Where were we? Oh yes! Alfred had jumped back in time, firing a gun and now he's got a police marksman ready to shoot at him. Let's see how that turns out, shall we? Enjoy!

Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya and Biggles belongs to W E Johns!

Chapter 7 : Surprise!

Alfred stood stock still, knowing that one wrong move on his part would get a bullet in him. Although armed police were rare in Britain, when they were called in, they did not mess around and Alfred had already, although accidentally, made himself look like a serious threat and he did not know how to get out of this one without ending up in the nearest hospital, morgue or mental institution.

Then, suddenly, he was grabbed from behind and pulled back to the safe shield of the utility building, a bullet nicking the edge as he disappeared behind it. Alfred look round at his saviour and found himself looking at Arthur, leather flying jacket, helmet, googles and all.

"How did you get here?!" Alfred squawked in surprise.

"I have no idea!" Arthur replied. One moment he was in his plane, trying to find the weapon from the air in the hopes of taking it out before it could be used against the troops on the ground but that was pretty academic any way. There was a German offensive against the nearest British trenches and it was going badly for his side. The trenches were being overwhelmed and they were cut off from retreat. He remembered a rumble of thunder and a flash of lightning, his plane vanished from around him and he found himself on a roof top with Alfred having a gun pointed at him from some contraption that hovered in mid-air.

"You must have fallen through the same hole in time as I have," Alfred said. At last, he would not have to make up stories to explain his presence in 1917.

"Hole in time?" Arthur asked but then decided that this was not the right time. "Never mind! What is that thing?" He indicated the strange flying contraption that looked like some kind of giant black bug with large propeller blades for wings.

"It's a helicopter," Alfred replied, realising that helicopters were definitely before Arthur's time.

"German?"

"No," Alfred replied. "We're in London, that's the British police. They're kind of pissed at me because I accidentally shot at them when Alice and I jumped back. I was going to someone for help." Arthur took another look at the contraption that hovered through the sky like a dancing bee. The civilian police had a contraption like that! It was not military! It should be!

"Where do you need to get to?" Arthur asked.

"Tower Bridge!" Arthur thought for a second. He still had his flare pistol with him from the plane but these were British police and he did not want to harm his own people, he just needed to get them to back off so he took out his flare gun, aimed and fired the flare as a warning shot to its right.

Flares, however, are not like bullets and do not fly in an accurate, straight line and the fired flare veered slightly to the left, giving the helicopter a glancing blow and Arthur had a bad moment that he might have brought the helicopter down but there did not seem to be any damage but the shot had had the desired affect as they withdrew, in case the flare had done something that could affect the helicopter's flight, leaving Arthur and Alfred with escape time.

They made their way across the building to where they could see Tower Bridge and jumped down to another attached building that had a courtyard like some kind of warehouse and they ran across the top of the wall to the next building and from there came the hard part. A jump from one building to another across an alleyway. It was a short alley but still a long way to fall, had they got the jump wrong. From there, it was on to a storehouse roof where a man was using a winch to hoist stuff from the ground to the upper storehouse and there was a ladder propped up against the drop down platform. Arthur climbed on to the winch and shimmied down the rope to the platform.

"May we use your ladder, old chap?" Arthur asked, politely. The man just nodded his head in surprise and Arthur began climbing down the ladder as Alfred followed him down the winch rope. Soon they were both on the ground and running toward Tower Bridge but then stopped short when they turned a corner and saw police, wearing uniforms that Arthur did not recognise, standing in the road to the bridge, looking for them, obviously.

They edged back round the corner, out of sight and leant with their backs against the wall, trying to figure out their next move when Arthur looked across the way to where there was a piece of waste ground, occupied by people wearing dark clothing and dark make-up. Arthur pulled his goggles, which he had not removed since he landed in 2017, off his eyes, staring at the people in awe.

Alfred began smiling at Arthur's reaction to seeing Goths for the first time and Arthur took time to finally process everything. The helicopter, the unusual police, people wearing clothes that he had never seen before, although some of it resembled clothes from two decades previous of 1917. A device that resemble a horseless carriage drove past but it was more like a metal box on wheels and drove much faster. There had to be an explanation for this London that was, landmarks not withstanding, so different to the one he knew. What was it Alfred had said …..?

"Hole in time?" he asked Alfred and Alfred nodded. "I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it! So you're not an American agent, like you told my brothers."

"I tried to tell them that I was from the future," Alfred explained. "But they didn't believe me so I told them I was an agent. I was having trouble with them believing that until you showed up and vouched for me. I don't know why but a few days ago, I started slipping back in time and it seems to be whenever you're in danger but it looks like it works both ways. Truth is, I work in the food industry, I've never been in the military in my life."

"That explains a great deal," Arthur replied, thinking about Alfred's unusual clothing and his ineptitude with the plane's gun and the fact that he was, quite probably, the worse agent Arthur had ever met. "And what about Miss Alice?"

"She's actually my fiancée," Alfred replied. "She was holding on to me when we jumped last time so she ended up coming with me. Any way, what happened to you?"

"I was up in my plane," Arthur replied. "The enemy was overrunning our trenches and I was looking to take out the weapon before it could be used."

"Then we really need to get to Tower Bridge," Alfred said. "The man I was going to see has your photograph but how are we gonna get past the police." Arthur looked over at the Goths who had begun to move in their direction, looking like they were heading toward the bridge and he had an idea.


Police turned to see a large group of Goths coming their way. They walked past the police calmly as the police looked them over, one of them, some Steampunk guy wearing an old army uniform, leather flying helmet and goggles and another guy, wearing an old leather flying jacket among them but did not see who they were looking for. Alfred had the collar of Arthur's jacket pulled up and he made sure he walked beside someone at all times so that the clear view of his face was blocked and he crossed his fingers. They managed to pass by the police and climbed the steps to the bridge,

When they reached 1A Tower Bridge, Arthur and Alfred detached themselves from the Goth group as silently and quickly as they had joined them without them realising and went inside.

As the elevator could only fit one person at a time, they had to go the long way and Alfred knocked on the door of Peter's hidden lair, after giving Arthur his jacket back. Arthur walked in to find an old man with white hair and huge white eyebrows waiting for him.

Peter stared at Arthur for a few moments. He knew this moment was coming but still, it was quite an event, coming face to face with your own grandfather, whom he had last seen as an old man, looking at him, with a face that was, at least half a century younger than his.

"Hello, Arthur," he greeted, like Arthur was someone he had not seen for a very long time which, in truth, he had not. Arthur frowned.

"Excuse me, sir," he replied. "But do I know you?" Peter smiled.

"I know you," he replied. "But you don't know me ….. yet!"

"I don't know if telling you this is the right thing but," Alfred said. "Arthur Kirkland, this is Peter Kirkland. He's your grandson." Arthur's jaw almost hit the floor.

"My grands...," he gasped. He was this man's grandfather! He looked old enough to be his grandfather but then. Hole in time ….. of course. "But I have no children, I'm not even married!"

"Not yet," Peter grinned.

"Who do I marry?"

"I'm not going to tell you that," Peter said, adamantly. "But, at this point, I don't think I need to." Arthur smiled. Peter had told him without telling him...Marie!

"By the way," Alfred thought since he was introducing family, he better get this out of the way. "Alice is Alice Kirkland, Peter's granddaughter." Arthur nearly hit the floor.

"Are you saying," he gasped. "That girl, your fiancée, is my great, great granddaughter!" That explained why he and his brothers had felt so protective about her. They automatically recognised her as a Kirkland! And Alfred was going to become part of the family, what a turn up! "Well, if you're marrying her, at least I know your intentions are honourable."

"He knows Alice?" Peter asked Alfred.

"The last time I jumped, Alice was holding on," Alfred replied. "She jumped with me. Don't worry. she's all right! In fact, if she hadn't been there, we'd have all been dead." Peter sighed.

"Well, at least she knows I'm not the family nutter any more," he said. He missed the days when he could tell her the stories of her great, great grandfather and his mysterious friend, before everyone convinced her that he was going senile.

Arthur moved over to a table when he spotted the photograph of him and his brothers and picked it up.

"That was taken when your unit got its first commendation," Peter said. "Your commander, William Raymond, mentioned in dispatches how proud he was of you all."

"That was last month!"

"I take it you know how you got here?" Peter asked.

"Showed up and saved my life," Alfred replied.

"So you know that the hole in time opens both ways," Peter said. "When one or the other is at risk?"

"We kinda figured that out," Alfred quipped. "But I've got the police after me now, I suppose you knew that too." Peter gave a wry smile.

"Things will work out," he reassured Alfred. "Oh, the photograph has been developed, I have it over here." He moved over to the table next to his favourite arm chair and picked up an enlarge photo in a clear, protective sleeve and moved over to Arthur. "This came from the photo plate Alfred gave me. You see the weapon has been heavily camouflaged but I've used computer enhancement to bring up the detail." Arthur frowned.

"Computer enhancement?" he asked. Peter cursed himself for slipping up.

"It doesn't matter," he replied. "Point is, I've marked the position of the weapon so you should be able to find it easily."

"Thank you," Arthur still had a hard time believing that this old man was his grandson but if Alfred said so, Arthur was going to believe him.

"Right!" he said, taking the photograph. "Time we left, I think." Alfred turned from the window where he had been watching the police presence growing.

"The place is swarming with cops," Alfred replied. "How are we gonna get pass them?" Arthur looked around and spotted some war memorabilia and equipment. He grabbed two coils of rope from the display and threw one to Alfred.

"You seem to know everything that happens," Alfred said to Peter as Arthur walked back to them. "How does Arthur get back to the past?" Peter just gave a wry smile.

"You'll know when it happens," he replied. "Now God speed to both of you." Peter gave his young looking grandfather another hug and they left the room. When he was sure they were gone, he went and picked up his phone, dialled a number and waited for an answer.

"Yes, they just left," he said. "Is everything ready? Good …... I know the police won't be happy but they'll be compensated, just make sure nothing gets in Jones or Captain Kirkland's way, the preservation of the time-line depends on it."


The police helicopter crew were very disgruntled when they were ordered to abandon the chase and put down on the quayside as the Army had taken command of the operation and they wanted the air space cleared as soon as possible and the police were not even granted time to return to base. When they landed, they were told to leave the area and those orders were backed up by their superiors. They wondered why the Army had taken over, what was a serious firearms incident, but nothing that they could not handle so they wondered if the Army knew more about this than they did.


Arthur ran to another window and opened it, looking down to see that it was on the side facing the Thames river and began tying his rope around a steel column in the middle of the room.

"Just do what I do," Arthur said and hoped Alfred had done any rope work as he copied Arthur, tying his own rope to the column.

"What are you gonna do?" he asked. Arthur smiled and threw the remainder of the rope out of the window and began to climb out and down the side of the tower.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Alfred exclaimed. He had done rope work during Physical Education in school, like everybody else but that had been a while and this was a whole different level but what choice did he have? He threw his rope out, making sure it did not land on Arthur and began the perilous climb down, once again, glad for his glove so he was spared the rope burns. It took a while as Alfred was cautious, wanting to reach the ground, not crash into it but, finally his feet were on the stone floor that curved around the outer riverside wall and they ran down the stairs that took them to the quayside where the police helicopter stood, seemingly abandoned.

Arthur took off one of his gloves and ran his hand over the paint covered metal, moving on to the wind-shield which felt hard like glass but not quite the same. He had seen it fly and manoeuvre, seemingly turning round on the spot in mid-air, instead of needing to do a wide turn. Seeing it up close, Arthur marvelled at the engineering of the aircraft, the sleek lines and he just had to look at the controls.

"So ingenious!" he exclaimed as he moved round to the other side and the pilot seat.

"What are you doing?" Alfred asked as Arthur figured out the door control and opened it. Alfred opened the other side as Arthur climbed into the pilot seat, noting the assault rifle, strapped to the passenger side and wondered who would leave a gun in an unguarded helicopter . "I don't know why no one's with this helicopter but we better get out of here before they come back."

Arthur did not listen as he looked over the control panel and took hold of the control stick to see what it felt like. Some of the instruments, he did not recognise but he recognised enough to believe he could get the hang of flying the craft. And boy, did he want to fly it!

"Are you seriously thinking of trying to fly this thing?!" Alfred asked in shock as Arthur reached for what he believed to be the starter. "You don't know how!" Arthur just looked at him and smirked.

"If you can fly a Sopwith Camel," he bragged as the helicopter blades began to rotate. "You can fly anything! Now, get in!"

"No way!" Alfred replied as the blades sped up. "You're not trained for this aircraft!"

"Stay where you are!" A voice ordered and Alfred turned to see a group of soldiers running toward them and decided that in the helicopter with Arthur might be better and grabbed on to the helicopter's frame and stood on the runner. Arthur took the helicopter into the air before the soldiers reached them.

As the helicopter lifted away from them and over the waters of the Thames, the sergeant took out his radio and activated it.

"Trap 1, this is Greyhound!" he said into the radio. "Tempus is aboard the helicopter and he and Fugit will be turning back the clock! Repeat! Tempus and Fugit are turning back the clock!"

"Roger, Greyhound!" came the reply. "Standby for the clock turning forward. Time-lord is heading your way."

"Roger, Trap1," the sergeant replied. "Awaiting Time-lord." He watched the helicopter, that he had had refuelled and ready for Tempus (Alfred) and Fugit (Arthur) to take. He hope that one of them could operate the automatic rifle he had left on the passenger side. At least he had taken the safety off.


Alfred held on, trying to get the door open again to get inside the helicopter while Arthur came to grips with the controls and how they made the helicopter fly.

"Clever!" he commented. "It can be tilted to create an air-screw effect," He dipped the nose down on the helicopter and it began to turn round in a circle, rather than moved forward. Alfred just held on for dear life.

"Blast!" Arthur swore. "Why isn't that little propeller at the back compensating?" Arthur tried several things before he found a way to stop the turning and the helicopter began flying forward. He turned to smile at Alfred and saw him still holding on to the outside of the helicopter.

"Why don't you come in?" he yelled over the sound of the rotor blades, like he was inviting Alfred into his home. Alfred grimaced and struggled with the door again, then the helicopter shot upwards and Arthur fought to bring the helicopter back under control. The helicopter rose above Tower Bridge as Alfred got the door open but almost fell as his feet slipped off the runner, stopped only by the brackets holding the runner to the helicopter and he managed to hold on, get his feet back on to the runner and pulled himself into the chopper, strapping himself into the passenger seat.

"Welcome aboard!" Arthur quipped as The Tower of London passed their view. Then the helicopter's flight became wobbly and Alfred braced his hands against the chopper's roof to stop himself being thrown around.

"Hold on!" Arthur shouted. "I'll have it under control in a moment!"

"We might not have a moment!" Alfred screamed, scared that the helicopter could fall out of the sky at any second. "Have you try the autopilot?"

"What's an autopilot?" Arthur asked.

"It's this," Alfred replied and pressed the button marked 'Autopilot'. He dove to press it again when the chopper's nose dipped and they began diving toward the Thames. Arthur managed to get the helio back under control.

"Okay," Alfred said. "We'll leave the autopilot alone."

"Don't worry," Arthur told him as the helicopter began responding to him and doing everything he wanted it to. "I've got the hang of it now." And they began flying down the Thames.

A rumble of thunder, a flash of lightning and the Thames disappeared.

Ah, if only Arthur knew that the military does have helicopters, bigger and armed too! In the film, the Alfred and Arthur characters (Jim Ferguson and Biggles) were helped by punks but I liked the idea of Goths. I made them unknowing helpers to Arthur and Alfred because I didn't want to give the impression that Goths are against the police because (from what I've heard) they are more likely to be victims of crime than committers of it. Also in the film, Peter's character was surprised to see Arthur's character in the present day but, as the story hints, Peter knows everything that's going to happen so he knew that Arthur was going to turn up. In the film, the helicopter was just stood on the quayside unattended and that didn't make sense to me so, enter the mysterious army unit (which will be explained in due course), ordering the helicopter to land and the police to leave, fully refuelling it and putting a gun in it because, believe me, Arthur and Alfred are going to need it. Trap 1 and Greyhound are call signs used by Unit in Doctor Who and guess who 'Timelord' is! ;)

Bonemeal : I've never seen Erased so I can't really comment but I'll take your word for it. Discharging a gun, especially in the present day is not the best way to get the police on your side so leaving the country would be the best idea. Or leaving 2017 altogether ;)

The Big Battle is coming so stay tuned!

Till then,

Hasta la Pasta!