[03.07: What Makes a Merchant, Man of Trade?]

[Having lunch down in the lower decks as world's change…]

"Aye, I say it not a bad job so far…" Yraeda said to Tirdelk as their group sat at a table down in the common room area of the Spell-jammer they'd signed on for a year's contract, by Bond, and relaxed with drinks and decent food "…even with all the human about, and dealing with human worlds"

Tirdelk shrugged as he sat back on the couch they'd managed to get installed for beings of proper, rather than overly tall, height, and watched the cluster of beings listening to the dark skinned human singing "Not all of them, and that's mostly the ones we collected to serve. The Captain's a half-orc only prentedin' to be human, the Zor-El First is some sort of Solar…and yon twins are clearly tieflings…"

He gave a bored nod towards the red eyed, chalk pale skinned, pair of females sitting and talking at the other end of the common room. They were clearly identical twins, or clones, according to the sensors in his eyes, even if one was dressed in trousers and these jacket-tops common amongst the human crew. All while her twin wore a more normal, to him, sorceress-ware in a crimson halter top and short cut T-dress under an equally blood red hooded cloak. Along with the Drow sitting with the Beastfolk it was pretty clear this was a fairly Neutral leaning, or at least very open, Speljammer merchant group

"…and the elves, odd that, but good for us since it's a few months that clear our debts…and the tinkering workshop and fellow alchemists and tinkers is just a bonus. Worse things than being mercs for a spelljammer trader for a few months"

Yraeda shrugged "Eh, mages and library too…now the Prime Humanss on this world don't seem to have no magic though. Don't see what the point is for a Wizard-Captain?"

Tirdelk yawned, rubbing his weary brow before answered as the song ended and the human female magician sauntered up and started some magic routine with parlour tricks and actual magic mixed in. She's was pretty good he found, albeit ugly in the way of most of her brutish kind "Merchants trade in more than just the shinies Yraeda, and I think they're tryin' to build some Trade League so something to hold of these Kyo-Megs? This guild here have got a big haul on the dead world we saw, but you need warriors to hold it…"

Zardyc grunted "And there are many poor, hungry, warriors on this plane?"

Blue grunted over his meat "Feels like it, sounds like it, don't matter as long we get paid and they ain't trying to rob us or our employer. Think we can get the small spelljammers?"

Tirdelk shook his head "Not till those beacons can be turned off permanently, no. Otherwise the Kyo-Megs be able to chase us, and that's a pointless spelljammer…that and they shall require major refitting I think. We earn coin or barter and we'll convince this half-orc wizard prentendin' to be human to do it for us I reckon. Seems that our new bosses talks went well, we didn't kill anyone"

"I know, awww" Munvee whined soft and Tirdelk rolled his eyes at the complaint, followed by the immediate switch as she drank down her drink and cheered as rabbit was pulled out of a hat "I could do that if I wanted to! And look better in tights! Or nothin' at all!"

"Wouldn't be hard, human females"

She apparently took that as a compliment Tirdelk found as he was suddenly having his personal space invaded, again, by their team bard "Dawww, you do wuv me after all!"

--

{Old friends, together again….}

Rembrandt Brown handed Wade her drink, giving an encouraging smile as he rejoined Maggie and Q-Ball as something of a crowd had gathered for their…evening?...show. Even if that crowd was made up of elves, and goblins, and a cat-person….idly he wondered did female cat-people look like that, or like proper cat-girls should. Pushing that thought aside he patted his recently recovered, and badly hurt, friend on the thigh as he sat down beside her "Hey there, I hope I put on quite the show? Or do I need my singing voice tuned?"

Wade giggled…and that wasn't entirely her, though it was less forced than the sobs and then false smiles of the first few hours back "Worthy of the great Rembrandt Brown, and the free drinks doesn't hurt it either"

"Nice to see I've some fans left in the world"

"Hey! We love your singing…" Maggie mock protested with a grin "…it's just the running and chaos of sliding that meant we didn't get to hear that voice of yours. Certainly got you some fans"

She nodded to where a group of a five women were looking in their direction, and he gave a smile and a, hopefully not too awkward, wave to them. Five of the rescuees from the camp like their Wade, and they weren't in the best place mentally…and that didn't really appeal to him, not yet, not till they were still recovering from their ordeal. Hopefully his small contribution to the 'crew' was helping with that, and at a rough glance this particular little group showed major improvement over the beaten, naked, and terrified group that'd been brought aboard about a week ago. He shook his head at that…

"Still can't get over we're on a sliding spaceship…"

"Or that other Quinn here is one of higher ups onboard…" Maggie answered him with a grin, elbowing Q-Ball in the side gentle as she held a beer in her other hand "…why don't you have a spaceship, huh?"

"Look, I built a functioning Slide Device…" Q-Ball muttered back with a mild huff "…and all without finding a magician, or a comic book character to help me do it!"

"Heh heh, we know you did Q-Ball…" Rembrandt agreed with a chuckle as Wade smile faintly at that situation "…and wouldn't have found anybody better to slide with than you guys…" and Arturo, but best not bring up that while Wade was on the mend a bit "…and you're certainly a mite friendly than that other Quinn Mallory, not the friendliest sort. And did you hear how it went?"

Maggie nodded, arms out showing her military uniform "I got to play guard, was fun, and then tell about the…danger…coming down the Slide chain for these people. Good news is they seem to be listening, talking to the French or Germans, I wasn't sure, but they are listening…I think. It's something Remmie, and could lead to something more to help…our…Earth"

"Hey, all a team here…" he answered that putting down the bottle in his hand and reaching arms to either side to Wade and Maggie, reaching out with the right to grab Quinn too into a hug "…united once again, and I ain't lettin' it get out of my sight this time"

--

{New friends, fixing mistakes…}

Kara Zor-El sat down with Callum and Quinn a sigh that was near a yawn "Well that was a long drawn out talk"

Callum nodded "Shrouded Lord yes, but we figured as much, but nobody is shooting at us, trying to take the ship by force…"

She gently elbowed him, giving him a firm look that turned into a smile as he frowned at her, then chuckled, holding up his hands "Yes, yes, too negative by far. We've got a deal, they'll send a rep, and both Ambassadors believed us after demonstrations of magic and you being you. I'm not allowed to whine about succeeding, hmmm?"

Kara laughed tiredly, poking his shoulder with her finger "See, there's my smart green boy. So smile, show the crew everything's great, and enjoy your break before you get some sleep. Which you need, just like the two of us"

"I will attest to that…" Quinn, who was….still annoying her, near supervillain that he was…but he was trying, really hard, for him, to correct his horrible, terrible, monstrous, mistake "…I thought the stress would kill me…or they would"

"They won't, we won't let them…" she answered the firmly pointing at him "…so don't get all mopey now buster! You've got plenty of work to do!"

"Yes Ma'am!" he muttered back and she nodded resting back in her chair.

"I wonder how Babs is handling running the Bridge?"

"Good I hope…." Callum said sipping from his drink "…I was your idea, one I agree with, and we're back up in orbit with nothing set for another nine hours, so she should be fine. You're nominee First Officer Zor-El"

"Shut up Captain Outis"

Quinn snorted "Well, I'll manage my Science while you two do all that….stuff"

"But you're our Spock Quinn don't you know!"

Kara mock groaned "Oh, don't start on Star Trek Callum"

"Hey, it's one of our few shared cultural classics…"

She snorted at that, almost relieved when Zatanna…being happy that that bitch was sauntering towards them with a wave…had come to end this train of thought before it began "No, no, we are going to talk about what we're doing next, and then you're going to bed and finally getting some sleep. Because I am not talking to those suits tomorrow….Captain. That's what your….charm….is for"

--

{The responsible friend, watchful in the dark…}

'One month and I'm home-sick' Barbara Gordon thought as she sat as Watch Officer on the bridge while the Fortune's Chance hovered invisibly in the stratosphere over the Atlantic. Or maybe she missed Bruce and Dick…or what she was seeing out here was concerning in all the ways that Batman would be very unhappy about…

'Then again Barbara maybe you're focusing on that as you're enjoying this voyage as well' another part of her argued '…along with needing to do something very bad to these Kromaggs for what they've done. This isn't beating up some punk on the streets, this is potentially saving a world from itself, and then from very probably from enslavement or worse'

That and….it was fun to be with Supergirl as a Team again. Not exactly how she'd imagined it, but they'd overthrown a group far too like the Legion of Doom that had taken over an entire world…and done unspeakable things to the heroes there. She couldn't admit it to the others, not even to Kara yet, but the knowledge had unsettled her imagine herself placed into the nightmare, or what would have happened to those she cared about in that event. Seeing them overthrown, their works cast down, had been a relief, and travelling with Kara helped her as much as much as it helped Kara she figured.

Now there were these murderous ape-men out there, with an inter-dimensional empire, and it was only good that they had no way of reaching her Earth, and the other Earth's right now. Maybe in the future the Justice League could step in, but that seemed unlikely the more she thought about it….well, it would be a long time before The Fraternity's abuses would be dealt with, and the League couldn't fight a war like this. No, getting a 'defensive slide barrier' up here then seemed the best idea to help the Justice League, and she was sure that was what Batman would have done in her position….

--

[03.08: A Makes a Merchant Man of Trade?]

[Building a wall, and getting the French to pay for it…]

"…based on readily available parts it's the most viable solution in the short term. In theory one, if fully powered, would be enough to sustain a barrier, and should last between ten and fourteen months before it burns itself out. I admit it's not the ideal system, but it should give enough time to begin design and construction of a more powerful, and permanent, system. In that regards we'd want two of the devices ourselves to secure the empty alternate Earth from any Kromagg scouts or military advance in the same manner. The Gate design will allow controlled transit from this reality to that one while the Barrier is active…"

I allowed Quinn, our Quinn, to explain to the assembled scientists from the Irish, French, and West German governments' delegations aboard the Fortune's Chance. They'd already been going over our technical data, along with Kara, the elves, the goblins, and the accounts of the women from the camps it was clear enough they were inclined to believe us. It was the combination of the fear of the unknown, suspicion of the outsider, desperation at the current situation, and most importantly perhaps; greed at the chance to gain access to the other Earth to ease those troubles. Formalising it and getting us on such a path then was vital as having others fight my battles would make trading so much easier…rather than losing two more Earths to a monstrous enemy.

The 'Slide Cage' device that the two Quinns had build, along with help from the goblin mad scientist Tirdelk, advice from Kara and Batgirl, and even the three Sunnydalers, was based on our Quinns original fuckup. A planet-wide effect that barred the slide drive, as well as the outliers of The Fraternity's multi-dimensional portal system, was achievable….but power intensive and maintenance heavy. But, more importantly, it could be cobbled together in a week, maybe two, to get the first up and running from established energy grids in France and West Germany. It'd burn out fast, but, again, they were relatively easily replaced for now while a proper Barrier Pillar could be created from Sorcery and Technology combined.

Establishing a more magically based Gate system between the two Earth's was then achievable, and that would allow 'black-boxing' of the system from my side in case the Kromaggs took over, or this lot turned on us when all was said and done. Hopefully that wouldn't happened, and trust would build up between our parties, as I really needed a functioning, allied, government to get the electricity grid back up and running on the other, empty, Earth. Followed by the workforce needed to build the Barrier Pillars, and then pay for my goods and services beyond that – Order and Civilization were good for Trade, as that meant Markets, Supply and Demand for…

"I must say Captain Outis…" the French diplomat, and general leader of the locals merry band, Emmanuel Couture murmured as he came over be beside me as the technical explanation continued across the way, watched by a few of my new, camp-free, crew members from the upper gantries of the Mech Bay as I thought of it "…I am unsure if you are being overly ambitious, or less aggressive than I would be in your position"

"I'm unsure what you mean Minister…" I replied less than truthfully with a pleasant smile "…I like to think of myself both helping a friend, and, in general, helping humanity deal with a looming threat. Having seen the end result, and heard worse stories, I think ensuring that a line is drawn in the sand is vital. Not just for your survival, but also for my own in the long term if I am to be a successful merchant. It is very hard after all to be a trade-ship in a sea of pirates is it not?"

"Ah, it would I envision, yes" he murmured nodding at Quinn "Though one would argue that you are perhaps profiting from Monsieur Mallory's actions…"

I hummed softly, shaking my head and cutting him off "No, I would argue very different as it would be more difficult for me to aid your world, and Quinn's efforts to bring us to your aid, and rectify mistakes, has been the drive behind wishing to establish this Earth, and the other, as our home port and organisational base. As I have shown with my crew, I have options beyond that which could have been explored. Quinn could very easily have walked away from this situation. So from my point of view this is a win-win scenario, and hopefully stabilise your population feeding issues once agriculture can be re-established on the other side"

"It is past planting season I believe?"

I nodded "And on the other side as well, but there are alternate sources in the short term, and even I it was it would take weeks to months to re-establish fields and general production lines even in a perfect world. All I want is a share in the establishment of any Portal Authority, and help in constructing the projects that will help yourselves"

"While profiting from suffering?"

"I prefer to see it as profiting from ending the suffering of everyone. I'm altruistic, but I'm not that altruistic Minister. I have a ship to maintain for one, along with other trade relations to keep up…" I answered firmly resting back against the metal bulkhead behind me "…as the comic book characters that we apparently are to some, should show"

"And will they not aid us against these monstrous potential invaders?"

"I expect they will, if you can help yourselves and we can establish trade routes. Routes I know, but take time and effort to develop, and they are limited compared to the slower methods such as this vessel. Look, I'm willing to help, and all I want is support to trade from here….think of us as a small multi-national, except on the dimensional scale"

The man frowned, then sighed "There have been precious few of those since the Event you understand?"

I nodded "I do unfortunately, and it's impressive what you have done maintaining a functioning economy after such…nastiness, but trade is good, but dangerous in this case. Many things that people imagined exist, do exist, such as us as comic book characters, or the goblins, or things I had not imagined, so I can made a trade off it, but neither is it the most controllable profession. More age of sail and ancient times than modern really, and with actual monsters lurking over the horizon sometimes or, in this case, an evil multiversal empire"

"One you stand against it seems?"

I shrugged "One I'd rather didn't gain anymore ground thank you very much, though if you think we'll some crusade against them….well, that isn't something achievable at the moment. Oppose them yes, but much as the Ottomans swept aside opposition in the Levant and Balkans in both our worlds timeline opposing only gets you so far without helping others defend themselves…"

It was a spiel, albeit filled with truth. I did not want the Kromaggs marching to victory after victory along this chain of realities, and hammering down blocks to any further advance along this dimensional cluster. I wanted this cluster as my base of operations, and I'd already established routes to various other realities. If I could get support from nation-states then I could setup an actual Corporate HQ on the Empty Earth, with actual protection and support, then I could trade with regular caravans while I 'sailed' the Bleed and Cosmic Voids aboard my Spelljammer…

--

{Several hours and a dimension over…}

"Drive power levels are still optimal, no sensor readings beyond expected readings"

I nodded as I sat in my Captain's chair, Kara giving me a grin and a thumbs up as the Fortune's Chance emerged from the dimensional Vortex back to Home Base "Good to hear Jonathan, we've broadcast down to our guests in the guest conference room?"

"Yes it is Captain, along with energy readings. We're in the same position in the upper stratosphere they we left on the other Earth…and can I just say. This is so still so cool"

"I know" I replied with a grin "Bring us down, angle us towards the Castle, take it nice and easy lads and lassies, keep scanning just in case. Let's try and make a good impression on our VIPs"

I moved my hand over the more Arcane controls, bringing up scans of the nearby landmasses and scans; seeing what the familiar looks of Home Base Earth, and the faint signature of Trim Castle 'nearby' in relative terms. This was merely a show to our small mixed delegation what the state of the 'banished' Earth was, beyond photograph, and I allowed the designed landing area…somewhere in Brittany it seemed…to be communicated to my bridge crew. I watched as our flight path adjusted, then our power levels as the vessel did as was asked, anti-grav and propulsion systems answering their commands.

"That went well didn't it?"

I nodded back at Kara as she came over, placing a hand on my shoulder "Yeah, so far, so good, we'll do a landing where they want and let their expedition explore. We'll rest up for the night, then open up a dimension gate tomorrow point to point when we return"

"We're doing a good thing Callum, relax…" Kara told me squeezing my shoulder "…we're getting there"

I smiled tiredly "Thanks. I know, it just feels so slow. We need to move fast on this. Sooner we get a Barrier up and running the sooner we can get back to more normal operations….or, well, for our travels anyway. Days are a wasting"

"I know, tell me about it…" Kara muttered in that annoyed tone of hers "…but they are listening, I can tell"

"Yeah, same here…" I agreed in a soft tone. Magic and Kryptonian biology were a help with sussing out lies after all, albeit in different ways "Now, XO, do you want to guide us in? Give your system adjustments a test drive on performance improvements?"

"Why thank you oh mighty Captain!" she came back with in her fake 'Supergirl-hero-gracious' tone, before walking away from me towards where Batgirl sat "Hey Babs, let's show them what the software tweaks can do for energy efficiency!"

"Aye-Aye Number One!" I heard Batgirl reply cheerfully and I shook my head in amusement and brought up a holographic screen to study the power out from the original hunter-killer destroyers engines. We were slowly learning the systems, and adjusting to our needs, with each passing day, but one thing I wanted to do was get some Fusion Cores and Generators from the Wasteland to add into it for occasional power boosts. It'd help with when we step outside 'traditional' Bleed mechanics, since the engines drew from the Bleed as well as navigated it, and secondary power relays were time limited due to the nature of Monarchs Army. So, once we convinced our guests we were going a trading, and salvaging, over to the Wasteland so we could build some proper Barriers down the line…

--

[03.09: What Makes a Merchant, Man of Trade?]

[Raise up the anchor, let the down the sails, we leave at the turn of the tide today…]

--

[Trader's Journal: Day: 490]

[Current Dimension]

Home Base Earth

[Current Location]

Landed just outside Paris, France

[Current Cash Reserves]

1,000 US Silver Dollars [Quinn's Earth[High Quality]

1,200 Gold Dollars [DC-verse[DC-verse, Exp-01[United States of America[High Quality]

2,420 Septims [Low Quality gold-mix]

1,012 Californian Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]

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

19,667 US Dollars [Earth-JA01 on Account [Bank of New England]

14,210 US Dollars [Earth-JL02] on Account [Bank of Metropolis]

10, 264 US Dollars [Buffy-verse] on Account [Bank of America, Sunnydale]

22,500 Punts [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Bank of Ireland]

32,000 Francs [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

25,400 D-Marks [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

[Trading Report – Raid/Salvage]

Paid by the French, Irish, and German governments, along with various non-food based supplies. We're actually very well fed compared to the food starved Earth.

[Diary Entry]

Right, we've got ourselves some believers in our crazy story, and construction has begun on the designs of both the Slide Gate, and of the Slide Cage proto-Barrier. What has been requested is for us to get food, as while the situation is stable in our immediate vicinity, the simple truth is that global supply chains have collapsed and even a ship's worth would make a difference for increased operations involving the military. So, while they work on the machinery they want us to acquire these supplies; along with doing a jaunt to the Wasteland as well in my estimation.

Getting large quantities of food from existing sources isn't the easiest, as buying too much draws attention, let alone means its hard come up with the hard cash to pay for that stuff. So, operational plan is to deploy back to Quinn's Earth, have another talk with the authorities, then head over to the Fallout-verse and form a bridge to Skyrim and purchase supplies from there. Sadly the cosmology of that plane keeps the ship out, but we can access Winterhold and purchase some small stores from there to start with. My best bet is the 2091-Chain, along with the current chain – but I'm aware of tempting fate with the Kromaggs on that one, so I'll try the other options first if I can.

I could return back to Kara's cluster and purchase supplies there of course, but they've got their own issues and I've better prices elsewhere I think. We're leaving a collection team here as well, well the governments are, as there are military stores with supplies that are still good by all accounts, and we've brought over parts to start the creation of this side's slide gate along with an emergency setting on 'slide device' for them escape if need be. Locked codes of course, as nobody wants to take risks right now should an invasion force come through to Home Base while we're gone. They'll backwork the slide device eventually I suspect, black-boxed or not, but right now it'd be self-destructive to try travelling in their current desperate state I feel.

We're setting a period of twenty-four days, starting from date of departure, to return here whatever we can gather in exchange for, well, pretty much of what I want from this dimension. Salvage operations in the Wasteland was already planned, and that'll be a week of those days, during which we'll run a caravan of supplies through from Winterhold to where we setup. Ideally a place with robots, or power armour, that we can loot in decent amounts; laser weapons too would be bonus, though I think Fusion Cores might be bigger priority along with the generators using them. That'll be something decided by sensors and ability to stay hidden when we get there basically, as I want to avoid any, major, hazards if possible.

Kara and Quinn agree with me on that plan and a few, like Zatanna for one, are almost eager to see the dangerous hellscape that is Fallout, though I think it's the College of Winterhold part that interests here honestly. She's a bit like her younger self in that they both try to distract away from what they actually want with indirect talk, and sometimes illusions of truth. Then again, should I be surprised? Stage magician at heart, and by training!

Anyway, in preparation for that I've got a security up and running, and full equipped in gear to deal with the conditions on the other side. I'm less happy that six of them are, barely, passing mental health muster due to being Kromagg Camp escapees, but they are training daily and they do have previous military experience, even if I've never even heard of two of the countries. Of course the big stick is Kara, me, the two Crimson Crows, and Zatanna, and the mages, too of course though I don't want them involved in any fights due to their reservations on the matter. I do agree it's not their fight, and it's not the safest for them due to lasers and bullets still being deadly to them, along with, feral ghouls and radiation.

In preparation we've got the two humvees working, and armed, along with a helicopter up in the upper launch bay. We're going to turn one of the side storage bays into a stables for horses, at the suggestion of the two Deborahs, for when we're dealing with more primitive worlds, or simply worlds with plenty of magic that don't like technology. Haven't got the horses yet, but that can be sorted, along with two very eager women to take care of them;- Dr. Chen things it would be a help as well for some of the rescuees. So, another thing to add to the to-do list it looks like. So, back to work if I'm to do that I guess?

--

{Lower the anchor, set the watch, we're in harbour for the night…}

"Energy signals are minimal, but it's the…"

"Yeah, I know, General Robotics Factory, and robots…" I agreed with Brewster as she gave us feedback from the sensors as we moved above the sea near Boston "…and it's a good bet for what we need in terms of machines. Life signs, it's not filled with mutants or ghouls?"

"Doesn't look like it…" can back the answer from the Sunnydale girl "…but it's…odd, like some of the other readings? We can do a check with drones?"

"Go ahead, send out some of those fancy drones Callum bought" Kara instructed beside me as we studied the display of the city beyond. I'd drawn what I could by meditation of long past memories, but they were vague at best, though the lack of the giant airship indicated the Brotherhood of Steel hadn't yet arrived in the city. My go too for the moment was here and the armoury over the harbour in the ruined Fort Independence;- that though would require me to side with the Minutemen…

'Which might not be a bad idea….in the future, maybe' I considered as I gestured in agreement with Kara's order as we scanned and scanned again the low level warzone that was Boston. Of the spots I 'knew' Boston was the best bet as I wasn't going near Washington and the Brotherhood of Steel, nor its Mid-West cluster, California and the NCR, or Caesar's Legion territories. Or the Canadian National whatever it was up in the North either…House's, victorious, New Vegas was a future option, but not for a smash and grab like this was going to be. The other locations we'd sniffed around in the last six hours had been too heavily guarded, infested, or simply destroyed, to get assess too. Boston was conveniently developed, but not organised enough, to try this sort of thing.

"We might get lucky with this location?"

I nodded back to Kara bringing up the holographic map "There all dangerous, have been I mean, but this a decent spot as we've water below us, and we've a few places up close including that Brewery over there, and the Police Station here. Looks like some armour…here and here, bit dangerous with all these life signs, but we've the robots and drones so let's see what we can manage without taking too many risks. We'll have to take the lead you know?"

She rolled her eyes, grinning "So good to be needed as a flying tank"

"That's one of your qualities, yes" Batgirl replied for me coming over to stand beside us and studying the displays as Kara gave her a pouting glare "Boston?"

"Future alternate Boston yes, bombs missed, but there's massive radstorms off to the south, and out to sea here…" I showed with a flick of my fingers over the crystal "…looks better than the problems with the other spots of the East Coast, so far at least"

"So no rooftop travelling?"

"No" Kara replied back for me "Most definitely not"

I nodded "Yeah, it'd be inadvisable in this place and time, but you're technical genius, just like Kara's, along with your combat training, will be very much needed if the place is open. Though I will warn…"

"Yeah, yeah, systems here are very different, I've seen that" she answered, though her tone was politely amused rather than condescending "I'm worried about centuries old, radioactive, death-trap you're trying to scavenge, and still being amazed so much of their gear works after that long and a nuclear war"

Kara nodded "Yeah, it's….strange, but that machinery is built to survive for some reason. Not like so much of the stuff on, well, our Earth. Since that all went to rot after it was abandoned on that creepy Crisis-Dead Earth that was only empty a few decades at most"

I rubbed my chin "I suspect it's the nature of the computers, and then the fact this society was having severe resource crisises in the run up to the world ending nuclear war. Everything was expected to last a long, long, time due to power and supply issues, even look at the food and the fact its still, technically, edible after all this time. Wouldn't recommend it of course, for the locals it's fine, but they've got increased rad resistance as best I can tell…"

"Boss…" can the call from Brewster "…I mean Captain, ugh, this place isn't supposed to have superheroes and stuff?"

I frowned "No, not that I know off, why?"

"Then…we've someone in a robot costume looking at our drone?"

--

[03.10: What Makes a Merchant, Man of Trade?]

[The military-industrial complex still moves despite being long dead…]

"Hello in person Mechanist, so…" I greeted the person in armoured robot suit with a smile, Kara on my right, and Batgirl on my left, and four armed 'Marines' at our back along with the Crimson Crow "…it seems we're both interested in this facility, and you have clearly got experience with the equipment, so we'd like to make a deal for temporary salvage on a cooperative basis"

"Greetings fellow heroes…" it was like they'd been teleported directly from Other-Me's Earth or Kara's, not a post apocalyptic wasteland, with that booming mechanical tone and fists on hip pose "…I, The Mechanist, greet you in the spirit of friendship…"

'But, showing you have more brains than many a costumed lunatic, you brought your robot bodyguards just in case as well' I noted as she continued on "…and willingness to share this mechanical bounty with thee. All The Mechanist requests in exchange is aid in fighting the good fight to restore decency to the raider beset innocents of the Commonwealth!"

"That sounds reasonable…" Kara replied for me cheerfully, then frowning "…though, a robot death army doesn't seem a very superhero-y thing to do you know? You're not building a robot death army are you?"

'Thank you Kara' I thought with a sigh as things got awkward a moment before the mechanic person continued their hero pose "It is a Mechanical Army of Justice that shall emerge from within these strong walls!"

"Uh-huh, sounds good to me…" I started to say, then holding up my hand as Kara glanced at me "…look we discuss your intended plans once we have established some ground rules for the next few days. We merely wish to make use of this facility for a few days, recover salvage from here and the surrounding district, and then we shall depart via our vessel at the docks nearby. We shan't challenge your claim, and you don't challenge ours, and if any there any issues arising we can negotiate over such issues?"

"This is agreeable to The Mechanist in its vague outline"

I nodded, gesturing at Maria, one of the armed guards, to bring forward the trolley with stacked boxes of food and medicine stacked on it "Excellent, so please consider these medicines and canned foods as a show of our good intentions in these negotiations. Aid from a merchant to someone clearly trying to fight the good fight in this forsaken land"

Perhaps I was laying it on a bit thick, but our robot-suit dressed friend seemed to be full immersed in their madness so probably for the best to be polite, stay guarded and watchful, and try figure out if they were doing anything truly dangerous. I had reasonable confidence we could take her sentry-bots and 'Sparks', even without Supergirl, and with her and the ship it wasn't in doubt….but I wasn't a thief, and whoever this was had done some work here already, and hadn't attacked us either. So, it was best to share as we were only visitors to this screwed up plane; and nearly all other nearby groups were much, much, worse and would be potentially attracted by a loud fire-fight to our position.

The Mechanist's response was just as exaggerated as usual, but it was progress and I let the barest amount of tension of my body as we talked further, us politely, and they in a friendly but mildly bombastic 'superhero' speak. It was almost comforting in its odd way, and I had to remind myself this was a different place, with a different culture, as we hammered out a basic 'house-sharing' agreement. The General Robotics facility was massive after all, and simple things like placing guard teams also had to be done, and I didn't want to step over some invisible line by accident. Keeping my people safe, and alive, was paramount while we went about the task at hand here…

"That went well…" Kara muttered to me as we emerged from the factory a little while later to allow our Mr. Handys enter and begin recovery efforts alongside a dozen of my newly expanded crew. I nodded in response to her as our Sentry Bot and two, now rearmed, Protectrons rolled out into defensive positions nearby. There were Super Mutants and Raiders not overly far away, and I'd go our small drone stock up and running in rotation so that all nearby areas were watched constantly.

"Yes, thankfully, and we'll see how it goes with The Mechanist, but I do think we need to have a little chat with him…her…about the wisdom of unleashing a nearly-sapient, heavily armed, war machines upon the land to enforce peace"

Batgirl came up beside me, resting on Kara's shoulder, who gave her a mock huff of annoyance "It's both a brilliant plan, and an absolutely terrible one….all at the same time. I've seen the software on those things, it's brilliant, but….not up to telling apart an armed bandit trying to rob someone, and someone from a local law enforcement militia trying to take down said armed bandit. Yes, something like this might be needed…but one person in an abandoned weapons factory isn't the solution as they won't be able to adequately monitor their enforcers"

I gave a faint nod, gloved hands on my cane's hilt, and looking out over the ruined city stretching out around us, and flocks of birds on telephone or power cables "I'm somewhat agreeing, as you're right, but this region seems so messed up…it could help or hurt very much , very easily"

"What he said…" Batgirl muttered to Kara "…but, yeah, we need to sniff around and make sure this doesn't turn out as bad it sounds"

I sighed "Yeah, the underground facility sounds concerning, even without the robobrain idea…"

--

{Twenty-three hours, fifteen minutes, and forty-two seconds later…}

"These people were monstrously evil…."

Nobody disagreed with a angry assessment as my mixed group of magicians and mad scientists as what I stated was really obvious from the reports on the computers. With more magical senses it was so much worse…and, in many ways, it was probably so much worse if one had psionic senses I suspected. The Robo-brains were, quite simply, horrifically evil. Understandably so considering the horrors inflicted upon them, and the selection criteria the IMBECILES behind this secret project had chosen to use. Making use of these Robo-brains…

I let out a breath "These things can't be used, not for anything resembling law endorsement….they'll purposely misinterpret even the best worded commands and seek to do terrible things instead"

Deborah, the active Crimson Crow glanced at her 'twin' and then at me after the other, faintly sick looking, grey skinned woman in red nodded "Indeed, their souls…aren't even truly there, they are truly vile things now, corrupted beyond madness…they will relish slaughter"

I sighed, rubbing at my forehead…and things had been going so well till now on the first day "Yeah, I can guess"

Kara looked confused a moment, glancing at us "Why are the cyborgs worse than the robots? They're the victims aren't they?"

"That they are, but what's left isn't what went in…" I clarified gesturing at the thunking, clunking, machinery now in motion "…and the ones with a conscious, and signs of morality…got purged. I just…"

For a moment I was lost for words as I pinched my nose "Nine Hells, I just don't know. It's just so sadistically stupid evil! It's like they wanted a rebellion of sadistic psycho cyborg robots! I honestly….just what the fuck? I can understand evil robot army, but it was just so moronic! You don't even see the stupidest supervillains doing this sort of insanity, and then expecting their victims to become their loyal servants, just cuz…"

Zatanna had an equally disgusted look on her face "They were vile and insane. We need to….do something about this"

"Yeah, not let our new friend unleash the robot death army led by psycho cyborg robots on people for a start" Kara muttered and I nodded in agreement. That was step one, but beyond that it was a matter of dealing with the horrific aftermath of these…experiments…and being cruel to be kind with the 'survivors' of the Operation Create a Psycho Robot Monster. After all The Mechanist, while secretive, had been both helpful, and willing to listen to our recommendations on anything from machine repairs, to guard shifts. Perhaps worryingly they seemed to get on flyingly with Quinn…

I waved them off "I know, I know, I'll have a talk later with them, but look, data-mine these things now, as we've 'a magic feeling' might not go down as best proof to a scientific sort. I'm sure there's enough damning information on these computers to prove those feelings right though"

It was problematic to say the least, as we'd started to get a handle on the parts we wanted, along with machinery to support those parts, from within the factory, and find a number of Power Armour suits to grab. Now this had cropped up, and as much as I didn't want it to be my problem….it was, and I was too inclined towards that alignment not to do something, however small. So we'd continue our few days of salvage and now I'd find a way, with support on hand, to sit down with The Mechanist and explain, with data, why their plan was now essentially doomed to failure. There were other options available to them of course, as there were local militia groups that were decent enough supposedly, and a force of combat robots might be a big help to the 'Minutemen' for instance. For now though it was research and plan, avoid clashes for a few days, and then get looking for food in a more peaceful dimension….

--

[03.11: What Makes a Merchant, Man of Trade?]

[We fight for SCIENCE! To make life like sex-do….thinking machines! For a brighter future…]

Things had seemed to be going so well I'd found…

And then we'd discovered the cyborg murder-bot army the US had….horror-powered into existence before the nuclear war, followed by the long, difficult, and depressing conversation with 'The Mechanist' proving her glorious plan was fecked before it even started. Considering how screwed up this particular Earth was, she'd had a decent plan, but not one that was viable with the Chaotic Evil tools avail to her. So, just as we were getting to the end of the long, depressing, information show and tell to prove we were correct…

Well, that's when my comms beeped urgently, and I answered "What's so urgent?"

Jonathan's voice came back over the line "Sorry Cap'n, but we've….the systems saying something about possible teleportation event? Well, it's more long winded than that, but…"

"Yeah, sound an alert on the ship and crank up the sensors a notch, see if you can track it down. Put me through to Batgirl" I answered pressing down on the comm.-unit on my neck, then changing the channel as the current Watch Officer came on the line.

"Got the track…" her voice came over "…don't see anything on the drones, but I'm doing a security check with all teams now. I'd say be on guard"

"Got it" I answered standing up, looking to the Mechanist in her quasi-power armour who was turning to me after looking up from the files on the computer terminal "We may have a problem. My crew are reporting strange energy signatures nearby that indicates some sort of teleportation energy usage"

"Teleportation is impossible" the mechanically adjusted voice replied from behind the robot costume, little flying robot beeping as it hovered at her shoulder, followed by a paused before she replied "Too my knowledge anyway…but you've proven many such things possible that we had thought impossible. Being a Hero means breaking the impossible"

"Uh-huh, okay" I replied with a polite smile before sighing as Kara came over to me, holding a data-pad from future-California that she'd been studying the information taken from the local computers. She also had that 'I'm gonna do something' look on her face, one I needed to shoot down immediately "Kara No"

She huffed "No what?"

"No going out to investigate. I know that look"

"Hnnnn…fine" she muttered giving me a glare for a moment, then folded arms across her chest "It's probably nothing anyway"

"Let's hope so, but I'm going to go up and do a arcane sweep as well. Can you finish up for me? And just watch while I meditate a few minutes?"

Kara sighed, giving me and a grumpy look "Fine. Go, don't over-tax yourself magic-man"

"Light usage, and I'll used a lot more now anyway. But I'll be good" I replied, then nodded to the Mechanist who was clearly doing her own sweep on her computers as machines moved about up stairs. With a shrug I moved to a space nearby, my two escorting 'guards' looking at me awkwardly as I sat cross-legged on the floor and, after casting a protective ward on me, closed me eyes…

Then opened dozens more as ravens and crows cawed and circled in the skies above the factory. Our 'cloaked' vessel was in the harbour, looking like an old rusting merchant ship from before the War as they called it, and the usual flare ups of gunfire were ever distant. My 'Security Team' was out on the roof, and nearby impromptu watchtowers in bombed out buildings, since this place was an active war zone…pretty much all the time, the were on alert even before this. Moving stores of robotic parts from the factory to the ship wasn't easy thing after all, not when you were trying to be quiet about it…

'Hmm…that's strange' I noted as one of the mildly mutated crows wasn't…there?...or under my control as it sat upon the long broken telephone wire. Not all birds were accessible I'd found, but this one felt odd…and usually resistance meant greater intelligence, or someone else's control as I didn't actually control the birds per se, merely guide them a little based on natural impulses. Frowning I detected another anomaly…

'Also watching a factory entrance' my mind supplied and concerns over another mage watching us rose up in me despite not seeing anything directly dangerous or out of the ordinary. Of course this was a post nuclear warzone so out-of-the-ordinary could mean anything as my mind might not recognise the patterns due to inexperience. Another was watching my ship as I expanded my search distance, switching to other eyes not my own as they soared high above the buildings…

Beep Beep Beep

Without opening my eyes my hand moved up to activate my comm.-unit to speak to Jonathan "Yes?"

"Another warning Cap'n….oof, and another, systems lighting up like a Christmas tree. Putting you over to Batgirl now Boss"

My birds eyes saw faint flashes on the street nearby, amongst the ruined buildings on the flank of the factory, and that was not a good thing as I snapped open my real eyes, minutes having passed me by as Batgirl's voice filled my ear, and clearly Kara's as well "Okay guys, looks we've got trouble, ship is detecting….well, Clicker isn't teleporting in a football team by any chance now?"

"No, and I just saw weird light flashes over to our…right?" I wondered, trying to match grids we'd setup on the shp, in my mind "Grid…ugh, four of five I think? Redirect a drone over there. We're going into lockdown and be ready for us to evac if we've got enemy mages out there"

"Copy that K-man"

I ignored her would be humour, or whatever it was, by calling me K-man as I turned to Kara as she put her tablet into the carry case she wore "Get Quinn, we've got trouble inbound"

She jerked a thumb at The Mechanist, who, before I say anything, turned to me as red lights began to flash on the ceiling, though thankfully without loud hooting alarms this time "It's…the Institute. We….can't fight the Institute…not yet, not right now"

I frowned at that. I didn't know much about this 'Institute' beyond they seemed not to exist, but exist in that way of having a secret base…somewhere…they could strike out from. As a mage I could relate, and there was not guarantee it was them, and it was merely out host jumping to first conclusions. Truth be told it didn't much matter as it'd be better than a multi-versal force turning up…maybe, but it didn't change the fact it looked like our cover was blown. Heavens above we weren't very good at not getting attention thing when we jumped into a dimension.

"We don't know yet who, or what, it is. But whoever they are they're either after me and my ship, or the factory here…which we can't let them have due to the murder-bots buried in the basement. So, we're here to help in this regards…"

--

{Board meetings can be dull….but this looks like a really good movie}

"What the…?" was all Doctor Madison Li managed to get out before falling into silence as she sat with other Directors and Father as fighting started with the unknown forces designated The Anomaly and those of the mad person called The Mechanist within the General Atomics facility. Part of her mind was arguing this was impossinble as it was clear from the combat footage on the screens that the blond girl was…

Flying. Literally flying and then punching their synths into scrap metal, all while bullets seemed to bounce of her. Or the man in the white suit casual throwing around lightning while not displaying any visible power pack to do so…

"We need to capture them, immediately!" Justine Ayo said excitedly "Look at that. Viable anti-grav tech, the miniaturization on that synth model must be amazing to reinforce its chassis so…"

"We can't get a reading on it Justin, not at all" Madison hissed gesturing at the battlefield that had suddenly erupted as Coursers and a large force of combat snyths….looked not to be enough for the mission they'd assigned them "…beyond she's, maybe, biological in some manner"

"Our snyths have a biological component as well Madison. Though it is concerning others, far distant from here have created superior models, or found some means to reinforce the body naturally without the defects that created the Super Mutants" Father stated calmly as he sat serenely at the head of the table, hands together under his chin and studying the data-feeds. As usual he served to calm the group, and focus them on the task at hand as his statement turned to a question "Have we been able to identify any markers or potential identifying symbols on our friends here?"

"Nothing yet so far, not beyond what we are seeking" Justin Ayo replied in a more composed manner as he turned to scrolling through the constant analysis from the Synth Retention Bureau's systems. Hardly ideal, but they were the best suited to the task right now, even if Madison dislike their methods, and it was their forces they were getting exploded currently "Though they have some links to the newest resident to General Atomics factory judging from the outfitting on these few here. Or perhaps the Gunners as…."

Several of the screen resolutions expanded, showing frozen video feed of military camouflaged soldiers armed with good equipment, and clearly some actual military training "…we can see here, here, here, and here, they utilise similar equipment and uniform. Since we know the Gunners have outside backing, even if we employ them from time to time…"

Father held up his hand "Noted, and we will expand the investigation of that line of inquiry, and want all combat data analysed in depth, despite the likely outcome now. Capture seems unlikely, and we cannot afford further losses, so we return to other data gathering methodologies"

'Writing them off? Just like that?' Madison wanted to say as another human-like snyth died, one of their most advanced models. A think being perhaps…oh, what would James think of her now "I will admit I am not military inclined, but there is no way to stop them?"

Father shook his head, sitting back in the chair "No, we have clearly underestimated the defensive forces, and the extent of the reactivation of the factory…" and the look indicated whoever was supposed to be monitoring that situation would be doing janitorial duty or 'remedial training' with combat models for that "…is far more advanced than should have ever been allowed judging by combat machines coming out. They are also clearly evacuating, appear to have anti-gravity technology and their own matter teleportation system of some limited power, and we cannot send any more synths reinforcements. No, this effort has proven less beneficial that expected, but is not a complete writing off considering the costs involved"

Madison wouldn't have described it that way, but Father was Father, and they weren't going to disagree with him on the very obvious failure he was telling them wasn't a failure. Instead it was a delayed success, albeit a costly one, as explosion apparently rumbled from inside the factory as it seemed only the heavier robots were fighting their snyths now as the 'old ship' began to leave the harbour. Another mystery; a submarine, with function holographic projectors?

She resisted a sigh at that 'At least it is a mystery to solve and not weapons of war to make…'

--

[03.12: What Makes a Merchant, Man of Trade?]

[And its home boys, home! Home I want to be, home for a time…]

--

[Trader's Journal: Day 511]

[Current Dimension]

Home Base – Earth Two [really need to do those classifications]

[Current Location]

Military Base, just outside Paris, Sixth French Republic

[Current Cash Reserves]

1,000 US Silver Dollars [Quinn's Earth[High Quality]

1,200 Gold Dollars [DC-verse[DC-verse, Exp-01[United States of America[High Quality]

2,420 Septims [Low Quality gold-mix]

1,012 Californian Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]

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

19,667 US Dollars [Earth-JA01 on Account [Bank of New England]

14,210 US Dollars [Earth-JL02] on Account [Bank of Metropolis]

10, 264 US Dollars [Buffy-verse] on Account [Bank of America, Sunnydale]

1,500,526 Punts [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Bank of Ireland]

20,132,000 Francs [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

14,525,500 D-Marks [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

[Trading Report – Combat Salvage/Payment on Account]

Yay! We're Official Now!

Right, down to salvage;- 4 (Nearly Intact) suits of T-45 Power Armour, 1 (good condition) T-51 Suit Power Armour, 3 (damaged) suits of T-45 Power Armour, and 2 (damaged) suits of T-51 Power Armour. We've handed over the T-51's to our 'Allies' in the 'Portal Authority' as we're calling our joint trade outfit. We reckon we restore 6 fully functional T-45 suits, and we've more spare parts for'em to, so we enchant and experiment on them while the more advanced models get sold on to our trade partners. Generous aren't we?

Also the paid is millions, and gave us deeds and rights, official and all, to our small base setup, along with actual support. That's good since we also looted a great deal of robot parts, design schematics, and, most importantly, Fusion Cores from the factory. Our holds are decently full of the factory parts, problems during visit aside, and it is happy times for the Irish, French, and German engineers. Also maybe the goblins are exciting biologists despite me trying to stop'em going outside. Good pay, good salvage, and I can pay everyone a nice big bonus to spend in our military-camp quarantine.

[Diary Entry]

Okay, we are really bad at silent infiltration apparently. Now I've got yet another mad scientist on my crew because local mad scientist bogeymen actually do have a teleporting robot army, along with robot mutant birds to boot. Bloody hell, we got salvage but we had to blow up the factory since somebody, insane and evil, but a cyborg murder army…for reasons. What those reasons were don't make sense to me, or any of us, but apparently they did, the evil bastards who I am glad died in the nuclear fires. Pre-War Fallout America was a terrible place, filled with terrible leaders, and innocents who paid far too high a price for the terribleness of said terrible leaders.

So, yeah, now we have The Mechanist, otherwise known as shy, social awkward, Isabel, who's lost her home thanks to the evil bogeyman known as The Institute. Who, apparently, can replace people with quasi-robot duplicates who may or may not know they are androids, or whatever they call them. Yet another nightmare to add to the list of the Wasteland's dangers;- still, it's worth the salvage in the end, even if we need to be better prepared next time around. The bright side, beyond the loot pre battle, was that we certainly proved to our 'VIPs' the nature of the multiverse, and all the joys and horrors that wait out there. We're handing over a decent amount of our salvage as governments have a chance to reverse engineer, even if it's badly damaged, over-populated counties ruling, ones.

Kinda important with inter-dimensional armies of people eating not-cavemen running about, and threatening to advance into our corner of the multiverse. Helps to have an army for our 'safe port of call' as they say. So, we've power supplies in the Fusion Cores, and enthusiasm from local allies, and that means we can push ahead with the whole basic Slide Cage as the Quinns call it. Step one of our glorious plan to built Pillars against the Planes, or whatever we'll call the Dimension Barriers that'll be going up on this Earth, and on our Empty Version. Even if it won't remain empty for long as Quinn, and other Quinn, have started prototyping of a Slide Gate we can establish in both Ireland's to use as a true test bed.

Anyway, since we cut short our trip to the Wasteland that is Fallout, and are now proven, I'm going to take a trip to Future California and buy food. Lots of food. Also, tons of electronics. Yes, because there's a hunger problem here, and we need the technology in some many ways. The difficulty lies in that advanced worlds are harder to enter and 'blend into' so to speak – disguised ships work well in worlds that don't satellite track for one. Nor do suddenly wealthy people turning up, with little background, even if we have something resembling one there from the last time there, cause authorities not to look at it. No matter, we'll sail to a dimension close it, then land and send in a small team around myself to get the basics up and running, like a cover, and then try sell goods and bulk purchase what we need.

--

[Trader's Journal: Day 522]

[Current Dimension]

Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America

[Current Location]

Shining Emerald Hotel Houses, San Francisco, Republic of California

[Current Cash Reserves]

1,000 US Silver Dollars [Quinn's Earth[High Quality]

1,200 Gold Dollars [DC-verse[DC-verse, Exp-01[United States of America[High Quality]

2,420 Septims [Low Quality gold-mix]

42,622 Californian Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]

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

19,667 US Dollars [Earth-JA01 on Account [Bank of New England]

14,210 US Dollars [Earth-JL02] on Account [Bank of Metropolis]

10, 264 US Dollars [Buffy-verse] on Account [Bank of America, Sunnydale]

1,500,526 Punts [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Bank of Ireland]

20,132,000 Francs [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

14,525,500 D-Marks [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

[Trading Report – Currently in Progress]

Currently forging all the paperwork needed to cover up our ship coming into harbour in two days. All while arranging the purchase of foodstuffs from a number of Alta California's large agri-businesses by pretending to be, yet another as best I can tell, local international small corporation with more ambition than sense. We'll be trading minerals and gold, technically from Africa, as it seems the easiest cover since some started a bio-war over on the East coast of America. We're lucky in many ways since that's disrupted normal global trade very heavily, despite restrictions being eased. Still costing a bloody fortune;- even down to the bribes for the dockworkers union to use an example.

[Diary Entry]

Well, we're in civilized lands once again. No ship yet, she's at sea after a very careful, and energy intensive, entry about two days ago. Me and the team have been here four days, laying the groundwork to get the Fortune's Chance, currently named the Princess of Agrabah, into the docks and past the vast wall of electronic monitoring in place. Hence why I'm on location with a team of eight, all in local 'business attire' and expensive computers, as we play the role of legitimate business-people. Which we are, even if not officially existing as people on this earth…

Anyway, I took our tech team; Kara, Batgirl, Jonathan, Brewster, our Quinn, with myself as CEO of Outis Import/Export, and Zatanna, and our DC US Marine Nathan Anderson, for security. Though it's more Zatanna is being overly curious, and needs the experience of a low-magic reality. It's a bit of shock for her, even if lower level and power spells are still perfectly viable. I had the same, at least this time we have access to a very swanky house-apartment setup on the grounds of a very nice hotel. Five Star, though they don't use that ranking here, something Seven Stars of Courtesy or such, in my opinion and the location is both defensible, and right beside a very good restaurant and bar. Yes, there are many considerations to take into account when one is establishing your temporary lair!

It's also got great connection speed to the local version of the internet, and my tech team has been busy organising now they've computers that cost a damned fortune. All expanding on the shell myself and Quinn setup last time we were here, and avoiding unwanted attention hopefully as our track record hasn't been good so far. Honestly, I really want to establish some semi-permanent trade route here, small-scale, portal based, with occasional yearly visits by the ship for bulk goods like this. This place could really revitalise the devastated economy of Quinn's dual-worlds, or, right now, help feed many starving mouths as export of fresh fruit and canned goods is the least difficult thing in a major exporter of the stuff.

Only time will tell.

--

[Trader's Journal: Day 527]

[Current Dimension]

Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America

[Current Location]

Fortune's Chance, Docked, San Francisco Harbour Docks, Republic of California

[Current Cash Reserves]

1,000 US Silver Dollars [Quinn's Earth[High Quality]

1,200 Gold Dollars [DC-verse[DC-verse, Exp-01[United States of America[High Quality]

2,420 Septims [Low Quality gold-mix]

15,234 Californian Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]

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

19,667 US Dollars [Earth-JA01 on Account [Bank of New England]

14,210 US Dollars [Earth-JL02] on Account [Bank of Metropolis]

10, 264 US Dollars [Buffy-verse] on Account [Bank of America, Sunnydale]

1,500,526 Punts [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Bank of Ireland]

20,132,000 Francs [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

14,525,500 D-Marks [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

[Trading Report – Currently in Progress]

Damned hard in a low magic environment but the disguise and morph systems held up fine, and our holds are now full of enough frozen, canned, and salted, foodstuffs to make our new friends very, very, happy I like to imagine. Electronics were a bit harder, some 'general shopping' at multiple locations and truck rental, but we did manageable to snag a going out of business sale at a furniture factory that had some nice, cheap, equipment and office computers to sell.

[Diary Entry]

Time to set sail, spend a few days at sea, and then vanish into the ether once we process our paperwork to hide said fact of vanishing. We could just do a disappearing act, but that's losing us return business. Anyway, so far, so good, as there's been no chatter on local police or military channels about us, and we have cracked said systems thanks to Super Team, Supergirl and Batgirl, Hackers United!

I jest, but we are constantly on alert as we're a few hours from getting underway. Things went moderately well, in that we had significant delays and we didn't make as much as I'd like for the various trade good we brought with us. Scanning that everything is perfectly safe, disease and magical threats being a no-no to bring with us, takes time as well, so I shouldn't complain at delays in loading I suppose. Isabel is settling in well, though introducing her to the Quinns was a terrible, terrible mistake. One only compounded by Tirdelk, Goblin-version of Quinn, being just as excited as technology she brought with her; as we now have Assaultrons, Sentrybots, and Protectrons under construction to go with our Mister Handys.

Overall my new crew is starting to settle in, and I'm getting suggestions for things they want. Such as several thousand dollars worth of video games we bought to go with the computers and servers, and, surprisingly, plenty of board and card games. We now have a mini-casino down in one of the empty side storerooms down on the lower decks. I'm not objecting, it's important to keep everyone happy, and as Lucy, or Doctor-Chef Chen, has reminded me;- many of the women are mentally scarred and need plenty of help. Also she wants an assistant or a dozen to help with that.

Not much I can do there unfortunately, not from Quinn's Earths, or from the Fallout one, or from the magical lands of Skyrim. No, that means a return to DC-land, or the Justice Alliance Earths, and that's energy and time consuming when we've a lot on our plate right now. My plans right now is to setup a proper village in Trim Castle and see about ensuring those who want a home, can have sort of one outside the ship. Especially since we'll be there for a month or two once we return to home base so we can get the Portal Authority properly established. Also might do a quick trip over to Sunnydale, that's a good location to setup our first caravan route now wouldn't it?

--

[03.13: What Makes a Merchant, Man of Trade?]

[All aboard the Cruise liner, those seeking to avoid evil demon goddess's…]

Sunnydale was…frustrating I found as I sat down and listened to the problem, and annoying solution, being laid out to me. Yes it was a small, tidy, profit I'd noted as the Magic Box was proving an excellent source of rare magical goods, as well as turning over some cashflow…but it came with Buffy Summer attached. And that meant problems, Buffy Problems, to be dealt with on my property it seemed. So here we all were with her sister being…

I resisted a sigh.

….whatever the feck she was as being laid out to me in teenage babbling. As best I could tell, Dawn Summers wasn't actually born Buffy's sister, but was a magic super-something that had been Greater Polymorph'd into a human, and her sister, via some ritual. Oh, and was now being hunted by a Demon Goddess in human form….because of course she bloody well was!

"Right" I muttered, gloved fingers pinching the bridge of my nose as I thought on the subject as I sat with the Scooby Gang, their mentor and my franchisee Rupert Giles, and a fucking vampire of all things "So, let me get this straight…"

I pointed at a squirming in her chair Dawn "…our Dawn here is being hunted by the avatar of a Demon Goddess"

"Uh-huh"

I nodded as she answered "Okay, and she's also being hunted by the forces of Good, and Light, and whatever the hell else sugary and sweet. Them being sending an army here to deal with…the problem…as they see it"

With the nods of awkward silence in response I sighed "Right, and my magical door to where demon girl isn't is your great solution to this problem. Weren't you all calling me a demon not too long ago?"

"I was a demon, and I turned out fine!" one of them, the actual former demon, Anya replied holding up her hand and looking around. At least for a moment as the others gave her 'sit down' looks as her boyfriend patted her arm and tugged at her sweater till the girl blinked "Oh, okay….he seems nice though. He made me lots of money to spend on nice things"

"Enlightened self interest in action" I murmured, resting my hands back on my walking cane "Okay, now I've no objection to an Oath Pact, but we are hardly the safest of choices as we travel between realms"

"Um…" the witch, Willow, interjected holding up her hand like Anya had "…Jonathan and the others had nice things to say about…and didn't you…um…want workers Mr….Not-Demon…Callum….Sir"

"We're not in school, we don't need to raise hands. Though thank you for being respectful" I answered with a weary smile as I say back in my chair…

"Callum" Kara muttered to me and I sighed at her tone, waving one hand to my side.

"Fine, fine, look, we'll help with….I dunno…let's call it a internship or something. We do up nice and proper legal documentation first though, and then swear in blood and…"

"Brimstone?"

I glanced at an overly cheerful Anya "No, magic I was going to say. I'm willing to offer protection, just within reason of course. Now, a question, why aren't you trying to get help from Army Guy, Ridley? Ronny?"

"Riley" Buffy helpfully supplied in an unhappy tone, arms folded across her chest "And we've…gone our separate ways"

"Uh-huh" I retorted tapping the hilt of my walking cane with my gloved right hand "…hmm, okay. Well I'd rather hoped to meet with members of the US military, since they are apparently aware of the supernatural in this particular dimension. So, I'll lay out a deal here; contact your ex-boy-toy…"

"HEY!"

I wagged my finger back at her "Now, now, I'll be taking on lovely Dawn here, and other of your merry band on my own dime so you listen to my idea. So, yes, I want to get in touch with said agency and then see can we get them to help you with the whole Demon Goddess problem. I'll happily supply whatever weapons we can find that can help kill the evil demon thing, and ideally ensure I get our desired trade route up and running. Plenty of hungry mouths to feed…"

I glared back at one or two faces who clearly going to say something offensive and annoy me "…and No, I'm not talking about blood or such. You're the vampire slayers turning up with a vampire, not me. I'm talking cereals and other things, got a new market to sell too. Good mark-up, just need a regular supplier with actual quality standards, and here was on my mind. So…"

With a snap of gloved fingers I summoned a scroll and pen in a flash of smoke "…let's make a Deal"

"I miss being able to do that" Anya complained, but I ignored her, as well as Kara's 'gentle' elbow into my side…

--

[Trader's Journal: Day 532]

[Current Dimension]

Buffy-verse

[Current Location]

Sunnydale, California, United States of America

[Current Cash Reserves]

1,000 US Silver Dollars [Quinn's Earth[High Quality]

1,200 Gold Dollars [DC-verse[DC-verse, Exp-01[United States of America[High Quality]

2,420 Septims [Low Quality gold-mix]

15,234 Californian Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]

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

26,522 Dollars [United States of America[Buffy-verse]

19,667 US Dollars [Earth-JA01 on Account [Bank of New England]

14,210 US Dollars [Earth-JL02] on Account [Bank of Metropolis]

10, 264 US Dollars [Buffy-verse] on Account [Bank of America, Sunnydale]

2,500,526 Punts [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Bank of Ireland]

16,450,000 Francs [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

22,600,500 D-Marks [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

[Trading Report – Currently in Progress]

Trade Route Established! Level Up!

Yeah, look, we'll be getting regular deliveries to a warehouse just inside Sunnydale that's going to be run by the US military. Sort of;- it's a branch of the US Armed forces that doesn't quite exist. And I'm fine with that as we'll control the actual dimensional gate opening and closing, with our 'primary' in the Magic Box.

Current Sales;- Two Silver Swords {Fire Enchanted}, Four Steel Swords {Blessed Enchantment}, Ten Scrolls of Protection from Evil, 20 Potions of Healing {Weak}, 5 Potions of Healing {Moderate}, 6 Stimpacks. Also material and reagents needed to establish a point to point portal. Long-term one will also kick off once we've created a permanent route. Initial deposit of Two Hundred Gold Bars with US military;- also with escrow account with Wolfram & Hart and local Bank of California.

Current Purchases;- Four Vials Griffin Blood, Six Vial sized boxes of Werewolf Fur, Four Vampire Fangs, Two Vials Ectoplasm, Twenty Bags of Cinnamon, Ten by Boxes of Chocolate Cake Mix, Six by Crates of Flour-Bags, and Two Refrigerators full of quality butter and cream.

[Diary Entry]

Honestly, coming here was good and bad. Now I've got interns in two lesbian witches, a former demon and her boyfriend, and, joyously, a now human dimensional Key and her Mother. Isn't that just great, all under a Pact!

On the other hand, mission achieved in a backwards sort of way; see, there's an angry demon goddess running about and after the little, magical girl, sister of the vampire slayer. Oh, and did I mention the forces of GoodTM* are after her too, because of course they are, so another issue. So, after a few days in this lovely place, I've brought her over as Ward of sorts, crossed with Intern. She is far, far, too excited about it, as well as the witches for the chance to study magic – I blame my current Sunnydale Trio for that since they blabbed how great it was. Feckers.

So, yeah, not getting directly involved in this clusterfuck when an army of magical knights is about to descend on the city, but I have tried to help by establishing several meeting over the past two days with members of the Not-Men in Black of the US Army. Totally legit they are. I don't overly care since they have official sanction, and that means we now have official, albeit limited, sanction to travel goods to a warehouse here in Sunnydale that'll haul goods semi-regularly through to our side once we set it up. Gonna explore and see can we get a less magic and energy intensive route back to Home Base. Also one that doesn't connect directly to it, because we need to get professional about this and establish firebreaks between our trade network. Well, our future trade network anyway since right now it's all very much in-theory and failed salvage efforts.

Anyway, I have to return today, another two hours from now, as we've a lot of meetings tomorrow with our allies on our Home Base. I've been here a few days, rather rushing things to be honest, and I want to get back and see what the state of play is on the construction work on our new base looks like, or if it's even gotten started in so few days. The empty town around Trim Castle won't empty for long after we hauled back about two hundred construction workers and another hundred support staff, with equipment and construction materials. Faralda's in charge, then Batgirl, with our Quinn being the 'designer' as we started a very basic, over-powered, slide cage device. Never let Quinn be in charge both me and Kara have found.

Really need to get a staff structure outside of the ship if we're going to pull this off.

Here at least it's basically dealing with Riley Finn, for the moment till they find a proper Bureau Manager and we can start shipping in time. That'll really help with the food situation on Home Base Earth, and that'd mean more resources that come to us. I'll admit I'm refusing to hand over trade routes and dimensional locations, but that's our business in a nutshell. Also, I should admit our brand of Goblins, or Security as we call them, want to fight the Demon Goddess for some insane reason, so, yeah, their being rented over to the Buffy Team along plans to hire their own little demon friends. I'm not helping my reputation with that, but the US Government Blackops people are happy to pay a fee, along with the magic gear I sold over to them and the Scoobies to help in the fight. Anyway, got to go, more stocktaking to do before we leave.

--

[03.14: What Makes a Merchant, Man of Trade?]

[Dreams of futures past…or nightmares to come…]

"Great, just great…a three day binge reading the dam things while we were off in Sunnydale?" I stated unhappily to Kara as I sat back against the wall of the castle battlement "Of course they did, because we were gone and so was our nerd trio…"

Kara made a face "Yeah, Babs did, took her chance to collect info on villains, Zatanna joining here and well…"

I let out a sight rubbing at my forehead "She read the Killing Joke didn't she?"

She gave me a 'are being deliberately dumb' look "Callum, she read everything Bat Family and Supes related….because she's no Rao-damned common sense apparently even after being warned by all of us not to pry"

"Yeah, I know…" I replied grumpily gesturing down at the bustling courtyard below and at the keep of the castle proper "…and now she's having a bloody breakdown Kara. Zatanna too from the looks of it since she's locked herself in her room to meditate 'on the future' according to Faralda…"

I sighed deeply as I stopped myself raising my voice "Sorry. It's just…look, your right, she…they…need our help, but, yeah, I'm not sure what to say. I was freaked out by my Enchanter limited run not-child-friendly-rated comic after all. So, yeah…fuck"

"Don't be a potty mouth Callum"

"Fine, fine, I'm sorry" I muttered, resting my head back against the stonework behind me "Right, so time off? I mean you'll want…"

Kara rolled her eyes at that "I know what you mean dummy, and yes, I need to talk to her…them. And I need you to do what I tell you in a day or two so Babs can blow off steam that doesn't involve hours and hours of training till she collapses from exhaustion"

"And by that you mean?"

She shrugged "Don't know yet, probably need do a….exploration? Something that'll keep her mind off the whole crazy clown man, and Bats being clearly crazy, and all the other stuff I've had to pick up from you and Quinn over months…not days. Oh, and something not too dangerous, because she's…"

I held up a hand "Say no more, I'll help however I can…just, be aware we've…"

My hand gestured out to the loud construction taking place "…all this going on. So I can handle that, and Quinn, for the next few days till you decide on the best plan"

Kara gave a wan smile, moving over to rest against the battement wall beside me, looking out over the rapidly being redeveloped and town and townland around the castle, the Fortune's Chance resting not too far away where the Slide Cage Pillar would go for now "Thanks Callum…"

She gently punched my shoulder "…see, you can be taught"

"Hmmm"

Not much to say to that as she smiled a little more, some of the tension leaving her shoulders as she looked to be in thought "You know it's good your…showing up as yourself you know, and not, ya'know, pretending to be human all the time when you don't have too. We're your friends after all, and it's good to see"

I paused, then smiled tiredly, looking at my gloved hands that had the green skin beneath. I was more of a half-orc now my 'soul' had taken form, but my body was still in flux "Hmm, hmm…well, hard to say…I just think I'm getting to know myself as much you and the others are at times…"

"You feeling better?" she asked glancing at me "You've been using your ma-g-ic a lot again"

I held up hands to defend myself as if it was an actual blow rather than a verbal one "Hey! I've been getting flying colours from Zatanna, and I'm restricting myself to using ley-lines and rituals instead of my own internal power when I can"

Kara gave me a suspicious look "Hnnnnnn…..you better not be overdoing it Mister! You and Quinn…"

"Heyy…" I protested "…don't compare me to Our Mallory of Doom. Anyway, weren't you going to deal with an unhappy Batgirl"

"Yes…and I want you to come with me. Just in case she needs someone to…spar with"

I glared at her "I am not going to be Bat family member's punching bag"

"Well, maybe you super helpful freeze person in place magic?"

I rolled my eyes, then groaned softly in defeat "It's called Hold Person I'll have you know! And fine, let's go see the damage that the wickedness of comic books has wrought…"

--

{Scooby dooby-doo, where are you…}

"Earth to Willow, you there?" Alexander 'Xander' Harris muttered waving his hand in front of his best friend's face as she stared at a book like a vamp at its first meal "Hey, hey, study time over!"

"Huh?" she blinked up at him as only realising he was there with Tara sitting across the table with an amused smile on her lips "Wha….Xander?"

"See, Evil Books" he told her and Tara sitting down on the comfortable couch of the house, an actual house on an empty earth of all things, that they all shared "Green Demon Man is seducing you with his terrible demon magic books…"

"Back me up here Tara! We have to save her from their wicked clutches!"

Tara giggled as Willow flushed crimson at her obsessive reading these past few hours, though Xander gave a fake betrayed look as the awesome GF of his friend shook her head "I don't think it's all that bad, he seems really nice, compared to others we know"

He gave an exaggerated sigh at that, even if he really was angry at the vampire Buffy should really dust and be done with "Spike should not be used to compare things too, because he is a super-duper, mega-ultra, douche with fangs"

"Spike…isn't that bad…he helps?" Dawnie muttered coming into the room with a stack of videos they'd brought from home "Right?"

Xander groaned "No Dawnie, no, Spike is Bad. We've gone over this and…"

"Guys, guys, we are going to watch a movie and we are not going to talk about bad and scary things…" Tara interrupted "…just like we promised Buffy and Mister Giles"

"Shutting up" Xandar replied giving the girl a mock salute as Willow sat back beside, looking at the magic book like he was taking a pony away from her "Hey, Wills, you'll have all the time later to read the BOOKS OF EVIL!"

"And talk to the grumpy elf lady…" his Anya announced stomping in as gracefully as ever with buckets of fried chicken and chips in either hand for them "…but she won't talk to me. I'm not Dead-Ra whatever…"

"You're perfectly lovely Anya and not whatever that is…just don't annoy the crazy magical elves. Remember we have to play nice with the madhouse…" Xander reminded them trying to be the voice of reason, as usual, of the group "…also the magic spaceship, and, oh, yeah, the magic castle…"

"I'd like a Magic Castle…" Anya pouted putting down the food with the rest of the food for movie night in another dimension "Xandar, we should live in a magic castle!"

"I'd like to live in magic castle town too" Dawnie whined sitting beside Anya…

'Oh, god now I've two of them pouting at me…' he thought, then resisted letting out a relieved sigh as the doorbell rang, the figures of Jonathan and the two girls Xandar didn't know really well from school. Didn't matter he hopped up to save himself by adding another man to the mix as Buffy's Mom came out of the kitchen with soda and glasses "I'll get that!"

They were all focused on trying not to think on Buffy and Giles staying behind to fight Glory…and the insanity that seemed to be waiting on the other side of the demon trader guy. Who had people from comics…

'Like Supergirl and Batgirl are real…and babbling at them unhelpfully didn't help' he admitted as everything wasn't that they'd expected. Sure the crazy white suit guy with his weirdo not-demon demonic magic had healed Buffy's Mom, but he charged for everything…and owing favours to evil magic guys was not a good idea Xander knew. Anya could tell you that after all!

Jonathan, and the two girls, Rose and Beverly, said it was a great job, if dangerous, so maybe he was wrong about that Xander could admit to himself. Especially since they were now, at Buffy's begging, here protecting her Mom and little sister when they should be back in Sunnydale helping her. They had to trust this guy…

'Well, Supergirl is awesome and….well, Supergirl, so maybe they are the good guys?' he wondered as he opened the door and waved the three inside past the 'magic wards' that Willow and Tara had setup…

--

{Meanwhile in Sunndydale….}

"This CYK Local News, with breaking news. Police and National Guard have requested residents of Sunnydale stay indoors owing to a chemical spill that has caused members of a local medieval re-enactors of the proposed Summer Renfair to suffer violent hallucinations. All residents are asked to stay indoors and report any sightings of affected individuals to the Police Hotline so they can subdued and brought to effective medical care in the Army disaster relief field hospital established at…"

"…side-effects include seeing small non-human creatures, demonic flames, and…"

"…and a good night's rest is sufficient to clear residents of mild symptoms…"

--

[03.15: What Makes a Merchant, Man of Trade?]

[Punch her in the face, punch, punch, punch…]

"Giles….are we the bad guys?" Buffy Summers asked numbly as the 'Holy Knight' from the 'Order of By-something-something' was gunned down by a demon that, technically, worked for Buffy and her friends…

It was utter chaos here, and not even the usual stabby-stab chaos when fighting vamps, but actual army-on-the-streets chaos. That didn't seem right either as she punched a knight who came screaming at her, sword held high ready to strike till she knocked him unconscious and flying through the store window. They just would not listen, even when everyone was fighting Glory at the end of the day….though the fact she was fighting on the side with the cheerfully murderous demon imps wasn't the best sign of good-guyness was it?

"Now Buffy we…" Giles started to stay as a head flew past her to the tailed demon to her left…

Who promptly kicked into the air, giving a girl squel as she raised her arms in the air as the head flew into face of another knight, knocking him down "SHE SHOOTS! SHE SCORESSS!"

"That's my Millie! Teamwork!"

"Teamwork! Teamwork! Teamwork!..."

Giles let out a breath as he unleash some weird Giles-magic-spell and knocked out the last of the knights that Buffy could see as the three evil monsters from the demons of hell danced about "Let's…just…go with Glorificus being the worse Evil"

"See, I knew we were the Better Evil!" the 'head demon imp' announced, apparently noticing they were being talked about and addressing his two evil minions "See that's why we need branding! Everyone sh…"

Crrackkkthoommmmmmm

…and there was the other evil demon minion slamming into the building just across the carpark. This was the normal person sized 'goblin', though he was in jet black armour, was now covered in flames that didn't burn him, and jumped back up from where he'd landed with a enraged roar…

"Ugh… worse evil coming" she stated simply as gunfire erupted from nearby rooftops as the soldiers….and wow wasn't that weird…wearing face concealing masks fired 'special' bullets at what could only be the, very angry, form of Glory. Who was wearing a red dress to the fight of all things, the skanky bitch, and ignoring everything that was being thrown at her once again…well, most of it anyway as Buffy saw the bitch's head snap back from the force of sniper bullet. Taking that as her cue Buffy heft the weird magi troll hammer and charged forward at the same time as the fiery 'giant' so-called goblin.

'Okay, smashy-smashy, follow plan' she reminded herself swinging the magi hammer and hitting the demon-goddess-skank and sending her flying backwards this time. They had a plan, made up by Giles and some fancy suit wearing General-guy, and the nasty people on the Watchers Council, so all she had to do was be the best Buffy she could be and beat up Glory so they could trap her. Then force her back to being human while trapped {buried alive} in concrete till she died. Not a pretty way to win, and the people she had to work with were terrible…but nobody threatened Buffy Summer's family…

--

[Trader's Journal: Day 542]

[Current Dimension]

Home Base

[Current Location]

Home Base, Trim Castle, Ireland

[Current Cash Reserves]

1,000 US Silver Dollars [Quinn's Earth[High Quality]

1,200 Gold Dollars [DC-verse[DC-verse, Exp-01[United States of America[High Quality]

2,420 Septims [Low Quality gold-mix]

15,234 Californian Dollars [Earth-04, Chain-2091, Disunited America]

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

26,522 Dollars [United States of America[Buffy-verse]

19,667 US Dollars [Earth-JA01 on Account [Bank of New England]

14,210 US Dollars [Earth-JL02] on Account [Bank of Metropolis]

10, 264 US Dollars [Buffy-verse] on Account [Bank of America, Sunnydale]

4,500,526 Punts [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Bank of Ireland]

22,450,000 Francs [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

30,600,500 D-Marks [Quinn's Alt-Earth] on Account [Banque du Bordeux]

[Trading Report – Base Building]

Construction continues, and we're rich by Double Earth standards. At least where organised countries still exist since most economies have collapsed. We're also fancy, which is why we're here, on the Empty Earth. Going to gear up for an expedition to Sigil, but first we're doing a route scouting operation. Hiring staff is being outsourced to the three governments, mostly as its construction and salvage that we don't have time nor need to work on. It's a net gain for us as we're effectively just going to earn 'finders fees' rather than having to oversee such complex operations.

[Diary Entry]

Good news, of a sort, as evil demon space Goddess is dead. That was fast, even if property destruction was in the millions on Buffy-Earth – which is exactly why I made sure we had legal immunity to such things. Well, that and the hundreds of dead paladins that my sub-contractors helped wipe out alongside the demon cultists and their Goddess. Got a problem though; the two witches, and more importantly and annoyingly, Buffy's magi dimensional sister, wants to stay here. I've got a headache from the shouting and screeching between the sisters and have settled on a 'summer internship' to shut them all up and avoid getting stabbed by a stake. This all goes in line with Depressed Batgirl, and Zatanna of a Million Questions, because the daft idiots went and did a comic binge a few days ago. I'm the CEO of this company; I shouldn't have to put up with this kind of idiocy!

But, sadly, I do, as I don't want to try play high level politics and nation building. It was hard enough to build trust with the few remaining nations on 'Earth Prime' and while I want this to be Home Base, I don't want to get sucked into potential wars of unification either. No, the main plan at the moment is building up The Castle into a magical stronghold, as well as centre of learning in the arcane arts. Unfortunately I don't have the power right now to dedicate myself for years and years to do that, and this world isn't exactly overflowing with magic-users either. Yes, my crew, have a fairly high magic-user ratio, but many of them are here only temporarily, and they signed up to travel the multi-verse, not help rebuild a ruined world. Something me, Kara, and Quinn just spent time talking about today.

So, we're nearly finished on the very basic, energy hog, version of the Slide Cage, so once that goes up, and the two Earth's are semi-safe, we'll depart for a short few months long voyage of exploration. Playing haulage from one Earth to another is profitable, but it's also drain our energy stores far more than I'd like. That's the big problem of larger, or more powerful, things trying to dimension breach versus things like my Planeswalk or the Slide Device. Hence the need to create a 'low-cost' travel route through more 'natural' breaches in the fabric were we can run something like a truck through – that's the next thing on the agenda, along with cheering up Zee and Barbara. Because heavens and hells I am not going to spar anymore with ninja girl, I am a Wizard not a Punching Bag!

That leads into the next item I don't want to do;- we need to hire magical help. I really don't want to do that, but I'm not experienced enough to handle the sheer scale of what needs to be done here. The Kromaggs are too big a threat, and even giving up the slide-tech isn't going to be ideal if they figure out this place and press with all their might. That and mapping out 'low-energy' routes between our discovered dimensions to make trade a little more viable – again, risking a major advantage because we need to expand but aren't organised enough to do that. So, to do, in order;-

- Explore the Sunnydale – Here Route to connect to separate 'Door' than the High Magic usage Gate we've setup.

- Do trades with Winterhold, let the College mages go home for a week or two if they want. On that note we need to create a foothold on Fallout Earth with governmental support to do salvage.

- Avoid trips back to Justice League or Justice Alliance Earths till main voyage completed. I want to recruit and trade, but going there will delay us a great deal and best to make use of my team while I can and it's time for them to go home.

- Expedition to Sigil; and not just a small, three-four person, affair. I'm thinking a dozen or more of us, with guards and mules, bags of holding, as part of a trade caravan. Need to get some of those staying here used to the multi-verse and its madness, and its dangers.

- Need to think about returning to the Monarch's station to salvage. Same with Dead DC Earth. Maybe use Fallout Wasteland as a testing ground? Deadly dangerous and can't risk anything coming back. That and need train my current crew without adding more. - after the voyage I think.

- Need to get space-borne for an advanced dimension for stuff to help against the Kromaggs. Badly need to make this place Walled to such attacks so we can have a safe harbour. Harder reality than a comic-verse certainly for the tech.

--

{Walking through the woods on a sunny day…}

"You're attempting to make use of the natural ley-line?"

I nodded back to Zatanna as I sat on a rock near a waterfall as the sun beamed down on forested land all around us "Yeah, that and there's something of a natural…break?...flashing portal?...already in place that we can harness. It'll be tricky to setup, but it won't…"

"Require a skilled mage to open it regularly" she replied hand on her chin as she stood beside me as we rested behind our raised boundary field "And this world is…empty"

I shrugged tiredly. Even using the Fortune's Chance, along with Phinis and Zatanna in support, it was still exhausting to spend several days testing the potential spell-work to open the portal from Home Base through to here based on the Sigil books "Nah, Quinn's world is empty, this place just seems…well, too early to say, but I'd reckon humanity didn't evolve here or something similar. Maybe something caused it to go extinct. The main point is it's just off the slide device's range from the Chain Quinn's Earth's on"

Trans-dimensional travel was….odd after all, but each system, magical, technological, or otherwise, tended to work differently….like islands in the sea. Except the islands could be up above each other, or down, or side to side in travel terms and there could be ups and downs between point A and point B that stopped a straight-line usage with one method or another. Right now we were hitting the 'easy' spots 'nearby' to Home Base, and normally this place wouldn't attract much attention, but it decently 'alive' with natural magic to serve as a potential relay point. Even down to the ease of which myself and Zatanna had setup a boundary barrier against dangerous or poisonous animals about an hour ago that had subtly gotten to leave the area.

"It's beautiful here"

I gave an amused snort at that "It is…right now, and that's thanks to magical interference driving off the wolves and boars that'd attack us otherwise. Sadly this is only a partial success as the next useful ley-line pool is miles that'a'way…" I gestured westward "…and it's gonna take a great deal of time and effort to sync up the portal to one near Sunnydale's hellmouth…if we can"

Zee suddenly reached over and ruffled me hair "Hey!"

She chuckled as I tried to swat her hand away "You need to relax, after all you were trying to cheer me and Batgirl up and here you are being all super-serious!"

"Yeah Callum, it's great here…" Kara started hovering towards us, dressed in hiking clothes rather than her superhero clothing, the three of them actually listening to me on our little 'camping trip' before we had to return and go to Sigil "…we're setting up camp here for the night?"

I nodded "Aye, we'll camp here for the night, let me full recover and then we'll head back"

"Good…" she replied with a grin, taking off her jacket and throwing it at me "…now us girls are going for swim and…"

I heard a loud splash as something flew past the edge of my vision and dropped into the large, deep, pool underneath the waterfall "…uh…well, Bats got impatient. So, no complaints, no whining, green-boy, you stink so no saying no"

My tired brain worked that over a moment "Hey, I ain't objecting to that plan…"

--

[03.16: What Makes a Merchant, Man of Trade?]

[Smell that country air….no, wait, that's someone burning bacon…]

'Kara is weird…' Barbara Gordon thought tiredly as she blinked awake and made a quick mental assessment of where she was, hangover aside '…and I've been an idiot'

Reading….everything…had been a massive, terrible, nightmarish, mistake Barbara knew as she rolled onto her side in the darkness, tugging up the blanket that had slide down to her hips while she sleep. B and Dick were not going to handle it well at all, and the possibilities haunted her dreams, even if Kara promised healing should she end up in a wheelchair. Not exactly reassuring that idea was, even if it was supposed to help…and it did in its own little way she supposed blinking in the gloom. It wasn't even dawn yet and she was awake again after thoughts of clowns and….Dad having to see horrors.

'Also after acting like a complete idiot' she thought blushing as more wakefulness came and she listened to the snores of her three companions in the tent, looking at the bare shoulder and chest of the big green magic boy where her friend's blonde hair rested. Reading had led to obsession and lack of sleep, then nightmares, and now to bad decision making. Kara was attracted to Crazy Captain Callum, and annoyed at Zatana, and so sleep-deprived, brain-dead, Barbara had snapped at her friend and told her to throw down the gauntlet; put the old woman in her place!

….not believing that Kara would actually go through with it, nor expecting a response…or just not thinking all that much on it due to hollow eyes and shut off nightmare filled brain. Just the firm conviction she'd back up Kara, and No, No, it was perfectly normal, and it'd be fine…

Realisation had only come with mortification when her brain had flashed big red warning lights at her idiot self when she found herself skinny dipping with a boy. Sort of boy, since was a…orc now, or something…but Oh God, she'd nearly freaked out at that. Somehow though she'd channeled B and acted all cool and confident, and her voice had not squeaked…and getting very, very, drunk was not because of embarrassment at the situation she'd created. Fucking Zatanna, fucking Kara, fucking Callum, no bloody common sense between the lot of them for listening to Idiot Batgirl.

'Got them together, mission success….only had to humiliate yourself to do it. Idiot' she cursed herself, shivering a little and, with a sigh, rolling back in close to the other two. Not that the two had done more than kissing, with Barbara here, and Zatanna on the other side of Kara, but….God, she'd created a weird situation and the three weirdoes had acted like it was perfectly normal. Callum was supposed to be the smart one and he'd just shrugged it off after initial embarrassment and awkwardness….fucking hell, naked girls and he's all stupid fucking not ogling them like it's nothing worth seeing…

'You're just mad because you've messed up big time back home' her brain corrected her unhelpfully as it pointed out the bigger picture she didn't want to see. B…was Batman, and Batman was fully sane in so many iterations, and he had the Amazon now, and she might lose Dick to this…Starfire bimbo, and the universe got FUCKING RESET MULTIPLE TIMES. Oh God how many times had she died, or a version of her died, and Dick and B WERE NOT going to react well to any of this. Going home with All The Information suddenly did not seem like her best plan right now, but she still couldn't lie to him when she got back and had to explain all this madness and terror.

'Also; maybe leave out the part where you convince Kal's little sister-cousin from going skinny dipping with anti-hero wizard-trader boy along with two other Justice League members' that damnable brain reminded her as well, as well as the fact of dealing with Kara's quasi-feud with the magician girl. Not helpful when there were people-eating space apemen running around conquering worlds so they could create nightmarish people farms on them. First, it had been the alternate Earth where the villains had won and done…

Barbara shivered at that, and not from the night chill. She'd seen what'd happened to some of those around, and now the comics on possible bad ends for her…then let out a breath. This was foolish as the other three with her had said, and this was cathartic in its own way as obsessively researching and freaking out hadn't helped anyone at all. Embarrassing or not, last night had been fun, a break from the state she'd managed to drive herself into over the past week…even if she wasn't feeling the best after the brandy and soder. Oh, that was just the capstone of bad decision making there…

--

{A few days later, we travel different roads….}

"You are terrible at this, and he's even worse…" Barbara told Kara with a roll of her eyes as she adjusted her utility belt "…and now it's up to Batgirl to save the day from the evil wiles of Zatanna"

Supergirl sulked at that "I'm being responsible, since….someone…has been all Lady Mopes-a-lot lately"

Barbara smiled back at her friend "Hey, all better now, but I'm only teasing. I'll keep your boy-toy all safe and sound, and you get to play Princess in the Castle while seek out the most lovely dresses for…"

Kara flicked her forehead which with a Kyrptonian meant a weak smack strong force "Ow"

"Behave now you"

She huffed back in response, folding her arms across her chest "Fine, fine. But, as Batgirl, not your friend Babs, I have to agree with you it's probably best you stay here and keep things safe, guarding the ship. It's much too important to leave without someone we can trust in charge"

There were too many dangers of letting this magical-whatever vessel fall into the wrong hands, or seeing the local nations trying to grab it and getting lots and lots of people killed. Largely because Captain Callum was somewhat paranoid and liked security systems in the same way B did, just to a less paranoid way, and with more magic. Oh, and he had the murder-goblins playing security too…Barbara didn't know what to think of that beyond she wasn't sure if she was on the good guys or bad guys side at times. Because God-damn if Quinn…both Quinns...seemed like a more mellow version of Luthor, with hair and no superman fetish.

"Thanks Bats" Kara murmured letting out a breath as they both turned their attention to the oddly primitive-looking caravan Barbara was joining for a fortnight to the magical land of wherever. There's was wizards in robes, and mules, and heavily armed Special Forces in modern combat gear, along with a black-skinned elf and two of the women rescued from the Kromaggs dress in travel gear. Oh, and Zatanna too, who was also in her hero outfit…or stage magician outfit as Barbara saw it. B had said the same, but would the magician girl listen to his advice?

No, never "That's what besties are for…apparently. That and I really want to see the magic donut city…"

She waved off Kara's next words before they could be uttered "…and no I won't do anything to cause trouble, so don't worry"

Barbara had thoroughly researched all the information her allies had available on the place called Sigil, as well as listened to what Kara and the others who'd been there had said. It was bad place in many ways, with many evil things happening, but she was a Gotham girl and knew when to leave the horrible crime alone because it might lead to busting a worse one. That was just the way things were sometimes, and going to another dimension and trying to enforce her laws wasn't going to help anyone – not when any random person could be Supes level of a threat.

This was an information gathering mission only, and it helped keep her mind off the things she'd learned and was still mulling over in her mind despite best efforts not to. It was still funny though to see a mule carrying a fancy future-tech laptop along with other technological tools she needed. Everything was such an odd mix of backwards and modern, and she shook her head in amusement again at the whole thing. This was just another strange fact of travelling the multi-verse; here they were using pack animals while heavy machinery was in the background creating some advanced dimension travel blocking device. Quinn 'Lex Luthor' Mallory at work there…

--

{Travelling the roadways and laneways of the dark void nights….}

There were no stars in the sky, no moon either, Barbara found as she used the wooden stick to move the firewood about so the campfire flared up into the empty void above. It'd been a few days of, surprisingly dull, walking over different terrain, and through magic portals, to get this weird non-landscape where everything in the distance looked wrong. Like a mirage, or a poorly rendered game where the sprites hadn't quite loaded outside the area immediately around you; just a hazy set of mountains and mills, with no clouds again either a bright white sky, or a null-black one.

"Strange isn't it? Quinn said to her as he sat on the ground beside her, the laptop resting out on other side of her showing the night vision view of the area around them "I know I found it weird"

Barbara nodded, looking around at the 'night dark' forest "What I can't figure is how the trees grow without sunlight? Oh, and wasn't this supposed to be busy road?"

Quinn shrugged "Well we did see that group coming the other way, and from reading the books I'm thinking it's something like multiple overlapping dimensions, and we're in a Schrödinger's Cat like scenario whether we meet them or not. This whole forest is the same; it's alive and growing under the sun…somewhere"

"That's a cheery thought" she muttered and the other man chuckled, maybe a little bitterly but it was hard to tell.

"Welcome to all the joys of dimensional travel"

Barbara gave a smirk at that "I think I've already noticed that Quinn, you know, travelling on the ship with you and all for a little while now"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot" he replied sarcastically then yawned "Just…try not to think too hard about the weird not-sky and forest-that-shouldn't-be, it'll drive you crazy trying to think on it"

Barbara shrugged "Don't worry I won't, keeping busy with keep you all safe stuff. Also, are we near where we're supposed to be?"

"Another day maybe according to my sensors and Callum's magic starting not to weaken. So, just be ready for things to stop working as we get near to that mountain-mirage-thing in the distance"

"Yeah, the magic mountain with the floating donut on top…" she replied with amusement "…how could I miss it as it never seems to get any closer as we walk? So, let' talk shop, I really want to know how this dimension barrier can be improved and…"

--