One
In Thy Revelation
The temple is dark and damp as Doc Saturday sets up some lamps in the temple interior. My mom enters the temple and is amazed by the writing on the wall. "Amazing," she said.
"I can't believe you found this temple on your first backpacking adventure," Doc said.
"Have you had any luck translating the writing on the walls?" I asked.
"No luck. The hieroglyphics aren't Aztec or Mayan. I compared them to the writing on the British Museum's Rosetta Stone and it doesn't match," he answered.
"There was something in the centre, but it was gone before I arrived," I said.
"We'll keep analysing the writings," he said.
We head back to the ship. Later that night, dad was analysing the writing on on his computer. I entered the room. "Still no luck?" I asked.
"I checked every note the Secret Scientists have made over the years and there's a match. A Secret Scientist named Alonso Juarez," he answered.
"Who's Alonso Juarez?" I asked.
"Alonso was a good man. His field of expertise was time and interdimensional travel. He disappeared twenty years ago, this was before you were born," he answered.
"Have you ever tried to find him?" I asked.
"We tried, but to no success. He was declared dead and his research was confiscated on the orders of the U.S. government," he answered.
"Well, it's been a busy day and I'm calling it a day. I'm going to bed." Sometime later, I slept and I found myself in a dimension and I see Kur. "Kur, is that you?" I asked.
It's been a few years since my defeat and all of the cryptids disappeared.
"How is your still alive?" I asked.
Let's just say a part of consciousness cling onto your mind. The writings you encountered of that one of The Five.
"The Five?" I asked.
Before time began, there were five advance races. Each of them ruling a piece of the multiverse. In time, disagreement and bitterness destroyed them. Now there's a new problem. I recently felt a psychic disturbance and there's a new evil rising. Help me destroy it!
"Why should I believe you? You nearly destroyed the world," I asked.
That was different, I was trying the balance the scales of order and chaos. Besides, this enemy cares about destroying all life. I need your help Zak.
"What do you want?" I asked.
I need your body; I'll return it once the deed is done.
"You seem to be telling the truth. You got yourself a deal," I said.
Well played.
I woke up, knowing Kur has now full control of my body. "Just like old times." I left the ship, back in my conscience, I spoke to Kur. "Okay, where should we start?" I asked.
It sounds like Alonso Juarez is your only hope.
"You heard what dad said. He disappeared twenty years ago," I said.
You assume too much. There's a saying that it takes a smart man to notice something is wrong and an idiot not to do anything about it. Well, I'm the smart man here by searching for Alonso, while your parents and the rest of the Secret Scientists are the idiot for assuming he's dead. There's more to this.
Morning came; my parents are worried that I vanished. "What happened to you, Zak," Drew said.
"I analysed the security camera footage and Kur has possessed him again," Doc said.
"Kur, but I thought he was destroyed," she said.
"So did I, the question is where are they?" he wondered.
Over in New York at the former home of Alonso Juarez, I entered the apartment and began removing dust sheets off the furniture and office equipment. I spoke to Kur again. It looks like Alonso was ahead of his time.
"Yeah, it looks like he was working on something big." I inspected the chalk board. "Way big, I recognise these markings. There are the same ones I discovered in that temple in the Amazon jungle," I said.
I picked up a notebook and read the contents. Interesting, Alonso was analysing the reports from the Tutankhamen archaeological dig and the deaths of the two archaeologists who discovered the tomb.
"Yeah, he was also analysing the coroner's report into their deaths. Howard Carter died from lymphoma, while the 5th Earl of Carnarvon died from blood poisoning. According to Alonso's notes, he discovered that both Howard and the Earl were actually poisoned," I said.
As I suspected, they were murdered and the suspects covered up the deaths by fabricating the coroner's reports and the so called Curse of the Pharaohs.
A squad of mercenaries burst into the apartment, Winston Pearce then enters the room. "Well now, this is unexpected. I was hoping it would be Alonso entering his home, but I was wrong," he said.
"And you are?" I asked.
"Winston Pearce, you must be Zak Saturday. My friends warned me about you and the fact you're Kur reincarnated," he answered.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"You see, we're after a certain individual. You might heard of him, his name is Alonso Juarez," he answered.
"And what do you want with him?" I asked.
"I rather not give away the grim details, but he's considered to be a potential threat. If you can help us, I might let you live," he answered.
All of the sudden, a man appears in front of me, grabs the mercenary's gun and he fires into the ceiling. "Run!" he shouted.
I fled the area. Hours passed and I found myself in Chinatown. The man I encountered in the apartment teleported in front of me. "Thanks for saving my life," I said.
"Is it you or Kur thanking me?" he asked.
"You know about Kur?" I asked.
"Oh yes, I did specifically warn your parents to back off before things got out of hand. That was before I figured out how to travel across time and jump between parallel Earths and multiverses," he said.
"Then you're must be Alonso Juarez?" I asked.
"Indeed I am. I heard about the other Secret Scientists and I'm sorry. At least you managed to defeat V.V. Argost," Alonso answered.
I hate to ruin the moment, but we need your help. Something has arisen and we don't know what it is.
"Yeah I know, I've the last few months trying to figure it out. So far, they've been fluctuations in the time stream and unusual weather patterns affecting some parts of the multiverse. I guess I owe you a lot of answers. Since we're already in Chinatown, I know a good Chinese restaurant not far from here." Sometime later, we were at the restaurant Alonso recommended and we ate. "Ah, it's good to have noodles," he said.
"You weren't kidding about this place. The noodles are good. Now, I think you owe us some answers," I said.
"Right, as you know, I'm Alonso Juarez and I'm a Secret Scientist. My area of expertise is time travel and jumping over to parallel Earths and multiverses," he said.
How was it you were able to accomplish this?
"Twenty three years ago, I took an internship for the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle. I was accompanying an archaeological dig outside the city when I discovered this," he answered.
He places a fragment on the table and Kur recognises it. Where did you find it?
"It's like I said, at the dig site. I left my internship and began researching it. I soon discovered the writings on the fragment bear similarities to the hieroglyphics from Tutankhamen's tomb and other sites around the world. It took me three years to reverse engineer the fragment and that's where everything changed. I began exploring timelines, parallel worlds and everything you could imagine. In due time, it brought me unwanted attention from the Sliders," he said.
"The Sliders?" I asked.
"You met them earlier back in my old apartment. They're sort of like the police, the difference is they protect the multiverses and kill anyone who's a threat. Also, they kill anyone who attempts to figure the means to travel to and from multiverses," he answered.
"I'm surprised you survived this long," I said.
"I know, as a result from my travels. I learned the origin and the actual name of the fragment. It's a fragment of the Arc Cube. According to my research, it's an unlimited energy source. Not only that, it's also capable of storing coordinates to other multiverses, there's a side effect. The storage capacity is limited. It can store up to at least a hundred coordinates," he said.
"You must've had a lot of adventures," I said.
"It's been a thrill ride, but now there's a new problem. An event occurred on a multiverse not far from ours. The event kind of triggered an energy ripple, sending it through various points in time and space. It intentionally set something free and I do not know what it is. I was able to track the energy signature to the Amazon jungle here," he said.
"Wait a minute, there's a temple there," I said.
"Tell me, was there anything inside?" he asked.
"No there wasn't, but there was some writing dad couldn't make sense," I answered.
"Does the writing look anything on the fragment?" he asked.
"Yeah it does," I answered.
"It's nothing; I think we're done here. I'll go and pay for the meal," he said.
Alonso went over to the counter to pay. I then spoke with Kur. "So, what do you think?" I asked.
I never thought a human would be able to find a fragment to the Arc Cube. If the fragment was here, then the Sliders must've known something.
"I'm more concerned about their motives. Protecting the multiverse at the cost of killing a whole lot of people. It doesn't make sense," I said.
Such a brutal motive for a clandestine organisation. That Winston Pearce isn't from this multiverse. What I don't get is, how is it they were to travel here. If my history is correct, all of the multiverses are locked. Per se for a few artefacts such as that fragment of the Arc Cube. We need to make our next move carefully. It won't take the Sliders long to figure out what we're doing.
We left the restaurant only to be confronted by my mom and dad. "Well now, fancy meeting you here, Kur," Doc said.
It's been a while. If you excuse us, we got a world to save.
"Wait, us?" Drew then recognises Alonso. "Alonso, is that you?" Drew asked.
"Drew, my, you have aged," Alonso said.
"I don't believe my eyes. You really are alive," he said.
While this may sound very touching, but time is on the essence. We shouldn't be out in the open.
A helicopter flew in front of us. "Put your hands where I can see them!" Winston yelled through the megaphone.
Alonso then uses a device on his wrist to teleport us out of harm's way. We found ourselves in London. "What did you do, Alonso?" Doc asked.
"In case you haven't notice, I just saved us." He checks the device. "We're in London, 1898," he said.
"Did we just time travelled?" Drew asked.
"We did. I know a good place where we can lay low. Assuming the Sliders haven't figured out when we are," he answered.
"Ah dude, I can't believe you quoted a time traveller cliché," I said.
We head over to a house Alonso owns. He shuts the curtains and he sits down on the couch. "You got a lot of nerve showing up," Doc said.
"We literally thought you were dead," she said.
"I know this is a bad time for a reunion. But we got bigger problems to worry about," he said.
"Like the fact Zak is possessed by Kur," Doc said.
It would seem your attitude hasn't changed much in the last few years. Days ago, I felt a psychic disturbance. I don't know what it is, but I require Zak's help, along with Alonso's.
"Why should we believe you?" she asked.
"Let me ask you something. Has there been a change in weather patterns lately?" Alonso asked.
"Well, there have been severe hurricane and wind storms in Egypt. And there's been a heat wave in Moscow," Doc answered.
"Then the effects to whatever is causing this have begun. For twenty years, I've explored numerous timelines, parallel Earths and multiverses," he said.
"Wait, parallel Earths, multiverses?" Drew said.
"Doesn't that violate the known laws of physics?" Doc answered.
"Normally it would, but I'm surprised that the laws don't apply to travelling to parallel Earths. With time travel, you need to be extremely careful due to a number of things. Most of which involves the butterfly effect and the grandfather paradox. During my adventures, I gained unwanted attention from a clandestine group known as the Sliders," Alonso said.
"You mean the guy in helicopter?" Doc asked.
"Exactly, they're sort of like the police. The difference is they protect multiverses and are willing to kill people who try to harm them," he answered.
"So what now?" Drew asked.
We then travelled back to the present and we're in a warehouse. Alonso opens the warehouse and he turns the lights on. We noticed the warehouse contains a part of his research. "I thought your research was confiscated by the government?" Doc asked.
"I allowed them to keep a part of the research. As for the rest, I chose to store here. This warehouse contains some of the research I conducted throughout the years. Before and after I began exploring," he answered.
"Wait you came back here every now and then and didn't bother to tell us," Doc yelled.
"You had your own problems. I had mine. Before this mess, I was investigating Nikola Tesla's scientific endeavours," he said.
"Wasn't he that guy who discovered alternating current?" I asked.
"Much more, he was working in the same field as I am. He was working on something big before Edison and the Sliders discredited him," he answered.
"Wait, you mean to tell me that Edison deliberating electrocuted that elephant just to discredit Tesla?" Drew asked.
"It was the Slider's idea, not Edison's. The reason was that Tesla was getting close to discover universal travel. It would've changed the course and the way we think as well," he answered.
"That poor creature," she said.
There's one I don't get, who are the Sliders?
"Ever since I've been on their scopes. I've been trying to figure it out, but to no success. Their origin is a complete mystery and it's something that's been haunting me for the last fifteen years," he answered.
"What was the motive behind Tesla's research?" Doc asked.
"Before Tesla emigrated to the U.S. He had an encountered with one of the Sliders after an accident killed a fellow colleague of the Slider. Tesla kept the encounter a secret for fear of a political uprising," he answered.
"I think you're crazy," Doc said.
"I understand your scepticism, Solomon. The final part to this story is a mystery. Tesla was working on something during the final years of his life. He kept the contents of his final protect a secret to the outside world and that's what I want to find out. Who knows, we may figure out why the Sliders are pursuing us. Throughout his life, Tesla kept in contact with a friend of his in Paris, France. Her name is Celestine Saul; she lived in Paris until her death. Before he died, he donated some of his notes to her for safekeeping. She died a few years later and the whereabouts of the notes are unknown, until now," he said.
"Where are they?" she asked.
"According to my sources, they're stored in the Paris Sorbonne University, right in the archives department," he answered.
"I might know someone who can get us in," she said.
A day later in one of the Paris Sorbonne University buildings, Doyle Blackwell was going through his notes and working out the equations. "No, it can't be right," he said.
"You forgot to carry the one," Drew said.
He turns at looks at Drew. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes," he said.
"So this is what you doing. Teaching undergraduates, I never pictured you for a teacher," she said.
"After Kur and the cryptids disappeared, there wasn't much work for a gun for hire. So I went back to college, got a teaching degree and took up a job here." The rest of us entered the lecture hall. He then recognises. "How have you grown, Zak," he said.
It has been a few years.
Doyle is startled by the voice. "Who is that?" He then figures it out. "Wait, is that Kur. The last time we encountered him. He didn't speak," he said.
It took me a while to learn how to speak. We need access to the archives.
"And why should I listen to you?" he asked.
"Believe it or not, some of Nikola Tesla's notes are stored in the archives. And there's a shadowy clandestine organisation bent on stopping us from discovering it's secrets," Alonso answered.
"Who is this guy?" he asked.
"He's a Secret Scientist, this is Alonso Juarez," Drew answered.
"I heard of him. Van Rook mentioned him once or twice during a conversation regarding the laws of time travel," he said.
We head over to the archives. Inside the room, Doyle showed where the documents are. "The archives here are amazing," Doc said.
"Some of the documents have been in here much longer than I have. According to what the Dean told me. Celestine was a patron to the university and has donated a lot of her documents before she died. I had no idea that some of the notes were actually Nikola Tesla's," Doyle said.
"Yeah it's hard to believe." Alonso then finds what he's looking for. "Got it, this is one of many journals Nikola kept." He opens it up, finds the passage and reads it. "According to the entry, Nikola encountered a man in black and carry some unusual gun. The man in black died suddenly from a explosion. Hmm, his blaster must've backfired, that explains a lot. Nikola spent some of his life trying to reverse engineer the blast, but to no success," he said.
We then hear noises. "Oh no, they're here," Drew said.
Outside the room, the Sliders surrounded the area and Winston enters the area. His cell phone rings and he answers. "Hey boss," he said.
"I heard you found Alonso and what's even better is you found where one of Nikola Tesla's journals is. I want the journal, the Saturdays and Alonso alive," the voice said on the phone.
Back in the room, Alonso puts the journal into his bag and we left the room. We were confronted by Winston and the Sliders. "Well, well, look have we got here. The Saturdays, Doyle and the Sliders most wanted man. Take them into custody, our employer wants a word with them," he said.
We were arrested and taken to a former army base in Russia. We were unloaded and taken into a room. "Where are we?" Doc wondered.
"Welcome to Purgatory, Solomon," a voice said.
The lights turned on and everyone recognised him. "V.V. Argost, you're alive?" Doc said in shock.
"I maybe V.V. Argost, but I'm not the one you know and hate," V.V said.
"You're from a parallel Earth?" Alonso said.
"I was, until it got destroyed in a calamity centuries ago. You got a lot of nerve scrounging artefacts from those who came before," he said.
"I was doing my job. Explore; gather data, nothing more, nothing less. Until you lot showed up and gave me grief for the last eighteen years," Alonso said.
"And you could've triggered an apocalyptic event that'll shake the multiverses to their cores," he said.
"Wait, multiverses?" Doyle asked.
"Alonso's are of expertise is time and interdimensional travel. He figured out a way to travel to different timelines and parallel Earths. That reminds me, hand over the fragment of the Arc Cube, Dr. Juarez," he said.
"Do as the man says, Alonso," Winston said.
"There's something I want to know. Why are you doing this?" Drew asked.
"To protect the multiverses of course," he answered.
"You may mean well, but killing others will not solve this," she said.
"Ah come on, this is V.V. Argost. He doesn't care for the consequences," Doc said.
"I do care for the consequences, Solomon. Every action Alonso makes brings more calamity to the multiverses." They hear something beeping. "What was that?" he asked.
Alonso gets a device out. "I placed beacons around different parts of the multiverse. I tuned the scanner to pick up any unusual activity and it just did," Alonso answered.
"Where?" Winston asked.
"It's in Northeast China, near the China/North Korea border," he answered.
V.V. brings the image on screen and everyone is shocked to see a village being attacked. Everyone recognised the perpetrator on the screen. "Is that Van Rook?" I asked.
"He's supposed to be dead," Doyle said.
"Hmm, it looks like whoever is responsible for the attacks had successfully made a clone of Van Rook," Alonso said.
"A clone, yeah right. You've been reading too many science fiction novels," Doyle said.
"Dr. Juarez is correct." V.V. then opens a portal behind them. "Here, this portal should lead to the China/North Korea border. Go, now!" V.V. shouted.
We entered the portal and landed near the China/North Korea border. The village is in ruins after the attack. Alonso checks his devices. "The energy matches the one I encountered several months ago. But it's not the same guy, someone's pulling the strings," Alonso said.
"I don't get it, why attack a single village?" Doc wondered.
I searched the area and discovered something. Interesting, the villager's were guarding the temple. It matches the ones discovered in the Amazon and Egypt.
"I wonder what's inside?" Doc wondered.
We entered the temple and began exploring the temple. Alonso gets his notebook out and reads his notes. He checks the hieroglyphics out and they're match to the hieroglyphics on the wall. "The translations is pretty much the same in the other temples," Alonso said.
"You've seen these before?" Drew asked.
"Too often. I had a close call on a parallel Earth not too long ago. The temple began to collapses after many years of being exposed to the elements. Something doesn't add up. There's nothing, just the same hieroglyphics." Alonso realises something. "Oh no, we've been lured into a trap," Alonso said.
Van Rook sneaked up behind Alonso and grabs him. "My employer wants something you have. Surrender the Arc Cube fragment," Van Rook ordered.
"Do you really think I give it up that easily? You're being deceived; your employer doesn't care for the well being of the Multiverse. All he and the other Elder Ones care about is restoring balance. Balance that can destroy all life throughout the the multiverse," Alonso said.
"It is clear you know too much. No matter." Van Rook throws a grenade that opens various portals up. It sucked the Saturday's into the portals. "Now then, with them out of the picture." He stuns Alonso with a taser and falls into a coma. "My employer would like to see you," Van Rook said.
To Be Continued?