The Time Stone

by Jeffrey Estrella

  “This is a corporate office.” He looked out the window and saw the Central Tower.

  “We’re back in Chronix Bay!” They both shouted.

  “Very good, now tell me what that is.” The beast Satyr stood before them as he was surrounding a globe with a switch and knob control panel device revealed underneath it as previously hidden and he approached them snakingly with both clawed hands open and palms up as he pointed his long outstretched index finger claw towards the object in James’ hand.

  BOOM, the door bust open in the secret chamber in Brazil because of an explosion. Broad and his entourage entered the room with the alter to find no activity and no one.

  “I knew my explosives would work” said Mr. Cumberberry.

  “Where are we?” Said Hightower.

  “We are too late,” said Broad touching the alter and feeling heat from recent activity and seeing and deciphering the language on the alter for himself. He squeezed behind the crevice of the alter and felt his hand through the wall behind it but found nothing.

  “Wow, how did you do that?” Said Elizabeth. “What were you seeking?”

  “It’s gone!!!” He yelled angrily. “We’re too late. It could be anywhere in time or space.”

  CHAPTER 44

  In the office in Chronix Bay, James and Tina ran seeing the Satyr in his true form in Chronix Bay.

  “What is that thing?” Asked James.

  “Looks kind of like a Satyr like in Greek mythology” screamed Tina.

  “He seems pretty non mythical to me” said James.

  “I will take that artifact. Give it to me!” Screamed Satyr.

  “What is that?” James stopped and saw a circular disc like device near the control panel where Satyr was working. It had a face in the middle and a series of animal like drawings around it.

  Tina saw it and gasped, “it’s the Aztec Sun Stone.”

  “Damn, you are brilliant.” Said James.

  “Yes and I will use it to summon more of my brethren from beyond the void, hand me the artifact now.” Said Satyr.

  “Never” yelled James tossing it to Tina and then she ran as he got closer to her she tossed it back to James and they continued this game of mystic keep away laughingly until Satyr grabbed Tina by the hair with his clawed hands and pulled her to the ground and pounced on top of her. He was going to strike her face with his clawed hands when he felt some sharp sensation in his back as James had stuck an envelope opener in his back.

  “Arrgghhhh”, yelled Satyr in agonizing pain.

  Tina tossed the artifact to James and then both saw a marble inlaid table whose top appeared removable in the center of the room and knew what they must do. They looked at one another in conformity as Satyr rose and yelled “I will curse you both and destroy you!” Shaking his fist as he struggled wildly grasping for the opener in his back but he could not reach it. He lunged at the duo running towards them from the open window behind him and they ran to him, lifted the marble tabletop and James boosted it up above their heads with a wave of his hands sending it flying into Satyr as he ran into it knocking him back towards the window and turned it outside before letting it go outside, James and Tina following in tow where James held the object out of the window and let it go as it touched Satyr and a stream of yellow swirling energy emerged out of the object and the swirling gilded vortex illuminated the daylight below hovering in midair and Satyr fell into the vortex, a swirl of light grabbing him and transforming him into a ball of gold energy and sucking it into the vortex, which quickly vanished thereafter.

  “Wow, that was close,” said James.

  “You don’t say” Tina added.

  “Too bad I had to give up that device, it was pretty amazing.”

  “Who said we had to give it up, buddy?” Tina put out her hand and held the object before them. “It’s called the old five finger discount remember.” She joked.

  “Well done.” Said James taking the device. “Now what do we do with this.” Said James as they looked at the Sunstone.

  “There is an insert in the back for the object,” said Tina looking around it. “That’s what Satyr wanted to do. Good thing we stopped him, right James?”

  “Right.” Said James.

  Then suddenly a man in a suit entered. “Hello, who are you and what are you two doing in my office?”

  “Oh hi… that is a good question.” “Said James.

  Yeah, we were just lost.” Said Tina.

  “I’m Broad Staffnight. CEO of Temporo, Inc. and who are you?”

  “James Timewalker.”

  “And Tina Prescott.”

  “Right,” Broad walked around to his desk. “I heard about you. You guys are wanted on the news for questioning by the police, murder was it?” Said Broad acting innocently.

  “We didn’t do it” said Tina. Then she looked at James and whispered, “he was the one who pointed us out at the airport. I remember it.”

  “I know” replied James.

  “Right,” Broad said sarcastically and picked up the phone at his desk. Tina and James looked at one another frightened as Broad dialed. “Yes, Mildred. Tell security we have them. That’s right, the pair from TV, delivered right to our doorstep. They say the hand of God works in mysterious ways.” He smirked. “You know what to do, Sweetheart. Thanks.” He hung up the phone. “You know we’ve almost given up on you. We were ready to go look for it ourselves.” Broad walked over to them from his desk.

  “Look for what?” Asked James.

  “This,” Broad approached James and snatched the emerald out of his hands.

  “Wait, you mean...” Tina started but was interrupted.

  “That’s right,” said Broad speculating “we are the ones meant for the power this possesses. You two just fluked your way into this by chance. We were the ones who set you up. We needed the most obvious patsies and you fell for it hook, line, and sinker. You don’t even know how to handle it. Now we will finish what was begun.” He spoke sinisterly as he approached the sunstone and without hesitation inserted the object into the back of the sunstone.

  Within seconds, the sunstone began glowing bright green. The lights in the office flickered and soon shut off completely, leaving the only luminescence from the bright green sun stone that began spinning clockwise around the perimeter and the central face of the Ancient God of Death began spinning counterclockwise. James and Tina looked at it fiercely.

  “What is going on?” Screamed Tina.

  “So you see there is nothing else you can do. Soon we will have all the power and the control over both sides. The lights from buildings seen from the window began to blink off and soon the entire city was in a black out.

  “What’s going on?” Asked Tina.

  “I think that thing is draining power from every source around us.” Said James. “The object from Brazil is acting as a natural electric stimulant. Remember when we thought the alter was some kind of charger for the object? We were wrong. It’s the other way around, the object was a charger for the alter and same is being done here but it harnesses its own energy from outside sources, wherever it can find, once activated.”

  “So how do we stop it?” Asked Tina.

  “You are a very smart man, James Timewalker” said Broad. “But you are too late. The face of Tonatiuh is still and brightest, which means there is enough power to fulfill our destiny and bridge the gap in our greatest achievement, our greatest experiment, our true meaning.” He raised both hands up and then extended his right arm to the center face of the sunstone and pressed it. Within seconds, a spiral golden yellow beam of light emerged from the combined objects magnified in green light and shot out into the daylight sky and blacked out city out of the open window unleashing a portal vortex ten times as large as previously seen by the duo James and Tina.

  “James, that is huge.” Said Tina.

  “Yeah, look…” James pointed as they saw out of the window as a series of golden orbs emerged from the portal dematerializing before their very
eyes, integrating with the normal flow of reality around them and as each one formed, Tina saw a piece of the sunstone blinked green as it continued to spin around making a jagged sound.

  “James, look its blinking. Each different animal figure or beast…” started Tina.

  “And then they form out there from the orbs.” Finished James.

  They saw several beasts arrive in their home town, one with long antlers, one with wings like a falcon, one with a snout like a pig, and several with appearances like lions and ladies. The most profound were those with heads and chests like ladies and bodies like eagles.

  “They’re harpies, James.” Said Tina referring to the last to be emitted from the circle.

  “Hahaha” Broad laughed continuously. The door opened and a well-dressed middle-aged woman with glasses and two armed security guards entered the office. Broad turned and smiled, “lock these two up.” He pointed to them and the officers ran to them with guns drawn.

  “James, we can’t let them take us in.” Shouted Tina.

  “Right.” James waved his hand and the guns flew out of the officers’ hands and out of the window. Tina stepped forward and lunged with a punch at one of the officers and he moved back and she fell on top of him and they struggled on the ground. James did a roundhouse kick and attacked at the other officer as the officer reached for his baton. James grabbed the baton and used it to strike the officer on the head knocking him out and then he waved his fingers up curling them and the belt of the officer struggling with Tina flew up along with the officer and to the left then with a sudden drop on top of the other officer.

  “Those powers. I see you are the legendary ‘holder’ and I thought you were just a myth but then again I though the same thing about the sunstone.” Said Broad. The middle-aged woman ran out screaming. James helped Tina up and the duo stood facing Broad. “Very, very good. But not good enough.” Yelled Broad. “I have a much stronger fighting force at my disposal.” He pulled out a remote control from his breast pocket, a small metal box with a single red switch, which he flicked with his finger and instantly one of the harpies flew by the window and grew to one hundred times her normal size, about the size of a skyscraper and she landed on the floor causing shockwaves and tremors to the citizens of Chronix Bay. She walked, each step like a miniature earthquake, and knocked down signs, billboards, and the tops of buildings with her arms swinging wildly and wings behind her stretching out destroying anything and everything in their path.

  “James, can your powers affect that thing?” Screamed Tina.

  “I can’t affect living things.” He waved his hand at the harpy and nothing happened. “See?”

  “We got to do something. She is destroying the city.” Said Tina.

  “There is nothing you can do.” Said Broad. “They don’t wear clothing. Hahaha.”

  Then within moments, the spinning sunstone began glowing wildly on its individual parts representing individual figures or beasts and deities, each one lighting up in a synchronistic pattern and then the light, bright orange on the silvery disk began fusing to the central figure and spitting outward in pellets of orange colored energy out the window and around the room. “Whoa” James moved back in shock as the light balls hurled out the window and into the sky towards various focal directions as if acting on some inordinate predetermined set of intelligent instructions from somewhere.

  “The guardians are free. This is not what was supposed to be.” Broad said regretfully.

  “Huh?” James beckoned forward curiously.

  CHAPTER 45

  Miles away sixteen armored tanks and fourteen helicopters were ready and moving towards the city of Chronix Bay, under the command of the United States Army, Corps of Special Ops headed by Commander Sergeant Felix Ramrod. He was an aged soldier with a grit iron, stern wit, set of strong teeth, and crooked smile, chewing lightly on a toothpick as he sat in his seat of the command Humvee heading up the project.

  “We are almost there, Sir” said Private Corporal Lance Davis, a cocky twenty-five year old that was selected by Ramrod for the project because of his demolitions expertise. “We are being told by radio that the situation in Chronix Bay is growing critical. There is a state of emergency. We are dispatched by the City Order. There is a giant … beast… a harpy… or something attacking the city.”

  “Don’t worry, kid. We are on the way. It is not something I haven’t dealt with before.” Barked Ramrod smoking his large cigar.

  The tanks and copters arrive and pull up near the Central Tower. People are scattering everywhere from the debris falling from the skies being knocked down by the destructive rampage of the giant harpy. The army corps set up their gear as quickly as they could.

  “Get some trip wire and C4 all over the area. Clear all civilian and non-essential personnel immediately.” Yelled Ramrod at the top of his lungs as his puffed a large cigar. He put on his hardhat and held a black box detonator for the explosives. The portal faded and the harpy continued her rampage.

  “The C4 is set, Sir.” Yelled Davis.

  “Good, on my mark, we are gonna blast that piece of space trash to kingdom come.”

  CHAPTER 46

  “Why are you doing this?” Asked Tina.

  “My dear, this is only the beginning. We opened a portal to their world. The experiment was an accident but the purpose was fated by higher powers. We are after complete control of everything and we have no rival who can match us toe to toe on our best day not even the legendary holder.” He looked at James and shook his head. “A mere bum of a man.”

  “Wait, you’re forgetting one thing” said Tina.

  “What is that?” Asked Broad annoyed.

  Tina walked over to him and caressed his face and pinched his cheek. “Maybe you want to take me for a ride.” She spoke seductively and provocatively. “I don’t want to go back to jail and will do absolutely anything to avoid it, you know? I don’t work for this bum of a man,” beckoning to James.

  “Tina, what are you doing?” Said James curiously.

  “He tried to get me to do some horrible things. He was abusive, vile, disgusting, using his powers he threatened to kill me if I didn’t follow him. He made me get on my knees for him.” Tina shook her head pitifully as she spoke openly and Broad turned to her and grabbed her by the wrists.

  “I may enjoy …having my way with you. But now….”

  Tina frowned then smirked as she beckoned to James who saw her cue and started to make his way towards the sunstone.

  Broad saw him and released Tina as he reached out to grab James and the two men grabbed one another by the shirts and were locked in a sudden struggle.

  “You fool.” Broad yelled.

  “I’ll show you who the fool is” James swung at Broad and struck his face while Broad quickly recovered so she struck back. Then the two men exchanged repeated blows. Tina ran to the sunstone and removed the emerald from the back of the sunstone simultaneously shutting it off and stopping it from spinning and lighting up.

  “I got it.” Screamed Tina.

  “Get it away from here,” yelled James as he struggled in a blow for blow contact with Broad. James realized he was not the stronger man physically but tried his best to withstand the blows.

  Tina feared, “I can’t leave you.”

  “Go!!!” Yelled James during the struggle.

  Tina ran down the stairwell all the way to the first floor and exited the building. A young blonde girl with curls, about ten years old, sat in the nearby building happily observing the situation, as she was missed during the army sweep of the area for civilians. Tina stood outside of the building and looked around and saw the military station not too far away. She saw the harpy approaching from a few blocks away having seen her with the object.

  “Oh, so it’s this that you want huh, you overgrown canary?” She yelled in a rhetorical inquisitive verse as she ran with the object towards the military group and the harpy began to accelerate towards them. Davis and Ramrod saw her.
/>   “Who is that, Sir?” Asked Davis.

  “I said clear all civilian personnel. Arrest her.” Screamed Ramrod.

  Tina ran over and saw that Davis and a dozen armed soldiers were pointing guns at her head. She put her hands up and stopped running. “Wait a minute.”

  “Madam, you’re under arrest by the United States Army. Drop that… whatever it is,” said Davis.

  “You don’t understand…” Tina said beckoning to the armed soldiers as the harpy ran towards them and they all dropped their attention from her and aimed at the harpy who posed a much larger threat, literally.

  “Fire” said Davis and they all shot up at the harpy simultaneously without effect.

  “Let me try.” Tina said as she held the emerald up and twisted it slightly concentrating it towards the sun’s rays and a beam of golden yellow spiral energy emerged and shot up passed the harpy and opened the portal vortex once again. “Damn, missed” said Tina.

  “Wow,” said Davis. All of the men were shocked.

  “Take this, you birdbrain.” Ramrod pressed his detonator ignoring the portal vortex. An explosion erupted from the C4 before the towers and knocked the harpy back. Tina and Davis took cover with the other soldiers. Ramrod pressed the detonator again and again and again causing multiple explosions and knocking the harpy back towards the portal. Ramrod laughed as he pulled the explosive device triggers with a chuckle for each blast. Then the explosions stopped. “Damn, we are out of ammo” Ramrod yelled as his detonator did not function. “I said more C4 next time, damn it”

  “Next time?” questioned Davis.

  “We are screwed” said Tina as she saw the harpy furiously roar into the sky and begin to fly up to swoop down on them. Then suddenly as the harpy was swooping down towards their position, a bolt of hot white lightning flew out of the cloudless sky from another portal that opened up in the distance only for an instance and struck the harpy knocking her back and flying straight back into the portal waiting behind her. As she flew back, the large body and wings fluttered the air and caused cars to topple over and buildings to fall and the young girl with blonde curls, who was hiding in an alleyway between two buildings nearby overlooked by the sweep of the army corps the first time, was suddenly absorbed by the gust of wind and knocked into the portal with the harpy. The young blonde girl let loose a blood curdling scream as she fell into the portal and it subsequently faded.