Savants

### ***PROLOGUE***

Deep in the underbrush of a small planet chunk, four figures struggled through the swaths of tangled shrubbery. Besides a motley collection of skittish wildlife, they were the only living things on this chunk- that is, them and the Maelstrom, if living it can be called.

The planet chunk had no name, only a number: 3172. The Venture League had only recently added it to star charts. At its conception, the faction had been assigned the incredible task of scouting, mapping and recording all the Crux chunks that now littered their system. Despite the enormity of the job, Venture League continued pegging away at it with an enthusiasm and tenacity that no one else could have provided.

And while they could discover and explore these chunks, it became evident that they did not have enough resources to clean out the ones that had Maelstrom on it. Hael Storm discussed this shortage with his fellow leaders and suggested a solution.

Enter the Vanguard. A collection of remarkable units, each team comprised of one warrior from each faction, under the direct supervision of Hael Storm. They existed solely to travel along perilous space-routes to battle the Maelstrom that were found on new chunks.

The squad on 3172 were officially known as Unit 12. 3172 was the third chunk they had been to this month alone. They were scheduled to go on furlough as soon as it was clear of the enemy, and they were looking forward to it.

"What are you going to do on furlough, Gambit?" asked one of the party members as he used his buccaneer sword to hack away at a clump of vines.

The Paradox Marauder replied with a dark voice from underneath his equally dark helmet. "No plans." He revved his wormholer and used the rotating chain to obliterate a leafy obstruction.

"No plans?! How can you not have anything to do? It's like a vacation, man!" the buccaneer exclaimed. "Why don't you hang out with me? We'll have a GREAT time!"

"No," Gambit said shortly.

"I'll take you up on that if he won't," the Assembly cut in. He was wearing a mish-mash outfit comprised of whatever expanded his Imagination capacity the most, and was currently battling the vegetation with a pair of serratorizers. "I don't have much else to do. How about you, Percevel?"

Percevel was at the forefront of the group, wielding a "little friend." He was using it to clear most of the plants out of the way before the rest of Unit 12 came through.

"I might tag along every once in a while," he shrugged. He stopped and rested his over-sized weapon over his shoulder as he turned to the Assembly. "Can't wait until we destroy this last group so we can head home. How much farther to the Maelstrom, Thomas?"

Thomas quickly consulted a small device. "Half a mile or so, but we've strayed too far south."

"Better readjust the old trajectory!" the buccaneer piped up. He stuck a quicksicle in his mouth and dashed ahead of the group, nimbly weaving out of sight.

Percevel shook his head and tried to catch up. "Peragrine!" he called into a commlink. "Get back here and help the rest of us clear these plants! Not all of us can squirm through them like some kind of squirrel!"

There were a few moments of silence before they heard a reply. "Heeey," came Peragrine's voice over the comm, then announced in a sing-song tone, "I found somethinggg!"

Peragrine’s teammates exchanged glances of terror; there were few phrases uttered by the daredevil that caused them as much anxiety as this one. Indeed, Peragrine had said it many times before, and it had always- always- ended in near disaster, with each encounter more deadly and stress inducing than the last. They couldn't even begin to imagine what this new "something" might entail.

"Peragrine!" Thomas demanded as they renewed their hack 'n slash journey through the entangling bushes. "Get back here!"

"In a minute," the response came distractedly. Then, "Ooh, this looks like a button!"

"PEREGRIN!" Thomas screeched.

The trio struggled forward and very soon saw their friend not too far away, partially hidden by the mossy trees. Percevel grunted and started wading over, exclaiming, "Peragrine, what are you- get away from that thing!"

Thomas and Gambit brought up the rear, unable to see what Percevel was talking about. They heard Peragrine's voice waft over now, close enough to be heard without the commlink

"This wasn't in the Venture League precursory report," he commented. They could see him lean forward towards something.

“PERRY-” Percevel’s yell was immediately cut off by loss of sound.

Thomas and Gambit braced themselves as everything around them fell into silence. It seemed like all the sound nearby was getting pulled out of the area and into something else, something near Peregrine.

Percevel noiselessly plunged ahead, his two teammates on his heels. They worked their way close enough to see Perry standing in front of a metallic, circular contraption. In the circle, swirls of a myriad of colours morphed into fantastical landscapes one after the other, faster than the eye could follow.

Peragrine’s mouth moved, but his words were pulled into the portal and were never heard by his friends. Then with an insatiably curious look, he started walking towards the whirling mess of colour. Percevel said something that was probably better left muted and lunged forward to pull the Venture Leaguer back.

Unfortunately, as soon as he touched his friend’s shoulder, Peragrine reached out and touched the portal. It pulled them in instantly and as soon as they had disappeared, the swirling colours snapped shut and were gone. Sound returned to 3172 like an exhaled breath.

Gambit lowered his wormholer as he stared at the now lifeless metal circle, then turned to the Assembly.

“Uh-oh,” Thomas said for both of them.

### ***COULD YOU SPARE A MOMENT FOR INTER-DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL?***

"What is it?"

"I don't know."

"What does it do?"

"I don't know."

"Where did it come from?"

"I DON'T KNOW."

"Well, what DO you know?"

"That you’re like if the underworld decided to crap out a pop-up book?"

"Vector! Gaia!" Plue Abernathy meandered into the storage room, which currently had an empty space in the middle in order to make room for the strange construct that the away team had discovered. It was a very large spherically-shaped, hollow device that could easily fit a group of people within its centre. The exterior was lined with runes and mismatched hunks of metal, and, according to Gaia, was emitting a very suspicious aura. Granted, Gaia had also then immediately said that was because of the rubber aliens, and that Pandemonium's Bane should surrender while it had the chance, but there was still something off-putting about the object that made Plue eye it with suspicion as she walked over to the quibbling pair.

"Yes boss?" Gaia saluted, standing tall. Her dark brown hair, dyed with purple streaks, flowed down her back and her lime green eyes glinted with their usual eagerness as she stretched to her full impressive height in order to respect the Bulwark’s supreme commander.

"Hey, how come you don't treat me like that?" The head of the Pathfinder’s Guild, Vector Jadewing, glowered at his companion. Despite Gaia's unnatural height, Vector was still at least a couple of inches taller than her due to his muscular build. His black stubble clung to his face, desperately trying and failing to form a beard, and numerous weapons clattered on his back as he shifted his position.

"Ehn. You don’t deserve my respect.” Answered Gaia, before sticking her tongue out at him for good measure.

"Why not?” Vector protested.

Gaia raised an eyebrow like it was obvious. “You’re not my boss.”

Vector took a moment to ponder.

“That’s probably for the best.” He admitted. “All things considered, I doubt anyone would *want* a soldier like you-”

“Ah, sir!” Suddenly, Gaia turned to salute him. “What can I do for you? Lick your boots? Inflate your ego, sir?”

“Uh, yeah, case in point-” Vector reached over to viciously ruffle Gaia’s hair. “Normally, when soldiers talk about bootlicking, it’s a metaphor.”

Gaia smacked his hand away, brows furrowing.

“Sorry,” she said, sounding entirely insincere, “I *would* have known that, only my brain isn’t working properly, because I’m struggling for breath, ‘cus your ego is taking up all the oxygen in this room.”

Vector folded his arms like he was angry, but his facial expression still made him look more bemused than anything.

“You’re really fixated on my ego, huh?” He asked.

Gaia scoffed. “You once called your face ‘proof of the existence of a divine entity’-”

"Guys, enough!” Plue held up her hand, and her friends fell silent. "I hope you still realise that we're faced with the issue of what the heck this thing is?!"

“Beats me.” Muttered Vector, pouting. “All I know is that SOME of us – and I’m not naming any names – caused more property damage than necessary getting it here.”

Gaia glared at him. “I only crushed the one car. And there wasn’t even anyone in it!”

“Your standards?” Vector did his best to arch his head up and look down on Gaia. “Abominable.”

Gaia lifted a finger at him like she was a mother about to scold an unruly child. “Yeah, I don’t know what that means,” she retorted, “but I can pick up on context clues!”

Their quibbling now fully underway, Plue could do nothing but lean back and pinch the bridge of her nose. In her two-ish years as head of the Bulwark, she’d faced a lot of challenges, and difficulties to overcome. But one of the most persistent *had* to be this stupid dynamic between one of her right-hand men and the deputies of one of her elite organisations – they’d show up and they’d butt heads and send metaphorical (and often literal) sparks everywhere, and then at the end of the day they’d shake hands, flip each other off, and go their separate ways. It was tiring on the best of days – and this was definitely not the best of her days.

(At this rate, she was going to commandeer the Bulwark’s research and development sectors and get them to produce history’s strongest headache medicine.)

"Look, can we just-" She began to say – but was cut off by a low humming sound.

"I don't even... hey, do you hear that?" Vector tilted his head.

"Yup." Confirmed Plue.

"I don't know what that is, but it's getting on my nerves." Gaia shook her head from side to side, reminiscent of a dog. "Can someone shut it off, please?"

At that moment, the humming turned to a screech and a crash. Shifting her gaze upwards, Plue discovered the source of the secondary noise: a piece of the device's exterior had slidden along the outside and fallen into a slot with a loud ca-chunk.

Plue, Vector and Gaia stepped backwards and watched as the machine continued to whir and hum, centuries-old mechanics being reactivated seemingly at random.

"Okay, that's moving." Gaia muttered. "That's moving, that's moving... is it supposed to do that?"

"Looks like that's what it was designed for." Mused Plue. "The question is what's going to happen-?"

"If you ask me, the real question is whether we should watch what’s gonna happen from here, or from a distance." Gaia interrupted, her eyes showing a mixture of anticipation, nervousness, and excitement as she continued to watch the contraption move. Plue eyed her warily – Gaia was foolhardy, but had good self-preservation instincts. If she was worried that something might be dangerous, it was probably *really* dangerous.

“My vote goes to ‘from a distance’,” Vector remarked.

Gaia nodded. “All in favour of using Vector as a battering ram to escape from this room, say aye."

“Uh, door’s open.” Vector retorted, proving his words by striding over to, and opening, said door. “And, for the record, you’re never getting my consent to throw me at a door again.”

“Joke’s on you!” Gaia said as she and Plue headed for the aforementioned door. “I didn’t get your consent the first time, either!” She had to raise her voice to be heard over the ever-increasing hum and whirr of machinery.

Vector looked like he was about to say something back, but the noise died in his throat as he indicated with his hand. The women turned around and saw a blue energy field flickering into existence within the structure. The roar became almost unbearable and the other items in storage started to tremble. The door forgotten, Plue could only stare in horrified anticipation with her hands over her ears. Just when it seemed that the noise could not get any higher, two objects were flung out of the gate. One landed on the floor nearby with a loud clatter, and the other slammed into a thankfully empty crate with a wooden crunch.

Having delivered its payload, the energy vanished from the centre of the device, and the noise faded. Plue felt the hairs on the back of her neck begin to die down, until an unknown voice rang out.

"Peragrine...? Please... don't ever do that again."

Plue stared as the object near the gate as it rose, and realised with a jolt that it was an armoured man. He rose, and she saw blond hair so light it could be compared to white. The new arrival adjusted his glasses and glowered in the direction of the other object – the other person.

"Now, what sort of trouble have you gotten us into now?"

"You know better than to trouble trouble until trouble troubles you, Perce!" The other figure stated, rising and casually bending their limbs back into their correct positions.

"That wasn't an answer to my question." "Perce" snapped. "Besides, I'd say by this point we're well and truly troubled, anyhow.”

"Now what trouble would this trouble be?"

"The trouble of…” The blond man stared at his surroundings. “Temporal dislocation, apparently.”

"Uh... is anyone else getting a weird sense of deja-vu?" Plue mumbled, watching the scene unfold. Turning around, she saw Gaia with stars in her eyes.

"I think I've just found my soulmate." She squeaked. "Vector, catch me." She then made a big show of falling backwards, only to smack into the ground as Vector neglected her catching-related needs due to being in a shocked stupor.

"Great." He groaned to himself. “There’s *two* of them.”

The second person stumbled over to the device and stuck an arm through it, only to frown as nothing happened. “Hey, what gives?” He stuck his head through and looked back and forth. Then, he turned away and began to palm at the metal slides, trying to make something happen. “Where did it…? With the…?”

He, however, was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps as Gaia sprinted towards him, having quickly picked herself up off of the floor.

"Hell-oooo!" She chirped. "Can I say right now, I don't know who you are or where you come from, but I feel like this meeting was totally destined."

"You're kidding! That's what I thought when I saw you ungracefully run towards me!" The stranger replied, doffing his helmet to reveal light brown hair and a face covered in freckles. "Stranger, I know we met each other seconds ago, but I get the impression that you like pranks. Do you want to set one up whilst we get to know each other?"

"Oh, you read my mind!" Cheered Gaia, and within seconds the pair were gone, sprinting out the room like their lives depended on it whilst shouting something about a bucket of paint.

Everything was quiet for a few moments. Eventually, Vector pointed over his shoulder with a thumb.

“I’ll, uh,” he said, “I’ll make sure that they don’t cause *too* much collateral.” And with that, he turned and began to quickly ascend the stairs that the others had gone up, muttering nervously to himself.

Leaving Plue alone with the other stranger.

(She took notice of the powerful-looking weapon strapped to his back. It looked a spear with an axe head welded near the point, and there was no doubt in her mind that it was physically capable of rending her to pieces.)

"…I take it we have a lot of talking to do?" She said. The man turned to her and nodded courteously.

"My name is Percevel." He introduced himself. "And yes, I would say that fair amount of talking is in order right about now..."

### ***MISSION OF HER OWN***

"What do you mean, they're gone!?"

"We mean what we say!" Thomas’s protests sounded tinny over the phone. "One minute, they were there. The next, they got sucked into that gate thing, and they vanished."

"Okay." Sighed Jonna. "Thanks for telling me."

"No problem. Be safe." Thomas sounded harried, but he was obviously trying to push through his own worries to sound reassuring. "We'll call you if we get any more news on them, alright?"

"Thanks guys." Hanging up, Jonna leaned back on her sofa and groaned, putting her hands over her face. Bad enough that she hadn’t been in contact with her now-Mythran friend Talia since the fall of the Darkitecht, but in Talia’s absence, Percevel and Peragrine and her had all drawn closer, bonding over their shared experience of what had lain on the other side of Rivendark Canyon. If the boys were missing too… she clenched her fist and stared up at the ceiling, doing her best to ignore the sudden tears that threatened to spill out of her eyes. *They’re all I have left.*

It wasn’t as though she, or they, were any strangers to dangerous situations. Peragrine practically *was* one! But something about this felt exceptional, and not in a good way. People didn’t just vanish into thin air, and the fact that strange ancient technology was involved didn’t fill her with confidence, either – it was strange ancient technology, after all, that had first transformed Talia, and brought them all together.

*A gateway…* she closed her eyes and tried to imagine the machine that Gambit and Thomas had described to her when they’d called. What had it been? How had it worked? The lack of answers was infuriating-

Oh no. Percevel’s wife – Trinity. Jonna bit her lip

"She's not going to be taking this well." She muttered.

Suddenly seized with nervous energy, she stood up and began to pace the floor in a way that would have had her friends laughing and accusing her of wearing holes in her carpet. If only they’d actually been there.

So busy was she lamenting current events and rubbing her eyes that at first, she failed to noticed the hologram-like blue figure standing before her.

"Jonna Fig."

The otherworldly voice echoed through the air, and Jonna gave a start as she saw her visitor. Whilst there was a brief period of time in which she was unable to speak completely, but eventually she managed to respond sufficiently eloquently:

"Um, hi?"

"You have been summoned." The Mythran grabbed Jonna's hand, and the landscape blurred around her, disappearing into a void of blue and white. Jonna's head began to spin as she watched the whirling surroundings until nothing remained but her, the Mythran, and the void. Just when it seemed like the white noise would become unbearable, the world reconstructed itself and Jonna fell onto her knees, gasping for breath. Such was her disorientation that it took her a few moments to realise that she was no longer in her home.

Instead, Jonna found herself inside a sterile white environment, lit with aqua neon lights. The room was enormous, with a ceiling that stretched many meters above their heads, and several corridors lead down different paths. Holographic arrows and posters flashed and then disappeared only to be replaced by something else, and Jonna felt so overwhelmed that she sunk to her knees - only for the Mythran to help her rise again.

"It's alright." It calmly told her. "You are in no danger."

"Then... why am I here?" She gaped.

"Your appearance here concerns the fates that have befallen two of your kind. Peragrine and Percevel."

These words snapped Jonna out of her stupor. Her friends! She looked to the Mythran, suddenly feeling desperate.

"You mean you know what happened to them?” She gasped. “They can be saved?"

"Yes.” The Mythran nodded. “But it is not as simple as that. The situation contains… complications.”

"Uh...” Jonna wasn’t sure where this was going, but if it meant saving her friends, she was all ears. “I'm listening."

"We believe that the missing persons you know have disappeared as a result of a Mythran device."

"...huh?!"

"Have you ever considered the possibility of parallel universes?" The Mythran asked Jonna, beginning to walk towards one of the corridors. Not wanting to be left behind in an unfamiliar environment, Jonna scrambled to her feet and hastened after it. As she caught up, she considered the question. The truth was, as an avid consumer of contemporary science-fiction, she was no *stranger* to the concept.

"I mean… yeah, actually." She paused, holding a hand out, and then snapped her fingers. “No way. Don’t tell me-”

The Mythran turned to look back at her. It said nothing, and its facial expression remained totally neutral. And yet, the motion alone was enough.

“Okay.” Jonna sighed. “So… my friends are in a parallel universe. You said it- the device…” She trailed off, remembering the ‘gate’ that she’d heard about from the other members of the team. “It was Mythran?”

The Mythran made a noncommittal noise that, if Jonna was any sort of fanciful, would have sounded almost like a hum. “Technically speaking, it was Caelan.” It revealed. “But it is our responsibility from an analogous perspective. Hence, our interference.”

Jonna couldn’t claim to understand a lot of what the Mythran was saying, but she wasn’t going to turn down the help. “Well, you sound like you have some kind of solution, or plan. That sort of thing.” She coughed, suddenly nervous. “Those are good. Please continue.”

The Mythran led Jonna to what looked like a doorway near the end of the hall. The door itself was grey and unassuming, but all the same, Jonna couldn’t help but wonder what lay behind it.

"First, a question.” Said the Mythran. “How far are you willing to go to get your friends back?"

The question was one that filled Jonna with trepidation, but she decided not to comment (out loud) on how ominous this Mythran was being.

“…As far as it takes, I guess.” She eventually said.

The Mythran turned to face her. "I see."

Jonna waited for more elaboration on that particular question, but none came. Instead, the Mythran launched into an admittedly not-unwelcome explanation of what was to come.

“We will send you to the dimension that your friends have been sent to.” It said. “We will provide you with a means to return. You will also be accompanied by a Mythran representative, to defend you from any dangers you might face in another world, and to take care of affairs should you encounter our parallel kin. Do you find these conditions acceptable?”

“Uh…” Jonna took a moment to process the deluge. “Yeah. Sure.”

"Very well." The Mythran turned around and clapped its hands, and the door swung open. Jonna walked inside, gave the room an initial once-over, and did a double-take. Then, she rubbed her eyes in disbelief.

Standing in the centre of the room, staring back at her, was a person with blonde hair and luminous, light cobalt eyes.

"Talia?"

"Jonna?!" Talia Sneeko, stromling-turned-Mythran, exclaimed as she caught sight of her old friend. "I-I-I-"

“Talia will be your representative.” The Mythran – the *other* Mythran – filled in.

Jonna pointed at Talia in disbelief. They’d spend so long without so much as an exchange of postcards, and now all of a sudden, they were standing in front of each other. “Did you know about this?”

Talia shook her head violently. “No! They said I was going to be sent somewhere because of my- my Mythran-slash-civic duty, but that’s all. I had no idea that…” The sentence went unfinished, but Jonna could guess the rest of it. “*…that you were going to be here.*”

“Why?” Continued Talia, unaware of Jonna’s internalising. “What’s happened?”

Jonna stopped dead, unable to resist staring. For a moment, she felt an unexpected wave of outrage rear up. *You don’t know. How could you not know? They’re your friends too!*

But then, she felt that rage dissipate. That wasn’t fair. Talia hadn’t contacted any of them (as far as Jonna knew, anyway), for a long time – of course she wouldn’t know. Plus, Jonna herself had only just found out.

She forced down her influx of emotions. “Peragrine and Percevel have gone missing.” She revealed. “And, apparently, they’re in another dimension.”

Talia’s eyes widened. “They’re-?”

“We felt,” interrupted the other Mythran, “that your personal connection to the missing persons would enhance your efficiency and motivation, and that as such, you were the best choice for a representative.”

Talia gave no immediate response – her mouth opened and closed, like a fish out of water, but no words came out. After a couple of moments of this, however, she closed her mouth, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, they flashed full of power.

“Well,” she said, slowly, like she was making a great effort to remain calm and in control, “you’re not wrong there.”

The other Mythran seemed to glow.

“Excellent.” It declared.

Willing to chalk up whatever was happening in front of her to some kind of Mythran thing she just didn’t get, Jonna held up her hand to get the Mythran’s attention – at least, she did until she realised that doing that made her look like one of the kids from B.R.I.C.K., so she put it down and tried to pretend as though she’d never raised it in the first place.

“So…” she said, deciding that words would be a better way of drawing attention to herself. “How are we going to get to this other world?”

Seemingly in response to this, the Mythran tossed a cube-shaped device to her – she clumsily fumbled with it for a moment before catching it securely in our hands.

“This is a method we ourselves have devised of interdimensional transportation." The Mythran said. "The frequency has been set to match the one that the gate was emitting. You shouldn't arrive inconveniently far away from them – say, on the other side of the universe – but you will have to figure out the details of their rescue yourselves.”

“Convenient.” Muttered Jonna, examining the cube as Talia ran to her side. She knew, deep down, that the sarcasm was unwarranted, given all that the Mythrans were already doing for her. That said, her best friends *were* missing. She felt as though she was entitled to a little snark. “Man, you Mythrans love your cubes, don’t you?”

Perhaps tact kept the Mythran from responding to her directly. “May fortune be in your favour,” it said instead, as Talia reached over and made contact with the cube. There was a bright blue flash, the room spun, and Jonna found herself in another whirlwind.