Clock Breakers

Rule 5: Change Your Clothes Often

Juniper was waiting for us after breakfast.

"Nash, Freeze," Jaysk nodded, subtly looking over at her, "you have a new teammate."

"Uh, what?" I asked, as she gave me an odd look. "Is she... I mean, are you... trained, do you have certain skills...?"

"I dressed your ass for war a few days ago, you know my skills."

"Yeah, no, I got that... I meant more for like, field work."

"You want to test it?" she asked, stepping towards me. She wasn't threatening or loud, but she was definitely stiff. Nash slowly stepped between us, already tired.

"Alright," he said quietly, "enough." Juniper stepped back, visibly relaxing a bit.

"I can hold my own," she said quietly. "Besides, for your next "adventure" you'll be needing a good amount of costuming."

"Oh, you're not gonna layer us up again, are you?" Nash asked.

"No," she said simply. "But you will need me to give you changes on the fly without you zipping in and out."

"But we can port in and out within the same second," Nash said, squinting in confusion.

"Yeah? And with the weird fluctuation spike Jaysk showed me that popped up yesterday, do you really want to loop that many times?"

"It wouldn't be a loop..." Nash mumbled to himself.

"Either way," she said, growing annoyed, "it would be easier and smoother to full-run this one instead of step-by-step."

"But in a step-by-step we have time to update you guys and rest or heal up if needed," I said.

"Yes, but you also run the risk of forgetting key details. I'm sure Nash has already told you the extravagantly fun case of the Multiple Mister Heckold's Disaster."

I cocked an eyebrow towards Nash, crossing his arms as he looked away. He turned back to find me, a light blush spreading over his cheeks.

"It was one time!" he said, his arms tightening as his shoulders rose. "I introduced myself and Cooper as Mister Heckold to the same person without realizing because we took a planning day in between visits," he said quietly. "And it may... have gotten us suspected."

"And hunted out of the club," Juniper added. Nash shrugged, looking away again. "This isn't much different." Nash snapped his attention to her.

"You can't be serious. We aren't going back to that exact day and club, are we? That would be some serious avoidance looping, I'd have to find the book for that day before we even begin to plan it out."

"Relax," Juniper said. "We aren't going to that one. We're going to some place worse," she said with an apologetic look towards me. "We'll have to publicly arrive and be present enough to not be suspected if we're somewhere we shouldn't be."

"We'll still get booked if we're in a restricted area," I said.

"Not if we're in a high enough social position," she said. "And not if we're conducting business with other elites. Talking in restricted areas of an elitist club is planned for, expected, even encouraged to some degree because you don't want anyone overhearing sketchy business deals. Especially if Devin is going to be there."

"I thought we were done with Devin," I said.

"Not necessarily," Nash said uncomfortably. "He is the easily manipulated son of a weapon's dealer. If we get a conversation with him, we could go anywhere we want, especially if other elites see us."