Ken looked at the invitation again and wondered if this had been a good idea.  What sort of job interview did they ask you to bring your crossbow to?  The fact that they knew he had one had impressed him, as had their ability to find him at his new address in San Francisco, given he'd just barely notified his own parents.  It seemed a miracle, given the company he'd gotten his first job with had ceased to exist.  Then again, it was a miracle he was still alive.  Not many people had gotten out of Sacramento alive when the bridge came down.  Just thinking about it gave him the creeps.	Then again, maybe they were just worried about the damn dinosaur men pushing further south.  The Army seemed to have them stalled, but then, the Army had claimed the advance of the lizards had been stopped in the Eastern US, just before the new maelstrom bridge had punched a hole between the worlds down into California as well.	But for the moment, that didn't matter.  What did matter was that he was running short on funds, thanks to war-induced inflation and one of his banks evaporating along with everything else behind enemy lines.  At least he got enough to eat thanks to the recently instituted rationing, though it was hardly fancy.  This job could make the difference between barely getting by and living decently.	He adjusted his tie and pulled into the parking lot at the address, frowning.  This professional building seemed hardly large enough for an American branch office of a Japanese corporation.  A quick check revealed he had the address right.  He shrugged; maybe their original one was in the conquered zone.  Or maybe they wanted to hire him to build up their American operations; the invitation hadn't been very clear.	The secretary was an attractive woman in a nicely tailored business suit, although the fact that her hair was purple struck him as a little odd even for San Francisco.  At least among people who would wear a suit.  Well, no matter, he thought.  It looks good on her, and if they're going to pay me fifty thousand a year, I can deal with that.  "I'm Mr. Toba, here for my interview with Ms. Kagura."	"She's in the office," the woman said.  She looked him up and down.  "Can you pilot a helicopter by any chance?"	"No," he said, shaking his head.  "I'm the fellow who was told to bring his crossbow."  He brandished it.	"Ahh!  Right.  Well, we're stuck with Evelyn, then.  Pity.  Go on in."	"Aren't you going to tell her I'm here?"  Ken asked.	"She's spying over the intercom again," the secretary replied.	"I am not," a childish voice said over the intercom.	Ken blinked.  "Ms. Kagura?"	"That's me.  Come in, come in."	He walked into her office, and was surprised to see a woman who couldn't have been much more than fourteen years old, maybe fifteen at most since she had clearly gotten at least somewhat through puberty, dressed in a very expensive tailored suit.  Her bright red hair stuck up in two diagonal arcs on either side of her head, somehow defying gravity, close at the ends with yellow ties.  	She was in the process of pouring a glass of tea as he arrived, and putting cookies on a plate.  She poured a second glass and filled a second plate and brought it to him, then went back to the desk, which had a brand new Omi Electronics 2000 computer on it.  J-pop was pouring from the speakers; she quickly killed the music, then took the first glass of tea and the first plate and sat down behind the desk.	"So, I understand you were working for Farwinds Investments when the Edeinos dropped the bridge that hit San Francisco," she said after glancing down at the dossier on her desk.	"Yes," he said.  "I'd just finally begun to settle down to managing the real estate investments branch when the bridge came down."  He shuddered; he still had nightmares about that day.  "I believe myself and our daycare supervisor and ten children from our daycare center were the only survivors.  From Farwinds, that is."	"Your girlfriend?"  she asked, looking at him assessingly.	"No, ma'am.  She was married, although her husband...went over to the other side.  She's living with her mother now."  He shook his head, frowning.  The man nearly killed both of us, howling about how we were already dead.  	"Good, good," she said.  "Our work is sometimes dangerous."	Now Ken was a little nervous.  "I assumed you wanted me for my business skills, not my crossbow awards."	"We're not planning to simply use you as cannon fodder," she said.  "But we need people who can take care of themselves; it looks bad if a security company's employees, any of them, are easy pickings."	He nodded.  That made sense.  	"Also, your crossbow will work in places that guns won't.  And I see you can get cars to work in the dead zones."	"Yes.  We escaped in a company van.  I still have it, since I don't know what to do with it."	"Excellent.  We'll buy it from you; I'm sure you'd rather have a smaller car."	With better gas mileage, he thought, what with gasoline prices soaring.  "Sounds good."	There was a sudden roar, a roar he knew too well, the cry of the lizard men, and his blood ran cold.  One came crashing out of the closet.  He spun, crossbow in hand, loading and firing it, wishing he'd already loaded the clip onto it (It was a repeating crossbow).  	With an audible pop, the Edeinos deflated, a bolt stuck through its head.  A woman with short, wavy blue hair and thick, large glasses, dressed in a blue blouse and a knee-length blue skirt stepped out of the closet.  "Two point five seconds, right through the forehead.  Beat Nikki's time by a half second."	"Excellent," Shinobu Kageru said.  "You're hired.  Good job with the inflatable Edeinos, Marie.  Very lifelike."	"Stole the design off the GodNet.  Heaven only knows what the Cyberpapists were doing making inflatable Edeinos, though."  She shrugged.	Ken had intended to get more information before accepting the offer, but a series of large numbers assaulted him, and before he quite knew what he was doing, he found he had signed a hiring contract and recieved a freshly printed out initial signing bonus plus another check for the van.  	He put them in his briefcase.  "Um, when do I start?"	The intercom buzzed, and Shinobu answered it.  "Yes, Sakura?"	"We have a new case.  The city believes there's a werewolf in Santa Carla Park.  So they want us to deal with it.  Fortunately, we have Irene available in the city; Evelyn is picking her up right now and will be there with the helicopter soon."	"..."  Ken stared in shock.  "You hunt werewolves?"	"We hunt werewolves, conduct cross reality storm runs, hunt down invaders from other universes, and do whatever else the clients need done in the way of investigation, information, and security.  Welcome to KRISIS, Mr. Toba," Shinobu said.  "Are you going to eat your cookies?  Because I want them if you don't."	"Uhh...I'll just have one," he said, sipping his tea, then watched as she tried to stuff them all in her mouth and eat them at the same time.  If I didn't need the money, he thought, I'd get up and run right now.  *************STORMBREEDERSA Geobreeders/TORG storyby John Biles, High Lord of the Fanfic Cosm*************	Ken had seen a lot of weird stuff in the last three months since the invasions had begun.  Five regions of the Earth had been conquered by other realities and brought under the sway of those worlds' laws.  Much of the northeastern US, southeastern Canada, and the Pacific northwest regions were under the sway of lizardmen and humans reverted to cavemen under the influence of the 'Living Land'.  That was the only invading group he knew much about, mostly because he'd been in Sacramento when they invaded it.	He had heard that some sort of 'gothic horror' realm with vampires, and werewolves and zombies and would-be colonizers from a Victorian civilization had taken over Indonesia and part of Malaysia, but he didn't think they'd be able to easily get into San Diego of all places.  He prayed the legends about Earth werewolves were true of them...at least the killed by silver part.	Well, at least it can't attack us while we're in the helicopter, he thought.  He'd heard about hunting wolves from helicopters, although he assumed it would be harder in a park than in open tundra.  He finished loading the ten silver headed bolts that his new boss had just given him, and prayed the repeating mechanism would hold out.	He was rather surprised they'd taken the secretary with them, and more surprised that she had two sets of silver plated 'brass knuckles' she had fixed in place.  Marie had stayed behind to run communications on the mission, and they'd acquired two women who had come in the chopper.	One was Evelyn Kneivel, who was apparently the main vehicle expert for the company, at least her in America.  To his relief, she seemed to be a fairly steady pilot, although her touseled green hair was somewhat unusual, in his opinion.  	The other woman he found to be of dubious sanity, given she dressed in a deerstalker hat and long coat in a California summer, and that she said her name was 'Irene Holmes' and Sherlock Holmes was her father.  On the other hand, she'd successfully identified him without being introduced, although he assumed that was probably simply from Ms. Kageru telling people about the interview.  	"So, do you know anything about werewolves?"  Ken asked.  Always best to know your enemy, his advisor in college had always told him.	"Most are vulnerable to silver or some other precious metal.  Generally, they can control their change, except during the full moon nights, when they become animalistic.  Some must stay human in daytime, and some become more powerful if they can see the moon and the more full it is," she said, ticking off a mental list with one hand.  "The full moon isn't for five days, so this one must be deliberately changing and attacking people.  Some are reluctant werewolves, others embrace the change, you see.  This one might actually prefer living in wolf form, as it hasn't been robbing their victims.  And it's probably a storm knight like us if it can function this far from its home reality for long."	"A what?"  Ken asked.	She blinked.  "Like us."	"Like us?"	Irene looked over at Shinobu, who said, "Ken doesn't realize how special he is.  And not just for having a nice butt either."	"..."	"Not been watching the news?"  Sakura asked.	"Too depressing,"  Ken replied.  "I'm not totally out of touch, but mostly I've been busy looking for work."	"The different reality areas are surrounded by fierce 'reality storms'," Irene said.  "Those who can pass through those storms unchanged and operate in different realities by their own world's laws are called 'Storm Knights'.  Everyone who works for KRISIS in any sort of operative position is one.  I can tell you're one from the history I compiled of you before you were offered this job," Irene continued.  "We can defy the various invading realities because in some way we've become able to manipulate 'possibility energy', which is what the invaders are after."	"Not to interrupt your lecture," Evelyn said, "but I think this is the park."