A/N: Hey everyone. Yup. This is a new story! I planned on doing another one, but that may just be a oneshot since I'm still busy finishing up Relapse (all the chapters are outlined, just need to write out the details). I'll post a few chapters of this story, but isn't fully drawn out since most efforts are to finish the other story.
Speaking of which, this is separate as far as continuity, and takes place at the end of season 2.
Enjoy!
"Stop right there!"
"He's getting away!"
"Where did he go?"
"... Over there! I saw a flash of something!"
"... Wait! Chase hold on!"
"Locke! Hurry or we'll lose him!"
….
A ripple in the water.
A flutter of a wing.
What are the things that create discord amongst the free.
What are the things that divulge the path and create anew?
…..
Chase woke with a gasp, his body jerking upward and the shaking going on all around him. After a few seconds, it stopped, leaving him panting heavily. It took him a minute, but he was able to steady himself enough to wipe the sweat from his face. As his vision started to clear, he could see stars hovering overhead.
"Oh what a nightmare," he said, realizing how dark it was out, "Jin. Bren. What time is it?"
No response. Blinking, Chase looked up to see that he was actually in a park. It didn't look familiar at all, though it explained why he had a sudden ache in his back. The bench he slept on was way too stiff. How'd he even fall asleep there? In fact, where was he?
"Um... Guys? If this is a prank, you got me," he said, sitting up and putting his feet on the ground. He felt more stable, glancing for some sort of life. The sun was just starting to peak up above the horizon, warming up the sky. Chase shivered, now realizing how cold he was. Did he really just fall asleep in some random park?
He made a move to get up, but found he had moved too fast, and immediately sat back down, holding his head. What was he doing before this... If he remembered right, he and the others had received medals of honor for stopping the Hand of Destiny. Wait. That happened last week. He was reunited with his mother... And then...
He scratched his head, and in the end decided that waiting for someone would be a good solution. At least S.T.O.R.M. will find him soon enough, then he can get back to helping his parents move into the cloud carrier. Or did that happen already? He shook his head.
He stared up at the few stars in the sky. The memory of his nightmare was already fading, and left him wondering why he was so frantic. There was a good chance it was like the others he had earlier, dealing with the Hand of Destiny and losing Locke. But he knew those were just nightmares. The Hand was gone, and Locke came back.
"…"
After a few minutes, he realized that waiting around wouldn't exactly get immediate results (especially if he had been weirdly abducted in the middle of the night). Instead, Chase stood up, stretching his arms high above his head in an attempt to wake up.
"Well... I guess looking around couldn't possibly hurt," he said, then started walking down the path. It looked like it was a popular park, as the path was wide and led to a clearing with a fountain. It just turned on as he came over, with sounds of cars starting to rise. It was only then did he notice the large buildings surrounding him.
"Am I in Axistown?" he asked himself, scratching the back of his neck. He couldn't remember what he did before he woke up. What was he even doing? Maybe he and the others left the cloud carrier to go train or something. By impulse, he reached down for Locke's core. What he found made him freeze.
Or rather, what he didn't find.
He looked down, seeing the empty holsters on his belt.
"Wha-Locke?!" he exclaimed, checking every one of his pockets. He looked back, thinking maybe he dropped it in his sleep. He trailed back to the bench, but couldn't see a trace of any of his cores. He crawled under, thinking it had rolled away.
"Locke? Evo? Babeon?" Chase said, reaching under and feeling for something. He found nothing but dust and a chewed up bottle cap.
Before he could look further, there was a scream. He jerked up, bumping his head on the bench and letting out a pained moan. His first thought was that it was a monsuno attack, and he jumped up immediately. There was the sound of someone laughing, and he knew where to go.
Even without Locke by his side, the thought of a monsuno battle excited him. And maybe whoever screamed accidentally unleashed one of his monsuno. Either way, it was better then standing around.
He ran towards the noise, and then hopped through the trees until he jumped out in the middle of the commotion.
To his surprise, it wasn't a monsuno fight at all.
He stood there, between three men and a woman who was now on the ground. They all appeared to by caught off guard by his appearance, though the woman seemed to be relieved.
"What'd you want punk?" one of the men challenged. Chase stood there dumbly, looking around for a monsuno, or even a core. It didn't even look like one was spun out by the way the path remained intact.
"Hey! He asked you a question!" another one demanded. Chase scratched his head.
"Huh. I thought there was a fight. I guess I was wrong," he muttered to himself. One of the men heard him and gave a look.
"Huuuh? What did you say?" he said, then turned to the leader, "I think this little punk
needs to be taught a lesson."
"I would say so as well," the leader responded. He nodded to the other two, who made their way towards Chase. He grinned to himself.
"Oh. I guess I could show you my ultimate battle skills!" Chase said, reaching for his belt. He froze, remembering how it was empty. Crag.
"You won't be smiling after we're done with you!" one of them shouted and charged forward. Chase sidestepped at the last second, grabbed his arm, and threw him backwards.
He continued to smile. He didn't need monsuno to take on these guys.
The other decided to try charging at him with a roundhouse, and Chase quickly dodged. He brought his knee up to the guy's stomach, knocking the wind right out. The one from the ground quickly launched himself at Chase, and soon they were all on the ground trying to fight to get back up. But even with his smaller body, Chase was able to maneuver himself around much easier then the other two. In the confusion, the others mostly hit at each other.
Within an easy few minutes, Chase had the two on the ground, bruised and battered, barely breaking a sweat himself. The leader blinked with surprise, as if he didn't expect that from the teen. He probably didn't know who he was dealing with after all.
"You know what, forget you two," he said, then motioned for the others to get up. They each gave Chase a nasty look before lurking away. He exhaled deeply, and Chase found himself a bit relieved that he even managed to pull that off as gracefully as he did.
Thank god for Jinja's fighting skills and insistence on hand to hand combat.
"T-thank you so much," the woman said shakily. Chase turned around, remembering her. He held out a hand with a grin. But now that he looked at her, Chase couldn't help
but think that she was oddly familiar, even in the bright neon jogging clothes she wore.
"It was nothing," Chase said, scratching his head. He couldn't help but stare, trying to figure out exactly where he had seen her before, but nothing was coming up. Her dark hair was pulled back, but the only one Chase knew who wore that hairstyle was Tango, but it wasn't her. The woman blinked at him, shifting at his staring.
"Is there something wrong?" she asked, noticing that he had a faraway gaze. He shook his head.
"N-No. Just... Happy to see you're alright," he said, putting his hands in his pocket awkwardly, "Actually. Um. Have we met before?"
The woman shook her head, "No. Not that I know of. I'm sure I would've remembered such a cute face."
Chase laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. He never did react withe people he saved. This was a bit awkward, "I-I think I'll just head out now."
The woman blinked, then gave a small laugh, "Of course. Wouldn't want a vigilante like yourself to get caught by the police, especially with your 'ultimate battle skills'."
Chase stared, wide eyed in recognition. He watched as the black haired woman turned with a wave, continuing in the opposite path towards a main road. He could see the sky starting to lighten up, and hear the birds start to chirp. And even as a clock echoed in the distance, he was still in awe at who he had just saved.
…..
Chase walked down the street, dazedly looking at the buildings and the faces that passed by as the sun had risen and now shone high in the sky. He wasn't even sure where he was supposed to be going right now, or even where he was. There weren't any signs that he had seen so far that revealed that, and he was a bit afraid of where this might be.
"Oh look over there! The best ice cream in the east!"
"C'mon, we still need to go to the Central Museum."
"I bet if we hurry, we can catch the noon transit towards the beach!"
Chase listened and watched as people crowded the streets and went their own ways. It seemed like he was in a touristy side of the city, which was a good enough place to start. If anything, all he needed to do was find the others, and then figure out what was going on. Hell, maybe they had his monsuno and he somehow got separated from them. Then they could all have a laugh and maybe enjoy this city.
And maybe he was just imagining the mercenary he met earlier that morning.
Another tremor went through the ground, making everyone stop in their tracks. Chase looked around in alarm with everyone else, but it only lasted a few seconds. Most of the people found some relief, while the ones who were more concerned with getting somewhere ignored it completely.
Chase stood there for a second. What was that? Was it the monsuno energy again? He thought his father managed to get it all settled and there wasn't a chance of it destroying the earth. But then again, things with monsuno were always unpredictable.
Slowly, he made his way through one of the busier crosswalks, hardly paying any attention. His steps slowed as he tried to replay events before he had woken up in the park. Slowly, he started remembered hearing voices. But. Who's were they? He remembered everyone shouting at him, and holding onto Locke's core. Why was everything blank after that?
He looked up towards one of the large billboard screens, coming to a stop as he tried to empty his mind. He saw a woman trying to advertise some sort of home product, a smile plastered on her face. Maybe he could find a pay phone somewhere, but then again he had no clue who to call. As the commercial came to a close and the company started to show off it's name, he froze as realization dawned on him
On the center of the advertised object (which was a blender for some reason) and on the billboard itself, was the insignia for Eklipse.
Chase took a step back, becoming hyper aware of the fact that the Eklipse symbol was on all types of things. Everywhere he looked, and on almost everything around him. Eklipse.
What was going on?!
A car horn blared. Chase snapped out of his daze to see a few cars now heading towards him, the crosswalk completely deserted. He didn't have time to turn and get out of the way, and could only watch as it went straight for him.
"Look out!"
An arm reached out and yanked him off his feet and out of the street. Chase watched as the cars continued on without missing a beat. He was instantly dizzy, and tried to fight off the urge to throw up as he continued to look around as see Eklipse symbols around the city. Did Klipse somehow take over the whole place? But how? Maybe that was why he was there in the first place-
"Oi kid! Don't you know better then to stand in the middle of the road?!"
He looked up, already knowing who was speaking to him and feeling lightheaded again. A man with short hair looked down at him, a frown sinking his lips.
"Trey?!" Chase exclaimed, not having any strength in his legs. It was the commander alright. Just... Not how he recognized.
"That's officer to you kid," he said, then raised a brow, "Have we even met? You don't look familiar."
"N-No. We haven't. I just recognized you from the- uh. News," Chase stammered, rising slowly. He saw the new attire that the old commander wore: a pristine officer uniform, but not one of S.T.O.R.M.. Just a regular city policeman.
Trey seemed to like the comment, and grinned to himself.
"Well. I'm glad someone recognizes my abilities. It does good to help the innocent," he said, somewhat boastful. He grew serious, "However. It's 11:24 on a tuesday. What are you doing out?"
"What do you mean? I'm always out. And what are you doing here? Did Jon send you out to do 'civilian work'?" Chase joked. Trey gave him a look, then grabbed him by the back of his jacket and dragged him to the street, "H-Hey! What's the big deal?"
"I'm guessing you're playing dumb to get out of trouble. Too bad you ran into me," Trey said, opening a door to the nearby police car and shoving Chase in rather roughly. He locked it, sitting in the driver's side and taking off.
"W-Where are we going? You know abducting people is illegal," Chase said, trying to look outside and find anything familiar.
"It's not abduction if the kid is playing hooky from school," Trey said. Chase panicked even more, and started tugging at the door. For some reason, Trey was now a regular cop, taking him to the local police station, possibly going to get him detained. Did he go back in time or something? When he looked towards the radio, Chase could see that the date was right, so why was everything wrong? Why was Eklipse now trying to advertise cookware?! Why was Madea out for a late night jog?!
"But don't worry," Trey continued, looking in the mirror at Chase's panicked face, "We'll get a hold of your parents down at the station and have this whole thing sorted out."
At the comment, Chase felt a bit more relieved. His parents. As soon as Trey found out who he was, the whole thing would be sorted out. And then maybe he could get some answers to this crazy town.
…..
Shockingly, Chase didn't have a record.
Scratch that. He didn't have a record of anything.
As he sat in the office (as one of the officers said he shouldn't wait in a cell), Chase found himself in disbelief of the records that were inexistent.
No mention of his escapades of fighting monsuno or causing destruction, which he knew for a fact that he was involved in. No mention of his award given by S.T.O.R.M. for stopping the Hand of Destiny (which was obvious seeing that Trey was now sitting behind a pile of regular paperwork). No mention of any sightings of strange creatures.
Everything was just... Normal.
"Alright. Just got a hold of your parents," the secretary said, who wasn't familiar and made him somewhat relieved, "They'll be down shortly."
Chase nodded. When he gave his last name, someone in the station realized who he was and decided to phone his parents.
He let out a sigh. His parents... Were they his parents? What if they were someone else? What if it was someone like Drezz. Or Dom Pyro. Or -god forbid- Charlemagne. Chase felt lightheaded again.
"Do you need some water dear?"
"No. I'll be alright," Chase responded, sinking back into his chair and staring blankly ahead at the rows of desks and officers. Maybe this was some sort of dream. Or vision. Or computer hologram program. He would just have to wait and hope that he'd see someone else familiar that was more on the friendly side. Maybe the others were also somewhere in the town and they all agreed to go through it like last time...
The secretary's phone rang, and she picked it up daintily. She made a few 'hmms' and yeses, and finally dropped it back down.
"Your parent is at the front," she said, quickly writing something down. Chase nodded, and rose up. Before he could even take the first step, he stared ahead at the person just a few feet away.
A familiar face that was one of the last he was expecting to see.
Droog.
A/N: Review Review Review!