Of Pirates and Time Machines
Chapter One: How It Began
Power-hungry Ekats should never be taken lightly. First of all, they're all geniuses. Second of all, they will probably use said power-hunger as motivation to invent something. In this case, it was something purely out of a science fiction novel: a time machine.
Now, a time machine was supposed to be invented years ago, by Albert Einstein. Most of his work was never seen by anyone but high-ranking Ekaterinas. It was a century later when his theories were finally put to the test.
And it passed. Oh, they couldn't go farther than a decade without risking never going back, but other than that, all was going perfectly. Many experiments later, they were ready. They had planned to send a monkey, but things don't always go to plan when you're dealing with Cahills.
XxxxxxxX
Natalie Kabra, Dan Cahill, Samantha Negara, and Axel Zeemaling. Those were the names of the people chosen to save the world. And why shouldn't they be? The best from every branch. (Alistair and a thirty-something woman named Helen were helping them break into the branch headquarters in the Bermuda Triangle)
In the beginning, Natalie had meant to go alone. However, the Madrigal branch insisted that she take others with her-and, as much as she'd hate to admit it, they were probably right to do so. After all, how many ships had disappeared there?
She rather liked Samantha, who was a very reserved Janus around her age; same with Axel, a confident twenty year old Tomas who looked like he could crush her every bone if he wanted to. The only one she was skeptical about was Dan. That was because his head was buried deep in a Gameboy, muttering about 'beating the score'. *
He did pay attention when Helen and Alistair showed them the blueprints, though. So maybe he wasn't completely hopeless.
"…then Samantha will cross the laser beams and turn them off from the other side. Natalie, you will open the lab door as Dan and Axel distract everyone. This may prove harder than you imagine." Alistair recited the instructions, and Natalie could not help being impressed. The plan was well-thought, but not restrictive enough that they would be completly lost should things not work out.
"These is the map of where to," Helen told the pilot, a tall African-American man. He nodded. There was something strange about him, though.
"Why are you wearing a diving suit?" she asked curiously. He grinned and gave every one of them a diving suit matching his. Then she understood.
XxxxxxxX
Natalie saw nothing but ocean, but maybe that was only proof that the Ekats were better than the other branches thought. After five more minutes or so, the helicopter came close to the water. The Madrigal driving the helicopter got near the surface. Then the ocean broke into two.
Or at least, that was what it looked like. In reality, it was the Ekaterina's bombs. There had to be dozens of them, pointing at the helicopter. Crap.
XxxxxxxX
Dan heard a scream when the bombing began. It might as well have been his own. Everything was blurry, and they must have been moving at over a hundred miles per minute. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! went the bombs. His ears felt like they were going to explode. And then the helicopter went under the water.
Dan reminded himself that this was a part of the plan. Still, it was scary for a moment, for the helicopter to dive under the ocean. Everyone scrambled around to open the helicopter door, then swam to the Ekats' headquarters' door. Natalie did some things to it, and it opened. They hurried inside before it could get toowet in the Ekats headquarters, and then slammed it shut again.
He removed the breath-in-it-thingy and grinned.
Everyone was getting out of their diving suits. They all had (very wet) clothes underneath, of course. And, miracle of miracles, Natalie hadn't even made too much of a fuss about it.
Everyone hesitated, then looked at each other and nodded. It was time to go.
XxxxxxxX
This isn't so bad, thought Samantha as Natalie stunned two more Ekats. She dodged a tricky round of laser-beams, only to land on her feet just in time. Three cartwheels later, she was there. She pressed the code Helen gave her. And all hell broke loose.
The laser beams tripled and moved quicker than ever. There was no way for her to get back now.
Dozens of Ekats ran into the room, fully armed. And Samantha was pretty sure those weren't only stun.
Great. Just great.
A man she recognized as Bae Oh pressed a button on what seemed to be a remote. The laser beams disappeared. "Did you really think we would let you get away with our time machine? We are geniuses, after all. We know when there is a traitor amongst us," sneered Oh.
Then the electricity went on and off, then on again. After a few seconds, they turned off and stayed that way. There were many confused murmurs, then several oooofs.
The light went back on, and Samantha saw Axel standing at the doorway of the vast room. He was holding a stun-gun, like Natalie's.
"That was close," he grunted, unsmiling.
XxxxxxxX
"Let's get back to the mission. Of course, now they know who is involved, but at least no one's dead," Natalie said, more to herself than anyone.
"How did you do that trick with the lights?" Samantha asked Axel.
"Easy. We pressed random buttons."
Natalie groaned. They pretended not to hear her.
"Let's get to the time machine. It's what we came here for," reminded them Samantha.
Natalie and Axel nodded, and then they all headed for the giant safe/door that Samantha was standing on the doorway of.
With a grunt, Axel opened the door. In there was a giant machine. There were two long tubes connected to it with a giant piece of metal, each big enough to fit a person, and wires everywhere.
"Nice," said Dan appraisingly as he walked in.
"Let's just disable this and get out of here," urged Samantha.
Natalie pursed her lips. That wasn't going to be easy. There were many button and flashing lights. Maybe the way to turn it off is in there, she thought. And hopefully, it's a nice, uncomplicated way.
Natalie stepped into the tube. There was a kind of dial in there, but-
"What are you doing? Get out of there!" yelled Dan.
"Don't tell me what to do," Natalie replied icily. So Dan stepped in and hissed,"Natalie, you don't 're standing in the-"
Suddenly, the dial began to move. Faster and faster it was 1851.
Natalie was vaguely aware of screaming and yelling and everything became blurry.
Get me out, get me out, GET ME OUT-her thoughts were inturrupted when her head bumped against something, and she passed out.
And when she woke up, she just wished she hadn't.
[AN:*IS DAN OOC IN THIS? That's my worst fear, other than bananas taking over the world. Personally, I don't like this chapter. It feels like filler, and maybe it should have been two more detailed chapters. But there's a 10-chapter limit. The next chapter will be better, I promise. And I updated fast-but maybe this is rushed. Should I take my time? Where you bored? What do you think of this chapter in general? Do you think I might win? TELL ME! I mean, please. Oh, and I almost forgot: MONKEY MONKEY monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkeymOnKeY MoNkEy MOnkEY moNKey]