According to the newspaper, it's October 14th, 2026. That's a Wednesday, by the way.
Matt didn't seem to excited to learn that, though... Rather, he was mostly confused.
He kept flipping through the newspaper, looking for something to deny the date written on the front page.
And he found nothing. Just more evidence proving it. Oops.
"Uhh... Fuuuck.... This! Joe's still president! It's 2023...! Nope, the dude got reelected... Twice... I thought that wasn't even possible?! How did he do it!? Aaagh! Shit!"
Eventually, he threw the newspaper across the room, and punched the floor in anger.
Then, his head jolted upwards, and he had a realization.
"...What if it's a fake?"
He got up slowly, and started walking towards the door.
"I mean, surely... It's still 2023... No way three years passed just like that! No way!"
He put his hand on the door handle, and pulled with all of his might.
"No way...!"
And as he opened the door, he saw... A forest! It's still a forest! Hell yeah!
"Yup, that's a step in the right direction! And I know what to do now!"
Matt was feeling pretty confident that only a few days had passed since he was last on Earth. But that meant that he was still wanted...
So, he shall stick to the shadows! For uh, for now! The fact that he had some old, raggedy clothes did not help either... It's not like he was homeless... Ah, actually, nevermind. He kinda is...
Either way, Matt already mastered 'staying in the shadows.' This shouldn't be too hard.
As usual, he started running, full speed. Very, very soon, he got out of the woods, into a part of town he... He didn't know?
"Wha... Shouldn't there be at least one more mile 'till town...? How am I this early?"
He started looking around, for any signs on the road, and eventually he saw one.
"High Block Street? The hell... I never knew we had such a street..."
Must be new! Like, very! Nothing out of the usual! No sir! So, Matt continued running! He kinda forgot the whole 'staying in the shadows' thing, so he was just running around the town.
Here's a little tip about people who can run really fast-- Their eyes usually adapt to their speed, so they can... Y'know, see? Meaning, Matt was seeing everything right now, as he was running.
And, in the corner of his eye, he saw a statue in a park. A silver statue of a young boy.
A young boy that he... Recognized.
He immediately stopped in his tracks, leaving a hole in the ground, where his foot stopped. A lot of gasps could be heard from passersby, but little did Matt care.
He ran to the statue, and paused right below it, then looked up at it.
"...What... The actual fuck... What the fuck is... Is Jinn doing here?!"
Sitting there, in all it's "glory," was a statue of none other than Jinn. Yeah, that Jinn.
And right below it were two things. One, a plate, talking about what Kinko Jinn did, and two, a very, very, very confused Anderson Matt.
Yes, three very's.
...Okay, let's uh, read this thing, shall we?
Here lies a statue of one of America's greatest heroes, Kinko Jinn, also know as Killjoy. He alone defeated the evil Reaper, and banished him to an unknown realm. Jinn, unfortunately, was also dragged in with him... But he reappeared on Earth just four days later! He continues to live his day-to-day life with the love of his life, Adams Chloe.|
...What kinda bullshit is this?
"What kinda bullshit is this?"
Yeah, no, that's what I'm sayin'... Crazy...
"You're telling me Chloe didn't... Jesus... No, wait, fuck that! Holy shit!"
He sprinted to a nearby man, so fast that it seemed like he teleported.
"Hey, sir! Excuse me! Quick question!"
The man looked at him confused.
"Huh? What?"
"What year is it!?"
The man sighed, and rubbed his eyes.
"You must be one of those hybrids with time travel, huh... It's 2026... Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm quite busy."
The man quickly left, and Matt stood there, in shock, for a few seconds.
He then slapped himself twice, and shouted.
"I can do a lot of things, and time travel is abso-fucking-lutely not one of them!"
He looked around, and after noticing that quite a few people were looking at him with scared and confused looks, he sprinted off.
Well, that conversation confirmed a few things at least...
First, Agilies are still normal around here. Thank God... Second, it is indeed 2026. Third... Well, that's about it. Oh, I guess Jinn is now a national treasure or whatevs.
As Matt was running around with no destination in mind, he came across a restaurant. Nothing special, really, just a restaurant called Emily's Diner. Ah, their pancakes are on sale... Must be nice... Wait, shit, wait!
Matt's eyes widened as he saw the restaurant's name.
"Emily... Alex... Patt...! Fuck, fuck!!"
Oopsie, 'cuz suddenly, he had a whole lot of destinations in mind! And yet he chose the one that made the most sense at the time!
After running for a bit, he got to a part of town he did know, and from there it was smooth sailing. Then soon after, he finally got to a familiar door...
He knocked about two hundred times in a few seconds, because his hand could not stop moving. For one of the first times ever, Matt couldn't control nor stop his electricity, hence the rapid uncontrollable hand movement.
Someone inside shouted "Wait, just wait! Jesus!"
And soon after, a... Little kid opened the door? No, like... Really little... He was about two years old...
Ah, uh, nevermind, someone was holding the kid. That's my bad.
After the door fully opened, a woman in her very early twenties could he seen. She had silky, long black hair, covering one eye, and was wearing mostly black clothes. The kid was wearing pink and yellow ones, and he had short black hair, if... If anyone cares...
Matt remained speechless for a second, but so did the woman.
Then, the woman suddenly had tears in her eyes, then began crying, almost dropping the kid.
Matt ducked down a bit, then he put a hand on the kid's back, to prevent him from falling, and looked up at the woman.
"...H-Hey... So, uhm... Long time no--"
Then he was met with the biggest slap of his life. Like, ouch. The whole neighborhood probably heard it. I mean it.
"--See... Alright, I... I deserved that... Missed you too..."
The woman then went in for a hug, and only began sobbing harder.
"...Yeah, I..."
He sighed, as he was pretty speechless.
"I know..."
Matt hugged her back– yes, the kid too– and they both sat in silence for a second, hugging each other.
After hugging for what seemed like hours, but only being one or two minutes, the woman, and by that I mean of course Emily, finally broke the hug and looked Matt dead in the eye.
"What... What the fuck took you so long, asshole?"
"Sorry, but... Trust me, it's a looong story."
As she was wiping her tears, Matt really thought about going for a kiss, but the numbers '17' and '20' popped in his head, as he wasn't really sure if he aged or not, and the... The kid was a bonus... But, like... Where... Who's...
Okay, yeah, he was gonna ask.
"Uhh... That yours?"
He pointed at the kid, and Emily looked down at him, before clearing everything up.
"Oh no, no, no! Damn...! He's my brother!"
"Oh, thank fuckin' God... Wait, you're 20 and have a baby brother?"
"Uhh... I guess..."
Matt thought about how Emily's parents must be... Rather active people, then, a bigger thing jumped to his mind.
"Shit! Right, uh... What about Alex?"
"Alex? Ohh, that Alex! Yeah, don't worry about him. He's fine. We found him an adoptive family a while back."
Matt felt a wave of relief wash upon him.
"Fuuuck... That's... That's wonderful..."
Then bigger thing #2 jumped to his mind.
"Wait, wait, wait! My brother! Where's Patt?!"
Emily's face suddenly had a sad look on it.
"...I was kinda hoping you wouldn't ask that."
She stepped out of the way, and invited Matt in.
"You're gonna want to sit down, I think."
Matt gulped, and he felt sweat forming on his forehead. He went in, sat down, and Emily made a cup of coffee for him. By made, I mean like, literally. With her Agily. Shit's impressive, really.
Emily sat down next to him, after putting her brother down, and pulled out her phone.
She then showed him a picture. One that made Matt almost cry again.
It was a picture of his brother, but he was missing a leg and a hand. He was in a wheelchair, and yet he looked as happy as ever. The picture was rather new, though. And no, no miracles this time, like Matt's.
"...We found him a few hours after you disappeared. Missing those. He said he was attacked from behind, so he doesn't know who did it."
Matt clutched his fist, hard, and had to take a lot of big breaths before responding the best he could.
"...Fuck."
"Yeah, fuck indeed..."
Emily sat a while, before noticing the obvious elephant in the room. Matt himself.
"Wait, but... How did you get back here? With... With your leg as well...?"
"As I said... Long story."
"I have the time. And uh, plenty of coffee. Go on."
Matt chuckled, and lightly slapped himself on the cheeks twice.
"Yeah, no wonder I fell for you all those years ago. Okay then."
And so, Matt told her everything. And I mean, everything. All that he could remember. What piqued Emily's interest the most was obviously the loop... I mean, everything caught her interest, but that especially.
"Okay, so... You're telling me that, while you were stuck in a loop for three years, time didn't actually loop... Just that one hall?"
"Yeah. I uhm... I guess."
Emily began inspecting Matt head to toe.
"Hmm... Yeah, you still look 17 alright..."
She then lifted his shirt up, to inspect his body further.
"And you're in peak condition... No signs of dehydration or hunger..."
Matt blushed a bit in surprise and pulled his shirt down, fast.
"Isn't that illegal for you to do? Since I'm still 17?"
"What, y'don't like it?"
No, he uh, he definitely did... But that wasn't important!
"L-Look, I am pretty goddamn behind on knowledge... And technology... So please, get me a phone and a Wiki..."
"Ah! Wait right here!"
Emily went upstairs for a second, then came back with a backpack. The backpack itself was new, but the contents weren't.
"Here ya' go. Your phone, and some other stuff."
"Oh, y'kept all of these? Thank you."
"Obviously I did..."
He pulled out his phone, and as he already had guessed, it was dead. His muscle memory kicked in, and flicked the top right corner.
And I mean sure, old Matt could've done that and gotten away with it, but this new and improved Matt...
He quickly pulled the phone away, and just in time! A bolt of electricity ran out of his fingers and went in a nearby wall, burning it a bit.
"...Ah. So, uhm..."
"I-It's fine... Seems like you've gotten stronger, huh..."
"I uh, I guess so."
He controlled his electricity a bit more, and flicked the top right corner again. This time, the phone booted up, and it was at 100%.
"...Jesus fuckin'..."
He quickly began swiping through it, and bit it, I mean the thousands of notifications that he had.
As he was focused doing that, he saw a spoon heading for him. His mouth, specifically.
"Uh, Emily?"
"Open up. Here comes the airplane."
"N-No, wait, really, what're you doing?"
"I've always wished you'd be younger than me, y'know... And now you are! So, open up."
"W-Wait! Technically, I'm still 20!"
"But you look 17... So open up...~"
...Someone call the police, and fast please. Fast. I mean it!
After being forcefully fed, he continued scrolling through his phone.
"Alright, Wiki... Oh, this is quite good, actually. Thanks. Anyway, the Wiki..."
First thing he looked up was himself, Anderson Matt. And wouldn't y'guess it, something came up.
An article named "Anderson Matt [The Reaper]" did. He clicked on it, and started reading. And yeah, full of bullshit. Next thing he searched was Jinn. And yup, y'guessed it...
An article with a similar name popped up, "Kinko Jinn [Killjoy]".
Also full of bullshit, by the way. But that was expected.
As he was scrolling through multiple Wiki's, he began making small talk with Emily.
"So, uh... How have things been?"
"Uh, okay, I guess? I work as an secretary... The pay's not that great though."
"Ah, so you wear a suit and stuff...? I would pay to see that kinda thing, to be honest."
"Were you always this flirty?"
He kept scrolling through the articles, pretty unfazed.
"Hmm. Who knows. Ah, question. How did TGG cover up the whole war?"
"They barely managed to, to be honest. But all the blame fell on you and all the fame fell on Jinn."
Matt clicked on an article called "The Battle Of Agilies." Try to guess what it's about...
"Yeah, I can... See that..."
Emily fed him another spoonful of food.
"Ah, what about Chloe? How the hell did she end up staying with Jinn?"
"Why, you interested in other women?"
"I like having teeth in my mouth and being dry, so nope. Just curious."
"That's what I thought. And to be honest, I don't know."
"Hmm..."
He came across an article titled "The Hero And The Villain Of America," and read it.
"Hey, so like... Am I dead?"
Emily ran her hand through Matt's hair.
"You seem alive to me."
"No, I mean legally."
"Oh, yeah. There was a funeral too. Not... A lot of people showed up though..."
"That hurt. Only a bit, but it did."
"Hey, at least me, Alex and Patt did..."
"Yeah, that's about everyone that I cared about anyways."
Matt took a sip of his coffee, before Emily exclaimed.
"Ah, Nicole ended up with Patt by the way."
Aaand the coffee was now on the floor...
"Wha... That was... Unexpected. Damn."
"Yeah, y'think? You should've seen her when we found him in the forest, bleeding out. She cried so much I had to stop her with my Agily..."
"...Damn. Lucky guy, having someone to cry over him."
"I literally did too, five minutes ago..."
"Yeah, I know. Thank you."
Emily cleaned up the coffee from the floor with her Agily, and sighed deeply.
"What's up? You thinking something like, "How could two best friends fall for the Anderson brothers?", right?"
"Yeah, exactly. Didn't know mind reading was a part of your Agily kit."
"Hmm. Must be a new addition. I wouldn't be surprised, to be honest, I can do... A lot of new stuff."
Emily sighed again, and said in a lower tone, "Who would've guessed...", while Matt looked over to his right, seeing the kid from earlier.
"Ah, there's my future brother-in-law. What's his name?"
"Don't... Call him that... And his name's Chris."
Matt put his phone down, as he already read over a hundred articles– that brain overdrive of his must be very useful, huh– and squatted down to him.
"Hellooo... What's up, lil' man?"
Chris then slowly and barely walked over to Matt, and put his little hand on his knee.
"Bwutha!"
"I think he just offered me your hand in marriage, Emily."
"N-No, he did not..."
"Should I begin using 'dear' around you? Maybe 'honey', if that's more preferred?"
"N-No! A-Absolutely not!"
"Aww... What a shame. And it sounded quite nice, too..."
Matt put his hand on Chris's head, and started playing with his hair.
"He's like a little doggy... What were they called... Golden retrievers? But with black hair..."
"Oh, yeah... I can kinda see it..."
Matt got up, and cracked his back.
"Ah, that felt nice... Oh, and uh... Do you happen to have any clothes from... This planet?"
"...What? Oh, right, right. Uhm... Wait here."
"Yes, ma'am."
Emily went upstairs again, and brought Matt a change of clothes.
"Ah, thank you."
He began taking off his shirt, before looking back at Emily, who was... Not not watching, if you know what I mean...
"So... You wanna keep watching, or...?"
She then suddenly snapped back to reality.
"Wha... Ah shit, sorry, sorry..."
She grabbed Chris, and quickly left the room.
Matt yelled out to her, jokingly, "If you wanted to watch that badly, you could've asked!"
She yelled back, "S-Shut up!"
Not denying it, huh... Anyways, Matt got changed into clothes from Earth, finally, and checked his phone. It was getting late... He yelled out to Emily.
"Emily, if I wanna leave, I think I should right about now!"
Emily came back in the room with a confused face.
"Leave? Where to?"
"I'm gonna go see Patt. I probably should..."
He got on one knee, and started trying his shoelaces.
"Damn, these are beat up... Anyways, can you give me an address?"
"London."
"Ah, I see. Thank you, Em--"
He got up in about 0.4751 seconds, setting yet another world record, right next to Jinn's record of fastest time to fall asleep from a while back.
"Where did y'say?!"
"He uhm... Moved there last year."
"Motherfu--"
As Matt was looking for something to kick– out of instinct– he remembered something.
"Ah... That could... Okay. I think I got it."
"You got... What?"
"An idea. By the way, how fast can Chloe run again?"
"Oh? Thinking of other women again?"
"Wouldn't dream of it. Just humor me please."
"Uh... Back in highschool it was about... What, 80 miles per hour?"
"Fuck! My top is 55..."
Emily stood there confused for a second, before asking, "Why did ya' wanna know though?"
Matt sighed.
"Remember her little trips to Europe?"
"Oh, yeah, who wouldn't? She could run on wat..."
Emily paused for a second, before continuing.
"No, Matt... You aren't..."
"...Surprise?"
Emily facepalmed.
"Matt, you can run fast thanks to your electricity! Electricity and water aren't a good combo!"
"Hey, that's literally wishing bad luck to us!"
"N-No, that's not what I meant, you little... Look, you'll get hurt, or even worse. You just can't run on water."
Matt pulled out his phone, and pressed on it a few times.
"Shit, you're right..."
"Thank you! See, it was a bad ide--"
"I need to go at least 65 miles per hour..."
Emily sighed, and facepalmed once again.
"Matt... C'mon now..."
"So basically, I need to find a way to go faster..."
"Matt, do you just have a death wish?!"
"C'mon, do you know how slow a plane is...?"
"It's literally not?!"
"But boring... That, it is!"
Emily sighed, and sat down on the sofa, defeated.
"And how do you plan to run on water...?"
"...Good point!"
"You're hopeless..."
"Indeed I am! Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be right back!"
"N-No, Matt, wait!"
Wait he... Did not... He opened the door, and ran off, to... Who knows where, honestly.
Emily made herself another cup of coffee with her Agily.
Then she said ,"Wait for him, Emily... He won't be that crazy when he gets back, Emily... Surely not...", almost like she was mocking her past self who once said those things.
She took a sip of her coffee and sighed again.
"Oh, how wrong I was..."
As she sat there sipping on her coffee for a few minutes, eventually, a knock could be heard on the door.
"Eh...?"
She got up, opened the door, and on the other side...
"Oh, you're fucking... Jesus Christ, Matt."
...Was a soaked Matt, who probably tried to run on water.
"In my defense, I ran a few dozen feet before actually falling in."
Ah, nevermind, he actually did run on water. Well, barely, but uh, he did.
"Of course you did... No problems with the electricity?"
"Not that I know of, no."
"Then... That's good enough, I guess... Come in."
He came in, and put his clothes in the dryer, while covering himself with a blanket.
"Okay, well, at least I know what to do now..."
"Oh? And that is?"
"I've just gotta run faster!"
"...Okay, Matt, look here... If you had a speed Agily, or infinite stamina, I'd get it... But you don't..."
"I don't?"
"...What, you mean you have infinite stamina?"
Matt sat and thought about when was the last time he actually felt tired, and the loop came up.
"...We talkin' physically or mentally, 'cuz I kinda have a different answer for both..."
"Physically."
Matt thought again, and...
"Yeah, kinda. I think I'll be good."
"You think you can run across an entire ocean?"
"...Mmmaybe?"
"...You are hopeless..."
"No I'm not... Ah shit, wait, where's my phone?!"
"...Totally not hopeless, Reapy..."
After finding his phone in his backpack, he coughed once or twice.
"A-Anyway... I'm still gonna do it!"
Matt got up, and pointed to the sky, all superhero like!
"I'll run on water! All the way to the UK!"
"Sure, sure... A-And cover yourself up properly..."