Unity: A Tale of Arcadia

by Kieva Lynn


Book Two: Chapter Seven

Book Two: Wizard Quests

Chapter Seven

Southern California, Earth. (Arcadia Timeline.) Hidden away in a small patch of forest, the Tardis appeared out of seemingly nowhere, just past one in the morning. Moments later the door opened. Jim was the first one out, followed by the rest of the team. The Doctor stood at the door. "I'll be here when you're ready." He said. "But, make it as fast as you can. This area is heavily populated, and if anyone happens by there's no way they won't be curious about a very conspicuous blue call box."

"We'll do this as fast as we can, considering that we're not even sure where to start." Twilight replied.

"All right then. I'll lock the door." The Doctor turned back inside and the door closed behind him.

Jim looked around. "First things first." He said. "Where are we?"

Claire pulled out her cell phone and examined the screen. "G.P.S. says we're twelve miles south-southeast of where Arcadia used to be."

"Should we go that way?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Maybe." Twilight mused. "Claire, if I understand it right, you can get current news reports on these phones right?"

"Good thinking! We need to know what's being said about Arcadia." The girl agreed.

Nodding, Twilight added "And if Gunmar has launched attacks, we might get an idea of where he is."

"Nah, anything that weird, there'll be a media blackout." Toby insisted.

Blinky said "Perhaps. But for those of us 'in the know' it may be possible to read between the lines of whatever is being reported."

"I've got something!" Claire said. She held the phone so everyone could see the screen, and turned the volume up.

It was a newscast, dated that very night, from Los Angeles. "Authorities remain mum about the fate of Arcadia Oaks, which you will remember mysteriously vanished without a trace less than two weeks ago. Military forces have cordoned off the entire surrounding area, including declaring the county a 'no fly zone,' and images from orbital satellites have been declared top secret. This leads in to our newest breaking news on the case: Just tonight, two hours after sunset, there was a disturbance of some kind at the Arcadia site. Both citizens in nearby towns, and our own reporters stationed as close to the site as military cordons permit, heard a loud roaring sound, followed by gunfire and explosions."

The image changed to an 'on the scene' reporter's camera feed. gunfire, and the booms of even heavier weapons, could be heard, and explosions lit up the horizon. A chillingly deep roar could be heard echoing. Jim tuned slightly pale. "That was Gunmar." He said.

"But things seem quiet now." Aja said. She turned her attention back to the phone, where the news anchor was now back on screen.

"The mysterious event lasted for fifteen minutes." The anchor reported. "After, the weapons fire slowed and stopped, and the roars were heard twice more, each time fainter as if further away, apparently moving off to the north. Air Force F-35's were spotted flying in that direction, but returned an hour later having apparently failed to locate whatever they were hunting. The State of California, in conjunction with Homeland Security, has issued a dusk to dawn curfew order for all citizens within fifty miles north of Arcadia Oaks..."

"So I guess we're going north then." Rainbow Dash said as Claire put her phone away.

"Are we?" Blinky asked. "We are here to find Merlin. Not to fight Gunmar."

"Yeah, but..."

"Not to mention, we'd be walking into a hornets nest of on edge soldiers." JIm argued.

Twilight sighed. "At least it sounds like the weapons the army had with them were enough to drive Gunmar off. Who knows? Now that they're prepared, now that they've seen how tough he is, maybe if they bring in the really big stuff it'll be enough."

"But this is Gunmar!" Blinky insisted. "He's supposed to be invulnerable to any weapon save the Amulet's Eclipse Blade!"

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Toby said. At the looks he got from everyone, the boy clarified his non sequitur: "I saw this old episode of that show once. The story was about how the town's vampires were planning to bring in a ringer. A demon called 'The Judge' that every ancient book, including books that were never wrong, insisted couldn't be killed because 'No weapon forged by man' could hurt him."

"What happened?" Twilight asked in spite of herself.

Toby answered, "Easy. Buffy realized the books were right when they were written. But they were written six thousand years ago. 'Weapons forged by man' are a lot more potent now. She one shots the guy with a grenade launcher."

"Master Tobias I hardly think an old vampire tale is pertinent to Gunmar." Blinky shook his head. "Though I admit it would be kind of nice."

Claire said "Are we getting off track here?"

"Yes, let's focus." Twilight agreed. "We need to find Merlin's Tomb. But we have no leads. And, I think maybe that leads us into why Gandalf insisted that I needed to come with you. Gunmar probably still has your friend Drall with him right?"

"Probably." Jim said. "But he's been mind controlled by the Decimar Blade."

"Right. Just like all those trolls we saved at the canal had been."

"Wait! Twilight... Are you saying you can free Drall?" The hope in Jim's expression was palpable.

"But I thought that took a bunch of unicorns?" Toby asked.

"A bunch of unicorns for a whole army of trolls." Twilight corrected. One troll, I should be able to do it myself. If we can get Drall away from Gunmar."

"And if we can deal with Drall himself. He's really strong and really fast."

Rainbow said, "I've got fast covered. So, lemme make sure I follow the plan though... Free Drall, and then...?"

"And then he can lead us to Merlin's Tomb, since he's been there with Gunmar." Twilight explained.

"But this brings us back to dealing with the authorities." Aja said. "The very heavily armed authorities."

Blinky said "Perhaps we should go north, not into the closed off area, but paralleling it. If Claire keeps watch on the news, we can possibly get a fix on Gunmar's location and direction of travel from further attacks. And we'll be closer at any rate."

So they headed north. Walking was slow, especially through the forests, and slowed even further by the frequent need to stop at highways and wait for traffic to clear in both directions before it was safe to cross. They walked for five hours, taking refuge just before dawn in an abandoned house isolated from other settlements. There was no power, but the structure must have been very old, as the water came from a hand cranked pump which happily still worked, and the water was clear and cool (Though Twilight still insisted on running it through a purification spell before it was used.)

Best of all, from Blinky's perspective, the house's windows were all still intact, and covered in a layer of grime thick and dark enough to protect him from the sun. They ate breakfast together from their supplies, and bedded down in sleeping bags to wait out the long day.

Twilight woke at, well, twilight, to find Jim and Aja already awake, while everyone else was still sleeping soundly. "What do you think?" Jim asked, motioning to the fireplace, "Can we risk a fire for a hot meal?"

"We're pretty remote." Twilight said. "I think it'll be safe, especially since we'll be moving on as soon as we eat."

"Lively!" Aja cheered, and ignited the logs she and Jim had already placed in the hearth with her weapon, the blast waking everyone else.

"Rise and shine, dinner's in half an hour." Jim said, and he set to work cooking.

Twilight looked across the room to Aja, and noticed her fiddling with the controls on her weapon. "Problem?" She asked.

Aja shook her head. "Not exactly. You have seen my brother's true form. My own is similar. While on Earth, we disguise ourselves as Humans to blend in. Actually, it's not a disguise, the transduction effect makes us truly physically human while it lasts. But it only lasts twelve hours. Ordinarily, I would have to return to our ship to have the effect re-applied, but Krel has modified the serrators to also be able to maintain it. It is still experimental, though, so I'm trying to keep a close watch on the settings."

"So you really are from another planet then?" Toby asked as he walked into the room. "That's awesome! Can we see what you really look like?"

Toby wasn't the only one curious. Twilight had seen Krel, but none of the others present had, and they were all looking at the girl expectantly. "Perhaps when we get back to the Tardis." Aja said. "It would be a bad idea here. The serrator can only maintain my human form you see, it cannot recreate it if it fails."

"Ahh. Not a good idea then. My bad." Toby apologized.

"It is all right. Curiosity is a virtue." Aja smiled.

"It is indeed." Twilight agreed. "Claire, any further news updates?"

"None. Which is weird." Claire replied, looking at her phone.

Jim pulled a bubbling pot off the fire and carried it to the rest of the group. "Let's eat, then get that fire out and keep moving. We've got to get further north."

"I agree." Blinky said. "No news of Gunmar most likely means no one else has encountered him."

"Could he have gone to ground?" Rainbow asked.

"Possibly, but look at the map." Twilight levitated a map of California out of her saddlebags. "Borrowed from Bert." She said in answer to the unspoken question. "He's got everything. Anyway, take a look... If Gunmar continues north, he'll end up in this big national forest. No towns, no permanent homes at all, really. He might go all the way to the northern tip of the forest without anyone seeing him."

"And worse," Claire added, "If that happens, look. He'll come out right in the middle of some very heavy population centers."

"We've got to get ahead of him then." Aja said. "But, some idea of exactly where he will emerge will be beneficial."

"Let's just keep going north for now." Rainbow suggested. "We know at least that much now, let the other stuff come when it comes."

Everyone agreed that this was the most sensible course of action, considering that they had no other information to go on. They finished their meal, extinguished the fire, and were ready to leave. Jim opened the door. And jumped back slamming it shut again as a blinding spotlight shone in. Moments after the door slammed, an amplified voice called from outside, "We know you're in there! Surrender at once!"

"How did they find us!?" Rainbow exclaimed.

Crouching by a front window, rubbing away a circle to see through, Aja hissed. "Colonel Kubritz!"

"Friend of yours?" Twilight asked.

"She is in charge of a prison for extraterrestrials." Aja explained.

"Can we talk to her?" Twilight asked.

"Doubtful. She is most unreasonable."

"Twi, can you teleport us past them?" Rainbow asked.

Twilight shook her head. "There's no way to know how deep the ring of soldiers around us is. If I tried and landed right in the middle of them... Claire...?"

The girl shook her head no. "Sorry. I can only open portals to places that are important to me, or places where someone I know is at. With Arcadia gone... I could take us back to the doctor..."
"Are we even sure we're surrounded?" Blinky asked. "What I mean is, that Aja describes this Kubritz as commanding only a single base. Surely that limits the number of soldiers at her disposal, especially since most of them would have to stay behind to guard the prison."

"This is true." Twilight mused. She thought for a moment. "We're gonna have to take a risk..."

Colonel Kubritz was surprised when they stepped out the door willingly. And even more surprised by beings very different than she had ever expected. "Interesting company you're keeping." she said, staring at Aja.

"I could say the same of you."

"How did you find us!?" Jim demanded.

"You can blame Miss Nunez for that. Or, rather, her cell phone. Did you really think that we wouldn't be scanning for any uses of phones from a city that just vanished off the face of the Earth?"

"Oops." Claire blushed.

"Now you'll all be coming with me back to the base. Aliens get locked away for testing, humans get trials for treason."

"Treason!?"

"Well what do you think? You are clearly aiding and abetting the beings who abducted an entire town. Of course it'll be secret trials, can't have the public knowing about this."

Twilight took one small step forward. "Now hold on. That wasn't us. There's more going on here than you know, and everyone is in terrible danger!"

"Of course we are. And it's my job to stop you." A large armored van pulled up and the back doors opened. "In you go."

Twilight sighed. This was not a good start...