Chronos’ glider disassembled, the components sliding back up into his armor and breaking the cable in the process. The two men fell, but as soon as Chronos was free of Gunsmith, he reactivated his glider and it quickly reassembled, sending him flying into the air once more.
Gunsmith flipped in the air and landed on the ground in a crouch, his armor absorbing the force of the impact. He looked up and saw Paragon fly at Chronos. She slammed her fists right into his face and Chronos was rocked by the blow. She gave him no respite, quickly raining down more punches on him.
Chronos vanished from sight, reappearing behind Paragon and blasting her in the back. He flew at her and rammed his staff into her back once more, throwing her into the mountain range.
Sentinel flew behind Chronos, holding out his hands and unleashing energy blasts from the palms of his gauntlets. Chronos turned and held up his hand. An orange energy shield wrapped around him, protecting him from the blasts. Chronos’ staff collapsed and returned to his gauntlet. He dropped the shield and extended both arms. Small orange orbs of energy flew from his gauntlets.
Sentinel hovered and watched as the orbs circled around him. Then he realized the orbs were coming towards him. He moved to try and dodge them, but they followed his movements. Sentinel tried to retaliate by shooting them from the sky, but they were too nimble and he couldn’t tag them. The orbs closed in on him, exploding against his holographic armor and throwing him to the ground.
A green tentacle wrapped around Chronos’ neck and pulled him down. As he was dragged to the ground, he tried to fight back by using his glider. There was a tug of war between him and Shift, who stood on one of the mountain ridges. She extended her other arm, that one also transforming into a tentacle and trying to pull him down.
Chronos was starting to push back against her strength when he felt the addition of more weight on his glider. He looked down and saw the gray figure of Sharkskin join him on the glider, snarling as his claws scraped against Chronos’ armor.
But what Chronos said next caused the Vanguardian to pause. He looked right into Sharkskin’s black eyes and said, “Koji…?”
Sharkskin blinked. “How do you—?”
Shift pulled harder and her tentacles finally pulled Chronos towards the mountain ridge. Sharkskin fell after him, grabbing Chronos by the throat and slamming his fist against the time traveler’s face.
The two men crashed into the rocky surface, with Chronos taking the brunt of the damage. A small crater had formed from their impact. Sharkskin stood upright, looking down at his opponent, his hand still wrapped around his throat.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m sorry,” said Chronos.
Electricity flowed through Chronos’ suit and into Sharkskin’s body. The young man convulsed before collapsing. Chronos stood, ready to attack again. But he was enveloped by a sudden surge of darkness.
His entire body went numb and he fell to his knees, curling over. Standing behind him was Wraith, ebon energy extending from his hand and into Chronos. The energy stopped once Chronos succumbed to the power, falling unconscious.
The team regrouped, surrounding their fallen enemy. Zenith looked down at Chronos, scanning the technology.
“Anything that might tell us who he is or where he comes from?” asked Gunsmith.
“We should get him inside and get that armor off him,” said Zenith. “There are many questions to be answered.”
CHAPTER 5
Zenith and Lee stood in the room that was once Dr. McCabe’s laboratory but had since become Lee’s workshop. Both sat at a long table, examining the components of Chronos’ armor. The door to the workshop opened and the rest of the team filed into the room, with Thorne at the lead.
“How’s our prisoner?” asked Lee, glancing up.
“Still unconscious. We’ve got him locked in the training room with the bots keeping an eye on him,” said Thorne. “Do you have any answers for me?”
Lee shook his head. “This stuff is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s so far over my head, it’s ridiculous.”
“Is it Kotharian?” asked Anita.
“There is certainly a resemblance but overall, this is about as different from Kotharian technology as Kotharian technology is from ours,” said Zenith.
“So where’d it come from?” asked Dom.
“Hell if I know,” said Lee. He looked at Koji. “He recognized you, right?”
Koji nodded. “Yeah, called me by name. My real name that is, not Sharkskin.”
“So we’re looking at someone who knows our identities and where Atlas is,” said Erin.
“Could be Cerberus? A rogue agent?” asked Anita. “The Hellhounds had some pretty advanced tech.”
“Not possible,” said Jim. “Even if he was with Cerberus, we don’t have anything like this.”
“He said something about needing to save the future,” said Zenith.
“What’s that mean?” asked Thorne.
“I’m not certain, but scans showed something quite interesting.” Zenith pointed to one of the monitors and the screen changed, showing scan results from his examination of Chronos’ body. “He’s human.”
“What’s so strange about that?” asked Erin.
“I mean completely human,” said Zenith. “No special gene.”
“And everyone’s supposed to have one, even if it’s latent,” said Thorne.
“Correct. The last time we saw something like this was Azarov’s Dreks.”
“There’s some strange energy that this suit generates, too,” said Lee. One of the monitors changed to show the results he’d discovered.
Thorne folded his arms and stared at the monitor. His lips tightened as he tried to make sense of the information on the screen. “What am I looking at?”
“Something that until now, has only been theoretical,” said Lee. “I think these are tachyon particles.”
“In English?” asked Dom.
“Tachyons are hypothetical particles capable of faster-than-light travel,” said Lee.
“That explains how he moved so fast,” said Anita. “It was like he was teleporting.”
“He very well could have been, but not in the way you think. We also discovered this.” Zenith picked up Chronos’ gauntlet and held it out so everyone could see. A holographic image was projected from it, showing today’s date and a time several hours in the past. The image changed and showed “PREVIOUS DATE.” And the date was twenty years in the future.
“So what, this his calendar or something?” asked Koji.
“Another potential application of tachyon particles is time travel,” said Zenith. “His statement about saving the future, his advanced technology, the potential presence of tachyon particles in his suit, and his knowledge of Atlas and Koji all suggest that he may be a time traveler.”
Dom chuckled. “You’re joking, right?”
“Says the teleporting superhero talking to his robot buddy,” said Koji,
Dom grunted. “Point taken.”
“Hold on,” said Anita. “If he’s from the future, then how come he doesn’t have the special gene? If all of mankind has been altered, shouldn’t he still possess it?”
“Perhaps it was cured at some point,” said Zenith. “Or perhaps he comes from an alternate timeline, one where the Event never occurred.”
“Yeah, but he knew about us. How could he unless he came from some point in our future?” asked Lee.
The group continued to discuss potential theories, all save Anita who stepped away. She folded her arms and looked down at the ground. Erin came up beside her.
“Hey, you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost.”
Anita sighed. “Something strange happened before we fought Chronos. I was meditating, trying to see if I could learn anything more from my vision.”
“And?”
Anita looked at Erin with a fearful expression. “There was nothing. It’s like the vision shattered. As if there wasn’t any future.�
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Erin furrowed her brow. “You think this guy has something to do with it?”
Anita shrugged. “I don’t know. But if he is from the future…” She moved back to the group with Erin by her side. “Guys, listen.”
Anita repeated to them what she just told Erin and the group listened intently. Once she finished her story, silence fell over the entire team.
“We have to figure out what’s going on here,” said Thorne. “Chronos wanted to get in here, which means he had something he was after. We have to figure out what that is.”
“And there’s one way to do that,” said Anita. “I have to try and scan his mind.”
“You sure about that?” asked Jim. “These abilities of yours, they’re still kind of new.”
“He’s right, this could be quite dangerous, Anita,” said Zenith.
“Yeah, but we gotta try something,” said Dom.
“Could try interrogating him,” said Koji.
“And if he’s not willing to answer?” asked Anita. “He didn’t seem in a sharing mood when he spoke to Zenith.”
“Right, but he knows me. Maybe I’m his friend in the future or something,” said Koji. “Might be worth a shot.”
“Or maybe he knows you by reputation alone,” said Dom.
“There are reasons for and against doing this, but ultimately there’s only one person who can decide.” Thorne looked up at Anita. “It’s your call. If you think you can do this, we’ll follow your lead. But if you’re not sure, we can find another way.”
Anita nodded. “I’m sure.”
“We’ll monitor you from here,” said Jim. “If anything goes wrong, we’ll back you up.”
“Thanks, but I think I’ll be okay,” said Anita, looking down at the armor. “After all, he’s human, right? Without that armor, there’s not a whole lot he can really to do me.”
CHAPTER 6
The doors to the training room opened and Anita stepped inside. Robots developed by Zenith and used for Vanguard’s training purposes flanked either side of the door. Several other robots lined the walls, all of them ready to fire teleforce blasts if Chronos made the slightest move.
Anita walked through the wide, circular room towards Chronos. He sat in the middle on a small cot left for him, having woken up since being defeated by Wraith. Anita leaned against the wall and looked at him.
He was young, maybe around the same age as Lee and Koji and had a bald head. He looked up at Anita, staring into her brown eyes with his green ones. Anita concentrated, trying to slide into his mind.
“You don’t want to do that,” he said.
“And why not?”
“Because you won’t like what you see.”
Anita stopped trying to use her powers. “Fine, then why don’t you tell me what I want to know?”
Chronos sighed, resting his hands on his knees. “This isn’t what was supposed to happen.”
“You’re from the future, aren’t you?”
He gave a nod. “But not this future.”
Anita furrowed her brow. “What does that mean?”
“In my time, there aren’t any people like you,” said Chronos. “Specials? They don’t exist.”
“So what happened to them?”
He shook his head. “No, you don’t get it. Specials never existed.”
Anita blinked, not sure what to make of that statement. She wasn’t sure where she should begin to question him. “Okay, why don’t you just tell me your story? We’ll start from there. Where are you from? Or…I guess when.”
“The twenty-fifth century,” said Chronos. “In about sixty years, the Kotharians invade Earth. The battle is swift and they completely decimate humanity’s forces.”
“And in your time?”
“Humans are still alive, used as slave labor for the Kotharians, mining what resources are left in the planet for their purposes. Some are used for experimentation. But there’s a resistance. I was liberated from one of the labor camps by resistance fighters and I joined their cause. We found out that the Kotharians had a two pieces of technology—one was what they called a chronal emitter. The other was something called the Chaknaar.”
“We encountered a Kotharian. She said the Chaknaar is what drew her here.”
Chronos’ head shot up. “So you know where she is?”
“She’s restrained, that’s all you need to know.”
“No, there’s more!” Chronos rose from the cot and the robots reacted to his movement, raising their arms and prepared to fire.
Anita held up her hands to calm the sentries and they relaxed their arms. “Then tell me what else I need to know.”
Chronos sat back down and gripped his head. “It’s hard…”
“Hard to explain? Try me.”
“No, it’s hard to—to remember.”
Anita took a few steps closer. “Then let me help you.”
Chronos was cautious as she raised her gloved hands to his head. At first he pulled away, but then relaxed. Anita sat beside him on the cot and they both turned so they were facing each other, folding their legs under their bodies. She laid gentle fingers on his scalp and lowered her head, shutting her eyes.
She went inside his mind, reading his memories. And she could see why Chronos said he had trouble remembering. His memories were scattered. She saw competing versions of the same day, the same year. Three different ones in fact. There were some memories that just abruptly ended, as if they hadn’t finished yet.
Anita tried to focus on the things he told her of the twenty-fifth century. On the Kotharians and the labor camps. And that she could see. She saw a young Chronos being put to work from the moment he was able to walk. He had no name, just a number. Like all the humans did.
She saw the resistance. Felt his fear when the explosions blew through the camp walls. She ran as him, finding cover and holding her head low, covering her ears to block out the sound of gunfire.
When it stopped, she felt something stand over her. She ducked down lower, fearful for her young life. But she heard a soft, soothing voice and when she looked up, she saw a man with a sleek, silver body holding out a hand. She was taken into the resistance. Trained as one of them.
And then the memories became murky. She put on the armor and engaged the chronal emitter with the silver man at her side. They were drawn into a portal and arrived on the moon. She watched the silver man rise above the moon and release the Chaknaar stores into the atmosphere.
From there, it became even harder to see. Like she was staring through a fog. She could see the ruins of Times Square. The advancing warriors. And her rescuers, two specials.
The flood of memories petered out and Anita stood from the cot, backing away from Chronos. She stumbled and almost fell, but one of the robots came to her aid. It steadied her and Anita leaned on it for support as she looked into Chronos’ eyes.
“What was that?” she asked.
“The future. Two of them, in fact.” Chronos sighed and folded his arms. “Now you see the problem. Whenever I make a jump back in time, after a while the old memories start to fade and new ones start to appear in their place. But the old ones remain, like an echo. It gets to the point where I don’t know which memories I can trust.”
Anita was now able to stand under her own power and let go of the robot. “Then how do you know what your mission really is? Are you even remembering it right?”
“I just have to go on faith that I’m on the right path. It’s almost like I’m acting on instinct.”
“And the Kotharians?”
“They’re coming. One way or another. Unless I can stop them.”
“How will you stop them?”
Chronos stared hard at her. “I have to kill someone.”
CHAPTER 7
“Chronos created us,” said Anita to the gathered team in the workshop. “As crazy as it may sound, it’s true. In his past, the Kotharians invaded the Earth sixty years from now and enslaved humanity. With the help of resistance fighter
s, Chronos took the Kotharian Chaknaar and came back in time. The plan was to release it into Earth’s atmosphere so that by the time the Kotharians arrived, humanity would have gotten some experience using their new powers and be able to mount a defense.”
“That means your vision was right,” said Erin. “J’Karra’s people are going to invade.”
“Right, but it’s not as simple as that,” said Anita. “After releasing the Chaknaar, Chronos and his ally jumped ahead twenty years. And what they saw was that the Earth had already been invaded. Chronos’ plan had a flaw no one in his time knew about—the Kotharians could sense the Chaknaar, even on the other side of the universe. That release drew J’Karra here and accelerated the invasion.”
“Then he comes back again, tries to find a way to repel the invasion,” said Thorne. “But why this point in time? Why not stop himself from releasing the Chaknaar? Or why not stop J’Karra from ever landing on Earth?”
Anita shook her head. “There’s a lot of things that I’m not very clear on. All I really know is those basic broad strokes and it took some work to piece them together. Chronos said that every time he jumps into the past, his memories eventually change as well.”
“How does that work?” asked Koji.
“There is much we do not know about time,” said Zenith. “But if what Chronos is saying is true, then that means when an individual changes the past, for a period they exist outside of time. If they immediately return to their own era, perhaps the memory change would happen instantaneously. But Chronos has continued jumping forward and back in time, presumably not even returning to his own era. Still, the memories eventually catch up with him.”
“So he’s got multiple sets of memories,” said Lee. “Must cause him some headaches.”
“They might appear more like dreams. But as with dreams, some will be clear, others will be difficult to recall. And in time, they could fade,” said Zenith.
Vanguard: Seasons 1-3: A Superhero Adventure Page 72