Interlude #3

Alexander hummed to himself, his head bobbing along with the music playing in his helmet as he carefully lifted the painting off the wall. His periodic shopping trips to the various zombie infested worlds were much less stressful now that he had his armour, being clad in material that could withstand plasma cannons did wonders for your confidence. He felt a bit morbid, almost like a grave robber, on his trips, but he rationalised it away that he wasn't taking things survivors needed, not really, and wasn't it better that priceless works of art were hanging on his walls rather than rotting away?

Alexander finished gently removing the frame and carefully rolled the canvas up before sliding it into the carry case he'd brought along. He'd just slung it over his shoulder, along with the other paintings he'd recovered when a red warning appeared over his eyes.

WARNING WARNING WARNING

INCOMING TYPE-7 TRANSDIMENSIONAL TRAVELLERS

WARNING WARNING WARNING​

Spinning around Alexander snatched his blaster pistol off his hip and scanned the area. "Type 7?" He muttered under his breath. That was new. The Kromaggs he'd stolen from were only Type-3. He honestly wasn't sure how LVIOS was rating the different technologies out in the multiverse, was Type-7 more powerful than Type-3, or vice versa.

Alexander relaxed slightly seeing no targets, then again it was unlikely that anyone would popup right next to him.

"LVIOS, where is the disturbance?" He subvocalized.

"UNKNOW. PLEASE RESTATE QUERY." The VI responded.

Alexander rolled his eyes, one day he was going to sit down and work on improving the interface on the damn thing. "Where is the active TD tech?"

"UNKNOW. PLEASE RESTATE QUERY." The VI responded again.

Alexander blinked and looked around again, feelingly spooked.

"LVIOS, was there an active TD event?" Alexander asked, keeping his eyes peeled.

"AFFIRMATIVE, TYPE-7 TRANSDIMENSIONAL EVENT DETECTED 93 SECONDS AGO"

"But there isn't any active TD tech now?" Alexander asked before shaking his head, "Nevermind, obviously not, where was the event?"

A map popped up on his HUD again and Alexander blinked, half a world away. He glanced at his haul, and shrugged, it could wait. He dropped his cargo on the ground and activated his stealth field. He brought up the transit menu and input a set of coordinates a kilometer away from the event, better to be safe, and setup a pair of emergency macros, one to take him back to Terra Prime, another to take him to a very distant world in the current universe incase he needed to bug out in a hurry, before activating the transit.

***

Alexander reappeared in a deserted street, still under the stealth field he brought his pistol up and scanned the area. Nothing, no humans, no zombies, both were becoming less and less common as time progressed. The zombies degrading away into nothingness, and the humans, at least the ones with sense, having long since moved out of the cities.

Moving quietly he started walking towards the location of the TD event. About ten minutes later he heard voices. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but it was English he was sure. Knowing the limitations of his stealth field he crept around the corner of an ally and glanced out.

There were two humans standing in the middle of the street and he felt his eyebrows almost migrate off the top of his head. They were not what he was expecting. One was a young man, he looked about to be in his mid twenties, he was about average height, with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, dressed in leather armour of all things, with a green hooded cloak. Incuriously to his outfit he was carrying a very large dark gray pistol strapped to his waist.

His companion was also dressed in leather armour, if you could consider something that showed that much skin armour. She looked like she belonged on the cover of a pulp fantasy novel. She was carrying a large metal staff, and had a dagger strapped to waist. She vaguely reminded Alexander of someone, but he couldn't place her.

Shaking his head he stepped out from behind the cover, about to announce himself. They didn't look like much of a threat, but as he stepped into view the man spun on the spot, his hand going to his pistol, but not drawing it, and his gaze locking onto where Alexander was standing.

Alexander froze, cursing himself mentally. After a moment he holstered his pistol and dropped his stealth field, hands held apart in a universal symbol of peace.

"G'day" Alexander said after a moment.

The man paused for a moment, before moving his hand away from his weapon and reaching out to his companion. "Hello" He said after a moment.

"Who are you?" Alexander asked, sensing he needed to make the first move.

"My name is Winter. This is Sunrise." The man, Winter, said after a moment, and the girl shot him a look.

Alexander frowned under his helmet at the byplay. Why would the girl care about him giving up their names. Were they on the run or something?

"Now," Winter started, "who are you and where are you from? Your armor and weaponry are not indicative of this world's level of technology"

Alexander smiled, not that they could see it, "I'm Alexander. I'm not from around here, but neither are you."

"I see" Winter said, "It this world your doing?"

Alexander felt insulted, but decided it was a reasonable question, there were plenty of assholes and loonies out in the multiverse. He shook his head, "No, It's not. I found it like this." He paused for a moment, and decided to risk it, he reached up and started to undo his helmet. "May I ask what you two are doing here?" Alex asked as he pulled it off.

Winter seemed to consider the question for a moment before shrugging and saying "I'm teaching my Apprentice to Walk. Quite a tricky thing to learn on your own."

Walk. Alexander could hear the capital on the word and something in the corner of his brain squirmed. "I see" He said, not really, but something was niggling at him. Walk, where have I heard that before? Alex asked himself. The answer came quickly and he felt like he'd swallowed liquid nitrogen as his insides froze.

Winter paused, looking at Alexander for a moment, before making a slight gesture with his hands. "Oh, I see..." He said with a smile "You do not have a Spark. You are human, not a Planeswalker."

Alexander's left hand twitched as he instinctively went to port out, but reason overrode his flight or fight response. Planeswalkers. Holy Fuck. Alexander screamed in his mind. Running wouldn't do him any good, nor would fighting. Best bet was to try and talk his way out of it.

"Now that 'is' interesting." Winter repeated himself a moment later, the same slight smile on his face, as he looked towards his apprentice.

"What is?" The girl, Sunrise, spoke for a first time since Alexander had showed up.

"He isn't like us. He is a normal human. No Spark." Winter said to her, before turning back to Alexander. "So, how do you travel?"

At that question Alexander took a step back, his hand going to his weapon despite his earlier decision to talk his way out. "Now mate, lets not doing anything rash please"

Winter shook his head, "I have no interest in whatever trinket you use to travel between worlds. I'm simply curious."

Alexander paused, he could lie, he'd done it often enough when asked that question, but something told him that would be a very bad idea in this case. After a moment he said, "It's an alien computer device. It's keyed to me, nobody else can use it." He added the last in a hurry. What a Planeswalker would want with LVIOS was a good question, but Alexander really didn't want to find out what user access one of them would get.

"I see." Winter said as he nodded "Is this your first world or are you simply here for the looting?"

Alexander paused for a moment, again tell the truth or lie his ass off, in the end he went for truth again, looking at their gear he doubted they'd object too much. "Mostly the looting" He paused, "Sir." He tacked on after a moments thought. Better be nice to the Godlings.

Winter nodded slowly, like he expected that answer, before glancing at Alexander's pistol again. "How about a trade?" Winter asked pulling small glass vial about the size of a test tube and held it up.

Alexander relaxed slightly, "What did you have in mind?"

"This is a healing potion. It can heal anything from small cuts to internal injury...not really good for broken bones, they need to be set first but it do reduce the healing time. You can have it." Winter said, turning the vial so Alexander could see the red contents.

Alexander blinked, that could be, handy, "What exactly do you want for it? How does it work?"

"I want that gun of yours, it's shiny. As for how it works...you drink it. If you're wondering if it is magic or science that makes it work, I honestly do not know. I'm sure you can analyze it and see if you are able to identify the active ingredients." Winter said with a smile, "It is a bit of a risk for you, I admit. It might turn out to be magical and then it might be impossible to synthesize."

Alexander considered it for a moment, before drawing his pistol with his left hand, his gloved finger carefully away from the trigger. "Put it on the ground."

Winter smiled and set the vial on the ground, before stepping backwards away from it, motioning for his apprentice to do that same. When they were about five meters away Alexander moved slowly towards it, placing his pistol on the ground before gingerly picking up the vial.

"I'm...going to leave now." Alexander said after a moment before tacking on, "With your permission, Sir?"

Winter nodded and said "Go if you like. We will remain here for a small while longer."

Alexander walked away slowly, putting his helmet back on, every cell of his body screaming "RUN! RUN YOU FOOL!". He couldn't believe his luck. Of all the beings in the multiverse, he'd just have to run into two Planeswalkers. Fucking Planeswalkers. Beings that were capable of making Gods their bitch, and not puny Greek Gods, but really scary Gods. Hell the Ruinous Powers would think twice before taking on a Planeswalker.

When he made his way behind on of the ruined buildings he felt like he was going to pass out, taking deep breaths he considered his position.

The Winter bloke seemed alright, and if he didn't miss his guess the girl, Sunrise, was new, not that it mattered, even a baby Planeswalker wasn't something to mess with. It could have been worse, he could have run into Nicol Bolas. Alexander shook his head, better not to think about such things, last thing he wanted was Murphy paying attention to him. Though even Murphy might think twice about pissing off an Elder Dragon Planeswalker.

Alexander glanced at the small vial in his hand. It was interesting, depending on where they got it, it could be anything from a minor pick-me-up to a freaking cureall on par with the Enterprise's shipbay with McCoy and Crusher in attendance. He mentally shrugged, it was a good trade, though he'd have given the guy his gun to get away, it wasn't like he didn't have a few dozen back on Terra Prime.

Thinking about his world Alexander felt his gut clench. He'd have to wait until they left, no way in hell was he leading them back home. Decent bloke or not, Alex got the feeling they'd frown on him setting up his own personal empire.

Resigning himself to a wait and a long trip back home Alexander triggered the macro to take him back to his stash.