Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

Cal had stolen the keycard from one of the workers. This time around he was in Seattle and his goal was to get a good idea on the layout of the lab itself. Once he had that the plan was to flee the country to Ralth’s caverns for the rest of the loop.

The other two groups had the same orders and they were all making their moves tonight as well. Jen was sure any attempt at one location would lead to increased security at all locations, so it had to be a coordinated effort. Everyone was to record their break in, and the second any resistance was seen they were to drop their recording devices into the cracks that were placed on each door and then attempt to make a getaway. If the breakin could be done with discovery, they still were to drop the device in the crack and head for their plane.

Cal added encrypted audio communication to a growing list of things he wanted to learn. He hated being out of contact with his family in the middle of something like this, but as of now he couldn’t risk anyone tapping their conversation, and that was assuming nothing in here was jamming any exterior signal. That was also a strong possibility.

He slid the keycard through the reader, the light flashed green. So far so good he thought as he pushed the open. He was happy to find no one in the room either. His research into the researcher’s schedules had paid off. He started recording and moved the cellphone around the room making sure to hit all corners.

The generator was wired into several locations, from a raised table in the center of the room. It looked like he could just rip the wires out and push it through a crack. The idea that this was all becoming feasible brightened his outlook. While he had been doing his best to hide it, he had been stuck in a gloom since he learned about their time limit. Now he was determined that it could be done.

He started to scan the room for the stone. Not immediately spotting it, he took a different approach and followed each wire from the generator until he found several running to a locked cabinet. He fished out the keycard from his pocket and tried it on the reader. The door popped open.

Sitting inside was the stone. It was inside some sort of glass container. Cal didn’t dare touch the stone, he was afraid of causing an earlier end. Instead he closed the door carefully. He did one final look around the room with the phone and dropped it through the crack, exiting the room as soon as the crack vanished. He dropped the keycard in a trash can as he walked towards the elevators.

*

Cal was sitting at the table in Ralth’s waiting for everyone else to arrive. All recordings had made it safely, sadly he had no way to know if that was true of the people though. If anyone was missing in a day he would assume the worst had happened, but at least right now he had everything he needed to prepare for the next loop. Next time the war council went to war.

No one else arrived.

With the limited resources they had access to in the caves Cal and Andy tried to determine where everything went wrong. They went over the other two records together. The labs were nearly identical to the one Cal had investigated. Nothing happened to them during the breakin phase. Something must have gone wrong during the escape.

“So what do we do?” Andy asked.

“I don’t know, there’s only another few months left in the loop anyway. I could try another Agency interaction. It’s not like I’ll gain any other useful information moping around the caves.” Cal wasn’t happy at the idea, but at least it was something. The idea of his family being tortured was a recurring fear he couldn’t shake.

“Where do you want to start then?”

“I guess I just try flying back and see if anything happens there. I think I’ll start with Boston and check on the house there.” He waited for any dissent from Andy, but got none.

“Do you want me to come?”

“No, Ralth may still need you, plus I want future Andy to look over the maps and let Ralth know if there is anything missing that he can think of.”

“Good point, alright when are you leaving?”

“Now, I’m too antsy to just wait around, I’ve gotta try doing something. The coming deadline has had me on edge for years now. It’s a feeling I don’t recommend.”

*

Cal opened the front door at his dad’s house. He had no issues returning so far, which concerned him more. How had only his family been spotted and not him, more concerning as he searched the house was that he found no signs of a struggle anywhere. His younger half brothers had obviously taken, but where and when? His anger rose the longer he waited around and he finally decided it was time to see where his abilities ranked against some government agents.

He picked up his phone, looked up the local non emergency police line and called them. After a few rings someone answered the other end. “Hello Mr. Marshall, ready to discuss your missing family now?”

“That was what I was calling about, yes, if you could send a car to pick me up, I’m sure you know where I am.” Cal did his best to keep the anger from infecting his voice.

“We do, they just pulled into the driveway. If you could get into the back we can have you reunited with your family shortly.” The voice was monotone, Cal wasn’t even sure if it was human or AI.

“Can do, see you shortly.” Cal walked out of the house and climbed in the car. He on who’s side this counted as a trap for. There was no realistic way they knew what he was about to unleash, but he also had no clue what they were capable of. He decided this meant it was a fair fight. He looked out the window, the car was speeding down a highway to its destination.

“So are either of you allowed to talk to me?” He asked the two men in the front seats. He got no answer in return. “Yeah I thought not, too bad. I was going to tell you about my secret army of talking ninja capybaras chefs.”

A few more minutes passed in silence before the car pulled into a parking lot. “Out, go through the front door.” The driver turned his head and spoke for the first time.

“It was a pleasure, I don’t have any money for the tip, sorry guys.” Cal’s fake smile was becoming harder to hold as he left the car and walked through the doors. He walked up to the front desk. There was another man in a suit sitting behind it.

“Hi, I’m Cal Marshall, My family and I recently broke into several of your secure facilities in order to prepare for an alien invasion that you are incapable of stopping. In repayment you kidnapped them all. I believe I have an appointment.”

A door opened to Cal’s left. “I’ve got him, Bob. Despite the hyperbole, he is expected.” A man called out from the door. “Come with me Cal, let’s go see your family.” The man was dressed in the usual Agency suits, likely meant to make them resemble any other government agency. He was nearly as tall as Cal. Cal guessed physically he was a few years older.

“Have you hurt them?”

“No, well the dog hurt herself a bit, she had to be restrained, but as of right now everyone is fine, and they can stay that way if you cooperate.”

“I want to see them now. Then we can discuss any possible terms.” The rage started to bleed into his words. His tone came with a very strong implied threat.

“Fine, follow me.”

They walked through several branching hallways, stopping every so often for the man to unlock a door. Eventually Cal heard his family in the distance. Stan was trying to convince the kids everything would be okay.

“Everything will be okay dad, I’m here now.” Cal yelled to his family. His yell was greeted with a series of cheers. He rounded the corner and saw them all in cells behind some sort of glass wall. “Is everyone okay?”

“Yes, but there have been a lot of threats, they made poor Bug cry.” Ethel informed Cal. Cal had never seen that look on her face before. He was sure given a chance she’d kill every one of their captors for hurting Bug. Good.

“So, I apologize for what you’re all about to see, but as we only have a few months left, I thought it was best we try out some prototypes, and I see just what these agents are capable of.”

“Mr. Marshall I strongly sugge…” The agent's words were cut off as Cal slammed his palm into the glass. He had a pebble sitting in his palm. Within seconds the glass started to crack, and shattered, in its place floating a crack in midair.

“This is one of the newly refined cracks, bigger than usual, Dad, if you could stay here and document everything you see and toss the recording through.” Cal tossed his dad a cellphone. He then turned to the man who had brought him in here. “Give me your keycard.”

“No. I’ve already alerted the facility of this, you aren’t going anywhere.”

“I highly doubt that you can contain me.” Cal responded as he pushed electricity through his feet causing him to fly forward. He tackled the man hard. He found a pair of handcuffs in the man’s coat and secured him with them, just as the door opened to several men with riot gear pouring in.

Cal raised his right hand and fired a small lightning bolt from each of his fingers, not aiming for any particular target. His chaos gambit worked, their formation broken as the men scattered. Some dived to the ground, others just ran away. One of them managed to hold it together and pulled out a radio while dodging. “We have a problem, he’s got mana enhanced. Strongly, we will need an ogre.”

“What the fuck is an ogre?” Cal yelled at the man as he threw more lightning into the group. He dug his feet into the ground, pushing stone energy as he did so. He covered himself in a thin veneer of electricity and ejected himself forward through the door into the fleeing men. An elevator door dinged in the hall. Cal turned his head to see who was joining the fight. The doors opened revealing a small man. His hair was on fire. “That’s new. Some kind of flame or lava spirit?” Cal asked the man.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” The man yelled back. “I am a world of fire and you will burn!” He spat fire as he talked. Cal had a feeling this man wasn’t exactly sane. He also noticed there was some sort of collar around his neck.

“Hey buddy, are they using that collar to control you? Want me to break it?” Cal asked as he leaped to the side, avoiding a fireball. The hallway was getting uncomfortably warm.

“You break that and we’re all dead.” The guy who summoned the ogre yelled from the prison room.

“Sounds like a good thing to try then. I’m not big on the idea that the government gets to enslave magic users like myself.” He fired off several lightning bolts aiming for the collar. Two of them hit home and the device began to sizzle. The ogre reached his hand to the collar and it began to glow bright red. Cal assumed he was also working to free himself. The collar melted off his neck.

Suddenly a voice seemed to come from everywhere. “Ogre containment broken, scrubbing protocols in effect.”

“Dammit, you idiot, I told you, now we all die.” The man in the prisoner area screamed as the building started to rumble.

“Cal I tossed the phone through to Ralth, we are good there.” Stan shouted to his son.

“Perfect.” Cal ran to his family, he wanted to be with them as he felt the explosion rock the building. The loop once again ended in a fiery explosion.