Kevin looked at Grit and Cassia, who were both looking at him expectantly. He realized he hadn’t been the de facto leader of anything since he’d started hopping across the multiverse. Suddenly, he felt a little nervous, though he supposed that was probably appropriate given the situation they were in.

“Follow me,” he told the other two, glad that his voice sounded more confident than he was actually feeling. He turned and led them through the door they had just exited from, and straight back up the stairs. Kevin paused at the same door from earlier, and turned to the others.

“I’m not sure that Elaine will help us,” he said slowly. “But she seems to not like it here, and she helped me get away initially.” Cassia was nodding at him.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure one of her copies is a Pinnacle,” she said. “And it looks like she might even be forced to work here.” Kevin grimaced.

“Well, maybe we can help her and Thorn,” he said. Pushing open the door, they stepped straight into chaos. Elaine was crying in big, gulping wails and standing shakily in the corner of the room. Across from her was another copy of herself, brandishing a small dagger and grinning. The two were hemmed in by three Singularity agents. They’d come in right as the Pinnacle Elaine was charging, not five feet away from them. Everything seemed to happen at once.

“Elaine!” Kevin shouted, almost involuntarily, which caused the Pinnacles surrounding the two Elaine’s to turn and face him. Grit’s gun fired right behind his ear. Kevin flinched as he saw the bullet hit Pinnacle Elaine in the shoulder, causing her to drop her dagger and stumble to the side. Cassia was moving like a wild animal. She had thrown her knife immediately of course, burying it in the chest of the middle Pinnacle. Kevin vaguely wondered if she ever missed.

A bullet whizzed by his ear, and he ducked so fast he found himself lying on the floor. Looking up, he saw Cassia leap up and latch herself onto the chest of the Pinnacle who had fired at him. She almost instantly swung her body around behind him, grabbed his head, and then launched herself back off. The man’s head bent at a weird angle, and he fell to the ground next to Cassia, unmoving. The third Pinnacle had taken shelter behind the desk and was exchanging fire with Grit, who had fired his last shot.

“Kevin, look out!” The cry came from his left, and he jerked his head around in time to see the Pinnacle version of Elaine leaping towards him, dagger in hand and blood dripping from her shoulder. There was a small brown blur from the other direction and Tango suddenly bowled into the woman, knocking her off just enough that she only crashed into Kevin instead of stabbing him. He rolled to his right, and jumped to his feet. Turning, he saw Pinnacle Elaine grinning at him, ready to pounce. Slowly he put his fists in front of his face. He felt like an idiot.

“Why are we always fighting?” he asked, and the Pinnacle frowned in confusion. Kevin decided to lean into it.

“I mean, I only knew there were multiple universes like, yesterday,” he continued. “But every time I land on a new one, somebody wants to kill me. Why is that? Is it just human nature?” The Pinnacle grunted, and crouched like she might leap. Then her eyes narrowed. Kevin looked around to see Cassia and Grit step up on either side of him, both holding out weapons they had obtained from the fallen Singularity agents. There was a split moment of silence, and then Pinnacle Elaine flung her knife at Kevin and sprinted out of the room. The momentary distraction of dodging the poorly thrown knife prevented either of Cassia or Grit from getting a good shot at her, and she disappeared through the door.

“Shit!” Cassia shouted, easily the most animated she’d been since they had met. She sheathed her knife and looked over at Kevin.

“We’ve gotta move,” she said. Kevin nodded, and then quickly approached Elaine. She was still in the corner, but no longer crying. Instead, she seemed to be experiencing some combination of awe and disbelief. If Kevin was honest with himself, he was feeling the same way. Cassia and Grit were like some sort of two man wrecking squad. He couldn’t even imagine what would’ve happened if Mel had been here as well.

“Are you…ok?” Kevin asked tentatively. Elaine wiped tears from her face, but then nodded.

“They found out I helped you,” she said sadly . Kevin had to piece together the meaning of the sentence, as her voice kept dropping below the sound gate.

“We’re gonna get you out of here,” Kevin promised as she pushed blond hair out her eyes. He watched her take a deep breath and try to compose herself. From this close, Kevin saw that she had darker roots beneath the blond coloring. She had a squarish face that was not unattractive, and he could see that she used to wear a nose ring.

“Kevin, let’s go!” Cassia hissed at him from the other side of the room. She looked at Grit and her lips moved, but she wasn’t speaking loud enough for it to carry through the sound gate. Kevin reached down and extended a hand to Elaine. She took it, somewhat tentatively, and then gave him a small smile that was almost jarring. He realized that this was the first time he’d seen someone smile since arriving at the Singularity. Grit said something growly and Kevin led Elaine towards the others.

“Okay, Elaine, we need to get to that combat room I was in,” Kevin said, as Grit checked the hallway.

“Clear,” the big man grumbled. Elaine took a deep breath.

“Follow me,” she said.

----------------------------------------

Somehow the group made it to the combat room without incident, though the alarm was still blaring in the distance. Kevin entered with caution, but the room was empty. He sprinted over to the computer in the corner, followed closely by the others. He placed his hands over the desk, similar to how he’d seen Elaine do it before, but nothing happened.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Move over,” Elaine said, pushing him out of the way before he could respond. She held her hands out and the keyboard flipped up below them. She began typing quickly, and Kevin wasn’t sure if she was entering commands or passwords.

“We’re looking for Elias Thorn,” he said when she looked up expectantly. Her eyes widened, and then she smiled and resumed typing.

“Found him,” she said eventually. “He’s in a couple different rooms.” She paused to type for a moment.

“I’ve unlocked the doors, and erased him from the internal database,” Elaine said excitedly. “It should keep them from searching for him until they realize what’s happened. It’s the best I can do with my permissions.”

“Thank you,” Cassia said sincerely, but then she launched back into leader mode. “Take us to him.”

They followed Elaine down a series of hallways, stopping only briefly for Grit to incapacitate an unsuspecting Pinnacle who turned into the hallway in front of them. Finally, they reached a small holding cell. Elaine yanked the door open and an extremely short man with curly red hair leapt to his feet in surprise.

“Elias Thorn?” Elaine asked, and the man nodded.

“That’s not Thorn,” Cassia said. The man glared at her.

“Yes it is!” His voice had a tone that seemed like he was always shouting. Elaine held up her hands for peace.

“There are two Thorns captive here,” she explained, and led them to the next cell. Inside was a pudgy man wearing tight fitting black leather pants. He had a long brown ponytail, and was wearing a Guns ‘N Roses graphic tee. Kevin thought he looked slightly insane. When Elaine opened the door, he jumped up with a wide smile that showed off all of his differently capped teeth.

“Elias Thorn?” Elaine asked again. He looked between her and Cassia, and then stepped forward and extended his hand to the silver haired woman.

“Cassia Moreng, I presume?” he said, and Cassia shook his hand. He turned to the short Thorn and nodded brusquely.

“Seventy-three,” he said, with a pout. The short man grinned, though not in a nice way.

“Forty-one!” he shouted. The odd man turned back to Cassia and then gestured towards the hallway.

“Shall we?” he asked. They all stepped out into the hallway, only to see a handful of Pinnacles marching towards them. Elaine quickly led them in the other direction, until they came to an intersecting hallway. The redheaded Thorn held up his hand and stopped the group. They could hear the Pinnacles rapidly approaching from behind.

“I believe our escape will be more effective if we part ways,” the shorter Thorn said in his shouting tone. “Forty-one and I will take these side halls, and you all continue forward.” He took a couple steps down the left hallway before Cassia stopped him.

“Wait! You don’t have any weapons. Maybe we should split up as well.” Thorn shook his head.

“I appreciate the gesture, Cassia,” he said. “But a Thorn has more than one trick up his sleeve.” He gave a look to the other Thorn.

“Well, most Thorns, anyway,” he said, and then took off down a hallway. The rocker Thorn looked worried.

“I suppose he’s right,” he whined. “God, I hate running.” He made an elaborate show of stretching, then looked at Cassia.

“Be sure to look me up when you get out of this mess, Cassia Moreng,” he said, and then awkwardly jogged down the hallway opposite of where the short Thorn had gone. They stood frozen for a moment, until a bullet buried itself in the wall near Kevin’s head. He jumped and yelled, and they quickly took off down the hall. Following Elaine’s directions, they navigated up a floor before doubling back down and continuing downwards to the parking garage. As the elevator doors opened slowly, Grit exploded out of them, gun drawn and ready to fire. The garage was empty, though, and they quickly piled into the Pathfinder. As the door closed behind them, Kevin exhaled loudly. He felt like he’d been holding his breath the entire time. Beside him, Elaine sat heavily on a chair.

“I can’t believe we made it this far,” she said. Cassia frowned.

“Me either,” she agreed. “I expected a lot more resistance, especially with that alarm blaring the whole time.”

“Something else must’ve come up,” Elaine said quietly. Kevin nodded.

“Hey, the noise gate is gone!” he exclaimed suddenly, then started whispering. “At least, I think it is.” Cassia nodded affirmation.

“I can hear you,” she said. “I guess the Pathfinder is blocking the gate somehow.” There was a moment of silence, until Grit’s grumbly voice broke it.

“What now?” he asked. Cassia gave a small shrug, and then put her hand on the ship wall.

“Might as well find Mel,” she said, “and then we can go talk to Thorn-41.” Even as she was speaking there was a small shift. For a brief second, Kevin could see the strange tunnel-like system he’d seen before, but then it was gone.

“That seemed…shorter than usual,” he said. Grit nodded in agreement. Cassia frowned and opened the exterior door.

“Well, we jumped,” she said, and stepped outside. Kevin and the others followed her. They were standing in a large parking lot, with what looked like a small city spread out before them.

“Where are we now?” Kevin asked, before he suddenly realized that Elaine had gasped and turned extremely pale. She slowly raised a hand and pointed behind them. Turning, Kevin could see a large building in the distance. Emblazoned on the top floor was the symbol of the Singularity.

“We haven’t left,” Elaine said, tears threatening once again. “We’re still here.” Cassia was shaking her head and mumbling. Kevin could hear her, so apparently the sound gate was only a Singularity thing. He looked up at the strange, glassy sky. It took him a moment to realize that he was actually looking at a dome, and it took him another moment to notice the Earth hanging in space, far away.

“Um, guys,” he said. “I think we’re on the moon.” That stopped Cassia’s muttering, as they all gazed out into space.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Cassia insisted. “When I asked the Pathfinder to locate Kevin, it did that just fine. Why didn’t it find Mel?”

“It didn’t just find me,” said an annoyed voice behind them. “It fucking almost squished Derrick.”