The White Rabbit Chronicles - Part III

“Is there anything at all in this joint that isn’t spiraling into the abyss?” White Rabbit the Eighteenth demanded. She was pouring over a control panel, sizing up the time gate situation across Iterant Point. The whole scene was devolving past madhouse and straight for freakshow pandemonium.

“Don’t bet on it,” White Rabbit the Twenty-Sixth called back, turning her gun back on whoever was in the hall. Time Peace, Anarakia, it was all the same now. The White Rabbits were marked by any and all warriors still swinging at the end of time.

“Well I hope you know a shortcut, because the Sixth Wing is going up in smoke,” Eighteen replied. Her fingers danced over the switches and dials of the control room. Back in the day, this joint would have worked all the time gates in concert from its place in Alpha Sphere. But now that everything had gone haywire, it had been cleared out. Best it could do for Eighteen was give her the word on how far down the drain Time Peace’s HQ had sank.

“What do you mean?” Twenty-Six questioned incredulously. “We can take some spyders and geeks.”

“It’s Sainne,” Eighteen clarified. “He’s beat us to the punch.”

“Well then we better step it up,” Twenty-Six beat out. But when Eighteen didn’t hop to it, the higher-numbered Rabbit eyed her curiously.

“What’s the deal? Are we on a schedule or not?” she asked.

“Obviously,” Eighteen grunted as she brushed off her counterpart. Slamming down a hand on one of the computers, she tried to rev it up into overdrive. Unfortunately, the binary brick couldn’t write the data any faster. So she grabbed a different knob and got on the horn.

“Attention all Time Peace personnel. Wing 6 of Iterant Point is under attack. The Anarakians are grabbing it to make a rabbit hole. This is maximum priority!”

She flipped off the switch and ignored the hails of “who is this?” which cropped up in response to her call. She didn’t have the authority to boss around the other players here, but if they had any brains, they’d know the gates earmarked for rabbit holes couldn’t be lost. Or they’d just let everything go to pot. It was a coin flip at this point.

Twenty-Six fired at another wannabe invader. “Hey, sister, time to split!” she cried.

“Tell that to this thing,” Eighteen muttered. Piping up so that the other Omega could hear, she said, “A rabbit hole won’t be worth squat without the end times report.”

The computer was still chomping out bits from its various databases. It seemed like it had reverted to its punch-card ancestors as far as speed was concerned. Eighteen ground her teeth, but she hadn’t been exaggerating. The emergency dump Time Peace always kept around for times like these would tell the next meta-timeline what had happened. The ups, the downs, and most importantly, how they in this lurch this time around. And if they had lucked out, one of the cats who had seen the Ashen Phoenix bite it had punched in exactly what had gone down into an emergency console. That might have been one hope too far, but if someone had…

“Jeez Louise!” Twenty-Six exclaimed. “That’s what we’re waiting for?”

She slammed one hand on top of the screen and the other went to yank the drive. Eighteen caught her wrist and looked back, astounded.

“I got us covered,” Twenty-Six went on. “All we need is the Oblixis gambit.”

“What?” Eighteen asked, utterly flabbergasted.

But Twenty-Six’s short stint away from her post turned out to be a chink in their armor. A tear of gunfire spattered the room. Only the distance and reckless aim of the newcomer kept the Rabbits safe from any real harm.

They dove behind cover, stealing a glance at their latest foe. Or foes. It was a whole mess of troopers. But these weren’t run-of-the-mill Anarakians. They were decked out in some kind of armored-up full-body suits which gave off hazmat vibes. The gray outfits made it seem to the Rabbits like they had been penned in by Martians.

But both knew their time in this room was over. The new guys were cramming the hallway with their numbers. Eighteen tightened her grip on her piece. They were Anarakians alright, but these answered to a new player on the scene.

Twenty-Six waved at her, pointing towards another door. So far, it was clear of the new goons. Better take their shot while the taking’s good. Eighteen groped around for the computer and blindly pressed a key sequence. The drive shot out, and she prayed that it had what she needed. If not, they’d be out of luck.

Especially if Twenty-Six was serious.

The two Rabbits beat it, diving for the free doorway as the new Anarakians spilled into the room.

***

Sainne popped another of the pinned Time Peace mechanics. He didn’t spare a second thought to the man – he hadn’t had a chance. Not with the Anarak himself striking from behind and his personal guard kept up the frontal assault. His plan had worked to perfection. And now he ascended the stairs to the little watchtower that would control the time gates embedded into the walls of the great dome of Iterant Point.

As he reached those controls, he noted just how sweet it had been for Time Peace to leave a gate open and primed for him to tunnel back through meta-time. But as his hand twisted the dial to set the destination for the remaining gate, the dial fought back. Sainne’s lips twisted into a frown, and he tried again. A light started blinking furiously, and a warning beep barely pierced the din of battle outside.

“No!” Sainne growled. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. Someone in Alpha Sphere was hijacking his controls – but he had nearly gutted everyone there before leaving. The notion that by sheer chance someone had cut him off was absurd.

But as he peered out the watchtower’s window, he saw that it was too late. The last time gate that had been left in standby to morph into a rabbit hole, started to spin. Its twin rings twirled through each other as they danced in opposite directions. The blue filament denoting a dormant gate was wiped away with one pass, replaced by swirling pink and gold clouds that stopped just short of pouring through the portal’s maw.

But that wasn’t the end. Almost as soon as the rings came to a halt, men started pouring out of it. Men in gray full-body armor. Zhao’s men, Sainne realized in a seething rage. His veins throbbed and he could feel his eyes burn from their usual green to their thirsting red.

Zhao! The other Anarak was making a play for the whole shebang. Sainne knew it at once. His forces were more numerous than any of the other Anarak’s, and more organized, too. And the little backstabber thought that with the Phoenix fallen, he could seize it all.

Sainne’s eyes slowly returned to their original eerie hue. And of all things, a sly grin crept across his face.

This didn’t matter. Zhao’s feeble stab at treachery would be remembered. If he wanted to try to snatch every time gate ripe for the rabbit holing, let him. All Sainne needed was a single slip-up. And he was sure that would come soon enough.

Sainne sauntered down the stairs of the watchtower, and set off towards the next cluster of gates.

***

“We’ve been had!” Twenty-Six shouted.

Eighteen didn’t need to add anything to that. The time gate they had been making for was already open, and more of the new Anarakians were spilling out. They had ditched the control center too soon. They should have shot it up, Eighteen thought. Then shook the idea off. They hadn’t had the time, and it couldn’t just sent the network haywire.

“That’s not the only gate on the block,” Eighteen assured the other Rabbit. “I think Wing Four—”

“Hit the deck!” Twenty-Six interrupted.

The two White Rabbits scrambled for cover as a barrage of bullets washed over their hiding spot. Crawling desperately towards the remains of a control sub-station, Eighteen dared to peek back up towards the emerging army.

At first her blood froze. From another time gate, already active, a new mass of people came spilling out. And then elating hope and sickening horror mixed through her mind in a tumultuous cocktail. It wasn’t Anarakians flooding into Iterant Point, but Thetas – Time Peace soldiers. But no sooner had boot met pavement than the slaughter began.

Machine guns rip-roared to life, chewing through all the flesh they could find. As both Thetas and Anarakians surged down the ramps from their time gates towards the connecting bridge leading into the city-complex, they had clear shots at the other. Twin piles of wasted humanity bulged on the crossroads, growing like a cancerous mass.

A flash of a face froze Eighteen’s veins. Force shot through her, from her brain to her feet, propelling her up and into the open. Or it would have if Twenty-Six hadn’t grabbed her arms and yanked her back down.

“Don’t waste your life!” she shouted to her jumpy twin.

“I know those guys!” Eighteen desperately babbled, unscrewing the lens on her time gauge.

“There’s nothing you can—” Twenty-Six began the hopeless argument.

“When I landed in this meta-timeline, they pulled my butt out of the fire. Time for me to return the favor,” Eighteen insisted, finalizing the assembly of her Crystal Ray.

Twenty-Six relented and let the other Rabbit bound up and out of cover. Eighteen didn’t waste a second. Twisting the dial on her time gauge, she let it rip. Cranking it up to maximum would come back to haunt her, but it got the job done.

A blinding burst of pure white energy exploded from her palm, obliterating everyone in its path. And though it cut a swath through the Anarakian ranks, it wasn’t what she had been aiming for. The brilliant beam slammed into the time gate behind the invaders, annihilating its upper half in an instant. The remaining arcs that had once formed its loops shattered and toppled to the floor. The pink haze that had been the portal turned into a tumult of rapidly shifting hues, dazzling the eyes with venomous beauty. The swirl of acid mist sucked half-formed soldiers into its singularity, and it collapsed into itself with a ghastly sucking gasp, and then it was gone.

But not all of the Anarakians had been caught in the energy inferno. They tried to pick themselves up and carry on the fight, but they were wasted in moments. The Thetas hadn’t missed a beat to take in the spectacle. They burned through the remaining enemy like it was going out of style.

The dust hadn’t settled when Eighteen was bounding towards the Thetas. Twenty-Six darting behind with a much less eager expression.

“Silva!” Eighteen called.

A man with thick black hair and a perpetual scowl turned his iron gaze on the calling Rabbit. Twisting his lip in disdain, he demanded, “Stay where you are!”

Eighteen skidded to a halt halfway to the soldiers. “Captain Silva, we—”

“Save it,” Silva spat, putting one hand on his holstered sidearm. “I’ve heard a lot of chatter coming from here, and I want a report ASAP.”

Eighteen knew better than to press the issue with this man, so she cut straight to the facts, laying out the basics of what had gone down at Iterant Point. When she got to the point about the other Time Peace agents pulling guns on her, the injustice of the situation boiled up, and she couldn’t help but let a little heat seep into her voice.

“So we came looking for a suitable gate, all under fire, sir!” she finished sharply.

“Keep it together, Rabbit,” Silva drawled. “The Phoenix was toying with us, too. But that’s all over, and you’re not out of your mind.”

“Nice to have someone believe me,” Eighteen commented. “Captain, we don’t have time to catch up. We need a rabbit hole.”

Something hit her all of a sudden. “And any info you have about the death of the Phoenix,” she threw on top.

Silva bared his teeth in a facsimile of a smile. “Funny. We’ve got all you could want. Frost! Get over here!”

A marine in his early twenties with dark blonde hair and deep brown eyes jogged up.

“Sir!” an exhausted Kennedy Frost answered the call.

…

END TRANSMISSION