As the smoke cleared, the stranded group of people saw the Magic Gatekeepers! They had different hair colors, skin tones and heights from each other but wore matching outfits though with a few individual touches of their own. The Magic Gatekeepers' presence also conveys a great amount of magical energy which was unnerving.
The group of stranded people at the table had some distance but they were still close enough to sense this. The Magic Gatekeepers' reputation also added to their formidable aura; they're known to be the judges, jurors and executioners of the highest cosmic court and the universe's most formidable barbershop quartet!
"F**k! The narration was right! We forgot to change out of our barbershop outfits!" Mia blurted out. She was the second tallest of the group at 5'7", but still about a foot and a half shorter than Ragnar. Mia had a slight tan and had wavy blue hair. She tried to keep a prim appearance; her hair was styled into a bun and she wore a visor over her eyes. Her habit of swearing would clash with the appearance she tried to keep!
Each of the Gatekeepers were wearing a red vertically striped vest over a long-sleeved white button-down shirt with white gloves, black dress pants and dress shoes, and light brown boater hats with a red stripe on them. Over their vests they wore a small white cape with a red bowtie and a red stripe along the front of the cape. The bowties on their outfits had a round brooch that was gold around the edges and blue in the middle with their group's insignia on it; the same gate-shaped symbol that was on the walls.
"I was certain this was an oversight." Thutmose loudly grumbled and facepalmed. He had a short and fairly slender build, had dark skin and looked to be in his early 30's, but was the oldest of the Magic Gatekeepers at around 4000 years old. He wore golden rectangular wire-framed glasses and had short black hair with orange eyes.
"Damn right we're the most powerful and feared barbershop quartet!" Aiko confidently blurted out. She stood next to Thutmose and was a few inches shorter than him and also had a slender build. She had short red hair with yellow eyes, a pale skin tone and looked to be in her early 20's, and was the youngest at around 1000 years old.
"We shall return. Ye stay where your fates shalt be decided." Ragnar said. His eyes were red and glared at the group of unlucky stranded people; he could really give a menacing glare that could be sensed from a distance! He towered over the other Magic Gatekeepers. He had messy blond hair that was slightly past shoulder-length, had a light skin tone and looked to be the oldest of the Gatekeepers but only looking slightly older than Mia, who looked to be in her mid-30's.
The quartet teleported out of the room in a large burst of blue light. Silence filled the room, but for just a few moments.
"We are the Magic Gatekeepers!" They exclaimed when they teleported back with a vengeance! They posed next to each other again, this time wearing their judge outfits; each of them wore black robes that reached to around knee-length faded to dark blue towards the hem and towards the end of the sleeves. Aside from the sleeves, the rest of their robes had star patterns on them that sparkled in the light and with each movement. They wore gray pants with black boots that had silver cuffs, a vertical strap in the middle that had a gradient that was dark blue at the top and a brighter blue at the end, reaching to about the middle of the foot. At the end of each of these straps were a round metal brooch.
Each of them wore long silver capes over their robes; their robes were dark blue on the inside and had a dark blue horizontal stripe near the tops of the robes that seemed to match up with the brooches that bore their group's insignia.
Cementing the Magic Gatekeepers' regal appearances were their gold, star and gemstone-studded belts and crowns. The style was the same between them, but each of the Magic Gatekeepers wore different colored gems on their outfits and different colored insignia on their brooches; Thutmose's were orange, Aiko's were yellow, Ragnar's were red and Mia's were blue. The gems and lights on each of the superweapons they wielded also matched, but each of their wielder's outfits also had some differences to them.
Wielding the four superweapons, the Magic Gatekeepers' power gots beyond being the top enforcers of The Magestablishment. They use their vast power to defend the space-time continuum from internal threats and external threats more powerful than the average person, let alone powerful mages could hope to handle!
They used astral projections to show off themselves wielding their weapons to more safely give their "audience" a show! Projections of 3D-modeled stars and of gates that had stars near the top of each post filled the room and then larger projections of each of the Magic Gatekeepers with their superweapons appeared; Thutmose's showed him wielding the super weapon Merciless Hunter of the Wicked Aldebaran, a huge sword that was longer than his own height.
In this projection, Thutmose effortlessly held this sword with one hand! The angle he was standing showed that the sleeves on his robe were short to show off the large gold bracelets that he wore on his forearms. He also wore a gold necklace. A pair of horns also decorated the edge of his brooch.
Aldebaran was a sword with several orange lights on it and a bull motif; at the base of its blade just past its hilt were a pair of bull horns that jutted out from it. Each of them had a glowing orange gem on their upper curve and lighting that followed the bottom curve. In the middle was a round glowing gem which was as wide as the blade. The gem was framed in gold on the outer edges.
The gold frame also ran across the gem and had a gate motif that matched the frames of each of the wielder's crowns right down to the gems that were placed along the center line.
Each of the superweapons had a large round glowing gem on it with this motif. Aiko's superweapon, Great Jewel Regulus, was a large round gem itself. It had a silver stand at the bottom with gold trim that had a lion mane motif. It was definitely the most compact of the superweapons but packed as much space-time warping power as the others! Aiko looked confident when she wielded Regulus in her hologram; Regulus levitated in one of her hands. She wore a long-sleeved robe, and her cape had majestic fluffy orange trim around the neck; the trim was large, billowed out and resembled a lion's mane.
Ragnar's superweapon, Superstar Lancer Antares was a lance that had a gold handle that resembled a scorpion tail. Along the silver hilt was a large round gem, and along the sides of the hilt were ventilation panels. At the top of the hilt was gold trim with small glowing red gems and at the bottom was gold trim with a red tube light along it. The long point of the lance was a platinum color with several horizontal stripes on it.
He was wearing a short-sleeved robe with long dark gray gloves that had spikes on them, and he also wore pieces of armor on his shoulders that had spikes on them.
Mia's superweapon, Great Devourer of Injustice Fomalhaut was a large staff that had a large round blue gem at the top. The shaft of the staff was a silver color and it had a gold handle with a fish scale pattern on it. Just below the gem at the top of the staff was a wide, floating metal ring that was also a silver color. It was wide enough to have 4 rows of small blue lights on it.
The first and third rows were horizontal trim that ran along the ring; the second row was a series of small round lights and the bottom row were vertical lights that were spaced out as much as the round lights on the second row. A large pair of glowing ribbons emanated from near the top of the staff, just below the gem and behind the floating ring. The ribbons swayed.
Mia wore gold hair decorations that had a fish scale pattern on them, matching the handle of Fomalhaut.
These demonstrations were impressive, but there was a catch to Mia's not being entirely accurate...
The holograms then dissipated, and the Magic Gatekeepers got straight back to business!
"So you have elected to speak on their behalf and leave them at your --and our-- mercy?" Thutmose asked Camelia. She stood in front of the jurors' stands, nervous but with a strong resolve.
"Your group is on trial because at least one among you is responsible for the space-time continuum crash." Aiko added.
"The crash was causen by a rogue time traveler who hath stolen one of our superweapons." Ragnar added.
"One of you a**holes stole mine and you will pay the f***ing price!" Mia blurted out.
"I yearn for our executioner role again, but we can't gotten information from them if they were dead." Ragnar said to Mia. Mia facepalmed and grumbled a lot of things under her breath. She was also giving off a dark aura.
"Yes, I'm speaking on my group's behalf." Camelia said. A gasp filled the room. Since that wasn't by the Magic Gatekeepers, she knew that it had to come from her group!
She turned towards them, with a snarky expression. "Do any of you want to try it instead?" She asked.
"Uhh... No thanks!" Several people in the group said in unison before silence filled the room for a few moments. She turned towards the jurors again, anticipating their next question.
"Can you convincingly refute any and all accusations that you and them were accomplices in these incidents?" Thutmose asked. Camelia felt insulted by these accusations. She felt insulted on her group's behalf but that the question specifically asked if she was also an accomplice stung. She's a dimension weaver, always lawful and never straying from the rules they need to follow to help uphold space-time. Although she had another job in regular society where mages and humans lived and worked alongside each other, she never strayed from her duties as a dimension weaver!
"Pardon me, oh Gatekeepers." Camelia said while she tried to keep her composure. Remembering that a question such as this one that suspected everyone is just part of the procedures and that nothing or no one should be overlooked helped her calmly give her defense.
"I say this with utmost respect. I have no vested interest in crashing the space-time continuum, nor stealing any of the superweapons. None of us do, and when the space-time continuum was crashing, I was trying to hold it up." She explained. She sounded determined but calm in the face of this trial.
"That is sufficiently reasonable, but the rest of them are on trial." Thutmose said.
"And I shall defend them! I'm aware a rule of being a dimension weaver is to not be involved in other group's dealings, but I can't stay neutral this time! I'm defending them as my duty as a staff member of Capital Remedial, and believe I believe it's right!"
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