Once Upon a Time (continued?)

[Dawn]

Previously:
Hours went by as Kristen laid in the hammock. The Phantom stood by, watching her sleep in a totally not creepy at all way. He understood that Kristen had traveled far and probably needed to rest, but this was starting to get crazy. The lightning bugs that had dotted the hillside dispersed and the moon had set, leaving everything in near complete darkness. Then a faint orange glow started to break on the horizon.

“Didn’t even know that there was a sun in this sector. I thought this was a realm of eternal night.”

“Ugghhhh are we still waiting for her,” said Mason, waking up from the sleeping gas.

The Phantom panicked and hit all three of his captives with another dose of sleeping gas. Then he looked over Kristen again.

“MY LOOOOOOVE… DAWN HAS BROKE…
{edits begin}
Kristen bolted upright and slugged the Phantom across the jaw. Blinking rapidly, Kristen shook her head, trying to clear it from the early morning fog.
“Wait what did you say? Oh…Phantom. It’s you…again,” Kristen sighed exasperatedly, “When will you learn that no means no?” The Phantom looked affronted, but Kristen carried on, “Who else there?”

Kristen perused the fainted crowd. “Ah, Josiah, Mason and Kye.”

“YES I BROUGHT THEM TOOOOO YOOO-”

“Shut up already Phantom,” Kristen snapped. She studied Mason for a moment. “Ah, look at the poor essenceless Time Lord. How WAS your time in the Power Bracelet? Was it as awful as my time? Or was it worse without your memories?” Kristen cackled. “Oh I know you can’t hear me right now, but in good time.”

Kristen grabbed Mason’s neck and teleported a short distance away. Taking a deep breath, she whispered “expergiscimini” and Mason’s eyes shot open. “There, isn’t that better?” Kristen murmured softly.

Mason stiffened immediately. “Oh come now, my old friend, need for alarm,” Kristen rebuked.

Mason’s jaw dropped. “NO NEED FOR ALARM? JUST PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1 IS ON THE LOOSE, NO NEED FOR ALARM.”

Kristen laughed, slightly condescending. “AHAHAHA. Oh Mason, Mason, you were always SO dramatic some times. You know, it’s recently become quite apparent to me that something happened to me in the Power Bracelet. I’m not sure if you suffered the same effect because, well..”

Kristen reached into her heart and pulled out a glowing orb. The orb seemed to gravitate towards Mason. “Ah ah ah,” tsked Kristen as she captured the orb again, “The essence always recognizes its owner, doesn’t it? But enough about that. I need your help. When I got out of that horrible Bracelet, something became dreadfully apparent. The Bracelet absorbed of my essence. And while I have a few essences that aren’t my own,” Kristen pulled out the orb and rolled it between her fingers, “That doesn’t replace MY essence. So I’ll offer you a deal. You find the Power Bracelet and fetch it for me, and I’ll return your essence. What do you say?”

[riseofthekumquat]

Mason stared back at Kristen, still dazed and nauseous from his transportation. Neither of them noticed the slight reflection of a camera lens coming from inside the bushes.
——————————————————————————
An Imperial Sparrow Droid (Model C3-8) broadcast live footage of the conversation to the bridge of The Paramount. Several Franklin’s were hard at work at the navigational devices.

“ZOOM AND ENHANCE,” Lord Kumquat ordered.

The camera zoomed in on Kristen’s hand, revealing the various orbs that she possessed.

“There they are!” marveled one of the Franklins.

“INDEED.”

“They’ve traveled through at least 3 realms, My Lord. Tracking their exact location will be impossible with all of the interference.”

“I FIGURED AS MUCH. CAN YOU AT LEAST IDENTIFY THE PLANET WHERE THEY FIRST STARTED REALM HOPING?”

“Earth, my Lord. All our readings suggest a massive amount of Time Lord energy on Earth.”

“OH, HOW FITTING. SET OUR COURSE AND PREPARE AN EXTRACTION TEAM, ADMIRAL. THIS IS WHAT WE’VE TRAVELED THE GALAXY FOR.”

The admiral runs off to do just that. An invisible hand hits a communication device and a hologram of Franklin 2265 appears.

“IS OUR PRISONER STILL IN THE SIMULATION?”

“Yes, my Lord, but just barely. He’s fighting us pretty hard.”

“IT WOULD APPEAR THAT YOUR INCOMPETENCE HAS BECOME AN ASSET, FORTUNATELY FOR YOU. WRAP UP THE SIMULATION AND RESTRAIN HIM. WE WILL NEED HIM AWAKE SOON ENOUGH.”

“Very well, my Lord. If I may be so bold, may I ask why you suddenly want to wake him up? Isn’t he still incredibly dangerous?”

“WE’RE HUNTING BIG GAME, 2265. WITH BIG GAME, YOU NEED BIG BAIT. PREPARE PETER TO MEET HIS CREATOR.”

[riseofthekumquat]

(I have a bit with Peter that I want to add, but I should probably wait for someone else to get involved. Or for someone to finish the scene with Mason and Kristen.)

[riseofthekumquat]

PREVIOUSLY ON ONCE UPON A TIME:
“Open your eyes,” Peter is still chanting as the bat-goblin creatures close in on him, “Open your eyes.”

Peter is awoken from his trance by the sound of something metal landing next to him. It’s a handgun. Peter really should have questioned where that had come from, but he’s not one to look a gift horse in the mouth in a situation like this. Peter grabs the gun and fires a round towards one creature, grazing its shoulder. Another one was in prime position to sneak up and take a bite out of him, but he puts the barrel in the creature’s mouth and blows its brains out. For a feeding frenzy mob that was all ready to take him down a minute ago, the creatures scattered almost immediately, flying away off in different directions of the hotel.

Peter climbs back over onto the right side of the railing and collapses into a heap, beyond exhausted. But then he hears something even more unsettling than the shrieks of the creatures.

“NO! GET BACK! NO! HELP!” screamed the voice of a girl from about three floors below him.

There might be another survivor in here, thought Peter, I need to save them before the creatures get there. Would one handgun be enough?

Wait, how did he not notice that closet up here before?

It’s open.

And inside there’s a shotgun, an ammo vest to carry all the shells, an ax, and some climbing rope.

Again, Peter didn’t have the time to stop and recognize how convenient this was. He had to get down there to save any survivors.

“It’s showtime.”
——————————————————————————————————————————

Peter wasn’t sure when the hallway was scarier: when he was being chased by hundreds of those bat-goblin things or when it was quiet enough for him to hear his own footsteps against the carpet. The holster on his right hip held the Mark XIX Desert Eagle .50 AE that had landed next to him. He wore a heavy-duty ammo vest, carrying both 7 round clips for the Desert Eagle and a massive amount of shotgun shells. Tied to his left hip was the ax and rope and in his hands, he held a Franchi SPAS-12 combat shotgun (most commonly known as that gun from Jurassic Park). He pointed it out in front of him, in the pump action mode. His fear combination of fear, adrenaline, and excitement at being able to use these types of weapons led to him growing more and more trigger happy, as he would often imagine shadows peaking out from behind open doors in the distance.

You would think the most prominent question on his mind would be why this stash that would make a Navy Seal blush suddenly just appeared to him out of nowhere.

But nope.

“There’s got to be a way to get to the lower floors,” he muttered to himself, “jumping from that balcony is suicide.”

He remembered that the elevator took him directly to his room, but he reasoned that there had to be some kind of transportation between floors. This hotel couldn’t function if there was no way to travel between floors. Was there some kind of Harry Potter fireplace thing that he had to jump into to teleport? He was still trying to figure out if he had any kind of hidden powers. The man told him earlier that he had the ability to turn invisible, but Peter was starting to doubt everything about this place.

“‘There are so many things to do here! The possibilities are endless!’,” he bitterly mocked the man’s claims, “‘You get eaten, you can die, you die and then get eaten…'”

As Peter went over his day, he started to remember his dreams. *Wake up* the voices had said. *WAKE UP*

In the middle of recalling his dreams, the hallway opened up and suddenly he could see the ballroom. The ballroom that had been miles below him was now 3 floors below him. He didn’t climb down any stairs, he didn’t find an elevator, the hallway was completely horizontal. And yet, there it is: the chandelier that had previously been a barely visible dot shimmering in the distance was right in front of him, just out of arms reach. Peter felt more nauseous now than at any point during the night and to make matters worse, he heard some of the creatures voices’.

Then he heard a scream.

Peter mustered up some courage and peeked over the railing. On the ground floor, three people were surrounded by hundreds of those creatures. Even at a distance, he recognized one of the figures as his grandfather. How did his grandfather get here? Was he kidnapped? Did he get horribly lost looking for Peter after he left? So many questions and so little time to speculate. He and a boy, most likely in his early teens, were being held in place by a trio of the bat-goblins while a girl, most likely in her early twenties, was singled out by a different pair of the monsters and being dragged towards a table near the center of the ballroom. The table was surrounded by two circles of painted stones; some sort of ritual, perhaps? The girl screamed and kicked, significantly hampering the bat-goblins’ progress, but then another pair was called in to assist and they took a firm grip on her legs. Peter didn’t have much time to act: whatever they were planning on doing, it was going to happen soon. His shotgun was very short range, so if he wanted to land a clean shot on any of them it would have to be with the pistol. He quickly devised a way to get a more open vantage point. He tied one end of his climbing rope to his vest and another end to the railing. After tugging at the rope several times to test the integrity of the knot, he took several deep breaths.

“This is for grandpa.”

And also she’s kinda hot, added a voice in Peter’s head.

“Dude, shut up.”

No, you shut up.

Before Peter could take any second thoughts, he hurled himself over the side of the railing and stuck the landing as his momentum carried him back into the wall. He stood horizontally, pushing off the wall, aiming at the nearest creature that he could feasibly hit.

Steady, he thought to himself, you need to make this a clean shot and then use the confusion to climb back up.

Then suddenly, there was a horrifying creaking sound in the rope. Peter looked up to see the rope slowly unraveling from the railing end.

“Wait, wouldn’t it be much more likely for it to come loose on my end considering that I only tied it to my ve- AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!,” Peter screamed as he free-fell three stories onto another wooden table in the ballroom. He swung his ax to try and get a grip on some part of the wall, but he missed. The crashing and splintering of wood echoed through the now silent ballroom. With a guttural moan, Peter signified his displeasure at having survived the fall. After a few moments, he rolled onto his side and dragged himself to his feet, coughing and shaking. The entire group just watched him. Even the girl, who in all likelihood was about to be sacrificed to a pagan deity of some sort stared at him like he was somehow the weirdest thing in the room. Peter bent down, groaning in pain, and picked up his ax. He then addressed the group.

“Hello there.”

Without another split second of hesitation, one of the bat-goblins flew at Peter, shrieking horribly. Peter raised his ax.

“Hey, my hands are kind of full. Do you mind holding this for a minute?”

And then he slammed the blade of the ax through the creatures’ head and pinning the thing into the floor.He then twirled out his pump-action shotgun, which had been loaded with slug rounds. Another bat-goblin flew at him an burst apart as a slug round hit it in the chest. Then he one-hit-killed two other ones that flew at him and kicked a maid cart towards the group that had tried to start their ritual with the girl. He tossed his pistol to the girl, who hit the closest creature to her dead between the eyes before almost hitting herself with the barrel of the gun on the recoil. Peter blasted apart two more bat-goblins as they swarmed towards her and then helped pull her off the table. She shot the creature that was holding the younger boy back, which provoked it to charge. When it did, Peter finished it off with a shotgun blast and then quickly tried to reload his weapon. The girl shot one of the creatures that was holding Peter’s grandfather and when that one flew at the girl, Peter swung his empty shotgun like a baseball bat and separated its head from its body. As Peter returned to reloading the gun, he was blindsided by one of the creatures. It pinned Peter to the ground and snapped its teeth in his face. Suddenly the top of its head was missing and it fell over. Peter’s grandfather stood triumphantly, holding the ax.

“You almost killed me, grandpa!”

“My vision ain’t gone yet, boy,” his grandpa retorted, “You’re welcome, by the way.”

Suddenly there was a scream and Peter felt a tug on his vest. The scream was from the girl, who had been bear-hugged from behind by one of the creatures and couldn’t get a clean shot on it. Then Peter saw what the tug on his vest was: the young teenage boy had grabbed the end of Peter’s climbing rope, mounted the creature, and was strangling it with the rope. After a few seconds, the creature let go of the girl and fell over. Thinking quickly, Peter’s grandfather chopped part of the rope off before Peter was dragged away. The creature put up a good fight but eventually succumbs to suffocation. The four stood back-to-back, Peter reloading his shotgun, his grandpa brandishing the ax, the girl with the Desert Eagle, and the boy with the rope. The bat-goblins stood at a distance, jumping up and down and cackling like chimps.

Then everything went quiet as something very big fell from the ceiling and then rose to its feet.

It looked like the old man that Peter had met the day before or at least it had his face. This creature was about 9 feet tall, had disproportionately large, skinny hands, and had bat-wings growing out of its back, just like the creatures that surrounded them on all sides.

“You should have just stayed in your room, Peter,” said the man. “You really would have enjoyed your stay so much more.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it would’ve been much easier for your minions to eat me if I were still asleep.”

“You could’ve had those powers, Peter. We could’ve made you one of us.”

For the first time, the creatures began to chant in English.

“ONE. OF. US.” echoed the surrounding horde, “ONE. OF. US. ONE. OF. US. ONE. OF. US. ONE. OF. US.”

“You could finally have that adventure that you were looking for. We could grant you- AGGGGHHHHHH!”

Peter unloaded a slug round up into the man’s chest, pumped the chamber then shot another one and then another one and then another one before the man slapped the gun out of his hands and tossed the girl, the boy, and his grandfather against the wall. The man reached out and engulfed Peter’s neck, shoulders, and most of his torso in his hand and raised him up.

“Oh well,” he said dismissively, “such a waste.”

And then he began to squeeze the life out of Peter. He soon began to grow purple as he desperately tried to free his arms. He could hear popping and cracking and he was starting to lose consciousness.

Then the voices returned.

Open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes open your eyes Open your eyes Open your eyes Open your eyes Open your eyes Open your eyes Open your eyes Open your eyes Open your eyes Open your eyes Open your eyes Open your eyes OPEN your eyes OPEN your eyes OPEN your eyes OPEN your eyes OPEN your eyes OPEN your eyes OPEN your eyes OPEN your eyes OPEN YOUR eyes OPEN YOUR eyes OPEN YOUR eyes OPEN YOUR eyes OPEN YOUR eyes wake up OPEN YOUR eyes OPEN YOUR eyes OPEN YOUR eyes OPEN YOUR EYES OPEN YOUR EYES OPEN YOUR EYES OPEN wake up YOUR EYES OPEN YOUR EYES OPEN YOUR EYES wake up OPEN YOUR EYES OPEN YOUR EYES OPEN YOUR EYES OPEN YOUR EYES OPEN YOUR EYES OPEN YOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESwakeupOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUwakeupOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOURwakeupEYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESwakeupOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENwakeupYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESwakeupOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOURwakeupEYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYESOPENYOUREYES

AWAKE!

And suddenly Peter’s eyes were filled with a golden energy and he forced his right arm up, out of the grip of the man, and seized his surprisingly skinny wrist. He began to squeeze his wrist right back and the man screeched in pain. Flashes of gold light arched through Peter’s body and violently penetrated the man’s arm. The aurora around Peter grew brighter and brighter until it was blinding. And with the sound of a thousand creatures screaming in mortal agony, the light show concluded and just the four humans remained.

Peter kneeled on the ground, gasping for air and in complete disbelief.

WHAT. WAS. THAT?

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Good work, son.”

“Thanks, grandpa, but… heh, I honestly… I don’t know what I did.”

“You saved us,” the girl chimed in, “that’s what you did.”

“Well, yeah, but I mean how was that possible? There was lightning and- ohhh.”

Peter was completely caught off guard by how quickly this girl wrapped him in a hug. She was a solid 5 to inches shorter than him with sandy blonde hair and she smelled like pineapple. Given all that was going on before, this was where their first formal introduction should have been.

“Please don’t leave. I feel so much safer with you around.”

Peter almost turned purple all over again with how hard he was blushing.

“Well, yeah. Of course, I’ll stick around. But you seemed like a pretty good shot with that pistol, I don’t know how much protection you ne- OOOMMF”

She had reached her arms around his neck and dragged him down to her face level and started kissing him. As she pulled away, Peter caught a glimpse of her piercing blue eyes.

“Oh,” was all Peter could get out at first.

“Please stay,” she said, more softly now.

“You remind me of someone,” Peter said after a minute, “What’s your name?”

“Stick around and you’ll find out,” she said coyly.

“Yeah, you definitely seem familiar,” Peter said in a trance.

He was so lost in her eyes that he forgot all about his grandfather and the girl’s younger brother, who were standing about 10 feet away probably feeling really uncomfortable. He put his hand against her cheek and she leaned into it, even putting her own hand against his as the two stared deeper into each other’s eyes.

Awake, came the whisper again, A W A K E.

Something felt off. The girl’s cheek had been soft, smooth, and warm, but then there was another quality that he couldn’t quite pin down. The golden energy from before began to pulse through Peter’s veins. Suddenly, out of some subconscious provoking, he began to push against her cheek.

“Babe, what are you doing?”

Babe? They hadn’t even exchanged real names and now they had pet names. There was resistance against his hand, but it no longer felt like the kind that would normally come from human flesh.

“BABE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” she said as Peter suddenly began to push harder.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” said his grandfather and her brother, both in unnerving unison.

Then with a pulse of gold energy, his hand completely passed through her face and her imaged rippled as if she were a reflection in a pond.

“YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE DONE THAT!” she said, this time in a pitched-down voice.

But Peter had already figured out what was going on. With several Dragon Ball Z/The Last Airbender hand motions, he surrounded himself with the golden energy and then screamed out “BE GONE.”

The other three humans began to glitch in and out of existence and all around the room glowing green bits of code began to appear. Then the people disappeared entirely and the indignant, low pitched screams of his not-girlfriend were replaced with the sound of metal being torn as a massive white glowing hole appeared at the end of the room. Then everything got unbearably quiet. All that Peter could hear was the sound of his own breathing. The code continued to glitch in and out of existence like faulty wiring in an abandoned house and Peter was left with only two options: sit there or walked through the sketchy hole in the fabric of reality.

Several minutes passed.

“Screw it,” he finally said, “if I’m going to die, I might as well be productive. In we go!”

He stepped into the glow of the portal and whatever lied beyond.

[DScott]

Brooke shielded her eyes from the two suns and surveyed the land ahead from the cliff she found herself upon. If the people from the town she left 3 miles behind her were correct, there would be another town conveniently in just another 15 miles. Even so, she had more than her share of walking the past month. She started walking.

She had gotten caught up in the portal along with Peter, Dawn, and Manalive, but something pulled Peter away from them, and had the after effect of throwing her out also, away from Dawn and Manalive. When she landed she managed to find civilization and discover that, though ancient, there were records of Time Lords in this world.

She went into the town and found directions to the outpost, grabbed supplies, and was on her way again. Night would soon fall, but she went on. She hadn’t been a Time Lord long when Kristen had started manipulating her. It was too easy too. But after walking by herself for pretty much a month she had dealt with it. When Josiah First confronted her in Hyrule, she was sorry, but part of her was just sorry she got caught, and not to mention angry about being abandoned by Kristen.

She came to the stone building. It was still shut. None had tried getting inside, apparently it was too weird. Besides, anyone but a Time Lord would have all sorts of trouble opening the door, and even then, she might have some issues since this station was from earlier Time Lords. None the less she managed to open the door. Everything was undisturbed, she might have a chance at finding what she was looking for. She entered and closed the door behind her.

She made her way to a center chamber that had a circle that was just a step up surrounded by four pillars. That’s what she needed. She turned around and started looking for a spell room. She found it without much trouble. If luck was with her, the spell she needed was still intact. She looked around glass bottles and jars, and rummaged through the books and scrolls until she found everything she needed. A book with an incantation and a jar of Jtary. She ran back to the center chamber.

Brooke stepped into the middle of the circle and leafed through the book. She found the right page and started reading. If the spell worked, she would be taken to the Time Lord homeworld. From there, she would be able to find things that would allow her to join back with the others. From there she would try and undo what she had done.

“Lom yishan catagelophobia …” She pillars started shaking, it was working. She opened the jar as she continued speaking. “… Clomro Agoraphobia!”

With the final words of the spell everything began to shake, and a glow emanated in front of her. She was ecstatic when the portal followed the glow. After about a month she would found out what happened to everyone. Then the glow stopped. The shaking stopped, and the portal disappeared. It hadn’t worked. Maybe she did it wrong. Maybe she mispronounced something. Maybe everything here was just too old, and outdated. Whatever the reason, she lost her one chance. The jar was empty, and it was the only one she had found.

Brooke sat down and just stared a moment. All she had done since being separated was pointless now. No. She wouldn’t be defeated. The spell didn’t work, but that didn’t mean the outpost was useless to her. She might be able make more jars of Jtary, and try again. She had to, so she could make amends.
With that she stood up and turned around to see what resources she had. She didn’t go far when she heard a hum from behind her. She turned around to see a portal spit a man out. He landed on his face as a metal box rolled from his hand, Brooke was taken aback by the sudden appearance of the paranoid looking stranger as he struggled to stand up.

He managed to find his balance. “We – uhr. I did it. I escaped.” It was Peter’s brief companion, Douglas.

[Masøn M.]

({Quarry flashing fear of being ridiculed. [?] fear of situations out of your control.} is what I got from unreliable Google translate. Agoraphobia is all too close to home for me heh… Also every time I hear Douglas I think of this XD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-IV1Wdo1S4)

[DScott]

(I’ve never heard of that movie.)

[riseofthekumquat]

“Pyrophobia!” barked out Brooke as a blue energy materialized in her hand. She raised her weapon, ready to strike.

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa! I mean you no harm! Let’s not get hasty here,” Douglas said frantically.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Douglas and I know what happened to Peter.”

“Start talking then.”

“That portal was created by the Anti Cerebral Control Unit, an elite branch of the Galactic Riech. The Dimensional Net, the device that they used, is hardly ever used because it causes situations like this. They must have really wanted to get Peter. Anyway, I was a mole planted by the ACCU by TOPHAT back when they still used multiple employees. Now they operate exclusively with Franklin clones. I was the only remaining non-Franklin left and they kept me on for quite a while, so I’m sure they were onto me.”

“What are they doing with Peter?”

“I don’t know. I tried to break him free, but their portal defenses are top notch. And that’s why we need to get out of here as soon as possible. I spent hours working on their code to try and get me a window of opportunity, but… I think that they let me go.”

Brooke raised her weaponized hand again, “So you’re leading them here!?”

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold on! So long as we move quickly, we’ve got a chance to outrun them. But you need me as much as I need you.”

“And why is that?” Brooke scoffed.

Douglas reached for the metal box that he was carrying with him.

[Dawn]

Previously:
Dawn stepped out and gasped. A bespectacled man with blonde hair stood there, one who bore an uncanny resemblance to…
“Chris?!?”
“Yes, I believe that’s my name.”
“Where’s Dame Imraldera? Where’s Ryan? LUME’S LIGHT WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?” Dawn glanced over at Manalive and grinned like a child. “I’ve always want to say that.”
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
“Dame Imraldera left me here to demonstrate something to you…something I believe you know but you refuse to use.” Chris said.
Dawn’s eyes hardened. “That is not an option,” she declared firmly.
Manalive looked confused.

Chris reached up, grabbed his glasses and took them off. His body shimmered for a second, and then settled back.

“Oh hey there! I’m Ryan Matlock, I suppose Chris had to go wrestle that darn pig again,” Ryan joked. He winked at the confused Manalive.

Dawn glanced at Manalive. “You do the same thing, you know. But not quite to the same degree as I have, and I haven’t quite reached the point of
Chris/Ryan,” Dawn explained.

“Um. I don’t think I understand.” Manalive said.

Dawn continued. “People use different names sometimes. Like Sam and Manalive, Ryan and Chris, Dawn and,” Dawn caught herself; then continued in another direction, “Sometimes, they’re synonyms, like Manalive/Sam. Your essence remains whole and intact. Sometimes they split, like Ryan and Chris, but only one essence can manifest at a time. Sometimes they split completely, like Douglas and Franklin.”

Manalive and Ryan stretched nearly simultaneously, and their eyelids began to droop.

Dawn sighed deeply and glowed apprehensively. “I don’t know if I’ve split or since I’ve promised never to reveal my true name, but…”
She shimmered slightly, and then stopped glowing. Reaching into her heart, she pulled out a glowing orb. “I still have my true essence. Kristen only took Dawn’s essence. But I can only access this when I call myself by my true name or someone else does.”

Carefully, she put it back, shimmered again, and began glowing the red of embarrassment. “I feel so incredibly vulnerable when I’m not Dawn though; which is why I’m not ever going to use this again unless literally it’s the end of the world. As Dawn, even essenceless and glowing, I feel safe. Like no one can really hurt me.”
Dawn paused a moment. “Also, someone really has to interrupt my monologues; I give too much away.” She glanced down. Ryan and Manalive lay on the ground, passed out.
“I guess I AM worse than a boring teacher. All I give is backstory and no action.” Dawn laughed at herself. “Wake up you guys, I’m done now.”

“Are you really?” Yawned Manalive.

“Yes really.” Dawn chuckled. “Let’s have some action shall we? What are the odds that three days have passed?”

Manalive cocked his head, confused.

“HEY JOSIAH. I KNOW YOU CAN HERE ME. I KNOW YOUR ALWAYS THEIR. I ALSO KNOW YOU CAN EVEN HERE MY GRAMMER ERRORS”
Josiah appeared and promptly corrected Dawn, “No no no. I know you can HEAR me, I know YOU’RE always THERE. I also know you can HEAR my GRAMMATICAL errors.”

Dawn smiled, as smug as the Cheshire Cat. “Thank you for coming Josiah.”

They set off, out of the Haven. Ryan remained on the ground, passed out from Dawn’s monologue.

“We need a way out of here and back to TOPHAT to sort everything out,” Dawn stated.

“Well, since the Wood Between is full of Gates, if we had our powers, we could probably just force a gate to open momentarily and go back to headquarters.” Manalive pondered.

“Do you remember the word?” Dawn questioned as they approached a possible gate

Manalive hesitated. “Uhhh…patentibus I think?”

Dawn bowed before Josiah. “President, would you mind doing the honors?”

[Dawn]

******(FIXED VERSION)*****

“Dame Imraldera left me here to demonstrate something to you…something I believe you know but you refuse to use.” Chris said.
Dawn’s eyes hardened. “That is not an option,” she declared firmly.
Manalive looked confused.
Chris reached up, grabbed his glasses and took them off. His body shimmered for a second, and then settled back.
“Oh hey there! I’m Ryan Matlock, I suppose Chris had to go wrestle that darn pig again,” Ryan joked. He winked at the confused Manalive.
Dawn glanced at Manalive. “You do the same thing, you know. But not quite to the same degree as I have, and I haven’t quite reached the point of Chris/Ryan,” Dawn explained.
“Um. I don’t think I understand.” Manalive said.
Dawn continued. “People use different names sometimes. Like Sam and Manalive, Ryan and Chris, Dawn and,” Dawn caught herself; then continued in another direction, “Sometimes, they’re synonyms, like Manalive/Sam. Your essence remains whole and intact. Sometimes they split, like Ryan and Chris, but only one essence can manifest at a time. Sometimes they split completely, and have separate bodies.”
Manalive and Ryan stretched nearly simultaneously, and their eyelids began to droop.
Dawn sighed deeply and glowed apprehensively. “I don’t know if I’ve split or since I’ve promised never to reveal my true name, but…”
She shimmered slightly, and then stopped glowing. Reaching into her heart, she pulled out a glowing orb. “I still have my true essence. Kristen only took Dawn’s essence. But I can only access this when I call myself by my true name or someone else does.”
Carefully, she put it back, shimmered again, and began glowing the red of embarrassment. “I feel so incredibly vulnerable when I’m not Dawn though; which is why I’m not ever going to use this again unless literally it’s the end of the world. As Dawn, even essenceless and glowing, I feel safe. Like no one can really hurt me.”
Dawn paused a moment. “Also, someone really has to interrupt my monologues; I give too much away.” She glanced down. Ryan and Manalive lay on the ground, passed out.
“I guess I AM worse than a boring teacher. All I give is backstory and no action.” Dawn laughed at herself. “Wake up you guys, I’m done now.”
“Are you really?” Yawned Manalive.
“Yes really.” Dawn chuckled. “Let’s have some action shall we?”
They set off, out of the Haven. Ryan remained on the ground, passed out from Dawn’s monologue.
“We need a way out of here and back to TOPHAT to sort everything out,” Dawn stated.
“Well, since the Wood Between is full of Gates, if we had our powers, we could probably just force a gate to open momentarily and go back to headquarters.” Manalive pondered.
“Do you remember the word?” Dawn questioned as they approached a possible gate
Manalive hesitated. “Uhhh…patentibus I think?”
Dawn let out a shaky sigh as she flared a nervous purple. Then she shimmered, and stopped glowing.

She faced the gate. Then, putting every ounce of authority in her voice, she cried “PATENTIBUS TO TOPHAT!”

[Manalive Smith]

I am genuinely confused as to what all has been going on here. Chris is Ryan? Douglas is Franklin? Who’s Douglas!

[riseofthekumquat]

(You forgot your parentheses)

[Masøn M.]

(I guess that’s canon now…)

[DScott]

(Super Chris, who separated everyone, isn’t Ryan, but Ryan’s Alter ego, Chris, is.)

[riseofthekumquat]

For a long moment, nothing happened. Manalive and Ryan shared a concerned look, while Dawn stared at the gate with her brow furrowed. Then suddenly the massive gates start to creak open, with circus music coming from the inside. The tune sounds oddly mechanical as if they were coming from a giant music box. The trio stands there, surprised that the spell actually worked.

“Shall we?” Dawn coaxed.

“Not bad,” Ryan said.

“Well, lucky guess,” Manalive deflected.

While they were busy celebrating their success, the door started to creak shut. As they started to look up the gate was almost closed again.

“NO!” they all simultaneously screamed as they sprinted for the gate, but it was too late. Ryan made a diving attempt to get through the door but smacked his head as the gate slammed shut.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said ‘momentarily,’ what was that? 7 seconds?” Manalive mused.

“PATENTIBUS TO TOPHAT!” yelled Dawn, this time with anger in her voice.

The gate slowly creaked open and the two of them sprinted through the opening, then grabbed a clearly concussed Ryan by the arms and dragged him through to the other side.

[riseofthekumquat]

PREVIOUSLY:
“But Peter had already figured out what was going on. With several Dragon Ball Z/The Last Airbender hand motions, he surrounded himself with the golden energy and then screamed out ‘BE GONE.’

The other three humans began to glitch in and out of existence and all around the room glowing green bits of code began to appear. Then the people disappeared entirely and the indignant, low pitched screams of his not-girlfriend were replaced with the sound of metal being torn as a massive white glowing hole appeared at the end of the room. Then everything got unbearably quiet. All that Peter could hear was the sound of his own breathing. The code continued to glitch in and out of existence like faulty wiring in an abandoned house and Peter was left with only two options: sit there or walked through the sketchy hole in the fabric of reality.

Several minutes passed.

‘Screw it,” he finally said, “if I’m going to die, I might as well be productive. In we go!’

He stepped into the glow of the portal and whatever lied beyond.”
———————————————————————————————————————————-

Peter stepped out of the portal and onto a landscape clothed in green grass and blanketed in stars.

Gallifrey, whispered the winds around Peter.

“What?”

The homeworld of the Time Lords, the whisper in the wind clarified, over 7 billion years ago.

“Do you want to just give me all the exposition at once so that I’m not just wondering around aimlessly for hours?”

No response.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

So he was on a different planet, millions of years before his birth. Or at least a simulation of said planet at said time. Peter was really getting fed up with all these fake realities and simulations. He lay on the grass, gazing up at the fledgling Milky Way galaxy, and pondered the deeper questions of reality and if dating an aggressively clingy computer simulation actually would’ve been that bad. He thought about his grandfather and Carlos back home. He even missed his step-mother as much as they fought. At least she was there, at least she cared. Peter didn’t have time to think about it, but technically he was on a quest to defeat his real mother. He was an experiment, a conglomeration of other life essences to recreate his mother’s ex-boyfriend. And she abandoned him. Genetically, Peter is a Time Lord, but he was raised amidst humans on Earth during medieval times and carried with him memories of previous lives. A Time Lord could live for thousands of years, but Peter had only turned 18 recently. His destiny, his place in the universe, his mere existence perplexed Peter.

His concentration was broken by the beam of a flashlight that flickering through the trees. Peter rose to his feet and tried to identify the light’s source through the tree line, but it was quickly fading. Against Peter’s better judgment, he decided to follow the light. It took what felt like hours to navigate through the forest before he came across a massive collection of boulders.

No, he realized, not boulders. Gravestones. Thousands of them. Upon closer examination, none of them had birthdates and he had a hard time figuring out what their death dates read, given that this was taking place 7 billion years ago. Then he caught a fresh glimpse of that beam of light he had been following. The owner of the light had come to a stop in front of one of the stones, kneeling in front of it. It was a young boy, couldn’t have been older than 11 or 12. He wore a dark grey coat and carried a leather backpack. He whispered towards the grave marker, choking back tears. The marker read “Daniel Marks: The Brave.” Peter wanted to comfort him, but he wasn’t sure if his presence would be welcomed.

“Beautiful night for a walk,” he said out loud, not necessarily toward the boy but it couldn’t have been directed at anyone else.

The startled boy quickly wiped at his tears and sniffled deeply.

“Oh, yeah. Isn’t it always?”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

For a long, awkward moment Peter searched for a conversational topic other than what was right in front of him.

“So… is that your brother?”

“My father,” the boy corrected.

“Oh, I’m sorry” Peter replied.

“And my mother.”

Peter raised an eyebrow.

“They were buried together.”

“Oh.”

“They wouldn’t give her a headstone because she isn’t one of us.”

“One of us?”

“A Time Lord.”

“Ah. How did-” Peter caught himself.

“How did they die?” the boy finished Peter’s thought.

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to put you through that. That was a stupid thing to ask.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m used to the questions. Long story short, Benedict the Eldest…”

Evidently, the story hadn’t gotten any easier to tell.

“Look, man, you don’t have to-”

“Benedict the Eldest sent my parents to the front lines,” the boy recounted, shaking violently and growing angrier with every passing syllable, “He killed them! He murdered them and nobody cares! They could’ve lived forever! We all could’ve been together forever and he sent them to die! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HIM!”

The boy punched one of the stones and then doubled over in pain. He couldn’t hold back the tears this time, the pain of it all was too much. Peter embraced him and the two stood there in the moonlit graveyard for several minutes, as the boy softly wept. After a while, the boy’s breathing started to return to normal.

“Let me see that hand,” Peter said.

The boy’s fist was deeply bruised, but upon examination, it was not broken.

“So what did you mean earlier when you said that they could live forever?”

“You actually aren’t from around here, are you?”

“No, sorry. I didn’t realize it was that obvious.”

“Off-world, Time-Lords have a finite amount of time to live and are mortal. But so long as the Grand Oak remains in-tact, any Time Lord living here is immortal and invulnerable.”

“Oh, I see. How does that work?”

There was a sudden change in the boy’s eyes, the flash of energy when one gets an idea but then quickly tries to hide it.

“Let me show you.”

The pair walked out of the graveyard and about 15 minutes south until they hit a metropolitan city made up almost entirely of glass. It was almost impossible to distinguish various skyscrapers from one another at a distance with all of the various lights reflecting off of them. Hordes of unattended children chased after each other, couples watched from cafe tables. There was a strange, sterile mix of commotion and peace about every aspect of this place. The boy led Peter along the wide brick road that cut through the buildings, as they drew closer and closer to a building that vaguely resembled the Greek Parthenon. As they walked around the back of the building and walked up the steps, Peter eyes the boy nervously.

Were they allowed to do this?

The boy climbed over a fence and instructed Peter to do the same.

Probably not.

“Well, here she is,” the boy said, as they walked into the open-air room. In the center of the room grew a massive oak tree, roughly 50-feet tall in height. A lime-green aurora shimmered around the tree, illuminating the room and Peter could swear he heard… voices coming from it.

“So this is the Great Oak?” Peter asked.

“In all it’s glory. I’ve never had the chance to get this close to it.”

Suddenly they were hit with the large beam of an incredibly powerful flashlight.

“ECH-HEM,” muttered a security guard.

“Uh, good evening,” said Peter, nervously.

“How can I help you?” asked the guard, sarcastically.

“You can die,” said the boy, coldly.

Peter and the guard looked back at the boy, stunned.

“Excuse me?” asked the guard.

The boy’s backpack began to glow a light shade of orange.

“You, and your Eldest, and your society that sends lessers and undesirables to do your dirty work,” declared the boy, “CAN ALL DIE!”

And with that, the light from the backpack became almost blinding, as the boy whipped it off and hurled it against the tree. The tree exploded, splintering it into millions of pieces. The force of the explosion knocked all of them back. The guard was incinerated by the heat of the blast almost immediately and Peter could feel his body beginning to unravel.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Peter shot up out of his simulation pod in ACCU Room 236, shattering the glass as he sat upright. The numerous Franklin’s jumped back as the still screaming Peter tried to come to grips with his reality. All Peter could remember is that Douglas had told him these guys were bad so he jumped out of his pod and sprinted for the door. One of the Franklin’s picked up a rifle and started firing shots at Peter. He ducked and dodged out of the way of every single blast fired his way, finally making his way to the door. He slammed his hand on the button that opened the door, but as the door slid open his path was blocked by a large orange object. Peter flew back and slammed into the far wall, being held there by an invisible force. The large orange object levitated into the room.

“GOOD TO SEE YOU’RE AWAKE NOW, PETER. WE HAVE A FEW THINGS TO DISCUSS.”

[Brooke AC]

Without a trademark

[DScott]

I suppose so.

[Brooke AC]

You suppose correctly

[DScott]

Silence’s volume had never been greater in a place than here. The Corridors were dark with inactivity. It had been this way since the Eldest escaped the Power Bracelet. Any members of TOPHAT that Kristen hadn’t dropped into another dimension, had long since fled into the world outside the doors. But the emptiness was about to disappear. In the main hall, sound of a footsteps decimated the silence. A sliver of light appeared in the center of the room, and doors opened up, and Dawn, Manalive, and Ryan stepped through, onto the Green and orange rug. The doors closed behind them releasing them dark again. They moved forward, stirring up dust in the wake of their walk.

“Manalive, how long has everyone been gone?” asked Manalive.

“Longer than think. We should figure out our next step.” Dawn replied while glowing blue.

They walked by her light to the meeting room. They came to it to find the glass doors shattered. Most likely from when Kristen was there last.

“Well, I think it would be ‘sharp’ of us to find somewhere else to plan.” Quipped Ryan.

“Probably so.” Agreed Dawn

Dawn and Ryan moved on, but Manalive lingered a moment before following. They eventually found a room to set up shop in, which was probably better anyways, since it was closer to the armory. They said little as they worked to clear what they could. They really only needed to work in a few rooms for now, so they made quick work of what needed to be done.

They finished their work and sat down at the table to discuss plans.

Manalive started. “We need to rejoin with the others.”

“Definitely.” Replied Dawn. “And we might also want to figure out who it was who separated us.”

“I didn’t really get a look at him.”

“Guys, I really hate to put a damper on your plans, but how are we going to find your friends if we don’t even know what world they’re in?” Ryan asked.

They looked down for a moment, and let that question sink in.

Manalive broke the silence first. “Dawn can use a locating spell –”

“I can’t Manalive. Not without my Time Lord Essence. There a lot of spells I can’t do anymore.”

“We can leave this world though? Right?” Queried Ryan.

“We can use something like Josiah’s Snowglobe, but it wouldn’t be as portable as it is.”

“Wait.” Ryan noted. “Snowglobe? I don’t ‘snow’ what you mean.”

“Josiah has a snowglobe that he uses for interdimensional hopping.” Manalive informed.

“Oh. I see.”

“I’m not sure any of us are licensed to use one though.”

Dawn sighed. “We can jump from world to world and look for them that way, but that would take a lot of time.
“Well, there’s not much more we can do right now. Tomorrow we’ll have a lot more work ahead of us, so we’d better rest.”

And they did just that. The next day, they scavenged for supplies around TOPHAT, and discussed their next course of action. They discovered that many of the records of worlds had been destroyed, which made their job a lot harder. The next day was quite similar, as were the days following. They cleaned out the armory, they gathered ingredients for casting spells without Time Lord essence, and of course they managed to get food.
That’s how it was for a while. Dawn looked at a portrait of those involved in TOPHAT. Josiah was there, along with Mason, Manalive, Kye, Brooke, and herself. An unfamiliar noise disturbed her study. She turned around to see what was causing it. A portal was opening up behind her.

“Manalive, Ryan!”

They responded to her call in the room, just in time to see the portal finish opening. Dawn glowed purple a moment, but it quickly passed. They needed to be ready for whatever came through.

Brooke came out accompanied by Douglas.

Douglas came out mumbling. “I knew I should have charged it more, I should have …”

“BROOKE!” Exclaimed Dawn.

[Brooke AC]

(I really need to read this story)

[DScott]

(Have you read any of this thread yet?)

[Brooke AC]

(Nope. I only made it through like 3 pages of the story. The whole moving to college thing has been crazy.)

[DScott]

(I see. I myself am currently living on campus at a college.)

[Brooke AC]

(Indeed! I hope all is well!)

[DScott]

(At the start of the semester I had some problems, but it’s better now.)

[Brooke AC]

(I’m glad it’s better! Yeah, it’s been rough in some ways. But I’m thankful for my friends and family and the comfort God’s given me. It’s weird, but good.)

[DScott]

(Weird is normal I feel like.)

[Brooke AC]

(Weird is normal. What used to be normal is gone, and idk when there will actually be a sense of normalcy again. But it’s ok, I guess.)

[DScott]

(Life is never normal. Sometimes I convince myself it is, even though it isn’t.)

[Author]

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