As it stood, the new world was shockingly similar to the old one. The car brands were different, but there was still a collection of cars, trucks, and SUVs clogging the freeway from the suburbs to downtown. Blessedly, siren laws still applied in this strange, magical place, and with the ambulance leading the charge, Jason and Ban had a fast, clear path to the 6th Precinct of the Rupture Police Force. That did not mean, however, that it was not a long drive, over an hour, in fact.  This gave Jason plenty of time to take in the city, gazing out the window at an absolutely bizarre skyline, with gothic mansions clashing against ordinary office blocks and skyscrapers. Streetlamps here glowed with a blue hue rather than a yellow one, bathing everything in a cold, alien light. And at the north-eastern edge of the city, a single volcano was visible, Rupture seeming to butt up against the mountain, which had a crusted, crystalline lip that could be seen from anywhere in the area, glowing the same blue as the lamps.

Officer Ban glanced away from the road for a second, nodding towards the mountain.

“That used to be called Yellowstone.”

The revelation hit Jason like a truck, he’d been to Yellowstone once before, seen the supervolcano and old faithful.

“There wasn’t a mountain in Yellowstone, though!”

“It used to be flat, but when it erupted, it sort of just grew out of the ground, no one knows why, besides “It’s magic”. I suppose they’re right, given it is the source of all our mana.”

Erupted? Jason had heard that Yellowstone could erupt back home, but he’d never really gotten into the details of it, and it certainly wouldn’t erupt with magic in his world. Just ash and death.

Seeing the look on his face, Ban chuckled. “Yeah, it confused the heck out of us too. One day everything’s normal, next we got magic dust falling from the sky and our pets are turning into monsters. Day after that we have people throwing around fireballs that don’t know where they’re supposed to go and god only knew what else.”

Jason nodded, trying to put himself in the shoes of someone suddenly having their entire world changed like that. As it turns out, it was quite easy, given he was already wearing them.

“Must have been horrible.”

“Well, given about three in four people died when they breathed the stuff, yeah, it was pretty bad.”

Ban kept a straight face even as Jason whipped his head around to actually look at the officer. No hint of a smile or joke in his tone.

“You’re serious.”

“Yup. It was a genetic thing. A lot of animals died too, not so much for plants. The rest of us were left with the ability to use magic when we got the dust into our systems.”

“I thought you were going to let the citizenship class teach me about magic.”

“I’ve always been talkative on long drives, why do you think I don’t have a partner?” The older man smiled, and Jason thought that he was lucky to have someone kind to help him find his feet in this place, even if he couldn’t do everything.

“So anyways, humans got to use magic, though it changed them in one way or another if they used a lot of it. Animals became beasts of legend, or they just got bigger and more dangerous. Subset of those got even more power and intellect. Australia’s actually run by a komodo dragon that turned into a real dragon.”

Well, that’s not too shocking, given it’s Australia. Well actually…

“Not a giant spider?” Jason attempted a joke.

“Thankfully no, I don’t think diplomacy would be going nearly so well with a spider.”

It felt like he was standing atop a glacier, unaware of its enormous depths, only able to see the part above the water. There was so much to this world he might not ever understand, and politics between what were apparently monsters and mages was barely even the tip of that iceberg.

But there was one thing he did know. He had been pulled here by magic. Ban said it should be impossible, but if it happened one way, why not the other?

“Ban, what would it take to try and send me home?”

The officer took a deep breath, clearly thinking it over.

“I’m not quite sure. I’m not a magical expert, but I know it would take a very expensive spell, which would mean quite a few people required to cast it, and an obscene amount of mana. The aftereffects would be incredibly dangerous, as with the girls in that ambulance ahead of us. The rabbit was only minorly Burned Out, but there were three others she had by a heater when we entered. Pulling that much mana through your body is comparable to standing naked in antartica, even with a Mage-Net to support you.”

“Mage-Net?”

“Hard to explain, you’ll get a better lesson on it in the classes.”

Jason nodded, going quiet for a moment.

“...Listen, I know I said it was impossible, and that we weren’t willing to try, but obviously, you’re here, so I’m possibly wrong on the first, and it’s likely you could eventually convince some others to help you with that spell. I don’t know, it would be easier to just give up on it, but if it’s what you want to do, well, it’s your home and your life, right?”

Another nod. So there was hope. That had to be enough.

“I’ll go for it.”

“Well, first step for that would probably be citizenship and a job that can get you enough cash to pay for the mana and support, that’s about all I can help you with, though. Speaking of which, here we are.”

Jason hadn’t even noticed them slowing down and pulling up to the squat brick building that was the 6th precinct. It looked like one of the ordinary city buildings, rather than the wildly styled but primarily gothic mansions that dotted Rupture.

For once glad he’d fallen asleep at his desk without taking his shoes off again, he climbed out of the car after Ban, following him into an office-like precinct, though a few computers used holographic projectors over regular monitors. Interactable holograms at that, given how several detectives were seated around a central table and talking while moving a model of what looked to be the same house Jason had been in.

Ban pulled him away from that display, taking him to a smaller side-office, where they were soon joined by one of the two bears.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Jason, this is Lieutenant Lowry, he’ll watch over you while we get a lawyer for your citizenship paperwork.”

The large anthropomorphic bear nodded, grunting with a deep voice.

“In the meantime, you can help with our investigation. Our suspect is accused of sixteen counts of kidnapping, fifteen counts of mind control, and eleven counts of manslaughter, while the other surviving victims are recovering and their cases are open and shut, yours is special.”

Jason took a seat across from the massive man-bear, nodding quietly. Special, that was one word for it.

“Our scrying magic falters from the sheer energy released in that moment, so while Officer Ban has already sent me his brief interview recording, I’d like to talk to you myself.”

“Alright…”

“So, by your account, a hand made of magic appeared from the ground in your home and dragged you to the suspect’s basement. Do you recall anything else from the transportation?”

“It… it felt like I was falling through a big, empty void. I couldn’t see myself or feel anything, just a big black nothing.”

Thinking back on that vastness made him shudder. It was like seeing infinity.

The bear in front of him nodded, idly fiddling with his ring again. Or was it idle? Jason still wasn’t sure what to make of it. Now that he had a closer look, it had an intricate engraving across it’s two pieces, and Lowry had just clicked it into a position where the two parts lined up.

“Was there any voices within that space.”

“What?”

“Did anyone speak to you while you were in transition.”

“No, or if there was a voice I don’t remember hearing it.”

The Lieutenant nodded, reclining slightly in his chair.

“Alright, now, your appearance here, you had no major injuries according to the EMT, what do you remember before we arrived on the scene?”

“Not much, something about how the guy had made some mistake? I wasn’t supposed to be what was summoned?”

Another nod.

“Um, a lot of swearing, telling others to warm up. Burnout, right?”

Yet another nod.

“And that’s about when you guys showed up. I didn’t really get a lot of time to process stuff.”

“Alright. Thank you. This interview is concluded, you can wait here for the lawyer now, or go to our break room.”

Wincing at the thought of trying to navigate this place without a guide, Jason shook his head. He’d wait here.

Eleven people died trying to summon whatever “monster” that guy wanted. Instead they got him, or something else prior to him? The teen still wasn’t certain about that situation, but it wasn’t really his problem anymore. They’d caught him, and saved the ones they could, that was a sign of a good police force, though their reliance on magical surveillance put him on edge. Were they always watching everyone? They couldn’t be, or they’d have caught this man sooner, but then what exactly was the Scrying magic? So many questions, and no one to answer them right now, certainly not the Lieutenant.

Left to its own devices, Jason’s mind wandered towards thoughts of home once more. Who would realize he was missing first? His mom and dad? No, he went out late some nights, it would probably be Sasha, his older sister. How long would it take for them to start searching? Probably less than a day, and they probably wouldn’t stop…

More boiling tears filled his eyes, but this time, rather than letting them flow, he stifled them with an arm, scrubbing at his face several times, even though it only served to make his eyes redder and puffier.

Lowry pushed a box of tissues towards Jason’s side of the desk, and for reasons he couldn’t explain, that awkward kindness did more to stop the crying than any attempts to calm his own emotions. Wiping at his eyes properly now, and blowing his nose for good measure, he tried to lean back in his own chair to match the bear’s posture, only to sink deeply into it. Despite being a simple office chair, it seemed sized for a giant. A giant like an anthropomorphic bear?

Thinking back, the car had been larger too, with more legroom than most trucks he’d been in. Doorways were taller, though not really wider that Jason had noticed, and in general things were built as if the average person was closer to seven feet tall. Was that all to accommodate people like the Lieutenant? Were they that common? What created them anyways?

More questions, hopefully the citizenship crash course had answers. Actually, that just raised another question, why would a citizenship exam test knowledge of magic? Did they really need to go over that?

His wildly off-rail train of thought was finally stopped as the door opened to reveal Officer Ban and a small fox woman in a business skirt with enormous ears.

“Jason, meet your citizenship sponsor and lawyer-”

“Cindy Johnson, pleasure to meet you!” The fox barged into the room, despite being relatively short, she managed to give off an aura that was hard to define, but demanded attention. She flashed a smile, waiting for Jason to stand up before offering a hand to shake. “Shall we get to a place that’s a bit more private?’

“We have the interrorga-”

“No need, we’ll use my office, they just finished connecting the buildings, remember?”

Ban sighed, nodding. “That they did, alright, off you go, we’ll have the pizza delivered to your office.”

“Pizza?”

“For Jason, poor kid hasn’t eaten anything since the incident.”

Finally finding his voice, the teen grimaced.

“I’m right here.”

“Oh! Sorry, yes, right this way, come along!” Using the hand she still held, Cindy all but dragged Jason out of the office, and Ban closed the door afterwards, leaving him purely in the hands of this lawyer. They moved through a hallway that still smelled a bit like fresh paint, and then Jason found himself in something more akin to a psychiatrist’s office, or, he supposed, a law firm. There was a plush waiting room, but they skipped right past it, moving directly to Cindy’s own office, where the -assumed- fennic fox finally let go of Jason, closing the door behind them and gesturing to a chair across from her desk.

“Take a seat, I have the paperwork ready, you’ll just have to fill it out. By the way, if you fail to obtain citizenship, the funds you receive will have to be paid back, so try to pass the test the first try?”

Wonderful, because he didn’t have enough problems. Grumbling, Jason took his seat, reaching for a pen, only to realize there wasn’t one. Instead, just a tablet on the table in front of him, with three different documents for him to read through.

“Which one is which?”

“The first one is your citizenship application, the second will be your agreement to funding, last but not least is the general information document.”

“What all do I need for the application?”

“A sponsor, a cause for becoming a citizen, and documentation of your origin. In your case, that’s what the GID and police report I’ll gather will be for. Oh, almost forgot to mention, my work here in sponsoring you and filing your paperwork is pro bono on one condition.”

“One condition?”

The fox leaned in, placing both hands on the desk, an odd glint in her eyes.

“Just one teeny, tiny favor.”

Jason gulped.

“Which is?”

“Do you have anything from home that could have stored songs?”

Wait, what?

“Songs?”

Blinking, the teen pulled his phone and earbuds from his pocket. He had music downloaded, but there was no telling if this woman would like any of it.

“Perfect! It’s outdated, but if it has songs from your world on it…” Cindy had something between stars and dollar signs in her eyes at this point, and Jason was left distinctly uncomfortable with the whole situation.

“Well, play one for me! That’s my price for this, and if you could send them all to me at a later date, I’d owe you an enormous favor!”

Gulping, he nodded along, this was all he could do in order to get citizenship and some money to stay alive, there wasn’t exactly a choice. Hopefully she liked emo-rock. With a press of the “shuffle” button, he landed on “It Has Begun” by Starset.

Wide-eyed, Cindy listened with her ears swiveled towards his phone, utterly silent until the song was over.

“Perfect. Thank you. Now, to business, I can help you if you need to understand any of the paperwork, but most of what we need is basic census data and signatures. You can start any time just by tapping one of the documents, two fingers to scroll, one to write.”

And thus, tucking his phone away, Jason got to the paperwork.