Being a Diver registered vessel meant that there were no checks for passports, no queues for luggage, and no security. Divers are meant to be their own security, they never check in their luggage, and they cannot be held up at the airport when they're supposed to be killing a dungeon core and saving humanity.

So they were wheels down and into a waiting Perodua lorry within a few minutes. The attendants following the portable which they relied on to remain animate, they would stay outside the Gate, acting as a basecamp team for the divers. The lorry had a motorcade of black Proton four-by-fours, and it streamed through the traffic leading from the airport like it wasn't there. As they had climbed into the lorry, Chris had executed a perfect double take at one of the older military men in the back. "Ah Soon, you old dog! How are you? I've not seen you since that business in Langkawi!", he paused and sniffed the air, his lips curling back as he scented his prey. The long canines, exposed caused some of the younger Malaysian Army personnel to instinctively recoil, as their atavistic fears rose in the literal face of an apex predator. "Is that Penang Hokkien Mee? It's been forty years, and you remembered!" the grin on his face was now not only exposing all his impressive dentistry, but also in danger of dislocating his jaw.

With an answering grin, the brigadier general pulled a thin plastic bag of noodles out of his pocket, an evidently hot bag of soup out of a second pocket and handed them over. Around the necks of these bags, brightly coloured plastic bale twine was tied, securing the contents in both cases, and a bag of various vegetables in the case of the soup.

Taking them reverently Chris looked around and made what was clearly a command decision. "Get the pocket dungeon stowed" he ordered, and waited patiently for it to be ready. While it was being secured, he divested himself of everything magical on his person and called for Lin to check him over. Lin hadn't been idle either, she had done the same and after she called the all clear on Chris, he did the same for her. The general handed Lin another two sets of bags, the soup in this one a creamy orange with half a boiled egg in. Then he handed them both metal bowls, wooden deep bowl spoons and a pair of disposable bamboo chopsticks each.

"I'll expect you both to save the city for this. If you manage it, I'll take you both to Penang for a celebration. I understand that there's a high magic hawker centre there now. Dragon satay." General Soon said.

"For the promise of that, I'll break the other core on my knee if I have to." Lin said. She looked askance at Chris, suddenly realising that she was still biolithic.

"Don't worry, I can put a circle down, we can lower the local flux, both be human." Chris responded.

"I've also prepared food for the rest of you," General Soon said. "I know those two of old and I know what they want. While they're preparing," he paused as the lorry went round a corner and everyone swayed to stay upright, "Do you want Western food, Indian style or local food?"

Wolfgang chose Indian style, Adili plumped for Western, but Ishani decided to go all in for the local food. After all she was treating this side of the bridge as a literal once in a lifetime opportunity. When asked how hot she liked her food she asked for what locals would eat. Wolfgang laughed at this, "Don't worry, I've got a healing spell for that." he joked.

The food was handed out, Chris and Lin having disappeared into the pocket dungeon some time ago. "You've got maybe twenty minutes until we get there. Drop your magical items here and get in there." the general ordered them.

"Why are we leaving magical items outside? Isn't it full of magical items anyway? Why are we going in to the pocket dungeon anyway?" Ishani asked.

"They're eating noodles with soup, a rocking high speed vehicle isn't optimal. The pocket dungeon is perfectly level all the time" Adili said. "And we're leaving our magic items behind because it's full of magic already. That was packed by the homunculi, they know a thing or two about not allowing the auras of items to react in dangerous ways. Do you?"

The necessary being done, they grabbed their assorted food containers and trooped into the pocket dungeon.

For the third time in a day, Ishani stepped into a space that begged her mind to use the adjective 'cavernous'. The contents of the pocket dungeon were so much more than she had seen earlier. There appeared to be a mountain of canned provisions, several metres high and twice as wide. There in the corner was a howitzer, how that had come through the normal-sized door she'd entered she had no idea. Her actual locker from the Dome appeared to have been ripped out of the wall and placed in the corner here. A few flat packed buildings, fortifications, hundreds of thousands of litres of water. This wasn't simply the supplies she'd imagined in her mind, this was her home for the next half a year in travel format.

In the centre of the space was a large, round table, it appeared to be the twin of the one on the plane. The table was laid and the slight East Asian man that Chris was when he wasn't being a giant lion man was sat at one place, the metal bowl looking incongruously utilitarian against the luxurious table. Seated next to him was a tall woman, again of East Asian descent, dressed in what appeared to be a cornflower blue qipao. Lin, as it obviously had to be, had steel grey hair in a tight bun on the top of her head. Unlike Chris, she hadn't waited and was already slurping up her fat noodles from the bowl.

Around the table was the faint glow of an active magic circle. Ishani leant over and whispered to Adili, "If we can't bring magical items in, how can it be safe to have active magic in here?"

"Because the magic items could come from anywhere, but this is a precise form of magic executed by the living embodiment of magic in this realm. If he doesn't know what he's doing, we're in a lot more trouble than just an exploding dungeon."

"A fair point."

As they stepped over the boundary to the magic circle Wolfgang grew, filling out his trousers and shirt. He was an unexpectedly gangly man, with dark hair curled tightly to his head and skin which Ishani would place at somewhere between dark ochre and van dyke brown. She didn't paint often, but after a long mission it was a certainty that she'd spend a lot of time painting. Adili was a much lighter hue, his face pocked by old acne scars.

Each of them sat down, smiling and nodding to Lin, who was still eating her noodles with no sign of slowing down. Wolfgang handed Lin a second set of bags of the same food, which she emptied into the nearly exhausted bowl in front of her without doing anything so crass as pausing eating. Chris had set to when everyone else had sat around the table, unlike Lin's urgency, he savoured each mouthful. Adili, Wolfgang and Ishani opened their food containers and took the food out.

"She's asked for local hot food!" Wolfgang reported excitedly. "I don't think she knows what she's in for!" At this even Lin stopped eating and stared.

"It can't be that bad, I've had my share of chillies." Ishani said. After all she'd been raised in India, which wasn't exactly known historically for its bland food.

Wolfgang had a pile of paratha, what appeared to be mutton in a curry sauce and a lassi. Adili had generic store burger, it looked flat and greasy, the grey wedge of meat hiding under a virulently orange cheese substitute between two sweaty buns. Adili appeared to be enjoying it with great gusto however.

Ishani's food was wrapped in a banana leaf, a rarity in these cooler times. The leaf contained some rice which was releasing the heady scent of coconut. There was also a small bag of chilli sauce, a bag containing fried anchovies and peanuts. She had a second bag of a dry beef curry, which was apparently meant to complement the rice well.

"Nasi Lemak and rendang? That's cheating! The only real spice in there is in the sambal. I feel cheated." Adili cried. Clearly everyone had been looking forward to seeing the newbie nearly die from overexposure to capsaicin, but the General apparently didn't want to poison a member of the team saving his city. The rice was delicious, the curry sauce was mildly spicy, the chilli sauce was a bit of a hit, but the meat was just plain good. It melted in her mouth and the rich flavours of the rice and the sauce just complemented it perfectly. She gave the sambal a try and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it wasn't anywhere near as spicy as she had feared, instead its sharp clean taste cut through the richer flavours and rounded out the meal. The icing on the cake, as it were, was the crunchy and surprisingly sweet anchovies and peanuts.

Barely had the food been finished when everyone was disturbed by an attendant entering and informing them that they had arrived at their destination. With a sad look on his face, Chris looked at Lin who was draining every last dreg of soup from her bowl. "Sorry, we've got to get our game faces on."

"My last organic food for six months, I'm glad it was laksa, do it."

Chris reached out and with a swipe of his hand, erased one of the runes in the circle.

With a sensation like her ears popping magic rushed into the circle and Lin and Chris began to grow, while Wolfgang went the other way. The regret on Lin's stone face was plain to see, but it was warring with excitment and anticipation.

They exited the pocket dungeon through a veritable swarm of attendants each rushing to unload the dungeon.

The sun was hot here, close to the equator, the air was muggy and thick. The rich smells of the jungle and the distant notes of the sea were cut through by the sharp ozone smell of the Gate. The gate looked like a stone structure, but closer examination revealed that the substance wasn't sotne, or rock, or concrete. There were no cracks or holes, just seamless substance with an ersatz stone texture. In the centre of this doorway of unknown origin, a crackling blue maelstrom of energy was swirling.

They'd arrived, now the real job began.