Young Writers Society

A ranger and an assassin from two different realms have one common goal: to kill a nefarious realm-hopper who's jumping from world to world kidnapping people for his own profit. Derik, the ranger, has been well aware of the existence of other worlds and wants to put a stop to this on moral basis alone, but for Kazimir, this is more personal. The realm-hopper kidnapped his best friend, Marcus, and he's out for blood.

Things get a little more complicated when Derik and Kazimir meet, realizing they're after the same person.

Marcus and Kazimir had been friends since they were kids. It was friendship at first sight. Marcus was always the reasonable one - the one with the calm, put-together exterior and Kazimir was always a little unhinged and rough around the edges. They'd been through everything together, and Kazimir couldn't imagine life without him.

Now he was forced to - at least, for a minute.

He'd come to Marcus's little house, crammed in the streets of the crowded city of Nimera, and it was supposed to be a spontaneous visit, like all of his were. He'd broken in through the window like he always did, but Kazimir knew something was off when the window was already broken into. See, how Kazimir went about things was he'd just break the latch. But whoever had done this had broken the glass, shattering the whole window. Not only did it create a mess, but it was unnecessary. It only took him a few seconds of crawling in to see that Marcus wasn't home.

He could see that there was a struggle. Marcus was a fire mage, and a careful one at that - but there were scorch marks all over the carpet and the walls, like he'd swung but missed. Whoever had targeted him must've known his magic, because clearly, they'd won the fight.

Kazimir wasn't even sure if he could be positive Marcus was alive, but he saw no traces of blood and the was no body. Wherever they'd taken Marcus, he was going to find it. And them. Whoever they were.

He didn't bother giving his father a heads' up that he'd be disappearing. This took priority. He scoured the house for a trail, for signs of where the person might've gone. It looked like they'd gone by horse, and they couldn't have been gone long.

Or so he thought.

Kazimir has been tracking this dude for a few days, and it looked like they'd taken Marcus to the next city over. Foxville was an even bigger city, and a headache to navigate even if you did know where you were going because the street layouts were organic and largely unplanned. But Kazimir finally made progress when he hit an inn that said they'd seen someone that matched Marcus's description.

By luck (read: force) he got a room number and barged in, but the room was empty. The window overlooking the street, was not - and he could see someone shoving a very Marcus-like body in the back of a wagon.

The man was big, but not as big as him. He had a big, bald head and it made Kazimir angry. Not just because he was bald. Obviously, it was because he had Marcus.

The man leaped into the wagon and hurriedly rode it out into the busy street, and Kazimir, being on the second floor with no sense of self-preservation as it was, leaped out of the window and parkour-ed his way down to the first floor, practically sliding down the wall and landing hard on his feet.

He ran into the street, weaving his way through the crowd.

He didn't know how well this kidnapper knew Foxville's streets, but Kazimir knew he knew them better. He darted down an alleyway to get a jump on him.

But just as he reached the end of the alleyway with his fingers poised to aim and shoot, something poked him from behind.

It was a... sword?

Kazimir whirled around to see three Foxville guards, and none of them looked happy. Oh, that was weird. He kind of recognized the girl holding the sword.

He might've killed her brother or something.

She snapped her fingers, and one of the female guards behind her stomped her foot, and before Kazimir knew it, he was swallowed up by the ground, with only his head sticking out.

"Didn't think you'd have the guts to show your face here," the swordswoman sneered.

"I have always been full of guts," Kazimir retorted. "And actually, I'm not here to fuckin' see you, so you should let me go before I zap your eyes out of your skull because I'm here on family biz--"

That was as far as he got before something bonked his head.

Every time that Derik thought he had a grasp on total depravity, someone had to go and remove even more of his dwindling faith in humanity. That someone, this time, happened to be a realm-hopping kidnapper that was sewing chaos everywhere he went.

As if kidnapping wasn't bad enough on its own (which it was), and as if realm-jumping criminals weren't utterly loathsome (which they were) -- this man had to go and combine the nastiness into one big ol' crime spree.

Most people didn't even know that alternate realms existed and a large percentage of those who were aware of the other realms didn't have any idea how to get to them or get back. And here this idiot was, taking people to places where they'd run their mouths to others about alternate realms. And leaving them with no means whatsoever to get them returned to their proper realms.

The Council had sent other Rangers out to collect the kidnap-ies and get them safely back to where they belonged. They'd sent Derik to quell the nastiness directly. And he was happy to do so. He'd try to arrest the criminal if he could and bring them back to Lirtira for a fair trial. But if he couldn't, well, he'd do what he needed to. Choices had consequences this kidnapper was making particularly poor choices.

Derik was getting close. He'd tracked the kidnapper -- who he was fairly certain was a man at this point and possibly bald (although that intel had been questionable at best)-- through an annoying number of Realms. He'd picked up the scent in Lirtira, chased the man through several countries in Beirania, and even had to go to Earth (need he say more?).

That one was going to end particularly badly if history was any indication. Luckily, the Earthlings who happen to witness something that they shouldn't have were fairly universally discredited in their own realm. And the louder they were about insisting that they were right, the more likely they were to be labeled as crazy and dismissed.

Still, he couldn't help but feel particularly sorry for them, since the culture there was so wildly different.

But for now, he was in Nye. More specifically in Foxville. The kidnapper had snatched another victim and was gallivanting about the realm and Derik was getting close to catching him.

He was crouched behind a stack of crates, intently watching the bustling of the city in front of him as he tried to make sense of the state of utter chaos that this city seemed to exist in.

Someone cleared their throat behind him.

Derik leaped to his feet and whirled around, hand going for his sword.

"Don't," a guard said warningly. He'd already drawn his sword and had it hovering a few inches in front of Derik's face.

"There seems to be a misunderstanding," Derik said, turning up the charm as he held his arms out from himself as nonthreateningly as possible. "What seems to be the problem?"

There was another guard behind the first, also with her sword drawn. She looked more difficult to best than the man in front of him, but Derik was sure he could best both if need be. But, The Council generally frowned upon Rangers fighting with local authorities unless it was absolutely necessary. Besides, Derik preferred talking to fighting most of the time anyway. Less work.

"We don't take kindly to peeping toms around here!"

"What?" Derik blinked, then his mind caught up and he realized they thought he was spying on girls instead of a kidnapper. "No. Officers, I would never. I was looking--"

"You was looking like you was peeping," the guard interrupted.

"I assure you, I don't need to spy if I want to see a naked woman," Derik said. He shouldn't have said that. He realized that the instant he'd said it. "And what I mean by that is to see one specific woman naked. Who I am in a very committed relationship with. And by that, I mean who I'm married to."

The guards were getting progressively more agitated.

"Because I'm married," Derik continued. "And I have a wife. And children. Two kids, in fact."

The guard took another step forward. Derik pulled his neck back a little further to try to keep it safe from the guard's blade.

"Three, actually," Derik said quickly. "If you count the fact that my wife is pregnant. And currently at home, with three children. All by herself. And I should go--"

"You're under arrest," the woman said tiredly.

"Yeah," Derik agreed with a sigh. "Saw that one coming."

He held his wrists out in front of him, waiting for the woman to step forward and cuff them while the other guard kept his sword in Derik's face. Getting arrested was more annoying than anything. He could always just Transport himself out the moment eyes were off him, or use the Rh'yk to work the lock mechanisms. But it wasted his time and he wasn't in the mood for it today.

Seventeenth, he thought as the cuffs snapped on a bit too tightly. Never in this realm though. This is the... ninth realm. Wonder what Zander's up to. He'd need to ask soon. The last time they'd compared, Zander was up to twelve in seven different realms. But it seemed that the two of them were getting arrested more than usual the past few years since The Council kept sending them on the risky missions. So they'd see if Zander was still ahead or not.

The guard turned him around and gave him a shove down the alley. He lazily strolled ahead of them. Making Mama proud.

Kazimir knew the moment when he came-to that he’d been injected with just enough Lumshade to make busting out of his holding cell with a bolt of lightning impossible. He groaned as he looked up at the ceiling, feeling the faint effects of the drug in his system, along with the bruise from where he’d been knocked out before capture.

Apparently, law enforcement could never forget a pretty face. It was a shame. But he’d have to get his way out of this. It was Marcus whose life was on the line, and the longer he didn’t get to him, the less likely it became he’d ever see him again, be it dead or alive. His chances were already slim as it stood. He didn’t think he could afford to let them get any slimmer.

Kazimr sat up. He needed a much stronger dose to start seeing talking animals and animate inanimate objects, but he did still feel a little out of it. Loopy? Delirious? Something like that. Could just be the concussion, though.

There were two layers of walls to his cell. One was solid concrete, with an equallt heavy concrete door. The next was a wall of thick metal bars outside that door, that had another door.

The concrete door only had a small little window at the bottom, and then one at eye level. Maybe big enough to stick his hand through, if it wasn’t barred as well.

But, it was enough to peek through when he heard the sounds of shuffling feet approaching. He got to his feet and looked out the peep-hole, seeing a group of guards bringing in another guy, it looked like. He couldn’t get a clear look from where he was at.

It was a short walk to the prison, but Derik talked the whole time.

"My daughter is sick, did I mention that?" he said, still being shoved ahead of the guards. "She's only two. It's tragic. Has this really bad cough, deep in her lungs."

The man stepped past him to open the door.

"That's what I'm doing here, you see? I need to get her medicine. It's really important that I get it back to her soon. And I'm not from Foxville, so that's what I was doing -- trying to get a grasp on the city layout. You feel me? I was -- OW!"

Derik whirled around as something stabbed into his neck.

The woman was passing a syringe off to the other guard.

"What was that?" he demanded, already feeling a bit ill. This definitely hadn't been part of the plan.

"Lumshade," she muttered, giving him a shove towards the hallway. "You'll be fine."

"That's RUDE," Derik protested, stumbling into the wall as whatever this Lumshade they'd given him started screwing with him. "Drugging people is actually illegal! You know, unlike me out there, breaking NO laws when you decided to arrest me."

"Walk," she said, unimpressed.

"Over here roofying me," Derik muttered as he staggered down the hall.

He was fairly certain he'd heard something or other about Lumshade before, but he couldn't remember anything about it. Especially not in his current state. But it seemed to be some sort of hallucinogen, based on what he was feeling just then.

"I'd like to remind you that date rape is also illegal," he complained, not even sure where he was going with this anymore. It was like his mouth was running but his mind had no control over which direction it was heading. He looked at the male guard walking next to him. "Ain't even gonna buy me a drink first? A crying shame. Kids these days. Don't even know how to treat a lady right."

The guard looked like he had a solid decade on Derik. And he also glowered and gave Derik a particularly rough shove, making him stumble face-first into the wall ahead of him.

He needed to shut up. He knew full well he was being incoherent -- and that running his mouth would only make things worse -- and yet he couldn't seem to stop.

"Jokes on you, big boy," Derik slurred as the guard grabbed him and yanked him around the corner, also shoving him into the wall again. "I like it rough."

That one earned him a blow directly between his shoulder blades, hard enough it knocked the wind out of him. He coughed. "Ooh, Daddy!"

"Just get him in a cell," the female guard said tiredly.

Derik swayed as they opened up a cell door. His vision was swimming and he felt a bit feverish. The male guard grabbed Derik's arm and gave him a rough shove back into the cell, making him trip and hit his head on the floor. Derik pushed himself up to an elbow as the door started closing. "I'll be a good girl for you, Daddy! Promise!"

The guard muttered curses towards him as they secured the cell door. Derik laid flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling over his head. It wasn't that bad. He felt delirious and was unable to keep his mouth shut, but not completely incapacitated. Still, he was going to need to dodge that needle if they came for him again. He was far, far too high to even attempt a Transport just then.

He groaned loudly.

Kazimir backed away from the door as the next prisoner was thrown in. He knew even if he made it past the first door, he'd hit the wall of metal bars that would be locked, and he couldn't exactly bend metal. At least, not this kind of metal. The guards were always so careful about their keys, and everything. It was stupid.

He sat down beside the guy with a smirk, looking him over. The guy looked about as tall as he was, and though he wasn't exactly built like a fighter, he looked like he could hold his own. He was dressed pretty averagely, though. Earthy tones, a regular green tunic. He had light skin and short brain hair, and green eyes that seemed to flash different colors - but Kazimir was pretty positive that was the drugged-up part of him telling him that.

Kazimir reached over and poked him in the shoulder.

"First time?" he asked.

Derik jumped when someone prodded him. He hadn't realized there was anyone else in the cell. Ordinarily, he'd have been more careful and aware of his surroundings. As it was, he couldn't fight anyone off in this state anyway, so he didn't even bother trying to get away.

"Yes, it's my first time!" he said, a bit louder than he meant to, but he was having trouble with volume control in general. "I have been in..." He tried to count, but he couldn't remember. "A lotta different jails in a lotta different realms and never once have I ever gotten roofied by the guard! Aren't you supposed to get arrested for having drugs? But noooo, here the guards give you free drugs."

He groaned again, rubbing his face. Something at the edge of his mind was warning him to shut up and telling him to ask who the other man was. Or, at the very least, to look over at him. But he ignored those voices.

"I'm on a trip that I didn't consent to go on." Derik pressed his palms against his eyes, wishing the uneasy feeling would pass already. But it seemed like it was here to stay. He finished, softly, "And I want to get off."

Kazimir laughed heartily. This guy was funny, and clearly had never had lumshade before. He wasn't making any sense, really.

"It's just a little drug they give you so you can't retaliate with your magic," he said, like it should've been obvious. "Don't be such a baby about it."

He patted the man on the shoulder a little too hard. He hadn't really meant to, but he wasn't really at his most coordinated at the moment.

At least the man had a sense of humor and was amused, rather than trying to throw him face-first into a wall. Even if his reassuring pat stung.

Derik processed his words a moment later and panic surged through him.

"Wait!" Derik sprang up to a sitting position, then started to topple over in the opposite direction. He caught himself and crisscrossed his legs, finally looking at the man. He had a strong jaw and looked like he'd probably also seen his fair share of prisons. "You can't use--"

This was bad. How was he going to get out now?

"I mean I don't have magic, but if I did, that sounds like it'd be... bad." Derik tried to tap into the R'hyk, but there was nothing there to grasp. Whatever this drug was, it was clearly effective. Derik closed his eyes and pulled his own hair, forearms in front of his face. "I wasn't even breaking any laws.... in that exact moment."

Kazimir scooted a little closer to the man so that he was right up next to him, leaning over and looking down into his face.

"Sounds like something a law breaker would say," he said with a smile. "I would know. Because I am one."

"Hah! And here I thought I was in a jail cell next to a saint." Derik smirked, looking up at the man. Self-pity wasn't going to help anything. So, may as well make the best of the situation for now. Even if he still felt unsettled. He offered his hand. "Derik."

Kazimir took Derik's hand firmly, shaking it a little too vigorously before he let go.

"Kazimir," he said. "But Kaz to friends."

"Guess we'll see." Derik nodded to him with a small smile. 'Friend' wasn't a word that he took lightly. He rubbed his face, vision swimming a while. "Does this uh...lumshade? stuff? wear off... or get better... eventually? Or do you just kinda stay dizzy 'til you get out?"

"Eh, give it another hour or two," Kaz said. "But they'll come in for another low dose. Which sucks, otherwise, I'd fry 'em all to pieces. Well -- maybe not fry, but just, you know. Shock them enough that they cannot fight back. You know?"

Derik's hopes sank a bit lower at the realization that his magic wasn't going to come back. But he decided to focus on the last half of Kazimir's statement instead. He raised an eyebrow. "Can't say that I do. But I'd very much like to know what you mean."