When the light faded, Zoe and Karyn found themselves in a bright room filled with a strange fog. Peering into the fog, Karyn was unable to see anything discernible through the mist--just lights and shadows moving in strange patterns. She caught a glimpse of something deeper in --a city street, maybe?-- but it was all uncertain. Wherever this room was, it was enormous and seemingly impossible-- and there was no sign of Jon in sight.
Zoe, who had spent the first few moments reeling at the stone actually working, noticed it too. "So I get that stone took us somewhere," she said. "But I'm not seeing Jon."
Karyn frowned down at the stone in her hand. Either it wasn't working properly, or something was interfering with it. Not that Karyn really knew enough about the stone to know why it might fail to work, or what could interfere with a reality warping stone. She held it up and was considering whether to try again or change the wording of her wish to be more specific.
"There's no need for that now," came a voice from the fog, alarmingly close.
Karyn was so startled she nearly fumbled the stone, before grabbing a hold of it again and holding it forward in the direction of the voice like a weapon. She exchanged a glance with Zoe, who shrugged, then looked back at the fog. "Who's there?" she called back.
"No need for alarm," the voice replied. Something about its tone sounded strange, almost automated. It was making all the right sounds, even putting them together and inflecting them perfectly, but something about the accent sounded a little too perfect, everything a little too precise. "You are not in any danger, and I believe there has been a misunderstanding."
"Where's Jon?" Karyn called, not exactly comforted by the words.
"And where are you?" added, sounding more pissed than frightened. Zoe did angry well, Karyn knew. "Show yourself, creep."
"Very well." A figure stepped out of the fog -- humanoid, but strangely uniform and featureless, a silhouette of bright red of perfectly ordinary and orderly proportions. Karyn could not distinguish any features, nor even really tell whether the shape was more male or female. The only attribute it did have was a starburst of white light shining from the middle of its torso.
"What. The. Fuck!" Zoe swore enthusiastically. Now she was starting to sound properly alarmed.
"I would advise everyone to be calm," the figure said, voice coming less from its head than its entire form. "I have no intention of harming you, but you have brought a very powerful object in here -- one quite beyond the usual capability of your species."
Karyn looked down at the rock. "You know what this is?" she asked.
"Not exactly," the red figure admitted. "But I am aware of the stress its mere existence puts on reality. Needless to say, I recognize that you could cause quite a bit of harm with this, and am suitably encouraged to find an amenable outcome to whatever brings you here."
Zoe and Karyn exchanged another glance, even as Karyn kept brandishing the stone. Then the questions started coming out in rapid succession.
"Where is this place?"
"Who the hell are you?"
"Where's Jon?"
"Are you some kind of crazy alien abducting people?"
The red figure remained impassive through the barrage. "Some of those answers are a little more complicated than you might like," it said. "Leave it be said that I am a.... contractor, brought here for a specific purpose by my client. This place is a space I control to fulfill my job. I was hired to host a... intervention on a selection of your species."
"So you are a crazy alien abducting people!" Zoe spat. She sounded almost happy about that, though Karyn supposed in all this insanity it would feel nice to at least get something right.
"Alien is a relative and frankly useless term, and my cognition is just fine," the figure said. For the first time, its voice betrayed a small hint of emotion-- a certain indignation. "And I was not abducting your friend and the others. I was merely borrowing them to fulfill my commission."
"Your commission?" Karyn wondered. Then she registered the term he used. "Others? How many people are here?!"
"Are Zelda and Athena here, too?" this from Zoe.
"Most likely, yes," the figure assured. "And they are all fine -- more than fine, by the standards of my client -- but the nature of my commission is such that any of them will not be... quite the same. And to answer your question," it said, turning its light to Karyn, "my commission required the temporary extraction of thirty six subjects, though thanks to the time alterations that has increased to over fifty."
"Thirty six... time alterations?" Karyn mumbled, now entirely lost. She was not sure at all what she was expecting of Jon's disappearance, but this was way too much.
The red figure paused, then shifted its body back in the direction of the strange fog. "Ah, the scenario should be coming out of time dilation anyhow. Don't worry, that's a good thing," it said, voice affecting reassurance for Karyn and Zoe. "It means your friends can be returned with you soon, now that they have been developed into an appropriate amount of species and sexes."
Karyn and Zoe could only gawk at the figure.
"Ah, but you are confused," said the figure. "Perhaps it would be best if I show you."
