Noah stared at the portal generator. He had been requested by the Lord Commander to watch over this particular operation in the search for John, though Noah felt that he would've probably come of his own free will even if he hadn't been asked by the locals or the commander. There was a very particular reason why he was there; the portals were starting to get worse since John had disappeared when he was sucked up by a portal. The High Council had concluded that the reason why this was the case was because John had become something of a paradox that needed to be resolved. And the only way to resolve it would be to locate him and return him back to where he belonged unharmed. The portals, that the locals referred to them as, were not actual portals. They were anomalies that tended to suck up anything sentient and spew the sentient creature on some distant planet if they were lucky. It was easy to track them down and return them home, which was Noah's primary job nowadays as a grand master, it was starting to feel a lot more like a responsibility to do his part to fix this problem with the anomalies.
But for some reason the anomalies suddenly got much worse and harder to control about eight years ago. And they were only continuing to grow stronger with John becoming a paradox himself. Now the timeline was starting to become seriously screwed up and now the anomalies were opening portals to new universes, something they had managed to contain until eight years ago.
Being a grand master meant that Noah had a seat on the High Council, so he had been there for the decision to locate John. Though Noah had brought up points that John may or may not have been the reason the portals and anomalies were getting worse. One grand master had said that the time of his disappearance simply didn't match up with the time that the anomalies started to get worse. Noah had countered this by saying that since the timeline was also starting to be affected by the time they had found out from their allies that John was missing it was more than possible that it could've happened before news had reached them and John's disappearance was a direct cause. This was because the anomalies always seemed to make time slow down for those affected, but the others (the planet that the anomaly had occurred on) were either completely unaffected or time sped up for them. No anomalies had been reported doing anything more than that, so far at least.
Still, Noah was very sure that John was a vital clue in this new puzzle of the anomalies. It couldn't be a coincidence that normal portals to and from his planet simply weren't cutting it and they had to design a completely new type of machine to generate portals that were, mostly, unaffected by the disturbance of the anomalies. But this particular planet (or rather universe) was causing... glitches in the generator at random times. The first problem was Conner's squad being separated after the twins were sent in. Next was the problem with establishing a mental connection with Noah's stealth team he had sent through for reconnaissance purposes, just in case, (at least they had arrived unseparated.) Noah didn't know why this universe was so different but the Lord Commander had said he had a strong, uneasy feeling about this particular world and had told Noah to be extra careful. Noah always hoped that every planet they checked was the one where John was on it, even if this one did look promising Noah was still skeptical about the outcome-
His thoughts were interrupted when the squad leader established a mental connection and began telling him some very important news. If he wasn't trying to stay professional, Noah would've jumped in the air in celebration from the news but he remained calm.
But it seemed as though the universe or some kind of godly being he was unaware of had it out for him; because at that moment Noah's connection suddenly started getting interference before being cut off completely. At the same time, the portal generator suddenly shut down.
Noah, alarmed, began to shout orders. "Hurry and get those coordinates locked back in! I want a portal to that world reestablished immediately!" Noah turned towards the soldiers he had brought with him, glad that he had come prepared like the Lord Commander had advised. "Okay, I have no idea what just happened, but I do know that John was on that planet since I received word from my stealth team that confirmed it. Who... also received their information from Kilara." Noah paused, forgetting what he was about to say before remembering again. "Oh yeah, and once we get that portal reopened we're going through to make sure that the mission is completed, but we will only intervene if Conner requires our help." Noah walked towards the local commander, since this was a joint operation Noah had to let him know why he was going through the portal personally. "Commander, I am leaving you in charge while I am gone through the portal with my personal guard. We don't know what has happened to your men but if something has happened to them I will not sit idly by while they might require assistance."
The commander nodded. "Yes, master Noah, I will keep things under control on my end, make sure my men get back here safely."
"I will." Noah said just as the portal reopened. Noah rushed through the portal with his personal guards, completely unaware what they were walking into.