It was the height of the second world war and the Americans were desperate for some technology or weapon to give them an edge against the Nazis and their allies. Funding a number of projects led by a number of scientists all looking for something that could win the war for the allies. One such scientist who had money tossed his way was Albert Einstein who was working on trying to create a new kind of stealth technology.
This later famous or rather infamous project was dubbed Project Rainbow a.k.a The Philadelphia Experiment. It had Einstein build a complex EMF generator on the USS Eldridge. The device was sent to both block out radar and even bend light to render the vessel both invisible and undetectable to enemy scanners. The device required a lot of power however so Einstein was doubtful the device could be mass produced, just a few destroyers with the tech could be enough to turn the tide.
With everything set up and the Eldridge crewed, the scientist teams and military all gathered to watch the demonstration as Einstein activated the device. “This is Project Rainbow's first field test. We've got scanners ready. Generators powered and the captain says he's ready.” Einstein nodded and spoke in his signature accident. “Well zen what are we waiting for? Start ze test.” The man nodded and radioed in the command. “From what I understand it's possible we'll lose contact with the ship as the signal will block out radios. So if anything goes wrong we might not know until it's too late.”
Einstein nodded. “These men know ze risks, it's what they signed up for.” The boat started moving as its device powered up, everyone at the edge of their seat as the ship seemed to bend and warp until it was no longer visible. “It worked! Holy crap it actually works! Einstein, you really are a genius.” Einstein wasn't smiling though. “Something iz wrong, even if invisible, one should be able to see waves breaking on ze side of the boat by looking closely enough.” Several small boats floated around till one went right through where the once boat was.
Einstein’s eyes widened. “It's… gone. Where did it go? It shouldn't be able to just vanish or teleport like that, since it wasn't built for that.” The military man gestured to the group. “Run a search, no body rests till that boat and our men are found.” Einstein pulled lightly at his hair as he stressed out. “Did I miss something? How could I possibly miscalculate to such an extreme?” Eventually, after hours of searching later, one of the teams reported the boat to be found dead in the water miles down the shoreline. Einstein and several members of the military quickly moved to investigate the site.
The Eldridge was dead in the water, several spots of damage throughout but the ship was mostly intact and should have been in working order. The team boarded the ship and started looking for the crew. They found one crewman in the hallway, halfway fused with the wall and dead. Everyone on the boat had gone either threw a wall or floor part way, the shock alone of having their flesh fixed with stone and metal was enough to cause the men to faint or day with only a few survivors all of whom had to have amputations performed and were either catatonic, unconscious, or mumbling nonsense.
Einstein spent the next three days looking over the wreckage as he waited for one of the men to be in a good enough state to talk to, scratching his head as he looked back and forth at his notes, equations, and the equipment. He even took a sample of mold he found growing on part of the ship that dissolved completely as if it was never there. “It doesn't make any sense, it shouldn't have vanished and I have no idea where it went. Where could it have gone? It didn't simply teleport to the location miles away, that would have been instant. In fact, based on the ship's speed it traveled the same distance in the same time it would have meant it didn't go anywhere. And that moss sample… Where did it come from and where did it go? Nothing was left and that defies all logic.”
Einstein scratched his head as he flipped through his notes. “It didn't go anywhere… but it wasn't here. Unseen, intangible, not invisible, simply someplace else but right where it should have been at the same time.” Einstein’s eyes lit up. “No… there's no way…” He double, triple l, and quadruple checked his notes before rushing off to the military hospital where the survivors were being kept demanding to speak to one right away. Einstein forced his way into a room where they were trying to sedate a crewman that had woken up.
Einstein grabbed the man by the shoulder and shook him lightly. “Where was that ship during the missing hour? Where did you go, what did you see!” The nurse scolded Einstein. “He's in no state to talk sir, give us space to work here.” The young Ensign grabbed Einstein back, rambling and shouting. “The sky is alive! The sky is alive! Watching, waiting. Oh god it knows we're here, it's known for nearly two hundred years! He watches with his yellow eye, and feeds on the fears of our children! Beware, for his hunger knows no end. The Boogieman’s coming! In our closets, under our bed, in our nightmares, in our heads!”
The Ensign started pulling at his hair. “Oh god it's inside me, you can't let it spread. Within the Darkness of this world, just beneath the shadows.” The staff finally managed to sedate the man and slowly removed Einstein who just stood outside the room in a state of shock. He nearly jumped out of his skin and punched a man when he felt a hand suddenly land on his shoulder from behind only to see a man in a suit who showed some form of government i.d. “I'm Director Hawks of Black Flag, and I'd like a moment of your time in private.”
Einstein was used to secrecy but he had never heard of Black Flag before. The identification looked legitimate so he agreed to speak in private. “To keep things short my organisation deals with the unusual, keeping people safe from the shadows. We've already got me working on a cover story. This project never happened or was a failure. The device malfunctioned and exploded harming the crew and nothing interesting happened. Do I make myself clear?”
Einstein pulled at his hair a bit in frustration. “But you don't realize the implications of this discovery! That nut case Finkton was right! He's been right this entire time. There's an entire other-earth we can't even see and by mistake I sent those men there. What they saw on the other side was so traumatic that it dwarfed losing limbs and getting fused with the ship because the transfer of material between worlds must be proportional to density causing the ship and crew to shift through at different rates.”
Hawkes sighed as Einstein continued. “This changes everything we know about science, it challenges everything. By God, Finkton was right! Do you have-” Hawks interrupted the excited scientist. “We know.” Einstein continued for a moment. “Any idea what this- … Wait…. You know?” Hawkes nodded. “My ancestor and predecessor worked on the Finkton case. My family has been in the thick of it since this nation was founded. Please don't ask about the civil war, we don't talk about it.”
Einstein paced back and forth a few times. “I can't just go back to normal, I can't pretend everything is fine. I can't just unlearn or forget about this.” Hawkes sighed. “Well you could join my team as a researcher, but you'll still have your obligations to the nation. Everything you learn from my organization stays with the organization.” Einstein put his hand on his chin as he considered his options. “I want to know everything. I need to know everything. I don't care what horrors I have to learn or face, I can't simply turn back now.”
Hawkes nodded and reached out his hand. “Welcome to Black Flag, Professor Einstein.” Einstein shook the man's hand and nodded. Although he continued normal projects as well he was introduced to the world of monsters. Cryptids walked the earth and it was Black Flag’s job to hunt them down and keep it all secret. Researchers like himself helped create new weapons to fight the threats and study what the men brought in. It was difficult to balance working with them and his normal life but Einstein managed to continue through things living a sort of double life.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
As Einstein searched for answers and continued his normal research, eventually the war ended and things got a bit easier with him no longer needed to work on new weapons technologies for the war. There was always work to be done, new discoveries waiting to be made. Not once, despite the stressful hard work, did Einstein ever regret working with Black Flag and looking at the corpses of the monsters to find something that could help protect humanity from them.
Einstein quickly made improvements on the strange weapon designs the organisation already used, giving them slightly more advanced technology then the rest of the world just to hunt monsters. Despite his best efforts Einstein was never able to reproduce the results of the Eldridge on any scale indicating a variable was missing.
Years passed and the world continued to change. With the Roswell debacle in ‘57 and the civil rights movement on the rise two major changes had to come to Black Flag. The first was due to the American Secrets Act. Black Flag could no longer guarantee its secrets as a government organization. As such it was rebranded and restructured as a civilian PMC under the new name Black Eagle. With the civil rights movement the restructured organization had to reevaluate how it treated Doppelgangers and the Non-human citizen protection agreement was eventually put into place. Time marched on and stopped for no one, Einstein spent the rest of his life secretly researching Cryptids and looking for answers
A much younger Jiryu Ishwada and a man that looked a lot like James but around the same age as Ishwada were sitting at a table each with a woman at their side looking at several open binders pointing at the different things. “I get we want different things Jiryu, but we have to agree on a location or we'll never get things done. So far the only thing we've settled on is having Falcone officiate the weddings.” Ishwada rubbed on his face in frustration. “It's actually quite simple Jack, I want an outdoor wedding among cherry blossoms. You were the one that insisted we have both our weddings on the same day and at the same location. During an election year no less.”
Jack's fiancee pointed at one of the binders. “What about this place in Miami Florida, it's a park with apple and cherry blossoms and looks beautiful. We don't have to worry about winter weather or cold so all we have to do is make sure we pick a day with no rain.” Ishwada and his fiancee look at the pictures for the location and nod. “Great work Bonnie, we can start sending invitations and let Frank know we picked a location. Do we have any relatives that'll be flying in from outside the states?”
Jack and Bonnie both shake their heads. “One of our other soldier friends who served with us lives in London and will have to fly in, other than that everyone lives in the state on our end. I imagine you still have family in Japan.” Ishwada nodded. “Yeah, and counting Father Falcone, everyone we served with that's still alive will be there. Assuming Frenchie actually hops on a plane.” Jack shook his head. “That short bastard isn't even French, how did he get that nickname again?” Ishwada chuckled. “Because no one could run away from an active battlefield as fast as him.”
With invitations sent the two couples eventually made their way to the airport in Miami Florida. Signs for Reagan’s ‘84 campaign were posted in almost every lawn. The two couples stretched as they made their exits of the commercial plane. Ishwada takes a big deep breath of the air. “It's actually not bad down here. Though a bit humid.” Jack pointed to an area in the lobby. “Let's get our bags and wait over there for Frenchie.”
At London airport a very short man and a second taller guy were making their way through customs. “Why are we going to America for this wedding again? I thought you wanted nothing to do with the states after the war. Besides, you know how they feel about same sex relationships over there.” The short man sighed. “Same as over here I guess, it's not legal for men to marry in most of Europe either. Jack saved my life, I owe him.” The talker man sighed as he got checked. “They call you Frenchie, you're not even French.” The short man shrugged. “Yeah but I sure as shit could run like one. I don't know, let's just get this trip over with and hope no one in Florida asks us any leading questions.”
The couple boarded the plane and after the standard pre-flight safety stuff the plane lifted off the ground and started the trip towards Miami. The two pilots talked casually as the plane flew when suddenly they hit a rough spot of turbulence. A storm had seemingly manifested out of nowhere and they scrambled to correct for it. “What the hell?! This wasn't on any radar! Where did this even come from!” The copilot frantically hit switches as alarms blared and lightning started taking out the engines. “I don't know but we're going to have to make an emergency landing.”
The pilot tried to radio it in, but only got static. “Air traffic control? Air traffic control, come in! Mayday mayday. I don't get it, the airport should be right there. I'm lowering the plane and hoping for the best.” The plane dipped below the clouds as it slowed down. “I don't see any lights, did the storm knock out the city power?” The copilot responded. “The airport has a backup, also it's dark as night but it should be like eight in the morning. We're going to have to go in blind.” The pilot calls into the back to let everyone know to hold on as they land roughly into the airport without assistance. The plane shakes and rocks as it loses its wheels and skids into a net at the end of the landing strip.
Alive and mostly intact the two pilots go to check on the passengers so they can start unloading the plane. “Well, any landing you can walk away from. I'm shocked we even got the strip considering all the lights were out.” The copilot confirmed everyone was safe and alive. “We have everyone. Are you sure we hit the strip, that landing wasn't exactly smooth.” The pilot shrugged. You saw that net, so we must have. Let's just get to air traffic control so we can figure out what's going on since the radio isn't working.”
They opened the door into the dark area and deployed the inflatable slide. “That's strange, there should already be a crew out there of cops and firemen. Also there should be outgoing flights taking off but I don't even see any planes rolling taxi or anything.” One by one the pilots get everyone including the staff off the plane. “The hell's going on?” Everyone looked around while slowly walking to the unlit airport building with flashlights. The pilot notices roots growing out of the landing strip. “This place looks like it's been abandoned for years, but I know for a fact this is the main airport.”
Everyone hits high alert as strange sounds start coming from the distance. Suddenly a dark silhouette rushes in and grabs a passenger and runs off with them screaming. The sky martial pulls out a gun and fires at it while the pilots instruct everyone to run. The group quickly make their way to the building as a few more people and finally the sky martial is grabbed while the pilots and what's left of the passengers and crew make it into the building and block off the entrance.
“I have no idea what's going on, but everyone sticks together from now on. Let's get to the tower and see if we can figure out what's going on. Frenchie and his partner gladly follow the pilots to the tower through the unlit and seemingly abandoned building. When they get into the tower it is equally empty. Frenchie’s partner and a few other passengers take seats and complain about not feeling well. Even the copilot is affected. The pilot tried the tower radio with no luck. “Nothing has any power, there's monsters everywhere, and this place looks like no one's been inside it for at least a decade. Does anyone know anything?”
The copilot groaned. “Something is wrong with the air here, it feels heavy and wrong. I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.” Frenchie does his best to comfort his partner who has also taken ill. “From what I can tell about one eighth of the crew and passengers including the copilot have all taken ill.” The copilot groans. “It's this place, I feel like I'm breathing in fear in gas form.”
Frenchie's partner groans and grips his gut, his skin shifting to a pale grey for a split second as the color in his iris seems to shift. “The copilot is right, there's literally fear in the air. This place… is the home of fear. Two hundred years ago, reaching this place might have been paradise… Those that have fallen ill, I'd be willing to bet every single one is a Doppelganger.” Frenchie made a confused face. “You're not making any sense.” His partner continued. “Monsters, Cryptids. They're real and many have a connection to this place, the world of fear. But my kind moved past that ages ago.”
The copilot groaned as his skin color shifted to be darker then back again. “Since we're stuck here we might as well be honest, we are not even human. We're shape shifters that pretend to be and live among you. We don't copy living people anymore, at least most don't. We've become so human that the other Cryptids treat us as if we are. At least one of those that died was a Dopple.” Frenchie stroked his partner’s hair. “You could be a spaceman and I'd still love you. What you are doesn't matter, I love you for who you are.” He smiled at his partner who seemed to have recovered slightly.
The pilot started tinkering with the radio on the tower. “I'm going to try and send out an S.O.S. If we can get here then maybe the government can help us.” Because the plane never arrived at the airport, Ishwada and Jack continued their wedding plans without Frenchie. The double wedding went smoothly and the two new couples returned to the airport later to fly back home only to see strange men in military grade equipment asking questions and looking around. One approached Ishwada.
“Hello, did you know anyone who was on the plane that went missing?” Ishwada blinked a few times. “Missing? You mean you guys don't know where Frenchie’s plane is?” One of the soldiers then said: “I'm telling you sir, it's the triangle. It swallowed them up.” The man groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The Bermuda Triangle is a myth. Anyway, my name is Earnest Hawkes. Director if Black Eagle. We look into unusual stuff the government doesn't have time for.”
Ishwada raised an eyebrow. “Like Bigfoot and area fifty one?” Hawkes sighed. “Sure, whatever.” Ishwada crossed his arms. “Ishwada, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S Air force. This is Jack Holden, served in the army but is a civilian now.” Hawkes lit up and handed both men his card. “Well if you join civilian life and get bored and want to help the world, give me a call. My organization loves taking in former military people. Now if you excuse me, I have a missing plane to find.” Hawkes then returned to investigating the airport.
