The group was silent for a moment.
"You were the one who arranged the meeting…" Shiho began.
"I guess it's just like him to not think it through." Ann facepalmed.
With a slight chuckle, Ryuji rubbed his neck with a blush. "Come on guys, we found this cool alternate world and we have barely done anything in it. Let's at least try something."
"I agree with Ryuji, but we need to be careful, ya know?" Morgana said. "I'm more anxious than him to get started, but we really weren't prepared any of the times we went in…"
"Well, we have new weapons now. So there is that. I've been talking to Scathach, and she said that all warriors need training. I'd listen to her, in her myths she is a trainer of heroes!" Shiho cut in.
"Like the Danny DeVito from Hercules?" Ann asked in confusion.
"That's Disney," Ren mentioned offhand.
"But she isn't wrong!"
"SOOOOO," Ryuji snapped, "What're we gonna do?"
"So how about we hang around the entrance and first safe room we found? We do have until the board meeting to steal the treasure," Ren offered. "We need to train. I don't want us getting our asses kicked like we did with Shadow Shiho…"
"Sounds good to me!" Ryuji agreed as Shiho started to lightly laugh.
"What's so funny?" Ann asked.
"Scathach said that Ryuji and Ren have promise, but Ryuji is too hot-headed and Ren is too analytical, which is why she was winning," Shiho explained. "She's also still hung up about being stopped by a card."
"I'll take it!" Ryuji exclaimed as the others shook their heads with a grin.
"Well team, is everyone prepared?"
Tapping his bag, Ryuji nodded fiercely. "I got everything in here. The weapons, bandages, disinfectants, the works. Where did you even get some of this, Ren?"
"I'm doing something for a local doctor in exchange for medical supplies."
"What do you have to do?" Shiho asked in worry.
"It's confidential." Ren winked, which did not assure the group.
"Well," Ren lightly exhaled, "I haven't started yet but I'll be helping them with a clinical trial. That's all I can say."
"Is it safe?" Shiho and Ann glared at him in unison.
"It should be…" Ren trailed off, looking awkwardly to the side.
Before they could continue grilling him for information, Ryuji gasped.
"Yo. Everyone check their phones."
Looking at their phones, Ren noticed nothing was different with his own, but everyone else had a shocked look.
Looking over at Ryuji's phone, he picked up on what the surprise was.
The red Metaverse app had appeared on their phones!
"Why do I have it too? I don't have a persona!" Ann scrunched her brow in worry. "Where did this even come from?"
"A mysterious benefactor," Ren revealed vaguely, which led to deadpan stares.
"Look, I don't really understand it either, but for now it works. I don't like being in the dark as much as you. We don't really have a tech expert to look at the app itself. Plus it's supernatural. What is the code going to even say? 'If Palace is nearby, jump dimensions'?" he continued.
"Well, keep an eye out," Morgana said. "I haven't seen you contact this benefactor, but if they can give a bunch of teenagers such an app…."
"Yeah…" Ren agreed. "We'll just have to be careful with it. Since Ann has it now as well, it might drag nearby people into the Metaverse too. We need to be extra careful."
"Alright, everyone ready?" Morgana asked with sharp eyes.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
[Beginning Navigation]
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The air tightened. Morgana, Ryuji, and Shiho felt their bodies fill with power and their minds with confidence. Shifting into their Metaverse outfits always felt so freeing.
"Hell yeah, I love that feeling! Come on out, Captain!"
"YARRRG!" A voice rang out from behind Ryuji as a huge ship phased into existence.
Meanwhile, a sweeping gust of wind blew from Morgana, revealing Zorro. An echoing chuckle and darkness grew from under Ren before Arsene appeared with a flourish. Scathach had appeared silently, wiping her spear down with narrowed eyes.
"Bonjour, my friends!" Arsene announced grandly.
"Ah, and nice to meet the Immortal Witch of Dun Scaith," he finished with a bow.
"Overly theatrical," Scathach commented while looking at Arsene. "Loud," she continued while glancing at the Captain. "Arrogant," she finished, glancing at Zorro.
"This is going to be fun."
Everyone was silent and looked at Shiho, who was fiercely blushing.
"What?!" she demanded.
"Shiho, I didn't know you were a sadist!" Ann said in surprise, before darting away.
Shiho quickly caught her and dragged her back to the group.
"Alright, enough screwing around. This place is dangerous," Ren said firmly. "Now that everyone is calm, let's do some sparring to warm up. Look, Scathach is excited."
Scathach was nearly buzzing with excitement, with bloodlust and battle intent pouring from her spectral form.
"No hits below the belt, no fatal or crippling blows, no hits to the eyes. All else is fine. Morgana, be ready to heal us please."
"Wait, before we begin," Morgana quickly interrupted the group, who were getting fired up. "We need code-names!"
"Code-names?" Ren asked in confusion.
"We are in the cognition of someone, who knows what will happen if we shout out our real names to each other! Come on, Joker!" Morgana hopped around in frustration.
"Joker?" The group asked in confusion.
"Yeah, that will be his code-name! I have a feeling he will be our trump card when it comes to fighting strength!"
"Yeah. I can see it," Ryuji nodded along. "What about me?"
"Hmmmm." Shiho looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"Thug," Morgana said without thought.
"What did you say?!" Ryuji said in frustration, stomping one foot toward the smugly grinning not-cat.
Calming down slightly, Ryuji reached up and rubbed his mask. "Well if it's about how we look, it's got to be the mask."
"Skull, then?" Ren offered.
"Yeah, that's cool sounding! And he can be… Mona!"
"I'm not a ca— Never mind, that's fine I guess." Morgana decided to agree.
"Dove," Shiho immediately responded when the boys glanced at her. "It's a symbol of peace and new beginnings."
The group just gently smiled in response.
"I don't have a persona so I guess I'll wait. Just call me…" Ann began.
"Princess?" Morgana offered.
"No way! Didn't you say that the version of me that is in this place is a princess?!"
"Sorry!!" Morgana quickly squeaked.
"Let's just call you SweetTreat for now," Shiho said with a sigh.
"Yeah, that works," Ann agreed.
---
The group finished their sparring. Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, Ryuji and Morgana fought hard but couldn't match up to the team of Shiho and Ren. After taking a slight rest, the group began their foray into the castle. While they were sparring, they didn't use their guns, as they had forgotten about them. This led to a huge surprise when Ren decided to use his handgun to shoot a shadow from a distance to pull it toward their group.
The shadow charged at them, exploding into a dark mist before reforming into a small fairy-like girl and a wad of kelp that had the head of a horse.
His eyes flickered quickly between the two. He glanced at the pixie first—wings flickering, not hostile in posture but present and blocking. Then to the kelpie—whose eyes were glowing red and who was neighing and huffing in fury.
Quickly guessing that the wad of kelp may be weak to lightning, Ren shouted to Ryuji as he shot a quick bullet next to the pixie, separating it from the kelpie.
"Skull! Lightning!"
"Got it! Let's do this, Captain! Zio!"
The kelpie shuddered and stopped mid-charge. Shiho jumped in front of it without hesitation, Scáthach rising behind her, spear leveled, thrusting forward, as Shiho herself swung up with her spear.
Captain Kidd appeared in a burst of blue flame again, dropping lightning from the sky onto the kelpie, causing it to explode into darkness.
The Pixie had not charged nor attacked. She pressed herself against the wall when the kelpie charged and had stayed there through the fight, wings folded and shaking, Ren with his handgun aimed at her while the others fought.
The pixie looked at Ren with big watery eyes and raised her hands in surrender. She began to carefully float forward as the handgun was lowered.
Ren stared back at her.
"Okay," Ryuji said. "That's new."
"Shadows are alive too, ya know," Morgana mentioned despite looking uncomfortable.
"Hey, hey, let me go! You guys are scary! I'll do anything!" the Pixie begged.
"...anything?" Ryuji asked in confusion before being smacked across the back of the head by Ann.
"I didn't want to be here! I got pulled along by the Kelpie's momentum and now I'm alone—wahhhhhh!"
Ren studied her for a long moment.
Then he held out his hand, palm up as if offering his hand to a poor maiden.
"Give me money and you can go."
"You're robbing it?!" the group yelled.
"Okay, okay," the Pixie said as she patted down her body. "Uh. This is embarrassing, I don't have any on me."
"Ah well, this is awkward," Ren said quietly.
There was a second of silence before Morgana said, "Alright then, see you in hell I guess."
"No! I'll give you some next time! The fae folk always keep their promises… Wait! That reminds me! I'm not a guard here! My name is Pixie, and I want to be your mask, Trickster!!"
Then she burst into flames, shifting into a domino mask similar to Ren's, and smashed into Ren's face.
"JOKER!"
---