Time Traveling 101 - ONC24

1 - Zorion

Zorion stared at the time machine in his pale hand, wondering how he was going to explain this mess up to Grace. The older woman was going to have his head for not properly charging his device.

Again.

He sighed in annoyance, placing the small device in the pocket of his cloak. Once he got back to headquarters, David was going to get an earful about making time machines that didn't need to be charged.

But first he needed to find a way back to headquarters and that was only by charging the damn thing.

Zorion peeked out the alleyway he was hiding in and felt a sense of relief.

He gazed upon the familiar sight of cars, skyscrapers and people wearing all sorts of colorful clothing. The nasty smell of smog mixed with the scent of street foods and spices...

Zorion had landed up in the 21st century.

Opening the leather bag he carried with him, Zorion pulled out a phone he used for his trips to the 21st century. He tried to figure out where exactly he was in the world. 

It soon became clear to him that he was in a familiar city and looking at his location, the I.T.T.U safe house was about a ten minute walk.

That was good at least. The safe house held a charging port for his time machine so he wasn't going to have to struggle that much looking for a power source.

Now there was just one problem left to solve - his clothes.

Zorion wasn't exactly dressed for the 21st century. He had been working in the 18th century getting information on Tempus' movements. It seemed the group had been active in France again.

Thankfully, they hadn't done anything of note to change history. 

Still, the fact they were quiet made Zorion nervous. He would rather have them causing visible trouble than to be quiet. Whenever they were quiet, it normally meant a bigger problem.

Zorion shook his head, trying to stop his wondering mind. Now was not the time to be worrying about Tempus' movements. His mission was to observe and report back. Grace would handle the rest.

So, he needed to get his time machine working again.

The walk to the safe house was ten minutes so it wouldn't take long. Maybe he could act as a cosplayer until he got some more appropriate clothing. Yes. That would work.

Unless someone asked him what he was cosplaying as. Then he'd be doomed.

Whatever. Zorion thought. I should just get this over with. No point staying here trying to solve a problem that already has a solution.

With that, Zorion left the dark alleyway and walked into the summer heat. He followed the GPS on his 21st century phone, navigating his way through the bustling city to the safe house.

Thankfully, no one had asked him about his clothes by the time he got to the safe house.

It was a small apartment building made from bricks. Zorion opened the glass door to see a old man snoozing at a desk in the foyer. He headed over to the table, the room having the familiar smell of cigars and lemon air freshener.

"Hey Mike." Zorion said, tapping the wooden counter lightly to wake the sleeping man.

The old man's eyes snapped open and he glared at Zorion with his dark, blue eyes. "Ain't nobody meant to be here, boy."

"Come on, Mike." Zorion huffed. "I need to charge the machine and I'll be on my way."

Mike sighed. "This is the last time. And I mean it."

"Thank you." Zorion smiled widely, stretching out the counter to take a key from the wall behind Mike. "You're the best."

"Sure." Mike huffed, closing his eyes again. "Grace better not learn of this and you owe me big time."

"Yeah yeah." Zorion nodded. "I'll bring you one of those cakes from Mickie's Café."

"Make it two and a coffee."

"You've got it Mike."

Mike grumbled and Zorion took his queue to leave the foyer. He took two steps a time, heading upstairs to his apartment. Well, it wasn't really his but it was where he stayed and kept his 21st century stuff.

One day it would be given to someone else but Zorion didn't want to think about that. He enjoyed his job and he wasn't going to retire anytime soon.

Besides, he wasn't ready for what came after retiring from the I.T.T.U.

After opening the wooden door of his apartment, Zorion entered the small apartment quickly heading for the bedroom. He wanted to wash and change into some street clothes so he could get Mike his food.

But first.

Zorion walked over to a mental box in the corner of the room, pressing a blue button. A drawer slid open and Zorion placed the time machine into the drawer. He then closed the drawer and looked at the top of the metal box.

A screen came to life with the words Processing on the screen. After a few minutes, they changed to  Charging... 1 week.

Zorion groaned upon seeing the time it would take to charge the machine. Grace was definitely going to have his head.

Despite having a time machine, it did have limitations. One being that you could only travel to the day you were currently in. So, if the day was 1st March, you could travel to any time period and any year but it had to be the day - 1st March.

It made time traveling difficult at times which why was there were people like Mike who stayed in different time periods running safe houses.

Suddenly his phone vibrated in his hand. Zorion didn't need to look at the caller I.D. to know exactly who was calling him. Only two people had his number and one of them was downstairs sleeping on the job.

"Hello Grace." Zorion answered the phone, trying to keep his voice calm.

"How long will it take for your device to charge?" A female voice asked on the other end.

"A week." Zorion replied, knowing there was no point in lying. "And how-"

"You always answer on the fourth ring when you've done something stupid. Which normally means that you didn't charge your time machine." Grace explained.

"You know you sound like a creep right now."

"And you sound like you don't want a job anymore."

"Low blow, Grace."

Grace sighed. "Anyway, no incidents."

"None."

The line was quiet for a moment. "Alright. Enjoy your vacation then."

"Thanks." Zorion said, a little surprised at the comment.

"It's coming off your leave." Grace said before hanging up.

Zorion stared at his phone. He should have seen it coming. Grace had been acting way too calm about the situation. But at least she had gotten the report. He would just need to write up the formal stuff later.

But for now, he needed to change and get some food.

***

Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed it!🥰