I just stared out at the sprawled graffiti for ‘Bad Wolf’ so famously part of Dr. Who.
Behind me, I noticed that Hermione instantly knew what we were dealing with. Not surprising since she was a British teen and the original run of Dr who would have just finished around the 1990s. Hermione absolutely would have watched at least some of it.
Taylor took only a few moments longer. I wondered if it was something that her mother or father had introduced her to since the rest of the Earth Bet natives hadn’t reacted. No, wait, Sabah was just being less obvious about it. I supposed that made sense as she was also someone who liked a good story.
Shutting the portal peephole I swayed in place, exhaustion really starting to hit me. “Well… Damn.”
Looking around, I tried to figure out some sort a plan, but it was pretty obvious there wasn’t much I could do. This wasn’t the worse case scenario, but it was pretty bad.
If we had landed here in our original search for the HP world I would have just used one of the emergency jump souls. Yet while I was pretty tempted to just grab Dr. Bumby’s soul and try, it was a terrible idea. So I was reduced to internally cursing Alexandria again, the hypocritical asshole. We wouldn’t have even been in this situation if she hadn’t tried to kill us for disrupting Cauldron’s fundamentally idiodic and shortsighted plans. Even in the original story their plans made absolutely no sense.
Oh, after being forced to look at myself in Yoda’s cave of evil, I could agree I was a bit of an asshole at the begining as well, but she had tried to straight up kill my girls and their families…
Yeah, there was absolutely no way I was going to let that go.
It was Ahri who broke the four of us out of our spiral… and my internal rant. “Where are we and why do you look so concerned?”
Realizing this was no time to get lost in thought I turned to Hermione and said “I want the concealment runes up and everyone who can cast a notice-me-not working their way through the ship.”
Hermione didn’t even hesitate as she turned and headed to the cockpit to start activating our wards from the master control runes. Neither did Luna or Xeno who sticking their heads in each of the doors they could and casting Notice-me-nots.
Looking at the rest of my girls I was forced to fight off a yawn before I started explaining. “We are in the world of Dr. Who.” I ran a hand through my hair as I tried to figure out what to say. “The series is about an immortal, but not unkillable, series of people all referred to as ‘the Doctor’ and is a… protector I guess… for humanity. He uses a time and space traveling phone booth that is bigger on the inside to save the world.”
There was a moment before Amy actually snorted. “So like what we have here?”
I blinked then I laughed as well. “Yeah… I guess we do fit that description except we have a shuttle instead of a phonebooth. A step up, I suppose.” Several of the other girls started chuckling or giggling with me. I was surprised how much better I felt. Really, I needed that laugh.
Letting my laughing die off I sighed again. “Problem is this is very much not a safe world. Admittedly the vast majority of the threats we might face we could probably handle. The ones we can’t… well they are way, WAY outside our paygrade. Universe destroying bombs, shapeshifting mimic monsters, multiple races that time travel, zombies, mind control… even if this world looks safe, like a normal version of London, it really isn’t.”
I rubbed my head while the girls who had not seen Dr. Who glanced around nervously. Sighing I realized I had already messed up and turned towards Hermione who had just gotten back. “On that note of shapeshifting mimics, Hermione, what happened in the chamber of secrets?”
Hermione blinked for a moment before she realized what I wanted and nodded. “Holly and I were taken down to the bottom by Lockhart and I was hurt. Amy healed me and we took down both Lockhart and the basilisk while Fawkes healed Holly’s arm.”
Turning to Luna and Xeno who just popped back in from the engine room I opened my mouth to ask when Luna cut me off. “We met on the train first year when I just walked into the cabin and asked to join the Family.”
I let my mouth click shut and I smiled wryly as predicting what I would ask was probably the best proof of Luna being Luna.
Xeno looked at me and just smiled. “I gave her permission in a letter before Yule.”
Feeling another wave of exhaustion hit me I turned towards Taylor. “Taylor, I know you have bugs you can use. You will have to keep an eye on the ship. No one goes anywhere alone. We all sleep together here in the living room.” Now having to fight to keep my eyes open I continued. “We aren’t going to take chances in a world where even the Doctors agree that they win because of plot armor. Hell, I remember one of them saying that even they don’t know how they kept winning, they just wing-it and it always seems to work out. So, if you notice anything wrong, wake me up and we will leave regardless of whether I am fully rested or not…”
I sighed and this time I wasn’t able to suppress my jaw-cracking yawn. Shaking my head as my eyes felt like lead weights, I slumped. “I will try to recover as best I can. Amy, can you put me in as restful a sleep as possible? I know it won’t help the exhaustion in my soul, but it can’t hurt.”
Looking around for a moment on where to sleep and, not finding anything, I pulled out my wand and I summoned my pillow and duplicated the sofa cushions to lay down on the floor. As I made a little temporary bed I looked around one last time. “Remember, treat this world like a horror trope. No one goes anywhere alone. Check in often. Don’t ignore anything that feels off or wrong. Oh, and bring the pets and Reily out here with everyone else.”
Behind me, I could hear the murmured confusion and worry as Amy came over and poked my forehead and gave me a kiss before I closed my eyes and let the darkness overtake me.
What felt like only a few moments later, but was probably at least half a day, I was ejected violently from sleep as I felt the entire shuttle shake.
Sitting bolt upright and looking around somewhat frantically I wondered where I was before I noticed that several others in the Family were sleeping next to me. In fact Dinah and Amy were laying down just a little to my right while Sabah was lying to my left. Sarah was now sitting up on her own cushion bed across the corridor while Alice had taken the sofa itself.
It only took me a moment to remember where we were and to remember the danger we were in.
Cursing silently I stood up and looked around. Spotting Taylor I didn’t waist any time. “Taylor, Thea, what is going on?”
Taylor frowned, eyes vacant. “I am not sure, there is something moving around in our expanded cargo hold. Yet I can’t really make it out with my bugs…”
My brow furrowed as Taylor went silent and then paled, eyes still unfocused. Snapping out of it she spun to face away from the group and yelled, “Everyone look at all the doors, we can’t let them sneak up on us.”
I was confused but not wasting any time I turned towards the cargo hold to try to see what Taylor had noticed. Yet out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Taylor had turned away from me towards the cockpit doors.
It was Alice to ask the question while twirling her vorpal knife. “What is going on? Who is on the ship?”
However, it was Sabah to answer after figuring it out. “It is the weeping angels, isn’t it?”
At that, my internal cursing became external, “Shit… shit, shit, shit…” Yet seeing the confusion from some of the girls I decided to answer the unasked question. “I am not as big a Dr. Who fan as some, but the weeping angels are considered one of the worst monsters in this reality. They move incredibly quickly when you aren’t looking at them, they can shapeshift, and I vaguely remember something about mindcontrol if you meet their eyes. Worse, while they are more than capable of just killing us, their primary form of eating is apparently sending us back in time and eating the energy it produces.” I paused and then shrugged. “Don’t ask me how that works, but it is terrifying as I don’t think we have any defense for that. Hell, I can bring you back from the dead if I have a connection to your soul, but I don’t even know what sending you back in time would do to you or our soul bond. The only way to stop them is to look at them, but when you do, they are turned to stone and are completely unkillable.”
Several of the girls actually looked at me in disbelief that something that broken existed in a world that looked like normal London. Hermione looked confused so Taylor glanced at her to answer. “New episodes that came out in the 2000s.”
Sabah continued the bad news in a worried and subdued tone. “Max is right. In addition to being shapeshifters, they can turn you into one of them if you look at them long enough along with any digital recording of them. Their ability to turn to stone is called ‘quantum locking’ and they are completely unkillable whenever directly or indirectly observed. They are also completely silent and odorless so the only way to perceive them is via sight… which can lead you to being mind controlled. They also have telepathy, apparently because seeing each other causes them to turn to stone as well, so they will attempt to coordinate.”
I blinked and straightened up. Next to me I could see Taylor and Ahsoka doing the same. That actually gave us a way to deal with them and I wasn’t surprised the two of them in particular caught on so quickly.
Frowning, I asked my next question. “How many are we dealing with and where are they now?”
Thea’s response was instant, but regretful. “I am sorry, Max. I only have four cameras operating at the moment inside the shuttle. One on my drone. One pointed at the kitchen to help keep an eye on the food. One was pointed out the cockpit. And the final one was pointed at the loading ramp. I have some motion sensing tech, but I can’t get a good lock on anything.”
Taylor hesitated and then answered as well, but I could tell she was gritting her teeth. “I am not sure either, I can’t really see them through any of these bugs, or at least apparently not well enough to actually turn them to stone. They are also disappearing from one room and appearing in another…” She paused and I could see her smack her forehead. “Damn it, they are using the air ducts.”
Instantly we all looked up and noticed several vents directly above us. A part of me once again wondered why Star Wars universe always had such large air ducts. No, now wasn’t the time.
It was then that I saw Taylor flinch hard and spin around behind us to look at the cockpit. As I did the same I felt any remaining blood drain from my face. No more than a meter from the back of Sarah’s head, an angel was frozen in stone reaching towards her.
Out of the corner of my eye I realized the rest of the girls were turning to look as well.
It was that moment that I felt myself pale as I swung around to look behind us as quickly as I could. From the corner of my eye I saw Ahsoka doing the same to look above us.
I nearly felt my heart stop as I spotted another angel reaching out and nearly touching Ahri and Thea’s computer rack.
Careful not to blink or turn away I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Stop! We need everyone to focus on looking at the entrances around us.”
That got the rest of the girls to finally notice what had happened and a moment later they were frantically, backpedaling away from the two angels but dutifully keeping their eyes on the various entrances to this central room.
Next to me I saw Dinah gasp as she spun to look above us where I assumed another angel had tried to ambush us and Ahsoka had spotted her.
Trying desperately to slow my breathing I made sure not to look and keep my eyes focused on my angel and took several deep breaths in the now ringing silence.
After what felt like hours but was probably a minute at most, I tried to make a plan. “We have to keep looking at all the entrances so they can’t sneak up on us.” I swallowed and continued. “We will have to catch them before we can throw them off the ship. and we definitely want to make sure the ship is clear before we leave. The last thing we want to do is let them spread.”
Feeling that everyone had calmed down from the near panic of the surprise attack, I continued. “I think we need to have two people watching each direction and two watching the vents above. I also want the people watching the angels to rotate, I didn’t know about their ability to brainwash us and regardless of our mental defenses, I don’t want to risk it.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I paused and turned slightly towards Luna and Dinah while keeping my eyes on the second angel. “Can you see or sense anything?”
I could hear the slight fear Luna was trying to hide in her joking tone as she responded. “No, I can’t see them at all. They really must be quite shy.”
Dinah wasn’t any better. “They keep changing their minds, I can’t get any solid answers. It is probably something about their time related powers.”
I winced and asked the room in general. “Anyone got any ideas?”
Taylor, who sounded particularly annoyed was the first to answer. “I think there are either two or three more left… probably.” Despite not being able to see her behind me, I could tell she had bit her lip as she considered before her body stiffened dramatically. “The magical tents have intent based wards to keep people away who mean the occupants harm, but I don’t know if they will work on angels.”
To my other side I felt Amy perform a full body flinch, probably stopping herself from running towards her sister while Dinah had to do the same for her parents. Even if all of them had a somewhat rocky relationship with their family, none of them wanted their families dead. Taylor was probably only as currently level headed as she was because she had been sending her emotions into her bugs.
Not knowing what to do as I looked around. The girls had followed my suggestion and everyone else was here, but between Thea’s server, Riley’s unconscious body, and the two panda foxes and a cat, our ability to move everyone around while potentially fighting was very limited so at least some of us were going to be stuck here.
Sighing, I decided to just think out loud for a moment. “Ok, we obviously need to find them all, freeze them, kill them if possible, and jettison them if not. The problem is they can out maneuver us and I suspect the three here will share any movements we make telepathically so we won’t be able to surprise them either.”
I paused and stared at the two angels… angels that had their hands down and were lunging forward. A small smile started to grow on my face and I started to open a portal between the faces of the two angels. Obviously neither one could move in any way, but I could almost feel the despair coming off the two of them. A moment later I had a second portal next to the first so they both were looking at the angel coming out of the air vent.
Taking a shaky breath I turned and backed up from the angel closest to me. “Theoretically that should keep these three frozen, but we should test it. I want Taylor and Amy watching the first, Ahsoka and Ahri watching the vent one, and the rest of us I want to hold up a hand that will block sight of the last.”
Swallowing, and hearing most of the Family doing the same, I held up my hand to cover the form of the angel for a moment before quickly dropping it. Seeing the angel not moving I smiled. “Good, now the question is, can we kill it? I am pretty sure no physical attack will work as the Doctors would have already tried that, but what about magic or my soul abilities?”
Walking over I tried to look at it with my soul sight, but to my shock I saw nothing. Not like I could see something that was wrong or something I couldn’t touch. It was like they simply didn’t exist. Like I was looking at an empty statue. Even animals and a few plants I had seen in the starwars universe had souls. My disbelief must have been evident as I stumbled back. “What the hell? They don’t even have a soul!”
That took everyone aback, but a few moments later Taylor gave a possible answer. “What if they hide it somehow in their quantum locked state?”
I hummed and then sighed. “Well, that blows my idea of removing their souls out of the water.” Biting my lip I sighed. “It also probably means even the killing curse wouldn’t work. Not that we know how to cast it yet. Still, I suppose we could try something like Ahsoka’s lightsabers or a blasting curse.”
Ahsoka blinked before she smiled and walked up before flicking her sabers on with a tell-tale crack and hiss. Yet as she slowly swiped the saber across the angel, the stone skin didn’t crack, hiss, or even heat up. Blinking in surprise Ahsoka turned the blade so it was held right in front of the angel’s face for multiple seconds, yet as she pulled away, the angel looked completely unfazed.
Sighing I rubbed my forehead. “Well… I guess when they mean quantum locked… they really mean quantum locked.”
Looking around I grimmmaced before I straightened and walked to the side of the room. Slowly, carefully I started opening a portal to inside each of the three tents while standing far enough back that nothing could jump out at us.
To our relief all of our passengers were laying in their cots sleeping.
Turning back to Thea. “Do you have any more cameras you can deploy right now?”
Thea’s avatar smiled on the server rack screen and nodded.”Yes, I have a dozen more, but I hadn’t distributed them yet because Tess said people generally don’t like to be observed in their home.
I almost chuckled. “Dragon would absolutely have been worried about issues like that. However, while that is true in general, I don’t think anyone here would mind you putting cameras in any of the public places. I think we all trust you. Just avoid the beds and showers I think.”
Thea made her avatar nod before sending her drone through to start setting up the cameras to the inside of the HP tents holding the Earth Bet refugees.
Turning to the rest of the girls I considered for a moment before I looked around.”We need to corner them. Taylor, can you direct us towards them? I think you might be the most capable person here right now.”
Taylor turned and then smiled, obviously happy to be useful here. It was true that bug control wasn’t much help in science fiction space battles.
Turning to the rest of the girls I grimaced. “Everyone else, grab a camera, we are going to be positioning them around the ship. Let's try to corner these angels. Luna, Dinah, and Sarah, watch Thea’s servers, the animals, Riley and each other's backs.”
Seeing the smiles I grabbed one of the cameras and started walking towards the cockpit after transfiguring a cushion into a stick to push the camera into each room. I had considered just pushing them through portals, but I was still worried about a hand reaching around the edge of the portal where I couldn’t see it. This way we could keep an eye on each other with Taylor using her bug senses to give us an idea of where they were.
The two cameras were placed in the cockpit to ensure nothing could hide behind the chairs or controls, three in the navigation room, one in each of the crew rooms, and one in the captain's room. All without issue.
Yet as I was about to step into the captain’s refresher, our precautions proved their worth. As I was pushing the camera into the room with my stick, I blinked only to see a gray clawed hand materializing above my arm reaching towards me.
Forcing myself not to jump nor blink I kept my eyes wide open and I let my focus move upward to seeing an angel balancing above the door we were walking through. My blink must have given it enough time that it had almost gotten me and only my girls' gazes had frozen it.
I wanted to kick myself, but this was exactly why I wasn’t trying to push the cameras through portals by hand. Even with a stick, a small portal wouldn’t let my girls freeze the angels through the portal and a large one would have left us open to attacks from an angel rushing around the edge.
Yet I had once again underestimated their speed. I hadn’t even seen the blur of their motion. Swallowing I considered for a moment before I turned and pulled out my wand. A swish and a flick saw the camera levitating the rest of the way into the bathroom.
Then with a little bit of vindictive glee I opened a portal in front of this angel and the three other angels we had already caught so they were looking at each other.
Backing back out of the bathroom I directed us towards the common room where everyone else was staying.
Confirming that Thea now had camera coverage of the rest of the entrances to the common area and letting us rest our eyes, I started our discussion. “So putting the cameras out by hand is too dangerous. Doing it via the portals leaves blind spots around the edges. And doing it via magic is tricky and still has the blind spot issue as the camera is going through the portal. Do we have any ideas?”
Everyone looked frustrated before I saw Taylor looking thoughtful. “Amy, jumping spiders have nearly as good vision as humans do and I am pretty sure I could see through them. Maybe even freeze them from a distance, but I don’t have any of those spiders, do you think you could modify a few other spiders to have those eyes?”
Amy blinked and considered for a moment before she smiled. “Yeah… yeah just give me a moment.”
I smiled at them for solving that problem and I decided to work on how to deal with the angels we had already caught. Another swish and a flick saw me failing to levitate them. Not even a little wiggle of the magic taking hold.
Grunting in annoyance I considered again. So I couldn’t move them while they were locked in place. I also couldn’t portal them while they were attached to the floor…
I paused…
I blinked.
I slapped my forehead.
I couldn’t move them or change them directly as they were quantum locked to that location, but I could absolutely have Ahsoka cut the floor out from underneath them. Then my portals should work. I mean, quantum locked or not, I was opening a literal portal that superimposed two locations. That should allow me to move them, the question was, where to put them.
I considered my options. I mean, I could contact the Doctor and see where he thought was best, but that would get us tied up in whatever nonsense the Doctor was currently engaged with.
Yeah, that was a hard NOPE.
Nope, Nope Nope.
We were already dealing with weeping angels, this was not going to be one of his or her easier missions.
Sighing I considered again outloud this time to see if anyone else had any ideas. “I should be able to move them if I have Ahsoka cut the floor out from underneath them, the question is, where to put them…”
Everyone frowned as they considered before Taylor was once again the one to speak up. “Could we do the same thing we did to Crawler?”
I blinked before I turned around beaming at her. “Taylor, that is genius!”
Hermione looked confused. “What did you do to… Crawler was it?” obviously not having heard this story yet.
I smiled. “We really didn’t have any method of holding him still long enough for me to rip out his soul and any attack just made him stronger. So I attempted to push him and a mechanical man named Mannequin out into space far enough that he would be in a geostationary orbit. Plus this time we have a literal spaceship so we can take them and put them directly in an orbit. Oh, hell, we could put them on Pluto or something.”
Amy looked at me for a moment before she chuckled. “Yeah, going back to the classics.”
Taylor had apparently been working as she yelled a moment later. “Got it!”
Startled, I turned towards her, but she explained before I could ask. “I found another one, yeah, the spiders can quantum lock them.”
I smiled and patted her on the shoulder. “Nice, was that the last one?”
Taylor frowned for a moment before she shook her head. “No, there is one more angel attempting to dodge me. Give me another minute. I should be able to corner it.”
At that moment we all jumped as we suddenly remembered Aisha who had just walked into the room from the cargo hold.
“Damn it Aisha!” I yelled. Yet I couldn’t help but snort as I noticed that Amy, Taylor, and Hermione had said the same thing at almost the same time.
After taking a moment to calm down I turned towards her. “Where have you been?”
Aisha looked completely unrepentant as she explained “I went to watch over my brother when I heard what was going on. I hadn’t noticed you had put up cameras inside the tents until I decided to check on him again,”
I sighed. That made sense. She might be a bit of a brat, but she really did care about her brother and not waiting to see what we did was exactly the type of impulsive thing she would do.
It did explain why nothing attempted to attack the tents though. If she was careful by keeping her back to a wall, especially if the angels had trouble perceiving her, she could have kept the tents a lot more secure.
Behind me I heard Taylor’s grunt and cry of “Got you!” before I sighed in relief.
Gesturing Ahsoka towards the first angel, I smiled. “If you would please.”
Once again Ahsoka pulled out her lightsaber before leaning down and beginning to cut away the floor below the angel. I noticed immediately that the angel didn’t fall downward even as the floor fell out from underneath it.
Turning to Thea I smiled, but this time a bit tiredly as I considered the logistics here. “I am going to have to temporarily drop us out of our pocket dimension to get the shuttle’s engines to work. It would take too long to move us via my portals alone. Please get the shuttle ready to leave immediately after I drop the bubble.”
Behind me I noticed that Ahsoka was already finished with the first two and I opened a portal for her to reach the one in the vent and the bathroom. Ahsoka paused for a moment before handing one of her two sabers to Taylor so she could go cut out the remaining two angels.
Thea only took a moment to calculate what was needed to get the shuttle back up and running before she smiled. “I will be ready.”
Nodding, I pushed our pocket dimension up as quickly as I could. A mile or two should only take a few minutes but should remove us from most threats that the Doctor could be dealing with down on the ground.
It was annoying to have to pop us out of the pocket dimension any time we wanted to use the shuttle as a spaceship. It really made me realize that a better idea would be to have some sort of larger home with our shuttle docked inside like a garage.
I snorted at the idea of making a bigger home with more stuff inside like some sort of hoarder, but in the back of my mind I was already considering options. A massive aircraft carrier? A large mansion? A miniature death star? We did have the plans to the original death star after all.
I paused and considered for a moment before remembering one of my favorite Miyazaki movies, Castle in the Sky… I could literally make us a castle that was bigger on the inside to give us all the space we could ever want. We could even make docking bays to hold our shuttle and future vehicles. Plus magic seemed to reinforce the symbolic form something took so the defensive imagery of a castle would help make it even stronger.
It was something I would have to bring up with Hermione, Luna, and Xeno later.
I was brought out of my abstract planning to see that Ahsoka had cut out the rest of the angels and, with a sigh, I let the pocket dimension pop, pulling us directly into this reality. A moment later I felt the engines hum and the inertial dampeners had to work overtime to keep us in place as we rocketed out of the atmosphere and towards Pluto.
In the meantime, I started portaling the angels so they were all in a circle and each one of the six was looking at atleast three of it’s comrades.
I didn’t remember if Angels could starve, but for attacking us I was hoping it was true.
When we arrived on Pluto I picked a meteor crater where they could all be put out in a circle.
I was a little concerned it would be too dark for them to effectively observe each other and keep each other locked, but Hermione was able to negate that concern immediately with a bluebell flame in a bottle. “It burns just a hint of magic, not enough to ever run out in any place even remotely magical and with how easy it is to cast magic here, this reality is certainly magical enough for that.”
Nodding we placed the jar in the center of the circle of angels before closing the portal and I sighed as I slowly pulled us back into a pocket dimension.
Sitting down, I sighed as I pulled us again into a pocket dimension and explained my thoughts on our eventual final pocket home. I wasn’t about to reject ideas if my girls had thought of something better.
To my surprise, Xeno spoke up. He had been so silent this whole stop I had almost forgotten he was here. Yet he was also the one that knew the most about magic at this point and his advice was direct for once. “You are right, young man, but there is still more to it. The symbology will play a part but so will be how you access it yourself. If you ward it so no one can, as you say, ‘portal’ into your home, but keep directly portaling in yourself, there will always be a back door they can force their way through. In fact, I suspect it is how these Angels managed to force themselves inside here in the first place.”
Blinking as I realized this would be more complicated, I paused and sighed. “Right, well… that will have to be something we plan carefully then.”
Finishing up forming the pocket dimension, I felt around my soul and grimaced. “I am probably only about one-third recovered… but I really don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to. I also plan on stepping up my training even more once we get back. I am tired of feeling like we are always on the back foot in these realities. We will also look into items we can find in these realities.”
Around me I noticed all of my girls nod emphatically at the thought of training harder and I smiled to myself.
They really were the best.
Sitting down I winced as I tried to focus. It was hard trying to spy out locations and being exhausted definitely wasn’t helping. No, I wasn’t getting a good picture before, now it felt like I was just guessing. Next to me Luna was leaning back on the sofa but held up a hand for Amy to wait. “You should aim for a place that could use just a little help, don’t worry about the rest.”
I blinked.
I supposed I could do that. If I removed my attempt to see anything else about where we were going I might be able to get a general sense of the condition.
Shrugging, I found a world that felt better than expected and a moment later we were off.
The trip itself was so exhausting that I felt like someone was squeezing my heart in a vice, but about two minutes later we arrived.
Not waiting any longer I let myself collapse onto the sofa behind me, eyes already drooping. It felt like someone had taken and used my soul as a punching bag… or maybe dragged my soul behind a metaphorical cart for a few miles. I didn’t think I was falling apart again, but it was a lot closer than I would have liked.
Yet fighting back my exhaustion, I forced myself awake for a few last seconds. I really wanted to know where we had arrived.
Opening a tiny peephole I looked out and saw a small city with a wall around it in a forest… a city with a mountain behind it… a mountain with faces I recognized instantly.
In front of me I saw a blond in pigtails, a raven haired scowling teen, and a pinkie run past.
Letting my head fall back in exhaustion, I let my consciousness go and even my soul seemed to slump.
This world wasn’t much better than Dr Who for danger, but it was not at war… yet. Yet my senses had suggested this might be a slight bit better than cannon. The question was what we could do here while I recovered since we were probably stuck here for a few extra days on top of the three for a normal jump.
Interlude Dr. Who:
The Doctor frowned. There were six angels that had disappeared when he had blasted with that improvised sonic attack.
It had made their mad dash through town so much easier.
He had no idea where they had gone, and he was pretty certain he hadn’t killed them. But it had made what seemed like certain death into a situation they had all survived.
Really, he wasn’t sure what had changed, but once again they had won and he would just have to keep an eye out in case they returned.