San Francisco, 2017
"Hey, are you awake?" Mac heard a woman's voice say. "You've been out since last night, and I wondered how you were doing," The woman said again. His eyes refused to function, making it difficult to figure out who was speaking to him. "What?" he asked. "What do you mean what, James, it's me, Lily," The woman said to him. "Oh, sorry," he said awakening from his sleep, "I didn't realize it was you," He said looking around the tan colored room as if he had just seen it for the first time. "It's fine, James. What do you want me to get for breakfast?" She said; her bright red hair obstructing the left side of her face.
"Does McDonald's still have the Egg McMuffin?"
"I'd imagine; it's been around for 20 years or so,"
"I'll have that then," He said
Lily smiled in agreement and left the room. Once he was sure she had left he speedily jumped out of the bed to look in the mirror across the room. He stared at himself, confused. He looked the same as he did before entering the wormhole, but the woman had thought he was someone else. He noticed the smell of smoke coming from outside the room, and loud footsteps too heavy to be Lily could also be heard. "What in the hell?" Mac said turning to open the door. Behind the door was a large mass of smoke coming from downstairs. The sound of a shotgun shot caught Mac by surprise as he began his journey down the steep stairwell. He proceeded cautiously as to not be caught off guard by the gunman.
Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, he could see the silhouette of a demonic figure amidst the inferno. "Where is MacBriare?" Mac heard the creature demand of Lily. "I don't know who that is!" Lily cried. "Leave her alone, Limbo, she has nothing to do with this!" Mac shouted to the creature. "What a great entrance, MacBriare. You're coming with me; the dark lord wants to see you,"
"Yeah, no. I won't be doing that, not today at least," MacBriare yelled from the flames.
He pulled a thick, sturdy wand from his pocket and pointed at a pillar that held the floor above it, and the pillar disappeared, leaving the ceiling to collapse under its own weigh, crushing Limbo.
"Your kind isn't welcome here, Limbo," McBriare said, unknowingly letting his wand too close to a flame.
The wand burned up in an instant, leaving only ash, and a burn on McBriare's hand. MacBriare seems almost unaffected by the burn.
"I really liked that wand," he said to no one in particular.
"Who the hell are you?" Lily asked.
"I'm not sure of that myself right now," McBriare said.
"H-how-how did you do that?"
"Magic!" he said sarcastically. "Uh, we should probably do something about this fire,"
"Right, I'll call the fire department!" Lily replied.
"No, I got it," he said waving his hand toward the fire.
As he did so, the entire house was instantly free of flames.
"I better be going, Mozathul's going to have all kinds of hunters on my trail," he said
"Who's Mozathul, and where is the real James?" Lily yelled.
"Mozathul is the dark king and I have never met this 'James' before."
"Then how did you get here? Where will you go?"
"Let's just say that this world isn't my first stop on my journey, and it definitely isn't my last,"
MacBriare waved his hand once again and a wormhole opened in the floor. As he approached it, about to jump in, Lily yelled to him.
"Wait! What is that portal thing? Who are you?"
"That 'portal' on the ground is what you humans might call a wormhole; where I'm from, it's called the time vortex. Raw, unfiltered time and space all in one tunnel," he replied.
"But what's your name?" Lily asked once more.
"My name?" he chuckled, "My name is McBriare James Grimm, son of Lilith and Wilhelm Grimm of the First Valkyrian resistance. In most of my universe, I am being hunted with a massive bounty on my head, so I need to run away without any witnesses to my powers. Speaking of which, I almost forgot," McBriare said, pulling a small handgun from his pocket. "I'm sorry, Lily, but you've witnessed something no human is allowed to see. You can come with me on my way back to where I am from, or I can save you the time of being tortured and just kill you now. What'll it be?"
"I think I'll push you!" she said leaping to push him, sending them both into the vortex.
