Domino came tumbling into the Necropolis. The backs of her shoulders hit the ground at about the midpoint of the arena’s field before flipping backwards and landing far more gracefully than her entrance. She panted, glancing around to take in her new surroundings. The unexpected trip had caught her just as off guard as any of the other survivors that had been pulled into the nightmare, but Domino had grown accustomed to odd things happening to her. She’d learned to quite literally roll with the punches and let her innate luck help her out of situations.

Appearing from out of nowhere into what appeared to be an abandoned sports arena certainly ranked high on her list of weird shit that had happened to her. If she wanted to find out what was going on – and she did – she’d have to find someone with answers. Picking a direction at random, Domino made her way off the field. She found a hall leading into the arena and followed it to a nearby locker room. She slipped inside and let the door slide closed behind her. A wet chewing sound could be heard deeper into the locker room, drawing Domino closer to investigate.

A group of what looked like demonic football players were gathered around the corpse of a woman. Domino had no way of knowing the woman had been Sarah Connor, simply because she didn’t even know of her existence, but also because there wasn’t enough left of her to identify. The unexpected sight drew a surprised gasp from Domino’s lips. It was soft, but not soft enough. The Linebackers reacted to the presence of a new victim, turning their heads towards her. Their heads – and a portion of their chest – were made up almost entirely of hardened, off-white bone. Their beady eyes looked more like little black specks, but she figured they could see well enough. A set of two-pronged mandibles stretched from the sides of their faces across their mouths, giving their heads the appearance of some kind of sickening football helmet.

Domino picked up on the fact that she wasn’t all too welcome in the locker room. She backed slowly away from the Linebackers, planning on slipping back through the door and hoping it held up long enough for her to make a proper retreat. Her plan was almost immediately ruined as another Linebacker – one who’d not been a part of the main group – rammed his way into a row of lockers. Metal screeched as the lockers shot forward, blocking the door Domino had come through and effectively sealing her within the room. Drawing her sidearm, she took aim at the creature, but he ducked back behind another row of lockers before she could get a shot off.

The pale-skinned mutant spun back towards the rest of the Linebackers to see them darting away from the heavily chewed corpse, ducking behind lockers out of sight. The uneasiness she’d felt upon entering the world built. Her eyes darted from left to right, weapon at the ready. She knew when she was being hunted, and in that moment, she was very much being hunted. Maybe even toyed with. She’d never seen anything like the creatures before. She wasn’t sure if they were even human. Some kind of mutant. Something worse. Probably something worse. Regardless of what they were, Domino had no intention of winding up as their dessert.

The Linebackers occasionally darted back into her line of sight. Domino fired off a few rounds each time, groaning as the bullets chipped away at their heavily boned exterior but did little else. They forced her to move, repositioning to stay out of their clutches. She wasn’t an idiot. She knew the only reason they’d not caught her yet was because they were herding her. Whatever the things were, they had some degree of cleverness. Each shot she took, she hoped her luck would lend some assistance to her aim, find a way through their armored shells. Each time, her luck failed her. Her limited ammunition diminished further and further. Things were not looking good.

And suddenly they looked even worse as Domino found herself backed into a literal corner. She’d been aware of what the Linebackers were doing from the start, but it hadn’t stopped them from succeeding in their plans. She could see them closing in on her from both sides, moving slow, savoring their catch. She hoped that would be their downfall, firing off several more shots in either direction. She aimed – carefully even – but couldn’t find a soft enough spot to really do any damage. Her shots didn’t spur them to speed their movements. It was as if they knew she couldn’t hurt them. When her gun clicked empty, Domino realized they’d been right.

“Clever boys,” she muttered, not giving up but uncomfortably aware of her lack of options.

The Linebackers closed in, preparing to pounce and tear Domino to shreds. She was on the verge of believe that her luck had finally run out. Then the wall behind her swirled open. She let out a startled yelp as she fell back, narrowly avoiding the trajectory of the rocket shooting through the freshly made hole. The explosive nailed the lead Linebacker dead on, ripping through his tough exterior and blowing his charred chunks across the Linebacker just behind him. Domino didn’t question the unexpected and baffling good fortune – she’d given up on doing that years ago. She simply rolled to her feet and darted through the escape hatch that had formed in the wall.

Fuuka ushered the newcomer over, leading her back to Homura. The sullen-faced young woman didn’t seem nearly as happy to see Domino as Domino was her. Given the immediately hostile environment she’d entered, she was glad to see anyone who wasn’t trying to kill her. The Scout Party seemed experienced and capable. Good new friends to make. Domino could sort out the bizarre fact that one of them appeared to have the still-living severed head of a woman tied to her belt later. There were monsters to kill. Homura slid a sniper rifle free from her shield and tossed it to Domino. Domino accepted the weapon, filed yet another absurdity in the back of her head, and readied up.

With the death of their Alpha, the four remaining Linebackers lost some degree of cohesion. They charged through the hole in the wall, rushing down Domino and the scouts. It was a bold attack, reckless for sure, but still potentially lethal. But while the Linebackers lost their ability to work as a team, the survivors worked with near perfect unity.

As the first Linebacker closed in, Homura reached out to snare Izumi’s wrist. She exerted her ability to bring time itself to a stop around them. A simple nod was all Homura needed to give to spur Izumi to action. Reaching down, Izumi transmuted a chunk of floor, drawing a long, jagged length of it into her hand. She cocked the alchemically fashioned spear back, looked over the frozen Linebacker until she spotted a soft spot, and threw her weapon. Homura dropped her timestop the moment the spear left Izumi’s grip, letting the jagged length of cement fly. The Linebacker jumped forward, meeting the spear head on. The pointed tip struck true, ripping through the creature and leaving it stumbling into a dead heap before it even knew what happened.

Renamon launched into the air, unleashing a powerful wave of Diamond Storm into the backside of another Linebacker. The force of the attack wasn’t enough to break through the tough bone armor, but it did pin the creature to the ground. Alice yanked the pins free on a number of grenades and heaved them under the pinned Linebacker. The grenades blew, ripping out the guts of the monster and launching it several feet into the air. Its bloody, eviscerated carcass dropped back to the floor as a twitching corpse.

With a little bit of distance and a finely tuned weapon in her hands, Domino was able to line up a perfect shot at one of the two remaining Linebackers. She squeezed the trigger calmly, absorbing the recoil of the weapon as it bucked within her grip. The high velocity round nailed the Linebacker through one of its beady eyes, bouncing wildly within its heavily armored skull and turning its brain into mush. The creature’s legs gave out, dropping to the floor and skidding forward as a frantic series of death twitches ran through its nervous system.

The final Linebacker came to a skidding stop, realizing that the rest of its pack had been taken out with a speedy efficiency. Seeing that the odds were no longer in its favor, the monster turned and rushed back through the hole, perhaps hoping that the locker room would provide it some much needed safety. With her renewed faith in her inherit luck, Domino tracked the creature back through the hole in the wall and tried to predict where it was going. Just before she fired off a second shot, Fuuka reached down to adjust her aim slightly. She knew nothing of Fuuka’s ability to detect the creatures, but she trusted the young woman’s adjustment.

Domino fired. The armor-piercing round punched through the cinder block wall, a locker, and finally the remaining Linebacker’s torso. Only a thorough examination – or an X-ray machine – would reveal that the bullet had pierced the Linebacker’s black, rotten heart. The specifics of the perfect shot were unnecessary. The result was easy enough to observe as the creature slumped dead within the locker room. Not that Domino could see the result of her shot. She glanced to Fuuka. The woman gave her a nod of confirmation. Domino figured that was good enough.

Once the threat of the Linebackers was confirmed neutralized, Alice greeted Domino. She got the general update on what had happened to her and where she was. Even the broad strokes of her situation left her feeling nervous. She didn’t want to imagine what the detailed synopsis would lead to, but she figured she’d find out sooner than later. Once all of that was said and done, Alice extended an invitation to join her group.

“Oh, fuck yes, I want to do that,” Domino nodded. Her brain ached from the sheer nonsense she’d been forced into, but sticking with Alice and her crew felt right. She didn’t know if she could trust her luck in this bizarre new world, but she had no idea how to not go with her gut. And her gut said she needed to stay as close to Alice and the others as possible. She could only hope that it wouldn’t lead to having her guts ripped out.