Epilogue
Chapter 25: Blood Brothers
Tech gripped his hand on the knob and turned it like it was nothing. But as soon as he pulled the door open and revealed the visitor, his whole body froze as if in a catatonic state.
"Yeah I thought I heard your voice so that means that I did get the right address! Jeez let me tell you for the 28th century address directories sure are confusing!"
Tech still stood wide-eyed - practically paralyzed.
"Whoa is there anybody in there? I'd hate to think you've gone brain dead on me," the visitor said smiling, tapping Tech on the head with his fist. This seemed to jolt the coyote to life a little, but he was still speechless.
"You.. why are you – the wormhole – how?"
"Ah yes I imagine you're probably surprised to see me and frankly I didn't think I'd ever be here again either but hey I'm here you're here and everyone's happy!"
The coyote still looked utterly confused but his tail wagged like crazy, generating its own air current.
"Aww Tech I never saw you wag your tail like that before either you're happy to see me or you're trying to put out a fire somewhere back there because let me tell you that thing is wagging like mmph"
Much to the visitor's astonishment, Tech practically leapt out at him and drew him into a bone-crushing hug. The visitor was taken aback at this unexpected display of affection, but returned the hug after a few moments.
"Wow Tech… didn't know you had this in you… I missed you too but… please… I can't breathe!"
Tech let go as suddenly as he had started it. He brushed himself off and regained his composure. He looked somewhat embarrassed.
"Sorry," Tech said quietly, clearing his throat. "That… won't happen often."
"Ah maybe so Tech old pal but I never thought it'd happen at all so just admit that you missed me like crazy!"
The coyote held in a chuckle. "I don't need to answer that. I think I've already lost enough dignity in the last two minutes. But, Rev, how did you make it back?"
"Ah I knew that'd be one of the first questions you asked and it was actually your first question so there we go actually I think I heard you ask it earlier when you were shell-shocked so it was really one of the first mmph-"
The coyote clamped Rev's beak shut with his hand. "Now that I've missed," Tech said, "I see you haven't lost your superspeed."
"Nope I didn't but you asked how I got back and I think I should answer that now," Rev said matter-of-factly, and straightened himself up as if to tell a story.
"Now okay remember a long time ago how you said you didn't know 'diddly' about wormhole technology?"
Tech scratched his chin. "Hmm, yes, actually, I do recall saying that."
"Well it turns out you still don't know diddly about it!" Rev exclaimed, jokingly punching Tech in the arm.
Tech looked confused. "Why? What happened?"
"Well I remember you saying you set the wormhole up to take everything it sucked in no less than 500 billion light years away from the epicenter each object or person in this case going somewhere else. But apparently something got screwed up and it actually transported everyone no more than five light years away which is really nothing in terms of the vast expanse of the universe."
"Whoa," Tech said quietly.
"Yeah it was a pretty big difference and admittedly it took me a while to figure out I wasn't that far from Acmetropolis since my GPS can only read things so far. Well I had landed on this space station actually and it was full with a bunch of weird bug-eyed aliens who didn't speak any of our languages. Well let me tell you they thought I was fascinating actually maybe a little too fascinating they seemed to be monitoring every move I made. I think the only reason why they let me stay was so they could monitor me.
"But anyway after a few months of that I was really kinda bummed out because I missed everyone and life wasn't exactly peachy there so one day I tried to find out if there were other places I could escape to nearby so I did a search on nearby civilizations and wow there it was! Acmetropolis was actually listed as the nearest inhabited planet and it was only 4.2 light years away! I thought it was a mistake at first since I was confident I was billions of light years away but it slowly dawned on me that you very easily could screwed up no offense but wormhole technology is complicated as you said.
"Anyway so I found out all I could about where Acmetropolis was relative to where I was and I eh heh kinda sorta stole one of the ships off of that space station. It only fell 50 miles per hour short of the speed of light and I couldn't help it I wanted to get out of there fast! Oh I know it was wrong but I figured I'd get it back to them somehow but then I sorta crash landed the ship so there goes that. Thankfully I still have my flying powers huh? Well I don't know what I'm going to do about that and frankly I'm surprised they didn't try to follow me maybe they couldn't track me I don't know but the point is I'm here now and I'm ninety-seven percent sure no one followed me here."
"And I guess, in the end, that's what matters," Tech said kindly, nodding. "But wait, it's been about seven years, and you said the space station was on 4.2 light years away. What kept you?"
"Oh well as I said it took me a while to realize that I wasn't in fact a trillion light years away from everything and second the ship wasn't exactly packed with food so I kept having to divert away to the nearest space stations to find some food. They all wanted something in return of course and the ship had all these boxes of I don't know what but everyone on the space stations seemed to find them valuable so they gladly traded jeez I hope I didn't give a bunch of bad guys weapons or something oh Tech maybe this wasn't such a good idea!"
"Relax, Rev," Tech said smiling, "if there are any problems, I'm sure we can handle it."
"Oh and speaking of trouble," Rev began, grimacing, "when I was only transported that short distance away well that means all those villains aren't that far away either."
"Oh… oh yeah."
"And also I think most of them landed on various space stations too since wormholes automatically move towards places with some sort of life and from what I've heard from transmissions not many people are too happy about that."
"Wow, that's… not good."
"Yeah so if you see any trouble in the near time future that'd be why." Rev looked slightly more glum now.
"Yeah, I suppose it will…"
"But hey let's change the subject how's the team been going since I've been gone I was really surprised to find out you weren't on the team anymore why's that?"
Tech involuntarily smiled. "Oh, I've been kind of preoccupied."
"Ooh with what Tech with what?" Rev was bouncing between his two feet.
"Oh, just a little somebody who you'll probably meet very soon."
"Oh my gosh Tech don't tell me you found a girlfriend?"
Tech laughed. "No, not in the slightest, actually. But yeah, she's pretty special to me."
"And when can I meet this someone?" Rev's eyes met Tech's with a mixture of determination and excitement.
"How about tomorrow afternoon? There's a little coffee joint just on the other side of the street. We could meet you there, as long as you promise not to have Espresso."
"Heh heh I got you Tech sure it's a date or whatever it is it's established oh man it's going to be great catching up!"
"Yep, it is," Tech said almost dreamily. "You know, the whole city going to go nuts when they find out you're back. They had a memorial service for you with fireworks and everything."
"Oh did they haha the city council's always going over the top well it's a good thing I've been keeping a low profile because I just want to catch up with a few select people before the paparazzi invades my life and where better to start than with my best friend?"
"I'm… your best friend?"
"Sure you are Tech I mean one of the first things I thought about when I was up there was how much it sucked that I couldn't get to hang out with you anymore but hey here we are! Well anyway I was mostly stopping by to let you know of my existence I have to go over to the tower now to let the rest of the team know I'm back but hey I'm looking forward to tomorrow no espresso for me I promise see ya Tech!" And the roadrunner was gone within a blink of an eye.
"Hasn't changed a bit," Tech said to himself. As he went to shut the door, he turned around to see Laena up and at it once again.
"Daddy, I heard more noises. Who was that?"
"Oh," Tech said, smiling, thinking back at the days of the Acme Institute, "just some delivery boy who got the wrong address. Hey, sprout, after school, do you want to meet an old friend of mine?"
"Ooh that sounds fun!" Laena exclaimed triumphantly. "Who is it?"
"Someone I may have told you about a few times. You'll see. Now get back into that bed before this big ol' coyote has you as a midnight snack."
Laena looked at Tech blankly. "Daddy, you could barely touch an ant."
"Get to bed," Tech said authoritatively, repressing laughter.
Laena scooted off back to bed, and Tech moved towards the living room window, gazing out at the tower beyond. Everything was back together now, and Tech felt fuller than he ever had before. Everything, for the first time in his life, was right where it belonged.
The End.