One: A Trip
“Where are we going?” Rose asked, watching Chloe as she packed. Three kids had just gone away to the location of the Second Artifact, but they would not be following.
“A trip,” Chloe said with a giggle as she finished packing up their one bag. Happily she handed it off to Rose, who carried it with no complaints. No words passed between the two as Rose grabbed Chloe’s hand.
“I’d like a bit of a warning,” Rose finally admitted, giving up on waiting for Chloe to explain on her own.
“Well,” Chloe said, a bit overdramatic, “We’re checking up on the future of the portal site, duh!”
Rose nodded; she should have figured. No way would Chloe be patient enough to see if Hope and her friends succeeded without taking a sneak peek into the future to satisfy her curiosity. Chloe simply loved having more information than others, and Rose didn’t mind it at all.
In fact, the multiple trips around time were probably where she had gotten her life motto: “Everything isn’t as it seems.” In other words, she didn’t trust people too much, believing they loved to turn their backs on others and were only concerned with their own personal agenda instead of the good of the group.
Of course, Rose wasn’t much better.
“Ready or not, here we go!” Chloe shouted as the world began to spin. The jump was an interesting experience and one that Rose had only gotten used to because her whole life had been centered around journeys such as this one.
They arrived only to be extremely disappointed, for there was a lack of something, and an outstanding nothing was there instead. “What are we looking for exactly?” Rose asked as she brushed her hand across the bark of one of the three trees that formed the mysterious triangle. The alcove that was supposed to hold an artifact was strangely demented and twisted.
Chloe was running from tree to tree before finally slumping to the floor. “It’s destroyed!”
“What?”
“The portal. It was destroyed,” she whimpered. Rose noticed that Chloe was dropping her facade of being a mere 7-year-old girl as she aged to probably around 22 years (the same age she was when she pretended to be a maid in order to break into the castle) and her eyes glazed over a bit with anger. “That pathetic Xavier only had one job!”
“And what was that one job?” Rose asked smoothly, with little to no emotion entering her voice, which was normal for her.
“Well, I guess he had more than one,” Chloe admitted as she walked over to Rose and grabbed her hand. “We should check on the other portals.”
Rose wasn’t sure where the one usable portal was, but it didn’t matter too much since she was once again entering the spin of time travel. She believed she was used to this sort of thing, but neither of them was ready for the chaos that engulfed them.
A monster’s roar was the first thing that broke through the eerie silence of traveling through time. The next was the cacophony of noises echoing around the area, before all returned to silence.
“Did you freeze time?” Rose asked the young blonde girl at her side.
Slowly, she nodded. That was when Rose finally took the time to look around and take in her surroundings. The only word to describe their surroundings: War.
The portal stood open, shining brightly, while a group of humans, humanoid beings, and a few animals of varying sizes stood guard in front of the grand portal. A few stood behind the line that was enforced as they launched arrows and other long distance weapons. The army that the group battled consisted of a variety of monsters and machines.
A few of the guards were battling in the crowd of monsters while three enemy children stood in the back of the army. All three of them were in position to begin battling the “rebels.” Rose soon spotted a few kids that she recognized.
What were their names, again? Oh, they were Hope, Luke, and Connor.
Connor was among the long distance fighters. Hope was, of course, in the thick of the violence. Her current position was jumping in front of a fellow “rebel” to stop them from getting injured. It surprised Rose to see Hope jumping to save someone.
Luke, on the other hand, was probably the most surprising to both Chloe and Rose. When Chloe had frozen time, Luke was jumping out of a shadow, his legs still not completely visible as he emerged from the darkness. In his raised hand, he gripped a mace that he was swinging down on his unsuspecting victim.
“We should ask one of them what’s happening,” Chloe decided, straightening her back and gripping Rose’s hand tighter. The two girls then began to weave their way through the assembly of monsters and humans to get their answers.
“A trip,” Chloe said with a giggle as she finished packing up their one bag. Happily she handed it off to Rose, who carried it with no complaints. No words passed between the two as Rose grabbed Chloe’s hand.
“I’d like a bit of a warning,” Rose finally admitted, giving up on waiting for Chloe to explain on her own.
“Well,” Chloe said, a bit overdramatic, “We’re checking up on the future of the portal site, duh!”
Rose nodded; she should have figured. No way would Chloe be patient enough to see if Hope and her friends succeeded without taking a sneak peek into the future to satisfy her curiosity. Chloe simply loved having more information than others, and Rose didn’t mind it at all.
In fact, the multiple trips around time were probably where she had gotten her life motto: “Everything isn’t as it seems.” In other words, she didn’t trust people too much, believing they loved to turn their backs on others and were only concerned with their own personal agenda instead of the good of the group.
Of course, Rose wasn’t much better.
“Ready or not, here we go!” Chloe shouted as the world began to spin. The jump was an interesting experience and one that Rose had only gotten used to because her whole life had been centered around journeys such as this one.
They arrived only to be extremely disappointed, for there was a lack of something, and an outstanding nothing was there instead. “What are we looking for exactly?” Rose asked as she brushed her hand across the bark of one of the three trees that formed the mysterious triangle. The alcove that was supposed to hold an artifact was strangely demented and twisted.
Chloe was running from tree to tree before finally slumping to the floor. “It’s destroyed!”
“What?”
“The portal. It was destroyed,” she whimpered. Rose noticed that Chloe was dropping her facade of being a mere 7-year-old girl as she aged to probably around 22 years (the same age she was when she pretended to be a maid in order to break into the castle) and her eyes glazed over a bit with anger. “That pathetic Xavier only had one job!”
“And what was that one job?” Rose asked smoothly, with little to no emotion entering her voice, which was normal for her.
“Well, I guess he had more than one,” Chloe admitted as she walked over to Rose and grabbed her hand. “We should check on the other portals.”
Rose wasn’t sure where the one usable portal was, but it didn’t matter too much since she was once again entering the spin of time travel. She believed she was used to this sort of thing, but neither of them was ready for the chaos that engulfed them.
A monster’s roar was the first thing that broke through the eerie silence of traveling through time. The next was the cacophony of noises echoing around the area, before all returned to silence.
“Did you freeze time?” Rose asked the young blonde girl at her side.
Slowly, she nodded. That was when Rose finally took the time to look around and take in her surroundings. The only word to describe their surroundings: War.
The portal stood open, shining brightly, while a group of humans, humanoid beings, and a few animals of varying sizes stood guard in front of the grand portal. A few stood behind the line that was enforced as they launched arrows and other long distance weapons. The army that the group battled consisted of a variety of monsters and machines.
A few of the guards were battling in the crowd of monsters while three enemy children stood in the back of the army. All three of them were in position to begin battling the “rebels.” Rose soon spotted a few kids that she recognized.
What were their names, again? Oh, they were Hope, Luke, and Connor.
Connor was among the long distance fighters. Hope was, of course, in the thick of the violence. Her current position was jumping in front of a fellow “rebel” to stop them from getting injured. It surprised Rose to see Hope jumping to save someone.
Luke, on the other hand, was probably the most surprising to both Chloe and Rose. When Chloe had frozen time, Luke was jumping out of a shadow, his legs still not completely visible as he emerged from the darkness. In his raised hand, he gripped a mace that he was swinging down on his unsuspecting victim.
“We should ask one of them what’s happening,” Chloe decided, straightening her back and gripping Rose’s hand tighter. The two girls then began to weave their way through the assembly of monsters and humans to get their answers.
