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3.

to have family doesn't always mean it's by blood.

"i can't believe you're future me." adam and darlene walked beside o. adam back to the garage. darlene checked the time. 9:00. her parents were supposed to pick her up at 9:30. "okay, you two came to terms with that pretty quickly. it's a little disturbing, actually." darlene shrugged, "what can i say? i'm an adapter." "so, why are you here?" adam asked, holding the flashlight in the dark of the forest. "rescue mission. i wasn't supposed to land here. i was aiming for 2018. i need to get there as soon as possible." o. adam answered. "who were you trying to save in 2018?" adam and darlene chorused. he looked at darlene for a moment, before glancing at adam for a shorter second, "really?" he asked the children. "fine. can you at least tell us how you got here?" adam said.

"i'll show ya." adam pressed something on his neck, and in front of the three, a huge spaceship crackled with light, before fading away. "what was that?" darlene asked unsurely. "crap." o. adam remarked. "what?" adam inquired. "um, we're gonna switch to the plan a, which is where you come in." he pointed to adam. "you see, time jets, like all tech in the future, is coded to its owners DNA. because i'm injured... aah, the jet won't even clear me to fly. which means i can't even get in to fix her. but guess who can?" o. adam looked to his little self. "darla?" the blonde pointed to darlene. "seriously?" o. adam deadpanned. "kidding, kidding. what else did you lose in the future? your humor?" "no, my patience for my 12 year old self." o. adam held out the necklace to adam, and he put his hand onto it. the space ship lit up, the power building. "there she is." o. adam sighed.

"let's go inside !" darlene said giddily.

___

"okay, sit down."

"oh my god." adam and darlene chorused, their different tones clashing together. "yeah, yeah, yeah. sit down." adam sat down in wonder, and darlene crawled to sit onto his left thigh, next to the window. "let's see what we're dealing with here. all right, some minor shield damage. coolant leaks." high-pitched beeps surrounding the three in the space ship. darlene looked around like adam, and she had noticed it had looked a lot like the ship in his VR game.

"i don't know what that is, but when is a flashing red light ever good?" o. adam sighed, and adam started to lean forward, but the guy put his hand over his face and harshly pushed him back to his seat. "ah-da-da-da-da. i know you wanna touch all the pretty buttons with your sticky little child fingers, and the reactor has a quantum signature. you fire it up, they can find us. if they're here." "who do you think we are? 2nd graders?" darlene's eyes narrowed. her hands werent sticky. at least she didn't think so. o. adam gave her a look. "who are 'they'?" adam asked, taking the attention off of his best friend. "i'm glad you didn't ask me that, because 'they' are classified." "come on, we already know you're from the future." adam pointed out.

"believe me, i regret that. i had not intention of coming back to revisit... this." he threw his hand around adam, "jesus. okay. okay, i've isolated the damaged relays, so the ship should be able to start repairing itself." "how long will that take?" the young teens asked. "ah, it's at 50% capacity, so hopefully less time than it takes me to heal." o. adam jumped out of his seat, starting to walk down the ship, but darlene and adam got up, shining the flashlight into his eyes.

"wait. do you remember this?" "remember what?" "this. right here, right now. you being here in 2022?" "okay, i know where you're going with this." o. adam said. "if this is happening to me—" adam thought, "you're wasting your time." "that technically means it's already happened to you. right?" darlene finished his sentence. "unless it works like a multiverse, where each ripple creates an alternate timeline—" o. adam snatched the flashlight from the boy's hand. "it's not a multiverse ! my god, we watched too many movies. why did you let this happen?" o. adam looked at her, who stood behind adam. "they're good movies !" she defended.