ALIZEH

"So that means we have only one teleporter, two invisibility scarves and one mind controller with us. The rest all are..." Alizeh couldn't bring herself to say the word, 'gone'. She half expected to see the jolly old Mr Gear appear miraculously from somewhere and jiggle his round belly and laugh. But he was gone. They were all gone. Friends, allies, acquaintances- all gone in a poof. How uncertain is life?

"And this teleporter has only one spare battery left which you'll get to use tomorrow. But I need you to check the locations of your magnets today," Wrench said in a small voice, tinkering with her teleporter watch.

"Can I come too?" Jurian offered.

"No. there's not too much power left in this battery and I can't risk using the last of ours. On the D day, you have to just let go and surrender yourself to her control and she is strong enough to pull you and the president with her," Wrench straightened his crooked glasses, wincing when it hit the still bandaged wound over the bridge of his nose. His hands unconsciously smooth over the large white bandages on his head.
"You should take rest and not be time travelling," Alizeh mumbled.

"And who'll show you the mechanisms and workings of the instruments in our bases? I'm the tech guy," Wrench attempted to catch his breath.

"I'm not too positive if it is safe for you medically. We couldn't even take you to a good medic for the fear of having to explain the cause of your severe injuries. Let me and Jurian give a try. You know we need practice doing that without you," Alizeh reasoned.

"Okay," he mumbled, seemingly defeated, immediately scrunching his eyes in pain at some injury site, "I feel so useless."

"Hey, you're the best. You've already done so much," Jurian patted him gently.

"Okay then, Jurian, get ready for our long day. I'm gonna bring my scarf and all too," Alizeh instructed, Jurian gave a mock salute and exited.

"Have you done the second thing I told you to do over the phone the other day?' Alizeh turned to Agent Wrench.

"You mean the detonator systems?"

"Yes," Alizeh's voice felt like rough sand down her throat.

He handed her a remote, "I have made it pass locked so that it needs two security codes to activate the explosives,"

"Brilliant," Alizeh turned the small sleek remote in her hand, enjoying the smooth feel of it. Who would've known such a beautiful looking thing could be so deadly?

.........

Just as soon as they had jumped into the time-space, Alizeh felt her hand being pulled by the watch. It was straining to almost break off from her wrist. She closed her eyes as she squeezed Jurian's hand, tightly and together they surrendered themselves to the pull.

They materialized into a small room, which looked like a dungeon cell. It was dark and damp, and if they strained their ears, they could hear the sound of the water gushing somewhere.

"Where are we?" Jurian wondered aloud, moving toward a small square screen set up at one corner. It had small little boxes connected to it with a mayhem of wires.

"There's no button for this thing. How are we supposed to open it?" Jurian exclaimed, his voice reverberating in the void. A narrow beam of light strayed from a window with bars high up.

"Let me see," Alizeh pushed him aside and placed her hand on a small circular panel just in front of the elaborate assortment of gadgets. Her watch began glowing with an eerie blue light. The screen lit up in a glaring white and Alizeh could see little scintillating dots on a map of Cloud Two.

"I guess those are our hiding locations. We're on Cloud Two, here," Jurian placed his index finger on a spot which was flashing red. The map magnified immediately and they were looking at the top of an L- shaped building marked as 'THE WATER PLANT'.

"So we're at the basement of a water treatment planned. But don't you think they'll hear us upstairs?"

"It's a completely automated recycling plant. No humans ever come here," another voice from the shadows startled them.

Jurian immediately sprang up and moved in front of Alizeh, shoving her back.

"Hey alpha, you don't need to protect her from me," a familiar voice chuckled and a figure appeared. Honey blond hair and a lean physique, his eyes were a shade of blue so light that it almost appeared white.

"Jace, man!" Jurian relaxed and the two men moved to embrace each other.

"I guess, Madame, doesn't have many good memories associated with me," he grinned, looking at Alizeh who was standing there, smacking her lips.

"You know I would've killed you for giving her an overdose of drugs?" Jurian threatened playfully.

"I didn't know then that she would one day be your girl," Jace rolled his eyes, "I can read minds, not the future."

"But how do you read minds?" Alizeh perked up in excitement, ignoring the fact that Jace had just called her Jurian's girl.

She liked the way it was said. She felt loved in a way her first love had never been reciprocated.

"Jace and me, we had been the experiment subjects in the same lab along with a few others," Jurian's forehead crinkled as he recalled bad memories.

"Don't remind me of that hellhole, brother," Jace chided before moving to the console, "let me show you how this thing works."

A few mere clicks later, which Alizeh had already noted in her busy mind, he connected them to the Cloud One base.

"All clear?" Cyanide's voice floated clearly from the other side.

"One of the finest connections, do you have the recording and the broadcasting set up?" Jurian gave a thumbs up.

"Should we go live tomorrow?"

"I don't recommend live," Alizeh peeked at the screen from behind Jurian, "because he may say stuff that we might have to edit out later. I say we record first and release after censoring."

"The president's words captured over the camera is as good as a law. Written by Mr Clement T Hardwick. Article 46, Clause three B," Cyanide read out of her computer screen.

"A law is a law babe," Jace now came into the light.

"Oh you, I'm...I..." Cyanide spluttered, her hands quickly smoothening her stray locks as she adjusted her top. Alizeh stared at her amazed. It was hard to imagine someone like Agent Cyanide to be smitten by a guy. But she guessed a mind reader would appeal to a technology nerd. But then Cyanide had reacted in a weird way to Derek's presence too. Alizeh wondered if cyanide had a crush on both the men.

"We can have our sweet talk once we get back and I assure you, lady, that I'll drag this bastard in by his neck this time," Jurian promised, like a knight in armour, coming to rescue.

They thanked Jace and teleported away, landing in their second location, which seemed to be an abandoned gym on cloud Nine.
Their third jump took them to a dilapidated shack on Cloud Four and the fourth location was the basement of an empty apartment on Cloud One.

All the places were well equipped and Alizeh felt confident at last. This plan was solid and it would take a miracle to make this fail.