I wasn't sure what I expected to see as we passed through the hologram or illusion or whatever it was, but it certainly wasn't a carpeted hallway with tasteful paintings on the walls and soft music playing. Soft music that I recognized from home. That was, music that was definitely from our own time. Just like this entire place. The paintings were too modern as well, some with pictures of very twentieth century places or objects. So was the carpet. The entire design couldn't have been older than a few decades at most. Hell, we could see elevators just down the hall, next to a couple labeled restrooms. Freaking elevators.
Well, something was obviously very wrong with this. How the hell was this place here?
“Uh, Flick?” That was Sean, stepping over next to me while he looked up and down the corridor, frowning. “I thought you said we were a couple hundred years in the past. I only got a C in history, but I'm still pretty sure this is just a little bit wrong for 1799.”
Roxa gave a nod of agreement while reaching down to rub Gidget’s head. “And it's not just advanced alien technology. This stuff, the paintings, the music, the elevator design, it's all modern human. I recognize the music. This could be straight out of an office building back home. I mean, I'm honestly not convinced that we didn't just walk through some sort of time portal or something and end up right back on the same day we left from.” After a brief pause, she added, “Aside from that being entirely too easy.”
Extra, who had switched into the copilot seat to give Hot Type a break while we were walking, spoke up. If that really was time travel, it was the smoothest version we've ever experienced. Seriously, whoever was behind that should really give Ehn lessons. I mean, past Ehn, before he blew himself up because he refused to listen to people trying-- never mind.
After assuring her that I knew what she meant, I turned to look over my shoulder, finding an open doorway behind us leading into what looked like a modern conference room. Taking a breath, I reached out, only to find my hand stopped in midair by some sort of invisible shield. There was a forcefield or something right where we had come in. I ran my hand over it, but the air was solid all the way around that spot. We wouldn't simply be going right back out through the same way we’d come in. Obviously not, why would it ever actually be that simple?
“Oh yeah,” I muttered with a glance toward the others to make sure they all noticed what I was doing with my hand, “I think it's safe to say we all saw that one coming.”
Avalon, who had been silently looking around that whole time as she took in our situation, turned back to me. “Can you check where we are now and see if we actually moved anywhere or not?”
I did just that, using my distance-checking power to see where we were in relation to Laramie Falls. Or at least, I tried to do that. But it didn’t work. I was getting the equivalent of static back. Which was weird, since I could usually at least get something like, ‘you’re four thousand miles from where you thought you were’ or whatever. But in this case, nothing. I could tell my power was trying to work, it just came back empty.
After I reported that, Avalon made a face. She seemed to hesitate, clearly not wanting to suggest the next part before finally sighing. “Okay, fine. In that case, can you teleport out of here and check the surroundings? If we really did time travel again, it’d be nice to know for sure. But… if you can get out, take us with you. We--none of us should go off by ourselves.” She looked down, blushing just a bit before swallowing as her gaze met mine, obviously anxious about all this.
Right, I could check like that. Focusing for a moment, I pictured the area we had just come through, that canyon. But nothing happened. And when I focused on a few other spots, both from our own time and more generic, nothing happened then either. Maybe I was being blocked, or we had gone through a portal and ended up somewhere away from Earth. Whatever it was, we wouldn't be getting out of this place that way either. I was starting to think we were just going to have to look around, figure out what this place actually was, and go from there. Probably after something else attacked us.
So, shaking my head, I explained the issue to the others. Not that they really needed to be told that I couldn’t teleport, since we were all still standing there. On the other hand, just to check the specifics, I tried transporting myself just about ten feet down the corridor, still in sight. But again, nothing happened. I couldn’t even teleport inside this hallway. So either the block extended over my entire ability rather than simply stopping me from leaving the building, or we weren’t on Earth.
Something else I noticed then, after failing to teleport down the hall, was a window in one of the nearby doors. It showed what looked like an ordinary office beyond. Well, ordinary for hundreds of years into the future from where we should have been. I could see a pair of desks facing each other, along with computers, lamps, scattered pens and paper, a row of filing cabinets, and other windows on the far wall with the blinds tightly drawn.
Oh wait, hang on, windows. Waving for the others to come on, I tried the door. It was locked at first, but even as I realized that, there was a click and it opened right up. Score one for my security cracking power, apparently. Honestly, I’d kinda half-expected the office on the other side to not even actually be there. It wouldn’t have surprised me at all to find out the place was nothing more than a holographic image or something.
I was about to step in there, but Vulcan came up next to me, his body blocking my legs. As I looked down, the sleek little metal backpack thing attached to him separated as VJ (Vulcan Junior) turned into his drone form and flew into the room to look around.
“He likes to scout things out,” Sean informed me easily. “You know, just in case there’s a trap in any of these places. Columbus upgraded him with about as many advanced sensors as we can fit in that little body. With help from our new employers.” Even as he said that, a frown had found its way to his face. “I wonder what’s gonna happen there.”
“You mean because Ehn went boom and he was the one actually running Gehenna?” I asked while giving VJ a glance. The drone was very carefully scanning everything in the room, projecting various-colored lights all over the desks, the computers, all of it. Which was probably for the best, given how easily this stuff could be trapped. Even if I did feel incredibly impatient. I wanted to run in there and open the blinds to see if there was just a rock wall beyond or something… more. But no, it was safer to be patient.
Sean nodded, watching the drone as well. “If he really put it all together, if he--” A heavy sigh escaped him. When he spoke again, it was in a wistful tone. “You know, I really did want to be part of something good. Not perfect, not flawless, but good. Useful. Something that contributed more good than bad to the universe. I thought Gehenna might be it.”
His words made me flinch. After what had happened with Crossroads and his parents, Sean had needed an organization to attach himself to. As he’d said, Gehenna absolutely wasn’t perfect. He’d known that from the start. But they were helping to keep some of the worst threats at least contained and away from innocent people.
“They’re flawed but useful,” I agreed slowly. “And now Ehn died. He said himself he didn’t go into the future, so assuming he was telling the truth about that, he won’t be there from now on. No more Ehn to keep the group together through force of will.”
“It won’t end there,” Avalon noted. “Ehn being gone--assuming he stays gone-- just leaves all those stupidly strong, stupidly dangerous people without a leader. There’ll be a power vacuum and several of those ‘prisoners’ are going to try to fill it. Even that Archangel woman won’t be able to keep all of them contained and focused on the original goal the way Ehn did. She’s strong, but with those people, it won’t be enough.”
Sean and I both turned slightly to look that way. Valley and Roxa were both standing back a bit, watching up and down the hall just in case something else decided to come up and try to ambush us while we were focused on the office. Gidget, meanwhile, had moved just a bit further on, cautiously sniffing closer to the elevators and restrooms. Apparently the cyberform cougar had some of her own scanning equipment installed, judging from the colored lights shooting from her eyes to flash over everything in sight.
“Selaphiel and the people she trusts are strong enough to keep most of the prisoners contained,” Roxa put in. “They’ll have contingencies for--well not this specifically, but at least for major problems. Hell, just Selaphiel by herself is enough to deal with a lot of them, even if they tried something together. It’s the lieutenants that are gonna be trouble. As soon as they find out Ehn isn’t around anymore, they’ll try to do their own thing. Like Kwur. He won’t play nice if Ehn isn’t right there to make him cooperate.”
“He didn’t exactly play nice when Ehn was there,” I muttered. “But yeah, exactly. Ehn made some of the most powerful, most dangerous creatures in the universe into his lieutenants, and put them all in one place. Without him to keep them in line and direct their… ahh, energies, they’ll start acting out even more than Kwur already did. They’ll probably start fighting each other to take over the organization. I mean, some of them will, at least. Even if others try to keep Ehn’s vision intact, I bet there’s a few who will just try to go off on their own. And they’ll do their best to take other prisoners with them. It’s a ready-made army, just waiting to be pointed at anything in their way.”
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“Which probably translates into being several separate armies,” Avalon noted mildly. “None of those lieutenants, or Selaphiel herself, are strong enough to hold the whole thing together the way Ehn did. They’ll break up into smaller groups. Even the guards themselves, honestly. I mean, if Ehn was behind the organization, he probably put in plenty of people in those positions who were loyal to him and his ideas. Some of them will try to carry on with the idea of attacking the Fomorians. Others are just going to go off to do their own thing. And whatever they do, Gehenna itself won’t be the same.”
“What are you guys gonna do?” I asked carefully. This was a lot to dump on the two of them in a short time. “Assuming Valley’s right about the whole organization breaking up into separate groups who all go off to do their own thing. How well do you know the other--uh, guards or whatever you actually consider yourselves. Do you trust them?”
Honestly, it felt a bit surreal to be having this whole conversation while we were waiting for VJ to tell us if the weird modern office we’d found after walking through a holographic mountain wall in seventeen ninety-nine was boobytrapped or not. But then, when else would we have it? Our lives didn’t tend to provide that many moments that weren’t utterly ridiculous like this. We had to take the opportunities given to us.
Sean and Roxa, for their parts, exchanged brief looks before nodding to one another. Sean answered. “We’ll stay with Selaphiel, if she sticks around. I mean, if she tries to use the parts of the organization who actually want to do some good, we’ll be there too. She’s been decent to us so far. I don’t know how many others are gonna do the same, but there’ll be some. I wouldn’t say we’re exactly friends with any of them yet.”
“And we’re supposed to be called agents,” Roxa put in while walking over to check on Gidget, who stopped sniffing/scanning the elevator. “I mean, there’s other words for it too, but agents is probably the best, most… appropriate one. Agents of Gehenna.”
We probably could’ve talked about that for another hour or so, at least. But there was a cheerful chirp from VJ, who had finished scanning the room. Sean gave me a thumbs up, before stepping into the office. Both of us walked straight over to the window, each grabbing one of the blind string things, pulling them up to reveal what lay beyond.
I wasn’t sure what I expected to see through the window, to be honest. If we had been transported through time, maybe we were actually in a real office building in a regular city somewhere. Or maybe there would just be solid rock there, if we were still in the mountain. Hell, there might be a bunch of cameras filming us for an intergalactic prank show. It could be anything. Walking through that mountain only to find ourselves in a place like this had really thrown me off. And we hadn’t seen any sign of the Theriangelos that had led us in here to begin with. That part made me even more suspicious of this.
But in any case, whatever I might’ve expected to see through that window, I wasn’t prepared for what was actually there. Water. We were looking at a lot of water, pressed up against the glass. It was like this whole place was very deep under the ocean.
“Okay,” Sean began conversationally, “so let me get this straight. We started out in a canyon somewhere in Utah or Colorado in 1799. A Theriangelos flew past us and through a mountain wall. We, of course, followed it and walked through the solid rock, only to find ourselves in what looks an awful lot like a modern day office building. Except we have no idea where or when it is, exactly, because Flick can’t teleport out of it or use her distance-checking power. And now it turns out that the modern day office building we’re standing in is actually deep underwater, because of course it is.” He glanced over at me, gesturing to the water. “I thought that rift was supposed to be somewhere near the spot where we arrived. Why would we end up all the way under the ocean?”
“Good question,” I admitted, putting my hand against the glass. It felt warm to the touch. “Let’s check the computers and files here to see if we can figure out anything.”
So, that was what we did. Or tried to. The computers weren’t useful, unfortunately. They wouldn’t turn on, despite being plugged in and there clearly being power since the lights were on. We wouldn’t be getting any answers out of them, apparently.
On the other hand, the filing cabinets gave up a bit more. With the papers in there, we were able to figure out that this building was from the modern day. Or close to it. This place was a law firm of some sort, and it looked like the last time the files had been updated was in early 1993. Were we in 1993, or had this building been brought back to 1799 and placed under the ocean? There was no way to tell. Nor did scanning more and more of those files tell us anything about why it was here. There was just a bunch of legalese that made my eyes glaze over. What the hell was going on with this place?
I had been pretty resistant to the idea of sending my ghosts out to search the place, even though it would be much faster, since I had no idea what they might run into. Seriously, there could be anything or anyone in this building. I didn't want them to think they were disposable. Not when there were still so many questions about how this place had even gotten here to begin with. I couldn't shake the feeling that it was a trap of some sort meant specifically for us. For me. Which would put my ghosts in danger. Especially if they were spread out, scattered through the whole structure.
Those were my thoughts, anyway. But Seth informed me that they wanted to contribute. They knew it was dangerous, sure. Even then, he and the other ghosts wanted me to send them out there to go over the whole building with a fine-tooth comb. They really could do it a lot faster than we could by ourselves, and I could stay in contact with them the whole time. If something happened, I’d pull them right back.
So yeah, I had to let them help. I did have a few rules for them, however. They had to stay in groups of four or five. No solo exploration. And if they saw anyone or anything, they had to report in. No heroics, no grandstanding. Just look and tell me what they saw. Once they agreed to that, I started sending them out. Which resulted in all of us watching as dozens of ghosts floated out through the floors and ceiling, spreading through the building quickly. Even Emily, Chas, Jason, and Kaleigh went out together. Between the four of them and the fact that they’d retained their Heretic powers, there shouldn’t be much they couldn’t at least put up a good fight against until we could help.
Okay, yeah, maybe I was being just a bit too paranoid about all this. But I couldn’t help it. Something about this entire situation, all of it, was just making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was too confusing, too dangerous. I had no idea what was going on here, but I really wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.
Fortunately, the ghosts came back with several pieces of good news. The first was that they didn't run into any real problems. There weren't any traps or monsters or anything. Nor were there a bunch of lawyers hiding anywhere, as far as they could see. The building was almost entirely devoid of living things. Or nonliving things besides them.
Almost entirely devoid. Because there was something living in this place. In the very top floor, in what must've been the founding lawyer’s office, that Theriangelos was fluttering around. That was it. That was the only--well not living but living-adjacent thing other than our group in this entire building. The only evidence of a living creature, that was. There were no traps, no magic spells, nothing to explain why the building was here, or even where and when here actually was.
On the plus side, all of that meant we didn't have to search the whole building fruitlessly ourselves. Since that Theriangelos seemed to be the only clue we were going to get, and going up to the head lawyer’s office was probably a good idea anyway, we headed that way. Our little group looked at the elevator, turned to each other with an assortment of knowing looks, and collectively shook our heads before taking the stairs. Yeah, there was no way we were getting into a small, vulnerable space like that. I didn’t care how many scans came back negative for traps, it wasn’t gonna happen.
We were on the twelfth floor, and the building itself was twenty stories. I’d already had some of the ghosts check through various windows on the other floors, and it was all the same. The entire building was underwater, and there was no sign of the mountain we were supposed to be in.
As we came through the last stairwell and into the outer office area, Sean and Roxa both revealed another little upgrade. They had the same sort of summonable animal tattoos as Larees, with her phoenix. In Sean’s case, it was a cougar on his chest named Moondoggie, and in Roxa’s, it was a large black owl on her shoulder. Apparently she had been planning to get a dog to match Vulcan since Sean had a cougar, but he had convinced her to get something that could fly. Plus the whole owl thing still fit with the moon theme. Her name was Lightwing.
Lightwing and Moondoggie joined Gidget, Vulcan, and VJ. Which made me briefly smile at the thought that Roxa and Sean were ending up with their own personal pack of sorts.
With that, we walked through the outer office and into the room where the Theriangelos bird was. The thing seemed to be fluttering around seemingly at random, which it’d been doing ever since Grover, Seth, and a couple other ghosts had found this place.
Before we could spread out to start looking around some more, the bird did something I didn’t know Theriangeli could do. Namely, duplicate itself. The thing split apart into four separate matching birds, all of which flew wildly around the room for a moment. Sean raised a hand reflexively, but I shook my head. They didn’t seem to be attacking us, they were just flying around wildly.
Just as quickly, they flew back to where they’d been and formed a sort of tornado right in front of us, the four Theriangeli were all diving and swerving around one another faster and faster and… and…. oh, they were forming a body. They were merging into a single humanoid figure, growing, melding into one another as they flew. Somehow, they were… transporting her here? Turning into her? I wasn’t sure which. Either way, we were about to meet someone.
And just like that, we found ourselves staring at a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties. Her skin was very tan, and she had black hair that was mostly short aside from the bit on the left side that was long enough to be tied into a braid. Most strikingly, her left cheek had a jagged-looking scar extending from her jaw up just under her eye and over her nose.
“Hello, Avalon,” she announced. “My name is Jessica Trent, the Phoenix-bonded of the Sol System. You have no idea how good it is to see you.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to meet the girl I’m going to pass my power to.”