Gwen jerked her head up, throwing up a barrier to shield her from the oncoming blasts. Kevin quickly ducked in behind her shield and absorbed some metal from the pole lying on the floor. He looked for an opening, hopping over the mana when they briefly stopped firing. He bashed in the heads of multiple soldiers, and Gwen lowered her shield and threw several mana blasts at them. Suddenly the soldiers began to cluster around one of their own.
Gasping when she saw what they were doing, she cried out, "Kevin!" She captured him in a lasso and pulled him back over to herself. Suddenly, a beeping noise fill the air inside the building like some sort of warning, like a bomb. The soldier stood up, a small red light flickering on his chest. There wasn't even time to think as the warm glow of an explosion lit up the inside of the building. Quickly, she surrounded herself and Kevin with a mana barrier. The heat of the flames seemed to scorch the air itself. A faint cry of anger rang in her ears, and she saw a figure shoot a beam of green energy at her.
She closed her eyes against the brightness of the beam. "Albeo Exorior," she whispered softly, feeling her barrier weakening. She felt the spell taking effect and opened her eyes slowly, drinking in what was happening around her. The energy from the beam was mixing with her mana and was having an affect on her spell. The world around her slowly faded away, and feeling drained, she collapsed back into Kevin's waiting arms.
"-wen." Gwen opened her eyes and groaned. Her head felt like someone had kicked and backed over it with a car, repeatedly. "Gwen." She looked over at Kevin, his face blurred slightly before he came into focus. He smiled down at her before looking back around them. "So where are we?" She followed his gaze and noticed that they were amidst piles upon piles of rubble.
She stood up shakily, leaning against Kevin for support. "I don't know," she said still looking around. "I just wanted to get us out of there." She kept staring at the piles of rock and noticed that they all had scorch marks on them. The remains of a seemingly robotic soldier lay rotting in the mud that slowly seemed to envelop the sad creature.
Walking away from the wreckage, they took in their surroundings. There was rubble everywhere and what seemed to be large decaying buildings that may have once towered overhead. Now these once proud buildings cast long shadows that wrapped the earth beneath in ghostly tendrils. Kevin walked over to the nearest building and touched one of the walls. It crumbled away at his touch, sending up an immense cloud of dust in its wake. He coughed and looked back her. Her eyes were clouded and seemed to peer right through him.
"You ok?" She looked up and saw the look on Kevin's face.
"Yeah," she whispered softly," But I feel like we've been here before." Kevin looked around nodding slowly. "Did you hear that?"
Faint whizzing sounds hung on the air. Creating a mana walkway, she and Kevin both raced of towards the sound of a fight. They had just barely begun running when it seemed like the fight had wheeled around and was headed back towards them. They jumped to the ground and readied themselves. A blue streak rocketed by them and in between the empty buildings, followed closely by soldiers. Gwen's eyes glowed as she grabbed one of the oncoming soldiers with her mana and flung it back at the others.
"Turbo," she cried, sending up a mana whirlwind that knocked the remaining soldiers off their hover boards. Kevin immediately sprang into action, absorbing the metal from their boards and swiftly knocking them unconscious.
Bits of rock flew into the air with the dust as something skidded to a stop behind both turned around and saw Helen Wheels. They both smiled, glad to see a familiar face, while she only gasped.
"It can't be," she breathed. They looked confused at her. " You're not real, you-you just can't be." She darted her fingers in and jabbed Gwen on the arm.
Gwen cried out in pain and rubbed her arm vigorously. "Helen!" She looked more than a little annoyed at Helen's reaction, but Helen grinned victoriously.
"I can't believe it," she whispered, gaining strength in her voice. "How did you survive the explosion?" Gwen opened to respond, but Helen cut her off. "It doesn't matter right now. You need to come with me." She turned and began to skate off.
As they darted in between the buildings, a figure appeared a little ways away from them, running back towards them and waving as they went. Gwen squinted and made out the shape of a Tetramand, Manny. As he approached, his broad grin slowly turned into a confused stare and then into a slightly suspicious glare. He slowed to a stop in front of them and looked over at Helen, his orange eyes narrowing.
"Who are they?" His words almost seemed to come out in a growl, and it startled Kevin.
"Manny, this is Gwen and Kevin. Remember?" Helen stood in front of them protectively.
"Just because they look like them doesn't mean anything." Manny's four eyes each narrowed accusingly at the two.
"But, Manny-"
"Helen, we searched everywhere, you know that."
"Maybe everywhere but not every when, I'm afraid." A brilliant flash of light illuminated the space in between Gwen and Kevin, and in the darkness, there stood the only man that could answer any question, if he wanted to.
Gwen's face lit up like a child on Christmas morning. "Paradox." Kevin stood behind her and groaned.
"Hello Gwendolyn. How long has it been?" He whipped out a pocket watch and smiled. "Oh, just another five hundred years, give or take."
Helen raced forward. "Paradox, what happened to them? Why are they here when they weren't there?"
"Ah, down to the question already! Well I suppose we could jump into it then." They all watched him intently, hanging on every word. He turned to Gwen and Kevin and said, "When Gwen cast her teleportation spell, Fusion tried to eradicate you by blasting you with his chronological powers. The energies then mixed and caused a reaction. A reaction that subsequently altered the future by removing you from the flow of time for a period of time before the effects wore off and returned you into the time stream."
"So I teleported through time?" Gwen looked down at her hands before looking back at him. "Where are we?"
"You are currently standing in the outskirts of Bellwood about three years into the future, a future, might I add, that isn't even supposed to exist." Gwen looked away as she paled slightly. "Fusion came into this world seeking to rule it, and when he won the battle against young Ben, he easily took over the remaining portion of the human population."
"Can you take us back?" Paradox looked at her with the same neutral expression and shook his head.
"Removing you now would only damage the time stream further. If you are to return home and remove this alternate future from record, you will need to do it by your own power." He looked over at Manny and Helen, smiling coolly. "Now if you two would take these two with you, I'm sure young Terran would love to see them. Toodles." A bright flash of light consumed him again as he disappeared.
"Now do you see, Manny? Terran is the only one who can help them." She rocked back a little bit, crossing her arms.
He stepped forward and glared at her darkly. "Then you can be the one to take them up to him, cause I'm not dredging this up again." A whirring sound was heard, and Manny's eyes immediately caught sight of his prosthetic hand twitching violently. "We have to go now," he hissed as he shoved Kevin and Gwen forward roughly. Helen nodded quickly, her body trembling slightly in fear. They all began to sprint silently and were soon engulfed by the surrounding shadows.