MHA #16 - Thursday Evening

[itsananomaly]

It had been a very long couple of days since Cutter had been called back unexpectedly to deal with an anomaly related emergency, that had turned out to be the disappearance of a young girl and her dog who had gone through an anomaly. When he had gotten back home and to the site, only the dog had returned.

That had left Cutter and Stephen to go after the girl through the anomaly and had ended up in the Silurian era, only they hadn’t been able to go through the original anomaly and had had to make their way to another anomaly while keeping the girl safe.

In addition to dealing with various Silurian creatures, they’d also found out there was another team operating in the anomaly and that cemented Cutter’s suspicions that someone higher up was involved … he was suspecting it was Lester but that seemed almost too obvious and Connor had told him at Christmas to keep an on both Lester and Leek.

Despite everything though it had given Cutter a chance to talk to Stephen, really talk to Stephen and while he knew things were never going to go back the way that they were before … it had been progress at least and they were more or less on the same page now, so despite spending most of the day trapped in the Silurian era … it hadn’t turned out to badly, they’d rescued the girl and got her home safely and Cutter and Stephen were talking again.

Now he just had to figure out what to do about the traitor at the ARC. He knew he should draft some kind of lesson plan but that was the last thing that he felt like doing, he sent a quick message to Connor to let him know he was back and sank onto the lounge, lost in thought.

[open!]

Comments

[anomaly_research_nerd]

Hopefully, you weren't getting too lost in thought there Cutter. One of the downsides of having someone you know living literally across the hall is that when you essentially summon them to your place, it doesn't take long for them to show up.

And so not too long after Connor got said message, he headed across the hall and knocked on Cutter's door. Rex seemed to have picked up on Connor's concern over not hearing from his friend the last few days. Which was probably why he had followed Connor out the door and stood there chirping expectantly at the door as well.

[itsananomaly]

Cutter blinked a little at the sound of knocking and got up w the couch to make his way over to open the door, “hello Connor, Rex,” he smiled, really glad to see both of them after the last couple of days.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

When Connor saw Cutter and that he really was ok he nearly gave the man a huge hug of relief. But he caught himself, remembering Cutter wasn't that fond of that sort of thing. So Connor left it at a hand going towards the shoulder and a relieved smile.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again mate!"

[itsananomaly]

Cutter would have been fine with a hug, in these particular circumstances but honestly he was just relieved to be back in Fandom after everything.

He looked a little sheepish, “noted, even though I could have done with more warning about the Silurian era,“ he added, “I think you left out a few details,”

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Bugs a bit bigger?" Connor asked with a slight wince. "Sorry Cutter.... But, at least ya came through... whatever it was... alright and in one pice."

[itsananomaly]

“Just a little bit,” Cutter said with a slight grin to show he wasn’t mad and also because he and Stephen had given his Connor a bit of a hard time already, so he didn’t feel the need to do the same to this Connor, “not to mention dealing with another team operating in the anomaly, the Siluarian era was a lot more dangerous than I anticipated but we got through it … rescued the girl and … Stephen and I are talking again,” he added.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Oh good, I mean you and Stephen and all. Though another team messing around with the anomalies, that.... that doesn't sound like a good thing really...." Connor said bitting his lip slightly.

He remembered all too well the chain of events that had unfolded what seemed like so long ago for him. And it was eating him up inside.

"Do... ummm. Do you have any theories, about who might be leading the other team?"

[itsananomaly]

"I'm still leaning towards Lester, it has to be someone high up ... who has the connections and funds to be running another covert team," Cutter hesitated, "I know you did say to keep an eye on Leek as well, there's something about him that seems ... off,"

That was a bit of an understatement.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"It... it went a lot farther than we thought. At least, back for me. In my timeline," Connor said slowly. He hesitated a moment and then asked the question he really had been worried the most about while Cutter was MIA. "Did Helen turn up at all?"

[itsananomaly]

"Helen?" Cutter blinked, "No I never ran into her this time," he said, unaware that Stephen had been extremely close with Helen, there was a pause and then, "is she involved in this?"

it really wouldn't surprise him.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"More than any of us ever realized," Connor said simply. "Most of the bloody insanity back home traced back to Helen...in some way. I doubt your version of her is all that more stable. Ummm... no offense, Professor," he added quickly with an apologetic shrug.

[itsananomaly]

“None taken,” Cutter replied, he considered that tibet of information, frowning, “does that mean Helen's involved with the covert team that attacked us in the anomalies? She's working with the traitor?"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"She was," Connor said with a nod, emphasizing the 'was' since he was pretty sure it was the same for Cutter now but couldn't know 100% for sure yet. "Orchestrated a good number of things too. "I know you and.. " Connor bit his lip to stop himself from adding a 'Stephen' in there too. "You still have feelings for Helen. To an extent. But... she's bad news Cutter. Possibly even more than you realize. None of us really started putting it all together until.. well... a lot happened that we might have been able to avoid if she wasn't a factor in things."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to process everything, “I wonder if she’s said anything to Stephen?” he considered, which he knew would be a tricky topic to get back to after everything and they’d only just started talking again, “maybe she’s given him some kind of information that we can use to figure out who the traitor it, get to the bottom of everything,”

Well she had but she had tried to make it look like Cutter had been the traitor, not that he knew that.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"It could be worth trying to find out," Connor said slowly. "How have.... how have Leek and Lester been getting on? At each other's throats as usual?"

It had been that way before, and without being there he was having to rely on the other Connor's updates to figure out what exactly was going on.

[itsananomaly]

"I think so," Cutter tried to remember what he had noticed between the two, "even though to be fair Lester doesn't really get along with anyone, I just thought the tension was just their normal interactions," he admitted.

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"The Leek I knew was a lot craftier than any of us gave him credit for. That odd vibe? Probably best to not ignore it.... If our shared timelines are similar enough."

[itsananomaly]

Cutter took note of that, "I'll definitely keep a closer eye on him then, or at least ask the others to look out for him for me," he realised keeping an eye on Leek while he was in Fandom was a bit more tricky, "hopefully, we'll be able to figure out what Leek is up to,"

[anomaly_research_nerd]

"Well at least for the here and now things seemed to have settled down a bit. That's good. Another anomaly disaster dealt with" Connor said with a nod because really, he had been worried about something happening to Cutter. "Rex is glad too" he said as Rex climbed up onto his shoulder and gave a happy chirp at Cutter.