CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CYBERNETIC-DANG
To leave or not to leave. That is the question.
Daedalus joked with himself as he continued to tinker with the metal gears and screws inside the Waymaker, a way to distract his brain from the millions of thoughts running through his mind.
Was there really anything back home? he asked himself the question multiple times. He thought about Charles and Layla, and he was sure they’d escaped. There was no way they were still in that universe. He wouldn’t let himself believe that the mission hadn’t succeeded…
…but he also had no way to be sure. None except to go look for them by himself.
He wasn’t even sure that there was still a world waiting for him behind that portal. Did Bellum have his fill and leave some leftovers or did he consume everything? What would he be walking into if he did?
There were simply too many factors to consider. Staying in this world was the only sensible option.
Yet, a part of him still argued…
Tiger walked through the doors of the quantum lab and was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of…
“Ugh, what’s that smell?” they asked out loud.
“Probably the oil,” Daedalus’ head came out from behind the uncompleted Waymaker 2.0, with his face and hair covered in oil.
“Well then pop open a window or something!”
Daedalus glanced around, scanning, “I think all the windows are open already. And the HVAC system is operational too.”
“And the room still smells like this?” Tiger asked. They’d drawn the collar of their shirt over their mouth and nose to make the smell more bearable.
“Yeah…,” Daedalus replied, “To be fair, ‘better ventilation for the quantum lab’ was one of the things on our to-do list.”
“Alright, hold on,” Tiger said. They entered a stance, steadying themself and bringing their hands to their hips. They outstretched their hands and pulled them back to themselves, inhaling, dragging the air with them. The air obeyed and gathered around them, enclosing them in a whirlwind. Then they exhaled, forcing the air to disperse and sending it out through the vents and the windows.
New, clean air rushed into the room, replacing the stench that had been there a few seconds before.
“Thanks,” Daedalus called out.
“It’s no problem,” Tiger responded, “I don’t even know how you could breathe well in a room like that.”
“In-built ventilation filter.” Daedalus knocks on his chest a few times, “I couldn’t even smell it.”
“Oh…that’s neat.”
“It is.” Daedalus resumed tinkering with the new Waymaker and Tiger walked on to grab a seat in front of all the computer screens, where they noticed the progress bar nearing its completion.
“Looks like we’re almost good to go.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. It should be done about any time now.”
The two fell quiet, the sounds of metal clanking against metal filling the air between them. Once again, Tiger broke the silence. They’d come here with a goal in mind and they were determined to fulfill it.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“So, have you come to a decision yet?” They tried to sound as casual as possible, trying not to set off any triggers.
“A decision on what?” Daedalus answered, choosing to play dumb.
“You know, the mysterious floating man appearing, telling you to choose between going back home and staying here to fight with us?”
“Oh, that decision. Yeah, I’m undecided…but Megan, you should know that if I do choose to go back, I won’t be ‘leaving you’, okay? There’s just…things that I need to check on that I can’t do from here.”
“Like what?”
“Like the ‘Atreus’. In my world, we developed multi-dimensional travel but only as a last resort. As a means of escape from Bellum. My…,” he paused, “…friends got on it and that was the last time I heard from them. I keep trying to contact it from this world, but the tech here is too outdated. Nothing I try works. But back home, everything I’d need to see my them again, I could find there.”
“I’m sure they’re okay.”
“I want to be sure too. I believe they are, but at the same time, I can’t help but worry.”
Tiger listened to him talk, realizing that them trying to get him to stay was in part, selfish. If he decided to leave, it wouldn’t have been because he wanted to. If anything, she could understand how the anxiety felt about not knowing whether his friends were alive or not.
“Tch,” Daedalus hissed, “I told Dante not to screw these caps on so tightly,” he raised a hand and his silvery cybernetic armor morphed and shifted around his finger, forming a blowtorch. A sharp blue jet of flame spouted out, and he put it to the metal in the Waymaker he was working on.
Tiger watched in awe.
“Did I ever tell you how cool your armor was?” They asked.
“No, you didn’t.”
“Well, it’s cool.”
“Thanks.”
“Mind if I asked what happened?”
“You mean, you don’t already know?”
“We only got the abridged version from Dang. You know, you were in an accident, some scientists saw you were in critical condition and decided to use experimental technology to replace your missing parts to save you. All of that.”
“That’s basically it.” Daedalus shut off the blowtorch in his finger, “I don’t remember how old I was when it happened, but I was hanging out with my dad at his lab. He was a quantum physicist, but a lot of the work he did was practical.”
He grabbed himself a chair and sat before continuing his story, “That night, he was looking into cosmic particle radiation and entanglement. The foundation for universal traversing. He believed he could create a wormhole between two chemical particles light-years apart just by matching their frequencies. Anyways, he’d brought me to the lab with him because I told him I was too scared to sleep alone.”
Daedalus shifted in his seat, an uncomfortable feeling spreading through him. It had been a while since he’d been forced to relive that night.
“I think…I was just happy to be there. Being with him made me happy. Knowing that every time I opened my eyes he was there…that made me happy.”
Tiger swallowed in anticipation of a mood change.
“But something went wrong that night. I don’t know the specifics of it, only that when it was over, I’d lost my father and several of my limbs.”
“I’m sorry.” Tiger spoke softly, hoping her voice carried as much sympathy as she felt.
“Don’t be. It was a long time ago and I’ve lived many lives since then.”
“Still, it doesn’t seem like a pleasant memory to relive.”
“…It isn’t.”
The duo sat in apologetic silence under the weight of the air around them, only interrupted by a sudden beeping coming from the computer.
“What’s happening?” Tiger asked.
Daedalus’ eyebrows furrowed as he swiveled the monitor to face him, “We’ve found the twins.”
The five of them stood in the quantum lab, fully geared up and ready for battle. They gathered around Daedalus and his computers, listening to him brief them on the current situation.
“It’s been a little over 13 hours since the attack on the city and there have been no other sightings since then, so we can assume that they’re regrouping. That’s also how long the twins have been missing.”
“Please, tell me there’s good news.” Daniel said.
“There is,” Daedalus tapped a key on his keyboard. On one of the displays, a map popped up with a blinking red dot. “Thanks to yours truly, we were able to track down Caden and company, using the residue multiverse energy signature that they left behind at the orphanage.”
He grabbed a device from his desk and tossed it to Dang, “That’s a small tracker that I fashioned. It’ll lead you to wherever they’re hiding out.”
“Huh, that doesn’t look like any street I’ve seen.” Megan was eyeing the map on the display, “Is that even California?”
“It is California…technically. Just outside city limits. And it’s very likely that their hideout’s underground.”
“This is great work.” Dang spoke up. Daedalus nodded in response, “They don’t know we’re coming, so we have the element of surprise.” All eyes were on him now, “Our primary target is getting the twins out safely, everything else comes after. We go in, bust heads, grab the twins and get out. I made a promise to Anna and I intend to keep it.”
“Okay great,” Daniel said, punching his fist into his palm. A small wave of fire escaped from it, “We have a location and we have a plan, what are we still waiting for?”