"Huh?" was Sarah's initial reply, trying to figure her way around the Kheldian's strange wording. She silently counted off her fingers, stopped, then began again, finally just uttering a confused, "What?"
Luckily, Johnny had an explanation to offer, interjecting from his perch above Kia's shoulder, "I think she means people like her and this Fugitive guy keep the general public thinking that changing history's an unproven theory because they couldn't be trusted not to do it if they knew."
"Of course," he added with a snicker, "that doesn't account for Billy..."
"Augh, don't remind me!" Kia exclaimed at this, hands clasped over her eyes and face, her outburst almost an exasperated moan, "Him and that stupid time machine!"
"Hey, I liked older Ralf." Johnny grinned at this, remembering well the chaos it had caused with everyone; especially Player, who'd had to watch the infant in a grown man's body since he'd still been just Kia's baby boy - only stronger and louder, "He didn't focus on me all the time."
"And you have to admit, it was pretty funny when you shook him like that after things went the other way." Sarah couldn't help but chime in, getting a smile out of Kia again with the memory of 'one mad scientist; shaken, not stirred', and looked to Pax again, "Yeah, he does. Brought himself back once, just to see what would happen."
The Tornado let out a sigh, though a somewhat happy one, "It was a fun week...but I don't think the house could've survived two Billys for much longer. So anyway: unproven theory. And I still don't think there's any way you could've made sure no one ever found it. There's just too many forms of intelligence, a lot of which we can't even see."
"You got that from Ace?" Johnny wanted to know, but got a headshake in return.
"The Traveler Dust he showed me." the Tornado explained, "Didn't talk, but we managed to rig an oscillograph so I could understand it too. That and Joy. We all know she exists, even though we can't normally see her."
Then another knock sounded on the door...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Busy day!" Akemi exclaimed. This time, she was the one to pull open the door. "Hello...can I help you?" she asked the official-looking man with the official-looking smile. A delivery man, she thought to herself. Just a delivery man. Unless he was another automaton...but would Nemesis send two in ten minutes to the same place? No, she thought, probably not. So this guy probably was just a delivery man.
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Ed smiled as the door opened. "Good day Miss, I have mail and a package for Sam Winston that requires a signiture." He peers in breifly at the room full of people, dargons and such, and proffers her his clipboard. "Will you be the one signing?"
Sam walked towards the door, his bat still in hand. "What is it? I haven't ordered anything" The older man eyed the package suspiciouly. His hands tightened around the bat.
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Ed looks at Sam in... annoyance.
"Sir, I have no idea... They give me this mailbag here... See it? Yeah this one. And they say, Take the contents, and give them to the people on the label. Generally the U.S.P.S. frowns on the carrirer looking at the contents of the er.. contents." He takes a deep breath.
"Calm down Eddie boy, 5 1/2 more blocks and you can go home... Just leave the mail and move on" he thinks to himself.
"Look, either sign for the package or don't... I won't lose any sleep over it."
Ed suddenly feels very exposed standing before a roomful of people and yelling about the postal system. "Er.... Look, I'm sorry for getting so agitated... It's just, ya know delivering mail in Paragon City isn't the easiest task what with all the riff raff"
He sighs heavily and fiddles with his mailbag while waiting for someone to decided to sign for the package.
[ QUOTE ]
"So anyway: unproven theory. And I still don't think there's any way you could've made sure no one ever found it. There's just too many forms of intelligence, a lot of which we can't even see."
[/ QUOTE ]
"And there's way more forms of intelligence than even I know of working on our side, too. Some of them I can't perceive in any way, let alone by sight", Pax answered, her tone suggesting that someone as apparently smart as Sarah really should have considered there being such beings on both sides of the line. "But yeah you're right, we can't stop people building time machines. What we can do though is detect them, explain all this stuff to them and convince them not to mess with things that shouldn't be messed with. And of course if they refuse to see reason there's always the 'kill them' option but we try to do that only when we absolutely have to."
She sighed, obviously sick to death of explaining this stuff to people. "Time travel is perfectly safe, so long as you follow the rules. The universe is remarkably resilient, up to a point. Go past that point, and horrible things happen. Entire galaxies popping out of existence, that kind of thing. Usually we can get them back, but not always."
She looked up as another knock sounded on the door and Akemi got up to answer it. "If you're a Nemesis automaton I can't be held responsible for how many pieces you end up in", she called over the other girl's shoulder without getting up from where she was sitting.
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Sarah relaxed visibly when she saw the new arrival was but the mailman, the large wrench already between her fingers slowly making its way back into the tool belt.
"I don't know..." she returned to Pax, her tone one of dismissive doubt, but also holding an underlying worry, "And I'm not saying that - I just don't think there's any way you can know for sure, to know truly beyond any doubt. Anyway, the notion that things as small as us can affect all that sounds kind of silly to me."
"Yeah, gotta agree there." Johnny added with a look up the Tornado. He grinned, "And from my perspective, you guys aren't so small. The whole world getting rewritten when someone changes something in the past, though...yeah, that does sounds silly. Not to mention you get into those self-cancel-out-mabob whatevers."
"Paradoxa." Sarah gave a nod, as well as a slight shiver, "Which I don't like. Every time Bill gets going with those, I wind up with a migraine. But seriously: I just can't believe time works like that. There's just too much that can happen that couldn't happen if it did."
"Actually, wait." Kia raised a finger at this, pointing at the floor a moment, "What if it couldn't here? That has to account for something, right? If Billy repeated his experiments here, who knows, something else might happen...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Eileen shrugged slightly. "I can't say for time travel... and just sign for the package, hon, if it starts ticking, slam it into a tub full of water... but 'beings as small as us' can still do an impressive amount of damage, especially with the right toys, and sometimes even without."
She took another sip of water. "My baby brother, for example- Energon X- could erase a significant chunk of the known universe by getting too excited at the wrong time, just because of the way his powers work. It wouldn't be instant- I'm pretty sure his abilities obey local lightspeed restrictions- but I'm not sure it could be stopped if it got started."
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Akemi stepped back to give Sam access to the door. "It's your mail, Mr. Winston...maybe you had better be the one to sign, in case it's official or something." She kept a grip on the top of her bag, though-if this delivery guy were going to try anything, she was the closest, and she'd be ready.
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Sam just sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, sir. I'm a little strung out. We just had a...mishap and I'm a little edgy. I'll sign for it." Winston said, taking the package and signing the piece of paper for it.
"Alright, here you go. Now, be careful ot there and stop by anytime." Sam said, sincerely. He walked away from the door andsettled into the seat again.
"Your brother sounds like the type of hero that takes his job seriously. Danny used to talk about him all the time. Uncle E this, Uncle E that. Though, I never met him, I think Danny's told me plenty. He sounds like a great guy, Eileen." Sam said.
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[ QUOTE ]
"I don't know..." she returned to Pax, her tone one of dismissive doubt, but also holding an underlying worry, "And I'm not saying that - I just don't think there's any way you can know for sure, to know truly beyond any doubt.
[/ QUOTE ]
Pax shrugged. "I'm exaggerating for effect. I do that, don't worry. As far as I know, apart from the Cascade Failure that ended the timeline the Fugitive came from, we've never caused anything on quite near that scale. Not through lack of trying on the part of some stunningly stupid people, though. As for not knowing, yeah I don't and I can't know for certain. But I trust the people who told me, and for me that's enough."
[ QUOTE ]
"Paradoxa." Sarah gave a nod, as well as a slight shiver, "Which I don't like. Every time Bill gets going with those, I wind up with a migraine. But seriously: I just can't believe time works like that. There's just too much that can happen that couldn't happen if it did."
[/ QUOTE ]
"You're not the only one who gets migraines thinking about it, trust me", Pax replied with a laugh. "I've never caused one that I know of, but as I understand it when faced with a paradox the universe tends to stabilise in whatever way causes the least stress on the fabric of space-time. For example, in the classic 'go back to kill your own father thus erasing yourself from existence so you can't go back' situation, your father will remain dead. The universe will actually create you out of nowhere to kill him, after which you will disappear and that will be the entirety of your existence."
[ QUOTE ]
"My baby brother, for example- Energon X- could erase a significant chunk of the known universe by getting too excited at the wrong time, just because of the way his powers work. It wouldn't be instant- I'm pretty sure his abilities obey local lightspeed restrictions- but I'm not sure it could be stopped if it got started."
[/ QUOTE ]
Pax gave her a curious kind of look, seemingly unsurprised by the revelation that Eileen's brother could erase a large part of the universe if he lost control. "I know of at least three potential timelines - that thankfully never happened - where he did exactly that", she commented almost absently. "It was one hell of a show, I'll tell you that. Even with the whole running for our lives bit thrown in it was still impressive to see."
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Johnny couldn't help but snicker at Eileen's remark, Kia's idea already having settled the matter for him, leaving him free to pay attention to other things. The originator herself looked to Sarah, who for a few more seconds tossed the idea around in her head, said body part leaning to and fro, then finally giving a nod.
"I guess it has to." she agreed, adding a shrug with a glance to the mountain dragon, "I can't imagine any other way for things working so differently...well, I can, but that idea still creeps me out. Hmh...I guess things here really are just a lot different than back home."
"Exactly." Kia nodded her agreement, "So why not time? No reason it couldn't be. In any case...Paxtera, was it? How come you're here then? Is there something wrong with your history here? Or do you get days off or something...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
[ QUOTE ]
"I know of at least three potential timelines - that thankfully never happened - where he did exactly that", she commented almost absently. "It was one hell of a show, I'll tell you that. Even with the whole running for our lives bit thrown in it was still impressive to see."
[/ QUOTE ]
Eileen shuddered a little, and drank a bit of water to cover it. "I'm thankful that those were somehow prevented, at least. He works hard to maintain control, poor boy. Makes him very different from how he was growing up."
[ QUOTE ]
"Exactly." Kia nodded her agreement, "So why not time? No reason it couldn't be. In any case...Paxtera, was it? How come you're here then? Is there something wrong with your history here? Or do you get days off or something...?"
[/ QUOTE ]
Mrs. Troy chuckled briefly at Kia's question. "A time traveller with 'time' off? I can't see that being all that difficult; if you don't experience time in a linear fashion, you could probably spend the next forty years on sabbatical without having any particular troubles... beyond aging, I suppose... upon going back to work, since you could theoretically pop up exactly where you left off."
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Sam Winston's House
[ QUOTE ]
Sam just sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, sir. I'm a little strung out. We just had a...mishap and I'm a little edgy. I'll sign for it." Winston said, taking the package and signing the piece of paper for it.
"Alright, here you go. Now, be careful ot there and stop by anytime."
[/ QUOTE ]
Ed tipped his hat at Sam. "No need to apologize, I understand more than most just how... trying this city can be." Ed accepted his clipboard and turned heading down the stairs and back to his route.
********
Darren Forten pulled his book bag up over his shoulder as he exited the library. Performing a mental check before he began walking.
"Wallet, keys, bag, history book... Ok"
He turned and started down the sidewalk but soon became aware someone was calling to him. He turned briefly only to hear.
"HEY NERD! Come-ere, we wanna talk to you."
In a parking lot across the way Darren spotted three Skulls shouting and motioning to him. He picked up his pace, moving away from them. He could hear footfalls behind him and a glance over his shoulder told him they were following.
"Where ya goin little boy? Your mommy call ya home?" At that remark the other Skulls laughed and began throwing rocks at Darren.
He picked up his pace into a full run, trying to keep his bag on his shoulder as he ran down the sidewalk. After about 30 yards, Darren tripped and fell hard. His face coming down hard on the edge of a bus stop bench. Instantly riotous laughter erupted behind him as the three Skulls approached. Darren rolled over, sitting up now, holding his eye. A decent amount of blood escaping his body from a gash above his eyebrow.
"Heh you should really watch where you're going nerd. You might hurt yourself." The lead Skull said through a huge wicked grin.
"Yeah, that'll teach ya to walk down our street kid!" excalimed a second Skull.
Soon noises of battle could be heard from down the road as a group of heroes took a group of ne'er-do-wells into custody.
"Let's get out of here boys. This guy beats /himself/ up, no fun for us." They all glanced over at the heroes before making their way back to their haunt.
Darren in the mean time, righted himself, picking up his bag and shouldering it again. Still holding his head he walked off towards his destination, keeping a silent disdain for his large feet and lack of coordination.
"Seven days, six nights." Sarah gave a good-natured shrug as she stood, producing a mobile from her pocket, "Anyway, I'm gonna let the guys know where we are and stuff. Back in a minute."
Kia couldn't help but smile as well, giving a nod to the Tornado as she headed to the next room over to not bother this conversation with hers. She then turned back to Pax and Eileen, "I was more asking if there's a problem with your history here and now. As in, if there's something here that needs...fixing, I guess...is that the right term?"
"Would have to be." Johnny confirmed, by now sitting cross-legged and with arms before him, giving his nod something comically sagely, "Though I can't help but wonder who decides. Gotta say, the idea just...I don't know, just rubs me the wrong way, I guess..."
Kia couldn't help but cast a troubled glance to the little dragon. She knew just that attitude had been what had gotten him banished from his former home. Sure, he pretended not to care, but she knew that deep down he really did miss it - and that it was all because of stupid, ignorant intolerance.
Thankfully, Sarah returned soon enough, a satisfied look on her face...until her eyes met Kia's again, at which point she very nearly couldn't suppress a chuckle, which in turn of course caused the mountain dragon's pupils to look rather worried.
"Uh-oh." she mumbled unsurely, turning her head to keep the Tornado in but the corner of her eye, "Do I even want to know...?"
--------------------
"'ey, young man." a voice that carried what sounded like a heavy and distinct Irish accent soon called after Darren, though it didn't shout, "Wait up ther', boyo. I think you done dropped this."
The source was of course no Irishman, instead a tall and rather athletically built dragon much like Kia. Not that he was in any way towering, but he stood at least at two meters, and the well-built physique seemed to add something too, especially since his skin was mostly orange, and the pale-green, short-sleeved shirt and faded blue-jeans formed a rather peculiar contrast. His throat was white though, and judging from the fact that the blank hue ran down and expanded into the collar of his shirt, his whole 'underside' probably was too, which of course again formed an interesting play with the matte-black stripe that ran down his back and tail.
His hands were black as well, in the same matte hue, and if he hadn't worn decently sized, semi-casual dress shoes, Darren could've seen his feet were too. Things being as they were, however, the dragon's features that most likely drew his attention were those of his head: a soft, smiling visage, shoulder-long and jet-black hair, short, pointed-back ears, a single straight horn upon his 'forehead', and a pair of gentle, honey-colored eyes behind the lenses of small, round glasses.
Well okay, chances were his dull-yellow inside wing skins drew some attention too, but there wasn't any way in hell that such stood more so than the second dragon this one carried slumped over his right shoulder; a red, wingless one to boot, with an orange-reddish membrane running down his back from tip to tail, identifying that one as the water-based sort. He in turn wore a denim jacket that nicely matched his like-hued pants and brown shoes, as well as the black, sleeveless shirt he had on underneath, though bent over the shoulder of the first dragon like that, this remained unseen to Darren for now, as did most of his head but the back.
What did not remain unseen, however, was that that one wasn't moving, that the orange-hued one didn't seem concerned about that (or carrying all that weight, for that matter) one bit, and of course that his free black hand held a certain something toward Darren: namely, his history book, which he hadn't picked back up with the bag.
"Tha' was a might nasty-lookin' fall." the dragon remarked with a motion of said book toward the gash above his eyebrow, "You all-rite? Wan' I should take a look a' that...?"
((Hm, having a little trouble with the accent there. 
Also, if you meant he put the book in his back earlier, please let me know if I was off in assuming he was carrying it separately.))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Pax smiled at their concern, but shook her head. "No, nothing's out of whack right here and now. Well, there was but that's over and done with. I was, as Eileen suggested, taking some time off before moving on. You'd be surprised how relaxing it is to do more mundane hero work when most of your time's spent with such confusing things as time travel."
She paused a moment, collecting her thoughts and putting them into a coherent idea before continuing. "As for who decides? I dunno how the others do it, but for me it's more intuitive than anything. When I look at something that shouldn't be happening or something that shouldn't exist, I get this overwhelming feeling of wrongness... I'm sorry, I can't explain it very well because I don't entirely understand it myself. And before you ask, no I don't just go based on that. Typically if I follow the sequence of events back I'll eventually come to the point at which what did happen diverges from what should happen. More often than not, it's another time traveller."
She stopped, chuckling quietly at a memory that surfaced just then. "As the Fugitive puts it...", she didn't bother trying to imitate the man's voice, since she knew she wouldn't be anywhere near close. "Most time travellers spend the majority of their time and effort preventing other time travellers from getting anything done. We're an amazingly ineffectual lot, all told."
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[ QUOTE ]
"'ey, young man." a voice that carried what sounded like a heavy and distinct Irish accent soon called after Darren, though it didn't shout, "Wait up ther', boyo. I think you done dropped this."
[/ QUOTE ]
Darren jumped at the voice and then quickly felt his bag, instantly knowing what was missing. He turned to face the voice, and upon seeing the speaker he quickly moved his bag in front of himself. A queezy sinking feeling struck him. "That's it, i'm done" he thought to himself.
[ QUOTE ]
"Tha' was a might nasty-lookin' fall." the dragon remarked with a motion of said book toward the gash above his eyebrow, "You all-rite? Wan' I should take a look a' that...?"
[/ QUOTE ]
Darren stood vacant for a moment, then realizing this being didn't seem to want to devour him he slowly formed his words as he reached out for his book. "I uh... yeah... er, no... I'm okay. Uh, thanks..."
After his book was back in his hand he slipped it back in his bag, which it promptly fell out the bottom again. He put his hand in his bag and felt the reason, the bottom had been split open in the fall. Darren sighed heavily and picked his book back up. On his way back up his eyes came across the begin again, this time it registered that the talking one carried another and Darren began to get weary again. "Uh, thanks again for the book uh, sir. I uh, need to get going, I'm expected."
With a small nod, Darren turned to head off towards his destination, once more holding his head.
Johnny chuckled at this, finding the idea both calming and amusing, "I guess that makes me feel a little better then."
As Sarah returned and Kia wanted to know whether she wanted to know, his smile only widened, having a good idea what was about to come. He already figured Billy had done something outrageous again, and eagerly awaited the story.
Needless to say, the little dragon found himself rather disappointed when the Tornado just answered with a sly, "You'll find out..."
--------------------
"All-rite then." was the bespectacled dragon's well-meant reply, "But don't overdo it."
Dr. William Brown, commonly known to his friends as Bill, or often Billy, had to admit he wasn't too comfortable with just leaving the young man to himself like that...but if he was expected somewhere, then the people who were doing the expecting would take care of him, yes. He'd be okay. Moreover, he and the one he carried were expected somewhere as well.
"C'mon then, Prince Courageous." he smiled to the amphibian over his shoulder, "Maybe a kiss from your darling sweetie'll get you back awake again."
Thus he shouldered his own pack again, which until now had been serving to further secure the other dragon, but as he spread his wings, Bill knew he'd need some more balance for a decent flight.
Well, at least now he can't scream my ear off for flying, hehe.
With that bemused thought, he took to the air, setting course for the residence of Sam Winston...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Akemi shifted slightly, turning her head back and forth to follow the conversation between Paxtera and the draconian folk. Turning to Sam Winston, she asked, "are you going to open that package, or stare at it? It's not ticking. I'm pretty sure it's not a bomb."
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"Yeah, c'mon!" Johnny shouted over, which of course wasn't anywhere near where a human-sized person would've put his volume, "I wanna see what it is already...!"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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((Hello? ))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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((Hi! :P Sickness= Baaaad posting skills XD))
"Alright, Alright. You'd think it was Christmas already. " The older gentleman said, a grin lighting his face. He unwrapped the package quickly and took the item out of the box. "Huh. I have absolutley no idea what this is. Any one?" The man said holding up a gold and silver sphere that seemed to contain some kind of shifting light.
((>_> ..Gimme a break. This was off the top of my head :P))
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Me: How about "Zeus, The Pimp God"?
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[ QUOTE ]
"Any one?" The man said holding up a gold and silver sphere that seemed to contain some kind of shifting light.
[/ QUOTE ]
"It looks familiar...", Pax answered with a perplexed look. "I know I've seen something like it before, but for the life of me I can't remember where or when." She got up, coming over to take a closer look at it.
(( Anything in particular she'd notice? ))
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Edward P. Fanglehaven pulled his authortive looking cap tighter over his eyes as he walked down the sidewalk. "Six more blocks left... You're almost done Eddie." Ed made his way from house to house, stopping breifly at each before continuing on.
Carefuly he eyed the items in his hands. "Hrmm, Winston... Winston... Winston... Oh.. and This too." Eddie approached Sam Winston's door, knocked firmly and stood patiently on the steps. His bag had to be getting lighter, but lately it seemed he was getting tired so much faster than he used to. "Well, thats what turning 54 will do to you Eddie." He thought and then sighed to himself before pasting back on his offical smile.