In the Room with Timebender and Chaoren

by Chaz Hamilton

with Timebender (ID#10897) and Chaoren (ID#26465)

HI, Hello, and How are you doing, Sentinel readers. That's right, I'm Chaz Hamilton and I am back just in time for League War 9: Wet and Wild with another In the Room interview with one of our favorite heroes. I guarantee, this hero will never keep you waiting. Let's give a warm welcome to founder of the Time's Arrow league, Timebender. Join us as we talk about recent additions to Time's Arrow, plans for League War 9, and whatever else we might have... time for? 

(I know, even I had to groan at myself for that one.)

Chaz: "Timebender, how have things been going lately? I see you have a new companion with you today."

Timebender: "This is Chaoren, pronounced "Chow-ren". He is a new young hero I have recently been working with."

Chaz: "Nice to meet you, Chaoren. How did the two of you encounter one another? Craigslist? A dynamic duo matchmaker?"

Chaoren: "Actually, it was B.A.D.G.E. that put us together. They thought that a mentorship program might be useful and thought that Timbender, with his league focused on training new heroes, would be a good test subject. If I am successful, perhaps they will recruit more heroes to the program."

Chaz: "That's great. I don't know why Director Nova didn't cc me on that memo, being BADGE's official liaison with the Sentinel, but I'm sure it was a simple oversight. What are your powers, Chaoren?"

Chaoren: "The first power I manifested was a blast of energy, I was being attacked by some minor hood with Morphon powers and blasted him back. I was pretty confused."

Chaz: "I can see why you might have been. They do say that many people's powers are triggered by some type of stressful event. Do you think that might have been the case for you?"

Chaoren: "You see, I was part of an experiment involving the artificial creation of Morphons some time back...it was pretty hush-hush so you might not have heard of it. The thing is, it was declared a failure as none of the subjects manifested any abilities at the time. This power blast was the first evidence that the experiment may actually have worked. I hear they are trying to track down the other test subjects now."

Chaz: "Hmmm. Interesting. Remind me after the interview to get any names you might remember from your time there. Sorry for the interruption. Please continue."

Chaoren: "In any case, I was soon threatened by a costumed villain, who turned out to be Director Nova in disguise. He was running his own private test before he brought me to B.A.D.G.E. for further testing. Those tests show my powers require that I be in an appropriate mental state to create a channel to something called an Archetype. The powers I use seem to not be so much mine as borrowed from this Archetype."

Chaz: "That must be challenging. Maybe even a gamble. If the right kind of Archetype is near you, great, but not every power is best suited for every occasion. What kinds of powers have you channeled since gaining your powers?"

Chaoren: "So far, I have manifested Energy Blasts, Keen Senses, Hardened Skin, a fair degree of strength, and remarkable speed. Timebender taught me how to create duplicates of myself out of low-density energy, that was interesting. Pretty standard stuff really."

Chaz: "OK, don't want to leave Timebender without some time to speak. In reference to your powers,  is the term "timey-wimey, whibbley-wobbley" overused around you?"

Timebender: "No, but then again I do not usually try to explain what I am doing to others. That questions gotten a bit old, Chaz. We've talked about this before."

Chaz: "When?"

Timebender: "Yesterday, when we did this interview."

Chaz: "What do you mean when we did this interview yesterday? I don't remember that?"

Timebender: "I can not change what has already happened, it is my flaw as a time manipulator. What happened in the interview yesterday happened outside of normal time, in what is sometimes called a closed time loop, no one but other time manipulators is even aware that period of time ever happened. Do not worry about it, as far as normal reality is concerned it never existed."

Chaz: "Why do I feel like I'm caught in a 'Whose on First' sketch? Chaoren, back to you. Have you found any interesting obstacles while doing your Patrols? I keep hearing about a very, very aggressive tree in the area.

Chaoren: "I am doing patrols, though not doing particularly well at them yet. I need more practice I guess. I have not yet encountered the tree, though I keep running into this Valkyrie character that I am having trouble beating. I suppose the most unusual thing I have run into so far was a "Backwardsinator" that temporarily flipped my perceptions left to right and made me unable to speak normally or understand people for a while."

Chaz: "That reminds me of some stories about eating some of E.B.'s gift eggs that have gone bad. It sounds to me like you probably sounded like Yoda for a little while there."

Chaoren: "Difficult is was. Yes."

Chaz: "How is your training league doing, Timebender? What are your expectations for LW9?"

Timebender: "I actually asked Chaoren to run my league for the upcoming war, not because he is the best, but because I am mentoring him and so I know what he is doing. I am not sure yet if I will be participating, though I am looking."

Chaz: "That's a lot of responsibility for a new hero to take on, but I am sure Chaoren is up to the task. Just make sure he is standing next to Director Nova for a bit. Maybe he could channel enough of Nova's powers of command to earn your league a gold."

Chaoren: "I've been giving my options a lot of thought."

Chaz: "Last question for you, Timebender. When would you say is the time period most people have asked you to take them back too? How many of those involve an abandoned quarry? London? Patrols in Free Detroit?"

Timebender: "Most people want to go to the relatively recent past to try to correct a mistake. Well, unless you count the ones who want to go back to yesterday to win the lottery. In either case, I can not help them because I can not change the past."

Chaz: "It is most likely a good thing that you cannot. You might reconsider taking some time to talk In the Room with me." Chaz chuckles. "Thank you both for your... time today. And best of luck in League War 9: Wet and Wild."

And thank you to you as well, Sentinel readers. Keep us in mind as your first and best news source for all the action of League Wars, coming next week. This is Chaz Hamilton, saying good day and good night!"

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