Ta-da! I'm back! Anyone miss me? It's been taking me a while to outline any of this thing. It's a little hard to do! Anyway, I hope you guys like it just as much as you did the first time! Pleasepleaseplease review! It makes me want to keep writing! And it makes me feel super-happy! (Wow. Didn't realize what that'd look like on the screen.)
Chapter One-Is It Over?
The floor starts to quake beneath my feet. The ceiling crumbles and falls in. Derek shoves me onto the floor under a table. I hear Aunt Susan scream, and through the dust I see her trying to keep whatever just fell on the roof above her head. Doc, Link, and B.O.B. all scramble over toward me. What just happened? I hear a robotic voice speaking.
"Murphy comma Susan. Grace comma Jessica. Benzoate Ostolyzene Bicarbonate. Doctor Cockroach PhD. The Missing Link. Insecto-saurus." I have to snort at the way it pronounces 'Insectosaurus.' "Wanted criminals."
I look at Doc. "What?" I whisper. I'm confused. How are we criminals?
"Whaddid we do?" B.O.B. asks. "Is that Link's cousin?"
"Ssshhhhh! It'll hear us!" Link hisses.
"Jessica?" Derek asks. I look at him. "What is that thing?"
"I...I don't know," I answer quietly. "I really don't."
"What does it want from you?"
"I don't know!" I say, getting a bit impatient. I'm more worried about Aunt Susan.
"What IS this thing?" she yells, and she throws it. It lands just outside the window. I hear her let out a huff of relief.
"Come on!" Link says, already headed for the door. We all follow him out, and when we arrive in front of the mysterious object, we gawk at it in dumb curiosity. Well, all except Doc, of course.
"Jess, what do you have on you?" he asks me.
"Uh..." I check my belt that I wear as a monster. "Pliers, growth elixir, lightning dust, sleeping tulips, and a few memory-erasing mushroom specimens. Why?"
He shakes his head. "Tsk. Shamans. Hand me the pliers, dear." I pull the pliers from their place on my belt and hand them to him.
"Ya know, my full kit is back in the Facility," I say smartly. Then, I think that over. I have a kit. In the Facility. Uh-oh...it's in the Facility! I sprint back toward the room that just fell down around us and paw through the rubble, searching desperately for my magic box. Come on, it has to be here somewhere...a-ha! My fingers lock around the handle of something, and I pull the case out of the debris. It doesn't look damaged. I press in my passcode and watch as the lid pops off. Oh, thank goodness. Everything's still okay.
"Everything okay, Jessie?" Aunt Susan calls. "Sorry if I broke it..."
"It's fine!" I say. I bring it back over to the giant object. Doc has the top of it pulled off, and he's examining the wiring.
"How complex," he mumbles. He snaps a red one. "The real trick is to find the one that everything's connected to and NOT snap it...oh look, there it is." He motions for me to bend down and look. "You see that?" he asks as he points to a thick purple wire. "That is the main control wire, and that will automatically shut down all operations if you snap it." He motions to a blue one. "And I think I'll have to snap this one, too-" He clips the wire, and the mass of metal laying at our feet starts to beep loudly.
"Shut that thing up, Doc!" Link yells, covering his ears. Meanwhile, Derek looks like he's afraid of me, and B.O.B. starts to mimic the machine.
"Why won't you...impossible!" Doc exclaims over the noise. I sigh, extend my hand, and shoot out a burst of light. It fries a circuit or two, but the beeping stops, and two red glowing lights on the top go out. "That-that-that's cheating!" Doc says, pointing at me accusingly. I raise my eyebrows at him.
"How is that cheating?"
He sighs. "I don't know. I'm a bit pleased that you did that. I would've blown the entire contraption up."
"You got that right!" Link exclaims obnoxiously.
"Shut up, Link!" I say. Everyone looks at me with surprise. "What? He needs to!" I don't think they've ever heard me say 'shut up' in a serious context. I never have.
"Um, well, I think I've got it figured out!" Doc says, piercing the awkwardness that hangs heavy in the air.
"Oh good!" Aunt Susan says, clapping her hands together. "What is it?"
"I don't know...I just said I had it figured out..." Doc laughs a bit to himself.
"I was gonna eat that cake," B.O.B. says. "Now it's gone."
"It's okay, B.O.B. Link will make you a cake," I say, winking at Link.
"Who says I will?" he asks gruffly.
"I says you will," Aunt Susan says. "That cake was expensive. You try getting a ten-tier super-chocolate cake from just ANYWHERE."
"Well excuse me, Giant Lady, but I'm not the one who crushed the thing!"
"Guys, it's okay," B.O.B. says. "I'll just eat this." He picks up my new skateboard with the red bow on it.
"No!" I exclaim, raising my hand to stop him.
He looks at me in confusion. "What?"
"Don't eat my skateboard!" I say. I take it from him.
"You'd never use the thing anyway," Link says. "You'd be reading a book or something."
"So? It was a gift. You don't eat gifts, B.O.B."
"Sorry," he says. He looks at Derek. "Your skateboard looked delicious."
Derek laughs. "I'm glad you thought so, B.O.B."
"Eureka!" Doc proclaims. We all look over at him. "This, friends, is no ordinary piece of space junk. This is from a historical analytic information responder and transport displacement device."
"Cockroach scientist say WHAT?!"
"English, Doc!" Link says. "Use your normal words!"
Doc lets out an exasperated sigh. "This is a part of a time machine."
A time machine? As in, the basis for 1960's sci-fi thrillers, time machine? Like, H.G. Wells novel, time machine? THE time machine? That makes no sense! I thought you had to get into all sorts of futuristic things for those! I didn't think they existed!
"No way," Link says.
"Yes Link," Doc says, "'way.' That's why it took me so long to figure out. It's futuristic technology."
"That is so...so...cool!" I rush back over to the device and start to investigate all of its buttons and switches. "What was this thing supposed to do? Is it from the past or the future? Can you teach me how to work it? Does this mean that we're developing new technology?" I start to bombard Doc with questions.
"Slow down, Jess," Derek says. "No one can understand what you're saying when you talk like that."
Doc laughs. "I'd be happy to answer all your questions, my dear, as soon as I figure out the answers myself."
Okay, so it's started! I felt like it was just taking too long to come up with this, so I posted what I had written! In case you didn't notice, this picked right up from the epilogue. I'm still in the idea development phase of this operation (meaning I have no friggin' clue WHAT'S gonna happen next), so if you have any ideas or suggestions, leave it in a review or PM me. Or send me a telepathic message if you roll that way. (I can send mind messages...LIKE A BOSS!) But odds are, most of you can't. So review, please! :)