"P3ToKKs?" Thomas asked.

"Yes! That's what it's called!" Taylor said.

"Listen, Taylor, that's great and all, but I'm not in the mood to star in a Micheal Bay film, let's go!"

Tom carried Taylor over to the car and drove off. Tom set his phone on the dashboard and monitored it for any semblance of a cellular signal.

"Why haven't you called Patricia to let her know we're okay?"

"The energy burst must've completely rendered any remaining cell towers in the area useless; to what extent, I have no way of knowing."

The two of them merged onto the dilapidated highway, weaving through the mass of abandoned cars. Upon entering Redwood, Tom's phone began to latch onto a nearby cell tower. "Not enough". Tom floored it and continued the route to Wimbledon. After a few minutes, Tom's phone reconnected to the network. He dialed Patricia's number and waited.

"The wireless customer you are calling is not avai-"

*SLAM*

Taylor stared at Tom.

"Sorry, I'm... just a little frustrated".

"So what happened?"

"Either she's out of range of the towers, not reconnected to the network yet, or her phone is dead."

*     *     *

"Maybe try turning it off and back on again?"

"Markus, the electromagnetic burst completely zapped it out. It's unusable."

"But what if I..."

Mark grabbed Patricia's phone and proceeded to perform the power-off cycle. Amazingly, the logo appeared on the screen.

"Told ya," he said, placing the phone down.

Patricia scoffed and picked it up once it had turned on.

"No signal. Welp, that's what ya get when we're driving through a remote part of the country."

"When's civilization?"

"Not for another hundred miles. Anerora's still up and running as far as I've been told."

The two sat in silence among the white noise ambience of the car on the road. Markus began to think about his time at the Olisdale Observatory, when he remembered something odd:

Markus was talking to Bruno about weekend plans, when two men in lab coats walked past them. Markus overheard their conversation and began to listen in.

"What's the report?"

"On October 17, 2011 our instruments picked up peculiar signals emanating from an unknown source. Based on the studies we've done on them, they originated about 1 AU from us. It's been long enough that whatever created that signal is now 100 million kilometers away. We..."

After that, the men were too far away for Markus to listen. Not thinking much of it, he shrugged it off.

"Holy crap!!!"

"What is it?"

"We've known about this for years!!!"

"What????"

"7 years ago I overheard a conversation from some scientists, saying they detected strange signals in 2011! They were talking about this!!! We've known the whole time!!"

"But that doesn't make sense... we were told those signals were an instrument malfunction! Do you remember who they were?"

"Not really. I just remember one was a yellowish fox."

Patricia stopped the car and stared down the road. "Him."

*     *     *

After seeing the sign, Tom looked down at his phone and spotted a bar of 3G cell service. He dialed Jaiden's phone number and waited for it to ring. After many tries during the trip, the first ring played. Soon after, Jaiden picked up the phone, letting Tom know everyone was okay and where they were.

Tom drove over to the abandoned West Bestern, where the group was located. After almost a year and a half the groups were finally reunited.

"This is incredible! How did you guys do it?" Tom asked.

"Well, after Nancy's frantic call, Marc had the idea of using the highway as a shield. Since the highways were built recently, he figured that they would be able to withstand the effects of the impact." Teresa explained.

"How the hell did he know that would work?"

"I don't know, I just had a feeling," Marc said.

The group hugged it and were all happy to see each other. As they celebrated, they heard the creak of the front door.

"What was that?" Jaiden asked.

The shattered glass strewn all over the floor of the lobby cracked as the creature wandered the halls. Marc pulled out his pistol, to the surprise of everyone else. As the figure entered the room, Marc fired at him, but missed.

"Nice shot, Marcsman," said Teresa.

"Truly, a nice shot," said the figure in a British accent.

"The hell are you doing here?! Identify yourself, who are you?!" yelled Marc.

The figure emerged into the light. Now visible to the group was an older yellowish fox donning a lab coat and browline glasses.

"My apologies for the spook, folks. My name is Paul Volt. I'm a scientist for the Olisdale Observatory and was studying the comet when it exploded."

Marc holstered his pistol and backed off. "So why are you here, then?"

"Well, I've been tracking you down for quite some time. On my own independent research a few years ago, I discovered you, your brother and I share a common ancestor, going back a few generations. But what's more important is that I could help you in saving the world," he explained.

Thomas and Marc were surprised at Volt's discovery. Before they could say anything, Nancy chimed in.

"Save the world?? Are you crazy??"

"Nancy!!" said the group.

"Ah, so you don't believe me," Paul adjusted his glasses, "come with me. I need to show you guys something".

Paul ushered the group into his minibus and drove off towards the research site. It was located just outside of the crater that the comet had created in East New London. Paul brought them into the tents and explained his research.

"Something I regret to not have informed anyone outside the Observatory of is the fact we've known about this comet years before anyone else."

"What??" the group said.

"The first time we found out about this comet was in October of 2011, where only our high-sensitivity equipment could pick up the signals. We knew this was something to keep an eye on, so over the next few years we analyzed the signals generated by it. Just under two years later was when we discovered this signal emanated from a calcium based comet. What was strange was that this comet wasn't like any other we had seen. The signals were generated from an unknown element inside of this calcium comet. Plus, there was some data that seemed to match with some of the other research..."

"What other research?" Thomas asked.

"Research on a brain phenomena you guys call... 'convoquers'"

*     *     *

"Ms. Av-zu-Kuntra! Ms. Av-zu-Kuntra!"

"Uhhh, hi?"

"Mary Pimlico, Channel 8 News. Do you mind if we interview you?"

"Regarding what?"

Before she could really say anything the cameras already started rolling.

"Good evening Fazia, I'm Mary Pimlico of Channel 8 News on the scene with Angel Av-zu-Kuntra, the 22 year old who, just five years ago, experienced mysterious visions which theorists have attributed to messages from the divine! Ms. Av-zu-Kuntra, please, tell us about your experience."

"Uhm... I... don't really wanna do this. Turn it off please?"

Angel walked away from the anchor, with the camera still locked on her. Once she had disappeared behind a nearby fence, the anchor picked back up.

"Erm... Sorry about that. In other news, just yesterday, popular video sharing site YouTube was announced to have been acquired by Google for $1.65 billion."

Angel continued walking, punching a phone number into her phone. She lifted it to her ear and waited for the call to go through. "I'm sorry, but the person you ca-" Angel shut the phone. As she was putting it away, it began to ring. She opened it again, and saw an Unknown Caller. She would usually hang up, but something about this call felt different. She answered.

"Hello?"

"Yes. Is this Angel?"

The voice was of an older man. Not too old, though.

"This is her. Who are you?"

"My name is Professor Volt. I work at the Olisdale Observatory, and I had just seen your segment on the news. Do you mind coming down here on Monday?"

Angel at first didn't trust Volt. What weirded her out was that she felt a compulsion to go along with it. She agreed to Volt's plan.

---