It wasn’t Grandpa as I knew him either. It was Grandpa from old newsreels and recordings. I had a few in the lab—accidental recordings from when Grandpa was tinkering with various versions of the sonic systems and test recordings that he’d used for years to assure consistency in the official Rocket suit voice.

It also wasn’t just Grandpa.

I also heard the rest of the team—Captain Commando, Night Wolf, C, the Mentalist, and Grandma.

We were close to the hallway, still walking across grass and pushing past shrubs. The voices hadn’t grown any louder or clearer, but they also hadn’t grown softer.

On the off-chance that it wasn’t all in my head, I’d checked the HUD’s screen for sonic system details. It didn’t show anything in the range of the human voice, only the white noise associated with walking across the ground.

Over the comm, I asked, “Is anyone else hearing things?”

Jaclyn held up a hand for us to stop walking, “What are you hearing?”

“At this moment? Nothing,” the voices had stopped, “but as we’ve been walking I’ve been intermittently hearing voices, and not just any voices, the original League.”

Marcus blinked, “That’s so cool. Grandpa mentioned time travel adventures. Do you think they’re here?”

I checked my HUD’s view of data from the device that measured my placement in time and alternate universes relative to ours. It hadn’t set off any alarms, so it wasn’t surprising that we were still in our home universe and timeline.

Of the various statistics that the temporal sensors collected, none showed abnormal levels as Grandpa defined them. What was interesting though, was that none of them were set to zero.

All showed levels that fit individually within random fluctuations, but most of the time it meant that the majority showed nothing while one had meaningless blips of activity.

“I don’t think so,” I said, “but check the temporal stats in your HUD.”

Marcus frowned, “None of them are high enough to show nearby time travel.”

Jaclyn broke in as he stopped talking, “But all of them are active. That’s weird.”

“And not from any particular direction from what I’m seeing,” I turned around, giving the whole area a quick sweep.

Rachel held up her hands, “If you’re looking for alien insights, I’m fresh out and I’m not hearing anything.”

Marcus grinned at me, “Hearing voices is supposed to be a bad thing.”

I nodded, “Yeah. I’m pretty sure I’m not going mad, but if I am, you’ll be the first to know.”

Stopping at the entrance to the hallway, Marcus said, “I’m looking forward to it.”

If I was expecting the hallway to be a revelation, it wasn’t. Made of the same red substance as the rest of the building on the ceiling, walls, and floors, it  curved, going on for as far as I could see with no windows or doors.

As we stepped into it, I felt the same thing I’d felt outside again—the feeling that there was something here, but nothing I could see.

“Rocket,” Rachel said, “do you feel something right now?”

“Yes,” My eyes swept the hall in case there was something to see.

“It’s an Artificer control panel or a device you can operate. The Ghosts told me not to reach out to them unless I knew what they were. I recognized the controls that got us in, but nothing else.”

Rachel shook her head, “Some of them are traps. Ghosts have accidentally signaled the Destroy faction and barely escaped.”

Ahead, Cassie pointed to the gun in her hand, “That might explain something. The gun hasn’t said a thing since we entered the hallway. I think he’s scared.”

“Really, what’s he seeing?” I stared down at the glittery blue-green weapon.

“Who knows? I think it’s the first time he’s shut up since I’ve known him,” Cassie shook her head. “I don’t see anything special when I use ‘gun-o-vision’.”

I hadn’t figured out all the sources of the gun’s view of the world. Cassie could tap into it through her link and from what she could sense, it was every bit as good as what I’d included in the suits, but it might be that the gun was holding out on her.

Turning her head toward Cassie, Jaclyn said, “Can’t you command him to tell you because of your Citizen’s Mark?”

“Normally,” Cassie peered down at the weapon, “but not with this.”

We continued to walk as we talked, but as we passed a spot with a door-shaped line on the wall, I had the “Artificer controls” feeling again. This time it was accompanied by a pulse followed by a voice.

“Nick,” Lee said, “I’m glad you made it here—in more than one sense. I’ve got a problem—multiple problems—but they come down to one in the end. I’ve got a nice little pocket universe hideaway where I’ve kept a few important things but I can’t get out of it. You’re in a position to help.”