The Time Stone, Third Edition (Extended Version)

Time: 2012 A.D., Chronix Bay

The scorching sunlight beats down on a sandy and deserted country road, where a man walks towards no place in particular. He wears a tattered navy blue overcoat, over a white lab coat. His puffed up dark hair has a streak of white across his hair line. His fuzzy dark mustache and facial stubble highlight his unkempt appearance. His eyes squint in the blazing sun as his wrinkled face reveals a lifetime of sorrow and suffering, loneliness and emptiness. His round glasses have cracked in one of the lenses. His face is bruised with visible signs of fresh blood, still drying on his cheekbones and above his eyes. He continues walking in a daze, as if having escaped a whirl of trouble and beatings in a horrible battle. It’s the middle of the day, as he makes his way down a dirt road. He stumbles over a pair of dirty shoes without laces, as he happens upon something ominous that appears to be the long skeletal remains of a beast that is stretched out on the side of the road - not far from his path. He walks alone, passing the skeleton that bears a resemblance of a large reptile, that’s several meters long. He stares at a large fish-like head with big empty eye sockets, skeletal amphibious qualities, and large ferocious fangs. The head is larger than the man who obliviously passes it. The man continues to doddle forward holding a strange green five-sided emerald in the palm of his right hand. The emerald is dull and lifeless, without even a spark from the scorching heat that comes from the sun above. The man thinks to himself, “Doctor Howard Kowalski, what have you done to yourself now?” He walks past the skeleton and looks up to see a green billboard sign that overlooks a shiny metropolis beyond the hillside - on the country road he walks on. He carefully reads the sign that says: Welcome to Chronix Bay. He thinks to himself that this will be the beginning of the end of his adventures. He knows he’s wrong as a voice inside him reminds him that the end and beginning are always the same.

The night darkness dominates the small city of Chronix Bay, which is a rundown community in a major metropolitan area, on the eastern seaboard. As he approaches the museum, loud rumbles of thunder can be heard in the distance following a flash of lightning that sears the night air.

In the Museum of Ancient History, silence is common after hours and the exhibits are like demigods watching for the slightest bit of trouble and ominously pervading it. Their watchful presence dominates throughout the corridors that lead to the middle of a large atrium underneath a magnificent glass dome. They are surrounded by corridors of historical exhibits, such as the ancient Egyptian pyramids, the Viking ships, ancient Greco-Roman architecture, and various other halls and exhibits. The lights from the stars and moon flood the atrium, bringing hope to the enormous space, with their luminosity. Along the halls there are further adornments of statuettes and scientific monuments of great minds such as Sir Isaac Newton, HG Wells, Nikola Tesla, and Albert Einstein. However, at the middle of the atrium and the entire wing of the museum, there rests a piece of resistance. A small jewel-like object lies inside a small glass casing that has metal wires surrounding it, as well as a security strobe light. This five-sided green emerald rests on a pillar pedestal and a metallic perch. It shines brightly from the moonlight high above the museum’s rafters. The interior of the gem also shines outward revealing a five point emblem at its heart.

A shadowy silhouette of a human suddenly appears in the atrium. It casts upon the back walls eagerly waiting for the right moment to strike. The shadow surrounds the casing and the floor of the museum immediately, engulfing it. The museum remains in silence, as the shadow casts itself off of a man standing with a strong sense of empowerment. The man, cloaked in darkness, unleashes a canister of aerosol spray from his tunic belt pouch and sprays the air before him. What was previously empty space is now riddled with a series of green, red, and orange lasers, lighting the air in crossing patterns. The lasers are very thin. There is a slow movement to the laser lines, causing the gaps between them to grow and shrink rhythmically. The patterns appear to leave tiny gaps that are growing and shrinking, but also, expanding quickly thereafter leaving an opening only for a matter of seconds before retracting once again. Timed just right, the man imagines he could maneuver between them and avoid triggering the impending alarm mechanism of the museum. Fear strikes his heart as he views the moving lasers with a disheartening glare. The lights fade slightly, but remain visible. The man, with fear of failure on his mind, goes to work throughout the maze of light. Accordingly, he dodges the series of glowing red, green and orange lasers. He leaps through the moving lasers and jumps around them and through them. He twirls and spins like a ballerina through the glowing lights. His maneuvers are graceful in the slightly lit air. He moves skillfully, avoiding hitting each laser beam. He then hops around the casing, before suddenly leaping right on top of it. He is dressed in a black outfit that is stealthily adaptive as the fabric blends into the darkness. The man wears a bright red sash covering his waist tied into a knot that is carefully melded to his dress at the end. His beady dark eyes protrude from underneath a baggy, loose-fitting mask. The man carefully adjusts into a crouching position, as he sets himself down on top of the glass casing. He carefully removes a small metallic object from his tunic belt pouch. He carefully extends the object, unfolding it piece by piece until finally - he holds a full-size pair of metallic glass cutters. He extends the cutters onto the glass he stands on. He moves his fingers carefully, turning the blades with precise measurements that form a circle and then a square within the circle. He moves in a skillful artistic way using the cutters as natural extensions of his hands. He had previously studied the design of the casing and its alarm system so he knew exactly how and where to cut the glass. After achieving his objective, he then uses the blades as grabbers to slowly lift the cut glass piece. He then reaches into the casing. Within seconds, a loud security alarm disrupts the silence of the museum, as every corner is filled with the noise and the bright lights that surround the casing. The man looks up with an unsuspecting glare into the bright lights.

Cameras turn on their axis to monitor the incident. Strobe lights flash in the air accompanying loud sirens, as the hot laser beams continue to swirl around. A young man in a security guard uniform runs over with a pistol in one hand and a radio in the other. He nervously looks around, perspiring heavily, as the strobe spins flashing bright red and white lights imaging within the casing, and surrounding exhibits. He sees a flashing yellow light hovering in midair. The guard wipes his brow and looks around. He sees a shadow of a man leap off of the casing, that’s surrounded by the horrific flash of yellow whirling light. The security guard points his gun and yells nervously “Freeze!” Then he looks at the swirling light above the atrium, and he panics at the sight. He closes his eyes and squeezes the trigger of his gun, firing a loud shot into the air high above him as the vortex vanishes carefully, collapsing into itself, in an instant.

Suddenly, the lights stop flashing and sirens stop wailing. In the silence, the form of the young security guard lies on the floor mortally wounded, as blood gushes from his chest. As the light fades from his eyes, and his heart slows, he looks up into the dome-shaped atrium. His eyes close as the life force drains from his body. The mysterious figure above the casing and the jewel that rests within it are long gone, as if having vanished into thin air. The warm air surrounding the casing remains the only evidence of the figure’s presence. The darkness outside is still, and pale moonlight gleams down over the sudden crime scene.