A soft ray of sunlight hit Brown’s eyelids. He lay motionless in his warm bed, his chest slowly rising up, then back down again. He was dreaming of Ber-Ber.
A shadow intercepted the light, looming over the boy. The figure leaned in and gently shook his body, bundled in covers. Suddenly, Brown awoke. Chel was the first thing he saw.
The feminine shadow moved back to give Brown room to sit up. He didn’t need to wipe his eyes to know what was going on. His best friend was sitting on his own bed next to him, excitedly tying his shoes. The phone on his nightstand was playing the same song he heard the last three times.
Shareef don’t like it,
Rockin’ the Casbah, rock the Casbah!
Shareef don’t like it,
Rockin’ the Casbah, rock the Casbah!
The considerably more awake of the two boys looked up. “Rise and shine, Brownie!”
Brown sighed. “Bro, you always listen to the same song?”
“Whaddya mean, man?” Saki looked at him confused. “I haven’t put this on my playlist all month. It’s like a new record for me.”
“…Nevermind.” The time-looper got up out of bed and put on some pants. He didn’t time the moment Xander would knock on the door, but took his best guess. “I’m expecting a message. Lemme get the door real quick.”
“Uh… yeah, sure,” Saki complied. Brown opened it just as his taller, indigo-haired roommate walked up to it. He stepped back in surprise.
“…Just the man I needed to see…” he said cautiously, holding the paper.
“Just give me the damn note.”
He stared, then pushed it into the boy’s hands. “Fuckin’ mummy didn’t pay me enough for this shit. Move.”
Brown complied and took a mad dash down the hall. Xander didn’t even manage to get the door open and Brown was already gone. “The hell’s up with him?”
Saki shrugged, finishing his preparations and taking his things. “It’s Brown, could be anything. Lock the door behind me, will you?”
I woke up, I saw saki, I got up, got the note from Xander and now-
Brown stopped in his tracks, a good few inches from the blonde who expected to be bumped. The two stood in silence for a few moments. Lucas dropped his books.
“Ok, now that we can talk, I caught up to everything that happened and man am I confused. Got any clue on how to fix Nova?”
“So you paid a visit to the lab, huh? Honestly, no idea. I have a good forty-five minutes left, but we both know how fast that goes by.”
“Right. So the Ziet-thing got Nova to loop time at 9 A.M, right? And Ernst couldn’t fix them with his wacky glowy gloves yeah?”
“Sounds about right.”
“So, I have an idea—it’s a little far-fetched but I don’t think we have many options here. What if, and bear with me here, what if the problem is a mental problem?”
“…Huh?” The looper tilted his head.
“I mean, we both saw Ernst fix some crazy shit, so whatever’s causing Nova to do this has to be in their brain.”
“Does Nova even have a brain? I mean, not in an insulting way, but like, aren’t they made of nothing?”
Lucas shrugged. “I mean, even if they don’t, a good shock to the head should do the trick. Or, at least it’s worth trying. Right?”
A good shock? Wait… Brown drew a long, realizing gasp. He quickly pulled out his phone, the time on it reading 8:23AM.
“Dude? You alright?”
“Yeah yeah, give me a second,” Brown quickly unlocked his phone and fumbled into his contacts. He scrolled down until he reached the name Clam and pressed Call.
…
…
“Hello? Brown?”
“Pearl, hey. Um, yeah, something came up. I need you to go to the doc’s lab like right now.” Brown put the phone to his ear, tapping his foot nervously on the floor.
On the other end, Pearl was getting ready for her Leap Day date with Saki. She was in the middle of brushing her hair one last time before getting out to meet him. “Eh… I’m sorry Brown, I really can’t go on another one of Ernst’s wacky expeditions right now. I have a big date with Saki. You know how special it is to spend a day that doesn’t exist every three out of four years with your partner?”
Brown rolled his eyes. He swore those two were made for each other. If he had to hear another iteration of that speech he’d go ballistic. “Can’t relate. Listen to me, Pearl. It’s not Ernst, it’s about Nova. Something’s wrong with them, and if I don’t fix them before we all stop existing, Skyber’s gonna not-exist me first!”
“Nova??” Pearl gasped, almost dropping her brush. “What happened to Nova? I just knew something was off, I didn’t see them and Skyber at all this morning!”
“There’s no time to explain, just get to the lab and make it quick.” Brown hung up. She would have bombarded him with endless amounts of questions if he didn’t. And Lord knows he didn’t have the time for that. Hopefully Saki wouldn’t be too mad he ruined his date. Then again, he wouldn’t be able to date ever again if Nova wasn’t dealt with soon.
“You should’ve probably started with the ‘Nova is dying, go to the lab now,’ spiel. Could’ve saved a bunch of time.” The blond pointed, which elicited an annoyed grunt from Brown.
“Can it, Earthbound. Don’t you have anywhere else to be right now?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking that?”
“…You can’t answer a question with a different question- ugh, whatever.” Brown admitted defeat and ran towards Ernst’s lab.
Brown’s eyes darted around the front of the lab, hoping to find his blue-haired ticket out of the loop.
“Brown! I’m here!”
Finally, he could hear the girl’s voice coming from the end of the hall. She made a hurried jog to him, and behind her followed an incredibly annoyed Saki.
“Brown? Should’ve known you’d be here too when she said ‘we have to go to Ernst’s lab. This was supposed to be a perfectly good date, and you messed it up. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Pearl elbowed Saki’s side with an annoyed look.
“Don’t be rude! He’s looking out for our friend!”
“Yeah, there are bigger things to worry about, and right now, there’s no time to explain,” Brown grabbed both of them by the wrists and practically dragged them inside, much to Saki’s resistance and fruitless yelps to unhand him.
Brown kicked open the door, worryingly about the lack of reaction from the trio inside. Ernst was anxiously pacing back and forth as Skyber was sitting down next to where Nova was curled up on the table. Nova appeared smaller than usual, and their fur was now lacking any color whatsoever, replaced by a glimmering cold gray mane. Their eyes were closed and their body was shaking.
Finally, Skyber looked up to the three. Her irises piercing the newcomers’ souls in her bottomless frustration. Her cheeks were stained by black dry tear stains. “What are you doing here…?” She growled.
Brown straightened, responding coldly. “I’m here to fix the time loop.”
Pearl gasped. Saki took him for a madman. Skyber squinted, glaring at the boy as her tail began to violently flick.
“Vhat are you-” Ernst began, but Brown raised a hand to stop him.
“Long story short, Nova was put in the machine four hours ago to test the time machine, but as you can see, that didn’t end well, did it?”
Skyber scoffed. “Quit spouting nonsense. Time loops? Caused by whatever that thing Ernst wanted to show us? Nova is dying and you’re running your mouth with science fiction?”
The boy sighed. “The you from last time figured you’d call bullshit.” He tried his luck with the only card up his sleeve. “So how’s Ber-Ber under that top hat?”
Skyber suddenly stood up, her eyes widening as she looked down at the so called time traveler, and then glared at Pearl. The blue haired girl took a step back. She began to sweat as she anxiously shook her head, raising her hands defensively.
“…I would have never told you about him under normal circumstances, and I definitely don’t remember doing so.” The dragoness closed her eyes, crossing her arms as she thought for a little bit. She then groaned, her cheeks blushing slightly. “…you must be telling the truth, then.”
“Nova’s gonna sneeze again at nine, and the loop will reset,” Brown explained quickly. “But I think I might have a way to break it. Please, let us get to Nova.”
Skyber looked at the three. With no other option left, she stepped aside. “I’m assuming the energy required to loop time is what’s causing Nova to be so sick…four times you said…” she glanced at Nova, petting their gray fur gently which only elicited a meek purr out of the void.
“What is your plan?”
“I already figured out that this isn’t a physical condition, meaning Ernst can’t heal them—it might be a mental one. If the machine locked Nova into this loop, maybe Pearl can garner enough electricity to shock their mind out of it. I know it’s a crazy idea, but it’s a pretty damn pale comparison to the rest of the day I had to live through,” Brown said.
“Wait,” Saki looked around the room of serious faces, “we’re gonna do what?!”
Ernst looked at his ex-lab assistant, nodding slowly to his hypothesis. “Vell, vell…zis might vork… but I’m afraid electricity vork is not my expertize! I’ll leave zis experiment to you.”
Pearl silently held her hands to her chest, worryingly staring down as small sparks flew from her fingertips. Skyber looked back at Nova for a moment and nodded. “…a fair assumption, and we’re out of options and time. It is worth a shot.”
Brown nodded, leading Pearl to the table Nova curled atop of. The girl’s beads of sweat grew larger as they streaked down her face.
“Now or never, Pearl,” Brown told her, stepping back.
“Y-You can’t be serious, look at them!” Saki yelled, stepping forward. “They look like a dead puppy and you want to shock them?!”
“Hey, this is life or death, man!” Brown shot back. “Nova ain’t dead yet, meaning neither are we! Either you shut up and let Pearl do her thing, or there won’t be any more life for all of us.”
Saki glared at Brown with a sour scowl, then backed down, standing behind with clenched fists as Pearl placed her hands on Nova’s cold fur.
Pearl breathed in, muttering some form of prayer under her lips.
“Sorry, Nova…”
She breathed out, and pulsed as hard as she could. Blue lighting arced off of the devil, sparks flying across the lab as Pearl kept pouring her energy into her friend.
Skyber could hardly watch as her best (and only true) friend was being shocked harder than an electric chair. Despite this, she could only stand and wait for the outcome.
Suddenly, Brown got an idea. “Doc, is there by chance a battery you installed in the machine?”
“Battery? Vhat a strange question, Brown! But yes, I did install a backup in case of emergency situations!” Ernst recalled.
“Good, help me take it out. We might be able to give Pearl more power.”
Ernst rubbed his chin. “Mein Gott, your resourcefulness never ceases to surprise me, Mister Brown!”
“Pat your own shoulders after we finish our job,” Skyber grunted. “Where is it, I’ll carry it myself.”
In the midst of the discussion, Saki simply couldn’t take it anymore. His fists turned white from clenching too hard, and he was gritting his teeth to the point of them nearly cracking.
While the three of them turned to get the battery, Saki’s legs began to move by themselves. He pushed Pearl from Nova, causing him to be shocked instead.
“Agh! Saki! What are you doing?!” his girlfriend screamed as she tried to reach Nova to no avail. The trio sharply turned, a collective “What the fuck!” on their tongues.
“Y-y-you’re hurting them—!” Saki managed through the immense voltage. He fell to the ground, wisps of smoke coming from his clothes.
Brown ran over. “Dude! Do you realize how much time you just wasted! What the actual fuck is wrong with you?!”
Saki pushed himself up, and shoved Brown back. “What’s wrong with you?! Can’t you see you were killing Nova! And now you wanna shock them more?! How was any of this gonna make things better?”
Brown lost his footing and fell to the floor, only to be caught by Ernst before his head hit the floor.
“Gah! Such violence in my lab… tch, tch, we’ll never get anyvhere like zis! Calm yourselves immediately!”
The time traveler grunted, and slowly got up.
“You fucking idiot!”
“Wait, Brown, don’t!” Pearl yelled as Brown swung a left hook directly at Saki’s face. His friend reeled back, wiping the fresh cut on his cheek.
“Cease this at once!” Skyber roared at the two, trying to step in between them, her axe launching and striking the floor in-between the two, much to the doctor’s dismay. But the giant axe didn’t stop the older of the two from summoning his ace in the hole, Eros.
Brown turned to say, “Forget us! Get Pearl and the battery and finish what we-”
Brown was quickly silenced by Eros’s fist plummeting into his gut. He flew back, crashing into the wall behind him. Through blurry eyes and bloody head, he saw the figure of the shadow close in for the finish.
The world slowed down. The shadowy fist came closer inch by inch, Brown closed his eyes, and in midst of all the yelling and noise…
…He could hear Nova’s distant sneeze, and his body disappeared.