Welcome to Gaia! ::

The huge stone bird flew upward and opened its beak, and everything seemed to pause for a moment. The rumble was not at all reassuring, and the rain of energy that came down in the next moment powerful and devastating. Hunters were running for cover everywhere, as the barricades and the camp itself were destroyed. The familiar glow of portals being opened caught Jordan's eye. He hesitated long enough to see that the Moon trainees were headed back toward safety before turning that way himself.

Then he realized that there was one more person who he was technically and probably morally responsible for. There wasn't time to have a discussion about it, but they'd spoken earlier about the various methods by which Sammy might return home, and the risks inherent in each. At least Sammy was no longer wearing the cuffs. That was one less problem. He turned back to grab Sammy's arm with h is free hand, shouting over the noise and chaos, "You coming with?"

The portal they dodged through dumped them out at the edge of the training fields, and Jordan breathed a silent sigh of relief that it hadn't been the lighthouse portal. He wasn't too keen on the idea of reporting Sammy's presence to -- well, pretty much anyone, really. There was way too high of a risk that she'd be held captive and possibly worse, and he didn't think he had enough personal influence to keep that from happening. He didn't want to lose a valuable potential ally in Halloween, and besides that, he'd grown to kind of like the zombie. The retreat was chaotic enough that he thought it was entirely possible that they might be able to get out of the compound without undue notice.

"Come on," he hissed to Sammy, "keep your head down and your arm hidden, this way," and headed toward the gate that would lead down to the ruined town, putting confidence in his stride, as though he had a purpose.

They passed a few people headed back towards the evacuation effort, but Jordan had learned long ago that if you looked like you knew what you were doing and where you were going, most people wouldn't give you more than half a glance on the way past, especially if they had something to do themselves. If they got stopped ... well, he'd deal with it if it happened.

He didn't talk and didn't begin to relax till they were out of the compound itself and on their way down to the abandoned town. Then he looked back to Sammy. "If Rep asks me what happened to you, I'll tell him I sent you home and let him draw his own conclusions," he said dryly.

"Well, I'd prefer the portal route, for sure," Jordan said, shrugging one shoulder, "and I'm sure you would too." He looked around, seeing the familiar surroundings with new eyes again and laughing just a little. "It wasn't always like this," he said, recalling a different world, a different self, then putting the memory away again.

"It was, to the best of my knowledge. I don't know exactly where, though." He had a guess, though; it was, he thought, more likely that the ancient site had been closer to the compound, if the caverns underneath were any indication.

After a little while, he changed directions, striking out off the clearer path and down into one of the residential neighborhoods. "Down this way," he said, "there's a few mostly intact places. You may have to stay here for a day or two while I figure out how to get you back home."

The statement got a slightly startled look, but Jordan shook his head slightly. A different alternate memory, maybe. How many other worlds and selves were there? Was there a world in which Sammy had been a Hunter herself somehow? What a weird thought. "I wonder how many times we've barely missed the end of the world and not even known it," he commented thoughtfully.

He laughed softly. "You'd have some trouble with your minis," he said. "They have to have special tanks or carriers to survive the lack of ambient Fear around here."

"I've seen a few different versions of myself. I was thinking of a different one there, one who knew this town as still viable. Which version of reality were you thinking of?" He smiled wryly. "What a weird question that is."

"They left the front door locked on this one, but the back door's open. It might work for our purposes." He led the way around the house, stepping over a rusted-out bedframe in the side yard. "As far as I know, sentient Fear creatures can stand the ambient levels in the human world a lot longer than minipets. Weeks." He declined to mention that he knew that time limit personally from hunting rogue monsters. "We'll be trying to get you back faster than that, though. I don't know how long it's safe here."

"Huh. I didn't get to see that one," Jordan admitted. "I think I've heard that some people here did, though. Don't know what triggered that."

He made a thoughtful noise. "There used to be more ambient Fear here. There was a barrier over the island. There was some Insanity involved there too, though, so it's not all bad that that's gone." He shook his head again. "I couldn't give you numbers on how long you can expect to be safe here, but I would prefer to get you home as soon as possible, for your safety and mine."

He gave the couch an experimental thump with the side of his boot, and was relieved to see nothing scurrying out. "I've got a friend who I think is likely to be able to get portal access without setting off any flags in the system, and who I know will help me. Or if she can't get portal access, she'll probably know who to ask about it. So once you're settled down here, I'll go talk to her and find out what I need to do to get you through a portal and home. When it's time, I'll bring robes and we'll go through that way so your appearance won't be a problem."

He paused, his eyes going briefly distant as he consulted with Ferros. Then he said, "Ferros says he'd like to have a chance to talk to you before you leave. Are you interested? It might delay things a little longer."

"There's probably less Fear ambient on the island than in most places. Everyone here is bonded to a weapon, and the weapons get what we produce naturally, even aside the world not being made up of Fear like Halloween itself is." Jordan absentmindedly stroked Ferros's ring as he spoke, a gentle and affectionate gesture.

He laughed. "That'd be a little harder. Coats are very personal. But yeah, you'd probably be Sun if you had to be placed, I'd bet."

He nodded to the question. "You know how hunters use golems to visit Halloween. Golems function in this world too, with several different uses. One of those uses is that weapons can temporarily enter specially made golems that mimic their previous forms and allow them to move around." He paused, giving her a serious look. "We know it's probably not easy to believe that I'm relaying a conversation correctly, or just awkward, so we're offering. It can't be for long, since the golem only lasts an hour. But he can speak to you directly if you want."