The Time Stone, Third Edition (Extended Version)

Time: 14 Million, B.C., Chronix Bay

The scorpion car races out of the vortex into a hot desert landscape with a boiling sun looming overhead.

“Wow, is this somewhere in the past?” asks Tina.

“Or the future?” asks James.

“Looks like we hit the mark way back there, my radiation readings are through the roof” says Drax eyeing the display on his wrist remote. “I would surmise its prehistory, about 15 or so million years back Before Christ. These are the primordial days.”

“Oh my” says Mercedes, “we could actually see dinosaurs here?”

“Not really, there is a whole period of the Earth’s history for millions of years after the dinosaurs became extinct, but before the first human beings or beasts arrived.”

“I always say that controversy is way overrated” says Tina. “So, when do we go shooting beamers?” She jokes holding the laser pistol that she found in the side compartment of the scorpion car.

“Where did you find that?” asks Drax.

“It is here” she says.

“Just be careful.”

“Yes, dad” she jokes.

“What do you think that is?” asks Drax under his breath as he lowers the car down towards a fire over an area of loose trees and bushes in the middle of the desert. The car lands and they exit, approaching the fire, only to see a pair of people approaching them.

“So no dinosaurs here?” asks Tina.

“No dinosaurs or people here” says Drax.

“What do you call those guys?” Tina points asking rhetorically as the two men approach dressed in rags with bushels of hair.

“Dear God, humans!” says one.

“Who are you guys?” asks James.

“I am Dr. Raymond Quinzel and this is my colleague Dr. Dennis Smith. We are scientists with Temporo, Inc. in Chronix Bay, circa 2012. Are you from the future too?”

“2012 also” says Tina. “How did you guys get here?”

“The vortex… Broad Staffnight sent us here as punishment for failing to construct the teleportation device properly like he wanted. He is mad, very insane man. There are so many problems.”

“Beware the great weapon.” says the other man.

“Wait, tell us what you know about…” says Drax starting, but before he could finish, then suddenly they saw a flash of hazy yellow light appear before them.

“The temporal wormhole” screams James as he saw three men in dark suits appear bearing long spiral rods with coils wrapped around them. They hold the rods like rifles and fire repeated blasts of white laser energy towards the group.

“Run!” yells Tina as they all take off in different directions, scattering in various ways. The rifle rods continue to emit their light projectiles and strike the two scientists in the back as they ran haphazardly and they both drop to the ground motionless. The foursome continues to run after seeing this, but stop when they realize they aren’t being pursued. Drax turns with his colleagues and sees the three men in dark suits approach the scientists and hold their rifles over the two lifeless corpses, adjust their weapons, and fire instantly vaporizing the duo in a phase of hot white energy. They turn to Drax and his crew standing nearby stone monuments and statues and look at them. One of the men smirks and holds out the time stone in his hand and turns it upward causing the wormhole to appear again. He lowers the time stone and the wormhole mouth moved downward transforming the men and absorbing the light balls that they became.

“Whoa,” says Mercedes. “That was close! “The crew stands on an artificial stone walkway built in the middle of the sandy desert area, stone statues of animals and men and hybrid creatures and beasts adorn the landscape.

“There may be more to the machination’s plan than we were able to glean so far,” whispers Drax.

“Oh great, so now we lost a possible lead.” says James.

“I can’t believe we are here. We came all this way for nothing. My God, what the hell is this all for?” Tina yells at the top of her lungs.

“You were the one who wanted to come here out of some self-judged romantic escapade,” says James.

“Don’t blame me…” Tina points to herself.

“Wait!” interrupts Mercedes. In an instant, the time stone again activates and begins shaking on its own without anyone touching it and within seconds, the five orbs within it starting turning in patterns around in varying formations of clockwise and counter clockwise turnings, and as the four kept yelling the circles turned faster and faster making noises like metallic rotors on a diesel engine, and the eyes of the statues nearby begin glowing bright red. Then suddenly the time portal opens from the time stone and items in the room begin being sucked into the time portal converting to balls of light and vanishing within the yellowish hazy void, and within seconds all the items were gone, but not the foursome who keep their distance.

“I never dreamed anything like this was possible” says Mercedes, “but it looks like….”

“It’s being used not just as a transportation device, but also could have been intended as a weapon,” says James.

“Who could have activated it?” asks Tina. “Some type of remote activation?”

“Or an auto activation protocol,” says James. Then a small cylinder rises from a compartment within the stone pedestal in the center of the walkway surrounded by the remaining statues. The time stone levitates over and strikes the cylinder landing within it and emits even more of the bright yellow light. The cylinder is a shining object glowing brightly in the center altar, illuminating the entire area, a bright star shining throughout.

“Is this the ‘Great Weapon’ we were told about?” asks Tina in shock.

“I don’t know” says James as he stares into its mesmerizing beauty, shimmering aura of hot white light with a yellowish tint like a halo around the cylinder. James approaches and tries try to grab it and then get slightly electrocuted.

“Nice try dummy.” says Tina jokingly.

“Our anger could have set it off,” says Mercedes.

“And maybe also our close proximity to this place,” says Drax. Then see agents in black suits and glasses run in pointing guns at them, having appeared via another temporal wormhole which had quickly vanishing into the desert, draining the surrounding light. The foursome duck to the ground and Drax grabs his weapon and starts to fire back with his pistol. His weapon shoots one of the men who drop to the ground. James waves his hands in midair targeting towards the remaining men’s clothes and weapons and sends them flying backward into the desert landscape. One of them removes the time stone from his belt and turns it towards the man lying on the floor dead, unleashing the wormhole again, and they creep towards the man lying unconscious on the ground. They crawl slowly and grab their fallen comrade by either side and one crawled into the vortex with the dead man transforming to balls of light and being sucked in while the other rises to his feet and holds his weapon towards James. James quickly waves his hands and flings the man into the vortex, watching as he transformed to an orb of light and is sucked in, the roar ceasing as it closes thereafter.

“What the…?” asks James. Drax shrugs, getting up and walking over to him.

Time: 2012 A.D., Chronix Bay

“Why don’t you bring in bigger stories, Molly?” asks Benny Yeddy, a short, irate man who was appointed by his wife as editor in chief of the Chronix Bay Daily, to his junior reporter Melissa Bagwell.

“I got you the Gamti scandal didn’t I?”

“I need huge if we’re going to make big-time,” he yells in his hoarse voice as he is puffing his cigar.

“I am trying,” she says as he walks away.

“Why do you let him get to you?” asks Tom, a coworker.

“I just remember he has sensitivity issues. The only reason he got the job is because he married the daughter of the paper’s owner.” She crosses her arms and grunts as she sees her boss wander out and then suddenly a loud roar interrupts the somber quietness of the room as a flash of hazy yellow light appears above them and three light orbs appear transforming into men, men wearing dark suits crashing onto the desk and paperwork on top of it. Two are conscious and rise up to their feet struggling, to the dismay of the staff, who run away shocked at the event. The vortex fades and the two men look at one another and those who see them and press a button on their wrist devices as one of them grabs his unconscious comrade. Within seconds they vanish in a whirl of white swirling light. “What the heck?” Benny asks. The short man runs into the office with a yell.

“Is that big enough for you, boss?” asks Molly with a smile. The man stands in shock almost dropping his cigar from his mouth.

Time: 14 Million, B.C., Chronix Bay

“So it is possible the beasts are here too?” asks Mercedes.

“Yes.” says Drax.

“Interesting.” says Mercedes.

“What do you suppose...?” asks Drax rhetorically as he begins his sentence seeing the fire nearby grow closer and then as he got closer followed by his friends, he saw that the fire is a beast made of flames. The beast is seven foot tall and eight meters wide and engulfs the small isolated piece of greenery in the desert plains, its eyes wide and white in the midst of its flaming head curved with a large snout over a flaming body and large flaming arms and legs, the form of the beast forms out of the flames, as did jagged teeth from its unusually large mouth. In an instant, another steps out of the beast and then another from that one and then another until four beasts of flame stand before the foursome.

“Oh boy, how do we fight fire?” asks Mercedes.

“With fire of course!” says Tina laughingly.

“Now is not the time for jokes,” says Drax.

“I got this,” says James confidently as he turns the time stone and the vortex begins to roar, but then slowly dies out as the stone became dull again. “Oh, now we’re dead” says James as one of the beasts approaches and strikes James, burning his arm as it caught ablaze. He drops the time stone onto the desert floor and it rolls away into a crevice under some rocks. Drax and Mercedes try to help him extinguish the flames while Tina begins to spit at the flaming beasts.

“I don’t think that’s going to work,” says Drax desperately trying to save James’ arm from being crisped. The flaming beasts approach in unison and strike them all with a momentous blaze before them. Nothing is left, but charred remains of the foursome.

Time: 1140 A.D., England

The sun shone brightly over castle Roy Tan in the Middle Ages as Princess Celia is in her bed ready for a nap. Then suddenly there is a knock at the door.

“Your highness?” asks her loyal butler.

“What is it Cornelius?” Celia says, rising with a low yawn.

“The men in the yards have unearthed something near the old caves.”

“What is it?”

“You may want to take a look,” he gulps. “We are not certain what it is.”

After she changed into her ready robe, he leads her to the development chambers where new things are studied and she sees a small object on the table, a green crystalline emerald glowing brightly with five orbs within it equally glowing.

“This looks oddly familiar.” She says with a perplexing grin. “I have seen this before.”

“Yes my lady. Do you remember where?” asks Cornelius. Princess Celia did not answer, but stands upright and smiles. She approaches the object and picks it up turning it and stands in awe as a beam of yellow light emerges from it and a roaring circle of light appears before them bending the light around it and passing through the table and anything else around it, including Cornelius who runs off away from it.

“My lady, what devil magic is this?”

“Ready the men and horses, Cornelius. We are going on a little trip of an adventure.”

“Adventure, to where?” he asks. She smirks as she holds the time stone and looks into the vortex with her free hand on her hip.

“To repay a debt” she says proudly with her hands on her hips as she remembers James and misses him deeply. She somehow knows he is in danger and she has to find him.