Going to The Next Time Period

The trip around the globe didn't last long, considering they wouldn't make any pit stops and allow the train to reach absurd speeds. 

Since there was no air resistance, the train needed to activate 'reversal' as it returned to the Assimilator's main piece.

While looking at Earth during such a prehistoric period was beautiful, everyone quickly lost interest as the entire planet was a jungle. 

Furthermore, all the landmasses are concentrated in the southern hemisphere, meaning they barely saw anything as they travelled around the equator.

Well, not that girls wanted to be in this era anyway. It's full of bugs and swamps!

So, after the trip, everyone returned to Confiscator, which was in orbit.

"Begin the preparations for time slipping," Marcus instructed as he returned to his seat with Sirin on his lap.

"Beginning preparation." 

The crew started to power the time engine, and the ring around the Confiscator started to glow, creating a bubble around the vessel.

As the preparations were happening, the girls walked to the windows and looked at how this 'bubble' was encasing them.

"Setting anchor, preparing to time slip in 3…2…1…" 

Right in front of them, they could see how the planet in front of them started to accelerate in spinning. They could see clouds moving at absurd speeds.

"I can see continents moving!" Erina exclaimed in shock as the whole planet's continents moved right before her eyes!

"...Yes, they are moving closer and closer to Pangaea," Marcus commented as he looked at the status window showing him the overall year.

Their calculations are quite off without specific time-measuring instruments, but that's fine, considering that the end of the era is very visible.

The rainforests were disappearing rapidly, and glaciers were gaining ground at both poles.

Before long, only small patches of islands around the equator had rainforest trees, as Gondwana, which is in the south hemisphere, was nearly fully encased in ice.

Smaller landmasses, while having some vegetation, didn't look any better, considering the plants are not used to such cold weather at this moment.

"Alright, stop here." 

"Leaving time slip!" 

The vessel left the time slip and turned off the time engine.

"Let's go investigate."

Marcus suggested to his girls, who slowly nodded as they looked at the foreign world below them. Thinking about how quickly things can change is messing with their perception of nature.

"I would, but you took my suit device!" Sirin huffed at him.

"Here." He gave it back to her.

"Now come, who wants Carboniferous-Permian ice cream?" The inventor joked as he got up alongside Sirin and proceeded to walk towards the bridge doors.

~~~

Erina and Hisako looked down. According to their data, this was the place where they had observed the floods before, but now it was just a huge glacier!

The change is surreal! 

'This whole time travel thing is messing with our heads.' Hisako realised how detached they were from the world.

Part of her was very worried that they would be able to return to how they were before.

'Who am I kidding? After those genetic alterations, we are so far away from regular people that it's not fair anymore.'

"Hisako, look at that!"

Erina pointed at something as she swiftly flew down and landed on the edge of a beach. On one side was freezing water, and on the other was a growing glacier. 

They walked closer to the glacier and saw one of those ancient trees frozen.

"Amazing, don't you think? After a while, these trees will collapse and most likely get crushed by the weight of the ice. Eventually, the earth will submerge them, becoming coal after many years."

The cherry blonde explained something Hisako had learned already, but now they saw the process in person.

"Anyway, we should find Marcus. He might be doing something more interesting, " she said excitedly as they rose into the air and flew towards his location.

They found him making similar observations, checking out trees and animals and how they survive in such a climate.

"Well, the equatorial area is the warmest, and it's where dinosaur ancestors are currently living. It is the same with mammal ancestors and beasts who will dominate the Permian Era. 

Most of Gondwana is an ice cube. I believe most bugs have died out because of cold and the drops in oxygen levels."

He said while looking around.

"Most of the plants pumping out oxygen are gone, and the CO2 levels should return to normal in several millions of years."

He said with a pondering look.

"That means once the land bridges start appearing with continents moving towards the centre, the animals that survived in the pockets will start migrating to the recovering landmasses."

Marcus finished his explanation more like he dictated the observation, and Aurora typed it down for him.

"Well, I have my observation recorded. All I need now is to get the report from the Assimilator once we are back on our Earth."

He motioned for them to come with him as they left this period.

"Come, we stayed here far enough, so it's time to visit Permian." 

"...finally!" Sirin exclaimed with a happy tone. No more bugs, no more creepy crawlies! 

"Someone excited, let's visit the most unstable time period in Earth's history." Marcus smiled, seeing his Angel of Death happy.

"We need some sun cream, considering the temperature in late Permian is around 80 degrees," Athena recalled that the Permian and Triassic periods had the supercontinent Pangea, and the place looked more like a desert world, with only vegetation in the coastal areas and some oasis, but mostly deserts.

Due to bad water circulation in oceans, the world constantly experiences superstorms the size of continents. The opposite was also true, as they would have dry seasons that last for years.

"That's extreme heat!" Erina exclaimed in shock. They can cook stuff on that amount of heat!

"Yes. It's the reason why dinosaurs took over the world. They didn't need to worry about keeping their body warm as the world was a literal oven." The Goddess exclaimed.

"...talking about heat in such a cold place, quite a contrast." The chef girl assistant commented as she looked around.

"Yes, well, I see enough and collected enough data." Marcus looked around one more time before starting to float.

"Let's go. I might not feel the cold, but I am feeling cold nonetheless." Gu Yuena, being a 'dragon,' prefers warm weather.

"You sound like a cold-blooded lizard." Quinella joked as she looked at the dragoness.

The silver dragoness shrugged as, in a way, she was a 'lizard'.

As the group returned to the Confisfactor, the ship prepared to leave the timeline altogether.

"Sir, we have calculated that the journey will take around two days, " the navigation officer told Marcus as they locked in the coordinates.

"Two days are we leaving the earth?" Erina asked as she heard the conversation.

"To leave as small as possible mark, we are moving from alternate earth each time. Since we stayed in the Carboniferous of this Earth, we will move to another Earth's Permian." He explained to her as he motioned for the navigations officer to begin the trip.

"...Oh, do you think we will find something we have not seen before?" The cherry blonde asked him in a curious tone.

"I can only hope, Erina. I wouldn't mind encountering an advanced civilisation before our time. We can only confirm something like Atlantis once we are closer to our times." He clarified to her as he looked at how the ship moved away from facing the prehistoric Earth and facing the cosmos.

"And I don't mean Poseidon's little pet project…"

'I doubt he was around 10 to 20 thousand years before our time.' Marcus pondered on actual ancient civilisation.

Moments later, the Time engine was turned on, and the projectors on the ship's hull started to build a 'bridge'. At the end of the bridge was a green and blue magic circle.

"Launch in 3…

…2…

…1…"

The Confiscator accelerated and blasted into the circle, disappearing from the time and space of this world.

~~~

As the ships travel a couple of million years into the future in a different reality, Marcus walks to his workshop. He has a couple of things to build.

Now that he has tested out time anchoring and time slipping, he can build more gadgets in case he needs them.

Not for now, but when he is in more modern times, like ancient Greece or Rome. But before that, he will test them now when the mark he can leave is small.

He needs some time to erase bombs and some resets and stuff like that.

'I could make something like a de-ageing beam. We already have a de-evolution beam, but this one is more usable. That one is a little bit dangerous.' 

He pondered as he sat down in his favourite chair, turned on his holographic console, and started going through the menus and creating new folders for the gadgets he would be making.

Sadly, this stuff is not difficult.

At the core, he placed a couple of time-based runic sequences, selected mana and the mana load, and then designed it to look like Star Wars grenades.

It took him less than an hour. Since it was that easy, he made alternative bombs and grenades.

He then recalled the items the guys used in Marvel's TVA, such as the baton and other similar items.

'Hmm, I see… I could do that!' The Inventor's eyes gleamed as he realised he could create a specific weapon to transport stuff into containers upon impact.

Bypassing anything needed to collect, instead, the beam would simply transport it.

But for that, he needs to rework a couple of things and set a central piece which could assist in transporting beings.

'Like my future base outside time.'

Marcus, for now, created a new project and left a few notes.

For now, he worked out the kinks of how the gadgets would work.

There could be specific situations, so the grenades and time bombs will have selective loads.

Though midway, he realised that…

He barely explored the Carboniferous! Sure, it was a bug-infested hellhole with plants that he used to see as grass grew to the size of huge trees.

But the Permian and Triassic have huge sways of deserts… hell, according to the records, at some point, there were deserts as big as the USA…

It's huge.

"Hmm, I will need a desert buggy or a bike, maybe both, and then I can add something like a portable house."

He said he checked the data he had brought from home and reviewed some of his designs for cars and bikes.

Some of them are just digitised sketches of bikes and off-road cars.

He did some drawings on these because he was planning to drive on worlds like Mars just to explore, the same with Venus.

But for Venus, he had some extreme ideas for frames and tyres, as the planet is a hellhole. 

"Are you planning to camp outside?" Sirin, who was with him, heard his comments.

Since they are out of the bug era, she doesn't mind exploring stuff in a more traditional sense.

Part of her wants to brag to the goody-two-shoes she was on a trip that Kiana couldn't imagine.

"Yeah, like the whole Pangaea? Exploring all continents in a single supercontinent and capturing some Dimetradons or amphibians pretending to be crocodiles.

And that is just early Permian. Later stages of the Permian have huge deserts to explore and get myself a first mount." He said that while rubbing his chin, he recalled that Late Permian had new kings as there was a mid-extinction event, ending Dimetradons and allowing a new king to rise from a group of mammal-like reptiles, the Gargonopsids. The biggest of them was the Inostrancevia, the size of modern-day tigers. They had sabre-like teeth, and from some fossils, it is said that they could potentially have hair.

"...Mount? Are you serious?" She stopped reading and turned her head to the side.

"Of course, I am thinking of making an Allosaurus and T-rex as mounts. On top of that, Quetzalcoatlus as my flying mount and Mosasaurus as my water mount." He said that from the top of his head.

"...Boys…" She rolled her head before checking the dinosaurs he just named on her console.

She raised her eyebrows when she saw Quetzalcoatlus. 

'That thing could fly? Impressive…'

The girl was surprised by this flying reptile. It is amazing that something like this could fly without special energy.

"Indeed. Boys do boy things. My classmates will be surprised to see me ride an Allosaurus to class."

When she heard that, she swiftly checked her wiki.

"That's a predator with big teeth and claws." She deadpanned at him.

"Why do you even care?" Sirin sighed after deadpanning. Why did he care about showing off something like that? To normal people, no less!

"Because, my angel of destruction, they are dinosaurs. Tech is one thing! But a dinosaur? It's like showing off your new dog to your friends and neighbours." He seriously replied to her.

"...Is that a human thing?" She asked curiously.

"I guess? I mean, when you are proud of something, you want to show off." He shrugged. For Marcus, it's more like a person's thing, not just a human. After all, one wants rewards in some shape and form from as many as possible after working hard.

In this case, he knows that his parents will be happy with whatever he does, as long as he doesn't nuke another country, but having Dinos is another thing. He does remember some of his classmates talking about them a while ago.

So, yeah. He does want to show off, and Sirin will film their trip.

"Anyway, let me finish these, and then we can cuddle and maybe edit the videos you have stored away." 

"Who—" The while-haired girl stopped midway with her complaint about cuddling and sighed as she knew there was no point in arguing with him, as she knew he could do something to her again.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing, just finish your boy things, and then we can…cuddle." She slightly blushed before returning to her reading.

~~~~~~Two Days Later~~~~~~

A green and blue circle manifested just outside of Permian Earth. Confiscator left the circle and turned towards the Earth.

The girls were already waiting in the hangar for the vessel to approach the planet so that they could begin their animal-gathering operations.

"...How many years have passed?" Jeanne asked the assistant.

"Just around 3 million, give and take. It took an extra day because we needed to cross the distance from reality to reality. It was a considerably short one because we went to one next door. For example, to reach the reality of Sirin over there, we would need to fly for around ten days." Quinella explained as he motioned towards Sirin, who was with Marcus at the bridge at the moment.

Even after the day limit passed, she remained oddly close to him, which annoyed the assistant who wanted to cuddle, not to mention Gu Yuena, who was waiting for her time.

"...Umm, if it took that long, how did Master transport her to his submarine." Le Fay asked curiously as she was taking notes.

"That's because he was building a spiritual bridge. It's like magnet fishing: You throw in the magnet and pull back with whatever the magnet holds.

Spiritual is far smaller and far less power-hungry than the physical aspect of travelling." She explained to the witch maid.

"So couldn't we link spiritually first and then breach with the physical realm?" The pale blonde maid pondered out loud.

"Possible, but to breach that, you need to pay around 80% of the whole energy needed for the cross-over, considering you would need to add a converter alongside, meaning that you need to pay around 150% times more energy than you initially have allocated, maybe more depending on what you wanted to transmit to the other side." The assistant explained as she brushed her hair.

"I am more interested in these." But then Atalanta interrupted as she was getting bored listening to interdimensional travelling and all that drivel.

"What is with the land vehicles?" the lion girl asked, looking interested in the off-road bike.

"Master is branching out. He feels that he didn't explore enough of Carboniferous, so he wants to explore it in a more traditional sense."

"And the butterfly effect?" she asked the assistant in a curious tone as the dog's tail moved from side to side.

"The tyres are special as they deploy a small barrier of a layer. The bike doesn't leave the trail, but you will get the feeling that your bike still touches the land," Quinella explained with a raised finger as she liked the new tyre technology.

"...Oh…" She licked her lips as she found herself wanting one!

"Yes, so if you want one, you need to ask Master."

"I will, don't worry about that." The lion girl will find her way.

Seeing such confidence in the maid made Quinella frown for a second, but she quickly brushed it aside and summoned her hologram to show the current world map.

"Just like Carboniferous, we have two seasons here. However, these seasons only apply to the coastal areas and the chains of islands in the super ocean of Panthalassic, the smaller Paleo-Tethys Ocean, and the slightly bigger Tethys Ocean.

The rest of the Supercontinent gets no rain because of how big it is. The rain clouds can't reach it."

"I thought this was much later," Erina said with crossed arms as she looked at the map.

"No, it already has started, but the process is far slower than you can imagine. It takes around 30 thousand and plus years for the vegetation to retreat and die from a lack of liquids. But you should remember that trees have roots and can drink water from underground," the assistant explained to the chef girl.

"I see it does make sense." 

As they were discussing the 'girl friendlier' world, Marcus and Sirin arrived at the hangar.

"The Assimilator construction has begun. The game to collect points has started. You have around four days until the Assimilator is completed, " he said to them as he walked over to his recently completed SUV and Bike.

The bike can be attached to the back as he based this on one of the Jeep models. 

It's not an exact model; he only has some pictures to base it on. 

"And what will you be doing?" Erina asked him as she saw the car and the bike. Is he planning to travel around the planet?

"Exploring with these," he replied to her before making a hand motion. His clothes changed into a white T-shirt and military camouflage cargo shorts with side pockets. Of course, he had leather gloves for driving because it was 'cool' and blue Adidas sneakers. He looked like a tourist.

"And the butterfly effect?" 

"We are in Permian, Erina. More than 298 million years away. We can only leave a trail on wetlands with clay. 

But most of the trails we will leave this time around are on sand. But even then, I had already made preparations for it. These two don't leave trails." He motioned at the vehicles.

"Right, boys?"

At that moment, the pair of vehicles swiftly transformed into robots. The Jeep was white, and the bike was silver. Both had light colours because of how hot the planet would become in the upcoming millions of years.

"You got it, boss!" 

"Yo!"

The pair greeted the maids and his creations.

"...Let me guess, Transformers versus Dinosaurs?" Sirin asked him while gazing at the machines and then at him.

"Sorta? I mean, I want to see a transformer wrestle a dinosaur, something like Tarbosaurus. They apparently were slightly more dangerous than T-Rex in crunching competition, but that's debatable. We will be able to test ourselves, " he replied while stroking his chin.

"And your clothes?" Erina walked over to his side, feeling slightly jealous. Will he be able to experience the planet properly? She had the urge to remove her helmet many times on the Carboniferous Earth. But the planet's oxygen levels were too dangerous for humans, enchanted or not.

"I have updated our suit devices. The new casual mode allows us to experience the planet, but at the same time, no bacteria leaves bodies; the nanites around us collect and dispose of them." He explained as they could still see the triangle-shaped device on his chest. He then showed them his hand, which was 'naked,' but then if one could focus on him more closely, they could see that there was an 'invisible' layer around his body.

"...That's great."

The girl proceeded to check, but by this point, everyone already changed into casual wear. 

"So, how many of us can come with you?" Atalanta asked him as she was eyeing the bike. 

"Four? I mean, you could fly around, but it will eventually become boring." Marcus shrugged at her as he looked at the Jeep.

He will use his bike, and the Jeep has four proper seats, so it is four. But then he can switch and give the bike to one of his girls. 

'Hmm, that depends if they want to drive it.'

"Great! Then I am coming with you." The lion maid swiftly grabbed his hand.

"Same with me." Sirin grabbed his other hand as she felt her territory was being encroached.

She had been close to him for the past three days. She won't lose that streak.

"Then I will come as well." Quinella brushed her hair while declaring her intentions.

"Sure." Marcus doesn't mind at all the company.

"Then you will need a chef because I think you will be away for several days, " Erina said after thinking about what to do.

"Erina-sama!" Hisako panicked as she witnessed what happened.

"Hmm? What? I do have the suit. Nothing will happen to me."

"There is no way you are coming as well!" Jeanne grabbed Hisako.

"One chef leaving is bearable, but both? That is unacceptable." the Maid Saint pulled the girl towards their 'camp'.

"...But…"

"There is no were safer than being with our Master in a whole prehistoric world." Le Fay chipped in as she was nervous, too. Without a chef, they could be eating the same old stuff!

"...But…I am her secretary."

"Yes, but there is nothing you need to manage at this moment." Jeanne countered her argument.

"Indeed, you should join us to fish first. We need to taste the fish. It has been more than twenty million years since we took a dip in these waters!" Hippolyta said with a grin.

"...I suppose I will join you." Hisako gave up because she was worried Marcus would corrupt her, Miss.

"Good."

The same could be said with the pair of Goddesses who missed the chance to explore with him.

They were just a second too late. They hoped he would pick them up, but sadly, the girls themselves didn't want to wait.

[Sir, we are approaching the drop-off point north of Antarctica.]

As Aurora said that, the hangar doors opened, and everyone walked to see the landmasses below.

They could see bits and pieces of ice, some gravel and vegetation.

The temperature was around -10 Celsius. 

"We will be going east from where, towards Australia, then climb up and go back to the west, rinse and repeat until we cross the whole of Pangaea, " he said with a smirk.

"...won't that take weeks with cars?"

Erina asked with a worried tone. She doesn't mind travelling but for that long?

She was worried.

"Well, yeah, we need to cross the supercontinent." He said with an eye roll.

He then turned and faced his robots.

"Boys! You are up!"

"Sure thing, let's roll out!"

The pair of robots rushed forward, jumping from the hangar, transforming mid-air, and then landing on the ground without sound.

And they dropped a considerable height!

But thanks to the technomancy installed in them, the concept of space and gravity acts according to how they want.

When Marcus saw them do the most transformer-like thing, he smirked as he followed them and jumped from the hangar.

The four girls who would be travelling with him followed right after him as they flew out.

"I guess we will proceed with collecting animals from his era." Athena turned to the side and faced the group.

"We will start with the sea." Enterprise looked at Tirpitz while saying that.

"Agreed."

"Then take the right ocean, and we will take the left one, " the maids replied to the Ship girls.

"Fine by me." The silver-haired carrier ship nodded before proceeding to fly out with Tirpitz.

One by one, the large group split into smaller ones. They all decided to explore and collect the animals, as this time around, there were barely any large bugs left!

~~~

Marcus and the girls landed on the ground, and they walked to the SUV and the bike.

Atalanta was looking at the bike. Her hands were twitching. She wanted to drive this thing!

"You know, if you want to drive the bike, then do it. We will switch tomorrow." The inventor saw how she was acting around the bike. It's hard not to pick it up.

"A-Are you sure?" The Huntress was slightly self-conscious after realising that her behaviour had been noticed.

"Yes, as I said, you can have it for a whole day while I will drive the Jeep." He said with a shrug as he walked to the SUV.

"Alright!" The girl exclaimed with a happy voice as she walked to the bike and inspected it.

"...Umm, how do I start it? There is no key or anything." She asked him before he got into the SUV.

"You don't. It's a self-aware transformer. If you want to drive, you can." As Marcus said, he got into the driver's seat in the white SUV. 

Sirin swiftly rushed to the passenger seat. Quinella clicked her tongue as she was too late, making her sit in the back while Erina was the last to get into the car.

"Oh, I see." The girl ended up sitting on the bike, and the pseudo-electric M.T.M engine turned on.

With the handle squeezed and pushed down, the bike moved, and the back wheel rapidly dug into the gravel before quickly accelerating.

"D-Damn!" The Lion maid needed a second to get the hang of it as she swiftly realised that this thing was a beast!

"Don't lose focus. I made it powerful. The distance we will need to cross is not small." Marcus contacted her via the HUD. They may look like they had casual clothes, but the 'suit' was on either way, and they could use all the perks.

"Yeah, I can see that." The lioness smirked as she got faster and moved through the semi-arid land at absurd speed, weaving around the boulders left by the retreating glaciers.

"Well, we should not get left behind." Marcus slightly smirked as she saw her disappearing in the distance.

He pressed the accelerator, and the SUV's engine turned on, and they also started to accelerate.

Erina wanted to comment that their trip could be bumpy with no existing road, but to her surprise, it was like they were driving on asphalt.

'I guess those barriers are a game changer.'

Eventually, the trip got into high gear as they moved rapidly through the arid land.

~~~

Several hours later, when everyone was relaxing instead of Marcus, who was having the time of his life, driving an SUV at absurd speed through prehistoric wilderness, he stopped his car as he noticed something in the distance.

"Hmm? Something you found?" Sirin, who was reading a book, stopped and looked at him.

"Yeah. look at that!" He pointed at the distance.

"Is that a Dimetrodon… I think?" the girl replied, needing to double-check her prehistoric animals.

"Yes! And they live around ponds and swamps, hunting for amphibians and ancient sharks."

"...Sharks in ponds?" Sirin looked confused for a second.

"Duh… you will see crocodiles in trees in Triassic." Marcus eye-rolled at her for such a comment as he swiftly left his car and rushed towards the animal.

The girls followed him as they arrived at the wet area. From the side, it looked like swampy lowlands around a river delta in the distance. There was quite a bit of water here.

"We are so close to the actual Antarctic, but lizards like these live here." Erina was surprised. The temperature was still around -2 Celsius.

"Their huge sails on their back allow them to store and regulate heat," Quinella explained as they looked at Marcus, fearlessly approaching the clueless Dimetrodon.

"While they are considered lizards, we don't truly know if they are cold-blooded or warm-blooded until we make sure with blood samples and scan their bodies." The assistant explained with crossed arms.

"All we have is the fossils of their bones. The palaeontologists came up with their theories after inspecting their fossils." As she explained, they saw how Dimetrodon tried to bite Marcus, but after several times, the animal realised that it couldn't bite through him. Instead, it started to feel threatened and started to run away.

"I know that much. So it appears it is not cold-blooded."

"Maybe it is cold-blooded, but it has developed organs we don't know about which can maintain its heat. There have been millions of years of evolution. Their species have been around for millions of years since the late Carboniferous. They survived the peak of the ice age. We are still in the waning years of an ice age, but these things survived." Quinella watched how Marcus pinned down the apex predator of the Early Permian era.

"Umm, what is he doing to that poor animal?" Erina started to feel pity for that Dimetrodon.

"Pretty sure he is scanning him." Quinella tried to understand herself, but it looked like Marcus was treating that wild beast like a house cat…

~~~

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