Time
Episode 1 : "Arrival"

By Will

With a hiss of steam and a groan of gears the machine landed in downtown Tokyo. Steam filled the air as the pressure valves released the unneeded steam. A few moments later the door unlocked and opened. A tall man in Victorian clothing stepped through the hatched and closed it behind him. Holding up a device that looked like a cell phone, if the cell phone had been invented in 1800 England, he tapped out a few commands. With a whirr of gears and steam the machine vanished, leaving the clear early morning air silent.

The man adjusted his tie and put on his hat. He pulled out a device and began talking to it. "First impressions, the air is far more breathable than the reports had suggested. Time flow is stable and yet is in a state of decay, nothing concerning." A kid ran past him. "Humans are as agile as previous reports indicated and seem to have mastered various sciences and some form of communication, as I'm detecting radio waves in various frequencies."

He paused. There was a foil wrapper on the ground. He picked it up. The ocular chips in his spectacles immediately translated the words on the packaging. "Vanguard." He said. That clicked something in his memories. He dug out a notebook and began flipping through it. "Ah…yes, here the denizens of Cray are called into battle in the form of a card game, our fates are inevitably linked." He spun on his heels and returned to the place of his machine and tapped out a few more commands on his device.

With a whir of gears and a hiss of steam the machine reappeared. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He went to a console and began running his fingers across the gears and dials, making the machine communicate with the Earth technology to begin downloading and and analyzing information. "This will be more useful then we first thought." He said to the recording machine. "Begin processing the data, convert the army's profiles into Vanguard cards and begin downloading preliminary data on strategy and instruction." As the data flew across the output screen he realized just how big the game was in this world.

This will get him much farther than had he decided to do it without it. Then he noticed a series of encrypted files on a server ran by a Team Asteroid, it mentioned something called Psyqualia…"That's our resource…" he said into the device. "I've found what we needed to begin the invasion. " he began downloading and process the data on Psyqualia that the humans had. As he did his eyes began to glow with a spiraling inner light. "Perfect."

Chrono had the weird dream again, a dream that was full of steam and gears and war. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs. "Not again…" he looked at his alarm clock. It read 4:33 AM. Too early…He thought, always too early. He padded out of his room into the living room where his cell phone was plugged in. He grabbed it and his jacket and left the apartment he shared with his Aunt. He stepped outside and took a deep breath of fresh air, the sounds still fresh in his mind from his horrid dream. In his dream he was powerless to stop a war that was tearing Earth apart. He felt completely overwelhmed as he watched his friends and family die.

Standing under the starless sky he started to feel strange and he couldn't place his finger on what he was experiencing. As the sun began to creep in from the eastern horizon it dawned on him as well. The feeling that he was experiencing was the same one as his dream. War was on the horizon and he was determined to make sure that it didn't happen. As the sun's light began to arch across the sky he could have sworn he saw a glint of golden metal. He instinctively reached for his deck and looked at the top card, it was Chronojet Dragon. "It will probably take everything we have, won't it?" If the card had any knowledge of the future it remained silent. "My reality will end differently than my dream." He swore.