The Nightmare clown [short story]

To hear the audiobook version listen here or scroll below to read the story.

The Watchers and the Council of Grandmothers sat silently as Ana-Tole’s last words fell from her mouth. Muted, aimless and jumbled. 

“You’re not usually one to mince your words, Ana-Tole,” one of the elders of The Watchers spoke up, “can you please help us understand what happened down there?”

Ana-Tole stared at the ground blankly, while Commander Shira tried their best to take control of the mission debrief.  It was the first (and realistically probably the last) time Ana-Tole had an audience with all the powers that be. The highest law in all the solar systems. 

It’s one thing to be in the presence of The Council of Grandmothers, who are the absolute loving and caring authority in our inhabited galaxies, but to combine that with The Watchers - the officiating bureau in charge of time travel. Who’ve overseen everything, since the dawn of time. Well that was an honour and place Ana-Tole, a smuggler with no allegiance to authority, never imagined herself to be.

Since both of her successful missions during the Arkadian Spring and The Descendant, Ana-Tole and her crew had been given more and more responsibility from EOSS (the Elite Order of the Star Syndicate). Almost becoming their elite ‘off book’ squad. With the events that transpired while helping to fix the canine issue on the post-Earth colonies (as described in The Platypus short story), Ana-Tole’s crew found themselves quickly climbing the ranks at EOSS, becoming privy to more than they could ever want to know - just prior to this mission, they were informed of EOSS’ ability to manipulate and traverse time.

Getting past the initial shock and frustration of wondering why to the Great Mother of Plaeides, EOSS had refrained from stepping in to prevent and aid world-ending events - particularly for Ana-Tole’s own ancestors, humankind on Planet Earth. Time travel hit Ana-Tole like a thought-frenzied monsoon - especially with her career as a known smuggler. Just think of all the hiding places and all these new sources for everything she could get her hands on. The possibilities were endless, it was a little much for her to wrap her head around.

Time travel wasn’t something for tourists - though that was something they were eventually hoping to allow, at this point knowledge of it was mostly restricted, as it was rigorously policed by The Watchers. The importance of its knowledge plus its massive consequences, doesn’t allow for just anyone to go in there and mess around with it. But Ana-Tole and her crew had passed all the necessary ‘tests.’ Over the years they had earned the trust and respect of those highest in command at EOSS, as well as the grand dames of the council and the bureau.

In fact the last series of missions Ana-Tole’s crew had been running, all dealt with time travel on planet Earth. They were tasked with harvesting human DNA from different centuries to slowly observe and study the evolution of Reptarian or ROE (Reptilians of Earth) control over humanity, to avoid any repeats in future worlds.  This last mission in which we caught a glimpse of Ana-Tole’s debrief at the start of this story, completely went sideways. Ana-Tole and her crew were sent back after the 4th homo sapien cataclysm on Earth, into the 1950s.

You see, the thing was, EOSS wants to collect the brightest lights (the purest DNA) so they can manufacture it in space to bypass the ROE coding and prevent any further rule over Earthlings or any other species.  After all, the now post-Earth colonies, are packed with paranoia and scared humans, which isn’t doing much for trying to keep the peace following the Arkadian Spring.

More specifically, EOSS targets children’s DNA for collection. ROE coding of human DNA doesn’t implement until adulthood.  So it’s vital that EOSS gathers DNA before the natural strands are tainted. The particular boy at the center of this latest mission in the 1950s, is of great importance to their plight because he is responsible for first instilling interest in humans to leave prison planet Earth and escape their captors (the Reptarians). 

Before we continue, it’s important to differentiate here between Reptarians and Reptilians, as not all reptilians are bad. If we’re going to be politically correct about this, just like any other species, there’s both great reptilians and not so great reptilians. However, Reptilians of Earth are Reptarians or ROE for short, and they are all decidedly evil (it’s a proven fact). Creating a prison planet to incarcerate the human species for millenia on Earth. If you decide to lump all reptarians and reptilians into one category, Mantis, a half breed reptilian on Ana-Tole’s crew, will be highly insulted and considering what his reptarian brethren managed to do to humans for thousands of years, I would think twice about getting on his bad side, if I were you,. 

We digress. 

Ana-Tole’s last mission from EOSS instructed her to gather DNA from a particular boy in the mid-west of the US, circa 1959 after the 4th homo sapien cataclysm. Just like their previous successful missions, this should have been completely textbook.

The thing was, as you get to know Ana-Tole, you come to find out that she has a big thing for nostalgia. She never lived on Earth, didn’t grow up there, nothing like that. But as part-human, she has this really deep passion for all things Earth, in particular music. Good music isn’t something one comes across easily in the colonies or anywhere in the galaxy these days. So when their journey into 1950s Earth time coincided with a historically well-known concert, Nina Simone At Town Hall, Ana-Tole knew exactly how she wanted to spend these precious moments on Earth.

As the proud captain of her ship - Bluto - Ana-Tole didn’t need permission from anyone to do anything, so she basically told the crew to get on with the work and instructed that they weren’t to leave without her. Moments later she teleported to New York City to enjoy a night of Miss Simone live. (Most definitely a move that would be frowned upon if The Watchers were to ever find out!)

Her crew, a well-oiled and tight knit group of cyborgs, AI, aliens, and reptilian hybrids, commenced with the mission finding the exact location of the boys dwelling, positioning and cloaking the ship in a way that teleportation communication and collection would be easy.  

The obvious choice to carry out this mission in the crew was of course Lil Grey - the grey alien on Ana-Tole’s crew who had previously had a career abducting humans from their homes. His small petite frame, ability to walk through walls and ability to communicate telepathically was essential for not making noise or waking anyone up in the house. He was familiar with human culture and definitely understood more about the human body, its senses and reception of pain, way more than his ship mates. 

“Humans get hysterical and start leaking red fluid if their skin breaks,” he confidently explained to Mantis, who appeared bemused by this explanation. “I just have to pierce this quill behind the boys ear while he sleeps and we’ll have all the DNA we’ll need to take back to EOSS.”

“Remember he can’t know you’re there,” Mantis replied sternly, as if Lil Grey was acting as if the job was already done. “If you scare him, the fear and adrenaline will contaminate his blood making it more ideal for Reptarians than EOSS. ROE love that shit! Trust me.” 

Lil Grey shot him a condescending look, deciding Mantis’ commentary wasn’t worth a response, and readied himself for teleportation to the boys house.

A few seconds later, Lil Grey looked around, taking in his dark surroundings as he now stood in a wood-clad den of a shadowy house in the middle of the night. A large box containing the family television was positioned next to him, across from an uncomfortable looking sofa covered in plastic.

“That’s odd,” Lil Grey declared telepathically back to the ship. 

Side note here. The whole telepathy thing worked as such: Lil Grey didn’t have to say anything aloud. He could simply project his thoughts to whomever he needed to. In turn, the receiver would hear the thoughts in their own mind, and when Lil Grey remains tuned in, the receiver can also send thoughts back. Similar to a regular conversation, just on mute. In this case, Newton Cryo-Borg 2.0 had rigged the AI in Ana-Tole’s ship, Bluto, in order to project Lil Grey’s telepathy aloud, so that everyone in the cockpit could hear. It worked better for them this way, as it was invincible to any electro-magnetic pulses or other interference that could potentially put a mission at risk.

So Lil Grey stood in the dark in this 1950s mid-west family home, observing yet another decade in prison planet culture. Prior to this he had spent most of his time on missions in the 1990s and 2000s. You can imagine how faintly similar his new surroundings were, yet completely foreign at the same time, compared with what he was used to.  For instance, he wondered why the ‘comfy’ furniture was covered in plastic. 

“Just when I feel like I’m starting to understand humans, I see something like this.” Lil Grey stated bewildered. “Great Mother of Plaiedes, I just can’t quite figure them out.”

“You make no sense to them, little one.” Mantis barked back. “Don’t get distracted. Let’s stay on track and get this over with so we can be finished by the time Ana-Tole gets back.”

Rolling his black, almond shaped eyes, in response to Mantis’ lack of trust, when it comes to leading missions. Lil Grey walked through the living room - literally through the wall - into the adjacent bedroom.  This room belonged to his target. A little boy lay sound asleep in bed, with a nightlight glowing and illuminating a small sliver in the corner of the room. The moon shone brightly through the blinds, lighting random lines across the floor and walls. A few howdy doody posters adorned the walls, and piles of small clothes and toys lay scattered across the floor.  It was a chilly September night and the seasons were beginning to change. The moon seemed close and as Lil Grey peered through the gaps in the blinds, he could see some of the neighbours lawns cluttered already with Halloween decorations, skeletons, pumpkins, sheets hanging from trees.

Again his thoughts were projected up to the ship, as the crew listened in on his ‘not-so’ inner-monologue. He stood there struggling to comprehend why humans seem to enjoy the thought of scaring themselves at Halloween and with scary movies. But when faced with actual ghosts and aliens, they don’t find it fun at all.

For a brief moment forgetting that everyone aboard Bluto would be listening to his every thought, he stumbled back when Mantis yelled at him through the comm-link, “We don’t have time for your philosophical ramblings right now. Get on with it.”

As he lost his balance, Lil Grey, who up until now had made certain to avoid all the potential noise-making things, while carefully making his way across the room to the little boy sleeping, accidentally tripped on a toy, which created some unexpected noise and commotion as it whirred to life.

Startled, Lil Grey did his best to pacify the figure. Mentally shushing it, telling it off, and laying it down again back onto the carpet. As he was doing so, the boy who until now had lay silently, stirred a little. Lil Grey stood frozen for a few moments in a full forward bend yoga pose, in case the boy happened to do more than stir. After a minute or so of silence, and positive that the boy hadn’t actually woken up, Lil Grey decided it was safe to continue his mission. 

If any of you reading aren’t familiar with a forward bend in yoga,  it’s usually something similar to when you bend over to touch your toes, but if you can just imagine Lil Grey doing that, his head is three times the size of the proportion of his little body. It’s almost as if he has to hold up the weight of a bowling ball on his head. 

Relieved from not having to hold the forward bend any longer, Lil Grey’s back cracked as he slowly bobbled his head to his regular height again and made his way across the floor, the boy lay quiet and motionless.

As he reached the edge of the boy’s bed, he pulled out the DNA quill, prepping it slowly and quietly, just as he had done before on previous missions. He moved very carefully and deliberately as his long spindly, rubbery fingers gripped the quill firmly, slowly creeping toward the boys head. 

As Lil Grey leaned in to reach the correct spot, and with the quill just a few millimeters from where he would extract the boys DNA, his whole face drew ever so closer to the boy’s face, laying soundly asleep in the bed. But in an instant, Lil Grey’s large black, almond eyes were suddenly met by the whites of the boy’s frightened, wide eyes staring sharply back at him. As time seemed to come to a screeching stop, Lil Grey was able to react instantly. 

The boy sat up in fear, dumbfounded, not knowing whether to scream or cry. Clearly terrified but unsure of the situation and not knowing how to react in fight or flight mode, he sat frozen like a deer in headlights. Was he still dreaming? Was this a nightmare? Is he just imagining this? Is his mind playing tricks on him? Lil Grey could read his mind, as a million thoughts raced through the boy’s head instantly.

As he continued to read the boy’s thoughts, at the same time, Lil Grey was able to communicate back to the cockpit, and to his own annoyance began to panic - as his own thoughts began to rush quicker and quicker.  He knew there was only a matter of a few moments, before the boy would be fully awake, comprehend the situation and realize that this scenario was as far from fantasy as can be.

“Guys?!……” Lil Grey’s attitude had done a quick 180, as he had just been taken down a few pegs and suddenly needed all the help he could get in this moment.  “The kid’s awake,”  he stated defeatedly to the crew.

“Mantis is indisposed at the moment,” replied a computerized-bot voice belonging to the recently rebooted Newton Cryo-Borg 2.0, “Tell us how you’d like us to proceed”

Lil Grey, even more peeved now that his most trustworthy crew mate was suddenly unavailable, snapped back piercedly, “Tell me everything about children of the 1950s.”

The AI aboard Bluto kicked in, as Newton Cryo-Borg 2.0 began to search frantically in the ‘not-so-trusted’ but most easily accessible source for everything ‘Earth’ - the homo-sapedia.

“I can’t really find anything specific to that decade per se, but there’s lots of references to clowns and children throughout human history, why don’t you try that?” Newton said proudly, in hopes it might better the situation.

With his own mind drawing a blank, except all the horrible ways in which this situation might play out, he could think of no other option but to listen to Newton. He concentrated really hard, as the AI projected a picture of a clown to him. His forehead bulged, his skin turned all kinds of colours, his nose grew bulbous and red, and weird patches of orange and green hair began to appear randomly around his head.  Within a few moments, Lil Grey had successfully morphed his head into that of a clown. (That’s right - Lil Grey can teleport, communicate telepathically, walk through walls, and morph his appearance. But apparently none of these things help him from waking up and frightening unsuspecting children in the middle of the night!)

Not only were the few moments of time it took for him to shift shape, agonizing to watch on a normal day when you somewhat know what to expect. But in this situation, every disgusting little bulge and contortion as his face drastically changed shape was horrifically magnified to the nth degree. 

The boy, still sitting up, frozen, in shock in his bed, unable to scream or muster any kind of sound and barely a breath, looked visibly ill.  He had turned almost as white as the Halloween decoration ghosts Lil Grey had seen hanging on the tree outside. The boy’s mouth crumpled together slowly and then contorted open, verged on the cusp of either screaming for help or throwing up - it was hard to tell.  As his face had turned from frightened to terrified and the thoughts Lil Grey could read were more and more frantic and jumbled, Lil Grey quickly realized that the clown was having the adverse affect of calming the child.

His own projected thoughts were panicky as he ‘yelled’ up at the crew silently, “The clown isn’t working. What am I supposed to do?”

“Maybe it’s just this one. I don’t blame the kid, this clown image you found AI is freaky. Try some other clowns! Find one he likes.” Mantis commanded back firmly. Annoyed that the mission had begun to take a downward spiral the moment he stepped out of the cockpit.

Caught up in the moment and with no time to think of any other ideas, Lil Grey began to morph his head into other clowns that the AI and Newton were finding and projecting to him. In panic mode, he barely stopped to see if one face was working before immediately transitioning to something else. In an entirely different situation, this whole scene may have passed as a fascinating piece of performance art, as Lil Grey stood opposite the boy continually changing his face in grotesque ways. The boy had now crawled up on the bed, clutching his knees, trembling while flattening himself against the wall as much as possible.

This lasted for what felt like an eternity to Lil Grey and the shape shifting was beginning to hurt.  He had never tried to alter his appearance so quickly and so radically before and it was beginning to take a toll as his morph abilities suddenly ground to a halt while halfway between two very contrasting faces.  The boy finally snapped out of his daze, and jumped under the covers on the bed, hoping that this dreadful nightmare would be over soon. Without thinking and just trying to do his very best to comfort the boy, Lil Grey immediately popped his head under the duvet and from out of the darkness in the covers, the boy came face to face with the most disgusting clown of all. The mid-morph, paused transformation of the two most horrendous clown faces you could ever imagine. Too close for comfort, and still in complete shock, the boy jumped backwards falling down the gap at the back of the bed against the wall. 

He lay where he fell in stillness, half tangled in the bed sheets, hoping that this was all a bad dream. His thoughts focused on waking up from the nightmare and wishing the monster to go away and leave him be. It was quiet for a second as Lil Grey debated what to do next as the boy pondered whether his wishes for it to stop had been granted. When all of a sudden the bed skirt on the opposite side from where he lay, quickly popped up and Lil Grey peered below, with yet another half-morphed freakish clown face staring him down.

With this shock, the boy finally found his voice and let out the most blood curdling, terrifying scream, right before passing out. 

“I just don’t get it!” Lil Grey poised frantically to the crew, “Kids are supposed to love clowns. Why isn’t this working?”

“Did anyone hear that?” Mantis worriedly asked, “I feel like his scream just shook the whole ship!”

“I can’t sense anyone else’s thoughts around,” Lil Grey responded.

“Seriously?! Who would be able to sleep through that sound?” Mantis asked, in disbelief that they had been accidentally terrorizing this innocent, poor boy and not one parent even stirred.

“Well thank the Great Mother of Pleaides!” Ana-Tole’s stern voice suddenly chimed in, as she quickly assessed the mess of the situation, arriving in the cockpit as she returned from the concert. “You need to get that kid back into his bed and calm him down before you extract that DNA Lil Grey. Remember: No tainted strands! We can’t afford to have any mistakes with this. We were supposed to be finished and returning to our own time by now, The Watchers are gonna be pissed!………And side note, who the hell suggested that children like clowns?!”  

Hard glares were exchanged around the cockpit, as no one wanted to take the blame for offering such ill-researched information. Bluto’s AI remained silent as Mantis and the Newton Cryo-Borg 2.0 had a pain-stakingly long and awkward stare down.  Knowing Mantis has an explosive temper and not wanting the mission to divide the crew, Ana-Tole felt she’d never get a straight answer from them, so she jumped in to keep things moving, “Just so you guys know, no human child has or will ever like a clown. EVER! Geez. I leave you guys for five minutes….”  Her voice trailed off as Lil Grey shifted his presence back in the little boy’s room again.

As Lil Grey changed back into his regular grey, rubbery-like appearance and curled his long and spindly fingers around the boy to move him back from under the bed to his original sleeping position. He lay his hands on the boys head and chest in order to analyze his vitals - which were still racing.

“I don’t know if it’ll work, Lil Grey, but try projecting a litter of cute and cuddly puppies to him.” Ana-Tole had calmed her tone, in order to help Lil Grey out of this tight spot.

As the boy stirred in his covers for a few minutes, somewhere between passed out and groggy, a smile gently grew on his face for the first time in this whole ordeal and non-sensical cheerful sounds began to exude from him. 

“It’s working!” exclaimed Lil Grey excitedly after a few minutes, with a big sigh of relief, “he’s calm enough for me to get the sample now.”

Within a matter of seconds, he held the image of puppies in his mind while he took the quill to retrieve the boy’s DNA.  On completion instantly teleporting himself back to Bluto.

With a huge sense of relief, Lil Grey yelled, “Now I remember why I wanted out of my old job so bad!” remembering all the times before, when his presence was met with sheer terror while abducting humans for study.  “If there was ever a time I needed some galaxy dust. It’s now,” and he sauntered off to the galley to make himself a much deserved drink.

Ana-Tole and the rest of the crew readied the ship and called The Watchers to help make the jump back to their present time - mission complete…….almost.

“How was the concert?” Lil Grey came back to the cockpit galaxy-dust cocktail in hand, hoping to distract himself from his slightly traumatic experience.

“Great mother of Plaiedes!” Ana-Tole declared with great joy. “I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing it was to hear that music live! It was life-changing. I just don’t understand why we don’t have music like that anymore.”

As the entire crew sat there, enjoying the fact that Ana-Tole seemed much calmer and happier than usual, as well as being relieved their nightmare mission was over, a firm and authoritative voice spoke over the comms, “Please report directly to Commander Shira at EOSS for your mission debriefing.” 

“Hmmm, weird,” Ana-Tole said to herself while plotting the coordinates to make the hyper-space jump. 

“Yeah that’s…ummmm….strange, what’s wrong with doing it over the comm-link?” agreed Mantis in an uncertain way. “You think we’re in trouble?”

Ana-Tole rolled her eyes, clicked her tongue, and took a deep breath, while mentally considering her situation. “Well…..we’re always in trouble for something, I guess. Might as well face the music.” 

As she shrugged her shoulders and as the words came out of her mouth, the word ‘music’ echoed throughout her head and it suddenly dawned on her. This in-person debrief might be a result not of the mission itself, but because of her personal field trip to New York to see the concert.  She had been so careful not to be seen. How could they possibly know? She quipped to herself.

She mentally braced herself and piloted the ship straight to EOSS.

“Woah!! Are we at war again?” Ana-Tole beckoned to the crew as they pulled into one of the huge pilot bays, intended for EOSS’ fighter fleet.

They were met by a wall of armed guards. EOSS had gone from a minimal security, low-profile HQ, which always confounded Ana-Tole a bit, considering how important and powerful they are, to a high security kinda joint. 

“Who was this kid again?” Ana-Tole quizically asked, as Commander Shira greeted them and escorted them to the mission debrief. Ana-Tole’s crew continued eyeing the guards up and down in distrust as they followed Shira and the rest of their EOSS entourage.

Ana-Tole delivered the vial of DNA to the Commander as Shira instructed some of their officers to handle it.

“This was the toughest yet!” Ana-Tole boasted, proud that Lil Grey had come through and pulled it off for them, while keeping the success of the mission in focus, trying to make sure that her little side trip would go unnoticed.

“Yes, I’m aware.” Shira said, slightly stern and unemotionally. “Now that we have secured the brightest light, we can be sure the Reptilians never take a planet hostage again!” 

Mantis shot the Commander a vexed look while grumbling, “Reptarians!” under his breath.

Shira heard Mantis but remained stone faced, making sure not to correct themself. “Thanks to you and your crew Ana-Tole, you have done a great service to the multi-verse and the generations of species to come. We are eternally grateful!”

The crew stood congratulating each other and celebrating Lil Grey. Incredibly happy and proud that they - a bunch of misfits - had done such good for the galaxy.  But in all the celebration, Ana-Tole, with a concerned look on her face, stepped forward to Commander Shira and asked, “but what’s with all the security? and why did you need us to come in person?”

“Aaah, well there are some folks that have some questions for you regarding your last time on planet Earth during this mission,” Shira responded.

Ana-Tole’s face sank, as her crew member’s celebrations came to a halt. She just knew in her gut that her trip to see Miss Simone was about to cost her and her crew dearly. After all, she broke one of the most important rules of The Watchers. ‘Do not use Time Travel for personal interests.’

Earlier in Bluto, as she made her way to EOSS, she had rehearsed a long inner-monologue going over every kind of justification and reason to give, for when she was confronted with the fact that she went to the concert in New York City. 

“‘Personal gain’ they’ll say - ‘research!’ I’ll say….what did I get out of that anyway? I didn’t win the lottery, I didn’t steal anything to sell or smuggle. I didn’t risk anyone’s life or change the future. I simply ‘researched’ a period in Earth history and culture, to better understand the humans on these missions. Research…”

As she went back over the dialogue in her head, she prepped herself for the confrontation before her. She knew it could only be The Watchers.

“The Watchers need all this security?” she asked Commander Shira, as they were begun to be escorted to the Great Hall. “No-one even knows what they do. Hell, I didn’t even realize they existed until we started these missions for you.”

Commander Shira smirked, while continuing on down the hallway with their guests.

The rest of Ana-Tole’s crew were also nervous - Lil Grey in particular. Though EOSS was clearly pleased with the result of the mission, in his mind, they obviously knew he had managed to scare the shit out of the little boy and he worried about the consequences of how the traumatic experience must have affected the child. 

At the same time, Newton Cryo-Borg 2.0 had his knickers in a twist, thinking he would get in trouble for using the homo-sapedia as a ‘reliable’ source for integral mission data. What a crime for an all-knowing robot!

“This doesn’t feel right to me,” Mantis murmured to the others, while his antennae stood on end. Mantis, probably the most cynical of them all was always open to a good conspiracy theory. He was somehow convinced that the entire EOSS HQ was a matrix simulation and that his Reptilian kin had laid a well-executed trap for them, years in the making, to see who would be the undoing of their galactic empire. In which would result that he spend the rest of his life on his own prison planet with the rest of his Reptilian defeating crew.

Hearts beating quickly, oil whirring, antennae standing on end, Ana-Tole and her crew entered the Great Hall to meet their fate. Only Commander Shira escorted them inside while all the extra security waited outside the door.

As soon as they entered the room a wave of calm and warmth hit them. It was almost visible. As if they had somehow walked into a fog of good feelings and all their anxiety, fear and worry dissipated. They looked at each other in disbelief as each was smiling, filled with joy for inexplicable reasons. The energy that filled the hall was so rich and full of love, none of them could remember a time when they felt more relaxed.

As they gazed around the room, Ana-Tole quickly realized exactly who they had an audience with.

“The Council of Grandmothers and The Watchers?!” she touted in surprise.

As the gravity of the situation hit her, for the first time in her entire life, a wave of emotion came over Ana-Tole. Her mind went blank while she struggled to keep herself together, as they asked details about the mission. 

The thing was, the mission was a success in a big, bigggg way. EOSS and the powers that be had been fighting planetary imprisonment for millenia. After all this time, it was Ana-Tole and her crew that were able to harvest enough DNA to finally defeat the Reptilian programming. So it only made sense that the powers of the multi-verse come to congratulate the team on their success, in such a historic and unprecedented moment. 

Additionally, Lil Grey contrary to what he initially believed, was actually congratulated because he woke the boy up and scared him.

“It would have been better if you had somehow avoided the whole clown debacle,” one of the Grandmothers said, “I’m sure the boy found you, a grey alien, in his room alone at night, terrifying enough, without seeing you mutate into various clowns.”

Newton looked down at his feet humiliated that he had believed what someone had written on the homo-sapedia, and it was because of him that the entire clown saga took place. 

“Nonetheless, because of you, Lil Grey, the boy grew up with the quest to find more aliens like you. He led the movement to save the humans from Earth. He’s the one who grew up to pioneer the colonies! Well done,” the captain Gran continued.

As the Council of Grandmothers and The Watchers congratulated the team and thanked them for the work on the missions, Ana-Tole finally got control of her emotions again and began to wonder if The Watchers even realized that she had gone rogue on their mission. 

“Maybe they don’t see everything,” she said to herself as her old smuggler ways started creeping into her thoughts and with a slight smirk on her face she poised, “I wonder if we can use this time travel stuff more?” as she thought about all the Earth goodies she could bring back and sell in the colonies for top dollar.

On her way out, with all these devious ideas coming to mind and all the dollar signs in her eyes, she bid the Council of Grandmothers good bye and as she shook hands with the head of The Watchers, he looked her square in the eye, “There’s a world waiting for you, This is a quest that’s just begun.” 

He released a firm handshake and winked at her, with a smile. Ana-Tole’s mouth dropped open, as she could still hear Nina Simone’s voice sing those same words. She immediately decided that she wouldn’t even think about time traveling again, any time soon. 

Perhaps they did see everything, after all.