CROSS TRAPS: PART 1 (Trouble for space)

2. Influence and Power

Really? Can't I live calmly even for a year without having a gun pointing on my head?

Trust me. This is not my first time experience. In fact, I have lost count about how many times I have faced it.

Even my mother sounded shocked, "What is this, Steven?"

Now again hero time. I ducked and gave him a swipe so hard at his leg that he really gave a spin before falling.

Ok, I'll confess. I also fell with him. But at least it knocked the gun out of his hand.

1st thought: I got him down. yay!

2nd thought: Ok, I at least got time because he is fat.

3rd thought: Not so lucky.

All my thoughts proved to be wrong (Accept the 3rd one, of course). He got up faster than I realized. At least I was ready. I grabbed my grandmother's walking stick (which my mother promised never to let go.) and passed it straight through his legs and pulled hard. He fell, but not before he laid his hands on my mother's laptop stick on the wall. I placed a hand on my coat pocket, rolled aside to dodge the laptop stick strike and took out my semi-automatic (unfortunately) fake gun (Hey, something is better than nothing). I pointed it at his throat from behind. It had a secret recorder in it. Why I was threatened almost every day. This was the least I could keep.

Ok. This is my territory.

The only weakness Stephen had was that it was easy to use some of my cleverness and trickery on him.

"Directly at your neck," I said that with a laugh. "What do you want, Steven? The patent of the time machine?"

Now Stephen laughed "No. No one wants that. EVERYONE wants the watch in your hand, Apollo."

Now I was really scared. My hands had already started having goosebumps. "Why?"

"Time is made to control, you fool, not to stare at."

I loosened the grip on the gun. "What do you mean."

"You know that." He said with a smug smile. Then I noticed he had turned. He lunged. But this time, not at me, but the teleporter hole. He jumped. No way anyone could have survived that fall. "Bye, Apollo. I will return. You will see. And beware of the others. I don't want anyone taking that watch except me."

"Then tell me who are the 'others' so I could defend this from them."

He said with a laugh, "The others are not only humans, Apollo."

Today was way more weirder than I realized.

For fifteen minutes, I stared at the hole. Then I faced my mother.

"Apollo I really didn't_"

I left the room before she could complete.

I went to the teleporter. I saw the last coordinates. Strange. The last coordinates were still of the station. I knew it was not possible to delete the last coordinate. Either all the previous ones get deleted, or none did. It was impossible to change that. Then how did he travel? The time machine had even stopped spinning when I came down. Then how.......

It struck me.

Dimensional Clash.

I ran upstairs and started finding my mother. She was sitting in father's room, staring at his picture, with tears in her eyes.

"Mom, Father is alive."

She tried to reply in a bold voice "I know."

"You did not. You were just thinking. You just had a belief. But somewhere within you, you knew he was dead."