The Time Stone (48 page)

“
What’s it made out of,
super iron?” Said Tina.

“
I can do it” said ROBP as
he reached his frail looking limbs into the floor and pulled out
the box lifting it up and walking it over to them holding it
leveled with no effort at all.

“
You are strong there”
said James.

“
Thanks. I work out” said
ROBP jokingly. James opened the box by lifting the lid upward. They
felt a strong energy attract to them.

“
It feels tingly all over”
said Mercedes.

“
I don’t get it… it feels
warm.” Said Tina.

“
Tis like a sun ray on the
eve of summer’s day” said Cutlass.

“
It’s joyous” said
Jose.

“
It’s marvelous” said
Drax.

“
Quite a deep dark
feeling” said James.

“
I don’t feel anything”
said ROBP. The interior of the box was glowing white and spiking
large amounts of light energy. James reached in and pulled out an
item that filled the room with light nearly blinding them all as
they shielded their eyes. The light soon faded and they saw James
holding a twirled rod shaped item, black, curved on either end in
opposite directions, and pointed with sharp ends.

“
Is this the dark star?”
Asked Tina curiously.

“
It’s about time!” Said
Mercedes.

“
We got it” said
Drax.

“
I guess these pregivers
had more than one type of artifact” said Mercedes.

“
This was their
spaceship…we couldn’t even begin to imagine how it functions” said
James. There was a suddenly lost presence in the room.

“
Where is Jose?” Asked
Mercedes looking around.

“
Good question.” Said Drax
as they all saw he was now absent from their group.

“
The small lad is gone.”
Said Cutlass. “I wonder where he went.”

“
I recall no such
presence” said ROBP. “Who are you people and how did you get in
here?” He said to the perplexing bewilderment of the group who felt
the sudden urge to leave as several other ROBPs entered the room
from several parts of the room emerging from the shadows and they
began to surround the five from all ends.

“
Let’s get out of here”
yelled Drax. James waved his hands and the doorway from where they
initially came in slid upward and they ran through it to the spot
they stood when they arrived and in an instant were engulfed in the
white light once more.

They appeared in the land below
previously identified to them as the forbidden zone. They walked
back along the grassy fields and saw the various children of
differing ages trying to comfort one another, keeping their
distance, and bewildered by the uncertain elements of their
predicament.

“
Good thing those things
couldn’t follow us or wouldn’t” said James.

“
Yeah, that was freaky how
he just flipped on us and called his buddies.” Said Mercedes. “What
do you suppose really happened to the adults here and why did Jose
disappear like that?” Asked Tina.

“
Beats me, but I’ll be
glad when we leave this place of craziness.” Said
Mercedes.

“
It seems the disaster
James foresaw in the past, the eruption that caused the great
conflict was somehow limiting. The radiation that spread after the
flashpoint could have affected only adults. Those under certain
ages weren’t affected.” Said Drax.

“
How is that possible?”
Asked Tina. “If anything the kids would have suffered
more.”

“
It could be their immune
system” said Mercedes.

“
It’s perplexing but the
only possible explanation. As for Jose… well it seems…” Drax
stopped interrupted as he saw a young boy approach them near the
spot they saw him the first time as they walked away from the
obelisk.

“
Oh my God” said
Tina.

“
Hey little buddy” said
Mercedes, “where did you go?”

“
Hello. I am Jose” he said
smiling.

“
Yeah we know. Don’t you
remember us?” Said Drax.

“
We never met before.”
Jose replied.

The five stood in shock.

“
That bloody can’t be”
said Cutlass.

“
You arrived from the
sky?” He asked.

“
Yeah, we got to go.” Said
Drax and they walked away. “Why doesn’t he remember us?” Asked Drax
to himself.

“
Maybe when he vanished it
was something to do with the time thing…” said James.

“
Like a reverberating wave
and temporal loop that changes the rules of causality to affect the
past from the future.” Said Drax. “He vanished as did everyone in
the forbidden zone destined to repeat the same events over and over
again. They were doing it since the great conflict centuries
ago.”

“
Why do we remember him?
“Asked Mercedes.

“
We might be protected
because of our proximity to the time stone. I don’t really have an
answer for this.” Said Drax.

“
This whole thing was some
grand design, a higher power at work.” Said Mercedes.

“
It may be our destiny.”
Said Tina looking at James and whispering to him, “could this be
the Atlantis of legend, a land lost in time and risen from the
waves in this future?”

“
Maybe, anything is
possible” said James.

“
One thing is certain, we
didn’t ask to be involved but we got involved by the grace of God
and we acted interfering here and setting things in motion so we
can’t turn back now.” Said Drax.

“
We have accomplished the
impossible” said Mercedes.

“
Nothing is impossible in
time” reminded James.

“
We have to continue” said
Tina.

“
Indeed” said Drax. They
approached the Scorpion car waiting right where they left
it.

CHAPTER 75

The darkness became the air over the
citadel in the center of the city. The redness of the clouds
combined with the black ashen skies to resemble a pool of blood
pouring from a scab. Thunder echoed in the distance as lightning
visage the horrifying windowless monstrosity that stretched across
the fields below hovering over it like as leviathan. Within the
central chamber rested a group arming themselves and preparing
themselves for the ultimate apocalypse that is pending to bestow
itself onto the streets below.

“
That could take us to
another place” said General Stormy to his subordinate a man with
glasses and a crew cut dressed in the dark grey uniform of the
Contingent Elite Command. General Stormy’s was well adorned,
decorated, and covered with metallic armor and underpinnings over
his gear greater than his subordinate was.

“
Per the Legend, Sir?”
Said the man with glasses.

“
Corporal Walton. I know
it sounds crazy but the legend is real. The Dark Star is a
legendary sword, a weapon that has the powers of the ancients, a
device of energy blast capabilities lost in time. It is of true
allegedly ultimate power.”

“
I have sensed it,
something I have not felt in a very, very long time” said a voice
coming out of the darkness. A shadowy figure emerges before the two
soldiers.

“
I sense the weapon is
active again. It must be stopped. Or all our hopes are
lost.”

“
Yes my liege” said
General Stormy as he averted his eyes trying to make out the face
of the mystery figure but cannot. The man’s face is dark and
hidden, as if made of pure darkness and shadow.

“
Ready the armies” said
General Stormy and Corporal Walton whistled summoning forth a
legion of troops ready for conquest, for battle, for victory. They
were beasts, standing upright, grey skin, snouts, roaring vocals,
tall fangs protruding from their mouths, saliva drooling down,
pointed ears, long silky flowing brown-grey hair down their spines,
rippling bodies and arms like bodybuilders, and they held long
scythes with an end point that was spiked like a star lighting up
with hot white light ready to send multiple energy projectiles to
any forthcoming adversaries. The winged vampire-like beasts
prepared as they were standing in legion for the ultimate battle
conquest. Small ocular lenses adorned their headgear made of iron.
A glistening orb rested in the center of their torsos lit up hot
white and red.

“
The time of ultimate
redemption is at hand!” This said the shadow to the legion of
thousands of beast armies within the chamber and on the field below
pouring out before the citadel to the streets of town.

CHAPTER 76

On board the Gorge Hunter, the five
were back adrift on the seas glad to be leaving the island. Cutlass
stood on the mast and barked orders to his crew as they made their
way back to the mainland.

“
What a quest?” Thought
James overlooking the crashing waves on the bow of the
ship.

“
I still don’t get how we
remember those kids like Jose but they don’t remember us. Time
looping is serious business.”

“
Well, best way I know how
to look at is … don’t” said Drax.

“
You will just drive
yourself crazy.”

“
Yeah” said Mercedes. “We
can’t be complete harbingers of all strange things we
encounter.”

“
Speak for yourself” said
Tina laughingly.

“
The ROBP beings in the
obelisk were also part of the loop just like the kids. Their
destined to revisit the disaster over and over again with no
apparent end in sight, never being able to move forward, and never
recognizing their dilemma, truly a forbidden land that time never
forgot.” Mercedes said.

“
Yeah” said Tina as the
four grieved in silence for a moment. “So we go the Dark Star. That
is an awesome victory.” Tina continued. “What we do now is get it
back to those who could use it to save their world from
annihilation. We did a good thing.”

“
Yeah, we could
inadvertently shift the balance of power in the world.” Said Drax.
“Is that the right thing to do ethically?”

“
Well, hell yeah” said
Tina.

“
We can’t let people be
slaughtered like animals. Genocide is wrong no matter who does it.”
Mercedes said.

“
Exactly my point” said
Drax.

They stood in sudden
silence.

“
Defenses Up!” Yelled
Cutlass from his post high in the masthead.

“
What the heck?” Yelled
James.

“
There is another ship
approaching, the battle legions,” said Yulelka running up the deck
alarming the gunners who were preparing their cannons for launch.
She yelled up “the projectiles are armed, Captain and the defenses
are raised” as the metallic hatches of the side of the ship flared
up like wings of an eagle. The Gorge Hunter rounded about and
approached its nemesis like a demon flaring after its adversary in
battle. The battle legions’ ship approached like a stingray above
water hovering rapidly near death.

“
Fire!!!” Yelled Cutlass
waving his new replacement sword. “The winds are on our backs and
time and fate are on our sides!” The Gorge Hunter repaired and
ready after its last confrontation was like a glider along the
ocean towards the battle legions ship and the two armed furiously
fired their energy weapons simultaneously striking one another, the
orange shields of light on the battle legions ship glistened as the
Gorge Hunter suffered casualties to its hull and crew as people
were prepared and flung themselves and their items in midair upward
and out into their watery graves.

“
James we got to do
something” said Tina.

“
We should try the time
stone again” said Drax.

“
Maybe the dark star can
help.” Said Tina. She held the object and focused it outward but
nothing happened.

“
Let me see” said James.
He grabbed and held out the black piece of metal glistening in the
sun strangely and curiously as if not of this world, upon James’
focus, the sword emitted a powerful spiking immensely hot white
beam of energy and he projected it towards the battle legions’ ship
sending the energy beam towards it and piercing the orange shield
of energy and neutralizing it and causing the beam to tear apart
the very fabric of the hull and crew vaporizing it in an instant as
the Gorge Hunter passed through the spot where the battle legion
ship stood on the open waters, and the Gorge Hunter continuing on
its way full speed ahead towards mainland. “Yes” yelled
Cutlass.

“
Yeah” yelled the four as
they pumped their fists in the air and cheered on the happy crew in
the successful testing of their new weapon.

“
It is truly invincible”
said James as the Gorge Hunter slid across the water like a figure
skater as it made its way towards its destination, the mainland of
Chronix Bay. “Indestructible.”

“
What happened?” Asked
Tina. “I thought our Scorpion car could do the same
thing.”

“
It is not as strong a
frequency.” Replied Drax. “The Dark Star was truly the innovation
of an advanced civilization. James’ hand didn’t even burn off. I
think it’s somehow connected to the holder power as James was able
to use it and you weren’t so maybe they created it for him meaning
he was destined to find it.”