Nova stepped into the grand throne room of Lady Echidna, taking a moment to bow. Behind him was the small legion of his best warriors.
Lady Echidna, seated upon her throne, looked into a beautiful mirror. “You return far earlier than I expected. Tell me you were more efficient than I believed possible.” She smiled at her own reflection.
Nova stopped in front of her and knelt down on one knee, and bowed his head. “We found the tomb of the Hydra, but it wasn’t there.”
She gazed upon her own beauty for a moment before slowly lowering the mirror. “How is this possible, my pet?”
“I don’t know. I had my men search every inch of the tomb. There was no sign of the Sapphire Eye.”
“Pity.” She set down the mirror and gracefully stood. “You still recall all of BADGE’s activity before I cleansed you?”
“Yes, My Lady.”
“Did BADGE ever recover the Sapphire Eye?”
“The Tomb was never discovered.”
She walked past him toward one of the four walls. On the surface was a relief carved into the stone of Fenrir. They had placed the red glowing stone in the eye of the relief. “I need all four if we wish to return to our rightful world.”
Nova stood, brushing off his five thousand dollar slacks. “There was one interesting thing about the tomb of the Hydra.”
“Don’t keep it a secret.” She turned back to him.
“The tomb itself was untouched. When we opened it, it set off a powerful magical spell that stirred the ocean so much that it activated BADGE’s ATLAS defenders.”
Her cool demeanor broke slightly. “Spell? You mean something one of those nasty little Vexillians placed?”
He shook his head, “No, my sweet. It was no simple Vexillian spell. This was far more powerful. It was a tiny seal on the tomb and yet it nearly destroyed New Zealand.”
“Did the island survive the torrent?”
He nodded.
“Too bad. This raises a big concern. We may have a third party in our little game, one that has a high stake in our failure.”
Nova frowned, “You don’t think it could be...”
She nodded. “It has to be. Who else would even know of the hydra and try to seal the tomb?”
Nova looked at the relief on the next wall of the multi-headed hydra. “If they have taken it back to Yohan, then we cannot hope to proceed.”
“Don’t be foolish. They would never take a cursed object back to their pristine little world of magic. It has been hidden here, in this world. And I suspect it was hidden recently.”
“Why? It has been buried for over two thousand years. It could have been moved any time over these centuries.”
She laughed and walked back to her throne. “No. If they had come seeking it before now, they would have contacted you while you were this world’s defender. With your noble heart, you would’ve helped them, as you did with the Eye of Fenrir. They would also have sought the others, such as the Eye of Fenrir, and yet it was exactly where your friend hid it. No, our enemy felt the power of the battle with Fenrir and it alerted them to the danger. It is the only logical conclusion.”
Nova asked, “What do we do? How do I find the Eye of the Hydra?”
She turned and sat down. “If it has been taken, it was taken for a reason. They either know what we are doing, or simply know they must keep the eye from us.”
Nova said, “Then, we look for it.”
“Of course. But the problem is, they know we are actively seeking it. Thus, they’ll be waiting for us. The heroes of this world proved their determination by defeating both the shadow of Krampus and the shadow of Fenrir. I don’t want another major confrontation until I am ready. We must approach this differently.”
“So, what do you propose we do, my lady?”
With a wicked laugh in her chest and a daring gaze in her eyes, she said, “If someone from our former world is here, then they have crossed The Great Divide and opened a portal. Even if they have returned, the portals aren’t so quick to close. Perhaps we can use that to concoct a distraction.”
“What sort of distraction? You know we cannot return yet, they...”
“I’m well aware of our banishment!” she snapped at him. “No, we won’t try to go through. Only when we have all four eyes can we hope to fully return. However, we can cause havoc, which will buy us time.”
Justin stood in the middle of the Operations center, right where Nova normally stood. With a stoic gaze, he watched the monitor in front of him. Small windows were open to display the ongoing repair and aid to the flooded areas. Other screens displayed readings and charts for daily processing.
Chase walked into the room with a tablet in her hand. “We have triple scanned the area and worked out the metrics. Looks like everything is back to normal.”
Justin took the tablet and glanced at it. “Any indication this is connected to our clue?”
She shook her head. “We can’t find any evidence that these floods were part of that strange water drop gem Nova left in Midgard after the Fenrir event.”
“It can’t be coincidence.” Justin stated and slapped the tablet back in her hands. “Tell our teams to keep looking.” He walked away, heading for the office.
“Stop right there,” Chase demanded.
Justin paused and turned with a deadly stare. “What?”
“Don’t try to scare me with an intimidating gaze. You’re acting rude and short with everyone. What’s up?”
“I’m doing my job, and I hope you will find the time to do yours... which does not include psychoanalyzing your commanding officer. Get to work.” He left her for his office.
Letting herself cool off, Chase turned to the nearest robot. “Get me Krystal Fae.”
The robot connected the comm lines. A small window opened on the monitors and Krystal looked at her from an outdoor location. “Krystal here.”
Chase said, “I need you to take the team back to the Tasman Sea and check it again for any connection between the Lady Echidna situation and these floods.”
“We scanned the area with every available power and sensor and found nothing of worth.”
Chase said, “Get all our aquatic people on it. Look over the ocean floor again and find something to either prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is not connected, or find the connection. Justin won’t be satisfied with anything less.”
“I’ll get our people on it.” Krystal cut off the comm channel.
Gar walked into Operations from the main meeting room. Strange Quark was with him, drinking Tennessee Moonshine from a bottle using a crazy straw.
Chase asked, “How did the meeting go?”
Gar smiled. “It went well. The Prime Ministers of both Australia and New Zealand were very happy with our work and the people are happy as well.”
Quark finished a rather long drink and then said, “Yeah, they want to list all the heroes’ names who helped stop the floods. I told them we couldn’t give out all the names, some are secret. I suggested they just give BADGE and their local leagues, a big thank you. That’ll be good enough.”
“I’m fine with that,” Chase said.
Gar frowned. “What does Director Justin have to say?”
“He is not in a good mood... “
“Still?” Quark asked.
“Yeah, he’s not himself. But I’m sure he’ll be fine with your suggestion.” She picked up the command tablet. “Gar, I want you to take Operations for a while. I have to go do something.”
“Okay.” He accepted the tablet.
Quark grabbed her arm as she started to leave. “Hey, you don’t sound like you’re heading for a potty break. Where are you going?”
“I need answers.” She said.
Quark shook his head. “You aren’t going to try to connect with that water drop thing again.”
“I have to try.” She protested by pulling away from his grip. “Nova is still missing and in more danger than any of us want to believe. Justin is growing angrier by the day, and we’re going in circles trying to figure this out. That clue has something important I and I must find out what it is.”
Gar gently said, “The last time you tried, it only hurt you.”
“I was tired. It was too soon after the battle with Fenrir.”
“Justin said not to try again until he was certain it would be safe.” Quark said.
Chase retorted, “Justin is hardly in command as he sulks in his office and barks orders at people. He doesn’t know where to go with this investigation and I’m tired of waiting for something terrible to happen. We barely stopped that Fenrir thing and it was just a shadow. The Shadow Krampus killed people. What next? We sit around and wait for an actual monster to show up and flatten a metropolis while Justin refuses to put real effort into this?”
Justin surprised all of them as he said, “Fine. You think you know better. Go investigate that water drop. Do what you want.”
Chase shook off her surprise and said, “I will. And when I find answers, you’d better be ready to act on them.”
“Don’t worry. No one here wants to find answers more than I. Go, find them.” His tone was bitter and almost resentful. He said no more and returned to the office.
Chase waited for a moment and then left without saying anything to the others. The only sound present was the slurping sound of Quark’s silly straw.
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