Another Crashed Car

[Nick Ryder]

"Of course, although hey we've always been family. Ever since my granddaughter married your uncle." Nick said with a wink and a salute. "Keep the future safe for us kid."

Walking back into the house he smiled and tossed Alice a key chip. "We got our new shuttle. Looks like Bill & Ted Excellent Adventure rules apply to time travel, must have reminded myself that we needed a period vehicle and some supplies to arrive just now. Oh and this was a great idea, future's in good shape, or so I've been told. So... let's get those fish and chips and introduce Gale to the wonders of the English countryside."

[Livvy Sandoval]

"Ready for transport Captain."

"At your discretion Ms. Ryder." Livvy replied. With that the transporter beam enveloped her. In her place was a pile of supplies.

Furniture surrounded large crates with the AlphaTech logo branded on their sides. There were piles of period appropriate clothes for all of them. Even future sizes for Gale to grow into. All of them had Angel's signature on the tags.

Behind the AlphaTech crates were new appliances appropriate for the period with crates of food, wine, and beer rounding out the supplies. There was even a large crate marked with the seal of House Stormtalon. It was a veritable selection of the best the Alliance had to offer.

On top of one of the crates was a hinged polymer box about three inches thick and the size of a sheet of paper. On the lid embossed in silver was the logo of the Jase'dasis l. Inside there were three klidens. The first one was black handled, and exquisitely engraved by the best of artists. The second was well worn, but instantly recognizable to Nick as he'd seen Rebecca Sandoval carry it for years. The last one was curious in that it was destroyed. The curved silver, gold, and onyx handle was cut in half. It was a simple, yet effective statement on the downfall of Bellatrix.

[Alice Ryder]

“Nicholas.” Alice said as the crates materialized in the house. “You know I’m not even sure I want to know. Just tell me we’re safe here.”

[Nick Ryder]

“More than that. We’re home.” Nick said as he held up Bellatrix’s hilt. “They didn’t need me to save the day. Or risk you and Gale. All this tells me that while I am sure they’re thinking this was nuts, it was our choice and we are going to be just fine.”

Nick put the hilt back in the case and used his telekinetic ability to hide the box a ceiling tile that was opened up. “We’ll unpack all this later. For now. Food!”

[Alice Ryder]

"Yes food! I'm starving." Alice grinned she took Nick's hand.

[Nick Ryder]

Nick guided Alice and Gale out of the house and past their new shuttle. "Looks like about what I was thinking of hunting down, but she's got some... modern amenities. I'm actually looking forward to doing some car hunting. My dad and I used to enjoy going out to the more rural areas and look for old barn find cars. We didn't do it a ton, but when we lived in Poland, it was kinda cool seeing original 20th Century cars parked in these old barns." he mused as they walked toward the little town restaurant, taking in the sights, just enjoying being a family. No looming war, no bad guys around every corner, no secret service agents in cloak suits five steps behind them.

"We've never just walked anywhere before have we? No agents, no armored town cars. I kind of forgot what being civilian was like." Nick said as he saw Gale looking at everything in a bit of awe. "Huh, there's more than I realized here... hobby shop, art gallery, coffee shop. Good ol' Roger, mention the pub and the restaurant, forget the coffee shop and the little pastry cafe."

[Alice Ryder]

“Oh wonderful.” Alice said gleefully. “I wonder if they’ll deliver. It would be nice to have fresh pastries again. Once’s that aren’t handled by a dozen secret service agents and a London Fog still piping hot.”

[Nick Ryder]

"If they don't, it'll give us an excuse to get out and just go for a walk." Nick replied and squeezed her hand. "You can actually just... be a young mother out with her son. Enjoying life. I do think we should be somewhat involved in things here, if we're too reclusive then people will get more curious. Give people a reason not to think anything is out of the ordinary. We shop, we make friends, we invite people over, we have birthday parties for our young son, play dates." He looked around and smiled. "Only took going back a couple centuries. Although it's amusing, there is still so much of this area that looks even older. I love these little time capsule towns, still somewhat modern, yet still stuck in the distant past. I mean they're still dressing like it's the 1940s... I have never seen so much tweed."

[Alice Ryder]

"They've always dress like that." Alice said with a laugh. "I'm glad we came here."

[Nick Ryder]

"You seem like ten tons have been lifted off your shoulders." Nick said as he looked at her and then sniffed the air. "Oh that's a good sign, when you can smell the fish and chips a block away. That really takes me back, when we lived in Milwaukee, literally every single Friday there were Fish Fry's everywhere. Never quite got Capitol City to do that, not enough Catholics and Anglicans I guess that observed a meatless Friday." he looked around and smiled. "Flower shops, tech shops, huh... FedEx... I'm still amazed they lasted until only about fifteen years ago. I remember reading an old diary one of my great-great's wrote and they were upset that FedEx charged them more to ship something than the thing actually cost."