The flight to Berlin was uneventful, which the trio were thankful for. Magnitude knew his way around his native Berlin, so navigation wasn't much of an issue, once the Drifter told him where they were going. Still, he was a bit surprised. In his world, the Berling Palace had been demolished in 1950, having sustained extensive damage during the Second World War. Of course, such a war had never happened here, so it stood to reason that the residence of the royal dynasty of Hohenzollern still stood... and was the residence for the Kaiser.
As they flew towards the palace, shapes rose up to greet them. "Ritter," the Drifter explained. "They're the lowest nobles--knights who serve the empire and act as a glorified security force."
Magnitude slowed the group and brought them to hover above the city, patiently awaiting the envoy. <<"Greetings!">> he said enthusiastically. He was hiding his nervousness well, he believed: never mind that, given how Sophie had aged, his double should have been in his twenties--if anyone here knew of his doppelganger's exile to Pandora, they were done for. <<"I am Herzog Kasamir of House Flaegler. To whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?">>
<<"Ritter Andreas Wagner,">> the lithe man with leathery wings, curled horns, and a prehensile tail said.
<<"Ritter Wagner,">> said Magnitude, <<"I have urgent news for the kaiser. I graciously accept your escort to the residence.">>
<<"What business have you with the Kaiser?">>
<<"What business is it of yours?">> It felt wrong to be so rude, but if he was going to sell himself as the herzog, he needed to act the part. <<"I wasn't aware the kaiser differed to a ritter on matters of national security.">>
<<"My lord. I shall escort you to the palace. Erzherzog Mueller will speak with you.">>
<<"Lead the way, but with haste. As I said: my news is urgent.">>
The ritter bowed and led the procession towards the palace.
ISTANBUL (NPCs: Ashworth and Fiore)
"This is magnificent," Mister Ashworth said as he snapped another photo with his mobile phone. "In our world, only fragments of the Sacred Palace's foundation survive, but here, the nobles used their powers to restore it to its former glory and make it the residence for the Pasha."
He was oblivious to the agitated look on his student's face. "Any other time, I would be very interested, but you suggested that time was of the essence."
Ashworth seemed not to have heard Fiore: "I can't even fathom was it must be like to be the Drifter--to regularly traverse time and space and find yourself in locals where history--forgotten history--is on display! Oh, to be able to have that device for even a week..."
"As I understand it, the Astrolabe is as much a curse as it is a gift. She builds relationships with others, but only out of necessity. The Astrolabe conscripts people into saving these worlds and then leaves them back home. Such an existence seems so lonely to me."
Again, the educator ignored Fiore. Instead, he continued to document this once-in-a-lifetime experience. If Fiore didn't need the man for his power--his ability to absorb the knowledge the locals had and cross-reference history as they knew it against their world's version of the last century--he would have left him here to sight-see and go speak to the Pasha himself. Unfortunately, the lithe youth needed his companion to navigate them through the oddity they found themselves in. Otherwise, how was Fiore to gain an audience with the ruler of this empire?
LONDON (Current and Taheka)
Lex walked up to the fountain and sat down, trying to catch his breath. With a pop and a snap he felt his knees both pop out of and back into position as he sat down. He was getting better at pulling in ambient static electricity to repair the damage, but he hadn't gotten the trick down pat yet. A cursory glance around told him no one was paying him any mind: most people were too busy trying to get the perfect picture. It was nearing dusk, and the sun was painting an orange and violet portrait all around them.
Folding the flap back, Lex reached into the bag for Tamati and felt his fingers close around a liquid-appendage. With a yank, he pulled the Kiwi out of the extra-dimensional space and into the city.
Thankfully, Tamati wasted no time in dropping his other form. "Now that was faster than I thought."
"Welcome to London," Lex said, breathing hard, "home of the fish and chips." He moved to straighten a jacket he wasn't wearing and frowned, feeling naked without it.
"Yum, fish and chips! I haven't had real fish and chips since I left New Zealand. Once we have got everything sorted we will have to grab some, but mushy peas is a big no from me."
"Anyway where are we exactly?"
"Well, I have some good news and some bad news: the good news is we are right in front of Buckingham Palace, which is where the royal family lives in my dimension; the bad news is I don't have any money from this dimension, and I suspect my UK money is probably about as good of legal tender as monopoly money here." He sighed, only to realize he was carrying the Drifter's bag. Did she have money from various dimensions on her? Back home, he still had her mp3 player--presumably filled with songs that didn't exist in his home dimension. She had so many things, she had to have money, didn't she?
Thinking of money, he reached into her bag and his hands closed around a handle. With a yank, he pulled out a small brief case. Curiously, Lex set it down on the fountain and opened it up. Inside were British bills--some he recognized and some he did not--of varying denominations and from various time periods. Some were bills with swastikas in the corners; others depicted King Arthur, Merlin, and Headmaster Newton. His eyes froze on a bank note that depicted an older Kirstie, wearing a tiara.
"If we run into Mister Arnett we might be in some trouble," he said as he shut the case and returned it to the bag. "So you know Kirstie's powers right? Bouncing back elemental attacks and doubling up the shot that goes back. He might also have the bounce everything back at you variant." He ran his hand through his hair. "Also, he's a scary SOB in our world, I can only imagine he's the same or worse here. If we run into him there's a slim chance I might be able to convince him we're from another dimension, but chances are we'd be smarter to just run. Then again, meeting with him might work easier than trying to find the King. Who might be anywhere. I don't know. Anyways, don't try to hit Mister Arnett: it never ends well.
"Hopefully his second in command isn't trying to overthrow him in this dimension."
"So, no hitting, but drowning okay then. Do you think he will listen first or is he more hit ya hard first?"
The idea of drowning his girlfriend's father's otherworldly double made Lex wince. "He's been fairly nice to me, but I get the feeling he's a scary son of a bitch. You don't get his kind of job by being nice, ya know? Honestly, he'll probably chat us up so his troops can get in place, or try to trick us into attacking him. His abilities don't do much if we ignore him, but he's probably got a gun.
"I think." The American shrugged. "I mean, I think he might, but England has this thing with people having guns. Or trying to defend themselves. It's weird."
"Yeah, England is a lot like NZ. Police don't carry guns, as a matter of course, and unless you are hunting or at a shooting range you never see anyone with a gun, but it seems to work." Tamati simply stood for a moment, taking in the sight of the palace. "I wonder, back home they used to do tours of the palace so you could go ohh and ahh at the fancy pictures and other shit. If they do that here it may be a way inside and then we could leave the tour party when we felt like it?"
"Two problems," Lex said, "one, they probably track the tourists every moment they're in there with cameras and headcounts, and two, what time is the last tour? Looks like the sun's going down here. We're a couple of hours behind where we landed. We could always just take a walk around the outside and see if anything jumps out at us."
"Okay a walk sounds like the plan, and you never know we may bump into this guy."
MOSCOW (Fluxx and Imago; NPCs: Puck)Michuru81 wrote:I could use some checks from you both--Investigation and Perception. Stealth checks if you're trying to remain inconspicuous.
Imago created an illusion over himself, altering his appearance to look a few years older, with black hair, no piercings, some dark fuzz over his lip and chin, adding couple extra inches of height, and tightening his face a little too. "So, if anyone asks, my best friend, girlfriend and I are tourists sightseeing in historic Moscow, and happen to be in the vicinity of the Kremlin." With a quick incantation of "Nimor Racetion," Imago conjured up a small portable camera. He had no idea if it would actually work, but as a prop, it would certainly support his cover. "Agreed?"
"You're assuming zis world 'as a zriving tourist industry," said Martin. "We should observe to see if such is ze case. If zey challenge everyone for papers we do not possess zis will go just as poorly for us. If we do go ze tourist route we should zrow off our numbers. If discovery occurs eet eez to our disadvantage if zey know exactly 'ow many we are. I can be a coat zat one of you wear. Or Dennis and I be boyfriend and girlfriend wiz Puck invisible nearby. Shall we watch for a moment before proceeding?"
"I'm partially with Martin," Puck intoned. "I think we should scout ahead--find out what we can about how things work here. Maybe we see an opportunity to adopt someone else's face? We take a few people out of the picture and steal some identities?"
PARIS (Shiver; NPCs: Sidestep)
"It's fine, Abe. It's only a couple of miles to the Élysée Palace from here. I've been a couple times." Violet's pronunciation was distinctly British. Nobody was going to confuse her with a native. She looked around for a few seconds and pointed the way, towards the river. "And we're not in a rush anyway, right? For all we know, we're not even getting in today, if ever. How often do a couple of teens pop in on the Emperor of France?
"I hope you got a good look at the shack before we left. We might have to get out of here in a hurry and that might be the only safe place in this dimension."
Abe said nothing. He simply walked along beside Violet, keeping his eyes on the ground. It was abundantly clear that something was troubling him.
TOKYO (NPCs: Benson, Sophie, Stephen)
Sophie took the hit of flames and the metal platform she had been carrying them all on dropped from the sky. As they began to plummet, Stephen let out an obscenity. Frantically he tried to grab for the hand holds ratcheted into the sheet metal. His eyes flashed to Mister Benson. In an effort to stabilize himself the man had slipped his foot into it. Now, as it dropped out of the sky, his leg had been twisted around.
Before Stephen could react, they hit the water. It was dark--it was barely dawn in Japan--and their transport was sinking fast and threatening to drag Benson under. Stephen looked up to the sky--Sophie was still airborne and trying her best to survive against Jack. Every so often, the sky lit up as the man breathed another jet of flames at her. He looked back to see Mister Benson's head dipping under the surface.
Stephen took a deep breath and dove down. Swimming towards the sinking platform, he could barely make out the man frantically trying to free his leg. He was wearing that belt and gauntlet--the ones that looked so weird on his skinny body, but let him wield that unruly hammer that he was now pounding against the metal. Stephen grabbed his foot and pushed it through. Slipping an arm around the man, he held him swim up.
Their heads broke the surface and they ravenously drunk in the air. "What happened?"
"Jack attacked us. He's older, but-"
"A doppelganger," Benson realized. "It's not our Jack, but the Jack of this world. They said Americans sometimes expatriate to other countries, hoping to catch the attention of nobles who want to breed their powers into their bloodlines."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Stephen said. "Stop talking and go help her!"
"I can't!" Benson barked. "For one, I can't fly. I used to be able to, but I lost the bracelets that-"
"Feel free to stop babbling incoherently at any point."
The former member of the Thule Society narrowed his eyes at the young boy. "Two," he growled, "I'm pretty sure my leg is broken. I don't think I can fight."
"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?"
"I don't know," Benson said helplessly. "I've got nothing."