Oversight

Chapter 31 The Ultimate Commercial Break

Noah had to distribute some energy to the team so they could all make it out fast enough. They sprinted out of the mountain and down the side towards the car. None of them felt safe until they arrived at the car and night began to fall. They all piled in, Raven, Silus, and Ben forced to run beside the car, or fly in Ben's case, as they made their escape. Emma created a bubble of darkness around them that made them invisible to the outside world as the moon rose. It was half an hour down the road before Noah even realized that he was still tense.

They stopped by the city they had recruited all of Noah's team. They got gas and food and then kept driving. David, from the backseat, leaned forward as he saw the city limits approaching. "Where are we going, Noah?" 

Noah stared at the headlights which only illuminated the fifteen feet in front of him. "I don't know yet, somewhere that they won't find us."

"But," David hesitated. "The master is still out there. There are more bases like the mountain base, and we couldn't even defeat the people in there. He can find us if he really wants to, and judging by how he felt about you...I have a feeling that we're pretty high on his hit list."

"Don't worry about it for now. We'll keep moving, whatever it takes. Plus, now we have Sam. She can help us hide. And Silus out there, he can find out if there's a threat before it really gets here. We can make it."

David didn't say anything for a moment, but he didn't lean back in his seat either. "Hey...Noah? What happened to you in their?"

Noah didn't know how to answer. "I...I don't know. Its all kind of a blur. It went by so fast."

David looked at Noah and Noah could tell that he didn't believe him. But he didn't push for anymore, which Noah was thankful for. David leaned back and Noah was left with his thoughts again. 

He pulled and poked at his brain, trying to recover anything. So far, he had recovered nothing. His memories had to be in there. Sam would probably be able to help him once she had recovered, but Noah wanted to know now. It felt weird to not know his own past. He knew that he had an entire life, but he couldn't remember a single second of it. The drive seemed to go on forever, which gave Noah plenty of time to fight for his memories.

They crossed state lines, only stopping for gas, food, and to give the three runners a chance to rest. It took a day of driving for Sam to wake up. She was in the passenger seat next to Noah, which had taken some effort from Noah to convince Emma to let her sit there. When she woke up, she looked around confused. Noah glanced over and suppressed his surprise and happiness so he could focus on driving. 

He tried to think of something funny to say but all he could think of  was: "Good morning."

Sam looked at him and he look of confusion faded a little. "Hi...Wh...Where are we?"

"Nevada, I think."

"So...you did it? Is...is the master..."

"No, he got away." Silence hung in the air for a moment. Everyone in the backseat sat silently. Sam turned around and saw them, greeting them with smiles and laughter. After that, it seemed like no time at all before they were in California.

They stopped at a town an hour outside of Los Angeles. Emma was the first to speak up. "Riverside? Why here?"

"Cause if we go much farther we're gonna hit an ocean." Emma shrugged and got out of the car. Noah opened his door and stepped out. He asked Ben, Raven, and Silus how they were doing and then declared that it was lunch time. 

"But..." David started. "We have no money."

"That does present a problem." Noah looked around. "Ok, I have an idea, but it's not ideal."

Emma looked annoyed, as always. "Just say it."

"We have all we need for the greatest stealth mission of all time, why don't we just take the money we need? We've already taken stuff on the way here, why stop now?"

They looked at each other and shrugged. "Why not?" 

With Noah and David putting people to sleep, Silus speeding up the team, Ben doing the stealing, James and Emma hiding him the best they could, and Sam covering their tracks...there was no way they could fail their mission. A couple hundred dollars for each of them later, they broke off for lunch. 

They all stopped in at a fast food restaurant. They all went up to a front desk to order but Noah pulled Sam away for a moment, whispering: "I have some questions for you."

She allowed herself to be dragged away and Noah brought them to the far side of the store and kept his voice low.

"Can you help me get my memories back?" Was his first question. Sam wasn't surprised at all that he would ask her, but she didn't have any good news for him.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. The master...he knows about me now. He's gonna keep me from taking his memories from him. I may manage to take some once in a while but it would be a huge risk and he would probably stop me anyway. And it would give away where we are and we'd have to run as fast as we could."

"That's understandable...um..." He wanted to ask why he felt the way he did when she was dying or when she came back, but he didn't know how to say it. So instead, he asked: "Do you have any memories of the two of us?"

Sam chuckled and touched her finger to his forehead. Noah watched as the scene changed in front of him. Noah watched himself at his house, still completely intact. Sam was there, laying down on the ground. He heard himself say, "Pardon my French, but Du bist Schön"

He chuckled as Sam giggled and said "What?" Noah, watching this memory unfold, recognized his normal attempts at flirting. He watched as he laid his head on her stomach, and then got thrown off, which made Noah laugh. He wide smile spread across his face as he heard his past self say, "Aw, but I know so little about you. That doesn't seem remotely fair. How about a cup of coffee and a nice chat? Maybe I'll buy you dinner, you never know...you might like it."

He watched the rest of the scene unfold and then vanish, leaving him back in the fast food restaurant. He smiled down at Sam and said two words, "Follow me." 

He walked out of the building, hoping Sam would follow. Luckily, he heard her take a few quick strides behind him to catch up. He stepped onto an energy platform and held his hand out for Sam to take. She hesitated but took his hand and stepped on the platform. "What about the others?"

Noah chuckled. "Don't worry, we'll tell them after."

The floated across the town, landing at a building slightly larger than the one they were already at. They walked inside and Noah got them a table. A waiter brought them to their seats and they sat down across from each other.

"What is this? Why are we here?"

"Cause I owe you a meal. I did say I'd buy you dinner." Sam smiled at that and opened her menu. They ordered as soon as the waiter arrived and then were left with nothing to do but talk to each other. 

That's exactly what they did. They talked and talked and talked. Their meals came, and they talked while they ate, which caused a couple laughs. Even after their meals were gone, they kept talking. They joked, they laughed, they stared at each other. Noah even ordered an ice cream sundae just to give them more time together. 

After everything that had happened in the past couple weeks, both of them were extremely happy to have someone to sit down with a talk to. Sam had been waiting for a moment like this for all the years she was trapped in that mountain. And for Noah, Sam was the first good thing to come from him gaining his powers.

Overall, it was going great for the two of them. But as Noah had learned the hard way from a close friend...Life was one long train wreck with brief, commercial like, moments of happiness. For Noah, this was going to be the ultimate commercial break. Which meant that sooner or later, it would be time to return to the regularly scheduled program.