The Time Stone (36 page)

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.

“
Who are you and what are
you doing here?” They grabbed one another and wrestled around
twirling about in a series of revered dances as Drax got up leading
his half-dazed group of companions back to the bikes.

“
Come on” he beckoned and
they managed to overturn one of the hovering motorcycles seeing the
others were damaged beyond hope. All five led by Drax squeezed
together onto the hovering motorcycle and took off towards the
mountain range nearby leaving the two beasts locked in mortal
combat snarling at one another.

As they drove off, Drax asked “where
did you learn to fight? I went to the best schools of the
west.”

“
In college with my
ex-boyfriend mostly” said Tina.

“
I took self-defense
classes at the Y” shrugged Mercedes.

“
I learned to fight in the
streets” said James.

“
We should keep
practicing” said Drax.

Drax led the team on the hovering
motorcycle barely touching the ground because of the extra weight
as they approached the mountain quarry.

“
We’re not going to make
it” screamed Tina “it’s too heavy.”

“
Where there’s a will
there’s a way!” Exclaimed Drax as he pressed a few buttons on the
hovering motorcycles and held the handle bars tightly, “we can
jettison the fuel and accelerate for a quick boost up the
mountainside using the stone as leverage for the bike’s hover coils
I think but if we miss our mark we will fall to our
deaths.”

“
Let’s hope the timing is
right” said Tina.

“
Hmm” Muttered Drax. And
with that Drax unlocked the handle bars and disengaged them then
pressed a pair of red buttons on the inside component of the handle
bars then pulled up as a large exhaust emitted from the tail end of
the bike sending them soaring up the side of the mountain quarry
and up the mountain. As they approached the summit several miles
into the air, they were close to a ledge on the mountainside near a
cave and stopped in mid hover right below the ledge. “Engine is
being pushed to the limit and burning out, we can’t scale the
cliff.” Drax screamed. “Brace yourselves for fall
impact.”