The group sat together a bit quietly as Cherry finished up some homework while Atticus would also rest as he took a nap, though he seemed to have a strange dream from what looked like in outer-space. "Whoa... What is this place...?" Atticus asked as he glanced around.
Someone seemed to be running off who had a starry based outfit of some sorts as lasers fired towards him.
"Did I fall asleep to Babylon 5 or something?" Atticus asked, rubbing his eyes a bit.
"I need counter-measures," The boy said, seemingly to himself. "They've blown through our outer defenses."
"You better fall back to our position." Another voice replied.
"Wait, what's going on?" asked Atticus, growing even more confused. "What's happening?! Is this... Some kind of vision?"
A familiar Dalmatian soon came over.
"Oh! Patch!" Atticus beamed as he hugged the dog. "Boy, am I glad to see you. I feel so lost."
"I guess this would be a vision, but it looks like far into the future." Patch replied.
"That explains the suits..." Atticus muttered as they watched the events before their eyes unfold.
Other lasers soon shot out from the other side as the boy kept running. Eventually, three shadowed figures came out from the other side as the lasers fired and they all began to defend themselves. The boy slid into another room as the doors shut behind him as he found two other people, one seemed to be a nonhuman while the other seemed to be a girl.
"I can feel them," The girl spoke up. "They're here for the Time Ship."
"Well, they ain't gonna get their grimy mitts on it!" remarked a boy.
"Reckless, but logical," The nonhuman boy said as he rushed over to a sphere that was like a giant hamster ball as he powered it up. "However I should be able to jury-rig a booby trap into the sphere. If they do get past us, they'll be frozen in time as soon as they power up."
"How much time do you need?" The girl asked before a hand seemed to reach out from the other side of the door.
"Probably has to be urgent." Atticus guessed as he watched this with Patch.
"That goes without saying, if they're this hectic about this sort of thing." Patch replied.
"Tell me about it." Atticus nodded.
The hand seemed to burn through the door a bit.
"More than we have." The nonhuman boy told the girl about how much time they had left.
"Then you'll get it, bub!" The boy exclaimed. "We'll do what we can to hold 'em off. You just get to work, pronto!"
Atticus held his head. "What is happening?" he asked himself. "I have to be dreaming about some kinda sci-fi cartoon."
"Like I said, this is a vision." Patch replied as they continued watching.
"Right..." Atticus said as she set his dog down.
The brown-haired boy attempted to go into a deep focus with his special powers.
"Don't worry." The girl told him.
"I'm fine." The boy grunted as he sweated profusely.
"You're overdue for an injection and your concern-" The girl continued as her eyes flashed a pink color.
"I'm fine," The boy replied firmly. "And stay out of my head, please, Saturn Girl. We've got more pressing-"
BOOM!
"Uh-oh, guys," said another boy. "We got company, and I highly doubt they've come for a spot of tea!"
"You have a point, Brother," said a nearby girl who was a couple of years his superior. "We've got to get moving."
"Let's go then." The boy's voice said as the doors burst open.
The three strangers from before soon appeared as the smoke cleared, showing their faces.
"KILL THEM." A voice declared firmly.
"Not today, Bug Brain!" The boy declared. "Not ever!"
As one guy leapt to the front and threw an axe, Saturn Girl made a forcefield to block it, but got knocked aside.
"Why, you-" The other boy glared as he saw someone else with the group. "Hey, wait a second: if you guys are the Fatal 5, how come there are six of ya?"
"This is getting intense..." Atticus said as he stepped back with Patch, even if this was just a vision.
"You're not kidding, man." agreed Patch.
The robotic-looking guy extended his arm and fired a laser at the kid in the star-covered suit, knocking him back.
"Cosmic Boy!" exclaimed the black-haired teenager before he turned back to face the villains. "Oh, that's it. You mooks are toast!"
"Save some for me, dude." The other boy agreed, taking a defensive stance.
"Cosmic Boy?" Atticus and Patch asked out of surprise and curiosity.
"I've never heard of heroes like this." Patch said.
"Neither have I..." Atticus agreed. "Either this is another universe or... It's probably the future."
The boy and dog looked very curious about what they were seeing.
"What seems to be the trouble?" Cosmic Boy glowered at the villains.
The robotic guy extended his arm and tossed the green-skinned boy from the chair as he and his friends entered the giant orb and began typing away at its keyboard.
"This doesn't look good." Atticus gulped.
"I didn't finish!" The green-skinned boy gasped.
It looked like the others were about to escape in the orb as a destination was typed in. The brown-haired boy felt like this was his chance to go, so he lunged out.
"Thomas, no!" Saturn Girl tried to stop him, but it was too late.
The other three lunged with him, and in a flash, they had vanished.
"I won't lose... Especially not to you, Maîtresse des Ténèbres!" growled the brown-haired boy as they squared off.
"What's going on?" Atticus muttered to himself.
Patch shrugged as he wasn't sure.
"I am so having a word with Drell about this." Atticus said sharply as the group fought.
Cosmic Boy was sent plummeting through the skies as the time sphere reappeared in space above Earth. Atticus and Patch were still somehow able to watch this like they were both watching a movie.
The sphere came towards Earth as it seemed to speed up with flames around it, almost like a comet. Cosmic Boy soon grabbed onto the sphere before he shot out an energy blasted punch onto the sphere, seeming to control the one at the controls and slammed his head onto the panel which activated some sort of protocol.
The boy inside blinked. "Uh-oh... Time to be going!" he grabbed his sister and the black-haired kid, but suddenly saw the other black-clad female grabbing his leg as he suddenly vanished.
The time sphere was suddenly surrounded in a green honeycomb pattern as it crash-landed in a local park.
There was a bright light which made Atticus gasp and pant as he sat up in his bed, sweating a bit. "W-What was that...?" he asked with surprise.
"Beats me," Patch said as he woke up at the foot of Atticus's bed. "I guess you saw what I saw?"
"Heh... Looks like it," Atticus replied as he petted his dog. "I didn't think that dogs had visions."
"Maybe we somehow shared the connection 'cuz of our bond?" asked Patch.
Atticus thought for a minute. "...Could be..." he replied.
"You okay earlier?" Patch asked. "You didn't even talk to me before you fell asleep."
"Sorry about that, boy," Atticus replied. "I just had a lot on my mind."
"Yeah... I overheard what happened." Patch replied as a loud booming sound was heard as the front door got kicked open.
"Well... I think Drell just arrived." Atticus noted.
"Ya don't say..." Patch smirked.
"Don't you know how to knock?!" Cherry's voice called out.
"That's how I knock," Drell retorted. "Now what's the big honkin' deal already?"
Lionel scratched himself as he woke up. "Fine. I'll make it quick..." he replied as he began to explain the situation and its possible solution.
"Mm-hmm... Mm-hmm..." Drell nodded as he listened a bit closer.
"Um, do you think it could work?" Lionel asked.
"I'll have to test with a guinea pig," Drell said as he took out his crystal ball like a cell phone. "Oh, Skippy? I need you to do me a favor."
There was a bit of silence for a while.
"Dammit, Skippy, stay out of Manhattan!" Drell rolled his eyes. "All right... Call back when you're available, this is an emergency."
Lionel blinked in confusion.
"We'll test out your little experiment as soon as my most trusted colleague gets out of the big city for his nightly visit." Drell told them all as he hung up.
"Pardon me, sir...?" Atticus spoke up as he came out of his bedroom.
"Ah, Atticus," Drell greeted. "You look well-rested."
"Yeah... I-I had to have a lie-down." Atticus replied.
"Well... I got good news," Lionel remarked. "Operation: Save yer Parents has an... Oh, say, 86% chance of being carried out now."
"Yeah?" Atticus replied.
"I'll get something worked out since they're in the... Eeeugh..." Drell replied before shuddering as even he felt horrified. "The Gray Area of the Netherworld."
"I wonder what they're doing over there if it's so dangerous?" Atticus pondered.
"Most likely Sombra put them there," Lionel replied. "Looks like I got another reason to knock his teeth out."
"Pretty graphic." Atticus said.
"He started it." Cherry grumbled darkly.
Some time passed as Drell excused himself briefly, so Atticus took that time to tell the others about the vision he saw with Patch as they watched over Drell's crystal ball for him and to tell him if anyone called him during his absence.
"Whoa... Talk about cryptic," Mo remarked. "Kinda like you were seeing the events as they happened."
"Tell me about it," Atticus replied. "It felt like something out of a weird cartoon."
"Or Babylon 5," Thor added before smiling. "Aw, Babylon 5... I like the two magicians they met once... Rebo and Zooty."
Everyone took a glance at the fourth wall after that, before turning back to one another.
"Well... If this is the case," replied Lionel. "Then these time-travelers have come back to the present day."
"Maybe we'll find out later..." Cherry shrugged.
The crystal ball soon rang.
"Hello? ...Hello?! ...Hello?" Cherry answered it like a phone, but only heard silence before shrugging as she set it down on the table. "No one answered."
Everyone stared at her, dumbfounded by that. The crystal ball rang again.
"Hello?" Atticus tried to answer. "Hello?!"
The same result had happened.
"What is with these people?" Mo rolled her eyes.
"Sorry about that, kids, I had to get a monkey off my back," Drell said as he came by. "Did anyone call?"
The others merely shrugged as they didn't know how to answer that.
"It's been RINGIN' OFF THE HOOK!" Lionel replied.
"Well, why didn't you answer it?!" Drell retorted.
"Because no one was there!" Cherry replied.
The crystal ball rang again.
"Watch. Watch!" Cherry told him.
"Hello?" Drell answered then, but he had better luck this time. "Oh. Hi, Skippy."
"Well, no wonder we couldn't hear anything!" Lionel exclaimed. "Why would someone use a phone IF THEY RARELY EVER TALK?!"
"Oh, Skippy can talk, you just don't listen." Drell said in a hushed tone as he waited for Skippy to "talk" to him.
The others looked with deadpan from that answer.
"Uh-huh... Uh-huh... Uh-huh..." Drell listened, though he seemed to roll his eyes and waved his finger. "Chatterbox... No, not you, Skip, one of the kids." he then smirked a bit.
Lionel rolled his eyes. "He can talk, you just don't listen..." he mocked. "Bah. I've barely heard a single word out of that fellow's mouth... And gesturing does not count!"
"Okay, thanks, Skip," Drell said as he hung up. "So, you're probably wondering what he just said."
"You bet your butt!" The others replied sharply.
"He's gonna test out Lionel's little suggestion when he can come over later after he's done visiting Manhattan," Drell told the others. "It's hard to say how long that'll take though. Skip's got a thing for women with wings these days if ya know what I mean."
Lionel face-palmed. "Ugh..."
"Okay, thanks, you can go now," Cherry said as she came to Drell to push him down the hallway and out the door. "I gotta say, it was nice seeing you, but you gotta go, right? You're a very busy man, we understand."
"Cherry, I can't help but feel you're trying to get rid of me." Drell replied.
"No... What gave you that idea...?" Cherry remarked as her voice sounded weak.
"We haven't got time for this!" Lionel exclaimed. "We gotta get these suits made. Every second we waste is another second that bastard Sombra has the upper hand... Hoof... Whatever!"
"Right, so I'm staying to make sure this works." Drell said as he made Cherry stop.
"Then I'm going home." Cherry replied firmly.
"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Lionel boomed. "I know you can't stand Drell, that's fine, I can only tolerate him so much, but his compliance is necessary if we want this plan to go off without a hitch. We've come too far to let it fall apart because of our issues with him. So we must suck it up and bear his presence, but then again, that also means HE must try to put in the effort to not be so damned obnoxious... Which may be a challenge in itself for him."
"Ughh..." Cherry groaned a bit.
"I promise though, as soon as Skippy comes over, we'll try your plan." Drell told Lionel.
"Fine." Lionel replied.
"It'll be worth it..." Drell said before slanting his eyes. "Jessica."
"Drell." Jessica greeted back in the same way.
"He's my favorite uncle." Thor beamed to the others.
"By default, I bet." Cherry mumbled.
"Also, Atticus, it looks like you're seeing very far into the future." Drell said.
"Seems like it." Atticus agreed.
"Well, the future, and then the present," Lionel stated. "Though I wonder what happened to those others who vanished from that floatin' ball..."
"Also, how did I see what Atticus saw?" Patch wondered.
"Well, Spot, it looks as though you have been chosen as Atticus's magical familiar, so you'll develop your own magic powers just like him." Drell told the young Dalmatian.
"Well, stranger things have happened..." Lionel replied as a ZAP was heard, followed by a few thumps. "Wait, what was that?"
Patch began to bark as he rushed around with his dog instincts flaring up.
"Something just came from outside!" Mo exclaimed. "Let's go check it out."
"Come on!" Thor said. "Maybe it's a spaceship!"
"Aw, Thor..." Cherry rolled her eyes from that.
They soon ran out the door to see what had happened.