Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 6th June 2022
"All right." Jim drew a deep breath. Mission planning time. Given how badly things had gone the last time he'd done something like this...
No.
He stopped himself right there. He'd learned from the mistakes he'd made going up against the Titans. And the goal this time was so much simpler: extract Aja and Krel, and get back to Arcadia Oaks without anyone getting hurt. Simple. Easy. An in and out job, right?
Why do I not feel good?
He forced down the queasiness, because nothing was going to go wrong this time.
"We need a small team," he said. "The fewer people we take, the fewer chances we have of someone getting caught or hurt. That said, we also need firepower, and someone who knows the lay of the land. Which is Varvatos."
The Akiridion warrior, still in the guise of an old man, nodded, looking pleased.
"We need Claire to get us in and out. Mary," Jim said, "I know you're still new to being a technomancer, but do you think you're up to messing with 49-B's surveillance systems?"
"Oh, you bet I am." Her grin was wide and evil.
"Eli." His classmate looked up. "I know you want in on things like this, but we're going to be heading into a hostile situation, and I don't think you're ready for it yet. I want you to stay behind. And in case something happens," Jim overrode Eli's disappointed expression, "you need to be the one to call in reinforcements."
"Reinforcements?"
"Douxie. The trolls. Whoever you think is trustworthy."
"I got it." Eli's fist clenched. He almost lit up with determination.
"Darci."
She shook her head. "I'm staying out of this one. You know the first person they're going to shoot at? The Black person."
Jim nodded. "Fair enough."
"And me?" Stuart asked.
Jim clapped a hand on his shoulder. "You're our backup plan. In case anything goes wrong, and we can't all get out, we're going to have to rely on your knowledge and smarts. So be ready, just in case."
Stuart's eyes practically shone. "I am at your service," he said, snapping a salute.
Something nebulous about the power and responsibility of being a divine king floated through Jim's mind, but it dissipated before it was even fully formed. He looked at his best friend instead, choosing to concentrate on the here and the now. "Tobes, you in?"
"Psh. Like you could stop me," Toby retorted. He pulled his own amulet out of his pocket. "We going in armored, or not?"
"We probably should," Claire put in. "We don't know if magic armor will help block blasts from a neurometer, but it will probably help."
"Might do." But then Stuart shrugged, his palms turned up. "Or might not. Unfortunately, I know nothing about magic armor."
"Armored it is," Jim decided. "Let's do this."
Claire touched her amethyst ring, twisting it around her finger before activating the spell that let her pull her armor out of it. Varvatos released his transduction, and suddenly was several times more massive and more impressive. Jim and Toby said their amulets' incantations nearly as one, and were wrapped in blue- and red-limned armor. Excalibur appeared in Jim's hand in a flash; Eclipse, in Toby's. They each secured their weapons to their back.
"Okay, Claire," Jim said. "It's your show."
Smirking, Claire raised her hands before herself, fingers spread. A look of concentration took center stage on her face, the irises of her eyes flushing purple.
A minute passed. Then another.
"I can't- I can't lock on to them," Claire said. Concentration turned to dismay.
"What do you mean?" asked Varvatos.
"It's like I almost can, then something pushes me away and I lose the connection!" Claire's hands began to tremble.
"Claire, stop," Jim said, taking her hands in his. "If there's a problem, we need to think our way around it, not try to push through. That's cost us too much in the past."
Purple faded from her eyes as she looked at him, distressed. "This hasn't ever happened to me before. Nothing can block my shadow portals!"
"Yeah, except Hong Kong," Toby pointed out. "You couldn't portal out of the Trollmarket there, remember? Or portal back in to get Archie and Charlie out."
Claire blinked. "You're right."
Toby preened. "I would like to have that on a t-shirt, please."
"Me too," Stuart murmured.
Varvatos crossed his arms. "This is sounding like a magic problem."
"And who do we go to for magic problems?" Eli asked, face lighting up.
"Douxie," everyone chorused.
"...and garlic fries," Douxie finished, scribbling down the order in his best incomprehensible shorthand. He rather thought Merlin would be proud of it. Gods knew Archie wasn't, describing it as one of the worst habits Douxie had ever picked up from his former master.
Given that he also could write in a perfectly lovely Copperplate, and did, Douxie personally thought that Archie could shove it.
Mister Johnson humphed and glared. "Make sure you get it all right this time."
His son sneered and glared. "Yeah."
Ah, lovely, the old chip-off-the-block routine. Douxie did not let his smile waver. "Of course, sirs," he said. He had never once messed up either of their orders and all three of them knew it. But throw into the mix his foreign accent (which he refused, on matter of principle, to scrub the way Zoe had), his dyed hair, and the comparatively lower social rank he held as a waiter while they were customers...
Well, father and son alike were bullies, and Douxie had a thick skin. They didn't matter to him, and that alone made the pair dislike him.
His pleasant plans to spend the next hour or so subtly tweaking the Johnsons right in their nationalism with the power of impeccable customer service was interrupted by a short redhead barreling up the sidewalk, shouting "Douxie!"
He blinked. "Toby?"
"Aja and Krel got kidnapped by Colonel Kubritz so they're probably in Area 49-B and we were going to go rescue them but Claire can't lock on with her portals and we don't know why oh and there's probably an alien bounty hunter involved somehow," Toby said all in one rush.
Douxie blinked, and tried to parse that out. "Are you sure?"
"Mary hacked the school computers so we have video footage of the kidnapping," Toby promised.
"Excuse me," Mister Johnson said loudly. "We would like our food, please!"
"Oh, hey, Seamus!" Toby said, noticing his classmate for the first time. "How's it hanging?"
"What the hell are you going on about?" the other redhead asked him.
"Just the standard usual prince and princess of another planet getting kidnapped stuff." Toby shrugged. "No biggie, happens all the time."
"Or not," Douxie put in, aggrieved. He'd already done the rapid-fire mental calculations of can this wait until my shift is over? and come up with a resounding NO. Huffing, he told Toby, "Wait here," and stalked inside the restaurant. He headed straight for the drinks station, where Gabriel was filling a cup with Sprite. He shed his half apron on the way, stuffing it under the counter. "Gabe, I'm calling in my favor."
Gabe froze, mid-pour, his eyes widening. "Mid-shift?" he squawked.
"Mid-shift," Douxie confirmed, and turned to the computer, rapid-fire entering the Johnsons' order because he knew no one else would be able to make sense of his shorthand. "It's a Wednesday, it's light, you'll be fine." Plus the Johnsons actually tolerated Gabe because his little brother Logan was one of Seamus' friends.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Gabe grabbed Douxie's upper arm, stalling him. "What's going on?"
"I've got a literal alien prince and princess who've been captured by the U.S. government, and I have to go take part in their rescue," Douxie told him, well aware of Carlos and Jorge peering out at the two of them through the kitchen window. He didn't care; at this point, going for broke was his motto, and the more people who knew there were extraterrestrials in the mix as well, the better.
"You mean alien like from another country, right?" Gabe asked.
Douxie met his gaze dead on. "No. I mean like, from another planet," he said, pointing up. Toward the ceiling, toward the sky, toward the countless stars beyond.
All three pairs of eyes widened.
"Madre de Dios," Jorge swore. "You serious, Douxie?"
He nodded. "Completely," he said, and waved his hand over his arm, letting his spell bracelet come into view. He didn't carry much; his key, wallet, and phone were already in his pockets. A twitch of his fingers summoned the new house broom from where it stood in the corner, to his hand. "Wish us luck."
Numbly, Gabe nodded. "Good luck," he parroted as Douxie left.
Once outside, Douxie whistled sharply. "Arch!" he called, even as he levitated the broom. The Johnsons' eyes were wide; Johnson Senior in particular looked like he'd either seen a ghost or choked on a live fish.
A black cat appeared from around the corner. "You called?"
"Wizard stuff. Come on," Douxie told his familiar.
Archie took a running leap and landed neatly on the bristles of the broom even as Hisirdoux stepped up onto its shaft.
"What about me?" Toby asked, looking uneasily at the magical method of transport.
"Ever ridden a skateboard?" Douxie asked him.
"Once. Badly."
"Well, jump up, hold on, and leave the rest to me."
"Okay. You're the expert." But Toby's eyes were still wide as he stepped gingerly up onto the waiting broom and latched onto Douxie's waist for balance.
Douxie laughed. "Relax. Bend your knees a little." Toby obeyed. "All right, we're off."
The broom gathered speed. Archie really was right, this was the superior means of travel. It was like they were gliding on glass, the broom rock-steady, only the wind giving physical evidence of their passage.
Well, the wind and the surprised (read: startled) reactions of Arcadia's downtown citizens.
"Where are we going?" asked Archie.
"Uh, head for Stuart's Electronics?" Toby suggested.
"Anyone gone to get Zoe?" Douxie asked. "She's been to 49-B the most recently."
"Mary went to grab her," Toby reported. His grip was loosening. "Okay, I gotta admit, this is kind of cool."
Douxie grinned. "Less terrifying than the gyre, that's for sure."
He could practically hear Archie's claws digging into the broom's bristles. "Do not mention that foul contraption to me," the dragon spat.
"I was trying to avoid dragging you in on this," Jim said as Douxie entered Stuart's secret back room.
"What else have you got a wizard for?" Douxie asked cheerfully. Jim was pretty sure that by you, Douxie meant specifically something like my liege. Which was annoying, but-
He sighed and let it pass. Because it wasn't like Douxie was wrong. Or like Jim could change his idiot brother's mind.
"You're having trouble portaling to Krel and Aja?" Archie asked Claire.
She nodded. "I try to lock on, and it's like they just slip away." Her hands slid past one another, illustrating.
"Hmm." Douxie looked around the room, before turning to Stuart. "This is a Faraday cage, isn't it?"
Stuart beamed. "It is! Don't know how you humans sleep outside of one. It's so noisy with all your EM spectrum pollution."
"Could be that's-"
"A Faraday cage does not interfere with interdimensional access, dumbass," Zoe snapped, arriving. "It wouldn't even tweak her connection to the Shadow Realm."
"Not a human-constructed one, no," Douxie agreed. "But if we're talking alien-sorry, Durian," he apologized to Stuart, "-tech here, are you absolutely certain that's still the case?"
"Look, Casperan-" Zoe started, looking irked.
Jim stepped in between the two wizards. "This is easy enough to test," he said. "Claire, let's go outside and try."
Zoe crossed her arms and huffed.
Unfortunately, stepping outside and trying to make a portal on the sidewalk led to no better results.
Claire huffed.
"It's all right," Jim said, touching her shoulder. "We'll figure it out."
"Yeah." Her annoyance softened. "Jim..."
"You're used to being able to get us anywhere," he told her. "And that's fantastic. But you can't blame yourself when it doesn't work. We need to find a way around the problem."
Claire breathed out a sigh. Then her eyes narrowed in speculation. She waved her hand; a portal formed.
Jim glanced around. The others had all gone back inside.
"Come on," Claire said, and took his hand, leading him through.
Right back into Stuart's living room.
"All right," Douxie said without missing a beat, "you can definitely shadow portal through Durian Faraday cages."
Zoe shifted her weight to the side and offered, "If the problem's not her, and it's not here, then it has to be-"
"On the other end, omigosh!" Toby said, eyes wide.
"It would appear Area 49-B has magical defenses." Varvatos smacked his fist into the opposing hand.
"I never saw any such thing," Stuart said. "Of course," he admitted, "even if I had, I suppose I wouldn't know what I was looking at."
"Did you run into any, Miss Zoe?" asked Eli.
The pink-haired witch shook her head. "No. I mean, the place is built on ley lines and damned near on top of a node, that much is obvious. But there were no wards or wizard's walls. I pretty much sweet-talked the doors into opening and the cameras into ignoring me, and waltzed right through."
"It would appear that your liberation of some plutonium, Stuart's spacecraft, and Buster has left Area 49-B on high alert," Varvatos said thoughtfully.
"So we're not going to be able to get in magically." Jim frowned and looked at Stuart's model. He looked back at Varvatos. "You guys went there in the first timeline, right? How did you get in?"
Varvatos humphed, crossing his arms. "We posted a picture of Luug on Stuart's website, CrockCircles dot com."
"Wait, CrockCircles is your website?" Eli asked Stuart, eyes wide with what was obviously geekish delight.
"Why, yes, it is. You've heard of it?"
"Dude, I'm CreepTracker1 on your message boards!"
Now Stuart's eyes widened. "You are?" He stuck out his hand. "Good to meet you in person, my friend!"
As the two shook hands, Mary sidled up to Zoe. "Crockcircles?" she asked.
"Eh, I've heard worse website names," Zoe replied to her junior.
"So how did a picture of Luug get you inside 49-B?" Claire asked, ignoring the byplay.
"They sent out a retrieval team, which we left knocked out. We stole their van and clothing, using those to infiltrate the base." Varvatos glowered at the memory. "Prince Krel hacked into the base's systems. Ricky and Lucy used Stuart's van from outside the perimeter to guide us. While also selling tacos."
Jim nodded. "Thus drawing more base staff outside the walls and leaving you fewer to evade and deal with."
"An unexpected benefit," Varvatos agreed.
"Uh." Eli pushed his glasses up. "49-B's three hundred miles from here, guys. If we go with that plan again, we're going to have to wait at least five more hours to rescue Aja and Krel."
"Ten, if we count the return drive," agreed Darci.
Archie narrowed his eyes. "There must be a faster way to get there."
But Zoe shook her head. "Nope. I had to Greyhound bus it to the closest wide spot in the road and walk in from there."
"Wait a minute." Toby raised a hand. "What about Stuart's spaceship?"
"That old thing? Psh." Stuart waved a hand. "It may be able to reach about twenty thousand kilometers per hour in vacuum, but in atmosphere? Can't go anywhere near that."
"It doesn't matter if it can go the same speed in the atmosphere, as long as it could get us there faster." Jim considered it. "We'll need the taco truck, though, both as a distraction, and as an operational HQ. Douxie." He turned to the wizard. "Can you do your magic sticky spell to attach the taco truck to the spaceship?"
"Uhh." Douxie bit his bottom lip. "Lignum aeternum's not really meant for that kind of thing..."
"Douxie." Jim needed a yes or no answer.
The wizard spun runes around his bracelet. "I haven't got my staff to boost me. I can probably do it. But I won't be able to do much else."
"Seriously?" demanded Toby.
Douxie glared. "You try holding a taco truck onto the bottom of a spacecraft going at ludicrous speed for three hundred miles, and see how well you do."
Ricky popped his head around the corner from the electronics shop. "Don't worry about that, champ!"
Lucy peeked around from behind him. "We've got you covered!"
Everyone blinked at the pair of robots. Finally, Varvatos spoke. "How, exactly, do you have the wizard 'covered'?"
Ricky held up a spool of instantly recognizable (to the humans, at least) gray material.
"Duct tape?" Darci asked. She sounded dubious. Jim couldn't blame her.
"Wait. If you strengthened it..." Zoe said to Douxie.
"If I enchanted the duct tape," he agreed, nodding, scrolling through his spells again and apparently finding one he wanted. His fingers hovered over it. "It could work," he said.
"All right. One spaceship, and one taco truck, heading for Area 49-B." Mary said. She pointed at the model. "How are you going to get past the walls?"
Silence for a minute. Then Jim started chuckling. "Oh, I know how we're getting past the walls," he said, and he did. All it would take was a quick stop down in Trollmarket. "I'll meet you guys at the Mothership."
"There you are, my lovely," Stuart crooned, patting the hull of the spaceship where it sat in the Tarrons' carport. "My beauty. My pride. You're all gassed up and good to go, right?"
"Stuart!" Varvatos bellowed. "Stop 'making time' with that heap of junk and get it in position!"
"No respect for the classics," Stuart told his shop. "Never you mind him, my darling. Let's just put in a day's good work and pray we come out the other side unscathed, all right?"
The stairs unfolded down and out of the bottom. He climbed up in, breathing deeply and taking in the scent of home, of Buster, and of a faint perfume he didn't recognize but knew had to belong to Zoe. "Been a long time, old gal," he told the ship quietly, taking his seat at the controls. "Let's show them we've still got it, shall we?"
The ship hummed to life under the pads of his fingers, and Stuart felt something in him relax. She might be a rental, but he'd been through a lot with her. Easing the slider down, he slowly backed out of the carport.
He could take off, he knew. Make a run for deep space. But he liked Earth. It was fun, it was interesting, it was low-key...
And where else would someone like him ever get to hang around with literal royalty? The Akiridion royal family! Now that was the crème de la crème of the galaxy!
Taking a quick lap of the cul-de-sac, he positioned the ship over his taco truck, and slowly lowered down. Inch by inch, praying that his two darlings wouldn't regret the introduction to one another...
"That's good, Stuart!" a call came from outside the ship. Toby.
Breathing in relief, he wiped sweat off his brow and headed for the ladder to the top hatch, so he could see what everyone down below was getting up to.
"Dude, are you sure this is enough duct tape?" Toby asked.
"There isn't any more left," Darci pointed out.
"Yeah, I know, but I'm just saying. It's a taco truck. Those things aren't light. I think we need more tape, that's all."
Douxie rolled his eyes. "Ye of little faith. Watch and behold." Scrolling through his bracer, he picked out a spell. "Lentum Viribus!"
The yards and yards of tape that attached to the flying saucer, stretching down under and across the undercarriage of the taco truck, before rising back up to reattach themselves to the other side of the spacecraft, glowed blue. They vibrated like they were plucked guitar strings.
Douxie picked out another rune. "Lignum Aeternum!"
There was almost a popping sound as the ship and the truck suctioned together.
"Well, that should hold us," he said, sounding pleased with his own work.
About then, a shadow portal opened up and Jim and Claire stepped out. Both looked smug. Jim was carrying a sack over his shoulder, the kind you saw a dime a dozen around Trollmarket. But Toby had the feeling this one wasn't stuffed full of gnomes.
Though, Toby thought, maybe dropping an intrusion of gnomes into Area 49-B would cause enough chaos that they could rescue Aja and Krel...
"What's in the bag?" Mary asked.
Jim smirked and set it down on the sidewalk. He opened the bag and pulled out...
Zoe's eyes widened. "Holy bells, is that a dwarkstone?"
"Yep," Jim said, tucking it away.
Her eyes dropped to the bag. "Is that a whole bag of dwarkstones?"
"Yep." Jim hefted the sack back over his shoulder.
"We cleaned out Rot and Gut's place," Claire explained, "and asked Blinky for the rest of his stash as well."
There was a beat of silence, then Zoe, unexpectedly, started cackling with laughter. "I like your style, kid."
"I aim to please," Jim said dryly. "Are we ready to go?"
"Yep." Toby pulled his hammer out, flicked it to full size. "All aboard the Mary Poppins Express!"
He got Jim and Claire up into Stuart's ship while Douxie and Archie took Varvatos up, the giant Akiridion looking almost comical standing on the broom.
"You want to come with?" Zoe was asking Mary as Toby came back down.
Mary was torn, Toby could see it. But- "Not this time," she said. "I don't know enough yet, and I don't want to get in the way at the wrong time."
"Fair." Zoe popped her gum.
"You be careful, Toby," Darci told him. "You all need to come back safe."
"Safe and sound, with Aja and Krel," he promised her.
Then-
Her mouth pressed against his, hard and fast, leaving him wide-eyed and feeling dazed.
"There's another one when you get back," Darci promised him, before stepped away.
Zoe nudged him in the side as Darci went to stand with Mary and Eli. "Get it, Romeo."
"You know, I'm in such a good mood, you can't ruin it for me," he told her. "Care to go up and in?" He offered her his arm.
"Mary Poppins away," Zoe told him. As his hammer pulled them up from the ground, Ricky and Lucy got into the taco truck and shut the door.
Ricky popped his head out the driver's side window. "Up and at 'em, pilgrims! We're burning daylight!"
Toby set Zoe down on the roof of the ship, cast one more goodbye wave at their friends, and went in himself, following the witch down the ladder. The hatch sealed behind him.
They were off to save the Tarrons, and kick Kubritz's butt.
