Time Travel Agency

Chapter 4

November 1, 2072 - TTA HQ

     A CAR hovered smoothly and silently into the parking lot. It was after all an electric car. The door raised open and out stepped Agent Bill Ranton. He held his briefcase which held his weapon, and he walked in. He swiped his card on the reader outside the entrance and walked into the building. Joe the receptionist at this time greeted him with a smile. "Good morning, Joe," Bill said. "Hey Bill," Joe replied. Joe reached under the counter and pulled out a case file. "Here's your file," he said, handing Bill the file. Bill grabbed the file and strolled over to the elevator.

     He entered the elevator and cruised onto the eleventh floor. He went up the left-hand side of the building with the odd numbered rooms. He went up to room 1107, which was his, and slotted the file into a slot by the door and swiped his card. The file reader beeped angrily and on a small screen beside it the words "FILE INCOMPLETE" showed up. Bill looked where he walked and saw that a bunch of the papers were scattered on the floor of the catwalk. After an annoyed sigh, he walked over to pick up the papers and slotted them in the file reader. The file read successfully this time, and the door opened.

He then removed the file from the reader and put it on a desk next to the computer of which he then logged on and typed in the date, place, and time. "USS Maine, here I come!" Bill said to himself as he hit the go button. He grabbed his briefcase and walked into the warp and to 1898 he went.

February 15, 1898 - Havana Harbor, Cuba

     ZAP! CLAP! POW! A flash followed by a thunderclap rang out behind a shed, shattering its windows. Some nearby guards were alarmed and headed in on the shed. As one neared the corner, Bill ran past him, whacking the guard in the face with the briefcase on his way past. The other guards' eyes looked down over the barrel of his gun and fired shots at Bill, but missed, some by a few inches, others by a foot. Bill dived over the railing into the water below as shots continued to be fired.

     He swam over with briefcase in hand to the boat and grapple-hooked into the cargo hold. In the cargo hold, there were crates everywhere, full of sustenance, weapons, ammunition, and medical supplies. In there were two time terrorists there wiring up explosives. Bill opened up the briefcase and in it were his pistol and silencer. He screwed the silencer on and shot one of the terrorists. He keeled over dead. The other got scared and picked up the remote, but just before he could hit the button, Bill shot him through the chest, and the terrorist fell on the floor. "Any last words, pal?" Bill asserted, standing behind his trembling gun. "To-," the terrorist struggled, "hell... with... Spain." the terrorist then hit the button and breathed his last.

     Almost immediately after the button was pressed, explosions were heard below, it was several focused in a spot and combined into one. Fire overtook the cargo hold where Bill was, which led him to pack his pistol back in his suitcase real fast, and ran toward the porthole he grappled through. He dived through it like a swimmer in the Olympics, and like a diver, penetrated the water with minimal splashing. After he swam to shore, he dried off with a towel someone gave him.

     While he was drying off, a man sat down next to him. His boots and pants were muddy, and the corner where he emerged from had glowed green. "Can I help you?" Bill asked him. "Time terrorists caused this, did they not?" he asked, almost ignoring Bill's question. "Well, yes," Bill replied, "How do you know about them?" "Well, call me a free-lance agent," he said, "I'll explain some other time. For now, let's just say I have a solution to take down the time terrorists." The man handed Bill a note, "Meet me here, and we can discuss plans there." Bill looked at the note, then looked back at the man, and ripped up the note. The man looked at the ripped pieces of the note with a kind of disappointment. "I don't believe you," Bill said. "Very well," the man replied, "Good luck when you get back to your time."

     The man got up and left through a green portal. What year is he from? Bill thought. After a moment of drying off, he picked up his briefcase and warped back to his time.

November 1, 2072 - TTA HQ

     He warped back into his jump room to find that the light was off. What? he thought to himself, I've only been gone 5 seconds to them. How is the light off? He walked outside of his office to see the entire building in ruin. The catwalk was destroyed right outside his door, leading to a 5 floor drop through broken catwalks to the closest working one. He almost fell trying to leave his warp room.

     Later, he was sitting on a worn-down bench, looking at the empty parking lot now with only his car there. A green portal opened behind him, and the man came out. "What happened?" Bill asked, standing up and turning around to face him. "In 2032, the Agency shut down because its secret was revealed, and Churchill Jr. was assassinated. It was shut down by Parliament in 2033 after being on the edge of going bankrupt for nine years. It's a miracle your machine still worked." Bill looked around at the graffiti-ed wreckage of a building that was his headquarters. "So, in this timeline, the agency has been disbanded for 40 years?" Bill asked, still in disbelief as a tear welled up in his eye. "It appears so," the man said, "So, Agent Ranton, wanna fix history?" The man offered Bill the card again. "I don't have a time car, though," Bill said. The man tapped his left wrist twice and a green portal opened behind him. "Then I'll take you," he said. The two walked through the portal.