Confrontations

A sharp whistle pierced the air as the sky went black. I felt my jaw drop as the air twisted around, revealing a… guy in a black rubber suit wearing a T-Rex mask and wielding a metal baseball bat. I looked at the message and pointed at the stranger. “Is that the monster?”

The message nodded vigorously. “Of course it is! Can’t you see how evil he looks? Don’t worry, Hero. I’ll”-

“You said I had ten hours.”

“I said I was being generous. That bottle wasn’t the best container, and”-

“I’m supposed to have a weapon.” I didn’t know why I was wasting time. The “monster” was looking at me, but he only placed the bat on his shoulder and waved at me. I didn’t like it. Nothing good happened when the big bad was acting calm. “You promised I’d have time to train!”

The message moved to the other side of the table, ducked under the side, and returned with a shoe box floating about its head. “Here we are. One raygun of the latest design. Take it and fulfill your destiny!”

I didn’t think my jaw could become unhinged, but it felt like it wanted to as the message placed the shoe box in front of me. I didn’t touch it. “I need more time. Everything is happening too fast!”

The message glared and shook its head. “I’m sorry, Hero. But you can’t get more time. You must defeat the monster”-

“A guy in a mask and holding a baseball bat? That’s your idea of a monster? I get that he’s kind of scary with how he showed up, but you made me think I would fight a giant lizard or something. What’s the big idea?!”

“The “big idea,” Hero. Is that monster is going to destroy your world if you don’t kill him. Have you lost your mind from the terror of his mere presence?”

“Nope, can’t say I have.” I looked back to see the guy reading the memorial sign in front of the park. I tried squinting, hoping to see signs of a tail, wings, or anything that would make this fight seem…. Real. But the guy remained the same no matter how hard I stared. It didn’t make sense, and the message wasn’t helpful.

“Listen to me, boy. Don’t judge things by their appearance. Use your true senses to combat the evil. You don’t want to risk your world’s safety, do you?”

“No, but I don’t want to be grounded for the rest of my life because I killed someone.”

“There are worse things than being grounded. If you require more proof. Simply open the box and claim your weapon.”

I didn’t want to. All this talk about saving the world gave me a headache, but I opened the box anyway… and blinked in surprise. It looked just like a raygun was supposed to look. It had a round cylinder shape ending with a satellite dish instead of a muzzle. And the grip had a white trigger attached.

I picked it up, lightly running my fingers over the grip until a small screen blinked to life before me. “What’s this?”

Whoever designed this must have watched a ton of Sci-Fi shows. This thing is so red, it looks like its supposed to bleed and minute. The message chuckled. “That is the guidance system. Point it at the monster, and it’ll show you where the weaknesses are.”

“It's not nice to point guns at people.”

“That’s not a person. How many times do I have to tell you?”

“I shrug, not wanting to argue as I did what I was told. The man had finished reading the sign and was facing me, but his bat still rested on his shoulder. Thanks to the mask he was wearing, I couldn’t see his eyes, but I knew he was looking at me. I aimed the screen at his face and smiled when a bright yellow circle appeared.

Ok, so one of his weaknesses is his head. I was expecting that… This is like a video game now. I moved the gun lower, and a second circle appeared over the man’s heart. That’s two now; where’s the third? I expected it to be his stomach since most fighters aim there to stun their opponents, but the final circle appeared around the bat.

Why would the gun choose his weapon? Even if the blast hits his hand, he’ll still be able to run after me. What should I do? The message hovered near my shoulder. “Alright, young Hero. You’ve found his weaknesses. Which one are you going to choose? Remember, the gun only has one shot, so pick wisely.”

“Why hasn’t he done anything? It’s like he doesn’t care that I have a better weapon than he does.” Which is another red flag that I should have paid attention to, but the message distracted me.

“The monster cannot strike until you’ve used the raygun. This gives you time to prepare and gives your world a few more moments of guaranteed survival.”

I stared at the man and asked. “You’re telling me that Earth is safe until I fire?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. But just because he’s not allowed to strike you doesn’t mean he can’t move around. You saw that when he looked at the sign, right?”

“I did, and… hold on a sec.” I tucked the raygun into the top of my pants and headed for the “monster.

The message shrieked, whipping in front of my face as he demanded. “Are you crazy? What do you think you’re doing? You don’t need to get close to him, Hero. The raygun will take care of everything. All you have to do is pick a target and pull the trigger!”

“If he’s not allowed to destroy the planet until I do that. Then I’m not going to… I will keep the raygun, though. It’s cool.”

The message’s eyes bulged, but I was already in front of the “monster” by then. I gently pushed the paper aside, I didn’t want to tear it by accident and held out my hand. “Hi. I’m Kenny. I’m thirteen years old, and I like collecting bottles. That’s how I summoned you, but it was an accident. Do you think we can talk this out? My parents are already mad, and I don’t want to leave them paused for too long.”

“Young Hero!”

“Shush, Grandpa. I listened to you and read that stupid note. Now, I want to hear what the monster has to say.” Standing this close to him did give me a glimpse of his eyes, but I had no idea what he was thinking as he studied me. The message didn’t care for my new nickname for him.

“I’m not your Grandpa!”

“You look just like him.”

“That’s a coincidence, I”-

The monster put his free hand on my shoulder and chuckled. “Alright, Grandpa. That’s enough. We’ve seen this happen before.~”

Grandpa glared at the monster. “Don’t you start. And unhand the Hero. You know you’re not supposed to”-

The monster raised the bat warningly. “I said enough. Your precious Hero isn’t going to shoot me. Are you, Kenny?”

I shook my head. “If that’s the only way to guarantee Earth’s survival, then no. And how do you know my name?”

The monster chuckled again and removed his mask, revealing his true identity as… me?! Grandpa groaned. “What are you two doing? This isn’t how things are supposed to work!”

The monster, me, slowly shook his head and brushed his sweaty bangs aside. “You would not believe how stuffy this thing gets. I’ve never seen the point in wearing it.” He glared at Grandpa. I’ll explain the situation, Grandpa. Why don’t you go take a nap or something.”

“You’re calling me that on purpose!”

“Yep. And I’m going to keep doing that. So, you may as well get used to it. Because we’ll be spending a lot of time together from now on.”

“Why’s that? Can’t you just poof or zap yourself back to where you came from?”

Older me shook his head. “I could, but then Grandpa would get bored. Do you remember what the message said?”

“Yeah. It said you’re going to destroy Earth because I opened a bottle, which is pretty stupid, by the way. Bottles aren’t meant for things like that.”

Older me grinned. “Anything else?”

“Grandpa doesn’t like talking cats.” This made the older me laugh as Grandpa scowled.

“No, no, he doesn’t. Well, Kenny. In case it wasn’t obvious. I’m you, and so is Grandpa… or at least the program he’s based on. To make a long story short. A race of aliens is obsessed with stopping humans from reaching the stars. But they don’t want to kill us themselves, so they send me… and other mes to the past to fight me. And since you didn’t pull the trigger. You get to come to space with us and join the fight. Isn’t that great?”