Taylor and the Twisted Game Part 31

"What do you think?" Leet asked as he gestured towards his portal device that was sitting on the folding table next to the chair one of Skitter's puppets was using to get a decent look at his prototype.

"How the hell are you still alive?" Taylor asked after a couple of seconds studying the science fair quality device that Leet had cobbled together from 'random' bits of junk.

"Decent safety protocols and luck, mostly luck," Uber admitted.

"What's wrong with my portal device?" Leet asked 'innocently', doing his best to hide his amusement at her reaction to his initial prototype.

Taylor shook her head. "Let's start with the electric fan and the whistle then we'll jump to the fact that you stuck everything on plywood rather than something more durable."

"Not going to complain about the electromagnet?" Uber asked with amusement.

Taylor glanced at the coiled wire wrapped around the metal socket the mana ruby fit in. "No, being able to shut the portal down by instantly removing the magnets seems like a reasonable precaution considering where I got the schematic."

"It also lets us control the size of the portal by adjusting the current which is why we didn't go with a physical magnet and a lever system," Leet explained.

"And the whistle?" Taylor's second puppet asked.

"It was cheap and I figured the prototype was going to explode," Leet admitted with a grin.

"Which doesn't explain why you needed a whistle," Taylor replied using the first puppet.

"We're basically using it to control," Leet paused as he reconsidered his choice of words, "influence the destination of the portal. Changing the speed of the fan lets me control the whistle's tone which changes the destination of the portal."

"Probably," Uber cut in. "We're still running tests but the device is sensitive to vibrations, even walking near it can change the location the portal opens to."

"Does that mean the portal's unstable?" Taylor asked warily.

Leet shook his head. "It seems stable once it's opened but we haven't tested things beyond using a geiger counter and taking atmosphere samples, mostly because even a small portal rapidly eats through the mana ruby."

"How rapidly?" Taylor asked.

"Twenty one minutes with the portal small enough to stick your hand through, less than twenty seconds with a full sized portal you could walk through," Uber offered.

"Which explains why you want me to test it with a puppet," Taylor mused.

"That and your puppets are smaller which should give you more time to explore in case the portal closing cuts the link," Leet replied as he pulled a fishnet bag of plastic easter eggs out of his inventory and handed it to Skitter. "Grab some samples if you can."

"I'm fairly sure that's illegal," Sophia spoke up as she walked out of the bathroom.

Taylor froze as her puppets turned to look at the girl that had made her life miserable for the last year and a half, or at least her void elf form. 'Keep it together, she doesn't know who you are. Blowing up or screaming at her isn't going to help and she had an insane shard in her head since she triggered, that can't have helped.'

"Are you going to rat us out?" Uber asked, fairly sure she wouldn't but wanting to make sure.

"Nah, I'm just trying to blow off some steam before I snap and put a couple of idiots in the morgue," Sophia replied, not seeing a reason to mention that the only reason she'd swung by was that she'd wanted a place to think and get away from the fact that she sucked at dealing with grief and drunks.

"Issues?" Leet asked, noticing the tension in her shoulders and the fact that Ember wasn't with her.

"Family drama," Sophia replied as she walked over.

"Enough said," Leet replied as he fiddled with the dial he'd wired to the fan.

{Shaper, can I talk you into checking an alternate world's soil and plants to make sure there aren't any harmful viruses or toxins that shouldn't be there?} Taylor asked Shaper.

[Science!] Shaper replied cheerfully.

Taylor pulled a puppet out of her inventory and handed it to Amy. "Can I get you to summon Shaper so we can run some tests on the other world?"

"Sure," Amy replied as she activated the puppet.

Shaper glanced down at her cloth fingers. "Can you change my puppet into a real girl?"

Taylor cast her Riding Hood spell on Shaper's puppet, slightly surprised when it actually changed the puppet into a human girl. 'So much for the programmers not having the spell formulas for changing inorganic material into organic and cheating on everything, maybe they just didn't want us having symbiotes.'

Shaper smiled as she changed her puppet from a human girl into the group's upgraded void elf species. "Much better."

[Can I get a puppet?] Phase asked Skitter hopefully, wanting the chance to explore and not think about her host's problems.

{Don't cause trouble}, Taylor replied as she pulled another puppet out of her inventory and handed it to Shaper along with one of the conjured cellphones she had in her inventory. "Hand the puppet to Stalker and the phone to my other puppet if you don't mind."

[I'm not going to start trouble], Phase assured Skitter, knowing that Queen Administrator would complain if she caused trouble.

"Sure," Shaper replied, then stepped through the portal to the ferry terminal when Skitter opened it. "Reporting for Science, I mean duty," she offered with a smile as the void portal closed behind her.

"Nice to have you onboard," Leet replied as he turned the fan on, causing the whistle to make a soft and consistent note.

Shaper handed the puppet to Stalker. "Phase wanted help."

"Thanks," Sophia replied, not sure how to feel about her shard now that it wasn't pushing her to be psychopathic.

"Okay, we should have twenty seconds, we'll send the puppets in first then I'll conjure another mana gem and we'll send people through if we can open a portal to the same location or if we can summon the puppets back," Leet suggested.

"Works for me," Sophia said, looking forward to doing something useful as most of the gangs had already vanished or were staying quiet.

Taylor shook her head. "I think you're skipping some steps there."

"Probably," Leet replied as he flipped the switch on the electromagnet, causing the tin funnel on the device to emit a beam of magic that opened into a circular portal that a person could duck through, revealing a clearing in an alien forest. "Show time! Puppets only!"

Shaper ducked through the portal and stuck her finger in the ground, instantly getting an idea of the nature of the bacteria in the dirt. "Nothing particularly dangerous," she said as Skitter's puppet walked through with her wand at the ready.

Taylor glanced around at the strange plants then stopped and stared when she turned to look at the portal and saw a massive shiny white arch in the sky that stretched across the horizon through a clearing in the trees. "What the hell?"

"What's the matter?" Leet asked.

"There's a massive white arch…" Taylor trailed off as the mana ruby turned to dust and the portal closed.

"So much for having time to look around," Sophia muttered.

Leet turned to look at Skitter's remaining puppet. "What did you see?"

"There's a massive white arch that stretches across the horizon," Taylor replied as her other puppet turned around to check on Shaper and found her rubbing her temple. "What's the matter?"

"I'm out of range," Shaper complained.

"Out of range?" Taylor asked as she watched Leet conjure a new mana ruby with her other puppet.

Shaper ignored the strange feeling of having only part of the connection with her puppet and only a vague sense of awareness of her puppet's body through the magic link. "I don't have my abilities which means we're not on Earth. I didn't notice because the portal was open."

"Figures," Taylor replied as she gestured towards the massive arch that took up part of the horizon. "Any idea what the giant arch is?"

Shaper glanced up at the giant white arch. "Unless I'm mistaken, planetary rings."

"Can I have my phone back?" Taylor asked as she held her hand out towards Shaper. "It has a camera."

Shaper tossed Skitter the phone. "Can we get back or are we just tossing the puppets?"

Skitter frowned when she thought of leaving the void elf puppet to die, it felt a bit like abandoning a pet or maybe a fish, weird but something she'd get over. She cast her void elf spell and pushed additional mana into it when she felt the connection waver, causing the connection to firm up and the portal to open. "I'd rather not."

Shaper frowned when she realized that she still couldn't feel her puppet's biology. "Your void portals don't help my connection."

"It might have something to do with spending a second in the void," Taylor mused as she started taking pictures.

"That would complicate things," Shaper admitted, then sent a message to Admin, [They found a portal device that works between star systems! Data!]

"Let's try this again," Leet said as he finished installing the new mana crystal.

Admin stared at the data she'd been sent for a couple of seconds then sent the data to Expanse, [Take a look at this.]

Leet flipped the switch with a grin then frowned when the portal didn't open to the same alien landscape. "I don't think that worked."

[Not my fault], Prototype complained.

[Oh!] Expanse squealed as she looked at the data. [Call my host, I need someone there so I can run tests!]

"Close enough," Shaper replied as she felt the other half of her connection to her puppet re-establish itself. [I'll take care of it when my puppet gets back.]

"Shaper has her powers back, you probably hit the same planet," Taylor told Leet.

"We're obviously going to have to build something a bit more professional than a jury rigged prototype if we want any accuracy," Uber suggested.

Shaper ran over and checked one of the 'fruit' trees with purple sphere shaped pods hanging down from its long tentacle-like limbs.

"You shouldn't…" Taylor trailed off when the tree didn't suddenly twist and eat Shaper or do anything else suspect.

"They're edible," Shaper said cheerfully.

"Good to know," Taylor replied as she watched the mana ruby turn to dust and the portal close.

"That's annoying," Shaper grumbled when her powers vanished.

"We should probably head through the portal." Taylor took one last look at the arch in the sky then walked her puppet through the portal.

"Can you make something with more mana?" Leet asked Skitter's puppet, tired of only having nine seconds of the portal being open.

"I can try," Taylor replied with her puppet as she focused and conjured one of her enhanced mana gems.

Shaper walked through the portal and out into the lounge. "It's annoying losing my powers."

"You lost your powers?" Vicky asked warily.

"Temporarily," Shaper admitted. "Crossing dimensions is a lot easier than reaching between planets or solar systems."

Amy stared at Shaper for a couple of seconds then looked at Skitter. "Are you telling me that you can reach across solar systems with your void portals?"

"Apparently, you reach into the void then from the void to somewhere else, it takes a bit more mana but not enough to matter…" Taylor trailed off as she got a vision of the future of killing monsters and Stalker saving an innocent girl from being hung.

"Stalker, summon Phase, you need to go through the next portal," Taylor told Sophia with her other puppet as she tossed the mana gem to her improved puppet and opened a void portal to the terminal. "We've got crazy cultists trying to hang a girl."

Taylor's puppet stepped out of the void portal and put the mana ruby in the slot then flipped the device on once Sophia activated Phase's puppet.

"What are you-" Sophia stopped talking when she looked at the portal and noticed a group of soldiers dragging a screaming girl towards a tree with a noose on it. "Fuck that!" she said as she jumped through the portal with Phase half a second behind her.

Shaper stepped out of the void portal, causing the portal to flicker and change to a scene with weird animal-like monsters on a mountain. "Science!" she said then jumped through the portal, looking forward to playing with the monster's DNA, provided the portal remained open long enough.

Taylor's advanced puppet stepped through the portal an instant before it closed.

Leet jumped back several feet when the portal device caught fire. "Note to self, don't use void portals near the device."

"I admit nothing, it could have just spontaneously combusted," Taylor pointed out as she let her void portal close.

"Normally, I'd say you're full of shit but it's Leet," Uber admitted as he grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed down the machine.

[This wasn't my fault], Prototype complained.

"Fair," Leet admitted.

"Who gets to tell the PRT that we lost one of their heroes?" Uber asked thoughtfully as he set the fire extinguisher down.

"Not it," Taylor replied.

"Give me a day, if we can get her back, we can probably avoid Armsmaster hacking us into pieces and tossing the evidence in the bay," Leet mused as he opened the door on the cart and grabbed his old laptop. "This should have the recordings of the sound and vibrations, we can probably get close."

"Or I could open a portal when my puppet is done dealing with the monsters, I wouldn't have suggested sending Stalker if I couldn't get her back," Taylor replied.

Leet sighed in relief when he realized he didn't have to take shortcuts with his next prototype. "I'm still going to want to try, that first world looks interesting and might be uninhabited. If nothing else, we could probably make a couple of million selling tours to another world."

"Are you going to have a problem redesigning the portal device?" Uber asked.

[Nope! He tested it to destruction, I have ideas for a better version!] Prototype said cheerfully.

"I think he'll be fine," Taylor said as she pulled a puppet out of her inventory and tossed it to Leet. "Prototype wants to consult."

"Sweet," Leet replied as he activated the puppet. "You have ideas?"

"Lots!" Prototype replied cheerfully as she held her hands out for the laptop.

0o0o0

Padan Fain spun when he heard something behind him, footsteps where there should be nothing and stared at the strange pair of women that were standing in the middle of the clearing despite the fact that no one had been standing there five seconds ago. The first thing he noticed was that one of them had dark blue skin while the other had purple, the next was their strange clothing, leather breeches and leather vests tossed over a man's shirt despite the fact that they were obviously female. "What are you?"

"Kill them!" the fade called out, wanting the creatures he could feel dead before they ruined their mission.

Shaper glanced between the strange black portal in a stone wall, the lone human in the group of forty beastial humanoids with animal features and a pasty humanoid without eyes covered in a black armor and a cloak. "Science!"

Padan Fain felt his stomach drop as the woman with blue skin merely raised her hands and sent a stream of glowing balls of light into the twenty trollocs that charged her, each of the balls of light ripping head sized chunks out the trollocs when they exploded. "Shit!" he cursed when the purple skinned woman vanished and reappeared behind the fade, dropping it with one touch.

Taylor wasn't sure which of the creatures set her teeth on edge and made her feel like she'd just waded through raw sewage but it wasn't a pleasant experience. 'At least we're close enough to earth that Shaper's powers work.'

{Rip tear, melt their flesh, drink their eyes, scream their blood}

Taylor blinked into a group of the monstrous humanoids then cast her frost nova spell, causing the group of fifteen trollocs to flash freeze then crack and fall apart. She shivered when she saw the dark portal bulge as a twisted cloud of darkness and hate tried to rip itself free of the portal.

{Join me, so lonely, break their dreams, find their eyes and burn them out!}

Padan Fain shivered as the blue skinned elf pulled a sword out of thin air and proceeded to dance through the rest of the trollocs between her and the waygate with an ease that would have made most warders stare in disbelief.

Shaper reached up and grabbed a trolloc's wrist, stopping his swing cold. "You're broken and twisted." She gestured with her free hand and hit the human with her widow venom spell as he turned to run then kicked the trolloc in the nuts, dropping him to his knees when he reached for her with his free hand. "Let's see if I can fix things."

Taylor released a blast of arcane magic when the last group of monsters charged her then gestured and cast mind flay on the portal, trying to kill the creature that was telepathically ranting at her. She ignored the mental screaming as her spell ripped into the creature's mind, causing it to twist and try to flee as her magic ripped it apart.

Shaper frowned when the creature died without the bits of foul magic holding it together despite her best efforts. "Useless," she grumbled as she reached out and grabbed the eyeless creature's neck and took a second look at its genetics, curious if she could salvage anything of use while she waited for Skitter's puppet.

Taylor cast a shield spell on 'herself' then opened a portal into the strange world behind the strange black portal and used her death grip spell on the fleeing creature, pulling the cloud of darkness through her void portal into the world. She closed her portal as the mass of sentient darkness started burning from the light of the sun or the world's essence and lurched back towards her portal while screaming incoherently about death and destruction and ripping souls apart.

"Gestalt would love playing with these," Shaper said as she stuck the creature's twisted looking sword behind her and out of the way then worked on poking the eyeless creature's twisted genetics, seeing what she could alter without the creature falling apart.

"Riley's shard has issues," Taylor replied as she conjured a pair of shackles and headed towards the unconscious human that was staring at nothing.

"Everyone needs hobbies," Shaper replied, then quickly jumped back when the creature started rotting before her eyes and lunged at her, despite the fact that it should be paralyzed or dead.

Taylor gestured and hit the eyeless with an ice bolt, sending it sprawling and causing a decent section of its chest to freeze solid where the bolt hit.

Shaper frowned at the creature on the ground for a second then walked over to check the human looking creature. [Did you lose your puppet yet?] she asked Phase.

[No, the local soldiers aren't much of a challenge, no magic or extraordinary abilities and their combat skills aren't particularly impressive. My host is currently voicing her displeasure for their attempt to hang the girl and kill us when we arrived], Phase replied as she watched Sophia rip through the group of white clad soldiers with a sadistic glee.

[Try to figure out where you are and if you find a monster, don't phase through it. They're corrupted by some type of dark magic that might cause issues], Shaper warned her.

[I'll let Stalker know], Phase replied then went back to shooting the soldiers that were trying to flee Sophia's rampage.

Taylor had barely finished chaining the human up when he lurched into motion and promptly fell over thanks to the chains. "Hello human, I'd like some information about your world."

"What do you want to know?" Padan Fain asked warily, trying to talk his way out of getting killed.

"Everything," Taylor gestured towards the dead trollocs, "but let's start with descriptions of the various monsters in the world and the nearest settlement."

"Why should I tell you? You're just going to kill me anyway," Padan Fain pointed out.

"That depends, are you a useful monster?" Shaper asked, having fun playing a villain.

"What do you mean?" Padan asked.

Shaper gestured at the dead trollics, more than a little offended at the shoddy workmanship and the dark magic patching things together. "If this is the best you've got, your world obviously needs better monsters. Thankfully, I'm in the business of crafting monsters. How would you like the ability to slip through shadows or see in the dark?"

Taylor turned her attention to the strange eyeless creature's armor and checked it with her information ability, curious if it had any interesting properties. 'Normal steel but it gives them a decent range of movement at the cost of less protection from full armor.' She turned her attention to the creature's black cloak and grinned when she realized she might be able to steal an ability from the cloak.

Padan Fain stared at the strange purple skinned woman with pointed ears. "You can give people abilities?"

Shaper floated off the ground. "Yes, we could use a local guide with flexible morals, are you interested in a job?"

{You're having way too much fun}, Taylor told Shaper as she walked over and grabbed the myrddraal's cloak, stepping on the creature's arm when it flailed at her.

[Amy takes being a hero too seriously sometimes], Shaper replied, happy that she could have some fun without anyone complaining.

"They're called trollics, the eyeless creatures are myrddraal though most people just call them fades because of their ability to slip through shadows. They're not the most dangerous creatures the Great Lord can call on but they're numerous. The nearest village is Emond's Field, they sell wool and tobacco," Padan explained, trying to prove his worth without giving them anything most people didn't know.

"What did this lord promise you?" Taylor asked as she pulled a cloak out of her puppet's inventory and moved the calm in wind quality from the tainted cloak to her extra cloak, trying to leave all of the dark magic in the original cloak.

"Immortality and power," Padan Fain admitted as he watched the fade's cloak disintegrate in the blue skinned girl's hand. "When the Great Lord breaks free, he'll remake the world and I'll rule a corner of it."

"What makes you think he'll care about the people that helped him?" Shaper asked, wanting more information on what they were dealing with.

"Why would a god care about ruling when he can watch his followers fight each other?" Padan asked with amusement. "I'm sure he'd have a place for you if you joined."

Shaper shook her head. "We're already immortal, I just like playing with monsters."

"To each their own," Padan replied with a smirk that didn't reach his eyes, wondering if he could talk them out of immortality so he didn't have to trust the Great Lord.

Taylor walked away from the still twitching fade. "Why were you bringing a bunch of monsters to a town that sells wool and tobacco?"

"I can't be sharing all of my secrets for free, what can you give me?" Padan asked.

Taylor cast her charm spell on the man, knowing it would make him more than just favorably disposed to her for the duration while still letting him answer questions. "Why did you bring the monsters here and how?"

"I'm hunting the Dragon Reborn. The Great Lord wants him on the run to cause chaos and to start his journey so he'll see the corruption in the world and follow him. I took the shadowspawn through the Ways," Padan Fain answered despite the voice in the back of his mind that was screaming about giving them information, mostly because it was important to have his new friends understand why they should help.

"If something happens to you, how are we supposed to complete your mission?" Taylor asked.

"It won't matter, The Great Lord is the Lord of the Grave, when I die, I'll tell him everything or he'll know everything I know," Padan replied. "Of course, I'd rather not disappoint him by dying so I'm willing to be helpful."

Shaper walked over and hauled Padan to his feet then poked his forehead and modified his brain so he'd be loyal and eager to please. "How are you supposed to find the Dragon Reborn and why does he matter?"

"The Great Lord refined my soul, I can track him," Padan bragged. "It always comes down to a fight between the Dragon and the Great Lord but if he joins, The Great Lord will be able to shatter his prison and remake the world. If you help, he'll reward you with a world filled with monsters."

"And the Dragon is in the nearest village?" Taylor asked, wondering if he was talking about an actual dragon or someone with the title.

"He's one of three boys," Padan offered.

"Which ones?" Taylor asked, curious if his information was useful or if he was just an insane cultist.

"Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara or Rand al'Thor, they're all important but I'm not sure which is the Dragon Reborn yet," Padan replied.

"How old are they?" Shaper asked, figuring that would help narrow things down.

"Twenty," Padan replied.

"What was your plan for the trollocs?" Taylor asked, wanting more information before they figured out what to do with the man.

"I was going to cause chaos and force the boys to flee or capture them," Padan replied with an unhinged grin.

"How did you activate the portal?" Taylor asked, curious how someone without any magic activated the portal.

"You pull the stone trefoil leaf out and it opens the gate, if you put it back it closes," Padan replied, trying to be helpful.

"How do we get to the town from here?" Taylor asked with a grin.

Padan gestured down the mountain. "You'll find some old goat trails."

"How common is magic in this world?" Taylor asked, curious if she could find a way to get more spells.

"Less than one in a hundred girls have a useful amount of magic, if you want to learn, you should go to Tar Valon," Padan suggested.

"Thank you for the help, please stand there while I modify your body," Shaper replied as she poked him in the head and started playing around with adding bits and pieces of the fade's genetics, trying to see if she could copy its abilities without the test subject melting or going completely insane.

Taylor walked over and grabbed one of the trollocs by his hoof and tossed it into a pile with a group of three that were on a patch of rocky ground that wouldn't burn, then walked over and did the same to the next trolloc, planning on burning all of them with a flamestrike before leaving as they felt twisted and wrong.

Shaper frowned and when blood started leaking from the man's eyes and he started screaming incoherently. "Portal!"

Taylor opened a void portal to the void. "Toss him!"

Shaper kicked him through the portal on the off chance that he wasn't lying or mistaken about having someone that could bring him back from the dead or at least get information out of him when he died, hoping the distance would make getting anything out of him harder. She relaxed when the void portal closed. "I'm going to need more test subjects."

"I get the feeling he's not the only lunatic around," Taylor replied as she went back to tossing the monstrous humanoids into a pile, not particularly bothered by the cultist's death considering he'd been planning on destroying a town in some insane scheme to help a dark god, demon or entity destroy or at least take over the world. "Let's get everything cleaned up and burned then we'll see about closing the portal and heading to town."

"Sounds good," Shaper agreed, fairly sure a hero with the title 'Dragon Reborn' should have interesting genetics and or magic in a world with magic.