Shadic: Hey there peoples! I'm going to start having Author Space conversations before and after my chapters. But first I'm going to have to get the bakazaru, taintedgump, to type replies. Oh, and a slight clear-up: although the supernatural stuff's gonna be happening here, it won't be mentioned 'til next chapter.

A Step Onto Chronos Chapter Five

New Magics

Shadic the Hedgehog

Disclaimer: You get the point: CT is not mine.

We arrived at the End of Time in a small, square room with a pair of bright pillars of light on either side of the five of us. Marle stepped forward, looked around, and said, "Where... Sorry. When are we?"

"Everyone," I began.

"Welcome to the End of Time," finished Lucca.

"Dreary isn't it?" Crono mentioned.

"I would call that an understatement," commented Robo.

"Well, shall we go in?" I pointed down the narrow hallway to the main platform.

He went down the hall and Robo opened the door for the rest of us. The main platform held the expected items: A lamp post, with Gaspar leaning against it, apparently asleep, a bucket of shimmering light, a small shiny thing on a bench, a set of steps to nowhere, and Spekkio's door.

"Odd place for such an old man to live isn't it?" asked Marle.

I decided now was a better time as any to tell my tale, "While he's sleeping a have tell you guys something a little shocking. My name is really Joe, not Hugh. I don't know why I gave a false name. I guess it sounded good at the time. But anyway... I'm from another Universe. In that Universe, this whole adventure, is a game. The way I came here was through a Universe Gate, not unlike the Time Gates, which closed permanently when I came through with Lucca, the Aeon, and all those books and stuff that were inside it. I have actually beaten the game several times, and Lucca," I glared at her. "played up to somewhere here. If you have any questions about what to do, just ask me. OH, and the old man there was banished here by Lavos."

A stunned silence ensued for about half-minute. It was broken by Crono, who said: "Sooo, what are we supposed to do now?"

I indicated the sleeping man, "Attempt to wake up Gaspar." We walked over to Gaspar and tried nearly everything to wake him.

"He's not walking, now what?" asked Marle.

"Lat's go," said Lucca.

"Go? Go when?"

Suddenly a deep, fairly imposing voice said, "Hey."

"Well, hello." I looked at Gaspar. "You certainly are a sound sleeper, we tried nearly everything to wake you."

"You must not have noticed I was already awake, and simply listening in," He grinned. "Interesting story you told, thinking I couldn't hear you. Actually I already knew, I saw you arrive from this station. I had Spekkio figure out your magic type, why don't you go see him now?"

"Hey!" yelled Marle. "Why are we here in the first place?!"

"Oh, right. You are here at the End of Time because, as the Conservation of Time Theorem states: 'if more than four intelligent beings attempt to use a Gate at the same time, then they end up at the time period of least resistance.' Which is here. Or, in case the Gates here become inaccessible, the Beginning of Time (A/N: I got this idea from Cain, see my profile for his stories)."

"Okay, I guess it's time to see Spekkio. I didn't think we'd see him this quickly," said Lucca. The five of us went into the door behind Gaspar. I saw a little, blue beast with hair running from the edge of his forehead to the base of his spine.

"Hey," whispered Crono. "What's with the Kilwala in the middle of the room?"

"Huh? I see a blue Ogre. That must be Spekkio."

"Hey!" called Spekkio. "I'm Spekkio, Master of War! I see lots of battles from here. Say, how do I look to you? Strong? Or weak?"

"Strong," I said.

"Weak," answered Crono and Marle.

"Strong," Lucca agreed with me.

"Weeell, let's put it this way: if you're strong, I look strong. If you're weak, I look weak. But enough of that, time to give you magic!" Spekkio went on. "There was once thought to be only four Elements of Magic: Lightning, Fire, Water, and Shadow. But I've discovered two more types: Earth and Wind. Kid with the funky hairdo, you're Lightning; ponytail, you're Water; Glasses, you've got Fire magic; and Mr. Otherworldly, youuu... I'm actually not sure about. We'll let the magic decide what you are. 'Bot, sorry, but you don't have magic."

"Lemme guess," I said. "We've gotta walk around the room three times."

"Actually, No. You don't have since the old guy said you're after Lavos, the son of a worm," replied Spekkio.

"Thank you, sir" Robo bowed.

"IPSO! FACTO! MEENIE! MOE! MAGICO!!!" screamed Spekkio.

Lightning flew out of the darkness above and struck Crono. His eyes flared white for a few sconds before fading back into their nromal green. Then a geyser suddenly erupted under Marle's feet, and when it went down, her eyes were changing from a dark blue and she was amazingly dry. Lucca was then surrounded by flames which soon died down, she had red eyes for a few seconds.

Then, I was surrounded by flames like Lucca, but it didn't seem the same. I was feeling the flames burn me, but somehow I knew I wasn't actually being hurt. I still ended up feeling like burnt Spam when they died down.

"There, ya got magic," Spekkio said. "Wanna try it out?"

"No thanks, gotta save the world!" replied Marle, cheerfully. We walked out of Spekkio's place and Gaspar said, "I'm sure you'd like to go running back and forth through time, but first you need to return to the year 1000. The trip'll help you figure stuff out."

We walked back to the Gate Room before I noticed we still numbered five. I mentioned this to Crono.

"Good point. Robo, I don't think people in my time period will like you very much. You'd better stay here," he decided.

"Let's do it!" yelled Marle. We all stood on the edges of the Pillar-gate as I activated the Gate Key. We took off into the murky darkness of the End of Time. Then we were headed through the blue and purple swirls of Gate travel.

"Your ticket to the future is always blank"
-Vash the Stampede, Trigun.