Ben: "I'll be taking those."
(Ben said, taking Kevin's keys as he tried to unlock his car.)
Kevin: "What do you think you're doing?"
Ben: "Driving."
Kevin: "Don't even think about it!"
(Kevin said.)
Kevin: "You don't have a license!"
Ben: "I have a learner's permit."
(he said.)
Ben: "Grandpa Max taught me and it's an emergency. You're in no condition to drive this thing."
Jen: "He's right, Kevin."
(Jen said.)
Jen: "You're near-sighted, arthritic, your reflexes are shot and you're trying to unlock a cactus."
(The camera panned away to reveal she was right.)
(Kevin groaned as Ben got into the driver's seat and Kevin sat in the middle with Jen in the passenger seat, sandwiched between the two sisters.)
Kevin: "You should've gone out with me when I was young and handsome."
(Kevin said to Gwen.)
Becky: "You mean five minutes ago?"
(Becky chuckled.)
Gwen: "You were too immature."
(Gwen said.)
Kevin: "What about now?"
Gwen: "Too old."
(Ben shifted the car into reverse, only to back into some garbage cans with a gasp.)
Ben: "Oops."
Kevin: "It's not a bumper car!"
Allison: "Uh, guys?"
(Allison asked from out the window as the anomaly burst back through the infirmary doors and headed towards the guys.)
Jen: "Back up! Back up! Back up!"
(Jen shouted as Ben slammed his foot on the accelerator, prompting the car to reverse as Allison revved her bike up and shouted out as she peeled out, kicking dust up everywhere as the anomaly chased after them, Ben in reverse while Allison performed a U-Turn and drove forwards with a cry of effort.)
(They looked ahead and saw another burst from the lab up ahead.)
Gwen: "Ben on the right!"
(Gwen shouted as Ben looked in the rearview mirror to see the anomaly approaching fast.)
(Ben slammed the brake, performing a doughnut with the car as it peeled away with Ben shouting out in effort as they both peeled into the alleyway with the anomaly close behind.)
(The anomaly approached and brought out a single tentacle, touching the back of the car, immediately rusting it from top to bottom, causing it to slow down.)
Kevin: "No! No! Not the car!"
(Kevin shouted as Allison gasped and peeled down as the anomaly approached her and she gasped as she wiped out, rolling on the floor as her motorcycle crashed into the walls, immediately breaking the glass windshield and windows while the engine crumpled up like a piece of paper as she groaned out and slammed her fist into the ground with a shout of anger.)
Ben: "Hang on!"
(Ben said as he slammed the brakes as he approached a ramp formed from a piece of plywood before the car jumped upwards onto a roof as he groaned outwards with a groan.)
(Jen then descended down on her energy platforms as she saw Allison groan out as she held her leg in pain.)
Allison: "My ankle!"
(she groaned as Jen saw the anomaly leave.)
Allison: "Oh, I think I sprained it. Ow!"
Jen: "Mega wipeout."
(Jen said as she picked her best friend up in her telekinesis before they joined the others back up on the roof.)
Kevin: "You are never driving my car again!"
(Kevin shouted to Ben as he saw the car fall apart.)
Ben: "True."
Allison: "You think you've got it bad?"
(Allison shouted as Jen put two mana spheres around her ankle, slowly healing it before sighing in relief.)
Allison: "I can't believe I lost my bike."
Jen: "You can get another one."
(Jen said.)
Allison: "When?! I don't make that much money as a chef, you know."
???: "Where have you been?"
(the scientist said as he approached the group, holding out a pocketwatch.)
the scientist: "You were supposed to be here six seconds ago. Or is this thing running fast?"
Ben: "Who are you anyway?"
(Ben asked.)
Ben: "What are you doing here?"
Becky: "What is that creature?"
(Becky asked.)
Kevin: "Can you fix my car and my sister's bike?"
(Kevin asked.)
the scientist: "There's something different about you."
(the scientist told Kevin.)
the scientist: "Is it your hair?"
Kevin: "Yeah, I"m parting it down the middle now and I also got real old!"
the scientist: "Don't talk to me about old. I walk in eternity."
Kevin: "Well, you'd better start running in eternity, smart guy!"
the scientist: "Mm... you might slow us down. I need to fix that."
(the scientist said as he touched Allison's ankle and she felt her wound instantly go away.)
Allison: "Hey, my ankle's better."
(The scientist stood up and pointed to the corner opposite the group as Allison stood up.)
the scientist: "We'll be coming in from right over there."
(The next second, the scientist walked out with Kevin alongside him, good as new.)
Gwen: "Kevin!"
(Gwen said, running up to hug him.)
Gwen: "I can't believe it! You're good as new!"
Kevin: "Well, my back still hurts a little. If I could just lean on you..."
(Gwen smiled as she stood up and pushed him off of her.)
Allison: "Alright, Professor. If you could just fix up my bike and his car."
(Allison said.)
the scientist: "How do you expect me to do that? I'm a time traveler, not a body shop. Regressing a vehicle would break all the laws of space-time and-"
Ben: "Okay, we'll go over the time travel laws later."
(Ben said.)
Ben: "But we want answers, now!"
the scientist: "Same old Omni-Twins."
(the scientist said.)
the scientist: "You two are even more like yourselves now then you were in the future, which, for obvious reasons, I can't really tell you about."
Kevin: "You want me to hurt him?"
(Kevin asked.)
Becky: "I'm not sure you really can."
(Becky sighed.)
Gwen: "What can you tell us, Mr... Paradox?"
(Gwen asked.)
Paradox: "Paradox! Yes, that'll do, that'll do nicely."
(the scientist, now dubbed Paradox, exclaimed.)
Paradox: "I'll tell you six my story the way it began, with a beginning, middle and end."
(He held out his pocket watch and it glowed blue.)
Paradox: "We'll start in the middle."
(Paradox showed everyone a vision of his history, beginning at the scene from the opening as he showed them his failed experiment.)
Paradox: "Los Soledad was built entirely because of my ingenious theory: a time tunnel utilizing the properties I discovered in quartz crystals, which allow us access to past and future events."
(Paradox said as they witnessed the experiment fail.)
Kevin: "Yeah, well, for a genius, it looks like you blew it."
(Kevin said.)
Paradox: "You don't know the half of it. Some tiny miscalculation on my part destabilized the experiment and ripped a hole in the fabric of reality. I was thrown into the event horizon. I must have spent 100,000 years there. I didn't age, or even sleep or eat. Just exist."
Allison: "Huh."
(Allison said.)
Allison: "Sounds pretty boring."
Paradox: "At first, I went mad, of course. But after a few millenia, I got bored of that too and went sane. Very sane. I began to learn. I now have total understanding of the space-time continuum, allowing me to travel anywhere and anywhen I want. Within reason, of course."
Ben:: "Do you happen to know of a multiversal group of warriors known as-"
Paradox: "The Protectors? Of course. I've crossed paths with their endeavors once or twice to examine them. They do whatever it takes to defend the multiverse no matter what the cost may be. Incredibly admirable. The Scarlet Warrior and her associates the Cobalt and Emerald Warriors are especially great at what they do. Therefore, I do not interfere with their exploits unless absolutely necessary."
Kevin: "So where's your time machine?"
(Kevin asked.)
Kevin: "Should we be seeing a blue police box around here anywhere?"
Paradox: "Oh, no. I'm no Time Lord."
(he said.)
Paradox: "I'm just someone who was lost in time."
Ben: "He doesn't have a time machine."
(Ben realized.)
Ben: "He has a map. In his head."
Paradox: "Exactly. I know where all the shortcuts are. I've spent a dozen lifetimes criss-crossing the time stream, making it a better place. Not like the Protectors or the Alliance of Heroes of course. They only travel between universes. I travel through time and space."
Becky: "And how much does that pay?"
(Becky asked.)
Paradox: "At the moment, not even in job satisfaction."
(The group suddenly looked around themselves and saw that they suddenly found themselves in a classroom in the laboratory.)
Paradox: "You see, I recently discovered that some kind of extradimensional creature is going to wreak havoc across the universe."
(Paradox said, lining everything out on the blackboard.)
Jen: "And what does that have to do with us?"
(Jen asked.)
Jen: "The way you talk, you take on monsters like this all the time. What makes this one so special?"
Paradox: "Because unlike the thousands of foes I've faced before, this extradimensional creature came into our plane of reality the moment my experiment went awry."
Allison: "Oh, so just to be clear, this is all your fault?"
(Allison asked.)
Gwen: "There's no way this creature has been wandering around here for sixty years."
(Gwen said, folding her arms.)
Gwen: "We would know about it."
Paradox: "Time is like a river, Gwendolyn."
(Paradox said, drawing down a squiggly line parallel to the one already there.)
Paradox: "It roves, flows and bends. Sixty years ago, I accidentally set off a depth charge in that river. The creature I released was blasted sixty years through time to your present, doing this to your future."
(He drew a series of lines all over the river diagram, showing that everything was scrambled.)
[To Be Continued...]