When they both regained consciousness they found themselves in a transparent dome in the middle of a ravine, surrounded by five smaller domes. It was night and the stars were shining bright.
"Dave, the star formations are different to our own."
"Yes, I'd noticed. It might explain why the this place is magic orientated. If there are different forces in this universe to our own, things will turn out differently. I was once part of those forces, remember, so I should know."
"Why are we in here?" asked Jo.
"I think that we are in the Gathering. It could be a nexus for all magical properties, a place where things are tested. They may use this place for trials to prove the worth of the people and their powers."
"And now it's our turn?"
"It's probably just like the training sessions we give the cadets."
"Yes, except we're on the other side."
"Point. Get ready." The dome was doing a black out. Soon there was no light in the place at all, except for the green lights on the gauntlets.
"Why don't we just leave?" asked Jo.
"Because if we return we will be in this exact same situation."
"Yes, but better prepared." She pressed the red button on the gauntlet and a shimmering light appeared from the gauntlet towards the edge of the dome.
"It's time to go home," she said. She looked about. "Where's the portal?"
"Look at the angle of formation. It forms outside the dome. We're stuck in here." Jo pressed the green button to cancel the portal. The place was dark
again. Then the lights came on and they were in an arena full of gladiators, guards and warriors surrounding them on all sides. She stood back to back with Dave.
"There's about a hundred!" she said. "This is not good at all."
"You're not wrong there," said Dave as they all charged towards them. They were trapped. Dave powered up his fire powers and flexed his metallic control flinging them back. They landed on their feet and began running towards them He did it again and still they came at them.
"Dave, do something!" shouted Jo. "Or this is gonna hurt!" He tried again but this time it had no effect. In seconds they would be swamped.
"Uh-oh!" he said. Just as they were about to be crushed, Jo teleported them out of the way. The mob ran in to each other and all of them collapsed. For a few moments they were safe.
"Dave, what's wrong?"
"I can't get my metallic powers to work. They've stopped!"
You can only use your powers the same way twice came the voice of the Lord
Avatarr. The purpose of this place is to test you to see if you are worthy of powers that you possess
"When we get out of here, I having him!" growled Dave.
"D, I can only teleport us both once more."
"Yes, I know. Stand ready here they come again!" The mob charged at them so Dave started to play the game as it has been set out. First of all he turned all the metallic armour and weaponry on the mob to dust, which fell from them. The guards and the gladiators were stunned by this, where Jo teleported them up as far as she could and let them go. This just left the warriors who were going berserk. Dave was controlling the iron in their blood as many different ways as he could but it wasn't taking out as many as he needed. Fighting over 30 berserker warriors was not his idea of a fair fight. He'd managed to take down six of them before he started to be overwhelmed. Jo teleported him to safety.
"This isn't exactly going the way we planned it, darling," she said.
"Yeah, who'd have thought we'd buy it in a different dimension, killed by berseker warriors."
"Er, we knew that was one possibility."
"So we did. Listen, idea. We can't teleport out, right."
"Right," said Jo, uncertain to what Dave was getting at.
"So, we're in the middle of a ravine, right. Sticks and stones may break their bones but water will surely drown them."
"True, but what about us?"
"Leave that to me. Do it." Jo teleported in as much water as she could find outside. Dave concentrated as hard as he could with his heat powers and started to evaporate all the water that came near the two of them. The berserkers were all drowning, Dave and Jo were getting rather hot and Dave was on the point of exhaustion. He was keeping the brunt of the heat off Jo whilst still boiling away the water to nothing. "I...can't...keep this... up much..longer!" he stuttered through gritted teeth. The strain was beginning to show. "When... I'm on the verge...of total collapse, use..... your powers to.... heal me!"
"Why not now?" , she shouted, in concern.
"Because I'm nearly....half way there. When I.... pass half way ...I can do it all...over again.... We'll be safe!" he said dropping to one knee,the strain forcing him down. He couldn't even sweat, the heat was boiling it off him. "Now," he cried as his felt the heat lessen. Jo healed him and Dave stood back up again, fully charged. He couldn't let up on the power even for a moment and eventually they were safe. "Did it," said Dave. He stood back, and nearly collapsed. Jo put her arms around him to steady him whilst she healed him once again.
"There you go. Let's not do this again?" Dave nodded. He may no longer be physically exhausted but mentally he was wrecked. He could barely summon the will to speak. The dome cleared, to reveal Lord de Winter and four others in their own respective domes.
"Impressive. You two make a good team. You must be a force to be reckoned with where you come from."
"When we're together, nothing can stop us," said Jo. "So now what do you
do with us?"
"I don't know. The Five have yet to decide. By the force of the Gathering, you will be as you were. You will stay there until we decide what to do
with you." The Five stood up and lightning filled the Gathering.
"Just like Highlander with the lightning, the Gathering. All we need now is an immortal," said Jo who looked at Dave. Dave felt a lot better. In fact he felt very good. He felt cosmic. "Uh oh," said Jo as she saw what was happening in Dave's mind. The Gathering sensed that his true state was that of a cosmic being and returned him to avatarrhood.
"Oh, Lord Avatarr," said Dave, an echo in his voice. The Lord Avatarr turned and Dave fired a cosmic blast at him. It shattered the Gathering and the Five domes surrounding it. The Five collapsed instantly as the magic from the Gathering faded away. Dave's cosmic powers drained with the fading< of the magic. Without the power of the Gathering to sustain his powers he could not keep the cosmic abilities. He walked over to the Lord Avatarr.
"Now, you will listen to us?" he asked.
"Yes," said Lord de Winter. Then he whispered to Dave. "You fool, that wasthe only point on Stormm that kept the magic in check. I was the focal point. Now all the magic is shared equally."
"That seems fair," said Dave out loud.
"No, you don't understand. I had enough power with my comrade to keep the other Three in check. They want to rule the planet."
"I though you ruled the planet," said Jo.
"No, I keep the peace."
"I've got a really bad feeling about this," said Dave. Jo nodded. Then she looked around.
"Where are the other Four?"
"What?" cried Lord de Winter. "If they escape it will mean a war between the races."
"The races?" asked Jo
"I am of the Human cast. The other four are of the Dwarven, Elven, Orcish and Faerie cast. The Faerie cast are my allies - the fawns, wood nymphs, water spirits. The others are allied against me. You two have started a war by coming here." He used his mind to call out to the Faerie. Dave and Jo could also hear him call. "I can feel nothing of them," he said solemnly.
"Please teleport me to my castle," he asked Jo. She looked at Dave.
"Do it," he said, "I've just started a war. We're going to have to stop it, before it destroys the planet." Jo teleported them to the castle where de Winter checked his books.
"This is a map of the Five Lands. We are in Staghorn, the other lands are Karyck for the Dwarves; Dayala for the Elves; Barg for the Orcs; and Ganymede for the Faerie. The magic of Stormm shows the map as it is this instant. It is forever changing. Watch the kingdoms of Dayala, Karyck and Barg. They have gone black, they used to be green, red and blue. Staghorn is gold, Ganymede used to be silver. Now it is a cold hard grey."
"How can you tell the difference?" asked Jo.
"Ganymede used to shine and sparkle. Now it is flat. I can only assume it has fallen to the darkness." He turned to them. "This is your fault. Why did you come here? How did you come here?"
"We may as well tell him," said Jo to Dave.
"Agreed," said Dave. He then told de Winter of the gauntlets, of C&C, and of the X-Wars
"Extraordinary," said de Winter. "We had theories about this for years, but all the magic we could muster could only open a slight hole, not big enough for anyone to pass through, and then only open for a few seconds. But for your people to have succeeded is incredible. However I still wish you had never come."
"We'll, we're here now," said Dave. "The question is what can we do to help?"
"Nothing," said de Winter. "I know where I've seen you're faces before." He pulled down another book. "This is the book of the Avatarr. It holds many secrets. It predicts things with accuracy up until the final entry in the book, where a darkness swallows the Gathering and the Five knew that if the Gathering was destroyed the world would end." He turned to some pages near to the ending of the book. "Look at the pages," he said. They did soand Dave had to step back in surprise.
"It can't be," he said, his voice a mixture of shock and horror
"It is," said Jo. "It's us, and it says that we will cause the destructionof Stormm and the death of goodness."
"But we can't be responsible for the destruction of this planet!" said Dave.
"It's in the book," said the Lord Avatarr. "If it's in the book then it has to happen."
"It says we will cause the destruction of Stormm and the death of goodness," said Jo. "But how is that possible?"
"It might not be the 'goodness' but it might be 'light'," said de Winter.
"Our scholars and mages have debated this over the millennia."
"I have to get this in my head," said Dave. "What is the history of the planet - a brief history if you please?" Lord de Winter motioned and three chairs appeared.
"The origin of the planet is foretold in the first book of the Avatarr. In the beginning there was nothing but grey when a spark of primeval power was ignited splitting the grey in to black and white. The white settled as form and the black as energy. The white is everything that lives, everything that is. The black is a form which surrounds us all and every so often throughout the universe are places called the Gathering.
"The Gathering are places of intense mystical energy. It powers the magic and is in turn powered by magic. From each planet there are a maximum of five distinct races - here are humans, elves, orcs, dwarves and faerie. These are not exact races as in the beginning there was an amount of interbreeding so we have various types including trolls, goblins, giants and cyclops and more. They all stick to their own races now but it was more casual nowadays.
"In the old days the magic that covered the planet was wild and created many distinct effects, chief of which was lightning - which was why we named the planet Stormm. The magic was eventually tamed by a man called the Avatarr. He tamed the magic and learned the secrets of the universe from it, which he wrote down as the Books of Avatarr. Over time he gave the other races the magic they had needed to survive, for without a semblance of magic, all races die. The Avatarr created a council for the rulers of the races to meet and convene and discuss. The white was split in to many colours, as is or was represented on the map.
"However, not all the races were happy with the situation. They thought they should have the power and combined to overthrow the Avatarr and would have done so. The faerie intervened in the fight and the power was in favour of the Avatarr and they forged an alliance of light or goodness. There have always been the petty skirmishes that always occur betweenraces, but nothing like the Wars before the magic arrived. The Avatarr kept a peace and a balance between the races and when he died, he magically passed his experience on to his successor. It has been this way for over a thousand years.
"During that time, the magic, or so it seemed, was seeping in to the very beings of our peoples and as was foretold by the Avatarr, they used the Gathering to test and hone these powers, the weak perishing and the strong surviving, as is the way of magic. Now the magic has been harnessed the peoples of this planet can have power equally, and it will now be three against two in the next War. Or three against one now. By destroying the Gathering, you have unleashed dark forces on the planet. You people have destroyed my home and ruined the lives of all the innocents who live here." Dave and Jo looked at each other. She noticed the look in his eyes. He knew that it was his fault, he shouldn't have destroyed the Gathering. Honour demanded that he fix the damage done.
"Dave," she warned but it was too late. Dave stood up.
"Well," he said. "This is a fine mess we've made here. However, I'm going to prove that book wrong. Jo and I are going to help you fight off these people. Not only do you have your own army but you have us two as well."
"Oh, good!" said de Winter. "What're you gonna do, shut off the sun?"
"No. We're gonna fight them. We have our own powers and outside of the Gathering there's no limit on them. I can feel my powers multiplying. I might not have cosmic might like earlier but what I do have is gonna do some serious damage."
"Oh, damn it D!" said Jo. "We are outnumbered here and these people could take us part. Why don't we go and get your friends - they'll be able to help us."
"No. I'm not involving them."
"Gimme a break, darling. Okay. Suppose we do win? What then? Do we come back every now and then?"
"I don't know. This was just a research mission and now the stakes are higher. I'm not going to let this planet die because of a mistake I made."
"Then at least let us get some backup from C&C!"
"We don't need it, sweetheart. I've got a plan...."
"Whoopee," said de Winter.
"Here we go again," said Jo. "It's the Hellfire Club incident all over again."
"No it is not!" said Dave. "And that was an accident."
"You said, and I quote, 'I have a plan,' and promptly trashed the whole building. They nearly revoked my membership and the bad guys escaped."
"That incident got me a lot of friends!"
"Yes, but it nearly got us killed."
"True, but this is a completely different plan. Trust me..."
"Now I'm really worried," said Jo. "When you say trust me like that, I know you're up to something really stupid."
"Excuse me," said de Winter,cutting off Dave before he could reply, "but could you save this for later? We're about to be invaded. In the absence of time to form a real plan, I say we follow his."
"Thanks," said Dave. The he thought about what had been said. "Now wait a minute!"
"Dave, leave it," said Jo. "We don't have time to argue. And we don't have a choice. What's your plan?"
"Well," said Dave, realising he had technically won," in that case, here's what we'll do...."
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