Chapter 46: Who to Follow? - Draco

"There, I finally got it recalibrated. I've set new origin coordinates, reset the lattitude and longitude scale, and figured out where we were before we were zapped here. And with minutes to spare too. Good thing this place is pratically the same size as Earth." The doctor threw her hair back and had a proud look on her face.

"So can you take us back or not?" Adrian asked as if running out of patience. Alicia nodded without even looking at her.

"Back? Back where?" Gelid asked in confusion.

"The doc here kinda accidentally sorta inadvertently teleported us here by mistake. We're trying to get back where we started. You say you're gonna tag along?" Draco asked.

"What else is there to do? Who else is there to follow?" Gelid replied.

"Obviously not multiple choice questions you're throwing out there." Draco smiled.

"Okay, everyone that wants to go back gather around. Anyone that wants to stay...well go chase a squirrel or something." Alicia announced.

"It better work this time." Adrian almost threatened.

"Didn't anyone teach not to mess with nerds? We're a dangerous bunch." Alicia warned her as she grinned mischievously. Without anything further, Alicia once again activated the teleporter, and beamed them into the sky. When they regained their vision, they were surprised to find that they were not standing on land, but falling into a river. Everyone yelled out in surprise, as they all landed in the water, with Draco sinking to the bottom. Everyone else floated back to the surface and began swimming to shore. As they caught their breaths, they looked around to see that this was a short distance from where they departed on the last teleport.

"What was that? And weren't there four of us?" Gelid asked in concern.

"We just instanteneously travelled from one part of this world to another. And reploids sink in water. Draco'll be up in a second." Alicia wasn't the least bit worried. Just then Draco jumped out of the water and landed next to the group. He held something in his hand.

"Wow, that water sure is nice and clear. And look, edible fish." He held out the fish. "Sure beats our place no?" He removed his helmet and shook the water out before he put it back on.

"Now that I can recognize as food. We'll just save it for later." She took the fish, wrapped it in a bag that she got out of her backpack, and put it inside.

"Hmm, I admit your 'magic' is crude, but it works nonetheless." Adrian dried herself off. "So lets start moving again. The sooner we finish this the better."

"What exactly are we finishing anyway?" Draco asked.

"We'll know when the time comes."

"Phew! For a minute there, I thought you were going to be vague." He replied sarcastically.

"But that wasn't very specific." Gelid answered. Draco turned to him in surprise.

"My friend, I think it's time you learned about sarcaasm." Draco grinned.

"Don't you dare Draco!" The doctor suddenly grabbed him by the cheeks and dragged him along as they continued to search for some path that might lead them somewhere.

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"So what are you all anyway? I've never seen anything like your kind in my world." Gelid asked as they all walked along.

"Well, there are three kinds of us here, even though we look similar. That over there is a human. She and I came from the same planet. Her, well she's some kind of magical kitty/human cross or something." Draco explained.

"Griffin you fool. And we're called Aurans. Learn it! It's a name that you should remember..." Adrian replied without even turning to face them.

"Yeah, what she said. She just doesn't get along with our type. And me, I'm a reploid. Like a really complicated machine with a human spirit. Unfortunately like humans, we can be good as well as bad, what with free will and all. I just happen to be the good kind...or so I've been told anyway. Oh, and I got these cool weapons, see?" He said it almost like a kid showing off to his friend. He morphed his arm into an arm cannon, and fired a weak blast into the water. It made a small explosion on impact.

"Oh, some kind of fire elemental I see. My element is ice." He gestured to the ground, where he held his paw down, and ice began to spread along the ground in a growing circle. He stopped it before it reached very far.

"Neat. Ice weapons rock! To bad I didn't bring any with me. All I have is the Lighning Claw and the Fire Storm." Gelid looked confused, but like the rest he was getting used to the unexpected. Suddenly, Draco got a curious look on his face. "That's odd, I'm getting an incoming message on the Maverick Hunter's contact frequency. But it's all static." He tried pressing the helmet a little closer to his head, but it didn't help much.

"Well duh, the satellite's pretty much out of range right now. Anything sent through it will come out with a lot of interference, if at all. But who would contact the Maverick Hunters here? Gee, I hope it's not Nova or Sigma. They seem to love that frequency, though I don't recall Sigma ever being around L.A.."

"Oh no, please not Nova. If she is here, we don't have any fellow Maverick Hunters to back us up. I've never gone up against her on my own. She'll hurt me real bad." Draco worried.

"This Nova character sounds powerful. Maybe she's one of the threats Ragon was sensing." Adrian spoke up.

"You don't know the half of it. She's aptly named."

"Oh don't worry too much Draco. What's she gonna do? She probably doesn't know we're even here, if she's here at all." Alicia reassured him. With that they continued to walk along without saying much. A few minutes later though, they all stopped when they heard another storm brewing overhead. They looked up to spot some being who seemed to know where it was floating, followed closely by weather disturbances.

"Would it be wise to follow it?" Gelid yelled out over the wind and thunder that began to get heavy.

"Do we have a choice?" Draco asked. They all began to follow the being, hoping it would lead them anywhere...