Four elephants, a turtle, an Alex, and a Cal

[between_worlds]

Alex hits the ground with a thump and groans.
He is somewhere, he has no idea where.
A thin, wide-eyed man wearing a tall, pointy hat is leaning over him.
The man says, "Umm, Archchancellor, I think we got the wrong one."
A deep voice off somewhere to Alex's left says, "Well, get on with it then Stibbons. Do it again."
Alex blinks several times and realizes the thin man is tugging on his arm, "Sorry, sorry, you need to get out of the circle."
Alex stumbles to feet and to the side of the circle, still dazed.
"What-" he starts to ask, but the man wearing the very strange hat is already chanting.
There is a flash of bright, almost-purple, almost-green light and the taste of smoke fills Alex's mouth.

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[hearing_shadows]

Cal wrenches his hand away from Alex and twists around. As good as his reflexes are, he doesn't brace himself quickly enough, and he lands awkwardly on the cobblestones in a cloud of dust and dirt.

Coughing, he fans the air with a hand, gives himself a once-over and gets up once he's sure he still has all his limbs.

[between_worlds]

There is a swell of excited, confused voices and a crowd begins to gather at the entrance to the alley.
The buildings on either side of them are leaning at a precarious angle, deprived of a six feet tall chunk of wall.
"We need to get out of here," Alex says.

[hearing_shadows]

Cal agrees, but he doesn't bother responding. The buildings look like they're about to collapse on top of them, and dying by way of giant falling stone blocks does not particularly appeal to him.

Instead, he yanks Alex by the arm and hauls them out of the alleyway, ignoring the crowd of bystanders.

[between_worlds]

They make it out of the alleyway and halfway down the street before a voice yells, "Stop! Police!"

[hearing_shadows]

Cal doesn't stop, of course. He's spent enough time running away from the police to know that 1) the police are trouble and 2) jail is not a very pleasant place to be.

His gaze darts around his surroundings, and he mentally notes their potential escape routes.

[between_worlds]

A giant stone creature steps in front of them.
Alex backpedals quickly, but not quickly enough to prevent the creature grabbing him.

[hearing_shadows]

Seriously? Cal sighs at Alex's sheer incompetence. He scans the creature, but he doesn't think he can do anything to it with just a knife. Maybe if he had explosives...

[between_worlds]

Alex curses and fumbles in his bag, pulling out a small weapon.
He fires it at the troll, who slowly collapses back into a sitting position, blinking but unresponsive.

[hearing_shadows]

Cal glances over his shoulder. The police are getting closer. "Why didn't you take that out earlier?" The whole point of having a weapon, after all, is to use it, and Alex couldn't possibly do that if he had it in his bag all the time.

[between_worlds]

"I don't like hurting people."

[hearing_shadows]

"Even if they're trying to hurt you?"

[between_worlds]

"We did just destroy a street. They have a good reason."

[hearing_shadows]

"You did, you mean," Cal says. He looks down the street again. "We should go."

[between_worlds]

They make it one more street before they are surrounded.
Alex shoots three more of the police officers before his gun is wrested away from him.

[hearing_shadows]

Cal pulls his knife out and ducks around the policemen grabbing for him. If this were his city, he would have no problem going up against so many people, but the street, fuck, even the ground is unfamiliar territory.

He slashes at several of the policemen and manages to leave two writhing on the ground before his weapon, too, is confiscated.

[between_worlds]

They are roughly handcuffed and thrown in the back of a wagon.
Two police officers watch them stonily.

[hearing_shadows]

Cal tugs at his handcuffs to no avail. The shadows are back in full force now, giving him a rather nasty headache. They titter at his plight and fill his mind with whispers, thick and noisy.

"Shut up," he mutters. This is ridiculous. It took Rick the better half of a year to catch him, and these harebrained policemen have done it in a matter of minutes.

[erinflight]

They are paraded in front of a jaded, tired looking man sitting behind a cluttered wooden desk.
"I am Commander Vimes and I want to know what you did."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal shrugs. He looks at Alex expectantly.

[between_worlds]

"It was an accident!"

[hearing_shadows]

Cal says nothing. The "accident" is Alex's doing, after all.

Besides, the man behind the desk is in charge, and that makes him Cal's enemy.

[between_worlds]

The man sighs and massages his forehead, "You accidentally knocked over a wall?"

[hearing_shadows]

Alex still isn't saying anything. What does he want Cal to say? Oh, we were going to hop over to a different universe using this magic necklace, but it took out an alleyway instead?

No thanks. Besides, he doesn't even know what happened, either.

Instead, Cal elbows Alex hard in the stomach.

[between_worlds]

Alex glares at him and then, hands still cuffed behind his back, awkwardly grabs onto Cal.
They vanish and reappear a block from the station and 15 feet in the air.

[hearing_shadows]

Shit, not this again. Cal bends his knees, bracing for impact, and manages to land in a roll.

The handcuffs around his wrists cut into his skin. He winces. At least nothing's broken.