Purple Portal Thing
Author's note: This is a plot bunny that jumped on my pillow last night and wouldn't leave me alone. I really wish some inspiration would come to help me with one or more of my unfinished stories but apparently it was not meant to be.
It was a surprisingly normal day in the Ancient city of Atlantis. No one was attacking, dying, running, exploding things...nothing. In fact, it was a rather boring day for the city's inhabitants. Of course, this just wasn't acceptable to the Fates so something had to happen.
In the gate room, things started going haywire, the radios acted up, everyone's digital watches stopped working, and then the 'gate started dialing. Instead of filling with the familiar water-like substance the SG teams associated with gate travel, the Stargate filled with dark purple energy flashing with what looked like small bolts of lightning. The entire thing crackled with barely restrained electricity.
"We have an incoming wormhole...no, wait, it's a...what the hell? If I'm reading this right it's some sort of inter-galactic portal." Rodney said, disbelief evident in his voice.
"A WHAT?" Elizabeth asked.
"Is that even possible?"
"Apparently so."
"Can you raise the shield?"
"No, it seems that the system doesn't really know what to do with it and the shield isn't recognizing it as a wormhole anyway."
Elizabeth sighed, "Well, get a team in there, lets see what comes through."
A security team and the command team waited in front of the gate and listened attentively as voices came through the gate. Something that wasn't possible with a normal wormhole.
"Ron, what did you do?"
"Geeze, Hermione, why do you always assume it was me?"
"Hey, don't look at me!"
"Someone obviously did something, we have a bloody great...THING in the middle of the room!"
"Anyone know what it is?"
"Nope."
"Not a clue."
"Well that's helpful."
"What were you casting?"
"My Patronus, that's it, I swear!"
"Okay...Hermione?"
"That spell I'm making to locate constellations. Harry?"
"A shield I've been working on, the one that demolecularizies then banishes whatever comes at it. But it's never been purple before, it's always kinda blue-white."
"What on earth does that even mean?"
"It's Muggle physics."
"Isn't that Hermione's thing?"
"Actually, as much as I hate to admit it, Harry's better at that stuff than I am. I'm more of biology and chemistry girl."
"OW! It zapped me!"
"Well maybe you shouldn't stand so close to the big purple sparking thing we don't know what is."
"Fine."
"Hermione, what would happen if all three of our spells collided?"
"There are four things that could happen; it could all explode, they could nullify each other, they could combine, or they could react to produce a completely new effect."
"I think it's fairly obvious what happened."
"Really, Ron? I never would have figured it out."
"Guys, now's really not the time. Any ideas as to what it might be?"
"It would depend on which of our spells was the most powerful and/or complicated, that one would have the biggest effect on the total outcome, things would go from there."
"So, Harry, Hermione then me."
"Uh...I guess."
"Don't worry, I know your stuff was more complicated."
"Right, we've got disintegration and banishment, which might – and I want to emphasize the "might" – translate to some sort of transportation, constellation location without a focus, and protection/communication."
"Well, THAT'S not at all complicated."
"Oh hey, wasn't that the desk you stacked your history books on?"
"MY BOOKS!"
"Calm down, Hermione, we have bigger things to worry about than...wait, where did the books GO?"
"What do you mean "go"?"
"They're not on the table any more, not even remains or something."
"Great, now we have to add history books to the equation."
"Fantastic."
"What topic were they for, the witch trials?"
"No, they were a bit of light reading."
"You and your "light reading," I will never understand."
"Ron, leave Hermione alone, we need to figure out what this is."
"Why? Can't we just vanish it and be done?"
"Honestly, Ron, use your head, do you really think it's a good idea to add another spell to that thing?"
"Good point. Ideas?"
"Well...Hermione said my part might turn into a transportation thing, right?"
"Yeah..."
"We could send a snake through and ask it if it sees anything."
"Harry, that's brilliant!"
"Should we try?"
"I don't see why not."
"Serpensortia. Hisss sss ssshhhiii iiisssshhh ssss."
"I still think that's weird."
"Thanks, Ron, way to make me feel good."
"Sorry."
Everyone in the control room watched as an impressively long snake appeared through the Stargate and immediately all the marines trained their guns on it.
"Wait, don't shoot it, I think it's going to go back and report or something." John said.
"Report?" Rodney asked, "A snake? You will never cease to amaze me."
"Rodney, why don't you– Oh, it's going back."
"Hey look, it's still alive!"
"We DO have eyes of our own, you know."
"Well, ask it what it saw."
"Sssshiissss ss hiiiisssss, ssiiiggghhhh, ss iissss, ssiii ssssshhiii hhiiiiaaa siisssh."
"Woah. You won't believe this."
"What is it?"
"What did it see?"
"From what I can tell, and remember, snakes don't exactly have the most specific vocabulary, there is a really big room full of people, most of which were holding big black things which had small holes in the front pointed at it. They didn't do anything except say a few things, they didn't even move around or approach it. Some of the people were kneeling and others standing. Everyone was looking at the snake."
"Black things with small holes at the front pointed at the snake?"
"You know, they may have been guns."
"What?"
"A Muggle weapon, they shoot little tiny metal balls at you very fast, they're extremely deadly, one shot in the right spot and you're dead."
"So we have a room full of people wanting to kill what ever arrives through the thingy?"
"Thingy? Really, Ron?"
"What else do you want to call it? The purple circle?"
"Guys, stop. We need a plan of action."
"A plan? Harry, the best plan is to figure out a way to get rid of it!"
"But there's people on the other side! They could be interesting!"
"I think you're just bored. We haven't had this year's adventure yet."
"Wow, Ron, that's actually really smart."
"No need to sound so surprised."
"I think Ron's right, ever since you got rid of Voldemort you've been restless."
"So what if I have? It's not wrong to have a bit of adventure in life."
"A bit of adventure?! Harry, nearly getting killed on a yearly basis is more than a bit of adventure!"
"Come on, I know you miss it as much as I do. Admit it, it's boring around here now, we're not learning anything new and there's nothing interesting to do. Why else would we be in here making up our own spells? You're skipping class for this!"
"Humpht. I still can't believe you convinced me to do that."
"What can I say? Ron and I are geniuses! Now, I know you want excitement again, it's part of your life now, has been since the troll incident."
"I didn't say I didn't want something exciting to do, I just don't think that walking through some random portal into a room filled with unknown armed Muggles is the best way to alleviate our boredom."
"Can you think of anything else to do? I'm open to suggestions."
"I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?"
"Probably not."
"Hermione, he won't give up and you know it."
"Fine."
"Do you still have the purse from our camping trip?"
"I have a healthy hate for that purse and our camping trip from hell."
"Ron, my purse saved your life on more than a few occasions, and the trip was necessary."
"Still doesn't mean I like it."
"Guys, really, stop with the arguing. Hermione, do you have the purse or not?"
"Yes, I have the purse, it's in my bag."
"So, you guys coming?"
"If this fails and we end up dead, I'm blaming you."
"Gladly. At least it will have been interesting; death by portal travel!"
"And then I'm bringing you back and telling Mrs. Weasley."
"Oh, now that's just low."
"Harry, Hermione's right, we better not die, my mum would kill us."
"You guys are such pessimists. You got your stuff?"
"Here goes nothing."
"Cheer up, Hermione, the snake was fine, why wouldn't we be?"
"You do realize you just jinxed us, right? And put that away, they're Muggles, remember?"
Three teenagers stepped through the Stargate. The girl was looking around with slight trepidation and no small amount of suspicion, she had light brown hair which was tied back in a loose braid and was only slightly shorter than the two boys on either side of her. A tall boy with brilliant red hair had curiosity written all over his face along with a bit of confusion. The other boy had mop of untidy black hair and round glasses and his bright green eyes were alight with excitement and anticipation.
Hermione saw the guns and immediately put her hands in the air, dragging Harry and Ron's along with her. "Please don't shoot us."
"Stand down." John said, seeing that the newcomers weren't armed, visibly at least.
Elizabeth walked down the stairs to greet the people who had apparently managed to create their own version of a wormhole by accidentally combining three "spells", two of which sounded experimental.
Hermione elbowed Harry, "This was your idea, you get to be the spokesperson." She said quietly, then she elbowed Ron, "And you, please think before you speak."
"Uh, hi, I'm Harry, this is Hermione, and that's Ron."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Dr. Elizabeth Weir and this is Major John Sheppard, welcome to Atlantis."
"What?" Ron squeaked (though he would deny it later).
Harry's jaw dropped, "Did you say..."
"Atlantis?" Hermione finished.
"Yes, if you'd follow me to the conference room I'd very like to hear how you arrived, we heard a bit of your discussion and found it very intriguing."
"I think they heard us..."
"Whoops."
"Well this should be interesting."
And that's all. I hope you enjoyed reading it. As I said before, this is just a plot bunny so there won't be any more from me. If you would like to continue this please just let me know so I can post a link to the new story.
Have a great day!