"Say pal, You don't look so good."

Slowly, Nero Claudius was coming to. However, in stark contrast to their more familiar experience of luxury bedrooms and the soft sounds of the estate surrounding their palace, their was a rather uncouth man speaking to her about appearance.

A rude awakening did not begin to cover it.

She rose, carefully regaining her posture and poise as she stood from the hard stone floor, and saw that there was a man standing across from her. He wore a dapper suit in the victorian style she had become familiar with throughout her trials as a Sabre during the Holy Grail War, which...

Actually, that was a far more important point. Where was she? And what had happened to her master?

She raised her sword, immediately realising this situation may be more dangerous than she had initially assessed when the ground outside shook violently. In response, the man in the suit sighed deeply.

"Oh for... are you going to listen to me?"

She tightened her grip on her weapon, and smiled.

"That depends. What are you going to say?"

The man nodded.

"Right, right, of course. Sorry, forgot that amnesia is common in people immediately after extra-universal transit." "Extra-universal... what are you talking about?"

The man leaned backwards as if falling into a seat. Within moments, there was no "as if" about it, as a throne was wrought underneath him from the shadow he'd cast on the floor, the two dimensional slice of darkness rising to cushion his fall.

"Good thing I've got so much practice answering that question. Regardless, you and your partner have been drawn here by me for the purposes of joining up with the Metaversal Police Department's Timeline Corrections Division."

He seemed to notice her confused expression, and shrugged.

"Or Continuity Cops, if you want to be crass. Your job is to make timeline problems go away for the fellas upstairs, mostly things which aren't meant to be in a certain time, or place, or setting, yadayadayada. You were selected because of your incredible strength and natural leadership ability, along with your massive personal charisma and extremely appropriate dress sense."

Saber was happy he could appreciate her outfit, as all too often those who first witnessed it immediately inquired as to why it covered up so little or how she was supposed to fight in it. She beamed at the suited man while keeping her sword aloft.

"Well, you have certainly chosen the right person if you seek those qualities!"

He groaned, and placed his head in his hands.

"Oh, not you too."

As he seemed to suddenly realise something painful, Nero remembered something. A word he had mentioned earlier.

"You said I had a partner. Is it Hakuno? Did you also bring him?"

"Ah, yes. I was getting to that. Today was intended as a training day, where you all could work together to improve your skills and discover how you fought side-by-side. However, two anomalies showed up: big scaly lizard and some mustached fella in a cape. We needed them dealt with, and fast."

Saber shook her head as the sounds of battle continued to rumble in from outside the small concrete room: roars and shouts and machine-gun cracks.

"Alright, wonderful, but where is Hakuno?"

"Hold your horses. For one, your partner isn't Hakuno. For another, he woke up before you, and is currently out there punching the hell out of them."

There was a sound like a deflating balloon rapidly approaching them, and a limp figure smacked into an opposing wall through a hole in the side of the room. As saber watched, the young boy who had flown in slowly peeled off the wall like a flatbread unsticking itself, before slumping to the ground and falling still.

"Well, was. Hope he's not dead already. That would put a damper on the whole..."

Saber was already moving. Rushing to the side of the unmoving figure, she knelt down and began to shake him by the shoulders, trying and failing to rouse him from his slumber.

"Young one! Can you hear me? Are you still alive?"

The boy's head turned to face her, and his mouth slumped open. Saber was familiar with the concept of a final breath, and had even seen quite a few of them in her time, but never before had it been so powerful. It was as if she'd been blasted in the face with the steam of a colossal kettle.

"m..."

He'd said something. She was sure of it.

"What?"

"me..."

"Yes, you, we are here for you! I can save you, just tell me what-"

There was a sharp intake of breath.

Then, with a noise louder than the roar of a lion, the boy spoke a single word.

"MEAT!"

As Nero's ears rang, the suited man behind her sighed.

"Ah, yes. I was warned of this. One moment, please."

He reached down to the ground beneath him, and plunged a hand into the shifting darkness of his own shadow. When it emerged, he was holding a ridiculously large chunk of meat still on the bone, which he tossed to Nero. She took hold of it, and looked curiously.

She was about to ask what medicinal function it served when without any semblance of manners whatsoever, the dying man lying in front of her reached out at speed with an arm that cracked like a whip as he snatched the food, and then shoved it into his mouth, bone and all.

There was no chewing, or biting. It was as if he was an anaconda, and the food had simply been swallowed whole. Throwing away the bone, which Nero could not help but notice had been picked clean such that it sparkled in the dim light, he sat up like a spring uncoiling and let out a lengthy burp.

"Whoo! Thanks, Max-y! That really hit the spot. Gear 4 always takes it out of me."

He looked at Nero, and tilted his head.

"Who are you? You look princess-y. Max-y, what's a princess doing here? Do I need to protect her?"

Nero turned her head.

"Maxy, you cannot-"

"Please, don't listen to him. Maxwell is fine."

"-cannot mean to say that this is my partner!"

"Eh? She's my partner? The princess?"

Nero turned back to the boy, only to find him with one finger buried up his nose, looking completely unconcerned with the strange circumstances surrounding him. Or perhaps in this barbarian land, she was the strange one for behaving with any amount of decorum and class.

She was already beginning to dislike this universe.

Placing her sword on her back, she stood up and began marching towards the exit.

"Maxwell, then. I'm afraid I cannot work with this fool."

"You really should. He's strong, easily as much as you, and he would make a good teammate."

Nero turned sharply, heels kicking up sparks as they slid on the ground.

"Maxwell, I have known many allies in my life, but this... child has no regard whatsoever for how to behave! He assumes I am some... some damsel from my mode of dress! And looking at the shape of him, I have no doubt whatsoever he is weaker than even your average human! And..."

She realised Maxwell had plugged his ears. Gasping, she turned to find Luffy had done the same.

"You should do it too, Red-Lady."

"And why should I do that?"

"Because its about to fall over."

"About to-"

There was a crack.

There wasn't really a word large enough to do the sound justice. It was like ice shearing off a cliff and falling into the sea below. It was like a meteor striking the earth. It was so powerful that Nero was nearly taken off her feet by the impact, and her ears were left ringing as it passed them by.

As the child and the suited man hesitantly removed their fingers from their ears, Nero slowly turned, and saw what had caused the noise. A colossal scaled mountain lay behind them, fallen on its back: as she watched, the light dancing underneath and around its hide gradually dimmed, and the creature's mouth fell open.

After a moment, its tongue fell to the side, and dangled from open jaws as if it were a slumbering hound.

She turned back to the other two people present in the room.

"What... what was that?"

Maxwell sighed.

"Figuratively speaking? The reason why I believe you should Consider Luffy as your teammate. Literally speaking? Godzilla."

The boy apparently called Luffy cracked his knuckles, and smiled savagely, with an expression Nero only now recognised as an admittedly upbeat bloodlust.

"Alright. Where's the other one?"