8. Bearing Worse
Previously on 2.17 Seconds into Never, our heroes had escaped the attack of Merlin in the form of a bear only to find themselves in the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Edison City! Will they ever get back to their own time and/or make the proper timeline right again? Only one way to find out!
“We should probably try to find someone,” the Wombat said, looking around at the desolate ruins of Edison City. “Maybe there’s some survivors, people hiding somewhere, bunkers maybe. The government plans for this stuff. You never know.”
“You believe they planned for me going back in time, you all killing King Arthur, and causing Merlin in the form of a bear destroy the world?” Meg Atomic said.
The Wombat had to admit that this seemed unlikely. “Still-” he began, trying to find some sort of good news in this admittedly bleak situation. “The bear’s probably not a problem anymore, yeah?”
At that moment they heard a loud roar in the distance, past the hollowed-out skyscrapers.
“Oh, no,” the Wombat said.
“Yeah,” Ron Raven confirmed, “That’s a bear. Trust me. Sounds like the same one as last time, if I know my bears.”
“Wonderful,” the Wombat said. “We’d better get ready. If it’s the same one, he’s gonna be mad as all heck.”
Sure enough, moments later across the square from where they stood, a pile of rubble blasted itself apart and an extremely large bear came roaring out. It was even larger than it had been back in medieval times, and definitely angrier. Ron Raven backpedaled so fast he nearly collided with the Green Moth. “Hit it!” he yelled. “Do something! It’s not going to talk to me!”
“Sure I will,” snarled the bear abruptly, “just not for very long.”
“What?” Gaseous Girl, Ron Raven, Meg Atomic, and the Wombat said in unison. The Green Moth wasn’t in the mood, but she did raise an eyebrow in an inquisitive sort of way.
“You caused this,” the bear said, waving around at the ruins of the city. “You slew my king and you caused this. You should pay.”
“Well, look, you were holding her at swordpoint,” Gaseous Girl said, gesturing at Meg Atomic, “What was I supposed to do?”
“Of course,” Merlin the bear said, and Gaseous Girl suddenly realized she had made a mistake, “She caused this. You destroyed my king!”
“Now hold on,” Meg Atomic said, “It’s not my fault, I was just trying to help-”
“Deleri ex tempore!” Merlin thundered, a command particularly loud given that he was saying it with the magnified lungs of an oversized bear. There was a mighty kaboom. Meg Atomic disappeared. So did the bear.
“What did he do?” the Green Moth said, white-faced. “Where’s Meg?”
“Wait,” the Wombat said, “Who’s Meg?”
Gaseous Girl didn’t know either, nor did Ron Raven, but they had the definite sense that this was going to be a problem. “Okay,” Gaseous Girl said, “Let’s calm down, search for survivors, maybe this Meg’s around here somewhere-”
The Green Moth, for the first time that any of them had known her, said a really terrible bad-language word. Even the Wombat was shocked.
Meg who?