A man walked out of the building, carrying a large and long wooden box, one that would normally need at least two people to lift. He whistled a tune as he strolled down the street.

What a peaceful day for the ILS HQ.

Bob sat in the pilot’s seat of the grav-jet, keeping it in motion. He had charted a course that would avoid most civilized areas, and the grav-jet’s stealth measures would prevent any long-range detection. Hypothetically he wasn’t certain if said stealth would hold up to Vophae sensors, but he knew for a fact that wasn’t the main focus of the AVS’s reverse-engineering efforts. He couldn’t rule it out entirely for the ILS but he imagined Londyn would focus on power generation so she could gain quicker access to the wrecks in orbit.

Still, none of this had seemed to help against his mysterious opponent, but he had to do what he could.

Which wasn’t much, at the moment. He didn’t really have enough variables to plan. Elise was tracing the path of the message through the world’s communication networks and Saydaa was trying some magical scrying. The former Nemesis HQ crew would be sifting through former contacts and the network for any discrepancies but he wasn’t optimistic they’d find anything. So he had to hope one of the girls would get a hit.

Even he couldn’t plan with zero variables. Minimal variables maybe but he couldn’t make something out of nothing.

Well, if he could call Xiong Huang maybe he could. Sheer brutality has a certain way of disrupting even the most subtle and elegant plans. But she had beat down the League one too many times already. And was out of cell phone range.

Still, he did have Saydaa try to send her a message magically. He wasn’t sure if that would reach her given the sheer distance involved but he had a feeling he should take every effort to inform her of what’s going on. Even if it was something he could ultimately handle on his own.

And right now, he wasn’t sure it was.

But she hadn’t responded yet, so she was either out or range or else did not consider the situation worth returning for. Either way, she wasn’t here, so Bob put her out of his mind for now. He had to focus on what he could do, right now, with what he had.

Which, again, wasn’t much.

It seems even Bob had moments of wishful thinking.

“Uncertain Declaration: This unit may have found something, Commander Bob.”

Bob nodded.

“Great timing, Elise. What do you have?”

Elise remained silent for a second before slowly speaking.

“Hesitant Explanation: This unit has determined the origin point. However…the device’s legal owner is deceased. And has been for years.”

Bob nodded.

“Well that’s not out of the range of expectation. A bit of a common trick for someone this capable, but there’s value in the simple measures.”

“Hesitant Analysis: However…this unit has traced some documentation between deceased user and beneficiaries of the user’s assets and detected an anomaly. Handwriting analysis of signatures and other documentation reveals a perfect match...”

Bob rubbed his chin. Curious, but copied handwriting wasn’t particularly strange compared to magic and aliens. Elise then continued.

“...as well as a perfect match with a predecessor he inherited assets from. And a predecessor before that. This unit has found at least one match among beneficiaries as far back as there are records that can be accessed remotely.”

Bob froze.

His mind began to race.

Such a scenario was not unheard of. He already knew one immortal, after all. Xiong Huang and all the higher realm disciples of Eternal Night had similar setups for their more worldly assets.

So a cultivator? But he felt that wasn’t enough to explain the situation. A normal cultivator would have been detectable, both by him and especially by Xiong Huang. He felt there was something more at play.

Something he had not yet considered.

He had ruled out a normal insider. There was no one who knew everything the culprit did and his most knowledgeable subordinates were accounted for.

A rival organization like the Concordat? Not entirely impossible, but extraordinarily unlikely at this point. He had dealt with any number of cults and secret societies. He had scoured the records of the Concordat, the Eternal Night Sect, and that Lizardman cult that had kept watch since before the dawn of humanity and had found no mention to any further groups of the necessary scope and capabilities. What were the chances there was yet another secret organization that had managed to keep complete track of him while completely evading his detection, that neither Xiong Huang nor Baba Yaga would have felt any need to warn him about? That neither Elise’s mastery of the web nor all the magic Saydaa could bring to bear could detect even the slightest trace of?

If there was such a group, he simply had to admit he was completely outmatched at this point, and that wasn’t an actionable conclusion so it wasn’t worth considering.

He had also ruled out a technological solution. The culprit had learned of events that occurred before said solutions would be available.

There was the possibility of the USB drive he had made for Londyn, with a great deal of verifiable evidence as to his deeds. But he had kept said USB in his possession from the moment it was created to the moment he had it destroyed, so if someone had acted on it they had done so right under his nose. It never even existed on a computer, as he had simply explained his deeds to Elise and had her create the drive right before he met with Londyn. So if someone had accessed that intel, that meant they either hacked Elise without her knowledge, or else evaded all of her sensors within that very small time window the drive existed. Again, not impossible, but not a possibility he could act on, since all it would tell him was he was outclassed. And the drive hadn’t included everything either. The more details he gave Londyn the more incriminated she would be, so he had included just enough for a thorough overview. To come as clean as possible while keeping her as clean as possible.

He had been assuming something magical, which is what he was having Saydaa search for. But would she truly find something all their wards had failed to catch? That Xiong Huang hadn’t noticed for decades after her ascension?

And if he ruled out all those possibilities...

Then it was time to start considering the exceptionally improbable.

Aliens. Ninjas. Magicians. Superheroes. Evil geniuses. Giant monsters. Secret societies. Ancient cults. Immortal demigod cultivators.

What could have slipped past all his defenses when he had prepared for all of these?

What had he not considered?

What had he not prepared for?

What was so improbable it hadn’t even crossed his mind as a possibility?

What could give this culprit knowledge they shouldn’t possess across such a wide span of time…

Bob froze.

He found it.

One angle he never considered.

A second explanation for an apparent immortal.

And one that he already had conclusive proof was possible, though not in that exact form.

Proof his team had encountered time and time again…

Proof that he himself had used against Captain Sildeth…

“Elise…scan for signatures similar to Chronolock’s, excluding her location and the location of known supers with similar abilities.”

“Affirmative. Running scan with specified parameters.”

Elise began to access all the data available to her. Sensor data from Nemesis HQ. AVS surveillance records. Real-time data from what drones and hardware remained available to her in flight. Whatever ILS, military, or civilian data she could access.

Bob had to remind himself to breathe as he waited. His heart was pounding.

He was hoping against hope that he was wrong.

Because if he wasn’t…

Then this just got significantly more annoying.

He knew from the start that time wasn’t just a concept. It was something real, something malleable. After all, there was a teenage girl who could manipulate it with her mind, proof that there was something that could be manipulated.

And he had ignored the implications of that.

Or rather, he had made assumptions precisely because of that. Chronolock could stop time. She could use it to speed herself up or slow something else down. But she had never reversed it. So he had subconsciously assumed the apparent restrictions on her powers represented universal physical restrictions. Even Bob couldn’t prepare for everything so he had to draw the line somewhere. So if Chronolock couldn’t travel through time, it seemed reasonable such a feat was simply impossible. Besides, who makes preparations for such a ridiculous scenario?

But what if that was only a limitation for her?

And the important point was simply that time is malleable?

And might be malleable in other ways he had not considered?

In fact…

Hadn’t Chronolock herself broken through the apparent limits on her powers once already?

So…

Why, exactly, couldn’t someone else do the same?

And what would the consequences be if he had made such an unfounded assumption that proved to be entirely wrong?

“Scan complete. Results: This unit has detected a recent anomaly not accounted for by the presence of a known super, including the noob.”

“...where?”

She recited the location.

Bob swore.

Of course.

Of course it would be at the ILS’s main HQ in New York City.

Right when the ILS and the entire world were trying to hunt him down.

Right when Xiong Huang was unreachable.

Bob groaned and held his head.

Time travelers are so annoying.