Author's Note: For those of you wondering, the song Mason played in the car was Dynamite Hack's remix of "Boyz N the Hood". Anyways, we're about to find out what this story is all about. Here we go!
"Straight into Compton"
October 12, 1:48 PM
Mason Wayne
Compton, California
Justice Cabal
"John, Sarah, I've arrived at Anna's Transporters in Compton. What have you found in Santa Ana and Garden Grove?"
"Not much here at Anna's General Transport."
"Haven't found anything at Anna's Transporting Services."
"Well, wish me luck here. I'll see you all later," I say before hanging up on the group call. "We're ready when you guys are. And please, keep the weapons in the car. We're walking into a transportation center, not a goddamn war zone." The green teddy bear is chilling in my jacket pocket now. I guess I'm having the adventure with him that I always wanted as a small child. I've even got the Mini Cooper, like in Mr. Bean!
"Let's go," Lucina says simply, all the weapons now stored in the trunk after I open it up. With that, I open up the front door, letting them inside, and I follow.
Considering that we're in Compton, the building looks reasonably maintained, and I see a fair amount of customers inside. There aren't many vehicles, which makes sense since it isn't a car dealership- presumably all the buses and taxis are in a garage somewhere. But enough of that, let's get down to business.
I walk up to an employee, a black man wearing a gray shirt with light brown jeans. "The boss here is Anna, right?"
"Yes, she is." The man, named Eric, judging from his name tag, responds.
"Do you mind if my friends and I here talk to her? There's something we wanted to ask her about," I reply. Eric tells us to follow him up the stairs, and tells us to wait outside while he tells Anna about our unexpected visit.
"She'll be with you any moment," He says politely as he walks back down the stairs to his desk.
"Let me do the talking while we're in there. Trust me," I say. Not to be a dick, but these three dudes don't exactly speak normally, so I probably should be handling the talking part. Thankfully, they feel the same way too, and I get three silent nods in response.
Soon after, the door opens, and a feminine voice says "Come in." We all walk into her office, and thankfully there's enough chairs for all of us.
This Anna looks similar to Anna from Fire Emblem: Awakening, which is a good sign. She has red hair, though her eyes are brown rather than red. Her facial features all look the same as well, though her outfit is, as expected, a lot more modern. She appears to have the same pants as Eric, but her shirt is red instead, probably for two reasons: to indicate that she's the boss, and also because it has to be her favorite color.
"Sounds like it must be urgent, whatever it is you're asking me about, since you didn't even call me beforehand," Anna remarks, but with no bitterness in her voice. She comes off very competent, and as a result, very confident as well.
"Yeah, sorry about that. But it is urgent, and what I'm about to say is gonna sound really weird," I say, restrained on the outside but actually somewhat nervous on the inside.
"Look, I've transported people that turned out to be drug dealers, convicted killers, without knowing because of a fake ID. There's nothing you can say that will catch me off guard," Anna responds. I can only hope that means she knows about the Outrealm Gate.
Well, there's no point in playing around anymore. "So, have you heard of the Outrealm Gate?" After I say this, Anna stares at all of us for a little while. Then, she gets up and studies our facial features. When she's done looking at Lucina, she gets back into her seat.
"Shit. What the fuck happened back there?" Anna's asking a question, but it doesn't seem to be aimed at anyone specifically. "How did you three end up here?"
"They went through the Outrealm Gate to go back in time and stop Grima from taking over the world, but ended up in Southern California somehow. They just happened to land outside my house," I reply. Well, that's the (extremely) short version, but I don't feel like spending several more hours with the long version again. "So I guess you do know about the Gate?"
"Yeah, I do. Normally, it doesn't fuck up like that. But here you are- it's not like you guys are cosplayers or anything, the brand in your eye is genuine, Lucina." She suddenly looks really worried- a complete turnaround from the confident manager. "This can only mean one thing: it's not working properly. Come with me now," Anna says as she leads us out of the office, and back into a basement downstairs.
"I was hoping that I'd never have to show this to anyone," Anna remarks while punching in a code into a locked door. When she enters it, the door opens, and waiting on the other side…
Is the Outrealm Gate.
Well, I can tell you this right now- it looks the same as it does in game. The Outrealm Gate looks like a portal with a blue backdrop. Which is why I wonder how they ended up here- the thing doesn't look too messed up at first glance.
"I know, at first glance, it doesn't look too messed up," Anna says while looking closely at it. Holy shit, it's like she read my mind! "However, it looks like some of the parts aren't working quite right. Let's see here…" Suddenly, Anna begins to trail off, presumably musing over what exactly is missing or broken.
"Oh damn, this thing is seriously fucked up. Sounds like y'all were the last to come through. Speaking of which, did anyone join you three?" She asks the time travelers.
"Owain, Severa, Yarne, Laurent and Cynthia landed here. As for everyone else, I don't know where they are yet," Lucina responds.
"Yeah, so here's the summary. Some of the parts required to make this thing work are missing, and we need to find them. Problem is, we can't exactly buy these products at a local grocery store and then call it a day. To make matters worse, I don't have the means to retrieve them. I know how to fix the thing, but I'll need the items," Anna explains. "Listen, I can't get this shit. But maybe you guys can."
If she weren't literally our only option here, I'd have refused. But as it is… "Okay, so what do we need here?"
"Oh man, this is gonna sound real stupid…" Anna says before trailing off. "You're gonna need to bring in everyone else for this one. I'll explain when they all arrive so that we only have to go over this once."
"Okay then, sounds good. Imma give them a call," I say before starting a group call. "Yo, looks like Compton has the Gate. Get your asses over here as soon as possible."
"Alright."
"Got it." They both hang up.
"Anna, they won't be here for a little while. I guess we're gonna go get some lunch while we wait for them."
"Go ahead. I'll tell you when they get over here."
"Okay then. Later." And with that, I lead my newfound friends back into the car, and try to find a fast food joint. Now that we have some time not being spent on time traveling, I notice Morgan is asking me a lot of questions. It's rather unsurprising.
"So what is that thing you use to communicate with your friends?"
"It's a phone, smartphone to be specific. You can talk with people from quite far away as long as it's working properly, but in certain circumstances it won't work as intended. You can also do a lot of other cool shit with it- go on the internet like you would with the computer, for one."
"And what exactly is the internet?"
"One of the greatest goddamn inventions by mankind. There's an entire world of information, entertainment and work to be found on it, and it can be used many purposes, most of them noble, you know what I'm saying? Of course, like anything, you can use it for some real awful shit, you feel me? Now I think we all gotta eat some lunch now, come in." I walk us into a pizza place- partially because I've loved the food since I was but a small child, and also because it should be relatively easy for my newcomers here to pick up and eat.
"Okay, so this here is pizza. It's quite simple; you take some dough, then mash up some tomatoes into a sauce and cover the dough with that. Then you put some cheese on there and let that fucker bake. That's the simplest of them all, but typically you'll be seeing people throw in other ingredients as well, such as onions, mushrooms, pepperonis, and lots of other glorious items. How hungry are you all?"
"I'm famished," Inigo notes.
"It has been quite a while since I've eaten myself," Lucina states matter of factly.
"Let's give this dough with tomatoes and cheese a try," Morgan says with excitement in her voice.
In a place that I can imagine is used to slang, my comrades rather formal remarks gain some curious looks from the customers.
Better play it safe for now. "I'd like a large cheese pizza and four medium drinks, please." I pay the cashier, find a table, and then tell my new friends about the wonders of soft drinks. "So here's the idea. Each of these drinks are really sweet," I say while gesturing to the soda machine. "To me, some are better than others. Now you can't go wrong with any of these Cokes here, Sprite's okay, this root beer can fuck off, and Dr. Pepper can absolutely fuck off. Oh shit, they got Sunkist here, this is unreal, I recommend this over all others, because this is the dankest of all the sodas," I say while filling my cup with orange soda. Stuff is amazing, straight up. Fanta, Sunkist, Crush, you can't go wrong with orange soda. It's the best.
Morgan gets Coke, Inigo goes for the Sunkist (he really is a smart guy) and Lucina gets Sprite. After that, we all sit down. "I don't know exactly when the pizza's gonna be ready, but it should be here in like ten minutes." All of them are reacting quite strongly to the soda. Odds are, this is the sweetest drink they've ever had, and it's their first time drinking it. "So uh, how are the drinks?"
"My, this is incredibly sweet. There is nothing like this in Ylisse," Lucina remarks. I can't tell if she likes or dislikes the drink.
"I can see that your praise of this drink is well founded," Inigo says while nodding in approval. Now there's a guy with some good ass taste!
"I wonder what exactly they put in here?" Morgan asks. The truth is, I don't know everything that goes into soda myself.
"Alright, so there are some questions that I still need to ask on my end, do you guys mind?" They shake their heads, giving me the greenlight to ask away, and I start prying.
"Tell me, what exactly motivates you to fight against Grima? Beyond, that is, the fact that your parents are all Shepherds?"
"We want to create a better future for everyone. Ourselves, our families, our friends, and for the lives of all the innocent citizens that will have their lives taken by that monster," Lucina says, drawing us more looks from everyone else in the restaurant. A young black man at the table next to us asks me a question.
"Yo, what the fuck are these white people on, man? They're speaking really weird and shit."
"That's just how they talk, man. Don't worry- they're harmless." My comment doesn't exactly stop the funny looks that we're getting.
"I wonder, what exactly do you do?" Morgan asks. Sometimes, this question can be embarrassing to answer- I get the feeling this won't be one of those times.
"Basically, I'm an entertainer. Though in my world, the terms are different- you could call me a content creator, or YouTuber." This is extremely vague; I haven't really told them the nature of my videos or what they're about. But I'm about to specify. "There's a form of interactive entertainment called video games. They have quite a big following, and I make videos about a select few games in particular. The one I talk about the most is Counter Strike: Global Offensive, or CS:GO for short."
"And what exactly is this game, CS:GO, about?" Lucina asks. I think we all know how weird CS:GO sounds coming out of her mouth.
"There are many different game modes in CS, but the most well known one is bomb defusal. Here's the basics. You have two teams, Terrorists and Counter Terrorists, or T's and CT's for short, with five members each. There's two bombsites, labeled A and B, and the Terrorists have the bomb. The game is played out in rounds, which last one minute and fifty five seconds. When T's plant the bomb, it'll explode in forty seconds unless it's defused. There are different win conditions for each side. Terrorists win if they kill all the CT's, or they plant the bomb in one of the bombsites and it goes off. CT's win if they kill all the T's, defuse a planted bomb, or if the time runs out and the Terrorists didn't plant the bomb. You play a maximum of thirty rounds, and you're guaranteed to play both sides- first to sixteen rounds wins. If, after thirty rounds, the score is fifteen to fifteen, then it goes to overtime. The rules vary in overtime, but usually you play a max of six rounds and if you get four, you win. That's the barebones of it, but it is a lot more complicated than that. Trust me, A LOT." Damn, that was a long ass rant. The crazy thing about me saying CS:GO is much more complicated than what I've explained so far is that most esports are actually much more complex than CS. I don't follow them as closely, but League of Legends (LoL), Defense of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2), Overwatch (OW), Starcraft 2 (SC2) and Starcraft Brood War (BW) are all supposed to be way harder to follow than Counter Strike.
"So then, what exactly do you do for this Counter Strike?" Inigo asks me, genuinely curious. Wow, he sounded real awkward back there. I'm just gonna ignore that and answer his question right about now.
"The content, or videos, that I create are meant to be educational and entertaining in nature. Some lean more towards one end than the other. The entertaining videos are usually gameplay, or some funny moments that happen to be caught while recording. The educational videos involve discussing and crafting common or new tactics, talking about CS philosophy and concepts, or talking about the professional scene. Oh, how convenient, the pizza is here." A waiter lays it down on our table, and after my explanation, I can't tell if Lucina, Morgan and Inigo understand what I just said. I tried to simplify it as much as possible, but I probably used some shorthand along the way that they don't know yet.
"Alright, so here's how you eat pizza. You just split up the slices and then get in there- no utensils needed. I prefer to eat the crust first, but each to his or her own," I say before eating. The pizza is as good as ever, but now we're getting weird looks again.
This must be a really weird day for these dudes in the pizza place- you have four total newcomers, three of which are white and one of which has a British accent. Not to mention, these guys look totally lost in this world, and now they see someone eating pizza crust first. A strange day indeed.
"So, what's the verdict, the final opinion?" Oh, and to add on to the strangeness for these customers, my newfound friends also haven't had pizza before.
"I must say, I'm impressed with the food of your world so far!" Morgan exclaims.
"I'll need to make sure the castle chefs know how to make this when we get back home," Lucina says casually. Another positive thought.
"My, my, unusual it may be, this food of yours is quite tasty," Inigo says, impressed.
After a while, my phone rings. It's Sarah. I pick up the line and ask, "What's up?"
"Yo, John and I are at the place," Sarah says flatly.
"Okay, heading back there now," I reply before she hangs up. "Alright people, let's go. Yo, thanks for the pizza!" I exclaim before I leave, getting a "Thank you!" in response.
It's a relatively quick drive back, and sure enough, everyone's at Anna's Transporters safe and sound. Upon seeing us, Anna leads us back into the building, and right where the Outrealm Gate is located.
"Holy Jesus," John says, stunned.
"Well, the conspiracies were true after all," Sarah declares, no doubt feeling satisfied that one of her "crazy ass theories" has been proven true. I look around the room, and notice that everyone else looks relatively calm about it, probably because they've seen the Gate before.
"Alright, listen up," Anna tells us. "Here's what happened in a nutshell. The Gate was supposed to take you people back to Ylisse, but it fucked up and you all ended up here instead. I know this because my family keeps up with me- we're constantly in touch, letting each other know what's happening, what important events are going on. I've been looking at the Outrealm Gate, and my conclusion is this: the Gate didn't take you guys to Ylisse because it ran out or didn't have enough of a key ingredient made up of many different substances."
"So if we can get this ingredient…" Sarah starts.
"Then they can travel back home," Anna finishes that thought, but starts a new one. "Here's where we run into problems. We can't just throw them all into the Gate and expect it to work; they need to be made a certain way for the Outrealm Gate to accept the substance. It's not something I know how to do, and I would hope that none of you know the process as well."
"What exactly is this substance that you're talking about?" Laurent asks.
"It's made of many different ingredients all at once. These ingredients are: acetone, lithium, toluene, hydrochloric acid, pseudoephedrine, red phosphorus, sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, and anhydrous ammonia," Anna explains. If I don't know how to pronounce some of those words myself, then the Justice Cabal definitely-
"Oh fuck," I say out loud before I know it.
"What?" John asks, suddenly concerned.
"Dude, that's the shit they use to make meth!" I exclaim.
"That's what I meant when I said the ingredients need to be mixed in a certain way for the Gate to work. Now, I'm not an international drug lord, so I can't just ask one of my co workers to deliver the stuff along with the daily mail."
"How much of this meth do we need?" Lucina asks.
"We need twenty pounds," Anna replies coolly.
"Can't we just buy it?" Severa asks, the sarcasm in her tone indicating that she doesn't understand how much twenty pounds of meth costs.
"We don't have the money for that shit, it's not like we're filthy rich or anything," John says in response.
"Perhaps we can simply attain the ingredients and then attempt to make this meth you speak of?" Laurent asks. A noble suggestion, but…
"Boi, the fuck I look like to you, Walter White?" Sarah asks rhetorically. "We don't know how to make it, and we also don't know how dangerous the process can get."
"So then how the fuck do we get our hands on twenty pounds of meth in the fastest way possible?" John asks, looking very confused and frustrated.
Wait.
As crazy as this is gonna sound, this is a possibility.
"Well, this leaves us with one option," I say, drawing all the eyes in the room to me in the process. After waiting for a brief moment, I finish my thought.
"We could try to steal it."
Author's Note: AWWWWW SHIT! IS IT ACTUALLY HAPPENING?! Anyways, I'm trying to update as fast as possible while keeping the chapters at around the same length and making sure that there's no grammar errors, or a sentence doesn't flow clunkily, that sort of thing. So with that, I think we know where this story is going. Leave me a review for anything really- what do you think is gonna happen next, things you like or dislike about this story, etc. I think it really helps me as a writer and makes things more exciting for the lovely readers out there. I'll be back with another chapter ASAP, so stay tuned everyone.