Chapter 51: Time Patrol
A/N: So, fun fact... y'all already know about how after the metro is gonna be the Artic Cruise. It's fairly obvious.
Well, funny enough, I, too, am going on an arctic cruise in real life! It's not gonna be until June, but I'm still busy preparing, I need to apply for a passport and what have you. I should have this story finished long before I leave but I thought it was worth mentioning anyway, for fun.
(Hopefully this arctic cruise doesn't end the same way as theirs will, though...)
I woke up peacefully next morning. No other strange dreams or whatnot.
"Just a dream," I muttered quietly to myself.
I got up and meandered around the spaceship. The kid was still asleep, and I didn't wake her.
After awhile, I just sat in the main hall staring out into the cosmos.
Until I felt an all too familiar presence behind me.
"Have a nice talk last night, did you?" A certain someone asked.
I turned around to face the Traveller. I still had no idea why he liked sneaking up on me so much.
"Eh? What talk?" I asked, "I had a weird dream. That's it."
"'A weird dream'? You mean one where you found yourself talking to a young boy that reminded you of yourself?" The questioned.
I recoiled back in shock.
"How do you know that?!" I exclaimed.
"Last night, I felt a disturbance in the fabric of the multiverse. I tracked it down and found that the source of it was your own mind," He stated, "Your mind was projecting itself into a parallel universe. That's something I can't even do, I have to actually travel."
"Well I certainly didn't do it on purpose," I muttered, "But you're telling me... that was real?"
"As real as you or me," He answered.
I had no idea how to respond.
I was somehow... projected into a completely separate universe! But...
"How did this even happen?" I asked.
"I'm not quite sure," He muttered, "I know you were the source of this anomaly. Even if you refuse to believe it, you caused it."
"I was asleep!" I grumbled.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"You're not like the others, Mega," He said, "You're special. That's why I've watched over you for so long. Not everyone can detect it, but I see it clear as day. Something unlike anything else I've seen in this vast multiverse."
Why did he always beat around the bush like this?
I shook my head.
"Well, Badge Seller did say something about me having infinite potential. He said you saw it too. But I don't see what the big deal is," I grumbled, "I'm just a man. A poor excuse of a man."
He chuckled.
"You'll see," He said with a mischievous grin, "Oh, you'll see. All will be made clear. Perhaps even your fractured memory, too."
He then vanished without a trace.
I was beginning to think he enjoyed confusing me.
I heard footsteps and turned around. The kid was standing there, groggy and confused. I guessed that our little talk must've woken her up.
I decided not to tell her about what happened. Wasn't really important for her to know about.
Instead, I simply greeted with a "good morning."
"What was that all about?" She asked.
"Ah, nothing," I muttered, "Our certain friend came and talked about my memories."
Wasn't the full truth, but I wasn't lying, now was I?
"What did he say?" She questioned.
"He said that-"
Suddenly, an alarm boomed through the ship. Not the intruder alarm, but the...
"Time Rift alarm," I grumbled, "What fantastic timing."
The kid was already at the monitor. It showed two blue rifts and a purple rift in Alpine Skyline. One of them was on a cat house, another by the Twilight Bell, and the purple one was at the goat village.
"Strange how these things all pop up at once..." I muttered, "Well, I guess it means we can take care of them all at once, so whatever."
"Let's go," She said hurriedly, and we rushed to the Engine Room telescope and teleported down to the goat village. The purple rift was floating in the air not far away.
"You gonna go take care of that, kid?" I asked.
"I think it'd be cool to show you what these Time Rifts look like sometime," She explained, "But we can't risk anyone coming into the rifts after us. So you need to stay behind always."
"Alright. Good luck," I said.
She nodded and hopped into the rift. Time rewound briefly, and she was gone.
I just sat myself underneath the Time Rift and relaxed.
A few minutes later, a puzzled nomad approached me and the rift.
"Don't touch this thing," I warned, "It's very dangerous."
"Okay, but why are you sitting under it?" They asked, "If it's dangerous, shouldn't you be staying as far away from it as possible?"
"It's fine if you don't touch it," I answered, "Also, somebody needs to make sure that nobody messes with this thing."
"If you say so," They said.
They walked away, then stopped and turned around.
"Wait a minute, you're that guy who got poisoned trying to save us, right?" They questioned.
"Pretty sure," I joked.
"Okay, I have another question," They muttered, "How are you alive? After they disappeared, I did research on those plants. They're called the Death Blossom!"
I chuckled.
"Well, I'll just put it this way," I stated, "I have friends in high places. They helped me out."
"I see, they must've had some sort of antidote," They said, then walked away, muttering that they had to find the person or people that helped me.
I heard a strange noise, and looked up to see the rift disappear and the kid land right in front of me with a Time Piece in hand.
"Welcome back," I said.
"At least we've got that taken care of," She said, "I guess let's head to where those jerk cats live."
And so we did. It was a short trip, but when we got there...
There was nobody there. It was a ghost town. Even the nomad that typically warned visitors of the felines was gone.
We made it to the Time Rift without any issues whatsoever.
"Weird how we haven't been assaulted yet," I muttered, "Maybe they cleared out when they saw the Time Rift?"
"I don't see why they would," She disagreed, "I dunno. You can come with me this time, if you want."
"Sure," I said.
"Okay, but be sure not to look down," She warned between giggles.
She went in first, then I walked up to the floating, swirling blue ball.
"Well, here goes," I grumbled, then touched it.
Once again, time seemed to freeze, but instead of rewinding, a blinding flash of white light emitted from the rift.
When I could see again, I found myself... uh...
Uh...
"What in the name of peck is this?!"I shouted.
It seemed like a giant, infinite ocean, with the surface of the water seemingly up in the sky with a sun piercing the waves. There were even bubbles and a whale floating around!
But why were there clocktowers everywhere? And why was I breathing air if this place was water?
At this point, my mind was having too much trouble comprehending the nonsense around me to even care about the seemingly infinite abyss below me.
I heard the kid laughing from a short distance away.
"I can see why you never wanted me tagging along with you into these things," I deadpanned.
"Too late now!" She exclaimed, "Come on!"
I sighed and followed her, noticing that everything seemed to be made of a weird mix of white stone(?) and blue crystal.
It was some fairly simple platforming until we got to a T-shaped platform with lots of pillars on it and a blue springboard hanging off the end of it. There was another platform far ahead, too far ahead to jump to. There was another springboard on that platform.
We walked toward the springboard, then out of nowhere a cat shoved the kid in the back, taking her hat and nearly knocking her off the platform.
I quickly smacked it in the back of the head with my baton, which stunned it. Another quick hit with the baton and they were off to dreamland.
"Well, I guess that explains where the cats went. There's probably a bunch more up ahead," I reasoned.
The kid took back her hat, and we both stood on the platform.
"You think this will send us both over to that platform?" I asked, "I'd like to know your opinion before risking falling into an infinite abyss."
"Oh, don't worry," She reassured, "Physics work kinda weirdly in these things. If you fall down, you'll be teleported back to solid ground a few seconds later."
"Oh," I muttered, "Well, okay then."
"Buuut," She said, "You'd better not go diving off into the abyss just for fun, the sudden change in speed isn't a nice feeling. Trust me, I know."
"Right," I agreed, "Well, here goes."
She hopped into the air with her ice cap on and turned into a statue. When she landed on the board, it sent her flying to the other springboard, or so I assumed.
I was too busy flying out of control through the air to notice.
After a few seconds, I felt myself land in a very painful faceplant.
I grumbled and slowly looked up, seeing that I'd made it to the other side, but that I'd landed in the center of the platform, rather than on the springboard.
My face was still hot with pain from that sideshow.
"Never again," I grumbled as I got up.
The kid laughed, and we continued.
It was a very simple string of jumps to the end of the rift, but what made it not so simple was the fact that we were attacked on literally every platform. None of the cats ever got a good hit on either one of us but it was still a royal pain in the rear.
After clearing out all of the cats, we hopped onto a large gear. There were 3 rectangular boxes in front of us, and ahead I could see the Time Piece floating on an unreachable platform.
To the left, one of the boxes opened. Strangely, there was nothing inside.
Or was there?
I pre-emptively swatted backward with my baton and caught a cat trying to sneak up on me.
"Predictable," I spat, then hit them again before they could camouflage again.
The other two containers opened, but they seemed 'empty' as well.
I heard footsteps behind me and swung with my baton, but it met air.
Suddenly, I was tackled from behind.
"Predictable," The cat mocked. They had a strange accent I didn't recognize.
"Oh, so you can talk?" I asked.
"Who ever said we couldn't?" The cat countered. I felt fumbling in my pockets, and I could barely see a bag of pons being pulled out.
And then I heard a telltale whack, and I was no longer pinned down.
I quickly stood up.
"Thanks, kid," I thanked.
The cat got up and hissed viciously at the kid, then attempted to pounce on her.
It dodged the kid's first strike, but not the second one, and they were sent flying back into one of the boxes. I walked over to their unconscious body and took back what rightfully belonged to me.
Strangely enough, I noticed that this cat was dressed slightly different from the rest. They wore a black bandana covering their lower face.
"Shouldn't there be a third one?" I muttered.
"I dealt with it already," The kid explained.
"Really? I didn't hear anything," I responded, "I guess you're just that good, eh?"
I heard shifting, and looked forward to see that two walls impeding our progress earlier had lowered enough that we could climb onto them, and thus reach the Time Piece.
So... we did. We quickly made it to the Time Piece, which the kid grabbed.
The Time Rift began to fade as its source was removed.
"Now the fun part," She said with a grin.
She grabbed my hand and held the Time Piece high in the air, and it began to glow.
There was nothing but blinding white light for the next ten seconds...
And when it cleared, I landed back where we started with a bunch of unconscious cats next to us. I looked behind me, and the rift was gone.
"Huh," I muttered, "So that's what a Time Rift is like."
"Yup," The kid responded, "Now we've only got one left. And we can get there super easily!"
She held the Time Piece back into the air, and we were teleported back to the Engine Room.
"We can just go straight down to the Twilight Bell now, because we've been there once!" She said happily.
I nodded slowly, and we went down to Alpine Skyline again. This time, when peering through the telescope, I focused on the bell.
Sure enough, when I landed, it was right at the base of the bell.
Back in the eternally silent presence of this fascinating and strange monument.
The Time Rift was right behind us, sitting on a lone tree growing out of the rockface.
"Nobody's here, as per usual," The kid said quietly, "So, do you want to come with me again?"
"Well, it seems like it's mostly platforming. Like you said, I think I'd just weigh you down," I answered, "So I'll just wait here and make sure nobody comes here and has any bad ideas."
She nodded and entered the rift, vanishing again.
And there I sat. Alone. The only sound was the gentle blow of the breeze.
Apart from the slight eeriness, it was kind of relaxing.
I sat down and took a deep breath, then stared at the monumental Twilight Bell.
It truly was something else. It really set the feel for an ancient anchor to a spiritual realm. Yep, it sure set the atmosphere for that.
"Fancy meeting you here again," A certain mysterious voice greeted from behind.
I didn't need to look over to see who it was.
"Hello, Badge Seller. The kid is off taking care of something," I muttered.
"Yes, the Time Rift over there. I know," He stated.
At this point, it wasn't even surprising that he knew that.
"How has the badge I gave you worked so far?" He asked.
"I've only used it once, but it worked perfectly fine," I answered, "I still wanna try out that Shadow Badge sometime, but I haven't had the chance yet. I was thinking I'd maybe try to find you in Subcon Forest today, but here we are."
He chuckled.
"I could assist you with the badge right now, if you wish," He suggested.
"Out in the sun? It won't work," I countered.
He chuckled again.
"Have you forgotten where we are?" He questioned.
"Uh... the Twilight Bell," I muttered.
"And have you forgotten where you go when you ring it?" He continued.
I could only say "oh."
"Would it work in there?" I asked.
"Better than anywhere else. I believe you would be able to accomplish some amazing feats with that badge in the Realm of Ancients," He explained.
"And what if the kid gets back before we're done?" I inquired, "She'd have no idea where I went and she'd probably panic."
He put his free hand to his chin.
"I suppose you wouldn't want that, now would you?" He muttered, "Very well. In that case, I will return to Subcon Forest and await your arrival once again. Don't keep me waiting long."
"I won't," I responded, but he'd already vanished.
... And the kid returned right after.
"What stellar timing!" I exclaimed sarcastically.
"... What?" She asked.
"Badge Seller just left. He was gonna help me with the stupid badge I bought from him but I didn't want to go with him, because you were busy with the rift," I explained, "And he left right before you came back."
She laughed.
I sighed.
"Well, I guess that's just life," I dismissed, "Let's go back to the ship."
We did so, and the kid put the Time Pieces back into the vault.
I looked at the giant monitor. 35/56. That was like... what, barely over 60% done?
Well, if you counted the five we collected in the metro but had taken from us, that'd be 40. Which is almost three quarters.
I scratched my head. It seemed like we'd be done soon.
Very soon.
... The thought made me strangely nervous.
What would we do afterward? Head to the kid's homeworld?
Then what? Go off on another adventure? Stay?
Bah, we probably wouldn't even make it that far! They probably wouldn't even accept me, they'd probably lock me away or worse! And then how would they react knowing the kid lost the Time Pieces in the first place?
What would they do to her?
I shook my head to clear these horrible thoughts away.
We'd cross that bridge when we came to it.
But right now, I had a Badge Seller waiting for me in Subcon Forest.
It was time to finally put this damn Shadow Badge to use.
A/N: Wow, I was not expecting this chapter to be so big. But I wanted to deal with all three rifts at once, as per usual, so that's what I did.
Next chapter: He FINALLY gets to use the badge that he spent every last pon on! I dunno why it took me SO PECKING LONG to get around to it, but it's finally happening.
Oh, and, you can expect it to be far more interesting than some normal, dinky badge. It's an ultra badge, after all!
But now, review time:
OPFan37: It was super fun to do! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I'm glad that I got Tie's character down correctly. I also edited it so that Tie doesn't say 'dude,' hehe. Thank you!
