Unknown Forest in Germany
"VMMMMM—WHOOSH!"
The sudden sound made all the animals in the area flee. In the empty space, a strange machine suddenly appeared.
"This gives a roller coaster feeling. It needs a lot of improvements," Jack complained as he got off the time machine.
"Thank God we made it without any accidents," Gwen said as she jumped down from the machine, finally feeling safe again. "Where are we?"
Only then did she notice they were in a forest.
"Don't know, but we made it to 1991. Red, check our location," Jack instructed.
Just then, he noticed a message from the System.
[System Notification]
Unknown Heroic Points detected.
Source identified: Host's organization — the Plumbers.
Reason: The Host has traveled into the future while the Plumbers continued their activities. Heroic Points generated by the Plumbers during the Host's absence have not been collected.
Heroic Point calculation is currently pending.
[Warning: A temporal loophole has been detected. This loophole allows the Host to continue gaining Heroic Points from the Plumbers while traveling through the future.]
[System is attempting to fix the loophole.]
Jack's eyes widened.
"Hey, System! Don't fix it yet!"
He quickly realized what was happening.
If it fixes this now, I'll only get the points earned up to 1991. The Plumbers will continue earning points from 1991 to 2008, but I won't get any of them.
"I haven't returned to my original timeline yet! I'm still traveling through the future. Fix it after I return to 2008."
[Request Accepted.]
Temporal loophole correction postponed.
Once the Host returns to his original timeline, the loophole will be fixed and all pending Heroic Points will be calculated.
Jack let out a relieved breath.
Good. It listened. Otherwise, I would've lost a lot of points.
"Did you say something just now?" Gwen asked, looking around.
"No, I was talking to Red."
"Jack, I found that we are in the Harz Forest in Germany," Red said, easily finding their location by connecting to a satellite.
"These first-generation time travel devices have so many disadvantages. Now we've even gone from America to Europe," Gwen said.
Since they had no way to store the time machine, Jack took out his Plumber badge to contact Alice so she could pick them up. But to his surprise, Alice didn't answer.
"Did something happen to the organization, or is she in deep sleep?" Gwen asked uneasily.
"Alice knows we'll arrive in 1991. There's no way she'd be asleep now!"
Just as Jack started thinking that Alice might have had an accident, she finally connected through the badge.
"Welcome back, Jack and Gwen."
Alice's face appeared on the holographic screen.
"Good, Alice, you're alright. For a second, I thought something had happened to you," Jack said, relieved to see her.
"Sorry about that. An emergency suddenly came up when you contacted me, so I wasn't able to answer."
"What happened?" Gwen asked.
"Tell me your location, and I'll come pick you up. You'll understand when I get there."
Hearing that, Jack told Red to send their location.
"Did you notice? Alice seems more human now than before," Gwen asked Jack.
"Mm, I noticed."
Jack and Gwen didn't have to wait long. Soon, they saw a spaceship far more advanced than the one they had used to arrive on Earth coming toward them.
The spaceship opened, and several robots came out to collect the time machine.
"It seems the Plumbers are doing well," Jack said, looking at the robots.
Alice told them to follow the robots, and they made their way into the spaceship's command room.
What neither Jack nor Gwen expected was that Alice wasn't alone. Two teenagers were standing beside her. The boy had light skin and brown hair. He looked confused, but his eyes kept moving around the spaceship with curiosity. Beside him stood a Black girl with dark-brown skin and black hair. Unlike the boy, she looked shaken and nervous.
When they noticed Jack and Gwen, the boy looked at them curiously, as if trying to figure out who they were. The girl remained quiet, still looking uneasy.
Jack couldn't help wondering what Alice had gotten herself into this time.
He then looked at Alice and smiled. For Jack and Gwen, it had been less than a day since they had last seen her. But for Alice, nearly half a century had passed.
"Yo, Alice. How have you been? You haven't changed much, have you?" Jack asked.
Alice smiled back. "Welcome back, Jack. It's been a long time."
Jack chuckled. "For us, not really. It's only been a few hours."
Alice nodded. "For me, it has been forty-eight years."
"Forty-eight years..." Jack repeated, realizing how different their experiences had been.
Gwen smiled at Alice. "It must feel strange seeing us again after all that time."
"It does," Alice replied. "But I'm glad you're both back."
Jack looked toward the two teenagers again. "But... what's going on here?"
Alice glanced at them. "There was a small problem. I found them during an investigation and had to rescue them."
"Rescue them?" Jack asked.
"Yes. They were in serious danger."
Alice then asked the two teenagers to wait in another room. Once they had left, she turned back toward Jack and Gwen.
"They were on the list you gave me."
Hearing this, Jack was surprised.
"List? What list? Jack, Did you hide something from me?" Gwen questioned him
Jack nodded at Gwen, confirming that he had indeed given Alice a list.
"Before you both left in the time machine, Jack gave me a list of people's names, along with some instructions regarding them," Alice explained. "He told me that if I found anyone from that list, I should monitor them. If they had abilities or talents that could be useful to the Plumbers, I should save them if possible."
Jack nodded. After Nighthawk had appeared in 2008, he had realized that this world was much bigger than he had originally thought. Because of that, he had given Alice a list of people he remembered from the comics he had read. If any of those people existed in this world, he wanted Alice to keep an eye on them and, if possible, bring them into the Plumbers if they were suitable. After all, people could have useful talents, skills, or powers that could help the Plumbers grow. He didn't know which of them actually existed in this world, so all he could do was have Alice keep an eye out for them.
"These two were on that list?" Jack asked.
"Yes."
"Who?"
"Robbie Baldwin... and Shara."
Jack frowned.
Robbie Baldwin... Shara...
The names didn't immediately bring anything to mind.
"Anything special about them?" Jack asked.
"Robbie's body can absorb and redirect kinetic energy."
Jack's eyes suddenly widened.
Wait...
His mind began connecting the name with the ability.
Robbie Baldwin... kinetic energy...
His memories finally clicked.
Speedball.
"And her?"
"Her abilities are connected to Vibranium."
Jack froze.
Shara.
His memories came rushing back.
Kwarrai... radioactive Vibranium... the earthquake...
Jack finally remembered her story. It had been a tragic one. Shara was caught in a disaster, her powers awakened, and she eventually died after using them to save others.
Jack's expression became serious as he remembered it.
But Alice found her.
He looked toward the room where Shara and Robbie had gone.
If I remember her story correctly... she shouldn't be alive.
Jack looked back at Alice, and his expression slowly changed from surprise to excitement.
"You did a good job. Are there any other people like her?" Jack asked curiously.
"I found a few people, but not all of them joined the Plumbers," Alice said.
"Yeah... about the Plumbers, is everything alright?"
Hearing that, Alice suddenly paused before looking at both of them.
Jack and Gwen immediately became nervous
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