Phasing through chapter 4

“Younger Kazumi-“ Luna began.
“Why am I Younger Kazumi?” Zumi looked exhausted with the whole concept of time travel. “Why can’t she be Older Kazumi?” She jabbed her thumb at her older self.
“I’m not old!” Kazumi looked around for agreement, eyes wide.
“Okay, fine!” Luna sighed. “It will be up to the individual’s own discretion, whether to identify you by your age or not. Anyway, more important business is at hand.” Luna was addressing the room, of course it was grey. Sam sat next to Zumi with older Kazumi beside her, Faline took the opposite chair and beside her was someone Sam hadn’t met yet. They were going to be discussing Sam and Zumi’s presence in the future and what could be achieved with it. “Younger Kazumi-don’t start!- Younger Kazumi was talking with me yesterday and she came up with a rather interesting point, that is; the idea that time travel will protect her and Sam.” There were a few raised eyebrows around the table as Luna paused, obviously about to delve into explanation. “Kazumi, and Sam, cannot die in our time. If they were to die then they would not exist to be alive today, and with Our Kazumi here we know this hasn’t happened.  So for the course of their time here, we know that they don’t die.”
“That is pretty damn cool.” The guy Sam hadn’t met yet exclaimed. One of his ears was slightly bent and his eyes were a starling blue but other than that he didn’t stand out in terms of clothing. A simple white shirt and the same strange Kerchief around his neck as everyone else.
“So, we’re going to be given the most dangerous jobs, just because?” Sam asked, whilst the idea that she was invincible sounded great; she wondered how far this stretched, could she be captured and tortured? What if she came out of this whole experience as a different person?
“No.” Luna looked concerned, it seemed to hurt her that Sam had thought this of her best friend…Did she count as the same Luna? “I just mean to say that any team that receives your help would be grateful, so you should choose wisely.”
“Who says we want to help?” Sam didn’t know why she said these words, she had long since forgiven Luna for lying about her future death. The whole situation was getting on Sam’s nerves though, she was seven years from home with people who were her friends but not at the same time. Now she was expected to fight In a war she knew little to nothing about. Sam really hated time travel.
“Why wouldn’t you?” White-shirt queried. “From what I’ve heard; you’ve got some important people fighting with our side. Would you turn against them?” Sam looked at Zumi, who seemed just as surprised by her words as the others. Were these future friends the same as her friends in her own time? Or were they like different people? Future Kazumi spoke interrupting the strange stares Sam was receiving.
“Whatever Little Me and Sam choose, we should support them, we are asking a lot of them.” She looked at her younger self.
“I choose to help.” Zumi shrugged. “As if I would let future me continue living in a war. I know when I become future me, I’d want me to help…” There was a collective silence as everyone untangled this idea. They turned to Sam.
“I’m in.” Everyone smiled, looking relieved until Sam spoke again. “On one condition-Make that two. No more lies, I am not to be left out of anything. Secondly, I’m on the team that rescues future me.”
Luna grinned. “I know you aren’t My Sam but it’s great to have you back.”


“You’ll be training the ionikinesis group.” Luna and Sam were walking side by side down the hallway, Sam hadn’t seen the training hall yet and she couldn’t wait.
“How many are there, one, two?” Sam was wondering how they’d managed to find another plasma manipulator, she thought she was one of very few.
“Nineteen, but after the next raid we expect to have at least twenty-five.”
“Wait…What?!”
“it’ll be easier for you to see.” Luna had a sly look about her as they rounded the corner. The training hall was massive and circular,  with an abundance of training dummies and mats.
“How’d you make all the dummies?” Sam motioned towards one of the armour clad figures. The armour matched that of the government soldiers.
“Luna laughed. “They’re just old store mannequins that have been glued back together so often that they’re pretty damn invincible now. The armour has just accumulated over the years.”  She pointed at the group lounging around in the corner. “There they are. I’ll introduce you.” There were maybe one or two young kids and the rest were much older. They were all wearing the same strange gloves. “Everyone this is Sam, the Neon Fox.” They all looked up in awe, Sam didn’t know what future Sam had accomplished but apparently people were happy with her. Luna took a step back. “I’ll leave it to you.”
“Errr” Sam tried to look like she knew how to start. “Well, how long have you known about your ionikinesis?” They looked confused.
“None of us have ionikinesis.” One spoke. Luna snickered, and Sam shot her a glare, where was the catch?
“Well then show me what you can do.” Sam directed at the one who spoke, he must have been at least thirty. He stood and walked over to one of the dummies. He clenched his fists and his gloves glowed a striking green, he shot a flurry of plasma punches at the mannequin. Sam understood, none of them had the power, they all had special gloves. “Who made the gloves?” Sam asked Luna with an arched eyebrow. She smiled at the question.
“You created the power replication chip but your protégé made it usable as a weapon.”
“Wait, Vi?! Vi did this?”
“She’s not the little girl you remember; she’s come a long way.” Luna smiled. A realisation hit Sam, after she her future self ‘died’ Luna was the one taking care of Vi. She hollowed as she thought about how she’d failed as a sister…Sam did a double-take, did she just call Vi her sister?
“How much can you do with them?” She pointed at the gloves, Sam felt strange when she looked at Luna. Not this again. Luna hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Don’t know, we’re about to find out.”  

By the end of the training session, Sam had figured out most of the gloves’ major flaws. The plasma could only be used around the hands, the long range lost power as the gloves heated up and the most prevalent; people didn’t know how to use them. Luna invited Sam to the surveillance room to chat. White-shirt was there and he finally introduced himself.
“Hey, I’m Boulder. I’m the one that spotted you so you can thank me now.” He smiled proudly despite her silence. The room was small and covered wall-to-wall in monitors. He must have been able to see everything in the city. She noticed a monitor showing the spot where Future-Sam had been taken from and where she’d met the rebels. It had only been three days but it felt like she’d been at the base for weeks. On another monitor Sam spotted a tiny Faline sneaking through wreckages.  Boulder seemed to be guiding her.
“I don’t think this is where the refugees were.” Faline’s voice crackled through the speaker. Boulder sighed.
“Yes it is, they’re still there. You just gotta search a little to the left. Yeah, there should be an old cellar door. Perfect, buzz me when you touch the surface again.” Faline climbed down a rusty ladder and disappeared from the screen. Boulder stretched and removed his microphone.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Sam was concerned for the girl…She had to remind herself that Faline was older than her. “What if it’s an ambush?” Boulder rolled his eyes.
“Already scanned the area and sent two drones by. If I made mistakes, I wouldn’t have this job.” He seemed insulted. Luna nodded.
“He’s right.” She whispered something to Boulder and he seemed to agree. “There’s something we wanted you to see.” Boulder swivelled on his chair to a computer and changed one of the screens above it to show inside the base. It was an old clip, Future Sam was standing with Future Luna and the two were discussing something. Luna handed future Sam a metallic bracelet and the two hugged before she slipped it on and disappeared in a bright flash. The clip was fast-forwarded as Luna stood there for about ten minutes. When nothing happened the Luna in the clip started pacing, she looked around, the whole time she had a look of horror on her face. The clip finished. “That’s what happened, after I tell you the next bit, there’ll be no more lies. One of your conditions right?” She thanked Boulder and guided Sam to the door; they began walking aimlessly through the corridors until Luna could finally speak. “The biggest lie I’ve told you is that I assumed the worst when Sam didn’t return, well sort of.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, Sam, that it wasn’t that you didn’t return that scared me, it was that nothing changed…” Luna looked at Sam for a moment. “You weren’t meant to return…At all.”