by TheTimeTrust
The huge oak door closed behind them as the heroes fled the Castle of Crossed Destinies.
Tempus of the Time Trust, having disappeared from view since presenting them with the choice of doorways, became visible for a moment. "You have chosen... wisely," he said to no one in particular, and turned around expectantly, as if waiting for others.
The counter above the doors now said 2:34... 2:33... 2:32... 2:31... 2: 30... 2:29...
Several doors opened up, and through them walked four haggard-looking characters, half of the enemies that the La Perdita-based team had just fought. Just as these enemies were looking up at the doors that said A and B, too tired to think of which one to take, door A -- the one the MBL Consulting agents had taken -- vanished, leaving only door B, no choice at all for them.
Dr. Zachary Knell, Aurochs, Blue Scorpion, and Red Scorpion walked reluctantly together toward the door and pushed it open, all of them cursing silently for being manipulated by this Mr. Smith with the promise of revenge and reward. Half of them vowed to themselves that they would be back. They would have their revenge. The other half remained silent and just wanted to get away from this place of defeat. K'tl, Mr. Smith, Ma Kalunga, and Zveidi were missing, having made their escape by other means. None of them walking through door B knew where this was leading them, but it was likely to leave them far away from their enemies, somehow. Good. That would give some of them time to make their plans, plans that could not fail the next time.
The door closed behind them. And it vanished, just as the other one had.
Tempus remained behind, and the old, white-bearded man known only as the Caretaker emerged from the Castle. He waved a greeting at the talos, the artificial man.
"Thank you," the Caretaker said. "Thank you for evacuating the Castle in time. As you know, we..."
"No need to explain," said Tempus, wearing a smile calculated to display a look of understanding and sympathy. "I know that the long-planned courtship will begin soon."
The Caretaker smiled gently in response, and the two waited until the counter ran down to zero. The Castle of Crossed Destinies, along with the Caretaker, then vanished from the sight of Tempus, who alone remained in the shapeless void.
Was the Castle gone forever? No. It would always exist and always had. But it had been greatly abused of late. It was time for it to disappear for a while and make itself inaccessible until the time it was destined to appear again. Such was the nature of the Castle of Crossed Destinies.
Tempus remained only a moment longer and then vanished to return to his appointed place, his current mission over.
If the heroes of MBL Consulting had been expecting a crowd of cheering fans upon their return to their own realm and La Perdita itself, they would have been sorely mistaken. The fact was that they were all too exhausted to even think about such things.
And so, the whole group hiked down the mountain (they weren't very high up), past the destroyed remains of their van, and walked into town toward their apartment. Even Tobias Christopher trudged along slowly. They were all used to strange things happening without explanation. Thus, those who hadn't already been told didn't bother asking who this tall blond guy was who now traveled with them as if he were already a teammate of theirs. And those who didn't know what had happened to them didn't even think about where Naecken or Pete Glover were.
The team were within one block of their apartment building when they noticed people pointing up to the sky.
Looking up, they saw what the Perditians were seeing: seven small figures flying as if in formation like a flock of birds, the largest at the head, and two rows of three behind him in a V-shape. Behind them the last rays of the sun shone brilliantly against the ever-receding storm clouds. A rainbow topped off the effect, reaching, it seemed, from one side of La Perdita to the other. It was magnificent.
The people on the street began getting excited, and shouts could be heard among the murmuring.
"Hey, it's the PSI-Unit!" a restaurant owner said while stepping outside to bring in the sandwich-board he used for advertising at the sidewalk's corner.
"Look, Mommy! I wanna be just like them!" a little boy said as he rode in a grocery-laden shopping cart pushed by his mother.
"That Devlin is soooo cute!" one teenage girl said to her friend, who giggled knowingly.
"Cool!" a couple of neighborhood kids said as if in stereo.
Several cries of appreciation could be heard, until finally the crowd started cheering and clapping as the PSI-Unit flew slowly by and waved at everyone as they did so. These were their heroes. And somehow the people knew, now that the storm was over and the feeling of dread that had gripped the island had gone, that they had saved La Perdita once again!
The MBL Consulting operatives went completely ignored, except for a few wary glances thrown toward the strange assembly, particularly the skull-faced Grimm, who was understandably quite scary-looking to most.
"Well, how do you like that?" Lance Lorenzo said. "We almost got our asses blown off back there, but we're getting the cold shoulder, while THEY get all the glory!"
"Ehh... whaddaya gonna do?" said Mick Harrison, his other self M'xy having already spoken Mick's name, thus returning his body to him again. Mick was more interested in having his own little reunion celebration with his girlfriend, Shirley Francis.
The group walked up the front steps of the fourteen-story apartment building at 56 Oakwood Avenue (where, during the time they were gone, Kit Piper had brought in some repairmen to repair all the damage that had earlier been done) and breathed a sigh of relief as they did so. None of them said a word to each other as they each went to their own apartment or place of rest and had a much-needed nap.
Any unfinished business could wait until tomorrow.
The End