Off the main highway and through the dark of the desert, the camper continued on its path towards Los Angeles. Maggie dared push it faster, as the cover of night came ever closer to being lifted and revealing her not exactly stealthy vehicle option. The camper was running low on fuel anyway, so it was probably best to squeeze that last bit of efficiency out of the gas tank.
Passing through Victorville, she breathed a slight sigh of relief as she made it to the cover of the Angeles National Forest, its gentle slopes, hills, and treeline providing the barest amount of cover from any approaching dangers. The Kromagg's silence to her questioning wasn't complete assurance, but was strong evidence in any case: the best of the rebellion had likely been put down, at least in America, and all that remained was the theft of natural resources, kidnapping, slavery, and the acquisition of more breeders from the scattered remains of humanity who had managed to not only survive, and not only escape, but hide long enough to continue their meek existence on what remained of Earth. The silence outside was deafening.
The camper finally sputtered and slowed, out of fuel, near the end of the forest north of Pasadena, which was close enough for her. Pulling over to the side of the road, she turned on the central lights of the camper and headed to the back, where the bicycle, jostled around by the earlier fight with the Kromaggs, who now occupied a nice stretch of road somewhere in the blasted lands between city oases, lay on its side. A quick once over revealed no real damage to the frame, and the tires were still in decent shape; it was exactly what she needed. Taking the cycle outside and flicking off the lights, then leaving the keys in the ignition, she mounted it and tore south.
Losing the power and speed of the camper to the mobility and silence of the bicycle brought both a sense of ease, as well as vulnerability, to the furiously pedaling Maggie. The wafer card she got off the Kromagg did little to make her feel better; if it had the ability to be tracked, she might be in big trouble.
Pasadena was where she started to run into the 'Maggs, slowly and carefully driving their Humvees down the main roads between long-closed independent shops and small parks, occasionally shining a hood-mounted beam in this or that direction. There was a sense of familiar, maybe even bored, duty, as the invaders made lazy turns at gentle speeds, barely investigating anything with their light beams. Maggie kept to the sidewalks, riding between parked and dusty cars, turning a corner into the parking lots of old stores when some of the vehicles got too close.
All of this changed when she reached the outskirts of LA, and the massive cement wall before her. There was barbed wire atop the barrier, and guard towers standing atop central fences that looked like they rolled sideways to allow entry, with massive spotlights atop them. But with the large number of buildings around her, she couldn't make out anything farther in either direction. Maggie retreated slightly, eventually stowing her bike against the wall of an old five story apartment building, then entered the structure.
Knowing full well there might be people hiding here, she opted for a silent trip up the stairs, coming to the roof in just a few minutes. Her breath was slightly heavy as she opened the access door and peeked out, seeing nobody. There was no blocker brick outside, so she took off a single boot and put it between the door and frame, closing the door gently on her footwear; it held perfectly. With a satisfied nod, she stepped out into the night air, the door slightly ajar behind her.
The view wasn't much better, but with the Kromagg's binoculars, she could at least make out the sight of steady, unmoving searchlights to both the west and east, suggesting the guard posts were far enough away to not alert one another visually in the middle of the night.
Watching the post ahead of her for a few minutes, she noticed that the guards were a bustle of activity. Obviously, word of her interdimensional intrusion had made it to the front lines, and probably seeing their first action in some time, at least those 'Maggs were ready.
Sensing movement below and to the right, Maggie crouched down and peeked over the side of the roof, seeing two Kromaggs a block away. One was leaning on their Humvee, while the other waved something over the driver's side door, reaching in to grab something, then closed it. No sound, aside from the click of the door. The one outside took the object from the other's hand, then walked towards a dark human shape several feet ahead on the sidewalk in front of them. The view was obscured by a tree, but Maggie could barely make out the glint of a curved, jagged Kromagg knife in the alien's hand, and when he reached the figure, he stabbed downwards.
She drew her gun, ran towards the roof access door, slipped on her boot, then tore down the stairs as fast and quietly as she could. Exiting the apartment and looking around the corner, the Kromaggs had finished their vile deed, grunting and muttering in satisfaction as they chewed. Their backs were turned to her.
Maggie reached into her pockets, taking out the card and her handgun in her left and right hand. Crouch-running to the back of the Humvee, she waved the card in front of the door. The gun in her back waistband offered a comforting weight, almost seeming to whisper, "Plan B."
The door clicked open, but the Kromaggs didn't seem to notice, grunting at one another between chews. Looking quickly into the back of the vehicle, Maggie made out a familiar shape: a long, silver rod with a few black stripes at the base and tip, a green and red button atop it, and curved, clear, claw-like rods jutting out of the end, sitting on the floor between the driver's seat and the back seat, probably forgotten in the months of routine and uneventful patrol by these two monsters.
The Kromaggs saw nothing coming. Emerging from the back of the vehicle, stun rod in one hand and gun in the other, Maggie pointed the firearm at them. "Hands up!" she stated authoritatively. The 'Maggs turned around anyway, but when they saw the gun in her hand, moved no farther, raising their disgustingly thick hands high.
She gave them a quick once over: the one on the left was ape-like, almost porcine in appearance, with a large browridge that almost completely covered his eyes, and a nose that splayed widely across his face. The other looked more human, but the thick brow bone and his sneering mouth filled with pointed teeth couldn't hide his true nature.
(Which one), she thought, stepping closer. "Put your hands on your heads," she ordered calmly. Both complied. "Turn around," she continued, and with their backs turned to her, she smiled slightly. "Interlock your fingers over the rear of your scalp," she ordered.
The one on the right did exactly as commanded, his fingers laced together just over the slightly protruding bones of his spine. The one on the left simply looked at the one on the right, his mouth slightly agape. Maggie lunged forward, jamming the stun rod into the spine of the one on the left and engaged the shock, training her gun on the one on the right. Smartly, he only turned his head to watch his partner hit the floor, grunting in pain.
Her gun still on the one on the right, Maggie lay the stun rod on the floor, reached into her pocket to retrieve the syringe, then injected the mysterious fluid into the left 'Magg's neck. His groans slowly stopped, his muscles relaxed, and he stopped moving. Judging by the condescending look of amusement, tinged slightly with anger, on the other Magg's face, Maggie surmised that whatever was in the syringe, it wasn't fatal. Too bad.
"We're going to take a little ride," she said to the other. "Past the gate." The Kromagg raised his head in defiance. "And why should I help you?" he replied, mouth tightening in a barely contained anger. Maggie dropped the syringe and brought both hands up to grip her handgun, aiming right between his eyes. "I could give you something more powerful than that stuff I used to knock out your friend," she bluffed. The Kromagg looked between his downed partner, then the furious woman in front of him, and finally relented.
Training the gun on him, she indicated to the empty parking lot in front of the apartments behind her. "Drag your friend to the lobby and leave him there," she ordered. As the Kromagg complied, Maggie used her free hand to open the two left doors of the Humvee, tossed the stun rod into the back seat, then followed him until his task was complete. She motioned for him to get into the driver's seat. "Keep your seatbelt off," she demanded, and with every door closed, they were off.
Her heart thudded quickly, her mind running through escape scenarios, as the Humvee rolled to a stop in front of the checkpoint fence. The tinted windows allowed only a look into the front of the vehicle. Ducking behind the driver's seat with her gun trained on the 'Magg's neck, Maggie couldn't see much beyond the small view she allowed herself to peek out and observe.
The 'Magg made no motion. The light above shined straight down, unmoving. Seconds felt like agonizing minutes. The grunting chatter of the Kromaggs above filled the air, and something like the sound of a radio squeal intermittently pierced through the night.
Something was wrong. The radio sputtered out the sound of shouting in the guard tower above. Guttural language filled the air, growing louder by the minute. The spotlight jerked towards the vehicle, flashing a bright light directly inside. Shouts rang out, and Kromagg soldiers leaped from behind the concrete wall, rifles brandished.
"What did you do?!" Maggie shouted.
"Nothing!" the Kromagg shouted back. "I waited here like a hundred times bef..."
"FLOOR IT!" Maggie interrupted, and the Kromagg did exactly as he was told. Smashing through the fence, the tires of the Humvee rolled over the barbed wire, hideous popping sounds mixing with the shots of the rifles now behind them. Surprisingly, Maggie felt no significant loss of elevation in the vehicle. "RFTs?" she asked. The Kromagg didn't respond, ducking slightly and turning sharply right around a corner. She flattened against the passenger door, then straightened out as the car barreled down the road, gun still trained on him.
"You WARN me before you make a turn, Maggot!" she shouted, but he simply growled in response.
The Humvee barreled down the road and past several more abandoned stores, and as they continued, the buildings grew in height, signalling their entrance to downtown. The radio in the vehicle crackled to life and an angry Kromagg voice shouted something through it, but it was soon drowned out by distant roaring engines and gunfire, getting louder by the second.
"I need to turn on the radar," the Kromagg said. Maggie looked at him angrily. "What for?" she demanded, "So you can bring them right down on us?"
The Kromagg exhaled in annoyance through his pointed teeth. "They're already after us, human," he said condescendingly. "They know where we are even now. But we won't know where they are unless I turn on the radar."
He reached a finger towards a button on a display, sitting between the driver and passenger seats. "I press this, we get around them, you leave, and I hunt you down later," he said. "Or, I don't press this, we are pushed off the road, and the both of us are executed when they trap us. Make your decision."
With no time to argue, Maggie sighed. "Do it," she said, finger on the trigger, and preparing to make this final squeeze her last contribution to the human race. True to his word, however, the 'Magg turned on the display, which lit up, displaying dark blue lines representing the streets around them, and several bright green dots running through them. The dot in the central was an angry bright red.
They were closer than she thought. "Two blocks ahead, turn left, then keep going south until I tell you," she said. The Kromagg was furious. "Are you insane, human?!" he demanded. "Two of our forces approach from the west, another from the east. We'll be trapped!"
"Just do it!" she yelled back.
The Humvee's tires squealed in the night as the vehicle turned and screamed down the long road heading downtown, buildings racing past them in both directions. The other Kromaggs' dots closed fast on the road they were on, and the sounds of roaring engines from either side confirmed the fact. Bursting through an intersection, the Humvee barreled forward, and their two Kromagg pursuers fishtailed onto the road behind them. The plinging of bullets on metal ripped through the night air as the Humvee was struck from behind.
Without hesitation, Maggie opened the window next to her, pulled out one of Jack's grenades, pulled the pin, then counted a few brief seconds. Tossing the grenade out the window, it rolled towards the pursuing vehicles behind them, then under them, then exploded harmlessly on the road behind. Nodding, she took out another, scooted over to the other side of the vehicle, then opened its window. Bullets flying into and past the vehicle, she pulled the pin, counted down a short while longer, then released the next onto the road. It rolled just in front of the right Humvee and exploded, shredding its left tire and sending it careening into the other vehicle. The left Humvee slowed, allowing their out of commission partners to run straight into the building beside them, then hit the gas again.
Maggie shot a look at the radar, seeing that the second vehicle had slowed and was many blocks behind, but it was still coming. After just another short minute, she saw a familiar sight scream by on her right.
"Stop here!" she demanded. The Kromagg risked turning his head ever so slightly to the right, trying to catch her out of the corner of his eye. "Now?" he shouted in disbelief.
His breath caught as he turned enough to see what the madwoman had in plan. The gun was gone, and in its place, she held two more grenades in each hand through the loop with an index finger, casually and gently bouncing them in her palms. "Now," she stated, pressing a foot against the back of each of the seats in front of her. The Kromagg hit the brakes hard enough for them to come to a complete stop in mere seconds, the tires squealing in protest, and Maggie's teeth grit in strain.
Without a word, the Kromagg opened the driver's side door and ran down a side street and into the night. Maggie opened her door, pulled the pins, dropped one grenade on the floor in the back and another in the front, then leaped out, slamming the door behind her. She had only seconds to get around the corner before the Humvee exploded behind her.
Her gun was in her hand, and she ran down a dark alley, keeping to the shadows and behind corners as she made her way back to the familiar sight. She heard the Kromagg Humvee pull up to the wreckage behind her, then shouts, along with the distant sounds of more arriving vehicles.
Adrenaline pushed her onwards, three blocks away, then two... swerving around fallen carts and jumping over old trash cans. Then at last, she had finally made it: the path under the building that Marta had guided them to, near pitch black as it led under the earth and away from the road outside. The home of the man who helped them find Remmy again. Trevor's lair.
It was deathly quiet inside. The shelves still stood, but there was very little left on them. The table was covered with a blanket of dirt, and computer equipment was strewn about the floor. The microwave in the corner was closed, and probably still reeked of marshmallows and processed cheese. Maggie didn't dare investigate.
"Did they get you too?" she whispered, heart falling. If Trevor was taken, dead... or the rest of the fledgling rebellion crushed, there was no way she could break into any camps to find Remmy. Absolutely none.
Turning over the destroyed and abandoned equipment, hope drained by the second. This wide monitor was cracked through the middle and scorched, those wires were cut. This keyboard's casing was cracked and it was missing half the keys, that mouse was open and its rubber ball missing.
With the shouting and car sounds above as distant as they were, Maggie allowed herself just a little more time to look around, hoping to find some kind of clue as to where everyone might have gone before she considered her next move. Digging through the pile, she eventually found a computer tower that looked more or less workable, then plugged it into the wall, breathing a sigh of relief when it turned on at a button press.
She powered it down. Digging farther, she eventually came across a CRT monitor that was slightly cracked in the upper right corner, but to her relief, also managed to display a washed-out, too blue startup image. A rectangle remained burned-in on the screen, running near the border between the glass and the plastic, as well as another image that looked like a grid of lightly colored squares on the right side, but it was otherwise working well enough. Fishing out the cracked keyboard and ball-less mouse, she hooked everything up, turned the computer on once more, and watched as it began its startup sequence.
The familiar startup logo was replaced: the blue sky and cloud remained, but the logo was replaced with a crass message saying "MAGGS BLOW!" followed by the number 95, and the familiar red, green, blue and yellow logo above was now a particularly butt-ugly and monkey-faced Kromagg, a red circle running around his head with a red line slashed through him. Maggie choked back a laugh, and the OS soon booted up.
The trash was empty, and there was nothing in the start area besides the usual office suite and games. A single shortcut on the desktop, though, seemed inviting: a yellow smiley face with a small red mouth and high cheeks, labeled simply "Go" underneath. Maggie manually rolled the tracks in the mouse, painfully sliding the mouse cursor over to the shortcut, then double clicked.
In a few seconds, the familiar sight of Trevor's setup came into view, but was soon blocked by a password prompt. The username, trevluvgod, was still in the username entry, but the password was blank. Maggie furrowed her brow, thinking carefully. She looked around the desk, located a small screwdriver, and used it to push out letters where the keys had come off.
"c-h-e-e-s-e-n-u-k-e-s" she deliberately spelled out. The monitor threw out an error window in protest. Maggie frowned, trying again: "c-h-e-e-z-e-n-u-k-e-s" slowly appeared in the password prompt, but again, another error message. Capitalizing the "c" accomplished nothing in either case, but she didn't yet dare try adding a hyphen or underscore to the possible combinations, fearing that too many failures would lock her out or wipe the drive. Maggie began another search through the small lair, looking for any papers or notes that could get her in.
As she searched, a small black rectangle appeared in the bottom right corner of the monitor. The image was solid black for a few seconds, then after a bright white spot appeared in the rectangle's top left corner, it went completely dark again. "There's a babe in my sanctuary," a voice came from behind the computer. Maggie jumped in fright, pulling out her gun and diving under the table.
"Yeah? Let me see," another voice came, speaking in a surfer/California accent. A second rectangle appeared on the bottom left of the monitor, revealing the face of a fair-skinned man with long brown hair, chin fuzz, and a long nose, and who was wearing an aloha t-shirt with a white undershirt, and dark black sunglasses. Maggie slowly rose up, pointing her gun at the monitor. The other rectangle lightened, a hand moving away from some kind of camera to reveal another face: light skin, short wavy brown hair, sharp and serious nose, a goatee that almost connected at the sides, the top of a blue t-shirt, and a mic in his hand. His face brightened. "Maggie of the portal," Trevor quipped with a slight smile. "Couldn't stay away from the cuisine, huh? I picked out the band for our wedding."
Maggie made a face of half-confusion and half-relief, smiled, and lowered her gun. "Where are you?" she asked. The figure on the bottom left nodded, impressed, eyebrows slightly raised. "You're right, she's a stone fox, man," he said, looking to his left as if the two were trapped inside the computer together. He looked back into his camera. "By the way, we can't hear you," he continued.
"Hold on," Trevor said into his mic. He typed quickly on his computer, revealing a third large window in the center of the monitor. Maggie saw herself facing left at the computer, gun pointed at the floor. She turned her head up and to the left, spotting the camera on the wall above her.
"He's with you now, right?" Trevor continued into his mic. The bottom left figure smiled a cheeky grin, then turned around. "Hey Remmster," he called back, "you got a visitor."
A familiar figure walked up from behind. "We got trouble?" he started. "They didn't fin..."
A pause. His dark eyes widened in surprise. There was a thick mustache that Maggie hadn't seen in years, and it stretched out as the dark-skinned man's mouth widened in joy. His hair was short, dark, and curly, he had a bigger nose and friendly dark eyes, and he was wearing a dark shirt. He gripped the sunglasses man's chair tightly.
"Maggie?!" he finally got out in disbelief. Maggie returned the smile, mouth rapidly, but silently, moving on their screen. Remmy shook loose a pair of tears. "Girl, we can't hear you!" he laughed out, running both hands through and over his short hair in mild shock that he couldn't seem to shake.
Maggie quickly stopped, wiping away a tear, looking frantically around for something to write on. Taking out an old newspaper and a filthy pencil, she scribbled shortly, then held the paper up to the camera: (Where are you?) it said.
Before Remmy could open his mouth to answer, the man with the sunglasses held up his index finger in front of Remmy's mouth, eyebrows knit in suspicion. He glanced sideways at the former singer, then back to the computer. Remmy knew what he meant. Thinking back to something close, something recent, that only the two of them would know, his mind raced back to their time on the Seer's world.
Maggie herself held up a finger, quickly writing on her newspaper. In seconds, she raised it to the camera again: (Mallory & Diana safe w/ Mama Mallory).
With a nod of slight relief, Remmy spoke. "Who was my band friend before all this started?" he asked into the mic. Maggie's mouth opened slightly, then she squinted her eyes and looked to the side, desperately searching her memories. Every second she spent off the newspaper would look more suspicious, so she settled for what she could. Writing furiously, she finally raised the paper to the camera.
(More Fish? We were in that basement to get MEDICINE, not play trivia. You're the only Topp I care about)". She raised her head over the newspaper, her eyes widening somewhat impatiently and her eyebrows raised with a goofy half-smile as only she could do. Remmy laughed his trademark, high-pitched and slow laugh, clapping the shoulders of the man seated in front of him. "That's her," he said.
Maggie, relieved but running out of room, turned the page of the newspaper and scribbled out a final message. (Come to me. Meet me in the PARK where Colin saw the ghost of the little boy)". Every word after "PARK" was underlined twice. Remmy nodded, then Maggie left the newspaper on the table, waved, and headed out the door, gun in hand.
"You guys saw a ghost in the park?" the sunglasses man asked, hands on the back of his head. Remmy shook his head. "Nah, and it wasn't medicine we got from the basement. It's the sauce we needed to take out the 'Maggs," he answered, then smiled. "She didn't want anyone listening in to know what we're up to, and coded the big words."
The man nodded and smiled, impressed. "So where you headed?" he asked. Remmy smiled back.
Maggie heard two knocks on the wall outside of room 12. "Remmy?" she whispered hopefully. "Yeah, it's me, Maggie," a familiar voice said back. She snuck to the door, excitement wanting to throw it open and embrace him, but caution eventually got the better of her. With a turn of the knob, the door slowly creaked backwards.
Then it exploded inwards, sending Maggie sprawling to the floor. Before she could react, a dark-skinned man with long, wavy brown hair and large muscles, an eastern man with shorter black hair parted in the middle and small, round glasses, and an eastern woman with a larger nose and close-cropped dark hair burst into the room, all dressed in black soldier garb. They fell upon her and held her arms and legs down. The dark-haired woman clamped a gloved hand over Maggie's mouth, and she watched helplessly as a man who looked like Remmy walked in, dressed in similar clothes.
"I'm really sorry if this is you," he whispered. He nodded to the eastern man, and taking his place holding down Maggie's left arm, watched as the man produced a cotton swab, a bottle of medical alcohol, and a syringe. He knelt down at her side, cleaning a spot in the inner crook of her elbow.
Maggie mumbled something unintelligible from under the glove of the woman. Remmy smiled despite himself. "It's easier getting it from her right," he suggested. Maggie nodded as much as the woman would allow her, and in a quick minute, her blood was being mixed in another vial of blue liquid. The man shook them together, seeing no change in the concoction. He gave a thumbs up.
The soldiers all released her, taking hold of various parts of her arms and helping her up. "Really sorry about that," the muscular man said. "We had to be sure. Remmy told us about everything you've done for him and us. And you ain't even from here."
The woman pulled out a bottle of water from her backpack and handed it to Maggie, and an energy bar was pushed at her from the other side from the man with the syringe. Ignoring them and without a word, she jumped into Remmy's arms, happily saying his name, and he spun her around, squeezing tightly. Looking back at the others, she finally took the offered goods. "I get it," she answered gracefully, and the three seemed to relax. "I've been having one of those nights, too."
Turning back to Remmy, questions exploded out as she ate the bar and gulped down the water. "How have you been? Are you ok? What happened after you got here?" A sudden realization dawned on her, and she looked at him worriedly. "Remmy, the only way I could think of getting in here was to hijack one of those 'Magg cars," she rushed out. "They're probably on full alert now. I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't leave you in one of those camps! Do you need help evacuating? What..."
Strangely enough, Remmy was smiling. "It's all right, Maggie," he said. "Everything's gonna be fine. In fact, you got here just in time."
The five piled into the Humvee parked in an underground parking complex nearby. Anxiety gripped Maggie's heart as they started the vehicle, but when the radar display appeared, there was no red dot in the center. She breathed a sigh of relief, and carefully dodging the blips on the road around them, the crew headed northwest towards the mountains.
Remmy told her about his first arrival: he popped straight into the lobby of the Chandler Hotel, exactly where he, Maggie, and Quinn had slid out two years before. Dr. Geiger was not only true to his word of returning them home, but was as precise as he could have possibly been. Before she had the opportunity to feel some sense of remorse at the evil scientist's death after what he did to Quinn and Colin, Maggie put all her attention back on her friend's words.
To say that the tunnel between the Seer's world and Earth was unstable was an understatement. The walls warped and crushed, and Remmy recounted that he even thought a hole tore straight through the tunnel at one point. Maggie had no idea, wishing Quinn or Diana were there to explain.
He explained that there might, maybe, have been an outside chance that two of them could have gotten through, but they probably would have ended up on the other side maimed. Four sliders was out of the question. Remmy himself was spit out of the vortex and directly into the back of the bar; if he hadn't been wearing his jacket and long pants, he might have gotten badly sliced up.
The resistance got in touch with Remmy in much the same way as with her. Thankfully, with Trevor vouching for him, he was able to meet up with a man named Conrad Bennish Jr. and his team of physics majors and inventors, working on a way to defeat the 'Maggs; the other three in the vehicle studied with him under the same professor at the University of California, right before Remmy got lost in the multiverse with Quinn, Wade, and that very same teacher.
Maggie recognized the name Maximilian Arturo from Quinn and Remmy's stories of him and their brief run-in on her world, shortly before it ended. Vincent, the man with the syringe, Arthur, the muscular man, and Rakdy struggled with the excessive pressure placed upon them by the former professor of cosmology and ontology, but when he disappeared, a more forgiving professor took them through their degrees.
Trevor kept in contact from a new lair farther up north, but Bennish and two others were waiting at Griffith Observatory to show Maggie something, a quickly coming event that Remmy swore she had to see to believe. It was just in time too, because the morning sun was starting to make its very first appearance over the eastern mountains.
They parked under the trees outside the observatory. Rakdy and Arthur jumped out, grabbing two sides of a light green tarp, then spread it over the top of the vehicle. Vincent took point, bringing the two reunited sliders with him.
Passing by the old and forgotten exhibits displaying galaxies, views of the solar system, nebulae, and other beautiful sights of the cosmos, Maggie and Remmy found themselves in the observatory room. A tall, fair-skinned woman in a buttoned up white shirt and long green skirt with curly brown hair, a triangular nose, and glasses was running her finger along some paper on a clipboard. An older pale man in a white dress shirt, red tie, and black shoes, with receding brown hair, a small bald spot on the back of his head, and smaller eyes, looked up from his computer at the side of the room and smiled a hello. In the center of a room was a large metal tube of sorts, attached to a chair raised above the ground. But this wasn't exactly a telescope: a circular metal door provided access to its thick rear and the tube narrowed as it ended with a pair of crosshairs placed above it. An eastern man with tied black hair, smaller eyes, and a wider nose, and who was wearing a beige coat, white shirt, and black pants, stood at a control console under the massive tube.
Bennish sat atop the chair, turning his head from the brightening sky to his two new guests. He smiled a wicked grin, hopping down from the chair. "The fox..." he said, nodding to Maggie, then looked to her left at his more familiar partner in 'Magg hunting, "...and the hound!" he finished, reaching out to take Remmy's right hand in a shake and hugging him with his left in a man hug.
"Radman!" Remmy replied, clapping his back, then pulling away. "Is everything ready?"
With an open-mouthed and cheeky grin, Bennish nodded. "Should be!" he said confidently, turning to the woman with the clipboard. "How we doing, Zachary?" he asked. The woman moved her mouth, muttering to herself over a few more lines, then gave a silent thumbs up, eyes still on the board. "Ready, Montague?" he continued, looking at the older man behind the computer. "As ever," he answered with a slight smile.
"Give me good news, Wingman," Bennish finished, pointing towards the man at the console. Wing pushed a few buttons, then the console flashed green. "Ready when you are," he said.
Bennish clapped his hands together. When Rakdy and Arthur returned to stand next to Vincent, Bennish jumped back into his chair, hand around a joystick, and used it to sweep the cannon to the side. Wing sidled sideways with his rotating console to keep up with the movement.
"What's going on?" Maggie asked. Remmy pointed to the massive telescope turret. "Bennish and them came up with this," he explained. "It's some kind of anti-aircraft gun, but instead of shells, they've put some of my blood in a bunch of massive, honkin' darts, and they're going to drive 'em straight up into the Mantas that fly by here. Without them, they have no air support... and if this works, then we can go after the 'Maggs directly."
Confused, Maggie made a face. "What... is that going to do?" she asked. "You were here two years ago. You saw those things in action. Bullets don't even harm them."
"I said the same thing," he answered. "About a year before we met you, Q-Ball forced one into a crash landing when he activated the timer at it. Now, that doesn't work anymore; the rebels tried it. But I do remember some things that the Professor and Quinn talked about when we got free of the 'Magg prison." He turned to her. "Their ships are made of some stuff called biometal," he said. "I dunno the details, but it's some kind of metal-tissue mix that fixes itself when damaged. But if it's part tissue..."
A light turned on in Maggie's head. "You're going to jam a needle of that virus straight up their nose," she reasoned. Remmy nodded, and a beep sounded from Montague's computer. "And we're doing it right now," Bennish called out from his spot on the makeshift cannon.
A rumbling sound came from the distance. "Thirty seconds out!" Miss Zachary said from behind Montague's computer, which beeped faster. The latter pushed a button on the keyboard, and the observation dome slid open. The rumbling sound grew louder. Wing pushed a final few buttons on the console, and the cannon adjusted itself ever so slightly to the side. Bennish closed an eye, finger wrapped around the joystick's trigger. The rumbling was close, almost overhead. Montague's computer beeped even faster, until the sound was almost one continuous drone.
"Gotcha, Maggot," Bennish whispered.
The computer sounded out a triumphant *PING*, and instantaneously, Bennish squeezed the trigger. Vicious metal darts with wickedly sharp points and small tubes of dark red liquid shot out in a furious stream. The first few shot completely off the mark, too soon to strike the blazing Manta. The latter few missed as the Kromagg ship blazed by. But one of the middle shots, exactly what the equations showed, struck the ship directly in its vile underbelly.
*PA-TING!*
The gratifying sound of success resounded throughout the observatory. Everyone on the bottom floor of the room cheered, arms raised. Maggie and Remmy hugged one another, Miss Zachary put her hand on Montague's shoulder, interlacing their fingers together. Wing and his three black-clad colleagues shared a group hug.
"Wait," Bennish said, one finger up. Everyone got completely silent, listening carefully. The roaring sound of the Manta faded into the distance, until it could no longer be heard. Nobody made a sound.
Until the distant explosion was heard, and the cheers exploded out again.
Bennish sat back in the chair, a big toothy grin on his face. It was the beginning of the end.
Sudden exhaustion overwhelmed Maggie. With the high of combat over, her body began its familiar complaint for rest. She groaned slightly, pointing towards a corner with an empty office chair. Remmy put his hands around her shoulders and the backs of her thighs, lifted her up, then gently carried her to her rest. Just a few steps later, he let her down into the chair, then she leaned her head against the wall, trying to keep her eyes open.
Remmy pulled up another chair, flopping down into it. Everyone but the two of them and Bennish had left, taking up positions near the entrance to the observatory in case any of the 'Maggs figured out where the shot had come from. Remmy breathed a bit heavily.
"You ok?" Maggie asked. Remmy nodded. "Yeah, the boys and girls here have been sucking me dry of that virus, and I think I'm about at my limit." He gestured towards the entrance. "They have some dart guns with needles coated with the stuff, but that's about all they'll get for now."
Maggie smiled. "So you gave them your blood *and* tears, Crying Man," she muttered sleepily. "Where's the sweat?" He chuckled softly. "That's what I shed carrying you over here," he joked. Maggie struggled to lift an arm to swat him, but only managed to get a shoulder.
"How about you?" he asked. "Where'd you come in from? Not the Chandler?" She shook her head, eyes getting heavier. "Diana juryrigged the sliding device to get me over here," she replied sleepily. "I guess the extra calculations she did messed up where I came out. I had to get in here from Vegas." Remmy leaned back and nodded, hands folded over the back of his head. "How'd you know where you were?" he asked. "The cowboy? The pyramid?"
"Caught in a milk storm," she mumbled.
Remmy turned to Bennish, who had just rolled up a chair next to them. He gave the sunglassed young man a weird look, to which Bennish replied by slapping invisible cards on his hand, then gestured like he was holding them out to Remmy. The connection made, he laughed heartily. "Did you bring any back for us?" Bennish asked. Maggie held up an obscene digit. "Yeah, I got one for you right here," she answered, eyes barely open.
Making an "oof" face, Bennish stood up and walked to the corner of the observatory, pulling a cot with pillow and blanket back towards the exhausted woman, then pulled the cover away. Remmy picked her up once more, and she put her arms around his neck to support her quick move up while the bed was made. Seconds later, he put her down, and her head lightly hit the pillow. Bennish covered her with the blanket, then the two men walked away, sunlight starting to peek into the observatory.
A distant memory suddenly came back into Remmy's mind. He stopped, turned, and went back to the side of his near-asleep friend, her brown hair splayed wildly over the pillow. She opened her eyes slightly and looked to him. "I should stay here," he said, taking her hand and patting it. "Just in case you have trouble breathing again."
Her eyes closed, and she squeezed his hand back. "I always breathe better when you're around, Rem," she mumbled. Seconds later, her chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. Remmy smiled, taking a seat next to her and closing his eyes, as Bennish approached with a pair of sleeping bags.
It was late afternoon when Maggie awoke. Everyone was in the observatory, some milling about, some checking readouts on computers, others taking care of equipment. The atmosphere was more relaxed than she expected.
"Remmy?" Maggie spoke out. Her companion, was now dressed in a casual pair of tan slacks, black sneakers, and a blue and white striped shirt. Seeing her awake, Remmy approached. "They're in retreat," he said with a smile. Maggie turned her head slightly in confusion, sitting up. "That quickly?" she asked.
He nodded. "But how?" she asked. "You shot down one Manta, and they're heading for the hills?" He raised his eyebrows and shrugged in pride. "Bennish and them had some time to work on the formula with the help of some of his friends in Thailand," he started to explain.
"Taiwan," Bennish corrected from his command chair, arms behind his head in relaxation and feet resting atop the cannon. He still hadn't changed his clothes. "But you should have seen the footage we got from the JSDF and the PLA, man. They were firing Rem-juice at the 'Maggs like you wouldn't believe."
Remmy pointed at him jokingly. "That's gross, man," he said. Bennish laughed.
"But retreat?" Maggie asked, to which Bennish nodded. "We had some biochemists in the EU and around Asia tweak the formula a bit before we started on production," he explained. "It doesn't just take the 'Maggs out in two shakes, it's really good at spreading, too." He smiled wickedly.
Remmy cast a glance sideways at Maggie. "They pop," he said simply. Maggie scoffed in disbelief, to which Remmy nodded in confirmation, a grin on his face.
She looked up at the great metal beast that took down the Manta, resting after the great battle. In the distance, she could barely make out the sounds of the occasional interdimensional portal opening, signaling the Kromagg retreat. The 'Maggs were on the run. Remmy was home. It was over. Except...
"How are we going to get back to Mallory and Diana?" she asked. Remmy's smile slowly faded as he looked into the blue sky above. "Maybe we can fix the timer and get that portal tracking function back," she continued. "You still have it, right?"
With a nod, he produced the smashed piece of equipment from his pocket, handing it to her. She sighed, wondering who could possibly fix it. She looked up to see Bennish on his command chair, legs dangled off the side and facing her, hands clasped over his knees. "Wouldn't matter either way," he said. Maggie's arm lowered, taking the broken timer down with it. "With all the portals the 'Maggs have opened up, there's no way to tell which would lead back to the world you came from," he explained.
Maggie turned her hand over, looking at the timer. "She still has that data disc from Geiger," she reasoned. "If we can't get to them, they can come to us." She looked over at Remmy. "I need a quick shower," she said. Remmy gestured towards the entrance. "There's a portable over there," he said. "Rakdy's about your size, left you some clothes there." Maggie gave a thumbs up. "Thank her for me if I don't see her, will you?" she asked, then went out to finish her morning routine.
After washing up, she got dressed. The clothes were a bit tight, but were nice: the jorts were a bit more gaudy than she was accustomed to and squeezed a bit tightly, but she was a fan of the o-necked long-sleeved grey shirt, and the zip-up tan mini-jacket. Approaching Remmy, she began the talk she knew they had to have.
"What should we do now?" she asked, to which he shook his head slightly. "I really don't know," he answered. "My family's been missing since the war started two years ago. Wade's gone. I don't even know where Colin is. And we can't get back to the Seer's world."
His fists balled up in anger, but he slowly relaxed when the realization of their success returned. "But the 'Maggs are gone, at least that's done," he said, sighing deeply. "I dunno. Maybe I should stay here, help with the cleanup. Maybe I can get my music career started again, when word gets out about what we all did here. Maybe look up Alesha or Danielle, if they're still ok."
"You can check over here, if you want," Wing spoke out. The three looked up, seeing the young man beckoning them over to the computer. They walked over and stood over the screen. "Since the 'Maggs are on the run, I can use more of my brute force methods to get into their records," he said proudly. "What are they gonna do, pound down the front door and stop me?"
"Especially when we're in here," Arthur called out from behind them. Remmy, Maggie, and Wing looked to him and smiled as Vincent and Rakdy roared out a single, resolute sound of sheer strength in response. Turning back with reassured smiles, they saw a dialogue box in the corner of Wing's screen, running thousands of lines of code, until about a minute later, it disappeared, and the familiar sight of Kromagg lettering appeared.
"Records," Wing said, clicking on one of the buttons in the corner. The screen changed, displaying a map of the Earth, different parts of the continents being divided into unfamiliar shapes. Clicking one of the smaller ones that seemed to comprise Iceland as well as a portion of Norway and its northern islands, small thumbnails of the faces of humans flashed by, mostly women. When roughly a hundred faces had filled the screen, a button with Kromagg script appeared to the side. Wing clicked it, displaying another hundred faces, all different from the first. He clicked back to the first page, and without needing to stop and display specifics, more buttons appeared on the side. Five, then ten, then twenty.
Remmy's anger grew with every new button that appeared; each one represented another stream of humans, taken away, experimented upon, used, and abused, all with nothing more than numbers or markings to represent them. The buttons wouldn't stop appearing on the side, until he could take no more. "Go back to the map," he said in a barely subdued rage. Wing complied, saying nothing.
"How are we going to find anyone with this?" Maggie asked. "We need serial numbers. Remember that 'Magg who was after Christina?" Remmy was silent, but Wing thankfully cut through the heavy air. "There's a search system based on physical characteristics," he suggested. "I can also organize by time processed, and a few other things."
"Any of his family or loved ones could have been taken at any time," Maggie said softly, knowing somebody had to say it. "And even if they were taken, we've seen people moved between worlds before: Mrs. Mallory, for one. And..."
"...Captured early March, 1998, taken early April, 1998, Los Angeles area," Remmy said softly and carefully, as Wing typed in the information. "white, 5 foot 6, brown or red hair, brown eyes."
A lump stuck in Maggie's throat. Wing finished up and struck the enter button, and a small handful of pictures appeared on the screen. None of them were her, except...
"Do you want me to expand it a little?" Wing suggested. "5'5" to 5'7", back to Februa..."
Maggie pointed at the screen. "What's that?" she asked, indicating a black square with a white outline and red Kromagg script in the center. He clicked the square, and despite the lack of an earlier picture, Wade's frightened face suddenly appeared on the screen, the photo taken mere hours after her capture.
"What does it say?!" Remmy demanded. "Where was her picture? What was that symbol?"
Confused, Wing answered. "It says deleted," he stated, scratching his head. Remmy turned from the screen, hands balled into fists, crying out a short and sharp cry of rage. Before Maggie could go to him, Wing spoke up again. "No, not terminated," he said. Remmy turned around, confused. "That's the word they use for executions or experiments gone wrong. This one says 'deleted.' I've never seen it before," he explained.
"What...?" he started. Maggie looked to him with eyes wide and eyebrows raised. "She could still be alive!" she said excitedly. Remmy stood stunned. Slowly, Maggie's eyes returned to normal, and her smile faded into a serious, tight-lipped line. She looked into his eyes for a few seconds, her mind racing to put her next words the right way, as best as she could.
"Millions of people, maybe more, have been taken off this world," she said. "Wade may be alive, but who knows how many times they've moved her, or where she is now? We have records that may not even reflect what's going on with the many wounded, taken, or killed. The 'Maggs could even come back, immune or suited up."
Remmy turned his head to the side, obviously not happy with where she was going with this. "Seems to me there's only one way forward," she continued. Remmy looked back at her. "We need to get to the 'Magg homeworld."
Tilting his head in confusion, Remmy stayed silent as she continued. "Think about it: the 'Maggs will never stop coming as long as the Dynasty is in power," she explained. "And where better to get up to date records on where everyone is than 'Magg HQ?"
"And how the devil are we going to get there?" Remmy asked. As if to rub salt in the wound, Bennish spoke up from above them. "They don't have their own homeworld's coordinates on file in their computers. I don't know if they have them committed to memory to keep people away from their world, or they just encrypt the data into the their own tech, but we don't know where they are."
Maggie smiled. "But you know who does know?" she asked. Not waiting for an answer, she continued. "Quinn's family. His people," she stated. "They were the ones who sent the 'Maggs packing in the first place. They have to know where they are now. We find them, we find the Dynasty. And they'll have your Earth's coordinates on file too; that's where they sent Quinn in the first place."
Remmy perked up. "Take the fight to the 'Maggs," he said, looking up to the blue sky, a smile forming on his face, "find Wade, and a free ticket home..." His eyebrows knitted, and he looked back at her. "But the Slidecage," he wondered aloud. "How do we get around that thing?"
"The answer obviously isn't here," Maggie reasoned. "If the 'Maggs knew how to break through, they'd have done it already... taken a bunch of their soldiers and ships with them to invade."
"Or maybe they've already gotten through, and it's already done," Remmy answered, playing devil's advocate. Maggie raised her right hand up to him, palm facing upwards. "Then they already did all the work for us, and we just go through," she said. "And if they're still there, if the Voraton device didn't do what it promised to do..." She cracked her knuckles, and grinned wickedly. "I'll hold them down while you hock the biggest loogies possible on their ugly faces," she said with confident determination.
Remmy barked a laugh. "Is that before or after we take their lunch money?" he asked. She chuckled. "Well, that's after the swirlie," she answered with a cheeky smile, "when they're more amenable to coughing up the dough."
She put her hands on his shoulders, looking him straight in the eye. "You're a walking bioweapon, Remmy," she said, "And I'll be glad to play Center for you."
He smirked, shrugged, then put an arm around her. "Sounds like a plan," he said through an exhale. "Guess we'll have to get in touch with some of the eggheads and see if they can fix the timer."
Jumping down from his command chair, Conrad Bennish Jr. walked towards them. "You know..." he started. Maggie and Remmy turned to watch him approach. "Five years ago? The FBI showed up at my door, took me to some whiz kid's basement to grill me on where he'd gone.
"Now I don't have a lot of strong memories from those days, for uh, various reasons," he muttered the last part before continuing, "but I do remember one thing: this huge, honkin' equation up on a blackboard. I recognized a few parts of it from working with that whiz kid, but the rest of it? Pure genius," he said, raising his hands palms up in a magnanimous gesture.
"When the Kromaggs came, I knew there was probably some kind of a connection: the disappearances, the equation, these grody ape things destroying everything," he continued, "and let's just say, I might have been working on a different plan before my man Rem showed up."
Maggie and Remmy exchanged a hopeful look, then turned back to see Bennish pulling a device out of an inner pocket of his aloha t-shirt: a small, grey piece of plastic with a single port on the side, which he pulled on the sides of to reveal two pads filled with buttons labeled with letters, numbers, and symbols, and a grey cover atop the middle. The cover had a cartoon drawing of himself, sunglasses included, mouth open and smiling with two hands depicting the "hang loose" gesture on either side. Opening the cover, and quickly typing something in, a rudimentary display showed out several windows with symbols of an electrical bolt, a clock, a finger pointing sideways, a gear, and several other icons that disappeared once he touched the bolt. He held the display towards them, showing out only a single words in all caps: "SLIDE?" it asked, a green checkmark on the bottom left, and a red stop sign on the bottom right.
"Radman, you are the best!" Remmy exclaimed, holding his arms wide open in excited praise. Maggie stepped forward with him. "You're just going to give that to us?" Maggie followed up with a hopeful smile.
Bennish suddenly snapped the cover closed, pulled in the sliding keyboard, frowned, then held the device next to his right ear. "Who said I was going to give it to you?" he asked.
Remmy's face fell, his arms slowly coming to his sides. Confusion passed across Maggie's face. Bennish's eyes stared back from behind his sunglasses, betraying no emotion, and he held his serious face for as long as he could.
Soon, he could take no more, then half-grinned. "But let's say two badasses wanted to tag along on a trip through the multiverse to put down some feral pignoses," he offered with a shrug, "who would I be to object?" He turned away as the other two shook their heads in smiling disbelief. "Let me know when you're ready," he said, working on the odd timer.
Maggie and Remmy looked to one another with bright faces, and hope welled between them. "Stop and interrogate every 'Magg we come across," Maggie started, "get in touch with more people left outside Quinn's homeworld, find a scientist who can break through the barrier, stumble across some coordinates somewhere that takes us straight to the Dynasty, or spring Wade from somewhere and have her take us straight there. We leave no stone unturned until we get a good lead..."
With a smile and an agreeing nod, Remmy spoke. "...or just keep sliding until we push through," he finished. "Like we always have." He turned to Bennish. "We're ready," he called out.
Bennish leaned over to say something to Wing, patting him on the shoulder, then gave him the hang loose sign. Returning it, Wing returned to the computer. Bennish came back over, silently gesturing to Maggie's pocket. She looked down, quickly understood what he was after, then handed the broken Egyptian timer to him. Pocketing the mess, he looked between the two, putting an arm around each of their shoulders.
"What would you do without me?" he asked. Then, without another word, a beam shot out from his timer, over Maggie's shoulder, and into a point in space just in front of them. The familiar multicolor bridge slowly opened in front of them. Wing, Montague, Miss Zachary, Vincent, Arthur, and Rakdy all stood and filed into the room to watch.
Bennish paused, letting his arm off of Maggie. She walked forward before the vortex, interlacing her fingers and raising them high in a stretch, arching her back. He drew close to Remmy's ear. "There's, like, babes out there, right?" he said, sweeping his hand across the swirling vortex ahead. "Really hot ones?" Remmy chuckled, speaking softly back, "You have no idea, Radman. Sporty ones, elegant ones, just plain cute ones..."
"Taken ones," Maggie called back without looking, still doing her stretches. Bennish smiled a wide grin and nodded a few times in appreciation of her excellent hearing. Remmy leaned in one more time. "There's always doubles, man," he said. Bennish flashed him the hang loose sign as Maggie looked back at the two in mild disbelief. "Righteous!" the sunglasses-styling young man in the aloha t-shirt shouted, his long brown hair wildly whipping around from the wind blowing out of the vortex. He turned to the vortex and leaped through, Maggie watching him all the way with a wry grin and shake of her head. She turned to Remmy, clapped her right hand with his in an arm wrestling clasp, then released. They jumped into the vortex together, and shortly thereafter, it closed, leaving the remaining six looking on.