Chapter Nine

 

Chapter Nine

-Mysterious castle; Mount Everest; May 6th, 2009-

Cody stood in the center of the control room as he went over the data two more times. “This is bad…” Every screen in the room was replaying the events at the North Pole. With a big breath, Cody turned around and went up to his boss, who was reclined in a large chair. EDJ was resting his chin in his hand as he stared at the screens, using his other hand to flip back and forth between angles and points of time as he analyzed the footage. “What is it?” he asked as Cody walked up and stood to the side.

“S-sir,” Cody started with a gulp. “Your plan… um… I have bad news…”

EDJ raised a brow and turned to him, wondering if the news was somehow different from the footage literally everyone in the room was watching over and over again. 

“Y-your plan failed,” Cody finished in a small voice, taking a step back. 

“I wouldn’t say that.” EDJ turned back to the screens, unbothered. “In fact, I consider it a success.” 

“Sir?” Cody stepped forward. “But... but they stop-”

“I know,” EDJ interrupted, watching the screens with an eery smile. “We got a lot of valuable information today. More importantly…” EDJ’s smile faded. “I think they finally got the message.” 

“Message, sir? What message?” Cody asked. 

EDJ didn’t answer, only paused the frame on DJ, Lui, and Hanna. He stared so intently at it and for so long, Cody wasn’t sure if EDJ realized he was still there. Cody took a tiny step back again. 

“Why don’t you take the rest of the day off, Cody?” EDJ suddenly turned to him. 

“Sir?” Cody questioned. 

“Take the rest of the week off.” EDJ smiled politely. “Go home. Don’t come back.”

“O-okay…” Cody left the room wondering why he had just been fired. Even then, getting fired was preferable to being killed for incompetence, which he had seen plenty of times. 

EDJ turned back to the screens. “And now, we wait.” 

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-Headquarters of the Organization of Rebellious Others; Thorae; May 6th, 2009-

A man with spiked brown hair and red eyes watched the monitor in front of him with a frown. He was in the middle of a game of solitaire and still had part of the deck in his hand. He put the cards down and pulled out an advanced communication device. He selected one of the contacts and waited for the other person to answer. As soon as the call was picked up, he started speaking, “Hey, Earth had another near-apocalypse scare.” 

“Another one?” the voice on the other end asked. “That makes, what, the third one this year?” 

“Something like that,” the first man responded as he gathered up the cards and shuffled them. 

“I hate how common these events are. It muddles the data.” The voice on the other end sighed. “Originals are so irresponsible... Who fixed it this time? The Hero’s Guild?” 

Red eyes darted to the screen again. “Nah, looks like it was one person. Some girl.”

“Really? Well, you know the drill, Jester,” the other voice continued. “Keep an eye on ‘em for a bit and see what else happens. You’ll recognize the sequence we’re looking for. We’re bound to find the right one one of these days.” 

“You got it, bro.” Jester hung up and finished shuffling the deck. He turned the first card over and snickered, setting an ace of spades on the desk. 

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-Longyearbyen, Svalbard; May 6th, 2009-

It was midnight by the time the plane landed in a little town. Not that anyone could really tell what time it was with the sky in seemingly eternal twilight. All they knew was that they were exhausted. Some of the authorities and flight operators had questions for Zhenya, none of which she was too happy about. They refused to let the group fly again until everything was sorted out. While Zhenya was busy dealing with the red tape, the rest of the group was taken to a hotel to eat and rest. DJ, Lui, and Hanna sat at a table in the hotel’s 24 hour restaurant, munching on chicken and roasted vegetables. DJ and Lui ate, at least. Hanna was absently twisting the location tracker between her fingers, food untouched. 

This doesn’t make any sense, Hanna was busy thinking. Why did this thing still lead me to Lui when it wasn’t even working right? Doesn’t matter. I’m going to find EDJ and make him pay for what he did to them. If I have to scour the earth, I’m gonna find him and-

“Hanna?” Lui reached over and poked her, interrupting her thoughts. “You okay?” 

Hanna looked up to see Lui and DJ both watching her. 

“Yeah, sorry.” Hanna put the device away and stabbed a cold potato wedge with her fork. “I’m fine.” 

Oh boy, DJ thought, glancing at Lui. I know what that means.

She’s stressed. Give her a break, Lui sent back through mindspeak. “Thanks for saving us,” Lui started, directing his attention back to Hanna. “Sorry for dragging you into this mess with Iul.” 

“Iul?” Hanna asked before taking a bite of food. 

DJ nodded. “My Evil Other. That’s his name.” He bobbed his head to the side. “When he doesn’t go by EDJ, that is.” He offered a tired smile. “Thank you for helping us.” 

Hanna waved a hand, still chewing. She took a sip of water. “You didn’t drag me into anything,” she said. “I flew here on my own, remember? Well, mostly on my own.” 

“Still,” Lui continued. “We didn’t mean to put you in danger like that. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

“That’s a funny thing to promise,” Hanna said, cutting through a piece of chicken. “Danger is part of the job. Don’t worry about it.” She continued eating.

“So you’re officially working for Interpol now?” Lui asked. 

“Eeeeehh…” Hanna grimaced, hand stopping midair as she reached for her glass. “Technically… I don't think they're going to be too thrilled that I borrowed one of their planes. And pilots. So that's probably scrapped.” She grabbed the glass of water. “I’m sure I have a mountain of paperwork waiting for me as soon as I get back, including possibly a pink slip.” 

“Oooh.” Lui winced. “Whoops. Sorry.”

“Not your fault.” Hanna took another sip of water. “I would have helped regardless. You’re my friends.” She smiled at them before stabbing another potato. “Besides, I’m a hero. That’s what heroes do.” 

“So what’s next?” Lui asked. “Planning to save the world from a massive kaiju off the coast of Japan?” 

“Very funny.” Hanna rolled her eyes, but still smiled. “The plan is to get you two home and bring EDJ to justice.” She pulled out the tracker and handed it to Lui. “Can you get it working?” 

Lui took the object and turned it over. 

“We should go after him together,” DJ said, sliding his empty plate away. “We’re stronger as a team. We can help each other.” Lui nodded in agreement, still inspecting the tracker. 

Hanna shook her head and pointed at DJ’s arm. “You’re both still recovering from injuries.”

“And you spent every ounce of magical energy saving the world,” DJ answered, subconsciously pulling his arm back and lowering it out of view. “What’s your point?” 

Hanna pushed her half-eaten plate away and folded her arms. “My point is, you should go home. I can deal with him myself.” 

“We know EDJ better than anyone,” DJ responded. “We know what he’s capable of. It’s not safe to go alone.” 

Hanna raised an eyebrow. “He kidnapped and beat the two of you without batting an eye.” 

“Yeah, well, the only reason he won was because he got the jump on us,” DJ answered. 

“And had help,” Lui interjected, still fiddling with the tracker. 

DJ continued, “In a fair fight, we’re evenly matched.”

“Which is why he cheats,” Lui commented again. He looked up to see DJ frowning at him. “...what? It’s true.” 

DJ turned back to Hanna. “If you’re determined to go, let us go with you. I’m sure the three of us working together can bring him down.”

“Fine,” Hanna said with an air of defeat. “But we have to find him first.”