16) - Tenma Jumpson represents Jump Force (2019), first appearing in Beyond the Edge. One member of David Martinez's version of the Investigation Team.

(*17) - Fixed Aigis' Instant Kill for you, Atlus.

(*18) - How did people canonically leave the last Keystone Scramble tournament, again? See Season 2 of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (2018).

(*19) - See Successor of Anti-Life.