A time tangle (part 1)
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™.
"It has been several days, even a couple of weeks, since Ethan returned to 21st-century London, and so far he had not made his move. Rather, he appeared to be lying low, possibly gathering forces and/or allies, but there was nothing tangible to go about, so the ARC was forced to wait as well.
The time anomalies too seemed to have died down to a tolerable level: there was only one time anomaly, leading to the early Triassic, when only one armored reptile – an aetosaur named desmatosuchus – had come through and was coerced to go back without any trouble, so things were quiet on that front as well..."
"Connor? What exactly are you doing?" Jess incredulously asked the ex-university student as the latter narrated the above-quoted paragraphs into a recorder.
"I am updating my blog," Connor said brightly. "I used to run the blog back when Danny – when Sarah Page was here, you know, but then Abby and I got trapped in the Cretaceous, and the blog fell into disuse. Now I am restoring it – or rather, I have been restoring it for the last month and a half, or so..."
Jess blinked. "Why?"
"Why do people have blogs, Jess? To communicate online, to put their innermost thoughts – also online, you know? I mean, a techno-savvy person like you should have your own blog, right?"
"Eh, I always thought they were childish," Jess muttered, before catching herself. "That's beside the point. What I meant to do was to ask – why are you doing this?"
"Because a blog needs to be updated," Connor did not back down, "and furthermore, I was on the sick leave, remember, so I needed to do something extra from going stir-crazy."
"Oh, now I get it," Jess muttered quietly. The last confrontation between the ARC field team and Ethan Dombrowski ended with the latter scoring a very tangible, and not just moral, victory: thousands of pounds worth of property were destroyed and most of the members of the ARC field team now sported long scars on their bodies, except for Abby, who actually lost several joints from several of her toes instead, and also for Emily...
"What about me?" Emily Merchant asked unexpectedly, startling the other two.
"We were just thinking about the recent events," Connor responded before Jess could. "About Ethan and all, you know?"
"Oh, I see," Emily nodded sagely, before pausing. "Shouldn't you be assuming that I am trying to make a pun? James Lester had certainly assumed so."
"Lester is a good man, but his personality is hard to get along," Connor nodded. "And anyways, are you trying to make a pun?"
"No," Emily shook her head. "I-"
It was then that the time anomaly rang.
"Got to go," Connor got up quickly – maybe too quickly as he winced for some leftover pain.
"Me too." Emily's voice and facial expression (from the side not obscured by the bandages) brooked no argument. Connor winced again – this time not from physical pain, and folded:
"Let's go and talk to Matt, then."
TBC