Blue Monday

Interlude 8 - This Organism And Derivative Genetic Material

Inside the security office at the Blue Monday base, Darla Snow sat in a swivel chair, staring intensely at the door. Juliet was doing the same thing. Luca and Paul were standing, but also staring at the door like it could blow up at any moment. Juliet reflected that because Luca was a fire elemental, the door probably would spontaneously combust if he stared at it long enough.

Aron, for his part, was trying to distract everyone else by occupying the office's third swivel chair and spinning around in it repeatedly. It wasn't like there was anything else to do - Russell would have been explaining the next stage of the plan, if not for the fact that he'd been called aside for some other urgent business in the Second Universe.

Until then, there was nothing for them to do but stew in the security office. Luckily, one of the minions of the guy who ran this place - Ms. Snow said it was her ex-boyfriend, who would have been Alex and Gabe's father if not for the fact that he'd left on her - was secretly working with Russell and his sister, so he kept providing them with food, water, and Kool-Aid Jammers (of which this place had a surprisingly large supply, especially of blue raspberry and green apple flavors) every few hours. He had to bring a large amount of the stuff, especially because there were three teenage boys in the room, one of whom had just begun puberty in earnest and therefore needed the most calories.

Finally, Ms. Snow was the first one to snap after several hours of waiting for nothing. "Dammit, where are the guns?" she grumbled, rifling through drawer after drawer in the office's one desk.

"Guns?" Luca repeated.

"What makes you so sure there'll be guns?" Paul asked.

"It's a security office," Ms. Snow said, slamming a drawer shut. "There's gotta be guns in here. This is America, right?" She paused before opening another drawer. "Well, not the same America we know, but close enough." She pulled a small ring of keys out of the drawer, then looked around the room, wondering what it could possibly open.

"I'm pretty sure this America doesn't approve of crazy genetic experiments either," Juliet said. "Like Project Red Rain. For instance."

"Exactly," said Aron. "Next thing you know, they'll have created their own Breaker soldiers and slapped a patent on the DNA. Like Orphan Black."

"I thought Mom said you weren't supposed to watch that show," Paul said.

"As a mom, believe me, telling your kid they're not supposed to watch a show is the most surefire way to get them to watch it," said Ms. Snow as she fingered the keys absently. "I learned that the hard way with Gabe and The Following. Also with Alex and Game of Thrones, American Horror Story, Walking Dead, Hannibal...the list goes on."

"So what do you think they're doing in the Second Universe?" asked Luca. "Don't tell me - Alex and Gabe got there, now they're stuck and they need help getting out?"

"Don't even kid about shit like that," Ms. Snow groaned. "Those are my boys you're talking about."

"I'm not even joking," Luca said. "They're my friends. They're all of our friends," he added, gesturing around to all the other adolescents in the room.

"I'm not even sure you got the right grammar in there," Juliet said, "but I get your point."

Ms. Snow looked around the room one more time, then found what she was looking for. A locked cabinet sat half-hidden behind the side of the desk, facing the back of the office. She bent down and unlocked it with one of the keys she'd just found. "Aha," she said, swinging the door wide open and resurfacing with a small, but still valuable, treasure trove of police-style pistols. "Any of you know how to use these?"

Aron grinned at Ms. Snow. "If you've seen enough action movies, then yeah, you do." He reached for the gun Ms. Snow was holding out, but she pulled it back.

"I'm not gonna have you turn into a child soldier on my watch," Ms. Snow said.

"Um...well, you were probably gonna give Luca a gun, weren't you?" Aron countered. "He's underage too!"

"That's different-"

"Besides, thanks to our dad being in the military and all, Paul and I have used guns before," Aron said, glaring at Ms. Snow. "Trust me, we're the best marksmen in this room."

Ms. Snow gaped at Aron for a moment, then overrode her maternal instincts. "Fine," she said, handing Aron the gun. "Paul, you can have one too, and I'll take the third."

"There aren't any more?" Juliet asked.

"I got my fire elemental," Luca said. "And you got air, so we can do the Flamethrower if we need to."

Everyone grinned except Ms. Snow. "What's the Flamethrower?" she asked.

"It's a trick we do in PE sometimes at Balthazar," Paul said. "Whenever we play capture-the-flag, air elementals make a gust of wind, and fire elementals add their flames to it. It's a pretty devastating attack."

"Do people get put in the hospital because of it?"

"Every damn day," Paul said.

"I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not," Ms. Snow said. "I can see now why you'd be friends with my boys."

"He was, if you were wondering," said Aron. "Being sarcastic, I mean."

"Whatever," said Ms. Snow. "Luca, Juliet, you two go in front. The Flamethrower's gonna be our first line of defense." She made to open the front door, but it was locked - until she used another key on it. "Get ready, kids," she said, her hand on the doorknob.

"Wait, where are we going?" Juliet asked.

"To Ross' office," said Ms. Snow. "I saw the sign for it on the way here. We'll either ambush him there, or we'll just sit and wait for him to walk into our trap." She opened the door - and almost slammed it into the faces of two waiting guards.

"Hey!" one guard yelled. "Who are you?"

Rather than answer, Luca and Juliet did the Flamethrower on the guy, causing him to fall to the ground, screaming in pain.

"Thisway!" yelled Ms. Snow, pointing her gun in the direction of Ross Whelan'soffice.