BREAKING TIME
Part 2 of the Mastermind’s Mutants Special Trilogy
Written By
Luke Derricks
Published by
Transformation Paradise
www.transformationparadise.com
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. For sales, licensing, joint ventures, creative collaborations and cross-over events, fan mail, and more, please email [email protected].
THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION
Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED
This story may include mature content and is intended for adults only. The views, opinions, values, morals, ethics, behaviors, themes, ideas, events, attitudes, and consequences (or lack thereof) expressed in this story are for dramatic effect and entertainment purposes only, and do not necessarily reflect those of either the author or the publisher. This is for fantasy entertainment only.
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Please read Part 1: “Mastermind”
before beginning this story.
available now at
www.transformationparadise.com
Brief summary:
Luke’s uncle returned from a Buddhist monastery with an ancient sacred crystal. With his uncle’s guidance, Luke discovered the crystal’s secret purpose – opening portals to distant locations.
They traveled via portal to a desert, spotting a massive pyramid in the distance. But as they drew nearer, they soon realized they were nowhere on Earth. After miraculously surviving the alien terrain, Luke and his uncle found themselves trapped underground in the den of a giant alien snake creature.
Meanwhile back on Earth, Mastermind – a mysterious man with the power to control others – had begun collaborating with a deaf geneticist in order to create human-animal superhuman hybrids.
Caught up in their experiments were Ray – Luke’s roommate and best friend – and Dawn, a girl Ray recently started dating. Dawn received part, but not all, of the geneticist’s experimental transformation process – and has already begun exhibiting strange side-effects.
After narrowly escaping with their lives, Ray and Dawn returned to his apartment, where they discovered the still-open portal Luke had used. Bravely, they stepped through in search of him – and eventually made it inside the massive pyramid.
There they discovered some kind of alien technology. Unexpectedly, it sent Ray back in time to his early childhood back on Earth, where it trapped him in a time loop, forcing him to relive a painful memory over and over again.
Chapter One
Reunited
“How you holding up?” Luke asked his uncle.
They were still trapped beneath the quick-hardening spider-like web substance. Barely able to move at all. The cave had minimal illumination, thanks to a tunnel nearby with a glowing red light.
The giant alien snake, with all its freaky eyes and scary teeth, wandered off some time ago. When it would return was anyone’s guess.
“I’m okay,” said Charlie. “I think the bleeding stopped.”
“How can you tell?”
He couldn’t. He was lying. He just didn’t want Luke to worry. Truth was, he was in bad shape. His body started shivering. His core temperature was dropping from the loss of blood. But he put on a good face and tried to stay positive. They needed to figure a way out – worrying about his rapidly dwindling life would be a distraction, not a help.
“Just trust me. I’ll be fine,” said his uncle.
Luke struggled to move his arm. With enough effort, he started to move it. Barely. Just a little. But it was enough. He wasn’t free. Not even close. But he stretched the sticky substance enough to be able to move his hand into his pocket. It took some work, but he finally grabbed the crystal.
“Okay, I got the crystal,” he said.
“Good, what’s your plan?” said his uncle, trying to hide his shivering and slowly fading consciousness. It took all his strength to stay awake.
He tried using the pointed tip of the crystal to cut at the hard web-like substance. Little progress. This would take forever.
“Maybe I can somehow draw a circle around me, open up a portal beneath me.”
“That’ll close the portal back at your apartment.”
“I know. One problem at a time,” said Luke.
But it turned out to be a useless plan, anyway. He drew a very short line by his side – it was all the range of motion he could get. Even if he could open a portal on the floor beneath him, this web was thick and sticky. It might still hold him there in place, preventing him from passing through the portal anyway.
“Never mind,” he said. “I’m open to ideas.”
“You g-got m-me,” he said, his trembling getting worse.
“You sure you’re okay?”
Uncle Charlie realized he might be more than just cold and bleeding to death. For all he knew, the snake bite also poisoned him. But whatever the case, it took all his strength just to hold on. If they were going to escape, it’d be up to Luke to figure it out.
“Just c-concentrate on g-getting us out.”
Alright. This was crazy. Luke had to think creatively. This was no ordinary problem. He was trapped in the web of some alien creature, in an underground cave, on another planet, with a crystal that could open up portals. The only kind of people who end up in situations like this are super heroes. And it was time he started to think like one.
What were his options?
Wait until the creature – or its babies – came back to eat them? No, too risky. Try to cut his way out with the crystal? That would take too long. Open a portal to escape? Not possible with his current limited range of motion. Hmm. Call for help?
“Help! Help! Anybody, help!”
No answer.
Charlie, weary-eyed, looked over toward Luke. This situation looked more and more hopeless.
Alright. Hmm. What would Superman do? Break free with his super strength or heat vision. But Luke didn’t have either of those. Batman? He’d used some kind of gadget. Luke didn’t have any of those, either. The Flash would vibrate his molecules so fast that he could phase right through the solid material. Again, not an option.
The answer had to be with the crystal. It was the closest thing to a super power Luke had.
“Uncle.”
“Yes?” he whispered.
“You said there were five symbols, right? What are they, where do they all lead?”
He paused. Took a long deep breath. “F-First is Earth.”
“Right, right. I know that. And there’s this planet and the ocean world. What are the other two?”
“One leads to another Earth-like planet,” he shivered. “And the l-last… a vacant s-starship adrift in deep s-space.”
“What? Really?”
He tried to nod. Best he could in his weakened state trapped in the sticky alien webs.
Hmm. There had to be a way. His uncle told him that when they fell into the cavern. “I want you to remember this always, Luke,” his uncle had said. “No matter how bad things get, no matter how dark the situation looks… always have hope. There’s always a way out.”
So what was their way out now? How could he use a portal to his
advantage? He had a limited space. He couldn’t make a very large portal. Not big enough for him to go through, anyway. But maybe he didn’t need to. Maybe it just needed to be big enough for something else, on the other side, to come through to here.
When he opened the portal in his living room, sand and hot air blew into his apartment from this desert planet. The portal went both ways.
But would sand and hot air be any good to him right now?
No… but maybe an icy cold vacuum would.
“That abandoned starship,” said Luke, “does it have life support?”
“What?”
“Space is really, really cold. Starships need life support to keep the air warm.”
“No,” said his uncle. “No life support. No air. If y-you open a portal there, it’s a v-vacuum. We n-never open that p-portal.”
“We are today!” said Luke, suddenly confident. “What’s the symbol?”
“You d-don’t understand,” said his uncle. “It’ll s-suck all our air out. It’s not s-safe!”
“Trust me,” said Luke.
If there was ever a time, now was it.
“Okay,” wearily said his uncle. “It looks like an upside-down ‘U’, with a little circle on each end.”
Luke drew a small circle at his side, under the ensnaring sticky web. It was only a couple inches wide, but it would have to be large enough. Then, carefully in that small circular space, he drew the symbol.
Instantly the lines of the circle and symbol shined brightly, before disappearing into a new portal opening. Pitch blackness awaited on the other side. Immediately air began draining down the hole. It quickly got really, really cold around the portal, too.
Charlie angled his head best he could to see what Luke was doing.
“Come on, come on,” Luke said impatiently.
The vacuum of the portal began pulling down on the web. His arm and side began to feel freezing cold. As did everything else near the portal – including the web.
It started to ice up and become brittle. Smaller segments broke off and spun uncontrollably down into the narrow portal. As the web lost integrity, more segments began stretching and breaking, falling into the opening.
“How’s it going over there?” asked his uncle.
“Almost there…”
More of the web fell in. His flesh near the portal started stinging from the icy cold vacuum. He felt a pull on his entire body towards the hole, too, but so far the majority of the web was still intact, holding him securely to the ground.
A big chunk of the web finally broke apart, spiraling into the air vortex draining into the narrow hole. Okay. This was it. Time to act now or risk getting painfully pulled in himself.
Holding very tightly onto the crystal, he held it over the opening and used all his strength to move it over, left and then right, creating an “X”.
The portal closed instantly.
Luke caught his breath. The air was getting rather thin around him, but it quickly returned to normal. He might suffer from a little frost burn too, but he’d live. They’d both live. They were going to be okay.
And enough of the web had broken apart to enable him some freedom. With a little effort and wiggling, he tore himself free and crawled out from under it.
“And that,” he said, standing up confidently, “is how it’s done.”
His uncle smiled proudly.
Luke looked towards the tunnel emitted the faint red light. What was down there? He turned to his uncle, just as Charlie’s eyes drooped closed.
“Uncle?”
No response.
“Uncle!”
Luke rushed over to him.
“Hold on, Uncle. I’ll get you out of there.” Luke began tugging and pulling at the outer web layers, tearing off small pieces. “Almost there…”
He thought about creating another portal to that abandoned starship. Another icy vacuum should do the trick again. But seeing all the blood his uncle had lost, he worried the vacuum would make him worse. And it wasn’t exactly easy closing the portal last time. One slip and his crystal would be sucked right through. That was one possibility he didn’t want to risk a second time.
Fortunately, the web was more hard than it was sticky now. Piece by piece, segment by segment, he tore away at his uncle’s entangling prison.
Damn, he wished he was stronger. He really needed to start working out.
“Come on…” he grunted, tearing at an exceptionally thick piece. “Almost…” It started to bend. And suddenly it snapped, broke free, and he felt backwards onto his butt.
“Goddammit!” he exclaimed, frustrated at it all. He was making progress tearing off his uncle’s webs. The old man was almost free. But the very fact that they were in this mess was all Luke’s fault!
His uncle seemed to be breathing, but clearly unconscious. He wasn’t as “okay” as the old man had implied.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right.
“Don’t die on me, Uncle.”
Luke was the one who wanted to go exploring through the portal. He was the one who slipped and fell down the pit. He was the one who then tripped and got caught by the snake creature. Luke was the one who wanted the fantasy adventure – to travel to other worlds, meet strange alien species, go on adventures, travel through time, be a super hero…
Yeah, right. Some adventure. In all likelihood, this cave was going to be his tomb. And his fantasy, his childhood need to be some great explorer or adventurer, was about the be the cause of his uncle’s death too.
He couldn’t bear the thought of being the cause of another family member’s death.
“Don’t die, Uncle. Hold on, I’ve almost got you…”
He broke away the final large piece. Enough to pull his uncle out and away from the web.
At last!
Wow. Half the old man’s side was cut open to shreds. Blood soaked his shirt and side of his pants. Not a good sign.
“Dammit, Uncle!”
Luke looked around. For something. Anything. What could he do? The nearest hospital was some untold number of light-years away. The portal back to his apartment was closed now anyway. It closed the instant he opened the new portal.
He’d have to just open a new portal to Earth, arrive at Stonehenge, and hope somebody was nearby to call an ambulance.
Luke pulled out his crystal and faced the nearby wall. He drew a large circle.
But just then, the snake creature returned.
Its eight eyes stared at him, reflecting the dim red light from the nearby tunnel. Its mouth opened – possibly to eat him, possibly to cover him in more of that web stuff.
And it brought babies. About a dozen smaller immature versions of itself, all slithering by along its sides. They may have been small – relative to their mother – but they were still plenty big, and already enhanced with sharp teeth.
The circle was too big. If Luke completed this portal, it’d open a wide window for these creatures to chase after and find themselves on Earth. And knowing how fast these creatures moved, they’d be dead the moment they stepped to the other side anyway. Only then, Earth would be infested with these monsters. Possibly living in the sewers. Eating small stray children. Breeding like crazy. Luke had seen one too many sci-fi alien movies to know how dangerous it was to let a lethal alien species arrive on Earth.
Couldn’t do that.
And the circle was too big to open up to the derelict starship either. Luke and his uncle would be sucked right in with the rest of them. Die within seconds.
Couldn’t do that either.
The snakes crept closer, circling around them.
This was it.
This was the end.
But no. Now was no time to give up. He couldn’t let them die here. Not like this. Not today.
The baby snakes circled closer, going after the easier meat of his uncle. Luke stomped towards them and yelled, trying to scare them away.
It worked for a second.
The glowing pink line
of the circle on the wall finally faded. This was it. Think fast or die here now.
The red-lit tunnel was behind them. The snakes approaching from the front. Maybe the portal vacuum was a good idea again – but they needed some distance to prevent from getting suck in themselves.
He nervously held the crystal. His whole body was shaking. The snakes came closer – but then stopped. They lined up in a half circle towards them, but came no closer than five feet. Why?
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Luke didn’t care. He started drawing another, smaller circle on the floor.
The snakes crept back away from the crystal.
They each had eight eyes, so it was hard to tell exactly what they were focusing on. But the glowing pink crystal in his hands was the likely candidate. Maybe that’s why they hadn’t just jumped and attacked them already. Maybe they were frightened of the crystal for some reason. Or might, more likely, their eyes were super sensitive to even the faintest light, living down here in these dark caverns. The glow of the crystal might hurt their eyes – or at least, fascinate or frighten them.
Luke waved the crystal out in front of him. All the snakes backed up.
Yup. It was definitely the crystal.
Good. So as long as he held that out, they were safe – for now. Until their eyes adjusted, or they realized it was no threat, or whatever.
Holding the crystal out in one hand, he grabbed his uncle’s shirt and dragged him away, towards the red-lit tunnel behind them. The snakes seemed to avoid that area, too.
The snakes followed after, keeping their safe distance from the glow of the crystal.
They got to the tunnel. Luke popped his head around the corner to see if he could see where the red light was coming from, or how far the tunnel went. It curved around, so he really had no idea. But distance was the best defense. And sooner or later these snakes would get too hungry to care about the crystal anymore. Still dragging his uncle along the floor, Luke pulled him around the corner.
And he quickly drew another circle on the floor, at the mouth of the tunnel. Something a few feet wide. And he placed the upside-down “U” symbol in the center.
Breaking Time Page 1
