S1-115
More are out there
6:07 PM
03/19/3272
Yionus's moon, Zuter - IMC testing site Echo-918
Chamber 137
Music
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Briefing Room & Ambience Theme
"Michael, we've made another one." The Shadow handed Michael a new Dimension Key, with what looked like the Traveler on it, as well as... the main optic of an Atlas-class Titan?
"Might as well take a look at this one." The portal opened, and it seemed as if the City was on the other side. "Hmm... Maybe there ARE some that go through time."
Planet Earth(?) - The last City
Hangar
Music
Destiny - The Tower
Once the group had crossed the portal, they found themselves in the Tower's hangar. But the Shadow was suddenly forced into his half of the Yin Yang Switch.
Michael picked the half up and reattached it to his own. "It's like the Traveler's Light is suppressing me again." The Shadow said in the Pilot's head.
"That's odd."
Then he saw Holiday, who had dropped her wrench, and was staring at them with an expression of pure surprise. He walked over, picked it up, and handed it back to her. "You should keep a tighter hold on your tools, Amanda. Sparrow maintenance is a delicate procedure."
"I know that, but... who are you. And how do you know my name?"
Music
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Metroid Xenoresearch at SkyTown
Michael stepped back, with an expression of shock on his face as he looked at the Key, then at the Yin Yang Switch. "Is the Counsel still around here?"
"'Counsel'? What do you mean?" Amanda wondered.
"Ikora, Cayde, and Zavala."
"Oh, you mean the Vanguard. Yeah, Cayde's over there."
Just then, the Exo nearby walked over to Michael, confused. "You look like one of those Pilots, but I don't recognize the markings."
"C'mon, Cayde. It's me! Michael W Johnson?"
"OK, I definitely don't know you."
"...what? Don't you remember when I saved you from the Vex portal system on Nessus?"
"No no, I'm pretty sure his name was Leon-12."
The realization hit him. "We didn't travel through time. It's another dimension!" The Shadow was right.
It was then that Michael jumped through and closed the portal behind him.
Yionus's moon, Zuter - IMC testing site Echo-918
Chamber 137
The Shadow was let out, allowing him to reconstitute. "OK, that was seriously weird."
"{What happened?}" Rocco asked.
"It was some alternate dimension to our own." Michael reported.
"Unexpected, but reasonable, given the nature of the Dimension Keys." Spyglass stated.
"What do you think we should do?"
"{I've contacted Samus and Jenny. They're on their way back.}"
6:07 PM
03/19/3272
Music
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Briefing Room & Ambience Theme
"We're here. What happened?" Samus asked.
"I think we managed to cross over into a sort of parallel dimension." Michael replied. "Care to check it out?"
The Shadow stayed behind to monitor the machine that allowed the portals to open with the use of the Dimension Keys as Rocco went with Michael.
Dimension 3
Planet Earth - The last City
Hangar
Music
Destiny - The Tower
"OK. Looks like it leads back to the hangar."
"Hey, who are you?"
Michael turned to see an IMC Pilot. "You first."
"The name's Samuel Bolton. And you are?"
"I'm Michael W Johnson, leader of City Hawk 723."
Samuel then looked at Spyglass. "Spyglass, what are you doing here? I thought you were still at the IMC HQ!"
"Negative. You are not on record, and I was assisting Michael Johnson in maintaining his creation; a machine with the intended purpose of traveling through time. However, it appears to travel to other dimensions instead."
Samuel's gaze went a bit off to the side, as if speaking through a neural link. "Copy that, FB."
"Who's FB? Another Titan?"
"My Titan. Who are you?"
"I'm Mark-18, a member of City Hawk 723. Some Guardians call me Ikora's greatest student, others call me the strongest and most powerful Warlock in history. In my personal opinion, Ikora's stronger and more powerful."
"Ikora has students?"
Michael spoke up. "Mark learned from her, I had to learn it from him in the battlefield since I was always on missions, and I'm basically all three types of Guardian."
"Wait... WHAT?!"
It was then that Rocco came out. "{I just looked at the records here. Looks like it's drastically different from our own dimension.}"
"What's the status of the Dreadnaught?" Michael asked.
"Gone. Destroyed. It was either them, or us. We had to stop Savathûn, or else all Light, as well as the Traveler, would die."
Michael then noticed a Fallen Dreg... in modified Pilot armor? "What's a Dreg doing here?"
Samuel turned to see the Dreg, then turned back around. "You mean Zarx? He's cool. He's with us."
"'Zarx'?"
"He was originally with this group Savathûn formed, known as the Dark Pilots, consisting of Dregs and Psions."
Michael didn't know who that was. "I don't know a 'Savathûn', but I do know one thing; the Shadow is in charge of the Dreadnaught. He controls the Taken."
"Who's 'the Shadow'?"
"It's a bit hard to explain."
"{You could meet him. He's on the other side of the portal.}"
"FB, we might lose contact for a while." Samuel then walked through the portal, followed by Michael and his team.
Yionus's moon, Zuter - IMC testing site Echo-918
Chamber 137
Music
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Briefing Room & Ambience Theme
"Who are you?"
Samuel looked to see the Shadow, then he quickly backed up against a wall, wearing an expression of pure fear on his face.
"Whoa, calm down, Samuel!" Michael exclaimed. "He's with us."
"His name is Samuel? Hmm. OK." The Shadow turned his attention back to the monitor.
"Who... WHAT is that?!"
"HEY! I take offense from that!" The Shadow turned sharply, glaring at Samuel with glowing red eyes.
"That's the Shadow, a better Taken King than Oryx was, superior in every way. His name is Death, and he's also my Taken half." Michael stated.
"Your... what?"
It was then that Michael took the Dimension Key, closing the portal. "This is how we entered your world. It's called a Dimension Key."
"My own creation, built for use with Michael's machine. I used the knowledge I gathered from any Vex I took to create them, and to reverse-engineer the parts Michael used to create the machine." The Shadow added.
"This is... Wow. Just... Wow." Samuel was lost for words.
Michael sent the Key back into the machine, reopening the portal to the world Samuel came from. "If you don't have any more questions, feel free to go back to your own dimension at any time."
"Michael W Johnson, it was... an interesting time to meet you. I hope you do well." Samuel stepped through the portal and Michael reclosed it, taking out the Dimension Key and putting it with the others in the nearby storage compartment as the Shadow vanished to begin work on another Key.
The Shadow returned as Michael was looking over what Dimension Keys they had so far. "Let's take a look at what we've got this time." The Key had a sky blue background and in the middle was a strange hawk-like symbol.
I've never written two chapters from two different stories side-by-side before.
This is a message segmented between them. Put them together and see what you get. Let me know.
S[[o[ H]wk]
From this, you can guess the next destination.
See you next time.