This scene was completely alien to Alex. It was many things, but this was in no way the high fantasy schizo tech world he had expected. The gateport itself was housed inside of a very large building. There were several large platforms supported by tall pillars that were nowhere near wide enough to support them. Of course, the rings surrounding said pillars were likely emitting a kind of magical force field that kept them from collapsing under their own weight. But still…
"Too advanced," He stated bluntly, "This world didn't develop in total isolation from mine; you bastards have been cribbing off of us right from the start haven't you?"
"Sadly, yes. We owe so much more to the old world's advancements in scientific theory than we care to admit. For instance, the entire school of gravity magic may not have come into existence were it not for the efforts of Sir Issac Newton and his theoretical descendants…" Stated Niven.
"Fun fact Niven, the esteemed physicist's greatest dream was to become a mage." This was all so infuriating to him for some reason.
"Huh? You mean scientists really want to be mages?" Asked Ffion.
"Yes and no." He responded.
"Can I meet one then? I've only seen a half-scientist myself."
"She's a full scientist baka! She just happens to use magic as well." Said Inari.
"Sure why not, I happen to know a few." Said Alexander, ignoring Inari's comment.
"Eeeeee!" squealed Ffion as she glomped him hard. Emiya and Inari quickly grabbed her and pried her off of him. Alex didn't do anything to help them. He was secretly enjoying her affections.
As he walked up to the observation platform another impossible sight confronted him, only this time it didn't cause his brains to claw at the insides of his skull.
It was a cityscape that could accurately be described as Ancient Rome as built with modern tech and magic. Circular skyscrapers with domed ceilings supported by pillars, Aqueduct-like structures, natural stone pillars topped with private villas, modern bridges, all with fish and whales of artificial metallic construction flying high above. And what appeared to be a memorial statue right outside the window. It was this statue that caught his attention.
"That is a statue of Ameteru and her most trusted guardian, who also happened to be her lover." Began Inari in the same regal and graceful tone she had used with him at Stonehenge, "She was the first queen of the Osetian line, and her relationship with the man kneeling behind here became the basis of the modern pactio system. The mage stays back and supports their guardians, who do whatever it takes to ensure the mage never comes to any harm."
"Like how the left tackle guards a quarterback."
"Exactly." She responded ignorantly, "Remember, you made a contract with Ffion, make sure you protect her. If she dies, your artifact will cease to exist."
"I'll protect everyone, I won't lose any of you."
She looked into his eyes,"Even if letting one of us die would save the rest?"
"If it comes down to that, I'll sacrifice myself. Only two people in the whole world who would truly mourn my passing." She gave him a dirty look and slapped him in the face, hard.
"Baka, you have no right to feel that way!" She yelled.
"It's not about how I feel, it's about logic." he said while touching the bright red imprint of her hand.
"I don't like your so-called logic, find another way."
"And you care because…."
Inari looked at the ground and said in a sorrowful tone, "Because nobody should view themselves as expendable."
"Fine, if it comes down to that, I promise I'll find a way to save everyone, myself included."
She looked in his eyes and smiled, "I'm glad you're capable of seeing things clearly. Sacrificing yourself is the same as giving up. I hate people like that."
"Then we have something in common." He responded. She smiled slightly, then walked away.
"What was that all about?" he thought.
As he turned around he saw something that made his heart stop. The demon he had fought at Stonehenge was right there with a briefcase in his right hand, conversing with a clerk as he discreetly handed her a small sack. He almost summoned his artifact before restraining himself.
"If I cause a scene we'll be hauled off to jail, and if they discover that we used Stonehenge..." An image of all of them turned into ermines flashed into his mind. They walked up to the counter. As he looked around he got a slight headache. Illusions. Even here people hide themselves. Niven approached the clerk.
"Hello." A strange look came over her face for an instant, then she closed her eyes and smiled cheerfully. "You know the law, all of you hand over your pactio cards and any other weapons you may be carrying."
They complied, she put all of their gear into a small wooden box that certainly couldn't hold it all.
"A real life box of holding. Impressive, I'll have to get Scott one of those." Thought Alex.
They exited the gateport and headed for the slums.
"Crack that thing open, I'm feeling a bit naked." Ordered Inari.
"That's because you almost are." Responded Paula.
"Pauulllaaaaaa…" She reached for the sword that wasn't there.
"Ok ok, I get it. No more talking for awhile right?"
"Good."
Sneck polished off a beer "No way I'm opening this thing until we're near the shuttle, it's a new model so I don't know how to crack it without setting off the alar…"
"What is it?" Asked Niven.
Jason opened the box.
"What the hell? It wasn't sealed. And the alarm's…deactivated?"
"You got an aircraft waiting for us right?" Asked Alex urgently.
"Sure do! It's a custom job by Koiruda." Said Emiya, "You'll like it."
"Who's Koiruda?"
"A scientist who got kicked out of academia for her beliefs. She was constantly agitating for the revelation of magic to the old world."
"Why?"
"You know hard it is to find someone who's even heard of the Euler-Lagrange point equation on this side?"
"Hard to find them on my side too."
"Yes, but a good number of those people also know it's mathematical proof, it's history, it's applications, and much more!" He smiled.
"In other words, she wants to work with died in the wool scientists, not mages with some passing interest and maybe a few intro courses on the subject."
"Exactly."
He suddenly incurred a slight headache. So the craft was supposed to be disguised or cloaked. It was large, but not as large as the ships overhead. It looked kind of like a manta ray, but it certainly wasn't that model. It was more geometric, and sported four very obvious thrusters in place of a tail.
"Faster than the most decked out manta class airships. This baby'll get you in and out of dodge before the pigs even get the slightest idea you're there!" Boasted Jason.
"Good, let's fire it up and get out of here." Said Alex.
They all ran up the ramp into the interior of the ship. It was well lit and spacious, but there were no windows save for the ones in the angular cockpit. It was obvious that this thing was primarily meant to haul cargo, which made perfect sense given Jason's 'profession'.
"Fire it up!" Yelled Mikoto.
"Aye aye washboard!" said Paula as she slammed her paws on a few buttons. Inari began to reach for her sword, but restrained herself.
"Hey newbie, wanna see something really cool?"
"No, I don't."
"Well too bad, I'm the captain and I say we do the cool thing!"
"Is he always like this?"
"Only when he's drunk." Said Emiya
"Yeah, sure." Alex said the next sentence under his breath, "Bet you haven't ever seen him sober."
"Happens about three times a week, gotta get his stuff in order and plan smuggling routes." Responded Emiya.
"Are you even human?"
"I think so, I'm not a Mesembrian citizen, but I certainly look human and I don't have an alt form like Fise and Minari. So yeah..."
"Ok ok, I get it." He said while making a mental note, "Don't say anything you don't want broadcast in Itsuki's presence."
There was a loud humming sound and a flash of light. They were teleported about five thousand meters up in the sky. He then realized that the thrusters were inactive. They began to fall.
"You might want to turn on the engines Sneck." Said Alex.
"I'm getting to it!" He yelled.
Motes of light were being drawn into the engine for a moment, followed by a lound explosion as everyone was pinned to their chairs. They had to be going above Mach 3 now.
"What the hell! This thing can go toe to toe with an SR-71?" he thought. But a Blackbird wasn't plummeting to the ground while achieving these speeds. After falling for about 30 seconds he asked a pertinent question,
"Does this thing even fly?"
"In a minute damnit! God you're a pussy!" Responded Sneck.
The speed of their fall as well as the craft itself slowed as time progressed. Until, at about 1000 meters, they had slowed to cruising speed and began climbing up to a more suitable altitude.
"And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how you shake the pigs."
"Oh yes, and I suppose the sonic boom doesn't bother the locals all that much now does it?" Asked Emiya.
"Hey, after a run where I do that, I could repair all their windows and buy em' a round at the local bar to boot!"
"But we're not on a run, so why do it now?" Asked Cipher.
"Because they're on to us. Somebody bribed her and I don't know who. When stuff like that happens you can be pretty sure you're being set up, but I bet whoever did this wasn't expecting that little stunt. Try and track me now ya bastards!" Sneck put the craft on auto-pilot and produced what looked like a laptop and began typing.
"Yo Tsuruda, how's it going?" he typed. His avatar resembling a man holding a heart shaped grenade banging his head whilst throwing the horns. The responding avatar looked like a cackling mad scientist with shining glasses obscuring their eyes.
"Just finished that pistol SunnyNight requested and sold a shadow purging artifact for twice what I paid for it. You?"
"I'm hauling that guy Niven keeps talking about."
"You mean the guy who's immune to all mind affecting spells, period?"
"Yeah."
"Get him to my lab ASAP, I need to study him! NOW!"
"Woahwoahwoah, don't get your panties in a bunch." He started to type more when he got interrupted by a text dump a split second later.
"Do you have any idea how rare an ability like that is! It's rarer than magic cancel and in some circumstances it may be even more powerful! To actually think I may actually get a chance to study such an ability in a scientific manner. It's beyond my imagining! So yes, I will get them in a bunch. And if you don't bring him to me, I'll hunt you down and use you as a test subject as punishment for keeping such a wonderful specimen from me!"
"Look, I was heading there already."
"What have you done this time?"
"Nothing, but the box for our gear wasn't sealed by the clerk at the gateport. It doesn't pass the smell test. Somebody's on to me, us. We gotta hide for a few weeks, or at least until we confirm this is all just a big misunderstanding."
"You mean Niven and the others are with you too?"
"Yeah, we're all on the Wings of Injustice atm, used the cop duster to make sure they couldn't follow."
"I like and/or respect the others, but I will not go to jail or be turned into an ermine for an alchie smuggler like you if I can avoid it, you'll need more than just him if you want my protection."
"He got an extremely rare artifact from his Pactio with Ffion, Crimson type."
"My my, that is interesting. You've piqued my interest. What's it do?"
"No idea, but it's Crimson level, so it has to be really freaky and insanely powerful."
"Ok, that's more than enough. Find some way let me study both him and that artifact and I'll hide you for as long as you want."
"You've got a deal. BTW, this twerp'll agree to most anything if you answer his questions."
"What kind of questions?"
"The easy ones. He's 100% old worlder. His trust in Niven is shaken and he don't much know nor trust the rest of us. Make it obvious that all you want is knowledge, and he'll spill the proverbial beans."
"You're almost as devious and manipulative as Sunny, almost."
"So are those traits the key to your pants?"
"Say something like that again and nothing you have to offer will save you from a lifetime of experimentation. And not just the normal stuff, I'm talking about things that would make Mengele cringe, understand?"
"You know I like to tease when I'm drunk, be there in a few hours."
"You better hope so, the more I read that comment, the more I want to kill you. Hurry u-uup :3."
The both signed off. Jason viewed the time on his watch.
"Ah, it's almost time for Vajra's shift." Said Jason. He grabbed a nob on the dashboard and tuned it. A deep voice emanated from the speakers that had to be somewhere inside the ship.
"...And this is Furry Fury signin' off. Up next is a very close and dear friend of mine. Vajra Sunnynight. I'll see all of you tomorrow. And remember listeners, love your fellow man, or wolf-man, in my case, owwwwww! A few minutes of commercials went by. Then...
*Epic Guitar Solo* "Coming to you live from an undisclosed location. The bringer of the bad news and badasss music they don't want you to hear. Vajra. Sunnyniiiight!"
"Awww yeah, ya'll know what time it is, it's time for me, Vajra, to bring you the bad news with a bit of badass music on the side to help ya wash it down. Lot's of things goin' on today people. First, let me remind ya'll that today is the official anniversary of Nagi Springfield's legendary warp attack that turned the tide of the great war in favor of Mesembria. Now, you all know I love Nagi, I'm a member of his fanclub after all. That's because he was a good man who had his priorities one hundred percent straight. He did whatever it took for the people he loved, including the princess Arika Anarchia Entheophysia. Huh? You mean the great hero was in love with the Queen of Calamity? You damn right he was! And hell, I love her too. Now, you may be asking yourselves, 'Vajra, how can you love a girl like the Queen of Calamity?' The answer is very simple children, she was no such thing."
"If you didn't already know, The Queen of Calamity is court history. That is, false state-sponsored BS pumped to your brain via free, quote unquote, public schooling. Real history, ladies and gentlemen, is that she was a wonderful person who was always lookin' out for da' common man. You can check my blog at Mahou dot En Dubyah Awesome Dot Net, for articles and research into this and all sorts of other things they don't want you to know.
Moving on…hoo boy it's been awhile since I've been able to do this segment. I am happy to bring you another addition ooof..."
A sound clip played; "Oh. No. You. DIDN'T!" It was definitely Furry Fury in his deep voice that performed it.
"God that's gonna be a badass song someday. But anyway, it seems that mere hours ago a group of people who I happen to know used the old world location known as Stonehenge to do...something. Now, cuz' those puritan tyrants be listenin' in to my broadcast, I won't tell you who they are or how I know em', but I can tell you that I possess incriminating photos of them. Now, as I've said a billion times, if I have em', the pigs definitely have em'."
"Sadly since this is radio you can't see them, so I'll post it on my blog during the next break. Picture's a bit blurry so if they keep a low profile they may be able to walk about in public. Again, I have no idea what they were doing, but I'm damn sure it they 'forgot' to get the permit. Pulling something like that is five to ten years in a deep dark cell with only rats for company. So I raise my shot glass to these heroes and to a-l-l you hardcore individuals out there who live their lives giving the establishment both your big fat fingers. And now, a song I think speaks to their current situation. This iis Sound…of Da Police!"
"Hell yeah, I love this song!" Said Jason, He produced a fifth of spiced rum and started to chug.
"Where are we headed?" Asked Alex.
"Ariadne. Koine has a hidden base there, she'll hide us for the time being. Wana hit?"
"No thanks."
"Eh, your loss." He took another swig.
Alex turned to Niven.
"I saw something at the gateport. Tell me, why was that young girl wearing a slave collar?"
"Wearing a what?" he asked, obviously trying to cover something up.
"Don't play dumb with me old man, I've read and watched enough science fiction to know a slave collar when I see one."
"You picked up on that? Damn you're good!" said Jason drunkenly.
"It's because of the war." Said Inari.
"A war? Here?" Asked Alex.
"Yes, even here, there was a great war where thousands died needlessly." She said.
"Were you involved Niven?"
"Yes, I fought on the side of Mesembria."
"Tell me, how many confirmed kills did you rack up? The power you possess now, I can only imagine the demonic beast you must have been when you were younger."
"I. Killed. NOONE! I saved them! Both friend and foe alike! I saved as many as I could!" Niven yelled as he slammed his fist into the armrest. The memories of war threatening to overtake him.
"I'm sorry. I went too far, forgive me."
"No, it's all right." He took a deep breath, "I never killed directly, but the men and women I healed surely did. I was a party to the deaths of many on both sides. I do wonder sometimes, if more lives would have been spared if I had let a few of them die… But such thoughts are meaningless, only God knows the answer to those queries. And I shall soon meet him."
"Don't say things like that!" Said Emiya.
"It's not like I'm getting any younger you know."
"Yeah but, I swear you've still got at least 10, at least 20 more years to go. That's not soon right?"
"When you've lived as long as I have, even centuries begin to bleed together."
Paula slapped him with her paw, "You haven't even lived one hundred years yet!"
"Age and experience are relative Paula. I don't have to live centuries to feel and act as though I have."
"What are you saying?"
"5 years to you is like a hundred to us humans. In my experience, all sentient races mature in accordance to their relative age. That is, if you compensate for everyone's average lifespan, we all achieve emotional maturity at about the same time. For instance, you ermines live and die in such a short timespan, yet that doesn't stop you from experiencing every stage in life's way."
"I guess you're right." She conceded, shrugging her shoulders.
They cruised for the next few hours, listening to Vajra's show. It was interesting to say the least, a fusion of talk and music radio. He would go on a long stretch of narrative expositions before embarking on an equally long stretch of nothing but music. The music front was the most fascinating. This Vajra had no boundaries. He was a total omnivore. All music, from all sources, garnered his affection. It was…refreshing. Alex had never heard a program like this, and lamented that there were none like it in his world.
"Almost there." Said Jason, he hadn't hit the bottle since he polished off that fifth and was now almost completely sober. They were over a large forest, but a city could be seen in the distance.
"I don't see it." Said Cipher.
"You're not supposed to, wouldn't be much of a hideout if you could." Responded Sneck.
"Why would she need a hideout?"
"She's a scientist."
"A real scientist? Like a Physicist or a Biologist?"
"Yeah, only she combines those disciplines with magic. She used to be well respected in academia and the magic R&D community, up until a few years ago."
"What happened?"
"She crashed a conference and managed to steal the identity of the keynote speaker. Once she had the podium she let loose. She admonished all of them for refusing to put more effort into scientific understandings of magical phenomenon. Now, all this by itself wouldn't have been much. Hell, the speaker she deviously replaced had planned on saying something similar. It was what she said afterwards that landed her in the lion's den."
"I think I already know what she did. But tell me anyway Jason. I want to make sure."
"She said that the concealment of magic from the people in the old world was not only morally wrong but moronic and self-serving to boot. She said that the magister magi system, which is something of a…" He paused and struggled for a moment to come up with an analogy that he thought Alex would understand, "sa-cred cow to those of us who live here, is nothing more than a sick joke we maintain to assauge our collective consciences as we brutally rape the minds of those few great individuals who dare to defy them and work towards revelation in spite of their threats and the overwhelming power they possess to back them up."
"Then I was right. Damn. Still, you liked her tirade correct?"
"You're damn right I did. She spoke the truth. But more than that, her delivery of that truth. Not even the legendary Mesembrian senators could hope to match it. You could tell that every last sylable came from her heart. You could feel her pain, her outrage, her unrestrained hatred towards everyone in that conference hall. And the empathy she felt towards people like you. It was all so…" A strange expression came over his face, it was hard to describe. Sadness? No, Lust? Yearning? It all bled together. "Beautiful."
"You couldn't have been there. Is it on the net or something?"
"It's all over the blogosphere. I've tried posting it on MahouTube, but they took it down shortly after it was posted. Most people flame it." He said sadly.
"Heh, our worlds mirror each other Mr. Sneck. Truth is reviled, lies exalted."
"Damn, you really are alright." He tossed him a bottle of expensive beer, "That's some of my best shit. Drink up, you deserve it."
"Thanks drunkie."
"You're welcome."
The craft slowly descended into a clearing. They disembarked.
"This way, this way!" Said Ffion as she jumped up and down.
They followed her until they were about a kilometer from the clearing. Then she turned around and smiled.
"Here it is!" She said cheerfully.
It was a cheap, run down shack covered in vines. You'd never see it from the air that was for sure. It looked like it had been abandoned for years.
"That you Ffion?" Said a distorted voice.
"Yes. Can you send up the lift for us?"
"Alright, here it comes."
They heard the sound of large gears turning.
"*LUR-CHIK* *Click*" The shack's door opened, revealing a large freight elevator.
"Get in." Said the voice. They obliged. Shortly afterward they began their long descent.
"How do you keep something like this a secret?" Alex thought.