“Because that’s the way it actually looks,” noted Alpha Prime. “Mouse said something before about it possibly not being fully embedded in this reality.”
I frowned. “What exactly does that mean?”
My father shrugged. “Different dimension, different timeline… Who knows?”
My brow furrowed as I considered what he said. Despite watching the video two times before, this was the first time I’d really asked any questions. Plainly speaking, I think I was just in shock over what I’d seen – and was about to witness again as the footage resumed.
In the video, Mouse walked around the Construct a couple of times, appearing to scan it with a device that he held while the other League members stood off to the side. Next, my mentor went to a keyboard and monitor situated atop one of the worktables and began typing.
All of a sudden, the screen went dark for maybe two seconds. The first time I saw the video, this was the only part of the footage where I had asked anything. Seeing it again prompted me to voice my concerns once more.
“So explain to me again what happened here,” I essentially demanded.
Pausing the video once more, my father said, “All indications are that the Construct sent out some kind of energy burst that apparently caused the camera to power down for a few seconds. And when it came back on…”
He started the video again as he trailed off. The screen went back to an image of Mouse’s lab, only now, the Construct appeared to be glowing with an emerald light.
Without warning, Mouse suddenly pointed his right arm in the direction of Alpha Prime. At that juncture, I noticed that he appeared to be wearing some sort of metallic brace on the hand and wrist in question. It was a device I’d seen on him once before – when he thought we were being attacked in his lab – and it gave the impression of being a weapon. A moment later, that theory was proved correct when my father suddenly went flying backwards like he’d been rammed by a jet.
Solar Surge and Luna immediately sprang into action, with the former using his hands to fire a blast of dark energy (his namesake “surge”) at Mouse while the latter leaped at him, swords drawn and her mouth open in what I assumed was a battle cry. Holding up his right hand, Mouse appeared to deflect the blast coming at him, presumably through use of the brace. The redirected energy struck the attacking Luna directly in the face and sent her tumbling to the side, limbs flailing.
Solar Surge prepared to fire at Mouse again, then seemed to jump as Mouse suddenly appeared on his left. And on his right. And in front of him. In fact, the entire lab was suddenly filled with a million copies of Mouse, all dressed and looking exactly alike, as well as rushing madly about. However, in addition to the jeans and thermal shirt, each “Mouse” was also wearing a backpack – an item I recognized as Mouse’s bug-out bag.
Solar Surge reached for one of the “Mouses” near him. Although he should have been close enough to touch the “Mouse” in question, his hand appeared to close on empty air. The multiple copies of Mouse were holograms of some sort. Surge suddenly began to grab randomly at the Mouse versions moving around him, obviously convinced that the original was somewhere in the crowd.
He was joined moments later by Alpha Prime and Luna, both of whom had re-entered the fray. However, they fared no better than Surge at locating the real Mouse. And then, just as quickly as they had appeared, all of the holograms vanished.
At that point, Alpha Prime stopped the video.
“As you can see,” he said to me, “Mouse went on the offensive and attacked us.”
“But why would he do that?” I asked. “Just attack you out of the blue?”
“We think the Construct caused it,” Surge said. “When it released the energy that knocked out the camera, we believe it affected him in some way – maybe caused some type of mental imbalance.”
I pointed angrily at the screen. “Did that look like an attack by a mentally unbalanced person?”
“Just because he wasn’t wild-eyed and foaming at the mouth doesn’t mean he was playing with all his marbles,” my father said.
I shook my head in dismay, then glanced around the table at the other League members present.
“Are you honestly telling me that all of you are buying this?” I demanded. “That you honestly believe Mouse went off the reservation?”
There was no immediate response, then Surge said, “Hey, no one wants to believe this, but I was there – plus, we have it on tape.”
“Do we have any other footage?” I asked.
“No,” Buzz shot back. “But if what you saw didn’t convince you, I don’t know what good another video would do.”
“Mouse has multiple cameras in his lab,” I explained. “Another angle might provide more insight on what exactly happened.”
“Unfortunately, this is the only footage we have,” Alpha Prime noted. “For some reason, we weren’t able to extract anything from the other cameras in the lab.”
“We should probably work on that,” I suggested. “It might help get a better understanding of the facts.”
“The facts speak for themselves,” Luna chided. “You’re just refusing to see reason because you and Mouse are close.”
“You’re right on that point,” I said. “I love Mouse – he’s like my brother. And I know he wouldn’t do what I saw without a pretty good reason.”
Silence filled the room for a moment. Empathically, I could feel anger and frustration from some regarding my steadfast refusal to admit that Mouse had gone rogue.
“Look,” Alpha Prime finally said, “why don’t we table the issue of why Mouse did what he did and simply focus on finding him and stopping him.”
“Stopping him?” I echoed, nonplussed. “Stop him from doing what?”
No one immediately spoke, then Buzz offered, “From hurting anybody.”
I stared at Buzz angrily
