by Jamie Hawke
“So are you,” she replied, biting her lip and arching her back as his hand found her mound. “Gentle, gentle.”
Afterward, they heard Keisha clearing her throat in a meaningful way and they started to dress.
“Next time, you’ll get a taste of what it means to be part of the full team,” Esmerelda said with a wink as the other two joined them.
Keisha chuckled. “Aye, that should be fun.”
Temra blushed, nodded, and glanced around. “Which… way?”
“Follow me,” Keisha replied, taking the lead.
Frank kissed Temra on the cheek, gathered his supplies, and took up the rear. His eyes moved to the asses of these three beautiful women, all swaying as they walked, all calling out to him and reminding him they were his, and he was theirs. Damn, it felt good to be a pirate… ninja… time traveler. Whatever he was, it felt good.
21
They’d been going for some time when Keisha held up a fist and they slowed to a crouched walk, eyes forward. Frank saw movement, so they got their weapons ready and fanned out, ready for whatever lay ahead.
Frank’s first thought was that there was an attractive couple going at it in the jungle. His second was the realization that those were his grandparents.
“Ah, come on!”
His grandparents scrambled to cover themselves. But when they saw who it was, they just laughed.
“For all you know, interrupting us could cause you never to be born, so…” Rose chuckled, waving him off.
“Not true,” Frank replied, hand over his eyes and back turned now. “Neither of you time traveled until after my dad was born.”
“Good point,” his grandpa replied. “Still, give us a minute.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake—” Frank started to protest, but found the three women holding onto him, pulling him away.
“They may be your grandparents in your eyes,” Esmerelda said, “but to them, they’re a young couple who thought they might never see each other again. Have some compassion.”
“And if it were your grandparents?”
Esmerelda just laughed, and Temra said, “Thank God that won’t happen.”
“Keep laughing, all of you, and maybe I’ll make sure our next time travel location is exactly that.”
They couldn’t hear the bodies slapping together or moans now. Keisha took Frank’s hands, looking him in the eyes. “If you try to make us time travel to see our grandparents fucking, you’re more fucked up than I realized.”
“I’m just trying to make a point,” he countered.
“Well, you got yours. Let them get theirs.”
Temra blushed at that, but Frank simply nodded. They were right, he knew it. That didn’t make it less gross, so when Esmerelda leaned against him and ran her hand down his thigh, he batted it away.
“Wow, this really is getting to him,” she said with a laugh, then stepped away, drawing her sword. “Fine, what better way to blow off steam than a bit of practice?”
“Now?” Frank glanced around, really not in the mood but unable to come up with an excuse.
“We have to be always ready. Plus, you haven’t had nearly enough practice in two against one. Well, outside of the bedroom I mean, or sea as the case may be.”
“Ooh, I like this.” Keisha drew her blade as well, the two of them taking up offensive stances, one on each side, while Temra looked on.
“If it’ll make you happy.” Frank drew his sword, taking a step back to try and plan out his method of dealing with two attackers like this. “But to be clear, I’ve fought my fair share of multiple attackers at once. Just back there, I—SHIT!”
He’d had to throw himself back as Esmerelda lunged.
With another strike, barely blocked, she chuckled. “Too much talking can be dangerous.”
Keisha was next, whacking Frank across the butt with her sword. “Hubris as well.”
“Dammit.” Frank stepped back and around, trying to get them both in one line. “Sure, they might not have been as well-trained as the two of you.”
He was about to try a rolling strike like he’d landed in a fight not long ago, when a yelp sounded from nearby, and he thought he’d have to take the hit in order to cover his ears.
But then came a scream… followed by laughter. Frank exchanged confused looks with the ladies, then the three ran back over to where they’d left his grandparents.
They found Rose in an embrace with Milly, his grandpa shaking hands with Mary. Both of his grandparents still hadn’t bothered to dress.
“Holy shit,” Frank said, looking between Milly and Mary. How did their being here affect what was about to happen? Did it? Frank had to wonder if they’d known each other, or if this was a sign of alt-selves merging.
All that aside, he was ecstatic to see them there. They came over to embrace him and the other ladies, Milly kissing him and slapping his ass, Mary offering him a flirtatious hand brushing across his cheek.
“Nothing to be shy about,” Milly said. “These two, when they were here together last time they’d be going at it like bunnies every chance they got. Sometimes not even bothering to dress for days.”
“Hey now,” Frank’s grandpa said. “Don’t scar the boy.”
“I mean it. All the fun you had in your pirate days, almost hard to compare with the craziness of these two.” Milly paused to snicker, eyeing Frank to see if she was getting to him. “You know they once did it in a crow’s nest, in full view for all to see?”
“In fairness, we didn’t give a shit if you all were watching or not,” Rose said and then covered her mouth. “I mean, no… that never happened.”
“It’s okay.” Frank held up his hands. “But please, I surrender. Stop. But… Where does this leave our mission?”
“Right…” Esmerelda pursed her lips.
“What’s the issue?” Shadow asked.
“They’ll be with us. I mean, other us.”
“Wait…?” Milly frowned, eyes moving back and forth between us. “Actually, you make a good point. You’re not supposed to be here. And you…” She turned to Rose, frowning. “What exactly is going on? We’re scouting, because Frank was captured, but…”
Both of them were looking utterly confused, so Shadow stepped in. “He is captured, and still with Rick—the Pirate King.”
“I’m me, but back from the future,” Frank explained.
“Holy hell.” Mary looked like she might be sick.
“So how does this change everything?” Milly asked.
“Technically, it shouldn’t.” Shadow indicated me. “You need to pretend this Frank never existed, and then when everything’s finished this evening, come with us.”
“Really?” Esmerelda turned to him, confusion in her eyes now too.
Shadow nodded. “Don’t go with the other Frank, and don’t let him know what’s happening, because—”
“Grandpa,” Frank said, frowning. “Everything you’re saying, did you say it before?”
“What?”
“I mean, in my time they didn’t come, though they said it was to help get Teddy in line, help him set up this place properly. But… now I’m wondering if this already happened, if they didn’t come with me in my time, or the version of all of this I experienced, because of this very conversation.”
“Time loops,” Rose chimed in. “It’s possible.”
Now everyone was looking somewhere between confused and intrigued.
“A theory exists,” Shadow said, “that states nothing in the past can be changed. But if that were so, having the disparate worlds, I mean…” His eyes went wide. “Unless nothing about the past has been changed. That actually fits with what we know—that each world is set up a certain way, but they are essentially alternate realities. So instead of being able to change a world, you create a new one.”
“Which means Rick won’t be able to interfere, anyway,” Frank countered. “Other Rick, I mean.”
“Exactly. But only because we succeed tonight.” Shadow
looked pensive, then worried. “Of course… I mean, of course we succeed. How could we not? But at what cost?”
Frank knew exactly what he meant—there wasn’t much doubt from him that they’d win against Rick. There was, however, plenty of worry about his teammates, about finding a solution that ended with his grandparents together, and so much more along the way.
“Regardless,” Esmerelda interjected, “we have to treat it all as we would without that knowledge. Right? Because if we go in expecting to win, and don’t, then all along it was that we were meant to lose, according to what you’re saying.”
“You all are fucking with my head,” Temra said, likely voicing what everyone was feeling. “Let’s focus on the main takeaway—are we going to move forward as planned?”
“Yes.” Frank didn’t even have to think of the answer. “And Mary and Milly will pretend they never ran into us, but when the fight is over, say they’re staying behind, only to end up coming with us to help end it all.”
“Whether that really happened already or not,” Shadow said, stroking his chin. “Yes, that all should work just fine.”
“And as for Teddy?” Frank asked. “Shouldn’t he at least have an idea of what’s going on?”
“Tell him,” Rose said to Milly and Mary. “When it’s time—after other Frank and team have left, I think he’ll need to know.”
They nodded.
“Can you get us where we need to be?” Shadow asked.
Mary frowned. “You still haven’t told us exactly what you’re doing here.”
“Ah, right.” Rose turned to Frank.
“The simple version is that there are multiple Ricks,” Frank explained. “One of those has taken some others to this time, and means to interfere with what happens shortly. We believe he’ll try to steal the stones from the compass. My compass—I mean, the one that other me has. We have to ensure he doesn’t accomplish this.”
“Come on, then,” Mary said, not looking like she understood it any more than she had before, but waving them on. “If you need to get around the city, I’ll point you in the right direction.”
“Then get back to Esmerelda to rescue our Frank, and pretend we know nothing of this,” Milly said with a chuckle. She looked over to this Esmerelda and Keisha, arched an eyebrow, and said, “So fucking weird. To be clear, if I’d brought you with us this afternoon, there’d be two of you?”
“Don’t get that kinky mind of yours working just yet,” Esmerelda replied with a laugh.
Milly grinned. “Too late.”
Frank nodded, now imagining how it would be like to be with two Esmereldas, although he was pretty sure that wouldn’t work with the way of time travel. Before they moved, Frank took the chance to check everyone’s weapons against his blueprints, loving the fact that he had all three stones now.
He was glad he’d kept the unusable parts from earlier, as now he was able to work with them and the ninja gear. Seeing Shadow again had inspired him, and soon he had created an air gun for the sleeping darts, along with a sort of rope chain with hooks that would retract, making grappling and climbing much easier.
Termra was a bit of a tinkerer herself, he saw, as she was working beside him to make some adjustments to her shoulder, and then her glove.
“What’ve you got?” Frank asked, curiously.
“It’s not perfect,” she admitted. “But I was able to analyze the compass before, and some of that last loot crate had these…” She tapped the crystal shards she’d put into her shoulder. “Watch this.”
Suddenly turning as if about to ram her shoulder into him, a small shield of blue light expanded, about the size of a garbage can lid. It didn’t cover her entirely as his shield did, but it was fucking awesome.
“Nice!” he proclaimed, and then indicated the glove. “Ah, some of those darts.” She grinned as she bent her wrist back in a way that reminded him of Spider Man throwing webs. The action exposed several darts protruding. “If I do it faster, clockwork and spring action sends them out fast. Probably won’t work at long distance, but if I have a group of attackers coming at me, this should drop a couple of them, at least.”
“Keep it up, you’ll have his heart in no time,” Esmerelda said, standing over them and nodding, impressed. “What’ve you got, Frank?”
He sighed. “Nothing as cool as her. Earlier I’d added a sight to that rifle,” he nodded to the one Rose was inspecting with curiosity. “And additional grips and whatnot. Again, maybe we’ll get fancier as we go, but right now it seems that whoever’s running this is keeping it one step or two ahead of the competition, at most.”
“Maybe so none of us gets carried away and destroys this world,” Esmerelda replied with a chuckle.
“There’s a saying about power corrupting.” Frank shrugged. “Still, I wouldn’t mind having the ability to cloak or something like that.”
“You want a cloak?”
He chuckled, waving the comment off. “Never mind.”
“I’ve been thinking,” Rose said, staring down the sights toward the hill in the distance. “If I get a chance to go to the future… I’d like to.”
“That so?” Shadow glanced over, his face like stone.
Neither said another word on the matter, but Frank had to wonder what was going on there. Had his grandpa imagined they’d meet up and be able to go back to their lives, so was let down by her interest in pursuing the fight further? Or was he on board, and Frank was simply reading the situation wrong?
He didn’t push for an answer, and the subject appeared to have been dropped for now, so when Milly gestured for them to follow her, he was glad to be on the move. A general anxiousness had filled the group, and there was no hiding Temra’s eagerness to find that cyborg son of a bitch and see him dead.
22
“He’s here, I can fucking smell it,” Temra said as the group moved up on the outside of the city. Milly and Mary had turned back to rejoin Teddy’s pirate band long ago, and now the time was drawing close.
“The cyborg?” Frank asked, knowing that was of course who she meant.
“Is it like a general shit smell?” Keisha asked, frowning. “Because, damn, I never realized how much this place stank until we’d been to your Seattle.”
“To be clear, it wasn’t exactly my Seattle,” Frank pointed out.
“Not the time for jokes.” Temra glared at each of us in turn, then moved up to the edge of the building, looking around the corner. “He’s not leaving this place alive.”
“Who is this, again?” Rose asked. “I think I missed something.”
“The one I told you about,” Shadow said, his look grim.
“Ah.” Rose hesitated, then put a hand on Temra’s shoulder. “You know… we’re here to take them out. That’s not a question. But you have a Frank now, and—”
“You lost your husband, you found a replacement,” Terma cut her off. “But… this man killed my Frank. Slit his throat. You think you could watch someone slit your lover’s throat, and then let him live?”
Rose released her. “Tear off his balls and make him choke on them.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Really?” Frank asked, shaking his head. But he wasn’t going to try to stop her from having her revenge. “Just… do it smart.”
“Meaning?” Temra asked.
“Be careful, make sure we do it as a team. The last thing we need is him killing you, too.”
She looked back at Frank, her curiosity evidenced by her raised eyebrow. It was clear she was wondering if that was his roundabout way of expressing his affection for her. With a curt nod, she let it go.
“It’s agreed then,” Shadow said, apparently amused by the whole situation. “We find the cyborg and kill him, in addition to ensuring the other Rick doesn’t fuck up the past.”
“Wrong,” Temra growled. “We find the cyborg and I kill him.”
Shadow nodded at that. Pulled down his mask. “Try to keep up.”
In a flash of black,
he was moving through the city. Scaling a wall and running across rooftops. Frank found himself wishing there’d been more time for training, as with each leap he found himself worried for his life, every time wondering if he’d fall. He had one saving grace, though, and that was the fact that his compass had the three stones again. Considering the fact that he had enhanced balance—recently upgraded—he was doing damn good. Keisha and Esmerelda weren’t half bad, although Rose had to be helped by Shadow more than once.
“Fuck this,” she grumbled after one of those saves. “I’m supposed to be down there in my ship, bombarding the hell out of Rick’s little fortress.”
“You will be,” Shadow pointed out, “but it’ll be the other you.”
She sighed, continuing on.
The group paused at a flat rooftop, where two Viking mafia were standing guard. Apparently, Rick had been busy putting his pieces into play. Rose motioned to the right, and she and Shadow moved off, working their way around. A moment later, two darts hit the Vikings, Shadow moving in to snatch up their gear before they hit the rooftop or had a chance to make a sound.
Frank watched it with excitement, but when his grandpa motioned for him to take out a man who’d appeared on the opposite wall, he frowned. He had his upgrades, and fancy new equipment from the crafting. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
Crouching, he approached the edge of the roof and pulled out the airgun that fired sleeping darts. The idea had been that he could get more range using the airgun than with normal blowing, and the soft air noise wouldn’t be enough to alert others nearby. As for the sound of the man falling, he was glad to see Temra already moving across the nearby rooftops, ready to take up position.
Aiming with his reticle, he fired. A swoosh of air, and the dart hit its mark, dropping the guy. Temra slid in, catching the man and his rifle.
“Fucking A,” Frank whispered, and then turned to see a proud smile from Rose. Shadow had his face covered by the ninja mask, but a slight nod was enough.
They kept moving, passing through a city that at times was beautiful with its flower-potted windowsills and tall palm trees, at others smelling of shit and looking like it had suffered as the losing side of a war. It likely had, if Rick the Pirate King had taken control. Frank and the team took out more of the Viking and pirate scouts, passing several squares that were empty aside from fountains and a couple of vagabond types.