by Aaron Frale
“I can even make myself invisible to my team if I wanted to.” Jon flickered in and out of sight as he thought about the various settings. Jon pulled up the list of features and found another one. He stuck his hand to the wall, and he could feel it hold. He placed the other and pulled himself a little higher. He unstuck his hand and climbed. “Can’t complain about the Spiderman feature.”
“Spider-who? I remember Ludie reading a graphic novel called Arachnid Boy once,” Patel asked.
“Nevermind.” Jon shrugged.
Patel flipped her mask on and scaled the wall after him. “This is amazing! It manipulates the strong nuclear force of surface atoms of the wall when it comes in contact with the gloves!”
“Spare me the details. Let’s go before they decide to seal it off.”
Jon and Patel crawled horizontally across the wall towards the cluster of police standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the exit to the mall. They went high enough to go over the heads and climbed through the upper part of the door.
Once inside, they surveyed the scene. There were bands of mall security guards working with the paramilitary police to round up the people hiding out in stores. The lucky ones were searched and sent out of the mall. The unlucky ones were dragged away to the prisoner transport. Jon couldn’t see anyone near the entrance, so he detached himself from the wall. Patel followed suit. It was much easier now that the glasses gave them the ability to see each other.
They traversed the concourse looking for their comrades. It was slow going because they had to dodge and weave through people. They followed two soldiers from behind during a thick patch so they wouldn’t run into anyone. The paramilitary men were having a conversation.
“Do you think we are going to find anybody?” one of the soldiers asked.
“They did find a forbidden artifact,” the other said.
“The lieutenant has us searching this whole place over a quarter. If you ask me, just confiscate it and move on. These things show up all the time.”
“But what if it’s another invasion?”
“When is it ever an invasion? You hear all these news stories about universes planning an attack and our agents saving the day. But do you ever see any attacks—”
“Be quiet! You don’t want to sound like an insurrectionist.”
Patel and Jon split from the soldiers and continued their search.
They had almost walked the entire mall when they found Meathook and DeAndre. They were being held in a clothing store where all the racks were pushed to the side. The two were kneeling in the center of the room with their backs toward the front door. There was only one guard at the entrance. Patel grabbed the guy in a chokehold and knocked him out before anyone could see what was happening.
Patel and Jon stepped up to the glass doors of the store. It was the Forever 21 he had seen earlier. It was full of trendy clothes. It really did look like the one from Rimrock Mall. Since they were invisible, they didn’t set off the sensors. Jon pulled open the door enough for them to get through. As they approached, Jon could hear their conversation.
“I’m just saying that on my world, plastic surgery kiosks are as common as spray-on tanning,” DeAndre said.
“I never understood spray-on tanning!” Meathook said. “Why not get a real tan?”
“Maybe they don’t have time,” DeAndre said.
“So why fake going to the beach if you’re not actually gonna go?”
“Just because you never get out of your room,” DeAndre said, “doesn’t mean that others don’t.”
“I’ll have you know that pale skin is quite metal.”
“Oh, excuse me!”
They were cut short when both Jon and Patel ran into a force field. Green and red streaks glowed from an invisible grid that surrounded Meathook and DeAndre. Jon and Patel jumped back, and it faded from view. DeAndre’s expression turned sour. “Get out of here! They know about the suits!”
It was too late; two men blinked into existance on either side of Patel and Jon. They were wearing grey suits that had made them invisible and had found the glasses as well. The assailants blasted the area with a wide-angle stun pulse from one of their weapons they had pulled from the backpack. It caught both Jon and Patel, and their muscles locked up as they collapsed to the floor. The paramilitary felt on the floor until they found the invisible Tuners. Their captors tore the masks off, and one of them picked up a radio from a gear bag that was strewn off to the side.
“Yes, sir; we got them, sir. There were two more of them.”
25
The commanding officer paced between the Tuners. They all knelt in the center of the Forever 21 with their hands cuffed behind their back. The stern Lieutenant had a long overcoat, a gun, a brown complexion, and black hair. The invisibility cloaks were piled in front of the Tuners. He inspected the suits flipping the material from the gray inner layer to the invisible outer layer.
“Fascinating,” the Lieutenant said as he rolled the material back and forth. He placed the cold barrel of the gun against Jon’s forehead. “Tell me, why would Hector send four agents with illegal tech back here?”
“Was Hector as much of a pain in the ass for you as he is for us?” Jon shrugged.
“Jon!” Patel said.
The officer laughed and said, “This one’s got spunk. I’ll give you that. Hector has been a pain in my ass my entire life.”
Jon looked at the man. His captor and Hector would resemble each other if Hector decided to start wearing Nazi overcoats and sporting overly slicked to the side hair. The Lieutenant looked like Jon would expect a younger brother to dress as if he wanted to go to a Halloween party dressed like a young up incoming dictator.
“Hector dresses better,” Jon said.
“I always thought I was the good looking one, but to each his own.” The Lieutenant lowered his gun. “My name’s Luis, by the way. I would shake your hand, but it’s tied behind your back at the moment.”
“How about you loosen up my cuffs, and I’ll show you what you can do with your hand.”
“This one is too cute. Where did Hector find him?”
“We have nothing to say to you,” DeAndre said.
“Oh, really,” Luis said and shot DeAndre in the thigh.
“DeAndre,” Patel said and leaned toward her wounded friend.
“I’ll kill you!” Meathook lunged at Luis but was hit across the face by one of the soldiers.
“I might have hit a major artery,” Luis said. “It won’t take long for him to bleed out if I did. Now tell me why you are here.”
“Gravity suits,” Jon said. “We need suits to help us perform in a higher gravity world.”
“Like my body armor? Well, why didn’t you say so? I’m sure I could have given you a few on loan,” He shot DeAndre in the other leg.
“What the hell, man! We are talking! We are talking!” Jon yelled.
“Then tell me why you are here. I will shoot him in the head next.”
“We are here to—” Jon had to think of something fast, and then he blurted out. “—kill your leader.”
“Hah!” Luis said and put the gun down. “I knew it! Pay up, Francis!”
One of the guards dug into his wallet and started to count bills. Jon noticed the door wedge open like it had done moments before. However, there wasn’t anyone there. Luis was too busy gloating to notice.
“So, one paltry station wasn’t enough for Hector?” Luis said. “No one can resist the power to rule. Not even Hector. Did he tell you about our baby brother? Did he tell you about Gabriel? The universe where their normal volume is ear-shattering for us? It exists. 99a. But it will be a locked entry in your catalog. It’s too dangerous. That didn’t stop Hector from sending our brother there. He was there for days. The technicians worked around the clock to find something that will squelch the noise and still allow us to tune. By the time we got there, Gabriel was a jabbering mess. People mistook him as a crazy homeless guy and left him to die in an alleyway. Meanwh
ile, every little sound pounded away at his brain. I wanted to send him to a void universe. It was the only humane thing to do. We got in a fight, and Hector thought both of us had died.”
Hector materialized behind Luis, holding a weapon that he had confiscated from one of the police soldiers, and said, “You know, I would have done anything for you too, which is why I’m not going to kill you now, but rest assured, if you do anything to hurt the people under my charge—”
Hector dropped to the floor and raised the gun above his head. A shockwave blasted horizontally from the tip of the gun in every direction. It knocked everyone off their feet, including Luis. The blast went over the Tuners’ heads.
Ludie materialized next in a crouch. The pair went to work on DeAndre. Jon crawled over to the unconscious Luis and fished out keys for his cuffs. He tossed the keys to Patel when he was done.
“As soon as I heard, they jammed the signal,” Hector said. “I knew we had to come.”
“We would have been here earlier if we didn’t have to tune into a mall across town. The tuning spots in this world don’t stay in one place for very long. I think it’s why they are so paranoid,” Ludie added.
“Enough talk,” Hector said. “Strip a few of their bodies of their armor so we can get the hell out of here.”
“How are we going to get past the jammer? I don’t think we have enough room in the invisibility backpacks for the armor,” Jon said.
“My brother never leaves enough guards,” Hector said, and as if on cue, there was an explosion in the distance, and Jon’s headphones came back to life. He could hear the sounds of the universe once again.
26
They all appeared on the platform at headquarters. Hector held Meathook’s hand while Patel held onto DeAndre’s leg when they jumped. Jon was stuck with the suits of armor, and the invisibility cloaks were shoved into his backpack.
The regular crew who managed operations monitoring equipment wore robes, pajamas, and other sleepwear. They all were running from station to station. A few of them were huddled around communications talking about Universe 89.
“Somebody get a medical team! Now!” Hector yelled.
Everyone scrambled to get the crew off the platform and give DeAndre some space. While the medical team was attending the wounded, Ludie took the armors from Jon.
“I’ll take those,” he said.
“Hey,” Jon said. “I’m a fifth wheel around here. There are too many people crowding around DeAndre as it is. At least let me help you get it back to the lab,” Jon said and took most of them back; he could see the strain leave Ludie’s face. They were heavy enough that Jon was struggling to hold all of them, whereas his science-minded friend was overloaded after one.
∆∆∆
Jon dumped his load onto the tinkering table in the lab. Without a word, Ludie set to work on the armor. He first pulled out a microchip from one of the suits that was burnt out and then put the chip under a microscope and began making annotations on a notepad.
Jon tinkered with the armor for a bit and said, “Hey, if power armor is on the banned list, then how are we supposed to get these things working?”
Ludie didn’t even look back at Jon. He was too busy writing down computations in the notebook. He held up a pristine microchip and said, “It’s a Universe One approved chip. I probably won’t be able to restore the built-in weaponry, but I can at least program it as a mobility assistance device. There are plenty of spare parts left over from Universe One. We just have to figure out how to integrate them with technology from other places.”
“How long will this take?” Jon asked.
“Longer with you pestering me,” Ludie said.
“We have no idea what they are doing to Hailey over there.”
“Do you think I don’t care about her too? I see what you’re doing, Jon. You want to swoop in and save her. Guys like you are always the same. They play around with a girl and dump them when they get bored.”
“You don’t know anything about me.” Jon was pissed, and he grabbed Ludie by the collar.
Ludie backpedaled. “I was just saying—think about what’s a better long-term fit—for Hailey.”
Jon let go of the guy and said, “I get it. You don’t know me for squat, and you want to protect her heart. Yes, the rumors are true. We kissed. I’m not going to hurt her. You have to trust me. Just get these things working again, so we can get her back.”
Jon left the room.
Ludie smashed the Universe One chip and kicked the table. After a fit of rage, he collected himself and went to the drawer for another chip.
27
Jon was upset. He wasn’t sure why. Everyone was working as fast as they could to save Hailey. He didn’t like not being able to contribute anything. He went back to his room and paced back and forth.
To make matters worse, his phone was fried from when he had first tuned here. Stupid Universe One protocols. He had his TF3, but it only had the awful default tunes. He remembered Patel talking about how they had an extensive music database from almost every known universe, but he couldn’t figure out how to access it.
Jon needed music to calm himself down. Now, without music, Jon couldn’t do anything but pace. All the options ahead of him were crap.
The armor would at least help them move through the cultist homeworld, but after what he had witnessed already, he felt that he was at a distinct disadvantage. Even though guns couldn’t travel through the barrier between universes, it didn’t mean that guns weren’t waiting for them on the other side.
If Universe 89 had known they were coming, they wouldn’t have stood a chance. The only thing that saved them was the element of surprise. There would be no surprising the cultists. They had Hailey, and they knew the Tuners would come for her. There was no telling what sort of technology they had developed in their own universe.
Just before he reached the point of desperation and was about to load up the default music on his TF3, there was a bang at his door. Jon hit the open switch and yelled, “What?”
Patel was at the door. “Your father; he’s awake.”
∆∆∆
Jon stood at his father’s bedside. His father must have been pretty doped up because Jon wasn’t sure that his dad knew that he was on a cushion of air instead of a hospital bed. There were still some tubes leading into his father’s body but not nearly as much as before as when he was in critical condition.
“Dad,” Jon began. “I don’t know how I’m going to explain this.”
“We are at Tuners HQ,” his dad said. “I know, son.”
“They told you about it?” Jon was incredulous. His dad seemed to be taking in the fact that they were in some super-secret installation in-between universes pretty well. At least better than Jon had. It was a fact that was still unsettling even though he had already traveled between worlds himself.
“I knew about it,” Jon’s father said. “All along—”
“Wait—you’re saying…” Jon said. He thought about the Berenstein Bears books they had in the basement.
“Your mother and I were Tuners.”
The statement hung in the air. Jon was at a loss for words.
His dad continued. “We were relocated to a new universe when you were young. Do you remember when we fled China?”
“Yeah, we were fleeing the government.”
“We were fleeing cultists. They created breach in our home 42g. Mom and sister were too late. We made up story about me being fugitive. It was easier than explaining why you’d never see Chinese relatives again.”
Before the thought could sink in, Hector’s voice boomed from the entrance to the room. “They were the best damn Tuners I had the pleasure of serving with. Duyi, it’s good to see you.”
“Hector, how’d they sucker you into director gig?” Duyi asked, and they embraced as much as they could.
“You worked with my father?” Jon asked. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”
“It wasn’t
my place,” Hector said.
“I meant to tell you, Jon, really,” Duyi said. ”But then, fourteen came and went. You didn’t show any of the signs.”
“Signs of what?” Jon asked. He was getting angry with his father. All this time, his father had known and didn’t think to tell him. Not that Jon expected much from his father. He would sit in that damned workshop all day rather than talk to his own damned son.
“Signs that you could tune,” Duyi said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tuning trait does not always pass down to younger generation. We didn’t want this life for you.”
“That wasn’t your call to make! Ever think about including me in your decisions?”
Hector was the one who spoke next. “When your parents aged out of tuning, they elected to retire rather than work here. They decided to stay in your mother’s universe and raise a family, so we helped them find jobs, forged some credentials, the standard package. Believe me, that was the safest option. We couldn’t know the cultists would show up in that universe.”
“It still doesn’t change the fact that you didn’t tell me any of this.” Jon stared at his father.
Duyi didn’t have any words for him. He looked pitiful in the hospital bed and said, “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, right,” Jon said. “You should send him home. You always loved that workshop more than me.”
Jon pushed his way out of the room and slammed the door behind him.
28
Jon was asleep for what felt like half an hour when he was woken up by a call from Hector. After the confrontation with his father, Jon had hit DeAndre’s punching bag for a while. Sleep eventually caught up to him, and he passed out on the video gaming couch. His pocket buzzed, forcing him out of sleep. The TF3 said, “All Tuners report to the conference room!” He was glad he had something to do because he didn’t want to see his father at the moment and wanted to focus on getting Hailey back. He took off in a sprint toward the center of the station.
