The Time-Traveling Object

“Oh Cheshire why do you always have to climb up so high?! You may look like a cat, but you are still very much a robot. Your parts get damaged! And not only that, but this time you’ve lost a gear too, ah bloody hell, I’ll have to find a new one.” Trixie scolded.

“Me-owowowow?” Cheshire attempted to purr.

“Oh well that’s great, now your audio box is ruined too? This day just keeps getting worse and worse.”

Despite being so angry at Cheshire, Trixie gently lifted him up into her arms and began walking towards the marketplace. In most places, a market would mean a place to buy fruits and vegetables, but here in London, they did things a little differently. As she turned a corner, a big smile grew on her face seeing the stalls full of cogs, gears, fuels, unknown liquids, propellers and glass pieces, just everything you could ever need to get something up and running. The Covent Garden Market Place was like a second home to Trixie; it was where she’d always gone to start a new idea.

“Right, now we just have to find the right sized cog…” The spikey haired brunette gulped as she began the daunting task.

Walking through the place was nearly impossible. It was jam packed full of people from all over the globe, tourists and inventors alike, from wide-eyed children to experienced grandparents, buyers, sellers, traders, everything and anyone you could ever imagine was here. Carefully shielding Cheshire, Trixie scanned the various stalls for a cog about the size of her ring finger. She was worried, smaller cogs were difficult to find, and making sure they were of good quality for a cheaper price was very important – she didn’t have much, but her cat was family, and Trixie couldn’t let him live like that. Pushing through the crowd she came up to a booth covered in various little parts. Shifting through, she realized that it would take me hours to find anything-

“Whoa!” She exclaimed as Cheshire jumped out of her arms and landed on the table.

The owner of the booth narrowed her eyes, and in a raspy voice demanded, “What is your cat doing on my table?! I’m trying to attract customers and your pet messing everything up!”

Apologizing profusely, Trixie lifted Cheshire up and off the table and left Covent Garden in a hurry – she would’ve prefered not to be thrown out.

“Cheshire, why are you making my life so difficult?! I’m trying to help you here and-”

“Mmmhhhheow,” he said with something in his mouth.

“Cheshire, what ever is in you mouth you better spit it out right now…”

Cheshire stared at me with his golden-rimmed eyes.

“Drop it…”

With a satisfying clink it hit the ground. Kneeling down to pick it up, Trixie’s brows narrowed in confusion.

“Is that- a gear?”

Cheshire stared up at her innocently. The gear was unusual, it was small and had 12 ridges – but that wasn’t what fascinated her. Although it was silver, it sparkled as if a thousand gems had been smashed into it, creating a glittering effect. Holding it up to the light, the gear was see through, transparent even, and a strange liquid moved inside it, at least that’s what Trixie thought it was.”

“It’s… the perfect gear for you, even thought it’s not like any gear I’ve ever seen… Cheshire, where did you find this?”

If a cat could shrug, that’s what he did.

“Wait did you steal it?! Oh bloody hell that’s why you jumped on the table – you stole something. We stole something! What am I going to do?! Do I return it? Maybe if I return it I won’t be arrested, do you think that’d work?” Trixie spoke rapidly.

“Mrrrrrrooooowww,” Cheshire whined.

“Well, what do you want to do then?”

Cheshire lay down on the dusty floor and rolled over, exposing his underbelly plate, and gestured it with his tail.

“Are you kidding me right now? You want me to use it?! Granny Olivia told me stealing was wrong!”

The metallic cat’s eyes grew wide as it began to plead.

“Oh c’mon don’t look at me like that! You know this is wrong…”

The eyes grew even larger.

“Oh fine! We’ll try it – why did I ever programmed that into you?”

Reaching into her trench coat, she pulled out a small screwdriver and pulled her goggles over her eyes to magnify what she was doing. After unscrewing the bolts at each corner of the underbelly, Trixie lifted the plate and looked inside. The broken cog was obvious. It was brown and rusted, and had a large crack running through it.

“Okay, when I take this out you’ll be shut down for a bit – as soon as I’m done you’ll wake right back up. Ready?”

Cheshire gave a small smile and nodded in understanding.

Reaching inside with a steady hand, she removed the rusted gear. Cheshire’s body began to tense up, and eventually every body part froze, along with his golden-rimmed eyes once they’d closed. The gears inside him began to slow, and eventually everything stopped. The quiet hum that would usually emanate from him died away, and not a single sound was heard. She hated doing this; it removed anything that made Cheshire real, he was nothing but a mesh of parts now. Delicately, she picked up the sparkling, glittering cogwheel and carefully put it in place.

Suddenly, the gear began to glow with a radiant blue light, blinding Trixie momentarily as it reflected off of Cheshire’s silver shell. The cogs, gears and miscellaneous parts inside Cheshire began to spin as normal once more. His tail twitched, his claws seethed then retracted, and soon enough his muscles relaxed. When his eyes opened once more, they shone a blue light.

“Mrrrrrow!!” Cheshire screeched in confusion, with his ears flattening in fear.

“Cheshire what did that thing do?! You’re glowing, lit-er-ally! Wait, why is your nose red?!”

Cheshire’s glowing blue eyes focused in on his now red flashing nose. Leaning in closer, Trixie reached out and gently held his face.

“Don’t move a second, I want to see what it is.”

With wide, curious eyes, she raised her index towards his nose. Gulping hard, her fingertip lingered over it.

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

She pressed it.

Trixie felt her body being violently ripped out of her own body as her world disintegrated around her. Flashes of reds, blues, oranges and greens blinded her vision but when she closed her eyes she could still see them. She felt her stomach in her throat as she felt herself falling, flying even – she had no clue. Soon the colours began to swirl and shift before her, her vision slowly fading. Her head felt lighter than it had ever been, and with one final breath her consciousness left her.