4.
Jim sped down the street on his Vespa. No sign of Porgon so far. He had to be hiding in some dark corner, but where?
There was a ping from his cell phone. He glanced down to see Toby was reporting that he had cleared one street and was starting on the next.
That had been Claire's idea. Since Jim was the only one, as far as they could tell, who remembered the time loop it made sense that all information should be reported to him. That way they didn't have to backtrack on the next loop.
Right now they were systematically searching the town to figure out where Porgon was. For the moment he was their main suspect for the cause of the timeloop.
5.
"It's always that blue flash!" Jim complained as he paced the kitchen.
Toby and Claire watched him from the bar.
"Clearly it's a clue, Master Jim!" Blinky commented, taking another bite out of his whip cream slathered wrench.
"Clue," AAARRRGGHH echoed watching with interest.
"It must be the source of this disturbance. We must observe it carefully and find its source!"
"But how? My memory isn't that great and it's hard enough keeping track of the places we've cleared." Jim sighed and flipped the bacon. "I'm so tired of today."
"Never fear, Master Jim!" Blinky walked around the bar to place a hand on Jim's shoulder. "We shall get you out of this time loop yet! You simply must be patient. Like the cunning stalkling, bide your time, learn all you can, and then, when the moment is right, capture your prey and end this cycle of repetition."
He swung a couple of his fists in demonstration. Jim gave him a tired smile and returned his attention to the eggs. He adjusted the heat slightly and tossed the shells to AAARRRGGHH who happily gulped them down.
"So what should we do this time?"
"Is there enough time between seeing the blue flash and the time loop resetting for us to tell you which direction we see it coming from?" Claire asked. "If there is we could probably triangulate its source."
"Not really. I mean I suppose we could get me to a different side of town before the end of each loop…"
"Could go to lookout," AAARRRGGHH rumbled.
"Lookout?"
"Above town," He clarified. "On top of hill."
"You genius!" Toby exclaimed, giving the troll a hug. "We can all just chill up on the hilltop for the rest of the loop and then Jim will be able to see where the light is coming from."
"But first, breakfast," Jim said, turning off the burners.
6.
"I think it starts at the planetarium," Jim decided at last.
They were all standing around the kitchen table at his house looking at a map of Arcadia and a photograph of the view from the hill.
"Looks like it," Toby replied. He glanced at Jim. "Do you really think it's Porgon?"
"He seems like the likeliest candidate," Jim said, rolling up the map with a shrug. "He vanished after picking up that strange cylinder last night. It was glowing the exact same blue as the flash."
Toby let out a wistful sigh; chin coming to rest on his folded arms.
"I wish I could remember. We finally get a time loop and I haven't got to do anything fun with it."
Jim snorted.
"Like what?"
"Like stuff you'd never do normally! We could prank Steve and get away with it. Learn to play the piano. Convince everyone you're psychic!"
"Finally get done studying for the test tomorrow?" suggested Claire, giving Jim a pointed look.
Jim held up his finger and inhaled, then paused.
"You know what? I'm actually kind of tempted to do that one." He shook his head to clear it. "But for now, focus. Think we should head over to the planetarium before the time loop starts over?"
"How long do we have?" Claire asked.
Jim glanced at his cell phone.
"About three hours. The flash happens just before noon."
"Okay, so let's make a plan of attack," She suggested. "We should definitely meet up at the planetarium instead of here or the café, if we loop again. I'm sure you can convince us pretty easily and then explain things when we get there."
"It's so weird creating plans we won't remember," Toby interrupted. "I feel like I should give you a message to pass onto my future past self."
"Oh right!" Claire suddenly exclaimed, eyes widening. "When you tell us that our meeting place has changed to the planetarium be sure to remind me to check the oven. I totally burned the casserole I was trying out this morning."
"Okay," Jim said slowly. "Anything else I should pass along?"
"Can I please punch Steve on one of these loops?" Toby asked.
"No."
7.
Easy peasy, Lemon squeezy everything is fine.
Easy breezy 123 It's all because you're mine
Jim yawned and hit the alarm. He lay still in bed, eyes closed. It surely wouldn't hurt to grab just a few more minutes of sleep, right? It wasn't like the time loop restarted that quickly. Porgon might not even be at the planetarium yet, though they had confirmed last loop that was definitely where the flash came from.
What felt like less than a minute later Jim was roused by the sound of his cellphone ringing incessantly. For a moment he contemplated smothering it with a pillow. Grudgingly he reached a hand out of the warmth of his bed and made a blind grab for it.
His hand brushed it, then it slipped out of his grasp and onto the floor. Jim groaned and poked his head out to see where it was so he could retrieve it. He did a silent cheer as he managed to snag it without getting out of bed.
"Hey."
"There you are Jimbo!" Toby sounded relieved. "We were wondering where you were. You were supposed to meet us at the café like 15 minutes ago."
"Sorry," Jim said, voice scratchy. "I thought I could rest a few minutes after my alarm… I guess I must have ended up sleeping in."
What time was it anyway?
"Aw. Classic mistake. No sweat. When do you think you can join us?"
"How about we meet up at the planetarium in a half hour?"
"Sounds good," Toby said and then paused. "But why the planetarium? Don't they have the science fair going on there?"
Jim yawned and stretched.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'll explain when we get there."
Jim arrived at the planetarium at 10 am sharp with a dozen chocolate chip cookies packed in a brown paper bag. Hopefully they would suffice for an apology. The planetarium was already open, so at least they wouldn't have to break in.
Claire and Toby pulled up on their bicycles.
"Sorry again for sleeping in," Jim said handing Toby the sack.
"It's really no problem, Jimbo," Toby said taking it from him. "You need your sleep."
His friend opened the sack and burst into a wide grin as he caught the smell of the cookies. Claire leaned forward to peer into the sack as well.
"Hey!" Toby exclaimed as she darted forward and got one before he did.
"So what's going on?" Claire asked, ignoring him.
"Long story short, we're in a time loop. I'm the only one who remembers each loop. This is loop number seven and we've determined that Porgon is going to be here… Probably."
Claire and Toby stared at him for a long moment.
"Probably?" Claire asked slowly as Toby started emitting a high pitched squeal of excitement.
"Well this seems to be were the blue flash at the end of each time loop is coming from. We were close enough when it happened last time to hear roars, so I'm pretty sure it's Porgon."
"Okay. What should we do?"
"Can we…" Toby started.
"No pranking Steve."
Toby deflated.
"Last loop we decided it would be best to scout out the building to see if we could find Porgon or anything suspicious before the timeloop restarts. Ideally we would have been here earlier, but…"
"Okay," Claire said cutting him off. "I'll see if I can talk the staff into letting me into the back."
"I call perimeter!" Toby volunteered.
"And I'll look around the exhibits. Great. Text me immediately if you guys find anything."
They met up about an hour later.
"So no luck, I'm guessing?" Jim hadn't got any texts, but he had to ask anyway.
"Nope."
"Nothing," Claire confirmed and then paused before adding. "I did have to break into a few rooms, so if we manage to unloop time we should find a way to clear the security cameras. My mom is getting increasingly closer to putting a restraining order on you guys."
One of the passing students gave them a weird look.
"Man, can you believe everyone did volcanos again?" Toby asked looking around them. "Why do we even have a science fair if everyone is just going to do volcanos?"
Claire shrugged and looked around.
"Well I was going to do something on a study on algae that I thought was pretty cool, but there really hasn't been time with everything that's been going on."
"Sorry about that," Jim said rubbing the back of his neck.
"Don't be."
"Still, it feels like you guys never get time to do regular high school stuff because you're always helping me out."
"We're your friends, Jimbo," Toby said giving him a look that allowed no argument. "Besides, I think stopping the end of the world might be a little more important that some high school science fair."
"True," Jim said looking away sheepishly.
They settled down to watch as the participants all trailed in.
"Oh! That one's different," Toby said pointing across the room.
Jim looked and, sure enough, a student he didn't know was standing proudly over a strange claw like device.
"Huh. That does look interesting."
Jim started to stand up.
There was a loud roar. Porgon.
Toby and Claire bolted to their feet beside him as the giant red troll emerged from the balcony. He jumped onto the model solar system causing the orbs to spin out of control.
Without thinking Jim summoned his armor.
The students evacuating in terror around him stopped to stare. He had forgotten that they were there. He could feel their stares as Daylight appeared in his hand. Mary actually pulled out her phone and took a picture. That wasn't good…
Jim shook his head. He would deal with it later.
He charged forward with a yell, Claire and Toby on his heels.
Porgon held up some sort of strange, blue glowing cylinder. The one he had picked up last night. Or rather the last night before the time loop started.
The troll laughed triumphantly as Jim skidded to a halt.
There was a flash of blue light.
8.
Easy peasy…
Jim slammed his hand down on his alarm clock with entirely too much force. They needed to figure out a way to get the science fair canceled.
Author Note:
This is going to be longer than I initially anticipated. It's a bit trickier that I thought it would be as well. I suppose 30 time loops it quite a few... Poor Jim, I can already feel his pain.
I have something fun planned for the midway point though.
As Always let me know what you think.
Next time... the Trollhunters try their hands at sabotage.