Saint Joseph School

Part One: A Mysterious Tragedy

The PA system crackles to life, causing the students and teachers to turn their heads.

Sister Mary Constance's voice echoes out. "Please remain quiet for an important announcement from Gemini. Thank you."

“Students and faculty of Saint Joseph School, this is Gemini. I have sad news to share with you all this morning. I’m sure some of you have already heard rumors on this subject. Hopefully, this information will help to dispel these rumors in favor of the truth of this mystery.

“Friday morning, we had an incident on a field trip which has resulted in the disappearance of over a dozen students. While learning about the history of the Citizen Crime Fighting Act, a fifteen passenger van vanished without a trace with all students inside. The van was parked near Perez Park, and vanished while their chaperones were distracted by an attempted arson started by some local Hellions. Witnesses reported that the van shimmered momentarily and then vanished in a flash of bright light. A cursory interrogation of nearby Circle Of Thorns mages, conducted by the chaperones, revealed no information.

“So far, no one has claimed responsibility for this act. There have been no ransom demands. There has been no information forthcoming from Hero Corps or any other organization who has been working the case since it occurred. Saint Joseph School would like to express its deepest concern about this incident. Rest assured we will be using our resources to ensure a safe return of our students.

“The missing students are all from the seventh through ninth grades. Among the missing students are David Andrias, Zoey Broussard, James Chandler, Jeffrey Chandler, Joey Harington, Dara Marks, Murphy Mercer, Jin Oshiro, Caitlin Reigner, Vashland Richter, Carlitta Schmidt, Lisa Shropshire, Diana Tredwell, and Trinitite Girl. Our hopes and prayers go out to them and to their families for a speedy and safe return.”

The PA system crackles to life again.

"Students, this is Gemini. Again, some of you may already have heard about some strange happenings with the comm system and the medivac system registering the presence of our missing students. Allow me to be the first to say: while we have located them, they are not out of danger. Allow me to read to to you all this communication I received today from a man called the Pilgrim, the representative of an organization called the Menders.

"'Ms Sinclair, it is a pleasure to work with you again. Oh, wait-- you haven't met me yet. No matter. We have located your students. They are alive, but far from safe. Allow me to explain, but please understand, you may not truly comprehend what it is I am about to tell you.

"'During a routine sweep of temporal anomalies, the Menders detected a nonstationary free-repeating terminal class three temporal shift: what you would probably call a "rip in the timespace continuum," though of course this is far from an accurate description of such an event. This anomaly has been drifting through timespace on a set course, though from your perspective it would seem as though it appears and disappears at random. As it is within the purview of the Menders to catalog and isolate such anomalies, we sent agents to the shift to investigate. Imagine our surprise when we found a group of young people inside a van trapped within the shift! And of course, when I say that, you will have to truly try to imagine it, because we already knew they would be there from the archives of the Menders. We were quite excited-- some of our researchers have been eagerly awaiting the rare opportunity to study this anomaly.

"'Due to the nature of the shift, the van and students did not fully phase between timestreams. An anomalous shift of this nature commonly results in an unfinished temporal gate, sometimes eddying around a particular event instead of forming a predictable wormhole. Instead, your students have been trapped in a continuum which I can only describe as "outside of normal time." It would take far too long to actually explain the particulars. However, using extremely primitive terms, the students have been nowhen. And they have been there for quite a while. At least, they have from your point of view. In the week they have been missing, your students and their van have experienced three years of chronological wear and tear-- or "aging," if you prefer. They have undoubtedly experienced some sort of communally forged non-temporal existence during their stay in the shift. The nature of their exact experience is unknown to us, and it is possible we may never know. Your students would likely experience their existence as a fading dream.

"'Of course, all of this is highly technical and somewhat irrelevant. What matters to you is what happens next, and I am pleased to report we have a solution! We're going to temporally assist the re-integration of your students into your timestream. Exciting, huh? Now, this is not without risk, and you should be aware that while we have been eagerly anticipating this opportunity, we are not entirely certain if it will work. However, the archives seem to suggest it will all be fine.

"'This re-integration should take approximately 72 of your hours, during which time, they may experience some or all of the following irregularities: the students may appear to be moving in fast motion; they may be unwilling to leave each other's company; they may experience rapid growth, either physically or in power level, or both; the students may appear blurry; they may phase in and out of visibility; they may be nauseous; their speech may not be recognizable as anything but sharp buzzing; they may recall events that have not occurred yet; they may jump forward or backward in mental and emotional development; they may experience drymouth. As we near the full phase shift at the end of the 72 hours, these irregularities will become less and less likely and of lesser severity. They will, however, be another year older, from your point of view.

"'Until we meet for the first time, I remain your friend, the Pilgrim.'

"So... that's about all we know. I'm having Doctor Oliver take a look at the communication and try to explain to me what the heck is actually going on. But what does seem to be apparent is that we should have all the missing students... uh, 're-integrated' by the end of the weekend. And since we have seen the students appear and then disappear again on the medivac grid, it would seem this process has already begun.

"We will continue to keep you updated as information becomes available to us."