Chapter 1 of The Next Seventh Chevron is up on Ao3, now! Go me!
Here, however, is the copy for here, because I’m weird like that.
"So far so good, sir." Sergeant Harriman expertly panned the M.A.L.P. camera from one side to the other, examining what seemed to be the inside of a cave with the air of a man who'd seen the insides of far too many caves through a security camera.
"We've got some movement," he noted, pausing the camera where a shadow had flickered for a moment before stilling again.
"Natives?" General Hammond asked, peering down at the screen.
"Or animals. More likely animals. I’m not seeing any lights or fire." Harriman agreed, and resumed panning across the cave. "There we go. The DHD looks fine."
On screen, the raised pedestal drew closer, then turned as the M.A.L.P. circled around it to get a good look at the buttons.
"Looks clear, sir." Harriman judged a moment later, and Hammond straightened up, looking out the window of the operations room and down into the staging room, meeting Colonel Jack O'Neill's eyes and giving him a short nod before pressing the button to turn on the microphone into the room.
"SG1, you are clear to go. Good luck, people."
The four figures in the room below didn't waste any time, hefting backpacks higher on their shoulders and doing one last weapons check before one by one stepping through a rippling, waterlike curtain of energy.
A moment later, with a rushing sound not unlike a waterfall running backwards, the energy vanished, leaving behind only a ring, standing on edge, with a ramp leading up to it.
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"Oh yeah! Krusty's here too!" Kanami's voice was cheerful, and Shiroe's eyes widened.
"Krusty's what!?"
"He's here! We found him a couple of weeks ago, just wandering in the desert!"
A deep breath.
Another.
"That's- that's really great. We were worried about him." Hopefully his voice didn't shake as much as he thought it had, and he tried to ignore the watery 'He's okay!' from behind him.
Static crackled, and another, unfamiliar voice interrupted the conversation. "Teal'c? Major? We've got company, and it doesn't look friendly!"
Shiroe blinked.
What?
"Shiroe?" Kanami's voice was curious, "Who was that? More friends of yours? What did they say?"
"No," Shiroe frowned, "that came over the radio. I don’t know who it was."
"Really? That's so cool!"
"It's not possible," Shiroe corrected, "we're currently using the only radio array in Yamato, and I'm not even sure how we’re reaching China!"
Another burst of static cut through whatever it was that Kanami was about to say, and Shiroe froze, listening.
"Colonel, we ran into hostiles after the third fork. We’re going to have to fall back to the gate. We’ll meet you there."
Shiroe's eyebrows lifted.
Major?
Colonel?
The first voice came crackling through the dish, sharp cracks of noise almost drowning out the shouted request for a status update from the Major.
Shiroe frowned. "That sounds oddly familiar..." he mused, and from Kanami's end of the connection he heard muffled shouting.
"Really?" This time Kanami's voice is more concerned than curious, "What was it?"
Rieze’s voice was strangled when she spoke. “Shiroe, you never played any fps games, did you?”
“No, why?”
“That was gunfire .”
Shiroe startled, almost dropping his staff.
"That's impossible!" He exclaimed, "Guns don't exist on Theldessia!"
"Maybe an Adventurer re-created them?"
Shiroe could almost see the concerned frown on Kanami's face.
“No,” Rieze disagreed, moving forward to stand where her voice would better reach the broadcast array, “It sounded more like an automatic weapon, and that’s really not something that you can just make witho-”
"Sir, we're being pushed back to the gate by humanoid rats! We could really use some backup!"
Shiroe froze.
He had no idea what gate the woman was talking about.
He had no idea where she was.
But.
“Rat-men inflict the plague status effect…” Rieze murmured, her knuckles white around her staff. “And they don’t sound like adventurers.”
"Go on," Kanami's voice was almost gentle, "They need help, right? I'll still be here when you get back!"
"There's no guarantee that the array will continue to function for much longer," Re-gann warned him, glancing up from where he'd been fiddling with the wires that connected the radio array to the odd power pack he'd hauled through the building.
"Then you'll just have to save them quickly!" Kanami said impatiently, "And if we don't get a chance to say goodbye, that's fine! We'll just have to hurry and get to Yamato as fast as we can!"
"Right." two fingers adjusted his glasses, and for a moment he was silent, thinking hard.
"Radios." Shiroe said abruptly, his head coming up with the realization, "That's how we're hearing them; they're using radios too. Short range, more than likely, and military issue, since they're calling each other Colonel and Major. The range on those is..." he paused, then, shook his head, "variable, depending on terrain, but no more than a few kilometres."
"They don't seem to be able to hear one another," Soujiro put in helpfully, and Shiroe nodded.
"Difficult terrain can interfere with the signal, but we're higher up, and using a more powerful array, so we can hear them."
Two steps took him to the door, and for a split second he hesitated, glancing back at the radio array.
"I'll talk to you soon, Kanami," he called, and got a happy laugh and cheer of "Go get 'em!" before he strode out of the room.
"Does anyone remember the nearest location that spawns Rat-men?" he asked the room at large.
"Nakano?" Kitsunesaru ventured, his brow furrowed as he thought. "I think Rat-men spawn there sometimes."
"Some of the areas in the Hero's Mausoleum," Kushi Yatama added, and Soujiro, having followed Shiroe out of the radio room, nodded.
"Shinjuku Underground, too." He added, "Those three are the closest dungeons I know of, though."
Several of the others, all older players, added their assent and Shiroe planted his staff in front of himself, running his fingers over the smoothed wood as he thought.
"Are we going to go help them?" Hien asked, and Shiroe raised his eyebrow at the Wolf Fang, who shrugged. "What? It's not like most of us couldn't hear."
Shiroe sighed, then nodded. "Anyone who wants to help is welcome. Split into three groups, and head out. I, and anyone who wants to come, am going to the Shinjuku Underground Passage. Those of you who were listening, please fill in those who couldn't hear, but do it on the move. From the sound of it those people don't have a lot of time."
And with that, he strode toward the door, his cloak billowing behind him.
To absolutely no one's surprise, a flash of pink heralded Akatsuki teleporting to his side, falling in step with him as though she'd simply walked up. Minori and Tohya were next, and Shiroe glanced at Naotsugu as they passed him. The Guardian gave a barely perceptible nod, and fell in behind the four, pulling his griffon whistle out of his inventory as he went.
"We're going to be moving fast," Shiroe said, his face intent as they stepped through the shattered front doors and out into the bright sunlight, "but I know you all can handle it. It's not going to be quite as hard as the raid we just finished, but there is a chance that we won't make it in time. Those people could already be..."
He trailed off, swallowing uncomfortably.
"It'll be fine." Minori's voice was firm, and when Shiroe glanced down at her from the corner of his eye her face was as stubborn as if she'd just been told that she couldn't be a proper strategist because she was just a healer. And a girl .
(Shiroe had been around the corner when the luckless Guardian from one of the smallest guilds had said that, and the blistering diatribe Minori had unleashed had been worth the teeth marks Shiroe had left in his own hand trying not to laugh.)
“Yeah!” Tohya agreed, his smile full of steely eyed determination, “We’ll be fine, and those people will be fine too!”
Akatsuki huffed in agreement on his other side, and Naotsugu just shoved him gently in between the shoulder blades, rushing him the last couple of steps toward the clear area that would be best for summoning the griffons.
Two whistles, high and clear, soared through the clear air, and Shiroe listened for the returning screech of the griffons before turning toward his guildmates.
“Minori, you’ll be riding with Naotsugu. You’re light enough that it shouldn’t encumber the Griffon. Tohya, you’ll be with me and Akatsuki-”
“We’re coming too!!” Tetora, Isuzu, and Rundelhaus Code darted through the broken doors and across the cracked asphalt, Nyanta strolling along in their wake with his own griffon whistle raised to his lips.
Shiroe blinked, then looked between the seven adventurers and the two griffons that were only just touching down.
Even the griffons looked skeptical.
Right.
“Minori, Tetora, with Naotsugu. Isuzu, Akatsuki, with me. Rundelhaus, go with Chief Nyanta-”
“I’m heading to Nakano, nyan~” the werecat said, swinging up into the saddle of his griffon and pulling Serera to sit in front of him. Henrietta clambered up behind him, only slightly awkwardly, and settled stiffly into the saddle. “Isami and Yuzuko’ll follow, and Rudy can go with them.”
Rudy hesitated for a moment, glancing between Isuzu, Nyanta, and Shiroe, before nodding firmly.
“I won’t let you down, Master Shiroe!”
“Good.” Shiroe waited for a moment, watching as the blond boy trotted over to join the two women, then steeled himself. “Good luck!”
Slim fingers clutched the reins of his griffon tightly for a moment, then Shiroe tapped his heels against the feathered sides of his mount, which leapt into the air with great, surging beats of its wings.
“Why are so many more people coming with us?” Isuzu asked, peering back down at the ground, where a fourth griffon had just landed in front of a group headed by Soujiro.
“The Underground Passage for Shinjuku is huge,” Akatsuki explained, “And we aren’t sure where those people are, if they’re even there. Having more people means we’ll be able to split up if we need to, and move faster because we’ll be beating the monsters faster.”
“Nakano Mall is fairly large as well,” Shiroe added, “But the trick with that dungeon is the layout. It gets really confusing for some people, which is why Nyanta is going; he used to farm there when he first started playing Elder Tales.”
“Ohhh, what’s the other place? The Hero’s Mustang?”
“Mausoleum,” Shiro corrected automatically, “The whole area is a haunted graveyard. Once a year or so there’s an event; The Festival of The New Emperor’s Return. Most of the monsters there are undead, but in a couple of the underground crypts there’s places where Rat-men can spawn.”
“Huh.” Isuzu sat back thoughtfully, “Are we going to have to worry about that?”
Shiroe shrugged, “Maybe. It all depends.”
For a moment the three of them flew in silence, then Isuzu twisted around to get a better look at where Naotsugu’s griffon was flying laboriously after Shiroe’s. “Is that griffon going to be okay?”
Shiroe glanced back, then winced. “I hope so. I don’t think it would have taken off if it was overloaded, but we might have to avoid having Naotsugu summon it for a while, just to let it rest after this.”
Isuzu grinned at that, and at Naotsugu’s imagined reaction to it, then tucked her face close to Shiroe’s back to get her leaking eyes out of the air rushing past her face.
It was only another couple of minutes before the Shiroe saw the ruins of the aboveground part of Shinjuku station and the village that had sprung up in and around them and angled his griffon towards the ground as close as he could get to the entrance he was most familiar with.
The griffon landed with a light thump, and its three passengers dismounted as fast as possible, Shiroe dismissing his mount with a soft ‘thank you’ and a quick beak scratch.
Instead of flying off immediately, however, it waited until Naotsugu, Tetora, and Minori had dismounted, then paced over to Naotsugu’s mount and checked it over concernedly.
Shiroe ignored the byplay, focusing instead on the stairwell that led down into the underground part of the ruined version of Shinjuku Station.
“I always hated coming here.” Akatsuki muttered darkly from beside him, glaring balefully at the dark stairwell, “I had enough of getting lost in the real world.”
Shiroe stifled a snort, and hid his grin behind his hand. He knew exactly what she meant. Even in real life Shinjuku Station was a nightmare to navigate, with stairways that led to floors with no other stairways off, or floors that could only be accessed by elevator. Unless you spent a lot of time there, you could usually count on being hopelessly lost within five minutes. And of course, the Shinjuku Underground Passage had to be sufficiently different from the real world version that no one had an advantage, so there were even more twists and turns and dead ends.
Even though the monsters weren’t too hard to deal with, the Shinjuku Underground Passage was still one of the most hated dungeons on the Yamato server.
“So what’s the plan, Mastermind?” Naotsugu asked, coming to stand next to him and peering down the stairwell.
“We’re going to take this as systematically as we can,” Shiroe said, “keep your eyes open for signs of combat, and whatever you do, don’t attack the Rat-men . They don’t usually attack first unless they’re cornered or you’re a lower level, so as long as we move fast we should be able to get through without being bogged down by fighting everything.”
“Sounds good to me!” Tohya grinned, settling his hand on the hilt of his sword and staring eagerly into the darkness.
“Minori?” Shiroe asked, glancing at her, “Tetora? Last chance to back out.”
Minori scowled up at him, her grip on her staff tightening until her knuckles were white. “I’m staying.” She informed him, and Tetora grinned broadly at him.
“I can’t just sit back and let the opportunity for others to bask in my presence pass by!” She chirped, “There’s no way I’d ever forgive myself!”
Shiroe sighed, smiling fondly, and nodded once.
“All right then. Let’s go.”
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MCU characters' interaction with U29
Tony Stark aka Ironman: doing science together with Koshiro where Koshiro occasionally hack his Nanotechnology with his own Technopathy. as well he finds out that Robin, Domon, Fuko, Mikagami, Koganei, Isami, Toshi, and Soshi are like him(in terms of having no Powers, except unlike Ironman they have Magical weapons, with the exception of Robin)
Steve Rogers aka Captain America: Armwrestling with Robin where Robin wins against him. and fights alongside Goofy with Shields
Bruce Banner aka Professor Hulk: his Powers caught Joe's Attention as well like Beast Boy, he's green. and he's also being science bros
Thor Odinson: sit and talk with Starfire and Starfire kiss him for learning asgardian language.
Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow: have Misty for Sparring Partner, she finds having Recca, Domon, Fuko, Mikagami, or Koganei as well Robin for her sparing partners is too much for her
Clint Barton aka Hawkeye: having archery with Koganei, Soshi, and Ash(latter uses Aura constructs)
Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier: Koshiro upgrade his bionic arm with his technopathy
Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet witch: telepathically converse with Hikari and Raven over their psychic powers
Vision: Koshiro read his mind
Sam Wilson aka Falcon: finds out Tracey can materializes his wings with his magical pencil
James Rhodes aka War Machine: finds out that Taichi can treats his armor like Play-doh
T'Challa aka Black Panther: have Robin for his sparring partner and Beast Boy cooks some vegetarian food for him, Koshiro can electrocute him through his suit
Peter Parker aka Spiderman: Armwrestling with Ash(where he's as strong as Spiderman cuz of his Aura powers). when fighting Beast Boy, he can exploit BB's size as T-rex
Scott Lang aka Ant-man: his suit catch Koshiro's attention
Peter Quill aka Star Lord: sit and talk with Raven about their evil dads(even when the death of Starlord's father cost his own powers)
Peter Maximoff aka Quicksilver: Takeru bring him back with his time travel powers until Professor Hulk berate Takeru's time travel pseudoscientific(albeit not on the level of Christopher Reeve!Superman's time travel)
Doctor Stephen Strange: practice magic together with Raven and Donald Duck
Groot: Mimi read his mind with her powers
Gamora: she met her fellow space babe with Orange skin
Rocket Raccoon: Madogus and Shinsengumi arsenals as well Keyblades may catch his attention
Drax:???
Mantis: she met fellow empaths: Sora, Ash, Hikari, and Raven
Nebula: Koshiro occasionaly hack her cybernetics
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