Keep the story going.

"Eric...did you ever know someone named Tara?"
Eric finished putting his uniform on and said "Nope. Name doesn't ring any bells." He laced up his shoes and left the locker room. Taylor was disappointed. This Eric looked so much like his childhood friend Eric, whose family had moved away when Eric was nine.
Just then Samus and Laura came back. "It's not our Keith," said Samus.
"I told her that from the start," Laura added. "It's Keith Akira, not Harrogate, we're looking for."

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on May 28th 2020 »

Taylor ran out of the room to quickly catch Eric.
"Did you know anyone called Terra? That used to be my name."
"Nope, sorry.", Eric answered.
It was no surprise though. After all, Taylor came from a completely different planet which was 52 years in the future.
Laura continued speaking.

"What makes you think he changed his name?" she was saying as Taylor walked back into the locker room. "Why would he? And besides, that guy doesn't look anything like our Keith. He has black hair, not blonde like that coach. And he's only in his 20s. The coach is 40 if he's a day."

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on May 29th 2020 »

Samus was adamant that this Eric was actually Keith. She was doing her best to persuade Laura. In truth, Samus knew it wasn't him, but she liked Eric and got jealous of Taylor and Laura's relationship.
"He can come with us. He's getting released from the club next week anyway. League 2 players get stuff all money anyway. He can come with us. Pretty please!", Samus begged. She was actually on the floor begging.

"Of course, Eric isn't Keith. The only Keith here is the coach from the other team," Taylor told them.
"That's what I've been trying to tell her," said Laura. "For some reason, she seems convinced that I thought Eric was Keith."
Samus looked over at jer. "That isn't what you thought?"
"Of course not. There's no way he could be."

Samus explained that she was just trying to get Eric to come aboard. She then suggested that she stay here in the UK with Eric, and that Taylor and Laura could fly her easy-to-fly gunship 2 years into the future. That's when Eric walked back into the room, this time with his...

...teammates, all feeling dejected and depressed over their 5-2 loss. They have never won a match against this team in the past, why would now be any different?
One of the players noticed Laura and Samus (Zero suit). Women weren't supposed to be allowed in the men's locker room--what were these ladies doing here? He was about say something, but was distracted by something one of his teammates did at that moment.

"Mate, we've been relegated... Morecambe drew their game", his teammate pointed out. He was looking at the result online.
Eric's team, Barnet, would be relegated to the 5th tier, meaning Eric's salary would be even lower. He would need to get a second job. Samus was about to suggest that Eric come with them to the gunship, when suddenly, a clown walked in. The clown then...

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jun 4th 2020 »

...led Samus and Laura out of the locker room. Taylor followed them. Once out of the locker room, the clown turned around and faced them,
"Sorry about this silly disguise," the clown said, "but I couldn't take the chance of somebody recognizing me.
The clown started to remove the mask, but Laura knew already who it was. She would never mistake that voice.

It was her best friend from back on her planet in 2070; Bertha Jones.
"How did you get here?!", Laura asked, while stunned.
"I saw you all getting in that ship, so I snuck in while no-one was looking. Sorry!", Bertha explained. "So we're really in 2018, on planet Earth?!"
Laura explained everything, and at the same time Eric had talked to his manager and informed him that he was quitting the club so go travel with Samus and co. But the author suddenly realised there were 5 characters. At least one person would have to leave the story. As it turned out,...

...Bertha would leave to make it even between the males and females. Besides, she had her two kids (ages 6 and 11) to take care of, especially since she was a single mother and had to work two jobs just to put food on the table. If it wasn't for her sister Alice offering to babysit while she was working, she'd never be able to manage. As for their father, he was...well, let's just say he was "elsewhere."

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on Jun 7th 2020 »

After dropping Bertha off in 2070 on their planet, Samus left instructions for Taylor and Laura to navigate the ship. She was going to stay with Eric and wait the 2 years until Taylor and Laura arrived.
After Taylor and Laura successfully entered the correct time and place to travel to April of 2020, they stepped out to a massive surprise...

...they had input the wrong coordinates and they weren't on Earth. In fact, they didn't even recognize the planet they were on. It resembled Earth, except it had three moons, yet no sign of sentient or animal life. But plenty of plant life.

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on Jun 8th 2020 »

Laura quickly realised that there were some humans here. After using the local internet hub, they discovered that there were no women on this planet. Which was bizarre, because there were men of all different ages. It seemed that a plague had swept the planet, and only attacked female immune systems. If Laura didn't leave quickly, the men would realise she was here.

Taylor suggested that she stay on the ship, and she quickly agreed. Taylor went to talk to some of the men, but had trouble communicating because none of them spoke English, or any Earth language. Even the ship's universal translator (Eric's earpiece was linked to ADAM, the ship's computer) couldn't decipher it. But then of the men stepped forward and held out an object to Taylor.

« Last edited by CrypticWizard on Jun 9th 2020 »

It was earmuffs. 'Odd', Taylor thought. But he accepted them, and then gave the men a CD player, while pointing out how to turn it on. But before he could turn around properly, he dropped dead. One of the men checked his pulse, and there was no signs of life. Their absorb-able poison which they carefully coated on the earmuffs, was an effective tool for murder that this species use. Laura watched the entire event on the ship's camera, and decided to...

...use the time reversal function to go back to before Taylor left the ship. She showed him the recording she had made of what what happen if he went to try and talk to them.
"Well, I'm certainly not going to do that!' he said.
"I've got a plan," said Laura,"and it doesn't require you to interact with them at all."

"Basically, I just enter the original time again and see what happens", Laura explained.
And Laura did just that. And thankfully, they did travel to April 2020 on Earth. But there was one small problem...

Everything on Earth was shut down because of some kind of pandemic. Some virus or something. Still, they had a job to do. Wearing special virus-proof suits, they left the ship. But they didn't expect to see what was happening just a few meters away.

There were massive protests in the streets. Taylor had read about the 2020 Earth protests in a digital book, and he knew that they began at the start of June. So these couldn't be those. But then he and Laura caught sight of someone on a stage. Maybe these weren't protests. It was, as a digital historical figure called sphynxx once described, a giant orange oompa-loompa.