(Area 51 Nevada, January 1st, 2036)

I have to admit, the flight to Area 51 was pretty nice. As we landed, then came to a stop, the Lieutenant produced a pair of handcuffs and asked, “Will there be trouble”

“Nope,” I said as I stuck out my hands which he handcuffed.

I was led out of the plane to a waiting Humvee and placed in the back seat. The Lieutenant jumped in the passenger seat and the guards each took up riding positions on the outside I was driven towards an open hanger door. There wasn’t much to see, just an air traffic control tower, this hanger, and a mountain. Our driver took us into the hanger where a table with two chairs was waiting. Around the outer edge where guards MP’s I counted six, then I looked up, two in sniper positions above, eight total.

“Come with me.” The Lieutenant said as we exited the vehicle. He led me over to the chair and helped me get comfortable. The handcuff was undone to my right wrist and reattached to a ring on the table. The table was also bolted to the ground. They obviously thought I wasn’t going anywhere. There was a small glass of water on the table. “Feel free to drink the water, though I wouldn’t drink it all at once. It's all you’re getting until…

“Until someone from some unnamed agency gets here. Watch this.” I said as I willed the magic to create water like a stream coming from my finger as it would from a garden hose, and filled up the cup to overflowing.

Immediately the two guards were on me, one with a gun to the back of my head and the other searching my hand. While they were trying to figure out what was going on I checked my prompts

You have used the Ability “Spellweaver” to “Create Water” as a slow stream at approximately 1 gallon per minute. Initial Mana Cost 10, can be maintained for 1 mana per second.

As I thought, my mana regeneration could handle this, in fact, the cost of the initial cast would be back in a second with my mana regeneration at 27 currently. I looked at the Lieutenant, “It’s just water, I can do this all day, see?” I said as they continued to search me while the water sprayed from my finger.

“The guard searching my hand looked at his counterpart and the Lieutenant, “There’s nothing there, no hoses, nothing, his hand is bare.

“I can make that appear out of thin air if I want,” I said as a stream of water started falling out of the air onto the middle of the desk. I’d have to play with the ability but it looked like as long as I had an idea of what I wanted I could create any spell effect I could think of. I’d stick to the simpler spells I had for now. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself from on high yet. I still didn’t know the lay of this new Cosmos.

I decided to try for a targeted conjuring and tried to will a cap onto the tip of the firing pin on the M-16 to the back of my head, just in case. I might not have nanites, but I had magic and It looked like I could form it to my will. In some ways that might be better than nanites. After 8 hours I was already level 7 and my mana was up to the 300. With my skills maxed out at 100 across the board, it looked like if I could think of it, at least for small stuff I could make it happen. I’d wait for a little while before I tried to teleport. I shut the water off after I gave the guard a second to wave his hand through the water then asked, “Are you going to keep your useless gun pointed at my head all day or can I sit down yet?”

“What do you mean useless?” the Lieutenant asked.

“The weapons firing pin has a rubber coating on it.”

“No it doesn’t?” the Soldier said.

“No it didn’t, now it does. Clear your weapon and I’ll show you” I said as I willed the water to evaporate off the table”

“Clear your weapon,” The Lieutenant said

The soldier released me slowly, cleared his weapon, checked the chamber then held out the weapon.

“Thank you,” I said as I checked the chamber myself, and broke the gun down setting it neatly on the table. I didn’t’ rush but within a minute the gun was in various pieces sitting on the table. I pointed to the firing pin, “See?” I asked.

The soldier bent over, looked at the pin, and said, “How did you do that?”

“The same way I’m doing this,” I said as the clear coating over the pin evaporated while he held it.

“What the hell?” he said dropping the pin

I willed the pin to return to the table and it floated through the air and landed in the place I’d made for it in the breakdown layout. Looking around and up I said, “Okay, the show’s over. Whoever needs to talk to me, get your ass out here or I’m leaving!”

The Lieutenant looked confused then said, “Sir, you’re handcuffed to a table, you’re not going anywhere”

I smiled, “You’d think that wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, sir I would.” The Lieutenant said

“Me too,” the soldier with a working gun said.

“Me three, but I’ll admit, I’m having doubts,” said the third.

“As I’m sure you haven’t been briefed, Lieutenant I’ll let you know that I appeared at Union Glacier at Midnight last night. I didn’t travel there, I didn’t fly there, I appeared there. Another thing you might not know is that the ‘me’ from this world is in Dallas Texas right now probably recovering from a hangover or grading some papers or something. I am him, he is me, but we are not the same person. Now, I am more than willing to sit down and talk with whoever is in charge and let them know exactly what happened to me but I’m not going to sit around and play stupid ass games.”

“Doesn’t look to me like you have much of a choice,” The Lieutenant said

“Again, you’d think that. Soldier, can I borrow your knife, or if that worries you could you hold it out, blade up please,” I said as I checked my HP regeneration which was now up to 3 per second. As I only had 9 hit points, damage that could kill me would heal almost immediately, cool

The soldier looked to the Lieutenant. “Indulge him, we have a first aid kit in the Humvee.” The soldier pulled out his knife and held it horizontal, sharp end upward.

I reached out slowly with my free and pressed down as I dragged my hand along the blade. I felt it bite in and blood trickled down the blade. The soldier’s eyes went wide as I held my hand up for everyone to see. The wound stopped bleeding immediately and closed up a second later.

Everyone around me was shocked and a couple of weapons were being raised around me at a distance, “I’ll leave you with these thoughts; Magic is real, I heal really fast, Wolverine Fast, if you kill me I will return and when you feel like talking send a limo and ask for Adam, I’ll be checked into the Mirage in Vegas under Johnathan Bennard. See you in a little bit” I said as I teleported to the courtesy bathroom closet on the first floor.

I checked my Personal Interface as I appeared.

You have used the ability “Spellweaver” to teleport 85 miles. Initial Cost 50 mana + 1 mana per mile transversed, 135 mana spent.

I stepped out of the bathroom and washed my hands and conjured some new clothes. A dark grey Armanti Suit.

You have used the ability “Spellweaver” to Conjure a simple item, Clothing. Initial Cost 40 mana + 5 mana piece of clothing. Note: ability “Infinite Wealth” is synergistic with this spell. Additional mana costs and materials to make specific items are provided by this ability

I put on the suit and stepped out of the bathroom and went to the front counter.

“Hello sir, may I help you?” the young female clerk behind the counter asked.

“Why yes, I need to check-in, I’d like the best suite you have available.

“Do you have a preferred membership status with us, sir?”

“No, I came into an inheritance not too long ago and I’d like to live it up for the first time ever.”

“That can be quite expensive sir.”

“I know, but money is no object, as I said I inherited a lot. Here you go,” I said as I reached into my pocket and willed my Infinite Wealth ability to provide me with an authorized credit card with unlimited funds. I didn’t know if that would work but I was pleasantly surprised when I felt a card appear between my fingers. I drew it out and noticed that it had my picture on it, a chip, and a Secured Diamond Debit, Citibank Card came forth. I handed it to her and she placed it in her machine. It beeped and the clerk looked up all smiles

“Johnathan Bennard, our Prince’s Suite is available if you’d like it.”

“Yes please, is there a shop, and can I charge anything I want from it to my room?”

“Why yes sir, if I might ask, what are you looking for?” she asked.

“I need the highest-end computer I can get my hands on as quickly as possible. “

“Well Sir, there is tech in the store but for a small fee we could have someone run down the street and purchase what you need, it will be charged to your room of course.”

“That sounds great. Tell you what, there is a 100 dollar tip per minute every minute for whoever brings that computer to me in less than 30 minutes.”

I heard someone behind me say “I got it!” as the clerk handed a black card to him and he rushed out the front of the building.

The clerk looked at me and smiled, “He should be back in a little bit, is there anything else?”

“No that should do it.”

“Very good sir, here is your room key. You have a private elevator right there, an intercom to the kitchen, and this desk, both are marked and have multiple locations to make calls from in your Suite. Please enjoy your stay”

“Thank You,” I said as I turned and walked over to the elevator and rode it up to the Prince’s Suite. It wasn’t a suite, it was a house. On the top of a hotel. There was practically a full-size mansion with a pool, workout room, and ballroom…I let myself get distracted until I heard the elevator open. I looked at the clock. 7 minutes, that was fast. I walked over, looked at the laptop I’d been brought, and realized it would do just fine.

“23 minutes to spare, I believe someone wanted a tip, I said smiling”

“Yes sir!” the young man said sheepishly.”

“A deals a deal, I opened my wallet and pulled out thirty 100 dollar bills and handed them to him.

“Thank you, sir,” he said as he turned and went back to the Elevator and left the Suite.

I opened the box, plugged the laptop in, and started the update cycle while I ordered some food. Once I’d eaten I sat down opened the laptop and got to work. My intelligence might not be what it once was yet but I had Perfect memory and could remember every line of code I ever wrote. The first thing I did was break through the firewalls on the computer and recreate my VPN that bounced signals off McMurdo. Then I hacked into the Pentagon, ran through the current ops, and tracked down the one working on me. I was so far ahead of the power curve here that…then I noticed it. Something was watching the watchers and watching me. It, they knew exactly where I was, who I was, and what I was doing. It sort of felt like my nanites but I knew it wasn’t. Magic somehow? I didn’t know. Whoever or whatever it was, I couldn’t do anything about it. I erased any evidence of my discovery and then started verifying the history that I’d grown up with. By the time a special forces unit entered the building six hours later, I was ready. As they were making their way past the desk I hit the intercom and said

“Commander, I’m coming down, I’m unarmed and I’m coming peacefully. No handcuffs, no restraints and I want to speak to someone in charge in the next 30 minutes or I’ll be making a stop at the top of Everest, the same way I left my previous location”

The commander stopped, and looked around, “He’s got eyes on us, what’s he using?”

“I do have eyes on you, “I said into his headset, and I can see everything you are doing. Also, if those guys try to breech the balcony window I’m going to see if I can send them to Union Glacier like I arrived there. I know you’ve been briefed.”

A voice came over the headset that we both heard at the same time “Stand down. Mr. Bennard, please come downstairs. These men will escort you to me directly.”

I placed the computer in my personal storage, as well as my identity card and my payment card, I figured they’d be useful sometime, went to the elevator, and came down. As I came out of the Elevator I said, “Hold on, I need to check out” I walked over to the counter and asked “How much is that suite per night.

“$25,000,” the clerk said.

I pulled out $100,000 in cash and placed it on the counter. “It is my desire that this bonus is paid evenly to everyone working right now. Pay everything else with my card, including cleaning costs and any damages my friends might have made. Do not contact the government on this issue. Expenses, all of them are on me. Okay?

“But Sir, the damages in the garage…

“Charge me, Someday I’d like to be able to stay here again when there isn’t so much attention.”

“It will be as you say, sir,”

“Great, I hope everyone enjoys their bonus tonight and have a wonderful day.”

“You too sir!”

“The commander looked flustered but waited patiently for me.”

“This way Sir,” the Commander said.

I turned and followed the commander out of the building to a waiting SUV. We were driven to the Headquarters building on Nellis AFB. Once there we took an elevator down 50 floors to the complex there. If this world was mostly identical to my old one there were two tunnels. One would lead to Area 51 and the underground base there and the other would lead east into the Rockies and eventually come out at Norad in Colorado Springs. They’d been dug in secret during the cold war. There was a tram system that went both directions with access points to the surface along the way, buried and hidden. The tunnel to Norad was about 588 miles and the train was a maglev so could get up to 100 miles per hour with no problem. It could be used to evacuate both locations and get personnel away from nuclear blast sights. Or the trains could be used to travel between both locations if flying wasn’t possible. At 100 mph the trip would only be six hours. The Tunnel to Groom Lake was only 85 miles or so, which is what it was used for when distinguished visitors wanted to see the facilities. Also, it was a train, it had advantages, namely that it couldn’t fall out of the sky.

I was searched at the top of the elevator shaft, the bottom, and before I entered the room. When I was brought into a room where I found Admiral Ainsworth, Chairman Joint Chief sitting across the table.

“Hello Admiral, how are you today?” I said.

“I was much better until I was shown the video of your arrival to Antarctica and your disappearance from Area 51. “

“Did someone get in a lot of trouble over that?”

“No, no point. I had 6 guards on the walls two in the rafters and one out in the desert with a bead on you. None of them even had a chance to fire their weapons, nor could they have, we checked the video footage multiple times you were there, then you weren’t. Do you mind telling me how you did that?”

“Not at all, Teleportation”

“Teleportation, horseshit, there’s no such thing.”

“Just like there are no alternate realities, no additional Universes and Magic doesn’t exist,” I said

“What are you saying?” he asked.

“You and I had a talk not so long ago, yet infinitely long ago in a crater on the moon. In that Universe, I’d created nanotechnology that could power portals that I’d reached out into the stars around us with. In that Universe, I asked you how you thought I’d made the portals.”

“Could you do that here?”

“I don’t have to. If I want to open a portal to the moon I can.”

“Could you do it here?”

“Sure, but only I would survive, General it’s a Vacuum up there,” I said grinning. If you were the only one in a test chamber?” sure, but if it’s not vacuum sealed...”

“It is, in fact, you’re either the single greatest asset to the United State of America or you’re a Trojan Horse. I mean to find out either way.”

“Let me guess, you’re going to call me on my claims about being able to survive in a vacuum regardless.”

“Yes, yes I am.”

“Fine, let’s do this, When I hand you the moon rock though I want to have a sit-down, just you and me when I get back, right here in this room. I don’t care if it’s recorded or taped but no one else, just you and me.”

“I can live with that, if you can step onto the surface of the moon, walk around long enough to grab a rock, and come back through this ‘portal’ from the room we’re going to put you in we can sit down and talk as long as you want.”

“Okay then let’s do this”

I was led down a hall to a door that opened into a giant cavern. In the cavern was a flat platform about 100 feet square raised off the floor ten feet sitting on giant springs. On the platform was a metal cylinder hooked to a machine that looked like a giant compressor. I looked at the general. “I have to ask, Why do you have this room here?”

“Some of our Pilots…”

“Oh yeah, the hypothetical Aurora project, with the dual ramjets and near orbit flight ceiling?”

“You don’t believe we have it?”

“Admiral, in my Universe I knew we had it. There isn’t a system I can’t hack. As an example, Commander, have your people found the hole in your security I got through?”

“No sir,” the commander said

“You won’t. It’s a combination of coding utilizing the software as well as the hardware. Certain aspects of all code cannot be changed unless the boards are completely changed. I knew where that code was in my Universe, found it in this one, and exploited it with a small mini AI I put together while I was waiting for you to find me.”

“You could be thrown in prison for that!”

“Admiral tell your men to put their safeties on. I don’t want any accidents. I give you my word the only person I’m going to affect is myself. Seeing is believing after all.”

“Safeties on, you are not to react to Johnathan’s demonstration.”

I watched as my three-man escort put their safeties on, said thank you, and willed myself to fly with magic. I rose above us and floated there. Both the Admiral and the commander reached out to where I had been standing and moved their arms back and forth. I looked at the door to the testing chamber and teleported to it. Turned back, to look at them then teleported to where I’d been standing. “What Prison can hold me?”

“You really are going to go to the Moon?”

“Yep!”

“Commander, suit up, I want you with him”

“No weapons though, no accidents,” I said.

“No weapons”

The commander suited up and we stepped into the chamber.

“Through the speaker, we heard the Admiral ask, “Are you sure about this?” I gave him a thumbs up.

I turned to the Commander, Okay, a couple of things so you don’t get scared. We’re going to have to make two hops. The first will be above the crater Mare Serenitatis. From there I’ll be able to see my target and we’ll portal down to the surface.” The air was starting to get light so I made the motion of a thumbs up, which he returned. Once the hissing stopped I opened a portal to 1,000 feet above the moon, then portaled us down to the bottom of the crater. I simply willed us to travel through the portal and we did. I wasn’t sure which power that was, but it worked so I rolled with it. Once we were on the moon I willed a bubble of air around us and said.

“If you wanted to you could take your mask off, there is air here now. Though I wouldn’t do it, just in case. I’m immune to vacuum regardless, I’m still trying out new things with my magic.” I did the quick walk step I’d perfected before over to a rock, picked it up, and handed it to the Commander, “Here you go,” I said

“You know you’re crazy right?” the commander said.

“Certifiable, how’d you get to the Moon again?”

“Point taken, now what?”

I walked over to a boulder and placed it into my inventory.

“What just happened?”

“Oh, that’s just my storage space. I can put things in and take them out,” I said as I put the boulder back on the surface. Then put it back into the storage.

“You’re not going to put me in there are you?”

“No, first the environment is toxic to living creatures, no air, time, or gravity. Second, only non-sentient things can be put in without giving their permission. As I’m sure you don’t want to go in after I just told you it would kill you, I can’t put you in it. Besides, why would I? I’m Crazy, we smell our own and I like you”

“Fine, so now what really, the Admiral will be getting a little worried."

"Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. We’re going to have to portal a few times. The energy I use to do this only comes back so fast. Also, I don’t want to take the chance that some innocent gets sucked into space or the moon so I’m going to open a portal to 50 miles above Washington DC. That way there’s only a slight breeze being pulled through. After we step through I’ll teleport us to the Lincoln Monument, should be fun” I said as I opened a portal. A slight gust buffeted against us and we stepped through falling towards Washington DC. I touched the Commander and teleported us to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Some people rushed over. I looked around and noticed someone down the steps that had been recording the Monument. “Excuse me, sir, is your recording being broadcast?”

“Yes,” he said

“And it caught us arriving?”

“Yep!”

“If I give you 1,000 dollars would you give me the name your posting under?”

“Make it $10,000 in case it mysteriously disappears and you have a deal.”

“Well in that case How about I give you this and handed him three stacks of one hundred 100 dollar bills”

“The podcast is under #LincolnLivesinUs or just LincolnLivesinUs on the web.”

“Thanks again. Make sure your camera gets this and please say the date and time.

I listened as the stranger I paid said, “It’s 5:05 p.m. here in Washington DC on the 1st of January 2036…” and I opened a portal for us to step through to the Vacuum chamber.

When the air was back in and the door was opening I looked at the Commander and said, “You’re going to need to show him on your phone, I don’t have one.”

As the door opened the Admiral was there and said, “You were gone a little longer than I expected.“

“True but I brought you a rock as I went over to the side of the platform, floated down, and pulled the boulder out of my storage.”

“What the hell Mr. Bennard, that’s not a rock, that’s a boulder.”

“Well, my Dad always said I was an overachiever.”

“Can you put that back where you got it from….You can’t just leave a rock like that in this room”

“Sure,” I said as I placed the boulder back in my personal storage.

The commander stepped forward with his cell phone outstretched as he said, “Sir, we also stopped at the Lincoln Monument.” he said as pushed the play icon on his phone, “I can’t believe what we just saw, a man and an astronaut just appeared out of nowhere and then vanished again. Don’t believe me, watch,” he said as he replayed “It’s 5:05 p.m. here in Washington DC on the 1st of January 2036…”

“You don’t care about secrecy do you Mr. Bennard?” the Admiral asked.

“I do, but I think it’s not going to matter really soon. I’m not exactly sure why but something just doesn’t feel right.”

“Well, a deal is a deal. Let’s head back upstairs and sit down. I do have your word you’re not going to disappear again?”

“Sound’s good”

We made our way back upstairs and I was seated at the main table in a meeting room in the command center. We had glass doors and windows all around but I recognized the sound dampening measures that were in place. Vacuum separated glass, rubber seals. I also noticed the four cameras in the corners of the room. I watched through the glass as someone came up to Admiral Ainsworth and showed him something. They spoke in hushed tones then Admiral Ainsworth came into the room and pointed to a monitor on the wall of the room as an image of me in a bed became visible. As we watched a cocoon of energy surrounded the other ‘me’ and he was gone, as were parts of the bed and blankets around him. I looked at the Admiral questioningly,

“Around 1:30 a.m. last night in Dallas Texas you, or the other you that isn’t you was in his bed when what you just saw happened. We have not been able to find a trace of him. You didn’t do that, did you?

“Admiral Ainsworth, at 1:30 a.m. I was still in Union Glacier.”

“We know, any ideas”

“As I said I have a bad feeling, this just confirms it.”

“What kind of bad feeling?”

“Well for one, I know that your computer systems are being watched by something that is embedded far more deeply than I can currently accomplish. I noticed it when I hacked into the Pentagon and found the team sent to retrieve me. I know they detected me and as far as I can tell they haven’t done anything directed at me. Even the information you’re giving me was done before I hacked the Pentagon so yeah, I’m not sure what’s going on.”

“Okay, well come back to that, you said when we talked you’d fill me in on how you’re doing everything you’re doing”

“I did, let’s get started.”