"Idiots!" Mike walked down the hall with determination, pulling his gun from it's holster under his coat. Whether or not it wouild be useful would soon be discovered, but best to be safe than sorry. It was difficult to see down the darkened hallway, and the emergency lights weren't much of a help. The flashes of light helped somewhat, but seemed to leave the hall a little darker for a moment afterward.
Ronald Crump dressed as a barbarian, chronal energy spikes off the scale... could only mean one thing: someone had found a rift, and was messing with time, and that could be dangerous, for all involved. This particular rift had gotten out of control.
"Whatever happens, Britney, stay behind me. Who knows what we'll find, if anything."

"Oh... my... god..."
Those were the first words out of Mike's mouth when he reached the door at the end of the hall. It was a rift alright, but not one he recognized. Most of the others were more like cloudy spheres of energy with indistinct edges. This looked like someone had taken a knife and slashed the fabric of reality itself. The bolts of lightning coming from it's apex would be difficult to avoid if he wanted to find some sort of shut-off switch. It was already too late to save anyone on the other side, so he tried to aim at the needle at the top of the platform. Unfortunately, the brightness of the rift combined with the sparks made aiming difficult, if not impossible.
"Stay here, and stay down!" he said to Britney. "I'm going to try to get a better angle on that thing!"
Running around the circumference of the room wasn't the best idea, but if it helped him close this rift, more the better. As he moved around, he spotted the red switch out of the corner of his eye.
Kill switch he thought, ducking a few sparks that came within inches of hitting him, and taking out more pieces of the surrounding room. Shooting the ball at the end of the needle was his first intent, but that might cause a power surge into the rift, opening it. The switch on the other hand, would cut the power to it entirely. But what if that power was what was holding the rift at its current state? There were too many possibilities, and not enough time to properly weigh the options.
Hope I can get to it in time.. With one last sprint, and without breaking his ankle on the holes in the floor, Mike made a deperate leap towards the switch, reaching out to try to grab it.
Hope this works...

Unaware that his window into this world was wreaking havoc on the 'real' world, Falco was far more concerned with trying to figure out what to do with the knife while he hung on desperately to the saddle.
"Thats what I'm afraid of..." He explained to Vesta, who was keeping as much distance between them as was possible on horseback. "Um. Thanks...Grek." I think... He thought. "I'll keep that in mind." He wasn't sure how this was going to work out, but he couldn't imagine well. He couldn't hold on with his legs at all.

Britney hid in the doorway, too afraid to go in. She just nodded at Captain Mike's shout. She watched as Capt. Mike dashed for the yellow and red switch on the far wall connected to the massive power cable. She cringed as several lightning bolts struck uncomfortably close to Capt. Mike. She wished she could do something to help but was too afraid to move. But she did find herself wishing him luck as she knew he was her only hope to survive this.

And when Capt. Mike reached out for the switch she held her breath for what felt like a lifetime. then the switch came down with, what to her sounded like, a thundering crash. Nothing happened at first, then the rift began to close spasmodically, expanding slightly outwards before healing the wound in reality even further. Crashing, humming noises came from the tube housing all the equipment as it shut down like a sports car with the engine turned off while going full bore on the highway. And finally the light reached outwards blinding, momentarily, everyone in the room, before collapsing inward and sealing the rift.

It was less then a second when Britney got her vision back. The first thing she noticed was the tube extending down from the ceiling was missing. And in its place light was shining into the room. In place of the emergency alarms, she could hear what she thought was birds singing. She saw Capt. Mike still holding the switch. And next to him, through the round hole in the wall created by the lightning she could see a tree. Confused and not knowing what to do she turned to head back to her desk and get help. But instead of the hallway she saw a grass growing on the side of a gently sloping hill down towards a steam snaking it's way through a small gully. That is when she realized the entire room was sitting on a hillside some where in the country. And She collapsed against the wall.

=============================================

"Don't worry" said Vesta, trying her best to sound reassuring "I won't let you fall off." And she gave him a squeeze with her forearms to show she wouldn't let him fall as she got Shiva underway at a good trot. As she did this she realized this was the first time she had ever been this close to a man. It certainly wasn't as awkward as she thought it might be. In fact it seemed to be quite easy. She could get very comfortable like this. And that was when she came back to her senses. It wouldn't be right to get to use to this. Not this soon. She needed to change subjects and quickly.

"So I see you have an orcish dagger" she said, trying to take hers and his mind off how close they actually were.

That came across sounding a lot more like a double entente than she had probably meant it to be, and he had to bite off a laugh that cropped up without permission.
"Heh! Uh, yeah that was Tig's idea. Don't ask me why... He had this weird conspiratorial look on his face, so I'm really lost on that one." He admitted.
She had a rather unique skill, he figured, since she could make a simple gesture like that, not even a hug, feel at least as important. He'd met women who could sit on you and make the whole situation seem less intimate.

Mike shook his head in an attempt to clear it. He hit the wall a little harder than he'd intended in trying to reach the switch, but the now quiet room told him that was the right move. "Well, I think that did it." he said, getting up and dusting himself off. It took a few moments for the ringing in his ears to give way to... birds? What were birds doing in the room? And the focusing needle was gone, replaced by a shaft of light. What had happened? He found his answer as he looked around the room, trying to see if Britney was okay.
Moving over to the doorway he'd origionally come in by, Mike looked out over the expanse. "You know, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." This brought a grin to his face, as he looked down at Britney. "I've always wanted to say that."

Mike looked out over the valley before him. He'd been all sorts of places in his life, but nothing he could immediately recall looked quite like this.
"You okay?" he said, looking down at Britney. He reached out a hand intending to help her up, when an almost childlike voice interrupted. Considering what had just happened, and the fact that he was in new surroundings, his first reaction was to reach for his gun as he turned... only he'd dropped it reaching for that switch... on the other side of the room.
Britney's scream and her pointing showed Mike what, or who, had spoken. From this distance it was hard to tell, but the person speaking looked he might be no bigger than a child.
He waited until their visitor had a moment to clear his head before asking, "And who might you be?" He was still a little wary. Who knows what suprises this guy might be capable of.

"Not that I know of." Falco considered things deeply, though the only thing he cold think of that he might have 'done' for Grek was crack him up. "Uh, unfortunately I don't have great answers on the game thing, no one really bothered to explain much. It was just sort of one of Hannah's mighty quests. I could tell by the 'you'll like this goddamn it or you'll suffer through it anyways and pretend unless you want everything I cook to have steamed carrots in it somewhere." He cleared his throat slightly in embarrassment. That was one of their little war issues. He hated steamed carrots, actually...he just hated carrots, but steamed were the worst, and she hated his attitude...and fish. Last time they'd had a battle he'd ordered and had mailed to her house two swordfish steaks, just to get her back.
Everything had had carrots in it for a week afterward. "So uh, I actually...don't really know...which sounds kind of stupid really. It was all just sort of hi, here you go, have a ball, see you later." He still wasn't sure how he was supposed to get out, maybe that was what he was supposed to find out? That seemed like a sort of lame game concept though. "Definitely could have done without starting out in a mud patch surrounded by really huge guys with fake weapons though."

Vesta, after realizing that Falco was doing a fairly good job staying on, kept the horse at it's current speed. They should be home in no time. But Falco's answer left her with only more questions. She was pretty sure he was telling the truth, or at least he thought he did. But that didn't satisfy her need for answers.

"That's a strange game" she replied after some thought, "A game with no rules, no goal and no winning condition. Your start could have been worse. Normally Orcs carry real weapons. But it seems very strange indeed. Well, for as long as you are playing this game you are welcome to stay with me."

She thought some more about what he said. If Falco really didn't know all of this then it meant that someone was playing him as a pawn. A wizard, a distant Lord, something worse. Whatever it was it made her a bit nervous. She would need to leard more. But now, on horse back, wasn't the time Maybe at the dinner table with wine and good food. That always helped to get her what she needed to know. True, in this case it was this man's secrets instead of a man's true intentions but both could easily be gotten in the same way.

"And with you staying with me I will need to know the answer to this important question. Other then Carrots is there anything else you don't eat?"

===================================

Hilbert moved along the outer wall to a hole that was about his size and that showed him in full. A short little man with grey at the temples and a natty little tweed suit which made him look like a mini business man. He smiled at Mike. This seemed like a very sensible man, if a little shaken up by the fall. And while the man's house was sharing Hilbert's land it was only fair to try and be good neighbors. Till the house could be moved.

"Well Good sir, I am Hilbert Rumpletweezer, esquire." He said with a polite little bow. "And who may you be? And would you mind if come into your house? I know it's on my land but a mans house, no matter where it may lay, is still his castle."

Hilbert smiled and waited on the doorstep for this Tallfolk's reply.

Now that she mentioned it, it was a freaking surreal game. He couldn't get over how real everything felt, or he was assuming this was a pretty close approximation of how riding a horse felt. It made him wish he'd actually tried it before, when he could still have had some control over the situation. Of course her question also made him feel like he was two, suddenly, and being picky about everything, and he blushed furiously again.
"Well it's not like I'm allergic to them or anything..." He added in embarassment. "God I've gotta sound like an idiot."
No carots, no answers, no ability to walk for himself.... Man he needed to change the subject on this train wreck.
He was starting to wonder if Orcs were some kind of freakish gang though, and what were they doing carrying real weapons like the knife in a game? I mean...it was a game.... he wasn't playing a literal game of Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs court?
Why the hell was he even doubting that?
"Oh wait, I guess he did say a little. He said I had two hours to try it out and see if I liked it." He'd also said he couldn't get hurt, but so far the reasoning behind that seemed to be foam weapons.

"Maybe thats why it's called Frog Mellon?" He suggested at the mention of her turning green, as he himself felt his face turn red again. "I don't think I've had Frog Melon, not by that name anyway." What the hell was frog melon? Was it related to watermelon? He gripped harder at the saddle as the horse as they picked up their pace, even more nervous now of falling off, which made blush compete with the urge to blanch. The houses were an surprisingly ramshackle sight, kind of amusing really, unless probably you had to spend a lot of time there. They reminded him of descriptions he had heard of the famous and supposedly haunted Winchester house.
"Wow, crazy..."
Was that where they were going? Dang, people probably had no problem finding their houses around here.

"Oh, do you like it? Dad never seems to be quite happy and so he keeps adding on to it. We even have water that can reach the second floor and still be hot!" She said. She was very proud of it and wanted to gauge his reaction.

At that point they reached the wooden gate in the stone and wood wall that encircled the property. As they reached the gate she leaned in close, close enough so that Faclo could feel the soft curves that lay hidden under her robes, and stretched out to grab the rope hanging near the gate. When she pulled it the gate swung open. She sat back into her previous position and urged the horse through the gate. Still the sweet scent of her hung in the air around Falco.

"Well I bet through this entire horse ride you've been wondering how I'm going to get you off? Well once we reach the barn I'll show you." She said with a wink in her voice. And with that she steered the horse towards the barn like building next to the house. The barn appeared to have the same architect as the house.

Falco blinked again, as he realized what he'd thought was a crazy assemblage of many houses pressed together was in fact, one house. Good God it really was the Winchester House! No actually, it had to top the Winchester house because the Winchester house was supposed to look pretty normal on the outside, wasn't it? He'd never gone to see it, though he'd been tempted.
"Thats really amazing." He noted, though he wasn't referring to quite what Vesta had. She did manage to sound convincingly enthused about the running hot water. Maybe he should make sure she didn't have any brothers named Cletus? Or was this part of the game.
Damn she smelled nice though, and felt nice too. ... Man that was distracting.
"Uh. I dunno. Gravity?" He joked, at the idea of getting off the horse. God he hoped it wasn't gravity. She seemed too nice to think that gravity was the funny route, but then he doubted they kept Stink-pig-people at the stables just in case of wheelchair bound former motorcycle race drivers on horseback. That just seemed a bit out of the way on most peoples planning charts, and the architecture outside hadn't exactly been rife with wheelchair ramps.

Falco gawped at the frightening contraption, trying to figure out if he were looking at something to actually help someone dismount or to torture them, and it was difficult to convince himself that it wasn't the second. It looked like some kind of set up you'd find in a Dominatrix's bedroom.
"Uh..." He admitted, wide eyed. "I'm not even sure where to start with that thing..." He admitted, this and he was actually a little afraid to let go of his death grip on the saddle. He tried to remember if he'd ever seen something quite like it, but he'd never been very good at paying attention in the museum, and he didn't think they'd quite covered this in history class. He'd only been really interested after the motor had appeared on the scene.
He did feel a mixed pang of admiration and jealousy however for Vesta's graceful dismount, though he tried to sort out what the devises actual purpose was in getting him off the horse rather than dwell on it, something he was only partially successful at.
Must be nice... He thought, jealously. Looked nice too but his admiration was going to take a ping if he got stuck in this thing like a side of meat.

Mike gave Britney a questioning look after the little man disappeared before moving across the room to pick up his gun. He met the little man at the doorway, dropping to the ground in front of him.
It took Mike a moment to take in just how small this man was. By comparison, he seemed no taller than a five-year-old, and built about the same. But the grey temples would place his age at nearer to his mid-forties, possibly even fifties. His suit seemed to be perfectly tailored for his frame, as well. His speech and general bearing also hinted at age and experience.
"I, uh.." Mike started, as the Hilbert's questions finally sunk in. "Michael Lister. This isn't... uh.." He rubbed his brow, collecting his thoughts. "I'm afraid I can't let you in. It's..." he thought for a moment. "The place is a mess."

"Never." He admitted. "But then I've never had to get off anything as tall as a horse." He added. It was a Knight winch? God, what a contraption. He was surprised they ever got around to getting onto horse back if they had to get into something like this in full plate. He eyed the frightening contraption again before forcing himself to let go of his death grip and try and put on some of the straps. "It's...a pretty impressive setup." He added, praying not to slide off the horse as he tried to strap himself in. "It really makes it that easy to move someone? I mean damn, knight armor is supposed to be really heavy."

"I see" Said Hilbert. And he could. Although he could see that there was some disorder to the room he couldn't tell what order would have made it right.

"It also appears that a fair amount of your home is now scattered about outside" He said lightly pointing about with his cane. This would have generally irritated this little man who preferred order, but he couldn't hold it against this Tall folk. Of the few he ever saw, none ever bothered to meet him eye to eye. At least without picking him up like one of their children. This Tall Folk was starting off on the right foot.

"Well, Michael Lister, it is a pleasure to meet you and your lovely wife." he said with a nod toward the excitable and cowering young lady on the other side of the room.

"and seeing as we will be neighbors it would be highly improper for me not to invite you and the wife down to my house for dinner. Give us a chance to get to know each other better. And I won't take 'No' for an answer."

"And I know of strapping young lads down in the village who would be happy to help you clean this up."


=============================

Vesta busied herself around Falco, double checking that all his straps were secured. Once she was all set she headed to the ropes that controlled it.

"Oh yes, very easy. As easy as this." she said with a bit of mischief in her voice. And with that lifted him clean off the horse with little effort on her own part. "Almost like flying, wouldn't you agree?"

She manipulated a few more lines and Falco started to move away from the horse and towards where she had parked the chair.

"And Yeah, the armor is heavy, but the people who wear it do manage to get around pretty well. I once dated a guy who showed up to our first date in full armor. Guess he thought it would impress. But after the date was over I was wishing I was the one wearing the armor. Luckily for me he couldn't move very fast in the armor."

"He showed up in armor??" He asked, in disbelief, though he felt like some kind of rediculous marionette being hoisted around by the delicate woman.
"This is too weird...." He was looking forward to being back in his chair though, which was at least a somewhat more familiar experience. Showing up in full armor though? That was like showing up at a fancy restaurant in full football gear wasn't it?