CYA: The Guard & The ChronoGuard Nip It In The Bud

NOTE: if you did not jump to this chapter as a result of the Choose Your Adventure story, please go here before reading any further!


ChronoGuard Ben looked at the judge. "are you ready?"

the judge nodded. "okay, let's get this over with."

ChronoGuard Ben gave a cheshire cat smile as he & the judge faded out of modern day san francisco and reappear in an unexpected setting.

the judge looked around, startled. "where are we? when are we?"

"philadelphia, 1792."

"i thought we were going to boston, 1876," the judge declared. "why are we here?"

"i thought it would be easier to convince me not to go in the first place, rather than try to fix things after i already get there."

"that's logical," the judge admitted. "to the extent that that word can be applied to any part of this story."

"that's one that that," ChronoGuard Ben warned him. "given the brevity of this story, the Council of Genres will be closely monitoring our discourse to ensure that we do not employ another such syntactically confusing construction."

"roger."

"yes?" a man stepped out of a doorway to meet them.

"ah, roger!" ChronoGuard Ben greeted the newcomer. "your honor, this is my apprentice, roger."

"the one you wanted to set sierra up with?"

ChronoGuard Ben nodded. "the same. what do you think? oh, and do be careful with your dialogue, sir. you just ended a sentence with not one but two prepositions! the Council of Genres will not be pleased."

the judge shook his head as he examined roger. "no. see how his left eye is set fractionally higher on the face than his right eye? she'd never go for that."

"hmmm, right you are," ChronoGuard Ben agreed. "now, roger. am i in the workshop at the moment?"

"no, sir. you're out here in the alley."

"good man. why don't you go out and get us some cheesesteak subs?"

"pat's or geno's?"

ChronoGuard Ben said "pat's" and the judge said "geno's" simultaneously.

roger shrugged and walked off down the street.

"let's go."

the walked inside and walked to a room in the back. ChronoGuard Ben opened a door and they found colonial ben tinkering at a work bench.

"there you are!"

colonial ben looked up and said, "among other places, it seems. so, does it work?"

ChronoGuard Ben nodded. "yes. so well, that i've become an honorary member of the ChronoGuard!"

"the ChronoGuard?"

"it's sort of a time-enforcement agency. you can't imagine how complex and fragile time really is. it requires constant monitoring."

"is that why you're here?"

"yes. we think it's best for you to know that your invention works, but not to actually use it."

colonial ben nodded. "i can accept that."

"do you use the device to visit us in the Pub?" the judge asked.

the bens shook their heads. "no. that's entirely burkie's doing."

the judge felt a vein throb in his forehead as he watched the bens speaking in stereo. "can we go now?"

"what about our cheesesteaks?"

"what cheesesteaks?" colonial ben asked.

"we sent roger," ChronoGuard Ben told him.

"oh, i can stay long enough for my cheesesteak," the judge sat in a chair. "i don't want it to go to waste."

"did you get one for me?"

"er...so, what other inventions are you working on?"

"hmph."


THE END
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Dear Reader,


You have reached the end of your adventure. I hope you enjoyed it! If not, well, you only have yourself to blame because, you know, you chose it yourself. Also, since you--not I--chose this adventure, it did not really take place in the Burkieverse and, therefore, will not have any continuity with the regular Poor Yorick's Pub chapters. Thanks for playing and, if you're in the mood to try another adventure, go back to the beginning and choose a different path!