Chase was taken aback so much that she nearly fell into Gar. He held her up and made sure she wasn’t too close to the clock.
“MY GRANDFATHER! HOW?”
Santa said, “the night we found you, after that fire broke out, I wasn’t aware that the fire was started by a scientist who was experimenting with dangerous items. He was possibly the most brilliant human alive for his time. However, his work was too dangerous, and he nearly got himself killed. He was selfish, cruel, and dangerous. But, he was also a conduit.”
“Conduit?” Gar asked.
EB said, “he could use morphons, something a few of the humans have, like Chase.”
Nova said, “in my personal work, before the outbreak of the morphons, I tracked all the conduit humans I could find. They had in them the ability to go beyond normal human capacity. Most never realized it, but a few did. Da Vinci, Copernicus, Newton, Curie, many turned out to be brilliant men and woman who advanced science and knowledge. However, a few used their talents for evil, which is why I kept tabs on them.”
Santa walked over and held Chase’s hands. “Just after we found you, your Uncle Krampus searched for any relatives. He wanted to send you back to the humans. The only relative we found was your grandfather. His heart was wicked. He wanted to find a way to live eternally. When he saw you, he said he had no use for a child. I never wanted you to feel abandoned by your only living relative, so I never told you about him. If he had ever reconsidered, I would have allowed him to be a part of your life. But he was altogether evil. I’m so sorry for not telling you this before.”
Chase smiled at him. “father, you protected me all my life, and that meant keeping me from a man who would likely have rather left me for dead. I forgive you.”
Gar asked, “so, this Father Time is three hundred years old?”
“Not exactly,” Nova said. “The man who became Father Time discovered a way to save his mind and transfer it into the body of others. Chase’s real grandfather died centuries ago, but his mind lives as it jumps from body to body when his current body nears death.”
Santa added, “Father Time fooled me. His experiments weren’t just about his living longer, they were about time itself. Somehow, he has worked for centuries on a way to get to the clock, which he did recently. His obsession with living eternally has driven him to want time compression, so no one ages ever again. He is a dangerous madman.”
“Why tell me this now? It seemed like you and EB wanted to keep this secret from me just moments before we came down here.”
Santa looked at EB and then back at Chase. “We have a problem.”
Nova waved his hand. “Come with me.”
Everyone left the secured vault and walked back through the station. At each checkpoint, they had to reaffirm their identities and be scanned for any stolen goods. Finally, they stepped out into the arboretum. Students and faculty alike were pressing their faces up against the large windows overlooking Earth.
Chase paused and gasped. Large gaps were forming in the atmosphere, with crackling lightning spreading between them. Looking through each gap revealed a different time for Earth. Some were showing darkness of night, others had wild hurricanes, still others revealed a wasteland of volcanoes.
“Are these fractures in time?”
Nova slowly nodded, “yes, and they are getting worse.”
Santa said, “this is far more broken than before. Before, we merely moved time in one direction last time. Father Time’s attempt at compression moved time erratically. I feared it was too great a strain on the temporal balance, and I was right to be worried.”
“We must use the clock and fix this!” Chase said.
Nova looked at her, “you are correct, we must use the clock to fix this. But...we are going to need Father Time’s help.”
“WHAT?”
Santa said, “he has inherent attunement to temporal flux. He can control time better than any one Mythic. Last time we had many of my kind working together to fix this, this time it is only EB and myself. We aren’t strong enough. We will need help.”
Chase asked, “how do we find him? He vanished after the battle in Neo Utopia.”
“That is why we had to tell you the truth. We are going to need you to bring him here.”
“Like I know where he is.” Chase retorted.
“No, you don’t need to know. You only need to call him.” Nova said.
“How?”
Santa turned to her and took her hand. “What little is truly left of your grandfather still resonates with the same power that is in you. You have temporal powers, which you inherited from him. By touching the clock and calling out to him, he will hear you across space and time itself. We must put our hope in his willingness to respond.”
“Sounds like a pretty big risk.” Chase said.
Nova gestured to the world below. “If we don’t risk this, then we will lose everything.”
Chase let out a hard sigh. “I’ll do it.”
Nova and Robot 10915 stood in the middle of an empty League Wars Arena field. As they walked along, 10915 would click a remote and the large light fixtures would lift off from their nested positions and hover in the air, coming to life.
“I want all the cameras to be completely inactive.”
10915 answered, “visual recording devices are offline while not in use for League War events.”
“I know. I just want you to double check. The last thing we need is for the media to see us working with a villain.”
“Understood.” 10915 walked away to check on the media controls.
EB came out and hopped alongside Nova. “I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all. Working with a villain is bad enough, but you are handing him a powerful tool that he has already used. In fact, he used this to cause the problem that we are asking him to fix. Didja think about that? I mean, that’d be like finding Jinn and asking him to take over the world again. We are gonna really be sorry if he messes this up. I know it’s bad, but is it really this bad? Could we do something else, I dunno, like combining other heroes’ powers together and seeing if they could do something? There are heroes with time powers that might be able to do this. There is a guy that can bend time and this one babe who can freeze time in a bubble. She is totally hot, but froze me for like two days in a bubble when I just offered her an egg. Well, I did try to tuck it into her cleavage and she didn’t like that, but it was a good and wide hiding spot, right there. Who can blame me? She is so...”
“EB!” Nova finally barked at the rambling rabbit.
“Sorry. I’m just a little nervous. I don’t even remember the fight with Father Time, and I know it was bad news.”
“You’ll get over it.”
A bright blue flash startled them and Strange Quark stood there with Rutkowski and Peyton on either side of him. Both looked about ready to punch the other. “I rounded them up.”
Peyton started to say something, but Rutkowski interrupted him. “Look here, Nova, I aint one of yer stooges. Yous can’t just come and call me up fer duty.”
“What is HE doing here?” EB blurted out.
“Look here, furball, I aint here on my own free will, got it.” Rutkowski replied.
Peyton said, “I know you have your reasons, but trusting Rutkowski is not something you should consider.”
Before Rutkowski could hurl insults at Peyton, Nova said, “Enough. Peyton, Rutkowski, you have been briefed on this situation.”
“Yes, sir.” Peyton answered.
Rutkowski sneered, “I got da message. But I still don’t like work’n fer ya.”
“You aren’t working for me. You are helping protect the planet. If this goes smoothly, you won’t have to do anything.”
Rutkowski leaned in, “so, if I ain’t got ta do anything, do I still get some time shaved offa my community service shtick?”
“Yes. Now, Quark, you know the placements. Get them where they need to be and you two be ready to react if the time calls for it.”
“Ya, ya, I know what I’s gotta do.” Rutkowski followed Quark with Peyton beside him, both ready to punch the other in the eye.
Chase walked out with Santa near her. He carried the clock.
Nova met her. “Are you ready for this?”
“Not exactly the family reunion I expected, but then I guess I’ve gotten used to that.”
Santa held up the clock. “Let Nova and me get into position, and then you do what you have to do.”
“Yes, father. Good luck.”
“I hope we don’t need it.” Santa walked away with Nova.
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