Knights of New Syracuse IC

"Actually," The Storyteller said, enmity apparent in his voice, "that is my copy."
He let go of his staff, which remained rigidly upright in absence of his right hand, and took the book out of Steph's hands.

"This, on the other hand," he said to Seraph, "belongs to you." He handed back the sword as if it were just some lost property and not an evangelic weapon. He turned around and walked a marginal distance from the cockpit to see what had become of his snakes. They were still present aboard the plane, only the people had opted to pay less attention to them in favour of the landed plane and the breathing apparatuses. Being his conjurations, they organised themselves to carry out a task he required of them, which turned out to be retrieving the rest of his books. The three snakes filed into the aisle with their bodies wrapped around several books each, approached The Storyteller, and disappeared under his cloak. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland he held onto as he re-entered the cockpit and took the staff again.

At that moment, the sound of a megaphone from the rescue ship reached them:

"Attention all passengers, this is the Coast Guard: Prepare to disembark the plane. Could all wounded please be given priority for evacuation."

There were several boats approaching the downed aircraft, picked out in the bright orange paint of New Syracuse's Coast Guard. People were beginning to leave their seats, some hefting unconscious fellow passengers between them, or supporting injured relatives with one arm. The evacuation was beginning, and the supernatural individuals gathered in the cockpit were not about to go unnoticed. In particular the recovery crew, aboard their boats, were debating how to deal with the gargantuan dragon sitting on the plane.

The Storyteller looked disdainfully at the approaching vessels. He knew there would be people to investigate the downed plane, but not this fast. He hated to imagine that they were waiting for it, but it was all too possible to disregard. They would be after the dragon, the angel and the little girl, but possibly him, too. He would not let them be taken, however.

"Thank you for retrieving my book for me, girl," he said kindly to Jess, before rising up to climb out of the non-existent window and onto the nose so that he could also address Hunter.

"There will be prying eyes upon the three of you very soon, but I can remove you all from the scene without being traced."

He turned around and jabbed the air in front of himself with the head of his staff. From the very end of the narrow zigzag shaped head, the empty air opened up into a dark, circular portal of black and purple, with black lightning flaring about the edges. It continued to grow, wrinkling the space around it, until it was large enough for Hunter to fit through. He pulled his staff out and turned around to face the plane's cockpit again.

He held his left hand out over the sea beside him, gesturing some sort of upward pull. He held that pose for a moment before he lowered his hand again, and the water around the nose of the plane began to bubble and froth. Two massive, orange, fleshy tentacles rose up from the water, snaking up either side of the plane. One slipped into the cockpit window while the other rose up above it before bending over on itself to grip the upper half of the window. With a shrieking yank, they pulled the gaping window further open so that it was large enough for Seraph and his impressive wingspan to fit through. The tentacles retreated into the water.

"If the three of you will follow me through this doorway," he said to the rare beings, "I will take you ashore immediately, away from this team of humans."

Eric had fallen down when the plane crashed and sat down on the dirty floor. He had listened to the conversation between the other beings.
As he tried to get up, the strain on his chest was too much.
Once he got up, the muscules protested and he unwillingly coughed up blood which landed on anyone in his vicinity.

Jess looked at the portal in awe. "....Okay, if you say so, sir!" She reached back into her backpack and puled out a child-sized parasol. She then took a short run up and leaped at the gaping hole. Her parasol opened, and she began to gently descend into it. "Wheee! Come on in, Mr Dragon!"

If Hunter had any eyebrows he would have raised them. Some old man just showed up out of the blue and opened a portal. While whatever nasties (if there were any) were pretty docile to the kid, he wasn't sure if they would react the same way to at least a ton of scaly I'm-going-to-kill-you-painfully. He went over to the portal and stuck a claw through it then pulled in back after a little while. Good, there was nothing eagerly clinging to his arm to maul him. Reassured by this, Hunter entered the portal.

New Syracuse. A city of miracles but sadly known better as the so-much-better-then-anywhere-else city. Undoubtanly it is a great place to live...for normal people.
---
Down in an allyway that was just around a corner from a Chinese restruant, a girl was doing her usual routine of dumpster diving. Her name is Amber Lodestone. She came to New Syracuse not because of having a look around the place (as she did try but that was only two days ago due to some people giving her *looks*) but rather bad omens that might unfold. Amber finally got something and dug her way back to the surface of the dumpster pile. She opened her hand that had whatever she managed to find. A collective sigh as Amber stared at her item...a carton containing a half full of noodles.

"At least it's not ramen again, Amber thought. Last time I ate that, I could not stop coughing up..eck all day."

As Amber started eating the noodles, her little radio which was old yet still working blared out with today's news.

"Now an update to our breaking news story: Five minutes ago flight 1041 from London Heathrow to New Syracuse made an emergency landing just off the coast, several minutes after contact was lost with the aircraft over the Atlantic. Though we cannot yet confirm the status of the passengers aboard the plane, observers report seeing what is described as a 'huge, strange beast' fixed to the aircraft, as well as other unverified supernatural phenomena. The Coast Guard has been dispatched in force to recover survivors, and we'll be bringing you updates live as this story continues to unfold."

Amber pretty much knew there are others like her out there in the world. She did get concerned about the whole plane mishap.

"Wonder what caused that plane to crash? I hope the humans made it out alive."
She took another bite while the radio blared out it's next news.

"In other news, another member of local government was struck by a carefully placed garden tool this morning, making Jonathan Eisborough the fifth man this month to be targeted by the so-called 'Rake-Man'. More at five, this is Rochelle Harrington for New Syracuse Radio One. Now for some music."

The radio played away it's music (insert whatever music you like here). Amber finished eating her noodles and tossed away the carton into dumpster bin 2 (which she'll never go dump diving into) and let out a small laugh.

"Pfft Rake-Man. As if that was real!"

The angel was reluctant to enter the portal that the robed man opened after he was briefed on him; a sin riddled man, good intentions, but bad methods and execution, with a personal heaven at his disposal. While the dragon and the... thing... entered, the angel shook his head, and decided to walk into it. it was a quicker way to shore anyway.

"I heard you have your own personal realm. How did you get it? You didn't make an unholy deal for it, I hope?" The angel asked jokingly, quick to try and ignore the sin that lurked within his soul.

The Coast Guard had now boarded to supervise the evacuation of the plane; one of their officers, clothed in a navy-blue jumpsuit and dazzling orange life-jacket, approached Ellen and Tobias, offering them each a life jacket.

"Are you two alright?"


Another Coast Guard official approached the cockpit, meaning to help Eric up from the small puddle of puke he was lying in. What the man found, however, quite exceeded his expectations: the gaping maw of the Storyteller's dark portal was rivalled only by the man's own mouth, which stood wide open in abject bewilderment.

He fumbled for his walkie-talkie, and spoke haltingly into it, eyes fixed on the portal.

"Uh, base...? ...We got, err... we've got a..." Words momentarily failed him, and he glanced around the cockpit.

"...What have we got?"

As Seraph entered the portal, joining Jess and Hunter behind the dark veil, The Storyteller smiled with satisfaction; all three beings were now hidden from the human rescue team. He turned to enter the portal himself, but noticed one of the coast guard men staring at it form the gaping cockpit. He was talking into one of those tiny black telephones.

"We got, err... we've got a..."

The Storyteller frowned darkly from under his hood, but knew that this man just needed a good startle to know for sure that this was all beyond his team's influence. He waved to the man as the two massive tentacles burst back out of the water, wound themselves clockwise around the front of the plane and contracted, squeezing the window shut with a reverberating shriek, before slinking back under the surface. He turned around and stepped through the portal. It shrank into a singularity behind him.

Inside the portal was a very different world. The Storyteller joined Hunter, Jess and Seraph, floating unsupported in the middle of a massive, empty space surrounded distantly by swirling black and purple. Every so often, an area of the void's boundaries would light up like lightning behind a storm cloud before dimming again. A roaring rumble swept around the space like a strong wind, but it wasn't loud enough to prevent conversation.

"This," The Storyteller began, "is the Dark Realm, the doorway to all other worlds, to worlds of stories and myth; my world — ever since there were worlds to lead to."

The lower end of his staff began growing shoots that grew into long, thin sticks that pointed downwards.

"It is through here that I may bring others such as yourselves out of your respective worlds and onto Earth, or vice versa."

The sticks finished growing — at about thirty centimetres in length — and dried up, turning into twigs. His staff resembled a broomstick with a narrow, zig-zagged head.

"Follow me," he said, "and I will take you to shore, as I promised."

He mounted the broomstick and immediately sped off through the Dark Realm. A strong wind suddenly backed the trio behind him, sending Jess hurtling after The Storyteller by her parasol and easing the burden of the wings of Hunter and Seraph.

((Quick recap of why I wasn't posting: HOMESTUCKHOMESTUCKHOMESTUCKHOMESTUCK))

"Yeah, I am." Tobias said somewhat sheepishly to the coast guard. His head still hurt from the lady tripping over him.
"Yes, me too." Ellen told the life guard. Ellen wasn't quite sure what happened. Ellen thought the she must've exerted a bit too alcohol inducement, and made herself drunk. Whatever the case was, she was alright now. They both followed the coast guard out of the plane.

((Edit: Ohey, there's my curse from the Sporum, at it again!))

Jess, surprised by the sudden gust of wind, held onto her parasol tightly as she sped after the man on a broomstick. She was very interested in this "Dark Realm", and she glanced around excitedly like a kid in a candy store. As the wind drew her closer to The Storyteller, she began to question him about it. "So, what else can you do here? Can you do whatever you want? Did you cause the wind to blow us around? Are you controlling it? This is fun!" She began pointing the tip of her parasol around to zoom around the dragon and the angel closely following, making sure not to get left behind. "Whee!"

Back in the city, at the water's edge, the emergency services were out in force: ambulances clustered around the docks, paramedics already rushing forwards to receive injured passengers from the boats, and police squad-cars lurked further back.

The first to step back onto dry land, assisted by a pair of dark-suited bodyguards, was Senator Hugh Milbourn — the investigation into today's events would conclude that he was, in fact, probably the intended target of the attack. He seemed to have been left unscathed by the ordeal. He stepped off the Coast Guard boat.

*Thwack*

It happened so fast. One minute Milbourn was walking across the dock, smiling for the cameras — there were indeed a few journalists on the scene at this point — and a moment later he was staggering backwards, clutching his face, the shaft of a large garden rake, painted to match the tarmac, falling away in front of him. The tool clattered to the ground, and the senator regained his posture, now visibly sporting a black eye.



The other passengers waiting in the boats bore witness to this exhibition as they awaited their turn to land. A few minutes later everyone was finally ashore: All around there were people on stretchers being loaded into ambulances, reporters with film crews in tow, families reuniting and people yelling into phones to be heard over the clamour all around.

Tobias, Ellen, Charlie, Stephanie and Eric, however, were each shepherded away from the crowd, to a spot where the hubbub was only background noise. An ageing police officer, dressed in plain clothes and flanked by a pair of uniformed officers, confronted them:

"Inspector Norman Bayley, NSPD."

He fixed them all in turn with the glare of someone who had worked too many hours with not enough coffee.

"You're all under arrest for Conspiracy."

Steph's head dropped. Ben, who had overheard the inspector, shoved his way out of the crowd and planted himself by his girlfriend's side. "What do you mean under arrest? She didn't do anything! And neither did I!"

Charlie winced, took a moment then stepped forward. "Sir, respectfully, what the hell do you have against us?" he asked in the calmest tone that his heavy German accent would allow.

Tobias and Ellen were both completely and utterly confused. Tobias, agreed with the man who had just spoken. "I agree with him!" Tobias said indignantly. Ellen was thinking maybe to make the Inspector drunk, in maybe a chance of getting away safely. She concentrated all her willpower, and attempted to make the Inspector drunk.

One of the officers beside Bayley spoke up: "With all due respect, Inspector, I really think— whoah!" He was cut off as Bayley's unconscious body collapsed into him.

"Medic!" There was only one other police officer in the immediate area — standing on the other side of the inspector, he was caught off-guard by this turn of events. One hand was reaching towards his walkie-talkie to call in backup, and the other hovered nervously over the holster of his gun. His eyes scanned the group, looking for anyone making any sudden moves.

Hunter followed without a word, his mind was occupied by what Seraph had said. "Akaban, it... almost fits dragons, but doesn't at the same time." He shook his head. "Tell about this mission that involves me." Hunter said, it sounded more like an order then a request.

________________
In New Syracuse...

Nakadus hated this, here he was, a skilled warrior of the Akaban sect and he was serving as a mere scout, on top of that he was forced to take on the form of a human. "This mission can not end soon enough." the dragon thought. He passed a group of humans and glared at them. "We will have to take care of those pests, they will only delay us." he thought. Anyone who noticed his presence would have seen how he looked. He had dark red hair with flecks of black in a military cut, he wore a solid black shirt under a tattered blood red jacket with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, torn black jeans and black running shoes. He was tall and muscular, and would have been a handsome man were it not for his horrendously pale skin and violent scarring on all visible skin. He walked away without a word.

((Nakadus is a temporary important NPC.))

The Storyteller continued to hurtle through the Dark Realm with the trio of rare beings in tow. Jess's questions almost provoked an answer, but as they kept coming The Storyteller just figured that she was excitable. He half-grinned beneath his hood.

The distant flashes and the pervading rumble gave the impression that the Dark Realm was in the middle of a lightning storm. As they flew at breakneck speed, it seemed as if they weren't even moving for the incomprehensible size of The Storyteller's personal dimension.

Finally, The Storyteller angled his broomstick down and entered a sharp dive, and the wind followed him down. They all accelerated straight down, still unsure if they were actually moving in relation to the boundaries of the Dark Realm, before a portal of white light opened up before The Storyteller. He shot straight into it, followed closely by the others.

While there was no gravity in the Dark Realm, there certainly was on the other end of the round doorway. One moment they were all hurtling down, the next they were shooting up into the air, back on Earth. It took a while for the trio to adjust to the confusion as to which way was up, but they managed and found themselves about ten metres in the air, above a rock platform by the crashing waves. It was quite a distance from the city, and it was hidden behind a tall, untended sea-side tree. It was empty save for them. The portal closed beneath them, and they all descended to the wet, eroded stone.

The Storyteller dismounted his broom and the twigs retracted back into the handle, making it a staff once more.
"Nobody should spot you here, as this rock platform is rarely looked upon. Unless you would like to remain in my company, you can continue from here."

Eric had followed the guards silently, with blood still dripping from his lips. The people of New Syracuse hadn't known how to treat his outbursts of blood and smegma and had just given him a painkiller. It helped, but he still felt the need to smoke.
Now when the officer apparently had fallen down he didn't know what to do.

"Well that was a satisfying meal to have on such short notice."

Amber felt she had some energy to burn and didn't plan on wasting it. What did she wanted to do? Amber didn't want to go down to the sweres as she barely manged to escape with her life. Last time she went there, Amber almost drownd in a river of raw sewage. If she hadn't spotted a metal ladder within ten metres, that would have been the end of her. It was a definate no-go. Amber thought about checking out the scene involving the incident. However, she had no idea where to start. She repostioned herself on top of the dumpster pile and pondering what would her plan of action be.

"It's not like an idea is going to fall from the sky or pop up from the ground.."

Ellen, seeing her chance for escape, swung a fist at one guard who was taken by surprise and got knocked down while also kicking the other. Tobias, who caught on quickly, realized what Ellen was doing, and helped her out. The result was that, 5 seconds later, Tobias had a bruise on his forehead, and all the guards had been knocked out.

Charlie, Steph and Ben watched the scene unfold as the couple next to them attacked the guards.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?!" Charlie shouted over the nonsense occurring.

Some distance away, from the direction of the docks, a whistle blew. Another police officer was pointing at the group and yelling indistinctly. He was joined by a handful of other blue-suited officials, and began making his way in the direction of the pile of unconscious cops. Though the mens' faces were difficult to make out at this distance, they did not appear to be in a forgiving mood.

Tobias, Ellen, Charlie, Stephanie and Eric had a head start: a chain-link fence nearby was all that separated them from the streets of New Syracuse — if they chose to flee, that is, rather than stay put and attempt to explain how they came to be in the middle of a circle of unconscious police officers.

Tobias ran towards the fence, with Ellen close behind him. Tobias jumped with all his might and grabbed onto the fence.
"Ow, gosh dangit." Tobias had cut his left hand grabbing onto the fence. He ignored the pain and started climbing upwards. Ellen began climbing with uncertainty. She had had troubles with chain link fences. Tobias reached the top of the fence, and jumped off, and rolled to avoid injuring his legs too badly. He got a nasty bruise in his shoulder, however. Ellen, emboldened by Tobias' success, jumped off herself, but her shoelace caught on the fence and misguided her jump instead face-first towards the pavement.

Steph observed the situation and saw a very obvious problem emerging. If any of the party responsible for the knocked-out guards got away, her and the three people at her sides would be expected to explain what was going on. While she thought this, they were already over the fence. She lifted her hands quickly and manipulated Ellen and Tobias' legs, planting some large-spread cramps. They wouldn't even be able to crawl any further from the scene, much less make it away from the police.

She looked from side to side, realizing that Ben was too scared to run from the law enforcement, and sure that Charlie wasn't about to bolt either. She left the third figure to decide for himself.

"The ones you want are over there, past the fence!" Steph shouted as the police came closer. She got on her knees and put her hands behind her head, submitting to the inevitable.