If Anythin I'm a Rook, Not a Pawn.

[Dawnika Snow]

It’s all black. My eyes are wide open, but all I see is darkness. Omni, he left me in this darkness. Speaking of my purpose in this world? Meaningless. Purpose is for me to decide, not him. I am not a puppet. Dawn floated in the void staring into the abyss. Maybe it was meant to be some kind of symbolism. The dark void was her heart, everything she loved. Nothing. 

A flash of white appeared without notice, causing the vigilante to cover her eyes. She was not floating anymore, she was falling. After the light was bearable she looked down to the ground. It was all white, everywhere. What the hell is this place? She thought as she plummeted to the ground with the general stoic expression she always wore. It was hard to make out the ground though. The white canvas blurred reality, making it hard to distinguish depth. Little specks increased in size as she fell though, so it was a good assumption that those were other people. There was also a structure directly below her. Some kind of statue or something, or actually a fountain? It was spewing something out of it. Too hard to tell.

Dawn fell for a few more seconds expecting to smash into the floor of this white box. She braced for impact by holding her arms out before falling into the small pool of water that leaked from the nozzle of the fountain. Water splashed everywhere around the bowl that contained it as the woman smashed into its peaceful surface. She swam back up to the surface and took a deep breath. Extreme stunts were a bit out her league. After climbing up out of the warm water, Dawn shook her clothes out, trying to get some of the wetness out of the threads. Something hard shifted around in her pocket as she attempted shake herself dry. An orb, that Omnilium thing?

This thing was supposed to give her anything she wanted, right? That’s what Omni told her. Well hell, it's worth trying. The worst that could happen is it doesn't work. I want to be not wet. The orb glowed with mysterious power. As it did it’s magic, it glowed brightly in her hand and emitted a warm aura. After a few seconds of focus, she was dry. 

Time to survey the scene though. It’s all unending, empty whiteness. Was this intended? Why have this giant universe and fill it with people if totally blank and devoid of anything? Speaking of that, many of them were around her. People either walked through this place looking aimlessly lost or they knew exactly where they were going. That means they were new to the universe or they have been here so long that they know their way around. There has to be more than this white canvas. The odd thing was, she knew a lot of these people weren’t even human. It was all in their nature and appearance. The way they spoke, the way they dressed. Not to mention that these people and creatures came from different eras. Everything from warriors wielding mighty hammers to teenagers in the norm reality she comes from. 

The fountain behind her was a fountain, but it’s shape would make you think otherwise. An item that she knew all too well. A guitar. Looks like a standard ESP Explorer, Dawn’s favorite kind of guitar. The Explorer was her favorite guitar because of its shape. Not many guitar had the same look. What was that supposed to mean though? More symbolism? After a moment pondering, Dawn decided it was best to just stop trying to understand everything in this world. 

She was dumbfounded by this universe. Omni is the god of this realm. He owns a whole fucking universe, but is too poor to put anything in it? What the hell was that shit?

A man passing by Dawn’s presence was stopped as his arm was jerked by the vigilante. “Hey, what are yo-”

“Where am I? Give me some information on this place.” She said, totally interrupting him. “I want to know everything you can tell me.”

“Well, from the looks of it,” he said jerking his arm free, “you're a new prime to the Omniverse. Lucky you.” The small man said sarcastically. “You can create anything you desire with that Omnilium thing you have. S’like magic.”

“I want to know about the world around us. What’s in this blank existence that matters?”

“Well there’s not really anything in the Nexus that is important other than the gates and the Fountain.” 

Dawn folded her arms in front of her. What was this non-sense? Gates? “What are these gates?”

“Well, you step through one and you actually enter a whole new universe.” He stretched his arms out like she was too dumb to understand how big a universe was. A bit insulting, but as long as he gave her what she needed, she didn't care how he explained it.

So there’s more? “How many are there?” She said look a little intrigued to the subject.

“About 8 or 9. They all lead to different universes themed differently. A forest, a giant city, a snowy mountain land.”

“Hm. Thank you. Sorry to trouble you.” The man took off returning to his jog across the Nexus as Dawn waved him off. More than just one universe. There's almost 10. She thought pacing back and forth across the blank floor. Why am I here? What is my purpose? It’s not to be a pawn, that's for sure. If I'm any piece of a plan, I’m at least a rook. I go forward as much as I please. Painful memories flashed through her thoughts. Fire, ash and smoke. Her father screaming in pain as he burned to death. No. I was made for something greater. This world is bound to be filled with those who wish to cause pain and suffering to those around them. Whether it be for fun or whether it is justified. I’m not going to take that sitting down. This world needs someone to watch out for the common people. Someone who connects with them, that knows their pain. Me. I will be this vigilante the world needs. No one needs to suffer.

The ebony haired woman marched off, away from the Fountain. Her hands in her pockets, she messed with the Omnilium thing. It was a bit clunky and oddly shaped. Perhaps there's a better way to carry this? It was the source of her power, so why not make it a bit easier to carry around? She grabbed hold of the orb that had dried her off. It was still a bit warm from when she had used. Looking at the gleaming lights wondering how she could make this more portable, an idea struck her. Wear it. As she walked, she focused on making this small orb into an accessory, a glove fitted for her right hand. The threads came to life and the black glove emitted a radiance of power.

Dawn extended her fingers out, opening her hand and closing it a few times to get a feel for her new glove. It fit perfectly on her hand and was even a nice addition to her outfit. I’m still missing something though. Something important. General lack of memory was a common thing for Dawn. She would forget something as soon as she remembered it. 

It took a minute to realize what it was she had misplaced, but it came to her as she thought of the Fountain again. Her headphones. She never went anywhere without those bulky things. They weren't the most fashionable piece of equipment, but they had great bass and sound quality. Not to mention they were black and purple, her two favorite colors. Her glove radiated its white light as it formed her headphones in her hand. She adjusted the earpieces to fit her head correctly and put them on. 

Strangely, music was already playing and nothing was plugged into it. The words of the song echoed through her head. “-llo, I've waited here for you. Everlong. Tooooniiiiiight…” she bobbed her head back forth to the beat. Taking some deep breaths and calming herself. Music was her medicine. It soothed the pain of her repressed memories and hatred toward humankind. The only thing that will never leave her, she will have music forever.

It wasn't too long before Dawn found herself in front of the portal to The Tangled Green, not that she knew where she was going exactly but it'll be better than this place. Not knowing that something quite, odd was going to happen next.

[Schwi Dola]

It was all right. Toybox Girl shrugged, her twin ponytails stirring a little. That Thor was an odd one at best. Violent and demanding, typical overzealous hero like any other from the Ark. He would fit well in the DOS Union but Toybox Girl preferred her own, WIZ. Wisdom fought with intelligence and cunning as ideal weapons. DOS wanted overwhelming strength, while BRD valued bravery. The worked well in mixed units but there was something of a rivalry in the Union Wars. She hoped that the Beezle would be alright searching on their own for Thor's friends. Given his lack of descriptive power it was going to be difficult for them to find some random person named Red Hood. Named after his fashion choice or for some other reason? Whatever, it was time for TBG to get back to matters at hand.

She needed to find some work. TBG may be able to forgo food and water but that didn't mean she wouldn't need money for eventual maintenance. Omnilium may work for that long term without the need of a mechanic but this stuff was not falling out of the trees. Unless you converted the trees into OM but you didn't get a whole lot of it for converting random objects. The Dataverse forums, which her mind was already touching upon while thinking of the subject, had wild speculations and theories as to which objects were valuable to convert to OM. The main one that seemed to make sense was that it took some kind of subjective value. Akin to magic where objects could have a sort of 'intrinsic' value where science said two objects were the same. Two Bazookas might be the same but for magical concerns a Bazooka wielded by the legendary hero in a great war counted for more than the exact same model from a lowly soldier. She had to know some magical theory, it was essential for self-defense from magical enemies.

At least as she walked idly through the deep whiteness of the Nexus she could entertain her thoughts with the Dataverse. There were many bounties up for the Empire and in Camelot via some third party reports. Camelot didn't officially post them on the dataverse most likely, as they idolize magic over science. Some were interesting, like this 'Ballad' wanted for killing soldiers from the Empire. In fact, there were a lot of those up on the list for the Empire. With her doubts about the sincerity of these two factions, at least this kind of bounty shouldn't lead her astray. Casual murder was frowned upon in most places and it was certainly up there on the Cosmic Ark. Others though, were more mysterious. What were these artifacts and things the Empire lost and needed to re-acquire? Things of power could be dangerous in anyone's hands.

What was next though, nobody could have foreseen happening so casually. Out from the gate, silent as always, strode three robots. Two smaller ones about 1.5 meters high and nearly identical in appearance walked in front of a much larger 5 meter high robot. Each had this sort of spherical body, or maybe there is a better word for a sphere with flat edges all over the place one of which glowed lightly and was likely a robotic eye. The small ones were orange  and had stubby legs and arms. Both were equipped the same as well, with a plain boxy looking dark gray gun half of their size in one hand and a slightly larger gun with a round silver barrel in the other. Toybox Girl knew these weapons as Hand Gun and Handy Machinegun, low grade weapons but not without their merit. The big guy though was a darker red in the place of the orange with a spike at the top of his body. His more bulky hands held weapons as big as his two buddies. One was a spiked mace while the other was a gun with a much, much wider opening. The mace was self explanatory but the other was a Bazooka. Compared to TBG's Handy Bazooka, it was slower but larger and more powerful. Worse than all of this, Toybox Girl had yet to actually see the three instead focused on her dataverse link.

"So the boss wants us to check out this Pale Moors place?" said one of the smaller ones. It had no mouth, or really anything that showed he was talking except for slight gestures. The three all didn't have much in the way of expression.

"It sounds lame." Said the other small one.

The big guy had a much deeper voice. "Third, we don't question the boss."

Third replied, "Hey guy, I ain't arguing its just lame."

Second stopped, with the big one stopping immediately while second took a couple more steps. "Right there, who is that? Identifying... ARK model. Fits the Toybox Girl series, variant unknown."

Third said with rising excitement, "A Cosmic Hero here? Man, and I thought this was going to be boring. What's the plan Demouros?"

The big guy, who must be Demouros, said, "We strike fast and hard. Look at her, she is defenseless with her guard down. She hasn't even noticed us."

Moments later warnings blared as a detonation covered Toybox Girl's vision.

LOCK-ON Detection Failure. Damage sustained, major damage to left arm, ADAPT functionality reduced. minor burns to surrounding areas.

Error reports were already being filed and diagnostics trying to figure out why the lock on detector failed to notice enemies taking aim at her. She swore a choice word as her booster flared into life as she quickly launcher herself up and forward into the air through the smoke. She spun in the air toward the direction that the explosion had come from. Her eyes displaying an array of small movements as she analyzed her enemies. Two standard Delgons and an unknown Delgon-type model. Typical Demon Force targets. But more enemy fire blasted the silence away with the small ones firing their machine guns at Toybox Girl while the big one aimed and fired another shell.  She opted to bring a Handy Bazooka out into her right, unharmed ADAPT arm. Blue cubes quickly appeared forming into the weapon she wanted, a shorter version of what the big guy had which made it almost ball-ish in comparison.

Bullets struck her in various spots but the shell thankfully went too high. She winced in pain, they were not strong weapons but the marks were more than enough to show that you didn't want to take a full machine gun burst. She pushed herself higher and shot her own shells down at the trio in the middle of them. They paused their own fire to separate, the big guy stepping back while the two small ones moving forward. Toybox Girl shouted, "I thought I might run into the Demon Force eventually, bastards!"

Demouros responded, slowly, "Little 'Hero', you won't survive to tell your allies."

[Dawnika Snow]

Only about 30 or so meters from the gate something had started going on. Three peop- uh, wait robots had just come through the gate. So it was like a teleporter or something? Anywho, Dawn sort of just looked around her, trying to avoid any kind of meaningless eye contact. If she made eye contact they might try to talk to her something, she didn't want anything to do with robots.

As she got closer to the gate, she could tell that they were armed, well armed too. The larger one had a Bazooka, or so it seemed. Definitely want 0% of that. That was going to be hard though. They started attacking a small girl and Dawn’s ‘protective motherly instinct’ kicked in. If one thing really pissed her off, it was people picking on kids. The scar on her back burned in fury as a rememberence of her childhood.

The girlwas armed as well but it was hardly fair to fight three on one right? A click of her headphones and battle music started to play. Stand up! You know we can’t be more justified! The echoes of All That Remains vibrated around her skull. Beautiful sound it was.

The vigilante raise her hand outward as Umbra Mortem appeared in her hand. The sniper of justice to her. The bringer of swifty, shadowy death. She cocked it to check the bullet into the chamber, spun the steel frame and fired after leveling it again. “Trick shot..” She whispered as the bullet wizzed through the air, too fast to see and found a home in one of the smaller robots shoulder, nearly severing the robots arm. “What the hell was that!” It yelled out as it laid its eyes on the assassin. “Looks like the Cosmic Hero found herself a friend.”

Miss Snow cocked her sniper, a .50 caliber bullet shell clinking on the ground followed suit. Her face held no change from the norm. The stoic, serious eyes pierced into the soul of their behold-ee. Demouros shifted his glance to the human who delt a strong blow to his underling.

’SCANNING FOR ITDENTITY’ flashed the hud as it locked to Dawn’s face. ’BIO-SIGNATURE CONFIRMED. TARGET IS HUMAN. ALIAS UNKNOWN.’

“A human hunh? No time for you.” He said launching a rocket in Dawn’s direction. A phase of shadow took the vigilante’s place as she moved out of the way quickly. The explosion went off a good few meters behind her and she held the same expression. Raising her rifle once more but to the arrogant monstrosity that just launched a mini-nuke at her, she took a more carefully aimed shot this time. Demouros was blinded by his arrogance, thinking Dawn wouldn’t survive that, let alone dodge it. The bullet to his visor was a rude awakening however. It cracked the screen. 'STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY BREACHED, REPAIRS NEEDED.' Flashed in red as he looked back at her.

“Okay then human, you have my attention.” He said simply, though his words fell upon deaf ears, for the solo was playing, and Dawn was ready to fight.

Chik-Chik...Cling~

[Schwi Dola]

Toybox Girl couldn't stay in the air forever and had to land. Using her booster too long could drain her core energy supply, and with one of her backpack arms severely damaged she was having to deal with emergency repairs and the errors in her power grid. Not to mention that even as a robot she had pain sensors everywhere, even on her mechanical parts such as the backpack. She was just a lot better at suppressing that input than most humans. Fortunately a silent shot came out of nowhere, a clang as it struck one of the smaller Delgons. Toybox Girl scanned the area with her eyes identifying a tall female form as the likely culprit. The demon force goons found this too of course, and she managed another shot on the big one called Demouros diverting his attention.

Was this new girl from the ARK like Toybox Girl or just a good samaritan? TBG would have to give her thanks later, now she had to exploit this opportunity of having her enemies split in two.  She made a quick analysis of the big one starting to face the new girl and grabbed the schematics for the mace. Then she took aim at the two small delgon and shot three shots, two at the damaged one and one at the undamaged one. As the third shot left her handy bazooka she charged with the shot dropping the bazooka.  She materialized her own big mace and stopped a moment before the shot hit the ground. The two delgon had moved away but the damaged one took a partial blast from first shell. She moved forward to finish him, swinging the mace overhead hard.

"You'll regret killing the Second!"

There was no way to avoid creating this opening though, and her booster took a spray of machinegun bullets while her good backpack arm took two shots from the hand gun. Toybox Girl steeled herself as pain struck like needles with every bullet. Damage to the booster affected its cooling mechanism reducing flight time or risk overheating. Still, she was making progress. But the big one was the real problem here, he probably had more strength than he had shown. Was it a hidden weapon mounted in one of its body sections or something more devious?

[Dawnika Snow]

Dawn faced her mechanical enemy. Her music vibrated through her skull loudly, making it impossible to hear anything Demouros had to say. She cocked her sniper, alerting her enemy who used his hammer mace to try and club the small woman. Try was the key word however. Dawn was too fast and nimble to be hit by such a broad and obvious move. The next plan of action was to rid him of his weapons, if that was possible. Dawn quickly moved away from the mace as he lifted it back up for another swing. While in mid-swing, at the apex of the full motion, Dawn fired a quick shot at the interlocking bolts that was Demouros’s fat hands. He nearly lost grip of his weapon, causing his swing to miss completely.

Demouros was fed up now, this puny human was in his way. Again with the mace, he brought it in a horizontal swing. Dawn was nimbly able to back out of the way, if she got out of melee range, she risked being blown to pieces again. Her train of thought was cut off though, he came up on the back swing, hitting the young woman good and sending her back a bit. She clenched her rifle and and landed on her stomach, headphone hardly moved from position. “Not bad.” She whispered as she stood back up.

One on one wasn't Dawn's style. She was more fond of deleting a target before they even knew what hit them. If she could help her temporary ally, the red girl, then maybe this would go much smoother. They could focus their attacks on the bigger robot. Dawn quickly dodged the next swing of the mace and ran pas Demouros. She trained her rifle on the remaining robot. Missiles were being fired so it would be a tough shot, but after a deep breath and the pull of the trigger the .50 caliber bullet speed to it's new home in the robots likeness of a skull. Bravo and Charlie are down. Focus fire on Alpha. She turned and dodged another mini-nuke with a quick burst of speed that left a shadow in it's wake. “Could use some help over here partner!” She called out to her ally, who should be able to assist her now that the two smaller enemies have been eliminated.

Just as Dawn was getting out of range though, Demouros pulled out what seemed to be his trump card. A much larger weapon that he had to drop both his mace and his bazooka to wield. Dawn stood idly as he aimed it at her person. Not a few seconds later, the gun launched a missile that could compare to the size of an ICBM in her direction. “...Shit.” Said Dawn who was getting a bit tired of all the running. She quickly bursted away but was unable to get out of the way. The heat of the blast singed her skin and clothes. “Fuck! I've got enough burn scars already dammit!” She screamed as she curled up on her knees, trying to get her mind of the pain while Demouros slowly reloaded his ginormous weapon for another shot.

[Schwi Dola]

Toybox Girl watched as Demourous pulled out a new weapon from some hyperstorage on his body. A sizable weapon, it was a non-standard cruise missile launcher. Non-standard, because there were no standard cruise missile launchers though there were the typical missile launchers that could fire stronger, slower missiles. Now this was a good weapon to copy. She quickly let her ADAPT system to go work on its analysis while jumping up and using her booster to accelerate the jump. She threw the mace that she had copied, which Demouros batted away with his weapon. She shot her own Bazooka at the missile launcher, then started to summon another weapon in her now empty robotic arm while letting herself fall to the ground.

Demouros re-evaluated his situation. This was not going well, with the interference he would have to get out of here now if he had any chance of survival. With a new missile materialized inside the launcher, he aimed and fired at the interloping human and started his own booster, moving surprisingly quickly making for the gate. All business, he said nothing but rather encrptyed and transmitted a wide band broadcast hoping it would make it through the gate back to base.

Toybox Girl's new weapon was a copy of Demouros's new giant launcher, and already loaded she took aim and fired it at its original owner. It was a bit strange. The weapon reminded Toybox Girl of her original model's weapon. She had had a chance before to copy it and that weapon was a dual backpack mounted cruise missile launcher. Like that one, she was pushed back a little from firing Demouros's weapon. He didn't have the maunverability to dodge his own weapon, and the explosion threw him off course while taking a nice chunk of armor out of his side just below his launcher holding arm.

[Dawnika Snow]

Dawn, although singed and burning, quickly took advantage of the new weaknesses created. Any exposed wires got a bullet shot straight through them. Dawn precise aim was the only thing keeping her alive right now, and she wouldn't let a bad shot be the end of her. Demouros was obviously retreating, and Dawn never liked targets getting away from her. Albeit this target wasn't hers to begin with, he had made it personal.

The blast from the copied weapon that the teenage-looking girl had fire directly at him had surely stunned him. It seems like his systems were malfunctioning, including his ability to move. He would move forward slightly but then stop as if something was interfering with his 'motor' or what ever kind of system he ran on. The vigil quickly reloaded her gun and started firing into his plating that covered his wires and hardware. The bullets were strong enough to penetrate the first layer of steel but not enough to pass completely through. Sparks flew from the holes her bullets made. It seems like Demouros was on the verge of a system failure which would likely cause him to die. In any case, she kept firing, nothing was dead til it stopped breathing, or in this case at least, moving.

[Schwi Dola]

Toybox Girl picked up on the encrypted transmission and stored it for the moment for analysis later. Right now they had to stop that guy from getting anywhere. This wasn't like other battles, Toybox Girl did not even think to question that maybe she should show mercy to this enemy. The Demon Force were not people to be reasoned with. Actual demons were far more reasonable in their negotiations. They invaded dimensions, burned entire worlds because they couldn't use them and enslaved those they could. She aimed her new launcher and let it reload as bullet after bullet from Dawn burrowed into his frame. She severed his arm so he dropped his own big launcher, and the damage shut off his booster so his legs had to carry him alone. One final missile from Toybox Girl struck the same spot as before, tearing into his exposed circuitry and making him fall over unmoving.

The young robot dropped her ADAPTed weapons, letting them dissolve back into energy. She watched the remaining body of Demouros for a little while longer, putting a beam gun in both of her robotic hands just in case. He did nothing, so she turned and walked over to her ally of the moment. "Thank you, I might not have survived that without you." Toybox Girl's main processors began to analyze the encrypted transmission captured from the demon force robot. There was a chance that she could hack into it though unlikely as she wasn't a support type unit.

Toybox Girl gestured to herself. "I am Toybox Girl, Cosmic Hero of the Cosmic Ark, WIZ Union. You didn't hesitate to join me, are you familiar with the Demon Force?"

[Dawnika Snow]

Though the robot had fallen, Dawn trained her gun on him still. She wouldn't let her guard down until the kill was confirmed. Once the the girl who had been attacked checked his body, she did lower her sniper. Toybox Girl made her way to Dawn who was packing up getting ready to leave. Although music blared though her headphones making it impossible to hear, she still replied as if she had hear the young lookin girl loud and clear. "Don't meantion it, it's what I do." She said sliding her rifle into it's holster on her back. Amazingly the holster survived the explosion from the nuke but the back of Dawn's shirt singed and tore off, revealing her scars from her childhood, and her skirt burned from the edges, leaving it jagged and rough.

"Toybox Girl? You're a robot too then?" Dawn said, to be replied with a nod. "This place seems to be getting weirder and weirder by the second." She rubbed the back of her head and looked down at the girl. "And, no I don't know who these 'Demon Forces' are. I'm just a soul who helps when they need to, you know, like a vigilante." She replied to the robot girl's question. Dawn and Toybox Girl stood in silence for a second before Dawn spoke up again. "Well, I believe this area is just a bit too hot for me, no pun intended. I'll be heading elsewhere." She turned to walk away, still listening to her music, never once taking of her headphones for the sake of conversation. Toybox Girl quickly reacted, "wait!" She yelled out and Dawn stopped to turn and look at her. She had no idea how the mysterious lady could hear her when her music was playing so loud. Believe it or not, Dawn did not even understand, but she could hear perfectly fine, even while her music played. "What? I'm more of a temporary ally. I'd rather not bring you any trouble with my own motives, so I think we should part ways here."

"The Demon Forces might find you, though. They won't let this go unlunished." Dawn smirked to what she said, "let them come then, I'm rather hard to find. Even if they do find me, I'm pretty resourceful." Dawn turned back around to Toybox Girl and sighed. "Look, I don't know about you, but from the information I've gathered in that fight, the 'Demon Forces' you speak of is most likely based through that gate." She pointed to the gate she'd planned on going through into The Tangled Green, "so, I'm going to decide to head elsewhere and hope to take that heat off me, cause I can't deal with anymore burn scars. If you truly wish to follow me, that's your prerogative. If you want to come with me, keep up, if not then you might as well head through that gate now. If those Demons are a threat, and it's your job to put them down, I'd stick with doing what you feel is right." Dawn explained as she turned around again, back to Toybox Girl. "I'm sure we'll meet again. I tend to get around. Later." She waved her hand in departure leaving Toybox Girl alone to decide what she wanted to do. Pursue the Demon Forces, or go with the person who saved her life. She checked the encrypted message that was on Demouros, 95% complete analysis. Maybe what was on this message would change the situation.

[Dawnika Snow]

The lone wolf walked off leaving the robotic teenager to herself. She seemed to know what she was doing for the most part. Dawn wants to help her investigate what those other robots were doing, but there were other things that had to be take care off. She was not sure what those things were yet, but she would find them. She lived a cold terrible life in her home world, to now be given a chance to prove that her life meant something more than death. Especially since death only brought new life in the Omniverse. She slid her hands into the old, slightly burned pockets of her father's old hoodie and sighed to herself. If I'm going to do better in this world, I guess I should make some friends. I can see already this world is really dangerous. Even if come back to life at some point after death, I’m sure that doesn't make it any less painful. Having allies could be useful.

The gate to the Ashen Steppes was just adjacent to the Tangled Green gate, so the walk was less than time consuming. The vigilante stared into the gate, wondering what may lie behind it. Friends? Enemies? Hopefully no spiders. Her calm demeanor broke for a split second as she neared the gate. It was weird, but the gate seemed to make her nervous, or at least uneasy. Stopping her would be about as easy as stopping an avalanche from answering to gravity. She turned the dial on her headphones, closed her eyes and walked through the gate into the Steppes.