=== KARI ===

When I stepped through the portal and arrived on the other side, I was immediately hit with a barrage of laser fire. I jumped forward to the nearest gun. Well, really it was a cannon. Just a giant cannon firing broiling plasma at me. I dodged past it and landed on top of it and cried, “Stop firing!”

  “Smash Gal? W-what . . . H-how . . .” The man on the turret stuttered. Bion flew down from up above, fully armored. As Chuck, Curt, and Des walked through he raised his hand and prepared to fire. When he noticed that they were just people, he didn’t lower his hand. He trained it on   Curt, who was still holding that laser he had disconnected from the drill. Part of his escape plan, no doubt, I thought.

  “ROOKIE, WHAT’S THE MEANING OF THIS?” Bion demanded, his voice echoing tinnily in the big open space. “WHY DID YOU COME THROUGH THE PORTAL? WHY IS HE WITH YOU?”

  “I was trying to apprehend Esvanir and Cherry again and there was an accident, Mr. Wan,” I said, deferentially. “We ended up on . . . Well, you know where. And the portal was the only way back.

  “CAPTURE THEM! TAKE THEM IN!” Bion shouted and guards surrounded the three down on the ground. More surrounded the turret I was standing on. I watched Curt. I could practically see the gears turning in his head. He set down his laser and held up his hands. Des already had. Professor Mind started to fly up and one of the men shot at him. He caught the bullet in a construct and charged up. “PROFESSOR MIND, STAND DOWN! WE WILL FIRE ON YOU!”

  “A little late for that, don’t you think?” Chuck asked, looking around. “Andrew, what are you going to do? Keep us here forever?”

  “You need to be decontaminated. After that we’ll . . . we’ll see what is to be done,” one of the guards said, noncommittally. I didn’t like this. Curt and maybe even Des I could understand. They are a criminal and an accomplice, not that Bion could know about Des yet. But Mind and I are heroes. We had worked together just hours ago. They cuffed Curt with one of the huge, anti-meta shackles, then the same for Des. Chuck looked at me and raised his eyebrow, questioning. I shrugged and hopped down. Curt and Des both slammed down to the ground hard. They were unconscious.

  “What did you do!?” I demanded, charging to Bion. Several of the security guards fired on me but I took no notice. Bion met my eye. He looked furious.

  “STAND DOWN, SMASH GAL!”

  “What the fuck did you do to them!?” I repeated.

  “THE META BRACELETS AREN’T MEANT FOR NORMAL HUMANS. THE SEDATIVE WE USE . . . MUST BE TOO STRONG. THEY SHOULD BE FINE. WE’LL HAVE SOMEONE CHECK THEIR VITALS AFTER DECONTAMINATION.” Bion said. Even through the tinny echo of his speaker, I could tell that he was barely keeping his anger reigned in. “NOW, STAND DOWN!”

  I made my way over to Des and Curt. I listened carefully. They were still breathing. It was shallow and their hearts were barely beating, but they were still alive. Chuck landed next to me. The guards closed in, brandishing more of the meta-gauntlets. I looked up to Mr. Wan, “Are we prisoners, Bion?”

  He landed heavily and looked between us, then raised a halting hand to the guards. They met each others’ eyes but didn’t make another move. “WE’LL FIGURE OUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH YOU LATER. BUT YOU DID MANAGE TO CATCH ESVANIR. GOOD WORK.”

  We were decontaminated in a harsh bath. Chuck dispersed his costume, everything except for his mask, and let the harsh jets spray him down. I had to physically strip. They put us together and I stepped closer to Chuck and gripped his shoulder. He put his hand on mine. I asked, “What do you think is going to happen?”

  “I don’t know. The way . . . The way they were treating us has me concerned.”

  “Me too.” I squeezed his shoulder. “Do you think Curt is right? Do you think this is some off-the-books operation? That Bion is doing something bad here?”

  “I . . .” He considered for a moment. “I think it’s probable. Unfortunately, Reese is smart. Probably too smart for his own good. And he seemed to figure everything out.”

  “I hate it when he has a point.”

  “I know. Me too.”

=== CURT ===

I woke up to the sight of bright fluorescent lights hanging overhead. After blinking a few times, my eyes focused and I glanced about the room I was in. It was small. Maybe seven by seven by ten feet. There was a toilet, a sink with a mirror above it, a cot, and nothing else. The walls were bare brick and the door was heavy steel. There was a camera in the ceiling with a glowing red light. I was dressed in pale gray pants and a sleeveless shirt. I frowned and shook my head. Where am I? Everything is so . . . It came back to me. I had been captured by Bion. Des had been with me. Fuck! I slammed my left hand down on the bed. They hadn’t bothered to cast the right. They had left the makeshift splint Des had made. So, they’re probably planning on killing me. I glanced about the room and started pacing. I need to get Des out of here. It’s not fair that they’re brought down for having the misfortune of knowing me. I felt my chest tighten. Cindi is going to be caught, too. This is terrible. Maybe . . . Maybe I shouldn’t have picked a fight with Smash Gal. Or with Bion. None of my stuff was with me. My phone, my tools, my clothes were all gone. If I can get my phone and get maybe five minutes, I might be able to escape. I thought. No idea how I’m going to do that, though.

  A metal slide on the door slid open and a pair of tired eyes looked through them. I gritted my teeth. “Wan.”

  “Mister Reese,” he responded blandly. “You’re awake. Good. I’d like to talk to you.”

  “Last interview before my execution?” I asked. His face spread into something that could have been a grin.

  “Something like that. I'm going to open the door. If you attack me, you’ll be killed on sight. Same if you try to run.”

  “I know how you operate, Bion.”

  “That isn’t a promise to not run.”

  “And your talking to me isn’t a promise to not just kill me.” He sighed and nodded. The door opened and he wheeled in a buggy of crackers, cheese, and meats. I licked my lips and looked away, my stomach growling. I couldn’t remember when the last time I’d eaten was. He closed the door behind him.

  “My guards are still watching.”

  “I don’t want to kill you, Wan,” I said, deflating. He took out a little tube of oxygen and took a deep breath and sat down on the bed. He reached over for a cracker and put some cheese on it, then some meat and took a bite, then motioned for me to do the same. I did so, sniffing the items carefully.

  “Smash Gal says you hate me. You wouldn’t kill someone you hate?” He asked placidly.

  “Hate is relative. I don’t like a lot of the things you do and I don’t like a lot of the way you do those things. It’s not really personal.”

  “But you targeted me specifically. I was always wondering why.”

  “Targeted you? You’re a good symbol for the things I stand against.”

  “That’s why you stole from me the most?” He asked, chewing.

  “It’s basically even between Wan En and EnGin, really,” I said, taking another bite.

  “But your technology is adapted from mine.”

  “Oh, yeah. I guess it is. That wasn’t really intentional.”

  “Oh?”

  “I built the stuff first from scraps I’d collect after your fights. Rebuilt what I understood and kept testing it. The teleportation was an accident. But once I figured out how to do it, I used it.”

  “You mean you didn’t mean to? You figured out how to fold space-time accidentally?”

  “The protocols were all there. I tapped into them. Once I understood that the technology could do it, I refined it.”

  “That’s pretty impressive. You could have revolutionized the world with that technology.” He looked at me. He was thin and angular. He looked weak. He frowned. “You might have even made the world a better place with that.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “I’m not a leader. As both you and Smash Gal continually point out, I’m just a thief.”

  “Just a thief? You’ve also become a symbol.” I shrugged.

  “Never really my intention. My goals were always to try and redistribute some stuff to people who needed it more.”

  “Do you think you have the right to do that, Mr. Reese?”

  “As much as you have the right to hoard trillions of dollars in personal wealth,” I shot back. “Why are you even here? What do you want?”

  “I wanted to officially meet the greatest thief in the world. The man who made me his enemy willingly. And managed to even stand up to me in some ways,” Wan said simply. Our eyes met. “You’re a fascinating man, Mister Reese. I want to understand your bizarre morality.”

  “It’s not that complicated. I steal what I think other people could use more than you can. You don’t really need what you have and even if you do, you can afford to replace it.”

  “And you think you have the right to decide that but you don’t want to be a leader.”

  “I can recognize injustice. I can fight against it. I can get people supplies that they need.”

  “But if you killed me when you had the chance,” Bion started. He took a deep breath and during it, I finished the thought.

  “It wouldn’t have solved anything. We would lose Bion, who, while being a war-criminal and terrible person in many respects, can stand up to the Grignau and other existential threats.”

  “The same thing could be said of Smash Gal and you tried to kill her.”

  “I was . . . I lost my temper that day. I almost regret it.”

  “Almost?”

  “Kari is arrogant and impossible to reason with. And her actions have been escalating recently.”

  “So have yours.”

  “It’s . . . it’s been a hard couple of months.”

  “I imagine so. You were content to be in the shadows.” Wan took another bite of a cracker and chewed for a moment. I shifted uncomfortably. “So, do you have a plan yet?”

  “Plan?” I asked.

  “To escape, Mister Reese. You’re obviously going to try.”

  “Hadn’t got that far with it yet, honestly. Couple of problems.”

  “Yeah, I imagine so. But you’re not going to try to take me hostage?”

  “I don’t think that would work. I think you have bots capable of shooting me and missing you.”

  “That’s a good call on your part. Also, if they didn’t have the shot, I’d just have them shoot through me to get you. I have never been taken hostage successfully and I’m not going to let you be the one to do it. So, what’s the part of the plan that you do have?”

  “I . . . Why would I tell you?”

  “Because it’s impossible, Mister Reese. The situation is hopeless. And I’m curious to see what you think you can do.”

  “I’ve been told that lots of the things I do are impossible. No one believed in a teleporting cat-burglar for the longest time.”

  “Hmm. Well, I guess I can wait a little longer to see what your attempt is.” Wan got up and brushed himself off. He picked up his air canister but left the tray of food as he made his way to the door.

  “Wan,” I said. He turned back and faced me. “What happened to the person with me? How are they?”

  “Aaditri Desai is in good shape. You cannot see he-”

  “Them.”

  “What?”

  “You won’t allow me to see them.”

  “Yes,” Wan said slowly. “I won’t allow you to see . . . them.”

  “Makes sense,” I said, nodding and grabbing another cracker and making myself a tiny sandwich.

  “This is not what I was suspecting from you, Mister Reese. You’re being . . . so reasonable,” Wan commented, considering.

  “Don’t get me wrong. I’m furious. I’ll never forgive you for what you have done to me. Neither today or previously. But I’ll get my chance for revenge or you’ll kill me. Right now I’m powerless, so I just have to bide my time.”

  “And what exactly did I do to you?”

  “You shot several missiles at me previously, you’re keeping me and my friend hostage to protect the public from the knowledge that you’ve actively killed hundreds of people. And just between you and I,” I said, stepping closer to him. “You ruined my wedding and put my friend and fiancee in danger. There is nothing on earth you could do to get me to forgive you.”

Wan stared at me impassively. He then turned and sighed. “That wasn’t personal, you know. In the exact way that you robbing me wasn’t meant to be personal, me trying to arrest you during your wedding wasn’t meant to be personal.”

  “It was personal, though. You made a decision that hurt me directly. I had never done that to you. Not like that. And you involved an emotionally compromised super-weapon to do so. And because of that, Cindi’s in a coma. You took the happiest day of my life and made it one of the worse.”

  He peered over his shoulder at me and then nodded, before walking out of the room.

=== CHUCK ===

I adjusted the seat I was sitting in. Kari was sitting next to me, her head on the table. I looked around. We were in a boardroom, waiting. We had been given a change of clothes and had been allowed to sleep. Not that I had been able to. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them. I shuddered and took a deep breath. She sat up and looked around, smiling at me. Even through her irritation at staying the night here, she was happy that I was here with her. I tried to smile back. Reese had brought up so many bad memories. Kari and I hadn’t had a chance to discuss it, but Reese had a point. I had crossed a line once. More than once, really. But there was one time when it was farther than I had ever gone before. Since then I had limited myself. I would only allow myself to go so far. Before I could really get started on recalling everything, Andrew Wan walked through the door. He wasn’t wearing his suit. At least not that I could see. People had all kinds of theories about Wan’s technology. Some people thought that he had nanites that would surround him and take over. Some people thought that it wasn’t technology at all, just magic that he made look like technology. I honestly wasn’t sure. We weren’t exactly close.

  “Finally!” Kari exclaimed. “Can we leave, Mister Wan? I need to get home.”

  “Sorry for the wait,” Wan said. Anxiety, irritation, and controlled rage were wafting off of him. “I was just talking to Mister Reese.”

  “Oh? How’d that go?” Kari asked.

  “He said he’s going to find a way to escape and has sworn some form of revenge upon me,” Wan said evenly. Despite his tone, I could tell he was taking it seriously. He wasn’t scared, exactly. But I think he had learned the hard way not to underestimate Esvanir.

  “Yeah, that sounds about right,” Kari said, waving a hand to dismiss it. “But you have him under lockdown, so it should be fine. But when can we leave?”

  “Well, before we can do anything, we need to debrief you. Figure out how all of that happened. Make sure that . . . everything is going to be safe.”

  “Oh, yeah. I guess that makes sense,” Kari agreed, nodding along.

  “So, tell me how this all started,” Wan stated. Kari explained it and I added in a few details or clarified from there. But mostly, I just watched Wan. His anxiety spiked. He intertwined his fingers and watched us, his face remaining blank. “So, in short, you and Reese never intended to go there. You were trying to stop him and broke his device and it just ended up there. Interesting.”

  “So, can we go? The city might need us. And I want to take a real shower.”

  “The city is just fine, Kari,” Wan responded. “But I’m afraid that you can’t go home, just yet. We have to make sure that you haven’t contracted anything off-world. Planet 351456B has an entirely different ecosystem than ours and we can’t risk letting anything get out to the world. Who knows what could happen if we did.”

  Andrew had made sure to look both of us in the eyes when he was speaking. He sounded so perfectly sure of what he was saying, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. It made sense. It was a perfectly reasonable plan of action. Or would have been, if he hadn’t been lying. His anxiety had jumped up considerably as he had spoken. His practiced eye contact was more to see if we were believing him than anything.

  “I’m sure you’ll get back in a day or two after we make sure everything is safe,” he continued to lie. Kari nodded solemnly.

  “Well, we wouldn’t want to get anyone sick.” She sounded disappointed and resigned.

  “Of course not,” Wan said. “Thank you for being more reasonable than Mister Reese or Doctor Desai.”

  “How are they?”

  “They’re as well as can be expected. The doctor has been screaming since . . . they woke up. Reese is putting on an easy-going act, but honestly, he reminds me of a caged tiger. Someone waiting for the first sign of weakness to pounce.”

  “He probably is,” she responded. I just watched them both. Bion excused himself.

  “Well,” Kari began, turning back to me. “A couple more days should be fine, right?”

  I nodded to her, then established a mental link with her. He’s not going to let us go. He’s stalling, trying to think of a way to keep us here.

  “What?” Kari asked, standing up. Fear and anxiety burst from her.

  Sit down! I thought at her. And don’t respond verbally. Just think about your responses. We don’t know if it’s safe to talk here.

  What do you mean he’s stalling? She thought loudly. She was always as loud in her head as she was speaking.

  He’s paranoid that we’re going to release the secrets Reese uncovered.

  What are we going to do? She asked.

  I don’t know. I don’t really want to fight my way out here. I’m not even sure I could if I did want to.