A Line of Red: After

"I cant' believe he's really--" "This is terrible! Without the High Ground--" "It's not like we can't still--" "Don't be stupid!" "Kid Infinity wouldn't--” "--makes you think that--" "--and we all counted on him--" "--do we know he's even--" "--the rest of us?" "What are we--" "--gather our forces and--" "Who could've--" "--an idiot; that'll never--" "--have doubts about--" "What about his--" "--should we--" "--I like that ide--" "--they say any--" "--media's having--" "--people are panicking and--" "--and anyone with--" "--aybe they should--" "--that'll just--" "I propose that we simply--" "--then what hap--"

The lights dimmed and the chatter subsided. A man walked out onto the empty stage in front of them, visible though no lights shone on him. He glowed.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice," the man said, "I'm aware that many of you have your own cities and your own teams to worry about, so I will try to make my explanation short."

"Allow me to sweep the primary concern for many of you away from the very first: Though the Coalition's satellite has been destroyed, and with it the Corridors that connected its members, the Coalition itself will remain. This is not the first time we have been disconnected, and it almost certainly won't be the last; we'll find a way.”

"Finally, on the subject of Kid Infinity." The glowing man could feel the intensity of the attentions on him double. "Kid Infinity is missing. While it is true that we have no evidence that he is alive, we also have no evidence that he is dead. To borrow a military term, he is to be considered MIA, and it is advised that you function as if there were no possibility of his return."

"As to the subject of High Ground's destruction: As should be obvious, it was attacked yesterday afternoon, when it was unmanned with the exception of Kid Infinity. This suggests either poor planning in an attempt to strike the High Ground at its weakest, or else a personal attack on Kid Infinity himself."

"However, the latter seems unlikely when looking at the attacker's primary target: the Corridor Hall."

Silence.

"Um," a woman said, breaking the silence, "What's a Corridor?"

"What the--" another audience member said, "Who the hell invited Royal?"

"I will go where I please, you buffoon."

"Get out of here you bimbo!"

"WHAT? Now listen here, you arroga--"

"ENOUGH," the glowing man bellowed.

"But she--"

"I don't care. Now if the both of you don't sit down and shut up, I will remove you personally."

"Very well."

"A Corridor, for the ignorant, is a passage between two points, but isn't constrained by space or time." the glowing man said, "It's how the Coalition kept in touch with its 34th-century arm, for example."

"And the Corridor Hall..." Royal said, letting herself trail off.

"Contained all of the Corridors the Coalition had access to," the glowing man said, rolling his eyes. "And it seems our attackers knew of this; if they did nothing else, but managed to destroy the Corridor Hall, we would have been crippled regardless."

"Kid Infinity knew this, too," the glowing man continued. "From what we have been able to surmise, he went straight for the Corridor Hall, and faced the machines attacking the High Ground there. Naturally, he easily dispatched them."

"At this point, something impossible--or rather, thought impossible--occurred."

"Yeah, because THAT doesn't happen every couple of years!" Laughter. Nervous, forced laughter, but laughter all the same.

"Corridors pass through an extremely volatile plane," the glowing man said, "one that would tear its travelers apart under normal circumstances. The Corridors are lined with a series of sophisticated magics to grantee safe, if nauseating passage. These magics can not survive without the destructive power of the Corridor plane to feed them."

"And yet... we've found evidence of these magics lurking in the remains of the High Groun--" he stops. He puts two fingers to his left ear, and turns slightly from his audience.

"You found--? That's incred--! Can you bring it down?" He lowered his hand again, and closed his eyes. Then he turned back to his audience.

"That was the team scouring the wreckage," the glowing man explained. "In a few minutes we'll be able to show you exactly what happened. Please, be patient."