From the Future with Love

It had been four days since ZS-Zero and his friends had gotten stuck in the Prime Zone, three since Rayne had arrived, and two since Rayne had stuck a toxin flushing liquid into Blademan's tea, rendering him unable to watch the arcade. In his place, Netto had offered to help Rayne run the arcade. In the small time the new people had stayed, everyone was getting back into some kind of routine. Now, along with the daily explosions in the lab, there were also screams of pain and crashes and thuds in a training room, as Fefnir and ZS continued their "sparring."

DING DONG

"I thought you were supposed to get rid of that doorbell," Max said, getting up to answer the door.

"Uh…sorry?" J offered.

Max went to the door and opened it upon reaching it. Standing on the step was a young girl, about thirteen, her black hair reaching her mid back, purple streaks in it. Her eyes, a very vivid brown, were staring at the ground as she waited for the door to open, still oblivious to Max. He looked over her body, noting the blue jeans had holes in the knees, her hoodie hanging loose on her body. "Ahem." The girl looked up, startled. "Do you need something?"

"U-um…a-are you M-Maxwell Escal?" she asked. Max was a little surprised that she stuttered, as if she were nervous just having him look at her.

"Yes. May I ask who you are?"

"Uh…J-Julie…Escal…"

"…Escal? Julie Escal? Uh, sorry, but I'm afraid I don't have any knowledge of someone related to me with that name."

"N-not yet…I…I'm your daughter…"

"…Excuse me for a second…" Max slowly closed the door, turning around to see Talina walking by. "Taly…I need you to hit me…hard."

"Not in the mood," Talina said, starting to walk off.

"I'm gonna regret this," Max mumbled under his breath before saying out loud, "Come on, Ta-Ta." Talina turned around, glaring before walking up to him and slugging him in the jaw.

"Jerk," she said, walking off. Max slowly stood back up, turning back to the door. He opened it to see Julie still standing there.

"…"


Max and Talina were sitting across from Julie, who was shifting back and forth in her seat. "So, Julie," Talina began. "You said that you're Max's daughter?" Julie nodded, moving to take a drink from the cup of coffee Talina had sat in front of her. Talina turned to Max. "Max, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Max was sitting with his arms crossed, his eyes closed, obviously annoyed with his sister. "Taly, do you honestly believe that I could have done something like that? The girl is thirteen years old. I'm just now seventeen. You do the math, moron." Talina tackled him out of the seat, the two rolling around. Julie watched this for a bit, trying to speak up, but to no avail. She sighed, continuing to watch this fight for a bit.

She then extended her hands towards the two, inhaling. "Freeze," she said, simply and quietly and the two suddenly stopped moving. "Reverse." Their fight then seemed to go in reverse, almost like a tape on rewind, until they were back on the couch. She put her hands down, exhaling, sweat starting to bead on her forehead. Talina was about to tackle Max again when she noticed they were back on the couch.

"Uh…what the hell just happened?" she said, noticing Julie sweating a little. "Are you okay?"

"It…i-it just took a lot outta me, is all," Julie replied. She smiled a little. "M-mom did warn me how you two t-tend to fight."

"Uh…Julie, I think you need to clarify a few things. First…are you from this Zone?" Max asked. Julie nodded. "Ok. Next question. What the hell did you do to me and Taly?"

"W-well…be-because of you and who my m-mom is, your powers k-kind of mixed and resulted in mine. I h-have some manipulation over…t-time," she whispered the last word, as if embarrassed. "But I d-don't have too much control over it. Just a little bit."

"Uh-huh," Max said. "So, uh…"

"N-no…I'm not from this time…I-I'm from the f-future. You t-told me that something like th-this would happen to me when I became thirteen. Just not how l-long it would be until it happened."

"Okay…well, I'm a little freaked. How are you holding up, Taly?...Taly?" Max looked at his sister, who was snoring. He slapped her in the back of the head, waking her up. "Taly, did you hear anything she just said?"

"Yeah, yeah. Manipulation of time, future, et cetera," Talina said, waving her hand dismissively. "Now, we just need to figure out how you got here."

"A Zone Portal," Julie said. "I think…m-my powers must have done something to the p-portal's normal behavior."

"So that it became more like a hole in time instead of a random hole between two zones," Max said. "Alright. Now, here's the kicker. Who…is your mother?"

"Uh…you and m-mom said I'm n-not allowed to say…"

"Damn it. Figures I'd cover most of the bases," Max said, slapping himself in the head. "Alright then," he said with a sigh. "I'm guessing that you'll be staying here for a while."

"Uh-huh," she said, nodding slowly. "Mom said for s-seven days. You said that I needed to t-train with you to control my powers."

"Why the hell would I say…wait a second, you said it was both your mother's and my powers, right?" She nodded, realization slowly dawning on Max's face, but neither Talina nor Julie understood the significance of the question. "That means that you can train the way J and I did. Except….we'll, uh…we'll just skip the rocks."

"What?" both Talina and Julie asked.

"Uh, never mind. Well, I suppose I should introduce you to the team."

"N-no need. I know all of th-them quite well in the future," Julie said.

"Have you always been so timid?"

"Y-yes." Max sighed, putting a hand on the girl's head. Regardless of how close they were in age, she was still a good foot and half shorter than he was.

"Let's see if we can't remedy that while you're here."


Later, Max was seated at a table, head on his crossed arms. Zero walked in, taking a seat. "So, you have a daughter. From the future, no warning," he said. Max just nodded. "So…you need a drink? I can get you a beer or something." Max pulled out his pistol, flipping the safety off. "Uh, maybe I'll just go…yeah, that seems like a good idea," he said, slowly getting up, the pistol tracking him up until he left the room.

"Why me?" Max said to himself. "Fuck, I've got such a head ache." He had spent the past two hours trying to figure out what all Julie could do with her time manipulation, but so far, it wasn't going well. Even though she was able to train like he and J had, she was still very timid about everything, which made it harder for her to use her powers. If he was going to help her with her powers, he'd have to figure out some way to cure her of her timidness. J walked in, sitting in the seat across from Max before letting his head slam into the table. "Headache?"

"Yep. Damn. She's much too timid," J said. "We have to help her get over it. But how?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Max replied.


So many guests in a matter of four days. And now, Max has a daughter who can manipulate time to a degree. How the hell is Max gonna train her? No, seriously. I'm writing this and even I'm not sure how to proceed with something like that. Please Review.