CH1
Lelu and her friends were returning to their little base inside a mountain after performing a raid on a construction site. In reality it was a small victory, it was one little construction site out of hundreds planet wide.
Lelu's friends had taken out a number of surrounding buildings while Lelu herself had cast an Earthquake spell on the construction site itself.
Earthquake spell - An intense but highly localized tremor rips the ground. The shock knocks people down, collapses structures, opens cracks in the ground, and more.
Area affected – 80' radius spread.
It had resulted in a lot of the construction equipment being swallowed up and then buried in the ground when the ground closed back up. There was no one except a security guard at the site and he was not in the area at the time, so he was fine. The group preferred not to kill.
Lelu's friends were celebrating their little victory while Lelu herself went to her room to study what site would be struck next and what to do when they got there.
Using a scrying spell Lelu studied the area in question using one of her little animal friends, of which there were fewer and fewer of over the years.
Srying spell - You can see and hear the subject and the subject's immediate surroundings (approximately 10 feet in all directions of the subject). If the subject moves, the sensor follows the subject. There were still thousands of rats all over the planet, very useful for spying on people or places.
It was a recently completed large condominium site that had not yet been occupied. More than likely there were people who were scheduled to move in as soon as the buildings cleared being inspected and given an occupancy permit, so they needed to move fast.
Lelu left her room to inform the others she was going back out again. All of her friends volunteered to go with her, however she turned them down. "Thanks, but when I get back we have still another site to visit and I'll need you for that one, so get some rest."
Lelu cast her spell to summon all the help she was going to need.
Summon Monolith Elemental - You conjure a tremendously powerful creature known as an elemental monolith.
Lelu had summoned an Earth Elemental. Earth monoliths are nearly unstoppable, using their great strength to crush and destroy their foes. Like other earth elementals, earth monoliths travel through solid ground or rock as easily as humanoids walk on the earth's surface.
The monolith embraced Lelu and took her to where she wished to go, once at the site the monolith began using its incredible strength to destroy the entire complex.
While the monolith was busy doing as Lelu had requested of it, a company fighter/bomber jet showed up and after making a recon pass came back around to make a combat pass.
Lelu had learned the hard way that the fighter/bombers were basically immune to lightning strikes, true physical damage was required to bring one down. Fortunately as dangerous as they were, they were relatively weak when it came to dealing with damage.
Lelu waited until the fighter/bomber had committed itself to its combat pass when she cast a spell.
Splinter Bolt - You extend your hand toward your foe, flicking a single sliver of wood into the air,
and a splinter larger than a titan's javelin whistles through the air.
The fighter/bomber had made its pass attacking the monolith doing some damage to him, however this run placed it directly over Lelu who watched her spell strike one of the fighters wings doing severe damage, and was rewarded with watching the plane crash, with the pilot ejecting out of his damage craft.
Satisfied that the complex had been destroyed, Lelu was given a ride back to her base where her friends were waiting for her.
"How did it go?" Lelu is asked.
"Scratch one condo complex and one fighter/bomber." Lelu would have smiled at her success, but it was a small win in a war that they were losing.
The war had officially started long before even her parents had been born. Early in the war the enemy had decided to use these tremendous bombs, and they had several of them. It had taken them years to find out that they needed a special metal minded from the ground.
After the first bomb had been dropped by a high flying plane, high above their reach, they had started attacking these mines to try and deprive them of this metal.
However the enemy already had several of these bombs and had started using them on their cities and towns. Life was destroyed, buildings leveled to the ground. The trees and plants managed to adapt to the after effects of the blast, however the area had been cleared just like the enemy had hoped for.
Soon more and more mushroom clouds sprung up into the air and more and more of their kind and their friends were dying.
The war itself was simple to understand. It was technology versus nature. Huge conglomerate companies wanted to keep their profits elevated at huge numbers. The population increase never slowed and they all needed someplace to live and work.
More and more of the planet was leveled to be replaced by buildings, shopping centers, parking lots, freeways. Vast swaths of forests where being cut down to make way for the expansion.
When the enemy finally worked out that the oxygen levels were going down because all the trees were gone, they solved the problem in the only way they knew how. More technology! There were soon a number of oxygen plants that would clean the air and pump out oxygen.
However to make them work meant they needed more power. To get the power they needed they had to add burning dirty coal to obtain the power they needed. To get the coal meant mining the earth.
All of this put still more pollution out into the air for the oxygen plants to try and clean.
Lelu had been born into this world. Her parents found that she loved nature and had a truly amazing affinity for animals and plants.
Lelu was only 5 years old when another bomb was dropped on her parent's position, leaving only destroyed ground and a mushroom cloud in the sky.
Lelu was still just a teenager when she found out that she herself was pregnant. The father had died in a fighter/bomber attack the week before. Lelu was sad for his loss; however it was only a one-night stand. Lelu wasn't in love with him at the time and hadn't mourned his loss when he was gone. Save that they had lost another good fighter.
Lelu's little girl had changed her life. Where before her life was all about the war and trying to stop the enemy and keep as much of the natural nature that there was on the planet. Now her focus was on her little girl.
"Alexis sweetie, time for lunch." Lelu called out.
Lelu soon got a response with the sight of Alexis with her long red hair come bouncing in carrying one of her little friends.
"And how is my girl today?" Lelu stepped up to where Alexis had sat to eat her lunch putting her little friend on the table.
"Waddle had babies mommy!" Alexis was all excited, one of her friends was actually still delivering her little brood even as Alexis ate.
"That's great sweetie." Lelu kissed her head. "And you, are you happy too?" Lelu strokes Alexis's little friend, getting a squeak back for her trouble.
"He said, …." Lelu interrupts her daughter.
"I know what he said Alexis, I'm not deaf yet." Alexis only smiled up at her mother while she continued to eat her lunch.
Lelu sat with her and ate her own lunch while watching every move Alexis made. It was such a stupidly simple thing to be doing, but it was still melting Lelu's heart. Lelu loved everything Alexis did. Lelu knew Alexis was the light of her life and she wouldn't have it any other way.
"Can I go riding mommy?" Alexis was done and had caught Lelu staring at her daughter, lost in her thoughts.
Lelu checked the time. "Sure, but only for an hour and you know the rules." Lelu points out.
"Don't go far and take someone with me." Alexis drones out, hating that there were rules at all.
"I'm sorry sweetie, but it's for your own safety, I don't want anything to happen to you." Lelu knew her heart was wrapped around her daughter and losing her would break her.
"Thank you mommy." Alexis took off running, taking her little friend with her.
It had Lelu grinning. "Oh to be that young and carefree again." Lelu was wishing, knowing it was never going to happen. Lelu had a war to fight. Speaking of which Lelu had a target to attend to.
Lelu went to her room and cast a Scrying spell to check the area, using one of her little friends to scurry around the area so she could see a lot of the area. Satisfied and happy that she didn't need to take anyone with her this time and place them in danger.
Lelu checked in and told her friends where she was going.
Transport via Plants spell - You can enter any normal plant and pass any distance to a plant of the same kind in an instant, regardless of the distance separating the two. The entry plant must be alive.
Lelu arrived right where she had wanted to be and looked the place over. It was an incomplete tower, meant to be the tallest high-rise building on the planet. It was being built directly on bedrock, practically granite. It was perfect ground for such a huge building thanks to its weight.
However for Lelu that was also a weakness for the building, so she started casting another spell.
Transmute Rock to Lava - As its name suggests, this spell turns the very landscape into the enemy of man, causing a deadly flow of magma from the cracks of the earth.
The area of affect was only a 30' radius from the center point. Hence Lelu chose to center the spell on one corner of the building. The lava started to burn and undermine the building forcing it to start to lean to one side.
The building was on its way to falling to the ground when Lelu cast a spell to get back home.
Word of Recall - Word of recall teleports you instantly back to your sanctuary when the word is uttered.
Lelu arrived back in her little base where her family and friends were an instant later. It was another small victory, it's just that they were small and far between on an entire planet.
Lelu went to her room to do some more research, she needed to find something to do that would turn this around, they were losing little by little and she knew it. "I'm trying mom and dad, I'm trying."
Lelu spent an hour searching for something, reading papers her parents had left her. Maybe instead of fighting all over the planet she should be fighting for a certain location and when they won there, they moved on to the next.
Lelu came back out and started gathering up her friends to discuss a change in tactics. They were losing so something had to change.
It was an hour later when they were still debating if this new plan was the right one, and where on the planet they should concentrate their efforts, when Alexis's little friend came running in, completely out of breath.
He stopped near Lelu and started chattering up a storm. It was all Lelu could do to keep up. Lelu was actually only getting about every third word, for such a little guy he really knew how to talk fast.
Everyone present saw Lelu go white and tears started running down her face. "Where?" Lelu finally asked a question. "Soldiers ambushed Alexis and took her." Lelu turned and told her friends.
They all jumped up and grabbed Lelu as they rushed out and headed for the site where Alexis had been taken from.
It took a little time before they found Smoke lying on his side bleeding out. Smoke had been just a little colt when Kate had found him. Now he was a big strong horse who could outrun any other horse on the planet. He had bonded with Alexis almost immediately.
Not far away was the only surviving Centaur who was acting as Alexis's guard. He had taken so much damage that his human upper body was almost separated from his horse body.
"SMOKE!" Lelu kneeled down next to him and listened to Smoke apologize for failing her.
"Shhh, you didn't fail anyone my friend, there was nothing you could have done about it." Lelu countered what smoke was telling her. Lelu got to work on Smoke casting a spell.
Cure Critical Wounds - When laying your hand upon a living creature, you can heal life threatening critical wounds.
It wasn't enough to heal all of Smoke's wounds, however it was enough to get him on his feet and back to their home.
"How many where there?" Lelu asks Smoke, listening to him answer her question. "And where did they go?" Lelu listened to him answer her question and then gave him a potion to help him feel better and heal more of his wounds.
"Two squads and they took her North." Lelu tells them all.
"He never stood a chance." One comments, noting that the Centaur might not have even seen them coming, and even if he did, there were too many of them for him to handle alone.
"Now what?" The question is asked.
"I'm getting her back, that's what I'm doing!" Lelu yells back, and marches into her room to cast another scrying spell. This time the focus was her daughter.
When Lelu exited her room she was even whiter than she had been when Lelu had found out Alexis had been taken. "She's hanging by her hands in their dungeon." Lelu tells them.
It got all of them to suck in their breath. They all loved Alexis, just not as much as her mother.
"I need some help, in and out as fast as we can." Lelu begs them.
Lelu and the others hear a roar in response. Hairy was here!
Hairy was the name Alexis had given him, he was the last of the great bears, Dire Bear to be precise and he loved Alexis maybe even more than her own mother.
Hairy was huge and barely fit in the room. Hairy was thousands of pounds of pure muscle. "You're not going alone my friend." Lelu informs him.
Lelu turns to one of the others. "I'm in need of your magic." Lelu asks of him.
It was moments later after having prepared the area. "Step into the circle." Lelu and Hairy are told. It was time to cast a spell.
Teleportation Circle - You create a circle on the floor or other horizontal surface that teleports any person(s) who stands on it to a designated spot.
A moment later they are all standing in front of Alexis who is hanging from by her hands from the ceiling. "BABY!" Lelu was on in Alexis in a heartbeat.
Alexis was unconscious but otherwise looked unharmed to Lelu, so she immediately cast a spell.
Cure Moderate Wounds – Heal wounds of a person that are only moderately damaging looking and not immediately life threatening.
"Alexis sweetie, I need you to wake up for me honey." Lelu pleaded trying to keep the tears at bay. "Hairy?" Lelu turns to him who immediately takes one of his great paws and swipes at the cord that is being used to hang her from the ceiling. Severing it easily.
Alexis was now in Lelu's arms. "Alexis sweetie?" Lelu cradled her body and stroked her face.
It took a few moments before Alexis started blinking her eyes open. "Mommy?"
Lelu couldn't hold back the tears any longer and started crying. "Yeah sweetie, it's me, I've got you?"
"It hurts mommy!" The pain Alexis was feeling was all over her face.
Lelu looked up at the wizard that had gotten them here. He bent down and looked Alexis over while Lelu held her in her arms. "Nanites." He hung his head low.
"NO!" Lelu knew what those were and what they did. "No, you're wrong, you have to be wrong."
"I'm sorry, there is nothing to be done. They are eating her from the inside out. You can heal her wounds all you want, but it will only be temporary. I can kill one of them, but there are likely already thousands inside her.
You know as well as I do that they while they eat her, they are also replicating themselves, creating even more of them. It would take thousands of spells to kill all of them at the same time. If we miss so much as even one of them, it'll start all over again." The Wizard stands up dejected, knowing Alexis is already as good as dead. Just in a horribly insidious manner possible. Utterly heartless and devoid of caring about life at all, just what they were fighting against.
The pain on Alexis's face was only getting worse. "It hurts mommy, please make it stop!"
Did Alexis even know what she was asking? Or was it simply the plea of a child to her mother. Mothers could fix anything. Make anything feel better.
"No sweetie, don't ask me that. … I can't." Lelu broke down and held her tight and started crying in earnest. What her baby was asking for was what Lelu just couldn't do.
"We need to be leaving." The Wizard touches Lelu's shoulder. "We stay much longer and we'll be discovered."
Lelu turned her head. "Nothing we can do? …. Can I not at least take her place?" Lelu was searching for anything and she knew it, only to watch him shake his head. His parents may have known a way, but in today's world some spells had been lost to the past. Along with any number of magical items and for some, even the ability to create them anymore.
The Wizard could only shake his head, and begin a Teleport, Greater spell to get them all out of here.
"The pain mommy!" Alexis's pain was only increasing the longer Lelu delayed the inevitable.
"I love you sweetie, more that life itself, I love you." Lelu could see Alexis try to answer but the pain she was in cut it off.
Lelu let her back down to lie on the floor. "I love you and I swear I will find a way, somehow, someway."
It took extra effort but Lelu cast a spell to take all the pain away from her daughter, it was all she had left she could do for her.
Finger of Death - You can slay any one living person with just a single touch.
Lelu had killed her own daughter and they both heard Hairy scream in rage at watching the one person he loved most on this god forsaken planet die.
Hairy turned and ripped the door to her cell off its hinges and threw it through the opening, striking the guard that had come to investigate, killing him. Hairy roared out through the door in search of anyone he could kill for the loss he was experiencing.
The Wizard touched Lelu as she was curled up on the floor crying in body quaking sobs with her wails of what she had just done reverberating off the walls, it felt like everywhere, and finished his spell and took both of them back to their little home.
Hairy was crashing his way down hallways and through doors, killing everyone who got in his way.
He had taken several rounds from weapons to his body, but just kept on going trailing drops of his blood behind him.
He may be just a bear, but he wasn't stupid, even in his rage he could tell the difference between lowly grunts and officers, and the one he found in a big room filled with others all carrying guns registered in his brain.
Hairy killed everyone on his way to the officer with all the stripes and other insignia's that were on his clothes. By the time Hairy had reached him, the drops of blood he trailed had turned into a trail looking more like a pool. Still he had more than enough power left in him to grapple the officer into his embrace and snap his back into two pieces.
Then he heard a voice that made it through his rage. "You can stop now hairy and come with me, mommy needs us." Hairy finally gave up and collapsed onto the floor and let out his last heavy breath filled with blood.
It is now weeks later:
"You sure this is a good idea?" One of Lelu's friends that had been fighting alongside her for years asked.
"We've lost. The last of the bears is gone. The last of the Centaurs is gone. The last of countless others is gone. I can't even find a blade of grass anywhere on the planet. The only trees are the few they have planted in containers in their vain attempt to appease us.
Tell me one place on this planet that doesn't have concrete, blacktop, steel or any other man made item. Even the areas that had bombs on them have been cleaned and covered with concrete.
And I'm tired of fighting a fight I have no hope of winning." Lelu points out. Leaving out the fact that with Alexis gone she didn't have any fight left in her anymore.
"We do this and we'll never see each other ever again." It is pointed out to them all.
"Using the mirror will allow each of us to select a new Earth in a different plane to try again with. We have lost this Earth, but maybe we can save another one." Lelu offers. Nature needed to win somewhere or everything was going to be concrete.
"Besides do you really want to eat what this planet calls food now?" Lelu offers, watching all of them almost hurl at the thought. The oceans were dirty and mostly devoid of life now. The only animals to turn into food were the ones in massive plants made of concrete and steel. Even most of them were clones, that would someday start having genetic problems from the cloning process.
And only that fed about half the population, the rest was created from the people that had died. People being the most available source of protein on the planet now.
Lelu altered the mirror to display a different Earth and allowed each of her friends to look at where they were going, letting them accept this Earth or dial another one. The number of offerings were almost literally limitless.
Lelu said goodbye to all her friends as each one stepped through, to never be seen again by any of them. None of them would ever know if any of the others had succeeded in their new home.
Lelu was last as she picked up her bag filled with all her worldly possessions that she could carry, just like all the others. Each bag was literally bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. This allowed for a larger than normal amount of items to be taken with them.
The mirror and a couple of other ancient artifacts that she couldn't take with her were being left behind; however they would never be found by anyone. Lelu had planted a volcano acorn that would turn her little mountain home into an active volcano in time, burying the mirror and the other items under lava for all time. "I did my best mom and dad, I'm sorry I failed you. … Goodbye my love." Lelu gave her final goodbye to her family and Alexis, the love of her life, all of whom were gone now.
Lelu adjusted the dial till she saw an Earth through the mirror that looked like a likely candidate for her new home, and closed her eyes. "Please let this be the right Earth." And a broken hearted Lelu stepped through the mirror with her eyes still closed.
Lelu didn't see the controls change to a different Earth just before she stepped through.
"Please find love again mommy, pretty please." And the mirror shimmered again twice just as it did when Lelu and all the others had stepped through.