The Return of The Time Keeper! (CVU Closed RPG IC)

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Pyrogram

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#1  Edited By Pyrogram

Over six billion years ago...

In a cosmos far from Earth.

Upon a planet long since gone...

...Welcome to Thaed.

The Home of the Time Keepers!
The Home of the Time Keepers!

- The War -

That is what they called it.

Just, the war.

It had been occurring since the start of time to the end of time. In a linear sense, it had lasted for over twenty thousand years, but in the more abstract sense throughout countless time periods - accurately lasting an eternity. It was an impossible war. All stratagems outwitted by time traveller foes who rewrote any victory or loss for either side. It was a war that had lasted longer than anybody had dreamt in their worst nightmares and a war that would last long after their last breath.

It was the Last Great War of the Time Keepers - truly the war to end all wars.

The year was seven billion, five hundred and sixty-two million, five hundred and sixty-three thousand three hundred and fifty-three years young at this point. The Time Keepers had existed since the very start (some say before). This was the year that the dishonourable detainee #13113 was standing accused of desertion is the abandonment of duty without permission. Detainee #13113 had been serving in The War for almost five thousand years, but had decided to flee when a forward operating base was destroyed.

Aboard the Arcadian XI Class Cruiser

-Detainees 13000-16000 step forward-

No Caption Provided

The arrested Time Keepers took a single step forward, knowing this entire processing centre took literal weeks.

Every few hours a guard in a monotone, robotic voice would command them to step forward in line as all one hundred thousand arrested would be summoned before the Grand Committee and tried for catastrophic treason. This was where detainee #13113 had ended up.

Breathing heavily as he had only just arrived off of a now departing transport ship, the Time Keeper looked all around, his red coat swinging by his side a little before settling.

"Oi, wiseguy," he gestured to a guard, nodding upwards to arrest his attention. "Ain't no way to fast track me is there? I'm guilty alright," the arrogant Time Keeper scowled. "I've fought in this damn war for years man. I'm going to happily sit the rest out whilst you fools fight forever..." he didn't mean that figuratively either.

The blue armoured guard sneered, looking at the red coated man's tag. "Detainee #13113. The penalty for desertion has been declared as banishment-" he paused, the death sentence impossible as Time Keeper's were biologically programmed to be unable to murder each other, "-to the temporal zone." But that was just as bad! The temporal zone is a space between time, acting as a limbo in between it. Upon being trapped there without some ability to navigate one would be literally lost for eternity. For a Time Keeper that meant eternity as they lived so very long.

'Detainee #13113' was just about to interject, his brow creasing angrily before a robotic voice echoed through the entire vessel.

- ᴀʟᴇʀᴛ -

???????????? ???? ????? ?? ????????.

ℂ?????? ????? ??????, ??????? ????? ??????.

??? ??? ?? ?????? ????????. ??? ????????? ???? ??????? ?? ?????????? ??????? ????.

- ᴀʟᴇʀᴛ -

Unexpected time shift? That meant that the ship was under attack from outside of this time. The enemy had travelled back in time and attempted to kill the creators, architects, anybody involved in the creation of this ship from existence.

The Time Keepers had protocols to defend against this type of attack but the enemy had protocols to counter-attack the counter-attack until one side ran out of steam. "Screw this shit," without warning the Time Keeper headbutt the armoured guard and sent him flying into the wall opposite, all Keepers having super strength after all. As the guard went flying, 'Detainee #13113' managed to slyly steal his metal baton and start to flee, the ship exploding here and there as parts of it simply stopped existing.

Randomly throughout the ship vacuums were created as panels just disappeared - sucking Time Keepers into the sun and vaporising them instantly. That was the danger of parking an entire battleship beside a giant star.

The Time Keeper had two options. Survive this battle (if it were to even be possible) and spend the rest of eternity trapped inside the Temporal Zone. Alternatively he could flee and steal a time ship. The later could kill him too. It could burn through his regeneration cycle in a near instant due to the time locks in place. He only hoped, hoped, that the captain had diverted power to sustaining the ships structure and depowered the security.

Some time later at the time vault

Slowly the Time Keeper crept through, looking down at his bruised fists. It had taken quite a fight to get here. He didn't enjoy beating other Time Keepers but no idiot was going to let him die on this ship. Over his shoulder was a guard, knocked out and ready to be used as a make-shift key. Detainee #13113 bent down and rest the guard beside the time vault, looking at the bio-metric scanner knowing his hand print wouldn't work here. He grabbed the guards thumb and placed it onto the device, the door didn't open... It vanished. Time vaults only existed when required to exist.

No Caption Provided

Behind the door, an entire room appeared full of little silver spheres. Each sphere contained a spaceship capable of travelling anywhere in time and space. The Time Keeper looked over at the first sphere and activated it, two metallic hands spun the sphere around at a thousand miles an hour a thousand times until it opened. It would only open in the presence of a Time Keeper - it didn't care of their intentions.

Time travel was a birthright to his race.

He raised a palm to take the stone.

He knew if the security was still active within the ship for even a fraction of a millisecond his life would end the moment his palm touched the ship. But if it worked? He would leave this dreadful war forever... But then he heard a croaking, the Time Keeper guard slowly crawled into the room, both of his legs broken from the earlier fight and his nose bloodied.

He raised an arm, a blaster was pointed straight towards Detainee #13113.

"...If you steal that," he coughed blood, "you are forsaking your own kind. Time Keepers have existed forever! You can't just steal a..."

Detainee #13113 snorted. "What are you gonna do, shoot me? You know we can't kill each other. What a stupid rule."

Without hesitation he grasped the gem - simultaneously the guard tried firing his weapon, but it didn't work. He almost broke his finger trying to squeeze the trigger - but it was locked in place, he was unable to overcome his biological limitation. "COWARD!"

No Caption Provided

The other Time Keeper roared instead, throwing down his gun and watching as Detainee #13113's entire body started to disintegrate under the pressure of the gem. The guard laughed. "The defences weren't shut off! Ha! YOU TRAITOROUS PIECE OF SHIT, DIE!"

The Time Keeper felt himself dying, every single cell of his body began to regenerate and then disintegrate one thousand times in the matter of a nanosecond.

His body tried clinging to life....

...Was this the end? What a cowardly way to die. The Time Keeper turned to the guard, saying nothing as everything didn't go black.

It simply stopped.

Elsewhere - Unknown Location

And then, time restarted.

The Time Keeper woke up, looking down into freezing cold water at... Who was that?

He shivered in shock, looking down at his new body.

I'm Alive?
I'm Alive?

He clenched his fists in happiness despite not knowing what had just happened, roaring aloud.

"I... I DID IT! YES! I'M ALIVE!"

He was huge. His hair was so long! Everything felt different. Even his mind. He was a new man. But the same man. What now? It was time to do what he did best. Run. And never stop. He had a whole universe to explore now.

Earth, 2017, study in Millennium Academy

No Caption Provided

The Time Keeper rest his eyes for a moment, reading a few books to pass the time. In his travels he had found a very intriguing one. It was from the 1800's, a very old journal in fact. This woman had been on many adventures, he loved reading those. With a rested sigh he opened his eye again and plucked up the book, reading a new passage...

October 20th, 1888

Yesterday, I chanced to hear the professors discussing an expedition

Of archaeologists exploring a region of particular interest—an

Underground temple to the God of Thunder himself. But I don’t recall anything

-

About the Scandinavian people carving out subterranean tunnels to

Revere any of their deities until this point. I believe the

Excavation could show a

-

Notable deviation from the usual artifacts found previously. I am certain if I had the

Opportunity to examine the ruins myself, I could finally reveal evidence for my

Theory that the Norse gods were, at the very least, inspired by creatures from

-

Another planet, not merely figments of religious ideation. Perhaps one of these

Lifeforms left some sort of artifact that could grant a clue, something anachronistic or

Otherworldly. Imagine if Thor’s infamous hammer was actually a device capable of abilities

Never understood by more primitive minds—an alien implement that could serve as proof of

Extraterrestrial life! There may be evidence at the site. I wish I could see for myself.

—Maddy

He did a double take. Reading the diary entrance again. And then again, and then, again.

"What." His eye gazed at the words. "No. No that can't be." Placing the book down the Time Keeper leaned back in his seat and knew this needed investigation. But not alone, no, nothing this serious. First of all he needed to be able to time travel again. It would not be a hard problem to solve. He had planted another wrist device in the ground when he had met Archivist. Next stop, was meeting Ali Outsider and Uma in hospital to ask for assistance - after that, came meeting Anakia to ask for help. All of them had been told the exact time he was going to request their help.

And just like that, wherever they were, a purple portal would open up in front of them. "Hello friends," he waved at the three, two of the group in different places, but he was inside the classroom.

His familiar old face smiled.

"Step along inside and you'll be transported here. Adventure time!"

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#2  Edited By Interstitial

@pyrogram: @lightning_god: @kaija:

Seventeen hours. It was more than sufficient, especially given that Anakia did most of her preparation in her own halls, where time was a forgotten thing that didn't matter in the slightest. As such, she'd had time to spare while the Time Keeper ran his proposed 'errand,' whatever that was. Being a student, she'd used some of it to do her homework. She was trying to do her schoolwork in the real world, as she felt that doing it in her timeless halls gave her an unfair advantage over the other students. An assassin took every unfair advantage she could get, of course, but it didn't feel right for a student. So, she spent time in the real world doing homework, and with the time left over and the infinity of the cold halls without time, Anakia experimented.

The forests of Japan were in the past, but it had still taken Anakia a little while to be ready to approach what had happened there. She'd returned, quietly and alone, to the place beside the cabin where so much blood stained soil twisted lives together. There was not much there any more; little but remnants. Blood, fallen timbers, broken cards.

It was the latter that intrigued her. Few remained, most scattered to whims or whimsy, but some had been too broken or blood-logged when the spell had broken that they lay still, inert. Anakia picked up the torn four of hearts, half-mended after she'd rent it with her knife, but but still broken. Not a metaphor for anything. She hinted a smile, and then approached the more difficult endeavor - the queen of diamonds, laying still. It was barely even legible, stained red with blood. Hers, Anakia knew. She remembered. She picked it up very carefully, mindful of the wicked edge that sliced through armor and flesh and bone alike. It was why she wanted the thing, after all.

No Caption Provided

In the dusk of the cold hallways, she tore the insides out of the card, drawing some rather personal parallels in the doing of it, and then took the remnant edge and forge-fused it with one of her knives, wrapped around the blade. She set it beside the other dagger she'd crafted, the one with the Nth metal core. One to cut through armor, one to cut through magic.

And somewhere out there, there was one that cut through time.

Anakia smiled a little bit - she doubted that the Time Keeper would let her experiment with that one. No, he'd want it under his own control, and she couldn't blame him. Still, it would have been... an interesting thing to have.

She returned to the real world at the cabin once more, shaking her head a little bit. Three people had died there, she thought: herself, the Time Keeper, and the witch. At least two of them had proved to have failed to stay that way. Anakia wondered about the third. I think, perhaps, that she, too, will return in time.

Hopefully, the cost to ruin her would be less, then. The forest held only memories, and Anakia left it to them, returning to her dormitory common room to read and to wait out the last remnants of an hour. Time ticked, and as the hour fell, a portal appeared, with a familiar voice and an entirely unfamiliar greeting: "Hello friends."

She was puzzling out what to make of that: whether he meant it, or whether it was merely a turn of phrase, but Anakia had a feeling that wasn't a question that was going to be answered in any reasonable amount of time, and so she abandoned it in favor of the current mission. Perhaps, like the bloody forest, she would revisit it as well, some other time.

Anakia stepped through the portal, armed and armored and equipped as an assassin, and recognized the entirely familiar surroundings of her history classroom. "You do realize," she pointed out upon arrival, "That I might as well just have walked." She gave the Time Keeper a critical looking over, but could tell nothing different about him at a glance. "Was your errand successful, sir?"

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Kaija

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@pyrogram: @interstitial: @lightning_god:

"Huh... I actually look like a soldier for once."

There, in the mirror, Kaija couldn't help but laugh at the irony of her appearance. Normally, as a fully privileged soldier, she'd be wearing an outfit consisting primarily of lavender and white with orange accents. It was a skin-tight suit that offered little in the way of protection and was more suited towards providing the titan with an outfit that wouldn't fail her as soon as she utilized her powers. If one were to see that suit without having observed the Kaiju-Slayer in action, they would assume that it was an outfit designed for recreational swimming or entertaining male suitors. Now, with the soldier's duties suspended, her powers inaccessible, and her mental condition being monitored by her doubtful employers, she donned the traditional camouflage and tactical garments expected of a soldier.

Weird, huh...

Kaija wore the lightest tactical armor that one could find, her outfit offering more weight efficiency and ammo capacity than protection. Her watch provided her with added defense, so her greatest concern in preparing for their expedition was making sure that she had enough ammo to last. Aside from the device on her wrist, she carried rather basic equipment; sporting a high-caliber pistol, a silenced high caliber rifle equipped with a tactical scope designed with side-mount flip functionality, a combat knife, a gas mask, and as much ammo as she could carry for both firearms tucked away in the plethora of pockets lining her light outfit. There was one final piece of equipment waiting for her on her bed; a gift from her beloved.

The Lightning Cutter, he called it. At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a heavily embroidered katana with a black handle and sheath. But, as she laid her hands on it, she could tell that there was something unusual about it. It was the very same sensation that she had felt as the witch's magic had once attempted to invade her body; the ink on her back began to burn and her skin began to itch. She didn't like carrying around the cursed blade and the pain that it brought, but she reluctantly wore it at her side all the same. It was a compromise that she had made with Ali. He had asked her multiple times to allow the TimeKeeper to remove her collar so that she may draw upon her strength as needed in the event of an emergency on their quest, and Kaija had continually refused. Even if the device could be removed, it needed to stay in place right where it was if she were to prove herself worthy of such titanic might again. And so, the two made a compromise. If she couldn't be without her bindings, then at the very least she would need to carry a weapon that Ali had faith in before he would allow her to walk headlong into unforeseen danger. With the addition of her final piece of equipment, a portal opened up in the middle of the room.

"Right on time, as expected." She gazed over at Ali and could see the worry in his eyes. She knew better than to think that he feared for his own life at that moment. She held his hand as she spoke reassurance, "Hey, don't worry about me, alright? I can take care of myself, and today's not about me or you, it's about the old man. Besides, if we don't help him now, we can't expect him to be there next time we need him, can we?"

She smiled, let go of his hand, and walked through the portal to find the old man with... her bodyguard. She raised an eyebrow as her eyes scanned Anakia, then turned her attention back to the Timekeeper, a look of disbelief on her face.

"You know what, I'm not even surprised. Uh, nice to see you, Anakia. So, what's the plan, Timekeeper? Better yet, what's the objective? I'm almost surprised that I hadn't asked you before now."

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@kaija:

"Right on time, as expected." She gazed over at Ali and could see the worry in his eyes. She knew better than to think that he feared for his own life at that moment. She held his hand as she spoke reassurance, "Hey, don't worry about me, alright? I can take care of myself, and today's not about me or you, it's about the old man. Besides, if we don't help him now, we can't expect him to be there next time we need him, can we?"

In his heart, Ali didn't want Uma to do this. There were many things that lead him to think like this, but one of the main reason behind this was, Ali didn't want to lose her again. They had talked and talked over and over about it. He had urged her to have her collar deactivated, even he was well capable of such a thing. Yet, Uma stubbornly held on the expectancy the UNKD and UN had of her. She wanted to prove to them that she was in control. sigh. Such a useless notion displayed towards humans in Ali's opinion, but in the end, she had agreed to carry Lightning Cutter. This at least assured him, he trusted his own weapon more than any modern weapon. It was sharp. Sharp enough to cut through the strands of Yggdrasil, he trusted it to not fail against adversity.

As for his own weapon? Well, he had that dagger that he had used to cut that centipede out of Uma. It was now sheathed in a holder strapped around his waist. The nth metal blade has a strange resonance with his lightning. In the weeks since acquiring it, Ali had tested it with his lightning. Under normal circumstances, whenever Ali used lightning with normal metals and steel, the result was that they would always melt, making them unusable. But the small nth metal blade was strangely resistant. After thinking some more, Ali theorized it was probably due to the poisoning. The altered constitution of his lightning was able to flow in harmony with that of the small blade, All the more convenient, Ali smirked. This was a lucky break as he could give Lightning Cutter to Uma and have a weapon of his own to use at the same time.

Ali followed behind Uma, appearing inside the classroom of Millenium Academy.

"You know what, I'm not even surprised. Uh, nice to see you, Anakia. So, what's the plan, Timekeeper? Better yet, what's the objective? I'm almost surprised that I hadn't asked you before now."

Anakia... Anakia? Was this the other person the old man had mentioned before. Anakia. Ali didn't know what to feel about her presence. His gaze shifted from Anakia to Lightning Cutter for a moment, he was sure the girl would recognize it at first glance, and no doubt would bring it up with him later. Something about sharing his clan's heirloom with a harlot as she called Kaija. "Anakia... what are you doing here?" He asked coming to stand next to Uma, facing the Time Keeper. "Yeah old man. Are we going to raid a mall or what?" He chuckled, attempting to make a joke.

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#5  Edited By Pyrogram

@interstitial: @kaija: @lightning_god:

The Time Keeper looked at Anakia with an elated chuckle, shrugging his large shoulders. "I do like my theatrics! Never forget that about me." With a slight nod he pat his wrist watch, if she had noticed, the previous one had disintegrated when she had stabbed him. "Never leave home without it." His eye then shift towards Uma and Ali's entrance, watching as both of them had a more-than curious look of shock, exasperation even annoyance at seeing Miss Nightcrawler?

For a few momentous the Maestro of Time allowed the three to convene and gather their thoughts before clicking his fingers and the purple portal suddenly vanished, drawing their attention with a loud thud as his metal sword tapped the ground like one tapping a wine glass to be noticed. "Thank you all for assisting me in this," he rubbed his beard, his other hand resting carefully upon his humongous sword hilt, "...very personal task. You see-" he chuckled, "or rather you don't see. What am I missing?"

Stretching his arms aside, the Norse-like man continued. "I look like Odin, a Norse warrior.... But I have no hammer!"

Walking to his white board he jot down a few words, spinning around and gazing at the trio.

October 20th, 1888, London.

His one functioning eye wandered towards them.

"There is a woman named Maddy in 1888 - I don't know who she is! She might be quite mad! But she might be smart too." Not that the two were completely inseparable. Often, they were very alike in fact. "You see, this hammer of mine is a tool. Fifty years ago humanity required separate tools to do many things. To shoot videos, take photos, play music... Receive mail, record notes! Perform mathematical calculations."

With a gesture to a confiscated mobile phone on his desk, he smiled. "Now all of that is encased within a single device that fits into your pocket." He tapped his wrist device. "This is a crude time travel device. My hammer though? That is the Iphone of time travel. And I want it back! It got lost you see."

Clicking his finger, for no real reason other than dramatics, he pointed towards the door. "To 1888! Follow my lead and hopefully nothing bad happens." He smirked, to himself mostly. The trio had not been invited for no reason after all.

"...Hopefully,"

- London, 1888 -

In the literal blink of an eye the foursome were instantaneously in London. In.. A stuffy broom cupboard?

"Ahem," the Time Keeper coughed, watching the startled Librarian who they appeared to have intruded upon.

"You haven't happened to see a great big grey hammer lying around have you?"

He held her private diary in his left palm, forgetting she'd recognise it....

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#6  Edited By Ms_Terry

@pyrogram: @lightning_god: @kaija: @interstitial:

Warm blue water lapped against the ship’s wooden frame, the hull creaking with each wet lash from the waves. Maddy the pirate queen led her crew to rich seas ripe for plunder. Her within the oceans there were no limitations for her sex where only the most powerful from any background could survive and command the rough and rowdy people who scoured the world for treasures untold. But for her, wealth had a purpose beyond the fleeting pleasures pursued by her comrades. At each port she used her share of the gold to buy materials and devices for she was an inventor, her mind a greater mystery than the deepest depths of the watery expanse. But it seems there were some mysteries still as during their voyage, a monstrous creature was seen off the port bow. She peered through a telescope to see the leviathan approach. It was fast. Before she could even call out to her crew, the beast threw a coil around the ship’s hull. The deck sprung to life in order to cut the long, suction-cupped arm from the frame. Even as they succeeded, two more tentacles wrapped around as if to crush the hardened wooden shell to expose whatever soft innards the thing might contain. The craft splintered and snapped in twain, men and women of nautical persuasion flinging themselves from the bows into the salty waves below. Maddy watched in horror at the sight. It seemed all hope had fled. But Maddy had a plan to save herself at least for she had an invention for just such a time. She ran to her cabin before the waters could drown her life’s work. Within the quarters was a mechanized dive suit made of rubber and brassy metal. Her own additions included an underwater breathing system far more advanced than the pump mechanisms yet discovered. She donned the suit even as the ship succumbed to its salty tomb. The hardened glass allowed her to see easily under the waves and observe the world so few have seen. It was not only the leviathan that lurked within those terrifying depths. She could see blueish-green creatures no bigger than a fully grown human swimming amongst the wreckage. They had long, thin heads with four eyes atop their craniums. Their bodies were lithe with gills on each side of their chest and continuing into tentacle-like appendages. She could make out the white sheen of teeth as their mirthless smiles that extended nearly all the way around their face tore into the drowning seamen. Her eyes were wide in terror as tentacles wrapped around the swimmers to pull them under, tightening until their bones shattered and their bodies exploded into mists of blood. The frantic feeding was so horrifying that she almost missed the sight of something else... a glint of silver. She walked along the ocean floor toward what looked something like a ship and yet was somehow unlike any ship seen before on planet earth. A hatch was opened and more of the creatures swam out to feast. She stepped closer to see inside...

The sound of a throat being cleared shook Maddy from her daydream within the library. The flights of fantasy seemed to be the only thing that kept her sane. Though perhaps if the doctors of the day knew the content of her thoughts, the definition of her apparent sanity might be questioned.

“Excuse me...” The young man’s voice reached over the counter. “I need to locate a text.”

Oh, right. Assistance. How boring. “This way, sir.” She stood, moving out from around the counter. Her job. Her job. Her bloody job. She kept repeating to herself the nature of the work and the necessity of it to keep from falling back into more enticing thoughts as she led the student to the section he sought. Her body walked forward as if it was an automaton devoid of any deviation from its monotonous purpose. But her mind rebelled against the absurd blandness of it all. It’s sodding organised by genre and author. Surely a student at this institution would know how to navigate a damned library by now. Idiots. She was completely wasted in this capacity. But it was alright. Soon the day’s shift would be over, and she could... do it all over and over again. Maddy groaned audibly as the student departed with book in hand. There had to be more than this.

No Caption Provided

The librarian shut herself in a nearby broom cupboard. She breathed out in exhaustion. Or maybe exasperation. With the pull of a string, the pitch blackness gave way to a warm, electric glow, shadows cast eerily from the incandescent glass. Gathering her skirts, Maddy sat down upon a small, wooden chair in the corner of the closet, the frame creaking slightly under her weight. She flipped over a metal bucked and placed it before her feet before kicking her boots upon it, one over the other as she leaned back against the chair. Her eyes closed with a sigh as her mind wandered once more, this time concerning all the things she had heard and seen.

“Bugger. I had better write this down.” Her blue eyes opened, glimmering with inspiration. The woman reached up to a shelf, pulling down a red leather-bound journal and a pen. The metal nib was placed upon the parchment, the black ink staining the page with cursive words that seemed to roll out from the deepest recesses of her fanciful consciousness. She smiled as she concluded her piece.

No Caption Provided

Even as she finished, sudden presence drew her eyes upward. Maddy shrieked and leapt to her feet as four peculiarly dressed people seemed to appear from thin air before her, huddled within her cozy cupboard. She felt lightheaded from the fright and the sudden movement, and she was barely sure she could trust what her eyes were revealing. Her attention was fixed in particular upon the bearded man who had spoken. Her mouth hung agape as she analysed his attire. It wasn’t unlike an artistic depiction she had seen of the Norse god Thor. His words did nothing to shake this image. A hammer? The hammer?! Was this her fellows playing some sort of prank upon her for her strange theories? It couldn’t be. They were too dull and stuffy to come up with something half as ingenious. And then there was... her journal! The unnamed intruder extended what looked like her book toward her. Her mind spun, and she thought for sure she would faint. She didn’t need that to add to her associates’ whispers of hysteria. Pull yourself together, woman!

Her lips flapped for a moment, trying to piece together words, the colour completely gone from her face. “Huh-huh-hammer? I... I was just thinking...” she raised her own version of her journal nearly in reflection to the one he held. “How...?” She shook herself but still felt as if she was in a dream. If it was a dream, why not continue along, see where the unconscious road led? She cleared her throat, her words tinged with a Scottish accent. “Yes. Well, I haven’t seen a hammer of the sort you specify. However...” She turned from the party toward the back of the cupboard to a sheet that hung against the wall. She drew the makeshift curtain back to reveal a series of notes, drawings, and maps stuck upon the surface. Her finger pointed to a location in a southern region in Norway. "There was to be an expedition going to this location to explore an uncovered, subter...” she paused and thought of the redundancy of her words before turning back. “But you already know that bit, I’m assuming. However you managed to get, erm, some version of my journal, you must have read what I know which brought you here.” She blinked and stared hard at them, realizing she knew absolutely nothing about the strangers present. “But that leaves the question who exactly are you? And how are you in my cupboard?”

No Caption Provided

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#7  Edited By Interstitial

@pyrogram: @ms_terry: @kaija: @lightning_god:

Millennium Academy, 2017

No Caption Provided

Anakia looked up as Kaija stepped through the portal, and Ali soon after. Due to the professor’s earlier mention of them when he’d spoken of the mission, she wasn’t at all surprised to see them. She was surprised, however, at the sheathed blade that hung at Kaija’s side. She glanced at it for a moment, then at Kaija, then back at the blade, then raised a skeptical eyebrow in the Outsider’s direction for a fraction of a second before taking a subtle breath and giving the other woman a slight inclination of her head. “Congratulations, Lady Kaija,” she murmured.

A response that was suitable for a wedding or engagement, really. Anakia was not entirely certain, from her brief glance, if Lady Kaija truly understood all the implications of the Outsider being willing to offer her his blade. They weren’t lost on Anakia, though, and the two of them… could perhaps discuss the details some other time. For now, the acknowledgement was enough. She wondered if it would come as a surprise to the Outsider. Anakia hadn’t mentioned to him that she and Lady Kaija had set aside their differences, somewhat recently. If his lady hadn’t either… well, it would be an interesting surprise, but she did not think an unpleasant one.

Courtesies aside, she returned his attention to Ali for a moment to acknowledge his inquiry. "Anakia... what are you doing here?" She gave him a little half-smile of rare indolence, then answered, wryly: “Extracurricular activities,” with a vague half-gesture that encompassed the classroom - at Millennium Academy, where he had sent her to study. She drew her attention away, back to the professor as he outlined the plan.

"There is a woman named Maddy in 1888..." Anakia's form flickered in reality, completely unnoticeable for anyone without an extremely precise sense of time, gone for less than an instant, no time at all. That was the real world, though. In the timeless overlay of the cold hallways where she retreated, time was hers entirely, and she used it well, searching through references of the time, learning what she could about the people, the culture, the history. She studied and correlated and compiled, and when she felt she had a reasonable enough grasp on the time to which she was being expected, Anakia returned to the group without an instant gone, researched and ready.

Infiltrate London, retrieve the hammer. A simple enough outline. There would, no doubt, be complications. That was the way of things. That was why it was best if the initial plan was simple, as it allowed for flexibility when needed. Anakia was a bit surprised that the Time Keeper said nothing this time about the Chameleon Ark, apparently thinking it unnecessary for this trip. Anakia wasn't certain how the populus of the latter 19th century was going to react to their current attire, but she supposed that was merely one more thing to study.

Time ticked, and skipped.

London, 1888

The Time Keeper deposited the group neatly in... a room Anakia would not have expected. More custodial than curatorial. It was not the locale of the ubiquitous hammer, but rather the locale of a single woman, a diary, and a number of floor-cleaning implements. Anakia stepped back into a corner, habitually taking a position where she could watch and guard the group as the professor approached the startled denizen of this particular cupboard of time. She touched the slivers of dimension where the timeless halls met reality, a fingertip upon a hidden door, but she did not go through. Still, it was enough to assess their nature: empty.

No Caption Provided

So, in this time, too, she could claim the hallways as her own without interference in the boundaries of time everlasting. Anakia was not yet sure that it would be necessary... but she preferred to have as many options available as possible. Right now, though, her options were limited by the confines of the broom closet and the entirely understandable accusations of the woman with the journal. Anakia considered the scene, and moved to intercept.

She shrugged back the hood of her cloak, allowing the assassin's shadows to fall away, instead presenting herself as a young woman in an era that found young women mostly harmless. "Your pardon, ma'am," she replied courteously. "The professor is very passionate about matters that interest him. My name is Anna Knight, I am a student of history." Her name wasn't Anna Knight, of course, but the pseudonym was a respectably common 19th century girl's name in London, and would draw much less attention than Anakia Nightcrawler, while still being similar enough that any slip on anyone's part could simply be played off as a nickname or shortening, unremarkable. Casting the Time Keeper as the absent minded professor when he was in his full regalia might be a bit of a stretch in this era, but Anakia just had to hope that every era happened to have some really odd individuals in academia. If nothing else, it was her hope that characterizing the two of them as such would at least bring the presumed "Maddy" back to feeling as if she were on somewhat familiar ground, and allow her to relax somewhat.

"The professor's other associates are experts in their respective fields," about which Anakia did not give details. Lady Kaija and the Outsider could fill in the blanks as they chose, or if they chose. "And are here to ensure that his trip proceeds smoothly. I beg your pardon for interrupting your..." she hesitated, with a glance around the supplies in the closet. "...confidence. Hopefully you will excuse the intrusion. I fear some methods of travel are more accurate than others."

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“Congratulations, Lady Kaija,”

Kaija raised an eyebrow at the unexpectedly formal greeting from Anakia. Her new demeanor was something that she was still getting accustomed to.

"Uh, thank you, Squire Anakia...?" she replied with a, not concerned with the accuracy of the impromptu title that she designated the young girl. She wasn't exactly sure what she was being congratulated for, but she didn't feel the need to ask either.

After everyone had said their greetings, the portal to 1888 was opened, and the group suddenly found themselves in a dark room distinguished itself with the heavy scent of dust and straw. Kaija shimmied past the Timekeeper and Ali and took a look at the area surrounding them. Nothing but bookshelves lined with ordered texts, the curious eyes of folks who had never seen attire such as theirs, a rather perturbed looking librarian and a chilling yet appropriate silence. She looked down at all of the gear that she brought with her on their trip, then back at the people who seemed to be doing nothing more than enjoying books.

"Maybe I'm a bit... over-equipped for this trip..." Kaija thought to herself.

“But that leaves the question who exactly are you? And how are you in my cupboard?”

"Can't speak for the others, but I'm nobody; just a soldier and a friend of the old man here. If you have questions, you should direct them all in his direction. He knows more about what's going on than the three of us combined. We're just here working for him, today." She paused for a moment to consider their location, "Also, I don't know if this facility has a rule against carrying weapons, but I wasn't exactly expecting to be visiting a library today. So, apologies in advance for that, Miss... what exactly is your name? You can call me Kaija, for convenience's sake."

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Ali stuck to Kaija like glue, and glanced at Anakia at the mention of her congratulation. He knew exactly what she meant. How could he not? He was from the realm. She too was from the realm. There was a custom in which the heirloom of a clan can only touch the hand of another under two very specific cases. The first was that the heirloom must be forfeit in direct contest, with it going on to the victor. This had happened in the past, is a notable disgrace, the leader of the Perfect faction of the Outsider clan had lost his treasure in this way to someone of the Viper Clan. The second method was, the bride of the wielder of the heirlooms were allowed to carry them in their stead. Anakia's stand on what she saw was loud and clear in his mind.

Though, it was not at all bad and he had nothing to feel guilty about. If anyone was going to be his wife, that was Kaija. If anyone was going to bear his children, it was Kaija, and the very fact that his vessel was congratulating him, Ali was proud of what had transpired, willingly or not. This was a rather amusing turn of events for him.

The sudden shift of scenery had Ali struggling to maintain focus, his eyes scanning the newer darker environment. They had teleported, and the smell in their air, of stuffy dust. By the time he came around, he'd come to notice that they were in the presence of a woman, wrinkly features across her face, not exactly aged but aging features, hair tied to a bun, and wearing glasses. She wasn't exactly as surprised and shocked as she ought to be. The most appealing feature of this interaction though was the fact that they were within a private enclosure belonging to someone. More surprising the owner of said enclosure was, from the looks of it, hiding within.

The trio of the group he was part of seemed eerily comfortable in this enclosure. Ali though, he'd quietly crept out of the cupboard. He looked around. They were it seemed within a library of sorts. Okay, not the sort he was accustomed to seeing, but this one looked older, wooden floorboards, brick walls, massive window pans, some tinted, others with carvings of lions and deities and candles lighting every meter of the walls up and down the hallway, either side of which lined with book shelves. This sort of air, Ali could get lost in them. In fact there was a time when he was ... younger that he used to visit libraries and read on all sorts of ventures.. Specific to Outer World, he'd read books on biology, geology and geography of the world. There was new and vast knowledge to be had. And something that he never could get to experience in the realm was explained in one word: SPACE.

Yes, Ali read about Space exploration and the prospect of discovering untold civilizations, and coming to the realization that the Realm was merely a very tiny aspect of creation, his craving for what was out there had only increased. "Are we in 1888?" Ali asked, assuming 1888 was more or less one of those Outer World planets, far from where he was from. He was getting thrills of having to explore this new planet they were in. "Uma, aren't you excited?" Ali asked, his eyes shining.

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#10  Edited By Pyrogram

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The human race is a pliable species, able to shrug off what most would perceive as out of place attire with nothing more than a thought. That was why the Time Keeper had not prompted to change the clothing of any of the four - whoever saw them would get over the 'surprise' rather thoughtlessly.

Time Keeper turned to his companions, briefly glancing at Maddy as he noticed the group's attempt at harmless deceit. "It's fine. Human's are a malleable species," he raised his chin slightly, flipping open the book and starring towards Maddy "...and Maddy here is quite capable of digesting all of this without fainting."

He glanced down at the book before his one functional eye examined this female. "Aren't you?"

She seemed astute - oddly calm, considering their arrival, but academically savvy. This would all be documented in the very diary he was holding no doubt. No spoilers. He thought knowing that reading about their own future would be a huge mistake. "I am a time traveller - these three are my companions. Now then," beaming, he answered her latter question. "How are we here? What a marvelous question!" His hands clapped together as a little net of floating lighting suspended itself in front of his palms, no bigger than a square tissue.

"On Earth, 1908, a form of geometric interpretation of special relativity that fused time and the three spatial dimensions of space into a single four-dimensional continuum is discovered, my little wrist watch," he pat it, "let's me contort space-time and enter a place known as-" looking at the group realising it was not necessary, he smiled.

"It let's me teleport! We can move from one place to another."

He picked up a book and placed it on the other side of the bookshelf. "Harmless," usually, "and completely painless." Again, usually.

Folding his arms behind his back he turned to his companions, glee almost bubbling from his eye. He was excited as the prospect of being acquainted once again with his hammer. It was like losing both arms, legs and your head! Time Keepers were literally bred to possess the ability to time travel, and those spaceships (his disguised as a hammer) were an integral part of their very existence. Even the most minute detail of their existence revolved around time travel, down to their very time-locked DNA structure in fact.

He slid over to the librarian, presenting her the diary entry regarding the hammer. "So...Norway?" Thinking, his gaze falling to the sheets pinned to the wall, speaking to Maddy simultaneously. "Would you like to take a trip to Norway my dear?"

"Now I don't think Norway is dangerous in 1888... But best be safe,"

With another little click of his wrist watch he sprinkled a perception filter over everybody inside the cupboard. It misdirected senses and compelled strangers not to stare at you unless you specifically and intentionally requested it. Of course, there were exceptions such as exceptionally intelligent or a telepath. It wasn't perfect, nothing was. As long as they didn't draw unneeded attention to themselves it should be fine. "Anakia will remember this - I am putting something called a perception filter on us all. It will make it harder for people to notice you like a stranger in the corner of people's eye you don't care to notice."

The Time Keeper paused, punching in the coordinates Maddy had written on the wall onto his vortex manipulator.

And suddenly...

.....Norway, 1888!

No Caption Provided

Winds unexpectedly roared at the five who were transported into a large cave, winds lashing at them like they were inside a hurricane. Hot, almost scorching air bellowed towards the uncanny group causing the Time Keepers rather well-kept hair to flail about behind his face like a loose cape, his eye barely managing to stay open at the sight of what appeared to be a miniature... Sun? Suspended atop of what appeared to be an upright rectangle stone about a meter tall - scattered and broken on all of the walls were rattling skeletons and misplaces bones pushed against the stone surface trying to escape, the wind causing them to crash again and again into the stone walls encompassing this diminutive Sun with a clamorous clattering.

Whoever had died here was never left to rest, their bones perpetually smashing into the walls courtesy of the wind.

The Time Keeper recognised the device causing this havoc. "It's... AN.... E....ENGINE!" It was literally a miniaturised Sun, suspended within some type of advanced shielding that was malfunctioning and allowing through just a fraction of it's raw power - enough to almost rip the skin of their bodies. If they had teleported in just a fraction of a inch closer, it would have.

This is why he hated vortex manipulators like they were using now to travel. His hammer would have prevented such a dangerous arrival. Without turning his body away from the danger he held his companions back, warning them not to get any closer than he was.

"If anyone has any bright ideas or fragile egos..." he grit his teeth, being the closest to the epicenter hurt,"... Now would be the perfect time to impress the group by sharing them!"

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#11  Edited By Ms_Terry

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Maddy’s hands rested gingerly upon her hips, her brows knitting as she took in the company and their words. She nodded her head slightly towards the woman who addressed herself as Anna in response to her courteous gesture. Well, at least these strange people weren’t complete barbarians. Though the men could stand to learn some decorum. She didn’t hear either of them offer a name. She placed a hand upon her chest. “An unaccustomed pleasure to meet you all, Ms. Knight and Kaija.You may call me Maddy.” Though her words and demeanor were reasonably warm toward the group, she couldn’t help but feel some continued uneasiness due to the nature of their arrival and the fact that they seemed to be armed. Even a well wielded broomstick wouldn’t be much of a defense against this lot.

Her attention turned toward the the nameless leader of the group who seemed to exude perpetual curiosity… and so seemed to be a curiosity himself. Time travel? Her mind began to spin again. She had only a few fanciful discussion with writer friends about the concept. She’d have to tell Herbie all about this. Ever the student, Maddy tried in vain to understand the time-traveler’s scientific explanation. Perhaps she could learn more about it later. For now, the simplest explanation was the more expedient solution. By whatever means or method, the group was able to pass from one place to another, even to another time, due to the device upon the bearded man’s wrist. And it just so happened to be harmless and painless.

The librarian’s face lit up in excitement at the prospect of going to Norway. Still more to be transported in such a way. Her hands curled into fists, slammed eagerly down to her side. “YES!” Her eyes widened as she regained her more rigid posture. “Erm, I mean, I would be delighted to accompany you in your search for this hammer and help in any way I can.”

Maddy held her journal firmly, placing a pen and spare ink into a pocket attached to garments. Her blue eyes watched the man’s actions intently, as if she herself was trying to understand the mechanism behind his wrist device. He made use of her coordinates. And…

______________

Subterranean Location, Norway, 1888

Maddy stumbled forward, clutching her stomach as if to make sure all her innards were still intact from the bizarre means of travel. Indeed the company in an entirely different place. Organs all in place. And an inhospitable one at that. She felt herself blown back by a perpetual gale that seemed to originate from the centre of the room. The bearded man held her back, warning her of the danger of their proximity to the… thing. One hand reached up to shield her eyes, allowing her to make out a glowing ball of gases atop a stone pedestal. This certainly was nothing like she had expected. She wasn’t even sure they were in the right location. This couldn’t be the temple. And what was that thing?

The woman shook herself after hearing the time traveler’s words. This was not the time for pointless thoughts. Every cognition must be set to keeping them from ending up like the poor souls condemned to eternally be thrust upon the unforgiving stone walls. The keeper said it was an engine. It looked more like a smaller version of Earth’s sun than machine she had seen before. “If it’s an engine like a locomotive, it would have to be getting its energy from somewhere. If we move around the outer walls, might we see something supplying it?" Her voice grew more shrill and distinctively more Scottish as she became more agitated by the whole scenario. "Or I don’t know… maybe just a bloody switch to turn the damn thing off? I didn’t expect to die on my first trip out of Britain!”

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Kaija

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Kaija couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the unexpectedly calm behavior of librarian when faced with the group of misplaced freaks that had spontaneously appeared in her vicinity with little explanation. The only logical explanation that she could reach was that this world, even in 1800's, was as chaotic and random as it always was and would ever hope to be. At the mention of Norway, Kaija simply nodded and moved in closer to the group to be whisked away for a second time to parts unknown. This time Kaija got a taste of the excitement that she had been expecting.

The calm, cool, moderately lit library that she had been standing in only moments ago suddenly warped into a blinding light and burning winds reminiscent of a desert sandstorm. She was instantly blinded, turning away from the miniature sun and stumbling backwards as the winds suprised her and challenged her strength as they violently danced throughout the cavern. Kaija kept her eyes locked on the floors and blinked a few times till her vision returned to her. She reached over to her wrist, activated her wristwatch, and allower it to produce a barrier that worked to reduce the heat and light that threatened sought to threaten her health. She heard the Timekeeper's call to action, and began to consider methods by which the group could either turn off or re-stabilize the engine.

“If it’s an engine like a locomotive, it would have to be getting its energy from somewhere. If we move around the outer walls, might we see something supplying it?" Her voice grew more shrill and distinctively more Scottish as she became more agitated by the whole scenario. "Or I don’t know… maybe just a bloody switch to turn the damn thing off? I didn’t expect to die on my first trip out of Britain!”

"Good idea, though I don't think that our time would be best spent all looking for switches. Well, at least not until we're sure that there's no other solution," Kaija explained, "Apologies if I get a bit bossy, but I think I'm the most familiar with everyone's abilities here... aside from Maddy, of course. That said, I think I know how we can best divide our time here. Ali, you're the fastest one here, and likely the least bothered by heat. I think you should listen to the librarian and search this place from head to toe for a switch. Should take you no time at all. Anakia, I understand that you can't materialize inside of matter, but you can easily move through it and see, right? Well, great engineers always take the time to conceal and protect the wiring and fragile components of their devices. Do you think you could take a look in the ground above and below us and try to find any hidden components that might be powering this thing? You're the only one who can without potentially damaging something and making things worse. Timekeeper, if you have ANY information on this technology, now would be the time to spill it, you'd know better than anyone. As for me, I'm curious about the fact that we can even breathe in here. Last time I checked, the Sun doesn't produce breathable air."

Regardless of whether or not her companions took her suggestions, Kaija decided to do her own investigating. First, with the light coming into her eyes dimmed, she would scan the base of the "engine" more thoroughly, looking for any slots, handles, buttons, symbols, wires, tubes or really any UI that might suggest that the podium itself was the key to shutting down the engine. Whether or not she found something, she would then look around for a potential outside source of breathable air.

It was true that the engine itself might be generating oxygen, after all, it was technology well beyond anything that she understood, but there was no reason to make an assumption like that given the information provided by the Timekeeper regarding the device. And so, Kaija would first lick her finger and raise it to the sky, hoping to get a hint of a potential path to the outside by checking the direction that the wind was coming from. She would then search the area for an exit, a hole, or just a crack that was letting in a breeze of breathable air. She had no idea if she, or any of her comrades, would find anything, but at the very least they could gain a better understanding of the situation through some basic investigation and effective use of their unique talents.

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Light illuminating from within the cabinet steered his attention from the marvels of a library back inside. The old man was it seems was holding a mesh of the entire universe within his hands, or at least, that's how Ali interpreted it. The voices within the cabinet wasn't masked at all. He could hear them talking clearly but he had no intention of joining in on the conversation. Talk about going to a 'Norway' was spoken, a country whose name Ali hadn't exactly heard, yes. He only took a step back towards the cabinet when the whole of reality seemed to twist and contort, drawing him right towards the palm of the Time Keeper, into the image of whatever he had floating on his hand.

The scenario changed yet again, this time, the woman in the broom cabinet was with them. They were now inside a ... cave? It was pretty windy, and heat? Not that Ali found it bothersome. He didn't mind it all that much. The wind blowing in this cave was a bit lower than the winds he usually dealt with flying at altitudes of sometimes 15000 feet on Earth.

"If anyone has any bright ideas or fragile egos..." he grit his teeth, being the closest to the epicenter hurt,"... Now would be the perfect time to impress the group by sharing them!"

Time Keeper though, the old man seemed to be taking on the full heat of that miniature blinding sun. This was also quite surprising. All that energy that Ali could feel compressed into a tiny space was hardly having any effects on the surrounding area of the cave. He was standing the farthest back, and so, Ali moved closer to where Kaija stood, she was though protected by the watch she wore, but still, Ali was concerned for her safety more than anyone else present. "You're the one who got us in this mess old man. Why don't you come up with bright ideas of your own?" Ali asked, spreading both his arms sideways, guiding the winds to steer past them, creating a sort of vacuum that made standing in such a space at least bearable. The heat though, Ali couldn't really do much against the heat despite being more or less immune to it.

“If it’s an engine like a locomotive, it would have to be getting its energy from somewhere. If we move around the outer walls, might we see something supplying it?" Her voice grew more shrill and distinctively more Scottish as she became more agitated by the whole scenario. "Or I don’t know… maybe just a bloody switch to turn the damn thing off? I didn’t expect to die on my first trip out of Britain!”

Ali's attention momentarily turned to the woman they had brought along. Her demeanor was coming as awfully suspicious by the second, and yet, he couldn't help but wonder that she was right, right in thinking about finding a solution, but wrong all the same. At least in his mind, the possibility of finding what she was suggesting in this medieval scenario of the cave was seemingly impossible. "Do we even need to be here though?" Ali asked. They were in search of a hammer, not a way to diffuse the glowing orb of fire and death. The better question was why they were here. And why the Time Keeper chose to brave the situation.

"Good idea, though I don't think that our time would be best spent all looking for switches. Well, at least not until we're sure that there's no other solution," Kaija explained, "Apologies if I get a bit bossy, but I think I'm the most familiar with everyone's abilities here... aside from Maddy, of course. That said, I think I know how we can best divide our time here. Ali, you're the fastest one here, and likely the least bothered by heat. I think you should listen to the librarian and search this place from head to toe for a switch. Should take you no time at all. Anakia, I understand that you can't materialize inside of matter, but you can easily move through it and see, right? Well, great engineers always take the time to conceal and protect the wiring and fragile components of their devices. Do you think you could take a look in the ground above and below us and try to find any hidden components that might be powering this thing? You're the only one who can without potentially damaging something and making things worse. Timekeeper, if you have ANY information on this technology, now would be the time to spill it, you'd know better than anyone. As for me, I'm curious about the fact that we can even breathe in here. Last time I checked, the Sun doesn't produce breathable air."

Ali nodded at Kaija's words. She was right, and didn't mind being led around. Heat and cold weren't something that bothered him. At her orders, Ali broke away from the group, walking towards the walls and started searching anything while braving the heat from the so called engine. Engine meant it was a power source to something, and that raised the question, was this really just a cave, and if this was not the cave and if it was the so called engine, then its control must be somewhere around.

A glance back at Kaija showed him she was trying to find a heading. That was something Ali admired in her. No matter what size, no matter where, Uma never lost hope, she was always trying to the best of her abilities. Ali'd gotten few to no chances at all to work with the woman he loved so dearly, and being given the chance was something he treasured over it all. It was just funny thinking about how their first legitimate adventure together ended up involving a fiery globe of doom, so well contained, but perhaps not.

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The broom closet left them behind, and was replaced by large enclosed room... cavern, perhaps. Hot wind swirled around in a courtship dance for a shrunken star, ennobled on a pedestal of stone. Bones cast drumbeats against the cavern walls, and told a story of time long-gone, bleached and sundered. Anakia stepped back from the heat as the Time Keeper expressed his surprise, and hid a smile in the shadows. The man was never happier than when the unexpected occurred, she had determined. She was, in fact, half convinced that his locative powers drew him to the dramatic like a moth to the flame. The other half of the time, she was convinced he did it on purpose. He asked for bright ideas, and Anakia was certain that he already had some, he was just waiting to see what everyone else would come up with on their own. The teacher in him, certainly.

No Caption Provided

She moved to the outskirts, picking up a bone and looking it as if it might tell her something. With the beating it had taken from the sun-engine and the wall, though, there was little to be learned. Their time-locked associate courted panic, and Anakia was debating if she should say something about that when the woman managed to calm herself just fine and start thinking rationally. Good for her. She's got a decent mind in a crisis. Not always expected, but often appreciated. The others in the room were getting their bearings as well, Kaija with the analytical, and the Outsider with the accusatory: "You're the one who got us in this mess old man. Why don't you come up with bright ideas of your own?"

Anakia looked over at Ali with a half-smile. "I would advise you to avoid the professor's bright ideas on general principle. His last one resulted in the death of everyone present." Her gaze shifted over to the Time Keeper with a bit of an amused sparkle. Admittedly, at least two-thirds of the aforementioned had recovered from the experience, but... it still was not one that Anakia cared to repeat. On any front.

Lady Kaija seemed to have an eye for assessment, or at least for telling other people what to assess. Anakia figured it was fair enough, though she cast the Outsider a worried glance when he moved to go about his own assigned task. He hadn't told her what it was that was wrong with him, but he had admitted that something was, and she was more concerned for his safety than she ordinarily might have been. She'd keep a closer watch on him than usual, certainly. Still, he seemed to be faring well enough when he moved away to start searching, and he wasn't limping this time. A good enough sign, she supposed, and moved to complete her own task.

No Caption Provided

The ground below was solid stone, and afforded her no answers to the question of their situation. The surrounding walls seemed mostly the same, so she moved up to the top of the cavern, flickering lightly in and out around the ceiling. The Outsider was much better at flying around than she was, but she didn't suggest it, sparing him as much as she could. If he wasn't going to tell her what his limitations were, she was going to assume they were somewhat severe, and treat him with... conservation. Much of the ceiling was the same as the floor, rock, and solid rock, and nothing else. At one place above them, though, there was an opening, leading up and... presumably out. She wasn't about to move out there without confirmation from the others, though, so she returned to where the Time Keeper waited.

"There's a space above us - relatively small. I didn't explore outside yet, but the air is fresh and so I would guess it leads to outside of here, wherever here is. If there's any sort of switch or mechanism to turn of the... device... I wasn't able to locate it. I would posit that it's likely fueled more by the mystical than the mechanical. The question I would ask is: Does it matter? Is there any evidence that this thing is at all linked to the hammer you're looking for, or should we just leave it be, whatever it is, and continue looking? Interfering with whatever this device may be could interrupt the flow of time... as could not interfering, if meant to, I realize, but I still feel like we need to remember that not everything we encounter is necessarily relevant."

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#15  Edited By Pyrogram

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The Time Keeper wasn't too fussed by Ali's remark, his singular gaze instead focused upon a hidden item buried underneath multiple skeletons and an immense amount of old stones. It had a slight glint of gold, barely visible, in fact. The only reason the Keeper had noticed its out of place presence was a slight reflection from the Dyson-Sphere's light.

Dyson-Sphere?

Indeed, the Time Keeper knew exactly what that loud mess in the middle of the subterranean cave was. To a human, a Dyson sphere was a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompassed a star and captured all of its power output. It was like solar panels but on an enlarged amount of steroids and literally encapsulating the entire star, feeding off of its nigh limitless energy. However - without needing to be stated, this was no megastructure; in fact, it was the opposite.

It was Time Keeper technology - miniaturised stars which were siphoned of energy - he had instantly saw that the same way a human would be able to notice a car engine. But instead of telling the group, Anakia had guessed he was not totally clueless, in fact it was the opposite.

No Caption Provided

The Wanderer had made his remark to occupy his companions minds whilst he slowly crept around the edges of the cave, kneeling and literally pushing what seemed like five dead corpses worth of skeletons and dust, he scooped up a golden horn. Well, that didn't belong to a Thor look-a-like. Squinting his one eye and feeling a slight raise of his heartates, a notch or two, he raised the golden item and looked towards Maddy - his eyebrow raising.

"This looks like Loki to me, Librarian. Those archaeologists of yours clearly forgot Thor did not tote around horns..."

His metal palm gestured to the skeletal remains."...Poor souls."

How had a Dyson-Sphere from the Time Keepers have ended up in Norway in 1888? But without another thought the Time Keeper spun around, brandishing the metal horn tightly within his grasp and smiled at Anakia, the woman having performed her role perfectly. But before addressing her, his eye fell upon Kaija.

"The sphere is shielded," thoughtfully, he made an internal calculation, before muttering again. Only 0.00000000001% of it's shielding must have failed. Otherwise, the entire planet would have been vaporized, "because we'd all be dead without it. The energy coming through is only escaping because of a tiny crack, not enough to burn oxygen."

He took a little step closer, starring at the burning ball of plasma. His metal palm reaching out and a faint whisper of blue temporal lighting flew into it, before vanishing completely. For a moment, his face grew completely and utterly devoid of emotion as though he had learnt the most tragic of tragedies.

Slowly, and with a very long, drawn out sigh, the Time Keeper turned and faced Anakia.

"This is most unmistakably relevant."

A, in a way that left no doubt.

He cracked his knuckles, monologing aloud to the woman. "Did you ever happen to wonder why I was reanimated with an eyepatch and a metal arm, Miss Nightcrawler?" Shooting her a glance, he inched closer and then a little more to the mysterious ball of light, feeling it's scorching heat lick at his skin like a hungry lion. "Do you want to know?"

Without addressing it he tucked the Loki horn into his belt, his metal palm outstretching closer towards the sphere.

"My DNA is timelocked. It mean's whatever happens to me will always happen. In a sense my life is predestined... I'm just following a set course of actions, if you will. Free will is my lovely illusion!" With a chuckle he squint, approaching the sphere ever more. "There are only a few objects in the universe capable of circumventing my DNA."

He did not need to say the dagger, it was rather obvious. "When you stabbed me, it fast-forwarded my ageing process. It sort of... Confused my DNA, whatever was meant to happen to me, happened all at once! It skipped a few bits. So that meant that sometime in my future, I lost an arm... And an eye."

It was probably obvious where he was going with this by now, Anakia was smart. Maddy was most likely assuming this was some kind of peculiar dream by now. "And by ageing me, the DNA altered my body to a different moment in it's timeline."

His fist grew blue as temporal energy sparked from it. "...This is how I lost my arm."

No Caption Provided

Without warning the Time Keeper plunged his metal arm deep into the scolding sphere, of course, it did not burn off, but it would have had Anakia not already caused that to happen. But it did not mean this was without pain. Rather the opposite. It felt as though his hand had been placed within a furnace - but it did not stop him thinking, closing his one eye and focusing on inside the fiery sphere, balling his fist tightly as it came into contact with an object embedded deep inside of the yellow orb. "MINE!" He yelled, feeling the entire cave shudder before ripping his metal limb free and falling back onto the rough ground, his arm completely superheated and eye-stingily yellow.

......

For a few seconds the Time Keeper kept silent, gazing down at what he had collected. A very, very simple piece of parchment with coordinates written upon it. He looked up at the ground, shaking his head. "1888 bores me." Standing upright, the Wanderer flicked the parchment back into the flames and input the code into his wrist device, looking at the foursome with literally zero explanation of events.

"....Space," he muttered, looking at the wrist device and then back up at them, "-the Barren World of Izol to be precise."

A holographic projection of the planet appeared in front of everybody, the Time Keeper looking at them. He rest his actual gaze upon Maddy, slightly worried all of this novelty would give the Librarian a heart attack.

No Caption Provided

"It's a dangerous planet but where these coordinates on that piece of paper lead to. Are any of you wishing to back out now?"

His eyes looked at Ali, then Kaija and then towards Anakia.

"There is nowhere in this Solar System as hostile."

The Time Keeper grinned.

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@pyrogram: @kaija: @lightning_god: @interstitial:

Maddy cocked a brow, interested in the reactions that each companion took to dealing with the current crisis. She noted in her mind how Kaija seemed to understand the abilities of each of the people present and was eager to make use of them as tools in her plan. The young man and Anna both seemed to question the necessity of being in such a precarious scenario. Maddy herself had taken such a simple reality for granted. She had just assumed that the strange and unusual would be linked with the strange and unusual object that was being sought. What sort of world did they live in where something of this immense potential was just a danger to be avoided? She was quite certain the men of her time who came down here only perished for the desire to tap into the orb’s power. Nothing like it had been seen on her planet… well, at her time. She was rather uncertain about the technological advancement of their own civilization.

Anna’s statements interested her most. For perhaps more mysterious than the miniature sun was the bearded man who travelled time and space as easily as she turned a page of a particularly rapturous book. According to her, the temporal traveller was prone to hair-brained ideas. The death of everyone present? Her muscles tightened, and a sick feeling grew within her gut. What had she gotten herself into?

But before she could worry too much, an unexpected sight was presented to her: a golden horn. Her eyebrows knit curiously. “Forgot or were misled. Loki was the god of mischief after all. A bit ironic, isn't it? It does indeed look like the depictions I've seen of Loki as a deity crowned with horns. Unfortunately, I came here for evidence of extraterrestrial involvement in Norse mythology. I’m not sure a horn says much to that.” She sighed, disheartened at the apparent deadend of her theory. Still, the whole adventure would make for a very interesting journal entry. She carefully positioned herself against the wall, pulling out her book and pen to write down her thoughts thus far.

Further dialogue peaked her interest. Reanimated? The professor had been dead before? He had lost an arm and eye in the future doing this very task, and the replacement of such body parts allowed him to engage this endeavour with minimal harm in the present. He kept mentioning "DNA." She wondered what that stood for. Whatever scientific concept, it seemed to be directly related to expression of his genes. Maddy pouted. She began to feel that despite her education she was missing out on some advanced knowledge due to her backward place in time. It all left her too embarrassed to ask the many questions that now filled her curious mind.

The librarian gasped as the old man thrust his hand into the thing that clearly looked as if it was not designed to accommodate appendages safely. But as he predicted, his metal arm remained relatively unscathed if untouchably hot. Maddy leaned forward as she saw that he had managed to grab something within the sphere. Another seeming letdown. A quite average piece of parchment. What? No fantastic alien technology could hold the message, anything she could take with her to prove extraterrestrial involvement? Of course not.

Oh, but clearly, who gives a damn. The professor was bored. She rolled her eyes. But she quickly perked up again. Space? As in… beyond the sky? She hadn’t even thought about using a time-traveling to go to other planets. She had never heard of this "Izol." Before she could wonder too much, an image levitated before the group. Not a picture like a photograph, but an image so vivid and dimensional that she thought she might even be able to touch it. Her lips drew back in worry. She didn’t know anything about other planets, but this one before them did not look particularly hospitable.

Maddy looked toward the bearded man with uncertainty. She gulped. The woman was quite certain by now that there was no guarantee of her safety. At the same time, her own life was tragically boring. This was living. There was no telling what could lay further along in the adventure. Still nervous, she felt her lips growing into an uneasy smile. This whole thing was bloody mad. Time to tumble further down the rabbit hole. She closed her diary with a thump adopting a rather sly smirk. “Well, just get me back before tea time, will ya lad?”

No Caption Provided

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#18  Edited By Kaija

@lightning_god: @interstitial: @ms_terry: @pyrogram:

It seemed as though it was still early in their adventure, and already the Timekeeper had managed to perturb Kaija for multiple reasons. Not only were his actions blatantly inconsiderate, but the cavalier manner by which he spoke of his fate disturbed her. The fact of the matter was, given how quickly he was able to discern what exactly he needed to do to find a clue regarding the location of his hammer... he had already found the solution the instant that they had arrived and allowed them to needlessly search the cave for no reasons. And while that was... annoying, to say the least, it wasn't what had really bothered her.

"In a sense my life is predestined... I'm just following a set course of actions, if you will. Free will is my lovely illusion!"

"Lovely illusion!? And you can say that with a smile on your face? What kinda sick joke is this?" she thought to herself quietly.

Maybe that was a nice sentiment for someone who likely knew that they were destined for greatness, and maybe Kaija was overreacting due to her own personal experience with so-called "predetermined fate", but the implications of his words frightened her. She began to wonder about the existence of something as inescapable as fate, what the Timekeeper knew of it... and if he could provide her with any information regarding how her story might proceed in the pages of history. At the very least, given the fact that she was the only one there who had heard Rana's words in that hospital that afternoon, she could take solace in the fact that no one else would be sharing her thoughts on the matter. Still, even if no one could hear her thoughts, her silence and her prominent glare made it obvious that... something was wrong.

“Well, just get me back before tea time, will ya lad?”

She did manage a small laugh at Maddy's words, but it wasn't enough to break her mood. Regardless, Kaija had come to like the librarian and her... positive attitude. And so she sighed and moved closer to the group in preparation for another impending jump.

"Yup," she replied, taciturn yet clear. She would have some questions for the Timekeeper later but, for now, she decided that they weren't important for the task at hand.

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#19  Edited By Lightning_God

@pyrogram: @ms_terry: @kaija: @interstitial:

Ali was trying to find a way to perhaps stop this fiery globe, but in the end he was unsuccessful in finding anything that resembled a remote to turn it down. He decided at the end that it was not worth it. When Ali came around however, the old man seemed to have a heated arm and eye in place of his eye-patch and metal arm. Huh. "What happened to you?" He asked, as the old man threw some sort of parchment back into the flames.

"It's a dangerous planet but where these coordinates on that piece of paper lead to. Are any of you wishing to back out now?"

His eyes looked at Ali, then Kaija and then towards Anakia.

"There is nowhere in this Solar System as hostile."

The Time Keeper grinned.

Ali summarized, that whatever the old man just burnt away must have been some sort of coordinates to wherever this hammer of his was located. The mention of space though, sent chills running down his spine. Adventure, just how he liked it!

Ali looked at the beautifully aged librarian woman as he got closer to Kaija and held her hand, "Only if you make some tea for us lady,"

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The sun sat golden in the center of the room, radiating heat and drawing everyone's attention as the Time Keeper toyed with a bit of metal wrought into an equally golden horn. Anakia rather wondered at the significance of the horn; whether this Loki persona had another one somewhere and was trying to look like Lady Kaija, or whether he was an antecedent of hers somehow, or whether that was something else entirely. I do wish there were a library here...

No Caption Provided

Except they had come in to a library. Admittedly, in to the broom closet of a library, but it had still been a library on the outside of the broom closet. Her presence flickered out of the room for a moment, returning after a handful of seconds with one of the Library's copies of the Völsunga saga open in her hands. Anakia recalled there being quite a few more books on the matter in the Academy's library (and better arranged, as well), but it seemed that the publishers of 1888 weren't quite so prolific.

References to Loki were few, mostly he seemed to be one of the background forces that caused things to happen, intelligent and whimsical, with a penchant for tricking mortals into doing stupid things.

"Miss Nightcrawler. I'm going to ask you to do a very stupid thing and I'm sorry. But I have no other choice."

Words from the none-too-distant past, although time being what it was, or what it wasn't, it seemed like years ago. Had been years ago, and at the same time, had been weeks ago. Anakia turned a careful page in the book, and watched the Time Keeper in the periphery of her vision, and wondered if he was more like this "Loki" character than he thought he was. Or if, in some sort of time-iteration, he was this "Loki" character.

She was watching him, then, when he approached the burning sphere, and her attention was entirely on him when he turned to her with an inquiry:

"Did you ever happen to wonder why I was reanimated with an eyepatch and a metal arm, Miss Nightcrawler?"

Yes, she had wondered. She had, admittedly, wondered more about the reanimation in the first place, but she'd had questions about the arm and the eyepatch. Since it had only been... twenty hours, now, in real time, since she'd known he had been reanimated at all, she hadn't had time to ask the question, and now she did not need to, because he answered it for her, plunging his arm into the heart of the fire and coming out with a scrap of paper, which seemed to mean something to him.

Anakia worried less about the paper, and more about the eye. That one still hadn't happened yet, in linear time. For all she knew, he was going to tell her to stab it. The possibility was... non-zero, certainly. If need be, he would ask her, because he knew she would do it. And she would do it, because he had asked. The logical circle complete. She also wondered when he was that he had gotten his arm rebuilt, because in linear time he would have been left here with nothing. Some time, he would travel to a place where limbs were wrought from metal and ruined flesh brought back in a simulacrum. She wondered if she would be there, when that happened. She wondered if it would be soon.

For the thing that was now, he was preparing them for another journey, one to a place he named Izol, and cautioned them against the dangers there.

Anakia gave an eloquent shrug when the Time Keeper's gaze fell on her. "Sir, we're already in space," she pointed out, rationally from her perspective. There was the Realm, and there was the Outer World. The Outer world was a big place, and full of its own regional differences, but one part of it was just as alien as another, as far as she was concerned.

No Caption Provided

Besides, why would she back out of an adventure? Even their time-locked companion seemed intrigued, if nervous. Anakia wondered what would happen to her, when it was all over. If she survived all this, would she just go back to the broom closet? Or would the Time Keeper pull her out of time and set her up in the Academy's library, where she could become one of the people there who lamented Anakia's tendency to spirit away the books when something took her interest.

Speaking thereof, she flickered again and returned the book she'd been holding to the shelf where she'd taken it, gone only a second this time as she hadn't had to spend any real-time in searching for what she wanted. Lady Kaija seemed prepared but somewhat cautious, which was befitting. Lord Outsider seemed excited and ingratiating, which was... idiotic. Anakia gave a quiet sigh in his general direction, shaking her head slightly in disapproval, but not starting in on a battle she'd already lost ages ago.

She redirected her attention to their erstwhile guide. "If there's anything else you'd like to tell us about where we're going, I'm certain we're all listening. If you'd rather tell us nothing out of a perverse sense of enjoyment at our surprise in these encounters, I believe we are ready to go." She hinted an almost-smile, meaning no harm by the remark. Wondering if he would ever stop surprising her. Likely not.

And though she wasn't likely to admit it, she wouldn't really like it any other way.

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#21  Edited By Pyrogram

@ms_terry: @interstitial: @kaija: @lightning_god:

No Caption Provided

The Time Keeper mentally noted Kaija's taciturn demeanour, aware that she was starkly opposite in mental attitude to her other half, Ali, who was having quite the time thinking of interplanetary adventure! Slowly, he raised an eyebrow at Anakia and winked, smirking at her shrewd remark. "Perverse sense of enjoyment?"

A deep laugh radiated throughout the cave as his palm grabbed the hilt of his blade, making sure it was tightly fastened. "Oh, my dear friend - you haven't seen anything yet!"

With the little remark his attention was drawn to Maddy, nodding in her direction. "Give or take five minutes - your tea will still be pipping hot..." his eye squint, "at worst, mildly warm."

The large image of the planet suddenly zoomed in, the face of a very strange and nasty looking creature appeared. The Time Keeper offered words alongside the image. "The Izoli are an ancient race of aliens who claim to be part of "the immune system of the Universe."

His tone was semi-serious, as though one needed to truly believe this to believe it.

"It is said that they wipe out disorder and free will wherever they find it. They seem to prefer to act behind the scenes, mimicking and influencing the social and military methods of the species they are currently infiltrating. I know they have been on Earth once or twice," his eye shift towards Maddy, nodding his head slowly.

"You humanoid vermin."

The image of the alien suddenly dissipated, in it's place were fiery mountains and volcano-like structures. "Izol is a dangerous place! The indigenous species are brainwashed so we won't be able to reason with them much, if I remember correctly though..." He glanced down at his wrist watch, bringing up a slider on the hologram which displayed the atomic table and makeup of the atmosphere. "There is an artificial atmosphere capable of sustaining life for you all."

With a little look at everybody he zoomed in onto the holographic planet as though he was using an Iphone. The focus of the image zoomed in more and more, locking onto a mountain range which had a purple hue. The mountain-range and planet started to then grow bigger, the hologram encompassing the entire cave before... Like magic, completely and utterly seamlessly the entire group stood upon another world...

...The Barren World of Izol!

No Caption Provided

Instantly the Time Keeper's metal armor was colder than back in Norway. He actually felt it tingle upon his skin. Due to the lack of a generous atmosphere, Izol was unforgivingly cold. The planet has a uniform climate and it did not matter where you are, it did not rotate nor spin around a star - Merely fixed in space like a planet sized anchor. If an unprotected human were to step upon the planet's surface for more than thirty minutes, their blood within their veins would freeze. Thankfully there were many underground caves and surface structures, completely isolated from the outside danger.

Quickly the Time Keeper wandered to Maddy and offered her a sweet which he pulled from one of his pocket-dimension pockets, tucked into his belt. "This will keep your core temperature at 97 degrees," he offered what looked like Jelly Babies to the rest of the group. "These purpose rocks are sharper than diamond, a slip could end up with a missing foot. Be careful!"

He then pointed towards a purple volcano. "Those volcanoes shouldn't exist. But Izol is an odd place! Curiously, they do not spew out lava, instead, pure heat - Enough to burn through flesh and bone if one is unluckily enough to be caught in it's eventful blast."

Keeping a stern hand upon his blade, knowing the dangers of this planet he gazed around, trying to locate an entrance into the subterranean world and out of this intense freeze. "You can look around for a bit if you'd like. But no longer than twenty minutes, your blood might start to freeze..."

His gaze wondered about, almost talking to himself now.

"Wouldn't want that... Would we..."

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Ms_Terry

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#22  Edited By Ms_Terry

@pyrogram: @kaija: @lightning_god: @interstitial:

Turning her head with a slight arch of a brow, Maddy looked toward Kaija and offered a small smile at the young woman’s chuckle. The poor thing did seem to need a little levity in all this dangerous absurdity. But Kaija seemed unwilling to let her trepidation deter her from the mission. Maddy couldn’t help but wonder what motivations drove her to continue with this mad man. But they were certainly no clearer than her own precise incentive.

Her internal thoughts were interrupted by the young man’s request for tea. “Oh, dearie, I’d most certainly make you all a lovely cuppa tea, a rather precise tradition I’ve come to understand has been lost in other colonies.” She jovially jabbed at the “incivility” of those nations under British rule… or those that had been as the case might be during this particular time. She snorted. America. Everyone knew how they handled tea. If Britannia had left any lasting impact upon the world, why couldn’t it have been how to make proper tea?

Anna meanwhile seemed to disappear entirely from the conversation. And… the area entirely. Maddy twirled around with furrowed brows wondering if she had just misplaced the perceptive young woman. Her reappearance left the librarian unsure as to whether she had just missed some corner of her vision in her search. She shrugged it all off. It could have been an error on her part or it could be another event in a series of oddities that seemed to saturate her current travel. Making it rather standard at this point.

Her attention finally rested upon their guide. “Yes, I’ll hold you to that, sir. You should know, I’ll accept nothing short of 155 degrees Fahrenheit.” Her face was stern but her vibrant azure eyes twinkled with jest. Maddy watched curiously as another fantastic image appeared. Terrifying yet intriguing was the creature presented. The Izoli of planet Izol. Nasty buggers apparently. And they had been on Earth? She hoped they hadn’t been around during her time. She wasn’t sure if she was more scared about them being present or the fact that she was unaware of their presence. The latter really messed with the confidence she had in her own sense of control and knowledgeability.

No Caption Provided

Human vermin. Indeed. Hmph. She tilted her nose upward in disapproval. This smarmy bastard clearly had no such wavering of confidence. But her demeanor changed as the topic changed to the atmosphere of Izol. “Ah! So, a health dose of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor, eh? Or at least two of the three, I’d imagine. Well, good. I’d be rather cross if the landscape took my breath away in less metaphorical terms.” The bearded man seemed to draw the image further into focus until…

Some Bloody Freezing Place, Izol, Who The Hell Knows When

Maddy shivered. She could really use that tea now. She accepted a sweet, sniffed it, then tossed it to one side. Look around or freeze? Well, she knew which one she preferred to avoid. “No. No need for a tour today. Let’s find somewhere a bit warmer, shall we?” She scurried close to the alien, her eyes darting around to avoid particularly pointy rocks.

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@ms_terry: @pyrogram: The World of Izol. At least Ali knew at this point that it was certainly not a place anywhere on Earth. Since arriving, Ali'd already traversed the entire globe, there was not a corner of it he wasn't aware if, from the poles, all the way across the 7 continents and even down the Mariana trench. Needless to say Ali had also tested his body's ability to pretty much ignore the crushing depths below the sea. His body itself was light and nit built to withstand the pressure but again, it was built to allow said pressure to simply pass through, allowing Ali to go deeper than any vessel or human ever had. There was also the fact that Ali had found an ability he had not known prior, that he did not need to breathe. This was already something that Ali had been curious for a long time but hadn't tested it, but drowning was not something Ali feared. He could get out of the water in less than a second no matter how deep he'd gone. This lead him to test his limits in a place where space was a viable option, unlike the dimension.

Ali looked around, eyeing the surroundings with the curiosity of a child. Purple rocks decorated the terrain, down and over foldings of the planet's surface. While on Earth, Ali's magnetic senses usually lead him to the poles. Here however Ali could sense multiple locations from which "gravity" seemed to erupt from. The bizzare nature of the planet further made itsekf known to Ali with a nigh inexistent atmosphere. His lightning core was naturally one that was capable of manipulating barometric pressure to induce whether phenomenon. Ali could hardly get a reading on this peculiar planet. Ali understood that he might not be able to use God Mode here, increasing his vigilance with the arising sense that he might need to be careful.

"I'm good," Ali shook his head at the offer made by the old man. He barely felt any difference in temperature. His body's other phenomenal feature was that it could stand to bear temperatures of extreme cold or heat. This was because Ali's powers were capable of bringing about plasma and producing them within his body, as well as inducing the coldest of climate conditions externally, factors of his lightning core that had gone to consideration when a body was moulded at birth. That and also he did not want to eat candy given by an old man who was acting awfully suspicious. All of this was seemingly a joke to him. If he was aware what was about to occur, then why is it that he was leading them around from place to place? Why nit juat go get his hammer and be done with it? Ali thought as he took a few steps towards the old man. "Strange place you took us to old man. Why are we here?" Ali wanted to explore but at the same time he wanted to stick with Uma. And he was basically responsible for Anakia

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#24  Edited By Interstitial

@pyrogram: @ms_terry: @kaija: @lightning_god:

Izol appeared before them, though that was an unconfirmed hypothesis. Fortunately, it also appeared at the same time as them, which made things somewhat more interesting in terms of spatial relations. Anakia looked around as Maddy kept close to the professor and the Outsider seemed to debate what to do with himself. She accepted one of the little items and weighed it lightly in her palm as Maddy and the Outsider rejected the offering. "They don't seem to trust you, sir," she commented to the Time Keeper with vague amusement. "Do I eat this, or wear it?" With the Time Keepers ever-plentiful set of stranger and stranger artifacts, she felt she could never be quite certain.

No Caption Provided

She would do whichever was appropriate. I trust him. She'd decided that in Fukuoka, at the witch's cabin. The minor inconvenience of death hadn't changed that, although Anakia would quietly admit to surprise at how minor an inconvenience it had ended up being. That aside, she didn't want to freeze to death here. She was relatively accustomed to cold, as her own dimension was a chill place, but it was a different sort of cold. The cold hallways were familiar, like diving in to cold water - chill, but familiar. This was the razor edge of foreign ice, sharp and unforgiving. It made her wary.

She shifted in to her own hallways for a moment, touching the way they lay over every aspect of the dimension, taking two steps inside and then shifting back out, adding two more steps and the comment. "The Outer World is larger than I thought. It would take a disturbing length of immediacy to return to where we were. And the pathways are... strange." She'd skipped about much of the segment of the Outer World that was considered "Earth" at this point, but not ventured beyond there. She'd not known whether there were places to reach where air would be breathable, and worth visiting... and it would take years to walk there anyway. Decades, maybe. She was getting better at folding the hallways to remove some of the distance, but even so, she'd not tried folding the emptiness of space.

No Caption Provided

She knelt beside one of the purple rocks that the professor had cautioned them about, looking at it cautiously. "How much sharper than diamond?" she asked the professor, sensibly without touching them to find out.

"May I take one home?"

She'd bound a knife to the monofilament-edged card she'd picked up from the witch's deck, but this world was full of strange things and strange people with strange abilities. Anakia had quickly surmised that if she intended to maintain her competence in every situation she found herself in, she was going to need to acquire a suitable arsenal of weaponry, capable of piercing through whichever sort of armor or shield or flesh she found herself facing at the moment. She didn't know very much about these purple rocks from the locale of Izol, but it was unlikely that many of the Outer Worlders in her usual haunts would either, and that was potentially advantageous. She wasn't sure how useful they would be in truth, but she also thought it unlikely that she should return to this area, and so she wanted to make herself better prepared for the future whenever it seemed like there was a possibility that she might do so.

After all, if she was going to continue traveling with the professor, the future was not necessarily so far off as it might seem.

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Kaija

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@ms_terry: @lowlaville: @interstitial: @pyrogram:

Kaija sniffed the strange candy handed to her for a moment before popping it into her mouth and allowing it to warm her body through whatever means it could. Odd. This excursion was feeling less and less like a mission and increasingly more like a tour. The Timekeeper hadn't really needed assistance from any of them in order to retrieve the clue that lead the group to Izol. And, after having reached the new location, the man coincidentally happened to have contingencies on hand to help with the cold temperatures... as though he were expecting them to travel to this location the entire time. She didn't have any desire to explore, especially not for the sake of exploration. Why? Because she didn't expect to return to this planet at all after this particular mission, and it felt as though it was a waste of time.

What Kaija wanted at that moment, more than anything, were some orders or more concrete directives than she had been given. She had begun to question why exactly the Timekeeper had brought the group in the first place.

"Uh, Timekeeper? No offense, this place is very lovely and you're great company to keep and all, but I question why you even brought us along in the first place." she asked earnestly, "It seems like you have everything under control on your own. I mean, you were prepared for this place before we even knew we had to come here and you knew the 'secret of the engine' too. Was there a reason why you asked this particular group of people to come along, or were you just planning for the worst and bringing anyone who said yes?"

She sighed and looked at Ali, the excitement in his eyes making her feel a bit guilty at her own skepticism.

"It's fine regardless, I'd just like to know if I'm supposed to be a bodyguard, an adviser, company to keep you from getting lonely or... what?"

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#26  Edited By Pyrogram
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The Time Keeper observed the cosmos outside of the planet, due to it's lack of a thick atmosphere one could see almost all of the stars visible to the eye. "Of course," he looked down at Anakia briefly, "around three times sharper," his gaze then fixed upwards once more, listening to Ali and Kaija in unison.

In truth, the Time Keeper had a perfectly reasonable explanation although telling them would be exceedingly shortsighted - why?

They would never have agreed in the first place.

Perhaps, all but Anakia in truth.

"Because I need your help."

It wasn't a lie but it wasn't the words which revealed much all the same. In time they would see what their purpose here was. "Also," he turned around, folding his arms across his armoured chest and smiling at Uma. "I wasn't prepared for Izol specially, for I am a time traveller, remember?"

Upon saying the words he popped one of the sweets into his mouth, chewing on it for a moment with a dumb grin of his wrinkled features. "It's part of the job description to be prepared to travel to exotic locations! And that sphere..." he ran a rough palm through his thick white hair, shrugging. "Welllll, it's technology from my people. Wouldn't you know how to change a bulb?"

With a wink after pointing out the obvious he sighed. "Stop thinking. You're on an alien world, Uma!" Looking at Ali and then back to his partner, a sparkle was in his own eye, "take a day off from being a solider and taking orders."

Upon that last sentence, he threw a glance at Anakia. But only for an instance.

"There's more to life than--" before he had a chance to finish his monologue, they were surrounded... An array of clicking noises started becoming louder and louder until seemingly out of the floor, the group were encircled by Izol bandits. Hundreds of them, all of whom were brandishing plasma canons and looking ridiculously identical to the next. Literally nothing about any of them even had a hint of individualism - it was actually pretty sad.

"---Nobody panic."

The Time Keeper warned, trying to tell himself the same idea. The Izoli were ruthless. Brainless. Heartless. They were literally devoid of emotional empathy and harboured hate for utterly anybody unlike themselves. Hence their title 'Universal pest control'.

No Caption Provided

They spoke in unison, their semi-hive mind at work. Although their words consisted of clicking rather than actual words.

"⊬⍜⎍ ⌇⊑⏃⌰⌰ ⏚⟒ ⏁⏃☍⟒⋏ ⏁⍜ ⏁⊑⟒ ⌇⎍⌿⍀⟒⋔⟒ ⍀⎍⌰⟒⍀ - ⎎⍜⍀ ⏁⍜⎅⏃⊬ ⟟⌇ ⏁⊑⟒ ⎅⏃⊬ ⍜⎎ ⌿⍀⍜⎐⟟⎅⟒⋏☊⟒. ⎅⍜ ⋏⍜ ⍀⟒⌇⟟⌇⏁. ⎅⍜ ⋏⍜⏁ ⍀⟒⌇⟟⌇⏁."

All of it completely nonsense to most of the group. The Time Keeper looked at them all, pointing towards his wrist watch and clicking back towards them. "...⏁⍀⏃⋏⌇⌰⏃⏁⍜⍀!.." It roughly translated to the word 'translator' in English. They looked at each other, before clicking one word again and again in unison.

The Time Keeper had forgotten most of their language but presumed it said yes, mostly because after clicking his wrist device they hadn't all been fired upon. Instantly the clicks sounded like English, to all of the group. And to the Izoli? It sounded like they would be speaking in clicks.

"You shall be taken to the Supreme Potentate - For Today is the Day of Providence. Do no resist. DO NOT RESIST."

The Time Keeper made sure to subtly place Maddy in the middle of the four, knowing she was least durable. Glancing around at his companions, he whispered. "You all wanted to make some decisions, right?" Nudging Uma, he coaxed her into speaking for the group, "well, now's the time."

He whispered, again, this time more softly.

"I don't know who the Potentate is..." he knew Kaija was probably growing annoyed.

She was most likely assuming the Time Keeper could fix this situation instantly like always and was just stringing her and everybody else along for the ride. But maybe not this time. "...Aren't you a tad curious?"

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@ms_terry: @lowlaville: @interstitial: @pyrogram:

Kaija's face grew expressionless after the Timekeeper had requested that she "stop thinking". For someone who had only been on Earth, who had never before traveled through time, and who had never even heard of their current location before, his request to "stop thinking" seemed more like an evasory tactic to avoid further questioning than sound advice. Before she could even bother to answer answer his last question the group found themselves surrounded by natives carrying weapons and making demands demands in a foreign tongue. Her eyes flickered about to access the size of the group before returning to the Timekeeper's.

"...Aren't you a tad curious?"

Kaija thought over their situation for a moment before giving her answer. The only decision to make was whether or not they would cooperate with the... "Izolians'" request. It was true that if a fight broke out their ragtag team would would have a wide variety of abilities and skills to use... but it was also true that she had no idea what the enemy was capable of. The objective of their quest was to obtain a hammer, and violence was completely optional until it became unavoidable. There was also the fact that Maddy, to Kaija, appeared to be nothing more than a normal human without any equipment aside from a powerful mind. There were too many reasons no to simply jump into a battle, and too few to actually start fighting.

She simply shrugged and raised her hands to signify cooperation, "Honestly? No, not really. But considering the fact that we're the trespassers here and that these guys haven't started shooting yet, I don't think that picking a fight is the best idea. At least not until we need to. I say we go see this Potenate and let him know that we... 'come in peace', so to speak," she explained, turning her gaze to the Timekeeper, "We have come in peace, right Timekeeper?"

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#28  Edited By Interstitial

@pyrogram: @ms_terry: @kaija: @lightning_god:

"I wonder, do you exist beyond following orders, Anakia?" Echoes from a lifetime ago. Words that still caught hold in her mind, sometimes, when she had too much time to think about them. Words that she had thought had been for her, and her alone. "Take a day off from being a solider and taking orders." A glance in her direction. He didn't know.... he couldn't know. Could he know? And what had the witch said to him? And did he still think on it? Anakia's gaze caught on the Time Keeper's, hesitating in a moment in the past. Perhaps something would have come of it, some other time.

No Caption Provided

In this time, there was a sudden incursion of alien creatures, and the necessity of changing focus. She moved, just slightly, adjusting her position to one where she could defend the Outsider and Lady Kaija, should it be necessary, and watched the aliens while the Time Keeper debated potential. He turned to Kaija for the decision, which seemed as reasonable as anything else. Anakia was not here to be a leader, and Ali Outsider...

She smiled, slightly. He could be diplomatic, when he wanted to be. Mostly, though, he chose otherwise. Sometimes she thought he enjoyed just sitting back instead of taking command purely for the enjoyment of seeing what others would do. Other times... well, best not to mention the other times. But he wouldn't overrule Kaija here, so she nodded acceptance of the Lady's ruling, and released her hands from the hilts of her knives, echoing Kaija's raised-and-empty gesture. "Potentate, sir?" she inquired, of the Time Keeper, "Are you sure you're translating that correctly? Because from the Latin, that would imply power in a singular form, which implies a lot more individuality than these... ah... 'diplomatic escorts' seem to display."

Either that or there was a dramatic shift of culture currently underway, which could prove... interesting. She let her foot rest - very carefully - beside one of the shards of purple stone on the ground, hidden from the interloper's view by a larger stone made of the substance, and with a very quick flicker in and out of her dimension, it disappeared, carefully stored for later use.

If there was a later.

"We have come in peace, right Timekeeper?" Lady Kaija sounded so very skeptical. Outer Worlders, Anakia thought to herself, bemused. After all, if they hadn't come in peace, someone would already be dead. But aliens had strange ways of thinking about things, and Lady Kaija was really no different in that regard than the other aliens that surrounded them. Anakia wondered, in the end, which one of them she would end up finding more incomprehensible.

Her eyes stayed on the other entities, but her attention drew back to the Outsider beside her, he with all his duality of nature, who she still often couldn't fathom from one moment to the next. It was posible, she realized, that the one who she found hardest to understand in all this... wouldn't be an Outer Worlder at all. She wondered what he would make of all of this.

In the end, it didn't really matter, so long as he survived. I protect and serve.

"I wonder, do you exist beyond following orders...."

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@interstitial: @kaija: @pyrogram:

Mind was an extremely strange place. The right question was, did brains operate on languages? When you think about it, brains decipher sounds based on experience and translate them into thoughts. When Ali listened in on bio-electric signals he was not deciphering a language, rather, he was processing the raw information that passes through their brains, signals, thoughts align to make sense of what they wanted to express. Simply put, Ali did not need to know a language in order to know what they were thinking no. He would simply know it through the bio electric signals being relayed. In passing, Ali was also more than capable of learning a language simply by hearing said language. Well, he supposed this is how telepathy worked anyway, and Ali's ability over bio-electric manipulation was as close to that in application you realistically got.

Ali noticed this with the group of who or whatever gathered. They weren't merely identical in looks but the way they thought were extremely identical as well. Their thoughts filtered in relayed much of the same information individually and the entire group as a whole. This somewhat disturbed Ali, primarily because he used bio electricity to distinguish one from the other. Here was a people of hive mind, and an entirely new experience for him. Even before the Timekeeper translated what they were saying, Ali knew what these group of people wanted. On top of that, with both him and Anakia present, time to act was practically of no consequence.

She simply shrugged and raised her hands to signify cooperation, "Honestly? No, not really. But considering the fact that we're the trespassers here and that these guys haven't started shooting yet, I don't think that picking a fight is the best idea. At least not until we need to. I say we go see this Potenate and let him know that we... 'come in peace', so to speak," she explained, turning her gaze to the Timekeeper, "We have come in peace, right Timekeeper?"

Ali laughed at the mistrust his beloved was displaying. In fact, she had the right to be distrustful. The Time Keeper fellow was keeping a lot of secrets and leading them on a journey that seems to be more or less useless. On top of that, his bio-electric signals to Ali was undecipherable, almost as if they were coded, and only served the purpose of allowing Ali to know where he was. There were limitations in dealing with him. "I'm with Time Keeper on this," Ali had an oddly comical expression as he winked at Kaija, not serious at all, but more finding it right to have a bit of fun. "Curious to see what this Potentate guy is." And perhaps play into the Old Man's good books, who knew? It didn't matter. Something told him that they definitely were not here for peace. And maybe, they might leave here in pieces so to speak. Either was going to be fun.

Ali looked up at the unusually bright sky. It was strange, as though those things in the skies were awfully reachable. Stars, they weren't exactly a thing back in the realm. All there was in ROTB was a massive continent seemingly without end, surrounded by an event vaster expanse of oceans. Outer World though, from what Ali came to read were comprised of balls of rocks many times smaller than even Shea, the smallest of the countries in the entire realm. These balls of rocks floated around vastly more massive globes of burning fires called Stars. These balls called "Planets" were supposedly located across "space" commonly referred to as the "universe". What Ali and Anakia referred to as Outerworld was indeed this large Universe that existed beyond their own. A strange and mysterious place filled with danger and people who were dangerous all in the same.

A part of him wanted to try, and grasp these stars. Already today Ali experienced just a fraction of the might of one of these little dots. It had no effect on him. What would one of these would be up close? Ali wondered.

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@pyrogram: @kaija: @lightning_god: @interstitial:

Maddy screeched as she saw the Izoli approach. She picked up her skirts and scurried behind their erratic leader. She had rather hoped that being so far from any visible city would have kept them from detection. For a little while longer at least. Her heart beat faster as she couldn’t help but peek out from around the broad man to analyse the unfamiliar species in real life. They made her skin crawl. The clicking sound of their collective voices made her tremble, beyond the feeble attempts of her human body to keep warm. Her terror was not assuaged by the translation.

“You shall be taken to the Supreme Potentate - For today is the Day of Providence. Do not resist. DO NOT RESIST.”

The librarian gulped and looked around at her companions anxiously. Whether weapons or uncanny abilities, this lot seemed like they could handle themselves in a confrontation. She couldn’t help but feel insignificant among them. She wished she had some advantage to help them. Instead, she was nothing but a liability. She hated feeling so powerless.

Her sharp insecurities were silenced by Anna’s words. She smiled. “Ah, yes. Your Latin is correct. It is a singular distinction. Concerning this deviation in hive-mind behaviour, well, in certain species within the animal kingdom, such as bees, there are the drones who act according to the interest of the hive, having little individuality themselves. There is however a queen who stands apart having a unique purpose and station. These aliens… well, I suppose we would be the aliens in this particular instance… are surely more advanced than Earth insects. A primary leader figure could be the individuality that overrules the differentiation of these Izoli drones whether it be through pheromones or some other means, the singular consciousness from which their collective motivation springs.”

The academic extended a finger upward thoughtfully. “There is, of course, another theory to be considered. The aberrant individuality might not be an Izoli at all. In primitive, collectivists cultures, sometimes the deviation from the norm could be reason for veneration. A man of another race could be seen as an emissary of the divine or even a god himself. I would say that the mention of a “Day of Providence” points to the validity of this latter explanation as the possible identity of the Supreme Potentate. It is a religious terminology, the gift of a deity to the people who worship him.”

“Given that, despite their nature of exterminating other beings as pests throughout the world, they have not fired their weapons and have instead requested our surrender, it would seem to suggest that we are to be presented to this Supreme Potentate for some religious purpose. We have no knowing that this purpose will necessarily be harmful to us. And, although my intuition tells me that a horrible fate awaits us, I cannot help but think diplomacy is our only option.”

She finally paused from her analysis. Her lips pursed sheepishly, blue eyes that had just moments before been glazed over with fear were once more alight with inquisitiveness. “And I too may be a wee bit curious.”

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#31  Edited By Pyrogram
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"We have come in peace, right Timekeeper?"

Lightly rubbing his forehead, the Time Keeper's metal palm let go of the hilt of his blade and folded his arms, a small, subtly mischievous nature smirk adorned his archaic features as Uma asked her pertinent question. His reply would not provide clarity. "I think so," a look of complete and utter thoughtlessness proceeded his words, as though the Kaiju Slayer had distracted him from thinking. It was like when one was in school and the teacher asked you a question, but your mind was a million miles away.

His next distraction was Anakia, looking around and down to the woman, squinting his one eye perplexedly. "What?" Looking around at the situation, the Time Keeper sighed, going from one emotion to the next as though he wasn't even fully aware of the entire ordeal or even who he was speaking to.

"Ah," finally coming to his senses once again, the Keeper of Time listened to Maddy carefully despite already knowing all of that information and then proceeded to let out a faint chuckle. "God?" His one eye looked at her somehow judgmentally.

"Religion does not exist on Izol! That's impossible."

It was like trying to say ants worshipped an aardvark.

It wasn't within their comprehension or understanding!

They were a hive mind, both biologically forced into it as well as telepathically. What was this speak of Religion... He even shook his head, but then looked back at Maddy with a creased brow. "You haven't been here before, have you?" Completely rhetorical and nonsensical, because for as long as this planet had existed the term religion was as foreign as foreign could be. But in truth he had not visited this place in a long time, so perhaps things had changed... But it was next to impossible.

The Izoli marched closer towards the group, clicking again and again as blue gunk spewed from their mouths a little. What did hit the ground caused it to erode slightly. His eye peered at Kaija, smiling contently, "... You won't regret helping me."

...Because it's all only going to get a lot, lot worse, before it gets better.

The floor suddenly started to shake, the Izoli shouting and clicking as the group descended deep underground, the sky above grew more and more distant until finally they were in a long cave passage underground, surrounded left and right by thick brown walls and ahead and behind them more Izoli warriors beckoning them forward.

Finally after a few minutes of walking straight for what seemed an eternity and without a single word muttered by the Time Keeper they were finally placed into a large metal cell, despite this being underground the Izoli were anything but archaic in technology. They had mastered interstellar travel eons ago. The Time Keeper walked in first, taking a leisurely pace as the others joined him.

Turning around, he avoided eye contact for a few seconds and then spun around once more, looking at the wall and playing with his white beard.

He was silent.

A few more uncomfortable moments passed without another word.

And then another, slowly, he lowered his hands from his beard, looking up to the ceiling and speaking.

"I suspect all of you have some rather curious enquires."

They weren't going anywhere and neither was he at the look of things, tinkering with his wrist for a moment he turned around and folded his arms, raising his chin somewhat and nodding sternly. "I suppose, in hindsight, I appear to owe you all some clarity or rather, insight into this bewildering incident."

Looking at the group, he squint. This part was always coming.

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Kaija

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#32  Edited By Kaija

@interstitial: @lightning_god: @ms_terry: @pyrogram:

Kaija sat there in silence for a moment, her eyes scanning the area for filth and vermin while also searching for technology and looking over the bars to the cell. She thought about their situation. Within that cell, there stood the mighty yet foolish God of Thunder, the wise yet slightly unhinged Keeper of Time, the witty yet inexperienced assassin from another dimension, the renowned yet dishonored Slayer of Kaiju and, most impressive of all, an ordinary librarian who had come to show little to no fear in the face of all of these unusual experiences and all of these uncertainties. She began to plot a million different courses of action in her mind for how they, as a group, could likely escape and handle the aliens with as little trouble and risk as possible. But, as she ran the details through her head... she began to snicker, then chortle, and then finally she broke into a full-on laugh that forced her to cover her mouth and lean on the back wall of the cell.

What an ironic situation it was. Kaija herself, the woman who had caused innumerable losses for the people of the world in the lives that she took while serving her duty, had never faced punishment for that blood she had shed on the clock. Anakia, from the stories that she had heard about the young girl, spent her life taking the lives of others without an ounce of remorse or hesitation; no punishment delivered. Then there was Ali, the slothful young man who had abandoned his duty as a prince had, today, who had finally gotten up and taken action to help others. All of these sinners who had never received any punishment for their sins were collected into a cell together. They were incarcerated not because of some heinous action that was taken in their pasts, but because they were trying to help someone in need retrieve a lost belonging. It was hilarious. Although Kaija knew nothing about the histories of the Timekeeper and the librarian, she went ahead and assumed that they too were in the same karmic situation.

And so she laughed, and loudly at that, fully aware that the others were likely watching her and questioning her sanity but not very concerned about it.

Then, she cleared her throat and regained her composure, a lingering smirk on her face as the humor slowly began to fade.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Old man, but I guess I'm too used to being a soldier to care for asking more questions beyond 'what should I do?' and 'how should I do it?' on a mission. Taking orders and getting them done is just how life's been for me. Though, I guess you don't see this as a mission, huh? Well, alright. It's not really a question, but how about this. Why don't you go ahead and tell us everything that you feel we should know; everything you want to tell us. I have a feeling that we have plenty of time and I know you want to. You can take my lack of questions as a sign that I, for some unknown reason, still have a modicum of faith in you," another laugh escaped her, "I know I shouldn't be laughing, but with my boyfriend, my bodyguard, the guy who killed Tophat and this old lady all here in one room I have trouble feeling overly worried. The way I see it, nothing's changed and we aren't in any immediate danger. In all likelihood, this is just a holding cell for us. And, if we find out it's not, then we can worry about breaking out then, ya know?"

She smiled and sent a wink back at the Timekeeper, "So go ahead and talk. I'm honestly only concerned with getting your hammer back, not the details of a planet that I'm likely to never visit again after I leave it."

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#33  Edited By Lightning_God

@pyrogram: @kaija:

Alien slobber, which burnt the ground? Acidic? Ali wanted to try it out, he let a drop of it fall onto his palm as one of the monsters got closer to them. What was something like this to a man who could practically live through thousands of degrees of heat unhindered? Ali smiled, as the drop falling onto his palm tried to burn into his flesh, but he had resistance to these kinds of things, and without question had failed to do anything to Ali, before he let the drop fall back to the ground. That was nasty for certain, but Dragon slobber was... 200 times more massive and vastly more corrosive in his opinion.

The group was led into a holding facility behind metallic bars.

"Inquiries?" Ali asked, smiling as he faced the corridor outside their cell, watching as guards walked by, speaking in their strange language which Ali understood. "This is the best field trip ever, even more wild than the mountains of Toroshia!" Ali exclaimed. He turned around as Uma started talking.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Old man, but I guess I'm too used to being a soldier to care for asking more questions beyond 'what should I do?' and 'how should I do it?' on a mission. Taking orders and getting them done is just how life's been for me. Though, I guess you don't see this as a mission, huh? Well, alright. It's not really a question, but how about this. Why don't you go ahead and tell us everything that you feel we should know; everything you want to tell us. I have a feeling that we have plenty of time and I know you want to. You can take my lack of questions as a sign that I, for some unknown reason, still have a modicum of faith in you," another laugh escaped her, "I know I shouldn't be laughing, but with my boyfriend, my bodyguard, the guy who killed Tophat and this old lady all here in one room I have trouble feeling overly worried. The way I see it, nothing's changed and we aren't in any immediate danger. In all likelihood, this is just a holding cell for us. And, if we find out it's not, then we can worry about breaking out then, ya know?"

She smiled and sent a wink back at the Timekeeper, "So go ahead and talk. I'm honestly only concerned with getting your hammer back, not the details of a planet that I'm likely to never visit again after I leave it."

A smirk spread across his face. "She has a point you know," Ali spoke, looking at @interstitial, "I'm sure Anakia can get us out without a problem," He knew. He'd seen how her abilities work, they'd done a bit of training together, and her ability to fold space/time was marvelous, hints of Blind Assassin existed in fact, though she was far too young at this point to be of a match to that man, it was still more than enough to walk the entire team out of this rudimentary cell, if they ever needed to escape, or leave, but Ali had a feeling that they were supposed to be remaining within the cell for it required them to, in order to get close to the goal they had in mind.

Ali walked towards Uma and sat down beside her. And then without hesitation, he got his arms around her shoulders and back, and for the first time in... centuries? kissed the love of his life, the one woman in existence that could make Ali do anything with one word. His tongue rolled against hers as their embrace tightened, Ali only lived in that moment, feeling her hot breath against his face, letting the scent of her hair and body odor arouse him, not giving a care for an old man, or a 17 year old girl and this woman from... 1800? Ali had forgotten they weren't alone. He just... continued to kiss her passionately.

What of the Time Keeper's explanation? He could give it... no promise it would be heard.

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@pyrogram: @ms_terry: @kaija: @lightning_god:

Anakia followed along as the floor shifted, walking underground with the others. Truthfully, she didn't much like being underground. The passages out could be... strange, sometimes. Convoluted. More care was required, when moving underground - there was a lot more thinking required in multiple dimensions, because thinking in merely two dimensions often led to a presumed exit point in the midst of solid rock, which was... frustrating. It didn't take time. The cold hallways never did. But it took... mental acuity, perhaps, that was sometimes better devoted to other things.

But if everyone else was going underground, she was bound to go with them. The passage resolved itself into a hallway, walls smooth and brown, not the rough unhewn stone of the initial entry. Their native guides led them down the passageway, traveling in the same direction for what seemed unnecessarily long. Anakia tried to get a glimpse of if there were side passages as they traveled, and if so, where those might lead. A vague idea of the layout of the place would undoubtedly be helpful later, when the time came to move about. A map would have been nice. Anakia was fond of maps. She had a feeling, though, that if a map was to be had, she was likely going to need to make her own.

The passageway eventually ended in a waiting room made of metal. For a waiting room, she found it somewhat lacking in amenities - no chairs or anything like that. Perhaps that meant that they weren't going to be there long. Likely the Izoli needed some time to prepare. After all, their arrival had been somewhat unexpected. The Professor was probably ecstatic.

"I suspect all of you have some rather curious enquiries."

She smiled a little bit, letting the discussion begin and scouted the edges of the room, such as they were - it was not a process that took overlong. Lady Kaija... seemed to find this process just as amusing as the Time Keeper. Perhaps they'd end up getting along after all. It seemed that Kaija agreed with Anakia's private assessment that this room wasn't meant to be somewhere they remained very long, although Anakia did note the words 'holding cell' over 'waiting room.' "It's possible that this room isn't meant to be discomfiting," she put in, "For a species without individuality, markers of individuality like the usual things one would expect in a room might be reasonably absent. It's not impossible that the Izoli wouldn't find a room such as this to be a comfort, and expect us to view it similarly." She shrugged slightly, "Or not."

It did not actually matter, she didn't think. As Lord Outsider pointed out, it wasn't all that difficult to leave the place. Although..."My lord, if they understand us as well as one might expect, perhaps we might not broadcast sensitive information?" she hazarded a correction. As corrections went, it was extensively polite and rational: a far cry from where they'd begun months ago, with "Ali Outsider, you are an idiot." Then again, while Anakia didn't quite have her grandmother's degree of talent with inflection, she had certainly picked up some of the ability, and the secondary statement lurked in exasperation beneath the first, even if she did not actually say it aloud.

Of course, he likely wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to her, because he was giving all his attention to Lady Kaija. Anakia allowed herself a very small sigh, not nearly as dramatic as she felt about the situation, and moved to watch the hallway where the Izoli had left, rather hoping they would return soon, if only to put an end to that. He has chosen her as his Lady, she reminded herself, And she bears his blade. I will be courteous, and refrain from commentary on their mutual affections.

I am not going to watch, though.

The professor had invited query, and no one had truly taken him up on the offer. Perhaps she would focus on that. "Have you encountered the Izoli before, sir? What can you tell us about them as a people that you haven't yet mentioned? Are there any cultural miens we should be aware of? What do you know of their interest here?" She turned to look at him, "And are they connected in any way with the artifact you seek?"

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#35  Edited By Ms_Terry
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Maddy arched a brow as the professor shirked off her analysis of the Izoli. He was hardly proving to be a helpfully knowledgeable guide, and so she wasn't so quick to discount her own rational assessments. Her cool confidence was undermined by the situation they know found themselves in, being marched along by the creatures in question. Even her formidable mind was of transient use, wrapped in a pathetic human coil. The more strange the situations became, the more her vulnerability eroded her esteem. Perhaps she was a bit emotional because of it, a bit raw. It could have caused her to be a bit short with her more capable comrades.

“Old woman? Ha! I am NOT old.” Maddy turned away, arms folding over her chest defiantly. “I only just recently turned 50 years of age.” Her jaw set, eyebrows furrowing a she pondered her own words. When she said it aloud, she did sound... old. She certainly was older in appearance than everyone present save the professor. The librarian’s expression softened as she turned back to face the group.

“But the young woman does have a point. I don’t know how much your companions know about you or this quest, but I for one know uncomfortably little. I too believe we could all benefit from some explanation from the professor. After all, there is no telling how long we will be waiting in this cell.”

Before the old man could elaborate, the blonde-haired man had taken to rather unsightly displays of public affection with his partner. “Really? This now? Quite improper given the context.”

She smoothed down her skirts and dropped down to sit upon the floor, back against the cell wall. The academic woman pulled out her journal to scrawl any relevant notes. Everything seemed so strange, it was as though she was transcribing a dream soon after waking, the meaning of which she wouldn’t be able to fully ascertain until completely out of the dream’s grasp. Perhaps the professor's words could lend themselves to her comprehension.

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#36  Edited By Pyrogram

The ancient looking alien listened attentively to the Kaiju Slayer, knowing how absurdly ridiculous this situation was becoming in light of how insane it already was. To outsiders anyhow. As Anakia had aptly mentally noted previously, the Time Keeper had a way of attracting attention, trouble, and other shenanigans. Although today in truth was far more severe in strangeness.

This was completely and utterly devoid of sanity considering all of them aside from the Time Keeper himself knew the purpose of this trip, let alone why they were on an alien world.... And Kaija was right, really.

"Why don't you go ahead and tell us everything that you feel we should know; everything you want to tell us...

...I know you want to."

He was a showoff.

A big, great, heaping bunch of alien stardust that had been forged into an enigmatic Time Keeper seemingly for the entire purpose to show off to people. Anakia had noted that too, as well as Kaija now. He didn't hide the fact he had the propensity to enjoy knowing what others didn't and leaving out 'minor' details just because their confusion (and panic?) gave him a sense of perverse enjoyment...

Yet in spite of those traits, today, beyond appearances, this was not one of those occurrences. The Master of Time had withheld the nature of this quest for harsher truths.

But then the unexpected happened - or was it really unexpected? This day just got stranger and stranger.

The Lighting God started kissing the Kaiju Slayer!

No Caption Provided

Without yet addressing their concerns he walked to the side of the caged cell and grasped the bars tightly, peeking his head out a little and shouting loudly. "Guards, guards! Come here promptly, I fear that the male one is trying to strange the young female with some type of wet appendage!"

His hands gripped the bar tighter as they became electrified, the Izoli's way of saying "shut up" as his eye flashed purple. He let go and folded his arms, gazing at Kaija and Ali kissing each other, his one eyeball looking down at Anakia. "And yes I know, don't even say it. A tongue is not an appendage." If he had not said it, she most certainly would have. Her savvy wit was growing on him as much as it was starting to annoy him. It was a love-hate feeling really.

Thankfully Kaija had come to her senses. Despite looking rather flattered that Ali had taken this most opportune moment to lock lips with his girlfriend, she had decided she was now embarrassed.

She laughed and smiled like a little girl, whispering into his ear presumably that it wasn't the time or place. It had been a decade since the Time Keeper himself had kissed a woman. Well, a woman aside from Alice. Promptly his great but aging mind was on topic again, folding arms behind his armored back and gazing down at Anakia. Thankfully Kaija and Ali had broken the tension. Had Ali done that on purpose? Keeper did not think so, he was not that smart even by accident.

"Indeed my child, the Izoli are a crude species. I suspect there has been tampering with their Crucible Grid. That is a satellite system which maintains the atmosphere, it also emits a low-level telepathic wave to brainwash them...."

Two Izoli guards walked past, staring at the Time Keeper and mumbling clicks before passing by.

"... They are the ultimate hive mind. All somebody would have to do is repurpose the Crucible Grid and any would-be conquerer would have themselves a fancy yet staggeringly grotesque army."

Although none of that explained the reason for their arrival on Izol. "That..." he paused to look at them, "sun in the cave?" He tapped his arm, gazing down awkwardly. "It was sort of aaann, well, invitation?"

He pulled out the piece of paper stating the coordinates here and handed it to Kaija. "But I lied to you all."

A single eye drift to Miss Terry. "Not you, I just met you." Beaming a grin, it subsided and looked back at Anakia. "This is actually all your fault my dear, you see, I'm quite old!" Stroking his white beard, the Professor grinned. "Two hundred thousand years old to be precise, and I was looking rather fine for my age if I say so myself! Blonde, muscly... handsome..."

A single meaty finger pointed at Anakia. "And then this one stabbed me in the hearts!" Folding his arms sternly, he squinted. "You see the aging process when I died didn't just age me physically. It aged me mentally."

It was quite an obvious point. At two hundred thousand years old he had looked young and handsome. Barely any old than thirty in human terms. How old was this body? Grey hair and wrinkles? This body must have been nigh millions of years older or possibly even more than that. "I might feel two hundred thousand but this body is probably hundreds of millions of years old."

And like that, the truth was out.

No Caption Provided

"I'm dying. Slowly. But this body is dying."

His smile faded, looking at Anakia. "You slowed the aging process down by pressing the button like I asked you, but it didn't halt it completely. As time catches up with me it both ages me older and ages me faster. I may have mere hours to live. I have tried to hide it from you all," his eye looked at Kaija.

"But my mental faculties are diminishing too. My race isn't meant to live in a single body without rejuvenating ourselves for millions of years. I fear, and there isn't any other way to put this, I have developed a cognitive disease in my old age!"

It was why he had been so reckless earlier when they were surrounded. "Without my hammer I shall die. But I did not tell any of you that you may be transversing time and space with a mad-man... Would you have still agreed to help me had you known I was going insane?"

Turning around the Time keeper looked outside of the cell, clenching his metal fist.

"That hammer isn't just the last possession I have from my lost planet. It's the only way for me to stay alive."

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"Do you think, for one moment, that I would not?" Anakia demanded, in response to his inquiry: Would you have still agreed to help me had you known I was going insane? Her usually neutral tone hinted at a distinct lack of neutrality on the subject - nothing too overt, but there was definitely an undercurrent of vexation, that he would think such a thing was even within the realm of possibility.

No Caption Provided

She moved, stepping forward as if to walk directly into the bars, but disappeared before completing the motion and stepped out instead behind the Time Keeper, facing him with her arms folded across her chest. "You told me to stab you. And I did it. Because I trust you. Because you asked it of me, and because you trusted me to do what you asked. And if you happen to think that asking me to accompany you to retrieve an item to protect you while you lose your cognitive and physical functionality is any less insane than asking me to kill you in the first place, then, sir, you are an idiot."

And that tone, and that phrase... well. Ali Outsider was certainly familiar with them, although generally in his experience the words had been directed at him, for one misdemeanor or another. She wasn't sure precisely what he would think of her using it on someone else. Anakia wasn't precisely sure what she thought about her use of it at that moment, either. Like time, it had flowed. And also like time, perhaps it would have been better stopped.

She bowed her head slightly, and a flicker in her presence signaled a time-bereft retreat to her alternate dimension. Composure. The assassin was calm, the assassin was rational. Emotions were born of sentiment, and with them sentiment begat weakness. When she lifted her head again, it was with cool resolve, unflinching, unyielding, undemanding, unjudging. "Besides," she added, walking up to him quite calmly and laying a gloved hand on a metal wrist, with one of her hinted fragments of a smile, "If you're that disappointed with my performance in Fukuoka, I could always repeat the process until you're satisfied with the results." Not that she actually wished to do anything of the sort... but it was the sort of unexpected statement that he thrived on, and perhaps that was something that he needed.

Anakia let her hand slip away, standing beside him and looking out into the sepia hallway as well. "That being said, are we going to ask the Izoli politely for directions to your hammer, or should we just leave this place and go get it without their approval? I think we are wasting time, which is perhaps less of an amusement than it was some moments ago."

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Kaija stood with her back to the cell wall as she listened to the Timekeeper's words; comfortably sandwiched between the cold brick and a warm body. She kept Ali's hands locked in hers, her mood admittedly much perkier than it had been only moments before. After getting a better understanding of the gravity of the situation, she opened her mouth to speak. But before any words could leave her lips, Anakia took the stage with a rant of her own. A surprising rant, at that.

Her eyes darted between Anakia and the Timekeeper as the young assassin spoke. She was showing far more emotion towards this man than Kaija thought possible for the young weathered soul. Kaija knew that the two of them were responsible for Tophat's death, but she didn't realize that they had bonded to the extent of causing outbursts like that over issues of trust.

"If you're that disappointed with my performance in Fukuoka, I could always repeat the process until you're satisfied with the results."

Kaija's eyes darted over to Ali's expectantly; her brow raised high with curiosity. Perhaps he'd understand what exactly was going on in that cell. After all, Ali shared more similarities with the assassin than she did.

"Uh... I agree that it would've been nice to know that this was a matter of life and death, Timekeeper, but I've already said my piece. I'm here to help, so if you think that we have no time to waste and need to act now, then I'll gladly do so."

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Ali listened to the Old Man's words after his brief intermission with Kaija... her hands still held in his. He wanted little more than to return to what he was doing but having realized how inappropriate it had been, Ali had decided to stay his body and lips apart from Kaija for the moment.

Time Keeper's speech made him realize just how desperate a soul he was, and one who was looking to regain his immortality in a manner of speaking, the pleas of someone who could die at any moment, and yet someone who inherently refused to die all the same. When Anakia had spoken up, it made the whole deal all the more funnier in Ali's opinion.

"Don't forget you are in the presence of your lord, Anakia," Ali spoke, getting up and momentarily letting go of Kaija's hand. "You act when I ask you to act," She was a woman of free will, of course she could do whatever she wanted, it was just funny because not often did Ali get the chance to talk down Anakia in the presence of people. Fact was, he had given Anakia all the freedom to grow in Outer World, to make choices, to be mature, and in this moment, he could see the growth, the unspoken bond between an old man and a young girl, a little odd at glance, but for a girl like Anakia who had spent years worth of frozen time in her cold hallways, it was understandable she felt easier to connect to him. Though unspoken, Ali was actually very proud of Anakia at that moment. There was a time when all she had been was an Assassin that had come from the realm to kill him, and who knows? the reason that she chose to serve him could've been to kill Ali in the end, but she'd shown her ability to be more, by going to the Academy, by socializing with others more or less her own age and by accepting Uma. All this hinted at subtle changes in Anakia's behavior. She could be tamed. These were thoughts that ran through his mind. She could be molded, a weapon of invaluable worth. Ali smirked at that thought.

This detail of having struck the Timekeeper, that was new however. He did not know that she had done such a thing, but again, whatever she told herself, whatever the reality of it was, ultimately, she was there to save his interest. She was there to save Uma, she struck timekeeper because she wanted to save Uma. Not a lot was spoken, no, but what he wanted to assure was, whatever she did, ultimately, he was there to take responsibility for her actions, because in the end, he was responsible for her.

"We are here, aren't we?" Ali asked the timekeeper, "I'm not one to dwell in the past. It's the choices that you make now which matters going forward. You made the choice of hiding the fact that you were going insane, and you lead us here, whether we believed your not, we are still here, because in one way or the other, except the lady over there, all of us owe you to a degree and extent. We aren't going to forget that any time soon, and so we are here. Lead us old man," Obnoxious as it may have been, Ali had no intention of leaving the cell. He overlooked Anakia's pretentious argument on that.

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#40  Edited By Ms_Terry

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These creatures communicated and were controlled via telepathy? Her brows knit as she pondered the term. She hadn’t given telepathy serious regard as a librarian. It was too fanciful for real life. Bloody pseudoscience. It was a new word coined just years before her strange experiences now. What a strange coincidence that it now seemed common parlance. The word didn’t seem to startle her companions as much as it did her. Perhaps in their time, thought transference had been proven to be an actual extra-sensory perception. She nodded as she scratched all this down.

No Caption Provided

Then came the startling admission of dishonesty from the professor. Perhaps he hadn’t lied directly to the scholar, but she couldn’t help but feel a tinge of irritation at the deceit. From the very beginning, it had seemed the group were uncomfortable divulging their true identities to her. It was all very patronizing. She wasn’t as tender of mind as those hysterical women within her society. How could an old, frail woman possibly be able to understand and continue unaffected by psychic distress when presented with the reality of her current predicament? It made her snarl from behind her pages. She felt as a prisoner within her own skin, held back by the society in which she found herself.

Maddy’s shock at the old man’s age was tempered by this dark line of thought. Two-hundred thousand years? No human could live so long. She was quite certain it was beyond the physical constraint of the species. Then there was the problem of other people. To live so long without catching disease from others or being murdered, it all counted against the ability of her kind to exist as long. Apart from fantasy, of course. As an inhuman, he possessed two hearts. She closed her eyes to process, feeling her own quickened thumping of the singular organ within her chest. What could be the purpose of two hearts for this species?

Her eyes opened, her head tilting to one-side. Hundreds of millions of years old now? And he is dying only now? It was rather astonishing if macabre. His mind was addled with familiar afflictions of decrepitude. Well, he was doing well considering. Now his urgency to retrieve his hammer made more sense. He needed it to continue living. Somehow, he was connected with this hammer. What sort of power must it contain?

The only reason she had stayed sane in all of this was a cold, objective view of everything. If she had considered too deeply the implications of it all upon her being, she would surely go mad. Even with her introspective insecurities, she still felt as little more than the writer of this epic, a narrator of great characters that existed in some higher plane of existence only seeming to be contained to ink on parchment. Because of this, she felt very little in the emotional plight that Anna must have felt. She contained it well enough. Her disappointment, less at the deception, and more concerning his perception of her.

No Caption Provided

Kaija seemed to dismiss any emotional reservations she might have had. A woman of action. The balance of life and death was greater than the distinction between truthfulness and lies. The young man’s response caused her nose to wrinkle in irritation. First, his rather uncomfortable sexual display of affection for Kaija and now an assertion of authority over the seemingly clever and independent Anna. It hardly seemed right, and despite Maddy's adoption of a more detached view, it brought up again her own feelings of limitation. It would be a man to exercise control over a woman to his advantage.

Maddy was unaware that she had been writing this far into the discussion. She looked down and saw a mess of strange writing she couldn’t interpret. She sighed and slammed the book shut and stood to her feet.

“The explanation clarified rather little for me. In fact, I feel as if I know far less after that discussion. I could just pretend to understand your inhuman nature and the fact that my companions have abilities beyond my comprehension. But I am left with more questions than answers. And I feel as though these questions must be considered. Did we have a way out of this place or are we just hoping that this Supreme Potentate won’t cut us into tiny pieces and feed us to his minions as a part of this Day of Providence? Why did the paper lead us here only to be captured? Did the paper even relate to your search or was it all a trap to begin with? Why was there a golden horn? Is that in any way related? Is this just some iteration of a Loki figure casting you into danger and away from your purpose? Why are we here? What do we do?”

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#41  Edited By Pyrogram

The Time Keeper didn't move as Anakia spoke, taking in her words calmly and digesting them. He had played the fool once again. Saving Uma's life? Of course Ali and the others would have accompanied him. One jaded eye looked away, contemplating the insanity of this necessary errand and the own distrust he had shown the group. He then looked up, feeling her gloved hand upon his metal wrist and listening as she finished. Stab him again? A stern eye gazed into her own.

No Caption Provided

"This is precisely why I wanted my dagger back from you." It was followed by a whimsical wink, turning his head to Kaija. "Undeniably, as yourself and Anakia point out. Every second spent in this cell is a second closer to this old face finally expiring."

Another turn of the head, this time a subtle one due to the close proximity, but towards the Lighting God.

"I will have none of that. There are no pretentious Lords in my presence." He raised a finger, gesturing it towards Anakia as it slowly wondered across the room and pointed at each and every single one of them, finally resting upon Maddy. "In all my millenniums of travelling time and space, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important."

His finger's linger rest again on Ali. "Whilst with me Anakia and you are equal companions..." It may have seemed rude on his end but in relative terms there was no such thing as honorary titles in the Time Keeper's mind. He had lived for far too long to respect any 'Lord' or 'Baroness' or any other official nonsense. He respected the individual and respected their attitudes - he would casually outlive Ali's entire race if this went all well, why would he have a care in the world about a temporary title?

"...I did not sacrifice my life for your girlfriend because you are a Lord."

He folded his arms. "I did it because Uma was in need of assistance and I happened to be passing by."

A slight turn of his face and he was now gazing at Maddy, raising an eyebrow in her direction as she rapid-fired a million questions as though she expected him to reply to them all. Had she not heard he was dying? A low chuckle escaped his lips. "One rule to keep in mind when working with me - I always have a plan." As he spoke, the Time Keeper ushered the group of them furthest away from the cell as they could, two arms outstretched and gesturing them to get back. "And for your other questions? I don't know. I have a vague-ish-general-potentially-accurate-but-probably-wrong idea of what's happening but it's a work in progress," he glanced back, grinning. Answering her final question.

"What do we do?"

"Close your eyes."

No Caption Provided

With a colossal crash the Time Keepers palm struck the ground violently, a huge, rippling wave of blue energy arched forward from the ground like it was fire catching alight on spilt gas and eating its way up until it finally reaching the metal bars: in a single loud bang the entire area was decimated; what was left of the bars scattered around in front of the cell and the wall in front of them cracked, random pipes leaked yellow and green fluids as an alarm started to chime. The Lonely God stood upright again and was quick to smile, motioning for them to follow him as he stepped over debris, speaking aloud. "The Supreme Potentate is a being who derives from the Oxolok System, a large gas giant with a dense oxygen atmosphere. The planet orbits close to its parent star and supports hundreds of small rocky moons, all of which each owned by a single different individual..."

He smiled as an Izoli ran into view, firing one of it's blasters as the Time Keeper flicked his wrist and rewound time, "Potentate," the laser slipping back into the barrel as the Izoli creased it's ugly brow. "A monarch or ruler," he stepped up close, grabbing the Izoli by the face, "especially an autocratic one," he turned, looking at the group. "Hence the title," throwing the face-grabbed Izoli into the air, the creature smashed into the ceiling and fell back down. The Time Keeper stepped over the body, dusting himself down.

"Supreme Potentate! Clearly whoever this is, thinks they own this planet."

He tapped his wrist device, smiling and pointed at Ali, Anakia and Kaija. "I played back what you were all saying when we were inside the cell talking, it's why we sat there for so long."

- They weren't going anywhere and neither was he at the look of things, tinkering with his wrist for a moment he turned around and folded his arms, raising his chin somewhat and nodding sternly. "I suppose, in hindsight, I appear to owe you all some clarity or rather, insight into this bewildering incident. -

"You see, Maddy said something that got me thinking. The aberrant individuality might not be an Izoli at all. And as I said, the Crucible Grid is a passport into owning this place."

He abruptly pointed his finger towards Kaija.

The Crucible Grid
The Crucible Grid

"And that's why YOU are going to lead these hopeless champions into reprogramming it."

Beaming a wide smile, he tapped a few little buttons on his wrist device and slid it off, handing it to Kaija.

"This is a vortex manipulator. I've locked it so you don't accidentally port yourself into the nearest black hole. But, I have kept the hacking features unlocked. Get close enough to the centre of the Crucible Grid and place that in the middle. It will work itself."

He nodded, "and yes, I know. It's the only method I have out of here unless any of you can teleport five hundred million light-years back to Earth. But once I have my hammer we can pop right back home!" He bit his lip comically. "So be careful with the device, please?" Tapping Maddy on the shoulder, he pointed at Anakia, lowering himself to Maddy's height and speaking.

"She's going to keep you safe." An eye stared at Anakia. "Isn't that what you dream about, Anakia? Babysitting women from the 1800s?! What an adventure!" Leaning over and pressing a switch upon the device, a holographic arrow pointed sixty three degrees north. He looked up at Uma and nodded, his eye looking towards all of them.

"Follow that, it can get you to the middle." Pausing, the Time Keeper leaned down and plucked up the rifle from the Izoli troop, handing it to Maddy, not letting go as he spoke to them all. "Be safe, the last thing I want to happen is for me to have helped saved Kaija in Japan only for one of you to die here..."

Letting go of the rifle, he backed off.

"Salutations, amigos."

Flipping an invisible hat, the Time Keeper wandered off in the direction opposite the group...

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#42  Edited By Kaija

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"Finally decided to give orders, huh?" Kaija replied with a smile as the Timekeeper walked away.

Kaija inspected the vortex manipulator for a few seconds before equipping it to her free wrist. She gazed over at the fallen Izoli soldier for a moment, then back towards the hallway that the Timekeeper had already disappeared from. She took a moment to think, considering everyone's abilities and the task at hand, then turned and spoke to the others.

"Alright, listen up. We work as a group and we'll get this job done, no problem. We've got a compass pointing us in the right direction and that body on the floor should tell you that the Izoli are far from invincible. Let's move as a group, and keep an eye and an ear out for everyone here. ALI," she called her lover's name to garner his attention, "You take point, 3 meters ahead. You're the fastest and most mobile person here by eons, so out of everyone here, you're the most likely to set off a trap or turn the corner into an ambush and get out unscathed. On top of that, you aren't phased by heat so if all we see today is laser weaponry, then you aren't in any danger. Vaporize any hostiles you see, but if you find yourself in danger then retreat. You're a pointman and a scout, not a hero here. ANAKIA," she called for her bodyguard, "You take the rear. Your eyes are just as keen as mine, so you should find no trouble picking up on any attempts that the Izoli make to flank us. On top of that, if we find that we need you to flank any enemies in front, they're less likely to notice that you've disappeared if you're hidden in the rear. And Maddy..."

Kaija walked over the librarian and drew her combat knife, recently sharpened and gleaming in the light. She turned the weapon in her hand so that the blade was pointed towards herself and the handle towards Maddy, then handed it to her.

"Sorry. I know it's not much, but I can't really be asked to part with my guns or my defense matrix while I'm in unknown territory. And trust me, you'd regret putting your hands on the cursed sword on my hip. If anyone gets close, just go for their eyes or their throat and keep us informed. That goes for everyone. Maddy, you keep to the center of the formation with me. Just keep your eyes out for anything strange and if you notice something fishy, speak up. As for me, I'm going to be right between you and Ali. I can take a bit of a beating and if any of the Izoli get past our pointman I'll put a bullet in their heads or a blade in their hearts." She explained.

Kaija drew her sidearm, then checked the vortex manipulator and gestured towards the direction of the center.

"If anyone has any concerns, speak up. Otherwise, let's get moving."

Kaija laid out her plan for everyone to hear, and as soon as the group was ready, she would move out with them.

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Anakia considered the Outsider for a moment, her gaze perfectly collected. She thought about telling him that she was here as a student of the Time Keeper, not as his personal vassal - and while it was the Outsider who had ordered her to take up the role as a student in the first place, it put a degree of separation between them here... and he couldn't argue with her for following the role he had assigned her. She did not think that the argument would make much difference, though, and now was not the time to be having it. Instead, she just gave him a brief nod of the head that probably meant a hundred different things, and chose not to argue.

The Time Keeper... seemed to understand a bit of the dilemma, although Anakia wasn't sure that his arguing of the point was actually helping the situation, either. She still listened to what he had to say, just for the perspective, but she wasn't exactly sure she wanted people arguing about her. Certainly not right at this moment. She didn't provoke the conversation further.

Still, there was something in those words, maybe an afterthought, but it stayed with her. "...I did not sacrifice my life for your girlfriend because you are a Lord. I did it because Uma was in need of assistance and I happened to be passing by." It was... stupid. Ill advised. Getting involved in a fight that was not your own was not... it wasn't done. That was why there were contracts, and traditions, and everything rigidly set out. Fighting on behalf of someone just because they needed help was... was...

...heroism.

Anakia wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Fortunately, she didn't need to take the time to consider it right now. The Time Keeper was moving on to the other part of the plan, releasing the cell and them from within it, and starting about issuing directives - Kaija with some sort of technical device to interfere with some other technical device. A wise choice: Anakia still wasn't certain about many technologies in the Outer World, and the Outsider's lightning Core might interfere somewhat with the device. Herself, he assigned the task of keeping watch over Ms. Maddy.

"Isn't that what you dream about, Anakia? Babysitting women from the 1800s?! What an adventure!"

He was teasing her. Anakia just raised an eyebrow and folded her arms. "I don't know, sir, last night I dreamed I failed my history test. I would say this is a step up." She turned to their companion, with a slight bow. "Ms. Maddy. I do apologize for all the excess of adventure. I will see to your security."

She watched the Time Keeper head off to do what he needed to, half-debating going with him anyway... but no. He had entrusted her with a task, and she would see it done. One way or another. Five hundred light years was... significant. She probed, for a moment, at the cold hallways in her own dimension, at the way they could be twisted, moved, folded. Five hundred light years. It would be... extremely difficult. Possibly fatal. She did not, however, think that it would be impossible.

She was beginning to wonder, some days, if anything truly was.

She gave Lady Kaija a nod of acknowledgement and fell back to the rear of the group, keeping watch for anything that might come up... and keeping watch over the departing Time Keeper.

For as long as she could.

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Lightning_God

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As the old man stormed off, Ali's attention fell on Kaija, and the thing that the old man had given her. Some kind of compass? Ali thought back to what the old man was saying. The crucible grid was the key to owning this place. Whatever it was, maybe.. just maybe, if he got close enough, if the thing was employing bio-electricity or just electricity to control this hive... then maybe, if he hijacked this central nervous system via his own ability then he could be in control of these people.

"Alright, listen up. We work as a group and we'll get this job done, no problem. We've got a compass pointing us in the right direction and that body on the floor should tell you that the Izoli are far from invincible. Let's move as a group, and keep an eye and an ear out for everyone here. ALI," she called her lover's name to garner his attention, "You take point, 3 meters ahead. You're the fastest and most mobile person here by eons, so out of everyone here, you're the most likely to set off a trap or turn the corner into an ambush and get out unscathed. On top of that, you aren't phased by heat so if all we see today is laser weaponry, then you aren't in any danger. Vaporize any hostiles you see, but if you find yourself in danger then retreat. You're a pointman and a scout, not a hero here.

Ali looked around. The destruction caused by the old man was pretty impressive, he had used some kind of energy Ali had never before seen used, looked like Lightning but it didn't feel like lightning at all, perhaps some kind of time related energy? Whatever it was was fairly effective. "Well just tell me which direction to go and we can start this little adventure of ours," Ali carefully walked over the debris until he stood outside the cell, in the hallway filled with burst pipes and gas leaking out of it. An alarm had gone off, and no doubt there were more of these things on the way. "Something tells me we don't have much time to be hanging around to chat anyway," His lightning core spun, and Ali waited, watching, ready for any signs of trouble. He can slow down his perception drastically at a moment's notice, making it highly unlikely that anything or anyone that did not manipulate time would find it next to impossible to get past his vigilance.

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Ms_Terry

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#45  Edited By Ms_Terry

@pyrogram: @kaija: @lightning_god: @interstitial:

Maddy couldn’t help but smirk at the professor’s words toward Ali. Her smile dulled as her gaze wandered to the old man’s eye. He had specifically looked at her as the object of his comment.

“In all my millenniums of travelling time and space, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important.”

The statement should have been encouraging, but her feelings of self-doubt only seemed to double. She seemed terribly unimportant. What had she done? Just pointed the way, really. She had no special skills to contribute to the quest, in fact, she was a liability. And when this was all over? She would likely return to her library, her journal entries regarded as little more than the ramblings of a mad woman. She would fade into obscurity and finally die as is the fate of her mortal race. That’s not to say she thought the man didn’t believe his own words, but his mind was already established as being failing into the grips of dementia.

Her brows arched as he finished his brief monologue and stated that he had a plan. But his thinking was vague as he said, and she wasn’t sure how secure his plan actually was. But the immediate command was truthful enough.

“Close your eyes.”

No Caption Provided

Maddy had just barely turned away as the cell was immediately filled with blinding light. When she had peeked out again, she saw the place was decimated. If it wasn’t for his diminishing capacity, he surely wouldn’t have needed any of their help with abilities such as that. It was impressive.

His next words confused her. Something about how he had played back previous dialogue, as if he had become aware of things in a less than linear fashion. It must have had something to do with his time travelling device. But there was no time to ponder as the marching orders came out.

She looked over at Anakia sympathetically. She had hoped not to be a burden, and here she was, being “baby sat” as he said by a woman of unknown abilities. “Thank you, Anna. I suppose it wouldn’t be a proper adventure without a bit of danger.”

No Caption Provided

Maddy was given an Izoli weapon which she could barely hold much less use. “I don’t even know how this bloody thing works! I’m likely to shoot someone else in the process.” She winced. Seemingly understanding this precarious situation, Kaija handed her a combat knife, something far less likely to cause damage beyond what was intentional. She quickly tossed aside the clumsy blaster for the more nimble knife. The weight felt surprisingly nice in her hand. She had only ever been used to holding dinner knives. Maddy was then told to stick to the centre of the group to which she had no complaints. “After you, dearie.” She smiled nervously.

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Pyrogram

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As Kaija aptly led the group and made sure to keep their most vulerable safe, every few minutes little Cregs the size of a wolf would run in front and from behind, seeking to take a nip out of whatever it could. They would be easily defeated with a simple slash or stab, a slight wound would cause the Creg to run away out of fear. Down here, Izoli were not the problem. These holding cells were barely used due to the lack of prisoners... In fact, the Time Keeper and the group had been the first in five months.

Once they reached a settlement the journey would become more problematic.

But until then, it wouldn't take long to get to the core. In fact, no longer than twenty minutes.

The core was surrounded by a metal labyrinth like maze, even the most knowledgeable inhabitant often found themselves getting lost without knowing the exact directions. There were multiple entrances to the internal part of the planet, where most of the population live. The core was a large city comprised of smaller cities on the surrounding bridges. Without the Time Keepers device it would have been next-to impossible to navigate to the middle of this planet, but with it, it would find them the most direct route. Unlike a standard navigation device, the Vortex Manipulator had a function that allowed it to find safe transport that could lead them to the middle instead of walking the entire way - In their case it would be a shuttle.

There was only one problem.

No Caption Provided

An absent-minded Dokoss had wondered down to one of the tunnels and had gotten itself trapped.

There it stood, breathing heavily before dropping to the ground with a thud, two gigantic grey palms plucking up and feasting on the remains of three Izoli warriors.

Dokoss were brutes, unable to comprehend anything bar violence. Primate in both nature and mind. Without dispute they were strongest native on Izol in terms of strength, capable of warding off an entire battalion of Izoli given the circumstances. Their hide is as thick and durable as steel and their strength dwarfing that of even the mightiest gorilla, capable of lifting well over ten tons with absolute ease.

What they lacked in strength against other races however they made up for in amble durability and endurance. Normally they were found dwelling around mountains, preferring to bask in the heat given off to keep warm. But clearly this one had been attracted down here somehow, possibly accidentally trapped by the Izoli burrowing above ground without checking the surroundings first.

Behind the hulking beast was the shuttle which would take them quite the distance to the centre, stopping off on one of the settlements.

With it's back pressed against the door, the Dokoss continued feasting on the Izoli carcass...

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@pyrogram: @ms_terry: @kaija: @lightning_god:

"Hm." A very soft sound, thoughtful, as Anakia slipped up to where Kaija was no doubt considering their next move. "I can take us past it," she said quietly, "But I'm not willing to try taking more than one person at a time, on strange ground." She didn't feel that it was worth fighting the thing just for the sake of doing so, especially when it didn't seem all that predisposed towards killing them.

She had killed a few of the smaller creatures that had attacked in the tunnels, habit and training prompting her to strike true. Assassins didn't tend to waste time - the entire concept of the way heroes and villains fought in the outer world, which seemed to be half talking to each other hand half probing at defenses until someone got bored and walked away - well, it was strange, to be certain. But it seemed to be the way that things were done here. The little creatures in the caves hadn't seemed to be very mindful, though, more animal than person. Anakia wasn't willing to bet on that, though. People came in all different shapes. There had been a point where two of them had attacked at once, though, and the second had run off after she'd killed the first. After that, she'd been more gentle with them, not seeing any need for unnecessary slaughter. A little tap with the blade was usually enough to discourage them back to the caves in search of easier prey.

This one... whatever it was, the large thing eating the corpses of the others... Anakia didn't really think it needed to be killed, if that could be avoided. Just because it had eating habits she didn't approve of wasn't really a reason for that. If nothing else, it was helping her by confirming her feeling that just because other people in the Outer World thought something should be eaten didn't mean that it wasn't at least partially sentient. She'd stick to plant-based things. As far as she knew there weren't any sentient plants out there.

Which, upon thinking about it, maybe wasn't a safe assumption either. It also didn't matter in the slightest, at the current time. She considered their small group. "I could take either you or my lord Outsider through first, to defend on that end while the other holds this ground with Ms. Maddy, and then pull her through next so she'd always have a protector. It wouldn't take long. Your decision, though."

Anakia still didn't feel comfortable being the one to give the orders. It wasn't something that she felt most of the other students understood - mostly, they seemed to be the sort who wanted to be the one in charge... even when they weren't necessarily the best suited for that position. It wasn't for her, though. It was possible that, in time, she'd learn to be a leader, but for now, she was content to follow along, where she was needed.

And where she was permitted. She glanced back down the corridors, and wondered what the Time Keeper was up to, and when they were going to see him again this time.

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Kaija

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@interstitial:

Kaija took a look over at the creature feeding on the carcasses and agreed with Anakia's sentiment. She was right. There was no need to start a fight that didn't need to be fought. But that didn't mean that they shouldn't expect one, all the same. She turned to Anakia and nodded in agreement.

"Ali can stay with Maddy for the moment. You and I should move first," she replied to Anakia before directing her voice towards the entire group, "She's right though. Don't bother starting a fight, just finish any fights that start. Eyes open, let's proceed."

With that, she would move with Anakia in an attempt to move past the brute and board the elevator without starting any unnecessary confrontation.

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Lightning_God

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@ms_terry: @kaija: @interstitial: @pyrogram:

Ali nodded at Kaija's suggestion, "Fine, I'll stay back with Miss Maddy, while Anakia ferries you over past that thing," He turned to face the woman from 1800. "Well, it looks like you're stuck with me for the moment Miss. Doesn't this frighten you even a bit?" He asked, giving the woman a curious glance. He'd then try to probe her mind, to learn her secrets. "I'm a powerful metahuman that can probably vaporize you in an instant," He attempted at a joke, to try and frighten the normal lady out of her wits. "Did you know that I could circle Earth something like 7 times in a second?"

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Ms_Terry

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Maddy gripped the combat knife tighter in her hand as she saw the hulking behemoth. Anakia had a good mind to avoid a confrontation with the thing. "The plan sounds... reasonable. In light of... things." She gulped, her eyes never leaving the monstrous alien. The threat was more alarming to her than the necrophagic behaviour. Many creatures possessed such a trait and were in fact beneficial to local ecosystems. But at the moment the smell that emanated from the corpse did nothing to settle her anxious stomach. "I look forward to moving onward as soon as possible."

Ali directed his attention to the librarian after hearing the suggested course of action. Her lips that had been tightly pressed to retain her composure spread into a nervous smile. "V-vaporize? You can do that? Great." Her voice cracked as she looked off growing all the more disturbed by the strange situation she found herself in. "Just what is it you do exactly? What does everyone here do?" She wondered why the bloody hell she was here when she had no special abilities of her own. Now she wondered if she was even safe with her companions. Her little knife seemed woefully inadequate.