The Second Wave

 There were more of them now. They'd discovered that almost as soon as they'd been teleported to England. There were four more 'culprits' and four more characters. Of the four 'culprits', there were all sorts of ethnic backgrounds. There was Hanien, a girl from Dubai. There was a Scot named Fiona, Joanne's friend apparently. There was a Filipino girl who went by the name of Kriss - sometimes Krisscross - and Giovanna from Brazil. Hanien had brought with her Thomas LeFroy, Fiona had brought Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, with Giovanna was Robbie and Kriss had been accompanied by Max Campion - wait, Johnny Martin. Yeah, Johnny.
 They had resurfaced somewhere anonymous with absolutely no landmarks to speak of, which was where they'd found what they'd named 'The Second Wave'. They'd been sitting vacantly on the ground in pairs, the pairs leaning against each other, nobody saying anything. It took a while to determine the identity of Johnny but this was mostly due to the confusion over whether his Realised form would take the shape of his true form or of the supposed persona of Max. They were sat on a rolling hill in the middle of what they'd been informed within their head was English countryside.
 They had originally decided - at Brian's suggestion - to walk and walk and eventually they'd have to be directed where they were going by the Head Voice. They'd walked in relative oppression, but conversation had been present. It just wasn't the rowdy larks that had been had in the Meeting Place.
 "Do you think you'll ever try University Challenge again?" Joanne asked Brian, to which he replied, "I doubt they'd let me."
 "What's your favourite dish to make?" Tara asked Joe, to which he replied, "Vegetables. I hate cutting the heads off things."
 "Are the clothes okay?" Jan asked Mr. Tumnus, to which he replied, "My backside is burning up like the fires of Hades. But other than that I'm great."
 "Can you show me how to bend bullets?" Eliphia asked Wesley, to which he replied, "Considering I myself am fictional here, I'm sure that ability is just as unreal."
 Then they'd come across the eight subdued figures.
 "Hello?" Mr. Tumnus called, "Who have we here?"
 "Four characters, all male. Four culprits, all female," Nicholas returned, "You?"
 "Four in turn of each of the same."
 "What?"
 "Four characters, four culprits. Same gender split."
 "Fifi?!" Joanne cried.
 "Jo?" a cute, short girl replied, "You too, huh?"
 "Yup. Okay I can see you're with Nicholas Garrigan. Who's that behind you?"
 "Is it Robbie?" Jan squinted.
 "No it's Tom!" Eliphia decided.
 "Oh, yeah," Jan pointed to the other side of the path, "There's Robbie!"
 "And that would be Max - I mean Johnny - do I?" Tara concluded.
 "Yeah, the name's Johnny," he curled his accent around the words.
 The First joined the Second on the hill for an anxious catch-up. Now they were on their way to ...

Bristol

The Orb

 It flickered and buzzed as if its existence was only conditional on whether or not it actually desired to exist. It was a perfect sphere and was coloured a sort of translucent indigo. It hovered about the height of Pippin the Hobbit off of the ground. Shimmering, it was enticing, inviting them to set the world straight. For surely that was what it was, what they were looking for. This floating, insubstantial orb, was surely the reason they were in Chicago. Presumably, there would be others that they'd have to collect.
 Brian was fascinated. Brian loved to be fascinated. It was his favourite thing to be. Of course, he preferred to fascinate other people, but fascination was the next best thing. This was impossible. There was no projector attached to any wall anywhere. There was nobody shining a torch down the alleyway. There were no gaps in the brick-work where a light from a building could have shone through. Besides, this was the wrong shape. A ray of escaped light would be a straight line. This was a circle.
 The were in a slim alley fitted between the café they'd just left and a barber next door. Joanne had spotted a glint of blue teasing them from within and had grabbed Brian's sleeve to alert him. He'd alerted the rest of the group, which followed him and Joanne down the alley. Now they stood waiting, hoping for that voice to tell them what they were supposed to do. None came. Brian shot his hand through the light. It shimmered violently but recovered. He then proceeded to slap his forehead with the ball of his hand.
 "Idiot!" he cried, "Of course!"
 Jan raised an eyebrow, "What? Of course what?"
 "It's Wesley," Brian's eyes lit up, "It has to be Wesley!"
 "You mean...?" Wesley murmured, "You mean I can make it go away?"
 "Yeah," Brian nodded elatedly.
 Wesley readied himself and took a deep breath. He extended the tip of his finger into the blueness. Immediately, Wesley's entire form tinted blue, then returned to its regular hue with a twinkling flash of light. And the orb was gone.
 Wesley inspected his , then gingerly showed his fingertips to Brian, presuming that he'd know what to do. Brian nodded.
 "What is it?" Joanne asked.
 Wesley extended his index fingers and displayed them to the group. The tips were stained blue as if a ballpoint had exploded in his hands. He rubbed them gingerly against his thumbs but none of the colour was imparted to them. After a few moments, the smudges dissipated into defined rings that circumnavigated the spot just below his fingernail.
 "It's part of you now," Brian announced, "And we'll be hoping to follow your lead soon."

 Sooner than anyone had expected. Through another portal they plummeted, resurfacing in somewhere a whole lot chillier than Chicago.