“We are kept up to date with the Academy’s Glitching activity, down to the second, in case a crisis like this ever occurs,” Callaway went on, and I saw the other kids exchanging questioning looks with their partners. I didn’t even bother since my partner was a biter. “For that reason, we know that there are four Glitch agents who were mid-mission when the system went down.” I saw the face of almost every person in attendance go white at this new bit of information. If there were four agents mid-mission when the Academy lost power, then those agents had no way of making it back to the present. They were stuck in whatever time they’d been sent to. Worse than that, if left in that time period for too long, they would inevitably become Butterflies themselves, meddling with the ebb and flow of time by their very presence. No one asked why agents were Glitching at this time of night, since we knew that missions happened at all hours.

“So now, despite the fear I know you are all feeling, I must ask you all to rise to the occasion for the sake of the Academy,” Callaway went on, talking over the nervous murmuring. “We are going to send each partner team after one of those agents. Your job will be to bring them back to the present. Preferably intact.”

“But we’ve never actually time traveled before,” said Blake.

“That doesn’t matter at the moment,” Callaway said. “Trust me, I’m not happy about this situation either, but all of the staff here at the mountain have been deactivated, which means that you are the only option.”

“What about the Butterflies?” I asked. “The ones the agents were sent in to catch in the first place? What about their missions?”

Callaway sighed. “Right now, we just need to retrieve our agents. We will have to send them back in once the Academy is online again.” His lips pressed into a thin line as he didn’t say what everyone there was thinking, that the Academy might never be back online, that we didn’t know what was left of the Academy or the people in it. The thought made me feel as if the bottom had dropped out of my stomach. The Academy had been the only home I’d ever known before coming to the mountain. Everything and everyone I knew was on that island, and now we didn’t know what had happened to them.

“Is this a hostile takeover by Mayhem?” Regan asked, and my head snapped over to look at her. But she ignored me, her arms crossing over her chest as she stood a little taller and looked at Callaway.

“Well?” she prompted.