Will had no idea why he felt so calm, this all seemed so crazy.

“Hey, uh, can I just not be in?”

Samuel’s eyes turned on him, narrowing slightly more than the glare he had for the woman he called sis.

“Fraid not fren,” the cube said suddenly, floating over to Will, “See, the companies watch all a time for action taken against em. An we took mega action bruv. An because we popped in and hit you, now they know you.”

Will stumbled mentally a bit, still trying to make heads or tails of that, “Okay, well, can’t I just say I’m not in?”

“Nope,” Samuel beeped, “Also, not an option. See you’re not in the book, which means you’re an anomaly. We call anomalous people, Loopholes, you guys exist outside of time. You don’t belong to time, which means they’ll just kill you now that they know you exist.”

The cube got close again, “Well, not kill, but you’ll wish they had.”

“Is that how you ended up a glowing cube?”

The cube blinked colours.

“Oh, sorry, is that rude?”

“Orb doesn’t like being called a cube. Makes him feel like a square.”

Will sat up, for some reason that seemed easier to make sense of than any of this; so putting his back to the trunk he looked, Orb, bead on.

“Sorry, uh, Orb.”

“Naw-a-ting,” he piped up, floating a bit away, his pixelated form shifting madly like a rubix cube made of a billion parts in a one foot cube.

“Bu-but, but why me?”

“Well, Will Williams, it’s because you’a special.”

Will frowned, “What, like I’m a wizard or something,” he chuckled dryly, “Didn’t meet my owl on time?”

“Hated those movies,” Orb scoffed.

“Look, Willy. This is just a thing you have to deal with, It’s fine, really. Lots of you Loopholes make it a long time before one of the companies scoop you up and take your brain to power their time machines.”

“Ugh,” Will exclaimed in disgust.

“Look, it’s not that bad.”

“No, I hate when people call me Willy. I’m a bit rude at times, sure, but not a dick. Only one guy I ever met could pull off the name, Willy. That was the one and only Wild Willy. Guy was a crazy bowler, I think he was a legit eagle dancer too. Cool dude.”

Thyme, still sitting over him on the trunk of the car crossed her legs, her heel tapping his shoulder so he looked up at her.

“So, what can we call you?” She asked.

“Just, Will; I’m Will Travel.”

A sudden crash of metal echoed all around them, even Thyme jumped, falling from her perch over him; landing heavily into Will’s lap.

Will looked at her, she was really tall, and~

Samuels voice, muffled by his now laying face down, shouted loudly. “Did you say, TRAVEL?”

Will looked over at Samuel, the source of the crash as he had tried to rise and tipped over instead.

“Yeah.”

“William Indiana Travel?”

Will started to reply, then closed his mouth with a click.

“Will?” Thyme looked up at him from her seat in his lap, “Are you?”

“I mean, I~”

“Oh, this is good!”

“No, this is great!”

The two of them seemed so excited.

“What am I missing? And how do you know my middle name? I thought you said I was unknown in your little book.”

Thyme reached out, grabbing hold of Orb, who pulled her up with ease. Samuel was still just laying there, vibrating about on the ground seemingly excited.

Thyme ran over to him and threw herself across his back punching at his side excitedly.

“What am I missing?” Will asked dumbly, “Well, except everything…”

“Well bruv, see the car?”

Will banged the bumper with his fist, “You mean, Christine the murder mobile.”

“Actually, her name is Bessie,” he said, his surface pixels pulsing all the happy looking shades of green.

“That’s what my mum calls all her cars,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, well, we kinda stole it.”

“Surprise there, you guys did say you were planning, or had already started a heist. Why not steal a time travelling car too.”

“Dude,” he got close, his whole form breaking apart into tinier little cubes, to literally spell it out, “We stole the car from a shop that makes them custom for time travelers.”

“That… wait. Are there that many time travelers?”

“Naw bruv, see, the owners name was, William Indiana Travel.”

“But, I’m not,” he felt so confused.

“Man, you Loopholes are crazy. You had a custom car made before you even awoke as a Loophole.”

Will reached down and grabbed Dave, the little dino giving an odd squeak as he was manhandled. But started to make that soothing purring as soon as Will draped him over his side, petting the little beasts feathered neck.

“I’d like to wake up now,” Will said softly.

“We gotta take him to the thoroughfare!”

He looked up at Thyme, “The what?”

“Oh, bruv, you gonna love it,” Orb shouted from the edge of the clearing. “The ol place is like a crazy mall, but on an acid trip.”

“I’m good, I’ll just stay here,” Will whined.

“Oh, bruv, you don’t wanna stay here.”

“Will looked up, “Why? This place looks to calm, peaceful, and distinctively roadless. Less chance I’ll get hit by more time travelling cars here.”

“Yeah, probs. But, in this timeline; the octopus is the dominant species, an they got good at livin on land.”

Will had to think about that.

Then he saw them.

He had assumed that he was just woozy still, but what he had assumed was his mind playing tricks was actually huge octopi moving through the trees.

“Right now, they just curious, but, you don’t want to be alone here.”

“That’s messed up.”

“You should see what happens when you give them guns,” Samuel laughed.

The fridge of a machine suddenly stirred, the hatches on his side opening up, his accordion bellows arms snaking out to push him upright. His legs then also extended, and he walked to the car.

“Let them know we’re leaving, Orb.”

“Roit, boss.” Orb floated over, his pixelated form becoming octopus-like as he started to make weird windy squishing noises.

Thyme was there at his side now too.

“Come on,” she said, reaching down to him, “You got this.”

He still felt like he was taking this pretty well, and it was feeling weird.

“Um, I’m usually not this calm when my lifes in danger.”

“Well, try to keep it up bud. Just stroke the fuzzy dinosaur and follow me.”