A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

The University of What It Is

"Okay, not so bad."

"They transferred it to me." Ellie cringed.

"A little worse, but what's the big problem?"

"Wellllllll, during the Strex incident, we needed to rebuild a whole bunch of things and get new equipment that the donations from the council didn't really cover, and I had access to the grant's bank accounts..." Ellie said sheepishly.

"Oh no. You didn't." Natalia's eyes widened and she gave the other woman a pointed look.

"I may have overdrawn a bit. Which is exactly why we need to call everyone right now and hide ourselves until they leave."

".....how much?"

"About $10,000."

"SHIT."

~

Carlos' morning was going great. He had no idea how long it had been since he'd called Cecil or his team, the masked army had messed up in the construction of his temporary lab, and he'd fallen over more than six times in the last hour because of his stupid shoes, and now, NOW, Doug wanted a favour.

"Yes?" Carlos forced a smile and looked up at the towering figure.

"Something has been spotted by one of our scouts."

Carlos grit his teeth in response. The masked army were getting a little annoying with their constant skirmishes outside his new house and his temporary lab. He was trying to investigate this place and he liked the silence being alone gave him. He had always preferred doing his investigations alone anyway, and the masked army constantly barging around where he was trying to work was only cementing this fact into Carlos' brain. The only reason he tolerated the noise was because the army often had ideas about the things that Carlos should investigate.

"Any idea what it is?"

"They said it looked like a person."

"A person? What's so strange about that?"

Doug arched an eyebrow. "They are your size."

Carlos gaped. All of the masked warriors had to be at least three metres tall each. Carlos had had to add a sliding roof to his temporary lab so the army members could stand in it. Every one that was the same size as Carlos in the desert had been a citizen of Night Vale and had all vanished during the Strex incident, returning to their hometown through the old oak doors.

"Take me to them!" Carlos said eagerly.

Doug nodded and led the way, walking slowly across the desert as Carlos ran next to him in an attempt to keep up with the army leader's massive strides. After Carlos had exhausted himself running and was almost on the verge of asking Doug to stop, the masked man pointed towards a rocky outcrop around one hundred metres away, where a human was resting against the rock face wearily. Carlos edged towards the person until he could make out their shape. He recognised it almost immediately.

"Cecil?!" He cried. The silhouette of the person in front of him could not have been of anyone else. Carlos dropped his backpack next to Doug'a feet save for his water bottle and sprinted towards the figure. "CECIL!"

However, as Carlos got ever closer to the figure, something seemed off. The person certainly looked like Cecil, almost identical aside from three key features. Firstly, the skin tone was vastly more tan than Cecil's was. Cecil, despite the fact that he had grown up in a desert community, was rather pale. This was definitely not that shade, Carlos mused as he showed down and approached the figure more cautiously. Neither did the person have Cecil's almost white hair; it was darker, almost black, yet it stuck out at odd angles in the same bizarre way.