Arrival of The RX-2000

"What happens there?" Josh asked.

Future Josh looked at him.

"You asked the same thing." Josh sighed.

"I also got stared at like that." Future Josh chuckled, "So anyway, you two go on your way, I'm going to call my insurance agent and get that car taken care of. Since this is my house now and your moving on."

"This is your house now?" Josh said in annoyed disbelief.

"Hey, the last guy took my house. Get out." Future Josh said, pushing him along.

"Oh yea! I suppose that makes since." Josh sighed, walking out the front door with Susan.

"Take the closest suburban. I piled all the bodies in the back, so it's going to stink, but I had to do it once too." Future Josh told him and he closed the door.

"Time travel...really?" Josh sighed as he got into the car and looked over at Susan.

"It's theoretically possible. I suppose we'll find out in time." Susan said.

Josh laughed loudly at the terrible pun.

*******

The warehouse was down on the waterfront and Future Josh hadn't been kidding, the bodies did reek. Parking in front of the warehouse, Josh got out and walked up to the front door. It was sitting ajar and Susan walked up beside him.

"Come on, let's go." Susan said, walking inside.

They entered a dark warehouse full of boxes and looked around carefully. There was an office partition spread from the rest on the other side of the building. A single light was on inside, but there was nobody in sight.

Walking over to it, Josh looked inside. It was deserted and he looked around. There were a couple of computers, but they had been destroyed. Papers were strewn all over and there were bullet holes in the walls. Someone had been killed here. Upon closer inspection, he found two bodies stuffed into the closet.

"Come on, Future Josh told me to look for a particular crate when we got here." Susan said, waving from the door.

As they looked around the dark warehouse, they found that there were dozens of bodies strewn about the floor, some shot and some slashed clean in half. Reaching the far corner of the warehouse, Susan found the crate she had been looking for and she pulled it open. As she worked on that, Josh looked around a little more. Right next to it were three smaller crates that had also had their tops pulled off. Inside were foam linings that looked like they held weapons. As he traced the lines of them, he found that one held a rifle, one held a sword and the last held a number of smaller handguns and knives.

"Josh, look at this." Susan said as she set the side of the wooden crate down.

Inside was a large glowing device. A large glass globe was full of green lightning. It was set on four metal pedestals and had a strange box mounted atop it. Susan touched the front of the box and a screen lit up.

"What is it?" Josh asked, running his hand down the glass.

"Future Josh told me that if I were to calibrate this to resonate with my own fission core and then maximize it's output, the power generated would rip a small hole in space-time allowing us to slip back in time about two hours. Apparently this is some black market power generator that uses a mixture of anti-matter and Q-Ball solitons. Something very dangerous and very illegal." Susan said, tapping on the small computer screen.

"What?!" Josh said in shock.

"Yea, I was amazed too. But apparently that's how he got back here and he was told the same. So I can only assume that time will go on as it should if we do this." She finished up the calibrations, "I don't know what's going to happen, so watch out."

She pressed a button and the machine started to whine loudly. A orange glow began to emanate from Susan's core and the whining grew louder. It was ear piercing and made Josh grab his ears in pain. It became even louder and the world began to shake around Josh. The large machine started to shake and rattle. Lightning broke free of the orb and a bolt struck Susan in the chest. She cried out and was lifted off the ground. As she was carried into the air and there was a world shattering crack and a whoosh of air. The machine exploded inside it's box and Susan dropped to the floor. Josh stood up and his jaw dropped.

In front of them was a fluctuating portal in time.

*******

It was like a three dimensional tear about six feet high and a foot wide. There was a gentle breeze blowing towards the rip.

"Come on, let's go." Susan said, reaching her hand towards the rip in space.

As her fingers touched it, the space around them began to distort. Josh reached forward and touched the rip as well. The world around them began to change in color. It grew bright and then darkened. He saw Susan start to distort, stretch towards the rip. She became smeared in his vision and he felt a strange tingling.

Suddenly everything exploded and he was left in darkness. He didn't know how long he was out cold, but he awoke, leaned against the box that contained the black market generator. It was closed again and completely untouched. In front of him the air seemed to be wavering. The rip in space was closing slowly, it was barely a fracture in front of them now. On the other side of it, Susan was standing as if nothing had happened. She gasped and looked around suddenly.

"I think it worked...look, the boxes are untouched. Come on, I think the weapons we had are in these boxes here." Josh said, pulling at the lid to the box with the rifle in it.

He opened it and found the black rifle sitting inside it.

"We are back in time...wait...Josh...I hear people." Susan said, "There are people in the warehouse."

"Remember...in the future, they're all dead." Josh said.

"Yea, but how?" Susan said, opening another box that contained her sword.

"The sword...some of them were cut in half...of course! We kill them!" Josh said quietly, "But how...I've only shut guns at the gun club before...I don't know how good I'll be with this."

"Well, from your encyclopedias, I have a complete synopsis of feudal Japanese sword combat, so I'm pretty well off." Susan said, strapping the sword to her waist.

They opened one last box and found it full of equipment. Josh donned the vest he saw himself wearing in the future and Susan put on her gun holster. Other weapons in the box were a few vibro-blades, a revolver and a few grenades. Josh checked the six round clip of the fifty-caliber rifle. It was fully loaded and ready to fire. Slipping twelve more bullets into the pockets on his jackets, he slipped the rifle over his shoulder on it's strap. They loaded up on this gear and Josh climbed on top of the box to see over the wall of crates.

There were about twelve men sitting in a circle in the middle of the Warehouse. They were sitting around a large poker table, smoking, drinking and laughing. They had guns, but they weren't on guard against anything. Apparently Josh and Susan's entrance into this time hadn't made a ruckus.

"There's about a dozen guys sitting in the middle of the warehouse. I think there's one in the office on the other side and there is probably some outside." Josh whispered as he slipped back down from the boxes.

"Here, take this so we can communicate. It'll help you target the enemies. Most of these guns have electronic targeting equipment that will talk with this headset." Susan said, pulling the wire thin headset from the box.

She put it on his head and pulled the small blue screen in front of his left eye. When he held the rifle, a dot appeared on the small screen, indicating where the bullet was going to land. It would help him hit his target a lot easier.

"Well, do you want me to go first?" Susan asked.

"Why would I want that?" Josh said in amazement.

"I can take a bullet and not die." Susan said flatly.

"Good point. But I've got a better idea. On three, we both hurl two of each of these and then go in and kill." Josh said, handing her two stun grenades.

"Are you going to use the rifle?" Susan asked.

"Nah, I'll use this." Josh said, pointing at the submachine gun on the boxes in front of them, "Here, pull the pins, but keep the handles held tight."

"Okay." Susan nodded.

"Ready? One...two...three!" Josh said, throwing one grenade up and over the boxes, followed by another.

Susan mimicked him and there were four loud bangs from the other side. Susan and Josh ran around the corner quickly. Ten guys were stumbling about, deaf and blind from the grenades. By the burn marks on the table, Josh guessed that one had gone off in the center of the poker table. He pulled the trigger on his gun and bullets spat from it, gunning down two of the mafia. The red dot in his eye-screen moved, falling on each of the Mafia he shot at. Susan ran into the haze from the stun grenade with her sword in front of her. She cleaved one of them in half through the middle. One of them managed to get his hands on a gun and Josh quickly moved and pulled the trigger as soon as the red dot was still on the man's chest. The four stun grenades had either killed or knocked out two of them. Josh and Susan quickly slaughtered the twelve mafia members quickly, without remorse.

Throwing down the empty submachine gun, Josh threw the rifle over his shoulder and walked over to Susan.

"I'm surprised it was that easy." Josh said, looking around at the dead mafia.

"The stun grenades helped." Susan chuckled, "Lookout!"

She shoved him out of the way and a bullet caught Susan in the shoulder.

"Son of a bitch!" Josh cried, grabbing one of the guns on the ground.

He stood up and pulled the trigger on the automatic rifle. Bullets sprayed the office in the far corner, breaking the windows around it. The man standing in there cried out as bullets peppered his chest. He fell back in a heap.

"Susan! Susan, are you alright?" Josh called, kneeling beside her.

"Yea, I'm fine. It just hit my shoulder. Hurts a little...but I think I can deal with it." Susan said, sitting up.

She got to her feet. The wound in her shoulder didn't really bleed. There was some blood on the flesh around the wound. The weird part was that he could see some silver beneath her wound. When she moved, some small fine mechanics and electronics were visible. She rolled her shoulder around.

"Are you really going to be okay?" Josh asked, seeing the open would.

"My self repair systems will take care of the damaged mechanics and once the bullet is removed, the organic polymer will fix itself." Susan shrugged.

"Okay, let's go move these bodies that are visible from the door." Josh said, pointing at the one in the office and the one in front of it.

"Gotcha." Susan nodded.

They piled the two bodies into the closet and shoved the door closed. Josh turned around and found the computer screens to have been destroyed by the gunfire.

"So...can we just dig the bullet out?" Josh asked, looking at Susan's shoulder.

"Yea, if we can get some pliers. I'd rather avoid damaging anything else and it hurts to touch the organic polymer." Susan said, looking around.

Josh grabbed a pair of needle nose pliers from the drawer of the desk and looked at Susan.

"Here, can you see it?" Susan asked, trying to pull the wound open with two fingers.

"I think so...I'm sorry if this hurts." Josh said, inserting the tips of the needle nose pliers into the wound.

He felt them hit something metal and saw a small slug. Pulling on it, it came free of the shoulder servo that it was lodged in. It came out easily and Susan smiled.

"See, I'll be good as new soon." Susan nodded.

"Yea I was..." Josh turned and felt his foot kick something on the ground, "What's that?"

He looked down. Out of one of the man's pockets had fallen a small canister of First Aid Spray. About an inch long, it was as big around as a dime. The canister contained a few hundred dollars of an expensive steroidal healing spray.

"It's First Aid Spray." Susan said, picking it up.

"Would that heal your organic polymer?" Josh asked.

"I would assume so, it is organically self healing." Susan said, pointing the small nozzle at her shoulder.

A small spritz and it started to close up. One more and the wound was gone.

"Okay, let me see that leg of yours." Susan said, kneeling down.

He turned around and she lifted his pant leg. After removing the gauze, she cut the stitches, pulled them out and the wound started to bleed again. Josh winced as the spray burned against the bullet wounds. They sealed up and she wiped away the blood.

"There, that should be good." Susan nodded.

"Okay, let's go. If I remember correctly, we should arrive at my house in about an hour and a half." Josh said, resetting his watch to the time on the clock on the wall.

"And that means the Yakuza will be finding out about us anytime. They'll be there just after we arrive." Susan said, nodding.

"You know...I wonder what takes us so long to get there?" Josh asked, walking towards the door, "Leave it ajar remember."

"Right." Susan nodded.

The wharf was deserted outside.

"Where's the truck?!" Josh cried, looking around.

"Remember, we went back in time. It's not here yet." Susan said.

"So that's what takes us so long. It's an hour walk back to my house at the least. If traffics bad and the streets are clogged, it'll take us close to an hour and a half!" Josh said in exasperation, "How are we supposed to walk down the streets with our guns?"

"I'll wear a jacket and you cover that in clothes." Susan said, walking back towards the door.

"Clothes off a dead guy?" Josh asked.

"Yea, it's better than trying to take them off a live guy." Susan chuckled.

"Hey, you made a joke!" Josh pointed out as she took a leather jacket off a man who she had stabbed through the heart.

"I did, didn't I?" Susan said.

"This should do." Josh said as he tore a shirt to pieces and started to wrap it around his rifle.

He slung it across his back, covered in strips of cloth.

"Come on, let's hurry." Josh said, turning the lights off at the door.

Susan slammed it shut behind them and it bounced against the frame, creaking open slightly.

*******

The walk had taken all the time they had, between slow traffic lights and a back alley mugger trying to take them, they arrived at Josh's house just on time. He stripped the cloth from his rifle and Susan tossed her jacket into the bushes.

"Okay, remember, we're sleeping in the bedroom and the Yakuza will be here in...nineteen minutes." Josh said, checking his watch.

"Okay." Susan nodded, adjusting her sword on her waist.

They strode up to the front door and Josh knocked on it loudly. Nobody answered and Josh waited a moment before banging on the door again. The knob rattled the door opened. At the last moment, Josh remembered that he would try and stab himself. The knife came down and Josh grabbed his own wrist.

"Whoa!" Josh cried.

Past Josh cringed and opened his eyes.

"Hey! Hey! It's not the Yakuza, even though we thought it was!" Josh said.

"What...What is...What's going on?!" Past Josh stuttered.

He looked at himself, standing in his pajama pants, his face white in fear.

"Calm down, I know this seems strange, but we've got bigger problems. The Yakuza will be coming this way soon with two cars and twelve men. In about..." Josh checked his watch, "Fifteen minutes, they're going to find out that you have Susan and they're going to come for her. Get her out of the bedroom, get her dressed and come in here. I need to keep an eye on you two while I pick off these guys."

"What the fuck is going on?!" Past Josh cried.

"Josh! I'm you from the future. I'm here to keep your ass from getting shot. Don't worry, you'll make it to the past and be in my position soon enough. Only a few days ago I was in your position, scared and freaked. But I got over it and so will you." Josh said, putting a hand on Past Josh's shoulder.

"Good morning Josh." Susan said, giving a small bow.

They walked in the door, Josh holding his rifle in his arms and Susan's hand on her sword.

"So how the hell did you guys get here?" Past Josh asked.

"I asked the same thing and never got an answer. So you'll have to make do without it." Josh said with a chuckle, "Go get Susan."

"Right!" Past Josh said, understanding him.

Josh walked through the house as Past Josh started down the hall. He headed over to the front window and bashed out one of the smaller panes with his rifle barrel. As he mounted the rifle on the frame, he heard a loud bang.

"Oh yea! Watch out! She tries to shoot us!" Josh called from his spot.

"Thanks..." Josh sighed from the bedroom door.

"So do you think you can do it?" Susan asked.

"I already have, so yea, I can!" Josh nodded confidently.

"So where are they." Susan asked.

"Well, they come from down that way in two large Suburbans." Josh told Susan, pointing down the street.

Past Josh and Past Susan came down the hall, wearing the same clothes as they were.

"Good, you caught on quickly. I did too." Josh said, "Now, it will be two black suburbans coming from down the street there. If I remember correctly, I am to put a bullet through the first drivers windshield and that truck will crash, killing everyone inside. After that, I kill two more before they break into the house. Susan, Future Susan, will kill two more once inside and then Past Susan will shot one with the handgun and you will get shot by the last one before I stab him."

"What?! I get shot!?" Past Josh cried.

"Hey! I got shot too!" Josh said flatly, "It's not that bad."

"Anyway I can avoid it?" Past Josh asked.

"I asked the same thing and I still got shot." Josh laughed.

"God...this whole time traveling thing hurts my head. Speaking of which, how the fuckin' hell?!" Past Josh cried angrily.

There was a rumbling of tires and electric engines as two black Suburbans came down the street.

"No time! The Yakuza is here!" Josh said, flipping the safety on his rifle.

He aimed the rifle and placed the red dot in his eye screen on the front window of the suburban. A pull of the trigger and the rifle cracked loudly. A plume of flame exploded from the barrel. A fifty caliber round traveled down the street and struck the driver through the window. The truck swerved and flipped on it's side, sliding into a neighbor's front yard.

The other suburban slammed into his luxury car and Josh pulled the trigger again. A bullet caught the passenger in the chest and the man died from the wound. Five men got out of the car and Josh quickly aligned his targeter with a man getting out from the back of the car. He pulled the trigger and the man was knocked off his feet by the shot.

"I am not getting shot..." Josh heard Past Josh mumble as he walked down the hall.

Josh smiled and gave a chuckle. The door thundered open as the Yakuza kicked it in. Susan turned and pulled her revolver from it's holster. A targeter in her electronic eye appeared and locked onto the first man's head. She pulled the trigger and the .45 revolver kicked, blowing the man's head off. Susan moved and fired again, blowing a hole in another man's chest.

Two Yakuza opened fire and Josh hit the ground behind the couch. Susan ducked as well. Past Susan pulled the trigger from the kitchen a number of times and the man closest to the kitchen caught two in the side and fell to the ground. The last mafia looked around and turned to Susan. The Yakuza started to move towards Past Susan and Josh dropped his rifle. He jumped and ran at the Yakuza, pulling his vibro-blade from it's sheath on his vest. He turned it on and tackled the Yakuza to the ground. There was a loud bang from his gun and a spray of bullets shot down the hall.

Josh shoved the vibro-blade into the man's neck, killing him. Past Josh gave a cry from the bedroom and Past Susan ran down the hall to check on him. She came running back, crying about the first aid kit.

"Past Susan, let Future Susan take care of that. You need to help me with these bodies. There's something I have to talk to you about." Josh said with a nod to Susan.