Made nice background noise as he worked. It wasn't the only background noise, however, as he heard a significant portion of what was happening on Sunset's end of the communicator.

Lancers: wasp-like Grimm approximately two meters in height, capable of launching barbed ropes from their abdomens. They first appeared in the episode "Dread in the Air," where they were dispatched by an older Weiss Schnee riding in the back of a flying cargo ship. No crippling weaknesses that would be worth breaking Sunset's concentration to tell her. It was entirely possible that there was a much larger, more dangerous queen somewhere in the area.

Yet another Grimm to add to the list of "things that shouldn't be here but are."

Logic and Paranoia screamed a little louder. Screamed about the fact that they shouldn't even be here, screamed that they were in mortal peril every second they stayed. Screamed about paradoxes and black holes and Grimm attacking him while he had no weapons. Screamed about the entire world collapsing around them.

Penn reached back in his memory, slamming a certain door on both of them with a video byte.

Yes, thank you for your input. Now, could SOMEBODY help me figure this out?

He felt the familiar presence of the voice of Reason at his back. Why the initiation is ten times more dangerous?

No, how I'm supposed to fit BOTH ends of the tie rod in at once- OF COURSE WHY THE INITIATION IS MORE DANGEROUS!

Okay, first of all, don't get sassy with me! Reason chided. Second, you STILL haven't gotten the tie rod in, so are you sure about that? Isis TRIED helping you and you turned her down...

Penn physically rolled his eyes at that. Yes, because I'll never learn how to repair this kind of stuff if I don't do it myself! Without Sunset and Missy around to be smug to, all he could do was chatter with himself until he got a headache. Isis was great for calming himself down, but her banter needed work. Banter helped him think. Thankfully, he'd spent a LOT of time learning to like being alone with his thoughts. They had a good sense of humor, even if a bit overbearing at times.

And when you were having both sides of the conversation, the banter was excellent.

Priorities. Sunset's safety first. And her safety depends on figuring out why things are different than we remember watching.

Do we HAVE to make Sunset our top priority? I mean, without you I don't exist. That's a two-to-one ratio of people dying if you die versus Sunset dying!

Penn knew that the ability to give an abstract concept in his own head a death glare was tenuous at best, but he managed it regardless.

Fine! Fine! Sunset comes first. Geez. So why would there be more Grimm here? What if we're just seeing things that got cut out? Even the narrative perspective isn't omniscient.

Possibly, but that doesn't explain the seer. We KNOW that wasn't there the first time around. From what we HEARD, it was targeting Ruby's eyes in its attacks.

Just like how Maria Calavera was targeted by bounty hunters for HER silver eyes!

The silver eyes: a mysterious plot device that the show hardly explained. Ruby Rose had silver eyes, indicators of a special power residing in her that served as the antithesis of the Grimm. It was hard to gather any concrete data on, even a former proficient user described it more artistically than objectively as "reflecting the light of the world." It produced a bright light that destroyed minor Grimm and petrified major ones. It appeared to manifest in moments of extreme distress for Ruby, first appearing-

-at the fall of Beacon. Reason finished the thought. Pyrrha's death was the inciting incident, awakening the protective instinct that triggers the silver eyes.

Great. The Seers work directly under Salem, usually being controlled by her. That means-

Salem knows about Ruby's silver eyes three seasons earlier than she should. Reason continued.

Yeah, could you stop interrupting me? Otherwise I'll just go back to talking to Isis.

Fine! You certainly don't listen to me on a day-to-day basis, why would I expect otherwise when YOU come to ME?

His train of thought ran into a brick wall as Reason ripped the tracks out from under it. Wrong question. Sunset is with Ruby, so focus on her future, not the big bad's past. Salem knows about Ruby's silver eyes. What does she do next? Send more dangerous Grimm specifically after her. When that fails, what happens?

Penn grimaced and shook his head. Man, I hate RTS. Hold on... He considered the situation, then rephrased it in a way that was easier to wrap his head around. He closed his eyes and pictured himself in a dark room. There was a table. Game mats. Cards. He rested his hand on his deck and looked down at the field: it was already set, mid-duel when he arrived.

"Ruby: effect monster. Attack position. Her effect activates in three turns, crippling the majority of Salem's monsters that battle against her. Sunset: effect monster, attack position. Can save Ruby from destruction, but a limited number of times. What would we do in Salem's position?"

Reason settled down across from him, glancing over her side of the field: a full five monsters of varying levels and power. The most direct way would be to keep attacking. Exhaust Sunset's ability to protect Ruby by sheer numbers. She reached down and nudged the monster cards forward one at a time, indicating attacks. The first one, the seer, exploded and dissolved away beneath her fingertips. Immediately it was replaced by another monster. They both looked to the upper corner of the field. Penn made a gesture to the card and Reason nodded, allowing him to pick it up.

"A field spell: Evernight Castle. Salem's base of operations. Of course, the pools of dark essence allow her to keep spawning Grimm. However, even Salem has a limited number of cards in her deck. When we last saw the pools they were nearly empty." He looked over to his opponent's deck, only to find it blurry and impossible to make out the details of. There was no way to know how many cards, how many ASSETS, she had to work with.

That's unquantifiable. Reason countered. She could produce any number of Grimm, you have no idea how many, even with limited resources. We're dealing with swarm tactics. Think like we're dealing with a pendulum deck.

Penn groaned inwardly. He HATED pendulum decks. If the game hadn't been absolutely broken by synchro and Xyz summoning, pendulum summoning had been the true death of any remaining balance in Yu-Gi-Oh.

"But she targets her swarms very carefully, she still can't overwhelm by sheer numbers. And..." he looked past the row of attacking monsters, spotting a completely filled back row of spells and traps. "We have no idea what she HERSELF is capable of. She tried to make herself a new god when the rest of this world lost their magic, remember?"

Reason peered down at the field, stroking her chin. Unknown quantity of monsters that she can throw at us, a full backrow, AND a field spell that can keep the monsters coming. She literally could not have more field advantage without-

He looked back at their field and drew the top card off of the deck. It was a picture of himself, cramped into the space under his car and covered in motor oil.

"The Everyman." He hummed to himself. He looked down, noticing a pair of trap cards of their own. One was already face-up: "Forewarning." When a monster would be destroyed, flip a coin. If heads, that monster cannot be destroyed this turn. If tails, this card has no effect.

Why the coin flip? You've had a 100% success rate at warning Sunset in the past!

Penn shook his head. "My information has gaps at best and is outright wrong at worst. We figured that out today." He flipped the other trap face-up to read it. "Ghostrick Go-Round... of course. Missy CAN run interference, but it would mean exposing her and putting her out on the field."

He sat there for a long time, considering both perspectives, the bad guys' side of the fight and theirs. It felt woefully unbalanced.

The light expanded, revealing the table to be larger than he had first thought. Penn realized he was sitting on the inside of a wide crescent. Four more playing fields appeared flanking his opponent, all directed towards him.

"Right... Salem's generals. Generals? Subordinates. Goons?" Penn struggled for the right word as he tried to take in four more opponents. Four more strategies, and he would need to defend against them all with what little of a deck and field he had. "If I had my own deck, I might be able to hold up for a few turns against this kind of barrage, but... we're barely going to survive the next play." He gripped the bridge of his nose and squeezed, hoping it would the dispel the fog forming in his brain from trying to find a way out of what seemed like an impossible situation.

Aside from Salem, Cinder Fall is the most dangerous of the rogues' gallery. She's as ruthless and power-hungry as they come. Reason stepped over, gesturing to the field directly to Salem's right. And her two ace monsters-

Penn felt a kick at his leg, and the snap back to reality felt like somebody had punched his brain in the face. All the physical sensations of his body rushed back to him at once as the visualization was ripped away from him when his eyes reflexively shot open and flooded his brain with mismatched visual information. From one instant to the next, his entire world was back to reality.

"Hey, buddy, you okay down there? Get run over in the middle of the woods, or something?"

Penn stiffened, realizing that he was no longer alone. The location they were at was so remote, he hadn't taken into account the possibility that anyone could find them. He had no cover story.

Well, do what you do best, make up a story! Reason urged him on. With no small amount of trepidation, he began to worm his way out from under the car, forcing himself to take on a carefree tone.

"Not run over, ha! If I was, then I wouldn't have to worry about fixing this beauty any more!" As he finally emerged back in daylight, his breath caught in his throat.

Standing above him were two figures he recognized. One was a young man dressed in shades of gray and silver, with a tight-fitting jacket and black pants, topped by shaggy gray hair. The other was a brown-skinned woman with green hair and blazing red eyes. While her legs were well-protected by a pair of brown chaps over white shorts, her top left very little to the imagination, leaving her midriff and arms exposed, as well as a large window over the top of her chest. What drew his attention more, however, was the pair of thick gun stocks he could see poking out from either side of her waist.

Logic and Fear put their hitherto-unknown editing skills to good use, gracing Penn with a skillful montage of the dozens of ways they could kill him right now.

He forced himself to smile, noting that he had to do so with his eyes. He had to convince them that he didn't recognize them. If they know that I know, they're not going to let me know that they know that I know until it's too late for knowing they know that I know to do me any good!

"Beauty? Are you sure about that?" Emerald tilted her head. "This thing looks ancient."

Right, this world's tech is more advanced. Of course Sylvia would stand out...

"She's an antique! There's a certain elegance to older designs, you know?" He pushed himself up onto his feet and offered his hand for a handshake. The two of them gave the offered gesture a critical look, and Penn realized that his hand was still covered in grime and oil. He quickly crouched down to grab one of his towels and clean his hands. "RIGHT! Sorry!"

"Well, they DO say beauty is in the eye of the beholder!" Mercury offered a smile Penn knew was almost certainly either forced or for any reason EXCEPT what it appeared to be.

"Still, odd place to bring an antique. These woods aren't known for being gentle." Emerald countered, with a gesture to the area. Mercury nodded and began to walk away, examining the campsite in greater detail. Penn swallowed loudly, his mind trying to determine if there was anything about the campsite that could give away their true origin.

"Well, anything for a little peace and quiet..." Penn chuckled. "Besides, camping's no fun without an element of risk!"

"Not surprising you ran into trouble, though." Emerald stepped over and knocked her foot against one of the raised front tires. "It doesn't look like this car was built for off-roading."

Before he could come up with a convoluted reason for a four-door sedan to be in the middle of the woods, Mercury emerged from behind the car, holding a familiar object in his hands: the portal gun. Penn's blood ran cold as his mind grasped at straws. He knew he had to say SOMETHING, and his mouth fumbled over words that Reason had most certainly NOT stamped with approval.

"Tha-tha-that's... none of your business," he whispered, dreading what kind of response he would get from it. The two intruders gave each other glances that were a mix of faked surprise and smugness.

"Well, if that's the case, I suppose I should give it back..." Mercury held the the item out towards Penn, only to yank it back when he reached for it. "It's fascinating, though! Almost looks like Atlesian tech, don't you think, Emerald?" He tossed the device to her, which she easily caught in one hand.

"You know, I think you're right! Plus, I can definitely make out a barrel, and this is certainly some kind of trigger..."

The familiar hum of the gun sprung to life as Emerald switched it onto its orange setting. She casually gestured towards him with the gun, pointing it at his chest. Penn raised his hands up in a surrendering position out of instinct, even if he knew the gun wouldn't do anything to him unless he was made of moon rocks. Both of them raised an eyebrow and smiled.

Penn opened his mouth to respond, only for a silver blur to shoot by them at high speed, and the portal gun was gone. Emerald's hands were on her guns in an instant, and Mercury fell into a battle-ready stance, but a cursory glance told Penn that the cavalry had arrived. The blur came back around, revealing itself to be a small metal dragon gripping the gun with all four claws. She dropped the Aperture device into Penn's hands before settling on his shoulder, glaring at the intruders.

"Thank you, Isis." Penn reached up with his free hand and gave her a stroke along the back of her head. After a moment, he leveled his best death glare at the intruders. "As for you two, I'm afraid you just outstayed your welcome. We'll have to insist that you find your own campsite." He pointed to the array of sockets and other tools laying in the red grass. "I've got a lot of work to do."

Emerald's grip on her guns tightened, and Penn wondered if he had overplayed his hand. Her temper was mitigated by Mercury's hand on her shoulder.

"We were just curious, bud. If you wanted us gone, you could have just said so. We've got an appointment with our boss, anyway. Right, Emerald?"

The girl looked as though she was about to argue with her friend for the sake of recovering her dignity from Isis's sneak attack, but his reminder seemed to win out over her temper. "You're right, Mercury." She let go of her guns and the two of them turned away from the car and began to walk out of the campsite. Just before they vanished back into the trees, however, she turned back to look at him. Her blood-red eyes seemed to pierce right through him, sending a chill of fear straight into his soul. "Don't say we didn't warn you that these woods were dangerous."

Almost every well-trained individual in this universe possessed a "semblance," a personalized superpower. He knew hers was extremely dangerous: Hallucinations. She could alter any person's sensory input to whatever she wanted. It seemed to be limited to single or small groups of individuals before it tool a heavy toll on her body, but it was extremely potent against a lone individual.

He finally let go of his breath, grasping at his chest to try and slow down his pounding heart.

"Forget what I said about wanting to learn by doing, we need to get the car moving NOW."

Reason finally chipped in again now that the moment she'd been overriden by Panic had passed. And add two more things to the list of "Things That Shouldn't Be Here."

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"Obviously. Did you see just how scared he was?" Mercury chuckled to himself. "He looked ready to piss his pants."

"Still, that weapon was interesting. Wish I could have seen what it did." Emerald sighed as she lamented the lost opportunity. "What was it called? A 'Quantum Tunneling" thing?"

"Whoever made it was trying too hard to make it cute. We're going back, right? He CLEARLY has something to do with why we're here."

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

The Repressed Nerd, The Voice of Reason, and the Ultimate Wing-Bot