Organization XIV - The Story So Far

Gestalt opened the bottle, and with a curt verbal warning, put it to Jackie's lips. He tried not to upend it too quickly. "If it's as you say, then we'll retreat. Let's get out of here. Wait..." He looked up at Dispatch's struggle with Maleficent, eyeing the strange cloud that was homing in on him. That's just too slow for a damaging attack. Either it's meant to box him in, or set him up for a lethal blow. "Dispatch! Don't let that thing touch you!" ...Yeah, real winning advice there. 'Don't let the suspicious thing hit you in this fight with an evil witch!'

"What the hell do you take me for?!" Dispatch called back. Not getting hit was usually the name of the game. In one motion, he drew his sword again and slashed at the sphere as it drew close; he'd wasted too much energy on failed attacks and weaklings, and getting knocked around was not helping. It was the lowest his tank had been in a long time.

The mist was cut apart, but simply coalesced back into shape, still heading for him. Raw force didn't seem to directly affect the spell.

To make matters worse, the spire behind him had begun to lean from the impact of being thrown into it, which had destroyed much of the structure's support, and was now slowly starting to topple to the ground he was standing on. Loose bricks of stone began to slide out of place and crash into the roof around him as its shadow encompassed Dispatch.

Jackie mentally braced for the Potion, letting it pool for a moment under her tongue before each swallow. Her legs and arms began to quiver and shake, and as feeling returned so did a new feeling of numbness. Holding onto her spear for support, Jackie found herself able to stand on her own after a few moments. Assessing the situation, it was clear they had two options: jump in the hole and hope for the same results, or make a mad dash back to the ship, but who could say what the forest held for her. "Hey. I'm gonna try to get to the ship, some way, some how. If I don't make it back... Jump for it. Jump and hold hope in your heart." Jackie pulled out her last two Potions and an Ether, handing them off.

"Sound like a plan?"

"The hell?!" Dispatch barely had time for two words before the ball splashed against his face. Instantly, his vision faded. He could only see a small window in front of himself, and even that swam and distorted. He couldn't see a thing, and his focus had broken. His foothold vanished from under him, and he found himself falling. He could sense his teammates on the roof, and slowed his descent as he passed them.

Gestalt didn't respond. He was too busy gazing up in horror as a giant meteor, far bigger than any of the ones before, came bursting through the shower of debris that had gathered in the air. Maleficent cackled in the distance as its surface began to glow red with heat. As it approached, entire sections of the castle burst and flew up into the dark mass above.

This sensation in my gut... I can't move my body. We have to escape, but-


"No plan! Just run!" He spat, his hands wandering over to his sword. Grasping its hilt, he pulled it out slightly and slammed it back in, with part of his other hand stuck between it and the sheathe. Using the immediate pain to stave off the numbness and paralyzing dread, he shoved the bottles Jackie was holding into his pocket and grabbed her shoulder, trying to push her towards the crumbling edge of the castle.

A tall, shadowed figure reached out from the crumbling castle to grab Dispatch. It caught him by the lapel of his jacket, pulling him to a small outcropping to set him down. It didn't feel like a Heartless. Not really like anything at all. But it spoke with a familiar voice

"I see you've encountered some trouble. Why don't we retreat for now? Where did you two park the ship?"

Dispatch's mind was reeling. Who was this? The energy felt familiar, but he couldn't figure out why, and the voice barely registered, and why couldn't he see anything?! Before he could even consider that it might be a bad idea, he answered, "Down--down by the forest, bottom of the path that...damn it, what's going on?!"

"I missed most of it, but I suspect that you were defeated by that witch up there. Can you stand? Here. I'll create a path."

With a strange sound, a hole appeared in the air beside them. The space inside felt calm, though not without danger. The figure's hand pushed him towards it.

"Gestalt! Bring her down here!"

"Roger!"

Up above, the swordsman pulled at Jackie in something akin to desperation. "Our boss is just down there; he'll get us to the ship faster than if we just-!" He was immediately cut off by a piece of debris winging him in the side of the head.

It was nearly comical how poorly everything had been going up to this point compared to how it had started, but now was not the time for contemplation. Jackie had been shoved then pulled, and whirled around and ducked before the debris could hit her too. One last push is all its going to take...! I'll bet it all on my legs! Grabbing Gestalt and hauling him over her shoulder, Jackie stumbled and dragged herself and the unconscious Gestalt, hanging onto her spear to support her, her legs shaking the entire time.

Fragments of the previous meteors and jagged pieces of the castle rained down on Jackie as she made her escape. As she reached the edge of the castle, a bolt of energy lashed out, narrowly missing her and her charge. Far behind, Maleficent was hurrying after her, gliding across the broken earth. With only one target left in sight, she was focused on taking them out. The witch raised her scepter, preparing another spell...

Jackie stumbled up to the man standing next to the portal, looking over her shoulder and her chest seizing in fear as Maleficent glided towards her, as if the very notion of landing upon the earth itself was beneath her. With no strength left, she entered the portal, not looking back at the man near her or the witch behind her. As she got through, she sighed in relief, and fell to the ground, legs seized up beneath her, barely breathing, and drenched in rain and sweat. Her spear had toppled out of her hands, and while she could still think, her eyesight began to go dark as a ringing started in her ears. Not passed out, but recovering from a traumatic shock.

The man grabbed Dispatch by the head very carefully, looking at his eyes. "I believe your vision should recover quickly. That spell wasn't meant to inflict a lasting blindness."

Once he verified that Jackie was still conscious, just rather out of it, he propped up Gestalt, examining his wound. "...Not terribly deep. He'll be out for some time, however."

Standing up, he made a gesture, and the portal closed, cutting them off from the burning castle and Maleficent. Without the flames illuminating them, they were in darkness.

Satisfied that they were not in immediate danger anymore, the figure moved away from them and sat down. "We shouldn't waste time. Once you're both on your feet again, we need to get to your ship. Dispatch, is your sight returning? If you're not sure, I can light a match so you have something to look at."

There was a rustling sound, followed by a matchhead hitting a rough surface, and then a little light. It was enough to identify the face of the one who had sent them to this place to begin with: Reumos.

Dispatch blinked hard a few times as the haze began to clear. A little fuzzy around the edges, sure, but his sight was mostly back to normal. That was...fast. Really, if he hadn't already been falling when he'd been blinded, it would have made next to no difference at all. Once he was able to make out the man's features, his eyes sparked in recognition.

"Oh! It's you. Yeah, I'm good now." He cast a bitter gaze downward. Mostly good. His pride hurt like hell, but that probably went without saying. "So...what's up with the magic cave?"

"Well, that's mostly accurate. As I grasp it now, it's meant to be a corridor or darkness." He explained. "But having closed one side, I suppose it is just a cave now..."

Standing up, he gestured to their surroundings. Unknown things swirling in the shadows beyond. "I set the other end to be roughly where the ship was, based on what you said. We should be able to make it there, with any luck. First, however, I'd like to confirm something. Tell me, how long has it been since we met, and you departed for the Enchanted Dominion?"

A corridor...of darkness. Okay, so it was a magic hallway. Close enough. Dispatch crossed his arms as he considered the question. "I dunno. Few hours, maybe. Got pretty hard to tell in that castle. Got all dark when we got close, but I think it was just that witch doing her thing. Didn't feel like sunset or anything."

Reumos took a deep breath. "Gestalt and I left five days ago."

After letting that sink in for a second, he shook his head. "I thought it was strange that you were still there. We saw you inside of the castle after we arrived, and thought to follow you. That's when the young one thought I should hurl him into the sky so he could quickly end your fight with that witch... we all saw how that went."

"It took two hours for me to learn how to manifest one of these corridors. After that, I suggested that we attempt to catch up to you, as it had taken less time than expected. As it turns out, walking from one world to another, even via magical hallway, takes an absurd amount of time. By our estimation, we traveled for one-hundred and thirty hours, only to emerge within the dungeons of that place. However, you experienced that same time as being between one and four hours, at the most. Meaning, while we were inside this space, time was expanded at a ratio of somewhere between 32-times and 130-times that of normal. In short, it appears that time moves rather slowly within this space. Which is to our benefit, really, considering how much time it takes to move without a ship."

Jackie, borderline comatose on the floor, smiled faintly at Reumos' warm voice and rather clinical description of how things had taken place, along with his own observations on the matter. And math! Math was good. She paused a moment to gather her strength and then pushed herself onto her side, before craning her head to look at Reumos. "Wait... Wouldn't that mean we're currently somewhere that's... Technically, I guess, accelerating Enchanted Dominion's collapse? What about the ship in that case? Can we walk through this into the ship?

"...I don't fully understand the mechanics of this space, either. What I do know is that we can get to the ship much faster than if we were to try running across the world itself." Reumos admitted. "Gestalt may know more about them than I do. We should ask him about it when he wakes."

His eyes diverted suddenly, looking... somewhere. Meanwhile, a streak of red shot past Jackie and Dispatch's field of vision, soaring down in the distance, hurtling into the abyss. And then another streak like it followed suit. And another, and then yet another. A shower of lights danced in the distance, all around them.

"Oh that cannot be good," Jackie mumbled as she struggled to her feet. Well, maybe not her feet, as she fell backwards and just sort of... decided that sitting was at least a step above lying on the ground drooling. Looking at the red lights, they looked both ominous and beautiful to her, less like a meteor shower and a little more like a conflagration or a ceremonial sending-off. Puzzled by it, she stared in wonder and made a mental note of it, cursing her lack of a notebook. "As much as I wish I had paper and quill to take notes with, I think we should get moving. Whatever these lights are, I'm sure they're trouble. There's science to be done, but later." Searching for Gestalt, she crawled over to him, patted him down, grabbed the Potions, and scooped his head into her lap. Using her teeth, the only thing that had any grip force left in her body, she opened the bottle slightly, applying some of the tincture to the side of his head, before introducing a few drops to his lips. "I have another Potion and one Ether. Do either of you need a top-off? Dispatch? Reumos?"

"I never participated in any battles, actually." Reumos said. "The most strenuous things I've done today were walk around, throw Gestalt into the air, and catch Dispatch. And I think he made that one easier by himself. He should take the remaining potion."

Dispatch shook his head. "I'm not roughed up enough for that just yet. I think I burned more energy myself than that witch got from me. Save it for an emergency." He was exaggerating, of course, but he wasn't desperate just yet. For now, it was better that they just get out of there. Those lights were definitely bad news, he didn't need to track them to figure that out. Really, though, his biggest concern was whether the ship - and for that matter, the rest of the world - would still be there when they got to it. These magic hallways were probably more convenient, but he and Jackie didn't have a clue how to use them, so they'd need the ship.

"If you're all capable of moving again, we should hurry on ahead. Just because this corridor has given us more time does not mean that it isn't still limited." Reumos walked over to Jackie and pulled Gestalt's unconscious form over his shoulder. He stirred slightly, but seemed a bit delirious.

As they set out, their eyes adjusted a bit more to the darkness. Beneath, it looked like a massive void yawned open, ready to swallow up anything or anyone who strayed from the path. Above was a mess of chaotic movement that was too hard to parse out from such a distance. Still, it was eerily familiar. Ahead of them, in the distance, was a dim light. As they approached, it became more clearly visible, until they could see the brightly-colored wall of the ship just outside of it.

"Well. Easier than I thought. I thought it would've moved by now."

As they reached the end of the tunnel, the light expanded until it blew away their grim surroundings, leaving them in the slightly-less-grim surroundings of Enchanted Dominion. Which was saying something, as it was actively falling apart. In fact, they emerged about a foot in the air, dropping to the ground just below. The ship was rattling, as rocks bounced off the bottom on their way up. The pull was starting to affect the ship, and they could feel it on their bodies, too; another minute like this, and they'd start to be drawn into the chaos above.

Jackie kept her gaze firmly fixed down and in front of her, looking up only to open the cockpit and help the others in. She was rather impressed that Reumos climbed in carrying Gestalt by himself, but shrugged. A king bore the weight of their subjects. And she...

She fired up the engine, making her last set of checks. 

She would likely bear the guilt of her temptation for quite some time. Now was not the time to dwell, and she quickly boosted away from the dark vortexes above, making sure to stay out of range as they made their escape.

Dispatch, though surprised by his appearance in midair, landed on his feet all the same. He watched Jackie pilot the ship, annoyed that he couldn't make heads or tails of the controls himself; he'd flown a multi-man craft for years, but the panel for this ship didn't look anything like the machines he used to fly. So, he turned his attention away, back to the void in the sky.

That witch...she'd talked about Saiyans like she knew them, but no planet like this one had ever been conquered. He hadn't noticed in the heat of the fight, but she'd definitely met one before. Maybe she hadn't been lying when she said she could help him find what he was looking for. Still, it was too late to worry about that now. And he still couldn't stomach the idea of swearing servitude to anyone, least of all a witch who'd destroy her own homeworld. But he'd survived his own world's collapse this time, so she'd probably survive hers. In that case, maybe he could wring her for information next time he saw her.

"Ugh… what happened? Are we alive?" Gestalt asked, slowly pulling himself together.

Reumos set him in one of the seats, sitting down himself. "More or less. What have we learned from this outing?"

"Never fuck with witches."

"...Jacqueline, you used up most of your curatives. Why don't we stop in that Traverse Town place to replenish them and gather more information?"