"So… uhh…" L paused, then thought aloud. "Do we need a base? Because I'm sure we can't just do these operations from our houses…"
"Why can't we just use one of yours?" Brittany commented.
"Why can't we use yours?" 3 put in.
"Because I'm apparently, like, 5'5", which is short for you guys."
"And?"
Brittany sighed. "I'm the tallest person I know. And I'm sure at least one of us wouldn't be able to make it through the door."
3 frowned. "Hey! I'm TALL, not fat!"
"That was my point, I don't know where you got the fat stuff from."
3 sighed.
"Well, Mario's gonna have a heart attack if YOU show up to the house," L pointed toward 3, then added, "even if you aren't trying to be menacing."
"Where are we gonna stay, then?" Brittany inquired.
"I have an unused basement." 3 remarked.
"Well, there we go! We will use your basement as our base of operations." Brittany ranted, not hearing anything 3 had to say about it.
Meanwhile…
Simon walked into the living room to find Amber, leaned over her comms system.
"Hey, come look at this… they're talking about meeting up." She pointed out.
Simon's head raced.
MEETING- No! Th-that… No! I can't speak to them like friends after I killed nearly two-thousand people!
Simon came to his senses and furrowed his brow.
"No, no, that doesn't s-seem like a good idea."
"Well, why not? I thought Alph was YOUR coworker first! We have to do SOMETHING!" Amber prodded.
"I… I think I've done enough. And you're in no shape to go out and fight people." Simon replied, turning to leave.
"I think I'm FINE. I don't know what's wrong with YOU, but I'm going to do something, and you w-"
"You're not going anywhere!" Simon shot, before pausing and calming himself. "Just… let me think about it. Okay?"
"...Okaaaaay…" She lied.
Simon slowly walked off, indefinitely suspect of Amber.
3 noticed the dissatisfied scowl on Brittany's face.
"What? Is my house THAT bad?"
"Yes." Both L and Brittany sighed.
"Aw…"
L slowly pushed open the basement.
"So THIS is your house. Is it weird to say I liked your murky apartment better?"
3 sighed.
"Meh. Here, I don't have to worry about some random guy asking me if I wanted drugs."
"Anyway…" L began, descending into the surprisingly empty basement, "now we have a place to do our work in secret!"
"Yeah, but where do we start?" Inquired Brittany.
"Well-" L began, only to be interrupted by the doorbell.
"Now, who in the world thinks it's a good idea to show up at…" 3 glanced at the nearest clock. "11:30 at night?!"
"You sure you got rid of that guy Y'know, the one with the- uhh… the goods?" L asked, accidentally causing himself to chuckle.
"Yes, he's gone! Now stay right here! I'll answer it." 3 left the basement, letting a force of habit get the best of her and shutting off the light behind her.
After 3 threw on some random crap from the closet, she nearly threw open the door and raised an eyebrow.
"Travis?!" She squinted at him. "What in the world are you doing here at nearly midnight?"
"Uhh… well, long story short, some idiot wants to kill me and I can't even go out during the day anymore. Anyway, I'd like to talk to you… inside of the house. Please." he was practically begging to be let in.
3, silent, stepped aside and let Travis in.
As Travis sat down on the couch, 3 felt a weird unease. He's up to SOMETHING.
Travis stared at his hand, when 3 sat down near him.
"So… what did you want to talk about?"
"Can we please be friends again?" Travis pleaded.
"Uhh…"
Travis sighed.
"Look, I've changed! We were technically friends before, except this time I'm actually not gonna use you for my own personal gain and bragging rights."
"Bragging rights?"
The basement door creaked, then slammed shut. This diverted Travis's attention to the basement door.
"What in the…"
Before Travis could stand and open the basement door, 3 stood and grabbed his arm, bringing his attention back to her.
"Here, how about this, we'll hang out sometime, maybe get some coffee, and we'll talk about it. Will that work well for you?" 3 offered.
"Hm… Okay. Not like I have anything else to do in the meantime. Well, you know my number. See you later."
Amber quietly packed her gear.
He's not coming with me. He'll follow me if I go first…
She gave Simon a glance. He slept soundly, as if Amber weren't about to leave him.
I'm sorry, but they need us. She told herself, They need our help.
Amber snuck outside, where she hit the rendezvous button and the portal opened. Before she stepped through, Amber turned back. Something hid from view as she turned, even though she didn't notice it.
She stepped through the portal and it shut behind her, but she didn't turn back to acknowledge that it reopened.
As 3, Brittany, and Luigi welcomed Amber inside, someone dove through as it shut, and hid.
Amber looked around the basement. A few monitors that showed recent movement and a coffee machine sat in the corner.
"This is… small."
"As you can see, we don't have everything together yet," L confessed, "but we're getting there. It doesn't help that Alph didn't leave anything behind."
Amber pointed to the monitors. "Then who is that, moving through?"
"Us. That was us. And nobody's really moved since. Well… except for some guy who moved like, months ago. But it wasn't by portal, he just pushed right through the fabric of time without opening any portals first…" L stroked his chin. "As if they just teleported without any precautions!"
"But that was months ago, and they haven't moved since. So we're waiting until anything happens." Brittany sighed, biting into an apple she stole from the fridge.
"Where do you think he went?" Amber asked, trying to pass the time.
"He could have just left on some surprise vacation." L suggested.
"He wouldn't do that without Charlie and I. That's not very Alph-like." Reckoned Brittany, with a mouth full of apples.
They sat in silence, until one of the monitors began to show something.
"Someone else is moving…" L gasped, "It's the signal of that one guy, with the mask, the- uhh… what was his name…"
"What, you mean Shallows?" Amber reminded.
"Yeah, him… he's going to… an MVP base?!" L said, perplexed.
"Let's not waste any time, then. How do we get to him?" Brittany queried, reaching for the button.
"We'll have to rewire them to his signal, instead of our own. Then they'll open the way to get there. Maybe he kidnapped Alph?" L responded.
"Well? Let's go! We don't know what he's doing, but Alph could be in danger!" Brittany hurried.
Cleats examined the huge, empty reactor in front of him. The darkened MVP base echoed his footsteps as he got closer.
"Okay… give me the drive." He demanded.
Alph, holding a little container, strutted up beside him.
"Is this the right one?" He asked.
"It'll have to do for now." Cleats replied, before setting the container in the middle of the reactor chamber. As he did, the whole base lit up again, as did the new reactor.
"So, the drive… is limitless? We'll never have to refill this place?" Alph asked.
"For the time it'll be with us, yes… The Immortality Drive won't run out at all, until we shut it off, like we planned." Cleats huffed. "I wish my brother would have done this. Because we're gonna attract unwanted attention if this goes the way I think it is."
The drive flickered in and out, before a random glowing crystal fell out.
"What the heck is that?" Alph reached to pick it up.
"NO!" Cleats yanked Alph back. "Don't… don't touch that. If that's what I think it is… we shouldn't touch it. Unless you want to be vaporized."
Alph ignored the crystal and looked back at the drive.
"The ultimate power, huh? This drive... it's capable of anything. If this got into the wrong hands-"
"We'd be dead as nails. This thing makes the Infinity Stones look like a paperweight." Cleats interjected.
"Huh. Good to know…" Alph noted, "But why can't WE use it?"
"With power, comes corruption. You saw what Omega, my brother, was capable of. Sadly, it's too powerful to be left in existence- it's gotta be shut off."
Both of them glanced behind them as they heard a portal open.
Shallows dove through, the eyes glowing a vibrant pink color.
"So THIS is why they've been changing things… You're behind this! HE," Shallows pointed to Alph, "shouldn't be here! You're messing everything up!"
"What do you mean, "messing things up," we're just trying to save the multiverse!" Alph protested.
"No, no… I… well…" Shallows sighed. "In MY time, HE," Shallows pointed to Alph, "didn't come with you! Nobody was supposed to come with you! It prevents the team from getting back together and keeps me… I mean… the timeline, intact!"
"What are you talking about, "my time," he just thought I could help him with taking down the drive thing!" Alph protested.
"Well, you weren't supposed to! Now, I have to fix what YOU started!" Shallows snarled.
Cleats and Alph readid their weapons, but both began to feel a queasy sort of feeling. Cleats stumbled to the floor.
"D-don't you touch the drive!"
"Oh, I won't." Shallows sighed, slowly stepping towards Alph, "It's not what I came here for, frankly."
Alph, realizing the imminent danger, reached for the nearest thing. That being, the crystal, the one Cleats said NOT to touch.
Alph reacted as if the rock were electric cables. He twitched, jerked, shook, and writhed. The crystal, reacting to Alph doing… something with it, began to form into something else.
Shallows bent over Alph.
"Huh. Of all the cycles, this one hasn't happened yet. Weird, he resurrects-"
And the crystal formed into a person- Marco, to be exact. You know, the red hair, somewhat overpowered character?
"How in the.." She noticed Alph, who'd practically fainted from the contact with the crystal. "Did he… just…"
Shallows blanched(under the mask, that is,) and slowly backed off.
"Oh my god…" He breathed.
Marco glared at Shallows.
"You made him do this, didn't you?"
Shallows, realizing the imminent danger, tried talking his way out.
"Hey, we have NO beef, I just want the little guy over there."
"You earned yourself some beef, making him do this!" Marco swung her fist, which made a loud crack upon contact with Shallows's mask. Shallows stumbled back. He looked off the reflection in the shiny wall.
"Y-...you broke it?!" He growled, as he stroked the large crack in the mask.
"Get out of here, NOW!" Marco snapped.
Shallows, fuming, gave Marco a glare, then vanished.
After a few minutes of contemplating what to do, Marco did the same.
Cleats, the only one alive in the room, slowly got to his feet and examined Alph.
He's dead. Wow. He died, trying to hit that masked guy with the shiny rock. I told him NOT to freaking touch that.
Cleats shoved his hand straight into the drive and yanked it out. He then took his hand, covered in straight energy, and sat it on Alph's chest.
Before Cleats could retract his hand, Alph's body absorbed all of the energy- which still didn't wake him up.
"Dang it.." he groaned.
After making sure Alph was alive, Cleats turned the drive back to compact form and slung it over his back. He glanced at Alph. Gotta make sure he'll be fine…
He bent down and hit the distress call on Alph's suit and then ran off.
The team arrived shortly after the distress call reached them.
Everyone huddled around Alph's limp body.
"Is he… dead?" L asked, poking his face.
"No, he's still got a pulse and… a high energy reading?" Brittany checked the readings again. "Yeah, somebody must have defibrillated him with something really powerful for him to have a reading that high…"
A sudden shriek drew everyone's attention.
Amber stood in the hall, shaking.
As L passed the corner, he nearly shrieked too.
There lay the body of some figure who wore a reflective mask and a black suit. Or, as you may have guessed, Alpha. His half-decayed body lay on his side, in a pool of old blood, with a piece of metal through his heart and glass shards from his mask in his eyes.
"...he… he was alive…" Amber managed to breathe. "After the blast?!"
Uh-oh. If Alpha didn't die in the big bang, what happened... lemme tell you, he ain't even fully decayed yet- he died RECENTLY.
What's this? Is Travis actually apologizing? Or is this some elaborate scheme of his? He isn't leaving very many clues.
Is Alph dead? No. Is he gonna die later? Hehehheheheheheheheheehehe-
Well... season 3's starting to get JUICY. Here we go...