As an audible yawn could be heard in the background of muzzling engines of a makeshift buggy, a lass pops out from her back-seat cat nap.

With a well-rested look and an exciting stretch, she smiles gladly to be living another day in this abomination of a wasteland.

Pulling down her yellowish hood and earphones from her, she rubs her eye with her right hand as hard as she could like a massage but for the eyes.

Looking left and right through the small slits of the scrap welded bulletproof shades, the environment was overall dark as the starlights and the moon glows in a basking ray.

Reflecting off an oasis, the moon's light shone into the lass's eyes as she pushes her sight towards the front. Noticing an ever concentrating Miss Leutenegger driving quickly in some coordinated direction, Mr NZ however decided to lay low and take his nightly rest.

"Miss Mary, put your head back, just in case we hit a ditch, can't let sand in your eyes", Leutenegger whispered into her ear as she continues watching the front, driving through a Rocky Road of a tar applied driveway.

"Are we going to take a rest nearby?" Mary asks as she makes herself comfortable at the back and sips her remaining water in her leather flask.

Shaking her head slowly, she blinks twice before slowly opening her mouth. "No, we're not. It's close to dawn already and we are close enough to the mainland, we just have to be careful of bandits and other dangerous beings."

"Dawn? Did I sleep the entire journey after leaving the town?" Mary asks with a surprised yet muffled tone.

"No, not really," Leutenegger answers as she slowly slows her car to a minimum speed, driving forwards through a very quiet and secluded ghost town, which had rummaged and broken downtown shops and other collapsed buildings.

"It's just that we drove to another area of time, doused by the oils and gases of time and space. Look at your surroundings, this is history, Miss Mary."

As the car was slowly driving through the rubble, she gestured her hand towards the small beamed light that showcased shiny shards of glass from broken windowpane and rust and metal scraps spewed all about.

"Oh my goodness, everything looks...different. Nothing like the videos I saw of the past." Mary mutters softly as she watches a broken down makeshift wooden gate of sorts as the moon slowly lowered to its rest.

The sun slowly blaring its heat from the bottom of a few hills, the mixture .of indigo and reddish-yellow mixed together.

Stopping the buggy by other broken down vehicles and other sheets of metal to blend-in, Leutenegger prepares her handgun and her guardian whip, placing it on her hip as she removes her safety belt. "We're here... " she says.

"Huh, where? I only see pikes and other scraps everywhere." Mary replies as she watches Leutenegger holster her weapon under her coat. "Hey....wait."

Removing her safety belt too, she shuffles on her slip-in shoes before pulling her rucksack and pulling the lever of the door open.

"Are we just leaving NZ here? He could get attacked." Mary whispers to her. as she summons out her guardian's USP of a handgun.

"It will be fast, keep watch out here, I will just enter this building and activate a mechanism, just keep a lookout for bandits," Leutenegger warns before cocking her handgun and entering a chained up and multiple barricaded mirror shop.

Shuffling through a set of keys from her pockets, she picks a few before inserting and twisting the locks open one by one.

As the padlocks released and dropped onto the floor, audible sounds of metallic clanks echoed throughout the area, alerting nearby residents if they were nearby.

Twisting the doorknob, she pushes it open with a little pressure as sawdust flew with the morning breeze.

Coughing a few times, she swipes the dust away as she enters the building, turning on the handheld flashlight connected to her handgun as she rummaged through random objects.

Mary was measuring her height through a small piece of rock as she sticks herself to a pole of a beam that was somehow still standing.

Etching a crooked line on it, she turns and looks at it with the curious inspection.

"Hmm, two inches extra, I suppose." She replies to herself as she holds on to her handgun with her other free hand.

Cocking it, she looks around the place, taking close imaginary zooms and watching the environment surrounding her, mostly consisting of various metals, wood and white materials similar to paper.

Wiping her finger on a rusty scrap of metal, she smirks at it as she blows a speck of dust that rested on her finger.

Being very curious with her mind, she once again made herself a rather vulnerable person. Without guidance from NZ or her elders, her curiosity will engulf her as always even though considering her rather mature age.

Even withholding her brand new upgrade of a gun, does not showcase her skills as a professional marksman and hunter which she is commonly known through allied tribes and by her family with that sort of behaviour, behind her back.

"Hmm, I shouldn't venture far off." She tells herself as she walks back to the building and parked a buggy of a car that awaited its owner's return.

Waltzing herself through a few alleyways, she felt a rush of wind hitting her from a certain direction. Feeling of unknown caution, she takes a glance at it, the only to see a shadow of a creature passing by into the dark areas of the back way.

("Oh crap, we're being watched.") Keeping her calm, she walks faster towards the car as she felt as something was reaching her towards the back of the neck.

Fully aware, she starts sprinting towards the vehicle as Leutenegger pops out of the building's door as the sound of a rusty creak could be heard as the car started lowering to some sort of compartment.

Noticing, Mary running out of thin air, she prepares her handgun as she grabs onto the hood of Mary as she takes a shot of the being that was following her.

With the sound of whimpers, Mary turns around and looks down to see a dead beast similar to a dog. "A dog..? That's it."

Sighing, she makes a grin towards Miss Leutenegger who holds her palm towards her face in embarrassment. "You seriously had to run from an attack dog, huh. Good job though because you awoke the others."

As sounds of rustling could be heard, a ricochet of a bullet hits the side of Mary's standing spot as it made a loud and painful ping sound.

"Oh shit, bandits!" She shouts suddenly as she holds the handgun and follows Miss Leutenegger who dived under an old sandbag barricade. "Goodness sakes, I am sorry."

"No time to be sorry, use whatever you have on you and try to fight against them," Leutenegger grunts at her as she cocks her gun once more to properly make sure it's filled.

Putting her hand over the barricade and with careful arm aim and recoil holdings, she taps her trigger a few times as an audible scream could be heard.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Returning of fire, a bag held onto a shot as specks of sand puffed out of a bag and smacks Mary's face.

"Ughh...." she replies as she spits the small bits of sand out of her mouth before using her handgun and shooting it randomly.

As the firearm's ammo is unlimited due to the maintenance of a guardian at a hold of its care, Mary knew she wasn't shooting in her true and calming state. In the sudden change of environment of sniping animals from quiet and calm lands became ferocious to her as they ventured into the unknown urban environments.

"Come on, concentrate!" Leutenegger shouts at her as she grips her whip and forms an auric shield around her.

Hoisting herself over the bags, she unleashes beams of plasma through the slashes of her whiplash, one by one she takes random snaps, the beams hit here and there in a gyro but counter-clockwise direction.

Distracting the attack dogs that we're trying to surround and pounce on Leutenegger, she disciplines them with thorough painful shots and slashes of her whip. "Kommer her hund....!" She shouts at the dogs as they started negating in numbers one by one quickly.

With no way to copulate and make more numbers, by reducing their current numbers, is all for the better.

One of the bandits started shouting angrily as she kicks open a scrap metal door as a sound of metal rubbing on fibre could be heard.

"Who the fuck is killing me dogs!?" She shouts angrily as she cranks some sort of metal pipe onto a launcher of sorts as it shot sharp metal shards and other junk towards Leutenegger.

"Fuck sakes, here come Big Momma! She's bad mad girls, scatter!" One of the bandits squealed like a piglet as she jumps through a sewer hole for shelter.

As the specks of junk and unknown material hit Leutenegger, she just smirks and stares into the idiotic psychopath who was only doing null towards her due to the auric shield.

"Is that all you got?" Leutenegger asks sarcastically as she twirls her whips and latches a hook onto the so-called Big Momma.

"What the!? This is sorcery! " The leader of the bandits shouted in her bellowing roar as she pulls the whip, causing Leutenegger to stagger a little.

"...." Leutenegger sighs as she unleashes her guardian's aura attack onto the person, causing her limb to cut off like magic.

Confused, the leader looks at her cut arm for a few seconds before feeling the rush of pain reaching her limbs. "Ahhhh! What the fuck!" She shouts and holds herself to number the pain.

"How many years, has this person existed? They are as dumb as rocks." Mary whispers as she hides behind her barricade.

Turning herself to the lowering buggy, she crawls towards it to wake up NZ and pull out her hunting rifle.

"Hey, Lookey..." One of the bandits under the sewer points to her partner as she sees a crawling yellow piece of latex for clothing slowly crawling towards the opposite direction of hers.

"Oooh, the lady brought friends, ye, yeah?" The partner replied as she slowly pushes herself out of the hole and sneaks towards the busy Mary who was pulling out her gun from the back as she made whispers to NZ.

"Hey, NZ. Wake up...we need your help, NZ." She called out over and over again a few times.

Leutenegger fighting off and pushing the defence, she managed to kill off most of the bandits that were disrupting the peace as they lay on the ground motionless, spewing blood here and there.

Having no useful items to be taken, Leutenegger sighs as she slams the door of a room and walks back to the building.

Holding onto the mouth of Mary, the bandit made a whisper towards Mary as she holds a danger of sorts onto her neck. "Shh, You follow us, ey. Silently."

As Mary murmurs over and over loudly, she was slowly dragged back towards the sewer.

NZ who was fake sleeping the entire time pushes himself off the car window and summons Sae-Yong's blade, now enhanced by the rage blade of the Elder Shimaya.

His eyes glowing in a mixture of pink and purple, a blossoming aura shuddered Leutenneger who was nearby as he slips himself into the sewer.

With loud and painful screams coming from the drain wells, Leutenegger watched as a light show of purple and pink were forming from the small slits of the sewers.

"What in the?" She mutters to herself as a manhole was slowly pushed aside open.

Holding her gun towards it as preparation, She noticed a bloody hand grab onto the pavement as out came NZ with a rather angry expression as he smelled of moulded off food and a mixture of rusted iron and steel.

His eyes returning to normal, he gives a soft sigh and an inhale of oxygen before he pulls out a small flask from his vest pocket and sips some sort of pungent liquid, alcohol?

After he finished sipping, he closes the cap of it and pushes it back into his pocket before squatting down and lending a hand towards a person from under the sewers.

Out came Mary, who was slightly in shock yet still gave a smile for some unknown reason. Her other hand occupied, she carried out a small figure which looked to be an injured kitten.

"Oh, Katze..." Leutenegger calls out before sniffling her nose.

"Yep, it was being cared for by one of the bandits but it seems not to be cared for properly, it looks as if it was bullied by the attack dogs," Mary replies as she pushed the kitten who was meowing constantly in pain.

"There, there, don't worry. We will find your mother soon. If she is still alive." She whispers into her ear as she stands straight from her pull.

The kitten reaching onto the cheeks of Mary licked the blood that was staying on as if thirsty.

"I don't recommend pets but oh well, I guess it's better to keep away from extinction," NZ replies as he rubs his coat clean with a dirty page of a magazine, removing the bloody contents from his face and body overall. "Bloody hell, All thee blood will just make it sticky later."

"No worries, NZ. A little detergent can help scrub it off neatly." Mary replies as she slowly rubs the kitten's head before walking down a staircase that appeared together with the compartment.

"Anyway, this is the base, you were talking about, right NZ?" Mary asks as she flips on a switch, lighting a few bulbs.

"Indeed, it is." He replies. "I didn't imagine bandits to be living so close to it without trying to break it off one bit."

"I mean, they are probably dysfunctional clones rather than people as their body was rather deformed and well, dumb," Leutenegger replies as she keeps up with them before swiping a card onto an ID reader.

With an audible beeping, they were then entering a bunker of sorts which consisted of a few survivors in rags for clothes as a few robots and guardians interacted or took care of them if they were elder or sickly.

"Welcome to Continuum-Now," Leutenegger calls out to the two as she points towards the area.

"What the...." Amazed by its interior so clean and sleek, NZ looks around with a pleasant smile. "Been so long since I came here, it looks so different, filled with furniture and other stuff." He then points to a guardian that looked similar to an elf who was dressed in a rather tight yet thickly furred nurse outfit.

"We have a beautiful bod' here too." He complimented the guardian as he grins. The guardian confused yet a little glad of the compliment laughs softly alongside the elder lady she was treating.

"Miss, I don't recommend disturbing our medical responders while they on du-, Oh NZ." A lady in a white uniform came out as she waltzes to him and smacks him at the back with a metallic arm.

"Ow, goddamit." He shouts as he feels the pain rubbing around his back.

"Hey, Miss." The lass waves to Leutenegger as she noticed Mary holding upon a kitten. "Oh, that cat is injured. Quite a last of the few survivors of this feline variation, May I?"

Mary nodding, she hands the kitten towards the unknown lady as she rubs the kitten and rubs some strange glowing blue ointment onto the injuries of the kitten.

"So, General Leutenegger, what brings you here after so many years?" The lass asked as she adjusted her goggles and screws her bionic arm with a small Phillip screwdriver.

Clearing her throat, Leutenegger changes her personality back to her usual strick self as she looks at the lass. "Well, Will and his, well apprentice here are willing to cooperate to save us from this wasteland."

"Oh, that gal. Curious bit she is and a pretty one too." The lass says as she watches Mary who was talking to a few cloned kids who were playing with a Stage Two Guardian. "What, she owns a Guardian for sure, hmm don't tell me, let me guess."

After some time of tinkering with her neural transmitter screwed into her neck, the lass smiles and gives her reply. "She can fully grow nature everywhere, right? Like global flora and fauna."

Leutenegger sighs before licking her lips to moisten them. "With all those modifications, that's your guess?"

"Sorry, I got no clue. A little buggy of the chip, mate." The lass replied as she chuckled with pride.

"She has the Guardian of Time itself, one of the New Elders. Remember? I thought she was dead because of the vanquishing of the Bio-mother, but apparently, she still holds a shard of it which is still activated." Leutenegger explains softly towards the lass as she gestures NZ to stop bothering the elderly and come to her.

"No way, really?" Exasperated, the lass removes her goggles with a surprised look. "Id'dreek herself, still alive. Holy shite, and I thought I was crazy when I felt strange aura signals from 'The Map'."

"What's the map?" Mary asks as she heads towards the others with curiosity.

"The Map is well a mechanical map which reveals locations of certain signals emitted from, anything. We mostly use it to recover radiation holds and also Guardians or People who need help through excess aura energy." The lass replies as she puts on her goggles once more, covering her mechanical side of her face hidden.

"Ahh, then what about people with no aura?" Mary asks.

"If there's no aura, their not human nor guardian then. They would probably be one of those Infecteds if you heard of them." The lass replied. "Nice to meet you, by the way, I am Dr Faltina, what's yours?"

Shaking the metallic arm of the doctor, Mary smiles and answers back. "Once to met you, Doctor, I know a little about you from NZ, I am Mary. Mary Walter."

"Ohoho, A Walter. Amazing, a daughter of one of our prestigious soldiers and also a descendant of gun makers, impressive." Dr Faltine cheers in excitement as she gleefully returns a smile. "Not only that, a holder of Id'dreek, splendid. Been a while since I saw or spoke with that curious bit."

"You know Id'dreek?" Mary asks as she holds onto her necklace.

"Yep, one of the New Elders of the Guardians and perhaps one of the strongest, weapon-based guardian in a form of a simple watch or well, gun, etc. She doesn't have a single form, after all." Dr Faltina explains.

NZ and Leutenegger out of the picture, they purposely cleared their throats to stop the curious ladies to be exchanging information for long periods, which cannot be spared due to ample time.

"My, my. Sorry there. Didn't mean to be much of a humbug, so you guys are here because of her, yes?" Doctor Faltina asks as her mechanical arm started faltering once more.

Screwing it back, she looks at them. "Yeah or Nay?"

"Fix your body first then we chat, look at the coolant that's dripping all over as it mixes in with your blood," Leutenegger calls out as she looks at the clean floor now being dirtied by the strange liquid.

Finished fixing it, Leutenegger nods and replies to her answer. "Yeah, we're here so the Elders can exchange their knowledge onto Mary about how Id'dreek works with her complicated abilities. Both new and old by the way." She eyes NZ who was raising his eyebrow in a confused manner.

"What?" NZ shrugs and asks, a little annoyed. "Oh, ok."

Understanding what she meant, he then opens a portal with Sae-yongs crystal and enters it. The portal disappears after he enters.

"Well, that out of the way. We will also try to make her learn Id'dreek's Time Revival and Time Reversal to manipulate the way Earth works currently." Leutenegger proposes a plan.

"You mad, General? That will take some time. Yeah, it managed the first time when The Infecteds started existing but look at the place now, its a mess." Doctor Faltina replies as she steps back and made a confused gesture with a wave of arms.

"Time powers?" Mary asks, a little surprised. "That's what you want me to do? Reverse the Earth back to its old self?"

"Well, that's what General is proposing but this is insane. This is a hard ability to do and it depends on the mental health of the user and the Guardian itself or else, Kaboom!" Looking left and right, she grins apologetically for startling the surviving civilians.

Whispering she looks closely at Mary and General Leutenegger. "Kaboom... Everyone will cease to exist."

"That's why we will let the New and Old Elders teach her the ways of using extreme abilities and maintaining her calm. She's quite a hunter, she has good posture and breathing patterns. Not only that, but Will taught her how to do more destructive and creative in ways to distract or overpower an opponent."

Leutenegger replies as she rubs the head of Mary, a little ticklish, she started giggling softly.

"I see. I suppose that could work out fine then..." As Doctor Faltina turns her head to a sort of beeping in her ear, she replies to it with some positive hums and grunts. "Yeah, yeah...Alright, then."

"What is it?" Leutenegger asks. "Is it the Elders?"

"Yeah, and they felt the presence of the Elder Shimaya and Elder Id'dreek too, so they want both the users and contracted guardians to summon themselves." The doctor replies with a confident nod.

"Well, Miss Mary, you are summoned by our superiors both human and not, respect the invitation and also give your best in answering their questions if they deem it, aye?"

Mary nodding back, making an audible "Hmmph.." as a blue portal appears beside Doctor Faltina, a hand reaching towards Mary to step in."

Reaching for the hand, Mary waves towards the children and the others before entering the strange twirling clouds of neon blue and sky blue.