Backstep 10
Two Chosen Children Lost, Three Chosen Children Found
{While I searched for hours for the lyrics to Left Behind and Midnight Cry, I found the perfect lyrics for an ending theme! Unfortunately, I only heard half of the first verse on a sound clip. But for now, 'Til the End of the World by Clay Crosse is the new ending theme! Any suggestions for a better song can be put in a review, 'cause I can't think of one right now.... Oh, yeah, Batman is a trademark of DC Comics, Martha Stewart is a copyright of herself, and the X Files is a copyright of FOX and a lot of other companies. And I apparently don't own 'Til the End of the World.}
[VERSION UP and starting animation plays....]
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Location - unknown
Time - unknown
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The Trumpet of Hope had sounded, its mellow tone soothing to Frank Parker and Buck Williams' ears. It was so much more beautiful than it sounded in the previous timeline - back then it was ruined by static over a laptop's speakers.
Parker moved to rub his eyes, and Buck tried to stifle a yawn. They just wanted to sleep ... the light was so enticing, wanting to swallow them....
The scene faded from their eyes as the trumpet's call faded away....
"Where are we, Frank?"
"I don't know, how about you?"
"What is this place?"
Voices rushed into Parker and Buck's consciousness, jolting them awake. The two men were standing, but they were not the only ones.
Thousands - no, millions of people were standing in a vast space, all clothed in white robes similar to the Guardian's. There was nothing else in this space, just the people and endless white light as far as they could see....
The Guardian stood in the center of the mass, in front of Parker and - now that he noticed - the Japanese Chosen Children. Other than Daisuke, Takeru, and the others, though, there were five other children standing behind them.
"This is the Golden Land the Center of the worlds hides," the Guardian lowed. "The Golden Land is governed by the Supreme Deity, and protected by the Guardian. You are the Chosen, destined to reside here during the Seven-Year Darkness. More will follow after as the Seven Years progress. All of you, head for the golden arches at the edges of this space - your paradise - the paradise that will befall the Earth and Digital World at the end of the Darkness - lies beyond."
Silently the vast number of people turned around, heading for the ornate arches that could barely be seen at the edges of the room. When the multitude had filed out, Parker, Buck, and the Japanese Chosen Children stood before the Guardian, not a thought crossing their minds.
"Chosen Children," the Guardian started, "you have served the Earth and the Digital World well. Come and rest, for you are weary. Go through the gates."
Both Japanese and American Chosen Children nodded their heads and walked towards the gates, yet were halted again by the Guardian's words.
"Francis Parker and Cameron Williams, stay here."
Puzzled, the two men halted in their tracks as the Japanese children ran on through the gate. After the last child left, the two men turned around.
"You still have a task to complete, Chosen Children," the Guardian whispered. "Sixteen years ago you defeated the demon that has now taken over both your world and the Digital one. I must send you back to defeat him again."
Parker and Buck gasped. "Why us? Why not the other children?" Parker asked.
"Two other of your original group still remain on Earth," the Guardian replied. "They did not hear the call to the Golden Land, and do not remember the task they had in the Digital World."
"Neither do we!" Buck cried.
The Guardian did not seem to hear him. "These two Chosen Children are named Chloe Steele and Tsion Ben-Judah. They are separated far from each other - it is up to you to unite again."
"Can't you do that?" Parker asked.
"No ... I am confined to this land until the halfway mark of the Seven-Year Darkness. And the half-point is too late."
Parker and Buck gave a silent 'oh'.
"To aid you on your mission," the Guardian continued, "you must find two Holy Rings. They are miniatures of what encircled the Holy Stones. They will help your partners evolve."
"But I thought the Crests helped with that," Buck said.
"I draw my power from your Crests now," the Guardian replied. "It is what keeps me alive after the destruction of the Holy Stones ... it is what will bring you back home…."
And with those words, the Golden Land faded from Parker and Buck's eyes....
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Location - NNL
Time - one minute into Digital Conundrum
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Owsley had been spying through Parker's D3 ever since he had routed the last Holy Stone's coordinates to it. When he heard the trumpet blast almost thirty minutes later, he knew something had gone wrong.
"That must be ... the Trumpet of Hope!" Owsley gasped. "Oh no...."
And immediately after the mellow tone died out, the D3-connection screen blanked out in white.
In Talmadge's office, the trumpet roared through the speakers in the big-screen television situated in the corner. The project-head of Operation Backstep was smoking a cigar at the time, paying no attention to the latest report on CNN. But the trumpet had awoken Talmadge, startling him and making him drop his now-extinguished cigar.
"What was that?" he roared, scanning the room. The white-coated scientists were still roaming the halls outside without a care.
Then he turned back to the television. All that was left of the news anchor was a pile of folded clothes.
"Holy mother of god," Talmadge whispered, staring at the screen. "This can't be happening - Buck and Frank...."
A beeping on the telephone called his attention. Blindly Talmadge pressed a button as he stared at the television - the words TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, PLEASE STAND BY flashing on the screen. Strangely, the ticker was still scrolling at the bottom, but it was just the day's closing stock quotes.
"Mr. Talmadge, Owsley here," came Owsley's voice on the speaker. "Did you hear it?"
"You mean that blasted trumpet?" Talmadge replied. "Yes."
"I think I know what it was." Owsley's voice had grown shaky.
"And what was it?" came the urgent question.
A pause. "Talmadge ... I think it was the Trumpet of Hope."
Talmadge sighed, leaning back in his leather chair. "So that explains why the news anchor vanished," he muttered, too low for Owsley to hear. "What about Frank and Buck? Any word?"
"Well, Mr. Talmadge, sir ... since the trumpet sounded, the link between my computer and the D3 network was shattered. I mean, I could still tap into the system, see the locations of everyone ... but I'm only picking up a D-Prime right now - belonging to a kid in Japan. There's no sign of Frank or Buck anywhere, Mr. Talmadge."
"So it's all over, then," Talmadge sighed with a strange finality. "Without Frank ... we can't backstep. And Donovan's scores are less than required to make it through. We've just got to face it. Project Backstep is no more. I'll call the Panel and tell them."
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Location - the Center
Time - unknown
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Frank Parker and Buck Williams opened their eyes again, only to find themselves standing in the circular room that was the Center. The multiple mirrors that led to the thousands of other worlds encircled the two men - yet all but two of them were sealed shut behind ornate silver doors.
"What just happened?" Buck asked, rubbing his head. "Last I remember, I was standing in white robes before that Guardian...."
"Same here," Parker moaned. He looked down at himself - he was in the jumpsuit he wore at NNL. "Hey - where are the digimon?"
"Must be in the Digital World still," Buck replied. "Come on, we'd better go find them before they get worried."
"You go on ahead - I'm going to talk to Owls for a while." Parker took out his D3 and pressed the button that would allow him to communicate with the Backstep team on Earth.
The problem was, Owsley's face didn't show up - just a white screen.
Parker cursed and followed Buck to one of the two available mirrors. This one showed the pond of ramen and the shattered remains of the Holy Stone. The sky overhead had turned a steel gray.
"This must be it," Buck said with a sigh. "Let's go."
A shattering sound reverberated through the Center as the two men dashed through the portal.
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Location - the ramen pond, Digital World
Time - thirty minutes into the Digital Conundrum
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Tentomon and Elecmon were sitting by the shore of the ramen pond when a shattering sound invaded their ears.
"What was that?" Tentomon queried in his matter-of-fact voice.
"Nearly blasted my ears out," Elecmon grumbled.
A blue circle of light started to form in front of the two digimon, almost two yards away from them. Two men emerged from the light, yet the digimon couldn't tell who they were until the light finally faded away.
"It's Frank and Buck!" Tentomon exclaimed.
"But how?" Elecmon muttered. "They vanished with the rest of the kids."
Parker and Buck ran up towards their digimon and held them close. The two men had seemingly relieved expressions on their faces.
"Where were you?" Elecmon asked Buck.
"It's a long story," Buck sighed. "Why don't you tell, Frank?"
"Not right now," Parker groaned. "Maybe when we have time."
"Time?" Tentomon said, puzzled. "I don't get it."
"You wouldn't understand now, guys. We have to find two Holy Rings before we get back home?"
"Why?" Elecmon asked.
"Supposedly, they're to help you guys evolve," Buck said. "Our Crests don't work anymore."
"But I don't have my Crest," Parker said.
"Actually, we found it," Tentomon chimed. "It was in the ruins of the Holy Stone. See?" He held out one of his claws, revealing a ball of silver light.
Parker took out his Tag from beneath his shirt and brought it to the light. The light vanished when the Tag touched it. Curious, Parker brought the Tag up to his eyes - he found a simplified clock face engraved on the dog tag's reverse, along with characters in Digital Hieroglyphs. Strangely, though, they were not rearranging into English.
"Buck, how come I'm not able to read this, but you were?" Parker asked, showing Buck the Tag.
"Beats me," Buck shrugged. He looked at the inscription, watching the strange characters fade into English words. "The Crest of Time," he recited after a few seconds, handing the Tag back to Parker.
"Well, they're no help to us now," Parker sighed. "Come on, let's go find these dumb Holy Rings before these seven years are over."
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Location - Backstep Panel, Arlington, Virginia
Time - two days into the Digital Conundrum
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"So you're saying, Bradley Talmadge, that Operation Backstep is no more," a female voice said from the shadows of the conference room.
Talmadge, his seated form the only one bathed in light, gave a grave nod. "That is correct. Frank Parker is one of the million casualties wrought by the disappearances. And our other candidate, Craig Donovan, still does not have the ability to successfully operate the Sphere. Testing other would-be chrononauts would take more than seven days - it would not be enough time to undo these disappearances."
Another figure could be seen nodding in the near-darkness. "We understand, Mr. Talmadge. However, we have been pooling resources to prepare for this particular event."
Talmadge was taken aback, but he didn't show it. "What resources?"
"Bradley," another voice - male - said, "we have known long before your personnel at Backstep about the existence of parallel worlds. There is one we are working very well with called 200X."
"We have a program there called Project Hypnos," the first female voice said. "Our operative there, Mitsuo Yamaki, has been cooperating with us since Mr. Parker returned from the previous timeline." A pause. "His staff has reason to believe that these disappearances were all prophesied."
"200X has a legend, as do we on Earth," the male voice started. "Revelation, Apocalypse, Armageddon, Digital Conundrum - as your staff calls it, Mr. Talmadge - they all tell of the same thing ... seven years of darkness."
"On our world," another voice said, "one of our holy books states that a man named John had seen these seven years in a vision. He saw that our world was to be ruled by a dark beast for these seven years, and that twenty-one plagues would come down upon the people to purge the beast."
"200X has a similar legend," the male voice added.
"So ... what are we going to do about it?" Talmadge asked.
"We have made plans with Project Hypnos and with our military," the female voice said. "Mr. Yamaki is sending his two top agents: Jianliang Lee and Shaochung Wong. They're brother and sister, and are very resourceful. Yamaki is going to sneak them into the regime of this dark ruler.
"We have also informed the military to hide a quarter of our weapons: nuclear missiles, guns, grenades, planes, tanks, the works. 200X has given us information that the ruler will want global peace, and will achieve that by ordering us to destroy ninety-nine percent of every country's weapons and war machines, and give the remaining one percent to him. This, of course, will give him great advantage if a country rebels. NNL is to be made into one of these hiding places ... the Sphere is one of our weapons."
"You and your staff, Mr. Talmadge," another voice arose, "will be relocated to an undisclosed location. You will choose which men to act as spies within the dark regime. We will need all the information on how the regime operates, and how it will survive through the seven years."
Talmadge nodded. "When are we moving?"
"Two weeks," the female voice said.
"And who do you think is the leader of the dark regime?"
There was a considerably prolonged pause. After two minutes, the male voice replied in a low voice.
"We have reason to believe that the leader ... is Secretary-General Nicolae Carpathia."
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Location - NNL
Time - three days into the Digital Conundrum
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"So this is it? It's over?" Craig Donovan exclaimed in the conference room. Owsley, Talmadge, and Ramsey were around the table, too - Olga and Metnor were a few of the casualties NNL had suffered three days ago, and Frank and Buck were written up as gone, as well.
"You don't have the credentials to backstep, Craig," Talmadge sighed. "The Panel insisted that we leave this place. They're going to pick us up thirteen days from now."
"Why?" Ramsey blurted. "What about the Sphere?"
"I can't disclose this information right now," Talmadge said. "If you really want that information that badly, you should watch the news. Your old hero Nicolae Carpathia may have some interesting things to say." He picked up a remote control and flipped on the big-screen television.
For perhaps the hundredth time since the disappearances, Nicolae Carpathia's face graced the screen. A news ticker was scrolling across the bottom of the screen: "Nicolae Carpathia, secretary-general of the United Nations has decreed to move the headquarters of the United Nations to Babylon. He has also ordered all nations to destroy 99% of their weaponry and give the remaining 1% to the United Nations."
"Talmadge, are you sure this mummy's plans are well-intentioned?" Owsley droned. "He seems to have a good idea."
"Well, according to the Panel, it's not," Talmadge sighed. "But don't worry, we're still all going to work together - just not here."
"Then what are we doing next?" Donovan asked.
"The Panel has ordered us to infiltrate Nicolae Carpathia's regime," Talmadge replied. "That's our mission … for the next seven years. I suggest that we all pack up our belongings now. I'll tell the rest of the staff tomorrow. Dismissed."
The few remaining senior staff members filed out of the conference room, but Owsley and Talmadge still remained in their seats.
"Andrew, what is it?" Talmadge said after a few minutes, noticing that the other man hadn't left yet.
"Well, Mr. Talmadge," Andrew started nervously, "I checked the D3 program yesterday. Remember when I checked right after the disappearances, Frank and Buck's stats were gone?" Talmadge nodded. "Well, when I checked it out today, they just came back. Location, companions, the whole enchilada."
Talmadge's eyes bulged in his squat face. "So they didn't disappear?" he asked, shocked. "Where are they? Who's with them?"
"Frank and Buck are with their translators, and they're in the Digital World," Owsley explained. "There's only one little glitch - since the disappearances, I guess time started to flow differently in the Digital World."
"Meaning?"
"I checked out the screen that lets me communicate with Frank. Everything on his side is going at super-slow-motion. It seems that whatever's gone on for the past three days here is thirty minutes in the Digital World. If I send a message to Frank, he won't be able to hear it - it'd last only a few seconds, he wouldn't be able to catch it."
"So they're completely cut off from us?"
"It seems like it."
"Okay. Thanks, Andrew." He sighed. "I'll get some men, keep them on the watch for Buck and Frank while we infiltrate the Carpathia regime. You're excused, Andrew."
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Location - Mount Prospect, Illinois, United States
Time - seventeen days into the Digital Conundrum
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"This is our new headquarters?" Ramsey scoffed in disbelief after the three black vans dropped off the senior staff of Project Backstep in a residential neighborhood.
"It is a nice house," Owsley droned, carrying boxfuls of comic books in his arms. He dropped them on the deserted semicircular drive and stared up at the house. "Looks like Martha Stewart's."
"It's not Martha Stewart's," Donovan laughed. His only luggage, a large duffel bag bursting at the seams, was slung over a shoulder.
"Of course not," Ramsey scowled. "It belongs to the Steele family. Parker crashed the Sphere right in front of this house almost a month ago! And he made the Conundrum call here, too."
"Well, it looks like nobody's home," Talmadge said, setting a few suitcases down on the drive. "Besides, we're only boarding here. Our main operations are at the New Hope Church just two blocks down."
The three other men turned to face Talmadge, wide eyed in shock. "A CHURCH?" they all exclaimed, more or less in unison.
"Has the Panel gone out of their mind?" Ramsey said, disgusted.
"Well, it is a rather inconspicuous location," Talmadge said, a sweatdrop sliding down his face. "Churches were considered sanctuaries, even for criminals. Besides, the pastor there, Bruce, he's making a high-tech underground shelter for permanent residence and operations." He laughed. "Come on, you guys. These next seven years won't be all that bad."
"I don't see myself living underground with him," Owsley muttered, discreetly gesturing his eyes at Ramsey. "I can't stand being in the same room with him for a minute."
Three days later, Owsley had hooked up computers in every room in the two story house. Talmadge had claimed the master bedroom ("It has a walk-in closet!"); Donovan staked out the parlor ("I could guard the door, you know.") and Ramsey had settled down in the guest bedroom ("One room has punk rock posters, and the other has Spider-man stickers. Sheesh! Kids these days...."). Owsley, for lack of choice, made the room with the Spider-man stickers his own, livening up the space with cardboard cutouts of various super-heroes.
Owsley's room was a modest affair - it had belonged to a boy barely older than ten, from what he could figure. Obviously, the boy was a casualty of the disappearances - Owsley had found the boy's pajamas lying haphazardly beneath the covers of the bed. The youth had left behind quite a treasure trove of valuables, in Owsley's eyes: comic books, rare action figures, even tapes of the original Batman live-action series. The only thing that didn't seem to fit with the rest was an autographed photo in a wooden frame.
The autograph simply said: To my dearest Raymie, from Dad.
The boy in the picture was dressed casually, similar to Owsley. He was standing next to a man in a dress uniform, with the logo of Pan-Continental Airlines sewn onto his arms. Below, like in official press-release pictures, were typed the words RAYFORD STEELE, 747 PILOT, PAN-CONTINENTAL.
"Wow," Owsley droned, looking at the picture for maybe the first time since he arrived. "An airline pilot."
"I know. Daddy had such a glamorous career."
Owsley turned around in shock. Donovan was standing in the doorway of the room, carrying a young girl in lightly by the arm. The kid looked like she had just entered college.
"Who're you, kid?" Owsley said, obviously annoyed by Donovan's intrusion, and more so by the girl's uninvited presence.
"Her name's Clo-ee," Donovan said, stumbling terribly over the girl's name.
"It's Chloe," the girl corrected rebelliously. "Sounds like one syllable, not two, you Navy SEAL wannabe!"
"Be careful, kid," Donovan growled. "I am a SEAL - want to see the tattoos?"
"No, thanks," Chloe said, forcing herself from Donovan's grip.
"What's she doing here?" Owsley asked, flopping himself on the low-set bed nearby. "I don't recall Talmadge saying there'd be any other lodgers here."
"I live here, dork," Chloe replied. "Just got back from Stanford - traffic's been lousy since the Rapture, and my new SUV got stolen. I've had to hitchhike my way here from Denver." A pause. "Have you seen Raymie? Or my parents?"
"Your mother and Raymie have disappeared," Donovan said curtly. "As for your father ... we don't know yet. The airlines haven't given out casualty reports."
"Great," Chloe sighed, hints of tears rising into her eyes. "So I'm stuck with you two?"
"Well, actually, it's us and two of our friends," Owsley explained. "We're government agents sent here to-"
Donovan brought a hand in a slashing motion across his neck. "The government told us to board here," he said quickly. "We'll just be here a few months, investigating the disappearances."
"Oh, right," Chloe said. "Well, I hope you don't get the same answer as a few of the people I've run into."
"And what's that?" Owsley asked.
"One of the guys I hitched a ride with said that some god brought all this down," Chloe laughed. "He said somebody blew a trumpet and brought all the good people up to heaven. He called it a rapture, or something like that. Sounds like a fanatical religious theory, if you ask me. Like something my mother and Raymie would believe in."
Owsley shook his head. "Nah. I bet we'll find a different answer than that." He passed a discreet wink to Donovan. "In fact, I think I could show you some of the information we already have. Donovan, could you leave us?"
The soldier shrugged. "Okay. I'll be downstairs talking to Ramsey about this." He padded away, making sure to close the door behind him.
Chloe, disgruntled, stood cross-armed before Owsley. "So, what kind of evidence do you have on these disappearances? Some alien invaders or something out of the X Files?"
Owsley shrugged. "You could say that."
He stood up and quickly eyed Chloe. She was a tall girl, just a hair shorter than Owsley was. Her skin was pale, and her shoulder-cropped hair was brown with spots of blond highlights. A nose ring decorated her left nostril, and various earrings covered both her ears. Her torn denim jacket was worn over a blue tank top a few sizes too small, and her baggy khakis had seen better days. Beaten-up military-issue black boots peeked out from beneath her pants. Grayish-green eyes glared back at Owsley, tinged with tears.
"Great - just another wacko idea about this entire disappearance thing," Chloe scowled. "Who are you, anyway?"
"I'm Andrew Owsley," Owsley stammered. "And you already introduced yourself."
"I know," Chloe retorted. "So, Andrew, the evidence?"
"Oh, yeah." Owsley ran to his computer and rid the screen saver. The program he used to contact Parker and Buck on the D3 was up - it showed the two men progressing slowly somewhere in the Digital World. He clicked on the icon that represented Parker's D3, calling up a separate window with a list of all the things he had recorded up till the time of the disappearances. "I have a video somewhere on here of what caused the disappearances, maybe you'd like to see it-"
"Digivice?" Chloe gasped, staring at the screen. "You have a Digivice program?"
"Well, not exactly," Owsley chuckled. "I just tapped into Frank's-"
"Frank?" Her eyes started to widen. "Is his last name Parker, by any chance?"
"Uh, yeah," Owsley said, clueless. "Why? You know him?"
Chloe nodded. "I haven't seen him in sixteen years. Is a guy named Cameron Williams with him, too?"
Now it was Owsley's turn to gape. "How did you know?"
"I traveled with both of them, when I was little!"
"Let me guess - sixteen years ago?"
Chloe nodded. "And all three of us got these little digivice things." She stuffed a hand into a pants pocket and pulled out a small stopwatch-like trinket.
Owsley had never seen an original digivice before, except for the small icons on his digivice program. For all he knew, it was one of those toys imported from Asia. But he had seen the Tags that Parker and Buck wore - Parker had let him examine Buck's while the journalist had gone in a second time for stitches. According to Parker, all digivice users had Tags and Crests - he just hadn't seen them on the Japanese children.
"You don't happen to have a Tag on you, too?" Owsley asked.
Chloe placed the digivice by the computer and pulled out a dog tag from beneath her shirt. The side facing Owsley was engraved with the words CHLOE STEELE. "Is this it?" she asked. "I can't seem to read what's on the other side, though." She flipped the Tag over, revealing a message in Digital Hieroglyphs and a stylized heart design.
"I've seen those symbols before," Owsley gasped. He pulled open the Digital Hieroglyph Translator, set it to translate from Hieroglyphs to English, and input the strange symbols into a field. After pressing the TRANSLATE button, he immediately got a response.
"Chloe," he said, "the Tag says that's the Crest of Love."
['Til the End of the World, credits, and new ending animation plays....]