Hey guys. So sorry for the lack of update. This play is taking a lot out of me, and the teachers at my school seem to have learned about a new type of homework assignment; a project. So I've been assigned four of those in the past two weeks. Thanks for all of my lovely reviews last chapter. I really appreciate it! You all are awesome. So, without further ado...ENJOY!
"If you die, can I have your IPod?" ~Connor Temple 1.3
Everyone thought that when half the day when by and there were no anomaly alerts that they would hopefully get the day off. Sadly, their hopes were shattered when they heard the detector going off while they were in the middle of their lunch break. Quickly, everyone left the break room and ran out to the 4X4s, Connor grabbing the co-ordinates before joining the rest of the team.
The anomaly, according to Connor, was right smack in the middle of a outdoor mall just south of London. It didn't take too long for the team to get to. Other than Lester staying behind, Cutter was forced to for medical reasons. After he returned, he wasn't allowed to go on any calls for a few weeks. But in his case, that was good, for he wanted to start researching the archives and such for any sort of clue to the mysterious creature the team encountered a week ago. Stevie also stayed behind because she still wasn't feeling too well. Only those who really knew Stevie like Alex and Emma did, knew that this wasn't like her. Stevie was always the one who, no matter how she was feeling, never passed up an opportunity to go on any sort of adventure.
"Do you think she's alright?" asked Emma to Alex as they loaded their tranquilizer guns. "It's been a week now."
"I hope so," said Alex, "she isn't acting herself."
"Do you think she caught something in Cardiff?"
Alex shrugged as he finished setting up his tranquilizer gun. Emma did the same and then followed Alex to the rest of the team.
"No creature sightings so far," said Abby, "but that doesn't mean that there isn't a creature."
"Start scouting," said Fowler into his ear piece and then signaled half of the men to follow him. "Becker with half to west, I'll go with half to east."
"Nicole and I will try to get the public out," said Jenny. "Just try not to cause any trouble while we're gone."
"No promises," said Danny, grinning like a maniac.
The team quickly, yet stealthily made their way through the crowded outdoor mall. It wasn't long before they heard the loud speaker go off, getting everyone's attention. Nicole's voice came on the line, saying something about a water-main break and that everyone needed to evacuate before the pipes exploded. This got a lot of the people running towards their cars, but a voice stopped them.
"WAIT!" it yelled. "They're not telling the truth!"
Everyone turned towards the speaker. The ARC team did the same and was shocked to see what they saw. A man stood on top of a table in the midst of the crowd. He seemed to be a student at university with long black hair and dark rimmed glasses. It was the same man who saw the anomaly when the team found Cutter.
"What do you mean?" yelled a man in the middle of the crowd.
"There isn't a water-main break. There are government officials here; trying to get you out of the way so they can do their work."
Basically, everyone on the team wasn't exactly sure what to do at the moment. If they said anything aloud, they would blow their cover, but they also needed everyone OUT of the outdoor mall so that they didn't get hurt or even worse, killed. Before anyone could figure out what to do, the team saw Jenny heading towards the man.
"She'll know what to do," said Alex, a bit worried for the man.
Jenny quickly made her way over the man, quite professionally, and pulled him down from the table he was standing on. Jenny announced that he had escaped from the local Insane Asylum and she was going to take him back. This lie seemed to convince everyone, for the started heading back to their cars, a bit calmer this time. The military soldiers were escorting them, and making sure everyone got out safely and didn't run into the possible creature.
Jenny dragged the man by his forearm across the area and towards the parking lot.
"You were well advised to stay out of our way," she informed the man. "You have no business here! It's for your own safety."
"I have a name you know," he said, quite randomly.
"Do I want to know it?" asked Jenny, quite bored with what he was giving her to put up with.
"It's Lazlo," he said, "and I should warn you too…"
Lazlo pulled his arm away from Jenny's tight grip and stepped back a bit, trying to distance himself from her. Jenny turned towards him, quite bored at the charade.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"If you don't tell the people, then I will!"
"Nobody will believe you. Trust me, others have tried."
"I have mates," he said. "They're on their way. We'll stop you."
Jenny sighed and took a few steps towards Lazlo, getting a bit in his face (she had learned that from Danny.) "If you try to do anything," she said. "You and your mates will be arrested. Now leave."
Lazlo gave Jenny one last look that said "I will win in the end" and the scurried off into the parking lot. Jenny straightened her black jacket and then headed back to the information building where Nicole was. It was time now to try and find the anomaly.
Lazlo headed into the very back of the parking lot. There was his old blue Volkswagen that was rusting in a few places. He opened the passenger door and nodded. Instantly, two other men came out of the car, both with video cameras, digital cameras, and their mobiles.
"Do you know where it is Lazlo?" one asked. He had curly brown hair and looked as if he hadn't showered in weeks.
"Sort of," said Lazlo, "but I know how to find it. Come one."
Lazlo lead the two men out of the parking lot and into the mall. All three were jumping up and down like an excited toddler when promised candy. Lazlo knew what had to be done, and wouldn't stop until he reached his goal.
The rest of the team had already made their way into the outdoor mall and were looking for the creature. Danny had told Jenny and Nicole to set out and find the anomaly, so more people could handle the creature. If it was as dangerous as last time, he figured they'd need it. As they made their way down the abandoned street, everyone had a feeling that something strange was about to happen. Nobody knew what, though. They stealthily traveled down further and further, and the feeling got stronger and stronger. Nobody knew how to handle it. It was just there, and would probably be there for a while. They would just have to put up with it.
Suddenly, Fowler turned around, real gun pointed in the direction of Emma. He lowered it quickly and apologized, saying he thought he heard something. What Fowler didn't know was that he did hear something, and that something was quite nearby…
Suddenly, a giant slimy worm flobbed it's entire self onto Emma. The team was too shocked at first to do anything. Then, Fowler took out his gun and started shooting the creature. It wasn't until twelve bullets were shot that he noticed that the worm seemed to absorb the bullets. They had no effect.
"Okay," he said, more to himself, "wasn't expecting that."
The worm then rolled itself off of Emma, who was now completely covered in slime and paralyzed by it. Alex headed forward to help her up, but the worm beat him to Emma. It blocked the team's view from her completely.
"That's weird," said Abby. "It's almost as if the creature is trying to protect Emma."
"Last I checked, worms from pre-historic eras try to kill their pretty, not protect it," said Connor, quite disturbed by a past memory.
Then, the worm did something that nobody was expecting. One end of the worm, presumably the end, slid itself under Emma's back and flung her into the air.
"Emma!" screamed Alex as he ran forward, trying to catch her with Fowler right on his tail. But the worm flung its end and knocked Alex right in his stomach, causing him to fall over. Nicole ran over to Alex and helped him up. He seemed to have nothing serious; a very minor conclusion if anything as well as a few little cuts.
"You alright?" she asked.
Alex nodded while still coughing. The team looked over at Fowler, who was dodging the jumping over the worm's end, trying to get to Emma. He seemed to have a certain pattern going, but lost his footing and come into contact with the worm's end. He came flying back and landed right next to Alex.
"Ouch," he said as he slowly laid her body down to the ground. "Didn't think it would hurt this badly."
To say Emma was terrified was an understatement. She was paralyzed and a giant worm was flinging her into the air and just barely catching her. Plus, it would refuse to let any of her team mates come near her.
It seemed as if the worm was trying to get her somewhere, but since it didn't have any arms, decided to toss her in the air a little ways and slide forward to catch her. One time, though, the worm tossed her too far forward. She knew what was going to happen next. Emma braced herself for the painful land, but never felt it.
Jenny and Nicole were still searching for the anomaly. Once they got the entire outdoor mall evacuated, the anomaly was their next priority. Nicole had the case with the sealing device in her left hand and a tranquilizer gun in her right. Jenny just had a gun. As they made a left turn, leading towards the center of the plaza, Nicole could have sworn she saw a flash of light coming from the inside of one of the shops. She called Jenny over to have a look as well. The two looked into the window to see that there was indeed an anomaly in the back room of the store. The door into that room was slightly opened, so only a bit of the anomaly was visible.
Jenny reached for the door handle, only to find it locked. "We can't get in."Nicole solved that problem by easily kicking down the door. Jenny stared at her in complete shock. "I've only seen my husband do that," she said; shock still heavy in her voice.
Nicole shrugged. "It's a gift, I suppose."
Then, the two women headed into the shop. It seemed to be a coffee shop, for there were tables scattered around the floor and a counter towards the front with a few mugs, barstools, and a brewer. They soon found the door to the back room and approached it stealthily. They took out their guns and pushed opened the door fully, only to find the room empty.
"You sure it was this room?" asked Jenny.
"Positive," replied Nicole. "There were no other doors, other than the one that lead to the kitchen."
Slowly, the two entered the back room; guns raised, and scouted the area. There were shelves of different tea leaves, tea bags, and coffee beans. There was also the occasional mug or hat with the store's cheesy slogan. When Nicole found a tee-shirt with the slogan, she decided to take it and give it to Patrick.
As they traveled deeper into the already huge storage room, they could feel a soft breeze coming from their left. Deciding to see what the source was, the woman turned left and ran into more darkness. They traveled further and further into the darkness, the breeze getting stronger as they did. It was Nicole who noticed a small bit of light penetrate into the never-ending storage room, and suggested following it to see if it was a way out.
The two ran towards it, feeling the breeze blew through both of their wavy hair as they got closer to the light. As they got closer, it became obvious that it was a large hole in the wall reaching all the way up to the ceiling and lead to the outside. It was a much larger hole than the two woman put together they concluded as they stepped through it. They ended up at the back of the store from what it looked like.
"The creature must've come through the anomaly and crashed into the wall, causing it to break," said Nicole, studying the scene in front of her.
"I'll call Danny," said Jenny, taking out her phone.
Deep within the shadows of another building stood three figures watching the two women closely, plotting in hushed whispers what it is they were to do next.
Nick Cutter was in his office, much to his dismay, doing research. Though he would rather be out on the field, discovering the anomaly with the rest of the team, the medics said he had to be off calls for two weeks. Cutter tried to see the bright side in this predicament, but no had a hard time doing so after pondering for a few minutes. So, he ended up spending the time trying to work out the whole creature incident from the week before.
Ever since Cutter arrived in the year 2032, he had been practically living at the ARC. Lester was kind enough to offer him his city flat which he sometimes stayed in, but Cutter had to decline. He really wasn't r to putting up with Lester after work as well. So, Emma and Alex were helping him search for a flat.
Though Nick had been spending a lot of time with his old team, chatting and catching up with them; he also liked to spend time with the new team as well. Out of the six members, Patrick was the born leader. Sure, he was very laid-back, hated following orders, and found amusement in juvenile pranks on the rest of the team, but when the team was on calls, he was brilliant. Also when he directed the team, they all had a respect for him.
Cutter had found a strange resemblance between him and the other team leader, Danny, who took his place once he "died." Usually, he took it as a coincidence and it would go away, but he wouldn't accept that fact for this situation.
Now that he thought about it, almost every member of the new team seemed to have a lot in common with another from the other team. Nicole and Jenny had some of the same features, but completely different personalities. When it came to PR, though, they kicked major arse. Emma was a geek just like Connor, but also had people smarts and wasn't a complete lunatic at times. She was strong, but seemed to keep to herself a bit. Stevie was a teenage soldier girl, just like Becker (without the teenage part). Alex was athletic, but Cutter mainly found him with Sarah, working on a certain myth that could fit with the matrix.
Basically, everyone could match up from the old team except for Fowler. Cutter found this extremely odd, but decided not to muse on it now. For now, he decided to continue with his research. Nick turned back to his research book and continued reading.
Emma felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her paralyzed frame and pulling her away from the worm. Whoever just caught her, now had her in their arms, and was rushing her away from the team and in between two stores. Whoever this was, she knew wasn't part of the team and probably shouldn't be here. She wanted to close her eyes, but was unable to. She could feel the muscles in her neck slowly come to, as the person came to a stop and rested his back against the side of one of the stores. This person was breathing heavily, for Emma could feel their chest rise and fall against her cheek.
Feeling like she could move a bit, Emma tilted her head back and saw that a man was holding her. It wasn't Patrick, Alex, or Fowler; she didn't recognize him. He had short brown hair and nice blue eyes. He was quite attractive, but was at least ten years older than herself.
It wasn't until then that Emma realized that she was in an ally way, with a strange man, who was obviously a few years older than her, and the team probably had no idea who he was or where they were. Her first instinct was to kick him in the place most men wouldn't want to be kicked in, but she couldn't move her leg.
"You okay?" the man asked as he put Emma down, only to catch her again because she couldn't stand up straight. "Right, paralyzed," he said, mainly to himself. "I'll get you back over to your team. They're probably thinking that…thing ate you or something."
So, against her will, Emma was picked up again by the stranger and he started walking. As they made their way through the ally way, she let herself slowly relax in the man's grip, hoping that he was trustworthy and not there to kidnap her. The two rounded a corner and Emma saw that they were right behind the team. She tried calling out to them, but her lips wouldn't move. Luckily, the man cleared his throat as a signal that he was right behind the team.
Slowly, the eight turned around and faced the two. Patrick, Fowler, and Alex looked right at Emma's immobilized form, ran towards her, and took her from the man's grip.
"She's paralyzed," said the man. "Should wear off in a few more minutes, she was able to move her head a few minutes ago."
Danny looked as if he was torn between either thanking the man, or turning him into Jenny for he was still in the outdoor mall when it was told to be evacuated. Sarah and Becker exchanged confused glances, as if trying to decide whether they knew this man. As for Connor and Abby, they stood as still as statues, looking at the man with shocked expressions.
"B…b…but," stuttered Abby.
"That's not possibly, mate," said Connor, not believing what he was seeing.
"Oh, and Connor, I'd like my IPod back if you still have it, thanks," said the man to Connor in reply. Connor looked as if he was about to faint on the spot.
Becker looked at the man, diffidently recognizing the face, but he wasn't sure where. It had been right after he started working for the ARC, but before Cutter "died". Becker studied the man a bit more, and then it hit him. But before he could say it aloud, someone beat him to it.
"Stephen!" exclaimed a voice.
"Stephen Hart: Cutter's lab assistant, current age should be about 32. Died by getting ripped to pieces by numerous amounts of creature in 2008; basically, he's the reason I got hired," recited Becker to himself.
By now, Emma's paralysis had worm off. She slowly rose from the ground with a lot of help from Fowler and stiffly approached the rest of the team. Jenny ran up to the team, being the one to say Stephen's name first, and gave him a big hug. Stephen smiled and hugged her back. Right behind her was a surprised Nicole.
"You're Stephen Hart?" she asked, quite dumbstruck.
"The one and only," he said. "And who might you be?"
But before Nicole could answer, the worm seemed to appear out of nowhere and started slithering towards the team like a snake.
"We can do introductions later," said Danny. "Right now, everybody get out of the way. Fowler and Becker, you and your try and distract the worm while we try to form a plan."
The two captains nodded and signaled their men to line up and shoot on sight. Everyone ran away from the worm, except for Emma who went straight towards Fowler.
"Try shooting it in the belly area," she said, trying to make her voice heard above all the shooting that was going on. "It seems to be protecting that area more meaning it might be vulnerable."
Fowler nodded, as if thanking Emma for the information then shooed her off before she could get hurt. She eventually caught up with the rest of the team who only stopped a few yards away from the worm so they could still see what was going on whilst they planned. The worm slowly made its way to the soldiers and wacked its slimy end into three of them, covering the soldiers in slime like it did Emma. Though these three soldiers seemed to be covered in more slime than Emma was and weren't moving. They all fell to the ground, paralyzed.
Alex, who didn't like what he was seeing, took his father's beloved hand gun, and started running towards the soldiers to help.
"Alex, don't," protested Emma, but he was already shooting at the creature. He could hear her muffled protests over the noise, but chose to ignore them.
Alex went through twelve sets of bullets before resting. The worm wasn't moving, but it wasn't dead. He would have mistaken it as that it was scheming or focusing on something else, but that would be too obvious. As he loaded his gun once more, he looked over his shoulder in the direction the worm seemed to be facing in and saw a sight that frightened him. There were three men making their way towards the worm.
They were still a bit away, but they were unprotected. Alex lowered his gun and ran towards the three, waving his arms and shouting for them to run. The three seemed to either not hear him, or chose to ignore him. They started taking out their mobiles and snapping pictures of the worm. This caught the worm's attention. It started going full drive towards the men; the soldiers followed it, still trying to shoot it. Alex followed alongside the worm, trying to shoot its stomach.
What happened in the next few seconds went by so fast; it took a while for everyone to register what actually happened. The worm had reached the boys, and they tried to run away. But it was too late, they had waited too long to move. The worm wrapped its slimy end around the three of them. The team could hear their screams as they were brought closer to the worm's body. Then the worm started to tighten its grip, as if trying to choke them. Slime oozed from the end and covered the men as the screams increased in volume, then slowly, died down, as the paralysis slime did it's work and immobilized their bodies.
As the worm was so focused on its prey, Alex was able to run up in front of it and take out his gun. The worm noticed his presence and tried to knock him out of the way. Alex quickly cocked the handgun and shot. The worm fell to the ground, dead. The bulled had embedded itself right in the middle of the worm's stomach; it's weak spot.
The grip on the three boys was released, and they fell on the ground, not moving a muscle. Abby ran up to them, gloves on her hands, and checked their pulses. The two captains ran over to help their soldiers that were also contaminated with the slime. Alex made his way over to the team, upset and disappointed. Emma went up to him and gave him a hug.
"You were brilliant," she whispered in his ear, trying to cheer him up.
Before he could reply, Abby came back with the status on the boys, though he already knew what they would be.
"They're dead," she said sadly. "All three of them."
Jenny sighed and hung her head. She was very mad at the boys, particularly Lazlo, for not heeding her warning early on. If they hadn't been so stubborn and just listened! Then she shifted her gaze towards their dead corpses and felt tears form in her eyes. Their bodies were mangled and stretched in a few places; their faces scrunched up and had a look that said "help me, I'm in pain, please help me!" The slime was covering their bodies, giving their pigment a bright, green glow to it. They would probably look like this until they were cleaned of the slime and the paralysis effect withered away.
"Let's get the worm back through the anomaly," said Sarah, snapping Jenny out of her thoughts.
"Yeah, that isn't going to work," said Stephen awkwardly, a bit uneasy on what the reaction would be.
What he got wasn't as bad as he expected, just the entire team glaring at him as if he said he was Father Christmas; perfectly ordinary.
"What do you mean it isn't going to work?" asked Patrick.
"Quite simple, actually," Stephen replied. "The anomaly closed, and last I checked, there weren't any others that appeared here."
"So it came through with you?" asked Alex.
"That's the thing," said Stephen. "There wasn't a worm in that room when I died, and there was only one anomaly that opened."
"Then how did the worm come through?" asked Nicole.
"There could have been an anomaly when the worm came through, then it closed, and then another one appeared that led to the warehouse," said Connor.
"But we would have known," pointed out Emma. "The AHDs and the ADD alerts us when and where an anomaly's closed; new technology."
"Then why didn't we hear it?" Nicole asked Jenny.
Jenny had brought an AHD with her on the mission, and so far had it with her the entire time. She took the ADD out of her pocket and studied it for a moment. She then clicked a button and the device played a small, beeping tune.
"The volume was off," she said as she sent a glare towards Connor, who threw his hands up in a surrender pose.
"What?" he asked. "It's not my fault you didn't check the volume!"
Becker and Fowler came back to the group a few minutes later and said that the paralyzed soldiers needed to be transported to the ARC immediately for medical treatment. They left soon after that with all the soldiers. It was then the team decided to take the worm back to the ARC so Cutter could try to work out how it got to the 21st century. Eventually, the team was able to load the worm in the back of one of the trucks and cover it with a tarp. With that, they all left the site and headed back towards the ARC.
"Stephen Hart, welcome to the ARC," announced Patrick as the team started filing into the hub. "Patrick, by the way, pleasure!"
The two men shook hands then Patrick went off to fetch Cutter. He had called ahead of time to warm him about Stephen, but being the stubborn git Cutter was, wouldn't believe Patrick.
"Captain Becker," said Becker, shaking Stephen's had. "Head of Security, or at least in 2010—" They had filled Stephen in about the 2010 team going through an anomaly and ended up getting stuck in 2032. They also briefly told him about Cutter's death, but didn't go into great detail on that subject. "—and this is my co-captain Raymond Fowler."
Fowler gave Stephen a nod, which he returned. Stephen then turned to the younger team mates.
"Emma, great pleasure sir," said Emma with a grin that reminded Stephen strangely of Connor, "and this is Nicole, Patrick's twin, and Alex."
Stephen gave a smile to the three. Why Emma hadn't given any of their last names, he didn't know, but decided against pondering on that subject. It wasn't all that important. Next, he was introduced to Danny Quinn, the other team leader, and finally Sarah Page.
Sarah, in Stephen's mind, seemed awfully familiar when he looked at her properly; almost too familiar. Even the name seemed to ring a distant bell. She was gorgeous, and apparently had the brains as well. He gave her a smile, more genuine then the ones he gave the rest of the team. He felt his feet carry him towards her, not against his will, it just surprised him. He introduced himself personally, as did her and they shook hands. Stephen then kissed her hand lightly as any gentlemen would do, secretly savoring the feel of her soft skin on his lips.
Suddenly, he realized why she seemed so familiar. It hit him as he turned around to leave a flustered Sarah. He had wondered why she seemed so familiar; why her name seemed so familiar. Oh yes, he remembered her now. The question was, though, did she remember him?
Just as Stephen turned around to ask Sarah the question he was dying to ask, he heard his name being called from behind him. Stephen quickly turned around; completely missing the dagger glares Becker was giving him, and came face to face with Nick Cutter.
Deciding it would be best to leave the two to catch up on their own, Patrick signaled for his team to make their way out of the hub. Nicole nodded and started to head up towards Lester's office, Fowler led a very pissed Becker (though he was doing a good job not showing it) towards the medical bay to check on the soldiers. Patrick headed towards his office and Alex and Emma headed for the break room
Alex, so far, had been doing a good job keeping in all of the anger that was boiling inside of him. Emma noticed he was slightly tenser than usual and asked if he was alright once they reached the break room. He couldn't hold it in any longer.
"No, I'm not okay," he said through his teeth as calmly as possible.
This got Emma's attention. She swiftly stepped in front of him and placed her hands on his shoulders.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Three people died today," he said, not daring to make eye contact with Emma. "I was right there, I could have saved them! I was too slow and now three soldiers could be permanently paralyzed."
There was a slight pause before Alex added on last part to his rant.
"I should have done better."
"But you saved the whole team as well as all those other people at the site, remember?"
"You could have died too," he added, guilt spilling from his words like a waterfall. "If Stephen didn't come through, you could have ended up like the soldiers, or Lazlo!"
"But that didn't happen," Emma reminded him. "I'm right here in front of you, alive!"
Alex sighed, still not quite satisfied with the outcome today. Emma knew he would be like this for a little while, but he just had to realize you can't save everyone every single time.
"You did brilliantly," she added before letting go of Alex and heading out of the break room and towards her office.
The reunion between Cutter and Stephen had gone smoothly. The team supposed it could have gone worse. Cutter, wanting to examine the worm, had it brought up to his office. There, he, Stephen, Connor, and Abby were having a private meeting.
"This wasn't in the ware-house," concluded Cutter. "Unless that wasn't where you came from."
"I'm pretty sure it was," said Stephen. "A future predator was about to get me, so I fell backwards, saw a bright light, hit my head on the ground, and then opened my eyes to see I was in a storage room."
"That's where Jenny said the anomaly was," said Abby, "and we've already concluded that it wasn't two separate anomalies, because the detector would have a record of that."
Cutter took a moment to let the information sink into his brain as he surveyed all the options. There was basically no way that Stephen and the creature came from two separate anomalies, but the worm wasn't in Leek's Petting Zoo of Deadly Prehistoric Creatures.
"Let's examined the worm a bit," said Cutter. "Maybe it came through an anomaly into the warehouse, and then followed Stephen to this time. At least we can figure out where it came from."
Cutter and Stephen made their way over to the worm and slowly took off the tarp that covered it. The skin of the worm was still covered in thick slime, but it didn't seem to be producing any more since the worm died. Cutter, with a pair of heavy gloves on his hands, scooped up a bit of slime and started to examine it closely.
"Fascinating," he said, as he put the green goop into a test tube. He carefully screwed on the lid and placed it on his desk. "Connor, do you have the archives ready?"
Connor hit a few keys on the laptop and told Cutter that everything was ready. As Cutter and Stephen described the creature aloud, Connor typed feverishly, making sure he noted of everything they said. When they finished, Connor pressed enter and was shocked to see what the archives came up with.
"Cutter," said Connor slowly. "Nothing showed up."
When Cutter turned around to face Connor, Connor and Abby were surprised to see understandment in his already amused eyes.
"That means it doesn't exist," said Cutter, smiling and getting quite excited.
"How's that possible?" asked Abby. "It's right in front of us. How can it not exist?"
"This has already happened," said Cutter, while standing up to full height. "That creature from the mission last week; I couldn't find any record of it anywhere. Apparently it never existed as well. I thought it was just a one-time coincidence at first, but oh no. There are no coincidences anymore."
"It would make the job too easy," said Stephen.
"But how do we explain this?" asked Abby. "How is this possible?"
For the first time in many, many years, Nick Cutter had no idea where to start.
Captain Fowler walked down the corridor to Emma's office, her journal in hand. He had just finished looking though the drawings, but found something that caught his eye. He knocked on her door three times and walked in to see her surrounded in a few piles of paperwork that looked as if it had been untouched.
"Do you have a moment?" he asked.
Emma nodded and walked around her desk to meet him.
"I just finished looking though your journal. Great drawings, but I saw something that caught my eye."
Emma, catching on to what Fowler was getting on to, slightly tensed up as she watched him flip through the pages of the thick book. Once Fowler found the page he was looking for, he gave the book to Emma.
"I would know this creature anywhere."
What Emma saw in front of her was the one drawing in the entire journal she had completed; the one she finished on that night in Orlando. But there was something else about this particular sketch. She had drawn it in three forms; two legs, four legs, and no legs. The creature had eyes bugged out like a fish's on the sides of its pointed head. It had a human nose and mouth, but fish-like ears and gills on the side of its throat. It had huge muscular arms, but at the ends of the fingers were claws, not nails. Its legs looked human, except for the claws on its toes. There was also a close up sketch of its sharp, canine-like teeth off to the side of the page.
"An aquadorectasarus," Fowler stated, "or the creature that appeared the day we found Cutter."
Emma couldn't meet Fowler's piercing gaze. She was too embarrassed. She had been caught. She closed the journal and placed it on her desk, not turning back around.
"Why did you tell me, Em?" he asked, taking a step closer to her and feeling bad that she had been hiding this from hi…the team.
"I didn't know how to explain it," said Emma truthfully, voice cracking from the team formation in her eyes. "I mean, a creature that you make up and knows doesn't exist comes through an anomaly? You try to explain that!"
Fowler took a few moments to let Emma calm down before answering.
"I can't," he said, "but you still could have told me. I wouldn't have ripped your hand off."
"But I wasn't sure. For all I know, you could have not believed me and assumed that I was planning all of this! I don't want that."
Fowler felt nothing buy sympathy. He walked up so that he was right behind her and wrapped his muscular arms around her frame. He placed his chin on top of her head.
"I would never abandon you like that," he said. "Never on my own accord. We need tell the others. They deserve to know, and might be able to help us out. Just the twins, Alex and Stevie, though."
Emma nodded while saying "okay" then the two set out to find the others, together. They walked out of her office, and Fowler swiftly laced his fingers with her. Emma smiled slightly and leaned in a bit closer to him. As they walked down the corridor to the hub, though a frightening thought suddenly hit Emma.
"I haven't seen Stevie all day," she said.
Fowler thought for a moment before concluding that he hadn't either. The two looked at each other, releasing each other's hands before dashing into the hub. Seeing that Stevie wasn't there, they took to the break room. Emma checked the chair Stevie always sat in, only to see it empty. Only a blanket and a book on Egyptology lay on its leather cover.
"Maybe she went home," suggested Fowler.
"If she did, her coat would still be in her office."
They then ran out of the break room and headed into the direction of Stevie's office, getting weird glares from some of the lab assistants. Stevie's office was located near the armory, but when they got there, they found the door locked.
"Stevie, open up, it's Emma!" shouted Emma though the door.
There was no reply.
"I got it," said Fowler as he stepped away from the door.
He got a running start and was able to kick open the door. The two went barging in, only to find the lights off. Emma reached for the switch and instantly the room was illuminated with a bright light. Once their eyes were able to adjust, they were able to focus on the sight in front of them.
The office still seemed to be in order. It was neat and organized as always. Emma looked around and found Stevie's coat on the back of her chair.
"Well, she's still here," said Emma, also spotting Stevie's shoes near her desk.
"Why was the door locked then?" asked Fowler.
Emma strolled over to Stevie's desk and picked up a folded piece of paper. As she read it, her eyes got really big and her hands started to shake slightly.
"What is it?" asked Fowler
Emma slowly folded the note back up and placed it on Stevie's desk. She slowly made her way back around the desk and stopped herself in front of Fowler. She slowly looked up to meet his eyes, her eyes sparkling with tear build-up.
"Stevie's disappeared," she said, almost in a whisper.
Okay, so a super long chapter should make up for not updating right? So NOW Stephan's back as well, and seems to have something for Sarah. What will this do to the Secker relationship I had going? Did you like how I had that IPod quote in the beginning? Yeah, only realized it just now :P. Also, Jenny is getting worried about what might happen between her and Cutter. Lazlo is finally gone, but did I have to make him die? And, yes, Stevie's disappeared. A LOT happened in about 7000 words. PLEASE REVIEW! I love reviews and really appreciate it when you guys tell me what you thought of the chapter. So please do. Thanks for reading!
~Logan ;)