Chapter 45:
A portal opened on a rather normal looking street corner. Maggie Beckett emerged from it, looking around to get her bearings.
"Looks a lot better than the last time I was here, for sure." Maggie said as she walked towards the house on the corner.
She knocked on the door as she remembered what Quinn's double had looked like the last time she had seen him. Long, unkempt hair, half-crazed, half filled with survivor's guilt. The door opened and Quinn's double looked at her.
"Maggie?" he asked. "Oh my god, it's been so long!"
He was quite different than he used to be. No longer did he have the long, messy hair, wearing a tee shirt and had glasses on. He smiled as he motioned for Maggie to come into the house.
"Come in! Wow! I can't believe you're here!" Quinn's double said. "How are you and the other me and Rembrandt?"
"I know. I can't really believe it either." Maggie said. "I'm good, and they're good too."
"What brings you to my world? Still looking for a home?"
"Yeah, but I'm here for blueprints. Quinn's got an idea on how to take down the Kromaggs, and he needs your slidewave machine to do it." Maggie said.
"Oh, that's no problem. I kept all of that in the basement, in case I ever needed it. I haven't, thankfully." Quinn's double said.
"Mind if I borrow it?" Maggie asked.
"Not at all!" Quinn's double replied. "Come on, downstairs."
They walked down the stairs into the basement, which was much neater than it had been. There were shelves lining the walls and Quinn's double walked to a large plastic box in the corner and picked it up. He dusted it off and set it on a table in near the center of the room and started digging through the box.
"So, how did rebuilding society go?" Maggie asked.
"Good. You know, when you left I was helping Sister Celine, but after a few years, we started to get back to normalcy. Once everything was back we had a government again, electricity, culture. It was great." Quinn's double said. "I've been here ever since, not sliding everyone to another world."
"Didn't take that long to get back to normal, huh?" Maggie asked.
"Well, it wasn't an immediate thing. It started with whatever was left of the world governments getting back in power and well, they all banded together. We're a United Earth now." Quinn's double replied.
"United Earth... sounds nice. No more wars?" Maggie said.
"Not exactly, there were a lot of wars to get here, and there's bound to be more of them, but for now, we've found peace. Only took eighteen years or so." Quinn's double said. "Anyway, here you go, all the blueprints and plans for the slidewave machine."
"Great! I guess you will get to make a difference with sliding after all." Maggie said.
"Need anything else? This is kind of the most exciting thing to happen in a while." Quinn's double said as he packed everything back into the box and handed it to Maggie.
"Not that I know of, but I might be coming back here. I will have to return this stuff when we're done with it." Maggie said.
"Oh, keep it. It's just been gathering dust here. At least someone will use it."
"If it works, it will save a lot of lives. And a lot of worlds."
"I just made the machine. It's the guy who uses it who's the hero."
"Well you two are more alike than you are to admit. Ever get rid of that chip on your shoulder?"
"Yeah, all that time after we restored everyone changed me. What about you?"
"I... had a chance to confront a double of my father on one world we visited. So, in a way I guess I did get rid of it. Anyway, I've got to get going. We're not sure how much time we have to build this thing."
"See you, maybe you'll come back this way one day."
"Goodbye." Maggie said as she activated her recall device and hopped into the portal, which closed behind her.
Colin emerged from the portal in a metallic corridor, that looked like it was out of a sci-fi movie, which was very well lit.
"Hello?" Colin shouted, hearing the echo.
Colin looked around and started walking down towards a bright light at the end of the corridor. He entered a living area, that had televisions set up on one wall and food dispensers on another.
"Mr. Beecham?" Colin shouted. "Jules?"
Suddenly, Colin heard a metallic clang, that sounded like tools being dropped and footsteps rapidly approaching the door to the room. Colin readied himself to attack, if necessary, as an older man ran into the room, stopping when he saw Colin.
"You're... Colin, right?" the man asked. "I thought you guys made it so no one could ever slide here again?"
"We did. I bypassed it because we need to take some scans of the Slidecage mechanism." Colin said. "Quinn thinks he can stop the Kromaggs permanently by making a reverse Slidecage, similar to what we did here. But we need some data from the computer room and from the mechanism."
"The mechanism should be no issue. We never touched that. The computer room... that might be an issue." Beecham said.
"What happened?" Colin asked.
"Well, in case you didn't notice, Jules and I have spent the past 18 years fixing up the place. Replacing lights, making the place not look like a war-zone." Beecham said. "And to do that... we sort of cannibalized the computer room. I mean, the computer should still work, there's just a lot of it missing."
"Maybe we can fix it, cause without it, we can't stop the Mags." Colin said.
"I'll go get Jules and we can get to work." Beecham said.
Rembrandt emerged from his portal in front of a familiar site, the Chandler Hotel. Rembrandt laughed upon seeing the sign.
"Haven't seen that one in a while. I always did prefer the Dominion." he said as he walked into the hotel and made a beeline for the bar.
He walked up to the bar and sat down, scanning the bar for familiar faces. The bartender walked up to him and had a glint of recognition in his eyes.
"What'll it be?" the bartender asked.
"Draft beer." Rembrandt said, not turning around.
"Coming right up." the bartender said. "So, what brings the Cryin Man to a hotel bar?"
"Looking for some old friends." Rembrandt said, still scanning the room. "You wouldn't happen to have a phone number or something for Geiger Applied Research, would you?"
"For Geiger? Hell no, that place was shut down years ago. Right after the weather stopped being so crazy." the bartender said. "Now, Davis Applied Research, that place is still open."
"Davis Applied Research? As in Diana Davis?" Rembrandt said as he turned to face the bartender, finally recognizing him. "Mallory?"
"Well, I go by Quinn here, but yeah, it's me!" Mallory said as he walked out from behind the bar and he and Rembrandt shook hands.
"How did I not recognize your voice?" Rembrandt asked.
"Well, I did try to disguise it when I saw that you weren't looking. What are you doing here? And why do you need Diana?"
"Long story, Quinn's got a way to stop the Kro-Maggots and needs Diana's help." Rembrandt said. "You and her still friends?"
"Oh yeah, we hang out every so often. She's pretty busy though, running an entire lab. Once we got back, she decided to take over the place, which had been abandoned once we unstuck Geiger. She got it back on it's feet and she's been doing a lot of good work. Nothing with sliding though." Mallory said.
"Are you free to take me there? We're on a bit of a time crunch. He drafted me for this. I was all ready to start my retirement and he pulled me back in." Rembrandt said.
"Yeah, no problem! Let's go!" Mallory said.
They walked to Mallory's car and he began driving down the road. Rembrandt put the recall device in his pocket and turned to Mallory.
"So, a hotel bartender?" Rembrandt asked.
"Wasn't my first choice. After we got back, there was no way I was being a test subject again so I started trying jobs and it turns out I'm really good at mixing drinks." Mallory replied. "Did you guys ever find home?"
"We did... It took a while, but we did. A few days ago. But the Mags are still out there and we need to ensure that they're stopped." Rembrandt said. "I'm just worried that we'll lose our way home again."
"Come on, you've beaten the odds before. This time, you'll get home and stay there, I can feel it." Mallory said. "Anyway, we're here."
Rembrandt looked out the window, seeing the facility, which was much larger than it had been when Geiger was in charge.
"Wow. I guess eighteen years can change a lot, huh." Rembrandt said.
"Yeah. Diana's done well with the place. Come on." Mallory said as he got out of the car, pulling an ID card out of his pocket.
They walked into the facility and Mallory showed his ID card to the security guard sitting at the front desk.
"Quinn Mallory, Top Level Clearance. Plus Rembrandt Brown, he should be in the same list as I am." Mallory said. The guard checked a book sitting on the desk and looked up at Rembrandt.
"Go right in." the guard said, pressing a button on the desk which opened the door to the main facility. "Dr. Davis is in Lab Six."
"Thanks." Mallory said as they walked through the door.
"So you just carry that ID card around all the time?" Rembrandt asked. "Why?"
"Same reason your name and picture is on the list of people allowed in with Top Level Clearance. Just in case you or Maggie ever showed up here again." Mallory replied.
They walked through the facility and to the lab that Diana was in. Mallory stopped Rembrandt at the door and walked in first, as Diana was busy with another scientist directing them as they input numbers into a computer.
"Hey, Diana!" Mallory said. Diana looked up from the computer.
"Quinn, good to see you. But I'm a little busy today, can you come back later?" Diana asked.
"Oh yeah, sure. But my friend here needs to urgently speak with you." Mallory replied as he waved towards the door, which Rembrandt walked through, smiling.
"Rembrandt!" Diana shouted as she ran over and hugged him. "What on Earth are you doing here?"
"I wish I could say I was just passing through, but I'm here on business." Rembrandt said. "You didn't happen to save any of Geiger's stuff, did you?"
"Most of it was destroyed while we were sliding, but I saved some of it, just in case the Kromaggs ever showed up here." Diana said. "Why?"
"Q-Ball's got an idea. He thinks if we rig together Geiger's stuff with some other stuff we have, we can take the Mags, every single one from the Kromagg Homeworld, and isolate all of them onto a single world, then trap them there, with no way off." Rembrandt said. "He needs what Geiger used to isolate Quinn Mallorys."
"Oh, so you want the Combine tech." Diana said.
"Pretty much. I don't need the actual device, but I do need any plans you have." Rembrandt said. "Quinn's basically got the equipment to build the machine he wants, but we don't have the time to come up with it from scratch. We're working against the clock with the Mags."
"Let's go to the vault." Diana said as she led the two out of the room.
Colin and Beecham walked through the Slidecage to the computer room, where Jules Koenig was sitting, combining electronic components together.
"Jules! We've got a visitor!" Beecham said.
"Colin? Never thought I'd see you again, how's Rembrandt?" Jules asked.
"He's good. We're all good, now that we have a way to stop the Kromaggs for good." Colin replied.
"That's great!" Jules said.
"Anyway, what's the state of the computer?" Colin asked.
"Operational. But we haven't exactly been maintaining it." Jules replied. "See for yourself."
Colin walked over to the computer and started typing, trying to boot it up.
"Weird... this should be working." Colin said.
"I told you, we cannibalized it." Beecham said.
"Yeah, but it doesn't look like you did anything major to it." Colin said.
"Give me a second." Jules said as he walked over to the computer, opened a panel and jiggled a few wires. The computer began it's booting sequence.
"Perfect!" Colin exclaimed before taking a thumbdrive out of his pocket and putting it into the computer.
"Okay, I'm downloading everything, but I still need to see the Slidecage mechanism." Colin said.
"No problem. Let's go there now," Beecham said.
They walked down the corridor to the Slidecage mechanism room and memories flooded back to Colin, of the last time he had walked in there, with Quinn as they were about to go to what they thought was their home.
"Looks just like it did back then." Colin said. "Lighting is better, though."
"Thanks. The place looks more like the Enterprise than a Bird of Prey now." Beecham said.
"Huh?" Colin asked.
"Never mind." Beecham replied.
"Looks like everything is how we left it..." Colin said. "Everything is still in place. I just need to get the base program out of it. Shouldn't be an issue."
Colin looked for a port on the mechanism and placed a second jumpdrive into it.
"This should be it." Colin said. "Let's go check on the computer.
They walked back to the computer room. Colin grabbed the jumpdrive and put both in his pocket. He lowered the dampening device off his back and started to prep it.
"Thanks for the help. If you guys want to leave, you can now. I'm using this to slide back using a timer. If you wanted, you could come." Colin said.
"We'll pass." Jules said. "We've gotten by, and I don't think either of us are up for people yet."
"Yeah." Beecham said.
"Well, good luck to you." Colin said.
"Good luck to you, stopping the Kromaggs." Beecham said.
"Yeah." Jules said.
Colin activated the dampening field and then his recall device and opened a portal. He hopped into the portal and it closed behind him.
Rembrandt and Mallory followed Diana into a room that had multiple computers in the room. Rembrandt took out a thumbdrive and handed it to Diana. She put it into the computer and moved multiple folders from the computer to the drive.
"These are all of the files on the Combine. All the plans for merging every universe into one... I can't believe I ever followed him." Diana said.
"We were all blinded by what he could do, me especially." Mallory said as he glanced at his legs.
"At least we stopped him." Rembrandt said. "That was a crazy year, huh."
"A crazy year orchestrated by the Kromaggs." Mallory said.
"Here we are." Diana said. "Everything we have on the Combine. I'm sure your Quinn will put it to better use than Geiger did."
"There's no doubt about that." Rembrandt said. "I can't thank you two enough, not only for this, but for sticking with Maggie and I."
"Wouldn't have missed it for the world, Remmy." Mallory said.
"Same goes for me." Diana said as she handed Rembrandt the thumbdrive. "Good luck with your plan."
"We're sure gonna need it." Rembrandt said. "Anyway, I have to go."
Rembrandt aimed his recall device and activated it, opening a portal. He turned to Mallory and Diana, who smiled upon seeing the familiar portal.
"Tell Maggie we said hi!" Mallory shouted.
"I'll be sure to do that!" Rembrandt said as he hopped into the portal.
He slid through the vortex and emerged from the portal, landing on the floor, back in the lab where he started. He looked up, only to see several gun barrels aimed at his face.
To Be Continued...