Other Worlds Than These

You Can't Be Lost If You've Gone AWOL

Beck was honestly starting to want to stay with Hiro and hang out. He was overjoyed that he had finally met another genius on his level- no, above his level. Hiro had graduated at 13, and he had graduated at 16 (though, in his defense, being an abused kid who was somewhat focused on staying alive and in one piece really put a limit on how many grades you could skip). Hell, SFIT was probably knocking down Hiro's door to get him in. But wait, there was a fire?

That couldn't be right. Whatever Beck had started with the amplifier would have been 20 years ago, not recently. What had happened now? Beck didn't exactly have a phone on him at the moment so he couldn't just Google the answer. He'd have to figure this out soon. And Hiro's poor brother, too, the one who built the awesomely advanced (yet slightly annoying) robot, Baymax. Why did all the really good programmers have to die? Beck would have really liked to talk to Tadashi. Oh, to have gone to SFIT with him, he thought. Sadly, there were 20 years separating their runs at SFIT. Beck was probably nothing more than a legend, like the one he had heard with the catapult used to steal the Shimamoto statue for the first Rivalry Week.

Beck was starting to forget all about his problems. But then, he saw something. A photo taped above Hiro's desk. It looked exactly like an older version of the Cass that Beck knew. Oh shit, Aunt Cass is THAT Cass, Beck thought. Instantly, his hopes that he could hang out here were dashed. Cass would recognize him, he thought, and she would never understand his situation. Granville and Callaghan would understand his time travel predicament, but Cass wasn't a genius. She was an okay student at best, Beck had done a lot of her homework for her back when they were at high school, and her best subject was ELA. To put it nicely, she was far from a science prodigy. She would never understand the amplifier. She'd just think he was crazy.

He had to leave before she got here, and plan what he was going to do next. Maybe the SFIT fire wasn't so bad, maybe Callaghan and Granville were there already and he could just tell them. He had to get back to SFIT and assess the damage. He hoped the fire wasn't in the labs, unlikely given it was summer and no students really went in the labs over the summer, but maybe Tadashi had been given special access like Beck had been. Maybe he had caused the fire accidentally like Beck did with the amplifier. Either way, if the labs were damaged, that would make rebuilding his amplifier much harder.

And then, he heard something. What sounded like a truck pulling in- he had to leave, now. He shot up from where he was sitting before, Hiro looked shocked but Beck had no time to explain.

"Goodbye, Hiro!"

Beck said before he dashed down the stairs and out of the door he came in through. He was just in time to avoid the older version of the Cass he knew coming in through the door. That was close, he thought. Beck didn't know what he would've done if he had been caught.

Now, time to get to SFIT and see what was going on for himself. Judging by the cherry trees around, he was a few blocks away from SFIT- he had seen these trees before on his way to Wendy's house when he had been over a month ago. It'd be a bit of a walk for Beck, he wasn't very strong, but he could make it. He was more of a sprinter than an endurance runner.

He tried to ignore how much of a dick move it was to just up and leave. If he had any luck, he'd be back in his own time by the end of the week. He just had to rebuild his amplifier. And he knew how to do it, the blueprint was damn near seared into his head. Though, wait, it failed. He had failed. Was it safe to do it again? If he couldn't do it, who could?

First things first, he thought. He had to keep going. The too-short hoodie he was wearing kept riding up, exposing way too much midriff for his taste. He wasn't one for crop tops. He wasn't against men wearing them, not at all, it was just that the more skin he showed, the more unhealthy he tended to look. It was why he practically lived in long sleeves. Sooner or later he'd have to find something that actually fit. But he had no idea if anything he owned was still around. Given he was 20 years in the future, that was unlikely. And he didn't exactly have any money to buy anything. But he also didn't want to steal, he could get caught. So, he'd have to deal with the crop top look for now, much to his dismay.