Chapter 11: Déjà Vu
SJ lay in the concrete cot of his cell, staring at the wall, tears dried but staining his face. In his mind, the deaths of his friends played over and over again. While he stood nearby, helpless and useless.
It was his fault.
He was the one that made the plan for them to stowaway. He was the one that insisted that Blowhole wouldn't kill him immediately, so escape would be easy.
Then again, he'd been counting on Julien to help. After having the time to himself to think, he realized that Blowhole must've used his diaboligizer on him. He'd said himself that he'd just got it working and just used it. It was likely he'd used it on Julien, a completely unforeseen circumstance. He probably used it on Rico too, and he realized Sergeant died by Rico's hand without ever learning the full story. Sergeant thought Rico had killed him because he hated him. Even being brainwashed, it would've been hard to get him to kill one of his own brothers – at least SJ would hope so. But this diaboligizer, it was different from brainwashing. It did something to your brain.
Thinking about it too much was useless, though. He was completely helpless in here. And after the world watched his friends be killed, including the famous Sergeant, the world would be rocked to their core.
The world was truly at its knees.
Forever.
— § —
"Boss," a lobster said as he approached Emperor Blowhole. "We figured out the problem with the machine. Someone stole the fuse that links the reactor core to the targeting system."
The Emperor grunted in frustration. "But who?! Who would've had access that would betray me as such? Have you checked the cameras?"
"Yes, boss, but the footage from last night is completely wiped. Whoever it is has access to our security."
Emperor Blowhole scowled. "A mole is in our midst. I want a list of everyone that has been within ten feet of my laser in the past twenty-four hours."
"Right away, boss," the lobster said as he hurried off to carry out his request.
The Emperor sat upon the throne at the main tower, looking over his lobster minions as they worked at their computers doing their daily duties and fidgeted, eyes shifting back and forth across the room. Who would have dared defy him by tampering with his belongings? And they knew the machine well enough to know that that fuse was specially made. You couldn't replace that fuse with just any fuse. It would take days or even weeks to make a new one.
His heart started to pound, but he didn't show it. Not out of anger, but fear. It was the realization that there was a mole within his lair. He thought he'd been so thorough in his screening. Who would possibly be the mole? No non-reds worked in the main lair. The only one that worked that close to him that wasn't fully trusted was Julien, and he was turned by the diaboligizer before the part was stolen, so it couldn't be him.
He leaned forward and hit a button on his desk. "Hanne, meet me in my office. We have some things to discuss," he said, his voice reverberating through the building's PA system. He stood on his Segway and started heading for the elevator.
Whoever did this would pay.
— § —
First Lieutenant X held the fuse in his fingers, studying it closely as he sat at his desk in his quarters. He had overseen the development of the diaboligizer since the beginning of its creation, so he knew exactly what part would be small enough and easy enough to remove without being too obvious.
It made him sad to see the death of the rebels yesterday. He thought he was just going to use the diaboligizer on them, not kill them, though that shouldn't surprise him. However, even if he had known, there wouldn't have been much he could do about it anyway. Not now.
He understood that the one that was spared was the son of his late arch nemesis, Skipper. That blasted penguin and his team of nature's law-breakers had cost him job after job back in the day. He had hated them.
But he never wished death upon them.
When the Rising happened, the world was in shock as much as it was in shambles. He knew there was something different about those penguins, but he had no idea other animals could be just as strange – that any other animals were capable of such evil.
Strange wasn't the right word for this. The penguins may have been strange, but overall they were a good strange. He had encountered the penguins many times before the subjugation of all living creatures. But he was just doing his job then, it was never personal aside from the penguins making him look like he was crazy. In all fairness, he'd never seen the penguins hurt anyone or otherwise do anything illegal.
This . . . this was insane.
He was one of the humans to survive the attack on New York City. When he was commandeered, he was offered a position in the Overlord's guard. Apparently, Dr. Blowhole had been spying on the penguins for a long time and knew about his hatred toward them, and automatically assumed he'd be perfect to help him continue his takeover of the world.
He'd agreed, solely to not be killed or otherwise enslaved. Even though he was still technically a slave, he had a higher position than the ones out in mines or factories. He had some semblance of control here. For twenty-three years he had been studying Dr. Blowhole and his son, who was an adult now by human standards. He had been waiting for weak spots, trying to figure out what he could do to end this Reign of Terror.
He laid the fuse on the desk and grabbed the hammer from his drawer, then smashed the fuse to small pieces. Even if they found out he was the one that stole it, they would still have to make a new one, and he knew how long that would take. If nothing else, he would have succeeded in inconveniencing the Emperor before he died.
After swiping the pieces into a paper towel and throwing them into the fireplace across the room, he turned on his heel and left his quarters.
He had a lot more clearance than a lot of the Emperor's guard. There were only two floors he couldn't access: the very top floor, and the floor right underneath it. Though he knew the top floor contained Dr. Blowhole's quarters, and only three individuals had access to the floor underneath: Dr. Blowhole himself, his son, the Emperor, and General Hanne. There was something on that floor he didn't want anyone else to find out about. And he had a feeling whatever it was would jeopardize Blowhole's reign. The only problem was that he didn't have a way to get up there, nor anyone he trusted to scope it out for him.
Until now.
— § —
Two lobsters sat in front of their monitors, sipping fish coffee and watching the security feeds. What a boring job. But they would have a date with a pot of boiling water if they refused to do it.
They turned as the door opened behind them.
"Good morning," First Lieutenant X said as he entered the room. "Emperor Blowhole needs to see you two in the command center. I'll keep watch while you see to it."
The two lobsters exchanged glances.
"He's got plenty of henchmen up there, why do we need to go?" they asked.
The bluetooth in X's ear having translated what the lobsters told him, he crossed his arms. "Do you really want to anger the Emperor? Also, I believe I outrank you."
The two lobsters held their claws up in surrender. "All right, all right," they said as they started walking towards the door. "We'll go."
X waited for them to leave, then quickly moved forward and got down on his hands and knees. He'd have maybe ten minutes tops before they realized they'd been tricked. He pulled the panel underneath the controls down and ripped out a handful of wires. The camera feeds went dead.
In only a few seconds, he was sprinting down the corridor of the dungeon. Once he reached a cell, he used the retinal eye scanner, palm scanner, and punched in the code. When he entered, SJ sat up on his cot.
"We have to move, I'll explain on the way."
Before SJ could respond, X snatched him up and sprinted back down the corridor.
— § —
X sprinted up the stairs, taking them by twos while carrying SJ in his arm.
"What is happening here?" SJ protested.
X answered breathlessly but didn't dare slow down. "Look, you want to stop Blowhole's reign, right?"
SJ hesitated. Was this a trap? He decided it didn't matter if he was killed for agreeing. He already felt dead inside following the previous day's incident.
"Yes, why?"
"There is something on the 101st floor that the Emperor doesn't want anyone to know about. Only he and two others have access to that floor. I've never been able to find a way up there that wouldn't get me caught. You might be able to make it up there and figure out what it is," X explained.
"Okay, but what do I do when I get there? I'll never escape alive," SJ protested. "And why aren't you on that demented dolphin's side anyway?"
X sprinted past the landing of the eighty-seventh floor, still not slowing down. "I hated your father, but I hate these blasted dolphins even more. This is insanity. I've been trying to find a way to bring him down since I started here. As for what to do when you get there, take this."
X reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device, handing it to SJ.
"It's an old outdated device. They called it a burner phone in my day. There's one phone number in it. Use the phone to take a picture of whatever's up there, then send it to that number. Once it's delivered, destroy the phone. Drop it out the window if you have to."
"You know we probably won't make this out alive, right?" SJ said as they passed the landing to the ninety-ninth floor.
"Do you care? Because I don't. I just know that getting this information to that number will help them end this reign forever. I feel it in my gut."
SJ didn't respond after that. He realized he was right. And anyway, he didn't care if he died anyway. If he could leave something behind before he went while he was at it, it would be worth it.
When they reached the landing of the 101st floor, alarms started blaring and red lights started pulsing. The Emperor must've realized what was going on. The door to the 101st floor had a lot of security measures that X didn't have access to.
"You have to hurry," X said as he ripped open the vent high up on the wall next to the door. "Get what you can before they catch you. I'll hold them off as long as I can."
With that, he shoved SJ in the vent with the burner phone. SJ looked back at him as he closed the vent and turned, getting ready to fight whoever came up. He only hoped that it would take them a while to figure out where they had gone.
SJ turned and pushed forward into the shaft.
— § —
SJ eventually found a vent that led into the belly of the 101st floor. He pushed on it until it popped open and he fell to the floor. X was right, there was no one else here. Hardly anyone had access to this floor. The lights were off and there were a bunch of desks with old Windows computers sitting on them. The rooms were covered in dust. It didn't seem like anyone had been to this floor in years.
As SJ started forward, heading for the door that led to the hallway, he started to wonder if there really was anything worth hiding up here. It seemed like an abandoned floor, a graveyard that was a snapshot frozen in time of whatever last moments occurred in this building before the humans fled it. There were even still work bags and old, molded coffee cups sitting around. It was as if this floor had never even been touched.
When he reached the hallway, it was eerily quiet, save for the distant sound of the alarms from the vents. He realized the alarm system wasn't even connected to this floor. He looked to his left and to his right. It was definitely empty.
He wasn't sure which way to go when he noticed a light underneath the door at the end of the hallway to his right, past the elevator. He started to wonder if someone actually was up here. Regardless, he pushed forward, quickening his pace.
When he reached the door, he pressed the side of his face against the door, listening for voices or footsteps. All that came through was a low hum of something mechanical.
He pushed the door open and shielded his face from the light of the machine. Walking inside, he realized the room was completely empty save for one large device. It had a control panel on the left, and to the right, a large ring of steel encapsulated something that almost looked like a portal.
He stepped forward cautiously. What was this thing?
Opening the phone, he snapped a picture of it. But when he tried to send it to the number, he realized the machine was interfering with the signal in the room. He started to step back so he could leave, but realized if he left, he'd be killed and never learn what this mysterious device was.
He was jolted from his thoughts when a banging sound came from the stairwell. They were coming for him.
He closed the door behind him and stared back at the machine. He had no idea what would happen when he stepped through it. He hopped quickly up to the control panel.
The control panel was a lot simpler than he expected. It only had two controls: an on/off button, and a number keypad that had an LED display above it. He was surprised that a machine that looked so complicated only needed two controls. At the moment, the LED display said "000001" in bright green numbers. He had no idea what that meant.
A crash sound came from the hallway. He had to act now. He realized he wasn't going to be getting the image to the mystery number on the burner phone, but he decided to worry about that later. He needed to know what this machine did.
Just as the sound of another blast resounded behind him, he stepped through the portal.
— § —
He blacked out for a moment, and hit the floor with a thud just as the sound of a gunshot reverberated around the room he had landed in. He quickly got to his feet and shook his head. Then his breath caught in his throat as he realized he was in the command center of Blowhole's lair. Thankfully, no one was paying attention to him as they watched on as something was happening in the center of the room. His eyes widened when he heard a familiar voice.
"– were teammates, brothers! I know it's Dr. Blowhole making you do this. I know he must've hypnotized you or something. You have to be in there –!"
Another gunshot resounded and SJ realized it was the last words Sergeant said before he was slaughtered by his long lost brother in arms, Rico. SJ assumed maybe they were watching the footage for a second time, which he thought was sick.
Then SJ's heart dropped.
He saw . . . himself? . . . between the lobsters in front of him, his flippers tied behind his back and beak bound by tape. He then realized that Emperor Blowhole was in the center of the room, speaking into the camera and giving the same speech he had before the camera stopped recording.
SJ's heart started pounding as he realized where he was.
He had gone back in time.
— § —
Quote: "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" ~John Wooden