Chapter 3

Ellie ran through the streets trying to dodge and weave through the people, she still felt energy coursing through her, but she just kept running. Eventually she got to the edges of the town, where she found a few shops. She sat down on a nearby bench, and decided to catch her breath. The MDSC would be after her soon, and she’d found the ability to thrust people back, a pretty cool spell if you asked her. She looked across the street and saw a few shops selling things like clothes, weapons, and other magical goodies. Ellie had always been a sucker when it came to shopping, she got up and decided to look over the shops. First thing was she bought a few new clothes, she didn’t want to stick out at all. Just some cloth clothing, and a leather hood. She kept her shoes, and went to the weapon stores. The shops were packed with adventurers, readying for missions probably. She went right past them and found a nice shortsword, she didn’t want anything big but she needed to protect herself. She bought a shortsword and went along with her wacky day. She was only down to five coins now, and was losing money fast. She still had plenty of money from the human world, but did that actually work here? She went up to a food vendor.

“What can I help you with?” Said the woman behind the counter.

Ellie pulled out the rest of her coins, “What kind of food can I get from this?”

The woman pulled out a crate of bread, and pulled out three loaves of bread. “About this much.”

Ellie nodded and paid the woman, and took the bread. “Also are these used for payment here?” Ellie showed her a five dollar bill, and the woman nodded.

“Of course, money from the human realm. Used in every universe except the Super world, they have their own currency and whatnot.” She said, not exactly paying much attention to her questions.

Ellie nodded, “Thank you.” She put her money away and grabbed the bread, “Have a good day.” Ellie walked away, she didn’t exactly know what to do now. She didn’t want to go to the MDSC, she feared what was really there. 

She thought for a bit, but just ended up walking around the shops. Then she bumped into a kid about her age, who looked like they were fighting the kid who fought her before. The boy turned around, Ellie waved. Immediately he made an angry face at her. “Get out of here! Simon’s gonna…” A blast of fire hit the boy, and he flew back.

Ellie turned to see the same boy that had attacked her before. She grabbed her staff automatically and just held it out, the boy looked at her and scoffed. “Get out of here, this isn’t your fight.” Ellie stood her ground.

She turned around, “Get up!” She said to the other boy.

He looked at her, “Who are you?”

“Someone who’s trying to help you survive, now come on!”

The boy nodded and got up, he held up a knife of some kind. “Why are you helping me?”

Ellie rolled her eyes, “Do you want to ask questions or do you want to die?” That shut him up.

Simon grunted, “I’m Carter.”

Ellie was surprised, “I’m Ellie.”

Simon growled, “The little adventurer wants to team up with this magic freak huh?”

Carter looked at Ellie, “Magic freak?” Ellie shrugged, hoping to not draw any suspicion.

“Well then let’s see what you can handle.” Simon ran in and shot multiple fire blasts at them. 

Carter dodged one, then shot a light blast of some kind back. Simon created a shield, and immediately Ellie knew what she needed to do. She ran as fast as she could to Simon and jumped into the fire shield, she heard multiple people scream, but all she felt was power. She absorbed every bit of it, but instead of feeling only pureness she felt fire build up inside her. She let it all out in a wave, maybe blasting back a few other people. She smiled, feeling more power than ever build up inside her. When she looked back at the boy attacking he was in complete fear, all she felt like she could do, was let go. A wave of fire erupted from her, as well as a wave of energy soon after. Simon was blasted back into a building, and fire and energy hit him all at the same time. He fell to the ground afterwards, and he seemed knocked out cold.

Ellie was breathing heavily, she turned around to Carter and nodded. He walked up to her, and put out his hand. “Good work Ellie.”

She took it and shook, “You too.”

He laughed, “Are you kidding? I didn’t do anything! Whatever you just did won us the battle.” Then he looked around at the people watching them, “We should move fast.” He

was about to touch her shoulder, but stopped. “I’m going to cast a spell to bring us somewhere where we can talk, will you let me?”

She nodded, still exhausted. “Ya.” She said, pulling her hood over her head. She felt a quick movement, and then she was in a whole different part of the town. No shops, just buildings.

Carter smiled as Ellie looked up, he walked up to a building and opened the door, as if waiting for her to go in first. She nodded and ran as fast as she could to him. They entered into a sort of tavern, and Carter gestured for her to sit down at a table. She followed and sat down at the nearest one, but felt her energy coming back quickly.

Carter then nodded to her, “So what was that out there?”

Ellie shook her head, “I just started developing it, it’s some kind of multiverse stuff. I’ve been able to absorb people's magic once they cast it.”

Carter nodded, then summoned a small light in his hand. “Absorb it.”

Ellie looked at the light, she knew it would help her regenerate. She held out her hand, and the blue energy that came out of her grabbed the light and absorbed it into her. Immediately she felt energy flow through her body, and new magic flowing through her veins. New abilities building inside her.

She smiled, “That does feel better.”

Carter nodded, “Interesting. You're able to absorb magic and use it to empower yourself and spells.”

She nodded, “It also gives me spells, as well as… Other abilities.”

“Like what?” Carter asked.

Ellie sighed, “I didn’t get here through that MDSC place, I absorbed the magic of someone from the MDSC and used their magic to somehow open a portal here. I don’t know how, but I did.”

Carter nodded, acting like this was just something that happened everyday. “You don’t want to go to the MDSC?”

Ellie nodded, “I’ve heard a lot of good things, but I want to make my own opinion. I want to figure out what it is, but… I think they're tracking me, and that’s definitely not giving them a good impression.”

Carter nodded, “So, you need to get home. Correct?”

Ellie shook her head, “Not yet, they’ll find me way too easily. I need to be somewhere that they can’t find me.”

Carter made a tsk tsk sound, “Well, that will be hard to do. The MDSC foundation spreads all across the multiverse, it’s part of the human government systems, the Supers governments, the Demons republic, the Elflem council, and the NEXUS foundation. They're everywhere, you just don’t see them.”

Ellie’s eyes widened, “But I can't live like this! How do I get control of these powers to stop them?”

Carter shook his head, “There is no control of your powers, that’s the whole point.”

Ellie was lost, “What are you talking about?”

“One of the most important things about magic, it needs balance. Between Chaos, and Control. You have the ability to tip the balance of that, and lot’s of people really don’t like that.”

Ellie nodded, “The MDSC.”

Carter shook his head, “There’s more, you just haven’t seen them yet.”

Ellie sighed, “So what do I do?”

Carter nodded his head, “1. You could try to learn to control your abilities by accepting chaos at the MDSC.”

“Nope.”

“2. You could try to go on the run and go from dimension to dimension without stopping.”

“Doesn’t sound that appealing.”

“Or 3. You could try to find the boundaries of your abilities and see what exactly you can do. Maybe even make a place where you can be safe.”

Ellie thought for a second, “Maybe, I haven’t exactly tried many of my abilities. I guess it could work, but how would I be able to do that?”

“By joining me of course!” Carter said, “The bounties here are priceless, especially across dimensions. You help me out and I’ll help you stay hidden.”

Ellie was about to refuse, when the whole picture came to her. This guy seemed like a good enough fighter, maybe she could stay with him for a bit, learn to control her abilities. “Fine, but if I get tired you can’t keep using me.”

Carter put his hands in the air, “No using, I wouldn’t.”

Ellie sighed, “What do we have to do?”

“All we have to do is get some bounties and we get more powerful. Easy peasy.” Carter said. Ellie was tense, she was fully charged. She nodded, and followed Carter to a whole new world.