Max stood outside of the RV, adjusting the goggles over his eyes, pulling at the cloak's hood. "Alright, Kyohaku, make sure you hold on tight to me," he said, picking the 4-year old up, pulling her hood down lower over her face. She nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck. He turned to Chuck and Karen.

"Max, are you sure you don't want to wait until after the storm has passed?" Karen asked, concern showing in her eyes, her hands clasped in front of her.

"I'm sure," Max replied, nodding, turning his head to look at the sandstorm approaching. "I've got some business I need to take care of as soon as possible. Thanks for watchin' out for me and Kyohaku, though. I really appreciate it." With that, he ran, his leg gear activating. He had removed the fail-safes the day before. At full speed, he knew he could make it to Ground City in under 3 hours. 3 hours that he used to dig through more of the memories he had from the other timeline.

"Boy, it's a slow day," Beamer sighed, leaning against the counter. His eyes followed a lone piece of lint gently floating in the breeze created by the large fan in the corner of the restaurant. He heard the bell on his door ring, his head whipping around to see a figure in a cloak and goggles walk in, a smaller figure holding the hand of the taller one. "Oh, thank Arceus, customers! Take a seat and someone will be with you soon."

"Just give me a flamer and a small cheese pizza, Beamer," Max said, pulling the hood back, the goggles now resting around his neck. Beamer's eyes widened, his body now frozen. Max walked up to the counter, picking Kyohaku up and placing her in a seat, her hood falling back. "Oi. Beamer," he said, waving his hand in front of Beamer's face. "Seriously, man, I'm starving. I've been running for 3 hours now."

"Max!" Beamer reached across, pulling him into a bear hug from across the counter. "You're alive! You're actually fucking alive!"

"Beamer….r-ribs….spine….oxygen…." Max gasped out, Beamer releasing him. "Yeah (cough) I'm alive."

"But…the others, they told me…"

"Yeah, I know." Max felt a tug on his sleeve, causing him to turn his head to look down at Kyohaku.

"And who's this little one?" Beamer asked, now looking at Kyohaku with a smile.

"Beamer, this is Kyohaku. Kyohaku, this is a good friend of mine. His name is Beamer." Kyohaku stared at Beamer, smiling shyly.

"Flamer and a small cheese," Beamer said after a bit, ringing the bell. "Meda, J.T., get to it, we got a special guest today!" he hollered into the kitchen, pulling out two cups from under the counter. "What's Kyohaku like to drink?"

"A strawberry milk, please," Kyohaku said, her voice quiet. Beamer smiled, nodding.

"Comin' right up," he said, while placing one of the cups, now filled with water, in front of Max. After a few minutes, Meda walked through the door, almost dropping the pizzas when he saw Max.

"Young Maxwell, you look surprisingly well for someone who had died," he said, placing the small cheese in front of Kyohaku, the flamer in front of Max. "Mr. Beamer, shall I put the sign to closed while he is here?"

"Yeah, yeah, good idea." Beamer reached through the kitchen window, pulling out two stools, one for him and one for Meda, who instead sat in the other chair on Kyohaku's left side, staring over her head at Max. Beamer shrugged, putting the second one off to the side, sitting on his own. "Alright, kid. Spill it. I know you're here for more than just you missin' me," he said, smirking. Max looked up, sighing and putting down his third slice.

"Yeah. I need to get ahold of Z, Will, and J. I know that they moved out of the HQ, but I never actually got a chance to visit their homes last time," Max said.

"Last time?"

"In the last timeline," he said. He then froze, smiling. "Looks like yesterday wasn't for naught," he mumbled, turning to look outside the restaurant as a person flew into the trash cans just outside the door, a Zone Portal disappearing behind her. He stood up. "Hang on a sec." He walked outside to see what he at first assumed to be a man only a couple years older than he, before realizing that it was a woman from her figure. She stood up, a mask on her face, her blue hair tucked under it to give it the appearance of being shorter. She wore very light armor, her clothing mostly blue. Almost looks like the clothing of a noble, he thought to himself. "'sup," he said, startling the person, who turned around.

"Master Escal?!" she exclaimed, before slapping her hands over her mouth.

"Wait...master?...oh…"

"I mean, hello, stranger," the woman said, nervously kicking at a bit of paper that had fallen out of the trash cans.

"So, how's Julie?" Max asked nonchalantly.

"Oh, she's fi-…uh…I mean…."

"I thought so," he said, sighing. He opened the door, gesturing inside. "Get in. You can explain it after I've had lunch and gotten what I need from Beamer." The woman blushed, walking quickly past him. He shook his head. "Well, this timeline's gonna get interesting real fast," he said to himself, following the woman in. After he sat down, he spent two hours explaining his timeline comment to Beamer, who was speechless by the end of it.

"Wow…you know, if it were anyone else, I'd call ya crazy. But, well, you ain't anyone else. You're Maxwell Escal," Beamer said after a bit. "And now that you know some of what may happen in the next four years, you wanna get a head start, huh?"

"That's it, exactly," Max confirmed. "So. Can you help?"

"Got somethin' to write on?" Beamer asked. Max patted his body before shrugging, prompting Beamer to grab a napkin, while Meda handed him a pen. "Alright, here's their addresses," he said, handing the napkin over to Max. Max looked at it, memorizing the addresses, already thinking about who he should see first. "And don't worry about your tab on this meal, Max. Consider it my welcome home gift to you." He extended his fist, Max meeting it with his own.

"Thanks, Beamer." Max stood up, helping Kyohaku down from her seat. "Come on, Lucina, you're with us." The woman had introduced herself earlier, before Max's explanation began, and now stood up. "Explanations on the way to my home."

"So, to recap," Max said as they arrived at the entrance to the HQ. He began to pat around the door, searching for the spare keycard he always kept near it. "You're from the future, trying to fix it in your Zone. You arrived with twelve others from your Zone, thirteen if you include my daughter, but you all were separated. You found who you were looking for, but came into contact with a Zone Portal shortly after. And now, you absolutely have to get back in order to prevent the death of a very important person. Your aunt."

"That about sums it up, yes," Lucina said, nodding.

"Ah, here it is!" Max pulled the keycard out from a hidden slot under the mailbox. He swiped it, the door opening. "Welp, home sweet home," he said, walking in and turning on the lights. "Oh, it feels good to be back here. Get yourselves comfortable, ladies."

"Um, Master Escal,"Lucina began.

"Just Max. Please. Hearing 'Master Escal' is so…weird," Max said.

"…Max…how did you know I was outside the restaurant?"

"Mask off indoors, as well," Max said in afterthought. "Otherwise, I don't answer." Lucina sighed, taking it off, her hair falling past her shoulders. Max looked at her blue eyes, noticing a faint brand of some sort in her right eye. "Better. Anyways, I didn't know you, specifically, were out there. Yesterday, I worked on regaining my energy sensing ability. And it was successful, to some extent. So far, I can only sense high concentrations of Zone Energy, it seems. Which is what a Zone Portal is. A bunch of Zone Energy clumped into one spot in space." Lucina perked up.

"Wait, so you're already able to tap into your abilities?" she asked, her voice full of hope.

"Er, not quite. I can't get you back to your Zone, not yet," Max said, throwing the cloak onto the back of a chair in the main dining room. He continued down the hallway, motioning for Lucina to follow."Kyohaku, why don't you go and get a nap while I show Lucina around? The big chair in the room beside the door is great for sleeping."

"Okay, Onii-chan," Kyohaku said, walking back into the room he was referring to. Max soon made it to the teleporter room, opening the door.

"Now, this, on the other hand, could probably get you back home," Max said. "When I call up the others."

"So I can be back tomorrow?" Lucina asked.

"Nope." Lucina's face fell.

"But-"

"I won't be seeing them just yet. I'm back in Ground City almost two weeks too soon, from what I remember of the other timeline," Max explained. "Look, everything will be fine in your Zone. If you'll bear with me and just be patient, I should be able to reteach myself to tap into my Zone Energy in those two weeks. I don't know how much, though. We'll have to see. Now, going back towards the front door, there's only a couple of training rooms on that hall. And I need you to make sure that Kyohaku doesn't walk in on me during my meditation times. I'm going to be trying to tap into something that, uh…well, you just don't want to be in the room with me during those times, okay?"

"A…alright," Lucina nodded.

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me," Max said, walking into one of the prior mentioned training rooms, closing and locking the door behind him, Lucina staring at it before walking into the room Kyohaku was in, taking a seat on the couch.

"So comfortable," she noted, laying her head back into it. She then felt exhaustion hit her, her eyes slowly closing. She was soon asleep.

Lucina came to, feeling a weight on her side. Rubbing her eyes, she looked down to see Kyohaku leaning against her, asleep. She gently moved Kyohaku, just enough to stand up, laying her back down, putting the nearest pillow on the couch under her head. She walked back to the door that Max had gone in, reaching out to knock, stopping. "It's…why is it so cold?" she pondered, noticing the temperature drop as she got closer to the room. She looked at the carpet, noticing frost creeping out from under the door. She put her hand down, staring at the door, bewildered. She took a deep breath, reaching for the handle this time. She tried twisting it, only to have it shatter as she yanked her hand back, realizing that it was a biting cold temperature. "What is going on?" She took the blade at her side, a long and broad silver sword that had a strange curve near the handle that belled out on both sides of the blade. She swung it at the door, breaking it.

She was met with a blast of arctic wind, blown back into the opposite wall. She looked inside to see Max sitting cross legged, his hands in very loose fists with the knuckles gently touching each other, in the middle of the room, completely encased in ice, while the entire room was completely frozen. "Max!" she yelled, about to rush into the room, when Max's eyes snapped open under the ice. She stopped halfway to the door, seeing his irises were now glowing silver, his pupils red. The ice encasing him began to crack, shattering into pieces, while the ice in the room began to disappear, leaving no trace it was ever there. Max continued to sit there for a bit before closing his eyes once more, exhaling deeply. He then smiled, opening his eyes once more to look at Lucina.

"I can't use my energy yet," he said. "But I did accomplish what I needed to." He stood up, stretching. He took a look at the wall on the clock, frozen at four o'clock on the dot. He walked out and looked for another clock. He finally walked into the main living room, checking on Kyohaku and looking at the clock on the wall in front of the couch she was on. "Wow. It's ten. Six hours, at least, huh?" He scratched his head. "Let's see…yeah, the store should still be open this late. Lucina, stay here with Kyohaku. I'm going to grab some groceries, alright? I'll be back in just about an hour. I think." She nodded, though still looked disheartened. He walked over, clapping his hand onto her shoulder. He looked her in the eye. "I promise I'll get you back before anything terrible happens. The people you're looking for will be alright. And if it helps calm you at all, I'll personally help to fix your future. The members of my team will gladly do so, as well. So stop worrying so much." Max smiled, waiting for Lucina to reply.

She was silent for a few seconds before taking a deep breath, straightening her stance. "Alright, Master. I'll trust you," she said, smiling. He removed his hand, nodding.

"Good. But seriously. Stop calling me Max," he chuckled, walking out the front door. He then walked back in. "Forgot my cash," he said, walking towards his room. "My stash better still be there," Lucina heard him grumble. He came back to the front door within a couple of minutes. "Okay. Should be good now. Kyohaku, behave for Lucina, alright?"

"Okay, Onii-chan," Kyohaku said, now sitting up on the couch. Lucina closed the door after Max, walking back into the living room.

"So, Kyohaku, what do you like to do to pass the time?" Lucina asked, smiling at the child.

And so begins New Shift. Hopefully, I won't have woefully long update times for this. The ideas are flowing pretty well, so yeah. And if you've read my other two stories for this little series, you'll notice this is now in the Megaman and X-Over sections. That's because I want to expand into more than just the Megaman stuff for this series. Hope the first chapter captured your attention and I hope to see you in the next chapter.