by Jamie Hawke
Keisha was there a moment later, shouting about the other Rick. “We have to see if he has the stones.”
“We don’t have time to wait and find out,” Frank said.
Keisha frowned, but nodded. She joined him as they made the ascent, darting out into the night air above the main part of the Space Needle.
The area below was spinning, blue light shooting out and moving up toward the needle. Frank lunged, grabbing hold of Rick at the same moment as his ladies emerged onto the top of the Space Needle. Rick tried kicking free, throwing him off, but the light was too much, the power of it all acting like a magnetic force, pulling them in.
“Frank!” Esmerelda shouted, and Temra was there, pushing through the force to try to reach him. And then… they were gone, along with his surroundings.
17
Frank’s body jolted. He was in darkness but for blue lines of light weaving through it all, passing through his body even. Then he felt like he was falling but he couldn’t be sure. His hair was definitely moving, a strong wind on his face, and his clothes were fluttering.
No sign of Rick. No sign of anything.
And then it all lurched a moment later, almost as if exploding around him, and he found himself floating in what felt like the cosmos. All around him, red and blue light floated among the black, with specks of gold like dust on a sunny day or distant wandering stars. In the center of it all was him, and then… Someone cleared their throat.
Frank turned toward the source of the sound and realized that he wasn’t really floating in space or anything like that at all, but he was in a projection of a star map, it seemed. In front of him was a very dark room with a half-wall on one side for viewing the star map, he guessed. A lone figure, nothing more than a silhouette, faced him.
“You’ve come far, Frank,” the voice said.
“Shit.” Frank moved his arms, wondering if he’d fall, but also hit with the realization of who this might be. “You’re the one… the one who set up the weapons and the compass?”
“In a sense. I played my part.” The voice was deep. Familiar, but not quite recognizable.
“Who are you?”
“What matters is, who are you?” The man leaned forward, but the shadows still held.
“I’m me, still just Frank.”
“Just Frank… And that’s all you need to be. But here’s where I want you to answer me truthfully—why should you be the one to get the compass? Why not Rick? Why not anyone else?”
Frank frowned. “The way it was explained to me—”
“I’m not interested in that. None of us are.” He leaned in again, this time hands on the ledge, and they were visible. Old hands. Wrinkled hands. Interesting. “Answer the question.”
Frank stared confused, and then shook his head. “I don’t know what this is, who you are, or how the fuck to get back to my family. My teammates… hell, they’re practically family, too, at this point. But maybe that’s what you’re getting at? Is that it?” His voice was rising, but he didn’t try to stop it. He was getting pissed that they’d bring him here, whoever they were, and not give him answers. Not even show their faces. “That’s my answer, then. Aside from Rick being a twisted fuck—at least, most versions of him—all I’m trying to do is make things right. To be with the people I care about and see them taken care of. Now what the hell is this place, and how do I get back to them?”
A long silence followed, and then a chuckle. “Very well, Frank. There’s only one way to set it right, and that’s to go to the breaking point. Stop him from escaping with the compass to begin with, and you will have the other stones.”
Frank glared. “But I thought I couldn’t reset time.”
“And you won’t. It will create an overlay—the other versions of Rick will still be out there for you to put a stop to, but you and you alone will have the full compass, complete with all three stones.”
“So, I have to go back—get, I mean—get to go back to the seventeen hundreds?”
The figure nodded. “You do.”
“How?”
“You have the red stone, don’t you?” The figure waited for him to nod. “For you, it’s easy. For Rick, he could’ve only gone to one time and location, but was able to until he had what he needed to branch out. Then there were the other versions, too. Everything has been warped beyond belief since then, but if you can reset this moment, the rest will be much easier.”
Frank nodded, still very confused, but at least knowing what his next step needed to be.
The figure pulled a hand back and moved it down, out of sight. A moment later there was a clicking sound, then whirring, and Frank was spinning again. The room and the star chart and all of it spun, then burst into that blue light before fading again and leaving him in the darkness.
When the darkness faded, he was back on the top of the Space Needle. Rick hadn’t been there in the room, which made Frank wonder where he had gone. But that wasn’t what mattered, at the moment. What he knew was he had a new quest, and while he wasn’t sure he could trust the person who’d given it to him—or even knew what the fuck all of that had been about—he figured it was as good a route as any.
He slid down to where Keisha and Esmerelda were staring at him in confusion.
“Rick escaped,” Keisha said, eyes darting around. “Or that one, anyway. He was there, then… gone.”
“And me? Did you see where I went?”
They both glanced at each other. Shook their heads.
“I was gone, but I’ll fill you in later.” He considered leaving there like that but couldn’t. “We’re going back to the seventeen hundreds and we’re taking the others with us.”
“Temra, too?” Keisha asked.
He had latched a grappling hook onto the side, preparing to jump and swing back into the fray below, but paused. “Shit.”
“We have to,” Esmerelda protested.
Keisha grunted, but looked at Frank for an answer.
“Her coming doesn’t have to mean anything more than that. Simply… joining us to help.”
“The specifics can be figured out later.” Esmerelda took the rope from him. “I’ll gather them up. Hurry, now.”
As she swung down, Frank realized why she’d gone first—it was to give him a chance with Keisha. She had apparently noticed too, because she looked away.
“It’s not necessary.”
“I mean it, nothing needs to happen.” He took the rope as it went slack, Esmerelda inside now. More fighting, more gunshots. Cop cars’ flashing lights lit up the street far below.
“But you’re not opposed to something happening?” She was watching him, looking for a sign of his true thoughts if he wasn’t going to be able to say them.
Frank pursed his lips, shook his head. “I want to do what will make you happy. But first and foremost, I want to figure all this time shit out. Getting my dick wet is hardly the most important topic here, and you know I have enough on my plate in that regard.”
“I know what it’s like to lose someone,” she said, now looking back at him. “And her story checks out. I want her on the team, in every sense.”
His hand nearly slipped from the rope. He hadn’t been considering that. She stood, took the rope, and gave him a kiss. “As long as you don’t forget me.”
“Never,” he muttered as she disappeared over the edge.
Now it was his turn. He composed himself, trying to ignore the idea of that sexy steampunk chick joining him and the pirates in the bedroom. And that was the first time he’d allowed himself to think of her like that, he realized, suddenly opening a floodgate of images in his imagination—wondering what she’d look like with her ass out, his hips pressed against it. Wondering what her mouth would feel like pressed against his, her hands caressing him, moving across his flesh.
Dammit, not the time to get distracted by this.
He took the rope and slid down, going over the side and swinging in to follow the other two.
The ninjas and pir
ates—some of them Vikings—were still locked in battle below, with other Rick aiming a pistol for Shadow’s head.
“All that ninja training didn’t help you this time,” other Rick said, grinning wide. He went to pull the trigger, but Frank had lost his grandpa once already. He wasn’t about to let it happen again.
Luckily, he didn’t need to get his pistol up to aim it, as the reticle did its job. All he had to do was draw, look, and shoot—and the bullet hit the man in the ribs, just below his gun arm. Other Rick dropped the pistol, knelt, and caught a blade to the throat from Shadow.
Frank darted forward and knelt next to this version of Rick. He checked the man’s pockets, and grinned when his hand found the compass in the man’s jacket pocket. Sure enough, it had the blue and green stones. But no red. Frank pried them free, standing victoriously.
“What’s this about?” Temra asked, taking one of her strange devices—a sort of steampunk grenade—and tossing it around the corner. It hissed, a moment later exploding and leaving shouts and smoke in its wake.
“It’s time to go,” Frank said, and at her look of horror, added, “All of us.”
“All of us?” Rose asked, and then smiled.
“You’ve made the right choice,” Shadow said, but was looking at the two pirate ladies.
“Grandpa, if you don’t mind?” Frank gestured, and everyone came in close as he inserted the two stones and activated the compass. The holographic map displayed, complete with what Frank now saw were the numbers representing coordinates, time, and more.
Doing his best to figure out the right destination, he activated the portal and prepared to go back and ensure Rick didn’t intervene in his past.
18
The portal light faded and the team found themselves on a rocky ledge surrounded by palm trees, lush undergrowth, and a waterfall that roared in the distance. A familiar humidity hit Frank, and he knew they were back in the seventeen hundreds.
Temra was squinting as the sun hit her red eyes. She seemed more sensitive to it than the rest. “First opportunity we get to find ourselves some good pirate hats, I call dibs on the largest.”
“I can’t believe we’re back already,” Keisha asked. “And it’s…?”
“The day we left,” Frank replied with a nod.
“Although it seems the device hasn’t taken us to the exact location,” Rose pointed out.
“Sorry, I didn’t know how to be exact, and wanted to get here early to give us time to move into place.”
“It’ll be good enough, I imagine.” Shadow eyed his surroundings, taking his wife’s arm in his. “For now, what do you say we explore, try to get a bearing on where we are?”
“Give me a second,” Frank said, moving to a spot of shade beneath the closest tree. He pulled out the compass and activated it. Lights created holographic images, and soon he was running through his stats, grinning like a child with his first role playing video game.
In the past, he’d always felt this was some experiment, kind of rushing through it. But now he took the time to absorb the information there
It was good to be back to his normal self, he thought with a sigh of relief. Like he was whole again. More than whole, really, as without the added levels of his other self, he would’ve only been level seven at that point. More so, his stats would be much lower. Even so, he clearly needed some upgrades. Considering that his shield had saved his life more than once, he upgraded it twice so that it was at four. Aim seemed to work fine as it was, but he imagined crafting could come in handy. He applied a point to crafting to make it three, and another to bring his stamina up to one hundred forty percent. Now it showed:
LEVEL: 10
STRENGTH: 140%
BALANCE: 130%
STAMINA: 140%
ACTIVE SKILLS: Awareness 1; Crafting 3
PASSIVE SKILLS: Aim 1; Shield 4
Being able to last longer was bound to help him in more ways than one, after all.
He was turning back to the group, ready to get a move on, when he saw the glint of steel. The shouts of pirates and Vikings came as he pulled up his pistol to fire, and he caught one of them with a shot to the chest before the rest were even visible.
“Shit!” Keisha shouted, spinning and seeing the attack, thanks to the shot, and then the others joined the fight.
Frank had learned much since the last time he’d been here. He’d trained in ninjutsu, albeit not for very long, but had more experience fighting Viking mafia pricks as well. All that to say, when the first three pirates charged him, expecting to find an easy target in the lanky boy, they were sadly mistaken.
The first he caught with a shot that hit the shoulder—only because the pirate tripped as the shot hit. When Frank spun and drew his katana, the next was about to bring down a cutlass, leaving himself very exposed. Frank brought his blade up into the pirate’s gut, toward the heart, and then back out while sidestepping.
With upgraded stamina and more, he was feeling pretty damn good. He turned next to catch a pirate from behind who was about to attack Esmerelda, then blocked a strike from his third opponent, followed by a shot to the head.
Blood exploded, along with brain matter. The sight made Frank’s stomach churn, bile boiling up, reminding him that he still wasn’t completely used to this. Still, he was learning, and by this point at least understood there was no getting around the need to kill in this strange war he found himself a large part of.
Temra stepped past him, bringing her hidden blade up into the underside of a woman’s chin, dropping her and stepping past with a glare. Good—she didn’t enjoy the kill. Behind him, Shadow had taken to the trees, popping out to off the enemies one after another. Rose had moved to the cover of a rock ledge and was shooting.
Seeing three Viking mafia who really didn’t belong in this time and place show up, Frank stepped in and took on one while Esmerelda and Keisha took on the other two.
“He’s definitely here,” Frank shouted over his shoulder toward his grandpa.
“Then we’ll find him and gut him,” Shadow replied. “But for now…” He nodded toward the other side of the rock ledge, and they started to work their way over to the point he’d indicated.
The first wave of enemies had failed but judging by the shouts sounding not so far off, more were on their way. Before another wave could hit, they took off, going over the ledge and finding a spot to regroup.
“He’s here to try to prevent you from stopping him,” Shadow said, glancing back around the rocks to see if the enemy was coming.
“We have a choice,” Rose said. “Shadow and I will make for the city where it goes down, taking Rick off your tail. When we’re halfway there, we’ll circle back around and meet up on the opposite shore.”
“And in the meantime…?”
“Kick ass, relax.”
“Craft?” Esmerelda offered.
Frank turned to her with a smile. “Now we’re talking.”
“I can think of a couple of other things we can be doing, as well,” Keisha spoke up, earning her a chuckle from Frank and Esmerelda, accompanied by interested glances in Temra’s direction. She was too in the zone to notice, though.
Rose and Shadow popped up, sprinting off and leaving Frank and his ladies, plus Temra, on their own.
The second wave appeared seconds later, a volley of shots tearing through leaves and bark, one even making a hole in Rose’s jacket, but not doing any horrible damage.
Frank and team were waiting, listening to the sounds of the enemy giving chase. He was starting to think they were in the clear when a shot hit the tree to his right. Frank ducked and spun around, facing the rock and prepared to return fire. His awareness showed several red dots of incoming enemies.
“I have one left,” Temra said, pulling out one of her steam grenades. “Now or…?”
“Save it until we know what we’re aiming at,” Esmerelda advised.
“Wait, but your glasses thing,” Frank pointed, “with the red, can’t you see them
? I mean, since they’re not from this time.”
Temra had the blue down, but switched for the red. “Ooh, I got two of them.” She indicated. “There and there.”
“On it,” Esmerelda said, popping up with her rifle she’d taken from the fight at the Space Needle and taking aim. A shot went off, missing, and then she had her turn.
Bam!
“One down,” Temra said, standing behind Esmerelda and adjusting her position to take out the next one. “Now.”
BAM! The second shot exploded rock and a man shouted, showing himself, so that suddenly Keisha and Frank were both firing with their pistols, too, and the guy never stood a chance.
“Fuck, they’ll have heard that,” Frank said.
“They left a couple behind, meaning they knew we didn’t all head out toward the city anyway,” Esmerelda pointed out. “They won’t double back until they find their comrades not catching up.”
“Still, better not to stay here, in case.”
She nodded to that and the group took off in the direction of the shore. Before long though, it became clear nobody knew exactly where they were. At least, Frank figured, if they stuck to the water, they’d easily find a point to meet. No gunshots yet meant his grandparents were likely safe, and given that Shadow was basically a ninja, he wasn’t surprised.
The group paused to catch their breath. Frank looked out at the water glistening blue in the distance over the trees, and then had a thought. Blue like the blueprints. Crafting, as Esmerelda had said.
He didn’t want to add that, per his strange visit with the top-of-the-tower portal travel, someone might have expected him to be here, and therefore planted equipment nearby. Checking his map, sure enough there was an X nearby, and when they went to check it out, he grinned. The hill sloped down to a spot with rocks along it in a way that could appear to be eyes and nose of a skull. It was a stretch, but something he recognized from one of the books he’d been a big fan of when he was growing up.
Only, in that book it had been an entrance to an underground area, and here, he was looking for loot.