The Times Are A Changing (Archer Roland and Winter)

"Where the hell am I?" The small asian wondered to herself as she observed the area around her in close detail. The machine she arrived in opened up and she dropped out of it. Her legs felt like jello, and her head was spinning. The monitor on the time machine read that she had missed her target date by 40 years. "Of course." Winter thought kicking the busted pieces of metal. It appeared she had landed in the crater left of Central Park. It was nothing like the beautiful New York she remembered. Well, before The Tyrant attacked. This place was completely alien to Ryoza Fokukama. There were no screams for help, no scent of burning flesh in the air. It was all so peaceful. She had only wished her family could see such a place.

As she made her way out of the crater, the local police had shown up.
"Turn around slowly, put your hands up, and freeze!" One of the officers shouted from behind the cover of his car. With her back to the boys in blue, she created a mask of ice to cover her face, and slowly turned around with her arms in the air.
"Poor choice of words." Winter replied as she completely frosted the area around them over.
The paved streets had become a winter wonderland, and she felt she had the advantage.
Creating a bull stampede of ice, she sent it charging at the Crown Victorias in front of her. The officers dodged and their cars were smashed into pieces by her powerful attack.

Once their attention was lost, she created a giant wall of ice and took her leave. Flying as fast as she could away she seemed to have escaped the police. Suddenly the pain in her body was overwhelming as was sent hurdling to the ground. Looking up there was a man with a camera in his hands that resembled her biological Grandfather Archer Roland.
"Is that?" before she could finish her sentence she passed out on the pavement.
Her only hope to escape the pursuing officers was this man, but would he be willing to help?

New York had fallen a long way from its heyday, which had not been that long ago, all things considered. People busied themselves as they continued to clean the seemingly never ending pile of rubble that had once been their home. Archer Roland snapped picture after picture of the people still working. It was for some fluff piece that was about the recreation of the once great city, even being published by one of the news companies that had lost almost everything in the ‘war’ that had ravaged the land. In the end, Archer did not mind the job, even though he was doing it for free, his way of giving back to the city maybe. It was something that he had to do.

It still managed to be somewhat uplifting that people were willing to put their differences aside, most of them at least, in order to do what they felt had to be done. Although, everything was far from perfect as several gunshots rang out in the darkness. Archer simply ignored them all together. It would be close to impossible for him to find the source of the sound and then do much more then be shot himself if he tried to do anything. There were a lot of new ‘superheroes’ in the area given the recent events though so he did not give the topic very much thought. With that he turned and began to leave, heading for his hotel room.

“Can you spare any change, mister?” Came a voice from his left. Looking for the origin, Archer saw the shivering form of a small boy. The boy’s clothing was tattered and reeked to high heaven. This was no surprise. In situations where mass chaos broke out there were bound to be those either lost in it all or orphaned along the way. It was hard to say which this boy was.

“You take this and you head to the closest soup kitchen and eat something. You’re practically skin and bones,” Archer said as he handed the boy a fifty dollar bill. “And, you be sure to keep that out of sight. People nowadays are just as likely to rob you as help you,” He warned in the most serious tone he could muster. When the boy saw what he had been given he smiled wide and sprang up, most likely using what little strength he still had to do so, and ran in the direction that hopefully had been advised. Archer just chuckled as he continued on his own way in the opposite direction. He hoped the kid would be alright.

It was right around the time that Archer had been going past the park when he noticed something very unusual. An object, looked to be a spacecraft of some sort, broke through the sky at a disturbing angle and heading straight for the ground. Grabbing his camera, so to make sure it did not bump around or get damaged, the photographer raced in that direction. This could be the photo he had been waiting for or possibly even the being that would end him once and for all. Either way, he knew he had to get there before the police. Jumping the few remaining rails and watching his footing over the still upended footpaths, he rounded the corner just in time to see the explosion of ice and what appeared to be an Asian woman running from the scene. “Bliss? Is that you?” Archer called after the woman but it would seem the chaos had drowned him out.

Tailing her was easier said than done but it did not taking long for Archer to catch up to the woman. To his surprise it had not been his friend, although he still was not completely sure if she could even be called that. The woman on the ground seemed to be going in and out of consciousness which could rarely be considered a good thing and she was mumbling something but he could not tell what it was she was saying. “Hey, save your energy. Okay? I’ll take care of you,” Archer said as he hoisted her over his shoulder and began to take her back to his hotel as quickly as he could, without attracting anymore attention then he had to.

It had taken some doing but they had finally made it back to the hotel, only running into one awkward conversation fortunately. The room was small; containing only a nightstand, Styrofoam cooler, queen sized bed, sink, broken coffee maker and a small, dirty bathroom. He flopped her onto the bed as gently as he could handle but there was no telling if she were awake or not. Moving to the cooler in the corner of the room, the savior of small Asian girls everywhere pulled out a tall glass bottle filled with a clear liquid and began to take the occasional swig, eventually filling into a decent rhythm. In his haste to drink he had neglected cleaning the various other bottles and cans that littered the floor, the empty pill bottles by the sink, or even the clean pair of safety scissors by the toilet that he had used just the other night in an attempt to kill himself. All he could do is wait for the girl to either wake up or get up and so he did just that.

Waking up from her short nap, Ryoza found herself inside a strange room. She took a second to gather her thoughts and sat up. To her pleasure it turned out to in fact be Archer. A smile formed across her face and her shiny eyes widened. "It is you!" She jumped up off the bed and threw her arms around her grandfather.
"You saved me!" after planting a kiss in the mans cheek she took a step back and sat back down on the bed.
"You look confused. I should probably explain. My name's Ryoza Fokukama. I come from 60 years in the future and you're my biological grandfather. Judging by my last name Im sure you can tell who my grandma is. Anyways, I'm not just visiting. Something terrible happens in the future and I came back to make sure it never happens."

Taking a second to let Archer take this all in, she continued her history lesson on the future.
"The hero Phoenix, who saved the world from that Holocaust guy? In the future his grandson becomes the worst tyrant our world has come across, and he burns it to the ground. Cities fall, people die, he even figured out how to kill all of The Talons. This man is no joke, but I'm too early for his birth. I missed a generation.
According to history, Phoenix has a son in the next 5 years and I need to make sure that baby...well that baby dies.'

After finishing she stood up and stretched a little. "I know that sounds horrible, but it's the only way we can save our world in the long run."
Maybe he would think she was crazy, maybe he would believe her. There was no way to tell for sure.
"Anyways, can you help me get some new clothes. I'm probably on the news right now. A t shirt and shorts of yours should due until things settle down and we can hit a store.
Pulling a bank atm card out of her cleavage, she smiled. "Bliss told me if I used this with the pin that spells out Corgi, I could access one of her accounts. Looks like I'm going shopping." the small girl chuckled.

Looking out the window, police were gathering outside the hotel and she noticed they were coming in.
"Shit. Did anyone see you carry me in here?" the girl asked as she dashed for Archer's clothes.
Quickly changing she tossed her old clothes under the covers of his bed and sat there.
Soon enough they knocked on his door.
"I got this." she small girl said with a smile.

Opening the lock on the door, and asking the officers if there was a problem they seemed confused.
"Is this Archer Roland's hotel room ma'am?"
"Why yes it is, but we're having some 'alone time' if you catch my drift." she said with a wink.
The two officers looked at each other, and then back at her.
"Did any meta human come through here? We're gunna have to take a look around due to eye witness accounts anyways, but it's easier if you just tell us."
Laughing she opened the door wide.
"Nope no metas here. Come on in."

After about fifteen minutes the officers took their leave and apologized for the inconvenience.
With them gone, they would be able to make their own leave and her her some clothes of her own.
"Let's go." Winter said as she made her way to the door.
Waiting for her grandfather, in the hallway she smelled the scent of marijuana in the air.
Laughing a little she remembered her good friend Tyuki in the future who smoked a lot of weed.
"God I miss her." Winter thought to herself as she looked at the ground.
With Archer ready to go, the duo made their way to the closet store.

Archer Roland sat on the bed and waited. The now empty bottle he had been drinking littered the floor with all the other bottles and cans. For a while he had felt the effects of the alcohol but it was already fading to the background, the healing was still getting faster and faster. He worried about not being able to feel anything one day but luckily his thoughts were scrambled as the sleeping mass finally woke up. She instantly threw herself onto him, locking the unwilling man in a tight squeeze, and began to tell him exactly of how she had come to be there and a good portion of her back story.

The most curious part of the entire unveiling was the, apparently very natural, explanation that he was in fact her grandfather. Archer felt and most likely looked very confused but the girl was off in her own little world still rattling off information. As she spoke he in turn tuned her out so he could more easily consider the massive amount of things she had already said. Apparently the other grandparent of the girl was Bliss which seemed very unlikely. Archer had met her a few times and they were on a decent basis but he was quiet sure the ice user was barren in more ways than one. Then there was the fact that he now had to deal with the idea that she was from the future which seemed ludicrous, though admittedly he had most likely seen a great deal less reasonable things in his lifetime.

After a few more minutes of listening to the girl talk she walked over to the window. Archer was about to say something but again was stopped dead in his tracks by the excitable girl who mentioned something about police officers. Walking to the window and looking out of it himself, he could in fact see that there were two officers making their way in the general direction of the room the two were inside. As Archer turned around he stopped and resumed his looking out the window. The girl had already begun to strip down to hopefully put on different clothes. “Could you give a guy a little warning next time,” He said with a slight edge to his voice. His hospitality was quickly draining.

When there was a knock at the door the girl again attempted to take the lead. Answering the knock and giving the officers a flirtatious answer while also implying that the two people in the room had been having sexual intercourse. After the officers had been allowed to enter the room Archer interceded. “Hello, officer. Is everything alright,” He asked the officer with a calm even tone.

“Yes, do you think I could speak to you outside and in private for a moment?” The police officer asked, using all the authority his badge could buy him.

“No problem, that would actually be preferable,” He answered as he moved to exit the small motel room. When the senior officer joined him and closed the door behind him, though the window curtains were still open allowing both men to see inside, Archer continued, “I would like to apologize for the girl. That’s my daughter and she’s just a little touched in the head, if you know what I mean. She looks fairly old but the doctors say that she’s no more then maybe thirteen mentally, which is apparently the age when kids begin to get a little rebellious, I guess.” Archer gave out a shirt sigh before he spoke again, “And, if you’re wondering about the mess it’s because she’s been driving me to my wit’s end. I can’t say I’ll be completely disappointed when she goes back to her mother.”

The officer stood there for a time without saying a word. He was studying Archer to see if he would begin to crumble under his gaze. It would have taken much more to make the photographer slip given the things and people he had faced in the past. After about ten minutes or so the other cop came out of the room and gave the all clear and after giving their farewells, notably forgetting an apology, they left.

As soon as Archer came back in the room the girl was already talking again and mentioning going shopping already. Reaching forward, Archer grabbed the girl by the arm attempting to halt her in her tracks and said, “We’re not going anywhere yet. For a couple reasons, first of which is because it’s the middle of the night and nowhere is open and second because I have some questions for you.”