The Voidbreak Crisis

9. Welcome to Hell

The trip through the void was quick, but not uneventful. As Zoe flew through, she saw flashes of brilliant color, and heard deranged screaming echo all around her. Within a few seconds, she was hurtled through the other side and was sent careening through a storm cloud in the dead of night.
"Why couldn't this be simple?" She thought as she stabilised her fall as best as she could, pulling kinetic energy from the air around her and slowing her descent somewhat.  She plummeted through the cloud and saw a vast city stretching out beneath her. She aimed for the tallest building she could see, and directed her fall towards it. Something massive flying through the air intercepted her, smashing into her and making her see stars. She plummeted out of control and slammed into something very solid with a wet thwap.

She awoke a short time later, on her side in a mud puddle. She could feel her ribs scraping together as she drew each breath and she just knew her right arm was royally fucked. Her left arm seemed to be working all right for now, so she channeled a portion of her energy into a healing spell and took a deep breath. She pressed against her ribcage, pushing the bones back into place with a sickening crunching noise. She cast the spell and felt the pain subside as she exhaled shakily. She pushed herself up to a sitting position to see that her right leg was hyper-extended. She rolled her eyes as a tear slipped down her cheek. She grabbed ahold of her right arm and snapped it back into place as she screamed in pain, casting a healing spell to lock it back in place. She nearly blacked out from the pain, but recovered, falling back in the mud. She laid there for a few seconds, but she knew, that any moment now, the shock would wear off, and all that pain would come rushing back. She pushed herself back up, and grabbed her right leg, snapping it back in place as she gritted her teeth. She cast another healing spell, and felt the bones lock back in place. She tried to stand, but realised her left hip had been popped out of joint. She took a deep breath and threw herself up into the air, landing back on her left hip, popping it back in. She roared in pain again, throwing herself up onto her feet and shaking the mud and water out of her fur. Sitting off to her left was a very confused man, clothed in ragged tatters, with a can of something and a spoon in his hand.

"Hey." She said coyly, waving at him. He looked to his left, and then his right as Zoe continued to comb the mud and sludge out of her fur with her fingers.
"So, uh... you here from the convention?" He asked.
"What convention?" Zoe asked, shaking her head quickly as mud flew from her hair.
"That, uh... thing that kids do with the suits and shit?" He asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about. As you can see, I'm clearly not wearing a suit. This is scout's armor." Zoe said, wringing her tail out gently.
"That's what they're calling it now?" He asked.
"It's what we've always called it." Zoe said, checking her tracker to make sure it wasn't broken in the fall.
"I thought it was called a fursuit." The man said, still unable to finish his can of... whatever it was.
"A what?" Zoe asked, pausing to glare at him.
"A fursuit. Y'know, for the furries?" He said.

Zoe was taken aback. She was nowhere near Caerin, she believed. This blatant racism simply didn't exist anywhere else.
"I am a Basilisk for the Legion of Thunder. A Captain, I'll have you know. If I hear you using that slur again, I will tear your tongue out with my claws." Zoe said angrily, her face blushing bright red.
"Woah, okay, don't get your panties in a wad." He said, standing up and walking away.
"Scum." Zoe said under her breath, turning her attention back to her tracker. It was spinning around erratically, never pointing in one direction for long before switching towards another. She fiddled with the sensitivity, but it continued to swirl around.
"The hell." She muttered, walking over to the side of the road and sitting down underneath what seemed to be a streetlight of some sort.
"Where is he?" She muttered, fiddling with the dials some more.

This device was supposed to act like a compass, Chip said, and was attuned to him. So it should point her towards him wherever he was. But instead, it was rotating on both axises erratically. Suddenly it dawned on her.
"We weren't together when we went through. Fuck." She said, her arms going limp as she stared into the distance. They weren't connected physically when they warped through, which meant they would be seperated physically when they arrived, and they had gone through one after the other, which meant:
"We arrive at different times." Zoe said, finishing her thought aloud. It could be hours, days, or even decades before Chip arrived, or anyone else for that matter. Her tracker was useless until then. She saw flashing blue lights approaching her, and heard a siren of some sort. She stood and hooked her tracker back on her belt as the vehicle screeched to a stop. The lights and siren stopped as a man in an official-looking blue uniform stepped out of it.