The Time Stone, Third Edition (Extended Version)

They followed the bridge in single file with Drax valiantly taking the lead.

“How deep do you think this is?” Tina asks as she looks down at the apparently endless black void.

“Got to be at least a thousand miles” says James.

“There is no telling based on geological findings about how deep the Earth central core is. It is simply a very long way down, so best to keep your eyes straight and think of something else” says Drax nervously brave.

“Anyway, what do you think all this is for?” asks Tina.

“It seems like an advanced society once occupied Chronix Bay, but also other parts of the world as their amazing abilities are evidenced all throughout history. We seem to find a lot of them” says Mercedes.

“That makes sense,” says Drax, “the mysterious lights in the sky over Brazil, Egypt, and now here with these ‘vocal oriented transportation links’.”

“That’s funny” replies Tina.

“We are almost there” says Drax.

“Any idea what those mysterious creatures were in the dark forest?” asks Mercedes.

“They look like vampires” says Tina.

“They were obviously beasts from the other place, but highly evolved ones being in this point in the future” says Drax.

“Other place?” asks James.

“Long story, kid, we’ll discuss it another time. Let’s just say we were part of an experiment that didn’t go very well.” Drax says.

“The Machination?” asks Mercedes.

“Yeah, look we’re here.” Drax pointed out as he stepped off onto the platform followed by his cohorts.

“What is it?” asks Mercedes. They look at the center of the pedestal and saw the glowing light reflecting red and the various colors of the rainbow to a lesser degree. James reached down to grab it.

Drax yells “stop! We don’t know what will happen?” James then retracted his arm slowly. “Hmm” Drax pulls out his handheld scanner and holds it over the light. “It’s radioactive” he says.

“Oh no” says Tina.

“Don’t worry; the level of exposure is too minimal to be harmful to us.” Drax scanned and speaks what he read.

“Thank God” says Tina.

“However it does have a large amount of power, but I think it has diminished somewhat overtime. It was a lot greater many thousand years before, I say about a billion times more powerful than the sun at one point judging by the rate of radioactive decay and the half-life of the … whatever it is.”

“That can kill someone right?” asks Mercedes.

“Oh yeah, we’re lucky we found it now instead of when it was in its prime. I reckon it’s some kind of battery source device.” Drax says.

“The altar looks familiar” says James looking at the marble like form and symbol etched into it.

“The Pregivers” says Tina.

“Yes it seems they are behind most of the archaic items we come across” says Drax.

“It is and it is all mines” yells a crinkled voice in the distance.

The foursome looks up and saw a form running across the bridge towards them, a beast with the body and demeanor of a man, but with the face of a lion whose waving hair flowed down to the base of his spine in a tight braid, a long gilded coat, with a long curved dagger in his right hand, and wearing a belt buckle with a familiar symbol. They saw the symbol and stood in shock.

“The Culto!” they exclaims simultaneously.

“What the heck?” Asks Drax rhetorically as the beast drove himself onto the platform with a sudden halt and tremendous roar into the echoing cavern above them.

“Just FYI, the time stone is glowing again” says James.

“Thank God for small favors” says Mercedes.

“I will claim the Orgola Golon!” He says in a crinkly voice as if communicating by some electronic device hidden in his coat that translated his roars into the English language.

“Who are you?” asks Drax.

“Capulow” the beast responds as he leaped up with amazing agility and hopped over the pedestal as he reached for the light with his free hand and grabbed a round jewel that faded once removed from the pedestal. Capulow landed on his feet and ran back across the bridge at lightning speed once possessing the item. The platform began to shake as did the entire cavern with rocks crumbling downward in a sudden avalanche of natural stone.

“What the heck?” Tina asks.

“We got to go now” says Drax and the four ran back across the bridge back to the platform they came from.

“Where did the Capulow guy go off to?” asks Tina.

“How do we get out of here?” Asks Mercedes as they look about and saw no visible means of escape. James reached for the Time Stone and saw it is glowing along with the five orbs at its center. In the distance, Mercedes pointed out “look!”

There is Capulow running across the stone walls vertically at lightning speed seeming like a blur colored in blue and gold until he vanished into the rock’s many caves above towards the central opening.

“That’s amazing” Tine says. The rocks began to snowball and come down in larger intervals striking the bridge and the platforms, the bridge began to give way and drop the multiple stories below.

“Let’s get out of here the only way we know how” says James as he held the Time Stone out and turns it causing the temporal wormhole to appear as they have seen it many times before.

“Where will we go now?” asks Mercedes.

“Any place is better than here” says James.

“Ladies first” says Drax.

“Such a gentleman” says Tina running first followed by Mercedes as they transformed into balls of hot yellow energy being sucked in one by one. James and Drax look at one another as the rocks kept falling onto their location and ran together transforming into balls of hot yellow energy and were sucked into the roaring vortex that quickly faded thereafter. The cavern collapsed onto itself with not a soul remaining in the caves.

The roar of the vortex is loudly heard by the crew of the Doom ship Gorge Hunter. The captain and first mate stands in awe at the unbelievable power before their eyes; a light punctured itself into thin air and emitted four projectiles that were transformed into people they never met. As the light faded, Drax and his crew found themselves in the presence of another crew onboard a tall ship with metallic underpinnings decorating the wooden hull and tall masts made of the same material with light diodes and beacons surrounding every yardarm, stern, and port.

“Ahoy Mate” says the long winded captain whose long dark beard and hair, eye patch, long coat, gold earring, and mechanical robotic parrot on his shoulder made him fit the stereotypical pirate definition they were all familiar with.

“Ahoy yourself” says Tina cavalierly receiving somewhat dirty looks from her friends.

“Uh, what she means is we are lost” says Drax calmly. “We would like to know where we are”

“Or when” adds Mercedes.

“Aboard ye are brigadier freights of far log hanging and weaponry Gorge Hunter. I am Captain Rigel Cutlass. We welcome you beings of far flung places.”

“Right” says James “we be…”

“Time jumpers are you” says Captain Cutlass anticipating his answer. “We welcome you as guests aboard the Gorge Hunter.”

“Thanks” says James.

In one of the many quarters below deck, Drax sits on a bed with no feet.

“This is pretty cool” commented Mercedes.

“It’s a flying bed, can’t get much more high tech” says Tina.

“Yeah” replies James.

“Who is that beast…? Capulow?” asks Drax muttering under his breath.

“There was a legend in Celtic mythology; a giant cat known as the ’Cath Palug’ it’s said to have terrorized the Welsh island of Anglesey before being defeated by the legendary King Arthur in the Middle Ages.”

“So you think this Capulow is the Cath Palug?” asks Mercedes.

“Anything is possible now” says Drax.

“But he just vanished. I have never seen anyone that evolved and what is the red stone we saw?” Tina muttered.

“He is amazing. But this is the future. We have to expect the unexpected” says Mercedes.

“I noticed strange writing on that altar where the device was” says Drax. “It was a message translated as ’time waits for no one… the voyage is long … great power awaits… let the light be your guide. The truth is your fate” says Drax.

“What does that mean?” asks Tina.

“Some kind of treasure, a weapon, the Dark Star?” asks Mercedes reasoning it out.

“It’s a treasure map to find the dark star” says James “and we lost it.”

“But we can get it back. We got time on our side” Says Tina.

“Yeah, it’s good we’re still in the same Time, right?” asks James.

“More or less” adds Tina, “from what Captain Cutlass’s First Mate Kelron told us this is 4224.56 or in terms of our calendar way out there.”

“The system changed some time ago,” says Drax.

“We’re like a fish out of water here piecing things together bit by bit” says Mercedes.

“Any idea on the look of things?” asks Drax.

“Look… yeah he looks real good, cute, but not my type, kind of self-righteous” says Tina.

“Look of the situation, I meant” says Drax sternly.

“Oh well, we’re definitely post ‘great conflict’” she replies “everyone seems to curse it as the downfall of everything.”

“Whatever the great conflict is or was caused by” commented Mercedes.

“We can still investigate and find the dark star. There are lives at stake here” says Drax.

“Or we could go home” adds James. “The Time Stone still has some life to it” he holds it out and shows it is glowing with the five orbs at its center.

“Where’s your sense of adventure, James?” asks Tina rhetorically.

“I left it back there with my lunch,” says James partly joking, “but we don’t belong here. Let’s try to focus in the void to wind up back in 2012. We overshot the mark before, but if we all really concentrate…”

“I don’t know about that James, I think we were sent here for a reason, it explains why we are still here even after going through the void again” says Drax.

“Don’t tell me you’re turning religious on us” says James.

“I was raised Roman Catholic. I learned about the sacraments and the gospel and that Christ died for our salvation.

Maybe the Virgin and the Saints are leading us on a path” says Mercedes.

“And for what purpose is this supposed to be?” Drax asks curiously.

“I don’t know,” says Mercedes shaking her head “but it is worth finding out. There is more out there for us to see and do.” She adds.

“We are natural born adventurer explorers after all, right James?” asks Tina reminding him of their earlier conversations.

“We can ask Captain Cutlass for help to get to where we need to be” says Mercedes.

“Well, let’s be careful here. We don’t know what repercussions our actions would have” cautioned James.

“What about the Scorpion car?” Mercedes asks.

“Is it still accessible?” “Should be, but needs to recharge before we can access it again, but there is no distance where it cannot be summoned when needed” says Drax.

“What Scorpion car?” Tina asks.

Drax looks up at James and Mercedes and smirks. “We’ll show you later!”

“The first mate told me there is a story of something called the great island where mysterious things have been known to happen and ships destroyed when approaching. Chances are it’s where the map would have left us or it’s a good place to start” says Tina.

“Ships destroyed?” echoed Mercedes fearfully.

“We have no choice” says Drax. “Tell the Captain we have to go to the great island.”

Standing on the deck of the Gorge Hunter, Captain Cutlass and his crew, including his first mate Ricon Kelron and cabin girl Yulelka Maken, were preparing for the voyage.

“We shall embark on a quest of vision and courage” says Captain Cutlass. “We shall help as we have been asked by our guests to find the legendary Dark Star.” The voices from the large crowd of seafaring men and women became loud and uncertain as they questioned the logic of this task.

“But no one has ever returned from the quest for the dark star” yells one brave sailor. But Captain Cutlass is courageous and fierce, and issued orders commanding their obedience and they did obey.

“Open the storm drains, batten down the hatches, prepare the masts, and set hole-sail rigged onward, engines and beacons adrift for full speed ahead. The open waters promise to be rough surrounding the great island. But we have proven rough situations before and we can prove prevalent through this as well. Let us remember today we fight for our culture and the culture of our neighbors on the mainland. While we have never agreed much before, I admit, we must work with them and with our time jumper allies for there is a greater threat to our shores, a menace of evil whose armies threaten all we hold true and dear. Together let us embark on our greatest journey.” The crowd erupted in applause swallowing their senses of pride and fear.

Within moments of the captain’s orders the ship sailing preparations were underway and the voyage is set for. The masts lit up with an explosion of light from holographic generation that illuminated in air around the ship in the form of sails. The weaponry is prepped from stern to stern made of silver material and prepared to emit high pitched plasma particles. The light beacons lit up with bright red amber shining in the dawning sky. The triple decks with over 400 rooms were battened down with metallic awnings and armor around the wooden hull. Tina smiles when she saw the crew hustling about this amazing marvel bestowed before her, a future pirate ship. The ship began its magnificent voyage across the dark seas ahead at the break of dawn with the wave of Cutlass’ large red flag in his hands representing the old union prior to the great conflict.

“Let us achieve true success!” The bright lights from the holographic sails flowed in the winds and the tail of the vehicle emitted vapor energy cleansed from the bowels of the ships core reactor and emitting in trails of three pushing the ship along the mighty rough seas’ crimson waves.

Tina approached James who has his eyes closed on the starboard side of the ship facing the water tide. “What are you doing buddy?” She says.

“I think I can see it” says James.

“Huh” noted Tina.

“The stone from the cavern of light, the one Capulow stole. It is nearby. I can sense it. I don’t know how, but I can sense it and see it close to this place.”

“Your powers must be growing again” she adds.

“I can just reach out with my mind” he continues speaking with his eyes closed and focusing on the sight of the red lightless stone in his mind’s eye.

“Concentrate dude” says Tina wide eyed in shock.

“Hmm” James focused on the stone and felt his entire body shiver as he began to shake. His eyes began to light up within a few moments. He felt the pull of the object he sought and used all his might to focus on it and pull it towards them. Several minutes would pass when one of the crew would begin yelling at the top of his lungs that he saw something “curses, curses, there be omens in the air” and as they all soon looks up and all saw what appeared to be a red jewel flying above them and drawing closer to the Gorge Hunter. The winds picked up as the stone vibrated in the air tunneling to them like a torpedo in the distance coming towards them and circling the port side of the ship arriving in a full sweep into the air above James. Tina reached up and grabbed it.

“Amazing” she yells.

“A small step for man, large leap for the holder” says Drax proudly.

“We got the map now” says Mercedes marveled.

“Blessed be” says Cutlass.

“Mercy me” says Yulelka.

“We got the Orgola Golon” says James opening his eyes and turning. “I think we can expect Capulow to find us again.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get him” says Drax.

Then suddenly Yulelka pointed out something as she looks in pure astonishing horror, “it’s them!” Everyone looks at the largest ship they have ever seen sail the seas, many have seen it, but few have lived to tell about it.

“What’s that?” asks Drax.

“A legend alive before us, one of pure evil” says Cutlass with a great frown.

The ship that approached is large, almost twice the size of the Gorge Hunter, armored with three times as many cannon on either side, each one with a small projectile firing mechanism at the end, a small sphere of silver, as the entire arm began to glow with light and electricity reaching the silver ball at their tips and flashing like multiple stars surrounding the hull, readying to fire their energy. The hull is triple reinforced with metallic armor and extension wings that made it seem like a giant seagull gliding across the waters. The sails were holographic as well. The engine emitted trails of light pushing it aloft the rough stormy seas.

“What is that?” asks James.

“That is the mightiest of the mighty, the scourge of the eight seas,” says Cutlass with absolute fear in his voice, “the Marauder!”

“She has equipment ten times as powerful as we do, Trans morph torpedo launchers, multi-laser cannons, and a trans-phasic energy based armament” says Yulelka.

“Never heard of that kind of technology” says Mercedes.

“It’s very unusual. It doesn’t exist anywhere except on board that ship” replies Yulelka.

“Could they be from the future?” asks Tina “well the future of this future” she adds nonchalantly.

“Anything is possible, or they have help” says Drax. The fear and panic in their tones is immense as they watched in agony as the Marauder approached and they could do nothing, but pray that it would pass them by on their voyage to the great island. But it did not and the sounds of the braking system on the Marauder erupted like torments in hell.

“We got trouble” says James.

“Maybe we can talk our way out of this” says Drax.

“If not, lad, we will not be able to outfight” says Cutlass. “We simply cannot win. No one ever has.”

“The Marauder’s weapons are targeting us” yells Yulelka. The silvery orbs on the tips of their cannons lit up and aimed at the Gorge Hunter. Multiple streams of thin laser energy flew towards the Gorge Hunter and struck its underpinnings of metal rocking the mighty vessel back and forth along the waves.

“That sucked” screams Tina. Several crew members fell overboard. The firing continues.

“We got to do something” says James.

“Why are they doing this?” asks Mercedes holding onto the mast.

“We invaded their sea. They are very territorial. We have never been out this far to see them, only heard of them in legend” says Cutlass screaming as he held to the side of his ship and barked orders, “return fire, return fire.”

“Weapons are down” says Ricon.

“We’re doomed” says Tina.

“I got an idea” says Mercedes. She grabbed the glowing time stone from James and turns it.

“You’re going to ‘time jump’ them?” asks Drax.

“Not them… us” she yells as the temporal wormhole opens up in a flash of light before them and in between the two ships. The crews of both shipped stops in awe as the Gorge Hunter maneuvered slightly towards it.

“We need more speed” says Drax.

“Now” Cutlass gave the order and struck his hand down like the hammer of God as the ships helmsman turns the wheel with a mighty stroke sending the ship lurching towards the roaring vortex as the Marauder continues its assault. The Gorge Hunter received numerous blasts and caught fire on one of the masts disabling the holographic sails.

“We’re dead” yells Ricon.

“Not yet” says Mercedes as the entire Gorge Hunter amidst in flames and all its remaining inhabitants came within close proximity of the vortex and transformed into a ball of energy being sucked into the vortex that soon then quickly vanished to the behest of the crew of the Marauder left in awe. The captain of the Marauder rested on the deck of his ship with a serious grit on his face showing his sharp teeth in anger.

After being released from the roaring vortex, the Gorge Hunter travelled along the water slowly. The crew hustled about trying to fan the flames with rags while Ricon ran up to the main control panel at the helm of the ship and pressed the emergency red button that caused a stream of coolant to flow from the beacons as they turns towards the masts and sprayed their water vapor that generated the electrical components putting out the flames. The crew cheered.

“We made it” says Tina.

“Quick thinking, I am impressed” says Drax to Mercedes.

“Thanks. Seemed like a leap of faith” Replies Mercedes.

“Where or when are we?” asks James.

“Land Ho” yells the ship yeoman from the mast bucket high above the ship.

“It’s the great island” says Cutlass slowly.

“The Island looks weird. It is not at all like I envisioned, with more greenery and taste” says Tina.

“This isn’t some Robert Louis Stevenson novel, sometimes life is funny” says Drax.

The great island is dark and desolate, appearing like a lone piece of charcoal in the blanket sea, and a harbinger of great mysteries cloaked in absolute darkness in the midst of daylight.

“Wow” says James. “We are the first to see this?”

“Well we don’t know. Legends were told of the great island as a place of mystery and wonder, but also fear and dread. Those who were supposedly able to arrive here have never returned. I fear we may soon join them” says Cutlass nervously.

“Don’t worry we got time on our side” says Tina smiling.

“Look guys, I think this ‘map’ is more, a possible storage device” Drax pointed to the stone in Tina’s hand holding his handheld scanner over it.

“It’s more than a battery?” asks Mercedes. “I think the altar is the battery, but the stone is for storage of information. We just have to access it.”

“How do we do that?” asks James.

“Well, if it has info, Drax and I can probably translate and read it on my scanner if finding the right frequency it is pitched into. We could find the map to find the dark star in the great island.” Tina says.

“The great island has many secrets” says Cutlass “and is rumored to hold a weapon of great invincibility and power.”

“The dark star” says Mercedes.

“Yeah” says Drax.