Spaceships and Magic, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

"Help me?" Dan asked, "I wasn't aware that I specifically was in need of helping, but this planet could probably use the assist." 

Whether Dan was trying to be funny or if he was just an idiot I didn't really know, but I was still going to help the planet. 

People were standing on top of other people and forcing them down into the dirt, and crushing the life out of them when they tried to rise up. That rankled me. I didn't like it one little bit. I wasn't going to let it continue. 

<When did you become so heroic?> BB asked, chuckling slightly as he asked the question. 

The answer was simple. 

I'd become so heroic the moment I failed to be the hero. The moment I let Lara take out the entirety of Prespian city, and her father with it. 

I wasn't going to let another planet down. Not while I had the power to stop it. 

<Yeah, powers that you can't actually control at the moment,> BB pointed out. 

I may not have been able to use the breadth of my manna abilities, but that didn't mean that I wasn't strong and that I wasn't fast and that I wasn't clever. It didn't always take a gun to overthrow a regime. 

"Okay then, weapons, magic, what have they got, what do I need to know about?" I asked, turning my attention back to Dan who was still leaning against the wall. 

"Magic?" He asked, "I don't know about anything like that, but pretty much everyone has powerful body mods of some kind or another. Speed and strength enhancements, life force absorption, energy projection, all that sort of thing." 

It sounded like manna usage to me, but I knew that humans weren't very well versed in manipulating the fundamental forces of the universe through magic. I was the exception there. In which case, they had to be emulating manna effects through technology, which was very human indeed. 

I was pretty sure I could take things like that on, unless there was something special about the dranes that I didn't know yet. 

"And the dranes," I asked, "What are they? You looked like you were about to pass out from how scared you were when the officer mentioned them." 

"You don't want to meet a drane," Dan replied after a moment's hesitation, "They're some of the most fearsome creatures I've ever come across. Composite creatures that are made up of fragments of the beings that they've killed. No two dranes are the same." 

Well, that was mildly horrifying. In some ways they reminded me of the Mordekash, taking people's bodies, but instead of converting the whole thing it sounded more like these creatures were just constantly adding the strongest bits of fallen foes to their own bodies. Talk about creepy. 

My mind drifted back to Yr'Arl who was down the stairs being treated by the doctor. 

What was taking them so long? Surely it wouldn't be that much effort to plug a rehydrating drip into the feline's arm to get him back up on his feet again. That was something that even the doctors back on my Earth had been able to do. 

"And my friend, is he safe here? I know the humans of this universe don't exactly tend to be all that friendly to alien species," I said, glancing toward the stairs that we had walked up. 

"There can be some pretty negative alien sentiments, yeah," Dan replied, "But a lot of extraterrestrials live in the city. The humans might act a bit superior from time to time, but it's not like we're part of the great and bountiful human empire here or anything like that." 

I hadn't even known that there was still a great and bountiful human empire in this galaxy, I thought they'd all followed their big mothership that had captured the sun and flown over to Yr'Arl and the Guard's galaxy. 

"I was under the impression that all the humans had moved on to the galaxy that Yr'Arl and I arrived from," I stated, "They've been waging war there for a long time, but you're saying there's still plenty of humans over here as well?" 

Dan just nodded in response. 

That could end up being… problematic… to say the least. 

Even if I ended up defeating the humans that were causing mischief and havoc back in the galaxy that I had come from, there was a chance that at some point more could just end up flooding over from the Milky Way. 

I'd have to cross that bridge when, and if, we ever came to it. The fact wouldn't stop me from helping out here when the innocent people, human and alien alike, of the city needed my assistance. 

I felt as if I'd gotten all of the information that I could out of Dan. He had been useful, but really talking to one of those officers would be necessary if I really wanted to learn the ins and outs of everything. 

<Why do I get the feeling that you're about to do something foolhardy and reckless?> BB asked nervously. 

He was getting those feelings because being foolhardy and reckless was exactly what I planned to do. 

"Say, Dan, what would someone have to do to gain the attention of one of those officers? Is it just a matter of breaking curfew?" I asked, a mischievous glint in my eye. 

"Uh… Yeah, pretty much, they've got sensors covering pretty much everywhere, so walking around outside would be enough to get some eyes on you," Dan said, "But I wouldn't recommend it, you'll be killed and harvested for drane parts." 

I gave Dan a grin, "Nah, not me. You may not like the idea of being a hero, but that's the whole reason I exist in this universe. Just passing through, helping out where I can." 

He looked at me like I was completely mad. 

Heck, maybe I was. But when did madness start meaning that you couldn't help people?