I looked across the bridge leading us through the darkness, unsure what to make of the shrouded figure. As we uncertainly approached, I finally gained a good look at her. She was wearing an odd outfit, a black jumpsuit of sorts with a hood (emblazoned upon which was a pair of snake's eyes) and without sleeves, as well as pant-legs which ended halfway down past her shin. She had pale skin and the markings of twin serpents tattooed onto both arms, as well as bracelets made to look like metal serpents around her wrists.  At her side was a sheath for some sort of blade. Her eyes were a yellow-green color with slit pupils, but carried no malice, and her hair was obviously dyed from an unknown color to be an electric blue and styled into two braids which ran around her neck to form a 'Y' shape. She grinned at us and waved us forward. She seemed human for the most part, but carried an odd aura of power around her, to which I attributed her ability to survive in the void as Crosswire could. Crosswire gave me an uncertain look and I gave a slight jerk of my head to show that I thought we should follow this woman, as she was our best bet of getting to safety.

Crosswire picked me up and I sat upon her shoulder as she moved to follow behind the woman. Eventually the stone bridge came to an end  and the woman held up a hand, and I raised an eyebrow as a portal opened to an unknown location, and she waved us through. When we entered I felt a rush of wind which showed that we were in a realm with air, and Crosswire seemed to recognize that it was safe to breathe and thus removed the flower she had extended from her hand to give me air. I looked around at our surroundings to see that we were in a room of black stone, with lights projecting from the walls to allow us to see. The odd woman let out a sigh of relief when we were all through, stretching and popping her back.

"Whoo! Good to be out of the void... Place always was weird to traverse alone. But either way, you must be Crosswire!"

Crosswire nodded uncertainly and I drew my sword preemptively in case this woman was of ill intent.

"Oh and this dashing little fellow must be Picklechu! Well may I say it is great to meet you both!"

"Pika...chu?" You've... Been expecting us?

She nodded. "Eeyup! My boss has foresight to events or whatever and- Oh! I should just let him explain that himself. But for right now, my name's Maddie but, well, some people know of me as Medusa."

"Pikpikchu?" Why's that?

"Well y'see I used to be a Displaced of a character known as Medusa from this anime called 'Soul Eater' and all that, but THAT is a story for another time! But still, my boss sent me to collect you two from the void but he didn't say you'd both be so ADORABLE!"

She grabbed both of us into a tight hug to which Crosswire 'meeped', uncertain how to react to having someone larger than I hug her. 'Maddie' continued to speak after letting us go, keeping the cheerful tone.

"Anyway, my boss'd probably want for me to take you to him now, so follow me!"

She started walking down a hallway from the room and we followed, unsure of what to expect. After a moment of walking the hallway opened into a larger chamber, in the center of which was another odd being. He stood at a height of eight feet approximately, with a neutral expression. His skin was an even gray, and his form was adorned with a white tanktop with jaggedly torn off sleeves, black jeans and black boots, all of which carried an odd, ethereal quality. His jaw held a set of sharp teeth and his eyes were a glowing yellow with slit pupils, and his hair was a white color with gray dust discoloring it. He turned to face us and took a few steps toward us before stopping.

"Pika! Pikachu!" Why have you brought us here?

"To make a proposition. I am a Void Dweller, as you may well figure, but just as well I maintain certain... Mortal affairs. I ensure that Void Dwellers placed into specific imprisonments and punishments cannot violate them, as they would undoubtedly cause mayhem across the Multiverse. But I myself cannot always be involved in the affairs of third dimensional beings, as part of an agreement older than time. As such, I have... Agents. Beings I pick up from various dimensions and the like which have abilities which will be of use at some point, whether in the present or the future. Your charge, Crosswire, has skills which I believe could play a part in that which is to come. If you agree to this, you will be given asylum from the void, a place to be trained in how to use your abilities to the fullest, and much more. In return when you are able you will take part in missions assigned by me across various points in the Multiverse..."

I narrowed my eyes at him. If he truly were a Void Dweller then I wouldn't have the power to fight him, but before I could say anything Crosswire answered on her own.

"W-why me? What's so special about what I can do?"

Messenger smiled. "That will become clear in time."

"W-well... Could I have some time to think about this f-first?"

Messenger nodded and spoke. "Of course. Agent Medusa, whom you've already met, will show you to a temporary quarters in this realm of mine, which will be open to you regardless of your choice. Unless of course you prefer to go back to void?"

Crosswire shook her head and Messenger nodded. "Good. Along with that, Medusa shall show you a bit of what exactly this entails for you."

Maddie huffed behind us. "Boss I said call me Maddie, not Medusa... That's like what you call me if I'm out in the field and we need to be all stealthy!"

Messenger rolled his eyes and turned back to what he was doing, an aura of darkness rising around him. Maddie waved us to follow and we complied, heading down another hallway of stone. Eventually we came upon a ten foot tall pair of double doors made of an unknown metal, which I worried was our 'quarters'. Maddie held up both hands, and from all around her arrows of a black/purple lightning erupted, entering the seam in the midst of the doors. Maddie spoke as the arrows force the doors open.

"Vector arrow!"

Crosswire and I glanced at each other and then back to the doors, waiting to see the darkness within, only...

My jaw dropped as I glimpsed what lay beyond. The doors led out of whatever sort of tunnel system we were in, revealing a broad plain of rolling grass with a town of some sort a small distance away. The sky was a broad black expanse, with not a star in sight other than a blue sun hovering in the sky. It was an oddly entrancing sight, and a glance at Crosswire confirmed that she was just as stupefied as I.  I heard a giggle from Maddie as she looked at our reactions.

"Like it?"

Crosswire slowly nodded and I did the same.

"Well this is our little slice of the multiverse, this is a micro-universe programmed up by Messenger to give his agents a place to crash and live and stuff. Well c'mon you two, I'll show you a bit of it!"

She held out a hand toward the town and called out. "Vector plate!"

A larger arrow of the same sort as before appeared on the ground, seemingly propelling anything that was above it in the direction of its facing. Maddie waved us forward and then hopped on, rocketing off towards the town. Crosswire picked me up and then flew to follow her, seeming to be distrusting of the plate. When we caught up Maddie continued speaking.

"Whether you take the job or not, remember you'll be allowed to stick around until you find a good universe to go on your own to. Ohh but in the mean we'll have so much fun! You can meet my daughters and then the other agents and then we can get you set up with some actual clothes instead of that torn up little outfit of yours oooh this is gonna be fun!"

"Pika...Chu?" You have children?

"Oh goodness yes, I adopted them from my Equestria and they're been with me ever since!"

I looked around the town as we entered it, seeing humans and the like living in it. I looked up to see someone approaching us, a young man (from what I knew of human ages) with silver eyes and hair with a mix of dark gray and blood red for its color, though I could tell it was not dyed to be such. His body was adorned in a simple dark red jacket and gray pants. He spoke to Maddie as he approached. He spoke in a rough voice, with an unamused look.

"So this is the kid the boss is bringing in Mad?"

She nodded. "Eeyup! Oh I better introduce you, Crosswire, Picklechu, this is my weapon partner Dave. Dave c'mon let's show 'em what you can do!"

He chuckled and flashed a grin, holding out a hand to her. She gripped it and his body burst into a dark purple light, and when it cleared Dave was gone, and in Maddie's right hand was now a menacing sword of deep purple metal. It took only a moment for me to make the connection that he had somehow become the blade she held.

"This is Dave's current weapon form, titled 'Night's Edge'. See, I'm sorta what's known as a Meister. Meisters are people that fight with a weapon partner, with the two of them sharing a bond to the point of being able to resonate their very souls,together having even more power than they could ever have alone. With training, meisters and their weapons can wield great power, and in usual practice can consume the souls of evil beings to gain further power. Of course, mine is a witch's soul and his is a class of its own-"

His voice echoed from the blade and cut her off.

"A class titled by me as a Terrarian. That's a part of how I was Displaced, as is my being a weapon, but that's a story of its own. See, I can go between multiple forms of blade rather than just the one, though it puts the soul of the meister wielding me through a great deal of strain from how much my own soul wavelength fluctuates. As such, it takes a powerful wielder to handle the strain of having their soul wavelength in so much flux so barely anyone can wield me for more than a short while without consequences. Since Mad's got a corrupted Witch's soul it makes it much harder for her to resonate with anyone and vice versa, but that actually works well here. My soul's wavelength can overload wielders with normal souls, but her soul wavelength essentially had no 'output' so rather than overloading her, my fluxed wavelength bridges the gap and allows for me to balance wavelengths with her. As part of that she's one of the few meisters that could handle me rapidly changing forms, like so..."

His blade form erupted into light, shifting into a blade of thorns and vine, then to one of flames made metal, and then to a katana of deep blue light. Eventually he settled onto one made of a dark gray and red metal, in the form of a broad blade made in a jagged, menacing blade, seeming to be a midpoint between a butchering knife and a sword.

"Anyway, this is my most basic form, known as the Blood Butcherer. When I first met up with Mad, all I could handle was this form, anything else was beyond my abilities. Now of course, I got forms that put this to shame. Next form up from this that I held as a true upgrade to my base would be Night Edge, from there we can use multiple other forms, each with their own abilities. Of course, those actually put strain on us and for the moment well..."

He flashed back into his human form with a grin. "I'd say we'll leave those as a surprise for later. So, you wanna see what this place has to offer eh? Well c'mon Mad I'll go with you to show the kid around."

Maddie shrugged with a smile. "Sure thing Dave!"

Crosswire spoke in a quiet voice to me, still unsure of these people.

"Hey Picklechu... What's 'an-i-may'?"

Having only an inkling of knowledge to that regard, I simply shrugged. Maddie led us into a mostly empty area of the town, and as we went I took stock of the odd buildings. No two were the same, built in their own styles with no order forced onto them. I looked up ahead as we went, seeing a house of brass and metal ahead. The door was built larger than normal, allowing for someone much taller and wider to enter and exit from what I could piece together. As we neared the door, it opened, sliding up and into the wall. A yellow light shone from the dark interior of the house, and out of it stepped an armored being of some sort, bearing a drill on his arm. His drill was crafted of a black metal, one which gave me an odd feeling. It wasn't a normal metal, I knew that much. The small window of his armor bore a yellow glow, but flashed to a bright green when he saw Maddie and Dave.  He walked up to them, his feet giving off minor tremors as he approached, showing that he and his armor weighed a great deal together. Crosswire stood behind Maddie and I while we looked at this newcomer, and the odd figure glanced at Crosswire and seemed to become excited.

He moved his free hand into the mechanisms of his drill and quickly disengaged it, dropping it from his arm and freeing it. He looked back at Crosswire and clapped in some sort of happiness. He walked up and knelt down, gesturing to Crosswire and looking up at Maddie, letting off a sound of grinding metal mixed in with a moan of some sort. Maddie laughed and nodded.

"Yes Sig, this is the new possible agent, as well as her little protector. Picklechu, Crosswire, meet Sigma, he's another Displaced working for Messenger. Guy likes helping to teach and assist any of the kids that get brought here, especially those that're new agents, so if you need help with anything then he's great to ask. He's one of the closest things we have to an actual teacher, and he helps with basic education for any kids living here. Even teaches my kids. Anyway, he got Displaced a character known as Subject Delta from a video game called Bioshock 2. We call him Sigma though, mainly because he won't tell us his real name."

"Pika pchu?" If he cannot speak then could he not simply write it down?

"Eh, Sig refuses to tell us either way. He won't write anything down and just communicates with body language and gesturing. We dunno why, but we just choose to respect his choice in that regard."

"Pikachu. Chu pika?" Wait a moment, I've just thought of this. Why are you able to understand me?

"Pfft, I can discern your dialect's details to figure it out. Most of us agents get taught about figuring out ways to understand languages from most universes at some point, so I can figure out the patterns and tones. Of course, Sigma just grinds and groans rather than engaging in any normal method of speaking and he knows that it INFURIATES ME YA MUTE BUGGER!"

She glared at Sigma, who shuddered with what could only be laughter. Sigma reached out and patted Crosswire on the head, only to freeze while looking at her. Crosswire questioned him on this nervously.

"W-what's wrong?"

Sigma dramatically pointed at her leg, which had gotten scraped up in the fight with Springtrap. He seemed to panic, holding up a hand to tell her to wait there. He charged back into the house, returning a moment later with a first aid kit. He promptly opened it and started bandaging the injury, though it seemed relatively minor, and then went to patch all of the other injuries she had accrued. When he was done, he gave a thumbs up and packed the kit into a pocket of his suit. Crosswire spoke quietly, seemingly confused by his actions.

"Thank you..."

I looked to my left to see Maddie looking at Crosswire with an odd expression, staring at her injuries. A voice echoed out of the house, sounding as if it belonged to a young man, just a bit younger than a teen.

"Hey Sigma what's the big hurry? Oh hey, mom's back!"

I turned my head to look at them, seeing a boy wearing a simple set of brown pants and a gray shirt running out out Sigma's house. The boy, like most people here, bore an unusual appearance, having hair which was white on the top of his head but black around the back and sides of it. Along with that his head was adorned with a pair of mismatched horns, one of a deer and the other of an antelope. As well as that, his eyes were a light red color and his teeth were sharp, with one fang being larger than all of the others. As he walked out, three girls, approximately in their late teens. One of them, seeming to be the 'leader' of the trio, was a girl with a mess of curled, pale orange hair streaked with yellow and with a pair of violet eyes. The next was a girl with hair bearing a deep purple color, with streaks of teal in it, and with dark purple eyes. The final of them was a girl with turquoise hair lined with indigo, with a pair of pink eyes. They were all outfitted in similar garments to Maddie's own, but lacking in the eyes on their hoods and with full pant-legs. The leader of them spoke after glancing to see Crosswire and I.

"Hmm... Mother, who are these?"

"Speak of the wonderful little devils and they will appear...."

Maddie murmured before smiling and gesturing between us and them.

"Girls, this is Crosswire and this is Picklechu. Dave and I are showing them around. Crosswire, Picklechu, these are my kids Discord,"

The boy lit up.

"Adagio,"

The leader of the trio of girls seemed to puff up a bit with pride, though held us, more specifically myself, in a suspicious look. It seemed as if she were the eldest of the four, and was trying to figure out if we were threats to her or them.

"Aria,"

The purple-haired one gave an awkward wave.

"and finally, Sonata."

The blue-haired one offered a cheerful wave. Maddie turned back to us with a smile. "I took these four in from my Equestria and I've been taking care of them since. My Equestria was one of the few 'humanized' versions, y'see."

Crosswire slowly nodded, considering all this. Adagio narrowed her eyes at her before shrugging, her demeanor lightening up.

"Well welcome to the town...I guess."

Maddie turned away from us and waved everyone forward.

"Alrighty, c'mon everyone let's go ahead and set up Crosswire and Picklechu in one of the temporary housings!"

They all started moving and I myself halted when I noticed that Crosswire had stopped following and had a confused expression across her face. I watched Maddie look at Crosswire, seeming to register her expression but acting as if nothing were amiss. A few minutes later, we found ourselves being led into a long building made in the same style as what I determined to be the design of an 'average' house, a few windows a wooden door and the like. Maddie took us inside and showed us to a simple bedroom, with a large window looking out onto the town and a plush bed covered in pillows and blanketing. We looked around the decoration-less room and Crosswire turned out the light as we walked in, as night had begun to fall outside. Crosswire picked me up as she sat upon the bed, holding me close and finally speaking up now that we were alone.

"I don't get it..."

"Pika pika?" Don't get what?

"Why all of these people are being so... not-mean to me."

"Pikachupi?" You mean 'nice'? I offered, attempting to determine her meaning. I frowned, realizing that she didn't even know the words for any expression of emotion other than those of anger and sadness.

"I think so... I don't get it. I'm not able to turn into a weapon, I'm not an equestrian, I'm not even human! I'm just... Some weapon cooked up in a cave! I know they want me to join them for some reason, but they don't seem dumb enough to not realize that I would figure out they were faking it... I don't deserve them being this nice to me, so I know they're just trying to trick me into joining but I'm... I'm an abomination of different things forced together! Like father like daughter..."

Before I could offer any response a voice cut me off.

"Picklechu sweetie step back would you?"

I looked up to see Maddie approaching. When I didn't move, she snapped a finger and an aura of magic dropped me onto the floor a few feet away. She sat down on the bed next to Crosswire and locked eyes with her, an unreadable expression on her face.

"Crosswire, sweetie, forgive me for this."

Crosswire opened her mouth to question, but was cut off as Maddie slapped her, only to immediately after grab her into a tight hug.

"You are NOT an abomination! You are a sweet little girl who has seen nothing but cruelty in her life but somehow has managed to keep going, and that says so much about how strong you are. We agents- oh FUCK it! My friends and I haven't been acting nice to you just to trick you into joining Messenger, we've been nice and will continue being nice because we honest-to-whatever-fucked-up-gods-there-are LIKE you! We could care a lot less about you joining just so long as you're happy. Now don't you EVER say something that awful about yourself ever again! You do deserve kindness and love and-and whatever else you may want out of life! You hear me!?"

Crosswire stood frozen throughout this, as did I, and after a moment she nodded slowly. Crosswire blinked and sniffled, tears streaming down her eyes but, but these of happiness rather than sorrow and pain. She returned the hug and Maddie held Crosswire as long as was needed.

In this moment any doubts I held about these people faded, replaced by a total trust of those who would care for my child just as I. Maddie released Crosswire and patted her head, smiling upon seeing a small flicker of happiness go across Crosswire's face.

"Sweetie, I asked Messenger to tell me about your... origins after seeing what shape you were in earlier, and I'm gonna let you know now that you aren't like your father in a single way. And if your father EVER tries to hurt you again, then I promise that Dave, Sigma, and I will all make sure to be there to teach him a lesson!"

She let out a sigh, looking between Crosswire and I.

"Now then, you've had a long day, so I think it's time for one little girl and Pikachu to go to sleep, hmm?"

Crosswire held a small smile as she nodded with a thoughtful, though more than a touch drowsy, expression. Maddie turned to me and snapped a finger, returning me to Crosswire's lap.

"There you are Picklechu sweetie. And just for you I have another bed to put here across the room and- Oh. It seems Crosswire disagrees with you getting your own bed."

I raised an eyebrow but nodded with understanding after tilting my head to see Crosswire already drifting  to sleep as she held me, keeping me in an iron grip (though not discomforting me). Maddie smiled kindly and walked over, laying Crosswire down and draping a blanket over her but not covering me. Maddie whispered to me as I looked up at her.

"It's still Crosswire's decision if she stays here, but I want to give you something either way."

She reached into a void pocket of some sort and withdrew an odd item, a silver band made in the design of an Ouroboros, a serpent biting its own tail.

"That's the original version of my Displaced token, and if Crosswire decides not to stay here then I want you to keep it with you to call on me if you're ever in need."

I nodded, and she slid the band down my right ear, and when it reached the bottom of it it re-sized to be a perfect fit.

"Well good night Picklechu, and you too Crosswire."

I nodded, and blinked as she leaned down to place a kiss upon Crosswire's sleeping head in a manner which made me believe she would've done with one of her own children. I smiled at Crosswire and bid her good night, closing my own eyes and pondering the events of the day as exhaustion overtook me... Next Chapter: Chapter Thirty Three: What Now? Estimated time remaining: 6 Minutes