Blue Nexus #45 - A Long Time Ahead

            Rather than flying straight to East City and making a scene of everything, Kyle and Yusero instead opted it would just be easier if they drove inconspicuously. Kyle wasn’t even worried about there being repercussions from the Zanderia about wasting time since this was sort of his mission for right now.

            Yusero was tempted to drive, Kyle could tell, and it would probably be very simple for him compared to the starships that could soar across galaxies in mere seconds. And Kyle would have let him if he had a license, or some sort of credibility. The risk of being pulled over and Kyle getting in trouble with the law was just not worth it. Plus he knew the way out of town and toward East City, anyway.

            Kyle drove windows down in his grandparents’ car. They let him have it so that he could “help Yusero find a new place to stay.” He really had to stop lying to his grandparents so much. Sooner or later they would figure it out and then their relationship could go straight to hell. It’d probably help more if he just outright told them his secrets. Food for thought, he decided.

They arrived at a rather fast pace since there was almost no traffic. The Sun was still high in the sky and the weather not all that cool as it’d been when they first met up. Yusero didn’t seem to take the city with as much awe as he did with Adelita, strangely. The city sprawl, while not as advanced, must not be all that different in the future. And really, how much could it change? Just put the important places in the middle and work your way out.

            He found one of the few free parking garages still standing (in full) and parked near the top, the so the car could store a good bit of heat before the cold would come in near the evening. Yusero got out before him, taking in a big breath of air.

            “Smells strange in here,” he said.

            “Uh, that would be gasoline, sweat, and dirt,” Kyle said. “Oh, and like concrete. Or something.”

            “If I’m correct, gasoline is the primary fuel source for Earth?” asked Yusero.

            “Yeah we found a bunch of dead dinosaurs and turned them into fuel,” Kyle said.

            “I’ve heard of those,” Yusero said. “There’s a galaxy not too far from this one that…never mind. Forget I said anything.”

            “We don’t need a butterfly effect shattering reality right now,” Kyle said. “I mean, when I’m in school it would be a nice thing to have.”
            “It’s that bad?” asked Yusero.

            “Sometimes. Most of the time. Anytime where I know I can be doing something better with my time. Are the super high-tech schools in your time pointless, too?”

            Yusero paused. Kyle knew he messed up because of it. Yusero spoke again when they approached one of the four elevators in the middle of the garage lot.

            “I never attended a school,” Yusero said. “I was never given the opportunity. I was just born into the guild life and learned everything I could from them. It was probably far more productive for me, anyway, since I didn’t have to learn things I will never use.”

            “The future just sounds better by the second,” Kyle muttered.

            They descended in step together. Kyle was surprised he could actually keep up with Yusero’s speed down the steps. The future boy was either slowing down or his pace was just stagnant regardless of the situation.

            Kyle shoved open the big, rusted metal door to the empty city street. The road was freshly paved with new lines still being etched into it. The sidewalk was closed on the right down the block for construction, though it looked like they were also all but done with it there, too. The buildings were in working order, though.

            “Strange,” Yusero said. “In most of our metropolitan centers there are hundreds of people around at all times. Where is everyone?”
            “Well it’s either a holiday and I didn’t know about it somehow or we just came here at a quiet time is all,” Kyle said.

            “Still strange.”

            They went left to avoid the construction, though Yusero wanted to check it out and see how it worked, but Kyle promised there would be way more of it as they went further into the city. The epicenter of the attack was, after all, the center of the city itself.

            After two blocks, they made another long turn under a small bridge and they were in the real heart of the city. Yusero’s smile sprouted back onto his face. The city was bustling, but with the typical charm and mystique that a city held. Taxis and traffic sped by until suddenly grinding to a halt and some vendors were on the side of the road selling people trinkets. Kyle wondered how many of these people were once full-time storeowners that were relegated to the streets until their business could get back on its feet.

            Yusero took time to look at most of them, examining what they had. Kyle had no money on him anyway to spend and felt a twinge of guilt about it. Yusero no doubt wanted something to buy and bring to the future with him, but the possible damage to the timeline was too tough to tell. His presence and actions here affected it massively, so relatively speaking buying a small necklace wouldn’t do that much, would it? There was no way of knowing until the damage was all done was the issue.

            Three blocks down, though, things got a little more back to normal for the city. The towers were taller and the people were far less inviting. All of them brushed by the pair as they either talked on their phones or played games on their phones without paying any amount of attention to what was ahead of them. Yusero seemed confused by it.

            “What’s the benefit of having to look down?” he asked. “At least our projectors go in front of us so that we can see who is coming our way.”

            “You mean like holograms?”

            “Yeah of course.”

            Yusero also seemed to silently notice the various fashion trends spotted around the city. Having Yusero around also opened Kyle’s eyes up to it a little more. He’d grown so used to it that he never noticed the major differences people had in clothing sometimes. Though, when he asked Yusero if people dressed vastly different, Yusero said that most people either wore intricate clothing, minimal clothing, or just walked around naked. Many “aliens” didn’t have much they wanted to hide and their cultures didn’t worry too much about exposing themselves, anyway.

            They arrived at one of the central plazas of the city. Kyle led him toward the center, where some statues stood. Yusero read up on them near the plaques while Kyle sat on a nearby bench, happy he could have a moment to breathe. It was crazy to think that just this morning he was dropping off Sandy at Magus Forest, and now he was here with some boy from the future.

            The two got lunch in the plaza as well. Kyle decided to pick the healthiest food he could, though there weren’t many options, since he didn’t want Yusero to contract some strange disease from the past that he wouldn’t be able to cure. Kyle almost asked if Yusero’s version of humanity had evolved beyond, or at least found a cure for, several diseases plaguing Earth in modern times, but once again the whole “don’t crush the space-time continuum even more” thing stopped him just short of it.

            Kyle was surprised by Yusero’s sense of wonderment, though. The break for lunch hardly slowed him down. He was still bouncing around the plaza—avoiding talking to anyone—but checking everything he could. Kyle almost wondered if he would need to put a leash around his foot in case he went too far. Kyle moved away from his bench and began to walk around as well, though didn’t care to look around the plaza. There wasn’t much to it. A few squares of plants, a tall tree standing behind a statue, and some plaques around the area. There was one other work of art being constructed closer to the street and Kyle had a good guess as to what it was. Yusero avoided it, though, as he remained inside the square.

            When he finally returned back to Kyle he really was acting like a little boy, asking if they could keep exploring. As if Kyle could say no?

            They left the plaza, which started to fill up as school began to let out early for the city kids, and headed south. Kyle recognized these buildings much more, since he had to maneuver through them during his fight with Alucard.

            “It’s nice to actually see what the architecture of this place is when you’re not flying through here at several dozen miles per hour,” Kyle said, peering up at one of the towers.

            “It helps,” Yusero said. “When I’m on my glider I’m really just focused on not crashing. We’re never allowed to bring ships this close to a metropolitan area unless it’s for landing, and even then they have towers much taller than these. Or they’ll be outside the city and we just take a transport in.”

            “Do you guys get a lot of, um, business in cities?”

            “Not really. Our leader is the daughter of a pretty influential councilwoman so that’s the only time we really come close. Or if a job requires it, but we’re so unpopular that we get most of the rural-types of jobs.”

            “Rural-types? Like farming?”

            “No, not like farming. I would say more along the lines of people who make the money for the cities.”

            Kyle shrugged. “Whatever, man. Sounds cool, though.”

            After that block they came across a couple of police officers shoving a man away from a building. The man was clean-looking, and wore nice, new clothing to match it.

            “So not much does change between now and my time,” Yusero said.

            “City violence?” asked Kyle.

            “At the most basic element, yes,” Yusero said. “But just fools acting like this in general. In seems every time I would go to a world with a large city such as this there were people always getting in trouble of some sort. They think themselves above the law.”

            Kyle coughed on accident. Yusero laughed.

            “You’re not necessarily above the law, though, are you?” asked Yusero. “There have always been legends about super-heroes, be them real or not, that describe heroes bringing the villains to justice to the best of their ability and most of the time they would just detain them. It’s what the law asks for.”
            “We just sort of bend the rules,” Kyle said.

            “Then I suppose vigilantes haven’t changed in their basic element,” Yusero said.

            The officers sped off in the opposite direction as them, keeping their sirens off but plugging up some of the traffic momentary. They stole no glances from anyone, though. If they weren’t supervillains, it might make some sense in a strange way. Yusero didn’t seem to care, though given that he was also a vigilante of sorts gave credence to the idea that he’d seen far worse than a petty thief.

            Yusero’s intrigue in the city did grow a little more as their walk around progressed. Kyle was mostly in it for a check-up, but was happy to answer any of Yusero’s questions about why the city was in its current state. Of course that meant explaining the battle with Alucard and revisiting that nightmare, but Yusero was pretty supportive about the entire situation.

            “I’m sure that Alucard, at his maximum power, would have had the ability to wipe out the entire city with his, um, magic,” Yusero said. “I’ve seen a similar power, but through the use of an entire machine, not a single being. The fact that you were able to salvage so much, and then get most of it back, is astounding. Technological gaps or not, this is impressive.”

            “Well I’m glad one of us sees it that way,” Kyle said. “Though all of this did me mean losing my powers for two weeks. Something you’re not that capable of.”

            “I gained my strength over several years of being unable to do anything. We all have to be patient.”

            Kyle almost threw the old “Rome wasn’t building a day” adage at Yusero but realized the inappropriateness and avoided it. Still, he had a point.

            “So you don’t have, like, cities that can repair any damage done to them instantly?” Kyle asked. It was a dumb question, but if people three thousand years in the past could dream it up in fiction there could still be a good chance of it coming true eventually. Plus that would be awesome.

            “A few,” Yusero said. “All of them under some sort of monarchy or dictatorship, and most of the repairs are due to self-inflicted wounds.”

            “Doesn’t make much sense but that’s pretty neat,” Kyle said.

            “Not all worlds are leaps and bounds ahead of where you are now,” Yusero said. “Dozens of planets I’ve visited are nowhere near where your Zanderia base is. The future and past are not very black and white. Overflow is expected, really.”

            “Just hopefully not that much.”

            “Or everything breaks and none of this really matters. Which, yeah, sucks.”

            Kyle couldn’t help but agree, and just nodded to show his agreement. They continued their walk, moving away from the structured part of town into the dingier parts that were actually flourishing in the wake of the destruction. After all, if something were taken down, someone had to build it back up. The shop doors were wide open and both people in suits and in normal clothing were there. Cars lined the streets, though most of them were parked either terribly or actually on the sidewalk.

            Of course, the clean-up hadn’t been great around these parts. Kyle remembered coming down these roads alone or with one other, someone like the Sentinel, to help out since everyone else was getting their focus on the big-wig areas, the ones that supposedly held the city together. Kyle smiled when he saw those same people crawling into the small-family mechanic shops.

            Yusero approached one of the fancy cars along the side of the road that was parked in such a way that it was going to make life difficult for those around it. He stroked the hood of it as he walked around to the other side, trying to peer into the windows.

            “What are these, leather seats?” asked Yusero. “Some sort of thin…alloy?”

            “I couldn’t tell you,” Kyle said. “I have no idea how cars work other than you put the key in the ignition and press the thin pedal for gas and thick one for brakes. And the radio.”

            “Seems very simple,” Yusero said. “But this one is much different than yours. Far more advanced. Relatively, of course.”

            “This is probably one of the best cars out there for the public,” Kyle said.

            “Doesn’t seem too complex,” Yusero said, crouching down and looking under the car. “In fact it’s very simple. I made one of these when I was just a kid…”

            Across the street something dropped and it echoed around the area. Kyle and Yusero both looked over. A car had dropped off and almost hit someone. Kyle and Yusero rushed over together to make sure nobody was hurt. The car was, though. On top of three damaged tires, the back-end was now dented severely. Not to mention that some other parts were dangling from below the car.

            “Everyone okay?” asked Kyle.

            “Yeah, we’re fine,” one of the mechanics said.

            “What’s wrong with it?” asked Yusero.

            A man in wearing glasses and gloves approached the two of them. He spat on the ground next to him. “Tough to say just one thing.”

            “Mind if I try and lend a hand?” asked Yusero. He grabbed a wrench on the toolbox next to him. Some of the other mechanics grumbled to themselves. Yusero looked around at them. “I can fix this in maybe ten minutes. I can see half of your problems right away, and they’ll be an easy fix if you have the proper parts.”

            The head mechanic looked around the shop to his other works. They all shrugged. “Alright, I guess we can see what you can do for right now,” the head mechanic said. “Where do you wanna start?”

            Kyle leaned against the wall and checked the time on his phone, just to see if Yusero really could get this done in under ten minutes.

            He did. And then some.

            Kyle moved around some for the next hour but not a whole lot. For the most part he was just against the wall, watching as Yusero plowed through the work that the mechanics were feeding him. Each new part came with a new set of instructions Yusero would give the mechanics. The head mechanic was the only one that was somewhat capable of keeping up.

            Sometimes he would catch himself about to say something about his time with the guild or about some piece of tech that no longer existed. He grew frustrated partway through since the technology was not nearly as close with these vehicles, nice as they were, to his own low-tier vehicles. There were much easier solutions, and though he was smart, he had to try and improvise sometimes.

            Yusero, it was clear to Kyle, was trying to put on an act. There was no bluff that the mechanics could call on him, but he didn’t want to falter for them. Kyle cringed a little watching them all work. What couldn’t Yusero do, and what wouldn’t he gloat about? At least try and teach them how things worked. Instead he just fixed the problems and set it to the side, leaving the mechanics with a solution but no answers.

            Sometimes he would look at Kyle and Kyle had no idea if it was for help or just to make sure that Kyle hadn’t left yet. Kyle felt some inclination to go in and help if only to get the mechanics to do their job, but the head mechanic put them to work making sure the fixed cars did in fact work and to run around the shop grabbing Yusero the necessary gear and parts. Kyle watched them all work around each other, but eventually there became a nice cadence to it like a dance. The head mechanic shouted one thing and the four workers were all on it while Yusero worked in and around the cars.

            Yusero wiped a black streak onto his forehead. He sighed, though he wasn’t sweating. He did roll the sleeves up on Kyle’s shirt that was now ruined. Hey, at least now Yusero had a souvenir to wear back to the future.

            The head mechanic look around the shop and the parking lot in front at the cars that were in working condition again.

            “You just put me ahead of work by, like, two days,” the head mechanic said. “How’d you know all that?”

            “I’m good with these things,” Yusero said. “It’s something I do a lot of back at home, and my…guardians…taught it to me.”

            “Oh, well, here, I’ll be right back to compensate you for your help.”

            Yusero held his hands up. “Oh, no, please. I don’t want your money, I just wanted to help out is all.”

            The head mechanic softened up. “Alright, kid. Thanks again your all your help, I don’t think I can express how much this helped me.”

            “There’s no need,” Yusero said, walking toward Kyle.

            “See you guys,” Kyle called back into the shop.

            The guys all waved back to the two boys. Yusero wiped his brow, only smearing the black mark on his forehead. Kyle chuckled.

            “Usually I get much dirtier on jobs like this,” Yusero said.

            “You work on cars in the future, too?” asked Kyle.

            They hung a right, headed back toward the garage. Yusero probably got enough out of the walk, plus now he needed a shower. Probably could’ve used one when he arrived, but oh well.

            “Not cars,” Yusero said. “Ships and spacecraft much bigger, and dangerous, than that thing. Knock a fusion core out the wrong way and there goes everything. Those things just had a ton of gasoline and oil in them. Seems disgusting and dirty.”

            “Well I don’t think those will kill you as fast as a fusion core might,” Kyle said. “Though those do sound cleaner.”

            “I wish. Ships get enough dust to fill that room up just leaving or entering an atmosphere,” Yusero said. “And since I’m the only mechanic for my guild group, guess who the lucky guy is to get in there and clean it all out?”

            “If you’re the only mechanic then did your ‘guardians’ teach you?” asked Kyle, putting air quotes around ‘guardians,’ given how fake Yusero made them sound with the mechanics.

            “Yeah, but, they’re in another part of the guild,” Yusero said. “Some of its leading members, actually. Once they got me on that path it was basically like destiny. Though they also did teach me how to swordfight.”

            “And acrobatics?” asked Kyle.

            “Acro-what?” 

            “Fancy spinning moves and stuff like that,” Kyle said. “Like how you can do flips in the air and land just fine?” His face went red. Great definition for acrobatics, Kyle.

            “Oh. Oh, no, I think I just sort of learned those moves watching everyone else,” Yusero said. “But the basics I learned from them.”

            “My God, what can’t you do?” asked Kyle. He laughed, but Yusero’s face dropped for a moment before he smiled back.

            “You’d think, for someone that fixes a ship well, that they’d be able to fly well,” Yusero said. “Or for the best swordsman, you’d think they can teach it back.”

            Kyle nodded at him. “The best, huh? I bet I could take you.”

            Yusero’s hand twitched. “An open challenge? Just like that?”

            “If you stick around long enough? Sure. I wanna see just how much better the future’s swordfighters are compared to some of the guys I’ve seen now.”

            “A good point. Alright, it’s a duel when we can, then.”

            The two laughed off the challenge, but a small part of Kyle did want to fight Yusero and see just how fast and strong he was without any apparent powers.

            They reached the garage in no time, since Yusero was back to his normal walking pace. He took over most of the conversation on the way back as he discussed some of the sword training he had to go through. It sounded pretty light given how easily Yusero fought. Then Yusero mentioned most of this stuff he learned at the tender age of seven Mars-years, and has been improving on it all since them. So, really, much younger than seven and the learning has come mostly through experience.

            Kyle could attest to that. Phoenix and Brian, as Hood Nexus, taught him several hand-to-hand techniques but most of what he could do now was because of application in the field. It was the fastest, and probably, best way to learn for either of them.

            Yusero seemed to notice more of the distinguishable features on cars, walking around them like a kid in a videogame store. He almost laid his hands on a few, but enough sensitive alarms went off for him to stop doing that and for the boys to walk faster than they already were.

            Kyle left the garage pretty quickly because of that, and was surprised about it, too. There really were very few people out and about now that he was noticing it. Did it have anything to do with the construction that was still keeping people away? Perhaps jobs had been outsourced to other areas and wouldn’t be back for a while.

            Traffic leaving the city seemed to be just as bad as normal. Roads weren’t under as much construction, since they were the top priority and didn’t have much work that needed done on them anyway.

            “So do you guys have traffic or something like this?” asked Kyle.

            Yusero rolled down the window and let his hand out. “It’s more of a human traffic. Not like that, but, at various ports things can stall like this. We don’t have streams of ships like this, though, and enough people know how to get around and know how dangerous our vehicles are to not hold anyone up.”

            “I doubt it’s because of some idiot that we’ve slowed up,” Kyle said, trying to look further ahead. They were moving, but at a snail’s pace.       

            “It picks up ahead,” Yusero said as he poked his head out the window. He slid back in all the way. “Though I do suppose sometimes we have to wait in port a while a much larger ship takes off. Those things take a long time to get going.”

            “That doesn’t sound very efficient,” Kyle said. “But, like you said, it’s probably better than ramming into one leaving the atmosphere.”

            “We have people who regulate traffic is what helps a lot,” Yusero said. “I noticed at the intersections that you have lights for that. Why not have someone there to make the judgments that a machine can’t?”

            “Some places do that, but the problem is that some people don’t realize how dangerous a car can be for others, so they’ll just run right through the traffic director,” Kyle said. “Or they’re drunk and can’t tell left from right.”

            “I suppose that’s where something like autopilot can come in handy,” Yusero said. “And much more room to fly. Er, in this case, drive.”

            “Probably,” Kyle said. He planted his toe on the gas pedal and they sped forward, zooming past a car with a similar make to Kyle’s that was on the side of the road and dented.

            “What hit them?” asked Kyle. “There’s no other car there.”

            “And no marks of another vehicle,” Yusero said.

            They kept on driving down the straight highway until they got to a bridge. Kyle slowed down up the ramp. Yusero looked out the window again. He pointed ahead and Kyle shivered. There was another car of similar make to Kyle’s parked on the side of the bridge, dented just as the one before it.

            “One’s a coincidence,” Yusero said. “But another?”

            “Two’s a method,” Kyle said. “I suspect someone is either looking for someone or just has a serious disdain for cars like mine.”

            Yusero laughed. “Maybe even both.”

            Kyle let moved his foot off the gas and onto the brake as they sloped down the tall bridge, headed for another long straightaway of road surrounded by nothing.

            One of the cars ahead of him slowed. Kyle pumped the brake until something landed on top of his car. He hit the brake harder and a woman lurched off of the car. Someone else dropped in front of him, getting ready to shoulder him. Yusero flung the door open as Kyle swerved to the side, lurching out of the car and hitting the big guy away.

            The tire’s screeched and Kyle almost lost control. He spun onto the bridge’s shoulder. Everything around him stopped for a second before someone zipped in front of him and he was out of his car in a matter of seconds, standing dazed.

            He saw another woman land near him, with some frost spewing from her body, until the zip came back and delivered and uppercut to his jaw. Kyle flipped into the air, and realized that wasn’t touching the ground anytime soon. He looked down at the road below him.

            “Oh, come on!” he shouted.

            Kyle tucked into a ball and swiped his fingers across the Nexus bracelet. The blue light flashed and he managed to catch himself in the air.

            “Ah, so we were right all along,” someone said above him. “You are the Blue Nexus!”

            An ice fist swooped down and punched Kyle clean through the bridge, right into a solid mass of man behind him. The speedster reappeared in front of him, said something very fast, and punched him in the chest. Kyle lost his breath and tumbled down the bridge, bouncing off of stopped cars.

            He managed to get back up only to be knocked in the side of the head by the speedster again. He swayed once, then fell forward into the black.

            Yusero ducked under a punch and kneed the giant man in the gut. He grunted, giving Yusero enough time to leap up and kick him in the side of the head. His swords were out in his hands instantly when he heard something coming his way, and he managed to catch the foot of someone running at super speed.

            A chill ran down his spine. Yusero swung and blocked the ice beam coming at him but knew he couldn’t avoid the wave of fire that would follow it. He leapt back into a wall of the road, somehow just there. He cut clean through it but was grabbed by the giant man and thrown away, toward an unconscious Kyle.

            Yusero flipped and bounced off the front top—or the hood as the mechanic called it—to try and catch himself. Something burrowed toward him and he braced himself, only for it to be nothing. He still didn’t leave his guard down, and properly so. A stream of fire erupted from it. Yusero moved away and managed to get Kyle out of the way as well, only to be hit across the face by the speedster.

            He landed on his front side in the middle of road, on the median as Kyle called it. He stabbed one of his swords into the ground to help pick himself back up.

            The four combatants all appeared in front of them, each of them grinning from ear to ear. A fifth appeared from nowhere, somehow managing to fade into reality with no trouble. He wasn’t grinning, but looked rather serious.

            “The last time I encountered super beings they were far kinder to me than you’re being,” Yusero said. He fell into his fighting stance, gripping his swords tighter. “What do you want with me?”

            “The same as the Zanderia,” the one-invisible man said. “We just want you.”

            “No, the Zanderia want to bring me home,” Yusero said.

            “Then we’re close,” the man, probably the leader, said. “We want to bring you in. You don’t belong here, Yusero. That’s why we, Delta Squad, are here. We’re going to bring you in and ensure that you can do no further harm to time, and reality, as we know it.”

Next time: The Delta Squad has arrived on the scene and have already shown they can do some serious damage. Yusero's going to have to rely on his own future techniques to survive...right? Find out in "Blue Nexus #46 - Delta Squad"!