Only Human

Adjustments

The Boiling Isles:

"Are you sure we're still in danger doc? Nothings happened for the past three hours" "Correction Dempsey, nothing has happened, YET" Replied Richthofen. "We must remain vigilant" "The American has a point" said Nikolai. "Why waste our time standing around guarding this area when there might not be anything to fear at all?" "Because there could be something out here even worse than those abominations" said Richthofen. "Abominations that you created" chimed Takeo. "First of all I didn't create them I didn't even know what the result of 115 on those bodies would be, let alone that it could wake the dead." "Yet you still tried to weaponize it, we've seen what 115 is capable of and now it's about to be used for things we can't even imagine." "Not just that" Nikolai said. "If it wasn't for your meddling with the unknown, we wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place!" "You simply have to trust the process." Said Richthofen. "Don't try to talk to us about trust Doc you won't even tell us what your plan is or what we're gonna do next!" Barked Dempsey. "I understand that our current circumstances seem dire, but just know that I have good intentions for the future, the road ahead is long and dark but I know where we are going. All I ask is that you help me along the way because whether you like it or not, we're all we've got. After our mission is completed I honestly don't care what you all decide to do afterwards, but until then we must stick together." Suddenly, they heard something falling over behind them and they immediately drew their weapons towards the sound. Upon further inspection they looked down and saw a girl with tanned skin and short black hair wearing a striped sweatshirt with jean shorts and long black socks. Richthofen kneeled down to the girl."Listen to me, you didn't see anything, you didn't hear anything, and if you tell anyone about this we will make sure your face is unrecognizable-" "For Christ Sake Richthofen she's just a kid!" Dempsey barked. Richthofen turned to Dempsey and then back to the girl. "My apologies, we're all a bit on edge and thought you were some sort of murderous creature, no offense." "None taken" said the girl. "Although thats not the weirdest first encounter I've had with someone here, what are your guys' names?" The crew all introduced themselves. "My name's Luz, and sorry for eavesdropping on you guys earlier I was walking home from school and overheard some voices and wanted to see what was happening" "School?" Takeo responded. "You mean there's other people here? Other humans?" "Well technically they're witches but there is civilization here." "Well what are we waiting for?" Questioned Nikolai. "Let's head into town." "I wouldn't do that" said Luz. "People have already had a pretty rough reaction to me, I'm not sure they would take kindly to you either." "Well Luz, do you know any place we can lay low until we can get moving again?" Questioned Dempsey. "Actually, I could ask Eda if you could stay at our house for a little bit, she's kinda like my mentor around here." Said Luz. "Well then it's settled, we're going to have stay there until we get our teleporter working, thank you for your hospitality." Replied Richthofen. "No problem Eddie! I can call you Eddie right?" Luz asked. "Preferably not" replied the doctor. "Got it, we're not there yet." Said Luz. The group set off to go to the house.

Somewhere in the Outskirts of Wartwood

Fog covered the green landscape contrasting with the dark night sky above. The Plantars were riding Bessie home from the Newtopia outskirts after the portal to the human world and mysteriously failed. Anne and Marcy were accompanying the frog family on their way back, with Sasha to join them they next day. It was good the two of them were together, there were something's they needed to discuss. "Marcy, what happened today wasn't your fault" Anne said. "Everything else is" Marcy said solemnly "You know that's not true, nobody could have predicted what was gonna happen to that portal and nobody had control over that, you didn't have control over that." Anne responded. "If it wasn't for me trapping you all here none of this would've happened." Marcy said. "Now we're never going to see our families again." Anne took a moment to process what Marcy just said, she didn't want her to beat herself up about it but she wasn't completely wrong. Now that the portal was destroyed they don't know how long it will be until it's reconstructed, or if it ever will be. Finally, Anne knew what to say. "We don't know that it'll never get fixed, it might happen sooner than we think. Don't worry about what happened in the past, what's done is done. The only thing we can do now is keep moving forward, and I promise that me, Sasha, and everyone you know here will be with you every step of the way for it, okay?" Marcy took a minute to ponder this statement. "Okay" she said. "Good" Anne said. "Now remember that movie you wanted to show us at one of our sleepovers that we fell asleep to?" Marcy nodded yes. "Well how about when Sasha gets here tomorrow we can all watch it together, maybe even get the whole town to watch it!" Suddenly Marcy lit up with excitement. "Sounds great! You promise you won't fall asleep this time though right?" She asked. "I swear on my life" Anne replied. "I promise you tomorrow will be amazing, especially with you guys." Said Marcy. She got out her journal and started to write in it when suddenly, it got very windy and blew the picture of her and her friends out of the book as she turned the pages. "No no no no no!" Marcy shouted as she hopped out of the cart and ran into the fog to get the picture. "Marcy wait!" Anne shouted. "I'll go get her. Sprig you stay with Hop Pop and Polly in case anything and happens." Sprig wanted to go with Anne, but agreed and stayed behind as Anne ran after Marcy. After a few minutes of running through the fog looking for the picture, she saw it lying on the ground about to be whisked away by the wind once again. She dived for the picture and caught it mid air. "Gotcha!" She said out loud. After securing the picture in her Journal once again she realized a big problem, she didn't know where she was. She scanned the area around her to see if she could make out anything, but the fog was too thick for her to see enough. She started to try to retrace her path by going what she thought was the opposite way but to no avail. Suddenly, she saw something in the distance, a figure. She called out to it. "Anne is that you?" The figure turned to her but something was wrong, it was too big to be her friend and it was holding something, a weapon. The mysterious large figure started to slowly move towards her. Sensing a feeling of intimidation in her body, she drew her arm mounted crossbow and began to slowly approach the creature. Seconds felt like minutes as she could hear the creature getting closer, the ground seemed to shake every time it made a step. She thought she wouldn't be able to take it down, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try. Finally, they got close enough to see each other clearly. Marcy couldn't tell if what stood in front of her was a man or a machine. It wore a massive suit of armor with its green paint bearing small scrapes, scratches, and dents. He had the number 117 imprinted on the upper right side of his chest. His head sported a helmet with a golden yellow visor that reflected Marcy's terrified expression. He was holding a futuristic weapon that not even the people of Newtopia had probably seen. The green figure tilted his head in confusion looking at Marcy, still shakily pointing the crossbow at him. He holstered his weapon on his back and finally spoke. "Stand down, I'm not going to hurt you." Marcy was still intimidated by him and his voice. It was deep, gruff and threatening despite not raising his voice, but it made her feel oddly safe in a way, she complied and lowered her crossbow. "Who are you? What do you want from me?" Marcy asked the stranger. "Master Chief, Sierra 117." Said the stranger, "You?" "I-I'm Marcy" she said still slightly fearful of the giant metal man. "What are you doing here?" "I'm not supposed to be here, I jumped through a portal and ended up here, I'm trying to find my way back to a pilot." The Chief explained. "I guess I'm kind of lost as well." Marcy said. "Wait, you must have been what fell out of the portal, maybe we can help each other out?" The Chief thought for a moment. "Okay, we'll find a way out of here, together." Just then, Marcy heard Anne's voice and ushered the Chief to follow her to get back to Bessie.