L'affaire Bob

23. To Be Frankie, The Future Sucks

-"Paul! We're here!" yelled a familiar voice from behind me.

I turned around. Lucas, James, and Mathias were standing next to each other, waving at me.

-"Oh, hey, guys! How have you been today?"

-"We're fine!' Lucas spoke first. "I just wanted to let you know that Emma decided to advance the training session because something occurred, and she has to go to an emergency meeting after our lesson."

-"An emergency meeting? For what?" I questioned.

-"I don't know; she didn't say anything else," answered Lucas.

I glanced at Mathias, raising my eyebrows inquisitively.

-"The other camp of time-travelers," he mouthed silently.

I oohed in understanding.

-"So, when should we go to the training room?"

-"In approximately ten minutes," intervened James.

-"Then I guess I'll leave you here and go back to my lab," Mathias suggested. "I'll see you soon, guys."

-"Au revoir, Matt!" exclaimed Lucas.

-"Au revoir, Luke," Mathias replied, with a smile.

After this little exchange, we headed towards the training room, me, James, and Lucas.

We were the first ones to arrive, and so we chatted a bit while waiting for the others.

Soon enough, Zoe and Francesco entered the room, laughing together.

Francesco, laughing?

Something was wrong.

I didn't ponder this question much, however, because we had more important things on hand. Emma had arrived, and, by the looks of it, was having a bad day.

Storming inside, she ordered us to prepare ourselves and effectuate a few travels to warm up and get ready for our training.

-"Today's session," Emma started, "won't be like the everyday lessons we've been doing. What we will learn this afternoon is something different and slightly harder than normal time-travel."

-"Interesting," I commented.

She ignored me-- which was quite surprising-- and continued the class as if I didn't exist.

-"I will teach you guys how to transport someone through time. You see, in a mission, your partner can get injured or shot, and in that case, they might not be able to use their powers to travel back to the present. In these circumstances, you have to transport them back here, which is why we'll be practicing how to do that today."

-"Hmm, that sounds pretty useful indeed," I observed, nodding my head.

-"Yeah, well shut up and let Emma speak," Francesco sweetly cut in.

-"Thank you, Francesco," Emma replied with a smile, while I tried to murder him with my gaze. "Now, since today's exercise is all about transporting people and supporting our partners, I put you in pairs."

-"Of course you did," I mumbled, rolling my eyes.

And it wasn't hard to guess who she paired me with, seeing how much she wanted me to be comfortable and at ease during our lessons.

-"Zoe, you'll go with James. Lucas, you'll train with me, and Paul, you will work with Francesco."

-"Oh, what a surprise! I did not expect that!" I said sarcastically.