Pick the Plot

by James Riley

  “No, don’t worry, I’m just lost in thought,” Owen said, feeling terrible without even knowing why. “And yes, I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

  OKAY, NOW LET’S DO THIS.

  Turn to page 83.

  MAKE OWEN TRY THE EXIT CODE.

  Turn to page 132.

  Dolores slowly picked herself up as Owen’s older self helped him to his feet. “Get to Kara,” his future self whispered. “You can’t use her time bracelet here, so open a page to a different story, travel back to the right time, then come back.”

  Owen was so tired, he could barely think, but he knew there was a big problem with that plan. “I . . . I haven’t been able to open—”

  His older self grinned. “Hey, it’s me. I know. But guess what? I’ve got faith in you. You can do this, Owen. Trust me. I know you better than anyone.”

  And with that, he disappeared.

  At the end of the hall, so did Dolores.

  As fast as he was still moving using Dolores’s time energy, Owen couldn’t even make them out, beyond the side effects of their fight. Every so often one of the rebels would be knocked aside, or the Countess’s guards would suddenly all be tied up in their own robes, just wearing undershirts and underwear.

  Owen pushed off the wall and stumbled the rest of the way to the door at the end of the hall. He reached for the doorknob just as a hand tightened around his throat. Before he could move, another hand yanked the first one away, and both disappeared again.

  This was not fun, standing in the middle of a war zone between two super-fast people . . . even when one of them was him! That made it worse, actually, since he knew that anything Dolores did to fight back would be hurting himself in the future. But there wasn’t anything he could do to help himself now. He’d have to grab Kara and get out of here.

  Owen grabbed the knob, yanked the door open, leaped through, then slammed it shut again. As the door closed, he felt something bang against it, but only once. Owen quickly locked it, not very sure that it would help.

  He turned around and almost screamed in surprise. Kara was pointing a finger right at him, a worried look on her face. “Don’t do that!” he shouted at her, before realizing she was just as frozen in time as the guards and rebels outside and couldn’t exactly hear him.

  He moved to her side, thinking she had probably been warning Owen’s older self about the noises in the hall. Even though he’d most likely sped himself up in an instant, even a few extra seconds of time explained why he’d almost shown up too late to save Owen, whose entire fight with Dolores hadn’t even taken a couple of seconds total, in normal time.

  Just like he’d done back at the time prison, Owen grabbed Kara’s hand, bringing her up to speed. She jumped at the touch, then stared at him. “Owen? What happened to older Owen?” she asked. Her eyes went wide and she grabbed his arms. “Oh no, are you okay?!”

  Her touch sent pain flickering through his skull, but he nodded. “It probably looks worse than it feels.”

  “It’d have to or you wouldn’t be standing up!” A fire began to rage in Kara’s eyes, and she turned to the door, her hands clenched into fists. “Who did this, Owen?”

  “It’s the Countess’s daughter, and she’s . . . she’s faster than I am,” he said. “We can’t go out there. My older self is trying to fight her, but I couldn’t even see them. I have no idea if he’s winning or not. She came with a whole group of guards, and we need to get out of here.”

  Kara shook her head. “We need to jump back about five minutes, and ambush her.” She tapped her time bracelet, then frowned. “It’s not working?”

  “She’s doing it somehow,” Owen told her. “All the other time travelers out there are stuck too. My older self said I needed to open a door to another place, use the time bracelet there, then come back here. That way we’ll get out of her trap.”

  Kara stared at him for a moment, then shook her head violently. “No. We can’t just leave him . . . you. We can’t leave your older self here.” She growled in frustration and banged her fist against the wall. “You don’t get it, Owen! This happens to you every time, and I can’t stop it! I can change anyone else’s past or future, but not my own. But this time I’m not running away. I’m going to make sure he can’t sacrifice himself for me again. If one of us is going to die here, then I’m going to make sure it’s not you!”

  Owen’s mouth dropped open and his entire body went cold. His older self . . . was going to die here? He was going to die here, in the future? “No, you don’t know that,” he whispered. “He can beat her, he’s so fast—”

  “I do know it,” she hissed at him, pulling him toward the door. “What do you think I’ve been trying to stop all along? I won’t let it happen, not again!”

  For a moment Owen wondered if he should let her go. If she was right, and his older self . . . if he himself in the future was going to die here, shouldn’t they rescue him? But what could they do against Dolores? Even when not beat up, he couldn’t match her speed. “If we go, we can stop this from ever happening, Kara. We have to restart the TSA, like he was telling you before. They’ll throw the Countess back in time prison, and we’ll have saved him because he’ll never be here in the first place! That’s our only way to fix this.”

  Kara banged her fist against the door. “Let me go! I’m not letting this happen again. Not to you, not again!”

  Owen sighed and released her hand. She froze in time instantly, and he dropped his head into his hands. There was no time to argue. Right now, they had one shot at leaving, and even that would require Owen doing something he’d failed at every time he’d tried it.

  He took a deep breath, then pictured a world he hoped would be safe, ten or fifteen years in its future. This reality was created by magic, his older self had told him. And magic is open to any possibility, if you ask it.

  Having visited once already, Owen pictured a certain little cottage in the middle of a forest glen, destroyed during a fight between a fairy godmother and a genie. By now it should be all clear there.

  Please, he thought as hard as he could, putting his hand up into the air. Please let this work. I don’t know if there’s really magic out there, or if that’s just how older Owen explained it. Either way, I ask whoever or whatever’s out there . . . do this for me. I’m not a magician, and I’m not Nobody. I just need a door. Please. That’s all, just a door.

  His fingers came together and he slowly pulled down, imagining he heard the ripping noise of a page tearing through reality.

  Except this time there actually was a ripping noise.

  His eyes flew open, and Owen almost screamed with joy as he found himself staring at a rebuilt cottage and a peaceful forest glen just on the other side of a portal into another book entirely.

  Not knowing how much time they had left, Owen didn’t bother grabbing Kara’s hand. Instead, he prepared himself, getting into a runner’s stance, then launched himself right at her, grabbing her around the waist and using his momentum to send them both through the portal.

  “No!” she screamed, landing on the grass of the meadow glen. “Do you know what you just did?!”

  Owen rolled over and looked behind him. The page was resealing itself, leaving behind Dolores, the Countess’s reality, and his older self.

  “I really, really hope so,” he said quietly. I hope you’re going to be okay, older Owen. I’ll do my best to make sure that never happens to you. I promise.

  “We have to go back, right now,” she said, fiddling with the bracelet.

  He took her hand. “Kara, we can’t beat her. We need to stop all of this before it ever happened. You know what we have to do.”

  She gritted her teeth, then let out a deep breath and finally nodded. “You don’t know what it’s like, Owen. How many times I’ve tried to stop this.”

  “I don’t know, you’re right,” Owen said, trying not to think about what was happening to him a decade into his future time line. “Maybe it’s time to tell me.”

>   She nodded. “Maybe it is.”

  Turn to page 67.

  You’re first in line, my young lad,” the former Rotten Banana and now apparently Top Banana told Owen, holding out his hand to take an autograph book. “Only twenty bucks, or forty if you want me to write your name, too. Can’t get my hand too cramped up, not with the celebration about to begin!”

  “And what exactly did you do that’s worth celebrating?” Owen asked, glaring at the supervillain.

  The man looked insulted. “How dare you, child. I’ll have you know that I led the assault against the Dark myself! I personally saved Kid Twilight and his friends on several occasions. You would still be filled with doom and gloom if it weren’t for this newly ripened hero!”

  Owen stepped up onto the stage and got right up in the banana’s face. “Last I saw,” he whispered, “my friend Charm was shooting you over and over for making banana puns. Now you claim you helped defeat the Dark? When exactly did that happen?”

  The banana’s eyes widened and he took a step back. “You know that horrible girl? She would have smashed me into banana paste! Thankfully, her friends were less violent, or I wouldn’t even be here today.”

  Owen glared at him. “Here and now, I’m thinking Charm had the right idea. Did you turn my friends over to the Dark? Did you leave them there to be taken over by shadows? Where are they?”

  The banana took another step back, waving his hands back and forth. “I don’t know, kid, honest! Last I saw, they ran into the observatory to fight the Dark, while the rest of us distracted his shadows. It must have worked, because the shadows all disappeared a little bit later. But the girls never came back out, and when we went inside to look for them, all we found was the regular old Jupiter Hill Observatory. If that actually was Doc Twilight’s secret hideout, we couldn’t find a way in.”

  The Jupiter Hill Observatory? Okay, that was a place to start, at least. “What are you even doing here?” Owen asked the banana. “The Lawful Legion would throw you in jail if they knew who you really are.”

  “Listen, kid,” the Top Banana said, getting more annoyed. “I don’t know who you think I am, but I stepped up against the Dark. I really did save your friends a couple of times. Ask the girl with the red hair. Protected her from Kid Twilight in this very building!” He pointed at the Lawful Legion headquarters behind them. “And they’d never have gotten into the observatory if it wasn’t for me. So why don’t you make like a banana and slip away?” He straightened his suit and smiled at the crowd behind Owen. “I’m sure there’s a long line of people waiting to thank me, and hopefully buy some autographs.”

  Owen shook his head in disgust, then jumped off the stage and walked toward the street without waiting for Kara. She caught up to him just past the edge of the park and grabbed his arm to stop him. “Did the man in the banana suit say something you didn’t like?” she asked, trying not to smile.

  “It’s not funny,” Owen said, a bit too loudly. A friendly-looking man put a finger over his mouth as if to politely suggest Owen quiet down. Owen glared at the guy, who just grinned and waved, then continued on his way. “That guy’s a supervillain, and he was with my friends when everything went down. He claims he doesn’t know what happened to them.” He dug his fingers into his palms, suddenly realizing exactly how Bethany had felt for so long, looking for her father. The idea that Owen had left them behind, especially at the worst possible moment . . . it just felt like a weight bearing down on him, never letting up.

  Behind them the crowds started shouting in excitement, and Owen turned to find the Lawful Legion flying, running, and floating out of their headquarters toward the stage the banana was on. For a moment he stopped to watch, hoping the superheroes would throw the supervillain in jail, or at least punch him or something.

  But then Captain Sunshine landed next to the banana and shook his hand. Owen groaned in annoyance as the banana raised both their hands into the air in triumph, shouting something about thirty bucks an autograph. “Augh! I can see why Charm hated him so much!”

  “Charm?” Kara asked. “Who’s that? I thought we were looking for Bethany.”

  Thinking about the half-robotic girl Charm while standing next to Kara somehow made Owen feel guilty. “Both, actually,” Owen said. “Or really, three of them: Bethany, Charm, and a girl named Gwen. The banana claimed to have seen them last at the Jupiter Hill Observatory, wherever that is. He said it was supposed to be the secret headquarters for Doc Twilight, Bethany’s father.”

  Kara paused. “Whoa. Is that how she can do all the things you’ve told me she can? Because her father is a superhero?”

  Owen wrinkled his nose. “It’s a bit more complicated than that, but in a way, yeah.”

  “So, sounds like we should check the observatory first, then,” Kara said, taking his hand and pulling him away from the park.

  Owen sighed. “That’s great, except I have no idea where the observatory is.”

  “Oh, just about a mile in that direction!” a grinning woman said as her child dragged her toward the Lawful Legion event. “Can’t miss it, it’s on top of Jupiter Hill! Just look for the giant telescope.”

  “Thanks,” Owen said, forcing a smile in return. After seeing the banana, this whole cheery thing was starting to get on his nerves. Not that he really wanted the city to be like it was under the Dark, when an old woman had basically tried to murder them. But these people could try not being quite so upbeat just for a second. His friends were in danger, after all.

  “C’mon,” Kara said, waving at the lady. “We’ll see what we can find at the observatory and go from there. Between the two of us, I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

  “We could always wait and ask Captain Sunshine about it,” Owen said, staring daggers at the banana.

  Suddenly, the entire city went dark, as if something blocked out the sun. Owen glanced up, and up, and up, finally craning his neck back to see all of a giant toad at least a thousand feet tall standing on its hind legs, towering over the Lawful Legion headquarters. “People of Jupiter City!” it croaked. “Your heroes have been a wart on my backside for too long. And now the time has come for vengeance!”

  The crowd went silent for a moment, then began to cheer. Captain Sunshine grinned, then immediately took to the skies, the rest of the Lawful Legion right behind him.

  Owen sighed. “Okay, fine,” he said, and began walking toward the observatory. “Of course a giant toad would pick now of all times to start a fight.”

  “So inconsiderate,” Kara agreed, and shoved him with her shoulder.

  Turn to page 50.

  We travel back as far as we can,” Kara continued. “Right to the beginning. Even if the Countess can track us from here, there’s no way that trail will hold up before the planet exists. We should be safe there while we figure out what to do.”

  Right to the what, now? “I hate to bring this up,” Owen said, “but how exactly are we going to survive without a planet? Don’t we need air or even a place to stand? Space isn’t that great for survival, I’ve heard.”

  “As long as we’re moving through time, we’ll be fine,” she said, fiddling with the symbols on the bracelet. “The device has protective qualities that keep us alive. Just make sure you don’t let go, or you’ll drop back into normal time.” She winced. “And if that’s in deep space . . . just hold tight, okay?”

  “Good tip,” Owen said, grabbing her hand. She smiled sadly, then hit a button on the bracelet, and the entire world jolted.

  Plants grew downward into the ground. Dinosaurs tromped backward through the jungle, sometimes even walking right through the spot where they were standing. Owen was so shocked, he almost dropped Kara’s hand, but she squeezed his tightly. Apparently time travel made you insubstantial? That was convenient for them.

  For a moment Owen wondered if that was something the author of Kara’s books had put into place, or whether real time travel actually made you ghostlike. That moment passed when he realized there wasn’t
any such thing as “real” time travel, so that was sort of a silly question.

  “Now that we’re a bit farther away, I’m going to speed us up,” Kara said. She pushed a symbol on the bracelet, and the world began flying by much faster, with flashes of animals going by too quickly to see, and day and night mixing into each other.

  “How did you learn to use that thing?” Owen asked her, watching with awe the various changes in the world around them. The dinosaurs began to disappear, leaving just enormous insects and plants.

  “My older self showed me,” she said, and Owen noticed she wasn’t watching the show in front of them but was instead just staring off into space. “It’s not that hard, actually. The TSA made them pretty user-friendly.”

  “Except they’re not around to make them anymore,” Owen pointed out. “And wait, if your older self showed you how to use it, then how did she learn it?”

  “Because I grow up and show myself,” Kara said. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but try not to think about it too much. Remember, paradoxes don’t affect me.” She squeezed his hand again. “Just part of my charm.”

  He smiled at that, and realized that in spite of only knowing her for a few hours, that’s not how it felt for some reason. It was almost like he’d known her for longer. Maybe not a year, like she claimed, but certainly for days at least.

  That made sense, too, if they’d had to do all three challenges to get the exit code for the readers. Owen briefly wondered what he’d found out about Kara in that time. Had she shared what this terrible future thing she was going to do was? Or anything about this whole “immune to paradoxes” thing, which still made no sense? Paradoxes weren’t like the TSA agents, police that punished you for breaking a rule. They were impossibilities of logic, a broken series of events that shouldn’t and couldn’t actually happen in the way that they did. How could an impossibility not affect Kara?

  Yet here they were, using a TSA time bracelet that shouldn’t exist, that Kara’s older self had taught her younger self to use, only so she could grow up and teach her younger self again. It was a circle in time with no beginning.