Las Albor: The Dawn

Chapter 1: Invaders

Szayel Aporro Granz was always the inquisitive scientist. Needless to say, when some no name arrancar approached him claiming to have accidentally opened a Garganta (Black Cavity, Spanish: Throat) to a new world by using the technique near the very fringe of Hueco Mundo, he was very eager to study it.

Regardless, he was not above killing the poor fool and taking credit for the discovery.

Aizen-sama was most pleased with this discovery of course, and authorized Szayel to research this new world, except he also ordered that the scientist must bring another Espada of his choice with him, just to be safe. This was why the Octava Espada was knocking on the door to the room labeled with a large number five.

After waiting a few minutes the door opened and an irritated and scowling Nnoitra stood naked holding a towel around his waist. "What do you want Szayel? As you can see I was bathing."

"Yes, well Aizen-sama has given me a mission, since you and I have a history together, a thought you might want in. I have to bring somebody, so I'd rather bring someone I can get along with." Szayel explained coolly, as though the eye-patch wearing Espada's free hand was not twitching in anticipation to strangle him.

"Do I have a choice?" He growled.

"Not really. You can bring Tesla if you wish, who knows what we'll find where we're going." He waved goodbye and began walking down the hall. "We leave in a few hours, I'll give you time to finish... whatever you need to do before we leave."

Once the sakura-haired scientist was out of earshot Nnoitra huffed. "Ass." He went back into his room and shut the door.

--

"We've been walking for hours." Nnoitra growled out in annoyance. They were in the middle of nowhere, nothing for miles and miles. White desert sand everywhere and even Las Noches was beginning to look small in the distance. "Where the hell are we going anyway?"

Tesla let his good eye wander to the two round Arrancar accompanying them. Lumina and Verona are Szayel's Fraccion, and hadn't protested a word about the walk the entire time. Szayel himself was barely contained in his excitement. "Not to be rude, but where are we going?"

Nnoitra looked at his servant. "It's okay; you can be rude to Szayel."

The pink haired Arrancar smiled. "We are going to the outer limits of Hueco Mundo."

Nnoitra's eye widened considerably. Tsela cringed. "The outer limits?" Nnoitra asked angrily. "Not that I'm scared but I heard about some weird shit around there. Like giant mask-less Hollows as strong as Vasto Lorde. Granted we could take em, of course..."

Szayel waved him off. "Oh please, those are just rumors. The only real danger that exists on the outer limit is the unstable ground. It's littered with holes that open and close at random, holes that pour spirit particles into the Dangai. Sometimes they can open under footfall." He continued his smile. "Not that we have to worry about falling into the Dangai, a simple Garganta can remedy that."

"Yeah, sure... you make it sound simple." Nnoitra rolled his eye. "Now that the where's cleared up; got me a why?"

"We're going to open a Garganta from the outer limit. This Garganta should take us to a new world, and in that world we will study and examine the specimens there, maybe even take samples." Szayel seemed a little too excited.

"So that's why you brought me? Because it might be dangerous, no telling what we'll find huh?" He gave a very wide smile. "Sounds fun, glad I could come."

--

"Hurry up you stupid fat-ass shits!" Nnoitra yelled as he used Sonido (Transfer Effects, Spanish: Sound) to travel quickly across the collapsing desert. Szayel was keeping pace decently well, as Tesla was only a step behind, but Lumina and Verona were falling behind, and the ground was collapsing beneath every footfall.

"Nnoitra! Do something! They're our emergency provisions!" Szayel yelled, making it sound normal.

"So that's why you brought the fat-asses!" He checked Tesla and found him to be right behind him. "Szayel, open a Garganta here! I think we're far enough!" He slid to a stop and turned around just as the two Fraccion fell in a larger than normal hole. He cursed to himself and threw his enormous Zanpakuto after them. "Grab on!" He held the chain on the end lightly and gave it a powerful yank, pulling it out of the hole with two screaming ball-shaped Arrancar holding on to the blunt side of the outer crescent for dear life.

They and the sword flew right into the Garganta as Tesla and Szayel jumped in as well, Nnoitra jumped in just as the ground collapsed beneath his feet, the area beneath the Garganta was a giant hole to the Dangai. "Too damn close!" He looked Szayel in the eye. "Well? Did we make it?"

"Yes actually." He smiled and pointed to the end of the tunnel. "I think we did."

Nnoitra picked up his Zanpakuto from the ground the two morons were laying on panting. "Then let's go." He ran for the end of the tunnel, his eye wide in anticipation and his mouth smiling.

"Nnoitra, careful..." Szayel's words went unheeded and Nnoitra burst forth from the Garganta, only to vanish.

"Nnoitra-sama!" Tesla ran to the edge of the Garganta and saw a crash on the ground roughly a hundred meters below them. "The Garganta's really high... I don't think we can fly in this world."

Szayel looked out as well. "It would appear so... Nnoitra just fell that whole way, didn't he?" He whistled and one of his two lackeys ran up to him.

"Yes Szayel-sama?!" Tesla hazarded a guess that it was Lumina but could really never tell.

"Break my fall for me." Tesla watched as the round Arrancar saluted and jumped from the Garganta, Szayel shortly after.

Tesla stood there and looked at the other one. "Well? Are you going to break my fall?"

"Do you even look like Szayel-sama?" She replied curtly and jumped out of the Garganta. "I'm coming Szayel-sama!"

"Idiot." Tesla jumped after him. She'd break his father weather he wanted to or not.

--

Nnoitra had tried flying, but it didn't work here for some reason. So he swore to himself as he crashed in an undignified heap in a crater in the forest, his Zanpakuto landing nearly, vertical, and imbedding nearly halfway in the ground. He cursed and began standing, until a large ball crashed on top of him, and he groaned his curses when something else crashed into the ball, and he yelled out in pain. "Son of a fucking bitch!"

"Oh! Sorry Nnoitra, I thought you would have moved." Szayel jumped off of Lumina and just as the round Arrancar tried to stand itself, another round Arrancar landed on top of him and Nnoitra yelled in pain. Then Tesla landed on that ball, Nnoitra was effectively forced completely into the ground under the force of all the impacts built up.

Tesla didn't even know he contributed to Nnoitra-sama's pain, he jumped off of the grumpy and angry Arrancar anyway, confident as Verona had unwillingly cushioned his fall. "Thank you Verona-san." He dusted himself off and looked at Szayel, who was holding his hand over his mouth, barely containing his laughter. "Is there something funny, Szayel-sama?"

Suddenly the two Arrancar went flying out of the crater and a very angry a dirty Nnoitra stood there panting. "What the shit?! Did all of you bastards land on me?!"

Tesla was on his knees in a second kissing the dirt. "I'm so sorry Nnoitra-sama! I had no idea you were under there!"

He was kicked in the jaw by his angry superior anyway. Regardless, Nnoitra paid him little mind. "Szayel! You bastard! I blame you!"

"What? I'm sorry? Didn't you ever hear to look before you leap?" Szayel chuckled at his joke. "Obviously not."

The Octava Espada grew serious as he swiftly drew his sword to block the massive double-crescent that was bearing down on him. He was only number eight; he stood no chance against Nnoitra. "Alright, alright, I get it." He nervously grit his teeth as his feet broke into the ground. "It wasn't completely my fault."

Nnoitra lifted his Zanpakuto and scoffed. "Whatever. I don't have time to deal with you anyway; you're needed to get us back."

--

Uchiha Itachi was bewildered. After hearing the crash and arriving near the site, he went into hiding with his partner, observing the scene. What he saw was five colorless glowing shapes, roughly human shaped, sans the two round ones. He heard nothing, even as he watched them attack each other. "Kisame, can you see anything?"

"Yeah, three guys and two round dudes. They're wearing some weird clothes and the guy that's the most aggressive seems to be attacking them. He's got some seriously crazy weapon, like two big crescent blades with their backs together. I'm getting this seriously powerful vibes off em, like a pressure that's trying to force me to my knees, never felt anything like it." Itachi saw the sweat coming off his partner's forehead from under his now saturated headband.

"I see... very strange. For once, your eyes are better. We are to capture these things, invisible people with great power and no chakra." Itachi explained. He had already tried deactivating his Sharingan (Copy Wheel Eyes), but that only made them disappear completely, and it made the forest quite blurry.

"Let me try talking to them first Itachi-san. They speak our language." Kisame gave his partner a wide sharky grin. The Sharingan user merely nodded in consent. If they could avoid conflict with enemies he could barely see then it would probably be for the best.

--

"Oi! You five!" The five Arrancar turned to the intruder, a blue skinned man, tall, with a wide grin filled with sharp teeth. This man's hair was an even darker blue, and his clothes were mostly a large black cloak with red clouds designed on it.

"The fuck are you supposed to be?" Nnoitra asked, making careful note of the bundle that had a sword hilt on it strapped over this man's back. Actually, calling him a man wouldn't be fair, he was far closer to a freak of nature. He seemed like he was just as much fish as he was human.

"I'm Hoshigaki Kisame, and I'm curious about you guys. Falling from the sky, and being invisible to my friend. I'd like an explanation." Kisame wasn't trying to pick a fight just yet, and was holding back his killing intent, not that they seemed to notice it at all.

Nnoitra huffed. "How can you even see us?" He stood his weapon up in the ground and leaned it, totally lax, while Kisame had his guard up completely.

Szayel just smiled. "There's no reason for us to answer your question. I'd have preferred to explore a little more before taking a sample, but you'll do nicely. I'm curious as to how you can see us without even a shred of Reiryoku (Spiritual Power)."

Kisame's smile faltered. "So... what? You gonna dissect me or somethin? I'm not stupid. You'll have to kill me first." He grabbed hold of his weapon's hilt but Nnoitra's large weapon passed through his body, it wasn't even the sharp part, just the blunted part between the two crescents, but it cut through Kisame like a hot knife through butter. The shark-nin's eyes were wide at how fast that attack was before he melted into water.

Nnoitra's eyes went wide as it was his turn to block, a surprise attack from the bushes, Kisame lunged at him with his wrapped weapon held in one hand and it collided with Nnoitra's blade with a crash, Nnoitra felt himself sink an inch into the ground from the impact. One handed?! What was this guy? His eye wandered as he caught a glimpse of a black and red blur, the guy's partner hurled six knives at him while he was busy guarding, but Tesla appeared in their path with the static screech of Sonido and batted them all away with his bade hands.

However, Tesla made eye contact with the new intruder. He had red eyes with three marks in each, and those marks were spinning. His eye grew wide as his body began to writhe in agony and he fell to the ground, watching his own body turn to dust. This power that that black haired intruder had, it was very, very great.

Itachi merely smirked. They may not have chakra, but the Sharingan still worked somehow. Even more curious was as soon as he made eye contact with the one that blocked him, he could see them all. The one that blocked him, the one with the large weapon struggling against Kisame's blade, the two round ones yelling 'Tesla-san!' and... there was supposed to be one more.

Itachi only flinched as a hand burst from his chest, along with a fair amount of blood. "Sorry about the whole killing you from behind thing, but I couldn't help but speculate that your eyes are dangerous." The sakura-haired Arrancar smirked, until Itachi exploded into a cloud of smoke and was replaced by a log, in which Szayel's arm was now lodged into.

Then there was a knife to his neck. "Sorry about the whole killing you thing, but I couldn't help but notice that you are weak." Szayel's eyes grew wide as he felt the killing intent. He couldn't have felt it until now for some reason, but it was similar to Reiatsu (Spiritual Pressure). No... It was Reiatsu, masked by something else, something that made his spiritual senses scream 'disgusting'.

Meanwhile, Nnoitra continued to battle with Kisame's attack, trying to push the shark-nin back. Instead, Kisame smirked and grabbed hold of his blade with his other hand as well, then lifted and smashed back down. Nnoitra was shocked beyond all reason as he was sent crashing to the ground from the impact; he just couldn't keep his footing under that amount of force. "How?" He gasped.

Kisame's weapon was pointed at his neck now. "Hey, don't be all pissy. You're the one that challenged one of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū, the Seven Mist Swordmen. You're lucky to have a head on your shoulders." Kisame chuckled.

Suddenly Nnoitra understood and it hit him like a ton of bricks. "That sword... that sword is a Zanpakuto!"