The city of Toronto is vacant, having been evacuated less than twenty-four hours ago. The three augments assigned to the Canadian Capital cannot fulfill their master’s wishes as the hero League, Hydra, keeps them occupied in a fierce battle.
“We have one down!” Martial Law announced over the comm channel.
“On it!” Martial Law barked orders into the comm for the other heroes.
The Gentleman listened from around a corner. The sound of a high-pitched whistle rang in his ear. The augmented woman zipped by, flying so fast that she almost broke the sound barrier. He stepped out and clotheslined her mid-flight. She flipped over and over in the air and crashed into a corner bistro, destroying half the building.
The Gentleman held his arm, “Gah! That hurt! I hope she took that in the face! Man!” He clicked on his comm, “I have her. She just plowed into Maple Jacks Bistro. I’ll keep her down!”
“On our way!”
He took a timid step over the rubble, ready for a good fight. “Hey, sister, where are ya?”
The sound of moaning and some rubble being moved caught his attention.
She pushed aside the debris and stood up in the middle of the wreckage. Her body quaked and energy spiked all over her skin. She looked at The Gentleman with desperation in her eyes.
“Please...help me...I hurt!”
“What the?” He wasn’t sure how to handle this.
Death Ape, Martial Law, and Tri-blade arrive just then, equally ready for a fight.
The energy all over her body turned vibrant. She held her head, screaming. All at once, the energy flowed free of her and she crashed to the ground.
Tri-blade rushed over and checked her. “She’s dead.”
“I didn’t mean to kill her.” The Gentleman whispered.
Tri-blade said, “I don’t think you did.”
“No, you didn’t. I just got word from the others. Both the other augments just lost all their energy and died at the same time.”
“What the hell is going on?” Deathape asked.
“I don’t have a clue.” Martial Law said, “better tell BADGE.”
***
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I listened to Old Nova say something about morphons in the air and then I was standing there with all you guys looking at me.” Gar said.
General Nova said, “you were touched by time. Something happened to you, but I don’t know what.”
Chase asked, “could it have something to do with the time fractures? Maybe he was reliving something from the past.”
“Couldn’t have.” Director Nova said, “he mentioned Mecha’s and Drochah, neither of which has Gar had any experience with before now.”
EB zipped into the room and jumped up on a console. “You guys better come down to the arboretum, like now.”
“What is it?” Director Nova asked.
“Santa is here, and he brought friends. Come on.” EB zipped away so fast that no one could see where he went.
“I miss that little guy.” The General said.
Director Nova asked, “you want to bring him back to the future when you go?”
“Ha, you say that. But, he really is your best friend. You’ll come to understand that one day. For now, let’s find out what Santa has to say.”
Everyone headed down to the arboretum to find Santa standing with Rutkowski, Peyton, and Father Time. What surprised both Nova’s the most was that Santa currently held the powerful clock that Father Time desires so greatly.
“Santa, care to explain?” Director Nova said.
“Of course. Oh, good, you brought Gar with you.”
“Me?”
“Yes. This is about you. About an hour ago, we all felt something in time. Something came backward in time.”
Chase said, “time is fractured all over the place, or so I’ve been told. What is strange about this one incident?”
Father Time said, “because, it was on purpose. Someone has created a tether between two time periods.”
“Tether?” Nova asked.
“Someone has tapped into the fractured time and used a stable point in both the future and past that is connected. This requires something extremely powerful that exists in both times. Through this link, the future is trying to communicate with the past. But this is an extremely delicate and difficult process.”
“Wait, Gar, you were talking about things from the future. You are the link.” Chase said.
Peyton nodded, “Santa quickly gathered us and we all agreed it had to be Gar. He is timeless and his core that gives him life is extremely powerful. He is both touched by magic and morphons. Thus, he is a perfect conduit.”
Gar frowned, “huh?”
Rutkowski huffed and explained in his usual eloquence, “theys saying you’re a time-telephone. Someone is try’n ta ring the past up and you’re da answering machine. Capice?”
“No.”
Nova put a hand on Gar’s arm to stop him from asking more questions. “So, what is the message?”
“We don’t know,” Santa said. “That’s why we’re here. Using the clock and our combined powers, we can try to stabilize the link and get the message clearly.”
Father Time said, “for someone to do this must mean that it’s of vital importance.”
Gar looked at Director Nova. “Do we trust the mob boss and Father Time?”
Nova looked at them and then slowly nodded, “they may be despicable criminals...”
“Hey!” Rutkowski took offense.
“But even they don’t want to see our world annihilated. We can trust them.”
EB hopped up, “besides! If they try anything, you got us right here.”
Director Nova said, “we need information. We need to know what the future is trying to tell us.”
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
Nova’s comm beeped. “Nova here.”
A robot announced, “You have one hundred and fifty-eight messages coming from Earth.”
“Talk about timing. Okay, Chase, you stay here with Gar and monitor this. We’ll head back to operations and find out what is going on.”
Director and General Nova left them with their work.
“Report!” Nova barked the moment he got into Operations.
Dozens of small screens were open on the monitor. Heroes all talked at the same time, but then stopped when they heard the cacophony.
“Robot, mute the others. Just put Krystal Fae through.” Nova pointed at one of the little windows.
Krystal’s window opened up. “Sir, all the heroes I’m working with are reporting the same thing. The augments are...dissolving. Well, not fully. Their power is evaporating and then they just up and die.”
Nova looked around the screen, “is that what everyone is reporting?” People nodded.
General Nova walked over to the computer station to the side. “I’m reading a massive buildup of morphonic energy in the middle of the ocean.”
Nova said, “that must be where he is gathering the power. All heroes, get to a BADGE center and be ready to receive special equipment. The moment you have it, you are to head to those coordinates.”
Krystal asked, “what special equipment?”
“Something you’re going to need to battle this. Get moving. Nova out.”
General Nova said, “if Drochah is moving to the last stage of his plan...”
“Then the next step is total eradication of life on Earth. I know, we’re running out of time.”
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