TIME & TIED: DESTRUCTION

ARC 3.2 - With The Group

PART 57a: HELP WANTED 1

“Lee, I'm talking to you."

Lee jerked his gaze over towards Ms. Readman. "And I heard every word," he assured her. "Unfortunately, my brain interpreted it as Spanish. Could you run it by me again?" A student sitting nearby let out a quiet laugh.

"Perspective drawing, Lee," the art teacher said patiently, moving closer and indicating his empty page. "Are you having trouble understanding the assignment?"

"No, no, not at all," Lee replied quickly. "Just spaced out for a moment, some things on my mind. I'll get right to this."

"Thank you, Lee, that would be appreciated," Ms. Readman said wryly. "Though do let me know if you're having problems with your perspective?"

Lee nodded and watched his teacher continue her walk around the room. Letting out an almost inaudible sigh, he retrieved his ruler and began to mark down the requisite lines.

A short distance away, Glen Oaks observed his classmate, a thoughtful expression on his face.

***

"Like, ohmigod," Chartreuse breathed. "This is, you know, so totally cool. And Jeeves doesn't even know about this place?"

"Obviously not," Carrie said.

"Chartreuse, could you keep moving? We're stuck in the passage," Frank remarked.

"Oh. Sorry," Chartreuse apologized, moving away from the door. Frank, Luci, Clarke and Julie all filed into the LaMille mansion's secret basement lab.

“I’m still trying to tidy up and catalog the last of the stuff left in here," Julie remarked. "But I haven't been able to open that safe."

"Maybe we should blast the thing open," Luci suggested. She dropped her bag onto the lab table and then attempted to boost herself up as well, succeeding with a hand from Frank. "After all," she continued, "it could contain information about this infernal code Linquist’s set up."

Frank watched as Luci pulled out the scientist's red logbook, along with her laptop and a number of notes she'd been accumulating.

"I really wish you hadn't brought that," he admitted. "You’re becoming more than obsessed. Even your cat is starting to give you weird looks.”

"It's all right, I know I'm close to a breakthrough now," Luci assured him. “I’ve coded up a program to run an entire substitution cipher on what seem to be the key passages. In fact, by the time you return from your time trip, I bet I'll have it all worked out."

"That could be in as little as five minutes," Frank objected.

"Or as much as an hour if we don't get going soon," Carrie countered. "Now, shall we go back over the plan?" She looked around the room expectantly.

"Seemed pretty clear to me," Julie spoke up. "We go back into last week, watch for where Lee's younger sister lost her necklace, and retrieve it for her. Thereby fixing up the King family situation in time for Thanksgiving dinner tonight, which will help restore Lee's focus in class next week.”

"Oh, and I know Lee will appreciate it,” Chartreuse chimed in, clasping her hands together. “After all, if we don’t fix it soon, I think he’ll be spacing out for WEEKS, right through until American Thanksgiving.”

“How did you figure out that his sister’s necklace was the guy’s problem anyway, Carrie?" Clarke wondered.

"Glen told me," the blonde admitted. "Apparently he overheard Lee telling Tim about it after one of Corry's band rehearsals."

Frank crossed his arms. “Yeah, hey, anyone else suspicious about how fast Corry let Glen take over as Sue's replacement there?” he wondered.

Julie shook her head. “Not really. Corry’s been looking for an angle on the guy for a while,” she reminded. “By keeping Glen close, he can start to observe that much better.”

“Back to the plan, please,” Carrie objected. "I'm already concerned about multiple people time tripping with me, so I'd appreciate a bit more focus here.”

“Carrie, it isn't too late to change your mind,” Frank offered. "You could try doing one of your – what do you call them? – mental time searches into the past instead."

Carrie waved him off. "No, I really can't. Even setting aside the fact that I haven’t had time to get comfortable with that aspect of my power yet, I've never met Lee's younger sisters. So I wouldn't know how to centre on them in the first place."

“Well, you don’t need to be part of this trip. We’ll only be watching stuff happen. You could leave it up to the rest of us," Clarke offered.

Again Carrie shook her head. “I’m coming along. That way, if anything messes up, any headaches will hopefully centre first on the me who is out of time synch."

"It's all right Carrie, I'll, you know, be there to monitor your condition," Chartreuse assured her. She reached out towards Carrie’s hand, seemingly second guessed her own intentions, then entwined the fingers of both hands together instead.

“Meanwhile, I’ll stay cooped up here at the mansion with you both, coordinating things and keeping Jeeves from seeing us,” Julie said, a mite wistfully.

"As I assist Frank with the locket search," Clarke agreed.

"Meanwhile, I keep the home fires burning in the present," Luci muttered quietly as she started scrawling a new set of notes. “Are you going or not?"

“Yes," Frank said. He bent down next to the time machine - which Carrie had placed on the floor - in order to complete final adjustments. "Someone suggest to me the best time of day for arrival?"

“Lunch. Say noon," Carrie stated. “I mean, sure, Chartreuse being sick that Tuesday should pull our arrival away from the school, but Julie had also left to eat that day. And I’d prefer having that extra insurance.” She looked around. “Remember, once we appear somewhere south of the building, we make for the ravine. Don’t talk to anyone.”

"Right.” Frank finished up, then closed the lid of the machine. "Is everyone ready?"

"We don't all have to grab that thing's handle, do we?" Chartreuse asked, stopping herself before leaning in next to Carrie. "It'll be, like, awkward. Maybe I should hold someone’s hand instead?”

"Chartreuse, we've always made sure everyone traveling was in contact with the handle," Frank countered. “Even when we had bicycles and all our gear coming back from Illinois last November. You may not get transported otherwise."

“May not? Meaning I might. You've never, you know, tried it?"

"Why screw up a perfectly good system?”

"Because some day you may need to transport, like, twenty people or something?" Chartreuse fired back at him. "I mean, we're already up to five. Six if Luci needs to come along some day."

Frank hesitated.

“Point to Chartreuse," Clarke admitted. “Our prior max was four, and it WAS kinda awkward with the bikes and everything.”

"But in the end, all the inanimate items got transported, right?" Julie mused. Clarke nodded in reply.

"Physical items, such as the clothes on our backs, may be treated differently from actual organic matter," Frank protested.

"Well, I’ll be your guinea pig then," Chartreuse decided. "I mean, the worst that can happen is I won't be, you know, transported, right?"

"Unless you get lost somewhere in history," Luci said idly, continuing her work atop the lab table.

Another glance was exchanged between the students sitting on the floor.

"Look, this is ridiculous," Frank decided. "We'll test next time. Maybe with a small animal, or insects or something. For now, everyone make sure to hold onto the handle. Right Carrie?" He turned to look at the blonde, who had been silent ever since her initial objection.

"No," Carrie replied. Then she looked up, and blinked as she realized everyone was staring at her. “Sorry, I mean no, I don't think that Chartreuse would be lost in time," she clarified. "Don't ask me why I think that but I do. Though as to her 'piggybacking' on one of us... that, I don't know. And she’s right, we should know.”

Frank pressed a hand to his forehead. "Yes, but not NOW, correct?”

Carrie pursed her lips. "Perhaps not," she conceded.

"But what if, on our return trip, I end up being chased by a horde of guys?” Chartreuse objected. “And I end up trapped in a dead end in front of a wooden barrier, and the only way for me to get away is to, like, reach through a knothole and grasp Carr-- grasp for one of you as you pull this handle?"

Everyone turned to stare at her.

"I don't think that's likely," Julie observed.

"It's not impossible," Chartreuse retorted.

Frank sighed. "Fine Chartreuse, if Carrie thinks it’s safe enough, and it will make you happy, you don't have to touch the handle. But don't complain if you get left behind.”

"Check," Chartreuse said, giving Frank a thumbs up.

Everyone reached out for the handle of the time machine, Chartreuse grasping Carrie by the shoulder instead. Frank dropped in a coin for their current year.

"We pull on three," Frank said. "All right? One.... two.... three.”

***

Despite the fact that it had been almost a year since he had last used the device, the feeling of being sucked into a void still felt familiar to Frank. In the wink of an eye, the basement lab was gone, replaced by a new scene. That of a hallway in the high school.

"Damn,” Frank cursed, as he shook off the aftereffects of the time displacement. "How did we end up at school??”

"Someone screwed up the geometry?” Carrie replied.

As the only other seasoned time traveler of the five, she was the only other person still conscious - Julie, Clarke and Chartreuse lay on the floor, out cold.

"Impossible,” Frank countered. "According to everything we know, the device should have brought us to a point an equal distance away from the positions of our past selves. And as two of us were a fair distance from the school, there’s no way--”

“There is, if it--" Carrie began, before freezing and raising a hand to her temples, wincing in pain. "Oh no," she muttered. “Oh no, no, not good..."

“Temporal change?"

"What do you think?"

"Quick," Frank decided. "Let's get everyone into that classroom.”

They had apparently lucked out in terms of their arrival - the art wing didn’t see much traffic during lunch. But it wasn't always deserted, the four students who turning the nearby corner testifying to that.

"We're practicing for a play," Carrie called out to them as the freshmen arrivals exchanged a confused glance. "Death of three salesmen."

The head cheerleader quickly dragged Chartreuse back into the drama room, Frank doing the same with Clarke, and both of them returning for Julie and the time machine respectively.