Dance of Swords

I never would have thought that my love of helping crafting interesting stories would get me into trouble. Then again, I didn't really think that ROB's were a thing. Now I'm stuck in a world that could best be described as on life support with powers I have no idea how to use. Oh well, at least I'm not alone.

So yeah, another of these that probably won't be continued. I really don't have much to say, so lets get started. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Urrrrg, so bored," I moaned, leaning back in my chair.

It was one of those mind numbing days when nothing seems to keep you interested, not helped in the least that my days off from work had fallen in such a way I ended up with a full week off. The house was empty, I'd already read all of the recently updated stories on my list, there was nothing new that looked interesting and my muse had decided to take a vacation somewhere nice. Normally, I'd fire up my Playstation, but since it was currently updating, that was right out.

PING!

I sighed and sat up, bringing up my Gmail tab and found that it was a PM on Space Battles. Considering I was a recent addition and generally didn't comment that much, I hadn't received much in the way of PMs. I idly clicked on it and found it was from someone called 'Robert Oswald Bordeaux'. Interesting name.

Hey Dis, big fan of your work!

Why thank you! A bit of ego stroking is never unwelcome.

Listen, I've been working on an idea of my own, but I'm having trouble coming up with exactly how to do it. Mind helping?

I raised an eyebrow, but sent back a quick message that I'd be willing, assuming I knew the story they were working with.

Thanks man. OK, so the basic gist of the idea is for someone to get dropped into Worm (yes its one of those) with the power of a character from fiction and a Servant as a tagalong. Any ideas for what powers and who I should use?

I snorted. This sort of story was right up my alley considering how much I enjoyed doing them myself. I thought for a moment and then started typing.

My first instinct for the first part is to say to give the MC something either OP as hell or utterly humiliating while still being useful. Whatever is given should be either easily mastered or come with at least the basics since wasting time training is something that breaks the flow, although instant mastery isn't needed. A good bases would be to pick a character and basically give the MC their powers and skillset at some point along their journey, either when they are first introduced or after they come into their own, but before things really get good for them.

As for the Servant, again, I'm tempted to just say Artoria and leave it at that, but that would be dull. Whoever you decide to use though, it would be best to either choose someone without a wish or with one thats easy to grant or say that whoever, or whatever, is responsible for the two being there has promised to grant said wish, otherwise it wouldn't make a lick of sense as to why they'd do anything other than take of the Masters head so they can have another chance later.

As for who I'd use? Well, for some reason I'd kinda like to see a story with the MC having the powers and skills of Xenovia when she first arrives, plus EX-Durandal and for the Servant, I'd say Altera, just for the shits and giggles of someone for whom destruction is everything being given the job of saving the world, or Jeanne because shes pretty cool. That help?

I hit send and, after a moments thought, pulled up a word processor of my own. The idea wasn't a bad one and I could think of a few ways I could use it without stepping on Roberts toes. I didn't have long to plan though before I received a message back.

It does actually. Thanks for the help mate and I'm sorry in advance.

I frowned. Sorry for what? Before I could send a message back asking what the hell he was on about, my computer screen went black. I had just enough time to register a flash of red and white, before an arm reached out of the screen, grabbed me by the collar and yanked me through it.

"WHAT THE FLYING FUCK!?" I screamed as I fell through a seemingly endless tunnel of swirling rainbows.

As I fell, I felt something begin to change. My body began to burn and I could actually feel my bones and muscles begin to change shape. Then, my head split open as a frankly insane amount of knowledge was rammed into it all at once. I screamed once and blacked out.

Consciousness returned to me slowly, with the first things I became aware of was the smell of wildflowers with a second coppery scent lurking just below the smell that the new knowledge that I'd been forcefully given identified as blood, and the second was that I was laying on a hard floor and my head was being supported by something much softer and warmer. I groaned softly and opened my eyes. I blinked a couple of times, trying to figure out what was odd about the ceiling above me, before my pillow shifted slightly and a face leaned over me.

It was a woman with dark skin, red eyes and silver hair under a veil that blended in with her hair almost perfectly. She was wearing a white bodysuit, decorated with black patterned and a green, red and blue bar between her breasts, detached sleeves and a white choker. She was beautiful, but in the same way that sword was beautiful, cold and cruel with no concept of mercy.

Then she smiled and the coldness melted away.

"Ah, your OK," she said, her voice surprisingly soft, "I was worried."

I blinked.

"Um, thanks?" I said, "Where am I?"

Without waiting for an answer, I sat up and looked around. We were in what appeared to be an abandoned house, one that was mostly bare of anything except for dust and a number of very large spider webs.

"No really, where are we?" I asked, more than a little confused.

"Um, I believe that we're in Canberra," said Altera, holding up a newspaper, "Thats what this says anyway."

"Canberra huh?" I muttered as I took the paper and scanned the article.

I didn't recognize the Capes on the cover, but a quick flick through did bring up a couple of names I recognized. No doubt about it, I'm in Worm. I sighed and tossed the paper aside as I turned to Altera.

I'll be honest, she wasn't really what I expected. I mean, she looked exactly like her character modal from Extella, the source I was most familiar with, but I didn't get any sense of sadness, regret or anything else I associated with her. I frowned.

"So, at the risk of sounding rude, which version of Altera are you?" I asked, "Do I have to worry about you turning into a Goddess of Destruction or are you an actual Servant."

Altera cocked her head on one side and smiled softly.

"Neither actually," she said, "I am not a Servant, but nor am I my Moon self. I'm not even sure if that truly exists any more…"

She frowned slightly.

"I believe I am closer to the person I was when I was alive, albeit with a lot of my memories as a Servant. My strength is lower, although still beyond any normal Human and even most...Parahumans I believe they are called, and I have access to my Noble Phantasms. I am also my own existence, not a Spirit bound to you."

"I see," I said slowly.

That was both good and bad. Good because I'm pretty sure that Sefar was worse than an Endbringer when you considered that she was designed to destroy Civilization and grew stronger from it, in addition to not having any reason to hold back, bad because it meant that I didn't have any real way to reign her in if she got out of hand.

"You needn't worry," said Altera, drawing my attention back to her, "I have no real desire to cause needless destruction anymore. Had I been summoned normally, I likely would have, but this version of me is closer in personality to my Moon counterpart."

"So basically, three personalities and a general want for communication rather than destruction?" I asked, "Thats nice."

I shook my head and rubbed my temples.

"This is getting confusing," I groaned, "Alright, I've got the basics, now we need to make some plans as to what we're going to do…starting with getting me some clothes."

I was only wearing my PJ bottoms and a dressing gown after all. Not really the sort of thing thats conducive to being taken seriously.

"Ah, I thought you might need some apparel and collected you some before you woke up," said Altera, pointing to a pile of neatly folded clothes sitting on the mattress, "Theres a bathroom through there."

She pointed at a door I hadn't noticed.

"Um, thanks," I said, a little taken aback at the thoughtfulness.

Then again, her 'main' personality was supposed to be a kind and merciful goddess, whatever that meant, and she was certainly generous enough towards Hakuno during their time together.

I headed into the bathroom, which was just as filthy as the room outside, and unfolded the clothing. I was mildly amused to see that the shirt was one that depicted the Triumvirate in a pose that looked oddly like Altera's prism symbol, while the rest of it was a pair of jean shorts, because its fucking hot in Australia, a light denim jacket and a pair of sneakers. They were all in my size, so I quickly got dressed.

As I finished and straightened up, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and froze. Looking back at me was a face that was both familiar and not at the same time. I still looked the same, a relatively handsome 20 year old, but some of the imperfections in my face had been removed, like my admittedly large front teeth and apparently my glasses. However, the most obvious change was my hair. It was the exact same shade of blue as Xenovia's, including the part of her fringe that was dyed green.

"Well thats...interesting," I muttered as I tugged on the green lock of hair, "I guess this means that he took my suggestions. Either that or the hair's a red herring."

I closed my eyes and focused. It didn't take long to realize that I did in fact have a lot of skills I didn't before, ranging from swordsmanship suitable for welding Durandal and Excalibur Destruction, to barefist fighting, to Exorcism, to some interesting Magic tricks, to a rather large number of memorized bible passages. I doubted they'd ever come in useful, but the Magic would be since it wasn't limited to just Durandal.

I thought for a moment, then held out a hand and accessed said pocket dimension. It took a bit of concentration, but instead of Durandal, a metal rod was spat out of the small spacial rift and quickly morphed into the shape of a pair of gauntlets on my hands.

"Heh, that'll be useful," I muttered as I flexed my fingers, feeling the metal shift easily, "Neat."

I dismissed Mimic and left the bathroom to find that Altera had moved to the window and was now staring out of the window at the street below.

"You OK?" I asked as I approached.

"Oh, yes I'm fine," said Altera.

I glanced out the window and saw that it overlooked a shopping district. It looked like it was market day since there was a large number of multicolored stalls, all covered in a large number of stuff from crap phones to clothing to home made arts and crafts, including some rather nice hair accessories. I glanced at Altera and was treated to the sight of Attila the Hun, one the the most infamous warmongers in history with a look on her face straight out of a Shojo Anime where the protagonist just saw something cute, wide shimmering eyes and all. Considering she was probably capable of flattening the city on her own in less than a day, even without the boost being a Servant would give her, it was rather jarring. And adorable.

"Come on, lets go have a look around," I said.

Altera blinked and looked up at me. Huh, I didn't notice it before, but she was shorter than me. Thats...interesting?

"But don't we need to plan?" she asked

"We've got plenty of time to do that later," I said, "Besides, we can't actually do much until we can find a way to get to the US. I don't know much about anything about Australia in this world, other than the fact that the Simurgh is due to hit Canberra and they had a particularly nasty Villain who got Caged. We can spend some time looking around, even if we don't have any money."

I picked up the newspaper, intending to drop it into a bin, only to pause when I saw my faux leather wallet laying on the bed. I picked it up and opened it to reveal that it was full of Australian dollars.

"Huh, thats nice," I muttered suspiciously.

I know for a fact that my wallet hadn't been there a moment ago and I really don't think that any ROB worth his salt would give us money for nothing. Even if it wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, ROBs didn't have a reputation for being nice.

"Is something wrong?" asked Altera.

"No, its nothing," I said, shaking off my worry.

Whatever the ROB had planned, there was nothing I could do about it, so I might as well take some time to enjoy the sights before the shit hit the fan.

As it turned out, doing so was an excellent idea. After Altera had somehow switched out her costume for her 'Altera Next Door' skin, we headed out and started poking around. During that time, I quickly learnt that, regardless of her historical reputation, Altera was apparently very much a young woman at heart and thus, I somehow ended up weighed down under a number of cavus bags of tat she ended up buying, all of which I tossed into my storage dimension as soon as I had the chance to when we stopped for lunch.

"I think I just figured out why the ROB gave me some money," I muttered as I examined my now empty wallet, "Oh well, its not like that would have done us much good in the long run. I dare say we can make more fairly easy."

Even if it wasn't anywhere close to Brockton Bay, there were still a number of Villains and gangs that called Canberra home and Vigerlanty Loot laws were a thing.

Speaking of Villains...

BOOM!

The sudden explosion nearly made me drop the sandwich I was just about to bite into as I spun around to see two figures step out of a cloud of smoke from the explosion. It took me about three seconds to recognize them and when I did, I gaped. Why? Because they weren't characters from Worm.

The apparent leader of the duo was skinny, with a hunched posture and dirty blonde hair that appeared to be smouldering slightly. His costume consisted of a pair of dirty yellow shorts that looked like they'd been caught in a few to many explosions and a bandolier of explosives that looked like they were cobbled together from scrap, while his left arm and leg were junk-made prosthetics. He had a spiked wheel strapped to his back and a gun that appeared to be made of junk in his hand.

The other was a large man with a very large, tattooed stomach, dressed only in pants and armour that looked like it was made from, again, junk, along with a gas mask that covered his head. He was armed with a large, sharp looking hook and another junk gun. In short, they were Roadhog and Junkrat.

"YEEEHAWWW, LETS GO GET EM HOGGA!" screamed Junkrat as he opened fire, sending explosive baseballs everywhere.

"Damnit, not this shit again!" shouted the man behind the counter of the stand we'd just bought our lunch from as he dove behind his stand.

"Does this happen often?" I asked.

"Way too often," growled the man, "Those two are complete idiots, but somehow they keep getting away from the APST. Then they turn around and blow things up a week later! I really wish they'd just shove those fuckers in a deep dark hole and nail it shut!"

"Yep, that sounds about right," I muttered.

I had to wonder if the Cauldron had something to do with that or if those two were similar to a much more destructive Uber and Leet. You know, look useless but actually pretty good? Whatever, those two would be pretty good targets for seeing what I could do.

I nodded to myself and crushed the empty package my sandwich had come in.

"Hey Altera, you up for a quick fight?" I called.

In answer, her expression went cold and her outfit changed back to her white dress and vail.

"I believe I will take the big one," she said as Photon Ray appeared in her hand.

"Fair enough," I said, "Now lets get suited up."

I pulled a rods out of thin air, which glowed and morphed into a full suit of armour that looked a lot like Berserker's. Mainly because it looked damn cool. I didn't bother with any other swords, I wouldn't need them for this.

"What the…!?"

Before the stall owner could finish the sentence, I jumped, clearing three tables and nailing Junkrat in the side of the head with a kick as he ran past, cackling like a loon. The crazed bomber sailed across the street and landed head first in a bin.

"What the fuck?!" he sputtered as he pulled himself out of the waste receptacle, "Who the fuck are you!?"

"You can call me Durandal," I said as I cracked my knuckles.

"Fuck you!" snarled Junkrat, "Get him Hogger!"

As if in response, the oversized Brute slammed into a nearby picnic table, which promptly collapsed, jumped to his feet and charged at Altera with a roar.

"I think hes busy," I said, "Now lets rumble!"

I jumped forwards, making a grab for the skinny Villain, who yelped and ducked out of the way. He spun and fired an explosive ball at me. A quick flex of will turned my gauntlet into a shield that swallowed the ball the moment it hit and easily contained the explosion. It expanded back out again into a Kite shield while my other arm sprouted a long baton I used to crack Junkrat over the head. I didn't want to start lopping of limbs after all.

I was just tieing Junkrat up with some handy rope provided by a thankful stall owner (and wondering why the actual hell a good Catholic girl like Xenovia knew how to tie ropes Shibari style) when a few vans with flashing green lights came roaring up, followed by a pillar of smoke that reformed into a tall, massively muscled man in a thick, white and blue jacket with the word JUSTICE written across the back and fur around the hems, blue pants, combat boots and leather gloves. His hair was white and slicked back and his eyes were covered by a white domino mask.

The Cape fixed me with a look for a moment, before glancing around at the destruction, then down at the insensate Junkrat.

"Hnn, not bad kid," he grunted, "Junkrats a pest, but hes still dangerous. Do you know where his partner is?"

I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, Roadhog slammed into the ground beside Junkrat as Altera landed lightly beside me.

"Never mind," said the Cape.

He indicated for the troopers who were gathering behind him to take the two Villains, before turning back to us. He looked me up and down, then did the same to Altera, lingering on her maskless face, before letting out a grunt.

"You got guts kid, not wearing a mask like that," he said.

"I have little reason to hide my face," said Altera.

The Cape stared at her for a moment, then grunted again and reached into his jacket.

"Your choice," he said as he pulled out a cigar and stuck it between his teeth, "Names Smoker. You two are new, right?"

"We are," I said, "We weren't actually planning on deputing yet, but…"

I indicated to the damage caused by the two Villains short rampage.

"Yeah, I get it," said Smoker, "Still, thanks for stepping in. Those two are idiots, but they can still do a lot of damage."

He breathed out a cloud of smoke in a sigh.

"I should really ask you to come in, but things are so hectic at HQ right now you'd be waiting for hours," he said, "Instead, I'd like to request that you come to the APST HQ at some point in the next week to fill out a report."

"Alright, we'll do that," I said.

Smoker grunted and nodded, before turning on his heel and stomping over to the vans without another word.

"Well, that was...interesting," I said.

"Hmm, it was an interesting fight," said Altera as she relaxed slightly, "I discovered some limits that I didn't have before."

"Well, thats good to know," I said, "Better now against an easy opponent than against something like...an...Endbringer…"

I trailed off as a newspaper that had been thrown up by the chaos of the fight slowly floated down in front of me, somehow perfectly angled so I could see the date. I paled and snatched the page out of the air to double check. Nope, I didn't miss read it. It was the 24th of February, 2011.

"Oh you son of a…"

I was cut off by a loud wailing.

Welp, thats where I'll end this one. I'm not entirely happy with my depiction of Altera, but shes a bit hard to get right. The version I'm basing her on is the Moon version, so she basically has three personalities she switches between. Normally, shes kind and generally good, but she can also do cold and fearsome in battle and weak-willed and cute after just waking up or really happy.

So, Charles got some use out of something other than Durandal this time, mainly because he actually had some time to consider it, but also because using a sword that can cut through just about anything against low ranked Villains is asking for trouble. Durandal is for powerful opponents or people he wants dead.

The only canon character from Oz is Gavel, so I was forced to improvise. Junkrat and Roadhog were obvious choices for an easy fight to start with. Junkrat is a Tinker specializing in building things from scrap. Its genarally crude and makes big booms, but its reliable and works. Roadhog on the other hand is a standard Brute, nothing really that special.

As for why I chose Smoker as a Hero, well, I was stuck for ideas and was reading a One Piece story and figured why not. His powers are pretty self explanatory.

Endbringer battle on the horizon! Should be interesting, assuming I ever get around to doing more of this.

Anyway, I'm done so I'm gonna sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!