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And the next adventure was given in the form of a honeymoon trip by a magical/scientific transporter created by Dr. Vincent..... All and all, it probably was the most appreciated wedding gift of the whole lot. Adventurers at heart, this would be an adventure indeed. Actually, it was....and a bit more than they'd expected.... More on that later. The world which Dr. Vincent was to send them was a close analogy of Fred 5's world (actually, closer to Fred 7's, but's who's counting?). Once there, the idea was to quietly aid the ones known as Fred and Astra.....withdraw once done, and everyone would be happy. Wanting to share in the adventure, the newlyweds invited their friends along. Also being hopeless adventures as well, they came along (Andrea 2 and Joan). Ti'mma, being needed here on Terra Prime stays behind. Fine and well. Problem was that a sentient Book tried to intercept one of the party being teleported to this new world. The Book had been tasked by it's owner to seek out and collect people who would be useful due certain traits. The Book hadn't been able to readily detect these characteristics in Joan before on Terra Prime, but during transport they came clear. The Book attempted to intercept the teleport, only to have all Hell break loose! The actual results are rather stunning, but several facts become painfully clear....when the adventurers (along with an un expected, naked blonde woman named Thelma) land right in the middle of a courtyard where the Fred of this world (call him Fred 5a for convenience) and the residential Rowena (Rowena 2) are being taken back to the family castle. Fred 5a, thought dead, has been revealed alive. He had been, after a long and grueling travel, on his way back to tell all of his travels, had thought that his companion Astra dead. After his existence was revealed, the guards had thought him a fake of some sinister purpose....and were cautiously bringing him home (along with Rowena). Seeing the new arrivals as something that perhaps Fred had summoned to escape, the guards moved to attack. A bloody battle would have happened–lives lost–if Jarlath hadn't been able to teleport his group away (taking along Fred 5a, Rowena, and Thelma along as well by mistake). After arriving at the spot where they' originally intended to land (a secluded forest glade a few miles away from the D'Honaire castle...the Books hijack attempt had knocked them off course), they soon freed Fred of his cursed sword and gaining the trust of both he and Rowena. Also, due to a flash of....second sight?.....Fred 5a realized that Astra 5a was still alive and well. Swearing fealty to Jarlath if he would aid him in finding her, the group soon went off to see the elder D'Honaires. Fred was able to tell of what he'd seen and give a warning to the parents (after it was established that he was who he was....and that was a tale in and of itself too long to tell right now) about how it would be dishonorable to take advantage of the unstable political situation in Aqualaria (uh....with the disappearance of Astra and the recent death of the queen....things were a shamble there). That's about the time when the Celestrials come on down for a visit. That's about the time where it's revealed why things were happening on Fred 5a's world as they were. See, the dragon known as Minestus here had been killed, but it's ghost hung around as a green flame that terrorized the countryside, along with a bunch of what would be called Foresaken Manimals (basically, mad killing machine now). Bad enough, but he had also had a revenge plan in effect. A magical Book he'd found (on another world we'll call Nantucket Earth) was carrying out orders to take certain heroic people, use them in a dark magical ritual as ingredients, and then cast a massive spell to unleash a powerful magical curse that would turn a large swath of human beings into Foresaken....unleashing a killing plague that would ravage the land....and eventually cleanse the land of all normal human beings most likely. Problem was... the Book had abducted somebody very special....who's inclusion in this mix would spell disaster that would cause the spell to run wild, malfunction....and threaten to tear huge rips in reality itself. A Champion had been abducted! But that's only half the story. Due to a decree by the Higher Ups, something incredible had happened. The decree had been that the Rules and Champions were to make one final offer to several select groups of people, and from then on things would be different! The only new Champions would come about from the offspring of the old Champions, who'd be given the choice of becoming either new Champions....or living out their days as normal mortals. One group in particular came about due to.....well.....the Higher Ups allowing it. Remember that failed abduction? It happened because the Book can handle either magical based teleports or science based teleports, not the hybrid system of Dr. Vincent! It temporarily scrambled the Book, causing it's spells to do several things. Things like duplicating the adventurers as well as Fred, Rowena, and Thelma (something that should have not been possible due to the nature of Champions....but had happened). The Books had also snatched several others from elsewhere (other Freds, Astras, and even a Malachi) and....while not putting inside the Red Pyramid (the building that housed the Book and held it's subjects prisoner until needed), it had put them on Nantucket Earth (named thus since the 20th century Nantucket–as well as one starship Voyager...and a few other goodies later on–had gotten dragged back to the past where the Book and the Red Pyramid was....due to (in part) a side effect of a event that brought magic to this world). These new people (inside and outside the Red Pyramid who heard and accepted one last offer to become Champions by the Rules and Agents) were to stop the Book before it got around to using Joan 2 (Joan's duplicate). Easier said than done. The Rules and Agents got a few more Champions out of the bargain than expected, but that's a bit more than we need to go into right now. Anyway, even with help from fellow Champions such as the Doctor and his crew, the struggle was incredible. The Book was defeated and destroyed, and the Champion's mission accomplished their primary goal....but the Book had the last laugh in casting a curse that was changing those who weren't Champions (with the exception of those newly born within the confines of the Red Pyramid......long story) slowly into Unseelie creatures! Once completed, the victims would in quick order go mad and then become the evil creatures they'd been changed into....in mind as well as body. Some of the victims had been sent to other worlds. Some sent only to various points all over Nantucket Earth. The only thing that could break the curse in time was one Crystallic that had come along with one of the new Champions from this fracas (a new Synizn). Even then, the task was complicated by the fact it had to be done all at once with all of them together.....or the attempt would just fail. Original estimates by the mages put the time limit on this operation at a week. Withe the use of the TARDIS, this was a LOT of time....they hoped. In passing the fact that if one of the subjects that had been teleported abroad landed on a planet where the magic was so great as the ley lines were visible to the naked eye....the time limit would be half that time! And events at first seemed to point to such a thing. But then we see that the time limit is even shorter due to reasons as of yet unknown! Something had altered the Unseelie curse. Accelerating it's effects as well as making it contagious to those who were analogs of it's victims! They (Jarlath's group) been able to rescue three of their original targets, as well as picking up two other victims (one an evil Astra analog and one a Fred analogs). The Fred analog was proving useful to the others. While not turning into an Unseelie fairy, the little brush to his Matrix had been.....interesting. See, this Fred had been transformed an empty headed young girl before the coming of the Unseelie curse. Due to just that touch, the Fred had been able to regain his (her?) memories and regain his former mentality. Was even able to return to a male. However, the interaction also caused him to change into a fairy creature! A Seelie creature called a pixie, in fact! Wonderful, except if the guy allowed the final shift to happen, he'd seal not only his fate (never able to return to a human being), but would also cause the others who'd been accursed to be doomed to be Unseelie. Resisting was painful for this Fred (call him Pixie Fred for convenience), but honor and duty demanded he resist......despite the risks of pain and even insanity if it went on too long! Pixie Fred is able to cut down the time of search for the others, and as such has been tagging along with the others as Jarlath's groups use the TARDIS and Dr. Vincent's teleporter to go to the worlds where the victim's landings had been logged by the Book just before it was destroyed (and failed to destroy those logs). Now the worry here is that something is causing the Unseelie curse to accelerate even faster than expected. Reasons unknown as of yet. Now, the next part could have the working title of: K-9 and Company Not much later after the next Unseelie Fred had arrived on an alien world, he began his mutation into an Unseelie creature. It got to a point where new instincts (aka the Unseelie curse) took over for a moment and he would have gone out and....er....taken the elfin female who's laugh he'd heard on the winds. That and he'd kill the male elf. Once certain acts (i.e. rape) was completed, the Unseelie curse would be unstoppable and not only would this Fred's fate be sealed, but those of the other afflicted. The Curse had also made the mistake of thinking that similarities left by the transformation of Romana from Time Lord to elf meant that she was actually an analogous Astra. This was wrong, and the Curse sulked off in disappointment, but not before it's touch changed the former Time Lords from Terran Prime elves into High Elves (i.e. Germanic equivalent of the Seelie). Fortunately, the Unseelie Fred had made the mistake of thinking another member of this picnic he was crashing was just a fancy second picnic basket. K-9 stunned the charging Unseelie Fred. It was determined that the only way that the elfin Doctor and Romana could aid this guy would be by taking him by TARDIS to Terra Prime (fighting the vehicle's tendency to go it's own way) to get aid. They left only a few moments before Jarlath's group arrived to track Unseelie Fred down, so this led to some fear and confusion....but they soon got back together when Dr. Vincent figured out the problem and got them all together again. Depositing their latest find back in Nantucket Earth, the rescue party then headed to rescue the last Unseelie curse victim. They arrive on Rifts Earth only to run smack into a "causality paradox" that was causing the acceleration of this curse. See, there had been this well meaning elfin Champion named Morgana Wordeni who'd, seeing the affliction upon the Astra who'd they'd stumbled across soon upon her arrival, had used a rare magic to try to break the hold the curse had on her (curing her, causing it to die without a host, and then halting the mutations in the others in the process). It was something called a "wish" spell. However, at the critical juncture, Fred the Pixie showed up and knocked this "cure" askew. See, the pixie had been touched by the Unseelie Curse and while the Curse couldn't transform the pixie into an Unseelie Fey....but it instead completed the transformation of Fred the Pixie fully into one of the fairy. By doing this, the Unseelie curse found enough of a host to survive. It then itself mutated into the virulent thing that the Champions had been seeing in the Unseelie accursed. It went off to the others and that was that. Fred the Pixie renamed himself Triakoth (<iKnight of the Fey</i) and it looked like all was lost. While Morgana had been successful in curing her patient (and was slowly changing back to human), it looked like those other people were doomed. That's when it was put forward that the only one who'd be able to save the others would be that odd Zerm fellow who'd NOT been evil. Point in fact, Zerm had been able to witness the disaster and contacted the adventurers before they could contact him. Zerm needed to get some rare, willing, donations from several kinds of mate pairs of beings (unicorns, kitsune, and High Elves). They had that in the adventurer's family (much to Zerm's surprise), and the Unseelie Afflicted were cured before King Oberon could come and kill the Afflicted before they became Unseelie. (Note: Oberon wasn't evil, but was not going to let the Unseelie gain yet more converts in the manner. Not good for anyone, including the Afflicted). A bit surprised Oberon (and those who'd followed him) were at Zerm's success. There was much to discuss with Zerm after he recovered from the stress of magic casting. Zerm couldn't, however, return to normal those who'd gotten so far transformed by the Unseelie curse, so Triakoth, the Doctor, and Romana were now stuck forevermore as what they now were. Triakoth and the others were ceded over to Jarlath's "court" (Eternity Inc.). This was done because as heroic as these new Feys were, they just couldn't nor wouldn't be able to fit in and function in the Seelie Court (and there was no such thing as rogue Fey....I fear). That done, the adventurers were returned back to where Zerm had scooped them up by his Crystallic. Dr. Vincent found that all records of the coordinates to the world that Zerm was on gone (Zerm liked his privacy). Then, there was only two things left to do. One was for Astra to fight and kill her evil twin in honorable combat (took a bit of doing but it got done). Then, there was what to do now with those newly cured Afflicted and other adbuctees from the Red Pyramid. Jarlath's group would welcome into the family those who'd chosen to become Champions. Those who hadn't become Champions would be returned home. That and the adventurers would aid those who still needed to complete their quests by either coming along or standing in for those who couldn't go home and finishing that unfinished business.
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