Displaced Soul

I growled as I watched the Minotaurs slowly advance. I had no other choice but to fight, but there were too many enemies for me to take on, even with the help of my two saviours. Then a doll made out of several pieces of scrap appeared in midair, and instinctively I snatch it before it falls. As I touch it, I hear the youthful voice of a  little girl.

    "My name is Theresa and this is my uncle Charlie. We are a gatherer and a protector, lost in a strange world and we're willing to fight alongside of you, if you wish only for the ones you love to stay safe, if you need to take back what was once yours, if you merely need a friend, then call on us. After all, good girls gather and daddies protect." Followed by a somewhat quiet roar.

    Having little time to ponder the idea of a little girl and her uncle being strong enough to help, I decided to hell with it and spoke back.

    "I know not if thou could offer any real assistance, but I am out of options. I summon thee in my time of need!" I said to the doll, hoping whomever made it could hear my call. Thankfully it seemed they could, as a portal opened up on the wall betwixt me and my foes.

It resembled a huge heavy door, easily eight feet tall and half as wide. It had a etching of a eight eye helmet that looked as if it was built for a spider, with a red sign under the odd etching with the words AIRLOCK ACTIVE on it. With a silent gasp, the door opened and out stepped a seven foot tall behemoth on two legs, a pair of drills hanging off of it's hips and a single, yellow glowing plate of glass in the center of a metal helmet. A pair of large metal boots gave the possibly armoured cyclops an extra couple of inches as it slowly panned its narrow view from me to my attackers. After a moment, I noticed it kept moving it's hand, as if to wake it up.

Third PoV

After her uncle left, Theresa felt the pulling sensation increase tenfold. Before following her uncle, Theresa gave the wounded princess the two finger salute and let the forces of the void do their thing. After a moment of confusing colours, she found herself in the airlock that big daddies would use, looking at her uncle in front of her.

Mister Cee on the other hand was looking at the scene in front of him, a human, or at least humanoid, wearing fancy but very functional armour, with his face hidden behind the hood of a ghillie suit. Two guards, a Nocturn as his Equestria called them and a pegasus, a mare and stallion respectively, stood next to him, weapons at the ready. Looking left and right, Mister Cee started running scenarios, some good, some bad and some more gore filled than others. Flicking through his Plasmids, Mister Cee decided that if the backup felt like needing backup, than that's what backup should do, get more backup.

Lifting both of his hands, Mister Cee brought forth twin glowing green orbs and pressed them together, pouring more and more Anam into it to achieve his goal, soon he had a soccer ball sized green orb that he threw to his left, splashing it into the center of the Minotaur's ranks to the group's right. Within seconds the once orderly lines gave way to the purest kind of chaos available; friendly fire.

    Alvis looked on in astonishment as the Minotaurs fought their own, before grinning like a madman underneath his mask and taking out his Moonlight Greatsword.

    "I know not what or who thou art, but it seems thou art a friend. Allow me to, as they say, 'even the playing field'," Alvis said with wicked glee. Then he held his blade with both hands and swung, releasing a wave of pure moonlight at the children of Minos, tearing through their ranks.

    Midnight and Cloud glanced at each other for a moment before dashing forwards into the ranks of the Minotaurs.

    "I don't know who you are, but there's no way I'm gonna be out done by you!" shouted Midnight as she tore through the ranks, slicing the weak points in their armor with her wingblades.

    "For once, we can agree on something!" said Cloud, stabbing through the armor of the children of Minos with his enchanted spear, handed down since his ancestor's days. Occasionally he would also parry them, then riposte them brilliantly, impaling them and then slamming them back to the ground.

    Alvis had forgone his greatsword for the hefty Gyrm Axe, easily cleaving the Minotaurs in two. A Minotaur with a greatsword came up behind him, planning to ambush him, but Alvis simply swirled around and cut him in half, rending the armor like butter.

Mister Cee simply walked towards a group to his right, five Minotaurs with a small variety of weapons. As one they charged, hoping to take the big daddy head on and overwhelm him.

Deflecting the overhead attack from a bull with a greatsword, Mister Cee rammed his right palm into his chestplate and caved it in before grabbing the bull by his horns, chuckling internally, and using him as a shield against his fellows' axes. Throwing the gasping bull to his right, he reached out his left hand and wrapped the massive glove around a cow's throat and lifted the unarmed cow and held her there while he punched her squad mate's snout in, blinding the bull.

After a few more seconds of choking her and watching the other two pull their blinded comrade back, Mister Cee reached down and slipped on his grapple drill. Bringing it up and revving it, he smiled at the panicky looks the small squad was giving him before he brought the drills RPM's to max and plunged it into her chest.

Ripping the gutted corpse from his weapon, Mister Cee gave the remains of their friend back, after her very successful diet they couldn't recognize her of course. As one they charged again but a stomp to the stone floor stunned two of them and knocked the third, broken muzzle boy, to the ground. Giving one a swift uppercut with his left and the other a backhand drill-slap from his right, Mister Cee revved his drill again before driving it through the downed bull's armour, the bulls screams were overlaid by the roar of his tormentors tool of choice.

    Alvis, after giving himself some breathing room, grew a manic grin, and started spinning like a top through the unfortunate Minotaurs. His laughter could be heard even over the screams of his victims.

    Then, a bull decided to get his vengeance and tried to parry the hefty axe, but his hand was instead cut in two, along with the rest of his arm. The bull screamed bloody murder before Alvis aimed the axe slightly upward and decapitated the bull.

    Using the latent power within the millennia old spear, Cloud Skipper released a bolt of lightning that immediately delivered thousands of volts into the nervous system of a cow. The cow spasmed before falling back.

    Midnight, not to be outdone, went into a frenzy, limbs and heads flinging everywhere as she literally tore each bull and cow limb from limb.

Turning to look at his allies, Mister Cee noted the stallion shocking and impaling his way through whoever was in front of him, beside him and in one case behind him. The mare seemed to enjoy decapitations and finding the weakest links in her opponents armour and exploiting them to a devastating effect.

The man, if his lack of boob armour was anything to go off of, well, that and his hysterical laughter as he seemed to flow from one opponent to the next flawlessly, was revelling in a manner similar to when Mister Cee and Theresa got freed, only much bloodier.

Figuring that his newfound allies could more than hold their own, Mister Cee turned back to check on Theresa and immediately noted that his Anam Plasmid was finally wearing off. Bulls and cows were shaking their heads and some were already heading towards him, and sadly for the Minotaurs, they would have to run past the airlock that still held Theresa.

"*Theresa! Hey, one of you fucks turn around!*" He roared before running full speed towards the ones that would pass the closest to the airlock. Revving his drill, he impaled it into the gut of a Minotaur that foolishly thought he could block or deflect the attack. Without slowing down, he used the dying corpse as a bull-made cowcatcher and shattered their hastily made formation.

    Cloud Skipper, noticing the giant being charging through formations towards the strange sealed door, galloped over to help, smacking away any who obstructed his path. Once he finally reached the behemoth, he lunged in between his legs and impaled a bull straight through the stomach, and lifted him up off the ground before flinging the body into the next oncoming wave.

    Alvis, having cleared the area around him, turned around, rushed into the enemies surrounding the door, took out his chime, then kneeled ceremoniously and spread his arms, ringing the chime at the same time which released a powerful shock wave that crumpled the armor and weapons of the Minotaurs around him, immediately killing them.

    Midnight flew above the children of Minos, and, noticing the plight of the rubber and metal bound behemoth, divebombed into a formation of bulls and cows, swiftly swooping through all of them and slicing off their legs, hands, arms, and heads, effectively breaking the formation.

Lifting his hand from the horn of some unfortunate bull he impaled, Mister Cee charged his favorite Plasmid and released a swarm of angry africanized killer bees and ripped the dripping, stomach less corpse from his drill as the bees attacked a bull who was expecting nothing remotely close to fighting a creature with a hive of bees living in it's arms.

Looking around, he noticed the last of the Minotaurs quickly falling to his allie's attacks, except for one who stood back a little and glared at them. Removing his drill and letting it fall to the stone floor with a deep thud, he approached the bull, some kind of officer or high ranking sergeant. He dropped his war hammer and approached Mister Cee as the sounds of battle died down, his allies refrained from interfering.

He took up a boxing stance and Mister Cee replied with his go-to Krav Maga stance, hands at forty-five degrees with slightly opened fists with his palms facing the ground in front of him and his left side a little more forward than his right. The bull stood eye-to-eye with Mister Cee, he may have weighed in around three hundred, Mister Cee was at least a half of a ton, his armoured gauntlets protected his hands while Mister Cee's thick self healing rubber gloves did the same. He looked angry but determined, and Mister Cee looked through his red tinted porthole.

He made the first move, a quick jab to Mister Cee's gut with his right, Mister Cee let it hit and chuckled. He threw a quick combo; two jabs and a hook all directed at Mister Cee's helmet.The leviathan started chuckling harder and reeled his right hand back, a heavy and slow hit that anyone could read. The bull stubbornly tried to block it only to learn a harsh lesson; big daddies are inhumanly strong, they have to be seeing as they wear a half ton of armoured dive gear and their weapons, not to mention that their dive suit itself being between nearly an inch to two and a half inches thick provides great resistance training.

A big daddy can run as fast as an Olympic distance sprinter and for twice as long without tiring while wearing their dive suit. To a big daddy, their suit might as well be a second skin. One that doesn't feel pain.

With the power behind the hit, the bulls arms fractured and his armour crumpled. Advancing on the bull, Mister Cee caught a lazy right hook with his left and squeezed, reducing the gauntlet from a piece of protective gear into a meat grinder, a bone powder mill and a perfectly conductive material for a quick Electro Bolt. Releasing the screaming bull, Mister Cee delivered an uppercut into the bull's downturned snout and sent him flying the twenty feet up into the ceiling.

Where he stayed as Mister Cee looked down and picked up the fallen war hammer. Holding it so that the handle pointed straight up, he tossed it up and caught it in his Telekinesis Plasmid. A gentle push of the hand and the war hammer flew upwards and impaled the bull from tail to top with a little vibrating noise as the hammer found its owner's new holster.

    Alvis laughed for a long while, saying, "Tis the most fun I've had in millennia!"

    Midnight let out a hearty guffaw, once again finding herself at Humor's Knell. "I-I...Th-that's...exactly wh-wh-what...Alvis did a-a while ago! It-it's still...hilarious!" she said between breaths.

    Cloud Skipper sighed and shook his head at his comrade's antics. "It's not that funny, honestly..."

Alvis approached the behemoth, "What dost thou call thyself? Thou wouldn't happen to be this, Charlie, wouldst thou?" he asked.

Groaning slightly and nodding, Mister Cee walked over and grabbed his drill as he headed towards the airlock, followed by him banging on it twice. As the rest of them approached, they heard a loud bang and rushed over to see a young girl with a strange contraption in her left hand that resembled an oversized syringe and a baby bottle had a bastard and gave it growth hormones. In her other hand, was a smoking gun.

"*Did you just shoot me?*" Mister Cee asked, flicking the small scraps of lead off his helmet. Giving a actual groan, he walked past her and picked up a bag with a gem stitched into it and walked back out, little girl in tow with the gun in hand.

    "Aww! She's adorable!" gushed Midnight. Cloud Skipper looked like he was trying his hardest to not rush over and squeeze the girl. Alvis smiled under his mask.

    "Come hither, mine friends," he said, kneeling down, chime in hand. Cloud Skipper and Midnight looked wary to do so, along with Mister Cee, as they had seen what happened last time Alvis had used his chime. "Fret not, mine friends, I wish only to help." Midnight and Cloud hesitantly gathered around Alvis, but Mister Cee and the girl didn't move. "What ever is wrong?" asked Alvis.

"*Im looking for my bees, it'll take a while for a new generation to be born if I don't find them.*" Mister Cee groaned, looking down, he noticed Theresa pointing upwards toward the impaled Minotaur chandelier.

"I think your bees found a new body to live in." She said, barely holding back her giggles, "In that bullshit."

Groaning an actual groan, they approached the others and waited for Blossom to stop laughing.

    Alvis lowered his head for a moment, before raising it again and ringing his chime, causing a large, golden yellow rune with archaic letters around it to grow outwards from him, a sound like a pressurized air draining from something quickly rang in their ears, and wisps of air and light spiraled around Alvis before a short glow surrounded Blossom, Cloud, Mister Cee, and Theresa, making them feel rejuvenated, the wounds, small as they were, sealed up and new skin grew over it. Midnight and Cloud Skipper gasped as they looked at themselves in astonishment.

    "Where did you learn that?" Midnight asked in astonishment.

    "Oh, twas simply something I picked up on mine travels before I came to this land." Alvis answered simply.

Theresa smiled as she felt her energy return with its friends, hyperactive and fidgety, "You think you could teach him that?" She asked, jerking a thumb at Mister Cee, "He's the kinda guy who solves all of his problems with his Plasmids or his drills." Mister Cee's yellow porthole light turned in her direction as he shrugged.

"*Eh, I still got my fountain of youth Tonic, but it would be helpful for when I'm trying to heal others.*" He groaned.

    Alvis thought about it for a moment. "Thou wouldst first need a scroll with the miracles workings on it, and thou wouldst also need faith in a god or gods. It cannot be faith in anything else, sadly. I hath tried that before." Alvis answered.

"So, bad time to be an atheist, huh Charlie?" Theresa smiled, Mister Cee simply shook his head and his helmet before he replied with a unintelligible to anyone else groan,

"*I'll find faith later, right now ask him what kind of miracles workings should we look for.*"

After a moment of translating, Alvis replied, "In truth, Miracles are simply tales told by the gods, passed down since the First Flame. Thou wouldst only need a scroll to learn it, as the scroll transfers the knowledge of the Miracle to thee. There are numerous Miracles, ranging from great spears of sunlight and lightning, to healing, to second chances and poison expulsion. There are even some used to protect against all manner of magic."

"Interesting, we'll keep an eye out, now then, how do we get out of here?" Theresa asked.

    "We can help with that, just follow us!" said Midnight Blossom.

"*If it involves wooden stairs, I'm gonna stick my size twenty-four, lead lined boot up your plot,*" Mister Cee groaned, "*you and the architect who felt like wooden stairs was a good idea.*"

Cloud Skipper asked Theresa what Mister Cee said and received his answer, in all its brute force.

    "Duly noted." said Cloud Skipper.

    "Good thing it's stone stairs then." said Midnight cheekily.

Alvis' shoulders quivered with a quiet chuckle. "Thine uncle is most amusing. I do believe we shall get along swimmingly."

"Yeah, don't worry though, he's bad at swimming but great at diving." Theresa smiled as the group started following the ponies, Mister Cee merely thinking about how he can figure if pranking this princess would be okay, considering that there's one of each of their respective guard here and they seemed professional... well half of them, the other half of them was a blender with the jar part cut off and dropped into your bathtub, nasty.

    "So...what are your names? Mine's Midnight, Midnight Blossom, " asked Midnight.

"*Do you want to know what the princesses named us or what we both prefer, because Feast and Beast leave a bad taste in my mouth.*" Mister Cee groaned.

Theresa quickly said, "Well, I go by my name, Theresa, but he goes by Mister Cee, it's a joke but his friends call him Charlie," successfully heading off any requests for a translation, she continued, "How about you guys?"

    "Mine name is Alvis. Tis a pleasure to formally meet you." Alvis answered.

    "Cloud Skipper, my friends and comrades call me Cloud, though." said Cloud Skipper.

    "Ponies either call me Midnight or Blossom, and usually only my superiors call me by my full name." said Midnight, "So...how did your uncle do that magic? I've never seen anything like it."

"*Actually, I only used magic when I hypnotized the bunch at the beginning.*" He replied, waiting until after Theresa translated to continue, "*I have a hive of super aggressive killer bees living in each arm, a portion of my brain has been modified so as to allow me to use telekinesis and I can also do this."

Holding up a hand, he cycled through his elemental based Plasmids before continuing, "*I'm so far up the evolutionary ladder, I wouldn't doubt I'm miles from being human. The same thing that enables me to do that also makes me super strong, heal myself whenever I'm in water, shock or outright freeze people who attack me and makes me heal from killing people with my drills.*" After Theresa translated all of that, the groups reactions ranged from disbelief, to envy, to astonishment.

    "Yeah right!" said Midnight sarcastically.

    "Really?" asked Cloud Skipper.

    Alvis merely grumbled to himself,saying things like, "thou art not so tough," and "I hath fought worse."

"*Do you wanna tell him I just heard that?*" Mister Cee asked Theresa.

"Hell nah." Theresa replied gaining the attention of those ahead of her.

"What?" Cloud Skipper asked.

"He asked me if it would be okay to inject you with the most painful, pleasurable drug ever that'll give you the power to break the sound barrier with a... I don't think ponies can snap their feathers, can they?" Theresa replied.

    "No, why?" Cloud asked.

"Well how about letting the meanest, highly lethal killer bees live in your foreleg?" Theresa asked.

    "No thank you," Cloud replied sternly.

"What about a tonic that'll make you move faster and another that'll let you shrug off hits that would floor someone else?" Theresa baited.

    "That sounds interesting," said Cloud, taking the bait.

"And unlike Plasmids, Tonics    keep working, there's a bunch that Charlie has, a few for his drills, several for his Plasmids, some to keep him fighting longer, heck, there's one that makes him more efficient and effective with medical kits and another can mend his bones so long as he has access to water. And unlike Plasmids, you won't get that first splice high." Theresa said, placing a little more emphasis on the last sentence.

    "That is rather intriguing," said Alvis.

    "That sounds awesome!" said Midnight excitedly.

    "I concur," agreed Cloud.

"*What are you playing at Theresa?*" Mister Cee groaned.

"Well, they've been friendly enough, this guy seems like he gots the princesses on his side so why not give them an unnatural advantage?" Theresa replied.

"*Because my DNA probably resembles a fucking alien more than a human at this point and I don't think promoting that shit is something we should do.*" Mister Cee argued.

"Its their choice if they wanna and besides you could use the practice." Theresa answered before asking, "So, do any of you want to evolve?"

    Alvis thought about it. "No thank thee, I hath too heavy a burden already." he said cryptically.

    "Sure, as long as there aren't any adverse effects!" said Midnight.

    "I don't see why not," said Cloud Skipper.

"These are perfectly safe in controlled doses, just like with anything else medical related, so the limit will be one for each of you, the Tonics are; Armoured Shell, which will make you tougher, Electric Flesh which will raise your resistance to electrical based attacks and raises your damage for electrical attacks, Elemental Storm which will make you release a blast of subzero temperature or a burst of lightning when you opponents hit you, Fountain of Youth will slowly heal you whenever you're in water, no matter how little the source, Medical Expert is how it sounds, Sports Boast makes you stronger and faster and Brain Boost will increase your intellect. So, what sounds like you?" Theresa finished with a smile.

    "I'll go with Elemental Storm!" said Midnight.

    "I'll do Armoured Shell," said Cloud Skipper.

"Okay Charlie, let's see you do it." Theresa grinned at her uncle who sighed before holding both of his hands out.

'Focus, find every loophole and close it, don't give it a chance to misinterpret or twist your desires against you' Mister Cee thought, slowly feeding more Anam towards his goal. Just as he did with the hypnotize Plasmid, he slowly allowed the energy to leave him and fuel the fire that was the spell. After a few seconds, a blinding light flashed from his hands and in them were two Tonic bottles.

"*That took a good sized chunk outta me,*" He groaned before handing the bottles over to the two ponies. "*Enjoy not having children.*"

    The duo happily took the Tonics and drank them without hesitation, feeling a sensation unlike any other go through them.

    "Wow, I feel...powerful!" exclaimed Midnight.

    "That's some strong stuff," said Cloud Skipper

    "Might I inquire as to how thou made those out of nothing?" asked Alvis, edge in his tone. That ability reminded him too much of a certain draconequus.

"*You wanna tell them?*" Charlie asked Theresa, keeping a corner of his porthole on Alvis while looking at Theresa.

"Well, it was going to come out eventually," Theresa mumbled, "Do you know what this needle is for? Or what we are for that matter?" She asked Alvis.

    "I am afraid not." Alvis replied.

Taking a deep breath, Theresa started off by explaining how they ended up in Equestria, than telling him how they no longer had their memories, told him what Little Sisters and Big Daddies were, told him how they were imprisoned in stone and were 'reassembled' by Discord, told him of their escape from Canterlot, leaving out everything that happened in the castle, meeting up with Discord to have him explain some more about their situation and how they had a chance to cure themselves, how Charlie just saved Equestria from a eight foot tall rapist gorilla and his gimp turtle friend and how Celestia drained most of Charlie's power after the fight, putting it into some gem and how his summons was the only thing that kept him from being drained completely. Of course, Theresa also kept the part involving her shooting the princess's leg from her retelling.

"-basically, I drink pony blood and purify the magic in it, it becomes unaligned magic and can do almost anything but it'll always try to stab you in the back. We just learned how we had a chance to fix ourselves and Celestia took it from us, I won't say she was being a bitch or anything, she was doing the right thing but that right there, that was having our hopes raised only to be crushed mere hours later." Theresa sighed as she turned away, Charlie gently stroking her back with one hand, and trying to decide which plasmid would work best if it came to that.

    "I can scarcely believe my Tia would do something so horrid to thee, but if thy behavior is any indication, then thou art not lying." Alvis walked up to Mister Cee, looked at Theresa, and told them, "If ever thou require my aid, or need a home, do not be hesitate to call upon me. And mayhaps, at some point I may come to thine world, and promptly teach Tia to, as they say, 'not judge a book by it's cover.' Now, if ever thou wish for my aid with any matter, or simply need to return here to rest, simply create a bonfire with a soul. Any will do." Alvis said warmly.

    "Did you just miss the fact that they said they're from another world?" said Midnight.

    "Nay. Especially since I myself am not originally of this world." Alvis replied.

    "Wait, what!? I thought you were just from some distant land or something!" Midnight exclaimed. Alvis shook his head. "How did you get here then?"

    "I...can't quite remember. Forgive me, millennia of torture tends to take a toll on the mind," Alvis replied.

"...Actually," Theresa said, a slight smile on her face, reaching into her bag-o-blood and other assorted objects, "This stuff, this might help you out with that." She pulled out the one Tonic Mister Cee didn't ingest, Brain Boast. Holding it out to Alvis, she continued, "If you ever want to try and remember one day, drink this."

    Alvis shook his head sadly. "Tis not just from torture, tis from an insurmountable curse, one that is traceable to the soul. Thus, there is no cure. Thankfully, all I need to do is concentrate on remembering. Even if they would still be jumbled, they are the best I can manage." Alvis replied.

Nodding her head, Theresa smiled, "Okay then, all for getting out of this place say aye." A chorus of ayes answered her as the group continued on their way. After a few minutes, Theresa asked, "So, how do we catch a soul?"

    "The most common route for mortals is to use a crystal, but if thou wouldst like, I can offer thee some, as I gained quite a number from those damned children of Minos." Alvis offered. "Keep in mind that all living beings hath souls, not just sentient life."

"So you better kill as humanly as possible, Charlie." Theresa said in a mock stern tone.

"*Yeah, same rules from hunting go to ghostbucking.*" He replied, a smile hidden under his helmet.

"That was, just... no. Plain out no." Theresa said through her hand, before turning to Alvis.

    "Now, what do you wish to use? A crystal, or one of the many souls I hath gathered?" Alvis asked.

"I'm already a gatherer, so how do I trap souls in a fire?" Theresa asked, "Put up a sign that says 'free afterlife' over a fireplace?" She only partially joked.

    Alvis chuckled. "Nay, young one, thou simply places the soul in the fire. Once thou hast done so, thou shalt notice the flames change from chaotic, to purposeful and hypnotic. To capture a soul, at least for mortals, one must hold a crystal or vessel out before the victim dies, and the crystal shall do the rest." He explained.

"Hmm, sounds simple enough," Theresa nodded as they walked, continuing a few moments later, "We still need to have you make a token though, you should pick something that is a good representation of yourself, something important."

    Alvis shook his head. "The Undead treasure nothing else save for their memories, their sanity, and that which they hath lost. Nay, all thou shalt need to reach me or for me to reach thee, is a Bonfire. I can already travel between realms, I see no need to make a , 'token' as you say. Especially since the only defining trait of an Undead is their Dark Sign, and that is a curse I would not wish upon any." Alvis said grimly.

"If that is how you wish... Oh, I should tell you about Lumen, Lord Reference, DK and GB." Theresa smiled as she talked about meeting the daughter of Discord, Lord Reference and his constant jokes, she got a disgusted expression when she told Alvis about Donkey Kong, his plans for multiverse conquest and his gimp suit wearing friend/lover.

Charlie just thought about what he must've worn to be displaced as Donkey Kong... and immediately stopped that train of thought, blew up the bridge it was heading towards, put a gap in the boiler and took a hacksaw to the couplings of every single car. Followed by blowing it up with a tactical mental nuke... which was followed by salting the mental earth and dropping several thousand gallons of brain bleach from a forest fire fighter plane.

The group finally arrived at the doors leading to the outside of the prison. They were impressively large, a full three feet taller than Mister Cee, and though they weren't decorated, they seemed to radiate an aura of wariness. Alvis opened the doors with minimal effort, and Midnight and Cloud led the group towards a landing strip just on the other side of the prison. On it was an airship with metal plating along it's bow and hull, propellers and engines at the back of it. A large group of Day Guard and Night Guard were keeping watch on and around it, and quite a few dead Minotaurs lay on the ground around the landing strip, arrows and crossbow bolts in their heads or chests. Flags flying the Equestrian colors flapped in the wind from their perch on the sides of ship.

Growling, Mister Cee pointed at the way they were supposed to board... a wooden gangway with steps nailed to it. "*So, which one of you lied to me about stairs?*" He groaned.

    Each pony promptly gained a look that could only be described as 'oh shit' while receiving a glare that seemed to penetrate the inch thick, orange tinted glass before quickly galloping aboard the ship, saying "Woop woop woop woop!" as they went.

"Just take your armour off, it won't kill you." Theresa said, "You're super strong, extremely well armed and unless they're already bragging about their Tonics then you'll still have the unknown factor in your favor. What reason could keeping that thing on possibly serve?"

"*I don't need to eat, sleep, shit or even breathe the air outside for up to three hours, that's what. Besides... I'm kinda scared of how fucked up I'll look like. Alvis is Undead, he wears his shit because he wants to but I'd rather not find out if I can lose to a ghoul in a beauty pageant.*" Mister Cee replied.

"Well regardless of how butt ugly you are, you still need to get on the blimp. No, that ain't it." Theresa mumbled the last sentence.

"*Zepher?*" Mister Cee supplied.

"Nope, not important right now, what is important is you taking that armour off before I go find out if we can hang you from the bottom of the ship." Theresa shook her head before glaring at the emotionless porthole light.

"*You're bluffing.*" Mister Cee countered.

"You taught me to never bluff." Theresa smiled at Mister Cee as she continued, "So, what's it gonna be, first class, or undercarriage?"

"*...If they drop me, I will haunt you.*"

"And I'll get Alvis to perform an exorcism on your ghost butt." She smirked before turning to Alvis and asking, "Can you or anyone you know perform an exorcism?"

"Verily!" said Alvis, playing along and taking out his Gyrm Axe.

"*...Then I'll enjoy it while it lasts.*"

"Oh come on, for me, please." Theresa asked with her cutest face she had on full display. Which received a gloved hand that covered it up, thus breaking the spell. Once the hand was removed, she continued, "Come on, you wanted to be a pilot and now you're scared of flying!"

"*I don't think wanting to fly military fighter jets and not wanting to ride an aerial wooden death trap while wearing a thousand pounds of armoured dive suit can be compared.*"

"Says Mister 'someday I'll climb into one of those metal coffins and fly as fast as I please, fighting for my life over some village no one has ever heard of'. Come on, don't you want to fly one time in your life?"

"*...Fine...*" Mister Cee said softly, dropping his drills to the ground and walking away to take his armour off behind a small watch tower.

"Thank you! Come on Alvis, let him do this on his own." Theresa said as she grabbed her bag, "Hey, two of you sky sailors, grab those drills back there for me please."

    Alvis chuckled as him and Theresa boarded the ship. A stallion with a scar over his eye, with white fur, hazel eyes, a graying blue mane and tail, and a captain's uniform approached them.

    "So, you're the famous Alvis, eh? Who's this little one?" the stallion asked.

"I'm Theresa, Mister Alvis needed a little help back in there and we talked afterwards." Theresa softly said, her voice barely above a whisper.

    "I see. Bit surprising that the mighty Alvis needed help, but I suppose even heroes need it from time to time. Name's Storm Breaker, by the way." said the stallion.

"It's nice to meet you, my uncle should be here in a moment," Theresa gave a shy smile before she continued, "he may not be in the best of moods though."

"*Where are the two lucky bastards, I got a size ten Jordan for each of them!*" A loud groan filled the air, more natural than Mister Cee's normal, metallic sounding groans. Turning around, Theresa, Storm Breaker, Alvis and the crew took in the sight of an unarmoured big daddy.

Charlie stood a solid six feet tall, pale skin and short brown hair with a plain, white tee shirt, a faded but comfortable pair of blue jeans and a pair of grey Jordans on his feet, but what drew their attention the most was the surgical scar that stretched from jugular to jugular, his burned, frost bitten and deadly insect infested hands and his pale, glowing yellow eyes which matched Theresa's own. That and the massive amount of dried blood on his face.

    "Well...Tis much better than I thought he would look. Thine uncle should be grateful his body dost not rot like mine." said Alvis.

"*Maybe, but I would still like to wash this blood off, where's the washroom on this thing?*" Charlie groaned, followed by Theresa translating for him.

    Storm Breaker pointed towards a door standing right in front of Mister Cee. "Right there, bigfella," he said, unfazed by the sight of Mister Cee out of his armour.

    "Thou seems eerily calm, for one who hath just allowed what tis essentially an alien on thine ship." Alvis noted.

    "With all due respect Sir, after being briefed on what you look like and what you can do, things just don't surprise me anymore." replied Storm Breaker.

"*A fellow shrug-shit-offian, I think this guy and I will get along just fine. Thanks.*" Mister Cee groaned as he headed towards the door. After he disappeared into the ship's bowels, Theresa walked over to get some ponies to grab his armour, tightening her grip on her bag-O-blood and hypo needle.

    "So, Mr. Alvis, excited to see your wives again?" Storm Breaker queried.

    "Thou hast no idea. Once I see them, I shall embrace them as warmly as possible for an Undead, and..." Alvis stopped himself short as he realized young ones were present. He coughed awkwardly. "Ahem, yes, well...Needless to say, yes. I am excited." he replied, thankful he was wearing a mask.

    Storm Breaker laughed. "As you well should be! It's not every day you get a chance to do that with the finest mares in Equestria!" Storm Breaker said.

Theresa merely smiled as she connected the dots, having overheard enough to put the facts together, 'Wives, millennia and finest mares in the whole country, there's only two certain ponies that could possibly be married to him. Now, should I tell him I had The Talk at the age of eight from my uncle as well as meeting the thousand years later descendent of the act that made The Talk necessary?' She pondered. After a few seconds she dismissed the thought. After all, it was embarrassing back then, and it's embarrassing now.

After she said this, Mister Cee came back from the washroom without the aged blood covering his face, a small smile on it in the bloods place, "*No visible tumors! No black lines overlaid on my veins! The only real thing that's bothering me is my hands looking like a scene from Bee Movie.*"

Looking over at the side of the ship, he noticed that there were almost a half of a dozen pegasi trying to lift his armour, the boots and gloves all still attached as the twin air tanks and the helmet laid next to the dead Minotaur he used as a wagon. A few shocked cries of alarm as the nearly seven hundred pounds of armour floated up on its own and glided towards the ship's deck.

"Where should we put his suit?" Theresa asked as it floated a few feet off of the deck.

    "In the cargo bay, just downstairs. You there!" Storm Breaker said, pointing to a random Night Guard, "Show this girl and her uncle where to put that armour!" The guard saluted and motioned for Mister Cee and Theresa to follow him.

Thanking him, Charlie and Theresa followed the bat pony through a door as the six pegasi started grabbing his stuff, two fifty pound drills, one two hundred pound air tank that was bigger than them and the massive helmet that could be used as a hiding place for a young filly with room to spare.

As they were walking towards the cargo hold, the empty shell of a big daddy suit occasionally having to be folded in on itself to get through the corners, Theresa started a conversation with the Night Guard while Charlie kept an eye out for Cloud and Midnight. 'Size tens will still work,' he considered, 'but I would hate to get them covered in shit and blood, I ruined enough good shoes just helping Ryder clean deer.'

Theresa was trying to breach the topic of whether or not the pony leading them was a fellow blood drinker like her Equestria had, she knew that making assumptions would be foolish. "So, are those fangs for show? I've never seen a bat pony before." She asked, putting on her curious face.

    "Well, nowadays they kinda are. We don't use em like we used to, at least not as often. We mostly use em to suck out the juices from a fruit. But in the olden days, we used em to drain the magic from unicorns." the guard informed.

'So are they fruity bat ponies, or batty fruit ponies... okay, that may have been a bit too low even by my standards. The gay community and the insane community are, thankfully, separated entities.' Charlie thought, smiling slightly until he realized that others could now see him.

    A rustling near a pile of crates caught the group's attention. Sticking out of either side were two familiar tails, one blue, one blonde. The group stared for a moment.

"Are bat ponies here resistant to lightning?" Theresa quietly asked their guide.

    "As much as any other Pegasus or pony." the stallion answered.

Chuckling, Charlie switched both of his hands to Electro Bolt and quickly jumped the short distance to the top of their hiding place. Upon landing on top of the crates, he looked down at the confused and worried expressions, "*My Jordans are better clean anyway.*" Followed by unleashing enough electricity into them both to overcompensate for their magical resistance to lightning.

"Yeah," Theresa started, over the sounds of the jumbled screams of the two guards, "Electric Flesh lets him zap ponies like they never had any resistance in the first place."

Jumping down, Charlie dusted his hands off as he approached the group, "*That was... shockingly fun.*"

"Nope, not worth a damn." Theresa replied, "Still terrible."

    The stallion peeked over the top of the pile of crates, seeing the two lieutenants splayed out on the floor with their manes, fur, and tails sticking up on end and releasing small bolts of electricity every now and then. The guard immediately reminded himself to never get on the bad side of the behemoth of a being and his niece. After that, he showed them a good spot to place the bits of armour.

After they'd stored Charlie's armour and drills somewhere they wouldn't fall through the floor, and Midnight and Cloud stopped sparking like a pair of tesla coils, the group headed back topside, gently swaying back and forth as the airship flew its course. When they reached the deck, they came upon Alvis sitting alone on the deck crossed legged, seemingly meditating. Everypony around him was trying to be quiet so as not to disturb him.

Charlie went to the stern of the ship to smoke a cigarette, smiling at the nearly full pack surviving and started amusing himself with turning the clouds into chaos clouds, cotton candy with chocolate rain being his go to, while Theresa went to inquire how long they would be flying. After a quite few hours of flying, they began to approach Canterlot.

    Alvis opened his eyes for once during the trip, although none could tell, and gazed upon the majesty of the, to him, new capital. It was even more beautiful than he had hoped, with it's tall, marble and gold spires, paved cobblestone streets, mansions, and abundance of ponies, he almost shed a tear. Then he realised how eerily close it was to another, much more dark and foreboding castle city. They hadn't done it...had they? Alvis hoped not, but perhaps he should ask them when he sees them.

Finally, the ship landed on the strip near the castle, and standing there, waiting, were the Princesses themselves. Alvis smiled widely under his mask, and waved as he fought the urge to rush over to them and squeeze them. Luna, however, had no such restraint, and sped off towards Alvis like a bullet. Literally. She slammed into the unfortunate man, bruising his ribs and knocking them both off of the airship. Luna was blubbering like a foal, spouting things like, "I thought thou was gone!" and "I am never letting thee out of mine sight!" Celestia calmly walked over, but Alvis could see the slight trembling and misty eyes she bore.

    "Take that Hood off. Now. I want to see your face." she said, her voice holding a slight quiver to it. Alvis did as she asked and removed the Hood. Celestia let her tears fall freely, before she giggled. "I can't believe you still have that ridiculous hair style...but I wouldn't change it for the world." she said wistfully. Alvis smiled as the sunlight shone down on his pristine pale face, his light blue hair in a mullet cascading down the back of his head, a scraggly beard of the same color tickling Luna's ears. He motioned for Celestia to come over to him. She did so without hesitation, and he pulled her in for a tight, loving hug.

    "How I hath missed thee..." he said softly.

Looking down from the still airborne airship as it slowly was brought to a dock that resembled scaffolding, Charlie and Theresa smiled at the sight below them. After a moment, Charlie excused himself to go get his armour, volunteering a few helpful guards with the help of his Hypnotize plasmid. Of course by this time every pony on the ship knew a new rule, if the thing with glowing eyes points at you with one hand and has his other coated in ice, fire, lightning or is holding a coloured orb, you shouldn't try and find a way to anger it. About five minutes later, Theresa and Charlie walked down the gangway, his dive suit floating in the air next to his air tanks while several bat ponies and pegasi carried the rest.

After they reached the ground, Charlie and Theresa walked around the airship and stood a respectful distance away as Alvis and the Princesses revelled in each other's warmth. Sadly, it was cut short when Celestia remembered others were present.

    "Come, my love, we have much catching up to do." she said as she wiped her tears. Alvis nodded, and motioned for Theresa and Charlie to follow them. Luna and Celestia stayed right by Alvis' side, afraid to leave him. They walked into the castle, through numerous corridors and twists and turns, before finally coming upon Celestia's private study. The guards opened the doors, and they all walked in.

    A table and cushions were arranged in the center of the room, a rug with Celestia's Cutie Mark on it in the center, a desk with an ink and quill on it along with stacks of papers. A fireplace sat in the other side of the room across from the desk. Alvis, Luna, and Celestia took seats together, whilst Mister Cee and Theresa sat across from them.

    "So, I assume you two are friends of my dear Alvis, correct?" Celestia queried Mister Cee and Theresa.

"*Friends would be a strong word, but not inappropriate, he heard us out when he had no obligations to do so.*" Charlie groaned, "*He looked past our differences with only the minimal of suspicion. Though I could call that foolhardy, I can also call it tolerant and trustworthy.*"

"What he said, he greeted us as equals and was willing to overlook things about us that we couldn't change even if we wanted to, at the moment at least," Theresa smiled, "He asked for aid and my uncle here gave it, we asked for friendship and your husband here gave it with only the fair and understandable desire to know more about us."

    "I see. If I may be so bold, what exactly is your story?" Celestia asked. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to, I can understand if it's painful."

"It is, but it will hurt no less than if we kept it to ourselves, we were normal human beings once, till we went to a convention in costumes and bought some things from a rather polite merchant. We were sent  to an alternate Equestria, same as yours other than neither of you being married to Alvis here,  we showed up a thousand and five years before Luna returns from the moon and gets purged of Nightmare Moon. Back then, we were brainwashed, we lost our memories and became mindless monsters, Charlie would kill any pony that attacked us and I would use my needle to drink the blood of dead ponies. That went on for three months before you two used the Elements of Harmony to turn us to stone,"

"A thousand and five years later, we broke out, with our memories and personalities restored by none other than Discord himself, I don't know if ours is like yours, but ours had morals, he didn't affect schools or hospitals, hasn't ever been the cause behind a single death, even indirectly, and didn't let us just go insane over the memories of what we did while we weren't in control. We left Canterlot, got to Ponyville, learned that I couldn't contain all of the magic I had consumed and Charlie took it for me, after that we watched Discord get defeated by the Elements of Harmony and were about to leave until our Celestia accidentally summoned a wannabe Multiverse conqueror and Charlie stomped him back into his Equestria and our Celestia took a lot of his unaligned magic, placed it into an enchanted amulet but we were summoned before she could take it all."

"Charlie helped fight some Minotaurs, we talked on our way out of that prison and came here with him." Theresa finished, Charlie simply keeping his glowing yellow eyes on the alternate version of his Princesses, he knew they weren't the same, but wasn't willing to be caught unprepared.

    "That's quite a tale. But what is this, 'Nightmare Moon', thou speak of?" asked Luna.

"Hmm, do you have any students Celestia? Mare or stallion, unicorn or otherwise." Theresa asked.

    "I did. A mare, unicorn, or rather, alicorn, now. She's done many great things, and I'm proud of her." Celestia answered. "Why do you ask?"

    "Does she still live in Golden Oaks library?" Theresa responded.

    "No, she has her own castle now. If I remember correctly, she just finished deciding what to do with Starlight Glimmer." Celestia replied.

    "To answer your earlier question, I'm trying to find where, and when, you guys are in relation to us. You see, in our Equestria, a thousand years ago Luna succumbed to an evil entity by the name of Nightmare, Luna believed everypony was ignoring her and, while under the influence of the Nightmare, tried to bring about eternal night. Our Celestia banished Luna and the Nightmare within to the moon until a thousand years later, our version of your student made some friends and purged the Nightmare from Luna with the elements of harmony, thus assuming the roles of protectors of Equestria. I assume your world is the exception to the rule where most Equestrias have what is known as, to our world, the solar slash lunar war as well as the events that followed. I also wanted to know if your Discord was 'rehabilitated'." Theresa explained, finishing with a pair of air quotes.

    "Well that's...I honestly don't know what to say. My Luna, being corrupted for something so petty? It sounds rather far fetched, to be honest. As for Discord, he was reformed long before that when my dear Alvis threatened to kill him and absorb his soul. He was quite docile after that." Celestia explained.

    "Oh! We should summon him! It would be hilarious!" Luna suggested.

    "I don't know, Lulu...last time we pranked him with Alvis he wouldn't come out of his dimension for days." Celestia said.

    "I hath been meaning to 'talk' with him again." said Alvis, his tone dangerous yet not without a hint of playfulness in it.

    "Back to the matter at hoof," Celestia changed the subject, "You said you and Alvis talked? Did he do what I think he did?" Celestia asked.

"*I have no idea what you were expecting, but if it involved shoving something up a Minotaur's ass, then I think he did. Also, my fatality came across as little more than a pimped out version of what he did.*" Charlie groaned, calmly waiting for Theresa to translate for him.

    Celestia sighed. "I had nearly forgotten how...creative, my husband can be when it comes to punishment."

    "Oh darling, you still have it!" Luna exclaimed.

    Alvis chuckled before turning to his beloved Tia, "I forgot to mention, Tia, that I offered them a place of respite here, if they wished. Could we possibly make a home for them? Or give them a room here? It would need a bonfire nearby, so they might be able to travel from their realm to here." Alvis said.

    "I see no reason why we can't. Especially for two who have helped my love escape." she turned to Theresa and Charlie. "Would you be okay with that?"

    "A house would be wasted on us, a simple room would do just fine for while we stay here. If I'm correct, than time would flow differently for us, it might be a week in our Equestria but easily be a decade here, or vice versa," Theresa replied, "for now, simply having a place to lay our heads and eat a quiet meal in peace would be plenty, especially as to the fact that we won't know where or when we'll show up when we go back." Pausing for a moment to listen to her Uncle, Theresa translated his desires, "A medical check-up to see if anything is missing from Charlie would be most appreciated."

    "Alright then, it's settled! I'll tell the staff to prepare a room for you, and we'll find a place to make a bonfire so you can come and go as you please. Now, on to other matters. As a token of my appreciation, I shall grant your uncle the title of Duke, and we can introduce you to the country next week when we announce my husband's return. And I won't take no for an answer."

"*Uh... One version wants to get us stoned, the other gives me a title... Fuck. Thank you but while I know better than to attempt to argue with you, I also know nothing of being a duke.*" Charlie groaned, Theresa leaving out the first part when she translated for him.

Adding her two cents, Theresa added, "While my uncle isn't a freely trusting, rose tinted glasses wearing kind of person, I'm sure he can also see the benefits of such a position."

"*You're right, I can sting Blueblood twice now. I got, hiiiigh hopes, to unleash my kiiiiller bees, on a unsuspecting prick.*" Charlie groaned in a sing song tone. When the others asked what he said, Theresa replied with a smile,

"How much do either of you care for Prince Blueblood?"

    "Blueblood? As in the stallion I trained all those millennia ago?" Alvis asked, looking surprised.

    "His descendant, dear. To answer your question, we sent him to Alvis' home using a bonfire after he insulted one of the Elements of Harmony at the Gala. We have yet to check up on him, but we made sure he was protected, at least somewhat. It was my hope that the despair and danger filled Drangleic would teach him a thing or two. I still love him like my own, of course." Celestia replied.

     "*Damn, I was hoping to to sic my bees on another version of him. Oh well any other pricks I can fuck with? If not than I'll just go eat something and see if I can get this Discord's attention.*" Charlie groaned.

"Is there anything else you'd wish to know?" Theresa asked, "Anything at all."

    "Wouldst thou be opposed to the idea of helping me bring back the descendant of Blueblood? I wish to see how he is faring, and what he is like." Alvis asked.

    "Are you sure dear? I know how much you loathe that world." said Celestia.

    "I am." Alvis said, steel in his voice. He turned back to Charlie and Theresa. "So?"

"*I'd do it on my own, I'm not called a Protector for nothing. Whatever this Drangleic place is, I can probably just bulldoze through whatever problem gets in my way, if that fails I still have my Plasmids.*" Charlie groaned as Theresa translated for him.

    "Thou should not underestimate Drangleic, tis more dangerous than thou believes." Alvis warned.

    "Indeed, we hath been there before. Tis no laughing matter, that cursed land." Luna added. Celestia nodded.

    "Everything there has the power to take souls and shape them into powerful items and tools of destruction. There, even gods are not safe." Celestia warned.

    Chuckling, Charlie replied, "*Obviously you know nothing about Protectors, I'm literally built to crush anyone or anything in my path. After all, I held you two off with just my strength and my two drills, now I'm tougher, faster and overall more powerful than ever before. Bring 'em, it won't be the first time I was ever outmatched and it certainly won't be the last.*" Charlie claimed, "*I literally had nothing but my strength when I showed up, now I have my Tonics, Plasmids and willpower to back it up.*"

After translating, Theresa added, "I don't know if he can or can't, but I guarantee you'll never meet someone so stubborn and determined as him. He'll drag your Blueblood back kicking and screaming with several battalions of the fiercest creatures that any mortal or immortal mind can create on their tails."

    Alvis sighed and shook his head, smiling. "As thou wishest. However, I will be coming, just in case. I hath the most knowledge of that land and it's inhabitants. Thou wilt need a guide."

    "We're coming too, dear. We're not leaving you again." Celestia declared. Luna nodded. Alvis sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was silent for a few moments.

    Finally, he answered, "So be it. We shall leave on the morrow, for now, we should all rest."

    "Fair enough, I'm gonna go eat some dinner and pass out, do you guys have a chef for when the Griffons ambassadors come?" Theresa asked.

"We do. I'll have them deliver a meal to your room. And as for your uncle, I'll call up the Castle Medical team and ask them to do a check up on your uncle. Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to have some...quality time, together." Celestia said with a wolfish grin directed at Alvis, who smiled wide. Luna gained a hungry look in her eye as well as she wrapped a wing around Alvis. And with that, Celestia teleported the three away, leaving Mister Cee and Theresa alone in the study.

"Well, the guards outside, unless they bailed, should still have your dive suit ready to move. Let's go." Theresa said as she got up. Charlie simply wondered how Cloud and Midnight were enjoying their new abilities.

In a guard house by the front gates, Midnight was flirting with a fellow Night Guard and decided to bump her flank into his. What she didn't know was that small action was enough to set off her body's new ability and when she looked over, she was met with a miniature glacier covering her hopeful bed warmer's body. Only his eyes seemed unstuck as they locked on with hers.

Cloud was out patrolling the grounds when, unbeknownst to him, a vase was on a crash course with his head. But when it finally reached him, he felt nothing as it shattered into numerous pieces. He looked up to see a maid yelling. "Sorry!" He yelled back and told her it was alright, but inside he was ecstatic. He didn't have any cuts or even a bruise from that vase!

The next morning was filled with several ponies and displaced who were celebrating internally, Charlie found out he lacked any tumors or other signs of grievance DNA corruption, but about half of his intestines were removed. The doctor thought Theresa was pregnant and didn't believe her when she said she had a special sea slug living in her stomach, he left without a word after he performed another spell to see for himself, Theresa and Charlie had steak for dinner, imported and cooked by a very skilled Griffon who was in the employment of the Princesses.

Midnight spent the night with a fellow guard after he defrosted from his ice prison and Cloud Skipper walked into a brick wall when one of his subordinates asked him a question, no bloody nose or even a notice of what he did until the young recruit asked him if he was okay.

But the happiest of all was Celestia, Luna and Alvis who, after a night of fun and cuddling, seemed to glow with happiness. The three didn't leave the bedroom until well into the afternoon, Celestia forgoing her duties for once in favor of cuddling with her returned lover. But eventually, they had to get up, and they did so reluctantly, even though they remained by one another's side throughout their time eating and walking around.

Alvis went about finding a good place to make a bonfire, and in time, he found one. It was a secluded area of the hedge maze in the Royal Gardens, with plenty of space to move around in. After Day Court ended and Luna skipped Night Court, the group gathered around the bonfire, Alvis wearing different armor he had grabbed from his Item Box which consisted of a fancy yet very functional helmet, metal gauntlets used by ancient and feared warriors, leggings that looked eerily human, and a flashy leather tunic with chain mail underneath and blue embroidered cloth on top, one arm covered by plate armor of bradden steel and the other chain mail.

Charlie, once again wearing his alpha modal big daddy armour, having spent more than a hour gutting the life support systems and rebuilding certain parts so that his Tonic delivery system now connected to a tube that ended in his helmet allowing him to drink instead of having the beverage delivered straight to his stomach, was internally shrugging at the change of armour. After all, his one reinforced dive suit has stood up to everything life has thrown at him so far, what would a different dive suit do for him. Thankfully, the suit sealed itself back up when he turned the emergency exit valve clockwise.

"Art we ready?" Alvis asked. A chorus of nods was what he got in reply. "Good. Now hold on to me, and each other, and focus on the flames, I will do the rest." The party did so, and Alvis kneeled down and touched the flames, a wave of ash and smoke erupted from the bonfire, and they were gone.

Theresa watched alongside of Cloud Skipper and Midnight Blossom as the party vanished, the two being 'volunteered' by Charlie for her escorts while the others were off in the land of Drangleic.