"What do you mean, moving?" a disappointed blonde haired young woman sighed as her father sat her down. She knew dad always did the best he could but it just seemed like another sudden gut punch in a span of couple of months that was full of them. Her traumatic experience at the cheer regionals had left her extremely disheartened, the literal destruction of her job had left her displaced, she found out one of her good friends was some kind of crazy superhero, and while she was looking forward to getting back to school and maybe seeing some return to normalcy, it sounded like another big move was on the way.
Chrissy had unfortunately been used to this pattern before, for as long as she could remember.
"Yeah ... I'm sorry hon" the man said, his name known across town as Byron Biggs, "I know I said it would be a good idea to have you live here with me for a while but ... it isn't safe"
"Dad, I understand the whole bombing freaked you out ... trust me, it freaked me out too but ..."
"Chrissy darling..." Biggs sighed, "it isn't just that ... some real stuff's coming down the pipe ... dangerous stuff and I just ... I don't wanna see you here .. I don't want you to be in the crossfire..."
"S-So are you coming too?" Chrissy asked
"Yes... in due time" Biggs said, "I've been looking into places down south ..."
"Back to Alabama?" Chrissy sighed, rolling her eyes. She liked Alabama but the scenery change had done her good.
"Maybe ... maybe not" Biggs sighed, "I wish I had more to tell you but I felt like you had the right to know ... I plan to have you moved by the end of the summer, and I'll hopefully be able to come join you in the fall... until then, I'm looking for family for you to stay with ... your aunt and uncle in Wyoming seem to be the perfect candidates at the moment... although others aren't answering my calls"
Chrissy just let out a frown, trying to be a strong girl as she usually did. She just didn't understand it all sometimes. All she wanted was one place to settle down in ... was that asking too much?
-----
Across dimensional lines, another person was asking himself a similar thing, this particular person a large hulking man of unknown age or origin. He went by the name Vektor and for years all he had known was fighting or defending. Even now, while the threat of Paradox and Pandora had been momentarily neutralized, he knew it was only a matter of time before a counterattack would be coming. That's why, despite his intentions to settle down himself, he had to make sure he stayed on top of things, with further fortifications to his palace and a grand address he planned to deliver to his people later that day while Lexi was still recovering and his closest warriors, the three "gem themed" women, seemed to be in a state of seperation, not wanting to be too close to the current kingdom and its inner workings.
He understood it, it wasn't exactly orthodox. He regretted his past but he wanted to make a clean future. It would start with his new wife ... Alexis Cole. The one he intended to marry. She would set him on the right course. Over time, he was confident that her positive ways and friendly leadership would help change him and he in turn would help get her accustomed to life in Quartzaria.
Of course he also understood this wouldn't be an easy transition for her, despite that so he had prepared some gifts in her honor, some of them a bit more straightforward and indicative of ancient Quartzarian rituals in honoring their heroes. But he also had some modern ideas, some ways to ease Lexi's homesickness shoudl it arise.
Right on cue came a knock on the door of the chamber of Lord Vektor as he made a series of preparations ... some for his speech, some for a potential fight, and some for his planned nuptials which seemed to be on a fast track towards fruition.
"Come in..." the strangely calm Vektor responded and in walked a dark haired male who closely resembled Joshua James. "Excellent, it worked'
"Ummm... yeah ..." the fake Josh said, scratching his head uneasily, in a manner similar to his real counterpart, "This one's mind is full of knowledge of comic books and strange paranormal stuff ..."
"And?" Vektor shrugged, failing to see the issue, "what IS normal here anyway? He'll fit in great"
"Y-Yeah ... but I don't know ... he sees visions of this strange superhero named man of Spider? I don't get how a man can also be a spider?"
"Be open-minded..." Vektor said reassuringly, "if Lexi and her friend like this Spider person, then we shall like them too ... maybe we can look up some Earth media and assimilate it here ... besides, you know the bride always gets what she wants"
"And ... you're sure she's okay with this?" "Josh" asked
"Of course..." Vektor said, not a hint of hesitation in his voice. "She will be here later today for my speech, she will gladly accept the title of my wife and the ceremony will take place tomorrow in front of the grand court of Quartzaria..."
"Sir?" "Josh" asked, "doesn't that seem a bit ... soon? Even in falling in line with Quartzarian customs"
"Too soon would be applicable if I were still a young man..." Vektor chortled a bit, "and while I still have plenty more life to offer, I'm getting long in the tooth when it comes to love ... and I think it's time I gave that facet of life a try ... I owe Lady Lexington that much ... now where is your colleague? Where's Dagger?"
"I'm ... I'm here your lord..." a shy female voice arose from behind the door
"Well? Let's see ya!" Vektor said, a bit curious himself
"Ugh ... do I really have to ...?" the voice responded, before slowly walking out, revealing the form of Leah Henderson, "this one is really weird ... she thinks about Lexi a lot and wears these really tight outfits... I don't like the way they pull around my..."
"Hey, this is Lexi's really good friend, from what I can tell" Vektor nodded, "You shall be her maid of honor..."
"Lovely..." the fake Leah sighed. "Can you at least adjust this one so I don't think about boys all the time?"
"Unfortunately it's a side effect of the crystal..." Vektor shrugged, "you can do your best to control the thoughts of the persona you've assumed but, it'll be up to you how much you let it control you"
"Speaking of control..." fake Josh chimed in, "You guys ever get the feeling that the government is watching us?"
Vektor and "Leah" looked over confused
"Yeah I don't know ..." "Josh" said, "...this one's weird..."
-----
Elsewhere in the castle, in a mechanical chamber stood Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire. Sapphire in particular seemed a bit spooked as she'd occasionally peek through the door of the room to make sure nobody was coming. Meanwhile Ruby was intently examining a machine that Vektor had commissioned sometime during the outing to Paradox Peak but it had ceased production since the crew had returned.
The machine was a large portal producer, similar to the one that brought Vektor and Lexi to Quartzaria from Lexi's dimension. Vektor had his best engineers on the project at one point and the machine appeared to be nearly done, thus prompting Ruby to make some adjustments of her own, trying to finish what was left to do on the machine.
"A-Are you sure about this?" Sapphire whimpered, taking a brief pause from watching the hallways of the palace to address her sisters, as Emerald handed Ruby some tiny quartz gems to put in the mainframe of the portal machine.
"What choice do we have?" Ruby grunted, being extremely careful to insert the quartz crystals very carefully into the machine's slots which lined the circumference of the large arch of metal, "it's obvious Vektor has no intention of sending Lexi home and this machine is our only way of doing so ..."
"But even if this works..." Emerald sighed, thinking over the possibilities, "there's no gaurantee this machine will send her back to her exact dimension and even if it does, who knows WHERE in the dimension it will send her..."
"Well, it appears this machine was to have some kind of coordinate program built in..." Ruby nodded, swiveling a small screen outwards for the others to see. The screen resembled that of an old fashioned cash register monitor and the display was dim, only showing a few vague numbers that were to represent coordinates. "...but of course, the machine isn't exactly finished yet..."
"Perhaps Vektor plans to finish it after his big address today?" Emerald suggested, although she wasn't completely sure of her own words even as she said them.
"Psh, highly doubt it" Ruby scoffed, "Vektor could've had any of his finest engineers finish this project by now, yet he's left it unfinished ... thankfully I know a thing or two about wiring machines although this is ... well, it's still pretty untested..."
"So what do we do??" Sapphire asked, her back turned long enough to not notice a guard with a suspicious look on his face approaching the corridor.
Emerald and Ruby let out a soft but audible gulp as they gestured with their eyes for Sapphire to turn around. When she did, she too let out a yelp, noticing Vektor's loyal guard Smoke standing in the threshold.
"You ladies aren't supposed to be in here..." Smoke warned, "this machine is highly delicate and any alterations to it ..."
"Look, I get it..." Ruby sighed
"You didn't let me finish..." Smoke sighed, "any alterations should be made by a qualified professional..."
With that, Smoke unveiled a small Quartzarian wrench from his pocket. Of course the wrench, like most things in this realm didn't resemble a traditional wrench, instead branching off in a few different directions similar to a Swiss army knife. Still, his intentions appeared a bit unclear.
"I'm sorry?" Ruby asked, a bit confused as she watched Smoke approach the machine with his wrench, getting down on one knee to examine it closer.
Smoke shook his head in dismay as he continued working on the machine, "just watch the door ... I'll take care of the rest..."
It appeared the three ladies weren't the only ones doubting Vektor's intentions...
----
"The heck is this place?" a confused Chris asked, sparking a small fireball in his hands to light up the surrounding area, as the crew finally found what Spark was trying to show them, a dark and dim lab in the middle of the woods.
"Well, this definitely explains the headaches I've been having..." Spark sighed, looking around the disheveled laboratory, clear signs of a struggle as various metal components lay strewn about on the floor.
Trevor looked around, as best he could with the lack of light, completely enthralled with what he could see.
Meanwhile, Sonia was just trying to fathom that she was gazing upon an actual fairy as she stared utterly stupified at the tiny floating woman in red and black. Sensing the burning stare, Spark swiveled around to face the giant officer, giving her a shy wave.
"Um... hi?" Spark shrugged, wings flapping gingerly in the breeze.
"S-Sorry..." Sonia nodded, putting her head down as if in regret, "don't mean to stare"
"Eh, it happens," the non-chalant Spark responded, giving a friendly shrug, "I don't see too many humans myself so its always a bit of an experience for me..."
"Spark..." Chris asked, as he combed through more of the debris, seeing various shiny crystals scattered throughout the lab in addition to the metallic wreckage, "what did you mean when you mentioned those headaches?"
"Well it was like ... related to whatever rift was opened, it's hard to explain..." Spark shrugged
"Yeah, because this has been so easy to follow to this point..." Leah sighed, trying to add some levity to the dire situation.
"Well ... it's said that Fensteria exists in a sort of realm between realms ... and because of that, if one of the other realms is ever opened, it kind of sets off an odd ... sensation in us fairies..." Spark explained, holding her head again as being in the presence of the portal machinery alone was causing her a slight adverse reaction.
"Kind of like Spider sense?" Josh asked, quick to draw the comparison.
"Um... sure?" Spark chuckled nervously, not quite getting the reference as she landed on a lab bench.
"So ... we can safely assume this is likely where Lexi got warped to ..." Josh said, combing through the area himself, using his cell phone's flash light to have a gander. He turned the cell phone briefly towards hif ace and raised an eyebrow, "Uh ... this is weird"
"What??" Leah asked curiously, peering over Josh's shoulder to see what he was looking at
"Well ... my messenger is showing Lexi is online ..." Josh said, perplexed as he clicked on her name
"Try calling her!" Leah insisted
"I can give it a shot..." Josh said, typing in her number, "but I highly doubt we're going to get through ..."
There was a long pause but to his surprise the phone began to ring rather than kick back his call.
On the other end of the line, Lexi's modified cell phone vibrated on a table made of Quartzarian marble. A hand reached out and picked it up.
"L-Lexi?" Josh asked, as everybody in the room perked up to have a listen. The voice on the other end wasn't Lexi at all though.
"Um... sorry, wrong number" the voice said, before hanging up.
Josh looked a bit confused and even slightly angry.
"Wh-Who was it?" Leah asked
"That's the crazy part..." Josh said, as he attempted to redial the number, "... it was you"
----
An urgent "Leah Henderson" came to find Vektor in his private chamber as the self appointed Lord was preparing for his speech. Vektor turned with a bit of indignance at the sudden intrusion.
"Yes?" Vektor sighed, standing in front of an elegant mirror as if rehearsing.
"I'm sorry to bother you..." "Leah" said, "but we have a problem..."
"A problem?" Vektor asked
"Somebody's trying to call Lexi, sir" the fake Leah said, "I accidentally picked up"
"Okay ... no worries..." Vektor sighed, "we knew this was a possibility..."
"Shoudl we disconnect the signal?" "Leah" asked
"Not just yet" Vektor shook his head, "If Lexi is to be my wife, there needs to be a degree of transparency... she deserves the opportunity to say goodbye to her friends from back home ... besides, as her future husband, I'm sure we could arrange for occasional visits to her realm ... it's only fair after all"
"And ... why exactly am I disguised as the girl friend?" "Leah" asked, still sounding a bit annoyed at the situation
"It's ... an aide..." Vektor sighed, "a way to ease potential homesickness... heck, if you do a good enough job, maybe she'll take you in as her own ... she might not even need whoever this person really is in her world..."
"Great... I get to spend the rest of my life as a fashion obsessed girl from another world..." the disguised Dagger sighed
"Look, this will be a strange transition for all of us, I'm sure" Vektor said, "but this kingdom has been through so much ... this could be the beginning a new era of peace and prosperity with myself and Lady Lexi at the helm for years to come..."
"Yeah yeah ..." fake Leah scoffed, before pondering something, "y'know ... what's the deal with that Smoke fella? He was kinda cute..."
Vektor sighed and rolled his eyes, "control yourself..."
Spekaing of control, it was something that Lexi had been desperately fighting to regain and she finally had done so, as a loud hissing sound signaled the decompressing of her medical chamber. Her vital signs showing sufficient improvement for the glass chamber to disengage.
The still disoriented Lexi fully awoke surrounded by a valley of smoke. She peered over at a red monitor that showed various vital signs. She felt surprisingly energized and even healthy considering everything she had been through. As she slowly got out of the chamber, she stretched her arms to the sky as if yawning, and while she slowly stepped out of the chamber, she neglected to note one important thing on the monitor.
PARADOX POISON LEVEL : 25%
Lexi looked around, a bit dumbfounded. While she felt physically better, she was still a bit hazy on what had happened to her since the fight at the Paradox Peak. She remembered her powers going haywire for a moment, allowing her to grow to a giantess size and dispact of that dragon-like creature, the Krazacken. She remembered a brief encounter with Vektor and Pandora but then everything was a blur.
Had she actually turned into Roxie?
And why did that thought both scare and arouse her?
Lexi wouldn't have much time to ponder further before she saw Emerald pass by the medical room, only to stop and turn back, her eyes wide with shock.
"You guys!" Emerald said, bringing her sisters along, "Lexi! She's ... "
"Yeah..." Lexi sighed, still catching her breath from the ordeal, "I'm okay ... and I'm me again ... wh-what happened exactly?"
"You were struck with a paradox crystal..." Emerald explained, "It got pretty rough ... we were all pretty worried..."
"You sure you're alright now?" Sapphire asked, offering an arm for Lexi to lean in if she needed it. Lexi politely declined the help.
"I'm .. I'm good... I actually feel .. a bit better than before..." Lexi replied in a confused tone, her fingers again sparking but it didn't hurt. It felt as though her veins were coursing with power, but not enough to hurt her, just enough to seemingly heal her as she walked out of the medical room and peered down the extensive hallway of the palace.
"Well ... that's good..." Ruby nodded, "our next step is going to be trying to get you back home"
"I'd ... I'd really appreciate that ..." Lexi sighed, "not that you all haven't been awesome ... but ... I really miss my friends... I really miss..."
"Heya Lex" a familiar voice chimed in from behind, right on cue. Lexi turned in shock to see her best friend Leah Henderson standing just a few feet behind her. Rather than question the odd, impossibly unlikely occurence, Lexi found herself just collapsing into her arms in a hug.
"Holy shit, Leah!" Lexi giggled a bit, "H-How did you get here?"
"We've been looking for you, silly..." Leah giggled, "Josh and I and the rest ... it's ... it's been really tough without you..."
Ruby and Emerald exchanged confused glances at the emergence of this new fellow "other dimensional" gal with the long brunette hair, wearing super casual clothes that even they weren't familiar with. Lexi had entered their realm wearing something of a superhero outfit. It was not to the level of traditional Quartzarian armor but it was something that the Quartzarians could at least relate to. This Leah girl was wearing an orange tank top and some kind of blue denim fabric to cover her legs. They hadn't seen anything like it but they figured such a garb were common where Lexi hailed from.
"You ... know her?" Sapphire asked, peeking out from between her two sisters, shyly introducing herself to the new girl, Leah.
"Yeah! She's my best friend!" Lexi exclaimed, certainly overjoyed to see a familiar face -- so much so that she wasn't even letting the lack of logic stand in her way as she delivered another warm hug to the duplicates body. "Leah, this is Sapphire"
"Oh ... hello Sapphire" Leah nodded, "oh Sapphire! Such a lovely gemstone! I bet I'd look lovely in one"
Lexi raised an eyebrow, but appreciated the comment all the same, glad to see Leah hadn't changed too much, although she almost seemed a bit TOO peppy considering what had been going on. How could she talk about jewelry at a time like this? Then again, the person currently "portraying" Leah felt the same way. Their actual persona, who was a male, found himself disgusted at how often "Leah" would make lame jokes, think about boys or talk about jewelry. It was almost involuntary for him to adopt her personality though, or pieces of it.
"Heh, well... I will say, the orange top is nice" Lexi nodded, "b-but ... how did you get here? Is anyone else with you?"
"Um... Josh is" Leah nodded, "but he's somewhere in the castle ... something about wanting to see genuine knights armor or something..."
"That sounds like Josh..." Lexi giggled, rolling her eyes. For just a few fleeting moments, everything appeared to have some sense of normalcy, which brought on her next question, "so ... does this mean you have a way for me to go home"
"Oh! Oh yes, sure!" Leah nodded, a bit of hesitance in her voice, which wasn't lost on Emerald or Ruby. "We're going to get you back as soon as possible ... we just have to wait for Vektor's speech"
Lexi raised an eyebrow, "I'm sorry, what? I mean ... n-no offense but ... why do we need to wait for Vektor's speech?"
"Well..." Leah said, trying to play it up, "he was nice enough to bring us here to find you ... and he said it would be this epic incredible speech or something"
Lexi began to find her suspicions again. If for no other reason than Leah had said Vektor's name perfectly -- not the same clumsy way (Vector) Lexi herself had said it. That was a bit too easy for somebody who wasn't a native of this dimension.
"So c'mon, girl... let's go" Leah yelped, pulling Lexi's hand along towards the crowd.
Elsewhere, Vektor was up in his quarters as a nosy "Josh James" poked around behind him.
"Cloak... what are you DOING in here?" Vektor sighed, finding the young man's persistence super annoying even as he knew the whole time, this wasn't a real resident of the other dimension he was dealing with.
"I'm sorry but is this a real knights helmet?" "Josh" exclaimed.
"You know it is!" Vektor groaned, "look, just go find Lexi and the girl friend, Leah and go ... be with them... okay?"
"Oh right ... right ... y'know sire..." "Josh" said, regaining a bit of his personality for a moment, "I don't think Lexi is going to love what you're planning here"
"I guess we'll just have to see..." Vektor shrugged, as he watched the fake Josh depart the room. As soon as he was free and clear, Vektor reached onto his black dresser countertop and picked up a small device about the size of a key fob, holding it close to his person.
Outside, Quartzarians from far and wide had flooded the valley just outside the gorgeous Quartzarian castle. It shone like a bright multicolored beacon, especially in contrast to the black and green spire to the north which was now laid in ruins following Vektor and his troops invasion.
Security was fairly heightened as one might expect with troops lining the outer walls in case any further attacks were launched, plus one could never be too sure that who was being let in as a Vektor loyalist wasn't actually a Paradox sympathizer in disguise.
Also in that same paranoid boat was Lexi. It was sad in a way what the brief time in Quartzaria had done to Lexi's mind. She was much more chipper and optimistic back at home, even with the troubles she had been going through. Heck, she would gladly take those troubles to some of the stuff that Vektor, Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire dealt with here. Even with all the beautiful purple and orange skies, the wealth of technology and magic and more ... this place seemed like anything but a utopia and even with her "best friend" beside her, Lexi sensed something was very wrong. She was about to put that to the test as well while the crowd began to silence at the appearance of Vektor, as he stepped out onto the central balcony overlooking the massive crowd.
"Hey Leah?" Lexi asked, "How's Justin been, anyway?"
"Hmm?" Leah asked
"Yknow... Justin Wright... your boyfriend..." Lexi asked again
Justin Wright ...
The name rang memories in the fake Leah's head but it wasn't clear who he was or what he meant. She was hoping to stall for time until Vektor's speech began but she got into a bit of a panic as Lexi continued to look her way.
"Justin? Oh ... he's uh... he's good" Leah said with a smile.
Lexi knew then and there that whoever was next to her wasn't Leah Henderson.
"Wonderful people of Quartzaria!!" Vektor announced, his voice loud and booming over the large sprawling valley, "I am here with a couple of grand announcements and my Kingdom, my Warriors and myself are all very grateful to see you here!"
This drew a loud cheering from the crowd, for the most part. Lexi remained stone cold silent, just glancing over at the fake Leah and sighing. Was ANYTHING in this place real?
"Today we struck a huge blow against the menace of the Paradox threat!" Vektor announced, "it will not be the final blow, but it was a crippling one ... as my forces and I were able to storm Paradox Peak, rescue our captured warrior and friend, Sapphire and begin a long process of restoring order to the kingdom!"
As loud cheers continued to rain all around, Vektor gestured towards something. A large statue covered up in the courtyard. It was guarded by a handful of soldiers who stood along its perimeter, the nature of the stature still obscured by a large tarp of sorts.
"And that is not all!" Vektor said proudly, "As you know, here in Quartzaria, we revere our heroes, and we have nobody to thank more for this latest victory than ..."
"Oh please, no..." Lexi thought to herself, but her fears were more than confirmed as the tarp was removed from the statue.
What was revealed was a large mighty bronze likeness of Alexis Cole herself, striking a fighting pose with a serious look on her face. While the statue was stunningly similar to her in appearance, the facial expression and outward fist wasn't really how she'd like to be remembered or thought of. She didn't really like to use violence, it was just a necessary thing sometimes. Plus ... in general, the whole thing was making her uncomfortable, especially as the crowd let out a loud gasp and some looked in her direction as they recognized her from the statue. Lexi just gave a super nervous wave as if she had been called on in math class, wishing she could shrink right now and just disappear from the public eye for a bit.
"Oh shit Lexi!" an overly excited (and fake) Leah Henderson exclaimed, hugging her "best friend" again and giggling, "that's totally awesome!"
"Yeah..." Lexi grumbled, "so... very awesome"
"That is our hero, that is who to thank ... the great Alexis Cone..." Vektor chimed out
"Wait, did he say Cone?" Lexi thought to herself, "dude doesn't even know my last name right!"
"Her bravery in this time of turmoil AND the fact that she hails from another realm are just two of the things that make her so special to me ..." Vektor announced.
Lexi again began to feel very uncomfortable, fearing where this was going.
"And that is why ..." Vektor announced loud and proud as people seemed to hush even more to listen to his words, even backing away from Lexi in the crowd to make her more visible to all, "...I've asked Lady Lexington to marry me ... and she has said yes"
"I did what?!" Lexi screamed, her voice drowned out by waves of cheering, including by that of Leah.
"Omigosh girl! We're going to be bridesmaids!" Leah giggled, "well you'll be the bride, I'll be the bridesmaid! We should totally get matching gowns!"
"Get away from me, you fake!" Lexi screamed, forcefully pushing away the surprised Leah Henderson as the crowd let out an audible gasp. It wasn't exactly the reaction they had anticipated from the girl who was set to wed Lord Vektor.
Lexi would beeline straight up the castle walls, a look of determination on her face that sent even the well armed guards backing away, simply relinquishing their place to her as she swung open the castle doors, likely to go find her "Fiancee" and kick his ass.
"Um... she's a little nervous ... understandably.." Vektor said, trying to downplay what had just happened, the device from before firmly in his hand but on his backside where it couldn't be seen what happened next as he applied just a little pressure to a glowing red button. "But it is GLORIOUS news indeed!!"
Vektor continued with the pomp and circumstance by sending out several pink phoenixes in Lexi's honor. The beautiful birds would twinkle as they swirled around the castle gates, delighting the crowds, all except for the dazed and confused Leah Henderson who would slide behind a bush before transforming back into Dagger for the moment.
"Ugh all that just to get pushed to the ground..." Dagger sighed, rubbing the side of his cheek, "and why do I still have the urge to go shopping?!"
Having heard the shocking news themselves, Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire were already in the castle, not buying into Vektor's grand display of fireworks, phoenix feathers or statues. Unfortunately things were too far in motion. A quick peek inside the castle showed an incredible amount of decorating had already been done, with a gold and silver cake adorning the center of the palace's main chamber. The cake predictably featured the likenesses of Vektor and Lexi as husband and wife.
"Something is wrong here..." Sapphire muttered
"Yeah, that much is for sure..." Ruby stuttered, stuck between speechless and vividly furious.
"Vektor's off his rocker..." Emerald sighed, shaking her head, "we just have to hope Smoke can get that machine up and running and we can get Lexi out of here before ... well... THIS..."
"Yeah ... I'm not sure how strong of a possibility that is..." Ruby sighed, "He's not sending her home... this whole thing has been a rouse... Vek has snapped ... this is even worse than Pandora..."
"So... what do we do?" Sapphire asked, discouraged.
"I ... I'm not sure" Ruby relented, "but the first step is finding Lexi"
Vektor retreated from the balcony, about to head downstairs to see where Lexi had gotten off to. Her reaction was not the one he had hoped for but he was prepared for such things. What he wasn't expecting was a sudden vibration from the cell phone he had captured on his waist. It was ringing again.
Vektor finally picked it up, waiting for a long while.
"Lexi...?" a female voice rang through. Vektor recognized it as Leah from having heard it before.
"Ah, you must be the best friend..." Vektor said, in a strange personal kind of way
"I'm sorry, what?" Leah asked, using Josh's cell phone to make the call and wondering who the heck the deep voice guy was.
"I regret that you can't make it to the ceremony..." Vektor said as he methodically made his way down a set of cascading stairs towards one of the castle's main hallways. "But I promise you, we will come to visit once things are settled here... I expect you'll still want to be part of her life after all"
"Uh... damn straight I'm going to be part of her life!" Leah said, a bit perturbed by the way this smug arrogant man was talking to her, "Who is this? Put Lexi on!"
"Lexi has a lot of preparing to do, I'm afraid..." Vektor said, "But don't worry, you'll be well represented here ... and while I unfortunately wasn't able to get your blessing ... I look forward to meeting you in the future ... well, the real you"
"The real you? What the hell does that ..." Leah snapped, before the line went dead.
Chris, Penelope, Mara, Spark, Sonia, and Josh all looked at Leah with a similar look of confusion.
Trevor meanwhile was focused on fixing the machine as the gang had managed to get SOME power to the devices using a combination of Spark's fairy energy and the flames from Penelopes feathers. Who knew that Phoenix Feathers made such a reliable power source? It was at least enough to get the machine humming as Trevor put the finishing touches on it using the quartz crystals. He was only familiar with such a machine at all from having seen Giovanni's old designs back in school. Whether or not the thing would still work would be a risky proposition.
"You guys?" Leah said worriedly, "I don't think we have much time... Lexi's in serious trouble ... or about to be married... I honestly can't tell which..."
"Well... regardless" Trevor said, trying to keep his cool despite everything going on, "you kept him on the phone long enough for me to get a trace..."
"You mean?" Leah asked hopefully
"It's not a gaurantee of course ... but if there's any way to control where this portal goes? We know from your fairy friend here the place is called Quartzaria and the coordinates given based on the phone call should put us ... hopefully in the right area to retrieve her ... I just don't know how long this portal will stay open or if we're going to have any way to contact Lexi in time to let her know the portal will be open..."
"We've gotta try!" Leah nodded, "Lexi needs us!"
But where was Lexi?
The answer to that would literally be on the black and white tiled marble floors of Vektor's palace where he'd walk by, forlorn to see his future bride in such condition. It would seem in her overecstatic state she got herself worked up again and passed out on the floor. He summoned a couple of his guards to bring the fallen girl to her chambers at the top of a tower he had set aside for her. It would be a lovely place to rest and hopefully she would feel more like herself in the morning.
"Please see to it that she's well rested and hydrated..." Vektor instructed the guards, "and make sure nobody disturbs her before the big day ... after all, we've a wedding to plan!"
Giantess World
