Deep in the forest, fallen leaves blew along the ground. The wind blew quietly through the trees, and the faint sound of a city could be heard from the distance. The leaves crunched as Arthur stood up, eyes wide in terror. He fell back onto his knees and vomited.

What the hell was that?

Who were those people?

He breathed rapid, shallow breaths.

“Rain or shine…”

He collapsed onto the ground and laid there for a while.

He stood up and slowly walked towards the city.

What should I do?

He grabbed the clothes from the trash and put them on.

I need to get to Steven and Charlie.

He walked towards the orphanage.

We need to find out who those people were.

He entered the orphanage, where a girl was sleeping on the desk at the front.

“Excuse me.” Arthur said.

The girl jolted awake “huh? What's happening? Who's there?”

She picked up a pair of glasses from under the desk and put them on, inspecting the boy in front of her closely.

“Do you need something?” She asked, yawning in the middle of her sentence.

“I need a place to stay.”

The girl suddenly looked excited “is that so! Hold on just a moment, I'll be right back!”

She rushed up the stairs behind her.

Sofia…

After a few minutes, Steven came down the stairs.

Before he could say anything, Arthur spoke.

“Hello Steven.”

“Oh, uh, hello? Do I know you?”

“Not yet, no.”

“Not yet?”

“Yes. My name is Arthur, and I have come here from 3 years in the future.”

Steven laughed awkwardly.

“I… see?”

“Please believe me.” Arthur pointed to the locked basement door. “Behind that door is the basement, where there is a wall covered in guns, most of which are custom made by an old friend of yours.”

Steven’s eyes widened.

“Who are you?”

“Go get Charlie, I'll explain everything.”

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Steven hesitated before nodding and walking upstairs to get Charlie.

Steven came walking down the stairs, with Charlie right behind him.

“So what's going on? I was kind of busy, you know.” Charlie said to steven.

“Hello Charlie.” Arthur said.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Arthur.”

Steven took out the key and unlocked the basement door.

“Follow me.” He said.

Charlie stared at Arthur from the corner of his eye, occasionally glancing back at Steven.

Once they made it down the stairs, Steven walked over to the wall and pulled the cloth down, revealing the wall of guns.

Charlie's eyes went wide.

“What the hell? Steven, what is this?”

“An old friend of mine was a big fan of guns. Eventually he started making his own. Most of these are originals, made by him.”

He gently rubbed the barrel of a large gun.

He looked back at Arthur, eyes filled with a mixture of fear and confusion.

“Now, tell me Arthur, who are you?”

Arthur turned towards Charlie.

“Charlie, you are designing a time machine right now, right?”

Charlie's eyes went even wider.

“How'd you know that?”

“Because that's how I got here.”

Charlie's jaw dropped, and he began muttering something to himself.

Steven ran up to Arthur and grabbed his shoulders.

“You're telling me Charlie creates a working time machine in 3 years?!”

“No, it takes much longer than that. I came here from the far future, when a dystopian government took over. I traveled back to this time, and lived life as normal for 3 years, until…”

“Until what?”

“You, me, and Charlie began working together to prevent the dystopia, and on my first mission I was killed by a group of men in suits and bowler hats.”

“You were killed? Then… how are you here?”

Charlie suddenly chimed in.

“The time machine doesn't just send you back. It also allows you to return back to where- or rather, when- you first traveled to upon death.”

“Why?”

“Because, if such a feature isn't included, it'd be very easy for someone to accidentally trap the world in an infinite time loop that no one is aware of.”

“What do you mean?”

“Okay, so imagine I build my machine and decide to use it to go back in time and tell myself to, oh I don't know, where a different color shirt. The reason I'm going back doesn't matter. But when I go back, I die before I can ever interact with that time’s version of me. This causes the ‘me’ from that time to continue the cycle by also going back and dying, which traps the world in an infinitely repeating cycle. Sending memories back upon death prevents this from happening.”

“I see…” Steven looked down, processing everything he'd just been told.

Charlie spoke to Arthur.

“So, what do you know about the people who killed you? Are they involved with the dystopia?”

“I don't know. All I really know about them is what they looked like.”

“Alright, then let's start with that.” He took out a notebook and a pencil and prepared to begin writing.

“All of them wore black suits and bowler hats except one, who's bowler hat and suit was a dark blue. It seemed like that one was the leader.”

“Gotcha.”

“The one in blue had a mask on with little silver decorations.”

“Can you draw what the mask looked like?”

“Sure.”

Arthur took the notebook and began drawing.

He gave it back to Charlie, who inspected the drawing closely.

“Interesting…”

“Do you recognize it?”

“Nope. I just think it's a pretty neat design. Continue.”

“They all wore a small pin with a small design and some words on it. I couldn't read the words, but the design was an umbrella in front of the sun with rain coming from under it.”

“The rain was coming from under the umbrella?”

“Yes.”

“I see. Anything else?”

“Yes. They hardly spoke, and when they did they only said one thing.”

“What did they say?”

“‘Rain or shine.’”

“Weird. Well, I guess there’s only one thing left to do.”

“And what’s that?”

“Find the guys who killed you, obviously!”

“I don’t know if we should…”

“Why not?”

“I’m worried that they’ll…”

“They’ll what?”

“Nevermind. Let’s do it.”

“Alright! Steven, get the computers out, we have a mysterious group of people to find!”