THE MOMENT
Xap blinked. When he opened his eyes, he saw a familiar dark-haired student standing in front of him. He wore a red translucent visor over his eyes. Xap had never met him; but, Turbo was one of the most popular kids in school. Xap glanced around to take in his surroundings. They stood on a winding, gravelly park path surrounded by trees. A couple of joggers next to them floated in the air mid-step.
"Turbo?" Xap asked. "When did you get here?" Then, he seemed to realize they'd never been formally introduced. He extended his hand. "I'm Xap, by the way," he said.
"Nice to meet you," Turbo shook his hand. "I just got here. The timeline looked like it was having problems so I dropped in to take a look. I've seen you at school, so I woke you up first. Does that mean you don't know what's going on either?" Xap shook his head.
"I Traversed, then you were here too," Xap said. "Hey, how come you didn't get time-locked?" Turbo grinned and held up his left wrist. He wore a black steel bracelet. It was covered with decorative etchings that glowed with soft red light, and a large design in the center resembled a clock face.
"Chrono-buffer," he said. "I've got my own personal time stream."
"Woww...," in an instant, Turbo's popularity made perfect sense.
"What are you here for?" Turbo asked. "Wanna help me see what the problem is?" Xap nodded.
"Not here for anything," he said. "I felt like exploring; I'm still getting used to the fact that I can go to a different Earth any time I want." Turbo chuckled.
'Yeah, it's pretty great," he said. Then, Turbo looked around the park, and chose a direction. "This way." Xap followed, and kept pace with him. From the outside, Xap could see an arrow in Turbo's visor that seemed to be leading him. They followed the path and passed dozens of joggers before Turbo turned onto the grass.
"Are you doing any of the Valentine's events?" Turbo asked.
"Nah," Xap shook his head. "I can't say I feel romantic about anyone yet. What about you?" Turbo nodded.
"Even if you don't want any of the rewards this time, you can still build up your faction with the teams for the next event,"
"There's gonna be another one?" Xap asked. Turbo nodded again, this time with a light chuckle.
"Halloween was the first time they did an event; but, everyone had so much fun that Chroma asked the teams to stick around for the rest of the year. Now they do events for the major holidays."
"Oh, wow, I didn't know that..," Xap said. "I'm a card mage, what team do you recommend?" he asked. They paused at a dense tree line while Turbo picked the best way through. Then, he fell to his knees and crawled beneath the foliage. Xap followed him.
"Definitely SoundCrowd. You can get Vegas' Token from them, and besides that, Aury and Bailey are two of the best card mages in the AlterNet. You'll want to learn what you can from them." He spoke over his shoulder as he crawled. Then, he stood up once they passed the trees. Xap stood in the clearing, but his gaze was focused on an older man laying on the ground. He was in a sleeping bag with his head resting on a small pillow; but, it was obvious to Xap that he wasn't asleep. Turbo crouched to inspect the body.
"A dead Muerte?" Xap asked. Turbo shook his head.
"If a Muerte dies while pausing time, it starts up again. This, on the other hand...," Turbo showed Xap a golden pocket watch that he found on the corpse. "...only starts time again if you push the button." He pressed the button as he explained it. Xap hadn't realized how quiet the world was until sound roared back to life. He heard birds singing and joggers running by. Cars honked in the distance.
"He was a Zero?" Xap asked. He nodded at the dead man. Turbo nodded. "Then, where'd he get that?"
"Dunno," Turbo shrugged. "Doesn't matter. But, is it okay if I keep this? Or we can do a loot roll if you're interested in it too," he offered. Xap was still trying to wrap his head around the multiverse, and he felt that adding the ability to stop time to his plate right now might be too much. But, he was also curious as to why Turbo wanted it.
"No, you can keep it," Xap said. "But what do you need it for? You have a Chrono-buffer."
"Yeah...," Turbo nodded. He touched the watch to his black bracelet. All the etchings glowed with brilliant red light for a moment, then dimmed again; the watch disintegrated into dust. "But, it's a useful upgrade."