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R&D Mishap Pt. 2
Taipan Man and Taipan Girl landed with a thud.
“Hey, that didn’t hurt too bad,” said Taipan Man, checking himself over for bruises.
“That’s probably because my ribs cushioned your fall,” wheezed Taipan Girl, getting to her feet. She surveyed her surroundings. “Where do you think we are?”
Taipan Man looked around, taking in the scene before him. They were in a giant, cavernous warehouse that looked eerily like the Testing Facility.
“I don’t think it’s about where we are,” Taipan Man replied, examining the nearest equipment.
“It’s when.”
Taipan Girl raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I see. I can hear a light whispering and suddenly I’m insane, but you think we’ve traveled through time and that’s totally rational. Cool, good to know,” she said sarcastically.
Before Taipan Man could reply, a shadow moved across the far wall. A figure stepped out from behind a stack of crates, followed by another. Both wore familiar suits, their gold capes gleaming under the fluorescent lights. Taipan Girl inhaled sharply.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” she whispered.
Taipan Man nodded slowly. “Us.”
The newcomers slowly approached. They appeared to be carbon copies, but wrong somehow, like slightly warped reflections in a funhouse mirror. Their eyes held no warmth, and they moved with the utmost efficiency and precision.
“Welcome,” the man said, his voice a near match to Taipan Man’s.
“Who are you?” Taipan Girl demanded. “And why do you look like us?”
The woman tilted her head. “I’m Viper Lady. And this,” she gestured to her companion, “is Cobra Guy. We’re like you, but better.”
“Pfft, as if,” Taipan Man muttered. “How many times have you rescued Santa and saved Christmas?”
Cobra Guy smirked. “Believe what you want, but right now, your arrival has caused a serious fracture in the space-time continuum. If we don’t fix the hydraulic chronologer, this entire reality will unravel, and you will cease to exist.”
Taipan Girl exchanged a glance with Taipan Man, then sighed. “No pressure. Fine, let’s see your fancy machine.”
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The chronologer was a marvel of engineering. Various hose, valves, and fittings were interwoven in an ungainly yet brilliant system. If you weren’t a hydraulics expert, you’d have no clue what you were looking at, let alone how to diagnose the issue.
“Yeah, so you’re using suction hose on your pressure lines,” said Taipan Man immediately.
“Ha!” scoffed Taipan Girl. “Amateurs.”
Viper Lady turned bright red while Cobra Guy kicked at his shoes. “Our internal storage is at capacity,” he mumbled. “We had to choose between hydraulic expertise and approximately 1.2 billion photos of dogs in cute outfits.”
Taipan Girl placed her hand on Cobra Guy’s shoulder, feeling a sudden rush of affection. “I don’t know what most of that means, but I know one thing: you made the right choice,” she said. “Now, let’s fix this chronologowhatever and restore the space-time thingy.”
And so, Taipan Man and Taipan Girl replaced the incorrect hose throughout the chronologer and restored the space-time continuum. They returned to their timeline, where Taipan Girl sent through some images of her dogs for their new friends’ collection, and Taipan Man slept on the couch for a month.