Chapter Text
Yup… he died again. Was the first thought that went towards Vinnie Dakota’s mind as he took a glance at his currently laid on the floor partner, who had seemingly died from falling off a nearby cliff and ended up on the ground. Poor Cavendish just couldn’t catch a break, as almost every single day he would end up dying while going through one of his missions or even while trying to just have a nice and relaxing day, be it from falling into a man hole, getting eaten by a dinosaur, break every single one of his ones while impacting against a tree, being milked to death (something that Dakota himself wasn’t even sure of how to describe) or also Cavendish’s own obliviousness to his environment, such as when he forgot to wear a space helmet while going out to space.
He saw the poor man laid there… motionless and slightly bloodied from his injuries, but clearly deceased as his eyes were completely wide open and lost, his mouth open agape as if he had tried to resist his own death by breathing as much as he possibly could. If Dakota was honest with himself, he hated seeing someone he cared for this much to just… die in so many various and sometimes horrible ways, but it was like the universe was against him at every single stop.
Their mission today was checking some ancient ruins that were rumored to be the grounds of rituals and supernatural occurrences of some kind, mostly related to magic. Dakota himself couldn’t care less about the assignment, as he thought the legends and rumors weren’t true and Mr. Block only sent them here as some sort of prank or payback for a previously failed mission, but that didn’t matter to him.
What mattered to Dakota the most was making sure his partner would be able to see the light of day again and for the two of them to still enjoy wonderful times as best friends, heck, maybe go further than that if things worked out for the brunette.
So, without wanting to waste anymore time, Dakota got himself into his time machine and got it running, preparing himself to enter through a time portal. Although… this one looked to be different than the usual one Dakota tended to travel through, as its color wasn’t green and white, but rather a more purple-blueish hue with accompanying darker blue colors that formed a spiral in the middle, as if he was looking into a black hole of sorts.
“What the-” Was what Dakota was able to say before he was transported inside the portal, now unable to see anything in his path as he traveled through space time continuum. The trip felt like the longest journey he had ever taken, as if he had been stuck in that car for years, fully knowing that he was going faster than the speed of light and a ride to the future never felt this… off-putting and strenuous.
Just what had that portal done? And where was it taking him? Was he ever going to make it to his destination? Or somewhere at the very least? Or was he going to be stuck on this ride forever, with no signs of ever being able to go back to his time or the time from where he first started this odyssey on? He truly couldn’t tell.
Fortunately for him, he was going to get his answer right away, as the same portal from earlier appeared right in front of him, with Dakota’s car entering through it again. The time vehicle had made it to solid ground, one that seemed to be made out of a creamy brown color and out of ceramic with a few patches of grass.
Dakota hit the brakes and stopped the car from going any further ahead, now taking a moment to look at his current location from the windshield on the front. It… appeared to be some sort of city with white colored buildings with some gold colored accents added to them, with a few of them also having sky blue colors on higher floors or with some of those buildings entirely being painted with that same color.
The structure and style of the buildings reminded him of Greece, as some of them had very pronounced ovular roofs or very pronounced figures on their architecture, as well as noticing that they had been built with cement. Dakota decided to give the place a better look at the location and noticed that the place where he parked the car in was some sort of entrance to the entire area, albeit… an odd one at that.
The entire city from which he was currently at was apparently surrounded by a huge, seemingly endless blue ocean that reflected the rays of the sun in a shimmering fashion. Some of the buildings that he had missed due to the limited view of the windshield apparently had some windmills incorporated to them that had the design of a paper pinwheel, with white and gold colored blades that rotated with the wind, one that the brunette could feel pass through his hair and touch his skin with a delicate, yet desolate breeze.
The waves of the ocean and the overall moist, yet refreshing atmosphere of the place felt so comforting and relaxing at first, but… once one could be able to digest what this soothing sensation was after it left, the only emotion it left was… emptiness. This place felt like it had been forgotten by time, left abandoned by who knows how long in its still beautiful and gorgeous state, leaving more questions than answers.
This wasn’t just a single city or island either, as when Dakota turned his body around to see more of the area, he noticed similarly built locations that had also been left abandoned. “Where the heck am I?” Vinnie asked himself as he tried to figure out where the portal had actually led him to. This most definitely wasn’t Greece as although the architecture was similar, it also had European influences behind it, as the various pieces of furniture and small metal fences that he saw at the entrance gave that right away.
This city felt like it had come out of a fantasy book, with it possibly having been the home of a calm and peaceful civilization that might’ve been driven away or straight up murdered in the story. He didn’t know and he wasn’t even sure he wanted to know. What he needed to do was save Cavendish, no matter what, as if he couldn’t save him… then all of those lives he had sacrificed before would’ve been for nothing. His new purpose in life would just disappear as if it had never existed in the first place, and Dakota couldn’t allow that to happen. Not after he’s thought for it so hard!
So, with newfound determination, Dakota marched on towards the city ahead of him, with him seeing a few light posts, trees and benches that were made for the entryway, most likely for people to wait on as they expected new arrivals or for someone from the city itself to meet up with them.
Soon after, Dakota looked up to see the main entrance structure of the town, one that was made of some cream colored walls that were united by a black metal arc with swirling circles and shapes present at the middle of it and edges of the arc, having a gold colored emblem that also had three rods of metal coming at the top of it, ones that had a lance like finish at the tip.
Once the brunette had entered through the arc, he looked up even higher than before, noticing that the city was a lot more vertical than he might’ve first realized, as a even bigger structure was present in the middle of it, serving as some kind of tower that had the shape of a heart due to the structure of its other two towers at each side.
Another detail that he was able to notice is that apparently there are quite a few cables connected to each of the citadels, meaning that the people of this place most likely used tram systems in order to transition from one city to another.
Before the brunette could bask more into the absolute beauty and mystery of this place however, from the corner of his eye he was able to catch a glimpse of Cavendish, apparently standing still with his hands behind his back, a bit further away from Dakota and currently nearby some low stair steps that were to Dakota’s left.
“Cavendish!” Dakota called out to the Brit, running towards him with his eyes filled with hope, joy but also desperation as he wanted to get a hold of the man as soon as possible. But while Dakota heading towards Cavendish, the taller man walked towards the steps with his usually elegant and precise stride, now being covered by another nearby house wall.
The brunette made it to where Cavendish was previously standing, his eyes widening as he saw that… there was nobody there. It’s as if Cavendish had just vanished out of thin air. Had he become a ghost? Was this place a place meant to be for the deceased to go to? Or was his mind playing tricks on him? Making him think that he saw Cavendish?
He shook his head at those thoughts, now running further ahead in hopes of being able to find his partner once more and get things to the way they were before Cavendish’s death of today. He ran as quickly as he could, trying to reach the Brit and hopefully get him back home.
But he was nowhere to be found. Instead what Dakota found was Cavendish’s glasses on the floor, seemingly intact. That… seemed strange, as Cavendish didn’t even have them on when he died and when Dakota picked them up, they were broken. How did they get fixed up so quickly? And who fixed them?
That didn’t matter at the moment though, as this served as some sort of clue for Dakota to follow. Maybe those ruins had more to them than Dakota might’ve initially thought, as they could’ve possibly ended up reviving Cavendish or something alike. Before he let his mind get stuck on the details though, he bent over to grab the glasses, holding them on his hand with a slight smile, his brows knit as he stared at them, feeling melancholic and guilty. Guilty that he had let this happen in the first place, guilty that he wasn’t there to look out for his partner.
As he was inspecting and holding the glasses however… something odd seemed to be happening to them, as they were beginning to… dissipate, as if they were being broken down to a different form. They vanished, leaving some light orbs behind, with them floating slowly for a few moments before they also disappeared from view.
Suddenly, Dakota saw a new item take their place… the weirdest item that he had ever seen in his entire life. It was a big key that had the look and size of a weapon. It had a golden colored guard that was sort of rectangular in shape. The grip was a more gray colored cylinder that was within the guard that then extended through it into the shaft, which was a silver colored piece of metal that didn’t seem to have any sharpness to it.
It was as if it was meant to be a blunt weapon, but it was still a key. One that had some teeth in the shape of what seemed to be an uncompleted crown.
It was… awkward and surreal to see something like be within his hands, as it didn’t make sense as a weapon, nor as a souvenir. Had Cavendish’s glasses really transformed into that? Or was the item bestowed upon him after he collected them?
The brunette’s thoughts weren’t going to keep him occupied for too long however, as some sort of black liquid began to form on the ground, with it squirming and bubbling. Other puddles appeared from within the ground and started to do the same, until eventually all of them began to spawn some short, but still long limbed creatures that had yellow, glowy eyes with a dark blue, almost black hue to them.
They seemed to have long, sharp claws that were meant to do heavy damage, something that Dakota wasn’t quite prepared to deal with. “Hey, whoa, whoa! What’s happening!? Who the hell are y’all!? What are y’all!?” Dakota called while still scared, staring at the figures, who were only looking at Dakota, surveying what he was and deciding if they should attack him or not yet.
This was bad, really bad. He got a big, dumb key to take care of, some monsters that had appeared out of nowhere and didn’t have the best intentions, and he also needed to get Cavendish back to life, as well as take him and himself back home. What was he doing to do!?