Taken In Again
Disclaimer: It's a fanfiction, what do you expect? I own whatever wasn't invented already.
Tom walked down the halls of the Nautilus, thinking about his old friend Allan and his return to the league, his new friend Alisha who had fallen into their laps at a time needed so desperately, and everything else that had come their way since the time of M. He struts down the halls where the cabins were, whistling a familiar tune and hands in his pockets. Tom was about to go to his cabin when he stopped short, noticing a bright glow coming from under the crack of Alisha's door. Prancing over, the American knocked on the door and walked right in. What he saw was a large, purple swirling threshold gleaming in mid-air. Alisha abruptly halted, inches away from entering the portal. Scratching his head, Tom gave an extremely confused, hasty, and uncertain expression.
"Tom!"
"What in the world, Alisha? What is this thing?"
"Uh…." Alisha stuttered her words, aching to continue in the portal.
Tom noticed the small device in Alisha's hand. It was a small, squared metal piece of equipment, with some sort of buttons on it and a long flimsy antennae sticking out on the top.
"What's that?"
"Portaleiver."
Tom gave a questionable face.
"Or, P.P.R., short for Portable Portal Receiver…I haven't come up with an exact name for it…I think P.P.R. is good." Alisha's look was a fusion of embarrassment and satisfaction. Tom looked back to the large swirling object.
"And that?"
"Um…well,"
Rodney Skinner suddenly walked in the door, as to have finally found Tom.
"Hey, Tom wha---woah! What in bloody 'ell is that?" His gaze flickered from the purple void to Alisha.
"Umm…aheh-heh…a portal…"
"A portal to what?" asked Tom.
"To…the year 2008?"
Tom and Rodney gave Alisha blank stares and lifeless expressions for about an entire minute.
"Huh?" he asked again.
"A-heh…I'm, uh…from the future?"
"The future?" asked Rodney. The rogue at last found out about his secret lover, apparently 109 years older into the future. Why had she kept this a secret for all this time?
"Um…it's a long story."
"I think we have time.' Said Rodney, dead flat.
Alisha noticed the hurt in Rodney's voice.
Opening her mouth to speak, and then closing to think, Tom and Rodney pressed harder with their expressions. After a while of coming up with a good explanation, the witch finally spoke.
"I was born in the year 1993…and I grew up in New York…in the United States. The year in my present time is now 2008…so I guess that means I'm not as old as I look."
Tom was about to say something, but Alisha continued.
"Growing up as a witch I never seemed to fit in my era…I had always felt that I should have lived in the past…and then I had a vision."
"Of?" asked Tom.
"Of all of you…in the past."
Tom slightly lifted his head as Rodney kept his lowered, staring at the floor in thought.
"The thing is…or..was…I don't know I'm not good at tenses…sorry…but the thing is, is that none of you existed in the year 1899 when I looked you all up. None of this existed…the Nautilus, your story of M and his war…nothing. There was nothing…It's hard to explain."
Tom opened his mouth to speak, but Alisha cut him off again.
"So I thought to myself, what could my vision possibly mean? I thought for a long time what it all meant, and then I discovered this." Alisha indicated the room.
"Uh…your cabin?" Rodney commented.
"Um no. I mean bigger than the cabin."
"The Nautilus?" asked Tom, his eyebrow raised in complete and utter confusion.
Alisha sighed. "No. Bigger…way bigger."
Tom shook his head, unable to decipher the witch's point.
"This world. This entire alternate universe that exists."
"So…you mean to tell us that we live in an alternate universe from your…uh, time…rather than the past?"
Alisha hesitated. "Uh…yeah…?"
"W-what?" Tom was completely in a meltdown now.
"Okay…I know this is hard to explain…this portal and everything. So I'll give you the basics. I'm from the future. The year 2009. In my era I'm a lot younger. As I witch I gained the ability to come here, become older, and pose as a 26 year old witch, and a part of this league. Got it?"
Obviously annoyed, Alisha entered the portal and disappeared. And with Tom and Rodney obviously in shock and worry, they followed through.
---
The two league members fell out of the portal into a large room, however cluttered with futile objects. The walls were of an off white, and the dark blue rug beneath them was hard and rough. An unmade bed of blue and pink plaid sheets lay out on the right wall, with a green plush ottoman at its end. An oval white table was next to the bed, accompanied by four black plush chairs, and a wooden table and dresser topped lay behind the table, all topped with additional rubbish and electronics. On the other side of the bed was a green side table matching the ottoman, with an alarm clock, water bottle, book light, tub of petroleum jelly, a necklace, keychain, bracelet, and eye mask at its surface. Beside the bookcase was a white cabinet and green shelf stocked with beauty supplies, and an overloaded, golden coat hanger. On the north wall was a white dresser and black mirror with a purple plastic basket underneath, and a keyboard atop a wooden chest. A wicker chair stood beside the keyboard. A Norwegian flag hung over it. Further in back were a widescreen HD TV, and a very old, blue loveseat with a light pink flokati rug as its cover, a wicker ottoman, and four plastic drawers and a light blue locker bin filled with papers and craft supplies. On the loveseat there was a black furry, fat cat, resembling Midnight. A portrait and a sparrow pastel drawing were above the bed, accompanied by a black crafted, abstract mask, a black long curly wig, an apron, and a Halloween witch costume.
Tom and Rodney turned around in surprise to see the portal close up, and Alisha stand in front of them in utter shock.
"What are you doing here?" her voice was at the point of almost screaming.
"I--we-uh…" Tom fumbled in his empty pockets while thinking of an excuse for escaping to the future world.
"So is this what the year 2008 looks like?" Rodney gave a questionable look as he searched around the room. Alisha sighed her entire body.
"This is my room…my younger room."
Tom raised his eyebrow. "How old are you exactly in this world?"
Alisha just simply turned around and walked up the stairs in back of them. Apparently the room was a basement. Tom, then at a delay Rodney followed up behind. Halfway up the stairs Alisha stopped, and shushed them down. In a whisper, the witch huddled with her friends.
"Be quiet! No one can know you're here!"
"Who? Where?" asked Rodney.
"My parents…and the house." Simply stated, Alisha took out the P.P.R., and drew a circle in the air. Inside the circle, the purple swirl appeared. The witch then went to under her bed, and retrieved a small shoe box. Inside she regained two of the same device known as the P.P.R., except it was a bit more advanced. It had a screen, and several extra buttons. She handed one to each of her friends.
"If you ever need me, use these to open the portal." She pointed to a specific button. "Hold this down and draw a circle, then release for the portal to open." She then specified another. "If you ever need to locate me, press this, and the screen will show my exact location. It also works for any of the league members, including you two." Tom perked up.
"You have us wired?" he sounded a bit ballistic. "When? And when did you get Allan, you just met him!"
"None of your business." Alisha then quickly changed the subject to the P.P.R. again. "If you press this button, that specific one will contact you with any of the league's portable portal receivers. Kind of like a phone, but there's only one button. Each letter is for a different member." On the P.P.R. there was seven buttons with letters—one marked R, one T, one N, one AQ, one M, one H/E, and one AC.
Tom looked up, and Rodney investigated his device. "The rest of the league doesn't have one."
Alisha handed him the box. "Now they do." She placed her hands on their backs. "Now go, before you're caught."
"But—"
"Don't worry, you'll learn about everything in time. Just go."
She pushed them in, and the portal closed as Alisha walked upstairs, changing mysteriously and out of sight.
---
Falling back into Alisha's cabin upon the Nautilus, the spy and the rogue were completely bamboozled, and with their P.P.R.'s in their hands as proof of what they had just experienced.
"Okay, what just happened?" asked Rodney, rubbing his head.
Tom scratched his eyes. "I…have no idea…she's from the damn future, Rodney!" he spoke out as if only speaking to himself.
"Yeah…I would have never expected that!" he said, giving a slight chuckle.
"And I can't believe she had us wired!" said Tom, flipping the gadget around in his hand, finding out how to turn it on. "Heh…I guess you wont be that hard to find anymore, Mr. Skinner."
"Oh, great. My evil plans spoiled."
The two gave light chuckles. "Now, how—" With the press of a random button, the screen went on. Signaling with a red light, the screen pinpointed a location on the Indian Ocean. With another button Tom pressed, the Nautilus' interior appeared on the screen and a specific room…they're room…was singled out. "Whoa…it works."
Tom then pressed the button marked T, and the same location popped up. Hitting AQ, M, H/E, and N, the dining room popped up. Dinner was just about starting. Hitting AC, another entire area was shown, with different information around the screen indicating the unusual era.
"You know, this can come in pretty handy." Tom sat on Alisha's bed, examining every inch of the P.P.R..
Rodney looked up to Tom with curiosity.
"You know, if we lose anyone during a mission."
Rodney nodded, and moved closer towards Tom. "Some technology the future has…"
Tom looked up to Rodney, who had now taken his P.P.R. and was investigating it in his own hands. He sighed.
"We have much to learn."
---
It was dinnertime when Tom and Rodney rushed in the dining room, startling Mina, Henry, Allan and Nemo. They had to catch their breaths before telling the members the truth about Alisha.
"What, what is it?" asked Mina.
Tom was about to say something, but couldn't due to his lack of speech.
"Where were you two?" asked Allan, sitting three seats away from Mina.
"2008." Rodney choked out.
"What?" Nemo said, accompanying his response with a taken aback expression.
"Alisha…she's from the future. 2008." Tom had to hold on to Rodney's back to keep himself up.
"What are you talking about?" Henry said, unbelieving the madness the two of them spoke of.
"Alisha. You know the witch? Yeah. She's from the future…the year 2008. And by accident we just went there. She's there now; doing god knows what and who knows where."
As the league's faces were knocked for six, Rodney's head perked up.
"We do!"
Tom perked as well. "Oh, yeah!" The spy took out his P.P.R., Rodney having taken the box with him and not realizing. He gave Mina, Henry, and Nemo and Allan their very own devices as Tom explained.
"Alisha gave us these to give out. They open the portal to 2008, so we can get her there I guess, and it tells us where she us, plus a way to contact her."
The league took them with curious and confused expressions, examining every button and switch.
"Um…what?" Mina had barely any idea of what was going on. She was more preoccupied with Henry's reaction to this rather than her own. "Alisha is from the future?"
"Yeah." Tom looked to Rodney. "It came to us as a huge surprise too, we went there, you know. Didn't seem too futuristic, from what we got to see…more messy if anything." The two of them were still rushing their words and holding on to each other out of breath.
Captain Nemo, Mina Harker, Allan Quatermain and Henry Jekyll all just held their P.P.R.'s in their hands, staring at Tom and Rodney with blank faces.