9.
The Story
Mirror Jackie gathered them into the meeting room again, bringing Mirror Digit along. Once they were all there and comfortably seated, she activated a large screen and opened a transmission. After a momentary pause, Mirror Inez's face appeared on the screen, looking worried.
"Jackie!" Mirror Inez exclaimed, "What's happened? I just got word that Cyberspace is on full alert?"
"The Alliance was attacked." Mirror Jackie explained. "We've lost contact with it. Wicked's has us en route to it's last known position to investigate. We won't really start having any ideas as to what has happened until then."
"Who attacked?" Mirror Inez asked.
"That we do know." Mirror Jackie said. She looked at her feet for a moment, before answering, "Earth forces attacked the Alliance."
Mirror Inez frowned, and looked away. In doing so, she noticed who else was in the room.
"Jackie." Mirror Inez suddenly said, "Why am I seeing double?"
Mirror Jackie turned to Matt and Inez, who had been waiting for their turn to speak patiently. "Well, it's a bit of a long story." Jackie said. "In short, they're from a parallel universe."
"You mean an alternate reality?" Mirror Inez asked. "A universe like our own, but different in little varying ways?"
"At least someone in this universe understands it well." Matt muttered under his breath.
Inez elbowed him.
"Amazing!" Mirror Inez was going on to say, looking the two over. "They don't look any different from our own Matt, and myself." she focused her attention on her double for a moment. "I look good." she said, sounding pleased.
Inez blushed.
"How alike is their universe to ours?" Mirror Inez asked next.
"In some ways worse." Mirror Jackie answered, giving Matt and Inez an apologetic look. "In most ways, better."
This made Matt and Inez look up in surprise. Up until this point, they though this universe was far better than their own. So what could be better in their universe than in this one?
"Better, how?" Mirror Inez asked.
Mirror Jackie leaned on the table in front of her. "They don't have a CSRW Alliance of any kind there." She explained. "The Real World is still oblivious to Cyberspace's existence there."
Mirror Inez looked at Matt and Inez. "Consider yourself lucky." she said.
Matt and Inez looked at each other. "I don't understand." Inez said. "How is not having this Cyberspace/Real World Alliance make our universe better? Seems to me that it's too good to be true here."
"That's exactly it." Mirror Inez said. "It is too good to be true. The CSRW Alliance is nowhere near as perfect as it may seem. In fact, it's the only thing standing in the way of total chaos. Think of it as a dam, if you will. One that is just about to break."
"If it hasn't already." Mirror Digit added.
"But I don't get it either." Matt said, standing. "What's gone wrong?"
"Matt, the CSRW Alliance should've never happened when it did." Mirror Jackie explained. "It should've happened years from now. But it didn't, and now we're facing the consequences."
"Why? Why does when it formed matter?" Inez asked.
"Because when it formed, neither the Real World nor Cyberspace was ready to unite like that." Mirror Inez explained. "Motherboard always feared that we simply weren't ready, and had the choice been left up to her, she wouldn't have let things go as they have."
"But she didn't have that choice." Matt guessed.
"No, she didn't." Mirror Jackie agreed. "She couldn't get the evidence to prove it then. Now she's probably got tons, but it's too late."
"But you couldn't have stopped this from happening." Inez said. "I mean, it was a scientist from the Real World that got the ball rolling, right? How could you have stopped him from doing that?"
At this point, Mirror Inez, Digit, and Jackie all bent their heads, avoiding eye contact.
"Inez," Mirror Digit finally began, "That scientist only figured out how to get into the Real World because he got a SKWAK pad."
Inez's eyes widened. "Who's?" she asked, bewildered.
"Mine."
Everyone turned to look at Mirror Inez.
