Wayward Transit (IC, Open)

[quotemyname]

I guess you could say I was looking for something too. I'm just glad I eventually found it here. Sam thought.

He nodded to Marceau. It showed that he understood. Though he chose not to respond, lest the conversation stray into uncomfortable territory at least as he was concerned. He'd rather not re-live those years if he could avoid it. For his part, Sam was happy enough to go back to his music.

[Azuth65]

Vicky rubbed her temples, the shadowy man's speech giving her a headache the accent was so thick. What she could make out of it, it sounded like they were after somebody with white hair and super-speed. Well, I have the hair they're looking for... And now, this makes another reason not to teleport while on the bus It'd be just my luck he'd confuse teleporting for super-speed.

[Ari]

By now, nearly everyone on the bus was looking at the shadowy creature in horror, as his words(translated by some into more generally accepted English) signified that not only were they trapped in another dimension, but trapped by creatures who had no issues with allying with the Nazi regime. Norman had come away from the door(now slightly bent) he had been tugging on the hear the shadow creature's words. The Half-Shadow, seeing that his listeners were having trouble understanding him, shrugged and abruptly opened his mouth wide enough to place his lower jaw on his chest. Out of this opening came a thing like one of the wraiths that had captured the bus and its occupants, but more solid-looking. It leaned idly on the deathly pale skin of the body that had spoken before, and spoke again. This time, however, it was much louder, and brimming with malice and cool venom "Well, now, is THIS better?" its eyes glared like two chasms into a volcano as it looked at them "We will soon arrive at my father's house, he will search your souls with his radiance, and nothing will be concealed from him. We will learn your secret of how you know the criminals, and You will learn why you do not second-guess the Emperor of the Dark. any other questions?"

[Cubist]

...all too happy to answer, and indeed, his tone implied that he thought his answers obvious. "Die crm'nals wier seek, they Serienmuderors, seek th' Tot of ev'n th' allyies of the Third Reich!"

Oh.

Scheisse.

"To yuur second keston, wier told a creature with comand Uber Blitzen and a one Mit weisse hair wood be on board."

I'll just bet you were 'told'. And hey, it's not like Apollo knows how many thousand supertypes have lightning powers, or that white hair is even more common. Oh, [bg=black]xxix[/bg].

"Asss tsu deine third keston, 'jurisdiction' ist nicht ein problaym. Th' sorcer's vee Spricht mit gaav full rights tsu hunting crm'nals off urr Folk ins yuuurr Welt.

Good buddies with Hitler, and willing to take any old sorceror's say-so on legal technicalities. Oh, [bg=black]xxxxixx[/bg] [bg=black]xxix[/bg].

Tsu fiert one? Vee send du Alle back... though Nicht ins grosse speed".

'nicht ins grosse'? Sure. And if their toys happen to die of old age, or too-rough playing, before they get around to sending 'em back, that's not their problem, is it? Oh, [bg=black]xxix[/bg]

"We will soon arrive at my father's house, he will search your souls with his radiance, and nothing will be concealed from him. We will learn your secret of how you know the criminals, and You will learn why you do not second-guess the Emperor of the Dark. any other questions?"

Jubatus 'blurred in place' intermittently, buying himself time to think of possible ways out of this situation, while the Duke of Oily monologued. Let's see if I can talk him down. Damnit, I hate flying blind... "I got a better idea. This 'Emperor of the Dark' you're the son of? I'll bet he's got real problems with light, problems you don't have because you're only half-Shadow. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Daddy doesn't give two wet farts in a hurricane about a half-breed like you, and he only tolerates you because you can go places and do things he's flatly incapable of. Like, say, popping over to a light-filled dimension to kidnap a busload of random people." I really hate flying blind.

Jube paused for a fraction of a second, then went on: "If I was in your position, I'd be wondering what's in it for me? Why am I busting my butt on behalf of a father figure who treats me like a trained dog, not a person in my own right?" The cheetah knew that his attempt to imitate the Duke would be unrecognizable, but at least it was different-enough from his normal voice that the audience could get the idea. "Heck, you're not stupid; odds are, you're already making plans to usurp Daddy, or break away from him to make a life of your own. If so, fine, it's nobody's business but yours. But Daddy wouldn't like that if he knew, huh?" I really, really hate flying blind. "You're going to have to make your move some time, after all, and now is as good as any other time. And when you do, maybe some outside assistance might be useful. Just, y'know, just in case Daddy wants to pound you into an unrecognizable smear, for 'disloyalty' or whatever other charge he pulls out of his lower GI tract. And you know that there are some people back on my world with some pretty serious power; might be worth seeing what they can do working with you rather than against you. So... how about if you put everything back the way you found it? The bus, the people in it, their belongings, all that. Yeah, it'll piss off Daddy, but you're going to do that eventually, aren't you? And if you do put everything back, that'll make it a lot easier to persuade superheroes to work with you instead of whaling on you. So what do you say, hm?"

I really, really, REALLY hate flying blind...

[Lone Star]

Zap tried to listen to the strange king, but she could not understand a word he was saying. "...What?"

The cheetah knew that his attempt to imitate the Duke would be unrecognizable, but at least it was different-enough from his normal voice that the audience could get the idea. "Heck, you're not stupid; odds are, you're already making plans to usurp Daddy, or break away from him to make a life of your own. If so, fine, it's nobody's business but yours. But Daddy wouldn't like that if he knew, huh?" I really, really hate flying blind. "You're going to have to make your move some time, after all, and now is as good as any other time. And when you do, maybe some outside assistance might be useful. Just, y'know, just in case Daddy wants to pound you into an unrecognizable smear, for 'disloyalty' or whatever other charge he pulls out of his lower GI tract. And you know that there are some people back on my world with some pretty serious power; might be worth seeing what they can do working with you rather than against you. So... how about if you put everything back the way you found it? The bus, the people in it, their belongings, all that. Yeah, it'll piss off Daddy, but you're going to do that eventually, aren't you? And if you do put everything back, that'll make it a lot easier to persuade superheroes to work with you instead of whaling on you. So what do you say, hm?"

I really, really, REALLY hate flying blind...

She paused for a moment, listening to what the cheetah said. "Yeah, what he said. You can't just burst in here and expect people to help you, ass. That's not how we do things around here. Now seriously, put everything back the way it was or else we'll start beating you up." She held out her hands, and arcs of electricity lit up the bus. "So what's your decision?

[felicitousFolly]

Brian turned to address Zap, since her words were sort of the opposite of how he expected people get heros' help when they weren't already on the scene. "Don't people burst in on whatever you're doing asking for help somewhat regularly?" He gave a sidelong and meaningful glance at the ghostly creepy thing, "But I bet they don't kidnap you first, and then claim it's 'for justice'. If there are criminals on board, I wouldn't mind helping them get to justice, but now I'm not sure we have the same meaning for the word."

"Besides," he says, turning to address the emperor spawn and speaking softly. "We have no idea how tough or fragile our souls are, and having a shadow lord radiate darkness on them might be bad for them. You haven't explicitly tried to harm us, and whatever is around the bus might be protecting us from what's outside, but you don't get any ground for that because you wouldn't have to if you hadn't brought us here, and the implied threat is almost as offensive as that you would ally with the reich, whom discriminate with lethal prejudice. It is unacceptable for us to go anywhere with you except back to our world. In fact, I am not sure I can in good conscience help you find the mass murderers, because I have no guarantee that you or they will not, in fact, reward them and put them in charge of training recruits or something. It will take nothing less than a gesture of good will such as returning us to our world before I could possibly consider you to be an agent of Justice."

Behind his back Brian unscrewed the lid to his water bottle, not wanting to ruin his heroic identity before he'd even become established, but unwilling to risk everyone's safety if things turn sideways. Brian slowly exhales and tries to relax, picturing the best way to save everyone.

[Ari]

Realizing that they might well be about to be turned into soulless corpses, perhaps join the ranks of the wraithlike shadows, Marceau decided to try and weigh in on the situation. "Ah, excuse me, Half-Shadow, if your father wishes to know the truth, why not just ask the ones you've already said you're looking for, and ask them where this Natch-Krieger is, perhaps they've even seen him, and can lead your agents to his location. But please, let these" he gestured to the other passengers "others go. They cannot possibly be of much use or help to you, if that is all you wish to know. And I think Brian and Jubatus have a good point: you won't make any friends, and you'll earn many enemies, if you do this. Why not put the bus back, and ask Mz. Knight, Zap, Jubatus" he nodded to each in turn "Abput this matter in our home dimension? You'll get all the information you need, if you're lucky, and you risk nothing if we don't know enough to help you." he steeled himself internally for the Half-Shadow's answer.

[Ari]

The creature seemed taken aback by Jubatus' attempt at persuasion, clearly not having thought of the issues just brought up until now. Brian and Marceau's admonishment, and Zap's open defiance, all served to neatly undercut the atmosphere he had been creating. After a moment of evident thought and consideration, the shadow retreated into the corpse-pale body and the opened jaw was returned to its usual state. "Eech asssk duur p'rad'n. Eech...haff keine n'ledge off was die Licht-Welt onss now off wir Schattenfolk. Wenn miness fatter vennt tsu yuur Welt zu helfen figght hess Bruder Apep, und bringen ihn hier, heh was burnnt, scerch'd by de Sonnengotter, anss heh haff des pains zu diese tage. Des Sonnengotter thinkt hair vas off like-sert tzu Apep, de alle thinkt tzu".

He looked at them apologetically "I dist'nt no vess die vurrde see meech asss liket das, tzu eech postured, und sprach als Eech thoughgt Sie alle vurrde expect me tzu. Dare issint harm withinet diese Auto, but beyond est, de killers und those who trieg'd tzuVerwuster der Magde lurk. Eech can kill dem, yet dey arre purr, mad creatures who dwell in diese Halb-Licht aut off fear".

He lowered and shook his head. The crown, which looked like a circle of spears, dissolved into his cloak, and the throne with it. "Eech haff no karrel wit mi fatter" He looked at Jubatus, adding "Yest, er ist sehrr distants nou. Antwort keine zu my kestons off vasst isss wreng. Serraw gnaws err,und dare really are mad Serienmorder that haff fled deise Welt, und eech really do needs yuur hilf" by this point he had turned to Zap and Wisp "Est will nicht harm tzu, de Radiance harms kein, zo iffen tzu know keine, sagt zu! Eech amm nicht immoon zu reason". He looked rather shame-faced, which looked downright ghoulish with his corpse-like pallor and flat grey eyes.

A soft bump when his speech concluded apparently signaled that the bus's descent had ended.

[Cubist]

The fastest cat alive knew full well that he was dealing with an inhuman creature, that there was no reason to believe the Duke's kind must necessarily have the same motives and psychology as humans (or even that their motives and psychology had to be comprehensible to humans!). Even so...

"Not buying it," Jubatus stated. "Actions speak way the hell louder than words. So if you're gonna put everything back, do it. And if you got something else in mind, go ahead and do that, and I guess we'll just have to see how it turns out." While he was speaking, the feline mentally reviewed his options: Okay, he's half-Shadow, but it's a good bet he's still got some vulnerability to light... if it gets ugly, I'll lead with my cutting torch and UV flashlight, see how he likes those two.

[Ari]

Marceau, for his part, was much more inclined to believe the sudden turn-around to be a sign of genuine remorse. "Well, I'm sure it seemed reasonable to act like that from your perspective. After all, our two worlds haven't had very good relations at any time. I assure you that the most of us know nothing about this matter, so I would suggest you bring at least most of us back, and just ask the ones you want to about this Nacht-Krieger, then bring them back, and all will most likely be forgiven and forgotten." he smiled kindly at the corpse-like being before him, certain that all would soon be peacefully and amicably resolved in everyone's favor.

[Lone Star]

Zap was doing her best not to leap at him. Her jaw was clenched in rage, but a voice in the back of her mind told her that maybe he was actually being sincere. After all, he wasn't exactly from around here, and maybe he thought differently than us. She cancelled her power effects, the electricity cutting off like the power from an office building, and the bus was darker again. She slowly sat down, feeling a little safer, and her hands went to her lap. Maybe this wouldn't turn out as bad as she thought it would.

[felicitousFolly]

Maelstrom slowly exhaled some of the built up tension. He was still prepared, and slightly on edge, but the dialog seemed to be going in a much better direction. He had been worried about escalation there when it sounded like the alien kidnapper was being threatened, but it seemed he responded well to the tone of self-certainty and authority rather than the implication of violence. It was just Brian's youth and naivety, but Maelstrom had a hard time immediately understanding the power by-play between the heroes and the shade, and for the accent and foreign words, Maelstrom was extremely glad Jubatus was here to lead the discourse.

Seeing Zap take a seat again, Maelstrom followed her lead and nodded at her.

[Ari]

"Not buying it," Jubatus stated. "Actions speak way the hell louder than words. So if you're gonna put everything back, do it. And if you got something else in mind, go ahead and do that, and I guess we'll just have to see how it turns out."

"Eech vill letz du all go, eech hat no intention offf keeping du here gegen yuuuur willen. Eech shallt firssst take du all su de Grosse Whisste Gate, the only vay to yuuur Licht-Welt eech kann take du. Der du shallt meet mine fatter, who guards de Grosse Whisste Gate mitt hisss coilsss."

Marceau he seemed to ignore, focusing his now slate-blue eyes on Zap and Maelstrom "Eech shallt now get furrr zum dtings for du to esse und trinken, you are suffering ins dis heat". With a shrug of his shoulders, he headed for the front door "Do nickt step out into de Schattow, it vill drag du under und drown you" he called behind himself, "Andt pay no heed to de zinging!" he added as the door slid open and he turned to leave. The 'zinging' could briefly be heard; a cold, quiet chanting in a language that sounded like Latin.

[Cubist]

"Not buying it," Jubatus stated. "Actions speak way the hell louder than words. So if you're gonna put everything back, do it. And if you got something else in mind, go ahead and do that, and I guess we'll just have to see how it turns out."

"Eech vill letz du all go, eech hat no intention offf keeping du here gegen yuuuur willen. Eech shallt firssst take du all su de Grosse Whisste Gate, the only vay to yuuur Licht-Welt eech kann take du --"

And it was true -- the bus was moving, propelled by the Duke's shadow-minions rather than under its own power. And when the Duke claimed he couldn't put things back from here, never mind that he'd been able to pull the bus to here in the first place, Jubatus decided he'd had more than enough: He Timeshifted up to his maximum tempo of 40, pulled his UV flashlight out of his vest, moved to right in front of the Duke, and let the UV light's glare fall full on the Duke's lying face.

[Ari]

What happened was beyond probably even Jubatus's expectations: the Half-Shadow exploded. Of course, he began to melt first, for a second or two, but the explosion that rocked the bus and sent wisps and melting giblets of solid shadowmatter throughout it was what everyone remembered. The singing shut off at once, and a slow, calm voice like a storm whispering, My son, my son, why have you forsaken me? Alas, there is not time to make another, nor will they now be fooled. I must intervene myself." with a miniscule shudder, the bus stopped. The shadows suddenly were torn away from the bus, and nothing obstructed the passenger's view. All was silent and still, except for the last few shadows burrowing into the inky ground. Outside was a grey land, irregular humps and hillocks stretching as far as the eye could see, with many strange stick-like things holding aloft what looked like a layer of smoke. A soft layer of some sort of downy substance covered the hills around them. The sky and sun were black. The ground was only a little lighter.

Suddenly the obliterated Half-Shadow reformed out of the ground before Jubatus, only horribly changed. Before he had been a corpselike, fish-eyed monster, now he looked merely like a very pale caucasian man in his early twenties. He looked at Jubatus with eyes full of terror and relief, only for the terror to suddenly over-rule all else. He sprang at Jubatus, crying in clear, unaccented English "Please! Whoever you are, have mercy! For God's sake don't let him-!" he was gone, his last wail of anguish faded much slower than his body did, which turned to ash as he leaped, and scattered on the ground outside the bus into the half-lighted world.

[Cubist]

What happened was beyond probably even Jubatus's expectations: the Half-Shadow ... began to melt first, for a second or two, but the explosion that rocked the bus and sent wisps and melting giblets of solid shadowmatter throughout it was what everyone remembered.

Damnit, I HATE flying blind!

The singing shut off at once, and a slow, calm voice like a storm whispering, My son, my son, why have you forsaken me? Alas, there is not time to make another, nor will they now be fooled. I must intervene myself." with a miniscule shudder, the bus stopped. The shadows suddenly were torn away from the bus, and nothing obstructed the passenger's view. All was silent and still, except for the last few shadows burrowing into the inky ground. Outside was a grey land, irregular humps and hillocks stretching as far as the eye could see, with many strange stick-like things holding aloft what looked like a layer of smoke. A soft layer of some sort of downy substance covered the hills around them. The sky and sun were black. The ground was only a little lighter.

Jubatus was shocked motionless. While he acknowledged that magic did exist, he (like most other people on Earth) had never actually seen any serious, real, magic in his life. Not before today, he hadn't! Attending a live David Copperfield performance simply wasn't in the same league as this front-row seat for what the so-called 'Duke of Oily' had just done...

Congratulations, Jube: You got what you wanted! The bus ain't moving no more...

Suddenly the obliterated Half-Shadow reformed out of the ground before Jubatus, only horribly changed. Before he had been a corpselike, fish-eyed monster, now he looked merely like a very pale caucasian man in his early twenties. He looked at Jubatus with eyes full of terror and relief, only for the terror to suddenly over-rule all else. He sprang at Jubatus, crying in clear, unaccented English "Please! Whoever you are, have mercy! For God's sake don't let him-!" he was gone, his last wail of anguish faded much slower than his body did, which turned to ash as he leaped, and scattered on the ground outside the bus into the half-lighted world.

Jubatus thought faster than most people. Here and now, that just meant his thoughts tumbled over each other, in a chaotic tangle, more quickly than would have occurred if his neurons weren't overclocked: How do I -- but you -- I can't -- what's he doing? -- don't know -- never -- Some unguessable time later, the feline regained sufficient equilibrium to realize that his fellow passengers on the bus were all moving very slowly... as in, ¹/₆ as fast as normal. Right, the Timeshift goes away when I lose concentration... default tempo of 6... what difference does that make... leastways I'm only wasting a sixth as much time now as I would if I was running at their tempo... so what, it's not like there's anybody here who can, you know, get us the hell back to Earth!!!

And then a flicker of hope blossomed amid the desolation of despair in the cheetah's mind: Or... is there..?

Maybe. Just maybe. It wasn't a sure thing -- wasn't even a good bet -- but no matter how badly the odds sucked, it had to be better than just sitting around waiting for Big Daddy Darkon to finish ticking off all the items in its agenda for the transdimensionally-kidnapped Terrans.

Okay. Keep it together, Jube. No fear. Leaning against a support post, Jubatus concentrated on breathing slow and deep, on the scientific concepts he hoped would bear fruit in this bizarre situation, on booting up his Timeshift again, on anything and everything except the poor ess-oh-bee who'd been reduced to ash before his eyes... Fortunately, Jube's customary focus-on-something-else mindgame worked here; before long, he'd managed to upshift to his customary top tempo of 40, and had successfully crammed the screaming horror of the current situation into a little box in the back of his mind where it wouldn't distract him from whatever job needed to be done.

Then, and only then, did he downshift to the normal tempo of 1 so he could talk to Martin Brandtford.

"Hey, Marty," he said quietly. "Got any tools or whatever from ASTRO Labs in your pockets? Just wondering, because if you do, you just might be able to build us a ticket home..."

[Azuth65]

Vicky sat back, dumbfounded by the events that transpired as well as a little frustrated by her need to keep her identity secret. A wave of nausea fought to bring her lunch back up as she watched the young man reform from the floor and seconds later was turned to ash. Okay, this has officially gone from bad to worse, she thought to herself, grimacing.

Hearing that Jube had a plan, she breathed a slight sigh of relief and forced herself to maintain her cover of a 'normal teenager'.

[Ari]

IC:Marceau had begun to move after the Half-Shadow, thinking to get some guarantee of their safety from the creature. The sight that had followed Jubatus's attack had stunned him into total silence. He had had not the faintest idea that anything like that would happen in the worst places. He was no stranger to cruelty, but such careless psychopathy nauseated him to his core. He staggered to the door of the bus pushing his way past Jubatus and was nearly sick. Fortunately, he saw something that took his mind nearly completely off what he had just seen: a blue sky, with a golden sun blazing in it, reflected off of the ground like in still water. He turned excitedly to tell to the others, only for the words to die in his throat. He leaped backwards, staring in shock at what he saw on the horizon.

GM: Towering above the bus, head reaching up into the clouds, was a giant. A massive, needle-thin figure like a mass of black paint. It slowly shrank, stepping forward as it did, until it was 5 feet high and walking up to the opened door of the mass transit vehicle. It stopped and looked up into it, a voice as sweet as poison coming from it Pussycat, Pussycat, will you let me in? I won't pull you tail if you don't scratch my chin.

Norman, for his part,just groaned wearily. The terrible series of events told him plainly that their likelihood of escaping was approaching zero, meaning he gave little heed now to the specifics of what was happening.

Martin, at Jubatus's question, hurriedly ransacked his pockets, turning put dozens of odds and ends of small gizmos and pieces of larger works, including half of a temporal disturber(helpfully labelled). After over two-thirds of a minutes' frantic searching, he pulled from the depths of his left inside coat pocket a device like a large, flat spiral. Poipping the back cover off he began looking desperately around the bus, "Electricity," he explained to Jubatus, "I need a massive charge, coupled with a bit of a temporal shift, to get this thing to work. It's a Dimensional Channeler, supposed to take you back to the dimension its tracker is set to, which fortunately I set to ours last week".

[Lone Star]

Zap gasped as the young man turned to a pile of ash. She sat, unbelieving for a minute while her friends tried to work out a solution. She was hugging her legs to the seat, and a tear fell from her eye. God this is scary. I can't believe he just...God! Looking around for a moment, she held back a sob. Get yourself together, Janis. You're a superhero. You've got to stick with it or you'll never get out of here. Her head turned slowly to the window, and she saw endless plains of inky blackness. She started breathing faster, and she squeezed her eyes together, and regulated her breathing enough to calm down.

Martin, at Jubatus's question, hurriedly ransacked his pockets, turning put dozens of odds and ends of small gizmos and pieces of larger works, including half of a temporal disturber(helpfully labelled). After over two-thirds of a minutes' frantic searching, he pulled from the depths of his left inside coat pocket a device like a large, flat spiral. Poipping the back cover off he began looking desperately around the bus, "Electricity," he explained to Jubatus, "I need a massive charge, coupled with a bit of a temporal shift, to get this thing to work. It's a Dimensional Channeler, supposed to take you back to the dimension its tracker is set to, which fortunately I set to ours last week".

Zap stood up, her hands igniting with bio-electricity. She smiled a little bit, wiping a tear from the side of her cheek. "I'll gladly help, if I can."

[Cubist]

That poisonous voice -- Jubatus didn't bother to wait for it to finish whatever it was saying; he just cursed to himself and closed the bus' frigging door! Would it even inconvenience the approaching Eldritch Thing Of Darkness And General Nastiness? It all depended on whether or not said Thing was one of those mystical whatzits which had trouble with entering inhabited structures (and whether whatever had already allowed it to get on the bus was still applicable now...). Well, at least closing the door couldn't hurt, right?

"It's a Dimensional Channeler," Marty said, "supposed to take you back to the dimension its tracker is set to, which fortunately I set to ours last week". So far, so good, Jube thought.

And then Zap spoke up: "I'll gladly help, if I can."

Somewhere inside his head, Jubatus breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe this crazy plan will work... but don't let's just to conclusions just yet, Jube! "I think I like the sound of all this, Marty," the feline said. "Okay: What sort of operational limits does the gadget have? As it stands, can it carry the entire bus, and everything within it, back to Earth in one go? If it needs modifications, what parts or tools will you need to tweak it 'til it can do the job?" He patted at his vest, whose many bulging pockets made the garment appear to have been quilted. "With any luck, I can fill in for whatever you didn't put in your pockets." And finally, delivering this last line in a perfect deadpan: "Very bad form, neglecting to consider the possibility that you'd be removed from your native plane of existence by a demon-like Thing from another dimension."

[Ari]

The Void-Like Thing shrugged when the door was shut in its face, pulled an extremely real-looking lawn chair from nowhere and lay down in it, pulling an issue of Time magazine out of a similar nowhere and opening it. Raising a limb over its head, it snapped once. At this, a gigantic gate, black as pitch yet dimly perceivable as covered in sculpture, rose up from the ground in front of the bus. Opening with a groan, it showed an aerial view of Freedom City in all its shining glory. "This way would be quicker!" it called merrily, its voice sliding through the walls of the bus, "Come out, let's make a deal to all our satisfaction!"

Martin laughed, obviously glad for the excuse. The Dimensional Channeler was a flattish disk, About four inches high and seven across. It had a deeply bizarre control scheme: a touch-sensitive spiral in the center colored grey, blue, yellow and red, and divided into fourths numbered at intervals. Additionally there were twenty-seven buttons, each marked with a vaguely Latin-numerical symbol. Contrary to popular myth in the extra-terrestrial division of A.S.T.R.O. Labs, the thing wasn't based on alien technology.

"Operationally speaking, there's no known limit. Carrying capacity is set by this spiral here, you just press down here and depress here and you can set roughly how much you want to take with you. The thing's set at the metric system, luckily, so I won't have any trouble figuring how high it needs to be set" he looked up at the front window of the bus with a deep frown "Only one issue: if that Thing has the power to keep us here. The mechanism works by boring a 'channel' from one dimension into another, and if that guy can warp space/time he might be able stop us"

[Cubist]

Jubatus ignored the Thing's words as best he could -- it hardly seemed likely that It would say anything the feline wanted to hear -- and thought fast about what Marty said about his little toy... "Electricity plus temporal shift to make it work, check. Once the portal is open, does it still need continuing access to volts and Timeshift? I'm asking because if me and Sparky need to babysit your gadget every second while it's doing the portal thing, we're going to have to take care of Big Daddy Darkon out there before you fire up the gadget. If it only needs a jumpstart, and it's self-sufficient after it starts running, we've got a little more freedom of action."

[Ari]

Martin looked apologectically at Jubatus and Zap " In short, yes. You'll both have to keep pumping out energy to keep the Channeler going. If you stop(it takes a lot of energy) the tunnel collapses into itself" he scratched his head "Maybe send out a couple of people to give that guy out there the idea we're interested in negotiation?" he took out a small hard plastic collapsable stand for the Channeler "So it doesn't give someone a nasty shock" he explained. Once done, he delicately tuned the instrument one-third of the spiral around and pressed three of the buttons twice. A sudden idea struck him: "What about the bus battery? How much charge could it contain? If it holds enough, you, Zap, could just recharge it every now and then, without needing to be here constantly"

[Cubist]

"Hrrrmm... How long does it take for the gizmo to warm up once you hit the button? I mean, does the portal pop up instantly, or do we and Sparky have to stick around for 69 seconds before we got portal, or what?" Jube asked. After getting that answer, he went on: "I think the bus' battery should be okay as a secondary source of electricity. The temporal shift, well, we got no secondary source for me, as best I can tell. If I stop Timeshifting, how long will it take for the portal to dissipate? In other words, how much time can I spend doing other stuff before I need to come back and keep the portal going? And... does it make any difference if both me and Sparky are on site?"

[Ari]

"Does it matter if both of you are near it?" said Martin "Yes, especially in your cases, since we'd need to do some pretty careful testing to make sure of your operational area limits. For safety's sake, I think you two should stay as close as you can while powering it" he nodded to the rest of the passengers, who had been gathered to the front under the leadership of Sam "If this goes right people, nobody will be hurt, and we'll be home in seconds at longest!" he called cheerfully, folding out the recalcitrant stand and setting the Channeler on the snug circle at the top. He then stood back and bowed to the two heroes.

At about that moment, an insistent knocking began on the windows next to Victoria and Brian. The walking void was there, and behind him was a lounge-like area with several enormous chairs, a coffee table covered with cups and a large kettle, and half a dozen gigantic black-armored knights surrounding it.