NEXUS HEADQUARTERS (Center of all known Time and Realities.)
An annoying high pitched frequency woke Christoph up from his slumber, his eyelids clenching as he came back to the world of the waking. Quills out of place and his overall complexions rather muddled, he smashed the alarm clock, silencing it and turned on a nearby desk lamp, lighting up his sleeping quarters.
The light illuminated his hedgehog features a bit more then the dim LED of the alarm clock. Gray in color, he ran an ungloved hand through his quills, pushing them back into his common style of hairstyle: slicked back with a thin layer of holding compound.
"You keep breaking our clock we'll need to start taking out pay deductions to buy new ones." a voice came from behind him on the other side of the bed, making him turn towards it.
A slender figure propped herself on her elbows, turning her head towards the hedgehog, flipping her hair out of the way of her eyes. "Besides, it's too early to get packed, come back to bed.."
"I've got work, Karen.." Chris said, swinging his legs from the bed and finding purchase on the carpeted floor, the entire unit no bigger then fourty feet by fourty-five feet with a low ceiling. It was obviously constructed for utility and economy then comfort and living.
Standing up he wandered over to a small closet, opening it and tossing out a few articles of clothing onto the bed behind him.
Karen propped back up, brushing her brunette hair out of her eyes again, this time her expression was a combonation of anger and confusion. "Chris, we talked about heading over to Tranquil Beach this week.."
"I know we talked, that's all it was, talk, we never made any solid plans." Chris said, slipping on a pair of black boots and securing them with several straps. " I can't just pick up and leave like that, I've got a caseload today-"
"Not more jumping…" Karen ran her hand over her forehead, her light brown fur showing for the first time, then looking away after her question.
"No." Chris responded, keeping his glance from her still as he slide a pair of partial armor plating across the front of his boots that resembled metal spats. Chrome in color, they appeared half uniform, half for looks, two distinct sets of lines traced the edges of them. "Just a crap load of follow up and sentencing…"
"At least you aren't traveling through time and space today.." She said, getting up herself and stretching, a few cracks heard as she did. "I'm getting old…"
"Nonsense…you're as young as the day I stumbled over you…" Christoph said, smiling as he turned towards her, a half lidded expression flashing across his eyes. He stood up and slipped on a set of black uniform gloves.
"I wish.." she started to dress too as she turned away from him. "You're the only one of us that's up for being turned 'Timeless', dear.."
Chris opened the drawer of the nightstand and pulled out a small watch device, slapping it on his wrist and locking the clasp. The display whirled to life, a series of diagnostic lines of code flashing across it.
"He's not up for promotion yet, Karen…" the watch replied to her comment, it's voice a higher almost sneering male accent, like a man who'd be upset if you asked him for the time regardless of the circumstances. "…and he won't be anytime soon if he doesn't shake a leg and get down to Processing and Sentencing…"
"RECON, I've told you repeatedly, turn off when I put you in there, the idea of you liaving you listening in on us on my down time is…somewhat unsettling." Chris said to the device, then looking towards his girlfriend. "Look, I'll try to get them to process fast, maybe we can catch a show?"
Karen looked at him and sighed after a moment, nodding and walking over, crossing her arms in front of her. "You better hurry them up, YOU have a lot of making up to do, mister." She smiled and pulled on the lapels of his coat into a kiss.
Half a minute passed and RECON chimed back. "Time is not on our side in this location, Chris, we need to get going, you and Miss Karen can fornicate all you want lat-" RECON was abruptly switched off by Chris, a quick flick of the side switch.
"He's right…" Chris said, looking back at her, his hands resting on her shoulders.
"About the time or the fornicating?" she smirked.
"Well, both actually.." he grinned down at her, his medium build overtaking her slim frame in profile. "What do you plan to do in the meantime?"
"If we're not going to the beach sector I'll slip down the records and pull a few more files for Jones." she said, finishing dressing as she turned back to him." Lunch?"
"See what I can do." he gave her a quick kiss and headed out the door, the metal plate sliding shut behind him. Leading into a long military in it's uniformity hallway, doors like the one he came out of all along the way.
"First on the docket is Wilsam, Jade." RECON recited as Chris walked down the hall, adjusting his coat and gloves a bit more. "Felony assault, armred robbery,
corruption of a minor, resisting arrest and fleeing custody.."
Reaching a set of elevator doors at the end of the hall, they opened as he arrived. "I remember Jade, nice voice, very angry but hardly worth my time, anyone interesting today at all, RECON?"
The doors closed.
"As a matter of fact we do have one that will ring a bell." RECON chirped back, a hologram popping up from the watch in front of Chris.
A series of photographs slide across the presentation, each showing a different perpetrator to rather unpleasant looking scenes. Murders, arsons, and almost any thinkable the conventional mind could imagine, was ticking by on the rap sheet. Finally the images froze on the last one, a pair of purple eyes framed in nothing but a black background, the only other indication of a body was a few swirling bits of energy, the entire picture zoomed out to show a wider angle. The eyes and vapor like substance were locked inside a stasis tube, near many others exactly like it.
"Darius, class seven parasitic life form, currently in lockdown in D Wing." RECON continued. "Awaiting sentencing for, who knows which problem now, he's been awaiting arraignment for-"
"A year and three days, I remember, that's when I caught him.." Chris said, watching the numbers of the elevator display click by. "Not before he took out a decent chunk of Struta's population…"
"You were cleared of those charges, might I remind you.." RECON interrupted." Chris, none of those people knew what hit them. You should take some solace in that.
The elevator bell sounded and opened up the a large marble wall with a plaque reading 'Processing & Sentencing'. Chris gave a blank stare at the wall for a moment, the elevator giving him a gentle beep to remind him to exit.
"That may be.." Chris said finally, turning left at the sign and walking down a long brightly lit corridor. At the distant end of it was a security checkpoint with two armed guards who had taken notice of him. "That solace as you put it, doesn't keep me from waking up every night.."
RECON didn't reply and remained silent as they passed security and the large steel doors slammed shut behind them.
DIMENSION DESIGNATION: HADES-ONE-ONE-ZERO
Lightening streaked across a perpetually overcast sky, the clouds seemingly stuck in a stand still over the entire planet. Scars from both nature and man apparent splay out in a massive ruined metropolitan area. Crumbling skyscrapers, long forgotten cars and trucks piled upon each other, and the distinct lack of any moving life topped off the post apocalyptic wasteland that stretched for miles in any direction.
Inside the massive collapsing structure of the city, a few lit up buildings stood out of the darkness. Several patrols of robot sentries circled the buildings, searchlights following along their paths and across the reinforced front entrance, where two larger sentries manned high caliber gun emplacements.
A distant ticking on a radar console near one of the gunners brought his attention towards an oncoming dust trail. Bringing his turret around, the hydraulics groaned to a halt, the last few inches he moved manually with a grunt from his effort.
A security monitor on his station popped up, a static image of a female squirrel dressed in spandex came into few and walked up to the camera, pulling it up to look up at her face. "Report." brushing her red hair from her eyes, revealing her green eyes to the trooper.
"Looks like incoming, though I think by the signi-" He began, pulling his night vision goggles to the top of his head, the apparent features of a white wolf, several scars on his cheek, came into view.
"Think?" Her eyes flared with a unnatural glow, seemingly changing in front of the camera to feline like split pupils. "We don't need you to THINK, make sure who it is then either blast 'em or if it is Miles, let the little shithead in, boss wants him ASAP."
"Yes Ma'am.." the wolf snapped to attention and dropped his goggles down into place. He flicked a mic switch on his console and began to request identification. "Incoming vehicle, you are approaching a restricted area, identify or we will open fire. Repeat, you are approaching the outer parameter of Lord Scourge's territory, please-"
"Gate control, this is Miles, open up, I've got scavengers on me. Take care of them NOW you worthless drones!" a static filled transmission yelled back, the distinct sound of a motorcycle in the background noise.
After a series of authorization codes transmitted, the wolf gave a thumbs up to his other gunner. "Copy, sir, your almost in range. Gate Keeper, open the gate. We got one coming in hot."
A twin tailed fox rode hard through the night towards Scourge's compound, holding a package under his arm and gritting his teeth as several laser blasts from behind him cut through his leather jacket. Hitting ramps and throttling after each one, several other bikes came into his mirrors view.
Speeding through the entry doors, Miles heard them slam shut, followed by the gunners opening fire, several explosions following. Jumping off his bike, he dusted himself off and checked the package under his arm, a round capsule about a third of his size, wear and tear from being buried in dust apparent on the outside of it.
The main compound doors opened up and a female figure walked out, her boots clicking on the cracked cement as she walked at a furious pace towards the recovering fox cub. Before he could say a word, she grabbed hold of him by the back of the neck and lifted him with surprising ease.
"Do you know you were supposed to be back over five hours ago, Boss wants you and where the HELL have you been?" The female from the monitor before was now apparent in the light as she held him high, his tiny frame flailing. Her black boots matching her outfit, further highlighting her hair and eyes. The only other distinctive image that could distinguish her from the shadows was a large clawed glove on her right hand, though careful inspection could tell it was artificial, like those of the sentries walking by them.
"Boss ain't gunna like it if I'm late, we got the final session to fix up.." Miles shook in her grasp, hardly scared of her. "That and I KNOW you want whats in this.." He grinned, popping open the capsule revealing it's contents to her. He pulled one of the vials from inside it, a blue glowing neon liquid. He shook it in front of her and smiled watching as she slowly set him down, panting a bit as the vial came into her eyeline.
"You little bastard…" She snatched at it with her real hand, only to have him pull it back. Her eyes morphed to the more monstrous version she'd shown as he did.
"Ah ah Sally.." Miles smiled. "First it needs refinement…I'll get you some…when I can…as you said…Boss needs me.." Miles laughed and pushed her out of the way, holding the capsule under his arm as he entered the compound, the doors slamming shut.
Eyes still glowing with unnatural energy, she grabbed her stomach in pain for a moment, two robot sentries stopped to assist her.
"Mistress, do you-" one began to chirp at her.
Sally sent her clawed robotic hand into the belly on one and knocked the head off the other one with her organic one, growling in frustration. The units fell to the ground, sparking with electricity. She brushed her hair out of her eyes again as they reverted, sneering in Miles' direction. "This plan better be worth it…."
A female hedgehog typed away at a computer console, looking up only when the doors near here desk opened up. A deeper pink tone, she smiled as she saw the grey hedgehog walk in.
"Chris, I see you've got a large case load today…" she smiled, typing a few more keys and leaning back in her chair and looking at him with a smirk. "Don't you ever take a vacation?"
"Not if I can help it, Sonia." he looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "How's the list today looking?"
"Long and tedious, with a few highlights I see.." Sonia looked over her terminal and pulled out a data pad with all the information he needed for the sentencing sessions, pulling it back for a second to smile at him. "You know all work and no play might lead to one single hedgehog.."
He smirked at her and looked her over once. "Maybe true…why don't you do me a favor.." He snatched the pad from her, pocketing it. "Take a vacation for me and…" he patted her cheek. "…give it a rest?"
Sonia shook her head and leaned back into her chair and resumed typing. " Such a pity, wish the boys were here…" she looked at her screen for a moment, watching Chris leave, she smiled. "Well tomorrows another day.."
Chris walked down a longer plain hallway, only lights and the occasional metal doors along it's walls adored it. Looking over the data pad Sonia had given him, Recon whirled to life, taking in the data as well.
"Don't say it…" Chris said, looking at the screen still and flipping through it via touch screen.
"Say what?" Recon asked innocently enough.
"You always make a comment about her.."
"Well.."
"Here we go…" Chris sighed and kept reading, walking at a calm pace, in the distance a secure looking door with two guards standing at both sides.
"You know the poor thing is all by herself now, home coordinates were completely destroyed…" Recon said. "Wouldn't hurt to maybe give her a bit of attention, she has to be lonely."
Christoph made it to the doors and the guards saluted him, the one by the door turning to open it, typing in a code into the nearby keypad. A large round of metallic clunking sounds occurred and the door opened on it's hydraulics. Passing through, he returned to his data, scanning it over and giving Recon as little attention as possible.
"You know if your nervous you could take me with you.." Recon added.
"Don't wanta' take you with me.." Christoph flipped another digital page. "Don't wanta go at all, got Karen….awww now look at this they got Jarvis' name misspelled.."
"Karen's rather understanding, though I see your point, though it's never bad to play the field." Recon chirped as he corrected the typo Chris had mentioned.
"You need to stop, now." Chris said, turning a corner, the surroundings duplicate to the last hall only with each door now came with a window and a guard visible on at each door.
"Alright alright alright…" Recon answered.
Chris walked past several windows, each one appeared to be one way as the occupants in each room didn't take notice to him. He took no special notice to any of them in turn, save the last window. He stopped and backed up two steps and looked in.
A purple feline say across a inquisitor officer giving a statement, a metal table between them. Stepping up to the glass, Chris flipped the audio on at a small metal box, listening in.
"Now you say you have no recollection of where your home coordinates are, we have that much ascertained, Miss Blades." The officer, a ram, continued the session.
"Blaze." She crossed her arms and leaned on the table, hanging her head down and sighing, obviously exhausted or stressed.
"Blaze, right.." He made a minor correction on his paperwork. "Now, lets go over your story one more time, make sure I haven't missed anything."
"This is the fourth time!" Blaze's paws began to smolder, but she quickly put them out. "You have to be kidding!"
"Miss Blaze, understand, you appeared out of seemingly no where in a desolated dimension. A dimension that's coordinates are locked off and logged as uninhabitable. How you got there, you and we don't seem to know." The ram rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"I don't even know who you people are!" Blaze countered. "Are you cops? Government? Robots?" she blurted out.
"As I explained, I am a Class Four Inquisitor for T.I.T.A.N., the organization that runs this facility.
"What is TITAN?" she asked, leaning back and folding her arms, her sleeve's ruffles ragged and charred a bit. " You say I came from somewhere else, send me back!"
"We won't be able to do that until we can ascertain where you're from, your intentions, and then it's a matter of if your home dimension is even in our systems and exists still..." the Inquisitor calmly replied. "A process that can be quickened if you cooperate, Miss Blaze, and answer my questions."
Blaze's eyes narrowed at the mirror, then back to the ram. "Alright, as away.."
"Thank you, now…"
Chris flipped off the audio and looked at her silently, tilting his head.
"Trouble?" Recon asked.
"She's telling the truth. She doesn't know why or where she is, but she knows someone's on the other side of this glass." Chris tapped it, making both occupants startle in the room, only to have them resume a moment after.
"I'm sure Phil will figure out what to do with her." Recon chirped back. "Lets go, we're running late."
Chris nodded to himself, and after another second or two, returned to the path he was on previous, leaving Blaze to whatever fate was to be her's.
Finally reaching the end of the hall, an even more massive door with a pair of guards at it awaited him. He saluted them and the same combination of events from before occurred, this time with a longer code sequence and an additional security check via retina scan. Walking past the door, it gave a massive clunking sound as it secured behind him.
The hallway he was in had less features then the previous, longer breaks between doors and a brighter almost homey like feel to it's colors and textures. The door he walked up to was labeled "Arraignment Room B".
"Here we are, now, straighten up, the Grand Magistrate is on today.." Recon chuckled as Chris opened the door to a massive room. Typical court room décor gave way to the occasional metal seams and a massive metal circular opening in the floor and ceiling. Simulated wood and gold fittings topped off the setting. The guards in the room saluted and resumed their posts, six overall, all armed with small weaponry, save the two at the far end near the Magistrates Chambers, who were carrying rifles.
"About time, we were thinking justice would have to be served without you.." A bright pink female hedgehog straightened her blouse as she stood up to look at Chris. "Magistrate's almost ready.."
Chris nodded to her. "Amy." he sat next to her, straightening his jacket, his Energy sword's holster visible for a split second before hiding it again.
" Big load today..you ready?" Amy sat down, signaling for her assistant to come over.
A rabbit came over, rather timid with her movements, carrying about three data pads in her paws. "Yes ma'am, here you are ma'am.." She said, looking at Chris for a split second with her green eyes, before looking to Amy. "These are the one's you asked for!"
"Miss Rabbit, if you wish to maintain your career as my assistant, you need to move a bit faster, I asked for these half an hour ago. " Amy put on a pair of reading glasses. " These will do."
The rabbit nodded timidly and adjusted the choker on her neck.
"Next time don't wear that collar, puts the wrong image out on litigation." Amy looked at her from under her glasses. "I know you've been here a short time but surely they told you I need some coffee?" She finished, turning away and sighing.
"Yes, Ma'am, on it right now.." she nodded and shot out of the room, nearly knocking over a guard.
Chris raised an eyebrow at Amy as she turned to him.
"She's cute, but my god, it's like before she was assigned her someone whipped the independence out of her.." Amy sorted the data pads and turned to Chris.
"Clearly you have a firm grip on ethics, Miss Rose.."
"Ms. " Amy pushed her glasses up and gave him an icy stare before a smile. "Let's not forget that.."
"Mmm. " Chris said, leaning back and looking at the clock on the wall. "Today's going to be a long day…"