Sell you a Bridge chapter 163

February 12th 2011 Space 8:00 PM EDT

Touching  down on the Wozenderlands was a smooth and seamless thing. No one on  board even noticed, and I marveled at the Gummi ship's ability to land  so delicately. Despite that, we had been warned we would be landing at  some point today, so we were all ready to go when Vykin's voice came  over the speakers that I couldn't even see. "We have arrived, my  friends. Please make your way to the main chamber and ready to disembark  in the Wozenderlands."

Dreamer was bouncing with joy, and  Zee was clearly just as excited, though much less overt about it than  our shared girlfriend. She grabbed a hand from each of us and started  dragging us to the exit ramp and I had to laugh at the enthusiasm.  Artemis and Wally were behind us, and weirdly Artemis was just as  excited as Dreamer. My best friend wasn't one to get giddy, but she  admitted when I asked about it that she had loved Alice in Wonderland as  a kid. It was the reason her sister had chosen the secret identity she  had.

As the Gummi ship ramp lowered, we all flooded out of  the cargo bay, Patches leading the charge. The little puppy was still  tiny, but I'd been feeding him and he'd grown slightly. He was about a  foot and a half at the shoulder now, though he still had those big dopey  puppy paws that tripped over themselves when he ran. It was adorable  watching him flop around as he got too excited and his back legs  outpaced his front.

Zee giggled at the pup as we followed  him out, but before long we all stopped to stare at the sight in front  of us. I gaped as Dreamer came up to me, snagging my arm and pulling me  against her, Zee on her other side. "It's beautiful isn't it? I'll never  get tired of this view." She beamed out over the rolling green hills,  and I had to admit that she was right. This was hands down one of the  most gorgeous places I'd ever seen.

The grass here was the  greenest thing I'd ever seen. Not just brighter or anything it was  just...more green. Like all the other greens I'd seen were cheap knock  offs of this one, sad attempts to mimic the color from a half remembered  faded picture. Throughout the rolling plains I could see a single road  winding into the distance, running right by us. Just like the grass the  yellow of the yellow brick road was something truly special, and the two  colors seemed to almost harmonize with each other, somehow enhancing  each other by their very presence.

The yellow brick road  was sprawling. It went on for miles in both directions. In the far  distance I thought I could see a slight gleam over the horizon, and in  the other direction I could see a dark forest much closer to our current  position. I turned to Dreamer. "Well, I figure asking people about the  portal to the Gamelands is our best bet here. Even if they don't know  where it is they can probably point us at some place where weird things  happen and I can track it down from there. Which means we need to go  somewhere with people. You're the tour guide here princess, why don't  you show us where we should check out first."

She was  clearly ecstatic at the opportunity to show us around, and she bit her  lip cutely as she considered our options. "I think we should try the  Emerald City. It has the largest population and its beautiful as well.  If we get any answers there we can always stop at the Tungey woods on  the way out of the Wozenderlands." With that she pulled us towards the  road, specifically in the direction of the gleam off on the horizon.

As  we walked Artemis followed behind, with Wally and the rest of the  Forever People on her tail. She pulled even with Dreamer as we walked.  "So. I'm curious. How many of the residents of Wonderland will we run  into at the Emerald City. Given how integrated this place is, what with  the merged name thing, I'm betting there's at least some of them there  we might run into. Will we run into the Cheshire Cat?" She sounded so  excited I honestly hoped we would, Artemis never got her hopes up about  anything, even if the cat wasn't in the Emerald City I'd probably try to  track it down.

Dreamer bit her lip again. "Perhaps.  Ironically the uncertainty of the cat's nature makes it more likely to  appear almost anywhere. I mostly stays in the Tungey woods, but it's  been known to appear most anywhere when the mood takes it. It has ever  been a creature of unpredictability. It's presence is considered a sign  of good luck in the Wozenderlands these days. It's something of a totem  for this plane, both due to the rarity of seeing it and it's mellowing  with old age. I've met it at least three times myself, and it is quite  an intriguing animal."

I remembered her mentioning having  run into it, and even considering it a friend at one point. That sounded  interesting to hear about. "Did you meet it in the woods you mentioned?  You said it moves a lot, so did you just get lucky? Or are there some  spots it hits more than others?" I wanted to learn as much about this  place as possible, and Dreamer was the best storyteller I'd ever met,  though I might have been slightly biased. Still this would be quite a  walk it seemed like, so no reason not to enjoy ourselves.

I  could have flown us or something but it was beautiful here and we  weren't in a rush, plus flying this many people would require a  construct and use points, and while I was rocking ten thousand of them  after five days onboard the Gummi ship with multiple tantric rituals,  that wasn't nearly enough to burn them just for my own amusement. It  seemed like a nice change of pace to take a walk without worrying about  anything stressful. Specifically being eaten by mutated god beasts or  having to trek through a giant forest.

Dreamer  seemed excited to tell us about everything. "It had been many years  since I've returned, but last I was here, the cat had no set pattern or  favorite places. I would not worry however, it tends to find things that  strike it as interesting. We're oddities, so it will track us down."  She was going to say more, but suddenly froze. Her eyes narrowed on  something off in the distance, and the rest of us adjusted our guards,  more out of habit than anything else after so long in the woods of New  Genesis.

As  we watched, a few specks appeared on the horizon, or more specifically,  small shapes that turned out to be people when they got closer. Patches  growled as he spotted them, stepping protectively in front of Zee and  Dreamer. I addressed my goddess girlfriend without looking away from the  approaching shapes. "So, did you neglect to mention the flying people?  Because I feel like I would have remembered there being flying people  here. They look like they're on some kind of hover segway. And gods is  that weird to say."

I  heard more than saw her shake her head, though I did catch some motion  out of the corner of my eye. "Not at all. The technology here was fairly  pedestrian the last time we were nearby. Granted that was decades ago  at least, but still, this seems like a large change." As she spoke the  flying forms got closer, revealing themselves to be tall men in long  dark dusters. I raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious what the hell was  going on. The flying machines were pretty fast because there were  already halfway too us.

Zee  let go of Dreamer and stepped in front of our girlfriend, and then I  stepped in front of her, getting a glare. I smirked a bit and winked at  her and she rolled her eyes, clearly understanding my point, even if she  was annoyed. Zee was no more melee combatant than Dreamer was. Of our  group she was the least equipped to fight it out directly, and the best  suited for ranged combat and support. Bear, Wally, and Vykin stepped up  next to me, with Artemis and Serifan drawing their weapons to prepare to  shoot the fliers down if they were hostile.

I  decided since Vykin hadn't given any orders I'd give them to my people  and he and his could follow at their own discretion. "Ok guys, we don't  want to make waves here. Unless they attack or reveal hostile intent try  to diffuse the situation. We don't want hordes of locals chasing us  down, even if we could handle it." It would be annoying and distracting,  and since they weren't crazy evil bio monsters we couldn't just put  them down. I was getting back in good with Zee and I wasn't going to let  some local thugs screw that up by forcing me to face murder them.

Everyone  eased up slightly. Mostly superficially, but at least we didn't look  like we were getting ready for a war anymore. I was honestly most  worried about Bear, he seemed like the type to punch first and then  punch again instead of asking questions. Still, it was pretty irrelevant  because the flying things got within range and the tall men all pulled  out what looked like laser guns, though they didn't point them as as so  much as just sort of hold them menacingly as they advanced.

I  raised a hand with a friendly smile, though it was the hand with my  spatial ring in case I needed to draw my King's Sword of Haste. "Ho  there, well met friends. What can we do for you today?" Serifan had  somehow condensed the Gummi ship into the Mother Box for storage so we  were just a bunch of travelers on the road. Granted they may have seen  out ship touching down and be here for that, but hey, unless you've  already been caught deny, deny, deny. I wasn't admitting shit unless  they had me on video. Even then I would probably claim it was fake.

The  men in coats touched down, stepping carefully off their vehicles, their  guns still down but out. "Our sensors detected a strong surge of  dimensional energy here. It is well know that we must guard the  dimensional barrier well, for the Monsters may escape if given half a  chance. If you fine people could accompany us back to the Emerald City,  we would be happy to clear this up with a few questions and send you on  your way." Despite his casual words, his aura was nervous and slightly  angry, which really didn't fit.

I  gave a cavalier shrug and a smile, hoping to diffuse the situation here  by pretending they were actually as open minded as they were  pretending. If we could get away I could hide us with my ghost  abilities. "We have a bit of a schedule to keep, but we would be happy  to ride with you to the Emerald City. We can answer your questions on  the way and you can just drop us off instead of going through the  trouble of finding somewhere to house us. No need to put yourselves  out."

The  lead man in the coat gritted his teeth. "I'm afraid this isn't up for  negotiation. You've been discovered at the site of a dimensional breach.  You WILL be remanded into our custody. On the authority of Queen  Azkedelia, you are to surrender your weapons and allow us to take you  into captivity." He raised his gun, his friends following suit as they  level their firepower at us. "We will not ask again." I blinked, but not  at the guns. I was more confused by something else he'd said. Queen  who?