Morgana could feel it... Weakness. Ever since she left the security of her realm, and into the cold hard world that Earth had become after the retreat of magic.
She was ageing, rapidly. Every second now, she spent away from her grove was like a pool of blood flowing from a gushing would at her side. Every breath a little harder. Her once black locks, had turned silver, and her hands... her beautiful hands, just started to wither. This did nothing to effect the power she wielded, or indeed her... focus.
The future lies elsewhere, in a town of metal. How deplorable such a situation was. The portal's location was certainly not random. Was it intended to slow her down? She eyed the round moon high in the sky, as it began its decent. "I know you are watching me," She said in the end. "You can not stop me... I will journey to the future, and save this world from destruction."
She arrived at the town, taking a moment to see what mankind has wrought. She last remembered the sword as the preferred weapon and now has seen them replaced by projectiles of iron. Truly, mankind was heading for war. She could sense the countless millions and millions of dead, each soul transcending into unbound time, making passage into past as well as future. Time was not linear once removed from their bodies, and so she knew just how bad the future was. Truly the world must be in a state of anarchy and chaos... what in the world could have possessed humanity to kill so many in such a short space of time?
She only hoped, she could save whatever was left of humanity after all this. Or before?
She had become a withered old crone by the time she went into the town... reluctantly she pulled out the air bubble. It was the one item she could not take with her... it had to make it's own way into the future. Was there a place she could hide it? She glanced around and decided that the only place would be the graveyard. She carefully walked by, trying to see if there was any place... fortunately, there seemed to be a fresh coffin laid down.
"Mr Ironhand... who gave his life in defence of law and order," She said looking at it.
"Oi miss, can I 'elp you?" Asked the Pastor.
"Sleep..." she whispered.
The man suddenly became dizzy. He walked away a bit, before stumbling into unconsciousness.
Morgana pulled with all her might to open the coffin. This man would serve one last time. "Protect my Element Ironhand... and I will reward you," She said. She placed the air-bubble on the hand of the corpse, as it looked at her with it's dead eyes. The air bubble seemed to flash briefly at the transfer of ownership... Morgana was quite pleased. This should avoid the hassle of all the rules laid down... she could easily regain po session of the Air-Bubble from a dead man.
Now she had to last long enough. She will hold on... as long as she had to.
Lomasi caught her sister and her friends exactly as her grandfather said. They were crossing a small river on their way to Hedge. "Sister!" She yelled at the top of her voice.
Kimi glanced back feeling strangely glad to see her.
Lomasi all the more, as she embraced the girl with all her might. "I bring you things you will need," she said. "I got clothes and-"
"Who are you?" Asked Samuel getting very confused suddenly. It looked like their group had just become even larger.
"I am Lomasi, Sister to Kimi," she said with a smile. "I will go with her." The young girl took for a moment the two alien creatures. She was prepared by their sight, but it was still awe inspiring to see something not quite as human. It was exotic.. thrilling even. The young native knew, she had to see more.
"But you can't!" Said Samuel. "We're going somewhere er-"
"I know. You go to the future. I wish to go there too." Lomasi said still smiling. Each person turned to Nikki.
The little skunk girl looked confused. "I um- I don't know. This didn't happen before. If it did you never gave me any instructions about it," she said looking at a loss.
"You mean... someone changed history? Again?" Erica looked concerned. Was it her?
"Kimi can change history too," she said glancing at the fey-child. "We should get moving soon. Morgana is already there."
"What do we do when we see her?" She asked carefully.
"Well- either we all go or nobody can go... Morgana knows how to direct the magic, and she needs us as... er... in the future its called Potentium. It's like momentum? But magical. I learned that in school," She said smiling proudly.
"Potential momentum? So we're just batteries to her?" asked Erica warily. "I'm not sure I like that..." She didn't understand the concepts of magic, but she took note that Nikki had a basic understanding. Did that mean magic was a common coinsurance? Or was Nikki given specific lessons? Either was plausible.
"Morgana can't hurt us now... but we need her. The portal will open, but it won't make the sunlight visible... She's got to magic the portal in such a way that the sunlight comes into the past. Erica is the anchor for that. Morgana will cast the spell on her... and we must not interfere until the last second."
Samuel tensed a bit as his young daughter looked to him.
"Dad you're gonna have to... get in between them. It might hurt a bit... but you'll be hit with the sunlight. Breaking the spell will stun Morgana... then all the non-changed will get exposed to the sunlight... and you have to make sure that you go through the portal, after you change. Not before..." She bit her lip in concern. There was a small possibility that Lomasi would not make it if she turned into something that couldn't make it through the portal... they would have to watch her carefully. Also if history had changed... does that mean her father wouldn't be what he became to her? She hoped not...
"But what about you getting home?" Samuel asked very worried of his future daughter. Morgana was interested in directing the portal to Erica's time, not that of Nikki.
The skunk girl looked unsure. "First lets get you back home then worry about me." Nikki looked down a bit.
"You're my daughter, it's my job to worry," said Samuel gently.
"The truth is... with history changed, nothing is certain any more."
Andy started her work routines as instructed. First of all there were diagrams to verify on the various measurements they did. It wasn't long though before she was bending the various metals as she used to do. She just needed to treat this metal with some acid, but her container had ran out. She went to the stores where she thought they were kept...when she ran into- she screamed.
"Relax...." said the creature. It was a xenomoph. Well not quite... She still had a human face, half human and half alien with a humanoid body. Her tail however looked particularly vicious, as did her claws.
Andy stared like a rabbit caught in headlights. Suddenly she was apologetic. "S-Sorry," she said quickly. "You.. you seem familiar? Haven't I seen you before?"
"I was... one of the first seen on television. I'm Alison," she said. "I help melt the metals..."
"You mean you..."
"Yep," he said with some mirth in his voice. "I save us a lot on acid. Fortunately this body has a gland on my tail to secrete the acid. I can do so quite... adequately."
Andy shivered just a bit, her rabbit tail even doing a little twitch. She smoothed her hair some, as she extended her hand to the girl. "I-It's nice to meet you. I'm... well... I'm Andy," she said blushing a bit.
Alison arched a slight eyebrow. "Nice to meet you... if I can help at all with anything, just ask."
Lilly really liked this dance teacher. She was a changed like everyone else. She had green skin, with large eyes, and long prehensile tail. She was build long and thin moving gracefully. To say she was a lizard felt rude though as she was so warm in her blue eyes. Lilly didn't know what she was... But there was something about her voice that made her feel happy. She was rather glad that there weren't any boys here. At least she didn't have to worry about Bruce looking at her in a funny way. She almost caught him trying to pull her tails yesterday. Miss Violet gave him a stern warning after that. She just wasn't sure what that boy wanted from her.
"Okay girls, stand in a line feet apart. I am going to teach you warming up exercises," She explained.
Lilly rolled her eyes a bit. Why couldn't they get to the dancing and music? She recalled in her last childhood that she really enjoyed this before. That memory came with crystal clarity, even if she couldn't admit it to anyone. It wasn't cool to enjoy it. So obviously she had to keep it secret... She stood as asked by the teacher glancing down the line of the other girls. They were also dressed similar to her with leotards in keeping with the unity feel of the school. It was strange that everything had a uniform, even swimming. She glanced around but couldn't find Artemis or Jenny.
"M-Miss?" the child asked.
"Yes dear?" smiled the green teacher.
"Where's Jenny and Artemis?" She asked looking around.
"Oh- they had to run an errand and were given special permission. Miss Violet said they have certain extra curriculum activities." She said a bit confused herself about it. It was a little strange, but in this day and age they had to be flexible.
Lilly frowned a bit. So they were probably doing magic girl stuff... "Can't I go with em?"
"I'm told they'll be back at the end of school. Sorry dear, but I don't know where they are. But you can make other friends here."
Lilly glanced at the other girl warily. They all looked at her back with a bemused look. The two tailed squirrel girl sighed a bit. She just... didn't know how.
"Now come on," said the teacher. "I know some of are still trying to understand how to move with your new bodies, and might even be a little scared," she said smiling gently. Children by and large were able to shake off the strange change, given that they were still growing. However a number were filled with fear initially and she liked to think her class helped make the transition better. It was both therapeutic and practical. "I'm going to show you some classical arts first, and you'll have to tell me what the music makes you feel... then I want you to try making a dance that expresses that same emotion."
