by Qray » Sun Apr 10, 2005 4:07 pm
For having just learned he was a father to a bouncing baby girl of nineteen, Q was taking it well.
“I mean, you’ve been here the entire time,” the rogue slurred to an empty barstool. Having downed four glasses of PGGB’s two at a time in rapid succession. “Why didn’t you tell me! Oh the humanity of it all!”
Although rumored to have a promiscuous reputation, the rogue had always been very careful to take precautions so that this sort of thing didn’t happen. Not that he didn’t like kids...someone had to fetch the t.v. remote. He just didn’t think it’d be fair to ask one to grow up under his tutelage. I mean...c’mon...think of it...Q, as your dad!?!?!?
Case in point...
“And YOU!” the rogue said whirling on another empty barstool behind him. “Did I just hear you laugh, mister? Think it’s funny do you? Well I’ll...” and the rogue preceded to wrestle the stool down to the ground.
Back at the booth, Harley didn’t look on with the shock or shame that one might expect, but with a grin of happiness on her face. “I never thought I’d see that.”
“What?” Veneno asked glancing back at the rogue and then rolling her eyes at the embarrassing display. “Q acting like an idiot?”
Harley’s eyes beamed. “Yeah. Isn’t it wonderful.”
Veneno looked to Harley as if she were just as touched in the head as Q. “Wonderful!?!?!?”
“You see, something happened on the Circus world,” the girl said. “Something really bad. You, Q, all of you...Lastone, WildCard, Merle, Nomad, Hyper, even Aglaranna, you were never the same again. I mean, he wasn’t a BAD father. Just the opposite in fact, but he was always very dark, very serious, very withdrawn. As were all of you afterwards. Like the weight of the universe weighed down on top of you. Originally the Clown’s transport device didn’t materialize you outside the big top. It dropped you inside a containment area. You were captured and I don’t know what they did to you, but it was bad. Really bad. You DID eventually escape and win the day, but whatever happened to you there, it changed all of you forever.” She laughed as she watched her father get the better of the barstool. “I never thought I’d see him like this. I mean, I’ve heard stories, but I almost dared not believe them. I mean MY father, acting like this...so...so free.”
Veneno rolled her eyes again. “Free as a jacka$$.”
Harley laughed again. “Yeah, ain’t it cool.”
“Wait a minute,” Veneno said. “So your saying YOU guys switched the Clown’s transport briefcase.”
Vagabond nodded. “It was extremely hard to do, but we figured it would give you just enough of the fighting chance you needed. We dared not change too much of the past.”
“That’s why we came back in time,” Warp said with a nod.
“And we need to get out of here before the Time Cops find out,” Gunphur added. Finishing off his third dish of tuna ice cream. “Too bad too. This place has got the BEST ice cream!”
“VENENO!” Q yelled. “A little help?”
Glancing over, the woman saw that the barstool was beginning to get the better of Q as the rogue was currently on his back with the stool pinning him to the floor.
“Time Cops?” she asked as she turned back to the booth. Ignoring Q.
“Unlike the time you live in, time travel has been outlawed in ours. Because of the consequences it’s been classified as a capital offense. Punishable by death if the Time Courts so decide.”
“That’s why we had to ride a temporal wave back in time,” Gunphur continued. “It’s the only means left to time travel and since it’s a natural phenomenon, trying to police who uses it is extremely difficult for the Time Cops.”
“Yeah,” said Mer-lin. “But they do eventually find out about it and come after you. It’s just a matter of time and ours is about up.”
“Say uncle!” Q yelled at the barstool as he dragged it back towards the secluded booth. “Then say ottoman! Say captain’s chair! Say loveseat!”
Harley smiled at her father as he approached the booth.
“This guy won’t be laughing at anyone for awhile,” the rogue said dropping the bent and mangled barstool at his feet. Then noticed some of the seats stuffing was stuck to his hair.
“Some of it’s on me!” brushing furiously with his hands. “Get it off! Get it off!”
“Q!” Veneno shouted grabbing the man to get his attention. “This is serious. These kids are in trouble.”
“Like barstool guts on me isn’t serious!?!?!?”
“Q.”
Q sighed in resignation. “Ok, ok. What’s the dilly-o?”
“We’ve got eight minutes before we have to leave,” Nexttolast said with a glance to her temporal readout.
“Bugger the Time Cops,” Q said dismissingly. Showing that he’d actually been paying attention to the conversation as he wrestled the barstool. Then a sudden thought struck him. “Hey, you changed what essentially is the ‘past’ for you. How can you go back. Wouldn’t...”
“We can’t,” said Harley. “We have to ride another temporal wave to another time.”
“When we changed time the way we did, we were essentially replaced in time. The past we know no longer exists. Neither do we, in a sense.” Nexttolast added.
“If we would go back to our own time there would be a different Mer-lin, Nexttolast, Harley, Warp, Vagabond, and Gunphur. Or maybe none at all depending on how your lives turned out...” Mer-lin continued.
“Not to mention a slew of Time Cops waiting for us,” Warp added. “And since we are essential duplicates, duplicates from a noncurrent timeline, the courts will most likely order our deaths as according to the law, we no longer exist.”
“So your just going to ride temporal wave after wave for the rest of your lives?” Veneno asked. “Trying to stay one step ahead of the cops?”
“You guys were good parents to us,” Harley said looking to Q. “It was worth it.”
“Technically, we’re not your parents,” Q said under a rare moment of lucidity. “By changing time, not only do you all no longer exist in your timeline, neither do we, or at least the ‘we’ that fostered you...” the rogue grabbed his head. “Smeg, time travel hurts my head.”
“Close enough,” Harley said smiling at her father. One that he showed back to her. “Smeg right,” he said.
“What gives me a headache,” Veneno said interrupting the lovefest. “Is wrapping my mind around the fact that Q was a good father.”
"Hey!" Q said offended. "I'm a froody dude who sasses where his towel is at!"
Veneno looked unconvinced.
"Anywho," Q continued. Waving off the woman. "If I know one thing...”
“Q, you don’t” Veneno interjected.
“Yeah, but if I DID,” the rogue said undeterred and got a wider grin out of Harley. “It would be that time...is very ordered.”
“How so?”
“Well...it runs in a line...you know...as in timeline? Very predictable and such unless you smeg with it.”
“So?”
“What’s the opposite of predictable?”
“YOU?” Veneno asked with a smile.
“Smeg right!” Q said slamming his fist down on the table. “And a whole bunch of me is what?”
“Oh Q,” Veneno said as the humor left her face. “Your not going to send them there, are you? Not the abandoned Amusement Park?”
“No one messes with my kid but me,” the rogue said adamantly. “You think the time cops got a chance against a whole bunch of me?”
“But, Q...your clones?”
“How would we get there?” Warp asked with growing excitement. The prospect of not running temporal waves for the rest of her life, appealing.
“There’s all kinds of ships at the dock,” Harley grinned roguishly.
“That’s my girl,” Q said with a wink.
“Mer-lin and I might be able to keep us off the cops radar until we get there.” Vagabond said. Also thinking of the possibilities of not temporal running for the rest of their lives.
“Go.” Veneno said suddenly as if it had been decided. Pulling the kids out of the booth and rushing them to the dock entrance with almost motherly concern.
“Wait,” Q said hurrying alongside Harley. “It’s obvious that Aglaranna is Nexttolast’s mum, but you gotta tell me. Who’s yours?”
“I..I really want to tell you, but I can’t,” the girl said.
“Mine’s Halle Berry,” Gunphur said quite proud.
“Really?” Q said more than a bit surprised. “Well, good on boikat! Hey Harley, it’s not...”
“Aunt WildCard?” the girl asked and then shook her head. “No and it’s not Diane Lane either.”
“Oh, ok. Smeg,” the rogue said stopping and watching the kids pass through the entrance to the docks. “Well, good luck,” he said with a wave as he pulled out the small metallic disc he’d recovered from the Clown in the tunnel. “There’s something that Veneno and I need to take care of.”
Harley gave one last look back to her father before Veneno ushered her through the dock entrance. Recording the roguish grin to memory. Something she had rarely seen him wear in her time.
“Hurry up, and...well, be safe.” the ex-MIB agent said to Harley before the girl grasped her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Whispering so softly she barely heard.
“Thanks, mom. We will.”
Last edited by
Qray on Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:27 pm, edited 3 times in total.