The Time Tokens

Author Note: This stroy occurs between "Year of the Green Monkey" and "The New Order"

Location: Somewhere in Chinatown

While Jack was meeting his new (er…old) acquaintance, his old enemy (and wanna-be conqueror), Tommy Error was chastising his Demolitioner minions.

"Not only do you morons fail to get me the Alchemy Vial! But when the opportunity arises, you also fail to capture the Chameleon-bot! What do you have to say for yourselves?" Tommy asked his robots intensely.

"Uh…um…oh…." The Demolitioners were unsure how to respond. "Sorry?"

"Urrrrr!" Tommy screeched.

Life hadn't been kind to Tommy Error and his minions. After he had broken out of Happy Fumes Island he had hijacked a boat and made his way back to the mainland. He had to lay low a couple of years, crash with his parents every now and then. Finally he had arrived at Chinatown where he had established his base in an old, abandoned weapons factory. Well, it used to have workers. Until Tommy made them believe it was haunted by black robots, that is.

"I can't believe this! I've been searching for that stupid Sheng-Gong-Wu for months and at the last moment you mess up!" Tommy put his head in his hands and sobbed, more in anger than sorrow.

"Awww, it's okay boss." A Demolitioner patted Tommy in the back. "We'll always like you no matter how much of a pathetic faiwlure youze are."

Tommy shot the Demolitioner with his laser gun. "I don't need sympathy! I need results!" Tommy shouted. "You!" he pointed to a Demolitioner, who was fixing his UFO (Unidentified Fatal Object) "Are you almost done?"

"Sorry sir…Real hard to do." The Demolitioner said apologetically.

Tommy gritted his teeth in frustration. "Curse you Jack Spicer! Curse you and your self-destructing Jack-bots!" he looked up to the ceiling and shouted. "CURSE YOU!"

"Who are you talking to?" a Demolitioner asked.

Tommy turned his attention to the Demolitioner who asked that question. "I wasn't talking to anyone you fool! I was ranting!" Tommy kicked an empty paint can that was laying on the floor. "You imbeciles are just lucky that your failings haven't interfered with my secret plan!"

"Secret plan? We didn't know you had a secret plan." Another Demolitioner said, puzzled.

"No offense, but. You're all a bunch of idiots!" Tommy used his jetpack to fly to a lumpy object, concealed by a sheet of black cloth. "If I told you maroons my secret plan, then it wouldn't be a secret plan, now would it?" the miniscule genius asked.

"Uh…I don't know."

Instead of answering, Tommy removed the cloth to reveal the object to be…a gate. "Ta da!" he exclaimed, with a dramatic flair. There was silence, no one stirred. "Well, applaud!" Tommy ordered. The Demolitioners clapped their hands, hesitantly, unsure what this object was. Tommy noticed this and said quite irritably. "You have no idea what this thing is do you?" One rather foolish Demolitioner shook his head. It was shot almost immediately. "This is a time portal you dolts!" An "oh" could be heard from the crowd of Demolitioners. "It doesn't work anymore. In fact, the only reason I'm keeping it around is that I'm planning to sell it on eBay. But I did manage to incorporate it's 'fourth-dimensional' transportation technologies into these compact devices." Tommy removed a small, silver device from his pocket.

The device was rectangular and seemed to have the dimensions of a teabag box. But one couldn't help but notice that the device gave a most peculiar sheen. It was like silver but very, very different. But strangest of all was the slot in the middle, like that of an old arcade game where you would usually insert coins…or tokens.

"I have made three of these devices. And with them I will be able to traverse time and space!" Tommy laughed in maniacal glee, shaking the device like a rattle.

"Hey that sounds like fun!" A Demolitioner said, feeling a bit more relaxed now that Tommy seemed to be in a happy mood. "Can we try traversing time and space?"

Tommy stopped laughing and grinned at the black robot. "Of course you can. But wait. I just remembered something." His expression returned to anger. "YOU FOOLS LOST THE VIAL! Without it, I can't make any more Chronosileum!" he explained.

"Chronoso-what?" the Demolitioners asked dumbly.

"Chronosileum! It's what these devices are made of. It's a very powerful metal that's dimensional properties are so transient that if used correctly they can create passages in time! Unfortunately it's very rare. What's more these devises need more Chronosileum to actually work." Tommy reached into his other pocket and pulled out a glowing coin. "This is a time token! If I insert it into the slot of the device." He put the coin in the slot. Then Tommy flipped the device to reveal a set of knobs and switches situated below a small computer screen on its bottom. "Then it's all a matter of selecting the desired place and time." He twisted a knob and flipped a switch and the screen flickered to life and read '6 years…past…Engage?' "I just push the yes button and boom! I'm six years in the past."

The Demolitioners were cheering now. "Cool…but how are you going to see any dinosaurs?"

Tommy ignored this idiotic remark. "Six years ago…something happened to Jack Spicer. Something, so incredible, that it made him become the wanna-be evil scientist he is today." Tommy pressed the yes button on the device and a strange blue portal appeared behind him. "I'm going to destroy him before it happens…I saw it on a movie once." Tommy flared his jetpack again and started flying towards the portal. "By the way…" Tommy turned to give his Demolitioners a threatening glance. "On that table are the other 2 temporal devices." He pointed to a silver tray on a conveyor belt. "Beside them are two time tokens. That's the last of this planet's Chronosileum. Guard them with your lives!" Tommy said before flying into the time portal. And as the portal closed, his minions could faintly hear the words. "Or I'll destroy you all!" But then again, it could've been their robotic imaginations.

Location: Jack's mansion

Time: 3 hours later.

Jack gave his new prisoner his best villainous sneer. "So you really thought you could break into here without being detected, did you? Well tough!" Jack laughed at the captured intruder; Katnappe. A few hours ago she attempted to break into Jack's mansion. Unfortunately she had been caught and she ended up being stuck in a cage enforcedwith electrified bars.

"Uh, I already told you Jack. I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to say 'hi'." The cat burglar said blatantly. "So is this how you treat all your friends?"

"Friends? You're not my friend! I don't need any friends!" Jack barked. "And you didn't come here to say 'hi'. You came here to steal this!" Jack showed Katnappe the Alchemy Vial.

"Oh yeah, well there's that too…But I was only going to borrow it for…a week?" Katnappe glanced at the Sheng-Gong-Wu.

"Really?"

"Give or take a decade." Katnappe smiled innocently.

"I appreciate your honesty…so I'm just going to cause you half the pain I intended to give you originally." He laughed. "Dude-bot! Where are those torture devices?" Jack shouted.

"Right here sir." Dude-bot said as he walked in the lab with a tray of drinks.

Jack inspected the tray. "Orange Juice? Lemonade? Grape Soda? These aren't torture devices!"

"No." the ex-robot turned human beamed. "But torture devices reminded me of trinkets. And trinkets rhyme with drinkits. So I brought you some beverages, since we have company. Go on, drink it!"

Jack smacked himself in the head. "At least tell me they're poisoned!"

"Poison? No, poison isn't healthy and it doesn't taste good." Dude-bot answered cheerily.

"Hey, can I have some milk?" Katnappe asked.

"Sure!" Dude-bot handed Katnappe a milk bottle through the cage bars.

"Thanks." Katnappe opened the bottle and took a swig of creamy milk. "Ahh, glad someone here knows how to treat a lady."

"Oh shut up!" Jack snapped. Katnappe stuck her tongue out at him and began to file her claws. "I'm starting to wonder why I gave 'you' the Heart of Jong!" Jack said to Dude-bot.

"Because you realized that every time Wuya uses it, she dumps you for the stronger Heart of Jongified warrior. And I'm pretty weak so your position as Wuya's apprentice is secure!" Dude-bot said.

"Yeah well that didn't stop her from dumping me…again." Jack said sadly.

This caught Katnappe's attention. "Woah, Wuya and you had a falling out…I was wondering why it was so quiet here…"

"Yeah, she joined forces with Chase Young after my latest plan failed. Stupid green monkeys." He shuddered, recalling the event.

"Sorry." Katnappe said, almost sincerely, 'almost' being the key word.

"Thanks, you know sometimes I feel like I just want to disappear and…" Suddenly Jack heard a crash behind him. He turned around and saw that Dude-bot had dropped the tray, juices and sodas spilled onto the floor. But most disturbingly was the way Dude-bot was looking at him. "What's wrong with you?" Dude-bot didn't reply but backed away from his creator. "You better clean this up or I'll-." Then he saw Katnappe look at him strangely. "You too? What's wrong with you guys?"

"J-Jack." Katnappe stuttered, looking spooked. "Your hand." She pointed to his arms.

"My hand? What about it." Jack lifted his right hand and examined it. It looked perfectly normal. "See, nothing's wrong with it."

"No…your left hand."

Jack lifted his left arm and saw…nothing at it's end. The arm was there, the elbow and shoulder as well. But his left hand was gone…it had vanished.

To be continued…