The Scooby Gang

Book 2: Traveling the What

Disclaimer: I have no property rights to any published or copyrighted material that is reserved to those that make money from ideas which I do not.

Summery: The gang must pull together to face new challenges in their new environment. How will they deal with it? Where the Hell – are they, and is that literal?

Sequel to 'The Scooby Gang Book 1'

Multi-Ships: m/f/f/f/f f/f/f f/f m/f

Crossovers: Harry Potter, Stargate, Honor Harrington, Highlander, and Terminator

Chapter 11: Watchers and Teachers

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The three immortals had returned Grimmauld Place and through to LeVelle Manor a few times over the next couple of weeks. The first time they had visited a 'normal' parallel world with a small group, the world that had a Chappa'ai on it. They noted the door was inside an RV which they hadn't been told but wasn't that big of a deal.

Duncan commented to Amanda, "It's nice here. You know, I know a few immortals that really have no desire to play the game."

Amanda nods, "I know, I really want to go see Rebecca and see if she would like it here but…" she hesitated, "I don't know if it's exactly my secrete to share if you know what I mean."

"We wouldn't need to share it. We could always blindfold her."

Amanda laughs.

Xander asks, "Do you trust this Rebecca?"

Amanda nods, "Rebecca is a strong woman, very loving and despises the game."

Xander nods, "Go see her." He shrugs, "If you trust them, and they can feel you… The runes should prevent anyone too untrustworthy from interacting on a personal level with you, especially if they're immortal."

"Aye" Duncan nods with a pleased smile, "That is not say they won't become a problem…" he shivers. That was usually either a basic flaw in their persona that was always there just not a problem or a dark quickening.

"Didn't you say that you also knew a witch immortal…" he asked.

Duncan nods, "I don't know exactly know where she would be."

Amanda offers with a smile, "You could ask Joe?"

"Joe… I don't know if I trust him completely."

Curiously Xander asks him, "Who is this Joe?"

"Oh he's in town, no doubt." Duncan said almost bitterly. After a look he shrugged, "Joe is a Watcher, his duties are basically to observe immortals and record our lives. Everything from the last time we had sex to what we did in our darkest moments." He had a haunted look.

"Ah, no wonder you're hesitant." Xander gives him a chuckle, "You are not sure you want to tell him what's here. I take it that you only recently found out about his invasive observation."

Duncan nods. "It isn't just him there's an entire group and the only reason I know is because his cousin killed an immortal priest that was very good friend and had not taken a head in over five hundred years."

Xander frowns. "The priest that you said had a light quickening, as opposed to a dark one?"

Duncan nods.

"Obviously he was an evil idiot, especially if they have records of your kind. I think I would have killed him slowly over a long period of time." He growled out.

Duncan almost stepped back.

"What?" Ritchey asked, "I mean you seem more pissed than Duncan was. I mean he wanted them dead and all but that was half grief."

Duncan actually looked sheepish.

"The fact is that by what I can tell there is balance of good and evil in most things. If these Immortality Watchers believe this game to be accurate then they eliminate someone that has a very good quickening that is obviously passed on if he ever gets his head taken…"

Xander shook his head in disgust, "A priest, a minister, someone that lightens the load and has a faith in the greater good of mankind, and they killed him. If there was ever a doubt in my mind about your world being manipulated by some supernatural force, be it higher or lower, this firmly puts those doubts in the ground. This is the kind of evil stupidity that holds no logical foundation."

Duncan smiled slightly.

"I mean if they felt it was their duty to interfere with the game they could have easily taken out a serial killer who preys on innocents. I could even see it for a terrorist. Hell even a thief caught in the act would have at least some faulty foundation there."

Amanda looked shocked.

"I'm just saying there is foundation there not very logical but its there. Instead they went after someone that they should have been protecting, if they could ensure he won the mythical prize they wouldn't have to worry about what that prize was."

Duncan nods, "Joe shot him in the chest."

Xander frowns, "Chest?"

Duncan nods, "Aye."

"And he died right; I mean you examined the body right?"

Duncan's eyes narrow. "No it fell into the river."

"Perhaps you could leave the murder's full name and maybe we could get a memory of the event in the Pensieve, I'd like to see this image and then we can do some tracking. If you didn't see the body then there wasn't one, rule of thumb there."

Duncan winces, "I knew I shouldn't trust Joe."

"Maybe or maybe not, I'll meet him someplace else and see what he knows, without him able to tell." He added with a smirk.

Duncan nodded.

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Xander and Duncan meet with Joe; Duncan had called him and agreed to meet with him at a diner. Xander spotted him entering.

"I'm Xander" he said holding out a hand.

"Joe" he shook it, "What's going on Mac?"

Duncan smiles and Xander grins widely and nods.

"We think Horton is alive. You have a picture of him? Xander is going to see if their magic can find him."

Joe blinked and nodded hesitantly. He's read about some magic here and there. In fact one of the oldest immortals Cassandra was able to call on magic.

"I'll have to have one sent here; I think I burned all of mine."

Xander laughs, "We come to invite you to a particular place that you've never been."

Joe nods hesitantly observing the new face he'd never seen and asks, "How do you know each other?"

Xander grin, "I'm new to the world, fairly new at least; this world that is. I'm from an alternative Earth that didn't likely have Immortals there. Amanda purchased a rune sheath and old sword. She was impressed with the ability to hide it even from metal detectors. She bugged me and eventually found me as I wasn't staying where her GPS would pick me up."

Duncan explains, "She called me and I thought she was blowing smoke to pull me in to do a job with her."

Joe chuckles and nods, he really liked what he read about the immortal Amanda.

Seeing the appreciation in the man's eyes he shares, "I wasn't in the mood after Tessa."

Joe nods somberly. "She was a good woman!"

Duncan smiles at the words.

"Aye she was. She will be missed."

Xander growled, "Enough morose talk! Amanda found me while I was helping deal with a group of magical terrorists. I have ways to verify intent." He smirks.

Joe raises an eyebrow and asks, "My intent?"

Xander grins, "You would have made a hell of Watcher in my world. They work with slayers instead of immortals, and they work side by side in saving the world. You have records of Immortals and can verify that they are on the up and up as to their character. I would think transporting them to world that they don't have to worry about other immortals cutting off their head might be a bonus."

Joe blinks and Duncan did as well but shrugged it off.

Joe shrugs, "That might work but…"

"It is just an idea, and I'm not going to ask you to break those oaths you took though I think the oaths in general are way too open in their interpretation."

Joe blinks and looks at him realizing that he'd gotten that information from him. The highlander was smirking as he'd realized it too. Suddenly Joe understood the feeling that he gave Duncan as a Watcher. "I'll look into it."

"I'll also ask that you to be very vague with the details on what we show you."

Joe nods.

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Ritchey, Amanda, Rebecca who she'd shared everything with, Duncan, and Joe were coming with them this time to the ship. They where of course still parked or docked at Beowulf. They had a load of people that were installing new medical equipment for the best and the most state of the art research and treatments. The Prolong was obviously a for sure thing, but there were other advances, including but not limited to Nanotechnology. It wasn't anything to write home about as far as making you stronger or super vision. But they could inject a few million and set to work at a specific task, such as attacking a specific cluster of identified material, like Cancer, or they could set to work with a bit more controlled oversight and repair a heart, though there were easier methods for that. Regeneration therapy was one such thing that the nanotechnology was responsible for.

"So this machine is what they use to tube… the babies?" Amanda asked.

Dawn was the one that answered. She and Willow had been the ones to go over the medical tech the most. "They can, many choose to carry their child but they can tube them at any point in the pregnancy so delivery can be much easier."

Amanda's face showed Dawn that she really wished she could have a child.

"This machine here is the one to check for any issues with health that could impede future generations. Let me show you." She all but ordered and Rebecca was smirking behind Amanda. She knew the girl had picked up on Amanda's desire for a child. Rebecca had the same desire but it wasn't nearly as strong.

"Now see there it isn't invasive at all." Dawn said. "Here see" she had the pad and was looking at it. She frowned. "You know according to this your ovaries are just fine. I wonder…" She tapped a few places on the pad and an arm shot out and zapped Amanda startling her.

"The energy you have is preventing growth while it is inside your electromagnetic field. That means that if we remove ovaries they should be able to be done the way many do it now."

Amanda's eyes widened. She glances at Duncan and Rebecca raises an eyebrow she knew the two were close and very loyal even if they refused to admit it. Amanda commanded, "Duncan, get over here."

She pushed him into the machine. He looked a bit put out but smiled as Dawn grinned at him.

"Your… sperm count is rather high, but with the same aura she has issues with I would say that a small electromagnetic charge would eliminate it so long as you aren't in the same vicinity as that would replenish their energy via yours."

Duncan was utterly shocked and asks, "You mean we can have kids?" He didn't think even magic would be able to do that.

Dawn shrugs, "Fairly sure, but you wouldn't be able to birth them. You would have to have some form of surrogate or tube them. It would take about nine months from the conception in order to incubate them."

"I think we want to." He looks at Amanda with a smile. "Can we do this now and, we will be able to get back here right?"

She nodded. "I can, and I'm fairly sure we can set up an alternative door just in case."

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Xander was pleased with Dawn's initiative. Amanda was positively glowing and Duncan less so but was still had eyes wide with awe that only could be from an expectant father.

Duncan was almost bragging with joy, "So it worked, so far at least, and we don't expect any issues with growth or they'd have already happened."

"Right, so in about nine months they'll have a baby boy that will wake them at all hours of the night and demand their attention and such. They'll need to wash him, feed him, change his diaper or hers; oh they are so going to love parenthood."

Duncan was looking slightly less pleased but Amanda was utterly cheerful. Ritchey wasn't ready to be a father but Rebecca was thrilled.

"The other thing we did was Joe is still there, regeneration therapy, the little guys are building his leg back to form. I also prepared the shots for the Prolong Gene-therapy." She held out a needle that was full. "You want your injection now?" she asked sweetly.

Xander gulps and manages out, "Fine!"

"Then turn around and drop them."

He widened his eyes but Dawn was already having the cap to the needle off and taping it. Absently she commended, "Hurry now."

He groaned but obliged.

Dawn put the needle down, pulled out a hypospray, and injected him. The immortals were giggling and laughing.

Xander pulled up his pants and glared at her. She smiled sweetly as if to say she was totally innocent.

He mutters, "I'll make sure to get you back for that."

Dawn widens her grin, turns around, lifts her dress exposing her ass, and then hands him a hypospray. "Glad you offered I haven't had mine yet."

Xander groans and makes sure to smack the spot somewhat hard after the shot was given. Dawn yelps and turned smacking his shoulder but he dodged. By now the others were laughing rather hard.

They'd need to spend a half an hour with the Gene-therapy machine sometime the next two weeks but it should be all they really needed to do. Most of the kids had third generation prolong which was the latest and greatest out there. It was surprising with what they learned that all the adults could take in prolong second generation as Dawn hadn't really expect it to work and having to do the first generation after it failed to take.

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With the start of September on their home world, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Susan return to Hogwarts. Susan had stayed at the Manor most of the summer which pleased the new minister quite a bit. She was extremely aware of how safe her ward and niece were there.

The final raid of the war ended the Deatheaters as well as the war quite efficiently. Wormtail had been captured thus opening a rather large and public investigation into Sirius's arrest and escape from his unlawful detainment.

The last four weeks of summer had Albus slaving to the bone over revamping the school's curriculum. He was taking advantage of the high from the war being over and a lack of opposition to anything related to supporting muggle ideas. In the current setting most of the non violent traditionalist (cowards who fear change) feared voicing any opposition because nobody wanted to come across as anything but friendly to those that won the war, even if they opposed the ideals.

Albus, having met Rebecca, made arrangements to have her teach Muggle History. It had not only muggle histories and their affect on the magical world but an introduction to the muggle life style and an interesting self study on how it differed from Magical history as part of the first semester's final project.

The second term would be Muggle Studies that included general subjects for Math, Science, Geography, and social or political observations. Those classes would be expanded to each have a class of their own the following year and all of them were required to take, but were not tested on in the OWLs other then the Muggle Studies test.

Rebecca had always found an interest in magic and had plans on taking this time to get acquainted with all the history and facets of magic. That wasn't all, Hogwarts stirred Rebecca's quickening stronger than any other holy ground she'd been on. The very air was charged with a blessing that would scare even the darkest immortal away from even thinking of combat here.

Ancient Runes was still taught but it was fourth year starting class, second and third years had a required introductory runes class that taught many basic runes or uses for runes and how to use them. Students that showed a strong talent in runes were offered Advanced Runes as well as Ancient Runes as optional classes. Albus was quite pleased he'd suckered Kingsley into that. Bill would have done it but his contract with Gringotts wasn't up for another two years. Bill did agree to come teach the advanced course then.

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With the lack of group activity from the immortal and magic front from Doorway One's World they settled down for a field trip through to the Doorway Three's World. They'd already made choice to co-opt the Star Kingdom of Manticore it was just a matter of working out the details. Xander spent a good amount of time on the streets of Landing on Manticore just soaking up the thoughts and stretching his mind. He called it soul searching for the pun of it.

Xander did indeed learn new things this way and granted they were all to his liking but more often than not he could almost feel the potential for so much more. He checked with the scouts he'd left in the area and briefly wondered why he'd not left some of them over the head of that idiot Donizetti in the Solarian League.

The soul searching had confirmed his choice, there were no demons in this world; that he knew of. There were only men and their evils. He would do his best to protect the innocent and protect Manticore. If all the star nations were similar he figured the known worlds would be expanded even further. Now he only had to ensure that it was the good people that stayed in power, eventually they'd rule the universe and he didn't want that kind of power in someone's hand that would not just abuse it on occasion but would abuse their subjects as well.

The soul searching had also given him the information he needed that he was having trouble finding. The Bureau of Ships and Bureau of Weapons joint board was meeting soon, BuShips and BuWeaps were the two main people he needed to talk to and they were both part of the Navy.

The Hauptman Cartels were an option but he has some reservations about their organization, things that occurred in the past he'd not cared for. It wasn't as cutthroat and ruthless as he'd thought of from his time and the Mafia but considering Erewhon was one of those that were part of the Manticoran Alliance, it wasn't saying much. He didn't mind and would no doubt be working with the Cartel at some point in the future but he would prefer to work with the Navy directly for what they were planning.

One thing he really was curious about was the alien life, treecats, lizard dogs called growlers, and Kodiak Maximus. A pet dog, a smart companion of a cat and a wild cat that was worse than any saber tooth tiger. They did have the Stilties but they weren't exactly what he thought of when he thought of aliens.

The portal to where they were putting the Doorway Four was still strong. Dawn was sure there was still plenty of time but it wasn't by any means a permanent portal. Xander wondered why it was at this particular world for so long and if it had anything to do with the Chappa'ai being active along side the doorway, he didn't think that it had been the case on Egeria's Earth, but then again they had a doorway too so it could be all three working to strengthen the stay.

Doorway Two's contracts were paying off. Frank was often overseeing paper work as the CEO of LeVelle Industries. It was easier for Blasedale Corporation to pay a company than an individual. Ironically enough Frank was training Michael to handle a majority of the paperwork as he also wanted to spend some time in Doorway One setting up another business that deals with entertainment, software, and technologies. Janna and Willow's work on breaking down the software from their own computers and from the future world had paid of in spades and that was all handled by Frank on the financial side of things.

LeVelle Industries was the name for both businesses and the plan was to utilize it in future business as well. They'd already had it on the paperwork done in the Solarian League so it wasn't that much of an issue there.

Everyone seemed to be busy doing their own thing but it was dependent on usually three or four others. Nothing was rushed as they all seemed to have plenty of time and they were never limited to a single project. Egeria for example was monitoring the RV on the Chappa'ai world, checking star charts from the Solarian League, and comparing and contrasting the different technologies against each other. The VP of the RV allowed her to keep in contact with Allen and his wife who had taken it upon themselves to drive the RV and have a second honeymoon with a bit more privacy than LeVelle Manor allowed, especially with Eric there.

Eric was growing up fast; he spent six hours a day with lessons, at least, usually from three or four people on three or four subjects. He was good at math, liked science but needed to work on it, and instead of social studies or history he was taught demonology and anthropology.

Willow was working on sections of technology to sell to BuShips while also helping Fleur and Egeria where she could on their sections of the sales pitch. Willow was also doing her magic control exercises daily and handling some of the software programs with Janna.

It was Egeria that approached Xander, "The presentation we want to give is ready, Xander; we've yet to settle on a presenter." She frowns that didn't sound right, "We have only to find the right person to present it."

She nodded, that sounded better.

He smiled at her, "What exactly are we presenting?"

"FTL Communications, we have three Communication Spheres ready for use during the presentation. They are from my old world and are fairly simple to make. They are not the most secure as there is no method of encryption, but they don't have the means to intercept the signal here, that we know of."

He nods remembering, "Those gray orb things, in the box with the buttons on the side?"

She nods her head in agreement, pleased he recalled them. "They are a method of opening a subspace very deep in what they call hyperspace here. The communications is sent… initialized broadly out from the point of origin. The power source for the communication orbs means that for as long as it is in the same galaxy there will be no issue with establishing the connection or maintaining it after it has been established. At the opposite ends of the galaxy there would be a lag of about ten to fifteen seconds but they shouldn't lag at all for anywhere in known space right now. I know Ra used the gate occasionally to travel to what you call the Ida or Pegasus galaxies but it took quite a bit of power and the same is with these. It utilizes the bi-directional wormhole that the Chappa'ai first establishes."

"I thought they were only one direction."

She shook here head, "The secondary wormhole is one direction to or from. Matter is different; it not only needs a wider 'bandwidth' but different protocols. The primary wormhole is established when they connect that is used to give a 'handshake' I believe is the term Willow uses. Like a computer dialing up the internet, the log in and password needs to be worked out. It is almost instantly and as a bonus the primary sends back and forth any radiation such as radio signals or micro waves. The Chappa'ai you step into sends a signal to the other one that matter is coming through, and the other one pulls you through the secondary wormhole, which takes much more energy to accomplish. Portkeys are similar to the secondary wormhole."

"So the secondary wormhole doesn't open up until the two locations are communicating?"

"Exactly, the communication spheres utilize only a single wormhole, they however are still broadcasting so it matters not which direction the others are in, and they can be set up to receive only…" she shrugs.

He nods.

She tells him, "The Asgard commutations hologram would be better but unfortunately when Ra conquered them he coveted the technology jealously. The only Goa'uld to find anything about how they work was Anubus. Ra swiftly destroyed him and his entire fleet."

She shook her sadly, not at the loss of Anubus but at the innocents that were bystanders or family to the Jaffa.

Xander was hesitant, "I think Janna or Willow would be…"

She smirked and firmly told him, "They don't want to. Neither is comfortable seeing into others' minds nor do they have the practice. They recommended you."

Her eyes were glowing with amusement in the extreme form both the host and the symbiote. They were merged already so as to experience everything in a richer light and as a single personality but that didn't mean that everything was the same extreme and often times when something was well liked by the old woman and young woman it showed.

Xander groans and sighs, "Everyone already made the decision purposely excluding me so that they could do this –didn't they?"

Egeria was quite pleased he spotted it.

The Communication Orbs were the first things they wanted to introduce as their basics and how they worked would introduce the other items of importance. Naquadah could be used in missiles, communications, and shielding. Utilizing staff weapons or energy cannons that were on the death gliders could be utilized instead of the normal X-Ray Lasers on the missiles and the energy would go faster than lasers and much more powerful. That really was just the beginning but it seemed that humanity had become fixated on one avenue of approach and he hoped that this would redirect that approach. They had found that the Ion Cannons that were considered less than suitable to Goa'uld needs had been in the information they'd retrieved from Egeria's world and the antigun world had some information on ships defense, not that they had much but they did have loads of theory that would help them fine tune the Ion Cannons to be useful and they didn't require the use of Naquadah.

The only thing they really held back from Egeria's world was the Neutronium and Trinium, the former they just hadn't reached the ability to make the most use of if they had it and refining it wasn't an easy process. Granted it helped speed up the computer processes to a great degree so he thought they would quickly become able to make the most use of it, but Willow and Egeria both felt that they wouldn't reach their potential if given the two materials at the same time. Trinium was a different story all together; they currently had the ability to make a better stronger material which was one of the reasons why the Ion Cannon was going to be a much better tool than it would have been against the Goa'uld.

The other thing that Xander hoped this would help was the travel. It seemed that when they found a method that was rather dangerous they proceeded to civilize the method to the point of not being as dangerous or preparing for that danger and this actually helped them to a great degree. Egeria confirmed they had more understanding of the universal force of gravity than the Goa'uld or even the Ancients had. They pretty much mastered it the same way that old earth humans had mastered flight, utilizing the wind and airflow, which could easily ground a glider. Xander understood that much. In fact he really took to understanding the navigation of space and space battles in a metaphorical light of the ocean exploration; the sails of the ship utilized the same thing that made the waves too dangerous. He hadn't ever been sailing but made a mental note to try it when he had the time.

The natural phenomenon they had passed through from Beowulf to Manticore had made him extremely queasy, even Egeria had been sick. The force of the twisting gravity was indeed felt and Egeria who had more than four thousand years of experience in Space Flight had never felt the likes of it. She told him that the shields they were introducing had an inertial compensator aspect of them that would render that feeling completely.

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