“I thought human sacrifice went the way of slavery,” said Tina.
“It’s the ancient right of Maldificio. Ritual sacrifice of a traitor.” Drax said.
“What could she possibly have done?” Asked Tina.
“I don’t know.” Said Drax.
“She is very faint” said Mercedes checking the woman’s pulse.
“I think she is trying to say something,” said Drax. He saw her moving her lips with a sense of apprehension. Tina lowered and turned her head to the woman’s mouth and raised her eyebrows as her eyes widened with sudden shock.
“Are you sure?” Asked Tina as she listened again. “Oh my God, OK we’ll take care of it.” The woman then stopped moving and her head dropped to the side.
“I am not getting a pulse, we’re losing her. She needs medical attention now” screamed Mercedes, “I can’t do anything here” she worried looking at her. She’s gone.”
“It’s not your fault.” Said Drax as he saw her weep in mourning for the stranger on the large alter. “What did she say Tina?” Asked Drax.
“There is going to be an attack. She was named Sylvia Armstrong.” Said Mercedes.
“I know her” said Tina. “The news lady.”
“Yeah, she said she was a reporter for CB-13 news and was doing an inside job on Temporo, Inc. and found out they were planning an to sabotage some group across town, a competitor, I don’t know but her discovery must have caused them to accelerate their schedule and they have something in orbit that is going to strike any moment now and cause major destruction.” Said Mercedes.
“That’s why they were trying to sacrifice her. She was discovered.” Said Drax.
“We got to do something” said Mercedes. “This could be what James saw in his vision, what we learned causes the great conflict. A major catastrophic event.”
“Oh no” said Drax. “In theory such a catastrophe could be a temporal divergence that leads to the future the way we saw it. That could be the coming they kept referring to.”
“They?” Asked Mercedes.
“Never mind, we have to go now.” Said Drax as he fiddled with his wrist remote and said “I am summoning the scorpion car to us.”
“I guess this is the better time” Tina smirked looking upward into the roaring winds as the car approached them in mid-air.
Within minutes, they are racing across the air in the scorpion car. “Here, Tina. “Said Drax handing her the handheld scanner and told her to find the weapon.
“How do I do that?” She screamed.
“Follow the yellow lines” said Drax as he pointed to a red button on the front and slider switch. The lines will lead you to a strong energy surge and if it seems there is something big enough to be emanating a radiogenic particle field, hit the red button, OK?”
“Yes sir” she replied holding the device carefully.
“Mercedes, when I say take the wheel; I need you to take the wheel, OK?”
“OK” she said nervously sitting in the seat beside him.
“We got to find this weapon and use the scorpion car’s primary weapon against it before it can be deployed against its target and virtually end the world.” Said Drax.
They both nodded in response to his commands. They raced across the sky at lightning fast speeds.
“I am getting something” said Tina. “It’s very big, radiogenic identified.…”
“Hit the red button” said Drax.
Tina pressed the red button as hard as she could. The handheld scanner started beeping loudly and the scorpion car was changing direction towards the heavens above higher and higher. Drax pressed a button and converted the car back to its scorpion attack mode and isolated the three of them in a small self-sustained bubble. The car broke through the atmosphere and into orbit zooming high above into outer space to their amazement.
“I have never seen anything so beautiful” said Mercedes. The aura surrounding the craft illuminated the space before them. The space was immense and yet small as a vaguely lit dim vacuum. They saw a large object in orbit, a metallic orb the size of a continent stretching on for thousands of miles across and high.
“That’s it” said Drax “the weapon”. It began to glow bright purple and emitted small beads of light energy.
“Fire the weapon… let’s blow it” said Tina.
“Mercedes take the wheel and began chauffeuring it in circles” said Drax. Mercedes got behind the wheel and Drax climbed up to a second tier of the small bubble they occupied where he sat up and held himself like a gunner in a battleship. He pressed a series of commands on a panel and within moments the scorpion weapon began to heat up bright orange and almost instantly thereafter fire a projectile of pure energy into the orb. The blast spread outward for miles but afterwards they saw it did nothing.
“It didn’t even put a dent in the orb. “Said Tina. The Scorpion car’s main weapon blast fizzled in the middle of empty space before the orb object.
“Damn it.” Yelled Drax. “A shield.”
“Try again” said Mercedes piloting the car around in circles.
“No use, we got to find something else.” Drax said.
“How about the time stone?” Asked Tina.
“That could work” said Drax.
“Uh oh” said Tina. “Look, as she saw on the device a large buildup of radiogenic energy. “It’s building up to something.”
“It’s going to fire” said Drax.
“Mercedes get us back to the planet now. Pull the wheel down.” He climbed into the cockpit with them again just as Mercedes obeyed his order and pulled the wheel down causing the car to spiral downward back into the atmosphere’s majestic flaming roar surrounding the car. The orb began to turn and the beads of light concentrated at a single point. “We’re not going to make it” said Drax seeing they were in the atmosphere but far from landfall. “We got to eject or we’re dead” so he pressed a command on the console before Mercedes and a small hatched opened up with a yellow and black marked lever. He pulled it and the small bubble they occupied reared up and out in the momentum of the falling car just as the orb emitted the beads of light in a single focus concentrated energy beam down towards the car striking it and obliterating it into several small unidentifiable pieces. The bubble with the trio rocketed towards the landscape below barely missing being hit by the intense beam of light.
“Wow, that was close” said Tina. The bubble flew down burning up and surrounded by flames.
“Can we control where we land?” Asked Mercedes.
“Yeah, good idea” said Tina “I can pick up a tall structure 3000 feet away.” She said looking into the handheld device.
“Steer a course” said Drax as Mercedes navigated the bubble with the wheel in the direction Tina pointed. The bubble zoomed down and came approaching a tall building with a large antennae and then crashed down onto the roof of the tall skyscraper dragging along the floor until coming to a screeching halt at the edge of the roof near a small inner structure.
“Whoa” said Mercedes. “My scorpion driving days are over I guess.”
“Let’s go, we don’t have a lot of time” said Drax popping the hood of the bubble open and they all poured out. The darkness of the night sky was awe-inspiring but pale in comparison to the destructive impact on the side of the building they were on as the glass windows were broken and the obvious remnants of an explosion were left charred into the side of the building.
“Looks like the missile attacks stopped but this is obviously where they were targeted by Temporo no doubt” said Mercedes.
“We need to try something else to destroy that orb.” Said Tina.
“This is the key” she held out the time stone glowing brightly. Mercedes and Drax reached for it.
“Whatever we do we have to do it quick?” Said Drax the winds blowing fierce about them. Then they each tried to pull away and the time stone disconnected into separate parts, the five sides became disjointed and the five orbs became separated, with one in e
ach part.
“Oh great we broke it.” Said Tina.
“Huh? It’s never done that before” said Mercedes. Tina smirked.
“Did you know about this?” Said Mercedes looking at Drax.
“I swear I didn’t” he shook his head. “But this must mean something. We unlocked some other possible potential for the time stone.” They each held a piece.
“We got to figure this out and fast before that weapon strikes again.” Said Tina.
Then Satyr lands on the roof flapping his wings.
“Uh oh, company” said Mercedes as they turned to face him.
“What do you want?” Yelled Drax.
“I was cooped up too long.” Satyr replied. “I am not here to fight. I was thinking long and hard about what was said to me long ago, some odd seventy years.”
Tina looked at her comrades and remembers it like it was yesterday as they were there. “Yeah?” Asked Tina.
“We are the same race and I know it now. My misgivings were compounded by ages of hatred and prejudice. I am ready to begin a new and work towards a brighter future.”
“That’s sweet Satyr” said Tina.
“Yeah except no one is going to have a brighter future unless we destroy that orb.” Yelled Mercedes.
“We got one shot” said Drax. “But we don’t know how…”
“The solution to stopping the Alchemic Orb is to unleash the time stone’s ultimate potential, a direct shot upward harnessing the type 3 quantum-chronoians-posian particles drawn by the device from the space time continuum will annihilate the orb by accelerating the temporal divergence process and ultimately pushing it out of phase with this reality and it will not be able to survive nor impact this world.” Satyr said.
“Time as a weapon” said Drax confidently.
“How do you know this?” Asked Mercedes.
“I ate a scientist” he grimaced to their dismay.
“Let’s make it happen” said Drax. They walked over to the center of the building. Satyr grabs a piece of the time stone too leaving Tina with one outer piece and one inner peace.
“If only we had one more person.” Said Tina sadly thinking of James. Then suddenly a white light appeared overhead as a vortex opened releasing the white light they last saw in the desert, the calming and peaceful halo remnants of their comrade James Timewalker.
“Is it the weapon?” Asked Mercedes.
“No” said Tina, “its James” she felt his presence, peaceful, carefree, joyous, loving, and warm. The light spread over them in the night sky.
“Amazing” said Mercedes.
“Also look where we are standing” said Drax, “there are five corners to this building like the time stone. Maybe if we all stand in one corner and put our faith into this light entity being our friend it will be enough to tap into the time stone’s power to stop the attack wherever it is.”
“A good defense is a good offense” said Mercedes. “Anyone know whose building this is?”
“Beats me but we got to do this or we don’t stand a chance at beating the orb.” Said Tina.
“Let’s do it” Said Mercedes.
“OK, everyone to your places. Said Drax. Tina, Mercedes, and Satyr went to a corner of the building and Drax took the extra piece middle section from Tina and placed it in the central corner where the white light concentrated and set itself.
“I hope this is you James old buddy old pal. If so, we will find out.” Said Drax dropping the fifth piece of the time stone before the white light. Then he ran over to the other corner.
“Let’s do this” Drax yelled “put our faith in the white light and in each other. We are one!”
Together they held up the time stone chards they held and the light elevated the fifth piece off of the ground by its own psychic energy having its own life. The five pieces began to glow.
“Concentrate everybody” said Satyr. Then in orbit the orb spun around and began to generate the light beads around it at a focal point ten times as large as the last burst it let loose and in an instant it was intensifying in its preparation to fire the weapon. A beam of yellow hazy light emerged from each time stone chard on the building roof and the five pieces each shine a light that met in the center and combined to form a large circular loop of light energy that intensified and in an instant fired upward just as the orb fired downward, the individuals below felt themselves combine as if they could hear what each was thinking, their respective concerns for the future, the orb’s projectile was then neutralized by the blast from the time stone galvanized by the white light being’s own aura as it continued upward to the orb blasting it in a horrific explosion as the mass debris from the orb scattered itself with concussive force throughout the planet’s orbit and atmosphere burning up the incoming fragments exploding in the air like fireworks over the night sky as the lights dissipated. The fragments exploded and clearly faded almost instantly upon impact. Tina, Mercedes, and Drax jumped for joy as they witnessed the event and Satyr nodded in retrospect smiling gleefully. The white light being faded up into the air as if bidding them a final farewell into the vortex that opened for it and closed thereafter and the crew remained staring up into the sky forever focused on the future.
“The good book observed ‘[f]or as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of man.’ Matthew 24:27.” Said Mercedes smiling.
The group stood on the edge of the rooftop together as they saw the remnants of the device explode and phase out into the atmosphere in a flashing display of lights and colors.
CHAPTER 88
One year later
On a beach in the Cayman Islands, the waves crashed onto the rocks ashore as the winds dragged in a mix of fresh sand and salt water vaporized in the air giving the ideal sense of comfort and relaxation for Drax, Tina, and Mercedes who lay in swimsuits on beach chairs tanning under the golden sun.
“Isn’t it something?” Asked Drax. “Just like that it’s over, after everything we have been through.
“It sure seems weird how things were.” Said Mercedes.
“Yeah” said Tina, “Satyr is back in his universe for now hoping to inform other beasts that we are the same race after all. We averted a disaster, saved the future, and the time stone is back in one piece in the Museum of Ancient History in Chronix Bay.”
“Time heals all wounds. That was good teaming up with Satyr. He is not such a bad guy or beast or whatever” said Mercedes.
“We cleared our names” said Tina smiling.
“We saved the future of the world” said Mercedes.
“And I still have my position with a huge advancement with another company that is working with law enforcement authorities to investigate Temporo, Inc.'s illicit dealings.” said Drax.
“How did you do that?” asked Tina.
“I called a friend at the pentagon that made a few calls within intelligence circles. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” said Drax.
“Looks like it will be a crippling blow to the machination.” Said Mercedes.
“Right, for now we got rid of Broad and stopped the great experiment or great weapon from damning the world. But who knows what else there might be in store for the future? Only time will tell” said Drax.
“What now for the great Milton Drax?” Asked Mercedes.
“Well the government is taking control of Temporo Inc.'s holdings and a new agency is being formed. It is sort of top secret right now but they want me to head it up or at least a part of it. They are very interested in discovering more about the thirteen races like the Pregivers and the Garnicones and their amazing empire and abilities and the holder legend. You wouldn’t believe the amazing things they are finding and claiming connections to these beings to various strange occurrences throughout the globe all throughout history. It is a very high government interest. The project is called ‘Union.’” They all smile at once.
“Nice” said Tina.
“And where I go, you two
go. I need people I can trust.”
“That’s the new adventure for us” smiled Mercedes.
“Yeah” said Tina. They all smiled then Tina frowned, “we did a lot of good but at what sacrifice.” She thought of James. “We each have to vow to be true to ourselves and each other, to continue to fight to make things right so James sacrifices aren’t in vain.” Said Tina.
“True” said Drax.
“Where did he go?” Asked Mercedes.
“Uplifted. He shed his physical form to exist as metaphysical energy on another level of being but I think he will always be with us, watching over. In a way he really is in a better place. I want to believe he was there that night we took down the uni-orb.” Said Drax.
“He was” said Tina wiping away a tear.
“Look, we’ve all got a bond the four of us forged that is stronger than family and friendship combined. We are a team and we will be reunited.” Said Drax forcefully as they looked at one another and then looked up into the sunlit sky sensing the future was secure.
Tina looked up into the bright sunlit sky and remembered an old limerick she heard once as a child, ‘There once was a young lady named Bright, who travelled much faster than light. She started one day in a relative way and returned on the previous night!’ She smiled thinking everything would be alright as they would see James again, after all time was on their side.
The Museum of Ancient History was well lit in the middle of the day in Chronix Bay. A teacher lectured as she led a class of eager fifth graders down the gallery. The sounds of people eyeing their favorite exhibits were making vibrant trends in the midst of the sunlight. Two men walk arm in arm whispering to one another, one with dark hair and the other bald and with a mustache, they dress in business casual attire and smirk as they pass a casing with the green emerald five pointed object with five orbs in the center. The case has a wired alarm system and siren light above it.
“It’s going to be deserted after six. Security takes lunch at seven. There should be nobody around. I will break in and steal it then,” said the dark-haired man.
“Sounds good” said the bald man as they passed by the casing.
The Time Stone Page 42