Universal Inconstants

Chapter 22

"It's done. Now all we have to do is finish this," Kenny said, lifting a small USB drive into the air triumphantly. 

The others looked hopeful. 

Tolkien looked terrified.

"It's... Not that simple," he said. "It's risky. Whoever takes it with them could die."

The room went silent, but Kenny quickly spoke up. "I'll go," he said, plain and simple.

Immediately, Butters responded. "B-but Ken, you could get real hurt..."

"Y-yeah, let me- AGH- let me go," Tweek said quickly, and Craig blinked at him with a frown.

Stan spoke up as well. "No, I want to do this. I've got to do something to save Kyle, other than sit here," he said, determined and angry.

But Kenny shook his head. "No. I'm going. You guys..." He sighs. "If you die, you're gone. I can come back. This is what I was made for, to take risks that no one else should. Plus, it's not like I haven't died before," he pointed out. 

"It needs to be me."

He was right. Everyone else knew that.

Kenny pulled his hood back up onto his head, having previously pulled it down. "Tolkien's going to activate the kill code once I get there and insert the drive. Just... be ready if something goes wrong," he said, and the others hesitantly nodded. 

He smiled gently at Butters, moving a hand to cup his face reassuringly. 

"I promise it'll be okay, Cupcake... I'll just wake up in my bed again, alright? Just come meet me there when it's all over," he stated softly, and Butters nodded with worry in his eyes.

Then, Mysterion turned and ran out of the basement, moving to the front door but finding it jammed shut as crab people finally poured into the yard and clambered at the door, trying to break in. 

Quickly he ran to the back door and slid it open, running to the fence and jumping right over it. 

Then, he bolted toward Dr. Mephesto's lab as fast as possible.

But still yet there were obstacles to overcome. While Kenny rushed in the direction of the lab, Tolkien received some unfortunate news that caused a panic. While he sat there, anxiously waiting for Kenny to reach the machine, he received an alert. It popped up on the tv that hung by the stairs, flashing that something was going down as if there wasn't an apocalypse happening. 

Tolkien quickly moved to look at it and gasped as a live camera feed at the phone tower popped up. The crab people were trying to take it down.

Immediately he got Kenny on the line. "Kenny, we have a huge problem. How much longer until you're at the cave entrance?" He asked.

Breathlessly, Kenny replied, "five minutes, depending on the traffic."

Tolkien sighed, but then took in a breath and looked back at the tv. 

Stan quickly spoke up. "It's not going to hold for that long," he said. "The infrastructure's too weak to hold that many crabs. We have four minutes at most."

Kenny stopped running for a moment to think. 

Suddenly he got an idea. "Call Cartman," he replied quickly. "And put me through to him."

Tolkien blinked, but they were running out of time. Quickly he turned back to the computer and pulled up facetime, calling Cartman.

Three minutes left.

The Freedom Pals stared in anticipation as they waited for Cartman to pick up. 

And he did. He looked extremely confused, but he picked up.