TEAM BLAZERS
PROLOGUE I
August 2015
Through the dense Philippine jungle trail, a small vehicle traversed its way past the thick brush of tropical plants and loose muddy soil. The old, tattered, red paint job barely glistening as the dim light from the sun found its way through the thick Nimbus clouds and onto the vehicle’s soaked surface. Every scrape, rattle, bang, and raindrop sounded its way through the vehicle’s thin cabin as it surfed up and down the pretentious terrain and through the thick downpour.
It wouldn’t be another half hour until the next village would even start to come into view, and like the rain, the fatigue was beginning to fall upon Romulo as he struggled to maintain his focus. The weather was unlike what he expected, and had proved too much for the compact four-wheel-drive, forcing him off his designated trail and to go looking for alternative routes.
But even this alternative route had proven to still be too much, and eventually the small automobile’s tyre had caught itself in thick goop, and the tyres spun themselves in their place as the vehicle struggled to make ground. No matter how much he turned the steering wheel, or attempted to back out, the orange crossover would not budge.
“Punyeta!” Romulo exclaimed as what he thought he heard was a rock had scraped along the vehicle’s skidplate as the car came to a halt just barely off the trail, tilted at an angle no greater than ten degrees. The car was stuck, and if he were to go out of the vehicle right now, he would no doubt be drenched in the constant downpour and would likely have illness befall him. Defeated, he opened the windows opposite the direction of the oncoming precipitation and shut the engine down to conserve fuel.
“So much for what was supposed to be a relaxing trip.” He sighed and reclined the chair back as he awaited for the rain to pass. There was no available radio station, his phone was on power saving mode, and pretty much the only things to keep him occupied was the seemingly never-ending tapping of the rain droplets on the metal body panels of the automobile.
He felt his eyes about to close shut, after all he’d been on the trail for about two hours now trying to find a way back to a local village, but bad luck had forced him off the main trail and onto a side path. He was tired, and he figured that the area he was in was not prone to flooding anyway. But as his eyelids drifted off, a loud high-pitched screech forced him awake. He wasn’t sure if it was because of his fatigue or not, but something didn’t seem right.
A round bubble appeared about a hundred metres in front of his vehicle, and the rain bounced right off of it. Around the bubble the air seemed to distort itself in unusual patterns and strangely deranged movements. Within the apparition a blue-tinted light begun to shine dimly at first, but a louder screech followed by what he assumed were sounds of bubbling and a bright flash burst the raindrops off the automobile’s hood as the apparition gained a brightness that seemed to temporarily flashbang him. “Putang-!”
As the flash faded away, the bubble remained there and continued to screech. Romulo’s heart began to beat faster, a rush of adrenaline was running all over him as he tried to make out what was going on. He grabbed ahold of his sundang in the passenger seat next to him, and quickly ran out of the vehicle and into the pouring rain. The precipitation heaved upon his shoulders, weighing him down, but he was determined to protect himself from whatever the apparition was. Romulo was never a man that believed much in the alamat stories that were told to him as a child, but he was certainly freaked out right now. “If this was all because I never said tabi-tabi po all those years ago, I’ll be damned!” He said as he wiped the raindrops falling off his eyebrows.
The apparition moved again, and the flash of light was there again, this time it tinted an unusual colour and he could smell a fire that came from the source of the bubble, or maybe it was explosives? He was unsure which only contributed to the tenseness he felt. He gripped the sundang tighter this time and braced himself. A strong gust of wind came from the apparition, which was enough to blow the rainwater away from it and cause the leaves of the trees to jostle themselves opposite the apparition, and a loud bang had managed to sound right into Romulo’s ears, and they rung as he dropped the sundang and gripped his ears. “I’m not dealing with this shit today!” He picked the sundang back up and frantically opened the door to the car next to him, climbing in and starting it back up as he twisted the key to get the engine running.
But luck had seemingly been blown away from him too, for the engine took an astonishingly long time to turn over, and when it finally breathed into life with a loud hum from its unmuffled exhaust, Romulo quickly turned the wheel and slammed the gearstick into reverse, before whamming the throttle and attempting to unstuck himself. The tyres spun erratically as the four-wheel-drive system distributed its power, and the car gradually shifted itself off its formerly beached position. “Fuck, fuck, fu-!” Romulo looked out of the window as the car began reversing, and saw yet another bright blue flash before him, and a loud ringing noise filled the area as he lifted his foot off the accelerator pedal, bringing the car to a halt as the engine stalled, and ducked beneath the dashboard. It was by this point where his mind was beginning to subconsciously think about his past as though he were about to reach his end. His breathing became erratic and his heart thumping fast in his chest, he closed his eyes and covered his head and ears until the sound was deafened out. The ringing persisted, but not for long, and eventually he uncovered his ears and slowly lifted his head. The rain was still pouring upon the car, and when he peered out of the windshield he could only look in confusion as to what he was witnessing at this point.
Before him, out there in the thick downpour, was two- no, three people standing right in the middle of the road. He could just barely make out their appearances, and all three of them were unusual for his area. A very tall man with short blonde hair, as well as a fairly short girl, also with blonde hair, and holding the girl’s hand was a child. He thought they were tourists, but with what had just happened, he could also be convinced that they were yet another apparition. Frantically, he reached for the keys, which were still in the ignition, and gave it a good twist to have the engine started once again. The engine began turning, and that drew the attention of the tallest figure in the group. Immediately, the man ran over towards him, and the moment the engine started back up, Romulo immediately reached for his sundang.
“Hey! Wait! Is there someone there?” The man said as he ran through the rain and went right up onto Romulo’ window. There, he could see the man clearly. Definitely a foreigner, but his fashion seemed unusual, and he held a what looked to be old stopwatch in his other hand. The foreigner knocked on the window and stared right into Romulo’s eyes. Something about this man seemed off, he felt menacing, but at the same time, oddly comforting, seemingly as though he had no malice behind him.
“Hello? I can see you, by the way. Are you by chance able to converse in English?” The man knocked again before looking back at the two girls still ahead of the vehicle. Romulo looked at them as well, and they were getting drenched out in the intense tropical rains. He eventually gave in and rolled his window down. “Y-yeah…”
“Right, this may seem like a strange question, but may I ask, where are we right now?” The man said with a completely straight face. Slightly confused, he responds, “We’re in… Negros? Near Mount Kanlaon…? Sir, are you alright? What happened?” And slowly, he loosened his grip on the sundang, but still remained on guard.
“Negros? Kanlaon? Are we in the Philippine Islands?” The man continued to inquire, and Romulo nodded. “What is the date today?” The man looked Romulo dead in the eye, and he had no choice to respond.
“A-August 4…”
“August 4th of what year?” The man’s glare sharpened enough to the point where it felt as though it could cut through a falling raindrop. Romulo felt the tension, and his grip tightened around his sundang, but still he responded.
“2015.”
The man looked at Romulo still with a straight face. “Can I trust that the information you’ve provided is accurate?” He asked and Romulo nodded.
The man moved away from the vehicle, and mouthed a ‘thank you’, before walking back over to the two girls who were still standing there. Something didn’t feel right about things however, and before Romulo could realize it, he began to speak.
“H-hey! Are you sure you’re gonna be fine out here?” He yelled out to them. “The next town is probably 4 kilometres away, you sure you’re not gonna get sick? You can get in my car for now, and I can drive you there.”
His heart began thumping fast, he was quite unsure of what he was saying, but it was at this point where he felt as though his destiny was changing, and he was playing a very dangerous game with someone he doesn’t even know exists, assuming that someone was indeed a someone. He was nervous, but he could tell that he was doing something right.
“W-Watson…” The girl spoke out to the man, and now Romulo seemed to know his name. The man glared at the girl, but eventually a smile had grown on his face.
“Do not worry, Miss Clarkson.” The man said as he slowly lifted up the watch in his hand. “We’ll be going again.” The man clicked the switch on the stopwatch, but nothing seemed to have happened. The man didn’t seem to flinch either, and still remained cool-headed.
“How quite unusual.” The man said as he looked back over towards Romulo. “I guess we will have to take you up on your offer, then. This… is a jalopy of yours, is it not?”
Romulo simply nodded as he unlocked the doors to the car. “Jalopy? You mean, car?”
“If that’s what you call an automobile, then yes.” The man walked over to the vehicle’s rear door, and opened it up. “Miss Clarkson, you two may get in first.”
“Hold on a minute here.” The girl stood where she was. “What is going on here? Why is that watch of yours not working? And weren’t you the one who had said that interacting with the timeline could cause some sort of…”
Before she could finish, the man interjected, “Transchronological drift? That would apply if we were indeed in our timeline, however…” The man looked all around him, and finally over at the red automobile, “…this is not our timeline. I am not quite sure what triggered these events, but I have a feeling a certain someone is working behind the scenes and would thus be held responsible for the actions.”
Romulo could only look at them confused. They were all talking about things he had never heard before, and in a different manner compared to what he’d usually hear from foreigners. He looked over to the girl, and she had a face that looked as though she were in great distress. “What do you mean, Watson? This is not the timeline of ours? Do not mess with me right now!”
“That is unfortunately the truth. Do not worry however, and wipe that look off your countenance.”
“More importantly, your watch!” She ran over towards the man. “About the watch, I believe it is in our interests that we do not fret about it as much. We first need to find ourselves some shelter lest you get an illness befall upon you, or even the girl.”
The girl just sighed, and looked over at Romulo before walking over to the backseat, the child that was with them went into the car first. He looked into the rear view mirror of the car and observed the child as she seemed to be the most unusual at a closer perspective. Her hair was a majestic-looking tint of silvery-white with hints of blue, her eyes were a blue as deep as the ocean he had seen on his trips to the sea, and the one particular thing that grabbed his attention upon a closer look was a tail. Not just any tail, but a tail that seemingly belonged to that of a marine animal. The tail looked to be about three quarters the length of her legs, and Romulo, despite his father being a fisherman and having lived near the ocean for most of his life, was unable to identify what marine creature it could’ve been. He was unsure, but it looked as thought the tail was attached to the girl by her hips, slightly above her buttock. He began growing anxious, and took a gulp. Hesitantly, he decided to question them about it, but the only response he got from the man was, “I cannot inform you about this just yet.”
Romulo just stared at him as the man continued to assist the two girls into getting into the vehicle, but eventually decided to pay no mind. He thought that maybe this entire thing might just blow over and will be another part of his unexplainable memories. He put the sundang back into its sheath and placed it between the driver’s seat and passenger’s seat, before opening the passenger’s side door and offering the man to sit up front. The man walked over and climbed right in, but he seemed to be slightly alarmed as he closed the door and looked around the cabin.
“Something wrong?” Romulo asked.
“This vehicle… is safe, isn’t it?”
“I guess it was pretty safe when it was first made. Although good safety never goes out of date. Just wear your seatbelts I guess.” He shrugged. “Oh, and before we leave, I think we should introduce ourselves, yeah? I guess I’ll go first. I’m Raymundo Romulo, feel free to just call me Ray, I don’t really care much.”
The man looked at him for a moment before sighing. “If you hadst not realized earlier, you may just refer to me as Watson.”
“Emily Clarkson.” The girl in the back responded.
Romulo once again looked in the rear view mirror, and noticed the child they were with had now fallen asleep on Emily’s lap. He let out a sigh as well. “How about that young girl-?”
“Pay no mind to her.” Watson cut him off and glared at him sharply with a gaze that looked as though it could pierce right through his own eyes. “Just drive.”
“You know… nevermind.” Romulo shifted the car into first, and went onwards. The rain fortunately had begun to clear, and the blast from earlier seemed to have hardened the ground ahead of them and the mud was less softer than earlier, allowing for the vehicle to just barely make its way through the slippery trail.
“So what vehicle is this?” Watson asked seemingly out of nowhere.
“It’s… a Yamada ASR-4. 2000 model year, if I remember correctly.”
“Yamada… is that the name of the vehicle’s manufacturer?”
“Y-yeah, they’re a Japanese company.” He responded nervously. Romulo seemed to be more confused than Watson, as he was only wondering as to how someone would not know a vehicle that is such a household name by this point.
“Japan, is it?” Watson looked back out the window. The droplets continued to fall and shake themselves about as the car pitched, yawed, and rolled through the difficult terrain. “Looks like the development of roads had not progressed much through the years…”
Romulo felt an odd tension in the vehicle’s cabin, as though something were about to happen, but he didn’t know what. He felt his heart thump yet again, and his breathing started to get worrisome. He wasn’t sure whether it was because of the anxious terrain, or something was just completely off with the passengers he had just picked up. He thought it was a combination of both, but it seemed that his mind’s rapid thoughts about it were also a contributing factor. He looked at Watson, who was just continuing to stare out of the window, a direct contrast to his seemingly active first impression. In an attempt to break the tension, it was Romulo who attempted to strike up a conversation this time.
“You know, you suddenly appeared in the middle of the road out of nowhere.” He gulped. With what he saw, he wasn’t sure whether or not he should still ask, but he did anyway. “You were talking about some kind of trans rift dimension or something along those lines…”
There was a moment of silence, but eventually Watson spoke up. What he said, visibly alarmed Romulo.
“We’re not of this era. No, we’re not of this timeline. I guess I should make it clear to you.”
Immediately, Romulo slammed on the brakes. The car’s nose dug into the soil, and everything seemed flung towards the front.
“What the hell do you mean?”
“Exactly what I mean. We’re time travellers, or more importantly, I am a time traveler.”
“And them? Who are they?”
Watson paused for a moment, and once again glared at Romulo before sighing. “You really want to know?” Watson asked. “This information will more or less change your destiny, are you ready to deal with that burden?” Reluctantly, Romulo nodded, and Watson sighed yet again.
“That young, child-like girl over there is Ga’araiya, the Princess of Atlantis. Heir to the throne, and the Queen’s only daughter.”
“A-Atlantis…?”
“You might have heard of it through stories, but fact of the matter is, where we’re from, it is a place as real as the air around you. Not a lot of people know it exists, however, and it is better that no one else should know. The reason as to why she’s here is because she ran away from home, some stupid royal feud that hadst I gotten involved with and now I am trying to bring this problem child back home to save the sovereignty of Atlantis.”
Watson stared deep into Romulo’s dark brown eyes. Not a single hint of malice or lies was visible in his tone and facial expressions, and he had every reason to believe him. He found it hard to believe, but he glanced over into his rear view mirror and saw the so-called Princess flapping her tail about on the seat.
“Believe me if you want, quite frankly I do not care, for this is a timeline completely separate to the reality that which I live in.” Watson turned his head to look out the window again, and readjusted himself in his seat. But as he did so, a bright flash began to glow in his left pocket, and Romulo had noticed this.
“H-hey, your pocket!”
Watson looked down, but as he did, a bright flash filled the cabin, and the entire vehicle shook as a loud high pitched screech began to resonate within their ear drums. For a moment, Romulo felt motionless, as his vision was clouded by a bright light with blue sparks flying across the peripheral. It felt as though he was floating through space, and he couldn’t be any more correct. It felt like something out of Star Wars, or some other space exploration movie he had watched during his childhood. When his vision cleared, he could see a black void outside of the vehicle with blue specks of light flashing by in streaks, before a bright light right before them finally consumed the rest of the windows. Upon the end of the trip, he begun to see a sky once again, but the sky was not like the area he was previously in, it was clear and free of clouds, and for a moment that was all he saw around him. He once again felt like gravity had disappeared, until he felt himself flung towards the roof of the cabin, and all around him was sand and desert plants, and an occasional hint of sky. He was partially saved by his seatbelt, and after the motions had stopped, he found himself sitting planted within the vehicle’s heavily bolstered front seats as though nothing had happened.
But at last, the adrenaline had worn off, and he looked all around him. The car was intact, the engine was running, but throughout around, was hundreds, maybe thousands of miles of desert all around. From the plants, to the heat that was now slowly beginning to seep into the cabin.
“What the hell is this…?”
Watson looked all around him, and for the first time since they met, Romulo had finally noticed him with a slight distress on his face. Immediately, he reached for his pocket and grabbed the stopwatch, and the moment he looked at the watchface, his own face seemed to have gone pale. The watch’s hands moved in an erratic way, the second hand was moving completely on its own, independent of the others, and the switch that he’d usually use to operate it moved on its own, but eventually the watch just ceased all movement, and Watson looked at it dumbfounded.
“I… simply cannot believe it.”
“H-hey, Watson… Where… are we…?” Emily spoke, in a very distressed tone. “What’s wrong with your watch?”
“I see, I think I have an idea as to what the issue could be. There are no guarantees, however, and you must not be distressed at the situation.” He said as he put the watch back into his pocket.
“Alright, cut the shit, what the fuck’s going on?” This time, it was Romulo who shot Watson a sharp glance. However, Watson was largely unfazed by this gesture.
“Long or short explanation?” Said Watson, resting his chin on the seat’s arm rest. Romulo clicked his tongue and just shrugged. “Whatever works.”
Watson pulled out the watch yet again, and clicked the button once more. “I’ve already told you this a few minutes ago, I’m a time traveler. This watch of mine, allows me to jump the very planes of existence that dictate the orders of the universe and create temporary rips through the space-time fabric and even create new ones where things could be freely altered to my will.”
He shoved the watch into his pocket again, and continued. “With such a power, it would require a disastrous amount of responsibility to tend to. As such, I cannot use it freely just so and so. But now with the rescue of Little Miss Princess, I was forced to use it far more than I should have, and now it is malfunctioning.”
“Are you telling me that something so powerful has its limits?”
“That should’ve been obvious. In a perfect world where I was responsible for the watch’s manufacture, I would’ve done it where it did not have its limits, although that would require it to be in a more cumbersome form factor.”
“You didn’t make the watch? Where the hell did you get it from?”
“That is none of your business. I believe right now, it’s in our best interests to navigate our way through this desert and find civilization before we dry ourselves out.”
Romulo sighed, and pulled out his phone and opened his maps. Fortunately for him, he’d manage to download a copy of an offline global map, and his location was immediately picked up by a GPS Satellite. The pin moved away from the Philippines, and jumped right across the ocean to somewhere he was not expecting.
“America…?” He stared in disbelief. “We’re in… the Mojave Desert?”
“How would you know that?” Emily said in the back.
“My… phone… Hold on, you don’t know what a phone is?” He looked at them confused.
“I know what a phone is, could this be a modern rendition of a phone? Certainly does not look like it.” Watson said as he closely examined the large screened device.
“Well, time’s moved on it seems from wherever, or whenever you guys came from. This is a smartphone, it can do pretty much everything humanly possible.” Romulo said as he took a closer look at the map.
“Quite impressive.” Watson said. “Nearly a hundred years into the future, looks like humanity has gone pretty far.”
“Ah, looks like we’re quite lucky, there’s a road just over that crest over there, if we go on it long enough we could possibly find civilization sooner or later.” Romulo pointed over to a slight hill to the right of the vehicle. “I think we could theoretically find somewhere before nightfall. My only concern is if the US authorities find me not running a US license plate. I think I can manage, however.” With that, Romulo put his phone into its dashboard mount and started the navigation. He shifted into gear and the car, slightly stuck in the sand, slowly inched its way out and moved up towards the hill. As the front tyres began to slip, the rear wheels engaged and the vehicle slowly inched its way towards the top, and as it approached the tip, Romulo slammed the throttle and the vehicle lunged over the peak and the road came into view. Carefully maneuvering down the hill and onto the road, he could finally put the vehicle into a higher gear and cruise almost comfortably for the first time in a few hours.
Travelling down the road after an hour or so however, and something caught the attention of Romulo’s eye. It was a camp, but not just any camp, it seemed to be a camp for some kind of rally, but he couldn’t make it out much. He looked around the cabin, and found everyone pretty much asleep, and he felt tired too, and as such he pulled into one of the parking spots near the tent to see if he could find the owner, or maybe even owners of the campsite. He got out of the car, looked around and immediately the first… ‘being’ he saw was this… cat of some sort. Standing on hind legs and with a body resembling that of a human’s, he was very much confused, and dazzled.
“H-hello…?” He asked nervously.
“Hello there! Are you here for the rally?!” The figure asked in a quite fairly enthused feminine voice. “You must be tired! Would you like to get some rest?”
He took a closer look at the apparently feminine creature, her facial shape was like that of a feline, a large feline to be precise, and her fur was a gleaming black like that of a Panther or Puma, she seemed to wear normal human clothes however, and her overall body was like that of a regular human teenager. He didn’t pay much mind to it, however, and he was indeed very, very tired.
“Yeah… I guess I could use some rest, and maybe my companions, too.” He said as he opened the car door. “Hey everyone! Let’s get up and get some actual rest, it’s gonna be hot out here but it’s better than nothing.” He once again shut the car door and turned his attention back to the cat girl.
“So, we’re actually in the Mojave, huh?” He asked.
“Hmm? You didn’t know?” She looked at him confused, before quickly shifting back to a cheery tone. “Oh, and introductions! My name is Charlotte, Charlotte Bluhart! I guess my looks are a bit unorthodox for this world, but rest assured I’m definitely a normal girl! You must be…?”
Romulo was not exactly sure what was going on, but he just went along with it. “R-Raymundo Romulo. Wait a second, this world? What do you mean?”
“Aren’t you here for the Crugandr rally? Your vehicle certainly looks prepped for it! We’re going on a little bit of a trip here! You’ve certainly seen the e-mail haven’t you?”
“Wait, wait, wait… Crugandr? Sorry Miss, but I’m just… really confused right now. Could you explain slower…?”
Before she could explain, however, it seemed as though Watson and the two others had finally woken up.
“No surprises, it really is quite hot out here, huh?” Watson said as he took his coat off, revealing a rather damp white dress shirt where his figure was rather highlighted. “Oh, who is this?” He said as he looked at the feline girl.
“Oh, hello! I’m Charlotte Bluhart, just call me Charlotte. Aren’t you lot here for the rally race currently happening?”
“Rally race? Like Peking to Paris? I thought we were here to get some rest?” Watson now looked at Romulo.
“I’m just as confused as you are…” Romulo scratched his head.
“W-well! I think you should all get some rest first, I can get you guys a tent so we can all discuss this later!” Charlotte said is a somewhat panicked voice.
“That is likely for the better, after all-” Watson was suddenly interrupted by a fairly soft sneeze from behind Charlotte. Emily was holding onto the apparent Princess, and she still was visibly soaked.
“Oh dear, where did you guys… even come from?” Charlotte seemed to be just as confused as the rest of them. “I think we should just get a tent already, and maybe a change of clothes? We can discuss our situation and our options later, and decide on what to do from there.” Watson said as he walked over towards Emily, placing his beige-coloured coat over her. Charlotte signaled for them to follow her, and after Romulo shut the vehicle’s engine off and followed them to a tent.
After getting themselves dried and cleaned up, they now sat there inside the tent. The Princess had fallen asleep next to Emily, whilst Watson, as alert as ever, continued looking around, and Romulo just… sat there. Before long however, Charlotte would return to the tent with a couple of local snacks and some odd looking papers.
“Righty, so from what you two have said, you seem a bit lost. Shall I explain?” She said as she sat down in front of them. Both of them nodded, and Charlotte proceeded to explain her side. Things about a rally to another world, or something or another. With that, Watson and Romulo explained their side.
“We’re not from this world either.” Watson said with a straight face, but something about what he said got Romulo’s head to turn slightly. “We…?”
“With enough experience, you can tell subtle differences in worlds. This isn’t your world, either. It seems when my watch malfunctioned, it seemed the tear was large enough to make us jump to yet another timeline.” He looked over through one of the tent’s openings, and saw one of the banners which described the event.
“Hey Ray, what year did you say we were in earlier?”
“2015.”
“That does it then, we’re in 2022 right now, aren’t we, Miss Bluhart?” He looked over towards the feline girl, who was quite visibly shocked.
“So what will you do now?” She asked in a very worried tone. “Are you still going to be joining the Rally?”
“Well, quite frankly I do not know when the watch will come back into service, and if it does I would most likely be in a world of shit. I might as well tell you now, since I have nothing left to lose, but this watch originally belonged to a certain Warden of time. Although this one is special, and it’s the only one of its kind. I stole it, but things worked out in the end anyway and that bitch let me keep it.”
“Right, I think we’re quite bombarded with information now…” Romulo sighed. “What’s in it for us, anyway, if we joined the rally?”
Charlotte thought for a moment, and pondered in a cutesy way before finally responding. “Bragging rights! Glory!” She said enthusiastically.
For a moment, there was an awkward silence, and both Romulo and Charlotte felt the tense awkwardness beginning to build up, and as Charlotte was about to speak up, Watson burst into a loud laughter, waking Emily up. “What the hell are you laughing for?!”
“Hey Ray, we should do it! Let’s join in, shall we? We’ve got nothing left to lose now!”
