The Time Stone (25 page)

“
What? This isn’t the time
or the place.” Mercedes yelled as the rain poured down on
them.

“
It won’t be any better …
I realize I want to spend my life with you. I think that is why we
were meant to meet and why you were meant to come here.” He spoke
sincerely.

“
I …” she turned as the
winds howled blowing at them and the rain poured onto them, his wet
face before her and drenched clothes as wet as hers, their hearts
racing, and eyes twinkling for one another as the griffin roared in
the backdrop coming around. “The answer is yes. But let’s get out
of here!!!” She screamed as he smiled and kissed her on the
lips.

“
Come on, we are gonna
have to act like a true team to survive this.” He got up and
grabbed her hand helping her up and they ran around the other side
of the house as they saw the griffin approaching them. They ran
hand in hand in the pouring rain and strong winds to the open field
where they saw Juan Carlos’ fallen former comrades. They saw
something glistening on the floor near one of them and they were
shocked to see a box that fell open during the struggle. There was
a small green pentagonal emerald lying on the floor. Juan Carlos
picked it up. “What do you suppose…?”

“
That is beautiful” said
Mercedes. Then as they admired the object and the five orbs etched
into it, they both turned to see the griffin charging towards them.
The griffin approached and they ran in separate directions trying
to confuse it.

“
Here, you want this?”
Said Juan Carlos as the creature ran towards him first stopping
before him roaring loudly. “You got to get to me first.” Juan
Carlos shouted as he moved back and forth turning his hands and the
object rotating it unknowingly. Within seconds a beam of golden
light swirled and pulsated out of the object and into the air
before them. “Whoa” yelled Juan Carlos as he tossed the object
forward as far as he could and Mercedes ran and caught it with both
hands. The creature turned to it as the light suddenly exploded
between them and a portal vortex presented itself. The rain began
to subside and the winds calmed down but the roaring portal
intensified in brightness of every color of the rainbow reflected
from a hot white halo of light. The creature turned to Mercedes and
ran to her. She turned and ran away yelling as she got an
idea.

“
Juan Carlos, I’ll
distract this creature while you use those weapons to get it into
the light.” He nodded in response without saying a word. He saw the
griffin run and about to catch and snap with its beak towards
Mercedes. He ran over to the beast and reached out and yanked its
tail causing it to pull back and roar loudly turning with a sudden
chagrin.

“
Come on big fella,” he
yelled as the beast turned to him with an arrogant glare of
annoyance and charged to him.

Mercedes called out to the beast “Hey,
come here. Look what I got” she yelled waving around the object and
the creature turned in confusion. The creature snarled at Juan
Carlos but turned to chase after the object. It charged towards
Mercedes again as she waved her arm out with a determined glance.
Juan Carlos ran to the creature. “Uh oh” Mercedes felt the object
slip out of her hands and as she fumbled to get a grip on it she
twisted it and another beam of light emitted from the object and
struck the griffin causing it to grow in size to thirty miles in
height. Both she and Juan Carlos stood in shock at this immense
creature before them. “What the …?” They uttered simultaneously as
the creature maneuvered around one heavy footstep at a time.
Mercedes strained her neck looking up.

“
What do we do?” Juan
Carlos said.

“
Come to me” said Mercedes
moving back as the creature marched toward her closer and closer to
the portal of light and as it was inches away from it, it changed
into a ball of light and was sucked into the portal of light that
faded seconds later.

“
That did it” she screamed
as Juan Carlos nodded and the two ran to one another and kissed and
embraced, the object glowing brightly between them in the setting
dusk. That night, time hung back the moon.

CHAPTER 58

The next morning, Mercedes awoke to
the loud knock on the farmhouse door of the Hernando residence. She
got up and walked to the living area and peeped across the room to
the front door. She did not realize she was still holding the green
pentagonal emerald. She saw that three men in dark suits and sun
glasses were talking to Juan Carlos and his mother. She kept her
distance and tried to overhear their conversation but did not hear
anything and one man removed a weapon from his breast pocket,
pointed at Juan Carlos and his mother and fired a beam of
concentrated red energy into them vaporizing them on the spot.
Mercedes heard their screams and gasped. The three men looked up
and saw her and pointed at her. She jumped down the few feet to the
ground floor and instantly ran out the back door. She hopped in the
carrier and drove off. She drove and drove wiping back the tears
after seeing her new fiancée murdered before her. “Damn you!” She
snarled out to herself as she drove past the city limits and closer
and closer to the U.S.-Mexican border. She didn’t realize the three
men were not following her and no one was following her. She looked
beside her and saw the emerald object and the trouble it caused but
also the adventure it brought them and success in defeating a very
powerful beast. She drove forward and passed the border riding into
the desert of the United States of America.

PART 3

DEMONS AND
ANGELS

CHAPTER 59

Months later, the streets of Chronix
Bay were littered with the remnants of ticker tape, balloons, and
confetti after a grand parade in honor of the heroes who save the
town from the beast. The local newspaper reporters were reporting
it as a miracle from God and some people in town were talking about
government cover ups and other worldly visitors while others were
grateful they survived. In the midst of the central tower complex
on the top floor, a meeting takes place that projects the hope and
vision of the future of the city.

“
My friends,” spoke Milton
Drax, brilliant legal scholar, thrilling adventurer, strong minded
advocate for the wealthiest of citizens, and chief legal officer of
Temporo, Inc. “We are gathered here for one of the noblest
purposes, participation in a quest unlike no other.” He was a man
of revere red excellence and fame, dark smooth hair, thin mustache,
large scale ego, brilliant mind, and whimsical personality in his
shiny expensive custom made suit and tie. He spoke to a conference
room full of eager business people, politicians, and the police
chief and commissioner. “We have seen firsthand the evil that
awaits us and we have an unprecedented opportunity before us. There
is a threat to this city, nay, to this world unlike any other we
have ever encountered as evidenced by an attack on our own downtown
Chronix Bay and a similar incident on the outskirts of Juarez City,
Mexico. We are being threatened by a force not of this Earth and we
have to strike back fast with a preemptive maneuver before the next
one occurs. I suggest a quest of our own. We invest in embarking on
a pursuit for the truth behind these attacks.”

“
Are you suggesting we
invest corporate resources to chase a witch-hunt?” Screamed a
seventy-seven year old and five foot man with a tight fitting
suit.

“
Mr. Acherman, as acting
chief financial officer you must understand that our purse strings
are being threatened and spending money on this venture will be the
only way to save money down the road as we respectfully feel,
myself and others on this board, that we need to find out the truth
behind these attacks and to do that we would find out more on the
greatest possible adventure mankind has ever embarked on. Further
disruptions are bad for society, bad for our businesses, and bad
for humanity!” He shouts and there is a loud eruption of applause
from the board members on all sides of the room. Mr. Acherman
modestly sat down and felt humbled.

“
Mr. Drax,” said Broad
Staffnight standing up and walking to the podium to stand next to
him. “Well said, you shall have your funding.” The room erupted in
applause as Milton Drax smiled near Broad Staffnight who smiled in
return and shook his hand neither man knowing the true purpose
behind the other’s smile.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the winds blew harshly outside, the
dark pinstriped suits in the Chronix Bay County Courthouse were
like silhouettes in the lighting as the guards out front let in
people bit by bit. Attorneys proudly displaying their
identification walking by the masses on line waiting for their turn
by the great gargantuan titan of justice and infantry of the metal
detectors and court officers checking bags filled with makeup kits
and gum without even the simplest desire of finding some hidden
arsenal therein but merely creating the illusion of security in a
system corrupted by fear. The line was filled with men and women in
simple pedestrian clothing akin to inner city life. Amongst the
chosen few walking past smiling at the guard who ushered him with a
nod of the head, Milton Drax, Esq. He walked checking the time on
his expensive Presidential gold watch increasing the pace in his
step to the courteous awaiting of a young woman pacing back and
forth wearing a Hijab, waiting by the elevators.

“
Hello, Ms. Anderson,” he
put down his briefcase and pressed the up button on the elevator
panel. “You know the judge is going to be upset over the whole bail
jumping thing but you need to be apologetic, sympathetic, show
remorse, and cry a little, she’ll be lenient.” He looked at the
petite young frightened child before him, no more than seventeen.
He knew Judge Makers was known as a hanging judge but had a soft
spot for truly hard luck cases. “Don’t worry, it is your first
offense and you got ties to the community.” He empathetically
counseled his client and tried to sympathize but he felt his mind
wander as he was elsewhere and adrift in thought that maybe he was
meant for something better, bigger, a higher purpose.

He thought about Temporo,
Inc. and the mission he had been authorized to pursue.
“
Could there really be more beasts? Could
mankind have opened a doorway to a world beyond anything we have
ever imagined possible? The possibilities were
endless.
” If the theory on multiple
dimensions was true then there was an infinite number of
possibilities. He smiled in reverence at the thought of embarking
on the ultimate human adventure.

CHAPTER 60

“
Across
the world and throughout history there have been tales of legendary
warriors who fight against all odds to defeat their foes. Often
these heroes are faced with more than mere men, and are said to
have interacted or fought against all manner of weird mythical
creatures. Here are some of the stranger tales of how legendary
warriors and weird mythical beasts have intermingled down the
ages.” Professor Davis Armstrong Kowolski lectured at the Punister
Hall in Chronix Bay University before a class of young and eager
learners, some of which were falling asleep and were seeking
elective credit by taking his course in the studies of Ancient
Cultures’ Mythology but others, a small few eagerly jotted down
every word. He knew they only cared about acing the exam and that
his words were meaningless. He sighed as he turned the slide on the
large device before him to change the image on the projector screen
to those of several bird-like men in rapid succession. “ Many
cultures worshipped beasts known as the
‘s
ky watchers’ or those who
descended from above and taught mankind everything from our laws,
our abilities to make fire, and our knowledge about space and the
universe, even things like time. The oriental cultures had believed
in mythical spirits known as The Tengu from ancient
Japanese folklore that take the form of part man,
part bird. They are believed to be protectors who came from above.”
He sighed as he continued with the lecture expecting it to be long,
his eye slightly veering towards the clock on the wall showing he
indeed had a long way to go until the period was over. He smiled at
his youngest student, his nephew Howard sitting in on the class at
age ten eagerly doodling and taking notes on the topic of Birdmen.
Professor Kowolski felt pride as he was watching the young Kowolski
and potential future scientist he was molding.