Chapter 1: Runaway

"Why did you have to hit me so hard?" Quill asked his handler as he rubbed the back of his head. Quill was a nineteen year old male that stood at six foot two; he had messy white hair and golden yellow eyes. He was currently in his work clothes, a black special agent suit and thin black gloves.

Quill's handler sighed in response. "Because you need to focus. You are not a field agent yet, which means you need to learn as much as you can."

"I'm ready to be a field agent, but I'm not allowed to go out since I don't have a partner." Quill refuted.

"And the blame for that falls on you; so far you've had zero compatibility with every candidate." The handler reminded, almost sounding impressed at the feat. Quill remained silent at this point he left his handler office and headed to the lounge, one of the many recreational areas of the Clock Tower central building.

Clock Tower was an organisation that had a large number of employees, most being researchers, scientists or the like, but the cream of the crop was the special agents. The special agents were so special that there were only nine of them, all in teams of two. Quill was an exception to this fact, he was the newest agent and so far he had no luck with finding a partner. Each special agent had their own 'perk', a special ability that only they possessed. So far, Quill's perk had yet to work. There was currently only four teams actually doing field work for Clock Tower, these teams had a 'variety' of personalities. The field work that the special agents did consisted of using the chrono-gate to travel between worlds to fix errors that arose, then bringing back any potential 'artefacts' and writing a report on what happened. The artefacts brought back usually consisted of any random thing from each world, but there were some artefacts that stood out. The chrono-gate was one such artefact, though it existed in this world originally and was discovered by the founding members of Clock Tower.

"One day I'll get to use the chrono-gate." The young man sighed as he entered the lounge.

The statement was immediately met with a response from an all too familiar voice. "Yeah, and one day my sister will do something for herself instead of using her perk." Quill looked over at the responder.

"Ein, you know Zwei will kill you if she hears you say that." The white haired man pointed out.

"Which is why I never said anything and you heard nothing." Ein quickly responded. Ein was a member of team one. He was a twenty four year old man, though due to something that happened in one of the worlds he visited, he and his sister were cursed and their bodies reverted back to when they were sixteen. The man was currently laying down on the sofa in front of the TV, his black hair in its usual spike at the front. Ein's eyes were a dark shade of blue, due to the curse the man currently stood at five foot nine.

Another familiar voice cut in before Quill could respond. "Oh, really?" Zwei, unfortunately for Ein, had been standing behind the newest member. Zwei essentially looked like a female version of Ein, they were twins after all, but her hair was long and usually in a ponytail and she stood at five foot two thanks to the curse. The twins wore their suits in similar ways, they had the blazer undone and had both the blazer and shirts sleeves rolled up as well as wearing their ties loosely. Quill wore his suit in the typical fashion. At first the twins used to joke about him trying to be more mature than his age dictated, those jokes stopped after they, technically, became younger than him.

"I'll leave you two to it." Quill walked off while ignoring Ein's screams. The young man stopped at the dart board.

"How about a match?" A voice calmly asked, Quill turned around to face the challenger.

"Alright, but I'm not betting anything Joker." The young man agreed.

"Fine." Joker mock pouted. Joker was a six foot five, twenty one year old man. His dark brown hair fell down to his shoulder blades, his green eyes never missed a detail. He wore his suit with the blazer unbuttoned and the tie loosened, he also wore a long black coat over the ensemble. Joker was part of the stealth team with his best friend Ace, they excelled in covert operations since they were both originally thieves. In contrast, Ein, who was still screaming, and Zwei were the offense team, they were the frontlines since they had been trained to be in peak physical condition since they could walk.

"Go easy on him." Ace suggested to Joker. Ace was twenty two and stood at six foot four. His sandy blonde hair was in its usual tangled mess, his eyes were a murky blue. Ace wore his suit with the blazer unbuttoned and he sported a black fedora with a white stripe around it.

Joker pretended not to hear the suggestion and opted to through his first dart near Ace, Quill put the darts he had picked up back down. He knew that once these two started playing about, it didn't end quickly. The golden eyed agent now opted to get something from the small kitchen in the lounge. There he saw two other agents, the third team.

"Good day Quill, how are you?" Amber asked in her usual motherly tone. Amber was twenty one years old and stood at five foot eleven, she was the tallest of the female agents. Her hair was the same colour as the gem she was named after and she let it fall down to her waist, her eyes were a light brown. Amber didn't wear her suits blazer and instead of a necktie she wore a bolo tie with an amber fitted into it.

"I'm fine. Just waiting for the day I can do field work." The man answered honestly.

"You'll get your turn eventually, I'm sure you'll be out exploring worlds in no time." Jet assured. Jet was Amber's partner, they made up the support team since they were physically weak and could do more damage from further away. Jet's medium length hair was almost as black as the gem he was named after, though it had a purple tint to it. His eyes were violet and usually gave off an excited vibe. Jet, like Amber, didn't wear his suit blazer and he had the first three buttons of his shirt undone, he also had his tie looser than the other agents did.

Quill smiled at the kind words. "Thanks." He grabbed a can of soda from the fridge and headed over to the reading area of the lounge, Quill grabbed a copy of a random crime novel and sat on a beanbag.

"Interesting choice." A cold voice commented.

"Hey there Moon, I just picked a random book from the crime section. It seems to be from the viewpoint of a gentleman thief." The young man responded.

"Good read." Moon added to her previous comment as she sat next to Quill and began reading a book of her own. Moon didn't talk in long sentences, but she was blunt. The female agent was seventeen years of age and stood at five foot three. She had icy blue hair that she kept short and similarly icy eyes, she was the analytical field agent. Moon and her partner Sun made up the backup team since they were both suited for any task. Like Quill, Moon wore her suit mostly in the normal way, the only difference being that instead of a blazer she had a waistcoat.

"Heyo!" Sun called out as she sat next to Moon. Sun was pretty much the opposite of Moon, she was warmer in terms of personality and would ramble on if you let her. Sun was sixteen and reached a height of five foot three. Her braided hair was a warm shade of orange and her light brown eyes emitted the same warmth. Sun's variation of her suit was similar to Moons since she also had a waistcoat, however she had the waistcoat unbuttoned and didn't wear her tie at all.

Quill returned the greeting. "Hey." He went back to his book quickly, a good half an hour passed before the agents were called to the chrono-gate.

"Everyone, we have detected power surges in multiple worlds, we want you to go to these worlds and correct any errors you find... and do not forget to bring back artefacts." The chairman briefed, the warning at the end being directed to one person in particular.

"One time!" Ein yelled.

"Each team will have their assignments sent to their phones, if you ever need assistance don't be afraid to call another team for help. You are a family, you must help each other when needed." The chairman continued the briefing as everyone, excluding Quill, checked their phones. "And Quill, you will remain here to continue training. I'm sure you're partner is right around the corner though, come the next mission you should be set."

'What you're trying to tell me is not to get in the way.' Quill thought as he watched his fellow agents walk through the chrono-gate, team by team.

Midnight:

"Sorry, chairman. I'm tired of waiting." Quill whispered to himself as he walked through the chrono-gate. He didn't know where he would end up, but at this point he didn't care. He just wanted to go out into the field once, he had remembered to take his katana so he wasn't completely unprotected. The other agents also had their own weapons, perks were useful, but they only got you so far and in Quill's case it didn't get you anywhere. So weapons were a necessity for all agents. Quill set his eyes straight ahead as he passed through the stream of what was likely all the different worlds out there.

Somewhere:

"Aaaaahhhhh!" Quill screamed as he plummeted towards the ground, at this rate he was going leave a big red mark on a beautiful green field. The young agent landed on his back, he rolled over onto his stomach and pushed himself up onto his feet. He looked over the lake he had landed in front of, it was serene. There was a castle not too far from the lake, it looked familiar.

"Are you okay?" A feminine voice asked.

Quill turned around to respond. "I... I'm fine. My back's a little sore, but I'll live." Quill looked at the girl in front of him, she had a striking resemblance to a key figure in one of the worlds he had learned about.

The familiar girl let out a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear." The smile she had after that statement made Quill blush lightly.

"Princess." A serious voice called out, a woman in armour arrived. Quill noticed that she had a flintlock pistol, a pistol that had just been drawn and was being aimed at him. "Who are you?"

"Quill, nineteen years of age... please don't kill me." The young man panicked, he raised his arms above his head.

The princess put her arm out in front of the knight. "Agnes, please lower your weapon."

"Princess, this man is armed." Agnes argued, drawing attention to Quill's katana.

"And he had the chance to attack me before you arrived, so please lower your weapon." The princess defended. Everything was slowly coming together in Quill's mind, if Agnes was who he thought she was then...

'Oh lord, don't tell me.' The agent thought as he sweat dropped, his arms fell to his sides.

"Greetings, Quill. I am Henrietta de Tristain, crown princess of Tristain." Henrietta introduced herself.

'Crap... I'm in Halkeginia.'