Alice was the first one to wake.
She groaned and opened her eyes slowly, the scent of something burning filling her nose and the sounds of fires crackling the main thing that was audible. With a moan she pushed herself up, looking around.
All around her lay metallic debris, mangled and burning, filing craters punched into the ground from their fall. It took her a moment to remember what happened, then she realized they had likely landed on the planet among the remains of the ships that had fallen with them.
Dazedly standing up she looked around, searching for her friends. Not spotting anyone she despaired briefly, terrified she was once again alone and friendless.
"None of that, now." Cheshire whispered in her mind. "You have only just woken up. You cannot give up the search before you have even begun."
Alice took a deep breath to calm herself, before coughing due to the smoke in the air. "Yes… Yes, you're right, cat. Now I just need to figure out a way to find them." Thinking she came upon an idea and concentrated on projecting something.
Soon, standing before her was Cheshire. He looked around himself before turning to stare at Alice with displeasure which contrasted oddly with his ever present grin. "I am not a hound, Alice."
"No, but your senses are much better than my own. You have a better chance of finding them than I do." She crossed her arms. "Besides, the faster we find them, the faster we can leave and make our way back to Lara's home."
Cheshire's tail swished from side to side before he turned and began walking after a quick look around. Alice followed closely, hand flexing as she prepared to project a weapon at a moment's notice.
The first thing they came across after a minute or so of walking was the corpse of one of the small aliens they had been fighting before. It was lying in a pool of its own blood, limbs splayed grotesquely, one of its arms missing entirely. Alice grimaced, but moved on.
Soon enough they found Garfield laying sprawled on top of what looked to have been part of the hull of the ship they'd been on before. Cheshire easily reached the boy and gave him a whap on the head, making Garfield startle awake. He let out a small yell when he saw Cheshire's face close to his and tumbled down off the debris onto the ground, groaning.
Alice's lips twitched and she shot Cheshire a look, the large cat looking not the least bit contrite. "Are you alright, Garfield?" She asked kindly.
"Just… peachy." He groaned before pushing himself up, dusting himself off as he looked around. "Whoa, we made it onto the planet?"
"It seems so." Alice said. She turned to the cat. "Thank you for your help, Cheshire."
Cheshire grumbled. "You're lucky I like you, Alice." Then he was gone.
Alice turned back to Garfield. "Now then, we should find the others, shouldn't we?"
Garfield wordlessly turned into a basset hound and began to sniff around, searching.
It was over five minutes before they found Lara. She was laying partially hidden by some tall grass, limp but breathing evenly.
It took some time to wake her, but eventually she opened her eyes and sat up with a groan, holding her head. "What happened? I feel like that time me and Sam went to Glasgow…"
Garfield raised an eyebrow, amused. "And just what did you get up to, young lady?" He grinned.
Lara gave him a glare before looking around at the devastation. "Oh… right…" She looked at Alice and Garfield. "Where's Harry?"
"Dunno, we found you first." Garfield offered Lara his hand. She took it and hauled herself to her feet.
"Alright, then that means we'll need to find him. Hopefully he'll be able to get us back to my world now that we don't have to worry about a spaceship possibly falling apart around us while some futuristic soldier aims a gun at us." Lara stretched, wincing slightly as she aggravated some bruising.
"That shouldn't be a problem." Alice said. "He still has the lance in his enchanted bag. We just need to find someplace safe where he can take the time to use it."
Garfield once again transformed into a hound and sniffed around, looking for Harry's scent as they began walking amongst the debris. He was occasionally sidetracked by the scents of the various dead aliens scattered around, some slowly being consumed by the fires.
As they walked Alice and Lara began gathering anything that seemed useful. Lara managed to find another rifle like the one she had been using before along with an extra clip, while Alice picked up some grenades, just in case they might be useful.
Harry was the one that it took them the longest to find. They actually passed his position once, not seeing him before they doubled back when Garfield caught his scent. The girls became alarmed when he began sniffing under some debris and they spotted one of Harry's hands peeking out from under it. Garfield immediately shifted to a gorilla and began lifting the debris off of Harry's form, the girls helping by removing the smaller pieces from the pile.
Thankfully when they reached Harry he did not appear to have been crushed or otherwise severely injured, just pinned down by the debris. He groaned and opened his eyes blearily when they woke him. "Ugh, my head is killing me. What the hell happened?"
"We hit the ground kind of hard." Garfield said somewhat sardonically.
Harry blinked before his eyes widened when he remembered what happened. "Oh, yeah. Definitely not trying unassisted reentry again…"
Garfield snorted in amused agreement, but Lara spoke with some urgency. "Harry, can you get us back to my world now?"
Harry nodded. "I don't see why not. We should move somewhere with a little less fire and smoke, though." He got up and looked around. "Anybody got a clue of which way to go?"
Garfield put his finger in his mouth before pulling it out and holding it up for a moment. "… alright, wind is blowing… I'll tentatively say north, which means that's the direction the smoke will be going. So we should probably go south to get out of it."
Harry looked at Alice and Lara before nodding in agreement. "Sounds like the best plan we've got at the moment, so let's get a move on."
The group began to move, Harry taking Lara's weapon and pulling the clip out before making it glow black and putting it back in. "There. The ammo should replicate, giving you what basically amounts to an infinite ammo cheat. It won't last forever, but at least a good while." He gave her the rifle back.
"Helpful." Lara said as she held it securely, the weapon a bit larger than she was used to but not much of an issue.
After about fifteen minutes of walking they finally made it out of the debris field, the smoke lightening and letting them breathe easier. Wordlessly agreeing to continue till they found a better spot they continued walking, the sky lightening the further they got from the smoke. Which confused them. Weren't they under the metallic shell covering the planet? Was it a very convincing artificial sun? It wouldn't surprise them much, as whoever created the planet was obviously unbelievably advanced.
Finally, they reached a cliff and stopped to gape at the sight before them.
The had reached what appeared to be a large valley, but what had caught their attention was the towers. A group of enormous structures of a whitish metal hovering above installations built among the green grasses of the valley, reaching high into the clouds and bobbing gently in place.
"Whoa…" Garfield said eloquently.
"Indeed." Alice said as she took it all in. It was truly an amazing sight, like something out of a fantastic novel.
After a few more minutes of admiration Lara turned to Harry. "Alright, think you can try to open a portal back home from here?"
Harry reached into his bag and began to pull the lance out of it. "No harm in trying." Once he pulled it out he brought the tip up to study the damage caused by the errant bullet.
The gemstone at the head of the lance was damaged and cracked, the very tip shot off. Not only that, but it had changed color, now mostly a milky white with only hints of the original fiery red at the edges.
Frowning he hoped that the status of the gem wouldn't impede its function. Aiming the lance at one of the rock walls in front of him he focused on what it had been like to open the portal using it before. Unlike before, however, the head of the lance began to glow brightly before there was a loud bang and Harry yelped, letting go of the lance as he was launched backwards like he'd been shot out of a canon, impacting the wall behind him with a thud before bouncing off and dropping to the ground, where he lay groaning in pain.
The others quickly hurried to him, checking him over. "Harry, are you alright?" Alice asked worriedly.
A moan was her answer before Harry shakily began pushing himself up. "The fuck just happened?" He asked once he managed to get himself into a sitting position.
Garfield moved over to the lance and studied it. "The gem at the head is completely white now." He tentatively picked it up as he looked it over more carefully. "Some sort of magical backfire?" He asked.
Harry shook his head to clear it before standing up. "It felt like I was trying to… force water into a balloon that couldn't take any more? Rather than explode it just released the excess in a single burst. Something like that."
Lara bit her lip. "Does that mean it can't be used anymore?" The thought worried her for obvious reasons.
Harry carefully took the lance from Garfield and studied it. "You're right BB, the gem is completely white now. Hmm…" He scratched his chin. "Maybe the gem is what controls the lance's abilities, and it needs time to recover after each attempt? It might be that we need to wait till the lance is completely back to its previous appearance before I can use it again…"
Lara clenched her fists. "Can you get us back without it?"
Harry considered that before extending his hand, focusing on creating a portal like the one that took them from Alice's world to Lara's. That's when he was hit by a flash of insight that he didn't recognize but knew was correct and stopped. He furrowed his brow and crossed his arms in thought.
That thought that just hit him, it was both his, and not. It was like something he knew told him something important. Like a friend had whispered the answer to a question he wasn't aware he was asking. Still, he knew he could trust it, for some reason. He'd need to look into it further in the future. In the meantime…
"Harry?" Lara asked tentatively.
He turned to look at her before sighing and shaking his head. "As far as I can tell, I can, but it wouldn't lead to Earth, and I couldn't pinpoint it to your world. If I tried it'd send us somewhere close to where we are, spacially, in a random universe. Not a good idea if we don't know if this manmade planet exists wherever we'd end up. The lance doesn't seem to have that limitation, so if we want to leave this universe we'll need to use it."
Lara slumped. "Damn…"
Garfield patted her back before looking seriously at them. "Alright then. We don't know how long it'll be till the lance starts working again, so we need to figure out what we're doing in the meantime."
"I say we head for those towers." Alice said, pointing to the hovering artifacts. "There might be something useful. If nothing else, they might give us shelter while we wait for the lance to finish whatever it is it's doing."
Harry considered it before nodding. "Sounds like a plan. We really don't have any other options beyond sit here and wait, and we don't know what's on this planet with us. Best to find out rather than be caught by surprise.
They all nodded in agreement before Harry grabbed the lance and placed it back in his bag. Then they began making their way along a path down to the valley floor.
After a little over half an hour of walking they came across what appeared to be a crashed vehicle transport from the Forward Unto Dawn. Many of the vehicles they found were damaged in some fashion, but they found a group of what appeared to be small crosses between ATVs and motorbikes that seemed to be in good condition. Deciding that it was preferable to having to walk the entire way to the towers, the group decided to commandeer two of them. Lara got in the driver's seat of one of them, Harry sitting in the other. They took ten minutes to familiarize themselves with the machines' controls before they felt confident enough to begin driving in earnest, which prompted Alice to sit in the passenger seat behind Lara, Beast Boy turning into a bird to fly alongside them.
Now they were making better time to the towers, having begun slowly at first, then sped up as the drivers became more confident in what they were doing. Soon they were speeding along the lush grass as they approached the nearest tower, Alice holding onto Lara with all her might.
When they finally reached the tower Beast Boy was waiting for them, sitting comfortably on some of the metal structures at the base of the towers, kicking his legs as he passed the time in thought. Once they'd turned the ATVs off and gotten off the machines he hopped to his feet and approached them. "I did a flyby of the place, checking for any issues or unfriendlies. Place is abandoned and running on automatic, as far as I can tell. And it hasn't tried to roast me, so…" He shrugged.
"Alright, good. You gone inside yet?" Harry nodded when Beast Boy shook his head. "Alright, probably for the best. Let's go in, see if there's anything helpful. Be on your guard though. For all we know we simply haven't tripped the automatic defenses yet. Last thing we need is to get turned into barbecue."
Harry and Lara hefted their weapons as Beast Boy turned into a panther, walking carefully, all his senses on alert. They didn't end up finding anything, and any machinery was beyond their understanding beyond the very basics. The last thing they wanted was to blow the planet up by accident, so they avoided messing with anything.
"I think we should rest now that we're sure nothing is going to attack us out of nowhere." Lara said once they'd look through the almost silent corridors of the installation. "I know that I'm still hurting from our landing, and I'm pretty hungry. We should take advantage of the peace while we can."
Beast Boy's stomach rumbled loudly, and he chuckled sheepishly. "Sounds good to me." He said. "Though we should probably have guard shifts, just in case. I can take first shift after we all have something to eat."
Harry and Alice had no complaints, so the group looked for a good, defensible room where they could rest, Harry pulling sleeping bags and some food out of his bag once they'd picked a spot. They all ate a simple meal that they'd prepared for their time in the Indian jungle before they each went to bed tiredly, Beast Boy turning into a dog and laying on the floor by the door, relaxed yet ready for anything.
The first shift passed uneventfully, and soon Beast Boy lay curled up and sleeping soundly as Lara sat with her back to the wall, rifle in hand just in case. She was close to dozing when she heard something, perking up. She held her breath, listening intently, only to hear the tapping on metal on metal. She tightened her grip on her weapon, and was about to wake the others when the tapping stopped. She watched the door, her entire body tense, but it never opened, and she didn't hear anything else. Even so, she was unable to relax for the rest of her shift.
A bit later Harry sat in her place as she fitfully tried to sleep again, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he focused on the earpiece in his hand. The communicators that the Chief had given them were all busted to varying degrees. The one he held was the most intact, and he was seeing if he might be able to repair it enough to possibly connect to the soldier and his assistant to get some help and information if needed.
Not taking any chances he pulled out his wand for the first time in a while to help with his fine control. The Deathly Hallow felt both cool and warm as he held it, and he briefly studied it once again. He remembered grabbing it without thinking, just trying to keep it out of Voldemort's hands. Now, however, he remembered the story that Dumbledore told him, along with what he learned from the novels based on his life, and he wondered what it truly meant that he now had all three Hallows in his possession.
He rolled his shoulders back as he returned his focus to the little gadget, though he briefly thought he saw a woman in the corner of his eye. Nobody was there when he glanced over though, so he ignored it. Focusing on the earpiece he used a very low powered repairing spell on it, trying to keep from pumping too much energy in and damaging it even more than before.
Slowly the cracks in the plastic shell mended, and he could feel the minute vibrations of its internal components shifting around inside. He kept it up till it stopped, nothing else happening to the small item. Putting the wand back in his bag he tentatively placed the earbud in his ear and flicked it on.
For a long moment there was only silence, but then a static filled voice came through.
"Repeat, Forwa- *szzt* Dawn, keep transmitting on this *szzt* -ency. Helm, increase spe-"
"Negative, Infinity!" Came Cortana's voice, less staticy than the other. "Keep away from the planet!"
There was no answer to Cortana's message, and Harry's eyebrows shot up. It sounded as though there was another ship getting close to the planet, and if their experiences when doing the same said anything, that wasn't a good thing. Unless Cortana could get through to them, it sounded like they were about to get company.
He was about to wake the others to let them know what he learned when he heard a high, hissing wail that froze him in place. Lara bolted up, eyes wide, and turned to Harry, who looked back before bringing a finger to his lips. Slowly he reached over to wake Beast Boy, Lara doing the same with Alice.
Before long the sleeping bags were stowed and all four were ready for whatever they'd find. Harry reached forward to open the door, only for it to burst open on its own and for something to slam into Harry, knocking him back.
Whatever it was, it was humanoid, with a whitish silver armor that covered its body, the upper part bulky and making its head appear recessed. Its upper limbs were spindly, ending in what looked like a mix between guns and blades. The entire form was lit with a yellow orange light.
The thing was on top of Harry, pinning him down, and even as the others brought their weapons up, or shifted, in Beast Boy's case, the thing's helmet opened up, revealing what appeared to be a human skull composed of that same orange light, which screeched at him before it brought a weapon up and prepared to stab down at him.
It was interrupted when Lara began to fire at it, unable to possibly miss from that range. It gave an almost electronic sounding screech and moved away, bringing its limbs up, light beginning to glow at the ends.
Before it could fire whatever it was preparing Alice smashed it with the hobby horse with all her might, leaving a dent in its armor. It turned to her before a green tiger jumped on its back, roaring as Lara resumed firing whenever she was sure she wouldn't hit her friends. Soon enough, the thing died, dissipating in a sort of digital mist that was pulled together into an orb of light before disappearing.
The group stared at when the thing had been, breathing heavily, before Alice reached down and helped pull Harry up. "Are you okay, Harry?"
"Fine." Harry said as he felt his chest. "It didn't do any actual damage beyond maybe some minor bruising. Thanks for the save guys."
"We need to figure out what's going on." Beast Boy said seriously. "That thing didn't come out of nowhere. We need to get outside, too. Fighting in these close quarters when we have no idea what we're facing isn't a good idea. Besides, I'm at my best in wide spaces."
Lara nodded. "Agreed. Let's get out of here."
The quartet began making their way out of the installation, though they ran into a few more of the things before they reached the outside, some of which weren't as bulky but had a sort of hovering drone that provided shields and could attack as well. They all found it rather aggravating.
They finally made it outside and made their way to the ATVs before they were under attack again, this time by feline seeming robots with insectoid heads. The things flanked and pounced at them along with coming equipped with guns on their backs, making them irritating to deal with.
It was as they finished dispatching the last of the cat-bots that they heard a rumbling whistle. Beast Boy, having the best hearing of the four, was the first to turn to the sound, only to have his eyes widen as he saw what looked like an enormous ship dropping in a barely controlled descent. The group watched as it fell and hit with the ground, making them feel the tremor of the impact even from as far as they were.
"…Oh yeah, I forgot all about that." Harry said, a touch sheepishly.
The Master Chief was having a bad day. After landing on the planet he'd been told that Cortana was essentially dying, then while trying to get in contact with the UNSC ship that had found their mayday signal had apparently released some sort of Forerunner criminal, and now he was fighting to make his way to the fallen ship that had been dragged into the planet accompanied by a group of marines and SPARTAN-IVs through an enemy force composed of Forerunner constructs and Covenant forces.
He climbed into the Scorpion tank in front of him, relieved to have some armor to help with the assault, which was getting worse the further they went. The enemy obviously wanted to deal with the UNSC Infinity quickly.
"Another fine mess, huh Chief?" Cortana said. "What do you think we'll need to do to earn some shore leave?"
"Save the galaxy again." Chrief said drily as he made sure the troops with him were secure on top of the armor over the treads before beginning to move the Scorpion forward, Cortana linking with the tank's systems to improve its capabilities. Chief briefly squashed the worry of her having another episode while in control of the guns. He trusted her.
They were almost at the Infinity, blasting their way through Wraith tanks and dropships full of enemies as the troops dealt with the infantry, when the enemy apparently had enough playing around.
In front of them were three Wraiths bombarding the Infinity. They turned at the Scorpion's approach, and the tank was many things, but agile it was not. To make matters worse, two dropships came down to add their firepower and troops to the assault. Chief immediately aimed the main cannon at the closest Wraith and fired even as the marines and SPARTANs hitching a ride bailed out to try and get away and into position to deal with the Covenant troops being unloaded by the dropships.
He let Cortana handle firing at the Wraiths as he focused on trying to avoid as many plasma mortar shots as possible. He managed to get out of the way of two, but the third hit the front right treads, mangling them and leaving the tank helpless against the next barrage. They paid for it dearly though, as the Wraith Cortana had been aiming at burst into flames and dropped to the ground. Cortana was just turning the cannon to aim at another, hoping to get one last shot off, when it too burst into flames, the nearby marine with a rocket launcher on her shoulder showing what had caused it.
"Time to go!" Cortana shouted as the last Wraith launched a plasma mortar, aiming for the cockpit of the Scorpion. Chief quickly jumped out of it and launched himself off the tank just as the plasma hit, destroying the tank with a small explosion. Quickly taking his rifle off his back he began to fire at the surrounding Covenant.
Two enemy tanks may have been eliminated, but things were still dicey, the dropships having uncharacteristically stayed in the area to harrass the humans with their turrets. Chief was just trying to think of something he could do to get rid of them when a lance of what looked like darkness given physical shape speared through one of the dropships, making it drop on top of the troops it had unloaded in a fiery heap.
Chief looked in the direction that had come from to find the form of the boy who'd been on the Dawn, Harry, flanked by the other three, who were proceeding to attack the suddenly panicking Covenant. Even as he watched, Harry lifted his hand, pointing at the remaining dropship, and another lance of darkness left his fingers to hit the desperatly evading troop transport.
"...Alright, seriously, what the hell is up with those kids?" Cortana asked incredulously.
Chief walked over to the newly arrived group as the last Wraith exploded thanks to another rocket from the marine. Harry turned to the Chief and smiled.
"Are we late to the party, Chief?" He asked with a smirk on his tattooed face.
Chief adjusted his hold on his weapon. "Right on time."
Finally finished this fucking chapter. It fought me, it really did, especially in the beginning. I hope the quality didn't suffer too much.
Now, first thing's first. We hit 600 reviews! Yay! You all have no idea what it means to me that we've reached such a milestone. I'm looking forward to getting the number even higher.
Now then, about this chapter. I know a complaint people are going to have is that the limits and rules for dimensional travel are a bit contrived. And I'll admit, they kinda are. Problem is that this is, being something I agonized over for a while, the way of doing it that made the most sense to me with the world and rules I've established previously and that I have planned for the future. This would be much simpler if I wasn't using a fantasy element for the dimensional travel. If I could make it a Sliders situation this would be much easier. Please, bear with that little bit of awkwardness.
Since some people have been asking: Yes, the team will be picking up some stuff in the Halo-verse. I intend for almost every universe they visit to give them something of use. Though I'll admit, one or two are simply included for the lulz.
Speaking of lulz, I was reading some reaction fics that I really like when I thought I'd say that if there's anybody that wants to do a fic with, say, the HP characters reacting to my fic (or something similar for my other fics), let me know and we can work something out. I'd really like to see something like that. My only hard rule for it would be no bashing. the rest we can work out.
Now, onto something important (to me, at least). I now have a Pat A Ron. I'm having some money trouble, mainly because my computer of nine years is about dead, but also some medical bills. So I decided to do something I'd debated on for a while and set it up. Just look me up with '/athanmortis' at the end of the usual address. Anything you can spare is much appreciated. Of course, I don't expect you to do it without incentives.
Inspired by what Vimesenthusiast does, I'm setting it up so that you can vote on what I write if you donate, with each dollar being a vote. You can choose from a list of stories that will change each month what one of my updates will be. So a normal month (meaning there won't be an illness or anything that disrupts the updates like there was this month (bad flu)) will be, for example, a chapter of Brightest, a chapter of something of my choice, another chapter of Brightest, and then whatever my patrons choose. So if there's something I maybe haven't updated in a while that you want to see get some love, head over, donate, and vote for it if it's on the list. For this month all of my stories except for Dragon and Journey are on the list, and the poll is open till the 31st, so go vote.
I think that's it for now... Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review. Till next time.