19 It's Getting There

<|Jasmine's POV|>

Opening my eyes, I was greeted with a rather odd sight. Stuff you can see only in labs lay both scattered around and organized, some rather advanced stuff were put on display, and in the middle of all was us. Without a second passing, Penny was quick to shout out an excited yelp as she pulled us into a group hug.

Despite Esdeath and Touka's rocky relationship, they were civil enough to not cause a fuss as they were forced into the group hug, with the taller woman simply giving Touka a mocking smile while the shorter woman shot back with a low growl. Eventually, Penny had let us go and regardless of the situation, she had a beaming smile stuck on her perpetually adorable face.

"It's great to have you guys in my world!" The peppy redhead announced as she pulled 2B, her best friend, along and began giving us a tour. Noticing how nonchalant Penny was, I could only guess that she wasn't particularly worried about the Emergency Mission. I still need to recheck it to begin making preparations, but unlike all of us who use an external source to access the DCG, the DCG itself was integrated into Penny's body, allowing her to read everything within a nanosecond and reply just as fast, so I was sure she had reviewed the mission details already.

Now wanting to be a downer, I just followed along, humoring Penny while also preparing to make lies and escape plans in my mind. From what Penny had said before, her father's lab second lab, which where we were most likely were in, was in the Atlesian Airship. It was highly likely we would meet Atlesian soldiers, Penny's own father, and the man himself, James Ironwood.

I have long prepared for days like this, meeting officials and needing a way to bullshit out of being inconvenienced by their laws. I have a pretty dumb lie ready whenever we face the big man himself, and it was backed by my massive aura reserve, thanks to my Adapt ability and a multitude of other abilities that gives my Semblance more advantages. At this point, I was pretty fucking sure I can even bend Salem herself to my whims, which was so hot that I nearly grew aroused at the thought on the spot!

'God I'm such a slut for evil women.' Was I the only one into antagonistic women? Most likely not.

"And this is my port where I have my maintenance!" Going back to Penny's tour, I looked at what she was pointing at and noticed the Penny shaped...operation table? It looked like an angled operation table.

Also, now that I think about it, turning to our most volatile member, I used the most pleading and innocent voice I can. "Esdeath~, be sure not to cause trouble, okay? You can go crazy against the Grimm later, 'kay?"

Was I being manipulative? Definitely. I, once again, was not above mind-controlling my friends when I need to. But it's not something I'm proud of and something I would do so casually. Still, it was important to reign in Esdeath. She's the type to instigate trouble against people with the same authority as her, and I don't want General Esdeath suddenly killing General Ironwood's people and causing a war.

Fortunately, Esdeath had been rather mellow with us. She had her moments of extreme sadism, but all in all, she was chill. Especially when she was in either my or Marinette's presence. Just as I predicted, Esdeath had started "courting" both Marinette and I once she saw her smile. However, unlike me, Marinette was a but weirded out with it, and I'm sure if it was because of the situation itself or it was because Marinette was straight(?). Either way, since she's part of this group, Yurism is the only religion she'll be part of soon enough!

"Penny? Who are these people with you?" Suddenly, a voice rang out in the lab, and it was only due to my reflexes that I was able to stop Esdeath from throwing an icicle at the man.

Turning around, I wad met the wary visage of Penny's father, Pietro Polendina.

"Oh! Father! These are my friends!" Penny eagerly began introducing us, causing the wary man to reluctantly accept our presence.

"Well, Penny's friends....I thank you for being Penny's friends, but I am not sure the General would enjoy your presence here in my lab." From the tone of his voice, I could tell that °he° wasn't against our presence, and from the glint from his eyes, I was quite sure he was actually happy, most likely for Penny having friends, but he was also telling the truth.

"Oh! No need to worry, Mr. Polendina, General Ironwood knows of our presence here! He has assigned us to guard Penny in her future missions and some of us to act as Penny's team members!" The awesome thing about my Semblance was that it can affect memories, so I wasn't worried about making mistakes. Even if memory-altering cost more aura, I had massive amounts to spare.

"Is that true? Well then, please take care of my daughter in the upcoming tournament." With this information pushed back in the back of my mind for the moment, I smiled and replied.

"Of course! Penny's our friend! Anyway, sorry for intrusion, but we must take our leave and meet with General Ironwood to iron out the details." Since I was now invested in this crudely made plan of mine, I will be sticking with it. Taking another glance at the Mission details, I waited for Pietro's response.

"Hmm. Of course. Go. You wouldn't want the General to wait for you." Prompted by this, I gave Penny a nod, gesturing her to take the lead. After waving goodbye at the nice old man, I began to rely our plan.

"Okay, phase one, I will alter Ironwood's memories to think that he took Touka, 2B and Kim out of Atlas Academy to act as Penny's bodyguard-slash-team members. I will also make sure that he and nobody else checks the records, and have someone make fake ones just in case." Ah. The wonders of having an overpowered mind-controlling semblance.

"What about Marinette and Esdeath?" Kim asked as she trudged along beside me.

"We will be a separate group preparing for the incoming waves while you four do some preparing on your end, which is phase two." As I explained this, I once again opened the mission details.

[Emergency Mission!

>An Evil Diety's influence is trying to enter DCG Member's: Real Girl!'s, universe! Prepare for the Evil Diety's, Bla'o's attempt and slay its minions before they take root into DCG Member: Real Girl!'s, world and open a portal for Bla'o's itself to enter the world!

Goal/s:

¬Prepare for the incoming waves of minions!

¬Prevent the entrance of Bla'o!

-Difficulty: Hard - Very Hard - Extremely Hard

Reward/s:

¬50,000 Coins - 100,000 Coins - 300,000 Coims

¬1 Emergency Package - 2 Emergency Package - 3 Emergency Package

¬2 - 4 Rare Items - 1 Epic Item

¬3 Ability Boost - 6 Ability Boost - 15 Ability Boost

Failure to accomplish:

¬Difficulty update to, Impossible

[A package will be given to each of you to aid you in your mission.]]

It wasn't like the first Emergency Mission where we just hunted down a monster that would open up tge portal. From what we have, I can only conclude that Bla'o, this evil diety, will be able to allow its monsters to come here through some way. Since it says "Waves", this is a direct attack? The only scenario I could think of was that Bla'o would open a portal for his minions to enter and only them, but his minions will eventually complete the portal for his entrance? This is the only most likely thing I can think of with this limited amount of information.

Going into my inbox, I opened up the package.

[Item received: Protection of the Kind Watchers.]

[Protection of the Kind Watchers |Legendary|

>The Watchers are an immortal race that watched the universe grow from the beginning of time. The Kind Watchers, who were compassionate, made this ward to protect the universe from outside forces from entering their domain.

(An outside force currently has a connection to this universe, more specifically to the planet of Remnant. Severe its connection first before being able to use the ward.)]

Reading its description and seeing its Tier level, I can't help but let out a whistle.

"Does everyone have this?" I asked while showing the orb as large as a baseball riddled with intricate designs that was faintly glowing blue. To my question, everyone went to check their own packages, and after taking in their own reactions to it, nodded.

"Good! Since we each have one, we'll use ours once we get back to our own universes while Penny will use hers here, obviously." I received nods of agreement afterwards, prompting me to put the ward back into my inventory.

"Anyone have anything else?" To my question, Penny took something out. This was a familiar disc, and the moment Penny threw it to the ground, I realized why exactly it was familiar.

"I had a World Anomaly Locator with mine." As Penny said this, a text appeared above the hologram of Remnant, which shaped like earth, only with different land masses, of course.

[Anomaly levels too low. Anomaly can't be found.]

Reading this, I knew it was speaking about the evil diety's connection to this universe. Too bad it was too weak. I hoped we could have nipped in the bud, but it seems like we'll have to wait a bit.

"Phase 3 would be us searching for the anomaly, which I could guess as the entrance point of the waves. Though I hope it won't be scattered around the world." If the, what I assume to be, portals would appear scattered around all of Remnant, then our success rate would massively decrease. If we compare ourselves with the monster we previously fought, one of us can easily fight and kill the monster, but waves of more of those? With possibly stronger ones? I just hope the Huntsmen all around the world would be strong enough.

Still, there were multiple things I have to watch out, those beings the Grimm and Salem herself. But it would be most likely that the monster wouldn't discriminate, so they would probably go after her if given the chance, and she would retaliate, right?

Anyway, negative thoughts and what-ifs are for later. For now, I needed to convince good 'ol Morningwood.

<|Esdeath's POV|>

Ever since joining the Dimensional Chat Grouo, everyday had become amusing! Not only have I found to wonderful women I would love to keep, but everyone here was just so interesting! 2B and Penny were comparable to, to my knowledge, man-made human Teigus. Kim reminded me somewhat of a loyal dog, always following her master's, Jasmine's, call. Touka, the short woman, was part of a race called Ghouls, human-like creatures that were far more powerful than humans and had organic weapons called Kagunes. She amuses me the most, especially when she keeps on reminding me of her claim of Jasmine.

Speaking of Jasmine, the pink-haired woman along with Marinette were two women who I absolutely °love°! In a world where everyone simply just °despairs°, such innocent smiles were something that arouses me so much! Oh how I long for the day I corrupt such smiles and keep them as °mine°! But unlike Marinette, who was the epitome of innocence, Jasmine was most definitely not. She was the epitome of °cunning°!

Using her knowledge of me, she charmed me with an oh so "innocent" smile of her own, capturing my heart forever! This was a woman that I like! The deception was so well-crafted despite being made on the spot that I can't help but like Jasmine even more!

And watching how she tried to discreetly influence me to the "less evil" side, I can't help but be both be enraptured and be in awe of it! It was amusing how she was putting such lengths to make this group of ours to work, but I was surprised with how well she was putting such ideals and inhibitions in me! This is simply something that must be done through less than stellar means, and instead of getting furious at being manipulated, I can't help but find it fascinating!

'Let's see if you deserve my love, my dear Peach...or if you deserve death.'