Time Sphere
Blood dripped down my arm, across my palm, and off my fingers. The sound of the splash lost between the patter of light rain on grass and mud through leafless trees. Tall apartments stood sentinel and judged me as I stood in the darkness of the park. Upon me, upon the Outsider, upon the cooling body of my dead teammate. The one person I thought I had finally be able to be friends with. The one person who had given me hope for a better life. The one person I failed when she was depending on me the most.
I met Paige four days in the future. Well, it is unfair to tell it that way because it ends up sounding confusing. One should tell their stories in linear order, when possible. However, I am unsure how linear order can even apply to this world anymore. I was walking the city at night. There is something calming about being the only one awake, wondering from point A, mindlessly taking a new combination of streets to point C, and then finding out you really wanted to go to point B. The sidewalks and roads empty except for the buzzing of lamps and the whir of far off highways. I didn't even notice her until she had a halberd pointed at my chest.
"Drop it" she demanded.
My brain cranked into high speed. Halberds are large weapons. An ax and spear on the end of a poll. The spear part would only make sense if you have an enemy running at you and you had other allies with you to form a wall of spears. Spears are a medium range deterrent, not a close range weapon. Axes on polls only make sense if you are attacking an enemy that is too far away to hit with a normal ax. That part is also a medium range weapon. I could brush the weapon to the side punch her in the faec. It would take time for her to retaliate by pulling the weapon back, up, and swing at me with it. But what would I do then? What would happen if it wasn't a one punch knockout? No, one needs to see more than just one step ahead.
There is no way a halberd wouldn't slow you down if you had to run with it. If I pushed it away and ran, I could probably outpace her. In fact, if I screamed loudly enough, people would come watch, which might prove to successfully deter Miss Ax Spear Murderer here. A trade of my social dignity for my life. Could I really count on it though? Could I count on people waking up, watching, and doing something about it? No, at best I'd get one or two people calling the police. Not much good it would do me when they found my lifeless body.
I could just comply. She hasn't poked me yet, and if she was really intending on poking me no matter my actions, she'd poke me first and get what she wanted afterwords. What did Miss Merry Mugger want dropped? My wallet? I could drop that, she'd have to bend down to get it... I pulled up my hand in order to reach for my pocket, but I had to stop when she flinched.
"STOP. Drop your weapon!"
What weapon? I looked down. On my left arm was a small shield.
"What the hell?"
There were no straps holding the shield to my arm.
//Welp gotta go! I'll keep writing this later. Didn't mean for the cliffhanger.
