Chapter Two
The day seemed to slug by. Jakie spent a little more than a few hours installing her birthday present from Sig. Leon got to help her out, so that left Truth and Dawn with nothing to do, except sit out of the way and watch. He had talked with Sig for a while until Sig had to leave on some important business.
After a good four hours, Jakie finally stood up, wiped the sweat from her forehead and declared, "There! Finished at last!" Truth and Dawn leapt up from the ground.
"Really?" Truth asked excitedly. Jakie paused a minute.
"No, never mind… stupid… why must you keep coming out of place!"
"You just have that effect on things, Jakie," Leon teased. Jakie turned around and threw him a death glare and turned back to work.
"So, uh, what exactly are you going to do with it once you do finish?" Dawn asked. Jakie shrugged.
"I don't really know what it's for, actually."
"Wait, you speant years building this thing and you don't know what it does?" Leon asked.
"No, no, I said I don't know what it's for. I know what it does. I think."
"Prosecution rests."
"Oh, shut up."
"So what does it do?" Dawn questioned. Jakie coughed.
"It's a time machine. I built it from some scrap metal I found and an old warp gate. The part that Sig gave me is vital for this thing to function properly. Unfortunately, it appears to be a little… too… big… grr, get in there!" The group backed up a little. Finally, Jakie slammed the hood to the control panel down and stepped back. "There… that should do it."
"It's done?" Leon asked, coming forward to inspect her latest work of art.
"Should be," Jakie answered, and began fiddling with some buttons on the control panel.
"Yes!" Truth chirped, jumping from his seat. He also hurried to look at Jakie's work.
"Great, so now what?" Leon grumbled.
"Now, I turn it on and make sure it works. Let's see… this should do it…" the warp gate make some strange noises and finally came on with a soft hum.
"Yep, it works," Dawn pointed out.
"Yeah, I see that. Thank you, Captain Obvious, for that informative remark," Jakie answered back sarcastically. Leon chuckled, earning him a glare from Dawn this time.
"Well, it works. Great. So what now? Bottle it and sell it?" Leon asked. Jakie shrugged.
"I have no idea. But I'm sure it will come in handy somewhere." Leon sighed and turned around.
"Great. Another waste of precious time devoted to- woah!" He slipped on a wrentch that had somehow ended up on the ground and stumbled back, strait toward the warp gate.
"Leon!" Jakie cried and jumped for him, but only managed to grab onto his ankle and was pulled into the vortex after him.
"Jakie!" Dawn yelled.
"Sis!" Truth exclaimed at the same time and they both leapt after them…
Leon was the first to land on the other side. Unfortunately, his landing wasn't very graceful, and he ended up landing flat on his stomach. For some reason, Jakie popped out next, landing the same way, right on top of Leon. Both groaned in pain, but then Truth landed on top of them, then Dawn on top of the pile.
"Owie…" the ottsel muttered.
"Hey, Dawn, I'm glad you're safe and all, but can you get off my back?" Truth asked.
"Will you ALL please get off MINE?" Leon said right after. After they'd all picked themselves up, they looked around, trying to figure out where they'd landed. Nothing seemed familiar at first, but then…
"This is the pumping station," Leon informed, "But… it doesn't look the same way I remember it…"
"What do you mean?" Jakie questioned.
"I mean, all the new equipment that was put in isn't here anymore… Jakie, what the hell happened?"
"Um…I don't know," she answered nervously. "we fell into the warp gate and… whoops…"
"What?"
"Uh, nothing?"
"No, Jakie, you don't just say 'oops'! What 'oops'?" Leon demanded.
"I think… we went back in time…" was all she said. A thick silence took its place around them and stayed there for minutes on end until Leon spoke again.
"So then… where are we, exactly?"
"Not sure. But I know one way to find out. Come on." The group quickly walked towards the airlock that lead into the city. The first opened, and they proceeded to the second, but Jakie stopped Leon before he could open it.
"What's wrong?" Leon asked. There was a long pause.
"Nothing… guess I'm just a little nervous," she replied, "go ahead." Leon cocked an eyebrow, then just shrugged and opened the second airlock.
After it was opened, they four proceeded onward. Both Jakie and Leon looked around for something familiar, until it hit both of them like a ton of rocks. Old, broken up planks making up the walkways, broken down buildings, patrols in red KG armor, and the dead giveaway, the old palace design…
"Jakie…"
"Leon…"
"Sis?"
"Guys…"
"You have GOT to be kidding me…" Leon said, more to himself that anyone else.
"This HAS to be a dream…" Jakie continued. Leon pinched her. "Ow!"
"Nope, you're wide away, Jak-o," he informed. Jakie rolled her eyes. A heavy silence grew around them.
"So… now what the hell do we-"
"You are in a restricted area! Move along!" a KG on a hover bike yelled at them. The group snapped around in that direction, then looked at each other as he drove off to continue his patrol. Jakie shrugged at Leon, then she took her little brother's hand and they started through the Water Slums.
"Ok, guys, we've got a few realities to face," Jakie announced. They had wandered all over the city and finally found an old empty house that they'd decided to use for a safe house. It was located in a more remote part of the Water Slums. "First, we're back in the time of Baron Praxis's rule. Second, there's no way to get back home, and third, we all know what about to happen here. So, the question is: what the hell are we going to do now?"
"Well, maybe the war is more far off than we think," Dawn suggested hopefully.
"No, it's close. Don't you remember seeing the hatch to Dead Town?" Leon replied. "What we should be wondering is if Jak is in prison or not."
"That would be hard to tell, since the whole Dark Warrior program was pretty much the Baron's most secret operation," Jakie said dully.
"That's true…" Leon agreed.
"The only way I can think of is stealing a few uniforms and getting down there that way… or we could play Master Thief and sneak in very carefully. But like either would really work, since the Baron's security is tighter than a gold vault." Leon snorted.
"It's crap compared to what we've got now." Both Jakie and Dawn rolled their eyes.
"Well… before we can do anything, we have to consider that we're fooling with a timeline here, and one small change to the past can really alter the future. We've got to be really careful not to change anything. No one can know of our presence and no one can know who we are or where we come from. We'll have to find a way to figure out what we need to know without disrupting the flow of the timeline," Jakie explained.
"Right," Dawn agreed, "but how?"
"Um… well…" Jakie thought for a moment, "well, that's why we're a team, right?" Leon chuckled. "What?"
"You," he answered.
"What about me?" she demanded, her cheeks getting redder by the minute.
"Nothing," he finished. "So, then, what's the plan?"
"Uh-oh." Jakie suddenlywhispered, hoping only she could hear. Unfortunately, they all heard.
"What's wrong?" Dawn asked. Jakie swallowed hard and looked up.
"I just realized… I don't have my medication with me…"
Kiri: There! Done! That wasn't as painful as I was expecting! Give me some feed back, ok?