Natasha wasn't exactly the sort of girl who screamed easily. Sure, she got spooked just as much as the next girl, but that didn't mean she considered herself easy to scare into absolute terror.

That opinion, however, proved very wrong, as she felt her body being distorted, constantly pulled in every single direction. So much so that, in the safety of her mind, she thought she was being forcefully remade into a 4-dimensional figure judging by how odd it felt.

There was no air, no light, and no sound, and yet, Natasha could somehow still hear her own screams. It didn't make sense, but then again, powers rarely did.

She didn't know how long she remained in that strange place where up was down. It could have been a single instant, or it could have been an eternity, and Natasha honestly wouldn't have been able to guess. However, when it ended, she found herself being stretched one last time before being abruptly spat out from that place.

She let out an 'oof' as she landed roughly on a stony floor. Her perception immediately went into overtime, having all but short-circuited during her strange transition to this place, and her mind lit up with information.

She was in a spherical room with a single, massive exit currently being blocked by two massive doors, the entire area barely illuminated by a bunch of medieval-looking torches.

Even stranger, she found herself in the middle of what honestly looked like a satanic ritual, complete with what her perception told her were runes made out of honest-to-god pig blood mixed with a substance her perception couldn't understand.

Inside the circle with her were a bunch of teens her own age, groaning and moaning in pain, and considering what she herself just went through, she couldn't blame them for looking and sounding so miserable.

With a massive effort of will, she pushed herself upright, standing on shaky legs as she looked around herself with her own eyes. Standing just outside the satanic circle were a bunch of black-robed figures, their heads covered by equally black hoods.

It was only due to the presence of a girl not much older than herself and dressed like a stereotypical princess conversing with one of the said figures that Natasha didn't just blast these satanic cultists into oblivion, and even then, it was a very close thing.

Still, after that moment of pure panic at being in what looked like a ritual to sacrifice innocent virgins to Cthulhu passed, her wits returned to her, and she forced herself to calm down. After all, she was surrounded by what looked like normals, and she had no information on the enemy, and if she'd learned anything from the many guides to superheroing she'd read, it was that a lack of information directly led to a lack of survival.

Still, Natasha's hand unconsciously reached for her face, checking that her mask was still in place. It was, thankfully, so unless the cultists had an x-ray guy with them, her identity was still safe for now, a small mercy in this already chaotic situation.

After a few dozen seconds, during which the normal teens with her took their time getting their bearings and looking around, wide-eyed and clearly unbelieving of what was happening, the princess wannabe stepped forward, a loud cough attracting everyone's eyes on her, even as Natasha's sphere informed her that the black-robed cultists were slowly but surely retreating to the walls of the room.

"Welcome, otherworlders! I am princess Erika, and I've been allowed the honor to introduce you handsome and beautiful heroes to our world!" The girl spoke, her voice soft and melodious in a way that reminded Natasha of Sweet-cheeks, a native-American superhuman singer famous for using his powers to enhance his concerts.

Immediately, there was a cacophony of noise as everyone in her 'group' started talking at the same time, some shouting things along the lines of 'what the hell?' and 'where am I?', with one guy even going so far as shouting 'Nice boobs!', which, considering he had a shirt with the word 'oppai' on it, Natasha immediately ruled him out as a lost cause to society.

At the very least, that last comment caused the so-called princess' eyes to twitch slightly, something Natasha would've missed had it not been for her perception aura. She felt a bit of schadenfreude at that, but only a little bit...

Oh, who was she kidding, she felt a lot of schadenfreude. Stepping forward, the crowd of normals immediately fell silent once it witnessed her floating above the ground, hands lighting up as her powers activated, twin blasts capable of vaporizing buildings ready to be shot at a moment's notice.

Her sphere immediately told her how the black-robed men tensed, hands shooting under their robes to grasp all sorts of weird weapons, from staffs and swords to maces and sickles.

She projected her voice, a skill that, unfortunately, wasn't due to a power but rather simple yet tiring practice. "Erika, is it? Who are you truly, and where have you taken us?"

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She deliberately didn't include the word princess, a small jab at the other girl that she was sure wouldn't go unnoticed. Essentially, she was challenging her, trying to wrestle control of the situation from her, something so ingrained into her psyche that Natasha didn't even notice she was doing it.

The princess' eyes widened at the sight, then narrowed, her previously friendly and open posture and expression becoming much more guarded and cautious at the strange sight of a masked human flying without any sort of spell.

The room was quiet for a few seconds before the princess poke again, her soft tone holding a bit of steel underneath it. "As I said, I am princess Erika, third daughter of his majesty, the mighty king of Aurelia. Please, let us avoid any barbaric violence, and let us speak as civilized people, and I will explain everything in due time." The princess spoke, and this time, it was Natasha's turn to feel her eyes twitch in annoyance.

Ignoring the floating girl a scant few meters from her, the princess once more faced the crowd of gawking teens, all of them clearly Japanese judging by their genes, although Natasha wouldn't bet on it. She dearly hoped that the fact she couldn't tell the difference between a Chinese and a Japanese apart didn't make her racist.

The princess stood straight, her height being just a bit taller than the girls in the group (discounting Natasha), yet shorter than the boys, and with a voice that had the hormonal males melting, she spoke once more. "I apologize for the confusion, but let me explain. You have all been chosen by the will of Darus, father of this nation and protector of humankind, to save our nation and protect us from the vile demons invading our lands! Please, help us!" Once she finished her speech, she bowed deeply, an expression of pure hope on her face.

Absolute chaos immediately followed her words, because of course it did. Grimacing, Natasha floated down to the ground, deactivating her powers (although she left the forcefield protecting her active) and looked around as maids streamed into the room, each one immediately honing onto a person in particular.

Natasha couldn't help but notice a few things about these maids. First, literally all of them had boobs at least three times her own size, and some of the maids even had animal-like traits, from bunny ears to cat-like tails.

Now, her own world had its own share of strange mutations emanating from strange powers, but this was different, more... uniform. Prettier, even.

She didn't know what to think about it.

As the maids each took one of the people by hands, talking excitedly with their charge as they babbled information Natasha idly absorbed through her perception, she couldn't help but notice that she was the odd one out in all of this.

Not only was she the only super she could observe amongst the people in this room (except the weird animal-maids, and even then she wasn't sure), but she was also the only non-Japanese in this room, as well as the only one without a maid coming to her.

Hence, she wasn't very surprised when Erika herself came over to her, and although she tried to hide it, Natasha could easily tell that she was a bit apprehensive about her, something Natasha couldn't really blame her for.

The two stared at each other for what seemed like forever, the awkwardness only growing with each passing moment until, at last, the princess coughed delicately into her hand. "Greetings, esteemed mage. It seems the summoning ritual accidentally... summoned you?" She trailed off, clearly waiting for some sort of answer.

Natasha pursued her lips, starting to feel a bit self-conscious as most of everyone still in the room tried to sneak peeks at her even as they were conga-lined out of the door.

She debated what to say for a bit before deciding honesty might be the best answer. They might be able to help her, since so far, it seemed as though she wasn't intentionally kidnapped, which was a point in the princess' favor.

"I'm... not a mage. I don't even know what a mage is. I... Uh, I was saving a girl when she gained powers and accidentally sucked me into her, and then I found myself here." She said, not even bothering to take a breath between sentences.

Now, it was Erika's turn to be left bamboozled, staring dumbly at Natasha. After a few seconds, she snapped out of it, clearly unsure of what to say judging from the look on her face.

"I... I see. Well, I'm not really... trained to deal with this? If you do not mind, would you like to spend the nights in one of our rooms, so that you may talk to father himself tomorrow?" She asked, looking more uncomfortable by the moment now that there was no hostility in the air to latch onto.

Natasha honestly wasn't tired, but she could see that this wasn't an offer she could refuse without causing at least a bit of animosity between them, so she nodded, much to Erika's obvious relief.

It didn't take long for a slightly skittish maid to arrive and offer to escort her to her 'chambers', and just like all the other maids, this one too made Natasha feel self-conscious about her assets.

Shaking her head to clear herself of these dumb, jealous thoughts, Natasha took the opportunity to expand her perception to its maximum, only to be left surprised when she found out just how large the castle was. She couldn't get an exact measurement, and her sphere wasn't quite detailed enough at these sorts of ranges to tell her a lot, but it was nonetheless huge, housing at minimum some five thousand people

The maid didn't speak at all during their walk, although Natasha could feel her occasionally sneaking a glance at her, only to quickly focus forward again when Natasha looked back.

For all her powers, Natasha still failed to understand how people worked sometimes.

When they arrived at the room being offered to her, she was pleasantly surprised to find it very well-stocked. A soft-looking bed, multiple wardrobes, even a very well-made desk. It wasn't huge, but it was still pretty good.

"Dinner will be served in an hour, miss. Would you like me to take you there directly when the time comes, or would you rather I bring it to you directly?" The maid asked, and Natasha turned to her in surprise.

"I... If you can take me there, that'd be great, thank you." She finally responded. The maid gave a single, curt nod before quickly vanishing back into the halls of the castle, and judging by how fast she stepped away, she was quite eager to leave her presence.

Natasha didn't put too much stock into it, instead choosing to brood on the matter at hand.

Thus, she sat her costumed ass down on the bed and began trying to piece together what the hell she was supposed to do now, something that she wouldn't find out until the next day.