The Time Stone, Third Edition (Extended Version)

“Sometimes I wonder what time has in store for us. George Orwell once wrote ‘he who controls the past controls the future and he who controls the present controls the past.’ Are we doomed to repeat our own fates as to that which makes us question our destiny?” James thought as he sits outside of the library waiting for his partner to return. He thought of the possibilities with the time stone they had in their possession, and what they already went through to get it, having only scratching the proverbial surface. “From the past to the future the arrow of time shoots,” he thought, “is it really possible to shoot from the future to the past?” He looks up into the clean dawning air. He wondered what it is all about. Then suddenly Tina comes running towards him with a large box under her arms. She is being chased by several of the ninja warriors, “la Culto” James yells getting up and catching up to his friend as they ran together into the desolate alleyways of the urbanized community.

“Let’s get going!” She yells and they ran past the fallen garbage cans and leaking bags in the alleyway. The group of six men ran after them in, knocking over the dumpsters and stomping on the bags emptying more trash onto the ground.

About a half mile away, Mercedes Gonzalez exits a taxicab in the middle of downtown Seneca Falls. She paid the driver with some crumpled dollar bills and slams the door. Looking up at the buildings nearby, she sighed, pushed up the sleeves of her brown sweater, and walked down the sidewalk. She carried a large purse over her shoulder, patting it gently as she peered inside and saw the green emerald was still there, its five orbed center shining in the partial light. She walks and wonders what to do next as she felt bad about what happened to Juan Carlos and his mother in Mexico, but she knows she had to get away from Mexico before those men in dark suits came after her again and killed her.She thought how dreadful it was, the entire ordeal, and how she had wept uncontrollably as she drove the truck as fast as she could until she got through Texas then Georgia, and ran out of gas in a small suburb. She stayed there and did odd jobs for a while saving up some money before the work dried up, then she wound up leaving and wandering around until she found her way into a small dirt town on the outskirts of Florida. Once there she called for a taxicab to take her to Seneca Falls, where she had been told there would be more work, plus she figured it would be far enough away from the men in dark suits and where they would never find her. She walks down the street hearing a sudden commotion in the distance, a loud roar of individual screams and wild laughter followed by dark crinkled voices screaming in Spanish, “kill them!” and“Find them now!” Mercedes saw two people in their mid-thirties run out of the alleyway near a bank, a man and a woman with a box under her arm. Six men in black and red ninja suits ran out of the alleyway after them. She jumped back in shock and gasped as she saw them and recognized them from her last encounter with them.

“Oh my God!” she takes off running away from them unknowingly alongside the man and woman. “How did they find me?” She thought as they caught up with the trio and surrounded them forcing them to a standstill. The six men circled around the trio who saw the menacing look in their former captor’s eyes that forced them back to back.

“Who are you?” asks Tina abruptly.

“Now is not the time!” says James.

“What do they want?” asks Mercedes in a panic.

“I think we have what they’re after” says James beckoning to the box.

“No, I do” Mercedes replies motioning to her purse.

“We need to do something fast!” exclaims Tina. The lead man pulls out a dagger and holds it closer to them.

“Give us the Time Stone” says the lead man.

“What?” Mercedes asks.

James and Tina looks at one another and Tina smirks, “You want it? You got it!” She tossed the box up in the air and the top flung open with the time stone flying out of the box, with every pair of eyes fixated on it. Mercedes is shocked to see another one. The six men lost their circular formation and scrambled to pursue the relic, including the man with the dagger. Tina pushed her way through the crowd knocking down two of the men with round house kicks. Mercedes lunged at one of the masked men and punched him in the face dropping him to the ground. As the others began to retaliate, James flung his right hand up and curled his fingers repeatedly summoning a branch from a nearby tree causing it to break off and come into his hand then with his free hand making the same repeating motion summoning and grabbing with his invisible reach the Culto warriors, pulling them towards him and then swinging his left hand out with his right, knocked them out with the tree branch and pushed them back onto the ground. Then he and Mercedes ran through the opening created by the melee and James ran across the gauntlet of Culto warriors lying on the floor, dropped the branch, and caught the time stone. The trio kept running together as the six men regained their composure and took off after them. The trio jump into an empty cargo van nearby that James noticed has the doors unlocked. He entered the driver’s seat and before he could say anything he saw Tina has boarded the passenger seat with the new young woman who they befriended in the heat of battle behind them in the back of the van leaning forward on both seats.

“We better get out of here” she says pointing through the front window at the small army of Culto warriors approaching them.

“Punch it” yells Tina grabbing the time stone from him and holding it in her lap.

“No keys” James yells and then as the Culto warriors began jumping onto the hood and pouncing on the doors, he spread his arms, and the doors locked shut and then he clasped his hands together and the car started and then he rubbed them together and it went forward knocking the Culto warriors onto the pavement behind them.

“Whew, that was close” yells Mercedes as the van sped across the streets zigzagging every step of the way.

“Try focusing, James” says Tina “narrow and steady.”

James closed his eyes and imagined the road before him curving slightly and maintained a narrow and steady path as she advised him. The van narrowed out and maintained a steady path smoothly.

“Awesome, how do you do that?” Asks Mercedes dumbfounded.

“Long story,” replies Tina. “This is funny how your powers are growing; they seem to be getting stronger, James. But it is still confusing how they only work on objects not people.”

“Yeah, it’s like I can’t affect living things.” Says James pointing to a dog on the street out of the window as they passed by and nothing happened.

“What are you guys talking about?” asks Mercedes.

“Oh just, even longer story.” says Tina. “My name is Tina Prescott by the way. This is James Timewalker. That is impressive how you handled yourself back there.”

“Thanks, I’m Mercedes Gonzalez. I can’t believe they found me here. I thought all those guys were dead, I didn’t expect to see them again.”

“Friends of yours?” asks Tina.

“I ran into them before and it wasn’t friendly, you?”

“We have as well.”

“Wow, I noticed the green rock. Is that what they referred to as the time stone?”

“We think so; it’s a relic from an ancient legend, worshipped by the ancient Aztecs or something.” Tina holds it up, the five orbs glistening brightly within it.

“That is uncanny. I have one too.” She pulls it out of her purse and compares it up close to the one in Tina’s hands, the five orbs within both glistening brightly, and as soon as they touched, a bright flash of hot white light at the center of a yellowish haze struck their eyes, the points of a starry image nearly blinded them as both stones disappeared and reappeared merging into one.

“Wow” screams Mercedes and Tina almost simultaneously.

“That never happened before!” exclaims Tina.

“We never have seen two in close proximity before.” says James. The single time stone remained within the hands of Mercedes and Tina. Mercedes let go and says “Amazing!” The van drove forward with them going as fast as possible away from the daring Culto.