Switcheroo

Narnia. We were in Narnia. No Tech, and the magic of the place was far too ancient and, well, sort of....generalised to be translatable for elemnts or forcefields. Broadcast found out he had a talent for that pipe thing Mr Tumnus uses to make the fire dance, but that was it. The tear was under the stone table, of all places! There was a dwarf trying to cause a bunch of wars and using the table as his rallying point, but we teamed up with the centaurs, a group of warrior mice, and even some wolves. 

I'm not proud of it, but I totally abused our height advantage. I MAY have kicked him in the head. I did.

So there's the table, broken in two again, and TWO tears appear, clearly about to seperate us again. We were dreading that, and clinging to each other and a broken slab of table between the portals. We were being dragged apart, but I had to voice an idea before it was too late.

'Broadcast! These portals are trying to pull us apart right?'

'Don't let it take me! I don't want to be alone again in another world that hates me!'

'Looks like we don't have a choice about going, but the hating us thing, you're definitely being pulled to the portal behind you?!'

This was answered for me as the dimensional winds dragged ata us, are grips slipping a little further.

'YEEES! Help!'

'Don't you see?! The portals will take us to new worlds that are stacked against our powers, and they're forcing us into the right portal!!!'

Broadcast gasped 'So the portals are already set?!'

'Exactly! And we're not going to the same place! We HAVE to switch!'

'But how!???'

I tried to move towards his portal, but there weren't enough bits of table to hold on to, and anytime I let go of the bit we were on I was dragged towards my own portal.

'Stormkaan! Bardhoof! We need one last favour!'

The centaurs approached, bold in the face of the reality breaking storm.

'You said you were looking for the lights, are these not the ones you seek?'

'They are, but we want to switch! I need to get in that one-' I jerked my head '- and he needs to be in that one.' another jerk of the head. 'Please, help us!'

They nodded. Stormkaan grabbed my shoulders and started pushing from behind. Bardhoof did the same for Broadcast.

'Why can't we just both go through one?!'

'If I'm right, they'll have though of that. Each portal is probably one ride only!'

I turned back to Stormkaan. 'Thank you, we owe you so much. And if my theory's right about your world, and all the ones we get sent to, will you-'

'We will join you, if we can. You will have our support, and our aid, for the sake of all the worlds.'

'Thank you!'

Broadcast was reaching out for my portal. Both Centaurs were digging their hooves into the ground, forcing us forwards, inch by inch. Broadcast made contact with mine, and everything seemed to go still. The wind died down, and he stumbled inside, getting sucked in at the last second. The portal imploded, the tear sealing itself behind him. 

'Huh, I was right, one trip only. Damn. Huk!'

I was yanked inside the other portal, and everything went white....................

The Labyrinth of Worlds, part 5

Hey! Tempest again! But this time I'm not alone, Broadcast's with me!
I have no idea what the Fates are up to, but I guess that having taken ALL of us, we were bound to bump into each other at some point? To be honest, I don't care right now, I'm just glad to be with a friend. I've been alone for so long now. Sure, we've met people in each world we've found ourselves in, but it's not the same.

That's the good news. Bad news. We have NO idea where we are. At first we thought our only clue was our surroundings (another Forest, if you were wondering), but I'm starting to think WE might be another one. I've noticed that each world I end up in is somewhere that, well, doesn't exactly suit my powers. Camelot had NO technology, and needed spells to access even the most basic forms of some of my powers. In the world of the Mulefa, I could make the amber glass stuff to see dust, but there are no super powers there, no technology! Don't even get me started on Jane Austen world! Apparently I was some sort of inventor there, known for making 'strange contraptions, ahead of our time', so yeah, that's what Technopathy turns into there. I had to be all, like, charming? and sociable? it was awful. The local posh family had the tear in their garden, so I had to climb the social ladder to get invited round. I almost preffered Zombie Outbreak world. Almost.

But yeah, countless world later I've finally been reunited witha friend, and we reckon this world world must be unhelpful for both of us. Broadcast rules out us being in a Disney movie, a talent show, or, well, anywhere that noise (or silence) matters. I tend to end up in places with little/no technology, and if there certain elements I SHOULD be able to manipulate (plants, fire etc) the world is one that provides limited access to my powers, or converts them into some strange or useless format in line with that world's rules.

Doesn't narrow it down much.

The Labyrinth of Worlds, part 4

Hooray, I have signal again!

Hey everyone, Tempest again. Let me catch you up on what I've learned recently.

I was in Camelot. Yup, that Camelot. With Arthur and Merlin and everything. Unfortunately it also had Terrifying Undead Skeleton Warrior Monster things, but hey, I've fought stranger. The upside of the battle was winning Arthur's trust, so Merlin didn't have to sneak around so much to try and help me, which he apparently really wanted to do! He was so nice, and he helped me make an important discovery: I can do magic here. Not much, and I kinda suck at it, but I can. Particularly protection and elemental stuff, like the powers I'm meant to have, minus Tech for obvious reasons.

So yeah, our powers work in these other worlds, but they follow the 'rules' of the world we're in.

Anyway, I explained my situation and I was told about this new 'spectral presence, a tear in the world' in the forest, and how it's 'Guarded by a horrific monster, a thing of nightmares'. Sounds fun!

3 Days of Horse riding later, we arrive at an area of the woods filled with shadows, and mysterious thorny vines. We tried to approach quietly, but one of the horses snapped a vine under it's hoof, and there was a huge, low, terrible roar, that shook the trees, and knocked us off our horses.

'It is like no creature we have ever seen!' Arthur yelled, leaping to his feet. 'Even Gaius can give us no clue as to the nature of this beast! You have shown yourself to be a pretty good fighter, and you claim to know of strange lands far away. The tear is unstable, it appears and vanishes without warning. Have you any idea what this thing of Nightmares could be?'

I looked at it. It was shadowy, covered in wisps of dark, ghostly energy. It was huge, with spikes of fur that looked like they could slice you open. It vaguely resembled a dog, but with a faint, warped stripey pattern on it's body. A long tail of Dark Smoke danced and whirled behind it, and it had a vast mane of jagged hair that threatened to consume it's face, but didn't stop it's dark, empty eyes from staring deep into our souls, making us tremble, as if it was eating away at our insides.

'I have NO clue. It looks a bit like....well, if it wasn't so spiky......if those stripes were clearer it could kinda be........what's that dark smoke stuff on it?..........it sort of resembles.........nope, no ideaaAAARGH!'

It had pounced, and I didn't quite manage to get out of the way. I'd tried to leap, but got scrathed right up my right arm, with a burning, agonising paintore through me. I fell to the floor, gasping and clutching my arm as Arthur distracted it with a few jabs of his sword. This thing was fast. Like, EXTREMELY fast. It's movements were almost a blur as Arthur danced out of reach of it's sweeping claws. Merlin ran up to me, giving my arm a quick check. 'Not deep, you'll be fine. What do we do?'

'Well,...ow..... the way I see it, if we win here, I.....I'll be able to enter this tear in reality and hopefully return to my own world.'
'Such a crazy notion, but if you say so.'
'So the way I see it......Huff, ow.......our main advantage-' Merlin offered me his hand, helping me up. '-unlike you, I don't have to hide my magic!'
'Are you crazy!? If Arthur sees you do magic, Uther will have you killed!'
'Can't kill me if I'm not here, so let's hope this works.'
'When you too are quite done being frightened girls, feel free to join in!' Arthur yelled.
I muttered sideways to Merlin. 'Remind me, Fire, Tree, Wind?'
He uttered a string of nonsense that I couldn't possibly spell right if I tried to write it here.
'Oooooooook. If I distract him with that what little power this place will let me have, reckon you could use that 'stone to life' spell the other way? Turn this thing to stone?'
'I.....I've never thought of that. Possible I suppose. It was so hard to learn though..'
'Yeah it took you all night, I remember. You're a lot further on in your learning though, aren't you?'
'How do you know it took my all-'
'MOVE!'
I shoved him to the ground as a blast of dark fire shot over our heads. 'TRY!' I yelled, getting to my feet and limping towards Arthur.'Get out of the way!'
'Is that any way to talk to your Prince?!'
'Yeah, I keep trying to explain, same COUNTRIES, different WORLDS. You're only SORT OF my Prince.'
I garbled the spell for 'Tree', and several branches from all around us whipped out, growing and stretching to grab at the monster, which roared in surprise.
'Magic! If my Father were here-'
'Yeah yeah, 'My Father will hear about this.' Don't be such a Malfoy! MOVE!'
I shouted the word for wind. Nothing happened. I tried again, I still couldn't get it right. Arthur was shouting again, but I couldn't hear him over the roaring of the monster. I finally got it right and a burst of wind thrust him away from the clearing, spluttering with rage.
I tried fire, and on the second attempt, the branches burst into flames, burning the beast and causing it to writhe in pain.
Merlin gave me the signal, just as I heard Arthur charging back. Merlin ducked back behind a tree and started chanting. Distracting Arthur, I waved my arms, making grand gestures at the monster.
'Err, ummmmm, Oh! Petrificus Totalus!'
Merlin finished his spell and the monster froze, turning to stone. There was a flash of light, and a huge wind whipped up.
'We stabalised the tear by defeating the Guardian!' I called out as the tear in reality opened up, the winds pulling at me, drawing me in.
'Are you sure?' Merlin yelled, holding up an arm defensively.
'More just hopeful than anything!'
Arthur turned to Merlin 'Where have YOU been?'
'I...uh....fell?'
'Useless, just useless.....'
'Thank you, both of you, you've been a great help. I hope we can hang out again sometime!'
Arthur looked torn, but I couldn't hear his response because the tear's pull was too strong, and I was yanked backwards into glaring whiteness.

The Labyrinth of Worlds, part 3

Oh, we're calling it that? Ok, whatever.

Hey everybody, Doolittle here. So I guess you've gathered by now that we've been split up in different worlds, or whatever the hell the Fates have made this time. I don't know where I am, but there's weird plastic creatures everywhere and my powers only work if I'm wearing a stupid mask. I asked the locals, a group of small blue figures who live in little huts that make up a sort of floaty water village, and they haven't seen anyone else from VHS, but they know where more 'flashing lights' like the one I apparently arrived in are, so they're leading me through a jungle to see if these lights will take me home. So far we've been attacke by three freaky looking scorpion things and a ball that turned into a robot. The robot thing was destroyed by a Blue figure with hook hands, and a red guy with a sword that looked like fire. They've joined me and my guides so I should be out of this place soon! Wish me luck!

The Labyrinth of worlds, part 2

Diffy's Log. Stardate: Probly Tuesday.
Dese are de advengers of me as I ride around in dis hooooooge spaceship wiv all my new friends, and trys to find out where de poop I is.

Dat ^ is not wat I wanted to call dis! It dun it wivout me and not change, witch is rood.

Hi Evrybody! My comoonicator wat Tempest gived me has this digtashun thing, where I just talk and it spells it all fone, fonet, funeticly? How I talk anyways, but wiv all the little squiggles and dots where dey is needed, so yay for dat.

Anyhoos, After it went all dark and scary, I waked up in a biiiig shiny room, all silver but wiv a big window what just had black wiv speckles out of it. Space! I went over and looked and just went oooooooh for a bit, til i herd a person talk behind me. I turned and saw a man wiv pointy ears pointing a shiny scanny thing at me. I asked if waterose let him borrow the scanny thing cos they never let me, and he was all confused! Den I asked if I cud have a shiny badge like his, and he just talked into it and more peeple showed up! After aaaaaaaaaaaages, and loooooooowds of asking me fings, dey said dey didn't fink I 'posed a fret' so I now they just wondring how I got here, like I is. Pointy had a look at dis comoonicator and says hefinks I tellin da troof, witch is nice of him, and now he no a bit abowt VHS and so he trust me and gonna help me get home. Yay for Pointy! He my BEST new frend here, but he not so keen on hugging. He go all stiff and cold wen I try! I gonna hav to change dat!

No worry VHS we comin to find you!

The Labyrinth of Worlds, part 1.

So, after all the really, really weird drama of Christmas, we finally set off for the most likely location of the Fates Volcano. I couldn't find a volcano in Greece that seemed a close enough match, but once I realised that, with their ability to warp time and space, it could be pretty much anywhere, I widened my search and eventually found the closest match on a remote hunk of rock in the middle of an ocean.

We left our boat a mile or so away in the hopes of making a stealthy approach. A combination of my Ice and Forcefields, Maelstrom's Whirlpools and Diffy's Illusions created a sort of 'Stealth-pod' that we used to creep towards a crack in a rocky outcrop.

'Anyone else find it weird that there's a perfectly sized path leading right from where we arrived to the innermost depths of the volcano?'
'Well, it certainly supports the theory that we're in the right place...'
'But EXACTLY where we reached the rocks, Exactly the right size for our group....'
'Tingle, could you just try and be an optimist? Tildy's pretty sure we're not being watched, and for all we know there could be paths like this all over the place.`

We entered an open area, like a dark, shadowy cave. Strange ripples of distortion swam around the walls, and the opening in the rock we'd come through closed itself behind us. A sinister cackling noise filled the air, and glowing eyes stared down at us from the ceiling.

I sighed 'Ah, Crap. Good call Tingle, you were, as always, correct.'

The floor vanished, and we all plummeted into endless darkness.

The next thing I remember, I'm sprawled in a bush, struggling to get free, with a distant view of a castle on a hill. I looked up, and saw wisps of distortion crackle across the sky.
'Damn. The pocket worlds thing again? We've done this already dammit, can't you hags think of something new?!'
I gestured at the bush, trying to make it release me. Nothing. I tried to burst free of it with a gust of wind. Nope. I tried to burn it. Nada. I half clambered, half rolled my way free, and fell to the floor. 'Ow.'
I tried to make Lightning. 'Seriously? Again, been here, done this. Come on! Eurgh.'

On the plus side, the WiFi here is amazing. I'll keep you posted. I hope.

Jingle all the way

It feels like we've been asleep weeks. Well, in a way, we have. 'Dispersal of pent up energy whilst in stasis until safe levels are reached' and all that.

As you may have guessed, Clarence was right, and we've been very busy.

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the base,

Not a hero was sleeping, as Tempest did pace.

Equipment was stacked by the front door with care,
In hopes that adventure soon would be there.

While children were nestled all snug in their beds,
And visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads,
The team were alert, and they heard a quick tap,
As a figure came in, seeming in such a flap.

When outside the base there arose such a clatter,
The team went to look to see what was the matter.
Away to the window they ran like a flash,
Straight past their guest, who was wearing a sash.

As they looked at the moonlight on the new-fallen snow
The guest coughed politely 'Um hi there. Hello.'
When they were done looking, they turned back to hear,
From the shimmering portal, and the herd of reindeer.

'I was looking for Dragon, we need him, and quick,
To return to his role as our jolly St Nick.
Our current is missing, and now Dragon is too,
But we've heard about Jingle, perhaps he will do?'

"Now Tempest! now, Healthbar! now, Broadcast and Jingle!
On, Centaur! On, Lily! Doolittle and Tingle!
To the top of the world! to the top of it all!
Now Come with me! Come with me! Come with me all!"

Onto reindeer they leapt, and away they did fly,

Through the shimmering portal, and into the sky.

They saw a large fortress, towards it they flew,

With Ragnarok, Tildy, and Diffys 1 & 2.

And then, in a twinkling, they were in a Lab,

With portals, and an arch, and it did look fab.

'You see, Santa spreads feeling of cheer all around,

Down the chimney "St Nicholas" heartwards is bound.'

'Santa used to wear fur, and one travelled by foot,

There was one with a Sleigh, and one moved via soot.

Only those three have made the world trip and back,

Your Dragon was one, he even carried the sack!'

The archway, it twinkled! The portals seemed...merry?

They lit up like roses, with holly, and berry!

A sashed man walked up and gave us a short bow,

'Ah Jingle, thank goodness! The arch is ready now.'

Jingle stood in the arch, and gritted his teeth,

And Christmas spread from him, through Tinsel and wreath.

The team gathered round him 'Go! Give it some welly!'

He shook, and he laughed, and the room went like jelly!

VHS then split up, and, each with an elf,

And they each took a portal, including myself!

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

And Jingle shone out, his light banishing dread.

We spoke not a word, but went straight to our work,

And soaked up the power, then felt a small jerk.

And using his finger he guided our glows,

Through the portals we went, our energy rose!

We were spread round the globe, our elves gave a whistle,

And away the joy flew like the down of a thistle.

As the world filled with love, Jingle called to the night,

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"





Well, not quite how I'd have put it Clarence, but that was beautiful, and pretty accurate.

So yeah, Clarence has woken up, and Jingle got his first taste of what being Santa involves these days. He wasn't strong enough to do it alone, so we helped as Clarence described, and soaked up all that power put us in some sort of 'Joy-Coma' sort of Stasis until our bodies had recovered. No, I don't really understand either. I still have no idea exactly what happened, but apparently Christmas is when the world is given a nice big boost of love and joyfulness, and that's Santas job. That's his 'gift' to us, and we do the rest, out of our love for each other. Nice huh? So, in away, everyone is a little bit Santa. I love that.

Well, 'Saving Christmas' went so well, let's see if we can get our friends back!