As before, Alpha Prime didn’t stop and neither did I, but I was able to take in the room as we moved through it. Basically, it was filled with what looked like display cases, each of which was geometrically spaced throughout the place. In all honesty, it gave the room a museum-quality feel, like there was some kind of exhibit on display.
My father headed towards what appeared to be a narrow corridor in a side wall, and I followed him into it. After about ten feet, it opened up into a room that was even larger than the first, and upon entering it, Alpha Prime came to a halt. A moment later, I came to a stop next to him, and saw myself gazing upon a strange sight.
Like the first room, this one was full of display cases. Looking past them, I saw Mouse standing near the back wall. He was sporting his Alpha League uniform, which was clothing I’d rarely seen him wear. (Most times, he dressed casually in his lab.)
On the floor around Mouse were maybe half a dozen guards, all seemingly unconscious. Perhaps five feet behind him was Buzz, appearing to run at my mentor at top speed. In fact, even though I was at super speed myself, Buzz’s arms and legs were a blur, plainly indicating the mind-boggling amount of effort he was exuding. Truth be told, it was a lot like one of those cartoons, where a character’s legs start swiftly whirring around before they take off in a burst of speed. The only difference was that here, Buzz wasn’t going anywhere. He was literally running in place.
On his part, Mouse completely ignored the speedster behind him. Instead, his attention seemed focused on a tall, rectangular section of wall that extended out into the room directly in front of him.
I didn’t have time to observe anything else as movement from my father drew my attention. Looking in his direction, I saw him flying backwards – like someone had grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and yanked him off his feet. Behind him, near a side wall, I noticed a circular node of dark energy about eight feet in diameter, which seemed to be the area Alpha Prime was headed towards.
I’d barely taken note of all this before I got a taste of what my father was experiencing. One moment, everything was fine; the next, it was as though a giant vacuum cleaner had gotten turned on and pointed in my direction.
Months earlier, I’d had the sublime experience of almost getting sucked into a black hole. That was exactly what this felt like, and I found myself being inexorably pulled in the same direction as my father.
I became insubstantial, and the suction immediately ceased. Looking at Alpha Prime, I saw that he had righted himself and was attempting to fly away. However, much like Buzz, he wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, he was slowly being pulled backwards.
Reaching out telepathically, I said, <Hey! I can get you free by turning you insubstantial.>
<Great,> he replied. <What are you waiting for?>
<You have to go back to normal speed,> I explained. <Otherwise, you’re going to slingshot through the wall and end up ten miles away.>
<And if I dial it down for even a second, I’m getting sucked into whatever that is behind me.>
<Then we do it all at the same time – on three,> I declared, and my father gave a brief nod of agreement. <One…two…three!>
Our timing wasn’t quite perfect – Alpha Prime did zoom forward for a few feet before coming to a halt – but it worked. Like me, he was now free of the mini-black hole (or whatever it was).
So that I wouldn’t be zipping around my father like an annoying fly, I shifted back to normal speed as well. As soon as I did, I heard the screech of torn metal along with the sound of glass shattering as a number of the nearby display cases were forcefully and powerfully wrenched in the direction of the dark circle, slamming into the wall where it was located. There they stayed, pinned to the wall as if they’d been glued there.
Seeing that, I understood that the dark node wasn’t a black hole, per se, as nothing actually got sucked into it. It was, however, some sort of gravity well – and a powerful one at that. Alpha Prime and I had apparently been the closest things to it, as it had seemingly affected us before anything else. In practically no time, however, I saw everything within its sphere of influence swiftly getting drawn in. Fortunately, it seemed to have a very limited range – otherwise, everything in the room would have been pulled towards it.
As with me, the sound of the display cases being ripped away had drawn Alpha Prime’s attention momentarily. Almost in unison, we both turned back to Mouse, who spared us a quick glance but otherwise ignored us.
<Hang tight,> I told Alpha Prime. <I’ll teleport him.>
<No,> my father urged. <Just make me solid again.>
<Not a good idea,> I replied, then reached out with my teleportation power, intending to send Mouse to one of the holding cells we maintain at HQ. To my surprise, my power closed on nothing. It was as if Mouse wasn’t there.
I tried again, without success, and then a third time with the same result. Obviously, Mouse was somehow negating my ability to teleport him. A moment later, he looked at me, raised his hand in a quick salute, and then vanished.
Chapter 32
It took about an hour before any type of debrief occurred. Electra and I spent the bulk of that time waiting in the conference room, with her playfully admonishing me for leaving her behind once we got to the Vault.
“You could have carried me,” she
