Kairos Trigger Chapter 3

Ancient Fears

By Dark Magus

Unknown Time

"What the @$!@# do you think your doing? Huh?" Amox demanded of Kairo. "Now I don't know where we are, and if there's any chance of getting back to where we WERE!"

"What do you keep shouting about?" Kairo fought back, "You said yourself that Xeno in his position could wreck a lot of havoc in this world! I thought you'd be all FOR catching him!"

Amox shook him, "Don't you get it?! You may have just took away EVERY chance of us getting home!"

"Amox, HOW is it you know SO MUCH about time travel?"

"It's a long story…"

"I've GOT the time!"

"Ok, here it goes. A LONG time ago, I had a fight with my parents. I decided to run away and hide away in a nearby forest. About two years later, one day I saw a blue-hared man running through the forest. I don't know what he was trying to do, but he ended up getting hurt. I took him in. A day later, a couple of travelers came to my forest. They were named, Crono, Marle, Lucca, and Frog. They recruited Magus, as the blue-hared man was called. Me, being curious, I followed them. They led me to a time gate, where I saw them go through.

I figured I had nothing to loose, so I jumped in after them. I ended up in a place called the end of time, where time has no power, and where all timelines connect. There a strange monster took me in and said he was going to give me magic. He DID give me magic, and ever since I have been able to call upon various parts of the earth, up until recently. Anyways, the time travelers were on a mission to destroy a Lavoid, which is a creature that burrows into the earth and drains its powers. They let me join their team. Ever since, I have been on various missions through time with them. That's why I know so much."

"Ok Amox," said Kairo, "One thing I have to get strait. I am a friend with an R-66Y, who was also part of the time traveling team. He has explained all of these things…"

"YOU KNOW ROBO?!"

"Yes, but…"

"If we ever get back to our times, you have to take me to see him, OK?"

"Sure, but I still have one question!"

"What?"

"The original time traveling team is 100 years old! How is it that you're still alive?!"

"That's another long story," said Amox, "I will save it for another day."

"Actually," said a feminine voice from behind the two, "I know."

Kairo and Amox whipped around to find Malia standing behind them.

"Malia, what are you doing here?" they asked in unison.

"Um…" she searched quickly for words, but didn't find any, "I um… decided… to um… see if you're sword was working alright? Yeah, that's it!"

Amox shook his head in frustration, "Malia! Why do you keep doing things like this? Huh? WHY?!"

"LOOK AMOX!" Malia shouted, "You have been my friend for FIVE YEARS! I was even engaged to you once, and never ONCE have you taken me on any of these stupid MISSIONS! I thought for once that I'd be a part of one, whether you like it or not!"

Amox turned with fists clenched. He quickly suppressed his anger and turned again. "Malia, I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"Well I can take care of MYSELF Amox. Now, will you let me join your team?"

"Well I guess I have no choice!" Amox threw his arms up in frustration, "Seeing as how fly-boy here may have screwed our chance of ever getting back to our time, breaking the gate key and all!"

"Look Amox," Kairo strode up to him and glared, "I personally don't like you, AT ALL! But we are in this together, and if we're ever going to stand a chance, we'll have to do it together!"

Amox sunk back, realizing he was defeated, "All, right, let's look for the nearest town, maybe we can find out what time we're in."

*****

Kairo looked down the streets of the town. This was definitely more primitive than 2400 AD, he could see that. There were the standard weapon shops, armor shops, etc… It looked like just a typical town.

"Well," said Amox, "Let's ask what year it is, and where a good metal smith is."

Amox walked up to a man dashing down the street. "Excuse me sir, could you tell me what year it is?"

"What are ya, sum kinda nutcase?" The man asked with a strange look in his eyes. Then he ran away. Amox walked up to another woman, "Excuse me Miss, you wouldn't happen to know what year it is, would you?"

The woman just kept on running, but she pointed behind her with a fearful look. Amox spun to see what she was pointing at. His eyes went wide. There was a sight you didn't see every day. Coming smashing though a nearby forest, was a monster that was so immense it looked as if it would eat the city. Amox could only recognize it as what he would call a Tyrannosaurus Rex. But how did one of those get here? The dinosaurs died off when the original Lavos slammed into the earth like a comet.

Amox caught one more person sprinting down the street. He caught this one by the arms and spun him around. He was a small boy, probably around twelve. "Hey kid, I have to know, what year is this?"

"It's… it's… 1 AD!"

"Thank you," he let the kid go and watched him scurry down the street. "Just as I thought," he directed to Kairo and Malia, "Xeno's got a head start. He's already started tampering with time. The dinosaurs died off 65,000,000 years ago, can anyone tell me why there's one in 1 AD?" pause "Thought so."

Amox drew his daggers from their sheaths. Kairo followed the example and drew his new sword. Malia reached for her weapon, only to find it wasn't there. She had left it back in her store in 700 AD. She thought quickly and ran for a weapon shop. Just her luck, the clerk had run away from the T-Rex too. She was pretty well rounded in weapons, so she thought quickly about which one would go through scales the easiest. The shop had little to no selection, so she decided on katanas. She found the two best-looking katanas on a mount on the wall. She lifted them off and inspected their sharpness. It was sharp. Then she went out to join her friends.

By the time she got out there, Amox had already climbed up the monster's back and was on his head. He jabbed a dagger into the dinosaur's right eye. The monster shrieked in pain and jerked its head. Amox went flying and fell the ten meters to the ground. He landed with a thud and was out cold. Kairo rushed over to help him, but was sideswiped by the monster's tail. He fell to the ground and quickly jumped back up to fight again. Amox would have to wait.

Malia then rushed forward with her katanas in an X. She leaped at the monster and brought her swords down. They just bounced off the scales. "Cheap sword…" she muttered.

Then the dinosaur took another sweep with his tail. It knocked Malia off her feet again and she landed hard on the ground. A sharp pain shot through her left arm.

Kairo looked up at the monster again. The monster glared back with its one good eye. Then Kairo felt a scaled foot smash into his midsection. He fell on the floor and looked up as the monster lifted its foot to stomp on him. Then the monster reared back as a star hit him square in the other eye. Kairo took this moment to jab his sword into the soft part of the monster's foot.

The T-Rex limped away, whimpering and blinded. Kairo had to laugh as it tripped over the timberline and fell on its chin into the forest. Then he turned around to see who his savior had been.

There stood a strange looking man dressed in a white robe. He had a bandanna tied around his head. His hair was a spiky array of red points sticking up in no particular pattern. He had a black belt around his waist and wore no shoes. He resembled an old form of martial arts, Kairo thought. He had a long dirk in a sheath on his left and a bag of throwing stars on his right.

Kairo, trying to be diplomatic, ran up to shake the man's hand. The man karate-chopped his hand out of the way and held his dirk up to Kairo's throat. "Put all of your weapons on the ground," the man said in a gruff voice. Kairo obediently dropped his sword to the ground and gave it a kick. "Good," the man said, "Now, you and your friends are going to jail."

"WHAT?!" Kairo demanded. "We were fighting against the monster too! We're on your side!"

"Then explain to me why the T-Rex and you three ended up here at the same time, other than the fact that he followed you. We haven't had a sighting for ten years, then all of a sudden you show up, and a monster attacks. Give me an explanation."

Kairo told him the story, that they were chasing the bad guy and all of a sudden they got caught in a time warp and ended up here. The guy didn't buy it. "I don't know where you got an explanation like that. The law says if anyone causes a monster attack, they should be locked up."

"WAIT!" Malia said, rushing over. "Think about that for a second, if the town locks us up, the monsters may destroy the town searching for us."

The man thought about that for a second, then said, "All right, get out of here. But never come back. Each and every one of these citizens is in a position to put violators in jail. I was just trying to protect my family."

"Well," Kairo said, "We'd love to get out of here, but you see, we can't"

"Why not?" the man asked.

"We have a device we use to travel, but it is broken. Is there anyone well rounded in machines around here that could fix something for us?"

"My brother is a genius when it comes to machines, but I'm not sure if I trust you around my family. I don't even know you."

"Hi, my name's Kairo. This is Malia, and our unconscious friend over there is named Amox." He offered his hand.

The man took it, "My name's Shane."

*****

"Yeah, I think I can fix it," Shane's brother Carr said, "But I'm still not sure what it's supposed to do. Can you explain?"

Amox explained the gate key to Carr while nursing a gash in his head.

"So you were telling the truth…" Shane said quietly to Kairo.

"That's very interesting," Carr said in wonder. "I think I'll be able to fix it, but I'll need a certain material. I don't know where to find it though. This key was made of a very strange metal that I've only read about. I can rewire the thing easily, but the case is made of a rare metal that won't let electricity escape. I suspect if you use any other metal the person using it could get electrocuted. If you guys could get me the metal, I could fix this for you. Here is the information you need to know." Carr handed Kairo a card with the metal name and it's chemical symbol. "Good luck!" Kairo, Malia, and Amox walked out the door. When they were outside, they were surprised to find that Shane had followed them.

"May I accompany you?" Shane asked.

"Sure," Kairo said, "But why are you helping us? You don't need to."

"Yeah, I know, but I fell bad about doubting you. You were telling the truth and because of it, I almost locked you up. Plus, I know my way around, and I'm almost sure you could use a martial artist."

"OK, you can come. Now I wonder where we should start looking."

"I know where to go," Shane said. "Follow me, and on the way, maybe you can explain to me in detail what you are doing."

The four started off, hopefully to find a way home, but that would be a lot harder than they ever knew.

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TO BE CONTINUED

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