by SK Benton
He looked over at Jennie, and then back to Bagatelle and continued in a low whisper, "You may not believe it, Sir, but I'll take care of her… with my life."
Bagatelle's eyes slightly widened in surprise, but he immediately returned a dull stare. Max stepped back, and gave Bagatelle a smart salute, which the commanding officer returned in sharp fashion.
"So, are we ready?" asked Draagh.
Jennie stepped forward and asked, "Sir, am I officially relieved of duty?"
Bagatelle nodded in the affirmative.
"So, Sir, I am no longer bound by rank, and Gunnarsson is no longer my superior officer?"
"Hey! Wait a minute!" yelled Max, while Bagatelle again nodded to her in the affirmative.
"Shut up, Gunnarsson. You're not my superior. This isn't a military operation."
Draagh snickered, quite enjoying the antagonistic banter between his two young charges. Max gave a look of slight resignation, muttering under his breath, and turned to Draagh, who said, "Very well then! Let us begin. Commander, you will need to be at least 300 meters away from us, as the energy field produced by my staff for such a far-off port is immense. May I suggest you wait up in your transport?"
Bagatelle looked up toward the ruins, which were not visible from where they stood and said, "Well, it will take me a while to get up there, so give me a bit," not looking forward to the hike up the switchbacks that led to the top.
Draagh then said, "My dear Admiral, there is no need. I shall take you up there, as a slip this small can easily be facilitated."
Motioning to his side, he said, "Please come stand next to me."
Jennie looked over at Bagatelle and said, "Well, we'll see you later Lui - "
Bagatelle shot her a sharp glance, causing her to stop mid-sentence.
"Don't… ever… call… me… that," to which Jennie used her hand to make a little motion over her pursed lips, like she was zipping them shut.
"I promise," she chimed.
Bagatelle gave her a warm gaze and said, "Come back safe and I'll give you something you can call me off duty - something much nicer than Luigi. I never liked that name anyway."
Bagatelle and Draagh walked toward each other, and when side-by-side Draagh said, "Jennie, Max, I'll be back in a moment," and tapping his staff to the ground he produced a small concussion wave, the two disappearing with a slight popping sound.
Jennie stared aghast at where Draagh and her commanding officer had been a second before, unwilling to believe what she had just seen. Max gave her a wry smile while wiggling his eyebrows.
"Told ya so."
"Shut up, Gunnarsson," she said, and stomped off to the edge of some flora, acting as if she was looking at flowers, but in reality hiding the fact that her eyes were tearing up.
Draagh grabbed Bagatelle's arm to help him balance. "Easy there, my good man. Are you well?" Bagatelle was slightly disoriented, but saw they were next to his private transport.
"How. Did. You?" he stammered as Draagh gave him a wink.
"It is what I do. I am an observer and sometimes a corrector, and I-"
Bagatelle put his hand up, interrupting him and said, "Ok, you said that before. I am trusting you, old man - with more than you know."
"Oh, I know," said Draagh, with a thoughtful expression. "We'll bring Jennie back safe and sound. Please prepare your fleet."
Bagatelle then turned away and entered his transport.
Where Draagh had been only a minute before, he was again, but sans Bagatelle. Jennie heard the pop of his arrival, and turned around quickly, running over to where the old mage stood.
"Is he ok?" she asked, with Draagh looking at her with a kind expression.
"Why yes, my dear. Why wouldn't he be?"
Max walked up to Draagh, gear bag in hand, asking, "Ok, pops. Best we be on our way?"
Draagh paused for a moment and affectionately surveyed the area. It was there where he met Max, and later Jennie and Bagatelle. He looked forward to completing their tasks and returning to retrieve the ship, even though, as he had stated to Max earlier, they wouldn't need it.
The old mage walked out into the open and beckoned the remaining two over to his location, giving them instructions. "Now my children, we are going to go quite a distance in space - and of course, in time."
They both looked at each other quizzically, and then back at Draagh.
"So, you will need to follow my instructions at all times. No matter where we go, we must stick together. No running off to smell poop, do you understand?"
Max and Jennie nodded their heads, still looking slightly confused over the time comment, and more than disgusted at the reference to poop, as Draagh continued, "The energy generated by my staff will envelop this area in a 250 meter radius, like a giant sphere. That is why I required Commander Bagatelle to go to this ship - where he will see it all. Yes, yes he will. Quite spectacular it will be."
Draagh set his staff on the ground, and waved his hand out in front of him, causing a semi-transparent infoscreen to appear. The new apparition astounded both Jennie and Max. He appeared to type something into the data screen and waved it off once finished. Then, holding his staff tightly, it began to hum, with billions of glowing particles emanating around it, flowing in circular motions, like a massive, slowly moving ribbon, encircling them and growing ever wider, causing all of their hair to rise as if defying gravity. As the power built up, they heard a crackling sound, which immediately concerned Draagh.
"Draagh, Jennie, can you hear me? This is Bagatelle. We have a Draeder coming in on your eleven." The sound was barely audible, being masked by annoying amounts of static.
Draagh looked at Jennie, and asked, "Did you bring your communications device along too?"
Jennie nodded with a sheepish look while Max grinned with some sort of satisfaction that the woman had done something wrong.
"I am unable to stop the porting process, or we will lose all coordinates, leaving us stuck in this timeline until I can reestablish contact with Socrates. We must continue."
Power in Draagh's staff built up, as a Draeder came up and over Huayna Picchu, the main mountain behind the ruins, and dropped down into the valley on a direct course for their location.
"Oh crap! How did he find us?" screamed Max, while Draagh kept concentrating on the slipping process, but then looked at his two travel companions.
"Remember I told you that when I started this process we would be visible? Well… We are visible! Ok, hold on, children!"
Lt. Johnson saw his targets and had already decided to kill them, but like any opportunistic predator he first wanted to play with his prey. He made a full circle around Huayna Picchu and came in; intent on strafing them low, just for fun. Johnson didn't notice that as he approached them, a large charge of lightning shot up from Draagh's staff, with a massive ball of energy surrounding the group. Bagatelle was standing on the precipice and looking down, finding himself pushed back by the energy sphere. Watching helplessly as the massive globe swallowed them up, the sphere started to shrink, the lone Draeder entering the energy field at the same exact moment that everything disappeared.
Chapter 11 - Welcome to Future-Past
No one ever feels anything when in a 4D slip. They are standing there one moment, and then suddenly the entire environment changes and they are somewhere - and somewhen - else.
Max had barely blinked, and found himself in an open, grassy field, where he heard the deafening roar of Johnson's Draeder scream overhead, going directly for the nearby forest and vanishing from sight. Moments later there was a loud explosion, which apparently signaled the end of Lt. Ryder Johnson.
"Gunnarsson! Draagh's down!" Jennie screamed, as they both dropped to the old mage's position. He was on his back, staring up at the sky with a confused expression on his face.
"Oh my, oh my. This is not good," Draagh groaned, as he attempted to get back up to his feet.
The youths each took an arm and gently lifted him up, with Jennie asking, "Draa
gh, how do you feel? Are we ok? What did you mean?"
The old mage looked around, slightly dazed and said, "It seems that we had an unwanted passenger. Oh no, this is not good at all. I will need a moment to recoup myself, and we can then go find him."
These direct 4D slips are becoming more difficult. I believe I must rely more on The Hub from here on out.
Max looked over at the small mushroom cloud that was growing deep in the forest and said, "Um, Draagh, we don't have to worry about that fellow. He went boom."
Jennie also watched the rising mushroom cloud, but was not as sure as Max that Johnson had perished in the apparent crash. They waited for a few minutes, and then headed over and into the dark, foreboding forest to the north, each supporting one of the old mage's arms.
In the chaos that ensued due to their odd and uncalculated arrival, neither Max nor Jennie initially noticed a change, but as the minutes went by they both started feeling different. Better. As they were both of the same subspecies they started to notice similar changes. Their hearing had already improved - they could hear birds chirping, the crackling of fire at the crash site, insects crawling on the ground, and many other things they would have never noticed during their lives on Azul. The one thing they were sure of was that they heard the sound of footsteps, running away at high speed. Jennie immediately ascertained that this was Johnson fleeing his wreckage. She was sure he had survived the crash. Max turned to Jennie with a concerned look, his face denoting that he heard the same things. Draagh appeared to have recovered from his earlier stupor and studied his surroundings.
"Come, my children. Let us see if we can find this most unwanted hitch hiker, as he certainly does not belong here. If you do not mind, we will need to walk for a while, as the time slip rather took a bit out of me." With that, they all continued into the forest, toward the crash site.
Arriving at the smoldering wreckage, they found no signs of life. Max squinted his eyes slightly and found that his vision was vastly improved, easily seeing a shredded parachute in a cluster of trees 200 meters away. He then made a sound, reminiscent of a growl and pointed in the direction of the chute.
"Over there. He made it out, so he can't be too far."
Draagh sighed and said, "No, my son. He is long gone by now. Do you remember how I told you that on the proper world, with the proper energy, you would experience enhanced abilities?"
"Yeah, you did say that," said Max.
Jennie also nodded knowingly, as Draagh continued, "Well, what we had undone in the past by modifying man's energy signature via a trans-mutagenic virus on an individual level was repaired, but this time by changing the world's energy itself, making it compatible with the altered energy signature of man. So, unfortunately, that particular individual is also experiencing some enhancements. Foot speed is one of them, as well as an amplified sense of smell, although not as keen as yours. However, he will also notice unwanted changes that you will witness as soon as we find his location. I implore you to be at the ready as his type is quite vicious."
Max and Jennie stopped, looked around and drew in deep through their noses, finding it to be true. They could both smell as they had never before. Plants, bugs, rotten logs, and of course Draagh's musty leathers, and the small satchel of herb in his pocket. They both wrinkled their noses and gave each other a mildly disgusted look, then bound forward to catch up with the old man. As they continued further into the forest, they picked up the scent of rotting flesh, which they both found disgusting, yet appealing in a way that made them want to pursue the putrid aroma.
Draagh looked at them and exclaimed, "Ah, so you detect that too. Yes, yes, it is quite clear that our unwanted passenger has already started to transform, the energy on this world working in conjunction with the virus that flows through his system. Sad, quite sad, indeed."
Jennie was slightly ahead of the other two, scanning the area in all directions as she pushed forward, stepping over moss-covered rocks and small steams of water, when she asked, "Draagh. So tell us how this all works. I can see better, hear better, smell better and even feel things with every step I take. The feedback I am getting from the ground is amazing. What more can I expect at this point and time?"
Draagh smiled whimsically as he walked, going to retrieve his pipe, but putting it back, wanting his two companions to be able to detect any errant scent without it being masked by the smoke of his beloved herb.
"Well," he responded, "yes, your senses are now much more enhanced than a normal's - more akin to those of a wolf. As night falls you will notice that your vision has also vastly improved. The subject of our search will also have an improved nose, but more targeted toward finding two things - his own kind and normal human blood."
"Human blood?" they both cried out simultaneously.
"Yes, yes. Human blood. You see, his type, to whom I referred to as ghouls, actually have another name, and it was quite well known on the Earth of your ancestors, just as it is well known and feared in this world. The colloquial term one uses is vampire."
Jennie turned around and came to a full stop, looking aghast at Draagh, trying to process this new revelation. Not having been a fan of fantasy novels as a youth, and more into technical documentation, she had still read a couple of ancient authors' novels regarding vampires, and as she thought further she knew that lycan sounded familiar. Werewolves, fairies, ogres and other assorted mythical creatures also rung a bell, as well as witches and warlocks (who, by the way, were quite evil in the works she had experienced). Of course, she never believed that any of those things could have ever existed, but this new, impromptu experience was playing a cruel game of connect the dots in her mind.
"Just a minute," said Jennie, "vampires, as I remember from fictional reading, subsisted on human blood. I believe they were also the immortal dead, would die if exposed to sunlight, and had an aversion to the Christian cross. Are these so-called vampires also sensitive to those things?"
Draagh motioned for the three to continue walking deeper in the woods, and plainly stated, "Oh, my dear, no. Well, a bit is true, and a bit is legend. These vampires do indeed have a need to consume the blood of humans, but they live. Yes! They are indeed quite alive. However, they are not immortal, and although alive, are constantly fending off a state of continual decomposition. The energy of this world barely keeps them in a state of living existence, but they slowly disintegrate, as you can tell from Lt. Johnson's already-changed scent. Of course, never having met the man I cannot tell you, but he may or may not have an aversion to sunlight. He is still fleeing on foot, and it is indeed broad daylight, although under the cover of the forest, so it seems that he could be what is called an enlightened one - that is, a vampire who can survive, albeit with some discomfort, in the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Yes, he appears to be quite strong - and lucky for him too! If he had not been of that caste we would have found a smoldering corpse hanging in that tree where his silken evacuation device was snagged."
Max plodded along, sweeping the rear, while looking around and back to make sure that Johnson hadn't flanked them. Max knew that Johnson was a military man - a soldier, and one highly educated in the art of war, while he himself was a scientist with minimal military training, despite his rank of commander. He had never possessed a command outside the laboratory, but he was adept at leading and organizing, as he had led a team of scientists throughout the SSCC research and development that later facilitated his trip to Earth.
"So Draagh," Max asked, "Technology doesn't work in this world, right?"
Draagh nodded while walking a few meters ahead, using his staff as a large walking stick.
"That is correct, my son, and that is why Lt. Johnson's ship failed to get further than it did. It simply stopped working, and of course, crashed where we found it."
"And which world is this?" asked Jennie.
"We are in the Black Forest of Bavaria, the year being 4267 Christian era. We have slipped to Earth's future, by 1,450 years, give or take a few. Oh the marvel
of it all! And the best part is that here, yes here the two of you will be able to avail yourselves of all the wonders of your heritage."
The two military officers had astonished looks on their faces. They could hardly understand traveling from one location to another with a large stick, but the addition of time travel made it all the more confusing.
"…and Max, you will have quite a bit more to learn than young Jennie here."
Jennie gave Max a rather smug oh, don't I know it type of look, but her face changed to that of astonishment when the old man continued.
"Max, I must tutor you in the ways of magic, as you are not only a lycan, but also a mage."
They both burst out laughing as Draagh watched them fall into hysterics.
"Magic? Magic?" exclaimed Max. "Magic is mythical. There is… hey, so what you do is magic? It looked more technical than that, with you using your staff and whipping out a holographic console… that's magic?"
Jennie jumped in and said, "I thought it was technical too."
"My children," continued Draagh, "magic permeates everything here. It is all around us, and while it is true that it was not available to you on the Earth we just left, it did exist in Earth's past. Do you not remember me recounting the history of Earth, and how there was a form of energy?" Both nodded as he continued. "And then how we modified Man's genetic code in order for him to advance on its own? Well, that energy was magic - is magic. Yes, magic indeed. This world is full of it. We restored man's ability to harness magic on this world."
"But Draagh," asked Max, "if I can perform magic, why can't Jennie? Is there something wrong with her? Is she broken or something?"
