A Good Deed Gone Unpunished

Time-Travel for Dummies

Rain slammed onto the concrete, misting up from the ground and dampening Mai's socks. The streets were empty. Mai's shoes striking the sidewalk sounded like sledgehammers in the quiet evening haze. Water dripped from her umbrella onto the back of her calves. Despite the miserable weather, she was skipping towards her apartment with contented glee.

She got the job!

The interview had gone well, so well that she'd been offered the position on the spot. Starting next Monday, Mai would be sewing up designs for a big-name fashion industry.

She got her dream job!

Mai was on cloud-nine. She was bursting at the well-sewn seams with joy. So, when she saw the drenched scientist standing in front of the memorial, Mai figured she could go the last three blocks without an umbrella. She inched up next to him, wondering how best to strike up a conversation that would let her give him the umbrella without coming off as overbearing or nosy.

The scientist did her job for her. "It's raining hard, huh."

Yes! Perfect! What a weight off of her shoulders. Mai hated striking up conversations herself.

"Uh, yeah, you, um-do you want my umbrella?" Rough, but not a disaster. The scientist peered at her from behind his glasses. The rain began picking up, wind blowing icy droplets hard enough to make Mai almost regret offering.

God, he was dripping. Why was he just standing out here? Poor guy must be freezing his science-y balls off.

Frozen Scientist raised a polite hand, ready to decline. The first squirming tendrils of mild embarrassment were already forming, when a literal lightning strike streaked out of the clouds, arching like a burning claw and meeting the top of her metal umbrella pole.

Mai dimly registered her hand, stinging in pain from what had to be a burn, dropping the umbrella. Frozen Scientist's face, the memorial, everything faded into a searing white.

She was honest to god about to die the day she landed her dream job.

When the light faded, she was strangely exhausted, as if she'd been napping. Maybe she'd been unconscious? Was she in the hospital? No, no way. The damp, chill atmosphere was seeping away, replaced by a painful, dry heat. This wasn't a hospital. The creaking, popping noises in the background were the sounds wood made when it burned.

Oh shit.

Something was on fire.

As if a switch had been flipped, Mai realized:

1. This was not where she'd been standing a second ago,
2. Wherever she was now, it was on fire,
3. There's a man literally sleeping through a burning building, and
4. Holyshitthere'saguywithasword

"Ah-" As Mai struggled to react, the man preparing to pull an Inigo Montoya jerked back, startled by the five-foot-five, ash-brown-haired girl in pants that had teleported onto the balcony. He bolted, leaving the sleeping man alone on his flaming futon. Mai stood on the balcony for a second, gaping like a concussed fish before rushing over to Sleeping Beauty.

Mai kneeled by the man, hesitated, then slapped him in the face. "Hey! Hey! Your house is on fire!" Speaking of which, why wasn't his smoke alarm going off?

Eyelids parted to reveal dazzling carmine eyes that cycled through indignation, confusion, realization, then a brief spark of horrified fury. He bolted upwards, forcing Mai to pull back unless she wanted her nose broken.

The two managed to escape, not stopping their frantic sprint until they were a safe distance from what turned out to be a temple of some sort. Sleeping Beauty mumbled to himself, something about people trying to "do away with him."