Chương 70: Book 2 Chapter 1.2: Back Again (Again)

A spark of recognition passed between Vell and his new friend Kimmy -while a literal spark passed through the faulty generator behind Kim.

"You remember me!"

"You remember me?" Harley shoved Vell through the door and snatched a wrench from Kimmy's hand. The new student had been mid-way through attempting maintenance herself, but was now frozen in shock by the sudden change in circumstances.

"This is great, your new girlfriend is a looper too, how convenient for everyone," Harley said.

"So you'll have plenty of time to talk after the exploding electrical device is fixed to be more electrical and less exploding."

"Right, we really should prioritize," Lee said.

"Harley, do please provide some guidance."

"Wait, I don't understand," Kimmy said.

"What's going on? How do you still remember me?"

"Alright, that is a long story," Vell said.

"Short version: this whole school is caught in a time loop, and close to every single day it blows up or gets attacked by fishmen or everybody gets launched into space, or something like that, and then the day restarts, but me and you- and everyone else in this room- can work together and prevent the bad stuff from happening a second time!" Kimmy's eyes went wide, and she managed to look away from Vell for a second, but only a second.

"I'm stuck in an apocalyptic time loop?"

"Yes!"

"With you?"

"Yes!" The expression of existential dread on Kimmy's face turned into one of pure elation.

"This is great!" she squeaked. Kimmy jumped into Vell's arms and the two held each other tight. Lee took a break from altering a capacitor's positioning to stare, then leaned over to whisper to Harley.

"I'm on your side now, this is getting a bit odd."

"Hey, lovebirds! Get a room or get a move on," Harley snapped.

"You can fuck all you want after the apocalypse is over." With a heavy sigh, Kimmy and Vell pried themselves apart.

"I guess removing the threat of imminent electrocution would improve the mood," Vell said.

"Well, that depends. It's not my thing, but- Never mind," Harley said.

"Focus!"

"Yes, Vell, if you can do something about that loose manifold, and Kimmy, dear, you seem to know what you're doing, what were you up to before we got here?'

"Realigning heat sinks," Kimmy said.

"And call me Kim. Kimmy is a nickname: a familiar or humorous name given to a person or thing instead of or as well as the real name."

"Okay then," Lee said slowly.

"Where did you leave off?" Kim walked over to instruct Lee on the next steps, while Vell went to repair the indicated structure. Derek was already hands-on with the manifold, pulling on it with all his might. Vell gently moved him aside, then pushed it once, and the manifold fell back into place.

"Oh. There should really be a sign on that, you know, like a door."

"I don't think it's supposed to come loose," Hawke noted.

"It is very much not," Vell said.

"Now just make sure it stays there for a bit, uh, I think I have a way to keep this in place." Hawke and Derek teamed up to hold the large metal construct in place while Vell pulled out his phone. The rune-summoning device he'd invented last year for a Roxy Rocket concert was attached to his phone, in a much more streamlined form. Derek examined the tech enviously.

"How'd you get one of those?" he said.

"They don't launch until this fall.' Over the summer Vell had gotten the technology refined, patented, and most importantly, licensed. He went red in the face and tried to hide his phone as best he could.

"Oh, I, uh, actually, this is a prototype," Vell said.

"Question stands," Derek said.

"How'd you get that?" The device successfully summoned Vell's rune, and he slapped the "hold" rune onto the metal surface.

"I sort of, uh, invented it," he said sheepishly. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"No joke?"

"No joke."

"Shit," Derek said.

"Can you make me one?"

"If I get the parts and the time, maybe," Vell said.

"Hey Harls, what do we do next?"

"Go make sure the belts on the dynamo's are aligned or something, I don't know! Your girlfriend already did half this stuff, apparently." Vell nodded and headed for the more complex mechanisms. Derek and Hawke, lacking any other direction, followed along on his heels.

"So is that chick actually your girlfriend?" Derek asked.

"Ye- Well, no, I guess," Vell said. His eyes narrowed in a brief moment of confusion at his own behavior. That confusion faded as he glanced at Kimmy and melted his squint into a warm smile.

"How long have you known her?"

"Uh... with the time loop and everything considered," Vell began.

"Like eighteen hours ago?"

"Eighteen hours and she's already all over you," Derek said.

"Nice." Derek held up a hand for a high five, but Vell left him hanging by virtue of being too busy checking drive belts. Hawke completed the high five out of pity. Without noticing the sad exchange, Vell finished up his mechanical review.

"Alright, that's manifold, heat sink, drive belt... how many components does this thing have?"

"I don't know," Harley shouted from across the generator room.

"I feel like we're forgetting something…"

"Have you checked on the gnomes, dear?" Lee shouted. Harley slapped herself on the head.

"Right, the gnomes, of course," she said. To the confusion of Derek, Hawke, and Kim, and the begrudging acceptance of Vell, Harley walked over to a nearby wall and knocked twice on a metal panel. The sheet of metal rolled up like a curtain, exposing what seemed to be a gym full of tiny, hairy humans running on little treadmills or riding tiny stationary bikes.

"Hey guys."

"Hi, Harley!" One of the gnomes shouted.

"Thanks for coming round. Some of those generatory bits were making awful loud noises, starting to think something was going wrong."

"Yeah, we did what we could. Everything good on your end? Still going strong?"

"Attendance is a bit low, I'll admit, but those we still got are fit and ready as ever," the lead gnome said.

"Not any problems with production, eh?"

"Not as far as I know," Harley said.

"Everything is fine," Lee added.

"Just doing a bit of a routine checkup."

"You heard the lady," Harley said.

"I'll let you get back to it, Logan, and hey, keep up the good work. Those glutes are looking killer." Logan winked at Harley and waved goodbye as she rolled the metal sheet back into place. Hawke stared at the metal panel for a few seconds as it fell back into place.

"Is our school powered by... gnomes?"

"Well, partially," Harley said.

"It's mostly nuclear or magical. The gnomes are just fitness freaks and the school figured they might as well harness all that effort."

"Well, that makes... something adjacent to sense," Derek said.

"Is this hazing?" Hawke asked.

"Am I being hazed? This is all some kind of prank, right?'

"I'm afraid not, dear, it's all quite real," Lee said.

"Are you sure?"

"Very."

"Hmm. Okay then. I need sit down for a bit." Hawke then did exactly that, clutching his tattooed face in both hands as he pondered the sharp turn his life had taken.

"That's alright, I believe we've done our job here," Lee said.

"Take all the time you need to process things."

"Is that it?" Derek said.

"It feels kind of anticlimactic."

"Yes, well, the point is that the big dramatic explosions won't be happening," Harley said.

"If everything is quiet, it means we've done our job."

"Indeed. Our objective is to ensure everything goes perfectly normally," Lee said.

"Well, as close to normal as possible." Lee could tell that Kim was trying very hard to pay attention, while also stealing furtive glances at Vell. The attraction that existed between them unsettled Lee more and more with every passing second. While it was likely all in her head, she was beginning to think she could feel some tangible connection between them, like an invisible thread pulling them together. But that was ridiculous. Lee got back to business.

"I do believe we are done here, so perhaps we should make our exit," Lee said.

"Thank you for all the help, Kim, you were certainly an unexpected boon." Lee extended her hand in Kim's direction. Kim didn't even see it, as she was singularly focused on Vell.

"Oh, it's nothing, I just, um, read the manual earlier, and was mostly working off that," Kimmy said.

"Right. Why didn't you ask for help, by the way?"

"Well, when you wake up after getting electrocuted to death and seem to have prescient knowledge of the future, your first thought isn't 'I bet four or five other people know exactly what I'm going through', right? That's a normal thing to not think, is it?"

"Yes, quite normal, even by our standards," Lee said, with only slight hesitance. Kim tried to hide a sigh of relief, and failed.

"You're handling it better than Hawke, for sure," Derek said.

"Oh. Okay. Who is Hawke?" Kimmy asked, pointing to a few of the loopers in turn.

"Oh right! We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Lee, this is Harley, Derek, and Hawke is the fellow having the existential crisis in the corner," Lee explained. Hawke did not acknowledge his name being called and continued having an existential crisis.

"And I suppose you're already acquainted with Vell." Kim looked at Vell, and they both nodded. Vell sighed happily, and a second later, Kim echoed him -exactly.

"Oh hey, so we did this whole big introduction thing that you missed," Vell said.

"Why don't we take a walk around the island and I can get you caught up?"

"That sounds lovely," Kim said. She took Vell by the hand and he led her off for a walk around the coast. It was hard to make an explanation of time loops and repeated deaths sound awkwardly flirtatious, but Vell managed. As the two strolled, a single purple butterfly drifted along their trail, ignoring Kim and fluttering around Vell, though neither even noticed.

"Welcome to the team, I suppose," Lee said, as the duo wandered off.

"So I think Kim's in for the long haul, if only because of her weird dynamic with Vell," Harley said.

"Derek? Hawke? You up for a whole year of this?" Derek nodded affirmatively while Hawke took a moment to reboot himself after the existential crisis.

"Well, like you said, I'm in it whether I want to be or not. Might as well embrace it."

"That's the spirit. Don't worry, you start having fun with it after a bit," Harley said.

"And, you know, maybe we could try to figure out why this is happening?" Hawke added.

"And maybe stop it?"

"Hah, you wish," Harley scoffed. Far below the island, in the darkest depths of the sea, something stirred. A single fish swam upwards towards the light.