Guardia's Finest Chapter 1
By Captain Gaul
It started out like a typical day. I had just left Guardia Castle after checking with the Chief of Guard about something-some trivial manner, I can't remember what. I had just entered the forest, thinking to myself how they really should post a team in there to clear out the wildlife, and maybe even clear the place and build a road through it, when I heard something run. I saw something run, too. To me, someone running is someone suspicious. Being a loyal member of Guardia's Finest, I naturally pursued the someone.
Why couldn't I left well enough alone? As the old man with the strange hat standing under the lamppost said, "There are no accidents in time travel." Which I took to mean I was meant to follow the sound. They tell me the man's from the Kingdom of Zeal. I always thought they were philosophical types back then.
So as I chase the sound, I find myself in a clearing. A dead end clearing. And who else should be there but Princess Nadia and...my buddy Crono! (Note that the sarcasm. I've had to arrest that ruffian twice before, and I was the one who brought him to King Guardia on the final day of the Millennial Fair.)
I think Crono recognized me, too, but said nothing. (Does the boy EVER talk? I've heard other people refer to him talking, and acting like he's talking, but I sure don't hear him speak.) Princess Nadia also recognized me, but in a somewhat different way. I've never had to arrest her, yet.
"What are you doing here, Captain?"
"Princess Nadia...what's going on here?"
Suddenly, a blue light opened out of nowhere. Princess Nadia and Crono stepped into it. I fell into it.
OK, I admit it. I screamed. Not exactly like a girl, but still louder and with more terror than you'd expect of a veteran like me. It's a new feeling, have your body dissolved into tiny pieces, ripped through time, and being reassembled on the other end!
Here's a side effect of time travel, at least by TimeGate, that they don't talk about. If you don't enter the right way, namely, all at once, whatever part of you entered first falls asleep by the time you're all the way through. You know, the pins and needles sensation? That was all over my lower body when I popped out the other end of the TimeGate.
Of course, I wasn't so worried about the lack of blood flow to my legs as I was about my new location. A place of metal. A place of cold. A place with a musty smell in the air, like that of a long dead tomb.
Here's another side effect of time travel. If it's your first time traveling to the future, there's a good chance you could black out.
Before I lived out this side effect, I heard Princess Nadia say the words "Robo's right. Something went wrong."
.