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Frank Abbot was a debater. He was also a cop, which wasn't good
for whatever partner he had with him in the cruiser. Over his fifteen
years as a cop in New York, he had gone through nearly twelve different
partners. He was good, though, and thats why the police chief held onto
him.
Right now, Frank was sitting in his car and arguing with his
partner in between sips of coffee. They were on patrol in Manhattan
after there had been a few calls about some weird stuff going on around
Wall Street. He and his partner had agreed it was probably some kids on
drugs or something, but they had gone to check it out regardless.
"A whole lot of historians think that Shakespeare may have been
bisexual. No one can really know," Frank's partner said. His name was
Bill Simmons, and they had been working together for a little over six
months. Frank didn't mind him too much.
"No way Shakespeare was a faggot, Bill. Nobody would have went
to see his plays. The guy was-"
As they pulled onto Wall Street, a rare thing happened. Frank
Abbott shut up. A throng of people in suits and dresses had gathered in
the street, and were looking up into the sky. Bill leaned forward and
glanced up. He saw what looked like some sort of pitch black portal,
like the kind he read about in fantasy novels.
Frank stopped the car, and stared up there in a trance like
state. Bill did as well, but he noticed a woman with brown hair and
about 5'9" running away from the portal. He took one last look at the
portal, and the stepped out of the car to try and question her. As he
opened the door, he noticed that she was dressed very strangely for Wall
Street. She had on green robes that were decidely different from the
standard street performer. Also, she had on a neclace that looked like
it was made of some gem. Bill was no expert, but they looked like emeralds.
Jade saw the portal open up, and she could feel that it led back
to the plane with the renegade creatures. She had her theories about
that plane. Perhaps it was a pen for a very powerful wizard, and the
creatures were summoned directly from their at his leisure. But
something felt different about those creatures, as if they were sentient,
and had no master.
As the inhabitants of "New York" began to stare up at the sky,
Jade took the opportunity to get out of there before the creatures began
to file through. She sprinted as fast as she could, wishing her magic
worked her. A man in a metal carriage stepped out and held his hand out
to signal that she should stop. She figured it would be best if she
complied, since her magic was gone.
"Ma'am, perhaps you can tell me what the hell is going on here?"
the man asked. He was wearing some sort of military uniform, but looked
ridiculously out of shape for a warrior.
The language that he used she recognized from a plane
that she visited often.
"No, there is no time. Soon, we'll all die if we don't get out
of here. Creatures will begin to file out of that portal shortly. Where
are your world's planeswalkers? Surely they must have sensed the portal
open."
Bill had no idea what she was talking about, but he did
understand that she was a little hysterical. Frank nodded to Bill and
slipped some cuffs on Jade. She struggled a little, but soon let Frank
put them on.
Frank turned to Bill. "I called for backup, and to get the
National Guard on the line. This is big." Press vans had alreadly
arrived, and even more people had arrived, and were staring up at the portal.
The two police officers turned to put Jade in the car, but
stopped when screams began to erupt from the crowd. Bill turned and saw
what looked to be a giant with green skin and huge black horns jump out
of the portal and land on the street, crushing several onlookers. The
ground shook as he hit the ground.
"A djinn! This is far worse than I orignally thought. Let's get
out of here!" Jade yelled at the two men.
The crowd suddenly turned on itself and began running seemingly
without direction. The Juzam djinn ripped through the crowd with it's
huge claws.
While this was going on, more things began to fall out of the
portal, or fly, as the case may be. A shivan dragon began breathing fire
at anything that moved, and a '97 Lexus exploded as the superheated flame
ignited its gas tank. The explosion knocked several people to the
ground. The dragon, seemingly bored with toying, flew off to the west.
Bill watched as people were slaughtered, and drew his nine
millimeter. He wasn't expecting too much to happen when he shot the
djinn, but it was better than nothing. Aiming for it's eye, he squeezed
off four shots in rapid sucession. After the second, the djinn began to
bleed black blood from it's cheek, and the third shot hit it in the eye.
It's howls were so loud that Bill dropped his gun to put his hands over
his ears.
More things filed out as the Juzam began shambling towards the
police cruiser. What looked to be over seventy green skinnned midgets
fell out on top of each other. Some had sticks, and some had spears.
Jade identifed them as goblins, and there seemed to be a king among them
as well. He wore a brass crown that was so ugly it was painful to look
at.
Sirens erupted from behind the Juzam djinn as it picked up the
cruiser and whipped it. It went three blocks before it landed on an
unlucky force of nature that was lumbering down the street, away from the
city. When the cruiser hit the force in the back, it exploded in a ball
of flame, and caught part of the force of nature on fire as well.
Turning to face the Juzam, the nature spirit looked quite pissed to Bill.
Bill had managed to get out of the way of the Juzam and duck into
an alley. Frank, however was not so lucky. He had been in the car when
it was thrown. Looking around, Bill realized that Jade was gone as
well. This was not turning out to be a good day.
Roland was an assassin by trade. He had been killing marks for
many years, and had single handedly caused revolutions and war by
eliminating heads of state. He dealt death, thrived on chaos. He also
like the look of this new city.
The closest thing to this city that he had ever seen was the city
state of Balduvia. They had some amazing archetecture as well. This was
far different, however, this was advanced. And that got
him thinking about what kind of weapons these people had.
After negotiating his way through a pile of mangled corpses left
by the djinn, he narrowly escaped confrontation with a very angry looking
minotaur, who was engaged in combat with seven or so goblins. He was a
talruum, by the look of it, and was suffering from a severe case of
bloodlust from Roland's estimation. After watching the minotaur crush
the skull of a goblin with a stone club, Roland decided to go on a tour
of the city.
He walked and walked, watching the people and being amused at
their reactions to him. Several similar cars had passed by roland, and
they had colored lights on top of them. They also made a sound that was
similar to that of a wailing banshee.
Seeing a man sitting on the edge of a fountain, Roland decided to
get some information. Tapping him on the shoulder he asked the man,"
Hello kind sir, could you tell me where to get a weapon?"
The man was balding and quite thin. He glanced around and
said,"Sure, you need a gun? Theres a pawn shop around the corner there."
He pointed down the street. "Just tell him that Silas sent ya, okay?
He'll show you some of the private stuff, if you know what I mean."
Roland thought he did, and thanked the man. Walking into the
pawn shop, he was affronted by some disgusting smells. Resisting the
urge to wrinkle his nose, he told the shopkeeper that Silas had sent him,
and he would like to get a "gun".
The man was wearing a yellowing tank top and jeans. He had a
sizable gut, and was quite tall. After considering what Roland had said,
he nodded and opened up a door behind him. Roland followed him in.
"First time with a gun?" the man said.
"Yes," Roland said. "I am looking for your best weapon. I would
also be grateful if you could instruct me in it's use." He began
mentally referring to the man as guts.
Guts opened up a case and plucked an uzi out of it. The weapon
looked fairly new, and had no rust or blemish on it. "This thing eats
ammo like popcorn, but I'll throw in a few clips if you're inclined to
buy it."
Roland nodded, and Guts led him through the basics of the use of
the weapon. Roland was already an expert shot with the pistol grip
crossbow, and it wasn't much of a departure.
He took the suitcase with the gun and the ammo in it and asked
how much it would be.
"Well, for you, I'd say about four hundred. I got it at a good
price." The man had actually picked it off of a dead body that he had
found in the projects, and had bought the clips separate.
Roland was not familiar with the form of currency on this planet,
but he hoped that they would accept gold. He took out a handful of gold
coins and handed them to guts.
Guts' jaw dropped as he saw the gold in his hand. He knew that
this was excellent quality gold, and he maybe had the equivalent of a new
car in his hand.
Roland thought of one more thing. It was the only thing in the
world that he knew how to do, and he did it well. From the expression on
the man's face, he could probably ask anything and get information out of
the man.
"Oh, could you tell me who your head of state is?" Roland asked
nonchalantly.
"You mean the mayor? Yeah, he's got some sort of function he's
having at city hall. He's probably there." Roland thanked the man and
left. It wasn't until Roland was well on his way did Guts think that he
may have wanted to do more than shake hands with the mayor. But by then,
orcs had started breaking the windows of his pawn shop.
The president watched with horror at the new footage of New
York. These creatures were causing havoc everywhere. He had to come to
a decision before they got off of the island. The only good news was
that they had apparently killed a dragon attempting to leave Manhattan
with a surface to air missile.
The biologists and the other assorted scientists were having a
field day, however. A team of biologists had already begun to dissect
what was left of the dragon, and they were virtually peeing in their
pants.
The president had to either fish or cut bait. The military want
to send in tanks and infantry pronto to handle the problem. Apparently,
some "goblins" had gotten into a police building, and had quite a bit of
firepower. Of course, that's without mentioning the fact that there was
a thirty foot tall Djinn currently on it's way to the mainland.
He made his decision.
"No one leaves or enters Manhattan, period. Get all the National
Guard, Army, USAF, and Marines you can, and line the perimeter. We can't
risk letting these things get out. The people on the island are going to
have to fend for themselves for a while." The moment he gave that order,
he suddenly felt very cold.
To be continued