The Occasional Problems with Fast Travel

Menagerie: Outskirts of Kuo Kuana

A red portal opened in the desert land outside of the town. In another moment, Aegis Ursario came walking, or rather staggering out of the portal. "Oh, oh gosh," said Aegis as he bent over, trying not to hurl, "And I thought seasickness was bad."

After the passage of another few moments, and Aegis was positive he wasn't about to lose his lunch, he stood back up and took in his surroundings, which, other than the city a short distance away, was not much. Right, thought Aegis, I remember now, this continent is two-thirds uninhabitable.

Aegis began trekking towards the city, trying to think on where he should start his search for Blake and her family, and why two-thirds of the island was uninhabited. Let's see, he thought, most of the uninhabitable land is desert and what else was there, I remember it being something important.

As if in answer to Aegis's question, the sand began shifting beneath him, forcing him to leap backwards as a death stalker emerged from the sand, screeching as it searched the area with its eight eyes. "Are you for real right now," yelled Aegis in frustration, "I haven't been here for five minutes." The death stalker growled as its eyes settled on Aegis. Now I remember the other reason, thought Aegis as he drew his weapon from his back, the wildlife is extra dangerous on the other two-thirds of this continent.

Atlas: The Schnee Manor

All there seemed to be were swirling colors of red and black, and a strange feeling of being propelled forward. After what seemed like a few minutes to Wayne, the portal began to dissipate as Wayne stepped out onto a fancy blue floor in a rather well-decorated room. Wayne took another step forward and had to catch himself on a nearby, and rather fancy, sink as a sudden wave of nausea came over him.

How does that lady travel like that, thought Wayne as he tried to catch his breath, this is almost as bad as the time I got food poisoning from Nora when she tried to cook. Wayne took a few more breaths as his nausea began to clear. At least I'm in a bathroom, thought Wayne as he took in his surroundings, the nicest, fanciest, most decorated bathroom I've ever seen, is this sink made of real marble?

Wayne looked around the bathroom for another minute until he remembered why he was there. Focus Wayne, he thought as he shook his head and turned towards the door, fate of Haven and Remnant at stake here, admire the overly fancy bathroom later. Taking a deep breath, Wayne pushed open the door and walked out into the rest of the mansion. Well the color scheme's nice, thought Wayne as he began walking down the white and blue hallways, which were heavily decorated with candles, paintings, furniture, the occasional plant or statue.

Are those suits of armor, thought Wayne as he passed by a large stairway, is this a mansion or a freakin' castle? As he continued to walk, a rather large painting caught Wayne's eye as he stopped to look at it for a moment.

"Hmmm," Wayne wondered aloud. So this is the whole Schnee family in this picture, thought Wayne, and the only person who's even remotely smiling is Weiss's prick of a Dad, well I guess that figures. As Wayne turned to keep heading down the hall, he picked up the sound of footsteps as a guard in Atlesian armor stepped around the corner.

"Hey who are you?" asked the soldier as he pulled an extendable sword from his back and pointed it at Wayne. "Oh hey," said Wayne as he raised his hands up in the least hostile gesture he could muster, "Sorry to drop in unannounced but I kind of need to talk to my friend, it's kind of urgent."

"I've never seen you around here before," said the soldier in a no-nonsense tone, "And we don't give hand-outs to fur coat wearing rats who sneak in here." "No seriously," said Wayne as the soldier forced him to turn around and started trying to herd him to the main entrance, "Call Weiss Schnee, just tell her Wayne Ursario's here to see her, she'll know who I am."

"Even if I did believe you, and I don't," stated the guard, "Mr. Schnee has instructed us to let only those approved by him into the mansion to see his daughter, and your name is definitely not on the list." "Well I guess there's no being nice about this then," sighed Wayne as he spun around and grabbed the guard's sword arm before elbowing him in the face.

The guard let out a surprised grunt as Wayne twisted his sword out of his hand and kicked the guard in the stomach, knocking him into the wall before he sank into one of the black chairs conveniently placed in the hallway. "Sorry about this," said Wayne as he quickly repositioned the unconscious guard into a sitting position on the chair, "Just know I wouldn't have knocked you out if this wasn't super important." Yeah, that's a great apology, thought Wayne.

"Hey what the heck do you think you're doing," called another guard as he rounded the opposite corner. "Uh, this isn't what it looks like," said Wayne as he held up his hands with the other guard's sword still in his grasp. It only took a moment for the guard to notice his unconscious co-worker.

"Why you little," said the guard as he went for his pistol. Wayne, reacting as fast as he could, threw the weapon in his hand like a spear with the handle of the weapon impacting against the guard's helmet, causing him to stagger backwards as Wayne rushed forward, quickly covering the few feet between them as he kicked the guard over and punched him in the face for good measure.

"Again sorry," said Wayne, "But I really don't have time to make an appointment." As Wayne finished saying this, a third guard came running down the hallway, apparently hearing some of the commotion. "What's going on over here," demanded the guard. Oh come on, thought Wayne, give me a break.

Menagerie: Kuo Kuana Outskirts

Just break already, thought Aegis as he slammed a stone morning-star on the Deathstalker's claws, only causing slight cracks in the armor. Aegis jumped back, narrowly avoiding the Grimm's glowing stinger as he charged and swung again. But as before, the armor on the Grimm's claw held as it knocked Aegis back with a swipe of its other claw. This Grimm is a little older than some of the other deathstalkers I've fought, thought Aegis, with tougher armor to boot.

The Grimm roared as it lashed out with its stinger again, forcing Aegis to roll to the side to avoid the blow. Without Wayne here it'll take forever to break through its shell, thought Aegis as he began circling around the Deathstalker, gonna need another approach. Spinning the cylinder on his weapon, Aegis reformed the glass into a flaming cleaver blade as he increased his running speed.

The Deathstalker howled in frustration as it tried turning to keep up with its prey. What was it Mom once told me, thought Aegis as he moved in closer to one of the Grimm's six legs, even the best armor has its weak spots, in this case the joints.

With a final burst of speed, Aegis ran in and managed to cut through one of the Deathstalker's legs at the joint. The Grimm screeched in agony as it tried turning and swinging its left claw at Aegis, who reacted by jumping up and using the claw as a platform to jump towards its glowing tail. The surprised Grimm didn't have time to properly aim its tail as it tried striking Aegis, giving him a perfect target as he slashed the stinger off at its joint, causing it to be flung away by the Deathstalker's thrashing tail.

Now for the tricky yet brutal part, thought Aegis as he leapt off the Grimm's back and landed beside its detached stinger, replacing his weapon on his back as he did so. Grabbing the stinger, Aegis grunted with effort as he hefted the stinger onto his shoulder and charged at the enraged Deathstalker.

Reacting surprisingly quickly, the large Grimm struck with both its claws, catching its stinger in one claw as it tried swiping at Aegis with its other claw, only to wind up snapping its own stinger in half as Aegis slid underneath and planted his weapon against the giant scorpion's soft underbelly as he spun his cylinder to energy dust and fired.

A large hole was blown in the Deathstalker's underbelly, eliciting a loud shriek from the dying Grimm as Aegis spun his cylinder to fire dust and unloaded another blast into the already large hole. He fired again and again until he busted through the top of the Deathstalker, yelling in triumph as the slain monster collapsed to the ground and began dissolving into black mist.

"Whew," said Aegis as he wiped some of the dissolving Grimm blood off of his face, "You got a real nice home town here, Blake, real nice, five minutes and I've already been attacked by the local wildlife." Aegis took another minute to wipe some of the blood off his face before he continued his walk into the town. Hopefully the locals are a little more friendly, he thought as he stepped into the limits of Kuo Kuana.

Atlas: Schnee Manor

"Sorry," said Wayne as he kneed a guard in the face, knocking him unconscious as he fell onto a small table, knocking an expensive looking vase off which Wayne just managed to catch before it hit the floor. Close one, thought Wayne, I've already made seven apologies in the last few minutes. As he was thinking this, another guard came running up with his pistol drawn. "Don't move," said the guard as he pointed the gun at him. Eight apologies, thought Wayne as he tossed the vase at him.

Taken completely by surprise, the guard clumsily caught the vase, nearly dropping his pistol in the process as Wayne swung his sleeve wire out and pulled as it wrapped around the guard's ankle. The guard yelled as he fell to the floor, tossing the vase up as he did so.

Moving quicker than he thought possible, Wayne managed to snatch the vase out of the air with both hands as he spun and kicked the downed guard in the face, knocking him out. "Sorry," said Wayne as he put the vase back on the table and stepped over the downed guard, "Really trying not to make a mess here."

Turning another corner and making his way down a flight of very large, ornate, white and blue stairs, Wayne entered a room with multiple passageways and an almost life-sized figure of a King Taijitu when four more guards, two from one entrance and two from another blocked his path.

"We have orders to use non-lethal force on all intruders," said one of the guards on Wayne's right as they advanced on him with extendable swords drawn, "Unless we deem it insufficient, and I'd really like to avoid getting an earful for getting blood on Mr. Schnee's floor."

"Sure thing," said Wayne as he held his hands up out of habit, "Just point me in the direction of Weiss's room so I can talk to her and we can all avoid any further collateral damage to the floors, or walls, and possibly the ceilings too." "Can you believe this guy," said one of the soldiers on Wayne's left. "Or we can keep redecorating the hallways," said Wayne, "Your choice."

"Oh let's just beat 'em and throw 'em out already," said the other soldier on Wayne's left as he came at him with a horizontal swing of his sword. I tried Weiss, thought Wayne as he quickly pulled his wire out of his right sleeve and used it to block the strike before quickly elbowing the guard in the face, knocking him back as he turned and kicked another charging guard in the stomach, sending him stumbling into the guard behind him.

The fourth guard attempted to run him through, but Wayne maneuvered around the guard and looped his wire around the guard's throat as he spun and bent downward, pulling the guard off his feet and throwing him over his shoulder, and right into the King Taijitu statue.

Really hope that statue is sturdy, thought Wayne as he dodged a swing from the last charging guard and swung his wire like a whip, causing his opponent to yelp as it struck him in the face, then swung again as he wrapped the wire around the guard's ankle and yanked him onto the floor.

One of the other guards who'd managed to recover charged again, but Wayne ducked and kicked his leg out from under him before punching him in the face, knocking him back down as he quickly turned and kicked one of the other downed guards in the face, insuring he was unconscious.

This would be so much easier if these guys were Grimm, thought Wayne as he picked up one of the swords, heck I'd almost take more White Fang soldiers right about now. The soldier on the statue grunted as Wayne tossed the sword in his direction. "Doh," said the soldier before falling back down onto the statue.

Wayne was about to leave the room when a thought occurred to him. Heck I've got a little time, he thought, and Aegis would definitely do this if he were here right now. With that thought in mind, Wayne dragged the soldiers, one at a time, over to the large statue. Now that is an example of nontraditional art, thought Wayne as he took a picture with his scroll.

He'd hung two of the soldiers by their harnesses from the mouths of the King Taijitu statue and draped the other two on random spots along the statue's body. All in all, it made for something of a comical scene. Aegis is gonna love this, thought Wayne as he returned his scroll to his pocket.

As he did so, he finally caught the scent of the person he'd come looking for. Wow, gone back to wearing an obscene amount of makeup and perfume again I see, thought Wayne as he started off towards the direction of Weiss's scent, but it is a fresh, so at least I know you're here for sure now. I just hope Aegis and the others are doing well.

Mistral: Along the Forest Roads

This bike handles well, Drake thought as he came to a stop on top of a hill. May stopped right next to him as they both looked out towards the mountain range. "We're almost there," said May as she took out her binoculars and peered through them, "Just a little while longer." "We'll still need to stop for the night," said Drake as May handed him the binoculars, "It's gonna be dark in a few hours and riding the bikes around at night has a way of attracting Grimm."

"Yeah but it beats walking," said May as she repositioned herself on Aegis's bike, "I just hope they give us a warm welcome when we arrive." "Well let's just worry about getting there first," said Drake as he looked through the binoculars before handing them back to May, "One problem at a time and all that." "You got that from Wayne," Said May as she stashed her binoculars and readied her bike.

"We owe him and his brother a great deal," said Drake with a slight smirk, "Getting to Haven safely is the least we can do for them." "Yeah and not wrecking their bikes while we're at it," said May as she gunned the engine on her bike, "Doesn't mean we can't race to the next big hill though!" With that, May zoomed off as Drake simply shook his head before revving Wayne's bike and speeding off after her. We'll make it to Haven, thought Drake, we have to.

Three paths in three different lands, with three different goals, where will they meet again? Hello again everyone, I'd like to take this time to give a big thank you and a shout out to all my reviewers, followers, and viewers as our little story here reaches over 9,000 views. So thank you everyone whose taken the time to read, comment on, and/or review this story, it helps keep me motivated and I'm always open to new ways to improve my writing and storytelling. And be sure to stop in next chapter as Aegis continues his search for Blake, and Wayne learns of the Schnee family drama.