Quest for the Omnistone

Alternative Chapter 1

After I first finished Quest for the Omnistone, I toyed with the idea of editing it to remove the reader involvement aspect. Clearly, I never got around to finishing it and my writing fully transitioned from fanfiction to simply fiction. I hope to write a non-fanfic version of Crystal's story one day, as there's a lot of original material I never got around to exploring (I'll elaborate on this in an A/N for Red Sun Rising. Yes, I'm putting the Omnistone sequel back up; its unfinished-ness haunts me [Chapter 39, Nixes Realm anyone? XD]). In the meantime, I figured it wouldn't hurt to show my Chapter 1 version 2.0.

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Crystal Rockwell, 17, Traveler. Crystal Rockwell, 17, Traveler.

I blew a strand of brown hair out of my face as I wrote the words in the air over and over again with my finger. The tip left a trail of white light that hung in the air long enough to read each word before fading into nothing.

I was currently lying down precariously on the shoulder of the huge Thoth statue in the middle of the Great Room at Brooklyn House, listening to the chatter and bustle of the initiates below. Carter Kane, the leader of the Twenty-first Nome, had left me in charge of watching the initiates while he and his sister went off on some mission in New York. Zia had gone off to Cairo this morning while Walt was away doing death god stuff. I had to admit, the last few hours were quite peaceful. It was getting harder and harder for me to catch an actual break for the past few weeks.

Crystal Rockwell, 17, Bl–

"Hey, that's my math book!" A young voice yelled.

"No it isn't!" Another voice yelled back.

"Yes, it is. I put my homework in there, see?"

"But I drew a smiley face on the front page. So it's definitely mine!"

I sat up in search of the squabbling youngsters. Sean and Felix were standing by the stairs, arguing yet again over their textbooks.

"Boys!" I called out. "There's another math book outside on the terrace if that helps."

The two looked up at me, at each other and then began running for the terrace doors.

"Thanks, Crystal!" Felix said. "What are you doing up there?"

I shrugged and scrambled up to the top of Thoth's head. "The view's great from here."

Blasphemous of an Egyptian magician to walk all over a statue of Thoth? Perhaps. But technically, I was only a part-time magician. Besides, if Thoth did decide to strike me with a curse, I could just make an interdimensional portal and hang out somewhere else for... around ten years. Maybe Hogwarts would do. The perks of being a Traveler.

The multiverse is a vast expanse of realms, and new worlds keep popping up all the time. I could avoid going anywhere twice for a year or two.

Eighty percent of these worlds are 'man-made' and are therefore quite vulnerable. I use the term 'man-made' for easy comprehension, but the actual word for them is 'Created'. Worlds made up by Creators AKA good old Earth people. My people. Film makers and authors dream up whatever they want as a means of entertainment and don't realize that they've just contributed to the expansion of the multiverse.

Yes. Somewhere out there, Harry Potter is living a Voldemort-free life; Iron Man is working on a new invention for the Avengers; Hiro Hamada is navigating through SFIT with Baymax, and I can drop by anytime to say hi.

A wondrous thing, but also quite dangerous as each world serves as a sort of connection– a gateway– to Earth for the other twenty percent of the multiverse. And not everyone from there is friendly. This is what the Travelers are for.