Tristian Academy of Magic.
September 15th, 2007, 4:39 P.M.
"Wait, let me get this straight, we are in another world, billions of light years away from earth, on a planet that shouldn't exist, where magic is the way of the world no less, and you've been here for how long?" Sgt. John Demp, United States Army, wasn't very happy at the moment, after being placed in an unfamiliar place and confronted with unimaginable challenges he was ready to snap at the first easy target.
"Jeez, when was it I arrived, August 20th I think it was, and today is the 15th of September, so that makes," Steve counted the days out on his fingers. "26 days, almost a month."
It had been a few hours since Sarge and Jack had arrived and Steve, Saito, Louise and almost all the teaching staff at Tristian Academy of Magic were trying explain to them what had happened. After the initial shock, Steve realized, they acted just like him. Quiet, solemn, depressed.
I was like this once too. about a month ago, I actually took my pistol and tried to kill myself. I tried to shirk away from my responsibilities, but either God, fate or the Great Pumpkin won't let me. God this is almost too much.
Soon Steve realized that the depression of his squadmates was spreading to him. But he held his tongue, no use talking to people who didn't want to talk.
"Hey, Sarge, what about what saw before we cames here?"
"Huh, what?" Demp was pulled from his depression induced trance by Jack Donnelly.
"You know, with the, ehm, with the President?"
Demp's eye's looked up so fast you could hear them click. Then came the inevitable, slowly spoken "oh, shit."
"Sarge, whats the problem?" Steve asked, puzzled by his superiors shocked face.
"That portal thingy, whatever the fuck it was we came through, when we saw it, we stopped just outside it. We weren't going to go in it. Had no intention at all of going in it."
Steve was puzzled now. "If you didn't want to go in then why did you?"
"In the portal, on the other side, We saw the President, and two other guys, one a doctor probably becuase of his lab coat, being escorted away by people in medival armor."
"What!? President Ryan!?"
"Yep, I told the newguy to run back and report the portal thing to command, and me and Jack here got back in the Humvee and floored it, but the portal thingy changed to here before we went through."
Steve let that information sink in for a minute.
"So you're telling me that the President was taken hostage by guys in knights armor?"
"Yep, and they weren't from earth I can tell you that much."
"Sarge, when you saw the President, did you see the place he was taken to? Surroundings, stuff like that?"
Sargent Demp looked down at the floor and thought real heard. "Yeah, it was a forest, looked like someplace out in the sticks, like a wood back home or Europe or something."
Steve didn't know much of the surrounding area so he turned to Louise.
"Sound familiar?"
"He could be describing anywhere around here."
Suddenly, Principal Osmond spoke up.
"Louise, do you know the spell that allows one to look through the memories of others?"
"Well, I was taught it but, I never had a use for it so I forgot it."
Osmond turned back to the teaching staff. "Next year, focus more on making students remember what they are taught." All the staff nodded in approval. Then he turned back to Louise. "I will have a look into this mans memories and try to find the place of which he speaks."
"Whoa, hold on, what is he going to do to me?" Sgt Demp asked.
"Just lay back and close your eyes, you won't feel a thing."
"Steve can I trust him?"
Steve O'Conroy thought back to his first time in this office, and the whole language translation spell incident. Then he decided it was best that Sarge din't know about that.
"Yep, one hundred and ten percent."
Demp layed back on the couch he was sitting on, closed his eyes and did his best imitation of a corpse. Osmond mumbled the words of the spell and for a few seconds, everyone was virtually frozen in place, afraid to move for fear of disturbing the old mans concentration. Osmond then looked up at the others in the room.
"Well? Where is he?"
"Not too far from here. But there are many men from Albion there as well."
Steve was about to open his mouth but Louise cut him off.
"Albion? You sure?"
"Sure as I can be, they had the armor of thier Royal Family."
Finally Steve got into the conversation.
"So, you're telling me men from Albion, that country whose ass we just kicked, is holding my President hostage? Ok, they have no idea when to quit. Ok, we need to get to wherever the hell they are and right away. We got 4 supurb soldiers here, all combat tested. Grab your socks and rock your cocks lets roll people."
Steve started walking towards the door when a hand grabbed his shoulder.
"What the hell are you talking about soldier? Its you, me, and Donnelly and we don't know this place at all."
Steve shrugged the hand off, turned around and replied.
"You forgot one person. You see that little jap kid in the corner there? Goes by the name of Saito, He's a pilot and a good one. We have air support."
Demp turned around and then turned back to Steve.
"You're joking right? This is not the time to be playing pranks. That little boy isn't even half as tall as you and you're the shortest person I know of, he ain't no pilot."
That little jab caught Saito's immediate attention.
"Excuse me but when does height have anything to do with combat ability?"
"No offense kid but you don't look to be as old as my youngest son and he is 15."
That really got Saito mad. He had never been mistookin for a child his entire life, and to have this big brash soldier come in and tell him he is too small to be anything, unnacceptable.
"If you follow me sir."
With that Saito got up and walked out of the room. After a second everybody else followed him.
"Ok, I guess I can be wrong some of the time."
Demp stared at the ancient Japanese Zero in amazement. As most soldiers were he was somewhat of a history academic, amatuer to be sure but still one none the less and he had never seen a Zero in working condition his entire life.
"Well Steve, it seems you were right, what do you have in mind?"
Steve smiled
"Well, I figured we could....."