Circling Up (Part 2)

Chiana

"H-hey? I found him wondering around in the woods like this," the gray girl, Chi says, taking the weak and sick man by the hand. "He needs help!"

What the frell is she doing here? And why doesn't she smell and feel like she did like we'd left her back in Xanth?!) Why doesn't she have the air of "Champion" upon her?!

Why does she still smell Nebari?!

As things turn out, this is Chi, my analog sister who I had rescued earlier on (by my clock). However, this is an earlier version of her! Meaning that she hasn't been transformed yet both into a Champion or a dragoness yet!!

Oh frell, this can't be good. I-I mean I missed temporal mechanics in school (ditched classes that day for a day out on town with Nerri) but since then learned some stuff. I mean, if by now I haven't learned something from the Doctor, a Timelord, then I'd be absolutely hopeless!!

This Chi comes from some time between where she got snatched away from me back on her Moya and the time she was delivered back to me, transformed (re: 46322).

See she has questions herself, like how she got here but she puts them aside for a second and tells us that the Time Traveler here (didn't call him by that title but that IS who this is) had suddenly appeared out of thin air in that shiny time machine of his and plowed right INTO a pile of boxes a bunch of weird looking sebacianoids . . . . er . . . humanoids with animal features were poking about. Seems that some kind of revolt had occurred (old man of some type . . . . maybe this Dr. Moreau) and the humanoid animals had begun to loot. Loot after having killed their creator, as it turns out. Killed him and what the animal men had started the Time Traveler's time machine had pretty much finished off in a rather frightening way!!

We Companions had already come to the conclusion that Dr. Moreau's creations were probably an inferior mirror of what Minestus did when he finally made Manimals. Irony in that, but that's what we'd concluded. Don't know how REALLY intelligent and whatnot they would have been, but whatever the case it appears that amongst other things human beings (and Nebari as it shall turn out) have much stronger immune systems. H- 142 wasn't designed to kill it victims immediately (wasn't instantly lethal), but it was designed to first slow them down (make them weak from sickness) until the victim finally weakened enough and died from the lethal effects. It killed the animal men within mere moments and it is doing a REALLY bad number on the Time Traveler (who's now passed into feverous ravings).

Lucky for him Chi ran into him in the woods and found US! WE are able to whip this man made plague with Inquirer's medical countermeasure kit (which has to be robust considering the kind of war that Enemy of her waged)! Oh, as a side effect the Time Traveler --guy we'll find out calls himself H.G. Wells, which those like Elrondir mutters about it figuring-- will be he'll never have to worry about being sick ever again (called pan- immunity).

For good measure both Mina and Allan get the same stuff that Inquirer is dishing out, just in case the germ warfare stuff is catching enough despite measures taken. Doesn't even hurt, the shot. Which is good, considering the rather barbaric way I'd seen on Earth TV shows...

I mean who out there on civilized worlds still use hypodermic needles?! I know that Crichton's people were primitive but. . . .

Er, right. Back to it.

What with Nebari having such strong and drad immune systems, Chi's safe enough. Would not even be a carrier. As an aside, I wouldn't have dreamed having so much fun with so many before becoming Champion if that hadn't been the case . . .

B-but that's not important right now!

What I finally have to tell Chi after she tells me how she arrived here (a glimpse of a blue winged creature I know is a cat from her description, even IF I never heard of winged ones) is that I cannot tell her what's happened after she disappeared.

"Hey, please tell me you didn't skip out of YOUR temporal mechanics class?" I ask her pointedly. Even IF her future self will be suffering from memory loss of these and upcoming events (at least until we got the cure for it), who's to say we might reveal too much and change the course of things . . .

. . .

Or rather, attempt to say too much which would change her destiny becoming a Champion. I did remember how the Celestrials would step in to prevent such tampering (even well intentioned tampering).

Hey, it's not like I WANT her to not become a Champion. . . . So I'm not gonna tell her anything she shouldn't know and there!!

She is a bit fussy (was I ever like that?) and put upon, but accepts that I and the others won't tell her future, until . . .

. . .

Hey, the guy has godlike powers. Not like that's easy to counter or guard against!

"Chi, my dear!" a cheerful voice says calls from the side as I and the others find ourselves suddenly frozen. "You're not playing nice!

"I WANTED that Time Traveler to spread that plague!!" a winged blue cat grinds out angrily, losing all playfulness in his voice.

His mood then swings again as what I believe is the Brazen Man steps into our frozen field of view. How polite of him, doing that! Not like we could turn our heads and look his way, right?

Oh frell... What's going to happen now?

"Well, at least you managed something like keeping my newest pets in one place," Khaos continues jovially. "Allan and Mina, so NICE to make your acquaintances!

The still magically frozen Chi floats up next to Allan and Mina, who are now floating a bit away from us and . . .they begin to grow and change right before our EYES, becoming . . .!

. . .

Hey, didn't Chi say that she became a dragoness and THEN got whisked away? I mean, I know that something was wrong when she showed up, still smelling Nebari and all that, but . . .

Oh get OFF it Chiana and gat a GRIP! Not like that's really important right now and you already KNEW her memories of this time was scrambled up, what little she could recall! So of course some events might be outta order!!

Within seconds clothing shreds and tears away, leaving tatters hanging off not only Chi (who's now a fine specimen of a female Oriental dragon) but also off of the Oriental dragons both Mina and Allan have become (and not bad looking ones at that, as well!).

If nothing else, this Khaos has good tastes in transformations . . .

. . .

Anyway, JUST like a bad storybook villains (or Nile Empire villains from one of Inquirer's Torg role-playing game sessions) they then tell us basically their brilliant plan! Or rather, Khaos does. The Brazen Man hasta get back to the Excalibur and supervise a LIVE action three way death match between members of the Excalibur, Star Gate Activity --a parallel version of that SG-1 show (http://en .wiki pedia .org/ wik i/Stargate _SG- 1) on that Scifi Channel I find watched a few episodes of-- forces, and the entire sixth year class of some school called Hogwarts (a secret magical school for budding magic users).

Find out later that some boy named Harry Potter ( http: //en.wiki pedia.org /wiki /Harry_potter) hales from that place: Hogswart.

. . .

Really ironic thing I learn from this raving maniac is that both SGA and Hogwarts hale not only the same world (each unaware of each other, but to be expected when living in a twilight world of secrets), but they hale from MY John Critchon's Earth!

Yeah, you got it! The same Earth that my Crichton (first human being I'd ever met) hales from! The same Earth that the Doctor manipulated a super wormhole to suck it down for the Celestrials to take care of to put in a safe place (along with a Torg version of Earth). The same world (along with Torg Earth) that got put by Rules and Agents (as a fine poke at US for dumping this mess in their laps, I'm sure) into Terra Prime's Solar system (three class M planets in the same orbital plane, just something like a third of a orbit away from each other)!

Meaning if and when John Crichton (IASA astronaut) learns of THIS he's gonna SCREAM!! Why? Because not only has there been magic being flung about even before meeting the Doctor and his Companions (re: 21460)! Right in his own backyard, magic had been flung around and he didn't know it! That and because of the SGA's existence, his Farscape project was a joke because HUMAN beings had already been venturing amongst the stars.....

Yeah, a real sick irony this . . . Later, Inquirer guesses that IASA made a great cover for "discoveries" that might want to be brought to light that had been discovered/taken from other worlds . . .

Nevermind.

Uh, what Khaos is planning on doing (he brags to us living statues) is he's going to first let Eye Meets Eye Take place between Mina and Allan (whatever else this Khaos is, he isn't blind to the feelings between those two) and THEN send the lot back in time (Terra Prime's timeline, that is) and muck up things. Instead of Inquirer's parents (Probe and Evis 7) becoming Champions, those three dragons would!!

Uh, doesn't this fool know . . . he can't do that?

Apparently not because he makes them disappear, apparently thinking he CAN do it. Appears, also, that he thinks that WE Champions are his playthings (what with us being part of the Office of Entropy and whatnot and he thinking HE is it's head).

Finds out REAL quickly he's not and we're not! We Champions are part of both Chaos and Order (a strange pairing indeed) and the Rule (Rule 1 of all Rules) who suddenly flashes into existence (along with a miffed Agent 1), using THEIR powers to stop Khaos dead in his tracks.

He'd been about to zap out and zap both Probe and Evis 7, snuffing them before they could become Champions and later on go and ruin his fun (see episode 50513 for what Khaos wanted for fun). Basically, he wanted the gryphons (who had double spirits within each) to eventually drive their mortal shells to insanity.

Great laughs, I'm sure he'd have at that...

Freller.

What happens instead is that both Rule and Agent grill Khaos good and long. The Rule and Agent have released us from our stasis. However, the way these Celestrials look right now I and the others do not DARE interrupt!!

In the end, the ever defiant (and eternally STUPID) Khaos bristles when Rule 1 basically orders him back to his home plane, never to stray from it again.

. . . .

MY! Whatta big bootprint Khaos got on his rump for mouthing off to the Rule! Almost lose it laughing, all of us, as we see the flying cat sail through a rift in space (back to his home plane of existence, I gather).

We quickly sober, however, when we realize . . .

Our missing are STILL missing!

We say as much to the Celestrials . . .

Rule and Agent make a small gesture and three small, brightly colored dragonets who look vaguely like that one Oriental dragon from Disney's Mulan. Another bout of Celestrial power and the trio find themselves restored to their new dragon forms (and then to human seemings that mimicked their old, pre-Champion forms). In other words Mina and Allan look again as they had before being snatched up by Khaos and Chi looks like her old Nebari female self. However, they are still dragons (Oriental ones at that). That and they are Champions now due to treachery from Agent 1's camp, of all things.

This deal does NOT look good to the other Offices and quiet a bit of talk to calm things down. No mortal entities could spoof the safeguards preventing just any old person from traveling back to that ONE critical moment when the Champion's ranks were available to anyone who volunteered to accepting Rules and Agents (a rare event in and of itself, folks). However, Khaos isn't mortal. Not only that, but belonged to Agent 1's camp (even if he suffered from delusions of grandeur) and bypassed them.

Well, stronger measures shall be taken to make sure this doesn't happen again, but the spinoff of all THIS mess is that those three Oriental dragones (Mina, Allan, and Chi) made it CLOSE enough to the place (the VERY last place) Rules and Agents could accept mortals into the Champion ranks by just asking (and them accepting applications). After that time, only way into the ranks was for mortals to fall in love (true love, folks) with a Champion.

That IS how Chiana got into the ranks, by falling for Sigin. The fact that she became a dragoness herself is . . . only a side issue we needn't go into right here and now.

. . .

Oh, the other Offices' feathers are ruffled, but . . . this hadn't been planned by anyone but a fool (who got his powers yanked by none other than Agent 1 for this headache).

Ruffled feather problem is solved AND because of the strange circumstances no Quests were needed to make this appointment official.

However . . .

The Rule, quiet frankly, had hoped that the Champions would have tumbled onto a growing threat up nearby. See, Khaos got snookered by his "close friend" and got tricked into stealing that Stargate device. An almost magical scientific device that worked well enough IN it's home reality, but who's existence HERE in this still "physics in flux" reality . . . Was going to soon tear holes in things, explosively. Rip APART this Eath and several Earths in other realities (due to wormholes being connections to other space/time stuff and all that). The joke had been (according to Khaos) suggested by one Randal Flagg, who'd said the theft would be fun to watch, seeing all the human beings scramble about like ants trying to find it's location . . .Khaos had believed RF.

. . .

The resident Rule of this universe (a non-Free Willed type) had been rather . . . slow on the uptake and was only NOW making request for aid. Being the nearest Champions on hand the Rule asks (with a bit of chagrin, this has NOT been a good day for his and the Agents Office).

"Of COURSE we'll bloody well do something about it!" is Allan's answer to that one, accepting an official Quest though one wasn't needed for Validation.

Sheesh!

But forms have to be followed and all that, even if it makes a Celestrial look rather foolish in a way. After the request is accepted Allan is rather sharply told that by Agent 1 (who's STILL seething about Khaos).

That done, the now sleeping Time Traveler is dropped off at a nearby Inn (after it is determined by Inquirer that he was no longer infectious AND the man made plague's supposed short lifespan had run it's course). He wakes up, with a few hundred pounds (or whatnot) to help tide him over until he gets his life back in order (his Time Machine is a wreck so no more time travel, alas).

The Stargate device is found and taken from it's hiding place and yanked bodily out by tractorbeam by TARDIS, in front of witnesses. What with time being short, subtlety goes by the wayside!

The Doctor is weighing options on how best to dispose of the Stargate (it's now too unstable to risk TARDIS dematerialization travel through space, must less space/time). He could risk opening the Eye of Harmony (an entrance to a black hole the TARDIS gets it's power from), but that has problems as well.

Then, a solution presents itself in the form of Q himself. He overstepped himself and . . . Well, read in Chi's words what exactly happened in Q overstepping himself (re: 46322). Thus, Q does the heavy lifting for THIS Quest. Oh, he makes it appear in a mall back in Denver, Colorado (USA), but that's not HIS problem. The Champions hadn't been specific about where to put it.

The rest? Well, the deathmatch is stopped and all surviving players put back in place. . . . The Hogwarts people are perhaps the most rattled of the lot (they hadn't realized Muggles could DO some of the things that had been done to their magical asses)!

As a parting "gift", when it is determined that it is NOW feasible (and since they no longer had to hide their abilities from M and the rest of the world), Inquirer sets up and takes off in that one special fighter ship she'd gotten from that Scorpius chap (a sleek little PK space fighter called a Prowler) and . . . handles the breakouts that some of the invaders managed on the English defensive forces. A few quick passes and a bit of ship weaponry fire and you got toasted tripods!!

"I've been wanting to do that for quiet a while now," Inquirer sighs, feeling MUCH better now. Had really bothered her, not being able to intercept the invaders early on while in route. . . and maybe make them see reason.

Now? Now had been past time for talk, by radio traffic she'd picked up . . .

Now had become a time to kill . . .

. . .

That done, the TARDIS finally leaves (permanently!) the LXG reality. Chi gets dropped back off on that Moya . . . and the rest we already know. The amnesia? Well, a last (delayed action) parting shot done to her by Khaos, who had plans for her still. Godlike spell overlooked by all but Rules and Agents (but who knew that the Doctor had already been up to the tasks)...

The TARDIS arrives back home only to find some rather UNWELCOME news back on Terra Prime.

1. It's always in the back of a Champion's mind: eventually their non-Champion friends . . .will go away. Alas, the Champions' friend, Dr. Vincent . . .has passed on.

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