Disclaimer: Characters and events don't belong to me, they're borrowed from BVE without permission but no harm, no foul, no money made. The exceptions to this are Gina and Ben and assorted minor characters. Gina is mine, Ben belongs to Ekat and the assorted characters belong to themselves -- and many thank yous to you for allowing me to borrow you.
Canon Junkies please note: Because of the way the Identiverse has ended up there are considerable differences between this story and the two episodes 'Reinforcements From The Future I and II'. If I've changed something, it's almost certainly to get it to fit into the universe or to write out a plot hole or to be consistent.
Muchos gracias to Vanessa and Ree for beta'ing this for me. Also thanks to Chris for again spotting my deliberate mistake (!!) and offering me feedback. Lastly -- but by no means leastly -- many, many, MANY thanks to Gamine for being a truly wonderful human being. This story is for you.
Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing.
~*~
Long Stories
Eric led the way back to the temple, trying somehow to order his thoughts. On the one hand he was relieved that Kimberly was safe and sound after the battle and he was even more relieved to know that Wes and Jen were also safe and sound. On the other hand, he realised, he was angry. Angry with Wes and Jen for scaring him, angry with himself for being scared...
It was wholly irrational and he knew it, but that didn't seem to prevent it from being present.
With a sigh, Eric entered the temple -- aware of the Pied Piper-like trail of people following him -- and turned his attention from his own problems to the now flickering holo-screen. Pulling the controller from his pocket, he turned it on and the picture suddenly came into focus. There was Lieutenant Detournay.
She lifted an eyebrow, presumably able to see people crowding in behind him. "They're on their way," was all she actually said. "Usual place."
Eric offered a smile. "Thank you."
The lieutenant smiled in return. "Good luck, sir." And with that, she signed off.
"And all that in English means...?" prompted Ben as the holo-screen faded away.
Eric slowly turned to face the gathered throng. "It means," he replied, smiling, "reinforcements are on the way."
~*~
The whole party -- the princess excepted -- went down to the usual time ship landing zone on the beach. Eric guessed that as far as Cole, Alyssa, Danny and Max were concerned, it wasn't so much a desire to meet the new arrivals as prove to themselves this really was something even more extraordinary than they normally dealt with.
Eric smiled faintly. You knew your life was weird when extraordinary was what you classed as normal.
"Something funny?" Kimberly asked as the time ship touched down on the beach, kicking up sand as it did so.
Eric shook his head. "Not really."
Conversation was terminated as the airlock of the time ship opened and out came the new arrivals. First out was Trip, but he was closely followed by Lucas and Katie, then a woman with pink hair who looked familiar... Eric found his jaw hinging open as he realised the woman was Nadira in a Time Force uniform. Rounding out the team from the future was Alex.
If Nadira's presence was a surprise, Alex's was a shock, and not a pleasant one. There was little about the other man that Eric liked and an awful lot that he despised, not least of which was the permanent sense that Alex was only telling part of the truth.
"Eric -- good to see you again," said the object of Eric's thoughts.
Eric blinked. Something suddenly dropped into sharp focus. The thing that Alex had so assiduously not been saying on his last visit. "You knew."
Alex looked bemused. "Knew?" he echoed.
"Eric?" Kimberly queried.
"You knew," Eric repeated, more incredulous than angry. "You knew about bel Abis and Lemont... Knew that son of a bitch was after me. You knew and you didn't tell me!"
Alex visibly swallowed. "Partially," he admitted cautiously.
Eric almost laughed at the reaction. It said a lot about who he had been -- none of it complimentary. "That's a bullshit answer," he observed. "Either you knew or you didn't -- and since I know you were only telling me part of the story last time you came, like always, I figure..." He shrugged.
Alex looked confused. "You're taking this well."
Eric shrugged again. "Facing up to your past and to your nightmares will do that to you. Besides," he added, putting an arm around Kimberly's shoulders, "it ultimately wasn't without compensations."
Alex looked as though he was about to pass out in relief. Eric found himself smirking. Revenge, he decided, is definitely sweet sometimes.
Slowly the whole party started to move towards the beach exit.
"So I'm a compensation, am I?" Kimberly commented.
"Uh-huh." Eric smiled and gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. "And so much more besides."
"And what do I get?" Kimberly asked, a light, teasing tone in her voice.
"Me," Eric answered. He stopped and started to lean down to kiss her.
"Ew!" Max complained. "Get a room!"
Eric rested his forehead against Kimberly's shoulder and laughed.
~*~
Half an hour later, with everyone was safely back at the Animarium, yet another round of introductions was done.
"So what about those long stories everyone's been talking about?" Taylor enquired.
"She has a point," Ben agreed. "I think we're all of us in the dark about something."
"If I may?" Shayla put in. Everyone turned to look at her. "It might be as well to wait until Eric and Kimberly return and..."
"Return?!" said Wes. "I didn't see them go!"
"Where've they gone, anyway?" Max asked.
Alyssa rolled her eyes. "You were the one who told them to get a room."
"TMI!" Max covered his ears.
"Good point," said Alex, ignoring Wes, Max and Alyssa.
"So what now?" asked Lucas.
Shayla smiled. "I was about to suggest that perhaps we might have a meal..."
"Good idea!" chimed Max and Danny together.
"Just keep Jen and Lucas away from the cooking," observed Katie.
"Like yours is any better!" Lucas snorted.
"You've not tried Cole's," put in Taylor. "He burns water."
"I do not!" Cole retorted. "And who was it who..."
Shayla just shook her head as almost the entire gathering descended into bickering. Only Ben, Nadira, Alex and Alyssa were left. The princess eyed the two from the future cautiously. "Can you cook?" she asked.
Alex shook his head. "Not one of my skills," he admitted. He then nodded towards the bickering mass. "They just don't know that."
"I've never tried," said Nadira, "but it sounds like fun."
"How about you, Ben?" Alyssa asked.
"I can cook," he admitted sheepishly.
"Then," said Shayla, "let the four of us attend to the meal -- do you mind adjudicating over them?" she added, looking at Alex and inclining her head in the direction of the bickering group.
Alex smiled. "That is one of my skills."
~*~
An hour or so later, dusk descended. A fire burned brightly in the fire pit and everyone grouped around it. Looking round, Alex could see the effects of the release of tensions the bickering session had provoked. Everyone looked a little less strung out. It didn't mean they didn't understand the seriousness of the situation -- even the irrepressible Max knew that -- but it did mean they might be better able to deal with the information Alex knew he had to give out.
He was also interested to note how the twos and threes had split out in the group. That Eric and Kimberly were sitting as close as was physically possible was no great surprise. Nor was the fact that Wes and Jen were together, and sitting nearby the other couple. Trip and Nadira, too, was no surprise, but what did surprise Alex was the close proximity of Max, Danny and Lucas. Ben and Taylor -- that was an interesting development. With them were Cole and Alyssa -- another no brainer.
Katie -- who had, at some point, been coerced into helping to serve dinner -- took her seat beside him. Alex found himself smiling a little at that, drawing some measure of comfort from the gesture -- even if Lucas was now giving him that knowing smile again.
"Where's the princess?" Wes asked, cutting across the murmur of conversation.
"Here," Shayla said, entering the circle of light, drawing someone else with her.
Alyssa gasped. "Merrick?"
The someone -- a stockily built, dark-haired man -- inclined his head. "I am here," he agreed. "I believe," he added, meeting Alex's gaze, "that this is something important."
"It is," Alex agreed.
Merrick nodded and took a seat, noticeably apart from everyone else, until the Princess sat down beside him.
"So where do these explanations start?" Taylor asked, for once not sounding as if she was impatient.
"With Nadira and me," said Alex. There were a few bemused gasps at that. Nadira just nodded. "Wes and Jen can fill in the holes in the story as we go." Both nodded. "Nadira?"
"The Mutorgs are my father's creation," she stated. Without pausing to hear any reaction, Nadira ploughed on: "Not long before I was born, he uncovered a cave where there were three imprisoned beings...orgs."
"The Nexus," said Shayla. "It must have been the Nexus."
"The Nexus?" Alex queried.
"It is a ley-line vortex, a place of incredible power. It is the place that all orgs draw their power from. It is also the only place that you could possibly imprison orgs."
"Oh that makes sense," snarked Ben. "Lock 'em up with their power supply."
Merrick smiled. "It is not as ridiculous as it sounds -- to actually imprison org spirits requires a tremendous power."
Shayla nodded. "It would also take a tremendous power to free them once they were imprisoned."
Nadira nodded. "That's what my father has. His particular mutation lets him generate bioelectric power. He freed the trapped spirits and in return for allowing them to copy aspects of his mutant DNA, they..." She looked down. "They gave him an even greater ability to hurt other people."
Alex could see Trip gently squeezing Nadira's hand. He decided to take up the explanations. "The Mutorgs -- as we've been able to piece together -- started to track across the world, causing chaos wherever they went but because at the same time Ransik started to make a name for himself and there were sundry other people causing trouble, Time Force had more than enough on its collective plate and the Mutorgs somewhat slipped through the cracks in the system.
"We knew they were out there but because they kept moving around, they kept moving jurisdictions..." Alex shook his head. "Time Force might be one body across the globe but it sure is territorial."
"Sounds like the Cops vs. the FBI vs. the CIA," Eric observed.
Alex nodded. "Pretty much."
"So how did they get here?" asked Danny. "And why?"
"The how is relatively straightforward," Alex answered. "They went through a time hole..."
"Series of time holes," Jen corrected. "They didn't come straight here."
"And you would know that because...?" Taylor asked.
"Because Jen and I have been tracking them," Wes replied.
Taylor subsided.
"As for the why," Alex continued, "we're not exactly sure, but we strongly suspect it's something to do with Biocon."
"Biocon?" queried Cole.
"Another criminal from the thirtieth century," Jen answered. "We hunted him down two months ago."
"Here?" said Alyssa.
"Yep," said Eric.
"So this would be the third bunch of creeps to come back in time, to this area, in less than a year," said Ben.
"You're right," said Alex, nodding. "It's not a great record."
"I just wanna know what's so exciting about California," said Ben. "Why do they keep coming here?"
"Ransik just by sheer dumb luck," Alex answered. "Biocon by design and the Mutorgs by design." He sighed. "We don't know if Biocon set up the Mutorgs to be his insurance policy in case something happened to prevent his plans or if the Mutorgs just have the same piece of information as Biocon was working from."
"And that is?" asked Kimberly.
Before Alex could so much as open his mouth, Wes answered, "Rancho Diablo nuclear power plant."
There was a long silence.
"How did you know that?" Alex asked. "We only established that this 'morning'."
Wes and Jen exchanged a look before she answered, "Because we've been some when where the Mutorgs got to it."
A deathly hush followed that sentence.
"You...you mean we lose?" Max asked, his voice devoid of its usual 'bounce'.
"No. Not now." Jen shook her head. "At least," she amended, "we," and she gestured at Wes and herself, "prevented what caused that particular future."
"With the rescue," Alyssa realised.
Wes nodded. "As near as we could make out, something went wrong in that battle. The Mutorgs won, got to Rancho Diablo..." He trailed off and spread his hands wide.
"Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl...they all have nothing on what could happen if the Mutorgs get to Rancho Diablo," said Alex quietly.
"It's not going to happen," Cole vowed.
"But how can we stop them?" asked Danny. "We threw everything we had at them this afternoon and we'd have still lost if Wes and Jen hadn't arrived when they did."
"That," said Alex, "is where I have some good news."
"Oh?" queried Ben.
"We have a way to counter act the mutation," Trip informed the group.
"It's a form of plastique," Alex continued. "It explodes and releases a chemical vapour that neutralises the mutant DNA in the Mutorgs -- which would then mean that they can be taken out as any other orgs."
"Taken out?" echoed Eric. "Not 'captured and tried'?"
"No." Alex looked around the group. "Because of the nature of this situation -- and it was the same with Biocon -- it's 'all means necessary' to stop them from wrecking this time period and basically wiping out the billions and billions of people who live between now and the year 3001."
"Lives are very much at stake," Shayla mused. "And if, as you say," she added, looking at Nadira, "this trio were imprisoned in the Nexus, then their peers have already tried them."
"They're not going to get away," Taylor decided.
"We'll find them and stop them," Ben agreed.
"One good thing," said Max. "If we're already facing the end of the world, it can't get any worse!"
"Max!" The objections came from all sides.
Alex opened his mouth to point out that Max was tempting fate.
"I believe," said Merrick, "it has just become worse."
In his arms, Shayla had fainted.
~*~
Taylor watched as Merrick and Alyssa attempted to bring the princess round from her faint, but she knew -- as did Merrick, she suspected -- what this was about. Please be wrong...
"What's wrong?" Ben asked quietly.
"It's nothing," Taylor answered automatically.
"You're as white as a sheet," Ben objected. "What's wrong?"
She glanced in Ben's direction and saw genuine concern in his expression. "I can't...it's..." She looked back in Shayla's direction. "Complicated."
"Try me," said Ben.
Taylor opened her mouth to answer but never spoke as at that moment, Shayla regained consciousness.
"Princess are you all right?" asked Alyssa.
"My lady?" Merrick enquired.
"I am...fine," Shayla answered.
Glancing around at the rest of the gathering, Taylor could see that no-one believed that. "Princess...what is it?" she asked.
Allowing Merrick to gently help her up, Shayla sighed. "I am not sure."
"About what?" Alex asked, voicing the confusion of the Time Force officers.
"I have a...connection to the orgs," Shayla replied softly. "It is something that I cannot explain more precisely than that. It gives me a certain amount of knowledge of their doings..."
"And they've just done something," Alex surmised.
"I fear the Mutorgs have just joined forces with our Master Org. It is not just three we must stop...they now have an army."
TO BE CONTINUED...
~*~
Windscale, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are three particularly well-known nuclear accidents. Windscale (now known as Sellafield in the UK) was a fire in the reactor room of the facility on October 7th 1957. Three Mile Island was on March 28th 1979 and was the most serious nuclear accident in the USA, involving a partial core meltdown. Chernobyl was April 26th 1986 and was arguably the worst nuclear accident in the world to date, when the core of Reactor No.4 suffered a complete meltdown and subsequently exploded. A google search can provide you with links to more information.