Collateral Damage

by Steve Beaulieu

  The webs on his legs went taught. “One more word out of you…” Spider growled.

  “No,” Longbow said. “That’s fine. Maybe he’s just jealous, thinking I forgot him. Thank you for the CPR. I really do owe you, young man. But the day’s adventure is over now, and I’ll be going. Until next time.” He bowed to the others. “My bow is always yours.”

  W verbally laid out a route that would bring him up behind a frozen yogurt joint five blocks from the fight scene.

  “Thanks, Luke,” Mannequin said, once the archer was out of earshot, “but I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

  “I’m sorry. But that guy was way out of line. What is this, the Superhero Dating Game? And who invited him to horn in our action anyway?”

  Spider gave a sharp tug. Spitball’s legs followed, jerking out from under him and pitching him harshly backwards.

  A Word from J.D. Brink

  Thanks to the costume my wife made me (and having gone off my meds),I think I’m a superhero. In my real-life adventures, I’ve served aboard a warship in the Pacific, collected intel from foreign submarines, stood watch hungover behind a .50-caliber machinegun, and worked over patients at a hospital in Kuwait. My fictional adventures take place in the Identity Crisis superhero universe, Endless Dark sci-fi universe, and Thunderstrike Saga fantasy realm, to name a few. Learn more and sign up for my “Conspiracy Theory Newsletter” at http://brinkschaostheory.com/.

  OUT OF TIME

  BY CHRISTIAN KALLIAS

  OUT OF TIME

  BY CHRISTIAN KALLIAS

  THE MOMENT THE TIME JUMP ENDS, I know something is wrong. Terribly wrong, in fact. I’m not in Rewind; that’s my first clue. I’ve never jumped back in time and arrived at a different place than the Rewind facility.

  My second clue is the sky. There is no dome over my head; the sky is clear, and I’m breathing the air just fine. I start getting anxious. When and where the hell did I time jump? And then there are the buildings; the architecture is different from anything I’ve seen in any of the seven domed-cities around the globe. I remember seeing holo-vids of this place in some of my favorite oldie movie archives. It looks like late-twenty or early-twenty-first century New York, but that can’t be. The maximum I can time jump is 717 minutes.

  Could I have jumped more than one hundred and fifty years in the past?

  The mission: I was supposed to stop Ahmed from blowing up a mall with thousands of innocent souls in the center of New Geneva on Confederate Street.

  A blue-colored projectile is coming straight at me and takes me out of my current train of thought. I instinctively dodge and turn around to see the projectile hit someone running behind me. The result of the impact is devastating for the strange man dressed in a multi-colored skin-tight suit. He stops in the middle of his run, turns blue and freezes in place. It takes a few seconds, but soon, his skin solidifies like rock.

  What the hell is going on here? I turn back around, and my brain starts interpreting the absurdity of what I’m seeing. I’m on the roof of a tall skyscraper. Men and women are fighting one another wearing what appear to be Halloween costumes, yet each seems to have powers or special abilities. A few are flying and throwing fireballs or lasers toward one another, but none seem to wear significant pieces of technology allowing them to do so.

  “TAINHA, status report?”

  My neuron-embedded onboard Artificial Intelligence, TAINHA (Tactical Artificially Intelligent Neuronal & Holographic Augment), doesn’t respond. My anxiety levels rise. She’s been with me through it all and I can’t remember the last time I was alone with my thoughts—certainly not while deploying for a mission to stop terrorists’ intent on blowing up a civilian target.

  I check my wrist holo-interface to see if I can reboot her manually. The shockwave of a nearby explosion sends me crashing into a wall. It cracks on impact, as do a couple of bones in my left arm. TAINHA would already have dispatched painkillers and nanites into my bloodstream to repair my injuries.

  “Don’t just stand there!” shouts a caped man flying overhead. “Hey, who are you? Are you with them or with us?”

  “Don’t mind me,” I reply after a moment. “I’m just passing through.”

  Before the flying man can say anything else, he is hit by a fireball and thrown hundreds of yards. I wasn’t exactly interested in having a conversation right now, anyway. In fact, I can’t really think; the entire situation is too surreal and I need to get my bearings. I quickly look around and determine the best spot for cover. Hopefully, I can re-establish a link with TAINHA and get some answers. Darting forward, I avoid incoming fire; no one seems to be targeting me but it’s a war zone and there are a lot of loose fireballs, lasers, and energy-based projectiles flying around. I check my shields. The previous blast only took out fifteen-percent, and they’re already recharging. I can take a few direct hits without a sweat, so I decide to forget about a strategic approach and just switch to super speed mode and get into cover in less than ten seconds.

  A laser ricochets off my shoulder pad armor, blowing a nearby neon tube. Sparks fly as I bring up self-diagnostics on my wrist device, as my neuronal HUD went offline after the time jump. TAINHA is indeed offline; her AI matrix is running maintenance. Apparently, her code was damaged and either she took herself offline, or the secondary protocols built into my augments did so for her. Rewind is specific about the integrity of my onboard AI. If the data integrity repair algorithm can’t fix her, I’m supposed to cancel the mission and return to base.

  Except I’m supposed to be in New Geneva, in the year 2174, not New York, god-knows-when, with flying men and women buzzing all around me.

  The progress bar on TAINHA’s integrity check is almost finished. Nearby, another nearby man is killed by what seems to be long-range laser fire, which burned a head-sized hole in the middle of his thorax.

  I cautiously lift my head from cover, and that’s when I see the monstrosity pass between the skyscrapers. A giant cyborg with black matte painting and red LED eyes is wreaking havoc, targeting some of the costumed men and women. There are obviously two factions at war here, and one seems to have a technological advantage in the form of a big ass cyborg.

  The progress bar done, TAINHA’s boot logo appears. Less than a second later, her familiar, sweet voice fills my thoughts.

  I’m sorry, Cole, but it would seem something went wrong with our jump.

  “Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious.”

  No need to be rude, Cole. I’m still in the process of rebooting; not all my systems are back online, yet.

  I realize I shouldn’t project my own frustration with the situation toward TAINHA. It’s not her fault we’re in this mess—whatever and whenever this mess is.

  “I’m sorry, but right now a sitrep would really be welcome. Let’s start with where we are, and most importantly, when we are. Then, let’s discuss the most important part: what the feck happened?”

  I can infer from your vocal tone that you do not wish me to answer these questions in order. It would seem we’ve time jumped outside of normal Rewind protocols. As per where and when, I’ve just connected to the Internet. A rudimentary search engine called Google is telling me this is New York City, and the year is 2037.

  My estimation wasn’t too far off. I would have bet on an earlier century date, 2017 perhaps, but it doesn’t matter. My primary concern is that we get this fixed so I can accomplish my mission.

  “How is such an occurrence even possible, TAINHA? I thought the absolute time travel limit is 717 minutes and not a second more?”

  I’m running diagnostics at the moment, but Cole: there’s more. I just detected a Rewind time beacon; however, the hash code doesn’t match any in my database.

  “In English, TAINHA, please.”

  Well, it’s like there is a Rewind in this timeline, but probably not our Rewind.

  “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

  I’m afraid so. It not only looks like we’ve jumped far
back in time, but we may have jumped a universe as well.

  “I thought the idea of a parallel universes was a theory?”

  Until now.

  “Swell…”

  Before I can ask TAINHA what we can do about it, a trio of armored robots lands in front of me, damaging the cemented roof. I need to act fast. Since I don’t know their strength yet, I have to consider them highly dangerous. I activate super speed and dart toward them while supercharging my right repulsor weapon located in my palm. The charge is ready the instant I’m in front of the first robot, and before it has time to react, I lay my palm on its chest and unleash a column of supercharged plasma, burning a soccer ball-sized hole through its armor.

  The other two react instantly; one performs a circling kick toward my head, but I manage to dodge the blow, giving me the opportunity to grab the robot’s leg. Using its own momentum, I add my augmented super strength to the mix and send the robot flying off the roof, hitting him with a single shot of my left repulsor to the head for good measure. The robot spins wildly in the air, and I immediately regret my extra shot as I feel an acute pain on the back of my head. The second robot clocked me hard with his metal arm. I’m thrown a few yards and tumble on the ground.

  When I look back, the infernal machine is running toward me at impressive speeds. For a split second, I hesitate to activate my bullet time augment, as I can only use it once every few hours. Instead, I grab a magnetically attached blaster from my belt and unleash laser fire at my incoming foe. Every shot bounces off the robot’s strong armor and what looks to be electromagnetic shielding.

  Use your sonic shotgun, Cole, TAINHA suggests.

  I’d almost forgotten I’d packed it in today’s arsenal.

  “Thank you, dear.”

  Unfortunately, I don’t have the time necessary to grab the shotgun behind my back. The robot is just too close. The damn tin can throws a low kick at me, and as I attempt to block it, I realize it was a feint. A metallic knee hits me squarely in the jaw and flings me upward.

  “I thought you were supposed to intervene in situations like these, TAINHA?”

  I would have, but my AI matrix is still learning these new enemies’ fighting techniques, and I still haven’t heard the end of the last time I overrode your muscular system.

  I want to argue, but I can feel the robot following me through the air. Not to mention TAINHA is correct; last time she took control over my body, I was pissed. I’d argued that I had things perfectly under control, or so I thought, anyway.

  I grab my sonic shotgun while I spin in the air to acquire visual with the pursing robot, barely having time to put him in my sights and shoot. He swats his arm at the shotgun the moment my finger depresses the trigger. Fortunately for me, the weapon’s sonic boom is set in widespread mode and still impacts with its shoulder, sending the robot spinning and crashing down. Upon landing on the ground, I run toward the downed robot and unleash another three sonic shots before it can get back on its feet while I charge another super shot in my left-hand repulsor. I unleash it to the robot’s head. It explodes into multiple pieces of molten metal. Sparking wires and spewing oil appear at the top of the now headless neck.

  Behind you! Cole.

  The robot I threw off the roof is back and flying toward me.

  For feck sake, I don’t have time for this. This ain’t my war!

  I dodge the incoming foe and unleash a flurry of repulsor plasma shots as it passes by. The first dozen shots are deflected by its shields, but finally, I start scoring some hits on its armor. However, it doesn’t seem like I’m doing enough damage to bring it down. The chaos of a large-scale battle continues around me—costumed men and women, dealing with their own onslaught of robots and others wearing costumes. Nothing in our planet’s history mentions this, and I start having a very bad feeling about where we’d landed. But right now, I have to make sure I finish off my current foe.

  I stop firing my repulsors and grab my unactivated nano blade. When activated, its nanites will create a blade so thin it will cut through most Earthly materials. The red LED eyes of the robot intensify and lasers fire from them. I jump out of the way at the last second. The laser impact behind me cracks the concrete and sends hunks of rock in every direction.

  Better watch out for this attack. My sensors tell me it could penetrate your armor’s shields.

  “Roger that.”

  I’m running out of patience and need to finish off this fight so I can regroup and decide on what our next move will be. We’re clearly not in our world anymore, and I have to find a way to return to where we belong. I divert ninety-five percent of my power, shields included, to my motor augments and dart toward the robot that appears to be recharging his lethal eye weaponry for another shot.

  In a fraction of a second, I’m upon it, activating my nano blade and slashing multiple times at super speed. It cuts through easily, and soon my ears are met with loud thuds as multiple pieces of scrap metal impact with the ground. Fire and destruction keep raining around me, but I manage to find cover behind some rubble. Hopefully, I can get a little respite and try to think of a solution for this colossal mess up.

  “TAINHA, suggestions on how to get us out of here and back to our own reality and time.”

  I’ve been computing scenarios toward that goal while you were fighting.

  “And? Any promising leads?”

  She takes longer than usual to answer, which I know is not a good sign.

  I’m afraid not, but I did find something peculiar we might use.

  “I’m listening.”

  I’ve located a Rewind time buoy.

  To give us a tactical field advantage, I was briefed about this new upcoming tech Rewind R&D labs were currently working on. Using some sub-space mumbo jumbo I wasn’t paying attention to when the eggheads presented us with their idea, it allows TAINHA to get information from the future so we can adjust our battle plans on the fly. It also gives real-time updates on how well a mission is going by checking the Internet outside of the present time. There are a couple of things that don’t make sense here. One, that tech is limited by the same 717 minutes law of time travel I’m subjected to. Two, it’s nowhere near ready to be deployed.

  “How can that be?” I ask. “I thought that was still in Research and Development?”

  I can only surmise that in this alternate timeline, Rewind not only exists, but it has already developed the technology.

  “And clearly they’ve developed it way better than our own Rewind; if you can get a lock on a buoy signal from the twenty-second century.”

  TAINHA’s silence makes me nervous.

  “What is it, TAINHA?”

  The signal is from the year 2147, Cole.

  In our timeline, Rewind has been online for only five years. My first time-travel mission was on January 27, 2170. Everything seems so different in this timeline, I wonder what else we will discover, and for just a fleeting moment, I wonder if this reality isn’t better than ours. For some time now, I’ve been dissatisfied with how Rewind operates—always putting the needs of the few ahead of the needs of the many.

  “It doesn’t matter what timeline the signal is from. What matters is that we find a way to get out of here and into our own universe and time. Can any information you get from the buoy help us achieve that?”

  I’m still sifting through the zettabytes of data. I had to write a slight modification to the decoding cipher. It is Rewind tech alright, but there are some slight differences. Fortunately, my AI matrix is highly adaptable. I think we may have a way to get out of here, but we must act fast. Faster than we’re used to, in fact.

  “You’re too vague, TAINHA; what is it we have to do?”

  We need to save the superhero called Cronos.

  “Super what? In English, TAINHA.”

  This timeline is filled with mutated human beings that have similar, if not greater powers than your own augments provide you. But they are currently under attack from a vile artificial intelligence
which, just a few days ago, attained consciousness. It’s the one controlling the robots we and others have been fending off, and I would imagine that big cyborg is also under his control.

  “His?”

  This AI has assumed a masculine gender. He calls himself Oblivion.

  “Charming name.”

  There’s more, Cole. A few hours after it came to be, scientists from this Earth have tried to kill Oblivion.

  “Let me guess; it’s pissed now.”

  It sure looks that way. But Cole, we must hurry. The giant cyborg will kill Cronos within the hour.

  “Who’s this Cronos? And why do we need his help?”

  From what information I’ve been able to gather from the buoy, Cronos is an honorary Captain for the Superhero Coalition trying to stop Oblivion from wiping them out. Oblivion destroyed military bases all over the world in the first hours of its sentience as a retaliatory measure when it perceived the humans as hostile to its existence.

  “So, these superheroes are the mutant humans? And they have powers?”

  Yes, some fly, others manipulate the elements, some can even teleport, use telekinesis and more. And some, like you, use advanced technologies, like tech suits, to give them similar powers while their bodies aren’t gifted with any mutation granting them these powers. But they are all part of the coalition who fight for justice and peace.

  They’re doing a bang-up job of it at the moment.

  The concept is mind-boggling; to think human mutation can give normal flesh and blood such amazing powers. But it doesn’t matter, right now we need to get the hell out of this place, and if that means I need to find and save Cronos, then that’s what’s going to happen.

  “Tell me more about this Cronos.”

  He can affect time around him, though the records I have on him don’t mention anything about traveling through time. He can create time distortion fields such as slow or accelerate time around him.

  Some of these abilities I’m familiar with due to my bullet time augment, though technically time isn’t affected. Normally, a cocktail of drugs and nanites in my brain intensifies my brainpower and augments my ability to interact with one another, giving me the illusion that everything around me happens in slow motion. This gives me ample time to take the best course of action and provides extra time to think about my strategies. I wonder if that’s how Cronos feels when he uses his powers.