The hair on the back of Matt’s neck prickled. He’d almost forgotten about that time he’d stood right in Captain Vincent’s cabin, and the captain produced his own Mets hat that had contained a secret message inside of it that had essentially set him on the path to getting the Aeternum. Which essentially Matt had given him. “I’ve known we were on the same side from the very beginning. You might not know it yet, but you will. I promise.”
Matt shook his head. No, he wouldn’t. It didn’t matter what his future self had done. There had to be an explanation. Vincent was trying to harm his family, and Matt would never, never allow it. No matter what.
Captain Vincent brushed the watery material flowing out of Mr. Hudson’s throat.
“What is that?” Matt asked.
“This is a time tapestry,” the captain said. “Our time in the world, everything we see and do, everyone we come in contact with, is woven into our very beings, creating a tapestry of our lives.” Captain Vincent pulled more of the material from Mr. Hudson. Flashes of images shone in its rippling, iridescent folds. Matt, Corey, and Ruby, and their mom. Everywhere was his mom.
“The Aeternum made it possible for me to access it so I could change it as I wished, change things in the past, rearrange. Or erase completely. I’ve found that’s a better way to take care of some problems. Just make them go away. Here. I shall demonstrate now.”
Captain Vincent lifted that strange, glowing stick of dynamite and wrapped it inside of Mr. Hudson’s time tapestry.
“What are you doing? Stop!”
“Don’t worry,” Captain Vincent said. “It will only be a moment, and then all will be just as it always should have been.” He struck a match and lit the wick. It hissed and started to burn. The fabric began to tremble as though it could sense a threat.
Matt was panicking. What could he do? He wasn’t good in these kinds of situations. He needed Corey and Ruby. What would they do? He glanced at Corey, frozen in midair, his father’s map crumpled in his hand. Corey wouldn’t think so hard. He’d just act. And Ruby . . . Matt’s eyes landed on Ruby’s sword in the scabbard at her side. He pulled it out and before he could second-guess himself, he leaped. The tiny spears of rain sliced his face as he soared through the air, sword raised. He landed on the Vermillion and slashed the sword down with both hands over Captain Vincent’s wrist, slicing through skin, snapping bones. Captain Vincent made a beastly kind of growl as his hand was severed clean off. It fell between the two trains and disappeared, along with the strange dynamite.
Mr. Hudson’s life tapestry spun back into his throat, but Matt couldn’t take his eyes off Captain Vincent’s handless wrist. There was no blood, only skin, sinew, and bone. And then, to Matt’s shock and horror, the skin began to knit itself together, healing with incredible speed. The flesh swelled and split into small fingers that thickened as they lengthened. The captain’s hand was regrowing itself.
Matt backed away. He let go of Ruby’s sword. It fell between the train cars, and then . . .
Boom!
The dynamite must have exploded beneath the trains. A flash of blue light erupted, and with a sudden jolt, the timeline started again. Everything went back into motion. Matt toppled over as the trains suddenly started moving. The rain went back to regular liquid rain. Corey continued in his leap. Albert still had ahold of his shirt, but Mr. and Mrs. Hudson both grabbed on to Corey’s hand and pulled him over, and they all rolled in a big heap.
Matt didn’t think twice. He scrambled to his feet and took a running jump back to Blossom. As soon as he landed, he grabbed his compass and turned the dials. He set the compass to the only time and place he could think of in that moment. Blossom immediately began to transform. The rocky cliffs and mountains seemed to shrink.
Then Matt heard a scream. It was Jia. “Pike! What are you doing?!”
A pale little blur leaped across to the Vermillion.
“Stop! Don’t go yet! We need to get Pike!”
But it was too late. They were traveling now.
The last thing Matt saw before they disappeared was Captain Vincent reaching out his freshly grown hand toward them. He came so close, Matt could have sworn he felt it graze his scraped and bleeding cheek.
6Stowaways
New York City
Matt was not certain what Blossom was transforming into, but it was definitely not a train or a boat or a car. The surface beneath him became cool and smooth, some kind of metal. He slid along its surface until he caught onto a thin pole. He felt a powerful rush of wind, heard the sputtering roar of an engine.
They burst through the darkness, into bright light and a shock of cold air. Matt’s stomach jumped to his throat as they plummeted about twenty feet in a second. They were in the sky. Blossom had transformed into an airplane. It was a very old-fashioned airplane, with wide double wings connected by thin metal poles. Matt was sitting on top of one of the wings, clinging to one of the poles. Jia was on the same wing as him, clinging to another pole. She was shouting. Matt couldn’t hear her, but he knew she was shouting for Pike.
Uncle Chuck was at the controls of the plane, with Gaga crouched behind him. This plane didn’t have a cockpit, just a few gears and levers, and a watch-like instrument mounted on a pole.
His parents and Corey were still in a heap, a big tangle of arms and legs. He could hardly tell where one started and the
