Beach

Sam

"Nope ready when you guys are," Sam says.

Sam

You thud into the cool sand and bowl over Tia. She picks herself up and goes back to staring at the portal nervously, hopping from foot to foot, flicking her tongue, and wringing her hands around her key.

Sam

"Mmmm. Mmmmmmmmmnnnnngh," Tia whines. "Inside..." she manages to squeeze out, pointing to the portal.

Freya pops out of the portal, stumbling into Tia and over Sam to crash into the sand. "OW! You... ow. You two OK?"

Sam

"Whoaaa there, hold up." Freya wraps an arm around Sam's shoulders. "First of all, you are in no condition to fight. Second of all, the area right through the portal? Full of monsters. If you walk through that portal, not only will you not be able to help Raine, you're going to get your ass kicked. And then I'll have to drag you out. Just... stop and let me think..."

"Monsters are drawn to strong emotions!" Tia yells, much louder than reasonable. "Um, if you... go in, um... Bad!"

"Calm down, Tia. Breathe."

"And when I turned into my other form I attracted the Beast and then Sam started screaming-"

"Tia..."

"-but you needed help and I panicked and-"

"Tia!"

"-then those wiggly Dogachus started appearing and Sam couldn't walk and now Raine is gone and-"

"TIA!"

"...Did I do bad?" Tia asks.

"Tia, SHUT UP and let me think!" Freya yells. "OK, Raine made it to the cliff so she should be OK for a while, but... uh... Help. We need help. Yeah. I... Oh, Natsumi's going to be mad..." Freya frowns and pulls out her phone. "OK, you two... just... go... find somewhere to calm down, OK?"

Sam

"Giant snake?"  Tia asks.  "What giant snake?"  She flicks her tongue and you can't help but notice how snake-like it is...  Tia quickly puts her hand over her mouth.  "You don't mean me, do you?  I'm not a giant snake.  I'm a lamia.  We're different.  I have arms 'n' hair and a spear?  Snakes don't have spears?"

Freya finishes with the phone and heads you way.  "Sam!  I told you to pull yourself together!  Help's on the way, but we need you stable enough to use a key.  Tia, you... you need to sit this one out."

"But...  But it's my fault..." Tia whines.

"OK, look, you two just... sit somewhere quietly and talk things out or something."

A taxi pulls up and Natsumi jumps out, running over to you as fast as she can.  "What... happened...?" she asks, a bit out of breath.  Another taxi arrives a moment after.


Tai

You arrive next and find Natsumi, Sam, Freya, and Tia sitting on the beach near the main portal. Sam and Tia are lying in the sand and seem to be in a bad state, though Freya also seems more than a bit panicked. It looks like Natsumi sprinted all the way here.

Mattea turns the energy drink she fished out of her fridge up and drains it, tossing it in a trash can on the sidewalk as she steps out and makes her way down to the shore.


Leia

As you approach the beach, your phone buzzes.  You check it quickly, expecting more from Natsumi.  Instead you find it's from an unknown number.  A stream of messages begin to pour in.

"Hey"
"Is this Leia"
"Yeah this is Leia"
"Cool"
"So yeah"
"This is Gamma"
"Guess you probably know me better as the one with the sick-ass laser cannon"
"Anyway"
"Heard some shit was going down"
"Again"
"And got an invite to join in"
"So"
"Were coming to help out"
"Just this once"
"But"
"Guess you dont want us crashing your party"
"And seeing all your faces or whatever"
"Unless you dumbos finally learned to start wearing masks"
"Or something"
"Anyway"
"So were going in through our own secret portal"
"See if we cant draw some attention"
"So yeah"
"Good chat"
"Later"

The bus arrives and lets you out.  The bus driver looks out at the gathering of people on the beach.  "Late night beach party?  Hm.  You kids just don't get yourselves in trouble."


Nora

You arrive at the beach and funnel out of the bus.  You see a lot of people already here.  Two more arrive on bikes a moment after you, a pair of guys you don't recognize.  One of them, a junior or senior, maybe, with salt-and-pepper hair looks you up and down then winks and gives you... finger guns? as he walks past to the beach, then jumps and pumps his fists.  "HELL YEAH LATE NIGHT BEACH PARTY!" he yells.

Alice sighs.  "Ignore Kiran.  He has an... unhealthy fascination with this place."  She takes a look at the assembled people and walks forward onto the sand.  She points to a dark-brown, glowing, floating disk.  "There.  We go through that and we'll be in a parallel dimension full of monsters.  First things first, let's get some information."


Sam, Leia, Tai, Nora

Buttons and Kiran arrive, followed by Alice, Tom, Grant, and the new girl wearing a business suit for some reason.  Alice marches up to everyone already assembled, looks across everyone, then folds her arm.  "Alright, let's hear what happened.  Who were the ones here?  Freya, Raine..."

"Me 'n' Sam," Tia blurts out.  "And we were trying to hunt some monsters to make new armor but then we fought a giant squid and it was all my idea and then I turned into a giant snake and made Sam cry and stuff happened and Raine ran away so Freya could carry her!"

Alice sighs.  "Right, then...  Only thing for it is to go in and get her."

"She was headed for the cliff," Freya says.  "I think she made it OK."

"I'll take point," Grant says.  "I can feel it.  There's a lot of monsters out right now.  Tia, you need to sit out.  The beast's out for blood."

Tia looks up from sitting in the sand, then nods quietly.

Alice looks over at Nora.  "We usually fight in groups of four.  Any more than that tends to attract more monsters, which is the opposite of what we need right now.  OK, then.  We're going to form three groups and attack in waves."  She turns to the others.  "First group needs to be ready for a fight immediately, they might not get to pick what's happening.  Grant's going with you.  Second group needs to push out and help establish a safe zone at the portal entrance.  I'll go with the third group.  We'll have a chance to think, so our job will be to look for signs of Raine.  Everyone form up and get ready to go."

"Obviously I'm going with Tai," Mattea says.  "You can pick what you feel like doing, Sweetie."

Tom cracks his neck.  "I'll stick with Alice."

"I... know my limits.  As much as I'd love a fight, I'm already a bit tired," Freya says.  "I'll go in with the second group."

Leia seemed fixated on her phone during Alice's speech.

"Hum... He... Hello... I thththink I don't know manynynyny of you... I'm Leia... I thought we had to keep the other world secret, but I guess everyone knows about it now?

A... Anyway... Hum... I think I... I... I'm in a group chat with Mercia's goons now and they're going to help us?"

Leia looks around, seemingly looking at everyone one by one.

"I... I'd like to be with Natsu-girl, but... but... I'll just go in any team that wants me..."