Chrono Continuum Chapter 3
Temporal Roulette
By Cain
Timeless
If Rakin and his sister had been amazed at the speed that initiated the time
warp, they were more amazed at the warp itself. As they watched, the world
around them seemed to bend and swirl in on itself, much as painting with water
splashed on it. The swirls eventually formed into a circle, which Lucca flew
right through. Corea and Rakin had to stare in awe at the sight around them.
Lines and forms of nameless colors moved about them in waves, and Lucca would
occasionally fly through what appeared to be a wall, but seemed to open up as
they got closer to it, as if flying through a hole too small to see from far
away.
After a long moment, Rakin thought of something. "Lucca?" he began.
She turned toward him. "Where, uh, make that when are we going?"
She looked at her instruments. After a moment, she turned back toward him. Corea
was now paying attention as well. Lucca casually replied, "I haven't the
slightest idea." At the look on Rakin's face, she laughed and explained,
"Don't worry. I've set the Epoch to find the source of the time waves. It's
taking so long for us to get there because Epoch's never been there, or then.
When we find the source, we come out of the warp, bust some heads if necessary,
and stop the disturbance. It shouldn't be too hard," she finished, turning
back, unruffled. Corea seemed to accept that and went back to admiring the warp.
But Rakin just felt very nervous. There was a tingling at the base of his neck,
and he could almost hear the whistle of wind off a mountaintop. And he knew what
that usually meant by now.
"Lucca!" he suddenly exclaimed, right in her ear, almost. She slapped
her hand over her ear and looked back at him with the same What's the matter
with you? scolding look he often gave Corea.
She shouted back at him, annoyed. "What!?"
"Lucca, what would happen if we encountered a time wave while
warping?"
"All of our systems would temporarily shut down, due to our link with time
flow. The same would happen if we weren't warping. Why?"
"Well what would happen to us if we were caught mid-warp, and out systems
shut down?" he yelled over the background sound of the mountaintop wind,
which was now a shrill whistle. He shivered. Corea was now paying attention.
"I don't know where we'd go," Lucca replied, unsure where he was going
with this. "But we probably wouldn't stay here in the warp. We'd probably
fall out into whatever era we were moving through. But, please, tell me why
you're so-"
She didn't finish as everyone in the Epoch was thrown around in the small ship.
Corea hit her head on the glass top and let out a loud "Ouch!!" Rakin
ended up on his head with his back against Lucca's front seat. Lucca had been
thrown forward onto her back on the control panel, but managed to get back into
her seat correctly after a moment's shifting. As Rakin began to move into
sitting position, he noticed her press her hand to the side of her headphone and
speak into the miniature microphone in front of her mouth. "Note to self:
Invent straps to secure seats. Uhhh... Seatbelts."
She quieted as she saw the area up ahead. The warp had a discolored clear wall
moving along the tunnel at a fantastic rate towards the ship. As the Epoch
slammed through the wall, the ship suffered another huge jolt, and everyone was
thrown from their seats again as the engines shut down and restarted.
This time, Lucca hit her head and let out a very feminine yelp, but she was soon
back to examining the systems. Rakin now noticed that several of the lights had
gone out, and one big, red light was flashing on and off. It would have been
nice if you'd warned us sooner, he silently scolded the light. It ignored his
thoughts and kept blinking.
Lucca was pressing buttons at a phenomenal rate, and Rakin looked over to see
that his sister was hanging on for dear life. He noticed blood soaking into her
brown hair, staining it red. Lucca turned back, still knowing which buttons to
press without looking, and yelled, "I think more are coming. We might be
able to outrun them if we can turn back, and start moving to the future. A few
more of those, and we could drop straight out of the warp into who knows where.
Brace for impact! I'm setting the temporal thrusters in reverse."
She turned back, and began to press buttons even more rapidly, if possible. The
two teens lurched forward, as the force propelling them forward suddenly
reversed. Lucca managed to stay upright. The siblings managed to sit up straight
just as the ship began to rush backwards, causing them to slam into the front
seat. Lucca didn't notice. She was too busy trying to run the ship backwards to
pay attention to anything else. The teens got upright again, and looked around.
The warp tunnel turned red around them, but went back to bluish as they passed
the area, causing a red ring to constantly follow them through the tunnel. Corea
looked forward (towards the front of the ship) and screamed, "Lucca,
look!" Lucca looked up only long enough to notice another clear wall moving
towards them, fast enough to catch up in a few minutes, and went back to the
controls.
The wall came on, inexorably, never wavering. They could see it as it loomed
directly in front of them, and Lucca pushed a lever near to the breaking point.
A loud buzzing sound filled the cockpit.
"Hang on, kids," Lucca yelled, and pulled another lever back, just as
the time wave slammed into and through them. Everyone was thrown all around the
Epoch, and a few cracks formed in the glass dome overhead. When all was settled,
Rakin noticed two things. One, he and Corea had inadvertently switched seats.
And two, they were moving forwards again.
"Damn!! Lucca, what happened?" Rakin yelled.
"Calm down," Lucca yelled back. "We're almost out!" Indeed,
he looked around, and saw that the red ring was still following them. They were
going the right way. That wave must have turned us around! he realized.
"You bet it did," Lucca yelled.
"How did you know what I was thinking?" Rakin yelled. Corea and Lucca
both yelled, "Thinking!? We heard you fine." Rakin didn't have time to
ponder it, because he turned and saw a wave moving through the tunnel, bearing
down on them. He looked back to the front and saw a black hole, growing all the
time before them. The end of the warp? He looked back and forth, hoping
that they would make it through. The hole grew to encompass his entire field of
vision, just as a huge jolt rocked the ship.
And there was only darkness.
Unknown
Rakin woke up with the worst headache he'd had since he had tried beer one night
and woke up in the kitchen in the morning, with his allowance missing and a
pierced left ear.
Come to think of it, this was worse.
He looked around and saw his sister and his dad's best friend. Lucca was now,
inexplicably, wearing a pink ball gown, and was on the control panel, unmoving.
He began to move toward her when he saw her chest fall and rise. He watched this
a few more times before he realized that it meant she was still alive. He
watched for a while anyway. Just to make sure, he told himself. After he tore
his gaze (he almost heard a ripping sound as he did so) from that area, he
looked her over, this time really to check her condition. There was a gash on
her arm that didn't look good, but he didn't see fit to worry about infection at
the moment.
He then turned toward his sister. She, too was breathing. Her hair was still
soaked in blood. I'd better check on that. He went to her, and after
examining her, found her somewhat pale. She had obviously lost a lot of blood.
He checked for the exact site of the head wound, and found an ugly gash. I'll
need a bandage for that. He then looked over her to see if her clothes had
changed. They had. She now wore what looked like a grey soldier's uniform, and
had two sticks attached to her belt. Apparently weapons. He looked a
moment longer, then tore of a strip of cloth all the way around the bottom of
her shirt. She'll like it better that way anyway, he thought. His sister
was so thin, however, that the strip of cloth barely fit all the way around her
head.
Rakin himself was muscular, and definitely not thin. At that thought, he looked
at himself and saw that he was wearing a uniform identical to that of his
sister's, except that it was blue. On his shoulder were two bars sewn to his
uniform. He looked on his sister's shoulder and saw three bars. She outranks
me! he thought incredulously. Trying to forget about that, he began to look
around. Half of the glass around them was shattered. Outside, Rakin could see
mist all around. On closer inspection, he saw mist. He strained his eyes to
their limit and was barely able to see... Mist. Great. He jumped as he
heard a rather loud voice from nowhere in particular.
"Hey, Gaspar, the boy's awake. The others aren't yet." Rakin looked
around, and then up, and, through the mist, and was barely able to see what
looked like a ceiling. Was he in a room? A really big, misty room? He noticed
some slight movement at the edge of the form, and realized he was actually under
something that was floating above him.
Another voice, this one quieter, and yet still from seemingly out of nowhere,
came to his ears. "Boy, jump out of the Epoch." Rakin was shocked to
find that this voice knew of the ship, but decided not to question the source of
the knowledge.
He looked down, and, to his distress, saw nothing but more mist. "I'm not
really fond of leaps of faith," he yelled back. "Suppose you tell me
where I'll land."
The old man's voice countered with another question. "Do you know Crono, or
did you steal this ship, not knowing what it was?"
Once again, Rakin wondered at the man's knowledge. "He's my dad," he
yelled back.
"Well, then jump out of the Epoch, boy. I'm an old friend. A very old
friend."
Rakin could think of nothing better to do, so he braced himself, and jumped out
of the side of the ship. The mist parted almost immediately, and he saw that he
was about to land on a man in a low-key brown suit. Rakin was almost on the man
when the stranger looked up and shouted out, in alarm, "Spekkio!"
Rakin braced for the impact, but he suddenly found himself floating above the
man. The old man backed up and peered up at him from underneath a brown derby as
Rakin slowly floated to the ground, until he suddenly dropped the last two feet
and landed chest first. He heard the man's voice again, scolding now, "Spekkio!"
He heard a chuckle in the opposite direction as he rolled over, trying to get
his lungs working again.
As he got onto his back, he saw the old man walk away and lean on a lamppost
that flickered on and off. Rakin blinked. Electricity? Here?A small form
was next to the stranger, but Rakin's vision was blurred, and he decided to look
elsewhere for a moment. As he looked around, he could see a fence all around the
area that suddenly stopped at one point, a huge hole that had obliterated
whatever had been in that area. What had smashed a part of the platform?
He slowly got up and walked to the man. He now saw that the form next to the old
man was a small, furry, harmless looking animal. The man once again murmured,
the word "Spekkio," and the furry animal pointed an arm at Rakin.
Rakin suddenly stood up with a snap, and he felt more refreshed than he could
remember feeling in a long time. He walked over to the two figures, feeling his
sheath bouncing against his leg. He looked down, and realized that his sheath
was now bigger than his sword, and the blade had room to bounce around in the
roomy area. If his clothes did, his sword never seemed to change, according to
the handle. He made a presumption.
"Gaspar?" he inquired of the old man, remembering the name Spekkio had
called. He was rewarded with a smile.
"That would be me. Welcome to the End of Time, son of Crono. We'll be
seeing each other often."
"I came, I saw... I got blowed up."
Ernest P. Warrell, Ernest Goes to Jail
.