Chapter Text
Septimus was unconscious laying in the middle of an eternally flat reflective plane in the middle of nowhere. The skinny red Tiefling was six foot five with black horns and long white hair. He was wearing a trench coat with the sleeves removed with a crop top underneath with his abdomen exposed. His feet were wrapped in foot wraps after years of not ever finding shoes that could fit his hind legs properly.
Slowly, his mind came back to him and he opened his Abyssal solid black eyes to the world he found himself in or the lack thereof. With a groan, he propped himself up on his mechanical right arm - Cut off where the shoulder would meet the torso - before pushing himself to his feet. He felt on his back and found that his great sword was still strapped to it so he wasn't defenseless. Rubbing his eyes to get his vision clear, he looked at the space around him and found it mesmerizing.
The sky was a stunning star scape with more stars than he could count with a giant red aurora encompassing them forming what looked to be the heart of a galaxy. Looking down, he noticed that the floor was a perfectly flat reflective surface stretching on for miles in all directions with no end in sight. Septimus' mind began to race trying to parse just where the hell he had ended up. Was this purgatory? Did he die and was in the process of waiting for a god to grant him passage to whatever afterlife existed? Was he stuck in his own head, it would not be the first time and he still had that deal to see through, speaking of which. In a sudden burst of realization, Sep looked over his person and was glad to find that all his stuff was still there minus a certain white cat named Smidvarg. Where the hell did the useless feline go he thought. He thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion that wherever he was brought to must had been for only a single participant and not multiple so he simply wasn't brought along. Or he somehow got thrown off course by some divine intervention or whatever the hell it was called. Either way, he hoped that he should be fine no matter where he ended up. Given that cats way of making friends being sitting on them then he should be able to find someone to look after him soon enough. As for himself though.
Looking around, he could feel the Aether just radiating around him almost feeling like being submerged in water. It was a weird sensation especially since he never went fully underwater and he was not even submerged. He gave his mechanical arm a once over to make sure nothing came loose, sure he had his tools to fix it on him but this really wasn't the place to do so. Thankfully, the most he needed to do was tighten a nut that had came just that little bit loose but that was a common enough occurrence to me considered a non issue. After that was done, he took another look around trying to find any sort of landmark with which to guide him and found none unsurprisingly. It was almost like being in the desert again with nothing for miles around to guide you other than the sun. Looking to the sky again and seeing the burning white core of what had to be a galaxy, he determined that that was the most likely thing to lead him to...something at least. It was also possible that he could just be led into the middle of nowhere but given his situation, it really made no difference. With a quick huff, he began walking in the direction of that galactic core.
The walk would prove to be fruitful despite the low odds. Although, it did prove to be something that could have sent someone insane after a while. The reflective surface that made up the ground didn't leave any footprints and if you included the ever present lack of landmarks, it could almost feel like you weren't moving at all. But thankfully, there was something to prevent that possibility from becoming a reality. Up ahead, Sep saw what looked to be something glowing a blue light but he couldn't make out what it was from this distance.
Feeling paranoid that something could be watching him, Sep turned around to view the entire environment for something watching him but found nothing. What the hell was this place supposed to be. The most he could think of was that it had to be some sort of testing ground for a deity of some kind and he slipped in somehow. But why was it so empty and devoid of life...or maybe this area hadn't been used yet. But there was the blue light in the distance. Hopefully it could give him some form of answer.
With a renewed vigor, Sep fast walked towards the blue light with his hand on the hilt of the great sword strapped to his back. The place he found himself in didn't provide any hiding spaces for something to jump out at him but it was also entirely possible that something could simply rise up from out of the floor. He had heard of that happening in various myths so it wasn't entirely out of the question. He finally came within view of the blue light and found it to be a large blue crystal hovering in between a set of jagged rocks all pointed to the sky away from it. It slowly spun on its axis emitting its shimmering light. Reaching out his hand like one would over a fire on a cold night, he felt the Aetherial energy radiating off of it. Looking at its darkened reflection in the glass like floor showed nothing other than the reflection itself. Sep glanced around unsure of how to proceed, the obvious choice was to touch the crystal itself and see if that did anything but it could also be some form of trap. Surely it wasn't nearly that simple...Was it? He turned to look back at the thing as if it would grow a mouth and give him instructions. Logic said that would not happen as what would be the point in making a puzzle if you just said the solution to the one trying to solve it. It was almost taunting in how simple it all seemed.
That was when an idea came to his head and it lay firmly on his back. Could it be that it needed something to touch it and that something was his hand. He didn't want to risk becoming a double amputee, having only one arm was already bad enough but two would be utter agony. That was where his Great sword came into play. He reached up and gripped the hilt with his mechanical arm before leveling it in the air to the side of him. The crystal had continued to spin on its axis ignorant of the plot Sep was thinking.
Cautiously, he brought the tip of the blade up pointing it forward holding it steady which came with practiced ease handling heavy materials for a good chunk of his life. He put one foot in front of the other as he moved toward the crystal before coming just within inches of its surface. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath hoping this wouldn't be the most stupid decision in his life. He opened his eyes again before performing a small thrust onto the crystal and...nothing happened. At the very least, he had proved that it was safe to touch which was always a plus but it meant one less option. He hoisted the Great sword onto his back again before his arms couldn't bear the weight anymore. While his right metal arm could take more stress than his left, it was still tiring regardless. The crystal continued to spin on its axis still ignorant of the questions going through his head. It was by then that he came to one conclusion. He was gonna have to potentially sacrifice one of his hands to do this.
He looked down to his metal hand knowing that he could afford to lose it at he could just build a new one when he got out of here. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves and any reservations he had about this, Sep extended his hand out towards the blue crystal coming within inches of contact before stopping.
His mind swirled with all the possibilities that could happen in the next few seconds which mostly ended up being the many many ways he could be mutilated or maimed further than he already was. But he simply shut those intrusive thoughts out coming to the conclusion that whatever sadistic being put him here clearly wanted him to do this and he really had no other option available to him. And with one final mental push, he bridged the gap.
The surface where he touched began to radiate light before spreading to the rest of the crystal. It slowly sped up its spinning only to stop with one large faceted face pointing at him. Inside the face, energy swirled within magenta ribbons clashing with ribbons of cyan forming in the center of the face. It took a few seconds for it to form...a silhouette of a wrench?
If Sep wasn't confused before, he certainly was now. He didn't know what he could expect from the image but a wrench was not even close to what he would have thought.
He didn't get to dwell on the matter for long though as a burst of air spread out in all directions nearly pushing him off his feet if his tail didn't act as a third leg to keep him upright. He had his arm up shielding his face waiting for another pulse to come but it didn't, but he still kept it up. That was when he heard what sounded like shattering glass coming from the crystal. All around it, the air itself splintered like fractured glass with holes in reality itself shining through threatening to tear the space apart. Not wanting to be any where near the center, Sep turned and ran in the other direction to hopefully get out of the blast radius. But that didn't help.
The floor around him had been crumbling with the only platform being that of the crystal. Looking at the vast expanse of stars showed absolutely nothing. There was only one way for him to go and it was right at the crystal. His heart raced as he stepped back to not fall off the ever dwindling platform trying to think of how to get out of here but came up short. By this time, he stepped close enough to be within the perimeter of the jagged rocks encircling the crystal and that was when it happened. He felt a shift in air pressure before he turned around and watched the crystal itself shatter right in front of him. Sep was blown back into the void from the blast as a tremendous amount of energy burst out from it screaming into the void.
The further he fell, the more he felt reality itself breaking down. The energy that had blown from the crystal raced down to meet him as the void below became more shattered, he would have screamed if there was any air left in his lungs. The energy itself latched onto him and he felt his entire body erupt in pain like someone had put a torch to his nervous system to set his veins on fire. It was so much pain that Sep couldn't even register the changes as he mercifully fell unconscious as he emerged from the void and was falling through the air of another world.
Talwyn was bored. Scratch that, she was more than bored. She was absolutely jaded at her current predicament. She had heard through the grapevine that one of her men was involved in an illegal drug trafficking ring on the outskirts of Luminopolis. It was an abandoned warehouse on actual solid ground making it not look like it was in a metropolis but rather some town on Veldin. Normally, she wouldn't partake in something like this being chief of the Polaris defense force and whatnot and usually being too busy to participate. But Polaris had managed to hit a good lull in actually needing to be defended so she could make the sacrifice today. She also just needed something different to do other than paperwork and a good old fashioned stakeout sounded just perfect. Oh, if only she could go back and slap herself for thinking that this would be any level of excitement more than what she did on the regular.
The only time that a stakeout proved to be worth it was right at the very end when the perp they were looking for walks right in front of the window or maybe they catch a shipment of something most definitely illegal. While she didn't want anything to actually happen, she kind of secretly hoped it would about halfway into the shift.
"HQ to cruiser 99, requesting update, over." A voice came from the dashboards radio. Talwyn looked over at her partner sitting across from her who also happened to be a markazian. He was older than her by a fair bit but knew what to look for on these types of cases. And sadly, they hadn't found anything on that list of his. With a shake of his head, Talwyn picked up the communicator.
"Cruiser 99 to HQ, no update, no signs of suspicious activity, over." She said having said it on the hour every hour over the course of the shift. She took a glance at the clock and saw that they had about five minutes before they were done here but they couldn't come fast enough she thought.
"Not nearly as exciting as doing paperwork aye," Her partner Michael said as she threw herself back and sunk into her seat on the drivers side of the cruiser. "Not one bit." She replied.
"Yeah, believe me, stakeouts in these parts rarely end with a criminal coming into view." He said taking a sip of his coffee. Weren't that the truth.
"This isn't my first stakeout Mike, I guess I just forgot how boring it got especially after being cooped up in an office for the better part of a month." It wasn't to say that all she did was file paperwork and such as she also helped in the training of new recruits and even participated in high stakes missions on occasion. But the lull in actual galactic defending meant that those kinds of events were steadily becoming fewer and fewer between. What could she say other than that she was an adrenaline junkie and loved to go on a good old high stakes adventure.
"Eh, my advice would be to take boring days like this when they come. Never know when piece is going to be shattered and your up from midnight to midnight." Mike chimed in sensing the distress of his partner while taking another sip of his coffee. Talwyn took a deep breath knowing all too well the truth the mans words held having had the experience herself particularly when they had the whole planets going missing fiasco and Ratchet went missing. She did not miss that.
She glanced at the clock and saw that it was only a single minute until the shift was over and so she turned to look at Mike. "Should we call it?" She asked gesturing to the clock. Mike looked at it before staring up at the abandoned warehouse outside letting the seconds tick by. Talwyn was about to ask if he heard her when the clock ticked over to five pm and Mike leaned back in his seat. "Yeah, lets call it." He said turning to look at her with a cheeky smirk. Talwyn just stared deadpan at him for his obvious joke which she held for nearly a full thirty seconds before he started to snicker. "That wasn't funny." She said but Mike burst out into laughter at seeing her face. She rolled her eyes as she went to pick up the communicator to end there shift once and for all having the feeling that this site would prove to be a dead end. "Cruiser 99 to HQ, returning to base." She said while Mike calmed down from his laughing fit. "Oh your face was priceless." He said once he calmed down. "HQ to Cruiser 99, Duly noted, return to HQ and finish up. Over." The operator said to which Talwyn was relieved as she internally decided that she was just going to go home and put on a show to watch. "You gotta admit it was funny." Mike said from beside her. "Michael, While normally I like jokes...I think I am just too bored for one at the moment." She said right as a sonic boom was heard. Probably somebody breaking the speed limit.
"Alright Alright, wasn't one of my best after all and besides, need something to entertain one self when on a stakeout." He said as his excuse. Talwyn engaged the engine and put the cruiser into gear ready to get back to HQ. "Gotta enjoy the little things Miss Apogee." He added. "Now that is something that I can get behind." She said tiredly as she pulled out of the parking spot. "Too bad nothing exciting happened though." Talwyn said absentmindedly. "Can't win em all." Mike responded. "Yeah but...I wanted at least something ya-"
CRASH
Talwyn was interrupted as something slammed down onto the front windshield shattering it and causing her to slam on the breaks to stop it with Mike bracing himself as well. The cruiser lurched to a halt with its two occupants sitting there waiting for there heart rates to slow down and to recover from the near heart attack they just had. Talwyn had her hand on her chest taking deep breaths immediately regretting the words she said.
"You alright." Mike asked taking deep breaths himself. "Yeah I'm fine." She said staring at the shattered windshield wondering what the hell that was. She turned to Mike before motioning with her head to get out and take a look. Mike nodded to her gripping his service weapon hoping it wasn't anything dangerous. Talwyn followed suit as they both stepped out of the cruiser.
They kept there weapons trained at the front and looked down to see someone lying on the ground in front of them wearing a sleeveless trench coat. Talwyn looked between them and the windshield and put two and two together moving toward them. "Careful." Mike said not knowing what could happen. Talwyn approached them slowly before crouching down to check there pulse. They were unconscious but they were definitely breathing but with several shards of glass embedded into the coat. "Mike, get dispatch on the line and call for immediate medical assistance." She said to which he obliged and got into the car to do just that. "OK OK, please don't be dead." She said to herself as she grabbed the man by the shoulder to get a better look at him. He was...a Lombax. They had red fur with white stripes with an almost malnourished looking physique with the right arm being entirely mechanical stopping at the torso. Her eyes went wide in shock at seeing what was definitely a lombax on the ground in front of her. "Medical assistance is going to be here in ten minutes Apogee. Hows he looking?" Mike asked breaking her out of her transfixion. She thought for a few seconds before she finally could form words again. "There pulse is stable and they should be fine...grab my phone, I need to give someone a call." She said. Mike nodded and got her phone from the cruiser before passing it to her. She nodded to there would be car crash victim silently telling him to look over him as she went into her list of contacts.
She hoped to god that he wasn't in another dimension at the moment.