8th July 2012
19:35 GMT -7
Henry grins confidently as Sunset wraps a runic armlet around his upper right arm.
"Hey. Where
you been all my life?"
Sunset turns to repeat the process on Donald, causing Henry to miss her rolling her eyes but enabling his brother to see it very easily.
"Wilson."
"Ah. Is 'Wilson' your boyfriend?"
"It's what Grayven decided to call my planet. Too tight?"
Donald shakes his head. "No, that's fine. How is this going to work?"
"You said that your clothes vanish when you transform. These-" She taps the main rune array. "-are essentially… 'Magic homing beacons'. Or magic mass spectrometers. Whether they go with your clothes or stay where they are, they'll be exposed to enough of the magic involved that I should be able to build a summoning array to put us in direct contact with your sponsor."
Both brothers nod. I've checked their school reports, and Donald was telling the truth. Just as he's a perfectly capable fighter, his brother is a perfectly capable thinker. A
preference for direct measures doesn't mean that he
can't reason or understand long words.
"So you're an alien chick."
Even if he happens to prefer short ones.
"No, I'm an alien pony."
Henry looks surprised for a moment, then grins and nods.
"Hey babe, I'm down for-.
"I literally transformed into a human when I came through a magic mirror. I'm naturally an equine quadruped."
I raise my eyebrows. Given the effort she went through… "Hexruped."
"Hm?" She blinks. "Oh. Yes." She checks her work and then stands well back out of the containment circle. "I wonder why the wings don't carry over into
this shape?"
"Humans don't naturally come with wings any more than they come with horns. Maybe if…" I frown. "Could you shift the end point to Thanagar? That might work."
"Only if Thanagar was mystically active." She makes momentary eye contact with Henry and Donald. "Are you both ready?"
"Sure." / "Yeah."
Sunset lowers rune-encrusted goggles over her eyes. "Then go ahead."
"Hawk!" / "Dove!"
I frown. "Do you actually need to shout-?
An aura like a child's drawing of fire envelops Henry, while a simple blue-white band passes over Donald. Their costumes begin to appear, then in both cases the arcane effect stops, reverses, then shifts to the armlet.
"Huh?" Henry holds his arm out and stares at it. "That never happened before."
I stare at the light. "Looks like someone's not stupid. Sunset?"
Sunset gestures, and the lights float out of the circle to hover just in front of her.
"Huh. It
should be easy enough to connect something to this."
"Good." I step forward and grab one with each hand.
"Speak, outsiders."
"
That wasn't what I-!"
"Ping."
The lights flow along the tron lines of my armour and my awareness… Stretches outside of my physical form, outside of my corporeal surroundings. It's a little like what happens when I use my abilities as a New God, only more… Profane. I can still
feel my body, still see through my eyes… It's like hearing your name in a noisy room, or smelling a sudden scent of shit in a garden.
I haven't gone anywhere. But I'm experiencing… A white sky dotted with black stars. A barren floating island of translucent pink crystal.
And
them. A
giant green dragon is actually a good deal more mundane than I was expecting for… Either a Lord of Order or a Lord of Chaos. And… Its weirdly out of place necklace. I… Suppose it's no stranger than a helmet or a cat.
And then I look again and I see a face shown in relief, edges picked out by flames burning from an unidentifiable source, and a feminine figure made of fragments of blue glass. That's more like it.
"I am Grayven. Who am I talking to?"
"I am Conquest."
The dragon lands on the floating crystal island, bending down so that its muzzle is just above me.
"I am T'Charr, Lord of Chaos."
"I assume that you know what I've done to every other Lord of Chaos I've encountered."
"They won't be missed."
"Not by
me, and that's really all I care about. What are you doing?"
The dragon rears up slightly, perhaps trying to give the necklace a better view. The Lord of Order, presumably. It shimmers with the same blue/white light that Donald was glowing with.
"We are demonstrating the effectiveness of a partnership between Order and Chaos. The two brothers have different temperaments, and yet they work best together. They cover one another's weaknesses and complement one another's strengths."
"And you're
just giving them power. You have no plans to come to Earth yourselves."
T'Charr nods. "And our having this compact with them will prevent other Lords entering your realm, just as if we were present in person."
I nod. "And that's all you're doing? No plan to possess them and walk around in their bodies? No plan to found some sort of cult to boost your exposure?"
The necklace… Someone shakes a head it doesn't have. "No. That would defeat the object of the exercise."
"And if they piggyback on your power to become Lords themselves?"
The dragon smiles. "Then there will be four who have learned the value of cooperation and collaboration, rather than just
two."
"Alright, fine. But if you're lying, I will kill you both."
I open my hands, and my awareness of whatever I just experienced fades as the magic flames in my hands shoot across the room and envelop its owners. A moment later their… Truly horrible costumes appear on their bodies.
Sunset looks at me curiously. "Grayven?"
"Just had a word with their-." I turn to the Hall brothers. "
Your sponsors. I believe that we can work together. Though my warning about making pacts with eldritch creatures still stands."
Donald nods. "That's-."
"Work together?!" Henry grins, his face mask not covering his chin at all. "You mean..?"
"How would you lads like a job this summer?"
