Chapter Text
Eve met William at the entrance to the base, her eyes flicking to Kyubok and immediately focusing on the mask. Kyubok just stared for a moment. He'd expected Eve to have a bit more hair. Buzzed was a good look for her though. Maybe he'd recommend it to her when he next visited Sebastian.
“Hey William, is this the speedster?”
“Yes. His name is Jeong Kyubok and he was going to introduce himself to us, we didn't need to try SACRIFICING ONE OF US-”
“Okay, okay, I get it. Hey Jeong, what's up with the mask?”
Kyubok snorted.
“Call me Kyubok. The mask is because I am a massive fan of Robot, and I want to help find him.”
Saying that he was a massive fan of Robot made Kyubok want to throw up. Better than going on a whole spiel about alternate timelines though.
“So why are you covering your face?”
“I don't want to put my family in danger by having my face caught on camera by a Viltrumite.”
“You're safe here.”
“I don't want to take chances.”
Eve glanced at William. She trusted his judgement. Was the mask staying on or coming off? He just shrugged.
“Let him keep the mask on. I know what he looks like, so if we need to get him in an emergency I'll just grab him.”
Eve sighed, leading the way to the tacticians tent. As they walked through the rebels, a few turned to stare at Kyubok.
He ignored them, focused on following Eve. He wasn't here to socialise.
She led him to a tent with a bunch of computers, stepping aside and glancing over them.
“This was where Robot did his thing. If it helps find him.”
Kyubok nodded, sitting down in front of the main computer and putting in a password. It declined, so he tried another. This time it worked, flicking open all of Robot's information.
Eve stared at the screen for a while before glancing at William.
“How did he do that so fast?”
William shrugged. For now, he wasn't going to question how Kyubok knew anything. He seemed to know what he was doing, and he seemed harmless enough to the rebels. Good enough for now.
Kyubok just opened a few folders, scanning for information before finally opening a mission briefing that neither Eve or William had seen so far.
He pulled it up to fill the screen, glancing back at Eve.
“Have you seen this?”
She leaned forward, frowning as she read the headline.
[MG Restoration Project]
“No. What's it for?”
“Reviving Monster Girl apparently. Was she injured?”
“Yeah… Near death last we saw her. We'd assumed that she'd died and Robot had gone to bury the body somewhere.”
“Well, now you know she's alive. He’ll be at the bottom of Mt Everest, sending drones up the mountain to retrieve a Cerulean Cosmos. Or he's already working on healing her.”
Eve raised an eyebrow as she scanned over the mission briefing. It was quite vague. Cerulean Cosmos was mentioned as a goal, but it didn't say what it did.
“How do you know that?”
Kyubok's eyes wrinkled with his masked smile.
“That's a secret. Now, should I go grab Robot on my own or do one of you want to come with me?”
William glanced at Eve. She stared back at him.
“I'll go-”
“William, you are human. I can at least make myself some protection before we go barreling to Mt Everest.”
“Oh come on, I know Kyubok better.”
“All the more reason for me to go! I want to get to know him too!”
Kyubok just watched, amused.
After a moment of glaring at each other, William glanced at Kyubok with a defeated sigh.
“Is it alright for Eve to go with you?”
“Yeah, why wouldn't it be?”
William gave him a very exasperated look. Kyubok just picked Eve up in his arms and adjusted his watch, speeding away.
Rudy sat by Amanda's bed, carefully giving her medicine. She'd recovered a fair bit while they'd been here. Still not enough, but it was better.
She was getting there.
He glanced up from the bed as he heard a distant noise. It was getting closer.
He moved to cover Amanda, sending a few drones out the front armed with weapons capable of distracting Viltrumites. Just long enough for the drone with Amanda to get away.
Through the eyes of the drones outside, Rudy watched as a green and bronze streak flashed across the landscape towards him.
He barely had time to process before a stranger (with a mask that Rudy was definitely going to question him about )skidded to a stop a fair distance away from the drones, putting Eve down.
Rudy put the weapons away. For now. If Eve was here, the stranger should be alright too.
She paused, glancing at the two drones and trying to figure out which one she should talk to first. The stranger made the decision first, just walking up to the closest drone.
“Good morning Robot, how's Monster Girl doing?”
Rudy's guard went back up again quickly.
“She's fine. Who are you?”
Eve decided to just follow Kyubok, walking up to the Robot he was talking to.
“Robot, this is Kyubok. He helped us find you.”
Robot didn't trust him.
“How'd he do that?”
“I know your passwords. One of the seventeen would have worked eventually.”
Eve glanced at Kyubok, a lot more concerned than before. Robot, seeing that, made sure that his weapons were ready.
“And how do you know my passwords?”
“Long story. Basically, I've met another you from the future or something, and he said that I needed to know them for some reason.”
Kyubok shrugged. Eve and Robot both just stared at him.
“That's why I'm here. Future you.”
“That is highly improbable.”
“Then why did I show up when you guys were needing a speedster?”
“Lucky guess.”
“How do I know all your passwords?”
“You seem smart, you probably gained access to them on your own.”
“Not a fan of time travel, are you?”
“If time travel existed, I would have travelled back to a time when the Emperor was in William’s classes and killed him.”
Kyubok raised an eyebrow at that. Robot was quite fond of coming up with extreme solutions, wasn't he?
Eve stepped in front of Kyubok, her eyes locked on Robot.
“Please just come back to the base. Kyubok can grab the flower to heal Amanda if you really need it, but we need you. Rex is still missing and we're pretty sure that Immortal was captured by the Viltrumites. Not to mention the Emperor is back and looks a lot older, so he's probably an even bigger threat now.”
Robot sighed, glancing up the mountain. She was pretty much recovered now, Amanda just needed to wake up.
“Fine, we will return to the base as soon as possible. I only have one request.”
Eve nodded.
“What is it?”
“Keep that smartass speedster away from me.”