Ah. The great outdoors.

Rob stuffed his earbuds in his ears and smiled, taking a deep breath of the early morning air. Crisp, clean, and perfect. With his iPod strapped to his upper arm and his favourite tunes being piped straight into his ears, he tied his shoelaces and left home at a quick jog. This early in the morning, barely anyone was out and about, but he was used to it. It gave him quiet time. Time to think.

Numbers constantly ran through his head. Mostly from his algebra and math homework, but he saw patterns almost everywhere he looked. In the cafe where he worked, in school, at home, even in nature patterns existed. They were part of the will of some higher being on some higher plane of existence, permeating every fibre of the mortal world. Normally his mind wouldn't work this way but because he was of the Blue Time, he had since gained a natural forte with numbers.

He thought back to his first encounter with the Blue Time; just over a year ago he'd stumbled onto the Secret Hour completely by accident when he was staying up to finish a last minute essay for his English class. The world around him, though he barely realised it, became indistinct and foreign as he scribbled on his lecture pad, and it was only when he'd finished that he realised that his alarm clock had stopped precisely at midnight. A strange occurence, no doubt, and as he explored his hosue and the neighbourhood outside he realised that what he was experiencing was uniquely his and his alone.

Well, not exactly. Upon exiting the garage of his house, he was almost immediately attacked by this strange dark creature that looked like a wild cat but was obviously different. It was only through the timely intervention of a fellow not affected by the strange frozen time phenomena that gave him the information he needed to survive, shortly before he was knocked unconscious and dragged away to parts unknown.

He tried to follow, of course. Armed with his baseball bat, rather hastily named "Actualisation", he chased after the creature that had taken his saviour and after an extended chase managed to track it down and killed it dead. Thanking him for his timely intervention, the seer and he parted ways, and he never saw the strange young man again. However, he knew now how to defend himself against the darkness that would cause him harm.

But what he didn't know was who he would meet on his adventures through the Secret Hour. Or the troubles they would seek.