Jane had winked them to the top of a mountain, a craggy peak of black stone that had no vegetation whatsoever. Tick had felt the cool rush of thin air when they’d arrived almost an hour ago and hadn’t stopped shivering since. Once there, Jane had insisted on taking some time to meditate and prepare herself for the difficulties that awaited. Chu had grumbled, and Tick had asked questions, but she’d refused to say another word.
Tick was glad for the break and for the time to collect his own thoughts. Everything had been such a mad rush. But instead he’d fallen into a restless sleep, shivering all the while. When Chu woke him up with a light kick to the ribs, Tick was instantly awake, and thankful his body had gotten a break.
“It’s time we get moving,” Chu barked. Tick wondered if there’d ever been a more unlikable person in the Realities. Ever. The man turned his attention to Jane, who was up and ready to go. “Why’d you wink us so far out anyway?”
Instead of answering, Jane pointed to a rise of rock to their left with nothing but cloudy sky beyond. Then she walked toward it briskly, obviously expecting the other two to follow her. Which they did—Chu a little begrudgingly, mumbling something that Tick couldn’t hear. They reached the spit of rock that rose about thirty feet above their heads, and began to climb the slope, a gradual one with plenty of handholds and footholds. As they neared the top, Tick heard a noise like the rushing sound of water in a swift river. It grew in volume, becoming a roar when he finally poked his head over the upper lip of the jagged black stone.
What he saw before him, stretching from one side of the land to the other, was something that his brain couldn’t compute at first. It seemed impossible, an image he’d only seen in weather reports and videos of massive storms out in the ocean. Miles and miles across, a wide whirlpool of gray clouds slowly spun in a giant circle, an enormous hurricane of fog and mist, with tendrils of lightning flashing within. Thunder rumbled across the windswept fields between Tick and the unbelievable sight in the distance. And even as he watched, he could tell that the storm was growing, as if with every sweep around the churning circle, the vaporous gray air pulsed outward.
The Void looked ready to consume the entire planet.
“Because I thought it’d be a bad idea to land in the middle of the belly of the Void,” Jane finally said after everyone got a good look at the beastly storm. “Let’s be glad I’m in charge.”
“You’re in charge?” Chu laughed. “I’m the only one here with the technological means to accomplish what we both want. And you know it.”
“We all need each other right now. And that’s that.”
Chu didn’t answer, but his eyes showed a fanaticism that scared Tick. Something was up with the man.
“We will capture the power that rages within that storm,” Chu said slowly, evenly. “We will harness it and use it to accomplish the greatest feat ever known to mankind. We’ll become one with the fabric of Reality, see all things, be able to do anything we imagine. My team has it all calculated. We’re ready to move, even though we haven’t done the testing I’d normally demand.”
“My goodness,” Tick said. He barely heard his own voice over the increasing sounds of thunder booming across the land. “You’ve completely lost it!”
“Lost it?” Chu replied with a bark of a laugh. “Boy, you have no idea what we’ve planned! When we add the consciousness of my great mind and soul to the infinite power of the Void and then to Reality itself, I’ll become like a god. All suffering, all crime, all hunger . . . I can make it end. We can make it end. Jane will have her Utopia. Finally.”
Tick looked over at the red mask of Jane, which showed no expression. The wind ripped at her robe and hood. She said nothing, which, for some reason, filled him with dread.
“Am I the only left here who’s sane?” Tick finally asked. “We’re talking about wild experiments and fantastical ideas when we have a hungry storm out there about to eat everything? Including us, by the way!”
Jane turned sharply to him. “Atticus, you don’t understand. You don’t.”
Just then, not too far away—toward the bottom of the slope of the mountain—a host of people suddenly appeared, winking into existence in a quick series of flashes. Tick’s jaw dropped open—it was Master George, Paul and Sofia, Mothball and Sally, Sato and dozens of tall soldiers. They spread out before him like . . . like an army. Tick couldn’t believe it.
“It was just as we feared!” Jane shouted at Chu.
The man took a few steps back, a suspicious look on his face, one of his hands reaching for his pocket. His fingers slipped inside.