A Deathworlder on Bet 1 (Patreon)

A Deathworlder on Bet
Chapter 1

-VB-

Alexandria grunted as she pulled herself out of the rubble she’d made upon impact. Her pristine costume, undamaged by the impact or the rubble, fluttered as she took to the air to fight the Simurgh again.

‘At this rate, Canberra will be domed,’ she thought as she analyzed every part of the current Endbringer battle. Eidolon and Legend were quickly coming up on their time limit, the one that existed for any capes fighting the Simurgh and its Mastering singing, and she was very close to it as well.

So far, the battle participant casualty was climbing towards 27%, which made this one of the worse Simurgh battles. Should Canberra be lost as well, it wouldn’t just be a loss of all its people and the dead capes but also a loss for PRT in an already hard to control planet. Alexandria, however, couldn’t see any way out of this, because Simurgh was very close to finishing whatever it was that she was building.

Even so, she flew high up into the air and then dropped back down, diving back into the fray.

She sped forward as fast as she could, aiming to tackle Simurgh’s tinkertech directly.

Simurgh saw her coming, and kept her infuriatingly calm facade up even as she deflected all attacks while continuing to sing her demented siren call.

Eidolon pulled up some sort of space folding power that seemed to “burn” all of the space it passed through. Legend held nothing back, dipping so far as to use himself as an attack.

She blazed through the air, slamming right through Simurgh’s orbiting debris sphere. Moments from when she would have struck the Tinkertech with her body, Simurgh moved itself and the tinkertech out of the way.

Alexandria whirled mid-air and came to a stop mere one yard after exiting through the other side of the debris sphere and dove right back in.

This time, Simurgh swatted her.

And once again, Alexandria found herself tumbling uncontrollably through the air before slamming into some building.

Her tinkertech wristband blared.

That was the one minute warning.

“Fuck,” she hissed as she stood up, dust falling off of her and leaving her in her pristine black costume. “Eidolon, Legend-”

“{We know!}”

They backed off.

Alexandria gritted her teeth as she flew away. Her and her teammates’ part in this battle was over.

One by one, capes began to pull back.

And those that didn’t…

Boom!

The first friendly fire casualty happened and marked the morale downhill.

Those who were retreating ran faster. Those who fought like maniacs started to reconsider their choices.

It didn’t matter.

Because Simurgh had completed her tinkertech.

The calm facade the angelic Endbringer always wore broke into a malicious, wide-lipped, and teeth clenched grin.

‘She’s claiming victory.’

The tinkertech, some kind of a ring, began to spin.

And Alexandria realized what it was.

“It’s an interdimensional portal!”

The machine whined in high pitch as its internal ring spun and glowed a hot white. The portal in the middle of the ring tinkertech staticked and fizzled.

Blasters and gunfire rained down on the Endbringer but none reached the tinkertech.

Alexandria prepared to take another dive, but she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You can't," Legend warned.

She gritted her teeth.

The portal turned purple - like the rim of Doormaker's portals - and then they all saw something on the other side -.

And they peered back.

Alexandria felt her heart drop despite her frozen body. Her hands trembled as nausea and fear warred in her. Behind her, she heard unfortunate civilians and capes alike scream in terror. Legend's hands lit up as he came hovering to her left. Eidolon came flying to her right.

Something… Something terrible was on the other side of the portal.

Simurgh looked like that was not the plan, if the surprise on its face was any indication.

Hooo~, something uttered out in a deep baritone. It was a noise made inquisitively, but there was a level of authority in here. It was the same kind of authority Chief Director of the PRT, the President of the USA, or Legend as the leader of the national Protectorate might imbue on a mere noise.

Simurgh burst into action and tore apart her own tinkertech with none of the finesse she was known for. Alexandria could only see the need for expedience.

But the portal stayed even when Simurgh tore the last parts of the working tinkertech apart.

And then someone stepped out of the portal.

They were an … old man?

Hunched over with white hair, his wrinkled face spoke more of confusion than anything else.

Was there something behind the old man?

Everyone saw the portal close.

They all turned to look at the old man.

‘Wait,’ Alexandria paused. ‘Why didn’t I notice that he was floating like the rest of us?’

The old man who’d come out of the portal had done just that, and despite this parahuman ability, everyone but the Simurgh dismissed him.

“Hue hue hue.”

That was a creepy laugh.

And the old man held a bottle of liquor in his hand. His flushed face and the half empty bottle told everyone present that he was very much drunk.

“Now, I should be dead,” the old man chuckled as he looked around casually as if this wasn’t a battlefield nor that the city below him was in ruins. “So what’s going on here?”

Simurgh smashed down with its hands in a blur of movements.

And then they were suddenly throwing themselves up into the sky and the Endbringer looked surprised.

“Ho… So you’re the bad guy here…”

And once again, Alexandria felt her time-frozen heart pound as some kind of Master effect slammed into her consciousness. From the corners of her eyes, she saw Legend and Eidolon choke on air not from a lack of it but from sudden overwhelming stress and fear response seizing their throat muscles.

The Endbringer blasted towards the sky, flying far faster than she had ever seen it move.

“Uh uh uh. You’re not going anywhere yet.”

The same old man who remained unharmed despite a direct Endbringer assault lashed out, his own left arm blurring.

And then the Endbringer was suddenly missing a leg.

“Tch, I struck too slow. Curse this old body of mine,” he bemoaned as the Endbringer successfully got away and fled.

This left the still floating old man to look towards them.

He grinned with his wrinkly face and placed the same hands and arms that tore an Endbringer’s leg from its body behind his hunched back.

“Now, I think you three youngins look like a trio of good people! My name’s Jiro! They used to call me the ‘Knocking Master’ Jiro. It’s a pleasure to meet you… You got more booze?”

Alexandria wasn’t sure how she was supposed to respond to this.

-VB-

A/N: I haven’t seen Toriko x Worm crossover before… so I’m making my mark here.