Anti-Mage

Anton went through the drawers, cupboards, and cold boxes. The only foods he could find were breakfast bars, full-kit MREs (Meal Ready-to-Eat), and various containers of individual-sized juices. Anton grabbed a breakfast bar and an orange juice and sat back down while he waited.

A few minutes later, Anton had finished his snack and walked over to one of the walls, where he noticed a touchpad. When he touched it, the large monitor lit up with a military-type logo. It looked like a cross between the seal of the United States and the logo in Starship Trooper, though there were a few distinct changes. The center was filled with an image of Earth orbited by six golden stars with an eagle floating above the world and the stars. It wasn’t a very detailed symbol, but it was easy to recognize.

The monitor showed the time and an image of the main room in the facility attached to the hanger was visible. A 10 by 10-foot red square was painted on the floor directly in front of the camera, which Anton realized was probably where any portals appeared. There was also a panel on the right side of the monitor labeled announcements, but there was nothing in the announcement block.

Anton sat back down at the table and waited for Caitlyn to finish reviewing her status screen. Five minutes later, Caitlyn’s eyes cleared, and she looked across the table to Anton, “What is going on?”

“You were able to review your Personal Info?” Anton asked.

“I was. It looks like something out of a tabletop or computer game,” Caitlyn said.

“It does, but you’ll get used to it. First question: were you able to review your abilities?”

“I was. I have something called Celestial Spark.”

“Can you show it to me,” Anton asked.

“How do I do that?” Caitlyn asked.

Anton pulled up a copy of his Attributes and made them visible, explaining, “Just pull up the information you want to share and then will it to become visible, like this.”

Strength 238

Agility 240

Dexterity 196

Endurance 398

Constitution 336

Perception 240

Intelligence 236

Wisdom 192

Willpower 684

Charisma 236

Luck 324

Chaos 0

Order 0

Caitlyn looked at the holographic screen between them. A moment later, a screen with the Celestial Spark appeared. Anton quickly read it over while Caitlyn looked at the window containing his attributes.

Celestial Spark

Celestials are beings of the Proper or Absolute. Also sometimes referred to as the Divine. Celestial Spark makes you 100% resistant to Putrescent and Anti, or Null, magic-based attacks. Additionally, you may utilize mana to channel your spark and augment your attacks on a 1 for 1 basis—one point of mana for 1 point of celestial damage. The chance to hit for the attack increases by 100% and is incredibly hard to dodge.

While Anton looked over Celestial Spark, Caitlyn asked, “What level are you?”

“Five, why?” Anton asked.

“Five? How?” Caitlyn asked disbelievingly.

“What?” Anton asked confusedly.

“Well, I have a Strength of 13, and yours is 238. First, you don’t look that much stronger, and second, what do the numbers even mean?” Caitlyn asked with a hint of doubt in her tone.

Anton looked thoughtful for a moment before she responded, “The simple answer is magic. Also, after our little sparring session downstairs, you’re not telling me you thought you had a chance against me, did you?”

“Eventually, I would have taken you out if I needed to,” Caitlyn said determinedly.”

Anton looked thoughtful for a moment before he answered her original question, “I have much higher attributes than you because one of my abilities is called Immortal. On the Earth I came from, a nuclear device went off directly in front of me before I knew that I was Immortal. Every 14 seconds, I respawned into the residual atomic fireball until I eventually figured things out, and the alien base I was in cleansed the residual radiation and fireball. Then I received the title “ I Ain’t Worried which increased my Attribute Efficiency by 100% for all attributes, which effectively doubled all of them.”

“Still, that would mean you have 100 attribute points in every attribute. I’m level 5. When I reviewed my Personal Info I learned that I receive four attributes per level. Even if your attributes are effectively doubled, You have at least 100 in each of the 11 primary attributes. If everyone starts with ten or so in each attribute, that means that you have earned 990 attributes, which means that you would need to be at least level 247.”

“So what do you think that means?” Anton asked.

“I have no idea,” Caitlyn admitted.

“Which is precisely how I’ve felt since I was struck by a beam in an underground facility in Antarctica,” Anton said with a laugh. “First, there are various categories of classes. I would bet that you possess a Common Class, which limits the amount of attributes you are receiving at each level. The good news is that you can improve the rarity of your class, which will increase the amount of attributes you earn. Be warned, though, that if the rarity of your class increases the longer it will take you to level. I am not level 247, but explaining what class I have and how that all works is going to take longer than we have.”

“Why do you say that? There’s no one here?” Caitlyn asked confusedly.

“You’re the soldier; how often do people check in, or on, this this facility? Better yet, does it have a dedicated communications connection back to Earth, and if so, how long do you think it will be before someone is sent here to investigate?” Anton asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know the answers to any of those questions. Before I stepped through a portal into this facility, I didn’t even know it existed. As for your other questions, are you some tactical genius or military analyst?”

Anton laughed, “Not at all. I just read a lot of Tom Clancy and science fiction novels growing up, and it seems like something the people in charge of a facility like this would want to do, doesn’t it?” Anton asked.

“Well, if there is a dedicated line into this facility, wouldn’t the phenomenon that destroyed everyone here have translated through the connection back to that area?” Caitlyn asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Anton said. “I believe that part of the energy that permeates my body exploded out from me and wiped out all living creatures that weren’t resistant to that energy, or magic, type.”

Caitlyn looked at Anton incredulously, “Magic, Really?”

Anton met her gaze unflinching and agreed, “Magic, Really. Anyway, the magic that exploded out from the room below may have passed through a portal if it was open and faced in the direction of the origin of the energy wave. If it wasn’t, the wave of energy may have just washed over it with no effect or, more likely, because keeping such connections open would require a lot of energy, maybe they only establish a portal once in a while to check in,” Anton mused out loud.

“How do you know the ‘magic’ only affected people?” Caitlyn started to ask as Anton made a show of looking around and then spread both of his hands to the table they were sitting at. “Yeah, that tracks. If it affected inanimate objects, none of this would be here now.” Caitlyn said.

“Bingo,” Anton agreed.

“Well, shit,” Caitlyn said.

“No. Shit is wondering if the wave is going to continue spreading and eventually reach Earth or if the return of magic to this Realm will negate it?” Anton said.

“Do you think it’s going to wipe out everyone, everywhere?” Caitlyn asked.

“We’ll know as soon as someone opens a portal and checks in with this facility,” Anton said.

“How?”

“If the field is still detrimental to living tissue, anyone stepping into this base with no resistance is going to have a very short stay,” Anton said.

“How do we stop it?” Caitlyn asked as she stood

“I have no idea,” Anton answered honestly. “Now eat. Things may go sideways, or they may not. We need to get our calories when we can and take a few extra breakfast bars with us, just in case. Also, I would carry some water,” Anton said as he walked over to one of the cool boxes and transferred half of the water bottles inside into his Inventory.

Caitlyn watched as he reached into the fridge and, after a few moments, closed it without taking anything out. She stood from the table, opened the door, and noticed that half of the water bottles on the top shelf were now missing. She looked at Anton before she asked, “Where did you put the water bottles?

Anton thought best about how to proceed, then walked over to a small square table. He moved the chairs away from the table, picked up the table so that he was holding it sideways, and turned it to and fro so that there was no doubt to Caitlyn that she could see the whole table before he asked, “Would you agree that there is nowhere for me to hide the water bottles and that there is nothing on or under the top?”

“There is nothing on or under the table,” Caitlyn agreed.

Anton put the table down and then gestured for Caityln to pick it up. “Please pick up the table, check it for yourself, and then put it back down,” Anton said.

Caitlyn did as instructed. Since it was a tiny table, it took almost no time for her to check the top, check the bottom, lift the table off the ground, and turn it sideways. No weight shifted, and as the top was only a half-inch thick, there was nowhere to hide anything. She put the table back on the ground in front of Anton and stepped back, “Nothing on or under the table,” Caitlyn agreed.

“Okay,” Anton said as he turned around slowly, showing that his arms had nothing on them, and placed his hand over the table with a single finger pointed down, “Now, I’m going to pull the bottles out of my extradimensional storage and put them on the table at the end of my finger. I need to move my hand so I can place the bottles next to each other, but other than that, I will not move any other part of my body. Feel free to walk around me and check to see if I’m using sleight-of-hand.

“Okay,” Caitlyn agreed.

Anton stood back from the table, placed his hand over it, and moved his hand so that his right pointer finger was directly over the table as he methodically called 20 water bottles from his inventory and placed them on the table. Caitlyn was surprised by the first bottle but then moved around Anton and watched as bottle after bottle appeared on the table. When he was done, he stepped back and gestured for Caitlyn to look at the table.

Caitlyn stepped forward, picked up one of the bottles, and unscrewed the top. She sniffed it, poured a little water on her finger, and even took a small sip. It’s water:” she said as she tried to come to terms with what Anton had just shown her.

Anton stepped forward and shifted the entire table, which still had all the water bottles on it, into his inventory.

“What, where did it go?” Caitlyn said.

“As I said earlier when I showed you the P90, I have an inventory. My weapons and supplies, including the table and the additional 19 water bottles, are all in that inventory.”

“That makes no sense,” Caitlyn said in a voice that clearly meant that she was talking to herself.

Anton answered her anyway, “That’s why it’s called magic.”

Just then, a red light flashed next to the monitor, drawing both of their attention. A portal had formed right above the red square on the ground.

“Looks like we're about to have visitors,” Anton commented.

“Yep, and it looks like you’re once again my prisoner,” Caitlyn said

“I’d rethink that,” Anton said.

“Whatever,” Caitlyn said just before a voice spoke through the speakers in the wall next to the monitor.

“Sub-Commander Sheppard. Where is everyone else?”

Before Caitlyn, the speaker yelled out, “What is happening?” as Anton and Caitlyn watched the portal shift from a flat black into a blue, then through every color of the rainbow until it entered and returned to black with an ultraviolet hue surrounding it.

“What the hell just happened?” Caitlyn asked.

“I don’t know, but if we don’t want to be stuck here, I suggest we make our way to that portal and return to wherever it leads,” Anton said.

Without a word, Caitlyn stood and led the way to the elevator. They rode up to the surface level and stepped out of the elevator to see that the portal had started fluctuating. Anton looked at the portal, then at Caitlyn before he said, “Run!”

Anton could have probably made it to the portal at 30 feet in two seconds, but he stayed behind Caityln and followed her to the portal. In just under three seconds, Caitlyn dove through the portal, which looked to be destabilizing. A moment later, Anton sighed in relief as his head and upper torso crossed the threshold into a clean room as gravity rushed up to meet his severed torso. Caitlyn turned back to see only the upper half of Anton as his arms and legs came to rest against her legs. The portal had closed and sliced him in half, leaving his lower torso and legs back at the other base.

Anton still had his lungs so he could look up at Caitlyn and say, “Be right back,” as he activated Specter.

From his vantage point in the other dimension, Anton watched as security personnel rushed into the room, immobilized Subcommander Sheppard, and began asking her questions Anton couldn’t hear. Fourteen seconds later, Anton’s body was fully healed, and he deactivated Specter, which left him standing right next to four guards and Subcommander Sheppard. What followed next could have been a scene in the movie “The Matrix” but was more like a scene from “The One.” In the space of 10 seconds, Anton had moved to each guard, disarmed them of their weapons, placed each of those weapons in his inventory, and left each guard unconscious. When he was done, he had his hand braced against the only door into the room and four unconscious soldiers at Caitlyn’s feet.

It only took a moment for Caitlyn to come to terms with what she’d just witnessed before she said, “Holy Shit!”

“The good news is, it looks like magic coming back into the Realm, which has stabilized the death field that was initially emitted,” Anton commented as the first man tried to push their way into the room. “Also, you might want to convince whoever is in charge to stand down, or my next trick is going to involve a very similar outcome to how I arrived in this room,” Anton said as he pointed to where he'd landed. Although, the blood stains had already evaporated.

“Stand Down!” Subcommander Sheppard called out.

“We have an invader in our midst. Do you expect us to stand down?” the man in the control booth asked through the intercom. Anton realized it was going to take a bit for Caitlyn to get these yahoos to calm down, “Caitlyn, you talk to your people; I’ll be watching and back after a bit.”

“You’ll be watching?” Caitlyn asked just as Anton activated Specter again. The good news was that it looked like everyone might still live. The bad news was that he had a militaristic state that he had to deal with before he could work on finding a Labyrinth Node to get out of this Realm… Did he need to?

Anton continued to watch Caitlyn as people rushed into the room to check on the guards he’d disarmed and knocked out while he pulled up his Personal Info and looked at one of the last Psychic Skills he’d picked up: Planar Shift.

Planar Shift

You may move from your current universe or dimension into an adjacent Universe or Dimension at a cost of 100 Psychic Energy.

Could he take someone with him? Better yet, would she want to go with him? Did it matter? He could work that out later; for now, he wanted to know where he was. Anton floated up through the ceiling. It was at least 10 feet to the next floor above this one, which was just an empty room directly above the chamber. As he went through the next ceiling, he found himself on a large roof with solar panels and air handling units that looked quite large.

Anton shot straight up about a mile and looked down. Off to the south, he could see a large city. To his east was a much smaller city. Additionally, he was over a sand lake that looked vaguely familiar. Was this…It was. He was at Area 51. He was sure of it. The Nevada Test Range was off to the west, and the large city to the south should be Las Vegas.

Anton dropped back down to ground level, looked around at the various low mountains and hills in the area to get this location down in his mind, and then shot off toward Las Vegas. One minute later, he came in over the city and realized that something was very wrong with this Earth. This version of Las Vegas looked like the version he’d seen in that Resident Evil movie. Most of the roads on the outskirts of the city had been all but covered with sand. The few trees that he could see were all palm trees, and the city was in shambles. One area near the main strip looked to have some people moving around, but where there were millions, he only saw a few hundred people.

If he didn’t know better, he would guess that the stations in orbit were being used as safe havens for a majority of the population. What happened to the Earth here? He’d been indoors; was there a lack of oxygen, too? Anton considered his options and then headed back to Area 51 as he retraced his back to the room where he’d come through the portal. When he made it back, the room was being thoroughly searched. A man in a business suit stood in front of Caitlyn, shaking a finger at her. Anton couldn’t hear anything that was being said, but the suit looked angry.

Anton moved up into the room with no one in it, remained in his Specter Form, and activated Battle Meditation. Five minutes later, his Psychic Energy was once again maxed out at 1,250. He floated back down through the floor and found that the suit had calmed down. Two guards stood at the suit's back as they kept an eye on his surroundings, and he questioned Caitlyn. Caitlyn was answering his questions but looked a little pissed off. Anton smiled. This next part was going to be a little bit of fun.

Anton moved over next to Caitlyn and faced the suit as he activated Manifest. His image appeared right next to Caitlyn, who flinched and stepped away from Anton. The two guards behind the suit reacted instantly. The one on the left moved between Anton and the suit, while the one on the right moved in and tried to grab him. When his hands passed through Anton, he stepped back and looked around warily.

Anton used sign language to ask, “Can you understand me?”

The suit and Caitlyn both shook their heads. Next, Anton pointed at his head, then at the suit’s head, and then back and forth, making both of his hands into mouths that talked at each other. Then he looked at the suit questioningly.

The suit nodded.

Anton targeted the suit and activated Telepathy. A moment later, their minds connected, and Anton sent, “Hello. I’m Anton, and you are?”

“Telepathy, how remarkable. I am Felix; if I might ask, where are you right now.?” Felix sent through the link.

“I’m right in front of you, though my body is currently in an adjacent Dimension. I’ve just manifested so that you can see me. Still can’t interact except with sign language or Telepathy, but as you can see, it gets the job done.” Anton explained with a self-deprecating laugh.

“It does seem like that would be useful. But you’ll have to rest at some point. If you don’t talk to us on our terms, we will be forced to take more drastic measures when you do,” Felix said.

“And we were starting on such a positive note. Why don’t you ask Caitlyn what abilities I told her I have? Then, ask her how we arrived here, though I expect you have that on video. You cannot hold me, and you cannot kill me. Now, I am willing to work with you because I would really like to find the Labyrinth Node on this planet so I can get the hell out of here, but I can also activate one of my skills and leave.” Anton sent.

Felix looked thoughtful for a moment before he sent, “Caitlyn has been sharing fantastic tails about you since I started questioning her. She said you can make stuff appear and disappear into an inventory?”

Anton held out his hand, activated Spectral Reach, and pulled a bottle of water from his inventory, which he set on the ground before he deactivated Spectral Reach.

“What was that?” Felix asked with interest.

“For a moment, I solidified my hand, which allowed me to pull a bottle of water I had picked up on the base out of my inventory. It’s real, test it for yourself,” Anton sent.

One of the guards reached down and picked up the water. He cracked the seal and poured some water on the ground before he sniffed it and handed it to Felix. Felix sniffed it and tapped the liquid with his finger before he touched his tongue with it. Anton watched and picked up through his telepathy when he said, “It’s water.”

Of course, it’s water,” Anton sent.

What are you going to do now?” Felix asked.

“Well, that depends. Did you get the System notifications? Anton asked.

“Yes, we’re still going through them,” Felix said.

“Well, I’m willing to help if you promise not to try to turn me into some type of experiment and treat me as a VIP guest and not a lab subject. With the understanding that if you try, I will leave and never return. Once I’m gone, you can figure this out all on your own, which should be a lot of fun,” Anton sent.

Felix thought about it for a moment before he nodded and sent, “You have my word.”

Anton ended Specter, Manifest, Telepathy as he stepped into the material plane and said, “Awesome, let’s get to work!”