Chapter Text
“Z! It’s time to wake up! You’re going to be late!” His guardian, Agent RB hollered at him.
He awoke, jumping and bolting up right when he did. He rubbed his head. He had that dream again. ZY stepped out of bed, stretching. Sure, it was normal to have dreams like that when your best friend was insane. Not literally insane, but close. She did things for pure amusement and laughter, and enjoyed the chaos of it. It didn’t make her a bad person, but she also had little empathy and sympathy. He couldn’t help but be drawn to her though. They had been friends since very early childhood too. What kind of person would he be if he just suddenly dropped her? Z threw a shirt on, and grabbed is mandatory school jacket.
Today he would no longer need his school jacket. Today he would finally graduate, and become a real agent in time. Being born where he was meant that when he grew up, he either had to become a time-solving agent, or an engineer. Students were trained in school to learn basic things, such as math and reading, but also to become either of those jobs. You could also become another more ‘normal’ job, like cooking for the community or teaching if your job was declared unsuitable. He was going to become a time-solving agent.
The life of an agent wasn’t very hard. His guardian, Agent R was one. He often would tell Z about the cases he went on, such as ‘a timeline appeared where the asteroid DIDN’T hit the dinosaurs today! What a nuisance to get rid of!’ and smaller cases too, where for example, a little girl had just been randomly wiped from her timeline. That case was still a mystery to where she went, but he heard it was a struggle to change the futures where she didn’t exist. He slid his shorts on, and walked out to the living room of his apartment, where he saw his guardian, sitting at the counter and sipping black coffee.
“Morning again. Have a good sleep?” Agent RB said looking over at Z.
“Same dream again,” He half mumbled, sitting down next to him.
He started to put his beige hair up in a small ponytail, when his guardian gave him a grim look.
“I wish I had access to these future timelines so I could check if it’d become a reality. I’m really sorry kiddo,” R said giving him a genuinely apologetic look.
“It’s okay. I’m just scared for her, you know? She’s like a crazy psycho sometimes..I wouldn’t be surprised if my dream came true. I really hope it doesn’t though,” He said mumbling the last part.
His guardian gave him a false reassuring smile. “It could just be a dream. Don’t worry. We haven’t had someone who could predict timelines in ages!”
“-Other than Ultimate Seer A.” He finished for him.
Agent R rolled his eyes. “It’s unlikely she chose you to be the next Time-seeker. And I’m positive that your little girlfriend will not turn into a robot psycho.”
“She’s not my girlfriend-! And she wasn’t a robot,” He said slightly annoyed. “In the dream, half of her face and arm was gone. Her insides were black mechanical parts. And-“
“You sound crazy bud,” His guardian put his hand on his shoulder and gave him a smile. “Just go have fun at your last day of school today. Save the worrying for tomorrow.”
He sighed, annoyed his guardian just dropped his worries like that, but nodded. “Thanks, I will.”
ZY stood up, and grabbed his backpack (which he technically didn’t need). He paused at the door, feeling awkward. He could feel R looking over at him.
“Bye, Agent RB,” He didn’t turn to look at him, just left the apartment.
He arrived to school by foot, which was fairly short. Everything was close together in Clock Gears. He sat down at his desk.
Punctuality was key. Everything you do has an effect. You are impacting everyone with what you do. Do not cause trouble. Follow the rules.
“Hellooooo???? Zeeeeeee?” His best friend, XY, waved in his face. “Are you zoning out again? What are you thinking about?” She tilted her head at him, blonde hair and red ribbons swaying slightly. She was really pretty. Even if it got them in trouble a lot of the time, he loved her energy and personality.
“Oh, just graduation tonight,” He gave her a slim smile.
“B-b-boring! I’m just excited to be out of school. I can finally be an official engineer now! I don’t have to steal gears anymore!”
He chuckled, putting his elbows on the desk and resting his head on his hands. “I’m excited to be an agent,” He said quietly. “What are you going to build?”
She giggled, adjusting her school jacket that hung off of one shoulder (which was technically prohibited.) “You’ll see tonight! I already made something actually ,and it’s fully functional, and doesn’t explode. Make sure to watch the news after graduation!!”
He continued to smile at her. “I will.”
“Miss XY! Puh-lease go sit in your seat right now!” Their teacher commanded.
X groaned, rubbing her temples. Her facial expression immediately dropped to an annoyed one, and she glared at their teacher as she went to go sit down.
The rest of the day went by fairly quick in his opinion. Students chatted with eachother throughout classes, and he either talked to X when he had classes with her or sat quietly, either listening to other conversations or thinking.
A few hours later
He walked with X back to the apartments, holding his black graduation cap. It had a brown embroidered clock on the top. All of theirs did. Neither of them said anything.
“You’re going to watch the news when you get home, right?” She looked over at him, spinning her graduation cap in between her hands.
“Of course. I’ve been trying to figure out what you made and willingly shared with Seer A,” he chuckled slightly.
“Oh don’t worry! You’re going to get to use it too! It’s an amazing invention,” She sighed happily.
He liked seeing her happy. He wished he could see her happy forever.
“Well I can’t wait. I’m sure whatever you made this time will be amazing,” He said, laughing a little.
“Hey! Are you laughing at me?!” She stopped walking, and punched his arm lightly.
“No no!” He continued laughing.
They arrived at the apartments, where he would have to say goodbye to her.
“Night!” She said, waving to him as she ran up the opposite flight of stairs from him.
“Ah- uh- goodnight!”
He unlocked the door to his apartment, to find his guardian inside, typing on his computer.
“Heyy bud! How was the last day of school and graduation?” He had his reading glasses on, which he took off as Z unlocked the door.
“It was good, thanks,” Z set his backpack down below the counter, and walked over to the couch, laying horizontally on it. He grabbed the remote, sighing, and turned on the news. X wasn’t on yet.
“That’s it? Yeah, ‘it was good thanks’? Aren’t you excited to become an agent soon?” His guardian walked over to the couch and frowned at him.
“Did something happen with-“
“No. Nothing happened. Yes I’m excited. She just uh, she told me to watch the news today? One of her um, inventions, she said,” He mumbled.
“Ooh I see. You could go over and congratulate her after you watch it you know-“
“It’s on!” Z said as the TV started to play a video.
X and an interviewer sat in two chairs on the screen. She seemed to be petting a mechanical bat in her lap? Another one was also perched on her shoulder.
“So! Ms. XY! You introduced these bats to our community and leader, and they surpassed Ultimate Seer A! Which is surprising- because you’re so young! Tell us, what are they called? What do they do?” The interviewer leaned forward, holding a microphone to her face.
“Oh please, just call me X. And they’re not called anything special! Just Time Bats. Their coding name is time-dot-underscore-bat-one oh one (time._bat101) though if that’s what you wanted to here. Their purpose is to help Time Crime agents with daily activities at work, such as scan for future timelines from their event on their case, it can help show how to erase undesired timelines, and even sort out the time webs a little bit so less cases are created! Oh and so much more,” She smirked at the camera. Z’s eyes were glued to the screen.
“Wow! What a helpful invention X! If I werent a reporter, I’d totally be excited to use those! Did you have anyone you’d like to thank or anyone who helped?”
She pretended to think really hard, and tapped her chin. “Nope!” She smiled at the interviewer.
The interviewer chuckled nervously. “Uhh..not even your guardian? Friends?”
“My friend didn’t know about this. And I would never tell my guardian such thing.” She continued smiling innocently at them.
“Uhh..okay then! Good to know..” The interviewer turned to face the camera. “Well folks! That’s all for tonight! Remember to tune in to TCPA’s official news station tomorrow morning!”
The TV went static.
Z was quiet.
“That was something! Wonder when we’ll start using them. Why don’t you go congratulate X?”
He didn’t say anything for a second, before nodding.
He grabbed a regular jacket, before hesitating. “It’s late though-“
“So?” Agent RB chuckled.
“Arent you supposed to be like, the father I don’t get to have?”
“Mm…good point..a father wouldn’t let his son out this late..too bad I’m not one. Go on bud. I don’t care,” He chuckled.
Z smiled. “Okay then. Thank you,” He then exited his apartment.