The Worldwalkers (Pseudo SI/Multicross)

[Flameal15k]

The councilors eyed the documents before them, reading each and every term with voracious interest and curiosity. Every term was examined, every request measured, until all had reached consensus. Only once the last of them set down their papers did they turn their attention to their guests.
Said guests were a pair of children, each a few years before the cusp of puberty. Both were fair skinned, though the boy had hair black as midnight, while the girl's was white as ivory. Despite their youth, the duo stood firm, with only minor looks of unease on their faces – clearly, they were trying not to show weakness. For two who had every reason to be nervous, the effort they put into hiding their fear was impressive.

"So," spoke the lead councilor, "are these truly the terms you wish to offer?"
"Yes, confirmed the boy. "Though we will leave some room to modify them in the future, as both parties see fit."
"Fair enough. So, in exchange for all of this, we will ease some of the burdens we have placed upon your kin, is that right?"
The girl sighed in annoyance. "You just asked that, but yes – we'll pay the price for them."
"Interesting – so rarely do we see the kin of those sent on an insertion be so willing to entreat with our kind."
"You like inserting people into stories they read, regardless of their thoughts on the matter," countered the girl. "Perhaps I have less room than others to judge you for that, but your actions wouldn't exactly make you friends with your…charges, I guess?"
"True enough," acknowledged another of the council – an older female, who had started her reply with a laugh. "Still, you must be aware that your actions cannot erase the debts that your blood owe to us. At most, you can ease what we demand in repayment."
"That is sufficient," affirmed the boy.
"Very well. Now then, let your service to us begin.
XxXxX
"Roy, wake up."
With more difficulty than I had hoped, my eyes fluttered open, taking me out of my dream. "Claire, what is it?"
She gestured to the paper below. "You have another assignment tonight, as part of our agreement with…Phineos, I think."
Him? Well, joy. "Right. Who's the target?"
"Some lady working for the Empire. An especially corrupt female governor – I guess that makes her a governess - who treats the taxes of her subjects' taxes as her personal check book and credit cards. The Revolutionary Army wants her dealt with now. Night Raid will be handling things, so that means you need to be ready to act."
Nothing too interesting, it seemed. "Dear sister, will you be there?"
"No – I am required to be elsewhere. And I can confirm that no Imperial Arms users will be participating in this defense."
Another boring assignment, then. "Anything else I need to be prepared for?"
"Nothing for Phineos, but Almorava is expecting us to handle an assignment for her half an hour after that assassination is predicted to end. So please, handle it swiftly."
"Anything for you, little sister."
Claire just rolled her eyes. "Good luck, brother. But I would be lying if I expected you to need it for this."
"Thanks."
XxXxX
Oh, so, you're wondering who I am, aren't you? And who my sister is?
Well, I guess I owe you an explanation, then.
I'm sure you've heard the stories where some Random Omnipotent Being (Bastard optional) plucks up a hapless sod and throws them into the universe of a piece of fiction they've read, where they now have to survive and potentially thrive, all for the amusement of the ROB who sent them there. This has happened so many times over that I can't count them anymore, and has so many permutations that make everything really confusing.
So, once upon a time, there was a self insert who went across the multiverse, exploring realities, righting wrongs, and just being a good person. He even found some time to settle down and start a family.
Then, one day, his adventures lead him to a world where there were a bunch of other self inserts, all sent by different ROBs. He felt bad for them, so he decided to try and help them get free from their master's(?) yokes.
That…didn't go well.
Beyond royally enraging all of those other ROBs, the self insert unwittingly released an evil the Omnipotent Ones had kept locked away in a dark, forgotten place, changing it from a threat they occasionally threw at some of their stronger pawns into a nuisance they couldn't exactly control. The latter was especially true after that evil tunneled into another universe managed by a group of ROBs who didn't like the ones who had chained the evil in the first place.
That Self Insert had quite a lot of explaining to do to the now very angry ROBs, including his own.
That Self Insert…was not me.
That was my dad.
He had been pretty uncomfortable when those ROBs had taken him and my mom to task for that.
Unsurprisingly, repayment had been demanded. Such an offense could not go unpunished. Harsh sentences had been offered, so that no one would think such a stunt would be worth repeating.
My sister and I hadn't really been old enough to understand that what had happened, but we knew our parents were in distress, so naturally, we had tried to help them. We'd begged to do something, anything, to ease their punishment.
And that lead us to where we were right now.
Right now, in this specific instance, being in a forest, overlooking a palace that was loaded to the gills with guards, waiting for a group of assassins to strike.
See, this world was that of the tale Akame Ga Kill!, which focused on a boy who joined a group of assassins to help purge an Empire of corruption after the cute girl he'd gotten a job from turned out to belong to a family of psychos who had tortured his friends to death. After killing that girl, he'd offered to join that group of assassins, who were known as Night Raid. He'd gone on many adventures, gained friends and foes along the way, but whether he survived to the end and beyond depended on whether you were watching the anime or reading the manga.
And this was relevant how?
Simple – our parents had accidentally freed a bunch of self inserts to return to their home universes and live in peace. Thus, part of our punishment was to take their places.
That was why I was in the forest, watching for sentries, while the rest of Night Raid advanced on the palace, aiming to take out the owner of the building – a Ms. Inoue, if I remembered right.
What did people in Manga and Anime have Japanese names even if the setting was themed after Europe? The best answer I got came down to the creators just going with what was familiar, which didn't make it any less weird when you actually saw these people alive and walking about – though not for long, given the beam of light traveling through the sky.
The source of that was an Imperial Arms known as Pumpkin. To shorten things for those who already know, Imperial Arms were special items created by the first ruler of the Empire to help protect his people. Forged with magic, they could do all kinds of crazy things – going from armor that could either fly or turn invisible to swords that had deathly poison or the ability to raise the dead, and even a liquid that, once consumed, allowed the user to control ice. Pumpkin was a laser weapon meant for long range use that increased in attack power in relation to the amount of danger the wielder was in. Since the attack I witnessed was just a thin beam of light and not a giant one that erased the target from existence, it looked our sniper hadn't been in too much trouble.
Time to make my exit, it seemed.
"Going somewhere?"
And just when things had been looking easy, too.
Groaning, I turned to face the new voice, and found myself looking at a female guard – one I'd missed earlier, it seemed.
"Uh, yeah – I have a job I need to get to in a few minutes. I'd love to hang around, but I really don't have the time."
"Aw, you'd leave a lady all alone out here in the woods."
Lady? "I thought most female guards weren't ladies."
"True, but sometimes we need to disguise ourselves lest our foes catch us off guard."
Disguise? What did she mean by that-wait.
Taking a moment to glance over her face, I groaned. "Let me guess – our sniper just shot a body double?"
"That would be correct."
I let out another groan. "Great. Can't go to my next job if this one isn't completed."
"You actually think that you'll-"
She never got to finish that line, seeing how she had to duck out of the way of a thrown knife.
"Can we just get on with this? I'll promise that you die swiftly, but I can't be certain it won't be painless."
Her only response was to his at me and throw three knives of her own toward me. I dodged them all and rolled behind a nearby tree, I took a deep breath and focused – as a way to make our burdens easier, our 'employers' had given us an arsenal that we could use to complete our tasks, though what could be used at any one moment varied. Right now, there were only a few things I could use, but they were enough – and all I had to do to use them was think very hard.
"Come out, come out wherever you are, little assassin."
Annoyed at the jab, I did just that. The mark was surprised to find that I now (technically) wore a suit of horned armor that had no apparent joints, as it looked more organic than metallic (and to be fair, it was). She was equally surprised when I pulled out a stick of dynamite from nowhere, already lit, and threw it at her.
"What kind of Imperial Arms do you have?!" she inquired as she rolled out of the way.
"A long lost one," I answered, the lie seamlessly rolling off my tongue as I threw another stick of dynamite her way.
"Well, if all it does is give you an infinite supply of explosives and some neat armor, you stand no chance of beating me – I trained in one of the Empire's most prestigious dojos, and I-"
"Blah, blah, blah, just die already," I interjected as I took out a bow and let an arrow fly. Amazingly, though, she dodged out of the way and proved able to keep one step ahead of me, even when I switched to using a pistol on her.
Okay, enough with the games. Time to end this.
Seeing me take out a third stick of dynamite, my mark laughed at me. "You think throwing that will had a different result from the last two times?"
"Who said anything about throwing it?"
A look of confusion filled her face, which soon turned to one of panic when she was suddenly engulfed in a strange light. Moments later, she was staring at me once again…but now, our positions were reversed.
Also, she was now holding the lit stick of dynamite.
I had hoped that would be the end of things, but she recovered fast enough to take the stick and hurl it my way. Groaning once more, I merely jumped into the air, landing on a nearby tree as the explosive detonated. One bout of concentration later, and I was back to my normal attire for this world, except for something up my left sleeve.
With laser focus, I jumped at my foe, whose reflexes had slowed just enough that she didn't have time to evade me. We tumbled into the dirt, giving her an opening to stab my side with a knife. It tickled, and I still have the strength to grip her throat with my left arm.
"Really? Trying to strangle a woman older and stronger than you?"
"Not strangle. Cut the throat."
Then I twitched my fingers. Instantly, her eyes went from dark amusement to panic as cold steel punctured her throat.
"But..but…this can't be happening. I'm too important to die!" she choked out as her life blood coated my palm.
"All are equal in death," I replied as she futilely tried to close the wound before she expired. Closing her eyes, I rubbed a feather in her blood, then put a palm to body and bathed her in light.
Then, after writing a note that I placed on her body and doing some math, I took her corpse and chucked it.
That should make sure it gets to Night Raid's rendezvous location. The glowing light had ensured it would land intact.
As for me, well, I had a place to be right now.
XxXxX
Glancing at the portal, I watched lazily as my brother's form exited the hole in reality, looking only a little worse for wear. "Any complications for your job?"
"The target used a body double to trick Night Raid and ended up confronting me. She didn't last too long after that."
"Figures. So, ready for Almorava's task?"
"Let's begin."
"Excellent."
Unable to keep the grin off my face, I glanced at the targets for this assignment – the one known as Almorava had assigned us the task of screwing a bit with one who had too much pride to be healthy. The figures before us were intended to be his foot soldiers, and took the form of nude human bodies covered in strange tattoos. Each had only a single eye in its forehead, and despite being nude, lacked any external traits that would define gender.
These were mannequin soldiers, and each was powered by something called a philosopher's stone.
And now they were all going to burn.
Taking a deep breath, I charged some magical energy - magika, if I remembered correctly - in my hands. When I released it, a fire emerged before me, which soon shaped itself into a feminine form – a Flame Atronach. Instantly, she directed her flames to the mannequins.
Yep, this was gonna be fun.
XxXxX
AN: Yeah, another new story as the year comes to an end. Really should try and focus on updating one of my older ones, but this plot bunny refuses to die.
So, while I was working in my other big SI story, two ideas came to me from that which I wanted to expand on: what would happen to that SI's children, if they had any, when their ROB got bored, and what would happen if an SI pissed off a bunch of other ROBs, intentionally or otherwise. This story is my stab on both.
Before you ask, yes, the final paragraph was from Claire's point of view.
Roy and Claire are leaving out quite a bit about their origins. There's a reason the prologue is different from his description of things.
We will eventually meet Roy and Claire's parents, but they won't be named until at least the end of Arc 2 of this story.
Each arc will be around 5-10 chapters total.
Feedback ensures the quality of this story has the chance to increase. Please read and review at your leisure! This is Flameal15k, signing off!