“Come on, the Fight Club is downtown.” Chase looked around, to be certain no one was paying them any special attention.
Craig followed behind her. “Do you manage these clubs?”
Chase crossed a street and then headed down the sidewalk. “I don’t manage them. I have helped establish most of them. I know this world better than most since I spent a lot of years traveling all over.”
“Oh, a jet setter?”
“Not exactly. I liked expensive things and would find clever ways of obtaining them...illegally.”
“Oh, I didn’t know you did that.”
Chase turned a corner and continued, “I was good at what I did and gained a lot of skills that have helped me. I also used my superhuman abilities for this, which gave me a special advantage. Looking back on it, I’m not proud.”
“Trust me, I know what it feels like to look back and feel shame about your actions.”
Chase nodded. “I guess this is why I’ve felt kindness and sympathy for you since you woke. I know the pain of a stained past and the desire to better myself. I want to help you be a better person than the villain you had been. I got a second chance. You deserve one as well.”
He smiled, “thanks.”
Chase gasped, “what the hell?”
Both saw the Fight Club was a smoking hole. The front of the building had been blown off completely, glass and fragments of the building littered the street. Two police cars and an ambulance sat outside.
Running up to the police blocking the public, Chase whipped out her BADGE id. “What happened?”
The officer looked at it with scrutiny and then begrudgingly let her through. “It was some kind of superpower attack. Protesters were gathered and yelling, then someone threw a punch and this happened. Ten people have been put in the hospital. Thankfully, no fatalities, only minor injuries, cept that one dog fellow, he got hit pretty hard.”
“Dog fellow? You don’t mean?”
Just then, Fleagle was rolled out on a stretcher. He was awake, but whimpering like a wounded puppy.
“Fleagle!”
He turned his head toward her. “Chase, what are you doing here?” He wheezed and whimpered.
“What happened? Did a protester do this?”
“I don’t know. I got a face full of something bright and everything went crazy.”
The EMT said, “we have to get him to the hospital.”
They watched him be put into the van. Running inside the building, Chase found the Club Director taking care of a woman who had a severe bruise on her head.
“Don, what the heck happened?”
He looked up. “Chase? Wow, BADGE was quick to respond. This just happened twenty minutes ago.”
“I was on my way for other reasons. Who attacked?”
Don handed the woman a fresh cold compress and then joined Chase and Craig. “Well, a few of our regulars were here early when that protest group showed up. Most of my people left out the back, but Fleagle stayed to help.”
Craig asked, “this, Fleagle, did he do this?”
“Hardly. Fleagle and I held our ground, so the protesters wouldn’t break our windows. They came with these strange objects, crystals I think. They were yelling at us about spreading them around the town. Fleagle yelled at them, then they yelled back and he threw a punch. A woman in the crowd blasted us with a strange light from her mouth and the next thing I know, I’m laying on the floor in the back of the gym with glass all around me. Protesters were everywhere, injured, and Fleagle is out cold.”
“Was the attacker injured as well?”
“I haven’t seen her at all. I tried describing her to the police and EMT, but they didn’t see her. She must’a run.”
Chase said, “Report to Nova about this. We’re going to find her. Come on, Craig.” She dashed out the gaping hole that was at the front of the building.
Nova let out a heavy sigh… again… as he closed out the window from speaking with Don from Oxford.
Gar asked, “what do you think is going on?”
“I don’t know. But somehow the energy crystals we’ve been harvesting are now a part of this strange game.”
“So, you think that the World Corps has something to do with the crystals?”
“I don’t know. But, I don’t believe in coincidence. This is stirring up trouble when the World Corps needs us mired in problems. Our heroes just went into hiding and we’ve gone to silent mode, and suddenly the crystals act strange. That is too convenient for our enemy.”
“More than you think.” A voice spoke behind Nova.
Sirens activated throughout the station and the robots at the computers all stood up, readying weapons. A voice called out, “Intruder Alert!”
Nova looked up to see the ragged old man who called himself Father Time. “What now?”
Father Time held up his hands as Gar went to grab him. “I’m not here to do any harm. I’m here to help.”
Gar took him by the arm and pulled him down the steps to the base level where Nova stood. A dozen lasers were trained on his head. Nova had a hand on his own weapon, but had not pulled it yet. “I find it hard to believe you are here to do anything good.”
“I wouldn’t call it good, just a warning.”
“Warning?”
“Time is broken.”
“What?”
Father Time said, “I have been healing ever since our little battle in your arena. The natural flow of time heals me. However, I noticed something was amiss. Time is fractured. I worried I had damaged it beyond your abilities to repair...”
Gar said, “you wanted to break time, of course it’s fractured.”
Father Time rolled his eyes at the stone hero. “My goals were only to benefit humankind with time compression. It isn’t breaking time, just adjusting how it flows.”
“Enough exposition. What do you mean time is fractured? Did you leave lingering damage?”
“I thought so, but as I examined the flow of time, I realized that this is not just lingering damage. Something or someone is currently damaging it. Something is outside the natural flow of time. However, it is acting in such a way that the natural flow of time is progressing, but with a growing wound.”
“That doesn’t help much. Who or what is doing this?”
“I don’t know. I can’t locate it. Besides, without the clock, my powers would be too weak to fix it.” He gave off a sly smile.
“If this is some ploy to get the clock back, you’re a bigger fool than I already know you to be.”
Father Time’s eyes narrowed. “Obviously, I want the clock back. I know I am the most suited to repairing time issues. But I am not the fool you take me to be. Time is fragile if tampered with too much. We both know this. I’m warning you because, of anyone alive today, you can mend this.”
Nova asked, “does this have anything to do with the growth of the crystals?”
“I don’t know about crystals. But, if strange things are happening, you must treat them as potential elements of this threat.”
There was a long pause as Nova gauged this information. Finally, he asked, “will you aid us in this?”
Father Time shook his head. “I’m still too weak. My health is tied to the flow of time. The more it breaks, the weaker I grow. Unless you give me back the clock, which I know you won’t, I can be of no service other than a warning.”
Nova waved a hand at Gar. “Let him go.”
Gar begrudgingly released the villain.
Nova said, “go, you’re free. If you gain any further insights, bring them to me.”
“I will. Don’t forget what I have done, Nova. You owe me.” With that, Father Time vanished away.
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