Unexpected Guests - Chapter 1 - Watch your step

It here! First chappy done! I tried to start further into the story, but I felt that I needed to setup the setting better before the meat of the story. Hope you enjoy!

“Boss, something’s coming,” Bandit hissed as I fired wildly at the end of the narrow alley we were holed up in, cutting down the Antithesis as fast as they turned the corner.

“You want to be a little more specific?” I growled. “Because from where I’m standing it looks like a LOT of shit is coming for us. Who’s idea was it to split off from the rest of the bears to investigate an anomaly anyways?”

“That would be you,” Deadbeat mumbled. “Bandit just told you about it.”

I spared a quick glance at the smirking bear as I reloaded before sighing. “Okay, fine… but I didn’t expect every antithesis in the city to come down on our heads. What the fuck is going on?”

“I dunno, but it’s fun!” Bob declared as he punted a Model Three down the Alley, knocking over a whole row of Antithesis.

“Again… What’s coming?” I yelled over the gunfire. “Don’t tell me it’s a Twenty-Three, because Heavy doesn’t have his coilgun right now.”

“It’s not,” Bandit whined. “It’s more like…” 

He didn’t get a chance to finish, because that’s when reality stretched, twisted, and ripped open right on top of us. I barely had time to register the red portal opening up, the Antithesis tentacles reaching outwards, when gravity changed, and I found myself falling straight through the jagged tear in the world.

I don’t know how long I tumbled through the corridor, bombarded by distorted lights and sounds, unable to tell which way was up, when another aperture opened up and spat me out again. 

Shaking my head to clear the disorientation, I just had enough time to register the sound of wind, and the fact I was falling before I smashed into a pile of twigs and grass, bouncing off it and tumbling a few feet further to land on the ground. 

“Owww…” I groaned. Darkness crept into the corner of my vision, but I couldn’t afford to pass out now.

A series of heavy thuds echoed out from around me, so I rolled onto my side, glanced at my squad and grabbed my gun, which had thankfully not come loose from its shoulder strap during the fall. 

“Everyone up! We’re in trouble! I think we’re on an Antithesis staging world,” I hissed, shaking my head.

“Ummm… boss? I don’t think that’s true,” Bandit exclaimed as he popped to his feet.

“How can that not be true?” I growled. “We went through a Antithesis incursion rift, didn’t we?” 

“We did, but…” Bandit sniffed. “I’m not detecting any Antithesis in the area, and the foliage in this area is completely intact. I don’t think we’re on earth, there’s far too much growth for that, but we’re not on an Antithesis world either.”

“Then where the fuck are we?” I asked.

“Boss,” Heavy muttered. When I glanced towards him he just nodded behind me. Turning around I found a bizarre structure. Instead of being made of metal, concrete, or even brick, it was made of rough stone and timber. That pile I landed on was part of a rough straw roof, and most bizarrely there was a pair of green skinned, tusked faces staring out the window at me.

“Uhhh…. Nyx?” I muttered.

Present.

“I repeat, where the fuck are we?”

I honestly don’t know. I’m actually a little surprised you and your bears are still alive, and in one piece. You fell, unprotected and unguided through a subspace rift. All conventional science says you should have been ripped into a million pieces and scattered all over known space, yet here you are, in one piece.

“A million pieces you say…” I muttered. “Well, I guess things could be worse. Any idea on how I could get home?”

One of the ‘People’ in the window waved, so I waved back.

There are plenty of teleport beacons back on earth and I bet if I ask some of the other AIs… Ah, yes, we can borrow one in Japan. You may need to find your way home from there.

“Fine, I assume I have the points for an emergency teleport or whatever, give me one.” There were several seconds of silence. “Nyx?”

Just a moment. This is strange, you appear to be slightly out of phase with me. I think you may have passed onto another dimension. Fascinating.

“Yes, wonderful,” I grumbled. “Can you study it later and get me that teleport now?”

No, I can't. I've never seen this kind of shift before. It’s frankly surprising that we can even talk to each other right now.

“So we’re stuck here?” I shouted. “I don’t even know where HERE is!”

Calm down, I’m sure I can figure it out… eventually. Maybe have a look around until then, maybe the locals can help you.

“I bet,” I mumbled. “Bandit, is the environment breathable?”

“The air here is cleaner than back home!” the fox exclaimed excitedly. “The traces I’m picking up…”

I held up a hand. “Feel free to keep analysing, I just wanted to know if I could take off my helmet.”

Pulling the bear eared cloak back, I broke the environmental seal on my helmet and pulled it off. I let the cool air flow over my sweat-caked face, and took a deep breath in before flipping the cloak back up.

“Heads up,” Dusty whispered. “The locals have moved.”

My eyes flicked over to the now empty window. “No hostile movements, but defend yourselves if you need to.”

The rough wooden door in the side of the structure swung open, and a eight foot tall, muscular, green skinned man stepped through. He had clean, fairly well tailored clothes, and his black hair was swept back neatly. 

“Everyone alright? You scared us when you all came tumbling out of the sky like that,” he asked with a smile. 

“Uhhh… yeah? We’re good,” I replied blankly. “Thank you Mr....” 

“Krillgan, Oscar Krillgan,” he exclaimed, extending his hand, which I took hesitantly. “Are you all Adventurers? That’s some fancy armor, and quite distinctive, I’m surprised I don’t recognize it.”

“No, we’re not adventurers, I’m actually a Samurai. Or I guess more people know us by Vanguard? That ring a bell?” I asked.

“Can’t say that it does,” Oscar replied, rubbing his chin. “Sorry, I suspect you might have teleported to the wrong continent.”

“I think we’re a little further off track than that,” I grumbled under my breath.

To my left Spooky twitched a couple times, then came running forward. “Excuse me, but did you say teleportation? Your people have that level of technology?” Nyx’s voice rang out.

“Technology? I guess it kind of is, since they’ve standardized the gate designs now, but to the best of my knowledge they still run on magic.”

“Magic?” Nyx, Spooky, Deadbeat, Dusty, and I all exclaimed in unison.

“You’re shitting me…” I finished. 

“I’m afraid not. Why does that seem so surprising to you, do they not have magic where you’re from?” Oscar asked, surprised.

“Oscar, I’m going to be honest with you, where I’m from there’s no magic, no non-human races, and no nature,” I said. “We do have a horde of world devouring alien plants though, so it’s not all good.”

“Wait, you’re saying you’re from another world, and you’re saying you’ve never seen an orc before?” he asked in disbelief. 

“Can’t say that I have,” I groaned. “Jane is going to kill me when I get home.”

“Excuse me, Mr Oscar,” Nyx said, cutting in. “If your ‘magic’ can teleport people, there’s always a chance that it can reach beyond the dimensional boundaries. Is there some sort of magical expert we could talk to?”

“Like summoning magic?” I leaned over and looked past Oscar when I heard the melodic voice coming from the doorway. “Because if it’s summoning horrors from beyond reality, Lanivia is the best!”

Oscar sighed, “This is my wife, Dorthia. You’ll have to excuse her enthusiasm,  she’s a massive fan of the Manor.”

He cocked his head, thinking for a second, before looking down at me again. “Although, she’s not exactly wrong… If you’re looking for an expert on spells Lanivia would be the strongest on the continent, maybe the planet. That tends to happen when you have an eternity to study magic.”

“That sounds like our only lead,” I said. “Would you be able to direct us to this Lanivia?”

“We could do you one step better, we can escort you back to the city! We were just locking up this place when you arrived anyways,” Dorthia exclaimed.

“You don’t live here?” Deadbeat asked.

“This old shack? Of course not, this is just an old ruin we found a couple years ago. We fixed it up ourselves and now we use it as a camping spot,” Oscar exclaimed. “Like she said, we were just locking up. Give us about twenty minutes and we’ll collect our things.” 

“We appreciate the help,” I chirped.

Oscar nodded, and turned back towards the shelter, and as he did Dorthia ducked inside, appearing a moment later with a chunk of crystal. Her fingers danced across the surface for a moment, then she turned it towards me. 

I stared in surprise, it was a tablet. I gently took the device, then looked at her in confusion.

“That’s the Dungeon’s information page, you should familiarize yourself with it before we go!” she exclaimed before ducking back inside.

I slowly scrolled to the top of the page where it read: “The Wailing Manor - Professional Level dungeon. Cheer for us during the upcoming Dueling Dungeon season!”

“What is going on,” I mumbled.