"No One Signed Up to be a Hero"

Midgard Unconfirmed Territory of Terravalonia

"how's the search game going?" Andromeda asked as she landed on a building, having found Vince again three days later.

"depends, how's the killing game going?" Vince asked over the crumbling buildings. Whoever was fighting certainly had a very destructive Weapon or whatever they were called.

Andromeda looked sorely disappointed.

"Not worth the time," she muttered.

"Ditto" Vince responded equally disappointed. "Course it would help if I knew who to look for..."

Suddenly her eye caught something familiar in the distance and of course she charged for it.

"wha--?! d-don't run ahead -" Vince startled.

Andromeda ignored him practically becoming the wind with her speed.

She stopped abruptly, at a house. 'It will of course be like all the other places in this city... empty.' she thought dismally.

A few minutes later Vince caught up with her, panting heavily.

"if you're gonna blast off like that at least warn me!" he gasped "dammit it's moments like these I wish I skipped less of my gym classes " he mumbled.

"warning?" Andromeda asked like it was a foreign concept to her.

"Yeah just let me know if you are going to do something rash, I'm not going to stop you depending on what it is but at least tell me" Vince huffed.

Andromeda processed that reasoning.

"It's got some writing on it. Probably a name like in the Districts. I take this was the family residence. Wonder if we could ask if anyone lived here at any point. This is the first helpful thing so far--!" Vince started then stopped seeing Andromeda's mournful expression.

"it is empty, isn't it?" she asked.

"uh--" Vince opened the front door. Andromeda was right.

"It is empty, still you know of this place. I'm guessing the person who you are looking for used to be here." He said calmly walking inside. Completely oblivious to Andromeda who was starting to glow dark purple with rage.

"Sure looks like they packed up and left. maybe it was because of all the killing games," Vince remarked as he looked around the house.

Andromeda settled down subduing her anger. "So... if I get the killing games to stop, he'll come back?" She asked slowly.

"Huh? oh I suppose, I mean in theory that could work but we'd need a way to contact that person and tell them it's safe to come home again -- wait did you just say 'him'?" Vince asked.

Interrupting them, a huge blade sliced off the upper portion of the house. Even Andromeda looked momentarily stunned. "The .... house..."

"Alright now that I've found you, you runaway Berserker! I can kill you in vengeance for my friend!" a girl yelled, approaching from the left. Her entire outfit was orange. her long black hair held in a high ponytail and her brown eyes glowing with fury.

"I too would like to take part in this battle," a girl voiced, he recognized the low voice as the dangerous girl from before. Neptunite. She approached from the right. Vince sulked.

"fighting you will help a Berserker like me, to get stronger. Facing someone such as you True Berserker Andromeda," Neptunite said. it sounded like both a compliment and a challenge.

"that is sadly the most non questionable thing I've heard come out of the mouth of any of the denizens here so far," Vince sighed.

Then he looked down among the wreckage and rubble was a dark brown skinned girl, obviously unconscious.

"Uh... there's a girl, before any of you say anything I didn't touch her in fact I swear she wasn't there till the house was destroyed," he remarked.

"Don't pay attention to it, it is just a newly formed Virus," the other girl remarked with a shrug.

" Weak ones manifest all the time. I'll kill it after my victory over the Berserker!"

"Virus?!" He parroted stunned. He inched away then hesitated.

"Her?" Vince stared at the girl.

Her entire ensemble was white. her clothes were white, her hair was white. White, white, white, save for the eyes which he saw when she weakly opened them. They shined like red garnet stones, which was a relief to Tsumijuichi who was close to strangling her for the strain on his eyes.

"This girl ---" Vince started to say.

"Keep her safe, Vince" Andromeda ordered.

"she could be of use to us," she reasoned.

Then she remembered what Vince asked earlier, "The goal hasn't changed, but I need to clear the obstacles in my path before proceeding." she stated her voice cold again.

"Fight me more! I'll just get all the more stronger!" Neptunite yelled.

Andromeda easily matched all of Neptunite's strikes. Blocking her seemed her main objective and she basically ignored the other girl whose powers seemed ill suited for Melee fighting.

"I won't forgive you for eliminating Mami like she was a bug!" the other girl who had yet to state her name roared. But she clearly had attachment to the girl who had unintentionally provided them with her invitation.

Vince watched from the crumbling remains of the demolished residence. It was too unsafe to stay really inside so he waited with the "Virus" girl resting against the fence.

"I know Andromeda can probably handle herself but I wish I could help, two against one is kinda unfair." he sighed. Pieces of roofs fell to the ground and Vince chose to shield the Virus who flinched in terror and hugged him him tightly.

Eventually he became aware of a nearby house with a balustrade on the second floor.

Nice..."

The house was immediately irrelevant compared to a impending row of drill shaped ice pillars, crushing everything in their path.

Okay this may sound dangerous but jump," he remarked urging her to the end of the balcony they were on.

"Jump?!" She parroted blankly.

"Jump!" He said urgently. She didn't move.

He glanced back at the incoming ice pillars.

"Oh hell!" He grumbled in protest.

Carrying the Virus bridal style he was more or less able to jump onto the balcony, wincing slightly as he banged his foot on the balustrade itself.

"We should be safe here," he remarked.

"I'm Sorry for not asking you for permission to touch you," he apologized.

"As long as we're safe," she gripped the iron bars.

The Virus looked blank like she had no idea what was going on.

Which she probably didn't.

Twice she'd shivered like she was cold in the plain white sundress she wore so Vince had wrapped his school blazer around her.

The long sleeved white dress shirt he wore underneath was thin and did nothing to protect against the harsh wind that seemed to be caused by the other girl... what was her name again?

"Hey Miss Virus, are you doing ok?" Vince asked lazily, sure the fight would be over in a few minutes.

"Virus?" the girl asked. Her red eyes observing him with interest.

"yeah sorry, I'd ask your name but I get this feeling that you don't know it." Vince apologized.

"but your type seems common here, it will be difficult to differentiate between you and other Viruses.... hmm.." he mused, trailing off in thought.

"my.... type?" She asked.

He stared at her. 'Did they know nothing after being formed? Were they all like this? Something tells me no one here is above using their naivety against them ...'

'Well I'm not really sure myself, Everyone here seems to be a powerful being called a Berserker... or a lesser powerful being known as a Subdivision Mage." He explained.

"Ah and are you a Subdivision Mage or a Berserker?" She asked.

At this he felt an odd sense of bafflement.

He absorbed that crystal thing that came out of the presumed Subdivision Mage Mami. Did that make him a Subdivision Mage now?

Some distant small part of him wanted to scoff and comment that a 'Subdivision Mage' was a pitiful container not meant for his abilities.

'Abilities? What Abilities?' he wanted to ask himself.

"No," he decided. "I'm just your average human who got dragged into this by being in the wrong place at the wrong time," he smiled weakly. "Really, I'm just as confused as you,"

She looked surprised. "Perhaps we can be confused about everything together?"

Vince opened his mouth to respond but the moment was immediately ruined by a huge explosion and a nearby house became a myriad of wood splinters.

Vince used his arm to shield his face in case any flew in his direction.

"Andromeda?! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" He yelled.