Chapter 34: Covert Ops against the Era Agents

Six days ago...

"And what would they say about us if we kill them and let their people notice that their hunting party has not come back? What would happen if they found out that we struck the first blow? It would give them an excuse to hunt down what remains of your swarm!" Kay said, seeing and closing the distance to the wounded overlord above him. "If we can't resolve this in a peaceful manner first, then we might be forced to take prisoners for interrogation."

'... An acceptable strategy. I shall let you determine this outcome.' the queen hissed. She sounded impressed, yet dejected by Kay's alternate strategy.

And that was when Kay finally saw the lizard-man hunters for himself. True to the overlord's mental image of the lizard-men supplied to the connection to the hivemind, its shared findings to the rest of the swarm were faultlessly accurate to Kay's firsthand experience. Kay could see that these hunters were exactly like what the overlord had observed. The flags they wore seemed ornate in design, and their weapons appeared to be hand-crafted from strong materials. Their armor seemed crude and old, but could mean that Virid's assumption that their equipment was ceremonial could be correct. However, just as he was able to get in range to see them with his own eyes, these hunters would be able to see him as well. They immediately raised their weapons and pointed them at him, of which he noticed that each lizard-man carried four sets of weapons on themselves. He could see one of them in particular taking out its primary ranged weapon and aiming its crossbow at him. The seven others mimicked their supposed leader and unsheathed their armaments in turn. Kay immediately raised his hands high up in the air. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Whoa! Whoa. Whoa. Whoa... Listen. I don't know what kind of purpose you guys are here for... But I must warn you that any further aggression to us will result in a dangerous outcome for all of you. What do you say?"

The lizard-men did not lower their weapons. One of such lizard-men, the one wielding the crossbow at the front of their party, clucked and hissed its language to the other hunters for a brief moment. Kay frowned, since he had no understanding of their language. However, he did remember some of his training in his former life. It has something to do with being a spectre. ... Oh yeah, the spectre's were psionic spec ops soldiers. Kay had almost forgotten that. But using psionics to retrieve information from a mind was dangerous, and could reduce the mind of the person he's reading to a brain-dead state. But there was another problem. He wasn't sure if his mind was healthy enough to use psionic abilities effectively. For the moment, Kay decided against using his psionic powers, or whatever mental abilities that might have remained.

"Uh... Kay... You." Kay said, pointing at the crossbow wielding lizard-man. "Shot." He gestured as though he was firing a weapon. "Overlord?" Kay then pointed at the retreating overlord.

The crossbow archer lizard-man let his weapon droop down fully and held it by one hand, while his other hand made several gestures as he clucked and hissed his lizard language more openly to Kay. The lizard-man gestured to himself, pointed to his weapon, made a shooting sound as he mocked firing his weapon, then pointed at the overlord that was getting away. Kay wasn't too sure, but it felt as though this hunter had intent on hunting the zerg organism. But the good news is that these reptiles seem to understand gestures and charades well. However, when the crossbow archer clucked again, it and its fellow hunters attempted to circle around Kay to get back at hunting the overlord.

Kay shook his head, then ran to the front of the hunting group again. "Okay okay, stop that!" Kay said, waving his hands at them to halt. Once he had their attention again, he tried to explain through gestures once more. "You." He pointed at the lizard-men. "No." He smoothly waved his left hand to his left and his right hand to his right. "Shoot." He mimicked firing a crossbow. "Overlord." He pointed at the overlord. He paused before beginning again. "You." He pointed at the crossbowman again. "Put weapon." He pointed at the crossbow. "Down." He then mimicked carrying something and slowly putting it to the ground. He paused again. "But." He said, telling them to wait for further gestural communicative signals. "You." He pointed at the archer again. "Shoot." He mimicked firing a crossbow again. "Overlord." He pointed at the overlord in the distance. "Fight. Hiss." He said, trying to spread his hands and claws out as threateningly as possible, baring his teeth, and fanning his bone-wings out.

The lizard-men stood fast when Kay showed them an aggressive display. Kay was unsure why they were unfazed by his attempt to scare them off, but he considered it a moot point. However, it did make the eight lizard-men group up, and they clucked with one another for a brief moment. Kay wondered if the message he was trying to relay to them had actually gotten across this time.

After a moment, the lizard-men broke up their huddle. The crossbow archer clucked and hissed more loudly, bringing out a long, curved sword and stabbing it into the ground. His reply seemed more authoritative sounding. The lizard-man pointed at Kay, then at itself, and then brought out a knife and stood in a stance that seemed to be similar to some kind of martial art style that Kay was unaware of.

"... Are... Are you challenging me?" Kay asked incredulously. He slumped his posture a little when he realized that this really was actually happening. "Ugh. This feels like I'm trying to talk to deaf, feral children. Deaf, feral children that are scaly, dangerous, and speak a reptile language. ... I think I'll just show you guys how much damage I can do. I'll then let you decide what to- WHOA!"

The crossbow archer leaped forward and swung his knife several times at the unprepared Kay. Despite the crossbow archer's deft strokes, Kay was faster at dodging the attacks. The crossbow archer was rewarded for his efforts with a backhand that nearly broke his neck.

Kay stared at the archer with a surprised expression. "Are you out of your damn mind?! Listen, I don't want to fight yo-" Another five hunters brought out their weapons and started attacking Kay. "YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"

Six of the hunters decided to try their luck in taking down Kay, whilst two others decided to flee from the fight. Kay gritted his teeth and growled as he had no choice but to defend himself, killing his attackers when they could have left peacefully.

Present day...

Kay carefully rubbed the back of his head, recalling the time that he fought those eight hunters... but for some reason, that battle seemed somewhat odd to him when he recalled the past information. "Hmm."

Kragnon was handing out info-lenses to a line of changelisks, and each one was given an info-lens of their own. Kragnon turned to look at Kay with a puzzled expression, standing in the hole that a bull shryik serpent had made long ago. "Something wrong?"

"... Hmm? Oh uh, yeah, no, I was just recalling certain details of a fight that I remembered." Kay answered, shaking his head.

Kragnon raised his eyebrow and stared at Kay. "... Uh oh. Sounds like you experienced a temporal recursion."

Kay narrowed his gaze at Kragnon and tilted his head. "A what-oral re-what-sion?"

Kragnon rolled his eyes. He picked up a whole box containing several more info-lenses and handed it to a changelisk, and then turned to Kay. "Temporal recursion. To put it simply, when your past is changed, you begin to remember certain details differently, and the changes becomes instant from then on. However, temporal recursion often occurs when the time travelers were unsuccessful in their attempt to change history, and decided to redo their original entry into the past. Can you remember how the fight took place?"

Kay nodded and tried to recollect his memories. "Uh... I think I fought eight hunters six days ago. Six of them grouped up on me, but I killed them all. Only two escaped that day. I tried to infest them, but there was no way to keep all of their bodies fresh under the desert sun, so the zerglings ate the corpses. Then there was that scout thing that one of my overseers saw, but it flew off. And... that's all I remember, I think?"

Kragnon shook his head. "I remember you telling me there were three hunters."

Kay cocked his head. "But that doesn't seem right. I remembered fighting eight."

"Temporal recursion, Kay. It has a faster effect on you when you are at the epicenter of any changes made temporally. The changes become gradual the farther away, both in time and distance, the time travel event occurred, depending on how severely history is being changed. The only way to help you recall certain events is to write down what you remember, and then re-check what you wrote down relative to the event that occurred. But even then, the changes made in the past can still affect what you remember or wrote down in the present, so all you really have is repetition to assist your remembering. Luckily for you, I happen to have a trump card for time traveling shenanigans." Kragnon said with a prideful smile.

Kay crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow. "What is it?"

Kragnon reached into one of his pockets and retrieved a glass slab with blue sand within it. He held it in front of Kay. "Time sand. They are special particles that are infused with highly stable temporal properties. No matter how much they are manipulated, they remain fixed in the timeline. Not only that, it can also be used as a power source for time traveling machines. I have an entire wall of this stuff in my bedroom, so... I suppose you can have this." Kragnon said, wiping its surface and giving the slab to Kay.

Kay held up and looked at the slab, seemingly intrigued by its properties. "Uh... Kay. Cool. ...What do I do with it?"

"Write on it. If any changes were made in our timeline, temporal or otherwise, the time sand will remain the same shape."

"Oh~! Well that's stupidly simple! I guess I'll write a three on here, seeing as though I fought three hunters in the past... which might actually be era agents instead." Kay said, poking onto the surface of the slab. He made a hole in the shiny plastic, slightly damaging the slab by accident. "... Uh. Oops!"

Kragnon narrowed his gaze. "What do you mean 'oops'?"

"'Oops' meaning I kinda... stabbed into this thing with my claw." Kay said, holding up a finger with a small bit of blue dust at the tip. He brought his nose close to the dust and smelled it, curious on what its odor was. Immediately, he went into a wheezing cough and brought his dust covered finger far away from his face. "AWH~! ID SINGS MAH NOBES!"

Kragnon covered his own mouth. "Don't fucking breathe time sand on me, you idiot! It does funny stuff to your brain and cells!"

"REAWWY?!" Kay asked frantically.

"Uh... I dunno! Just don't sneeze on me please!" Kragnon hastily requested.

After coughing and sneezing a few times, Kay handed back the time sand slab. "Ugh. *sniff* Oof! Never again. Uh... Well then. I'm sorry to say this, but can you repair this and provide a dull writing object? My fingers are not efficient writing tools."

Kragnon shook his head at Kay and accepted the return gift. "I'll write a three on this for you. In the meantime, I suggest you be careful."

"Same goes for you." Kay replied back.

Kragnon and Kay turned to suddenly see several gilanians that were not there before, nine in total. They wore tightly sealed suits of black and plastic, and they emerged from a bright, white shape that was heptagonal, seeming to be an arched doorway in design. Kay narrowed his gaze at these new interlopers, appearing from nowhere so suddenly. As of that moment, Kay decided he didn't like unannounced entrances. "... Who the fuck are you?"

One of them, the gilanian in the middle, turned to his left. "Solzen?"

The suited gilanian next to him pulled a plastic sheet from behind himself and inspected it. "Uh... Seems like we are several minutes late in our arrival, sir."

The center gilanian sighed. "Damn. I think we've been forced into a fixed timeline again. Gentlemen. Lets regroup and find another entry point."

"You are going nowhere!" Virid shouted, as zerglings quickly blocked off the suited gilanians' only escape route. The nine suited gilanians backed away from the horde of zerglings, which snarled at them threateningly.

Kay walked forward and quickly grappled the apparent leader of these intruders, holding him high off the ground from his throat. Kay growled aggressively. "Okay, Bubbles, here's the deal. Give me a reason not to kill you, and I won't kill you. Choose your words carefully."

Bubbles choked a little as Kay's hands clasped around his throat. "Nnnghnn, don't! We don't mean you harm! We just came here to warn you about guh... about the future!"

Kay bared his teeth. "So does this mean you are Era Agents? Why should I trust you, since you are already trying to rewrite my past and kill me anyway?"

"Hurgh, listen! If we don't get back to our own timelines soon, then everything will start falling out of place! All of time could unravel in an inescapable paradox collapse if we AUGH!" Bubbles was yanked from finishing his sentence.

Kay twisted and slammed the gilanian on the ground and forced a hand to his head. "Shut up. I'll get what I want from you in a different way."

"What? Ugh~?!" Kay placed a hand on Bubbles' plastic bubble surrounding his face, pressing firmly enough that his hands touched the gilanian inside. He then focused his telepathic power to the intruder's mind.

Unlike using the psionic probe technique on Ralkan at Empire Capitol, Kay lessened his telepathic powers so that there wouldn't be any mentally damaging aftereffects on the gilanian Kay called 'Bubbles'. At least, Kay hoped. After a minute or so, Kay found the answers he needed. He sighed as he got off of the gilanian. To make certain he doesn't squirrel away somewhere, Kay placed a small parasite within a small crevasse in his suit. "Alright. You really are telling the truth."

Bubbles slowly got up from the creep covered ground, shaking a little, but then dusted himself off. "Huh! What the hell?! I heard that the zerg were aggressive, but... They are a lot more intense in person!"

"Consider yourself lucky." Kay replied. "But you have yet to tell me why I shouldn't kill you. Bonus points if you tell me why you are here."

"ARE THOSE ERA AGENTS!?" Kragnon shouted from the safety of his hole in the tower's wall.

The bubble suited gilanians turned to look at the shouting lovechief. Kay paid him no attention. Bubbles shook his head and spoke. "We just came here hoping to explain what our agency does. Our think tank had concluded that the lovechief here explained you his version of our operations, but we have deduced that it was wildly inaccurate."

"I have no way to trust your word. That, and I know you just now lied to me." Kay said with an angered frown. He could tell because his psionic powers enabled him to read Bubble's surface thoughts.

"IF THEY ARE ERA AGENTS, THEN KINDLY SHOW THEM THE DOOR PLEASE!"

Bubbles looked between Kay and a hiding Kragnon repeatedly before sighing. "Uh, look. Can't we bring you back with us? We could show you what we mean if you come into the time gate."

Kay glared at Bubbles. "No. The minute I go in there, you will close the gate permanently."

"Uh..." Bubbles was completely dumbfounded.

"DON'T ACCEPT ANY OFFERS FROM THEM! THEY ARE VERY CRAFTY!"

Bubbles shook his head. "But-but-but what-what about the future?! Don't you want to know what will happen?!"

"I already know that I will kill Gollog and escape from Kiln's veil, if that's what you mean."

Bubbles stared at Kay for a long time. "... How... do you know that? I thought a gilanian had to be infested in order for you to read minds with them?"

Kay smiled slyly.

"ARE THEY GOING TO BE HERE FOR LONG?! I DON'T WANT TO INVITE THEM IN AND HAVE TO BREAK OUT THE KRELL JERKY!"

Kay sighed and rolled his eyes, then turned toward the hiding Kragnon. "I HAVE IT UNDER CONTROL! STOP SHOUTING!"

"BUT AREN'T THEY TRYING TO KILL YOU?!" Kragnon shouted.

"KRAGNON!" Kay shouted.

"UH... ALRIGHT! I'LL JUST HIDE SOMEWHERE UNTIL WHATEVER THIS IS, IS OVER!" After that, Kragnon ceased his shouting.

Bubbles blinked a few times, coughed, and then continued. "Listen to me, please. I have to at least tell you that the Era Agency is in great danger of splitting, and that you're the cause of it."

Kay huffed. "Then don't fucking cross my path in my past, or I will find your temporally locked agency and wreck your shit there."

"Heh heh heh, uh... I doubt that you CAN do that, but we have to uh... We have to keep the-the timeline as linear as possible. It means we will have to send people in the past to try and interfere with you in some way, just so that this conversation can take place." Bubbles whimpered.

Kay shook his head. "Whoa whoa whoa, WILL?!" Kay said, approaching Bubbles. "Are you saying you didn't know you had sent agents into my past, or that you don't know if you are predestined to send them?"

Bubbles paused for a long time, his eyes widened by Kay's wisdom. "... Uh... Both?"

Kay breathed in deeply and sighed. "Well, six days ago, you had sent agents disguised as hunters of the Hidden Water Spring Tribe at my hive cluster in Red Mountain. Recently, however, I remember there being eight when there was supposed to be three hunters on that day. If you don't change it back to three soon, then I will reach into your damn chest and slowly squeeze the life out of your heart. I'll then pull out your damn dead heart and show it to your friends. Understand?"

Bubbles paused for a long period of several seconds before slightly nodding. "Alright. I'll uh... I'll uh... I'll go to my boss and report that our mission was a failure."

"Tell Zagion that Kay sends his regards." Kay said with a menacingly stern glare.

Bubbles paused again. He then began slowly stepping backwards, cautiously reentering the 'time gate', or at least Kay thought that it was called one. "Solzen and company. Retreat. NOW."

Once all of the era agents quickly retreated back into the time gate, the zerglings nipping at their heels as they absconded, the doorway closed and vanished from thin air. Virid passed her clawed hands through the door that was once there, only to pass through the vacant air instead. She trilled softly. "This is more distressing than I thought. Did you not latch a parasite onto one of them?"

Kay nodded. "I did. It's almost like Bubbles left my mental awareness. But with any luck, the parasite should stick onto him unnoticed."

"IS IT SAFE?!" Kragnon shouted.

Kay sighed. "YES KRAGNON! YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!"

Kragnon slowly peered from his cover and walked out from the hole, looking around. "... Kay, you are a dangerous man."

Kay rolled is eyes. "I know. No need to rub it in."

Kragnon turned to Kay and sighed. "You really shouldn't have told them where they are going to be in your past, Kay. You're just giving them an excuse to mess with you!"

Kay shook his head and carefully scratched the back of his head. "Well, since it already happened, I suppose it would create a reverse-paradox if I hadn't told him. Therefore, it's a moot point to discuss it."

Kragnon was about to say something, but then sighed again and shook his head. "Either way, you pissed off the Era Agents. There is no telling what they're going to do now."

Kay craned his neck. "Oh, but they pissed me off too. I just gave them a warning to think on their laurels before going against my forces. If they cross me a third time, then I will come after them."

Kragnon shook his head more and stared at Kay in disbelief. "What the hell makes you think you can take on the era agents?!"

Kay smiled. "I know how to get into their secret base." Kay said, aloofly.

Kragnon stared at Kay for a long time, but then he turned away and raised his hands in defeat. "Aaahhhh this is just great! I have a bug-man angering the Golden Star Empire, creating more monsters that I can count, and has apparently antagonized Era Agents in the future, and... and... and what am I even stepping in?!" Kragnon said loudly, noticing the wet stickiness of the ground.

Kay was amused by Kragnon's little tirade, but he tried to be polite. "That's uh... That's creep. Don't eat any, or you'll become an infested gilanian."

Kragnon shifted his gaze to Kay. He then looked at the burbling and moving creep. "Eeeuuugh, it feels like I'm stomping in worm-infested diarrhea."

Kay raised his eyebrow. "I'm somewhat tempted to ask you if you ever had done that. But anyway, the creep is definitely infested with... SOMETHING." Kay intoned.

Kragnon looked back at Kay. He then looked back at the creep that continued to move and burble. "... I'm going to get off of this stuff. And maybe clean my feet for an hour." He said, duck-walking away from Kay and going toward the hole in the tower's wall.

Kay chuckled, but then he remembered something. "Oh! Are you sure it's alright to let us have your info-lenses?"

Kragnon nodded as he awkwardly stepped through the creep. "Yeah. They'll act as another pair of eyes for me. Also, it enables me to connect to your changelisks creatures and lets me direct them around. That is, if you are willing to let them be in my command."

Kay shook his head and smiled. "Hey now, let's not get too crazy. I'll let you see in the perspective of the changelisks and provide tactical analysis whenever we need it, but no more than that. For now, at least."

"Alright. Good. Well... I'll be back in the tower repairing the time sand memoir. After I clean my feet. Later." Kragnon said, waiving goodbye and returning to his tower.

As Kragnon left for the safety of the tower, Kay turned around and smiled venomously. Two very interesting things had been learned by Kay today, and they were quite interesting things to him. One of which was learning the location of the Era Agency. Apparently, it was a location that blips into existence for a second on daily intervals. How the agency works is that it grounds itself with a time anchor it creates on the very second it appears. After that, the era agency could open a window into time to enter into and manipulate at their leisure. Not only that, the Era Agents have enough temporal power to create as many alternate timelines as they want, and be able to create as many resources from those timelines whenever they needed to. They can even go back in time and cannibalize on another timeline inhabited by a younger Era Agency, effectively making them an ever growing force of nature that continues to adapt at a dangerous rate, using the flow of time itself.

Another thing that Kay learned was the identity of the leader in this instanced timeline. Zagion the Seneschal, 482nd descendant of the original time traveler, who is/was the leader of timeline 8,348,759,784,398-S/498. He happened to be incorporated into several timelines that numbered in the trillions, and is inhabiting the four hundredth and ninety eighth split in various alternate timelines considered favorable to the other alternate agencies. He is rumored by the Era Agents to be a strict, yet intelligent gilanian that has an uptight policy regarding humor in the workplace. Worse still is that there are several versions of Zagion that could pool their resources together to fend off other time traveling enemies that would otherwise seek and destroy their agency.

But thankfully, they have been warned that any more meddling with zerg affairs would result in dire consequences for them. And Kay knows that their base is located next to an unaligned science facility in the center of the Southern Region area of Kiln. In fact, it was the same facility that Virid had exfiltrated from when she, and the zerg strains she brought with her, came into this world. A question formed in Kay's mind, and he felt like it was a question that needed to be answered. "Virid." Kay said, turning to the zerg queen that was still swiping at the disappeared time door. "How many hunters did I kill on my first day of being a zerg commander?"

Virid stopped her current activity and turned to Kay. "Hmm? Oh. You have killed twelve hunters that day. ... Kay? Is something wrong?"

Virid sensed Kay's emotions shifting to slighted anger because Kay remembered that day being different from his own remembrance of it. Kay remembered there being three hunters, and then eight hunters. If it was twelve, then Kay would had no choice but to make due on his threat. "The time traveling assassins tried to increase their numbers in their hunting party from three, to eight, and now to twelve. To put it simply, we are going to attack the time travelers. If they already escalated their efforts to get rid of me, or have not done so yet, then we'll be attacking them back."

"They attacked us already?" Virid asked, cocking her head but also trilling excitedly.

Kay nodded. "The zerg have been provoked, Virid. This provocation will cost them in a payment of blood, violence, and death."

A/N: Castle Story seems like a fun game. Zerging your enemies or getting zerged by coruptrons seems fun. :3