General makepeace felt the countdown tick away with every beat of his heart.
This was... a personal failure.
Protocol zero was standard procedure in any place that could not be completely secured, if it should fall into enemy hands. That they had made so many advances that national security could be at stake, if any of their enemies got it...
There was always going to be a chance that a person of great power, might suddenly end up in their base via the portal... or indeed, just because of a strange transformation. It was hoped that diplomacy and reason could work, but the angel was quite... unreasonable.
If Lucas wanted the base... she could have it. After it was destroyed.
The general looked at his computer pad, as the signal of each person was shown to be gone from the base. Gone... into the portal. It was just himself, and Lucas now.
"Five minutes to go," he thought to himself. He was right next to the bomb that would take out the entire facility and all their research.
So... impending death, what should he do that could last about five minutes? Smoke a cigarette? He didn't really bring any with him and he didn't smoke anyway. He didn't have much except his phone and military digital pad. It was showing the countdown to destruction of the base.
He used the smart phone to play a little classical music. Though the only thing he had on it at the moment, was swan lake. Sent to him, from his daughter. He was not really a person that would go to the ballet, and always put it off... but when his daughter realised she was named Juliet, they saw a few plays... and Swan Lake was to be the next one. He never got around to it though. "Might as well play it now," he said to himself as the haunting tones of the song echoed in the metallic corridor. He was intrigued at how beautiful it sounded... serene, and... yes, peaceful.
His phone showed his daughter's picture as the music played. She was a pretty girl, with medium blond hair. She was around sixteen years of age now, though Makepeace missed a lot of her growing up with the job he had. He regretted that a lot. The one thing he would regret after doing this. "Juliet," he said quietly. "I wont let her hurt you," he vowed. He had served protecting his country- his family from all enemies... within and without. If this was the only way...
...Lucas was a hero though, wasn't she? his voice said inside his head.
"She compromised my base, bullied my men, threatened my daughter, and is about to give all our M-tech to the enemy. she is not any hero I have ever heard of... I'll be damned if I let it happen." He couldn't let it happen. Maybe this was the final result of the magic? To destroy the last military arm that knew of Jen and the magic stone. Once they were gone... there would be nobody else.
With the chrono field in place... you don't know what will happen with an explosion. If time starts to loop, you could be caught in the explosion over.. and over.. and over. Eternally, until the universe ends... if it ever will.
"... so would Lucas..." thought the general. If the worst case scenario did play out... well... it was his job to sacrifice himself for the good of Earth.
"Lucas. What exactly is going on?"
"Ah! Nate! How goes? Let me guess. The soldiers called you in because they somehow assumed you were the fed with the leash?" - Asked Lucas, congenially.
"No. The government sent me in because someone had activated our base's self-destruct sequence and I can move through dimensions with the shadows. I don't think you activated the sequence, because you don't seem to be the type. But you certainly do seem to have elicited that reaction from them..."
"Oh, they did, did they?" - Asked Lucas, crossly - "Discounting the fact that I can leave this place when I feel like it, Nate, do me a favor and take a quick look at these files."
Hawkins did. Then sighed.
"Cecilia is aborting the self-destruct sequence as we speak. Lucas, I want you to understand something. You actually managed to get these people to become desperate enough to want to kill you, even though they know who you are and know you helped saved the world. Self-destruct commands usually cannot be rescinded. They were willing to destroy the entire base if it meant harming you and they were willing to destroy the entire base even though it would cost untold amounts of money, manpower and research. More to the point, the explosion might well become a self-contained time loop, Lucas, one you would not escape. You would spend the rest of eternity feeling the same explosion time and again. This is how far you pushed them."
"Cool. They deserved it." - Said Lucas, dismissively - "Hawkins, do you have any idea how creepy and invasive it is to be spied on when you're not a fucking criminal?"
"Lucas, are you aware of what I just said? THey would have killed you time and again and you might well be none the wiser until it was too late. The General disabled the self-destruct warning." - Said Hawkins.
"And I'll have a decent meltdown over how close I was to a horrible death after I finish being pissed at those goons for violating my privacy and that of a bunch of other much better people than them, Hawkins. I want some heads to roll over this!" - Lucas answered.
She's blinded by rage and, worse, she knows she's blinded by rage. - Thought Hawkins - Makes sense. Everything she despises happening all at once...
Self-destruct sequence aborted. - Said a voice.
Hawkins proceeded to type a few commands on a computer, seeing that all who remained in the base were the general and Lucas herself, besides him.
"Believe me, Lucas, I had no idea this was happening and I would have stopped it if I did."
"I know." - Said Lucas - "I trust you, Hawkins. But General Holy Fuck My Codename Is Ironic is another story."
Hawkins groaned inwardly.
Military people breaking all kinds of rules in front of Lucas of all people. Why can't it ever go smoothly?
"You mean Makepeace." - Said Hawkins - "It's time, I think, the three of us had a chat. Come through the shadow, will you?"
Lucas followed Hawkins and the two of them were facing the general.
"Agent Hawkins." - Said the general - "So, they sent you."
"Agent Pennsbrook already aborted the self-destruct sequence, General. So, now. What exactly is going on?"
"She walked in, under the pretense of offering help. She learned some things about how we obtained the technology for the base. She went crazy and she took over, with my daughter as a hostage." - Said the general.
"You were SPYING ON ME, you son of a bitch! And on my communications with MY CLIENTS!" - Shouted Lucas - "I'm a professional! I have my confidentiality and I'll keep it if I have to undo your fucking birth!"
"You threatened my daughter!" - Said the general - "Do you even KNOW what this research will do?"
"FUCK what this research will do, it's NOT MOTHERFUCKING YOURS! You threatened someone else's daughter! I don't see you complaining about THAT!" - Answered Lucas.
"Enough." - Said Hawkins, the room getting a bit darker - "Lucas. Is it true you were threatening his daughter?"
Lucas shrugged - "I'd not ACTUALLY touch a hair on her head, but yeah, I did. Lilly is someone else's daughter as well. So is Jen. I don't see him having compunctions about harming THEM in real life to get what he wanted!"
"Lucas." - Said Hawkins, evenly - "The military in your country, during the Dictatorship, would often resort to telling the dissidents they knew where their children studied and other such methods. It's called psychological torture."
Lucas looked at Hawkins, silently. Almost contrite.
Hawkins shot the general a look.
"And you, General Makepeace, were subverting all principles that make America and even the other decent countries work as they should in your thirst for more technology. Moreover, you were using the military to spy on Lucas's friends and on Lucas herself, a person who you knew beforehand would be utterly infuriated if she realized this. What did you think her reaction would be once she found out? Furthermore, you were rewarding the people that saved the world time and again by spying on them, stealing from them and nearly killing them, under the guise of keeping your country safe. If that's how you treat heroes and if you consider yourself one, what treatment do you think you should get?"
"A hero? She just waltzed in and claimed she was couping me out of the base!"
"I could go to the media about it and have you court-martialed instead if you like, general! Need I remind you that you tried to harm people I care about? That you sent your grunts in MY COUNTRY? I saved the world, you asshole, some three times over! What the fuck did you do to earn those little medals on your chest besides wanton murder?"
General Makepeace pointed to a specific medal on his chest - "This one is from when I prevented a hidden nuke from going off in Kabul." - And another - "And this one is from when I led people that freed an entire province from fundamentalist anti-changed rule."
Hawkins sighed and darkened the room again.
"Gentlemen... General. The fact of the matter is Lucas did do heroic things and so did Lilly. A thing you were briefed on and you were rewarding by spying on them. Is that honorable?"
"That technology could save millions..." - Said the general.
"Is. That. Honorable?" - Asked Hawkins, again.
"...no."
Hawkins nodded.
"I will talk to Lilly about the technology and about how it mixes with other technologies. Permission to use it and under what conditions will be her decision. Likewise, she will be handsomely paid if she does decide to let us use it." - He said.
"Put it all online." - Said Lucas.
"Lucas, no matter what you think of General Makepeace, do you think he's the worst there is? Consider what other people could do with that technology."
Lucas groaned.
"Ugh... Fine. But you guys have to use it WELL."
"There is still the matter of the base." - Said the General - "Who commands it?"
"Lucas. General Makepeace is a genuinely competent person and, though you may not believe it or even have much reason to think so right now, his heart is in the right place." - Said Hawkins - "I leave it up to you."
Lucas sighed.
"Fine. He can have the base. It doesn't match my furniture anyways. But I still get to punish him."
"Do whatever you want to me, angel." - Said the general - "What will it be? Blinding me? Chopping an arm off? Or OOOOOOOOPH!!!"
Click. Flash.
"Excalibur changed into Number Five golf club to the nuts, plus cell phone photo of the face right afterwards. Yeah, that's going online. So, let's go through the portal and find your pawns, shall we? Hawkins, you man the base for now..." - Lucas stepped through as the general did a fairly decent job of recovering.
Hawkins sighed inwardly.
At least they are on speaking terms now. Mostly.
