Chapter 4

Luke woke up groggy. He sat up holding his head, he sat up. The bun on his head was no longer there. Where is the bun on his head?

He hears Tim groaning and he looks to the side to see Tim sitting up. He looks a bit more like him with the eye bags suddenly under his eyes.

"Why do I feel like I just finished studying for finals?" Tim said, rubbing his hair. He looks over to Luke's side, and his eyes widen in surprise. "Why do you look healthy and different?" he said in surprise.

Luke was confused about this. "Healthy?" he said. "Never mind me," he said. "Why do you look like... that?" he said pointing to his face. He was quite pale and unhealthy-looking.

Tim immediately reached for a mirror in his pocket. "Oh no," he said in dismay touching his face.

"You're also narcissistic, I see?" Luke said sarcastically.

"This is bad," Tim said. "I look like I did three years ago," he said.

Luke frowns a bit. "Give me the mirror," he said, collecting the hand mirror from Tim. He sees his face in the mirror and his eyes widen. "I'm nineteen again?" he said touching his face. His complexion was fair and healthy, there were slight eye bags under his eyes, but they weren't heavy, and his hair was cut short and straightened.

They heard a growl and they both stood up in a hurry. Surprisingly, there was a fox in front of them growling. The fox's tail was on fire as well as its ears, and there was a symbol on its head.

Apart from this, the only other thing wrong with this fox was that it was five feet tall.

Luke smiled helplessly. "So this is how I'm going to die," he said.

"What the f--k is that?" Tim exclaimed in horror.

Fortunately, the fox didn't attack them and just left. "Does Richmort make mutant animals?" Tim said in fear.

Luke seemed a bit intrigued by the fire fox. 'How is it able to stay alive even though it is on fire?' he thought.

"Hey!" Tim exclaimed. "We're in the middle of a forest," he said. "Why are we in the middle of a forest?"

Luke was surprised. Middle of a forest? What is he talking about? "Oh my goodness," he said when he looked around and saw the sky, and green leaves rustling on top of trees. 'How come I didn't notice?!' It was nighttime here so it isn't very surprising that he didn't notice it.

"Where did you send us to?" Tim said a bit angrily.

"I was programming the time-traveling device to send me back to two years ago," Luke replies. "Just as David was about to disappear because of the malfunction of his TT device, it seems his version affected mine and transported us to this place," he explained.

"And where exactly is this place?" Tim said in frustration pinching the bridge of his nose.

Luke shrugged calmly. "Whenever David wanted to go I guess," he said.

"We're obviously no longer in our world, so why are you saying when?" Tim said walking around.

Luke turned to where the device was walking on the broken glass, luckily he wasn't barefooted. Not surprisingly, the device was half melted and the core was nearly completely drained of its power. It was glowing a dull blue color. He picks up a piece of glass and pokes at the core. He felt the heat slowly spread to the glass, but it wasn't too hot; at least not hot enough to burn him.

He picks it up and holds the core. The lead casing for the device was on the ground, so he went to it and dropped the core on the ground, picked up the cold case, and placed the core.

"I have good news and bad news!" Luke shouted.

Tim ran to him almost immediately. "What is it?" he asks eagerly.

Luke stares at him blankly. 'How is he still good-looking when looking like that?' he thought but brushed it off. "The core is still alive," he said.

Tim was still looking at him eagerly waiting for the good news. "And..."

"The possibility of us returning to when or where we came from is two point five percent," Luke says blankly.

Tim's mouth opened agape in disbelief. "Wh-why," he stammered.

"Well first of all..." Luke said. "I spent close to twelve billion making this device," he said. "We don't have that kind of money, second, we may be in an era in which physics isn't as advanced as it is in our time, three, the probability of us dying here is high, we won't die of sickness because of vaccination, but the people of the olden days don't keep anything or anyone they don't understand alive, I'll be burned alive before I can state the formula for finding the energy of the core," he said with his hands in his pocket.

Tim sat down on the ground. "My date," he says sadly.

Luke looked down on him and rolled his eyes.

"Ugh, I wish I had a full glass of ninety-eight percent alcohol," Luke commented boredly.

Tim looks at him in disbelief. "But that would kill you," he replies.

"That is the f--king point, 'roach."

Tim glares at him. "You want to die so desperately," he said in frustration standing up, and the first thing he did was rush in to punch him.

Luke dodged away blankly. "I was forced to learn martial arts by David," he said. "'It's wise to know how to protect yourself,' he said. It wouldn't be wise to--"

Before Luke could finish speaking, he was knocked off his feet and landed on the floor. Tim was on top of him holding his fist up and holding him down. "I practiced boxing and a bit of judo, you are not the only one who did martial arts," Tim said angrily.

Luke looks away, unfazed by his situation. "Whatever," he said.

Tim drops his fist. "Why must you be so insufferable?" he said in frustration. He stood up and brushed his hair with his fingers. "I can't believe I'm stuck with you."

"So you aren't going to beat me up?" Luke said sitting back up.

Tim looks at him with no emotion. "What use will beating you up bring me?" he said. "You are insufferable, but you are the one who built the stupid machine and the one who can repair it so we can go back to where or when we came from."

"It would take approximately five years to fix the device," Luke decided to state.

Tim scratched his head in frustration. 'I'm going to be stuck here with him for five years?' he thought. "Fine as long as we can get back," he said in agreement.

Luke nodded. "So, before I start, how will we survive in a time and place we are not familiar with?"