Aeropolis!
The Supers visit a city in the clouds! (Had to stretch to keep my one word title streak alive!)
Here is a refresher on our cast of super characters, last seen in Yahoo!!
(Check out all the Stories here)
Conduit - established hero, energy absorption and reflection
Blink - trainee, teleporter
Awareness - trainee, telepath - able to sense and send images and feelings
Reset - trainee, able to send himself back in time and change his actions, healing ability - currently unavailable
Awareness regarded the knights as they trotted through the barely opened gates of their boxy looking castle and thought, “Well, this will be hard to rank on the ‘weird portal destination’ bulletin board.”
The two knights looked aggressive, but their feelings were tracking more as surprise and curiosity. Conduit had, of course, positioned himself in front of the rest of the team, but Awareness wasn’t concerned. When Blink and Reset looked to her, she just made a calming motion with her hands and went back to regarding the castle.
Castles, actually.
The sky was full of castles that appeared to be floating! As if they had been scooped from the earth and set upon the clouds. She could see some had extensive barren courtyards, like the one they currently occupied, and some castles were built right to the edges. She could see some castles at lower elevations, so reasoned that they were flying as well.
What struck Awareness was the almost utilitarian appearance of the castles. Poured concrete, boxy outlines, few windows, no color to speak of. Yes, there were some variations in size and number of towers but it seemed like there was no artistry to the construction.
The lead knight reined in a few meters from the team and addressed them, “Hold! Pray tell, how didst though come to be in the courtyard? We saw no ship nor beast alight upon our land!”
Conduit showed his empty hands and replied, “We… ahem, we came through… um… yonder portal?”
The whole team turned as people generally didn’t miss a three meter glowing rip in the sky. To their relief, it was still there. Golden light flashing around the edge, the campground where it had appeared in their world still mostly visible.
“Of what portal dost though speak? Hast thou arrived via foul wizardry?” the knight and his companion both moved their hands to their scabbards.
Curious, Awareness took another look at the knights. They looked… knightly… but their visors were strangely reflective. She stepped around Conduit and realized the men appeared to be wearing what appeared to be ski goggles.
“No wizardry,” she assured them, “at least, none performed by us. We are just investigating the Portal, and didn’t mean any trespass.”
The two knights regarded her and then spoke to each other in hushed tones. She could sense their confusion growing. She concentrated for a second and felt her perception shift to that of one of the men, and she had to stifle a gasp.
Through the man’s eyes, his compatriot’s armor was resplendent, the barding on the horse gleaming. As he glanced around nervously, Awareness saw the castles as soaring wonders of architecture, festooned in bright banners and surrounded by lush greenery. And when he looked back towards the team, she couldn’t see the Portal at all. What she saw of the team pushed her composure to the limit.
In the eyes of the knight, Reset and Conduit were also dressed in full plate armor! Blink appeared to be some sort of medieval entertainer and she… well… she looked like a Disney Princess, if she was being honest. Complete with the flowing Royal blue dress and a honest to goodness tiara. As she pulled back from his perception, she felt herself reaching up to confirm her hoodie was still in place.
“Sorry,” she interjected, “are you guys wearing augmented reality goggles?”
They fell silent and regarded her with shock. She could now feel an element of discomfort coming from both of them.
Finally, the lead replied, “Uh… yeah… ain’t you? Wait - are you guys from the repair crew?”
As the “knights” escorted the team to the throne room, Awareness filled them in on what she had seen, and gleaned, in her brief peek. It seemed the augmented reality goggles were set to “medieval” and the AI would apply that to any visual input received. The knights inability to see the Portal seemed to indicate that either the computer couldn’t sense it, or was unsure of how to weave it into the narrative. She thought the former was more likely, as a glowing portal seemed to fit the fantastical elements of this setting.
The knights, Michael and John, were explaining that the owner of this castle was having issues getting any sort of maintenance. And while they wouldn’t say it out loud, Awareness could sense that it was because their boss seemed to be a bit of an ass.
“So, yeah,” Michael was continuing, “If we don’t get any fresh macguffanium, this castle is going down. Maybe gently, but it’s possible it could just drop out of the sky!”
“Macguffanium?” Conduit asked.
“Yeah… wait, you’ve never heard of it?” Michael regarded the head shakes from the team. “Weird! Yeah, years ago some guy created a rock that floats in the air. Some sort of anti-gravity rock, I guess. Since he was working for a tech company at the time, the owner of the tech company claimed the patents and manufacturing techniques (and the credit), and made a mint. Soon enough, one billionaire built a floating castle out of the stuff, and all the other billionaires couldn’t resist trading in their yachts for their own castles in the sky.”
“And the AR goggles?”
“Have you got billionaires where you’re from?” John asked. “So, yeah, then you know… they tend to be cheap, and have god-awful taste. And when some article comes out talking about ‘platinum is the new gold leaf’, it’s way cheaper to hire a tech jockey to adjust the AR than to actually pay artisans to do the work.”1
“Look,” Michael interjected, “we’re almost there, and the boss probably won’t let us speak to you anymore - and if we do, we have to be all old-timey. Just a head’s up.”
“Why do you put up with that?” Blink had to ask.
“Well, a job is a job. It’s a tough market down on the ground, and up here we sometimes get real food.”
Further questions were cut off as Michael and John opened the vast double doors to the castle’s throne room. The sudden wave of sound from the other side of the doors caused the team to pause and look around in surprise. To their ears a lively party with shouts of joy and rich music was in full swing. But to their eyes, the gigantic room was barely occupied. A large man, in what appeared to be a track suit, was slumped in a large cushioned chair. He was talking to a man standing nearby. Both wearing goggles similar to Michael and John’s. And off in a corner, another man appeared to be… sweeping? That man’s coveralls were almost a match for the Supers’ own training outfits, grey and utilitarian. He wasn’t wearing goggles but did have a headset, presumably to ward off the din. He offered a friendly wave to the team, which they returned before he went back to his sweeping.
“MY LORDS AND LADIES!” Michael shouted, “MAKE WAY FOR YON ADVENTURERS FROM ANOTHER REALM WHO HAVE COME TO SPEAK TO OUR LORD!”
Awareness snuck another peek through his eyes and saw that there certainly appeared to be a vast gathering of partiers who were parting to let them pass. She shrugged to the rest of the team as they approached the throne. Michael and John occasionally side stepping people only they could see.
The man in the track suit turned to regard them as they got within a few meters and with a twist of his wrist it seemed he turned down the volume of the festivities. Michael stepped forward, inhaling to introduce them, but he was curtly waved off. The two knights moved to flank the supers, John offering a slight apologetic shrug.
“How the hell did you get on my island?” the man demanded. “One second, empty courtyard, next second these two guys are all over my video feed” indicating Conduit and Reset, “and then this big galoot shows up and my cameras start glitching!”
Awareness reasoned that Blink’s teleportation power would look like a camera glitch to someone not in the know. It also seemed that the camera system was unable to pick up the Portal.
“I didn’t order any entertainers!” He continued, “Or extra guards! And I sure as hell wasn’t told about any sort of new transportation tech! I would know! And what the hell did schmoe #1 mean about ‘another realm’?”
Awareness was briefly happy that the AR goggles hid Michael’s eye-roll. An eye-roll she felt in her soul… Fortunately, Conduit was the team lead and trainer, so he’s the one that stepped forward to speak.
“My team and I are investigating portals that have been appearing in our world.” He began, thankfully also skipping the archaic speaking style. “This particular portal happened to open in your courtyard.”
“I don’t know anything about portals! Nobody told me about this new tech! Why the hell are they testing on my property?”
“We are not aware of any tests,” Conduit replied diplomatically, “We’ve only just arrived in your world, and were escorted here.”
“What are you talking about ‘our world’, ‘your world’? What the hell does that even mean?”
At this, the man who had been standing silently next to him spoke. “Mayhaps, my lord, I could speak with them so that you can return to your festivities?”
The seated man appeared to compose himself, adjusting his posture. “Ah, yes, very well Jeeves, you do that.”
With another twist of the man’s wrist, the music and boisterous conversation resumed its previous volume. Awareness looked over to the maintenance man, still sweeping, bopping his head to some tune or other across the room. Jeeves said a couple of words to Michael and John and motioned the team to a door at the side of the room.
“I told the guys to go take a break,” Jeeves said once they moved to the next room. “I’ll have the computer show them as still there, of course, so they don’t get docked.”
Awareness replied, “Thanks, that seems… reasonable?”
“Sorry,” Jeeves replied, “they had to keep their AR goggles on, since Mr. Jones reviews all his employees. But I had some… other resources… in the courtyard that verified your portal story. Even said they could see what appears to be a horizon and other people through it?”
“Yes,” Conduit replied, “on our side, it appeared at the top of a hill just outside of our city. The other people would be our containment team.”
“Containment team? To prevent us from crossing to your world?”
“Not specifically you, this isn’t the first world a Portal has opened to. So far we’ve been lucky, but it also seems like nothing larger than an insect seems to be able to pass back to our side.”
“Ah… that’s… disappointing.” Jeeves looked down, and Awareness could sense some deeper calculations happening.
“Sorry, Jeeves, perhaps if you told us what was going on? We’ve never explicitly tried to bring someone through. Michael mentioned there was some sort of problem with the island?”
Jeeves smiled, “Well… the name is Robert by the way, the ass just likes to call me Jeeves since it ‘amuses’ him… the island is losing energy too fast, and we’re dropping faster than expected. I was hoping for a quick evacuation that wouldn’t tip our hand.”
“Ah… so, Robert, maybe if you fill us in, we can come up with some options. It’s kind of our job, when we’re not hopping through portals.”
Robert/Jeeves regarded them briefly, then with the sigh of someone with nothing to lose, he explained that he was part of a group that was working to bring the islands down. The original scientist had engineered devices that would hasten the decay of the macguffanium, removing the anti-gravity at a steady pace.
What they hadn’t realized is that Jones was unwilling to pay the owners of the macguffanium manufacturing company for the replacement stones needed to overcome standard decay. So his island was in danger of dropping before they drifted over the Atlantic. Possibly hitting the populated Eastern seaboard and causing massive damage.
“Surely he’s concerned about the people he could hurt,” Blink exclaimed.
“He’s worried about the number of lawyers he’d need to retain,” Robert replied, “And he’s concerned about the loss of status. But little else.”
“Can he not afford to pay?”
“Well, the company knows he doesn’t have any liquid assets, like most billionaires, so they are asking for a stake in one of his companies.”
“Which he’s refusing, I take it.”
“Yes… ‘if I give them 5% of the company, then I either have to raise the dividend so I make the same amount of money as last year - which benefits them… or I lower the dividend, and that hurts me.’” Robert performed.
The whole group paused to shake their heads at the stupidity.
Conduit pondered for a minute, and Awareness could sense his inner turmoil.
“Look,” he finally said, “not entirely sure where we stand on helping what is essentially sabotage with so little information, but” he said, forestalling Robert’s objections. “But… as I see it, there are potentially people in danger on the ground as well as on this island. So, we’ll do what we can. Can you get more macguffanium outside of the normal supply chain?”
Robert looked visibly relieved, but then he sighed. “Not really. Again, we don’t want to tip our hands too early, but we will if we have to. Even then… we’re not sure we can get it here in time. What we really need is a way to reverse some of the energy that has been drained.”
Conduit concentrated for a second. The slightest of tremors shook the room. He smiled, “Perhaps I should formally introduce myself…”
Awareness and Reset worked with Robert and his contacts on the evacuation plans for the workers on the various islands. As they had already taken control of the AR systems it was easy to replace most of the staff with virtual representations. Transportation was arranged for those who’d need to remain until the billionaires accepted reality and fled their own islands. Surprisingly, some actually had provided enough ‘life-boats’ for the staff, so these were quietly redistributed to islands that were lacking.
Blink was able to easily teleport between the islands, with Conduit in tow. Conduit was essentially siphoning a portion of the macguffanium energy from each of their neighbors and using that to shore up Mr. Jones’ holdings. The islands would drop in to the Atlantic a little sooner than planned, but they would all drop together. And at a controlled pace. No one should be hurt, and the property damage would be limited to the islands themselves.
The financial damage and possible other repercussions in this world? Any time that came up, Awareness was sure to remind her team of the effects of a dense island of metal crashing through downtown New York.
They would all be happy when this Portal closed at the end of the week.
This is for the Indie Ink Fund’s Week 8 Portal Prompt
Another fun one to write!
And it’s funny, when I saw the castles in the prompt, I was instantly reminded of one of my favorite Comic Book arcs. Way back in 1989 the Marvel team, Excalibur began their own jaunt through time and space. And they also had a visit to a world with castles (not floating) and a Western scenario, as well as other shenanigans. Through the magic of Kindle, I am now re-reading them. Look up Excalibur’s Cross Time Caper (issues 12-30) if you’re at all interested. And in honor of that connection, I played with Leonardo’s story board tool and generated this: (No witty banter - feel free to add your own.)
I hope you enjoyed!
Dave
Yes, I’m aware of the irony of this statement from a guy who uses Leonardo for his images. But if I was to actually try to create this series as a graphic novel or something - I would totally find an artist to pay. I promise.
Those goggle things that simulate a different world you can think you are in! Lol! Well, I know folks play with them, but this use of those things is brilliant!
And that you incorporated the greed of the billionaires who don’t care about the results of their games on actual normal people… unfortunately this does seem to be a truth, though hilarious in this context… brilliant also!
I did love reading this! You are a master with this super team of yours. I’d love the entertainment world to take note.