Chapter Fifty-One

Chapter Fifty-One

-Headquarters of the Organization of Rebellious Others; Thorae; May 12th, 2009-

Jester watched the screen in front of him with wide red eyes. “No way,” he whispered in disbelief. He suddenly shoved away from the desk and grabbed his communication device. “ACE! Ace! It’s happening!” Jester repeated in excitement as soon as the recipient picked up. 

“Wha-” the voice on the other end said groggily. “Slow down, what’s happening?” 

“It! The thing! The thing we’ve been waiting for!” Jester answered, barely able to contain himself. “The events are unfolding as they were recorded!” 

There was a pause on the other end. “Are you sure?” 

“Yes!” Jester frowned and went back to the computer. He typed a bunch of numbers and hit send. “Check the coordinates I just sent. It’s happening exactly as it’s supposed to. The catalyst disappeared. We found our weapon.” 

There was another long pause as Ace processed the information. “Good,” he finally said. “We need to inform Axaeus and then wait.”

“He’s still somewhere on Earth,” Jester answered. “There may be a bit of a delay, but I can ping him.” Jester typed a few more commands before he turned back to the screen. He narrowed his eyes as he watched the feed. “How do the rest of them get to Thorae?” Jester asked. 

“I’m not sure,” Ace answered. “I think an agent is supposed to contact them and show them the way.” 

“An agent of mine or of yours?” Jester asked. 

“Couldn’t tell ya,” Ace answered. “The records were fuzzy.”

Jester leaned back in his chair. “Well, how long is that going to take?” Jester asked, propping his feet on the desk and folding his arms. 

“Maybe a few hours. A few days. Maybe even a week,” Ace responded casually. 

“A week?!” Jester sat up straight. “I’m not waiting that long.” 

“Bro,” Ace said with a warning in his tone. “What are you doing?” 

Jester clicked away on the keyboard with a sly grin. “I’m going to speed things up a bit.” 

“Are you crazy?!” Ace exploded on the other side of the communication device. “You know what will happen if we interrupt the sequence. We could fail the entire mission!” 

Jester rolled his eyes. “The mission was scrapped as soon as Axaeus realized what year we showed up in. It’s not our fault they sent us back too early.” 

“Jester,” Ace said again with forceful warning in his voice. “This is serious. They could send a clean up crew. We’re talking about a reparator here.”

Jester ignored Ace and continued clicking away. “I have waited four years for this moment,” Jester responded. “Our entire existence depends on those heroes. I’m not waiting here another second.” Jester paused and turned his attention back to the device. “Now, you can either come with me and make sure the heroes cooperate or you can tuck tail and run back to our Original. Your choice.”

“Fine,” Ace answered grumpily, finally giving in. “I’m going with you, but this is a bad idea.” 

Jester resumed typing. “Yeah, well, if they wanted to fix history, they shouldn’t have messed up by sending us in the first place.” 

“Fair point.” Ace sighed on the other end. “Just let me do all the talking. We don’t want to scare them.” 

Jester scoffed. “They should be scared. All of humanity rests on their shoulders. The fate of multiple worlds hangs in the balance and they don’t have a clue!” Jester took on a more serious tone. “They have no idea what’s coming for them.” 

“Just wait for me to get there before you do anything,” Ace responded. “I’ll meet you at the gate.” 

**************************

-Mysterious castle; Mount Everest; Earth; May 12th, 2009-

Eoin stared at the screens with a ball of dread sitting in his stomach. This isn’t good. Eoin leaned over one of the techs. “I need the last five minutes of that fight on an external, please.” 

The tech nodded, splicing away at the video feed and copying the portion over to an external drive. As soon as the file finished copying over, the tech removed the drive and handed it to Eoin. The assistant took the drive and immediately left the room. Grabbing a coat, Eoin made his way out of the castle, only stopping long enough to yell at a group of guards that were on break. He went to a dead tree and pulled out a radio from the empty trunk. 

Turning the radio on and dialing in to a specific frequency, Eoin raised the device to his face. “Echo to Charlie Sierra, repeat, Echo to Charlie Sierra. Come in.”

The radio came to life with a burst of static. “Charlie Sierra to Echo, we read you.” 

“Stand by for video transfer.” 

“Copy. Standing by.” 

Eoin plugged the drive into his laptop and typed a few commands in before a progress bar appeared. The assistant hugged his core and bounced a little, trying to keep himself warm in the snow while waiting for the file to finish transferring. 

The radio buzzed again. “Transfer complete. File received. Requesting risk assessment.”

Eoin paused with a frown before answering. “Type Three.” 

“Repeat?”

“Type Three,” Eoin repeated. “Failed to contain. Requesting additional resources.” 

“Resources en route. Be advised, ETA 2300.”  

Eoin turned his watch over. 1530. “Copy.” 

Once the transmission was finished, Eoin headed back inside the castle. He got to the control room and watched the screens. The heroes hadn’t moved from the arena, but he was expecting them to do so any minute now. Eoin went to the head of security. “Casey, was it?” the assistant asked. The burly security lead nodded. “We need to evacuate all personnel without drawing attention,” Eoin continued. “Get everyone out through the tunnels and don’t let the heroes see you.” Casey raised a ruddy brow, but nodded and left the room. Eoin looked back at the screens with a frown. So much for keeping things under control. 

**************************

Sarah was in the middle of feeding the clown fish when her pager went off. She checked the device before shoving it into a pocket. Sarah climbed down from the tank ladder, wiping her hands on her coveralls, and met a guard outside the room. 

“What’s going on?” she asked as the guard ushered the other employees along. 

“Bad news,” the guard replied. “Boss got taken down by the heroes. We’re getting out of here before they come for us.” 

“EDJ got taken down?!” Sarah asked, tucking a lock of curly, dark hair behind her ear. 

“Yup,” the guard answered. “Better hurry up and get to the tunnel before you get left behind.” 

“Right, thanks for the info.” Sarah left the guard, but did not head in the direction she was told. Instead, she ducked into a restroom and pulled out her phone. 

When the person on the other end answered, Sarah said, “I need a teleport back to HQ. … Yes, right now would be great. …Thank you!” Sarah hung up and patiently waited in place. I need to contact Misty.