Save State -CH4- (Patreon)

Sniffing, Edmund lifted his free hand up and rubbed his wrist at his nose. It felt like he was getting a cold.

That and the scent of blood, piss, and shit was a bit overwhelming at the moment.

“Unnngh… uuunnngh… unnngghhh,” groaned someone off to the side.

Edmund looked to his pistol and then thumbed the magazine release. Pulling one of the two extra magazines he carried with him out of his waistband carrier he stuck it into his weapon.

Pushing the release he let the slide go back into battery, then racked it. Moving over to the groaning dying person he sighted it on their head and pulled the trigger.

“That makes… seven,” he said after the gunshot faded away. “No guns but several knives. That’s not very fun.”

“Edmund!? What did you do?” screamed Earline. She’d appeared before he realized it.

Ugh. Shooting guns always blows out my ears.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m going to rewind time. It’s my super power,” Edmund murmured, walking over to Harper’s body. He’d just noticed she was still alive. Just pretending to be dead. “Rewind time and then do what I can to get through this as quickly as I can.

“Easier to kill them, figure out what’s going on, then rewind it to make it perfect. This isn’t the first time you’ve seen it. More like the twentieth. You’ll forget again just like every other time.”

“I-you can’t be serious,” Earline declared.

“Hey, Harper,” Edmund said and then stepped on her hand. “Anything I could do to make you people back off next time? Anything I could say? I don’t want to have to break any of you if I don’t have to.

“I really don’t like confrontation. Really don’t. If I have to engage I will but… I’d rather not.”

Harper was groaning now, turning toward his leg as he ground his shoe down into her fingers. She didn’t say anything though.

“No? Nothing? Not a thing I could do?” Edmund pressed.

“Need-money. Debt,” whimpered Harper. There was a hissing sound that accompanied her words. Sounded a lot like there was air coming in or going out of somewhere it should.

“Right. In other words. No. Nothing I can do,” Edmund lifted the pistol and then shot Harper through the temple. Earline yelped and slapped her hands to her ears. “Alright. I’m about to rewind time, Lee. Wanna tell me why you won’t move in with me? I always ask right before I shift time but you never tell me. Maybe you’re willing this time?”

“This… what… this is all too insane,” whimpered Earline.

Ah, yeah. She’s been around violence a lot. Seen a lot of horrible stuff.

But not death.

Hasn’t seen people die right in front of her or dealt with a freshly made corpse.

To be fair, I hadn’t either. Not till I joined Legion.

I guess that’s a benefit or something.

Maybe.

Working for a Super Villain gets you used to things you’d never think of in living a normal life.

Not waiting any longer since he knew at this point Earline wouldn’t be really able to handle this situation, he instead loaded up the save state he’d made.

Harper and her goons were no longer dead, but once more alive. Closing in on him.

Edmund needed to get this moving so he could start working through this.

“Alright, let’s get it over with. I’ll just start kicking your asses and we’ll go from there,” Edmund remarked. He lifted his hands up and put them in a defensive posture. He didn’t think fighting them all at the same time would be much fun, or doable. Taunting them to take him on as if it were a bad action movie would be ideal. “Which one of you wants to fight first? Cause I bet I can kick all your asses one by one.”

The response was obvious, they all rushed him together.

Stepping up to the closest one, Edmund hesitated.

He wasn’t a combatant but he’d gone through all the Legionnaire hand-to-hand training. Just as every Legion recruit did.

The practice he’d put in sprang to life in the next instant and he put a straight into the man’s face. It blew his jaw out to the side and he went down in an unmoving heap.

Pivoting to the next combatant Edmund saw they were leading with a knife.

And that it was already too late, actually.

It slammed home into Edmund’s chest and he felt his heart shudder and its was suddenly hard to breathe. There’d been no time to react to the attack without knowing it was coming.

“Good to know,” wheezed Edmund, grasping the man’s wrist. He memorized his face.

When this was all said and done, he’d have to make sure he took care of the ones who tried to kill him.

Then he promptly reloaded to the last save state.

Once more, everything reverted back to the same starting point.

“Fuck it, lesgo!” shouted Edmund and then ran at the enemies.

There was a small shift in how they responded, a slight delay, but it was mostly the same. The same two got out in front as the last time.

Edmund snapped out a straight again, clobbering the same man.

Knowing the stab was coming this time, Edmund turned his body sideways and moved forward. Closing the distance and removing the stabber’s ability to alter his attack.

Rather than stabbing Edmund, the man’s arm brushed past him. Striking home in absolutely nothing.

Grasping the man’s arm with both hands Edmund put his back to him, bent down, stepped back with his left foot, grasped the man’s shoulder firmly, and threw him bodily.

Turning his arm over on itself as he slammed into the grass Edmund stuck the knife into the man’s own thigh. Making sure it was stuck there nice and deep.

He wouldn’t be going anywhere and the impact had taken the breath out of him.

Standing back up, Edmund looked to the remaining five. They weren’t moving but they didn’t seem like they were going to take to their heels either.

“What, ya’ll get scared at that?” Edmund asked with a chuckle.

Taking the opportunity for what it was, he once again saved the state of the world.

This time, it left him feeling mentally tired.

A save state always took its toll on him. Two of them back to back was the most he’d ever managed.

Trying a third save state had knocked him straight into insensibility.

Rushing forward, Edmund wanted to move through the rest of them. The sooner he could finish up the better.

One of the thugs stepped out to meet him, knife in hand. Edmund didn’t even bother to react. He just kept going straight at him.

The response was simple and immediate.

The knife came out at Edmund’s chest almost reflexively.

Not bothering to wait for it to land Edmund loaded the save state.

No sooner than it reset, then he began rushing forward.

Once again, the man with the knife stepped out to meet him. Again the knife came out to skewer Edmund.

Edmund had tucked his shoulder in and led with a punch. His fist slamming into the man’s lower left side though near the front.

It caused the man to double up and stumble to the side. Moving out of the way.

Edmund found himself face to face with Harper.

Her brown eyes were wide and staring at him from inches away. Unmoving and seemingly not comprehending that he was right there.

A knife was stuck into his side from the right.

Letting out a groan that was more of a sigh, Edmund loaded the save state.

Again.

This gets so damn tedious after a while.

Once more the world returned to the save state he’d made.

Edmund dashed forward and laid out the knife wielder once again. Ending up face to face with Harper.

Grabbing her around the hips he turned to the side, putting her back to whoever had stabbed him last time.

Instead, getting Harper stabbed in the back. The brute gasping and her eyes going wide as soon as it happened.

Jerking on Harper’s hand Edmund sent her flying to the side and behind him.

“Oh my—”

Before the knife wielder could finish their exclamation Edmund had quickly zeroed the distance. Taking the limp knife out of their hand, spinning it, then running it home into their knee.

They took in a breath to scream to which Edmund stuck his fist into their guts. Knocking the wind out of them in the same moment and causing them to completely exhale.

I think there’s two left?

Edmund turned to face the final two people.

Only to find they were both long gone. They’d taken off as soon as Harper had gotten stuck by the knife.

“Cowards,” Edmund murmured with a short breath. Then he shook his head and went over to where Harper lay on the ground.

She was whimpering, one hand on her back and wriggling around on the ground.

Pushing her over onto her stomach he yanked up her shirt to look at her back.

Blood was flowing down from where she’d been stabbed.

He was no doctor so he had no idea if she was dying or not. If she died from this that’d cause a problem.

“Alright. Let’s wait and see if you die,” Edmund muttered and rolled Harper back over onto her back. The woman was staring up at him with wide eyes and a pale face.

“Die?” she whispered.

“I mean, you had people pull knives on me. They would’ve killed me. Did you think that it wouldn’t be possible for you to die too? Idiot,” cursed Edmund who promptly slapped Harper across the face. “Just shut up and lay there. If you die, I have to reload this and figure out how to make it work better.

“If you don’t… well, I just reload this anyway and get back to this point. Shouldn’t be much of an issue.”

“That hurt,” complained Harper. “Reload? What’re you—”

Edmund slapped Harper for a second time.

If he looked inside himself, he had a lot of rage to this woman. She’d been someone who had made his life far more difficult and seemed to enjoy it.

“Shut the fuck up,” admonished Edmund. “Lay there and die, or live, but just shut up. Not a word out of you.”

“You fucking—”

Edmund punched Harper this time. Right in the mouth. He didn’t care if he broke his hand or cut it on her teeth at the moment.

That’d be fixed with the reload, after all.

“Nnngghh, I’ll fucking—”

Another punch came for Harper this time, squashing her nose and clearly breaking it.

“I said shut it, Harper. We’re having an experiment right now. You as a person do not exist in this moment. This is Harper’s Schrodinger moment. You are both alive and dead.

“We’re just waiting to see which reality plays out. Don’t make me kill you just to reload it and try with a different Harper.”

Harper finally went quiet. Glaring up at him with one hand covering her smashed nose. The other she had pressed to her back still.

“There ya go. Good job,” Edmund murmured then pulled out his pistol. He casually held it next to himself and stared at Harper.

The woman had noticed it, was no longer glaring, and seemed quite cowed. Laying on the ground and not moving.

With his free hand, Edmund opened up his phone and flipped it over to his stock portfolio. He hadn’t checked it today.

Oh. Nice.

Everything is growing perfectly.

See… this is how you make money with time manipulation.

Stocks.

Not lottery tickets, not bets and gambling, not anything else.

Stocks and trading.

Because people get rich and get broke faster than you could ever imagine. No one even pays attention to it anymore. Especially since you can do it without ever being identified.

Though… hm… since I’ve already screwed up the save, should I just wait till the morning, check the opening, then load?

Eh, nah.

That sounds like too much effort. I’ll just save in the morning like I usually do.

Edmund contented himself with scrolling through the news.

This was the furthest he’d been in the timeline so far today which meant everything was still new and fresh. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what it’d be like if he knew what everything would be like before it happened.

It sounded really boring.

***

“Wake up. Do the thing. This is the nice alarm. Remember?” his phone cheerfully stated.

Rolling over in his bed, Edmund groaned as the message continued to repeat itself. If he didn’t disable this alarm, then turn off the next six, they would become increasingly insistent and annoying. To the point that he’d regretted doing it to himself.

He let out a short huff, snatched his phone off the wireless charger, and held it up in front of himself.

Once more he entered his super power and saved the state of the world over the one he’d done last night before fighting Harper and her crew.

In the end, she’d died from the stab wound.

Causing Edmund to have to shift the fight a bit more, but it ended up in the exact same way. Everyone on the ground or running away with only Edmund left standing.

I mean… so long as I can get a save down… I can theoretically fix anything.

Shame no one ever takes my natural disaster warning tips seriously though.

You’d think they’d pay attention.

Once the save state was complete, Edmund forced himself to open the stock market page. It was something he did every morning to make sure he was making the most he could with what little money he had to originally invest.

Using the apps he did to make trades, he preferred to wait for the normal trading hours to get anything done. It was just easier that way and he didn’t get charged as much for each transaction.

You know… it’s been a bit since I did a long forward leap. Might be worth skipping ahead a month or two and look for any high performing stocks then wind it back afterward.

Last time I took that mega-vacation to Europe and didn’t do anything for two months other than eat and sleep.

Maybe this time I could do something else.

That way—

Edmund’s phone began to blare, shimmy, and flash brilliantly in his hand. The alarm for his house was going off which meant someone had broken in.

Or had forgotten what the code to his panel was.

Given Romina had offered to help out with Dog and that she could have easily forgotten the passcode, that seemed the most likely option.

Rather than waiting for her to call him in a panic, he instead disabled the alarm remotely, then called Romina. The line had barely run the first time when it picked up.

“Hey! Hi! Thanks for turning it off. Oh my god it was so loud. Sheesh! It felt like my head was splitting apart,” Romina complained “I hit the wrong button and it really didn’t like that. I didn’t forget it or anything.

“I stepped in what looks like a hairball on my way in and… and… yeah… I panicked after that. Screwed it up.”

Edmund could only laugh at that. Dog had a magical way of dropping hairballs almost always exclusively on carpet and always where someone would step on it.

“Dog’s pretty good about getting the location perfect for those. It’s kinda crazy,” Edmund offered up as an out for her. “I step on them a lot. He perfectly hides them around corners.”

“Master crafter of hairball land mines,” Romina grumbled. It sounded to Edmund as if she were rifling through something as they spoke. Probably her purse he figured. “Still a really weird name for a cat. Dog.”

“If I’d had a dog, I’d have named him Cat. Keeps it interesting and fun,” Edmund shot back with a smile, staring up at the ceiling.

Lee might seek him out for comfort, but Edmund found he more often than not sought out Romina for the same. They were close and she’d listened to many of his tales of woe.

Except it was exactly as his sister had said.

They were probably too close now for him to make the proper jump from friends to significant others. That their friendship would get in the way of everything else.

Shit.

Just like I said about Lee, isn’t it? Waiting too long versus not waiting at all.

So let’s just—

“Hey, I want to go out when I get back. In six days that is,” Edmund blurted out before he could really think about the words he was contemplating.

“Uh? Sure! I’d be happy to. What’re you thinking? Could head over to HR if you want,” Romina said cheerfully.

“I was thinking of dinner. Taking you out on a dinner date,” Edmund proclaimed. He didn’t want there to be any room for misunderstandings. He needed her to understand that this was a request to date. Not to go and hang out.

Romina’s absolute and immediate silence felt painful.

Excruciating, in fact.

“Uh,” Romina got out finally, only to fall silent once again. “I don’t… that… I’m sorry, Ed. I just never really thought of it like that. Or going that way.

“It’s such a surprise that I didn’t even-I don’t… I’m sorry.”

“Should I take that as a no?” Edmund murmured, realizing he really had waited too long. That he’d let the chance he’d had slip by him and it wasn’t the right time or place.

“Err, I’m sorry Ed,” Romina apologized. “I’m not seeing anyone, if that helps. I don’t want to either. I’m just doing my own thing right now and it’s fun.

“Its not that I don’t find you attractive either! It’s not that. I’m just enjoying being single and doing my stuff. That’s all.”

Edmund was half tempted to load the save he’d just put down, but he realized that would only be running away from the situation. Whether he’d asked her or not, the answer was something he couldn’t shake.

Faith had been right.

Earline had been right.

Edmund had been so afraid to push, to confront the situation, that it’d slid right past him. To the point that it wasn’t something he could actively change anymore.

“Alright. I get it. It’s understandable. I don’t want you to forget I asked though as I’d really be interested in dating you,” Edmund pushed. He didn’t want this to just go by the wayside. Not after having worked up the courage to actually try.

“Got it. Message received. Loud and clear. Won’t forget it,” Romina reported, still sounding somewhat stunned, but at least positive.

“Great… I’ll… see you later,” Edmund muttered than hung up.

Letting out a long and loud sigh, he put the phone on his chest.

“Maybe I’ll take that vacation after all. See the future, figure out the stocks. Come back to this point then. Get some time away from this… this situation and clear my head,” he muttered.

“BITCH, BITCH, BITCH! GET UP BITCH! BIIIIIITCH!” screeched his phone, causing him to startle. “This is still the nice version. You don’t want to get to level three. Remember? You recorded these! You know what’s next!”

Wincing, Edmund turned off the alarm, then turned off the next three.