Two minutes is but a mere drop in the vast ocean of time, barely significant by any stretch of the imagination. With day, months, years, and even greater units in comparison, a period of 120 seconds hardly seems to be worth anything. Two minutes was reserved for only the most mundane of actions -the brushing of one's teeth, the drinking of a beverage, and the tragic end to that date that left you apologizing for the next year. The span of 1/30 of an hour is just not prominent enough to make the highlight reels of most personal movies.

On the other hand, the two minutes before a creature with enough power to set a realm groveling at its feet comes calling to your front door is not only significant enough to remember for the rest of one's natural life, but is enough to traumatize someone for the vast majority of it.

In all the years of its use, not one of the inhabitants of Avalon Outpost would have remembered a time when it was emptied in just under 90 seconds time. Hearing that Wargod is coming would have gotten the most die-hard of slackers of Second Realm on the move, much less a group of warrior-trained men and women, many of which had crossed paths with the creature at one time or another, and who knew that they didn't stand a chance against it under the present circumstances. Avalon's basement erupted into a myriad of lights and loud engine noise as each of the aircycles kept under there were instantly cut on, and the sounds of their hasty departure was even heard in Destratos, over a mile away. In all of the chaos that had occurred, Natalie had forgotten that she wanted to do just one thing.

She wanted to actually see this monstrosity.She wasn't insane, however, and realized that an observation from the back of Neil's aircycle was more than adequate. She made an attempt to look over her shoulder, but quickly turned back around as a bright flash erupted from what looked like the very depths of Avalon. Suddenly, there was a violent shaking that could be felt even over the force of the aircycle engines that prompted Neil to scream something about a duck (or at least that's what it sounded like over the engines) and speed up.

The group didn't stop to turn around until they had crossed the next dune, but they already knew what had happened. It was a grim sight to see what was once Avalon being consumed by flames and virtually torn apart by the explosion they had felt moments prior. There was a long period of silence as they watched the structure burn in the distance, for a moment forgetting about Wargod. No one was going to ask the stupid question of whether or not it had been destroyed in the explosion -if an entire platoon of Ebon Knights was cut down by it, then it wasn't very likely that this slowed it down any. Natalie had liberated Neil's pair of binoculars and was currently scanning the area, silently hoping to catch a glimpse of Wargod before it got too close to see without the visionary aide. As she scanned, she could catch bits and pieces of the conversation going on around her, mostly of Neil and Jeremiah shouting a constant string of obscenities of disbelief in the general direction of the explosion.

Some movement a little distance from the remains of Avalon caused her to start suddenly, which caught Darren's attention. Her friend was sitting on the aircycle beside her, seated behind a young lady that had been introduced earlier as Tara. "Do you see it?," Darren quickly asked.

Natalie paused for a moment, focusing in as best she could. "If I do, he's not nearly as impressive as I thought."

Neil quickly cut his conversation short as he glanced over his shoulder at Natalie. "That doesn't sound like our boy at all," he quickly remarked. Natalie handed him the pair of binoculars, pointing him in the general direction. Jeremiah and several others pulled out pairs of their own, curious as to what was going on. There was a moment of silence as they scanned the area around the explosion. Jeremiah was the first to break it.

"Oh hell no."

Natalie blinked. "What?" There were several other sentiments of the same tone uttered by the rest of the group, most of which did not have binoculars of their own. Neil sighed deeply as he pulled the binoculars down.

"Guys," he wondered outloud. "How much trouble would I get into for killing several members of the Desert Knights?"

"I believe they execute you for that here in Hamir Tobei," a Mountaineer towards the rear chimed, who had been introduced to Natalie as Rigma. "But under the circumstances, I'd like to see them try and catch us all."

Natalie cast several confused glances between Jeremiah, Rigma, Neil, and the explosion. "Wait, so it's not Wargod that leveled Avalon...?"

Neil said nothing as he quickly hopped off of his aircycle and dropped down to his knees next to the red vehicle. He reached out and hit one of the panels which popped open in response, and after a few moments of fumbling, rose to his feet with a massive silver rifle in his hands. He then looked at his friends before turning his gaze back to the burning image of Avalon on the horizon. "Someone try and talk me out of this," he stated coldly.

"No," both Mani and Jeremiah answered at the same time, dropping off of their own vehicles and reaching for their heavier weapons, while several other members moved to do the same. Both Natalie and Darren were both prepared to jump off and join the fray, but there was a sudden eruption of sand some feet away from the group, which prompted much ducking, covering, and swearing. When the cloud of sand had cleared a few seconds later, two robe-clad individuals were standing very close-by, both of which had swords pointed at Neil. It was difficult to make out any details beneath the sand-colored robes, but Natalie assumed by the cut of the armor beneath that they were both male. Cloths were drawn over both Knights' mouths and obscured most of their faces, but their dark eyes burned with intensity as they stared at Neil and the others.

"Put down your weapon." His voice was calm, but there was a definite edge present. Neil glared for a moment and turned the rifle away from the two, yet continued to hold it. The Knight's gazes met with several other members of the soon-to-be mob, who grudgingly turned away their weapons also. "What you speak of is considered Treason in this country, Traveler," the Knight added, shifting his gaze back towards Neil at front.

"What you've done is considered Terrorism just about anywhere in the multiverse, prick," he quickly shot back. "Upon who's authority did you destroy Avalon?!," he suddenly shouted, pointing towards the horizon for emphasis.

"Upon who's authority did you return to Second Realm?," the second Knight wondered outloud. "Not that it's any of my business, but word has it that King Baptiste is a little upset with you."

Neil glared for a moment. "You're right. That is none of your business," he growled. "Besides, Hamir Tobei is a good distance from Malstron, unless I'm mistaken."

"King Baptiste and High Lord Kingali are allies, Traveler," the Knight responded. "Word has come to detain you should we see you again."

"Fine, but upon who's authority did you destroy Avalon?"

"We were given our orders, but word has it that it came from the top. Interpret it as you see fit." With that, the Knight sheathed his blade. After casting a quick gaze to his comrade, he did the same. "We are merely acting upon what orders were given to us, Traveler. Under normal circumstances, I can assure you that we would have had no party to this." Neil said nothing, but continued to listen. "We heard about the speech you delivered that got Baptiste so angry, good sir. Were I not in my present situation as a Desert Knight, I perhaps would have sided with you."

"For a Knight to speak out against what his or her superiors have ordered is considered Treason, am I not mistaken?," Rigma put forth.

It was difficult to tell beneath the robes and cloth covering his face, but it sounded as if the Knight gave a short laugh. "Quite true, Sir Delgato, were this conversation taking place. As far as we're concerned, the entire lot of you disappeared over the horizon long ago." He turned his gaze back towards Neil and bowed his head slightly. "Go in peace, Traveler." With that, the two Knights turned around and began to walk away, and after taking a few steps, there was another small explosion of sand and smoke where they once stood. When it had cleared, the two Knights were gone. 

* * * * * * *

"I didn't get to speak with Neil until some time, and he was noticeably more quiet than I had seen him before. He didn't try to hide anything when I asked him the simple question of what had happened to get him on King Baptiste's bad side. He became more open as he relayed the tale to me, which I found to be quite humorous in fact.

Apparently, the King of Malstron (and father of the Prince running New Malstron on Haven) Baptiste has some policies regarding Wargod that many don't exactly agree with, Neil being one of the more outspoken among that lot. It placed him in a difficult position, seeing as he and his friends were all agents of the King, but what Baptiste was asking for was something that Neil 'with good conscience, could not agree with'. Trapping the creature was the proposal -while Neil and company (which he often referred to as 'Travelers') wished to launch the monstrosity to an uninhabited realm and deal with it from there to minimize casualties, King Baptiste wished to have it shipped to one of the technological capitals of Second Realm and studied. The 'Travelers' were for the most part against it, stating the obvious -if that creature got loose in an environment such as that, it could get its hands on a disturbing amount of weapons and technology that it hasn't come in contact with yet. Baptiste considered their thoughts paranoid, but as they put it 'Something bad always happens like that in the movies'. I'm not exactly sure what a 'movie' is, but Neil's promised to explain them to me later.

The 'Travelers' all seem to be quite favored with the general populous of Malstron, and in order to exploit this fact, King Baptiste suggested that they go to several cities and speak on behalf of him, for he had been losing face with the people since day one of the Wargod assault -Neil was elected to speak, along with Mani, Jeremiah, Ms. Tara, and several others at the first stop, the city of Malstron itself. Neil was quite opposed to the idea, but was more or less pushed into it. From my understanding, the group was to travel to at least ten cities in Malstron alone -the idea was axed after they spoke at just one. Five 'Travelers' were scheduled to speak at each of these meetings -only one got that privilege, and that was Neil. Many of the people in the city were gathered at the Auditorium (except for the King, who wished it to be known that he was 'working day and night to deal with Wargod'), and Neil approached the stage. He simply cleared his throat and announced the following

'People of Malstron, I bring thee good news. King Baptiste's royal proctologist has called me, and it appears that he has finally found our good King's head...'

Neil tells me that the crowd sat stunned for several moments, then immediately broke down into a fit of uproarious laughter. What followed then was what Neil called an anti-royal propaganda speech where he enthusiastically spoke out against the policies that had been adopted of late, and how the King was, and I quote, an 'ass-head'. He even emphasized his point by putting a makeshift crown on his backside and began speaking to the crowd through his butt. Those 'Travelers' present echoed his sentiments, but weren't nearly as vocal as he had been. This continued until he was forced to flee the stage area by several members of the town guard. His escape, however, was aided by several members of the crowd, all of whom seemed to agree with his views. Protests and demonstrations began to occur almost daily outside of Malstron castle, and King Baptiste's approval rating dropped even further. A private letter was delivered to Neil by courier, in which Baptiste stated that should he ever return to Malstron, he would be arrested upon sight. It was pretty much understood that Baptiste could not have announced this publicly, seeing as Neil and his friends were considered heroes to the people -I assume not even the Prince knew, or he wouldn't have even let Neil leave Haven in the first place. It really didn't bother Neil all that much -he was tired of the bickering between how Wargod should be dealt with, so elected to come to Haven with one of the exodus parties.

Upon being picked up via airship from an island a little to the south of the mainland several hours later, we were informed that things were starting to get ugly at Malstron castle, as word had been leaked that Neil and several of his friends were supposed to be coming in to pick up some supplies for the Haven party -there were some pretty ugly words being tossed around, including 'ambush', 'bounty hunters', and 'grievous bodily harm', so it was suggested highly that we return to Haven as soon as possible, and not to New Malstron either. Jimmy elected to go to Malstron and secure the goods for delivery to Haven, seeing as he was still on semi-good terms with the King. It was agreed that the sooner we left, the better. It was also suggested that we take back a healthy supply of equipment, seeing as we would probably be on our own for quite some time. Mani, Neil, and several of the others apologized profusely to me and Darren for dragging us into this bit of madness, but we both let them know we had no problems with what was going on. It sure beat doing nothing, and it wasn't like they could have arrested us.

Arrangements were made, and soon we were prepared for our return trip to Haven. We had lost Jimmy, but we had gained several others, most of whom either felt that they wouldn't be safe back there, or who wanted to come and see Haven -they even echoed sentiments for wanting to track down Kaiser Dark for the sake of New Malstron. Among the group of Darren, Neil, Mani, Narek, and myself, we had gained two more allies. I had liked Tara from the moment I met her back in Avalon -she had a strength and openness that just caught my attention from the beginning. She's about the same complexion as Darren, and seems to have taken to flirting with him every once in a while. Her hair is dark with just a hint of brown, and she jokes about 'borrowing' some of my hair in the future. Neil described her as being a security expert, in fact it was her that had set up the perimeter defenses around Avalon -she admit that she had jumped the gun when she thought that the Knights were Wargod, but as she put it, 'It's better to be safe and upset than to be dead in any mood'. The second was 'Sir' Rigma Delgato, and I found that title to actually have some bearing -it appears that our Mountaineer friend was once a Crimson Knight. If I considered Tara to be open, she almost comes across as being shy next to Rigma's antics. He has the uncanny ability to make just about anyone laugh, and is suave to boot. He says the ladies consider him handsome, but I've always had problems seeing myself dating anyone of reptilian descent -not ethnically, mind you, but men with sharp teeth and nails tend to frighten me on most occasions. Both Tara and Rigma have a sense of style about them that I think is 'cool' (it appears I'm starting to talk like Neil and his comrades) -I'm particularly fond of the wide-brimmed black hat Sir Delgato is rarely seen without, because I suppose it reminds me so much of the uniforms the Red Mages often donned back home, which I always thought made them look so distinguished and handsome..."

--Excerpt from a recent journal entry of Natalie Firebrand 

* * * * * * *

After the initial realmwalk, the rest really didn't seem that bad. Natalie had actually been asleep when she first came to Haven two years ago, so she really couldn't gauge how that would have affected her at that early of an age. She didn't feel like she was ready to pass out like before, but was still a little disoriented. Her eyes struggled to adjust the many lights around her, and in an effort to regain her bearings, she decided to take a few steps.

She took two, then on her third realized that there was no ground beneath it.

Natalie quickly screamed and fell back to what she knew was safe ground and waited for her vision to clear before attempting to move like that again. It took a few moments, but soon she felt that she was able to try to take in her surroundings. Crawling, she made her way over to the edge. She immediately froze as the realization hit her that had she decided to take that step earlier, she would have plummeted several stories to her bloody death on the brightly lit streets below her.

She immediately rose to her feet and backed away from the edge, a wave of nausea rushing over her at her sudden rise. Several brightly lit buildings stretched out all around her, along with a number of brightly lit and ever-changing advertisements, varying in subject from cosmetics, vehicles, and just about everything in between. A bright flash of blue energy erupted a good distance away in her peripheral vision, which she quickly turned to observe. A massive dome loomed in the distance, which seemed to be the source of the occasional burst of blue energy that took to the sky. Looking around at her own surroundings, she found that she, her friends, and all of their equipment were on the roof top of one of the many high buildings.

"Weren't we supposed to be dropped in the middle of the woods somewhere?," Mani casually wondered, taking a moment to observe the multicolored surroundings.

Neil shrugged. He already had his binoculars out and was observing the city. "Realmwalking isn't what we consider an exact science," he remarked. "All Kindra had to work from was a map, so all things considered, I think she did pretty well. At least we're not in the Karadak desert."

"That's fine and dandy, but where -did -we land?," Tara quickly chimed from the rear.

There was a brief pause from Neil as he appeared to be focusing in on some object some distance away. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he began, pulling the binoculars away. "I do believe that we are in New Evandalis."