"She held something in her hands, and it made noises, loud and threatening, holes appearing between our feet as a warning. The boy next to her, though… his presence was something else. - Victor of Caest.

Miss Militia saw it.

She remembered it.

The portal shifted the moment the Travelers were through. It stirred, and Alexandria shouted something incomprehensible.

The gap widened, and a hand, as large as the Echidna that was burned just minutes before, grasped Skitter and pulled her in. It didn't seem to have done so randomly, instead waiting for just the right moment.

The chaos followed right after. The portal stretched and expanded, starting to pull others in. Some grabbed each other, trying to escape, some didn't, and many fell through. She didn't know how many, because she was the first to end up in the darkness, her hand grasping the first thing she could, another person.

Miss Militia shuddered. She could recall every detail - chains straining in between thin but still large fingers to hold the arm back, to stop it. Even as she was falling through the darkness, memories flickering, vanishing and appearing again and falling forever, she felt someone.

Soon afterwards, she was tumbling through the air and prepared herself for a rough landing. As she felt the ground, she rolled and moved away from the hand that grasped her. She heard someone gasp for breath, barely audible despite being closeby. Turning around, she saw Clockblocker holding a hand towards her, trying to say something.

She rushed to his side and removed his mask. His eyes were unfocused, not reacting to any movements and just staring ahead. She followed his gaze upwards.

There were stars and the moon, but the constellations didn't fit with anything she had memorized. Strange.

He was coughing, gasping for breath, but before she could help him, his movements stopped and he closed his eyes, going limp.

"Clockblocker," she said, looking around. Nobody nearby, not as far as she could see. Looking down again, she slapped his cheek slightly. "Clockblocker. Stay awake." If he actually fell asleep now, it might be dangerous. If he had a concussion, he might not wake up.

She didn't see any obvious wounds that could have done this. She rolled him to the side, and there it was - a part of his costume, broken and rammed into his back, between the ribs. She couldn't treat this here. She doubted anyone in Brockton Bay but a surgeon could remove it.

"Shit!" She became desperate, trying to remember anything she could about injuries like this - inflicting them was so much easier than fixing them, dammit. She would go take lessons on emergency surgery as soon as she was home - it wouldn't be hard picking it up with her memory, but right now, she needed to find a way to keep him alive. He coughed again, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth, his eyes glazed over. "Come on, Dennis, what am I going to tell your parents?"

Rustling. She heard someone walk through the bushes, not far away - but bushes were all she could see around her, interspersed with high grass and sparse trees. Her power leapt to her hand in the shape of a small handgun, and she stretched it out to aim in the general direction of the noises.

Men stepped out of the shadows, their features unclear under the poor light of the night. They were holding swords that glinted in the moonlight.

"Halt!" the man shouted through the night. "Intruder upon these hallowed grounds, state your na-"

She fired, first into the air, and then towards their feet, kicking up dirt as the men jumped backwards.

"I can shoot you from here within seconds of each other," she said. "Put the weapons away!"

"I do not take commands from trespassers!" the man who appeared first said, heat in his voice. She couldn't see what exactly he was wearing at the distance, but the sword was clearly visible. "You will be execute-"

She shot next to his foot, making him jump back and stumble. Clockblocker was still heaving, but alive. She had to hurry.

"Take her down!"

Clockblocker took a deep breath, gasping heavily and convulsing before his eyes fluttered open.

The world seemed to shake, and it took a few minutes before she finally realized that it was her body that was vibrating. She glanced back to Clockblocker, the Ward lying on the ground with blood pooled under him, breathing steadily again. The armor was repaired again, and the wound closed.

After a second, the vibrations stopped, and all the men, who had gone incredibly still, fell over, their swords falling out of their hands.. She lowered her gun slightly as the men scrambled back.

"A-a spirit!" the leader shouted, scrambling around and smashing his head into the dirt. "O great sp-spirit, mer-merciful one and… and, Percival! The prayers!"

"I don't know them!"

"You filthy heathen-"

"You fucking hypocrite-"

"Alright, shut up," Miss Militia said, helping Clockblocker up. Still a bit dizzy, the young man needed a while to regain his equilibrium, and stared up to her.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Seems like you healed yourself, somehow," she explained.

"That… how?" he asked, looking at the blood on the floor and wiping his mouth. "Wait, my mask…"

He took it from her hands and pulled it over his face, the men still groveling on the ground.

"We're surrounded," she muttered. "We could take them, but I don't want to kill anyone, especially when we don't know where we are. They speak English, though."

"Sounded like another language to me when I was lying on the ground." He shrugged. "Must've been the bloodloss, god, my head, ugh."

"We can look for some painkillers when we are not in danger."

"Alright," he said, looking over to the men, all serious business. "They aren't holding their weapons anymore."

"It could be a ruse. They didn't seem afraid of my weapon." Or it could be a side-effect of the earthquake, she thought.

She nodded to him, moving forward slightly and he put a hand on her shoulder. Not the first time this strategy had to be used, not exactly one of his favorites, though. They moved step by step towards the men, and if she couldn't take care of them with her now created assault rifle, he could freeze them long enough to block attacks and move her out of the way due to his consciousness remaining when he froze his armor.

But the men didn't move, their weapons remained on the ground, and nobody looked like they were going to scramble for them. Good enough. She stood in front of the leader, her gun conspicuously pointed away from him.

"Where are we?"

"Near the rainy fields," he said. "Fesal's holy grounds near the Ravenheights, our city is not far from here."

"Fesal?" she said, the familiar word coming over her lips with a bitter taste. "Are we in the Middle East, then?"

"Middle East?" he asked. "We are in the north of the Islands."

"What Islands?"

The men started to mutter among themselves, incredulous whispers. She didn't have the patience to wait out their debate.

"Does the word 'America' mean anything to you?" she asked. The men immediately shook their heads. "Europe? Asia?"

More shaking.

"Shit."

"What is it?" Clockblocker asked.

"Tattletale managed to fuck everything up worse than I expected," she said. "We got dropped in some other world."

"What?! How are we supposed to get home?"

"We find her and get her to fix this."

"Good luck finding her then," he muttered. "What should we do now?"

"Praised gods, legendary spirits," the leader said. "Come to our city, we shall welcome you with a feast."

"Can we trust them?" Clockblocker asked.

"No," she said. "But we can take them. Maybe see if they have a map, and we don't have any other way of acquiring food."

"Alright," he sighed, still not letting go of her shoulder.

"We accept your offer, but don't try anything funny," she said. "We are armed."

They glanced at the rifle in her hands, confusion evident on their faces, but didn't say much more. The men led them through the moor and trees, which ended up with them near a city, large but… old.

"Open!" the leader shouted at the gates. "The spirits have descended!"

"Are you drunk again, Victor?" the man at the gates asked, looking to the other men. They looked at him and nodded towards Miss Militia and Clockblocker. "Wa-wait, really? You're not kidding?"

Miss Militia sighed, turning the rifle into a knife and putting it into a sheath on her hip. The man's eyes widened and immediately turned to open the gates. The torches weren't very helpful in seeing much further than around the gates, and the inner parts of the city seemed completely dark. She walked forward with Clockblocker right behind her, waiting for the men to enter before she did. A bell was rung and lights left and right were slowly turning on, candles being lit.

Everything about the city screamed medieval. Maybe even older. Some buildings from clay, some from wood, some from stone. The gates had a large shield with two fists crossed over it hanging behind them, visible as they opened.

She could see them.

And while she was on edge, the people who stepped out, tired and looking as confused as she was feeling, didn't seem very threatening. Their clothes, compared to the armor of the men, were simple, longer robes out of cloth or shirts held with small threads instead of buttons.

The leader, Victor, she reminded herself, stepped forward and pointed towards them again before raising his hands.

"The spirits have descended!" Victor shouted. "And they bring proof of their powers!"

Miss Militia was pretty sure that whatever crazy kind of religion was going on here, they thought people with powers were some kind of deities. Not bad for grabbing attention, they might be able to find Tattletale by finding her trail of destruction. Besides Clockblocker's powers, whatever voodoo was working on them right now, she had the only power here and her's was flashy enough.

Pulling out the knife, she turned the energy into the shape of a larger cannon, something that should fit into the setting. They didn't seem to recognize the weapon—their confusion apparent on their faces under the orange tinted light of the fire—but her proof of powers was enough.

The entire crowd bowed down.

"This feels awkward," Clockblocker said.

"Tell me about it," she said. "Be careful when choosing your food, try to take whatever someone else took first, alright?"

"Okay," he said, and she could hear the tiredness in his voice. Hopefully not hungry enough to get himself poisoned.

Miss Militia was sitting outside of the room they were given after the feast. An inn where they could stay until better accommodations could be made, they'd said. She sat there, staring at the wall, thinking.

This entire situation was like out of a dream, but when capes are involved, nothing is impossible. It was awkward enough, even after repeatedly telling them that they weren't gods, they didn't want to listen. So she just let them, ignoring them. If they tried anything, she would be ready.

At least one of the advantages of being able to ignore sleep.

Clockblocker's powers had changed. After testing them a bit, it seemed like he could 'push' them. The effect seemed to be different too. Things right next to him were unaffected, but things at a greater distance got frozen.

There was another possibility, of course. A second trigger, and while it was a possibility she had considered, it was also very unlikely. Second triggers, as far as she knew, mirrored the original trigger event. Cape involvement made it easier, though, and the large hand...

Narwhal was a prime example of how dangerous a second trigger might end up being. Grue was another. The PRT was not very successful, but that didn't mean they were stupid.

Perhaps. Or maybe powers just worked differently here. As far as she knew, Aleph capes were few and rather weak - so maybe here it was the opposite? Her powers hadn't changed though. The theories she had were discarded as quickly as she had them.

A shiver went down her spine as she thought back to the incident with the portal. Whatever had pulled them in had arms as big as the Echidna itself - how big then must its body be?

Whatever ripped the portal apart and pulled them in must have been humongous, and the body was likely on this side. Whatever it was, she would rather avoid it. Leviathan was already a horrible experience.

The map she had received was thrown over the wall in front of her, a bit of time to waste. The kingdom in the south seemed to be the best spot to go to be as central as possible - the mountains were the end of the northern part of the map.

But what interested her was the theocracy on the western islands. If she could get there, maybe she could find out about the 'spirits' and where to find some others. The people of the city were mostly of the opinion that the spirits or gods or whatever were gone, leaving humanity alone.

The man suggested visiting the king of Fesal, make him send messengers all around, but she didn't exactly want to be found, she wanted to find Tattletale, preferably before Tattletale could hear they are there too.

Because if Miss Militia tried to find Tattletale on some god-forsaken world, and Tattletale knew she was looking for her? That would be bad, Miss Militia could look for years and still not find the villain.

And that was just the on the hope that Tattletale hadn't found a way home already and left without them. Being stranded didn't sound very nice - and she understood the Travelers a bit better now.

Putting the map back into her pocket after folding it, she sighed.

All she had to do was wait.