NOVEL NEXT Loop 257 - Part 2
“Cal, you haven’t said anything in a while. Usually, you are full of interruptions,” Andrew said. He had just finished explaining everything they knew about the last two loops as well as everything they were reasonably sure about.
The reason Cal had gone so silent was the all-encompassing rage that had settled into his brain that Andrew did not remotely deserve directed at him. The man had done a phenomenal job with the resources he had available, beyond what Cal would have thought the man could handle, so now was not at all the time to explode at him. He hit his tongue just hard enough to use the pain to anchor his rage before he finally spoke. “I’m angry in a way that I don’t think I have ever been angry before. After everything we’ve been through, we have to fight our own people in order to save the world. Our friends and family are being tortured by them all because they had the misfortune of being connected to what happened to us. I don’t know that I can have a clear mind on what exactly we need to do here.”
“I understand, at least somewhat. I probably wouldn’t at the start of our loops, but I do now, and I’m not sure I can tell you the next move with any better clarity. Some of them are loop-aware, and attempting to replicate what happened to Onelder seems like a terrible idea, so we are stuck with them. That means we have to hurt them so badly that they are afraid of doing anything like this ever again. We have to find leverage,” Andrew responded with emotion Cal wasn’t used to seeing on the man’s face.
“Do you know how Bug and Dad are doing?” Cal asked, trying to redirect the topic.
“They should be fine. I believe you were all under the influence of some powerful drugs that more or less kept you comatose, and it looks like strong mental effects can have a bit of a lasting influence loop to loop. Gus is getting together some mana fruit that should help wake them up,” Andrew responded.
“Good. The second they are awake and caught up, I want them in the situation room. Reestablishing contact with Harold will be one of the biggest goals, and yeah, I had already figured that out a bit, though I hadn’t wanted to experiment with it,” Cal said. He wasn’t all together yet himself. His head still felt off from whatever they had done to him.
“Alright, try to get some more rest. Libby will need some of your energy for the root network when you are ready; they think it can be moved to a self-perpetuating system instead of relying on Ethel or Excalibur,” Andrew said as he left the room.
Cal slumped back down onto his pillow. He didn’t think the Agency had just used conventional drugs on them. He felt too drained for that. Somehow, they had found a way to drain his core actively for years, and the thought of what they had been using his energies for was a big part of the rage he couldn’t lock down. So, instead of fighting, he forced himself to fall asleep to fantasies of the rampage he would soon go on.
***
It took them two weeks to fully recover. Bug had managed it first. She assumed it was because her powers weren’t anything the Agency would have been able to tap into and, therefore, they couldn’t drain them, but once she was recovered, she was able to with the help of the other two dogs speed up Stan and Cal’s recovery and they were all now gathered in the situation room loudly debating the next course of action.
“I know I’m usually the voice of reason here, be nice to people, don’t hurt my friends, but they took Ethel, and she’s one of my best friends and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, we have to make them hurt for that,” Bug said to the growing calls for attacking the Agency.
“Frank will rip their heads off!” the tree man yelled, his anger and sadness finally boiling over.
“Hey, everyone, I know you are all angry, but I need you to sit down and listen. Unless we work through this as calmly as we can, you won’t get a chance to channel that anger at who really deserves it,” said one of the only calm voices in the room. It belonged to Serilina, Cal, and Andrew, who had both asked to moderate the meeting. Since she had some of the least ties to what was going on, they hoped she would have some of the best control of her emotions.
“Serilina is right. As much as I want to grab Excalibur and storm their building, which, to be very clear, will be happening eventually, we need to make sure we have some sort of plan in place. We can’t fight a war without tactics, and while complete chaos is its own form of tactics, they won’t work as well when we are at this kind of information disadvantage. As strange as it may sound, I learned a lot leading a squirrel nation on Pluto, so let’s put that to use in saving our friends and family,” Stan added in his booming voice.
“We have several things we need to work on. First up, Libby is working on the root network. They have already managed to separate Excalibur from needing to power it. Libby thinks it’s possible, given enough time, they may be able to expand it to grabbing people as well as animals. This could be a sizeable potential blow to the Agency. Let’s not forget we also have more resources than they do. As far as we know, and we have no reason to believe otherwise, their sphere of influence is confined only to Earth. We currently have access to several other planets as well as the Under Library to draw on for resources. We have Harold currently on Earth, likely working to gather intel, and we need to reestablish contact with him. Finally we need to establish a new gateway to Earth without the Agency ever learning the location. This one is likely the first thing we have to accomplish. I need ideas, people,” Cal said. As he spoke, he walked around the room, surveying what they had for an army.
“Let’s go see the frog, and I’ll have my ship pick a couple of us up; we can use that to get back here, disappear ourselves for a bit, and make a new gateway,” Twonger, surprisingly, was the first to shout an idea.
“Any objections?” Serilina asked the crowd.
While no one objected to the plan, Excalibur had his own request. “I wish to join this mission, I must speak to my former wielder.”
“Guess I’m in then. Who else?” Stan followed.
“I want Scrump and two of the dogs, up to you guys who goes and who stays, but we need to stay a bit under the radar for now. Once we are on Earth, I want Twonger to head back to Glurm’s and use that gateway to return,” Cal explained.
“Well, looks like we have a plan then, any questions?” Serilina asked the room. She was met with a combination of silence and both harsh and eager glares. Everyone was well past ready for some payback.