by James Riley
Now completely panicking, Fort turned to the colonel. “It’s the Time—” he started to shout, but Colonel Charles shoved him back toward the wall, guards moving in front of him protectively.
“Stay down and don’t draw attention to yourself !” the colonel hissed at Fort as one of the shadows appeared again, this time in the middle of a squad. The soldiers all moved to aim but stopped as the colonel shouted, “Do not fire! Contain it instead: Use your bodies to keep it trapped!”
That might work, actually! Fort peered between the arms of his guards to find the soldiers moving to obey the colonel as the surrounded shadow flashed in and out of existence, each time a slightly different shape, like it was moving in place. The squad closed in to form a fairly solid wall, their shoulders all pushed against each other, their Lightning rods all aimed straight at the shadow.
And then an eerie black light appeared around each soldier, and they immediately began to wink out one by one, disappearing into thin air.
A collective gasp of shock went up around the room, the loudest coming from Fort, and everything erupted into chaos.
All the soldiers began to shout at once as the shadows appeared all around the room now, baiting the soldiers into firing at each other. Lightning bolts filled the air, creating an almost electric field within the room as more and more TDA soldiers were hit, falling to the floor unconscious.
Even the ones who were careful not to aim at the other soldiers had their shots knocked off course by the shadows, creating more panic. A bolt sizzled past Fort’s shoulder, and he dove to the floor, now as scared of the soldiers as he was of the Carmarthen students.
“Weapons down!” Agent Cole shouted, then glared at Colonel Charles. “Have you trained these soldiers at all? This is insanity!”
“We will take control of this situation!” Colonel Charles shouted, grabbing a Lightning rod from next to an unconscious soldier and striding out into the melee. “Form up on me, soldiers! We will take these UMUs down! Let’s—”
And then he broke off as one of the shadows appeared right in front of him.
Fort’s eyes widened in shock, but it was too late to do anything. “No!” Colonel Charles shouted, leaping backward and raising his Lightning rod to fire as black light washed over him. As the magic hit him, he immediately froze in place, his mouth hanging open, his Lightning rod just beginning to unleash a bolt of electricity.
But as the shadow cast its spell on the colonel, Fort finally got his first good look at the intruder. Whatever it was, it looked about his height and was wearing all black, just like the kids in the video.
Fort had been right about the attackers and how they’d seen Colonel Charles’s plan ahead of time. But he’d been very, very wrong about being able to face them with just Jia and Rachel.
Whatever these Time spells were, they were far more powerful than anything he and his friends had.
He pushed to his feet, ready to try to teleport one of the Time students away, but something struck him from behind, knocking him back to the floor. For a moment, he was sure one of the Time kids had attacked him, and he tried desperately to fend them off before realizing it was Agent Cole, just as he was about to punch her in the face.
“Stay down!” she shouted as a succession of lightning bolts passed through where he’d been standing. She looked up and readied her own Lightning rod, looking furious. “I should have brought my own team in. Charles’s soldiers weren’t ready for this!”
She released Fort and stood up, moving into the squads, yelling at them to lower their weapons. But even as the soldiers obeyed, the shadows grabbed multiple Lightning rods, moving too quickly to catch, and set them off one by one, taking down more of the TDA agents. Another squad disappeared entirely, while a second one slowed to a halt, not freezing like Colonel Charles had, but moving almost imperceptibly slowly.
At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before the Time students had taken down the entire TDA. And all so they could take him, Rachel, and Jia for who knew what reason.
“Lock the doors!” Agent Cole shouted as soldiers continued to drop. “We have to contain them within this room. We can’t let them out into the rest of the school!”
Two soldiers began to close the doors leading back into the school but disappeared before they could.
“Fitzgerald!” Agent Cole shouted at Fort. “Open a portal to the barracks, and get more—”
A shadow flashed past her before she could finish, and when it was gone, Agent Cole had disappeared as well.
Fort looked around in horror, seeing only a dozen soldiers left now, spread throughout the room. Agent Cole was right; they needed backup if they were going to keep the Time students trapped in the Deployment Room.
But not soldiers. They’d be useless. No, he needed his friends, and all the other students he could find. Sebastian, the Chads, Rachel’s Destruction friends, everyone.
As more soldiers ran to block the exit doors, Fort aimed for a spot just in front of them, hoping to protect them by opening a teleportation circle between them and the Carmarthen students.
But as he started the spell, something shadowy flashed before his eyes, and suddenly everything changed in the Deployment Room. Where there had been less than a dozen soldiers left on their feet, now there were none. All of the unconscious soldiers and those frozen like Colonel Charles had disappeared as well.
In fact, the room was entirely empty but for Fort and two black shadows who now stood in front of him.
As he watched in desperate horror, the shadows formed into two children, their hands glowing with black light. Hoods covered their faces, but beneath their open hoodies, Fort could see school uniforms and ties.
These were the children from the video, the Time school students.
And they’d come for him.
First one, then the other removed their hoods, revealing a pale-skinned boy and a girl of Indian descent, both with bright silver hair, exactly like Cyrus’s.
“That was unnecessary,” said the boy, wiping some dust off his sleeve. “Adults never listen, do they? They’re the worst.”
The girl stepped closer with a smile and reached a hand out to Fort, who stared at it in terror. “Hello, Forsythe,” she said. “Nice to finally meet you. We’re going to need you to come with us.”
- SEVEN -
FORT QUICKLY BACKED AWAY FROM both Time students, his hands up and ready to either punch or open a teleportation circle, whichever one was quicker. “What did you do with everyone?” he shouted, his voice cracking. “Where are they?”
“Oh, we just threw them all a quarter hour into the future,” the boy said, shrugging. “Calm down. We didn’t hurt them.”
“Well, except for the ones you hit with lightning,” the girl said, giving him an annoyed look. “Speaking of unnecessary.” As she spoke, Fort recognized her voice from the video. The boy, though, didn’t seem to be the other student who’d spoken in the message.
“Hey, they were shooting it at us,” the boy said. “It’s only fair. But they’ll all be fine.”
“We sent you a few minutes into the future as well,” the girl said to Fort. “See? It was completely painless, so there’s no need to worry about the soldiers. You probably didn’t even know it was happening. And this way you didn’t have to wait around while we cleaned things up.”
Cleaned things up? That was how she talked about sending all the soldiers into the future? Fort suddenly knew how the guards at the Oppenheimer School felt about the Destruction students. These Time kids were on a completely different level, and he had no way of fighting back.
“If we want to avoid some unpleasantness,” the boy said, nodding at Fort, “we need to be back at the school before our ‘mess’ returns, Ellora. Let’s get this moving. You know what we have to do.”
The girl sighed, then leaned in closer to Fort. “Do boys here like to pretend you know more than the girls too, or is that just a British thing?” She smiled but looked tired. “Now how about you bring you
r friends here? We don’t have too much time left, honestly.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Fort shouted, barely able to think from fear. They moved so fast and could freeze people in time, send them into the future! Would he even be able to open a teleportation circle before they stopped him?
The two Time students gave each other a look. “Yes, we would,” Ellora said to Fort. “Don’t worry. We’ll explain everything back at the Carmarthen Academy. Just bring Rachel and Jia along, and Simon and I will take you there.”
“We’re not going anywhere !” Fort said, now much more thankful that he and the others hadn’t disobeyed and just teleported over to the UK themselves. They would have been beaten instantly.
“Ugh, he’s been brainwashed by the adults here,” Simon said, shaking his head. “You knew this would be how it goes, Ellora. Let’s freeze him and quit wasting time.”
Fort’s eyes widened at the word “freeze,” and he stepped backward, ready to bolt. What did that even mean? They were going to freeze him in time?
“Whoa, it’s okay, Forsythe,” Ellora said, glaring at Simon. “We’re not going to freeze you!”
“We will if we don’t want to get caught!” Simon said.
“We want them to listen to us, don’t we?” Ellora said, turning to face her fellow Time student. “If we force them to come, they’ll just be looking for a chance to run!”
And just like that, Fort realized this was the perfect opportunity to do exactly what she said, to run. Now, while they were distracted.
But they’d freeze him if he tried to escape through a portal. No, what he needed was to get some distance first. So instead of opening a teleportation circle near him, he first silently opened a portal below them, leading to the cavern beneath the old Oppenheimer School.
“Cooperation is built on tru—whoop! ” the girl shouted as she and the boy dropped through the circle, and for a second, Fort thought he’d actually caught them by surprise. Maybe they didn’t see everything coming after all!
But then Ellora and Simon paused in midair, black light surrounding them. And then, as Fort watched in horror, time reversed itself: The two Time students floated back up out of the portal, and the teleportation circle closed below them.
“And you knew he’d try that,” Simon said to Ellora, completely calm as if nothing had just happened. “Can we finally do things my way, or do you still have to waste more time?”
“He just doesn’t understand!” she said, turning back to Fort. Her smile now was much more forced. “No one’s going to hurt you or your friends, Forsythe. We just want to talk. All you have to do is come with us, listen for a few minutes, and that’s it: You’ll be free to go.”
They’d be what now? Free to go? That couldn’t be right: These kids had put a dome up over half the UK just to get ahold of him and his friends. Who would go to that much trouble just to talk to someone? It had to be a trap.
And if that was the case, there was no way he was bringing Rachel and Jia here—
“Let me stop you right there,” Simon said, raising a glowing hand. “They’re coming too, whether you teleport them here or not, okay? So don’t even bother with all the tough talk.”
Fort’s eyes widened at this. Could the other boy have known what he was thinking? He didn’t seem to have Mind magic. But no, it had to be like when Cyrus did the same thing, seeing the conversation before it happened.
“We also don’t have time to explain how time visions work,” Simon said, rolling his eyes. “You know what? I’m tired of this. Come right now, or I’ll freeze everyone in this entire school, and cart you over in a wheelbarrow or something. Sound good?”
Ellora groaned. “Oh, brilliant, Simon. Why not just threaten to freeze his heart while we’re at it? You need to stop with all the threats!”
“What do you think we’re doing here?” Simon said to her. “That was the whole idea, threatening everyone !”
“Not them!” Ellora said, pointing at Fort. “We need their help!”
“Don’t tell him that!” Simon said, rolling his eyes again. “If they know we need them, they’ll never do what we say!”
Weirdly, the more they argued, the less intimidating they seemed. Sure, they could move faster than he could see and just mentioned freezing his heart, but other than that, they sounded like any other kids his age … just with amazing accents.
Maybe there was a way out of this, even without his magic. Granted, it all hinged on Ellora telling the truth, that they really did just want to talk, but at this point, it wasn’t like Fort had any other options.
“Promise me you’ll release everyone!” he shouted over their bickering. “I’ll bring Jia and Rachel here if you promise you’ll drop the dome and let everyone go. Including us.”
“Of course!” Ellora said. “Just come with us and talk, and you’re free to go.”
“After you help us,” Simon said, and Ellora sighed loudly.
“If we come and listen to what you have to say,” Fort said quickly, “how do I know you’ll actually release us all? How can I be sure that you won’t destroy London anyway?”
Simon and Ellora looked at each other again, and Simon snorted. “Destroy London?” he said.
“Forsythe, that’s why we’re here,” Ellora said, rubbing her forehead. “To save London. We need the help of you three to do that.”
Wait, what? They wanted to save London? But that wasn’t how it sounded from their video—
“The video? We said those exact words in it!” Simon said, this time annoying Fort more than scaring him. “ ‘If you do not do what we say, London will be destroyed.’ How did you not understand that?”
“I knew William would confuse them,” Ellora said. “He tried to be all tough, too, and look where it got us. He completely made it sound like we were going to burn London down if we didn’t get what we wanted, not that we needed them to stop it.”
“But London’s just the beginning,” Simon continued. “Just show him what’s coming if it gets destroyed, Ellora. We don’t have any more time to argue. If we’d done things my way, we’d have gotten away cleanly, but no, you had to waste all the time.”
Ellora winced. “It won’t take long. I’ll show him. You go get Jia and Rachel.”
“They’ll need to see too,” Simon said. “I’ll do that while I cart them back here. Don’t leave him in the future for too long.”
What? Leave him in the future? What did that mean? But before Fort could ask, Simon continued.
“Oh, and make sure you reverse time to reopen his portal back to the academy, or we won’t be going home.” He nodded at the nearby wall where Fort had opened his teleportation circle.
Uh, reverse time to what now? They could reopen his teleportation circles?!
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know. I’m the one who came up with that.”
Simon sighed loudly, then disappeared in a flash of shadow, leaving Fort alone with Ellora. Even with just one of the students, Fort didn’t feel any better, especially knowing that anywhere he teleported her, she could just reopen the circle and come right back.
“I really did want this to go differently,” Ellora said, frowning at him. “This is all William’s fault.” She shrugged. “But there’s only so much time, so …”
Her hands began to glow, and before Fort could move, the entire Deployment Room faded out around him, and then returned just as quickly. Only now it was utterly destroyed.
Half the walls had collapsed, with dirt and stone crumbling from various holes. The raised platform where Colonel Charles had stood was almost completely gone, just a foot or two at the side remaining.
All in all, it looked as if a bomb had gone off. And there was no indication that anyone was left, not even a lit emergency-exit sign or something.
And then a raindrop fell in front of Fort’s face, and he looked up in confusion.
Then his mouth dropped open in dread.
There was no ceiling on the room.
In fact, there were no longer any floors above it either. Now Fort could see straight up to the stormy sky above. Where once had been an underground-facility-turned-school, now there was nothing but open air, with dirt and dust swirling in the wet wind.
The second Oppenheimer School, built in an underground bunker that could withstand a nuclear blast from thirty miles away, was just … gone.
- EIGHT -
HELLO?” FORT SHOUTED AS THE rain intensified. No one answered, so in spite of his shock, he moved to find cover from the storm.
Only the odd thing was, he wasn’t getting wet. Instead, the water droplets were falling right through him, as if he were a ghost, or had cast Ethereal Spirit.
But how was that possible? A Time student shouldn’t have been able to use Healing magic, let alone destroy a school. Or was this the future that Simon had mentioned? Had Ellora sent him here to see … this?
But he wasn’t really here, not fully, not if the rain was passing through him. Was this how the Time-magic users saw the future, like ghosts, unable to touch or change anything?
“Ellora!” he shouted into the empty air, his voice not echoing at all. “Take me back! I’ve seen whatever it is you wanted me to see!”
But again, there was no reply, and Fort began to panic. What if she left him here, stuck in the future? And what kind of horrible future was this? What could have happened to utterly destroy the Oppenheimer School? It’d been hidden to the point that even the students attending the school hadn’t known where it was, so how could it have been found to destroy it in the first place?
And how far ahead in time was he? For all Fort knew, this could be happening a few minutes in the future, while he, his father, and all his friends were still there. In fact, what if the Time students were in on it, and the school was getting attacked while he was stuck in the future? He needed to get back already!
But how? He couldn’t use Time magic himself, or really, many other spells. All he had currently were the Teleport spell, Heal Minor Wounds, and one instance of Restore Dimensional Portal, none of which were much use as a ghost in the future.
