A/N: Hey everyone! Here is chapter four of "Stunt Double" and I really hope y'all like it. There will either be one or two chapters left and a definite sequel. I only own Lela and the AGE ACE!
The man revealed himself in the moonlight.
"Bowler Hat Guy," Lewis whispered, backing into a corner.
"Yes, yes, that's what the little traitor boy calls me, doesn't he? But he was never going to take you to see you mother, was he? He was never… your friend. I am your friend, Lewis. All you have to do is fix one simple thing for me and you'll have a family," Bowler Hat Guy had a devilish smile, but Lewis slowly nodded.
"One more thing," he negotiated with Bowler Hat Guy.
"Anything," he said back, revealing yellowing crooked teeth.
"Where's Lela?" he asked suspiciously.
"You'll get her back, don't worry," Bowler Hat Guy muttered, flickering his gaze to the rear of the time machine.
The time machine rested outside of an ugly, old, brick building and parked outside of the second floor window. Lewis was shoved inside, and Bowler Hat Guy carefully placed a cardboard box on the ground and patted it gently.
"This is what I want you to fix, Lewis," he swiped the box off, revealing Lewis's Memory Scanner.
"Hey, where did you get this?" Lewis snapped.
"That wasn't part of our deal," Bowler Hat Guy taunted slyly back.
Lewis crossed his arms. "I'll try to fix it, but it didn't work in the first place." Lewis circled around the invention, his invention, and stated, "There's nothing wrong with it. Why do you want me to fix it?"
Bowler Hat Guy seemed to mutter to himself for a moment. "Okay then," he finally said. "How would you turn it on… if it did work?"
Lewis stated at Bowler Hat Guy for a moment, trying to figure what he was up to, but reluctantly gave in. "You turn this knob twice," he poked a white knob in the front, "and press this." He tapped a red button.
Bowler Hat Guy gave a Grinch-y smile and covered the Memory Scanner back up.
"Doris, if you will…" he suddenly said. Lewis narrowed his eyes.
"Wha--" Lewis was pushed into a chair and tied up. "Hey, we had a deal!"
"Crossies! Doesn't count!" Bowler Hat Guy shrieked with a maniac childish gleam in his eye. Lewis looked back at him strangely.
"Wait, what about Lela?" Lewis asked earnestly.
"Ah, that deal I'll keep," Bowler Hat Guy grinned evilly. The light flickered on and Bowler Hat Guy pointed a long slender finger at the top bunk in the room.
But before Lewis noticed anything about the top bunk, he said, "This room… it's so… familiar."
Bowler Hat Guy rolled his eyes and again pointed dramatically towards the top bunk. Lying there, still as stone, was a girl with long, wavy, blonde hair, with a shocked and painful expression on her porcelain-like face. Lewis was startled to see a girl, out cold, in dangerous hands.
"What have you done to this girl? And where is Lela?" Lewis demanded yet again. Bowler Hat Guy's expression grew annoyed.
"Lela is in this room, Lewis," he snarled. Lewis's eyes grew wide.
"But she—she looks so much different… That's not Lela!" he gestured to the girl. Bowler Hat Guy nodded slowly and pulled out a sort of device that clearly said "AGE" on it.
"So you stole another experiment from Mr. Robinson, didn't you?" came Lewis's curt reply.
"Oh, no Lewis. I stole it from you."
"Me? ME? I NEVER invented anything like that!" Lewis was beginning to think this guy was insane.
"Oh, you will. I've wanted to ruin your life for so long, Lewis," he cackled.
"What do you mean, 'I will?' I haven't invented anything like that! And I've never done anything to you! Neither has Mr. Robinson!" Lewis was terribly confused.
The girl was Lela. Bowler Hat Guy had made her older. Bowler Hat Guy wanted to destroy Lewis or Mr. Robinson. But the wacko seemed to know a lot more than he did. Lewis began to stall.
"Where do I know this room from?" he wondered out loud, hoping to distract Bowler Hat Guy.
"This room? This room, thirty years ago was inhabited by two boys, one who couldn't sleep because of the other! This room ruined my life! Or rather you did, Lewis. Because I am… Michael Yagoobian!!!!" Bowler Hat Guy whipped of his cape, revealing the now tiny baseball uniform Goob had worn that day to the baseball game.
"Goob? That's you?" Lewis was still very confused, but one by one the pieces were beginning to fit together. This was their room, back in the past. Lewis remembered when Goob came back from the terrible game, but never thought he'd go this far with it.
"And so… what did you do to Lela?" he said softly, looking at her up on his own bunk.
"The girl wanted to come with you… back to 'North Montana.' Because she looked so much like you, she wanted to disguise as your sister… your twin sister. I made her the exact age as you, or so she thought. Twelve years, ten months, fourteen days, and twenty hours. What she didn't know Lewis, is that you are exactly thirty years older than her. Not her brother… but her father. She wanted to see you. When I brought her here, she wouldn't shut up, so…" He motioned to the state she was in.
Lewis gave a harsh, bitter laugh. Now he knew Goob had gone insane. "Her father?!" he said, but it came out with a twinge of uncertainty.
"Don't believe me?" Goob replied back. Lewis wasn't listening, but thinking about why Wilbur made sure he always had a hat, why the family wasn't supposed to meet him, why when the family saw his hair, they told him he needed to go back home or 'nothing would be the same.'
"So that really does mean… I'm Lela's and Wilbur's father?" Lewis asked, almost inaudibly, himself.
"Now you're getting it, boy. You're their father," Goob echoed. Out of the corner of his eye, Lewis saw Lela blink slightly and nod so Lewis could see her. Relief washed over him. She was okay!
Soon they were heading up the stairs to the roof, where the time machine had moved to.
"Coo, coo, coo." Lewis turned around at the noise. Wilbur and Carl were standing at the side of the building, trying to get Lewis's attention. Beside Lewis the Memory Scanner and Lela were both placed on a red metal wagon. Lewis kicked the wagon ever so slightly and Lela blinked, opening and closing her eyes to show recognition.
"Get in the box," Lewis whispered though his teeth. Slowly, Lela picked herself up and dropped herself in the box.
While Bowler Hat Guy was talking to his hat, Lewis suddenly pushed the wagon with his knee of the roof. Lela's head suddenly shot up and she squealed with joy. This caught Bowler Hat Guy's attention and he sprinted after the rolling wagon, nearly falling off the roof himself. Carl caught Lewis and the cardboard box carrying Lela and the Memory Scanner.
"Buh-bye, Mister Meanie Head!!" Lela yelled over Carl's shoulder. Wilbur gazed oddly at the older Lela.
"Who is she?"
Lewis chuckled. Lela had overheard them, so before Lewis could answer, she turned around and responded to her unsuspecting brother.
"I'm Macie. Or… Little Miss Risk." She waited with an eager, mischievous gleam in her eyes. Wilbur's face contorted into a mixture of fury and disbelief.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY EIGHT YEAR OLD SISTER?!?!" he bellowed into Lewis's ear.
Lewis kept his cool and simply retorted back, "I evidently made an 'age modifier.' A few years from now. With the last name Robinson!" Lewis surveyed Wilbur expecting a very good answer.
Wilbur opened his mouth to reply, but shut it again, thinking better. He replied, "Touché."
"Why didn't you tell me, Wilbur? I could have kept a secret," Lela pleaded. Wilbur raised an eyebrow.
"You may have been able to keep the secret now, but you would have blurted it out to everyone when you were younger," Wilbur snapped back. "Which was just this morning," he muttered under his breath bitterly.
"Anyways--" Lewis began to brake up the fight between brother and sister, but was cut off by a slicing metal noise.
"AHHH!!!" the three of them yelled as they plummeted to the ground.
"Carl!" Wilbur yelped as Doris pulled the fan-like blade out of the large hole in his metal chest. His lights faltered and suddenly went out.
"Wilbur, what's happening?" Lewis shouted over the roaring winds that were coming up onto them.
"It's time!" Lela shrieked, hair blowing all about her face. "Lewis, you need to fix the time machine!" she placed both her hands on Lewis's shoulders, which she could now reach.
"But-but I can't!"
Lela locked her chocolate brown eyes with Lewis's crystal blue.
"You already have!"
Lewis tried to say something else, but Wilbur and Lela were both sucked into the dark, cloudy, night sky.
A/N: Care to review? I'll love you forever!