Lory and I followed Funk through the swamp, I wondered if Haley was truly stuck in the underworld. What is she going through? Haley must be going through rough waters. Maybe she will meet Stevie, if he goes to the underworld as well. Lory poked me, “What are you thinking about?”
“I am just wondering, what is going on in the underworld.”
Lory nodded, “I am uncertain if we made the right decision anymore.”
“Haley can take care of herself, I am sure of it.”
Lory took my hand, “She is probably missing us, and wanting to be with us again.”
Funk called out, “Are you slowpokes coming or not?” We both nodded and picked up our pace. It did not take long for us to reach the broken down house.
Funk smiled, “This brings back memories, it seems so long ago.”
I chuckled, “For me, it is long ago.”
We went into the house, it looked better on the inside than I had expected. I sat down in one of the chairs. Funk pulled out a sandwich while sitting down. Lory looked around, “We are safe here, right?”
I nodded, “We are as safe as we could possibly be. Poluma is close by, as for Boluga.”
Funk nodded, “That will be one hell of a ride.”
Lory dusted off her tail, “I am missing showers already.”
I looked at Funk, “Now tell me, what the fuck are you hiding?”
Funk shrugged, “I am not hiding anything.”
Lory pointed at him, “That is why the pull of the ethereal vortex did not work on you. You are far too powerful for that thing.”
I gasped, “The void, he strolled through it with ease, Funk is a secret badass.”
He chuckled, “If only it were that easy, I just had an angry burst of energy, that is all.”
Lory shook her head, “No, you are hiding something.”
Funk smiled, “if you get off my back, all the way off my back, then I might tell you one day. Not a single word about this anymore, or I will spill your secret, Lory.”
I pulled out a sandwich for me and Lory, all three of us started to silently eat while pulling some coffee out of our inventory, no one wanted to say something anymore. Suddenly, a breeze came through the house, a pink portal opened up. I walked over towards it since no one came out. “Hello?”
I heard voices on the other side, “Oh my fucking god, Eric, you did it! You opened a time portal.”
I heard another voice, a familiar one. “Eric and Erica, what in god’s name did I tell you?”
That voice, it sounded like, “Haley?”
“Close that fucking portal right now, or else.”
“But mom, if we close it, we are not going to get another shot at this, we just wanted to help you.”
I stretched my hand through the portal, Lory looked at me, “Are you certain that is safe, Steve?”
“Well, the portal is stable, I could take a peek on the other side.” Suddenly, a mechanical colored beam hit me and I got thrown against the wall. A woman with short purple hair jumped through the portal, she was wearing, regular clothes. Jeans, shirt, she has one robotic arm. Her left one. She had this huge katana, it rested on her shoulder. One of her eyes was a crystal, she also had crystal patches over her skin. She called out, “Melin, how long until you can close the portal?”
“It is going to take a minute my love, Erica fucked this up pretty good, oh Kane is here.”
The woman in front of me nodded, “Should, I kill Steve?”
“I don’t know, you might change the future like Eric wanted, if it is for the better, I don’t know. There is a reason we asked Eric to not go through with this.” Lory and I looked at each other, having no fucking clue what was going on.
Funk got up, “I have no clue what is-” he did not finish his sentence as the woman teleported to him and smashed him so hard, he flew through the wall.
I drew my sword, “who the fuck are you, what is going on!?”
A fucking massive wolf jumped through the portal and snarled at us, “Haley, do you need back-up?” He stared at Lory, “Lorraine?”
The woman walked over to Lory, “Ugh, don’t tell me I have to kill you again.”
“What, again!” “From when are you?”
Lory kept looking at the wolf, “Kane?”
“Yes, it is me, Kane. You know the person who you killed, you set up your son to fight me. Luckily, he is smarter than you are.”
I looked at Lory, “Your son? What does he mean by that? Haley has a half-brother?”
Lory shed a tear, “Yes, his name is, Lupus, but he is lost.”
Kane looked at me, “Get away from her, if you care about your life, she killed Valentine, and her dad. And so many others.”
The woman sighed, “Do we need to do this now, Kane? Can't you go back to Sylphie, to your wife? I've got this?”
I let my hang sword hang, “Seriously, from when are you, and, are you, Haley?”
The woman shrugged, “Yes, We are from so far away. Eric, you asshole.”
“Sorry mom!”
“Yeah, you always get me in trouble. How many times do I need to say, I am retired.”
The woman or girl she named Erica spoke up, “Probably a couple more times.”
“Melin?”
“The power core is unstable, I need, at least, two more minutes to stabilize it, just make sure Steve does not go through the portal.”
Lory sniffled, “I am sorry, Steve.” She charged at Haley from the future, she shot a hook and grabbed Lory's sword, before Lory knew what the fuck was going on, she got launched away and thrown against the wall.
The woman looked at me, “yes?”
“I, what?”
“Come on, try to go through the portal, talk, do something? I am killing some time here.” She started whistling and bobbing her head on the beat.
“Fuck this, both of you are going to die!” I charged at her, she shot a hook towards my weapon, I dodged aside, but then I got impaled.
I looked down at a huge mechanical blade stuck right next to my heart. “But, how? You did not even move your arm.”
“Oh, I did, but you are so slow as you are not yet the evil villain I fought in the future. Like, were you a snail before you killed all my friends and loved ones?”
I heard laughter coming from the portal. I managed to speak up. “Who, are you?”
“Like I said, your daughter, who is going to murder you in the future. Or now, I am still trying to decide because Eric does have a point.”
“Who the fuck is Eric?”
Kane sighed,” Haley, stop fucking around with him, either finish him or let him go, the Agency will clean up after us, we can't let him meet Cecil's daughter.”
Haley nodded, “Eric and Erica are my children.”
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I just looked at blood dripping to the ground, I tried to launch a tentacle at the woman. She ripped it off and turned it into a mechanized tentacle and stabbed it through my right shoulder and pinned me against the wall. She walked back to the portal, “Melin, is the timeline intact, even if I leave the present?”
“Yes, there are no major changes.”
“Good, we are coming back, this is not the way we do things, Eric.” The woman turned around, she threw a laptop on the table, “Have fun with that.”
Kane left through the portal, “Wait!”
Haley looked over her shoulder, “Yes?”
“What do you mean, a villain?”
“Don't you know, Steve? Micheal is nothing, compared to what you are going to unleash upon us. You will destroy us all, you are, the Dark Lord who conquered space and time. And I am the hero who stopped you in your tracks by losing almost everyone I love. That is why my son made this time portal, but, I need to suffer to get my happy ending.”
She left through the portal and it closed. I saw Funk stumble inside after a few minutes. He looked at me, “Damn, you look shabby.”
“Goddammit, Funk, help me.” He walked over and pulled the tentacle and the blade out. He pulled herbs out of his inventory and helped to stop the bleeding. I send red energy through the wounds. Funk gently put me down, “Look at Lory.”
Funk ran over to Lory, she seemed to be wounded, but nothing too serious. She slowly woke up, “Damn, what happened?” She looked at me, “Fuck, you look bad.”
“Yeah, so, you have a son?”
Lory nodded, “I do, but that was certainly not Haley.”
“Are you sure? She sure as hell acted like her, just, more mature. I have seen a pink portal like that before. A woman from the future, a demon, came through.”
Funk looked at me, “You never told me that, when was this?”
“Back in Sector 07, when Abby and I got locked up.”
Lory slowly got up and kneeled besides me. “Why did she not kill you?”
“I am not certain, something to do with the timeline? She says, I am a villain. But, if that was Haley from the future. From when is she, and why did she want to kill you? You are her mom. Or why did Eric, whoever the fuck that is, make a time portal to assassinate me?”
Lory shook her head, “How should I know?”
“Maybe this was just a trick of the shadow world?”
I chuckled, “well, nice trick, shadow world. I fear not, Lory, it is time for you to finally come clean and tell me everything.”
Lory sat down and sighed deeply, “Fine, I will tell you everything once we catch our breath.”
I closed my eyes and spoke in my mind, “Does anyone have any clue what that was about?” No one seemed to know, or even hiding something. That was just, completely fucking random. I opened my eyes and shook my head, “Not even Captain or Thanos have a clue what that was about. Or if it was a trick played on us. Did anyone else hear Melin?” Funk and Lory nodded.
“Lory?”
“Yes?”
“What have I done, that is so bad, that people want to kill me, everywhere I go? Is she right, am I a major villain?”
Lory shook her head, “It is probably just your bad luck. How are your wounds?”
“They are not fatal, she was not trying to kill me. She could have killed me without breaking a sweat.”
Funk picked up the laptop, “What is this?”
“She left that. Told me to have fun with it, maybe she downloaded some epic game from the future and brought it to us.”
Funk looked at me, “Your daughter from the future almost murdered us. I fear not.”
“A man can dream.”
Another pink portal opened up, a woman with brown hair came out. Slowly I got up, “Oh god, please don’t tell me you are here to finish the job.” She ignored me and looked at her wrist.
She pushed buttons on a bracelet. Then she started speaking into the bracelet, “The timeline is intact, the situation is stable, there is a bit of flux, but the other portal came from another timeline.” She looked at us, “Persons of interest are wounded, not dead. Do I need to perform a memory wipe?”
Another pink portal opened up. Funk looked at me, “It seems it these are business hours.”
Lory shook her head, “Rather happy hour. Maybe we need to offer them something to drink.”
Out of the new pink portal, another woman came through with blue hair. “Damn, from when was that time portal?”
The woman with brown hair shook her head, “It is impossible to trace.” They both looked at us. I did not know what to do, I raised my hand and waved as if I was back in kindergarten.
The woman with brown hair sighed, “He truly looks like an idiot.”
The woman looked at her, “Don’t talk about him like that. You know his brother Leon dislikes that.”
The woman with brown hair nodded, “Sorry Lily, since you did not use a code name, I assume we are going with a memory wipe?”
Lily nodded. “They need to forget about this, us, and, give me a moment.” A flash of light appeared and the events that transpired played.
The woman with brown hair nodded, “Yep, that is bad. Luckily, she is a smart woman, from wherever she came from.”
The woman with brown hair came closer, I spawned my blade, “I am wounded, but I will fight!” The woman sighed, she used yellow energy and swiped my sword away, I looked at Lily grabbing Lory and Funk, they tried to resist, but it was of no use.
We still silently sat eating our sandwiches and drinking our coffee. “Sorry, Funk, we will not push you about this anymore.”
“Thanks, once we are done resting, we can continue traveling to Poluma. It should be a bit West.”
Lory looked around, “Is it just me, or does it feel like we are missing time?” She grabbed a watch from her inventory, “Yeah, I am pretty sure we lost about thirty minutes.” She showed her watch to me.
I shook my head, “it must be the shadow world.”
She nodded, “That must be it. And, yes, Funk, I will stop pushing you for information, just keep my secrets”
I got up, stretched and yawned. “I feel exhausted, I am going to try to close my eyes for a bit, if anything safe happens, shake me.”
Lory nodded, “alright darling, once you have rested, we should rotate before going on.”
I sat down against the wall and closed my eyes, “that is a good idea.”