by James Riley
“Are you okay?” Kara asked, and the man yanked his arm away from her.
“No, I’m not okay!” he shouted, glaring at Owen. “He stepped right on me!”
“I’m so sorry,” Owen said, pushing to his feet. “Why were you lying there?”
“Mr. Sleep hit me with his magic sand after he got turned evil by the Dark,” the man said, brushing actual dirt off himself while looking around. “How long have I been here? And why didn’t anyone wake me up before now?!”
“I’m not sure they could see you,” Kara pointed out.
The man groaned. “I tell you, this camouflage has done me more harm than good. It might be time to give up my mastery of the world’s greatest stealth system secrets and just go back to being a dentist. My dad used to tell me that was good work, you know?”
“Look, it’s Smokescreen!” one of the construction workers said. “Someone call for a doctor!”
“I’m fine, no thanks to you guys,” the man shouted back.
“Smokescreen?” Kara asked. “Why not something like the Chameleon?”
“Because this suit has the power, and it looks like camouflage, so I had to go with something military-sounding, okay?” Smokescreen told her. “No one’s around when you try to brainstorm names, but once you pick one, everyone’s got an opinion.”
Owen pulled Kara away from the man, who moved his complaining to the construction workers. “We should just let him be, I think,” he whispered to Kara, who nodded.
The observatory entrance wasn’t far, fortunately, because Smokescreen’s voice definitely traveled. It looked like the doors had been blown off the building, though one had already been replaced. They slipped in through the empty spot where the second door had been and found themselves in a dark, round room lit only by computers.
“This looks a lot more like an actual observatory than a hideout,” Kara said. “You think this is the right place?”
“I hope so,” Owen told her. “It’s not like I trust the banana man. But who knows when the Lawful Legion will be done with the giant toad monster, so we should at least check this out in the meantime. Maybe there’s a secret way in to Doc Twilight’s headquarters?”
Kara clicked on the light switch, and they both searched the room. Somehow it had avoided a lot of the damage of the battle, though here and there some of the computer monitors were broken, and a few of the walls had burn marks. A giant telescope filled most of the room, and a computer screen below it showed a map of the night sky.
Hmm. Doc Twilight had a moon and stars on his costume. He wouldn’t have made the secret entrance to his headquarters open by using the telescope, would he? Was that too obvious?
Owen moved over to the computer and typed in a location, then watched as the giant telescope rotated around.
“Where’d you aim it?” Kara asked, coming over to him.
“Jupiter,” Owen said. “Since this place is named Jupiter City, I figured it was worth a shot.” He folded his arms, inwardly smiling. If this worked, he was about to look awesome.
The telescope stopped at Jupiter, but nothing happened. Owen frowned, then tapped the map on the computer screen again. “Maybe it’s broken or something.”
“What did you say his name was again?” Kara asked, staring at the night sky map.
“Doc Twilight.”
She nodded, then tapped in different coordinates. The telescope moved again, and this time when it stopped, the wall behind it disappeared, revealing stairs leading down into darkness.
Owen looked at Kara in shock, and she just smiled back. “Where did you point it?”
“The moon,” she said. “That’s the only thing you see at twilight. The stars haven’t really come out yet, but the moon is visible.”
“That’s . . . genius.”
She blushed. “Jupiter made sense too. Come on. Let’s go downstairs before I say something to ruin things.”
Owen smiled, then walked after her toward the staircase. There didn’t seem to be a light, so they began climbing down slowly, hoping their eyes would adjust.
Unfortunately, they didn’t. Not before the attack came.
Turn to page 150.
But how are you doing this?” Owen asked. The bald woman covered his mouth with her hand, glaring at him to keep silent. She and the Countess started dragging them toward the exit door, holding each other’s free hand at the same time.
“One scream, even one word from either of you, and the other one dies,” the Countess whispered to them, and Kara gave her a look that would have knocked over an ordinary person. The Countess just smiled in response, and they made it through the open exit door without being detected.
On the other side was a room about the size of a large closet. Two chairs sat next to a small circular table, and a number of bracelets were plugged into some kind of electronic device on the wall. Unfortunately, that was it. There was nothing that could be used as a weapon, or even a distraction, to get away from the Countess. This was not good.
The bald woman slowly closed the door, then clicked a button on an electronic pad to the side. The exit door loudly locked, which made Owen jump, figuring they were caught for sure. But neither the time agents nor anyone else came barging in.
The agents had to know the exit code, right? Otherwise they were in for a long day at the prison.
“You asked how we did that?” the bald woman said to Owen, standing over him with her arms crossed. “You think I don’t know about you, Owen Conners? I’ve studied your whole life, you and Kara both. You’re my mother’s greatest enemies, after all. And because of you two, I almost didn’t exist.”
“What are you talking about?” Owen said. “There’s no way you could have studied me, my life.” How could she, from inside a book?
The bald woman stepped closer, then held up her hand to Owen’s face as it began to vibrate faster and faster.
“Recognize your power, kid?” she asked. “Took me decades of research, but I’ve re-created it, even made it better. I can slow time down in other objects . . . or speed it up until they explode.” She held her hand closer to Owen’s face, and he flinched away.
The Countess rolled her eyes. “Enough, Dolores. You never know when to end your ramblings.”
The bald woman looked like she’d been struck. “Yes, Mother,” she said. “I apologize.”
“As you should,” the Countess said, and turned back to Kara. “Now I believe we have a matter to discuss, Kara Dox. After all, you reneged on our deal.” She held up her glowing glove and brought it close to Kara’s face, just as Dolores had done to Owen. “Not to mention you said some very nasty things to me a few minutes ago. Maybe I’ll give you a taste of your older years, shall I?”
“Turn her to dust, Mother!” the bald woman shouted.
“Silence, Dolores!” the Countess said, turning away from Kara. “Children should speak only when spoken to!”
Again, the bald woman looked hurt, but this time, she didn’t apologize.
While the Countess was distracted, Kara leaped for the door back into the prison, but Dolores grabbed her, locking her arms through Kara’s armpits and threading her fingers around the back of her neck.
“Let me go!” Kara shouted, her face pointed at the floor. “I have to get back in the prison. If I never leave, I won’t be able to stop you. You’ll be free, don’t you get it?”
“Stop talking, you little monster,” Dolores said, pushing Kara’s neck forward until she yelped in pain. “You’re going to wish you’d never been born by the time we’re—”
“Dolores!” the Countess roared. “Must you ruin every victory with your incessant prattle? I am trying to keep a dignified air here, but you can’t help yourself, can you?”
“Mother, I just hate them so much —”
“Speak again, and you’ll feel the glove as well,” the Countess hissed.
Yikes. Owen took a step away from the two women. This was going badly in so many ways (not the least of which was this
incredibly awkward mother-daughter relationship). With the Countess’s glove and Dolores’s powers, fighting back was far too dangerous. But if the Countess meant to kill them anyway, it was better than nothing.
Owen glanced over at Kara as Dolores released her hold a bit, turning to apologize again to her mother. Kara caught his eye, turned her gaze on the bracelets, then back to Owen. Were those important in some way? Something they could use for protection?
“This is why your father hated you!” the Countess told her daughter, her gloved hand clenched in a fist. “I’m locked away in time prison, and what’s your brilliant plan to rescue me? You get locked away too! Never in time was a child more useless to her mother!”
“I thought I could be helpful!” Dolores said as Owen inched toward the bracelets on the wall.
“Helpful? You’ve been disappointing me since the day you were born. Why change the habit of a lifetime?”
Owen leaned back against the charging device, then slowly lifted an arm behind his back, trying to reach for a bracelet. He snagged one in his fingers, but it slipped and dropped to the cement floor with a loud, rubbery smack.
The Countess and Dolores both turned at the noise. “And what exactly do you think you’re doing?” the Countess asked him.
“He was going for a time bracelet!” Dolores said, pointing at the charging device.
“You filth,” the Countess said, practically spitting it out. “I grant you several minutes of extra life before I turn you to dust, and this is how you repay me?” She stepped toward him, her glowing glove outstretched.
“Bill me?” Owen whispered to himself, then stood still, hoping this was going to work.
The Countess snarled, then lunged out at him with her hand. Owen dropped to the ground, letting her hand hit the wall, which began immediately to decay. He grabbed the bracelet from the floor, pushed whatever buttons on it he could, then slipped it around the Countess’s ankle, locking it in place.
“Bill me!” he shouted, loud enough for everyone to hear this time. And then he waited.
Just like with the exit door, nothing happened. “You didn’t turn it on,” the woman said, starting to smile.
“That’s okay,” Kara said, kicking the bracelet hard at the Countess’s side. “That’s what he’s got me for.”
The Countess opened her mouth to scream, but instead disappeared into thin air.
“Mother!” Dolores shouted, grabbing a bracelet from the wall and pushing its buttons. “Where did you send her, you horrible creature? Tell me! ”
“I honestly have no idea,” Owen said, spreading his hands.
“I’ll find you,” Dolores said, baring her teeth at him. “No matter where you run, no matter where you hide, and—”
“Don’t you want to go find your mother?” Kara asked.
Dolores jumped as if slapped, then hit her own bracelet and disappeared.
Kara jumped toward Owen, hugging him tightly. “You did it!” she shouted. “I meant for you to put one on yourself and get out of here, but that worked too!” She pulled away, then grabbed another bracelet and pushed a few buttons. “There’s no time to waste, though. The time prison’s protective fields make exact time jumps in here impossible, but they’ll find a way back at least within the next ten minutes or so. You need to go get help, to protect you from the Countess and her daughter.” She grinned shyly. “Maybe try me last year? That’s when I first met you, after all.”
Owen put the bracelet on his wrist, then held out his hand to her. “Come with me. You can’t stay here. I don’t care what you did or are going to do; this is no way to deal with it.”
She looked away for a moment, then shook her head. “The entire timestream will suffer if I’m free. I can’t. I just can’t.”
Kara took a step toward the door back into the prison, then turned and looked back. “Push that red button and you’ll be taken right where you need to go. Say hi to me a year ago, okay? And have fun, you two. We definitely did.”
And with that, she put her hand up to the code box to unlock the door. Only, before she could touch it, the code box disappeared. As did the door, the closet-sized room, and the entire prison.
Instead, Owen and Kara found themselves standing in the middle of a very loud, very prehistoric jungle, with no signs that the time prison had ever even existed.
HUH? WHERE’D THE PRISON GO?
Turn to page 196.
IT’S A TRICK. JUMP INTO THE LAVA, IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO PROVE THIS ISN’T REAL!
The thought smacked Owen hard enough in the face that he moved before realizing what he was doing. He crouched, ready to leap . . . and then knocked himself to the ground.
Are you trying to kill me?! he shouted at the readers. I’m not jumping into lava. I don’t care if it’s a trick or not!
“Are you okay?” Kara said, running to his side. “What happened?”
Owen just shook his head. “You really don’t want to know.”
Look, he thought. If it’s not real, there’s a less lethal way to find that out. Can we just look around for now? Is that too much to ask, for a few extra minutes of life?
He carefully pushed to his feet, bracing against any further thoughts about jumping into the lava, but none seemed to come. Okay, this was good. Time to find out what was actually happening.
FINE. FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT’S SO IMPORTANT TO YOU.
Turn to page 35.
Sitting with their backs up against the cottage, Kara turned to Owen. “You’re going to find this all out when I first meet you,” she said, “but I got a time bracelet from my twenty-five-year-old self. She showed up in the middle of my bedroom and, like, collapsed on the spot. She barely made it back to me alive.” She took a deep breath. “She gave me the bracelet and told me what was going to happen, Owen. She said that only I could fix it. But she was wrong.”
“What did she tell you?”
“Four things would happen,” Kara said, counting them off on her fingers. “First, I would cause the entire Time Security Agency to not exist. Check. Second, I’d unleash the greatest evil the world has ever known into the timestream. Also check. Third, my best friend would . . . sacrifice himself to save me.” She paused, not looking at him. “And last, all of reality would cease to exist.”
Owen’s mouth dropped open. “That’s . . . a lot to take in.”
“Especially since I’d never heard of time travel before that point,” Kara told him, picking some grass and tossing it into the breeze. “At first I thought it was so cool, and that I could easily keep all of those things from happening. But the more I saw of the future, the more I realized none of it was changing. We couldn’t even . . . my future selves always failed to save . . .”
Owen started to blush. “You’re talking about—”
She nodded, not looking at him. “I figured that if this was all my fault, that maybe locking myself away in time prison would keep it from happening. But look what that got me!” She banged her fist on the cottage wall hard enough to shake it. “Instead of avoiding my destiny, I caused it myself! Not in the same way as my future selves did either. I made sure not to make their mistakes, but it doesn’t matter . . . the same things keep happening no matter what I do. And now look! The Countess kept the TSA from being created, and I unleashed her on the timestream again.” She turned to look at him, rubbing her forearm over her wet eyes. “And we know what comes next.”
Owen felt a chill go through his body, and he shivered in the warm sunlight. “Well, um, we’ll just make sure that doesn’t happen, then.”
“It always happens!” she shouted, leaping to her feet. “Everyone else in the world gets to have a future that’s completely open, a future that hasn’t happened yet. But not me. I have to be the one person immune to paradox, which means I can’t change my future. While the entire world changes around me, my time line is set in stone. And in that time line, you die, Owen. Every single time, you die.” She glared at him. “So tell me how to fix it! What a
dvice do you have, huh? How do I keep my best friend from getting killed? And the worst part is, you always do it saving me! The circumstances change, but not the result.”
“There’s a way to fix this,” Owen said, not entirely sure he was right. “There has to be.”
“I thought that once,” she said, turning away. “But now I know the truth. You can’t fight destiny. I can’t escape my fate, no matter what I do. Maybe the universe wants to be destroyed, so it keeps pushing me toward my fate until I go, willingly or not. Or maybe I’m just the ultimate evil and won’t stop until I make everything go boom.”
“Or maybe we just haven’t found the right answer yet,” he told her, forcing some optimism.
Kara shook her head. “Stop it. You sound just like you a year ago, when I first met you. But you already knew it was hopeless, because you found that out right now.”
“I get it,” Owen said quietly. “It’s not easy, being out of control of your own story. Trust me. I know what it’s like.”
She grunted. “Another nonfictional thing, huh?”
“This one’s more of a fictional thing, actually,” he told her. “But it doesn’t matter. We’ve all been at the mercy of other people at times. I mean, I’ve literally had someone choose what I could or couldn’t do!”
“So how do you handle that?” she asked, and Owen could hear the anger rising in her voice.
He smiled without much humor. “Screaming and yelling, mostly. Hasn’t worked so far, but I’m not giving up just yet.”
“I tried yelling,” Kara said, sitting back down across from him. “Asking whoever was listening what I did to deserve this. No one ever answered. Did you get any response?”
“Not the way you’d think,” Owen said, “and it’s not usually one I want to hear.” He paused. “I think we have to tell ourselves that since we can’t see all of the options, maybe what we’re getting isn’t so bad. Maybe there are far worse things out there that we’re being protected from.”
