Heroes rushed to the League Wars Orbital Arena after Gar’s call. The place where they often competed against one another became a unified battlefield against a single foe. Quickly, Father Time realized he was overwhelmed and used his unique talents to split himself into two beings to face off against the enemy on two fronts.
Father Time used his newly crafted clock-staff to blast out waves of temporal energy. Fleagle rushed across the field, heading directly for Father Time when one of those blasts hit and he was encapsulated in a bubble of frozen time, leaving him mid-jump at his enemy. Two more heroes tried a sneak attack and were turned into babies for the effort.
“GRAB THEM BEFORE THEY GET STOMPED ON!” Astra yelled at Doug.
Doug grabbed one baby and dodged a blast of energy. Sliding to Astra’s side, both were now in custody of screaming, naked infants that were heroes moments ago. Doug said, “how can we fight him?”
“Dunno. Just don’t get hit!” Astra shoved him aside, and both barely missed being frozen in time.
“OVER HERE!” Aflima rushed by, also holding a baby.
Astra asked, “who...”
“It’s Rosa, just move!” Aflima ran straight at Nova.
Doug zig-zagged slightly as he ran behind them. “Hope you gotta plan!”
“First, don’t get turned into an infant. Second, get them with the others!” Aflima was shoved right into Astra and both were hit by Doug when he crashed into them.
Crossroads jumped back, having pushed them out of the line of fire for a time blast. “Careful you three...uh....six...oh, crud, more babies!”
Astra was quick to stand and pulled Doug up with one arm. “Yes.”
“This is bad.” Crossroads said. “We can’t hit him, we can’t fight him, and before long, BADGE is going to be nothing but a daycare.”
Krystal Fae ran as best as she could in her condition and used her own power to deflect a time blast. “Get them behind the time line. NOW!” She swung her hands in the air and another blast was deflected.
“The...what?” Astra asked.
“Over there!” Aflima pointed at Nova.
Without further questions, all three, each carrying a baby still, ran hard. Soon, they got to Nova. He had his hands up and a strange energy came from them.
“Nova? What...WATCH OUT!” Doug flinched as a time blast came right at them. Just as it met Nova, a barrier of energy crackled and the blast was dissipated.
“What is this?” Astra asked.
Nova, straining to hold his stance, said, “those of us with time powers are creating a barrier to keep Father Time restrained. He can’t leave this place while we are holding him captive, but we can’t do this forever.”
Aflima set the infant down among a gathering of other crying babies. “Look at how many are here.”
“And there are more.” Crossroads said, pointing out to the new crop of infants.
“This is insanity. We fought Jinn, and it wasn’t this...impossible.” Doug said.
Nova made a strange grunting noise and then said, “we won’t be able to hold this line forever. If we drop it, he’ll get out of here in a fraction of a second.”
“I don’t know what to do. All the heroes with time powers are making up this line.” Crossroads said.
“What is she doing?” Astra pointed out at Chase, who was running head-long at the nearest incarnation of Father Time.
Nova grunted again. “I don’t know, but she must have a plan. All of you, go save babies before something happens to them.”
“On it.” Aflima tightened her gloves and lead the charge back out into the fray.
Chase dashed across the field, jumping over infants, side stepping frozen heroes, and dodging more than one time blast from her own grandfather.
“Crap, he’s onto me.” Chase muttered as she saw Father Time change his time-shifting moves and now had his eyes set on her. There was a toying smile on his face as though he was eager for her to try something.
She threw her blades, but he was quick to shift away from her throws. Her blades were magical and could re-materialize in her hands, but they took longer than she needed, considering how fast he was.
A blast hit her and she found herself frozen in time. Yet, it was as though she were inside a pocket of thick air with a light fog around her. The people outside were moving so fast, but then she could see the others frozen in time that were still stopped. Why could she tell the difference? She moved her hand, and it slid through this.
“Time must work different for me, or it’s because we are family.” She said, which echoed oddly around this pocket of space.
Pushing her way through this, she dropped out of the pocket and was back in normal time. There was a look of genuine shock and some fear in the eyes of her grandfather.
“Not this time, Grampa!” she yelled and made another dash for him, far more confident for her safety now.
“I have more than one trick, little girl.” Suddenly, two father times were in front of her. The other that had been battling on the other side of the arena showed up.
Half a dozen blasts of energy came after the second figure and he was forced to shift away.
Furious Squirrel yelled as he used two steampunk blasters to shoot. “WHATEVER YOU’RE TRYING TO DO, DO IT!”
Chase had her opening. She threw her blades and between her and Furious, the duo Father Times were kept off guard. Soon a dozen more remaining heroes went after the second Father Time and he was pushed back further and further.
Sliding across the field like a baseball player stealing second, Chase dodged one last blast and reached her target. Before he could shift away, she put her hand on his staff. He shifted, but took her with him. Both vanished and reappeared seven times before he realized he couldn’t shake her.
“Let go!” He tried yanking his staff from her hand.
She pulled back and punched him right in the face. “Not a chance.”
Father Time let go of his staff and fell down. His doppelgänger vanished instantly as he lost control of the supreme power of the clock.
Chase, holding his staff, said, “looks like you’re pretty weak without this.”
“Don’t underestimate me.” He vanished away. There came a great wave of energy across the barrier, still being produced by the time heroes around the perimeter. Father Time reappeared and rolled across the ground. When he came to a stop, he coughed hard and looked at Nova. “Fools, you can’t trap time!”
“Looks like they can.” Chase reached up to rip the clock free from his staff.
“NO! YOU CAN’T! IT’S TOO DANGEROUS.” Father Time cried.
Chase plucked the clock free, and she was instantly overwhelmed by a peculiar power. Everything around her froze in time. This differed from before. She wasn’t stuck, everything else was simply stopped. Holding the clock, she could feel time. She was certain she could move it like one might move leaves on the surface of a pond. It was an awesome, terrifying feeling.
Looking at the gathered babies off to the side, she waved her hand and they were all transformed back into adults. Then the bubbles of frozen time trapping heroes were dissolved away, freeing the heroes inside.
Holding the clock, she focused her mind on it and slowly severed it from the flow of time. Once again, it would be returned to just being a powerful relic.
Without even trying, her own powers activated, and she was exposed to raw time. She looked up and saw a handsome man standing on the other BADGE station, wearing what looked like an ancient Greek outfit. Nova said to him, “I now know the truth thanks to you, you have earned my trust.” Then she saw a man hovering over a burning city, dressed in an ominous gray super suit, his skin colorless, his eyes glowing, and the bodies of heroes littering the ground amongst the fire.
She was thrust out of that and back into normal time. Santa had the clock in his hands now. “Angela, are you okay?”
“I don’t know. I just had the strangest experience while holding that.”
“The clock is extremely powerful. You’re not accustomed to it. It can do odd things to the mind. You need rest and you’ll feel better.”
Chase held her head. “Rest would be nice. We can take my grandfather...where is he?”
Nova came up. “The moment we broke the barrier, he shifted away.”
Santa smiled. “He’s weak and injured after all this. I doubt we’ll see him for a long time...no pun intended.”
Chase saw the heroes around helping each other, most gathering clothing to return to the naked heroes that had been babies. Rutkowski and Peyton were arguing as they headed for the nearest shuttle. EB hopped around, giving heroes chocolate eggs.
Nova gestured toward the landing bay. “Let’s get back to the station and get the clock to a secure location.”
“Sounds like a fine plan.” Santa followed them out of the Arena.
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