AN: 6-15-24
I am still working through the backlog of chapters for some very needed edits… this will take a while because it is killing my motivation.
For now, keep in mind the ages for the girls from Earth Bet have been changed to be
Taylor - 17
Amy - 19
Sabah - 23
Dinah - recently turned 14
I have also nerfed his powers just a tad since the first version with no inherent brainwashing at all despite his later concerns (even if he very much could figure it out if he tried)
This note will be moved to the start of the unedited version as I work through it
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After another punch to the head that was the shock of moving between realities, Amy, Taylor and I stood back up from the sofa. This time I had fallen over and, while I had enjoyed Amy’s thighs, I hadn’t fallen quite right and so my neck was bent at an awkward angle.
Sighing, I rubbed my neck. “Well, that still sucked. As soon as we find a modern world again, I think I am going to get myself a Lazy Boy recliner to travel in.”
Taylor was still shaking her head slightly, but Amy was already up and stretching. “Sounds good, but where do you think we are? Maybe a Sci-fi world this time?”
I sighed. “I think I am actually directing us a little. It might be a few more jumps before I manage to actually direct us to a world I know specifically, but we should still make the most of each world if possible.”
Taylor stood up and did her own stretches before she said “Why don’t we all go to bed? We can let Dinah recover in her gem for now since she said it kinda felt like sleeping.”
Looking at one then the other, I simply shrugged and we walked towards the bedroom. I was curious to see if the two teenagers would act on their libido, but neither of them did anything other than removing their pants and bras before getting in bed with me. I had also removed my pants and was able to enjoy their bare legs against mine before I slowly fell asleep.
The next morning, I was surprised to hear the sounds of the microwave cooking downstairs. We had already discussed our options and since a stove took too much power to run for long on batteries for long and fire wasn’t a good idea in our confined space, we were mostly limited to the microwave. Microwaves, while power hogs while they were running, usually only needed to be run for a few minutes to cook something. Still, the smells had already started to wake me up and by the time I opened my eyes I was fully alert. Looking to either side of me, I noticed Amy and Taylor were still present. Since Dinah wasn’t going to be awake until I reattached her soul, that only left one option for our mystery cook.
Acting on that impulse, I opened another portal between me and the phylactery and pulled Dinah’s soul into her body. Poking Amy a little, the grumpy healer opened one eye and glared at me before I simply pointed towards the portal where she could reach Dinah. I tried to keep my voice quiet as I explained. “I put her soul back, maybe just let her wake up naturally this time.”
Sighing, Amy poked the precog before curling back to sleep.
Sighing again, I got up and went into the bathroom. Then I gave a slight chuckle. If the two women in my bed weren’t going to get up for some fun, then I might as well so see what was going on with our surprise chef.
It was while I was walking down the stairs that I saw Dinah getting up and rubbing her head. That surprised me as I had thought she might have wanted to sleep for longer, but after a moment I just asked “How are you doing, Dinah?”
Dinah sighed. “Fine, who is cooking?”
I smiled and rubbed her head lightly. “Unless some random thief managed to break into our kitchen and is making us breakfast, I suspect it is Sabah.”
Smiling a little, Dinah turned to walk down the hall towards the kitchen. When we entered, we saw Sabah had reheated a good deal of the food we had purchased in the previous city.
While walking into the room, I walked past Sabah who stiffened as we entered before relaxing slightly. As I passed I gave her a slight one-armed hug which made her stiffen more. “Good morning. I hope you slept well. Thanks for making breakfast, Sabah.”
Sabah seemed to force herself to relax before she responded. “Good morning… Max, Dinah. It is ok. I, uh, woke up and didn’t have anything to do. I mean, I was happy to help.”
Smiling at the young woman, I sighed. “Why don’t you sit down, and we can all eat. Taylor and Amy probably won’t be getting up any time soon.” Seeing both females stiffen, I sighed internally and continued speaking. “I mean, combined with the Hunter exam for the last few days and normal teenager sleeping-in habits, I wasn’t surprised they went to sleep right after our jump and have been asleep ever since. It is a good thing that you are cooking, as I suspect the only thing that will get them to wake up at the moment is their stomachs.”
Dinah seemed to immediately move past the topic and put some honey across a roll we had in a Tupperware. Sabah was a little slower to relax, but after looking at me for a few more moments, she seemed to believe me and finally relaxed. Internally, I was sighing to myself. Seriously, even if I had pounded them into a metaphorical and hopefully blissful puddle, if the girls wanted, then that was our business. It wasn’t like I was going to suddenly attack her or Dinah.
I paused for a moment. Then again, I didn’t know about Sabah's history. Maybe she actually had experienced something like that. Or maybe she was less horrified about what I had done and more embarrassed for thinking about them naked upstairs like that. Especially since I was pretty sure I had noticed Sabah and Amy eyeing each other in the last couple of days. I think I would have been embarrassed to know my crush was upstairs naked too.
In the end it didn’t change anything as it wasn’t too much longer before Amy walked down the stairs and came into the kitchen. Sabah had turned on the coffee pot and like a zombie Amy walked directly to the pot before pouring herself a cup before collapsing into a chair. Taylor was a little more put together and simply got a glass of water before getting some of the sweet rolls and curling up on one of the remaining chairs.
Sighing, Sabah turned towards me and asked. “So where are we now?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea. Dinah was right that we should ask her questions before we enter the world for the first time.”
Sabah paused and then nodded her head. Amy and Taylor were both mostly awake at this point, and after a few more moments I leaned back in my chair and turned towards Dinah. “Are you done with breakfast and are you ready for some questions?”
Dinah finished slowly sipping the last of the juice and nodded. “Yes, and there is an 9% chance we will be killed if we explore the area around our home. There is an 86% chance you will recognize the setting given enough time.”
I blinked. “Those numbers aren’t great, but still aren’t terrible. I suspect that the Hunter world might have been about as dangerous as that. We will just have to be careful.”
Sabah sighed slightly, and I eyed her. Was she still planning on leaving us and was worried she couldn’t stop on this world? Or was she worried about the other girls.
Shaking my head, I looked at the four girls. “Who wants to go out and explore with me?”
All of them spoke up to agree, even if Sabah was a bit slower than the rest. Opening up a portal to look around outside, I immediately noticed we were in a city. I obviously didn’t recognize the alley we were in, but after a moment to move the portal skyward, I noticed the skyline and frowned. There was a city in the center against the coast with tall large towers and gleaming white walls. However, surrounding that city fortress was a significantly larger city of ramshackle buildings. I frowned. “Huh, I don’t recognize any of that.”
Shrugging, I pushed our portal towards the ground and tried to find a location that wouldn’t be noticed. After a couple of minutes, we were once again inside a corner of the city ready to move. Attaching our dimension to the back alley between two stores I opened a portal and the five of us walked out.
I had to admit, the city was incredibly nice. The streets were clean and the buildings orderly. Yet, up and down the street I noticed a sigh that looked like the Uncle Sam army recruitment pictures from my home world. However, this time it said. The Wardens need you.
I blinked. “The Wardens huh.” Then softer so only the girls would hear me. “That sounds familiar, but I don’t recognize the source.”
At that exact moment I heard an explosion and I looked up to see what appeared to be a blue haired woman riding a slow moving rocket into one of the tallest buildings.
I felt my mouth fall open. “Really? Really~?” The League of Legends world? I sat and thought for a moment as I saw the building partially collapse. Well Damn… I think it was called Runeterra.
Moving my focus down, I noticed the people in the street were already starting to run for cover. I pointed to a side alley, and the five of us quickly moved behind a corner and portaled back into our home before anything else around us could explode.
Amy and Taylor looked at me, but I just sighed and slid onto the couch. “Well that sucks.” I sighed then said quieter, “At least this time we can retreat to our home if this Death World gets too bad.” All four girls stiffened at that before looking at me more carefully.
Dinah was the one to speak up. “There is only an 8% chance this world ends in the next 50 years.”
All three girls turned towards me confused so I sighed and answered. “Sorry, I should be more specific. There are a few definitions of a Death World. My own personal definition is that a death world is one where there is a risk that you and the entire city around you could be wiped out at the whim of a person, being, or entity on a whim. More specifically, when it has happened to places on that world before.”
The girls seemed to sit back and think about that before Taylor spoke up. “Don’t nuclear weapons make most Earth’s death worlds then?”
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I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Well, yeah, sorta, but most countries have checks and safeguards up the wazoo to ensure it won’t happen due to the whims of a single man. Still you do bring up a good point.”
Sabah was the next one to speak up. “Even if it isn’t what you hoped, you did seem to recognize the world.”
I sighed and rubbed my head. “Yeah, although this specific setting is one that I won’t be able to really plan out like I did on Earth Bet and the Hunter x Hunter world.”
Dinah tilted her head and asked. “Why not?”
I sighed. “I picked you three up in 2011. Did any of you play a game called League of Legends?”
The three older girls shook their heads, but Dinah paused before nodding her head. “Yeah, I did a little. I wasn’t very good at it, but it was kinda fun to control the champions.”
I blinked. “Huh. I would have thought there was a better chance that Earth Bet would have had the Hunter X Hunter anime than a beta version of that MOBA game, but that's good, I guess.”
Amy interrupted next. “So why did you say that we wouldn’t be able to affect the world.”
I winced. “I still don’t remember too much about my original world, but I am pretty sure we were almost a decade ahead of you. In that time the people making the game wrote a backstory for most of the champions. Then erased it all. Then made a combined history for most of them. Then changed that a half dozen times. Finally, they took a few of the characters and tried to make several different animated shows.”
Taylor was the first to get it. “So you don’t know what history is the right one here? What does that mean?”
I gave her some finger guns. “Exactly. For example, I remember a character called Ashe. I liked playing her a little before I moved on from the game. At first, she was a maiden hunter in her tribe. Then she was a literal winter spirit, then she was a widow, then happily married tribal chief in a political marriage to another chief from a rival, then allied tribe. That is combined with some of the issues with cosmetic skins for the characters.”
Sabah was the one to ask this time. “Cosmetic skins?”
I nod and simply continue. “Yeah, I can think of at least two characters in particular off the top of my head. There is a little tree spirit called Teemo who has a skin that makes him a literal devil, an astronaut, a sniper and even more forms I don’t remember. There is also a sorcerer named Lux who looked a lot like glory girl that was also several types of magic girl skins along with a cyberpunk warrior, an astronaut, and another sniper skin. Not to mention Ashe who I am pretty sure has a skin who literally makes her a snow spirit.”
Amy had perked up at the description of Lux being similar to her sister. Noting that, I decided to address it before it festered. “Why don’t you write your sister a letter for our next jump? I don’t know how long each of our jumps are, so it might have been several months since we left.”
Amy stiffened at being noticed before nodding her head.
I turned to the rest of the girls. “That goes for the rest of you. I gave Dragon instructions to pass letters to your families discreetly if you feel like writing.” All the rest of the girls nodded, even if Sabah was slower to do so. Sighing, I continued as I got up and walked to the gaming computer and booted it up. “The question is if we are going to do anything to help this world and if we are going to take any women with us.”
Sabah stiffened again as I saw her fidget in the corner of my eye, but I simply ignored the reaction. The other three girls didn’t even break step as they followed me to look at the computer. A part of me wondered if this was my soul affecting theirs. Then again, maybe they just wanted to see some of the people in this world.
Shaking my head slightly, I waited and booted up the game. The game obviously didn’t have an internet connection to connect to, but I was still able to pull up the list of women available in 2011 in Brockton Bay. The result was fewer than I remembered but that still left several dozen characters of which about half were human or human-like females. Turning to my girls behind me, I gestured, “Well here we are. I guess we can look through their backstories a bit even if the bios are vague to get an idea of their temperament. However, the details written here might still be wrong. Not the least because I am pretty sure Jinx wasn’t introduced until like 2015 or something.”
The girls gave a little start, finally remembering the attack on the tower outside and then looked back at the characters. Perhaps they finally realized the mind-boggling notion that their fiction could correlate with real characters they could meet in another world.
After a few minutes, the girls and I had narrowed down their search to 6 women I could agree with. Ahri the nine tailed fox. Irelia the cultivator blade dancer. Vi, the gauntleted brawler. Leona the sun themed knight. Morgana the dark themed goddess of merciful justice. Finally the expert sniper Caitlyn. We momentarily even considered taking Jinx with us for her own good the same way that we had taken Bakuda and Squealer.
That made me remember to spend more time looking at their soul to see if I could think of a way to better deal with their issues.
Yes, part of me wanted to throw caution to the wind since they were both kinda hot and had that mature woman feel. Plus they could both definitely help with creating support items for our home here. No more dealing with solar panels and batteries. However, the logical part of my brain knew letting an angry tinker gain access to supplies in an enclosed space with us was just about as stupid an idea as I could possibly get.
Taylor, who was still reading through the backstories spoke up. “So Vi and Caitlyn are fighting with these wardens against Jinx then?”
I sighed. “It is complicated, I think. I know Vi was originally with a group in the slums outside the walls. Jinx was part of that group and they considered each other sisters or something. I also know the city dwellers treat the outsiders in the shanty town like trash even if Caitlyn and Vi are trying to change that. The thing is, while I am pretty sure there were some misunderstandings between Vi and her sister. I don’t know what they were. Jinx is slightly mentally unstable, from what I remember, but also might be fighting for the slum’s rights. The entire thing is a mess, and I didn’t watch the animated show when it came out.”
I turned to Dinah. “Chances that any of those three or any subset of them would be willing to come with us. And is there anything we can do to stop the conflict within the next couple of weeks?”
Dinah winced. “21% and 12%”
I sighed. “If the best possible scenario is 21% then we probably aren’t going to convince anyone. The 12% doesn’t surprise me either, since we just don’t have the information to actually help. Plus, I will admit that I don’t want to get involved in a bloody civil war unless we can actually help stop it.” Rubbing my head, I leaned back in the kitchen chair. I really needed to get some gaming or office chairs for doing research like this. Our kitchen chairs were really not comfortable at all.
Sitting back up, I looked at the others with a furrowed brow before I slapped the table. “Damn it!” I sighed and rubbed then shook my head. “Maybe if I had more information we could do something, but I think we are going to have to move on. Plus we can get a sniper and a brawler somewhere else and we already have an unstable bomb tinker.” I looked out of the windows and sighed again before whispering. “They always said, I couldn’t save everyone…”
There were some uneasy chuckles as they remembered the girl currently laying in the cot downstairs, but several of them got uneasy looks as they heard my whisper, but before anyone could bring it up again I shook my head. “We really do need to figure out how to help Bakuda since I don’t really want her blowing up our house on either accident or purpose.” This time I was pretty sure the uncomfortable chuckles were more because they were nervous about her mentality and not because they were nervous because of me.
I turned and looked back at the screen with the characters. “That leaves Leona, Morgana, Irelia, and Ahri. I am pretty sure that Leona, Morgana, and Irelia are all some sort of defender to their respective communities. Dinah, what is the chance that each of the four will come willingly if we give them the correct pitch. Maybe something about getting stronger to help or eventually come back and teach their people?”
Taylor was the one that spoke up. “Would you actually do that?”
I tilted my head at her. “I told you there was a chance we would go back to Earth Bet if they fixed their Scion and mutating shards problem after things calmed down. So if I am willing to go back to Earth Bet then Runeterra isn’t out of the question at all. I just don’t want to do it often, since there are some demi-gods and minor gods here I wouldn’t want to run into if I could help it. Really, this world isn’t actually overly terrible, I just don’t want to stay too long as there are way, WAY better worlds to live on. So no, I wouldn’t be lying to any of them about returning.”
Taylor looked mollified, and Dinah finally responded. “26% for Leona, 12% for Morgana, 53% for Irelia, and 81% for Ahri.”
I hummed to myself. “Well, I guess that makes sense. Leona is literally a knight and the chance of her leaving her post is probably very small. Morgana looks like a demon, but she actually is a goddess of merciful justice who feels that she needs to keep her sister, the goddess of blind justice, in check. That is unfortunate as Leona could teach us about weapons and Morgana probably has some excellent magic. Then again, it isn’t the end of the world as I would actually prefer Irelia to teach us since she is basically a cultivator and a master of blades.”
Dinah was the one to ask. “What is a cultivator?”
I smiled as I explained. “A cultivator is exactly the type of power I would like us to gain. They basically condense the magic, the qi, the mana, or whatever powersource of the world into themselves and then refine their bodies to become, well… more or less gods. It takes a lot of time, but pretty much all the stories say there isn’t a limit to how much you can grow in this way. Still, I don’t know how far Irelia has gotten, or even if it is something like cultivation in the first place. However, I want to find out because but in some stories cultivators can have bodies much stronger than steel, move quicker than sound, and have spiritual powers that allow them to do things that make most Earth Bet powers look like cheap parlor tricks. Even telekinetically or spiritually moving blades around without touching them is actually a fairly common trick in those stories. And while I am not sure, I think that is what Irelia is doing.”
Taylor frowned. “But the chances of her joining us were basically a coin flip.”
I sighed. “Yeah, but we should still show up to ask. At the very least we might get some training from her if we help or her town with our powers.” I waived my hand wildly at their looks of confusion, “Look, I don’t really know, I am just throwing out ideas of things that a leader of a community might like.”
The girls seemed to sit back at that. Dinah looked back at the fox girl on the screen. “What about Ahri? She had a good chance of joining us.”
I sighed a bit. “You are right. My vague memory of her story is that she grew up with arctic foxes. She doesn’t know where she comes from but wants to find out. The thing is that she eats human souls. Our bodies and souls are probably immune to her consumption as long as we don’t allow her into the room with our phylacteries.” Turning to Sabah I sighed. “Depending on how trustworthy she is, I would probably want to make you a lich as well before we invited her to live with us long term, just in case.” Everyone looked worried at that so I sighed before I explained. “At the beginning, she didn’t know what she was doing when she ate their souls. Yet even then she was able to give dying men some peace in their final moments and ate their souls only when it wouldn’t cause them further pain. After several decades of this, she understood what was happening and tried to avoid killing innocents at all costs. She also has illusion magic and the ability to manipulate emotions as well.” Turning to Sabah I clarified my offer. “I don’t have to bind you to me to make you a Lich and protect you, just think about it.”
Sabah grit her teeth and then slowly nodded. “I don’t know for right now… but you also said that it would reduce the chance I can be controlled, right?”
I nodded back. “Yes, I can control what goes through my portals. I limited what sensations can come through the portal to be only slightly above normal so we can’t be controlled as easily by spiking the signals higher and overwhelming us. That isn’t to say your body can’t be puppeted but that is a separate power.” I smirked, “So far, the only time I turn it all the way back up is when we are relaxing in our home.” I glanced at Taylor and Amy and the three older women seemed to get what I was hinting at and blushed. I finished by explaining. “The only thing I know about Ahri for certain is that she is looking for where she comes from.”
Looking at Dinah she nodded and answered. “Chances she can find where she comes from, 13%. Chances where she came from were destroyed, 42%.” She paused for a moment. “Chances she could learn more about beings like her if she came with us, 71%. Chances she would be happy with us, 86%”
I turned back to the group. “I guess that would explain why her percentage was so high.” Turning to Dinah “I haven’t been asking you about happiness recently. I actually have been thinking about that. I want you to ask for people we are about to recruit, but I don’t think it is worth asking about everyone because most people will be happy with a home and friends eventually. Better to ask if they would be a good fit with us first, I think.”
Dinah nodded and the rest of us looked back at the computer screen.
Amy looked at the picture of the fox girl before turning to me and simply nodding. “Why don’t you prepare a way to protect our souls, and Dinah will try to determine how to find her? She sounds powerful, kind, and at least a little smart so unless anyone has any suggestions we might as well ask to join us.”
Shaking my head, I got up and looked around. “Why don’t you four clean up a bit as well? When you are done with that, Sabah and Dinah, why don’t you show Amy and Taylor how to work the TV and movie selection.”
Dinah’s smile grew instantly and she got up and bounced towards the TV. Taylor and Amy were a little amused as they followed, while Sabah looked slightly torn. I turned off the gaming computer, but before I could ask what was up, Sabah turned and followed the girls onto the sofa.
Sighing, I turned away. I wanted to find a large vault as well that I could steal from the city and attach to our pocket dimension. I just wouldn’t make any doors into the fault so the only way in was through one of my portals. Annoying at times, but it was the only secure way I could think of for housing our phylacteries with a soul-eating fox.
After a moment longer, I opened another portal outside to look around in the slums at the edge of town. I also should find one or two rapists or murderers. One to feed Ahri if she was starving and the other to pop us away if we needed it. Best to keep our supply of emergency souls stocked up after all.
Interlude Taylor:
Taylor frowned as she went out to pick up the local equivalent of sandwiches again from town.
Life had become so different since she had come here. Since she left with Max.
A small part of her still occasionally woke up in a sweat, believing she was still back in that locker. Small, alone, helpless.
Still, she couldn’t help wondering, would Max leave her once he found someone better and prettier than her?
She missed her Dad.
…
No, she missed who he used to be.
She really missed her Mom.
Getting up, she walked towards Max’s room. He had gone to bed late because he was working on getting them closer to Ahri. He would probably like someone to sleep with even if he was already asleep, right?
She felt pathetic as she climbed into bed, but as she heard his breathing, she felt her pounding heart start to slow.
Maybe she would talk to him in the morning about going home. Or maybe she should talk about where to go next. She just needed to talk with him tomorrow… or maybe the day after that.