as written by Verse
Moments Prior
Within the distance, he could see the massive monolith of Legion Tower that had begun to rise in the past some odd months. No doubt Kazura upon it's uppermost floor looking out upon a city that he was set on subduing. Even further, other cities dotted the horizon. Van Leugen, Asteria, Solinus. He'd seen them all, been to them all, and had succumbed to the weight each carried. Terra was a fantastic world. The likes of which normal men and women from standard, pocket, verses couldn't begin to comprehend. Sometimes, he thought he'd simply gone mad. Locked away and left to rot by some unfortunate individual that had happened upon him. Then he'd wake up in the morning and realize he hadn't gone mad. The rest of existence had.
"It's certainly been an experience. But, I suppose adventure calls. Let's see what Shinzo meant by all of this." The words passed over his lips as softly as the passing breeze that kissed his skin. Making his way toward the outskirts, he found himself lingering over the great protective wall that happened to guard the city. Gingerly, his feet touched down upon the hardened surface as he caught site of the blue tressed individual. "Well. I've got what I need. I've left any unfinished business with Rizukumei. There's nothing more I can really do within the amount of time you alotted me, ha ha ha. So, with that said. Where are we off to? Is it here in The Multi-Verse? Or is it some pocket Universe disconnected?"
It was as he'd ventured forth that Shinzo had fashioned a gateway betwixt realities. Essentially, their journey was to take them to a location known as Praenuntius. A woman by the name of Rayne Penndragon had been recruiting for her sanctuary. Evil lurked on the horizon there and she sought all means of protectors against the ominous threat. Shinzo had happened to recollect Veji and had made it a priority to snag him.
"You could say that. Then again, Veji, nothing is as it seems. You think too narrow-minded. Everything can be connected like dots on a page. Regardless, it's best if I follow behind. You know. To ensure the gate doesn't close on you and leave you tumbling through time and space. It's a good way to get yourself torn to shreds. Seen it happen once. Not a pretty sight." He explained. Before Vegeshin could mention another word, though, Shinzo felt a peculiarity in the air. Something different. Having been an upper cosmos deity of sorts, it piqued his interest. He didn't know how much time he had to investigate the matter and so his gaze fell upon his ally. He had made his decision to investigate this matter, but before he could.
"Have a fun, safe, trip Veji!" He called out as Vegeshin had been glancing around inside the portal. With a swift thrust of his foot, he sent Vegeshin in with a boot to his tush. Hardly a qualm in doing so, either. As the portal closed behind Veji, he sauntered off with a snicker. "As if he'd get torn to pieces. That line always works..."
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A flip of the page and he came to briefly pause, rubbing at his temples. As he sat there, a sudden pressure flooded his mind and he found himself light headed, a surrealism swimming in his head. As he stood, stumbling a slight bit, a crescendo of awkwardness ballooned in his head before he tried to shake it away. Something had just become extremely peculiar. As if a reverse out of body experience. It felt as if he'd fallen 'into' himself from somewhere else. Glancing around, he slowly lifted an arm to pull his glasses away. Everything seemed alright. A faint trace of memory lingered, though.
"Shinzo...That little pest..." He mumbled before drawing his brows together in confusion. A sudden lift of one accentuated his perplexed state of mind as he thought on it for a moment. "But if I was. Then how am I..." He thought for a moment, before a rumble quaked his penthouse apartment. What in Kami's name was happening out there? Brushing a hand across his face in an effort to further pull himself from whatever it was that had him so out of his element, he sat his glasses down and began to stride along the floor toward the balcony.
A shrill whistle caught his ears though. It grew louder, and more imminent, the longer he waited, followed by a joined growing roar. Almost as if something from the heavens had been falling earthbound. A few steps more and it became akin to the sound of a freight train. No, even louder. And before he could bat another lash a catastrophic, concussive, blast ripped through his apartment, chewing through the entire building structure. Thrown aside into one of the walls, he was buried in a grand amount of beams, concrete, dry wall, and a host of other debris. An arm, and part of his face, was the only amount of him left exposed. Even for a being of his magnitude and power, the event he'd just been through had left him unstable enough. This estranged disaster was just enough to throw him over the edge and into a swift, unconscious, state.
In that time, numerous disasters were spreading across the city of Westeria. The Butcher continued on his rampage, churning up chaos in the wake of his flight. Victims were numerous, even more so via the coming collateral damage of the retaliating force. Jets screamed through the sky while larger vessels hung aloft in the heavens above. Buildings were shook and torn asunder by raining, molten, slag and all the while, poor Vegeshin was unaware in his unconscious state.
The audible tick-tick-ticking of a clock was what first stirred him back into the land of the conscious. Thunderous explosions rocked the foundation some, the actual sounds hailing from a distance away. Sputtering a few breaths, he began to move only to realize he was pinned. Most mortals would have panicked, but he did not, merely putting forth little effort as he rose from the mess that had piled atop him. Once he'd made it to his feet, he stumbled a slight bit, the floor beneath him a mess and partially missing in places that had fallen through. As he dusted himself, a catastrophic quake shook the foundation of the building yet again, this one far more intense than those prior, save for the slag that had torn it asunder. As he felt the building nearly collapse from the strain put on it, he couldn't help but glide over to a secondary balcony that lead out to the adjacent street; Hagan Avenue. He'd discover the source of all this commotion, even though he was still struggling to figure out how he'd even gotten here.
Thrusting a palm out, he burst through the balcony doors as they flung apart. Though the balcony was hardly safe to stand upon, a chunk of it missing, he found solid footing at managed to glance down the way a few blocks at what had been the epicenter of the quake. A massive Dragon. From the looks of everything around him, this wasn't Praenuntius. No, he was back in Wing City. Or. What appeared to be Wing City. Several buildings were different. The atmosphere itself didn't seem much the same, either. Cleaner. Clearer. Less unsettling, even in the wake of the calamity that lay before him. If it were anyone else who wasn't aware of the nature that was the Multiverse, he'd have been clamoring for answers. But in a scenario like this, much like Kazura, he came to the conclusion that he'd been chewed up, swallowed, and spit out into some variant of where he'd come from...rather than successfully make it to Praenuntius. And the longer he stared and glanced around at both the similarities and the differences, the more concrete his conclusion.
"This is the last thing I had imagined would happen..." He spoke softly, truly contemplating the mess he was now in. Everything he'd known was now gone, save for a few reminiscent buildings. He could only surmise with what little flashes that lingered in his mind that...he must have replaced the consciousness of the one who'd originally been here. If that were even the case. It's the only thing he could concretely understand at the time. Hopefully this variant, if that were the case, still held the capabilities of his originating body, because if not...this situation that lay before him would be rather grim. With a flex of his fingers into fists in repeated gestures, he glanced once again at the Dragon that finally up-righted itself and swiftly turned to shield itself. Narrowing his brows as the soldiers and tank began to open fire, he did what it was that he did best.
Intervene.
With two lurching steps, he began a swift, yet rather short, sprint from the balcony. Leaping into the air, he held his breath momentarily before attempting to fly. He was only twenty some stories up, what's the worst that could happen? It came to him as swiftly as a the grin on his face. This body could fly, which meant it could manipulate Ki. He was roughly the same as he was before, just a bit fuzzy in terms of memory. With a violet sheen pulsing around him, he burst forth at transcendent speeds, shattering most of the windows on either side of the street as he broke the sound barrier. Reeling back his fist, he had one intention; clipping the dragon right upside its jaw. If it wasn't Dragons, it was other terrors. Maleficus. Kazura. Vidious. Not to mention the members of Terminus. Evil never slept.
As he finally closed within the block, the sight of a child being shielded by the creature swiftly changed his mind, though. Coming to an abrupt halt, the sonic boom he'd created swiftly caught up to him, bringing gale force winds with it that would surely disrupt the soldiers below. In the coming irony, though, it was just in that instant that the tank had fired its shot, and the Dragon had unleashed its shock wave of purity, whatever it was. Lifting a hand to shield his face, it washed over him and passed beyond, effortlessly passing through the gale winds he'd stirred up. As his arm lowered, he saw the glowing of the runes upon the ground. The sudden shout of a soldier caught his attention as a grenade was lobbed. In the wake of the blinding explosion, Vegeshin swiftly took up point before the hulking giant. He could only hope they'd treat him as a civilian and hold their fire.
Unfortunately, he was a bit too late. The resounding crack of the canon loosing its green bolt hammered his ears. Unaware of what exactly it was, he summoned forth a rather large Kiai blast. The invisible wall of force promptly speared through the air to collide with, and halt, the green projectile in its place. Subsequent Ki blasts were fired afterword in case the blast had the capability of overwhelming the Kiai technique. Despite the launch of an anti-mana field, Vegeshin was rather fine. No magic. Just natural, Kami-given, energy.
When the noise cleared, he through his arms out to either side and bellowed at the top of his lungs. A stern gaze on his face remained, solemn eyes glancing around at the soldiers who readied themselves behind barriers. Erecting an energy field himself, in the interest of protecting himself, he continued his short tirade as the light sheen of a purple sphere flickered with static.
"This beast shields a child beneath it! Are you so caught up you cannot see this?! If your job is to protect this city, why are you in such haste to throw away the lives of innocent civilians!? You've all forgotten the face of your father, you should find nothing but shame in your actions! Stand down and focus on the real threat at hand." He explained, eyes catching sight of the Butcher as it passed some blocks down along another stretch of adjacent avenue. "You seem to be mistaken in who is friend, and who is foe..." He explained, only to turn his gaze over his shoulder and inspect the giant that was crouched behind him. His wounds looked to be hardly fatal, but from the sight of the beings wings, he could tell flight was far from practical at this point. A curious thought came to mind on whether Senzu beans would work in a universe not his own. If that were the case, he did hold a greenery in his apartment that housed the plants.
And then it dawned on him...his apartment was now a wreck. If they survived, it would be a miracle. Furthermore, he was unaware if this was even the same realm; unaware if they even happened to be there. If they were, he'd certainly have to grab them for the coming moments as they'd surely come in handy to those fighting the good fight. "Tell me I've made the right choice in saving your hide, Dragon. The moment you act to strike me down is the moment I'll be feasting on lizard meat..." He suddenly mentioned, eyes thrown to their corners as he glanced over his shoulder. He wasn't one to mince words on certain occasions, this being one of them. Hardly in prime shape himself, he was ultimately confused but acting on heroic instinct alone. There was nothing more that he wanted to do than figure out what had happened.
"Should they not heed my warning, I expect you to take the child and make your way down the street. Even if your lumbering form doesn't travel too far, you should have enough time to round the block," he began, his voice growing deeper then. "and whatever you do, don't look back if you value your vision."
