Bethany had had a bad feeling when they left they had forgotten something. In their haste to leave, Roark and Bethany had neglected to get the coordinates for the world they were to meet Jonny, Bonny and a noticeably changed Mercy in. Thank god they had taken the "original" time gadget by mistake. After spending two minutes in a town where the only place open was a diner, they got a message from their folks. They went out to the alley to find a private place to leave. Before they left, Bethany looked at Roark.
"Wait a minute. Jonny and Bonny want all the time gadgets." She said. "I dont think they are going to believe we have the only one."
"I know." He said. He looked around he found a radio controlled toy in the garbage. He ripped the cord off the remote control and palmed it. Bethany looked on as he did this, wondering what he had in mind.
"We'll use this." He said. "What they don't know wont hurt them."
"Never mind them, what about us?" Bethany asked.
"We'll find out. We have to fool them just long enough to nab Mercy and go." Roark said. "Cross your fingers, and hope it works."
"Okay." Bethany said. They punched in the coordinates and vanished.
Pago Tibu
Jonny and Bonny had been waiting at Pago Tibu for a few minutes. Mercy/Ronny finally got her bowl of ice cream. She ate it quickly and set the bowl aside.
"So now what mommy?" She asked.
"We wait." Bonny said. "They should be here any moment now."
"Okay." Mercy/Ronny said.
A bright light flashed in the room. The trio held their hands over their eyes. A split second later the light faded. After taking a minute or so to let their eyes adjust to the normal light, they could see that Bethany and Roark were standing there, holding two devices in their hands.
"They're here! Darn and I wanted to watch GI JOE." Ronny/Mercy pouted.
"Mercy is that you?" Bethany said as she tried to approach her.
"Not a step farther, please." Bonny said. Bethany stopped. "Thanks." She looked at Bethany. "This is Mercy, but not the one you know."
"What do you mean?" Roark asked.
"Mercy is Davids and Briannas daughter. This is Ronny, my daughter, as she should be." Bonny said. Ronny stood in front of them now in a cutesy "Hello Kitty" like outfit. Her hair had been dyed back to her natural color, blonde. The affect was a little bewildering to Bethany. She knew not even Davy and Brianna wouldn’t be able to get away with making Mercy wear such cutesy stuff. It would have been kindling by afternoon.
"My name is Ronny." Mercy said robotically.
"They must have done something to her." Bethany murmured.
"You think??" Roark muttered.
"You know what you're here for?" Jonny asked.
"Yes." Roark said. "To give back the devices." He said.
"Well then give them here already." Jonny said.
"We will, under one condition." Roark said.
"Conditions! I hate conditions! It always ruins my hair." Jonny moaned.
Roark and Bethany looked at each other. Jonny was clearly two fries short of a Happy Meal.
"Thats conditioner, dear." Bonny said. "Its different."
"All right." Jonny said. "I still don't like conditions."
"What are they?" Bonny asked. "This is taking much much longer than it should be and I have a roast in the oven so let's hear these conditions and we'll think it over." She said. "Maybe."
"The device for Mercy." Roark said. "Plus you have to send me and the others back to our real time."
Bonny thought this over, for two seconds. "You know what? I don't think that is exactly what is going to happen." She smiled sweetly, but it looked downright sinister to Roark. "What makes you think ANYONE is leaving?"
"You said that you wanted a trade." Roark said. "So someone is leaving."
"I'm sorry, no one is leaving." Bonny said. "Least of all, you or Ronny here."
"What do you mean?" Bethany said.
"Ronny? Come here sweetie." Bonny said. Ronny came over to her. "Do you want to go with these bad bad people? Or do you want to stay here with us?"
"I want to stay here with you mommy, I want to stay forever." Ronny said happily.
"Oh my god, they turned her into that girl from Small Wonder." Bethany said. "Only slightly less annoying."
"Wanna bet?"
Bonny hugged Ronny. "See? She doesn’t want to leave."
"That’s because she’s not in her right mind. She doesn’t know what she’s doing." Bethany said.
"Jonny, be a love and take the devices from that lovely young man?" Bonny said. Jonny walked up to Roark and Bethany. He quickly took the remotes from them. "Thank you."
Jonny examined the devices. "This looks like a time gadget all right but this other one is strange. It only has one button."
"What?" Bonny said. She went to his side.
"One button." He said. He moved to give it to her but the back of the device fell on the ground. Bonny stepped back as the device fell to pieces in Jonnys hand. He looked down at the pieces of the device on the ground. "Sorry hon, I don't know my own strength."
Bonny sighed and leaned over. She picked up the face plate to the device. She wiped her hand over it. This motion revealed writing on the face plate that had been obviously scratched out. "Race Master 2000?" She asked out loud. She stood up quickly. "You tricked us!"
"That’s right." Roark said. "Go get Mercy. I'll try and get that gadget back."
Bethany started to run towards Mercy but stopped short when she saw something come out of the sky. She moved back to Roarks side. Bonny back up as a giant bird cage. Bethany looked at Roark. then at Mercy. Mercy stood next to a switch with a smile on her face.
"Okay, we're on an ISLAND. Where does a bird cage come from?" She asked.
"Taiwan." Bonny said. "But that’s not important right now. We MIGHT have been willing to let you go if you give us the devices. But no, you had be mean and trick us." She shook her head. "And I thought children were smarter than their parents." She looked at Jonny. "Come darling, we need to contact the rest, with our new demands."
The Pad
"Its been too long!" Chea stated as she paced throughout the living room. The gang were gathered in the living room watching TV. Livvie was in the kitchen looking for something to make into a meal. "They should have sent a message by now. If they got there, if they are in trouble." Chea said. "We should have heard by now." She said waving her arms about like a madwoman. "I'm never gonna see her again, I'm not gonna be able to ask her all the things I want to. Does she have a boyfriend? Hows school?"
"Calm down, hon." Micky said. "Wow, you really are mother material, you know that?"
"I know." Chea said. "But not a good mother. I let a goldfish named George die cause my family went on vacation and forgot to clean the bowl. The poor thing looked like it was living in a jello mold when I got back." Karen chuckled under her breath. "Its not funny!" She said loudly. Chea stepped back for a second, she looked at everyone gawking at her. "Actually it is."
"She IS right though." Mike said getting. "Maybe we can try getting through to them through the device again."
"Again?" Peter asked.
"Well we tried once before and we got this static instead. They might be far away, or the batteries arent working." Mike said.
"I just want to get through to my daughter. Why was she blond?" Brianna asked. "She never let me work on her hair, what made her let Bonny do it?" She asked.
"Thats an interesting question, luv." Davy said. "Maybe we'll get an answer." He said as the time gadget beeped loudly.
Chea moved to grab the gadget off the coffee table but Brianna quickly beat her to the punch.
"I'm sorry, this is my daughter, I should get a turn with the device." She said as she pushed the red button. The screen flashed and the digital display was replaced with an image of Bonny and Mercy.
"My baby." Brianna said.
"Mommy?" Mercy said. "Why does that woman call me her baby?"
Bonny looked at Brianna through the screen. "Because she was your mommy. But not anymore she isn’t." She said. "Brianna, she is my daughter now. You'll just have to accept that."
"Never." Brianna said. "What have you done to her you quack?"
"We shouldn’t have to resort to name-calling. That’s not right. I just turned her back to normal" Bonny said. "My little Ronny, as she should be."
"Oh my god." Brianna said. She began to lose her grip on the gadget. Chea moved to her quickly and caught her before she dropped it.
"On to business." Bonny said.
"What business? Wheres our kids?" Chea asked.
"Right here. But they tried something so dumb. Id hate to tell you, you'd think it was so dumb. You oughta be like so embarrassed right now. They tried to pass off a toy as a time gadget and tried to nab my precious one."
"She is not your 'precious one'." Brianna called out.
"Anyway we have new demands." Bonny said. "You give us all the time gadgets, your kids will have that better of a chance."
"A chance of what?" Karen asked.
"Let's not think about bad things." Bonny said. "Be here in half an hour. Ciao. And try not to trick us again. You might not get such charity from us again." Bonny said a dark look crossing her face. "And we really don't want to go there."
"Bye bye!" Mercy said as the screen turned back into a digital display.
"What can we do?" Brianna asked. "They did something to her, I know it."
"Yeah, they must have." Davis said. "She wouldn’t wear those clothes by her own choosing."
"We need a new plan, not like we had one in the first place." Mike said. "We're gonna need a little help."
"But how? And better yet, from who?" Karen asked.
"I think I know a way." Peter said referring to the gadget. "And I think we need a little help from the future to do so."
