"You don't know who I am, likely. I don't know how many people I know that are still alive. For all I know, everyone outside of this high-rise is gone. I wouldn't be surprised.
There's only three of us here. I don't how longer we can last. They're always in pursuit. We can't ever settle down. They'll eventually burn up all our luck. Time is not on our side, but it's the best weapon I've got."
A portal opens up and the van goes out of it. They find themselves is a dystopian hellscape. Buildings are either destroyed, or in bad condition. There are billboards around. On said billboards show some form of robot, next to a slogan of, "work longer; take a soul." The robot looks like it would be tall. They look mauve in color, ala, a dark, yet pale form of purple. They have four arm-like appendages. There are a line of lights on the top of its headpiece. Only the torso is visible on the billboard.
Other things that are visible are banners, saying things like, "OVERTHROW THE ROBOTS", "THE ROBOTS MUST GO", and "DON'T TRUST THE MOTH".
“What the hell?” Monica reacts.
“What the fuck happened here?” Ryan wonders.
“Clearly some robot uprising,” Brandon comments.
“Holy hell,” Tori mutters.
In the distance, Ray spots a robot. They look at least nine feet tall from the perspective. “In the alley we go,” he states. He pulls into an alley.
“Robot uprising...” Flotsam is stuck on the thought.
“What do you think it meant to take a soul?” Emmatina asks.
“Kill, likely,” Svetlana replies.
“Oh boy,” Emmatina reacts.
Ray stops the van. He proceeds to turn off the vehicle. “Why did you stop driving?” Flotsam questioned.
“Right now, we can only drive the van when we absolutely need to,” Ray explains.
“Alright,” Flotsam replies.
Everyone gets out of the van as quietly as they can. They star walking around the alley. Riley walks near a door. It then swings open, and someone comes out, pointing a shotgun at Riley's eyes.
“Who are you?! Have you come to steal my mind?!” the mysterious person interrogates.
“No,” Riley responds.
“Wait... You're human, like me,” the person notices.
Whoever this person is, they're wearing a navy blue trench coat. In a pocket of the coat hangs out a chain-link of a pocket watch. They are also wearing dark grey khakis, and black dress shoes. “How can I trust you...” He sees Tristan and Lincoln. “…eclectic group of people?”
“We're from a different dimension,” Ray answers.
“Okay... That relieves me a little bit. You don't understand what's going on... Come inside,” the person offers. They let the group enter the building. Next to the door is a garage door. They also open that door for Lincoln, with the help of another person.
“That is a big crew,” another person said. They’re voiced sounded female-like. They look insectoid.
“Is that a moth person?” Flotsam observed.
Tristan starts to reach for a weapon. “It did stay to not trust the mot-.”
“No, stop,” Flotsam demanded.
“Don't listen to the banners, okay? I'm not bad!” the moth lady begged.
“Yeah, we got back-stabbed, and now no one trusts us,” the man added.
“Because I'm a roboticist, and they think that I caused this uprising, but I'm from a different dimension. Also, why would I want to make evil robots? That's against the law, and why would I even want to do that?! I care about robots. I treat them as if they were just regular people,” the moth lady explained.
“Who are you two?” Ray asks.
“Cartier,” the man replies.
“Jenny,” the moth lady responds.
“Well, I'm Ray. I- We could do roll call, but there is a lot.”
“Understandable,” Cartier chuckles.
“Who is here? This little robot appears, sounding a little tired. They are light blue, have two antennae, and has a rectangular design.
“That's a robot.” Tristan tries to pull out a weapon again. “Time to shoo-.”
Jenny jumps in front of the small robot, like a mother protecting their child. “Don't you dare!” she screams.
“Don't you even fucking think about it!” Cartier snarls at Tristan.
“What's happening?” the robot asks.
“Nothing, Ash,” Jenny assured. She turns to the group. “Okay, this is Ashley. I built her. She is like a daughter to me. She's kind and nice. She's not like the brute robots out there in the city,” she explains.
“Hello, Ashley, Ray greeted.
“Hi,” Ashley waved.
Jenny rubs her eyes and sighs. She looks over to Ashley, motherly worry on her face. Cartier looks at a pocket watch. “I still remember how this city was before all of this shit,” he states.
“Is that a pocket watch?” Brandon questions.
“It's not just a standard watch. It stops time,” Cartier replies.
“What?” Brandon reacts.
“Also, don't ask how, why, or who gave it to me. I refuse to answer,” Cartier adds on. “Also, don't touch it.” There’s a nasty tone in his voice.
“Okay, okay,” Brandon replies, having his hands in the air.
Cartier returns the stopwatch back to its designated pocket. “Still, it’s a heavy burden to bear holding this small, yet significant item. It already has a crack in its face,” Cartier stated.
“That is a very vague way to put things,” Brandon replied.
“You don’t understand the weight this object has!” Cartier exclaimed.
“It looks light,” Brandon responds.
“Oh, my fucking god,” Cartier muttered. “You’re not a sharp one, are you?”
“My field is in biology, not time,” Brandon shoots back. “I was a nature documentary narrator before everything went to shit.”
Cartier releases an annoyed sigh. “If this watch breaks, this dimension is going to be decimated. I’ll be trapped in time, and…” Cartier grows hesitant to keep talking. He stares at the floor. “And Jenny will die, and Ashley will be trapped in a dead universe.”
Brandon stares at him, confused. “What?”
“I found out one day that Jenny is actually supposed to die in her dimension. Someone kills her. She has mentioned this scientist and architect named Alek. Uh… Alek, from what I heard, isn’t the best person. From what I can gather, Alek kills her from jealousy because some other person Jenny loves.”
“Then why is she not already gone?” Tori interrogates.
“Because our dimensions are years apart. I’m actually years ahead of Jenny and Ashley’s home dimension,” Cartier answers.
“Ashley still has the mentality of a child that is her tween years,” Jenny adds. “Then we were thrown into this violent world and I know it’s been hard on her. Robots are after us. Humans are after us. We’re stuck in the crossfire of two sides that hate each other. One wants us dead, while the robots want to take me prisoner, all because I’m a roboticist.” She scratches her head. “I’m stressed. I’m fed up. I‘m scared. All of the above, y’know. But what I really am, above all else, is angry. How did both sides in this dimension manage to screw up everything? Why couldn’t they see each other as equal?”
The group stared at Jenny, shocked at her words. “Well, I have no idea how to respond to that,” Monica comments.
“All I know, the more I stop time, the more our dimensions get closer in time. And before you say that it’s three years apart, it goes by fast when stopped,” Cartier states.
“Well, damn, things got heavy. Holy shit.” Ryan nervously laughs.
That’s when everyone can hear an, albeit, distant, explosion go off. “Oh shit. They’re getting closer,” Cartier announces. He pulls out a weapon. It looks like some gun, but way more advanced than the group have seen. It’s actually something like a laser gun, or, well, more like a ray-gun.
“Is that a gun?” Svetlana asks.
“Oh, this? Yeah. I stole it from a destroyed robot. This little guy has an amazing power to it. Really strong lasers, man. I do have to let it cool down and charge it every so often, though. Still, the upsides outweigh the downsides, trust me,” Cartier replies.
“Are the big robots coming?” Ashley asks.
“It’s possible. We have to think of an escape plan if they get here,” Cartier answers. He climbs up a ladder to access a roof access and opens a latch. He observes the cityscape, witnessing giant machines inching closer. The ground starts to shake, forcing him to slide down the ladder. “That plan needs to come now, guys.”
“We have a van,” Ryan answers.
Cartier laughs loudly. “You think that is a good idea with massive robots running around? Don’t make me laugh.” That’s when the shaking gets stronger. “Son of a bitch.”
“Wait, this doesn’t mean they found us, right?” Ashley begs.
“We can’t know that for certain,” Cartier states.
Another explosion goes off. This time it was really close. The group start hearing a bellowing, demanding voice. “COME OUT, MOTH. WE WANT TO TALK TO YOU.” Another explosion goes off.
“They’re firing at the buildings,” Cartier points out.
“They know we’re around here, Cartier,” Jenny states.
“I know that,” Cartier snarled in nervous tension.
“They’re going to find us! They’re going to find us!” Ashley cries.
“Hey, no, Ash, please. We’ll keep you protected, I promise,” Jenny reassures.
“Trust me, the van is not as bad an idea as you think,” Ryan notes.
“It’s a van. Those are beast machines out there. It doesn’t have anything on them,” Cartier argues.
“We have rode this through hordes of zombies, flocks of phoenixes, floating islands, a mall, and a fucking ocean. And not to mention we dodged a derailed train with it. I’d say our van is more than sufficient against giant, killer robots,” Svetlana replies.
Cartier stares at Svetlana, annoyed by her comment. That’s when an explosion rings so loudly through the building. The entire place shakes. He can hear rubble falling. “Alright, fine. We’ll go in the van.”
That’s when the robots hit the building. A hole in the wall and ceiling reveals the giant robots staring down at the group. “SOULS DETECTED. SURRENDER NOW OR FACE A PAINFUL EXPERIENCE!”
The prideful fool the kobold is, Tristan steps forward to threaten the robots. He unsheathes his dagger and stares up at the massive robots. “Hell no, we won’t surrender to you!”
“SO, BE IT,” one of the robots bellow. They point a massive laser gun towards Tristan and the group.
Quickly observing the hopeless situation, Cartier realizes what he has to do. “Goddamn it!” he complained as he quickly pulled out his stopwatch. He presses the button on the top to freeze time. Even though it’s not there, he can hear the ticking of a clock in his brain. What he can see is a beam going towards Tristan, so he picks him up and moves him somewhere else. “Why is he so light?” he wonders. Next up what he does is that he fires at the robots with the gun he stole a long time ago. He ends up having to move Flotsam, Tori, and Emmatina as well. He looked over to Lincoln and said ‘fuck it’ in his mind from trying to move. He then proceeded to press the button on the stopwatch to resume time.
As time resumes, lasers go flying past him. Lincoln looks around, wondering what lasers even are. “Alright, out the big door!” Cartier demands.
The group ran out of the building, with Cartier, Jenny, and Ashley following them. “We need to high tail it out of here,” Ray orders. After everyone gets in, which comes close because of Lincoln, Ray turns on the van and speeds out of the alley.
“Had to be giant fucking robots, huh?” Riley complained.
“Unnatural fuckers!” Brandon growls. Ashley whines and hides behind. Svetlana smacks Brandon. “Ow!”
“That was pretty damn insensitive. We have a robot with us,” Svetlana declares.
The road shakes while the giant robots destroy the building the group fled from. “Do you know any other safe places?” Misty asks.
“Not really, no, especially since everyone wants us dead,” Cartier answers.
“There has to be somewhere we can go,” Jenny states.
“We have company, and they’re pissed off, man,” Ryan points. After he says that, the crew hear the sounds of lasers flying past the van.
“This is one hell of a fucking night, isn’t it,” Ray comments.
Tristan redeploys the machine gun for the van and starts firing at the massive robots. “What the hell are you doing?!” Cartier interrogates.
“Being war-smart. Do you want them to catch us?” Tristan replies.
“Of course not, but this is dangerous!” Cartier states.
“I love action. You’ll learn that about me really soon,” Tristan responds. The crew hear an eruption as a robot falls down, dismantled by the bullets shot at it.
“I already had to save your ass once. I don’t want to have to do it again,” Cartier mutters.
“What was that?” Tristan demanded. He stops firing at the robots and stares at Cartier.
“Back in the building when you talked back at the robots, I had to stop time to move everyone out of the way of lasers, and time is not on my side, nor on Jenny and Ashley’s side.”
Tristan thinks over the words. “So that’s why I was confused at where I was.”
That’s when, unexpectedly, a laser sliced through the ceiling of the van. Angled at a decline, it went through someone’s chest. There was a loud, pained gasp, as someone then fell to the floor.
“Flotsam!” Riley bellowed. He tried pulling him up to his feet, but Flotsam kept slipping, too weak to get a footing. He just started weakly chuckling. “Flotsam, speak!”
“Holy shit, Flotsam!” Tori saw Flotsam’s shirt starting getting wet with blood. “Wait, fuck, I’ll get the Neosporin, the bandages, the rubbing alcohol. Just wait!”
“I don’t think that’s going to w-.”
“Shut up, Misty!” Tori interrupts.
Flotsam is staring up at Riley, confusing him for someone else, delusional from what’s happening. “Hey, Stuxnet. You want to go on another adventure?” With a chuckle, he collapses in Riley’s arm, succumbing to the attack.
“Flotsam!” Riley howls. “Goddamn it, fuck! No!”
“What the fuck happened back there?!” Ray demanded.
“The giant robots out there shot Flotsam!” Brandon replied.
Tori comes back holding a bottle of Neosporin, a bottle of isopropyl alcohol, and bandages. “Wait, did he-.”
“He’s gone.” Riley drops Flotsam’s body to floor. “He’s gone, Tori.”
“Son of a bitch!” Tori throws the bandages to the floor.
“I told you they’re a menace!” Cartier comments.
“Shut the fuck up, Cartier!” Tori snarls.
“Keep driving, guys!” Jenny shouts.
“I was planning on it!” Ray calls back.
“Damn it! That was our adventurer!” Tristan complains. This earns a death stare from Riley, who is crying from the loss of a close friend.
“You really need to fucking learn social cues,” Riley sneers. “Someone’s died. A person. Someone from my youth, my history, Tori’s history. He’s gone, and you just want to make a jab? Fuck you.”
Tristan stares at Riley. “We’ve lost people before, Riley.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s too soon,” Riley mutters.
“There has to be somewhere to hide. There has to be!” Jenny cries.
“Don’t you remember that we’re wanted by both sides?!” Cartier yells.
“I know, Cartier! I’m not stupid!” Jenny replies.
“I just don’t want to lose you!” Cartier cries. “We don’t know who these people are! I don’t even know if we can trust them! We’re being chased by giant robots that want me dead, and you prisoner, and they’ll likely try to indoctrinate Ashley into their ways! You know she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, so they might destroy her! You and I don’t want that! And not to mention, we just watched someone die because of those robots, for fuck sake!”
Riley, Tori, Misty, Tristan, and Jenny stare at Cartier. “I… I mean… I just… I can’t. Let me just focus!”
“Cartier?” Jenny asks.
“Please, just.- I need to focus,” Cartier responds.
Ray keeps staring at the road and the mirrors to see the robots. He’s able to swerve the van onto another road before one of the robots are able to fire at the van again.
“There’s bridges and tunnels, right, Cartier?” Ashley asks.
“Yeah?” Cartier replies.
“And there were trains that would go underground, right?”
“… Yeah. I remember using the subway back in the day.”
“Do the trains run anymore?”
“No, they don’t.”
“Alright, then. Where is the nearest subway tunnel. It’s our best chance to escape those evil machines.”
“But there’s people down in the tunnels!”
“It’s better to be down there than up here.”
Cartier stares at the floor of the van. He starts thinking of routes and roads. He looks outside to see the general area where he’s at. He is thinking about a plan.
“Turn on Jars St. Past five roads then pull on Hart Ave. Somewhere on the right side, there should be stairs that go down to the subway system. I believe this van should be able to fit in the tunnels,” Cartier instructs.
Ray follows the instructions, drifting onto Jars St. and barrel down towards Hart Ave. Cartier points out the opening where stairs go down. Ray swivels the van and the right angle to drive down the steps, leading the crew into the subway tunnels.
“Did we lose them?” Misty asks.
“I’d say so. They can’t even fit their big ass shoulders into the tunnel entrance!” Ryan observes from the back windows.
Cartier collapses on the loft. He heaves a deep sigh. “I’m sorry you lost your friend, guys,” he states.
“I can’t believe he’s gone,” Riley mutters.
“We’re losing everyone we know from home,” Tori comments.
Tristan looks away from the mourning friends. Something about how Tori worded her comment made Tristan think back to some time in his past. His face is in a scowl, yet there is a tinge of shame and sorrow. Ryan notices this subtle signal, but he doesn’t bring it up.
“I know people hide down here,” Cartier states.
“It doesn’t mean we’ll run into them,” Jenny retorts.
“But we could!” Cartier fires back. These places are narrow and echoey. Anyone can hear-.”
Ray stops the van and turns to face Cartier. “Hey, man. Could you stop being a pessimist for one fucking second?” he snarls. “So, what if there are people down here. If they attack, we’ll handle it. Before you try to bring Flotsam’s death in here, we’ve been at this for eight years, jumping from dimension to dimension, handling hordes of zombies, flocks of phoenixes, godawful people, and horrors you can’t even think of. My goals have always been to stop this inter-dimensional apocalypse, but above all, I’ve been trying to keep everyone safe, and it’s an impossibility to save everyone, but you better damn well believe that I’m hellbent on trying my best at it.”
Cartier goes quiet. In fact, everyone went quiet. Cartier starts fiddling with his pocket watch. Ashley sits down behind Jenny. Riley and Tori are still wrapping their head around Flotsam’s death. Monica just has a blank expression. Misty is rubbing her eyes Tristan is still thinking about his past. Ryan keeps watching Tristan, before scratching his and turning away. Svetlana slowly cracks her knuckles; it’s some form of a nervous habit. Brandon takes a sip from a bottle of alcohol, then puts it down and interlocks his hands. Lincoln is stuck watching the grieving friends. Whitticus and Emmatina just stay silent.
Ray keeps on silently driving through the metro tunnels.
Monica breaks the silence. “Alright, we need to do something. We can’t just stay silent. It messes with our heads, and I should know that.”
“What are we supposed to do?” Misty asks.
“Anything but this. I know it sucks losing a friend. I lost all of mine. I don’t know if their alive. I hope they are. They probably think the same thing of me. Still, if we just wallow in this, we’re not going to get anywhere. Of course, friends are really important to us. I really needed a friend in that mall, that I think I galvanized that janitor in my head. And I know losing a friend is hard, and moving on is harder, but we need to keep going in a literal sense for this mission. Keep the memories of him alive, but we can’t let his death stop us in our tracks,” Monica explains.
“Don’t put in a train pun,” Tristan complains.
“Thanks, Monica.” Tori is looking up at her from the floor of the van. Despondency is still labelling her face.
“No problem, Tori,” Monica replies.
“I remember back in the military all the people that I was with in my battalion. In the war I watched over half of us die. Um, that was a lot of friends I lost. We managed to win the battle that day, but I still think about them. Nadia, Sylvester, Mikael, Lidochka, Dan, I know they all died. I still think of them. I sometimes have war dreams, but I’ve had them enough times, and I’ve practiced with lucid dreaming, so when I have one, I can control it and go buck wild. I make a nightmare turn into a fever dream. It doesn’t stop the memories, though, of the lives I saw end in the war.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Whitticus reacts.
“Why should you be sorry, kid? You didn’t cause the war back at my home. And about that war, I don’t think it’s done. There was a cease fire because an important holiday was coming up. It was becoming the time where the sky changes, and this amazing light show happens. The sky gets all rearranged. The nebulas all swivel beautifully. If I could show you all it, I would. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve seen,” Svetlana responds.
“Was it like a rare event?” Whitticus asks.
“No, it was actually annually. We worked our years around it,” Svetlana answered.
“That’s really strange,” Whitticus comments.
“Yet, you’re world is like 30,000 miles away from your sun than ours are!” Ryan adds on.
“Ryan!” Ray snarls.
“Sorry! I can still feel chills from that world,” Ryan replies.
“I was watching the light show years ago. I would always watch it every year. That’s what I was watching when I disappeared. It wasn’t my choice, something brought me to a different world. I’m likely labelled MIA back at home. Let it be known, I was not found by the group in my home dimension. I was somewhere else, stuck in this apocalypse,” Svetlana states.
“Why did the war happen?”
“Land, resources, politics. What other reasons do wars happen?” she replies. “I know a few that should still be alive. Dmitry, Aleksey and Gavriila were still alive when I disappeared. I bet they think I was killed in action or taken as prisoner.”
“But you’re still very much alive,” Emmatina states.
“I know,” Svetlana replies. “But they don’t know that, and I don’t know how they would react to everything. Think about what they would think if they found out that I was still alive and in a new group that is trying to stop an inter-dimensional apocalypse. I don’t think they would understand. I mean, how could they?”
“Do you think a war would go on for a decade?” Cartier asked.
Finally, Tristan starts speaking up. “Cartier, my home is war-ridden, too. It’s always been like that. There’s been a bitter rivalry for decades. A lot of people die in every village and only a handful survive each time. War is hell and we can never find a way to stop it. I was a tribal warrior for most of my life. Am I proud of it? Not entirely, even if I have pride for my tribe. And once the apocalypse hit, heh, it just got worse.”
“War is hell, yep,” Svetlana comments.
“Would you ever go… back on the battlefield?” Whitticus asks.
“I… I don’t know,” she responds. “If it was to free my friends from the battlefield, then, yeah, I would. But do I really want to make them suffer through an apocalypse just so I can save them from the war? That is if they even are still alive, after all.”
“I wonder if there are any resources left down here,” Cartier wonders. “Everything’s been probably looted already, though.”
“There were stores down here?” Misty asks.
“Well, of course. Do you see how massive this city is? It was bound to be full of kiosks at one point,” Cartier replies.
“Maybe we can check one,” Monica suggests. “I’ve been in many stores to know people miss shit.”
“But this apocalypse has been going on for a year.”
“And I was in a mall for a year.”
“Doesn’t really compute.”
“If we can find one that has medical supplies, that would be nice,” Brandon states.
Tori sighs. “Yeah…”
“Red plus signs usually mean health, right?” Ashley asks.
“Yes?” Cartier responds.
“There’s a sign over there,” Ashley points out.
“Huh. So, I guess there is,” Cartier reacts.
And so, Ray drives over to the health kiosk and pulls up near to it. He equips a gun just to be safe. “Alright, let’s check this place. Be alert; we don’t know if anyone’s in there.”
Cartier grips on the laser gun he took from a robot. “Ashley, behind me,” he orders. Ashley proceeds to stand behind Cartier, as Jenny stands next to her. Misty holds onto a revolver, spinning the clip. Brandon is holding a bottle, ready to smash it across someone’s head. Tristan brandishes his spear. Ryan pulls out a handgun. Lincoln and Emmatina stay near to him. Whitticus holds his short sword. Monica keeps a hand on her gun, ready to bring it up at any moment. Tori and Riley stand by each other, both holding a weapon. Tori is more of the sneaky one, brandishing a rope of some kind, ready to strangle someone. Svetlana carries a semi-automatic in her hand. Ray, Ryan and Lincoln turn the corner into the medical kiosk.
“Don’t step any close-.” Someone tries to threaten the trio, but when the rest jump out, they freeze up. They were shakily holding a gun, pointing it at Ryan. There is a figure behind the man holding the gun. They are on the floor, holding onto their legs.
“Hey, put the gun down! We’re not-.“ Ryan, however, is fired at before he can finish his statement. A bullet goes through his hand, but he already has big holes in both his hands, so it ends up not having any effects. The man and Ryan end up staring at each other awkwardly. The man readies himself to fire again, but everyone else ends up jumping out. Overwhelmed by the number of people, he puts the gun down and starts begging the group not to hurt him and the other person with them.
“Who are you?” Tori demands.
“Garaks,” the man responds.
“Garaks?” Cartier reacts. “That doesn’t sound human at all.”
“Because they’re not,” Brandon chimes in. He points out that the man has four eyes.
“Is that what you all are? Er, what most of you all are? I’ve heard people say human, but it’s not really registering well in my head,” Garaks commented, as he rubbed his eyes. The group then sees he has four arms as well. They also have a long, bony tail, and what appears to be spikes on their shoulders. They have scales all over their body, and tendrils growing out of their face. They seem aquatic in nature, as well, yet are somehow fine out of water.
“What are you, then?” Misty asks.
“I’m a Nivid,” Garaks replies.
“Who’s the other one?” Misty continues.
“That’s my son, Narekos. Those robots out there attacked and we fled down in this caves.”
“It’s not a cave; it’s a subway system,” Cartier corrects. “Do you not have trains where you’re from? I know you’re not from this dimension. I’ve never in my life heard of a Nivid.”
“Well, we have conveyors, ziplines, tunnels, halls, elevators, but I don’t know what a train is,” Garaks answers. “Anyway, those robots out there shot my son in the leg a couple of days ago. We were told about this health kiosk, and I tried my best to help alleviate his pain, but he’s still in deep agony. I’ve been able to find bandages and medicine, but I’m afraid that this stuff won’t react well with our species.”
“What’s your type of medicine?” Tori jumps in. “I’m the group’s main medic here. I should be able to help.”
“Plants,” Garaks responded. “We use plants.”
Tori thinks over the response. “So, aloe vera,” she concludes.
“Aloe vera?” Garaks questions.
“Let me see what medication you grabbed,” Tori insisted. She walks over to Garaks, who stares down at her, towering at seven feet tall. He hands her bottles of medication. One is a bottle of liquid aloe. She raises it up to show Garaks. “This is aloe vera. Aloe is a plant. This is all plant based medication in here. I don’t know I aloe is found in your dimension or not, but if you say the you use plants for medicinal properties, this should help out your son.”
“Alright, well… Please help my son. I don’t want him to suffer,” Garaks begs.
Tori approaches Narekos, holding the bottle of aloe vera medicine. She sees that Narekos is about 4’8 feet tall. He’s holding onto his left leg, which is wrapped up in bandages. There’s discoloration around where there must be a wound. “Hey, kiddo. I need to get to your wounds, so I have to unwrap these bandages,” she tells Narekos.
“But that’s going to hurt!” he whines.
“I understand that,” Tori states, “but this isn’t going to just seep through the bandages. You’re going to want to have the medication on the wound.”
Narekos hesitates, before letting Tori go along with her plans. She unwraps the bandages to see that Narekos’ leg has a giant hole right through it. Looking at the gaping holes, she sees a dark green substance seeping out. “Does anyone have some gloves?”
Monica walks over to Tori and takes off her backpack. “I swear, you have something for every occasion in there,” Tori comments.
“At this rate,” Monica jokes, and she sifts through her backpack for surgical gloves. She finds a pile and hands Tori a pair. She slips on the gloves and opens the bottle of aloe vera medicine.
Tori pours the medication on the gloves and rubs the medication onto Narekos’ wound. Narekos whimpers from the open wound being touched. He takes sharp breaths to try to calm down. Much to Tori’s surprise, the wound starts closing up. The aloe vera medication seems to be really effective for Narekos. “What the fuck?” Tori utters under her breath in confusion, watching as the wound closes up. “Alright, kiddo, the other side now,” Tori orders.
Narekos shifts his leg to the other side. Tori pours more aloe vera onto the gloves and rubs the medication into the other open wound. She waits for the wound to close up before she redoes the wrapping of the bandages around Narekos’ leg. She then discards the gloves carefully, in order to not have any blood get on her. “Alright, kid. You should be okay right now. You’ll still likely be in pain, but at least you’re healing now,” Tori states.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Narekos responds.
“No problem, kid.”
Tori stares at the tiled floor, in confusion. “That was just like when Amber would heal people. It was almost instantly working,” she thinks to herself.
Narekos reaches out for assistance, and Tori helps him to his footing. He holds onto Tori as she starts to walk over to Garaks. Garaks holds onto his son. “You’re okay now!” he exclaimed.
“Well, not completely,” Narekos replies. “It still hurts to walk a bit, but at least I’m healed now.”
“I see, I see,” Garaks reacts. “What do we do now?
Cartier kept on peering out of the kiosk, worried that bandits would come to existence and start storming them. It seems that no matter what report of safety, he can’t be satisfied. “We have to go. We can’t stay here for so long,” he demands. Cartier snarls, looking at Tori as he makes his statement. Tori, for how annoyed she's getting from Cartier, wakes a deep breath and sighs.
“Yeah, we should get out of here, now,” Tori agrees. “Let’s go. We should go now, everyone. No time to waste.” She keeps Narekos on his feet and starts walking over the van.
“Wait, don’t move!” Cartier whispers. “I hear something echoing down the tunnels.” He looks over to Ray. “I know what’s coming, man. They’re coming, the bandits.”
“Get behind me, Cartier. Everyone, stay in the kiosk, but stay close. Just stay out of sight.* Ray leans against the entryway of the kiosk. “Here’s my idea. We might not have enough time to get everyone in the band when those approaching people turn the corner. When I jump out, everyone follow me. We’re not going to the vehicle. We’re going to intimidate them. I mean, look at our team here. It’s very eclectic and massive. Uh, but Tori, stay with the kid. And Cartier, Jenny, and Ashley, I would suggest staying in here.”
“Got it,” Tori replies.
“No, I’m going to fight.” Cartier proclaims.
“We’re not going to fight them, Cartier. We’re going to intimidate them.
The group can hear voices getting closer and more intelligible. “It had to have come down this tunnel, guys! Everything was rocking from over here. Did a machine get down here?” a voice says.
“How is that possible?!” another one shouts. “The subway entrances are way too small for them to climb into.”
“I don’t know, man! Maybe they made smaller robots or something to infiltrate the tunnels.”
Another voice starts speaking. “That’s a van. Someone’s down here. In that kiosk. They have to be.”
Ray looks at the group and he gestures a countdown from three. Once at zero, they all jump out of the kiosk, except Tori, Narekos, and Ashley. They shock a trio of three bandits, who all have weapons drawn. So do Ray’s team. Well, Lincoln is his own weapon, to be fair.
“What the hell is that?!” one of the bandits bellow upon seeing Lincoln.
“I’m going to have to get used to this, am I?” Lincoln comments.
“Now, back away, bandit. You are way outnumbered and overpowered in this situati-.”
Ray get interrupted by one of the bandits. “The moth!” They try to shoot Jenny, but Cartier fires a laser at them, purposefully missing, to make them afraid.
“Look at me,” Ray orders. The bandit cautiously looks up at him. “What are your names?”
“Stephen, sir. The other two are Darla and Maddie. My sister and a friend of hers,” the bandits answers.
“Don’t warm up to them, Ray! I know what little crew they’re from! The same one that threw Jenny and I under the bus!” Cartier shouts.
“Cartier, please! Don’t get us killed!” Maddie cries.
“Do you think it was our idea to have you take the fall? We weren’t the leaders! We broke away from them!” Darla exclaimed.
“Your brother tried to shoot Jenny!” Cartier snarled.
“You have to understand our point of view, Cartier! There are killer robots roaming around! We’re all paranoid down here! And being a roboticist right now is not a good thing,” Darla retorts.
“Do we take them with us? They look young. Then, however, that would be eight new members to the team. Will we be able to keep track of that?” Svetlana asks Ray.
“Wait, I have to think about this real quick,” Ray responds before turning his attention towards the trio of bandits. “How old are you three?”
“The oldest is Maddie, she’s seventeen. Darla is sixteen. I’m fifteen,” Stephen replies.
“What is a trio of you kids doing roaming around in subway tunnels acting like bandits?! This is dangerous! And not to mention the situation of this dimension,” Monica comments.
“We just needed supplies, ma’am!” Stephen cries. “We’ve been running low! We were desperate!”
“Alright, stop shouting. Do you want more to come here?” Tristan demands.
“N-No,” Stephen replies.
“Is it okay to come out?” Ashley asks, peering out of the kiosk.
“Ah! A robot!” Maddie screams.
“Do not!” Cartier yells.
“We won’t! We won’t!” Darla reacts.
“We can get you kids out of here. The next place might not be safe, but at least we can help you three to escape this place.”
“Ray!” Cartier protests.
“No,” Ray stops him. “Don’t even.”
Suddenly, Stephen runs up to Ray and hugs him. “Thank you, man! I don’t want to keep wandering these tunnels. I know we have a map, but I still feel like we were lost. And, who knows how long we would be able to last down until those robots up there find a way to infiltrate the tunnels,” Stephen laments.
“No problem, kid,” Ray replies. He then turns to the rest of the group. “Alright, everybody, let’s get in the van. It’s time to get out of here.”
“What about Flotsam?” Riley asks.
Everybody goes quiet. Most of the newcomers don’t know what is going on. “I’ll take care of it,” Tori replies. She hands Narekos over to Garaks and walks to the van. When she enters the van, she picks up Flotsam’s lifeless body and drags it somewhere to the van that only a few people knew about. Both somewhere inside the van, and yet not.
After a few minutes pass, she steps out of the van, wearing a new pair of clean clothes. Cartier, Jenny, Ashley, Garaks, Narekos, Stephen, Maddie, and Darla are confused about this sudden change, but the others in the group already knew what Tori did. “Alright, it’s taken care of. We can go now,” she announces. She makes her way back over to Narekos and helps Garaks carry him to the van. Ray, Monica and Ryan help Lincoln crawl into the van. Everyone then climbs into the van.
Svetlana is already in the driver’s seat. When everyone gets inside, she revs up the van’s engine. “Let’s get out of this shitshow,” she comments, with a little chuckle escaping.
Svetlana drives down to the next tunnel. A portal opens up, surprising the trio of bandits. “That can’t be a vortex, r-right?” Stephen questions.
“Oh, it’s a portal, actually,” Svetlana states.
“That can’t be possible!” Stephen declares.
“Oh, heh, but it is,” Svetlana answers, as she drives the van through the portal, and the crew escape the robot infested dimension.