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bluepenguinstories · 3 years

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Happiness Overload Chapter Sixty-Four

I bobbed my head to and fro. Then I decided to practice my speech in front of the designated villain:

“So you have me in your sights. Nowhere for me to run. You can complete your goal, become all-powerful, and more than anything, be satisfied.”

“Something doesn’t feel right,” he muttered as if he were in a Tom Waits song. “I’m supposed to work for this. You’re just giving in.”

“Are you mad that I haven’t experienced the full extent of despair and hopelessness? But you should have known that me having Euphoria within me, that it would be impossible for me to feel anything other than happy.”

“That’s not it. I need to earn it.”

He spoke with such clarity as if all of his jumbled thoughts had been formed because during every moment of his existence, he longed for the one he found himself in.

“You have! You’ve worked very hard and your efforts should go rewarded! You should know, vore isn’t one of my fetishes, but I’m open to try new things.”

“Heh,” his smile once again rest plastered on his face, and I could make out a faint whiff of a chuckle. “It’s as if our personalities have reversed.”

“Not at all! I am, after all, the blank slate!”

“I don’t get it. I must have won. I already know you won’t try to resist. I’ve done everything up until this point and once I devour you and take your power, I can finally rest. But then...why does it feel like I’ve lost?”

I shrugged my shoulders. I almost wanted to shout with glee, but it wasn’t quite time yet.

“I’d say ‘sometimes you just gotta take that L’, but...it’s not really like that. As we speak, The Flashbulb is dissolving. They were an enemy of yours, weren’t they? And if not for the events which you orchestrated, their plans for this world wouldn’t have been foiled. So you won.”

In fact, seeing as things were about to end, I was more than a little curious how things were going back there now that I wasn’t able to support Velvet or any of the other friends I might have made along the way.

That was it, huh? Blanc was gone once again, and in their place was the reality of the situation: that things weren’t quite over yet. No, I already knew that. I was a fool to believe that things would be so easy. As soon as Blanc left, the fight was back on, with a glint of smugness in the eyes of the Flashbulb members. I knew I had to act, but I was still trying to process everything. My friend, gone once more. How many times has it been? Hell, it didn’t even matter. The impact was the same each time.

“Now that that’s out of the way, let’s go ahead and turn back time,” Dr. Humble declared, and that was the moment when I was broken from my trance. I jumped in front of the two Flashbulb members, and whether they were in charge of the whole operation or not didn’t matter much to me. In its own twisted way, it seemed like every member was equal measure all powerful and powerless against the other members. Less a check and balance and more two magnets in the same direction, unable to connect.

Look, the metaphor was better in my head.

Either way, I snatched it out from Dr. Humble’s grasp, and while Dr. Asparagus (or Modest. Potato, tomato. Same difference) tried to fight back and restrain me, I fought back and shoved my elbow into his stomach and stomped on his shoe. Both of them gasped now as I held their device in my hands, and I retreated back toward Coriander.

“What’s the deal?” Dr. Humble protested. How ironic, considering the position of power they held.

“You said yourself that you couldn’t turn back time until the ‘celestial’ or whatever you wanna call it this time is dies along with Earth!” I fired back at them. I didn’t know how to use their time travel device, nor did I care to. Perhaps if my endeavor proved fruitful, however eventual, Coriander and I could work together to find a new purpose for the device. As much as I didn’t want to fixate on it, there was a certain air that things were much less certain ever since Blanc departed.

“Please, that world of yours will come to an end whether we create a new timeline or not, so why not just start now?” Dr. Asparagus argued, his voice with the same smugness one would expect from a moldy piece of asparagus.

“I’ll be the one to decide that!” I declared, and maybe I didn’t have a reason to and maybe he was right, but damn it, this wasn’t just a battle over time preferences, but a battle over power.

When Coriander finally spoke, having been in the background the whole time, motionless, just as dazed as I was sure that I was, she sounded the least confident of all.

“What are we supposed to do now?” She asked. “I wanted to be able to return to the world.” She sounded like she was about to get choked up.

Now’s not the time to lose confidence, I wanted to tell her, but it wasn’t like I was any more hopeful.

“Velvet?” Her voice came in once more.

As soon as Coriander said that name, a screen popped up in the air with my likeness, as well as a series of writing.

“Ah, so that’s who you are,” Dr. Humble was now the one to sound smug. Quite a big deal of humblebragging, I’d say. “You’ve been a nuisance throughout your adult life, haven’t you? Governments have embellished stories of you, making you out to be some larger than life threat, when really, you’ve just spent much of your time with reckless impulses. All of your feats seem to be nothing more than lucky breaks. So insignificant to us, that when figured into the dangers of humanity, you’re not even a thought.”

Sheesh. You get your own Wikipedia page and all of a sudden everyone thinks they got you figured it out. Much of what that profile says about me could be applied to The Flashbulb themselves. Embellished? Check. Larger than life? Check. Nothing but lucky breaks? Also check.

“Is any of that wrong?” He asked me, as if he already thought himself correct.

“I mean, sure, I’ve definitely thought that way about myself,” I shrugged. Maybe it was the whole “nothing left to lose” attitude, but hearing such an amusing report gave me quite the ego boost. “People thinking I was some badass secret agent, when really, I just got where I was through a series of fuck ups. It could be that everything that has brought me here was due to countless lucky breaks, as well.”

They both laughed. I didn’t dare look through the corner of my eye, but I suspected there was a great fear and apprehension from my dear lover.

“I can’t believe this! We were scared over nothing! Nothing!” Both of the two men began to cackle, less like witches and more like they just discovered fire. An ever-widening crooked smile crept on Dr. Humble’s face as he spoke: “I’ll tell you two, hell, if Dr. Katsushika can hear us, I’ll tell that damned wild card as well! We as an organization are eternal! Countless others before you have tried to defeat us, all ending in utter failure to the point where we started to view having enemies as routine! And with that in mind, you thought you had a chance?”

True, they had an impressive track record against their opposition, but something about their speech of villainy just irked me.

“You’re right on that count, too,” I conceded. “We may not survive, either. Hell, I’m willing to bet our chances are slim to none.”

“Velvet!” Coriander scolded. Or maybe that’s what I interpreted from her tone. My head could be a real mess sometimes. But I knew why she would have scolded me, if that was the case. I mean, she didn’t want to die. Nor did I. Plus, it probably sounded to her like I was giving up or admitting defeat. Easy mistake to make, especially when I was less focused on communication and more focused on what should come next.

“That said, even with low chances like those, I’m still going to try and I’ll keep trying so long as I live. You’re probably thinking that all my luck has run out, but I have to ask: are you willing to test yours?”

Without so much as a reaction, Dr. Mumble (err...not Humble, but the other one) reached for one of the buttons on their console and spoke into it.

“Guards, dispose of these two intruders at the front.”

“Loud and clear,” a guard at the other end responded. At once, my heart both ceased to beat, for even just a second, and then it beat way too fast.

“It shouldn’t take them more than a few minutes to get here,” Dr. Microbe (like hell I was going to dignify that Flashbulb goon with their name) explained. “Especially with their numbers. You made a valiant effort, but when all is said and done, it won’t be so much as a footnote in a small section of our history.”

“How?” I balled my fists. They shook and I had to be careful not to crush the time travel device I held in my hand. It wasn’t like I knew how to use it, nor would I turn back time. As lucky as I may have been at times, I still preferred to do things on my own terms. “Popsigirl should have disabled all communications!”

“You’ll find that much like the code to Dr. Etna, much of our system constantly rewrites itself and corrects any errors along the way. Even if communication was temporarily cut off, it was never going to last long.”

Tenser than before, Coriander once again asked, “what do we do now, Velvet?”

I turned to her. As I did, I noticed something else. Call it keen eyesight, or potential for yet another lucky break, but I had to take any chance I could.

“I’m not going to ask you to trust me,” my words were just as shaky as hers had been. “Not when things are looking the way they are. But I will ask for you to check that wall next to you. If you find a panel, well, you know what to do.”

At first she gave me a baffled look, like “English, motherfucker!” But then she nodded.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“You’re as capable a hacker as I.” While I knew her specialty was more hardware than software, there was a certain amount of blind faith that I had to employ. Not to say I doubted her abilities, but that I had my doubts that anything could have helped us at that point.

While Coriander got to work with visible frustration, it appeared that Humble and Modest (screw it, just this once) weren’t living up to their names.

“Even if you two manage to figure a way out of here, what then? Like always, the predator becomes the prey, and here you are, on the defensive,” one of them spoke. Did it matter which one? I sure as hell didn’t think so. “Even if we were to lose all of our members, we could just recruit new versions of those same people in another timeline! You could kill us right now, in fact, and so long as one of us lives to bring new members in, what can you do? You’re fighting a losing battle!”

Talk it up. Every second you guys waste running your mouths gives me that much more time.

“Got it!” Coriander declared. I turned to see an opening beside us. Hell, as soon as I saw that, I couldn’t help but show off a sly grin.

“Well, not to be as cliché as you guys have been, but as they say, ‘we’ll deal with you later!’”

I shoved the time travel device into my pocket and ran into the opening along with Coriander. As we did so, the wall closed behind us and the two of us were surrounded in darkness. I’ve spent many nights by her side with the lights off, so that moment seemed like nothing to me.

“Good job, bae,” I put my thumbs up. Being as dark as it was, I had to be careful not to stick my thumb up her nose on accident.

“I’m surprised I managed to figure out something, I mean, it was tricky and even then, if we hesitated even just a second more, it might have closed on us.”

“Ugh,” I felt nauseous with what I was about to say next.

“What?”

“It really is the case that every second counts,” I said, just as I knew I would. Oh, the cliché. Oh, the disgust that was mediocre dialogue.

“Oh yeah. Gross,” she dismissed. “I think we’ve got more on our plate than rhetoric.”

We continued to move forward as we spoke. Any second, those guards would enter the room, and I was sure that both her and I knew that it would only take an instant on their end for that same wall to open up for them. We had to be on the move and figure out a strategy. I was aware of the real possibility that they could hear and catch every word we said, but I think our greatest asset was that we didn’t really know what we were going to do next. Really kept them on their toes.

“We can’t return to the world we knew,” her worries spilled forth. “It will still end, regardless of what we do. We can’t even get rid of the angel without having the world be destroyed in the process. I can’t stop thinking about this. How there’s nothing we could do. Bitterly, I already knew that, but I wanted so bad to believe there was a solution where we could reverse course and come out victorious. So what now?”

I gulped. My, how easy it was to give in to despair. I didn’t think she was quite there yet, but I wouldn’t have blamed her if she was.

“It’s easy,” I spoke up, at last thinking that I had an answer. “I know we didn’t get the most satisfying outcome, so now we try for the next best thing.”

I couldn’t tell whether she nodded in agreement, or if my words didn’t inspire much confidence, as with the total darkness, there was any number of ways one could interpret silence. Regardless, we continued to move forward.

We were on our way to bear the bad news when we both heard the announcement. It meant nothing to me, but it shook Dr. Hepburn to her core. She did a little jig, then turned to me and began poking my shoulders with such intensity and I was left wondering why I kept letting her.

“Hey. Psst! Hey.”

“Yes, HR lady?” I smiled. I couldn’t help but imagine that if I were in her position, I’d act the same way.

“You know that feeling when you go around giving people false hope but then you find out that hope is even more false than you realized?”

I shook my head.

“That’s how you’re feeling right now, huh?” I replied.

“Yeah!” She pumped her fists. “Everyone wants to be Grandmaster Flash, but there is no Grandmaster Flash, so everyone’s been vying for a false position at a false top!”

“Right, and I only like true tops,” I joked.

“Sorry,” she looked down and shook her head. “I’m not a fan of hierarchy. In fact, in some ways, this is quite a relief to me.”

“How so?”

“Because now everyone’s morale will be shifted from super low to super high...in your guys’ favor! They’re probably all pissed right now, like they’ve been cheated! Well, the ones who weren’t driven to despair, anyway.”

“Hmm...that’s one way to look at it, I suppose,” I wasn’t sure if that’s how things worked with people, but it seemed like a possibility.

“You know, I was always rooting for you guys,” she snapped her fingers.

“You were?”

“Well, once it turned out you guys were winning, anyway. If you guys were on the losing end of things, I’d be like ‘I wish they’d protest in a way that didn’t affect us’.”

“Gee, thanks,” I scoffed.

“Don’t mention it!” She held her thumb up and grinned.

Soon we entered a room and Dr. Hepburn had me sit next to her as she addressed a group.

“Greetings, I hope all of you in the Design Department are well,” she began. “I regret to inform you that going forward, your department will be laid off. The Flashbulb wishes you all the best in your future endeavors.”

All around the room were blank stares. I’m pretty sure I could be counted as one of those blank stares.

“All right, Hepburn. Cut the bullshit,” one member finally spoke up. Some gruff guy with a gray pompadour haircut.

“No, no, she’s serious,” I waved my hands out. That proved to be a mistake as the guy turned his attention toward me.

“First of all, no she isn’t. Everyone knows none of us get fired or laid off here. We’re stuck here ‘til the day we die, which usually entails us getting killed by someone. Second, who are you?”

Before I could answer, Dr. Hepburn tapped her pen away at her clipboard until his attention turned toward her instead, to which she took over.

“She is my auntie assistant,” she explained.

“What kind of sick roleplay…” I heard him muttered. I wanted to defend myself and go, “It’s not sick! It’s perfectly healthy!” But why would I when it wasn’t even roleplay?

“Anyway, I don’t know why you’re wasting your time with such an excuse when we already know the big secret. Hell, now that the cat’s out of the bag, a big lot of us are asking ourselves, ‘what was ever the point?’ I mean, the obvious point should have been, ‘to help each other improve one another’, but with this sham of a competition, it’s clear we’ve not really been a help to anyone, let alone ourselves.”

Hepburn’s tapping continued with such a frenzied intensity that I imagined she would make a great drummer, if she wasn’t already one to begin with. Maybe if I got the chance, I could convince her to take up the drums. But then maybe she wouldn’t be into that sort of thing. It’s the thought that counts, anyway, right?

Then the tapping stopped and she smiled a big smile.

“Good! Now you know why you’re being laid off!”

“Oh for crying out loud!” He got up from his chair and flew into a rage.

“Anyway, now that you’re no longer with the company, wanna burn it down?” Dr. Hepburn suggested.

He froze in place.

“You know what? Yeah. I do. I’m sick of all the micromanaging and the way every department can’t seem to help but do more harm than good. Worse, I’m sick of hearing ‘Grandmaster Flash told you to’ when no, no they didn’t. That’s just an excuse to make me do something you didn’t want to do.”

I was glad he seemed to be on our side. Now there was just the matter of the rest of the Design Department…

I shot my hand up.

“Hey, is there someone here named Dr. Oz?” I looked around and asked. One of the members, a sheepish looking young man with mutton chops and a wool sweater turned to me.

“That me,” he bleated. I couldn’t help myself, I was beaming at the prospect that I could be a matchmaker.

“I met Dr. Phil!”

His eyes widened, like he had just seen a wolf. Jeez, I didn’t mean to put him on the spot like he was some sacrificial lamb.

“Did he say anything abaa-t me?”

“Yeah! He said that he thinks it would be great if you two worked together to rally up more departments! He said his department’s sick of this shithole and he bet he isn’t the only one!

“Did he really say that?” The pompadour guy interrupted, ever the skeptic.

He said some of those things. Look, I’m improvising here.

“Sure did! Who are you, anyway?”

He grunted. “I’m Dr. Toto. What about you? No more games, either.”

I bless the rains down the yellow brick road – no, now’s not the time for that. I have to think of how to answer. Probably not a good idea to make something up, but what else can I say?

“Dr. Hepburn, go ahead and tell them the truth. I’m still a little shy,” I tugged on her sleeve.

She looked down and smiled. She must have known just what to say.

“The truth is, Juniper is best girl.”

I just about fell back in my chair. I was rooting for you, Dr. Hepburn! We were all rooting for you! “Back in her original timeline, there was a contest all around the vote all around the world, and it was decided at the end that she was best girl. The company caught wind of this and just had to find out what all the hype was about, and so she was brought here. There was a raffle in the cafeteria with the grand prize being to meet her. Needless to say, I won.”

That had to be the among the top ten most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.

“Yeah, okay. Seems legit,” Dr. Toto grunted as he nodded.

There were two other members of the Design department, one of which had long, flowing fuchsia hair, and the other had short, iridescent indigo hair. Both of them were pretty, but if I had to choose one over the other...no. That wasn’t what I was there for.

The one with fuchsia hair turned to me.

“How did you do it? Become best girl?” Fuchsia’s voice was soft and soothing.

Way to put me on the spot, Hepburn.

“By starting a revolution!” I declared. Hey, if Dr. Hepburn was going to make a bold claim, so was I.

“Cheers, sis, I’ll fucking drink to that,” Indigo added, and if Fuchsia’s voice was beautiful, then Indigo’s voice was hot, with the way it was husky and self-assured. Still, I didn’t mean to compare the two.

“Anyway, we gotta get a move on and lay more people off. If you guys can work on getting the word out, we should at least have a few more departments on our side,” I explained. Dr. Hepburn gave me a pat on the head.

“You did well as an auntie assistant,” she told me.

“Thanks,” I blushed, though really I didn’t want my hair messed with.

As we left the room, we heard the siren call of an alarm.

“The guards…” I heard her mutter, and before I could react, she took me by the hand and we ran.

Well, wasn’t that just swell?

I mean, I should have expected it, really. If it happened just as planned, then I wouldn’t have found it to be such a masterpiece, just a simple work of art, instead. So revise, improvise. After all, you couldn’t spell painting without ‘pain’ and you couldn’t spell drawing without ‘aw’ and without a doubt, you couldn’t spell revolution without ‘vore’.

Once the alarms outside of my head went off, the alarms inside my head did as well.

Soon, I could hear the click-clack approaching the door to the command room I was in. Which command room? Did it matter? Why did we have so many command rooms? Beats me, but I was sure going to miss this place once it was all over. Which, ‘over’ was just an anagram of ‘vore’. I felt that was worth pointing out.

“Wah! Ha! Ha!” I let out a proud laughter as the door to was busted down and fine chiseled armored specimen stormed in with their suits of shiny metal and their heavy weapons. Each of them fell before they could even pull their itty bitty triggers. Turns out I was right to hold on to Cilantro’s laser backpack. That thing could pack a PUNCH with a capital ‘UNCH’.

As the three guards lay on the ground, I stood over them in triumph and announced:

“It’s just like the tools of the ruling class to be anti-creator. Well I’m here to tell you that I’m pro-creator, and I plan to procreate for as long as I live!”

I couldn’t just stand there over them, as much as that would have made for a fine work of art, as I wasn’t quite sure if they were dead. Yes, I could have fired another shot or three, just to make sure, but there was a beauty in the uncertainty of it all that I just had to relish in. I sniffed the air, which mostly smelled of the smoke produced from that laser blast.

“I was really hoping to catch the whiff of a charred corpse,” I sighed with disappointment. That mood didn’t last, and soon I was back on the drawing board. “Anyway! As they say in Spain, Seeyanara!”

If my calculations were correct (and while some may have thought calculus not to be my strong suit, they would be wrong, as not only was I not good at calculus, but calculating was an art, so being good or not was irrelevant) then Velvet and Lil C should be close. Good! I could return the cute backpack to its rightful owner.

We were still alive, but at a disadvantage. Sure, I could hack into stuff as well, although if someone were to ask me, Velvet was still better in that department. She could roll with the punches and think fast on her feet. Me? I needed total concentration.

At the moment, as we moved forward in pure darkness, concentration was the one thing I did NOT have. It’s not like I wanted to admit it, but it was the reality we were in: at any moment, the walls we found ourselves between would be blasted open and the two of us, shot down. It got me thinking about what our impact would have been. The “close, but not cigar” in terms of success stories of those who went against The Flashbulb? The little clone that could, until she didn’t? It’s not like I cared how I was remembered, if I was remembered at all, I just expected a little more.

Well, my worst fear came true: in front of us, a blast tore through the walls and we both jumped back.

We’re gonna get raided and we’re gonna get shot down without so much as a fight and we aren’t going to have any romantic last words between us it’s just going to be violent and bloody and –

Instead of an army of guards, only one figure entered, one who I wished I didn’t have to see again so soon: that mad artist.

“Smart thinking, you two! Making out while the enemy’s looking for you!” Were her first words upon us meeting, and I was not amused. In fact, I’m pretty sure I growled without so much as a word.

“Ha. I wish,” Velvet joked back, though by now I could tell that was just how Velvet acted when she was tense.

“Anyway, you two should get out of there. Don’t worry, I took care of the guards that were after you. Though there’s going to be a buttload more.”

“Is that the scientific term or…?” Velvet shot back.

Disregarding the useless small talk, we walked forward, through the new hole that was formed. Velvet first, me just behind her. There was no way I was going to trust that popsicle stick lover. Then again, she hurt Velvet before, too. Ugh. Just the thought of either of our wounds was enough to send shivers.

Light illuminated us (get it? Because...oh, who gives a shit?) as we stepped out. I still wanted to keep as much distance from that...you know. I selfishly wished that Velvet would do the same.

“Jeez, I can’t believe you guys didn’t defeat the bad guys yet? How hard could it be?” You-know-who (or you don’t, and if you don’t, lucky you) began questioning. Although not quite accusatory and more playful in tone.

“Gee, I don’t know. Army of guards, code that self-corrects, time travel devices, the list goes on,” Velvet was incensed, no longer playing around.

I didn’t look that artsy fartsy helper in the eye, but I was still compelled to speak up.

“I-It’s not just that!” My fists were balled. We didn’t have time to stand around and argue, but dammit, someone had to set the record straight gay. “So long as one Flashbulb members wishes to stay in power, then we may as well consider the whole thing a loss! They can always go back in time! This is the problem with the organization as a whole! Those guards may as well be members too, because even if they aren’t official members, they have a vested interest in killing anyone who threatens their power! What’s to stop them from forming a new Flashbulb? We can’t just go 75%!”

I began to huff and puff. Hyperventilate. Even though I didn’t see her face, as I refused to, I could just tell that she smiled in return.

“I see your point, and that’s why I’m saying, it’s easy to beat them! You just gotta send them back to their own time and leave them nothing in their possession! I don’t see what’s so hard about that!”

I didn’t give her a reply. I never wanted to speak to her, or around her again in the first place. But I spoke once and that was already too much.

“Now, this is a big organization, so there’s bound to be plenty of departments that don’t care about the lack of a Grandmaster Flash. In fact, they might have been elated when they heard that! You guys will probably have to deal with them. Well, you guys, or the ones who defect. I suspect there’s been a few departments who have been unhappy with this company for a while now, and probably want to tear the whole thing down. So you got that going for you.”

I heard every word, but none of them meant anything to me. Maybe they held significance, but I just let them flow in and out.

“I’ll be real with you guys, you’ll probably still need to kill some guards, unless you can strip them naked and send them flying to some deserted island. Either way, their bodies will have to go somewhere. I’m going to go help out these other departments who are on your side! I’ll be sending plenty of doctorates flying home!”

I looked down and noticed Velvet reach into her pocket and pull out the time travel device that she stole from Dr. Humble.

“I see what you’re saying, but I don’t even know how to use this thing,” she must have pointed to said device as she told Dr. Popsicle.

“Well gee, I’d help you figure it out, but I can already tell there’s more guards approaching.”

That was weird. I didn’t hear any. But then, I heard a little tap-tap sound in the back of my mind, and that could have been them in the distance.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You’re good at figuring things out under pressure. In fact, you should go back in that room you were in and kick those two men out.”

“Really? After we just left with our lives?” Velvet interrupted.

“What better way to practice a craft? As for you, Coriander…” Popsigirl spoke, and I felt like screaming for her not to say my name, but instead I said nothing. “I’ve come to return your backpack.”

I didn’t take it. Instead, Velvet took it and handed it to me. For what seemed like an eternity, I stood in place. Then, arms wrapped around me, the familiar arms that I’ve felt many times before, and I looked up.

“I get it,” Velvet whispered while still in her arms. “She’s gone now. You’re safe.”

“Right,” I nodded. “Let’s just go back there and show those two what’s what.”

At least if Twee-humble and Twee-modest wanted to put up a fight, I could fire my lasers. So for their sake, they should have played nice if they knew what was good for them.

In all my years, I never understood the hype with Audrey. Katharine, however, she was worth all the hype and then some. Really, where was the Katharine fandom when you needed them? If they wouldn’t show up, I would just have to be Special K.

Okay? Okay. Focus. OK? Right. Rikki-tikki...tic-tactile.

My auntie (no relation) assistant, Dr. Not-a-Doctor Juniper was right beside me as someone who just happened to be right beside me. Where were we? I think we were in hiding. In a closet or a broom room. Something about guns and guards and not wanting to die. That sounded about right.

“You look scared!” Junie B. Jones commented. Really, I heard that name somewhere before. Probably in a newspaper somewhere during some time period.

“I’m more than scared,” I assured her. “They probably don’t like traitors, just like they don’t like intruders.

“Well...that makes sense, I guess,” she gave it some thought. “I’ll be honest, I wish I had some kind of plan. I thought things were going pretty well back there with the Design Department, but now I’m losing hope again.”

“I know what you mean. It’s like a civil war here. Flashbulb vs. Flashbulb. It’s like we’re trying to pin each other down, but neither of us wants to be underneath the other.”

“...Did you have to phrase it that way?” She sounded concerned. I didn’t understand, and more than that, I didn’t think there was any other way to phrase it. It was just the reality of the situation.

Even in the darkened room, I could tell Juniper was sullen.

“The truth is...it seems like everyone’s doing their part, but I feel like I haven’t really done anything.”

“Don’t think of it that way! You came up with suggestions that probably wouldn’t have been implemented! I can tell you have a desire to help others, and sometimes that desire is good enough!”

“Gee, that’s real nice of you to say, but…” she looked away. “Is that really enough?”

I shrugged. “Who knows, but sometimes it is, so maybe one of these days, it will be!”

I pressed my ear against the door. From the sound of things, it seemed like all the commotion died down. Though the alarm kept sounding, there was nary a threatening aura to be heard.

I opened the door.

“I think we’re safe for now,” I told her.

Then, as if I just tempted fate (which hey, if I did, that’s pretty cool, I mean, it would have been bad for us, but it would also be just like one of those ironic lines in a movie), other faces met ours.

“Dr. Phil?” Juniper noticed one such face. Some chubbyish guy who looked ready to hit the hay. That was, until he smiled a big smile and right next to a human-shaped hay pile was Dr. Oz.

“Hey! Dr. Juniper! Look! Dr. Oz and I are a couple now!”

Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz shared a passionate kiss and everyone in the Marketing and Design department cheered.

“Don’t worry, I’m not a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Dr. Oz reassured us. “In fact, Dr. Phil and I have been spreading the word, just like you suggested, Juniper! We’ve got the Agriculture, the Housing, and the Clothing Department coming over to help us with possibly others on the way!”

Juniper smiled and I thought I saw a tear roll down her cheek, but she wiped it away, whatever it was she wiped away.

“I’m glad for you guys. I’m glad to have made some friends, even when I thought I’d make enemies and be scared for my life.”

I watched as those two departments and Juniper shared a hug with one another. Meanwhile, I had a No. 1 pencil in my mouth (a rarity. Most of them had been eked out of existence in favor of the inferior No. 2).

“Yeah, yeah, soak it in,” Dr. Toto cut the heartwarming moment short with a cross of his arms. “But we still gotta deal with those guards, as well as the departments that don’t want to defect.”

“Right. Good thing Dr. Glinda and I have constructed a shield to block any artillery,” Dr. Ozma declared.

“Dr. Glinda?” Juniper asked.

I pointed my tender pencil at the member of the design department with fuchsia hair.

“Oh! Fuchsia! So who is indigo?”

I wanted to burst into laughter. I never thought to call Dr. Ozma ‘Indigo’ before. I couldn’t help but think, “my name is Indigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to –” but I didn’t know where I was going with that.

“That’s Dr. ozma, Junebug.”

“Oh! Junebug! That’s a cute nickname!” Juniper grinned. With much brighter spirits, we charged on. I thought to let everyone know that it seemed like none of us had a clue where we were going, but I kept my mouth shut because nobody liked a buzzkill.

Anyway, things seemed to be going pretty fine and dandy. Some guards rushed in and after warning us to go back to our departments. Dr. Glinda and Dr. Ozma raised the protective barrier around the two groups. The next logical thing was the guards opening fire, but after their artillery was depleted, Juniper seemed to gain a new set of confidence and declared:

“We have gay and anime on our side!”

Those same guards ran up to us and tried to break the shield down by bashing their weapons against the shield. It seemed like that was actually working as I noticed our shield start to break. But before it broke fully, each of the guards fell to the ground. Dr. Toto looked confused, but once everyone saw who had taken the guards down, we all froze in fear: the dreaded Dr. Katsushika stood, with several giant marionette dolls beside her.

“Who let her out of her cage?” Dr. Glinda asked as she trembled.

“Coming out of my cage and I’ve been...doing...just…” Juniper muttered, her teeth chattered. Must have been a nervous tick of hers. Cute.

“Nice revolution you have there. Shame if something were to happen to it,” Dr. Katsushika grinned. We all got ready to scream and run, until that same artist laughed. “I’m just messing with you guys! I’m on your side! Let’s go!”

Relieved, we followed behind her. I recall Juniper asked Dr. Katsushika something like, “why’s everyone so scared of you?”

To which Dr. Katsushika replied, “People tend to think I’m evil, that’s all.”

“Aw, I’m sure you’re not that bad. You’re probably just misunderstood.”

“Right!” Dr. Katsushika agreed. “Just give me five, no, ten years, and I’ll be a full-fledged artist!”

It was really nice to see everyone come together, even if it was for the purpose of making us all break apart. Would our organization really be no more? And if so, what would that make me, then? That thought was fraught with a frailty I couldn’t fathom. Some eternal entity, falling. I hoped at least one of us could see the end, if not me, but for the moment, I chose to close my eyes and wait for whatever outcome.

Two figures sitting. Both of us humanoid. Both of us eager for it all to end. Neither of us human. Well, one may be, but at times I knew better. Then at times I knew worse. Even to the bitter end, I couldn’t keep myself consistent.

“I never really cared whether The Flashbulb was defeated or not,” I said once I managed a split hair of clarity. “I always considered them too easy a target. Anger was fine, but anger wouldn’t last me. My true frustration was finding something that would.”

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or none of the above, looked down on me. Not with pity, not in contempt, but just because they sat on a rock while I sat on a flat surface.

“Is it frustrating?”

“I can’t...be happy...if I don’t find something...that will last me...until death...but...being immortal...makes things...all that more...difficult.”

I didn’t need to space out all of those words. I think I just wanted to for dramatic effect.

“I see, then!” That bright light beamed.

I couldn’t help but smile, even after everything that happened. All that I caused, and all that I didn’t. What I let happen and what I perpetuated. I still never found what I thought to be happiness. Soon, even the dissatisfaction would be gone.

#happiness overload #penultimate chapter #woo #writing #scifi #action #drama #comedy #reference overload #fiction #stories

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imalifegen89 · 3 years

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A Legacy Left behind - Chapter 1 - Initial Encounters - Part 2

Part 2

Meanwhile in Antarctica...

Inside the Stasis Pod, Terra Atlantus - Antarctica

The Dream

Noises…

These were familiar noises. They were generated by his beloved Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk: The slap of the rotors overhead, the faint crackle from his headphones, the voice of Mr. J. Smith, who was acting as his crew for the record, requesting updates on something very important or other through his very classified comms channel, the faint whooshing sound that carried over as his own chopper caught the backlash of the other chopper, that appeared seemingly out of nowhere and on its way down fast to a painful crash.

Wait…

That shouldn't be there with the familiar noises, should it?

No. It shouldn't.

That was why he aborted his own forward momentum to follow the Black Hawk that was having a bad day. He drowned out Mr. Smith's indignant protests as he tried to raise the crashing bird on the comms to no avail. He remembered to flash off a quick update to his destination about the possible crash and emergency rescue. Then he signed off without waiting for their acknowledgement or orders.

By some miracle or other, the other chopper made landfall in more or less one piece. But half of its tail broke off upon impacting the rough terrain below. It came to a stop listing on to its side and John could see the occupants were already piling out.

He was circling the site low, looking to put his Pave Hawk down when things went hazy.

..........

Oh, God! No, no, no! Not again…Not that again!

He felt his mind going to pieces- a gibbering, quivering mess of protests and whimpers and he didn't know over what. It was disconcerting; he was deathly afraid of something - but what?

John felt the familiar warm glow wrapping around him again and he felt his mind slowly coming out of its hiding place. He felt he should be concerned about this too; but he strangely sort of wasn't.

..........

The motion picture reel of his mind started up again. He knew he'd landed his bird just beside the downed one. It was all quite different now. His vision had sharpened to a point he could read the tags off the uniform of one soldier who was already crawling away from their downed chopper about 20 yards away. He could hear him muttering and cursing about life-suckers.

He could also see the two tall, pale figures that were standing on the top of the small ridge about 100 yards away in a southerly direction from them. He could also see the black and red slimy thing with pale protrusions, busily crawling towards the two figures.

It was as if a switch had flipped inside of his brain. Everything around him had come to a standstill and was swiftly dismissed as unimportant distractions.

And his mission came to the forefront of his mind in utmost clarity.

Seek & Destroy.

There were only three targets and only their utter and complete destruction mattered. It was his life’s imperative; his reason for being and nothing else mattered until those abominations were wiped from the face of earth.

He felt himself moving as if in a powerful trance. His body was going through the quick motions of arming himself; stuffing his tactical vest with grenades and extra ammo and his holsters with extra hand-guns. He was aware of barking quick orders to his charge- to stay put inside the chopper, just before grabbing his primary weapon, an M4 carbine, and jumping out. Then he was taking off towards his targets.

He caught up to them quickly since they were not very keen on getting away. They were both focused on the creepy, crawly thing edging towards them. He got within the closest range of fire and opened up with his carbine.

The memory providing the whole scenario got crazy then, because he was seeing things that were not supposed to happen in a normal reality. The thing he was firing at, moved at inhuman speeds. Instead of running away or even dropping dead after being riddled with bullets, it came towards him, with its hand raised as if to slap him.

John remembered discarding his carbine without bothering to reload and strangely enough his hand went to his K-bar. He remembered the agonizing pain that enveloped his head at that moment too; as if something was drilling into his brain trying to get a hold of him. His body moved of its own accord, brandishing the knife and gracefully sidestepping the oncoming nightmare with its pale, tall, slimy figure and long, white hair.

While his mind and brain tangled with the telepathic assault, his newly improved eyesight noted the strange anatomy of his enemy with weak points somehow highlighted for him. He remembered the squelching sound it made, when his knife connected with the protruding soft gill-like sack on the neck of the thing. It let out a scream he was sure that was beyond the normal human hearing decibel range; but he heard nonetheless. His right hand had already found its way to his hand-gun which was strapped to his thigh and was shooting the raised hand of the thing, on the palm, with a sure knowledge that it would be the kill shot.

The pain in his head got bad then, dropping him to his knees. The female nightmare was standing in front of him hissing through its wicked rows of pointy teeth. It was sending a nasty fishy breath right on his face that made him want to projectile vomit at it.

He clenched his teeth and swallowed hard. The female was more shocked than angry at this mere little human managing to kill her mate. And even more shocked that she couldn't break through into his empty little mind.

"Who are you, little human? Why don't you let me into your little mind? Let me see what you are, while I feed on your feisty little body." She had her long, thin, clawed fingers wrapped around his neck like a vise.

"John Sheppard, US Air Force. Can't say it's a pleasure though, you kind of stink." John managed to hiss through gritted teeth.

"OPEN YOUR MIND"

She bellowed into his mind, squeezing his already abused throat accompanied by what felt like a thousand sharp pikes directly driven into his brain. John let out a scream as his mind fought the onslaught. He saw himself through the haze of pain, picturing a shimmering blue shield around his mind against the assault that rained on him. And he willed it to endure with all his might. And the moment he felt the shield starting to wobble, he pushed it back with everything he had, along with all those mental pikes. He didn't know how he had known to do what he did or how he actually managed to pull it off, but it worked.

The thing let out a scream of its own with its hands clutching at its head and John reacted. He launched himself at it from his kneeling position and his knife found its mark. He dragged the blade across its neck, halfway decapitating it. Then he followed the falling body down to the ground; caught the palm of its' right hand with that weird gaping opening and drove his knife right through it, to the ground. The female released another final scream before she stopped moving altogether.

Then he finally moved his focus onto the thing that was busy crawling towards the two aliens. Yeah, those things were not products of this planet- John was sure of it. Fair enough, they looked humanoid. But they were too thin and too freakishly tall, and the long white hair had a weird, milky-slimy looking shine to it. The features on the faces were all wrong in the placement as well. Cat-like eyes with gleaming yellow pupils that were too widespread and the nostrils were too flat, and the mouths full of rows and rows of pointy teeth that stank to high heaven. Yep. Definitely not human. Add to it this creepy thing that was busily crawling towards John or more likely its' dead parents? He felt like he had been transported into a different universe.

Without much conscious thought, he emptied the clip in his hand gun into the crawling mess and watched it explode into a thousand tiny, fleshy, bloody pieces with detachment. And with that, he felt the strange awareness that held him captive and his senses overly sharpened, slowly drifting away into the deep confines of his mind again.

He felt consciousness waving in and out as he struggled to remain upright. He had to fight the urge to lay down next to the horrors he had just killed. Adrenaline and whatever extra boost his body had been riding had gone down to zero. The killer headache he was sporting felt like his brain was trying to eject through his ears and nose. Absently wiping his face, he noted that he had a nose bleed as well.

His mind was trying to tell him about a downed Black Hawk in bits and pieces while his weary body was clumsily dragging its' way back to where he landed. He could hardly recall how he made it back and how he ended up meeting the not-so-welcoming committee of four pissed-off SEALs. He remembered the relief at realizing that he actually knew one of them. Before that relief had time to settle, he was roughly being dragged, efficiently disarmed and tied up. And the supposedly friendly face of one Steve McGarrett was thrust close to his, screaming at him for leaving his people behind.

His exhausted mind was making a valiant effort trying to understand the accusations and alarming amount of fire now consuming the two Hawks, but was failing miserably. He hadn’t even registered any explosions.

He remembered giving up coherent thought just before he was hauled into the back of a Humvee.

..........

John knew that all this had come to pass some time ago and he was sort of reviewing the whole thing from a safe and comfortable place, though he didn't know exactly where. He had a feeling that this was serving some sort of an educational purpose; how to fight this particular nightmare version of bad guys and remember how to resist their apparently evil telepathic powers. John was able to appreciate the whole thing in an academic sort of way thanks to the comfortable and companionable presence that was still surrounding him in a warm cocoon. It was keeping the pain away as well. The pain he knew that was lurking there at the edge, courtesy of the hellish five or so days he spent at the base under torture.

Yeah, those clowns had shown up before his ass hit the door of his prison cell on the way in. He suspected a classified branch of military or maybe even the Firm. They had started friendly enough in the beginning, and steadily gone downhill from there, resorting to outright torture when John had not been forthcoming with information. Their questions were too canny and pointed, as if they knew a whole lot more about the crazy, evil, stinky aliens. And John, to his own detriment, had a very strong feeling, almost a compulsion not to reveal anything of what happened. After what he survived, he had a healthy respect for whatever it was, that had awakened in him. So he kept giving them the name, rank and serial number routine until they lost patience with him.

Now here he was, wherever he was. But he knew without a shred of doubt that he was wanted, even needed here. He was welcome here, in fact he was home; the warmth insisted. It was a nice feeling, John decided. Not something he'd had even at home before he left to join the Air Force to his father's great displeasure. So he allowed himself to burrow into the offered comfort and drift away for a while, trusting that he would be brought back when it was time.

Central Command, Terra Atlantus - Antarctica

Carson was annoyed. Make that supremely annoyed. Why couldn't the impatient bugger wait for a couple more days? He had already been waiting for just over twelve days, hadn't he? What difference one or two more days could possibly make?

Oh, but no, the great Dr. Rodney McKay, Ph.D Ph.D had decided today was the day! The Chair absolutely had to be calibrated right now or the end was nigh! Honestly, the scientist was an outright prima donna drama queen when he had to have his way. He had stormed into the infirmary, loudly insisting the Major be immediately released so that he could sit in the Chair. They needed a system wide calibration RIGHT NOW because the power readings he was getting were not right.

The poor lad had gone bug-eyed at the scientist-shaped tornado glaring down at him, and shot a pleading look at Carson to save him.

The Major had been transferred to a bed at the infirmary during the night, when the stasis pod had finally seen fit to release its charge. They had him hooked to an IV and a monitor as a precaution. Carson had been relieved to see what the pod monitor had been reporting was true. The lad was as healthy as a male of his late twenties could be, and a quick scan had shown that all the broken bones had been healed as well; including the not quite healed one according to his medical file, had happened a month ago during training.

The lad had continued his peaceful slumber through the rest of the night until an hour ago. He had woken up to a nurse who was checking his temperature, given a pleasant and somewhat sheepish smile and asked for some breakfast. Carson had sent away the nurse for the requested meal and started to ask some questions about how he was feeling, when Rodney barged in.

It was either serving up the Major to the Unholy Force that was McKay or sacrificing himself, and Carson was fiercely protective of his patients. That was how he had found himself reluctantly following the head scientist towards the dreaded Chair. Because Carson knew despite all the drama Rodney managed to throw at everybody, the man must have a valid reason to be demanding a system check immediately and it most probably was that important.

……….

They had found out about this particular Outpost only about a year ago, when the Goa'uld System Lord Anubis had this bright idea to bring a fleet to try to conquer the earth. General O'Neill, who had a head full of Ancient database accidentally downloaded inside his head around about that time, managed to find this place. After a couple of minor miracles involving engineering and transportation rings, they had unearthed the Outpost enough for the General to go in and activate the defenses. Those defenses had put a stop to that battle. Then the whole project around the place was born; to explore and discover everything they could about it. But the structure and its worldly possessions had been somewhat reluctant in giving away their secrets.

The Terra Atlantus, according to Dr. Daniel Jackson- or the Ancient Defense Outpost according to everybody else, was an underground hexagonal structure, roughly the size of two football stadiums the best they could tell. Some of it was still covered in ancient ice and they were still discovering and excavating its outer reaches. What they had discovered and made viable for human occupation, was a sturdy structure made of a copper colored metal alloy that was decidedly alien. The hidden light fixtures were bathing the interior in soft pale blue glow where they hadn't installed fluorescent lights that were more suitable for their human sensibilities. There were habitable complexes surrounding the center of the building that came outfitted with their own amenities such as attached bathrooms, sleeping areas and in some cases small kitchenettes. All they had to do was replace the Ancient versions of millennia old beds and linen and it was ready to be moved into, by the happy band of scientists and their military minders. The middle of the building that had served as the Command Center in the past was now alive and reinforced with equal numbers of modern day screens, laptops, computers, power generators, data depositories and whatnot attached to each and every Ancient gadget that was there in the first place. They even had several platforms set up to take apart whatever fancy Ancient tidbit caught their eye.

……….

Carson noted that Dr. Grodin was enthusiastically pawing away at what looked like a mechanical version of a squid, while Dr. Sommers was flitting around taking photos and making increasingly inappropriate noises. She was crooning at it for heaven's sake! He also noted the young Marine- Lt. Ford if Carson recalled correctly- keeping a wary eye on the thing as if it might come alive at some point to eat them. Knowing and having seen the things throughout the years since the discovery of the dreadful Stargate, Carson couldn't blame him.

Of course occupying the place of pride, elevated on its own grand, foot-and a-half high platform complete with its own hidden light source, bathing it in a soft shimmering blue, was the Control chair of the Outpost. That was the point where everything in the place was connected to and could be controlled from; the central nervous system, the Brain of Terra Atlantus. The huge gun metal gray chair with its distinctly alien swirls and curls of carved design looked like a throne. It always rested in an upright position and went into an incline and its vein-like design was flooded with luminescent blue, when it was activated.

Carson hated the thing with a passion. It always gave him a headache when he had to keep his head positioned at the uncomfortable headrest that emitted a buzzing hum, whenever he had to try to activate it. It was unpleasant in the extreme and made it hard to concentrate on whatever Rodney was harping at him to do at any given time. And those pads filled with gel-like substance on the armrests where he had to rest his palms, gave him a squishy feeling. They also made his palms itch like crazy.

He sat on it with a sigh of resignation. Rodney made his way to the nearest monitor that was blinking at him with technical jargon that made no sense to Carson.

"Activate the Chair Carson-Sometime today would be good," McKay snapped at him without turning from his perusal of the scrolling data the monitor had on it.

"Aye Rodney, I'm trying, give me a minute."

Carson closed his eyes and concentrated. Or he tried his best. He thought of his happy place in Scotland, the nice green meadow covered in soft sunlight instead of the cold hard alien metal that was digging into his bum in silent protest.

After what felt like hours but was mere minutes in reality, the Chair gave an almost angry buzzing noise and went into a half-hearted incline. A soft blue light came on surrounding the chair reluctantly, mimicking its occupant.

"Yeah that's right. Now, think about the power management and ask it to run a diagnostic starting from the left wing."

When nothing happened, Rodney abandoned the display he was intent on and came closer to the doctor.

"Come on Carson, concentrate. I have a bad feeling about this and we need to see what is going on. You know this whole place went into a tizzy before we brought that flyboy in. We need to find out if things have gone back to their normal settings. So we need your head in the game Carson, chop chop."

‘Of course, Rodney being his uniquely helpful self is not really helping my concentration in the least.’ The doctor thought sarcastically.

He briefly wondered if Major Sheppard had managed to eat his breakfast. Big mistake! His own stomach chose that moment to remind him loudly that he hadn't eaten yet either.

The monitor attached to the Chair detected a brief flare of power but failed to pinpoint the location it was sent to. It pinged in alarm and Rodney rushed back to the screen with a muttered oath.

"Okay. No, no, no, no… that is not good - Carson what was that? What did you just think at it now?"

"That I was hungry Rodney - I can't think about power management when I'm hungry," Carson snapped back exasperatedly at the scientist whose mutterings were increasing in velocity and sound, as he tried to pinpoint the source of the power surge.

The Chair chose that moment to suddenly go into full incline and half rotate. The soft blue glow emanating from it, brightened briefly. Carson let out a terrified squeak at the sudden movement, but wisely did nothing to move from his position.

Simultaneously, startled shouts and a short scream erupted from the platform, Doctors Grodin and Sommers were working on. Before anyone could even begin to react, the squid they were working on, burst into a bright golden flare and took off in a blink. It went horizontal for a tenth of a second before re-orienting and taking off in a straight vertical line- like the suddenly online guided missile it was. It was through the roof and out of their sight in less than two seconds. Then the hidden door on the roof that had cycled open to let the thing out, swished closed; raining down ice and snow that had come loose at the heated departure of the missile. Impromptu cold showers broke everyone from their frozen states into action.

Rodney cursed loudly as he ran to the nearest emergency alarm and slammed it on. Lt. Ford ran to the telephone near the wall that had the direct line to McMurdo to let them know that there was an airborne bogey with an unknown payload now roaming the sky. Dr. Elizabeth Weir and Dr. Daniel Jackson came running towards the Chair to see what was going on.

"Ah, Elizabeth, talk to him. He just fired an Ancient equivalent of a missile to god knows where. You need to get him to shut it down NOW!" Rodney wailed.

"Sir we have a problem. McMurdo tells me a chopper just took off and on its way here. They are may be 15 minutes out. It's General O'Neill's transport; he is making an unscheduled visit." Pale-faced Lieutenant Ford contributed to the brewing disaster.

"Um, McKay, it took off before we disconnected the power source. I'm 95% sure it's got a miniature ZPM onboard powering it. I don't know if we can shut it off from the Chair now that it's taken off," Dr. Grodin carried the apocalyptic football towards the home stretch.

Inside a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, En Route to Defense Outpost - Antarctica

"Sir, we just got an emergency update from the Outpost. They have an unauthorized missile launch. Destination unknown. We are advised to RTB." The somewhat agitated pilot of the Black Hawk informed General O'Neill who was looking outside from his window.

"It's too late for that now I think, Richardson, We are going to have to duke it out.'" The General observed mildly as he looked at the ominous trail of smoke that was rapidly closing in on them from a distance.

"Try to zigzag and launch some countermeasures. And try to evade it enough so we could land this bird and pray it will just ignore us.” He felt obliged to backseat pilot, since the on duty pilot was looking increasingly worried and a bit lost.

O'Neill idly wondered if this was the first time this kid saw any live action.

'Just my luck', he had time to wonder, 'I'm going to die with a rookie on his first mission in this god forsaken frozen hellhole.'

'Carter had better fry the asshole who is murdering me today.' Thought the General in resigned apathy as he watched the smoke trail getting closer and closer.

#stargate #stargate atlantis #hawaii five 0 #steve mcgarrett #john sheppard #military #adventure #romance #crossover #alternate universe #violence #m/m pairing #wraith #atardecer

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