Chapter 2

“Jesse, I’m scared! I’m really, really scared!” James said when he discovered the time machine hurling through space and Max and Raven unconscious.

          “James!” Jesse slapped him. “Snap out of it! Okay, let’s look over this situation calmly. We are in a time machine, 1,000 years from our time, in the middle of space, and the only person who knows what to do is on the floor (dead for all we know.)”

          “I’m scared! I’m really, really scared!”

          James ran over to Raven and shook her violently.

          “Wake up, you!” He said. But her body hung limp and her eyelids wouldn’t budge. Max sat up and looked over at Raven. Max shook her head,

          “Why am I always the first one to wake up?”

          “THANK GOODNESS!!!! James, we’re saved!!”

          “But Jesse..” James said, “We’re in the future.”

          Max smiled “Maybe I should explain. Pull up a chair. Now, Team Rocket has conquered the Earth. They turned Earth into a Pokemon Planet, or Safari Zone. Team Rocket set up stations revolving around Earth. Now, these stations are filled with mayhem. Everything is out of control.”

          “At least we all didn’t turn into robots.”

          “What? Oh, it’s  worse. Much worse. Anyway, the Earth is not enough for them. They set there sites for the universe. In order to do this, they must capture all the legendary birds. See, the legendary birds are more powerful then the strongest weapon. The person who first captured them got greedy and cloned them.”

          James’s eyes widened, “There are clones?”

          Jesse sighed, “I’m not as exited as James about this kind of stuff.”

          “Yes James,” Max continued, ignoring Jesse, “But it gets better. If Team Rocket captures all the clones, then the whole universe is at stake. And that is where the Time Machine comes in. If we capture only three birds, all in the same planet, we won’t have to search the universe for dozens of clones. Once we capture the birds before they are duplicated, than there is no way Team Rocket can do anything..”

          “But what if Team Rocket comes up with a different plan?” James asked.

          “Then we can just time travel to the future and see how to stop them,” Jesse answered.

          “Then they will just come up with a new plan. Besides, the time machine can’t travel to the future.”

          “Why not?”

          “Because the future doesn’t exist.”

          “Of course it does.”

          “Not yet. It will only exists until it happens.”

          “But to me it’s the future.”

          “It will only work if someone from the future picks us up. Then the future will exist.”

          “But it’s not the future anymore. To one person it’s the past, to another it’s the present, and to another it’s the future.”

          “But once we got someone to take us to the future than it will be the present.”

          “What?”

          “The future.”

          “The futures the present?”

          “Yes.”

          “The future’s the future.”

          James put is hands on his ears.

“ ARE YOU TYING TO DRIVE ME INSANE?!!!!!” James yelled.

          “I think we should handle one problem at a time. I say we travel back in time and capture the birds.”

          “What else can we do?”

          James cracked his knuckles and leaned back.

          “I want to explore the future before I go back!”

          “Well, first we should take care of Raven and Meowth. Then we should head over to the Rax station.”

          “Huh?”

          “This time machine isn’t the best vessel. The Rax station is a good place to rest and recuperate.”

          Raven sat down in a chair and peered through the window. Stars were all to be seen. Raven closed her eyes as the time machine flew towards the Rax Station. She remembered when she had the space battle with a group of boys. Raven’s  mouth had gotten away with her. She had boasted of her “skills” in space battling, then boldly challenged them to a fight. Piece by piece the incident fit together in her mind.

          “Wake up!” She remembered Max saying. Raven had found herself saved from the engulfing flames that were the ruins of her space vessel.

          Max shook his head sadly.

          “You are always getting into trouble. When will you learn?” His voice echoed in her mind.

          “I hate men,” was Ravens only response. Raven rubbed her sore head and walked away. Reminiscing among these memories, she realized how many times she had been saved by Max.

          Perhaps, her biggest enemy was herself. She was old, but never liked any man. She had lived her life alone. Max was her companion for god-only-knows-why. But what is meant by “alone” is decisions . Choices, things like that. Most of them were wrong, or too right. And usually Max was the one that saved her. Whether it was from a fiery death in a space shuttle crash, or getting pounded by three guys at a time.

          Raven wanted always to be the stronger one. She could never accept failure, ether. Being vulnerable was too something Raven could not accept. She would die a happy death proving her point. It wasn’t about dignity. And Raven still hadn’t figured what it was about. If not reputation, then what?

          Then, she knew. Raven was scared. Scared that if she would be weak, she would die. No. Not die, something much worse. That is why, time after time, she had added more scars and bruises to her collection. Raven was afraid. And afraid of something she could never understand. And she knew, if one day she did, fear would be no more.

          Not quiet understanding the events and thoughts that had raced through her mind, she turned to Max.

          “Isn’t life ironic?”

          Max smirked.

          “Yeah. It is. It sure is.”        

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       “This is the Rax Station Garage,” Raven said. James observed a space ship near by. It was sleek, and it’s polished surface gleamed. The seats inside were soft and clean. To James it was the perfect car.. er shuttle.

          “What’s this?”

          “It’s the Silver Shadow. She’s a real beauty. I hear her engine purrs like a kitten.”

          He put his hand on the hard shell and stroked it. Raven and Jessie looked at each other.

          “I swear I’ve herd this same conversation before!” Raven said.

          “I think we should check up on the time machine,” Meowth butted in. Raven nodded and guided them to the pick up They passed countless other space ships, shuttles, anything that can fly in space.

          “You know,” Jesse said, “People from the past are a lot like people from the future.”

          Raven nodded.

          “A lot of things you thought would change, didn’t.”

          The Rax Station was like any 20^th century garage.  It smelled like rubber, it was dark and damp. They found the time machine all patched up.

          “All right, everyone in,” Raven said. Once everyone was inside and seated, the familiar wirr of motors started. Raven was a bit concerned with the condition of the time portal. But she let her worries drift away with the world around her. And guess what?

                             The World Went Black