TTM & WM Chapter 2: Entry 2, a private fanfic

[01.09: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Industry, Commerce and Smog...truly this is a city-world out of fantasy...]

The Lower Wards were...pretty hellish at times apparently. Times like now for instance I found as myself and Quinn strolled along with full gas-mask and skin covered over so that horrible, terrible, smog didn't nauseate either of us. Him in particular, and I'd only risked coming here once I'd 'acclimatised' him to the various madness that was Sigil for a day and night in the better off Guildhall's Ward. That and ensuring we'd two guards for the trips here, paid on Bond to the Artificers Guild, in the shape of two...Modron Homunculus things?

I really wasn't sure, save they were about five foot tall, made of metal, and weren't very talkative beyond rules and regulations in relation to the Contract. In a way that was reassuring as they positively reek of the Planes of Law and Order, and that's just what is needed is security escorting us to and fro within the more dangerous Lowe Wards. Sure the Harmonium's 'patrols' made an effort to keep the peace, but the Faction War...could sweep up anyone, and this place was inner city Detroit, FASTASY WORLD EDITION, at various times and places. And this time I didn't have Wonder Woman to serve as muscle, and Lanterns as support, so hired help would have to do.

'For good reason it's worth the coin' I though watching a half-spider, half-cyborg, drider-like being rear up threateningly against two 'knights' in sort of tech-armour distantly in the grey-black smog-ash cloud that was everywhere at the moment. Myself and Quinn ignored whatever happened next, though I'd suspected 'stomped on by the Harmonium' was the likely answer, and continued on with our inhuman escort towards the Foundry District. The last time hadn't been as bad...but that was Other-Me, and this was the more 'down and dirty' part of the industrial area rather than fancier designs of then.

"Wondrous sights...air pollution, magical!" came in muffled talk from beside me and I shrugged as I guessed that's what he was saying. Masks didn't have properly calibrated microphones turned out, but our 'guards' understood us well enough, and we could communicate enough with each other anyway. I'd rather that inconvenience over puking my guts up from the gases from the various manufacturing processes; ranging from simple iron swords all the way up to potential 'god-killing' weapons.

"Yes, let the wonder sink in...along with the smell" I replied, earning a grunt of acknowledgement as we came before some large gates under watchful guards till they confirmed our authorisation and allowed us entry into the Esher-painting-like factory. Magic, of colours and sound beyond my understanding at times, filled the area along the thrum of great machines with holographic interfaces, as well as simple metal levers and dials, as we could finally take off the gas-masks. Unlike the outside the air here was almost pristine, and the sounds of hammers and thunder filled my ears as a humanoid cyborg in red robes guided us pasted several workshop-rooms.

"Click-tak-click-tak-tak-click" came from the metal faced 'guide' as the words seemed to 'appear' in my head as we stopped outside a particular room with an open door [Master Umkom will see to your needs, please do not leave the designated area without permission or escort. Injury, fatalities, mental and metaphysical damage caused due to breach of terms of service will not covered by ourselves or our staff. We thank you for your custom]

"Can we..."

"No" I cut off the likely desire for 'SCIENCE!' that this place represented to the guilt-ridden, but slightly sociopathic, survivor of Earth-whatever. Instead I walked into the room where a...dwarf with an eyepiece was working alongside, another humanoid that looked like a gnome, and a...I wasn't sure. Some sort of purple squid-tentacle-thing "You will do what they've told us, and we get our equipment made up by these professionals here"

"Aye laddie, that we are" the dwarf replied in a gruff, yet faintly synthesised, voice as he came over and offered a gloved hand "Master Artificer Dorm Umkom at yer service, an' ye be right not ta think ah wanderin' about the halls without ah guide. Can be a mite fatal even fer us staff ye know? But, ye be here about some dimensional holdin' an' travellin' gear ah been told"

I nodded taking out some rough sketches from my satchel along with showing him the, now empty, satchel of holding "Yes Master Artificer, indeed we are looking for such things as I've laid out in these designs here. The primary design requirements are sufficient storage space, along with high-grade for durability in potential combat area. As you can see here I have sufficient skills I believe to work with the dimensional storage aspects of the carry-shop projects, and I would insist upon observation of the creation process of armouring and enchanting of defensive runes on my sales and travel clothing"

The dwarf's cybernetic eye flashed, apparently scanning the documents and inspect the satchel of holding I'd created...well Other-Me had with SHIELD's support before nodding "Nary a problem with that, many ah our clients want the same, and yer a mage so canna say imma surprised at the request. Ye be knowin' it be costin' more ah course for custom?"

I nodded "Aye, I do indeed, and I've paid the deposit and left funds in trust under a Doom for both our parties so I know the cost. We're needing proper equipment to expand our trading operations, so did some rough designs and sketches as you've seen on what we need for survival gear, carrying general trade goods..."

"Ah laddie, ah do, ah do indeed know the need. Should see some'ah da projects folks come in with! This be small enough design, nice an' compact but you'll get shops worth of storage with these trays ah'yours. Price gonna come with gettin' materials to take in a heavy attack, an' de enchantments to back'em up...not ta mention yer lookin' for a shieldin' and camoflagin' system on'em"

I glanced at Quinn who was busy studying the workshop and jotting down notes into a small notepad, then back at the dwarf "Yeah I know, time, coin, and effort, but better safe than sorry out in the wilder parts of the mutltiverse. Recently ran into a potential danger that could have done me due to being unprepared, so learned my lesson there"

The Gentlemen as they were supposedly called had been dealt with 'relatively' easily in the end, once I'd figured out their flaws and managed to get some prep time, but if I'd been denied that prep time it could have been fatal or losing my voice permanently. Not only that but, unlike Other-Me, I didn't run around in highly protected armour and mask, so I badly needed magically enhanced clothing and armour so I didn't have to rely on my own talents. Right now all it took was a bullet through my usual white suit when I was wearing it without a spell in place and I'd be dead or seriously injured. So, that deficiency was now being worked on...

[Trader's Journal: Day 32]

[Current Dimension]

Sigil: The City of Doors

[Current Location]

Rooms just beside The Mermaid's Cups Tavern, Lower Wards, Foundry District

[Current Cash Reserves]

1822 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

104 Silver Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

932 United States Dollars [Buffy-verse]

[Diary Entry]

Not the best establishment to setup shop in, but it's nearby my 'workplace' of sorts where my goods are being made up, so that makes up for it. Easier to move back and forth between the locations, and we've got our two guards-machines to help. It's tiring work being honest, and its dangerous leaving Quinn unsupervised I find, but he's currently doing part-time on technological equipment while getting his own travel clothes and equipment to keep him busy. When he isn't doing that he's researching dimensional mechanics, clearly trying to get a technological planes-walking device up and running that won't fuck-over a planet when used.

I'll admit I'm as busy, or focused, so there isn't much to report beyond day to day progress on the projects along with the fact I'm currently a trader without trade goods, even my bags of holding. We've put gold and jewels we haven't sold under a Bond with a Sigil Guild, but I've got plenty on me, even if it's relatively nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands of coins that the gear is costing. Thankfully I've got a supply source to rebuild my fortunes, so once I've got my backpack, bandoliers, armour, and everything else that's currently being made in the Foundry by the team under Master Umkom the cyber-dwarf. Not the best personality, but he's really improved my crude design and created a hardened module based system.

It's a backpack sized and box shaped device that fits into a cover case of leather-like material, that consists of a number of metal trays linked together that can be opened up individually to access the contents, or as a whole with some effort. It's not Other-Me's Magic Murder Bag, but it carries significantly more storage, and its setup to allow me to function for extended periods out in the wilds, or to carry any equipment I want to have a mobile lab of sorts. I've had a similar, albeit modified, design made up for Mister Quinn Mallory as well as a show of good faith, as well as the fact it's his world all my free stuff came from. Getting greedy now would be rather stupid after all.

Funny really as by the Gods everything we hauled back is basically going into this project, and I'd dread to think of the costs of really 'advanced' items and magi-tech. Another thing I've invested in is arcane storage items, crystals mostly, for the problem of magic varying from dimension to dimension and to hopefully ease off my over-use problems. That and for when we hit magic-null dimensions and I need to use said magic in said magic-less zone. This time I'm doing everything I can to get properly equipped, from rings of disease resistance and translation, to a mobile alchemical lab so I can brew potions and poisons regardless of the dimension I'm currently in.

Now I don't intend to return straight away to our little motherload, but instead do a little exploration forward, perhaps back to Buffy-verse and into one of the linked demon-realms, before then heading back to resupply on Mallory's Earth. I'm still using some of the older stuff, like the Model 10 Rifle once it's enchanted, to try avoid highlighting everything came from the same location – gold bars, jewels, etc, at least you can pass off as being from many planes. At least once you prove it isn't duplicated or magicked into existence. For now I'm just going to have a few drinks before getting some sleep and facing another day's work. Slan.

[1.10: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, to the Outlands we go, Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho...]

"Magic's back" I muttered as we trudged along through the false and unnatural forests and mountains that floated in the void of worlds beneath the donut shaped city-world of Sigil as it sat atop the gigantic cloud bound Spire "Thankfully"

It was a relief, and a sign of distance being put between us and inner workings, the nullification effect, of the inner most parts of Outlands. Magic, high-technology, psionics, chi, demi-god or demonic being, it all failed and was rendered unnervingly powerless as one neared The Cage. Which was funny as it all functioned with Sigil, but the closer everyone got 'baseline equal' in power terms...till you stepped over that threshold anyway. It made the walk somewhat tiring, a proper hiking experience as myself and Quinn moved forward under faint mists and light cast by nothingness in the starless skies.

He wasn't bothered by it, because he didn't grasp it, but it unnerved me a great deal as my magic was down and I did have an inclining of nothingness casting for false sunlight. I tried to ignore it, and my powers slowly returning as we travelled helped with that as we followed along the trail in light armour and military camouflage helped somewhat. It wasn't particularly cold, nor warm, with no rain, rain plants grew and mists rose from nowhere and everywhere as I reached down with a gloved hand and helped Quinn up the rocky part of the trail before he sat on a rock. I rested hands on knees a moment, while he breathed heavily on the rock, before I pulled out my binoculars and began to scout around.

'Nope, nope...distant and going another direction...nope...' I thought to myself as I did a fairly thorough sweep of our environs while Quinn rested to my side. Not that I wasn't tired, but now we were in an 'active' zone it was best to try watch for anyone following us before their own abilities kicked back in. Of course where a 'zone' began and ended was...fuzzy to say the least, and the physic warping effects continued as people phased in, and then out of, view. Like a game with multiple servers sharing certain space the Outlands existed, yet didn't exist, on multiple levels and in multiple realms simultaneously...

'Oh shaddup brain, leave me to worrying about the here and now' I told myself focusing on *reality* as best I could, as reality here was affected by what you willed it to be. Literally anything could lurk in *woods* from oni to xenomorphs; just like anything could lurk in the plains and hills, and the sooner we passed down to the material planes the better. So far nothing, and no-one was stalking us either as best I could tell, but I still cast my protective wards on myself as I put away the binoculars and pulled out my new spell-book and did a direct casting along with the necessary components.

"Everything okay?"

I shook my head in response to the older man's question as he looked around himself "Nah, at least nothing I can see, just getting some things restored now we're outside the null zone. See anything yourself?"

"No...not that I know what to look for" he admitted and I shrugged, standing back up and glancing about as I picked up my backpack again before answering.

"Anything at all that makes you suspicious, but we'll get moving again..." I gestured in the direction towards the planes of Law, towards the Mechanical realms in particular "...sooner we get in range, sooner we can get out of here"

"Before nightfall?"

I shrugged "Nightfall could in five seconds, or it could be in a year...distance is a bit hazy too as well I'll be honest"

The Gate-city of Automata was distant, along with Fortitude, but I wanted to open a portal in a cave in the mountains...over there. How far was hard to judge, but I focused on 'soon' as they'd speed up the journey somewhat...hopefully anyway. So we marched ever forward up and down though misty mountains veiled in pursuit of a spot to portal from...

{Some time later in Time and Space and *}

I'd set my defences as I sat in the ritual circle cross-legged as the cave walls started to pulse and shimmer like it was water instead of solid rock, the crystals pulsing as the portal opened and I let out breath when the energy released. It was still 'closed' at my command, as the entry way into the cave was barred and illusioned to those outside of it for the moment. So I allowed my spirit to leave my body for a moment, slipping through the crack in the 'Door' and exploring forward while anchoring myself to my body and the inner-most defence there.

My current condition impeded the skill somewhat, and it was certainly a drain on me, but it was the best option right now. I really needed to get a drone system, but that was for later I expected as I moved forward, past buildings and people, humans, in the streets. Beyond it was a city, in the standard of my own...Other-Me's former Earth, as well as Quinn's...

'I blame Quinn, somehow this is due to his presence or...ah, German. Him and the Kaiserreich equipment perhaps?' I mused withdrawing into my body and opening my eyes again with a loud exhale of breath "I've news; San Francisco is on the other side, run-down as all hell compared to yours, and German signs and writing alongside English. Nothing Nazi looking from all the Chinese and Japanese I could see...nor much feel of magic, but it's a reasonable location. Human, so..."

"I'll let you talk, test run...just let me see what tech they have..." he grumped back at me, closing the book he was reading as I stood up and stretched "...and then on somewhere else, right?"

I nodded "Yeah, now we'll be going in invisible, even if there aren't any camera's about, we explore a bit and decide if we have to come back through with a snap survey. Now, you've got your emergency teleport amulet on?"

He merely gave me a flat stare "Yes, of course I do. Are we going?"

With a shrug I nodded, then cast the necessary spells on my myself, then him, before we walked through in silence to yet another empty back alley. I frowned a little at that; it was most likely my subconscious at work there, directing our entry point to a 'hidden' area or less likely to be seen spot. Quinn wasn't used to being invisible, and I had to direct him a little as we prowled down the street. Mainly to stay out of the way of people while looking in various windows, at newspapers, and, of course, the dress and language of the people walking around. Mage hand and some distraction snagged me a few cheap maps and papers, and retreating into a rundown looking area allowed me check a few things.

"The Germans?"

"Won a nuclear war at some stage, yeah..." I agreed studying the atlas, the marked areas on it, and a general travel guide "...whupped you Yanks. Good news is Ireland still exists here, for me anyway, so we'll use that magic-ID wallet for now, and we can fit it in, accents and all if I'm reading this travel guide right. Just lie low, do some shopping, and then we head on in a few days"

"Library?"

I nodded looking up at the afternoon sun "Aye, though we need cash first, and a change of clothes to fit in with locals. Think you can stay invisible and play over watch while I see about a pawnbroker?"

He nodded, largely as he, nor I, thought he'd be ideal after his experiences to start playing a role like that so soon after insane loneliness and then experiencing The Cage. Best we settled into things, and this world was relatively low risk as best I could tell, and the magic here was...pretty inert actually. First I needed to get copy of a local...Kennkarte as they called the trading or shop papers. It was easier to slip into a primitive world I suspected, but this was a twenty-first century Earth...a late twenty-century one at 2090 even if the tech seemed early twenty-century as best I could tell. No matter, we needed cash first...

{Twenty seven hours and twenty-nine minutes later}

German-ruled America wasn't...what I'd have expected for a German World War One winning German dominated world really, even with nuking a dozen odd American cities technology had lagged. Overall Africa and Asia were much, much, better off after a quick peruse of the local, rundown, library, though the heavy military presence after a hundred odd years of a victory over the United States was a little strange in humble opinion.

'Of course, then there's Captain Obvious Tourist here' I thought as Quinn Mallory essentially demanded we visit the local bookshops and electronics stores now that everything was opened. Armed with our sparse knowledge...it wasn't a bad idea, not really, as I'd managed to pull a little copy and burn after temporarily charming a local German Officer named Gunthar into ensuring our papers were in order. I'd kinda had to after being stopped, it was that or run, but I was now a Tourist named John Fortune in on a Visa and Quinn Mallory was a local resident recently returned home after medical treatment.

It was hilarious, and problematic, as he was supposed to be the local and me the out of town Irish businessman he was working as a guide for. Nothing to be done with it, I'd prepared the Portal spell already and we'd just need to flee if we were caught and then Gate to the next dimension out. So here we walked with some local electronics purchased for Quinn to take apart, and another electronics store on the list;- one of the best local ones available. Much as he was bitching and moaning we were not risking heading off to Europe to try get the 'most modern' equipment for him to compare and contrast with his late nineties stuff; his equal grumbling about how 'primitive' it all was after a hundred years...

'Mad Scientists for your life' I thought rolling my eyes as we came in through the door of the next store on the list, Curious Notions. There was two people working in the store, a young Chinese-American woman leaving with some purchases as Quinn barged passed her...I sighed; we really needed to work on social niceties outside of 'don't start fights with monsters!' in Sigil. Maybe he was mildly autistic? I wasn't sure, but he seemed that dangerous combination of insanely intelligent yet abyssally oblivious to the real world or the consequences of things. Yes he was trying, after the Disaster, but it just wasn't natural to him as the grunted reply to the storeowner friendly greeting came while moved from machine to machine on the shelves.

"Ignore my friend, he's not...the most sociable at times I'm afraid..." I instead stated coming over with a friendly smile in my, illusioned to local black, Magic White Suit and gloves offering a hand to the older man "...thankfully his engineering skills more than make up for them. John Fortune, Outis Import/Export, pleasure to make your acquaintance, that's Quinn of few words over there"

"Hnnn!" came back from my companion as he took down a gaming machine and began studying a gaming machine as best I could tell. A younger man, a teenager, sat behind the desk, as the man who was likely his father shook my hand briefly as he chuckled in response.

"Ah, we get all sorts here so don't be concerned. An out of towner from the accent, and I don't recognise the company I'm sorry to say! I'm Lawrence Gomes by the way, proud owner of this establishment, and that's my son Paul over there pretending to look busy"

I chuckled back at that "Nice to meet you Lawrence, and yes, somewhat far from home yes, Irish to exact, out looking for trade opportunities with the Kaiser's permission of course. My colleague here...well, let's just say we've been gotten some recommendations about your establishment that a trip here seemed in order during a brief stay over"

Lawrence Gomes chuckled again "After a few other shops it seems"

"Parts shopping for the latest invention I imagine..." he began saying as an Asian girl came in and looking at the aisles before engaging in a conversation of some sort with the shop owner's son. I listened to the sales pitch on a few items as I was guided around the aisles past various things I'd little interest in. They were pretty advanced compared to the other shops we'd been in, and I picked out or two larger items myself that would serve well back on Empty Earth or to sell in Sigil.

"Ka...John, here, here...what you see?" Quinn suddenly stated coming over with a trolley full of electronics while holding out one item in particular to me as I finished up agreeing a price on my own purchases with the local. I frowned at Quinn...

"I don't see anything"

"That's because you're not studied in the sciences near enough..." I glared at him I took the gaming device from the box "...design, think design philosophy. Good ol'Nintendo"

I felt the momentary freezing up of the man beside me, then sighed, gripping my walking-cane firmly but hopefully unnoticed "You're terrible at this you know?"

"Huh?"

"Afterwards, we'll talk later" I replied calmly turning the suddenly very wary man beside me "We've some items to purchase, thank you very much, and then we shall leave and everyone will be happy. As said we're...from out of town, like yourselves it seems, originally of course"

Mister Gomes was tensed up, not fighting ready but very, very, wary "Is that...so? Is that what you think? My papers would argue otherwise"

"As would mine and my associate's" I smiled back pleasantly hands resting on my walking cane "So, let's make our purchases, walk out that door, and not cause any ruckus that might disturb the local constabulary now shall we? That would be...problematic...I imagine"

He nodded after a moment and we were out with our bags in record time...

[01.11: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Minor problems...just took a wrong dimension on the last turn...]

[Trader's Journal: Day 42]

[Current Dimension]

Fourth Earth along a portal chain; we'll call it chaotic America for now

[Current Location]

Dumont Hotel, San Francisco, Republic of California

[Current Cash Reserves]

1,621 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

104 Silver Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

932 United States Dollars [Buffy-verse]

11,782 Californian Dollars [Chaotic America, Chain-Earth 04 on 2091AD line]

2,621 Dollars [US Provisional Government, Earth-01 on 2091 AD line, German-ruled world]

[Diary Entry]

Heavens and Hells, when you try and avoid something it just seems to happen, and then you run into your own idiocy and inexperience. As my last entry, a few days ago, mentioned we'd arrived in a German-dominated world, settling in, buying stuff, and then suddenly we're in a shop with dimension hoppers. I could have introduced myself I suppose, but the whole point was to avoid getting seen, and here I go running into a place securely setup as a shop. Bit dangerous selling advanced, non-local, goods like that, but that hints at a larger support organisation behind it in my paranoid mind.

That'd have been merely nuisance enough, but it seems I've brought us onto a portal-chain system, and I couldn't break out of beyond fleeing back to the Outlands. Considering I really don't want to give away our entry-points and exit-points, when I've got so few, I followed along the chain which seems to be temporally locked on the 2091, and bars non-material planes. Not unexpected from what I've managed to pieced together from the Planescape knowledge available to me I suppose, but it's a problem in that it makes easy 'escape' quite hard. Instead we've travelled sideways through two parallel histories to get to where we are right now; one was a primitive world, at least where we came out, and the second basically dead via nukes as I could tell.

Didn't stay there long enough to care, and right here is rather useful to hold up in a time as it actually quite advanced compared to my old Other-me's Earth, Earth-Bet, and Quinn's former one. It is a hundred years in the 'future' relatively, so you'd expect that, but it's actually less advanced than I'd have expected with a hundred years. It's not too far ahead of what I vaguely recall as the '2010's' and such, more incremental developments than anything else. Which is good actually – it means I can grasp the underlying technology, and more it's based on hard-principles so it'll work nearly any universe unlike say, Star Wars blasters, or Mass Effect technology I suspect.

Bad news; my abilities are greatly reduced, and if want to us my more 'blatant' abilities I'll have to burn stored energy or the storage crystals as my 'divine link' back to my patron is threadbare here. It's not a major problem of course, and it's allowed me enough leeway to forge effective false identification papers and burn out a crystal to 'adjust' computer records. Ireland exists here, and the Embassy issued me a 'replacement' passport fairly rapidly while we did up some California papers for Quinn. Need all these things to get a bank account, as we a bank account to function with several things; I'm bloody exhausted burning power to do all this 'reality bending' ya'know?

On that note I'm going to rest a bit, need sleep badly.

[Trader's Journal: Day 44]

[Current Dimension]

Fourth Earth along a portal chain; we'll call it chaotic America for now

[Current Location]

A Nice House, San Francisco, Republic of California

[Current Cash Reserves]

1,560 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

104 Silver Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

932 United States Dollars [Buffy-verse]

10,617 Californian Dollars [Chaotic America, Chain-Earth 04 on 2091AD line]

2,621 Dollars [US Provisional Government, Earth-01 on 2091 AD line, German-ruled world]

[Diary Entry]

Renting a house here in the lovely Republic of California, one of the nicer North American States {though they are really countries} as it's the closest to what I view as an actual western-style democracy. Many of the nations in North America are fundamentalist Christian theocracies, extremely racist apartheid democracies, or simply authoritarian dictatorships pretending to be Republics. Virgina and much of what I'd call the Deep South are White-Power nations, but if your White and Christian then it is a true democracy, while Mississippi had some sort of Revolution and is even worse, just with Blacks viciously oppressing Whites. Proving once and for all that humans are humans; vicious, selfish, hateful, bastards regardless of nonsense like race. It's a fun, fun, continent let me tell you!

Thing is California doesn't have things like Secret Police, or cameras everywhere, or racial hygiene and mental checks so in California we stay I'm happy to say. I could try travel to Ireland, but I'd stick out there, where I can pass it off easier here with a globe traveller background. It was certainly easier to create a false Legend for me, and my travelling companion, here than elsewhere once I got a hold of a computer and did some crude magic-empowering. At least as much this reality allows anyway, as well as my limited computer skills allow with the 'unnatural' interface. I really need to improve these abilities as if we hit a truly advanced, and security conscious, reality, it could cause problems.

Thankfully I also have a fast-learning scientific genius travelling with me, and combining arcane-tech with his inclinations to hacking and boom – doors opened and closed fast online. Or at least what passes for an internet, it's a rather broken up thing, more primitive and monitored than the actual underlying technological base would allow. Regardless of that we've rent a small house, and we're in the process of converting the backroom into a small workshop, to take apart the stuff from German-world, but also to work on the advanced things from this reality. Laptops here are different, but the designs are durable to honest, more than my 'home' timelines were, so a mobile power source is the next item on the list.

Because, honestly?

This is a good find, dimension-wise, and a short stopover to get our bearings would not be a bad thing, and its close enough culturally that my own and Quinn's 'oddities' aren't too noticeable. At least as far as I can tell anyway; this might give time to figure out the next plan, or even 'direction' to take. Seems were on a multi-dimension track of sorts, or subsidiary multi-verse with its own near limitless number of variations of the same instant in time. So time passes equally between each parallel, so as we move from one to another time is progressing 'normally' between them much like demon realms to the Buffy-verse we ended up in, or other temporal spots.

Right now I'm fairly sure the only way out of this dimensional track is back through the Outlands, or through one of the more Law inclined Planes of existence maybe. For now I intend to make use of this particular dimension's benefits, from hot showers, to computers, to more Mexican taste inspired burgers than back in DC-lands Earth. Quinn is like a kid in a candy store to tell the truth, and I don't see him being overly bothered leaving his 'workshop' – my only real worry there is ensuring Mad Science is kept to minimal levels when it comes to endangering others, or the planet.

Now I will say it's annoyingly warm and sunny here, but the beer is good, the food is quality, and I'm quite enamoured of the comfortable beds part as well. Something I'm going to do now in having a nice drink and meal in the nearby restaurant and then get some well deserved rest.

[Trader's Journal: Day 49]

[Current Dimension]

Earth 04 - Disunited America

[Current Location]

A Nice House, San Francisco, Republic of California

[Current Cash Reserves]

1,500 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

104 Silver Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

932 United States Dollars [Buffy-verse]

8,619 Californian Dollars [Chaotic America, Chain-Earth 04 on 2091AD line]

2,621 Dollars [US Provisional Government, Earth-01 on 2091 AD line, German-ruled world]

[Diary Entry]

Been reading some local versions of 'Electronics for Dummies' even if they're called something different, along with talking to Quinn so modification of my new laptop is underway. More of medium term project to be honest as I've been selling off jewellery, slowly but surely;- and never in the same place in big volumes, to accumulate funds to buy multiple computer systems. I'll admit it seems like it's largely to break them, but that's just the price of learning the basics in a safe environment. Better to break the stuff *now* rather than a dozen dimensions over in the lands of Dark Lord whoever-the-fuck where electricity doesn't exist, let alone repair manuals.

So while we don't really carry huge amounts of cash, inflation having been inflation here I think, I've opened a deposit box in two of the local banks with store some cash and jewelry, along with an emergency scroll should things go wrong. Utterly worthless should it be discovered by anyone without magical knowledge, but a useful backup on 'safe-house' dimension as I'm starting to think of this place. Relatively friendly folk in this neighbourhood, and while nuclear proliferation is concerning, and our basement being a bomb-shelter, I've wrangled a three-month rental agreement with relatively little problem. Ideally if things work out, then 'leasing' for an extended period would be an option, and playing it off as world-traveling. Maybe, maybe-not, we've only been here a short while and that's getting ahead of myself now isn't it?

No matter, for the moment Outis Import/Exports is up and running, officially even, and I'm aiming to have a licence sorted within a week or so to deal with the fairly extensive trade imports into the port at source, rather than as an end consumer. For now we're sellers of rare jewelry and antiques, bits and pieces picked up in the other worlds till we got here in fact, and intended purchasers of various electronics and other such devices of course. Prices of rare metals and the like are rising right now as there is the talk of war out in the East and Mid-West, Ohio or Virginia getting aggressive story in what particular newspaper[online]-dependent. It's why I like this California versus the other nearby nations;- an actual free press with varied opinions!

For now I've a madman to get away from his electronics before he works through yet another night without any sleep. Good money in the 'modified high-end gaming platform' I think, which looks to be an unintended side-effect of all the Tinkering as Earth-Bet calls it. Should have a full security system setup to cover the house and neighbourhood by the end of the week, and I'm hoping for a very basic mobile drone system of some sort in the next few weeks if we stay. Nothing near military grade of course, but some magic with a very basic system would make exploration much easier. Time to go now, I need to reinforce the very basic, but exhausting and time-consuming, defensive wards.

[01.12: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Education at its finest...well, night classes anyway...]

"Now I'd call this a successful enough day wouldn't you?" I said to Quinn as we sat at late night...well, it wasn't technically a diner, but it was a late-night, informal, eatery in the local style not far off the college campus "How the quantum physics go?"

Quinn Mallory was...being himself really; half listening to me, half-reading the electronic handouts on his modified laptop, and nodding as he replied "Good, good, they're wrong about some of it I'm sure, but I...I think I can see what went wrong, maybe, it's not affecting the gravity, my device, but creating a dimensional flux that..."

I could mostly follow the general techno-babble he started spouting as our order arrived, along some beer for myself, at the table. California here had developed differently than in the world of the Justice League, and what histories I recalled where a United States arose, and the food certainly reflected the heavy Mexican and East Asian influences. While the culture as a whole was very European, largely due to heavy British dominance and general trends in migration throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, much of the 'day-to-day life' drew heavily on the Mexican Republic they'd broken away from, along with Japanese and Chinese immigrants.

As such music was strange to my ears, and things like Rock'en'Roll, Jazz, and Rap had never emerged. So rice dishes were fairly common as 'fast food' instead of a 'burger and fries' that I'd usually found as meal of choice in these sorts of late-night American establishments. It was all rather pleasant after a month and a half in this dimension, even if things were a little odd and hard to follow at times when it came to 'local customs' due to outsider status. No matter; I was finally, finally, getting a chance to...well, relax, and meditate on what hell I was doing with my...life?...new existence?

'It's certainly let me calm the flesh and soul issues a little, that's a positive' I mused to myself digging my fork into the spicy dish and looking out into the busy traffic of the city despite its late hour. Of course being on a 'harder' reality put significantly more pressure on my magic use, and higher level and high-energy spells were a no-no as that'd require drawing on the land. One of the warnings of the Planeswalker's Guild that; reality itself would fight you here and there simple wasn't Mana as some called it to draw upon. Beings of 'Higher' existences them, like Gods, Elementals, and Capital-P Planeswalkers, then would find this plane very, very, fatal then and was why they didn't come to them...

"...really want access to a proper lab though"

I nodded in agreement as Quinn finished his long ramble "Oh I won't disagree with you there, but that's more of a long-term, high cost, commitment right now my friend. We've already stayed here well beyond our intended timeframe after all. All I can say is we can take what we want with us, and then establish one our own back at...home base for you. We don't want experiment problems here amongst the locals"

He gave a half-nod, chewing down some chicken-rice dish he'd ordered "Need more this stuff...but, yeah, no experiments, good, research first, testing, testing, testing then. Good get going, start tests"

"Uh-huh..." I replied mentally noting to ensure he actually followed through on that, and didn't 'accidently' another planet taking a drink and shaking my head "...we'll aim another week...maybe two, see how sales are going with the upgraded gaming machines. College kids love them, don't they? Fair dues to you...you've picked up the gaming machines pretty fast"

He frowned "They're just not as...good...better than I'd thought they'd be after a hundred years you understand?"

I sighed, it was a private booth we we're in, late at night, and in a half empty dinner so it wasn't a major problem "Yeah, same as always, but still so much better than what there was in the other places. If we can make a few more sales, your work and the jewellery I think we'll have enough do a proper analysis before our next trip back here"

The key to lying low was avoiding major 'mistakes' or things that'd put up 'red flags' with the local authorities – here, things like buying weapons, or potential explosives, or anything bio-medical in nature. Instead we'd stuck to fairly niche things like specific 'improvements' in various electronics by Quinn, and me dealing with jewellery and coins. Oh, and a little fortune-telling when I was bored as well, and that'd gotten a nice bit of conversation and learning about the local culture. Even if the Tarot wasn't exactly the same, the 'exotic' nature of my readings meant easy money, and I was being truthful in what I predicted.

Technically we were losing money, but that was sort of the point in learning the systems by both quick study and practical experience. It was also a fact this place could supply advanced of 'modern' earth style equipment that I'd...Other-Me had access to in SHIELD. All the stuff on Quinn's empty world was still in the nineties, and the previous worlds had been...either backwards, dead, or well run by authoritarians with a dimensional traveller presence. Maybe in the future there would better choices, but for now this'd be a good supply source for my equipment and sales into other dimensions...

[Trader's Journal: Day 78]

[Current Dimension]

Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited North America

[Current Location]

Motel near a Ley-line Spot, Several Miles outside San Francisco, Republic of California

[Current Cash Reserves]

1250 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

104 Silver Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

932 United States Dollars [Buffy-verse]

1,628 Californian Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]

2,621 Dollars [US Provisional Government, Earth-01, Chain-2091, German-ruled world]

[Diary Entry]

Our extended stay in California has come to an end for now, going to relocate back to Outlands and then back towards Quinn's world. It's actually a little hard to leave as the place is rather pleasant, but I've places to be, and a base of operations to get setup. Plus, much as the rest helped, I don't think staying for an extended in a low magic realm would be altogether helpfully for my long-term health. Using magic here is hard, and bothersome, so I need to get back to my spell-craft and put some of the things I learned from the books I'd bought in Buffy-verse and Sigil.

I'm doing an exit out in the countryside, where there is some easier crossover to the Outlands, and from there we can pass back down to the other chains. At least I know that route, and enough time has passed, and I'm pretty sure I've no idea how to get off this little chain otherwise – I've tried a little experimentation, and no luck there. That other reason is Quinn is really fucking annoying now he wants to start experimenting, and I want him on a not-alive world when he starts doing said experimentation. This place has rather nice tacos and I'd rather it wasn't whatever Quinn does with his Mad Scientist act, and I can't really stop him doing it much longer.

Got food and other supplies all packed up alongside the electronics, the weapons from Sigil, and all the other random stuff to trade. The storage capacity of the travel bags has proven itself in that regards, and money well spent I'll say, and I've added a small library of 'modern' technical manuals, along with a modified laptop filled with as much information I could cram into it. Once we get to Empty Earth I can do some salvage, gold, and everything sellable, and then start up an alchemy and artifice workshop setup. If I can access another realm with low tech and magic I could hopefully work towards fixing myself, and the longer term problems of this whole clone thing.

So, for now I'll get some rest and enjoy the last moments in this realm. Might even have a coffee and toasted sandwich.

{Time to Leave}

Hiking in the woods had been annoying, but it put us distant from any outside attention, and just vanishing from the house after telling the realtors we off doing business abroad was best avoided. So to keep this place as a 'safe-house' dimension we'd left 'travelling' and now I was just glad to complete the ritual as Quinn stood watch a little ways away. I groaned as I stood up from the ritual circle "Ready"

"Ugh, about time"

I snorted and rolled my eyes as I stretched "Well, when you get your system up and running it'll speed things up I imagine"

He conceded "Sorry, just tired"

I nodded "Yeah...same, come on let's get going"

Activating the Door I...

'Shit...what the...' I managed to think as power dragged through just after I'd explored forward and then withdrew from my astral form. This wasn't the Outlands, and there wasn't an immediate threat, but there was something pulling on my portal, drawing me towards it...

"What's the trouble?"

I shook my head gripping my walking-cane "Dunno, we've opened up to a magic realm...something reached out and grabbed the portal when I pushed for the Outlands..."

Frowned as the power buffeted it again as someone reached out from beyond this realm, and my own inexperience with the dimensional spells work against me...

"Shit" was all I managed to get out as the dimensional gate destabilised just as I threw up my defences a rippling flash rolling over me and Quinn...

...

...my eyes hurt as I pushed myself back up to stand...

...magic filled the air...

I blinked...

Was that a lizardman riding a dinosaur charging at us?

[01.13: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[It's the Land that Time...only sort of...Forgot...]

"We come in peace?" I called out as I saw two...no four, dinosaur riding lizardmen emerged from the trees surrounding...

...I frowned. Wherever we'd been abducted to I noticed as I gripped my walking cane while scanning for more potential enemies. Useful as the four advancing on me and Quinn were clearly hostile, and, worse, two armed with laser weapons as seconds later an energy blast came in my direction...

'Okay then' I though coldly, calmly, as my cane came up and I channelled the beat of energy around me into a shield spell while I dodged to the left, my right hand sliding inside my suit and drawing out my revolver "Shoot to kill, shoot to kill"

Baaannnngggg

Unlike the charging raptor riding lizardmen I was actually a good shoot, the first hellfire round taking a leg out from under the nearest charging raptor, sending the rider flying face first into the dirt, while the second took the head of one of the laser-gun armed shooters. I hummed a tune to myself as I moved, deflecting another laser shoot with my shield instead of dodging as my revolver came up again "There's lizards on the starboard bow, starboard bow..."

Baaannnngggg

"Star Trekin' across the universe..."

CrackCrackCrackCrack

That dealt with another of the laser armed enemy as Quinn was running about and shoot now he'd managed to get his Glock into hand. He wasn't a great shot either, but it'd hit an injured a raptor-mount, and my gun came up just as the nearest one made a bit towards me...

Baaannnngggg

...and I sent a hellfire round into its skull through its eye as I jerked to the right and it missed its lunge. It's rider was no more lucky as it pitched forward, sword swinging towards me...

Baaannnngggg

...and died with hissing screams as my sixth hellfire round hit him, or her, in the chest and burned outwards in a flaming, but quick, death as two foot bound lizardmen charged at me with melee weapons. The, now temporarily spent, revolver was useless now so I quickly sheathed behind my enchanted white suit jacket and easily blocked a sword swing with my cane. Lashing out with a kick I drove the nearest lizardman back two staggering steps as my, now gun-free, hand came up and gripped the cane. With a soft snap click the concealed blade slid free and slashed out the throat of the staggered creature, blood spurting out moments later as I moved forward to engage the one behind my dying foe.

Block with the sheath of the cane, then slash and parry with the thin, but durable blade, as the large broadsword clashed with the magical cane-blade. It was a deadly dance as my mouth incanted at the same time, unnatural speed filling my limbs as the Haste spell took effect and my blade clove through a leg, then through the exposed neck of my foe. A glance showed me Quinn had managed to kill another of the rapidly appearing foes, but he was gesturing frantically at me to look...

'Annnddddd they've flying dino-cavalry too...fucking joy' I though making a slashing gesture with my cane-blade to clear off the blood, the magic doing the rest, before sheathing it once more as I moved through the dead and dying ground foes. Old Words slide softly out of my mouth in swift succession, my now free gloved hand blurring through the gesture as the black speck of condensed flame formed in the spot just before the charging lizardmen...

I snapped my fingers and the delayed fireball erupted in a vicious explosion of flame and magic that tore their...far too close together...formation apart as I kept moving towards Quinn. There were explosions of someone else, very, very, close by and I didn't want to get overrun if more of these angry fellows appeared...wherever we were. Sticking my walking cane under my armpit as I walked towards him, I drew out my revolver once more and began to reload the bullets once more "Quinn, reload and make sure you've got your stuff. We are moving, don't forget anyting"

"Fucking dinosaurs? Really?"

"This is not my fault!" I huffed clicking the revolver barrel closed "We've been magical mugged or abducted or whatever the fucking hell happened! Now grab those laser guns near you and we get moving"

Baaannnngggg

'Gods dammit, more of them' I mentally groused as my revolver barked again, though this time merely igniting the trees near the lizardman who'd emerged, then retreated back into them. Step by step I advance-retreated up the incline as Quinn grabbed the nearby weapons and fell in behind me...

Baaannnngggg

"Behind! Friends of yours?" Quinn called out to me as I sent another shot into a flying dinosaur, driving it away as it's wing caught aflame. My head turned as I kept up my gun in a ready position facing the enemies in 'front' of my backwards walking stride, cane gripped firmly in the others. Quinn was holding the Glock in a two handed grip, though swinging it a little wildly left and right as...

I froze for a moment as I saw Green Lantern descending from the sky alongside a big white robot, towards...

'Hmm...okay, what? Lizardmen and Green Lantern and friends?' my somewhat befuddled mind wondered as I decided what the feck we did next as they moved towards us, and we towards them. The fact they to seemed to be under attack from Team Dino Rider Lizardmen indicated we were at least on the same side right now as...

'Since...when has Lantern Steward been bald and have a goatee?'

Fuck it, shout out a greeting "Hello! Lantern Stewart, can I borrow a moment of your time?"

Baaannnngggg

I hadn't meant to punctuate that with a gunshot, but there were still a few enemies lurking towards us as I found myself forced to split my attention. The lack of recognition, though I wasn't...exactly me right now, and not in anything close to my standard skull-faced glory, so the wary, grumpy voice wasn't unexpected "What the...and who are you? Are you behind this?"

"Yeah! You, did you crash our ship?" blonde in a...oh, dear, a godsdamned Kryptonian...

"I have no idea what you're talking about..." I replied calmer than I felt "...me and my friend here were travelling by portal when someone hijacked the spell and dragged us here. Then we were being attacked by damned dinosaurs and laser gun wielding lizardmen. So, Justice League bullshit I see...and I don't know you three, so Lantern Stewart..."

I gestured at the other three with him with my staff, revolver still facing the other way as Quinn stood warily beside me "Um...when'd you get the goatee...and lose the hair?"

Eyes narrowed at me, the green ring illuminating brightly "How is that any of your...do I know you?"

'Shit' was my immediate though, though I stayed calm and smiling "Apparently not, Enchanter? SHIELD liaison to the League?"

"Never heard of it" he growled back sending a blast of green light to drive off the last visible enemies...

"He's got a goatee!" Quinn told me helpfully "They are clearly from some evil parallel! If comics, and Star Trek, teaches us anything it's that goatees mean evil counterpart!"

"Hey!" both blondes in superhero blue-white-red colours protested as I glanced at Quinn, then shrugged as I silently prepared my defences while the two girls stopped, glared at each other, and then started talking again "We are the good guys!"

"Kay. Though Quinn's got a point, but that's irrelevant right now..." I answered feeling a crushing weight fall down inside of me, memories roiling of a life not mine that their presence resurrected. It was a battle to stay calm, to not shout at them who they were, where they were...to be so close yet so far from where...from who I'd once been "...as we've mutual enemies, and clearly have been summoned here against our well. Can we work together too..."

I never got to finish those words as gunshots echoed out to our side, followed by a dinosaur's death rattle as a white-haired Conan the Barbarian wannabe suddenly appeared in all his bare-chested, fur clad, glory "I can explain. I am Travis Morgan, Warlord of Shamballa, I've been expecting you"

'Must resist urge to shoot barbarian abductor who won't talk and walk' I told myself as the barbarian attempted to not explain what the hell he'd done. Instead I calmly held my weapons at the ready, but not obviously, and smiled politely "So, you've abducted us here I'm guessing from that whole expecting us comment. Now, explanations will be in order Mr. Warlord. I'd rather not have to resort to violence to have our freedom restored after all"

He frowned, and I was curious why a barbarian warlord was packing a semi-automatic as well "Look...I can explain, but it isn't safe here"

"Yes, I gathered..." I smiled back "...but I've no idea who you are, nor is the whole...abducting...us thing really helping your case"

The blonde girl with the staff and stars all over here uniform raised her hand now we seemed to have a few moments "Uh, yeah, I...ugh, agree with White Suit guy. Can you just...send us back? Kidnapping members of the Justice League is, like, super bad!"

He winced "I...didn't...abduct you. You were summoned here to aid us against..."

I avoided a feral smile...barely "You summoned us to fight your gods-damned war, didn't you?"

"I...really think it would be best if we could just go to the fortress and my daughter...who performed the spell...could explain the situation better. Staying here is dangerous, Deimo's Dino-troopers will return in greater numbers, and we are not far from the fortress"

"I'm with Callum on this..." Quinn offered from beside me "...why should we trust you?"

Other blonde, Super-girl I assumed, who wasn't hovering like the other one pointed at the bare-chested barbarian "Send us back, or you'll be in so much trouble Mister!"

"Look, please, I can expain..."

[01.14: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Driving a Battle-mage in a corner is a...bad idea...]

"You worked for Amanda Waller" was more statement that question I found as Lantern Stewart spoke, tone holding back repressed...anger?...unhappiness?...as best I could tell. All four 'Justice League' members were clearly on edge, blonde Supergirl glaring angrily, but silently, at me as well as Travis the dislocated American Barbarian as we approached a stone, wooden, and earthen fortress at the end of a valley. Been a while...well, another life really, since I'd seen such and...

'Not all that impressive' I noted focusing on that a moment before nodding back with a friendly smile to the unfriendly and non-trusting 'heroes' that weren't from my Earth "Well, I reported to her as a part of our deal as member nations of SHIELD, I worked for the Irish Government in the ultimately, but she gave me my license to crush bad-guys and blow stuff up that needed blowing up on American soil. Grumpy woman, but she did know how to get things done, and how to deal with threats to the public good"

"You worked for Amanda Waller" he repeated 'calmly' and I frowned at him...

"Yes, yes, I did Lantern Stewart, when in the US anyway. Doctor Fate was head of SHIELD, and my...teacher...yeah let's go with that...was...ugh...John Constantine. I'm unsure with what the problem is, it was all UN approved and someone had to clean up all the Justice League's mes...complications during missions"

He half-growled under his breath I noted as we walked along "And nothing about restraining the League of course"

"Oh, yeah, that too of course..." I replied brightly "...can't have the space station giving you all airs...oh, do you lot have a Watchtower as well? They didn't like me getting up there, stuck me up in Mount Justice usually with the rest of the young heroes as they called'us, nice view when I was up there"

His eye twitched, and the fact violence hadn't happend yet indicated he probably wasn't evil, along with the fact the Justice League sounded...not evil at least. Supergirl of the grumpy glare was the one who replied instead of the Green Lantern, cutting him off with her squeaky growl "And what were you doing there, huh?"

"Having the shitty job of being glared at by Batman while telling Superman to stay out of Metropolis so the mind-control starfish aliens wouldn't taken him over..." I paused, frowning "Oh, and Superman your Brother? Father?..."

"Cousin" came the growl back...

I brought my cane up under my chin and rubbed it in thought "I wonder if you're around in my former earth? Connor would love to have had a cousin..."

She paused, Lantern Stewart getting ahead of her "Connor?"

"Oh, Superboy, a teammate, bunch of imbeciles calling themselves Cadmus tried cloning Superman, out came Superboy. We got Kon out, smashy-smashy an' all that, but, yeah, lack of family since Supes is big giant dou...not handling it well. And I'm not around on your world? Hmm, makes sense, makes sense, I might not have sold my soul for magic knowledge yet after all!"

"You sold your soul for what now?" came back from Lantern Stewart in confusion as Quinn seemed to be caught up between studying the laser gun in his hand, and looking at the primitive shit-hole we were rapidly approaching . Other blondie, hovering with a staff like it was broom as she sat on it, decided to interrupt though with a happy, cheerful, tone compared to her colleagues.

"Oh! Oh! And am I around? Stargirl!"

"No, I..." I paused blinking as memories of annoying TV show I was made watch from time to time popped into my mind "Wait...Stargirl? Courtney..."

"...!!!!" nothing got said but the frantic wave and half-growl caused me to pause...

"Ugh, yeah, you're not in the Justice League though...you're...um, well Hollywood, actress, reporter, so, ugh, secret identity known, sorry!" I replied scratching my head awkwardly in embarrassment "Zatanna and Robin sorta made me watch it, her and Black Canary. Not really my sort of thing, sorry"

"She's a Hollywood star and I'm still on the farm!" Supergirl complained stamping her foot, nearly stumbling as she did so "Ugh! This place! My powers are..."

"Zatanna and Black Canary were your teammates?" Lantern Stewart interjected glaring at both girls while robot-man, STRIPE apparently his name, shushed whatever Stargirl was going to retort with. I merely shrugged, gesturing with arms open, cane outwards.

"Zee was..." and boy was Other-Me likely having a fun time dealing with whole kissing Zatanna thing during the battle. Warmed the cockles of my cloned not-there heart thinking about the amusing fights that was causing in response "...Canary was training mostly, oh, are she and Green Arrow dating in your world too?"

"Yes" came back from the two blonde girls, followed by a glare from the Green Lantern.

"Cool, oh, and you should watch for clone replacements by the way. Cadmus cloned Red Arrow...or he could still be Speedy, I blame Luthor even if we can't prove nuffin, and tried the whole secretly replace and mind control the League thing"

"HE WHAT?"

"Oh, look, we're here" I noted at the shouted response as Travis 'Warlord who abducted us' Morgan gestured forward and gabbled some nonsense about being welcome to the run down fort up a dead end valley. Also something about the last free people of Skartaris and the need to save them, blah, blah, blah. I'd be a lot more sympathic if he...well his daughter apparently...hadn't magically kidnapped me and Quinn just when we were about to travel towards the motherload that was empty earth. If he'd waited till after that point at least I'd have bags full of weapons to sell him and his band of savages...

'Now, now, that's unfair...' I reminded myself firmly, clamping down on the anger at the man as it was a weakness to indulge in such thoughts and they were fuelled mostly by that anger "...focus on surviving and escaping this mess...and not letting this lot depress you with memories of crushing loneliness of never going home again'

Of course focusing on the forces at hand, and the explanation from Travis 'White Man's Burden' Morgan, didn't help with that opinion as this place screamed Uthgardt savages or barbarian Orc clans. Basically the people, and culture, that Karguk had absolutely loathed as they pranced about waving sorts either bare-chested, or clad in rags. Sure they were refugees in many cases, but their Warlord paraded about without armour as well, and where their enemies had laser guns and the like;-they had wooden sticks and swords. This was annoying as hell as they clearly had enough steel, and ability, to churn out good quality metal-work and had wasted that into making swords instead of spear-points and basic armour...

'Yes, yes, the noble savages speech' I mentally growled listening as the situation was laid out; suddenly the 'evil wizard' had gone high-tech and rapidly crushed the savage, backward, human kingdoms that had been established in this dimension. His kingdom had fallen to a superior foe, and boo-hoo, he needed magical conscripts to restore him to his 'rightful' place lording it over all the other barbarians. Such noble goals from a man who'd once been a US military officer...

'Wait a minute' popped into my head suddenly "Wait...you had the power to get back to Earth? I mean, their Earth?"

"No...not till..."

I frowned as we stood inside the 'Great Temple' and glanced at the Warlord, then at the Green Lantern as the man gave mixed signals as a reply, before shaking my head "Right. Let me get this straight; you've basically stayed in the land that time forgot so you can play barbarian warlord and lord it over all these folks, even though you've a way out, or a way to bring in modern technology..."

"That would corrupt the..."

"You use a gods-damned semi-automatic pistol you...you...hypocrite!" I replied...more politely than I'd meant it as I cut off the excuses "And then, when your neighbouring power does bring in outside help, as that's the only place these things could be coming from, you forcibly conscript people from other worlds to fight your battles for you!"

I gestured at Lantern Stewart "Unless there is a serious difference between the Green Lantern Corp of my timeline and his, he can't just pick sides in a planetary civil war this without some sort of investigation. Am I correct Lantern Stewart?"

The Green Lantern frowned, deeply, then noted "That is correct, and while I am inclined to help you Mr. Morgan, the situation you have created here is...less than ideal I might add"

"See this is the thing..." I replied politely, calmly "...I am a trader, I am willing to deal, and it seems very much that me and Quinn have option but to fight thanks to your efforts, but this is all, very, very, problematic Warlord Morgan and you will restore us to our homes and compensate us for the damages you have caused. Will cause, as you are asking us..." I gestured from me to Quinn, then at the other four "...and them, to potentially die in war nothing to do with us"

Supergirl and Stargirl were young, my...Other-Me's teammates young, and full of the fire that came with being young super-heroines. Not only that there was something wrong with the Kryptonian girl, the Red Sun most likely, that made her weak right now; weak enough that a solid sword thrust could kill her, let alone a laser gun. And Stargirl was...clearly not arrow or laser-blast proof either, and neither had clearly considered than potential outcome...

"Hold heroes, my Father and I meant well, the Free..." a voice came from my right, and I turned to see a white haired woman, wreathed in arcane power, came towards us, bare-legged and clad in what would have called 'sexy sorceress' clothes by some as she fell silent as he eyes fell upon me and my eyes narrowed just like hers...

"You are a mage, what is...wrong with your..."

I glared back "Indeed I am, and unhappy at your own actions Sorceress of Shamballa. While I am willing to make a deal, I well aware of the butchery and slaughter you have summoned us here to commit in the name of your so-called noble cause. And, frankly, you are lucky that others, darker and more merciless, had not been dragged here by your magicks"

"Callum, we're helping the pretty lady aren't we?" Quinn asked me "If they pay us, right?"

I sighed, toning down the aggression as I rested both hands on the hilt of my walking cane "Fine. Then let us discuss terms..."

[01.15: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[A foggy day, with a sudden onset of screaming...]

'I've made a terrible mistake' was the primary thought dominating Jennifer Morgan's mind as she continued to watch the Devil in White that she'd summoned along with the actual heroes of Earth. His soul...there was something very, very, wrong with it, though he hid it well behind lies and illusions;- and his words had been nothing but poison as her Father attempted to win them over to cause of saving Skartaris from Deimos. Not only that but he had brought forth a few firearms and explosives, intent on arming the free folk, who were untrained in such ways, before erupting in a rage in the Temple as the Great Stone shone upon 'Supergirl' harming her.

'And how were we to know it was such a danger to her!' Jennifer thought unhappily as the bells rang and drums pounded warming that the dark forces of Deimos were upon their last refuge 'Or perhaps a further sign that I failed and summoned demons instead of saviours perhaps? Perhaps she is an inhuman monster like the orcs and lizardmen, save wearing a pleasant visage instead?"

That was truly a fear now as she strode up onto the battlement of the fortress tower, arms raised as Jennifer called upon the powers of magick and sorcery once again with the wind flapping about her bare legs. Her father was an inspiration to the savage lands they had been brought too, and as he had she and Mother needed to stand as examples to the others in the face of evil. It must have been why they had been brought here from America, in this land's darkest hours, to show the shining light beacon of human freedom and ensure all lived in touch with the land of Skartaris.

Deimos Black Magicks flared, and she met them with her own as his great host marched down the valley towards them, energy weapons, a sure sign of his depravity in using such technology, flaring. Thankfully the Green Ring block some of the blasts with his magic ring, as she deflect them with her magic as she saw the Devil in White standing at the front gate. Father was supposed to lead a sally now, to drive forth with righteous fury into the numerous enemy rather than cowering behind walls awaiting their fate like corner beasts. Instead the Devil in White and his companion, the Guilty One, had denied Father this and now she felt fell powers mustering...

She saw as he raised up a scroll in one hand, his cane-staff in the other as the dark whispers filled the air, the scroll burning to ash on the winds as the cane tapped downwards. Then she saw, with eyes and her mystic senses, the vile vapours blow forward from the ashes, thickening and swirling till they condensed into greyish-black fog that billowed away from the walls towards the charging enemy. Disgust filled her as she felt the first deaths, and then screams, as the dark noxious vapours rolled over charging dino-cavalry and their lizardmen riders. For a brief moment she could feel them choking and wheezing, dying in droves as the monstrous spell took effect.

Gunshots echoed out from around the walls at the direction of the Devil in White and his companion, all while energy blasts flew forth from the Stargirl and the robot knight. Something of a concern there, but a minor one as she sent forth powerful blasts of her own powers into the sky, her eyes ablaze with righteous fury, to scatter the flying monsters of Deimos. Gladly did she watch as a few of them, vile inhuman lizardmen all of them, fell to their deaths from their scattered flying mounts. Below the horrific fog of dark energies continued to billow forward into the ranks of Deimos dark horde, throwing the ranks into chaos as the Devil in White seemed to vanish...

...then reappear in multiple locations along the walls, or even one wandering forward, unharmed, through the swirl of vileness he had summoned forth. Father looked uneasy, even from this distance, as did Mother and her new husband Machiste, as more madness and darkness was unleashed before them. Jennifer felt it first, the Black Magick on the wind, the whispers in the dark, as darkness stirred...and the dead rose...

'Monstrous!' she growled, but there was no time to think on it right now as Deimos, clearly enraged, summoned forth a great many-headed serpent to do battle. Desperately Jennifer called forth her power, drawing out a blessed summons of a Blazing Phoenix from the void to charge forward to engage, and hopefully slay, the dread monster. By the time she looked back dozens of...monsters, that was all they were...of the dead lizardmen ran forward with blood and bile covered faces. Arrows flew from the battlements into the now disorganised horde alongside white and green coloured blasts from those she had summoned.

Deimos was reacting now, seemingly aware of the threat of the dark fog rolling forward, and as Jennifer focused on destroying his serpent monster with her Phoenix. Power magic, flames of dark energy, roared out and burned into the horror fog, tearing into the advancing foggy wall even undead things tore into the red orcs and lizardmen milling about in chaos...

"THE GODS PUNISH YOU HEATHENS!" roared out in...Jennifer's eyes widened as the Devil in White's voice roared out in dark, guttural, and strangely accented and archaic orcish "TO SERVE THIS FOOL WIZARD THE SHROUDED LORD OF NISHREK SHOWS YOU DISFAVOUR! REPENT YOUR MISDEEDS! LEAVE THIS FOOL BEFORE HE LEADS YOU TO YOUR DESTRUCTION!!!"

'What?' ran through her mind as the rumbling voice falsely trembling the lands, along with the momentary outline of a tower figure standing in the fog and pointing at the orcs. Only for a few seconds as the voice spoke, and she growled in irritation at such parlour tricks at a time such as this. Deimos was clearly enraged by such mockery and she felt his location as the fog was, finally, dispelled by a flood of dark energy. Father took at advantage of that at least, the gates swinging open as he and his brave warriors could charge forth, crying glorious battle-cries and racing forward so that the swiftest and strongest fighters engaged the enemy before the lesser fighters.

As she expected the non-humans fell back before such a courageous and terrifying charge, the Green Ring and Star Staff Girl shielding them from the monsters in the sky, as swords drove into the laser gun wielding lizardmen. Strangely the red orcs were edging backwards as a mass, their priests milling about and shouting as if communicating with their heathen gods, though no such things existed of course and Jennifer frowned as unknown walked with the enemy. A strange skull pained woman, whose shrieking voice seemed to drain the life from, walked alongside a metal monster whose chest was open, a green rock shooting forth unholy beams of twisted green light.

'Deimos's suppliers of technology perhaps?' she wondered, lifting herself with the winds of magick to fly down with a jump to the walls nearer the fight. Raising her arms, eyes ablaze with mystic energy, she threw burning white flame at the skull faced woman so that she could harm no more of Father's noble warriors with wicked magic voice. Below the S-clad girl had charged forth with a sword to aid the battle, and as Jennifer tried to incinerate the skull-woman she saw the S-girl wield a sword, badly, only to be driven off with a blast of the unholy green energy.

The Star Staff Girl interrupted that battle with a blast of white light as Jennifer burned the arm of the screaming Skull-faced woman before the Green Ring gagged her mouth with his green magic. She suspected the Devil in White was there as the green rock was ripped from metal monster's chest, paralysing the creature, but with no visible source, even the rock vanishing from sight seconds later, beyond a flash of magick power. Father was cutting his way through the inhumans, the red orcs...withdrawing as best she could tell...and Deimos was coming forth to face him now...

CrraccckkkkkkkBBOOOOOMMMMM

...just as a large explosion erupted from where the vile wizard had been, incinerating dozens of lizardmen and other monstrous races that served as his guards. Jennifer blinked in surprise at the sudden detonation, and screams, though a faintly singed Deimos came raging out of the flames and smoke seconds later...

RuumbblleeeBoooommmmmmm

...a blazing bolt of lightning erupting from nowhere as the Devil in White strolled forward with his cane from another direction. Deimos blocked with a shield of black energy, before lashing out at the Devil in White with red-black flames that...

'Illusion!' Jennifer realised as the attack incinerated a dozen of Deimos own servants as the image wavered moments before the flames struck. Glancing and seeing that Father was safe, and that Mother was too, she held back, watching as Deimos and Devil in White engaged in a wizardly duel. In a perfect world they would slay each other and the threat ended then and there, so Jennifer focused upon aiding the heroes that would save Skartaris as it should be. Hovering down to the ground beside her Father she sent forth blasts of eldritch energy, watching as the enemy horde continued to unravel before her eyes.

"The fight goes well Father!"

He nodded, grinning as his sword slammed down into the chest of a fallen foe "Good Jen, it goes good...where is Deimos? We need to..."

Magick flared, and Jennifer hissed as she felt dimensions torn open, saw and felt tentacles and darkness out of nightmares flare into reality and grab the screaming and raging Deimos. Jennifer stared a moment, the world awash in darkest magicks as the two Dark Wizards battled with powers beyond her keen "Father I have made a terrible mistake!"

"Jen?"

"Deimos is merely one danger, and I brought forth another, perhaps worse, one..." she stated recoiling at the yet another spell of necromancy as the darkness warred...then Deimos's life energy flared...then died...

"But one I will fix! I'm sorry I failed you Father!" she cried out in shame, but drawing forth determination as a head was thrust up into the air and the horde broke apart fully as cries of Deimos death filled the air and Father questioned her with a 'What, Jen?' upon his lips "The one in White, his Dark powers, I see it clearly now! We need to banish them before it is too late!"

"Jen! JEN!" Father cried after her as she reached out to the winds of magick and drove herself airborne, a swirling vortex of air beneath her as she drew upon her powers. The Devil in White was leaning on his cane now, clearly looting the desiccated corpse of the fallen Dark Wizard with his torn and battered soul now clear to her mystic sight. She recognised much of that darkness; vile magicks of the Red Orcs, inhuman soul fragments fused with necrotic horror and some unknown soul energies that swirl about chaotically beneath bonds of Dark Order as it had with Deimos. Such Tyranny would not be allowed exist upon Skartaris, this was a land of Freedom, and Strength, and Creation, not the crushing oppression of such tyrannical 'Order'...

"Hey! I'm...what are you doi...?" the Devil in White managed to growl out, eyes flashing golden as rage filled them just as she unleashed a blast of mystic power to temporarily stun him. He blocked with a shield of some sorted, roaring out in rage as Jennifer barely dodged a blast of white-blue lightning directed at her as she summoned the powers of the land once again. It hurt, burning out her reserves for days...perhaps weeks...to come, but she was a sorceress of Skartaris now, a protector of the lands that had adopted her and the vision of the threat this creature represented was clear to her now. That all of those she'd summoned represented, so she would undo that...

Power roared as her vision went white, ripping open the dimensional doors she had drawn them through and forcing them back, reversing the summons...

'For Skartaris!' filled her mind as she crumbled from her hovering position, falling into her father's arms as darkness claimed her with the raging threats of the Devil in White in her ears as he and his folk were banished back where they belonged. The people were safe now, the lands purged of the darkness, and she just...needed...a little...nap...

{Some time and distance away}

Ulank knelt, his mind hurt, as the tribe rested after their retreat. The Gods had granted them a warning, for the first in many years to the Red Orcs of Skartaris, and they had been saved the worst of the slaughter that had followed the victory of the humans. Yet again the invaders had won, the Wizard slain, their allies crushed...

'Rise Priests of Ilneval!' commanded a voice in his mind, a whisper, just others around him jerked in a similar manner to he himself 'Rise Priests of the Shrouded Lord!'

He gripped the strange weapons of the outsiders in his hand as the whispers spoke again, of war, and build cities, and other things he and the others had not thought of. But the vengeance that the voices spoke of, that he easily understood...

[01.16: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Freezing to death in a Winter Wonderland...]

Kara opened her eyes, groaning as she brought arms herself as the bitter cold was suddenly...everywhere really...and found herself staring into a darkening, snow filled, cloudy sky. Shivering, the wincing in pain, she pushed herself up stand only to realise she was in a...mountain valley?...with snow everywhere, and more starting to come down. Worse she still felt weak after the stay in wherever the horrible red-sun place had been, and now, suddenly, she was back in the...arctic?...after crazy barbarian man's daughter had started attacking the other guy they'd summoned here...

'What...happened...' was the main, sluggish thought process, but suddenly feeling that her uniform did not offer near enough warmth Kara brought her shivering right hand up to her ear-piece "Watchtower! Can you hear me? J'onn it's Kara?"

Nothing again, not even static and shivered looking around, fingers touching it again. They had to be home, they just had to be "J'onn...anybody?"

Again there was silence, and Kara brought her hand, bringing that arm around herself, hugging in her cloak as she started to run herself. Must be still feeling the effects of Metallo and that horrible Skartaris place she guessed, looking around seeing more snow and rocks and bare trees "Green Lantern? STRIPE?...Stargirl?"

'Come on, I'd settle for Stargirl even' she groaned stumbling forward, snow coming up to her knees "Guys? Come on! Anybody?"

"Here! Little help here! Please!" a male voice called back weakly and Kara looked around, trying to follow it, before catching sight of one of the other two 'summoned heroes' they'd been dragged there. It was the tech-guy...Quill? Quinn?...and Kara struggled towards him, finding him weakly struggling towards her, cradling his left arm with his right while awkwardly clutching one of those laser guns the lizards had been using. Kara caught him under that arm, feeling him almost collapse unto her, arm around her shoulders, as she supported his weight easily enough despite him being taller.

"What happen?"

"I don't know" Kara replied shivering and gritting her teeth as another blast of icy wind blew over her. Not being at full strength sucked...

"Where's Callum?"

"I do..." was as far as she got before another male voice interrupted, coughing and clearly in pain.

"He...re, here!" the aforementioned white-suit guy called out, though his white-suit was clearly battered looking now, and covered in splotches of blood...just like his eyes and face "...I'm...oh...fuck..."

Then the staggering figure bent forward, leaning on his walking cane and spat, or violently coughed, up flecks of what looked like blood. Kara held firmly onto the other guy, trying to move as swiftly towards the struggling white-suit as he went to one-knee in the snow and proceed to vomit up more than just blood. Getting nearer to him showed...he did not look well...at all Kara found as she saw black and green flash across his white skin, black burns on his hand. He continued coughing weakly as she neared, and he pushed himself on and wiping his lips with his gloved hand.

"Are you okay?"

Stupid question Kara knew, but Clark and Ma and Pa had drilled it into her head, and genuine concern was there as the man she was half-carrying was barely all there right now either. While she could probably carry both of them, it did not hint at good things as she continued with another pressing question "What happened? Where are the others?"

"Don't know, didn't see..." the other man...though he looked younger now, weaker as he leaned on the cane, coughing, while his other hand reached into his backpack, rummaging around for something. He stared at her a moment, looking around as he coughed again "...wait a minute, where are we? Quinn...you ok?"

"Ugh, think my arm is broken..." came the grunted complaint from the man Kara was holding up, half-shouted, half-said as the winds howled, as she shivered again as her cloaked fluttered about wildly "...what happened Callum"

"No...ugh...no, good deed goes unpunished..." the other guy growled back pulling out a small bottle with a red-green liquid in it and bringing it to his lips after another cough fit "...fuckin' bitch sorceress betrayed us. Forced teleport or sumthin', don't matter...we need get shelter or we'll freeze to death"

'Even I might' Kara had to admit as if she was a bone chilled right now, then two injured humans were probably worse, but she had to worry about the others "My friends, where are they? We have to find them!"

"Hells...I dunno!" he coughed back after downing the potion, wincing and gripping his cane before standing back up, looking around just as Kara was doing frantically. For the others as much as to find her fellow Justice Leaguers "We're not...where we were...dimensionally..."

"GREEN LANTERN!" Kara shouted out again as she struggled forward with the other two victims of whatever had been used to attack them "STRIPE! STARGIRL!"

'Come on, where are you guys?' was the worrying thought as the wizard guy grimaced, muttering something magical under his breath and then looking around with oddly burning eyes after wincing. He'd done something, and was looking around while Kara was directed towards some shelter, though she changed course as she spotted a cave entrance a bit further away. Wizard guy said he was looking, and Kara believed him as she continued to shout out but getting no response beyond the wind blowing snow and icy air painful into her face in response.

"Does your earpiece...hnnn...have reception to them?" the man she was half-carrying asked and she blinked...

'Now I feel dumb' she thought bringing her hand back up and taking out the item and beginning to fiddle with the tiny device with one hand as best she could. To her horror there was no indication of any other Justice League member within a mile as she spoke into it and found nothing receiving the call, nor any sign of a two-way response. Green Lantern, if he wasn't unconscious, should be able to locate her based on it though, so she quickly switched it a blinking emergency repeat as long as the battery held up...

"Oh thank God, I thought we'd freeze out there!" she groaned out as they entered the...not-cave; it was more a rocky overhand with sides a bit out, but it was enough to rest...Quinn down into a sitting position and start to rub at her own painfully freezing skin. White suit...Callum?...staggered in behind them, kneeling down on one knee and shivering as much as she was, and his voice wasn't exactly strong and filled with confidence either as he replied.

"Sstill could...I've a gas heater..." he ground out unslinging the pack from his back, and Kara watched as it seemed to expand in size as he coughed and starting pulling at the backpack "...need get warm. Quinn...potion in...pack...I'll fix arm in a moment. Your friends...Supergirl?"

Kara bit her lip, arms hugging her cloak around her as she shook her head, snowflakes falling out of her hair as she did so "No, I can't...they're not...answer...not here"

"Ok...okay..." he replied pulling out a gas heater, then a large box that should not possibly have fit inside what he pulled it out off "...look, we need get this shelter setup, and I need help heal Quinn and setup an illusion or ward before I crash"

That didn't sound good "Crash?"

"Bitch got me good, and I'm running on...unnfff...flumes...I need...rest, an hour...maybe hours..." came back as the battered, somewhat inhuman looking now, human wizard crawled over to the injured Quinn and began to chant and wave his cane over the man's arm. Faint light appeared over the broken arm, the sitting man wincing before letting a deep breath filled with relief after a few moment "...that's best I can do for now. Don't...overdo things with it...needs more...but we need setup. I'll...I'll put up a ward..."

"I'll setup the tent..."Kara said standing up, trying to ignore the cold, as she was clearly the strongest right now of the three of them, and sitting around just wasn't her style. She didn't know these two, nor really trust someone who'd worked for Amanda fricken' Waller of all people, but if she wanted to find the others she needed to be better, and help them so they'd help her "...let me help..."

{Kalum had a little rest;- wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey...}

I woke up coughing and to aches and pains, all of them my own. Raising my hand up to my face I found a heavy fur blanket draped around me, and surprisingly enough some warm air on my face in the...

'Tent's up it seems...wards too...did I do that?' I thought seeing the illuminated inside of the large travel tent winds blowing at it, and the feel of my illusionary wards in place. Things had been somewhat of a blur since that damned sorceress stabbed us in the back the moment we'd defeated the 'evil wizard' for her and her barbarian father. Rightful vengeance would have to wait though as I winced at my aching muscles reminded me of every little movement, and my earlier magic usage.

"You're awake?" came an exhausted feminine voice across from me, and I blinked and saw...

'Oh, yeah, Kryptonian, yay...whoo' I thought tiredly straightening up a bit and trying to get into a less uncomfortable 'resting position while discovering my voice was somewhat hoarse as I answered the now equally fur-clad Supergirl as she had a device of some sort resting on her lap "Yeah...I'm, yeah...was out long..."

"Hour or two, maybe more, hard to track..." she answered, sounding utterly exhausted, as I saw Quinn had fallen asleep on the ground to her left, well, the floor of the tent "...got distracted, Quinn here got some parts from the bags to help me...no answer from my friends"

"I'm sorry, I really am..." I replied honestly resting my head back as I folded up a fur blanket and put it behind my neck for support "...we can search...I'm just"

"It's okay Mister Wizard, you don't...look too well..." she replied touching her mouth for emphasis then wincing as she stretched "...none of us do. Ugh, hate this"

'And we've small tusks again' I frowned, touching my face then looking at the blood-soaked uniform under the fur blanket, just like my own "You took a wound?"

Supergirl shrugged, then grimaced as that clearly wasn't the best idea for her body "Yeah...sword, I bandaged it up, got clawed as well. Ugh. What happened?"

I coughed, trying to settle down flaring my magic as I pulled the blanket around me "Forced dimensional teleport or transportation, something like that...sent back way we can, but apparently not where we started from"

"Looks the same to where they grabbed me..." she growled, though more to herself than to me "...as we were in the Arctic heading home"

"Oh, we were in a much warmer area, and nicer too..." I answered closing my eyes, focusing on controlling my breathing "...just about travel elsewhere in the multi-verse when we were grabbed. Lessons learned...get paid first, don't trust so easily...damned traitorous sorceress. I'm Callum by the way...sorry you've got me not at my best I'm afraid. What's that in your lap?"

"This? Your friend Quinn helped me try locate my friends, boost up the signal...before he collapsed from exhaustion anyway. No luck though...I'm...I'm...I don't know where they are"

I could feel the pain her voice, and I coughed unfortunately before shaking it off and opening my eyes and trying to be encouraging to her "They are probably fine...but...I...they could have been sent wherever you started from. If they are nearby I'm sure we'll find them..."

"I don't think they are...the locator should see for miles now...' she began before trailing off, looking at the tent entrance "...and the sun...isn't right. I'm still at...like, half-power...if that, and I couldn't fly when I went outside to look around...and then there are the two moons in the sky"

"Oh" was my simple reply as I winced again, pausing for a few moments of silence before sighing "Dammit"

She was surprisingly calm "You can travel between dimensions? Portals and stuff?"

"I...yeah, not right now...not for a bit..." I answered nodding, then sighing "...but I...can't promise anything, I...don't even know where we are, nor where your home dimension is. I can try get you back but...it could take time...a lot of time"

"Not good enough" was the faint, barely audible, muttered words from the pale blonde girl hugging the blanket and cloak around her for dear life, before she let out a breath and answering tiredly "Not your fault. You'll help me though? Right?"

I groaned softly, legs hurting along with my soul "Well, my recent good actions have resulted in pain, but I'll say yes since you've probably saved me and Quinn from freezing to death. I just...unfff...can't promise anything, I'm sorry in that, but I'll try...just...can we discuss later? We need eat and rest before we collapse, figure out where we are..."

[01.17: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[A hot chocolate on a cold, snowy, day...does not make up for the giant man-eating spiders...]

We'd...well, they'd mostly, had managed to get the tent setup with a fairly decent amount of space in our craggy underhand. All three of us could, and had, rested in something of an exhausted triangle around the little heater that provided the warmth and light for our temporary home. I wasn't great as I came around once again, to both Quinn and the blonde Kryptonian in their own exhausted sleep, but I was certainly better than I'd been...hours ago?

'Uhhh...still little tusks...but the necrosis is gone at least' I thought to myself feeling at my face, then glancing at my arms and hands, flesh faintly green-white. It tingled inside, but the gut wrenching backlash was gone at the very least, which was good as I couldn't just keep burning healing potions like this. So I pushed myself up into a sitting position, shaking off the blankets and looking at bloodstained, and more importantly battered, suit, shirt, and trousers. I could stretch, a little anyway, so I did so, carefully, and began to pull out a change of clothes from my magical travel bag as this wouldn't do in the environment we were in.

'Fecking owwww' I found as I slowly managed to work decent mobility of some sort into my muscles as the suit jacket slid off and I pulled out the means to cook some food without burning the whole place down. First I managed to strip off the enchanted wear that had kept me alive in the battle with the traitorous sorceress bitch who was going to pay...eventually, probably sometime from now. For now I settled for getting into warmer wear, and light armour with all the attendant pockets and pouches I'd hopefully need out in the winter wonderland outside.

"You're awake" came the simple statement from Supergirl as she sat up as I went about belting up while not being able to stand up properly. Quinn was still snoring away, and outside the winds continued their nasty shrieking while banging on our sheltered camping spot, so I nodded for the moment, fastening the belt before sitting back down "Do you have spares?"

I sighed, wincing a bit as my shoulder sent a shiver of pain as moved, before opening up the compartment again as I replied "Aye, I do, and yeah, awake again...hunger getting to me maybe, dunno. Can't say I've much, and they'll be a bit big..."

She gave an irritated snort hand gesturing at me to 'give, give' while the other held the blanket around her as she nodded at the entrance to the tent "They're going on over what I'm wearing. Don't think you'll be getting a look at me buddy!"

"Oh don't worry, I'm too busy feeling miserable to ogle you, and you're the muscle here, so that'd seem a bad idea...anyway, here, sort what you want from this lot..." I answered taking out a box filled with the spare hiking clothes and us military fatigues and sliding it over to the waiting girl "...best we do, what with oathbreakers banishing us here. I'm going cook...let's call it breakfast, yeah breakfast, cuz I needz the energies and the coffees nows"

"Are you...okay?"

I gave a snort of bitter amusement at the genuine concern, for a stranger she didn't particularly like, from the superheroine "No, no I'm not, but I am better than I was a few hours ago"

"You've..." she pointed at her mouth awkwardly, as she opened up the survival gear pack with the other hand with a frown "...ugh, and you're...umm...looking sort of...green?"

"Something of a condition of mine, and that battle did not do me any favours...I'll explain in time, now is just not it..." I answered attaching the cooking unit with power supply to the heater to turn it into a cooking area to put the frying pan "...I'll be like this for a little bit, so please ignore. The more important thing is figuring out where the hell we are"

"So we can leave"

I nodded pulling out some of the MREs, water bottles, and some butter "So we can leave...just don't expect it any time soon, unless it's a blind jump, as I need time to rest and recover...and honestly figure how to get you back from wherever the hell we are. The other issue is I think we were banished, magically banished, and that'll make travel hard...and I'm just a novice at all this I'll warn. I know you want to hear other than that, but I won't start off lying to you about the time and effort this'll take"

She was silent a few minutes, throwing off the blanket and starting to pull on the heavier clothes over her red and blue superhero costume as I finished, carefully setting up the cooking setup before breaking the awkward silence "I'm sorry this might not be my best cooking, but SHIELD survival rations will keep us alive and fed when we start exploring the area around here, and see if there's civilization...and if it's one we can deal with while human looking"

"Human looking?" Quinn asked waking up, awkwardly shoving himself up and wincing in pain as he put too much pressure on his arm "Fuck...oh, that magic thing you said about Callum"

I shrugged as I tore open the beans packet while heating the water to make coffee "Yeah, the magic thing Quinn, so we're here a time. Plans are ruined"

He yawned, sitting up and groaning "Oh, yeah, I sort of assumed that happened when crazy scanty sorceress girl grabbed us and had us fight the army of demons and lizards...and that's before we got thrown into icy frozen hell. Maybe I'm just hallucinating all this? I went crazy from the isolation and I'm actually sitting in a desert staring at nothing"

"No, fraid not mate, frozen shitty hell it is, your sane, and having beans, bacon and crackers for breakfast with me and Supergirl here. Oh, and there's coffee too, thank the Shrouded Lord, because I need coffee..." I muttered, then sighed, glancing at the blonde girl "There's also tea or hot chocolate if you like? Me and Quinn are coffee people"

"This is surreal..." Supergirl muttered softly, then shook her head, almost in disbelief "You know what? I'll have a hot chocolate. Kal and the others won't believe any of this anyway"

I shrugged "I'm sure he will, this profession brings out all the crazy unfortunately, and all I wanted to do was some trading. Serves me right for tryin' to help people apparently...without seeing are they trustworthy people first at least...or getting paid"

{Sometime later, with full bellies, and on weary limbs...}

The winds were still strong and bitter on my face, but the shrieking blizzard had died down and sunshine illuminated the frozen forest and mountains we were currently walking through. It was a struggle through knee high, occasionally waist high, snow and I'd pulled a scarf up to my face as it really bloody cold, our breaths steaming on the air as we moved through this valley of sorts. The goal was the high point some distance ahead of us through the trees. Getting up there should, hopefully, give a better view to judge was the best way to work our way somewhere.

I'd looked in the other directions with some very weak, very basic, astral projection and seen nothing but snow, trees, rocks, and dangerous looking animals hidden within. Wolves definitely, and I really hope some of the shadows weren't giant spiders like I was sure they were, but there was only so much I could push myself right now. One might need offensive spells, or setting wards, so I'd scouted a little with what I could and held the Model 10 rifle, wrapped in furs, slung over my shoulder along with my pack and other items. It made for slow progress, Supergirl easily being the best of the three of us physically, as we trudged forward trying to watch for threats.

She was honestly holding up better than I'd expected, since it was clear there were no signs of her fellow Justice League members, we were on an alien world, and she was stuck with two complete strangers. All while being weaker than she normally was, just like the last place, and now walking through a bitterly cold wilderness with no true destination in mind beyond 'get higher up, look around'. I coughed a little, bringing back out the binoculars and looking around us as we stopped for a few moments.

"Anything, oh fearless leader?" Supergirl asked trying to sound cheerful, and failing, and I shook my head as I scanned...north maybe?... and saw nothing much beyond more snow covered trees, snow covered ground, and snow covered mountains.

"Nothing but more snow...and more snow beyond that..." I grumbled looking back the way we'd come and...

"...and we've got something following us"

"Got what following us?"

I looked through the binoculars again after letting them down as I tried to think "Big ass spiders, two, maybe more..." I lowered the binoculars again, motioning with my hand "...see down that way a bit, I think their following our tracks in the snow"

"Big ass...it's not a problem?" Quinn asked and I shook my head.

"I don't think so..." I muttered as Supergirl brought her hand up above her eyes, squinting in that direction as I looked again with the binoculars "...they're about dog sized...yeah, definitely searching for us"

Supergirl groaned, hand dropping down to her side "Ugh, are they ugly or what!"

"Spiders do invoke that reaction, yes, I'd leave them be but their clearly hunting us" I grunted after a few seconds as the hunters picked up the pace in our direction. Putting away the binoculars for the moment I unslung the Lee-Enfield like rifle from my shoulder and pulled out the old fashioned sniper scope to attach it to head of the rifle. There were species of intelligent, telepathic, giant spiders out there in the multiverse, and I didn't want to risk that...but warning shot maybe?

Quinn fidgeted a moment, then pulled out the dino-land laser gun he'd been fiddling with "You want..."

I shrugged going down to one knee and balancing myself against a snow covered, and fecking cold, rock to rest the rifle on as Supergirl continued to stand watch "Yeah, I'd stay stand ready you two. I'll try driving them off first with a warning shot, see where we go from there. We've got a bit of space for'em to get up here to us after all. Supergirl can you watch for any other dangers?"

"Sure" came the simple reply as I adjusted the sights, then began to watch the trees where the creatures were coming forward to get us. I'd plenty of options, magical of course, but this was the least energy expensive option, just like walking instead of magically flying had been the best option in my...current state. Another few hours, or more likely a day or so, and it'd be a yes, but there was a lot of magic in this world moving freely and that meant mages. So I sighted my rifle, pressing down on the trigger to send a shot into the tree just in front of the spiders scuttling forward...

Cracccckkkk

"You missed"

"Warning shot remember" I retorted to Supergirl's 'friendly' observation seeing the creatures were unfazed by the shot, distracted by the sound a moment yes, but continuing to scurry forward having caught sight of us as one rear back hiss...

'Nope, spitting acid' I realised just as I clicked home the next bullet into the chamber and sighting the nearest of the charging monster spiders. The acid spit seemed more a reaction to the shot I'd sent at them as the spit was well short of where we were...

Cracccckkkk

Thankfully the 'Ternathian Army Model 10' did not have that short of a range and the next bullet buried itself in centre of the spitting one's eyes as the retort filled the air. I didn't bother waiting, simple working the bolt to open the chamber and reload with another large bullet as the one I'd hit staggered and stumbled, shrieking a dreadful hissing sound audible from here...

Cracccckkkk

...till the second bullet shut it up anyway. That seemed to startle the other two spider creatures, though after a moment's hesitation they seemed to decide hunger or aggression had one out. Quinn decided now was the time to try help out as the creatures charged us, and the laser had impressive range apparently...though his accuracy wasn't to match, or at least maybe the laser wasn't the most accurate...

Cracccckkkk

'And there's me missing...so no complaining I guess' I thought unhappily as this shot hit the ground in front of the spider I'd aimed at. Multiple energy blasts flew past me as I reloaded...

"Oh give me that!" a grumpy female voice complained and I heard a quick struggle behind me as Quinn complained about something as I adjusted my position and my looked down my sights...

Cracccckkkk

This shot hit home, and the red laser was hitting home as well, and...just like that, the three creatures were dead and the mountains silent again. I sighed as I stood up, shivering a little as I worked the bolt again before slinging the rifle, looking back as Supergirl smugly held handed back to Quinn. There wasn't much I could do there, and I'd a concerning thought where we might be with Two Moons, and what looked like Frostbite Spiders, so I turned to the other two, glancing at Quinn.

"We'll work on target practice I guess, stick to the Glock, you know how to use that well enough"

Quinn huffed, then shrugged as he starred at the weapon "Ah, but...I can make improvements!"

"Later tech genius..." I replied glancing at Supergirl who'd helped him with the locator apparently "...both of you tech geniuses. First I want to have a look at those bodies, maybe extract the venom..."

[1.18: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Civilization...of a sort, but it has beer and that is better than no beer...]

"Okay guys...good news, bad news time, I think" I said softly as the three of us sat in the corner of the large, mostly empty, wooden and earthen framed Inn. The owner of the Inn had retreated behind the bar after throwing some logs on the fire as we took our drinks and cook food off him. Supergirl...Kara...had stayed quiet during the whole exchange, and I'd only just realised half-way through that I hadn't given her a Ring of Comprehend Languages like myself and Quinn possessed. So I fished out the 'spare' from my backpack, as her not being able to speak the local tongue was a bad thing.

"First, Kara, that's for you" I stated softly pushing it into her hand as she gave me a strange look...

"Uhhh...I'm flattered and all, but..."

I gave her a glare at her amused and confused tone of voice "It's a ring to understand ye auld innkeeper and the locals"

"Heh heh, I knew that" came the awkward reply as she chuckled and put the ring on her finger and solved one problem at least as she looked around the near empty Inn, then back to Quinn, then me "So, good-bad news?"

"Good news; I know we are" I answered, then sighed as I took the flagon of mead into hand "Bad news; I know where we are"

"Oh..." Kara answered unhappily looking at the table "...it's one of those missions"

I nodded taking a sip of the mead, sighing as it wasn't my standard fare "Something like that I imagine. We are on the plane of Mundus, on the continent of Tamriel, in the province of Skyrim to be exact. So, we're not completely and utterly lost. That's the good news. The bad news this is Skyrim, one of those Story-verses we discussed Quinn, and a very angry Dragon-God just woke up and plans to destroy the world by resurrecting all the dead dragons. Oh, and we'll be stuck here for a...little while...till I figure out how to break through the not-insignificant barriers around this realm"

Quinn was cutting up and apple, looking around the Inn, as Supergirl...Kara looked a little stricken "This is...future California again?"

I nodded after taking a deeper drink looking over at the crackling fire in the stone hearth from the shadows of the inn where we sat "Sort of, though this is more figuring out the magic and me recovering before making said attempt. I know this is not what you want to hear Kara...but we will get there, though it'll take some time"

"That why you were asking about the Magic School?" Quinn queried and I nodded while Kara went quiet, staring into her drink while leaving conversation to me and Quinn Mallory for the moment "And you've recovered?"

"Recovered enough, but magic rich environment, and that isn't a sun up there, not in the traditional sense, but more a big ball of arcane and eldritch energies on a dimension ruled by insanely powerful eldritch entities with their own hellish dimensions I don't want to end up on by mistake. Hence why you're not at full strength Kara, not a yellow sun to draw from...oh, Quinn, it's the Mages College by the way"

Quinn shrugged "Eh, same thing. The innkeeper didn't like talk of it"

I sighed, resting back against the thick wooden walls "Nords don't like magic much apparently...except the magic they do like, such as healing, magic swords, and the like. We're actually pretty close, via dangerous mountain, wildness, coast route we are definitely not taking, and then a roundabout way through a rather racist city that we will be. There's a library in said Mages College, and that library should hopefully have books that let me understand the barriers faster"

"Is there no faster way?" came the soft, angry, voice from across the table as I watched the young Kryptonian clench her hands into fists "None?"

"Not really being honest, I'm...really new to this Kara, and this realm...is complicated. Trying to Planeswalk blind would be a bad idea, and as much as I don't want to risk exposure with local mages I want to be sure what I'm doing in case I open doors to local hells, or some random spot. I did warn...this won't be an easy or quick journey Kara"

She tensed up, fists like pale hammers ready to strike as she stared at the ground, trembling...before letting out a deep breath and putting her hands flat on the table. Her temper was certainly better than Connor's, or mine, would have been in her boots "I...understand, not...your fault and you both told me on the way here..."

For a few moments a silence well between the three of us as the problems laid out, before she shook her head, letting out a sigh before slumping forward with both arms on the table, chin resting on them "Abducted and made travel from one sword an' magic world to another...just my luck...so what are we going to do? I've...like ten bucks and change"

I blinked "Your costume has pockets?"

"Yes, padding, and none of your beeswax buster" she muttered back looking like a lost puppy as she rested on the table staring at the pitchers of drink I'd paid for "Oh, and clothes, we'll need clothes, since you...magicky-magic disguise isn't going last forever is it"

"No, but it's a really basic one and the fur blankets fit the role enough to look like oddly dressed adventurers or tomb raiders hopefully..." I replied honestly starting to cut at the meat on the table "...as to money. Welcome to the team Kara, Outis Import/Exports, though I think it's going to be alchemy and basic medicines that we might have to sell. We've bags full of modern electronics and other such things...all of which are near useless in this happy place. Bar maybe the scanners and mil-grade laptops with generators we picked up"

She continued to star at the pitchers on the table as well as the food "And what am I supposed to do? Carry your stuff? Glorified pack-mule?"

I gave her a look at that odd statement "Ugh...you helped genius here build, with spare parts and an earpiece, a jury-rigged locator and broadcast device while cold and injured. I'm a silly empty-headed blonde flying girl, tee-hee, really isn't going to fly with me after that and...well, the clear level of technical knowledge that you showed during the past two days"

She blew at some of her blonde locks as the flowed over her eyes "That's a first"

"Probably because you had Big Brother Hopeman hovering over your shoulder telling you what to do like some overprotective Dad?"

"Ugh, don't start..." she muttered "...nor you Science Boy about my life being a comic book"

"And animated and live-action series..." I answered as Quinn gave a 'not my fault' shrug "...creepy as all fuck innit? I encountered one about me..." which was a giant-ass shock to tell the truth about 'Enchanter' "...on future shitty California, have a copy on the laptop. Also, don't look up fan art or anything related. The Justice League and SHIELD ran filter programmes on my Earth to handle it...ones where we're fictional characters don't have those blocks"

"Uhh...yeah, sorry about that on behalf of humanity" Quinn muttered awkwardly taking a drink of the nord mead "Least we've a roof over our head tonight, and bath to make use of...and drink, oh god, I needed a drink"

"Same here..." I answered "...though knowing where we are helps. Also yes, the booze helps, because everything else is fucked up, from plans, to health, to snow being bloody everywhere"

"You know what...gimme that..." Kara stated grabbing the pitcher and filling the flagon before her to the brim before drinking down and make a 'yuck!' gesture "...ughhh..." before taking another big gulp...

[Trader's Journal: Day 88]

[Current Dimension]

Mundus, Elder Scrolls-verse

[Current Location]

Nightgate Inn, Province of Skyrim in the middle of Civil War

[Current Cash Reserves]

1193 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

104 Silver Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

332 Septims [Gold-mix[Low Quality]

932 United States Dollars [Buffy-verse]

1,628 Californian Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]

2,621 Dollars [US Provisional Government, Earth-01, Chain-2091, German-ruled world]

[Diary Entry]

Got drunk last night, we all did really. Drowning our sorrows as they say, and probably the first time for Kara Zor-El, since we're not calling her Supergirl here, has ever gotten drunk judging by the hangover and zombie-like state right now. Honestly, it's been a hard week, and right now I'm just glad to be sitting watching a snow encircled lake by the inn while I write in something resembling peace and quiet. Mundus, we're in the Elder Scrolls, and my memories of that are sketchy at best outside the odd important location and Alduin gonna Alduin. It doesn't matter right now though, need to figure out how to get back to Sigil, or at least the Outlands, and then try get Supergirl home – though I fear that could be a journey of months, or even years.

Sadly I think she's somewhat realised that too, drunken rambling and then what I'm sure was crying in her sleep indicating this. Unfortunately the truth is that even getting back 'on track' to my original plans, and Quinn's, is going to be awkward enough thanks to that damned witch of Shamballa. So, for now, I need to get a better grasp of the mechanics of magic, and the Aether, here before trying to do anything of the sort. After all I'm currently masking the fact I've somewhat orcish with a polymorph spell as my battle to not die when we were betrayed really did a number on me. So it's battered me, guilt-ridden Quinn, and now somewhat in shock, underpowered, Supergirl versus the world!

I really hope we're not fucked. Even the simple scenario of having money has to be addressed, so even getting to Winterhold, where the Mage's College is located, won't be easy. For the moment we've rented three nights here in the Nightingale Inn, after selling off some gold coins and a few bits of pieces of loot to the Innkeeper for said stay and some Septims. I'm pretty sure he thinks we raided a tomb or something, which is fine, and I think alchemy and basic medicines might be our means of making coin along the way. It's 'easy' get to somewhere like Winterhold, but actually staying somewhere, like many dimensions modern or primitive, costs coin or barter.

Anyway, the plan to get there is to travel along the 'safe' road down to Windhelm, even if it's the long way, rather than risking the death traps that are the mountain passes. Yeah sure, not the bravest, most adventuring decision, but I like being alive, and it's going to be dangerous enough getting through the Civil War filled lands to the capital of one side. Thankfully we all look like Nords, or Bretons maybe, so the worst of the racism that fills that city shouldn't be as bad towards us – I really want to avoid getting involved in local politics. Or attacked by vampires, or dragons;- really all the many, many, such things basically infesting the lands of fair Skyrim at the moment.

We need armour for one, and weapons that fit in the local area as I start shooting down bandits with guns then rumours will spread, and not showing strength would likely attract such attention. That and our new Kryptonian isn't super-invincible right now, even if she's really durable and has super-strength; armour would help with making sure she doesn't die. Unfortunately armour costs quite a bit of coin I imagine, judging from the brief talks with our friendly innkeeper Hadring and the drunk Fultheim who lives nearby. I think, there aren't many folk around these parts, and this place is pretty well fortified due to the isolation, though there's an orc here too, but not the talkative sort it seems.

So, for now, I'm going to rest and recover, and then maybe do some study, or see if I can find some alchemical ingredients nearby with the others. Clear heads and all that fun stuff.