November 25, 1989
WHOOSH!
Crashing down upon the hot truck bed in a jumble of limbs, Number Five's chin smacked painfully against the corrugated aluminium. The truck itself was some nondescript thing that his father would've normally scoffed at and possibly something that Diego would've owned during his time as a budget vigilante. In essence, nothing of note, save for the very little remains of it or the fact that it was parked in the ruins of an alleyway.
A quiet groan hissed out from between his teeth as Five rolled back up onto his haunches and his lips pulled back in a silent snarl at the feeling of hot metal burning beneath his fingertips. Still (aside from the possibly burnt hands and banged up knees), Five could honestly say that it wasn't the worst landing that he'd ever had. And he had had quite a few of those, especially in the beginning. He still shuddered whenever he thought of a certain mark in a particular corner of his childhood bedroom; that one hidden behind the dresser from where he had landed halfway through the low-bearing wall.
WHIR!
Scrambling to his feet, Five quickly turned to watch as the familiar blue vortex that had spat him out—and only him—out onto the other side. Panic flooded his very being as he watched the blue vortex swirl and pulse above him like it a heartbeat, though no other people came tumbling out. He could still the feel of the ghostly grip of his siblings' fingers clenched around his own, could still see the silhouettes of his family through the film of frustrated tears at Vanya's preemptive death and could still hear the sound of their cries as they were sucked in by his power, and pulled apart just as quick.
The tears fell down his cheeks, unbidden, as frustration and despair at the whole situation, bubbled over. He thought that he'd gotten better at this whole thing; his jumps had never been accurate up to more than a few moments, but he thought that he'd at least been able to keep them all together. They'd each had a death grip on the other, Five was sure of it, but apparently he was wrong because there was no one there but him. God only knows where & when they had ended up, if they had even exited the temporal vortex at all.
"Luther! Diego! Allison!" Five cried, uselessly starting up at the pulsating vortex high above him. Hung there, against the blood red sky, it blazed like a shining star; a star that continued to taunt him even as it zipped shut with a whir and a whoosh, taking the last and only traces of his family with it. "Klaus! Theodore! Ben!" There were no answers and there would never be. He just had to face the fact that he was alone again, lost in a world that was as strange to him as the one he had left behind to burn.
Sniffling to himself as he furiously scrubbed at his leaking face, it took a moment for Five to realise that something was wrong—fundamentally wrong—with this strange place he had arrived in. The truck he was in was still and hot to the touch, the sky was stained red just like the apocalypse of 2019 and—most of all—there was this eerie silence that blanketed the place. Goosebumps erupted along his skin as he shuffled towards the edge of the truck bed, suddenly nervous in the unending and unnaturally quiet streets.
The unwavering silence puzzled him something fierce and it was enough to distract him from the grief that had threatened to engulf him not mere moments ago. Sliding from the truck, Five shuffled down the broken path as dread pooled in his gut; he hoped that this time would not be like the last time he had time travelled to the future all those years ago. He didn't know what he'd do if he gotten stuck in another apocalypse like that. Confusion pulled at his brow as he picked his way through the rubble, and a deep sense of wariness (one born from years of death threats hanging over his head nigh on every other day) had settled in his bones. Even if the sights he found puzzled him to no end.
At this late hour, the ruins of the streets was bathed in the ghoulish green glow of flickering fluorescent signs and the silvery tones of the completely whole and intact moon. Dark pools of blood peppered the cracked road, windows were blackened out or boarded up and a strange collection of flora that he'd only ever noticed before in that warehouse—in Vanya's last resting place—spawned from every available crevice. Corpses—both human and not—lined the abandoned streets as piles of ashen rubble towered high in sporadic clumps that one might consider to have once been buildings.
A thick layer of smog hung in the air, making it hard to breathe; it was like that smoker's lounge at the Commission: if you were above a certain height, you were at dire risk of choking on it. The stench of fire was also there, occasionally still flickering in impromptu fire pits or just because of the immense heat that made heatwaves visible off of the blacktop even during the dark. Shrugging off his outer most layers, Five tied the sleeves of his blazer around his waist, rolled up the sweater's sleeves and continued on with his search.
Sweat beaded on his brow as he skirted around upturned military vehicles and clambered over the chunks of road that had come free in whatever had broken this place in the first place. There were signs everywhere, too; ones that told a terrifying story and others that pointed towards something a little more hopeful. Like that digital one over on the glitchy billboard, above the movie theatre which read: CURFEW 7PM. NO EXCEPTIONS. Or that one hanging on by a thread, over by the remains of an old-school diner which read: SAFE HAVEN: GET TESTED TODAY! ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEW WORLD? ONLY THE BEST & BRIGHTEST GET TO GO!
Amongst the other signs of life, there were also other concerning signs of chaos present. Particularly in the overturned military-looking vehicle to his right, the one that looked like a tank and a spider had had a baby. Or the unexploded missile which was inexplicably covered in purple moss and had parked itself halfway through the window of a grungy electronics store. He skirted that one with care.
There were bullet holes that littered almost every surface his eyes could spot, though they were unlike any bullet hole he'd ever seen before. They were clean and precise, never needlessly damaging the surrounding areas like those bullets had been made from lasers instead of lead. And high above his head, up there in the heavens where the moon lay mercifully untouched & whole, was a familiar red sky which had been stained in colours that made his stomach turn.
Just like the last time, an emboldened headline from a lone surviving newspaper told him of the horrors that had happened there, before his arrival and Five rushed to read it. But unlike last time, he did not wrench free yellowed paper from the rubble nor did he find himself a flyer imperfectly kept preserved in the ash. No, instead he found himself confronted with a mid-sized informational android that lay squashed between a melted trashcan and the gnarled roots of a flowering bush. it look like some sort of obtusely headless telly-tubby.
Admittedly, it took the time traveller a good couple of minutes to figure out how to get the thing up & working again, but when he did calloused fingers eagerly flew across the ever-glitching screen until it brought forth a newspaper—or the closest approximation of one—for him to read. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Five huffed quietly to himself as his gaze zeroed in on the big bold letters and the equally horrific picture that screamed at him from the front page.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 1959
THEY LIVE AMONG US: THE ALIEN INVASION
"UNITED NATIONS' ULTIMATUM IGNORED BY ELLA-DES RA"
At 12.15 [EST], the Norwegian Security-General of the United Nations, Trygve Lie, spoke on the radio from the United Nations Headquarters, addressing the world as a whole. The Secretary-General's voice was steady and firm as he announced, "Today, on the anniversary of the Great War, a new proclamation rained down: We are at war with Mogadore"
Millions of listeners, worldwide, were overcome with suffocating emotion and a hush fell upon the world as Mr Lie spoke with a moving and deep sincerity into a seriously emotional voice. "I am speaking to you from the Headquarters of the United Nations" Said Mr Lie, "This morning, a United Nations Ambassador handed the Mogadorian Government the Final Note which stated that unless we, the people, heard from them by 11.00 o'clock that day. That they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from our planet, a state of war would exist between us"
"I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT NO SUCH UNDERTAKING HAS BEEN RECEIVED, AND CONSEQUENTLY, THIS WORLD IS AT WAR WITH THE MOGADORIANS. YOU CAN IMAGINE WHAT A BITTER BLOW IT IS, THAT ALL MY LONG STRUGGLE TO WIN PEACE, HAS FAILED"
"…And yet, I cannot in good faith, believe that there is anything more or anything different that I could have of done that would have of been more successful in this endeavour…"
"ELLA-DES RA [TENTHBORN ELLA OF THE RA NAME] WOULD NOT HAVE PEACE"
"Up unto the very last moment, it would have of been quite possible for us to arrange for a peaceful and honourable settlement between Mogadore and Earth, but Ella-Des Ra would not have it…The Councilwoman had evidently made up her mind to attack the Earth and the Lorics who had sought asylum here, upon our planet, for many years"
"Although, our ambassador(s) tell us that she now slanders us by saying that she had presented several reasonable proposals regarding the refugees, which were rejected by the United Nations. This statement was proven to be falsely conceived and ultimately untrue. The proposals presented to the United Nations never included such an ultimatum and, although this was announced in a Mogadorian broadcast, Ella-Des Ra did not wait to hear any further comments on them"
"Instead, she ordered her troops to descend upon the global frontier, early the next morning…Her actions convincingly show us that there is no chance that this woman will ever give up her intention of using force to gain her will…She can only be stopped by force"
[PICTURED: Ella-Des Ra & her retainers at the global frontier]
"WE WILL STAND WITH YOU"
"…But not all of our hope is lost, for today we are assisted by the Loric forces, known simply as the 'Garde' and a mysterious faction known as 'The Sparrow Academy] whom shall fulfil their obligations and go & aid in Earth's United Army…So bravely resisting this wicked and unprovoked attack upon our people"
"WE HAVE A CLEAR CONSCIENCE"
"We have a clear conscience; we have done all that anybody could have done to establish peace…This situation however, in which no word given by the Mogadorian's rule cannot be trusted, and no people nor country can feel itself safe in the fact that its actions have become intolerable…and now, we have resolved to fix it"
"At a moment such as this, the assuredness of support that we have received from the world are a source of profound encouragement to us all…and I know that you will all continue to play your part, in full calmness and courage"
"THE UNITED NATIONS HAVE MADE PLANS UNDER WHICH IT WILL BE POSSIBLE TO CARRY ON THE WORK OF THE NATIONS IN DAYS OF STRESS AND STRAIN, WHICH MAY BE AHEAD OF US…THESE PLANS NEED YOUR HELP TO SUCCEED"
"You may be taking your part in the fighting services or as volunteers in one the branches of Civil Defence…You may be engaged in work essentials in the maintenance of the life during these times of war…in factories, in transport and public utilities…So, it is of vital importance that you should carry on with your jobs…"
"FOR THE GREATER GOOD, WE WILL PREVAIL!"
"…May God bless you and may He defend the greater good, in turn…For its evil that drags us back to the trenches, for its evil that we shall be fighting and we shall be brute force, bad faith, injustices, oppression and persecution! And even then, I am certain that the greater good will prevail!"