There came a loud crack, and a boom that Akira was sure wasn’t thunder. “Fuck.” Bystanders either laughed nervously, assuming that it was, indeed, the storm, while others looked more panicky, wondering if it was a terrorist attack. As much as every cell in her body told her not to do anything stupid, she steeled herself and hailed a jeepney en route towards the general direction of the explosion, or whatever it was. It soon became clear, however, that her instincts had been right: the streets were impassable in minutes. People were frantically checking their phones, looking for policemen to notify, or moving away from the source of the trouble. Soon, Akira conceded that she had to make the rest of the way on foot if she was to get anywhere fast.<br/><br/>The big-ass crater wasn’t exactly unexpected, but it still made her gasp.<br/><br/>As these things went, people were getting over their initial shock to gather around the crater and peer inside. No law enforcement yet, though she could hear sirens approaching, either from them or from ambulances. Didn’t look like it had killed anybody; it was one of those serendipitous things where the destruction happened in an empty lot about to be excavated to get ready for building the next high-rise condominium. In a way, whatever it was sort of did the work for the construction company. She could see some people were hurt, and the nearest buildings sustained damage. The crater itself was dusty, and the air was thick with the torn shreds of energy, the stuff in-between worlds. Akira could<span style="font-style: italic">taste</span>the static.<br/><br/>Something was moving at the center of the crater. Someone. Fear washed over her like a cold shower, colder than the rain now drenching her clothes. What if this was someone sent after her? Finish the job that had, eight years ago, forced another warrior from another world to rescue her from Earth. God, did she really think that she could hide from being Paladin here?<br/><br/>Akira stood there frozen for a good solid minute, until the sirens got louder. She had to do something, and fast. If whatever, or whoever, that was really was dangerous, these people were in danger. And even if it wasn’t sent here to kill her, this was something that literally fell out of the sky from another plane of reality. For these people to discover that? Well. Not exactly ideal. Swallowing her own panic, she pulled on the hoodie, not so much to futilely stop the rain as to help conceal her face, balled her hands into fists, and summoned a portal. Signals in her brain connected with a different kind of energy, tapping into the same amorphous fabric that this mystery person had just torn through, and within seconds, Akira disappeared from the edge of the crater and reappeared in its epicenter.<br/><br/>“Shit, that was unpleasant,” she muttered in between coughs, on her hands and knees. Portals took a tremendous effort to summon, and that was only to get from point a to point b of the radius of the crater. Like every atom in her body was put through a blender and squeezed through a straw, all this happening in light-speed, before reconstituting. She was about to stand up when the rancid smell of puke filled her nostrils, making her puke out the remnants of brunch. Glancing at the figure lying nearby, she wiped her mouth and nose with her sleeve. “I don’t know who you are, but I hate you already.”<br/><br/>The poor bastard looked absolutely fucked. He was already unconscious, and obviously he did his own share of throwing up before that. She had never seen armor like that before. Didn’t look metallic, which was a crying shame; would’ve made it a lot easier for Akira to move him. And it really was a him, at least as far as she could tell. Not a bad looking man, too, if he was, indeed, human. But no human could’ve survived a fall like this. The armor might be magic. And this sword. And this hammer. Jesus, this guy meant business. Thank god he was out of it.<br/><br/>“Miss? Miss, put down those weapons and step away from the man, please.”<br/>Already the policemen were advancing, looking ready to either disarm an IED or dismember a human being.<br/>“Miss! Move back, slowly, or we will remove you!”<br/>Her mind drew a blank.<br/><br/>A heartbeat later, blue light flashed inside her apartment and spat both of them out and onto her kitchen floor, the man’s armor cracking the tiles. Akira lay there, not even bothering to get up onto all fours, and just covered her face as she got her bearings back. No way was she puking again so soon. It had taken her a long time to get used to portals the first time, and she wasn’t keen on repeating the experience. Soon, she began laughing, her hysterical giggles muffled by her hands. Well, that was lucky. Amazing how adrenaline could make you grab a hammer, a sword, and a man in full body armor without letting go of any of them. Now what?<br/><br/>She steadied herself, leaning on the kitchen counter for support, as her head stopped spinning. The storm didn’t look like it would be over anytime soon, though its energies felt a bit less erratic now. Still, it would be idiotic to attempt to summon a portal for off-world travel so soon after an anomaly. The immediate concern was this man’s life. She was no doctor, but she couldn’t just portal-jump them both to the nearest ER. Plus, the authorities would be on the lookout for them, now. And still she wasn’t sure if he was here to harm her or anybody, or simply happened to have been sucked into the anomaly. Either way, he was definitely dangerous.