Beep beep beep
The anomaly detector went off at the ARC, and Jess went sliding around at the ADD, getting coordinates and any other information she could find. The screens of the ADD were alight with information, all of which she relayed to the team. "The anomaly has opened at Havana Middle School, I'm sending the coordinates now. And guys, hurry, school's in session!" Jess said, not wanting to watch a repeat of what happened to Beth with the Therocephalians "I'll try and hack the school surveillance cameras to give you eyes on the inside"
"Thanks Jess" Becker said before the team went to work.
One hour earlier (AU London, England)
The plains of England were desolate and dry, almost looking like the classic old western towns you see in old American westerns. They were abandoned, or at least nearly abandoned. In the middle of the plains a small army was fighting a much larger one, it was an impossible fight but they were holding their own. In the middle of the battle, 3 young women, none of them older than 25 or 26 years old, were fighting against several soldiers in ancient military armor.
"Parks! Watch out behind you!" one of the women called, as she shot 3 of the soldiers with a futuristic-looking gun. The youngest of the group spun at the warning, her chestnut curls flying around her face as she did so, and ducked just in time to avoid being decapitated by what looked like a broadsword.
"Thanks Abs" she said breathlessly before returning to the fight. All around them men were dying, both enemies and allies, and the battle seemed never-ending. Standing back-to-back on the edge of the battlefield, the girls knew that they couldn't keep up the fighting much longer.
"What is that" asked one of them, a middle-eastern girl of about 25, pointing at a shimmering light in the distance.
" It almost looks like another anomaly" Jess said, risking a glance at where the other girl had previously pointed.
"Let's see where it leads" Abby said "It can't be much worse than here. Paige, Parks, you guys agree?" The other 2 nodded in consent and set off running, not chancing a backwards glance. They kept running, not even stopping to jump through together.
"WHERE ARE WE!" They exclaimed, looking around the room at the faces of 30 or so shell-shocked children of about 10. They reassumed their back-to-back stance, raising their weapons to point in all different directions.
"Drop your weapons!" Becker yelled as he entered the classroom to see 3 beautiful women standing there, women who looked exactly like Jess, Abby and Sarah. They spun and tensed at the sound of his voice, all 3 of them pointing their various weapons at Becker and the team. Their eyes widened at the sight of them, but the flickers of recognition told the team that it wasn't shock from having huge guns pointed at them.
"What?" all 3 of them breathed, lowering their weapons in shock.
"This is impossible, we saw you die!" Paige exclaimed, gesturing wildly at Becker and Matt.
"I could say the same thing to you Sarah" Becker said back, equally as shocked as the girls.
"What are you talking about?" she said, raising her eyebrow in question.
"In the future, you were attacked by a future predator" he said, almost as if he was trying to convince himself of the fact.
"The future?" Parks, the girl who looked exactly like Jess, gasped "You have been to the future? And what is a future predator?" It was the ARC team's turn to looked confused.
"You haven't come across a future predator?" All three girls shook their heads "You need to come back to the ARC" Becker led them away and the team following, all totally forgetting about the class of shocked and scared children.
BACK AT THE ARC
The three girls started looking around the ARC talking to each other in a foreign language no one could understand.
"Do you think we're in the past?" Paige asked, looking around at the ARC, the clean, high-tech space a complete opposite to the ARC they were used to at home.
"No it's too different" Parks said, as she went around, pressing random buttons on random machines curiously "An alternate universe maybe" At that moment, Lester walked down the walkway, carefully hiding his shock at seeing Sarah alive, as well as duplicates of Abby and Jess.
"Hello I'm…" he started to say as he came within speaking distance of the new comers and his lead field team, but he didn't get the chance to finish.
"James Lester" interrupted Paige " We know who you are" Lester took the awkward silence to carefully study the 3 girls. They were covered from head to toe with dirt, blood and God knows what else, standing rigidly in military formation but looking nothing like soldiers in this London do. Their clothing, which consisted of a corset, pants and hiking boots in different colors, was ripped and torn, exposing a lot of skin but they either didn't notice or didn't care. They looked like they had just been fighting a war. At that moment, Connor skated in, doing a double take and falling off his skateboard when he saw the girls standing there.
"Who are they?" he asked, his eyes raking over their bodies, both studying them and checking them out at the same time.
"These are the girls that came though the anomaly at the school" Matt said, his usual mask in place.
"But they look exactly like Abby, Jess and… Sarah? We thought you were dead!" he exclaimed, his brain finally registering what his eyes had previously seen.
"Yeah, I've gotten that twice already" Paige said dryly, not impressed with the fact that everyone thinks she's dead, but understanding that this wasn't her world. The bustling city outside was proof enough of that. The rest of the team, especially Abby and Jess, were pretty much frozen in shock, looking at their doubles.