"Oof!" Tempus fell backward. "Now you listen here, you unwashed cretin--" he began to rant, really ticked now. People had been trying to dispose of him the ENTIRE day (it could have been two days, actually, he'd lost track at this point) and he was really getting tired of it.
On the other hand, the bayonet the guard had pointed at him looked rather sharp, and the decidedly unfriendly expressions of the whole detail went a long way toward convincing him to back down-- for now, at least. "Oh, fine." Besides, he could always engineer a jailbreak later.
At that moment a commotion broke out behind the guards. They turned toward the disturbance only to receive individual shocks from a stunner device-- held by none other than H.G. Wells. "Tempus," he called, "as much as I hate to say this I have to take you out of this time. History could be damaged by your presence here. And don't think of trying anything, or I'll stun you-- I do learn, you know."
So it was that Tempus found himself in Wells' time machine, where he surreptitiously altered the time/space coordinates while the goody two-shoes writer was making sure the guards were unharmed. When the machine arrived in a back alley of 1998 Metropolis, Wells was shocked. So shocked, in fact, that he wasn't able to stop Tempus from escaping the time machine and running from the alley.
"Well, that was stupid," murmured the writer with a small sigh.
******
Tempus opened the door to his hotel room with an exhausted sigh. Even evil geniuses like himself had to sleep sometime, and it had been a LONG day. He moved to turn on the light switch.
What he did not notice was the amused smirk of the woman watching him from the door of the bathroom. Altarian grinned widely as he he reached for the switch, and watched him jerk slightly.
A dazed expression appeared on Tempus' face. He looked around the room for a moment, appearing confused, then spotted the woman. "Oh, my, do I have the wrong room? I'm sorry..." he said, shaking his head slightly. Then he turned and left the room.
Outside the hotel, Tempus noticed an old woman who appeared to be struggling to pick up her bags and cross the street. He immediately ran up, picked up her bags, and helped the lady cross without being run over. The woman was a bit surprised-- this was Metropolis, after all-- but then brightened. "Why thank you, sonny! What a friendly thing to do! What is your name?"
Tempus cocked his head at her. "My name is John Doe," he said after a moment, "and I'm a nice guy..."
Altarian laughed heartily. God, she *loved* irony.
(next)
A/N: I thought of this a little while ago, and I was actually surprised to see that no-one had done it yet. Come on, crew, let's see if we can get this thread going again...
