The End of The World

[alderwitch]

The receptionist gave Zoe a dubious look before her gaze shifted to Erin. She waved them to a pair of seats before calling back to the headmaster's office. The girls were forced to wait about twenty minutes before they were shown to the hallway outside Headmaster Summer's office. After another couple of minutes, the door to the headmaster's office opened and one of Erin's fellow students hustled down the hallway, looking about as unsettled as was usual for a meeting with the Headmaster. The door remained ajar for the two girls to file in.

As the last time Erin was in here, the headmaster was seated at his large solid desk and was backlit by the sunlight streaming through the window behind his chair. The light cast the room into stark light and shadows. The high backed chair effectively kept the headmaster in relative darkness while the sunlight lit the students quite well in their chairs.

"Ms. White, you've brought a friend, I see."

[Electra]

Erin was caught off-guard for a moment, having forgotten that she'd probably be called upon to make introductions, at least. She was still trying to figure out what Zoe had meant by the sheep suit comments, and whether she should feel complimented or insulted. Straightening up in the automatic reflex that Summers tended to inspire in her, she said "Um, yes sir. This is Zoe..." She trailed off when she couldn't remember Zoe's last name, or if she'd given one. "She found us when we were out at the library today. We ran into Mystic Force and Ne- ah, Tech Kid trying to hack the library computers, and she helped us out." Fair was fair, and it had been nice to see someone fetch that jerk a solid beating. "She says she's from Claremont in an alternate universe, and she got blown to this one on accident. We said she ought to talk to you first."

[alderwitch]

Headmaster Summers simply slid his impassive gaze over to Zoe and arched a single brow in expectation.

[N/A]

Zöe disappeared as she stepped through the door to the Headmaster's office, reappearing across the room in the chair before his desk. "Wow. Duncan Summers. We haven't actually met. By the time I got into Claremont, you were retired. But I saw a speech you gave at a friend's graduation. It was intense. I could kinda see why my parents were so impressed with you. They told me a bunch of stories about you over the years. The kind of stories that made it sound like you're the only guy in the world I can trust right now. The only guy who can help me."

She reached into the front top pocket of her backpack and withdrew what appeared to be a "smartphone," but slightly longer and wider, much thicker, and not of any brand either Summers or Erin recognized. Then she pulled a newspaper up off his desk. "Need to borrow this for a sec." She glanced up at the clock mounted on the wall. "Time me." She vanished.

The second-hand ticked down three times before Zöe reappeared in her seat. She tossed the newspaper back onto the desk. "Thanks." She pulled the front panel of the phone-like object open. It swung on hinges 180 degrees, clamping shut on the opposite side. The new face appeared to be a trackball-style mouse, surrounded by buttons. She reached into a compartment on the bottom, along the long edge, and pulled out what appeared to be a rolled-up keyboard, made of either foam rubber or thick cloth. When fully extracted, something clicked, fixing it into place. She laid it down on the desk, angled so that Summers and Erin could see, and pressed a button. A holographic image sprang to life, intersecting the edge of the keyboard at a 90 degree angle. The image was translucent at first, but as Zöe slid her finger down across the edge of the keyboard, it darkened until it was completely opaque. It was similar, but not identical, to a desktop in the style of modern graphic-interface operating systems like Windows or Macintosh. The image was clear and crisp, on par with a high-definition television. They realized quickly that it was a computer, but the monitor existed only as projected beams of light.

As she set up the ultra-portable futuristic computer, Zöe continued to address summers. "I've got a story for you. If you have a polygraph machine handy, I don't mind strapping into it. If you've got some sodium pentathol in that desk drawer, go ahead and shoot me up. Take a DNA sample if you want. The important thing is that you believe what I'm about to tell you."

Zöe moved the mouse and clicked a couple of buttons. A picture appeared, dominating the screen. It was a photograph, stamped with the current date and time (minus a few seconds), showing Zöe smiling and holding the newspaper from Summers' desk. Judging from the downward angle and the tourists hugging the coastline in the background, she was also sitting on top of the Sentry Statue.

"How's that old saying go? A picture's worth a thousand words. Especially when the frame won't be invented for another three decades."

[Electra]

"Wait, retired?" Erin blurted out. She was less concerned with the evidence that Zoe could obviously move very fast than with the idea that Duncan Summers, who seemed to be in fine health, would be retired a few universes over. And hearing stories from over the years about him, and that computer thing... "What kind of alternate universe are you from?"

[alderwitch]

"I would say one a few decades in the distant future from ours, Ms. White. I assure you, I have no plans to retire any time soon." Headmaster Summers steepled his fingers together, an odd thread of an amusement in his voice. "I assure you, there's no need for those sorts of theatrics. Not to mention the fact that with your metabolism, a serum would be ineffective and a lie detector would need to be configured to your baseline biorythms and is inaccurate at best. Your explanation - without further demonstrations of your abilities - will be more than sufficient. Thank you."

[N/A]

Zöe shrugged. "Your call. Just remember that I offered." She reached into the same pocket of her pack and slid an ID card out of her wallet. She tossed it into Erin's lap. "Pass it to Mr. Summers when you're done. I want him to keep it."

It vaguely resembled a modern-day drivers license, declaring Zöe a student of the Claremont Academy. But the picture changed every few seconds, cycling through half a dozen different images of Zöe from various angles and distances. As she held it, Erin noticed that certain parts reacted to her touch. The text changed, showing various pull-down menus. The "front page" contained the usual facts, such as height, weight, full name ("Zöe Alexandra Harris"), birthdate (the year caught her eye - "2023"), and address (Erin recognized the zip code - it was a rural area right outside of Freedom City). A few thumb-taps revealed a wealth of other information - a bank/credit account number (which showed a seven-digit balance), medical and dental records, and even her grade-point average (3.75).

"I don't actually think I'm from an alternate Earth. Although that's still possible. I think I'm from this one...just 30 years in the future. When I told this story to your friends, that's the one part I changed. I look enough like Alex that someone even half as smart as her could figure out that we're related. I told her I was her sister so she wouldn't figure out I'm her daughter. I could've just said I was a clone, but that wouldn't explain me crashing the telepathic link she spent 16 years building with Mike. Oh, and he's the father. But the best way to make sure they never hook up and conceive me is to tell them they're supposed to."

"In 2039, the Crime League is gonna hijack a bunch of nukes and hold the world hostage in what's basically the worst Easter-Egg hunt ever. The Freedom League, including Mom and Dad, is gonna find the last one in downtown F.C., and there's gonna be a battle royale over it. Just when it seems like the good guys are gonna save the day, the Atomic Otaku himself shows up. The rest of his bros in the Crime League were bluffing. He wasn't. He kicks the nuke up a notch and then the entire Northeastern seaboard of America falls down and goes 'BOOM!' New England gets wiped off the map."

"As soon as I saw Mom and Dad go down, I beat feet toward Freedom City faster than I ever did before. I got there just in time to watch the nuclear shockwave disintegrate them. I'm running so fast I'm can barely see because it's taking a while for light to catch up to me, the shockwave is about to hit, I throw my arms up and close my eyes, and the next thing I know, I'm in the same exact spot, just in 2009. I see a dork with a plasma sword attacking my mom, and here we are."

"I'm stranded in the past. I've got no money because the account that card's tied to won't exist for another 15 years, nowhere to sleep tonight, and everyone I ever knew is either dead, doesn't know me anymore, hates me, or pick any two out of the three. So I was kinda hoping maybe you could help me. I was wondering what your 'scholarship options' are here. I've already been going to this school for a couple of years now, only not. I had really good grades. And I can use my powers to help out here. Do some work, earn my keep. Anything you need doing, I can get it done fast. Whatta ya say?"

[Electra]

Erin turned the ID card over in her hands, listening as Zoe told her story. It was at once wildly implausible and made far more sense than the one she'd been telling earlier, and the ID card, strange as it was, seemed to corroborate it. They certainly hadn't shared around the location of the brand new headquarters they were setting up, and yet there it was, listed as Zoe's home address. She could even see Mike and Alex eventually settling down there someday. And Zoe... Zoe looked like both of them. Not so much that it couldn't possibly be a coincidence, but it was a good likeness, nonetheless. That, the ID, the computer, it all led to a scenario that could have been crafted together, but what would've been the point, going to such a ridiculous amount of effort to fool them? And then there was the mental link, which seemed harder to foil... Maybe Erin didn't want to believe it, but she was finding less wiggle room for doubt as Zoe talked.

But to believe part of Zoe's story didn't make the rest of it any easier to swallow, or to want to believe. Thirty years, and that was it? Freedom City gone, the eastern seaboard gone, Alex and Mike and maybe whoever else from the school had made it that long, all gone in a single stupid act of violence? Erin had seen too much to disbelieve that it could happen, but that didn't mean she wanted to. Watching Zoe tell it a second time seemed less like an act and more like she was rushing through it as fast as she could, ass though it couldn't hurt if the words were said faster than she could think about them. Maybe it helped a little. Erin passed the ID card to the headmaster and knotted her hands into fists in her lap, keeping her own counsel for the moment as she tried to figure it all out.

[alderwitch]

Headmaster Summers lightly tapped his forefingers together and nodded for Erin to set the card on his desk. Once Zoe had finished speaking, he finally turned his attention from her and curisorily flipped through the screens of the card. Once he'd finished, he slipped the id into his desk, "I think it is best if I hold onto it for the moment. If you find you need it, just let me know. We have a place in the school for things like this."

He pinned a thoughtful gaze on Zoe, "Fortunately, unlike most schools, we are prepared for this sort of eventuality. Ms. White, if you could show - well, we can't call you Ms. Harris. You'll need to think up a name that you'll use if you want to keep that secret. If you could show Zoe to Ms. Ramirez, she'll get you started on the paperwork."

Standing up, he reached for a cane and came around the desk with a noticible limp. "We are fortunate in that we do have quite a bit of community support. It allows the school to be generous in cases like this. I can see that you are used to doing everything quickly but I strongly suggest that you take a moment to let everything absorb in. If you always run from things, you'll find they catch up to you at the worst possible moments. :bat: "

He settled one solid hand on Zoe's shoulder, before he showed the two girls out. Ms. Ramirez already had a stack of paperwork prepared, as if she'd been prepared ahead of time for a new student. It was, of course, possible that they were always prepared for the odd super-powered emergencies and a new term was just starting.

As the door closed behind them, Duncan Summers took out a small disk from his pocket and let the message play once more to make certain that he'd forgotten nothing. He hadn't. With an amused chuckle, he returned to his desk. Running the school was many things, but it was never boring.