Timebender spent a moment taking in what was before him, a sunken ship from seventy years ago. The naval crew around him were at a loss for words. Suddenly a hand grabbed Timebender by the shoulder and spun him around. A gruff old man with a lot of decoration on his uniform glared at the hero.
“What is going on here?”
“Hello you to you as well.”
“Don’t smart off at me. I want to know what the hell is going on!”
Timbender said, “look, captain, all I know is that one of the Morphon Avatars just appeared and he has a boat with him. I’ll go over and check this out. You tell your guys here to not load their guns just yet. I doubt we have a problem.”
The old captain huffed and then said, “fine. Get over there.”
Timebender let out a deep sigh and put on a friendly smile. Deconstructing this problem had landed on him, and he was fine with that. He walked to the nearest part of this ship to the German warship. He smiled as he picked up a life jacket from the deck. Tossing it overboard, he focused his power, and time nearly stood still. The jacket hovered between the two ships, its descent to the water imperceptible to the naked eye now. He jumped from the Navy ship to the jacket and then hopped over to the warship. Time returned to normal, and the jacket hit the ocean surface.
Avoiding slimy debris and mounds of barnacles, Timebender approached the strange humanoid creature still working on this boat.
“Hey there, so... whatcha doing?”
The Master of Elemental turned and smiled at him. “Ah, you are a user.”
“User? Oh, you mean I use morphons for powers. Sure thing.”
Elemental became concerned. “I have explored the great depths of this world. There is much like this scattered about the floor of the oceans and seas.”
“Yeah, this boat sunk a long time ago during a war. I bet you’ll find lots of this kinda stuff.”
“Should the people of this planet not wish to clean the floor of the mess they make?”
Timebender rubbed the back of his neck. “Good point, and I will bring it up at the next meeting. However, right now I’m not as concerned with cleaning the oceans as I am with the current situation.”
“Situation?” Elemental cocked his head.
“Yeah, some of your buddies have been captured and might even be dead. I…” he paused when the distinct sound of helicopters roared in the distance. He could see a fleet of military helicopters racing their direction. “What has that captain done now? Idiot.”
Timebender reached up to cup his mouth and yell at the captain of the navy ship when a missile plowed into the side of it, burrowing a great, fiery hole. Timebender said, “Crap, I don’t think that’s a friendly fleet.”
“Those are the vehicles that attacked us when we searched for the Tome.”
“That’d be my guess. I’m going to help our friends, you get the hell out of here.” Timebender said.
“Wha…” Elemental froze in place, as did most everything else.
The world slowed down as Timebender focused his mind. He set his eyes on the navy ship and counted the lifeboats. He had to get over there, get the people to safety, and then get back here before time resumed. “Okay, I can do this. As long as the mercs focus on the avatar, those sailors will get to safety.” He told himself and then dashed for the edge.
Jumping, Timebender aimed for a shard of debris flying through the air. He would leap from it to the deck in the same fashion that he got here. However, mid-jump, a blast of yellow energy hit him and he crashed backward, sliding across the deck of the old German ship. Time instantly returned to normal as he lost all focus on his powers.
Winds blasted around the deck as the helicopters lowered toward the German ship. Several dozen black-clad mercenaries dropped, all armed with enormous weapons.
“You want to dance?” Timebender got to his feet quickly and readied for a fight.
“Get the Avatar, neutralize the hero!” A man ordered.
The soldiers went into action, then time slowed way down as Timebender grabbed a man and twisted him so that he would run into his companion. A blinding blast of yellow energy hit him again and time returned to normal. Two soldiers ran by, throwing small devices on the ground. A field of that yellow energy spread out, and Timebender felt as though the energy within him had been sapped. “What...how are you doing this?”
A massive wave of water crashed over the ship and took out half a dozen soldiers at once. That was followed quickly by a stream of fire. Master of Elemental fought with all the elements at his command.
“STOP HIM!” the leader ordered.
“Surrender!” Elemental yelled, and then thrust his hands forward, creating a twisting vortex of air. One helicopter lost control and spiraled into the ocean.
Five mercenaries raced up, each holding a bulky gun attached to a tank on their backs. They fired a foam that hit Elemental. This encased his legs and one arm. He struggled against this strange restraint, but could move nothing they had covered.
Timebender reached up with one hand just as Elemental looked at him and said, “save yourself!” A massive wave of water crashed over the ship, taking Timebender and a dozen mercenaries with it.
Splashing into the ocean, Timebender watched helplessly as these mercenaries encapsulated Elemental and then carried him away.
***
The massive screen in Operations of the BADGE space station was filled with the face of Gar. Behind him, the Avatar of Strength fought against several other heroes in one of the Fight Clubs meta-human rooms.
“He does not wish to leave. I tell him how dangerous it is, but he only says he invites the danger.”
Nova answered, “It is his way. He looks for challengers. You have to convince him these people will not meet him in fair combat, they will use whatever they can to trap him.”
“I will try.”
Just then, a red light beeped on the screen. A special emergency signal had been activated. Nova quickly signaled a robot, and Gar’s transmission was replaced by a wet Timebender sitting in a life raft. “Nova… good, I was worried this thing wouldn’t get a good signal out this far.”
“Report? Why are you in a life raft?”
“I found Elemental. He was playing with sunken boats. Just when I thought we were ready to leave, those strange mercenaries showed up and attacked.”
“What the hell happened? I thought you could…”
“Look, Nova, I tried. They used technology like I haven’t ever seen. They bypassed my time bending powers, locked me down, and then used some strange foam to trap Elemental. Had he not washed me off the ship, they would have murdered me. A few heroes arrived afterward and helped rescue sailors and me. These mercs... they are dangerous. Where they got this tech is beyond me. I thought I knew everything about temporal technology, but this was… amazing.”
Nova spent a moment mulling this over. Finally he said, “this is bad, really bad. Get back to your HQ, we’ll take this from here.”
0 Comments