Time Traveling Hero

"I hate to admit it, but you did well kid."

I was sitting around all the dinosaurs, saying my last farewells, when Roberto walked up next to me before plopping himself down.

"Of course I did, I have to be able to do this much, right?" I murmured, stroking a pink oviraptor's neck, it hissing in delight before hopping away. "Besides, it wasn't that big of a deal in the end anyway."

Roberto scowled at me as I started to play with a baby Triceratops next. "I have to wonder if you're an idiot or super confident in your abilities…"

I chuckled as the baby Trike licked my face. "None of them, I know my limits, and delegate properly. If I look confident, it's because I know there are people I can rely on, and people who need to rely on me."

"… You're quite well put together for a kid, you know that?" Roberto said, letting out a frown. "It's as if you had to grow up too quickly or something…"

"Hmm, I guess it's something like that…" I said sadly, watching the Trike run off among its own kin before getting up. "But that's a topic for another time."

I turned to him and gave him a grin. "So keep on treating me like a kid, got it big guy?"

"Hmph, on second thought, you're still a dumbass kid. Forget I said anything," Roberto grumbled. "I came here to tell you to go on home already. We can take care of the rest, so say goodbye to those dino friends of yours."

I nodded, and was just about to walk away before I heard him start to speak again. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot, but I told the director about your little stunt already. He wants to meet you before you leave the base."

I started sweating bullets at his words. "H-hey, wait a sec, maybe you can come with me?"

"Bye Hiro," he said simply, waving me goodbye as he walked away.

"Wait, I don't wanna deal with him! Oh c'mon, help a kid out Roberto!!!"

"Master, what might you be yelling about?"

I slumped my body in defeat, turning towards Anna. "Ah, it's nothing, Roberto is just being mean to me again…"

She nodded. "Anna sees, so Master screwed up again."

"Why do you gotta ȧssume it's always my fault!?"

"Because Master is useless?"

"Yes, Hiro is useless without you; must you continue to tease me like that?" I grumbled, and Anna shrugged.

"They are Master's words, not Anna's."

Before I could continue, I felt myself get nudged from behind, almost causing me to topple over. I turned around to see Trikey and the rest of his herd with him, all squawking at me. .

"Oh, hey guys!" I said, giving Trikey a hug. "You all seem pretty happy, and so do the young ones too."

Trikey gave me a lick, and I started to laugh. "Hey, it's okay, it's no problem at all. Oh jeez, calm down already!"

Trikey squawked at me again, and I let out a small smile. "You know, I have to get going now…"

Trikey pawed his foot on the ground, and I nodded, stroking his horn. "I know, I know, but I was never meant to stay. This is your place to be, not mine."

He let out a sad squawk, and I could feel the tears starting to well up in my eyes. "Oh man, you're gonna make me start crying. Of course I'm gonna miss you all. You're like my dream come true damnit…"

I sniffled, wiping away the tears. "You know, you guys were always my favorite dinosaurs. We got to spend all this time fighting together, playing together, and becoming friends together. If I could bring you along, I would; no, I really do wanna bring you guys along!"

Trikey and the rest of his herd let out a sad roar, and I shook my head, crying at their signs of affection. "I can't bring you along, it would defeat the purpose of the mission. Besides, I doubt you would wanna be fighting for us anyway, the leaders around here are a pain to listen too."

I put my head against Trikey's, taking a shaky breath. "I want you all to be free, to live the lives you were meant to without us humans interfering. But, just because we're apart doesn't mean we'll forget each other."

I looked him in the eye and gave him an unwavering grin. "We'll always be friends after all!"

His eyes told me he understood, and I watched as the dinosaurs started to make their way back into the jungle, Trikey's herd being the last ones to go, giving me one last roar of gratitude before they all vanished, and I wiped my tears away, nodding to myself.

"Be free my friends, be free."

I took a deep breath, slapping my cheeks before exhaling. "Alright, I'm ready Anna, let's go."

As we were walking back to the portal entrance, Anna turned to me, a curious look in her eye.

"Master?"

"Yes?"

"How is it you can speak dinosaur?"

I stopped, frowning at her. "Whadda yah mean? Wasn't it pretty obvious what they were saying?"

"No Master, that was just you."

"Huh? No way that's true, I bet there's someone else here who could at least understand what they were conveying."

Anna shook her head. "No, just Master."

"Eh?"

"But, if Master is able to understand what those dinosaurs can feel, then Anna believes that Master Hiro is a kind and empathetic individual."

"Uh no, I'm a pretty selfish bastard I'll have you know. I just mostly do what I want without a care in the world," I said, and Anna looked down.

"Is that so?"

"Is that so!"

Although her facial expression never changes, and her voice is always in the same flat tone of voice, I would say Anna is a far more caring person than I could ever hope to be. If I seem to care more, then it's probably because of her.

I let out a smile and messed up her hair, much to her bewilderment. Well, not that I'm ever going to tell her that.

And thus ended Hiro's goodbye with his newfound Dinosaur friends.

-----------------------------------

"Care to explain to me what this is Hiro?" The Director asked, his voice bordering on killing intent.

We had made it back to our present, and against my will, I was somehow forced to meet the Director back in the meeting area where Tempus was stored after the success of our operation. In front of us were pictures taken by Roberto of the members of squad 36, right in front of the Director, Anna and I, and the four Hands that I had already previously met.

"Uh, I dunno? Maybe it's a doppelganger or something?" I responded, laughing to myself as I saw the pictures of squad 36 appear on holograms in front of me. I swear I'm gonna kill Roberto after all this is over.

"Oh look Master, it is Anna. Anna is there too." Damn you Anna, now is not the time!

"Oh wow, you guys even posed for some of them," Hebe mentioned, suċkɨnġ on a lollipop. "That's pretty ballsy."

"Ahaha…" I looked at the Director again and suddenly felt my life in danger.

"So, Hiro. Care. To. Ex. Plain. This?" He asked with a smile on his face.

"Uh, well, you see, I was gonna tell you about it, but then I lost track of time in the operation, and uh, I'm fuċkėd aren't I?"

"The foolhardiness of this one astounds me," Astraea muttered. "No one has attempted to do something as stupid as this, so congrats on being the first." She sighed. "Well, at least you managed to exceed our expectations in the operation."

"Honestly, I knew this Hero was going to be trouble the moment he decided to pick a fight with all of us Hands," Mars said.

"Keke, told yah it would be interestin' if he came here!" Deimos seemed to be the only one amused at everything, and he gave me a knowing grin.

"So, that's the reason why you kept this squad a secret in the operation details?" The Director started, swiping through all the pictures. "It was all so I wouldn't get pissed!?"

"Uh, well, I figured the less people who know, the less of a chance of a paradox you know? Or, if that would even happen, I dunno nearly as much about this time stuff as this organization does."

"Uh. Huh."

Welp, seems today's my death day. It was fun while it lasted, but thus ends Time Traveling Hero! Hope you enjoyed the story!

He let out a weary sigh, slumping over in his chair as his hand partially covered his face. "Honestly, you're lucky no one else saw you. The last thing we need is for our timeline to get suddenly splintered into multiple paradoxical ones. In fact, I bet the only reason why it worked is because you planned it out to be this way; otherwise we would all probably be dead."

"Hehe, I guess future me is just as good as present me," I said, laughing to myself.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" He roared out, and I let out another nervous laugh.

"You got lucky this time, but I swear if you ever pull a stunt like this again, you best believe you'll wish you would've never had done it again." The Director scratched his afro, glaring at me. "But I'll let it go, this time!" he yelled out, noticing my reaction.

"Yeah, sorry…" I muttered, bowing my head slightly.

"Look Master Hiro, we did a cool pose together in that one."

I swear she'll be the death of me.

The Director cleared his throat before continuing. "Anyway, let's get back to the real reason why I called you here. For starters, congrats on completing your first Triumph, despite the extraneous circumstances you managed to pull."

The Hands gave me soft applause that quickly faded away. "Now then, tell us exactly what you managed to accomplish."

I nodded. "Right. For starters, we freed the dinosaurs from the ATF's grasp, using our own dinosaur squad in order to help free the younglings. We also managed to capture Cyrene, thanks to ah, cough cough squad 36 cough cough, but anyway, we also captured the enemy base instead of destroying it like in the original plan."

"Wait, you managed to capture it!?" Mars yelled out, and I frowned.

"Uh, yeah. It's not like it was hard or anything."

"But what about the self-destruct function the base has setup?" Astraea commented, and I started to get nervous.

"Uh, what self-destruct function?"

"It's setup to the base's main power source, and senses whenever there are no more ATF members within the base."

Power source? "Oh, about that, I ended up blowing the power source so we could get to the other side of the base easily."

"HUH!?"

I winced as everyone except Anna yelled. "What, what's the damn problem!?"

"How did you even blow it up without causing massive casualties!?" the Director yelled out.

"I blew up the Energy Core, Energy Reactor, and the connector all at once. It basically vaporized the power generator of the base, connecting the South and West sides to the North and East. Uh, is something the matter?"

"What about tha' portal of theirs huh?" Deimos asked.

"We busted the control panel to get it to stop working so there wouldn't be anymore reinforcements, but the device is otherwise still intact. Um, seriously, what's up with those reactions?"

The Director sighed. "Okay, one last thing. That promise you made about the plan, were there really no fatalities?"

I gave him a grin and a thumbs up, much to his surprise. "100 injured, 0 fatalities for the TRTF!"

The room hushed into awed silence, except for…

"Master look, Anna kicked a dinosaur in the face in this photo."

Everyone seemed to be shocked, except for the Director, who seemed to be lost in thought.

I suddenly got the feeling that I might've done something rather impressive without even meaning too…

"Ahem, anything else that you did?" The Director asked, and I shook my head.

"No, although I did end up talking to this weird guy in silhouette though. He was quite the strategist, so I was hoping to get rid of him before he became an issue, but he was giving the instructions remotely."

Mars raised an eyebrow. "Oh, could it have possibly been him?"

Hmm? Who's him? Before I could ask, the Director shook his head. "Best not to worry about that Mars. More importantly, Hiro, are you sure about that portal? It's not damaged in anyway besides control panel?"

I nodded, and the Director sighed, leaning back into his chair, lost in thought again. Anna started to pull on my sleeve, pointing out another picture of the two of us kicking ȧss.

The Director shook his head before letting loose a non-aggressive smile, clapping his hands. "Well, regardless, congrats on completing your first Triumph! To be fair, this could easily count for your second one as well, but since I'm still pissed off at you, you're stuck with the one."

I clicked my tongue. "Cheapskate."

"I'm sorry, did you say something that would make it so this Triumph would never happen?"

He took my silence as an answer. "Thought so. Well, as per usual, this calls for a celebration you know! Our Hero coming back from his first mission alive and completing his first Triumph all in one fell swoop? As expected of one with a 100 for their Hero Factor! Now come-!"

"Hold it big guy," I said, putting my hand up. "I dunno about you, but I'm tired. Dead tired. There's no way in hell I'm putting up with a celebration right now."

"But the food and-!"

"Is it better than my sister's home cooked meals?"

"Uh, I-!"

"Exactly. C'mon Anna, let's blow this popsicle stand."

"Why is Master blowing up a stand made of popsicles?"

"No damnit, it's just a figure of speech!"

"Wait just a moment Hiro, you didn't really think you wouldn't get punished for your actions, did you?"

I stop as I reached the door, slowly turning back to the smiling Director. "Uh, but I thought…"

"Oh, there won't be any actual punishment, but I will get to see you suffer. Starting tomorrow you'll have combat training with Mars over here! He'll be more than happy to beat you up to a pulp as many times as it'll take for you to learn the basics!"

"Haha…" I could feel my mouth getting dry at his words, and one look from Mars told me he wasn't joking.

Oh yeah, I am so going to kill Roberto next time I see him.

-------------------------------------

"Freedom!" I yelled out into the sky, the sun setting over the horizon.

We were outside of the TRTF's headquarters, walking back towards the brightening City before I stopped.

"Hey Anna?"

Anna, who was a little bit ahead of me, stopped and turned around, the same emotionless expression on her face. "Yes Master Hiro?"

"I can't walk anymore."

We stared each other in the eye in about 5 seconds of silence before Anna started to walk away.

"Hey, no wait, I'm being serious here! It's taking all I have to just stand here in place right now!"

"Master pushed beyond Master's limits like an idiot."

"Yeah, okay, maybe I overestimated my limits a bit today, but hey, stop walking away already!"

Anna finally stopped, looking back towards me pleading at her. "…Master, Anna jokes when Anna says that Master is useless without Anna, but please do not try actually become a useless person."

"Damnit, I don't need the sass, just help me out already!"

"It seems Master Hiro may be more useless without Anna than previously thought…" Anna let out a small sigh, and although it was hard to tell with the setting sun, I could've sworn I saw her smile.

"Anna will carry you back home, is that alright?"

I collapsed to my knees in relief at her words, and she walked back to me, picking me up Princess style, much to my surprise.

"Uh, why are exactly are you carrying me like this?"

"Because it is easier to fly back then to walk," Anna said.

I watched her pair of mechanical wings emerge from out of her back (I honestly have no clue where she hides those things) before she looked back down at me.

"Don't fall Master."

And with that we were off into the evening sky, high above the City, but not above the twin mountains that surrounded them. We flew in silence for a bit before Anna decided to break it.

"Master?"

"Yep, that's me!"

"You named three more Models."

"Uh, yeah, what about it?"

Anna's normally emotionless expression twitched with an emotion I wasn't able to fully recognize. "Can you tell Anna how it is Master is doing it? Or well, maybe Anna really wishes to know why Master is doing it?"

"Because it's a pain in the ȧss just calling you by numbers! Honestly, having a name is so much more convenient, don't you agree?" Half-Lie.

A small frown appeared on her face. "But us Models do not need a name."

"And yet you always refer to yourself in the third person."

"Because Anna is special."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever kuudere. The only thing remarkable about you is that you're a superhuman like everyone else I've been meeting lately."

"Anna still does not know what this kew-deare means…"

I laughed at her mispronunciation of the word. "It's nothing bad, if that's what you're worried about."

"Anna is not worried about that. Also, do not think Anna did not notice how Master changed the subject. Master is tricky like that."

We started to descend near the suburbs, landing in my backyard. Anna dropped me on the ground, a slight frown on her face. "But Anna shall leave it alone, for the time being."

"Hey, why'd you gotta drop me down on the ground like that," I muttered, picking myself up with surprising ease. It seems the short flight back home was enough to help me recover.

I ġrȯȧnėd, stretching backwards before hearing an audible growl from my stomach. "Oh man, can't wait for some Luna food. Oh, now that I think about it, where did Anna go?"

I looked around, but she had already vanished somewhere once again. I've thought about it for a while, but how is it Anna even gets into the house? I ruminated over the question as I walked to the front door, pulling out my key and opening the door.

"Oh, big bro is home!" I watched Luna practically skip out of the kitchen, a cute smile on her adorable face as she pounced onto me, giving me a hug. "Welcome home big bro!"

Ah, I can feel my Luna reserves filling up to max once again.

She looked up at me and pouted as she looked me over. "Uh, what happened to your hair?"

Ah, that. Those damn ATF, messing with my hair like that. "Uh, it's a long story. I was planning on getting a haircut soon anyway, but this still makes me mad…" I ran my hand over the portion the laser had annihilated out of existence, letting out a small sigh. Looks like I'll have to get it shorter than I would like.

"Oh, I see!" Luna let out a grin before a look of realization dawned on her face. "Ah, the food! I almost forgot!" She rushed back into the kitchen, and I closed the door behind me, taking my shoes off at the door.

"Oh, look who decided to make an appearance." Ah shit, I forgot about her.

I looked up the stairs to see Caelestis at the top, wearing a tank top and hot pants, glaring at me. "Do you care to explain where you've been this past day and half? Also, what's up with your hair?"

"Uh, the hair thing bothers me a lot, so can we please not talk about that?" I said, once more running my hand over the noticeable portion of hair missing. "And I already told you I was going to be hanging out at a friends house for a bit."

She walked down the stairs, nodding to herself. "I know, just wanted to feel all parent-like for a bit. Did I scare you?"

I let out a weary sigh. I almost forgot that this is how the ȧduŀts in my life act like. As much as I wanna beat him up, I miss Roberto.

"Oh right!" I watched Luna peek her head out of the kitchen. "Big bro, the food won't be done for a while, so go take a shower! You're covered in dirt!"

I nodded, yawning loudly. "Oh right, is Eris here too?"

"Yeah, but she's watching T.V. at the moment. Do you need to talk to her or something?"

"No, just wondering," I said, letting out another loud yawn. "I'm gonna hit the shower now, be back in a bit."

"You should uh, try to fix that hair situation," Lesty murmured, snickering to herself as she got a closer look. "Oh man, it's worse up close!" She started to laugh as she walked towards the living room, leaving my face aflame with embarrassment.

"I swear, during my next mission, my hair won't be the only fatality suffered…"

I walked upstairs, grabbing some pajamas, undėrwėȧr, and socks before getting into the bathroom, where I found Anna getting undressed.

"Oh, Master," Anna said, her shirt unbuttoned. "Did you want to join Anna?"

"Like hell I do!"

"Maybe Anna should let Master go first? Master's hair looks quite bad."

"You're only saying that because you heard the others talking about it, didn't you?"

"Anna has no clue what Master means."

Ugh, I honestly cannot be bothered with this. "Whatever, just let me know when you're out. And make sure Lesty doesn't find you, got it!?"

Anna nodded, and it was only then that I noticed a scar over the left side of her ċhėst, although I only got a brief glimpse before she turned around and walked towards the shower.

I closed the door behind me, sighing to myself. Great, now what do I do?

"Yoo hoo, it's your favorite older sis here! Oh man, your hair really is a bad as Lesty said it was."

I ġrȯȧnėd, looking towards Eris, who immediately rushed and hugged me. "Ah, I needed my Hiro reserves charged! This hits the spot!"

"Oi, get off me already damnit!" I tried but failed to escape her hug, and I eventually relented, hugging her back. "You know I'm covered in dirt and mud right?"

"Eh, I was gonna take a shower soon anyways, so who cares? Still though, this hair, is, srnk, really, pfffft!" She released me as she started to laugh, and I gritted my teeth as my face grew warm.

"Damnit, that's it! I'm visiting my barber as soon as school lets out tomorrow!"

"You really wanna let your classmates see, srnk, you, hehe, like, pffft! Sorry, I can't! That's way too funny! Have you seen yourself!?"

She pulled out a miniature mirror, and I could only look in horror at the sight of my hair. The laser had grazed off the middle of my hair, making it look as if I had a reverse mohawk, the world's worst hairstyle.

"NOOOOOO! That's it, I just won't go to school tomorrow. Yeah, that's it, I'll get a haircut and then go to school after."

CLICK!

I watched in horror as Eris took a picture. "And posted."

Ah, I really do miss Roberto.

And thus ended his return home.