Chapter Text
Mission Briefing - Recon.
MultiVerse Patrol/Preservation, MVP.
MultiVerse Patrol Agents Roxanne “Aria” Wilsons & Lucifer “Lucky” Genova are dispatched for this mission. Please note anything between quotes is simply a code name to maintain privacy/professionalism during a mission.
Destination - Sector 14, “Nightfall”, a universe with no stars and, as a result, no sun. Agents are equipped with night vision in the case of complete darkness.
Mission will be overseen by Agent Emory “Arden” Cortana. He will be monitoring them via their trackers from the ship, and will send any important information found to administration for review.
Irregular multiversal travel has been spotted in this region, as well as a spike in some sort of unrecognizable dark magic. Agents are allowed to get their answers by any means necessary. Just try not to make too much of a mess.
Best of luck,
Administrator Shallows.
“ Alright fellas, I’ve settled the ship a fair distance away from the point marked for you guys, so I hope you’re both prepared for a long walk in the dark.” Emory’s voice blared in their ears. Lucky flinched at the sudden loud voice in his ears, but Roxanne did not seem to care.
After properly adjusting the volume, Lucky nodded.
“Yeah, totall-... wait, so we’re gonna be walking down a road in the dark…?”
“ Yeah. You have a gun. You’re like, the best shot in the MVPs. ”
Lucky simply rolled his eyes behind his glasses.
“...fine, fine, but just my luck, we get bowled over by a 16-wheeler and-”
“And I punch through it. Sounds like a fun plan.” Roxanne interrupted, zipping up her coat, “Are we done complaining, yet?”
“Fine, fine, yeah… but I’m just saying, it pays to be a little careful… I mean, what if we run into B-...” Lucky paused, shocked by the receiving end of Roxanne’s death stare. “...uhh… bad guys.”
“ Were your orders to bitch, Lucky?”
Sighing and tucking his gun into his jacket, Lucky rolled his eyes again.
“Suit yourselves, but I still don’t think this is a good idea. What if we run into another cult? Like last time we explored dark magic readings.”
“I punch through that too. Anything else?”
With both of his teammates mocking him, Lucky had no other choice but to, albeit with some struggle at first, nod and go along with it.
“...fine, fine. For real this time. Let’s just get this over with so we can report back to… th-the boss.”
With his complaining out of the way, Lucky made his way to the back of the ship and pulled the lever on the wall, lowering the back of the ship to the ground like those fancy military carriers. Outside was nothing but nighttime forest for a good long walk. One would imagine the crickets may get exhausted since this world was nothing but endless dark, but the crickets were actually louder than most of the other nighttime creatures that made noise.
“...the bugs ain’t gonna be an issue, right?” Roxanne asked, tugging at her sweater collar to mask the anxiety.
“And you got on me for bitching…” Lucky snorted, already halfway out the ship.
Roxanne rolled her eyes, adjusting her gloves and making her way out behind Lucky.
“...shut up. Let’s just go. I don’t like this…”
“ Jeeee-zus, you guys are both so scaredy… this place’s crime rates are low as shit. I mean, I don’t think anyone here would hurt a fly. We’re just investigating what’s probably just a freak accident. You’ll be in, out, and back at base doing nothing again in no time.” Emory assured them, shutting the exit after Roxanne finally stepped out. “ Just like old times. ”
“If it were like old times, they’d have let Cap come with us.” Lucky sighed, nearly slipping over a tree root after. “I-I mean, it’s not like I don’t appreciate the new way of things! But I do miss… y’know… certain aspects of old times…”
“Cap? We see that guy every day at the base. I miss Simon. And Amber. And even those other freaks they hire sometimes when they want someone expendable.” Roxanne blurted just a little too loudly.
“Code names do exist, but yes…” Lucky paused, taking a right when they finally made it to the road that led to town. “...th-they don’t monitor comms, right?”
“ No. Only for missions when higher staff is involved. ”
Lucky let out a relieved sigh and continued, “Th-then can we discuss the bullshit that is the new ‘higher staff’ thing? I mean, we save the multiverse and e-even reality as we know it… and Simon and Amber get to run the place, and w-we get-”
“Hey. Quit that, we’re still their friends and they’ll always hold us in higher regard than other agents. Why do you think we’re here right now?” Roxanne proposed, “Ya can’t be happy when you’re always thinking about someone else’s job.”
“But that’s not what I mean. I-I like my job. Mostly. But we helped. Don’t you think we deserve… more? We were half the effort. Y-you gave your life for the cause…!”
“ ...did you wanna be Alpha, Lucky? ”
“No, that’s not what I’m…! Listen! Just…” Lucky balled his hands into fists for a second, taking a deep breath. “The administrator was where we are now before we did all that… multiverse stuff.”
After getting an “uh-huh” from both of the others, Lucky went on.
“...that doesn’t bother you? All of us do something good y-yet only Simon gets the… the promotion?”
“Frankly, I don’t care. I’m only here because I need to beat the shit out of people. But you do have a point. Again,” Roxanne grinned, throwing her arms up in a casual shrug, “I do miss ‘em, but it doesn’t bother me that much.”
“... let’s just get the mission over with. Maybe the captain will understand you, L. ”
Lucky groaned, throwing his hands up in frustration.
“Alright…”
After a very long and super awkwardly-silent walk, they finally made it to the little town they’d been searching for. The only lights to be seen besides the moonlight above were the little streetlights, which were a rather blue-ish tone to fit the theme of, y’know, eternal darkness and all that. All the cute little stores and stops had the same open 24-7 sign, likely for good reason. It was just like a normal downtown road, with the exception of, y’know, sunlight. People walked about as usual, cars drove around, with the headlights all being that same pale blue, and life went on like normal. “Normal” being with sunlight, of course.
The duo ducked into an alleyway so Lucky could examine his MVP-issued watch once more.
“Arden, what’s the plan?”
“ You’re just taking a look around. Seeing if you can find anything weird. Take pictures of anything strange and report any suspicious activity so we can send it in. Got that? ”
“Sounds like fun…” Roxanne grumbled. “...this just doesn’t feel right.”
“Well yeah, there’s no sun he-”
“I know that! It’s something else. Something’s definitely up here…”
Lucky rolled his eyes and turned to the end of the alleyway.
“So, where are we headed first, hm?”
“...I might have an idea.”
Roxanne’s “idea” led the both of them straight to the nearest burger joint. Now standing in line to get their seats, Lucky rocked on his heels.
“...Roxanne, why are we here…” He whispered to her, sliding just a bit closer to be farther from the people behind him.
“Can’t do an investigation on an empty stomach. Duh.” She replied, placing a hand on Lucky’s forehead and shoving him back that same distance he scooted closer.
“ Ooh, bring me back some fries. ”
Before Lucky could reply that Emory, a robot , could not eat, a waiter pushing a cart with food on it slipped and fell on his face, sending the cart bowling towards the people in front of them. Those guys jumped out of the way, leaving Roxanne and Lucky as the next in line. While the couple went about fussing at the waiter, they quickly stole their spot.
“Thanks, Lucky.” Roxanne chuckled, patting him on the head.
“ Don’t mention it… ” Lucky sighed in reply.
After properly getting in some seats, Roxanne glanced down at her watch.
“...y’see that?”
Lucky brought his up to his face. A little red dot was marked on their maps. When he brought up the map and zoomed in juuuust a little closer, the dot was marked as purple.
“Purple? That’s… what does purple mean?”
“Unregistered Magic . What’s up with that? ”
“We should go check that out.” Lucky stated. And neither of them moved. Just staring at each other. Waiting on the other to move first.
“... so neither of you are gonna check it out? ”
Roxanne let out a long sigh and stood, grabbing Lucky by the head and forcing him back into his seat when he tried to join her.
“Get our food to-go, I’ll pay you back later. I’m gonna go check it out.”
Relieved he wouldn’t have to go out there, Lucky nodded.
“H-hey, what kinda drink do you want?” He called after her. When she didn’t reply back, he gave a shrug and leaned back in his seat. “Fine, water it is.”
Roxanne rolled up her sleeves and made her way outside, following the little purple dot on her map. Despite the lack of a sun, it was moderately warm outside. The restaurant was colder than the outside, for sure. It was a bit “later” into the day, though, so significantly less people were out and about. Following the signal into another alleyway, Roxanne glanced up from her watch and noticed a rather strange light ahead of her.
“...Arden, I’m sending in a pic.” Roxanne stated, using her watch to snap a picture of what she saw.
“ ...the hell is that? Looks like a candle. ”
On the ground sat a little purple… something. A rectangular spire of some sort, with little horizontal pink lines placed equal distance apart going up it. The candle part was the purple flame on top, dancing in the breeze like a normal fire would. A pulsating circle surrounded the candle, the magic design looking straight out of some fantasy novel. It also smelled like blood. Old blood.
“...should I touch it?” Roxanne mumbled.
“ Do not touch it, you could like, die, or something.”
“...I’m gonna touch it.” Roxanne asserted, making sure her gloves were on and reaching down for the thing. She yanked at it a few times, trying to pull it from the ground. “...damn, this thing must be pretty deep.” After a lot more yanking and pulling, she finally gave up and sent one more picture to Emory for good measure.
“ You couldn’t even budge it? ”
“Nope. Not even a bit.” Roxanne huffed, looking down at her gloves. “Didn’t leave anything on my gloves, either. Something's definitely fishy here.’
“Hey, I got you some iced tea- what in the hell is that. ”
And here came Lucky, holding a few to-go boxes and a tray of cups. By some miracle of his luck, he hadn’t dropped it yet.
“No idea. But it’s new, it was clearly not here a second ago.”
“ Sending the evidence to administration right now- this might be part of those spikes of energy we’ve been getting. Are there any more of those candles around? ”
“We’ll keep an eye out.” Roxanne stated, taking her iced tea from Lucky and giving it a hearty sip. “...wow, that’s good.”
“It is. A-anyway. What’s the plan? We just go around until we find another one of those candle things?”
Roxanne shrugged, taking another loud sip. “Keep an eye on your watch. I’m guessin’ someone’s going around placing these things for… some reason.”
“Riiiight, right.”
About an hour later, throughout said hour of searching, they reported a total of seven other candles, littering the alleyways and even hidden in places like drains and rooftops. Lucky still carried everyone’s food the entire way.
Just as they were heading back, a loud explosion caught their attention.
“...what was that?” Lucky asked, sighing when he got no answer besides Roxanne booking it again. “H-hey, wait up!”
They ran as fast as they could to the site of the ongoing clamor. A fire engulfed a local hardware store, and the owner greeted them with a panicked expression.
“A-are you guys cops?” He sputtered, “Some crazy person left a bomb here and stole half my stock!!”
“...oh shit…” Roxanne breathed, exchanging a glance with Lucky, “Which way’d he go?”
As soon as the owner pointed down the road, Roxanne was off again.
“Arden, we might have a problem!”
“ Yeah, I got a read of some big fire. What’s that all about? ”
“Somebody robbed a hardware store and left a bomb in their wake.” Lucky added, through his heavy breathing after so much running, “I-I don’t want to name any names, but-”
“No, no. There’s no way he’s here.”
They turned a corner and saw exactly what they needed to see: some guy running for his life while clutching a bag of stolen items. The incriminating green coat with the fur hood gave it away pretty quick.
“Hey! Hey you!” Roxanne barked, causing the guy to stop in his tracks.
“... oh you gotta be fuckin’ kidding me… ” The guy sighed, turning to face them. In all his unholy glory, none other than Mr. Billy Greenes himself gave them his signature shit-eating, shark-toothed smile. “If it ain’t my old pals… ”
“Wh-what are you doing here?!” Lucky snapped, “I thought you were done with this bullshit!”
“Me? Done ? Oh, no, no, no…” Billy gave a stupid cackle as two of his metal arms snaked out from behind him to carry him up. Slowly, so he could give his final one-liner and be gone. “I’m just getting started. You’ll all see-”
“Candles, dude? I mean really, candles? Like… candles? I thought you hated magic.” Roxanne cut in, almost like she was trying not to laugh.
“...candles? The fuck are you talking about?!” Billy stopped ascending to raise an eyebrow. “Bitch, I don’t do candles, I do housefires. I do deathly fires that thousands of people lose their lives in, not-”
“...those weren’t you?”
“...no?? I just said that?? I don’t like tiny fires, that’s what I just sa- why am I even wasting my time here?! Urgh, you guys are so stupid… like, why am I even sitting here talking to you bitches when-”
Roxanne got one good picture of Billy as he trailed off, fleeing on those dastardly machines coming out of his back.
“Don’t send the Billy stuff to admin; I think we might have to personally deliver that one.” Lucky chimed in, after a long sip of cola. “If Alpha freaks out, we’re never gonna find him…”
“Yeah, that’s definitely a good idea. Arden, we’re done here. Send those candles to the admin and get us to the Alpha sector.” Roxanne commanded, like a captain would.
“ On it. Hurry back soon, I don’t want cold fries. ”
Once they landed in the main base’s docking area, Lucky tossed the burger trash in the nearest bin and joined the others. Emory now followed them, deciding he’d rather see his old teammate than sit around in the ship again. One long elevator ride to the offices later, they stopped at the first person in the hall.
“Hey, buddy.” Roxanne called, stopping some agent in their tracks. “Do ya happen to know if Administrator Shallows is in their office right now?”
“They’re pretty busy today, so they might be slacking off at home again… You should go check it out.”
With a thank you nod, the trio continued down the hall. Lucky narrowly avoided getting bowled over by the medics rushing someone from the office to the elevator on the way.
Once they reached the office, Roxanne just gave it a little knock.
“Worst case scenario, we can wai-” She shut up when the door swung open immediately.
“Hey, listen, I’m kinda busy right now, so if you could just…” The administrator, their previous teammate, who I will not be referring to as Administrator Shallows the entire time, suddenly lit up when they saw those three idiots at their door. “H-hey! You guys! Hi! What’s, uhh… what’s the good news?”
Roxanne elbowed Lucky when she heard a snicker behind her.
“We should, uhh… really discuss it in private, Simon. It’s not really the best news.”
Simon’s bright smile began to falter. That looming dread visibly set in on their face, but the smile stayed. “...ah. Well. If you guys will just… hold on, and I’ll be right with you.”
A bright aura began to glow around them, and Simon zipped off to another room. A different office, where an agent sat across from Simon’s desk. Masterfully, they landed in the seat. The other three behind them, however, weren’t so lucky. Lucky, particularly, slammed into the wall. Emory was saved from a rough landing by Lucky’s body. And Roxanne stumbled a bit, but was ultimately able to keep her footing.
“You’re hired.” Simon said, shaking the agent’s hand and turning to the others. Before any of them could speak, Simon sped them all to the next room. Suddenly holding a cup of coffee, they sat it on the desk in this room and gave it a pat. And they were off again, back in Simon’s office. They’d all been carefully placed in a seat in front of Simon’s desk.
“Alright, what’s up?” Simon asked, giving each of them a good smile.
“W-well, we explored Nightfall as you asked.” Lucky began.
“I saw. Those candles were nothing we’re familiar with, so I forwarded your pictures to the friendly faces over at the Foreign Magics Division- hopefully that’ll all be sorted out quickly!” Simon spoke extremely fast. Faster than they were all used to. And very matter-of-factly.
“Say, boss, when was the last time you slept?” Emory asked, clearly aware of Simon’s strange behavior.
“...hey, now’s not the time for a wellness check. Coffee and energy drinks are in my veins now, just comes with the job.” Simon ended with a laugh, making Lucky lean back slightly.
“You should really take a nap soon. But something tells me you won’t be so ready to sleep after… well… this.” Roxanne pulled off her watch and sat it on the desk, letting the image of Billy pop up holographically so everyone could see.
Simon stared at it for an uncomfortably long time. They smiled, let out a single laugh that sounded more like a cough, and went limp. Fainted. Lucky caught their head before it hit the desk. Thankfully, they were up relatively quick.
“No… no, no, not him… why…” They were out of their seat in a flash, pacing the room. “I-I… wh… no, I can’t do that… I… I’ve gotta tell Amber.”
“Hey, maybe we shouldn’t-” Nope. Emory’s protest was cut off to them being dragged to Alpha’s office. Though four people had just sped into her room, Alpha, or Amber, didn’t even flinch. She just gazed up from the papers on her desk… slowly surveying the team before her.
“...well, hello. Roxanne, Lucky, Emory. Simon, what’s going on? Normally you knock when-”
“Love, there’s no time. He’s back.”
The trio behind Simon all cringed when the news dropped. A deafening silence fell, which made the slight creak of Amber’s seat louder when she slowly rose, keeping that blank, lifeless stare in her eyes.
“...I’m sorry…” She hissed, leaning in. Everyone leaned away, nobody confident enough to face her head on. “... what did you just say? ”