Hey guys. I'm new and all, but I like writting. Tell me what you think about this start. More chapters to come.
Chapter 1: A New Future
The Epoch’s engine whined down as the landing clamps released their steam, filling the sky with a sudden thin puff of smoke. Lucca turned off the panels starring blankly as the lights blinked off. She hadn’t slept in, what? Three days? The weariness in her bones had settled in for a long stay and she rolled her cramped shoulders forward. Balthazar sure didn’t make this thing group seating friendly, she thought to herself.
Marle lingered beside the craft looking up to the cockpit.
“Lucca, you alright?” The scientist peered over the edge, her glasses reflecting a clouded morning sun.
“That, my dear princess, is a matter of opinion.” Marle giggled and came halfway up the ladder.
“Tired?”
“Desperately.”
“Yeah, me too. I feel like we’ve been searching for ages.” Marle rubbed a knot in the back of her own neck.
“Technically we have. But I know what you mean. She’s got to be out there somewhere.” Marle looked around at the countryside. Everything was lush and green, trees strategically planted here and there in a decorative and professional manor. In the distance she could see the looming curve of the Arris Dome, now a whole and restored building, a proud structure not ravaged by the terror of Lavos. In the morning sun it shone like a brilliant crystal dropped from the heavens. Marle held her hand above her brow.
“It looks so different.”
Lucca looked up from the flight log.
“Yeah. It’s amazing what a little not-being-destroyed can do for the place.”
Marle threw a smile in her direction.
“Maybe Robo is somewhere out there…”
Crono emerged from the back of the Epoch with a pack of supplies from the hold. Marle slid down the ladder and followed behind him, her hands tucked neatly behind her back.
“So, what’s the plan boss?” The young warrior shifted a few things in the pack and slung it over his shoulder.
“The Arris Dome is there, and, supposing that the gate we sent mom through transported her to the corresponding gate here, that would be the first place she’d go.”
Lucca smiled.
“That was very logical Crono. I’m proud of ‘ya.” Crono smirked oddly
“Coming from you Lucca, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Lucca flipped a switch and the cockpit cover closed with a metallic thunk. Soon the three were hiking their way across a great grassy field, meticulously cut and wholly unrealistic. Memories of the past adventure flooded their minds. The field was once a barren plane, empty of life and hope. Now there was growth and health. They had really made a difference. They had changed this place.
As they neared the Arris dome they could hear the sound of whirring and whizzing, as if there were insects (large insects) zooming overhead. They soon came to realize that there was an overhead roadway constructed that led intoto the dome. And all at once they saw that the dome was a lot bigger then they had remembered it. A vast complex made up of many buildings and smaller office domes that all connected together via skyways or elevators that moved sideways. On the side of the dome itself was written:
Arris Science Complex: Better Eragenics for a better tomorrow.
Lucca fixed her glasses.
“Eragenics? I wonder…”
“What’s that mean?” Crono asked.
Lucca stared hard at the ground for a moment, like she usually did when her brain started moving.
“Well. “Era” is a root word, usually referring to a time period, such as; The Jurassic Era, etc. And genics usually refers to some bioactive scientific application.
“In English Lucca.” Marle pleaded.
“It must be some kind of center for time travel research.”
All three adventurers looked at the gleaming sentinel. What mysteries could this new future hold if people had figured out how to travel through time? They continued their trek through the underbrush and through a thin man-made forest until they reached the entrance where the overpass of the highway leveled out into a parking facility that looked a little like a bookshelf. The speeder bikes and cars were taken by a lift and placed in a neatly packed row with others of their kind. Though Marle didn’t speak, she wondered how the people got their own cars back. The threesome came to an entryway; two giant glass doors that opened outward. They weren’t like the blasted hole that adorned the side of the building in the previous timeline. Marle glanced at her friends.
“Do we just go in?”
“Why not?” Lucca asked.
“I don’t know. It seems like we would need to be important for something like this. Y’know, like having a name badge or something. ”
“I’m going in.” Crono said walking forward.
Lucca looked at Marle.
“Here we go again”
“Warning, warning! Patrons are armed, patrons are armed.” The lead robot lost an arm immediately and soon Crono’s sword was buried in the second bots head. Lucca rushed forward.
“Crono! No! There not trying to attack. They’re just for security.”
“Well, how am I supposed to know that? You’re the scientist here, I just smash things. It’s not like we haven’t been attacked by bots before.”
“You could have at least asked them if they were hostile before lopping their limbs off.
“Ask them! Oh, yeah. Let me just take some time off your busy schedule mister Killer Robot to interview you about your murderous abilities.”
“You know very well that the mother computer…”
Marle nudged Crono with her elbow almost knocking him over.
“Uh, guys…” The two looked up to see a large group of people in white smocks (and a few scared looking Nu) staring at them in a very shrewd manor. Marle put her hands up in a surrender pose.
“We come in peace.”
