Broken Hourglass (Sanscest Multiship)

Chapter 13 - Helping Hands

The cell door slid open with a rattling sound as the officer stared directly at him. "Your ride is here. Try to stay out of trouble this time."

She meant well, but it wasn't ever going to make a difference.

Fell avoided the cop's gaze while passing her, instead staring at the floor. He said nothing the whole way up to the front door. Having walked that route so many times before, he barely needed to look up. Fell could be considered a troubled teen and waiting with his arms crossed and an annoyed expression was the reason for his problems, his brother, Edge. All of the team just had terrible families apparently.

No words were exchanged as they walked out of the station and headed down the familiar path home.

Fell started counting, 3, 2, 1. He braced and right on time, whack. Edge smacked him upside the head, hard.

"What the fuck is your problem? You're just lucky you kept your damn mouth shut. Stop being so difficult," his brother chastised him.

This speech didn't bother Fell anymore, so he simply replied with "Whatever"

Did that go over well? No, it absolutely did not, but if you're gonna get punished either way, may as well say whatever you feel like .
—
Fell pulled the sword out of the water bath, staring down the blade edge, searching for any imperfections. Deeming it satisfactory, the blacksmith set it aside to complete later.

"Hello?," someone called into the forge.

Since Fell had a moment, he went to go see what they wanted. He was quite surprised to see a familiar face.

"Haven't seen you in a while," Fell commented.

"I need your help again," Classic said. His usual outfit was replaced with something a bit more appropriate for the time, including getting rid of those stupid slippers. Fell hated those slippers with a passion.

The first time Fell met Classic was when he was lost. It was very sudden, Fell was going about his day, when the scenery went fuzzy and then completely changed. Now dazed and nearly falling over, he wondered what the fuck was going on.

After a bit of sitting down to recover from that sudden dizziness, Fell was approached by a stranger.

"Hey, buddy. You're looking a little confused. You from around here?," the stranger asked.

"I'm not quite sure where here is," Fell admitted.

"That's alright. I'm Classic by the way." He was very friendly and put Fell at ease somehow.

The blacksmith turned his attention back to the present. "What's it this time? Someone around here?"

"Two field agents went missing while on a mission. It's not usually something I would take, but it was a request from a friend and with the situation right now, there isn't anyone else to spare. All three divisions are totally busy trying to keep the timeline from diverting completely."

"Got any more information on 'em?"

"They were leading a team of new recruits with some impressive abilities to try and turn this in our favor, so we need to find them fast," Classic seemed to be done, but then he continued. "Oh, and the leadership doesn't want anyone to know about this. Technically I'm not supposed to be getting involved, but..."

Seems about right. How Classic knew all this supposedly restricted knowledge, Fell didn't know, but he had a few guesses. In the years he'd known the time traveler, the blacksmith had figured out that Classic always had a way around any rule he didn't like.

"Don't worry, I've still got the stuff you gave me," Fell said while pulling out a hammer from his smock. The biorod immediately changed to it's weapon form, a war hammer, before quickly reverting. "It's been very useful around here."