When the trio arrived back at the Emporium after breakfast, Tommy led the way back the warehouse. James and Amanda were carrying their spoils of war from helping earlier. He unlocked the warehouse and let them in. “You can put them over on that shelf for now. I am pretty sure no one will get in here and steal anything.”

“You do have it pretty locked down,” James observed. “One questions though.”

“Shoot.”

“What is in the back room in here? That thing has like reinforced walls.”

“Yes it does. It has the higher end items that I move online sometimes.” He motioned for them to follow. He walked along the shelves in the warehouse that adjoined the store. This facility was only about 500 square feet, with about half of it filled with shelves near the breezeway that hooked it to the larger building where the door came out by James’ office. The rest of the building was used as a garage for Tommy and James cars during the winter, but beyond that section was a set of smaller rooms, one of which James had never been in

They reached the door and Tommy proceeded to unlock the door and the three padlocks that were attached as well. He opened the door and James saw him go to a keypad where he entered a code. A beep let everyone know that an alarm system had been deactivated.

“It this tied into the main system?”

“Hell no. This thing still has a land line link. I don’t mess around with the stuff in here.: Tommy flipped on a light and all three then saw that the walls were lined with various large safes and steel cages. Amanda immediately ran to one of the cages and James swore she started to drool. “Are those all of them?”

“Most of them. I think I am missing three from the 1st generation.” What Tommy was referring too was the assortment of toys in the cage on shelves. The original run of the Transformer toys from the 1980s. There were multiple copies of each on those shelves. Amanda just stood there starring.

Tommy leaned over to James, “I think she is a keeper man.” James just looked at him, then elbowed him. “Over here ya nerd,” he said to him. The pair when to a safe. Tommy spun the dial and entered the combination. Then he pulled open a drawer. He took out a plastic container and handed it to James. He just stared at it.

“Really man?”

“Oh yeah.”

James was looking down at an Action Comics #1 in its case after being graded. The label on the top read 9.7. “Where did you get this from?”

Tommy did not immediately respond. He pulled six more out and stacked them in James hands. “I think you mean THESE,” then he started to laugh.

Amanda walked over to James and looked at what he held. “You have got to be shitting me.” She took one and examined it, then another and another until they were all in her hands. Not one of them was graded below a 9. “Based on that the last one sold for, you have easily ten million here.”

“Give or take, depends on the auctioneers take. I just have them until I can make a sale.”

“You have been holding out on me then,” James said. “It’s hard to run a business when I don’t know all of the assets.”

“So, you know someone that could afford one of those?”

‘Well, no.”

“Then don’t whine about it. Now some of this other stuff I am sure you could flip for me. But that aside we do have some work to do.”

James looked at Tommy and nodded. He then turned to Amanda. Soon she was on her way home and the two men went about their business.

Over the course of the next two weeks James spent most of his time at work figuring out what Tommy needed him too. He spent more and more time with Amanda as well. He was tackling both projects with gusto. He really liked her, and she was even more geeky than him. Two of three time a week she would come to the shop and stay past closing just talking with the pair of friends.

The relationship progressed faster than either of them had expected. James started to stay at Amanda’s after just week. As a teacher she had to be up early. James also thought that his little apartment above the shop wasn’t the best spot for them to be, as it was kind of small. He would usually see himself out in the morning and head to work to try and get the information together that Tommy needed for the trip.

On the morning of James first trip to the past he left before Amanda even got up. When she awoke she saw that he had left his keys to the store there. She knew that is where he went every morning and she decided to take them to him. It was only a few minutes out of her way so she left a little early.

James didn’t even realize he had left them there. Even when he arrived he found that Tommy was already there waiting for him. It looked like they were going to get an early start on their adventure. Unbeknownst to them though as they stepped back in time, Amanda had entered the shop. Just as she turned the key and opened the door she saw the glow of the portal and the two of them disappearing.

She stood there for a moment, not sure of what she had just seen. She approached to the spot they had been and looked at the nearby table. She saw a lot of papers strewn about. Before she could start to read any of them or really have a chance to think about what was going on another bright light started to form. She stepped back. A similar phenomenon as the one that she just saw happened. This time the pair of men walked out of it. The flashy doorway they passed through then disappeared.

James and Tommy were standing there. Not in the clothes she had seen them in when they went through the portal the first time. They were both sharply dressed now. James looked nauseous and ran to a garbage can. Tommy laughed, then turned and saw her standing there. “James I think we might have a problem.”

James held up his hand while he finished his business with the can. We wiped his mouth and stood up. As he started to turn he spoke, “What do you mean…..” He saw Amanda standing there, motionless. “How long have you been here?”

“I don’t even know.”

“I think what he meant to say is, what did you see?” Tommy interjected.

“I saw you two disappear then reappear. What they hell is going on here?”

James walked over to her and placed his arm around her, or at least tried to. She stepped back. “I need some answers, because I am really close to freaking out.”

“I would love to answer your questions, but let’s start from the top. What are you doing here?” James asked.

“You left your keys at my place I came by to drop them off.” She tossed the key ring that was still in her hand to James, he caught them. “Did you two figure out teleportation or something?”

“I wish,” James said. He turned to look at Tommy. “How far do you want to go with this?”

“Well, I have to think about it, but I guess we can just tell her the basics, I mean who would believe her even if she did go around shouting it from the rooftops?”

James looked right at Amanda, “Tommy invented time travel. The time you saw us leave and then come back, we were in the past for three years.”