Chapter 49:
Quinn and Wade walked past several rooms, putting their ears up to each door they passed.
"Do you think we've hit areas getting recorded by cameras?" Quinn asked.
"Probably... why aren't there any guards in this hallway?" Wade replied.
"That is kind of suspicious..." Quinn said. "Logan is probably trying to lure us into a false sense of security. I think I was being held in that room, so they might have gotten taken there."
They stealthily walked into the room and Quinn checked the wall for a light-switch, turning the lights on, revealing two Kromagg guards and Logan St. Clair. The guards immediately disarmed Quinn and Wade, leaving them in only their clothes.
"Pretty reckless to go around where my cameras can see you." Logan said. "Why did you come back here?"
"Why do you think? To finally stop you." Quinn said.
"If you think that you two and those children can stop me, you must be a lot dumber than I thought." Logan said. "But I know you're not. Why are you really here?"
"I'm done talking. You want more, you're gonna have to torture it out of me." Quinn said.
"You've been getting in the way of my plans since we met. First you ruin my plan to save my world..." Logan started.
"You were going to raze other worlds and hold your own hostage. Don't try to justify your behavior by saying you were going to save it." Quinn said.
"Then you interrupt my Kromagg plan, several times. Nothing has ever stopped you. That's one of the things we have in common. We'll never stop until we're dead. And you're finally going to stop." Logan said, pulling out a gun, a gun very familiar to Quinn and Wade.
"You're insane. You saved the gun that you tried to kill us with the first time we met?" Wade asked.
"This time, there's no vortex in the way to stop me." Logan replied, aiming the gun at Quinn. She walked across the room, keeping the gun trained on Quinn.
Michael kept putting the card up to the force-field as Sam and Rebecca sat in the back of the cell, checking for a hollow part of the wall. Michael sighed and pounded on the force-field, which suddenly dissipated as he hit it.
"I did it!" Michael shouted.
"Not quite." James said, as he walked forward, a Kromagg poking him in the back with a rifle.
"We're being moved?" Rebecca asked.
"As far as they told me, the Empress wants to see all of us." James replied.
"That doesn't bode well." Sam said as they walked out of the cell.
Rembrandt leaned against the door frame and looked at Arturo and Colin fitting components onto the Kromagg device.
"And... done!" Arturo exclaimed as he soldered a final piece to the device.
"It's finished?" Rembrandt asked.
"Yes, Mr. Brown. We just have to wait for the computer to find the bio-signature.
"That's going to take a little longer." Colin said. "The computer is pretty slow."
"Well, Quinn and Wade better get back soon." Maggie said. "If not, we should go looking for them."
"That's good thinking, Maggie." Colin said.
The group was led into the hallway, which was empty, aside from the hallway surrounding a specific room. They were pushed into the room where their armor was taken from them, being tossed into a pile on the floor. They were dragged to the side of the room where Wade was also being held by Kromagg guards. They looked across the room to see Logan aiming her gun at Quinn.
"Any last words?" Logan asked.
"I'm sorry... for what I did." Quinn said. "I never should have left you to whatever fate you gave your Arturo. But I couldn't stand by and let you use sliding for evil, just like I refused to let the Kromaggs do that. Do what you must, but I have one request."
"What do you want?" Logan asked.
"Spare everyone else. I'm the one that you want, don't hurt them for your grudge against me." Quinn replied.
"I'll think about it. Not that you're in any position to make last requests. Goodbye, Quinn. I'll always remember our kiss." Logan said, smiling.
"I'll never forget that Ronald McDonald costume you wore when we fled to the world of Rastafarians." Quinn said.
Logan's smile disappeared. She adjusted the gun and aimed it back at Quinn. She locked eyes with Quinn and placed her finger on the trigger. She started to apply pressure to the trigger.
"No!" Wade shouted, fighting against her captors, as did the other four.
Suddenly, the sound of a gun firing rang out, except it didn't sound like a bullet firing gun. Logan crumpled to the floor, her gun landing with a thud. Everyone immediately turned towards the door, seeing Professor Arturo brandishing a rifle.
"Now!" he shouted as Rembrandt, Maggie and Colin ran in, incapacitating the other Kromaggs.
Quinn walked over to Logan and leaned over her, checking her pulse. He looked up to see Arturo standing over him.
"She's dead." Quinn said.
"Poetic justice, considering our rivalry started with her killing my double." Arturo said.
"You killed her. What happened to being too old to being a commando?" Quinn asked.
"I guess I still had a little of it left in me. She would have killed you." Arturo replied.
"You did what you had to do, I just didn't know you were capable of killing." Quinn said.
"You've seen enough of my doubles to know that I am." Arturo said.
Wade walked over and embraced Quinn in a hug. She looked over at Logan's body on the floor.
"It's finally over, then." Wade said. "The orchestrator of all our misery is finally gone."
"We've gotta go, there are bound to be more Kromaggs coming any minute." Rembrandt said.
"Arm yourselves." Maggie said. "The computer is bound to have the bio-signature by now."
The group ran back into the room with the Kromagg device and Quinn ran to the computer console. He started tapping buttons.
"We've got the bio-signature of all known Kromaggs. At least the ones that Logan was working with. There's bound to be different types, like the ones on that dark reflection of Kromagg Prime." Quinn said.
"Keep watching the door." James said. "Ready the device. Aim it upwards."
Michael and Sam grabbed the Kromagg device and aimed the part that looked like a laser upwards.
"We're ready to activate it." Quinn said. "Brace yourselves."
Wade turned on the computer and pulled up several surveillance feeds from around the base, showing the Kromaggs in a state of chaos.
"Now!" Quinn said as he pulled the lever on the device.
A wave of energy was sent throughout the base, and the multiverse, and the Kromaggs on the computer screen were engulfed by the energy, which disappeared, along with the Kromaggs. The device turned off and the surveillance feeds were empty, aside from some dropped weapons.
"Did it work?" Maggie asked.
"Looks like it." Rembrandt said.
"According to all scans, it was a success. Congratulations, you have rid the multiverse of Logan's Kromaggs." James said.
"All right!" Colin said.
"Great job, Quinn." Arturo sad.
"Uh, guys?" Michael asked.
"What is it?" Quinn replied.
"Our timer is counting down." Michael said, showing his timer, which was slowing ticking down.
"That doesn't make any sense, we used James' timer to get here." Quinn said.
"I know, and it's counting down too." James said.
"So is ours." Wade said.
"This doesn't make any sense." Rebecca said.
"Well, it might make sense, actually." Arturo said. "The slidewave energy, due to it reaching to god knows how many Earths, may have altered this world's sync with other dimensions."
"Sync?" Michael asked.
"Our timer, our original one at least, worked under the properties of the Helix Spiral. When our timer first glitched out and lost our home coordinates, in order for us to compensate for a timer malfunction, we altered it seek out the weakest point in the dimensional barrier. That's why we were dependent on making the slide on time. Now, while not all our timers work on that property, it is possible that the enormous burst of energy has thrown this world out of sync with other Earths." Arturo said. "Do you concur, Mr. Mallory?"
"It's sounds possible. But that creates a new problem. If this world remains out of sync... we might never be able to return here." Quinn said.
"Why's that a problem?" Sam asked.
"Well, maintaining the slidecage. It should be able to run without any interference indefinitely, but I still wanted to be able to be sure about that and check up every so often. It's not a huge problem, but it means that the Kromaggs might not be entirely gone." Quinn replied.
"We should just take the first timer, then." Wade said.
"I'm not too sure about that." Arturo said. "While it was stable enough to get all of us here before, I feel like we shouldn't put too much of a strain on the vortices." Arturo said. "No more than four people to a portal. All of our timers are set for James' world, correct?"
"Yeah, we set them before left in case we needed a quick escape." Michael said.
"Colin, Maggie, you go with James." Quinn said. "We'll use our timer, and Michael, Sam and Rebecca will use theirs."
"We do have room for one more in our vortex." James said. "Rebecca?"
"We're gonna stick together." Rebecca said.
"Suit yourself. See you later." James said. "Our timer is going off first."
James aimed his timer at the wall and his vortex opened.
"See you when you get back." Maggie said.
"We're counting on it." Quinn said.
Maggie, Colin and James hopped into their vortex which closed behind them.
"How much time do you have left?" Rembrandt asked.
"We've got three minutes." Michael said.
"We've got thirty seconds." Quinn said.
"We'll be right behind you." Sam said.
"Good luck, you three." Arturo said.
"We'll see you on the other slide." Wade said.
"We're counting on it." Rebecca said.
Quinn aimed his timer at the wall and his vortex opened. Rembrandt, Wade, and Arturo hopped into the portal. Quinn looked over to the three young sliders and smiled. He hopped into the vortex and the portal closed. The trio glanced at their timer, which was suddenly shot out of Michael's hands and landed a few feet away on the floor. They looked up to see Tiberius, aiming a laser gun at them. Tiberius grabbed Rebecca and held the gun to her head.
"That's impossible!" Sam said. "We used the slidewave machine to get rid of all of you!"
"I was waiting in the other room. I guess it missed me." Tiberius laughed.
"Being so close to the epicenter, it must have left him unaffected." Michael said. "Quinn said that was possible."
"Reverse the machine, or the girl dies." Tiberius said.
Michael glanced at Rebecca, who shook her head affirmatively. Michael walked over to the console.
"This is a two man job, I need Sam to help me." Michael said.
"Go." Tiberius said, pointing to Sam.
Sam grabbed the Kromagg device and started adjusting the position of the device. Sam glanced at Michael, who nodded.
"Now!" Michael shouted.
Rebecca kicked backwards, and ducked to the floor, as Sam turned the Kromagg device, and aimed it at Tiberius, as a beam shot out of it, causing Tiberius to appear to split into a million pieces, before disappearing.
"We did it! Wait... what did we do?" Sam asked.
"I don't know. I tried to create a localized slidewave to send him to the slidecage, but... I don't think that's what happened." Michael replied.
"The timer!" Rebecca shouted, rushing across the room and picking it up. "Uh oh..."
"What happened?" Michael asked.
"The timer is glitching out. I'm not sure what's going on." Rebecca said. "The laser must have shorted it out."
"It's still counting down," Michael said. "We still can still use it."
"But should we? What if it's broken again?" Sam asked.
"Quinn said this world might never be accessible ever again. I'm willing to take my chances with a broken timer. What about you guys?" Michael asked. "You've got ten seconds to decide."
"Timer or none, I want to get out of here. That's the fourth time we've been held at gunpoint today." Rebecca said.
"Let's get the hell out of here." Sam said.
"Here goes nothing." Michael said, aiming the timer at the wall. He activated the vortex. "Go!"
Sam and Rebecca hopped into the portal. Michael glanced at the timer, whose display was still glitching. He hopped into the portal, which closed behind him. The trio slid through the vortex, which was bumpy and the trio was abruptly tossed out of the vortex onto a hard wood floor. The three looked around to see an abandoned room, with windows boarded up from the outside, except for one area where a piece of wood was hastily ripped off and left sitting on the windowsill. The floor was bare, the bed had no mattress.
"Where are we?" Rebecca asked.
"Well, I know we're not in Kansas anymore." Sam said.
"That joke was never funny, Sam." Michael said. "Let's check this radio."
Michael reached over and turned on a radio, which began blaring a news bulletin, with a very energetic reporter talking.
"Hello and welcome to a special urgent bulletin. The war is over! The French government has finally surrendered. We've won the war! Negotiations are underway for reparations as we speak." the newscaster said before Rebecca turned the radio off.
"Oh my god..." Michael said, as he started laughing uncontrollably.
"What's so funny?" Rebecca asked.
"Don't... don't you guys remember? The first world we slid to together?" he laughed. "After the shockwave!"
"The world where... America was at war with... oh my god." Rebecca said.
"So, we're back where it all began... literally?" Sam asked.
"And the timer, is get this, shorted out again!" Michael laughed. "I hope that Radio Shack is still there..."
"All the coordinates are probably erased, huh?" Rebecca asked.
"Probably." Michael said.
"Well, we better head out for that store before all the people come out of their shelters." Sam said.
"Don't worry guys, I'm sure we'll get home faster this time." Rebecca said as the trio exited the dorm room laughing.
To Be Continued...