Chapter Two: Agents Of Jan...

[zarathrustra_ink]

"It's too quiet. You'd think these hallways would be full of doctors." Toilyn whispered. " I don't like this."

"The coordinates said this is the place." I replied though I had the same concerns. 

"Didn't Covid originate in China? Why didn't they send us to China?" 

Though our thoughts were the same, I was doing everything to keep my suspicions to myself. 

Plink! The sound of what could have easily been a can rolling across the linoleum caught my attention. "We are not alone." I hissed. 

She held her finger to her lips a split second before flinging open the door we were crotched behind. A hail of blue and red spiraled down the hallway. I rushed out to provide cover. On the floor beside a soda can was a rat. Half baby, half old and gray. The noises it was making though… "It's safe to say you got it, Toy." 

She grinned. "What?"

"Yeah, but who has you?" From behind us.

Our eyes still locked, we froze. 

She dropped and rolled across the hall, firing an array of beams. I followed suit. 

"You missed." Came the response. 

Toilyn snatched something from her hip and tossed it down the hallway. It smacked against the wall and burst light across all four corners, including a short, long haired guy with a gun pointed right at us. 

"On your feet." He ordered. 

When neither of us moved, he started to laugh. "Typical." 

Who was this guy? Though he didn't put his gun away, to his credit, he didn't open fire as we were getting up. 

"Some things never change. Relax. I'm not going to shoot." He placed his gun back in its holster. "And you are?"

My eyes narrowed suspiciously. I wasn't exactly acquainted with every agent at Luminous but this guy definitely didn't fit the profile. "We could be asking you the same question." 

He ran his fingers through his hair. "You could… Hey, could you put your hands down? I put my gun away."

Toilyn, whose aim was still on his face, didn't move. "Not until I know what you're doing here."

Before either of us could so much as flinch, he pulled his gun and shot to the right of us. 

"What the-" 

"Jeez… You two are so jumpy." He walked past us. We watched as he crouched over the rat that Toilyn had blasted moments ago. We'd completely forgotten it. "You shouldn't leave stuff like this lying around. The government would love to figure out how to use this technology." He said, placing his hands over it. It started to glow. When he stood back up, it was a normal, everyday creature again. 

"How did you-" Toylin began, watching it scurry off into the darkness.

He held his hand up. "I'm guessing you're here about the timeline change." He held his hand out for us to shake. "I'm Jan."

"You're what?" I said. Neither of us moved to shake his hand. 

"Okay…" He shrugged. "Jan's my name." He leaned against the wall, boot against the wallpaper. "I'm here for the same thing."

"You're Luminous?" I said.

He shook his head. "No."

"You're Noir." Toilyn's hands were up again before I could stop her. She rushed at him, fists flying. 

He dodged the onslaught easily. Notably, without attempting to shoot her. 

"Stop, stop!" I shouted. "Toy, he's not Noir!"

They weren't paying me any attention. "He's not Noir!" I tried again. 

She was on top of him now. "What?!" She snarled back at me.

That was all he needed to launch her off of his stomach and into the wall. He pressed her against the paper with her wrist twisted against the small of her back. 

I aimed my hands at him. 

He released her immediately. "I'm not Noir." He said, raising his hands.

"Why are you here then?" Toilyn asked, rubbing her wrist. 

"Can I put my arms down?" When I nodded, he continued: "I was trying to explain earlier before you two went all vigilante on me. Name's Jan." He smiled. "I'm an inventor."

"Why would an inventor have an interest in 1999?" I said skeptically.

"I have an interest in time in general. If I may…" His hand barely brushed his holster but it was enough for Toilyn to ready herself to dive on him again. 

"Why are y'all like this? I wasn't reaching for my gun." He smirked. "In the year 2000, an inventor will crack the code to the mysteries of time travel." He held up what appeared to be a normal, everyday television remote. "I am that inventor."

I folded my arms across my chest. "If you're not Noir or Luminous, how did you get a hold of our tech?"

"I didn't." He wiggled the remote which was looking less and less normal and everyday by the second. The glass face plate shined a little. "This allows me to time travel undetected for the most part."

"It's you." Toilyn groaned, smacking her forehead. "I thought you said there wasn't an offline."

"There wasn't." I scoffed. 

Jan was right behind me. "Offline?" 

"It would explain why they only sent you." Toilyn replied, ignoring him.

"Or maybe they only sent me because they figured you were going to show up either way." 

She gestured at Jan. "No, he's the assignment, Z. Something this dipshit does is going to change the timeline." 

"Dipshit?" Jan waved his remote. "I'm hardly a dip anything. The both of you were rolling around the hallway shooting at something you didn't even have eyes on and you're calling me names?! I've run into plenty of agents in my travels and out of all of them, y'all would be the dipshits." 

"Can I kill him? Please let me kill him."

"Why would I be the cause of the timeline change if I just told you that's why I'm here?" His voice sounded as if she'd just made the stupidest point he'd ever heard. 

Though he had a valid counter point, our very existence had the ability to affect the timeline. Apparently, in his travels, no one had mentioned that fact. Just moving a cup a few spaces to the right in 1774 could cause a tsunami in Japan in 1996. We had a meticulous occupation and they made sure we never forgot it. 

I voiced this fact and slowly, almost as if something was falling into place, the smug expression on his face dissolved and his demeanor relaxed. For some reason, that made me uneasy. "What did you do?"

"What do you mean what did I do?" He blushed. "I didn't say I did anything." 

"Your face is telling an entirely different story and I don't have all day." 

"It's small. I swear."

Toilyn shook her head. "Earthquake wiping out millions small or a paper cut on the president small?"

Again, he was running his hand through his hair. He thought about it for a couple seconds before reaching down. We looked on as he was patting his pockets frantically until he produced an envelope from his back pocket. "I took this." 

Neither of us moved to retrieve the "this".

"What exactly is that?" Toilyn asked, her fingers were only a mere millimeter from the dial on her bracelet. 

"Wait! Wait!" Jan wasn't blind that was for sure. He tore the edge of the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper. "It's just a letter." 

Toilyn's aim was pointed at his head now. "To whom?"

"Me! It's to me!"

"Wait a second, Toy." I pushed her hands down. "Why would a letter to you cause the entire human race to be wiped out in 2000?"

"I don't know." He opened the flaps on the envelope. "I haven't even read it yet."

"Don't read it now!" I warned him. "For all you know, reading that letter is what causes the timeline change."

"Who's it from?" Toilyn demanded. 

"Before I put the finishing touches on this," He gestured at the reattached remote on his belt. "I put in my resignation at the research facility I was working for. Shortly after, someone bombed the building and my name and face were everywhere."

"Why didn't you just go back in time and find out what caused the explosion?" I asked. 

"I couldn't." He blushed sheepishly. "I've caused a timeline change before." He sighed. "The agent who caught up with me did something to my remote. Now I can't go but so far into my own timeline."

I almost dove on him. Why didn't he tell us that in the freaking beginning?! I was thinking this as Toilyn was demanding the same. 

"So let me get this straight: You're acting all uppity and you, you right there… You yourself have caused a timeline change?! It's nice to see that while you were stocking up that belt you made sure to pack the audacity." She turned on me. "Now can I kill him?!"

"All I have to do is say yes." I said calmly.

"Okay, okay." He rolled his eyes. "Can we get out of here first? I'll tell you everything you want to know."

"You can do that right here, right now."

"She has a point." I agreed, nodding. "Where exactly is here anyway?"

"This is Altura, Thanksgiving day, 1999. He gestured at the wallpaper. "Apparently they slapped some paint and wallpaper across it and according to my records, they reopen in two weeks." 

"This is your facility." I thought about it. "When did you get that letter?"

"In 1999, before the explosion." He frowned. "Why?" 

"I'm trying to figure something out here." 

"What are you thinking, Z?"

"He said he finished that remote in 2000. This place was up and running again that same year, right?" 

"Yeah." 

"That would mean that him going to 1999 to get the envelope could have altered the timeline to where it never got burned up in the explosion. What if this building was never rebuilt and this is the original foundation?" 

"Wait a second!" Toilyn snapped her fingers. "What if whoever wrote the note knew about the explosion and was trying to warn him since they knew he was leaving?"

"Or… What if the letter is from my secret admirer?" Jan held up the paper again. "Y'all are talking like I'm not standing right here."

"What if the note was warning him about the virus?" I said, turning my attention back to him. "Who all knew about your time travel research?"

"Nobody." 

"Jan…" 

He shifted uncomfortably. "Okay, one person knew." 

"Was it your girlfriend?" Toilyn rolled her eyes. "It's always the girlfriend."

"No." He actually sounded offended. "I had an assistant." 

"Why does it feel like we're having to keep peeling back layers from you? What aren't you saying?" I demanded. 

He released a long, defeated sounding sigh. "My assistant was the one who wrote the letter. She died shortly after giving me this. I was so upset… I didn't think."

"You?" Toilyn said sarcastically. "I refuse to believe it. Say it isn't so." 

"I didn't think to take it with me. I put it in my desk." He continued, ignoring her. 

"How did she die?" I asked.

"Car accident." He paused. "What was that look?"

"We're going to the library."

"Why?"

"We can't take an offline to the library." Toilyn said, shaking her head. 

"If he really is my assignment, until we sort this mess out, he's going everywhere I go." I looked to Jan. "Right?"

He shrugged it off. "I mean, it's just a library." 

Toilyn smirked. "Just a library."