Chapter 16: Fly Girl and Future Girl

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The next day was Saturday so I didn't have to worry about going to school and dealing with Mirror and Joker. I got up, took a shower and got dressed. When I went to the cafeteria for food, everyone was there. Including me.

Future me.

Link was talking to future me. Everyone else was listening to what she had to say. She was the center of attention and it didn't seem to bother her as she talked about what she encountered while time traveling.

I sat down with them, staying away from future me; mainly since she warned me about that we cant touch each other or the whole world will explode. Future Bat looked over to me. Her cyborg eye glowed a bright red.

"Hello, Bat. How are you doing?" She asked. It was weird to think this monster was me from the future, saying hello to me like I was another person. I looked away, not wanting to be seen staring, or being stared at, and just shrugged.

"Must be weird talking to yourself," Susan said. Future Bat shrugged. "Going to different pasts and futures, nothing is weird anymore," she said. I calmly ate my food in silence while everyone talked. While everyone did, I paid attention to my future self.

I had to admit, seeing myself being a little more confident in talking to everyone, it made me have hope in myself that I was going to be confident when being the center of attention. Future me had no problem talking to the monsters, but she did have that tense feeling about her; as if she was ready for anything to come out and attack. Which ironically happened.

One of the cooks accidentally dropped one of the pans in the kitchen, causing a loud sound. Everyone jumped not only to the sound, but to Future Bat, she quickly stood up in her seat, and in a quick motion, her robot arm turned into a gun. Her one bat ear flicked back, while her satellite dish for an ear turned forward, alert. Her wingspan stretched out wide on both sides of her, nearly hitting Link in the face. Both her cyborg eye and alien eye were narrowed and her fangs were out and sharp. Everyone's mouths, including mine, dropped.

"Woah," B.O.B. said.

"Holy sh...shoes," Link said, trying not to curse.

"Oh my goodness!" Doc and Susan said at the same time.

"How did this happen?" I asked in shock and terror. It was bad enough seeing that I was gonna be losing an arm, an ear and an eye in the future, but now I have a gun for an arm?! Future Bat straightened her posture and lowered her gun arm, realizing that there was no threat. She jumped down and with one quick motion, the gun went away and changed back into a regular robot arm.

Doc was immediately checking out her robot arm and examining it; asking a million questions at once. Susan looked over at me. I looked back up at her and shrugged, shaking my head. I had no idea what the hell just happened. B.O.B. was spouting off how "Amazing Bat suddenly was." I felt my heart hurt a little. How cool Future me was. Not now me.

Link was smiling big, but quickly took it down a few notches and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to act cool and casual.

"Nice arm," he said.

Future Bat nodded a thanks to him. It was some sort of plasma gun. When she went into the far off future, we had joined forces with October's alien race and we were all advanced in alien technology, so she was able to get a robot arm that turned into a gun.

"That...is freaking cool. Makes me want to lose my arm," Link said. B.O.B. butted in excitedly, "Me too! It would look so cool with my cyborg eye. Which store did you get it at? Walnut? Tarp it? Best Guy?" Doc smiled at B.O.B. then turned to Future Bat.

"I'm sure that plutonium is available in every corner drugstore, but here, it's a little hard to come by," he said, loosely quoting Back to the Future. Future Bat smirked, getting the reference.

"That's why I haven't fired this thing...yet." she said, sitting back down and taking a bite out of an apple. "Been saving it all for John...for what he took from me..." she added in a cold serious tone. Everyone glanced at her robotic features, and the whole room was immediately dead quiet. Susan thankfully broke the dead silence and asked me a question.

"So how was school yesterday, Bat? Hope you didn't get in trouble," said Doc, referencing back to when I ditched class. Everyone turned their eyes to me. I felt my face burn. I kept my eyes down on my cereal. "The rest of the day was...ok," I said, not really wanting to get into any details.

"Did you get holy water splashed onto you yet?" Future Bat asked. Everyone turned their eyes to her. Link couldn't help but to laugh, but then stopped when he saw how serious Future Bat was.

I shook my head in confusion. "No?" Future Bat slowly nodded and looked away. "I'd say avoid that one girls bathroom for a while. Go to the one over in the P.E. lockers," she instructed me. I nodded my head. "Um...ok."

"What's going on?" asked Susan. I gave my future self a quick glare and turned back. "This one girl who's in one of my classes, Mirr. She saw one of my real eyes and called me a vampire," I explained.

Link snorted. "Not a vampire, but I'd take this opportunity and mess with them. Bare your fangs-"

"No, Link. That's not right-" Susan started.

"I was just suggesting to give them a little scare. Bat needs to show she isn't one to be messed with."

"Yes, but that also made her get in trouble."

"Even when she doesn't do anything," Link threw back.

Doc quickly intervened. "Stop, stop, lady and gent. Bat knows what's right and wrong, she makes her own choices."

Link snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "Ditching class to fight aliens with us. Right. She knows how to make the right choices."

"Shut up Fishstick," Future Bat and I said in unison.

Doc placed his hands up. "Bats, please-" he started, but future me got to from her seat. "I need to check on the machine," she said and walked off. Took me a moment to realize she meant the time machine. Everyone went quiet as we all silently finished our breakfast.

...

At around noon time, I decided to work on my homework in my room. I just needed to do my math and history homework. I was in the low Math class, learning algebra, and learning about World War II for history. Super boring stuff. I was reading about Mustard gas when I heard footsteps coming. I looked up just as Future Bat appeared and stopped before my room.

She took a moment, almost like she was reliving her past, staring in my somewhat bare room. The limited items I had now because of the explosion when John blew up my room. She came in silently and just looked around. I wondered if she was trying to remember the time when my room was normal. When we were normal.

"Hey," I said, breaking her gaze from my small collection of books on the shelf. She nodded back. "Hello...don't mind me. I'm just...looking...It's been a while since I last saw this room." I didn't really know what she meant by that but decided not to dwell. I went back to my homework. I felt her gaze land on my head.

"What are you learning about?" She asked.

"World War II," I said. Then had an idea. "What are the answers to the World History test coming up?" I asked her. Future Bat gave me a bewildered look.

"I don't remember. It's been forever since I had that class...That stuff is pointless anyway," She pointed out. I slowly nodded my head. "Ok." This sucked. My future self couldn't help me with anything.

"You'll graduate...don't stress about it."

I nodded, feeling some sense of relief in my body. Future Bat went over to the small TV. I decided to ask the other question. "What happens to me...us...in the future?" Future Bat's head . She looked away, as if scared by the question.

"I...I can't answer that."

"Why not?" I asked.

She looked away from me down the hallway, as if she was looking back into the past and reliving it. "There are some things I don't want to tell you. Not yet at least...just...it's going to be rough when you get older, and...I just hope this will all be worth it." She admits.

I give her a confused look. "When we take John down?" I asked her. Future Bat silently nodded. Her mind fixated on the past. Her eyes filled with anger and sadness. I could feel her pain. Our pain. Unbearable pain of what was lost. I feel horrible, and scared at the same time. I dont know what to do or say to myself. It was all just too bizarre to comprehend.

She looked over to me and can see the confusion and fear in my eyes. She shook her head and tried changing the subject. She asked about my classes and my friends. I told her about Hunter and Kennith. She narrowed her eyes when I mentioned Kennith's name. She was about to say something when we both heard familiar footsteps.

""Hey Fly Girl. Hey Future Girl," Link said as he poked his head into my room. My face went scarlet. I know Future Bat was me from the future, but it also felt like another person knowing my little secret. I looked over to Future Bat who's face did not turn the same fire truck engine red. It stayed snowy white. She inclined her head, face stern.

"I assume Monger wishes to speak to me," she said. The fish are hybrid blinked in surprise, then smirked in amusement. "Yeah. Good guess. He wants to talk to you about some important matters," he said. Future me nodded and turned to me. "Good luck on your homework and quiz, Bat."

With that, she walked past Link. As she did, Link gently flicked her bat ear. She turned her head to face him. Link quickly looked away and pretended to be interested at my ceiling. Future Bat stared at him for a long while, then gently poked him in the shoulder and walked out. Her metal shoes making heavy metallic tapping sounds as she walked off down the hallway.

I stared at Link in surprise at his strange action he did to Future Bat. I decided not to dwell on it and tried saying hi to Link, but he didn't seem to hear me as he walked out of my room and just stood there looking down the hallway. Was he watching Future Bat walk away? Then he just walked out. Weird. I guess he had other things on his mind I assumed and went back to doing homework.

...

Later on in the day I found Future Bat in the hangout room, flipping through the channels. "Where's the horror station?" She asked without turning her head. I was quiet for a moment. "Um...I don't know, " I said. She kept flipping the channels. I stared at the back of my future self's head. I had a million questions swimming around me. I wanted to ask them. Why wouldn't my future self answer them? It upset me a lot.

"Shouldn't we be worried about John? You seem to know when he's going to strike, why don't we go after him?" I asked. Future Bat shook her head. "I've already talked to Monger about what happens in the future. Every time I tried getting to John now only made things worse..." she touches her robot arm. "I don't want you going through what happened to me-"

"Then tell me what happened! I hate being kept in the dark on this. Seeing you...me as a cyborg makes me nervous on making certain choices."

Future Bat's ear flicked back in irritation. I could feel her heart beating a little faster. She turned her head to face me. I tried focusing on her alien eye. Her cyborg eye freaked me out.

"This is what you should know: Stay in school. Don't go after John...you know Monger didn't give you a real mission. He just wanted you...me to finish school so he could get the other officials to stop breathing down his neck about us being under aged in the whole "Monsters vs Aliens" program. It was to keep us out of trouble until we turned eighteen. That's it. John will be taken care of in the end."

I narrowed my eyes. "Did Monger tell you to say that-?"

Future got up from the couch suddenly, it startled me.

"I'm telling you. You. From the frickin future. I don't want my past self getting hurt. You got hurt that wasn't part of the timeline."

I asked her what she meant. She sighed in irritation.

"Anything that happens to you will affect me...does your right side still hurt from the alien attack yesterday?" she asked.

I nodded. I got scratched up pretty bad. Future Bat lifts her shirt up and shows me an ugly looking scar on her right side. Exactly in the same area, but dark white in comparison to the pure white skin.

My eyes widen as I lift my shirt up and find a fresh scratched up area. Very slowly healing to become an ugly scar. We both lower our shirts back down in unison. I look over to her left arm. Her cyborg arm.

"Our body is healing faster than humans, why am I getting scars? Why don't I grow an arm back?" I pointed out. Future Bat shakes her head. "We are still half human. We will be able to heal faster, but if it's a deep wound or..." she lifts her arm. "...we still lose things like a human."

"How do I lose my arm?" I asked. Hoping to trick my Future self in answering.

Future Bat unfortunately knew what I was doing. Of course she did. She was me. Future me sat back down on the sofa, facing away from me again. She went back to changing the channels.

"What's the horror channel?" She asked again.

I opened my mouth to say I had no idea again, but then a deep voice answered for me. His hand went on my shoulder and I almost turned to jelly right there. His heart beat heavily behind my bat ears. My wings lightly brushed up against his chest and arms.

"Keep going...stop. Cool. Wolf man is on," Link said as he took his hand off my shoulder and went down to sit next to Future me. I stood there and watched the backs of their heads.

A growing jealously was beginning to happen inside me. Link was hanging out with my future self. I blushed. Was that a good thing? Did that mean he liked me? I wasnt able to wonder about it for long when my Future self quickly got up from her spot. Her heart was beating a little faster than normal.

"I'll be back," Future Bat announced and started walking away from us.

"Ok, Terminator," Link responded, causing Future Bat to stop in her tracks. She didn't turn around. I stared at her back. My back. Her heart was beating heavily. Almost in pain. Why was she in pain? Then she shook her head and walked off.

Links ears flicked back. "Not the kind of response I was expecting," he admitted. He turned to me "Is she...er...you...ok?" He asked. I shook my head. "I don't know," I admitted. Link turned to watch my future self walk away. "Seems to be upset at me," he said.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Just...feels like she gives me the cold shoulder. Looks at me with a frown. Seems always upset. I don't know if I did something to upset you in the future," the fishman said.

I shook my head. "No. I don't think that's it."

Link cocked his head. "Don't think what's it?"

I thought back to when she was in my room. "She...l...acts like that because she had a hard time. She lost pieces of her while time travelling. Fought John in timelines. It must have been rough for her...when she was in my room, she just stared off, like she was reliving a moment."

Link was quiet, I could feel his heart in pain, regretting the words he said. "I've seen her do that sometimes. I want to help her, talk to her, but she doesn't seem to want to open up to any of us."

I nodded, looking down at the table. My possible future I was going to be going through. Link sighed. "I hope you don't end up like that. Whatever happens to you...looks like it really messed you up." I just nodded silently. Link was quiet for a moment, I could feel his eyes on me. His heart beat heavily inside his huge chest.

He was worried about me.

I was worried about myself too.

..