-Chapter 9

 

            “There’s a time for everything….

            “You’ve had your time—now it’s time to kill.”

            You can’t do this!

            “Watch me.  I know what I’m doing, and it must be done.”

 

            “Well, I might’ve known!” said that terrible voice.  Yoshata looked back to see who it belonged to, even though she was very sure she already knew.  It was Olivia again.  “I’d say that you must be pretty confident in yourself right now, wouldn’t you?” she inquired in her almost mocking voice.

            Yoshata didn’t reply.  All she seemed to be able to do right now was listen and stand still.

            “Well, I don’t know how I’ll take that.  But who cares?  You and his bratty daughter are going to die if you try to stop me, and you know that I don’t want that; so why do you still want to follow me?”

            No reply.

            “You know that I’ve tried to spare you.  But the moment you come back, that will mean nothing to me.  I wish so much that you would understand.  This has to end, and it’s going to end with the one thing that began it.  Why do you not believe that?”

            Yoshata was suddenly able to speak.  “Because,” she said, “I don’t believe in murder, even for a good cause.”

            Olivia seemed to get irritated at this.  “It’s…it’s not murder!  It’s a—a change—the ends justify the means!”

            “No.  They don’t.”

            “You’re being such a fool, girl!  It’s not going to matter when this is over!  You won’t remember him or his idiot daughter and both of our lives will be better without them!”

            “How do you know if my life will be any better?  It sounds to me like you’re being a bit selfish.”

            Olivia’s anger had considerably increased.  “No!  No, no, no!

            “What do you have to say?”

            Olivia moved quickly and grabbed Yoshata’s shoulders tightly.  This isn’t over.  If you want to stop me, go ahead!  Just try and get me!”

            Yoshata would have used her powers to push Olivia away, but they were somehow “disabled” like her speaking abilities first were.  So she spoke.  “I will,” she said firmly.  We will.  And we will stop you.  And we will save Joey.”

            “Just try!  Go on!  Come and get me, because I’ll be waiting!”

            And with that, the periwinkle Yoshi pushed the sky blue one down.  Down to wherever…everything seemed to have no place here, so maybe she would just fall forever….

 

            She opened her eyes, taking quick, deep breaths as she woke up.  She let the last big breath out in a sigh.  Yoshata rubbed her eyes and got out of bed, remembering what Olivia had said.  It was all too obvious for her to think about stopping that periwinkle-colored murderer now, but she did hope that if she, Tiffany, and Joey managed to survive this in the end, they would have some ease in forgetting about Olivia.

            She felt her forehead.  It didn’t sting so much anymore; in fact, if she hadn’t known that she had a cut in her forehead, she would’ve completely forgotten that it was there.  It’s a shame that that doesn’t work with dreams, she thought.

            Out through the window, the sky seemed to have many less clouds today.  The sun was shining and giving tiny reflections off of the puddles left from the light rain they had last night.  Today’s the day, she thought, and felt a bit of nervousness.  She tried not to think of it and looked over to the electronic clock on the table behind her.  “9:30” was displayed.  I should wake up Tiff, she thought, and went over to the other bed.

            There was Tiffany, sleeping in an awkward position on her side and drooling on her pillow.  It reminded her almost too much of what she had awakened to the morning just two days ago.  Except we were in a hotel that time, not a motel…and Joey was with us.  And wow…two days ago…it seemed like a much longer time.

            Tiff must be really tired, she thought.  I can see why, too: she drove all day yesterday and she’s going have to do a lot more today.  I’ll let her sleep for a while longer; after all, we have a little less than twenty years to do this.

            She walked back to her bed and remained there, watching the conditions outside and thinking about what should happen in their near future.  The wait for Tiffany to wake up lasted roughly one hour.

            “Good morning!” Yoshata said when the dark blue Yoshi finally woke up.

            “Wha…?”

            “Um…yeah.  It’s about 10:10 in the morning.”

            “…Oh.”  Tiffany got out of bed and looked out the window.  Sunny day, she thought.  That works for me.  She turned to Yoshata.  “You ready for the big day?” she asked sarcastically.  Yoshata thought she could sense a bit of nervousness in Tiffany’s voice as well.

            “Yeah, sure.  But can we get breakfast first?”

            “Well, yeah.  But right now we have to get the time machine back into the van.”

            “Where’d you put it?”

            “The closet.”  Tiffany rushed over to the closet just next to the bathroom door and opened it.  It was a pretty wide closet, in Yoshata’s opinion.

 

            Working together, they quietly moved Olivia’s time machine from Room 12 to the back of their van.  Yoshata closed the back door, and they walked over to the right side.  “Now are you ready?” she asked anxiously.  She was, for some reason, getting hungrier every time she thought about facing Olivia.  She also had no idea of any breakfast restaurants in Orange Cataract City—it was still only her second visit here in her entire life—but then, did it really matter?  She and Tiffany might be dead in the coming hours because of Olivia, so the matter of how much “heart-deadly” grease was in their food didn’t really apply anymore.  Well, Yoshata argued to herself, you can’t fight well on an empty—or grease-filled—stomach.

            Tiffany replied to Yoshata’s question.  “Not yet…I’ve gotta take a shower first.”

            Yoshata stopped for a moment.  “…And now you want to take a shower before we get all sweaty trying to stop Olivia?  Joey was kind of right when he said he didn’t understand you.”

            “But since when has Joey known anything about hygiene?”

            “I didn’t say anything about him saying anything about hygiene.”

            “…Well, since when have you known anything about hygiene?  It’s clear that you haven’t hired a barber.”

            “Hey, I’ll have you know that I do know quite a bit about hygiene—and don’t make fun of my hair!

            Tiffany laughed and went back into their room.  Yoshata followed, closing the door behind her.

            “Fine—take a shower.  But then can we go eat?  I’m getting really hungry!”

            “Okay, whatever.  I’ll only take a minute.”

 

            Thirty minutes passed before Tiffany was finally done in the shower.  The clock read “10:46” at this point, and Yoshata’s stomach was growling like the engine of a lousy car.  She suspected that it had to do with her mind’s wandering to the subject of Olivia so much, even (and perhaps especially) when she didn’t want to.  She was getting very annoyed with Tiffany right now…not that she would tell her that or totally resent her for it, but…she was annoyed.  And I usually don’t get hungry before this time, either, she thought.  Nervousness stinks…and so does Olivia.

            Tiffany came out wearing the same saddle and boots she had worn before she had taken her shower (and, to her, this was gross) and was drying her head with a towel.  She hung up the towel in the closet and ran over to Yoshata.  “Okay,” she said, only a tiny bit more eager and with the same amount of anxiety in her voice that Yoshata had detected before.  “I’m ready!”

            “Okay!” said Yoshata, also sounding more cheerful.  “Let’s find someplace to eat!”

 

            After the two had checked to see if everything they needed was in the van, they set off to find where they could eat breakfast.  The roads in some areas were getting crowded with cars; fortunately, they were in an area that was less traveled on, so they had little difficulty with traffic.  Tiffany was driving at close to ten miles-per-hour above the speed limit, from what Yoshata could tell.

            “Well, any ideas?” asked Tiffany.  “I’m not too hungry, but I guess I might eat if something good’s put in front of me.”

            Yoshata thought about asking Tiffany how she could possibly not be hungry, but then she realized that she had no idea how she could be hungry at a time like this.  “Um…do you know of any places to eat breakfast around here?”

            Tiffany turned and looked at her, raising an eyebrow that wasn’t there.  “Please explain to me how I, someone born in the year 2012, would know the layout of this city at 2003, which is nine years earlier.”

            “Okay…so…would you settle for some waffles and maybe”—she was instantly reminded of Joey in an almost comic way—“some donuts afterwards?”

            “Waffles sound great…but no donuts.  I don’t want to waste time.”

            “But weren’t you the one who told me that we have twenty years to do this anyway?”

            “Look: just as it’s bad to act on an empty stomach, it’s bad to act on a full bladder.  Now you look on your side and tell me if you find any waffle houses, okay?”

            Yoshata nodded and started looking out her window.  She tried hard to avoid thinking about anything but finding a waffle restaurant, but she couldn’t help herself.

            …And besides, if she was still using her eyes to look out for one through her window, how could anything go wrong?

 

            Hmmm….

            …I wonder…will around midnight will be the time Tiff and I will travel to?  Probably.  Because she might have already done something to Joey if we travel to a time past that.  And hopefully Olivia will be tired by that time…I mean, I think she might’ve looked a bit tired when she ambushed us in our hotel room.  But then, I don’t remember her sounding like she was sleepy or anything.  What did she say again?

            Something along the lines of “His inventions are far too unstable!  Because of him, people will one day be able to go to some other world, and they’ll end up killing everyone because they’ll rip the universe apart!”  Obviously, the guys who work for the Project will prevent that from happening; but Olivia wouldn’t even listen to us.  And—

            Wait, I’m not supposed to be doing this…I’m supposed to be watching for a waffle house…darn it!

 

            She went back to reality, watching the buildings of the city go by.  Yet not a single waffle house—or any other regular breakfast stop, for that matter; this was a pretty weird section of the city—in sight.  She looked down the road.  An intersection was just ahead.  If we go to the left, she thought, I bet we’ll find a waffle house in no time.

            That seemed logical, too; the road going to the left went deeper into the city, where, of course, everything good (and / or expensive) was found in variety.  At least, that seemed as if it would be true.  Either way, there has to be at least one waffle house in there.  And if not, we could always stop at a donut store, and maybe even get some ice cream….

            …Kinda reminds me of home.  Me and Joey used to make it, like…part of a daily routine to go to the donuts-and-ice cream shop.  And when we do come back home, it still will be.

            Forgetting about everything we’ve had to go through on this adventure will definitely do us good.  And forgetting about her will be the best part…if we can do it, anyway.  And I really, really, hope that we can.

            When this is over…yeah, I’ll be relieved.

            But would it be over?

            “This won’t be over,” Olivia had said.  It was almost like a reply to Yoshata’s thoughts.  But, of course, she had already dismissed it as solely a dream; and when she had thought about that dream, Olivia hadn’t really been insane enough to try to kill them with a rigged time machine.  Yoshata had received a cut on her forehead, even though the false memories in her dream had said she had actually fallen asleep at that point.  Olivia wouldn’t be expecting them when they would face her later.  Tiffany wouldn’t have disappeared and later appeared out of nowhere.  Olivia wouldn’t kill Joey.  And this would be over when they should finally stop Olivia—or kill her, if they really had to.

            But what about Tiff? she thought.  Will we see her again after this?  She didn’t know.  But it would be great if Tiffany could come back to see them every now and then…it seemed doubtful—she was still likely going to get in serious trouble for what she did, and it wasn’t like she could sneak away into a time machine all the time—but there was always hope.  Tiffany had changed over their time together…in the beginning she seemed apathetic and liked to be a bit vague, but over their trip—from their city in 2003, to their city twenty years later, to Orange Cataract City, to a moderately short car chase that left them a long walk away from the Orange Springs Hotel, back to their city in 2003, and now in the Orange Cataract City of 2003.  And soon we’ll be back at the Orange Cataract City of 2023 again, thought Yoshata.

            …After we find a stupid waffle house.

            They had just taken the left turn and were headed in the direction of the city.  Down the road and a bit farther into the city was a section of a few restaurants; Yoshata could just see them from this point.  She tried to wait till they got there to look for a waffle house, but she ended up going into deep thought again.

            She’s changed over the whole time.  And she’s changed us, too.  I don’t know what she taught Joey besides maybe…fear, but although it was a bit rough when we began, I think I’ve come to really respect her.  She helped us when we were on our walk back to the Orange Springs Hotel.  She helped me when we thought we had lost it all to Olivia.  Congratulations, Tiff.  I dunno how I would’ve changed if it weren’t for you, even if the changes were small.

            They passed through the restaurant area.  Yoshata watched everything going by on her side of the van, mentally identifying them:

            Fast food…taco place…more fast food…take-out…ice cream…and no waffles.

            So…why did I have to ask for waffles?  Oh well…I really feel like eating some right now.

            …So then…why did I have to have a craving for waffles?  Stupid nervous stomach….

            Her stomach replied by furiously growling at her.

            Grrr…now I know how Joey feels when he wants donuts.  Except instead, I want stupid waffles!

            Tiffany said nothing—there probably would have been a lot of conversation if their minds were their mouths, though—and took another left turn as a stoplight turned green.  There appeared to be some more restaurants on the horizon, but neither she nor Yoshata could tell if they were really restaurants.

            I hope so, Yoshata thought.  She was at the hunger point, the one that many of us have likely been at—where all you can do is swallow your own saliva, and that just seems to make you even more hungry—and it was, to say the least, annoying.

            But she found herself beyond relieved when they spotted a waffle house on the right side of the road. (They spotted it at the same time, and both happily shouted, “There!” when they saw it.) It was open (Wouldn’t it be awful if it turned out to be closed when we got there? Yoshata thought to herself), but there were few cars parked there.  They rushed in, while Tiffany searched through their supply of money quickly.  They had about five dollars left…that’s probably enough for her, Tiffany thought.  She and Yoshata entered the restaurant.

 

            Like the motel, it wasn’t much but would do; it was also similar because of its cheapness.  A single waffle (Tiffany suspected they were those big “Belgian” waffles) was only two dollars; they could get two and still have some money left over.  And seeing how Yoshata looked right now—quite hungry—they probably would be getting two waffles.

            A waitress Yoshi led them to a circular table with two chairs.  The table was positioned near the window, so it gave a nice view of the city.  The restaurant didn’t have many lights—at least, not many that were turned on—but with the large windows on three of the four walls, lights were usually not needed.  The sun was providing nice daylight in the areas directly near the windows.

            “…And would like any drinks to start off with?” the waitress finished.

            Tiffany and Yoshata looked at each other.  “We’ll take water,” they both said at the same time.

            “Okay…and have you decided on your order yet?”

            Yoshata was the first to speak.  “Um, yeah.  I’ll have two plain waffles, please.”

            The waitress jotted something down on a page in the small notebook she held in her hand.  She turned to Tiffany.

            “Nothing for me.”

            “Okay, thanks,” the waitress said.  “Your order’ll be ready in just a few moments.”  She turned and went back to the waiting table.

            Currently, there were only two other parties in the restaurant, and no others waiting to be seated.  I’m hoping that the food here isn’t that bad, thought Tiffany a bit nervously.  Of course, it’s still food either way, and Yoshata won’t be hungry anymore.

 

            Their food and water and came to their table in a short five minutes.  Yoshata spread butter and poured syrup over her waffles, then began eating.  Tiffany didn’t feel too hungry as she watched her; it was probably her deep thought last night that had told her body not to be hungry today.  Like how you feel just before you go on a roller coaster, she thought to herself.  Except all the happens on a roller coaster is the loss of breath as you go down the who-cares-how-long down drop; you never have the serious risk of death.

            But I shouldn’t be thinking like that…no matter how unusually tempting it is to think like a pessimist…we can still beat Olivia.  I know Yoshata thinks the same; if it this weren’t all Joey’s fault, he would probably be looking on the bright side…at least I give him that.

            It’s kind of interesting, now that I think about him…I call him by his name rather than calling him “Dad”…I guess he annoyed me enough for me to forget who he really was.  In fact, it’s almost like….

            …Like we could all be mistaken for three friends whose were only related in that they were friends.  I hate to say it, but Yoshata and Joey are…the best friends I’ve ever had—probably the only real friends I’ve ever had, even though it feels even worse to say that.  So….

            …I must be pretty pathetic according to how I used to think, before I had to save Joey.  But if I have these two as my friends, at least I have friends.  And hopefully, we’ll all live—or die—together.  At least if that happened, none of us would have to live without the others.

            But whatever…if we save Joey, we save him, and if we don’t, we don’t—at least Yoshata will still exist…she won’t even be burdened with remembering it.  As for me, I’ll disappear if Olivia murders Joey after all…and I have no idea what that would be like.  Like death, maybe?  I don’t know how that feels, either.

            But it’s almost time…and if we don’t stop Olivia, Joey will know how death feels soon.

            Yoshata finished the last of her two waffles as Tiffany ended that thought.  Her water glass was also empty.  Apparently, she was every bit as hungry as she had said; not that Tiffany was complaining.  “Okay,” she said.  “Let’s go pay.  The sooner we get this over with, the better.”

            Yoshata followed Tiffany, who was holding their last five dollars, to the cashier.

 

            They soon found themselves back in the light blue van, with Joey’s dark blue daughter, Tiffany, driving them towards what would one day be, in some other universe, the same exact hotel they had stayed at.  It was their last destination of this time—autumn of 2003—until they came back—provided they ever would.

            Why?

            Well, they had to go to the future to stop a not-really-insane anti-time extremist from killing the inventor of the concept of time travel and erasing his existence in almost every universe.  It might have sounded very eccentric, but it was true.  And if they should decide not to do anything, then their fate—and his—would be the same in a matter of twenty years anyway.  Yes, they always could continue traveling back in time to other universes and never have to worry about their fate; but in their own minds, they knew that they couldn’t live with themselves if they did that.  They simply had to stop Olivia, or die trying.

 

            Yoshata had awaited their arrival at the future site of the Orange Springs Hotel with a mixture of intense excitement and terrible fright.  Tiffany had been busy looking around at all the buildings, and her expression was becoming more and more serious.  Yoshata believed that this meant they were getting closer, and her blood now felt as if it were rushing with her adrenaline.  Once they got there, there would be no turning back; she would see if her dream really was true.  She was watching Tiffany and the buildings around them, taking deep breaths.  Okay, she thought.  Here we go…we’re gonna stop Olivia and save Joey—what Tiffany came back to us to do in the first place.

            Tiffany’s eyes locked onto a location.  The van was slowing down.

            Oh gosh…here we go…this is it!

            “This is it,” Tiffany said as the vehicle slowed to a stop.  Her voice at that moment seemed horribly final to Yoshata.  But yes.  This was it.

            But whatever it was had no resemblance to the grand skyscraper of a hotel they had stayed at a couple nights ago.  According to Tiffany, it would take six whole years to build it on this spot.  Now Yoshata knew why.

            The area was a small, apparently long-abandoned mini-mart at what was now a dead-end road.  Behind it was a medium-sized forest that was littered all over where Tiffany and Yoshata could see it—this would probably be cut down to make the parking lot later.  At least, they could picture it.  But they would see all that again very soon, if all went well.  This dumpy mini-mart and the forest behind it would be replaced with the Orange Springs Hotel, and it would no longer be on the dead end of a road; it would be near the center of many roads.  But not yet.  They had to go there first.

            The dark blue Yoshi and her sky blue friend stopped observing the abandoned area and walked around to the back of the van.  They opened up the door and pulled out the time machine together.  They closed the door and carried the machine over to the front wall of the abandoned building.  Tiffany entered the machine when they set it down.  She passed a glance to Yoshata and invited her in without saying anything.  Yoshata stopped for a moment, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped in.

            There was no use trying to stall.  Okay, thought Yoshata.  She looked over to Tiffany, who was either somehow not nervous or just faking confidence extremely well.  Tiffany looked back at her, gave a faint smile—she could see that Tiffany really was nervous when she saw that smile—and looked down at the controls.  “Well, this is it,” said the dark blue Yoshi, not bothering to look up this time.  She pulled out a piece of paper she must have had during just about the entire time since she came to save Joey; it had an huge number on it, but Yoshata wasn’t able to see what the whole thing was.  Tiffany began entering the number into the machine’s small keyboard.

            Well, here we go…we’re about to go for it…if I keep worrying like this I’m probably gonna throw up when we get there….

            “Ready,” said Tiffany; it was more of a command, like “be ready”, than a question.  She pushed a few more buttons.  They both took a deep breath at the same time and Tiffany pushed the circular red button.  She followed this with a few more button-presses, still holding her breath the whole time, and then pushed the green button.

 

            And all at once, it all disappeared: the bright blue van that Tiffany had stolen, the dead-end road, the long-abandoned old mini-mart, the forest behind it, the cracked old parking lot that had drying paint all over it and grass growing in its cracks—everything.  And it all became white.

            No…it became black.  The white all disappeared when they entered the black.  But there was white everywhere, too.  White—or were they silver?—shiny orbs taking up the infinite space of the black.  It was so hard for either of them to concentrate…it was like the emptiness of the black was sucking away their ability to think.

            Or breathe.  Or speak.  Or hear.  Or anything.  They were helpless in here—they felt like little bits of white being sucked away into the darkness.  But it didn’t matter; they felt nothing.  It was even hard to realize that anything was going wrong, really.  They didn’t need any of it.  Didn’t need to breathe, or to speak, or to hear, or to anything.  And if they didn’t need any of it, did it matter?

            But then, Tiffany—or her soul; whatever she was as part of the infinite shiny orbs—realized something as they zoomed forward towards a single orb at incredible speed.  They did need something.  They needed to finish this with the same thing that it all began with: Olivia N. Yoshi, the periwinkle assassin who wasn’t insane but was terribly determined.  They needed to save time.  They needed to save Joey.

            It seemed as if Tiffany wouldn’t have realized the amazing speed they were traveling at if she didn’t want to.  In here, everything happens when you realize it…not when it happens.  As strange as it seemed, Tiffany believed her thought.  Thinking was all she found she could do.  And maybe what she thought was true—this place was too far beyond belief…anything could happen.

            The time machine—if we’re even still in it—came to a pause at that white and shiny orb that they had been rushing to at full speed.  This is definitely the one, thought Tiffany.  Oh yes.  And here we go….  They began to enter the portal to that orb of universe…they jerked a bit, and then everything began to suddenly go in extremely slow motion.

            Like a roller coaster, thought Tiffany.  It was the last thing she could remember thinking back in that universe of universes, full of black space and white orbs.  Like a roller coaster….

 

            When jerked their eyes open, they still saw the darkness.  Yoshata’s first thought was that Olivia had really done what she had thought in her dream, and that she was dead.  Tiffany wasn’t thinking about death when she saw the darkness; instead, she went deep into thought about where the brightness was.  Are we in it?  Are we somewhere where it doesn’t exist, an empty macro-universe?  She closed her eyes.

            When she opened them, she realized just that: she could move.  She was past whatever she was back there; now she had her body back, if she had ever lost it in the first place.  There were too many mysteries concerning universal transfer…but right now, as she saw it, that didn’t matter.  They had made it; that meant that Olivia might be coming out of the Orange Springs Hotel at this very moment.

            Yoshata found herself being shaken by someone.  She realized within a second that it was Tiffany; at the same time, she saw that that darkness was what appeared to be a starless midnight sky, positioned high above the Orange Springs Hotel now standing in front of them.  She sat upright in her chair (she must have slumped somewhat in the literally breathtaking experience of universe / time travel) and turned to face Tiffany.  They were both alive.  Olivia was not trying to kill them.

            At least, not yet.

            “Hurry,” said Tiffany.  “Get out; it’s time.”  She opened the door next to her.

            Time… a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to part with.  Now it’s time to get.

            Yoshata had a sudden urge of confidence.  She threw open her door and sprung out.  At that moment, her concentration was perfectly undisturbed…and it could not be disturbed.  She felt the ability to use any power—fire, water, thunder, ice—at any time she wished, should she need to use it.  She was ready for Olivia, the assassin.  Or Olivia the would-be assassin.  It didn’t matter.

            “I’ll look for something to drive in case this turns into a chase,” Tiffany told her.  The dark blue Yoshi turned towards the parking lot to their left.  “You stay here and keep watch.”  She turned and ran over, looking for the best car to steal—or borrow for a good cause, as Tiff might have said it.  It was still wrong, but now Yoshata thought that it strangely fit the idea of Tiffany, the Good Girl Who Has a Wise Decisions Card and Could Always Be Trusted to Do the Right Thing.  Meanwhile, Yoshata stood tall, watching the front doors of the hotel building, waiting for a periwinkle Yoshi holding a blue Yoshi to come out.

 

            Tiffany ran across the front parking lot, scanning every car to see if it would be useful enough for them.  There were cars in practically every lot, with the exception of the row of far back lots.  None of them that she had seen so far had matched her criteria—which was basically only one thing.  She was looking for another SkyCar.

            Blue car, red car, another red car, green, blue, blue…wait.

            Shoot.  They’re all in the upper parking area.  It looks like we’re gonna have to push Olivia there to get a car that will help us stop her…but she might be able to get one just as easily.  But we’ll have to take that chance.

            She turned and ran back to Yoshata.

 

            “Yoshata,” Tiffany said when she reached her, “we have a small problem.”

            Yoshata turned her head and looked at her as if asking “another one?” with despair.  “What is it?” she asked.

            “We need a good car.”

            “Yeah….”

            “The only place we can get one is up there.”  Tiffany pointed upwards towards a landing pad just beneath the roof.  Yoshata understood.

            She even remembered it pretty well.  It had looked kind of like the parking lots that people might see at an airport—almost like a regular parking lot, with a few overhead lights; of course, unlike regular parking lots, it had a roof.  There were several small rectangular windows in the wall, in front of a few of the parking lots.  She wasn’t sure how many SkyCars she had seen other than theirs…maybe five.  As Tiffany had once said, SkyCars were extremely expensive, and very few people had the luxury of owning one.  But how many didn’t really matter…just so long as the number of SkyCars still in the parking area was two or more.

            Tiffany ran to the front doors of the Orange Springs Hotel, Yoshata following her with only a few inches between them.  All they had to do was get into the elevator once they entered the building.

 

            Olivia was so amazed by her success that the burn in her arm felt like it had gone away.  She had done it; she had done it for real this time.  All she had to do now is find a suitable way to dispose of Joey.  She would do that soon, of course…but first she had to make sure nothing would let Yoshata and Tiffany come back to save Joey.  She turned off the computer, unplugged the plug for the portal, and then disconnected the cords from the computer to the portal.  “That should keep them out,” she said happily.

            The next order of business was for her to get Joey.  She turned from the computer to find him lying in the corner of the room; he had apparently fainted.  Maybe this will work to my advantage in more ways than one, she thought.  I could grab some food while he’s still unconscious, as long as I kept an eye on him…and I’d have to watch out for the police…but I think I’m about to achieve my goal even if the police try to get me…so my next stop is the nearest food store!

            Planning the path she should take in her mind, Olivia walked over to Joey and picked him up.  She flung him over her shoulder and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

 

            Time had flown; what she had done five minutes ago seemed like it had been only five seconds ago.  She had still not lost her caution, however; Olivia Norton Yoshi, twenty-five years old, of 34 Apple Lane, was always cautious, if not a bit paranoid (even if she would never admit it).  Holding the kid was heavy, and it brought the burning pain in her arm back—What does he eat? she thought—but the happiness in her mind was still healing brilliantly fast. 

            She would first grab a car in the parking lot.  A SkyCar would help her travel better, but stealing one might catch the eye of security too quickly, not to mention dangerous in the case of the police force.  They might catch me easily if my vehicle is singled out, she said to herself.  She would have to get a car restricted to ground…and hopefully that wouldn’t wake Joey up.

            Next, she would drive over to a nearby fast food stop, provided Joey would still be asleep.  Normally, she hated fast food; it, like time travel, was an disaster waiting to happen—or probably already happening.  Tonight, however, she found fast food to be very useful.  Drive-throughs came in handy…especially if you had a deadly history-maker and you had to keep him in the car with you to make sure he didn’t escape.

            After that, she would probably just get a spot where no one would see her and run him over with her new car.  Obviously that wasn’t as normal as other approaches, and it was also more painful than she hoped for it to be for him…but he and his two friends had caused her more pain and trouble over the course of these few days.  She had to just get it over with before there were any more distractions.  Plus, if he did happen to wake up while they were still on their drive, she would just have to finish the job there.

            She stepped into the elevator that would take her off Floor 8 as soon as it opened.  When the doors closed, she pushed the button that would take her back to the bottom floor.  The elevator jerked a tiny bit, then began to move downward.  She gave her arms and shoulders a short rest by lowering Joey off of her back and laying him down by the wall.

            Ding!  The elevator slowly stopped at the Lobby floor.  The doors opened before the periwinkle Yoshi, and she hoisted the unconscious blue Yoshi next to her onto her shoulders again.  She walked out and entered the hall to the right of the entrance.  The breakfast room was to her right as she walked, and the lobby just across it, to her left.  That stupid orange desk clerk was asleep now, but the doors out of this place would no doubt be unlocked.  They opened easily.

            She began carrying Joey’s knocked-out body towards the most crowded parking area.  This’ll be quick, she told herself in her mind.  Of course, she had no idea what had really happened to Tiffany and Yoshata.

            She would have gotten rid of Joey the moment she sent Tiffany and Yoshata back to 2003, but she had lost all of her working weapons.  She had brought a good amount of them at the beginning of her trip…but…what had happened?

            Ah, yes: she had lost her magnet gun to Tiffany, her “utility boot” was lost in an earlier escape attempt, her knife has just missed killing Joey in their earlier car chase—she never was able to get it back, sadly—and she dropped her remaining weapons behind a bus stop so she could get to the Time Travel Project research building by bus.  Right now she wished she hadn’t done that.  But it didn’t matter; would any of her misadventures here matter when this was over?

            She soon found a car that would be good enough.  It wasn’t really in how the vehicles looked—the main thing she was looking for was if the car still the keys in it.  And whoever owned the not-too-modern black convertible in front of her was an idiot.  She tried the doors.  They were, of course, unlocked.  So at least whoever owned this wasn’t too much of an idiot.

            Running Joey over with this car would work—but she couldn’t do it here.  The parking lots were too crowded.  Nor could she get rid of him out in the road—too many cops.  So she would kill two birds with one stone, given Joey would stay in his unconscious state for a while: first, she’d eat.  Then she’d find a private spot, likely on the outskirts or unpopulated areas of the city; and once there, she’d finish her job.  But as for right now, she supposed that she could eat something before she continued…but only if the police were nowhere near her.  Obviously, what she decided to eat wouldn’t matter—she would remember none of this and reappear back in her world, living happier without worry—but if there were no other problems, she had a good deal of free time before she’d have to commit this less-than-pleasant act.

            She was about to pull open the passenger seat door and shove Joey in.  That was when a terribly annoying voice interrupted stopped her in her tracks and caused her to almost drop Joey.  Olivia wouldn’t need to turn around—It’s his stupid teenage daughter, she thought (or knew).

            She turned around anyway to see that it wasn’t just Joey’s daughter—their bodyguard-friend was there too.  To her, their means of actually being here, in front of her, were a mystery.  Could they have tricked her?  No.  Could they have possibly had some clones or copies of themselves?  Far from it!

            It’s impossible…they can’t be here…I just sent them back, with no means of returning.  How is it possible that they could travel back—

            Tiffany charged forward towards her.  No time to think—Olivia ran behind another car and sprinted for the hotel lobby again, going as fast as her legs could take her while the rest of her body supported Joey.  She was sure that her two enemies were just behind her—the sky blue one might be charging up another attack now—so she ran towards those doors without looking back.

            Behind her (and not too far behind, either), Tiffany chased her to the doors while Yoshata stayed a bit behind, still perfectly ready to concentrate for an attack, should anything happen.  Olivia was doing as Tiffany had been planning; if all fell into place, this would be over very quickly indeed.  And once, Olivia passed through those doors, she might go up the elevator to the SkyCars.  Tiffany was unsure of how likely or unlikely it would be for that to actually happen…but things had gone well thus far, hadn’t they?  Why not something else?

 

            Through the front doors and into the lobby…Olivia was the first one in.  She would have been surprised to find that the orange desk clerk had not awakened by her noise, but she was far too busy to be thinking of that now.  She had to concentrate on keeping Joey safe from those two.

            Now she turned around.  Through the glass doors she saw Tiffany leading the other one to her location.  She had to move.  The elevators might take too long was what was running through her head.  And they might wait for me at the bottom floor…I’ll be trapped.  So with that in mind, she cut across the marble floor of the lobby and ran to the right, straight down the hallway.

            The door opened only a second or two after that happened.  Tiffany burst in, followed by Yoshata.

              Apparently, their luck had been short-lived: Olivia hadn’t taken the SkyCar elevator.  She had decided to run to the hall; perhaps she somehow knew what they were planning to do?  But then, how could she possibly know?  Obviously, she couldn’t; she had been too surprised by their sudden appearance, for one thing.

            And if she doesn’t know, Tiffany began thinking as she led Yoshata down the hallway to the right, maybe we can still trick her into going up there.  Or, better yet, just stop her here.  But wait….

            At the end of this hallway, I think there’s a left turn that goes around the second corner of the hotel building…then another at the end of that…and another.  Then it comes back to the lobby.  In that case, I’d better just—

            “Yoshata,” Tiffany began as she stopped running.

            “Yes?”  The sky blue Yoshi stopped too, wondering what they were doing.

            “I need you to stand between the lobby and the hallway.”

            “What if I see Olivia?”

            “That’s the point.  Keep her trapped until I come back around and get Joey back.  Got it?”

            “Got it.”

            Tiffany nodded her head, then ran back down the hallway in pursuit of Olivia.  She’ll eventually have to turn towards me or proceed to her…and I doubt that she would try to use an emergency exit, with all the noise involved.  Once I round this first, annoyingly long hallway corner, I should be able to spot her going down the next hallway with Joey over her shoulder.  And if I can’t catch up to her while she’s the one holding Joey, then I’ll know that I have to lose weight.

            She was almost at the first corner.  No time for jokes right now…this is serious.  Joey can’t die, unless we want to forget and live without his existence—which I’d say would be pretty hard for me.

            Tiffany had just crossed the first corner when she did indeed see a periwinkle figure running across the hall with another blue figure over her shoulders.  By the look of it, she was getting tired with Joey over her shoulder; this was an opportune time for Tiffany.  She picked up her running pace, despite her growing exhaustion, and headed for Olivia.

 

            Olivia heard them coming behind her.  She looked back.  Not them, she thought, but just her.  I don’t know where the other one is…I don’t care right now, either.  Right now, I just want to get this heavy kid off my shoulders and into a car, and then finish this cursed job.

            It’s as if I lose more whenever I think I’ve finally won.  Why, for heaven’s sake?

            She mustered some strength and ran faster towards the second corner, alternating the shoulder Joey was on every now and then to give her poor upper body and stinging arms some rest.  Either Joey was fatter than he looked, or Olivia was not very skilled in lifting weight.  Maybe if I get into the next elevator, I can set him down, she thought.  Then she quickly dismissed the idea.  She might get there before I go up…and even if I made it, it would still take even longer for me to end this.  I just have to get out of this hotel, simple as that.  I shouldn’t have let them chase me into this place.

            She turned the second corner, starting to lower Joey’s body to the ground.  This was getting tiresome, and the less she had to hold him, the faster she could go to escape that brat Tiffany.  But even as Olivia was turning the corner, Tiffany had begun to catch up with her.  For Olivia, this was not good.

 

            Past the second corner, into the third hallway.  Tiffany got ready to tackle Olivia if necessary.  That would be a pleasant surprise for some guy who might open up his room door and see us, thought Tiffany.  A grown woman tackled by a teenage girl while some poor blue kid lies on the floor unconscious.  That’d be some genuine entertainment, all right.  Maybe enough for him to invite the cops over to watch.  She was catching up, with the third corner not far away.  But before that, there was another elevator, set right in the middle of the right wall of this hallway.  Olivia jumping into that elevator would be pretty improbable right now.  Tiffany watched as the periwinkle Yoshi approached it.

            Olivia passed by it, slightly dragging Joey on the marble floor behind her.  She must have decided against it herself.

            Good.  This won’t take long anyway.

            The number of feet between Tiffany and Olivia was getting shorter.  I might be able to tackle in her in about five seconds, thought Olivia, panting as she continued to catch up.  That is, if she would stop dragging Joey on the floor…idiot!  I can’t jump if she has him in my way…I might tackle him instead.  It looks like I’ll have to lead her over to Yoshata or wait till she picks up Joey so I can tackle her.

            Or maybe I should wake Joey up.

            …Nah.  If I do that, I’ll wake up too many people… and public attention is the last thing we need now.  But if she would just pull Joey back onto her shoulder instead of dragging him on the hallway floor….

 

             Yoshata stood where Tiffany had told her: just in between the lobby and the hallway.  She was a tiny bit nervous, but her ability to concentrate if—when—she needed it was still perfectly ready.  She guessed that it would only be a matter of a minute or two before a periwinkle Yoshi came running down the hall, with a dark blue Yoshi just behind her.  Then I’ll be able to stop her, thought Yoshata.  That is, if Tiff hasn’t done so already.

            Stopping Olivia and dealing with her properly was something that Yoshata and Tiffany obviously couldn’t wait much longer to do.  She was sure that stopping Olivia here would be easy—just a minute longer, I’m sure—but she hadn’t thought too much about the other part.  Dealing with Olivia properly, the sky blue Yoshi began thinking.

            Well, how will we do that?  What will we do?  Tiff never talked to me about it before…at least, I can’t remember her talking to me about it.  And if she did, I know we didn’t talk about it in depth.  But when we stop Olivia, we’ll have to make sure that we do something about her.

            But what?

            I can’t imagine what…but we’ll have to think about it quickly when we catch Olivia, because she’ll really want to escape from us.  And likely grab back Joey somehow.  And if she did that, I dunno what I’d do…this whole thing would start all over again.  Maybe if we’re lucky, she’ll fall asleep—very unlikely—or go out cold—still unlikely, but more likely than falling asleep.  We’ll need time to talk about what we’ll do with her, unless Tiffany already has a plan that I don’t know about.

            How can we deal with her in such way that she won’t be able to try to kill Joey again?  The police have actually caught her once…but always escaped them.  She seems to escape everything.  What can Olivia not escape?

            Death.

            …But is death the only way to put Olivia out of trouble forever?  I don’t want to kill anyone, even if I do want to give Olivia what she deserves.

            There aren’t many other ways to get rid of her without any risk of her escaping….

            …There have to be.  And if Olivia does have to be killed, I don’t want to be the one to do it.  Maybe Tiffany.  But there’s still a risk of killing her if we have to take her somewhere by car.  She might escape on our way there.

            And this doesn’t really matter.  Maybe Tiff already knows of what to do.  And if she doesn’t, so what?  I don’t need to worry about it; Tiff and I will talk about what to do when we save Joey.

 

            She had spent slightly over a minute thinking over how to deal with Olivia once she was caught.  When she had finished, time was up anyway; Yoshata could hear footsteps in the hallway to her left, each coming quickly after the last.  She could also hear the sound of shoes dragging on the floor: Joey.  It won’t be long, she thought, and slowly crept over to block the entire left hallway.  Half a minute at most.  She considered concentrating for an ice beam, but decided against it, in case Tiffany actually ended up being the one in the front of the chase.

            The noise became somewhat louder as the running footsteps came closer.  This would be less noisy if these floors were carpeted instead of marble, Yoshata began to think.  But I guess that would make it look like less effort was put—

            Her full attention was directed at Olivia, who was, in fact, the one leading the chase.  The periwinkle Yoshi was looking back at Joey (whose unconscious body she was dragging on the floor) and at Tiffany (who was just behind her, not trying to stop her for some reason).

            For some reason, Olivia hadn’t quite noticed the first thing she saw: Yoshata blocking the path out of the hallway.  At least, she hadn’t noticed until two seconds later.  When she did realize what was going on, she thought about what to do incredibly quickly.  After only three more seconds, she evaded Tiffany and Yoshata in a way they hadn’t expected.  First, she stopped in her place and swung Joey’s body over just enough to push Tiffany onto the marble floor.  Then, while Tiffany was momentarily unable to catch her and while (Olivia thought) Yoshata had taken her eye off of her for a second or so, she slid Joey across the smooth marble floor, planning for him to distract Yoshata.  When that happened, she would have to get Yoshata while she wasn’t looking and then pick up Joey again.

            However, the latter part of her plan would not be completed.  Yoshata had remembered within a split-second to concentrate on the enemy.  Olivia slid Joey’s unconscious body across the marble floor with surprising effectiveness—It’s the effort they put into the place, Yoshata said to herself at that moment, finishing her interrupted thought—and was about to come up and knock her out while Tiffany was still on the floor, but Yoshata had been able to catch it before it happened.  Having a rough idea of what was about to happen gave her a pretty strong advantage, as did the brilliant surge of concentration when she had first arrived here.  She concentrated up an ice beam within two seconds and fired at Olivia.

            Tiffany pushed herself back up to her feet, realizing what had happened.  Yoshata’s quick move had frozen Olivia’s back while she was pushing herself up.  The dark blue Yoshi ran over to where Yoshata stood…and where the sleeping body of Joey was lying behind her.  She told Yoshata to pick up Joey and head to the elevator to the SkyCar floor.

            Yoshata realized that this wasn’t exactly the time to argue with Tiffany.  One reason being that although she had used a quick ice beam on Olivia, it had only frozen her back and the upper half of her head, and with a relatively thin layer of ice.  However, she needed to say something: “But…we can leave with him now!  The time machine’s right outside!”

            “She might steal another and start this whole thing over again!”

            When Yoshata heard this, it sunk far into her.  She knew that she would never want to do this again.  She would have told Tiffany that she understood it enough, but the dark blue Yoshi continued before she could.

            “We have to make sure that she’ll never be able to do that.  It’ll be risky, but right now we don’t have time to think otherwise.  You take him outside to the time machine—he’ll be safer with you than me—and I’ll go upstairs and grab a SkyCar.  Then I’ll come back down and destroy the time machine with it.”

            Yoshata was confused again.  “But—”

            “We’ll get another one—I’ll bet that the one Olivia used is still up in our room.  Now go!”

            Yoshata immediately did as she was told, grabbing Joey by his arms and pulling him back towards the doors exiting the lobby.  Tiffany took one last glance at Olivia—whose upper half was, unfortunately, already thawing—before she ran to the elevator in the lobby.

 

            Olivia could only watch helplessly as Yoshata ran to take Joey away to the outside—and likely somewhere where she wouldn’t be able to find him again—while Tiffany ran back into the lobby, in the direction of one of the two elevators there.  So close! she thought viciously.  SO CLOSE!  But, being frozen in ice all over the back parts of her head and body, she couldn’t hear a thing or feel too much…only watch as her body thawed.

            For now.

            But it won’t be long, she told herself.  It won’t be long before this minor setback disappears, and I can go back to get Joey before it’s too late.

            The ice soon thawed.  Still dripping and still a bit on where she was frozen, Olivia got up and ran to the lobby.  She could go two directions from here.  But which way should I go? she thought.

            Perhaps up after Tiffany.  If I stop her, then I can ambush Joey and his friend while they’re outside; they’ll think I’m Tiffany…and maybe I’ll have a chance to kill Joey right then.  It’s not like I have much else to lose now, and the time machine is right out there anyway.

            On the other hand—her arm gave a reminding sting as she thought this, which made her briefly clench her teeth—I could go out there and stop those two right now.  Because what would happen if I got up to the SkyCar parking port and she had already found a ride?  So if I got to them first, I might be able to stop Tiffany before she goes one any more with this.  It might be a bit dangerous—and I might get frozen again—but if I want to finish this here and now….

            Olivia stopped thinking and started running, passing through the glass doors and running out to the place in the parking lot where Yoshata was carrying Joey’s still unconscious body.  She could see them, and she could see the time machine just a few feet behind them.

 

            A ding!  An opening set of doors.  And a parking port behind them.  Tiffany stepped out of the elevator, not wasting a minute.  She’ll thaw out any moment now, she thought nervously.  I should’ve had Yoshata fully freeze her from there, I really should have.  But too late now.  I need a car.  Now.  She walked towards a corner of the moderately small port, where a majority of the SkyCars was kept.

            She tried every door.  As she certainly would have expected, they were all locked.  Man, our luck sure is running out quickly today, she thought as she tried the last door, and to no avail.  She would have to break into one.  And knowing the security systems the idiots owners have no doubt installed, it’ll have to be quick.

            But what had to be done had to be done…even if it had to be quick.  So, Tiffany chose a shiny red SkyCar (she was sure she had seen one with a cooler color sometime during her short search, but she couldn’t be picky; she didn’t have time) and stepped back a ways before closing her eyes and charging.

            Bang!

            Tiffany was down on the concrete parking floor, her head already throbbing.  And, she noticed, she had only managed to dent the exterior metal of the door.  She got up and kicked the door.  But fortunately, her anger hadn’t triggered the car’s theft alarm.

            After making sure her head was protected this time, Tiffany charged at the car’s door again, this time using the side of her body and her shoulders to ram it.

            Bang!

            This time she didn’t fall down, but she also hadn’t done much damage to the door, and the theft alarm hadn’t gone off.  She was sure that sometime soon the door would break—SkyCars were manufactured with only technology as their true priority—but that before that, the theft alarm would sound and attract the attention of more than a few people on the floor below her.  She got back and tried again.

            Bang!

            Still nothing; however, the alarm also didn’t sound off.  That might still be a couple car-tackles away.  Tiffany prepared for another ramming charge.

            Fortunately for her, the manufacturers of SkyCars had ignored another vital aspect of vehicle security due to their focus on flying technology.  While they had had an approved amount of collision protection, they forgot about continuous damage by car thieves; and while they had built decent interior damage-and-theft protection, they hadn’t made quite enough effort in protection from thieves who could use fake or other keys on the car’s ignition.  Tiffany had, in fact, managed to think ahead about this topic, even if vaguely.  When their SkyCar had been wrecked in their chase of Olivia a couple days earlier (it had actually been earlier today, if not counting midnight as the next day), she took the keys out of the car and kept them.  Now they were with her here…and if she got lucky, she could trick the SkyCar into using her SkyCar’s key.  Then, she could do as she had been hoping to do for the past few days: she could stop Olivia.

            Bang!

            That one did it; the alarm began to sound off, making a siren-like noise that was deafening to Tiffany.  She held her hands to her ears and started kicking at the door, hoping for it to burst open.  It didn’t exactly matter now that the alarm was going off.

            Bang!

            Bang!

            Bang!

            The door began to come loose.  Tiffany was sure that this would soon be over and that she would soon drive out in this damaged SkyCar to save Joey and Yoshata.  She was also sure, however, that downstairs or wherever the security room of the Orange Springs Hotel was, some guy could hear and see what was happening.  But too bad for them, she though slyly, because I’ll be gone any minute now.

            Pow!

            The car door, now very dented, came loose enough for her to open it.  She got in and pulled out the key she had taken earlier.  At least one good thing to have happened so far, in her opinion…but would it remain that way?

            She first turned off the alarm.  Then she tried to close the door; but, of course, it was too wrecked and loosened to close again.  I’ll just have to make do, she thought, and stuck her key into the ignition.  She tried to give it a turn.

            It didn’t work.

            Hey, no problem.  She tried again, this time with a little more force.

            The key wouldn’t turn.

            Ummm….  She tried even harder, having a terrible feeling that any minute now, someone—either Olivia or some security guard—would come running out of the elevator and towards her.  That would make a quick and terrible end to this.

            She heard something, but nothing serious.  This key wasn’t working no matter how hard she tried.

            …So I might want to give that ignition a kick…or some form of working damage.

            So Tiffany yanked out her key and pulled up her foot to kick the ignition.  She kicked hard a few times, causing the metal outside of the keyhole to fall off.  This time she stuck the key into the ignition port and twisted it.

            This time she heard something serious, but it died out just as quickly as it had come.  She would have to try again, and as hard as she could.  This had better work, she thought, becoming angry and stressed at the same time.  She pulled out the key and put it back into the almost-broken ignition keyhole.

            Time was running out.  Tiffany heard something other than the ignition this time, and it wasn’t too distant: the sound of elevator doors opening and the sound of shoes on running feet.  A security guard was coming her way.  A security guard, or Olivia.

            It hadn’t worked again, that stupid ignition.  You should work for me now, thought Tiffany, somehow trying to address both the ignition and the key.  You’ll work for me now, or my whole effort—even past breaking into this car—will be pointless and worth nothing.  Now!

            She turned the key at that moment, just as she could also see a brown Yoshi in a security uniform running through the parking area.  Tiffany was already beginning to realize how stupid an idea this was; of course it couldn’t be as easy as she wanted it to.  And when she thought of it, few things were in 2023.  Perhaps I should’ve stayed back twenty years, she thought, although jokingly.  In truth, things had gone relatively easy when they were there—maybe Joey was just a magnet for bad occurrences, or misfortune, if one preferred.

            …Yet in all of this, Tiffany hadn’t wished to give up what she had gone through so much trouble to do.

            The car gave a loud noise as it started.

            The brown Yoshi in the security uniform waved at her past the windshield and started shouting.  Tiffany heard, but obviously didn’t listen.  Who understood what was happening to her, anyway?

            A loud hum came from the bottom of the SkyCar—it had no wheels—and it pushed itself from the ground, scattering any dust on the concrete parking pavement underneath it.  The brown Yoshi was too late, even if by a few seconds.  The dark blue Yoshi inside—Could she be the one on the news?—directed the red SkyCar out of the parking port with brilliant speed, its back propellers pushing it forward.

 

            Tiffany gave a sigh of relief.  Like so many times before, she had almost been finished.  Almost.  But, like so many previous times still, she had escaped just in time.  She turned off the radio of the SkyCar and began to lower it downwards, to the ground parking lot.  From this height she couldn’t see any of them in detail, but she was sure that Yoshata was taking care of whatever was happening down there.  She was also sure that by now Olivia had come up to them and was also trying to take care of a few things.  I just hope that I can destroy the time machine and make the pick-up in time.

            The red SkyCar dropped below the fifth floor after a while of slowly dropping.  The reason it had taken so long to build a hotel with around only eight floors was that each floor was greatly extended in height.  That, and the vast length and width of the grand hotel’s base.  Of course, Tiffany wasn’t being as careful as she needed to; she was lowering the SkyCar faster than she probably should have.  She was about to pass the fourth floor.

            But did it really matter?  In the long run, did anything but Joey matter right now?  Tiffany didn’t think so.  Of course, one of her highest motives behind saving Joey was her own survival…and, needless to say, if she died here while lowering a stolen SkyCar at a dangerous speed, that wouldn’t be a concern anymore.  So it did matter.  But it was still Joey at the top of causes and effects.

            Past the fourth floor, and halfway to the third.  Tiffany could see the figures of Yoshata and Olivia; and Joey, who was still unconscious.  He could sleep through a storm, she thought.

            The door next to her popped open as she lowered to the mark of the third floor.  She wanted to kick it out so it would stop being a bother to her, but right now she was afraid that it might cause her to lose her concentration.  She refrained from doing so, but then another thought came into her head: What if the car malfunctions while I’m trying to fly it?

            It didn’t seem too unlikely—she had just sabotaged the SkyCar’s weak ignition system…and because it was mostly run by a computer, a malfunction could have very bad results.  If only the dumb key had been left in the car, she thought angrily.  She looked out of the passenger side window and saw the second floor passing by.  She had to be ready; it was almost time.

 

            Now was the time.  Below Tiffany and the SkyCar she was in, Yoshata was defending Joey (who was behind her, still not awake) from Olivia by means of heat beams, ice beams, and other powers that might help her.  Well, she’s being creative, thought Tiffany as she began to switch the SkyCar to forward movement.  Now we’ll just see how long she can stand against Olivia while I destroy the time machine.  Now she began to move at a reasonable speed, much faster than the speed at which she was lowering the SkyCar.

            The SkyCar swooped around after traveling a short distance and gaining speed.  Tiffany gave the vehicle a slight angle, moving it down slowly as it moved forward quickly.  She was coming nearer to the ground, and the time machine she was supposed to destroy was just ahead.  Now if I can just go fast enough downward to not pass it….

            She decided to be daring again, and let the SkyCar fall a bit faster.  After she had dropped it, she was now exactly where she wanted to be: only a few feet parallel to the ground.  And ahead, only about two yards away, lay the time machine.  Tiffany gave a quick glance in the direction of Yoshata, who looked back for a moment and acknowledged her presence.

            Good.  They’re not in the way.  Tiffany gained even more speed going forward towards the time machine.  And a second later—

            Bang!

            The upper half of Olivia’s original time machine was scrapped.  The rest of the machine was knocked over into the middle of the road, in the path of an oncoming truck.  Had Yoshata been in the SkyCar, she would have found that truck to be strikingly similar to the one in her dream.  Tiffany was sure that Yoshata had heard what had just happened—and of course Olivia did, she was facing that direction—but she didn’t see Yoshata turn back to regard her.  The sky blue Yoshi was still busy protecting Joey from his would-be assassin.

            Now was the time.  Tiffany made the SkyCar u-turn back towards Yoshata, and then drove straight in that direction.  I’ll hit Olivia.  Those were the words going through her mind.  I’ll hit her while stopping to get Joey and Yoshata, and if I’m lucky, she’ll die.  And if I miss…then I just get Joey and Yoshata out of here before she can do anything else.  With that in mind, Tiffany steered the SkyCar a bit to the right, headed now to the point at which Olivia was standing.  Realizing what was about to happen within only a couple seconds, the periwinkle Yoshi jumped out of the way, putting a few extra feet of distance between her and the others.

            Tiffany stopped the back propellers abruptly, with the SkyCar now lightly drifting above the pavement but not moving backwards or forwards.  Yoshata knew what to do at once.  She picked up Joey’s unconscious body—still unconscious—and opened the vehicle’s side door.  She pushed Joey in and jumped in after him, then slammed the door shut.  Tiffany first made sure that they were all there, and then pushed down on the acceleration pedal.  Yoshata looked back to the parking lot of the Orange Springs Hotel.  She saw a few Yoshies in uniforms running out of the building—Tiffany must’ve done another successfully quiet job, she thought, and rolled her eyes—waving for them to stop.  Too bad for them.

            But where was Olivia?

 

            “Wake him up,” Tiffany told Yoshata as they drifted through the city.  It had only been about two minutes since she had rescued them from Olivia, and only Tiffany could have known where their destination was.

            Yoshata was about to ask her how she was supposed to do that.  Then she remembered how she had awakened Tiffany just the other day.  Obviously, Tiffany hadn’t known about that herself…but Yoshata was sure that what Joey’s daughter meant was something along the lines of Just think of something, you’re the one with the powers.  She formed some water in her hand and poured it over Joey’s face.  It would probably take a few tries; Joey wasn’t just asleep, like Tiffany had been.

            We were lucky she came in time, Yoshata thought while conjuring up more water.  Olivia had almost gotten to me and Joey, and it was getting harder for me to concentrate.

            It was true—at a few different points in their encounter, Olivia had hidden behind different vehicles to avoid Yoshata’s attacks just as Yoshata had been attacking.  And since she couldn’t stop her attacks once they had begun, Olivia had been causing her to lose her energy rapidly.  Right now, Yoshata was able to use simple powers such as generating water from her palm; however, she would need a few minutes’ rest before she could use her powers offensively or defensively.

            Her second try hadn’t been effective.  Joey still lay unconscious, not making even the slightest twitch.  But he was breathing.  And perhaps he had moved when the water had hit his face, and Yoshata just didn’t notice.  Either way, she thought, I’ll try again.

            She concentrated again.  A small pool of water formed in her hand again, and she poured it onto Joey’s face again.  This time he stirred, then opened his eyes.  After a second of just lying down on the back seat, registering what was going on, he pulled himself up in a flash and looked at both Yoshata and Tiffany.  He was speechless for a moment.

            “…You guys…” he began, still too busy looking around and thinking about what was happening.  “You’re alive!…and my face is really wet!  What happened?  I think I fainted back at—”

            Hearing his voice, Tiffany turned around quickly and looked back at him, keeping her eyes off of her driving path for the longest time that Yoshata had seen to this point.  “Well, he’s awake,” she said, trying to sound as laid-back as she just about always was.  Of course, Yoshata knew—and Joey might have sensed it, too—that Tiffany was trying to hold back a large amount of joy and relief that had just come from inside her.

            “Um…where are we?”

            Yoshata answered Joey’s question.  “We were able to take you back from Olivia while we were at the hotel, just a few minutes ago.  Right now we’re driving as away from her as we can get.”

            “…Just like how we began,” Joey said thoughtfully.

            Tiffany made no reply; her head was already back on what was in front of the car.  Yoshata thought about what Joey said for a moment.  And after she had pondered it, she found it true: They had begun this whole thing with Tiffany taking them on the run from Olivia.  And that was, essentially, how they ended up here.  But Yoshata also realized that Tiffany knew what they were going to do this time that would make it different from last time.  This time, her mind told her, we’re going to face Olivia rather than run from her.  Sure, there’ll be a greater risk involved with Joey….

            …But Olivia’s been determined, and she’s given us a good deal of trouble while we were running from her anyway.

            “…So this time won’t be the same, since we’re actually going to do something this time,” Yoshata finished.  She had told Joey what her mind had told her, and Joey seemed to understand pretty well.

            “Hm…we probably should’ve just done that from the start,” Joey said, after thinking about their situation himself.

            “Well, I would have if I had known that it would lead to all this,” said Tiffany, still looking ahead.  Apparently, she thought Joey had been speaking directly to her.  “I mean, I would have tried to kill Olivia the first time I saw her, had I known Yoshata and I would have to make a lucky escape from 2003.  It took us two days to come back and save you.”

            Where were you?” Joey asked.

            “You’re planning to kill her?” Yoshata asked at the same time.

            Tiffany looked back at them both for a second, then turned back.  “Um…Olivia did end up throwing me and Yoshata into her time machine.  We got back by heading over to the future location of the Hotel with Olivia’s time machine.  That is, the one she used to come back twenty years in the first place.”

            She waited for questions from Joey.  There were none.  Wow…big surprise.  She went on, still watching where she was driving the SkyCar.

            “On our way there, we only had a few problems.  And even though they were pretty big problems—just look at Yoshata’s forehead, and you’ll see—we ended up making it.  We stopped Olivia and got you back into this new SkyCar while you were still asleep…or unconscious… whatever you want to call it.”

            Joey looked at Yoshata’s forehead.  He could see what must’ve been a serious scrape earlier.  Right now it was still just about as noticeable, but looked as if it had done a good job of healing.  He didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed it before.  “…Ow.”

            “Yeah,” replied Yoshata, and she rubbed her forehead.  She could barely feel the pain anymore.  “…But it’s gotten a lot better.”

            Then she suddenly recalled her dream.

            “Wait.  What’s that on your forehead?”

            Tiffany had asked that, just near the end.

            “What’s what—”

            That was her asking Tiffany what she was talking about.  Or trying to ask, before she was interrupted.

            “Ugh, it looks really bad…did Olivia do that to you?”

            Olivia might as well have…she’d caused enough trouble for them already, probably as much as she had believed they had been causing her.

            But before Tiffany had said that, there was something else….

            “It’s not real.”  That’s what Tiffany had said before noticing her forehead wound.  “Or at least I hope it isn’t.  But maybe we have another chance.”

            They did have another chance.

            And they had made something of it—they had succeeded.

            …Hadn’t they?

            “So…you were really gone for that long,” said Joey, still deep in thought.  “And while I had fainted, Olivia was taking away to kill me.”

            “Yes,” replied Tiffany.

            “But you stopped her…and so…what now?”

            “As I implied, we’re probably going to have to kill Olivia or find a way to keep her physically unable to ever cause problems like this again.  Hopefully the second.”

            “And how do you plan to do that?”

            “That’s one of the reasons I took us out on this drive: to think about what to do with you guys.  Another reason is to put you and Yoshata somewhere almost perfectly out of Olivia’s reach—almost because she’s managed to sneak into a lot of places with a good deal of subtlety—while I go back to deal with her myself.  I don’t want to risk losing either of you any more.

            “I’ll probably put you in the Time Travel Project Building, if I can find it.  That way, we can escape in another time machine as soon as I return, and you’ll be pretty safe from Olivia.”

            “What about the time machine back at the hotel?” Yoshata asked.

            “Hm…I could probably inform someone at the Time Travel Project building about that, once they’ve heard our entire story.  I’m pretty sure that they’ll understand, with everything going that way it’s been.”

            They drove on.  Yoshata looked out her window, Joey looked out his, and Tiffany looked onward through the windshield glass.  The building they were looking for wasn’t anywhere that they could see.  Maybe it’s behind us, Yoshata thought.

 

            As a matter of fact, it was not.  The tall building with the large letters T, T, and P painted on it was actually far to their left, but from this distance they couldn’t quite see the letters.  Yet something with equal importance was just behind them, where they couldn’t see it.  It was positioned just above them, clutching tightly to the top of their SkyCar.  They would shortly discover that something was on top of their vehicle, and they would wonder how they didn’t hear it climb up there.

            It—or she, as you no doubt have guessed by now—was Olivia.

            Her arm was stinging now with a terrible intensity as she held on tight to the top sides of the car.  Her whole body was kept in a tight ball on top of the red car, so no one could see her yet.  That would be very soon…but not quite at this moment.  She was growing numb as the cold autumn wind blew against her face and the rest of her.  If she had been eight miles south from here—back where they first where, before Tiffany had driven them here in her SkyCar—the air probably would have been a bit warmer.  But, of course, this did nothing to make the air in this more northern area better, and Olivia still felt extremely chilly.

            I bet they’re having a great time in there, she thought bitterly, and imagined the three in the car below her.  She pictured them talking about their journey to get here—and how had they, by the way?—and laughing about their close calls and how Olivia almost did it, but just didn’t win in the end.

            But it isn’t the end yet, she thought.  The end isn’t until I finally erase the existence of time travel.  And I might want to actually kill the other two this time, so they can’t ever find a way to stop me.  But the main focus is Joey.  He’s the one I have to finish.  And then I’ll be the one at home, sipping coffee in the warmth of my house and laughing about who-knows-what with my friends.  Because I wouldn’t have had to spend so much time on the anti-time travel protest to spend time with them.  Curiosity like that of exploring time travel is always the root of so many problems….

            She was silent for a moment, having nothing else to focus her thought upon.

            …How did Tiffany get this car? was the question her mind asked to break the silence.  An important question, too; she was on a red SkyCar in decent condition, at least from what she could see.  When she had climbed up the back of the vehicle, she hadn’t bothered to check for any flaws it might have.  But if Joey’s daughter hadn’t broken into it, then how had she taken it?

            Also an important question.  I’d say that she did break into it, although I don’t know how.  And if she did, then how could she possibly have started it up?  I helped total their other vehicle, and I’m almost certain that the keys could have been forgotten—I’m pretty sure that they got injured at least a bit in that crash…how could any of them possibly remember to grab the keys, of all things?

            …But of course, how else could Tiffany have started this car that I’m on?  There’s little chance that it had the keys still inside it…but then, that’s just my luck.  But not much longer.

            Olivia prepared to ambush them for another time.  She had it all planned out; it couldn’t fail.  This time, she was determined and confident in herself.  This time, she believed, would be the last time.

            Only time would tell if that was true.

            Olivia’s plan had only one problem at this point: the problem regarding the direction they were headed in.  I can’t get in there and start that surprise attack if we’re headed towards buildings, she thought.  If the SkyCar were to crash into a skyscraper while Tiffany was too busy fighting to drive it, they would all die.  And while Olivia believed that she would wake up back in her home universe once Joey was officially dead, she still didn’t want to feel death herself—and who in their right mind does?

            So she would have to wait until the SkyCar turned in a direction that was definitely away from that area of the city.  Then it would be just the right time.  They still weren’t even the slightest bit aware that she was just above them.  I’ll get them, she thought, her eyes still looking towards the populated area of the city, squinting to avoid the dry wind.

            But her question was still unanswered: Where exactly are we headed?

 

            Tiffany had made a few turns—each which had flung her broken door open, always startling her—in the past few minutes, looking at the huge city that lay before them.  Yoshata and Joey had been busy at work telling each other of what had happened while the other was gone (Yoshata, of course, was doing most of the talking; Joey was doing most of the questioning), and she was left to watch their path.  It had taken her more than a few moments to finally spot their destination—the building marked T.T.P.  They just have too many tall buildings here, she thought.  But at least we found it; now to get there.  I’m sure it’ll just be five minutes from here.

            She needed to stop Joey and Yoshata’s conversation for a moment to tell them this.  She had to turn back and speak over their voices a couple times, but she caught their attention pretty quickly.  “Okay,” she began.  “Like I told you, I’m going to leave you guys at the building while I go back to finish Olivia.  We’re headed in that direction right now, and our drive there should be five minutes, more or less.”

            “And how long will you be gone?” Joey asked.

            Tiffany turned her head back towards the front while she replied.  “That depends on where Olivia will be by the time I get back to the Orange Springs Hotel.  She might’ve run off; I really have no idea.  But my guess for how long I’ll be gone is…about…forty-five minutes, thirty minutes, an hour…something along those lines.”

            “…And what time will it be then?”

            “In the worst-case scenario, it should be about”—Tiffany checked the car clock, but found that it had malfunctioned when she had jammed her own key in, and guessed—“1:20 in the morning by the time I get back.  Are you tired?”

            “No,” he replied, but added a small yawn afterwards.  “Well…a little.  But after fainting—or suddenly falling asleep, or whatever—I felt a little better.  How about you?”

            “Not us,” replied Tiffany.  “We were able to get a good night’s sleep last night before we came to get you.  We stayed at a motel in the city, and on the next day ate breakfast and found the right spot to time travel through.  I can’t speak for Yoshata, but I feel like it’s still morning.”

            “So do I,” added Yoshata.

            Joey yawned again, this one bigger than the last.  “Well, I feel like it’s still really early in the morning.  When we get there, can I sleep for the time you’re gone?”

            “Um…sure.  But when I get back, it’ll be back home for you two…and I’m sure you can’t wait for that.”

            “Well…I haven’t even been gone a day, if you consider our time before we came back,” Yoshata said.

            “Could you honestly call that being home?” Tiffany asked.  “I’d say it only counts if everyone makes it back.”

            Joey thought about that word.  Everyone.

            “…What about you, Tiff?”

            “Me?  I’ll be headed home, to my own universe in my own time.  The three of us—well, I should say the two of you and I—will part…and…if I have to take you there by a time machine, I’ll say goodbye to both you and your home universe.  It was a nice place when I ‘visited’ with Yoshata…so I kinda hope that I might be able to see it before I go.”

            Had she been sad?  Yoshata thought so, although Tiffany had almost always been able to mask her emotions well.  She’s right, the sky blue Yoshi told herself.  We will have to leave each other eventually…but at least I’ll be back with Joey and all my other friends.  What about Tiff?  She didn’t know.  Yet in her mind, she had a feeling that Tiffany would survive through life, with or without friends like her and Joey, if she could survive through this pivotal moment. 

            It’s almost time.

            …Perhaps Tiffany could visit them?  She doubted it.  She’ll be enough trouble as it is for her use of the twenty-year-older Joey’s time machine.  They’d never let her do it again.

            …Darn.

            That was all she could think.  It would be such a shame, especially since she and Joey wouldn’t forget Tiffany even after she left them.  But there also was hope that she would see Tiff again.  Maybe not in a long time—maybe not ever if they couldn’t end this—but for part her life beginning at her entrance to the world to Joey and whoever his future wife might be.  After all, it was supposed to happen about nine years from 2003.  Wasn’t that what Tiffany said to us?  2012, wasn’t it?

            It didn’t exactly matter.  The important part was that it would—or at least should—happen in the future.  That relieved Yoshata somewhat.  But attention returned to Tiffany when she started talking again.

            “You know, of course, that I might not come back,” she said, still hiding any fear she might have; she spoke as one might speak when talking about the catch to some important deal.

            “…How will we know?” asked Joey, and he yawned just after.

            Tiffany thought of what to tell him.  “If I don’t return in two hours,” she answered after much consideration.  “In that case, I want you to give this to one of the workers in the building and tell them to send you there.”  She pulled out a scrap of paper with something written on it and a pencil, scribbled something on the paper, and handed it to him.  The piece of torn-off paper had a long number and a distinct date—the date was labeled two days after their original departure with her, if he remembered correctly.  “I’ll have to copy that down before we get to the building, just to be safe,” she added.

            “…Shouldn’t I come with you to help stop Olivia?” asked Yoshata, with a worried-questioning tone similar to Joey’s.

            “I can’t let you do that,” said Tiffany.  “I’m sure you would help me a lot, but there are two things that stop me from bringing you: one, I need to make sure that Joey will be safe if Olivia somehow manages to reach that building before I can get back.  Two…well….

            “You know that I trust you and your powers.  But this time I want to protect you.”

            Yoshata was about to protest, but Tiffany cut her off.

            “I’ve been pretty ignorant about your life for a lot of this time.  It’s all been about saving Joey, and technically, saving my own life as well.  But…how should I say this?…we’ve come so close to the end that I don’t want to risk the death of two of us when I can prevent the death of at least one.  So…I’m going to protect you and leave you to protect Joey, in case I don’t make it.  As for whatever happens between me and Olivia, we can just hope for the best.”

            Yoshata and Joey both understood.  They may not have thought the best of it, but they understood.  The two of them nodded.

            Almost time.

 

            The building drew ever closer.  They were about to make a smooth landing at the bottom of the Time Travel Project building.  And Olivia Yoshi, who was by now very hungry and almost numb everywhere because of that dry autumn wind, was growing increasingly impatient.  I should’ve known that she wouldn’t go out of the way, she thought.  Her teeth were chattering too much for her to try to talk anyway.  But now I can’t use my plan…so what to do now?

            She didn’t know.  For a moment, she brainstormed for some idea—any idea would be good by now, as long it won’t get me killed, she thought—but nothing came.  Then the SkyCar jerked below her.  What was that? she wondered.

            The parking lot was directly under the red SkyCar.  Not close enough for someone to jump out of the car and land safely—anyone who tried that would likely die or get seriously injured from this distance—but a quick trip for the SkyCar.  She looked around the parking lot.  It was far from empty; on the contrary, it had almost more cars now than she remembered seeing when she had come earlier.

            Remembering her previous visit to the building, Olivia looked over to the left tower of the building.  At the bottom was a huge hole leading into the storage room.  That was where her stolen car had crashed earlier today.  By now, however, a long yellow strip was extended across that place.  She was sure it read POLICE LINE—DO NOT CROSS.

            I guess I’ll just have to find out, she told herself.  But first, I’ve gotta stop them right when they get out of this car…which should be any minute.  Yeah…that’s the plan.

            She waited as the SkyCar approached the ground.  Once someone stepped out—hopefully Joey—she would jump from the top of the car and attack them.  They wouldn’t know what hit them.

 

            Tiffany was lowering the SkyCar to the parking lot of the huge building.  Joey looked out the windows to see what it was like, and Yoshata did the same, exchanging windows with Joey every time they moved to look.

            From looking at the large fence around the parking lot, Joey could tell that what they were doing right now probably wasn’t something they were allowed to do…not that Tiffany would care.  The fence went around the building as far as he could see from this window, so he moved to Yoshata’s window, and she switched with him.

            The fence did go around the building after all; Joey could see that from this window.  But what he was really interested in was the building itself.  It was actually made of two giant towers that shared a small main section in the front and formed a circle around some empty section in the middle; the empty section was almost completely hidden by the towers, and he couldn’t see if anything was in it.  What he could see was a wide black tube hitched to the side of the wall formed by the circle of the towers.  Weird.  He supposed that the one building could be considered two because of the towers…but because of their almost complete connection, they were supposed to be a single building.

            The car suddenly gave a violent jerk and all the lights in it went off for a second.  When they came back on, Yoshata nervously asked, “What happened?”

            Tiffany’s door flung open again, and she leaned out to close it.  “Just a technical problem.  We won’t have trouble with them when we get out of the car.”

            “And why does your door keep coming open?” Joey asked.  Then he added another long yawn.

            “Um…I…sort of had to break it open to get into the car.”

            Joey nodded and turned back to his window to look at the building.  He saw that they had almost reached the parking lot.

            At the foot of the left tower was a large hole surrounded by yellow police tape.  He had no idea how the hole got there, but thought that they might go into the building through it.  And hopefully there aren’t any police there anymore.

            They were about to land.  The final thing he looked out the window to see was the front doors of the building.  They were made of glass, like those of the Orange Springs Hotel; however, they had more doors behind them, and Joey doubted that they were always unlocked.  But perhaps Tiffany would let them in through those doors.  Perhaps those inside the building would understand their dilemma.  Or…probably not.

 

            The SkyCar came to a stop in an empty parking space just near the front section of the building.  It towered above them, reaching up to what seemed like the dark night sky.  Stars were everywhere, and Yoshata was sure that at this time—a little after the middle of the night—they were the most noticeable.  But perhaps she could admire it another night; right now, as all of them surely knew, was the time to enter the building in front of them and eventually go back home.

            Yet they were still completely unaware of the periwinkle Yoshi waiting at the top of their SkyCar.  And her plans were somewhat different.  To her, this was also the time to eventually bring this to a finish; however, this time she would actually succeed.  This time I will, she repeated in her head.  She was still hungry, still numb, still stinging in her arm, still a bit tired from the day’s work.  But she was ignoring it to the best of her ability now, because right now she was on the verge of jumping off the parked SkyCar and tackling the first one of those three that she saw.  Any second now…and—

            As if on cue, the door below opened.  She saw from where she was that it was the back door on the passenger side.  But who would come out?

            It would have been Joey—by the time they had landed, the window he was looking out through was on the passenger side of the car—but Yoshata had switched seats with him just at the last moment.  So the sky blue Yoshi with the poof of hair came through the door first.  No big disappointment for me, thought Olivia, and she stood up and jumped off of the car before Yoshata could look behind her.

            It’s time.  Now.  Now it’s begun.

 

            Tiffany and Joey had walked out of the car at the same moment: just a few seconds after Yoshata.  And they both had the same reaction to what had just happened.  When they saw who had been hiding on the roof of their car this whole time, they stood, mouths and eyes wide open.  Olivia, who Tiffany thought had been left behind as they drove away from the Orange Springs Hotel, had just jumped off of the top of their new SkyCar and tackled Yoshata to the ground.  So Tiffany had three thoughts bouncing around in her head by this time: You’ve gotta help Yoshata, You’ve gotta protect Joey from her, and How did she get here? were those three thoughts.  She would have to think at a speed faster than Olivia if she was going to do this right.

            And here came Olivia.  As Yoshata lay on the ground, cringing and tending to her new wounds, the periwinkle assassin—she just might actually finish her job now—ran around the car.  She wanted Joey.  But I can’t let that happen, thought Tiffany.  What she had to do flashed through her mind like lightning.  Obviously, it would have to be Joey first; so that meant getting Olivia out of the way would have to be done now.  As Olivia came around the back of the car, Tiffany did what came to her mind: she pulled open the back door of the SkyCar in front of Olivia.

            Of course, this didn’t hurt Olivia; she hadn’t been stupid enough to keep going and end up running into the door.  But what it did do was stop Olivia for a single glorious moment spanning about five seconds—more than enough time for Tiffany to grab Joey and pull him away towards Yoshata.

            Tiffany and Joey rushed over to Yoshata.  She was still on the ground, trying to take the sting out of her new scrapes, but she would also still be able to help them.  Sorry, Yoshata, thought Tiffany, her mind still rushing.  But it’s not the end of the world.  She told Joey to run to the front doors of the building—she was sure the hole in the storage area had security paying special attention to it, even if she and Joey couldn’t see that—and then turned to face Yoshata.  “Look,” she began, “you can see that Olivia has obviously followed us here.  But you can still be safer than you would with her.  Take the SkyCar and park it on the roof—right in the section between the towers.”

            Yoshata pushed herself up.  She had said that it would be hard for her to fight with her powers already; now she was bruised all over her legs and in a few places on her arms…quite vulnerable to the periwinkle Yoshi who was running around the front of the SkyCar right now.  But it would be safer for her to stay away from Olivia…if she could just be experienced in driving a SkyCar.  She had to tell Tiffany this.  “But I—”

            “—You’ve seen me do it!  Go, go!

            Tiffany ran after Joey with Olivia following them at a speed rivaling their own.  They seemed to disappear into the building within twenty seconds.

 

            That was fast, thought Yoshata.  She was still standing in the parking lot, just in front of the right side of the SkyCar.  And it’s a good thing Olivia didn’t decide to turn back and punch me into the car…I don’t think she would’ve missed if she had tried.  But now….

            She turned to face the SkyCar.  The one that Tiffany had told her she must drive, for some unknown reason and because Yoshata would be safer doing this than if she went with her.  She probably has a plan.  I just hope that I can get this thing moving before time’s up…they can’t run forever.

            The sky blue Yoshi walked around to the other side of the car.  Her heart was beating almost enough for her to hear it and definitely enough for her to feel it.  I’ve never done this before in my life, and I doubt I ever will after this was the first thought that came to her mind as she opened the door to the front seat.  Her second thought was I don’t know how Tiffany could’ve been dumb enough to ram her head into this door enough to keep it from closing.

            She turned the key in the ignition.  It gave her a bit of trouble because it wouldn’t budge for a couple seconds, but then it gave, and the car showed rough signs that it had started.  Signs such as the lights flickering on and off and the car clock showing jumbled readings.  Yoshata had no idea how Tiffany had totally messed up this car—it couldn’t have been because of her ramming the door open….

            Okay, she thought, and looked around at the controls in the driver’s seat.  They weren’t really all that bad…there were just a few more shifts than there were in a regular car.  And she had known, for the most part, how to drive a regular car.  So she did the first thing that she remembered: she switched the SkyCar into forward drive.

            This didn’t do anything noticeable…yet.  And the reason for that was obvious: the SkyCar had no driving wheels and needed to be in the air to move.  So here was the tough part.  Now what did Tiff use to get it into the air?  She checked around for some kind of switch that would turn on the lower propellers.  If I could just remember…I know it’s somewhere to my right…or in the front of the controls….

            But it wouldn’t accomplish anything if she just sat there and thought about it.  With that in mind, Yoshata made an educated guess.  I think I remember her using this one, she thought, looking at a switch she thought looked very familiar.  Not much of an educated guess, but close enough.  She grabbed the switch and moved it forward.  If something were to happen, it would do so now.

            There was a faint hum below the SkyCar at that point; Yoshata was sure of it.  The humming grew louder until it was about as loud as the sound of a car’s motor.  However, nothing happened.  So obviously….

            I have to move the switch to a higher level.  That had to be it.  So Yoshata grabbed the “fly” switch again and pushed it up farther.  And, of course, the red SkyCar began to slowly rise into the air.  Yoshata felt as if she should congratulate herself for passing her first SkyCar driver’s test, but then she remembered what she was supposed to be doing and looked back down at the controls.  She put her foot on the pedal and began to drive the SkyCar forward.  She stopped it just in front of the building and pushed the button on the side of the “fly” switch, hoping for something to happen—the switch was as far forward as it could go, and Yoshata hoped that it would be able to go higher.

            Something did happen; and amazingly, it was what Yoshata was hoping would happen.  Her pushing the button had begun the vehicle’s ascent.  So, she thought, looking back down at the switch in her hand, if I let the button go, I should stop going up.  Feeling a bit more daring than before, she let her thumb loosely slip from the button on the side of the switch.  This stopped the SkyCar from going any higher.  And, as she also noticed, it stayed in that place instead of drifting back down.  So apparently moving the switch back down and pushing the button while it was there would move the SkyCar down more.  That makes sense, I guess.

            But now that I have a half-decent grip on how to do this, I have to do what Tiffany told me.  They’ll be waiting.

            I hope.

 

-End of Chapter 9



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