Episode 01: Welcome to the Future

Chapter 03

It wasn't supposed to be this way...he thought, bracing himself for the sharp pain of blades. The future was never supposed to be like this.

He hadn't expected what happened next. Watching the blades of the Nexus knights glimmer sharp and bright in the light of the fireplace, Sea didn't even have enough time to decide whether to fight or escape. Concentrating to use his powers would take too long and the knights' armour was probably spelled against magic anyways, his guns were practically at the knights' feet, it would be nearly impossible to dodge that many swords, and the dagger at his calf would not be able to deflect that much steel and strength. He was out of options, but refused to give up. At least with the knife, he could do some damage before his head got chopped off.

"No!" Arr'thuu (or was it Arthur?) shouted beside him, in the middle of raising his hand to stop the knights. Was he remembering something, remembering Sealand, remembering his life as a Nation? Whatever was happening, it had shocked Sea just long enough that he was left defenseless against the knights rushing towards him, knights who wouldn't stop even when their king demanded it. They had more to fear from the repercussions of disobeying Mrrlyn.

Just then, a huge wave rushed from the open doorway to engulf the knights. It crashed into them with enough force to throw them all at the farthest wall with a great clank of metal on stone. The wave had also managed to knock over Arr'thuu, and subsequently pull Caliber-X from his grasp. With few places to go, the water ended up pooling around Sea's ankles, though it left the rest of him, thankfully, dry.

But the surprise wasn't over yet. From around the doorway, Wy came rushing into the room, splashing water around as she went. He opened his mouth to ask her what she was doing here, but was quickly silenced by her firm grip on his wrist and her own exclamation. "There's no time, come on!"

Glancing back into the room as he crossed through the doorway, from which water was now pouring forth to soak the hallway, Sea spotted Arr'thuu lifting himself from off of the floor. For a split second, green eyes met blue, and Sea could have sworn he saw a spark of recognition.

Down the hall they ran, past the curious and frightened faces of the servants. An alarm must have been sounded, because when they reached the corner of the castle wing with the spiral stairwell, they discovered two more Nexus knights waiting for them. "This way!" Wy shouted, pulling him along through the adjacent right-hand hallway. Unfortunately, a few meters of running revealed another pair of knights charging at them from in front. With the two behind them hot on their tails, they tried the nearest door only to find it locked. Trying the door on the other wall, they managed to get it open and close the door before the knights could get them. As fast as possible, they locked the door, and pushed a wardrobe in front of it. It would buy them a minute, maybe.

Looking around the room, they realized that they had trapped themselves. There were no other exits besides the window, but they weren't about to get up and walk away from a twenty meter fall. "Shit!" Wy swore. "I guess we'll have to fight."

"No, wait," Sea said as a thought occurred to him. They were on the north side now, probably fifteen meters from the stairwell if he remembered the diagrams from that one unmanned recon drone correctly. That meant that below them was… "Wy, come here." She did as she was bid, confused all the while. Together, they stood by the outside-facing wall, cold radiating from the thick, stone bricks even during this barely cool late summer's night. "We should be above the laundry room, right?"

"Uhh, I guess?"

Without further ado, Sea gently grabbed Wy and pulled her in. "Keep close, and hold your breath." Clutching his jacket between her fingers, she nodded and took one last breath. Assured of her absolute cooperation, Sea proceeded to close his eyes and focus in on the source of his magic before mumbling the words of the spell: "Vu'ik fwen liotol." A piece of shattered wardrobe barely missed their heads as they fell through the stone floor like it was empty air.

It took Wy most of her will just to keep from screaming as they soared down past two bedrooms, a storage closet, the kitchens, and finally into the laundry room. The feeling of phasing through solid objects mixed with the feeling of falling did not make for a pleasant trip, but it took all of two seconds for them to escape otherwise certain death. Still, landing safe and sound in a pile of, albeit dirty, laundry didn't mean that she didn't have a bone to pick with Sea.

"That was reckless," she exclaimed, digging her way out of the pile of clothes to stand firmly on her own two feet. "You know how dangerous it is for you to use temporal magic! Especially here, under Mrrlyn's nose." She glared at his unmoving form, which was staring at the ceiling atop the laundry. "I bet you weren't even sure we'd actually survive that fall, or not get stuck in a floor." Standing over her companion's still form, Wy allowed her gaze and tone to soften before she addressed him again, though not without rolling her eyes first. "Sea, are you okay?"

"Sooooo…tired…" She heard him mumble. He still hadn't moved an inch.

"Alright, come on, bud. Up we go." Grabbing his arm a little roughly, she dragged Sea to his feet. He was a little wobbly from having used too much magical energy so quickly (phasing yourself was one thing, but having someone tag along certainly wasn't easy), but with every step they took towards the slightly ajar door he seemed to regain some strength. They were going to need it for what came next; getting out of New Camelot.

On the other side of the door, they found themselves in the courtyard not far from the stables. Racing towards the series of medieval buildings with a focus on speed over stealth, they could hear the castle behind them all a-clatter with activity. The front gate, that great iron beast, would be closing any second now.

Leaving Sea to lean against a stall, Wy ran down the length of the stable searching for a sufficient means of transportation. Several of the stalls were empty, and while this signified that fewer knights were in the castle looking for them, the rest were probably escorting Mrrlyn. It wouldn't be long before the rest showed up to help capture them. With a new sense of urgency, she returned with two bionic horses.

"Wy!" Sea accused upon spotting the creatures.

"What? Are you going to say that we shouldn't steal from Nexus knights even though they are trying to kill us?"

"No, it's just…" He looked away.

"Just what? These bionic horses are the fastest things around here, and time is of the essence, you know," she pointed out, collecting the necessary tack from their various hooks and cubbies.

He muttered something incoherent from where she was hastily tacking up the beasts. "What was that, Sea?"

"…I…don't know how to, you know, operate one of these."

Wy took a moment to openly stare at him. "Are you serious?"

"Well, sorry for not putting horse riding lessons higher on my list of things to do to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Besides, horses don't exactly occur in abundance in Sealand, at any point in time."

"Whatever, just do as I do," she commanded, tying his horse to hers before mounting her own. It took him three tries, but he was eventually at least on the damn thing. "Just tap its sides to go, and follow me." And just like that, they were off, racing across the courtyard as shouts, laser bullets, and even arrows rained down on them. By some miracle, they weren't hit even once, and were able to make it past the gate before it could even close halfway.

But that didn't mean they were in the clear. Undoubtedly, they would be pursued; the question was, by what exactly?