#108

“So...” Jacob cries over the sound of the wind. “What now?”

“I'm not entirely sure!” Doctor Kai replies. “The Manor doesn't seem confident in responding to mental commands. I think we're just stuck falling here.”

“Can Yorick use his new powers or whatever they are to blast us upward?” Mina asks.

“He could theoretically use such a blast to cushion our fall, but I don't know to what extent we can...control him.”

“So we're screwed, then?” Mark says.

Doctor Kai doesn't respond. Mark's suggestion could be the case, but it's not over yet.

He can sense that there are roughly 260,000 more feet to go before they hit the ground; they could only have a few minutes. He knows what he has to do.

Walking as best as he can, as the air continues to rush out through the gaping hole in The House's side, he goes towards a wall, which suddenly blinks open like an eye and transforms into a computer screen.

“Wait! Isn't that going to get us in trouble?” Jacob cries. “I mean, that is what you said, right?”

“Probably! But I've got to try it! I hate to say it, but the old...Codger is the only one who can save us now...”

Mark considers that “Codger” is the rough male equivalent to “Crone”, but suspects that the Old Man has too much pride to call himself such a thing. It makes sense; referring to oneself with such a name must be embarrassing. Mark has distant memories of being a misogynist, which he ignores as he concludes that the Old Man's equivalent must just be some sort of “Old Woman”, presumably also intersex. Didn't he also used to be transphobic...?

In his confusion, Mark almost releases his grip on Susie, but she pulls him back in.

Doctor Kai opens up a folder on the Desktop, labeled “DO NOT USE AT THIS TIME”. Inside, there's an executable—a distress beacon. He double clicks and just waits.

Klaus and Mina are close to the breach, so they are the only ones who watch as the wood outside of McGee Manor seems to...morph. It's as if a large (eldritch) tentacle is emerging from the paneling, which slowly fattens, as if it's something that Mina would rather not think about right now. It seems to be turning into an ornate and boil-covered tube of sorts, which makes the metaphor considered even worse.

It is then that this tube turns out be a horn, which sounds a deafening cry over all the land. Which is to say, literally all of it. Everyone on Earth-Beta-3 hears this cry, but only two listening to it matter.

At the next second, The House flashes white, and vanishes. With its contents, of course.