Visitors From Terra:Twilight Contingency

Chapter 1

1.

Ariana was living what was probably the best day of her life. She and her friends had been looking forward to this event for months, and the number of nights she had spent making her Amiya cosplay wasn't something to laugh about... but none of that mattered now. She was there, and she intended to make the best out of her visit to the Arknights convention.

As soon as they entered, the group began to wander around the convention hall. Huge swarms of people, fans cosplaying as their favorite characters, stands filled to the grim with expensive figurines and merchandise... It was everything one would expect from an event of such scale. Ariana watched everything around her with a mix of bewilderment and joy, but her daydreaming came to an abrupt end when she heard one of her friends exclaim.

"My God, look at that Talulah cosplay!"

The girl turned her gaze in the direction her buddy was pointing at, and there she spotted a woman dressed as the leader of Reunion.

Her reaction was one of amazement. The woman's outfit resembled that of Talulah's down to the last detail, and her facial features were so similar that it felt like she was looking at the Draco herself. The cosplay was so good that, without a shred of hesitation, Ariana approached the woman to take a selfie with her.

"Hey, do you mind if I take a photo with you?" She asked, barely able to hide her excitement.

The woman was visibly taken aback by the girl's request and, in a rather awkward tone, she replied.

"Ehm... Yeah, I suppose..."

"Ok!! Without giving the woman time to process, Ariana posed beside her and took several selfies with her phone. Once she finished, she bid farewell and returned with her friends, leaving the woman a bit disoriented and trying to understand what had just happened.

After this brief stop, the girl regrouped with her buddies and together they continued exploring the convention. Things seemed to be just fine, but then...

"NOBODY MOVE!!"

All of a sudden, armed men burst in through the main entrance and began spreading across the place. Panic spread among the visitors, including Ariana and her friends. From the looks of it, this seemed to be a terrorist attack, but then the girl saw the all-too familiar FBI logo printed on the guys bulletproof vests, and it was there that she realized something was very wrong.

Away from the prying eyes of the feds, she took out her phone and started recording. While doing so, she spotted a very creepy and scarred man who, she supposed, was their leader. She watched him approach one of his subordinates and order him in a loud tone.

"Bring me every brown-haired bunny girl you see."

Upon hearing this, Ariana quickly put the phone away and discreetly walked away from there. "I need to get out of here and tell someone about what's happening here" She thought to herself. "But with so many FBI agents seething around, the chances of escaping are very slim... Agh! What am I supposed to do?!!" It was in that moment of internal crisis that she remembered something her uncle had once told her many years ago.

"If you ever find yourself in a predicament and need to urgently contact somebody, the best move is to write a small message and hide it in a place no one would even bother to look"

Following her uncle's advice, the girl extracted the SD card from her phone, took out a tampon from her bag and, tearing it open, hid the card inside. "Hope this works in case something bad happens to me."

The shouts of the federal agents reminded Ariana she didn't have much time. Putting the tampon back on its place, she made her way amidst the panicked crowd as best as she could. However, she was so focused on getting out that she failed to notice a brown-haired girl right ahead of her and stumbled with her.