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The Victoria Chronicles

**Chapter 12

Into the Woods & Causing Trouble**

Pulling up to the campsite Vix was hit with a sudden rush of memories. In her mind's eye she could still see her friends and how the site had looked before the incident.

She remembered the three of them erecting the site and starting the fire. She remembered going out for firewood and meeting Visalth, although at the time she didn't know that the seemly tame wild fox had been in fact an inter-dimensional alien that had been on her would for millennia. But most of all, she remembered him!

She remembered Agent Smith and how he was haranguing her friends. She remembered trying to intervene, and remembered being shot three times for her efforts.

She remembered the brief immense pain from her wounds as she tumbled down the slope of the steep hill she had fallen down before seeing an intense bright light just as she blacked out.

After that she had patchy memories of waking up in a thorn thicket, stumbling through the woods, open fields, then nothing till she woke up in Kristine's vet clinic.

She remembered all of this. Especially the part where she did not come into the world as a female, a fact that she was still trying to cope with.

"Are you ok?" Frank asked when he noticed that Vix hadn't moved since getting out of the truck.

"...I'm...fine. Sorta." Vix said at first after a lengthy silence. "I'm just...trying to process all this." Vix said slowly and quietly as if from a far. "This is where my life took an unexpected turn."

Frank waited for a bit, and when she still hadn't moved or said anything he added, "If it's too much for you we can come back, or I can come back later and find what you need?"

"No. Percii said only a Vivudrosian would be able to find it." Vix said eventually.

"What's a Vivudrosian?" Frank asked.

"Visalth was a Vivudrosian. And now I'm more than one-third Vivudrosian." Vix replied.

"So that makes the other two-thirds human?"

"No. one-third human, one-third vulpine, one third Vivudrosian. Roughly speaking." Vix said, "from what I've been told there is more Vivudrosian than anything else dues to physiology and whatnot. To be honest even with the boost in intelligence the complexities of advanced genetic manipulation gives me a headache."

"If you don't mind me asking what happened here?" Frank asked hesitantly, he wasn't trying to upset the vixen, he was just trying to get a better understanding. "I mean, Pops told me a little bit, but not the whole picture as it were."

Vix didn't respond immediately. When she did it was in a low and quiet voice. "A lot of bad things." She walked over to one spot in particular and stood indicating the ground before she spoke again. "Here. They were right here the last time I saw them." She said. Her voice was low and measured, it was clear that she was struggling with the memory a bit.

"Your friends?" Frank asked.

Vix merely nodded somberly before continuing. "They were being restrained and Smith was questioning them." Vix replied, when she said the agent's name it was full of venom and bile. She then walked over to the far side of the camp near the tree line. "I was right here when I saw what was going on. I chucked a large rock and yelled at them to leave my friends alone." Vix said before walking over to a spot near the crest of the drop off. "Right here." She said pointing down at a patch of dirt that was showed a reddish blotch in the soil. "Here is where I was when he shot me." Vix's tone now was less somber and had more anger in it now. "This is where my life changed. And down there is where I died."

Frank came over and peaked down the steep hill towards the bottom. "How do you know you died?" He asked. "You seem pretty alive to me right now."

"Few live after taking a 9mm to their heart." Vix said and tapped her chest over where the bullet had penetrated. "Left atrium, upper shoulder, upper bicep." She indicated, tapping each spot in turn. "The reason I'm here talking with you now is because Visalth and Percii saved me. With some consequences." She said trailing off.

"You mean the, well there's no easy way to really say it but you more fox-like form?" Frank asked.

"Yes, among other things." Vix said staring down into the abyss.

"Like what?" Frank asked glancing at her again.

"Like my bloody humanity!" Vix yelled. "I'm faster, stronger, smarter! My other...bits. Can you imagine what's that's like? Percii keeps saying that I'm a superior being! That I'm better than all of you, but I'm not! I'm just..." Vix trailed off before she continued more calmly after a few breaths. "I don't know what I am anymore. I used to know. But now..." she looked down at her paws, the dark fur, the blunted claws. "Now I don't know anymore."

Frank said nothing for a brief moment before putting his hand on her shoulder. "You're you." He said firmly. "I can't imagine what you've been through it's true. Not even close. But deep down, inside all this fur and, whatever else may be there, you are still you. Regardless of what you look like and what you can do now. Just look deep inside and hold on to that. Everything else may take work, but you have the determination to sort it all out in the end."

"How can you be sure of that?" Vix asked looking up slowly.

"Because I've already seen it in you. Because despite all that's happened to you already you are still trying to find your friends." Frank said.

"But I'm failing even that." Vix said despondently.

"No. You haven't failed that, you just haven't deduced the right conclusions yet." Frank said firmly. "If they are still out there they can be found. And if anyone can find them I'm sure that it's you."

Vix gave a sniff and ran a paw over her eyes before responding. "Thanks for that. How is it that you and Pops are so good at this?"

"Occupational hazards." Frank replied. "Just something we had to be good at in our past line of work."

"And what was that?" Vix asked curiously.

"For another time." Frank deflected. "Now. What are we looking for?"

"We are looking for--" Vix started before stopping suddenly. Her ears twitched as she heard a faint sound from the woods and the sudden silence as the wildlife stopped all noise. Very quietly she whispered, "Frank? I don't think we--"

"I know. We're being watched." Frank whispered back.

Vix's tail twitched agitatedly. This wasn't some animal. This was a person. Her ears swiveled back and forth as they she searched for the source of the slight noise that she had heard. They she heard it. I light click only seconds before there was a load blast.

"Get down!" Vix yelled as she pushed frank to the ground just moments before a bullet grazed the top of her shoulder.

"The hell was that!?" Frank said from the ground with Vix on top of him. "Is someone actually shooting at us!?"

"Well it wasn't a _bloody_angry bee that just stung me!" Vix exclaimed, her voice slipping into Visalth's British tone again.

"Are you hurt?" Frank asked concerned.

"No. Just grazed the shoulder of my cloths I think." Vix said as she poked her head up slightly over the edge of the gully they had dived into. She looked around and saw the glint of light flash briefly from a scope in the distant bushes before dropping down again just before another rifle report sounded out.

"Fucking Christ!" Frank said as the bullet whizzed overhead again. "I haven't been shot at in years."

"It's been happening to me far more lately than I'm happy with." Vix growled angrily. She sneaked a quick peek again before continuing. "He's over there in the bushes. You go that way while I get his attention, while he's focused on me make your way around to the left, I'll go to the right. But don't take any chances."

"What about you? What are you going to do?" Frank asked.

"I'm going to take away his toy and teach him that it's not nice to shoot at people you don't know." Vix growled. "Wait till he's distracted and make a dash over that way!"

Before he had a chance to saying anything Vix had already darted out from cover and yelled, "Hey! Laughing boy!" Then took off along the ridge and into the wood line just before the first shot.

"Victoria, wait!" Frank shouted, but it was no use, Vix had already disappeared. "God damn she's fast!"

Frank waited a few seconds while a few shot rang out before darting the other way towards some brush on the other side of the clearing, mumbling under his breath the whole time. "Oh sure, a quiet retirement from the service Pops said. We'll get menial boring jobs when we get home. Maybe open a small business, something where we don't get shot at and nobody knows the kinda shit we had to see in the service." Frank grumbled as he made his way quietly over to the cover of the bushes. "If I wanted to get shot at I would have stayed in those third-world countries Pops and I always got stuck with! At least then we knew what to expect!"

Meanwhile, Vix had found some cover and was contemplating her next move. She had made sure that the heat was off frank till he made it to the safety of cover. Pops had mentioned that both men had seen some service so she hoped that Frank still remembered his training. He'd probably be ok. The next step no was to make her way over to the shooter and clock him a good one before he got wise and scarpered.

Vix crept along the forest floor on all fours, her feet slipped out of her boots as they morphed into digigrade. She was vaguely aware of this and it slightly annoyed her how easily her body changed as the circumstances dictated. But that was a detail for another time as her focus was on the shooters location.

She slowly, and more importantly silently, stalked along the ground closer, keeping to cover, but never losing sight on her quarry.

Finally she made her way around behind them. They were dressed like any hunter would be, except, the rifle they had was anything but for hunting game. It was very clearly a military issue rifle with a complex day/night scope. Vix could tell this at a glance by the size of the scope alone. She had never hunted before but she knew people that did, and was familiar with what they used, the size of the scope gave it away immediately, and the rifle was much the same. The design of the rifle was all business and was kitted out for snipping, not hunting ordinary game. It would look out of place on an African safari big game hunt.

Vix carefully got back up on two legs and slowly crept closer. The man was slowly arcing his rifle back and forth looking for any movement in the clearing that she and Frank had previously been in. he clearly had a singular purpose, but whether that was to scare off or kill anyone who got too close to the spot Vix was unclear of. But she intended on finding out!

She inched closer to the man from behind, but a rookie mistake undid her stealth.

Snap!

Oh bugger! Vix thought as the man quickly spun around with the barrel of the gun tracking right to her. She dodged just in time for a shot to miss her by inches. She knew, due to Percii constantly telling her, that her body was much tougher than the human body she formally had, but that didn't mean that she was bullet-proof. And she didn't want to test that either!

While the man racked another round into the chamber Vix took the opportunity to pounce and knocked the rifle from his grasp with an arcing movement of her arm while the other was used to both block any other defense the man had while also knocking him from his feet. But she over compensated and they both fell to the ground. Vix realized her mistake and used the momentum to roll off him and bounce back to her feet. Unfortunately the man did as well. The man was clearly highly trained and Vix was not, the only reason he hadn't gotten the drop on her yet was her speed and strength, otherwise this was a fairly even fight.

The man had while rolling to his feet had also pulled out his knife from a scabbard attached to the right shoulder of his hunting jacket. Just from his movements it was obvious that he knew how to use it, and may have to deadly effect in the past for all Vix knew. This man was much better trained than the three black suits she had fought with that morning. This man knew what he was doing.

Vix easily dodged a few lunges the man made with his knife, but at the same time could exploit his movements either. His thrusts were short and measured, calculated. He was sizing her up while also keeping out of range of her. He was no fool.

The two danced back and forth for a bit. Neither getting a clear shot at the other, but neither loosing ant ground either. He was a pro, Vix was not. She was faster, but he was experienced in close in combat, a veteran she guessed, and she was not. Vix had no formal training in any kind of hand-to-hand. Up till now she had never even been in a fight, and now she was trying to keep out of range of a man who did this as a living. Probably had killed several times by now for all she knew.

"So..." Vix said as she dodged another strike and missed her chance to grab his wrist, he was staying just out of range. "Are we going to just dance all day? Or would you like to tell me something?"

The man didn't answer her verbally, and she couldn't make out much from his face either. His face was a wooden mask of quiet determination, belaying neither anger nor joy. This was going to be a tough nut to crack.

"What nothing?" Vix said as she tried to make her way to one side or the other to try and catch him off, but he was keeping her in front with dodges and strikes. "Come on, at least tell me the name of the person trying to knife me." She said as she tried to annoy him, maybe she could get him to make a mistake by making him angry.

And then she made a mistake.

Vix overextended herself making an ill-timed grab and paid for it with a slash her forearm.

"Ah!" Vix screamed as she pulled back while cradling her injured left arm.

"So it can bleed." The man sneered.

"Can I?" Vix said grinning. She kept out of range or the man's knife and with a wide toothy grin only a fox can give held up her supposedly injured arm. Before the man's unbelieving eyes the fox's arm showed a hairline scratch that quickly diminished to perfect skin and fur.

But while he was distracted he made his mistake.

While his attention was focused on Vix he didn't notice the shadow loom up from behind. But Vix had.

"What are you smiling about?!" the man growled.

"Might want to take a look behind you." Vix grinned.

"Ha! I'm not falling for that old trick." The man scoffed.

"Yeah, I didn't think you would either." Vix said still smiling, and more importantly keeping the man's attention.

There was a whistle and a tap on his shoulder from behind him and when he spun around he _just_caught a glimpse of the fist that hit him full force in the face. The force of it spin him back around to Vix who struck him with another fist to face encounter that spun him back around to Frank. Frank hit him with a second time before the man spun back to Vix who delivered the final blow. At this point she was still holding back, but not as much. She only wanted to knock him down, not kill him. And the final blow did just that.

When the man recovered he had been tied to a tree. As he opened his eyes the first thing to greet him was the close-up view of a fox's face. He instantly recognized it as the one he had just fought. The other man was standing behind her and holding his rifle in a way that didn't just suggest that he knew how to use it but confirmed it. The look on his face was just a formality.

He took only but a moment to glance around before knowing that the deck was stacked against him. But that didn't mean that he was going to make things easy on his captors.

"Bout time you woke up sleeping beauty." Vix said, "Have a nice nap?" she said this pleasantly and sweetly, her voice dripping with honey. That was the only thing nice about her, her expression settled any doubts he may have had that she was only being pleasant out of sarcasm. He professional opinion told him that this fox--thing meant business.

"What's your name hunter man?" Vix asked.

The man remained silent.

"That's fine. Don't really care what you name is right now. What I am curious about is why you were shooting at random people out in the woods?" Vix asked, watching his face carefully.

"I'm just a hunter. I mistook you for an animal." The man finally said defiantly.

"Yeah right." Frank said behind Vix. "Never seen no hunter use a rifle this fancy for hunting animals. Not exactly standard kit. Way too exotic and expensive. Defiantly military issue." Frank said making a show of pointing the rifle at a bush and peering down the scope. "Scope is too powerful too. Where'd ya get it?"

"None of your business." The man spat.

Vix strolled over to Frank, "Let me see that." She said. Frank handed the rifle over and Vix began with a cursory inspection by first pulling the bolt back and ejecting a round into her hand. "Awfully big round for game don't you think?" she said as she examined the round before making a show of racking another round into the chamber before removing the magazine. "It would leave an awfully big hole in the pelt, make mounting and stuffing it a lot harder for the taxidermist."

She then took a long look down the scope and flicked through the day/night settings on the side. "Scope too powerful too. Plus, I happen to know that night hunting is illegal in this state." She continued.

"So write me a ticket why don't you. Can I go now?" the man said almost in a bored fashion.

"Right!" Vix said in her sometimes upper-class British, a clear sign that she was getting fed-up. Her ears alternated forward and back in irritation before flattening against her head. She was about out of patients. "Who sent you and why."

"I told you, I'm just a hunter." The man replied obstinately.

"That's a load of shite!" Vix growled, the more irritated she became the more of Visalth's British came out in her voice. "I'm done bandying around. Why are you guarding this place?!"

"You don't scare me creature." The man sneered, "If you were going to kill me you would have done so already."

"Rrrrr!" Vix growled. She changed her grip on the rifle to hold it by the barrel and without looking around she swung her arm in a wide arc and the rifles action slammed dead into a thick oak tree. The rifle hit with such force that not only did the action and body of the rifle get smashed to pieces, the single round still in the chamber detonated, further spreading the shattered rifle around the glade. Vix had been carful however to make sure that her body stood between her and Frank, thus shielding him from and shards of metal that flew around the small clearing.

"Who, Sent, You!" Vix said punctuating each word with the remains of the bent barrel hitting the still smoking tree, a good deal of bark had been removed from the spot where the rifle had struck the trunk.

"Not saying." The man said dropping the innocent act. No one had noticed the snake that had been loosed from a hanging branch above from the small explosion and was dangling above his head.

"I'm running out of patience here." Vix said. The man swore that there was now a dull glow behind the vixen's emerald green eyes,

"Tough. And there's nothing you can do about it little girl." He sneered, just before a snake landed on him from above. Once the man realized what had fallen on him he freaked out. "Get it off! Get it off!" he yelled, trying to dislodge the serpent by thrashing around with his bonds.

Vix reached out and tapped the snake's body lightly. The snake looked over to her and she imitated its tongue movements with her own long fox tongue and gave a light hiss. The snake understood her meaning and slithered its way onto her arm before coiling around her forearm.

"Get that thing away from me!" The man yelled.

"It's just a rat snake." Vix said running a finger along the reptiles head and giving it a small hiss. The snake responded with a flick of its tongue. "It's just hunting for squirrels and birds nests."

"I don't care! I hate fucking snakes!" the man yelled.

Vix leaned down and let the snake slither down her arm to the ground before saying, "I noticed a rats den over in that direction. There should be a meal or two for you there." the snake looked up at her and flicked its tongue in response before crawling off in the direction indicated.

"Miss Victoria, if I may other a suggestion?" Percii said in her head. Vix sighed internally but at least he wasn't calling her lady or, shudder, mistress.

"Yes?" Vix replied.

"Our trigger happy friend here does not seem to want to be forthcoming with any relevant information."_Percii observed, _"Perhaps another method should be employed?"

_"What do you have in mind?"_Vix asked intrigued.

"He does not appear to like snakes. Perhaps you can work with that?" Percii said.

_"And how would I do that?"_Vix asked.

"A little hologram trickery and the malleability of your body." The AI said calmly, and then he continued with a little bit of slyness to his voice, "How's your acting?"

_"Percii, you said my body is more malleable. How far does that go? Also, how good is you hologram systems?"_she asked across the link in her head with the little AI. She listened to his detailed response for a brief period.

Frank was mainly watching the man tied to the tree, but he was also glancing from time to time at Victoria. The vixen seemed like the was having an internal dialog with herself as occasionally her facial features would change slightly and her ears would turn, dip and twitch along with her expressions.

Vix finally straitened back up with a look of contemplation on her face, before turning to frank and saying. "Hey Frank, why don't you go on a short nature walk. Giggles and I are going to have a little chat."

"Uhm, you sure?" Frank asked confused.

"Go on. We'll be fine." Vix replied before adding, "Well one of us will."

"Ok? Well, don't kill him or anything." Frank said trying to figure out what the vixen was up to.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine." Vix said turning her face away from Frank and facing the man tied up to the tree and smiling a wide toothy smile. Her teeth had become longer, sharper, her fangs lengthening and curving back like a viper's. Her eyes too had become more slitted and reptilian and snake like, almost draconian, and her ears were fanned out but somehow they seemed somewhat larger and curved rather than her normal pointy triangular vulpine ears. Rather they were more hood-like, like a cobra's hood. As she got closer the tip of her tail shook and a unmistakable rattling sound emanated that filled the man with dread. It still looked vulpine but the sound unnerved the man greatly.

"The two of ussss are just going to have a niccssssssse little talkssss." Vix said, her tongue had become a long slender forked tongue that flicked out whenever she pronounced something with esses.

The man gulped in fear. As much a professional as he was he apparently had a huge phobia concerning snakes. And now he was very concerned as Vix walked in an exaggerated slither closer to him.

"Now thhhhen. Who sssent you?" she said in a sweet tone dripping with venom.

When Frank returned a few minutes later the man was a gibbering mess, but was also spilling his guts to Victoria. She was standing with her arms crossed under her respectable chest and she had on her a look of extreme interest with her ears tilted forward and fanned slightly in attentiveness and displeasure. She looked just like she had when Frank had had left her. But the man was acting like she was the snake that had offered Eve the apple in the Garden of Eden. He was pressed as far as his bonded would allow him away from the vixen in rapt fear of her.

"What happened to him?" Frank asked. He hadn't seen a grown man that scared in a very long time.

"I just talked to him." Vix said thoughtfully. "I think he has a phobia or something. Took one look at me and fell to pieces." She said with a devious grin, "Whatever his personal problems I got some information out of him." She said before turning around walking towards the panorama offered by the clearing. The view was one of the reasons they had picked the spot all those days ago before the world turned upside down. She got a few steps before she stumbled and nearly fell. She would have if Frank hadn't noticed and grabbed her before she got too far.

"Whoa there! You ok?" frank asked as Vix got her balance again.

"Yeah, just a bit spent." Vix said as she waited for her head to clear. "Percii had this cleaver idea to tease the info from our guest and I think I overdid it a bit. I'll be fine in a few."

Vix looked out over the panorama from the top of the hill. "You were right on the money about the airfield though." She deflected, "They are using it as a staging area. But he doesn't know or want to say where their main base of operations is past that."

"So what do you plan to do?" frank asked.

"Not sure yet. There are a lot of variables in play." Vix said licking her nose. "First things first though, I need to see what Percii dragged us out here for." Vix glanced over her shoulder before continuing. "Keep an eye on giggles there. and keep your head on a swivel. If they had one here there could be another watching this place."

"Can do." Frank said with a have salute.

"What was that for?" Vix asked.

"Sorry, force of habit when taking orders ma'am." He joked.

"Well don't. I'm no more a leader than you here." Vix said before smiling, "After all, I'm making this shit up as I go along. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing."

"I don't buy that for a minute."_Frank thought to himself as she walked off towards the burned out fire pit she and her friends had used all those days ago. _"You have a better handle on the situation than anyone else. Even if you don't realize it." He thought to himself with a knowing smile.

Vix stopped at the fire pit and stood over it. "Ok Percii, now what?"

"Look closely. Notice anything...different?" The little AI said.

Vic looked carefully. Now that she looked at it the fire pit did seem...different. She didn't know if it was her new eyes, or her boosted mind, but she was noticing details that she hadn't seen before. Or noticed anyway.

Vix knelt down, her ears alert and her tail flicking to and fro. She moved a few rocks from the ring or rocks and brushed some dirt aside. There was something under the dirt and ash. A sort of ring? There was an object that followed the ring of stones underneath. It almost seemed like it was made from a substance like concrete and metal at the same time, but also neither of the two. Brushing the dirt aside she saw symbols under the surface of the strange ring. She had never seen them before, and yet, she also recognized them, and understood them.

This was a portal device. A gateway linking this place to somewhere else. Vix wasn't entirely sure how she knew this, but she suspected it was one of Visalth's memories creeping though.

"This is a gateway, isn't it?" Vix asked Percii, "Where does it go?"

"It's linked to Visalth's personal research lab." Percii replied.

"How does it work?"

"It uses advanced por--" Percii started before Vix cut him off.

"No." Vix said in a calm voice, "How do I open it? I assume you wanted me to come here for something inside. Not just to show me a ring in the ground."

"I'm...not entirely sure." Percii said hesitantly, "The Mistress would lay her hand on it and it would open." The little AI said.

Vix looked at the mostly still buried ring in the ground uncertainly. She reached down and lay her right hand on the cool surface and waited.

Nothing happened.

"What am I doing wrong?" Vix asked.

"I'm not sure." Percii replied, "Perhaps another spot?"

Vix looked down again. she started clearing the remaining stones and dirt from the ring. In a short amount of time she had cleared all the debris from the device. The ring had an inside diameter of a yard and was about 6" wide around its circumference. It's surface was covered in strange symbols that Vix vaguely understood despite never having seen them before. They were more of a symbolic gesture then the instructions for its operation that she had hop0ed that they would be. She tried again and again holding her palm against the rings surface but with the same result every time. Nothing.

"I sure wish Visalth was here now." Vix said after some contemplation.

_"I am here little one."_Visalth's voice said in her head.

"Visalth!" Vix said with a bit more enthusiasm than intended. "Where have you been?"

"I've been here and there. The treads of the universe have been keeping me busy." Visalth said, "But I've kept an eye on you the whole time little one. You are adapting rather well."

"That's nice of you to say Visalth. But all the same I'd rather if I hadn't gotten caught up in all this mess." Vix replied. She looked down before continuing despite talking to a disembodied voice. "I won't lie, it hasn't been easy. I've had a few times where I've...lost my temper. This new body, the situation I now find myself in. people constantly shooting at me. I can't think of anyone who could tolerate this mess."

"I understand little one. I wish I could have kept you out of this, I really do. But the decision was not within my control. Had I not intervened you would have..." Visalth trailed off. Vix's limited experience hadn't known Visalth to be in doubt about anything before.

"Why do I get the feeling that this is another one of those situations where you can't go into detail because the universe might take exception to it?" Vix said. It was now her turn to be reassuring.

"You are quite perceptive Victoria."_Visalth said, _"It's one of the many qualities you have that will serve you well. Hold on to that. Now let us proceed."

"I've tried what Percii told me, but I seem to be missing something." Vix said.

"Physical contact is just one part of opening a portal. Otherwise anyone could get in." Visalth said. "There are those who have tried, trust me."

"I think I can think of a few." Vix said, "One in particular comes to mind."

"Quite so." Visalth said, "The portal will only open for a Vivudrosian who has the knowledge to do so."

Vix digested this for a moment. "It's keyed to my Vivudrosian DNA?

"Partly Victoria. There is also a mental component as well."_Visalth replied kindly. _"Now, kneel down outside the ring."

Vix got down on her knees next to the fire pit. "Ok, now what."

"Now allow me to guide your hand Victoria." Visalth said. "will you allow this?"

"I trust you Visalth." Vix said.

Vix felt Visalth take partial control of her right paw and arm. It didn't feel like she had lost control of her arm, more like someone was guiding it along while she could stop the movement at anytime. She watched as Visalth guided it over to the ring and placed it upon the cool surface of the metal. She felt Visalth in her mind give a mental command, not so much words as an impulse similar to moving her paw but instead willing the portal mentally. There was a brief feeling of connecting with whatever controlled the portal and soon after the debris still sitting within the ring disappeared. It didn't disintegrate or anything, it simply dropped as if someone had quickly removed the surface that had been supporting it. Where there had been ground there was now a hole leading to the inside of a space that hadn't previously been there moments before.

"That's...I have no words for it actually." Vix said mildly amazed by what she had just seen. "Is it safe?"

"Of course little one. You now have the knowledge to open and shut this portal." Visalth's voice said in her head.

"What am I looking at here? It looks like a room of some kind." Vix asked peering into the space beyond. The room was large and lit in odd lights.

"It is my lab. It once was my personal craft, but the engines haven't run in many millennia." Visalth said.

"It's been buried here the whole time?" Vix asked bewildered.

"Not quite. It's here and yet it isn't." Visalth said in her patriarchal kindly voice. "It is the safest place in the universe, a place between the dimensions."

"Sounds cozy." Vix said peering into the hole in the world again.

"It is not wise to keep the portal open for too long Lady Victoria." Percii said chiming in. Vix sighed again, she know the honorifics wouldn't last for long. The AI just seemed programed to keep calling her Lady this or Mistress that. Maybe she could put a gag on him somehow?

Vix looked into the portal again and taking a deep breath hopped into the unknown. Again.