Number Eight {The Umbrella Academy} -- [On Hold]

Sixteen

"Hold on, hold the phone." Klaus tapped the bar twice, then waved his hand around, continuing. "We all died fighting this thing the first time around. Remember?"

"Klaus, shockingly, has a point. What gives us a win this time?" Diego asked.

I began to hear a rumbling noise, and there was a flickering light coming from above the bar. A portal opened up, and Diego dragged me backwards against the shelves as someone fell onto the counter.

"Je-Jesus!" Allison exclaimed, stumbling backwards.

"You guys, am I still high, or do you see him too?" Klays asked, halfway off the couch. The person on the counter was Five, and he was covered in dust and scratches, groaning.

"Five, where have you been?" Luther demanded, then lunged forward as our brother tumbled off the counter, helping him stand.

"Are you alright?" Allison asked.

"What the hell happened to you?" I stared at him, and he waved us off.

"Irrelevant," He muttered, grabbing Allison's coffee cup from her hand and walking away from us. He chugged the entire cup, then turned back towards us.

"So, the apocalypse is in three days. The only chance we have to save our world is, well, us," Five said, gesturing with the empty cup.

"The Umbrella Academy," Luther added.

"Yeah, but with me obviously. So if y'all don't get your sideshow acts together, and get over yourselves, we're screwed. Who cares if Dad messed us up. Are we gonna let that define us?" Klaus shook his head hesitantly. "No. And to give us a fighting chance to see next week, I've come back with a lead." He pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. "I know who caused the apocalypse. This is who we have to stop."

Allison took the paper from him as Diego and I came around the bar. She unfolded it, and I saw that it was a memo of sorts, sent to Hazel and Cha-Cha. It read 'Reassignment: Protect Harold Jenkins'.

"Harold Jenkins?" Allison read out loud, and I looked back at Five, who drained a few drops of coffee from the cup then stared back at me.

"Who the hell is Harold Jenkins?" Diego asked.

"I don't know..." Five chucked the coffee cup behind him. "Yet. But I do know that he's responsible for the apocalypse. So we have to find him. And we have to do it now."

"How is he connected to what's gonna happen?" Luther asked.

"I don't know."

"Wait, so you just know his name? That's it?" Diego asked.

"That's enough."

"There's probably dozens of Harold Jenkins' in the city."

"Well, we just better start looking, then."

"What, we're just gonna take out every Harold Jenkins we come across?" I laughed. "And besides, what if he doesn't mean to cause the apocalypse. Like, what if he just accidentally does something that causes it. What if we're tracking down an innocent man, Five?"

"Vivian, the life of one innocent man is not more important than the billions of lives on this planet."

"I'm sorry, am I the only one that's skeptical here? How exactly do you know all this about what's his name?" Allison asked.

"Harold Jenkins. You know those lunatics in masks who attacked the house?"

"Yeah, I think I remember those guys," Klaus said, plopping down on the couch.

"The ones that kidnapped, tortured then killed me?" I asked, my voice full of sarcasm.

"All while you were getting drunk?" Diego added.