I was there, standing in a dirt field next to some old, dilapidated cabin with half its roof missing. All around more snow-covered mountains and a seemingly unending forest. I had no idea what danger was out there, or even where we were at that moment. Let alone when. I didn't know anything about the situation or what sort of terrible threat we were going to have to deal with in order to find the rift so we could actually fix this whole thing.

But none of that mattered, because what I did know was that Avalon was here. She was holding me so tightly it almost hurt, but I didn't care. I returned the embrace just as tightly, making a noise that was probably something in between relief and disbelief. She was here. After all that time, after everything that had happened, she was actually finally here. I didn't care about anything else, nothing. At least for that moment, the only thing that existed was my girl. I had been apart from her for half a year. Six months without seeing her, let alone touching her. Everything else could wait.

We kissed, and it went on for some time. I wasn't even sure how long, given the way I lost myself in it. All I knew was that she still tasted and felt as amazing as I had remembered. Even more so. My heart was beating its way out of my chest as I fell into that kiss.

Finally, I managed to pull myself together a bit, as did she. We both leaned back and stared into one another's eyes. Only then did I remember that we weren’t the only ones here. Looking to the left, I saw Sean, Roxa, and Vulcan. All three of them had taken a step away and were facing one of the mountains, clearly giving the two of us a little space.

And boy did that just say a lot about the sort of lives we led or what? They were yanked away from wherever and whenever they had been just to be thrown through time and brought here to this random spot with what I was pretty sure was absolutely no explanation, only to find me laying in the dirt. Despite all the confusion from that, Roxa and Sean had rolled with the whole situation so well that they had simply given Avalon and me privacy rather than immediately shouting out questions. And I definitely would have understood going the shouted questions route. They deserved answers, to say the least. They were patient enough to wait for a couple minutes.

Then again, Roxa had always been pretty good with just going with the flow. And Sean was no slouch himself.

Giving Valley one more quick kiss, which turned into a longer one then I had intended, I finally pulled back. “Okay, sorry, sorry about that.” I was blushing deeply, already moving my hand to grab Avalon's. “Seriously, I’m so glad you guys are here. You have no idea. It’s been--uh, it’s been a real wild trip. I missed you, uh, all of you.”

Roxa gave me a very small smirk, as the three of them turned to face us. “Maybe you just missed Avalon a tiny bit more than us, huh?”

“I mean, if you want me to kiss both of you like that,” I started slyly before catching myself as my eyes widened and I blurted out loud, “Damn it, Hot Type!” When had they even jumped into the passenger seat anyway?

We got mixed around when that whole wild ride was happening, babe, came the easy response. Don’t worry, we’re all in here, but I ended up falling into the front. And boy am I glad I did. I forgot what sort of eye candy we were dealing with. Roxa and Sean? Meow, now that’s a power couple. I know there’s been some teasing going on, but you think they’d actually be up for some sort of--

Clearing my throat loudly, I felt the stares from Roxa, Sean, Avalon, and Vulcan. Even the cyberform dog looked completely baffled by that whole thing. And really, who could blame him? Or any of them. That had definitely not been like me.

Giving a firm request to Hot Type to let me explain things without doing anything else to make them think I was possessed or something, I assured the others “I swear, I can explain uhh… everything. And trust me, it's a lot. But hang on a second.” With that, I focused on figuring out where we were. Namely by checking how far away we were from that cabin in the Swiss Alps where I had been with Ehn. After all, these were snowy mountains, maybe they were the same ones?

The answer, as it turned out, was that we absolutely were not in the Swiss Alps. My distance power said we were over five thousand miles to the west of that area, which was definitely back in North America. So I checked how far we were from Laramie Falls, and the answer to that was about three hundred and fifty miles south. So, a lot closer. We were in the United States, somewhere in Colorado or Utah.

Unfortunately, that still didn't tell me when exactly we were. And besides that broken cabin, which really didn't have any signs of technology in it, there were no landmarks or anything to answer that question either. I supposed it probably meant we weren’t here in prehistoric times, but knowing aliens and everything else that had been on the planet for so long, I wasn’t even willing to put too much money on that.

So, I had absolutely no idea what time period we were in. But at the very least, I could explain what was going on so the others could be on the same page. It was… yeah, it was going to be a very long discussion, and I had just opened my mouth to start from the beginning, when we all heard a very loud roar fill the air. A roar that was followed by the sound of several rapid-fire laser blasts and another, somewhat different roar.

“Gidget!” That was Roxa, of course. She spun, starting to race past the broken cabin in the direction those sounds had come from, with Vulcan hot on her heels. Without wasting a second, the rest of us followed. Explanations could wait. Whatever that first roar was had sounded very large and very angry. We had to get there before it vented that anger on Gidget. Was it the thing that was supposed to be guarding (and empowered by) the rift? I had no idea. But either way, it sounded pretty damn dangerous.

On the way, I surreptitiously activated one of the spells I’d been working on with Story. It would mask me from the Boscher alert sense the others would detect as soon as I used any active, obvious powers. Not that I was going to hide what I was now from them for any length of time, obviously. It was just… now really wasn’t the time to get into all that, not when Gidget was in trouble.

We had only run about a hundred feet before reaching the edge of the mountain side. The trees surrounding that cabin just opened up to reveal a sheer, deep drop down into the canyon below. The roar and the sound of laser shots were coming in from down there. We could see a flash of bright light before another distant roar reached us. Gidget and whatever was attacking her were down there somewhere, far out of sight. And things didn’t sound great. The cyberform cougar was clearly holding up for now, but… we needed to hurry.

Roxa went to throw herself off that cliff to get to her partner, but I grabbed her arm tightly. Even as she whirled to shout at me, I focused on instantly transporting all of us from that cliffside to the ground hundreds of feet below. “There, go!” I gave her a push toward the sound of the battle, while starting to sprint that way myself.

She, Sean, and Valley all recovered quite quickly from the sudden transport, though I knew they were going to have a lot of questions once we were through this. Hell, they had no idea just how many questions they would have. But for the moment, Gidget was the priority. I sure as hell wasn’t going to let anything happen to her when the only reason she and Roxa were in this place right now was because of me.

The problem now was that this was a massive canyon, full of heavily-blowing snow. We were up to our shins in the white stuff, while the wind echoed off the canyon walls. Which was making it hard to figure out exactly where the fight was happening. The sounds were echoing from all over the place, this storm doing a hell of a job at complicating the whole situation. I didn't know if it was natural or something that monster was creating. Maybe it was the rift itself if that was what was down here. Either way, I was pretty sure something was messing with our perceptions. Something more than simply blowing snow and loud echoing wind. This seemed like a magic thing.

But it was more than that, more than magic blocking our perceptions. I could also sense death. This place was a graveyard, a place where many, many creatures and people had died. Whatever this thing we were facing was, it had killed hundreds, if not thousands of beings over the years. Did that mean it wasn’t the thing guarding the portal? If it had been killing for that long, it couldn’t have been connected to the rift, right? It seemed unlikely, but maybe there was still some sort of link. Either way, the amount of death in this place left a strong Necromantic energy around us. That was screwing with my perception a bit as well. The entire canyon was thick with that power, leaving an effect almost like thick fumes from gasoline for those who could sense it.

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Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to get rid of the magical distortion, and didn’t have time to do anything about the lingering death energy. Nor did the four of us have time to search this entire place, not when Gidget was in trouble. Fortunately, we weren't alone. Not by a long shot. Without wasting another second, even as Roxa’s mouth opened to scream her cyberform’s name, I held out a hand and summoned a swarm of ghosts. Over a hundred, then twice that many, immediately appeared and began to fly off in every direction. I heard a yelp of surprise from the others before they realized what was happening. The ghosts flooded the open canyon floor, spreading across the whole place as they searched for the source of those roars. And yet, I wasn’t sure that was enough, so I summoned more, another twenty, then another twenty after that. Two hundred and fifty ghosts, all summoned at once and sent to search this canyon. There was so much lingering death energy from everything that had been killed here that I was able to infuse them with enough power to make all of them solid and didn’t put much of a dent in it. Just how many things had this creature, whatever it was, killed down here?

Belatedly, I realized why I hadn’t sensed all this death from up by that cabin. The same spell that was making it hard to figure out where all the sounds were coming from was also shielding that energy from escaping the inside of the canyon. It was distorting things, masking them, ensuring that anyone passing by wouldn’t sense anything amiss unless they came right into the place. By which point, I supposed, it would be too late.

It might have been impossible for five of us (counting Vulcan) to search this canyon in time, but it was a very different story for two hundred and fifty flying ghosts. In almost no time, I received a mental yank from several of them as they sent images back to me from different angles. Images of a giant, fur-covered creature. It stood almost forty feet tall, with six legs attached to a lower half that was shaped like a woolly mammoth. But instead of the elephant-like head, it had a man-shaped torso rising out of that space. Well, sort of man-shaped. In actuality it looked more like a gorilla, complete with long, hairy arms that it was swinging around while howling, like it was having a temper tantrum. The monster was some sort of wooly mammoth-giant gorilla centaur, stampeding through the snow after a retreating metal cougar. Every once in awhile, Gidget would send a quick burst of rapid-fire lasers from a pair of guns that extended from her shoulders.

And because that thing wasn’t enough of a problem by itself already, I saw it open its mouth to send a literal fireball through the blowing snow. Gidget barely managed to leap sideways away from the blast, which created a small river of melted snow across the scorched ground. Sure, why not? This situation wasn’t dangerous enough.

While the others were looking around wildly, I spun to face them, speaking quickly. “Giant centaur mammoth-gorilla thing that breathes fire! Get ready, cuz we're going there right now!” I gave them just enough time to process what I was saying, then focused on the area those few ghosts had found. It was on the far side of the canyon, too far away to risk running the whole distance. With a thought, we appeared right there, next to Gidget. We were facing the monster about eighty feet away, just as it pounded its chest furiously and roared once more. In the midst of that, the thing stopped abruptly and made an uncertain noise while staring at us. It seemed surprised by our sudden appearance, as its quarry suddenly had a lot more backup.

Unfortunately, that surprise didn't last long. And it didn't extend as far as convincing the creature to retreat. Instead, the thing raised a fist over its head and bellowed, then sent a massive blast of fire our way. It was a fireball that erupted from its mouth and immediately grew to almost thirty feet across, completely dwarfing the six of us while it came our way like a freight train. We had almost no time to react.

Yeah, that might've been scary at one point. But I had Hot Type sitting in the passenger seat. They immediately took over, spinning to put our back to the incoming flame while focusing on one of those powers I’d given them, the one allowing them to prevent the effects of heat on both us and anyone we could see. They’d turned so we could see everyone. At the very second the fireball struck us, Hot Type made everyone immune to it. The heat was barely a warm breeze, and the boiling water it turned the snow into didn’t melt our shoes or burn us either.

Of course, the others weren't exactly helpless. Even Hot Type did all that, Avalon had raised her arm to project an energy shield from one of her gauntlets. The shield extended out to cover everyone. Meanwhile, Sean tossed a coin in front of himself, speaking a quick word that created another shield right in front of the one Valley had created. The blast of fire didn’t stand a chance. Between the heat immunity and the layered shields, it accomplished precisely nothing. Well, aside from turning the snow under us into that boiling water and blindly scalding steam. That might’ve been a problem without Hot Type.

And speaking of Hot Type, they weren’t done yet. Even as that massive ball of fire struck the ground around us, they extended both our arms as far as we could. We grabbed that fire before it could dissipate and pulled, using that other power to turn the flames into an almost glass-like solid material. The fire solidified and shrank down quickly, as Hot Type condensed it into a much smaller ball that fit into the palm of our hand. All of which happened while the others were still reacting to the fire doing nothing. Gripping the glass-like ball in one hand, my mental roommate (brainmate?) reared back and used our mouth to somehow purr-shout, “Sorry darling, have you looked at our little group here? We’re already hot enough as it is.” With that, they lunged forward and hurled that ball of condensed flame back the way it had come. Before the monster knew what was happening, or could even finish reacting to the fact that its attack had done nothing, the hurled ball expanded right under its feet, becoming a new blast of fire that melted the snow there and made the creature recoil as the steam shot into its face.

In that same moment, all those ghosts I had summoned converged on the monster from all sides. Each of its six legs were grabbed by at least ten of the transparent figures, who yanked hard in opposite directions to pull those powerful limbs out from under it. Meanwhile, another ten grabbed each of its two arms and pulled upward. Which left a whole bunch more to come down from above, slamming into the beasts’ back. With its arms held out of the way and its legs yanked in every direction, it had no chance to catch itself. The force of all those ghosts slamming into it knocked the thing down into the still-boiling remains of the snow that had been blasted by its own returned fireball.

Of course, it still would've recovered quickly, but we didn't give it the chance. Hot Type raised our arms that way, extending two black and red tentacles from our wrists. Those two were quickly joined by a couple more that rose from our shoulders, and another two from our back. Those six long tentacles, each about three inches across, stretched the entire distance from where we were standing all the way to the fallen creature. While the thing was still trying to tear itself free of the swarm of ghosts holding it down, the six tentacles, each hot enough to severely burn a normal person, grabbed onto it. Two caught the monster’s trapped wrists, yanking outward to stop the thing from shielding itself or breaking free. Two more wrapped around its neck, while the remaining two grabbed its ears and yanked up. The thing was held in place, between the tentacles and my ghosts. It was all we could do, even all together, to stop it from breaking free for just a few seconds.

But a few seconds were all we needed. With a thought, I summoned my staff, opening it up into its bow form. But I didn’t draw a regular energy arrow. Instead, I focused on all that Necromantic power I’d sensed around me. It was hard, yanking at all of that. There was so much, too much, really. But I pushed through, condensing every last bit of that lingering death energy into a single form: an arrow seemingly made of darkness itself. It was a shadow-arrow that fairly thrummed with power. I’d turned that death energy into an arrow of darkness, a black cloud condensed down into that familiar shape. It took everything I had just to hold all the power into that form, nocking it into my bow even as the tentacles attached to my wrists adjusted themselves to continue holding the struggling, howling beast.

“You killed a lot of things down here,” I informed the creature in a flat voice. “They’d like to have a word with you about that.”

Just like that, without another word, I loosed the arrow. That arrow, literally collected and created from all the lingering death energy from every creature that monster had killed, went flying straight into the center of its forehead.

And then the death energy fucking exploded. I contained it to that general area as best as I could, but the force still knocked all of us over. We hit the soaking wet ground, slightly bruised. But it was the gorilla-mammoth centaur that fared far worse. That necro-arrow exploded directly inside its head, leaving… well, almost nothing left aside from a few chunks here and there.

All of which left me flat on my back, taking in the effect of killing that thing. It felt… good. That thing was strong, and I was absorbing all of its power.

By the time I recovered, my eyes blinked open to find Sean, Avalon, Roxa, Vulcan, and Gidget gathered around to stare down at me.

“Uhhhh Flick,” Sean managed in a weak voice. “I… ummm… you--you’re…”

He trailed off, and it was Roxa’s turn to try. But even she, cool and collected as she almost always was, could barely get any words out. “Y-you--you’re--y--ahh… uhh…” She did manage to raise her hand to point at me.

“Flick?” That was Valley, staring at me in just as much disbelief. Wait, what was she--what were they…

I looked down, only then realizing what had happened. When Hot Type took over, they reflexively shifted us into our male form. The male form we were most accustomed to using, complete with the very distinctive outfit I’d set up for him. We’d gone through all that, blocking the fireball, throwing it back, and summoning all that ghost energy to turn into that arrow that exploded the monster, not as Flick, but as--

“Jacob,” Avalon choked out in palpable shock.

“You’re Jacob.”