The Time Stone

by Jeffrey Estrella

  Mercedes stood and watched and frowned in empathy. “Uh, Tina. Can I talk to you?”

  “Sure” she stepped away patting Jenny assuring her it was going to be alright.

  Tina and Mercedes stepped to the side of the tent as Jenny wandered off into the next room and re-clothed her head and face.

  “You thinking what I’m thinking?” Asked Mercedes.

  “Yeah, it is very likely she is from the future too” said Tina.

  “Uh, more like an absolute certainty. That means she might have inadvertently found the Time Stone on her dig. It must be around here somewhere.”

  “Not necessarily. Seven thousand odd years have passed. It might be anywhere.”

  “It’s a start.” Said Mercedes looking towards her shorter comrade.

  “Yeah. We should get back to market. I don’t feel right leaving her here by herself when that brute could return any time now.”

  “Yeah, Jenny” Said Mercedes calling out and Jenny came out of the back room. Then suddenly before they could speak, a loud eruption emanated from the outside like a car backfire discharge. They went outside and saw a masked man jumping out of the back of an oxcart and who started attacking the villagers and turning over tables of goods and food. He was a shirtless man with a muscular build and long silk pants but a strange metal mask over his entire heads, large and protruding in the shape of a pentagon and his eyes began to glow a bright orange, with mechanical underpinnings in the nose and mouth area like a strange breathing apparatus but with moving parts that twisted in and out like flower petals blossoming. They also had metallic transplants grafted onto their arms with a gun barrel on each arm. The masked man knocked over an oxcart and then jumped up and stood on the overturned oxcart as he held out his arm cannons and fired them back into the crowd emitting projectiles of lead and fire into the people and tents. One after the other exploded in utter horror. He stood and appeared to laugh as his mask moved up and down and the twisting petals on his breathing apparatus moved faster. Tina, Mercedes, and Jenny stood in horror at the site. The trio stood helplessly looking around and saw the endless suffering appearing to them like it might have well been a slow motion replay. They knew they had to do something.

  “This is wrong” said Tina.

  Mercedes looked at her with a sincere look and straight face.

  “We got to go” said Jenny. They nodded in agreement as he appeared to be recharging his arm cannons by a small indicator on the devices as he set his eyes on their tent.

  “What about these people?” Screamed Tina.

  “There is nothing we can do” said Mercedes. The three women ran as they heard a loud explosion behind them and kept running as the tent they previously occupied burned in a large scale inferno blast behind them. The masked man jumped away and ran off.

  The three women ran towards another part of the village that was currently being evacuated as people ran around screaming after hearing of the horrors in the grand arena. Tina saw Drax and yelled out to him as he had been talking to a tall slender gentleman in the native language in his attempt to negotiate for supplies that were not going too well due to their shortage of funds. The merchant was frantic to get away after observing the chaos in town. Drax turns and sees them running towards him. He waved goodbye regretfully to his new merchant contact and walks towards them.

  “What the heck happened?” Screamed Drax.

  “Masked man… had guns from the future.” Gasped Tina.

  “Great Caesars Ghost” screamed Drax in the midst of a sea of passerby people. He pointed up as his eyes widened with shock and they all turned and saw the masked man surrounded by a small army of about half a dozen men just like him. “Let’s go” yelled Drax as the masked men jumped off their stands and appeared to hover downward on a cushion of thin air. The lead man jumped upward firing his arm cannons into the crowd. The bodies begin to pile up on top of one another and the other masked men join in and run into the midst. One cut through the corpses with lightning fast running speed and trampled them with his heavy boots vaporizing the dead and another ran upwards in midair like he was climbing a flight of invisible stairs and stepped on the heads of the living ones crushing them down to the size of a walnut with a fiery pressure from his large metallic boots creviced with a series of small projectile launchers letting forth little missiles into the charred remains of the victim. The masked man laughed as the victim lay on the floor and was being fired at by the arm weapon. A third ran and dropped kick an innocent family of four trying to flee the violence and fired several small missiles from the soles of his boots when he was in midair and vaporized them all upon contact and then landing on his feet in the spot that they once stood. The others engaged in similar violent acts. Drax reached for his hidden sidearm and rolled forward aiming at the lead masked man and fired a series of shots at him. The bullets fizzled in midair right before hitting him and vanished in a flash of orange light. Drax’s jaw dropped in awe, “they got some type of energy shielding around them. Run!!!” Drax and his entourage were scattering throughout the crazy maze of remaining bodies and charred corpses as well as the crying moans of the living who were escalating in fear and panic in the enfeebled horror unfolding before their eyes. The still silence was a lot for them to handle and things seemed to unfold in an almost continuous slow motion melodrama depicting the harsh realities of insolent death, slaughter, genocide, and senseless violence.

  “James” yelled Tina, “use your powers”. James nodded as he ran over to the masked men and flung his arms wildly with all his might aiming at the masked man’s metallic components but the energy shield began to fizzle with a bright orange glow leaving the man remaining in his stance angrily approaching them.

  “It didn’t work” James yelled. Drax and his friends stood and watched, powerless to interfere and face such lethal adversaries with firepower beyond theirs at the time. They run off trying to assist as many of the fragile and wounded and survivors, getting them to safety but could not move them all. Some ran off and others were crushed by the strong force of the violent marauders before them.

  Drax recalled the old adage “better to run and live to fight another day” especially since staying meant certain death. They ran off away from the village square. Three of the masked men pursued them and jumped onto small vehicles shaped like motorcycles that hovered off the ground and were previously hidden behind some crates. The masked men rode off after the forgotten ones not stopping until all were eliminated. The hovering motorcycles were long and had a finish made out of a shimmering blue alloy that brightened in the sunlight and they increased their speed. James, Tina, Mercedes, and Jenny duck down behind a box of metal crates helplessly watching but avoiding the onslaught. One hovering motorcycle past by Drax nearly knocking him down. He ducks as another hovering motorcycle arrives and Drax seizes the window of opportunity and jumps up behind the masked man riding the hovering motorcycle and rides with the masked man until Drax shoves the masked man off and takes control of the hovering motorcycle. Another masked man followed Drax on his hovering motorcycle and presses a button on the handle bars firing several small concentrated yellow energy pellets at Drax striking his hovering motorcycle throwing him off course. Drax maneuver’s around while spiraling in midair and comes about successfully returning fire and the masked man fires back as they head towards one another at super-fast speeds, the pellets from one another’s handle gun bounce off their respective energy shields with a glowing orange hot light. The masked man fires repeatedly towards the underbelly of Drax’s hovering motorcycle but Drax maneuvers his hovering motorcycle dodging the pellets as his hovering motorcycle raised up and off to be then chased by two more masked men on hovering motorcycles. As Drax moves his hovering motorcycle from left to right swinging it, he uses the momentum to flip it up and spiral about near an approaching stone wall just as the masked men race by him and are unable to stop crashing into the wall. Their energy shields fizzle as the hovering motorcycles repel from the wall and land
on the ground with their now unconscious riders. Drax rides off into the storm of yet another group of masked men on hovering motorcycles that are firing their pellets at Drax’s hovering motorcycle. Drax returns fire and keeps firing as the glowing bright orange energy shield then appears as the pellets strike the masked men’s’ hovering motorcycles, the same for Drax’s hovering motorcycle having an energy shield as well, and a barrage of small yellow projectile lines appear between them back and forth as they are accelerating towards one another and Drax aims his handle bars downward and fired a new series of yellow energy missiles that struck the underbelly of the masked man’s hovering motorcycle directly before Drax and blowing it up and the masked man’s hovering motorcycle falls to the ground as the hover component was knocked out. The masked man’s hovering motorcycle fell to the ground and exploded with him still on board. Drax continued and came about firing at the other bikers and having figured out their Achilles heel and how to knock them down he targeted and moved his handle bars downward first left and then right in a quick continuous motion as he halted his hovering motorcycle to a stop and fired at them striking the hovering motorcycles at one time in rapid succession almost simultaneously in their hover component knocking each down and blowing them up with their riders on board. Drax stood and sighed a heavy breath as he watched the great inferno devour the streets before him and quickly subside.

  After Drax defeated the masked men, he rode to the metal crates where his comrades were hiding behind. “It’s safe now, I think” he said.

  “Who were those masked men?” Said Tina half-jokingly.

  “The Culto!” Said Drax confidently.

  “They look so different from before or later in the future” said Tina laughingly.

  “What? What are they doing here?” Asked James.

  “How did the Culto get here?” Asked Mercedes.

  “They could have originated here” commented Tina. “But those weapons clearly didn’t.”

  “Right” said Drax “they were hired guns commanded by the machination in 2012 but are not just foot soldiers but age old guardians protectors.”

  “Those weapons were more advanced than 2012 though” said Mercedes.

  “Yes, they must be from further down the timeline. They want to harness the power of the time stone. They feel it is their sworn legacy and destiny a birthright, the very thing they were meant to keep and protect. Their plans with the time stone coincide with the fall of the Atlantis empire, the fabled story. They are the direct blood line descendants of those survivors. It fell because of a powerful mystery but it cannot be changed. It is part of prehistory. They still believe like their ancient ancestors that they were destined to rule but that’s a load of crap.” Drax said.

  “How did they get here?” James asked. “The time stone?”

  “They must have used it and wound up trapped here like us or there is something else…there is a story of the last time. It’s an old legend” Drax said “but it basically says about the time stone that when the moon is full at a certain day and time of the year when the night is pure and the balance between times cycles are complete, the time stone can be activated and used in an Omni-directional beacon and transverse the time line to allow for multiple trips anywhere and anytime. Some in the Machination tried to use this technique but most reasonable minds were more pragmatic.”

  “Like you?” Asked Tina.

  “Yeah,” Drax replied “I knew Broad had grown a little unstable. But I would have never thought he would do anything like this.”

  “The night in the rainstorm in the central complex?” Tina asked.

  Drax nodded. “He was trying to pull that off. But it’s impossible.”

  “What do they want?” Asked James.

  “I wish I knew for sure what they wanted here but I can only wager a guess that they were sent here with the Time Stone one way or another.”

  “I am confused” said Mercedes “how could they have it when we had it and now we don’t have it?”

  “Time is variable along all levels of reality and our perception of it is very limited but we at Temporo, Inc. aka the Machination figured out that the Time Stone operates on a quasi-electro-magnetic wavelength sending and receiving what are called tachyon particles throughout the energy grid that feeds our planet and this is part of what makes the opening of the temporal wormhole possible so we can travel backwards and forward through time. Somehow it was designed to vanish every time it is used this way and in order to go back home, you need to find it again in the past time period you land in… but it is very unpredictable sometimes.” Explained Drax.

  “Weird. Who designed such a contraption?” Asked Mercedes.

  “Good question. I’ll let you know when I find out.” Drax said.

  “Wow, you sure know a lot about this time tripping stuff” said Jenny getting up and approaching him “you were awesome in battling those guys.” Jenny walked over removing her headdress and slid her hand down Drax’s face as she smiled provocatively expressing an obvious physical attraction to the well-built physique of the former secret agent.

  “Thanks, I think” Drax smiled in return. “Who is this?” He asked.

  “Jenny, she is from the future too.” Said Tina.

  “Really?” Said James.

  “We should get moving while the daylight is still amongst us. It is a long trip to the mountains” Drax said as they noticed a large crowd of people starting to come to see what the dust settled in after the battle with the Culto warriors.

  “What’s in the mountains?” Asked James as they all rose to their feet.

  “One of the locals here told me a legend about great magical powers like instant transportation being observed in the mountains by some who returned alive barely making it out of there with their lives. He referred to the source of the magic as an ancient relic called ‘the eye of the gods’ and said it was a green crystal small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and glowing with five orbs in the middle, sound familiar?”

  “The Time Stone!” James, Tina, and Mercedes exclaimed almost simultaneously.

  “So it’s over there in this time period?” Mercedes asked inquisitively.

  “It’s not a bad place to start our search. I am confident it is there. By the way, there is nothing else we can do here and we need to get moving before they ask too many questions of us.” Said Drax.

  “I was looking for ‘the eye of the gods’ in the Egyptian desert in 2012 when I was brought here.” Said Jenny “But I never heard of this Time Stone.”

  “It is possible you found it or some other anomaly or storm replicated the conditions of the Time Stone, either way we should work together to get back.” Said Drax.

  “How did you learn about ‘the eye of the gods’? You speak this ancient language?” Asked Jenny.

  “I am fluent in multiple modern and dead languages.” Drax replied.

  “You can come with us” Said Tina looking at Jenny.

  “Thanks. I don’t want to stay here and I am still confused about this ‘being in the past’ stuff.” Said Jenny.

  “Let’s ride” said Drax as he gets on his hovering motorcycle and Jenny hops on behind him holding on to him. Tina runs to one of the hovering motorcycle that fell after bouncing off the stone wall, kicks the rider off, and tries to stand it up alone. James and Mercedes see her struggling and run to her. After they stand up both hovering motorcycles and knock the riders off, James hops on the back of Tina’s hovering motorcycle and Mercedes takes the other one. “God help us!” Exclaimed Jenny as the trio of hovering motorcycles rides off away from the village and into the scorching heat of the open desert afternoon.

  The trek across the desert was long and arduous for the group of adventurers trying to find an ancient artifact that would lead them back home. With surprise a constant variable on their journey and success a virtual uncertainty, their courage remained steadfast and resolve unvanquished on their futuristic modes of transportation hovering at superior speeds above
the hot white sands of the ancient Egyptian landscape desert terrain. The mountains approaching were ominous and fearsome like goliaths overseeing all and the falling rocks and terrifying smoke above their peaks were continuous warnings to those who dare transgress their corridors. As they approached the outskirts of the rocky terrain, they were stopped by a familiar face who they dared never to lay eyes on again.

  “Satyr!” Yells Drax determinedly as the three hovering motorcycles come to a halt as they rode in unison.

  “Greetings old friend” said Satyr, his wings outstretched in the desert extending for yards across the desert, as he stood stretching his large muscular and hairy arms outward, and simultaneously screeching out with his long snout and fangs growling before them as if guarding some terrifying secret within the mountains. “You arrived just in time as they said you would.”

  “Who?” Asked Drax.

  “Never mind that now” Satyr snarled in his raspy voice. “You are never leaving this time period alive, none of you are.” His voice sounded in sincerity and darkness.

  “Well see about that” said Drax he angrily pushed down on his handle bars angrily firing a series of yellow energy pellets towards Satyr and then watched in awe as they fizzled in the air before him in an array of bright orange lights and miniature explosions. Satyr remained smiling.

  “He’s got an energy shield too” screamed James.

  “Everyone fire” yelled Drax and all three hovering motorcycles fired their energy pellets towards Satyr and watched as they fizzled in the air before him in a larger array of bright orange lights and miniature explosions.

  “You cannot harm me” yelled Satyr as he then unleashed his fury and swung his wings wildly back and forth creating a strong wind current and sand to fly around him and towards the trio of hovering motorcycles and their riders who shielded their faces and tried to ride away but were too late as their hovering motorcycles were lifted off the ground by the strong winds and thrown into the sands far a few meters behind them. “Petty Humans, you are so pathetic it is not even funny. We beasts are superior in every form, strength, stamina, intellect, regeneration, and agility. You can never win against a beast on even terms.” Satyr projected his voice over the loud winds as they suddenly became still and the winds died down again settling the sands to their earthen shores. Satyr approached in a stalking manner to the three hovering motorcycles lying in the sands with their riders. The quartet and their archeologist ally rose to their feet seeing the angry beast walk towards them stalking stealthily like a jungle cat. Drax clasped his hands together as he walked forth facing the great beast in the eye and swung at him with his extended arms. Satyr blocked him with one arm and threw him to the side with no effort at all. James ran forward and tried to use his powers by waving his arms rapidly but it had no effect and Satyr who angrily rushed forward and head butted James and sent him flying backwards a few meters. Tina and Mercedes ran to Satyr trying to tackle him down from both sides but he picked them up with his long and muscular arms and tossed them about like rag dolls into the desert sands. Jenny stood before him and ran back towards the hovering motorcycles lying on the desert floor and hid behind them nervously. Satyr walked forward towards Drax who was trying to pick himself up off the desert floor. Satyr raised his huge fists in midair extending upward towards the sky shadowing everything before him. Satyr bellowed with a sinister laugh from his long snout as his beady eyes curled underneath the long pair of swirling horns reaching towards the heavens. Then a loud eruption appeared in the sky above and a flash of light created a swirling yellowish haze that Drax and his colleagues were very familiar with, “the temporal wormhole” muttered Drax under his breath. Within nanoseconds a flashing haze of swirls and energy emerged materializing and formed a creature that crashed down onto the desert sands before them. The creature had a face like a leopard roaring into the air before them with a screeching and humming roar, stood upright with feet and long wings like a hawk, its body like a jackal with hooves for hands. The creature hovered forward with its hawk wings a few feet off of the ground and landed in brief hops as it spotted Satyr and the five humans. The creature roared. Defensively Satyr retreated but then lunged forward to grab the creature.