Thu Jun 17, 2010 10:49 pm by ByteSlinger
“Through a Mirror Darkly”
Chapter 9
“Nothing Is Easy”
Originally posted on October 12th, 2009
[Beta]
Byte stepped into the main door of the run-down Aperture Science lab. A few bare bulbs strung from the ceiling illuminated dusty tables covered in piles of papers and notes. It smelled like a mausoleum, which was quite fitting because everything in this building was long dead – everything but the two soldiers standing in an uneasy quiet.
“So, what do you think?”, Phantom asked, thinking that Byte would be happy to see this place.
Byte stood for a moment, and looked around some more, then smiled, and with hands on hips said in the gayest way possible, ”Oh, those curtains are just dreadful! They just have to go! And look at this rug – if it was any dirtier, you could grow corn on it! And those walls – oh, neutral colors are just so 1990’s! But first, this place needs a severe cleaning!”
Holding an imaginary phone to her head, Byte continued, ”Bruce? Yes Bruce, this is Byte! We have a code pink! Send over six of our cutest scrubbers and tell them they need to all use the OxyClean blaster cannons. Make sure they all have long hoses – and, oh yeah, long hoses on the cannons as well! This place needs to be cleaned from top to bottom, and you know I’ll have to supervise them as they go up and down and…oh, sorry, dearie, I got such an image in my head! Gotta run! Some big army-type guy is looking at me like I’ve completely lost my mind, and doesn’t know if he should laugh at me or shoot me. Talk to you later! Toodles”, and then hangs up the imaginary phone.
Phantom looked at Byte, and shook his head, and slowly reached for his gun.
“Hey, I was just kidding! Come on, what did you want me to say? That where you live is a complete dump, and that maybe you could have dusted once in a while? Geez, and you didn’t even make any fresh coffee! At least EagleRock had an espresso machine!”
Phantom then did something he hadn’t done in countless years: he began to laugh. Low at first, and then it seemed the more he thought about it, the more he laughed. And he kept on laughing, until he was literally rolling on the ground.
Byte was worried. “Oh, shit, he’s finally snapped.”, she thought, “Being here for so long put him on the edge, and leave it to me to screw around and push him off. I hope I don’t have to shoot him.”
Phantom sat up on the floor, looked up at Byte, and calmed down enough to talk. “Thank you.”, he said, puzzling Byte.
“Uh, sure – but why?”, Byte stammered, and looked for someplace to dive in case he drew his gun.
“For years, I have been alone. You died five years ago – well, at least one of you did – and I haven’t spoken to a single soul since. And I haven’t laughed, or had any reason to have hope. But I refused to die – and I refused to live, too. I felt this was my punishment for all of my wrongs I had done.”
“But EagleRock is here – why didn’t you go stay with him?”, Byte asked.
“Ah, that’s a good question. When you were with EagleRock, what did he say about Coop83?”
“That he died in a rockslide. Oh, and that a few months later, you went crazy and disappeared.”, Byte added.
“Well, that’s only part of the truth. And since you were honest with me, let me tell you what really happened these past twelve years…”
Byte listened to Phantom as he started reminiscing from just after the time the nukes leveled the EGB and the better part of Newgrounds: “At first, all three of us stayed in the shelter. We couldn’t believe that you had sent the nukes to destroy everything, but with your vendetta against the EGB and the NewGrounds oligarchy, well, anything was possible.”
“Vendetta? What vendetta?”
“Oh, you haven’t gotten to those chapters in that book yet, huh? Well, let me summarize it for you. Genius discovers way to make portal bounce through time as well as space, and also extends the range between portals to hundreds of miles, with an opening up to 10 meters. Genius is so proud, until he discovers that his boss is getting kickbacks from the military, and in return anything that can be used as a weapon becomes one. But it’s too late – genius comes to work one day to discover the entire project, and all his notes and all his computers, confiscated by the government. They now have their weapon, and don’t need him anymore. They tell him that he has three choices: a slow death, join the EGB as a private, or a slower death. The EGB at the time was becoming a dumping ground for all the misfits in NewGrounds – it was a way of not only teaching miscreants discipline, but it also made the government’s army bigger and stronger. It was nothing more than a glorified minimum-security prison where everyone played soldier – but no one knew that yet. Anyway, Genius chooses the EGB over death, but vows that one day he will get back at Storm and his government buddy, only known by the name of ‘Tim’, for ruining his life”.
“Storm? As in SlashFirestorm?”, asked Byte.
“Yes…and no. Storm is the guy here who runs the military weapons development. Your SlashFirestorm is a completely different person from a different place altogether. SlashFirestorm was always one of the good guys – a little naïve at times, but always had a good heart. Storm, on the other hand, has always been a two-face prick who manipulates everything to his own desires, and doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”
“Hey, wait… how do you know about MY SlashFirestorm? I never told you about him.”, Byte was getting seriously confused.
After a long pause, Phantom answered quietly, “because SlashFirestorm was also MY friend and MY commander”
“What? How?”, Byte was stammering now, “How could that be?”
“There’s a simple answer to that. About 13 years ago, Tom called an off-site meeting to discuss the issues we’ve been having with all the portal attacks. It was a trap, and we were all captured here, in this parallel world. A few days later, we attempted an escape, and our comrades back in OUR EGB were executing another rescue mission. The good news is that most of them made it back. But four of us didn’t. EagleRock, Coop and myself were stranded here, and managed to escape the complex and get away before everything became a nuclear slag heap. Idiot-Finder disappeared between dimensions, and hasn’t been heard from since. All we knew is that it was rumored that you were responsible for the nukes, and for that, we all hated you.”
“So, you guys are just as lost as I am!”, Byte added,” and we’re all trying to get back to the same place!”
“Well, actually, you’re more lost – you’ve in the wrong body, and right now, in some time in some place, there is a raving psychopath in yours. We’re just misplaced – you’re royally fucked!”, and he chuckled a little.
“So, how do you know the history of this place, when you’re not from here?”, Byte asked, hoping to fill in a few plot holes.
“Our benefactor and rescuer, who happens to be Coop83's counterpart and goes by the name ‘Cooper’, filled me in. It took some time to realize that we had traveled not only through space, but through dimensions, and keeping track of who’s who was a nightmare.”
“Oh…I see. Now, finish your thought from before – you three guys were close friends. What really happened with Coop?”
“He died in a rockslide – when I pushed him down the side of the mountain six years ago”, Phantom said, sullenly.
“Pushed him? What did he do to you?”
“It’s not what he did – it was what he was going to do. He was going to tell EagleRock that the man who decimated the EGB and destroyed all possibility of ever getting home was still alive. And then EagleRock could have his revenge and kill you on your own. He was going to give YOU up for the slaughter – and I had to stop him.”
“Er, go on…this sounds really confusing – keep explaining”, Byte mumbled.
“You were very close to recreating the portal, and to find a way for us to get home. It was our secret. I found you two years before that, living in this very office. You had escaped before the bombs went off – which meant you didn’t send them. You were set up – by Tom and the moderators and the NewGrounds government. You were the fall guy to take the blame for the bombings – which was a cover-up for their own plot. I didn’t tell anyone, and I only met with you once in a while to check in on you. Coop found this place while you were still alive, but fortunately, you were out grabbing parts from the other lab. We moved you to the bunker under the church, where you continued your work. I didn’t tell a soul that you were alive, and trying to find us all a way home. I couldn’t get their hopes up, because if you failed, it would be worse than never trying at all. I didn’t mean to kill Coop – we had a pushing match, and he fell backwards into loose dirt – and kept going. All I wanted to do was protect my friends – and I wound up killing one and running away from the other.”
Then Phantom was silent. He had said all he needed to say.
“I’m sorry, Phantom. I wish there was something I could do”, Byte offered
“There is”, he answered flatly, “finish the portal, and go back and stop all of this from happening. I’m not sure how or where or when – that’s beyond me. But I do know this: you are the only one alive here and now that can make it happen.”
“That’s easy for you to say. What do I know about portals? And if I do get one up and running – AND get back through the timeline to patch things up, will that make Coop come back to life, and all of you will be friends here once more?”, Byte said, somewhat sarcastically.
“No…”, Phantom replied. “If you are successful, none of us will be here to even have this conversation. We’ll all be back where we belong.”
Byte sat down on a dusty chair, and said “But it could take months – years – before I figure out these notes and even begin to mess with the portal. So much could happen in that time”, he bemoaned.
“It doesn’t matter. Take all the time you need – the great thing about a point in “the past” is that it’s always there. Unless you meet a premature demise – and that’s what I’m trying to avoid – I have no doubt you’ll figure the portal out, sooner or later. When you do, you’ll have to just figure out how far back to go, and what critical event can be changed so that this is no longer our destiny. But I’m impatient – so, hurry up and get started already!”
Byte picked up the journal again, and began to read. This was going to take a while…
[Gamma]
EagleRock tossed the flash-bang into the corridor, and in seconds, his squad was in the hallway, all weapons drawn, and ready for anything. “Every down on the floor NOW!”, he bellowed, and everyone in the hallway fell to the floor. Everyone, except a well-endowed woman who seemed not to have noticed the grand entrance they just made.
IB stood at the portal console, and with a single stroke, clicked one last button – and as Phantom’s squad rounded the corner, the hallway went completely dark, and alarm bells went off.
“Everyone, go to night-vision NOW – we don’t want casualties from friendly fire!”, EagleRock commanded – but it was unnecessary. Years of combat training kicked into gear the moment the light disappeared, and by the time his words had finished echoing in the hallway, everyone had their goggles on already.
They saw IB crouching low besides a file cabinet, trying to use it as cover. She was trapped and outnumbered, and didn’t have a prayer of surviving unless she gave up. “We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way”, commanded Phantom from the other end of the hallway. “Crawl out to the floor, and stay face down – don’t make any sudden moves. We just want to go back home, and if you help us, you will live. Otherwise – well, let’s just say I’m in a real pissy mood about all this kidnapping shit, and it would just make my day to take someone out right about now. You have until the count of 5, and then I shoot…1…2…”
What they all didn’t know was that everything they were doing and saying was being transmitted to not only the complex’s main security room, but to the other side of the portal – where Slinger heard every word.
[Alpha]
Slinger heard the emergency alarms go off from the console, and immediately ran over to see what was going wrong. He watched in earnest as he saw the previously-captured EGB crews attempting their escape – and from the looks of it, they were going to make it. “If I shut the portal down now, I’ll have to recalibrate it later – and I won’t know when to try again, especially if the shoot up the console on the other side.”, he thought to himself. “Oh, yeah, let’s not forget that there’s another bunch of goody two-shoes on their way here to try to rescue the idiots we grabbed. Talk about being in between a rock and a hard place.”
Slinger pondered his options, and realized that his only chance of getting back home in one piece was to let those bumbling fools escape. But he’d have to hide and lay low until they left the cavern, and then jump back when the coast was clear. He looked around, and move a few crates to uncover an access panel to an electrical junction closet. It was big enough for him to sit down in, and with the lights off, stay hidden for a while.
He went back to the portal console, keyed into the remote portal communications, and made one terse but official-sounding page over the PA system: “Let them go.”. He then logged off the console, leaving the portal up, and ran back to his hiding place. After repositioning the crates to obscure the view of the access panel, he slid in quietly, and waited for the party to start…
[Gamma]
Everyone looked up when they heard the announcement over the loudspeakers “Let them go”. IB moved forward slowly, and lay flat on the floor as instructed. She said quietly, ”Go ahead and go – I’m not going to stop you now”.
“Yeah, but how about bringing the lights back on first?”, asked EagleRock – and a moment later, the hallway lights came back up. “Voice activated?”, he added
“No, just had to find the wall switch!”, answered SlashFirestorm, ”Now, you, stand up, and face me – move slowly!”. IB complied, and looked directly at SlashFirestorm. Slash did a doubletake – the face was familiar, but that body – well, he’d never forget those curves. It looked like her uniform was painted on, and for a moment, it derailed his train of thought.
“Ahem”, she said,” my eyes are UP HERE! Now, what I can do to – er, for you guys?”
“Make sure that portal is set up to let us back home, and stay out of the way!”, demanded Phantom
“Oh, you mean back to that dreadful cavern with all of your other buddies? It’s already connected. You can go through whenever you want…but…”, she trailed off, mysteriously
“BUT WHAT?!?!?”, screamed Phantom, who was starting to lose his temper, and he aimed his rifle at her head.
“Easy now, boys. You can use the portal, but no more than two at a time, and you should wait at least 30 seconds between pairs. This thing isn’t stable, and if it has to handle too much mass, it could break free from the other side – and then we’ll have NO idea where the hell you’ll wind up!”, and she smiled, oh so innocently.
EagleRock spoke quickly, “Okay, men, two by two – you heard the lady. Phantom, keep point on that end of the hallway. Coop, watch our backs here. I’ll supervise the portal exit – we’ll be the last ones out!”
Phantom and Coop took their places. The security doors were still locked down from Cooper’s little surprise, but they could hear orders being barked and boots clomping around – they were trying to figure out how to get in here.
“Better keep it going – looks like we could have company soon!”, Coop announced.
PossiblePancakes and Sentio were the first through the portal, and Eagle Rock looked down at his watch. We have to hold them off for seven more minutes. Next two, get ready!”
Every thirty seconds passed like an eternity – but slowly, two by two, the hallway emptied.
[Alpha]
PossiblePancakes and Sentio stumbled out of the portal and into the dimly lit cavern. “This place looks familiar”, Sentio said out loud.
“Yeah, but what the hell happened to these guys?”, PossiblePancakes asked, and pointed to the bodies on the floor. They walked over to the jeep, where they found Lizzardis first. “His neck was crushed to dust –who the hell did this?”
The sound of the portal crackling to life made them both jump and turn at the same time. BlueHippo and Major-Punk landed perfect face-plants as they fell out of the portal. They both recovered quickly, and stood up. “Four down – a shitload more to go!”, Major-Punk commented.
“Yeah, every 30 seconds we’ll get to see the show, unless this thing breaks down”, Sentio responded. “Now, get your asses out of the way, and help us ID these poor bastards. Most of them were shot – some at point-blank range.”
BlueHippo looked around, and grimly noted, ”They must have known their attacker – and even trusted them. Somebody turned bad, and killed these guys off-guard. There is no other explanation – these men were all part of the Elite Guard. Nobody gets the drop on them – unless it was someone who betrayed them.”
As BlueHippo finished, they all heard a rumbling noise coming from the tunnel. Some sort of vehicle was approaching – and not too quietly.
They all saw, for a moment, an EGB-modified Warthog come tear-assing into the cavern – and then like fireworks, several flash-bangs whitened the landscape. They all instinctively fell down and took cover on the floor. Then they heard a familiar voice over the Warthog’s megaphone: “This is Supreme Commander Aldlv. Everyone stay face down and don’t move. We will come to you. If you move, we will shoot. And I know Ismael92 here loves to use the chain gun on this thing, so don’t give him a reason to ventilate your sorry asses!”
The portal crackled again, and this time TurkeyBean and Andrea364 bumbled out like two drunks being thrown out of a bar at 4AM. Aldlv recognized Andrea immediately, ”Hold your fire! These are friendlies!”
Behind them, Fro rolled up in the Jeep, and Rohan and Idiot-Finder pulled the transports in close, and let the rest of the squads jump out. Cariboo drove the medical van past them all, parked it in the middle of the cavern, and jumped out to see if she could help any of the victims.
Sentio stood up slowly, and addressed the rescue team, “We’re all friendlies here – but it looks like someone took out a few of our own!”. After quick greetings, they all went about the unhappy task of identifying the dead. The portal hissed and crackled, disgorging a pairs of soldiers every 30 seconds. Idiot-Finder stood by the portal, and helped those who came through to their feet and gave them a quick de-briefing.
The cavern was getting crowded as the escapees found their way home. In a few more minutes, they would all be back – unless something went wrong.
And it did.
[Beta]
Phantom heard the door groaning in front of him, “They’re using magnesium torches to cut the frames – we’re outta time!”
“It’s just you, Coop, Slash and me”, said EagleRock. “You and Slash go next – in ten seco..”
The door behind EagleRock exploded inward, knocking him down to the floor. It then continued on, and clipped SlashFirestorm on his back – and Slash, along with the door, fell into the portal. It crackled and screamed like a demon from Hell – and then shut down!
Phantom ran towards the commotion – and right into a squadron of six NG Moderators who were here to mop up this mess. “Drop your weapons”, the leader shouted. No one could tell who these guys were, as they always wore full-cover helmets and masked their identities for their own safety. “Well, it’s about time you assholes showed up – most of them got away! What took you so long?”, IB demanded.
“Security system was all fucked up – had to bring the system down and reload the backup protocols. But we have control now!”, The leader responded. “Only three left, huh? Well, at least they’re all Supreme Commanders. We’ll just have to add them back to our collection. You three’, he motioned to the first three Mod in the squad ,”strip the prisoners of all their weapons, and bring them back to the east holding cell. Keep them there until you get word from me”.
Phantom, Coop and EagleRock dropped all their weapons, ammo and grenades, and were led silently back through the maze of hallways. The group paused for a minute to wait for the elevator. Coop thought he heard something to his left, and he looked slowly. Nothing there but a ventilation vent blowing out dusty air – but what was that? He looked again discretely, and saw for a moment something that gave him hope – Cooper was following them via the ventilation system!
The elevator arrived, and the six of them walked in – three of them unarmed. As the doors closed, and the elevator began its descent, they all heard a “THUD” on the roof of the room, and as they looked up, the escape door opened for a moment, and something dropped down, onto the floor.
No one was quite sure what it was – it emitted a horrendous high-pitched squeal – and then all six of them passed out.
[Alpha]
Idiot-Finder jumped back as the portal screamed and spit lightning, and watched as Slash tumbled out, followed by a very large and misshapen steel door that skidded to a stop a few feet away. Slash jumped to his feet and looked back at the portal – it was the color of an angry sea, crackling and hissing like ten pounds of aluminum foil in a very large microwave oven.
“What the fuck just happened?!?”, yelled Idiot-Finder.
“We were almost finished – but they blasted through before we were all out. This door literally pushed my ass through the portal – but EagleRock, Coop83 and Phantom are still there!”, Slash blurted – and then fell to floor in a convulsion.
Cariboo saw him fall, and ran over to him immediately with a medkit. “We don’t leave ANYONE behind!”, yelled Idiot-Finder, “I’m going back to get them – follow me!”, and he jumped into the raging portal. The whole cavern shook a little as the portal burped out a tremendous thunderclap – and then went dark and offline.
Slinger, who was still in hiding, heard the portal short out and shut down. “Fuck, now I have to recalibrate it all over again”, he said to himself. “But I just have to wait for everyone to leave…”, and he settled back and made himself as comfortable as he could.
Everyone began to talk at once, until Slash stood up and quieted them all down. “Does ANYONE here know how to get this damn portal up and running again?”, and about thirty heads all shook back and forth as a group “NO”.
“I didn’t think so. Since we can’t get it open from this side, we can only hope those guys figure out a way to open it from their end. We can’t do anything else here – grab those bodies, take anything that’s driveable, and let’s all get the hell back to the Barracks. We have a lot to sort out, and this place gives me the creeps…
[?Unknown?]
Idiot-Finder woke up after the third kick to his side. He was face down on the desert floor, and the sun was hot all around him. The only shade he had was from the shadow of the person standing over him, trying to get his attention.
“Get up, maggot!”. A female voice commanded. A voice that didn’t sound like it was used to being ignored. He slowly rolled over, and his antagonist shifted to the left, so the sun was directly in Idiot-Finder’s face. He turned to the left, and with the sun glare out of the way, Idiot-Finder’s eyes adjusted to the light. His jaw dropped when he saw her.
She was about 6 foot tall, with long, red hair blowing in the hot breeze. Very muscular, but also well proportioned – and well endowed – for a woman. But that was only the start. He left arm, from the shoulder down, was completely robotic, along with her left eye – and both her legs. The cybernetic limbs shone like titanium, but they were scarred and pitted in spots, as if she had used them many times in battle.
“Byte, is that you?”, Idiot-Finder asked.
She kicked him again, this time harder. “Only my friends call me that – and I don’t have any friends here. You will address me as Mistress TeraByte”.
“Terror Bite?”, Idiot-Finder mimicked.
“Go ahead, butt-munch and make fun of my name – and I will show you what terror really is!”, and with that, the fingers on her robotic left hand began to lengthen, and the ends became rounded and spiked. They grew to two meters, and in one swift motion, she brought her arm up, and snapped the titanium cat-of-nine-tails across his back. It tore through his uniform, and left deep gashes where it found the mark.
Idiot-Finder winced a little, looked into her face, and said with a smile, “Is that all you got?”
[End of Chapter 9]