“Lighten up,” Vir practically commanded, clapping me on the shoulder. “I’m not here to judge. Hell, I’m the poster boy for getting involved in situations beyond your control, and from all I’ve heard, you’re not in this situation by choice.”
“That’s putting it lightly.”
Suddenly, Vir came to a stop. Looking me in the eye, he said, “My point is that sometimes doing the right thing doesn’t always give us a fair result. But that doesn’t mean you should have done anything differently.”
I looked at him, absorbing what he said and empathically feeling that he was being frank and sincere.
“Thanks,” I intoned. “I really appreciate…”
I trailed off as, for the second time that day, I picked up a familiar emotional vibe, this time rapidly heading in our direction. A moment later, I heard something swish through the air directly above us, and then my father swiftly descended to the ground next to us.
Looking at who was with me, Alpha Prime greeted him with a curt nod and a solemn, “Vir.”
“AP,” Vir stated in return.
My father turned to me. “I thought you were having dinner with Electra tonight.”
“It was actually all of us,” I clarified, then explained that it had been a double date, of sorts.
“Esper left,” Vir added, “but Electra’s waiting for us at an ice cream shop about a block over.”
“I’m sorry,” Alpha Prime said, “but we urgently need Jim for something back at HQ. He’ll have to finish his date another time.”
“Is it the same thing Esper was called in for?” Vir asked.
“That’s classified,” my father replied, then looked at me. “Whenever you’re ready, Jim. Main conference room.”
Speaking to Vir, I said, “Tell Electra I had a great time, and I’ll catch up with her later.”
Vir acknowledged this with a nod, and then I teleported myself and Alpha Prime.
Chapter 20
We popped up in the main conference room, as my father had requested.
“Hang tight for a second,” he said. Tapping a communicator that sat unobtrusively in his ear, he then announced, “We’re here.”
Still unsure of what was going on, I took a seat at the conference table and, out of habit, started swiveling from side to side in the chair. A moment later, I began feeling an odd tingle at the back of my mind – like something I was supposed to remember but couldn’t quite get a handle on. At the same time, I noticed my father giving me an odd look. Empathically, he was giving off a weird emotion – an unusual combination of agitation and expectation.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“Uh, no,” he said, shaking his head. “Stay here for a second.”
“Will do,” I replied as my father headed to the door and strode from the room.
Still wondering what was happening, I leaned back in the chair and kicked my feet up onto the desk. For Alpha Prime to seek me out the way he had – presumably locating me via my cell phone, which has a tracker – I had assumed I was needed for something important. Yet, here I was, basically just cooling my heels.
A minute or so later, Alpha Prime came back into the room, still giving me an odd look.
“Okay,” I blurted out. “What is it?”
“What’s what?” my father asked.
“You keep looking at me like you expect me to turn into an eggplant or something, so what’s going on?”
“Nothing,” he insisted. “Well, actually, there is something, but I’m not sure how to break it to you.”
“Just tell me,” I stated.
“All right,” my father said, then took a deep breath. “Mouse has gone rogue.”
Chapter 21
“I don’t believe it,” I declared flatly.
“I’m sorry, but it’s true,” Alpha Prime said.
“No,” I stressed, shaking my head emphatically. “No way.”
“Are you kidding?” asked Buzz, the official speedster of the League. “You don’t believe what your own eyes are telling you?”
“No, I don’t,” I said defiantly. “There has to be some kind of explanation.”
“There is, and you’ve seen it,” Buzz shot back. “Or would you like to see the footage again?”
“Sure,” I said. “Why not?”
Everyone else exchanged glances, apparently not caring for my skepticism.
We were still in the main conference room at Alpha League HQ, but we had been joined by several other League members. After making his stunning statement, Alpha Prime had called together a number of his colleagues, and then – with us all seated around a conference table – proceeded to tell a story that I found incredulous, if not completely preposterous. However, he had visual aids in the form of video footage to back him up. But even after viewing it twice, I still couldn’t believe it.
“Maybe the third time’s the charm,” Buzz muttered as my father picked up a remote from the table and pressed a button. On a wall at the far end of the table, a white screen began to display a video clip.
The footage began by showing a location that I recognized immediately: Mouse’s lab. In addition to Mouse himself, my father was present, along with two other members of the League: Luna and Solar Surge. Mouse was dressed as I’d seen him that morning, while the other three wore their Alpha League uniforms, with Luna also sporting twin swords that she wore on her back. There was no audio, but from the angle shown, the camera that had filmed this scene must have been placed up high in a corner, because it gave an expansive view of the room.
In the middle of the lab was something I’d never seen before – a large object about the size of two caskets stuck together and standing upright. It appeared to be made of some sort of dark metal, but it was hard to tell on the video. It was also difficult to really describe the actual shape of the object because the outer edges of it seemed blurry.
“Okay,” I said, “what’s that thing called again?”
“The Tristan Construct,” said Luna as Alpha Prime paused the video. “It’s named for the remote volcanic island where it was found.”
“And what’s wrong with the
