Chapter 174: Book 3 Chapter 21.2: Earthbound

“So, what happened after I got myself vaporized like an idiot?”

Harley’s bold stellar expedition had had less than stellar results. She still felt the lingering buzzing sensation of having all her molecules disassembled.

“Well, after Freddy was done crying, he recalibrated the device and got everyone sent home,” Lee explained. “Please try not to do that kind of thing again, dear.”

“We come back to life.”

“Yes, Harley, but we’re graduating this year,” Lee said. “I think we need to break the habit.”

“Ooh, good point. Alright,” Harley said. “Next time someone needs to die we make Samson do it.”

“Pardon?”

Samson was sitting a few feet away, with some protective tools on hand.

“Nothing,” Harley said. She lowered her voice and continued talking with Lee. “We at least make the new guys draw straws for it.”

“Is Vell still a ‘new guy’?”

“We’ll have to think about it,” Harley said. “What’s the time?”

“About five minutes from arrival,” Lee said. They were sitting at the same picnic table as before, this time without Skye or any of their other non-looper friends. They were all already carrying enough baggage without knowing about the existence of incredibly fragile alien life.

Harley tapped her fingers, checked her phone, and tried not to count down the minutes as she waited for the Rogorians to show up. Having to live almost every day of her life twice over had made Harley very good at passing the time, and it seemed like no time at all before her hair started to do that floaty thing again.

“Showtime, gentlemen,” Lee said. She closed her eyes and endured the brief flash of light and heat that signified a Theta Anomaly teleportation, then listened for the telltale sounds of scuttling below the picnic table. She stood up and started casting a spell while the rest of the loopers likewise sprang into action.

With plenty of time to prepare, the team had put together a large number of protective spells and barriers that would help keep the Rogorians intact and out of sight. Kim had also put her recorded memories of last loop to work and rebuilt a fully-functional Theta Beam Resonator, free of any of the flaws that had evaporated Harley. While the others set up the protective barriers, she set up the teleporter and got it ready to send the Rogorians right back where they’d come from.

“Hey there little dudes,” Harley said. The Rogorians pressed to one side of their rapidly-forming enclosure and waved at her. “Welcome to Earth, home of the humans, we’re super happy to have you here, but also we need to send you right back home because you are super tiny and super fragile and everything on this planet is going to kill you.”

“Oh. That would certainly explain the long lineage of mighty Hayoo-Man warriors!”

The dozens of Rogorians nodded in agreement. They had always wondered why every warrior they had summoned turned out to be inexplicably indestructible and super powerful.

“We’re working on sending you back, but it’s going to take a minute, so just sit back and stay inside the little fence we’re building, yeah?”

“Understood, warrior Hara-Lee,” the Rogorian leader said.

“Cool, thanks for understanding,” Harley said. It was always nice when apocalypse targets were reasonable. “What brings you guys here anyway? Usually when you need help, you just snap me up.”

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“We do not need help,” the Rogorian leader said. “We needed to see you.”

Harley knelt down and bowed low in front of the leader. Not out of reverence, but simply because he was very small.

“Why’s that?”

“For many years, in our hours of need, we have reached out through the Theta Anomaly and called upon a mighty Hayoo-Man warrior,” the Rogorian said. “And always have our calls been answered by the myriad warriors of earth. But none of our champions ever appear more than four times in a row.”

Harley nodded along. If the Rogorians were always summoning loopers, they would only ever see the same person a few times before they graduated and could never be summoned again. Just like what was about to happen to Harley.

“Oh. And that...that’s about to happen to me,” Harley said.

“Yes. We have never before questioned the great cycles of the Hayoo-Man warriors,” the Rogorian said. “But for you, we must know: What will become of you, oh great Hara-Lee?”

“Oh.”

Harley wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that question. She didn’t let that internal hesitation show.

“I’ll be fine,” Harley insisted. “It’s just...time changing. I’m aging out of the role, and letting another warrior take my place. Don’t worry about anything.”

As her own internal resolve started to falter, Harley glanced up at Vell and Lee for a moment.

“I’m going to be just fine,” Harley said. “And I know someone will make sure you guys are too.”

The collective Rogorians started to make weird wiggling gestures, which Harley assumed to be something like a sigh of relief.

“Then all will be well,” the Rogorian leader said. “Thank you, Hara-Lee. Of all the many champions we have called upon, you are the greatest.”

“Aww. But come on, guys, Vell’s been a champion too, he’s right over there.”

“I’m cool,” Vell said, without even looking up from the barrier he was building. His ego was not dependent on praise from tiny purple aliens.

“Teleporter’s ready when you guys are,” Kim said. She double-checked her work while the Rogorians shuffled into position.

“Alright guys,” Harley said. “Have fun. Stay safe. Call for help when you need it. I’ll see y- Uh. Goodbye.”

The Rogorians clustered together and raised the pincers in a salute to Harley. Then they were gone. Harley stared at the empty space they had once occupied while Kim confirmed they’d made it to their destination safely.

“Are you alright, dear?”

“I don’t know.”

Harley put her hands in her pockets and forced herself to turn away.

“I never really thought about those little dudes except when I got summoned,” Harley said. “Why is it so weird to think I’m never going to see them again?”

“There is an inherent tragedy in a goodbye,” Lee said. “No matter how small.”

“Hmm. Vell!”

“What? If you still want reassurance, I can’t say anything cooler than Lee just did,” Vell said.

“I don’t want more platitudes, I want a distraction,” Harley said. “You were scheming something earlier, tell me what it is.”

“Oh, yeah. One second.”

Vell dug through his phone for a bit. Once he’d found what he was looking for, he walked up to the Theta Wave Resonator Kim had built and gave it a quick tap.

“Remember what Freddy was saying about these things being able to catapult us anywhere in the universe?”

“Without a way back, but yes.”

“Without a way back unless you have a time loop to put you right back where you started,” Vell said.

“Meaning, in theory, we could go anywhere we want,” Lee said. “Excellent idea, Vell. Where did you have in mind?”

“Well, I got in touch with Luke about that probe he sent out a while back,” Vell said. He turned his phone around to display a set of stellar coordinates, and an image of three blue suns orbiting one another. The presumed location of the mysterious Butterfly Guy. Harley double checked the stellar map and then looked up at a bush not far away. Four of the impossible butterflies that stalked Vell were currently resting on a bush, fanning their purple wings in the sun.

“I figure if we ever have an easy apocalypse, we could give it a shot,” Vell said. “We could send me-”

“Send you?” Lee scoffed. “We’re not hurling you into deep space alone, Vell. If you go, I’m going with you.”

“Nineteen billion lightyears is one hell of a road trip, Vell,” Harley said. “You’re going to need me around to keep you entertained.”

“It’s teleportation, Harley, it’s instantaneous.”

“And you’ll instantly get bored without me,” Harley said. She grabbed Lee and Vell and pulled them both into a group hug. “Face it, Harlan, you’re stuck with us.”

Vell rolled his eyes and accepted the embrace. While one trio enjoyed the heartwarming moment, the other three loopers stood shoulder to shoulder. Kim leaned over to whisper to Hawke.

“Don’t we still have a power problem to sort out?”

“I assume they’re planning to use you as the battery,” Hawke whispered back. Kim looked down at the metal panel on her chest that hid the rune. It contained a nigh-infinite amount of magical energy, surely enough to send them almost anywhere in the universe. Kim just hoped it wouldn’t hurt.