Tales of The Multiverse
Chapter 5
The Woman Out of Time And The Blue Spire
-Sometime later in the woods after the archery tournament-
Robin Hood and Maid Marian had been separated from the rest of the group for awhile, wandering the rather lovely night scenery of the forest, with it's sparkling rivers and dazzling waterfalls. Taking rather scenic routes through the forest while making their way through some elaborate paths and shortcuts, soon arriving outside of his small camp.
"Oh Robin, what a beautiful night...I wish it would never end," she said softly as they put their arms around each other and she rested her head upon his left shoulder shoulder.
"Surprise!" Friar Tuck ended up exclaiming from a nearby bush, taking them a bit by surprise obviously as he then stood up and waved his fists in the air. "Looooong live, Robin Hood!" he then chuckled.
"And long live Maid Marian!" the very small priest mouse said as he and his misses came out of Tuck's good and stood upon his hood.
"Bravo, bravo!" she exclaimed, as did every one else that had come from the archery tournament, while Sora and his companions stepped out of the woods as well, most of them were cheering, while Looda simply smiled as she held one hand over the other as she glanced about the scene slightly. But she then noticed that Baraluda was remaining rather stoic.
"What's the matter?" she then whispered.
"Just reflecting a bit. Looking into the life of an outlaw...I must wonder, does my rival and her fellow outlaws, have times like these?" Baraluda asked, before everyone quickly turned their attention to Lady Cluck as she jumped onto a tree branch.
"And down with that scurrrrvy Prince John!" she stated firmly as she gave a double thumbs down.
"Yeah!" Little John as he leaned towards Lady Cluck easily since the branch came to around his shoulders as he began to play on a lute. He then began to happily trot off as Lady Cluck fluttered down as a few of the townsfolk began to play various musical instruments, even some makeshift ones as Sora, Riku and Kairi watched while Baraluda and Looda went over to a log and sat down as Little John began to sing while Maid Marian began to dance a little with the town blacksmith. "Oh the world will sing of an English King, a thousand years from now. And not because he passed some laws, or had the lofty brow. While bonny good King Richard leads the great crusade he's on, we'll all have to slave away for that good-for-nothin' John! Incredible as he is inept, whenever the history books are kept, they'll call him the Phony King of England!"
"A pox on the Phony King of England!" Friar Tuck sang into the song as he waved his first in the air a little, and he began to laugh a little as Little John went over to some laundry sheets that hung on a clothesline in front of a tree that was hollowed out in the middle, and had a big round hole in the center of the trunk, which was serving as a makeshift puppet show as they would see a dummy head on a stick with a paper crown and a white shirt raise up and bounce slightly before said crown slipped off down the head a little before Friar Tuck fixed it promptly, getting a bit of a chuckle and laughter from the crowd as the tune continued. Baraluda covered her face with on of her palms as the puppet bounced around and bowed.
"Oh goodness…they're the most joyous and rowdy bunch I've ever seen," she said before she looked up as someone else began to resume the song.
"He sites alone on a giant throne, pretendin' he's the king." it said and as the Blacksmith then held up a sock puppet, meant to be Sir Hiss, and made him silently gab to the other puppet before Friar Tuck reached through the shirt, grabbed the sock and pushed it down.
"A little tyke, who's rather like a puppet, on a string," Little John resumed as the Blacksmith then held up the sock again, this time with a little toy that would extend a party waver into the other puppet's ear when squeezed. "And he throws an angry tantrum if he can not have his way." Friar Tuck then raised up a stick and bopped the sock puppet a few times before the sock puppet retaliated by taking the same stick and bopped him upside the head a few times.
"And he then calls for mum, while suckin his thumb," Little John continued as Friar Tuck replicated the pose Prince John often used, making everyone crack up a bit, even Sora and his two friends, while Looda put her fingers to her lips, only chuckling very faintly while Baraluda practically seemed embarrassed to even be among these people. "You see, he doesn't wanna play. Too late to be known as John the First, he's sure to be known as John the worst, a Pox on the Phony King of England!" the dummy was then hammered a little bit too hard which then ended up tearing the head clean open, but that only made everyone crack up even more.
"Oh man these guys are a riot," Sora said as he laughed a fair bit, Riku and Kairi were having a blast as well.
"Lay that country on me babe!" Little John still spoke to that tone to the minstrel rooster and they began to play away even more solo at this point, and Looda noticed something.
"Hmmm, it looks like everyone is starting to dance," she commented, and saw Sora and Kairi take note as well and soon began to dance together as Baraluda looked up at the scene briefly only to then realize Little John was headed her way.
"Now hold on a moment Little John," Baraluda said as she put her hands firmly on her lap. "While I do appreciate the apparent offer to dance, I really don't know how to dance, so I'm afraid I'll…" she stopped as he took hold of her hands and lifted them up.
"Who says you have to dance all fancy?" he asked coyly, raising his eyebrows up and down a little.
"Now hold on just a minute I GEYUHH!" Baraluda yelped as Litte John pulled her straight to her feet and away from her sitting spot so quickly her helmet fell off, prompting Looda to lean across the log to catch it, doing so before she sat up and looked towards the two as Little John bounced and twirled Baraluda around, she couldn't help but actually laugh a little. The overly fun and joyous atmosphere was getting rather contagious at this point to where she set the helmet down, along with removing her own as she got up from the log and joined in, doing her own elegant twirls, dips and graceful movements. Down to even doing a sweet little sway as she clapped her own hands with the rhythmic clapping going on. And as much as she wasn't entirely enjoying it, Baraluda did her best to maintain some dignity as she was able to do some elegant and graceful moves with herself as she was being danced about against her will. Riku meanwhile stayed off by himself, leaning against a tree, resting one foot on it's toes as he had his arms crossed just watching the scene in front of him. However suddenly he felt something take one of his hands, prompting him to look to see Goeniko looking back at him, somehow appearing different. She had a much sweeter disposition and soon gave off a chuckle, sounding different a bit as she took him away from the tree and started dancing with him much to his surprise but he didn't resist, in fact, he was rather enjoying this despite Goeniko seeming a bit different for the moment.
Before much longer Little John did release her as she then danced herself off into a thicket and plopped down squarely on her rump with her knees together and feet apart, just barely holding the rest of herself up with her hands she let out a bit of a gasp. She quickly got to her feet and straightened herself a bit, regaining her composure before anyone saw her so disheveled. She was taken aback to see Looda actually having so much fun as she was really getting into the rather wild dance, despite her and Maid Marian being roughly the only "dignified" dancers at the moment, but about then the singing resumed.
"While he taxes us to pieces, and robs us of our bread, King Richards crown, keeps splin down, around pointed head. Ahhh, but while there is a merry man, in Robin's wily pack, we'll find a way, to make him pay, and steal our money ba-ack!" Little Jonh sang. "A minute before he knows we're there``, ol Rob will snatch his underwear!" he added as he gesture to Robin Hood, who by then had slipped himself into the puppet costume and tipped the crown, as the whole crowd burst into laughter, Baraluda face palmed rather hard.
"The breezy and uneasy king of Engggglannnd!" Little John basically finished as they continued singing and dancing, although quintessentially the lyrics long turned into gibberish insultive slangs by this point. Looda did steal the moment to head over to where Baraluda was and finally stopped her dancing for a bit.
"I didn't think you would actually dance. And you did seem to enjoy yourself a bit," she commented.
"Far be it from me to put a stop to these celebratory antics of these people. I'm not tyrannical. And while these level of "fun" isn't entirely to my tastes..." Baraluda shivered a bit. "Who am I to deny what little joy these oppressed people can get?"
"So what are we to do?" Looda asked.
"Simple. We stay with this Sora and his companions until this King Richard returns and sets things straight here. Or, we temporarily set things straight ourselves. But...something is amiss. Either way, perhaps this'll help me understand my rival better. See into her mind, and the mind of Harlock."
-Back in Cadillacs and Dinosaurs-
"Anything more on that distortion?" Mega Man asked as they still road along through the jungle.
"Well, thanks to Beast's databanks from the X-Mansion on temporal anomalies of various kinds, I believe I sorted out just what it was, it's both a bit of a dimensional warp, as well as a time vortex. Granted the readings are from an after effect of is, as it's nearly gone at this point, but that's what it was, given it bares bits of both kinds," Batgirl replied as they went. Not too long after Jack stopped his Cadillac as Batgirl stopped her bike.
"This is as far as we go without alerting the entire compound to our presence. We'll need to sneak in on foot from here," Jack stated as everyone climbed out of the car while Batgirl dismounted just before Spidey took a firm leap into the tree branches.
"With the foliage this thick, Batgirl and I can slip in through the treetops and over the wall, we can then let you guys in a lot more silently," he stated as he perched on a branch.
"Mind giving me a piggy back ride for a bit?" Batgirl asked a little teasingly.
"Good idea, that way you don't have to keep firing your grapple and make a lotta noise," Spider-Man replied before shooting her a line, and quickly hoisted her up into the tree, allowing her to wrap her arms around his back as he began taking a few leaps and bounds through the trees while everyone followed on foot. Spidey made sure not to go too fast so they could keep up, while also making sure he kept the noise down. After a bit they reached the poacher camp, which was pretty massive, surrounded by tall wooden tree trunks carved to have spike tops, acting as a massive wall, with a guard at the gate entrance with an iron fence.
"Hmm, place doesn't seem to be on too high of alert. What now?" Link asked.
"Well I have an idea but I'll hear what any of you have to say first," Jack replied.
"I say we go in an investigate, as I'm willing to bet they've probably found whatever it is that came through that dimensional rift already. And on the off chance they haven't, we'll at least know and can potentially beat them to it still, or they might be bringing it back right now, which means we can intercept," Mega Man replied.
"That's not a half bad plan actually," Hannah commented with a smile.
"Right, and even it isn't here yet, we can probably put a damper on whatever other ideas they have in mind currently, so it's not a total waste of time," Link added.
"You guys sure know how to try and plan for most angles. Alright, you two slip in and get us inside," Jack told the two masked vigilantes, and with that Spidey went to one of the sides of the wall and took a leap for the top, clinging fairly close to it as he then quickly scaled and hoisted himself carefully over.
"Here, hold me up for a moment," Batgirl whispered as she then reached to one side, managing to grip the wall with both hands and let herself dangle briefly before Spider-Man gripped her waist and held her so she could work with both hands. Reaching into her belt she pulled out a grapple, and partially extended the hooking part out of it, wedging the cable between two of the trunks before pressing the button and then let the grapple lower down the other side. "I'll head on in and look around to see what I can find, you make sure they get in safely." she pulled out another grapple and this time tossed the hook over the other side of the wall and began to rappel her way slowly down as the grapple extended, easing her to the ground. The interior of the camp was composed of various cobbled together buildings, not the sturdiest of stuff but enough, which also hid their entry from prying eyes.
'Hmmm…these buildings aren't the sturdiest of shacks to be sure. They might not fall apart under my weight but landing on them is outta the question, something's gonna jostle loose or the whole building will shake. Stealth is gonna be tricky, especially in broad daylight but we might not be able to wait till nightfall,' she thought to herself as she approached solid ground before her boots softly crunched the soil beneath their soles, lightly kicking up dirt. Attempting hug the walls she kept her cape draped around herself as she would peer around from behind each building before making quick dashes to the next, so far while not really high on security the place seemed to be buzzing from the rather jovial bustle and laughter she was hearing. "Hmmm…curious…" she continued on her way, and gradually began to work her way roughly towards the middle of the camp while making a form of a closing circle. She did however notice one building's roof sporting an antenna for the use of radio communication, it was old fashioned to be sure but it was reliable in this instance. With a swift darting motion she slipped to the side of the building, ducking behind some stacked boxes and crates among other technically useless junk and was actually near an open window. She kept her back to it as she could hear the sound of sound of radio static and the noise of it being adjusted to try and reach a particular frequency. Getting a quick idea she pulled out a recording device and held it up a bit to try and pick up the conversation potentially to be had, figuring it might be a good idea, after all, Bruce's technical motto was try and prepare for every eventuality.
"Come in Scharnhorst, this is Hammer," a deep voiced man spoke suddenly, and sounding rather pleased about something.
"This had better be important Hammer, to risk my position as governor, should someone else had been in the room, what is it?" Scharnhorst's rather distinctive voice replied over the radio, not sounding too pleased currently.
"Well I've got something of interest. Ya see, we found this redhead who's really not from around here. I think she might be in league with those people whom joined up with the old blood mechanic recently," Hammer replied.
"Are you sure?" Scharnhorst asked rather surprised while Batgirl raised a curious brow, turning and raising her head to peer through the window on the off chance said redhead was in the room with Hammer but there wasn't anyone else besides the big man himself. Hammer Turhoon was a big tall, muscular man, sporting long pale blond hair with a bit of a flat top, had a scar on his left cheek, and wore a dark brown vest of sorts with what appeared to be giant talons of some sort covering his shoulders. There were some purple straps, along with a set of green pouches coming from the left shoulder going down to the right. Along with a similar belt around his waist, with purple pants and brown boots sporting what looked like yellow fur. On his back was what appeared to be a skinned shivet foot, holstering his large heavy melee weapon.
"Fairly positive, she has some pretty unusual gear I'm sure none of us have seen before," Hammer replied as Batgirl quickly began making her way back, but quickly paused as he then said something else. "And we also recently found these two unusual gems, that maybe your captain of the guard might be interested in."
"Not funny Hammer," Scharnhorst remarked as Batgirl darted off this time, with a bit of a grin on her face. About then Hannah was lowering down on the grapple line into the camp, looking a little nervous about this given it was being done in one swift motion essentially but Mega Man and Link gently eased her down before Spider-Man began climbing down the wall as Batgirl came back.
"We got to move fast, they got a hold of a woman along with two unusual gems, and Scharnhorst will be on her way here!" Batgirl stated.
"Chaos Emeralds?" Mega Man asked.
"I'm not sure, but even if they aren't I don't think we should let them have them," Batgirl replied.
"Hmmm, not even sure where they'd even really keep a prisoner, mostly since the last place they had one was in a pit with a slither," Jack replied.
"Well she should be pretty distinctive, apparently dressed sort of like us and his a redhead like me, so she'll stand out once we do find her," Batgirl replied.
"Hmm, we can fan out into three groups of two, moving through the camp trying to find both. Without getting spotted," Spider-Man suggested.
"That typically doesn't last too long but we'll at least try," Jack replied.
"If a commotion starts, it might give some of us enough cover time to find what we're looking for before they think of trying to guard them," Link added.
"They typically don't think that way, do they?" Hannah smirked.
"So who's heading with who?" Mega Man asked.
"Hmm, to help keep ourselves on our toes a bit, I'll go with Link, while you go with Hannah," Jack suggested.
"While me and Spider-Man go prowling and potentially taking care of any particular guards that would be a problem. We're in a bit more of a league to do that," Batgirl added.
"I suggest we take out those guard towers, snipers in high places are a bad deal, even if they aren't armed with that kind of weaponry," Spider-Man commented before everyone quickly split. Everyone was moving through the camp as quickly and as quietly as possible, doing their best to keep out of line of sight of any of the poachers, and the place was crawling with them. Meanwhile in one of the guard towers a lone poacher patrolled, trying to keep an eye out for anything unsavory, before there was a faint noise behind him. Turning his head in that direction but then suddenly someone whispered "Hey?" from in front of him. Quickly looking back he saw Spider-Man peering in from the roof of the tower, making him stumble back in surprise before Batgirl quickly tackled him from behind, covering his mouth and putting him in a choke hold, he muffled a touch loudly or was trying to but was barely making any noise before he finally passed out.
"Hmmm if I were stolen gems where would I be?" Link asked as he'd peer into buildings on occasion, trying to see if he could spot something out of place. However the most out of place thing he and Jack ended up spotting was an elevated platform near the back of the camp, with a few pieces of equipment on it, but the most striking detail was the fact there was a giant tree trunk on it, and secured to said trunk was a very striking woman. Her hair while short, was the brightest most vivid shade of red Jack had ever seen, it was a no wonder she'd stick out. While the style was short, still had feminine qualities to it, thus not really a boyish cut. Her eyes were brown, and her facial features looked beautiful, a unique blend of what looked like Asian and European decent.
Her attire was unique, it was comprised of what appeared to be a grey body suit that went from her legs all the way up to her neck, lacking any sleeves. Over this was a black one piece, that semi showed off her cleavage but not really since the opening to her chest only revealed the grey body suit underneath. The one piece looked like some sort of leather, and had a grey belt snugly around her waist, with a brown pouch to her right hip, with a black holster on her left hip. And strapped to her right thigh was a brow holster different from the one on her belt. And she had on a tall pair of black leather boots, that were fairly simple looking, but had a big groove down down the center up to around the top of her foot slightly. And while they couldn't see it from their position with how her arms were behind the trunk, she had on a pair of black finger-less gloves that she wore over apparently grey gloves that went up to her biceps roughly.
She didn't entirely look exactly thrilled about her position as her hands were tied around the other side of the trunk, but that was the only thing bound as her legs were free as was the rest of her effectively. There were two poachers up on the platform with her looking at some of her equipment on a table, at least what Link and Jack assumed to be her stuff since they were looking at it rather intently. "Well, there she is, now how are we going to get her down from there?"
"I would say some sort of distraction, but we can't exactly do much without attracting some sort of attention," Jack replied. And as they pondered, Mega Man and Hannah found the same scene from a different angle.
"So that's the woman they captured," Mega Man said.
"That's a pretty unusual outfit. Do you recognize it?" Hannah asked.
"Not really, but if I had to guess she may belong to some sort of agency. Either way we gotta get her outta here," Mega Man replied.
"Any suggestions?"
"Only one really. Care to tell them that's not how to treat a lady?"
"That's your whole plan?" she raised a very curious brow.
"No." he simply smiled back, prompting her to return the smile, getting his idea now. As Link and Jack pondered, he ended up seeing Hannah sneak up towards the platform before standing in the open, putting her hands on her hips.
"Cwahoon, what's Hannah doing!?" Jack in disbelief.
"Hold up, I think it's well in hand," Link assured him.
"Excuse me," Hannah said, startling the two guards as they looked at her in surprise. "Don't you boys know that's not how you treat a woman?"
"H...hey you're the Wassoon!" one of them said before Mega Man tackled the one closer to Hanna as he leaped from over the table, and caused the other to stumble backwards towards the woman, whom quickly lifted her legs and wrapped them around his torso, giving him a real firm squeeze. Mega Man held his poacher down until he got him to pass out, while the other was helpless in the woman's grip for a bit, unable to breathe or make much noise before she released him, causing him to stagger forward slightly, trying to catch his breath, only for her to kick him with both feet directly to the back, sending him stumbling off the platform with a dull thud, knocking him out.
"Bout time the cavalry showed up," she remarked as Hannah climbed onto the platform, drawing her knife from her gun holster as she got around the post and started cutting the rope.
"Sorry, but are you alright?" Hannah asked as she got the ropes free, the woman pulling her arms forward and rubbing her wrists.
"Bout as fine as a hostage could be really surprisingly. But that might not've lasted for much longer if I had to guess," the woman replied.
"Slick diversionary tactic there Mega Man," Link said as he and Jack came over, soon climbing up as Mega Man simply hopped up with ease.
"Hey, I figured if one pretty face wasn't enough, another one outta do the trick," Mega Man said. The woman stared at Mega Man for a moment before doing a double take at Link, since he looked like he stepped right out of a fantasy story while Jack and Hannah were more or less the normal ones.
"I'm...not dreaming am I?" she asked.
"No, why do you think so?" Link asked back, a bit confused.
"Why?" she asked before walking right up to him. "Cause I'm looking a pretty boy elf right in the face!" she then gripped his ears and gave a mild pull, making him wince a bit but she released him quickly.
"P...pretty boy elf? But I'm a..." Link tried to protest a little mildly.
"Never mind, we'll sort this out later, we need to vacate the premises fast," she stated as she went to the table, retrieving a handgun, stuck it in the black holster, and took what sorta looked like a sword and slipped it into the thigh holster. She then took an assault rifle and slung it over herself as it had a long strap, and then took two MP5Ks and stuck them on two hooks on the back of her belt. And a bit instinctively upon spotting a leather pouch on the table Link grabbed it and peered inside, finding two gems.
"And here's the gems mentioned. Guess they kept their eggs all in one basket ya might say," he remarked.
"We might not have much time for introductions but, your name miss...?" Mega Man asked, almost a mild hint of bashfulness.
"It's Regina."
"Guys, guys!" Batgirl called in a hushed tone as she ran over to the platform.
"What is it, Batgirl?" Jack asked, now leaving Regina a bit more stunned at this sudden newcomer to her eyes.
"I just got some hard evidence for you to finally bag that fat pompous..." she tried to reply before there was a sudden loud *PTWUUAHEEEEEEE* launching sound from behind, making Batgirl whirl in shock as everyone looked past her in alarm as a smoke trail leaving projectile was coming down towards them roughly, making them scatter back a bit as Batgirl dove to the side, the projectile hitting the ground and made a loud, but mild explosion. The wind though made Batgirl hold a hand over her hand as her cape and hair fluttered wildly past her head briefly before they flopped back down, as she then looked up from her prone position as the others peered past the smoke to see Hammer's brothers having gotten a hold of the red launchers the poachers have.
"Hey, no way are we letting you get away with our best catch!" one of them protested.
"Yeah, so why not make it easier, put her back, and become a catch yourselves?" the other asked, before some webbing snagged their weapons and were yanked out of their hands, and into Spider-Man's as he sat on a roof.
"Now now fellas, I already have bomb slingers that fly around with a bad fashion sense. I don't need two more buds with even worse fashion sense, and worse hairdos!" he quipped as he dropped the weapons onto the roof. "So do me a favor guys." he then promptly webbed the two of their mouths shut, and webbed them flat onto the floor.
"No setting off firebombs in a quiet zone!" he jokingly protested. "Inconsiderate citizens, am I right?" he then turned to everyone else and gave a shrug as he held his arms out.
"...what kind of a rowdy bunch have I gotten mixed up with?" Regina asked in disbelief at what she was both witnessing and experiencing.
"We're more friendly neighborhood, just FYI," Spider-Man replied, before he quickly leaned to the side as a shot was fired and whizzed past, followed by him spiraling around into a bit of a prone position to see a whole bunch of poachers starting to approach. "But speaking of rowdy, we have a whole gang here!"
"So much for stealth!" Batgirl said hurriedly as she got to her feet in a kneeling position, swiftly hurling a batarang towards her right at an angle, making it spiral in the air for a second before it struck a strap that was holding down a stack of massive pipes, Mega Man quickly shot the other a second afterwards, causing the entire stack to proceed to roll down, and cause a number of the poachers to go scattering in a panic of yells and clattering banging.
"We may have some numbers and skill on our side, but that won't do any good if we're overrun, let's split!" Mega Man stated.
"Come on, this way!" Jack motioned as they started heading off to one of the sides between a couple of the buildings, before the pauses as this time Hammer and a few other poachers behind them started closing in on the group, and they momentarily stopped in shock before a few webballs struck the goons following Hammer and knocked them out, thus the heroes swiftly continued as Spider-Man landed before him.
"So you're the second big cheese around these parts," Spider-Man said as he rose into a combative stance.
"It won't just be around these parts for much longer. So, you're one of those freak jobs that joined that meddlesome Old Blood Mechanic. I'll make sure you regret that decision," Hammer replied as he drew his weapon from his holster.
"Sorry, but you're not my first "Hammer.", so color me not too impressed." Spidey then leaned back as Hammer took a swift swing at him, the metallic sound cutting through the air as Spidey leaned back and to the side bit to avoid the swing. "But I gotta say, I think I prefer you using a so called "hammer" instead of trying to bash me with your cranium." he took a few steps back before ducking and weaving two more swings, before then firmly grasping the shaft upon the third, putting the two in a grapple struggle.
"You sure talk a lot runt," Hammer quipped as he glared him right in the face as they pulled the weapon between each other.
"It's part of my charismatic charm. And besides, don't let my seemingly smaller athletic build compared to your muscle build fool you," Spider-Man said before holding onto the weapon firmly, hoisted himself in the air, and then double kicked Hammer back a few feet, releasing his grip as he skidded across the dirt for a moment as Spider-Man landed back on his feet in a simple almost casual motion. "I'm a lot stronger than you by a safe mile. And to illustrate." once Hammer recovered enough to watch, Spidey easily bent the weapon at the middle, and then twisted it and pulled the ends about a few times before chucking it aside.
"So how about you just concede, call off the goon squad, and let on be on our way and outta your hair while you still have enough of an ego to boast with. Deal?" Spidey gave a mild hand motion of a peace offering, but Hammer instead screamed at him as he drew a large knife and charged at him. "Never take the easier route do they?" Spidey then grabbed Hammer's wrist with one hand, and then nailed him square in the jaw with a palm thrust.
As that transpired the rest of the group were weaving between crates and trucks, bounding over lower ones and through gaps to give the approaching hordes of poachers at bay as they made a break for the exit. Or at least an exit close to their means of escape.
"You, in the blue!" Regina addressed Mega Man.
"What?" he asked a bit shocked as they continued to run.
"Can't you just blast through one of these walls to get us out of here? I'm sure that's well within your power."
"It is, but that'd just give them an opening to pursue us through in droves. And if we can't get to the vehicles fast enough we'll get overtaken in the jungle."
"Fair enough. So we need another option to get out of here."
"We may have a solution, but Spider-Man will need to meet us at the main gate," Jack added. As they rounded a corner, a poacher armed with an axe swung hard, and Hannah's eyes widened in horror as time seemed to slow as she saw the blade coming right for her eyes, before the blade stopped as there was a loud snap of wood while the poacher finished his swing in shock. Both looked as Hannah froze in shock to see Mega Man had caught the axe right below the head and managed to break it clean off. Before the poacher could even fully react and register, Mega Man decked him square in the face and sent him bowling into a few other poachers behind him. A poacher came at Regina with a spiked club, but she blocked his swing by hitting his wrist with her forearm, and then struck him in the armpit with her stun baton, making quite a dazzling spark as there was flash of light and blue before she booted him aside.
"They'll be focused too much on us at this rate, I'll draw as much attention away from you as possible to divert their numbers," Batgirl said as she ran away from them a little before leaping up and grabbing onto a roof's ledge, and hoisted herself up, firmly planting her feet in one swift motion and started sprinting.
"Best option we got at the moment," Link said as Mega Man firmly pitching the axe head into the ground, firmly planting it before he then stomped it further into the soil, and then began leading Hannah off as Jack and Regina took point for them. Batgirl meanwhile soared off the roof and firmly plowed a poacher into the ground, springing off into a hand stand, rolled into a sweeping kick motion on another, and then shooting into an uppercut upon another that was approaching. After landing she turned to face one that was sprinting at her and threw a solid punch, but she grabbed his arm and used his momentum to fling him over onto his back, then swiftly spun and slammed a kick right into the gut of another trying to get to her swiftly. As he doubled over in pain, she drove her elbow into his head, really flooring him before she started sprinting towards a cluster of them, throwing smoke pellets at their feet, the flash blinded them and then the smoke got into their lungs as she started plowing through them as she dashed through the smoke.
Once through the smoke she leaped up and put her hand upon a higher crate, using it to vault herself higher into the air, one leg straight and one leg not quite raised to her chest. But then suddenly she felt something at her shins, a bola had hit it's mark as it whirled around her legs, forcing her knees together as the bola wrapped around her shins repeatedly before tightly securing itself, trapping her legs in this position as she started falling. Her balance was severely thrown off as while she was able to extend her legs she couldn't get herself into a stable position as she pitched forward, landing on her chest and stomach as she wound up rolling across her side a few times from impact. She stopped semi laying on her side as she slowly eased herself up, able to move her knees apart as she got to where she was sitting with her knees together in the air as she propped herself up on her hands behind herself.
She stared at her legs to see a bola with a fine grey rope, and and secured with two grey weights on the end had perfectly snared her shins as she was swept over by a strong sense of deja vu a bit at this.
"What, didn't think a poacher didn't have as good an aim as you?" a young woman's voice spoke, causing Batgirl to lift her eyes up in surprise to see a young woman, no older or younger than she was approaching. She recognized her as Mikla, with her black, long, wild looking hair, the weird dark pink beetle ear piece over her right ear, the pink gem around her neck, the sort've beige jump suit now turned into a turn up one piece with a little cleavage and showed off her bare shoulders, and tall slender legs rather well. Her skin seemed a bit pale than typically seen around here and around her waist was a purple belt with a silver buckle, along with a purple knife pouch secured to her right thigh via two straps, a knife clearly visible. And lastly on her feet were short ankle boots, also purple in color. Her brown eyes had a gaze of a very sly and sinister cunning and confidence.
"No, just stunned I'd be on the receiving end of reliving how I snagged someone in a near identical manner," Batgirl replied somewhat casually before quickly whipping out another batarang from her belt she hunched over, and worked on slitting the bola from her legs. Mikla however wasn't about to just stand by as she drew her thin pointed knife and started charging, just when there was a satisfying snap of the bola, Batgirl pitched the batarang, only for Mikla to just narrowly lean to avoid and then dive at her. Batgirl grimaced as she saw her winding up her lunge, grabbing the lower edges of her cape she pulled it around herself while she rolled to the side, just avoiding getting stabbed. Mikla pulled the knife back as she rose up while Batgirl swiftly got to her feet, and threw a swift kick to Mikla's head, who just managed to avoid it, and Batgirl just pulled her leg back in time to avoid getting it slashed. 'Jack did warn us that Mikla while not as active, was seemingly the more dangerous and cunning of the group. I can see why.' Batgirl released her cape while getting into a very cautious stance while she and Mikla started trying to walk circles around each other.
Meanwhile Link blocked a machete strike with his shield, and then floored the guy by bashing him with his shield as a retort.
"These guys are basically glass canons! About the only thing they have going for em besides sheer numbers is them being more organized," he remarked.
"Yeah, their only threat is to people not equipped to handle them," Jack replied as he used his gun to block a club attack and then kicked him away, causing the club to go flying off a ways, bonking another poacher in the head a ways off that was near a large deep pit, and as he fell over he hit a lever that started lowering a platform down, following by numerous squeals and high pitch squawks of sorts, which made Regina look up in horror.
"They have a pit of raptors!?" she exclaimed.
"Oh no! If that elevator lowers enough they'll be able to get out!" Hannah stated when she realized what was happening.
"Oh that's all we need!" Mega Man protested before a large poacher tried to tackle him down, but he manged to stay standing although it did require a little bit of effort to throw him off. Hannah started running for the controls and Link followed, guarding her on her left while the pit was on their right. He blocked a few tossed projectiles coming their way as Hannah got to the controls, and started to move the lever when she heard a thump behind her, making her look back to see a raptor with a stripped pattern and feathers atop it's head grab onto the edge of the pit with it's front claws, planting it's hind ones upon it.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Hannah screamed in fright as she turned and lifted her legs up off the ground a bit as she hoisted herself up on the controls, just narrowly avoiding having her ankles and feet bitten off by it's powerful jaws, and kept snapping upwards as Link started to turn to take action, but Regina slid in, and kicked the raptor in the neck and forced it back down partially into the pit, it hissing and then going for her in protest, but she hit it across the head with her stun baton and knocked it all the way back in.
"I, hate, those things," Regina protested in annoyance as she stood up, Hannah still rather wide eyed at what just happened.
"Yeahthey'renotonmyfavoritelisteither!" Hannah hurriedly spoke in one quick exasperated breath as she very slowly eased herself down before taking a deep breath. "Th...thanks..." she tried to slow down her heart rate before they looked back to see the approaching poachers all yelling and basically roaring.
"Ok, that's, it!" Regina spat as she turned, drawing one of her MP5Ks and whipped in front of her, and fired in a sweeping motion at the ground in front of the poachers, causing them to stop and stumble backwards in fright, several toppling each other over. There was then a bit of a dead silence as everyone was a bit frozen in shock momentarily, Hannah, Link, and Jack looking over at Regina who was giving the poachers quite a menacing glare, Mega Man meanwhile was unphased by this action. "That's right. Judging by your armaments and method of weapons, you lug nuts aren't familiar with weapons of this caliber. Well news flash me buckos!" she flashed a very sinister grin while holstering her stun baton, and then drew her second MP5K and aimed both of them right at the large group.
"These little beauties fire bullets so fast I can slaughter a good lot of ya in a couple hundred rounds per second!" she shouted. Jack was about to open his mouth but a firm hand on his shoulder from Mega Man made him keep silent for a moment as he looked at him.
"I might not like it either. But it's our only card to get out of here. Just pray none of them are stupid enough to chance it," Mega Man whispered. Jack didn't look too thrilled but he knew he had a point.
"So kindly, part ways and let us out of here, or there will be quite a lotta extra feed shall we say for those "lovely" darlings behind me," Regina said as she momentarily rested her guns on her shoulders but then pointed forward again. "Now move it or lose it!" she then waved her arms outwards a few times, and the poachers got the message, spreading themselves out quite quickly as Regina kept her guns trained on them. She then motioned with her head for the others to get going, Link and Hannah going down the middle first, followed by Mega Man and Jack while Regina strode down the middle with a very confident feminine strut, a subtle sway of the hips with one foot in front of the other, moving her arms out and back a ways before turning around and walking backwards with confidence, guns still trained on the poachers. Around then though there was a loud crash as Spider-Man threw Hammer into one of the buildings before looking around, realizing the sudden quiet.
"Oh, party's over? Well don't mind me, I'll see myself out!" he said as he then sprinted off towards the others once he spotted them. Also about then Batgirl ducked a slash from Mikla, and then took out both her legs with a firm sweep kick.
"GAUH!" Mikla grunted as she landed on her stomach, dropping her knife and Batgirl was then over her in an instant, quickly taking her hands and forcing them behind her back. "H...hey get off me you lousy...agh!" Batgirl then cuffed her wrists together, and then realized things had suddenly quieted down and saw the scene before her.
"Well that's my cue. Don't go away now!" she chirped as she quickly started running off to rejoin the others, but Mikla however wasn't giving up, despite being cuffed she managed to move her legs to where she could stand up and started giving chase, screaming at Batgirl as she attempted to barrel down on her and shoulder check her to the ground, however realizing this was happening Batgirl nailed her with a spin kick, knocking her into an open crate with her legs sticking out, this time leaving her in a position she couldn't get up from, despite protesting loudly, Batgirl quickly rejoined the others. As they approached the gate the poachers started to slowly move in a little.
"Oh don't mind us, we'll see ourselves out!" Mega Man said as he took hold of the gate and forced it open, motioning everyone through, Regina fired off one last warning shot before darting through, Mega Man then slammed it shut and started using his buster to fire a focused beam to weld it shut, and Spider-Man then went over to the control shed and webbed up the controls, and then leaped back out as everyone then took off into the jungle. They made their way towards the vehicles they left in the distance and seemed to have gotten away scot-free.
"You're a bit violent," Jack remarked as they got further into the jungle away from the poacher encampment.
"That a problem?" Regina asked as she stopped with a hand on her hip.
"Oh boy...Jack, I don't think now's such a good time to go into the speech about the Machinatio Vitae," Spider-Man stated as he perched himself upon a tree branch.
"If it's about me shootin at a few of those guys, they'll live. I could have killed them but I know what I'm doing. Just be glad I'm not my partner Gale," Regina added.
"Regardless while it was a bit reckless, it did save our hides a bit. She did showcase a little res..." Batgirl tried to say but Spider-Man quickly jerked a little.
"Spider-sense ting...RAPTOR!" he quickly pointed behind them as a raptor began to come out of the bush at them from behind, beginning to roar but then a shot rang out, followed by the raptor yelping as a bit of it's flesh split down the middle of it's head, making it retreat.
"Whoa...that wasn't one of your guns," Link stated, soon prompting everyone to look over to see a tall blond woman, with her hair done up in a ponytail standing on a large tree root that protruded out from the ground. She wore what appeared to be an old fashioned explorer dress, sort of a beige-ish green color. It's sleeved were rolled up, and it was buttoned up from the waist to the neck, had a skirt that went up to a quarter of her thighs as she wore a brown belt with a silver buckle, and brown leather knee high boots. She had a nice figure and legs, not much different from Hannah's to a degree. She currently held an old fashioned military grade rifle as the barrel smoked from the shot fired but soon lowered it.
"Whoa...and...who might you be?" Mega Man asked as they all stared at her in a bit of surprise and confusion.
"The name's Felicia, I was on my way to meet Jack at his garage but then I saw you all heading off so I did my best in following you here. Seems I didn't miss all the fun," she replied as she jumped down and approached them with a fine feminine stride. Once closer they could tell she had vivid brown eyes.
"Meet us? What for? What do you do?" Hannah asked.
"I'm a scientist, and I figured my skills maybe some use to you, unlike my father apparently," Felica replied as she stopped near them.
"Your father?" Link asked as he began to put away his sword and was beginning to start his shield afterwards.
"Who is he?" Jack asked.
"You know him, Dr. Fessenden?" Felica asked.
"Fessenden?" they all asked in shock, save for Regina but regardless everyone was frozen by this.
"You mean that little guy who essentially bends to Scharnhorst's whim?" Spider-Man asked before he gave Felica a good firm looking over for a moment before leaning over and put a backside hand over the side of his mouth as he went towards Mega Man a little. "If ya ask me, the apple fell quite a ways from the tree." this warranted a slightly annoyed expression from Link he then promptly took the front of his shield and whacked it over the top of Spider-Man's head with a firm *BDONK*
"Excuse him. But you're a scientist like your father?" Jack asked as he approached.
"I know I know, you don't like scientist's very much but now isn't a good time for this discussion," Felicia replied.
"She's right, Jack. You came in a vehicle right?" Hannah asked as she stepped up.
"Yeah. My jeep isn't far from where you guys parked," Felicia replied.
"Good. Regina, you can ride with her," Mega Man said.
"No argument from me," Regia replied.
"Hurry, follow us!" Batgirl said as they all made a dash for their vehicles, getting into their respective ones fairly quickly and then sped off into the jungle, wanting to put some good distance between them and the poacher camp. "Oh, Jack! We don't want to head back to the garage or the city at the moment!" she said as she pulled up beside the cadillac on the driver's side.
"That have to do with that evidence you were mentioning back at the camp?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, she's on her way over, and if we head back there now we'll get intercepted and things are bound to get even uglier than they already are currently," she replied.
"Then where do we go from here? Not to one of the settlements," Hannah said.
"Right now let's just find a safe spot to sit and think that'll be fairly safe for now. The more distance we make the less likely we'll be tracked," Jack replied. However a couple seconds after they passed by a particular tree and proceeded onward, a familiar pair of light blue skinned legs grabbed in dark blue boots stepped out onto a branch outstretched over the path, a cape then draping behind the figure. Neifirst's red eyes eyed them very closely as they were vanishing into the distance and the thicket. Her memory flashed to when Link picked up the pouch and took out the two gems, their visage burned into her mind.
"They have the keys to the spire," she said as her gazed turned to the sky above. "Yes, yes! Come here! Come here! I besiege you! Come to me goddess of the Blue Star! You can't slumber forever! Not with what I've set into motion!" she called out, holding her hands up to the vacant sky, trying to appease fate itself. Somewhere, deep within a portion of the Multiverse was a planet indeed very much blue, with white clouds swirling around it, while the landscape was vast, and rocky, snow ridden as the winds howled relentlessly, a blizzard raging across the barren terrain. And resting within a wide stretch of land, overlooking this landscape, was an unusual architect, comprised of several jutting points and jagged edges, some type of tower that overlooked the land and the see as the storm raged on.
"I know you slumber in that tower, the one place I cannot reach you. The one place to well hidden no one can find. But you hear me don't you? Dear sweet child of the Blue Star. I know you can hear me. I've interwoven myself into the Multiverse as a whole so deeply, you sense my presence, my being, and that you can't help but hear me when I speak. Now is the time! Find her! Bring her to me! It is your duty to. HmhmhmmhmahahahaahahahahaahahAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAAAAA!" Neifirst's voice echoed upon the breeze through this landscape, and soon deep into the corridors of the structure, becoming fainter and fainter the deeper in, until it reached a glowing chamber of vivid light, becoming almost but a whisper, but still a sharp clarity and intensity. A large crystal within the innermost chamber, had a figure deep within as the figure remained stationary while the gem spun, suspended in the air by some unseen force as it floated among a room filled with technology. Eventually there was a sound from within, a faint noise of discomfort, and soon of pain. And soon finally, a young woman's voice loudly cried out, a plea for something not to be so, echoed loudly and boomed from deep within chamber, the crystal slowed it's spin to a stop, and then the light from the chamber grew even brighter to where nothing could be seen, and the light soared through the dark passages and corridors, soon shooting out all of the openings of the structure, shinning forth a brilliant light that break through the darkness of the blizzard, before going dark again.
-Sometime later-
Eventually the group parked in an open field near a mountain range and got out of their vehicles.
"So where do we begin?" Link asked.
"Well, I should. To finish what I wanted to say, while yes I am a scientist, I'm not like my father, sad to say technically," Felicia replied, clutching her arm slightly.
"Now why is that?" Hannah asked.
"Well, it's sad that we diverged apparently. You see, I want to use science to help people. Get civilization back on it's feet a bit more," Felicia replied.
"By doing what exactly?" Jack asked as he crossed his arms.
"Well, by trying to make exceptionally fertile soil so food can grow faster," Felicia replied. "Less time spent waiting for soil to become fertile again, means more food production a bit. At least so there can be more fruits and veggies to eat."
"Well that's the most tamest scientific idea I've ever heard," Spider-Man said as he perched in a nearby branch, making Felicia give him an odd look. "You're talking to a guy who's seen and had to confront far more outlandish things done in the same of science." Felicia then looked to the others, and then at Mega Man in particular.
"So have I, and I'm a chief prime example of years of scientific discovery," he said.
"How so?"
"I'm a robot." she just looked at him blankly, and him not breaking face only made her feel more odd.
"And I'm a time traveler by the way," Regina added, making everyone look. "It's kind of how I got here. Only thing is, I don't think this is exactly the same world unless time is really screwed up."
"How did you do the time travel?" Batgirl asked.
"Well, it was through a product of "Third energy". And I had gone through basically what you might call a warp gate. I was meant to go back to my time and then go back and save my comrade and his daughter but...I ended up in another dinosaur infested jungle, jumped by poachers," Regina replied.
"Hmmm. If I had to guess going by what I've experienced here with everyone, and their own experiences, your time travel portal got hijacked by a dimensional portal leading to another world," Link stated.
"So in other words, my attempt to go back to my time got a bit interrupted via dimensional travel?" Regina asked.
"More or less. And getting you back to your own time let alone world would be rather difficult given we don't have that kind of technology. Not to mention the dimensional gates we use don't exactly work that way," Spider-Man replied.
"Plus we're lucky Scharnhorst hasn't realized or caught onto the fact that we had left via one. However since Hammer had apparently contacted her about you, we're in for even bigger problems when she finds out we rescued you," Jack added.
"Say Jack…" Hannah said as she looked off in the distance.
"What's the problem?" Jack asked as the others looked over at her.
"Was that area always that foggy?" Hannah asked as she pointed at what appeared to a thick layer of fog moving in the distance above a large clump of trees.
"I don't think I've ever noticed it before," Jack replied, seeming a bit astounded.
"It might be because the fog is actually moving, as if it's parting…wait a minute!" Hannah gasped in realization as the sky began to seem to twist and contort.
"Is that a twister forming?" Link asked, a bit surprised.
"No, it's reality itself actually bending!" Regina replied as energy began to form in the sky as the fog fully parted and dissipated within seconds, revealing a tall, majestic tower reaching towards the heavens. Mega Man quickly pulled down a visor from inside his helmet and began to try and run a data analysis on it, and came to a few shocking conclusions.
"That energy…it's a dimensional rip! It may appear to be close but it's actually because it's so huge!" Mega Man stated.
"You mean that's actually from space?" Batgirl asked, rather astonished before the sky seemed to rip open with a large hole, which it's edges were surrounded by a bright flowing energy, revealing a large blue and white planet in the sky within the rift. It was perfectly aligned with the tower, and soon a gentle light came down from the planet and went towards the tower, getting brighter the closer it got, the rift closing behind it. The light continued it's decent and soon gave off a bright flash once it made contact with the tower, glimmering brilliantly before fading.
"That was some light show," Spider-Man remarked.
"Am...I the only one left clueless on what just happened?" Felicia asked, feeling absolutely lost at the moment.
"In simple terms, a hole just ripped open to another reality. And as for that light that descended upon that tower, well, unless I totally missed my guess, that was a form of teleportation," Mega Man replied. "It wasn't exactly like my own method of teleporting but I have no reason to doubt that."
"Well...I can't doubt that was true, my only real problem is I have to question the logistics of it in the how that happened but...it happened," Felicia remarked.
"I'm kinda in the same boat myself," Hannah chuckled faintly.
"That probably got Scharnhorst's and Hammer's attention as well," Jack stated.
"Right. We got to get there first and as fast as possible," Regina added, prompting Jack, Hannah, Mega Man, Spider-Man and Link to get into Jack's Cadillac as Regina got into the passenger seat of Felicia's jeep, and Batgirl still solo on her Bat-cycle before they quickly drove off.
-Elsewhere-
"Did you see that?" Scharnhorst asked as she and a couple of her guards had joined up with Hammer and a couple of his poachers, including his brothers. They were all left dumbstruck as they looked at the tower.
"That was some freaky stuff!" Wrench replied.
"What do you suppose that was?" Hammer asked.
"I'm not certain, but I believe we may have just found something very powerful," Scharnhorst replied in a gleeful dark tone, as Neifirst soon stood upon a tall branch of a nearby tree, glaring at Scharnhorst briefly before looking towards the tower. "Come on, we've got to get there first before Jack and his band of friends do!" which prompted the poachers and guards to get back to their vehicles and drive for the tower. Unaware of Neifirst's presence upon her perch, gazing at the tower with a gentle, relieved look of happiness. Like as if a long awaited dream had finally come true.
"The Blue Spire…so you've finally come," Neifirst spoke softly, smiling as her eyes trembled, feeling a rare sense of joy and excitement.
Chapter end