s3.e11

Bad Cop

           “Let me get this straight…” Wes said, the group having caught up as they paced about the empty apartment, its lights all turned off to help avoid any notice from the nosy neighbors. “I got game over’d, but shoved Jace through the door, and, buddy… You somehow convinced just about all of my old friends to come to my rescue?”

           Colin, by the window near the front door where his glasses glowed dimly in the moonlight, replied, “I wouldn’t call it ‘convincing,’ Wes. You were in trouble, and of course we were going to help. The only convincing that had to be done, was getting us to believe in all this time travel stuff. But it’s real.” He peeked out from behind the curtain. “Royal Valley, 1996, is right out there. My treehouse is out there. I got the urge to see it.”

         “So did Wes, and see how that turned out,” Jared said with a groan. “I mean, gah! Seriously, dude? You were so fed up with the present, that you literally went to the past?”

           “It just sort of happened, J…” Wes replied plaintively. “I stumbled into this place, not having any idea why it was happening, and at first, with no goals in mind. But you guys must’ve figured out how to program the door to get here. Do you know how it works? When last I saw André, it was still in development, so I couldn’t ask.”

           “Arthur did most of the figuring out,” Millie’s dark shape said from the kitchen doorway. “It was starting to sound like he was about to learn how it works, too.”

           “I wouldn’t go that far,” Arthur muttered from one of the room’s corners. “But the material is interesting. It’s solid metal in a passive state, but give it a current, and it’s like the surface turns into pure, contained energy that vibrates at certain frequencies. My guess is it’s somehow tuned to the signal coming from the park, its broadcasting range determining the size of the time-malleable area. It wasn’t that hard to set a date.”

           After a few moments of quiet, Wes asked, “… Did I see it right when the lights were on? Did you guys bring… shower rods with you to use against a cyborg?”

           “It was Arty’s idea,” Jared answered. “Better than nothing, he tells us.”

           His eyes having adjusted to the darkness, Wes looked at Arthur’s shadowy mass and, hesitantly, tried to get out a question. “Arthur… I need to know. Is, um…”

           “Ash is fine,” he assured. “Animal doctor in LA. Has a kid. Thank you for giving her creepy notes and keeping her safe, Wes. Even if the two of us do argue sometimes.”

           “Y-yeah… Good. It’s getting harder to remember those years from the timeline I knew. But I know it was tough for all of us. Maybe the original history is fading away…”

           Jace’s voice replied from somewhere, “That seems to be how it works. Changes move through time. Wes, we made a difference. All of our classmates are doing better—I mean, as far as we know. Well, most of them. There are still a few stragglers.”

           “I gotta ask,” Sadie spoke up from where the couch was supposed to be, “what’s the deal with this empty styrofoam cup on the floor? I keep giving it a kick, but it always comes back? I can see well enough—there’s only one cup. I swear, I’m not imagining it.”

           “You could be,” Jared said. “Maybe time travel does a number on the psyche.”

           “No, it’s a temporal glitch,” Jace explained. “It’s from going through the door, but it goes away eventually. Any object you touch here can ‘snap back.’ We think it’s because the kind of time travel André created is a little… dirty.”

           “You told us about ‘multiple methods,’ Jace,” Colin replied. “For us, that’s the door, and the quartz. And you think that… what was it… Oh, yeah—you can’t use the quartz to override your old self that used the door. Do I have that right?”

           “Seems that way. But I should be able to use the quartz again here after stepping back through the door, which we did. What I don’t get, is that if Wes is okay now…”

           “You thought we’d all disappear because you never needed us in the first place,” Millie surmised. “Maybe causality doesn’t work that way? Or it’s just slow?”

           “Could be…” Wes murmured and did some hard thinking for a minute. “Millie, just out of curiosity, what do you do? Because I’ve never seen you as an adult before.”

           “Local investigative journalism!” she proudly answered. “And, whew, the mental notes I’m keeping in my head in case I end up writing about all this. If I don’t forget it.”

           “But you make a good point. Technically, you don’t need to be here anymore.”

           “Unless…” Jace pushed himself off of the front door and turned to Wes, the side of his face softly aglow from the window light. “What if Warren is also in trouble? What if nothing really changes until we save him, too? If the time cop went back…”

           Her motherly instincts kicking in, Sadie reacted. “Warren’s in trouble?”

           “You told them about the ninja kid, huh?” Wes replied obliviously. “He did just disappear on us. He hangs out at the Days Inn on Halloween, 1995, right?”

           “Um, yeah,” Jace confirmed. “We only have two of the time crystals between us, so we’d have to go back through the door. Arthur, can you change the time again?”

           “Should be able to, yes,” he answered. “The laptop’s still on the other side, though. We can all go back through together and then—”

           “Not doing it,” Wes proclaimed. “Sorry, guys, but I can’t be sure you won’t try to pull an intervention and keep me from returning to finish things up here.”

           “Wes, come on,” Jared sighed. “We’re worried about you, but we wouldn’t—”

           “You’re not talking me into it. We’ll pick a time, and me and Jace will use our quartz and meet you in the kitchen. Just be careful. If the cop isn’t waiting for us, we’ll still have the fine folks that used to live here to contend with. We’ll need to sneak out.”

           “All right, all right,” Colin said. “Let’s not argue about it. What’s the exact time?”

           Jace thoughtfully replied, “We’ll replace our older selves, so… to avoid causing any paradoxes… I think we should say, like, two in the morning? November 1^st, 1995?”

           “Hm. Good thinking,” Wes remarked. “Our previous selves would’ve just been sleeping in bed; our second visit should change nothing. But, Lucy, when you go back, I want you to stay there. I’ve troubled you with my personal crap enough already.”

           She let out an audible huff. “Seriously, Wes? We all know who the real adult is between us. I’m a whole year younger than you, not some helpless kid sister.”

           “I dunno, Luce,” Millie said with a chuckle. “You ’86 babies might as well be in another generation. You got it pretty easy compared to us older millennials.”

           “Heh, yeah,” Jared stretched the joke, “we ’85ers can get pretty hardcore.”

           “Okay, okay. Let’s just get going,” Sadie piped. “We all know Lucy’s sticking with us. I swear, Wes, you still see her as a shy nine-year-old sometimes.”

           “… What would make her think that?” Wes asked Jace as the other adults headed back into the kitchen. “Anyway, Jace, thanks for… coming back for me.”

           “You let your guard down and got blasted by the cop’s laser rifle, if you were wondering,” Jace explained after the rescue gang had returned, briefly, to 2020.

           “Yeah, uh, I’m not sure I wanted to hear the details.” Wes took out his quartz and stared at the soft pink glow in the darkness. “To tell you the truth, I’m sort of hoping the others do forget about all this and don’t appear back in ’95. Just so we can finish our trip together without them getting in the way.”

           “Come on, Wes. Stop being so antisocial around your old friends. They did so much to come back and save you. You have to know that that means something.”

           “It’s just awkward to be around them all again, you know? Even when Colin visits, it can be pretty tense between us until, like, the day before he flies back when we finally have some fun. You don’t know what it’s like, not knowing what to say to people you haven’t seen in years, or only once in a while. Ah… Never mind. Let’s get going.”

           The two of them went into the kitchen, synced their time devices, and went back about eight months. The kitchen was just as dark as it had been moments ago, but now it featured the resident couple’s poorly cleaned and maintained furniture and appliances.

           “About time ya showed up,” was the first thing they heard, coming as a whisper.

           They turned around to see the shadowy shapes of the whole group, chilling out against the counters and fridge, lit by the moonlight coming in through the window over the sink and the dim blinks of the 12:00 on the microwave clock.

           “How long have you been here?” Wes whispered back.

           “Five minutes,” Arthur replied. “Thought it’d be a good idea to ‘scout’ the place out first. You hear that?” he said after a pig-like sound came from the nearby bedroom. “The current tenants are loud snorers. Wes, why did you choose to live here?”

           “It was cheap. Guys, be careful not to wake these people. They’re fiercely territorial. Keep it quiet on the way out. We don’t need the cop and them chasing us.”

           “Yeah, trust us on this one,” Jace added. “Bad memories of this place…”

           Without question, in part because they were all excited to see the Royal Valley of the past even if it would be dark and quiet at two in the morning, everyone followed Wes towards the apartment exit. Once they had felt their way past the floor trash, they made it to the door, which Wes stealthily unlocked and opened. Jace noticed Arthur rub a hand over the noticeable shotgun damage to the frame on the way out.

           The door was shut very quietly, and once outside, the newcomers took in the balmy night urban air with gulps and a few light gasps. A few era-appropriate cars went by on the street, the sound of someone watching late night 90s MTV music videos too loudly filtered through from another apartment, and a certain comedian’s face loomed over the night, lit up on a large printed advertisement for everyone to see.

           “That Seinfeld billboard…” Jared murmured. “I remember that.”

           “This is really just a few hours after Halloween ended, in 1995?” Millie added. “The city should be pretty empty at this hour, other than any punks roaming about.”

           As Jace scrolled through the readings on his quartz, he replied, “This was a pretty cool Halloween… An arcade game at Vanni’s, Jared being Luigi on his own, Zach trying to be Tom Cruise…” He glanced at Lucy. “Mom, you went as Rainbow Brite.”

           She crossed her arms. “I’ll ground you if you mention that again.”

           Jace smirked, finished up with his quartz, and pocketed it. “This was also when a big time storm caused interference and messed with stuff, but it looks like it’s cleared up by now. I hope. I mean, I don’t think my time crystal saw anything bad or strange going on? Not that these things are easy to use.”

           After confirming that, like everyone else, he didn’t have a signal on his phone, Arthur said, “I know the way to the Days Inn from here—it’s where I usually stay when I’m in town—but do you know what room, uh… this ‘Warren kid’ is in?”

           “He never told us. But we can worry about that when we get there, right?”

           It seemed like the others let Arthur take the lead, since he had both navigation skills and was the most clear-headed, not letting any sort of misty-eyed nostalgia get in the way. He, Millie, Jared, and Colin all headed down the stairs to the parking lot. Wes, though, hesitated after noticing the way Sadie was staring at him.

           “Sadie… Um…” He looked away. “I’m sure that no matter what we’ve changed so far, we still haven’t seen each other in a while. Not in person. Sorry about that.”

           “You haven’t really been ‘all there’ for a while, Wes,” Sadie spoke a truth that crossed timelines. “I wish you talked about your doubts and fears with others. I could have… I mean, we all could’ve helped you through them. I’m sure we’ve had similar feelings.” She looked out at the city. “I totally get why you’d want to stay here.”

           “Eh. I guess I was never as sentimental as you guys,” Lucy said with a shrug.

           “You had a more sheltered life as a kid, Sis,” Wes said and went for the steps. “Through no fault of your own. We all got out there and wanted to experience everything. But the combination of our dad, and that mom of yours… Well. I’ve said it all before.”

           After his mom sighed a bit and as Wes was coming down, Jace spoke up again, “There’s no taxi service at this hour, and we can’t just call an Uber, so if we’re walking the whole way, let’s be careful and make sure the big guy isn’t following us.”

           Lucy smiled at him. “You’ve really grown up, Jace. But try to slow down a little.”

           The two went downstairs and met the others in the parking lot, overhearing Jared and Arthur cracking jokes to try and lighten the mood. Everyone kept on a lookout for any robotic officers patrolling in the night as they crossed the empty street—but it appeared that the contemporary ones were also missing in action, at least nearby. A few teenage punks wearing skull masks rushed past on the sidewalk, cans of spray paint in hand, and echoing across the buildings was the sound of distant breaking glass.

           “Really good neighborhood you picked, Wes…” Sadie chided him.

           “All right, enough, guys,” he grumbled back. “At least it’s just a few blocks from Main Street. You know many other affordable places this close to downtown?”

           After checking that it was clear, Arthur waved everyone over to an alleyway that cut across to the bus station, which was lit up in amber by the sodium lamps built into the underside of its large pavilion. It was empty of both people and buses.

           “Okay. Let’s try to stay in the light, as much as possible,” Jared said. “We can’t make it easy for the cyborg to sneak up on us. Uh… so, keep leading the way, Arty.”

           Arthur rolled his eyes at Jared’s cowardice, and fearlessly took point on the journey through the alley. They passed by a buzzing light over the emergency exit door for the area’s toy store, then crossed another street and reached the assumed safety of the bus station—where there were many more lights humming in the quiet night.

           “I swear… the ambience is different, both the way the city smells and sounds,” Colin mentioned. “You forget the small things. Vehicle exhaust makeup changes. Lights. The acoustics of newer buildings, the upgraded sidewalks, modern materials…”

           “You always were pretty observant, Colin,” Jared said, and then fell back from the others to stop and investigate something. “Guys, check this out!”

           “Jared,” Arthur moaned and they all turned around, “what are you doing?”

           Digging in his pocket to find change for a soda vending machine with faded signage and a flickering backlight, Jared exclaimed, “Fifty cents for a can! Crazy!”

           “J, we’re in a hurry,” Wes scolded him. “We can get drinks later. Stronger, too.”

           “But it’s so cheap, and you know warm nights make me thirsty. I’ll just…”

           Jared was about to put in a quarter, but froze in place when he heard something approach. The others heard it, too—it was like a pair of very heavy boots impacting the ground, at a purposely slow pace as to create fear and tension. Out from the shadows of the nearby snack machine stepped a hulking, menacing mass with a glowing red eye.

           “Ah… O-oh, man…” Jared stuttered as he turned to face the damaged cyborg.

           “Jared, run!” Wes shouted out to him, while the others freaked out a bit.

           Instead, Jared nervously held his ground, and with all his strength, tried to bash the officer with his shower rod. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t very effective. The cop simply raised his arm to block it, and the vibration in the metal caused Jared to drop it. Before it had even finished clanging against the oil-stained concrete, the cop’s mechanical hand was on Jared’s neck, pinning him to the soda machine—and lifting him up a few feet.

           As Jared was strangled and struggled to free himself, the officer scanned his face with his exposed eye, perhaps accessing a database of known time criminals in the process. Before he could finish, however, Jared’s entire body glitched itself free, rubber-banding back to where he had been when he used the shower rod just moments ago.

           Not expecting the good luck, Jared wasted it by tripping onto the ground and then pushing himself backward as the officer readjusted his gaze and approached.

           “H-hey, look, man… I didn’t stick a bomb on you back there.”

           Fortunately, Sadie and Colin were ready to save their troublesome friend, and they both chucked their electrical grenades over the cowering lump. They detonated with loud pops, stunning the cop in place and causing the soda machine to malfunction and spit out several cans. Jared scrambled to his feet, and for good measure, threw one of the cans at the cyborg on the way back to his friends. It also exploded, but the officer recovered in seconds, resuming his march while wiping root beer off his face.

           “At least he’s slow,” Jared huffed when he caught up to his saviors.

           “J, your mouth is always getting you in trouble…” Arthur grumbled a moment after the cop took that remark personally and started charging at them.

           “Ah, shit! Run!” Jared exclaimed and was the first to hit a full stride.

           “Jace, come on!” Lucy said, grabbing for his hand as he glared at the cop.

           Trying not to look back at the thing creating the thundering footsteps behind them, everyone took off across the next street, through a second alleyway, and soon hit another one of the quieter downtown side streets, where they stopped to catch their breaths upon noticing that the cop had disappeared at some point.

           “Anyone… see where he went?” Colin nearly wheezed.

           “Nah, man…” Jared sputtered, hands on his knees. “So, yeah… he is fast, but we can outrun him as long as we’re sprinting. I’m guessing he can still beat us in endurance.”

           “True,” Arthur, in better shape, said effortlessly. “We can’t keep running like this all night. He’ll ambush at some point when we’re exhausted. Crap… he could just pop up anywhere. A monster chasing us in an empty city at night… Getting serious Resident Evil 3 vibes here. Game scared the hell outta me when I was a dumb teenager.”

           “Don’t remind me,” Colin replied. “I remember those sleepovers, taking turns.”

           “Millie, you’re in better shape than me!” Lucy remarked, and the others turned to see the former spy not at all out of breath—and doing some knee bends on one leg.

           “Ran track and field in high school,” she explained, doing another stretch.

           “Wes is looking more fit than he’s been since college, too,” Sadie noticed.

           He replied sheepishly, “Yeah, well, we’ve seen our share of scary threats recently, so I’ve actually… been working out fairly regularly.”

           “Guys, fitness talk is fun and all, but we really have to keep moving,” Jace told everyone. “Where should we go next? And do we just keep going straight, or…”

           Arthur answered, “He probably knows where we’re going by this point. I think our best bet is to zigzag our way to the hotel, mix up the route.”

           “If we go too slow, he’ll probably just get bored of us or think we’re idiots, and go after Warren instead,” Wes argued. “I don’t think we should get too crazy with it.”

           “Right… I say we head west, towards the community center.”

           “Let’s try to cut through The Queen first,” Jared said. “If we go in a building, we might really throw him off. You guys remember? The back door was often left open or had a broken lock. There were so many stories about vagrants being found inside.”

           “Wes never told me about that…” Jace thought a tick. “But, okay, let’s try it.”

           Jared ran on ahead into the next alley, towards a rusted metal door flanked by the faded peeling pink wall of Royal Valley’s original movie theater. Though it was meant as an exit only and had no handle, it was already nudged open just a little, and Jared was able to pry it all the way by using just his fingernails and some desperation.

           “Because I never knew about it…” Wes said to Jace once everyone else had run up to the door, Jared waving them inside. “J, how many secrets you keeping?”

           He replied, “A lot. I hung out with punks in high school on the side, remember? We did a bunch of dumb crap the YouTube generation would love.”

           “See? There’s something you two could chat about,” Millie said, heading in.

           Wes didn’t seem so ready to reconcile with the Jared he still knew, but he did at least grudgingly agree to the idea and was the last to go into the dark theater.

           As it only had a few screens, the walk through the hallway and to the small lobby would be a short one, and everyone slowed their pace to further recuperate.

           “I say we hide up front for a few minutes, and maybe he’ll go somewhere else looking for us,” Colin whispered. “Ah, man… this place brings me back. Batman Begins was the last movie we saw here before it closed. Screen was so dark, I could barely see anything. Wes—didn’t you want to see it at the 18 instead? I think you complained.”

           He replied, “I saw it a second time there, with my dad. Sorry I was so mad about that first showing, Colin. But, looking back, I really do value that memory. Us and the guys, seeing one final flick at our childhood theater… It was nice, later on.”

           “Huh. I always had a lingering belief that you were still angry about that.”

           “See what happens when you actually talk about things, Wes?” Sadie told him.

           “Yeah, yeah…” he mumbled. “But you all can’t tell me that you aren’t starting to get why I’ve been hanging out in the past. There’s just so much to revisit.”

           Once they hit the lobby, bathed in dim city night lights, Sadie turned towards a poster for the cyber-punkish Schwarzenegger film Strange Days and said, “Strange days, definitely… Wes, you probably took Jace to a ton of movies, didn’t you?”

           “Of course. If you’re time-tripping with a nephew, you gotta get him cultured.”

           “Um… guys?” Lucy spoke up, being the first to notice something worrying.

           The others looked towards the glass front door of the theater, only about twenty feet ahead, to see the cop suddenly standing there, menacingly.

           “Okay…” Colin said quietly, with everyone staying very still. “They must have been trained to try and minimize any changes to the past… right? I mean, they go out to protect the timeline, not cause destruction and chaos, yeah? So maybe he won’t…”

           The officer raised his right arm, opened his palm, and kept it a few inches away from the door’s lock. The sound of tumblers shifting was audible, and then a click.

           “They have magnets in their hands that unlock doors,” Wes exclaimed. “Run!”

           “Crap!” Jared blurted, and took off in the opposite direction. “C’mon, this way!”

           Though no one was sure why they should keep following Jared, they did anyway. Instead of going back down the hall, he went over the concession stand, nearly bashing himself into the soda fountain on the way. Jace was actually rather amazed at the athletic grace his mom still possessed when she pulled herself up and slid across the countertop. He was too short to easily follow suit, so she yanked him up and over. Colin, the slowest in the group, very nearly got grabbed by the pursuing cop just as he was reaching for the counter. In his panic, he messily scrambled over it and dropped his glasses, the pair landing somewhere in the darkness beneath the popcorn machine.

           Now squinting, he turned around to see the blurry shape of the cyborg grabbing for him and the others, who pressed up against the snack cabinets and sidestepped towards the staff entrance door, staying just out of range of a claw-like metal hand.

           “I don’t think he’s agile enough to get over to us,” Wes said, his teeth clenched.

           “Colin, your glasses…” Jared murmured worryingly.

           “I can’t look for them now,” he huffed. “Let’s just get out of here.”

           “Sorry, guys. Another one of my brilliant ideas, right?”

           “Don’t beat yourself up,” Sadie replied, leading the shuffle. “It was worth a try.”

           They made it to the door without the cop so much as touching anyone, and ran through the nearly pitch-black kitchen and break room before rushing out of a side exit. The gang sprinted away from the theater, as fast and for as long as they could.

           Colin and Jace were the first to reach their limit and slow down, halfway across the well-lit alleyway flanking Dawn Tower. After another block, everyone was just about out of breath and regrouped at a walking pace as they departed the city’s densest area.

           “You doing okay, Colin?” Millie asked him. “You’re bumbling around a little.”

           “Could be worse. At least my eyes haven’t gotten worse since college,” he sighed.

           The walk was free of any cops for a few minutes—aside from those by a police cruiser where one of the night’s teen delinquents was being arrested. The group avoided eye contact and passed by, and were soon on another lonely side road, this time the one that ran behind the community center’s caged tennis courts. With the stadium-style lights off for the night, the nearby dim street lamps were the only source of illumination.

           Everyone was taken off guard when the time enforcer suddenly emerged from the darkness and stepped under a warm cone of light, his exposed red eye as threatening as ever. For this reunion, he whipped his arm at his side and propelled a long needle out from his wrist. Ferrofluid wriggled on its edges, black as pitch as he approached.

           “Damn it! Bastard’s persistent!” Jared exclaimed. “Where do we go now?”

           “This way!” Wes stepped up, pushing open a tennis court chain-link gate that was fortuitously nearby. “We’ll lose him in here—maybe we can even shove him in the pool!”

           “Heh, yeah, I bet he’d sink like a rock!” Jared agreed and rushed into the court.

           “Yay…” Jace moaned and followed his mom inside. “More… running…”

           They crossed one court and then another, with the cyborg keeping up just behind them in the dark, his heavy steps ominously subdued on the soft green tennis carpet.

           But on the third court, with Colin keeping up alongside him, Jace watched in the moonlight as he tripped over a stray tennis ball and fell to the ground with a grunt. The others all stopped and turned around to see him recover by the net, but he made no attempt to get moving again. He was hunched over, and completely exhausted.

           “Colin, c’mon!” Arthur shouted to him. “We have to keep going!”

           “Sorry, guys,” he puffed out. “You know how this goes. Someone stays behind and keeps him busy so you can get away. Save the kid… and maybe none of this’ll happen.”

           “No way, man!” Jared fired back. “You don’t stand a chance against him!”

           “Don’t be stupid, Colin!” Wes yelled as Jace backed away and the cop slowed down upon drawing near. “You shouldn’t have to pay for my mistakes!”

           “It’s not like that at all,” Colin assured Wes, then stood up straight and turned to face the taller, mightier mechanized officer. “What kind of best friend would I be if I didn’t help you when you’re going through some stuff?” He took the shower rod out from under his belt, where it had been kept secure, and gave it a strong flick to extend it so he could hold it like a blade. “No more running. I don’t even think I can anymore.”

           “Colin… Don’t do it,” Wes pleaded in one last attempt to change his mind.

           “This guy doesn’t know who I am…” Colin said fearlessly as he looked up and into the eyes of the lumbering hulk in front of him. “Hey, big guy! I’m still the best at fighting games, I can speak four languages… I got my friends out of a tie in an epic laser tag game way back. You should’ve seen it!” He wound up for a haymaker blow with his shower rod. “And I scored five home runs my last year of little league! So eat this!”

           He swung hard. Very hard, with all his might, determined to leave a dent.

           Unfortunately, he completely whiffed, missing the officer’s body by about a foot.

           “Oh, crap… He really can’t see,” Jared mumbled.

           Probably left unimpressed by the attempt, the unfeeling temporal protection officer promptly jabbed Colin in the side with his needle, and pulled it out in one swift motion. It had only been in for a moment, but Colin already felt its effects.

           “B-buddy?” Wes said and took a step forward, but was pulled back by Lucy.

           Colin turned around, and everyone could see in the moonlight that an inky fluid had rapidly spread from the injection site, turning his arms black as he watched in equal parts fascination and fear. The spread reached the fingertips on his right hand first, at which point the whole arm became entirely stiff and froze in an unnatural position.

           “I… I tried, guys,” he told everyone. “But you know I’m not the physical type.”

           “Damn. What is that stuff?” Millie quietly remarked.

           “Colin!” Sadie shouted out, but was also pulled back to safety by Lucy.

           Before he was petrified completely, Colin managed to maneuver his left hand to his side, just barely pulled out his grenade, and let it drop down to his feet, where it detonated on impact. The electrical burst stunned their monstrous tormentor, but they knew it would only last for several seconds. Everyone but Jared and Wes understood that they had to honor their friend’s sacrifice right away and got back to running.

           “Wes, come on!” Jace said, tugging at his confused uncle’s hand. “We gotta go!”

           “It’s my fault…” he muttered. “It’s always my fault… If I hadn’t…”

           “Warren can help us fix this! But we have to keep moving!”

           Wes dizzily nodded, and the three of them took off as the time cop’s metal body began to lurch again. Wes quickly looked back to see Colin, now a statue in the middle of a tennis court of all places. His immediate thought: who would be next?

           Even in their shock of what just happened, a few in the group had the fortitude to drop some more grenades as they ran towards the other tennis court gate, each of the bursts briefly stunning their pursuer again and giving them a chance to escape.

           They rushed through the chain-link gate that Lucy was holding open, and just after she shut and locked it, Millie had the idea to make better use of her shower rod by lodging it between the links of the gate and fence, barricading the exit. Seeing the logic in the move, Lucy and Wes followed suit, buffing the tight lock right before the cop came up and tried to shove his way past. Stopped by the gate but no less deterred, he thrust his needle between the links, very nearly scratching Wes with it.

           “We can’t keep going like this all night…” Arthur exhaled as they backed off and watched the officer rattle his cage. “I have… one more idea that might help us.”

           Now pushing their bodies to their limits and aching all over, the gang resumed their run as soon as the time cop captain began to pry out the rods to free himself. Wes, understandably upset, huffed angrily as they crossed the next street.

           “I got all of you involved, and look! Colin was the best of us, and now… he’s just a statue… Freaking hell, someone will find him out there in the morning and think he’s some weird art project! If that injector thing so much as touches us, we—”

           “Wes! We can time travel,” Sadie aggressively reminded him. “We can fix anything that goes bad. As long as we save Warren first, we’ll undo what happened to Colin.”

           “Why do you all care so much about Warren? You’ve never even met him! He’s a foul-mouthed brat who thinks he’s a time ninja. And hard to get along with!”

           Sadie fought off the desire to respond how she wanted to, instead replying, “Because, Wes… Jace said he’s saved you several times. We owe him.”

           “What’s your idea, Arty?” Millie, who was finally now also out of breath, asked.

           Once they had passed through a shorter alleyway and were behind a bank where they gulped in air, he answered, “See that mechanic’s garage and body shop across the street? Dad used to go to it for our old SUV. And there was almost always a souped-up 1987 Dodge Charger getting tuned up in there. Anyone catching on?”

           “Think so,” Jared puffed out. “We get ourselves a car and ram the bastard.”

           “Seems like that could run afoul of not altering the timeline…” Lucy murmured.

           Arthur shook his head. “Screw it. Car’s owner must be rich. He can afford it.”

           Jared agreed. “And it’ll already be right next to the garage. What about the key?”

           “Don’t need one. Dad taught me how to hot-wire when I was a kid.”

           “Whoa. I guess we both have badass dads,” Millie said with a nervous snicker.

           “It was more of a technical demonstration, really. You guys stay out here. Keep watch, try to distract the big guy if he shows up, stun him, maybe try to position him near a wall. Whatever it takes. I’m going to need a few minutes.”

           “Arty, I’ll come with you,” Jared offered. “You know—to hold a phone light.”

           The two headed across the street, past the roll shutters of the garage itself, and to the front door, which Arthur began to try and get open with his screwdriver.

           “Yeah… not sure if I have full faith in him,” Millie commented as she watched from across the street with the others, under a lamp. “Everyone doing okay?”

           “No, Millie. Not really,” Sadie grumbled back and turned towards her sometimes-husband. “Wes. I have to ask, before anything else happens. What is it that you hate so much about the present? Do you not like the movies, TV, the games, or…?”

           “No. Some of it’s still great,” he replied sheepishly. “It’s just everything, all at once. Each day, is a… darker, angrier… scarier time. And when I’m not worried, I’m bored.”

           Lucy gestured to the tense city night and shot back, “Scarier than all of this? Wes! The present can always be scary. You forget that part of how you feel about these years when you look back; growing up isn’t easy, either. But we’re here for you. We can get through things together. You know that. No matter how far apart some of us are.”

           “… Jace, how about you?” Sadie asked him when she noticed his exhaustion.

           “Hm?” he mumbled. “Oh. Hanging in there. Just kicking myself for forgetting to take one of the laser guns back with me. They can actually blind those guys.”

           “Laser gun?” Wes questioned. “Since when do you have a laser gun in…”

           He had trailed off when the five of them heard the approaching footsteps that they had come to dread. They turned to see the red eye of their relentless hunter emerge from the darkness beyond the next street lamp. As the pissed off cyborg stepped into the light, still brandishing his injector, he seemed like he now enjoyed the chase.

           They slowly backed away and checked on the garage, to see the area empty.

           “Crap…” Millie groaned. “Did anyone see if they got inside?”

           “Back off!” Sadie snapped and raised her shower rod. “Just leave us alone!”

           The cop lurched forward and angled himself downward, preparing to charge at them. His nearly defenseless targets shakily stood their ground, expecting the worst.

           Suddenly, the street was flooded with blinding light, and all six turned to the source. The silhouette of Jared was just finishing rolling up the garage shutter, with Arthur revving the engine of a turbocharged Charger. Jared scrambled over to the passenger seat, slammed the door shut, and buckled in as Arthur hit the gas and quickly accelerated to forty miles an hour, covering the short distance in about a second.

           Before the cop could react, the car jumped the curb and slammed him into the concrete back wall of the bank. The fender was only lightly dented, and after Arthur let off the gas, the cyborg hunched over the hood with barely a mechanical sound.

           Gasping out sighs of relief, the gang ran up to the driver’s side as Arthur rolled down the window and gave them a satisfied smile. Millie leaned in, her eyes wide.

           “I don’t care if you broke another door… That was amazing…” she cooed.

           Arthur raised an eyebrow and asked her, “Mill, you feelin’ okay?”

           Jared, who looked like he was recovering from a heart attack in his seat, pointed ahead with a panicky finger and exclaimed, “Arty! He—he’s still moving!”

           Arthur spat out a curse and floored it again moments after the cop had gotten back up and began to shove against the vehicle—actually managing to push it away several inches before it jolted ahead again, pinning him to the wall a second time.

           “Come on, come on!” Arthur shouted over the growing engine noise and screeching of burning rubber. “Guys! I can only keep him trapped if the wheels are moving! Get out of here before she burns out. I can buy you a few minutes!”

           “Damn it, no!” Wes shot back. “No more sacrificing yourselves. Stop it!”

           “Can’t you just put something heavy on the pedal to keep it going?” Lucy asked the two in the car. “Jared—you still have your bomb. Try using that!”

           “Y-yeah, okay,” Jared said and reached for the big battery tied to his belt.

           “The hell is he doing?” Arthur exclaimed, his eyes still on the cop.

           Everyone watched the trapped menace place his injector on the hood of the car, and begin releasing a stream of inky blank ferrofluid. It spread like growing roots across the vehicle, forming spikes that crested and melted several times a second. Bound to the metal, it was able to stay cohesive and rapidly reached the car doors.

           “Get out of there!” Sadie shouted.

           Jared panicked and tried desperately to open his door, but the magnetic fluid trail that pressed against it was so strong that he couldn’t get it to budge. Upon seeing this, Arthur skipped directly to rolling up his window to keep the invasive ooze out, but only managed to manually push it back up halfway before a ferrofluid spike found its way in and jabbed itself right into his left hand, which was gripping the wheel tightly.

           “Ah… crap…” Arthur groaned, with Jared looking on in disbelief.

           “Arty! I know it got you, but don’t let off the gas, bro!” Jared burst as soon as the engine RPMs began to dip. “Damn it… I’m always such a screw-up, aren’t I?”

           “It’s not your fault, J… Agh… I can’t control my leg. Foot’s coming off on its own.” Arthur turned to the others, who were in disbelief once again. “The hotel is just another three blocks to the west. Go! Before the big bastard frees himself!”

           “S-Sadie! Catch! Make better use of it than I did!” Jared shouted and chucked his bomb out the window, which she fumbled but managed to keep hold of.

           Knowing how this game was playing out, Jace, Lucy, and Sadie all gave their farewell nods and ran off, back into the night. Wes, of course, had to stay a moment longer, all while the car began to lurch backward as Arnie pushed against it.

           “Damn it, guys…” he lamented. “I didn’t want any of this to happen.”

           “Wes, just make it back home, man,” Jared muttered, seeing the crawling fluid coming for him next. “There’s a better life waiting for you. You’ll see.”

           Wes grumbled out a few adult words, then turned around and ran off, feeling like a piece of crap for abandoning two more of his childhood friends.

           He caught up with the remaining group, and before everyone’s second wind and latest adrenaline surge wore off, the lights of the Days Inn at the end of Kettle Road appeared after they turned the corner of a convenience store. No words were exchanged at first as the five looked at one another. Bordering on collapse, they sped-walked—and sometimes limped—towards the hotel chain’s entrance, crossing the wide and unusually empty avenue of Kettle once a few very early morning cars had gone by.

           “… Why…” Wes coughed and tried to catch his breath. “Why is this…”

           “Wes, you know why,” Lucy snapped. “Take some responsibility for once. Did you think nothing bad would happen, dragging your nephew to a year-long ego trip?”

           “Bad things… have happened. But nothing like this, nothing we couldn’t handle.”

           Millie, who had been watching the rear, finally got out some of her growing aggravation concerning the night’s events and angrily huffed, “Damn it, he’s already right behind us again. I am getting really tired of this hulking metal jackass.”

           Lucy looked back to see him stomping his way across the convenience store’s parking lot and replied, “Just a little further. He doesn’t want any non-time-travelers to see him, right? If we make it to the lobby, we might be safe. Come on. We can do it!”

           “Millie, keep up!” Sadie called back to her. “What happened? You slowed down.”

           “I think I twisted my freakin’ ankle back there…” she moaned and grimaced.

           She was only a couple dozen feet behind everyone else by the time Sadie became the first to arrive at the light coming out of the hotel’s front glass door, but the minor injury had cost Millie, and the cyborg ended up almost breathing down her back by the time she got to the others, who were waving her into the lobby the rest of the way.

           “Ow!” Millie gasped as she pulled the door and slammed it closed.

           She looked at her thumb, sucked on it for a split second, and stuck her left hand into her hoodie pocket while everyone stared at the officer standing just outside. He looked at the lobby desk, then backpedaled into the darkness, disappearing once again.

           “Ah… Oh, man…” Wes wheezed. “We made it… N-now what…?”

           “Millie, are you all right?” Sadie asked worryingly. “Did you get hurt?”

           “My thumb just got stuck in the door,” she replied. “But I’m fine.”

           “Can I… help you?” the night manager behind the desk, an elderly woman, asked the group as she surveyed the tired survivors. “Do you need any medical assistance?”

           “No—no… We just got back from a crazy Halloween party,” Lucy explained. “We’ll be heading back to our room now. Um. Have a good night.”

           Everyone else gave her worn, nervous grins on their way to the first floor room hallway, hoping she wouldn’t call the other police. The hotel was just as unsettling and tensely quiet as everywhere else had been that night, but at least it was fully lit.

           Wes led the way into the nearby business center, which he had used during his and Jace’s previous stays at the lodging. It was little more than an alcove with a fax machine and computer, but it was big enough to give the five a defensive sentry position with peek-around-the-corner views of the two side doors at either end of the long hall.

           “Well…” Wes took a deep breath. “If he’s after Warren, he’s going to have to hack his way into one of those key card doors. Assuming he knows where the kid is…”

           Jace added, “We don’t know what floor he’s on, or if he’s here ‘legally.’ Either way, he just resets the day at some point, so he’s only actually here for… a day.”

           “Poor kid,” Sadie sighed. “He must feel so alone here.”

           After waiting several minutes, the door at the end of the corridor to their right audibly opened. Their pulses racing again, Wes stuck his phone’s front camera out just enough so that it could see the hall, and watched the cop approach on his screen.

           “He’s… walking, coming closer, slowly,” Wes whispered to the others, all of them staying back near the fax machine. “Maybe he’s, like… scanning each room or something. So it could be that he also doesn’t know where Warren is, exactly.”

           “Guys, The Flamingo isn’t that far away,” Millie murmured. “We could go there and ask my dad for backup. He can’t carry firearms in the state, but he’ll probably believe that we’re time travelers when I show up as an adult and help us fight the cop.”

           “Tempting, Millie,” Wes replied. “But we might be about out of time al—wait. Fuzz just turned the corner into the other hallway. Maybe that’s where Warren…”

           He shut himself up when they heard someone step out of a room a few doors away. Wes switched to his phone’s rear camera to get a look without exposing himself.

           “Wes, what do you see?” Sadie quietly asked.

           “I don’t believe it. He’s right there.”

           Carefully, the others all peeked into the hall—and saw Warren shuffling out in his black pajamas sleepily, his hair a mess and his feet bare. He was only about forty feet away, and had the room right next to the snack vending machine. With a yawn, he fed the food dispenser a dollar and pressed two buttons to request a late-night meal.

           “If his money keeps resetting every time he restarts the day, he can get unlimited snacks,” Jace remarked. “Looks like he grabbed a Twix bar… Oh, and chips.”

           “It’s 3:30 in the morning!” Sadie exclaimed. “I bet he’s eating horribly.”

           They glanced back at the other end of the hall, saw that it was still vacant, and then back to Warren, who had unwrapped his chocolate and was returning to his pad.

           “This is it,” Lucy proclaimed. “Come on.”

           She was the first to start rushing for the door, and the others quickly followed.

           “Let him see me first,” Wes said and got ahead of them. “He knows me.”

           Wes managed to stick his elbow into the door just a moment before Warren shut it, and then half-casually leaned against the frame as the kid reacted with surprise.

           “Wes!” Warren snapped and backed away into his room. “What are you doing… W-what…” He stuttered and his eyes went wide upon seeing his mom and aunt sliding in behind his dad—Sadie giving him a trembling smile while Wes couldn’t see it. “Um, Wes, Jace… Who…” He swallowed his emotions and forced himself to keep up an important act. “Who are all these… grown-ups, and why are you here?”

           “Millie, my sister, and my old friend, Sadie,” Wes explained, and looked past Warren at the room’s TV, currently playing HBO promos; a movie must’ve just ended. “Watching some late-night television, huh? Hey, can we come in for a minute?”

           “No time for an invite!” Millie alerted everyone. “Guess who found us!”

           It was the time cop, of course—speed-walking down the hall towards the group. Wes pushed the door open all the way, the five guests slipped in, and then Sadie shut, locked, latched, and barricaded the door using the room’s cushioned wood desk chair.

           Wes flicked on the ceiling light, turned off the TV, got a look at Warren’s very messy bed, and told the kid, “We have to get out of here. There’s a time cop captain gone rogue, right outside the room. We all came here to, ah… save you.”

           “It’s a whole big thing,” Jace added. “We’ll tell you all about it, later.”

           “Gone… rogue?” Warren, unable to keep his eyes off his mom, replied. “He must’ve deactivated his transponder, and that’s why I couldn’t pick him up.”

           Lucy asked, “Should we time travel to get out of here? We can’t even hurt him.”

           “I can,” Warren said confidently, and opened the room’s tiny closet to reveal his big, sharp, dark blade with the crimson edge. “But if he’s after me, more running and time-hopping won’t work. Everyone, get back. I’ll take care of him, right now.”

           “Kid, don’t you need your exo-arm thing to flail that about?” Wes fretted.

           “No time to put it on. Two-handed is good enough for the one good hit I need.”

           Holding the weapon with more confidence and strength than he could when he was a younger time ninja, he activated the blade, extending it to its full length and giving the edge its red glow. He took on a ready, over the shoulder stance and focused intently on the door—as Lucy and Sadie watched their nephew and son with confused emotions.

           Warren, breathing steadily, listened and watched as the door unlocked, and the latch was propelled off its hook. But the cop didn’t go for the handle right away, or give the door a rattle. It was as if the intruder wanted to take everyone off guard by the delay.

           Then he did something unexpected. Tossing aside his training and credo to stay in the shadows, he thunderously kicked open the door with all his might. The chair went airborne, threatening to cause someone serious injury. Warren’s reaction time was impressive, and he swung fast enough to cut the furniture in half, sending the wooden chunks into the wall and bed instead of someone’s face. But the maneuver had cost him.

           Before Warren could recover, the cyborg charged ahead and shoulder-tackled him to the ground like a pro football player. He kept his grip on his sword, but was nearly knocked senseless, left trying to stand back up from the room’s carpet.

           Sadie taking on the angriest scowl of the three of them, she, Wes, and Lucy armed themselves with their stick-on battery bombs, very ready to use them. Millie took hers out as well, holding it with her left hand, keeping her right in her hoodie pocket.

           While the cop couldn’t speak, he let out a guttural waft of air as if to scoff away the threat, and took a few powerful steps forward, ready to walk right over Warren.

           He stopped in place when the room’s lights flickered. Everyone looked at the distortion in space at the edge of Warren’s bed, and were taken by surprise when a tear opened up an entrance to the void beyond. Following a beat of silent anticipation, a mass of ferromagnetic tentacles launched from the darkness and ensnared the time cop, wrapping around his torso, shoulders, and arms. Wes felt his heart palpitate.

           “N-no… No, not that thing again…” he stammered, nearing a panic attack.

           “Wes!” Lucy grabbed his shoulders to try and calm him down. “What is that?!”

           “Time Daemon… D-damn monster… T-tried to pull me in way back.”

           Somewhat expectedly, the cop was putting up a good fight, resisting enough to pull several of the liquid metal grabbers off of himself. With effort, he seemed to be moving his right hand over to his left wrist. Warren, in a daze on the floor, noticed.

           “He’s trying to time travel…” he sputtered. “Don’t let him… press button…”

           Seeing her son hurt and desperate triggered something fierce in Sadie, and she ran up and slammed her bomb into his attacker. It detonated, stunning him and making the lights flicker again. It didn’t seem to be enough, so Lucy and Millie followed suit.

           Wes also worked up the nerve to leap over and jam the pointy end of his bomb into the officer’s shoulder—and that miniature EMP was enough to finally stun him both long and good enough to make him lose the fight as a fly would against a spider. Dropping like a lead ragdoll, he was wrapped up tightly and started getting pulled into the emptiness beyond time, right across the bed, further messing up its sheets.

           “That’s a captain…” Warren groaned as he was helped up by Sadie. “Have to get the quartz…” He was barely able to raise his sword. “Too good… to pass up.”

           He tried to shake himself out of his stupor, and managed to plant the tip of his blade into the cyborg’s back before he was devoured by the void. With Wes staring into the abyssal space nearby, Warren removed his sword, stuck his hand inside the officer’s chassis, then dug around and moved aside wiring. He had to shift dangerously close to the tear himself as the cop was dragged in—but when he felt his mom’s arms around him, ready to pull him to safety, he got the surge of confidence he needed. He felt the quartz and yanked it out, seconds before the big bully got yanked in and disappeared.

           In those last seconds, Wes, trying to face his fears, found the glowing eye in the void, remembering it well from his encounter at the fountain in the Luxor casino. Only, like the crystal Warren now held securely, this one was blue, instead of a frightening red.

           “Is there… more than one Daemon?” he murmured, and then turned to see Sadie hugging Warren tightly on the bed. “Well, uh… you two are getting along.”

           “She…” Warren choked back tears and forced the game to continue. “She saved me from that thing. That was all just… crazy intense… So… Emotions, and… Yeah.”

           “Wes, can you go out into the hall for a moment?” Lucy asked him.

           He replied, “Huh? Why? Shouldn’t we be getting out of here, like, right away?”

           “We will, but we want to check on Warren first. Go out there, and if anyone got woken up and comes to investigate, I dunno… Tell them you’ve been trying to get us to turn down the TV or something. Just give us a minute, okay?”

           “I…” Wes sighed. “Yeah. Sure, fine. Whatever. Dunno why it has to be me…”

           As soon as he went through the door and closed it behind him, Lucy and Sadie went in and continued the hugging as Warren sat at the edge of the bed.

           “Aunt Lucy… M-Mom… I’ve missed you…” he got out.

           “Warren. You’ve grown so much,” Sadie sniffled back and ruffled his hair.

           “Kinda brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?” Millie remarked to Jace, standing beside her. “It’s been one big messed up night, but… it’s over now, right? Even if we didn’t instantly vanish? It better be. Because, well… I’m not sure how to say this…”

           “Millie!” Sadie gasped upon noticing the black substance crawling up her neck. “What happened? Oh… Oh, no, did he inject you when we weren’t looking?”

           Millie breathed out a disappointed groan, and tried to move her right hand out of her pocket—only to find that she could no longer move it before admitting, “Yeaaah… So, back at the front door, he nicked my thumb. But I didn’t think it would just keep going like some disease. Guess I’m joining the guys as statues in your garden.”

           “Don’t joke!” Lucy exclaimed. “Warren, how do we stop the spread?”

           Warren dried his eyes with a pajama sleeve and shook his head. “We can’t. It’s a self-replicating nanite strain that petrifies you for… transport to time jail or whatever those guys have. It will keep the victim alive, but only the cops can unfreeze them.”

           “If everything’s fixed now, would bringing us all back into the present… fix us, too?” Millie wondered. “Because I don’t think we’ll be getting a serum anytime soon.”

           Warren clenched his teeth and eked out, “… Maybe?”

           Millie grinned. “Good enough for me. At least I got to see the family reunion. Don’t bonk my head too much when you carry me back, okay?”

           Along with her smile, Millie brought up her left arm and, before she completely turned solid black and became quiet and still, gave a thumbs up that stuck.

           “Millie…” Sadie sighed. “Thank you for everything you did.”

           “So. Jace…” Warren looked up at him. “I guess you must know everything.”

           “Not quite, but trying to,” he said. “And I have a story to tell you… cuz.”

           Warren’s lip trembled, and he beckoned Jace. “Get over here, you dork.”

           As the four got close to share an emotional, well-earned moment, Sadie couldn’t help but mention, “Warren, we need to talk about your sleeping and eating habits.”

           “S-sorry about that, Mom…” he replied with a labored laugh.

           They had to break it up before they wanted to once Wes came back in, looking eager to leave as he pointed to the door. “Guys, we gotta get going. There are people out there, and I think the manager’s coming, and… Jesus! What happened to Millie?”

           Sadie glanced at her, then back to Wes, asking, “Can you help us carry her out?”