When Suddenly...

[Narrator]

It was a normal afternoon in downtown Maldon. Molly McFly was sitting in a cafe, reading a book.

A man walked over and approached her. "Excuse me," he asked. "Is this chair taken?

"Excuse me?"

"Is this taken?"

"Yes, it is."

"O̡͓̘̠̭͎͊h̴̨͔̺̎͐̇̓,̛͓̠͓̘̮̼͖͖̺́́ͩ ̛͉̱̥͍̯̰͗̚s̟͉̝̱̑̄͛͋̀́͘ǫ̴̳͉͈̭̜̗̺̪ͫ͑ͣ͑r̞̼͎͕̣̼͂͛͗̚r̙̳̘̣̣̯̯̹ͯ̐̕͢y̡̢͉̙̺͖̒̈̒̏͟.̵͕̰͙̩̞̹̳̣͎ͦ̓"

........

It was a normal afternoon in downtown Maldon. Molly McFly was sitting in a cafe, reading a book.

A man walked over and approached her. "Excuse me," he asked. "Is this chair taken?

"Excuse me?"

"Is this taken?"

"No, but I'm expecting someone in a minute"

"O͖͎͎͉͍̭ͨ̿̇ͯ̊̚h̴̗̳͉̝ͨͭ͝,̱̜̰͕ͬ̏̊͛ͯ̉ͥ̅̽ ͈̝͌́̄ͦ͞t̶̨͍̪̫̝̞͔͖̠́h̒ͦ́̀҉͓̪̥͟a̵̜̜ͥ͗͛ͭ͜n̙̘̼̠̼̬͎̓ͩ̃ͭ̈͜͠k̸̝̝̜̳̆̂ͤ̽͊ͮͭ͗͟ͅs̡̼̯̗̞̦̝͓̩̗ͬͩ͂͗̽͊̑ͩ͘ ̵͒͌ͤ̑͗͆͛̔͘͏̬̝ạ̗̻̿̑̇̀́̋̓̚͞n̶̸̩̠̺̩͇̥̏̑͘y̖͎̋͟w̵͔̻͐͟a̢͎̟͇̟͔̩͓̲͕ͨͤ̍̄ͥ͊y̩̙̝̖̫̰̯͚̟ͤ̈̾͆̉̾͞͡.ͧ̌̑̇ͤ̆͡҉̛̘̥"

......

It was a normal afternoon in downtown Maldon. Molly McFly was sitting in a cafe, reading a book.

A man walked over and approached her. "Excuse me," he asked. "Is this seat taken?

"No, it's not."

"Would you mind if I sit here?"

"Yes, I would."

"O̡͎̞̭͖ͬͫͪ͌̓͐ͣ̀h͛͏̵̬̥͙̻̜̕.̥͔̃̓̐͘.̈ͫ̉̌͘͏̰̭̦̹.̯̳̓͒͠"

......

It was a normal afternoon in downtown Maldon. Molly McFly was sitting in a cafe, reading a book.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah is flying high above the town, enjoying the wind in her ears and making a nominal effort to keep an eye out for some of the strange occurrences that have been happening lately. It's mostly just an excuse to soar through the skies above the small city, but after a while of not spotting anything she taps into her power to try and steer herself towards something unusual, just to see what happens. What she didn't expect was a complete blank along with the beginnings of a faint headache, feeling similar to what happened when Sam had tried to make telepathic contact with her, only faint and constant. For a moment she worries, feeling like someone pulled a safety net out from underneath her and she almost reflexively glides down closer towards the ground as if she's worried about falling out of the sky.

She tries again only to be met with the same droning headache instead of a clear sense of direction. She sets down on the ground on top of a roof, trying to clear her head when she spots the cafe across the road. And the people walking by in front of it. Again. And again. And again. Like a skipping record, only she has trouble really spotting when it resets. It's like it happens between blinks, even when she's making an effort to keep her eyes open. The scene resets and for a second or two she doesn't even realize it has. Trying to really observe the moment of reset seems to be running through her mind like fine sand through fingers. It's there but it seems impossible to hold on to.

After pointlessly staring at the scene for several iterations she jumps over the edge of the roof and glides down towards the strange bubble of time. "What the heck?" she mumbles, reaching into her pocket to pull out a notepad. Tearing off a page she crumples it up and throws it into the distortion.

[Narrator]

The pad of paper rolls into the distortion, and oddly, does NOT seem to reset when everyone jumps back to first positions and begins the ever-so-slightly different cycle once more.

[Nailah Weaver]

Next she takes the pen and pokes it into the distortion. When that doesn't do anything she carefully reaches into it. First she reaches out with her right hand, then at the last second she shakes her head at herself and pushes her left hand into the time bubble.

[Narrator]

Nailah's hand didn't repeat with the rest of the bubble.

Maybe it was because she was still outside the bubble, somewhat. Maybe it was because she wasn't in the bubble when it started. Maybe it had something to do with her strange precognitive abilities.

Who knows!

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah frowns, hemming and hawing at the edge of the bubble, trying again - fruitlessly - to ask her power for a safe way of dealing with this. When all she accomplishes is worsening her headache she takes a deep breath and jumps into the bubble.

[Molly McFly]

"Yes I wo...Nailah?" Molly asked, turning her head. "Where did you come from?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Molly! What's going on here? The whole place is all weird."

[Molly McFly]

"Well, they sell some weird artisan coffee things, but I don't know if I'd say..."

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" said the man, interrupting them.

"I think you can see that it is?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Artisan coffee? What? No, this whole place keeps repeating itself over and over."

[Molly McFly]

"Um...what are you talking about?"

Nailah could feel it..it was about to happen again.

[Nailah Weaver]

"This whole... Groundhog's Day thing that's happening here. Can't you feel this?"

[Molly McFly]

"No, I'm not su"

And, *pop*, Molly was sitting back down at the table, while Nailah was back where she entered the bubble.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Oh crud." she says, realizing the bubble is affecting her too. She turns around and tries stepping out of the bubble.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh was walking down the other side of the street, not yet aware of the incredible scientific mystery happening just across the street.

[Narrator]

Nailah successfully managed to walk out of the bubble! Hurray!

Inside, everything popped back yet AGAIN.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Tosh!" she says, spotting him across the street, frantically waving at him. "Tosh, you gotta help me with something!"

[Toshiro Narumi]

He looked across at her and raised an eyebrow before jogging over.

"What's all this then?" he asked without even trying the accompanying accent, "There a supervillain chasing you or something?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"No, there's some weird Groundhog's Day stuff going on. Everything in there just repeats over and over and we gotta get people out of there but it's only, like, ten seconds before it floops you back to where you went inside. And no one in there is realizing what's going on."

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh's eyes lit up.

"A temporal anomaly? Awesome!" he grinned.

Then he looked properly concerned... well, mostly.

"I mean... those poor people. We have to help them."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Yeah. And I need help dragging them out cause there's no time to explain it to them. And... uhm... Molly's in there, so that might... uhm... we probably shouldn't make her angry."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Yeah. That... wouldn't be helpful," he agreed.

"So... ten seconds? Wish we had a speedster."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Ish. I didn't time it. Just go fast." she says, turning to the bubble and waiting for a reset before rushing inside to push one of the pedestrians out of the bubble.

[Narrator]

The pedestrian blinked in confusion as they were taken out of the bubble.

"I say!"

He did NOT reset when the bubble reset again.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Sorry sir, but you were caught in a time thingie." she grins triumphantly, pointing over the man's shoulder at the distortion.

[Narrator]

"Wh...what on Earth?!

How long has this been going on?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

At the beginning of a cycle, Tosh raced in to grab another.

"Sorry about this!" he said before trying to drag someone out.

[Nailah Weaver]

"I don't know, but it can't be that long. I think. Could you explain this to people we get out please? Thanks!" she says before running back into the bubble, sprinting towards Molly.

[Molly McFly]

If they kept at it, they could, indeed, get most people out. There were a couple people in the kitchen of the cafe that would require special kinds of cleverness to remove, though they seemed to be confused as the people who had been there, by their reckoning, just a moment ago, suddenly weren't.

"What the hell, guys?" Molly asked, upset at being dragged out of the cafe.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Just follow me and hurry up,we need your help. I'll explain outside!" she says as she pulls her along by her arm.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh now paced along the edge of the distortion, contemplating how to reach the trickier victims as he took energy readings with his ludicrously upgraded smart phone turned psuedo-tricorder.

[Narrator]

Tosh's ridiculous smartphone was reading that the energy wasn't static--it was GROWING.

This wasn't even it's final form, that is--the temporal distortion was only beginning to form.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh took a few quick steps away from the anomaly. Then he subtly signaled Nailah by frantically waving his arm in a come here gesture.

"Nai! We have a problem!" he whispered urgently.

[Nailah Weaver]

"What? This is going well. I got an idea for getting the people in the back out."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"It's getting bigger."

[Nailah Weaver]

"What? How much bigger?"

[Narrator]

Quite a bit bigger--maybe even as big as Maldon, Tosh's readings would indicate--but it was also shifting in some sort of fashion. The repeating time may only be a symptom of a larger effect which was building up.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"It could easily... umm..."

He made sure nobody could overhear.

"Swallow the town."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Dude, what the heck!? How do we stop it?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I'm kinda new to temporal mechanics, but something at the focal point must be causing it. Assuming it's not a reverse temporal flow event..."