[02.09: A Merchant's Dimensional long fhada]
[All the world's a stage, and all men and women merely players...]
Tick~Tock
Tick~Tock
Every second was a precious eternity when a plan was in motion. There was a certain momentum that had to be maintained, especially when you were the weaker party;- when you were the insurgent and irregular with limited resources. Speed, aggression, and in this case ensuring the various cogs were set in motion at *just* the right time were vital for appearing stronger than you were, to hide the true target behind others. Prepared spells flowed and minds were dominated, others were spoken and illusions were cast upon the land, and in others the angry dead were disguised to mortal eyes as heroes or villains.
Click.
One moment we were in Washington, then another in San Francisco as the ritual was ignited and trickster spirits rose within an illusion of winged doom. They would not be of much use in battle, but they would distract and take time be overcome;- and that was all that was required. I coughed, then again...dry and racking, and drank down the potion to end and ease the effect. The continuous burn of power had a price, even if one was merely deferring paying it till the crisis had passed. Mr. Karden followed my orders again, the deed done here, my strength building as I glanced at the stop-watch.
Click.
Now the false Rictus was in motion, a spell bound summons with only the barest intelligence as I commanded it...spoke through it...from a distance as 'He' came out onto the field driven by another of my minions. Then realising the Archon Spyglasses disguised as the 'Justice Alliance' that the others were retrieving not long ago emerged to do battle with the Forces of Evil that would come. They would delight in the battle, clad in the mantle of Heroes of this Plane...even if the current speech was on the Evil side as I called for slaughter and chaos. But, that was why I'd summon Spyglasses not Legionnaires or Trumpets for this particular task as I set the summoning stone and gestured to my teleporter.
Click.
"Attack;- Kill everyone in that building. Strike Plan Alpha. Initiate" I commanded after my undead appeared soon as I pressed down my staff into the summoning circle and the appeared to the unease of Clicker Karden. Wights, skeletons in full body armour, and empowered zombies, that'd taken time, power, and effort to gift them with limited intelligence to wield the weapons I'd granted them, and plans to follow. Automatic weapons, three RPGs, and the remaining laser rifles from those Lizardmen, would give them some decent striking power as they stood proudly in neo-nazi regalia. Vile, but necessary as I waited just long enough to ensure they did was needed in their deployment.
Click.
...back 'home' into my 'lair' as Kara called it. The now full base, both Crimson Crow and Stellar Flare hugged a very confused looking man as they wept, while two men and a woman stood over a third man unconscious in a wheelchair while Allen, Kid Blur, hurriedly talked to them. What had once been some of the most powerful people on the planet; the now crippled Fallout, those that thought that they were actors now called Power Woman and Detective Dark, and Kid Blur's former mentor Crimson Blur. Finally there was 'Kid Raven' being hugged by his former loves apparently, even if none remember who they were right now...and wouldn't till we could flee. No time as I nodded to Ellie who was magically keeping them all 'calm' and under control.
Tick~Tock
"Everyone..." I greeted striding forward glancing at the ticking watch on the chain into my suit "...we are on the clock, so I do hope you are all ready for the next phase"
Kara gave an awkward nod, the trembling form of 'Colonel Snow' and her two teenage children sitting in the corner bound by her Geas not to betray us. Deborah broke away from the confused man, leaving him to the still sobbing Stellar Flare hugs, while coming over to me along with Ellie Eleven away from the former heroes who remained mildly spellbound "Are you ready?"
Both nodded to me, Ellie looking at the ground, but Deborah speaking "Yes Sir, let us begin"
I handed them both the needed potion as Kara watched events unfolding from the laptop, then the three of us drank deeply of them within the confines of the ritual circle. My mind expanded, memory clearer, more focused, as the potion took effect and I, then they, spoke the words I'd instructed them and then we were bound into a meditation, a prayer. A rather one sided one as I took control, drawing on their strength, commanding and marshalling it as I opened our eyes.
Both were traumatised, broken in their own ways, and they...did not trust themselves, and that would not do as I extended out, touching minds gently in a true Battle Meditation, in a manner far less invasive than with the two spell-casters. S'tella needed it for one, as did Allen, the Kid Blur, in his false Negative Blur outfit-illusion, and none objected as I charmed the former heroes, to kept them calm while Karden and Allen stood watch as we prepared to launch our assault upon the multi-verse raiding base of The Fraternity. Everything else was in motion to cause chaos, and I readied my final undead, my four not-quite-death knights as I like to think of them, in their summoning circle.
Crimson Crow had the power to teleport as well, via portals, and with a command we did just that;-tearing open a Gate on this realm before the entrance to enemy base. Kara surged through first, our protections upon her, and easily ripped the great metal doors off their hinges as we came in her stead, destroying the deploying defences with Stellar Flares energy blasts in coordination with Supergirl's laser eyes. My Horror spell, maximised in power by Ellie Eleven's abilities hammered home inside the confines of the base beyond, as I moved forward on a Haste through the destroyed doors. Down our cane came, and the silver light of a summoning circle erupted and into existence sprung my undead soldiers, guns up and firing...
--
{The Castle has fallen, its gates torn down...}
Callum...Callum was terrifying when he was the villain Kara found watching as he killed...
How she hated that, holding back the pain at what was happening, as she had to do her part, allow Callum do what needed to be down to save the others. But it still hurt inside as his...things...harmed and killed the villains that got 'too dangerous' as she...just knew where things were. Down she flew, smashing through steel and concrete with ease, injuring instead of killing...
And it was worse with the others; Stellar Flare burned and blasted without mercy, the Crimson Crow throwing half a metal door to cut a man in half as he tried to draw some sonic weapon judging by effect as the dead man's shot went to the side. Smashing through a ceiling she caught the security and man operating the 'Dimension Gate' by surprise, their bullets bouncing harmlessly of her armour and her skin as she slammed the spike into the floor. As she fly over to grab the villain operating the gate Callum and the others, sans the undead things, appeared in a flash of sulfur; her friend non-lethally taking down the nearest costumed villain, while Crimson Crow and Stellar Flare tore apart those who been resting till now in the corner.
'Yes, Clark is just going to love this' she though bitterly at the death, at the mercilessness being displayed by those they'd rescued. Callum was...ruthless, but he wasn't doing it because he wanted to too Kara knew...not like the rage she saw in the women's eyes. Less so Ellie, but the other two were killing where they didn't have too while Stellar Flare raged about madness and punishment. Biting her lip Kara tried to ignore the horror, the misery, and instead focus on getting the task down as she held the two struggling villains who'd been at controls and the other at the Gate itself.
"Do you're thing magic-man!" she told her friend trying to ignore the screams, the deeds that the...heroes...were taking part in, in the chaos she was helping enable. Callum must never be allowed to turn evil she decided, as he was way too good at this not to succeed in some horrible, terrible, way. Like now as he came over now, drawing the two magician girls over to him at his side; blood red on one side, the other in grayish-whites, as their hands came up and both villains jerked in her arms. Jerked, then calmed and ceasing all their futile struggles against her as Callum waved at her to release them.
"Gentleman, you will now activate that Gate over there if you please and allow us access to the possible destinations. Secondly, is there a mobile data-storage device that you can download all technical data and addresses to?"
"Yes Master" both villains echoed tonelessly, hollowly, as she dropped them and they stood for a moment before their hands began to move over the controls. Callum nodded, a pleasant smile on his face as if they weren't in the middle of a horror-filled villain base. Then again...only a little while ago they'd been unleashing chaos upon US cities, and he'd mind controlled the President...
'Okay, into fighting the bad guys...but still mind control' she thought as she stood guard as the undead things fought up on the lower levels amidst a very dangerous feeling fog as Callum directed the mentally dominated villains to bring up various locations they'd 'raided'...till he found one that was supposed to be almost the same as this one, but the supervillains had never taken over all those years ago. One marked as a dangerous world for them, but also the one he had them open the Gate to as information was downloaded into a storage drive and thrown into their Trader's Pack's as he called the infinite magic storage bags.
"I'm bringing in the others, Allen will plant the explosives and then we leave..." Callum said looking at his silver pocket-watch and moving over to the spike she'd driven into the floor. Moments later everyone, from the heroes who were mind-wiped, to the villainess and her children, with the Not-Flash starting to move as Callum spoke to him "...so, yes, Blur, bombs plant, now, then we head through. James, status report"
The teleporter, and former teacher to the younger heroes turned...killers...was holding the book like computer tablet in one arm while listening to an earpiece "There's chaos, still fighting everywhere. Television stations started going off, but reports are everywhere. I don't think we've been caught yet..."
"Good, then we go...I don't want my kids in this place when they wake up!" the Not-Flash replied testily reappearing in a blur with the detonator in hand and handing it Callum "We need to leave!"
"I agree, everyone through the portal...yes, that includes you two..." Kara heard him say tapping the two mind-controlled villains after she gave him a look "...ever onward. Through the magic portal to the Not Super-villain run world if you please! Our time is up..."
Kara grabbed him, and he didn't protest this time, as she flew him through the portal after the others had passed through safely...
Then the moment they were all through, standing around on a brightly lit car-park...
CracccckkBoo...
...only for the explosion to be cut off as the portal vanished behind them as she let Callum down, shaking her head as he muttered to her "Annddddd Done"
Then looked up, sighing "And here come the Welcoming Committee..."
Kara looked up as a portal opened up and...another Crimson Crow came through, while their Crimson Crow started at the new arrivals in shock...
"...ah, well, time for the Justice Alliance to meet themselves it seems"
--
[02.10: A Merchant's Dimensional long fhada]
[Through the looking glass, where the coin landed on the other side...]
Deborah Delphi, the Crimson Crow, now one of the leaders of the Justice Alliance, and known for her stone-faced stoicism in public let out a shuddering breath as she sat at the conference table within the Assembly of Justice. The last few hours had been...stressful to say the least, and while many questions had been answered now, it seemed those answers were worse than the questions in so many ways. She'd met...herself, a broken, beaten-down, and vengeful version of herself having appeared in the wake of those strange energy readings that always indicate trouble these past few years on the rare occasions they'd appeared.
"So, that was unpleasant for you as it was for me?" a voice came from behind, a hand touching her shoulder and giving a welcome squeeze of support "Cuz, gotta tell'ya, not the kind of story I wanted to hear today...or, maybe ever"
"So say we all Blur..." the imposing yet encouraging figure of Power Woman stated tiredly before Deborah had a chance to reply, instead reaching up and placing her hand on her friend's and flashing a rare smile back in answer "...very unpleasant indeed, no, worse, it is..."
"Like looking in one of those circus mirrors, just showing your nightmares made flesh..." came the voice of Burt, formerly Kid Raven, and now the second Detective Dark as he strode in behind Power Woman with his now ever present scowl. It annoyed Deborah that was one of the many, many, traits he'd picked up from his mentor, especially after seeing the awkward smiles and nervousness she long reminder in Other-Burt "...and, disturbingly, their supplied data appears to check out, along with DNA and energy readings. Fallout?"
Power Woman nodded at them "Currently dealing with the transport of prisoners to Fort Dunstead, he should be arriving shortly he was...it was best for both he and his alternate for them to have some space from each other I felt"
'I think we all found that to be the case, even if some clearly suffered worse than others' Deborah thought glancing at the absent S'tella who was still with her alternate, both weeping their eyes out. Her friend and rival had always been so compassionate...and what they'd done to her made Deborah's blood burn and boil, her heritage screaming for vengeance and retaliation. Despite that, they had more important things to worry about, and needing dealing with "Understandable considering the circumstances, but I think we call agree that we have been supplied with the truth, however bitter"
"Yes, unfortunately it is, having met myself and heard her story" Power Woman agreed sitting down as the other members arrived in and took their seats...
"They killed my husband four yearsago..." Eaglewoman stated calmly, professionally "...they are behind several major, and recent, robberies, and have abducted some young women for a horrible fate. Including one of our associates side-kicks according to what I've seen in those files this Mister Outis supplied. We are at war, we just didn't realise it"
"That of course..." Deborah heard Allen, the Blue Blur, muttered hands together on the table "...and the whole Supervillains getting together to turn us all into mind-whammed slaves and/or vegetables thing? Yeah, because...yeah, we realllllyyyyy don't want that happening here I know, or have them trying to kick it off here as well"
"Yes, yes, very much not wanting that happening here..." Detective Seer muttered, the blonde haired heroine drumming her fingers off the table in a sign of irritation and stress Deborah felt "...considering what happened too many of us here. So, it is less a matter of our wanting to do something, but of needing to do something once we have more information to work with. After all, we have just found the universe...parallel?...multiverse? is a whole lot bigger than we had thought. This...Fraternity as the called themselves were raiding multiple realities, and our 'Trader' slash unintended guerrilla leader came from others. Oh, and what are we to do with the hell-dimension version of ourselves and their white suited leader?"
"We help them, as we would hope they would have helped us if the situation had been reversed..." Deborah heard the familiar voice of Fallout as he came through the doors of the Assembly, cape flapping, a hand brushing at grey-black hair "...even if that help, for some, may be to send them on their merry way with all the support that we can offer them"
"This Callum Outis and Supergirl?" Power Woman queried and Deborah watched as Fallout, Detective Dark and Detective Seer all seemed to nod at the same time. Deborah nodded herself after a moment, before voicing her opinion with a sigh.
"Perhaps even our...alternates"
Allen frowned at her "You can't mean that, they..."
Deborah held up her hand "They have suffered deeply Blur, very deeply, and they are traumatised by what was done to them. Having spoke to...myself, I think she, along with the other Kid Raven and Stellar Flare, Ellie Eleven too, may simple wish to leave these battles behind and travel somewhere that won't stir those violent memories. You have to understand, they have killed, and while such things do happen..." she held up her hand again to forestall that debate from some members "...in the direst times, she, I, lashed out in rage, and would do so again. Some will want to fight to free their world...but others will not"
Allen continued to frown a moment, then sighed "Yeah, Not-Me certainly doesn't want to fight again, and I don't blame him...me?...whatever, Not-Me has a wife and children, and just escape Nightmare Land. They just want a house in the country and passports"
"Which they will get" Power Woman replied before giving the Blue Blur a small smile "Colonel Snow, really?"
Deborah resisted a smile at that as Allen sat back in the chair, hands up as if to protect himself, as a few members chuckled at that "I honestly don't know Wanda, I know Snow? Well, that was one I didn't expect! I may buy her flowers, in a non-romantic way, for her and the other Renegades apparently going all protective over me and my mentor"
'Lucky for some' Deborah though for a moment, but said nothing to that effect, instead trying to return to the matter at hand "If you say so Blur, but, yes, some of our alternates will wish to fight...others will require many, many, years to recover from what was done to them, but the underlying truth is that we now have knowledge to create one of these portals, and it is thrust upon us to act...before it becomes too late"
"It won't be simple to just...taken them down you understand?" Burt, stating the obvious as ever, just like his mentor she thought. Fallout nodded, but seemed to disagree.
"Of course it will be difficult, but are not the only world, the only Justice Alliance, that has suffered at their hands...we reach out, and we deal with the problem...oh, and ensure that they all aren't imprisoned together as they seemingly allowed them to plot and scheme against us"
"We'll have to bring the government in on this you understand Big Green?"
"I do Detective, but I doubt they will object over much with what we now know..."
--
{Kara gets to nurse the wounded...}
"Hey, hey, here let me help..." Kara found herself saying as she lifted the magical whatever drink to Callum's lips so he could swallow it more easily "...you need anything else?"
"Nooo...okay...just rest" he muttered back as he lay half-asleep, half-dead-looking on the large hotel bed that the Justice Alliance had given them to recuperate in. And as soon as Callum had placed his magical defences and 'wards' as he called them into place...he'd promptly collapsed like that time when they'd first arrived in Skyrim, except worse. Green flesh didn't seem so bad, nor the small tusks that appeared, when she looked at the black...wrong...looking veins that ran through her friend's arms.
She lied to the Justice Alliance, saying she was his girlfriend...since they seemed super old fashioned...as Kara had been worried Callum was trying something just like this. He always appeared strong, wanted to at least, but he'd used a whole lot of magic and never seemed to sleep...
'And this is the cost of my demanding he help...or the whole super scary villain Callum thing' she thought unhappily as he fell asleep almost immediately despite the sunlight coming in the windows. Even when she turned on the television, albeit not loudly, woke him; nor when she sat on double beside him and watched his rasping, ragged, breathing after a glance at the spare single bed that'd be hers later tonight. It was easily forgotten...but things had a price, that was something she was learning since everything had gone wrong over the Arctic.
"Great, now I'm in charge!" she complained to the snoring Callum using the remote to change channels "What are you doing making me the responsible adult, huh?"
Callum, sadly, did not respond, since he was snoring softly as Kara propped up the pillows behind her and brought her legs up unto the bed after kicking off her runners. She had to stand guard, magic barriers or not, while he was clearly weakened right now, and help hide it from everyone else like he wanted. This place seemed okay to rest up a few days, but Kara found herself agreeing with him that they needed to move, returning later if they had too, and bring any of those they'd help come with them if they wanted that like...well, one or two had hinted to Kara.
'That's whenever Callum recovers enough to travel of course' she reminded herself watching the news...so like home. After the nightmare of the past few weeks it was a welcome relief to not be in a villain ruled terror world where everyone was against you. It was still weird since people were *sort of* like people from home...but not so at the same time, and that was unnerving whenever she thought about it for a few minutes. Still, they seemed good people, and Callum, paranoid Callum, seemed to agree with her opinion...but very much felt it was their business to solve and not hers and his. That they couldn't save every world in the infinity that was the multi-verse, and that they'd done enough here...
'And what's worse I agree with him...do I really want have more blood on my hands making them fight like that?'
It still shocked her how merciless the others had all been during the fight...or how awful and monstrous the villains had been when they had won. Would...would they have done that to her? To her friends if they'd done the same on her Earth?
Callum went into a coughing fit, and she adjusted his pillows as he didn't wake up this time, merely settling back into a fitful sleep as she did so. Another reason to hurry up and get back home then and let the local superheroes deal with the problem like the Justice League had dealt with the Justice Lords just like Clark had told her. Of course now she had to warn him and the others about the need to watch Luthor and the other villains even more closely...
'And fix you up of course' she thought looking down at the snorting boy and poke him with the television remote, adjusting his head so she could check he was alright. The black veins were vanishing at least, and she let out a sigh of relief turning back to the nonsense starting on television...
--
[02.11: A Merchant's Dimensional long fhada]
[Corporate expansion and recruitment, even in dire times...]
"We are a rather odd assembly I would admit" I heard...the native Crimson Crow say as we all sat within the late night diner, which seemed to be a meal spot of choice when in I was in various Americas of late. It was odd, even with both women dressed similarly that it was surprisingly easy to tell them apart despite them being essentially the same person. The one I'd first met was...awkward in the clothes she wore, uncomfortable in their revealing nature, while her counterpart was confident, trying to radiate sex appeal where villain-world Deborah seemed to pull back into her robes.
'One of those little things that keeps the mind off the fact I'm weakened as all hells right now' was my main issue I thought as I chuckled as the ground of costumed heroes sat with those in more casual wear as befuddled staff served went off to cook up our order "Eh, I won't complain, you're all very pleasant company, and frankly meeting in your Assembly would be...somewhat overboard considering we are all hungry at this hour of the night"
'And it's less intimidating for the non-natives meeting here rather than on you're, very likely monitored, turf'
At least I assumed so as the Justice League had their facilities build in a way as to be subtly intimidating, or giving them a 'commanding' position through the architecture. Not ideal when some of those from villain-world were intent...debating, on wanting to leave all this behind them and continue travelling the multi-verse. Or, more accurately, come work for little old me while debating what they wanted to do with their lives now they were free once again. For me though having some friendly relations with this Earth was also vital, as well as getting a psychiatrist for the mentally traumatised super-power coming with me.
So, here we sat with the local Superman and Batman analogues, and the aforementioned Crimson Crows, discussing business over burgers, fries, and milkshakes. They were being moderately generous in terms of supplies and goods, though nothing military or combat worthy, but I could live with that as medical supplies and good food were to replace resources expended in battle. Considering I'd given them the villain's dimensional tech and data for free this was an extra benefit since they already looked to be moving towards dealing with the villains in the future. A future trade route, and potential bandits dealt with, so a win there hopefully.
"Indeed, and no finer place than here I find, it has the best apple pie in the entire city..." Fallout replied with a chuckle "...so in for a treat. Now, is there no way to persuade you and the others to stay with us Deborah? You would be quite the addition to bringing justice to both our world and yours?"
Villain-world Crimson Crow shook her head, glancing at her opposite than at Fallout "I might, if matters were different, but seeing...old faces, villains, even if they are new, has badly affected Stellar Flare in particular, Ellie too, and I do not blame them..."
The red robed woman sighed "As rages boils inside I as well, far more times than is comfortable. No, for our minds to recover some time away would be best, before making any such plans about where our path should follow"
"And the temptations of learning the secrets of the multi-verse call to you as well I imagine, as they do to I?"
I watched, taking a strawberry milkshake into hand, as my travelling companion Crimson Crow gave a faint smile in response to the local Crimson Crow "That...does very much appeal one will admit"
"Now I will warn our trade office is a somewhat lonely place. I am, after all, a rather small trading operation out of Sigil, but I can ensure you have access to any literature and materials you and your collegues might need..."
She held up her hand "As long as S'tella and...Kid Raven..." she continued with a momentary glance at Detective Dark 2.0, voice hitching ever so faintly a moment "...are given accommodation, and help in S'tella's case, I shall put all efforts to your cause. Ellie and James have voiced the same, though my only stipulation would be retaining access to here. I...would not wish to lose contact with Al...Kid Blur"
I gestured at the local Justice Alliance members "As I have said, I am perfectly willing to maintain access to this particular dimension as part of my trading spots as long as there is no legal impediments. I expect once you have your own dimensional gates created, in time, you shall have your own opinions and legalities, all I want is to ensure everything remains nice and legal when we do business. Basically I just want to trade and make some money without causing trouble"
"Callum!" Kara muttered elbowing me in the side gently as Not-Batman gave me a glare, and Not-Superman let out a chuckle.
"No, you are honest, and nothing beats the good old American Way when it comes to good, honest, business like that. Even if it is across dimensions that till now we knew nought of. Have no fear, you have done us all a great service, and have our friendship for such brave deeds! I must say, to my embarrassment, we must request some surety on the matter of the safety of any of those that you would offer employment in a realm far distant than this"
I nodded "That's understandable, though beyond a binding contract with magic I can offer little. Mine and Kara's means to travel is...different than the means employed by those villains of that other Earth"
Crimson Crow, the local one, answered "What Fallout means is he wants someone, myself in this regards, would serve as escort to the four employees that you would hire..." she held up a hand "...I will willingly take any Oath required to Serve during that period, and an extended one that I would reveal no secrets of yours upon my return"
I frowned, glancing from one twin sorceress to another, then sighed "Conspiracy against me already I see? Though, I'll hardly complain of the benefits of mages of your skills..." along with the dangers of course, and the loss of secrecy, Oath or no "...as we have several major tasks to do in restoring that particular world from a disaster..." known as Quinn Mallory "...that had beset it. Helping to locate and restore its people...well, your help is not something I can turn down"
Kara had determined, and told me when I'd woken up after essentially collapsing two days ago in the hotel room, that we were going 'home' so I could recover and she would brook no argument. I'd immediately argued back that I was fine, and that we were journeying to get her home...something that could wait for a time according to her. So back we were going, through an empty Earth first, even if I didn't need to, and it seemed my salvage and reclamation, along with research, teams had just taken a boost. Best to just do the best I could with the situation and work forward from there...
--
{Last minute shopping before going home...}
"...sure you're okay?"
I nodded "I'm fine Kara, or recovering. We'll head back, I'll rest, drop one of the staff back to Sunnydale for a confirmation trip and then we'll make another try for you"
She was being a fuss, even now on our last day here as we walked around the shopping mall purchasing things to bring back with us like mattresses, pillows, and toiletries. Something I was inclined to complain about as we went through the electronics section, not buying anything "You know, the supervillains is about a decade or so more technically advanced for whatever reason"
"Are you still complaining about that?"
"Yes, yes, I am because I'd like to buy various parts if I could...or have it paid on the Justice Alliance card as this stuff is"
"Well, you can sell them stuff can't you?"
I shrugged "Eh, I know, I'm just being fussy, and, honestly, it annoys me that the nicer world has the lag in tech, and we don't exactly sell in bulk either. I think we'll have to buy some through Sunnydale, and perhaps do some field salvage in the Wasteland"
"After you rest Callum..." she told me, wagging her finger at me "...after you rest and recovered your strength"
"I'm fine"
"No. Your. Not. I will wait and then back on the path to find home. Understood Buster?"
I sighed, glaring at her just a little "Understood, loud and clear"
"Good" she replied with a nod throwing a large box of detergent into her shopping cart "So, do you think they'll be okay out on Empty World with us?"
"Honestly hard to say...I think they do genuinely need space from the current hero-villains thing, Stellar in particular. Kid Blur and his family I understand staying here though"
"I still think it's weird"
I shrugged as we walked down old fashioned looking shopping aisles "He had a normal life, villain wife or no, and he, her...their children just want to return to it, but are able to handle the fact heroes-villains are a thing. The others see people who abused, violated them, running about on the news...and see themselves living different lives. It's why I'm not overly enthused with two of red-robed friend coming together...but, hey, we've got a shrink for that apparently now"
'Which is a good thing, especially one used to dealing with people with powers who dress up in tights and colourful costumes so they can go around punching other people playing dress-up too' I thought resisting a chuckle "But, hey, that's the way it is. Tell the truth, having our short physiatrist might be a very good thing with Quinn, especially when we hand him the database full of villain dimension travel tech. That should really kick-start his work"
"Okay...then it will be getting you to rest while I watch Quinn like a hawk!" Kara muttered letting out a groan as if only realising the implications now "Just when you say it like that..."
"Don't worry, we'll rein him in, and frankly it gives us the ability to try resolve certain problems if we can open up to wherever the people from there went"
"Not unhappy about giving up your...gold mine or whatever you call it?"
I shook my head "No, you know me. Don't think I could live with myself living off a world's suffering like that, or a friend's in Quinn's case. Anyway, even with a functional Gate system restoring that world is the work of years, perhaps a lifetime to some. As you've no doubt noticed...there are other places to setup shop when the need arises"
Kara grinned "It's certainly been the adventure Callum..."
--
[02.12: A Merchant's Dimensional long fhada]
[Is it really a vacation when you just come home?]
"And here we are..." I said to the group, gesturing around the room with my cane, as we stepped out of the Rune Gate closing behind us "...home sweet home and fire out as they say...and, Hello Faralda! We have returned from our adventures with new staff!"
The Altmer Master of Destruction was dressed in a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a loose t-shirt, obviously of local manufacture, along with a pair of sandals that gave a distinct look with the staff held in her right hand, giving a polite bow to me "Ah, it seems you have, safe and sound thank the Divines too. And you're not calling them minions, which is also a positive. Greetings, I am Faralda, Master of Destruction Magick of the College of Winterhold, and organiser of the chaotic bunch of adult children dear Callum here hath left in my charge"
"Why Faralda, I'm dear to you?" I brought my hands and cane to my chest "Such words warm my heart you know! Also, I've brought these lovely folks to work with us on salvaging, and eventually restoring, this fair Earth we are based upon. Oh, and is it day time or night?"
"Darkening, night is falling, but it is still warm as day" she replied with a nod to the cluster of people milling about behind me "And quite the expansion in numbers for our little group I see"
Kara came up beside me as Faralda finished, the elf woman bowing to her a little as she had to me "Ah, Kara, it seems your trip was less than successful upon finding your home it seems?"
"It's okay Faralda, we made great progress, even a fancy list and map that Callum has for Quinn to look at...he hasn't been trouble while we gone?"
Faralda gave a distasteful look for a moment before smothering it "No more than Phinis, now do you wish to make introductions now, or outside with the others? They are setting up a barbeque as they like to call it in a little time?"
I waved the others forward "That's excellent timing on our part then, as I, for one, am famished, and I come bearing booze..."
The Altmer woman gave a small snort "You will be very popular then I imagine"
I grinned, hands out as if doing a stage show "I am a caring boss as you well know, so if you would lead the way we can get everyone acquainted and then arrange accommodation for our new colleagues here"
We'd taken the 'long route' back to home;- largely to conserve my strength, but also partly to make tracking harder from our new friends by passing though an 'empty' earth after a few hours resting...well, camping and walking around...there. I'd relaxed at least, reading my spellbook, gathering my strength, while we made camp on an hilly area, with a waterfall nearby;- a possible 'log cabin' spot in the future as it seemed to be a stone-age level Earth. Though, that was only from signs of old footprints and some man-made rock formations than any actually sightings of people.
Plenty of game though, some deer carcasses along with a few baskets of fruits, nuts, and berries, going to be our contribution to the impromptu introductory feast. Ideally, we would have arrived and gone to bed after a quick meal, everyone was a little tired after all, but since the opportunity had presented itself I might as well take it to ease into meeting each other. Things looked to be in order I found seeing the clean and tidy state of the base as Faralda led us through the halls, while giving me a running summary of what had been going on due to the month-long absence of myself and Kara. Both Crimson Crow got looks, sidelong, careful looks, from Faralda as she likely sensed her demonic blood, but I expected the questions would come later.
'More additions to the oddness that has become my trade caravan...oh, all the Handys are operation, very good' I mused to myself watch as one of the hovering machines cleaned the halls as we passed, while another stacked boxes in a large storage room. It seemed things were shaping up better than I'd expected here considering the nature of my allies and minions, but they'd apparently worked better together than I'd expected. Or at least on the minimal things of ensuring a clean, orderly, and well lit base. I really needed to move our operations over to alternate-Ireland at some stage, but that could wait for another day...
--
{Some few hours later, beneath the bright moonlight and stars...}
"See, what'd I tell'ya, we come bearing gifts?" I chuckled to Quinn as he, I, and Kara relaxed back on our wooden beach-chairs out on the over watch/training area of the base the Summer of 69' played in the background. Quinn took a drink from his bottle, putting down the tablet computer to which he'd uploaded the data I'd taken from The Fraternity on their version of Dimensional Travel. He grinned at me and Kara, with Kara giving him a firm 'don't mess this up Buster!' look at our resident mad scientist as he replied in enthusiastic terms.
"This is great Callum, Kara, we're so close...and this functioning, even better...and it gives me ideas"
"Remember what we said about you and ideas Quinn? About running them through us first...before moving unto practical testing"
Quinn huffed at Kara in irritation "Yeah, yeah...can't you stop being The Man, keeping us Scientists down!"
Kara puffed out her cheeks, pouting "I'm not a Man! Or oppressing anybody...just keeping you on the straight and narrow! Like I have to with Callum here!"
"Hey!" I protested coughing as I swallowed down some of my sweet tasting alcoholic cocktail as I watched the trio of old Not-Robin, Stellar Flare, and villain-world Deborah dancing, badly, together on the impromptu dancing area "What'd I do?"
Kara rolled her eyes at me, relaxing back into her chair, sipping her own cocktail down to the dregs, before thrusting the empty glass at me "You know what I mean Mister! Eyes like a hawk on both you I have, for the good of the multiverse! Now, are you making me another or what?"
"You've corrupted her Callum! California law states..."
I gave a snort at that, taking the glass and standing up after downing my own "Well lucky for us we operate under Irish laws when it comes to the day-mon drink now isn't it? Or Nord law where everyone drink from their like five instead"
"I'm sure the Justice League will approve, huh?"
"And they shan't/won't ever know/hear of this" myself and Kara answered him at the same time as I walked away, over towards the cart filled with various drinks we'd rolled out to serve as bar. The air smelled of cooking food, and I placed the glasses down and began to mix up the various alcohols and fruit juice with some ice and give it a good shake while eyeing the cooking meet. Placing the two made up drinks on a tray, with room for other things, I wandered over to the cooking area where our crack team of barely trained cooks were busily eating and chatting with each other.
So much so that they ignored me as I cut off some of the cooked deer unto a plate, along with a burger or two, to go with the baps and some fruit and chips on the plate I'd grabbed. I merely smiled as Onmund, J'zargo, and Brewster continued their energetic conversation about...I wasn't sure honestly, something about computers and books, and benefits of information storage maybe. Whatever the case they were in good form about it, and I could see Jonathan and Rose had joined the original trio dancing awkwardly under the crudely setup Christmas lights serving as decorations.
"Would thouest consider making another of such refreshment for this humble maiden and her colleague?" came the voice of the bemused sounding hero-world Deborah as she arrived with the mousey looking Chinese-American Doctor Lucy Chen. Our new psychiatrist smile politely at me, the rest of the additions drinking and eating while talking to Faralda of all people while Phinis Gestor lounged about drinking Nord mead and apparently looking up at the stars.
I smiled at that "Well, only if the 'humble maiden' would carry this tray for me while I prepare, and carry, said drinks back with me. Oh, and you'll need to gather your chairs to join us I think"
"Of course, such a pleasure to help..." the 'Crimson Crow' had shed her robe due to the heat, even the evening heat, and now wore a 'light' silky version of the think. The woman seemed to be trying to radiate sex appeal, something Quinn, Jonathan, and Onmund appeared to appreciate as I carefully avoided looking at her cleavage as she waved her hands about, moving chairs via her magic. James Karden, who'd taught villain-world Crimson Crow didn't even glance in her direction I noted "...and there, all is in wellness"
I chuckled, returning to the drinks trolley and starting to make up the requested drinks "Indeed, and I hope all is to your satisfaction?"
"Oh, very much so, though it...disturbing to see a city so dark and the night so clear in an urban area one must admit"
"Tell me about it..." I agreed as I poured the drinks into the mixer "...but it's merely empty, not a death world...those are unnerving let me tell you. Me and Quinn came across one that suffered a nuclear horror, so...yeah"
"It seems my work will be cut out for me then it seems"
I smiled at the Doctor "Oh, I'm afraid so, and much of our stories will seem the ravings of madmen I'm afraid as the multiverse is full of craziness. It is why someone who works with...well, what some other dimensions call madness or not possible..is a welcome addition to the cause. Even if under a temporary contract"
Doctor Chen smiled, accepting the cocktail "Ah, I feel I have my work cut out for me, but I am used to...unusual clients shall we say? Though I suspect the isolation of this...empty world...will be somewhat of a problem in the long term for those present"
"Eh, I know, don't worry, numbers should grow, and efforts towards tryig to rescue the banished or lost of this Earth is one of our driving goals through the trading..."
"Took your time?"
I grinned back at Kara, gesturing at the tray of food "I come bringing other gifts!"
"Hmm...well, I aaammm hungry I'll admit" she replied as I had the tray put down between us all as the other two ladies sat down with our trio. There was much to talk about, and not much time before everyone ended up drunk or heading off to bed so best to get it over with now. There was much to do, but it was good to be back, and it made me realise that Kara was right; I really did need the rest. Once we'd all recovered, restoring our batteries so to speak, we do a quick circuit of our trade routes, study the data on the chips, and then plot a new course for Operation Get Supergirl home...
--
[02.13: A Merchant's Dimensional long fhada]
[Rest and Recovery, Retrenchment and Relocation]
"This was a terrible idea..." Faralda complained as we jogged along the track of training yard in the shade from the midday sun "...and fool I to listen to a Man, the bane of all Mer"
"Oh, shush, it's only a quick run..." I replied, though I could feel the ache already from lack of training routine in the past few weeks "...and it's more the heavy drinking, and weak elven constitution, causing you distress now isn't it? Anyway, you're the one who wanted to talk, waking me from weary hangover with all that knocking on my door"
"It is near midday, and I could not sleep long"
I panted a little as we ran, shaking my head a little "Well I could have, slept in ya'know. So...consider this your punishment for that. Now, what'ca want to talk of?"
"You need to hire a skilled healer, and a full time cook, for a start if you wish to continue traversing as a trader between the planes of Oblivion and the Aetherius. The mind healer is a good start, but if you are bringing more to this place...more is needed"
I frowned as we moved with other, her struggling a little so I dropped back my speed a fraction "For a start?"
Faralda looked uncomfortable, both from the effort and from her words "I am not...of the skills to herd this gaggle of madness you have gathered...gathering...so in time you will need...look, I am not Mirabelle, dealing with all the petty lifestyle choices of the students is not my preferred status. Just let me research and explode things, please?"
'Oh, joy, now I need a manager...things were so simple once' I thought as we did a last burst of speed, before coming to a stop at the start/end of the track, feeling more tired than I should and glad to drink from the bottle of water I'd left behind "Not liking being in charge?"
"No...hah...hah..." the Altmer woman in the tracksuit replied almost collapsing against the fence and gulping down from her own bottle of water "...divines damned Men, sensible Mer shouldn't listen..."
She let out a groan "No, no I do not, not beyond research and holding the madness of Gestor and Quinn in hand"
"Keeping them separate?"
"Oh Nine Divines yes..." she replied and I blinked in surprise at the numbers used by a tamrielic elf...then again she was far away from the Empire and Dominion here "...and going to ensure Arcade and he do not meet to plan devices of the Dwemer. I am somewhat wroth with you returning with strange knowledge from the realms of the half-dremora twins"
"There not dremora, nor twins, as I told you last night..."
"I...sadly don't remember much of last night beyond introductions and watching foolishness"
I sighed resting back against the fence myself a moment, sipping my drink "Okay then, we'll go back through it all again later then I guess. On that note I'll consider it okay if you want to raise any such interest with the Archmage, or I can seek more from Sunnydale, as I plan to reopen the Gate to both those realms, as we planned, to check up on things and resupply"
Faralda smiled faintly at that "Yes, I'm very sure the Archmage will be very eager to hear on the many interesting things we have learned. My only regret is that such knowledge will have to be hidden for many years before we can speak of it"
"I know, on both our sides its best for a time I agree"
"Indeed, one cannot trust the Synod nor College of Whispers, let alone the wrath of the Thalmor over events one knows for a certainty" the elf woman replied taking in a breath and standing up on wobbly legs "Also, I wish for one of these Lap Tops and teaching in how to use them"
"Jonathan could..."
"Would like go get under my robes I suspect, and would undermine my authority"
"Rose..."
She continued giving me a look "Would also like to get under my robes, and also undermine mine authority of course"
I sighed pushing myself off from the fence "And Quinn is out for obvious reasons, so it's me and Kara then...right, I'll talk to her later and pull out one of the spares. That adds going back to future Cali-land back to the list as well I guess...learned the benefits?"
"Yes, one has observed the benefits for storage of much literature without requirement of carrying about hundreds of tomes. Urag will be your friend for life should you find a means to provide him with one that would last with this power it requires"
I shook my head as we walked back towards the showers that they'd gotten working in the few weeks my and Kara had been gone. Even gotten some dividers and decorations up to give both privacy and some more creature comforts to those using the said showers;- such as myself and destructive mage right now. Communal was a bad idea with different cultural mores of what was, and what was not, okay when it came to things like nudity, relationships, and gender norms. So more pressure on developing a more 'organised' structure somewhere else now salvage had gone well and we'd got rooms stacked high with valuable things to trade.
"That's a much bigger ask, as we've got generators here, hence the system drawing power to run the mainframes and machines, but we've only got a few long lasting power supplies, and that's for travelling right now"
Faralda waved that off, wiping off the sweat with a small towel as groaned against the heat of the place the definitely wasn't Skyrim "Oh, one knows and understands, but my own requests being met?"
"Yes of course, that I'll met with the laptop, and we'll try fine some more staff. I want to relocate us to somewhere..."
"Less oblivion damned hot?"
'Yeah, let's go with that instead of I want to try see if alternate Ireland's still intact when we open a Gate to the other side' I thought nodding "Aye, yeah, not Skyrim cold, but more moderate weather, albeit more rain. At least once we get over there thanks to Mister Karden's abilities, once we've photos and..."
--
{Now, it's over to Jonathan with our Eye in the Sky...}
After a shower, light breakfast...midday lunch?...and a mug of coffee I felt much better, and more importantly, awake and active as I strolled into the Command Centre of the base. Of the three amigos from Sunnydale only Jonathan and Rose were there, drinking coffee and...
"No, I'm sure Kara doesn't X-Ray vision us when we're in the showers..." I told them as I came through the doorway, interrupting their conversation "...and please don't start a row with her, or start trying to get her to abuse her powers"
"Sorry Boss" both apologised immediately after looking startled, then very embarrassed as I came over to them shaking my head unhappily at them "Won't happen again"
"Good..." I replied taking a seat as Faralda strolled in behind me holding one of the cans of fruit soda we'd returned with from hero-world "...since she'll be here soon, and I don't want this sort of...behaviour to continue. Now, unto better things, I've been told you two have something to show me?"
That seemed to return the confidence to both as they nodded eagerly, the Latino girl pressing some buttons in the keyboard before her "And Brewster too! See...Ta-da! Satellite view of the world! Who's the best?"
I blinked, then shook my head in amusement as she and Jonathan high fived each other as the screens started to come alive one by one with various maps and what I assumed were images of earth from space "We da best!"
"Yes, you are it seems" I agreed bringing my hands behind my back as I stood in my 'casual' clothes, a mix of base military gear and t-shirt "How'd you manage it? And what's the range?"
Jonathan made a so-so gesture with his hand "Took a bit of time, but we figured out how to connect one or two of the weather and commercial televisions ones once we started reading through the notes here. We don't have a huge amount of coverage...it's why we wanted to show you know, as we've got Europe and Africa for the next two-three hours by bouncing signals off things. We've two dishes up on the roof working so...boom! We are on the air Boss man"
I grinned "That's is great news, congrats to you two and Brewster, and I see you've been looking at the data we got back from..."
"Supervillain run world!" Rose replied clapping her hands together, then elbow Jonathan "See, I told you they existed!"
"Yeah, they do, and was a horrible, terrible, place" I agreed as Faralda took a seat, looking up at the images on the screens with mild interest, clearly having seen them before "But also functioning dimensional travel tech using as well, so understand any of it?"
"Nope, sorry Boss" both answered and I shrugged.
"Eh, didn't expect it off the bat, since neither do I and I'm a dimensional traveller. Just be aware back-engineering that stuff along with Quinn and Kara will be the primary project once I conduct some basic business trips, and bring one, two, or all, of you three home to confirm to Team Slayer that everything is perfectly okay on this side of the realms"
"Better than alright!" Jonathan retorted, Rose nodding quickly in agreement "This job is beyond awesome...even if it is a bit lonely with the world like a giant ghost town, but you brought in se...intelligent and powerful, while also attractive, new co-workers to work with! Also...was Burt, like, his world's Robin?"
I shook my head "What have I said about using comics as guides for other dimensions?"
"That their guides and hints, not actual truth..." Rose agreed before Jonathan, giving a shrug "...but was he, the, you know, type?"
"For basics, that was his basic archetype, but, look, long years, emotional times, and mind-wiping, so don't fanboy and fangirl out. Kara was quite mad at you over that, and here I find you talking about it during work time. Remember? Private talks in your own rooms, not everyone's going to feel the same about such information and talks as you"
Faralda decided now was the time to pipe up "And how do you plan to get across the great distances of Not-Nirn now I see the great sizes they straddle?"
"Ah, well that's easier than it was before our trip..." I replied not looking up from my adjusting an image to see what the magnification on the images were "...see we got one natural teleporter amongst that group, in addition to me, and the two red robed ladies, for magical based distance transportation. Or Kara to fly there and setup a basic teleport array;- various options basically. Really, I want to scout out a few areas, ideally near a ley-line or two...I'll explain later...and see about somewhere more productive for us to setup"
--
[02.14: A Merchant's Dimensional long fhada]
[There are three things that matter in property; location, location, location]
--
[Trader's Journal: Day: 332]
[Current Dimension]
Home Base – Quinn's Home Earth
[Current Location]
Home Base (formerly Benedict Arnold Naval Base), San Francisco, California, former United States of America
[Current Cash Reserves]
1000 US Silver Dollars [Quinn's Earth[High Quality]
1,628 United States Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]
2,621 Dollars [US Provisional Government, Earth-01, Chain-2091, German-ruled Earth]
[Recent Trades & Deposits]
More of a Barter situation, as went in with goods and left with goods, along with me setting up a bank account in the local bank in Sunnydale with 1,000 Dollars in it along with some jewellery after dealing with Rupert Giles, a 'real' Irish passport, and driver's licence.
So Supplied to the Magic Box;-
2 X Gold Bars [High Quality[US Stamp]
4 X Crossbows [20th Century Sports Model]
24 X Blessed Steel Bolts
10 X Stimpaks
10 X Potions of Healing [Moderate]
2 X Potions of Cure Disease [Moderate]
2 X Scrolls of Turn Undead
Returned with the following;-
20 X Cartons of Ice-Cream {Various flavours}
40 X Boxes of Cereal {Various Brands}
50 X Large Bottles of Milk
20 X Bags of Flour
10 X Sacks of Potatoes
10 X Crates of Fresh Vegetables {Various}
10 X Bags of Sugar
24 X Crates of Soda {Various Brands}
18 X Crates of Assorted chocolates and other confectioneries
11 X Assorted Video Games
4 X Personal Computers with spare parts
2 X Laptops with spare parts
5 X Boxes of assorted cables, wiring, and flash drives for PCs and Laptops
[Diary Entry]
Very quick, very busy, trip to Sunnydale today, taking up nearly the whole day before we return through the Rune Gate to Home Base as it is right now. Went back with the full trio of Sunnydalers, though Jonathan and Rose insisted on shopping with myself and Kara to 'make sure we buy good machines' as they put it. Of course we can get better stuff elsewhere, but they want machines and games they know, and new releases, so off shopping we went. At least after they spoke to Giles, Anya, Willow, and the Vampire Slayer Buffy anyway;- before leaving Brewster behind to char away to them while Giles came with our brave band of shoppers since he was paying for all our stuff.
Of course that was because we'd delivered a great amount of stuff for him of the magical variety, well, not really, but enough to cover all that was being paid for plus my share of the shop. Mostly bought our stuff was foodstuffs, just to top up with different ingredients from Justice Alliance world, along with some computer equipment. In and out, no big thing to do, beyond the interviews to confirm that everything safe and sound on our side of the magical doorway, and that's just we we can recruit here down the line. Or right basically, as according to Faralda I need a Chef for one, along with a Manager and other things such a medical staff. Though for the medical staff I think I need a healer as much a doctor for the time being – it's something to think as we've enough magical first aid to cover things right now.
Now saying 'Chef wanted! Will vanish for months!' isn't exactly the best situation for an advertisement, and any I recruit through Team Slayer will be a possible (very much) a spy. Considering the options available I'll handle the whole spy thing after talking to Kara and Quinn on the matter, as we'd all prefer a 'modern day' chef off the bat than one with more medieval standards of taste and hygiene. So, that's one thing done, and I've sat down with my team of computer nerds, alongside Rupert Giles and Willow Rosenberg, and told the next time I'm back I want a full costing on kitting out the Magic Shop with computers, cameras, the lot. Basically computerise the whole place, along with ideas from my team, along with getting training gear and expanding the training area out back.
It's sort of easy forget it is before things really started getting all electronic and computerised, or started to, so I might just do a proper development and head back to California-land and buy in bulk if I can. I know, I know, a risk putting such advanced tech out there, but the whole situation of it being a Magic Shop with Actual Magic means that's less of an issue. That and its Sunnydale, the Hellmouth, and I think every little helps despite things supposedly calming down a little according to Mr. Giles. Though that could easily be a lie, or a half-truth, as quiet for Sunnydale is deadly dangerous for other places in the multi-verse. Well, I'll consider doing my own base of operations first, and that means doing some exploring our teleporter James tomorrow over and back to Ireland using the sat-coverage. Fun times.
--
[Trader's Journal: Day: 334]
[Current Dimension]
Home Base – Quinn's Home Earth
[Current Location]
Home Base (formerly Benedict Arnold Naval Base), San Francisco, California, former United States of America
[Current Cash Reserves]
1000 US Silver Dollars [Quinn's Earth[High Quality]
1,628 United States Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]
2,621 Dollars [US Provisional Government, Earth-01, Chain-2091, German-ruled Earth]
[Recent Trades & Deposits]
N/A
[Diary Entry]
Travelled 'home' and it's not there. Or, well, at least the village 'I' grew up in isn't there, or where it would have been, but the general gist of where cities are in Ireland are still in place, alone with similar background history. Still eerie to see everything so silent and dead, but luckily there's no poor maintained nuclear plants in the UK that could have gone off, though I'm pretty sure fires wrecked several urban areas when the people vanished to wherever. Ley-lines are different too, not massively, but enough to spend two days doing a survey, camping out in Kilkenny with James, Kara, and Deborah {Villain world Deborah is calling herself Debbie to differentiate} for the night.
I'd two or three locations in mind, based on my past life{lives} but two didn't exist here, another hand burned down, and Kilkenny hadn't been restored as a castle in this reality. Trim Castle though, the largest in Ireland and like in my reality near the Royal Mint, HAS BEEN by the government of the island prior to the whole disappearance, and also not burned out. Yes, I want a castle, for a variety of reasons, up to and including easier for me to enchant defences, and also the fact of making certain people more at home. More importantly this one has modern sewage and things like showers and such installed, albeit damaged – so we'll start a restoration project and transport over the robots and start using magic to get it up and running.
Some of my staff are delighted by the idea, since it's also a luxury hotel in development {or was} and there's a town, but not complete urban development and ship wrecks, around it. We're going to do it carefully though, albeit quickly too I hope, as we want to install communications and generators and all that lovely stuff there before we move in. There's a main road just outside the castle, through the town, so clearing the roads gives us a good run into having a test opening of Quinn's bleed-tech into what should hopefully be a less likely area filled with chaos. At least if there was a nuclear exchange it's unlikely a rural town in the middle of Ireland was a direct target. Unlike, say, a military base – even if I'm not worried about a Dead Man's switch it's a matter to consider I suppose.
--
[Trader's Journal: Day: 340]
[Current Dimension]
Home Base
[Current Location]
Home Base (formerly Benedict Arnold Naval Base), San Francisco, California, former United States of America
[Current Cash Reserves]
1000 US Silver Dollars [Quinn's Earth[High Quality]
1000 Septims [Low-Quality Gold-mix]
1,628 United States Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]
2,621 Dollars [US Provisional Government, Earth-01, Chain-2091, German-ruled Earth]
[Recent Trades & Deposits]
Barter/Exchange with College of Winterhold{Supplied};-
20 X Gold Bars [United States Stamp[High Quality]
20 X Assorted Sets Glassware [High Quality]
26 X Assorted Sets Silverware [High Quality]
10 X Boxes of Assorted Literature on various non-fiction materials from Quinn's Earth {including dictionaries and language primers}
11 X Crates of Wine [Medium – High Quality]
6 X Crates of Whiskey/Bourbon/Scotch [Medium – High Quality]
Barter/Exchange with College of Winterhold{Acquired};-
12 X Small Crates {12 Bottles per} of Nord Mead
10 X Bottles of Argonian Ale
11 X Portions Horker Meat
2 X Portions Mammoth Meat
6 X Snowberry Crostatas
4 X Small Crates of Various Ingredients {Snowberries, Flax, etc, etc}
3 X Boxes of Various Alchemical Equipment
2 X Grand Soul Gems
4 X Portions of Fire Salts
2 X Portions of Frost Salts
1 X Daedra Heart
3 X Portions Powdered Mammoth Tusk
1 X Portion of Spriggan Sap
2 X Portions of Troll Fat
1 X Portion of Void Salts
[Diary Entry]
Another day another day long only trip;- this time to Skyrim, to meet Savos Aren and the duo of brothers running our magical fridge business. Also meeting with Birna of Birna's oddments, and now official salesperson and manager of Outis/Winterhold business since she owns the main shop in Winterhold, in the sense that such a thing matters. Faralda and Gestor were briefing the Archmage and Mirabelle Ervine, and my own meeting was fairly fruitful as well, even if the College is seemingly coming under pressure from the Thalmor through their Imperial puppet government. Unfortunate, but what can I do as the Archmage is in the driving seat on this plane of existence.
It's certainly been a nice distraction from rebuilding/construction efforts in our new base of operations as we're using magic heavily, but focused on building wards alongside physical construction than just doing a 'poof!' walls and such. After all we can do that, but I'd rather take the extra time, using the Handys and Protectrons to cement up the walls over Rune/Ward block defences. Of course we're going ridiculously fast by standard construction/restoration projects, so in a few weeks we'll have the whole place operation, not just the basic essentials like rooms, plumbing, and other such things. I'm not sure if we'll move the Rune Gate, or just have a teleport line to it so there's a firebreak between it and the base? Or both maybe?
Something to sleep on I guess. The other thing is we need to return to the Wasteland, to do some scavenging, and California-land, for advanced tech, so that's now on the to-do list. Kara's content with that, wants to put off another effort to get home for a week or two, or after we've got the base established, as she's been putting in a lot of effort helping me and the others establish the walls and rooms while Quinn and the tech team work on the new data. He's pretty confident he'll have a working model of his 'sliding device' as he calls it, a small-scale, prototype one that won't fuck everyone over, so I want us up and running before that's online. So much to do, so little time!
--
[02.15: A Merchant's Dimensional long fhada]
[You are now entering a no-fly zone….]
Kara was giving me the evil eye "This seems very…unfair targeting of Kyrptonians! Like me!"
I rolled my eyes at that "Kara, it's a grand total of flight resistance and depowering within a bubble around the castle. It also appeals to all of us who can also fly, like me, the Deborahs, Ellie if she'd learn, as well as the mages if they'd risk learning the spell-work"
"Hmmmmmm"
"Oh come on, you've to walk a grand total of here to out to gate over there…" I replied with amusement at her irritated growl gesturing at the nearly restored gatehouse "…and boom! Up, Up, and Away!"
"Hnnnnnnn"
"In fairness Kara, it's basic overlapping defensive magic. This is our actual base, and putting up a ward-shell, or boundary field, around it is more doable with the walls…" hence in part why I choose it I didn't say "…and so, we magic-users did so. Fate's Tower, and the Zatara's Shadowcrest would have similar, albeit far more potent, defences and I doubt Superman complains about that"
"Kal doesn't have to live there"
I nodded "True I guess, but I know there isn't anything here to threaten us, right now, but that can change easily since we're trying to open a door home for those people, and after meeting people with the tech…"
Kara sighed, arms coming off her chest and very gently, only the barest of bumps, punched my shoulder "Fine, fine, I get it. Every protection we can for Castle Justice"
"We are not calling it Castle Justice"
"Hmm…maybe not, but I'll find a super awesome name soon enough!" she replied and I chuckled, shaking my head at her amusement as I looked around. Trim Castle was restoring nicely, and more importantly I was recovered despite putting in the ritual word to build up basic wards and defences now the place was starting to become liveable…
'Liveable? It's a luxury hotel coming back alive' I thought with amusement glancing up at the restored stonework of the castle where Mr. Handys were etching and painting ritual symbols on per my orders. We'd only restored a fraction of the Castle itself, but the rooms to live in were of a far higher standard than the ones in the military base, each with its own shower and bathroom for one. Most everyone was happy with the soon coming move after getting their own, relatively large, former hotel rooms to setup and decorate to their hearts content. Myself included in that group of course.
Protection wise the anti-physical force barriers were already in place; a reflective impact barrier, layered with an 'energy' shield and anti-flight ward. I'd created it on the anti-Kyrptonian/anti-reality warper defences Sean had used as Other-Me, save on a larger scale thanks to more mages, each adding their own uniqueness to the defensive properties. After seeing villain-world….well, defences were a good thing to have, even on this empty world, as enemies could come from beyond it easily enough. Time would allow adding more, both magical and technological, but for now the basics were there, and simple doorway between here and San Francisco was next on the agenda to take the pressure off James.
"I look forward to hearing it" I answered with a chuckle "Now, for the immediate term…we can make another effort to try get you home in a few days, I'm recovered, and I've spoke to Quinn and the others, so they want to work on a design plan first. We've got a window before that, and their plans for this place and the Magic Box, are completed, sooo…."
She smiled softly "Ha….I didn't expect that, but….yeah, if you're okay? Don't push yourself Callum, nor Quinn's project to redemption"
"Don't worry, I'm not, he isn't…" I replied with my own smile, then sighed "...but after a few weeks we'll have to delay longer"
Kara looked contemplative "Don't worry…it'd be okay if things have to work themselves out first. It's not back through Deborah's or Debbie's worlds?"
I shook my head "No, through two or so others, based on dimensions the villains had seen, but are empty….so, walk to one, then the next, then see about getting further up the original chain we wanted to get onto. I won't promise anything, but…"
She gave me a little punch again, grinning "Oh, shush you! You and Quinn….thanks Callum, and I'll thank him later too, since he's too cowardly to tell me, like ten minutes ago, sounds like!"
"More too Mad Scientist to worry about the little things, like telling you himself. But yeah, we'll make a go, hazard gear by the way, and probably one or two of the others coming as well. Deborah, the hero-world one, is very interested in such a trip. Considering what we ran into…"
Kara nodded "Hmmm….yeah, three big guns are better than two like Vigilante says"
"Well, sometimes, but it'd be useful to have a second set of arcane eyes on the problem along with the sensor tech that Quinn and the others say their jury-rigging up for us" I told her looking at the two Crimson Crows up on the battlements, taking a break and chatting as the sounds of concrete mixing machines run by the modified Protectrons hammered along in the background. Onmund, Breylna and J'zargo were getting marching orders from Faralda not too far away and I smiled at the teaching lesson it was clearly becoming for them as well as work assignment.
Having actual equipment to scan and survey would be a big help, hopefully, in warning of dangers or work around them in worlds like the survivors who'd joined my trading group. It'd also give a little better tech handling capacity, and therefore hold off on me having to use magic….in theory at least, in practice we'd find out shortly via field testing. I wasn't going to rely on it of course, but recent travels hadn't been all that encouraging for 'travelling light' so to speak;- so now was the time try invest in the little bit extra in terms of protection and survival gear…now we could afford it. Kara grinned, looking up at the bright, but chill, midday sky illuminating the castle grounds.
"Always you with the complications Callum! Now, since you've stopped me simply flying away lets walk to the gates and see what we can salvage nearby once I can actually get in the air…"
--
{Setting off along the winding road…}
"I don't see the need for the suit, my magic will protect me"
I shrugged adjusting the straps, then pressing the seal button on the hazardous materials suit we'd gotten back in future California "I know Deborah, myself and Quinn went through a properly dead Earth at one stage…but it's best not to rely on magic alone, nor Kara on her natural abilities, just in case we hit a snag. Me and Quinn did it because we'd no option, but this time we do, so we are taking the proper precautions. Kara's not complaining now is she?"
Kara's chuckle came over my suits helmet "I did that yesterday remember? It didn't get me anywhere!"
I smiled "Exactly! But, yeah, this is a messed up, post-atomic, death-world according to the info on the files we took, and my own scry forward, so even if we're only passing through, we do it properly since we can afford to do it properly now. Once we hit somewhere not a radioactive and chemical hell-hole we can shed the suits and get to more comfortable, and local-culture wearing, garb. But not yet"
The suits weren't exactly military grade, but they did the job, and were somewhat form fitting after pressing the sealing button as we wore them over our more casual-wear, box-like air supply and power-pack like a backpack and belt affair. I'd still insisted we put our magic protections in place as well, and they in themselves should be enough, but it didn't hurt to have the extra defensive layer from the environment, along with somewhere to attach Quinn's and the trio's helpful sensor equipment.
The Justice Alliance member Crimson Crow sighed in defeat, making a 'fine' waving gesture with her hand while her villain-world counterpart watching from nearby maintained the extra boost on the Rune Gate along with Ellie Eleven. I suspected the whole matching black suit and helmet affair were a bit too formal for her, or Kara's, taste as superheroes but Faralda was right in the fact of me needing to get a little more organised…even if this wasn't what she'd meant at. Despite those reservations they went ahead with wearing them as we stood in the Rune Gate room of the naval base in San Francisco, all ready to go.
So I ignored the chatter between the others as I did a final equipment check before taking out the Celestial Etherscope as we got ready to step through the active Gate. The place was…dead, a cold, dead world, it's atmosphere a ruin and no feeling of life, unlife, or even machines for miles around as I gazed forward through the void. Not somewhere to stay for very long, but I could sense the path beyond that, to another dead world…maybe?...as it was hard to tell. Mortal minds, like my own, struggled with such things, and I all I could see was a misty path into the darkness that should, eventually, lead to my desire goal of Kara's DC-Earth.
Stepping through to the other side…
"Now, this is truly hellish"
I nodded in agreement with Deborah's statement as went came through Portal after casting invisibility on the three of us. The winds whipped as us we rose up to fly over a ruined, blasted, countryside in the midst of a snowy, dead, winter "Yes, yes it is, now we need to fly….that way!" I gestured to the…I wasn't sure?...East?…as my mind tracked where we needed to go via the Etherscope and Amulet of the Planes "You two okay?"
"My powers are unaffected" the Crimson Crow stated calmly coming up to my left as Kara flew to my right, taking the lead with her superior speed and flying ability. I could push myself to match, but that was a pointless danger to risk outside of a fight, and could easily overtax the flight ring. Kara sounded sad as I saw her head moving back and forth, surveying the black-white-grey landscape below us.
"I'm okay, still strong….just not much sunlight here"
I looked up at the skies, dull and dark, with enough breaks in the cover to confirm it was night, then at the tablet with lead into the backpack on my back. The little flashing sensor feed on the suit telling me the temperature was well below freezing at "Its night, and I say we're probably lucky for that seeing these readings here. No wonder this Seltzer's lot didn't bother with this place. Dead for decades, even the active magic field is decaying and dying"
Deborah agreed with that it seemed as we flew, sluggishly in Kara's opinion, over the snow and ice covered dead lands "You are correct, this place feels so…broken"
'Aye, it does' I thought but didn't say as we flew in silence, no birds, no insects, to annoy us beyond the cold, harsh, winds that'd suddenly buffet us as we went over a long dead town. Idly I wondered when, and what happened here to so complete wreck the place, from atmosphere to the fact the place was freezing, yet water in rivers seemed to have boiled away at some point in the past. Thankfully it wasn't a devastatingly long flight, maybe half an hour, but soon we descended down into the cold grey ruins of what had been a…probably advanced looking rural town in…
'North America? I think we're near to San Francisco actually…' I wondered, then shook it off as I brought my gloved hand up to my chest. One didn't need to do that to activate the Amulet of the Planes, but it was somewhat instinctual, just like my using the other hand to etch blue-silver runes on the air in the spot where reality felt weak, where I could more easily go where I desired. Slowly, carefully, I reached out into the void again, forming a ritual circle on the air, runes and sigils gleaming as I spoke the words while the Crimson Crow joined her strength to mine.
Again I 'scouted' forward into the next world, another…near dead one, even if there was life, it was battered and decaying, though no active threats seemed to be nearby, or screaming warnings at me. There was a city beyond, a broken city, and the feel of dimensional breaches…big ones too, in the past. Or at least that was my crude feel of it, or the great gaping pit of darkness nearby…
I let out a breath, nodding at the others to step through as I had Deborah handle our invisibility this time before we passed through the event horizon into the little-more-alive Earth. Another flight spell activated on my ring as came through, rising up into air through the ruined cityscape that was filled with an oppressive gloom despite the sun being high in the sky. The three of us hovered in mid-air as I directed their gaze to a broken and faded old billboard shouting of a show that had long since ended its run, and of the city that had once hosted it. The place felt wrong…distant…but we were edging closer to the multi-versal port we desired it seemed.
"Don't worry Kara, this, well…this isn't your universe, or mine, but we are getting closer it seems. We need to find a place to camp and rest, but…Welcome to Gotham City I suppose"
--
[02.16: A Merchant's Dimensional long fhada]
[We make camp amidst the ghosts and the ashes of a world…]
"The Justice League of America huh?" I murmured to myself reading the ancient paper carefully preserved behind the dust covered frame "And lookit'em all there in the photo"
"But…the dates are wrong…right?" Kara answered me in soft toned confusion as she gazed at the old preserved newspaper behind the glass as I turned my attention to the rotted and ruined library around us. It was a wonder anything had survived the elements after…decades maybe?
I shook my head as I saw Deborah raise up locked bookshelves to open them with magic "No, that's right, matches what was on a few of the surviving billboards and…well, there's been nothing past the seventies on any murals or stonework we passed coming here. That and everything has a real old timey look ya'know?"
Kara frowned at me, at the photograph "Kal…Superman wasn't around in the forties Callum!"
"On your Earth no, nor on mine…" I answered walking over to yet more rotted books on slowly collapsing shelves thanks to dampness over the years. Mold and other concerns would likely be an issue for most, though not for us, and the suits inbuilt torch lights were more useful right now as I sought out anything that might have sealed at the time of….whatever happened here "…but clearly on this one it did. Then something happened in the seventies or eighties"
"You have a suspicion?"
I shook my head, then groaned as that made me lose where I'd been by taking my head-lamps off something I'd been moving, having it fall apart in my gloved hands thanks to the movement "Suspicion? Yeah, but it's based on comic book logic Kara, like Jonathan and Rose's views on the subject. There was a battle here, or some sort of disaster, the building damage in parts of the city says that…but there aren't near enough bodies, nor are there people running around despite birds and animals"
"Something like happened with Quinn….World, Quinn's World I mean?"
"Maybe, maybe not….I just don't know, but most things here are long gone…Deborah? Anything?"
The Crimson Crow, dressed in the same black hazmat exploration suit as myself and Kara answered in the negative, magic holding up too intact looking books "Nothing beyond these two, one a children's book about a rabbit teaching ABCs, and what appears to be sports almanac of some sort"
I frowned, glancing over in her direction "Date on it?"
She moved one of the books closer to her helmeted head "Hmm…1985 it says, so it would have been published in 1986 I believe"
"Further ahead then than I'd thought initially…"
"We should go to the Batcave!" Kara announced suddenly as I'd been curious over when this world had come to an end "We're in Gotham! Batman would know…or would have known whatever was happening!"
I paused a moment, standing up straighter a moment, considering the matter a moment. We did have a Kryptonian and two magic users after all, and should be able to locate the place underground based on Wayne Manor "That's not a bad plan all in all, since there's less here than I would have hoped. The only danger there is, well, Batman Security"
"Who is the Batman?"
I glanced over at the Crimson Crow "These realities version of your Detective Dark"
"Ohhh…" honestly I could here the concern in that tone "…yes, I could see the concern in attempting to enter his base of operations even many years after his death or departure"
"Basically yes, and I expect any machinery that's still working would be protected from unwanted intrusion…which would be us" I answered with a chuckle "Still, I expect he, or Robin, or Batgirl should they exist, would have some files on hand that might give ideas on various things so I can start a plane of going forward into this particular neck of the multi-versal woods"
"We can get out of these awful suits then?"
"Yes Kara we can, once we've hit Wayne Manor and then setup a camp in a relative dry and clean area…" I replied walking back over to her, gesturing at Deborah to follow us out of the battered old Gotham Public Library "…and maybe GCPD headquarters as well. That should have a bunker, or decently secured areas if it's like my world's one"
Kara gave me an curious look "Bats let you into Gotham?"
"It was more SHIELD had a facility there, I worked with Robin when…" I winced at that, certain memories of Other-Me "…well, the big giant earthquake that wrecked the city, followed by an infestation of vampires and costumed asylum escapees"
"Ugh, terrible combination!"
"Oh, yeah it was…" I agreed with her statement as Deborah hovered over to us as we moved out through the broken down side doors since the main hall had tumbled down "…then a portal opened up. Gotham is like a magnet for horrible, terrible, things"
Kara laughed at that "Don't let Bats or Batgirl hear you say that!"
"I'm sure he'd agree with the statement. While glaring in a very intimidating manner at us anyway…"
--
{Some hours later, in a hole in the ground…}
"He's dead?"
I nodded as we stood in the, dry, but powerless, Batcave as we manged to go through documents that had been well secured till two magic-users and a suited Kryponian went to work on the locks "Bruce Wayne, died 1979, succeeded by his ward Dick Gray and…daughter Helena Wayne. Robin….and Huntress?"
That startled my blonde companion "WHAT? Huntress is BATMAN'S DAUGHTER???"
"Not in my world she's not!" I answered firmly putting down the files…the personal messages "I should know, she was one of my trainers. Here it seems Batman married Catwoman, result Helena Wayne…and sadly that means no Batman during whatever crisis hit this Earth. His files end back in the seventies, and I don't think Robin and Huntress made use of the same system much"
Kara was clearly flummoxed by all this "Wow, just…wow! Do we know…"
"I don't, and I really should have got more of those comics on a database all things considered…" I muttered in reply as we stood in the magically illuminated cave "…but it's given me ideas that I need to sleep on. It has also given me the idea of looting this place…"
"WE CAN'T LOOT THE BATCAVE CALLUM!"
"Yes, yes we can!" I retorted in a polite and friendly tone, waging my finger at her "Salvage and Reclamation Kara dear! Salvage and Reclamation!"
Then sighed looking around the tomb, feeling sad "And it's not like he's going to care, nor need it…not anyone here need what's in those vaults. Whatever happened here…it's a battle lost, and we might need the tools in the days to come. I want to have a look at Star Labs, should it exist…and were you ever at his Fortress of Solitude?"
Deborah decided to pipe up now "Fortress of Solitude?"
Kara answered looking at me, voice sat "Superman's…home, and…base. You're asking a lot Callum"
I shook my head at that "No, I'm not Kara. Metropolis might yield some answers, or it might not, but for you…and you alone if that is what you wish…this world's Superman might have left you things. Or his Supergirl at least, and…they would be things of Kyrpton that yours didn't have, even down to medical equipment and supplies should you fall ill"
She paused, then sighed "Let me sleep on it right?"
"It'll be your choice Kara, and I'll abide by whatever it is" I answered honestly, folding my arms across my chest and trying to think. While this world had gone down in battle….it also seemed as if everyone had vanished, either mid-battle, or after the battle, leaving all the physical things behind including skeletons and other signs of death. But…not enough, only a bare handful here and there, and the strangest lingering touch of...something I wasn't sure of.
'That's the problem with walking the dark forest path now isn't it?'
There were a number of paths from this one, but….well, the closer we got the more fine-tuning I needed to do rather just 'jump in the general direction' that'd sufficed to now. This Earth, this universe, seemed to be on the outliers of the reality, with Darker paths I dared not cross out there as well; I needed to find a route through that was a Dark Multiverse or Elseworld after all. After all there plenty of things out there that could kill me, Kara, and Deborah, should the steps taken be the wrong ones, or the ones walked without proper consideration. That and I needed time to ensure we could jump out of the next worlds swiftly and without delay should the situation demand it.
--
{It's not a nuclear strike, but the survival shelter serves as decent camping site…}
"It's…clean I suppose"
"Good old fashioned Gotham police buildings. Built like fortresses and nicely long lasting. It'll be better than many places we'll have to setup camp" I replied to Deborah as we made camp on what had been the first basement floor of the GCPD Headquaters. It wasn't quite the hardened underground survival shelter, but this particular area once cleared out was perfect for us to rest for the rapidly darkening night. Sure it'd taken some prestidigitation, and physical effort, but the room was clean, dry, and mould-free, with plenty of space to setup the beds and a changing/bathing area.
"Dear Rao yes…" Kara agreed, seemingly delighted to be out of the suit and sitting back on her bedroll in shorts and t-shirt "…we had to sleep in an icy wasteland on the mages home-world! Like, seriously, out in the wilderness, with bears, and snow, and possible dragons! Like the camping trip from hell!"
"Eh, wasn't the worst, or down the line, but, heh…it's a nice setup here, and we've brought all the creature comfort I could get into that section of trader's pack"
"I'm happy at all the room we have…" Kara stated stretching out her arms on either side of her "…see! And Callum will cook us a lovely breakfast in the morning!"
"I will?"
"Yes you will…" she replied with amusement and I sighed shaking my head as Deborah gave me a look, then hovered over to her bedroll, dropping into a meditative pose. Our defensive wards were in place, and I'd put alarms up at the various entrances along with some illusions between her and my own spell-casting, so at least I could recover my strength with a good night's rest "…doing a good deed after all that Batcave robbery earlier today!"
"Hey, you helped, and it was scavenging thank you very much!" I replied setting up my laptop, plugging in the suits via cable as they recharged off the small generator we'd brought in the Trader's Packs that were proving the power for us in our ad-hoc communal area "But, yeah, I'll cook…since I'm better at it than you anyway"
"He kinda, totally, is" Kara said to the mediating Deborah almost as an aside while I shook my head as the screen booted up in front of me "…its why he's so useful to travel with, other than helping overthrow supervillain conspiracy run Earths of course"
"Yes, I'm a man of many talents…" I muttered as the stoic, silent, type that was the Crimson Crow gave a faint smile "…who needs a little peace and quiet so he can study his magic spells and use his Planes-walking tools to try plan our move a few days from now…"
--
[02.17: A Merchant's Dimensional long fhada]
[Bleeds the Sky…]
"What are those?"
"I don't know, and I don't think we want to find out…" I replied to Kara as we hovered, invisible, many miles from the ruins of Metropolis as….shadow-people flicked in and out of existence around those ruins. Lower the binoculars from my eyes I sighed avoiding looking at the ground below "…nor is there any great need to, beyond curiosity I think"
Deborah let out a curious hum "Not what was said by someone earlier…"
I nodded, using one hand to point at the distant ruins and odd coloured sky above it "Aye, and I'm still curious and wanted to do some salvage…but those are wraiths I think. Or echoes of something not of this dimension…see that coloured hue in the sky there? I think that's a bleed breach…or perhaps the scar of one, and it's distorting the city. With the Fortress of Solitude a crater…"
"Suddenly less interested in poking around?" Kara asked softly and I nodded. This particular dead world had hit her…not hard, but it bothered her seeing echoes of what was her home destroyed in the same way Quinn's Earth had bothered me somewhat. In part our lingering here a few days, beyond my spell preparation and testing the waters in the Bleed, so to speak, was to acclimatise Kara to the face the worlds we were jumping into were like hers…yet not. I'd been so sure there'd been no danger, but here and now…Metropolis felt wrong in a way even Gotham , and it's decaying Hellmouth, didn't.
"Yes indeed, very much less interested in exploring that shadowy-wraith haunted ruins for possible ruined, dangerous, tech"
Deborah, clad in her blood red Crimson Crow bathing-suit and cloak as I called it, nodded her cowled head hands tracing symbols on the air "Yes, it is….fascinating, yet disturbing in so many ways. You can feel…whatever it is?"
I nodded slowly my own senses studying the 'reality distortion' from what was thankfully a fair distance as I drew out the Celestial Etherscope and took readings "Aye…I can, studying it now to see what it might do to inform our next travel path. I think we'll head back to Gotham though and make preparations to leave after a quick study of…this oddity"
Truth be told…this place was depressing after two days here, and this sign of…life…was concerning, as I was reasonable sure the universe itself was devoid of sentient life at least. There was Life, but no sign nor feeling of the Green, the Red, or even the Rot, and while there were many things I'd like to seek out, but the fact we'd found the Green Lantern's {who was Rayner here it looked like} Green Power ring had revealed merely a dead, energy-less thing. I'd still pocketed it of course…but the alien supercomputer was clearly non-functional, and I suspected Oa wasn't there…well alive…anymore either.
One of the Crisis, one of the early ones at that, was my suspicion and my mind seemed to translate this as the outermost 'shallows' or 'depths' of a sea of dimensions all close together around distant 'islands' or 'deeper water' maybe. I frowned, 'feeling' with the Etherscope, as always finding it insanely difficult to convert the findings of the Amulet and my various purchased tools into something my mind could grasp. There were items of interest here, but it seemed any future operations here wouldn't be easy judging by here, the Fortress, and any other events we didn't see yet.
'Not only that, they could be depowered as…whatever happened affected reality itself…' I mused idly to myself as myself and Deborah carefully went about our distant investigations on the arcane level while Kara used the sensor pack to do so electronically '…or is maybe because this universe has 'sunk' into harder reality planes and that's effected the lingering constants? Well, it's a location for a stopover location, or some salvage, at some point in the future'
"Figured out what happened here Callum?"
"For sure? No, probably never will…" I replied to Kara as she decided to end the minutes long silence as we carefully hovered around the edge of the city, watching for any other signs "…but I do believe this world, this universe, was….re-purposed for lack of a better word after being evacuated on a cosmic scale. The Monitors probably considered it triage on the multi-verse they protected, or that's my current theory anyway as this worlds reeks of incursions…Bleed energy as some would call it. Like that giant mass of the stuff over there in the ruins of Metropolis…"
--
[Trader's Journal: Day: 350]
[Current Dimension]
Empty DC-verse Earth. We'll label it DC Exploration-01 for now I guess.
[Current Location]
GCPD Headquarters, Gotham City, New Jersey, what was the United States of America
[Current Cash Reserves]
1000 US Silver Dollars [Quinn's Earth[High Quality]
500 Gold Dollars [DC-verse Exp-01[United States of America[High Quality]
1000 Septims [Low-Quality gold-mix]
1,628 United States Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]
2,621 Dollars [US Provisional Government, Earth-01,Chain-2091, German-ruled Earth]
[Recent Trades – Salvage in this regards]
1 X Green Lantern Ring [destroyed/inert/dead]
6 X GCPD Sonic Rifles [Wayne-Tech manufacture[sealed carry cases with ammunition]
11 X GCPD Riot Shields [unknown material, shows no sign of decay despite circumstances]
1 X Green Kryptonite Ring [lead lined box]
1 X Freeze Ray [Rifle sized plus power pack -sealed container]
6 X Batman Utility Belts [standard design, varying containers – testing required]
1 X Power Armoured Bat-suit [Security-locked]
1 X Nth Metal Dagger [Yeah, this thing needs investigating]
1 X Black-Light Bands [Appears to have been used during WW2 here by a Phantom Lady]
5 X Sealed Boxes of Kryptonite Shards [Red[Gold[Blue[Green[Pink]
1 X Batman's Black Casebook – and wow, this is some messed up stuff.
1 X Shade's Cane – the 1940's version apparently, and magical as expected
1 X Cloak of Cagliostro – need to research;- Magical, something to do with Teleportation.
9 X Sealed Bottles Joker Venom inside One Sealed Case [it's like inert, but handle with caution]
1 X Cold Gun [owned by villain called Icicle, active sometime 40's-50's]
1 X Vandaium Small-Crossbow [High Quality[Property of one Helena Wayne, known as Huntress]
1 X Crate of Batarangs [various types]
7 X Sealed Bottles Scarecrow's Fear Toxin inside One Sealed Case [assume same as Joker Toxin]
1 X X-Ray Glasses [da fuq? Really? Really Batman?]
3 X Flame retardant Black Cloaks
500 X Gold Coins [US-mint, High-grade]
[Diary Entry]
Shadows on a world not quite dead it seems. Or at least devoid of people as best we can tell, and Kara did her fly up the coast to a crater that was once Superman's Fortress, and mine and Deborah's scouting of what was supposedly JLA HQ. Things are missing, that place was raided I'm pretty sure;- after whatever happened here I think, though that could be just my paranoia at work. I suspect a lot of things simple went with the people when they vanished from this world, and there's odd phenomena here and there like a dangerous looking dimensional breach/scar in what was Metropolis. It's a Bleed Breach, and there's a few other spots around the world as best we can tell on limited time we've spent here.
Yes we raided the Batcave, and technically JLA HQ, but there was strangely little, and many of the vaults were empty in the Batcave, Then again the Bat was supposedly dead for a few years before the World Died so it's very easy to assume things were moved somewhere else, or to the Crater that was the Fortress of Solitude. I will say what we did get is worth a fortune, and could be potentially useful even for ensuring nobody else gain access to certain chemicals. Further investigation is to be considered, but I'm wary of course, so it's something for a later date I suppose – right now the plan is to jump out in the morning, after breakfast, as I've searched forward up the 'chain' and have a potential location.
Through the Bleed of course, and it looks/feels like a battlefield graveyard, and it's more in the Bleed than through it? If that makes senses, it's hard to tell, or explain really honestly. The Bleed is like its own variation of the Void between Worlds, more like the Phlogiston of certain realms, and even scouting forward through it is a troublesome and tiring task. Mostly because there are things IN the Bleed as much as through it waiting at the other end, and we're travelling through the wreckage of former universes, or elseworlds. That, at the least, I'm fairly sure of – other than that it's looking through a thick fog, with only faint flashes of light in the distance indicating the Inner 52 as the Multiverse would have been. I think?
As to us; Deborah's both unnerved and excited by all she's seen so far. Still complaining about having to wear the hazard suits again tomorrow, but the next world isn't easy to follow for me, and that indicates potential problems due to the Bleed. It's literally covered in the feel of the energy, of planar incursions on a massive scale, so even excluding the apparently destruction and what looks like military equipment I'd be naturally cautious about the trip there. Part of my inclination to try this next spot, as there were other equally valid feeling choices, is the dead nature plus potential salvage/knowledge to be gain – I'm hoping clues to getting Kara back to her home basically.
Now Kara herself was pretty depressed earlier today, but she's cheered up a great deal since, beating me and Deborah at poker a little while ago. Also annoying me as I write my notes up for the day, peaking over my shoulder – even when I'm saying good things about her, or was going to at least. Writing helps me de-stress a little, and reminds me of how long I've been gone and such. Right, entry over, impossible to write it seems. Slán.
--
{Look up into the Red Sky…}
"Ready?" I asked as I did a last minute recheck of my suit, then off the assault rifle in my hands as the portal stood half-open before me. Beyond was a pitch black ruined old building, metal and stone and plastic, albeit with breathable, but less than pleasant, air "Recyclers on as well?"
"Ready to go" Deborah murmured as Kara gave me the thumbs up "May I ask why you require the weapon? With your magic?"
"Options, you've magic ready as well, and Kara's super-strength. Rapid-fire automatic weapons might be a useful side-weapon, or it might not, but I'd rather have the choice. Not when I can't see outside the building on the other side" I answered as I adjusted my grip on the weapon to free a hand to cast invisibility on us "…so, unless there are any last minute objections time to go invisible?"
There wasn't, so I cast it over the three of us and we slipped through the cracks in reality into the darkened building on the other side of reality. Coming through didn't reveal much of anything beyond dust and decay, and what might have been rust I noted moving silently as we all three hovered over the metal floors, then up towards the roof through a large empty shaft. I guessed it might have been an elevator shaft of some sort, either for large humanoids or for transporting goods…but that was only my opinion, though I felt the design of door accesses backed that up.
Pulling out the hand-held computer I could see energy spikes, albeit faint ones, not massively far away, and that the atmosphere was…relatively…safe to breath. Energy readings were strange around us, faint, but the system didn't recognise them – though that wasn't unsurprising using a future-tech device to analysis and a comic book dimension. Still it was recording, and nothing was proving harmful as yet that my arcane protections were needing to react to;- just silence and darkness as we rose up towards the faint red light above. There was magic, Kara was at full power, and I could hear the distant whispers of my patron, so that was all good to…
"Ah…." I noted as we rose up out into the light, survey the distant ruins and wreckage, then looking up at the shimmering, twisting, skies. Or what should have been the sky, but was clearly the Bleed itself rather than the sun of a solar system "…now isn't that interesting? It seems we're within the Bleed itself, and that's good and bad"
"On a junkyard planet maybe?" Kara queried looking around at ruins and wrecked machinery stretching out around us as I held up the hand-computer studying the readings "No, I…the buildings look normal? A battle maybe?"
--
[02.18: A Merchant's Dimensional long fhada]
[Walking in the ruins of someone else's war…]
"We're not on a planet…" Kara told me and Deborah as she descended from high up in the air where she'd flown straight up a moment ago "…this is a…big space-station or asteroid base, with what I think is a force-field and a super-hard not-glass shell over it…"
She came down to stand between me and the Crimson Crow on the roof of the metal and concrete-like material building waving her hand across the horizon to our left "...and it curves, like an illusion of a city. And its big guys, like miles and miles in either direction. Looks abandoned though, everything's all…broken and grimy-looking, oh, and destroyed too like that part over there"
I frowned at the as the three of us stood in our hazards suits looking out over the ruined 'cityscape' stretching out before us "That's….different, and a little concerning. Though it does explain the energy readings, fluctuations and all, we're getting on the equipment here….and why there's an atmosphere at all. Any idea from when you up there what this place might have been? You're the future tech expert after all my dear Kara"
Kara gave an soft, amused, smile behind her clear face helmet "Am I now? Hmm, still I've no idea; it's a big space-whatever floating in the weird red coloured not-space we all call the Bleed. We need to find active terminals or some data-archive to get a better idea…which would probably be a good idea Mr. Dimension Travelling Wizard"
"Yeah, it probably would…still, abandoned space-station"
Kara and Deborah nodded at that, grasping my meaning with Kara giving an awkward laugh "Heh heh…yeahhh….this is, like, the setting of sooooo many horror films"
"Uh-huh, it is, unfortunately…" I agreed holding up the computer tablet plugged into the backpack, assault rifle slung over my shoulder "…so we explore very carefully I think. I'm a little bit bothered by the fact you can X-ray vision through most of the walls, or that me and Deborah's attempts to look around or through them is being held back. High-grade magic resistant material there, so, anyway, where do we try first ya'think? There, there, and there, seem to be the higher energy emissions"
"That tower block a few miles in that direction…" she answered pointing at one spot off in the distance "…it's more…alive? for lack of better word. More noise, more energy output, and I'd say its closer to what looks like a functioning area, compared to everything nearby"
"It sounds an excellent plan" Deborah agreed, hands behind her back and hovering off the ground a little, helmeted head surveying the wreckage around us "Or perhaps just our only plan currently. I suggest we begin our exploration as, at the very least we should be able to locate a place where we can establish for later so meditation and other testing can be done for our next location since this is not Supergirl's home dimension"
"True, very true. So onwards, brave soldiers, I guess" I muttered activating the flight spell on the Flight Ring again and then rising upwards to join the two women in the air, then following them. Largely as I was the slower of the three of us, outside of emergencies as I couldn't afford to burn through other spells to boost my flight spells up to a faster travel speed. Not when I was spending another spell slot recasting invisibility on the three of us, while also watching the tablet computers readings as Kara's head moved back and forth, and Deborah watch our flanks. The 'city' wasn't silent, almost creaking and groaning around us, with the occasional bang of what might be equipment in use.
Ships, or maybe large internal vehicles, were crashed here and there across the cityscape, though none seemed to show any energy readings to my scans, arcane or technological. There were some flickers of power, and occasional lights, as we flew over the city...or what looked like a city, even though it apparently wasn't. More and more I suspected this might be some sort of production or manufacturing centre, a shipyard perhaps, as, despite the destruction and decay, there were signs of what had been once been here. The fact it was in the Bleed, well, best figure out the next stop soon enough I figured...
"There's a big hole in the wall, and in we go" Kara announced cheerfully over the comms and I sighed as she led us forward through said hole after a short flight over the decayed not-Detroit. I held the assault rifle at the ready, putting away the tablet-computer to the pack behind me, and used my magic to give me some night-vision as the three of us descended into the darkness. Or partial darkness as some lights flashed in the gloom, and a stream of 'red light' beamed through from the Bleed-light in the 'sky' above. Inside was a large open area, with multiple connected lanes and doors off in the darker corners of a...Coliseum? Arena? Theater?
'Shit, motion detectors that see through the cloak?' I thought as lights flicked back on in a large scale along with a clicking-thumping sound that could be said systems activating. Kara and Deborah were equally startled by the sudden brightness, and I winced at the sudden flash on my eyes as I moved my weapon around, blinking as my vision rapidly readjusted to the brighter stadium...
"That's a lot of bodies" I muttered into the comms as we moved out of the centre of the now brightly lit arena of some sort as I gestured in the direction with my rifle, then brought it back up and scanned for hostiles as we slowly descended "Anything?"
"I do not see anything" Deborah answered hands moved as we sort of rotated slowly as a trio, back to back, in mid-air as my gaze moved from the large area around us to the skeletons and mummified? rotted? corpses down below us in a series of piles "But I do not like this"
"We can withdraw now if either of you wish to..."
Kara cut me off "Callum...I recognize some of those costumes on...on...those bodies..."
I frowned, glancing again downwards at the piles, following Kara's gaze as her descent picked up a fraction as her tone grew concerned "Crimson Crow you're overwatch, myself and Supergirl are going to inspect whatever she has seen"
"Copy that, be careful my companions. This place does not feel all that good"
"You're telling me" I muttered following Kara down to one of the piles...one that probably stank judging by the bones and desiccated corpses, but thankfully we had sealed suits on. Now that we were closer I could see the problem, see what was disturbing Kara, in one of the bodies...even with the hole through where the man's heart would had been the S symbol was still clear. Even if Superman hadn't worn black in my world, nor hers by all her stories...not was the S in red, but a shiny silver...amidst dozens of other costumed bodies that looked vaguely familiar.
"That's...that's...and there..." Kara was muttered as I looked up again as equipment click-banged above and to the right a moment, before returning to where she was pointing "...that's the...Flash? I mean...the old one? Callum?"
I bite my lip a moment, studying the bodies, then clicking my tongue as I looked over said bodies "Yeah...that's the helmet I recognize, but these bodies are years old, more probably, so...these are alternates. But why are they here? What is this place?"
"Are you sure...that's Cl...Clark, and that's...me...I think..." she whispered into the comms as she hovered over one body, 'healthier' looking than the other corpses just like the Not-Superman "...Gala...Galathea?"
"No, it's not you, a parallel version maybe...and this is getting freaky..." I muttered seeing a Stargirl costume, save in Green, what looked like a Lantern uniform...and others I half-recognized like Cheshire's Oni mask for one. Like everything else it was slightly...off, and I'd know...Other-Me had anyway...that mask anywhere. Nearby other bodies were piled together, in dusty and broken armor, bodies in the same state as those around us, though no weapons seemed to be in sight "..and there's signs of battle damage all around us. But they piled everything up...but just left the bodies..."
'Okay, inter-dimensional battle, dead heroes, Bleed, weird space-station... Crisis on Infinite Worlds? Some horrible-terrible Monitor thing?' I wondered nervously as I descended to the ground and started to look at the corpses up close, rolling one over as it fell apart 'And we've a gorilla in a hero-suit too...what the hell was this place? And what the feck happened here?'
"We need to find a computer terminal..." Kara announced suddenly as she hovered back up into the air after standing frozen over 'her' body "...lights came on when we came in here, so there's systems working, power is working, so there must be some systems active to figure that out"
I nodded after a moment "True, that'd mean we've a shot of finding out..."
"My friends..." Deborah announced calmly from above us "...movement around us in the dark, and they are not amongst the living"
I immediately took to the air, forming up with the sorceress and Kara back to back in the air, theoretically invisible to whatever was out there "Machine? Biological? Undead?"
"There...see?"
I followed the gesture and seeing tattered armour and desiccated skin, red eyes hissing into the air with fangs wide, nose sniffing the air. Creatures starved and dying, but unable to do so due to cursed immortality "Ah, undead then...oh shit, Kara to you're right, Debs, your left!"
My rifle tracked another as the creature emerged from the shadow, fangs hissing and skin rotted and pale...but the Bat symbol was still very evident on the chest "Vampire Batman. Up, up, and away ladies. Let's see can we avoid this particular fight till we know..."
Batarangs flew into the air near us. Not quite where we were hovering in flight, but more hissing filed the air further up the arena. I had to dodge the next thrown one as Deborah threw up a shield to deflect the next as that unholy horror's hands moved in rapid, unnatural movements "Or not"
'Haste'
CrackCrackCrackCrack CrackCrackCrackCrack
My assault rifle spoke as the Bat took flight, following the path of his 'deflected' batarang, arms extended like claws...and there were actual claws there dammit...as a fear effect from those eyes probably tried to have an effect on us. No matter, too late, as my burst of gunfire caught it in the chest and head... smashing it backwards mid-air enough to throw off its jump. It fell...
CrackCrackCrackCrack CrackCrackCrackCrack
...and emptied the clip as it did so when I saw a gun of some sort come into its hand. My burst, as Deborah sent blasts of eldritch red energy into two other such creatures in tattered armour as they emerged from the shadows distant from us, burning them, and sending them flying backwards. Reloading my rifle I slung it over my shoulder this time, freeing my hands so I could cast...
And sent a Fireball into spot where Vampire Batman was falling. Beside me Kara punched a jumping undead creature flying across the area when it came for us. We continued to ascend into the light though, as the three of us decided it was best not to confront the undead deep within their layer. Instead, we blasted away the stairs and railings near the top of the structure as Kara pointed out that there were computers now active near the very top of the platform through some see-through metal screens. Deborah opened them with her powers, while I sealed them, and I found us all sitting around concerned; - not surprising considering the circumstances...
--
