Pick the Plot

by James Riley

  “All the more reason for me to stay and help you first. We’ll free my older selves and then they can protect you while I take my Owen back and restart the TSA. It’s the safest thing to do.”

  “No, it’s not. Because the last thing I’m doing is putting you in danger. You’re the only weapon we have against the Countess, and if you get taken too, that’s it, that’s the entire world, gone.”

  Okay, whatever all of this was, it was time for Owen to confront them and get the real truth. There were just too many hints about terrible things coming in the future, and honestly, Owen was really tired of it. He put his hand on the doorknob but froze before turning it when someone at the other end of the hall shouted.

  At first he assumed the shout came from one of the other rooms, but those doors opened and a variety of people looked out in confusion, including a woman with an eye patch and a man covered in digital clock tattoos.

  Owen stepped away from the door and moved down the hall with the crowd, trying to figure out where all the shouting was coming from. Not only loud voices, but metallic bangs, too, almost like . . . pots and pans?

  The restaurant upstairs. Someone was there, and they weren’t happy.

  “Everyone, get out of here,” the eye-patch woman shouted. “We’ve been discovered!”

  The various rebels against the Countess all reached for their wrists, then pushed a button on their time bracelets. But nothing happened.

  And then a robed, bald woman stepped down the stairs, with a host of robed people behind her, each one wearing a glowing glove.

  “Destroy the dissidents!” shouted Dolores, the Countess’s daughter, before turning to Owen. “But don’t touch that boy. He’s with the devil girl, and I want to deliver them to my mother myself!”

  “She blocked our time bracelets somehow!” the woman with the eye patch shouted. “We can’t leave!”

  Dolores smiled at that. And then she began to vibrate.

  Turn to page 190.

  Owen opened his eyes, his head pounding, and found himself in a small jail cell. His heart began racing, and for a moment he was terrified that the day had been reset again, all the way back to the time prison.

  But this cell had no window. And the door was definitely not open.

  A light came on, shining straight into his eyes. He winced, covering his face with his hand, then tried to see beyond the glare. “Hello?” he said.

  “Where’s the machine?” said a low, gruff male voice.

  The machine? Did this person mean Kara’s time bracelet? “I don’t know,” Owen said. “Where’s my friend?”

  “Where did you take the machine?” the voice said.

  “What machine?” Owen asked. “Who are you?”

  “You know who I am,” the voice said, and a face pushed into the light: a boy with dark hair wearing a purple mask. “And you know what machine. You stole it from me, and I want it back.”

  Owen gasped. Was that Kid Twilight’s costume? It looked exactly like the version he’d seen in Bethany’s grandfather’s house. This couldn’t actually be Doc Twilight’s sidekick, could it? The banana had mentioned something about him, now that he thought about it. “Um, I didn’t steal anything. I just got here. I’m looking for my friends—”

  “You’re actually going to stick with the same story, after stealing from us?” the boy said, and something lashed out, hitting the bars hard enough to make them ring. Owen jumped back in surprise.

  “I swear, I’ve never been here before, or ever met you,” Owen told him. “How could I tell you the same story twice?”

  The boy glared through his purple mask. “That’s the most pathetic lie I’ve ever heard. I saw you with my own eyes. You claimed to be looking for your friends, and I believed you.” He leaned forward again, gritting his teeth. “I took you at your word, and you stole the machine right out from under us!”

  What was going on? Was this a time travel thing? Did he and Kara travel into the past and steal whatever machine it was that Kid Twilight was talking about? “Where is the girl who was with me?” Owen asked. “She’ll back me up on all of this.”

  Kid Twilight moved his face from the light, and for a moment there was just silence. “She disappeared,” he said finally. “I expect you figured Doc and I would be out tracking you down, so you thought it’d be safe to return. But that’s why I stayed behind.” He moved back into the light and looked almost as angry as if one of the Dark’s shadows had taken him over. “And now Doc isn’t answering my radio. I swear, if I got him back just for you to take him away again, I’ll—”

  “I’m telling you the truth!” Owen shouted, unsure how else to get through to this kid. “The Rotten Banana told us that this was the last place he saw my friends. I came here hoping to find some trace of them. One had a jet pack, another was half-robotic—”

  Something hit the bars again hard. “Stop telling me the same story!” Kid Twilight shouted. “That’s exactly what you said last time. I wrongly thought that if you knew Bethany and the others—”

  “Wait, you met Bethany? Where is she?”

  Kid Twilight glared at him. “Where do you think? You stole the machine we were using to bring her back!”

  “Pretend I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Owen said. “What happened when Bethany faced the Dark? The last I saw, he had her defeated, and—”

  “The last you saw?” Kid Twilight said. “You were here for the fight?” He crossed his arms. “And yet you claimed you’ve never seen me before.”

  “No, I . . . it doesn’t matter.” Owen dropped his head into his hands. How could he explain the comic pages between worlds? Kid Twilight didn’t believe a word he said anyway. It had to be time travel. But where was Kara?

  “I’m going to ask you one more time,” Kid Twilight said, and he stood up, moving into the light. In his hand he held a staff as long as he was, probably what he’d been hitting the bars with. “And if you don’t tell me what I want to know . . .” He tapped the staff against the cell in a threatening manner. “Where. Is. The. Machine?”

  “I don’t know!” Owen shouted. “I have no idea. I don’t even know what machine you’re talking about!”

  Kid Twilight nodded, then unlocked the cell door and pulled it open. He raised his staff to a striking position . . .

  Then flew backward into the dark. Owen heard some scuffling, and something hit the floor hard. The staff banged against the ground, then again. After that was only silence.

  Owen moved carefully to the door of his cell, ready to slam it closed in order to keep Kid Twilight away from him if it came to that. “Hello?” he said nervously.

  “Sorry about that,” Kara said, stepping into the light. “Had to catch my breath. That guy was good. Even with the time bracelet, he managed to anticipate me appearing twice!” She reached to the side of the cage and hit something, and lights turned on, revealing a large cavernlike room filled with computers and various superhero trophies.

  Just a few feet from his cell, Kid Twilight lay on the ground unconscious. “That was amazing,” Owen said, shaking his head. “How did you hide from him?”

  “Something attacked us coming down the stairs,” she said, grabbing Kid Twilight’s cape and dragging him into the cell. “I had just enough time to hit the bracelet. I ended up a few thousand years in the future, so it took me a few seconds to get back.” She half smiled at him. “You should see what this city looks like then, by the way. Everything’s so futuristic. Duck museum’s the same, though.” She closed the cell door and fell back against the bars with a whoof. “When I got back, I didn’t know how to unlock the cell, so I waited until he did before I made my move.”

  “Did you hear what he was saying?” Owen asked. “He claimed I stole something from him. Do you think maybe we come here again in the past?”

  “It’s possible,” she said. “Maybe there’s some footage or something? Places like this must have security cameras.”

  That made sense. Owen moved over
to the giant computer on one wall, then tentatively pushed one of the buttons. The entire system turned on, and the largest monitor Owen had ever seen lit up.

  “Awaiting voice command,” the computer said. “That is, unless you don’t actually need me and just woke me up to be cruel.”

  Huh. The computer’s voice was sarcastic.

  “I’d like to see what happened the last time I was here,” Owen said.

  Several light beams scanned over him. “Acknowledged,” the computer said. “I didn’t need a ‘please,’ either. You’re welcome, of course.”

  “Um, thank you?” Owen said.

  “Too late,” the computer replied, and a video appeared on the screen.

  A video of Owen talking to Kid Twilight.

  Owen gasped. Kid Twilight hadn’t been lying. There he was, shaking the sidekick’s hand and speaking to a costumed man who must have been Doc Twilight. Had Bethany actually defeated the Dark in the end and restored her father?

  There wasn’t any sound, but the three quickly walked over to a small metal box near the computer monitor. The Owen on-screen touched it briefly, and light flared, too bright for Owen to see through. When everything returned to normal, both Doc and Kid Twilight were on the floor, and Owen was walking out with the box.

  “Anything else, Your Majesty?” the computer asked. “Take your time; I have nothing better to be doing with my processor.”

  Before Owen could respond, the version of him on-screen looked up at the camera shooting the video. That Owen grinned widely and waved, then continued on his way. And suddenly Owen knew what had happened.

  “Fowen?” he whispered.

  Turn to page 304.

  As Dolores’s hand touched his chest, Owen desperately hoped the readers had fulfilled his request. Uncertain what else to do, he willed his entire body to just . . . stop, to completely freeze the entire thing in time. If Dolores could use his powers this way, then he could too, assuming the readers had agreed to it! And now even if Dolores stopped time around his heart, the rest of him would be frozen too, and no damage would be done. Then he’d be able to unfreeze all of himself later, and everything would be fine!

  He closed his eyes, hoping he was right. That was the theory, at least. What if being frozen, though, he wasn’t able to unfreeze—

  Instantly, Owen’s entire body completely stopped.

  And then, just as fast, it restarted again.

  Oh no! Had it not worked? Owen opened his eyes, expecting to see Dolores about to time-freeze his heart. Instead, though, Kara was kneeling at his side looking both worried and hopeful, while a man in a uniform sat next to her, holding Owen’s wrist to take his pulse.

  “Um, did I miss something?” Owen asked, looking around the room. Both the Countess and her daughter were gone, while the robot TIME-R seemed to be fine. “Or a whole lot of somethings?”

  Kara just stared at him for a moment, then, with a joyful whoop, tackled him with a hug hard enough to smack him back to the ground. “You’re alive!” she shouted again and again.

  “You were frozen in time, kid,” the uniformed man told him, releasing Owen’s wrist. “How exactly did that happen?”

  Owen coughed, then lowered himself back to the ground, pretending to still be weak from the freezing process. He didn’t really want to get into his powers with whoever this guy was. “One . . . one minute. Can you . . . tell me what happened here first?”

  TIME-R reached out and pushed a button on one of the laboratory computers, and security footage began playing on all the screens. The scene started with Dolores touching Owen, and his entire body going completely still.

  “Funny, they’re not usually so quiet,” said the Dolores on the screens as she stood up and gave Owen’s body an odd look. She kicked him with her foot, then frowned. “You’d think he’d be in pain—”

  “You monster!” Kara screamed at Dolores, moving to Owen’s side and placing her hand on his heart. She paused, then shouted in rage. Tears falling, Kara balled her hands together, then brought them down on Owen’s chest over and over, yelling for him to wake up. Back in the present, Owen winced, putting a hand over his heart. Hopefully, since it was frozen, Kara hadn’t been able to hurt it.

  “Dolores, what did I tell you?” the Countess on the monitors said, her gloved hand hovering over TIME-R. “I can barely hear myself think! Could you do something about her?”

  Kara hit Owen’s chest one more time, then collapsed to his side, sobbing loudly. Dolores bent down to grab her, but Kara just turned to look at her with absolute hatred in her eyes, and the bald woman took a surprised step back.

  “You have no idea what you’ve done,” Kara said. She wiped her eyes with her hand, then pushed herself to her feet. “You’ve just unleashed the end of the entire world, and for the very first time, I’m going to welcome it.”

  “What are you talking about?” the Countess said, moving away from TIME-R. “Don’t be foolish, Kara. You’re powerless here.”

  “I am powerless,” she said, taking a step toward Dolores, who backed away from her slowly. “I’ve been trying to fight this prophecy for a year now, and I’ve failed each time. But now I’m going to embrace it. The world can burn for all I care. I’d rather that than let you rule it, even for a minute!”

  “Kill her, Dolores,” the Countess said, and her daughter raised a tentative hand toward Kara’s heart.

  Kara leaped forward, grabbed Dolores’s hand, and yanked it to her chest. “Do it! It won’t stop the end of all time. Whatever you do to me, my future selves will still end this reality. This I promise you.”

  The Countess sighed. “Her and her immunity to paradox,” the Countess said. “She’s bluffing, anyway.”

  “What if she’s not?” Dolores asked, trying to pull her hand away. Kara held it fast, though, and took another step closer to her.

  “Go look and see, if you’re so gullible!” the Countess roared. “Travel into the future and see what she’s done!”

  Dolores nodded and yanked her hand away, then disappeared, only to reappear an instant later, clearly terrified. “She’s not bluffing. There’s nothing there, Mother! It’s all just a white nothingness. She’s going to destroy it all!”

  “Impossible!” the Countess shouted. “Kill her now and be done with this!”

  But Dolores shook her head. “What if it doesn’t stop her? We can’t take that chance. We need to keep her locked up!” She turned to the robot strapped to the table. “We must allow the TSA to form if there’s any hope at all.”

  The Countess turned white in shock. “That might be the most dull-witted suggestion you’ve ever dared make,” she said, bringing her glove back to TIME-R. “I cannot believe any offspring of mine could be so pathetic!”

  Dolores’s eyes widened. “Mother, I—”

  “No! I won’t hear one more sound from that hideous bald head of yours. You’ve wasted too much of my precious time here already, and I won’t have it anymore. I won’t!”

  “Mother, you need to listen—”

  “To you? Every sentence you utter drops my intelligence by ten percent.”

  Dolores balled her hands into fists. “Mother, stop—”

  “You will not order ME around, you miserable little fool!” the Countess shouted. “I rue the day that you were ever born, and—”

  Dolores shrieked incoherently, then leaped forward and slapped her mother.

  The Countess had just enough time to manage a truly shocked expression before she toppled over like a tree falling in the woods, her body frozen in time. “Just shut up for once, you evil old hag!” her daughter yelled over her still body. “I’m right about this, and you’re wrong. Did you hear me, Mother? YOU’RE WRONG!” She kicked her mother’s frozen leg. “Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, you horrible, despicable monster!”

  Taking a deep breath, Dolores moved to the table and unstrapped TIME-R. “There,” she said to the robot, waving it forward. “Go and do what you were meant to. You’re welcome.”<
br />
  TIME-R rose up off the table, studied her for a moment, then grabbed her with his metal arms, holding her tightly in place. “YOU THREATEN THE PEACE OF THIS ERA WITH YOUR ACTIONS,” TIME-R declared. “CLEARLY, THERE IS A NEED FOR A FORCE FOR JUSTICE THROUGHOUT THE TIMESTREAM, GIVEN WHAT I HAVE WITNESSED HERE TODAY. I SHALL HENCEFORTH ESTABLISH AN AGENCY TO POLICE SUCH CRIMES—”

  “What?” Dolores said. “Are you saying that we caused the TSA to be created?” She groaned in annoyance. “This is all Mother’s fault!”

  TIME-R tapped her on the head, and Dolores instantly fell unconscious. The robot gently laid her on the floor as two women and one man in gray suits blinked into existence on either side of him. One woman grabbed the Countess, the other took Dolores, and both disappeared as the man in the suit stepped over to Owen.

  “Looks like we’ve got a five thirty-eight here,” the man said, running a piece of glass over Owen’s body. “Frozen in time. Shouldn’t take much to restart him.”

  “What did you say?” Kara said softly, then moved to the other side of Owen. “He’s . . . he’s not dead?”

  “Nope, he’ll be fine,” the man said. He placed a time bracelet on Owen’s wrist, then fiddled with the buttons. “Just have to kick him back into the proper timestream.” He looked up at her, then gasped. “Kara Dox?!” He grabbed his collar and started speaking into it. “Time Security agent on the scene, responding to the seven seven seven, the founder found. Third suspect is Kara Dox, and—”

  “I’ll go quietly, okay?” she said, holding her hands out in surrender. “Just . . . just fix him! Do whatever it takes. If I can help at all, I will. Just make him be okay!”

  The agent stared at her for another moment, then tapped the time bracelet on Owen’s wrist.

  Immediately Owen sat up and looked all around him. “Um, did I miss something?” he whispered to Kara. “Or a whole lot of somethings?”

  TIME-R shut off the monitors, having reached the present, and Owen let out a deep breath, feeling an incredible weight lift off of his body. They’d actually done it! They’d defeated the Countess and her daughter, restarted the TSA, and he hadn’t even had to actually die in the process! Was this what winning felt like? It’d been so long since he’d experienced anything like it. For a moment, he just let it sink in, smiling peacefully.