***ALEX***
The elevator opens onto a world of chaos.
There's an empty room, a lobby, serving as a buffer between us and the street, where scrivs, angels, and demons alike run screaming. I don't think I've ever really taken note of what's on the edge of Second 'Verse Bearville. I've noticed the center of town more, the cluster of concrete towers in which Fionna - and now Gabe, I believe - live and work. But now I'm seeing what looks like a shopping center, anchored by a Wal-Mart. (Of course they'd have a Wal-Mart here. Wal-Mart is a universal constant.) And instead of cars in the parking lot, there's mostly a frantic crowd of people carrying shit, fighting over shit, beating each other up with shit...
"I don't remember the town going this nucking futs last time," Gideon says.
"They cleaned the town out last time, remember?" I point out.
"Did they?" He chews his lip as he thinks about it. "I thought they told everyone to evacuate underground."
"And I thought Holly made everyone leave and report to some camp somewhere." I rack my brains, but honestly, I only know bits and pieces of what happened on this side of the Terminal back in June. "If he hadn't surrendered when he had..."
Kelly clears her throat. "Question - are we supposed to fly over these guys?"
I look around the room, but see no other ways out besides forward into the looting zone and backward into the elevator. From which point we could probably get off on another, higher floor, and maybe break through a window.
If we can find one.
Is there one? I don't think so, not when this wall was always meant to be super-secure. But then why do we have a window here on the ground floor?
I'm the first to go back to the elevator. When we're all inside, I select the second floor. There's no window there - just a bunch of loud machinery, like God's engine room. The third floor is really just a catwalk above the second, to service these machines. Same with the fourth. What do these machines even do, I wonder? Is their presence the reason why the wall is still up even after the fall of Preston Holly?
The fifth floor finally gets us somewhere with windows. It's nowhere near as chaotic as the street below, but there's a shit-ton of people in matte-black armored suits running around. Okay, so maybe that's why the wall's still up - they've gotta have people standing guard along its perimeter.
I look around at my friends. With the exception of Gideon, we're all wearing other colors, so we don't exactly stand a chance of blending in. That is, until we spot a very familiar face, only half-dressed in his own uniform, trying to get his jacket on.
He stops when he spots us. "Alex? Gideon? What the...what the hell are you doing here?"
Kelly and Ty join us angels as we run up to Paul Smythe. "We got a new friend?" Ty asks. "Cool."
"Not really a new friend so much as an old one." Bro-hugs for me and Gideon, intros for Kelly and Ty. Then Paul shrugs into his jacket, zipping it up. "Okay, guys, I'm supposed to be on the guns, but...you know what? I don't think turning our weapons to the outside is gonna do much good."
"Why, 'cause this attack came from within?" Kelly gestures at the nearest window.
"Hey, Smythe!" Another guy runs by, then slows his pace and turns around, still jogging backwards. "Your partner's waiting for you upstairs!"
"I'll be right there!" Paul tells the guy. But then he taps the Bluetooth earpiece he's wearing and says, "Freddie, wherever you are, find me on the fifth floor near the computer terminals. We got friends from Prime in town." I faintly hear what I'm sure is the sound of Freddie Krause telling him "10-4, on my way" or something to that effect. "Come on," Paul says, ushering us out of the crowd - we've got people constantly running around us, and being as visible as we are, we're really parting the shoal. "Nobody's gonna be at the computer terminals, so we're gonna be safe there."
"Wait, won't they call you AWOL or something?" Ty asks.
Paul grins at us. "Annie's in charge of this whole wall operation. She'll understand once she knows the facts."
"Since when is Annie in charge?" I ask.
"And if she's your boss," Gideon asks, "can you get me a minute with her so we can talk about reimbursing me for my phone?"
Paul looks at Gideon, nonplussed. "She never did? I could've sworn she said something about it. Or maybe it was some 'note to self' crap that she never got around to doing."
The "computer terminal," as Paul called it, is around the corner from the elevator. It's actually "terminals," plural, with several clusters of monitors scattered around a large room. If I stay still long enough, I can feel the gentle thrum of the engines churning below us. Or maybe I'm feeling the sheer amount of electricity it must take to power these babies. Would that mean I'm developing some kind of electromagnetic sensitivity? Maybe I could be the first angel to have an electric elemental in addition to one of the four classical ones.
Wait, that would just mean I've got light powers.
Yeah, that'd be just as cool, I bet. And maybe then I'd really be able to give Penner a taste of his own medicine.
"Listen, man," Ty says as Paul closes the door behind us, "not that we don't appreciate your help, but we're kinda trying to get into the city."
"Yeah, our friends are in there," Kelly chimes in.
"I got you covered," Paul says. "I think. I'm just spitballing at this point. As usual, nobody knows what's going on-" There's a series of knocks at the door. Three short taps, then a single loud pound. "Okay, that'd be Freddie. Hang on, let me let him in." He opens the door just a tad, enough for our redhead friend to crab-walk through. He's not as skinny as I remember. I guess he's spent whatever free time he's had working out. Pumping iron as opposed to slinging pizza.
"They're losing it on the streets," he says, wiping sweat from his brow - he must have run a long way to get here. "I'm not even sure why we're turning the guns outside. There's nothing the fuck out there, man." He looks around and sees the rest of us. "Oh, Alex. You only call him a 'friend from Prime,' Paul?"
"Just in case the enemy is listening in."
Freddie chuckles, then takes his seat at the computer and logs in. "At least they haven't frozen my account yet."
Ty walks around and checks the logo on the monitor. "Oh good, this ain't a Peppermint machine."
"Damn right," says Freddie. "Peppermint's been trying to worm their way into every corner of every city for years. As long as we got the Troys in charge, though, they're never getting a major foothold." He opens a window and reveals some ominously blinking Matrix-type code. Green letters and numbers and other assorted special characters you're supposed to add to your passwords to increase their security. "Although...that was the Guardian building they took out, wasn't it? You think the Troys are still-"
"Don't say it." Paul's been pacing around behind us all, keeping his eyes on the door so he can alert us to any incoming danger, but now he looks at Freddie with conviction. "The Troys are okay. Marian got out of the Third 'Verse just fine, so even if any of her kids bought it too, we'll be seeing them soon anyway."
"What are we looking for?" I ask, trying to keep up with whatever Freddie's typing up. I wouldn't know. Computer code and I really don't mix.
"Something. Anything."
"Let him do his thing," Paul says. "He's been learning how to white hat, but he hasn't had any chances to really put those skills into action."
"Harlan's a great teacher. When he's not high." Freddie codes a couple more lines - that's the proper technical term for it, right? - and then gasps when he sees what he's found. "Oh, you gotta be bloody..." He stares at the screen, not even blinking.
"What? What's going on?" asks Gideon.
"There's a delivery truck at the west gate," Freddie says. "But how can there be any deliveries? We're on lockdown!" He clicks the single entry on the delivery list. "Peppermint. Of course."
"What, are they trying to stage some kind of coup?" asks Kelly.
"That wouldn't surprise me." Freddie takes a few deep breaths. "Or they're trying to sneak something in or out, and they're using this terrorist attack as a cover for it..."
I shake my head. "When did we step into some 9/11 truther movie?" Kelly and Ty, who never had 9/11 in Hell, tilt their heads at me in confusion for a moment before it clicks for them.
"You said they're sneaking something out?" Kelly asks, tapping her forehead. "What if...what if it's..."
She snaps her fingers, then she and Ty say it in unison. "The Black Mirror?"
Paul and Freddie exchange glances, then the latter says, "Wait. The Black Mirror. That exists too?"
"Really, there should be no surprises anymore," says Kelly. "I'm just waiting for God Himself to step out and tell us this has all been a test."
Gideon snorts. "If so, my brain would break from rejecting the truth."
Freddie reaches into his pocket. "If that's really the Black Mirror, and the legends are true...we can't let 'em get away with it. Who knows what they'd do with it?"
"I'd rather not find out." Ready to leave, I join Paul. "We need a ride."
"You read my mind." Freddie extracts what he's got in his pocket - a car key fob, which he holds out, logo facing up.
Ty glances into Freddie's hand. "A Ford? Not a Mustang?"
"I wish, but it's too impractical. These keys are for a Taurus."
Ty bounces on springy feet like he's a little boy again. "PleasesayV8pleasesayV8pleasesayV8-"
Freddie smiles. "V8."
"Yay!" Ty pumps both fists, his voice comically squeaking just like Tony Stark in that one scene from Age of Ultron. (Yeah, more Avengers references for the list. Shoot me. You know to see them coming a mile away by now.) As Freddie gives him the keys, he says in a slightly less broken voice, "I'm driving? I'm driving!"
"Shotgun!" Kelly copies her brother's double fist-pump.
"Normally I drive," Paul says, "but I don't think I'm gonna be much good in a car chase. And that's what this is shaping up to be, right? A car chase?"
"Hold on." Gideon raises his hand, and not to pump his fist. "Back up. A Taurus? No way do we all fit in that. Unless one of us rides in the trunk? For which, by the way, I do not volunteer as tribute."
"Yeah, nobody's making you ride in the trunk, buddy." I lay my hand on his shoulder, remembering the chip there, the other reason why he always sprays Annie's name instead of saying it - because she dark-cocooned him while apparently unaware (though, for good reason, he himself doesn't think so) of his claustrophobia.
"Then what are we gonna do?"
"Fly!" Paul snaps his fingers. "Of course. The road to the west, it runs by the Merced River. Just like back home. That'll be perfect for you, Alex. And for me and Gid-"
"Somos los hombres de temblores." I take French, but I know enough Spanish to get Gideon's lyrical gist. "Just like old times, huh?"
"Yeah," Paul says with a crooked grin, "'cept this time, I'm not gonna die on you."
"You died?" Ty does a "whoosh, that went totally over my head" gesture. "Oh yeah...yeah, I guess I'm just not used to the whole Prime 'Verse and Second 'Verse thing, really."
"Yeah," Kelly chimes in. "Like, where does God fit into it all?" At a sharp look from Ty, who's clearly itching to get behind the wheel, she adds, "But we can put a pin in that."
Paul puts a finger to his ear. "Yeah, go for Paul. Over." He pauses and listens to whoever's talking on the other end of his comm. "The fuck? Uh, sorry. Sorry, Annie, very unprofessional of me...yeah, I understand. I mean, just when you thought nothing else could go so catastrophically wrong..."
Freddie types away on the computer for a while before coming across what looks like a city map of Second 'Verse Bearville, complete with the wall. "Oh bloody hell." He points at what looks like backwards rays of sunlight pointing from the wall into town on all sides. "That must be what he and Annie are talking about. Our people are shooting into the city!"
The response from us four Primers is an instantaneous, simultaneous, resounding "WHAT?"
"What, like riot control?" I ask. "Who the fuck authorized that?"
Kelly and Ty pale at the very thought of it.
"They're not shooting to kill, I hope?" But Gideon's voice, rising in pitch and almost reaching pre-transition levels, betrays how faint that hope is.
"On my way." Paul presses his comm. "Okay, guys, I gotta stay behind. Annie needs me to help her recalibrate the guns, 'cause they're apparently going off on their own-"
Freddie shakes his head. "Peppermint fucks. But why not me? Or, hell, why not Harlan, at least?"
"I asked about Harlan. He's...missing." Paul opens the door and lets us out. "Annie specifically asked for me, though. Freddie, you need to go with these guys. She said they might need you more than she does."
"Then who's gonna be my other hombre de temblores, I wonder?" Gideon scratches his head.
"I will." Kelly raises her hand. "Even though I'm no hombre, but I can play with plants like you wouldn't believe. And considering what's surrounding this place on all sides, you could use me."
Gideon's eyes widen in wonder. And maybe a bit of professional land-elemental jealousy. "You're hired."
"Then you need a wingsuit." Freddie looks Kelly up and down really fast, prompting me and Ty to both deliver death glares even though we both know why he's doing it. "Yeah, my spare will fit on you. Maybe a little tight in the chest and hips, but if you can handle that-"
"I'll take it," Kelly says through tightly pursed lips. "I mean, it's not gonna be that sleek and sexy model Fionna had on, right?"
"You didn't see any of her suit," Ty says. "Besides her wings."
"She said it was like a Spider-Man suit. What's sexier than a Spider-Man suit?"
Looks like both Jacksons have the fangasm gene, and I'm having a hard time deciding which of them expresses it more adorably.
"All right, let's go." Freddie quickens his pace, running ahead of the rest of us. "My spare suit's in my locker. Sorry you're about to get a real crash course..."
His voice fades into the background for me as I pass by the first of many windows. Yeah, the guns are firing into the streets below, ice-blue bolts of light impacting on asphalt - but not the crowds, thank God. There are probably people who've been shot down there, but I can't see any, and in any case, the crowds are backed away from the fire zone.
I think they might've stampeded to get away from the guns. Gideon's standing by my side, looking out the window, equally horrorstruck.
"There you are!" Annie Troy herself runs up to us and snaps her fingers to get Paul's attention. "Come with me!"
"Okay, I'll catch up with you guys later," Paul says. "Before you go home, right?"
"Don't make promises you can't keep," Kelly says.
I'm the first to complete the line, and now it's my turn to get a short but deadly look from Ty. "'Yeah, but those are the best kind.'"
Paul leaves with Annie, and the rest of us wait until Freddie returns with his armored suit in hand. He also has fresh earpieces for all of us who are going to fly. "You might wanna put it on right away," he says as he hands the suit to Kelly. "It'll fit over your regular clothes, don't worry."
"Not under, huh?" She jumps on the spot as she slides the pants up first one leg, then the other. "This really ain't so sexy."
"It's not the new prototype." Freddie shrugs. "Paul and I were dying to try them out, but I sort of remember Harlan said one of them was stolen..."
Ty and I exchange glances. "Penner."
"Who's that?"
"A creepy-ass bureaucrat-bot, that's who," I say.
Kelly puts the jacket on and zips it up. "How do I do the wings?"
"Give it a moment. It's gotta sync up to your brain."
Her eyes go wide. "What? You mean to tell me this thing connects to my brain? How? Since when are brains Wi-Fi enabled?"
"Microneedles in the spine." Freddie sets off down the hall until we find another elevator, where he hits the button to summon it. "They divert a tiny percentage of your neurological impulses into the wings. And since you're a new user, they gotta take a moment to calibrate to your specific biochemistry."
"Hope it's a good imitation of the real thing," I say.
"Are you kidding me? It's clunky as hell compared to what Harlan promised in those prototypes."
Kelly finally gets to spread her wings in the last second before the elevator opens. Then she retracts them and says, "Clunky or no, a girl could get used to this."
"I'd almost be jealous of you," Ty laughs, "but then again, I get to drive." He twirls the Taurus keys around his finger.
Soon, we're back on ground level, walking through a motor pool until we find our ride waiting for us in the middle of a sea of various models that, depending on which crime dramas you watch, have been used as cop cars somewhere. "Wait for us to drive out before following us in the air," Freddie says. "And Kelly? Careful not to glide too long. Remember to flap at least every five seconds, okay?"
"Challenge accepted."
Ty and Freddie get into the Taurus and drive out. Slowly at first, so the rest of us can follow. Then when they open the gate and drive out, Gideon, Kelly, and I extend our wings and start flying. We have to stay behind for a moment or two while Kelly hovers, getting a feel for flight. Then she takes off ahead of us boys, streaking through the air behind the Taurus.
I stretch one arm out, feeling the wires of elemental power coursing through the river fifty feet away. They get stronger the closer to the water I get, and even though I've worked so much with ice instead of liquid water lately, it's like riding a bike - my earliest elemental lessons in grade school, I'll never forget.
Next stop - track down the Black Mirror.
If only Fionna and Gabe were here...but since they're not, we have to step up for them.