Review Responses:

Earthpatriot117 - There actually won't really be much of any romance in this story, at least not with the main characters. Romance isn't really my thing, and I don't do shipping. Also, Hidden is probably the last dragon to want to get in a romantic relationship with anyone. There will probably be some future scene where some of the characters discuss their views on the subject, and why none of them really have any romantic interests.

Pt35 - I do have this current section of the story mapped out already, though I am still brainstorming ideas for future timelines to visit later on. I'll put that idea in the pile.

UnidentifiedWhistlingObject - Yes, that is Darkstalker on the cover there. I feel that this story has elements of things like Star Wars, the Avengers, Anime, and maybe even Rick and Morty (though I've never actually seen that show). For the time being the stakes will remain somewhat the same, though I can promise much larger stakes later on.

Chapter 24: The Town of Moss

Moss Town

Central Plaza

"Hey, Luna! How's it going!" Hidden shouted, starting towards the four-winged dragon. Luna looked up, noticing the SandWing walking over, and groaned. She swiped a talon across the glowing projections, causing them to disappear, and stood up to address the two.

"You again? Did you follow me here?" She asked, raising a brow at the SandWing.

"Nah, we're just passing through, hoping we can find some helpful info." Hidden explained. Lin walked up by his side, the SandWing gesturing to her. "This is Lin, by the way. She's from a different timeline than Xavier and I."

"What, did these scale brains kidnap you or something." Luna asked, turning to Lin with a sly grin.

Lin almost wished that were the case, but she shook her head. "No, I decided to come along with them. Though I am starting to wonder what I was thinking in making such a decision."

Luna chuckled, and turned back to Hidden. "What are you doing in Moss Town anyway? You didn't forget how to pilot that shuttle, did you?" she asked.

Hidden shook his head. "We've actually been hoping for a place like this, though, we did get caught in some kind of massive inter-timeline battle on the way here. Barely made it out alive, but hey, what's new?"

"I did give you guys that no-go list, didn't I?" Luna asked.

"You think we'd be crazy enough to actually go into one of those timelines?" Hidden asked, "Wait, don't answer that."

Luna frowned, pausing to think for a moment. "Well, the front lines are always changing around here." she mused.

"And 'here' would be?" Hidden asked.

"Moss Town, as I said earlier." Luna clarified, "It's a small settlement on the edge of Alliance territory."

"You said something about front lines. Is there really some kind of war going on out there?" Lin asked, stepping forward.

Luna nodded. "Yeah, the Second Great Multiverse War. It's been raging for like, three years now. Moons, you guys really were raised under a rock."

She turned, preparing to leave. "At any rate, I doubt it's any of your business, and frankly, it's none of mine either." she said, turning back to the two. "Now if you don't mind, I have important business to attend to."

She briefly paused, looking at some more projections from her earpiece before strolling across the plaza. "Good luck finding your timeline, or whatever." she said as she disappeared down an adjoining street.

Hidden and Lin stood for a moment in the empty plaza, the willow swaying gently in the breeze beside them, before Lin spoke up.

"So, what now?"

Hidden looked around at the cobbled streets running off of the plaza. "We could try looking around for someone who might have some useful information, and maybe do a little window shopping while we're at it."

"While I'm not sure what you mean by 'window shopping', I don't think I need to remind you that any kind of shopping requires money, which I doubt we have." Lin explained.

Hidden paused, reaching into his bag to retrieve a small folded leather pouch. He opened it up, pulling out a green slip of paper and passing it to Lin for her to see. "I've got some money from my world, but I doubt it will work here." he explained.

Lin looked over the thin slip of paper, an image of a SkyWing in the center and the number 20 on all four corners. It surprisingly reminded her of home, despite looking nothing like the Earth Kingdom's currency. Of the few tribes that had adopted a monetary system in her timeline, her's was the only one to use paper currency.

The bill reminded her of a time years before, back when she and her brother were young dragonets. They had gone about making flower bracelets and selling them to the other dragons in Fallside Village. She still remembered the joy on her brother's face in seeing the other villagers wearing their bracelets in the days that followed. Life had been so simple back then, when the war of DustWing succession was only a passing thought in their lives.

"Lin? Hey, Lin!" she heard Hidden shout. She blinked, staring at the SandWing that had pulled her out of her fond reminiscence. "You were spacing out there for a second, everything alright?"

"It's nothing." Lin assured, passing Hidden back the slip of paper money. "If you want to take a quick look around, then let's go. But we need to regroup with the others soon." She started making her way toward a side street with a larger number of glowing signs, a small metal plate on a thin metal pole reading Blue Avn. She heard Hidden walking up beside her, shoving his leather pouch back into his bag.

The two walked out of the plaza, strolling down the narrow road. Large projections, Holograms, as Hidden described them, towered above them, depicting the various wares and services of the quaint shops beneath them. Wires draped overhead, like a dark spider's web spun between the many buildings. Lin looked in through a glass door to see what looked like a pub, a few dragons sitting silently at the bar, heads hung low over mugs of alcohol.

They passed a wide variety of shops, from stores selling various day to day necessities Lin could hardly recognize, to carts peddling products described as "As Seen on TV", whatever that was. Eventually, they arrived at what seemed to be a market, though it didn't look like any kind of market Lin had ever seen.

Hidden looked in through tall glass windows on the front side of the building, and motioned Lin to follow inside. The glass doors slid open before them, and upon entering, Lin was greeted by rows and rows of shelves, lined with various cans, boxes, and other assorted containers. She walked into one of the aisles, picking up a box of "Fruity Flakes", a stylized depiction of a Macaw standing happily next to a bowl of colorful flakes and white liquid she assumed to be milk on the box.

She readied to put the box back on the shelf, when another hologram popped up out of a device clipped to the shelf. Lin hopped back, startled, dropping the box to the dirty white tile floor as a semi-transparent scene played out before her.

It depicted a family of SandWings, all sitting around a table eating a nondescript brown mush, and all looking quite bored. Suddenly, the macaw from the box appeared, the family excitedly grinning as he magically transformed their mush into bowls of the colorful flakes while describing the various colors' flavors.

"Woah, it's just like in my world, but, more high tech I guess." Hidden said, causing Lin to jump once again at the sudden appearance of the SandWing. "It seems capitalism is the same no matter what timeline you're in!"

He turned to walk back towards the front of the store, strolling up to a female HiveWing sitting behind a counter near the entrance. Lin put the box back on the shelf, the hologram quickly vanishing, and walked over to join him.

"Hey, uh, what exactly do you use as money here?" Hidden asked.

"Huh, what?" the HiveWing asked, looking up from a short stack of folded papers depicting dragons wearing various expensive looking garments. She had a metal ring pierced around one of her nostrils, and looked to be somewhere in her mid-twenties. Lin also noticed another device like Luna's around her right ear.

"We're from out of town, and aren't very familiar with the local currency around here." Hidden explained.

The HiveWing looked between the two, a confused look on her face. "We use scales, just like everyone else in Alliance territory." she explained.

"Huh, that's what the Pantalan currency back home is called." Hidden muttered to himself, "Doubt it's the same though."

"Look, are you gonna buy something or what?" the HiveWing asked.

"We're just having a look around, that's all." Lin explained. The HiveWing turned back to her papers, tuning out the two as they stepped out of the market.

"I was looking at the baked goods section, and it seems a loaf of bread is about 180 scales. If we figure out how to get some, we could easily resupply." Hidden explained.

"Aren't we supposed to be asking about your timeline?" Lin asked.

Hidden paused, looking around at the many shops lining the street. "We do need to do that too, though I doubt that cashier would have been very helpful. And we can't just go asking random dragons where our timeline is, can we?"

He suddenly laid eyes on a specific shop, pointing towards it. "There, we can ask the guy running that place!"

Lin squinted at the shop Hidden had pointed out. It was a small two story building, wedged between another pub and what was called a "salon". A bright neon blue sign reading PAWN hung above two dark wooden doors.

"A pawn shop? Really?" Lin asked.

Hidden grinned. "Come on, there have to have been a ton of items through that place. Perhaps some information came with it. You got any better ideas?"

Lin thought for a moment. She had considered finding the one in charge of the town and asking them, though from the looks of things this place was too small and insignificant to bother with that. If one was to find information in a place like this, it would likely be in a pawn shop like Hidden had suggested, or in one of the pubs, and Lin knew which one she preferred.

"Alright." she said, "We'll go to the pawn shop."

The two stepped in through the wooden doors, a soft bell chiming as they walked into the warmly lit building. There were no windows, the walls paneled with a similar dark wood as the doors. The electric lights above bathed the room in a warm yellow light, illuminating metal shelves stuffed to the brim with an assortment of curios.

"Oh, um...welcome!" said a green dragon with odd leaf shaped wings from behind a counter at the back of the store, "If you need anything, feel free to ask."

"Actually, there is something we want to know." Hidden stated, walking up to the counter. Lin stepped off to the side, admiring the eclectic collection of items on the store's shelves. Most of it seemed to be junk, though there were also quite a few items that appeared to be antiques, as well as an assortment of technological devices beyond her understanding. She passed a glass sphere, watching curiously as a small metal ball at its center sent purple bolts of electricity all about the globe.

"You sure you don't know where it is, or at least could point us in the right direction?" she heard Hidden ask.

"I'm sorry, but the multiverse is a large place, and a timeline like that could easily blend in with the rest." the leaf-winged dragon replied.

"Well, it was worth a shot…." Hidden said, looking around at some racks on the counter. He picked up a device from one of them, looking over it curiously. "Hey, what's this?"

"That, my friend, is a universal translator." the shopkeeper explained, "Though, it doesn't work in most timelines. The thing's practically magic!"

""You didn't have to say that." Hidden stated, placing the translator back on the rack, "I doubt that's good for business."

"I pride myself on being an honest shopkeeper, and I'd say it's been working out quite well for me in...hey, careful with that! It's quite expensive!"

Lin paused, having picked up a curious spherical contraption with a groove carved around its circumference. It seemed like the two halves of it could be pressed together, likely activating the device.

"What is it?" Lin asked, placing it back on the shelf. Hidden walked over to get a closer look.

"It's a local distortion array, a used one, but still very much functional." the shopkeeper explained, "It causes a small area to temporarily run by the rules of another timeline. For example, if you were in a timeline without magic, you could use this to have a small area where you can use magic."

"And vice versa, I assume?" Hidden asked, an excited grin growing on his face. The leaf dragon nodded.

"But, as I said, it's very expensive. I couldn't accept anything less than one hundred thousand scales for it." they concluded. Hidden nodded, motioning for Lin to follow him out of the shop.

"Well uh, thanks anyway!" he said as the two stepped out, waving briefly to the shopkeeper as Lin stood on the cobbled street once again.

"You don't really think you'll be able to get that thing, do you?' Lin asked.

Hidden shrugged. "It would be helpful in case we go up against someone like Darkstalker again." he stated, "Though I can't see us getting that much money any time soon." He began pacing up and down the street, muttering. "We should probably head back to Ricky and have the Salvation park nearby, before looking around any more. We'd be able to cover more ground with the others."

Lin tuned out his train of thought, her attention caught by a poster hanging on a worn brick wall across the street. She walked over to get a closer look, lightly chuckling when she saw what it was advertising.

FRIDAY FIGHT NIGHT, 250,000 SCALE GRAND PRIZE it read in bold red lettering, the text practically popping off of the paper. Fighting starts at midnight under the Pancake House on Sundew Avenue! Do you have what it takes to claim victory in the cage?

Just our luck. Lin thought, turning to see Hidden standing behind her, the same excited grin on his face as when he was first showing off that flying contraption of his, Bippy, if she remembered correctly. She sighed.

"You really think I'm going to enter some fighting tournament just so you can get that distortion gizmo?" she asked.

"Well…." Hidden started, "We are flat broke, and we could use what's left to stock up on supplies."

Lin looked back at the poster, and then up at the night sky. The three moons were already high overhead, and Lin figured midnight would come within the next hour or so. If they were going to do this, they'd have to do it now.

"Alright." Lin finally said, "Let's go find this 'Pancake House'."

AN:

For much of this chapter, I was really worried about character motivation and keeping them on track. I was concerned that it seemed like they were getting sidetracked from their goal of finding relevant information with their goal of making some money, and some parts seem a bit convenient and contrived. I do think I got it mostly working though, and convenient stuff like that does happen quite often in stories like this. Also, I hope their interaction with Luna wasn't too short, there will be more soon!

Stay tuned!