"I dunno about jammin' 'em, but we can at least learn how to play with 'em. I mean, like, they're sittin' right o'er there and, uh, stuff."

The next morning, after deciding to take a break from all the number crunching, Cosmo decides to play around with the gauntlet a little more. He spends about twenty minutes experimenting with the nutrino blasts and various UHF signals to see if he can figure out how to use the rings.

Cozmo presses the jewel on the gauntlet, and then stands in awe as the six rings leap out of the ground and stack on top of each other. After a few seconds they fall back into the stone floor as if they were never there.

"Ooh."

After only a few moments of playing around, the little dwarf's eyes light up. He turns to look at the 'troll' for whom he still needs to print a sign out for. "Hey man, could ya, yanno, go stand o'er there and stuff? Think I got it workin' but I won't know til, yanno, we like... uh... use it or sumfin'. Yeah."

Ghost Dragon waits from his position for another day to go by. He quietly eats his third day worth of rations and sips water from one of his canteens. After finishing, he takes out one of the chocolate bars that he put into his pocket and unwraps it. He had not touched them until now due to the heat outside. With it being cooler in the temple, he hopes the chocolate bar will be somewhat solid.

Finding that the bar appears to be solid but is actually very soft, he carefully peels back the wrapper and bites off little pieces at a time, since trying to tear one off got his two fingers covered in chocolate, which he licked off.

"Cosmo, are you having any luck deciphering those symbols?" he asks.

"Huh, wha... oh, yeah... I've pretty much managed to, uh, get 'em down to a just under a thousand different addresses. Still need to do a little more processin' 'fore I can narrow it down to the most likely ones and stuff."

Chase looks quizzically at the dwarf. "Leme get this straight: you me to guinea pig the ring teleporter? Could we use a plant or somethin' first?"

He eyes Snoopy for a second.

"Maybe we should stick with a plant 'cause I saw this vid once--it was a remake of some old flat screen--this guy was playing around with teleportation and it didn't work out for him."

Chase goes outside the temple and returns shortly with a plant. He places it in the center of the rings.

"Any idea where this goes?"

"Well, like, sure... but I dunno where the thing, like, goes, and a plant won't call me on the radio of nuffin'. 'Sides, you're big and strong right? But if, yanno, you're not up for it, I s'pose I can be the man around here..."

Cosmo then waits for a few moments to see if his crash course in Pop Psychology paid off.

Chase draws himself upto his full height. "Look, if you're sure that this thing is safe enough to use, I'll give it a try...but if I get scrambled, I'll be real unhappy with you."

He tries to chuckle but it gets caught in his throat.

Chase moves over to the center of the ring and tosses the plant aside. "If you don't hear me on the comm in a few seconds zap me back here, pronto, got me?"

Now's one of those times I wish I knew how to pray.

Ghost Dragon watches from where he stands.

A bad idea, but it will prove useful.

Cosmo presses the jeweled gauntlet when Chase is in positioned. The rings pop up into the air and land surrounding the street sam. WIth a flash of light and a somewhat worried look on Chases face.... he vanishes.

"Team. Chase. Talk about one small step for mankind..." He swallows the lump in his throat and looks around. "I'm few meters from the Gate. Good job, Cosmo."

He smiles in spite of himself and takes a few deep breaths.

"Nobody ever, like, trusts me..." the dwarf exasperates. "Wanna, yanno, try the return trip or are ya gonna hoof it back or sumfin'? I can totally do this."

Chase clears away the foliage around the Rings and actually smiles. "Sure, uh...dude. Beam me up."

Cosmo pushes the button again...

Ghost Dragon says, "Good job, Cosmo. Now, all we need is to figure out the right address to get home."

The rings lept out of the ground and flashed a brilliant white and then vanishes as quickly as they came. Standing there, somewhat bewildered, was Chase.

After yanking Chase back home, Cosmo plops down on the dusty floor and mumbles something about "I'm workin' on it, quit rushin' me... it, like, just makes it take longer man..."

Chase lets out a low whistle. "You guys should try that sometime."

He looks at the dwarf on the ground, "Take your time Coz. Better safe than sorry, neh?"

Ghost Dragon says, "Hm! Right... have it your way."

He settles down and goes back to waiting patiently, something years spent in his former occupation has taught him well.

It takes the Mad Hatter and Cosmo another two days to narrow down the possibly Gate Addresses. In the end there are two addresses that it could possibly be.

Cosmo seems to have an epiphany while snacking on one of his breakfast burritos on the fourth day here. The stunned look he gives resembles something out one of those bad Christopher Walken movies from the TwenCen. "Dude... I think I got it. Well, at least I, yanno, got it down to... uh... two possibilities. Pretty sure one of 'em's it and stuff."

Meanwhile back at the gate Torque quickly sets up his Chemistry kit on a tarp, deciding to keep working on finding anything interesting in the local plant life.

In that time, Torque discovers that the plants have amazing properties. The one plant he tests has almost 200 times the ability to produce oxygen and eat pollutents out of the air as anyplant on earth. It is small, blue and looks remarkebly like a fern.

Hearing Cosmo chirp something, Chase stops doing the push-ups that had become part of his daily routine since being stranded on the jungle planet.

Boguss would kick me straight in the pills if he saw me stop in the middle of PT...and I wasn't under fire. He shakes the thought away and refocuses on the dwarf's statement.

"So we got a fifty-fifty shot?" Chase wipes the sweat off the back of his neck and walks over to where Cosmo is, "I'm normally not a betting man, but I can deal with those kinda odds. Don't suppose you know where the other might lead to?"

Ghost Dragon stops his meditation and looks up. He says, "Why only two? What was the thing that you were unable to determine? Perhaps, if we put our heads together, we could make an educated guess about which one to choose, and sweeten our odds."

"First things first... The gate uses pictograms. Can you please draw for us the symbols used to get to world 1, the ones we dialed to come here, and then the two choices?"

James never moves from his position near the entry to the DHD room, having held position the entire time except when going outside to use the latrine.

Chase digs around in his pouches until he comes up with a small note pad and pencil which he hands to Cosmo.

"Might as well do as the man says. Never know, it could help." He shrugs, "Can't hurt."

Cosmo looks at James rather oddly, even going so far as to tilt his head. A moment later, a small printer can be heard scuttling around under his jacket just as Chase moves to hand him a notepad. "Way ahead of you, man."

At that, he eventually reaches in and yanks out a print-out displaying all four addresses he's chronicled thus far. He's about to hand it to James, but a moment of paranoia strikes him.

"Hey, like... wait and stuff. You're not plannin' on, yanno, killin' me or nuffin' are ya, dude? 'Cause that would seriously harsh my mellow."

Chase freezes in mid action, "Oh. Guess you got it covered." He stuffs the pad and pencil away. "Don't go all paranoid on me, omea. I got your six." The would-be Troll winks and hooks his thumb into the strap holding the HK. "Besides, you got us this far. That counts for something in my book."

Oddly enough, the li'l guy held together. I guess when you're loco, planet hoping doesn't phase you as much.

Noting the plant's peculiar properties Torque marks it's description and records down and continues to inspect other plants, planning to uproot a sample at the latest possible point to help it survive gate travel.

"No, my job is to get us all home together. " James sounds more than slightly exasperated at the question.

"Now, as for these addresses... I guess there is no way to test it ahead of time, is there? And only one chance to get it right?"

"Basically, yeah... well, like, we could send Snoopy through and, yanno, monitor what he sees and stuff since we can create a more stable madoohickey tunnel thing... but if its the wrong address we'll just be leavin' the poor li'l guy for dead if we don't go and pick 'im up. That'd prolly snack on my mellow a bit, too."

Memo to self: Bring disposable drones next time.

Chase scratches his chin, "Cos, could you rig up something from the equipment that we brought with us? Like a camera, maybe some basic scanners, and radio transmiter? We could use parts from your 'board, our comms, and the tech stuff on Snoop."

He pasues for a second. "Or we could just hop through, hope nothing kills us on the spot and if its the wrong place, we just dial the other number?"

"Yeah... yeah, I could prolly do sumfin' like that. Prolly take a couple hours though."

"I think a coupla hours is a good investment if helps keep us alive," Chase looks around the group. "Right?"

"It depends on how much your life is worth to you," Ghost Dragon says as he stands up from his meditations. "A couple of hours will give me time to exercise. Or I could practice my martial arts. I will need a sparring partner for that..." He eyes everyone with a sinister glee, which is somewhat disguised by his shades.

Chase smiles, "Well, my life is worth quite a bit to me..."

"Sparring partner, huh?" He cranes his neck from oneside to the other as if trying to touch his ear to his shoulder, a sharp crack is heard after each motion. "I guess I could use the exercise too but Ran might be a better candidate," Chase turns to the elf. "Lady's choice," he smiles.

Os watches on as the team goes about their business, neither making much of an effort to interact with them nor avoid them. He perks up slightly when he hears Ghost Dragon talk about sparring, but decides to stay on the sidelines and watch, rather than getting involved.

Ran, who has spent the better part of the last few days practicing with her sword, sleeping, and--oddly enough--building very large and intricate sandcastles, looks up from where she's nibbling on a chocolate bar and leafing through a small book. Her golden skin has tanned to a startlingly dark shade.

She smiles up at Chase. "Go ahead. I'll take the winner."

James looks up from his corner, "I'll take the final champ, rules to be discussed prior to my entering the ring." The 'Old Man' is grinning like a kid in a candy store as he settles in to watch.

"One Caveat first though. Lets put all our gear in the small circle, in case we need to evac."

Ghost Dragon grins. "Fine," he says. "No permanent injuries during sparring. There is no sense in beating ourselves up without knowing if we can still get to the gate."

He takes off his gear and lets it fall onto the ground, along with his coat. He gently places the grenades and his gun onto the ground on top of his coat to try and protect them from dust.

While tinkering away with a helmet and a radio, Cosmo looks up with a bit of glee in his eye. "Ooh, ooh, ooh, can I, like, take on someone, too? Yanno, after I finish this up an' stuff?"

Os settles in to watch the fight.

Chase strips down to his waist and does a few stretches before placing his gear in the pile.

"Whenever you're ready, Ghost."

Ghost Dragon doesn't take off his other clothing, since he wants to be able to grab his gear and go if he has to. He stands up straight and walks toward Chase with no stance, though anyone familiar enough with ninjitsu would know that walking itself is a ready stance. With a sudden, lightning-fast motion, he switches to an offensive posture and strikes with a sword-hand at Chase's upper arm on the outside. He follows up with a knuckle punch to the top front of the same arm on the shoulder, where the bone connects to the collarbone. Then, he pulls back and to the side, waiting for Chase to react.

Chase seems taken aback as the slim man approaches. When Ghost explodes into action the insticts take over.

This guy is fast!

Chase reacts without thinking. He steps inside of the initial attack and raises his left arm to deflect the blow and catches the second strike in the same motion. He pivots left and back to give himself space for his counter.

He lands a solid blow with a straight right to Ghost's short ribs and follows with a left palm strike to the mage's chin.

I never did finish my training. When I get back, it is time I did - on my own.

Ghost Dragon scowls as his probing attack is parried and turned against him. He grunts at the shot to his ribs and resumes his attack with a kick to the side of Chase's knee. He puts all of his effort into making sure the kick hits the mark, but the pain in his ribs swells up and makes his kick miss completely. Chase's counter-attack comes before Ghost Dragon has put his foot down.

"Steady on, Chase. You're sparring, not fighting," Os calls out from the sidelines.

"That is enough for me," Ghost Dragon says, "Thank you." He bows to Chase and turns to refit his gear to his person.

Chase freezes in mid motion. With a quizical look he does his best to return the bow. "You're, uh...welcome."

As he is retrieving his gear, "So are we homeward bound or what?"