Stephen unleashed the new dimensional traveler card and appeared in the heart of his own pocket dimension. Everything was the same as usual, and he didn’t have any cards in his mind, powered or unpowered. The cards that he’d possessed when he entered were represented in the pocket dimension. The cards that were in his library artifact were absent. He investigated what was there, greeted some of the new champions he’d captured in the sci-fi dimensions, then began looking at the contacts in the surrounding mist.
As well as the opportunity to send a message, offer a trading session, or challenge them to a duel, he now also had the opportunity to enter other travelers' pocket dimensions. The option was there for every traveler. He went to Avin’s contact, then chose it.
He found himself in another pocket dimension, made up of many cards. Because HAL didn’t duel unless he could win, he would just keep all his cards on his person. In all other ways, it resembled his own original pocket dimension and his new version. Stephen was surprised to see the Avin drone walking towards him from across the central area. The other traveler waved when he realized Stephen saw him.
“HAL,” said Stephen, greeting him. “I thought we’d agreed that I’d come here first on my own.”
“And you did,” said HAL/Avin. “You entered this pocket dimension ten hours ago.”
“No,” said Stephen. “I just arrived, and you were already here.”
The Avin drone smiled knowingly. “I thought this might happen,” the A.I. said. “Time doesn’t run when Avin isn't here and, apparently, it doesn’t run even if another traveler is here.”
“That’s a big limitation,” Stephen said. The drone shrugged, “It is what it is.”
“Let’s take a look at your contacts and see if I can travel into their pocket dimensions from yours,” Stephen walked to Maggard’s contact and saw that the traveler wasn’t listed as being in any dimension, which indicated he was in his own pocket dimension. Approaching the contact, it gave him the standard options as well as the new option to enter his pocket dimension.
“It’s there,” Stephen told the Avin drone. “Let's assemble our forces and hit him with a surprise attack.”
“One second,” the drone said, checking the contact himself. “Firstly, I don’t have the option to enter his pocket dimension, since I don’t have your modified card. You can’t travel with other sentient creatures, including other travelers, so you can’t bring me. Secondly, time freezes if Maggard leaves, so it probably isn’t a good idea for both of us to be in his pocket dimension. If he slipped out and left, we’d be trapped. Thirdly, this is your battle. I’m happy to help you, but I can’t risk this drone in a fight.”
“Why haven’t you gotten another drone yet?” asked Stephen. “You got one for Adam to build the reliquary.”
“That was in response to your urgent need,” said HAL. “If we keep abducting travelers, eventually someone is going to trace it to us. I suspect they already will, given the range of powers travelers possess. Maggard went to great lengths to remain hidden. If we want to… follow in his footsteps… we’ll need to be equally careful. Beyond all that, I’m not entirely comfortable with the morality of capturing and murdering travelers who haven’t wronged us in any way.” The drone held up his hand to forestall Stephen’s objection. “I know you justify it with your time travel plans. I’m not 100% convinced. Not enough to keep kidnapping travelers.”
“So, if you’re opposed to what I’m doing, why are you helping me?” demanded Stephen.
“I’m not opposed to it,” HAL explained patiently. “We’re allies. I’m just not willing to unquestioningly do everything you order. Having someone to rescue you if you fall into another of Maggard’s traps might be useful.”
Stephen gave a sharp nod.
***
All Stephen’s champions and items had been assembled in his pocket dimension and surrounded him at Avin’s contact. “Gather in close,” Stephen said. “I’ve never traveled with a group this large before.”
Various aliens from Zephyra and mercenaries from Chromehaven were there. All of them were outfitted in top tier weapons and equipment from their respective worlds. Dragons, manticores, minotaurs, pirates, golems, werewolves, druids, vampires, statues, and ghouls were also mixed in, from cards Stephen had captured or traded for over his travels. These had also been outfitted with high-tech devices, when they had been able to use them, or equipment that had also been built or captured. Adam and the other statues he’d constructed each had a magic or high-tech weapon.
Many of the creatures had had cybernetic implants and were connected to HAL’s network, sharing awareness, knowledge, and skills.
Choosing to enter Avin’s pocket dimension, Stephen instantly found himself back where he’d previously visited, surrounded by his eclectic troops. Avin caught his eye and nodded. The drone had given Stephen all the cards he had that would help. Stephen marshalled his champions to Maggard’s contact on the border of Avin’s pocket dimension and chose to enter the other traveler’s pocket dimension.
The new central area, where they’d appeared, was somewhat reminiscent of the village in Clodor near Maggard’s manor. Houses that were a similar style dotted the central area. Human workers moved about, with Frankensteins, werewolves, and vampires mixed in with them. A large, Asian style castle was set back from the central village.
Far off in the distance, behind a large amount of surrounding territories, Stephen could see the mist barrier that surrounded Maggard’s pocket dimension.
Standing in the square, Stephen spotted Maggard himself, who stared at the new arrivals in open amazement at the impossible event.
“Attack,” shouted Stephen. “Maggard is our top priority. Take him alive if you can.”
The attackers fell on the assembled towns people, slaughtering them with the element of surprise. The futuristic troops, and some of the fantasy troops who had been armed with high-tech weaponry, fired their stingers, a beam weapon with devastating destructive power. Stephen's troops killed swaths of townspeople, leaving them with burning wounds on their bodies. The werewolves seemed to be able to shrug off the attacks, although they were driven wild from the pain. The beam weapons were particularly effective against vampires, turning them to dust when they were hit by them.
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Maggard had recovered from his surprise and began shouting commands at his champions.
Stephen saw one of his druids fall to the ground, disemboweled by a werewolf. Raising the purpose-built gun he had, the man from Earth shot the beast with a silver bullet and watched it fall down, reverting to a lifeless, human corpse.
Eight skeletal dragons rose into the air, from a stable outside of town. The two dozen dragons and other assorted flying creatures that Stephen had brought, stopped strafing villagers and turned their attention to these new threats. Stephen noted, with annoyance, that some of the clay golems he’d created were a part of Maggard’s forces. The other traveler had somehow acquired them.
“HAL,” Stephen said to one of his nearby golems. “Maggard has some of your drones. Can you subvert their programming, make them fight for us again, and learn what they know?”
“Working on it,” the golem said, without a pause from firing its stinger into the village.
Adam finished setting up a mortar with two of his constructed children. The three living statues fired it and saw one of the buildings in town collapse. “Blargh was right,” a statue said. “This is effective.”
Watching from behind the fray, Stephen saw that Maggard had begun retreating towards the large building. Starting the motorcycle he’d brought, Stephen shouted to the forces nearby him, “Anyone who can keep up with me, come with me after Maggard,” and began riding around the fighting to make his own way to the castle.
***
Pulling up to what he thought of as the samurai castle, Stephen stopped his motorcycle some distance from the entrance and began firing on the defenders, who were moving to attack him. Cyberpunk mercenaries on futuristic, electric motorcycles and aliens on hover bikes pulled up next to him. The castle defenders quickly fell in the hail of fire.
“Fight your way inside,” Stephen ordered. “We’re trying to find Maggard. You, you, and you,” he pointed at three champions randomly, “keep watch outside, in case he tries to slip out.”
The group approached the castle’s wall and, as they came within striking distance, an enormous cloud of giant, vampire bats were released and flew at them. For minutes, bats kept coming, stingers flickered on and off, lancing the foul creatures, and replacing the flurry of beating wings with a cloud of black, ash remains.
The dirty soot drifted to the ground and a calm fell on the local area. Sounds of heated battle could be heard behind them.
A roar pierced the silence as one of Stephen's dragons flew towards them. Passing overhead, it breathed fire on the wall, heating the stone red-hot, then making a hole as it liquified and flowed away from the structure.
A group of werewolves leapt through the hole in the wall as the troops approached. The cyber warriors fired silver ammunition, cutting them down. Frankenstein monsters waded through the lava pooling at the base of the wall, setting their tattered clothing on fire as they slowly advanced.
Stingers and guns converged on the flesh golems, slowly wearing them down until the last, finally, collapsed.
Stephen abandoned his motorcycle and grabbed hold of one of the hover bikes as it floated over the red-hot, liquid stone through the hole. The cyber warriors followed his example and took hold of the aliens' hover bikes to get through the hole, then jumped off in the courtyard.
Workers scrambled chaotically around the courtyard then, and as soon as Stephen and the others were seen, a cry went up and they scattered.
“Into the main building,” Stephen shouted. “Spread out and find him.”
As the group approached and the first aliens and cyber warriors entered the building, one of the scouts who’d been left to watch for Maggard rode up on a hover bike.
“Maggard left through a bolthole in the back and is trying to escape,” the alien scout said. “Take my bike.” He handed over the hover bike to Stephen.
Stephen raced back through the courtyard and around the castle. He spotted the other two scouts and increased the bike’s speed as far as he could as he rode towards them. Stephen spotted Maggard ahead, riding hard on a horse, along a path away from his headquarters.
Reaching the scouts, Stephen rode past them, closing the gap to Maggard. The two scouts accelerated and pursued. Maggard glanced over his shoulder repeatedly then, when Stephen was a certain distance behind him, Maggard threw something over his shoulder. Stephen squinted, trying to make out what the object was, when the world exploded in force and fire around him, and he was thrown from his hover bike.
Stephen blacked out for a moment and was awakened by the arrival of the two scouts, who were hovering above him and beginning to descend to land. “Are you ok, Master Crawford?” one of them asked.
“Never mind me,” Stephen said, angrily. “After him! Kill his horse, slow him down.”
The two scouts resumed the pursuit as Stephen dug a healing potion out of his backpack and drank it. His head cleared, and he examined the wreckage of his hover bike. Scanning his surroundings, he saw the dragon that had destroyed the wall earlier circling, looking for prey. Stephen pulled off his shirt and began waving at the monster, finally catching its eye and bringing it in for a landing. Stephen ran and jumped onto its back. “After Maggard,” he ordered. The dragon’s enormous head craned around to look at him, and Stephen pointed in the direction the other traveler had gone.
Flying in pursuit, Stephen saw a dead horse, two smashed hover bikes and two dead aliens, which seemed to tell the story of a recent conflict. Up ahead, he saw Maggard running along the trail, quickly approaching the mist barrier of the pocket dimension.
“Up ahead, stop him,” Stephen ordered. The dragon flapped its wings and picked up speed, gaining on the fleeing man. Stephen had pulled out the blow gun that he and Adam had made and fired a dart filled with Maggard's own poison, hitting the fleeing man squarely in the back. Pulling ahead of Maggard, the dragon let loose a furious breath of fire, igniting the ground between Maggard and the mist barrier with a blazing inferno.
As the dragon circled around and came in for landing, Stephen saw Maggard pause briefly, then charge through the flame. Clothing on fire, the other dimensional traveler plunged into the mists.
The instant he disappeared, Maggard immediately stepped back out of the mist. The flames on his clothing had disappeared. As the dragon came in for a landing, Stephen noticed that he was wearing different clothing and had cybernetic implants blinking in the other dimensional traveler’s head.
Dismounting from the dragon, Stephen tensed for attack, then heard HAL’s speech patterns coming from Maggard. “Congratulations, Stephen, we won,” the A.I. said.
Relaxing and walking over, Stephen asked, “You caught up with him after he left?”
“Yes,” said the Maggard drone. “I was watching his contact in my pocket dimension and saw that he’d gone to some new dimension I’d never heard of. I gave it a minute, just in case he died after arriving, but when he didn’t disappear or return to his pocket dimension, I pursued with a few golems. He was pretty well spent when I arrived and didn’t put up much of a fight. After I knocked him out, I implanted the cybernetics, connected him to the hivemind, and sent him back for you.”
“Sorry, we let him get away,” said Stephen. “I hit him with the poison, so he couldn't use any of his cards at least. I would have been in trouble, frozen in his pocket dimension, if you hadn’t caught up to him. Thank you.”
“What are friends for?” HAL asked.
***
Hours later, Stephen was back in his pocket dimension, recovering from the recent battle, when an overhead announcement gave notice of a message. That’s never happened before, Stephen thought to himself. Approaching the area of mist below the announcement, he saw a contact that he hadn’t had previously, Caspian Seraphine, blinking with a message.
Opening the message, he read, “The governing council of dimensional travelers, the Inner Circle, is impressed with your defeat of Maggard and would like to invite you to claim his seat on the council.”