Face to Face

Declan and Crowe appeared in an electromagnetic haze, screaming from pain, and fell to their knees when they arrived. They had felt the energy’s burn the entire time they were in transport. Thankfully, the pain ceased as soon as they arrived. It took Declan longer to readjust than he would have preferred, but once he was oriented he managed to make it to his feet. He offered Crowe his hand, and she accepted with a smile. He could see tendrils of smoke coming from her body, and he wondered if she had suffered more than he had in their shipment to this world.

He placed a finger to his temple, “Mother, what the hell happened?”

Planet: Earth 24,862,048XA ----***** full designation not available

Referred to by inhabitants as Feganiaid

Creator: NostawnoD

Mission Correction: Scour all sapient life from this world within the newly slotted time frame.

Remaining time allotted for planet wide destruction: 47 minutes

Reward for success: 45,000 Expy

Failure will result in your Death and the elimination of all items, people, and information that you have saved. Possible destruction of the Multiverse.

He received cold static in reply; it was a static that he was familiar with. It was the same interference he’d experienced on Crowe’s world when the creature was nearby. Only here, he had no connection to Mother whatsoever. No squeals, no squelches, no hissing in the background. The connection was static free. He began to sweat. On a whim he pulled up his Hud and looked for information on this world. What he saw terrified him. He realized that they were on the wrong planet. They were supposed to arrive on a place called Krome, this was planet was titled Feganiaid. He enlarged the information screen:

This was not good news. It looked as though this planet had just taken priority over the others he was already scheduled to destroy. That did not negate his need to put the apocalypse on the other worlds, only that he already had even more crappy food on his plate than he did before.

With that thought in his head he looked across the street, looking for a sign to give him his bearings and saw a Restaurant that he recognized. He saw the glowing neon sign flash General So-So’s. Beside the electric light up words was another sign, on that was handwritten. It read: Mediocre but hot Chinese food at low prices. He had taken Sarah there several times. The sign was a little misleading, the food wasn’t always hot. Their best dish was the Dropped Egg Soup, and he had been very careful to never ask them why it had that name.

The good news was that he knew, relatively, where they were. They were only a block from Sarah’s, well his Sarah’s apartment. They would head there first, he decided. If this iteration of Sarah wasn’t there, then he would just punch this place’s ticket, and move on. He was on a deadline after all. He didn’t have time to search for her. He paused. That was not his thought. He would never think that. Never. He would give every Sarah a chance. He would not give up on them. Suddenly he felt a pressure in his head, and he realized that Mother had implanted mental suggestions that would make him do the practical thing when it came to seeking Sarahs.

Then he wondered if she had done the same thing to Crowe. That might be why she was so content that he destroyed her world. If Mother had done that to Crowe, then she would have undoubtedly done the same to Second Sarah. He considered the ramifications of that thought. If he was right then he wouldn’t have to convince Second Sarah that he’d had no choice in what he did to her planet, she would just be hunky dory with whatever he did.

That did not sit well with him. He could not let Mother just brainwash his problems away. The thought that she had potentially done so without telling him made his skin crawl. He would never have permitted it, and that, he suspected meant that she had most likely been conditioning his mind as well. Either way, he didn’t have time to worry about brains being scrubbed. He had a girl to find and a planet to destroy.

Crowe looked nervous, and he saw that she had drawn one of her guns. She did that whenever she got jittery, he realized. “What’s wrong, Crowe.”

“Is quiet,” she said. Comprehension dawned on him. They were in a city at what looked to be noon time, and there wasn’t soul in sight. She was right. It was too quiet. Time seemed to stand still, but he knew the timer was running. He didn’t hear a car rumbling or a dog barking. Aside from a slight breeze whistling around the buildings there was no noise. It felt like time had stood still, and that they were the only people free of its influence. Declan was wise enough not to say, “I don’t like this.” That was just asking the universe for trouble, and now that he was aware that the universe was a lot bigger, and was undoubtedly vindictive, he did not relish providing it the firepower to shot him in the head.

Crowe, to her credit, was stock still, and had clamped her mouth tightly shut. She had lived through enough tight spots that she knew better than to draw attention to herself. Declan noticed that she had already slipped her revolver from her back, and was gripping it with her finger resting beside the trigger. It scared him how easily she had slipped back into that warrior mode.

Then it hit him that he hadn’t brought his shotgun. He’d expended all that Expy to master the damn thing, and he had been more worried about pants than he’d been about a gun. Right now he’d trade his pants for a Benelli. He shook his head, yesterday he had no idea what a Benelli was, and now he was missing one. That was the wonderful and horrifying aspect of Headnet. Learn whatever you wanted to without the effort. It bred complacency.

He looked back to Crowe and gulped. She had already taken off her jacket. The bandoleers being the only thing that covered her breasts; her hands were equipped once more with her fingerless gloves as well. Thankfully, she was still wearing the pants. He hoped that she was comfortable in those. It was hard enough focusing on what was happening around him without her butt cheeks popping out with every step she took. His Sarah had never been so . . . fit. He had to admit that she distracted him.

The two of them carefully wove their way down the street. The silence grew deeper and heavier in their minds as they pushed forward. Time was ticking and they did not tread slowly. The pair kept a steady jog going until they rounded the corner to Sarah’s apartment. Crowe froze upon seeing it, and recognition flashed in her eyes. It was like she had forgotten everything about her old life, but the moment that she saw her old home something within her snapped and awakened in her simultaneously. “Home,” was all she managed to say with a whisper as she stared at the building in awe. Suddenly, she seemed like a child who had seen her mother for the first time in years.

She bolted towards the facsimile of her home, oblivious to everything around her. Declan found himself to shocked to move. He hadn’t expected her to just bolt like that, but he should have known better. She might have been the survivor of a hell world, but her mind had been reduced to that of a child. Of course she would run to the one place that she would feel safe. Home was a shield against all the evils of the universe, and he had just led her there and expected her to just follow him. What the hell had he been thinking?

His blue business suit blurred as he chased after her. He watched her enter the building unconcerned with what might be behind the doors. Declan’s slip on loafers slapped gently as he ran after her, but barely made any noise as they slapped the pavement. He reached the entrance seconds after her, but Crowe had already vanished in the shadows of the lobby. It dawned on him that the power was out, and that he was going to be entering a potentially hostile area while blind.

There was a wumph as what had to be the door to the stairway closed and he ran after his bodyguard. The irony was not lost on him. He found the stair’s entrance and fumbled with the door before it swung open for him. He prayed that this version of Sarah was home, but he wished that she didn’t live on the seventh floor. He started after Crowe, taking the stairs two and three at a time. Declan marveled that he wasn’t even winded. He hadn’t been in bad shape, but a sprint like he had just performed would have made him take pause before stomping up seven flights of stairs.

The door to the seventh floor opened without a creak, and swished silently closed behind him. Declan didn’t notice because his eyes rested upon Crowe, who was standing in front of her apartment door. Her fingers were etching the numbers embossed on the apartment’s front entrance. She traced them delicately, as if she were afraid her touch would knock them from the door. Her gone was gone. If he hadn’t known she had a pair on her he would never have suspected that she was packing heat.

She had never looked so child-like before. Not that he’d known her for long, but something told him that she had not been allowed to drop her guard in a very long time. Her face held no tension, no fear, and he could tell that she no longer had that thousand yard stare that had filled her eyes from the moment they had met. He didn’t even need to look into them to see that. She was so relaxed.

Her hand dropped below the last number and she rested her palm flat against the door. Her head bent so that her forehead rested just below the numbers. Declan stepped up behind her. He put his hands on her shoulders, and pulled her in for a hug. He knew his time was ticking, but if he couldn’t comfort another human being when they needed it most then the rest of the world could go to hell for all he cared. There was more to life than just living.

He was pragmatic, though, and released her after just a few seconds. His long arm reached around her and knocked on the door. His voice was low but forceful. “Sarah.” He rapped once more, hitting the door with four solid knocks before repeating her name again. Declan watched the peephole and saw it grow dark as someone looked out to see who was there. The man had been wise enough to place Crowe out of the peephole’s line of sight, but allowed the occupant to see his face clearly.

He heard a gasp in what he’d hoped was recognition. Things were moved from the door, then a chain rattled and a bolt was slid. The door clicked as a final lock was undone and the door cracked open enough for the tenant to see him fully. The woman before him was a mirror image of his Sarah. Right down to her clothing she was the same. Her eyes held no recognition of him. His heart skipped a beat. He’d hoped that she would know him in some way.

“Are you h-human?” She stuttered the world like it was impossible to be true. Declan heard an inquisitive meow come from the other side of the door. “Is that Whisker Biscuit,” he asked.

She looked at him quizzically, “My cat? You mean Mister Biscuit?”

He nodded, “Yes.” He fumbled as he stared into her face. “I, uh, mean that I’m human, and I that I was also asking about your cat.” He stared down the hallway and then back to her. “Can we come in? It’s pretty urgent.”

“We?” The Sarah in the doorway edged back a little, suddenly concerned that the stranger before her was not alone. Declan pulled Crowe over so that she was visible to the girl in the doorway. The duo stared at each other in disbelief, each unable to process that they had a doppelganger of themselves standing before them.

“Look, I know this is hard to believe, but we’ve come to help you.”

Crowe nodded, “And blow up everybody.” As she said this her hands came apart as they mimed an explosion. She looked at Declan with a huge smile on her face, like a child looking for praise after they had done something special.

Sarah in the door formed a quizzical look on her face, “What,” she asked half in terror and half in disbelief. She was clearly having a hard time digesting everything that was going on. He could see she was about to slam the door on the pair of them when he heard another door open at the other end of the hall.

He turned to look as a shadow draped form edged from the distant apartment. Declan could see that it was another woman, but not the one that had lived there on his world. This woman was short, thin, and bore Asian features. What stood out to him the most were the cluster of tentacles that sprout from where she should have had arms. They were hard to count by the way that they wriggled and writhed, but she seemed to have six on either side of her body by his best guess.

Crowe said, “Shit.”