Remove ads

A small fish in a infinite sea (SI).

Reader mode
Harish said:
Fair enough. Though the usual time is 1/2 hrs in most hiver threads.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
...yes, but you have to keep in mind that most beta's are really kind of lazy and don't do as much work as they could be doing (as some of what's returned for Hiver to post are essentially returned pretty much untouched and not fixed in the least, and I know this because the amount of work I have to do when Hiver sends me stuff lets me know how lazy and/or worthless some of the other Beta's can be at times).:(
 
Remove ads
2
  • Threadmarks
    • "Winter...you're back!" Buffy said as she stared at me.

    I must have look a bit strange as I was wearing stuff that would fit right in at a fantasy con.

    I nodded as I gave her a smile "I am. It's been a long time."

    "Two years..."

    I sighed and shrugged "Ten for me. I would have come to visit earlier, but there were some things I had to do."

    She quickly stepped to the side in the typical Sunnydale way. You don't ask people to come in during the night...or even the day. It's a good habit.

    Because they can turn out to not be people.

    I let out a "gak!" as I suddenly had my arms filled with Slayer "B-buffy! Not so hard. Still squishy! Still squishy!"

    "Sorry!" she exclaimed as she quickly let the hug go "Just kinda..."

    "Yeah, I missed you too." I said with a grin "Though, I have a feeling my timing could have been better. What time is it?"

    "About two hours after patrol?" she yawned.

    "Sorry, interplanar time lag. I didn't realize it was that late. I'll go grab a hotel room and come back at a more reasonable time." I said, feeling slightly bad for waking her. I wasn't entirely sure what she did since she was out of school, but she might have work tomorrow.

    "The hell you are!" Buffy said as she pushed the door closed "You are staying here and telling me what you have been doing for the last two years."

    "That would be ten years..." I corrected as I dropped my bag on the floor, following her into the living room "And honestly, it is a long and rather boring story. Sure, took out some bad guys, uplifted a civilization to steam power...you know how it goes. I'm more interested in how you guys are doing."

    Buffy put the battleaxe back onto the wall, not saying anything.

    Something had happened.

    "Buffy...what happened?"

    She shook her head and turned back to me "It's...it's Dawn. She's gone."

    Oh no.

    I stepped up and gathered her into a hug "What happened?"


    It took her a moment to answer "We don't know. That's the worst thing." I let her go and we moved to sit on the couch "It happened about three months ago. She went to the bronze with her friends...That was the last time I saw her."

    "Did you report it to the police?" I asked. I never really knew Dawn...I was out of the universe when the fake memories were handed out and only met her for a couple of hours.

    Almost everything I know of her is from the series.

    Buffy nodded "Yes, not that it helped. Not even Willow could find out what happened with her magic, not even with Tara's help..." and then she frowned "Did you meet Tara?"

    I nodded "I did. But Willow couldn't find anything out?"

    That's strange. Even if she didn't go Darth Rosenberg, she had plenty of skill and juice to back it up. Well, for a non land using human at least.

    Buffy nodded "She found the last place Dawn was at, but then nothing more." and she sniffed "We don't even know if she is..."

    I frowned at that. Willow would have brought Buffy back to life if I didn't derail the timeline. Willow...The Willow...The witch that managed to perform a true resurrection could not find out if somebody was dead?

    Yeah, I'm not buying it.

    "Willow couldn't call up her spirit? Not contact some Loa to find out if she was dead?" I had to ask.

    Buffy swallowed "She tried. Anything she called up said that Dawn had not died but they couldn't tell us anything else. But we couldn't track her down either. Any tracing spells simply go blank."

    No.

    There is no way.

    I slowly sighed. Looks like I won't get any pizza this time either. "Ok, this is what we will do. You will go to bed and get some sleep. Tomorrow we gather the gang and go have a look at Dawns last location."

    She stared at me for a moment "You think you can..."

    I only sighed and shook my head "I don't know. I can't promise anything, but I will see what I can do."

    That kind of blue magic was not my specialty. I was more skilled at blowing things up than trying to scry for things.

    But if what had happened what I think might have happened...Well, odds is that Dawn is dead anyway.

    But there was a chance. A tiny little chance.


    XXXXXXXXXXXXXX


    "Winter, you're back!" Willow exclaimed and I once again found my arms full of girl. Well, at least this one didn't almost break my ribs.

    "Good to see you again Willow." I said with a grin, hugging back before letting go and giving Xander a nod "Xander. Keeping on top of things?"

    He shrugged with a grin "I try. Good to see you again."

    "Same to you." I answered and looked at Tara as Willow finally let me go "Hello Tara. Taking care of Willow I see."

    Tara nodded shyly.

    She is another one I didn't really get to know. Only met her for a couple of hours before.

    I glanced around "Are we missing some people?"


    Buffy shook her head "Giles is in tweed land, doing some watcher work. There is some warlock wannabe trying to move into town and Giles is trying to get them to send over some more magic users. Tanya was needed in Japan of all places so the watchers relocated her temporarily."

    "Warlock? Do you guys need help?" I asked and Willow shook her head.

    "No, Tara and I can handle him. He is just really good at hiding and sending minions at us. Now what was this about Dawn?" she asked "Can you find her?"

    I shook my head as they all looked at me "I don't know. But I will do my best...I have never actually tried this you know. First of all, I need something with her scent on it."

    Buffy nodded and ran upstairs become coming back down carrying a pillowcase "Does this work?"

    "It'll do." I said and put it in my backpack before I looked at them "Ok, let's go."

    Buffy lead the way as we made our way across town until we reached an alleyway "Here. This is the spot." Willow said "This is the last place my spell said she was at."


    I nodded and looked around. Both buildings on each side were brick buildings. There was some trash on the ground.

    Slowly taking a breath I pulled on my Blue mana, trying to perceive any magical traces.

    Nothing. Buffy, Willow and Tara had some pretty auras though.


    Damn. I was hoping it was some kind of teleportation spell. So unless somebody used a technological teleporter...


    Closing my eyes I pulled on my spark. I didn't even know if it was possible to do what I was trying to do.

    Last time I saw Dawn I realized what she was.

    She was The Key. Or that was what she was called. In truth, she was like me. Or rather, she was like I once was.


    When I saw her, she was a pre Planeswalker human. A being with a dormant spark.


    The Ascension into becoming a Planeswalker involved awakening that Spark. Usually it was caused by a violent death, even if things like reaching enlightenment might also cause it.

    The Ascension is a violent thing and can cause you to jump to a different, random plane. Which is kind of how I ended up here in the first place.


    I couldn't track my way back to my home Plane by the time I managed to learn how to Walk. But with only three months...and with it being such a violent event...

    Pulling on my spark I felt a disturbance in the plane.

    Dawn had Ascended.

    That mean that she was likely dead. Most Planes out there are instant death if you enter them...and she would have ended up on one at random.

    Sighing I opened my eyes again "She is on a different Plane. I will try to find her, but...I can't promise anything."

    "Different Plane? How do you mean?" Buffy asked with a frown "She's alive?"

    I shook my head "I don't know if she is alive. But she ended up somewhere else the same way I did."

    "But you ended up here when you..." Xander said and I nodded.

    "Yes. I believe she is like me. Which is bad news...she could have ended up anywhere. I will try to track her down, but the Blind Eternities are not made for this. It is only because it was an Ascension that I might even have a chance in hell to do it...and I need to move fast. It has already been three months and the trace is almost completely gone already and that is here in reality. I'll let you know what I find."

    With an infinite amount of worlds she could end up in, unless I had something to track in the Blind Eternities...no, it would simply not work. But if I could narrow things down by following her path...

    Well, a tiny chance is better than none. And I owe Buffy that I at least try.

    I then made sure my backpack was strapped on nice and tight before I turned and stepped through reality and out into the space Between.

    Walking again this soon after arriving?


    This is going to be rough.




    AN// Big thanks to LockedKeye for betaing this section.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • 3
  • Threadmarks
    • The Blind Eternities screamed and howled against me. A sandstorm of sound and silence in a tornado of color. The winds of uncreation clawed and raged against the my Spark.

    Anything without a Planeswalker spark would instantly be turned to nothing but a idea in the Blind Eternities...a fact one of my summons once found out the hard way as I tried to bring it with me.

    Only a Planeswalker can survive this.

    But because we can survive it...doesn't mean it's pleasant. Especially when you're following a baby Walker's trail.

    Luckily time or maybe unfortunately time and distance do not exist here any more than matter does. Ignoring the ideas bursting into reality as form and sound and touch I try to follow the faint scent of blue through the raging non space between worlds.

    Tracking a another Planeswalker through this is like tracking a Jaguar through the rainforest in the middle of a typhoon.

    By smell.

    At night.


    But luckily Dawn was not a real Planeswalker. Not yet. Not really...she jumped by instinct to escape certain death. Her spark ignited and threw her from her home plane into the multiverse.

    She ascended, a rather metaphysical violent event.

    Basically, she tore like the void like a angry elephant bull on crack through a china shop.

    Even so, the trail was so incredibly faint that if I didn't know where to start looking, there would have been no way in hell I would have noticed it...and it was dissolving before my eyes.

    Unreality crashed and broke in blinding colors as the trail she left became too faint to hear, leaving me with 16 possible realities she could have ended up in.

    Gritting my teeth against the pressure of swirling nothing I moved to touch the first one, getting a feel from the infinity small and universe large point. Lethal.

    I moved to the next one.

    Lethal.

    Lethal.

    Lethal.

    I kept moving until I checked them all. Out of 16 possible destinations, only six were survivable. As in if she ended up there, she would not instantly die.

    I turned back the way I came for a eternity before instantly turning back and plunging into the first of the survivable realities. I needed to get back into sanity, the pressure of floating around out here was getting difficult to handle.

    Better to enter one and get some rest before going back to Buffy to report what I found out. She would not have liked the news anyway.


    Punching through the veil I collapsed onto the forest floor, gasping for air. Holy crap. That was the longest I ever spent Outside before.

    I do not want to try something like that again. That ranks very high among 'worst experiences of my life'.

    There was the sound of a twig snapping behind me and I threw myself to the side from pure instinct.

    Good thing I did.

    A blur pounced through the space where I had been kneeling, narrowly missing me, claws just about catching on my cloak, cutting through the heavy wool like if it wasn't even there.

    Six almost invisible paws dug into the forest floor as the bear sized thing spun around, it's fur changing color to match the background and I lashed out, channeling my Red mana into a flame slash, catching it mid leap, the spell breaking it apart into cinders and body parts.

    I barely got a shield of White mana up before I got showered by the ash and burned meat.

    Struggling onto my feet I got the first good look around, trying to catch my breath.

    Trees, clinging plants. Dense underbrush. Dripping water and barely any sunlight getting through the leaves.

    Jungle. Jungle full with whatever the hell that thing was.

    There was suddenly a loud roar, loud enough to rattle in my bones...and it still sounded like it was far away.

    That brought the next thing to my attention...there were no sounds. No bird song, no insects chirping.

    Dead silence.

    A dead silent forest is never a good sign.


    A slow movement to my left made me turn that way only to see green...tentacles...for lack of better word lash out and batter against my shield hard enough to drive me backwards. That TREE just tried to eat me!

    As I struck back with another lash of cutting flame, burning the flailing tentacles to a crisp as well as setting fire to the tree.

    The tree screamed and something else responded loudly far away and there was the sound of snapping branches far away in the underbrush.

    Yeah, time to leave. If she ended up here, she's dead anyway and there is no reason to stick around.

    When the scenery tries to eat you, it is time to move along.


    Holding the shield I ghosted out of reality to once more face the madness of the Blind Eternities.

    Three trips through the breach in less than a day.

    All I could do was hope there is nothing dangerous at the other side.

    Because, if it there were....


    ...It might get a easy meal.





    AN// Many thanks to hance1986 for betaing this part :)
     
  • Threadmarks
    • And he still didn't take the time to grab a pizza... His life is really harsh.
    gladiusone said:
    When I saw 'six paws', my first thought was that she wound up on Sphinx, land of hexapumas, treecats and Salamanders ... but Sphinx is more forrest and snow than hot wet jungle.

    Very much looking forward to seeing more.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Exactly my thought too.
     
    Elbrasch said:
    I meant the AU Voyager, which was named Berserk or Berserker i think, which his other planeswalker ego claimed, you know the guy who drops bears and tigers on vampires just for the lols :)
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Is there any other reason to drop bears and tigers on vampires?
     
    Brellin said:
    First thing I thought, between the six paws and the camoflauge was that it was a displacer beast. The next thing, after the jungle with killer trees was talked about, was him being in cheantia (spell check) which is a specific area in Faerun. Yeah ... if she ended up there she'd already be dead.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Faerun... Isnt that the D&D place with that Drizzt Drow-Mary-sue-guy?

    But really, I thought Pandora.
     
    Rufus Shinra said:
    People, I've just realized... Hiver actually managed to find his home Plane here!

    He simply landed in Australia.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    We don't actually have displacer beasts here in Australia. They got eaten by all the smaller predators.

    Yes, I did say that right.
     
    melavio said:
    Given his past jumps and a pinch of Murphy's Law, I'd wager him landing in the Mojave Wasteland during the Second Battle of Hoover Dam.

    Just remember to snag yourself some NCR Ranger Combat Armor. Those things are plenty durable and look cool.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Heh. The Multiverse would then start discovering the joys of a headshot with the Anti-Materiel Rifle (damn, I loooooooove that rifle, especially when I use it against Super Mutants in the Capitol Wasteland with a mod allowing me to go from the Mojave to DC :)). ME handguns are nice, but when you want some heavy dakka... nothing beats the AMR.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top