The Last Jump (Urban Fantasy/Science Fantasy, Multicross, Planeswalking, Eventual-40k-Like)

[Gavinfoxx]

The Last Jump
Belt Rush
Part 8


Over the next handful of months, Ian and Rebecca used their connections with the three groups they chose for their training to expand the scope of their learning. With the militia and emergency response training group, they leaned into learning more about tactics and martial arts (which was not just 'combatives') and how to manage teams of people, or dumb drones, under stress, as well as a large number of vital space survival skills. Eventually, activities with that particular group dried up some, as most of the skills they learned were often quite specific to life in the solar system as it functioned under the present rules of reality, and much of it was information that was already in their implanted knowledge.


Instead, they focused more on the other two groups; the 'Maker' and engineering team, which eventually led into some forays into technological hacking and creative repurposing, as well as which got them in touch with the owner of a fusion drive liner ship, and they got a chance to work on a proper fusion reactor, albeit under close supervision. The ship was unfortunately not going anywhere they wanted in anything approaching a reasonable timeframe. They even managed to do a bit of spacewalking repairs, getting used to working 'outside', at least in limited capacities. Regardless, much of this work was shepherding drones, but sometimes a few people who owned one bit of advanced tech or another wanted the traditional human touch.


They also spent some time with the VR group, eventually writing their own scenarios with a sort of generative AI system for the others, based on their best expectations of what they expected their future settings to be like. By this point, they expected Mythic Realms to be some sort of mythology themed fantasy game, so they played with historic and fictional interpretations of different sorts of mythologies, and a bit of a focus in being a 'supernatural detective and monster hunter' for various Earth mythologies.


Galactic Nexus was probably some sort of soft sci fi, but they didn't know which variety, so they focused on managing the political and moral quandaries that were common in the media of the eras it probably referenced, as well as generating different sorts of systems for interacting with arbitrary technobabble technology with odd limitations, to simulate what they could maybe do with it. Much of this referenced many of the political actors and nations of the 20th century, as well as various versions of retro-futurism from that era, which they also became experts on.


Star Mercenary was probably one of two things: either a mecha game, or a space combat trader game, or possibly an anime or manga that was similar to one of those. Regardless, it would probably have dramatic duels between stylized vehicles with relatively small crews, so they simulated various different ways these sorts of things could work, again referencing the media of the appropriate time frame.


Aether Genius was very, very obviously steampunk, so they piled in the various related genres to steampunk like Weird West and Teslapunk and that sort of era for Biopunk, and came up with scenarios for a sort of superhero and supervillains kind of setup within that sort of fantastic context, to allow for the widest possibility of weird powers and gadgets and over the top battles, which was great fun but of dubious usefulness.


War Torn Galaxy was... much harder to model. They didn't know much except it was very bad, and they had the figurine of the Assault Marine for clues, and they knew that the other settings would be relevant to learning how to deal with that. But those other settings were, at this point, things they were just guessing about what they would be like. Still, 'over the top grim science fantasy omni-dystopia where life is cheap' offered a multitude of settings, and so they weaved the main tropes associated with that — how to escape from doomed last stands, how to steal information from dystopian cyberpunk corporate labs, how to stage a coup or a revolution against decadent aristocracy or various forms of authoritarian and totalitarian states, how to fight swarms of bug monsters, how to infiltrate a derelict space station filled with horrors and not die horribly, and the like.


They even played through some of the sorts of historic battles that over the top settings tended to steal from, from the Thirty Years War through to the Vietnam War, to get a sense for the tactics used in each era, as well as the 'historic fantasy' versions of each, like based on authors that added dragons to the Boer Wars or whatever.


Some of these sorts of training scenarios were done with the group, but the group wasn't interested in too many of the ones that weren't mostly 'short form' scenarios with an obvious puzzle and some twist beyond the standard version of the setting, so many were done at home. The sibling's ability to require less sleep, and to, for narrowly defined sorts of tasks, run at slightly higher than normal speed for long periods of time, dramatically helped them get through these familiarizations with their best guesses of what their upcoming realities might have.


They further made sure to include practice at logistic and civilian and survival tasks associated with all the eras in which they were simulating. Much of this had been helped, of course, with their carefully selected knowledge downloads, but doing many of these tasks -- even virtually — still helped.


Another task they were doing at this point was trying to figure out their equipment kit for the transport to the Mythic Realms universe. They guessed it was a fantasy setting, and many of those didn't allow technology to work, and they also often included creatures that required specific substances to combat. Further, since they expected to be sucked through a portal, they had to manage their clothing and gear in such a way that the things most important to their survival, if possible, would be closest to their body when the portal caught them, with less important things being held or in a backpack or loose in the room with them, possibly tethered to them.


They planned that, when their year and a day in the universe of Belt Rush were up, they would be in a small, private, zero g habitat, the sort of 'rent a small warehouse' kind of place people used for activities outside the main habitat. Of course, they would include the best totable omnifabricator with cultural database they could get their hands on, even if it was a carefully extended and grey-market unlocked to the best of their capabilities civilian model, which is what they currently had, as well as a number of other bits of tool and gear and supplies.


Eventually, the time came for them to do their last time 'going under' for their final augmentations. This was to be a large change, one which would by necessity have to take place all at once. It would be the final accelerated growth spurt to maturity, as well as the finalization of the mental changes and uploads associated with the largest personality changes they had requested: wisdom. This was a change in their perceptiveness, intuition, a number of soft skills, as well as a large download of associated 'intelligence' skills, in the spy sense, which had to do with awareness, various sorts of logical deduction and induction, a few of their last sensory improvements, a certain amount of skill at introspection, certain types of talent at social manipulation and engineering, a large amount of related 'soft sciences' skills which would be relevant, as well as the final removal and flushing of their neural meshes.


Needless to say, this was expected to be somewhat angst-inducing, so the doctors insisted that they go 'under' while in the comfort of their own home, with a specially programmed nurse robot and the appropriate medical machines there to help them through the weeks of the process, which would require them to be in yet another artificially induced coma-like state, this one not requiring actual 'vats'. This would allow them to awake naturally, gradually, in a familiar environment, which would mitigate the stress inherent due to the mental upgrade, which would finally, fully, turn both of them into capable adults.


Before their last 'upgrade', Ian and Rebecca sat in their apartment, a hushed tension hanging in the air. It was a space they had made home over the past months, filled with physical and digital tools, memorabilia from their explorations, and an array of unfinished projects. The once foreign space was now intimately familiar, filled with comfort and meaning.


Ian was the first to break the silence, leaning back on the sofa and running a hand through his hair. "Hard to believe this is it, huh?"


Rebecca nodded, her gaze distant. "The final step," she murmured. "You'd think we'd be less nervous, given everything we've gone through already."


"But we are, aren't we?" Ian admitted. "Maybe it's the unknown, or just the weight of everything we've chosen."


"Probably both," she agreed. "It's strange, we can know what we're going to do, but we can't know what we're going to do. We have to trust because there's no other way."


Ian grinned at her, in obviously faked bravado, "You know what I'm most excited about? Being considered legally an adult here afterwards. I'm gonna go to one of those 'special' entertainment districts and get laid!"


Rebecca chuckled and played along, "That would be your prerogative, for sure. Still, I'm more concerned about how we're going to fundamentally change who we are."


Ian glanced at her, a bit deflated. "You think it'll be that drastic?"


"Who knows? Wisdom is a big thing. The docs say it won't change our personalities but we'll be... well, wiser. More perceptive, have more context for things and to make decisions. We'll see things differently, and make more connections to things."


Ian grunted noncomittaly. "All part of the plan, right?"


"Yeah," Rebecca replied with a bit of a sigh, a hint of unease in her voice. "All part of the plan."


They spent the rest of the evening chatting, reminiscing about their journey so far, and sharing quiet moments of anticipation. When the time came, they willingly slipped into their last unconscious state, ready to embrace their final transformation.

---

When they woke up, they were different. Their minds whirred with newly installed perspective, a sense of awareness, various social and specific sorts of analytical skills, as well as a whole host of technologies and techniques that could be used in spycraft and intelligence and social manipulation contexts, as well as some knowledge on the actual costs of some of the procedures they had undergone.


And with all of that came a dawning realization. "Ian," Rebecca began, her voice tense as she scanned the apartment. "We've been had."


Ian looked around, silent, his face filling with rage.


Rebecca looked at the robot and at the closed 'private' room. "All the resources, all the help we've received. We never questioned it. They methodically determined that we were morons, and manipulated us the entire time, all to their ends."


Their anger was instantaneous and palpable. They felt betrayed. All their work, their planning – had it all been under the watchful eye of one or more intelligence agencies? Their private room, their haven where they discussed everything, it had never been private at all!


Suddenly, a voice echoed through the apartment, calm and composed, and familiar. "I see you two have woken up," it said. It was 'Dr. Luna', speaking to them remotely. "Congratulations on completing your last upgrade."


"Your name isn't Dr. Luna." Rebecca said, numb. "You've been manipulating us."


"You cold-hearted bitch!" Ian added, his voice rising.


'Dr. Luna' sighed. "Now, now, let's not jump to conclusions. You all were legally wards of the state, and are only just now actually both legal adults. And it was necessary."


"Necessary for what?" Ian demanded. "To control us?"


"Not primarily." the agent replied, and the siblings knew that she knew that they would perceive a full 'no' as a lie. "To keep you safe and on track. Your insights about 'Belt Rush' are already showing some impressive dividends, and it's also possible you have knowledge that you don't know you have, waiting for the right circumstance to show up."


A wall that they didn't actually know was a display screen lit up with a 'not to scale' political map of the local region of the Kuiper belt, showing New Hydrangea, several 'nearby' collection of asteroids, several neighbors, several mining ships, and a time compressed representation of a flurry of encrypted broadcasts and a large number of ships beginning to burn hard to new locations and send more encrypted broadcasts, in an expanded sphere of causality due to light lag, as the map began to zoom out.


'Dr. Luna' added, "Due to your foreknowledge, we were able to predict this and were even in a position to determine what some of these broadcasts were about, news that will break within the week due to inevitable leaks. It looks like some independent miner uncovered magnetic monopoles in some nearby rocks and dust, and now everyone wants the exotic matter and will be rushing out here to get it before everyone else, and to be the first to use it to crash-build magmatter production facilities and crash refit their everything to use the stuff. Or at least they will as soon as they know it's here."


The image turned to a multi-spectrum telescope video feed pointed at the inner system, with 'live' at the corner, "And the light from the minimum decision and fastest possible rapid action response time from the big inner system hegemonies should be reaching us about now." A timer in the corner timed down to 0, and then started timing up. At around 38 seconds or so, a bright, continuous light showed. "Ah! There's an antimatter drive plume. Looks like someone's burning their strategic reserve in a rapid reaction force to get out here as fast as possible. And it wasn't one of the European Union descended states. Damn, I lost a bet."


"Plot." Ian whispered, despite himself.


"Plot!" Dr. Luna responded amicably, as she let them know she could hear their whispers. "Anyway, that's going to take a while to come to a head. Regarding our involvement with you two, we admit we nudged you a bit. We made sure you didn't wander into unsavory circles or take risks that could derail your growth plans. Which, by the way, we massively funded."


At a side of the screen, a pie chart with two segments showed up; one with a tiny, tiny sliver that said, 'Amount of augmentation and training you could've done using your UBI' and the much larger segment that said, 'Amount of augmentation that had to be funded'.


Ian, finally frustrated enough to lash out, yelled at the unseen voice, "What the fuck do you want with us?"


Dr. Luna responded with what could only be a smile in her voice. "Nothing, really. It's not like you'll be able to easily leave the nation and also be able to get anywhere of note in the six months that are left in your year and a day. Not with every fast-ish ship doing lots of high priority sorts of things for lots of very wealthy and powerful and connected people. Or did you forget how big space was when you 'planned' the six month thing? Or perhaps this doesn't match the book? Maybe you forgot about some glossed over time skips? Science fiction authors are known to have no sense of scale, after all."


Rebecca just growled, going into some multi-tone rumbles with her modified vocal apparatus.


Dr. Luna laughed, "Alright, I'll tone down the act. It's not like you two are not going to hate us, I figured you'd appreciate a bit of drama. Though you do have some tickets on a courier vessel to a facility at a safe distance from the main habitat, where you will be obligated to spend the last few weeks up to that year and a day. There are several other times you could go out there prior to that, if you want to get away from it all. We haven't actually seen the Singularity forcibly upload people, or abduct people from this part of the solar system, or initiate an outgoing wormhole rather than an incoming one, and are absolutely going to take this chance to point every sensor we can think of at you for then. Who knows, even if you're right, and you two are magical planeswalking portal fantasy protagonists who are destined to leave to go to a realm of myth and magic, we should get a lot of data from that highly improbable event too."


Rebecca and Ian, by this point, were collecting some of their day bags and getting some utilitarian clothes on. "So we're just guinea pigs, then?"


Dr. Luna responded, "No, you're people that are valuable to us, who, like I said before, until just now, used to be children under every commonly accepted definition of the term and which were state wards. And you were children who had set yourself up to con a nation-state that has its shit together. You never even had the slightest chance of succeeding; the best you could've done would have been to speak outside in tethered space-suits, and that just means they would've been trickier and more expensive to bug. But we're not one of the dystopias of your simulations. We won't physically stop you from leaving or draft you or anything; just good luck getting a berth on anything that lets you get somewhere before your time is up, though, and you will probably want to take us up on that courier ship. You have been wanting an unlocked omnifab, yes? One is yours if you follow our instructions; after all, it is tradition to pay intelligence assets gobs of money for their cooperation. It would even be a device which we could update, at the last minute, with the latest data on the magmatter projects, even though projections show the actual stuff itself will still be strategic at that point. It's not like you'd be able to use it to harm us at any of the places you might be going."

Ian shouldered his bag and walked out the door, shouting, "I'm going to go get drunk." Rebecca followed him a moment later.

 

[Gavinfoxx]

The Last Jump
Belt Rush
Final Part

The weeks following their revelation turned into a strange sort of intermission for the siblings. Rebecca and Ian had assumed that the cold standoff with the intelligence agency would lead to a grand escapade, a series of daring maneuvers to wrestle control back. Yet the vast machinations of interplanetary politics, intelligence maneuvers, and the booming resource rush all seemed to move around them, leaving them caught in the eye of a storm too great for them to sway.

They observed, somewhat helplessly, as New Hydrangea and the wider Kuiper Belt shifted from their previously stable, predictable rhythms into something wilder. The air seemed to crackle with the energy of "Monopole Fever" - every conversation was tinged with excitement, a low-grade hysteria that was infectious. The siblings watched as first transmitted copies of AIs and uploads of powerful people, then regional foreigners, and then finally inner-system fleets of absolutely massive ships with their terrifyingly powerful antimatter drives, began to fill the region, a wave of newcomers drawn by the tantalizing promise of magnetic monopoles, and the desire to be the first to fabricate the exotic matter a few samples would inevitably lead to.

Their daily lives took on an odd dichotomy. On one hand, they could play around with the theory of monopole usage and test out modification kits, things designed to, for example, turn an antimatter catalyzed fusion drive into a potential monopole catalyzed one, as they worked with theories and simulations of a future they couldn't quite touch. Six months was not enough time for the 'incredibly rare for now' materials to become ubiquitous as they were promised to. The siblings were excluded from the real game - the inner circles of power and influence that were now driving the burgeoning new economy. Their augmentations, despite the impressive level they had achieved, simply couldn't compare with the inorganic, high-performance augmentations that were more popular here. And their lack of a proven track record left them outside of most of the important discussions and decision-making processes, wherever they tried to join a mining crew, or a research company, or what was probably a smuggling gang, to get any sort of influence in local representative politics.

"Ah, the youth of today," Zhen chided them in a discussion one day, a twinkle in his robotic dinosaur eyes. "So quick to reach for the stars, but so impatient when the stars don't fall into their hands."

"That's a bit rich coming from you, Zhen," Rebecca retorted, the tension from their situation seeping into her tone. "You're younger than us!"

The precocious AI chuckled at her indignation. "Age is a state of mind, not a count of cycles, Rebecca," he replied sagely. "Besides, I'm not the one complaining about not being able to join the big kid's table."

Meanwhile, the VR fiction and sim club became a refuge of sorts for them, a place where they could retreat from the frenzied pace of the outside world. Zara and Raul provided a constant source of diversion and conversation that wasn't always about monopoles and the changes sweeping through the region.

"I don't understand why everyone's so worked up," Raul complained one day during a break in a shared simulation session. "Sure, monopoles might change everything about power generation, and make the solar system smaller by making ships faster, and make some stable super dense materials-"

"And make antimatter obsolete!" Rebecca helpfully added.

"-and make antimatter obsolete for most things, yes, but it's not like everything was so bad before, right? If you wanted a happening place you lived in the inner system, if you wanted some space around you, you lived here. That won't change. Well, maybe people will be going closer to the Oort cloud to get 'away', but but the basic dynamic won't change."

Ian couldn't help but smile at Raul's nonchalant take on the situation. "I guess some people are just more excited about change than others," he replied carefully.

Marisol and the other officers, on the other hand, took the escalating situation in stride. They stepped up the training sessions, preparing everyone in their now much more popular militia for any potential conflicts that might arise due to the influx of outsiders. There was a much larger focus on 'Espatier' training — that is, being a combat astronaut, both with or without strength-enhancing armored space suits — than there had been before. "We have to be ready for anything," she told the siblings during one training session. "Monopole Fever is changing the face of our home, and not everyone's going to play nice."

Yet for all the chaos and uncertainty, the siblings couldn't help but feel a bitter pang of disappointment. They weren't going to have a grand adventure out here in the Kuiper Belt - not in the way they had initially imagined. The novel anticipation of their early days in New Hydrangea was now replaced by a growing sense of insignificance. They were caught in the whirlwind of events, yet they felt like mere bystanders. Their once-cherished secret was now out in the open, and it had brought them nothing but a standoff with the intelligence agency and a sense of being sidelined, left them feeling oddly deflated.

The events of the Belt Rush - or, as the locals called it, the Monopole Fever - taught them a hard lesson: in the vast and complex world of interplanetary politics and economics, even foreknowledge could only get them so far. It wasn't about simply knowing what was coming, but about having the right tools, connections, and experience to navigate the unpredictable currents that the future would invariably bring.

Eventually, the two made their way to the military courier ship. They had decided to take the last time the courier ship was offering, the 'compulsory' trip, due to the fact that they had an extra passenger. Kosmos, a heavily genetically engineered (but still of animal intelligence level) donkey, was their pet and he would be hauling some of the less vital aspects of their kit through the portal — if the portal would allow such companions in close proximity to them. After several days of expensive 'afterburner-heavy' fusion-based boosting and deceleration into the middle of nowhere, the group arrived at the tethered centrifuge low-g habitat and science facility where they would be living the next week. No one but the two of them and the donkey and a large number of tele-operated robots were present.

It was, of course, furnished in 1999 luxury chic. Another joke. This time, however, all the monitoring systems weren't hidden behind the walls, they were out in the open. The two had made a lot of decisions over the last few months, and had the gear they wanted to take to Mythic Realms all picked out. They did find an unlocked and unencrypted omnifabricator in the middle of the habitation space, and tested it's capabilities in making various small restricted items with the associated tiny amounts of feedstock, which was apparently set there for the purpose.

There wasn't much communication, just from their two minder vessels, the New Hydrangea Research Vessel Alchemilla and the New Hydrangea Self Defense Force Corvette Waratah, who advised them that they were their babysitters for the next week, and if nothing happened at the expected date, one of them would be coming to pick them up. And also that they would be blown out of the black if necessary.

All in all, they spent the time watching old movies, caring for and playing with Kosmos, cooking, exercising, playing table games, reading, practicing their martial arts, and making sure that no matter what, they were always close to their kit and always had some of it on them at the same time, and that they were always in sight of each other and physically nearby.

Eventually, the day of the transfer came up. They dressed in their chosen clothing, in their chosen gear, and holding and wearing their chosen equipment, sat in a circle of supplies. Some were tethered, some were not. The night before, they had gotten a data download of the latest information on monopoles and magmatter that New Hydrangea had put together, and had included it in their devices. The whole day, they felt a sort of forgotten feeling building around them.

Ian grumbled and talked for the first time that day, "I'll be glad to get the hell out of this chickenshit place."

Rebecca chided him, and said in Akkadian, "Please, Ian. Remember to speak in Aramaic, Ancient Greek, Coptic, Akkadian, or the like."

Ian chuckled, and responded in Ancient Greek, "Becky, no one knows the exact right pronunciations of any of these. It's all best guesses, even in the best case scenarios. We're going to sound like hicks no matter what. That's if they don't speak Modern Greek or English. Fantasy realm, yea?"

The two settled, and focused on the feeling. Magic. It wasn't supposed to be in this world, and yet it was, and it was building, and familiar. Alchemilla didn't need to ask them what they felt; the monitoring equipment was powerful enough to know they were perceiving something, and the science gear could notice changes too. Eventually, after hours upon hours of waiting in the mission, the buildup and energies that they could sense with their augmented bodies spiked. The placement of the group in a location with an obvious up and an obvious down was an attempt to encourage whatever portal to open only in a particular area.

Eventually, a large, spherical portal with glowing edges appeared in an increasing flash, beyond which distorted green plant life could be seen. The two immediately dropped into bullet time, and noticed the flurry of activity that was fast even by their sped up perceptions. All around them, lenses rotated, items were mechanically pushed around, and as the siblings and Kosmos gently pulled off the floor due to the, for the moment, merely mild suction effect of the gate.

Their accelerated perception noted that the gear was being launched so that as much of it as possible would enter the gate around them at the same time as they were, as close to them as possible, and from the same angle as them. Padded supplies from more distant parts of the room were even being bounced from mechanical arms in the ways that were deployed even faster than they could spot, even accelerated as they were. And, as the suction effect intensified remarkably quickly, what looked like a probe of some sort was launched from the edge of the room to enter the portal as the same time as them. Their eyes tracked this, as the most intense movement happened at the very, very last moment, where the two, having grabbed each other and a wild-eyed Kosmos, along with a rain of supplies and at least one robotic probe that they could actually see, fell into another world.

 

[Gavinfoxx]

Intermission
But the Trees!

Meanwhile, in another universe, aboard the New Hydrangea Research Vessel Alchemilla...

Dr. Kieran Matheson, a renowned physicist known for his work in interdimensional theories, was bouncing the length of the zero-g control room, excitement shining in his eyes. He kept glancing at the readouts on the large display, repeating his earlier exclamations of wonderment.

"Trees!" he exclaimed again, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "There were actual trees on the other side! Moving in the wind! It wasn't a giant tunnel where they moved at STL speeds, it was right there! Do you realize the implications of this? Time travel is not off the table!"

Around him, the rest of the team exchanged amused glances. Dr. Olivia Basu, a bioengineer who'd been quiet until then, finally spoke up.

"We get it, Kieran. It's a groundbreaking discovery. But what about the other data we gathered? The gravitational shifts, the temporal distortions, the odd radiation, the particle emissions... and how about the fact that the data from our probe just... stopped?"

"Yes, yes," Kieran said dismissively. "But trees, Olivia! And that strange energy signature... almost like..."

"Like magic?" a voice interjected from the corner of the room. It was Agent Hargrove, a stern figure from the New Hydrangea Intelligence Agency who was acting as their 'minder.' He was the only one not sharing the general enthusiasm.

"We don't understand it yet, and that is a passable definition of magic," Kieran said, shrugging. "But imagine the potential! This could change everything we know about physics. We might be able to create wormholes in a century or less!"

Olivia nodded in agreement, grinning in amusement. "There's definitely a Nobel in there for whoever cracks this. And the trees, of course. Can't forget the trees."

Hargrove sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I hope you all realize this information can't be made public yet. It could cause a panic. Not to mention draw the attention of the Singularity if it wasn't actually something it instigated."

Dr. Matheson waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, let the bureaucrats and Singularity wonks worry about that. We're scientists, not politicians or professional paranoids!"

"You're scientists in a military vessel, Kieran," Hargrove said pointedly. "And you should remember that."

However, his words fell on deaf ears. The scientists had already turned back to their instruments, their eyes sparkling with the same excitement and fascination as when they had witnessed the opening of the wormhole and the siblings' journey into the unknown. As the long hours turned into days where they sedately returned to the recently finished New Hydrangea High Energy Physics Auxiliary Habitat, they and their peers would meticulously analyze every piece of data, every frame of the video feed, every trace left by the magical event. It would be their life's work, their legacy. And no matter the odds or the red tape, they were ready for the challenge.

 

[Gavinfoxx]

The Last Jump
Mythic Realms
Part 1

The probe and the other objects around them fell and bounced a few times and came to a stop as the three were thrown out of the portal and rolled perfectly, then deflected the padded supplies from hitting Kosmos, who had not landed as gracefully. Eventually, the three organics got up, but the probe still lay, inert. They were in a small area of scrub next to some trees. A Mediterranean Forests, woodlands, and scrub biome, which the two could easily identify.

Ian calmed Kosmos down and checked him for injury, then set him to grazing, while Rebecca quickly got out some of their simple devices to test them; basic ruggedized circuits for things like flashlights, radios, simple survival gear. It turned out that everything that required a battery of any sort, regardless of type, was dead; even hand cranked devices didn't work.

Everything that required a complex chemical reaction, even one that they knew for a fact took place in their body, was dead. They flashed their bioluminescence, which worked fine, but cracking a glowstick for the same chemical compound failed. Rebecca took apart the flashlight and put it's leads against her skin, and pulsed her electric eel style bioelectric circuits against the wires. This caused the super efficient LED to sputter into glowing, which confirmed some more of the nature of what was going on. Then she tried a naphtha filled flint wheel lighter, which flicked a flame into life; that worked at least.

Ian, meanwhile, had removed his helmet and loosened his neck armor and was looking around, obviously flaring all his numerous enhanced senses. "Area seems clear. Some small wildlife, that's all. Some scent trails of larger predators of some sort, nothing recent. I smell the ocean. Nothing notable on thermals, radio, or electromagnetic spectrum, area seems to have a stable magnetic field with a magnetic north. Air pressure nominal. No industrial pollutants in the air. Pollen count is high, and one of my senses seems to sense ambient magic, at best guess."

Rebecca stowed the flashlight and other miscellany with an "Agreed.", stepped aside, drew her revolver, sighted on a tree, and said, "Beginning technological weapons test." A gentle squeeze. Click.

"Load one failure." Click. Click. Click. "Loads two through four, failure. Different era chemical propellants ineffective. Load five, testing black powder load with bronze age fabrication techniques and available materials, made by yours truly."

She pressed the previously used wire leads to her wrist and used the ends to create a spark in a carefully designed touchhole with her electrical abilities. Nothing happened.

"...Failure. Testing air rifle simulation cartridge."

Pop! A small amount of bark flew away from the tree. "Success."

At the same time, Ian had gotten out his 'slingshot' and was assembling the rifle-like object, which he prepared to fire with a flex and a strain on his enhanced muscles. "Testing high powered repeating slingshot." He sighted along the iron sights at a direction away from the group, and pulled the trigger. A splinter of wood at his specific target flew out. "Success. Wait, no, hold on a minute."

He unhooked the rubber bands and flung them on the ground and wiped off his hands along some grass as the rubber started to dissolve. "Sis, unload and get out the Girardoni parts, I'll bet something's up with the air loads."

Rebecca, with no wasted movements, removed all the cartridges from her revolver and dumped them on the ground, then went to Kosmos's saddlebags and pulled out the disassembled antique style air rifle parts. They were dissolving as well as the parts of the specialized air test cartridge. She flung them down with a "Fuck conceptual fucking restrictions!" and went back to check the supplies.

Ian grunted as he got out a ball bearing from the hopper of his nonfunctional slingshot, pulled out a wound brass pocket watch, held the bearing up two meters high, dropped it, and mentally timed the duration of the fall while looking at the watch and comparing it to his internal clock. "Earth Standard Gravity. Looks like things that can pass as clockwork brass automata will work. Pity coiled spring crossbows suck."

He then asked, "So how do you think the active technological limits work? Obviously it's got some intelligence to it, and it's reacting to what we do. I don't think we'll be able to get any super slingshots or air rifles to work even if we make them ourselves with local materials from now on, though we might want to test that at some point. And do ya think we're actually on Earth and this is just done with extreme nano or other fuckery?"

Rebecca, who had gotten out a very small foldable brass telescope and was pointing it at a short mountain in the middle distance, chuckled and handed him the telescope. "See for yourself."

Ian looked through the telescope, and grinned. "Yea that's a Pegasus alright. Doing some pretty good maneuvers too, what with the impossibly small wings. Ooohhh, it's being chased by a Griffin. Yea, can't fake that without doing so much that we might as well treat everything we see as real. Did you spot the cooking fire smoke in the distance in the other direction?"

Rebecca grinned, "Of course."

Ian got out his last disassembled 'superweapon', and cannibalized some of the parts from the tactical slingshot thing to assemble it, the two having been designed to only have one functional at once to save on space. He held up the now assembled tactical repeating crossbow, stylized to visually resemble a period-appropriate Gastraphetes (provided one was far away or profoundly drunk, at least), and sighted, and kicked in his superspeed and shot all eighteen bolts into the ground a ways away, and then with hyper-fast reflexes, did a speed reload to replace the empty magazine as it fell to the ground and did the same again.

The two had decided that all the weapons they could bring would definitely have to give some level of advantage over the locals, as it wasn't worth it to bring something just as good as they could probably get locally, and this was the last before they got to utility tools.

He looked up, and spoke to the sky in Ancient Greek, "I can do that, yea? That won't cause a problem? No dissolving parts or anything? I merely wish to make use of my weapon as it was intended to be used, for the defense of my family and of innocents, and to seek mortal amounts of glory; I do not wish to commit hubris. I wish to honor all appropriate deities of craftsmanship, artisanship, and archery with my actions."

Nothing happened.

Rebecca spoke up, having examined some of their kit while this was happening. "Congratulations! Neither of us have been smote. We are both allowed to be armed! And our armor is not currently dissolving either!"

Ian let out a breath, collected the bolts and carefully placed them back in the magazines, then put one of the mags in his weapon, and another on his field harness, and affixed his bayonet to the weapon, with a wary eye to the distant flying creatures. Rebecca, by her part, had gotten out her Partisan and had tested it by attacking a sapling with it at superspeed. No failures, and everything functioned as expected.

The two buried and camouflaged many of the supplies that they could not immediately make use of, including the inert probe and both omnifabbers, double checked that their armor still wasn't dissolving — the custom, modernized but 'ancient stylized' and slightly camouflaged Brigandine was fine — then shouldered their packs, checked Kosmos's saddlebags, took his lead, and walked towards the town in the distance.

As they trekked towards the distant smoke signals, Ian and Rebecca finally shared a look of mutual understanding and relief. Despite their inherent thirst for adventure, the siblings had learned the hard way that knowing the future was not as glamorous as they had imagined. Here, in this new world of Mythic Realms, they were free of the relentless weight of foreknowledge and the stifling reach of government oversight.

"The air tastes fresher here," Rebecca said in Ancient Greek, taking a deep breath. "You don't realize how much you miss the simple pleasures until you lose them."

Ian smiled and glanced at where the distant Pegasus was doing a reverse immelmann to try and shake the Griffin. "Yeah, it's kind of like a weight has been lifted. Here, we're just...us. No strings attached, no one breathing down our necks. Just us, our know-how, and an entire world to explore."

Rebecca nodded, her eyes flickering with excitement. "And the magic... don't forget about the magic. It's like an entirely new sense, isn't it? Like back at home, but... more. Maybe these bodies are just more sensitive to this sort of thing, or it's easier here, but it's... wow."

"Yeah," Ian agreed. "And we're going to learn how to use it, become part of it. A fresh start. A new chance. No fucking State-level actors! A few dinky little city-states that don't talk to each other much, maybe! No constant monitoring. Just us and a realm full of possibilities."

"You know we can't get complacent. Hubris and all. Where there are myths, there are Gods. And all those tragedy tropes. We're coming in here with knowledge of hundreds of fantasy novels and series and games and myths, and it's still going to be one hell of a tightrope walk to figure out this place's rules and where they can be bent."

There was a distant scream of a horse and then an hawk-like cry of victory. Both siblings looked in that direction, and went back to their business with a wary eye.

Ian grinned, having kept calm at the safely distant sounds of the megapredator. "Sure. But for now, let's just soak in the fact that we're here, in a world of myth and magic. A world where we get to be the adventurers, not just bystanders."

Walking through the new world, Kosmos by their side, the siblings reveled in the simple joy of being free, of being in control of their own destiny again.

"And who knows?" Rebecca mused, a mischievous glint in her eye. "Maybe we'll get to slay a dragon or two along the way."

Ian laughed, adjusting the strap of his crossbow. "Hah, if we're in Mythic Greece, it'll probably be a Hydra, maybe some sort of Leviathan. Or a Rukh if that Griffin is indicative of anything."

Rebecca grinned, "Just as long as it isn't the really big type. House sized? Sure, bring it! Mountain sized? I'm not confident we'd come out on top without high explosives!"

Ian and Rebecca peacefully made their way towards the distant column of smoke they had seen earlier. As they neared, the aroma of baking bread and roasting fish and the stronger smell of the sea began to intertwine with the crisp air, and they were greeted by a cacophony of sounds - the murmur of conversation, the baaing of sheep, and the clinking of metal tools against stone and wood. For the most part, it was a village that seemed to belong more in a history textbook than in reality. Baked clay houses dotted the landscape with a few stone buildings scattered in between, the whole town built around a central public square, likely an agora. People went about their day with an air of calm productivity, from fishermen mending their nets, to farmers trading their produce, and herdsfolk talking animatedly among themselves. A gaggle of children played knucklebones in the street.

A ways up a pass along the side of the looming mountain, well past the outskirts of the town, were the distant remnants of a once-great temple, now weathered and ruined by the passage of time, with evidence of a much closer village, also ruined and abandoned, surrounding the temple. A shadow of the past overlooking the present, perhaps.

There was one notable, major difference in the town from what may have shown up in the past of the earth they had once lived in: the presence of satyrs amongst the humans. These weren't the satyrs of mythology, half-man half-beast creatures of wild revelry and passion. Rather, they were more like anthropomorphic goats, their appearance a bit more coherent and less disconcerting than the illustrations in old Greek mythology books. They intermingled with the humans in the village as though it was the most natural thing in the world, dressed the same as the humans, and apparently even sharing the same households, and doing all the same sorts of tasks.

Houses appeared to be communal dwellings, with spaces divided more by gender than species. Young couples which were obviously married apparently had their own spaces, a touch of privacy in the shared existence.

"The satyrs look a lot more normal than I expected them to look. Just people, not incarnations of the wild." Rebecca commented in English

The siblings noticed the townsfolk glancing at them, whispering amongst themselves. They caught the word "Nephiloi" being thrown around.

"The language... it's not exactly ancient Greek, but similar," Ian noted, his linguist mind automatically analyzing the words and phrases he heard. He continued, "Nephiloi, probably a Greek variant term of the Hebrew Nephilim. Do they think we're demigods?"

Rebecca looked at the calm reactions of the people around them, and surmised, "If it's a fantasy setting intended for a role playing game or a strategy game with a bunch of mostly interchangeable 'races', Nephilim might be powered down from the original myths. Maybe we're just people with more distant angelic blood, not quite so insane or powerful. We're large, dark skinned, heavily muscled humanoids, so regardless, we fit either version of Nephilim quite well. My name is even Hebrew in origin. Let's not freak them out though, lest they panic. Maybe we slowly make our weapons appear a bit safer, and take off the helmets. No one is rushing to attack us here."

Ian carefully made his crossbow a little less visibly intimidating by slowly removing and stowing the bayonet, and the two took off their helmets and clipped them to their backpacks. The people nearby visibly relaxed, and some even approached them.

The siblings' attempts to make themselves understood to the people who approached them were faltering; the villagers' language was different enough to what the two knew to make comprehension difficult. After a few minutes of pantomime and using words from various ancient languages they knew, they were finally able to convey their intention to meet with the leader of the village, and so made their way to a stone building that appeared to house the town's leader. It was larger and more ornate than the rest, with an impression of permanence amidst the relative fragility of clay, and the front decorated with nature motifs and stylized carvings of olive trees that Rebecca guessed must have cultural or religious significance.

A wizened old Satyr man came out to meet them, and when others made obsequious gestures towards this individual, the two managed to determine that this was the leader of the village, and he was named Daphnis. With more gesturing and ancient word-dropping, the siblings got across that they sought hospitality, and would work and be helpful in the household. Luckily, the elderly satyr understood the Greek word 'Xenia', for the sacred bond of hospitality, and offered them the ritual food and handshakes, which they graciously accepted, as well as a paddock for their donkey and a place for them to sleep.

The two siblings, however, had learned their lesson about being overly trusting, and took watches at night and did not leave their equipment unattended. Their supplies represented a great amount of wealth and were not replaceable, and they did not know the culture here or how much protection the town elder could reliably provide. They would have to learn the language, and fast, and get an understanding of the town, its troubles, and the people in it.

 

[Gavinfoxx]

The Last Jump
Mythic Realms
Part 2

It took the better part of a week to learn the language well enough to get by. The two siblings spent their time out, listening to people, trying to fumble their way through speaking, asking for terms for things, and for corrections. Between their memory, their existing training, the full immersion, their ability to cooperate with terms, and their capacity to determine patterns and similar terms for things, they could speak with correct grammar and a limited vocabulary.

They learned a few things: The town was named Thalassa, in reference to their sea-focused lifestyle. It was led by an elder Satyr named Daphnis, who had the title of 'Demiarch', but seemed to be something more of an oligarchic monarchy, where the position was elected to rule for life by the male heads of households; Daphnis was a sort of king of the village. The area had, at last count, a bit over 1400 people living in the area, though many were away with their herds or in more distant fields or out fishing at any given moment.

Notably, the Satyrs didn't call themselves Satyrs, and instead preferred the term 'Faun' or 'Fauns'. This was concerning to the two siblings.

"Faun is the only Latin word I've heard here. No one is using any other Latin terms, and they don't know the god Faunus, or where the word comes from, when I asked. But they consider Satyr an ethnic slur. Any ideas, sis?"

Rebecca hmmmed as they drank some weak beer in one of Dephnis's guest rooms. "Uh, don't say the S-word then? Well, they are definitely acting more in line with the Roman version of the species. Hell, if I didn't know better, I'd say they also resembled Glaistig; everyone here has a sense of small town community, and of restraint, and has a love of both nature and music, but not in a crazy way. If this is a fantasy setting, maybe they just drew inspiration from similar concepts, but interpreted them in a sort of ancient Greek theme? A Grecoization rather than a Latinization, but I don't have an answer from a Watsonian view."

Ian hmmmed, "Right, just the Doylist one. They seem to like how well we can make some interesting tunes with any instrument that's handed to us, and how well we sing. Anyway, another game thing here. There's a lot of coins, and a lot less barter or tab systems than would probably be in an isolated town this size historically. But I've only seen copper, bronze, and silver coins of a few varieties, and this place doesn't have the currency crunch that I'd expect. And I've seen gold here, but mostly in jewelry, never coins. Something's up, if this is a game thing; I'd expect a clear copper/silver/gold/platinum setup if it was going exactly by the gaming trope."

The two continued their discussion into the night.

After a the week, another strange figure walked into town. This time it was a jovial man, singing a song in a different language than the two had heard so far. He was wearing a simple ocher colored one piece tunic, sandals, and a straw hat, and had a large wood-framed backpack. He was also a tawny coated anthropomorphic jackal-man with a bit of a gut, and very blatantly not any sort of demigod. As the two siblings watched him, singing, wander into town, they saw him pause, notice something on the ground, get out a glass reading stone to get a closer look at it, and accidentally start a small fire with the ancient magnifying glass, which he hurredly beat out with his sandaled foot.

"Definitely not a demigod. Lacks a bit of gravitas, I think. Unless it's a ruse, of course." Rebecca mused.

Eventually, he also walked over to Daphnis's home, and then saw the two siblings who were guesting there.

"Ah! You must be the Nephilim!" And then some babble in another language, which had some similarities to Ancient Hebrew. Rebecca responded in the language they had been learning, "Sorry, we speak a very far away tongue, and have been learning the local speech of this place. We come from an isolated people."

Daphnis, the Faun elder who led the town, introduced the siblings to the newest arrival, "Yes, these are the Nephilim, Revekah and Ian, that I sent a messenger to your camp to tell you about, Chrysos Aithon," he said, gesturing toward Ian and Rebecca. "And Revekah and Ian, this is Chrysos, an Anubian scholar who has been studying our local ruins for the past several weeks."

Chrysos extended a clawed hand in greeting, and shook both of their hands, somewhat over enthusiastically. "Ah, fellow foreigners! How wonderful! It is surprising to see Nephilim this far west. Daphnis, your messenger didn't say anything about any ship stopping around here, where did they come from?"

Daphnis smiled at his scholarly guest and said, "Apparently, they just walked into the village from some of the western woodlands, near Griffin territory, fully armed and armored, and with the healthiest pack-donkey anyone had ever seen. But they made no threatening gestures, and have been learning the local language and helping out around the town for the last week or so. But please, you all must have much to talk about."

Once they were all settled in with food and drink, Daphis excused himself, leaving the three of them to converse. Chrysos was a bundle of energy, his eyes gleaming with excitement and curiosity. "Ah, I've never met Nephilim of your look before! You must be from some sort of distant tribe! What brings you to our quiet corner of the world?"

The siblings shrugged, giving their cover story, that they used ill-advised magic to leave their home, and do not expect to be able to return home any time soon, and are more looking for knowledge and adventure and training in magic in the meantime. "Hmmm. Judging by your clothing, you must be some sort of noble or royal runaways. Such a classic tale. Not close in the line of succession, I take it? You decided that you'd be better off far away? Hah! I will not let these locals know your secret! Though you must tell me about what magic you used to get here, I do not know of any transportation magics."

Ian made a face as if to imply that the over-enthusiastic scribe was accurate in his guess about them being runaway nobility, then sighed dramatically, "Yea, we don't really know how the ritual we used to get us here works either. It just... sucks us into a shimmering round doorway thing and then we're somewhere else. We were hoping to learn some sorts of magic to help us with that sort of thing in the future."

Chrysos grinned, his ears twitching, "Well, I'm the only magi in this area, and I'm not so sure about taking apprentices. Hmm. We might be able to help each other, you see, I have a project I've been working on. You know how Daphnis said I've been studying the local ruins? Well, I've been doing so for a particular set of reasons. The abandoned temple, olive orchard, and village! They all relate to references I've uncovered of an artifact that was lost in this region! It's an object known as a Shade Shard, purported to have powers to command Shades of the dead beyond the dreams of any Necromancer, but I believe this name and description is a mistranslation. I believe it is a 'Shade Seed', and I believe it has something to do with the deity-mediated ancestor worship of this region!"

He slowly ramped up in enthusiasm, and the two siblings noticed that his tail was actually wagging, viewable due to the bench he was sitting on. Unperturbed, he continued, "This 'Shade Seed', I believe it to be more than just a simple gem. If my translations are accurate, it was an artifact of incredible power. Used by a local king in the face of a great calamity. Oh, to find it, to study it!" His eyes twinkled with academic lust. "And Silenus, the local god... there's so much I need to learn about him. His cult suddenly disappeared around two hundred years ago, around the time of the calamity. There's a connection, all of this is related, I'm sure of it!"

"But alas," Chrysos sighed, taking a sip of his beer. "I'm not exactly equipped for fieldwork, if you understand. My camp is as close to the ruins as I dare go. These ruins are said to be haunted by... unsettling figures. Some things that are not the normal wandering shades, and animals that wander into the area do not come out. One can only guess as to the particulars. But I suspect the 'Shade Seed' might still be there. And if it is indeed an egg of something greater... well, the possibilities are staggering."

Chrysos looked at Ian and Rebecca, an eager glint in his eyes. "You both look like you can handle yourselves. And, if my assumptions about your lineage are correct, you may have some recent divine blood in you. Would you consider helping me recover the 'Shade Seed'? I can't offer much in terms of direct compensation, but I do know some magic. Specifically for adventurer types like you, the magic of imbuing gold into magical items. And ruins such as these often hide treasures..."

The two made pleasantries and then retired to their guest room to speak in their native language.

"Well. The plot thickens. I think I get why we got dropped in this particular village. Though we did get some good bits. Gold equals magic gear is nice, that's a nice touch for the magic system. I wonder if other metals work." Ian said to his sister.

Rebecca grinned, "We're in mythical Greece. Orichalcum at least, probably. And ya, this whole setup has a feel of the start of a RPG adventure module. Fifty-fifty on whether the Anubian betrays us or is just a fumbling friendly scholar for real. Though there's probably going to be some twist at that temple. Think the McGuffin can actually be used or has something horribly wrong with it and will need to be destroyed?"

Ian frowned, "If this is a low level module, and it feels like one, probably in the original version, something happens with the artifact that puts powerful abilities outside the hands of PC's. We'd probably have to do some sort of end run to prevent that from happening and actually get use out of it. And we should focus on our goals here."

Rebecca immediately responded, "Awaken our own magic, following our plans to do so safely and with intent. Learn or create some useful form of magical crafting. Figure out how meta rules of this sort of reality, with things like divinity and afterlife and all that work. Find a useful companion, now that we know we can take individuals through the portals. Short term: get enough social capital in the area that we can not have our stuff nicked if we're away from it. Decide if we want to stay here in this village. Sell Kosmos as a prize stud donkey, that's what he's genegineered for. Figure out more details on the temple and the history of it and the Seed, and likely 'twists' and how to preempt them. We're probably the only ones with telescopes, with all our senses, we could probably recon the area. This version of Silenus doesn't seem to exactly map to Silenus or Faunus as we know him from Greek or Roman mythology, we need to learn more about how, here at least, he isn't Dionysus's donkey-riding drinking buddy. The olive orchard bit was a bit of a surprise, with that name, I'd expect vineyards and fruit orchards."


The following morning, the siblings were up early and decided to begin their task list. It was clear they had an ample amount of work to do and, although they were seemingly given a quest on a silver platter, they knew the necessity of thorough preparation. It was the creed of adventurers and explorers: You never enter an unknown situation without knowing as much as possible about what you're walking into.

Ian made arrangements to visit Chrysos' camp near the ruins, stating his intention to study and possibly draw maps of the area to better understand it. With his background in urban exploration and architecture, Ian was well suited to this task, and he hoped to gain valuable information about the ruins before they dared to enter them.

Rebecca, on the other hand, decided to get more involved in the local community. She started by meeting with Daphnis, who was more than willing to share the town's oral history, including what was known about the old temple and the deity Silenus. The town elder told her of old traditions and customs, of festivals held in the god's honor, and tales of the god's blessings.

These blessings, as it turned out, were not only spiritual but material: every year, the temple used to produce a miraculous bounty of olives, the best in the region, which were shared with the villagers. This not only enriched the village, but also allowed them to create some of the finest olive oil, a product which they traded far and wide.

The temple's bounty ceased two hundred years ago, Daphnis said, around the same time the god's followers mysteriously disappeared. Since then, the village had still done well due to the quality of their olive groves, but the miraculous bounty of the temple was missed.

Daphnis also shared some of the strange occurrences around the ruins, particularly the sightings of ghostly figures and the herd animals that went missing. He advised Rebecca to be careful if she were to venture there.

Meanwhile, at Chrysos' camp, Ian was making good use of his skills. He carefully noted the layout of the ruins, the state of the remaining structures, and any signs of recent activity. His eyes, better than any human's, and the carefully palmed spyglass, helped him see every detail, even from a distance. He noted how the ruins were spread out, how the walls of the old buildings still stood, albeit broken in places, and he could even make out faded frescoes depicting grapevines and olive trees in some of the larger buildings. He noted how nature was definitely overtaking the ruins of the village, but in a sickly, yellowing way. He noted, with a wearied, knowing sigh, signs of disturbed earth and movement pretty much everywhere in the 'yellowed vegetation' region surrounding the area, as well as how footprints and disturbed vegetation abounded. When he focused his gaze upon the temple entrance itself, he found it strangely obscured. It was as if a shadowy haze lingered around it, giving it an eerie, almost otherworldly appearance. None of his senses could penetrate the haze from his extreme distance.

That night, as they discussed their findings, Ian and Rebecca decided to follow through with their plan. They would first spend a few more days gathering information and preparing before they ventured into the ruins. They would also continue their efforts to establish a good standing in the village, not just for the safety of their possessions, but also because the villagers could prove to be valuable allies.

"So, what are your thoughts on this Shade Seed?" Rebecca asked Ian. "Do you think it's related to the disappearance of Silenus' followers and the end of the miraculous olive bounty, or is one of these probably a red herring?"

Ian leaned back in his chair, thoughtfully tapping his fingers on the table. "That's one possibility. Or it could be something else entirely. But either way, I think we need to be careful. We don't know what kind of power this thing has or what it can do. And if it's been lying dormant in those ruins for centuries... who knows what kind of trouble it might cause if disturbed? I wasn't able to get a good view of the temple itself, but there's sure as hell a bunch of corporeal undead in the whole area, even if I couldn't see them directly. Let's assume all the lore shit is related until shown otherwise; statistically that'd put us in the more often right than wrong category, though early RPG adventures are infamous for putting gotchas and misleading rumors. I'll bet both Daphnis and Chrysos probably know a little bit more about stories of Silenus and related gods than they're giving out; we should try and figure some of that out before we investigate."

Rebecca grinned, "Think our anti-undead precautions will be good enough?"

Ian chuckled and thought back to some of the tricks they came up with in Belt Rush. "I sure as hell hope so. Looks like they're going to be getting a trial by fire!"