Chapter Text
2007
The young man crept quietly along the outer wall of the building, his partner not far behind. “Shawn, this is a really stupid idea,” Burton Guster, better known as Gus, whispered fiercely. “Detective Lassiter told us to stay in the car.”
Shawn Spencer, pseudo-psychic extraordinaire, paused and glanced back at the other young man, smirking. “Gus, don’t be a cash-only toll booth. When Lassie says “stay”, he really means “follow us as soon as we leave the car”.” Gus frowned, “No, I’m pretty sure he means stay, as in don’t move.” Shawn tsked before continuing to creep along the wall, Gus following behind, albeit reluctantly.
You see, Shawn, Gus and the SBPD were currently investigating a mechanical engineering professor, Dale Myles, at the University of California-Santa Barbara, accused of murdering his partner, Liam Studwick. Shawn had psychically divined that the professor and his partner had been using government funding to finance a secret project and were using an abandoned warehouse by the docks to hide said project, which was where Shawn, Gus and SBPD detectives Carlton Lassiter and Juliet O’Hara were currently located.
Shawn paused when he came to a window and, crouching low, tried to peer into the warehouse. Inside, he saw professor Myles typing on a laptop next to the most bizarre looking machine Shawn had ever seen. It consisted of a large metal platform connected to what appeared to be several projectors surrounding the platform. All of this was connected to what appeared to be an enormous industrial engine, set to full blast and emitting a strange bluish-green light from within. The engine was making so many strange, groaning, creaking sounds that Shawn wondered if the machine was even capable of fully operating without imploding first.
He turned to Gus and made a series of strange hand gestures and facial expressions like he was trying, and failing, to communicate in sign language. Gus smacked him in the shoulder and told him to quit messing around. Shawn glanced back indigently before carefully attempting to open the window. It pushed open smoothly and Shawn grinned triumphantly.
“We’re in,” he said. “In? The window is five feet off the ground,” Gus exclaimed in a harsh whisper. “How the hell are we supposed to get inside?” Shawn tapped his finger to his lips thoughtfully before snapping his fingers. “I’ve got it! You get down on all fours, I’ll stand on your back and pull myself through the window,” “You must be out of your damn mind!” Gus exclaimed, a little too loudly. “I just got these pants dry cleaned and I will not have them soiled on this rodent-infested industrial dirt,” Shawn let out an exasperated sigh, “Man! Will you just get down on your hands and knees already? Lives may be at stake!” Gus pointed a finger at Shawn in a “you so owe me” sort of way. “Fine, but you’re paying for my dry cleaning,”
Gus dropped down and Shawn quickly stood on his back and pulled himself through the window. He dropped onto the concrete floor with a light thud and swiftly glanced around to make sure they hadn’t been discovered yet. Gus’ face appeared in the small window. “Alright, now help me up,” After some leaps, a bit of struggling and a lot of complaining on both sides, Gus made it inside the warehouse as well.
They quickly hid behind a large stack of crates. Shawn held up three fingers, indicating that they would jump out on the count of three. Gus shook his head quickly from side to side, but Shawn only grinned and nodded excitedly, bring his fingers down one at a time. When all three fingers were down, Shawn rushed out from behind the stack of crates towards the professor and the machine, Gus groaned before rushing out after his friend.
They had almost reached the professor just as detectives Lassiter and O’Hara burst through the door, advancing on the professor with their guns drawn. “SBPD! Step away from the machine and put your hands up!” came Carlton’s loud and clear command. The professor quickly spun around, hands raised in surrender, glancing between Shawn and Gus and the detectives. “Well, looks like it’s all over for you, Myles,” said Shawn. The professor let out a half chuckle. “This has all been a huge misunderstanding. This is a highly top secret, government research project, you people can’t be here,”
“Oh, but I believe we can Professor Klump,” said Shawn, raising his finger to his head as he prepared to have a “psychic revelation” before twisting and twitching his head violently to one side like he was having a seizure. “Ooh! You and your partner used the grant the government was giving you to fund your mechanical engineering research project… thingy… to fund a completely different project; a project you and Studwick didn’t want anybody, including the government, to get their hands on,” Quickly, he rushed towards the table, eyes shut, and began to riffle through all the papers that lay there, scattering drawings, mathematical equations and other research notes everywhere. “Hey, stop messing with that! I had it all organized!” exclaimed the professor. He glanced over at Carlton and Juliet, a look of utter astonishment on his face, “Is he always like this?” he asked. “Yes,” Carlton and Juliet answered at the same time.
Shawn suddenly seized a seemingly random piece of paper (he’d glanced at the table beforehand and had noticed a certain piece of paper with some particularly interesting notes written all over it). “Yes! I can feel it!” he exclaimed, bringing the paper to his head and rubbing it all over his face. He snapped his eyes open and held the paper for everyone to see. “Professor Myles here and his partner were dabbling in a little project some believe to be impossible. Something only to be seen in movies or by writers who have clearly begun to run out of ideas,”
Gus scanned the paper Shawn was holding before frowning in confusion and disbelief. “A Tesseract? Like the four-dimensional shape in geometry? A cube within a cube?” Everyone stared at Gus in bewilderment, the way they always do when he sudden sprouts an intelligent fact. “Actually,” began the professor, “it’s more like the Tesseract from A Wrinkle in Time.” Gus’ jaw sudden dropped in shock as understanding flooded his brain. “Wait, A Wrinkle in Time?” said Juliet in confusion, “Isn’t that a book? What does a book have to with any of this?” “Because, in the book, the main character’s father is working on a mysterious project called a Tesseract, which is later revealed to have the capacity for…”
“Time travel!” Shawn suddenly exclaimed, wanting to be the one to deliver the punchline. “Myles and his partner were developing the technology to travel through time,”