Chapter Text
He found it.
It took him two hours, but he found that missing piece. It did in fact fall into the storm drain and Geoff had to lever the grate open with a stick. Geoff thanked his lucky stars that it didn’t appear to have rained recently in the area; otherwise he’d probably never have found it.
He manoeuvred the piece back into place and it settled in its spot loosely.
The cube-device fluttered weakly to life and Geoff shot up straight. The piece fell out again and Geoff scrambled to catch it before it disappeared between the rocks.
“Okay… okay.” Geoff said. He slipped the piece into his pocket. “I can fix this, but I need some tape or something.”
He wasn’t stuck. He wasn’t stuck here with only his own dead body to keep him company.
These devices worked in four dimensions, right? Maybe he’d only broken three of them. And alien tech was hardy. He was well aware of how well Jeremy’s device had functioned despite looking like it powered down.
Oh fuck. Jeremy’s device still worked.
Would Michael have destroyed it completely with the laser cannon after seeing what it did to Geoff? Geoff hoped so. There was a good chance they’d figured out what happened to him, to some extent. Gus would be able to tell them what tech had gone missing.
Geoff’s thoughts stuttered to a halt.
Was the original device even destroyed? What if the laser cannon only destroyed things in three dimensions? Was the device in tiny little molten pieces, scattered across the ocean floor?
No, because Jeremy killed the Fakes during his loops. He’d have noticed, or mentioned at some point if he’d killed one of them and a few hours later the rest had disappeared in a flash of red light. Or something. Geoff didn’t know what happened in a universe, or to the people connected to a device, once one of them died.
He had to believe that it was possible to destroy the alien devices somehow. After all, there was a bunch of deactivated and broken tech in Gus’s basement… at least Geoff hoped it was.
If the others were smart, they should take the laser cannon and destroy everything in that basement before it did anything else. Then throw the cannon into the ocean.
A shadow fell over Geoff’s shoulder. He spun around, expecting trouble, but it was only the shadow of the mountain behind him growing longer. It was going to get dark at some point and Geoff had nowhere to go.
Geoff looked around properly for the first time. He was in a valley between two mountain peaks, right near a road but so far he hadn’t noticed any cars driving by. There was the faintest of sea breezes tingling the hair on his head, and the smell of salt and rubbish.
Geoff climbed out of the drain and stood near the side of the road, trying to get his bearings. He could see where the drain emptied into a creek at the bottom of the valley. Probably built to stop the road flooding. His eyes followed the path of the road down the valley to where it connected with a major road and turned into a bridge-
Geoff knew that bridge.
Geoff had landed a jet hundreds of times right near it, and parachuted to the base of it. He and the Lads had hidden their vehicles under it before the Zancudo heist.
Geoff looked back at the graves behind him. If he was right about the bridge, they weren’t all that far from Zancudo.
Was it possible that in this universe, they’d all died escaping Zancudo and the military had buried them here?
It was plausible if they needed to cover it all up because of the alien tech. Geoff would bet money this road was used mostly to transport and bury bodies, considering the location. If any body pieces washed down the drain they could be explained away as jumpers off the bridge.
Of course, the Fakes had other enemies that could have done this. But they were all located in the city, and there were easier ways to dispose of bodies than to lug them out here. Geoff knew from firsthand experience.
The easiest way to check if he was right about any of this was to go down to the bridge and see if the vehicles were still there.
Before following the road down to the bridge, Geoff jumped back down into the drain and reburied his bones. It wasn’t right to leave them out in the open like that, even if the process filled him with a sort of horror he couldn’t properly describe.
It took him about an hour to make it to the base of the bridge. It took him a further ten minutes to find the right clump of foliage to remove as the whole area was far more overgrown than he remembered. He couldn’t tell how much time had passed since he was last here.
Moving some bushes aside, he finally spotted his Roosevelt. It looked rusty, and had some weather damage, but it wasn’t a complete wreck. Geoff smiled to himself.
Leaving it for the moment, Geoff travelled a little further through the overgrowth. Under some more detritus sat the Lads’ vehicles. Michael’s armoured car, Ray’s brown monstrosity, and Gavin’s shit-heap of a motorbike. Geoff ran a reverent hand over the hood of Ray’s car.
The times he had with Ray were definitely golden days gone past- but he knew his time with Jeremy and the other Fakes right now was also a golden age. He couldn’t imagine a better universe where Jeremy wasn’t there. It just didn’t seem possible.
Frowning for a moment, Geoff dug into his pocket and pulled out his keys. Brushing a bit of dirt off, he walked back to the Roosevelt and unlocked it. His car key worked.
He had his keys in his pocket.
Hmm.
Geoff sat in the driver’s seat and pulled everything out of his pockets. His phone and wallet, a pack of breath mints, the piece of the cube-device, a spare magazine, and the thin box had all made the journey between universes with him. Reaching behind, he pulled his Glock out of his waistband.
That raised some interesting questions about what the cube-device was transporting between universes. This new device worked significantly differently to the original device.
Geoff unlocked the boot from the inside and rummaged around inside. There was a bug-out bag, a gas can, and a few guns and explosives neatly lined up against the back wall. He opened the bug-out bag and rifled through it until he found some tape.
“Good. Now I can fix this stupid thing.”
Geoff tugged at the cube-device but it didn’t come off his arm. It didn’t appear to be attached in any way he could see- it just hung over his forearm, right near his wrist. He shook his arm but all that did was send the cubes spinning around each other again. To no useful effect.
“I’m getting pretty sick of this fourth spacial dimension bullshit.”
Trying to hold it steady, Geoff fit the broken piece in place and managed to wrap the tape around the join. He did the same to the other side and it held steady. He gave the device a cautious spin and the device began to glow.
“Fuck yes, Geoff, you’re a genius.”
The glow was weak, almost too weak to see, but was he imagining it getting stronger? Probably if he waited long enough, it would power up enough for him to use.
What did he want to do until then? It was extremely unlikely that any of these vehicles were in a good enough condition to drive. The batteries would be long dead and the fuel gone bad. Geoff didn’t know much about body decomposition but he imaged he’d been buried a few years at least. He wouldn’t put it past the military to speed up the process somehow to hide the evidence quicker.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and was unsurprised to find he had no reception. In this universe, he wouldn’t have paid his phone bill in years. That probably meant his credit cards were cancelled as well.
Awww, his apartment would’ve been found abandoned and sold by now. He’d liked that apartment.
He had about $400 in his wallet. That could last him a shitty hotel for a week or so or until the device powered up. He could carjack someone on the bridge above him and go from there.
And go where?
Despite the Gent’s deaths, he imagined Burnie and Rooster Teeth still surviving out there. He’d give Burnie quite the scare, literally rising from his grave after who knows how many years, but it would be nice to see a familiar face.
But Burnie wouldn’t be able to help him. He’d have to explain the whole thing and that would be difficult enough. And afterwards, Burnie wouldn’t be able to help him much. Nobody in this universe would.
Besides, it wasn’t really Burnie, was it? Just someone who looked and sounded a lot like him. It was a Burnie who moved on without him years ago. They had different histories now. Geoff didn’t particularly want to see what happened to the Burnie of this universe, this darker, colder one.
One he’d leave in a few hours or days anyway.
No, Geoff decided, he’d sit here and wait for the device to fix itself. It already looked brighter than fifteen minutes ago. He slipped the tape into a pocket, for safe-keeping, and settled down to wait.
As soon as he opened his eyes he saw the fractured piece fall away again. It seemed like the piece won’t stay attached permanently- he’d have to retrieve it and wait for the cube-device to reboot and fix itself each time.
That was the price he had to pay for his moment of anger.
At least he wasn’t trapped in a universe where everyone he loved was dead.
“What the fuck?” Alt-Geoff said.
Geoff, despite himself, (or maybe because of himself,) grinned.
“Thank God, it worked.”
Ryan levelled a gun at him.
“You planned this? You came out of him! Why are there two of you?”
“It’s good to see you too, Ryan.” Geoff said. “Oh my God, I’m going to have to explain this every time, aren’t I?”
Geoff felt a momentary pang of sympathy for Jeremy.
“Who the fuck are you?” Alt-Geoff said.
“I’m you from another universe. I use this-“ Geoff held up his wrist- “to travel between universes, and right now it’s broken. If you’d give me a few minutes I can fix it right up and head on my-“
-“You’re not going anywhere.” Ryan said darkly. “If you honestly expect us to believe that for one second, you must think we’re idiots. Did the Lads put you up to this, whoever you are?”
“I’m not a Lad spy, I’m Geoff.” Geoff explained slowly. “I appeared inside of the other Geoff. I come from a universe where the Lads and Gents joined together and work together now.”
“Oh really.” Jack said.
Geoff decided to take a page out of Jeremy’s book.
“Yes. And I can prove it, too. I know pretty much everything about them, and you three as well.”
Alt-Geoff and Jack shared a look, but Geoff was paying more attention to the gun in Ryan’s hands.
“Oh, put the gun away, you’re not going to shoot me.” Geoff said.
“You don’t know that.” Ryan argued.
“Yes I do, Ryan, because I know you, and you wouldn’t shoot me in a million years. The only reason you haven’t put your gun away is because you like the notion that you’re unpredictable and you hate that I-“
Geoff was right. Ryan didn’t shoot him, but he did clock him over the back of the head with the gun, and Geoff saw stars. Ryan and Jack tackled him to the ground and subdued him.
Okay, maybe Ryan had grown softer in the years he was in a relationship with Geoff and the others… this Ryan clearly hadn’t. He felt his arms drawn roughly behind his back and bound, and Jack’s hands search him. Jack emptied his pockets and took the contents.
But his hands passed through the cube-device, Geoff felt.
“I can’t take the glowing thing off.” Jack said to Alt-Geoff.
“Leave it, then. Bring him downstairs.” Alt-Geoff instructed. “If he knows anything about the Lads, Ryan can get it out of him, can’t you?”
“Of course.” Ryan confirmed.
Geoff spat out a mouthful of bile and grimaced. He shot Alt-Geoff a dirty look as he was hauled downstairs. Alt-Geoff stared back with a grim but resolute look in his eyes.
“You know,” Geoff said to Ryan, “You’re basically going to be torturing your boss, right?”
Ryan faced away from him, his eyes on a table towards the far side of the room, and shook his head.
“My boss is upstairs, and you’re just his doppelganger with the info we need to stop the Lads once and for all.”
“Are they that big of a problem for you?”
“Ever since their sniper ended up dead and they hired that mercenary from the mainland.”
Geoff suspected the new guy was Jeremy. These universes were similar in a lot of ways.
Geoff also suspected these Gents were the reason Ray was dead.
“Was all of this really necessary?” Geoff questioned. He was zip-tied to a chair in a room near the garage of the apartment building. “You could have, I don’t know, asked me about them? We didn’t have to jump straight to this. I want an ice pack, at least. My head hurts.”
There was the sound of metal scraping along stone. Ryan was sharpening a knife.
“We stopped with the niceties when the Lads murdered Burnie and Gus. Now, you give us answers, and you get to live a little longer.”
Geoff felt a pang of grief shoot through him. He had to remind himself that it wasn’t his Burnie and Gus. His Burnie and Gus were safe. There were no Corpirates, no Princes, and no enemy Lads left in his universe.
It wasn’t difficult for Geoff to think of this Ryan, though, as different. Not difficult at all.
Maybe it would be harder for this Ryan to make that distinction between the two Geoffs.
Geoff worked to stay still in his chair and avoid straining to see what Ryan was doing. He had a plan, and if he wanted it to work, he’d have to appear unafraid of this new Ryan and way more sure of himself. More in control.
Fortunately, when it came to Ryan, it was an area Geoff had a lot of experience in.
“Now,” Ryan said, and briefest flash of the blade was visible when it hit the light, “You’re going to tell me who and what you are, and what that thing is on your arm, and then you’re going to tell me everything you know about the Lads.”
“Ryan Haywood, I’m your boss. Except, maybe, I know a bit more about you than he does.”
“Oh really?” Ryan said absentmindedly.
“Yep. For instance,” Geoff leaned back in his chair, “I know you’re deeply in love with me.”
The knife-sharpening noises stopped. Ryan turned around.
Geoff let a slow smile spread across his face.
“I’m not-“
-“You are.” Geoff cut him off. “And you’re in luck. I’m completely in love with you too.”
Ryan gave Geoff a long look.
Geoff continued. “We’ve been dating for almost four years. You were sure that Jack would be the one for me, and you took a little bit of convincing otherwise. Some people have more than the one.”
Something flashed across Ryan’s face, although he quickly buried it. Geoff pressed on.
“You’ve wondered since you started working with us, why would two good men want to hang around you? You’re the Vagabond. You were a broken mess before you met us. What could we see in you that you couldn’t? And over the years, we showed you. Your loyalty. How you could make the two of us laugh. How carefully you looked after the things you cared out, whether that be your houseplants or your crewmembers. All the different ways you could be gentle. The way we completely relaxed around you because we trusted you.
“There was that time you fell asleep on Jack’s shoulder and he didn’t move until you woke up. Or when I looked after you when you broke your leg. We were kind, even when you felt you didn’t deserve it. And you loved us for it.”
Ryan flushed, embarrassed. The knife dropped from his hand and clattered on the floor, unnoticed.
These facts his own Ryan had whispered to him on the rooftop late at night, only a few days after Ray left and they both needed assurance. Ryan had plucked the bottle from his hands and curled around him like a blanket. They talked until Geoff was too tired to keep his eyes open and Ryan all but carried him into bed. He was still awake when Geoff woke up late the next morning, looking at him like there wasn’t anything better to in the entire world.
The rest of the crew had been out dealing with urgent matters at the time, and it was something Geoff had kept private between him and Ryan. Now this Ryan knew, and it felt like a betrayal.
But he would say anything to stop himself from getting carved up and to protect the Lads of this universe. This Ryan clearly believed him about the other Gents, but to protect the others he needed to show it wasn’t just him, Jack, and Ryan.
“A situation occurred when we were fighting the Lads in Zancudo. We got stuck down there with them for quite a while. How you feel about me and Jack, you extended that to the Lads. We were stuck for a long time, you have to realise. I’m not your enemy. The Lads don’t have to be your enemies. And I can prove it.”
Ryan looked at him with wide eyes. “How?”
“Go back to the penthouse and look at my phone’s lockscreen. That should be proof enough.”
Ryan pulled the phone from his pocket and turned it on.
Alright, that saved some time.
The screen lit up and Geoff watched an expression of pure pain cross Ryan’s face. It wasn’t an explicit photo or anything, but it was a reminder of what was or what could have been. Could still be.
“You’ve been alone a long time, Ryan.” Geoff said. “But you can end that today. There’s nothing stopping you from letting them know.”
“I… wait here.” Ryan pocketed the phone and darted out of the room, locking it behind him.
Geoff’s head fell against his chest. He took a deep, heaving breath.
“Okay, good… good.” Geoff said to himself.
The adrenaline bled from him and he slumped in the chair. Hopefully Ryan had gone upstairs to explain the situation to Alt-Geoff and Jack, or at least start trying to see if his feelings are returned.
That should give Geoff enough time to break out of here.
The zip-ties weren’t in the best position to simply break out of- Geoff couldn’t get enough leverage. His arms were secured to the chair arms and he couldn’t get himself in a good enough position. He could, however, bend over and chew at the restraints. He couldn’t imagine that being all that great for his teeth but within a few minutes he had a sizeable dint in the restraints for his left hand.
Clenching his hand and ripping it forwards, the zip-tie snapped. Geoff did the same for his right hand and soon enough his hands was free.
If he fell forwards out of the chair, he could reach the knife Ryan dropped. Scraping it towards him with his fingertips, Geoff grabbed the knife and freed his legs.
He was out of the chair, but not free yet.
Geoff looked around. His journey down here was blurry, but the room looked very similar to the one he had in his own apartment complex. It hadn’t been used since they brought Jeremy in and he left them there for three hours. The thought of using it since then had turned Geoff’s stomach, so they’d converted it into a storage room.
But before that, before the Lads had moved in and given them some suggestions on improving the security of the room, it was unlockable from the inside by a pin-code very similar to the one on their front door.
This room had that same old setup. All he had to do was remember the pin and he could leave.
“Shit.” Geoff said quietly to himself. How was he supposed to remember a pin he’d invented five years ago?
Geoff input Jack’s birthday. 0-1-0-3.
The door didn’t open.
“I’m a fool.” Of course they would have changed it since then.
Well, they might not have.
He didn’t remember picking any pins but he did remember how he’d rolled his eyes at Jack’s suggestions to change the pin every month. He knew he’d forget them. Jack insisted they do it for the front door and Geoff had relented.
If only Jack were here. Even better, if Geoff were back with him.
Geoff remembered the first pin for the front door, now that he was thinking about it, and decided that was a good a guess as any. He tapped away at the pin pad.
4-3-6-8, which spelled out GENT.
The door beeped and swung open.
“Genius, Geoff.”
Thankfully there was nobody else around in the garage. Geoff spotted his Roosevelt and a sports car that looked like something Jack would like. One of them would make an excellent get-away vehicle, probably the Roosevelt because Geoff had a key that he knew unlocked it.
It was upstairs, with the rest of his stuff. As well as the edgier Gents of this universe.
Geoff had one knife.
Hopefully Ryan had done his job and convinced the other Gents Geoff and the Lads weren’t enemies. Geoff couldn’t leave without that piece of the device, and he wanted his other belongings too, but he didn’t really believe he could hurt any of the Gents for them. Or, really, that his knife would be much use.
Geoff climbed up the fire escape stairs with only a little difficulty. He was fit, the fittest he’d been in years, but there were still a hell of a lot of stairs to climb and his head throbbed.
It took a couple of tries, but Geoff found the correct password to the front door of the penthouse. He opened it slowly, ready to bolt if anything jumped out at him.
Nothing did. Geoff peeked around the side of the door and saw the main room, as well as the kitchen and dining rooms, were empty. His stuff sat on the dining room table.
Surely, all three of them wouldn’t have left the apartment? They hadn’t because Geoff saw the vehicles. Was it a trap of some sort? It didn’t seem likely.
Geoff grabbed his stuff off the table while he had the opportunity. The broken piece of the device still sat on the floor- probably unable to be picked up by anyone but him, if Jack’s earlier words were to be believed. Brandishing his Glock in front of him, he performed a quick sweep of the rooms around.
He stopped when he saw the door to the master bedroom shut tight.
Ah.
Geoff put his gun away and walked back to the dining room table. He patched up the device, made a sandwich from the contents of the fridge, and wrote a quick note saying he was gone. He also included some details about the Lads he hoped they’d use in good faith.
It was the least he could do for the group of people who were happy to torture him for information less than an hour ago, no matter how familiar they seemed. They could figure the rest of the Lad situation out themselves.
Geoff was going to wait out the time until the device charged somewhere sunny, probably the Del Perro Pier. No way was he waiting around here.
Geoff picked up the Roosevelt car keys and headed towards the elevator.
The world vibrated into focus and Geoff blinked into Alt-Geoff’s wide-eyed expression.
“Um,” Alt-Geoff said.
“Don’t worry,” Geoff said quickly, “I’m you, just from another universe. Please don’t shoot me.”
“I’m not gonna- why would I shoot you?” Alt-Geoff asked, recovering from his shock.
“It’s not a warning for you, it’s a warning for-“
Geoff looked around. He was on his old yacht, sitting on the floor next to the bar. Alt-Geoff sat alone on a barstool, a drink in his hand. There was no-one else around.
“Where’s Ryan?” Geoff asked.
A heavy look cross Alt-Geoff’s eyes. He took a long sip of his drink, eyeing Geoff carefully.
“You’re really from another universe, aren’t you.”
Geoff held up his left arm. The tape around the device’s broken piece had held this time around, and already the device was powering up again.
“Is he dead?”
“No, but… he left. Long before Ray did. Look, what are you doing here?”
“Trying to leave. I’ll be out of your hair in a few hours. I can explain everything. So do you remember that Zancudo job-“
“-Wait, you may as well explain it to everyone at once. I’ll get the others. Hey Jack? Gavin, Michael? Come over here!”
There was a distant shout from the other end of the boat. Alt-Geoff took another long drink.
“You don’t sound too… concerned about another you from a different universe visiting.” Geoff said.
“You’re not the weirdest thing to happen around here. Alien tech bullshit, I imagine.” Alt-Geoff replied.
“How did you know?”
“We’ve had more than our fair share. I don’t think I could possibly forget that Zancudo job. Drink?”
“No thanks,” Geoff said with a practiced ease, “I don’t do that anymore.”
Michael and Gavin were the first to reach the bar area, and when they spotted the two Geoffs they stopped dead.
They looked identical to the Michael and Gavin of Geoff’s universe. Geoff swallowed around a lump in his throat.
“Guys,” Alt-Geoff said, “Meet Geoff, he’s me from another dimension.”
“Hey boys,” Geoff waved at them, “just passing through. But I hear you lot know about the alien technology?”
“Uhhh.” Michael said. “Hmm. Yes. We do. Well, Gus knows more than us.”
“Then I need to talk to Gus as soon as possible.”
Gavin pointed to the device on Geoff’s arm. “Second Geoff. What’s that there?”
“Device that sends me through dimensions. It takes a few hours to charge.”
“Huh.”
Gavin bit his lip. He looked between the two Geoffs.
“Do you know what I’m thinking?”
Both Geoffs sighed.
“Yes, we do.” Alt-Geoff said.
“Unfortunately.” Geoff said. “I’m not cheating on my Gavin with you…” Geoff paused for a moment, thinking. “…Eighth Gavin? Ninth?”
“What if you shagged Geoff? Like, our Geoff. Is that cheating?”
“Excuse me,” Jack said, “but what the fuck is going on over here?”
Alt-Geoff sighed. “I only want to do this once, so we should explain everything with Gus present.”
“Fine with me.” Geoff said. “When can we leave?”
“Ryan was wearing gloves,” Jack said. “He never physically touched the device.”
“As much as anyone can physically touch something.” Gus added.
“Yeah, but the device didn’t care about that.”
“So he wasn’t part of the resets?” Geoff asked.
“Nope.” Michael answered. “Took us a little while to figure out how to get him to stop killing Gavin. Ray was smart enough to get behind cover. Then it took a bit more time to get me to stop killing Ryan.”
Gavin curled into Michael’s side on the couch. “For a while every reset started with a showdown between Ryan and me. Took us what, a dozen resets to sort out what was going on? Then Geoff and Jack found a way to talk him down.”
“We pretty much did what you did in your universe,” Michael continued, “got out, killed the Corpirate and all that, created the Fakes, and Ray had his experience with the device. Ryan left the very next day. He wasn’t going to be in a crew when he hated half of them.”
“Is he still active around here?” Geoff asked.
“Yep.” Alt-Geoff said. “But he won’t work with anyone anymore. Not even us. I think he felt betrayed, like Jack and I chose the Lads over him. In a way, I guess we did.”
“We changed and he didn’t.” Jack said. “I don’t blame him at all for leaving, but I miss him. We all do. We looked for him after Ray left, Gus managed to track him down, but then everything with Jeremy happened.”
Geoff almost spat out his coke. “That happened here too?”
“Did you end up brainwashing foreign royalty to avoid being assassinated by his guards?”
“Yep. But where’s Jeremy then?”
“He left too. Straight after. Shot himself in the head. Said now he knew how to save us, he had to do it for us in all the other universes too.”
A melancholy silence fell across the room.
“My Ryan killed a scientist before we ran into the Lads, in Zancudo.” Geoff said. “He took a glove off because it was covered in blood and he was with us for all of the resets. Him and Jeremy did some exploring together after getting info from The Inconvenience and accidentally contacted Ray. He was able to help us confront Prince James, gave Jeremy some advice, and we haven’t seen Ray since. That was three years ago.”
“So,” Alt-Geoff said quietly, “Your Ryan’s still around then? And Jeremy?”
Geoff nodded. “We ended up doing what you four’re doing, just with six. In my universe, Ryan loved the Lads as much as Jack and I. Here, I have a picture-“
Geoff froze, the blood draining from his face.
“You alright there?” Gavin asked.
Geoff rummaged through all his pockets, but he knew it was gone.
“My phone. I left it in the other universe.”
He slumped boneless against the couch.
“Great, now that’s gone forever. I didn’t get it back from Ryan.”
“We can get you another phone-“ Alt-Geoff started, but Geoff cut him off.
“I don’t have any photos of them anymore. I mean, I backed them all up but…”
“But they’re not here.” Jack finished.
“They’re not.”
“We’ll get you back to them.” Alt-Geoff promised. “Or to the right Mt Gordo. Whatever you need.”
Geoff sat up straight. “I need Gus to tell me everything about this device on my arm. I need to learn how to control it and get back to where I need to be.”
“Come on then,” Gus said, “We’ll talk downstairs.”
Gus’s basement looked a lot like… Gus’s basement. Tables were set up to hold various pieces of alien tech, and there was an experiment set up against the far wall. But while Gus’s basement was filled with alien tech, both active and destroyed, this Gus’s basement was almost bare. Geoff recognised the invisibility suit from one of the ED-Garde, and quite a few alien guns. He saw one completely busted pellet storage container, but that was it.
“Where’s all the stuff from Zancudo?” Geoff asked.
“You mean the laser cannon and the shield?” Michael clarified. “We keep them at the penthouse.”
“No, I meant the stuff from the second time. The pellet storage containers, the future cubes, you know. Or what about the alien tech from Prince James’ research outposts? The other one of these?” Geoff pointed to his left arm.
“…Second time?” Gavin said. “What do you mean second time?”
“Did you get stuck in Zancudo again?!” Alt-Geoff exclaimed.
“No! But Jeremy took us back to get pellet storage containers. For the guns? So we could take out the ED-Garde?”
“That’s not how we did it.” Michael said. “Jeremy convinced Colmillo Blanco to turn against Prince James. We separated him from his ED-Garde, used the helmet on him, and then used his alien EMP on the ED-Garde.”
“I… huh. Whatcha do about Colmillo Blanco afterwards?”
“Nothing. We gave them territory along the west coast and haven’t had any major problems with them since.”
“Oh. We uh, we wiped them out.”
“Then how did you handle all the new crews that popped up? We struggled with a lot of them.”
“We made them our allies instead.”
“Smart.”
“If you’re done gasbagging,” Gus interrupted, “Do you want to hear my thoughts on all this or what?”
Alt-Geoff and Geoff raised an eyebrow at him.
“Oh, you love gossip.” They said simultaneously, then looked at each other.
‘Go on,” Jack urged Gus.
“For starters, you can stop calling that thing a cube device.” Gus said. “It’s obviously a hypercube.”
“Hypercube?”
“It’s a fourth dimensional cube. Look at the way it moves- nothing else moves like that.”
“Oh.” Geoff said. “I know that.”
“You… knew.”
“Just didn’t know what it was called, is all. The fact that it worked after I broke a piece off kinda told me that.”
“Just shut up and let me talk for a few minutes, okay?”
“Alright, fine.”
“So this is a fourth dimensional cube. I think it’s attached to some fourth dimensional part of you, okay? You can’t use the fourth spacial dimension so you can’t remove it.”
“You think I’m fourth dimensional as well?”
“Why else wouldn’t it come off?”
“I don’t know. Magnets?”
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”
Now that he thought about, Geoff recalled the Gus from his universe saying something about a theory of his that was similar.
Gus moved to a table and picked up something off it. It took Geoff a couple of seconds to place it as Prince James’ sword. Very much in one piece, it glowed a gentle cyan as Gus brandished it.
“Uhhh…” Geoff said, taking a step back.
“Calm down. I have a theory about this sword and this might be the best time to test it.”
Michael took a hesitant step between them. “What are you trying to do, Gus?”
“Previous testing has shown this sword cuts through alien tech- tech that works in four dimensions. If I’m careful, I can probably cut the hypercube off him without hurting his three-dimensional self.”
“What about the part of me that’s fourth dimensional?!” Geoff shouted.
“No human’s ever used it before. You’ll probably be fine.”
“Uh, no.” Alt-Geoff said. “Nobody’s cutting any piece off anyone else here today. Not even in the name of science.”
“Second Geoff,” Gavin said, piping up for the first time, “You said Prince James had research outposts? Is that where you found the hypercube?”
“I think so.”
“How about we check them out and see if we can find the hypercube from this universe? We can do tests with it without anybody getting their fourth-dimensional arm cut off.”
“I don’t want this device off me. I just need to know how to use it, so as long as the testing doesn’t involve that sword… fine. After we beat Prince James, each outpost we found was abandoned. I don’t imagine anyone causing trouble for us if we poked around in them.”
Geoff straightened his back.
“This day just never ends, does it.”
Alt-Geoff looked at his watch. “It’s getting pretty late. Why doesn’t one of us take you back to the penthouse and you get some rest? We’ll check out the outposts.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. You’ve had a rough enough day. Let me take you home.”
“Alright, but let me know as soon as you find something.”
It was all Geoff could do to keep his eyes open for the majority of the way home. Alt-Geoff pointed him in the direction of the spare bedroom after Geoff had instinctively walked to the master bedroom.
It was weird, seeing Jeremy’s room once again Ray’s old room, just sparser. Most of Ray’s leftover things had been put in storage, but his old bed and desk remained. As soon as his head hit the pillow he was out like a light.
When he opened his eyes again, it was to sunlight coming in through a window. The room was quite warm. It was probably later in the day than he expected.
He showered, shaved, and when he came back there were fresh clothes waiting for him on the bed. One of Alt-Geoff’s suits, maybe even the exact same one from his universe that he wore yesterday, just one not completely covered in dirt and grime. He transferred his stuff from his old clothes to the new set, carefully checking it was all there.
Glock, spare magazine, knife, wallet, keys, breath mints, tape, and the thin box. Okay. He was ready to face the world.
This kinder one, at least.
The four Fakes were milling about the main area, clearly waiting for him. Jack and Michael played the new Red Dead on the TV while Alt-Geoff and Gavin looked over a pile of alien tech on the dining room table.
“Did you find it?” Geoff asked. Michael and Jack paused their game.
“No.” Alt-Geoff replied. “We found a bunch of tech that Gus is gonna drool over, but we didn’t see any cubes at all. Yes, we checked all the rooms from multiple angles, just in case it disappeared from some of them.”
Michael came over to the dining room, with Jack following along behind. “We also found the location to another outpost, but there was nothing there either. I think it’d been picked clean before us.”
Geoff tried to hide his disappointment but Jack, perceptive as always, saw right through him.
“We’re not out of options. I bet there’s a few more outposts neither of us have found-“
“No.” Geoff shook his head. “If it wasn’t in one of the ones uncovered in my universe, it won’t be in any new ones. That means we found it somewhere else.”
“Where else could you have?”
“I guess the second time I was in Zancudo? I threw a lot of future cubes. It’s not unlikely I picked a few more things up then I intended.”
He didn’t remember seeing it on the table with Jeremy’s device before the experiment. Could the hypercube have stayed in a future cube until the right moment for him to fall into it? Gus brought a future cube downstairs with him to do the shadow demonstration. Had it acted on its own, like the devices did?
Was there anything Geoff could have done to avoid ending up right here and now?
Except he was meant to be at Mt Gordo. Changing universes with the first device wasn’t accompanied with the strong feeling of wrongness, and the ripping sensations.
Whatever was planned for him had gone terribly wrong, and it hadn’t stopped.
He needed something better than another hypercube and Gus’s wild guesses. He needed a helmet. One that wouldn’t melt his brain as soon as he wore it. Something he could use to take control of the hypercube, like Gavin did with the ED-Garde tech.
“I’m sorry,” Alt-Geoff said, “but I won’t ask anyone here to go back to Zancudo.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to either.” Geoff said. “I don’t suppose you’d have any of those alien helmets still lying around?”
“We destroyed both of them.” Michael said. “Okay, well, I didn’t really mean to destroy the Corpirate’s one, but Jeremy said the other was too dangerous to use again.”
“Fair enough.”
“Hey,” Gavin said, and passed Geoff a phone. “I picked up one of these for you. Take a look at the pictures, would you? I know it’s not… what you lost, but it’s what our Geoff said he’d want…”
Geoff nodded his thanks and unlocked the phone. There were three pictures in the gallery. The first one Geoff actually recognised, because it was framed in his master bedroom. It was a shot of the three Gents, shortly before running into the Lads for the first time. Geoff and Jack were smiling into the camera, and a rarely-unmasked Ryan was smirking at them in the background.
The next photo was of the four remaining Fakes posing in front of a new motorbike. Over the bottom of the image a banner read “Happy Birthday Gavin!”. There was some sort of filter over the top.
The last image was of the living room just a few metres away. The top right half of Jack’s face sat in the foreground while Michael, Gavin, and Jeremy played Hitman on the couch.
It wasn’t them. It wasn’t the right them. It made something hot and scratchy build in Geoff’s throat. But until he could get back to his own universe, it was the best he was going to get.
“Thank you, they’re perfect.” Geoff said.
His eyes lingered over the photo of Jeremy.
“Did you bury him?” he asked softly.
Gavin shook his head. “Cremated with his device, ashes in the ocean.”
“You cremated his device as well? What happened to it after Jeremy changed universes?”
“He… changed universes and it sort of exploded with a red light. Michael says he thought he saw it split into two, like, make a copy of itself before it did, but nobody else saw it. Shattered into a hundred tiny pieces. We put them with the ashes.”
“Probably the safest thing to do. So that’s what happens in the universe left behind.”
Geoff looked at the device on his arm.
“I don’t think there’s anything more you can do to help me. I should get a move on.”
“You don’t have to leave this universe behind too.” Alt-Geoff said. “We talked it over last night, and if you want to stay, you’re welcome to. We’ll still help you try and get back, but we could definitely use another Geoff. I wouldn’t mind halving my workload.”
Geoff smiled again, showing teeth, but knew the fact he couldn’t accept was written all over his face.
“Thanks for the offer, but I can’t leave my family behind. Speaking of, I reckon you should give contacting Ryan another go. He’s worth the fight.”
Jack nodded. “We’ll try.”
With that, Geoff made his goodbyes, and spun the hypercube into action.
Ashes.
Geoff opened his eyes to a world of black and grey and white.
Alt-Geoff’s wild eyes stared back, but he recovered quickly and pulled Geoff to his feet.
“Come on,” Alt-Geoff said with a hoarse voice, “we gotta go, we gotta go,”
“Where?” Geoff said, then coughed.
Michael appeared from the haze, the laser cannon on his arm. Blood poured sluggishly from a wound on his neck. Tears left streaks of wet ash down his white-dusted face.
“Not the sewers.” Michael said. “Buried. We need to get out of the city.”
“Where’re the others?” Alt-Geoff asked.
“Jack didn’t make it. I’m sorry Geoff, I don’t know about anyone else.”
Alt-Geoff stumbled, and Geoff wrapped his arms around his middle. Hauling him up, Geoff pulled him up a curb and he leaned against a building.
Michael recognised Geoff.
“Are you real?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you can help. Our next best bet is Gus’s house. We need to-“
Three helicopters pierced the gloom and whipped the air into a storm. Geoff covered his face and staggered backwards a few paces.
Michael shut one eye, aimed, and released a beam that crossed the sky like a meteor.
It hit two of the helicopters, sending them spiralling towards the ground, as well as the corners of two adjacent buildings. They all fell onto the street with a crash.
The final helicopter released a stream of bullets in retaliation, and Michael fell apart. His body hit the street with a wet splash of blood, a few stray droplets hitting Geoff’s face.
Geoff and Alt-Geoff stood frozen, unable to look away from the corpse.
This might’ve saved their lives as, the helicopter seeing no more movement, moved on.
The dust settled around them once more.
Alt-Geoff collapsed to the footpath, a low, unending keening noise ripping from his throat.
“We have to go,” Geoff choked out.
It wasn’t his Michael.
It wasn’t his Michael.
But it was Michael’s tattoos, and Michael’s clothes, and Michael’s phone lying in a pile of rubbish by the curb, and it was Michael’s blood coating the ground and there would be no red flash to make all this go away.
Michael’s laser cannon.
Alt-Geoff had a secure grip on a fistful of Geoff’s jacket. Geoff tugged it free and the pocket tore loose. The breath mints scattered on the ground.
Michael’s laser cannon.
Geoff forced his legs to approach the body. A bit of bone- a vertebrae- caught Geoff’s eye through the rest of the gore.
Michael’s laser cannon.
It fell from Michael’s arm when Geoff pulled it off. A trickle of blood fell out of it. He tried to put it over his left arm but the hypercube stopped it. No point pointing it on his right arm. He wouldn’t be able to aim it well enough.
Geoff’s laser cannon.
He shoved it into Alt-Geoff’s arms.
“If any more helicopters come, you have to fend them off, okay?”
Alt-Geoff stared past him at Michael.
Geoff hauled him up and spun him around until they were eye to eye. Geoff waited until Alt-Geoff’s eyes locked on his.
He repeated himself.
“O-okay.” Alt-Geoff stuttered out. “We gotta go.”
One hand around Alt-Geoff’s waist, they disappeared into the ash.
Gus’s house was empty.
At least, Geoff assumed so until Alt-Geoff pointed towards the basement stairs. They made their way down and looked up to the confused eyes of Ryan and Jeremy.
Alt-Geoff fell into Ryan, who caught him before he could fall further.
“Geoff?” Jeremy asked. “What’s going on? Who’s- woah.”
“I’m him,” Geoff said, when Alt-Geoff didn’t reply. “from another universe. Passed through at the wrong time. What the fuck’s happening out there?”
“King James happened.”
“What?”
“He’s bombing Los Santos.”
“Did you see the others?” Ryan asked, but his eyes became downcast when he saw the cannon on Alt-Geoff’s arm. “You’re the first Fake we’ve seen since it all started.”
“Jack’s dead. I don’t know how. We saw Michael get cut in half by a shot from a helicopter. I’m sorry, I don’t know how to say that any easier. They’re both dead. We haven’t seen any others.”
Jeremy curled around Ryan and Alt-Geoff, holding them close.
“It’s my fault.” Alt-Geoff said. “Everyone’s dead because of me. It’s over.”
His legs gave out. Ryan struggled to support his suddenly limp weight. A hand fell to his stomach and came away red.
“He’s been hit by something.” Ryan said. “Come on, help me lay him out on the table.”
Only the faintest of tremors in his voice gave away how he felt.
Jeremy sniffed, but helped him. Together they laid him out and Jeremy lifted up his shirt and grimaced at the wound.
“What do we do, Ryan? Jack’s dead. Oh fuck, Jack’s dead.”
“Please, Jeremy, I need you here. Focus for me, okay?”
“Okay, Ryan. What now?”
“We need pressure, here and here. Can you find something clean to press on the wound?”
“I’ll look around.”
Jeremy brushed past Geoff and it jolted Geoff from his stillness. He had to help. How could he help? His covered in dust and ash, and he didn’t have near enough medical training for Alt-Geoff, considering the amount of blood that was now dripping out of him.
Water. Gus kept a bunch of water bottles in his laundry. Geoff bolted up the stairs and carried back with him as many as he could. He passed one to Ryan, who began to clean the wound.
“Thank you.”
“Ryan,” Geoff said, “Why is this happening? Why does your Geoff say it’s his fault?”
Jeremy returned with some white shirts and a first aid kit.
“James wants the rest of the alien tech. And Geoff sold him a device that lets him try and try again until he gets whatever he wants.”
“You-“ Geoff cut himself off, and tried again. “Was this after Zancudo? You sold the device to him? After what it did?”
“Before my time.” Jeremy gave Alt-Geoff a concerned look. “I assume he had a good reason.”
“I still don’t get why Prince James is bombing the city.”
“King James. And I think he’s drawing the military away from Zancudo. They have a hell of a lot of alien tech down there.”
The front door creaked open.
“Hello?” Lindsay’s voice called out.
“Lindsay!” Ryan replied. “We’re down here. Shut the door behind you.”
Lindsay came down the stairs and stopped dead.
“Which one is the original?”
Everyone pointed at Alt-Geoff on the table.
“Shit. Where is everyone else?”
“I’m sorry.” Geoff said. “Jack and Michael are dead.”
“Fuck, fucking-“
Lindsay sunk to her knees.
Geoff wrapped his arms around her.
“Gavin should be here.” Lindsay whispered. “He left ages before me. If he isn’t here…”
“We’ll wait for him as long as we can.” Ryan promised. His hands were covered in blood.
“We can’t stay here?”
“Not for too much longer. This place is small and hidden, but not that well hidden. Nobody drove here, did you?”
Geoff and Lindsay confirmed they didn’t. Geoff decided it was too risky, with the helicopters flying around. He probably would have risked a motorbike if he knew Alt-Geoff was injured. As it was, they stayed away from open spaces, snuck through suburbia, and hiked up the side of the mountain to Gus’s.
“That should keep us safe a little while longer, but I’d bet the King knows about this place thanks to that helmet of his, if not the exact location. He’ll want the research and what’s stored here. We need to leave before he gets here.”
Lindsay stood up, shaking Geoff’s arms away.
“Then we need to destroy as much of it as we can before he does. The laser cannon will take care of most of it, and we can burn this place to the ground when we leave.”
“That will draw them right here.” Jeremy said.
“We can’t give him what he wants!” Lindsay argued. “He took Michael and Jack and Burnie from us. Gavin is probably dead. We can’t give him this place. We can’t.”
“Lindsay.” Jeremy placed his hands on her shoulders. “He’ll kill us. Do you understand that?”
A cold resolve overtook Lindsay. She squared her shoulders.
“You guys leave as soon as you can. I’ll give you a few hours to get away and then I’ll torch this place myself.”
“Lindsay-“ Jeremy started.
“Zip it. I can make my own choices. Now, where’s the rest of this alien tech. I want to make a pile.”
Lindsay climbed back up the stairs and busied herself searching the house.
“Jeremy,” Ryan said, “I need you here.”
“… Right, sorry. Where do I hold?”
Geoff made no move to get off the floor. Burnie was dead. Gavin was most likely dead. Lindsay would be dead soon. He knew better than to try and change her mind.
Los Santos was destroyed.
Prince James was coming for them.
“Ryan, he won’t stop bleeding.” Jeremy said after a little while.
“I know, I know, but if we hold on a little longer-“
-“I think the damage is internal. We need a hospital, or a nurse or something. I don’t think we’re actually helping him.”
“No-“
“-Ryan. He’s not breathing.”
“No!”
Ryan took a saturated shirt off the wound and pressed a fresh one in. Blood dripped off the table and onto the floor.
“If we just- we need more gauze. He needs-“ Ryan stopped talking.
Jeremy grabbed his arms and pulled him away. Ryan allowed Jeremy to lead him to Geoff and sit him down next to him.
Jeremy placed one of the clean shirts over Alt-Geoff’s upper half.
“Geoff.” Jeremy said.
Geoff looked up at him.
Jeremy wiped his bloodied hands on his pants. “What do we do?”
“I don’t-“
“Don’t you fucking dare say you don’t know.”
Geoff swallowed heavily. He looked at the hypercube on his arm but eventually he dragged his eyes away. “The choppers Prince James has are Annihilators. I know NOOSE headquarters have a few. If we steal one, we might be able to get to an airstrip without getting shot to pieces.”
“There’s a little private one at Grapeseed.” Jeremy said. “Just past the Alamo Sea. Do you think they’d have planes there?”
“Probably. Ryan and I know how to pilot larger aircraft. If there’s one there, we might be able to get to the mainland.”
“Okay. That sounds… good. We’re gonna be okay.”
“Yeah.”
Jeremy destroyed the pile of alien tech Lindsay found with the laser cannon. They gave her a short goodbye and left with whatever they could carry. They headed east. Geoff knew where NOOSE headquarters were in relation to Gus’s house.
They stopped when it got dark and began again in the morning. The time in between allowed them a private moment to grieve.
Ryan hadn’t said a word the entire time.
“How much further, do you reckon?” Jeremy asked. He scratched the side of his head with the laser cannon, which he hadn’t taken off.
“We’re about three miles out, if I recognise that road. Which, I think I do.”
“How do you know so much about the land around NOOSE headquarters?”
“You told me.”
“I did?”
“In my universe, you spent a lot of time trying to kill the Fakes for Prince James. After that, you spent a hell of a long time trying to save us from his ED-Garde. Quite a few of your attempts involved helicopters from there, and we’ve utilised your knowledge since then. Always nice to know where the helicopters are on this island.”
“Am I pretty similar to your Jeremy?”
Geoff managed to smile at him. “Almost indistinguishable. But you don’t have his world-weariness that comes from getting stuck in a time loop. How did you end up leaving Prince James and joining the Fakes in this universe?”
“A couple of months after Geoff sold James the device, he hired me to kill him. I wanted to move up in his ranks, so I agreed. But you convinced me not to. You told me to try being a Fake first and I loved it. I mean, not you, Geoff, I mean my Geoff.”
“I call him Alt-Geoff in my head.”
“And then I slowly fell in love with Alt-Geoff and the others. Haven’t looked back. Even after yesterday, I don’t regret becoming a Fake. Anything was better than spending the rest of my life serving James, I came to realise.”
“Even getting stuck with the Fakes?”
Jeremy cracked a smile. “Are your Fakes… together, like mine were?”
Geoff nodded. “Ray included, until he left. You came later. I think it was just after Zancudo the second time that I figured out you were something special.”
“Zancudo the second time?”
Geoff started to explain, then backtracked and explained everything since he first met Jeremy at the docks. It was an interesting if not confusing story, and Geoff was happy to have someone he could tell the whole thing to. Someone who understood.
“So James has a working device, even if it’s in a terrible condition.”
“Yep.” Geoff confirmed.
“I wonder why he offered millions of dollars for the other one then? What can he do with two that he can’t with one?”
“I don’t think it’s about using them, Jeremy.” Geoff said.
“It’s about stopping everyone else from using it.” Ryan said. His voice was hoarse, and he cleared his throat before continuing. “The King James from your universe shows he doesn’t like using them himself. He just doesn’t want them to stop him.”
He looked at Geoff.
“Alt-Geoff sold King James the device because he claimed he could deactivate it without destroying it. Guess that turned out to be true. Geoff wanted the deactivated device back after a certain period of time to see if he could get visions like Ray did, but we know how that turned out.”
“Did Michael not destroy the device straight after Ray had those visions?”
“Not in our universe. King James, but he was still a Prince then I guess, got in contact with us the night before. We were more cautious with the device’s destruction after that.”
“Good to see you’re back with us, Ryan.” Jeremy said. “How are you holding up?”
“I’ll live. I know what we have to do next.”
“What?”
“Isn’t it obvious? King James isn’t using the devices. If we take out Zancudo before he gets to the heart of it, he’ll never get it back. Either of his two devices used after that can’t save Zancudo if it was destroyed beforehand.”
“Oh yeah?” Jeremy said. “How the hell are we gonna do that?”
“The same way Geoff did in his universe.” Ryan replied, pointing to the laser cannon.
The rest of the way to NOOSE headquarters was filled with quiet plans and all the details Geoff could provide about Zancudo. Once they came around the last mountain and the headquarters came into view, the talk stopped. There didn’t seem to be much activity going on- presumably most of their number had gone to fight King James.
Geoff knew of a back way in that didn’t trip any security alarms. There was a section of chain-link fence unattached to the security system, and it was easy to cut loose and peel back. Ryan frowned slightly when he saw the knife in Geoff’s hand but he didn’t say anything. Geoff made sure to carefully attach the fence back to its base.
It was still fairly early in the morning, so the shadows of vehicles and industry equipment helped them enter undetected. A lone guard wandered past but Ryan dealt with him before he could make a noise.
There was a dumpster up against a single storey building adjoining the main complex. Geoff and Ryan climbed up, and helped Jeremy join them. Together they gave him enough height to climb onto the roof and he hauled them up after him.
From there a decrepit looking ladder, or a fire escape of some sort, led to the roof. It had a cage around it with a pin pad lock but Geoff had used it three or four times before. An old code for an old, unused fire escape didn’t get changed very often, especially if the majority of the building’s occupants didn’t know it was there. The result of overworked and underpaid IT departments.
On the roof, an Annihilator sat waiting for them.
“It’s funny,” Jeremy said softly, “You’d think they would’ve fixed a security flaw like this after the first time you used it.”
“Only if they figure out how you did it.”
Plus a government agency that gets helicopters stolen from it once or twice a year tends to start to cover that up. Geoff is sure they have a set amount ready to write off each year thanks to the Fakes.
Geoff climbed into the pilot’s seat and prepped the Annihilator for take-off. Once everyone was ready, he took off as quickly as he dared and headed north east, towards Zancudo.
Zancudo rested at the base of Mount Josiah, a mountain with many craggy peaks and hidden valleys. Geoff followed the river down towards Zancudo, sticking close to the water. The ocean winds tossed the chopper around enough for Geoff to have to fight with the controls, but he managed.
As soon as Zancudo came into sight Geoff pulled up out of the valley and behind the protection of Mount Josiah. The airspace above Zancudo was crawling with helicopters and the ground scattered with evidence of a fight. Very low to the ground, Geoff hovered just to the side of a peak and turned to let Jeremy see Zancudo out the side.
“Are we close enough?” Ryan shouted to be heard over the wind. He sat in the gunner position, controlling two of the miniguns.
“We’re about half a mile away- that should be enough to reach most of the facility.” Geoff replied. “Ready when you are. You remember where to aim?” He directed at Jeremy.
“I do.”
Jeremy aimed the laser cannon and fired.
A cyan beam hurtled through the sky and disappeared into one of Zancudo’s runways. The beam snapped to the right and bisected a watchtower and two hangars. The light from the beam was obstructed by various aircraft exploding, a harsh red and yellow light engulfing it. Jeremy aimed the beam lower, cutting deep into the ground, until it finally petered out.
Jeremy let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“Alright,” Jeremy said, “duck around this peak and we’ll do it again at the next-“
“Incoming!” Ryan shouted.
Geoff peeled away from the mountaintop just as two helicopters approached and returned fire. Ryan managed to take down one with a minigun while Jeremy took care of the other. Geoff banked hard from the slope and flew towards a new peak.
As soon as Jeremy could see over the top of the peak, he let loose with the laser cannon. The beam tore into the bulk of the remaining buildings and a section below caved in, swallowing a building whole.
Six helicopters turned to face them and Geoff baulked at the sight.
“Right, I think that’s as much as we can do. Take out as many as you can and we’ll lose the rest up the coast.”
Jeremy’s laser cannon ripped one in half and sent the cockpit falling into another, causing them both to spiral down together. Another got close enough to return fire and Ryan gunned it down.
An errant air current swung the tail around, and Geoff gained altitude to regain control. One of the choppers suddenly shot forwards and fired its miniguns into the tail rotor system.
Ryan managed to get some bullets in the pilot before Geoff’s Annihilator hit the side of the mountain and tumbled down it.
Geoff tried to keep his limbs tucked in close, as much as he could for the duration of the crash. He knew he and Ryan were strapped in- Jeremy was not.
They didn’t fall far. Geoff was flying close to the ground and the chopper caught on a rock on the way down to the valley. The abrupt stop made Geoff bang his head against the headrest. He groaned, unclipped his harness and slid out of his seat onto the grass.
“Geoff?” Jeremy called out.
Geoff made his eyes focus on the voice a little way above him up the mountain. Jeremy was about twenty feet away, one of his legs twisted at an odd angle. He’d fallen out of the helicopter during the crash.
Jeremy pointed back towards the wrecked chopper.
“Ryan’s stuck, I can see him, please, can you-“
The three remaining helicopters approached.
Geoff looked where Jeremy pointed and saw Ryan tangled up in the metal of the gunner’s seat. He looked at Geoff with pleading eyes.
Geoff looked back at the helicopters.
Their miniguns would be in range soon. Seconds.
Geoff held his left arm up in front of him.
“Geoff?”
Refusing to look at either of them, Geoff spun the hypercube.
The world dissolved into billions of tiny strings and then nothing.
Geoff opened his eyes to Alt-Geoff’s shocked expression.
“What the fuck?!” Alt-Geoff exclaimed.
“I left them.” Geoff said. “I just- I left them there- what kind of-“
He threw up.