Providence, Somewhere

Marcy's Guide to Providence

A girl with long, pitch-black hair and a girl with short, pink hair ran desperately through the depths of the storm drains below.

"We gotta warn the others, Schaeffer!" Mellori, the one with the black hair, said. "Geez, how did it get this bad..?"

Aelita, with the pink hair, kept silent. She had a feeling of dread. Maybe a little bit of guilt.

"I thought researching a speck of the Distortion was a good idea," Mellori continued. "Why did I talk you into it? Now Sunset and Ladybug are fighting that thing, and who knows what'll happen now?"

"You heard what Ladybug said," Aelita replied as the duo turned a corner. "Everyone who stayed are mitigating the best they can. We just need to tell the town."

"Yeah, tell the town. We can do that, right? Dexter won't be mad at us for possibly dooming the town through the storm drains, right?"

The two turned again, seeing the corridor with a ladder up ahead.

Then, they heard a rumble, followed by a burbling.

Aelita realized too late that she wasn't gonna have time to text the others to ask what happened.

"Go on ahead of me," Mellori said, grabbing a metallic plate from the side of the wall. "I'll try and divert it."

"What? No! We need to stick together."

"I'll catch up with you. They need to know about this now!"

Mellori was a stubborn girl, and Aelita wasn't about to argue when they were heeled by the Distortion. She didn't want to leave Mellori nigh-defenseless, but she did offer a choice to the girl.

"Just know you chose to stay back." Aelita ran past, climbing up the ladder.

She hesitated, climbing up each ladder rung, hoping that Mellori would simply change her mind. She heard the gurgling grow louder.

"Cover the lid!" Mellori shouted, her voice reverberating through the manhole.

Aelita lifted the heavy cover as much as she could. It was clear Mellori wasn't getting out of this one so easily.

Mourning her friend too early, she realized too late that she was now on uneven ground, with the manhole peeking over one foot and the grass under the other.

She tripped on the grass. Her left leg hurt like hell.

Yet she tried to kneel anyway, pushing the lid back in place. She didn't get to see what had happened. She only hoped Mellori was okay by the end of all this.

She winced, sitting to try and inspect her leg.

Her next stop was the clinic, it seemed. She sighed.

"So Zorda has to keep the disguise of Slade so she can give Monk the Soulsword to defeat Armageddon," Marcy explained. "Except Slade is from a completely different world. Which means Monk has to travel through space to retrieve the Soulsword."

Zelda cut through a piece of omelet with her fork, invested. The trio sat in a biith at the diner, enjoying a bit of breakfast. To her, the story sounded familiar, if not a little embellished. "So in this version, he's known throughout all time as the Hero of Space, is that correct?"

"Bingo! And Zorda is the Queen of Time because she can see all the timelines."

One of Jenny's ponytails turned into a mini-satellite, with her failing to respond to Marcy. "Sorry, I need to take this call," Jenny said, excusing herself from the table and leaving some cash on the table. "I'm paying for Zelda. If I don't come back, that's for her food."