A/N: Thank you all for reading and reviewing! I would put a more detailed list about their faces, but for some reason, I've never been good at describing faces. I blame watching too much anime where noses are all tiny and eyes are huge.
I'm doing a lot better, thanks for asking, Alaythassa :)
…-…
Twenty five of us came through that portal, counting dragons. One of the heroes—as Maevlen pointed out, even if we die out here, it's what we'll be remembered as, for however long my world lasts—is a woman from my world in her early twenties who somehow managed to keep her 'For the Horde' t-shirt in pristine condition, even through the end of the world, and she says that that's a regular sized raid?
It was kind of funny to see her talk to Nicolas. I guess she played a rogue, though she calls herself a hunter now. Her 'ferocious' pet is a Chihuahua named Tinkerbelle. I kid you not. Can't remember her name, but I got the dog's. Senta'ri had to tell Cat not to eat the little thing like five times now.
But that's not my point. My point is that she was a hardcore raider. Like, all the way back from…launch or something. Basically since day one. And she's been in all the raids in the game. Fun fact, she had the daggers that were given to Nicolas and knew their names and it kind of freaked him out. Especially when she started talking about rogue abilities that I guess are supposed to be secrets of the trade that he hasn't thought to share with me yet because…I don't know, I'm not experienced enough or something? I bet Miksa will.
Assuming, if we both make it out alive, she won't be called off to the brewing war in Azeroth.
But this gamer chick, she talked to Nicolas a bit about 'playing' a rogue and some of the raids and I guess the game designers did a really good job on getting the…mechanics(?), I think she called them, for most of the fights. So there were instances during her foray into better days where pretty much every Azerothian was kind of like, "I was there and that actually happened…how does your world know about that?"
It was funny. I think we needed that. And kind of makes me wonder, how did the designers know about that?
In case you were wondering, we got to the north pole just fine, but we were having to trek a few miles to get to the base. After all, if we'd showed up in the base, they'd have just mowed us down as we appeared, right?
And argh, I can't remember if I mentioned this, but they gave us trinket things that ward off the cold? So we can actually be in the frozen north and not die of frostbite. Oh, that gamer chick asked them about plate-kinis. I'm not sure I want to know what those are, but the Azerothians weren't sure either, so…yeah. She was thrilled. Said something about practicality winning out and then made every female in our party promise not to buy and 'armor' from any gamer guys in my world.
Dunno what that's about, but whatever, kind of off topic again.
Well, before we headed out, we'd already discussed who was going where and the group pretty much split up into three. The main group was to start clearing a path to the eredar guy. Another name I can't pronounce. Um, everyone was really happy though because it's not a guy named Kil'jaeden. Though miss gamer chick thinks he's probably gonna come after us like he did Azeroth apparently, if we successfully repel the Legion. I guess his boss really frowns on hiccups in the master plan to destroy the universe.
So, anyway I wish I could detail every epic, heroic thing that happened out here, but I wasn't with every group—obvious, I know, but still. Maybe I can get Fizz or someone to go over their parts, but I dunno.
My part, though? I went with Miss Gamer Chick, Neesera, Brath, and Mr. Blackheart to disable the area where they were constructing the infernals.
Oh, there's no solid leads or anything, but we think the reason the Legion didn't open their attacks with those flaming rock dudes is because our world is further away from most worlds or something. So the infernals would fall apart before reaching us. If that makes sense? Because they don't last forever.
They're assembled mostly magically, too, which is why Mr. Blackheart came. As a warlock, he would have the most insight into how they work. However, there is some techy aspects to it which are why Neesera and Miss Gamer Chick—I'm just gonna call her Miss GC from now on—were there. Brath came because I was there and me? I was there because I don't think they wanted to risk having me anywhere else.
After we split up and headed toward the different parts of the base, things got a little boring. I mean, there were no epic shoot outs or anything on the way there, so instead of telling you about every moment one of us stepped down a little too hard and then all five of us got quiet to see if a demon was gonna come check on what the noise was, I'll go over some stuff you might be wondering.
First, why were we told the mission would take two weeks, what with traveling back and, all, seeing as we have Fizz, Eric, Maevlen, and V—that Russian guy—who are frikkin' mages? The vindicators basically built into our plans assumptions like all the mages dying, so that if it does happen, we'll have enough supplies to make it home. I was kind of horrified that they expected the loveable quartet to die horribly, but Fizz had just laughed and reminded me it was called a 'worst case scenario' for a reason. He headed off with the main raid group, by the way. We're supposed to meet up with them after we dismantle the infernal workshop.
The other thing I think you might wonder about is why this place isn't crawling with demons. I mean, they're everywhere, don't get me wrong, but you know. We didn't have to fight thought them.
The reason is that two dragons who came with us basically went on a suicide mission to distract the forces here. It's no one I know, but still, I feel sad when I think about it. They're giving their lives for a world that isn't even theirs.
And I can't stop thinking about whatever happened back in Azeroth. There really is no end to the fighting for Nicolas and the others. Deathwing, my world, then back to theirs. I kind of mentioned it to Kelveris before we split up and he laughed and said, "Plenty of time to rest when we're dead."
It's so sad, though.
Death really seems to be the only way out of this life style.
Which makes me wonder; what about me? And Brath? I really want to repay the people of Azeroth, to give back to them something for helping my world—yes, that gnome got me thinking—but then, Brath can't go back with me, you know? And I'd have to pick a side.
I suppose I should wait to make plans until I see if I even live through this.
Well, my group made pretty good time. In twenty minutes we'd made it to the 'factory'. Miss GC said it looked like some camp thing in Shadowmoon Valley, wherever that is. Honestly, I didn't think it looked much like any factory I'd ever seen, but then, I'd been thinking of car assembly lines from commercials and stuff. Instead, it was just dozens and dozens of rows of infernals, standing there, void of life and fire, with all these little creatures scurrying around their feet. We watched them from a safe distance, hiding behind some crates—I should mention that there were pieces of infernals and boxes of odd things around the edge of the room, but they seems to adhere to standard safety regulations in warehouses, where you have to keep boxes and stuff about a foot or something from the walls. It helps prevent fires or something.
…
I worked in a warehouse last summer. Well, the summer before my senior year, anyway. It wasn't glamorous or anything but—
Okay, off topic.
Anyway, we were watching the little creepy demon things. Every now and then, one of the little things would tap the air in front of an infernal and it—the air—would just light up with these runes. As it would tap on the different runes, the infernal might come to life for a second and wave an arm or stomp a foot or something in response. Like it was running a diagnostic on the infernal.
Mr. Blackheart told me the name of this type of demon—why, I'm not sure, seeing as it's pretty well known that nouns, be they proper or not, and I do not get along well—and while I don't remember what it's called, I do remember that somehow those ugly little things are related to felguards. Somehow.
Oh. Another thing you may be wondering: we're using detect invisibility potions to see the demons. We didn't want to risk the spell getting dispelled or anything, so potions it is. Remember how I said potions are super effective on me? It's a racial thing, so like, so long as we Earth humans have those potions, those demons can't hide behind their magic.
Anyway, so the little critters are smart, according to Mr. Blackheart. He also said there's probably a bigger one out here somewhere; that'll be the engineer in charge of everything. In the factory, anyway.
As Neesera and Mr. Blackheart discussed, somewhat tenuously, how to best deal with the situation—Neesera is all for giving people chances, but Mr. Blackheart's kinda made it obvious that he's evil and would throw her under the bus to save himself or just for giggles, so she's not completely comfortable working with him…none of us are, except for Brath—Miss GC pulled me to the side, Chihuahua tucked under one arm, to talk to me. "Do you know much about WoW?"
"Not really."
I think she'd expected me to say that I had played a little or was even a dreaded 'casual'—Greg always said they were ruining the game—because she just stared at me for a second before recovering, shaking her head. "I kind of hate you right now… how did a non-WoWer figure out the—never mind." She pointed toward Neesera, dropping her voice. "I want to make sure you understand something. She is our healer."
"I know that—"
"Shut up and listen," she made a zipping motion with her lips and fingers. "We are not here for exp or gear. We are here to win. Sometimes, winning takes sacrifices. If the warlock goes down, tough shit. If you or I die, the group can recover." I felt my heart rate shoot through the roof, just thinking about it. "One sacrifice we can't afford, is the healer dying first." She nodded as though to emphasize her point. "We don't have a tank for some idiotic reason—I'm guessing they figured that dragon guy would tank, but he's made it clear that you're the only one he's pulling aggro off, which is just stupid. But anyway. So that means that we have one healer and four dps. Dps are expendable. Healers are not. If it comes down to it, we save the healer. You got it?"
When I didn't answer right away, she raised her eyebrows. "Seriously. This is not the time for all that care-bear hold each other's hand shit. We're here to win. If people have to die for the greater good, then people have to die. Do you understand?"
"…yes."
"Good," she slapped my arm and Tinkerbelle wagged her little tail. "Now, let's have fun and kill shit."
