The War to End all Worlds Pt. 06

Adolph slowly frowned. "You will learn from me where I lived, whisk me away when I was a youth, indoctrinate me-"

Von Sebttendorf lifted his hand. "It was the only option, with the records of that time period in such disarray. You will thank us, my Fuhrer. Believe me."

"I won't tell," Adolph snarled. "My past is mine. My future is mine. You will not wrest it from me, you son of a bitch. I have control of my fate, my destiny!"

"Do you now?" Von Sebttendorf asked, his voice filled with amusement. "And yet, the only reason you sit there and not by my side is an accident of flight. If your father had fled into the Alps, then you would have sat out the war with your own kind. Was that your choice? If you had not met that subhuman wench you call a wife, if you had not been beguiled by her charms, you might have retained a proper taste for your own people's women. Was that a choice? When given a choice, when raised as you should have been, you chose power. You led your people to greatness!" He slammed his fist into the desk. "When your choice was robbed, you chose to run a coffee shop for a pittance!"

Adolph hung his head. When he spoke, he was quiet. "I would not trade that coffee shop for all the empires of the world."

Von Sebttendorf scoffed. "Such a foolish choice is no choice at all. Guards! Take them our Fuhrur to his waiting room. Take the Englishman to the operation theater. We will determine what brain structures he has that differentiates him from me..."

The two guards in the room, who had waited silently, grabbed us and hauled us to our feet.

Adolph went with his head held high, his eyes flashing with defiance. I tried to bite my guard, but he twisted me with an efficiency that bespoke long practice. I was dragged, kicking and snarling, into a sterile operating theater. The guard shoved me onto a table and strapped me down to leather bindings, while a pair of doctors entered the room, dressed in simple white scrubs and rubber gloves. Their faces were covered with masks and their hair had been bound backwards under thick caps.

As they walked about me, they spoke in quiet Austrian. Either they didn't know I could understand them...or they didn't care.

"We'll begin with shaving the hair," one said.

"Hmm..." the other started to pick up a laser cutter. "Laser or bone saw?"

"The saw, I think. There will be more blood, but less chance of searing. We want the brain intact for examination."

"Good point..."

I squirmed. My eyes rolled around as I saw the entrance to the room, the guard leaning against the wall, his face set and stern. I could see the doctors conferring. I strained at the straps, and then closed my eyes, thinking as hard as I could: Okay. Now. Now. Now! Now!

A loud thump rang out. I opened my eyes just in time to see the guard toppling to the ground, his eyes looking off in two different directions. It was almost comical. As he sprawled to the floor, the doctors spun around...

To find themselves facing Yalen. The Green Martian reached out with her lower arms, grabbing their heads, and gently (for her) brought them together. The doctors sprawled on the ground, knocked out cold. As they sprawled there, she bounded over to me, grabbed onto the leather restraints, and beamed at me.

"Your plan was a good one, George Wells," she said and I sat up, gasping and rubbing my wrists. "The difficulty, though, was in hiding the mind stone after Darren passed it to me in a place where the guards would not find it. Fortunately, my lower arms were more up to the task." She flexed herself proudly.

I grinned. "Where'd you stash it, Yalen?"

Yalen was silent for a time. She flushed a dark green.

"I do not wish to speak of it."

I shook my head, then sprang over to the guard. I looked up, then nodded. "Tie them up with the leather straps and jam them in there. Be sure to gag them."

"Very good," Yalen said. "What will I do then?"

"Return to your cell and hide the mind stone," I whispered. "And if I shout, come running."

"I can do this. What are you doing?" Yalen asked.

I unbuttoned the guard's outfit. "Something heroic."

***

The first room I came into held two doctors, working on a white board. They looked at me. They were both men, roughly in their forties, and looked irritated to be interrupted.

"Here for the papers," I said, trying to sound like a guard. I stood to attention. It seemed like something that would explain me being here. The doctor sighed and walked over. He handed me a folded binder and scowled as he pressed it into my chest.

"Tell The Master that we cannot solve the stabilization equation with him joggling our elbow every hour!" he growled.

Then he turned and stalked back. AS the door closed, I looked down at the binder. Opening it, I saw a great deal of mathematics notations, schematics. Diagrams. I walked a few paces away from the door, then started to flip through the pages, looking for something, anything I could use. I frowned. The time machine was made up of several components, all of which seemed to be complete nonsense. Oscilation Overthruster? Flux Capacitor? Then I read this sentence: Vaporizing Equalizer -- maintains temporal equilibrium between occupant and device.

I bit my lower lip.

Then an alert rang out.

"Squad Three, report to prisoner containment. Squad three, report to prisoner containment."

As I waited, two men came running by. One of them shouted at me: "Come on! Come on, dummkopf!"

I started after the pair.

Soon, we had come to the prisoner's quarters. The door leading into a cell had burst open. I could see Ollie glaring from one of the doors. The two men looked into the doorway that had been burst open and swore. One ran to the intercom, speaking into it: "Sharpe and her cohort have escaped."

Ollie was looking at me. He looked goggle eyed. Then he scowled. "Hey! Hey! Jughead!"

I looked at him. He jerked his head, then said, louder: "Fucking Jughead! You know, you're looking so inbred, I'm wondering if it was your mamma and your sister I fucked last night."

I growled. "Get this door open, lets teach this negro a lesson," I said, looking at the others. The others were already starting for the door, distracted from Darren and Drusilla by what Ollie had said.

"He can tell us what happened," one muttered, a pretext. The door opened. And I grabbed one around the back, swinging him against the wall. He smashed home with a clunk, rebounding backwards as Ollie sprang forward and punched the other guard in the jaw. The man went down with a groan as the other man staggered backwards into me. I held him as Ollie clocked him in the jaw too. Shaking out his fist, Ollie shook his head.

"That guard uniform shit ain't gonna work with me, white boy," he said, grinning.

"Should I play the stern faced guard marching you to your doom?" I asked, pushing the first of the unconscious men into the cell. As his fellow joined him, Ollie swung the door shut and tucked one of their pistols into his belt, adjusting his shirt to cover it. He turned his back to face me, then locked his hands behind him. I closed handcuffs around him, but didn't lock them. I smiled slightly and he grinned back at me.

"What I gotta know is how you told Darren this shit," he whispered. "You and Tjen had hours to work it out, but she was only touching her for a few seconds."

"Tjen can communicate real fast when she's touching you," I said, then jerked my chin, speaking in Austrian. "Walk, negro."

As we walked, my mind ground forward. The plan had been a bit vague on this point. We had figured that we'd know more now. And we did. But that didn't make the next step easier. But despite the danger, I felt weirdly confident. Yalen was on standby with the mind stone, which gave us an amazing ace in the hole. Darren and Drusilla had managed to get out and scramble away. And this base was large, but lacked personal, from the number of empty rooms we walked by. The question came: Who to find first?

Tjen, obviously.

And I had a terrible idea as to where she'd be.

I marched Ollie up to the corner that led to the corridor that itself opened into the main workroom. Peeking past the corner, I saw a pair of guards. I looked at Ollie, then jerked my chin at nearby workshop. "Hide in there, come when the ruckus starts."

Ollie nodded, then breathed out a quick sigh. "I hope you know what these assholes are doing."

"I think I have an idea. And it's a nasty one," I said, then patted his shoulder. As Ollie sprinted into the workshop and closed the door, I went around the corner. I walked past the guards, who held up their hands to stop me. But I held up the binder I had snatched earlier and, seeing it, the two guards gestured me past them. I walked on into the main workshop. It was full of people -- scientists and technicians, all of them working on the time machine that sat in the center of the shop. The space felt huge and airy, but the air hung with a lightning smell. It worked into the walls and wafted through the air, burning in my nose.

Just looking at the machine made my head ache.

"This room is wrong. Wrong! Let me go, you villains! Let me go!"

Tjen!

My heart leaped, and I saw that Von Sebttendorf was flanked by a pair of House Guards in their heavy armor, both holding machine guns casually as a normal man would hold rifles.

"This room is the center of our research, and the only place in the world where time travel seems to function," Von Sebttendorf said, his voice carrying as I walked over, trying to look unnoticeable. Subtle. Keeping my head down. "Do you know what causes the greatest level of entanglement and cross-talk between the future and the past?"

"No," Tjen said, her voice clear. I could see her now. Her chin was lifted, and she was being held by two guards, their strength keeping her rooted in her spot. "And I do not know why you would tell me, save that you appear to ape the ethos and techniques of a three-vee villain."

Von Sebttendorf laughed. "No, fraulein, I am explaining because you must know. For you will be navigating through time with my agent. And so, you must understand. The greatest entanglement between past and future comes at the moment of a human's death. At this time, all things, all potentiality, is changed forever. Nothing can cause a greater change than one man's demise. And in this room, in another timeline, hundreds of thousands lost their lives." He said it as if it was something to exhalt over.

"You monster!" Tjen tried to sound brave. But I could hear the fear in her voice.

"You seem to be under the impression that death is unnatural," Von Sebttendorf said. "But the simple fact is that sometimes, people die. Sometimes, they live. The trick is to ensure that it is the enemy who dies." He gestured with one hand.

And Tjen was brought to the machine. The hexagonal fins that spread from the back had a small iron seat settled in the middle, with straps, and wires, and a curved helmet like a barber shop's. The helmet was attached to a collection of wires and cables, leading further into the time machine. Tjen was strapped into the device and squirmed and kicked and snarled, glaring around herself at the others.

"Bring forth our newest volunteer!" Von Sebttendorf cried out.

My eyes widened as, in the back of the room, I saw one of the other main doors opening. And through it stepped a hulking monster. They looked like someone who had been attached to an exoskeleton with rivets and bolts and wires. Their skin was exposed and glistened with blood and oil. Their head had been mounted with a circular metal band, attached and bolted in. Greenish light glowed from several nodes on the band. Their eyes were wide and staring, but their body moved. It moved in smooth, fluid, predatory motions. Like a hunting cat. The exoskeleton whirred and thunked.

But the worst thing was I recognized the face.

Mr. Sinclair.

I had hated him for so long, for murdering my father.

But even he didn't deserve this.

As he lumbered forward, Von Sebttendorf spoke -- but I didn't listen to him. Instead, I was edging closer to Tjen, thinking to myself. If I could get those straps free, maybe...

"Ah, Mr. Wells!" Von Sebttendorf said, his voice cheery. "I thought I smelled you. Hound! Fetch!" He pointed at me with one finger as the other people in the room started to flee, rushing away, wishing to get out of the way of Mr. Sinclair. He thundered forward towards me as I reached for my stolen pistol. I whipped it out and fired a single shot as he backehanded me. I went flying, hit the ground, skidded. I groaned as I sprawled, focusing as hard as I could.

Yalen appeared behind Mr. Sinclair.

But before she could grab him, Von Sebttendorf lifted his hand and flared his fingers out. Crackling green lighting flared around Yalen and she screamed, then vanished. As she vanished, I started to come to my feet, my chest all one big bruise. But there was no time for pain, no time for thinking. I flung myself to the side as Mr. Sinclair lifted both hands and smashed them down where I had stood, leaving behind a deep crater. I think that Von Sebttendorf needed to rethink what the word "fetch" meant. Then I stood and backed away as Mr. Sinclair turned to face me.

Tjen cried out: "his headset! It controls him, Gipp!"

"I noticed, Tjen!" I shouted back, then sprang backwards as Mr. Sinclair lurched forward again, swinging. This time, his fist smashed into one of the worktables, bending it half and filling the air with bits of machinery, which tinkled along the floor. I was about to step back again, but Mr. Sinclair surged forward and grabbed be my the neck. He lifted me with the enhanced strength of his affixed exoskeleton, the necrotic stink of his rotting flesh. As he shook me, I clutched at his wrist, trying to use the weight to let me breathe.

And then.

A large chunk of metal that was shaped suspiciously similar to half of the entrance door smashed into Mr. Sinclair's back. He dropped me and I hit the ground, sprawling, as Mr. Sinclair skidded and almost smashed into the time machine.

I coughed.

Gasped.

Turned.

And saw Darren, Ollie and Drusilla standing in that door. Darren held a pistol in one hand and was pocketing a stolen key with the other. Drusilla had found a rifle for herself, while Ollie was similarly armed.

And in the middle of them was Adolph Hitler, wearing a suit of exoskeleton power armor. He hefted the other half of the door in his hands and said, his voice clear in the ringing silence.

"Get away from him, you swine."

Mr. Sinclair looked at Von Sebttendorf. The leader of the Thule Society was standing beside his two House Guards, both of them having been watching impassively. His face was purple whih rage. He gestured with his left hand, a jerky motion that almost knocked his glasses off. "Kill them! All of them!"

The House Guard stepped up, bracing the water-jackets of their machine guns in their forehands, their back hands holding the pistol grips that had been attached to the weapons. They started to fill the air with lead. But Adolph had swung the door around and, rather than throwing it, slammed it into the ground, horizontally. Bullets pinged and sparked off of it as Ollie, Drusilla and Darren flung themselves flat.

I scrambled for cover as Mr. Sinclair charged towards Adolph, thundering forward at max speed! Adolph moved in his suit with the grace of a born warrior. He leaped over the shield door and brought both fists swinging around in a curving arc. His servo-muscles whirred and the impact rang out with a resounding boom. Mr. Sinclair arced to the side and crashed into the wall off to the right, and shook himself as he tried to get righted. But as he did so, the House Guards refocused their fire. Adolph staggered as bullets pinged and bounced off the exoskeleton armor, some of them striking joints and seams. Adolph staggered.

Darren rolled out from behind cover, and fired a few shots from her pistol, then flung herself behind a table, which she flipped over. Drusilla popped up and fired a few shots herself. Her rifle barked and the bullets sparked and pinged off the House Guard in their armor. They jerked, but didn't cease their fire.

I bit my lip.

Mr. Sinclair was starting to stand.

I sprang to my feet, ran out, then leaped up and down. "Hey! Hey! You wanker! Hey! I'm right here!"

The House Guard didn't even hear me. They were too busy pouring on the bullets. Smoke was rising from Adolph's power armor, but he still remained in the open, allowing the others to fire back at the House Guard.

Mr. Sinclair started to sprint forward. His first order remained: Fetch. He rushed towards me. I waited. Waited. Then, right when my instincts screamed at me, I flung myself to the side. My shoulder hit the ground and I rolled away as Mr. Sinclair rushed past me and right into one of the House Guard. The two exoskeleton clad warriors hit the wall with a crunch. Mr. Sinclair staggered backwards, shaking himself like a great dog, while the House Guard remained prone on the floor. Either he was knocked silly, or worse.

The other House Guard swung his machine gun to bear at me.

My eyes widened.

The House Guard pulled the trigger.

And his machine gun exploded. The side ripped out with a resounding bang, flipping out of his hands and leaving him staggering. I gaped. But as I stood there, gawping at him, he shook himself, then started forward. He thundered towards me, faster than Mr. Sinclair even. But before he could grab me, Adolph grabbed his wrist, swung him around, and smashed him into the ground. This reveled the large backpack power unit that provided the motive energy for the suit. Adolph grabbed onto an important looking cable and wrenched it free...

Just as Mr. Sinclair leaped on him.

The cable's sparking end met Mr. Sinclair's chest.

And lightning exploded from the backpack, rushing over Mr. Sinclair's body. Crackling energy sparked and flared, meeting Sinclair's power pack, and Adolph's. All three started to surge with more and more energy. I sprang to my feet and cried out.

"Adolph!"

Without thinking, I grabbed up a wrench, then threw it as hard as I could. It struck Adolph's faceplate and he jerked backwards, his mechanical hands opening. The two others were still locked in a crackling discharge, which suddenly shorted out. Smoke rose into the air as Mr. Sinclair hit the ground, his body a blackened char. I only hoped that his mind had been too far gone to feel it...but even if it had not, it would have been a blessing.

I ran forward, Darren and Drusilla and Ollie rushing with me. We came to Adolph's exoskeleton. Its power unit was completely burned out, and the metal was hot to the touch. Drusilla used her rifle butt to smash open the cockpit, revealing...that Adolph sprawled inside, groaning softly.

"Ouch," he whispered.

I laughed with relief.

I looked up, to smile at my friends.

And saw each of them looking unfocused. Their eyes were staring. Wide. Then, like a puppeteer with their strings cut, each one sprawled on the ground. A pounding headache smashed into my mind and I cried out, clutching at my head. Gritting my teeth, I turned and saw that Von Sebttendorf was standing beside the time machine, his hand lifted up. His palm spread and he growled. The headache grew worse and worse and worse. I stood...and grabbed up Ollie's pistol. My hand felt like it weighed fifty pounds, but I still forced it up.

"Why. Won't. You. Fall?!" Von Sebttendorf growled. "The deaths of dozens power my psi-gauntlet!" His fingers spread wide and energies continued to crackle.