Chapter 2: Assembly

Location: Unknown

Date Unknown

Ramiel wakes up to the feeling of a blade on his throat and can't help but release a deep sigh as he opens his eyes to look at the culprit.

"How troublesome, it hasn't even been five minutes and I'm already being threatened." says Ramiel as he looks up at the impassive face of Raven Branwen.

Standing at six feet tall with her heels, Raven Branwen is a woman with a pale complexion, long, bushy black hair tied by a red bandanna and loosely done up in a ponytail with the ends resembling curved black feathers, and red eyes that are darker than Ramiel's.

Her outfit consists of a shallow cut black and red dress with black shorts underneath, with a series of beaded necklaces and a belt that is wrapped around her waist and carries her weapon's sheath. Attached also is a long black object that is either fur or feathers, with a red and white bandana material hanging from behind her. Her forearms bear red armored gauntlets that protrude outwards and black fingerless gloves. She wears black mid-thigh high leggings and black heels with red soles.

"Who are you, and where are we?" asks Raven as she slightly increases the pressure of her blade on Ramiel's throat.

Rather than answer, Ramiel pats himself down as if looking for something before eventually stopping at his vest's inner pocket. Reaching inside he pulls out what seems to be a cigarette packet with a note attached to it that reads "These are your standard, non-poisoned meds. The packet will always be full, cannot be destroyed, and will always return to you no matter where you are. Good Luck. -From your favorite outerversal being."

"What a chill guy." whispers Ramiel to himself while putting one of the 'cigarettes' in his mouth even as he ignores the increasing pressure on his throat by an irritated Raven. "Do you have a flame I can borrow?" he asks the woman threatening her, causing her to frown at his nonchalance.

Seeing that she won't answer him, Ramiel channels a small amount of lightning between thumb and pointer finger before touching the end of the cigarette with it, lighting it.

Taking a deep breath, Ramiel inhales a mouthful of smoke and looks back up at Raven, "Now that I won't go berserk at the irritation, I can answer your questions. My name is Ramiel and I have no idea where we are." he says with a slow exhale.

Finding no signs that he is lying to her, Raven sheathes her weapon, an odashi with a long red blade, and begins to walk away from him.

Standing up from where he lay on the floor, Ramiel looks at the room that he finds himself in. The room itself is a fairly large western styled office with burgundy furniture in the form of couches and cushioned chairs, a desk covered in documents, and a massive bookshelf filled with books on magecraft.

Making his way to the desk, Ramiel receives a spiking headache that stumbles him for a split second as memories of a second life are infused into his mind. After a few more seconds the headache subsides, allowing him to review the memories of his existence as a magus in the nasuverse.

The name of the magus is Kaname Tōsen, the sole child and heir of the Kaname family, a magus lineage belonging to the Clock Tower of the Mage's Association. Being a family of blacksmiths long before even becoming of magecraft, the Kaname family specialises Material Transmutation while also have knowledge in alchemy. While their skills in Material Transmutation cannot be considered anything less than amazing, it is discarded by other magus due to it being considered useless in terms of reaching the Root. As for their alchemical knowledge, it is more than most magus families but completely amateurish in the face of families like the Einzberns. All of this culminates in making the Kaname family a slightly above average family in the Clock Tower that sides with the Neutral Faction; they prefer to be left out of the political game in order to live as they please.

Kaname Tōsen himself a genius of the family with 35 magic circuits and a maximum output of 1000 units of magical energy with the help of his family's crest before he merged with Ramiel. Unlike the previous members of his family who only wished to research and experiment, Ramiel wanted to adventure, and slay monsters and villains like the heroes in legend. As such, despite his father's wishes, Ramiel grew up training and attempting to apply his family's research to combat. Eventually he became an enforcer of the Clock Tower where he gained himself a slight renown for his combat prowess in those circles.

He returned home four years ago when his father perished and he became head of the Kaname family. Nowadays he rarely takes jobs as an enforcer and, as the sole member of the Kaname family, spends the time taking care of the businesses owned by his family while also trying to further his family's research.

"Well that was enlightening." says Ramiel to himself just as an explosion shakes the building. "Damn it, they're going to destroy the manor." he comments while taking a drag before racing out of the room.

Arriving at the location of the explosion, the family room according to his memories as Kaname Tōsen, Ramiel finds the room in disarray with most of the furniture destroyed as Raven and Esdeath face off while the others watch.

"Oi, what the hell are you doing destroying my home?" calls out Ramiel as he intercepts the combatant's weapons as they stab towards one another.

Grabbing both weapons by the blade, Ramiel stops the fighters in their tracks "I like to think of myself as fairly laid back, however I won't stand here and watch the two of you destroy my family's manor." he says with a glare as his pupils slit and an aura of bloodlust explodes from him and pressures the two of them.

Not willing to take a challenge like that laying down, Esdeath smiles back at him as her power explodes and freezes her side of the room. Unwilling to show weakness, Raven's Maiden powers manifest and she summons extremely hot flames that forces the audience to either retreat or mount their own defense.

"Fine, you two want to play? I can play." says Ramiel, causing Esdeath's smile to turn into a sadistic grin before she is pulled forward by her swords.

Recovering quickly, Esdeath uses her ice to slide under Ramiel's punch to position herself behind him and stab towards the back of his neck. Bending backwards under her stab, Ramiel causes her rapier to clash against Raven's odashi that had been slashing towards his throat. As the two women disengage from one another Ramiel turns his position into a handstand which he uses to further kick their blades away from him.

Before he can move however, Esdeath freezes his hands to the floor ruining his rhythm long enough for her to stab towards his heart while Raven slashes toward his arms in the hopes of removing them from his body.

Flexing his forearms, Ramiel easily breaks free from the ice and catches Esdeath's sword with one hand while once again kicking Raven's sword away from him.

Launching himself into the air with his remaining arm, Ramiel tries to pull Esdeath to him using her sword only to fail when she lets go of the weapon and replaces it with one made of ice.

Smirking, Ramiel lands a few feet away from his opponents and studies them. Esdeath is a tall, beautiful, and slender woman with long, light blue hair and eyes, and porcelain white skin. She stands at around five feet nine inches, wears a General's apparel with long sleeves with buttons on the upper arms, a blue scarf on her neck, and high-heeled boots. She also has a tattoo on her chest, which is the sign of her Teigu.

Facing Ramiel, she stands proud and tall with her ice rapier in a firm yet fluid grasp while a joyful grin adorns her lips and a slight respect for her foe's combat prowess can be seen in her eyes.

Meanwhile Raven slightly glares at him with her sword held in a traditional stance.

"You are a powerful warrior. Tell me, what is your name?" asks Esdeath.

"It's Ramiel, but anyway shouldn't you introduce yourself too." he answers as he seemingly relaxes his body and places his hands in his pockets.

"I am Esdeath; and I must say, that short exchange just now was magnificent. The power, speed, the skills, and that grace…hmmm, simply magnificent." she says with a blush on her face as she dismisses her ice sword. "As such, I'd like to give you a reward." she tells him as she walks towards him and reaches into her shirt between her breasts.

"A reward?" asks Ramiel with a raised eyebrow. As someone who hasn't finished the anime and only has a limited knowledge of her, he isn't sure if he should be wary or excited.

While Ramiel is lost in his thoughts, Esdeath approaches him under the intrigued eyes of the others and removes a collar and chain from between her breasts and places it around his neck with a resounding click that shakes him from his thoughts.

"Oi, is that what I think it is?" asks Ramiel with a slight frown as the others watch on with raised eyebrows.

"Yes, from now on you'll belong to me." replies Esdeath with a smile. "Come, we can leave the others to their lonesome while we look for a room. We can find out about our situation." she says as she turns around and attempts to pull him with her.

Taking a long drag from his cigarette before slowly releasing it with a sigh, Ramiel looks at the woman who has just collared him. "Esdeath, did you place a collar around my neck to claim me?" he asks.

"Of course, I have to make sure that you can't run away from me." she answers as if the answer is quite obvious.

"What exactly gave you the idea that I would run away from you?" he asks. "Logically speaking we should stay here and exchange information with the others. Besides, I know what's going on and we can always talk later." he tells her with a smile that causes her to blush.

"I see, then if that's the case we'll stay." answers Esdeath as she walks to him and hugs his right arm just as Raven places her blade on his neck.

"So you do know where we are." says Raven with narrowed eyes.

Before Ramiel can answer her, Esdeath points her rapier at Raven's heart "Unhand him." orders Esdeath with a glare. "If you continue on this course of action I will no longer hold back. I don't care who it is, I won't allow them to hurt Ramiel." claims Esdeath as the temperature plummets and frost can be seen forming on Raven.

As the two women glare at one another, Tsunade finally makes her lack of patience known and stomps on the ground, shaking the entire manor. "Enough! You two can fight over your boy toy later, we have more important matters to take care of." she commands.

The two glare at one another for a few more seconds before eventually standing down and sheathing their weapons.

"Good, now let's move to a room that isn't destroyed and talk." she says as she turns and walks away with the others following behind her.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dangerous, that's the one word that Natalia Alianovna "Natasha" Romanova would use to describe this group. As dangerous, if not more so, than the Avengers. The most normal one out of them all is probably the blonde with the choker and the leotard, and even she walks in a similar fashion as the greatest martial artists that she knows. Natasha wouldn't put past her to be able to go toe-to-toe with her in hand-to-hand combat; and isn't that something, her, the vaunted Black Widow, is either the least dangerous or second to least dangerous person in this building. At least with the Avengers it's assured that most of them wouldn't go for the throat as their first option and if they did it would be to save the world. This group however, well she wouldn't be surprised if the blonde with the choker is the only non-killer here.

None of this is what worries her however, what worries her is the sole man of their entire group, Ramiel. After that showing he put on in the family room and seeing the other's reactions she can safely say that he's on the more dangerous side of the spectrum when it comes to their group. He was fast, strong, and very very skilled to the point of being on par with the likes of Cap and Thor, the most skilled combatants that she knows.

She remembers watching Thor fight and Ramiel somewhat reminded her of that in the sense that his entire body is a weapon. Unlike Thor however, he is very fluid and seems to incorporate other martial arts from around the world, and that's not even mentioning that aura of bloodlust that he released. It froze her long enough in fear for an enemy to have taken advantage of the momentary lapse and had the blonde with the diamond not shielded her it would have taken her longer to break out of it, it was worse than meeting the hulk for the first time. However that isn't the only thing that worries her, what also worries her is the fact that she feels like he's the one in charge despite the blonde with the diamond on her forehead taking the lead.

In addition to that, the woman with blue hair seems to be absolutely smitten with him now, enough so for her to threaten anyone that seems to be threatening to him with a glare. Just one of them is probably powerful enough to fight a couple of the group to a stand still, but the both of them together could do some serious damage before they are finally taken down.

As the group enters what seems to be the dining room with a rectangular table that can sit thirteen, fitting considering their numbers, Natasha sits herself between the two blondes not familiar to her, placing her as the second person on Ramiel's right while he himself sits at the head of the table.

"Now that we're all seated and acting like adults, I believe that introductions are in order." says the blonde with the diamond. "Since you're seated at the head, you go first, Ramiel." instructs the woman.

"Very well." agrees the man as he leans back into his seat and takes a drag from his non-tobacco cigarette, giving him a lazy atmosphere; one that had she not known better would have put her at ease. Honestly the man is like a lion, deceptively 'lazy' and very dangerous.

"My name is Ramiel, and up until a few minutes ago I was dead." he says drawing looks of shock from a few of the others with Esdeath having the biggest reaction. Her face goes from shock, to denial, and finally murderous.

"Who?" demands the woman as the temperature in the room drops low enough for them to see their breath.

"Ah, don't worry about it. I dragged the bastard with me." says Ramiel as he pats her head, an interesting action considering the fact that she placed a collar and chain around his neck, one that he is still wearing.

"I see." replies Esdeath pensievely.

"You go next blondie." says Ramiel as he looks at the woman sitting at his immediate left.

Crossing her arms under her very generous breasts and leaning back in her seat, the woman introduces herself "My name is Tsunade, Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure, healer and I was hired to help Ramiel with something called the Grand Order."

Tsunade, a Japanese name, and Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure which roughly translates to Fifth Fire Shadow of Village Hidden by Tree Leaves. According to that translation the woman is most likely what passes for a ninja on her Earth. That's fine, as a former assassin she can deal with a ninja from another Earth; and isn't that a thought, alternate Earths are real. Banner and Stark are going to freak out when she tells them.

"I guess that means I'm next." says Natasha as she sees Ramiel turn his attention to her. "I'm Natasha Romanov, assassin/spy codenamed Black Widow, and I was also hired to help with the Grand Order."

After her introduction, the blonde with the choker, Black Canary/Dinah Lance, is an honest to god superhero like Cap, the blonde in all-white is Emma Frost, someone who for some reason recognises her. Then there's Boa Hancock, the tallest person in the room and, judging by her posture, also someone who is familiar with using her beautiful looks to get what she wants. The second other red-head is Uzumaki Karin who obviously comes from the same Earth as Tsunade judging by the way she keeps looking at her. Although she seems to be more of a researcher/scientist as opposed to a combatant.

As that thought enters her mind it finally hits Natasha why the group bothers her so much, together they form a squad capable of covering every side of a conflict. Raven is obviously the front liner, Terumi Mei is obviously their mage or elementalist judging by what she claims to be her specialty, Tsunade is combat medic, Konan and Black Canary is their support, as Black Widow she would be their assassin, Boa Hancock would be their intel gatherer, their researcher/scientist would be Karin and Susan Storm, who for some reason seems to dislike her already, Esdeath is the heavy hitter, and Ramiel would probably alternate between front line and heavy hitter. The only one not accounted for is Emma Frost who is hiding her capabilities.

Granted they are all hiding most of their true capabilities, but Frost is most certainly hiding the most; Natasha refuses to believe that she's only a businesswoman. Regardless, it seems that whatever this Grand Order is it's serious enough to require the squad like this. The only question left is why is Ramiel the only male.

"So what exactly is this Grand Order?" asks Tsunade, shaking Natasha from his thoughts.

"Quest for the Holy Grail "Grand Order", is the quest performed by the Chaldea Security Organization in order to reverse the eradication of mankind." explains Ramiel.

"So we are essentially saving the Earth, again." says Frost as she leans back in her seat and crosses her legs.

"No, not the Earth, humanity." clarifies Ramiel before taking a drag from his second cigarette. "From what I know the Earth will survive, it is humanity that will be extinct."

"And we were chosen because? In case you didn't realise, I am not a combatant, a scientist, or an assassin. I am a simple businesswoman." says Frost, earning a raised eyebrow from Ramiel as he looks into her eyes. The two seem to have a wordless conversation for a minute before eventually breaking eye contact. "Very well." concedes Frost.

"As for why you specifically were chosen, the answer is simple, your names came out of the lottery." he says, earning raised eyebrows from them all. "I'm sure that you've all spoken to my 'benefactor' and have made some deal with him. Basically he is an overly powerful being, beyond even gods, with too much time on his hands. After my death he made me an offer where I receive a second life in any of the 'fictional' worlds that I know."

"Fictional?" questions Karin.

"You're missing the air quotes around fictional. It's 'fictional', meaning that while their existence is very real, to some people they are fictional sources of entertainment." explains Ramiel.

"And you're claiming that we're all 'fictional'?" asks Canary.

"Yes, me included." answers Ramiel. "Apparently I'm a character from a novel, who would've thought." he says with a nonchalant shrug.

"Let's table the existential questions for later, what I want to know is what that offer you received was." says Tsunade.

"Ah, well…" he says with a sheepish chuckle as he finishes his current cigarette and lights another one. "In exchange for getting to live again, I have to entertain him by wooing you all." he explains, and silence falls over the room for a few seconds before it's quickly replaced by laughter from Tsunade.

"Good one brat." says Tsunade as she stops laughing. "Seriously, what was the deal?" she asks again.

"That was honestly the deal." answers Ramiel, and the room is once again filled with silence.

"And like any other man who can only think with his lower half you accepted." says Frost with disdain.

"What reason was there for me to refuse?" asks Ramiel with an eye roll. "I receive a second chance at life, and the only thing I have to do is woo some of the most beautiful women in the omniverse at no cost if I fail." he says, and Natasha has to admit that it really isn't a bad deal for him at all, the only question remains…

"Why did you choose this world of all places? If you could spend your second life wooing women, wouldn't a peaceful world where humanity is about to be extinct a better option?" asks Mei.

"For someone else, perhaps. For me however it would be the opposite." he says as he takes his cigarette out of his mouth and looks at it. "I know that some of you have noticed, but this is not a normal cigarette and I don't smoke because I'm addicted." he says pointing to the one in his hands.

"Yes, it's some form of anesthesia." says Karin.

"That's right." confirms Ramiel with a nod. "For reasons that are off topic, I had the heart of a particularly powerful dragon transplanted into my body, turning me into a dragon hybrid. Unfortunately the blood of a dragon is a powerful thing and unless you are more powerful than the dragon, ingesting the blood of a dragon in any way, shape or form will turn you into a dragon that is enslaved to his primal needs. This concoction made by my brother keeps that side asleep as long as I smoke it." he explains, drawing looks of alarm from everyone.

"So, if you don't smoke, you turn into a berserk dragon, but I still don't know what that has to do with you choosing this world?" asks Hancock.

"Despite this keeping the more powerful and dangerous aspects asleep, I am still a dragon and we love ourselves a good fight, to the death or otherwise. Since I am prone to combat anyway, I figured that I'd spend my second life putting my battlelust to a good cause, and what better cause than saving humanity itself from extinction. As for why this world specifically, it's the one where the magic system is closest to the one I am familiar with." he explains before taking another drag. "Any other questions?" he asks.

"Yes, a few actually." replies Frost.

The rest of the time is spent talking about other information that the 'outerversal being' failed to tell them such as why they each have memories of a second life in this world without any of the emotional attachments. The answer itself is quite simple and honestly frightening. The fact that this being can create a paper trail for them and their 'lineages' in people's memories and historical records is concerning to say the least.

Eventually, their discussion comes to a close with the agreement to spend the week, starting tomorrow morning, acclimating themselves to their new backgrounds and each other before they travel to Chaldeas.

As such it's with heavy thoughts that Natasha makes her way to one of the many bedrooms in the manor to think things through. As she nears one however she's accosted by Susan Storm and Emma Frost who look at her expectedly.

"Can I help you?" she asks

"So you really don't recognise us?" says Susan.

"I told you, not only does she not recognise us, but she also doesn't know us." says Emma.

"So you're from another Earth too." comments Susan.

"Looks like it." says Natasha as they make their way to a set of doors that lead to guest bedrooms according to Ramiel. "Is your Black Widow also Natasha?" she asks.

"Yes." they say simultaneously before walking in silence.

After a few seconds Emma inclines her head towards Natash and asks, "So, what do you think about all this?"

"Honestly, I need to gather my thoughts, but considering that it's happening I believe most of it." answers Natasha.

"I see." says Emma before stopping in front of a door. "See you in the morning ladies." she says as she walks inside.

Soon after Natasha is left to her lonesome in a guest room after separating from Susan. This entire ordeal is much more than she expected and she really needs to rest. So with that thought in her mind she undresses herself and slips into bed while sliding a gun and a knife under her pillow.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN: Here's the next chapter. As usual tell me what you guys think