Out of Time the Grand Quest

by Christopher Douglass

  “Of course dear.”

  Misha hobbled over, plucking a hair from the knights head and wrapping it around a straw doll. She mumbled over the doll while pushing pins into it. The knight let out a sigh, the pain easing from his face.

  “Thanks Misha.”

  “Leave it to Misha. She knows how to take care of you.”

  A cheer from outside made Jordon run to see what was going on. The remainder of the forces were returning to the encampment. They looked battered, bruised, and tired, but they were alive and victorious. Some of the creature bodies were vanishing into thin air as white lights. The rest were being pulled into the forest by giant trees or piled up farther away to act as a wall against the next wave.

  Jordon ran to meet Joel who ruffled his hair absently, as he drank a large glass of water. The rest of the fighters dropped to the ground, panting heavily as more runners passed out food, drink and energy candy.

  “We can’t keep this up Joel. We’re all tired and the younglings are slowing down. Hell, I’m slowing down. So are you.”

  “I know, love. That’s why I think we should pull the front lines back behind the Quester’s Tree for now. Runners will be able to supply us faster and we can still retreat to the protection of the shields if we really need to.”

  “No! If you do that, the monshtersh will deshtroy the Tree! If they do--- if they do Kimi won’t---”

  Jordon wiped at his eyes as his throat tightened. Joel laid his hand on Jordon’s shoulder with a smile. “I know what you’re thinking boy, but even if the tree falls, that doesn’t mean Kimi will die. The Tree only tells us she is still alive. She’ll be back, I stake my name as Grand Wizard on it. Our job is to make sure there is a place for her to come back to. Understand?”

  Jordon nodded reluctantly sniffing loudly as he wiped at his face again. His eyes found the lone branch, still waving in the breeze high on the Quester’s Tree. Digging into his pocket he pulled out a small slip of paper, heading for the wishing tree next to it.. As he had every day for the last two months since she had gone on quest, Jordon tied the note to an already full branch.

  “Kimi wherever you are, I hope thish findsh you. Come back shoon. I promish I’ll work on shpeaking better. I haven’t even told you my shtory of the man who turned into a tree yet.”

  The ground shook. A shiver went down Jordon’s spine unlike any he had ever felt before. Another thump that bounced him into the air. The wind turned cold, and his knees started shaking. Slowly he turned, knowing he didn’t want to see whatever was making the thumping noise. From over the rise came a Giant. But one unlike he had ever seen before. It stood at least fourteen feet tall with four misshapen arms and pink crystals erupting from its skin. The palm of its hands were as big as he was and its four red eyes glowed with their own inner light. It looked to have been carved out of the mountain itself and bathed in molten iron until the metal had grafted itself like armor to chest and arms.

  “Get out of there boy!”

  Jordon tried to move, but he couldn’t. His body just wouldn’t obey. Grandpa Joel and Grandma Grell appeared next to him, their stances ready for battle. But Jordon knew they couldn’t fight this thing. It was just a single monster, but he felt it would destroy them all.

  “W-what ish it?”

  “I don’t know, never seen anything like it before. But you get back to town boy, we’ll hold it off.”

  Still Jordon couldn’t move. It was as if those eyes held him in place. Using his fear as invisible chains. The two ran at the monster, and were backhanded away like flies. Their flung bodies were caught in a net of white light before they landed. Yet still Jordon couldn’t move from his position. With shaking fingers he made the grass grow in an attempt to tangle it’s legs. The creature didn’t even notice, ripping the greenery out by the roots when it took the next step.

  A movement caused him to look up. A giant black raven burst from the treetops to fly overhead. A body dived from its back. As the body fell, a shining sword materialized in its hand, the body on an arrow course for the giant monster. Jordon knew in his gut who it was immediately.

  “Kimi!”

  The monster looked up, just in time for Kimi, now fully decked out in silver and gold armor, to sheath her sword in the creatures right eye. It howled in pain as she sung inward to plant her mailed feet against its nose. With a heave she ripped the sword out, dislodging the eye in the process. Using her momentum, she jumped away right before a hand smacked the place she had been. Kimi somersaulted through the air, transforming mid flip and throwing her sword, which turned into a dagger connected to fishing line. The dagger sunk into the flesh by the monsters shoulder, allowing Kimi to shoot skyward once more as she reeled herself in.

  With a flick, the dagger came free, turning into a weird tube she mounted on her shoulder. She did something and smoke erupted from the back end as fire spewed from the front opening. Out of the fire a long item with a red nose appeared and hit the monster in the side of the face. There was a loud explosion and the creature fell sideways. As Kimi fell a second time, the tube on her shoulder morphed once more into another pair of strange devices that made a ratta-tat sound as they peppered the monster with high speed rocks that also exploded on impact. Before she hit the ground, these strange weapons vanished, replaced with a staff similar to the one Maria carried, allowing her to catch herself on a small tornado and alight safely. With an upward thrust of her staff, the very earth opened up like a giant claw to grasp the monster.

  Wild shouting made Jordon look at the woods once more where an army of at least sixty people he had never seen before broke from hiding. All sixty went to town on the monstrosity Kimi had caged, some turning into animals, others disappearing to reappear elsewhere, or make weapons appear out of thin air. A few summoned creatures to fight for them and one even turned into a giant flaming lord of elemental fire. Soon enough the creature was dead and Kimi let her Other ability disperse. For the first time she turned around to look at him, giving him a smile and a wink.

  “I’m back.”

  Jordon let out a wail, not caring his tears were flowing as he rushed forward to hug her tightly. He buried his face in her chest, feeling her hand stroke his hair like his mother used to.

  “Welcome home.”

  Chapter 40: The Calm Before the Storm

  He was alive. That was a surprise. Or perhaps it was only a delay. The veil was still being torn, so Atlantis wasn’t completely part of Aerth yet. He didn’t know how exactly this was supposed to work, Jeremy had never stepped foot on Aerth before. With a quick glance he noted the last of his men just stepping out of the tear. He could see the Control room through the opening that was noticeably getting bigger. Marrion met his eyes for a brief moment, giving a smile of reassurance and a blown kiss.

  Their group was in a clearing someplace. Woods all around were the only landmark. The soldiers who had come with him looked around in awe, some even bending down to touch the grass and dirt. A few wept silent tears. The air was crisp and clean, different from Atlantis in a way he could not define. Everything felt so large, so massive. Even Earth did not feel this way. Earth was a mass of clustered buildings that in many ways reminded him of Atlantis. His skin tingled with the latent magic in the air and made him smile for no reason at all.

  “Where are we?”

  Jeremy heard the Controller’s answer to Kimberly’s question in his ear. “You are about twelve miles north of Yandor. At the average walking speed of about three miles per hour, you can make it there in around four.”

  Jeremy shook his head. “Make that about five. You Controller’s have never had to trek through a forest on foot before. Nor do so with a small army at your back. Even at a good pace, you will always be slower than normal. Three miles per is on flat ground, it will be more like two miles per. And that’s only if the forest is flat. If there are hills or swamps or anything else of that nature, we are looking at even more time.”

  “Can you, I don’t know, make a rift we can wal
k through to get closer?”

  Jeremy gave Kimberly a small shake of his head. “Rift Generation isn’t that easy. I need to know where it is I am exiting to, otherwise I could step into the side of a mountain and suffocate. I need to travel there the old fashion way at least once to get a bearing on the spatial coordinates. Once I do that, the temporal coordinates are easy, and the magic makes the rest of the corrections so I don’t land inside a slab of stone. Maps and pictures of a place help, but as you can see, despite your aide, I couldn’t land us directly in or near the town. Just be glad we are so close, I could have ported us halfway across the world.”

  Kimberly nodded at his explanation before turning and heading southward without a word. Jeremy followed her and his men fell into marching step behind. Valerie jogged to catch up, striding on the other side of her daughter. Kimberly looked over at him as they marched, her eyebrow arched and her head cocked to the side.

  “So you’re not dead.”

  “No, it seems I’m not yet.”

  “Why?”

  “No clue. Not like I’ve ever come here before. EVE didn’t say it was a hundred percent chance, only that the probability was low. Only thing I can think of is my ties to Atlantis are still strong enough to hold me here. But with the barrier getting progressively weaker, those bonds will weaken as well until I just fade away. Why? You want me to die?”

  “No. You just seemed so sure of the outcome is all. I don’t know, I just sort of took you for the kind of guy that had all the answers. You know, the kind that plans everything out and executes it flawlessly. Having backup plans sitting to the side just in case. The kind of guy that expects everything to go his way and it usually does.”

  “Yes, well& even the proverbial fickle hands of fate like to throw me a curveball every now and again. There is a saying from my world: Plan for success, expect failure, and turn it into gold. It means even the best laid plans can go astray, but it is how you deal with the setbacks that matter.”

  “So you are saying you being alive is a setback?”

  “It is when I was expecting to die. It is all in how you look at the problem. Not that I am complaining mind you, just putting it in perspective.”

  Valerie looked across her daughter at him, her mouth opening and closing slightly as if she wasn’t sure if she could ask him a question. He gave her his best smile as he tilted his head to the side, giving off an aura of openness.

  “Yes?”

  This display seemed to work, as she swallowed once before finally saying anything. “Could you explain my Other powers to me? All I got was a slip with some words on it, but no explanation. The people back there said that’s the best they could do on short notice. But they didn’t tell me anything else, they were too busy doing other things.”

  “If I can. As a Sage, it is my duty to help Phasers get acclimatized to their new reality. Part of that is helping them understand their newfound powers. Meaning, I need to know a little about all those powers.”

  “It said I have Iron Wall, Aura, and Cell Reproduction: mutation one.”

  “Ahh, then you are a support type. Those are all good abilities.”

  “Support type?”

  “Mediator and Other powers are broadly defined by types. There is support types-- which as the name implies-- is used mainly to support other people. There are offensive types, with a sub category of ranged and melee. These are things like my Armory ability where I can make weapons I know appear out of thin air. And then there are Wild Abilities, those not easily put into one of the other categories. Some abilities, like Rift Generation, are a wild ability as they can be either support or offensive but they are more common so tend towards being lumped in with support. Abilities like Paradoxial, or Kimberly’s Power to Imagine, are rare, and no one might ever have that power again for years and years if ever.

  “As for your abilities. Iron Wall is a defensive ability. It creates a barrier as strong as your willpower. If you desire strongly to protect something, that desire manifests physically in a barrier that your mind can shape however it desires. A bubble, a box, a temple, a flat wall, whatever you envision it as. You see this a lot in those with the Floral skill, their walls tend to resemble flowers and petals or brambles with thorns. Alone like yours is, I believe it will look more like a mages shield, kind of opaque but clearly visible. You just have to remember it is tied to how strong your will is. If your will wavers, the shield weakens. It is not an unbreakable wall, but it is much more durable than a mage cast one. Also, note that as the wall is beat on, you yourself will get weaker because it draws on your energy.

  “Aura is another one like Rift Generation, it is technically a Wild Ability, but it is one of the more common ones. It is a skill that allows you to enhance the people around you in a specified area. This area can grow with your desires as well, but it needs to be an overwhelmingly intense desire. Commonly the area is about three feet in a circle from where you stand. You can’t always control what or even how much your Aura enhances, but the more you know about them, the more the Other ability will subconsciously enhance those things they will benefit the most from. Note that they don’t need to stand within your Aura circle to continuously receive these enhancements. It is more like a timed affect. Your Aura increases their abilities, they go off and fight or do whatever, and it eventually wears off. You yourself can cut those enhancements short if you so wish, because the duration of their increased skills is also the duration between when you can use that ability again.”

  “So, if I cast this Aura and make Kimi stronger, it might last an hour, even if she runs two or three miles away. But until it runs out, I can’t cast this Aura on anyone else for that hour. But if I drop the Aura myself after say fifteen minutes, I can cast it again on another person and it will drop away from Kimi even if she were still that three miles away?”

  “Correct. Other powers can take some time getting used to though, so learning how to effectively manipulate and master them is work. Sometimes it takes years to fully understand and use them to their fullest ability. Phasers like us always have a natural affinity to our Other abilities, because they are a representation of who we are, after all. I was and am a soldier, so all my abilities tend towards the ability to make war. Even my Rift Generation ability can kill, not all those who have such an ability can say the same. Those who grew up on Atlantis grow into their skills, learning as they mature along with the nano machines.”

  “So then, what is this last one? This Cell Reproduction?

  “Simply put, it is regeneration. The body is always dying. Cells age and die every second. There are three mutations of this ability, but they all have the same results. Mutation one allows you to do things like re-grow body parts. In essence, you clone existing cells and fool them into believing they are the original. When mastered, you can prolong your own life or that of someone else to a point by cloning the cells younger than the original ones. There are limitations of course. You can not grow and clone indefinitely. If you attempt to do so on the same person, that persons body will obtain a resistance to the treatment. Eventually the cells will grow older instead of younger when cloned, shortening the overall lifespan of the person.

  “Interestingly enough, this is one of the few abilities that can actually evolve into the second and even third mutation. The second mutation allows for the reverting of cells without need for cloning. You would literally be making the cells younger. You would still retain the ability to clone cells, but you would not need to. Mutation three is also referred to as God Hand. You can make clones of yourself or another person. All you need is a few dead skin cells. These clones though would be exact replicas in face and form only. You cannot clone memories in this way. Someone with mental abilities could theoretically transfer memories over to the clone, but such practices and attempts were banned millennia ago. Very few with the regeneration ability ever obtain the third mutation. Even D, who was one of the Sages on the council, only had a mutation two.”

  “And& h
ow do I activate these abilities exactly?”

  Jeremy gave her a small shrug. “It is different for everybody. On a rudimentary level, you just think on it and do it. If for example I wish to hold a sword in my hand--”

  Jeremy flicked his wrist, feeling the weight of a handle settled into his palm. “-- then I will hold a sword in my hand. As you can see, there is nothing special about it. Just a beat blade with basic hilt and sharpened on either side. It might remind you of something a child would create out of tin for a school project. If I want something more ornate--”

  Again Jeremy flicked his hand, tossing the junk sword away to vanish like a shadow. With more concentration, another hilt dropped its weight into his palm. “--then I must think and desire harder. As you can see, the hilt is encrusted in jewels, the guard is gold, and the blade is made of a fine silver metal that gleams in the light. Of course, you also need some knowledge. I could not make a sword I had never seen before, I could not make a laser gun or some science fiction photon rifle that I have never seen or held before. I cannot make a weapon that could not possible exist because of scientific impossibility. Science says it is impossible to create a gun that shoots out quantum singularity bullets, so I cannot create such a gun.

  “Some people have to get into a certain mindset before they can activate their abilities. There is a soldier behind us named Jared. He has a strong Wild Ability that disregards distance. It has aspects of Rift Generation, allowing him to step between worlds to teleport to his target. But he can’t activate or use that ability unless he commits himself to killing his target, or dying to them. If he hesitates, or second guesses himself, the ability fails to activate, or deactivates. Some need to speak out a phrase or mnemonic verbally, even if it is gibberish. The trick is finding what works for you. After that, the rest is relatively easy.”

  The two lapsed into silence, allowing him to take in more of the world they walked through. It wasn’t a bad sight to see before he faded away, was it Prince? He knew his alter ego could hear his thoughts, even if he didn’t speak them out loud. Jeremy didn’t expect Prince to answer though, there were people around. Still, just knowing he was there was a comfort. It made him feel better prepared to face this new world for however long he had.