Chrono Continuum Chapter 59
Time Flies
By Cain
Pre-Time
"This is amazing," Lucca remarked to Geddicus.
The man pulled his head out from under the hood of the temporal ship, and looked down. Lucca's legs were sticking out from underneath the vehicle. "What is," he asked.
Lucca pushed herself, with the aid of the wheeled sled, out from underneath the Epoch. She stood up, and twisted her torso, getting her back back in alignment, almost knocking some tools over in the process. The room reserved for mechanical work wasn't as spacious as it had been before they'd moved the Epoch inside, to work on it. She wiped her sleeve across her face, trying to clean one cheek of oil. She only succeeded in smearing it across her nose. "It's not the same," Lucca told him.
"What do you mean," Gedd asked. "The neural net is exactly the same as it was when I made it, with a few nicks and scratches."
"Indeed it is," Robo called from inside the cockpit, "but that is not what she is referring to. Many devices related to time-travel have been altered, in minor, or major ways."
"Yeah," Lucca agreed. "The mechanism used to assign destination has been beefed up. It might be capable of even more precise time travel than it used to be. Apparently, Janus' wife is pretty smart. And that's not the only thing that's different."
"I know what you mean," Gedd called out, his head buried in the trunk again. He pulled a tool out of the backpack he carried around now. "Now that I'm looking away from the brain, I can see some changes. Looks like the weapons system has been pumped up as well."
"Janus' wife must have been planning to use Epoch as a warship," Robo reasoned. "But why would she bother, if the Kingdom's Time Bubble allows travel to any time?"
Lucca placed a dirty hand on her chin. "Perhaps she wished to travel to a specific time, without having known exactly how to get there. I'm assuming that you can't go to a period in history from the Kingdom if you don't know anything about it. But Epoch can take you places you haven't been. Of course, that's just a theory. Maybe she didn't know what systems whe was working on."
Gedd shut the trunk. "I doubt that, but it's possible. Meanwhile, I'm done. How about you, Luc?"
Lucca waved a finger imperiously. "This was not even a challenge for the genius of Lucca the Great!"
Robo jumped down from the cockpit. "Robo the Magnificent has finished working in the cockpit," he announced.
Gedd shook his head. "You guys are nuts. Come on, let's start 'er up," he exclaimed, excited. This would be the second time he'd brought Epoch to life.
He jumped into the cockpit, and Lucca the Great and Robo the Magnificent followed him up. Grinning, Geddicus began to punch buttons. In a moment, systems began to light up. Static sounded from the twin speakers, but soon faded. A few beeps sounded from them, and then a voice sounded out.
"Hello," a man's voice greeted them.
The three of them were shocked. The voice had sounded just like Janus'. "Epoch," Gedd asked, "is that you?"
"Of course it is," Janus' voice sounded from the speakers, "But what did you three do to my voice?"
"We didn't do a thing," Lucca responded. "This must be another alteration Janus' wife made. Maybe she missed him."
Gedd shook his head. "Whatever the case, let's get it back to normal, okay Epoch?" He began to press a few buttons. Periodically, a tone would sound out from the speakers, and Gedd would keep pressing. After one particularly long tone, however, he stopped. "Is your voice back?"
"Testing," the speakers announced in a sultry and slightly seductive voice. "Successful."
Lucca was surprised. Last time she'd heard the voice, it had been rushed, and had seemed worried. Now that she'd heard the voice at its normal levels, she had to say that Gedd must have been pretty company-starved when he rebuilt Epoch.
"Running self-daignostic," she announced. A few moments later, she continued, "Memory for the last few weeks of running time deleted... What am I doing here, Gedd?"
Gedd patted the console reassuringly. "Don't worry. You're fine. You were captured, but we got you back. How do you feel?"
"My internal systems are no longer functioning normally. I'm not sure what their present capacities are. Do you want to test them?"
Gedd looked back at Lucca and Robo for permission. When he got it, he nodded to Epoch.
Epoch began to count down. "Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Takeoff."
They were all blinded momentarily by a bright flash.
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Unknown
As they pulled out of the warp, Epoch banked to the left to dodge a mountain. This warp had been somewhat unstable, and they hadn't been able to keep their normal height. Once everyone had gotten their bearings, they looked out through the glass canopy of the cockpit. They had landed in the middle of a plain, south of a forest, and north of a bridge.
"What time is this," Gedd asked, assuming the other two would know. Fortunately, they did.
"What the... This is 1020 AD," Lucca exclaimed.
"But I don't see any evidence of the Kingdom at all. Where's the war," Gedd asked.
Robo beeped. "There is no war," he replied, "but I don't see how that's possible."
Lucca could barely contain herself. "I do. Don't you two see? This is the year 1020 AD... Before the time waves hit! The Kingdom never existed in this timeline! Come on, let's go. I have to see how everything's going without us around."
"Actually," Robo told her, "You go. We'll try to repair Epoch."
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Same Time
Lucca knocked excitedly on the door. There was no answer at first. She knocked again, and the door opened.
Out stepped a woman that Lucca recognized as her mother, Lara. She was so overjoyed to see her, she nearly burst into tears. "Mom," she exclaimed.
Her mother raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? I believe you have the wrong house."
Lucca drew back in surprise. "What?" Then she took a closer look at her mother. Lara looked more youthful than she had when Lucca had left. Her face was free of wrinkles now, as opposed to graceful age that she usually had. Lucca looked down, and saw a little girl clinging to Lara's dress. She wore glasses.
"You're right," Lucca told her mother, "This is the wrong house."
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Same Time
Robo beeped to alert Gedd of the return of Lucca. Gedd snorted as he woke up. They'd fixed Epoch, and he had fallen asleep in the back seat waiting for Lucca.
Lucca jumped into the front seat of the cockpit, a disappointed look on her face.
"What's up," Gedd asked.
"I went to my house, but it wasn't the same. My mom was younger, and I saw myself as a child. Too bad. I was hoping to see my mom and dad again."
Gedd and Robo looked at eachother. Robo placed a hand on Lucca's shoulder. "Lucca, don't you realize what this means? Epoch can now take us not only to alternate timelines, but to any conceivable time."
"That's right," Lucca exclaimed, just now realizing it. "Epoch couldn't take us anywhere but certain designated eras before. Now she can take us to any time, including my childhood. Amazing. Do you realize what this means? We can go back in time and rescue Rakin, Crono, and Magus from ever being captured!"
At this point, Epoch spoke up. "I don't think so, Lucca. From what I remember, the four of us were overrun the last time I tried to rescue them. What makes you think I won't be captured this time as well."
Lucca nodded, conceding the point. "I guess you're right. But there has to be some use we can put this new ability to."
"Let us go back to our friends in 602 AD," Robo suggested. "Perhaps together we think of something."
Lucca nodded. "Epoch, can you take us back to 602 AD, in the Kingdom timeline?"
"Now that I've adjusted my systems, yes I can. Hang on," she told them, and the glass canopy slid shut. She rose up into the air, and shot forward, warping out.
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602 AD
They pulled out of the warp, and looked down. It looked like the correct time and timeline. In a moment, they had spotted the cabin.
Lucca gasped. The cabin seemed to be surrounded by a ring of creatures, all of them pitch black. "What the hell's going on here," Lucca asked.
"It appears that the Kingdom has found our sanctuary," Robo reasoned.
Lucca nodded, and was about to reply, when a sudden impact jarred the ship, causing its flight to dip for a moment. "What was that," Gedd yelled.
Another impact forced Epoch into banking to the left. Only Lucca's deft piloting helped it miss a tall tree. "Something's attacking us," Lucca exclaimed.
"No kidding," Gedd yelled sarcastically.
"I do not think 'something' is the correct term," Robo announced, looking behind them, "It should be 'someone'."
Lucca looked back. She didn't see anything. But when she turned back to the front, she gasped in surprise. There was someone, a person, apparently standing in the ship's path. She pulled up, just barely missing him, and straightened the flight path back out. "What was that," she yelled.
"Him," Gedd responded, pointing to their right.
Lucca looked, and gasped in surprise. Flying beside them was a man, without a ship of any kind. He looked like a knight in full black battle armor, with one exception: He had long black wings that branched out from between his shoulders. The wings flapped every few moments, whenever his glide started to wane. He turned his face towards the ship, and smiled at its inhabitants. Then he sank down out of their sight.
"What the Hell was that," Gedd asked.
"Whatever it was, it can't be good," Lucca responded.
"Nor can that," Robo announced, pointing to the left.
Lucca looked, expecting to see the same person. She didn't.
Once again, the shape beside them was that of a human. But this one was wearing a steel body suit, from head to toe, almost as if it was a robot. The shape of the suit revealed that this one was female. A contraption attached to her back emitted a jet of flame, propelling her along at a rate of speed equal to that of Epoch.
She turned her head to them as well, but the face of her suit had no expression at all. She simply pointed forward, and flew off to the side.
Lucca looked to where the woman had pointed, and gasped in surprise. A huge fireball was right in front of them, and coming toward them. Lucca dropped Epoch's flight path downward, just in time to avoid being burnt to a crisp.
Epoch made a rough crash-landing on the ground, sliding along for about twenty feet. The cockpit opened, and out jumped Lucca, Gedd, and Robo. The cockpit closed behind them.
"So sorry about that fireball thing," a voice called, from above. It was the winged man. He dropped down to the ground. "I forgot that we weren't supposed to damage the ship. But, at least you managed to dodge it." He smiled. "And now that you're on the ground, it will be relatively easy to kill you and take your ship. Right, Caerina," he called, looking up.
The woman lowered down to about twenty feet off the ground, and dropped the rest of the way, making a small crater as she landed. She pulled off her mask, revealing a pretty, smiling face, with short hair. "Right, Wethreem."
"Let me guess," Lucca told them, "You two are Hellbound, right?"
Caerina laughed. "She really is a genius, eh, Wethreem?"
The winged knight laughed as well. "You betcha. Pretty, too. Too bad she has to die."
"It's very impolite to talk about people in the third person," Robo announced.
Wethreem shrugged. "So what? I'm about to kill you anyway. Unless your friend and I can work out some sort of deal..."
Lucca raised an eyebrow. "Sorry. The wings turn me off."
Wethreem's head lowered. "Damn. Same thing every time. Maybe I should get these things clipped, or at least trimmed, so they look nice."
Caerina patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry. I think they're very becoming."
"Look," Lucca announced, "This conversation is very interesting, but let's get this over with. If you keep talking like this, we won't get back to the cabin until our friends have killed off all of your demons, and then we won't have any fun."
Caerina nodded. "Of course. What were we thinking?" She pulled out a very large gun from behind her back.
"Quite right. We didn't mean to be rude," Wethreem agreed, and pulled out twin curved swords from twin sheaths.
Gedd smiled. "Here's a chance to try out my new invention," he announced, and pushed a button on his utility belt.
A two-dimensional circle of light appeared above his head, and lowered over him. As it passed over his body, his arms and legs were covered by what looked like mechanical armor.
He laughed at Lucca's surprised face. "I used your Gate Key technology and hooked it up to this armor, so that I can summon it from where I left it at the Beginning of Time, any time I want to. It increases my abilities by a surprisingly high amount. You like?"
Lucca nodded, and pulled out her guns, facing the Hellbound. "Well, now that we're all armed, what do you say we start this already?"
Wethreem nodded. "Very well then." He rose up in the air, and slashed his sword. A huge fireball flew from the blade, towards the three Travelers.
Maybe I should have stalled a little longer, thought Lucca.
.
"We'll ride the wind, babe."
- Johnny
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