Haze & Chaos - Reunion A Part 11
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Antares groaned a little and started drumming his fingers on the table. “Can we force Valentin to join The Liger Brigade, and further force him into my squad so I can keep an eye on him?”
Aalders gave him a slightly incredulous look. “I mean–if Valentin wishes to join the Brigade, then I can arrange for him to be a part of your squad… Antares, we can’t just draft people willy-nilly like that–Will was a special case…”
Antares got up and banged his hands on the table. “General, I am getting tired of people under my watch going out and getting into trouble…”
“Antares, I have no plans to do anything as crazy as my previous quest,” Valentin stated in defense of his honor. “That was a once in a lifetime deal…”
“Yeah, don’t you think you’re being a little harsh at the moment?” Morrigan criticized.
“Out of line, Devilfay,” Antares shot back. “And would you two like to see Will’s track record? You would?” He could tell he had backed them into a corner and smiled with smug, devilish glee. “I’m invoking full FOIA here–I want these two to be given a full dossier on Will’s mission history–even the Men In Black stuff–and you’ll all see exactly why I am fed up with Will just running off on his own!” the Lt. Colonel huffed as he sat back down in his chair with a bit of force.
“Geez, what are you, my mother?” Will quietly chided with a smile on his face.
“Excuse me, Private Ford?”
“Okay, enough gentlemen!” Aalders laughed. “Valentin, would you like to become a special agent of The Liger Brigade? Your newfound expertise would be invaluable to us.”
Valentin gave a polite bow. “Well if you will have me, then absolutely. And I wouldn’t mind working more with Will and Sam.”
“Then so be it, General Aalders,” Dryden said in agreement, with his fellow general nodding.
Will then realized something he wanted to show Valentin. “Oh, Valentin, about that wild card you gave me… hold on a second–where is it?”
“Curious, what have you done with it?” he wondered.
“Dang it, I don’t have it… Nez!” Will then snapped his fingers, causing it to appear in the air. “Ah, here it is! Check it out–Blood turned it into a hex that turns me into Azure Spider.”
Valentin took the card and inspected it, a proud smile growing on his face. “Well done, Will, this is quite impressive. I heard about how you turned into a giant spider, and to know you did it with one my original hexes is quite the honor. I knew it was a good idea to give one to you,” he said as he handed it back. “If I may ask since I’ve been in The Unlight for… oh, five or six years–maybe more, has anything happened here on Earth in the time I’ve been gone?” He smiled, feeling a bit smug towards their enemies. “Have we finally barreled head first into the gambling hellhole the elites wanted us in?”
The others were a little confused at first, but slowly began to realize what he was referring to. Antares chuckled. “Well if you’re referring to prediction markets, that entire industry fell on its face flatter than a run over pancake.”
Valentin paused as he felt his face heat up a little. “Pardon?”
“I see what you’re getting at, but that scheme didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of taking off–and honestly I have no idea what The Extinction Order was even thinking with that dumbshittery…”
“Wait, what?” Valentin was growing confused, as he had it on good word that their enemies were trying to go down the route of gambling addictions. “But… but I–I thought that was going to be the MO of control–keeping everyone poor and in a state of panic, all the while forcing people to spend their government-allotted funds so they can use it as a self-fulfilling prophecy to control people…”
Will and Antares both had a ‘not that shit again’ look on their faces, as Valentin was touching upon a very real issue the two had been plugged into for some time. Antares shook his head with a smile–while they needed to correct Valentin right then and there, they could at least do it while setting his worries at ease. “Good lord, I’m going to need a smoke–anyone got a picture of that stupid VP I can shoot?” Valentin leaned back a little, worrying that he had offended the group somehow.
Aalders cleared his throat to get Valentin’s attention since Antares was still a little hyper. “Well that was certainly one idea a faction of The Extinction Order had in mind…”
Dryden took a sip of his wine and savored the flavor for a second. “Utterly horrific infighting, if you ask me. And not even good for us because they would find some cockamamie way to use it against the American people.”
Feeling like he could explain it best, Will got Valentin’s attention so he could speak. “For a moment I thought it was going to be compelled gambling too–you know, they get us all on ‘social credit’ and then punish us for gambling despite punishing us for not gambling… but in actuality it seems like AI development and data center construction was the way those authoritarian nutcases wanted to go…”
“Like these primates could actually build a Terminator–no offense,” Haze cut in with a chuckle.
That made Will laugh too. “None taken. And I’m not just pulling this out of my rear. Because of the Brigade’s work, I was made privy to what was going on, and the uniparty was going all in on AI datacenters–inefficient warehouses full of computers that… Okay, honestly I have no idea what they would have done other than run for the sake of running. The idea was to wreck the home computer market, destroy local environments, cause people to become sickly and crazed from the datacenter side effects, and blow a hole in the housing market to force everyone into the cities…”
Will stopped as soon as he saw Sam turn back into Morrigan, of which she yelled “THAT HAS THAT BASTARD’S NAME WRITTEN ALL OVER IT–DAMN YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL, KARNAGE!!” This caught everyone off guard as an intense, albeit harmless aura of purple flames erupted around her. What worried everyone was actually the fact that she was shaking the entire room.
“Goodness–is she going to be alright?!” Conquests interjected.
Will panicked, but acted quickly and gave her a hug to calm her down. “Easy, Sam, easy–all of that stuff has been stopped, don’t worry. We were taking care of it before The Red River City Incident…”
Morrigan felt her emotions simmering down, reverting back to Sam. “Sorry, sorry… thanks, Boyo.”
Antares shook his head and scratched the back of his hair with a chuckle. “You wouldn’t believe how much we had to manage Will to keep from leaking what we were doing while we went behind the scenes and put a stop to those monstrosities waiting to happen.”
Kyu nodded, recalling uneasy memories of the time. “Oh yeah, I remember that… Will was really losing sleep over that nonsense…” Sam also nodded, as she did a lot to help keep Will at ease during that period.
“Hold up a second,” Faustus interrupted with a lurking suspicion. “They weren’t going to try and bring those to Inferno, were they?” Mira was nodding along, feeling the same anxiety her husband felt.
“Absolutely,” Dyrden answered as he sent his glass away in a puff of smoke. “and The Profane Alliance were going to disguise themselves as champions of the people to take advantage of grifting sentiments amongst the religious and new age believers in order to invade Inferno. You’re aware of the current surge of video games centering around conquering Hell, yes?”
Faustus felt a gasket in his head blow as let out a burst of smoke and embers from his gritted teeth. Thankfully he held the rage in and turned it into a facepalm. “I’m going to puke if I see one more supposedly-civilized mouth breather keep slandering us Inferno denizens as selfish soul devourers… AND CALLING US ANGELS ON TOP OF THAT.”
“Wait, what do you have against angels?” Will asked, a little concerned, and it was like Zasiel himself was standing in the room with them.
With Faustus stumbling over his words after realizing his gaffe, Mira stepped in. “No no, sweetie, we have nothing against angels. It’s just differences between the realms–we don’t appreciate the confusion and conflation.” There was a bit of an awkward silence…
Bethany bubbled her lips, wanting to comment on something that was bugging her as she leaned on the back of her chair. “I’m going to warn all of you that if those nutcases ever brought those ‘data centers’ to Mt. Steadyrock, I would’ve dropped what I was doing with Sebastian and Uncle Valentin to go make Paranormal Activity look like a wholesome family movie…”
“So what–Event Horizon then?” Will wondered with an evil chuckle.
“JESUS–NOT THAT FAR!” Bethany cried, utterly flabbergasted. This made everyone laugh and helped defuse the tension.
Aalders tapped his podium to regain everyone’s attention. “Either way the data center push has been halted with so much red tape that it would make a bureaucrat blush…”
“GOOD,” Will interrupted. “Because those tyrants were planning on labeling anyone who opposed those abominations as a domestic terrorist or a radical extremist, courtesy of the FBI and DHS…”
Barry had the most incredulous look on his face. “For not wanting to be spied on?”
“EXACTLY–It was NEVER about protecting children!”
“As if they couldn’t get any more insufferable…” Antares groaned. “It’s legitimately getting that bad. And don’t even get me started on how Hector’s cohorts have been wanting to revoke people’s citizenship for criticizing them. Honestly, Valentin? You hopped out of the pot, into the frying pan, and back into the pot again.”
Dryden had a wiseguy idea pop into his head as he stroked his chin. “Aalders–would Lundberg, Donovan, and Ripper be against a take over from ENCOM to finally push these subversives out of the system?” Aalders laughed at that in a way that said he was not against the idea.
The look of anxiety on Valentin’s face was clear as day as he started shuffling his deck of hexes (the new one he had been given by Delphine prior to heading to the past). Truthfully it was starting to worry the group. “We-well, I’m definitely going to have to inform Lia of all of this when I go see her again… Speaking of which, General Aalders, I need to go see my beloved soon, as it's been about five years in her time and I promised I would see her again…”
Aalders smiled, hoping to shift the conversation to something more positive. “Ah yes, as our contacts in The Iron City have been mentioning a one Waramunt Cuyler. Oh, Antares–did you want to bring him along real quickly for what you wanted to show Will and Sam?”
“Finally…” Antares said as he stood up. “You actually came at the right time, Valentin… well kind of, but this timing is just fine. I need to show Will and Sam something, and I’m going to need you, Barry, Kyu, and Bethany to come along. You’re welcome to come too, Faustus, Mira…”
Fasutus had another lurking suspicion and turned to Barry. It took Barry a second, but he nodded and confirmed his suspicions. “Is it Lost Era related?”
“Yeah…” Antares answered with a nod.
“Yeah, no–that stuff hurts my brain… Let’s go check on Jack and Spruce, Mira. Call on us if you need us, Sport,” Faustus said as the couple left the briefing room.
“See you later, sweetie!” Mira called out.
Antares shrugged. “Fair enough. Bran, go check in with Rey and Trumna for me.”
“Aw, but I wanted to come too…” he groaned as he got up. “On it, Lt. Colonel. Will, Sam–call me later. Good day, Aalders,”
Haze chuckled as he left. “Working hard or hardly working, am I right?”
Antares laughed. “Are you just going to randomly pop off with oneliners?” he inquired as they left, with Aalders and Dryden going to speak to Milan and Conquest as the door was shut.
“Oh, I don’t know–I just feel pretty upbeat on a regular basis. I say I got it from Dunja.”
“Dunja would do that too,” Sam commented as they made their way down the hall. “Good lord, I miss her already.”
“Same,” Will added. “She’s a fantastic teacher too. Valentin, did you get to talk to her?”
“Well of course I spoke to her majesty, Will,” he answered with a little pride. “Given my role in protecting Lia, Odo, and Buster, it was only natural that I worked with The Blades of Dunja and the queen herself.”
Bethany was nodding along, liking the sound of Dunja. “Well I can’t wait to meet her too–she sounds like one cool lady. But first we got to do this… this… Antares, what are we going to look at?”
“I’ll say once we get back into Wing X,” he answered as they filed into the elevator.
“Oh, it’s one of those things…”
While everyone else seemed to be doing fine, Valentin was having a slight existential crisis. Evidently he was not fully informed on what had been going on in the world while he was on his quest for vengeance against Sebastian, and he carried this ignorance back in time with him. He felt such a strange mix of emotions because he told Lia, Odo, Buster, and the others things that were true, yet inaccurate. Naturally this had all sorts of ramifications for his reputation and the flow of time, and he could not shake the feeling that Sylvia and Delphine had done more to warn him. In haste and arrogance he had charged head first into an issue that was way beyond him and there was no going back. And then that realization hit him harder than it ever had in regards to his abandoned quest for revenge against Sebastian. Valentin was so deep in thought that he failed to realize that they were about to enter the section of Wing X Antares wanted to bring them to. His concentration was broken by a red-skinned alien boy who was trying to get his attention.
“Hey, Mr. Karpinnen?”
“Um, yes–me?” He glanced down and was a little startled. “Oh, hello there…”
“Hi, I’m Zarnak. Are you doing okay?”
“I was going to ask the same thing, kiddo,” said Antares. “What’s the matter, Valentin? Is it anything we can help with?”
Valentin glanced around at the group, each one of them having a concerned look on their face. “Hum, it’s not really something you can fix–rather just self-awareness kicking in…”
“It’s the time travel stuff, isn’t it?” Will questioned.
He sighed, knowing Will was in the same boat as he was. “Ah… yes…”
“Aw, don’t worry, Mr. Karpinnen,” Zarnak reassured. “It can’t be all that bad.”
Valentin smiled and chuckled. “Well either way there’s no going back now. So where are you from, Zarnak?”
“Sarnakk II, in the Triangulum galaxy–I’m a long way from home.” The boy then went over to the heavy, iron doors that said ‘PSAA UNIT - AUTHORIZED PERSONAL ONLY.’ “This is where the spooky stuff is, Mr. Karpinnen,” he said as he pointed at the emblazoned words. “Do you think you’re ready for this?”
“Haha–well given that I’m pretty sure I know what Antares wants to address, yes I am. Now you do realize it is quite dangerous here, right, Zarnak?”
The boy smiled and stepped away from the door. “I know, but I wanted to make sure Will, Sam, and Antares were okay.” He then hurried off to Rosaline. “I take it you guys are too busy to come to my birthday?”
Will smiled, then looked over to Antares who also smiled. “Well if another adventure doesn’t happen in there, we’ll swing by–how’s that sound?”
“Awesome!” said Zarnak with a fist pump. “See you guys later!”
Barry quietly laughed. “Well I could certainly use a break from all of that action.”
“I’ll make it a mission then,” Antares declared with a laugh of his own as he entered a code into the keypad beside the doors after checking his communicator real quickly.
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ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
Antares groaned a little and started drumming his fingers on the table. “Can we force Valentin to join The Liger Brigade, and further force him into my squad so I can keep an eye on him?”
Aalders gave him a slightly incredulous look. “I mean–if Valentin wishes to join the Brigade, then I can arrange for him to be a part of your squad… Antares, we can’t just draft people willy-nilly like that–Will was a special case…”
Antares got up and banged his hands on the table. “General, I am getting tired of people under my watch going out and getting into trouble…”
“Antares, I have no plans to do anything as crazy as my previous quest,” Valentin stated in defense of his honor. “That was a once in a lifetime deal…”
“Yeah, don’t you think you’re being a little harsh at the moment?” Morrigan criticized.
“Out of line, Devilfay,” Antares shot back. “And would you two like to see Will’s track record? You would?” He could tell he had backed them into a corner and smiled with smug, devilish glee. “I’m invoking full FOIA here–I want these two to be given a full dossier on Will’s mission history–even the Men In Black stuff–and you’ll all see exactly why I am fed up with Will just running off on his own!” the Lt. Colonel huffed as he sat back down in his chair with a bit of force.
“Geez, what are you, my mother?” Will quietly chided with a smile on his face.
“Excuse me, Private Ford?”
“Okay, enough gentlemen!” Aalders laughed. “Valentin, would you like to become a special agent of The Liger Brigade? Your newfound expertise would be invaluable to us.”
Valentin gave a polite bow. “Well if you will have me, then absolutely. And I wouldn’t mind working more with Will and Sam.”
“Then so be it, General Aalders,” Dryden said in agreement, with his fellow general nodding.
Will then realized something he wanted to show Valentin. “Oh, Valentin, about that wild card you gave me… hold on a second–where is it?”
“Curious, what have you done with it?” he wondered.
“Dang it, I don’t have it… Nez!” Will then snapped his fingers, causing it to appear in the air. “Ah, here it is! Check it out–Blood turned it into a hex that turns me into Azure Spider.”
Valentin took the card and inspected it, a proud smile growing on his face. “Well done, Will, this is quite impressive. I heard about how you turned into a giant spider, and to know you did it with one my original hexes is quite the honor. I knew it was a good idea to give one to you,” he said as he handed it back. “If I may ask since I’ve been in The Unlight for… oh, five or six years–maybe more, has anything happened here on Earth in the time I’ve been gone?” He smiled, feeling a bit smug towards their enemies. “Have we finally barreled head first into the gambling hellhole the elites wanted us in?”
The others were a little confused at first, but slowly began to realize what he was referring to. Antares chuckled. “Well if you’re referring to prediction markets, that entire industry fell on its face flatter than a run over pancake.”
Valentin paused as he felt his face heat up a little. “Pardon?”
“I see what you’re getting at, but that scheme didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of taking off–and honestly I have no idea what The Extinction Order was even thinking with that dumbshittery…”
“Wait, what?” Valentin was growing confused, as he had it on good word that their enemies were trying to go down the route of gambling addictions. “But… but I–I thought that was going to be the MO of control–keeping everyone poor and in a state of panic, all the while forcing people to spend their government-allotted funds so they can use it as a self-fulfilling prophecy to control people…”
Will and Antares both had a ‘not that shit again’ look on their faces, as Valentin was touching upon a very real issue the two had been plugged into for some time. Antares shook his head with a smile–while they needed to correct Valentin right then and there, they could at least do it while setting his worries at ease. “Good lord, I’m going to need a smoke–anyone got a picture of that stupid VP I can shoot?” Valentin leaned back a little, worrying that he had offended the group somehow.
Aalders cleared his throat to get Valentin’s attention since Antares was still a little hyper. “Well that was certainly one idea a faction of The Extinction Order had in mind…”
Dryden took a sip of his wine and savored the flavor for a second. “Utterly horrific infighting, if you ask me. And not even good for us because they would find some cockamamie way to use it against the American people.”
Feeling like he could explain it best, Will got Valentin’s attention so he could speak. “For a moment I thought it was going to be compelled gambling too–you know, they get us all on ‘social credit’ and then punish us for gambling despite punishing us for not gambling… but in actuality it seems like AI development and data center construction was the way those authoritarian nutcases wanted to go…”
“Like these primates could actually build a Terminator–no offense,” Haze cut in with a chuckle.
That made Will laugh too. “None taken. And I’m not just pulling this out of my rear. Because of the Brigade’s work, I was made privy to what was going on, and the uniparty was going all in on AI datacenters–inefficient warehouses full of computers that… Okay, honestly I have no idea what they would have done other than run for the sake of running. The idea was to wreck the home computer market, destroy local environments, cause people to become sickly and crazed from the datacenter side effects, and blow a hole in the housing market to force everyone into the cities…”
Will stopped as soon as he saw Sam turn back into Morrigan, of which she yelled “THAT HAS THAT BASTARD’S NAME WRITTEN ALL OVER IT–DAMN YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL, KARNAGE!!” This caught everyone off guard as an intense, albeit harmless aura of purple flames erupted around her. What worried everyone was actually the fact that she was shaking the entire room.
“Goodness–is she going to be alright?!” Conquests interjected.
Will panicked, but acted quickly and gave her a hug to calm her down. “Easy, Sam, easy–all of that stuff has been stopped, don’t worry. We were taking care of it before The Red River City Incident…”
Morrigan felt her emotions simmering down, reverting back to Sam. “Sorry, sorry… thanks, Boyo.”
Antares shook his head and scratched the back of his hair with a chuckle. “You wouldn’t believe how much we had to manage Will to keep from leaking what we were doing while we went behind the scenes and put a stop to those monstrosities waiting to happen.”
Kyu nodded, recalling uneasy memories of the time. “Oh yeah, I remember that… Will was really losing sleep over that nonsense…” Sam also nodded, as she did a lot to help keep Will at ease during that period.
“Hold up a second,” Faustus interrupted with a lurking suspicion. “They weren’t going to try and bring those to Inferno, were they?” Mira was nodding along, feeling the same anxiety her husband felt.
“Absolutely,” Dyrden answered as he sent his glass away in a puff of smoke. “and The Profane Alliance were going to disguise themselves as champions of the people to take advantage of grifting sentiments amongst the religious and new age believers in order to invade Inferno. You’re aware of the current surge of video games centering around conquering Hell, yes?”
Faustus felt a gasket in his head blow as let out a burst of smoke and embers from his gritted teeth. Thankfully he held the rage in and turned it into a facepalm. “I’m going to puke if I see one more supposedly-civilized mouth breather keep slandering us Inferno denizens as selfish soul devourers… AND CALLING US ANGELS ON TOP OF THAT.”
“Wait, what do you have against angels?” Will asked, a little concerned, and it was like Zasiel himself was standing in the room with them.
With Faustus stumbling over his words after realizing his gaffe, Mira stepped in. “No no, sweetie, we have nothing against angels. It’s just differences between the realms–we don’t appreciate the confusion and conflation.” There was a bit of an awkward silence…
Bethany bubbled her lips, wanting to comment on something that was bugging her as she leaned on the back of her chair. “I’m going to warn all of you that if those nutcases ever brought those ‘data centers’ to Mt. Steadyrock, I would’ve dropped what I was doing with Sebastian and Uncle Valentin to go make Paranormal Activity look like a wholesome family movie…”
“So what–Event Horizon then?” Will wondered with an evil chuckle.
“JESUS–NOT THAT FAR!” Bethany cried, utterly flabbergasted. This made everyone laugh and helped defuse the tension.
Aalders tapped his podium to regain everyone’s attention. “Either way the data center push has been halted with so much red tape that it would make a bureaucrat blush…”
“GOOD,” Will interrupted. “Because those tyrants were planning on labeling anyone who opposed those abominations as a domestic terrorist or a radical extremist, courtesy of the FBI and DHS…”
Barry had the most incredulous look on his face. “For not wanting to be spied on?”
“EXACTLY–It was NEVER about protecting children!”
“As if they couldn’t get any more insufferable…” Antares groaned. “It’s legitimately getting that bad. And don’t even get me started on how Hector’s cohorts have been wanting to revoke people’s citizenship for criticizing them. Honestly, Valentin? You hopped out of the pot, into the frying pan, and back into the pot again.”
Dryden had a wiseguy idea pop into his head as he stroked his chin. “Aalders–would Lundberg, Donovan, and Ripper be against a take over from ENCOM to finally push these subversives out of the system?” Aalders laughed at that in a way that said he was not against the idea.
The look of anxiety on Valentin’s face was clear as day as he started shuffling his deck of hexes (the new one he had been given by Delphine prior to heading to the past). Truthfully it was starting to worry the group. “We-well, I’m definitely going to have to inform Lia of all of this when I go see her again… Speaking of which, General Aalders, I need to go see my beloved soon, as it's been about five years in her time and I promised I would see her again…”
Aalders smiled, hoping to shift the conversation to something more positive. “Ah yes, as our contacts in The Iron City have been mentioning a one Waramunt Cuyler. Oh, Antares–did you want to bring him along real quickly for what you wanted to show Will and Sam?”
“Finally…” Antares said as he stood up. “You actually came at the right time, Valentin… well kind of, but this timing is just fine. I need to show Will and Sam something, and I’m going to need you, Barry, Kyu, and Bethany to come along. You’re welcome to come too, Faustus, Mira…”
Fasutus had another lurking suspicion and turned to Barry. It took Barry a second, but he nodded and confirmed his suspicions. “Is it Lost Era related?”
“Yeah…” Antares answered with a nod.
“Yeah, no–that stuff hurts my brain… Let’s go check on Jack and Spruce, Mira. Call on us if you need us, Sport,” Faustus said as the couple left the briefing room.
“See you later, sweetie!” Mira called out.
Antares shrugged. “Fair enough. Bran, go check in with Rey and Trumna for me.”
“Aw, but I wanted to come too…” he groaned as he got up. “On it, Lt. Colonel. Will, Sam–call me later. Good day, Aalders,”
Haze chuckled as he left. “Working hard or hardly working, am I right?”
Antares laughed. “Are you just going to randomly pop off with oneliners?” he inquired as they left, with Aalders and Dryden going to speak to Milan and Conquest as the door was shut.
“Oh, I don’t know–I just feel pretty upbeat on a regular basis. I say I got it from Dunja.”
“Dunja would do that too,” Sam commented as they made their way down the hall. “Good lord, I miss her already.”
“Same,” Will added. “She’s a fantastic teacher too. Valentin, did you get to talk to her?”
“Well of course I spoke to her majesty, Will,” he answered with a little pride. “Given my role in protecting Lia, Odo, and Buster, it was only natural that I worked with The Blades of Dunja and the queen herself.”
Bethany was nodding along, liking the sound of Dunja. “Well I can’t wait to meet her too–she sounds like one cool lady. But first we got to do this… this… Antares, what are we going to look at?”
“I’ll say once we get back into Wing X,” he answered as they filed into the elevator.
“Oh, it’s one of those things…”
While everyone else seemed to be doing fine, Valentin was having a slight existential crisis. Evidently he was not fully informed on what had been going on in the world while he was on his quest for vengeance against Sebastian, and he carried this ignorance back in time with him. He felt such a strange mix of emotions because he told Lia, Odo, Buster, and the others things that were true, yet inaccurate. Naturally this had all sorts of ramifications for his reputation and the flow of time, and he could not shake the feeling that Sylvia and Delphine had done more to warn him. In haste and arrogance he had charged head first into an issue that was way beyond him and there was no going back. And then that realization hit him harder than it ever had in regards to his abandoned quest for revenge against Sebastian. Valentin was so deep in thought that he failed to realize that they were about to enter the section of Wing X Antares wanted to bring them to. His concentration was broken by a red-skinned alien boy who was trying to get his attention.
“Hey, Mr. Karpinnen?”
“Um, yes–me?” He glanced down and was a little startled. “Oh, hello there…”
“Hi, I’m Zarnak. Are you doing okay?”
“I was going to ask the same thing, kiddo,” said Antares. “What’s the matter, Valentin? Is it anything we can help with?”
Valentin glanced around at the group, each one of them having a concerned look on their face. “Hum, it’s not really something you can fix–rather just self-awareness kicking in…”
“It’s the time travel stuff, isn’t it?” Will questioned.
He sighed, knowing Will was in the same boat as he was. “Ah… yes…”
“Aw, don’t worry, Mr. Karpinnen,” Zarnak reassured. “It can’t be all that bad.”
Valentin smiled and chuckled. “Well either way there’s no going back now. So where are you from, Zarnak?”
“Sarnakk II, in the Triangulum galaxy–I’m a long way from home.” The boy then went over to the heavy, iron doors that said ‘PSAA UNIT - AUTHORIZED PERSONAL ONLY.’ “This is where the spooky stuff is, Mr. Karpinnen,” he said as he pointed at the emblazoned words. “Do you think you’re ready for this?”
“Haha–well given that I’m pretty sure I know what Antares wants to address, yes I am. Now you do realize it is quite dangerous here, right, Zarnak?”
The boy smiled and stepped away from the door. “I know, but I wanted to make sure Will, Sam, and Antares were okay.” He then hurried off to Rosaline. “I take it you guys are too busy to come to my birthday?”
Will smiled, then looked over to Antares who also smiled. “Well if another adventure doesn’t happen in there, we’ll swing by–how’s that sound?”
“Awesome!” said Zarnak with a fist pump. “See you guys later!”
Barry quietly laughed. “Well I could certainly use a break from all of that action.”
“I’ll make it a mission then,” Antares declared with a laugh of his own as he entered a code into the keypad beside the doors after checking his communicator real quickly.
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ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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