Malcolm and Gideon stood there, looking at the screen.
They stood there for so long that one of the Acme Company guards had to ask if everything was okay since there were no movements for such a long time.
The voice of the Acme Company guard which came from his HTB suit's comm. was what broke Malcolm out of his trance.
"How is this possible?" he asked, still looking at the screen. "How could a teleportation portal lead to an undefined destination?" he asked again.
After receiving no answers to both questions he spoke "There's no way a teleportation portal can possibly lead to an undefined destination, they just aren't built that way, there has to be a destination. It's just like stepping through a door in a house; stepping through a door would lead you to another room. Even if it was a window you stepped through, you would still end up somewhere, and that place is outside of the house. But this..." he paused after reaching there, not seeming to know how to continue.
"Don't mix it up" Gideon finally responded. He then spoke "There's a difference between Undefined and Disappear. They have been teleported somewhere; the teleportation portal has taken them somewhere. It's just that the destination wasn't specified by the teleportation control panel, which means the destination was most likely selected at random. This means the destination could be another teleportation portal somewhere on Earth or Mars or... somewhere... somewhere in time and space..."
"Fuck, listen to yourself man, this isn't some fantasy book! Having an unspecified destination is impossible! The only teleportation portal that was capable of doing that was the very first teleportation portal created by the pioneer scientists, are you saying..." Malcolm abruptly stopped in the middle of his words.
"That's the only possi..." "Shut the fuck up. That can't be" Malcolm cut Gideon off in the middle of his words then he added "It was reported that it was destroyed by those terrifying beasts. And that's most likely what happened, since the beasts have such a ferocious and destructive nature, not to talk of their size. But on the off chance that they didn't destroy it, do you really think the government and leaders of that time wouldn't destroy it or take it into custody. Do you really think they would overlook such an important detail? Or are you saying that another portal was created after the first? Or are you saying two teleportation portals were created from the start? Or maybe you're saying the government and leaders chose this rundown, abandoned place to store something so dangerous" Malcolm asked questions consecutively that towards the end of his words, he started looking crazed. His entire world was being turned upside down.
"I'm not saying anything; it could be any of that or none of it. However, one thing is certain, and that is, the culprits aren't here. So, we both need to go back and report the current situation to our superiors, because I don't know about you, but for me, the addition of this teleportation portal has made this whole thing above my pay grade" Gideon said in a matter-of-fact tone before calling Flame Lady through his HTB suit's comm. and flying away with her.
"Where are they? Why are we leaving?" Flame Lady asked Gideon as they flew away, she didn't know why they were leaving without exerting their revenge, without the heads of Leng Shi and Lei Shi.
"I'll explain on the way. Something crazy has happened, and we need to go back to HQ immediately to report it." Gideon replied her. The appearance of the teleportation portal wasn't a matter to be trifled with. And if not for any reason, he wanted to get as far away as possible from the teleportation portal, because only God knows what may happen next.
Malcolm on the other hand was still distressed; he inwardly cursed Gideon for being so sly as to leave something so hot with him. In the end, he left some guards behind to guard the remains of the teleportation portal and went to report it.
Later on, the superiors of both Acme Company and Kangaroo Corps reported the existence of the teleportation portal to United Earth's law enforcement agency, which after learning of it, immediately came and took it into custody.
It wasn't that the idea of rebuilding the teleportation portal didn't come to their mind, it was that it was too risky for them, if some terrifying Beasts invade Earth through the portal, that would be catastrophic and they would be the first to meet their doom.
Secondly, if they hid it and the law enforcement agency caught wind of it, they would receive the full-force attack of the entire humans of Earth. They might even be destroyed by the humans on their side before humans from other powers get the chance to.
Lastly, they didn't want to be blackmailed. If Acme Company decided to keep it, Kangaroo Corps might blackmail them and use the threat of reporting them to the law enforcement agency and the world to extort them, and vice versa if Kangaroo Corps decided to keep the teleportation portal.
Besides, hiding it would've been difficult because such a large group of Acme Company guards were present and killing them all wasn't impossible; however, it wasn't profitable to Acme Company at all.
They chose to report it and even ended up being viewed as honest and decent by the rest of the world, and that in turn improved their image and business.
…
Leng Shi and Lei Shi, on the other hand, weren't better off.
After being sucked into the teleportation portal, they saw mixture different colors and their bodies felt like they were being stretched and compressed at the same time; they could hear noise and silence at the same time, sometimes they felt like they would be torn apart while sometimes they felt they would harden into rock.
They then saw themselves, and they reached to hold each others hand, but before their hands could touch, light flashed, blinding them, next thing they saw was darkness, then nothing.
…
"Arrgh" Lei Shi groaned. He felt like a mountain was placed on his body and felt intense heat burning him from all directions.
"Grunt" Lei Shi it with a grunt as he forced himself up, breaking out of his restrictions.
*Poof*
Bright-yellow sand splashed in every direction, revealing Lei Shi as he came out of the ground.
*Brrr* bright light from the sun flashed into Lei Shi's eyes, the glare blurring his vision.
"Where am I? Where is Leng Shi? Where is this place?" he asked as he looked around.
After looking around, he found that there was bright-yellow sand in every direction around him, for as far the eye could see. The only other noteworthy thing was the bright sun which hung in the sky, releasing unforgiving heat. He was in a desert.
"Goddamned Ryan, never there when you need him" Lei Shi said as he opened and replayed the auto-recording of his HTB suit, so as to check if it captured the coordinates that was on the control panel of the teleportation portal as he and Leng Shi were in a great rush when they jumped into the teleportation portal.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Lei Shi exclaimed when he saw the recording. In the paused video, he could see the word "Undefined" written on the screen of the control panel.
"What's Undefined supposed to mean?" Lei Shi asked. After receiving no response since there was no AI Monitor to explain to him, he asked his HTB suit's encyclopedia, hoping to get a clear answer.
In less than a second, he got an answer, one which left him dumbstruck.
"You gotta be shitting me!" he exclaimed, on the verge of losing it.
The encyclopedia told him that there was no way a teleportation portal could have had an undefined destination. That there only was one case where a teleportation had an undefined destination, and that was when the Pioneer scientists who invented the first teleportation portal decided to try a teleportation which had an unspecified destination, the result of which was the Invasion of the Beasts which laid waste to humanity and Earth, causing humans to flee from Earth.
"What kind of sick joke is this?" Lei Shi couldn't believe what he was reading. "I must be in the Sahara desert or some other desert" he Activated his HTB suit's GPS tracking system.
"Sorry, No Available Satellite" was the response his HTB suit gave him.
After getting such reply, he was at a loss for words.
It had to be known that due to the advancement throughout the centuries, Earth and Mars had improved to the point that wherever you were on the planets, you would be able to receive satellite reception. Even if the satellites couldn't see you through their lenses, they would at least be able to locate you through your GPS signal, whether you were in the Bermuda Triangle or Kong Island. But now that he was being told that there was not a single satellite available, Lei Shi couldn't help but feel a little distressed.
"Hahaha, the level of this Genjutsu is mad!" Lei Shi laughed and said "I know what's happening. My Rank 4 HTB suit is so busted up that it's GPS is also faulty" he looked at himself.
Truly, his HTB suit was busted up at many parts, especially at his legs. These were from all the fights he Leng Shi had gotten into earlier.
*Swoosh*
Lei Shi brought out the Rank 6 HTB suit vessel, which he had taken from Acme Research Company, from his HTB suit's storage compartment.