Hermione smiled then went to the dining room to find that the cook had set the table for an Americanized Mexican meal of Fajuitas.
"Alright, did you tell him we would probably have a guest with us?" she asked as she lifted Harriet into a seat and began filling a plate.
Marcus sat, gesturing for Rachel to sit as well, "Yeah, he said to come when we were ready; he also said he has Samantha using those drones I designed to search for the third dungeon."
Hermione nodded as she took her seat, "That's good, I hope they find her soon."
Rachel listened to them as she filled her own plate, "Dungeon?"
"Oh, we didn't get to that did we, well when all of this happened..." Hermione explained what she could.
Rachel listened, stunned; she had just thought the happenings had been an attempt by her father to take over the world, not a spell by a chaos mage using Janus as a focus to center it all, and then everything had gotten out of hand.
Marcus smiled as he watched Rachel parse through all she had been told, "So far this world has been more stable than some of the other Halloween events, Janus does try to mitigate the effects by absorbing the chaotic energies but chaos is chaos, he allows people like us to join the event to come into the Halloween to basically work search and rescue or just build settlements for the people."
"What do you get out of doing this?" Rachel asked knowing that the Elder beings would have to pay something to bring people to help such a world.
"Our costume's powers and knowledge without altering our personalities," Hermione answered as she finished fixing Harriet's plate and filled her own.
Rachel added that bit of information to the mental folder she was making as she made herself a plate and began to eat.
After a few minutes, she set her fork down as a new question came to her, "What do I do now?"
"Totaly up to you; you can stay in this world and help the people, go to normal Sunnydale, and help the Scoobies fight vampires and demons, it's up to you," Marcus answered.
"Could I stay with you guys?" she asked, not truly wanting to have to deal with the things in this chaos-filled world nor wanting to deal with vampires or demons of any sort even if they may be weaker than the ones her former father
sent after her from time to time.
Marcus looked at Hermione, his eyes telling her that it was her turn to answer; nodding, Hermione finished chewing her food and swallowed.
"We can't promise it will be any safer than the chaos world, eventually we will travel realities possibly even to a world similar to the one you are from originally, it will all depend on how things go, but first we will be returning to our first base of operations to finish work on the ship we were first sent to."
Rachel nodded as she listened while chewing on a fork-full, "I've been moving from place to place avoiding my father's minions as well as to keep from harming people when or if my powers get out of my control."
"We will be here for another few weeks, you can decide as we go, for the most part, we will just be going from the few places we are working with to ensure the people have what they need while the other teams go about working on uplifting the rest of the people, though I would like to go to Japan to see what people and creatures came about," Marcus said before biting into the tortilla filled with meat and peppers.
Hermione sat up straiter before turning to Marcus after adding a bit more meat to Harriet's plate, "We need to call Chuck," at their confused looks she smiled, "He offered a castle as big as Hogwarts, why not pay to have the one in this world moved into that plot of land you just ordered?" she asked.Marcus looked at her, his mouth opening and closing like a landed fish for a few seconds causing both Rachel and Hermione to giggle while Harriet focused on her food.
"I did not think about that, she does need somewhere to heal up, I was partially connected to her, Albus did some real damage to the wards it's why she locked down," he said before hurrying to finish his half-eaten tortilla, "I need to go see if I can call Chuck, you three finish up."
Standing, he walked out of the dining room to the living room; sitting on the couch, he tapped the phone twice and sighed as the screen lit up dialing the last call.Beside the phone was a shift of paper he asummed wasthe contract to purchase the land, after reading he smiled and nodded before signing it, after signing it flashed twice before copieing itself one flashong away and the other flying toward the second florr.
After a few seconds, the line picked up, "Yes?"
"Hey, we were sitting down for lunch talking about Rachel's future when Hermione reminded me about your offer of a castle, she asked why I didn't just ask you to see about moving the Hogwarts here to the island."
There was some typing on the other end of the call, 'Yes, we can do that, it will be cheaper as well how much of the land would you like to be moved?'
"How about everything, including the Forbidden Forest except the hostile creatures and centaurs and mermaid colony."
'That's possible, any other request?'
"No, we were just talking, and it came up," Marcus answered, looking to his bracer as it beeped, he tapped the screen and then smiled as the computer sent him the data on improvements it had run on what the crystal CPU would have on the terminators after it had run some simulations.
'It will take a week; our people will need to scan everything to ensure we get it right. Do you want the Chamber of Secrets as well?'
"We'll take it all other than the leylines she is tied into, oh and none of the ghost or paintings, we don't need those downers floating around the island depressing us," he answered while tapping a few icons sending the data for the terminator upgrade over.
'I can understand that,' Chuck said, humor in his voice as his computer beeped, 'Ah, thank you our RnD division will enjoy the work this will create for them.
"No problem, the computer did that after we talked about upgrading the two units being built here," Marcus said just before there was a rumbling from outside the house.
On the phone, a few beeps could be heard, 'Ah, our crew just added you new land, I am assuming you would like Hogwarts placed there?'
"Yeah, close to the house is okay let's say fifty miles away maximum, another thing that came up was Rachel may decide to come with us, Janus said that we would need to have anyone join our groups to take someone with us but I was able to bring Kendra from regular Sunnydale to the Halloween world with no trouble."
'It comes to two factors, One, Kendra should have stayed dead, with you reviving her the reality would have pushed her out either by sending her to one of the many hell worlds or outright killing her, Diana, on the other hand, didn't die so the reality can't do much to her, and Two the Halloween world is just a neighboring world so the systems for moving about realities didn't fight it, now if say she decides to travel with you she will need to sign a contract with you, which is a simple matter of her pressing her thumb on the screen of the phone, Harriet is a different matter she had been magically and blood adopted into your group by way of Hermione so she falls under the family clauses in our records.'
"Miney is my mummy now?" Harriet asked from behind the couch.
"Yes, I am, sweety," Hermione answered the little girl with a soft smile and pat on the head. Harriet hugged Hermione's leg, tears falling down her cheeks, "We just wanted to wait for a bit before telling you," Hermione said, crouching down to hug Harriet which was a bit of a chor as the little girl was using her new strength to hug her leg.
'Sorry I did not realize she did not know nor that you were near,' Chuck apologized.
"It's fine we were going to tell her later this week or next," Marcus waved it off.
'Alright,' Chuck replied with some relief in his voice, 'is there anything else you need to know?'
"Not really, we just wanted to know about moving Hogwarts to the island," Marcus answered while looking at Hermione, and Rachel both shook their heads.
'Okay, once we finish checking over the grounds of Hogwarts we will move it over to your island, we will also calculate the price but I doubt it will be overly much, possibly a single apple which we can harvest upon delivery,' Chuck told them before giving his goodbye's then hung up the phone.
Marcus stood from the couch, followed by Hermione, who lifted Harriet to her hip, " So we will be getting a castle in a few days?"
"Yeah, but there's no telling how long she will need to rest and heal. Like I said, Dumbledore nearly destroyed the wards and core of the castle," Marcus answered then turned to Rachel.
"You heard him; it's totally up to you. He even gave us the know-how we needed on how to allow people to join us, for now, think it over and let us know if you want to stay in this reality on either side of the barrier or travel with us."
Rachel nodded, "I'll think it over and let you know; for now, I will go with you and see how this world changes; even though I did travel with that group, they hardly spoke to me so I knew nothing about much," she told them."Did Hermione set you up with the survival kit?" Marcus asked refering to the bag bracer and tent.
Rachel nodded, "Yes, I've left the bag and tent in the room I am using for now until I know what I will be doing," she told him as she lifted her arm showing the bracer.
Marcus smiled and looked at Hermione "Are we ready to go talk to George and the others?"
Hermione nodded, "Yes, let's get going; we can also see what Jack comes up with to get this one's attention," she answered bouncing Harriet on her hip.
Harriet giggled, "He was nice and gave me sweets."
Marcus chuckled softly, then reached over to ruffle Harriet's hair, "Just don't eat too many of them," he told her before leading them out of the house to the speeder where he drove to and through the open gate.
They came out of the gate on the road leading to Colorado Springs; as they neared the town they could see groups of people going to and leaving the town that had become a hub of trade.
"General Hammond, we are nearing the town, would you like us to come to the compound or meet Jack and the others here?" Hermione asks through her bracer.
'Carter and Dr. Jackson are speaking with the civilian counsel over the farms and our food stipend for safeguarding the town until more civilians can protect themselves, as well as talking about having that Earth Bender child raise some walls, if you could meet with them they can bring your group up.'
"Alright, we can look for them as well as see what trade can be made with our supplies," Hermione replied before closing the call.
"Aside from the hides and teeth, I don't know what to trade," Marcus spoke as he slowed the speeder near the end of a short line of people waiting to enter the town.
Several of the groups turned to look at them, and many of the non-changed humans eyed the vehicle with awe while others had greed growing in their eyes only for it to be squashed when some recognized either their armor or Rachel as Raven.
"Maybe we should have walked," Rachel said softly, "a lot of these people are feeling jealous or envious of us having this vehicle."
Marcus looked around the area as well as keeping an eye on the people smiled, "Only a few of them want the vehicle the others are looking at you and Hermione," he told the teen as he locked eyes with one man who looked to be a roughian, the man stiffened up as if a predator had stepped into his path, sweat began pouring down his brow after a few seconds before he simply fell to the ground in a dead faint.
Rachel, who had kept a portion of her empathic abilities, shivered when she felt a large amount of lust coming from the man before he fell to the ground. "What did you do to him?"
"I constantly do a probe on people around me, that man was planning to try and kill me and then take you three to keep you as slaves, it's why he came here but he recognized you two and started planning, now he will harm nobody," Marcus said just as the man took a few shuddering breaths before his head lulled to the side eyes vacant.
Hermione nodded, "The world doesn't need people like that, but next time, don't kill them. Just knock them out, the people are getting scared," she pointed out as the people around the man were looking panicky.
Marcus looked a little sheepish, "Sorry, I'll try to keep it more subtle next time" he said as the line moved forward.
When it was finally their turn the guard took one look at Marcus he just waved them through, Marcus looked to the man and noticed it was one of the SGC members, nodding he drove through.
Slowly they drove along a fairway lined with stall where men and women called out for people to buy or trade with them, most of the items ere things from one of the two known dungeons or food items, they even saw a tent with two SGC members with a fairly long line where they gave out personal tents, backpacks and bracers out freely.
"Looks like we won't need to set up a stall ourselves to hand out those things. What else did you want to trade?" Hermione asked as they slowed to a stop near the tent as a group of children were led across the road to the SGC tent.
Marus shrugged, "We will just have to speak to George to see what else they could use, the only other thing I can think of are the jewels but we don't need to give those out until things are more stable, we'll give some to SG1 to test out I guess," out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione looking confused, "I know Faith and Kendra already have them but they were already powered mystically but SG1 are just starting out so they will be good base human references," he explained.
"Ah, I had not thought of that," Hermione replied, then stood in her seat and waved into the crowd; when an arm shot into the air and returned her wave she sat back down, "Samanth and Daniel were walking toward the SGC tent."
A moment later, Samantha and Daniel came out of the crowd; when both saw their speeder, they stopped to stare at the vehicle, the first to break from their stooper was Samantha.
Hurriedly, she moved to inspect the vehicle, first with her eyes, then her hands. She took it in before turning slowly to look at Marcus, "Please tell me you can get more of these," she pleaded hope in her eyes.
Marcus slowly nodded, "Yeah we can get more, these are part of our report to you guys and George," he to her while Daniel slowly moved around the speeder a smile many children had after first seeing StarWars as the speeder was the closest to normal vehicles in the movies even though most knew it was beyond their science.Samantha nearly jumped into the speeder or at least tried to, but all she managed was to clumsily hug him over the top of the door, Hermione burst out laughing while he could see Rachel and Daniel looking shocked and confused while Harriet giggled.
Cautiously hugging her back, he sent a pleading look to Hermione only to receive more laughter from her. Eventually, Daniel broke out of his confusion to finish walking around the speeder and pulled Samantha off of the man who looked to be on the verge of panic."Alright, Sam, let the man breathe," Daniel said as he pulled his friend off of Marcus.
"Awww, come on, Daniel, I was enjoying the show," Hermione complained after she calmed enough to speak though a few chuckles came between her words.
Marcu cut her the stink eye, then turned to Daniel and Samantha, "We were heading up to the complex, what about you two?"
Once Samantha calmed down, she cleared her throat, "We were coming to meet you guys at the gate, the General contacted us just a bit ago, he was able to negotiate for the Earth Bender to come to lift some walls in exchange for some of our less active members to give weekly classes in combat or even friendly war games to help the civilians who wish to fight to learn in controlled settings."
"We were also going to check on our guys handing out the tents bags and bracers, so far we've gained a good deal of public opinion by giving them out for free as well as placing a portal to allow travel between towns, or the dungeons," Daniel added as he released Samantha when he realized she had calmed down.
"That's good; once you guys can make these," he patted the speeder, "you can send out scouting parties to other towns or search for people that may need help or at least the basic set for loners who prefer to be away from people."
Samantha nodded, then eyed the speeder again, "We would need to redesign these for weapons and defensive measures, plus the size will need to be changed if we meet large groups," she said as a few additions she would recommend flitted through her mind.
"You can talk that over with the armory avatar, but unlike the normal replicators, to build the speeders, you'll need to supply materials; they are too complex and energy-hungry to build without something to supplement the build," Hermione chimed in.
"What about fuel?"
"Same as the base, but you will need to run some training programs to learn to pilot these as well as learn to maintain them," Hermione added as she reached into her bag for some juice to pass to Harret and water to Rachel.
Samantha nodded with a smile as she had just been offered to learn something new, "Let me go speak to our people, then you can drive us up to the base," she didn't give them time to respond before dragging Daniel off to the SGC tent.
Daniel followed Samantha, stumbling as he tried to keep up with her, "Well I think she wants a new car or just a new toy to play with," Marcus said as he watched the two go.
Hermione gave a few chuckles, "Both; I believe, she is a scientist who is having to curb her want to study until this situation calms down. Anything we can bring her will keep her happy."
"She won't pop out of nowhere to scare me again will she?" Harriet asked from her spot next to Rachel.
"No, sweetie, she was just excited that one time," Hermione said just before Samantha popped up beside the speeder Daniel in tow.
Harriet gave a soft squeak then cut Hermione, an accusing glair, "Uh, Huh."
"Sam, you've got to stop popping around like that, someone is to shoot you one of these days," Daniel complained as he slumped against the speeder.
"Sorry," Samantha said looking sheepish, "But new tech that I can take apart to study."
"I understand that, but if you keep doing that Harriet is never going to let her guard down around you," Daniel pointed out.
Samantha looked to Harriet, who was still glaring at Hermione, "Sorry, I got excited," she told the little girl refraining from reaching out for her as she remembered the last time she, shadow stepped near her.
"Harriet, hop up here, Samantha you and Daniel get in the back with Rachel," Marcus told them to get things moving.
Once the three moved with Samantha between Rachel and Daniel, Marcus sat Harriet in his lap and drove on following the road signs as well as teaching Harriet to drive the speeder, Samantha listened to him as well.
"We'll need to set up a tent, up near the entrance of the complex and limit it to making the personal tents backpacks and these things maybe add those sheds if they work out, I'll need to ask Samuel how the one we gave him worked out," Hermione said as she watched the people and town go by as she also reached over to pat Harriet on the head every minute or so.
"Yeah, hey Samantha call ahead and ask George and the others to meet us up top," Marcus said as they stopped to let a long line of people walk by, "we'll need to know where to put a new tent, tell him it'll need a large open space."
"On it," Samantha said before opening the comm of her omnitool to call General Hammond. Once the large group of people were passed, Marcus talked Harriet through how to use the steering wheel to accelerate and direct the speeder.
"How are things going over at Berkley Airbase?" Hermione asked as they drove by the road sign for the turn-off for the base.
"Once we were able to contact the General of the base and explain the situation, things worked out other than some of the base staff thought we were playing a practical joke considering to them we were from a television show," Daniel answered as Samantha ended her call.
"Yeah, we've run into that problem a time or two as well, I am a copy of a character from a children's book, Harriet here is a female version of the main character, and Rachel here comes from a comic series of teenage superheroes," Hermione said while pointing out a pegasus to Harriet and regretted it a second later as the speeder jerked a little before Marcus took the wheel.
Samantha spoke up, "The general and the others will meet us at the surface."
Rachel, who was watching the scenery pass them by, gasped as the speeder jerked, "Please hold the wheel," she hissed out then boped Marcus on the back of the head.
Marcus laughed then held his hands high over his head, "This thing has safety systems that wrap the passenger in bubble shields and short-range transporters to get us away from any crash," he told her with a laugh.
"That doesn't matter if we all have a heart attack from before the crash," she snarled.
"Fine," he said while retaking the wheel but still letting Harriet steer while making small adjustments as they neared the turn-off for the SGC complex.
"Short-range transporters?" Samantha asked as they drove past a platoon of soldiers marching down the mountain toward the growing village.
"I'll let you ask the avatar in the tent, it would take me the entire time we'll be here just explaining the systems of this thing and I only know how it works to a degree and most of that is for driving," he answerd her as they took a turn to enter the complex avoiding the civilian parking area.
When they neared the security gate the guards just waved them through when they saw Samantha and Daniel.
"Shouldn't they be a bit more cautious?" Hermione asked as they entered the arched tunnel.
"Not really, I wrote a security program for our omnitools, the VI monitors our health as well and if we have been taken hostage or something similar, it will silently call the base and inform our people of our situation," Samantha told them and held up her omnitool to show the screen was flashing green.
"It's already saved a few of our scout teams who were attacked by wild monsters," Daniel said also holding up his omnitool.
"You need to write that into the ones you are giving to the people living in the settlement," Hermione said while smiling at the idea, "that way when the ones that go into the wilds someone can save them, just ensure it's separated from your systems."
"Sam, said we are beta testing the idea, for now, we are sending one member of the inactive SGC personnel out with the exploring people," Daniel replied as they came to a stop in an open parking place.
They had barely gotten out of the speeder before several people surrounded the speeder, many questions were asked overlapping each other.
"Everyone stand down," General Hammond's voice barked out causing them all to jump to attention, funnily Jack was one of the most vocal in asking questions, he was now holding his mouth having bitten his tongue.
"Hey, guys ley us talk to the General, we've got several things to give ut but you all have to be good kids or he will cancel Christmas," Marcus called out getting a few laughs from the crowd as they backed off but kept looking longingly at the speeder.
General Hammond, joined them a small smile on his lips, "It is good to see you again, what brings you back to our growing home?"
"A few things really, but let's get the new tent set up," Marcus answered as he passed Harriet to Jack who somehow had her reaching for him.
Nodding General Hammond, waved for them to follow him to a large open place near the elevator, "We have made contact with a few of the growing communities, your friends have been working hard at spreading the items you two have created," Hammond said as he waved away a few airmen to clear the area.
"Yeah, we don't speak to many people, but we've seen a network growing using the omnitools, funny enough the arch portals are working as relay stations," Marcus said as he pulled out the tent and commanded it to set up and ordered it to create a conference room.
As the room formed he typed the command for his omnitool to transfer the schematics for the speeder to the computer.
"We have some news from on high. Do you think you can get the leaders of those settlements to conference in on what we have to tell?"
Hammond looked to his omnitool; it took him a few tries to get a group message to go through, "I enjoy these things, but I still have trouble working some of its functions," he said as he finally got it to send.
Marcus laughed, "Yeah, I know before all of this, my knowledge of all of this tech was low. I barely understood my DVD player and now I have all these new things."
Jack took a seat near Hammond with Harriet sitting on his knee happily eating what looked to be a cereal bar, "Ya, know these things have voice activation and dictation right?"
"Trust you to find the easy way to get something done," Daniel said as he sat.
"Hey, I don't even know how to set the clock on my VCR; these babies make my life easier," Jack retorted.
Teal'c took his seat with a raised brow, "I am relieved that the Goa'uld do not have access to these devices; they would have concurred the galaxy long ago with such technology."
"Yes, we would have had a time fighting them if they had this stuff," Jack said as he passed Harriet another bar.
Samantha sat on Hammonds's other side, "I am just happy we can get some sort of system working, the portals help along with the dungeons are a great boon," she smiled them tapped a few buttons, "speaking of which I used the probes to search and I believe the third has been found," over the table, a hologram showing a small island surrounded by crystal blue water, "if the maps are correct it is near the Cayman Islands."
"That's good to hear; her sisters are straining to keep her from having an overflow," Marcus said as he looked at the map she was displaying, "We need to see about putting a portal there."
"We'll see if we can get someone out there later to set it up," Hermione said as she typed out a message to Samuel, giving him the corrodents she could see, asking him to look into it if he had the time.
When Hammonds omnitool beeped the others looked at him, "We'll have ten of the leaders on conference call."
"I've got the other groups who are helping like us on conference, this is news they may need as well," Hermione said after Hammond spoke.
Marcus nodded, "Alright, how about someone record this and then send it to those who couldn't attend for whatever ever reason," he suggested.
They nodded and after Samantha helped Hammond set up for recording he began to speak, "Alright first off, Hermione and I were able to travel to the Earth that this event started from, I wanted to see if I could get above the red sky," he had to stop speaking until the outburst from all but Hermione and Rachel, "please let me finish, first off no we can't take people from here in this world over to that Earth so don't ask, now back to what I wanted to say, I spoke to one of the many God's over there, they told me that within a year or two the red sky will go away and the planet, once that happens it is possible that people and creatures may find this planet so everyone needs to work together to prepare."
"Are you positive you can trust this God?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, they are the God that made sure this new reality will be stable right now there are beings that would give HP Lovecraft nightmares out there but once the year or two time passes the red sky will expand and push those things away to allow this reality to hold life," Marcus finished.
He let everyone absorb this news, he then looked around once he was sure nobody was going to speak he spoke again, "Everyone, will need to work together, be it growing food or hunting in the dungeons, we dont know who or what will appear after that, now onto the second thing I need to announce is that I have the schema for speeders like the ones from StarWars," he told how the large tents could make them and that they would have to use scraps to supply the materials.
"Now for my last bit of news: I want any and all locations of Raven from the Teen Titans found, sent to myself," he said while looking at Rachel. Hermiones Omnitool beeped a few times, indicating she had received a few texts; when Marcus looked at her, she held up four fingers, then swiped the messages to his so he could read, it seemed that four of the other groups had already found a Raven each and had her in their care.
"Why are you looking for this person?" Teal'c asked without voicing his seeing Marcus looking at the young lady.
Marus sighed before looking to Rachel again, asking without words if he should say anything, Rachel smiled with a slight nod.
"Raven, or Rachel Roth as she is known is the child of an ancient world-conquering demon, most people who have read the Teen Titan comics will know her history, she is a hero who fights her origins, right now the world is safe from her father but once the red sky expands he will have a door into this world," he was interrupted again this time it was questions on what the people should do about the girl.
Hermione whistled loudly, "We have a way to cut that connection while allowing her to live, we will need those girls sent here, once we help each girl she will no longer be a possible doorway but do not threaten her, her powers react to her emotions which she suppresses so just put out a bulletin that she should find us or come here to the SGC where we will leave the method to help her in case we are unreachable."
Several voices spoke up, most asking why the method to help the girl was being left with the SGC.
"We trust and know these people, and while the rest of you may be good people, we've interacted more with these people outside the community in Sunnydale but here the people have better safety measures to safeguard the method," Marcus said once silence returned.
He let that sink in before turning to General Hammond, who nodded, saying without speaking he would have a secure place set aside to protect whatever they needed.
"What about these girls? Do we keep them here or send them on their way once they are no longer connected to this demon?" a familiar voice asked from Hammond's Omnitool.
"President Whitmore?" Marcus asked confused as he knew neither his group nor Samuel's had left any tech.
"Yes, George and his people sent us some of these wonderful devices, we've been screening our people, and so far only my aid and the former general seemed to want to force you people to give us your tech, I've had our scientist going over the alien ship to send your group the data after we found all of the hostiles had been put down, thank you for that by the way."
"You're welcome, I may not have liked how your aid and the other guy treated us, but I wasn't going to leave the civilians to their deaths at the hands of those things," he pulled a factory tent and shrunken portal from the backpack at his feet and pushed them to Hammond who understood and passed them to an airman with a whispered order.
After that, they all spoke about several other items each community needed and who could help them in trade, it seemed that the other groups had been passing out the portals after Hermione had sent the schema to them.
"Okay, now while the groups of otherworlders are going about helping all they can find Hermione and I will be moving on to our reality, and before anyone asks we will be coming back from time to time but we were on downtime while working on something, and soon we will need to go back to see how our job is proceeding without us," Marcus announced near the end of the meeting.
"How often would you be returning?" Hammond asked.
"I'm not sure, Harriet will need schooling soon, so we'll probably do weekend trips until summer once we get settled, also we will be in a world where some of the groups here already exist, which seems odd now that I think about it considering it has elements from DC and Marvel comics as well as the SGC and Harry Potter."
Hermione gasped, and then her eyes went out of focus while rapidly darting around; after several seconds, she focused on Marcus again, "Is it possible that it is another Halloween world that went through the proper process, you know Big Bang and all, without having people to start with?"
Marcus shrugged, "Could be, I mean worlds like this only happen in like one in ten thousand times when the Halloween event happens but with an infinite number of realities out there it is possible that happened, hell the companies who contract out people like us could be sending people into the more stable Halloween realities to help stabilize it further," he guessed while thinking over the possibilities several of the others there both physically or through conference tried to make sense of what he said.
"Wait, if it's like that, why do our bosses send us to these worlds? I mean, it's fun here, but what's the point?" one of the agents asked.
Hermione spoke up here, "How many contracts have most of you done before coming here?"
Half a dozen voices spoke at once stating that this was their first or second reality, Hermione nodded and then continued, "Experience, most of you need a chaotic place that is relatively safe to gain experience, while the other Halloween realities went through a natural progression, Big Bang on through current times while some of them had versions of Earth from the beginning which throws things off, the red skies could be a form of shield to protect life until a critical mass."
Several voices gave sounds of understanding, "So all of this came about because the coin flip hit tails for us?" Jack asked as he pulled out a Jello cup and passed it to Harriet.
"Basically, yes, it's all speculation on our part, really, but it fits for the most part; if I ever speak to Janus again, I'll ask him, but he is a busy guy so it may take him some time to answer," Marcus said shocking everyone saying he would try to speak to a god.
After that revelation, everyone spoke on other topics in small groups while Marcus thought over things. After nearly an hour of talking each group finished a few negotiations. Just before he began to speak to Hammond and Jack about what they were going to do with the Raven situation, his omnitool beeped.
'You are close to the truth, but I can not tell you more until you reach unbound levels, the information could liquefy your brains or combust your soul.'
Nodding as he read the message, he shared it with the agents to let them know, he then turned to Hammond and Jack.
"So where can we set up the stuff we need to help the other Ravens?"
"How much room does it need?" Hammond asked.
"Well, a closet will work; I can expand the room to what we need, plus set up a cleansing circle as well as a shower; it will be messy," Marcus told them, thinking over the size of the area of the sludge that came out of Rachel.
"Will it hurt them?" Jack asked.
"I'm not sure, but the process purges the body of its demonic blood, but the one time we used this method the girl seemed fine once it was finished," he told them while mentally working on the circle he would need to set up.
When they came to an open closet, Marcus looked around and then nodded, "Hermione I need one of those inscribing tools," he called out once he was finished inspecting the closet.
"Alright, I have a new design for it; the new one uses the spherical probes to cut the runes, it should speed up the inscribing," Hermione called back as she walked to join them.
Once she looked into the closet, she nodded, "Yeah, this will make a good test for it," she then reached into her backpack pulling pieces of things out and putting them on a conjured table.
Once she had enough, she waved her hand over the pile of parts her eyes closed, Jack, Hammond, and Samantha watched closely as the parts floated off of the table to combine and build a smaller version of the sphere probes from Destiny along with a separate control pad.
"Alright, I've changed it up a bit, it will now inscribe the runes once you finish drawing them on this screen with either a finger or stylus in the end it will add an environmental magica absorption rune in the optimal location in the schema, as long as whoever uses this understands them they can write out a schema, the last puls will charge the absorbing rune so even a person without magic can use this.
Marcus looked over the control panel with a smile; he reached for it as Hermione held it out to him, "Nice, let me guess you added that setup after Celest and the kids warded the walls of Sunnydale?"
"Yeah, they nearly exhausted themselves trying to power those walls; I wish I had thought to add it to the first pad but hindsight and all that," Hermione told him.
He looked over the pad and then began to draw out a schema to expand the room to be about twenty feet. Then he added schema to cleanse the area once a control rune that would be set beside the door, he held up the screen to Hermione so she could look it over, and she nodded.
Once he was sure it would work he set the probe to begin its work, "It will need to charge for at least twenty-four hours before it can be used, but this is only to clean up the mess it will make, Hermione can you go gather a few of the items needed to help the girls"Hermione nodded, "Give me a few minutes, can you have Janet come here? She will need to watch over the procedure."
Hammond nodded, then used his onmitool to send the woman a request to join them on the surface when she replied that she would be with them as soon as she could.
"She will be here as soon as she can be," he told them.
"Good, I'll be back momentarily," Hermione said before walking off to let Rachel who was watching over Harriet, let the two know she would be away for a little while.
The group spoke while waiting for the two women to join or rejoin them, "We plan to go to Asia after we finish here, Hermione has asked a group to go look into the Caymen Island dungeon," Marcus told the three with him.
"What do you think you will find over there?" Jack asked.
Marcus sighed, "I don't know, those countries are filled with so many legends and fantasy stuff, the chaos may be heavier."
The three looked concerned, "Do we need to prepare for any outcome from those countries?" Hammond asked.
"It wouldn't hurt, though most of the fantastic and legendary central characters are, for the most part, good people. Some of them are not fully good, but they are powerful, I just hope the people over there can keep them in check."
"What are you going there for?" Samantha asked.
"Tech mostly and possible magical knowledge, which reminds me, we have a new bit of tech for SG1; it actually comes from an anime," Marcus told them, pulling a pouch from a pocket from his backpack which he handed to Hammond. When Hammond took the pouch, he opened it and looked inside; what he found were many small red marbles, he looked from the pouch to Marcus, "What are these?"
Magical armor and weapons, with a simple A.I have given these to two powered people who were already strong. I want SG1 to use them as they are only now getting mystically enhanced so they will be my beta testers for them."
Jack reached into the pouch and took one of the marbles, "What about the stuff we've already gotten from the dungeon?"
"These should absorb that stuff or at least scan and copy the best qualities of the weapons and armor you get from there."
"I see more than twenty of those in here," Hammond said as he looked into the pouch.
Marcus nodded "Give Jack and the others a week to test them, when you are sure they are safe hand them out to the teams going into the dungeons, when you are sure your people can handle things we can see about supplying the civilians with them as well, eventually everyone who wants to fight will be as protected as possible."
"What about the police force? They are working rotations with our teams to explore the dungeon."
Marcus shrugged, "That's up to you; I'm only trying to provide as much support as I can before we go back to working on Destiny."
"So, how do these, gizmos work?" Jack asked as he looked at the marble in his palm.
"You will need to come up with a chant; it's best to have it be something you are not going to say in a casual conversation; in time, you should be able to equip it without the chant."
"So, something like? 'Might and conviction are my core; all who challenge me shall wish for salvation.' " Jack said. Just as he finished speaking the marble began glowing. With a flash, Jack went from wearing his fatigues to wearing a set of armor that had a moving camouflage pattern that also changed colors, on his hips was a set of gold twin pistols that looked to be 9mm's that had silver runic patterns on the grips.
"Yeah, something like that," Marcus said sighing as Jack's habit of doing something before thinking it through kicked in.
Hammond was pinching the bridge of his nose, "Colonel O'Neill. Are you trying to aggravate my ulcers?"
Jack looked at his new garments, "Sorry, sir, I only meant that as a question, not actually activating the thing."Janet joined them, and as she did, she looked Jack over, "New gear from the dungeon?" "No a new bit of magi-tech, I wanted the SGC to test for me, I was still explaining it when Jack here activated one, as you can see it becomes a set of armor along with weapons best suited for each person, they grow with their wielder but there is an upper limit to how powerful they can get, unlike what you may have seen from cartoons of anime, this won't have those large city buster attacks," Marcus finished explaining while reaching into the pouch and pulling one out then handed it to Janet.
Janet looked at the marble and then at Marcus, "I may be in the military, but I am no fighter," she said, trying to pass it back.
Marcus took her hand and closed it around the orb, "And you weren't here for the first bit; these become what suits each person the best, and people need support, so Janet Fraiser what is your job here in the SGC?"
Janet looked confused but answered, "I'm the chief medical officer."
"And this will become the best equipment for you as a healer and grow with your skill, though you may have to go to the dungeon and fight anyway to get stronger."
Janet slowly nodded, holding the marble to her chest, "I'll have to think this over," she then looked around, " So why am I here?"
Marcus smiled, then waved to the cleansing room, "I just set up a cleansing room, which reminds me, George, I may need to put one down in the gate room. It will remove harmful stuff from bodies, there is no telling what may pop up once the gate can be reactivated."
Hammond nodded after some thought, "Yes, we've had some patpathogens come through the gate with our teams, something to clean them out before they can do any harm would help."
Janet nodded, "I fought with the higher to put in a decon chamber, but they kept saying it wasn't in the budget," she said with a frown.
"Most likely they wanted to use what you came up with to fight similar things on earth," Marcus
said while guiding Janet to the room and then pointing to the activation rune.
Just as he finished explaining the purpose of the room and how it functioned Hermione returned with a small crate with a dozen golden apples.
"You'll have a few guests in the next few days, they will have girls with them who look like Rachel over there," she said pointing to Rachel who was showing Harriet her new golden crow shroud amazing the little girl as well as the soldiers around them, "give one of these to her to eat inside that room.""Close the door, or you may get blinded for a bit of time; when Rachel ate her's, we couldn't see for a few seconds, and the spots took some time to go away," Marcus added."George, let's go set up another set in the gate room. When the skies change, the gate will be usable once more; putting this set down there will keep pathogens from passing with your teams or guests," Marcus said, getting the general's attention.
Hammond nodded; he passed the pouch to Jack, he then led Marcus down to the gate room where he redrew the schema for a larger room, after a few minutes the schema was inscribed and tied into a blank book he had conjured, "This will keep a record of what the circle scans and cleanses from everyone, this way if Janet has to go off-world she will know what to look for and help with if it's needed," he said passing the book to Hammond.
"Thank you, we should get back up there before O'Neill does something else to aggravate my ulcers."
Marcus laughed as he followed Hammond back up to the compound entrance; what they found when they returned shocked Marcus as well as Hammond's ulcers causing him pain.
Teal'c wearing heavy plate armor similar to what he wore as the First prime of Aphophas, his weapon was a heavy staff both ends seemed to glow with the orange glow of plasma, Samantha was wearing a blue trench coat over red cloth armor, in her hands she held a staff whose tip held four glowing orbs matching the four prime elements earth wind water and fire, Daniel was covered in earth-toned robes similar to what he was wearing on Abydos, his weapon a staff as well held green flames in a cage of twisting wood, finally Janet stood there in pure white robes trimmed in red, in her hands was a silver staff topped with a golden caduceus one of the snake set of eyes was red and the other was green.
"Maybe you should go get some antacids from medical," Marcus offered Hammond with a laugh in his voice.
"Yes, I believe I shall do that soon, for now, can you help us figure this out?"
"Well Teal'c looks to be a tank, He should be able to take and deal heavy damage, Samantha looks to be an Elementalist, and well Daniel I'm not sure but the marbles read the person they bond with so with his knowledge on ancient stuff he most likely a shaman of some sort, and Janet is most definitely a healer type, I recommend you guy's go for a few runs in the dungeon, in there you guys can get practice as well as unlock skills the mar les hold for each of you."
"But I'm not a fighter," Janet stated looking slightly concerned.
Marcus shrugged, "You will need to fight to grow in power and skill; if you don't you will not be able to do more than minor healing."
"Fine," Janet said after looking around at her friends who were all nodding after reading up on RPG games on their Omni tools.
"You five have a week starting tomorrow; go as deep as you can. Don't forget to upgrade your gear as well as bring back supplies for trade," Hammond said using his commanding voice.
Rachel has now joined the group with Harriet on her hip, "Well, we need to get going. We plan on going to Asia, as I said, but we'll keep in touch, the other groups should be in and out of here should they find those girls."
"How long should we keep these to ourselves?" Jack asked as he passed the pouch back to Hammond.
"Two weeks to a month to test them out should be long enough, we just need a baseline for normal humans on these things, the two we gave to the powered people we know will skew and data we could get," Marcus answered as he led the group over to the speeder, "Oh yeah don't forget to work on these things, the avatar can adjust them from car-sized to bus like."
As the four got into the speeder, Hermione spoke, "We have a few weeks until we return to our work on the ship, but we will be able to return from time to time, when we do we will help with the changes in the future, we may be able to help with ships as well as knowledge."
After a few more goodbyes the left the compound, as they traveled, they helped a few groups but not as many as they expected considering that the other helping groups were spreading the tents and onmi tools out, it took them nearly a week to make it to the Florida coast.
