FSE

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Chapter Three

The sun crept up over the horizon far in the distance, beyond the trees covering the snow-topped peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountain range and from the direction of Utah as Monday began, again. The browns, tans, and grays of stone had long since been blasted away in order to make a path for a winding interstate highway which revealed itself over the surface as Sol rose higher and higher.

A crevasse weaved through the landscape for miles to the north and south. Though it was deep and weathered, the exposed stones and broken rocks that dotted the sides below the surface expressed that its creation had not been centuries ago, but instead due to some seismic event in more recent decades.

Contrasted against the deep greens of the nearby sequoias were the remains of of a steel bridge that, although new within the last few months, had been painted a hideous lima bean green color. The trees towered overhead, lining the western side of the cavernous expanse that the bridge was meant to cross. The four-lane bridge had been a relatively new if unused portion of the recently expanded Route 95 until shortly before Monday's dawn when an explosion had blown it apart.

The bridge was destroyed, it was true. Bent and burnt, what remained of the steel beams and cables lingered over the edges of either side of the steep ravine, dangling down between the rock walls on either side. The rim of the chasm was covered in jagged stones that jutted out from the topside as the morning light barely reached down the hundred or so feet to an eventual strip of land where Chrono woke at the beginning of each new repeat of time.

With his leg all stitched up and both it and his shoulder bandaged, he had set himself the task of making the climb up and out of the steep canyon. Chrono's usual course--heading down into the large underground complex--wouldn't be all that relevant for where he wanted to go today. Today, instead, he had chosen to make haste to the stretch of land that lay over the exit ramp for the hanger somewhere off to the southeast. His past experiences investigating the sand in that direction revealed no surface to tunnel connections. Conversely, the exploration of the wide corridor that led up from the bay down near Witty's lab would come up a couple of hundred feet short of the ground, the path seemingly ending as the metal floor stopped right at the edge of an earthen wall.

However, given reality's sudden panache for changing things up, Chrono thought it might be a smart move to make sure that the tunnel wasn't somehow now connecting to the open air up above. If nothing else, were that corridor reaching the surface now, it would be a far easier and direct route to the laboratories down below. Less time in transit means more time exploring, Chrono considered. Not to mention... if the path is open... finding out what caused it... Well... it'll be something new_,_ he thought, nodding as he climbed.

Scaling the cliffside without any safety harness was something he had gotten use to while being stuck repeating these same weekdays over and over again. He could call for assistance, sure, but in so doing he'd end up waiting around for an hour as the base continued to deal with being attacked. Even then, he'd be stuck in a debriefing about what had been going on and be sent back out later by his own organization to finish the task he was supposed to have already completed... except the second time it would be only his squad moving down into the complex as per how the mission was originally envisioned.

As it was, the "stealth fighters" that had already left some time before the time loop began would be halfway between here and Fort McCarthy already... a base which happened to be a good fifty-three miles away as it was. So, no, Sandstalker considered, doing this on my own is once again the best, quickest option.

With his fingers reaching for a new handhold, Chrono spared a moment to take a better look at the slim column of metal panels that started all the way down at the foot of the wall where he'd woken up and continued vertically almost all the way up to the ground above him. Moving left just behind the broken water pipe that gushed a blue tinted water, he realize that the backside of the big cylinder also contained glyphs not unlike what he'd been finding down through the base for presumably years now.

Chrono turned to stare at the water for a moment longer. His fur became wet from the mist created by the falling liquid as it hit rocks just a short distance above him and splashed towards the wall. It continued down into the gap to form a stream which rushed passed the bodies of the two other soldiers down below.

Makes no sense. He frowned as he thought about the underground cityscape below. I keep thinking there has to be some otherworldly explanation for all this, but I've yet to see anything to confirm that. He sighed. Whatever feelings I've had about this place... and all the events that have have come before this week... all I have is my thoughts to occupy me... to try and make sense of this... and my thoughts... they aren't enough by themselves.

Shaking his head as he ceased contemplating the pipes running out from the cliffside, he continued moving sideways and up, making good time as he climbed closer and closer to the surface. Within moments, Chrono had pulled himself up and over the edge of the cliff just to the side of where the remains of the bridge lay twisted and melted. The majority of the structure had plummeted to the bottom with the three soldiers in the explosion earlier in the morning. On either side the bridge were two main pillars each to make up its frame, and only one of those four was no longer present, having crashed somewhere far below with the men.

The scents of life came to Chrono as he lay on his back, panting a bit from the effort he'd exerted. Life, or a mockery thereof, he groaned. Lavender, pine, and the scent of what was surely a coyote marking its territory came quietly on the wind. The young wolf pulled himself up to his feet, his tail wagging behind him slowly as started walking north up the road away from the remains of the bridge. The sun to the east and the warm spring day existed far away from the dark and dank corridors of the base far below. But still, the solitary of that place existed even here, as even in the wide open spaces, Chrono was still alone.

It was a bit of a trek to where the hanger lined up below the earth a good mile or two away but he'd resigned himself to this task. Sighing a bit, he couldn't help but frown at the surrounding view of the Rockies as they trailed off into the distance in every direction. I'm alone, he considered once again. His ears dropped a bit. The whole big world is out here, going about its normal routine, but there's no one and nothing I can talk to, no lasting relationships or conversations... everything resets, no progress is made, and still I go on...

Chrono reached up and unlatched his holsters, dropping them to the ground. Removing his fatigues, he stood there in just his brown underarmour with his iPhone wedged securely inside the left side of the thicker chest plate that reached partway down his belly. Thinking he didn't really need any of his weapons today, he unlatched the ammo vest, sliding it up over his head as he removed it. Even if I end up going down into the base this time, speed is what matters most... the weight of my equipment will just slow me down. Chrono's brow knit, I've lost at least two days trying to figure out what was making things different... or, maybe not what_, but_ who_,_ he considered.

Taking a couple of moments to preform a stretching routine, Chrono punched the air a few times and then ran in place. The stitches in his leg felt pretty good as he'd spent a few extra minutes focusing on his workmanship earlier, practicing his technique. Hitting one hand into the thick pads upon his opposite palm, he took a breath and repeated the motion with the roles of his two hands reversed. Nodding to himself, he was sure his body felt in order as he leaned forward toward the ground.

Starting out at a jog, he put his hands down upon the earth as he loped forward and sped up. There certainly were benefits to moving on all fours and today he wanted speed more than anything else. Taking the path to the side of the road, he moved up and over the stone ridge around the side of the s-curves. He headed south and east from where he'd begun, moving in the direction of the desert that lay just beyond the rocky hills ahead of him.

"Siri, Geographic Coordinates," Chrono called out, his hand having flicked down his microphone as he ran. Glancing all around him, he reached something of a flat basin that he was relatively certain would be where the ramp to the hanger would connect to if the path was actually long enough of a corridor to reach the surface. As the mechanical voice from his phone gave him a reply, Chrono was struck in the face so hard that his forward momentum stopped and he tumbled backwards, rolling onto his side.

The wolf who's fur blended somewhat with the surrounding sand and stone scrambled to his hands and feet quickly, looking around for what hit him. He shook his head, trying to clear it. Bullets didn't knock a person back like they do in the movies, and if whatever it was had been one he'd probably be dead or dying at this moment. As it was, he was mostly confused. His face stung, but otherwise the impact of the blow didn't make any sense.

Truth be told, it felt more like he'd run directly into a wall. He hadn't been moving all that fast, maybe twenty miles an hour... and while that's still a collision of reasonable velocity it really didn't make any sense as he had been traveling through open ground. Furthermore, whatever it had been hadn't made any sound at all which was exceptionally strange on its own. His species had excellent hearing, on par with regular wolves, but even with that ability the impact of whatever had struck him seemingly made no sound other than his rolling through the dirt.

As he got up onto his feet, his eyes turned to all the surrounding hills, taking in the grand and empty space he now stood within. "What... the flames?" he asked as he rubbed his muzzle, squinting a bit with the addition of the impact to his already bruised and battered left eye.

Far below the noon day sun, Chrono took a few steps forward and bumped his chest against the air causing him to stumble backwards. This time, he didn't fall, but it was still a shock. His heartbeat increased somewhat as he reached forward with his left hand towards the empty air. In the next moment, his finger's could feel a slight electrical tingling against what seemed to be a solid form hiding in the air.

There was a familiar sensation he couldn't quite place. Moving his stubby digits against the unseen, solid form, he tapped the air lightly while trying to discern what he was perceiving. Part of him suspected a cloaking device right out of science fiction, but another part of his brain latched onto it from past experience. The white energy, he realized as he touched the air. That bright glow at the end of the loop, he considered with an stern face as his head titled to the side. It was the realization that he could perceive the invisible object before him as feeling of that type of energy that gave him something to mull over.

Touching his own muzzle, he smirked, Just like the jogger in the park, he considered as he recalled the scene from Star Trek IV. There's a moment in the movie where a man running across an empty grass expanse in a park plows right into a cloaked Klingon Warbird just sitting there, invisible to the caden eye. The man runs full speed into the ship and falls flat on his ass.

The silly smile continued as he rolled that image around in his mind. He could feel himself calming as he stepped closer and ran his hands along the invisible form. As he walked to the side, he could make out with his fingers what seemed to be a descending portion of whatever it was, like a ramp leading to presumably what would be its back side. This is freaky, he thought as he leaned his face closer to his hands and stared deeply into space between as if trying to pick up even one pixel of a digitally made camouflage. Closing his left eye completely, he leaned in with the right and pressed his face against the invisible form.

It started to move just then, as if it were rising up from the ground. "No!" he called out, stepping back. "Don't go!" he growled, jumping into the air with his hands up towards the body of whatever it was.

His fingers jammed into an unseen low ceiling of some kind and he quickly dropped back onto the earth. Frowning as he stared upwards, he was left looking up at nothing but empty air. He shook his hands to try and make the pain go away. Maybe its a wing, he considered, dropping to one knee and getting a two-handed amount of sand from the ground. Flinging it up into the air in the direction of the unknown vehicle, Chrono hoped for... anything.

Sure enough, the side of some unknown aircraft appeared before him... or rather the absence of one as a few bits of sand slowly floated upwards in the air from where they'd landed. What was very lightly covered in dirt did indeed appear to be some kind of wing and it was attached to the side of what might have been a plane. In all likelihood he probably wouldn't have even been able to make it out even at this distance if he hadn't had an idea what to look for. However, seeing what looked like rungs of a ladder on one side, Chrono took a few steps back and made a quick dash towards the ship, leaping just as the machine had almost completely lifted up beyond his reach.

Grabbing ahold of the last rung of that mostly invisible ladder, the young wolf groaned as he was forced to pull himself up onto the supports one hand at a time while the craft continued to moved. Holding firm at the rungs he glanced down to see that he was already over fifty feet in the air. Closing his eyes, he turned back towards vehicle, and found the courage to pull himself up far enough that he could now stand on the side of the ship with his toes on the bottom rung as it continued to lift off.

Alright, he smiled to himself as his heart raced in acceptance of the unknown. As long as they don't lift off into the upper atmosphere or 'do a barrel roll', then I should be OK... for the moment, anyway, he determined, trying to compose himself. His tail fluttered roughly in the wind as the machine suddenly turned in the air and began flying in a wide circle over the flat basin in the mountain where it had been parked.

Finding enough nerve to open his eyes, he slowly turned his head to look down a second time. Realizing the 'plane', or whatever it was, was now circling the earth even higher above than it was a moment ago, he frowned. "What are you doing?" he asked softly to himself, his mind doing its best not to dwell on the 'cloaked spaceship' prospect that kept bouncing around in his head. Like a vulture circling it's--

Giant beams of red energy coursed out from the underside of the ship so close to his feet that he felt the heat travel up his legs and warmed his skin. He yelped out in surprised as the energy struck the earth, creating a cloud of dust and stones that exploded upwards into the air all along the bottom of the ship. Again it fired, and again, digging into the earth in the direction of-- "The hanger!" He yelled out as he realized where the ship must have been trying to go. Looking down, he watched as the earth was chopped up into bits as the laser beams cut giant swaths of earth with each firing spread.

The ship suddenly lurched downward. The unexpected jerk of motion as she ship rotated downward made Chrono feel as if his torso would be ripped from his limbs as he held onto the rungs on its side of the craft. The only thing he could see through his one good eye was the dust that surrounded him and if his sight been organic instead he wouldn't have even been able to manage that. The sockets that his replacement eyes rolled around in were highly resistant to dirt and debris and the orbs themselves were sturdy enough to take the beating, but that didn't really mean he could see... just that he didn't have to close his eyes in the dust cloud.

The sand kicked up around the still invisible ship as the g-force tapered out and the ship dropped down into the darkness of the hole it had just created. Chrono's jaws clenched tight as he felt a pain hit his elbows and knees as their inorganic composition took the change in momentum better than his remaining fleshy bits. Cramping up against the side of the flying machine, he coughed at all the dust and yelped, "AR, Sonar!"

Feeling all the pebbles and sand striking against his fur in the sudden darkness reminded him of the sand storms he'd get caught in when he was little. In the next moment, his vision lit up white and blinding in contrast to the blackness he'd experienced just a second before. The flames?, he wondered for a second before growling. Right, dust plus sonar, he considered for a moment before the ship dropped further down into the earth and the debris seemed to lessen. Even though little bits of stone were bashing against him, they quickly decreased in frequency. As that happened, his vision 'pinged' a white ripple effect to display the deep dark tunnel the ship was moving down into at quite a pace.

"AR, Blue," Chrono commented while looking ahead. He could now make out the ship itself through the sonar even though it was hidden from normal view. It did resemble one of the stealth fighters that had attacked the base before, but it was a much smaller and lighter craft. Glancing behind him, he could make out the the very short length of the wing near him, its outline lit up as blue lines in his vision. "AR, Display Altitude," he said as he leaned hard against the outside of the ship turned his head to look forward in the direction it was flying. Looking at the pulse effects across the inside of the cavern, he noted his overlay pointing to specific lines with distance counters in his sonar vision.

Chrono felt a warmth near his legs and he reflexively held tight to the rungs on the side of the plummeting aircraft. Sure enough, blinding bright red laser beams once again lit up the path going down into the earth and struck a thin layer of stone that would have blocked the ship's path. There was, once again, the fuzz of tiny stones and other debris kicking up into the air and clouding his sonar. Still better than being completely blind, he smirked in the dark... until a stone the size of Chrono's head struck him hard in the back.

Instead of opening his mouth to yell out, Chrono gritted his teeth and began to whimper. He felt his limbs tug against the side of the ship as the stone almost knocked him free. Holding on firmly, he could tell his underarmour had been ripped off in a strip from his back and dirt was now pressing into a deep gash there. The velocity of his decent was hard to make out though he didn't dare open his mouth to ask Siri for a speed display. Based on the solid hit of the flying rock alone he had to guess that he must have been moving as fast as... no, he didn't know, but it sure had hurt a whole lot.

Suddenly there was a flash of bright light from ahead and he could just make out some kind of giant green energy barrier. On some other Thursday, Chrono had seen that barrier from the other side in his long trek up the hanger from the other direction. He had chosen not to try and pass through it when every stone he tossed seemed to vaporize on impact. Biting his lips, he frowned in grim consideration of what certainly amounted to an energy forcefield.

Well... crap...

Glancing away for just an instant, he saw no good place to jump to in all the darkness. An instant later he took into consideration on some instinctual level that this ship he had his arms wrapped around was new and different and that he had to discover what it was all about no matter the cost. Gritting his teeth, he looked forward towards the dancing green wall of energy in the air. This is going to suck...

Chrono was correct. The ship itself passed through the barrier with no real issue as the energy seemingly danced over the invisible hull of the craft. Chrono, on the other hand, felt his nerves ignite as pain passed over his body from right to left quickly, the ship passing through the field at high velocity. Screaming out in pain, he took note of the smell of burning flesh just an instant after the signals reaching his brain lit up and tapered off into pure agony.

He couldn't be sure how long he had been howling in pain, but he knew that more energy was being fired somewhere below his burnt metal feet at the bottom of the aircraft. Sand and stone bounced through the air and struck against his exposed flesh which in turn increased his pain to the level beyond agony. Reality passed him by in one seemingly unending furnace of searing pain, each new bit of debris that impacted his charred flesh another extension on the time his howling continued.

Chrono tired to force his mind to think of something else. He saw the image of a red furred face with emerald green eyes, her curly hair blowing softly in the wind as she smiled at him. "Chrono," she would say, "It's dangerous to go alone... take this," and she handed him a dark gray case with a red square outlining a medical cross. She patted his hand lovingly and smiled. He nodded softly and took a deep breath, realizing somewhere back in the real world that the ship had come to a stop...

He whimpered to himself as he slowly opened up his right eye and tried to look around. The image being sent to his brain was distorted. It seemed to layer the sonar outline of objects slightly to the right of where they really were as it softly 'pinged' over his view. Wherever he was, though, there was easily enough light that he could see without the augmented reality turned on. "AR," he coughed at the pain of his burnt face moving as he spoke, "Off," he managed with a rasp.

Turning his head just a little to the right, he glanced out across the big three-story tall room that he knew was the hanger down in the underground complex. The three dark red flags hanging from the rafters waved back and forth, presumably from the gust kicked up by the ship coming to a stop quickly once it reached its destination. With arms still wrapped tightly around the ladder rungs on the side of the ship, Chrono dangled there in space against the side of the unseen vehicle.

He clenched his teeth as pain slowly filtered back into his body from the happy place he'd experienced briefly just a moment before. Chrono regretted shaking his head to try and clear it the instant he tried because it was then that what remained of the hair over the back of his head brushed against the singed flesh of his neck. Fuck, he grimaced as took a moment to stare at the burn marks all over his right hand, cautiously moving his metal digits only to find them to be partly melted to the ladder supports.

As his head stopped spinning and his vision continued to focus, he heard what sounded like metal smacking metal and looked to his right to see a ripple effect as the back of the ship opened up, a ramp appearing downward from the backside. Though he could not see the sides of the ramp itself, he could just make out the top and inner lining of the path out of the ship as it lay there now open. Oh crap. Chrono knew in that instant that he was hanging out in the open what with the ship being transparent and all... once whoever was exiting it looked back they would see him dangling there in the open air.

With his body limp from the continuing pain, he tried to quietly let go of the side of the unseen ship so that he could find a place to hide. Hearing footsteps of someone inside the machine, Chrono tried to release his hold on the rungs, but his hands stuck due to their covering being somewhat melted. As he pulled them towards his chest a little too fast he fell backwards off the side of the ship. With a jerking motion, he felt a pain shoot up his leg as he was suddenly upside down. His left leg was caught up in the last step of the ladder leaving him dangling from the bottom rung.

Hanging there, he realized that the bandages he'd applied earlier had been burned off and his stitches in his leg had singed his flesh on their way into nothing. With his underarmour so damaged and most of his fur now gone, he was left to exist as one entire wound across all his biological parts. His metallic limbs seemed only partly damaged from the experience, his arms and legs all appearing to be superficially melted and reshaped. Most of his fingers still worked, though his triangular ears seemed to be phasing in and out of audio acuity as he hung there upside down, trying to listen for the approaching footsteps.

It was a reflex for Chrono to try and move his leg to get himself unstuck but when he did so his whole body slipped off the side of the ship and 'thumped' on the floor of the hanger somewhat loudly. Landing on his back, he exhaled a singled cringe-worthy breath as his exposed tissue impacted upon the floor. He closed his eyes for a long moment as all of his singed flesh made a squishing sound and smoothed out over the top of the metal floor. Chrono moaned softly to himself as the cold metal of the air conditioned lower levels chilled his wounded back. Turning his head to the side once more, he opened up his one good eye and wondered how he'd been lucky enough to not take any major damage to it.

As he looked upwards towards the back of the ship he could make out the dim sounds of what might have been rubber against steel. Frowning a bit, he watched a deep red colored form shimmer out of nothing, appearing like a swirling distortion as it walked down the ramp and towards the back of the ship, away from Chrono. As the form coalesced from the distortion, he could make out that it was digitigrade, bipedal, and had a tail. The tail was much thicker at its base than it was at its tip and nearly four times the length of his own. Cadenoid, he considered as he took in the appearance of the form completely.

Biting his lower lip, Chrono was sure that he'd made enough noise to be caught. Still, the creature didn't look back towards him and instead started moving in the direction of the lab. It slinked a little when it walked, its thin upper arms swaying side to side as it moved, almost like a snake. If a snake had arms, Chrono admitted to himself. The shoulders were broad, though, and covered over in thick pads almost like a samurai's outfit. Jutting up and out from the upper back were two grayish purple colored lumps that matched the color of the head.

From the back of its head were horns which protruded from either side of the skull, aligned with the left and right side and level with the top of cranium. Just below that pair of bones were two more horns in a set placed just a little closer to each other and under the thicker set up above them. From the top and back of the skull, in a narrow column, were a set of ridged spikes that lay over one another like plates of mail until they were covered up by the thick shoulder armour of the figure.

Maybe that's just a helmet, he considered, taking in the alien form as it walked away from the ship and towards the stairs to the catwalk not far away. Chrono's eyes went wide, realizing where the form was moving to. Its heading to the lab! I can't let it get there, he knew. Putting one hand down carefully, but with deliberate haste, he prepared to push himself up onto his feet. Growling at the situation, he couldn't believe he had allowed himself to be so unprepared. What am I going to do if the alien turns out to be hostile, genius!?

Leaving his weapons back at the top of his climb meant there wasn't going to be much he could do to help out if it was needed, nor defend himself if the alien turned on him. If it heads towards the lab, it's sure trigger Witty... and then he'll take them out, he was sure. You just... you can't kill Witty unless you catch him by surprise!

Chrono leaned onto his right hand as he used it to prop himself up. Bending his knees closer to his body, he knelt there on the other side of the ship looking after the form as it moved away. Having crossed half the distance from the hidden ship to the stairs, the creature moved with a steady purpose as it slinked forward. As the humanoid form turned sideways, Chrono could better make out the two thick nubs at each shoulder that jutted up a few inches away from its back, uneven, as if they had perhaps been cut off, whatever they were. Its tail was curved down towards the floor but was raised up at the end. Chrono read this as a sign of aggression, though that was more him imposing the body language of his own race over the top of this new one than it was any real knowledge.

"Stop," Chrono mumbled to himself as he managed to get upright and then stumble forward on two legs. Putting his left hand along the side of the unseen ship, he glanced inward as he moved around the back where the partly visible ramp was. Seeing that there did, in fact, appear to be a large room just inside the empty air with what may have been cargo crates surprised him even though he'd already been dealing with a ship that was invisible on the outside for several minutes now. Well, shit, he blinked, unable to make out whatever might be there due to it all being shaped like crates and barrels. That is... a thing... he blinked, turning to look after the form that moved away from him.

Glancing down at his own body, he realized that he'd very likely not be moving now if he wasn't so use to taking wounds on a nearly daily basis. Though it hurt to move he managed to stumble forward at a decent pace after the person ahead. The figure walked under the second floor walkway that Chrono had moved across not three days earlier. "Stop!" he called out, yet the bipedal form still moved forward. Growling to himself, he swallowed hard and yelled out, "Hey! Listen!"

The creature seemed to flinch, quickly turning it's form to look back towards Chrono. Through his somewhat fuzzy vision he could just make out what looked like thick strands of hair curled around its eyes and off the back of its skull almost like Predator dreadlocks. From what he could make out the face appeared to be made out into a sloped muzzle with scales a deep purplish blue, the nostrils flat at the end of it like a snout. Two pointed protrusions of flesh on either side of the upper lips curled down over the lower lip and framed the creatures chin.

It made a hissing sound under its breath and Chrono tilted his head to the side at the noise. Great... unfriendly alien, he sighed as he glanced around to see if they were still alone. The body of the other sentient hunched over a bit and flexed its lower arms. Two large spiked blades popped out and forward from the armour on the top of its arms like machete-switchblades. Taking two steps back carefully, Chrono raised his hands up, palms forward. "Whoa, there lizard-man. Err... hope that isn't racist. I come in peace," he offered as a thought.

Words came out of the mouth of the other, deliberate and steady, a seriousness in their tone that could not be mistaken for anything other than a threat towards Chrono's very wellbeing. It's too bad that all the wolf's ears could make out were guttural sounds and the occasional punctuation. He had just enough time to wish the other had a universal translator of some kind before the reptilian creature in the dark red suit charged towards him.

I'm in no position to fight, Chrono thought as he barely managed to hop to the side of the incoming dash, twirling sideways in the air and landing on his feet deftly. He winced a little at the impact as the discomfort of bending raw flesh traveled to his brain. He took a breath and centered himself. If I end up on anything but my feet I'm going to be in serious pain, he considered, looking in the direction of his attacker. His vision suddenly became fuzzy, jumping between crystal clarity and blurry colored squares sporadically. Fuck, I must have shook something loose.

Turning, the reptile moved to follow Chrono with angry forward swipes in the orange wolf's direction. "Stop! I'm not your enemy!--I think!" he added once he considered that perhaps this person could actually be a forward scout of an invasion or something. Their surprise at him being down here meant he wasn't expected, and thus they must not have realized he was attached to the side of their ship earlier. They had obviously been dedicated enough to their assault to come down here looking for something in a hurry... and since it didn't appear to understand why he was here, the thing they were looking for probably wasn't him.

The lithe young wolf dodged the alien six more times in quick succession before slipping and falling backward onto his tail with a loud yelp of pain. As the other form lunged at Chrono, he heard and all-to-familiar sneer of joy.

"Ah, there you are!" called out the bright orange and red wolf as he walked the catwalk up at the second story over the other two. Witty's big canine grin was framed by two black marks to either side of his muzzle, his white lab coat fluttering behind him as he did a sideways flip off the platform and landed swiftly a ways away. "I am Dr. Witty," he said with a grin and a bow, his long red tie touching the floor as he did so. Chrono swore softly to himself as he looked back to the person over him that seemed to have not have noticed the newcomer.

Of course he comes up while I'm distracted, the younger wolf frowned, rolling his eyes a bit. "I'm sure you know who I am?" Chrono asked rather than stated over the alien creature's shoulder, unsure of what to do besides trying to delay any intervention by Witty. The snout of the creature pinning him curdled backwards, its hand pulling back into a fist as the long blade extended forward from the side of its wrist. Chrono brought up his arms towards his face as a reflex to try and block the incoming blow that never came.

"No," Witty said as he took a few quick steps forward. "I can't make you out through all burnage," he commented as he made a quick run for the figure who was between him and Chrono, a smirk weaving its way across his muzzle.

"Behind you!" Chrono yelled towards the person in front of him, but they obviously had no idea what he was really saying. His eyes narrowed, Chrono thrust his right hand up into the air and pointed passed them. The figure's eyes closed into slits as if it suspected a trap for looking away. Hissing softly, they glanced to their side in just enough time to catch sight of Witty's incoming claws.

Leaping back out of the way, the reptilian figure pulled it's arms back, looking between the two wolves as Witty stopped just beside Chrono on the ground. He grinned at the younger wolf, "Ah, yes. Hard to make you out through all your burns," he smiled, grabbing one of Chrono's arms and helping him to his feet. "Your first name is quite a challenge even to those who know it," Witty grinned, saying his usual line even in these changed circumstances.

Chrono glanced between the alien and Witty, realizing that the other person might think him and Witty were teaming up or something. He had to think fast. If Witty got into a fight with the reptilian humanoid, he'd probably come out on top... and that just would not do. Turning to look at Witty, he frowned. Neither of them appeared to have any weapons, beyond those natural to their race, but Chrono knew Witty had more than he was showing off, and he just couldn't think of what to do about it.

Taking Witty by surprise was always the plan. It was the only thing that ever worked. However, in this instance if Chrono went for Witty's neck and ripped out his throat, what would that do to the new arrival. Is this alien being affected by time? Maybe. Maybe they were the ones rumbling through the earth the last few days... but if that's the case then why were they parked all the way up at the surface? Maybe they always come back like I do?

He couldn't risk it. "Chrono-choh-hotay-keylah," Chrono said softly to Witty as he pulled his arm back in agitation as he began to walk away from him. The humanoid lizard took a few steps back, arms up and ready for anything. Chrono stopped just in front of them, "I like you confused more than I like you aggressive," he admitted.

"Chrono, yes," Witty smiled a big toothy grin as if he understood a deep irony of the situation that was lost upon the other wolf. "That makes a lot of sense," he commented as he rubbed his chin, looking between the two of them. Grinning with his tongue out the side of his face, Witty smirked at the other man, "Who's your girlfriend? I haven't seen a drasomian since the purge."

"Dra... what?" Chrono asked, turning to look at Witty. "Purge... what purge? You've never mentioned a purge before," he said, motioning a hand towards him. "We've talked about a lot of things in the past, but what purge?"

Witty's head tilted to the side as he looked over the burnt wolf, the remains of Chrono's brown under armour dangled off his form as he shifted to look at him. "In the past?" he asked, his smile fading at the edges. Glancing over his shoulder, he looked back towards the lab that he knew held the big tube-shaped room within it. As he looked back towards Chrono he asked if the experiment actually worked, like always. Slapping a hand onto his forehead, Chrono just nodded to himself as he stepped away from Witty putting his hand on his shoulder. "It actually worked!?" he yelled out in amazement and disbelief as he raised his hands into the air, looking upwards.

The reptilian figure looked between the two of them and commented something under its breath. Though his ears discerned it just fine, Chrono still had no idea what was said. Witty growled. Barking out guttural noises that he was sure Witty had made before at some point, he suddenly realized it was a language... the language that this 'drasomian' behind him had been speaking the whole time. Blinking, he looked between the two, "Wait... that's a language? That's a language you're speaking? When in the inferno did you lean to speak alien?"

"My father taught it to me," Witty smiled to the younger wolf, his bright red tail with a white tip wagging behind him as he smiled between the two of them. The two didn't seem to be hitting it off, which Chrono took to be a good thing. I don't need Witty getting reinforcements after all this time... I'm the one who needs help. Blinking, he watched as the lizard woman tapped a small computer screen strapped on her right shoulder.

She's got no breasts, Chrono frowned a bit, watching her poke at the device while she kept talking to Witty. I wonder what that is. Maybe its a pocket computer like my iPhone? he wondered before looking back to Witty. "Your father wasn't by chance a 'drasomian' was he?"

"You could say that," Witty grinned a big toothy grin towards Chrono.

"Yeah, I could, but I'm not. I'm asking."

"I don't answer to you," Witty pointed a finger at Chrono. "I don't answer to either of you," he said, pointing between Chrono and the female reptile.

The alien figure hissed, moving for the two wolves. Chrono moved between her and Witty and put up his hands. "Stop," he said, "He's a lot stronger than you thi--" As she'd moved up to him she'd shoved her fist forward into his gut, the long blade from her wrists moving upwards into Chrono's guts and out his back. Chrono slumped towards the figure as she pulled her blade back, tugging at the remains of Chrono's light armour. She placed her other hand on his shoulder and stabbed him twice more as Witty growled, "Way to get yourself killed. Oh well... if you're stuck repeating, you'll be back right?"

"Fuck you," Chrono coughed blood as she pushed him off his blades and caused him to slump to the ground. Mustn't... blame her, he thought as he could feel the pain up through his body, his lungs beginning to fill with blood as he crumpled over. Crap, this sucks, he considered loosely as he fell over onto his side with a thump. Watching her stand over his form, he saw Witty moving out of the corner of his eye... and the last thing he managed to do before he took his last breath was to point out Witty for her once more.

Chrono's vision blurred into darkness as the reptilian figure turn around quickly to look towards the supposed doctor. Oh good, Chrono considered, she didn't question me that time. His hands over his stomach, Chrono tried to watch as the two of them dropped into combat but to no avail. Breathing stopped, heart ceasing to beat, vision going dark... he wanted to cry as he felt a cold chill move through everything that was still him. The tingling was a familiar chill from other times and other places, but what stuck in his mind at this moment was how similar it felt to the energy coursing over the spaceship as it had dug its way into the earth.

There was no explanation for what it was Chrono felt beyond that moment other than his personal belief that he must have a soul. He wasn't so much seeing anything anymore as he was feeling everything that was going on close to him. Slowly the tingling air surrounding him extended outward from his burnt shell of a body and touched the room. Witty and the lizard woman were fighting, and he could just barely make out their moves. He swore that Witty had the upper hand, but he couldn't be sure as he was only seeing through the energy of himself that remained floating across the hanger.

He could make out the ship as it sat there in the lower hanger; the lab as it hummed in the wall just beyond; an explosion of some kind as the room shook all around; the three banners as they fluttered up over the combat below. The banners, he thought, dark red with black designs... just like... her suit. What's that mean... is that good or bad? Oh, what does it matter now...

There was a fear that balled up in Chrono's spirit as he hung in the air over the room. The fright permeated all that was left of him and he was sure this was the final time. He'd failed everyone, not just himself. His friends, his pack, and the entire Earth were all trapped in this horrible repeating time loop. As the only one who understood something was happening, he knew that he was the only one who could do anything about it. With his final death, all hope was lost... everyone on the planet was doomed...

That chill about his very existence ending felt completely true to him as in no other death had it taken so long for him to pass on into the next morning, the dark water of reality reaching up to try and pull him down into the void. Regardless, he felt his energy congealing into something more solid just a moment later as if his mind were waking up from a dream. The cold place he'd passed into began to warm up. The air conditioning no longer a factor over his charred flesh, Chrono could feel a warm breeze against his fur as somewhere high above the morning was coming.

He could feel himself sit up and put his right hand over to his left eye as he turned to look over at Buster Okororaven laying to the side, perforated by fence posts. "Oh, crap," he said as he dropped his head forward and looked at the earth in front of him. Chrono began to whimper softly to himself, his eyes watering at their edges as he couldn't help but cry. Hugging his chest, he laid back down with his tail flat under his body as he looked up at the blue sky high up through the canyon above. Closing his eyes, he felt like he couldn't get warm... the chilling effect of death undone slowly left him as a heat of anger came to him, fueled by fear.

His mind tried to picture what happened after he had almost passed on. There was blood spilled, and the lizard person's form dragging itself back to its ship as it took off into the long tunnel. He couldn't explain how he had known it or felt it. Maybe he even imagined it... but that's what he could recall from his disembodied experience... that the alien had gotten back into her ship and taken off out the hanger. If it weren't for that omniscient feeling, he'd surely have made quick tracks down into the complex to find her. Instead, he decided the surface would be the best bet to continue his search.

A groan could be heard to his side and he opened his eyes and looked over at Buster as the other man's arms grabbed at the air. "What happened?" the Sargent had asked like so many times before.

Chrono frowned so deep that the scars at the edges of his eyes creased his face into a rippled brow. Looking over at Buster, he wondered what he should answer him. Was it a friend, a foe, or maybe a new lease on life? Was it even someone who shared his situation? He didn't know. It wasn't clear. But if anything was clear to him, it was simply this:

"I intend to find out."

End Chapter Three

Breaking New Ground