A glimpse at what happened....
"I mean just that," Synizn states as he places the Crystallic into
a large mug. With a mental command, the Crystallic first forms into a bottle
of fizzing liquid, then seems to just melt down into the mug....forming
a glowing liquid that fills the mug. The demi-fox slams the mug's contents
down his throat, startling quick. The demi-fox licks the last drop of what
had been the Crystallic, and turns to look at his stunned friends. His
eyes seem to have an inner glow to them, and then fade back to normal.
"Are you CRAZY!" Fred nearly shouts. "You want to try to...."
"Poison myself?" chuckles the demi-fox. "It didn't happen to your
analogs, nor shall it happen to me. And since there is nothing of the Crystallic
to use to 'control' me......"
"You've become the Crystallic!" gasps Sigin, suddenly seeing what
is happening. "By consuming it, you and it combine!"
"Right," nods the demi-fox sadly. "And while that means that anyone
who wants the power of the Crystallic will have to destroy me. And since
I'm part and parcel to that thing....destroying me destroys It. The downside,
though it's kind of not a downside, is that I now have the lifespan of
the Cyrstallic."
"Uh," Fred gulps. "How...long?"
"Frankly," the demi-fox says. "I'd guess with the in 500,000 to a
million years, I should be finally done."
His friends just stare at him. Even Sigin looks queesy at the idea
of living THAT long. Dragons could conceivably live forever, but.......
"Now, I had possesssion of this item and pledged to serve you and
yours, dear Fred and Astra," the demi-fox says, bowing formally. "With
this, I guess I get to serve for a longer time than I previously figured.
"And besides," smiles the demi-fox. "It isn't like by consuming that
Crystallic I'm suddenly a god. Tiamat knows that I am not! It just gives
me an edge in a mage battle, and allows me to do a few more things that
I'd need the slipgates to do."
"Your humble servant awaits," Synizn says to his friends.
<Well, at least he's now no longer stuck with the lifespan of
a human!> Sigin says to himself.
But lo, the slipgate finally gets done assessing damage to self,
and sends out a panic message to the Crystallic....which is now Synizn.....
Everyone is just beginning to smile at along with the infectious
grin on Synizn's face when......
The now cousin to the Crystallic endowed demifox, the slipgate system,
has just run a self diagnostic.....and has now just gotten over the horror
of what it has detected. Synizn is knocked to his knees as facts and figures!
The inrush of water went off with the force of high explosives, and
was thus able to cause a serious feedback inside the slipgate system. Basically,
the same thing that happened to the slipgate system on a parallel world
called Terra Prime!
Problem is that the only solutions that the little demifox knows
of, instinctively, can not be done. This is in large part that the control
center of the system had been in what had been the city of Atlantis! There
was only one entity race that would have the answers for this vexing problem,
and that involved incredible persistence (for how would that person have
gotten the qualifications for this trip otherwise!
Synizn grows pale (as far as his colorful complexion allows it),
and he whispers something in dragon.
Roughly translated, it translates into fecal matter!
Sigin, Astra, and Fred suddenly are disoriented to find themselves
in front of a small gray man in a slate gray 20th century business suit.....and
a scowl of annoyance!
179 then pauses, and looks down at a rather detailed report as to
just why these people (this takes only a second to read a report who's
print is as small as individual atoms and conveys information many times
the sum total of all human knowledge). He then smiles and nods, looking
more kindly upon the strange group in front of human, demifox, and dragon.
Small stuffed fox plushies appear in the little hands of the offspring
of the infants (appropriate, considering their unusual heritage).
Now, according to the report, these were some of the few analogous
demifox mages who'd been.....gutsy enough to ingest the Crystallic....making
it's substance their own. The others were being taken care off by other.....emotionally
enhanced Rules. Rules specifically chosen, endowed with emotion and initiative
to handle strange situations that left the plain Rule in conniptions!
The humans and other mortals are just beginning to open their mouths
slowly to ask what the meaning of all this is (mortals minds and reflexes
were incredibly slow in the Realm that 179 worked) when 179 is about to
tell them he's going to add their caseload to the pile of slipgates that
need to be shut down when 179 hears a sound that chills his nonexistent
heart!
The demifox mage just hiccuped.....four times....and with the powers
he had inside him.....
One tone of hiccup causes....
A Star Fleet Admiral, along with the FOUR analogous people who all
called themselves Kathryn Janeway....are sent (along with some of the office
furniture) to a parallel world that....they had only left a few moments
ago.....in a relative measure of time....
A different timbered hiccup calls forth set made of a fallen dark
knight by the name of Frederigo D'Honaire (Thoabath to his demonic masters),
a young girl/woman who should know better than to seek out adventure in
such wild lands, and a young flame haired woman who was currently reveling
under the sway of the moon (mushroom induced wolf curse coursing through
her veins). A holy man pauses in consternation.... knowing SOMETHING just
happened nearby....but wasn't sure exactly just what happened....
Due to previous strictures set down by the Rules.....they would not
be returning to the world that had spawned them. They all knew that....they
weren't going home....ever.
Looks of shock....fear are slowly forming on their faces (even on
the presently lupine Astra's face).....
Another hiccup....higher pitched....
Another set. Another set of not going "home."
Another Fred D'Honaire, along with his sister Lady Rowena, and Lem
(a dwarf), and Dokken (another dwarf), suddenly find themselves looking
at a rather surprised looking caravan of dwarves who are gathered around
a wagon who is holding the black skinned beauty known as Astra. Fred's
brows start to draw together in shock....and surmise.
By now there should be signs of necrosis on the lovely woman's stately
body.....but......
A twist of the magical ether and three incredibly tiny human infants
appear next to the silent Astra.....and suddenly shiver! Stillborn and
dead though they had been, the infants find themselves alive again....due
to the unique nature of both a synergistic reaction between the Crystallic
essence that marks up a small part of themselves.....the dragon gem that's
still in Tarrin Gazin's pocket....and a demifox mage. Oh, and don't worry....we
made sure that the right sould get put back in the right bodies.....Astra
7 and Fred 7!
One last hiccup, and that takes care of what would have been delicate
work for 179 as far as dealing with the demifox's group. Coming to 179
in such a manner was allowed by the Rules, so the demifox hadn't been risking
anything by something here by teleportation. Indeed, it was REQUIRED that
he come here....and take along the people around him (leaves less witnesses).
See, though Synizn and friends could come to 179.....they weren't allowed
to return home.....again....ever. Cruel, but that was the stricture handed
down by the Higher Ups. But instead of leaving a mysterious disappearance,
Synizn's hiccup had made one last set of duplicates. However, these duplicates
are unlike the OTHER duplicates of analogous people. They are dead and
stiff in rigor mortis. Much sorrow and grieving will happen throughout
the lands of Allaria and Aqualaria. The originals know this (well....the
grownups understand...the infants just are confused by the images that
parades through their infant minds). They start to shout in protest.
Slowly.
The look of sadness that 179 gives them in way of apology stops it
cold. The Rules silently wishes he could do something else....and also
wishes that these poor people had come across his desk in the more convenient
form of paper files. That way he'd be able to not have to look into their
faces to break the news to them about what's up.
"Sorry," the Rules says softly. "I can't change it....not even a
little bit. But, I won't leave you stranded here. I wouldn't wish that
dull existence on my worst enemy! There's another world out there....similar
to yours and where you'll find friends....for those who deserve them! I
leave how you handle the Oathbreaker knows as Fred....also known as Thoabath
to you fellows. As for Tarin and the other dwarves....when you meet Queen
Astra and her Dwarven delegation.....I suggest running....FAST!"
"I'll be along....soon enough to take care of some loose ends," the
Rules says, turning away back to work. The adventurers disappear into thin
air....and reappear in an Ethiopian desert.....
179's hand's blur as he whittles away at the massive pile of Request
to shut down the numerous analogous Terra's slipgates who's Crystallics
had been destroyed. Synizn's form is on the top of the mound of forms.....
-
 "And so you
appeared on Terra Prime....fighting ensued for various reasons and we now
have ourselves here," 179 sighs. "Thus ends Fred 6's story to this point...along
with a little bit of color from the others here....."
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