S: Through Time

Mezzo Piano: Note 2

Still going 120 miles an hour, Matt sent up a quick message to the Assassin Group ship overhead.

"Are you ready to teleport the X-Ship up?"

"Is the Assassin S still following you?" the Assassin Group answered back.

"No," Matt lied. He actually, of course, had no idea. However, he suspected that the Assassin Group had been faking the technical failure and actually just didn't want to get on S's bad side. Fortunately, the Assassin Group seemed to believe him. Unfortunately, they continued to stick with their lie.

"Good. Our technical difficulties are being fixed. You will be manipulated up in 6 minutes," they responded.

Matt was relieved. That was plenty of time. All he had to do was continue to drive . . .

"To get your position, you must stop at the same area on the surface of the planet," the Assassin Group sent.

Matt nodded. This was probably just a ruse by the Assassin Group to get him to stop. Then, if S was following him, then he'd be caught before the Assassin Group made the mistake of trying to save him.

He pulled into a gas station. If the assassin S suddenly drove up, he would be able to make a quick getaway.

In the car, he waited. He looked at the clock. 3 minutes.

It was at two minutes when something happened. He looked around and saw another car driving in. Its windows were blacked out. But that wasn't the suspicious car. It was the one behind it. It had blacked out windows too, but it was clearly a different model than the one in front. It parked in a parking place--the one right beside Matt. It parked backwards, perfect for a good getaway.

Matt swore. He should have done that. Well, until the car clearly had a dangerous alien inside, he wasn't leaving. He had to keep in the same place for the Assassin Group to manipulate. Apparently.

1 minute. He was almost in the clear when it happened. The screen of the X-ship monitor went white, then flashed with an alert.

Warning: Unexpected Identifier: Forcing Operations: Manipulate

Matt looked at the screen wildly. From what he could understand, another ship was forcing his ship to manipulate. He didn't think the X-ship had the capability to do manipulate, or else he would have escaped a long time ago.

Warning: Manipulation Certified: Manipulate in

3

2

1

The X-ship rumbled. Matt looked at the car parked right beside him . . . But he couldn't see out the windows. Well, not much. He could see that the car was still there, right beside him. But it was fading.

On the monitor, numbers scrolled across the screen quickly. The X-ship was suddenly hit by something hard. Matt felt the X-ship flip completely. He grabbed the Emergency Brake. Would that work? He was pretty sure that wasn't how manipulation worked.

He decided to try it. He flipped it on, and the X-ship rumbled. Cracks appeared in the monitor, which was flashing a new warning.

Warning: Cancel Manipulation: ?: Danger:

Random Place is not certified.

Warning: Random Place: 12.34.34.56.34.67.54.89.65.3.231486.9856743.21348506978435

Cancel: Brake 129485 Cancel: Put down Emergency Brake 1249586

Matt looked at the Cancels blankly. Which one did he press to Cancel Manipulation, and which one did he hit to Cancel the Cancel of the Manipulation? They should've been more clear.