TIME & TIED: DESTRUCTION

ARC 3.3 - With Glen

PART 64b: BANISHMENT 2

"Well?" said the voice Glen recognized as belonging to Luci. "Does it say the gun freezes people in time or not?"

"I d-don't know yet. I can't t-translate under these conditions!" came the reply.

"Steady on Tim," Clarke soothed. "Here, I'll hold the flashlight."

Glen moved to intercept the four individuals. "Clarke," he called out amiably. "Luci, Julie, Tim. Fancy meeting all of you here."

"Glen?" Julie said. "Uh, didn't Carrie tell you that this is an incredibly unsafe place to be right now?"

"Is it?" Glen said, blinking. "You should all be on your way somewhere else then."

"Can't," Luci retorted. "We have some presents for Mindy, when she arrives here.”

"They can wait," Glen insisted. "I really, REALLY think we should convince ourselves that it would be safer somewhere else."

The four teenagers looked at each other. "G-Good enough for me," Tim said, turning around.

"It does make sense," Clarke agreed. "We should head home."

"I'm not so sure," Luci said, frowning. “Yet I'm thinking of a lot of places where I'd rather be."

"No. No way. There's nowhere else I would rather be right now," Julie murmured, her body starting to shake. "Not after what I've caused."

"Julie should bring you back to her place and serve some hot chocolate," Glen continued calmly. "It's getting cold out here and you're all thirsty."

"It IS cold," Luci agreed.

"And I am thirsty," Clarke added.

"Aren't you guys coming?" Tim wondered, already three steps away.

“Why... what... why..." And Julie’s gaze focused in on Glen. “My God. YOU’RE ONE OF THEM."

Glen turned quickly to focus all of his attention onto her. "Julie, don’t--” he began, but he got no further. With a speed and agility that surprised him, she had leapt to his side, while dashing a liquid out onto a rag in her hand. He tried to push her away.

"Nap time, mind warper," the brunette cried out, slipping under Glen's arm and slapping the rag against his face.

"No!" Glen protested, trying to keep from breathing in. "I have to wake..." His knees buckled, his vision blurred. "...goddamit... uhn, C-Carrie, SWAN SONG." His last cry delivered in little more than a speaking voice, Glen then fell unconscious.

***

Julie stared down at her unconscious adversary. "Okay,” she decided. “Weird choice of last words."

"Uh, guys? Whatever Glen meant by that, it was loud enough to get someone's attention," Clarke said, raising a finger to point over Julie's shoulder.

Julie turned, in time to see the figure rising up from the ground in the vicinity of the swingset. The figure had long blonde hair flowing out behind her, and when she turned, her eyes were glowing gold in the darkness.

"You will be banished," Carrie said, raising her finger to point at the group of them.

"Ohhh HELL,” Julie swore, eyes going wide.

Luci immediately reached into her jacket, yanking out the gun she had been concealing. Originally in multiple parts within the safe, its six inch long barrel had now been screwed into the base, which itself was comprised of numerous of dials and lights. The main one showing four settings.

Fortunately, while it seemed to be an energy weapon, it read as partially charged, and included a standard trigger.

"Tim?" Luci said, trying to keep her hand from shaking. "We need the stats on this sucker like *NOW*."

Electricity began to spark at the end of Carrie's fingertips as she strode forwards. Clarke grabbed Tim, and both of them backed off to the right, as Luci and Julie began to circle around slowly to the left. Carrie paused as they split up.

"Okay, Carrie," Julie began. "Stay calm here. We’re your friends."

She saw the movement in Carrie's elbow a split second before the blonde’s hand came out, and only just managed to dive out of the way of the crackling energies fired at her.

"Tim?" Luci called out again. "I can’t fire this thing at random, I may only have the one shot. Is there a setting I can use to merely knock Carrie out?"

"D-Don't rush me," the small boy called back. "I need a minute, Linquist’s short form never makes sense.”

"I hope you have a minute,” Luci mumbled before dodging in a little closer to Carrie. "Hey, hey, ignore Julie, look at me!" She then backpedalled furiously, even as Julie became aware of the sound of more running footsteps approaching.

However, while Carrie did begin to focus on Luci, the bright flash of light and the appearance of three more individuals about a metre in front of the blonde quickly had everyone's attention.

“Oh, GEEZ," Frank choked out, stumbling to his feet. Next to him, Corry and Mindy remained on the ground, unconscious.

"Frank, get DOWN," Luci screamed out. "You're spoiling my shot!"

"Oh look, more people here I can banish," Carrie said with a smile.

Julie saw a tall figure spring out of the encroaching darkness, slamming into Frank even as electricity lanced out from Carrie's fingertips.

Frank was knocked back off his feet, his head hitting a partially concealed rock as he fell... but with that, the crackling energies passed harmlessly by both him and his rescuer.

“Ohmigod," Chartreuse breathed from the edge of the park. "Lee tackled him in time."

She then joined Frank in the land of unconsciousness, the additional weight on Laurie's shoulders almost pulling the redhead to the ground as well. As Chartreuse collapsed, a certain redhead sprang to her feet.

"Everyone back off!” Mindy shouted, whipping a knife out of her pocket. And Julie realized that Mindy had only been faking unconsciousness, to allow Carrie to get close enough for an attack. Oh no, she had to get in there with the chloroform.

"Mindy, stop," Julie cried out. Not even thinking about how she’d managed to completely ignore the redhead’s implicit command to ‘back off’, while everyone else - aside from Lee - had automatically taken a few steps back, she launched herself forwards.

But Mindy saw Julie coming out of the corner of her eye. She checked her swing at Carrie in favour of leaping out of the way, so Julie’s dive only resulted in her ending up back down on the ground.

“Good. Everyone stay down, out of my line of sight," Luci yelled. "Tim? Setting for Carrie OR Mindy? TIM?"

"Okay, calm down," came Clarke's voice out of the darkness. "Everyone just calm down."

Mindy jumped in towards Carrie again, her knife raised. The two of them were almost face to face now, Mindy's knife held in the air, inches away from Carrie's chest... and Julie saw Mindy hesitate.

"Dammit Carrie," Mindy whispered. "I never wanted to hurt..."

The electrical discharge hit the redhead at point blank range. She barely even got a chance to scream before she had disappeared in a crackling of energies and the sound of a thunderclap.

"One down," the golden eyed Carrie said calmly. She turned to face Julie, who had been readying herself for another attack on Mindy, and Julie abruptly discovered what it was like to be a deer caught in a car's headlights. Oh lord. Did chloroform work on a temporal weapon?

"Luci," Tim called out. "Setting four, on Carrie!"

Luci cranked the indicator over and immediately pulled the trigger. For a second it seemed like her actions would have no effect at all, but then a sequence of lights on the gun lit up and a pulse of energy flew out of the end of the barrel, striking Carrie in the side.

The effect was immediate. The building energies in Carrie’s palm fizzled out, and the blonde crumpled to the ground, Julie seeing her eyes flicker back to blue as they shut.

Luci, however, was unaware of this, as Julie fast realized that the recoil on the gun had propelled the shorter girl back a good ten metres, right into the trunk of a tree. She now lay slumped at its base, out cold.

All was silence.

The quiet stretched on for what felt like an eternity to Julie, however it was really under a minute before there came the sound of Laurie's tentative voice from the treeline: "Is... is it all over?"

Julie looked up from where she had crawled over to check Carrie's pulse - the blonde had one. Which meant either Carrie was only knocked out, or her heart rate could still be read through that gun's 'temporal freezing'.

"I think it's over," Julie agreed, her voice shaking.

There was another moment of silence.

"So," Lee said, clearing his throat as he pushed himself up. "Uh, will you guys still be needing my help? For moving all of these unconscious bodies?"

***

In a house on the other side of the ravine, Hank Waterson sat at his writing desk. He stared at the page in front of him in irritation.

"This letter has nothing whatsoever to do with my novel," he muttered. "It doesn't even make sense. Where did it come from?" He scanned down the words on the sheet once again:

'Waterson.

'If you read this, it's been over two days since my arrival. I assume either my mission is failing, or I neglected to turn off the equivalent of a post hypnotic suggestion. Either way, no more beating about the brush: Glen 'Glinephanis' Oaks may not be a time criminal, but neither is he whom he appears.

'He is not merely a trainer. He represents a junction point for the entire temporal war. Please, DO NOT TRUST HIM. I retroactively apologize in advance for whatever methods I may use, or may have used, to convince you of this.

'Yours, Mindylenopia.'

"It must be some game of Carrie's," her father concluded.

Except, if that was true, how could it be in his handwriting? He shook his head. "I guess I'll show it to her once she gets back from the movies with Glen. She's NOT going to put off our little talk about responsibility any longer."

That decision made, Hank set the sheet aside and turned his attention back to his novel. Trying to figure out what he could do to fracture his character dynamics even more.