“Interesting,” Isaac said, looking around.
“Well, that was good timing,” Taylor said. “I was kinda dreading what was going to happen.”
“Same,” Zac agreed.
“Hopefully it’s a sign I’m starting to control this power,” Tristan said, a bitter tone to his voice. “But I doubt it.”
“Don’t worry,” Isaac said. “I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. Zac once had to stop himself from restoring a timeline, and he managed.”
“Restoring a timeline?” Tristan repeated.
“Yeah,” Zac replied, a little annoyed at the subject being brought up. “We had a little problem with some omnipotent-appearing alien screwing up our timeline. She got in trouble about it, and her people turned the clock back so that we could relive the timeline again and get it right. Except I have Restoration and kept restoring the previous screwed up timeline. So they triggered my powers, and I had to get control over it before the timeline would return to normal. Except that we got our powers, so the timeline never became what it was supposed to be.”
“Interesting,” Tristian said. “I betcha any money that there’s a universe out there where it played out the way it was supposed to, and one where the aliens didn’t turn back the clock and the screwed up timeline stayed.”
Zac shot an alarmed look at Tristan, then glanced at Taylor, and finally rested his eyes on Isaac.
“I hope not,” he said.
Tristan shrugged.
“So, what do we do here?” Taylor asked, knowing how Zac felt about the whole thing.
“I find it’s best to lay low,” Tristan replied. “The main difficulty is getting food and water. Different places have different systems, and different currencies and stuff. Usually I have to resort to scavenging.”
“I see.”
“So, if your Ike, Tay and Zac didn’t have a timeline thing, how did they get their powers?” Isaac asked.
“Dad had got electrocuted onstage,” Tristan replied. “It made headlines and everything about how he was so lucky to have survived and stuff. Doctors were amazed at the lack of burns, rah, rah, rah. But the mutant community figured out what happened and got to him before he started flipping out about his newfound powers.”
“I got electrocuted on stage?” Zac repeated. “Wow… that’s almost cool. Did my hair stand up on end?”
“We do actually have footage of it,” Tristan grinned.
He was about to continue, when they were interrupted by a loud cry:
“Witch! Witch!”
The boys were soon caught up in the following commotion. A young lady was practically being dragged along the street, screaming and writhing. The four boys moved with the crowd (indeed, they couldn’t help it), and overheard them talking as they went:
“That’s Miss Swanson...”
“...cursed my potatoes last week...”
“...everyone in the house was sick, except her...”
“...can’t be coincidence...”
A frown deepened on Tristan’s face as the crowd arrived at what was presumed to be the town hall.
“Now, what’s going on here?” asked an important-looking, middle aged man.
“A witch, sir. We caught her in the act,” said one of the men who had been dragging the girl.
He went on to explain how he had been visiting the Swanson home, only to actually see a black cat turn into Miss Swanson. A murmur went through the crowd, mostly about how they knew there was a witch problem lately, and couldn’t believe it was Miss Swanson, but then the Swansons had always been strange...
“Please...” Miss Swanson pleaded. “Please... I’m not a witch! I’m not!”
The accusations and the begging went on for a few more minutes before someone in the crowd shouted “Burn her”.
It all went downhill from there. And worse... there had been a stake already prepared, and waiting in the courtyard.
“We can’t let this happen!” Tristan whispered. “We have to save her!”
“Of course we do,” Isaac agreed.
They weaved through the crowd as best they could to get to the girl. To aid his efforts, Tristan created a small force field around them in an effort to repel the other people (but not enough that anyone would notice and call them witches too).
Miss Swanson was being tied to the stake when abruptly, Tristan had another spasm.
“No!” he objected.
The forcefield surrounding them was enough to join them together for the teleport, and they all appeared in an alleyway with white walls.