A Glitch in Time[IC]

Alexander remained puzzled, looking around, trying to comprehend exactly what had just happened. One moment, they were on Earth's orbital ring, in space. And now... they were in a city he knew well, from the history classes. New York City, the corrupt capital of the Terran Human Colonial Alliance. Quiet, the Colonial pointed to a flagpole that was in the middle of the square, on which a blue flag was waving. In the middle of the flag, seven linked rings formed a flower like structure, surrounded by twelve golden stars. The flag of the Alliance.

"This is impossible... how is this? Are we hallucinating?", Alexander said in a low voice. Hallucinations would be something easier to believe than time travel. But unfortunately, before they were able to talk more, they were quickly approached by two policemen, wearing gray uniforms. It was obvious that Alexander and Haruna were simply standing out.

"Well, well, the curfew is closing in... what are you doing here, little Colonial?", one of the cops, clearing a Terran, said, looking at Alexander. Clearly on a hostile mood, the cop pushed the black haired Colonial a little violently. "Aren't you going to go to the ghetto soon? Stinky Colonials aren't welcome in the city center, you know.". The second policeman then looked at Haruna. "Jupiterran, huh? A citizen of Sol is certainly more welcome here than a Colonial. And you seem to be a pure-blood too.. what are you doing in the company of an inferior Colonial?"

The two police officers looked at the Jupiterran strangely, and one of them smiled mockingly. "Your partner? Why would someone from Sol have a freaking Colonial as her partner? You should be proud of your position, you shouldn't filthy it like that.". The other one continued. "Yeah, especially someone like you... why don't you come with us a little, and leave this Colonial bastard..", he said, clearly trying to touch Haruna..

But that was when Alexander's anger erupted. He had remained calm until now, trying to ignore the bullying attitude of the policemen. After all, this wouldn't have been someone would have acted like that to him. He fully knew that attacking police officers in whatever time and place they were now wouldn't have been wise, but when they started to speak like that to her... and try to touch her... this was too much.

Lightly pushing Haruna aside, the Colonial hit the first police officer with one precise hit in the neck, just as he had learned back in the military camps, forcing the Terran to fall on the ground, unconscious. The other one reacted a little bit too quickly though, hitting the black eyed Colonial in the face with a police baton, but after the first hit, Alexander caught his hand, and kicked him on the ground, ending it with hitting him with his own baton in the head. The people around started to notice the commotion, and Alexander took Haruna's hand as they started to run away, before more policemen would start to arrive...

Eventually, Alexander and Haruna stopped somewhere in a back alley. It seemed that they had lost any possible pursuers, and that they were safe. At least for now. Leaning against the wall, Alexander covered his nose with his hand, trying to stop the bleeding. That damned baton had hit him really well. Though, he was largely still failing to understand the big hell of a problem that had just landed in.

"You saw the date, right? And the flag? And the grey uniforms?", the Colonial asked, trying to catch his breath. "I would say that we are hallucinating... but this really seems to be Earth during the HCA. Hating the Colonials and stuff.. and if the date is real... this would be a few hours before the start of Heaven's Fall."Alexander stopped for a moment. "We're hallucinating, right?"

"Yeah, it hurts a little, but this certainly isn't the most stupid thing I've ever done.", Alexander said, flinching as Haruna placed that handkerchief in his face." And those bastards had asked for it. They fully deserved it."

Alexander then sighed." I've got no idea if we're dreaming of not.. but this is... so strange.."


"I can ensure you that no matter how strange this situation might look, you are unfortunately not dreaming.", a calm voice was heard somewhere behind them. Quickly, Alexander stood up, taking his place between the stranger and Haruna. Because now, a strange figure had just entered the alley. It was wearing a hooded coat, keeping its face covered by the shadow.

"Who are you?", the Colonial asked, motioning to the Jupiterran to stand back. The figure seemed to smile." I'm surprised you don't recognize me, but yeah, I suppose that in this timeline, we haven't met yet..."

Moving quickly, the figure was next to Alexander in the flinch of an eye. Alexander, instinctively, tried to unsheathe his sword, but not only that Mosrael wasn't there... it also didn't appear. Before he was even able to react, the figure gripped his hand, performing a quick martial arts move, forcing him to kneel on the ground. But the move also made the figure's good to fall, revealing the face of a rather young silver haired girl. But what was the most visible about her were her silver eyes...

"Cardinal?!", the black eyed Colonial asked, surprised. The girl smiled." Cardinal? I suppose that's the way I'm going to be called in the future.. well, it's good that you recognized me. It means that I was right."

The girl then quickly took out a pistol out of her pocket with her other hand, pointing it at Haruna, because she turned it around, seemingly offering the weapon to her with the grip forward.
"Now, can you two come with me so that I can explain what happened, or do you have to come with me forcefully?"

"Who am I? Well, that's a really good question, isn't it?", the silver eyed girl said, helping Alexander stand up. For some reason, after finding out the girl's identity, the Colonial was really calm, totally ignoring the fact that he had been at gunpoint a few moments before. "In the future you two came from, I suppose that I'm known as Cardinal. The leader of the High Axiom Church of the Colonies. More or less.Here however, in this present, I'm known as Irene Argent, Lieutenant General in the Allied Ministry of State Security."

After saying that, the silver haired girl made a well known motion, and something that looked like a sword appeared in her right hand. However the sword was kinda... difficult to see... as it seemed to continuously change its appearance between a sword form, and something that looked like a cane for blond people."Also, I'm one of the twenty-four Hegemons that held the positions of Commanders in Chief of all Allied Armed Forces in this Great War."

"Wait, wait, you were one of the Hegemons, Cardinal? You never told us that!". Alexander said, sounding surprised. For someone like the Colonial, he strangely had an almost respectful behavior to the girl next to him, although at a first look, she should have been younger than both Alexander and Haruna. "I must have my secrets, right?", the girl called Cardinal, or Irene answered while smiling again. "Nevertheless, we recently discovered something that looks like a rupture in the space-time continuum. I'm assuming that whatever happened in your future, it weakened that continuum, and you somehow slipped into here. Time travel can end pretty badly, trust me, so we have to fix this as soon as possible. Especially since I don't believe that you want to get caught in Heaven's Fall. That if it will work."

The sword than seemed to stabilize into the form of a cane for blind people. Now, if anyone would have looked at it, the silver haired girl didn't seem to be focusing her eyes. Even when she was looking at Haruna, she was merely looking at her general direction, more careful on hearing what was happening around. Was she blind?
"We might have a way to send you back, that if we can get you safely out of the city. But what is going to happen might seem a little odd.... I fully know that Alexander Werther trusts me, or at least, he trusts my future variant. I'll need your trust in this too, Shimazaki Haruna. What do you say?", Cardinal asked, looking serious at the Jupiterran. Shouts and sirens started to be heard, signaling that the police was closing in...

"We'll have to firstly make sure that they can't connect you two to the same persons who ran from the Great Square. Haruna, you'll have to act as my helper. If the police asks anything, you're here to help the blind me. Alexander, you'll be my bodyguard. Let me speak.". Soon enough, as they left the small alley onto the larger street, they were surrounded by police officers and some of those floating cars. It really seemed that the Human Colonial Police wasn't going to spend any expenses to caught someone who had attacked their agents. Haruna was holding the blind girl's hand, and Alexander was standing in front of them like a bodyguard would have, as the police officers approached. "It's sad that even now, when humanity should be more than ever, unite, there are still some who oppress and humiliate their fellow humans, ignoring the greater danger...", Cardinal whispered...


The police agents stopped, surrounding Cardinal and the couple. The one who was probably leading the police officers, an older man, with green, cloudy eyes, an older, white-gray hair, wearing a light gray police uniform, made a step forward from the ring of policemen, looking at Cardinal and the two next to her."Greetings, milady.", the old man saluted with respect, speaking with a rather particular Galactic Standard accent."If it won't be too impolite, what are you doing in this dangerous area at this time of the night? And since we are currently looking for two possibly dangerous criminals, a Colonial man and a Jupiterran woman, might I ask what is it with those two over there? It's rather suspicious, wouldn't you think?"

The silver eyed girl answered just as respectfully as the man, looking in his general direction."Ah... Chief Inspector Birmingham. What a pleasure to meet you here... isn't it? I was simply enjoying the cold air this night... it's one of the few pleasures someone blind like me can have... as for why I came exactly here.... Council business. I'm sure you have no wish to obstruct what we do, especially know, with them so near... right, Chief Inspector? And I don't know anything about any criminals. These two are my servants, and I've known them for quite a while. " The old man simply sighed. For some reason, this didn't seem too be the first time the two of them had such a discussion."Then, could I ask what there is with those two? I can't possibly imagine a reason for why two fine women like you and you female companion would spend even a few seconds near a filthy Colonial.... you don't have to spend the night in this cold, especially in such a poor part of the city. I'm more than sure that my men over here would be more than delighted to protect you two... and help you relax, before tomorrow's harsh battle."

Hearing the officer's words, some of the policemen laughed. Cardinal simply kept her calm attitude as she continued. "I'm sorry Chief Inspector, but I'll have to refuse your proposal. We were just on our way to return. If you could kindly take your man away so that we can leave... I'm not going to report you to the High Council for such a behavior.". The old officer simply made a step back. "I understand, milady. If you would excuse us..."

With that, the police officers left. Cardinal sighed, relieved, dropping out the act. "Bastards like these ones are the reason for why sometimes, I think that the human race doesn't deserve to be saved.", the girl said, a little angry. "These Earthlings... they act all mighty and arrogant, blurting out all those things about the Alliance, friendship between Earth and its Colonies... but they still oppress anyone who is not from Sol, or isn't a pure-blood... I'm sorry that you had to see this, but we needed to make them drop their search, since to leave the city, we'll have to go through police checkpoints." Cardinal then made a short pause.

"Before we leave, I have one thing left to say. Time travels can be extremely dangerous as I said... for multiple reasons, if we're going to use a way to send you back from where we came, we'll have to temporarily wipe out your memories of this event, at least until my future self decides otherwise. Will you accept that freely, or will we have to force you?"

"I guess I won't oppose it either... going back to the future with our memories could create some nasty consequences. I'll trust you in this, Cardinal.", Alexander answered after a few moments of silence. Hearing the responses of the two, Cardinal smiled."Good. Now that was decided, let's get out of here. We have to send you back before the Operation Heaven's Fall. If there is one thing good about the Invaders,is that they are easily predictable. They'll reach Sol exactly in around twelve hours. We only have a few hours until I have to return to the Central Command, so let's do this."

---

Around half an hour later, the three were in one of those floating cars, heading for another city that was close to New York. Apparently, according to Cardinal, that was the place where they could be sent back. The Earth Central High Command of the Allied Armed Forces. The highway was seeming to accelerate the speed of the car, and the car itself was driven by an AI, so they were moving pretty fast, and the chances of car crashes were really, really low, due to the synchronization of all cars on the highway. In this way, they were going to reach it, near the city of Washington, in only around twenty minutes. The highway itself was fairly empty, with only a few cars, but many people were simply walking near it, trying to get as far away from major cities as possible. But of course, everyone knew that if the orbital defenses of Earth were going to fall, everything would be lost. Right now, even if it was night, major forces could be vaguely seen regrouping around a still in construction, not finished, orbital ring of the planet.

As they were going at full speed on the illuminated highway in the middle of the dark night, suddenly, something exploded beneath the car, throwing it up at full speed, the car crashing in the ground somewhere further away, rolling around a few times before it finally stopped...

---

Vaguely hearing the sounds of alarm of the automated highway, which blocked the area around the crashed car, feeling dizzy, Alexander tried to stand up from where he had been thrown out of the car, a few meters away from the car itself. Looking down, the Colonial noticed that he was sitting on a pool of blood, his blood apparently. The car had started to burn, and Haruna and an unconscious Cardinal had been also thrown out by the crash, but much more closer to the car. Alexander tried to say something, before he suddenly felt something hitting him in the head, before he once again fell on the ground, in the blood. A van was stopped somewhere behind Alexander, and masked men had got out of it, one of them hitting the Colonial in the head with the back of his gun. The others pointed their rifles at the car, and implicitly, at Haruna and the bleeding silver haired girl.
"Surrender, or we'll have to use force!", one of the masked man said, arming his rifle, followed by the other five masked figures.