Selfless Series Box Set

by S Breaker

  “The human brain is a funny thing. We still haven’t really figured out how it all works,” Maia admitted, looking sheepish.

  Noah sighed heavily. “So there’s nothing we can do but wait?”

  “You know,” Maia went on. “In basic neurology, a treatment suggestion that might help to get your memory back is for you to see or hear familiar things, things from the past,” she suggested. Then she glanced over at Noah again. “Noah, maybe you can try to jog her memory by talking about what happened last time.”

  Noah shot her a wary look. “Like what?”

  “Like Paris,” Berry-AI suggested.

  “I went to Paris last time?” Laney’s eyes were wide in eagerness.

  Noah rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and you drooled all over your ex-boyfriend.”

  Laney’s jaw dropped. “I did not!” She turned to Berry-AI, her nose wrinkled. “Did I?”

  Berry-AI only smirked in response.

  P.T. beeped and whirred as if piling on.

  “Oh god, maybe this is a little late in the game, but do I really need all these memories back?” Laney asked, making a face. “I mean, can’t you just fix me right now, regardless of what I do and don’t remember?” she asked, looking at Berry-AI and Maia in turn.

  “Well, what we’re attempting is already tricky enough as it is,” Maia replied with an uneasy fidget. “It would go smoother if everything was the way it was and you were back to your normal self. But don’t worry,” she reassured again. “You’re not going to forget any memories you’ve formed since. You’ll simply retrieve the lost ones.”

  Laney knew Maia was probably right, but she felt incredibly disappointed and helpless. And she had a sinking feeling in her stomach as the ‘best case scenario’ in her mind dissolved completely. She wasn’t going to be back home any time soon, not tomorrow, maybe not even in a few days. She might be lucky if she would be back home this week.

  “Let me run some more tests so we can figure out exactly what happened,” Maia offered, giving her an apologetic look. “But it may take a few more hours for the results of the chem panels.”

  “A few hours?” Laney moaned, clutching at her stomach. “I’m starving. Any place we can get some food around here?”

  “The University cafeteria is—,” Noah began.

  “—repulsive,” Maia cut in, her eyes wide. “Why don’t you take Laney to that café down the street and get some waffles?” she told Noah.

  At that, Noah gave Maia a dull look, pausing, before he let out another resigned sigh. “Fine, let’s go,” he said, gesturing for Laney to come along.

  “Waffles?” Laney repeated. “Isn’t it like way past lunchtime?”

  “So?” Maia looked puzzled. “You can have waffles any time.”

  All-day breakfast. Sure, why not? Laney thought.

  Berry-AI stayed at Dr. Chambers’ lab to assist with the next lot of tests, as well as to analyze some of the findings so far, in case it could help Berry with formulating Laney’s cure back at GNR, while Laney and Noah walked down the street to look for some food.

  “There’re vending machines everywhere,” Noah pointed out. “Can’t you just pick out a granola bar or something?”

  Laney stopped walking. “Oh my god, is that bacon?” She sniffed. “I smell bacon cooking. Oh my god, I’m super starving. I need to eat real food!” She gave Noah a pointed look. “I don’t know what it was like for you at ninja camp, but a bottle of whey from a vending machine definitely does not an entire meal make.”

  Noah huffed. “Like I’ve told you before, I’m not a ninja. I’m a scientist.”

  Laney stared at his back, then she dropped a glance down at P.T. again in her pocket. “Sure, a scientist that looks like that. Science camps would be mobbed, huh?” she mumbled so Noah couldn’t hear.

  Turning the corner, they found the source of the bacon scent at a small street-side café. The quaint café had tables set up on the sidewalk underneath little green-striped umbrellas. And upon finding a table, and sitting down, Laney gawked at the menu.

  “I don’t understand,” she said, turning the cardboard menu over on its back and over again, looking for something. “Where are the prices?”

  “The what?”

  “How much are things so you know what to pay for them?”

  Noah blinked at her. “They’re free.”

  Laney’s eyes popped out. “They’re what?”

  “Everything is free,” Noah relayed, speaking to her as though she was a child.

  “You guys don’t pay for things? You don’t use money, like at all?”

  “The use of money was abolished sometime in mid-1950. If you notice, we don’t exactly have any shortage of anything around here.”

  She shook her head in disbelief. “Okay, I’m sold. I love this world. Maybe I will stay here.”

  Noah shot her a weird look. “Sold?”

  Laney dismissed it with a brief wave. “Maia was trying to convince me that there were worse things in the multiverse than being stuck in this dimension,” she relayed. “I mean, obviously I couldn’t possibly stay here, but I understand her point. And I mean, no snakes? All-day breakfast? Free food? World peace? Come on!” she exclaimed. “Who in their right mind would have trouble choosing which dimension to live in?”

  Noah gave her a flat look. “In the meantime, do you think you could choose a meal so I can place an order sometime this week?”

  Laney threw up her hands. “I don’t know how to choose now. If everything is free, I want everything.”

  He mocked. “That is such a your-world thing to say.”

  She made a face at him. “Alright already.” She glanced down at the menu again. “Just get me a toasted English muffin, with bacon and eggs—crispy bacon, eggs over-easy—oh, and hold the ketchup.”

  “No ketchup? Alright, weirdo.”

  “Oh, and a cranberry juice, but if they don’t have that, peach iced tea, but if they don’t have that, then I’ll just have water—still, not sparkling.”

  “Oh my god.” He sighed. “Maybe you should order your own stuff.”

  But she simply stuck her chin up at him, not intimidated.

  And while Noah went up to the counter to order the food, Laney looked around at the other café patrons, watching people walk past, and she couldn’t help a smile to herself.

  She watched as an air drone flew out of the door just then carrying a paper bag of food. Food delivery by air drone. Nice, she thought, grinning to herself as she watched the drone fly up higher into the air. “Look, P.T.,” she said, gesturing before the drone disappeared around the corner.

  For whatever reason, Laney felt very comfortable hanging out at the café. It was another one of those things that felt eerily familiar. And she wondered if Eleanor had used to go there often and if that was a memory bleeding through right then.

  Then her smile faded as she remembered a similar coffee shop that she and her friends frequented just outside campus, and thinking if she would ever be able to go there again, if the last time that she had been there with them was the last time…ever.

  Noah came back with the food, instantly noticing the glum expression on Laney’s face. “What’s wrong?” he prompted, as he set down two small plates with toasted English muffins on them.

  Laney looked up. “Uh, nothing.” She dismissed the thought. It was just like Noah had said. She needed to focus on the mission as it was the only way she would ever be able to get back to her world. Expedience. Not distractions. “Thanks.” She gave him a cursory smile as she started on the food.

  He watched her uncertainly for a moment, then he must have concluded that she was okay, as he began to eat his food as well.

  “Hey,” she started again, sounding hesitant. “Can I ask you something—and you won’t just like grunt and ignore me?”

  He tilted his head, looking a bit wary, but otherwise attentive. “Let’s see.”

  “Doesn’t it feel weird?” Laney asked, with her eyebrows raised. “You’
ve been to other parallel worlds—other worlds that are so different from this one. You have the knowledge that it didn’t have to be this way, here, like this. That it can be and it is different elsewhere,” she finished, looking intense.

  Noah paused.

  It was a fair question. One he already knew the answer to as it had been almost two years since their team had made the initial breakthrough of discovering the other parallel worlds.

  He met her gaze. “This world is my home,” he said. “It’s as simple as that. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “Home,” Laney repeated softly, recalling Maia’s insights about the concept. “I guess I consider home as being a place where my family is.” She thought for a moment. “Maia and Berry mentioned that you all age faster in this world. Does that mean your parents are super-duper old by now? Do they still live around here?” she wanted to know.

  Noah stiffened a little. “They would if they were still alive,” he replied. “As a direct result of the genetic mutation, since our brain cells develop faster, they degrade faster too, which doesn’t exactly bode well for the rest of the body.”

  Laney’s mouth dropped open in alarm. “Oh, oh god, I’m so sorry!”

  He pursed his lips, unaffected. Naturally, it was painful to lose your family early on, but it was also something that people in this world were accustomed to.

  Of course, it must have seemed more grave from this Laney’s perspective. It occurred to him that Laney’s parents were probably both alive and well, and would be for several more years to come. “Are…your parents around much?” he asked.

  She met his gaze, surprised at his question, but she nodded. She didn’t want to dwell on the topic as it seemed cruel and unfair to him, but she realized that Noah would have had no idea what it was like to have grown-up parents. “Sometimes more than I’d like,” she said ruefully, before meeting his gaze again to add, almost sympathetically. “It’s awesome.”

  A corner of his mouth turned up at how she had balanced her statement, but he just went back to eating his food.

  Then he winced, hissing slightly as the salty seasoning on his food grazed the cut on his mouth, which hadn’t yet healed from when Laney had phased and attacked him in Berry’s office back at GNR.

  Laney looked up, wincing as she realized what it was. “Oh, I’m—so sorry about that too, by the way.” She gestured to his cut. “If I hurt you.”

  Noah paused for a moment. “I’ve had worse,” he told her. “And if I’m not mistaken, now that you’re back, I have a feeling it’s all downhill from here,” he said with a smirk.

  She laughed lightly, her shoulders shaking. And almost instinctively, she reached her hand out to touch the corner of his mouth with her fingers, and Noah drew back quickly. She blinked. “Sorry.” She dropped her hand, feeling like she just got drenched with a bucket of cold water.

  Chill the heck out, Carter. You are absolutely not on a date, she scolded herself.

  She cleared her throat, averting her gaze momentarily before looking back at him. “Um, we were supposed to be refreshing my memory about what happened last time. I know you didn’t want to talk about it.”

  But Noah’s gaze had dropped to his HUD as he discreetly fiddled with it under the table and he didn’t respond.

  Laney stared at him. “Um, hello?” She waved a hand in his face.

  “Hmm.”

  “Memories? Basic neurology? What Maia said? Paris?”

  He didn’t look up. “You’ll remember it eventually anyway.”

  “And what if I don’t?”

  “Hmm.”

  Laney rolled her eyes. “I don’t suppose you guys have a rule about no cellphones at the dinner table in this dimension, huh?”

  “What?” He finally looked up.

  She gave him a pointed look. “Do you have to be doing all that right now?” she asked, looking exasperated.

  “It’s a message from the President,” Noah explained. “I need to come in for a debriefing later today.”

  “Oh.” Laney’s jaw dropped again. “Whoa. Okay. Cool, a meeting with the President.”

  “And Maia needs us to come back to the lab to do some more tests, so she can recalibrate the test chamber before you can have another go later today,” he said, hurrying up to eat his food. “So we’d better get back to the lab ASAP.”

  She nodded, even as she frowned. She was so not looking forward to that. She didn’t want to keep getting her hopes up only to be disappointed again in the end. But as always, she knew she didn’t really have a choice. The odds were just never in her favor.

  But Noah was eyeing Laney’s plate. “Are you going to eat your spiced tomato?”

  The Alliance

  “I thought you were a genius,” Laney was saying in disbelief as she and Noah were walking back to the University after lunch. “We’re talking about a grilled tomato—so no, technically, I don’t think it’s entirely cooked,” she told him, gesturing with her hand.

  Noah rolled his eyes. “What kind of person doesn’t eat raw tomatoes anyway?”

  “Hey, it’s a legitimate condition! Some people just lack those certain taste receptors,” she stated, sounding authoritative.

  “Oh, some people lack those certain taste receptors,” Noah echoed in mocking. “Look who’s sounding like a scientist again.”

  She shot him a strange look but was unable to stifle her laughter. “What?” she asked, giving him an almost offended gaze.

  Noah shook his head in mirth, recalling the last time she tried to sound like a scientist, back in Paris. But before his mind could wander on that thought just then, Noah saw a shadow move from the corner of his eye and his expression neutralized.

  He creased his forehead as he thought he glimpsed someone following them from behind, but when he turned to look, all he could see was the several random people on the street.

  Noah tugged on Laney’s hand, turning the wrong way around a corner on purpose to draw out the person following them. “Laney,” he started.

  “What?”

  “Don’t panic, okay?”

  She shot him an annoyed, instantly alarmed look. “How the hell am I supposed to respond to that?”

  “Listen,” he urged. “I think we’re being followed, so what’s going to happen is, as soon as we turn this corner, I’m going to start running. Do you think you can keep up with me?” he prompted.

  Her eyes were wide. “Is that really a question you want answered?”

  In her pocket, P.T. chirped twice.

  “Sshh, not now, P.T.,” she hissed.

  Noah kept walking as though nothing was wrong, waiting to reach the street corner. “I thought I felt someone watching us on the airship, but I thought it was nothing,” he relayed in a low voice.

  “And here I thought you said my life wasn’t in danger this time around,” she mused, her heart already beginning to pound in her chest in dread.

  “I never said your life wasn’t in danger,” he corrected. “I thought nobody was trying to kill you. There’s a difference.”

  “Okay, so now someone is trying to kill me too,” Laney stated.

  “I’m guessing that would be an affirmative,” he acknowledged.

  P.T. chirped twice again and Laney glanced down. “What?” she prompted, taking P.T. out of her pocket.

  And just as they came up to the corner, P.T. burst a sudden puff of white smoke, which punctuated Noah’s breaking into a run as he shot off.

  His eyes widened. “Was that a freaking smokescreen?”

  Laney’s eyes were wide too. “What the hell!” she exclaimed, even as she tracked behind Noah, slipping P.T. back in her pocket. “Good job, P.T.!”

  “Some upgrade,” Noah remarked. “Tell me if it’s hiding some type of getaway vehicle in there.”

  Laney grinned. “I guess we’ll see,” she said, already breathless as she struggled to keep up with Noah’s long strides. “This feels—familiar,” she gasped after a moment, referring to the running.


  Noah smirked. “I’ll bet.” He glanced over his shoulder discreetly, but the agents following them had realized that they had been discovered, and they no longer made an effort to hide themselves as they came trampling over the handful of people on the sidewalk, inciting several ‘Hey’ and ‘Watch where you’re going’ as they pushed and shoved past.

  Noah cursed sharply as one of them appeared a few feet away ahead to block their way. And when he glanced back, there were three coming at them from behind as well.

  Noah leaped at the one blocking the way to quickly disarm him, while Laney vaulted up over a bus bench parkour-style, before delivering a swift, spinning kick to one of the agents behind them.

  Noah swatted the agent unconscious then he looked up. “Laney!”

  He watched in bewilderment as she set off to attack three more agents all at once—effortlessly, before he fought past a few agents himself, running up toward her, and bracing himself with his back to hers.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, glancing sideways.

  “Apparently, I’m doing your job, Donovan,” she replied, pausing before she launched herself onto another agent coming toward her and easily subdued him.

  Noah’s eyes lit up in recognition.

  Laney was “phased” again. This time to “Kickass Ninja” chick.

  But Noah didn’t have time to worry about that just then. And at least she wasn’t trying to kill him for a change.

  Agents were coming in from everywhere, and at the moment, Laney was succeeding in clobbering them all, one by one.

  Noah blinked, impressed. Whoa.

  Laney felled another agent before she glanced back at him, raising her eyebrows in a prompt, “Well?”

  He bit back another smirk as he followed suit behind her.

  She was headed purposefully away from the open area, toward the top of a hilly landscaped garden, out of which another half-dozen agents were emerging.

  Then Noah spotted Laney coming back at him.

  “Heads up!” she called out.

  As if instinctively, Noah reached his hand out for her and she anchored onto it, while the rest of her flew up sideways, tracking her feet up onto and across a wall, before landing a couple of effective kicks at two agents coming up from behind.