Aida Star was in Ancient Greece. She was dressed as an "Ethiopian", AKA a black African. She was originally born in Senegal-though her family had moved to America when she was about four-so she was actually African, but she didn't exactly like being referred to as Ethiopian, mostly because people had been making up her birth country her whole life. She had been assumed to be from Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Zimbabwe, and even The Congo. The most popular one, for some bizarre reason, was Madagascar. When she was a kid, she had actually believed for a while that she was Madagascan, before she asked her parents and found out that she was Senegalese.
But now she had to pretend to be Ethiopian, which wasn't terribly difficult. She was wearing a simple white dress and no shoes, and her black hair was loose round her shoulders. She had the option to wear a toga and shoes, but she was playing the part of a simple widow, and she had to look like a peasant.
She was currently sitting on the side of a fountain, simply taking in the air and feeling glad that she was able to be in such an ancient time period.
But at the same time, she missed her friends. She missed Helen, who had been MIA for eight days now; Marvin and Steph, whom she hadn't seen in a few weeks; and even Cavendish, her inspiration. Most of all, she missed Vinnie Dakota, her sort-of boyfriend. They had gone out a few times but she didn't know if they were 'official'. Besides, love was dangerous for time travellers. Time travelling was one of the most dangerous occupations ever, simply because time travellers went back and forward to many, many different time periods, all with their own major dangers. Aida knew of at least two people who had gone to the same time travel school as her who had gone on a mission and hadn't made it back. One of them had had a girlfriend, who was now forever separated from the love of her life. Aida didn't want that to happen to anyone else, much less herself.
Lifting her chin, Aida closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air. Even though everything was calm and quiet and peaceful, something felt wrong to her. Time travellers often had a sixth sense, which helped them feel unnatural disturbances around them, disturbances that were out of place in the time period they were in. Aida didn't know what was causing this, but she knew she had to find out. Disturbances were twice as important as missions.
So Aida got up and sprinted all the way to where she had hidden her helicopter: her time vehicle. She hopped into it and pressed the button to make her disappear into the timestream, counting herself lucky that she didn't have to take off. She didn't know how the Ancient Greeks would react to seeing something like that, but she figured that it would probably impact the timeline in some way.
As she flew her helicopter through the timestream, she suddenly heard a scream and a loud roar, both of which gave her a fright. "What the hell?!"
She turned her head towards the source of the noise and found a familiar time vehicle shooting along the timestream just ahead of her and to the right. The vehicle was a quad bike, meaning Aida could very clearly see the person on it. She didn't recognise the woman, but she knew she had to do something quickly. One of the tyres had been slashed by what looked like some kind of animal, and she could see at least two creatures surrounding the bike. The creatures looked like they were made out of smoke; they had torsos, heads, and arms, but where their legs would be was a wisp of smoke, like the genie from 'Aladdin'. They were deep purple in colour, and Aida could see that they had sharp teeth, muzzles like a wild cat, and long sharp claws on their hands...or paws...or whatever those things were.
Aida had never felt more horrified in her life. What were these beasts? Where had they come from? Why were they here? And more importantly, what did they want?
Well, at the moment, what they were doing was attacking a time traveller.
In a moment of impulsiveness, Aida jerked the stick and flew her helicopter straight at the creatures, managing to knock both of them away. She stopped alongside the quad bike, opened the side door remotely, and rolled down her window. "Jump!" she yelled. "Jump into here!"
The traveller, who was wearing a helmet that obscured her entire face, quickly stood up on the seat of the bike, lined up the jump, and then leapt clear into the side of the helicopter. Aida quickly closed the door, rolled up the window, and punched it. She heard the woman grunt as they picked up speed and eventually managed to escape through a time portal. The stick wobbled as Aida struggled to keep control of the aircraft as it arrived in the new time period: 2017. After a few more wobbles, the helicopter became still again. Aida breathed a sigh of relief and briefly glanced back over her shoulder. The quad rider was lying on her side at the back of the helicopter, curled up in a ball. She didn't seem hurt, which relieved Aida. Maybe she was just recovering from the attack.
Looking down, she spotted a helipad on top of a building. It seemed to be a warehouse of some kind, perhaps one that had goods imported to it regularly by helicopter. So she aimed for it and gently touched the aircraft down on the helipad. She'd have to explain herself to the warehouse owners later.
After switching the engine off, she went into the back of the helicopter and touched the woman's shoulder. "We've landed," she said. "Are you coming out?"
The woman slowly nodded and sat up. Aida hopped out of the helicopter, closely followed by the woman, who seemed to wince when she landed on the hard concrete. Aida started to ask if she was okay, but she shrugged off the question. The traveller still hadn't spoken a word since Aida rescued her.
As they approached the door, they saw the handle turn. Aida stepped back as the door opened, and standing there was...
"Aida?!"
"Vinnie!" Aida breathed. She beamed and threw her arms round his neck. Dakota hugged her tightly back.
"Are you okay?" He seemed worried. "Did you come through the timestream? Were you attacked?"
"No, but this lady was," Aida replied, stepping back from him to show him the woman. "I don't know if-."
"V-Vinnie...?" the woman suddenly gasped. She reached up and removed her helmet, revealing long red hair and a scar over her eyelid.
Dakota's face paled quickly.
"C-Carnelian?!"
