Something was off.

The entire facility was on high alert. The dim glow of red and the high-pitched scream of an alarm filled the wide concrete tunnel. A massive blast door, wide enough to fit five bird-drawn carriages from front to end, stood before four individuals. The still-smouldering husks of at least a dozen militarized machines lay in pieces at their feet. All of this was just another day at the office for the El Search Party but... something was off.

"Add! Hurry it up already!" their redheaded leader shouted over the blaring alarm, "More of Wally's bots are going to be here any second!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Add grumbled. His dynamos worked frantically to rewire the control panel as he brute-forced his way through the terminal's security program, "It's not my fault that the old fart is using my firewall to keep us out!"

"It is your fault! You gave it to him!"

"Can you two please stop arguing for five minutes?!" Aisha screeched, "Arguing won't get us anywhere! Just let him focus, Elsword!"

Their leader scowled before turning away in a huff. The white-haired male rolled his eyes at their leader before turning to Aisha. "It's good knowing you understand me, at least," Add smiled.

Aisha blinked.

He smiled at her? Was that something Add did? From memory she was sure Add never appreciated anyone other than himself, so seeing a genuine anything other than an angry glare in her direction felt… unsettling to say the least.

She let it slide. Her whole day had been one confusing mess up to now, anyways. From the moment she woke up, the purplette couldn't help but feel a looming uncanny sensation about… well, everything.

But it wasn't important. Seeing Add happy for once was something she shouldn't worry about. Especially with an army of Nasods breathing down their backs.

"If we were hacking the door, we'd have it finished by now, wouldn't we?" Moby asked the purplette.

She nodded, "With you and Remy's help, we'd be done in half the time-I think…?" Aisha trailed off as she realized who she was talking to. She stared at the two drones who looked back at her quizzically.

"Is there something wrong, Mistress Aisha?" Remy asked, getting a dismissive shake of the purplette's head.

"Aisha's fine... But how come-?"

A green "Access Granted" sign flickered in the hologram screen in front of Add.

"Got it! Let's move!"

"Eve? How are you feeling?" Elsword asked their fourth member, "The last encounter took a lot out of you, I noticed. And we don't know what's beyond these doors so if you need a second-"

"I'll be fine," Eve said. The silver-haired maiden, exhausted and leaning against the metal wall, steadied herself on her feet, "Just lead the way."

The stoic expression on their leader's face softened as he offered her a hand, "Really? If you're sure-"

"Stop babying her!" Add snapped.

"I'm not babying her!" Elsword defended.

"You rush me to get the stupid door open and now you're giving her a chance to catch her breath?"

"Again, would you two just stop arguing?" Aisha interjected. She pouted afterwards and muttered under her breath, "And it wouldn't hurt to ask if I was okay as well…"

"Whatever! Aisha and I can handle it without you two slowing us down! I say we do this now!" Add pushed a button and the blast doors shuddered open, its giant gears groaning as they gave way. Nothing but darkness awaited them beyond the wide hall.

Add was having a strange amount of confidence in Aisha's ability, the purplette thought. Normally he'd side with… he'd side with… who was it, again? She couldn't think as a cold breeze blew, causing her to subconsciously tug at the hem of her tight fitting black dress. Why did she ever think it was a good idea to wear something so restricting to battle? Well it wasn't restricting if she didn't care about it riding up for everyone to see, but that was beside the point-

"Add!" Elsword growled as the white-haired male simply shrugged off his leader's angry glare.

"Come on out, you wrinkly bastard!" Add yelled, "We're here to negotiate."

The screech of a megaphone could be heard at the other end of the large hanger. An old man's voice boomed in response. "You barged into my secret lab. You destroyed my experiments. And now that you have me cornered, you expect me to believe that you just want to talk?"

Hundreds of floodlights nearly blinded the four intruders as the blast doors behind them began to close. Wally, a man well into his 60s and curly grey hair, stood over them on the shoulders of a gargantuan Nasod. It was far larger than the prototypes the four adventurers have encountered thus far. Its red body and massive blue right arm took up nearly half of the entire hanger alone. But perhaps most intimidating of all, was the gigantic multi-barrel cannon fitted on its left arm.

Both Moby and Remy whistled in awe.

"What… the hells is that?!" Aisha gawped.

"Just as expected," Add chuckled, "Of course he'd use my Nasod Inspector blueprints. From the looks of it, he only built the top half."

Add stepped forward, grinning fiendishly at the old man standing on the Nasod's shoulder, "Your experiments? From what I've seen so far, they're nothing but subpar replicas of my designs. Your age is showing, gramps. Why not step down and let the real engineer show you how to properly build an army?"

"What was that?! You insolent little sh-"

"Sounds like you're starting to lose your hearing, Wally!" Elsword interrupted, "He says he's gonna kick your ass!"

"You can't be serious," Wally chuckled, "Do you not see the monstrosity standing before you? Even if my masterpiece is incomplete, if you think you stand any chance against me, you're well out of your league!"

With the push of a button the Nasod Inspector's hatch opened and Wally disappeared inside the machine. The gears began to churn. Pneumatic pistons hissed loudly as the Nasod began its start up procedures.

"Tch. Of course he'd resort to using an unfinished prototype." Add turned to Aisha, bringing up several holograms and sliding it over to the purplette."Here's the schematics. Study them. Pick out its weak points like I know you would with all my designs. We'll bring this thing down before the old fart has time to run."

Aisha caught the hologram of his blueprints. Bewildered by the sheer amount of parts and measurements floating before her, she struggled to even comprehend what part of the machine she was looking at, let alone which way to hold the schematics.

"O-okay," the purplette muttered as Moby and Remy hovered over either of her shoulders, scanning the data.

"Got it!" Moby chirped.

"Scan complete. The human's creation is crude in design, as expected," Remy whistled.

"I… er, wait-" Aisha stammered, frantically trying to make heads and tails of the numerous windows in front of her.

"We're ready," Add reported to the leader.

"Eve?" Elsword turned to the girl standing behind them.

"El reserves are acceptable."

"Let's go!" Elsword cried.

The two boys led the charge, despite Aisha's protest, meeting the machine head on as it powered up with a deep, ominous groan.

Elsword was the first to reach his target. With the Nasod Inspector still in its start-up phase, the redhead was free to recklessly strike the unfinished lower half of the machine. This was, however, as effective as one would expect when it came to running a blade across metal and achieved nothing more than a few scratches and the loud clang of steel.

Add joined in on the brute-force approach. Cracking his knuckles as he closed the distance, he drove his fist against a kinetic field that his dynamos projected in front of him. The impact sent a ripple of magnified energy outward, colliding and denting the thick plating along the machine's front.

Wally's laughter could be heard through the screeching reverb of the machine's speakers. With a mighty swing of its massive blue arm, the Nasod Inspector warded off its assailants. "Is that all you've got?"

"I don't know, old man!" Elsword said, expertly avoiding the arm as he resumed his assault, "Do you really want to sit there and test us? Or are you going to actually do something before we break something we shouldn't?"

Add was quick to swap into the offense whenever Elsword had Wally's attention. With each kinetic blast, more and more of the Nasod Inspector's armor began to bend. Rivets and bolts were dislodged. Eventually, entire plates of metal came undone, exposing more and more of its vulnerable gears.

"You think I'd make it that easy for you?!" Wally spun the torso around in a full 360, granting him enough breathing room to activate a large cannon mounted on the machine's back.

It fired a burst of Light El into the air that quickly spread, flooding the hangar with blinding glowing spheres.

The temperature around them began to rise as multiple orbs slowly cascaded to the ground. The metal around each orb began to glow red hot. Anything flammable within an orb's vicinity quickly caught fire.

What laid before the two boys was a sea of molten magical spheres that limited their movement and denied any clear path towards their target.

To top things off, the machine was surrounded by a glowing yellow shield.

"Come," Wally dared, "Hit me, again. Not that it'd matter with my kinetic shield. None of your physical attacks will get past my shield!"

"No physical attacks, you say?" Elsword grinned, pointing an open palm at the machine, "Well that sucks. I wonder how we'll get around that?"

The scratch marks along the machine's hull began to radiate a bright red. Numerous runes appeared all over the Nasod Inspector's armor before explosion after explosion ripped its plating apart.

Wally screamed as the machine lost its balance, falling to its side.

"So you're not as dumb as I thought," Add commented.

"I can read your stupid schematics, you know!" Elsword grunted.

"Oh! The monkey can read! You never cease to amaze me!" Before Elsword could protest, Add turned back to the girls, "Hey! You heard the old man! Magic attacks only! Or are you just going to sit there and be useless for the rest of the fight?!"

Aisha blinked, realizing that their target was practically a sitting duck, in a panic she stepped up only to be interrupted by Eve.

"I'll handle it," she said with a less than enthused sigh. Eve raised her staff. El energy swirled around her as her white and purple robes flowed in the magical wind. "Elements, heed my call for I am your master! Lightning Storm!"

A cloud rapidly formed over the Nasod Inspector. Eve brought her staff down on the ground and a torrent of white lightning flashed over the helpless machine. Wally's machine spasmed uncontrollably, even the speakers that broadcasted the old man's ramblings burst in a loud pop amidst the relentless storm.

Despite the light show, Aisha stared only at her friend standing within a circle of magical runes.

"I… She… Wait a minute…" Aisha muttered, watching as Eve fell to the ground in exhaustion, "Somethings… not right."

"He swapped shields!" Elsword reported as a blue barrier appeared under the lightning strikes.

"We're up then! Aisha! Back me up!" Add said, leading the charge.

"M-me? But I'm not-" Aisha stuttered.

"Here, mistress!" Moby chirped as he and Remy summoned an atomic blaster into Aisha's hands.

The purplette nearly fell over at the weapon's sheer weight. Confused as ever, Aisha looked at the weapon and her drones. Yes. Her drones.

"Hypersonic rounds are loaded for you, mistress! It's ready to fire!" Remy reported.

"I… erm… Aisha's fine, but-" Aisha sputtered in utter bewilderment.

"Fire!" Add ordered mid charge.

"Fire!" Moby repeated enthusiastically.

"Uhm… O-okay!" the purplette squeaked. Hefting the weapon with all her might, she barely managed to drag it towards the general direction of the Nasod Inspector. She prayed under her breath that all of this would make sense soon and squeezed the trigger.


"I'm not sewing all of this, you know," Rena frowned as she stared at the ruined sets of clothes. She held up Eve's robe against the large campfire, noting the hundreds of bullet holes that had torn through the expensive white fabric.

"I can help," Eve offered, picking up Elsword's destroyed top. A soft red hue appeared on her face, "I don't mind fixing this…"

"Whatever," Rena huffed, "Might as well fix what we can and just replace the rest." Rena and Eve began their night-long work.

"Sorry," Aisha apologized for the hundredth time, "I wasn't… feeling well."

"Not feeling well?" Rena tilted her head, "How unwell exactly? It's not often that you nearly turn the entire team into swiss cheese."

"Ow! Aisha!" Raven yelped as the purplette involuntarily twisted a vital wiring with a screwdriver in the Veteran Commander's arm.

"Ah! Sorry!" the purplette said again, getting yet another yelp as she tugged on another wire as she instinctively pulled the tool out.

Raven pulled his arm away. "Unwell enough to botch a basic repair job, apparently. I'm going to Add when he's finished his bath."

The mercenary strode off, disappearing into the forest towards the baths and leaving the three girls alone. Rena and Eve sewed as Aisha quietly sat there, staring off at nothing in particular as the soft crackle of the campfire kept them company.

"Everything alright, Aisha?" Rena asked finally.

"I don't know…" the purplette looked at her hands. Long, black, form-fitting, fingerless gloves were what she was wearing. They fit her perfectly, but they felt so foreign to her. "Everything feels off."

"What do you mean?" Rena asked, not noticing Eve quietly huffing away at Elsword's clothes behind her.

"I mean I feel like I don't quite belong."

"Belong where?"

Aisha motioned at herself. "Here. In this body. I mean like, during the raid on Wally's lab, I just felt as if everything around me didn't quite match up. I felt like I was supposed to be where Eve is."

Aisha drew Rena's attention towards the white-haired mage and Eve quickly and unceremoniously pulled her face out of Elsword's clothes. Eve looked away innocently, drawing her eyes to the distant canopy around them.

"Like I'm supposed to be the mage. And Eve's supposed to be the tech expert."

Rena tilted her head in confusion before smiling at Aisha, "That's silly, Aisha. We all know you're the best in Nasod know-how… no matter how much Add says otherwise."

"I… am?"

"Sure," Rena nodded, "Eve's studied nothing but magic her entire life. When we rescued you from Altera, you brought along so many wonderful machines that none of us had ever seen before."

"I… have?" Despite Rena's reassurances, Aisha couldn't help but feel like all of this was wrong. This wasn't making sense.

Rena continued, "Duh! It's why Add's so obsessed with pleasing you! Honestly, it feels a bit forced but I feel like he can be a good person so long as you reign him in."

"Erm…" At least Aisha finally understood the young man's strange favoritism. But still… shouldn't he be fawning over Eve…?

Looking at the mage, Aisha felt like lashing out when she caught her once again sniffing Elsword's clothes.

"Maybe you just need some rest," Rena suggested, putting a hand on Aisha's shoulder, and snapping the Nasod out of her train of thought. "Tell you what: next mission, I'll go in your stead. Sound good? That way you can get some proper rest."

"Maybe you're right."

"It'll all fix itself with time," Rena reassured her.

"Yeah…" Aisha muttered, "Yeah…"

Suddenly Elsword burst in from the bushes, hair wet and in nothing but his towel. "Hey, Eve!"

"Put your clothes on, you damned idiot," Add groaned, walking in behind their leader and in the middle of slipping on a shirt.

"Yes, Elsword?" the mage asked, pulling her face out of his clothes, again.

"Didja see what I did with the whole exploding rune thing on Wally's stupid robot?"

"I did. It was impressive."

"I thought it was cool, too-" Aisha started but was interrupted as Add took a seat next to her.

Elsword bound over, taking Eve by her hand and pulling her to her feet.

"Right?!" the redhead laughed.

Add snorted before turning to Rena. "Hey elf. Didja finish fixing my clothes yet?"

Rena scowled at the albino and simply stood and took her sewing project elsewhere.

Add snorted, shaking his head at her before turning his attention to Aisha, "Good work destroying the Nasod Inspector. We make a fine team, you and I."

"Yeah."

"You know, minus the whole friendly fire incident, I feel if we talked strategy, we can fine-tune our coordination. Maybe… you could share some of your tech secrets with me?"

"Uh-huh…" Aisha muttered, not taking her eyes off of Elsword as he pulled Eve over to her tent.

"Put some clothes on you monkey!" Add shouted, getting another playful laugh from the redhead.

"Sorry! I forgot."

This was normal… right? Aisha couldn't help but feel like this should be normal. Add was being Add, afterall, and Elsword was definitely being Elsword. Everyone else didn't seem to notice, so why was it only her that felt like everything was wrong? Was it only her…? Or maybe...

"After I get dressed, wanna help me hone my rune etching?" Elsword asked.

"Of course, Elsword," Eve said, standing at her tent, "I always have time for you."

Aisha's eyes widened as she spoke.

No. This wasn't right.

Eve glanced over at Aisha. The mage grinned, knowingly.


The purplette screamed as she shot up from bed, knocking a half-asleep Elsword off his chair in surprise.

She was naked. Mostly. A towel had been hastily wrapped around her and she was laying under the covers of her sleeping bag.

"What?! What?! What's happening?!" Elsword scrambled to his feet.

"I'm naked!" Aisha yelled.

"You were overheating in the hot springs!" Elsword yelled back.

"I'm a mage?!"

"Y-Yes?! Yes you are!"

"I'm me?!"

"...Yes?"

"Then that means-"

"Are you well, Aisha?" The silver-haired Nasod stepped into the mage's tent.

She was dressed in the Elemental Master's garb.

The purplette jumped out of bed, bolting past the two screaming as she disappeared into the cold night, leaving both Elsword and Eve to stare dumbfounded at the direction of Aisha's fading screams.

Not even wanting to ask what just happened, the redhead turned to Eve. "What's with the get up?"

Eve looked down at the robes, swishing the skirt back and forth with a swing of her hips. "My clothes are still drying after I pulled the mage out of the water. I hope she doesn't mind."


A/N: Yes. I know Nemesis and Lunatic Psyker's abilities are magic based but for story-telling purposes I made them physical. Hi everyone! Thanks for reading my story. This is my entry to a little group prompt I'm doing called "Job Swap" where we swap two character's roles but not their personalities. I wanted to write a bit of humor so I hope it lands well since... writing job swap stories are a lot harder than I thought. Let me know what you think! Also sorry if you see any grammar/spelling mistakes. I did my best to edit them.