CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

CHOOSE YOUR MISSION

After a quick visit to one esteemed ‘Jonathan Cage’ persuading him to lend a few of his many housing facilities to Dang and his crew as a place for the kids to stay for the time being and, in exchange, he won’t run to the cops and tell them everything he knows about his shady business dealings with government officials, Dang was on his way.

On the way back, as he drove through the city, he watched as the people of California recovered from the recent wave of attacks. If it weren’t for the circumstances, it would’ve been one of the most impressive things he’d seen happen in all his years of living here.

The people had come together to help each other, setting up medical camps for those who couldn’t get attention in a hospital, and housing camps for people displaced in the invasion; those were the majority.

A bunch of flowers, pictures, and mementos littered the ground around certain buildings – a lot of them razed – making a sort of shrine to remember the lives that were lost.

Dang took it all in, the true stakes of his war. None of these people knew what was going on and none of them could do anything about it. It was up to him to protect them, to make sure that they were kept as far from it as possible.

It was up to him to make sure that they lived full and safe lives.

The people had gathered a bunch of metallic murderbot remains and dumped them in a pile, setting them on fire.

A small act, but one that meant a whole lot: We’re not giving up without a fight.

That’s the spirit, Dang thought to himself.

As he continued his journey back to base, He was swarmed with thoughts about the entirety of the situation. Pushing his car through the black of midnight, he thought about life without Dante and Daedalus and how much them being in the equation tipped the scales in their favor.

Between Arkanis and Calta, this world would’ve been toast without them. They were much more experienced and much better fighters than he was. And now that another threat has arrived, would they be able to survive without their help?

Sure, he was stronger now, much stronger than he was at the beginning of all this, but having them fighting with him filled him with a different kind of strength, one that made him believe that he just couldn’t lose.

Dang thought back to the beginning of all this, when the two doppelgangers had just been dropped into this world. They’d all been confused and had no idea what was happening, but now, along with Daniel and Megan, they’d grown into one big family.

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And now that family was about to be torn apart.

But in honesty, that wasn’t fair. Not to Daedalus or Dante, who already had their entire lives torn apart by Bellum, and who each had loved ones they hadn’t seen or heard from since they got here weeks ago.

They each had their own reason to get back to their homeworlds and if the roles were reversed? If he were somehow randomly transported away from this world, from everything he knows and everyone he loves? From Anna, Daniel and Megan, and his entire life?

He would for sure be doing anything he could to get back.

And then, to have this opportunity presented on a silver platter…

It was a no-brainer.

Dang arrived back at the school, heading into the quantum lab, where Daedalus was mucking around with the half-complete Waymaker. The room had been returned to its quiet state in the absence of a crowd, the only sounds being the clanking of metal, the hum of machinery, and the turning of gears.

For some reason, the room now smelled of…burnt engine oil?

“Yo.” He called out, drawing Daedalus’ attention temporarily.

“Hey,” Daedalus responded with a wave and resumed his tinkering.

“How come you’re not resting, or hibernating, or whatever robots do in their spare time?”

Daedalus chuckled, “You know I’m still human underneath the cybernetic armor, right? I’m like you guys, but just better. I’m the upgrade.”

“Okay man, we get it,” Dang laughed, dragging himself across the room and plopping down into one of the chairs, “I just went to secure a place for the kids, so that’s one problem solved.”

“Yeah?” Daedalus said, his head still buried among wires and circuitry.

“Well, temporarily solved.”

“Meh. Same difference.”

“How’s it going with the tracking? Any progress?”

“It’s going alright,” Daedalus tossed the spanner he was holding into the open toolbox on the ground, making a loud CLANK sound. He pointed to one of the computer monitors on the table, indicating a progress bar only halfway done, “If only you guys had better technology in this world, we’d have found them already.”

He grabbed a rag from the table and used it to wipe the oil off his hands.

“Oh, come on, like you guys didn’t have progress bars in your world,” Dang responded.

“We got progress bars when we needed to send information across galaxies at light speed, or through dimensions, not for pinging an entity on the SAME planet with a different multiversal frequency, which should be sticking out like a sore thumb, by the way.”

Dang laughed. “Hey, as soon as we’re not in the middle of an invasion, I’ll pass your concerns up the chain.”

Daedalus’ head came up from behind the Waymaker, his face stained with splotches of oil. Some of it had gotten in his hair too. Dang wondered whether there was a world out there where he was a mechanic for cars.

“Have you uhh…gone to see her yet?” Daedalus asked.

Dang’s silence was as good as an answer.

He shrugged and continued, “Well, Megan told me she regained consciousness a while ago, so…I don’t know I thought you’d probably want to be there when she wakes up again.”

“You’re right…” Dang said, jumping up and dusting himself off, “…you’re right, I should be there…she would want me there…”

He started towards the door but called out as he walked,

“By the way, why are you still working on that thing? Haven’t you already found a way home?”

Daedalus shrugged and called out in response, “I dunno…Guess it can’t hurt to keep your options open, can it? When did it ever hurt to have a contingency plan?”

“That makes sense.”

“Dang?”

Dang stopped in his tracks, turning around to the sound of his name, “Yeah?”

Daedalus had his mouth open and the muscles on his face were tense and serious, but they relaxed, switching to a softer tone, “Just…good luck, man…”

Is he hiding something?, Dang thought.

“Yeah man, thanks.” He ended up saying.

With that, he left, leaving Daedalus alone with the piece of junk that was the Waymaker…