~~ Page 8 ~~

“Robot? Hmm… not as bad as ‘Tinny’ I guess. Anyways, it was this bat, alien looking thing. He had this strange, upturned nose, and a pair of white horns, and a light brown coat of fur on his exposed skin. He wore armor with a bunch of screens on it. And I think I even saw a symbol that I couldn’t understand. Maybe it was a manufacturer logo, or even a military insignia.”

“You mentioned a fish, right? He had a fish in a bottle. It looked like a little koi fish, but it lit up like a lightning bug.”

Completely flipping her personality on a dime, the girl jumped and hugged the metal man.

Metal Noss was quiet for a moment before deciding what to reveal and what to withhold, “I’m sorry, he didn’t say. He just showed up, insisting that my colleague was destined to help him with something, and then took him back into a portal, just like the one he arrived in.”

Switching again on a dime, she started to stomp the ground like a toddler having a tantrum.

From the entrance of the park, yet another voice introduced itself, “Hannah? Hannah, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” It was Norah. And she wasn’t alone.

“Noss! Where have you been, I’ve been trying to talk to you for days now.”

“Ginny? What are you doing here? You need to leave, it’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous? Your little sister didn’t say anything about that. We’re just trying to find her friend, Hannah. She didn’t sound very dangerous to me, from what I’ve been told.”

“Umm… uh… it’s a lot to explain. I’m not quite sure where to start…” Noss pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to figure out the best way to proceed with this new development. 

But before he could find enough time to think it through, Norah approached Pisces as if she had been friends with her for years now, “Hannah, I found Ginny and brought her here, hoping we’d run into you. I didn’t expect to find Noss here though! Where did you find him? Hell, that hardly matters, this turned out amazingly! We can finally piece the whole story together! But… why are you so upset?”

Pisces shouted as if she wanted every corner of spacetime to hear her frustrations.

“Whoa, whoa, just try to calm down okay. I didn’t know you had a pet fish, but if you want, I can help you find it.” Norah tried to reassure her friend.

“Can you bring us up to speed here? When did your fish go missing?” Metal Noss asked, deciding to interrogate the girl through a guise of comfort, ultimately hoping to get more answers out of her if it meant acquiring a lead towards finding his wooden brother.

“Good question! And where did you last have it? Are you sure it’s not at home somewhere?” Norah added.

She spoke through gritted teeth.

At the same time, Ginny attempted to reconcile with Noss, “I’ve been meaning to talk things out with you. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but maybe we can step away for a bit. Do you have a second, Noss?”

“Noss!!!” Upon hearing his name again, Norah’s point of focus immediately shifted from her friend to her brother, “I’m sorry I didn’t notice you until now. Are you okay? You haven’t seemed like yourself these past couple weeks.”

“I’m okay, really. And I’m sorry for making you worry, both of you.” Noss apologized.

“Hi, I’m Noss too, but he’s the ‘real’ Noss.” Upon realizing that he wasn’t going to get much new information from the angriest person in the park, Metal Noss decided to have some fun with his maker for once.

“Whoa! You can talk! And you look so much like the real Noss! It’s uncanny!” Ginny’s eyes lit up.

“Who built you? Can you shoot lasers from your eyes?” Norah asked, delightfully surprised by this new discovery.

“No, I can’t shoot lasers from my eyes, even though that would be very cool.” At this, Metal Noss noticed the uneasy glance coming from his maker, “I’d love to stay and chat some more, but I really have to leave soon.”

“Aww that’s a shame. Maybe we can get a picture before you go?” Ginny tried to make the most of the moment.

Noss tried to keep things simple for everyone involved, “No, I don’t think a picture’s a good idea. There really shouldn’t be two of us here at all to be honest. Even a simple picture could complicate things.”

“What do you mean? I helped you out at work, didn’t I? In fact, I thought we made a pretty good team!” Metal Noss huffed in an overly dramatic sort of way. “Hmph!”

“You get to work with your very own robot clone at your job? That’s so cool!” Norah exclaimed with stars in her eyes.

“Noss, this ‘metal-you’ has a better sense of humor than you do if I’m being honest.” Ginny giggled.

“Can we keep him?” Norah asked pleadingly.

“No! He’s not a pet, he’s a person you goof!” Noss asserted.

Pisces was foaming at the mouth.

At this, everyone froze in place, either out of realization that the smallest person there was capable of such an outburst, or that she may very well start another murderous rampage. Prepared for the worst, Metal Noss had already prepared himself. Wrapped in a handkerchief, he wielded a sizable glass shard, about the size of an average switchblade.

The girl began to talk out of both sides of her mouth.

“Apologize to them. These are our friends.”

“I don’t care about your fish. I care about my friends.”

“I’m tired of letting you control my life like this! Go find another body to control!”

“I don’t care anymore! I’m tired of helping you!”

“I deserve a choice!”

The girl clutched at her head and her heart as both halves of the girl argued with themselves.

“Hannah… are you okay?” Norah attempted to approach her friend.

“STAY BACK!” 

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” 

“DON’T LISTEN TO HER!”

“I”M STILL YOUR FRIEND!”

Norah recalled what she had thought to herself not even an hour prior: the notion that Hannah suddenly didn’t seem like herself when she ran away and knocked that older man over. To the extent that she could, Norah seemed to understand, if only for a moment, what her friend was experiencing then. The notion that maybe there was, in fact, “someone else” in there.

The two halves of Hannah’s face seemed to express distinctly different emotions, yet both eyes shed their own tears.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

“And… there’s my queue!” It was a new voice that sounded inappropriately cheery given the current circumstances. It was then that a young girl revealed herself from behind the far side of the nearby bridge at the center of the small park. As she approached the group, she dusted off the front of her long, dark cloak. From behind her round rim glasses, her face bore a calm, collected expression, as if she either knew nothing or everything about the situation that was now unfolding. Around her neck, hanging down to her right side at her waist, like a messenger bag, hung a large, working clock. It ticked loudly, with distinctly audible thumps at every second.

TICK

TOCK

TICK

TOCK

“Ahh yes, the Somewhere gang. It’s nice to meet you all! I’d love to sit down and chat with each of you, but truth be told, I’m… on the clock!” She looked around, hoping for anyone at all to laugh at her ill timed pun. Visibly defeated, she continued, “Tough crowd, huh? Fine. Everyone, take a step back for me, please.”

Everyone stood, surprised by her unexpectedly confident entry into their current crisis. Despite this, with everyone sharing the same priority, they all did as they were told, only wanting the best for the girl trapped within the screaming body before them.

“What I’m about to do may look strange to you, but I assure you that your friend is in good hands.”

To an outside viewer, and to the rest of the “Somewhere gang”, what happened next occurred faster than an eye could blink. But for Hannah, this moment transpired at a much slower rate. Everything around her froze in place, including the array of friends and strangers that all shared a mutual concern for her wellbeing. The only person among them now who could still move about was the girl with the clock at her waist.

“Ms. Honey, I understand that you’ve been serving as a vessel for a certain someone for a while now. I’d like to relieve you of this duty if you’d let me.”

Regaining brief control, Hannah managed a nod, thankful that someone not only wanted to help her with this, but was finally capable of doing so. She had lost that kind of hope a long time ago.

“As for you, Prudence, I understand your intense desire to find Sol, but what you’re doing to poor Hannah here is very wrong. You’re hurting her.”

Pisces spoke through Hannah’s mouth again.

“Prudence, this isn’t your ‘job’. You’re just trying to find what you lost. Your job is to uphold the laws of space in this universe, just as it is mine and my sisters’ job to uphold the laws of time in said universe. Naturally, we do well to keep track of the tools that help us do our job.”

At this, Pisces rolled her eyes. The girl named Saiph continued.

“All the while, you have managed to lose not just one, but BOTH of your tools! And now you’re making this poor girl suffer for it, just because you don’t have a body.”

At this, Saiph clicked her tongue, “Look, whatever we want to call ourselves is neither here nor there. The fact of the matter, here and now, is that you need to leave Hannah be. You now have a lead on who took your fish, and now you can consult with us, and others in the universe on how to find him. You do not need Hannah anymore. Plain and simple.”

Pisces broke eye contact before sounding much more solemn than she ever had before.

Saiph wasn’t buying it, “Then how come you never took the time to show Hannah how much you appreciated her.”

LIAR!

Hannah’s words screamed from within Pisces’ mind.

“She’s trying to talk to you in there, isn’t she?”

“Look Pisces, you need to let Hannah go. I understand that Sol and Soma are very important, and without them, nothing in this universe would matter very much at all. But while there’s a chance that you can still find Sol and make things right, that doesn’t mean you have the right to tear people apart in your wake. Is that really the kind of space goddess you want to be known as? Would Sol and Soma be proud of how you’re acting right now?”

Pisces was silent for a moment.

“I’ll take that as your way of saying thank you.” Saiph smiled before turning away. “Besides, I wouldn’t advise sticking around here for too much longer, even if Sol and Soma were nearby. I’ve been told that you have an appointment with Betel coming up in the very near future.”

At this, Saiph giggled and snapped her fingers, returning time to its normal pace.

Now that everyone else could see what was happening, they noticed Hannah/Pisces kneeling on the ground, suddenly more exhausted and defeated than she was just a moment ago.

“Seriously? You couldn’t have waited to resume the flow of time until after I left? Now this is gonna be way more awkward than it needs to be.”

“I don’t think you’d learn your lesson if you didn’t have an audience.”, Saiph snickered, looking down at her.

Pisces sighed, admitting defeat,

With a deep exhale, the consciousness that once introduced itself as “Pisces” escaped out of Hannah’s mouth, now as a small cloud of pinkish fog. The cloud floated off into the night sky, one step closer to finding her pet fish.

“Good riddance...” Exhausted, Hannah Honey collapsed on the ground of Division Park, surrounded by the group of people that would forever be known across the universe as, “The Somewhere Gang”.

Saiph knelt down, moving Hannah’s hair away from her face, “Hmmm… she’s very strong for a girl her age. You all take care of her, okay?”

Everyone nodded earnestly, despite none of them having a clear understanding of what/who had just been exorcised from their friend/sister.

“Oh! One more thing. Which one of you is Noss Barlowe? Or which two of you I should say. I was told that there will still be two of you left here.”

Noss and his metal counterpart raised their hands.

Saiph laughed a little to herself, “Ahh, that makes sense, the only two people here that look alike! And I take it you’re the ‘corporate’ persona, correct?” 

Metal Noss nodded, though still unsatisfied with the names that others had been giving him all day.

“I know we only just met, but believe it or not, I’m aware of everything that has happened to you so far! Both the loss of your glass colleague, and the kidnapping of your wooden colleague. It must be terrifying to see the two people that you were closest with just suddenly leave your life in less than an hour like that.”

Again, Metal Noss only nodded, this time solemnly.

“That being said, I’ve been advised to offer you an opportunity! My sister, Betel, and the young woman that we just said goodbye to are in need of some help with an… arrangement that they have in the… ‘future’.” At this, she made quotation marks in the air with her fingers. “They’re looking for ten more candidates to make sure that their appointment goes as smoothly as possible. I’d like to offer this opportunity to you, since you’ll likely have a chance to meet the man that took off with your wooden brother. What do you think?”

Metal Noss didn’t need much convincing, “This sounds very advantageous for me. All I want is for my only living brother to return to safety again. That and for my late brother to find some kind of solace in whatever afterlife he has ended up in. That and for myself and my maker to have complete independence from each other from now on.”

“Hmmm… trying to downplay it by saying ‘all you want’ doesn’t really work when you ask for several things you know.” The Maid of Time giggled, “I’m just kidding, silly. I can help you with the first request, but not the second, unfortunately. Death is outside the jurisdiction of the Maids alone, though there are others who preside over that domain. As for your third request, I believe that has already been satisfied!” At this, she looked down and pointed at his forearm.

To his surprise, the rust was nowhere to be seen.

Before he could ask how she managed to do this, the original Noss stepped up to his metal counterpart to explain, “You and I are free from each other now. To be honest, I think I still had some hope that you and I could work together, only letting the other two go. But after seeing what Hannah just went through, I don’t think it would be fair for me to keep you around when you have other obligations. I think it’s the fact that I came to that conclusion that cleaned up your rust.”

“Well…”, Saiph interrupted. “I hate to sully a sentimental moment, but that’s not entirely true. Though it’s a little complicated, so I’ll keep it simple. Let’s just say that both of you, as well as a third party that you may or may not have met before, have all accomplished your respective roles in fixing this particular issue.”

Noss contemplated this a moment before continuing, “Ahh… I see. Well, I guess that doesn’t change things too much. I still want you to be free, and now it seems like you can be! If you need anything, just let me know, alright?”

Metal Noss nodded, “Our working relationship had its merits, but I appreciate you being able to terminate this arrangement in a professional manner. Thank you, and good luck with your independence.” At this, he turned to Saiph again, “I’ll take it.”

“Done deal! You’ll come with me then.” She said as she took Metal Noss’ hand and began to turn away, “Oh! There’s another ‘one more thing’! I was supposed to ask if you needed me to bring Hannah home for you? Prudence is gone now, but as you can see, Hannah is still quite exhausted as a result of the ordeal, and likely won’t wake up until we’re well into tomorrow.”

Norah raised her hand to volunteer, “Don’t worry, I can let her parents know that she’s with me. Noss and I will bring her to our house for the time being though, since… admittedly I don’t know where she lives. Anyways, we’ll figure it out. Besides, Noss and I have some catching up to do.”

“So do I.” Ginny said with a nod.

Saiph smiled at the group, “Then it sounds like all of our business is settled then! Goodnight everyone, and nice work! Sorry to leave so soon, but I have other business to attend to. Apparently, my best friend just got dumped by her crush. You wouldn’t mind helping me with that, would you, Mr. Metal?”

“Remind me to think of a better name for myself before this ‘appointment’ you mentioned.” Metal Noss added, unamused.

And with that, the Somewhere gang parted ways, marking the end of their first and only ever meeting.

~~ Page 8 ~~