Cogsmiths were fascinating creatures. Little furry, rotund and handy, they served under the King of time to ensure all cogs ran smooth and maintained. They were an industrious lot. Generations upon generations of them, since the dawn of time, have worked hard to keep time flowing for the king.

  Except one.

  Grygglebee was, by all accounts, a slacker. He wanted more out of life. The same task, day in and day out, took its toll on him very early. By now, he was several million years old, a teenager by his species standards. They age very differently from you and me. This allows them a very long life in service to time and the king.

  But still, Grygglebee was over it. He was over the ‘rat race’, the mundane servicing and inspection of cogs. The replacement of broken cogs, dumping them in the sands of time. He did enjoy delivering the new ones. Traveling through Rosen Bridges, seeing all the alternate realities on nearly every branch of the Semperviren. His most memorable trip was catching a glimpse of the ‘Golden Kingdom’, home of the ‘Knights Eyrie’, winged warriors of immense power that defend the entire multiverse tree.

  Despite, by our standards, it being centuries since he’s seen it, he still talks about it. It inspires him to want more. Of course, this could never be, as the life of a Cog smith was meant serve. And when they weren’t serving, they were resting in preparation to serve again.

  Today was a day like any other. He clocked in, put his goggles on and got to work… at his pace. He placed the mold, put in the sand and sent it through the furnace to glassify. His stubby, furry arms had no problem keeping up with the press. However, his attention was a different story.

  A loud buzz rang out, his favorite sound. “Lunch time!” he exclaimed, shutting the machine down immediately then grabbing his lunch. He hurried to the cafeteria, hoping to get his favorite seat. Right by a window, overlooking the brilliant, starry and nebula filled sky.

  When he arrived, he was relieved to see his two friends saving him a seat near the window. They waved him over He navigated through the endless tables of other cog smiths eating their lunches, finally reaching them. They were dressed in their dirty coveralls, just like him–Save for Sangoe, who wore a bow on a tuft of hair. All cog smiths looked alike; no relation.

  “Gryggs! How ya doin, bud!?” Crag said.

  “Hey Crag, hey Sangy!” he said while setting his lunchbox down.

  “What’s on the menu today, Gryggs?” Sangoe asked.

  “Same boring sandwich. But it get’s the job done!”

  “Preaching to the choir. So, anyone elses machine acting strange today?” Crag asked.

  “No, but this whole day has been so strange…” Sangoe added.

  As they chatted about their shift, yelling could be heard fast approaching. As it got closer, the tables full of employees turned their heads in unison.

  “Grygglebee!? Grygglebee!!! Front and center!”

  “Oh great, another scolding,” he whispered to his friends. “Yes sir! I’m right here!” he put his sandwich away and stood as tall as he could on his stubby little legs.

  “It’s an emergency. I need to dispatch you to anchor-branch epsilon,” he said analyzing his clipboard, “One of the universes is experiencing an issue with their time stream and a cog may need to be replaced. You need to perform an inspection and report back.”

  He looked back at his friends then at the supervisor. “Oh, sure. I can do that!”

  “Great, make sure to take your goggles and toolbox. I’m assigning you ‘noctua currus’ - zeta,” he said, while handing him a set of keys and paperwork.

  “Uh, okay! When do I go?”

  “Now!”

  “Now? I was on my lunch break! Uh, sir!”

  “And this is an EMERGENCY, Grygglebee! Get going and you’ll get a double lunch your next shift”

  Oh…okay, okay! Yes sir!”

  The supervisor left, leaving Grygglebee puzzled. He’s been tasked with going out here and there, but never for an emergency. He looked at the keys in his paw-like hand then turned around toward his friends.

  “Well, sorry to cut our hang out short…” he said.

  “Aw, Gryggs! It’s okay, we know how much you like being out!” Sangoe said.

  “Yeah, buddy! Tell us all about it when you return!”

  “You bet! See you guys!”

  He scrambled back to his machine as fast as he could to grab his toolbox and goggles. He put them on his head and reached for his box, which spilled over because he forgot to ran to the vehicle bay. As usual, there was a sea of chariots. Luckily, ‘zeta’ denoted the entire line of chariots in that area. So he took the first he came upon once he found the lot space. He activated it, making it sputter to life. It didn’t sound the best, but he knew nothing about these. He drove it to the gate, where he was greeted by a bored retired cogsmith.

  “Hello young one. Please take your ticket and keep it on your person.”

  Grygglebee gently took the ticket and watched the gate open. He moved the vehicle forward enough to clear the booth before coming to a stop. With his paw-like hand, he input the coordinates from the paperwork into the console. The device beeped revealing his destination.

  “Oh, this is an Earth-oriented vimen! I wonder if Tenacious D exists in that reality. ‘This is not… the greatest trip in the world, no, this is just a work trip…”

  He set off, his vehicle flying toward an open Rosen Bridge that would take him to one of the many Earths in existence. Still singing one of his favorite earth songs, Tribute while drumming on the control wheel. As he arrived, he inspected the document again to find his orders.

  “Let’s see… ‘potential cog anomaly…blah, blah, blah… specific date lines across thousands of years… syncing– report findings immediately!’ Hmmm…well, let’s have a looky-loo,” he said while pulling a few levers. His vehicle began scanning for a place to land.

  Grygglebee pulled his sandwich portion from the toolbox and attempted to take a bite. Before he could, his console beeped erratically. He threw his sandwich back in the box and inspected the alarm. “Whoa, interesting! Cog access is in ‘Morgan…town, West Virginia…’ There’s a WEST Virginia here? Then what is West in Virginia called?” He opens a map of the eastern seaboard and analyzes.

  “Big Stone Gap…weird. Alright, time to get to work!”

  With a few switches pressed and levers pulled, he set course for the the accesspoint. When he arrived, to the city, just beside a large river, he marveled at the green hills, winding roads and scattered buildings. He aimed his control wheel at a wide brown and glass building, landing on a corner of the roof.

  “Okay, time to go to the basement!” he said. He put on his goggles, grabbed his tools, paperwork and tracking device, then jumped out. “Door, door..d…there we are!”

  He phased through the rooftop entrance, going down the stairs while closely monitoring the device. As the cog smith made his way, the screen of his tracker glitched, displaying two small green arrows in addition to the access point.

  “What do we have here?” he said, tapping the screen. The green arrows shifted, returning to the access point then back to their original screen positions. “I guess i’ll have to check that out too,” said the perplexed cog smith.

  He returned to his trek, finally arriving in the basement. He set his toolbox down and pulled out a key, sliding it into his device. “Synching…now. That should do it!” he said. With a twisting motion of the key on the nearest wall, a rusty door appeared. He opened it and stepped inside. The large, otherworldly room was full of glass cogs spinning at their optimal speeds. Deafening ticking bounced through his ears, he could hardly hear himself think.

  “Everything seems to be in order…It is really hot in here, though!” he said looking around. He cupped his paw-like hand to his ear and focused. A faint grinding barely registered.

  Tick-grind.

  Tock-grind.

  He followed the noise down the steamy corridor. It grew louder and louder, so much so, he no longer needed to cup his ear. Grygglebee began to worry, lowering his goggles and cradling his toolbox, he focused upward at the cogs. Then, a crunch under his paw-like feet stopped him in his tracks.

  Glass. Lots of glass.

  “Oh no…no, no no!” he exclaimed. He rounded a corner, finding the culprit. A cog spinning and wobbling at a high rate of speed. All of its teeth were sheared off, solving the mystery of the glass on the ground. He put his toolbox down quickly and tried not to panic.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Okay, okay! I can do this!” he gulped and opened his toolbox.

  The grinding grew louder, causing him to yelp.

  “I’ve gotta do something and quick!”

  He pulled out a wrench, larger than himself. Before he could grab a ladder, popping could be heard coming from the cog. Grygglebee stopped in his tracks and looked up. It was now wobbling uncontrollably. The cog smith picked up his toolbox and backed around the corner. Before he could turn to run, an explosion of glass and steam shattered all nearby gears and shafts. It propelled him toward the door, momentarily knocking him unconscious.

  “Ugh…I feel so groggy…” Jacob thought to himself. He opened his eyes and removed what was covering them. His eyes grew with shock to see a group of people frozen in place on both sides of where he laid. His mouth felt full. He instinctively went to touch it, jumping at the cast on his arm. His mouth housed a contraption he was unfamiliar with. As he tugged on it, the movements caused him to gag. He finally freed himself and sat up.

  “What is happening here…?” he whispered to himself. He pulled the blankets off of him and noticed more bandages. He tried to scratch his head in confusion but was blocked by yet another bandage. He removed it, revealing even more stitching.

  As he went to jump off the bed, he noticed his reflection on a mirror in the room and ran to it. The side of his head was completely shaven.

  “Oh man! I look like a baseball!”

  As he mourned his new haircut, he turned his head to the window by the door. His parents were there. His mother, still with her hand covering her mouth and his father consoling her.

  “Mom, Dad!” he shouted, running into the hall.

  There, he found Katie, Billy, her dad and his grandmother standing near each other and embracing. He was confused and scared. The last thing he remembered was trying to scare Mimi out of the street.

  “Am I…dead…?” he whispered to himself.

  His eyes scanned the hallway. All doctors, nurses and other patients were also frozen in place. He balled his fists, with eyes full of tears and began to sob. He jumped the moment he felt something rub against his leg and looked down.

  “Mimi!?” he exclaimed.

  She let out a soft meow as he bent down to pick her up. He also felt his rear-end expose itself.

  “How did you get here and how are you not frozen too!? What is going on here?” he asked her.

  She stared back with her wide, mismatched eyes. He cradled her and walked over to his parents, putting his face into his mothers back, in an attempt to hug both of them.

  “I’ll find out what’s going on and fix it! I just need some pants first…” he said.

  It is not known how much time has passed by the time Grygglebee stirred awake. He looked at his cracked monitor, the time down to the second was stuck. He got up and grabbed all his tools, placing them back in his box. His glass-covered sandwich was ruined further and beyond saving, so he left it. He shook the shards out of his fur, before walking over to survey the damage.

  “Oh gosh…this is bad. But more importantly, it is not my fault!” he said while looking around, “I need to call this in. More cogs, shafts and smith-power!”

  He changed tabs on his device to the long-distance call service and attempted to initiate contact with the plant.

  “Gryggs to base, we have an emergency!” he announced.

  The device crackled in response – no answer. He disconnected, then reconnected and attempted again.

  “Gryggs to base, come in?”

  The cog smith analyzed the device. They were usually distortion proof, even able to communicate near Rosen Bridges. He restarted the device, just to make sure and attempted again. Another static crackle was its response.

  “This is not good; this is NOT good!” he exclaimed. Grygglebee gathered his toolbox and ran for the door. He switched his device back to the tracking tab and noticed the two arrows were close to each other and now moving.

  He rushed out the door, then back up the stairs, making sure to follow the correct path to the markers. Grygglebee reached the floor, marked with three letters from the local lexicon: I-C-U. When he phased through the door, he carefully tip-toed around. Shifting his eyes between the monitor and surroundings, he peeked around corners and hid behind gurneys.

  Grygglebee noticed the humans were slower than usual. Practically standing still. He inspected one of them closely and confirmed it, immediately associating it with the cog incident. This was no time for distractions, however, as the mystery of the two arrows was unfolding.

  Pulling out his monitor, he took another look. “Okay, these blips are right on the other side of that wall…whatever they are, we’re about to find out” he muttered to himself while carefully backing up and pulling his wrench out of his toolbox.

  The cog smith readied his ‘weapon’ and took a deep breath. He slid around the corner, avoiding more frozen humans, finally coming into view of the markers.

  “Huh, It’s just another human!? That can’t be right!” he said, looking at the human boy that was facing away, “let’s see…” he pulled out his monitor, matching the position of the arrows.

  “There’s also supposed to be two of them as well, how strange…” he analyzed the monitor.

  “Wow…what are you?!” Jacob said.

  “Me? I’m a cog smith and I’m kinda bus—” he stopped mid-sentence and slowly looked up from his device to see a human boy holding a grimalkin. He shrieked, dropping his wrench. Jacob screamed in response, instinctively protecting Mimi.

  “You can see me!? How are you able to move!?” Grygglebee yelled.

  “Yes, and I don’t know!!” Jacob responded.

  “Oh, this is bad! Is it bad, or do I just not understand? Or both?!” he said to himself.

  “Wait, slow down! Please tell me what’s going on?”

  “Human, I will be perfectly honest with you…” he said, turning to Jacob, “I have no clue yet! I need to get back to my chariot and head back to the factory and fill my boss in on this.”

  Jacob looked back at his statuesque friends and family, then back at the strange new being in front of him.

  “Can I come?”

  “What!? Absolutely not! There’s already a catastrophe happening and I do not need to add to it!” he said while hastily organizing his toolbox. He stood to his feet, lifting the box, only for the contents to fall out again. A brass, rod-shaped tool rolled near Jacob’s bare feet. He bent over and picked it up.

  “Oh, cool! Is this some kind of laser weapon?” he said while letting Mimi sniff it.

  “This is a mainspring winder handle!” Grygglebee said as he took the device from the boy. He put it in his toolbox and triple checked the locking mechanism before standing up again. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be going…”

  Jacob followed him to the stairwell door. The cog smith noticed his new tail and tried to walk faster. The boy had no issue keeping up, as Grygglebees legs were too short to outpace him. When they arrived at the door, he phased through it, mystifying both Mimi and Jacob. He opened the door and followed him.

  “You know, there’s an elevator?”

  “I take the stairs to get my workout in.”

  “That’s cool, exercise is important I guess.”

  “Uh, yep…”

  As Jacob bombarded him with questions, the cog smith tried his best to not get annoyed. He just wanted to do his job and go home, but he also needed to figure out what was going on. This task was made harder by his new companion, but he did not know how to tell the boy to leave him alone and didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

  They finally reached the roof access door, which Grygglebee phased through again. Jacob opened it and followed.

  “Wow, a helicopter landing pad! Is that how you got here? Did someone take it?”

  “Nope…”

  The cog smith walked to a quiet corner of the roof, where his vehicle sat idle.

  “Whoa! What is that?!”

  Jacob looked at the vehicle in awe. It was like nothing he had ever seen before, even in his comic books and video games. It had a domed windscreen, sharp edges, and exposed engines. He stood there, with Mimi in his arms and his mouth agape.

  “Well kid, it was nice meeting you. But I must be going,” he said.

  “Um, okay. What should I do?” Jacob asked.

  “Good question! Whatever you want, I guess? Looks like no one's around to stop you…”

  Jacob looked around, even putting his hand over his eyes to observe the surrounding city and hills. He turned back to the cog smith, who was already flipping switches inside his vehicle.

  “Hmm…okay. I’ll just wait for time to restart…I suppose.”

  “Sounds like a plan! Take care!” Grygglebee said while pulling down a lever. “Oh, and you may wanna step back!”

  Jacob looked at the ground behind him, taking a few steps backward as instructed. He looked at the cog smith, who shot him a stubby thumbs up. The vehicle began to roar to life. Jacob held onto Mimi a bit tight, moving further back. As the chariot began to rise up, the wind it generated blew faster. Steam started flowing from the engines as the roared louder, and then…

  A flatulent noise.

  It immediately dropped down to the ground and emit an alarm. Jacob ran over to him with a perplexed expression.

  “Hey, is everything okay?”

  Grygglebee furiously flipped through switches, getting buzzes in return.

  “This is starting to scare me. My TPS is malfunctioning!”

  “Toilet Paper Sh–”

  “Time Positioning System!” he shouted. “It’s what allows me to find destinations within vimen and even my way back home! Oh my gosh…I’m stranded!”

  “I’m sorry… Maybe we can find parts or something around here…”

  “No, parts won’t solve this. There may be an issue with space and time right now, that is why I’m getting worried…” he said in a defeated tone.

  “Well then, I will help you get back home. But first, I need some food!” Jacob said.

  The cog smith perked up. “Food? I like food…”

  “Good, let’s get some! I also need some clothes, so we can stop at my house for both!”

  “Hmm, that’s not a bad idea… Get in!”

  “I thought this thing didn’t work?”

  “It works within the confines of environments. Just not the way I need it to right now, but it’ll still fly and hover.”

  Jacob's face lit up. He ran around to the passenger side and jumped in. Grygglebee powered on the flight engines and placed Mimi down on another seat. They set off, gliding over the city, with Jacob trying his best to navigate. The city looked different from overhead, but monuments helped. Eventually, they made it to the boy's house. The vehicle landed in the driveway, scorching the ground.

  He grabbed Mimi and ran to the front door, stopping to pick up a faux stone with a key inside of it. The cog smith followed him inside, closing the door. He observed all the photos of the boy and his family. All the trophies and awards with ‘J A C O B D A N S O N’ on them.

  “Nice place! One thing that always fascinated me about you humans was that, across millions of timelines, a lot of your architecture is overall the same. There are exceptions though,”

  “Like what?”

  “In some timelines, your species lives in giant shoes. It’s the strangest thing.”

  “There’s a book about something like that here. My Dad read it to me. This is the kitchen; you can make food here while I get changed!”

  “Alright! I’ll see what’s edible!”

  Jacob placed Mimi down and he ran to his room. She stayed behind and observed the larger furry creature rummage through cabinets.

  In Jacobs room, he disrobed and grabbed his most rugged attire. Cargo pants, boots and an old shirt. He took his grandfather's old military-issued utility belt, adjusting the shoulder straps to his size, then put it on. Grabbing his bayonet last and equipping it to the waist portion.

  He left his room and entered his kitchen, finding Grygglebee analyzing a device while holding a mountain of a sandwich.

  “Hey! I saw all the ingredients to make a sandwich and thought ‘why not?’ It’s really groovy knowing your species enjoys them too!”

  “Yes, definitely. What’s on it?”

  “Oh, some of this and some of that! It’s really good!”

  “I’ll take your word for it…” he said, while making a much simpler version for himself.

  “So, I was looking at my calibration tool and I am seeing another anomaly not too far from here. I want to go check it out after I finish this.”

  Jacob opened a can of tuna and placed it down on the ground next to Mimi. He found bowl and filled it with water, also presenting it to her.

  “Your majesty,” he said while petting her. “Can I come?”

  “I suppose, if you want. It’s probably going to be a huge nothing-burger, maybe another human,” he said before biting his concoction. “Hey, do you guys have burgers here?”

  They continued to eat, Mimi finishing first, as she had not eaten in days. The three of them walked outside and entered the craft. Mimi sat on Jacob's lap, looking forward. Grygglebee handed his calibration device to Jacob, both inspecting it.

  “That is the anomaly. It will blink faster when we’re closer. When that happens, you give me a heads up, understand?”

  “Got it,” he said.

  They take off, Grygglebee following the quick route he memorized and waiting for Jacob's word. Jacob himself, looked around at the neighborhood. They were cruising fairly low, just over rooftops this time. He realized they were following the route to Billy’s house. He looked down at the monitor and noticed the anomaly blinking faster.

  “I think we’re here. The thing is blinking really fast!”

  “Okay, initiating landing gear!”

  As the craft lowered, a mirror-like disk came into view. They looked at eachother, then slowly exited the vehicle.

  “What is this?” Jacob asked.

  Grygglebee was too in awe to answer, slowly walking toward it. Jacob looked around at the neighborhood. He saw a few people frozen in place, just like everyone at the hospital. He turned and walked toward the disk.

  “This is so strange…” the cogsmith said.

  Jacob looked closer, then turned around, turning back to the disk again.

  “That’s…reflecting something else.”

  Grygglebee took a closer look.

  “Hey, you’re right! It looks like sandy…like a forest. This must be a ‘date-line gate’, I’ve never seen one up close before!”

  They stood and focused on the disk, Grygglebee taking the calibration tool and analyzing it. While distracted, Mimi’s ear turned to the right. She looked in that direction and stared at the shadows under the cars and still-people. All of them began to stir, growing black spikes and and raising. Mimi shifted around in his arms, catching his attention.

  “Hey, it’s okay! Calm down, we can go back to the car…” he said.

  Jacob turned and began walking in that direction, catching a glimpse of the shifting shadows. He could feel his heart drop and looked at Grygglebee. A shadow near him also stirred. Before he could shout and get the cog smiths attention, entities emerged from the shadows.

  They appeared humanoid, featureless, aside from pitch-black spikes covering their shoulders and forearms. Mimi hissed while Jacob shielded her.

  “Grygglebee! Watch out!” he shouted.

  “Huh...? BY THE SANDS OF TIME!” he said while leaping backward.

  They both ran to the craft and jumped in as the entities closed in. Tendrils began forming from their arms, as if they were reading an attack. Jacob observed as they completely disregarded the frozen pedestrians.

  “Okay, it’s safe to say you have to stick with me for a while!” Grygglebee said.

  The craft powered up and lifted off the ground.

  “Where are we going?!” Jacob yelled.

  “Hang on, we’re going through the gate! Hold your breath or…something!”

  Jacob squeezed Mimi while holding his breath and his eyes tight. The entities tendrils hit the craft as it shot through the gate.