Hello, hello!
As some of you may know, I am a big fan of MHA, but I also am a huge fan of Fringe. Sooo somehow, this happened in my head!
I really hope you'll enjoy this new story, do not hesitate to leave kudos or comments, it's always very nice to hear from you all!
Chapter 1:
The increase of magnetic disturbance all over the world is taken very seriously by the authority and governments. An emergency meeting of the NATO representatives is taking place at this very moment…
"Please turn off the TV Camille, it's depressing, we're here to celebrate!"
"If we're about to die, I doubt celebrating your grand-nephew's birthday should be your priority."
"Oh stop it you two. Nobody's going to die today, come on food's ready!"
And what do you know about that huh?…
It's always like that with this family. Needing someone to stop the bickering – or arguing to be honest – between me and my dearest mother. Or me and anyone here at the exception of my father and oldest cousin, Camille. The two only people I can stand in this… gathering of people.
I sit at the long dining table, set with the finest tableware and decorations at the occasion of Camille's son, Gabriel, third birthday. All the family is gathered for the occasion, a more than rare occurrence that only an innocent child could achieve.
Presiding at the furthest edge of the table is, of course, my uncle, Jean, with the constant frown of his bushy brows and thick graying mustache. On the other side is my cousin's husband, Luc. And in the middle, witnessing their battle of gaze to know which one is the strongest alpha male in the house, are squished the ten other of us. On the other side, my father, my cousin and Gabriel, my baby sister, Sophie, and her dearest boyfriend Simon, who I have the great chance of facing directly.
Please note the irony. I detest him. Pedantic arrogant ass. On that they go well together, the two henchmen of Science Po Paris.
On my side are my Aunt Cathy, definitely the hippie of the family. The kind to do yoga and always see the bright side of life. Next to her, her evil twin, my lovely mother, assessing everything and everyone to fill her list of the things she'll need to complain about or be jealous of on the way back home. My older brother, Doctor Antoine, PhD in general medicine blablabla… My young cousin Maxime, the brainless Don Juan, ho for once didn't bring his latest stupid fling.
And finally, my sorry ass. Annelise. Or Anne. I prefer.
"So! Annelise! How is it going for you?"
Oh shit here we go…
"Oh, same old, same old, Aunt Cathy. Not much going on."
Yeah, I'm the family disappointment you see. Brilliant child. Went to university, in psychology. Graduated first degree. Got bored. Modern languages next. Not much better, and since then nothing. Or so they think.
Every secret agent needs a cover right? Well that's mine. At least it leaves me some free time.
The truth is that my studies weren't for nothing. I've been approached during my last in psycho, thanks to my great results, to be part of a new section of the country secret services. Those disturbance and incidents the journalists keep blabbering about without understanding 1% of it aren't new you see… So basically my job has been to try understand them, then stop them or get ready for the new world they would bring.
Obviously, we failed at the first option.
So we got prepared, me and my team. Being the few who know and who'll need to explain when the time comes. And it seems that it's coming faster than we thought.
"You should travel, you're still young. If you can't find work, maybe you could at least find a nice man. Or woman, I don't judge!" My Aunt proposes for the thousandth time.
Don't worry, you'll have you fill of travel soon enough…
"No thank you…" I sigh without lifting my eyes from my plate. The faster I clean up my plate, the sooner I can get away from here.
A few times during the meal, I check my expensive watch/calendar/compass. Not once, the latter gives me the same result. As my gaze pass in front of the window, I think I can see a glimmering outside, in a field further up the hill. Like the effects of light and water in a pool. It's furtive, but I'm positive it wasn't an optical illusion. It's not hot enough to get mirages in April, and the place is not favorable. Gas? Maybe, but it wouldn't have stopped so suddenly…
"Anne?!" the voice of my mother startles me from my thoughts.
"Sorry what?"
"Luc's asking if you want wine."
"Oh!" Well, usually I would have gone for it without hesitation, if not for the taste, at least for the effect, but now I feel I need to keep myself together, just in case. "No thank you, I'm good."
Luc gives me a puzzled look, knowing my affection for the beverage, but doesn't push it.
My uncle is in the middle of a story about his last hunting session when my phone rings loudly in my purse at my feet. Everybody throw murderous glances in my direction as I check the identity of the caller, and I couldn't care less. Gautier, my scientist team mate who wouldn't call for nothing.
"Excuse me, I need to take that."
"I can't be that important, not like it was your boss." my mother scolds in a tone that has lost its effect on me since I was eight. I leave the room without a word and picks up when I'm far enough from prying ears.
"Gautier, what's going on?"
"It's happening! It's, It's happening!"
"Calm down, What is?"
"The collision! It's getting stronger, some people can even see it! The sensors are going crazy…"
"See it? What? What do you mean?"
"The cracks, the rips between our universes, we about to collide with an other universe!" So that was what I saw...
"I can't say if you terrified or excited…"
"Both!"
I chuckle at his answer. The old man is the stereotype of the crazy scientist, but he is our crazy scientist.
"Do you have an idea of when and where?"
"No. I can see multiple spots where the fluctuations are stronger, but I can't tell you if they will all be… used. I can't even tell you if we're going to be transported there, or if they will land here. As for when… Soon."
"Okay, great…" I rub my eyes, forgetting about the makeup I had put on for the festive occasion.
Come on you've been working fro this for five years! Cheer up girl! You will see the day where everything changes!"
Five years working on experimental psychological sciences, quantum physics, quantum jumping theories. Theorizing about all the possible universes that could be encountered. Learning dozens of languages, pages and pages of grammar and vocabulary, from Spanish or Chinese to Elvish or Klingon. Just in case. Five years preparing for that day, when, for once in my life, I'll be the woman of the day.
Yet I can't get rid of the lead in my stomach and the lump in my throat. Fear and anticipation mix in my erratic heartbeat and breathing. I can't decide myself if I'm excited or terrified. Or both.
I walk back slowly to the dining room, trying to school my face into my usual RBF. On the way there I stop in front of the TV, my attention grabbed by the red band in the middle of the screen. I catch the remote and turns up the sound.
Small earthquakes, magnitude between 2 and 4, are being felt all around the country. People report weird noises coming from the ground or the sly, some tell us about furtive vision of places or people they have never seen, sometimes even inside their own home. Some claim they looked like mirages, other affirm that they were ghosts. The whole country, and maybe the whole world, is shaken today…
The reporter is cut by a strong shake that makes her wobble on her high heels and almost fall on the concrete of the city she's in duplex from. Somewhere in the Paris' suburbs from the look of it.
Thank you, Nathalie, for your intervention. As for us here on set, we're trying to get a hold on our other reporter abroad but the line seems to be hard to connect…
This time the jerk is under my feet. The TV stops, I can hear a light bulb exploding somewhere in the old country house, and gasps and screams come from the next room. Then the ruckus of chairs being dragged and pushed on the tiles, the louder and louder conversation, wondering what's happening, and of course the screams and cries of the toddler.
Right when I think I stopped and walk back in the room, a much stronger shock hits. A much, much stronger one.
It's now.
I don't know how, but I know it.
"UNDER THE TABLE!" I scream at them as I clutch the door frame, to far to make it there safely. Thankfully they all obey, too scared to object.
It goes for a while, minutes surely. Not much more, but the fear make them feel like hours. The child and even some adult keep screaming and crying. The glasses and trinkets fall to the ground and break in a carpet of shards.
I can feel it. I have been Gautier's guinea pig enough times during his quantum jumping experiments to recognize it. The change, the intrusion. The drugs are not even needed anymore.
It stops. First in the ground, then in my legs as they turn into jelly under me and send me to the ground. It's the shock of my ass on the ground that brings me back to the moment.
"What was that?"
"An earthquake? We're not in a seismic zone…"
"Mommyyyyy!"
"Maybe something exploded!"
"SHUT UP!" I snap. I get back on my feet to assess the damages. The house seems to be whole. Everyone is still here…
Then I look out the window. Right where my eyes got lost not a couple hours earlier, about half a mile away.
Oh shit…
A huge chunk of the usual calm and green countryside, with it's apple trees, cows and horses, is gone.
In its place stands proud a brown building surrounded by blossoming cherry trees.
The white painted symbols nagging me from afar.
1-A.
There we go for this new story! I hope you like it so far and that you're intrigued enough to back back for the next chapters!
Again, do not hesitate to leave a comment to give me a piece of your mind!
See you soon! xxx