“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa//////////////////eeundercase HOLY fuck” ; Pantalones (using the thing for Pantalones now? Forgot what I said about the semicolon thing earlier so I guess that’s how it’s going to be right now).

“It c4n be very disorienting on your first entry, yes.” ; Sam.

“i@ ca%n tell.))” ; Pantalones. He shakes his body off a bit, and begins to feel the symptoms of nausea lessen dramatically. The symptoms are very brief, it would seem.

The 3R does not contain the vivid yellow features of the 2R, and instead opts for an almost-black color instead, making Pantalones feel a little uneasy despite the passage being well lit. There is a long hallway ahead of them, and a bright white light at the very end, a glaring contrast. They walk for a while along this hallway, until Pantalones speaks.

“so. what’s exactly do we do? how can we move back in time?”

“4t the end of the tunnel, the white light will tr4nsport us b4ck in time. The only downside is th4t we c4n only spend 4 limited 4mount of time there before we 4re er4sed perm4nently.” ; Sam.

“what?? what do you mean, erased permanently? how much time do we have?” ; Pantalones.

“I guess I should h4ve mentioned this beforeh4nd, huh? But ye4h, it’s 4round 20 minutes, give or t4ke 4 few. Which is why we’ve got to hurry.” ; Sam.

“what?! that’s it? why would we be erased permanently in the past? what’s the point?” ; Pantalones.

“It is 4 s4fegu4rd in pl4ce to m4ke sure people don’t do ex4ctly wh4t we’re 4bout to, bec4use if time tr4vel is used recklessly in some scen4rios, it c4n be pretty b4d. 4nd it h4s been used very recklessly before by cert4in people, 4 few times, 4ctu4lly.” ; Sam.

“i see. i guess we really do have to make this as quick and stealthy as possible then, huh. is it just going to be the exact same, like, scenario or situation or whatever that jim and i were in half an hour ago or so?” ; Pantalones.

“Yes, ex4ctly the s4me. From wh4t I s4w, 4ll we re4lly h4ve to do is just get Jim out of there before the e4rthqu4ke begins. Or, if it does begin, just m4ke sure th4t he 4ctu4lly comes out of there.” ; Sam. He frowns, and begins to walk slightly faster. Pantalones starts to relay the situation again in his mind, despite trying to not think about it. But there it was, Jim getting his heavy flamethrower arm stuck, his cries for help, and then Pantalones and Sam running away. His conscience couldn’t handle it, with everything so fresh in his head still.

Sam, on the other hand, was rather troubled about the situation they were about to put themselves in, but for a different reason. When they were in his room for research, he checked one of his monitors, titled “PTTA”, with a sticky note on the side of the monitor that said “(Past Timeline Travel Activity)”. He noticed that at 2:43 PM, approximately 30 seconds after he and Pantalones left through the portal he created, there was another entity that traveled from a different timeline to this current one (when he reads the notation right next to the dot that marks this travel, it said something along the lines of this. Although I become more knowledgeable about the world the more time I spend narrating, I still do not know everything about it. Not even close, really. Just snippets of information . . . pulse to me. God, I’m becoming SBMIII).

What exactly this means? Guess we’ll find out.

Sam and Pantalones are now only a few feet behind the white light. Pantalones covers his eyes with his hands and squints. He takes a deep breath.

“4lright, 4re you re4dy?” ; Sam.

“i guess. the plan is just to find jim, and get him out? wait, how do we get him out of there? will you summon another one of your portal things?” ; Pantalones.

“Yes, I will. It should be r4ther quick though, considering 4ll we h4ve to do is get Jim into the port4l. Even so, I’ve got 4, uh. Y’know wh4t, let’s just go. Just w4nt to m4ke this 4s swift 4s possible.” ; Sam.

“alright, i feel you. well, ladies first.” Pantalones. Sam smiles faintly. He walks through, and Pantalones follows.

As he walks through, he feels a gust of wind breeze past his body. He’s now completely blinded by the white light, and can’t help but close his eyes. After a couple seconds, the white light fades, and he his standing on an island.

The island is the one Jim’s house resided on, although the two islands don’t look very separate, due to them having collided. Pantalones sees the WKMD, and right by it, Jim and . . .

“no way, that’s actually me!” ; Pantalones whisper yells.

“Yup. Let’s run over there, 4nd get this done 4s f4st 4s we c4n.” ; Sam. They begin to jog, and soon are noticed by the other Jim and the other Pantalones.

“Woah, what the hell? Pantalones, look! It’s fucking you!” Jim yells. The other Pantalones squints, and notices the two figures.

“what the fuck? is that actually me? what is going on here.” ; other Pantalones. Sam and Pantalones approach Jim and the other Pantalones, all of them now standing right by the WKMD, in the center of the two islands.

“Ok4y, 4g4in there is not much time to expl4in wh4t is going to h4ppen. 4ll you two need to know is you’ve got to come with us, or else you’ll both die. Or 4t le4st, Jim will. 4n e4rthqu4ke is 4bout to st4rt, 4nd it is of utmost import4nce th4t you two survive through it.” ; Sam.

“uh. can you like explain to us who you guys are first. like why is ME there?” ; other Pantalones.

“Yeah, what he said.” ; Jim.

“okay to make this as snappy as possible i’m from the future, you guys are from the past. in this past, jim assumedly dies, and you—” Pantalones points towards the other Pantalones “—are saved by this guy here who makes a portal and saves me. so if you don’t come right now that’s exactly what is going to happen. come on, me, be reasonable here. this game is full of crazy shit and this is no exception.” ; Pantalones.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The other Pantalones and Jim share a look.

“alright. let’s go, Jim.” ; other Pantalones. Sam nods.

“NOW WAIT JUST ONE SECOND.” ; SBMIII.

“Shit, I forgot 4bout this. Ok4y, so Pantalones and Jim, the c4t is 4n enemy who is just trying to t4ke over the g4me 4nd—” ; Sam.

“POLITELY SHUT UP, SAM. WHILE I REALLY DIDN’T WANT TO TAKE CONTROL OF THIS SESSION SO EARLY, I SUPPOSE YOU LEAVE ME NO CHOICE NOW, HUH. RIGHT, WELL. IF WE’RE GOING TO DO IT THE HARD WAY, WE’LL DO IT THE HARD WAY. HOPE YOU’RE READY TO FACE THE BEST MAGMA-VOID PROTOTYPE AROUND!” ; SBMIII.

But not just yet. Because right at that moment, a portal appears, and out comes a figure. It’s Sam.

“FUCKING HELL, DUDE. CAN’T MY JOB BE EASY, FOR ONCE?” ; SBMIII. The other Sam looks at Sam, and they share their own look. The other Sam thinks for a second, and says:

“Jim died?”

“Yeah. You get it?” ; Sam.

“I believe I do. Combine our dice rolls?” ; other Sam. Sam nods, and the earthquake begins.

“Shit, hurry./Shit!/SHIT.” ; Sam + other Sam, Jim, and SBMIII say together.

“VOID BLAST, FORM ONE!” ; SBMIII yells. She flies up into the air, and from SBMIII’s eyes, two black lightning bolts erupt, hitting the ground beneath the two Sams almost instantaneously. The ground fades to a pitch black, but before it can finish, Sam yells:

“Oh, shut the fuck up, you don’t h4ve to yell like 4n idiot! Now, Sam!” They both whisper “Growth Roll, defense form!”, and throw a die from the inside of their jacket below them, then they both jump, all in perfect synchronization. The two die combine, quickly expand in size, now twenty feet by twenty feet, and both Sams fly up on top of it.

“Both Pantalones-es 4nd Jim, run to the port4l I just m4de 4s f4st 4s you c4n. One of the Pantalones, try to sh4peshift into something th4t c4n fly 4nd c4rry Jim, the other one just sh4peshift 4nd get the hell out!” ; Sam says frantically.

“i’ll grab jim, you go. trust me on this, myself.” ; Pantalones. The other Pantalones, while confused, nods, and shapeshifts into a pair of khaki pants. Pantalones too shapeshifts into khaki pants, but has two arms protruding out from the pockets. He grabs Jim with them, and starts to fly to the portal, which is by Jim’s house.

“HELL NO. VOID WALL, FORM EXPEL!” ; SBMIII. Another two black lightning bolts erupt from SBMIII’s eyes on the ground a few yards ahead of both Pantalones’ and Jim, but only a few feet behind the portal Sam created. Where the lighting bolts strike, a giant, pitch black wall with no discernible texture reaches into the air, and expands at a great rate. While thin, it becomes hundreds of feet tall and wide in just a few seconds.

“what do we do now? i don't know if i can fly that high with jim!” ; Pantalones.

“Don’t worry 4bout it, just fly 4s high 4s you c4n 4nd I’ll give you 4 boost!” ; Sam. He throws another die from within his jacket to his right side, where it lands on the giant die, and whispers “Luck Factor, weapon form!”. The other Sam hears this, throws a die from within his pocket a few feet above where the first die landed, but he doesn’t whisper anything. Instead, he lets the first die roll, and with a blast of water from his feet, flies into the air. The die lands on the “5” side, and transforms into a bow. Sam throws it upwards, and the other Sam catches the bow and die mid-air, and in a few swift movements, launches the die with the bow right into the void wall, right below where Pantalones is flying up.

Right as the die hits the wall, the other Sam whispers, “Luck Factor, boost form!”. The die, at that moment, reads “3” when upright, and the die transforms into a tiny little blue bomb, which then explodes, all within a fraction of a second. Pantalones goes flying upwards at an incredibly quick speed, and within another second, he’s almost at the top.

“Nice boost bomb, me!” ; Sam.

“Ye4h, good te4mw—” ; other Sam begins to say, but not before SBMIII yells another spell.

“SUMMON VOID KNIFE!” ; SBMIII. A pitch black knife appears in one of her paws, and she flies down to the side of the die.

“Jump off the die, Sam! SBMIII’s 4bout to cut it!” ; Sam. They both begin to run off, sprinting as fast as they can.

“VOID CUT, FORM THREE!” ; SBMIII. Instead of cutting the dice in half, though, SBMIII flies up, and the void cut summons nine more pitch black knifes, which go flying towards both of the Sams. The other Sam summons a giant bubble of floating water, while Sam throws a die into the water and whispers “Luck Factor, Pollute!”. The die explodes in the water, and makes it green. The knifes all fly into the water, and slow down dramatically, and then come to a stop right at the edge of the bubble.

“There’s no w4y th4t we’re both going to be 4ble to both get out of here 4live, Sam, so you just go, 4nd I’ll t4ke c4re of SBMIII.” ; other Sam says.

“No! I c4n’t h4ve you die on us. SBMIII will kill you if you fight! She’s just too powerful.” ; Sam.

SBMIII yells “VOID CUT, FORM THREE!” again, but this time the black knifes that fly have a dark orange, bright, and smoking substance on them, presumably magma. The two Sams blast themselves into the air with their water powers (or whatever the hell it is they’re using) to dodge.

“Which is why I’m not going to fight! I’m just going to get the hell out of here, esc4pe through 4 port4l or something. Just trust me, we’ve got to h4ve 4t le4st one of us 4live in the c4se th4t I do die, for everyone else depending on us!” ; other Sam. They fall back to the ground, and roll to cushion their fall.

SBMIII yells, “VOID BLAST, FORM ☻!”, and another two lightning bolts erupt from SBMIII’s eyes, straight forward into the air. They don’t land on anything, however, and instead crackle in the air, growing louder by the second. The other Sam looks at Sam.

“Go! You know wh4t this 4bility is, run! I’ll figure out 4 w4y to esc4pe, I promise. Combine!” ; other Sam. Sam nods reluctantly and, fighting his willpower and instinct to help, he blasts himself with water into the air away from where they were fighting, rolls a dice out in front of him, and whispers “Luck Factor combine, boost form!”. The other Sam throws a die right by the one Sam threw out, and yells the same thing. They both land on “6”, and a large purple “boost bomb” (as they call it) appears, and explodes, Sam then blasting himself away from the battlefield again with his water powers.

The result is him flying at an incredible speed towards the top of the void wall, and in just a few seconds, he flies over the top, and sees both Pantalones’ and Jim, already right by the portal. He lands on the island Jim’s house resides on, and rolls, next to the others.

“Don’t w4it for me, just go!” ; Sam. The others nod, and all run through the portal. Sam waits for a second, and looks up into the air. He sees a different portal open, and out comes . . . himself, again. Except this time it’s not exactly him. Instead he recognizes the figure as his counterpart, Sams.

“and what in th3 h3ll might b3 going on h3r3?” ; Sams. Sam stares for another moment, then hopes for his past self’s safety. Hearing the growing crackle of lightning from the eyes of SBMIII, he runs into the portal, and doesn’t look back.