Once the clock finally hit 11:30, Emily and I turned the lights out and carefully snuck out of my room. We’d been playing Smash for the past three hours and our parents hadn’t suspected a thing. I grabbed the iPhone 7 off my dresser and the two of us snuck by mom and dad’s room and tiptoed down the stairs, perfectly planning our every move, skipping over the squeaky stairs that dad hadn’t taken the time to fix yet. Once we were both downstairs I made my way toward the back door and carefully stepped outside.

Using the phone’s screen as a flashlight, I opened up the breaker box and switched off the automatic front porch lights. After my sister followed me onto the patio, she carefully closed and locked the door. I followed her to the driveway where she unlocked her 1994 Honda Accord. After she got inside, she unlocked my door and I climbed into the passenger seat. Then she started the engine and at last we were off.

We arrived at the park around 11:50 and walked over to the playground where we would wait for Freddie. It was a quiet night; not many cars were out on the road and the moon and stars were obscured by the clouds. The only sounds were the wind and the crickets chirping.

“Did Freddie mention if he was bringing anyone else?” asked Emily, hanging upside down on the monkey bars.

“Yeah,” I said, “but he didn’t tell me anything about them.”

“This better not be an elaborate prank,” Emily suggested.

The possibility of Freddie pulling a prank had never dawned on me. He was an incredibly loyal friend, and pranking me would be totally out of character.

“Nah, that’s unlikely,” I decided. I climbed up on top of the swingset and scouted the area. I checked the time on my iPhone, only to find that it was 11:51. It seemed like we’d been waiting in the park for a long time, yet it had barely been a minute.

“Hey Emily,” I asked, “what do you think happened to the first six iPhones?”

“They probably got chronologically skipped because the current technology doesn’t match the company’s vision for iPhones 1 through 6,” she joked.

“That’s a good theory,” I nodded.

After what seemed like forever, it was finally midnight. Emily got down from her monkey bars and we scouted around, but there was no one to be found. We ultimately conceded that nobody was coming after all. I prepared to leave and braced myself for the frustrated Emily that would drive me home. As I turned back to the car, she pointed into the distance.

“Over there!” she exclaimed, pointing at someone running toward us at a speed that didn’t seem humanly possible. “It’s Freddie!”

“That’s him alright,” I replied, remarking the runner’s incredible speed. But as he got closer to us, we realized that he wasn’t wearing any pants. In fact, he was more or less naked from the waist down, but that wasn’t the weird part. From his waist line to his feet, he was entirely made out of metal.

“Hey Patrick,” he greeted, “and, um, hey Emily.”

“Y-You’re a…” my sister stuttered, pointing at my friend with a complete loss for words. “You’re a robot!?”

“No, actually,” Freddie corrected. “I’m a cyborg.” My friend took off his jacket to reveal his arms, which were also mechanical. “Even though my limbs are mechanical, my head and torso are as organic as you are.”

“You have some explaining to do,” I shouted. “How could you be a cyborg and not let anyone know!? How long have you been like this?!”

“Since we first met,” answered Freddie calmly.

“How did you get like this?” asked Emily, breaking her usual laid back demeanor.

“I’ll tell you later,” Freddie said. “My friend should be here soon.” Suddenly the sky lit up. The three of us looked up to see what resembled a small meteor falling directly at us. We all ran backwards as the mysterious object landed in front of Freddie, leaving a small crater in the dirt.

“Yep,” nodded Freddie the cyborg as if the most shocking thing ever hadn’t just happened, “that’s her.”

“What do you mean ‘that’s her?’” I asked. It didn’t matter, though. All of my questions were irrelevant at this point. Freddie, Emily, and I slowly approached the crater. As we got closer a coughing noise came from the hole, and a teenage girl climbed out.

“Man, who knew there wouldn’t be a building here in 1999,” muttered the girl as she straightened her blonde hair. She tucked it behind her ears, and I finally got a look at her face. She was probably the hottest girl I’d ever seen! She had perfect skin and gorgeous, dark green eyes. Her clothes were vibrant red and green that glimmered in the night. “Oh, hi,” she smiled, getting a good look at me. “My name’s Skyva Ravenstone. Sorry about the crater I left.”

“Pleased to meet you,” smiled my sister, extending her hand to Skyva the space girl while I was still processing Freddie being a cyborg. “My name’s—”

“Emily, I know,” Skyva said, cutting my sister off. “And that’s your brother Patrick. Freddie’s told me a lot about you. Patrick Robinson,” she said, turning to me, “we agree that you’re the perfect person to protect this.” Then she pulled out a flash drive and held it in front of me. There was no telling where she got a flash drive; that product wasn’t even on the market yet.

“What’s this?” I asked, eyeing the strange flash drive.

“Let’s just say that it’s the Y2K virus,” answered Skyva. I instantly burst out laughing at that idea.

“You mean the virus that’s gonna set all the computers in the world back a hundred years?” I exclaimed hysterically. “I don’t think so.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Nevertheless, you must guard it with your life,” muttered Skyva.

“Yeah, sure. What am I supposed to guard it from?” I asked.

“You see,” said Freddie, “there’s this group…”

Before Freddie could finish that sentence, a portal opened up ten feet away from us. Out stepped three men wearing gray skeleton-like masks, black shirts, pants, and boots. There was no skin visible on any of the agents. Each of them had at least one mechanical limb exposed much like Freddie’s limbs. As they approached, they took out what looked like flashlights and pointed them at us. Skyva pulled out a small gun from her holster and the three of us stood behind her.

“Are they the group?” asked Emily. Freddie nodded.

“In the future, there’s a terrorist group called the Red Mune,” explained Freddie. “They made a virus that can hijack computers across time. Looks like they sent some of their agents after us.”

“Now I’ve seen everything,” said Emily as the agents closed in on us.

“Did you really think you could get away from the Red Mune, Skyva Ravenstone?” hissed the lead agent. His arms and legs were all completely cybernetic.

“Eat this, terrorist scum,” exclaimed Skyva, firing her pistol. I guess I expected a bullet, or at the very least a laser blast, but instead a pink pellet, similar to a piece of bubble gum, fired from the gun. The gum-like substance hit the agent and trapped him inside a large, pink bubble. He was stuck in suspended animation as the bubble floated freely across the ground.

“This time period isn’t as safe as I thought,” said Skyva. “We need to go.” Skyva yanked the flash drive from my hand and placed it back in her pocket. She looked back into the crater quickly and pulled out what looked like a control panel. “Quick! Grab on!” she yelled with urgency in her voice.

Just as Freddie, Emily, and I were about to grab onto the control panel, a Red Mune agent shined his flashlight at the panel. It instantly caught fire and Skyva dropped it. Without thinking, I charged at the left agent.

“Patrick,” yelled Skyva, “what are you doing?”

I completely ignored her, running at the agent and dodging his flashlight. The agent dropped his weapon as I jumped on top of him. Unlike the other agents, he only had one mechanical limb: his right arm. As I pinned him to the ground, I stomped on the arm trying to break it, but to no avail. Then I heard the sound of something small snapping underneath my foot. At the same time, the agent stopped fighting back. He wasn’t dead or knocked out, he just gave up. Suddenly another agent’s flashlight shined on me.

At that moment I realized that it was no ordinary flashlight. It was a ray of hot, burning light. I could do nothing but stand in horror as my body was being fried from the inside out like an ant under a magnifying glass. I slowly crumpled to the ground, accepting my fate. Just as I was about to be completely fried, she shot the man trying to kill me with her bubble gun. She then pulled out a syringe that looked similar to an EpiPen and stabbed it through my shirt and into my stomach. In an instant the pain was gone and I was back to full strength. Freddie helped me to my feet and the four of us gathered together.

“Are you alright, Patrick?” asked Freddie.

“Never better,” I answered.

“We need to escape back to our time,” said Skyva. “The four of us will be safe there.”

“Where would ‘your time’ be?” Emily asked Freddie and Skyva.

“We’re from the year 2999,” said Skyva. “Freddie and I work for an organization called the Protectors that’s dedicated to keeping peace all around the world.”

“That’s not too unbelievable,” said Emily. “Either you were time travelers or aliens.”

“So you’ve both been introduced to the Red Mune,” said Freddie. “They made a virus called the Y3K that will hijack every computer from the year 2000 onward. We thought Patrick would be a good choice to guard it, but apparently we’re not safe here.”

“And my teleporter’s busted thanks to that flashbeam,” sighed Skyva, holding what was left of the control panel. “So it looks like we’re stranded.”

“Maybe not,” interjected the sinister, cracked voice of the Red Mune agent lying on the ground. “I could help you.”

“And why should we trust you?” asked Freddie.

“When your friend stomped on my arm, he destroyed my Red Mune programming chip,” the agent continued, standing up and removing his mask. He was no older than me, yet his pale face was covered with scars and burn marks. There was hardly any hair on his head. He had deep blue eyes that conveyed genuine sincerity.

“This guy could be a double agent,” argued Skyva, glaring at him. As she spoke, he walked over to me and hugged me tightly.

“I love you, sir,” he said happily, slowly cutting off my oxygen supply. “Consider me in your service.” His ominous voice changed to a normal, childlike tone.

“He seems trustworthy,” I reasoned to my friends. “What’s your name?” I asked the agent, awkwardly shaking him off of me.

“My name is Rys Jiiles,” he answered with a big dumb smile. “The arms of Red Mune agents can teleport across time and space. The five of us can travel back to 2999 and defeat Cypus Skavenge.”

“Who’s Cypus Skavenge?” asked my sister.

“He’s the leader of the Red Mune,” Freddie clarified.

Just as he finished that sentence, three more Red Mune agents teleported around us. Their flashbeamers were at the ready and they seemed a lot more confident than the first three agents that attacked us.

“Hand over the USB, Ravenstone,” growled the lead agent.

“Never!” exclaimed Freddie, extending his arms in front of Emily and me.

“Ah, Fryscus,” the agent laughed coldly, “Master Skavenge will be pleased with your capture.”

“Your real name is Fryscus?” I asked Freddie.

“What, did you think ‘Freddie’ was short for ‘Frederick?’” he shrugged.

“Don’t hurt my friends,” cried Rys, pointing his flashbeamer at the three agents.

“You have disappointed Master Skavenge for the last time, Rys Jiiles,” hissed one of the agents. “I never understood why he thought of recruiting a coward like you. Now you must die.”

“Grab on!” Rys yelled, extending his arm in front of us as the Red Mune agents sprinted closer. Freddie, Skyva, Emily and I firmly grasped Rys’ arm as he prepared to teleport us away. But just before we could make our escape, an agent with one mechanical arm and two mechanical legs grabbed Emily by the waist as the other two prepared to flashbeam us.

“Let me go!” screamed Emily as the agent swung her over his shoulder.

“No!” I yelled, letting go of Rys’ arm.

“We can save her later,” exclaimed Freddie, stretching out his free hand and grabbing my wrist. I gazed in horror at the terrorists who held my terrified sister. Less than a second later, Rys teleported the four of us away from Bacon. I was helpless to save my sister as my friends and I were catapulted across time and space.

There’s no real way to describe the sensation of time travel. It was as if a massive force was dragging my face through a brick wall and yet it tickled. All of my bones felt as if they were disintegrating a thousand times a second and my heart was beating at a hundred miles per hour. All the while I screamed my lungs out and my companions remained calm. Visions of my life flashed before my eyes. My body temperature went up and down faster than I could keep track. I couldn’t take it anymore, and before I knew it, it was all over. Everything went back to normal and I passed out.