"Whoah.. Where am I?"
Zack got up from his lying portion on the ground, shivering a little as he did so. He noticed one main thing in wherever he was: there was nothing but ice and snow here, and it was freezing!
"Definately not home," Dad said, also shivering.
"I probably should have told you to bring a coat," Allison commented. "Come on, we should get going."
"Are we in.. Sidewinder?" Zack asked. Allison gave a nod.
"Nothing but ice out here."
"Y-yeah. I can see that," Zack said, moving.
"Couldn't you have taken us somewhere that wasn't covered in ice?" Dad asked.
"Hey, Jack. My device, my rules."
They continued to walk, their destination growing closer by the second. "Where are we going, exactly?" Asked Zack.
"A large, crashed ship."
Zack stopped. "Wait.. You mean the Mother of Invention?"
"That's the one. I was able to locate it pretty quickly," Allison told him.
"Didn't you say we were finding someone? Why did you send us here?" Dad asked.
"Because I figured this is the type of place he'd be," Allison replied.
"In the middle of an ice age?"
"It's his tastes, not mine."
Zack shook his head, "But who is he? What's his name?"
"Not one you'd recognize, like I said," repeated Allison. "He started calling himself something different. I have an idea on what, but I need to be sure."
"How far is it now?" Zack asked, "To the ship?"
"I'm not sure," Allison said, now looking around. "We should have reached it by now."
"So we're lost?" Dad asked.
"I guess so," Replied Allison. "Damn it! I thought I was in the right place!"
Zack heard something in the far distance, coming from above. He squinted his eyes, and noticed that there appeared to be a large object coming straight towards where they were. Dad seemed to notice it, too.
"That device of yours does places and times, right?" Dad asked.
"Yeah, why?" Allison asked.
"Well, I don't think we landed in the wrong place," Zack said as the object came closer, "I think we landed in the wrong time."
Allison's eyes widened as she too looked up, "Run away from the crashing ship! Hide! Don't let it see you or you could change the course of reality!"
Zack didn't need to be told twice, running over to a nearby cave he spotted, gesturing to the others to follow. Allison was right: it wouldn't end well if suddenly they appeared in this part of history. They needed to hide!
-Line-
(A few years ago)
"What the? Okay, that's a little different than what I'm used to. How did you do it?" He asked.
"Well, I got a few tricks up my sleeve. I told you it'd come in handy," Allison answered. "Did you tell anyone?"
"No. No one suspects you're still alive. Not even Texas." He answered. "I suppose you'd owe me, then."
"I don't owe you anything. I just saved your life back there," Allison told him.
"Hmm. Point taken. Are you the only one in this universe?" He asked.
"No," Allison said. "There's a family in Washington that originally came from there."
"Really now," He said. "How did they get here?"
"Me."
"Wow," He said. "You're kinda good at the technological stuff there."
"I get it from my husband."
"Your husband's a dick."
"I know."
-Line-
(Present)
Ashley sighed as she looked at her phone. Jessie still wasn't answering her calls, and hasn't been for a few days now. She was starting to get worried. She had called Sky as well, but apparently not even Jessie's best friend has had any contact with her. Ashley decided she'd visit Jessie's house later to check up on her. Ashley walked through the living room, spotting her dad James sitting on the couch.
"Hey, Dad?" Ashley asked.
"What?"
Ashley looked at him, "Have you heard anything from Jessie's mom lately?"
He sat up, "Not since last week, why?"
"It's just I've been trying to get a hold of Jessie for the past few days but I'm not getting any answers."
"Did you try the home phone?" Her dad asked.
"Yes."
"Her mother?"
"Yes."
"Her brother?"
"He doesn't even have a phone, and I wouldn't have the number of he did."
"Hmmm," he thought, "Perhaps you should go to her house and check up on her."
"That was already my plan," Ashley said.
"I won't come with you, so be back by eight."
Ashley nodded, "I will."
The sixteen year-old brunette got into her car, driving towards Jessie's house.
"-Line-
"What are we gonna do?" Zack asked.
Allison shook her head, "I don't know. I'd send us all somewhere in the future, but the device doesn't work anymore."
Zack grumbled to himself. He was in the past, he was freezing, and he couldn't go somewhere better. He looked up at the falling ship from outside the cave. It was coming down fast, but Zack noticed it was just far enough away to not hurt them.
"Should we ask the people on the ship when it crashes for help?" Asked Zack.
"No," Dad answered, "What makes you think they'd help a random trio of people that came out of nowhere?" Then, they heard a loud noise, and the earth rumbled underneath them. The ship had crashed.
"Come on," Allison said. "Let's wait for the people to evacuate. With any luck, there will still be pelican or some other vehicle we can use to get out of here."
-Line-
(A few years ago)
"Man, the technology in this place is a lot less advanced than I'm used to," He said.
"I tell you how to use it," Allison promised.
"Does anyone know I'm alive?" He asked.
"It's hard to get that information through multiple universes, so no," Allison replied. She got a few hundred dollars from a cupboard and handed it to him.
"Is that for me?" He asked.
"It'll get you started," Allison told him. "Try and actually get a job this time, if you would. I don't want you to end up in prison."
"Okay, okay," He said, holding his hands up. "I'll get a job. What do they have here, McDonalds?"
"Yup."
"Wait, seriously? That place actually exists?"
Allison smiled, "I'm sure you'll find a nice job in working there."
-Line-
Ashley arrived at Jessie's house. All of the vehicles were there, so someone had to be home. She got out of the car and knocked on the door. There was no answer. She knocked again, harder. Still nothing. She looked through the window, and noticed the house was completely empty. Yet it looked like there had to be someone inside. The lights were on, and so was the computer. Seems like someone's watching a show or something, Ashley noted.
She went back to the door, and tried the knob. It was unlocked. She was about to go inside when-
"Looking for someone?"
Ashley jumped, turning around as quickly as she could to spot the speaker. It was a man who had spoken to her, and she noticed that he was head-to-toe in Halo armor.
"Ah! Who are you?!" Ashley asked.
"I'd give my first name, but most call me Tucker," The man said, holding out a hand. Ashley shook it slowly.
-Line-
"Oh, come on! You know you wanna!" Tucker yelled, hearing our conversation. I shook my head. The people who live here are insane. Always have been, always will be.
"No, I really don't!" Jessie yelled back.
"Please?"
"NO!"
"You mean to tell us this whole war was a lie?!" A New Republic soldier asked. "We've been fighting this entire time, dying this entire time, and the war's not even real?!"
"Calm down, people!" Kimball told everyone. "The was was real, for a while. It was only later, that other people got involved. The Reds and Blues were a part of their plan to destroy us, but now that we know the truth, we can use them to win back our planet, once and for all!"
The rebels cheered as Kimball spoke, happy once more.
I ran over to Kimball, "You do realize there's no possible way of beating them without the help of the Feds, right?"
"Them?" Kimball asked, "First of all, I'm not so fond of the people killing the ones who want some freedom on this planet, and second, how would we get them to even believe us?"
"I could always freak them out with the fact that I know a bunch about them, then say it's part of the things I know," Jessie piped in.
"I'm not so sure that's the way you'd want to approach them," Kimball pointed out. "I don't want to have to work with them.
"Then what do you suggest?" I asked. "You don't have much of a choice weather to work with them or not."
"What if we sent a few of the Reds and Blues to them?" Jessie suggested. "Kat or myself could go with them and pretend we're here to help them, and earn their trust. Then we say what's really going on and that they have to work with you if they want the planet to survive?"
"That's.. not too bad of an idea," Kimball said. "But who would we send?"
"How about.. Washington, Sarge, Donut, and Lopez?" Jessie said, smile on her face.
"Okay, then. I'll tell them what's going on and what to do," Kimball said.
"Great!" Jessie said, watching Kimball walk away.
"You couldn't resist, could you?" I asked.
"I don't want to stray to far from what originally happened," Jessie said. "I need to be able to know what will happen later, and the best way to do that is to keep it close to the original."
"I hope you thought this through," I said.
A/N:
I hope this was okay. It's like, in four places at once. Well, I hope you enjoyed! I'm ahead of schedule... that doesn't mean early updates, though. It just means there will seriously be a new chapter every week, on Monday, 7ish Pacific Standard time.
Have a nice day! Or night.. Whenever you're reading this..
Oh, and joining this little adventure: Ashley, James, and Sky! Just... not right now.. or anytime soon, for that matter. It'll be about.. Let's just say it ain't in this book.