MAGES.

"Assistant! Where is my Doc P?" A familiar voice rings out from the other side of the room.

Closing the refrigerator with your foot, you walk quickly towards the voice, with two cold red cans in each of your hand. "Coming MAGES., hold your horsebirds..."

Reaching the curtain that's dividing the room in two, you use your foot to part it and the sight of MAGES. sitting down working on another contraption or two greets you unceremoniously. Shrugging to yourself, you decide to have a little bit of fun and press a cold can on her cheek.

"AAAAAAH! COLD!" she shouts out jumping from her chair. Looking at you with a frown and furrowed brows, she grabs one of the cans from your hands and opens it, taking a swig before poking your chest.

She rubs the spot where you pressed the cold can on her cheek as she glares at you. "How many times have I told you to not do that?!" she yells as she continues to drink the beverage.

Opening your own can, you take a swig of the drink as you shrug nonchalantly. "You were pretty much asking for it, being so busy with..." you look at the various devices on the table, all of them looking foreign and alien, "what is that actually?"

She finishes her drink, tosses the can away, and gives you a haughty smirk. "I'm glad you asked, assistant, because today we'll be using this new device to find new sources of Doc P!"

Slumping your shoulders, your look at her with exasperation as you finish your own drink and toss it aside. "Are you serious? Didn't we just somehow find a factory of the stuff? Cripes, your reaction to that discovery was definitely... something... made me wish I brought a camera."

She puts her hands on her hips and looks at you with disappointment. "Don't you know that being satisfied with our current situation will just make us stagnate in our goal of pursuing the Truth?" You see her fix the brim of her signature pointed wizard hat, giving her a sinister look, or at least she's trying.

"What Truth? Haven't we already jumped through multiple different dimensions? Although to be honest I mostly stayed here as a tether so you can get back..." you reply as you scratch your head.

You see her smug expression somehow get even more smug as she picks up a small object that looks like a capacitor. She attaches it to her staff, but not before removing a few other capacitor-like objects from it. "You see my assistant, I have finally perfected my dimension hopping staff!"

You fold your arms as you look at her with disbelief. "Oh gimme a break...That's what you said the last 3 times. And the things I had to do to somehow get you back after your adventures with ... that ... girl? I think? Nep-something?"

Her haughty demeanor falls immediately and grips the staff close to her as her face turns a bright red. "T-th-those don't count! Anyway," she says, composing herself, "I'm more than certain that with this version, we will be able to both travel together!"

"That's what you said the last 3 times as well..." you say with a sigh, "but I suppose it could work this time."

"Heh, that's the spirit," you hear her say as she begins to prepare a spell.

You see her walk towards the middle of the room, clear a good amount of room away until you see her struggle and call out to you, upon which you help her out in pushing away some of the furniture to the sides. She begins to silently mouth a spell as she begins to floats in the air, her white coat and brown skirt billowing from the magic flowing out. Spinning her staff around, different runes appear in its wake as she speaks out loud.

"Loohcs tneve emag noitamina cisum!"

The different runic symbols begin to arrange themselves in a circular formation beneath MAGES. as each of them begin to glow brightly as they stop in place and lower themselves into the floor. A beam of light appears from one of them and begins to connect each symbol forming a circle. You smile to yourself as the magic of the circle erupts, lifting MAGES.'s skirt up high giving you a free view of her black panties. As the spell concludes, you see her float just outside the perimeter of the circle, and slowly descend to the floor.

Tapping her staff on the floor, she begins to mouth another spell, as numerous small translucent squares begin to appear around her filled with different text and numbers. You glance towards one of the squares and read the number: 1.048596. It seems MAGES. has noticed this as well and excitement is plastered all over her face.

Jumping in place with excitement she looks at you. "Assistant! Do you see this number? Do you know what this means?"

You glare at the number once more, reading each single digit, checking any discernible pattern. Nothing comes to mind, the digits are as random as random can get for you. Racking your brains, you try to remember if you've ever seen a number like his before, during your childhood, most likely during math class when you started decimals but that wouldn't mean anything in this situation. You give it another glare, perhaps something is hidden beneath the text, but glare as you might, it just blurred your vision. Eventually you sigh in resignation and slump your shoulders in defeat.

Shrugging at MAGES., you shake your head with a frown. "I can't make heads or tails of this... well? What about it? What is this number?"

You see her put her hand in front of her face, with her fingers giving a small gap for her eyes as she strikes a pose. "Heh, you really don't know my assistant?"

"No, go ahead and enlighten me, O Great One," you reply with a frown.

"Fuahahahahahahaha!" She bellows out as she turns her back to you, and turns her head to face you, with her hand on still on her face.

"So, are you just going to laugh at me for being clueless or what."

"Patience, my dear assistant, the answer will become clear shortly." You see her bring up the square with the number and expand it with her hand. More details appear, a flood of letters and numbers fill the square, all of them moving upwards. She taps the square 2 times and the letters and numbers disappear and rearrange to something readable. Before you finish reading it MAGES. begins to explain.

"You see my assistant, this number is where the Organization is located at. The Stone Gate that protects them, and this portal has pierced through that protection." She says, pointing at the portal, as it starts to materialize different scenes within its frame.

Looking at the portal, you see various locales that you've seen before from the various times she's made portals, but then a scene you've never seen before quickly flashes in between them. Continuing your gaze towards it, you see some of the locales become twisted for a split second before becoming normal. The usual green grass flashes to yellowed, dead shrubbery, the blue sky becomes tinted blood red, trees turn into malignant masses of trunks and branches, dried up bodies of water and various other atrocities to nature. You feel a slight pain on your cheek as you see MAGES. near you, with a worried expression.

"Oy, are you alright? You seem a bit shocked, I was even calling your name instead of assistant and you weren't responding," she puts a hand on her forehead and her other hand on yours as she continues, "doesn't seem like a sudden bout of fever... talk to me here."

Shaking your head, you look at MAGES. as you take her hand off your forehead. "Wait, so you were actually serious about the Organization? This wasn't just ... another one of your mad ravings? What else is true then?"

You see her smug expression return as she walks back near the portal. "Heh, were you really that naive to not realize the signs? Have you forgotten that I am the Mad Magician MAGES.?!" She begins to fill the room with her signature laughter.

Moving near the portal for a closer look, the different shifting scenes seem to be getting more and more demented. You unconsciously move your hand towards it as you feel MAGES. slap your hand away.

"Assistant! Don't. We're both not ready to face the Organization, yet anyway. We'd need to prepare more so now," she says moving away from the portal and towards an open cupboard filled with different capacitors.

You see her rummage through them with one hand and the other hand motion as if it was holding a phone and dialing a number. She puts the 'phone' by her ear and begins to speak.

"Yes... it's me. We've found the Organization.... I know.... Yes.... No, he didn't, I stopped him.... Are you certain? ... Do you think he would believe it? ... Well, it's you after all I suppose... Would he even see? ... Alright, if he asks... Loohcs tneve emag noitamina cisum."

She puts down the 'phone' and resumes rummaging through the cupboards once more. You open your mouth to begin to speak but fail to find your words. Moving towards her, she turns her head to you, and turns back to her task in hand. Taking a deep breath, you find the capacity to speak.

"What was that about? At this point I'm pretty sure something was up with that ... phone call of yours that I always shrug off as one of your fantasies but seeing this portal... I think I'm going crazy."

You feel MAGES.'s hand on your shoulder as she gives you a smirk. "Heh, it's not you going crazy, it's you finally seeing the Truth."

"The... Truth?"

"Yes, my assistant, the Truth, that the Organization is hiding from every single individual of every dimension."

"And I'm ... finally starting to see it?"

"I knew this day would come one day. I just never realized how near it was."

"How did you know that I would start seeing it?"

She holds up her hand in front of you. "Do you see it?"

"See wha--" a phone is in her hand, seemingly out of nowhere, "wha-- How? Whe-- What is that?"

"So you see it now. That's good. Everyone has one, but the Organization masks its existence. Go ahead, open yours now, it's in your pocket," she says pointing at your empty pocket.

"That can't be," you reply putting your hand in your pocket. As you pull your hand out, a phone similar to MAGES. appears in your hand and begins to ring. Your eyes widen as you see the contact name as your own name. Looking at MAGES., all she gives you is a curt nod. You put your thumb in the answer button as you place the phone near your ear. Pressing the button, the call connects but there is no answer, instead you only hear breathing on the other line. Wanting an answer, you speak first.

"He-hello?"

A brief moment passes before you hear a response. "So I've finally seen the truth in here as well."

You've heard your own voice before, but nothing like this. The voice sounds like it has been passed through multiple filters to distort it, but you can still recognize that it's yours.

"I've ... finally seen the truth?" you reply shakily.

"Yes. MAGES., will explain further. For now, you must prepare for the fight ahead," the voice replies coldly.

"Wait what do you-- I -- I mean, what do you mean by prepare?! What fight?!" You shout at the phone.

The phone call ends and only the beeping of the phone is your response. You throw the phone down the floor in anger, but to no avail, the phone isn't there and you feel it in your pocket and disappear shortly. Looking at MAGES., she has a staff in hand, and gives it to you. She gives you a smile, as you feel a surge of power enter you emitting from the staff.

"Wait, I've handled this staff before, but this never happened ever," you say holding the staff in hand.

"Heh, now that you've seen the truth, you're more ready to subconsciously accept the power residing in you. It has always been there but you've been ignoring it."

"Anyway he or rather me ... I don't know anymore, anyway the voice said you'll explain further. What now?"

"Now? We'll be doing trial by fire."

"Wait what?"

You see her grab your hand, and pull you over into the portal. Closing your eyes, you feel her push you into it. The feeling of grass on your face greets you as you turn your head to the blue sky, something you haven't seen in a long time. Your vision gets blocked as you see MAGES. step through the portal, giving you another free view beneath her skirt. She looks down, sees your blushing face, and blushes herself as she steps away and covers her skirt.

"Assistant! T-this is n-no time for something like this!" She says as she helps you up.

"S-sorry, you're right, anyway, I haven't seen anything like this in a long time..." you say as you continue to look around.

"Heh, I suppose so, well assistant, let's not waste time. We have to prepare, to prevent the disaster that will slate the dimension we came from."

"W-what will we do?"

"In this dimension right now... this is the most likely, no, it has to be the dimension where the calamity doesn't happen."

"What calamity are you talking about?"

"Deicide."

"The killing of Gods? How exactly will we stop a God-killer?"

"Don't worry, I'll relay to you the instructions on what you need to do, but for now, you have to hide. Your existence cannot be found here, not like this."

She shoos you away to a nearby brush as you see her raise her hand in greeting to someone. The brush blocks your vision but you hear a conversation between them.

"Ah! MAGES.! How did you get here?"

"Ah... Nepgear."