“You are very intellectual. I love your abilities and curiosities. How young were you when you first realized your mind could absorb information so quickly?”
“About eleven. I would go to the library to read everything I could get my hands on, fiction, non-fiction, languages, and travel books, even read the dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedia one summer.” She smiled proud of the childhood effort.
“And you dropped out of college?” Asked James.
“I had no choice. I was doing great. A grades all the way and my professors said I was gifted and could get a scholarship but I needed money and working the streets was the quick way. I needed to eat and I already told you about my pimp and I thought I loved the bastard.”
“Right, so what happened? How did you leave that world and the orphanage school teachers?” James asked curiously.
“Life happened. Anyway, new worlds in books were my escape but Dr. Arnold Schiester was my hero.” Tina said.
“Who is that?” James asked.
“The man who became my mentor, surrogate father, and big brother all boiled into one.” She smiled. “He taught me about life, about helping people, making a difference, and learning, the thrill of climbing mountains in your mind to new peaks of greatness and perfection. He is the one who first said to me ‘knowledge is power’.”
“My dad said the same thing.” James added.
“Dr. Schiester saw potential in me and became the father I never had who rescued me from a life that I thought I couldn’t escape from except in books. I thought I was invincible when I was with him. It was awesome how he made me feel and he was older but it was great how we would spend time together just being, drinking, smoking, listening to music, and learning multiple languages together like Spanish, French, Portuguese, Greek, Latin, and certain early African dialects, exploring the origins of mankind while having natural fun. Good times!”
“Did you ever … you know, with him?” James asked.
“This man was like my father. That would not have been… appropriate, but there was one night where we forgot everything and gave into our passions.” Tina uttered briefly.
“I see!” James smirked. “You never obtained your full potential due to your problems and involvement with toxic people.”
“Anyway, he turned out to be much worse. It was sort of like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire for me. He became a different person and an abuser when we moved in together and he almost killed me as well. I ran away in the middle of the night during one of his spats, I did it to save my life.” Tina said. “I dated a few guys after that, including this British fellow but none of them seemed right. I couldn’t connect with anyone emotionally after what happened to me. That’s why I am so cynical sometimes. I don’t trust people easily now.”
“Sounds rough,” James added. “Do you trust me, Tina?”
“I don’t trust anyone but myself. But honestly, you and I are not that different, James. Maybe there is a reason of fate our paths crossed again after so long after high school. I do want to trust you but I don’t know why. When you were going to leave me in that cell to rot alone, I felt as if a piece of me was dying. I needed to go with you, to be with you there. I can’t explain it.”
“When destiny calls, Tina…” added James.
“Huh?” Questioned Tina.
“My dad always spoke to me about destiny and finding your own way, a purpose in life.” James spoke philosophically for the moment. “Everything happens for a reason, Tina.” Said James.
“I never knew what it was like to be in a real loving family because everyone I got close to screws me over. So I learned to look after only one person in life… myself.” Tina lectured.
“I have learned the definition of family truly is that you look out for one another above all else.” James added.
“I think that’s ridiculous rhetoric. I have lost every family I have ever had. I do not know that definition.” Tina frowned.
“That’s sad. I pray you find that. Family is the most important thing.” James frowned. “I want that for you. You deserve a real family.”
“I don’t know if that is possible for me” said Tina frowning with an insidious glare.
CHAPTER 32
Broad Staffnight and his entourage walked towards the gate after their own private security clearance.
“Sometimes it’s good to be the head of a Fortune 500 company and have access to all the political advantages and privileges that come with it.” He wondered to himself. They walked forward to the gates when suddenly there was a slight beeping sound from Chief Hightower’s pocket. He took out his cellular phone, a specially-designed communications array hooked up to Temporo, Inc.’s computer networks and camera systems throughout town including the airports. The device resembled a small round metal orb. He read the contents of the display screen.
“Sir, we are picking up the DNA signatures of two of the escapees from Sector 11.” Chief Hightower spoke looking at the device in his palm. “It’s James Timewalker and Tina Prescott. They are approximately five to six meters eastbound.”
“Isn’t technology wonderful?” Asked Broad rhetorically. “Call central and have them picked up immediately!!!” Broad ordered.
“Central dispatch, we need sector cars ASAP for wanted fugitives James Timewalker and Tina Prescott.” Said the Chief of Police into his radio.
Within moments, sirens were heard in the distance and lights blazed on top of the squad cars of the Chronix Bay Police Department. The demonstrators scattered fearing the worst and the cars pulled up in front of the terminal entrance on Main Street. Several armed officers exited their vehicles and a large van that contained a squadron of officers in full riot gear.
“Men, we are expecting full resistance from two escaped fugitives who are wanted for murder. We are instructed to apprehend and shoot to kill if necessary. I repeat, shoot to kill if necessary.” Yelled Lieutenant Brock Walton, the fair haired policeman in his youthful years with a cheap suit and a glare of fire in his belly as he led his team guns drawn to the battlefield of the airport lobby like predators ready to attend to their prey.
James and Tina saw the squadron enter and in a panic ran towards the gate they were destined for. They saw Broad and his entourage who pointed them out prior to entering the gate to the plane and in turn the duo ran the other way chased by over a dozen armed officers. They ran into a corridor near the gate and were stopped by the man in the dark suit who they saw several times. He was riding in a security vehicle like a golf cart.
“Enter the vehicle.” The man uttered in an almost mechanical manner as several shots headed in their direction striking the small security golf-cart-like vehicles and walls around them barely missing them. So they obeyed his words frightened but sure that his way was better than the alternative they faced and without hesitation or question they ran into the vehicle with him and rode into the gate towards the plane and in the blink of an eye the man grabbed them both by the shirt and vanished in a whirl of bluish light as the cart piloted itself into a wall. By the time the officers led by Lieutenant Brock Walton arrived they were shocked to see no one was there and Lieutenant Walton looked out the window to see the plane was being taxied on the runway and then taking off towards Brazil.
“Damn, how did that happen?” He wondered to himself as they stood by powerless.
CHAPTER 33
On the plane, James and Tina sat next to one another on their supposed assigned seats and smile to one another.
“We are on our way to new good times and grand adventures my friend.” Tina uttered.
“I hope you are right as I have a bad feeling we are about to encounter the unthinkable.” James responded as the plane flew through the air from Chronix Bay to the far away land of Brazil. Tina took off her wig. She notices the man in the dark suit seated next to them.
“Are you who I think you are?” Tina spoke slowly and frightened.
“I was Michael Prescott many years ago.” His
voice was mechanical and sharp. “I am now number five hundred thousand and fifty-five.”
“I was told my father disappeared thirty-five years ago. I never knew him because I was only a baby. I saw photographs only and heard stories that he worked for some covert agency as some type of analyst.”
“That is true. He was your father and had been assigned high priority clearance to the Genesis Missions. He was closely affiliated to a group of men in power, a secret society of warrior-prophet-billionaire-tycoon-politicians and entrepreneurs with a society as old as civilization and a mission as old as time, bent on complete domination and control of everything.” He turns his head and James and Tina notice a small flesh wound in his ear slowly healing itself.
“You got shot?” Asked Tina rhetorically.
“A minor wound. I will not be harmed. My regenerative capabilities continue. The natural order of things has been adjusted by mind control and technological implants providing superhuman mental and physical abilities so that is why your father is not here but only his likeness. Everything about him was replaced with the advancements handed down throughout the centuries in complete secret of the world outside.” Number Five Hundred Thousand and Fifty Five spoke calmly.
“What is this society?” Asked James.
“They are a devious cabal that sought to control all from behind the scenes for centuries even before the founding of this country. They evolve with time and technology. There are those amongst them who believe and that have made contact with alien beasts, true danger experiments. They are known as the Machination or 12VM.”
“That’s amazing” said James.
“And what could they possibly want with a couple of nobodies like us?” Asked Tina.
“They sense specialness in both of you. They are constructing a weapon to be unleashed in the skies above, a new prototype bomb beyond any known nuclear, fission, or apocalyptic capabilities.”
“You mean like end of world stuff?” Tina asked frightened.
“It is known as project Prometheus. It is a cold fusion reactor capable of generating an explosion so powerful it will be one million times as strong as the atomic bomb.” Number Five Hundred Thousand and Fifty Five spoke roughly.
“Dear God, why would they want to do this?” Asked James.
“Control…of all time.”
“And why are you helping us with this?” Asked James.
“I am no longer amongst them. It is a complicated … story…” he held his ear and sensed himself begin to fade. “No one will remember my presence when I am gone.” He looked at them with darkness in his eyes. “It is for the best. They are the ones who set you two up. Clear your names and look out for one another. Always remember.”
“What?” Tina and James uttered simultaneously and rhetorically.
“Remember my words and this… your destinies are one in the same throughout time and knowledge is power.” With that Number Five Hundred Thousand and Fifty Five then vanishes into thin air.
James and Tina sit in their seats like the rest of the passengers onboard the craft and hold tight to their armrests thinking of greater things to come in the future.
“Tina, do you remember how we got on board?” Whispered James.
She looked at him with a suddenly blank stare and shrugged her shoulders.
They stared forward for the rest of the trip trying to figure it out as they did not even remember what they were running from. The 747 jet plane soared through the dawning skies.
CHAPTER 34
When James and Tina landed in Brazil, they were surrounded by the loud music of native lore and the passing through of vendors with their livestock and various items for sale, the smoke of the natural humidity covering the air, and the colorful array of décor and clothing reflecting in the bright sun light of the open atrium. There were people scattering about speaking Portuguese. They walked off the plane, having slept most of the way, and into the atrium heading straight for the door before they could be spotted.
“Good thing we don’t have no baggage claim,” Tina uttered.
“Let’s just move on out before we’re seen by anyone.”
“Relax James, we are in another country. Can you believe it?” Tina smiled jovially without expecting an answer. “When I was a kid growing up upstate, I never thought I would ever leave the county, let alone the country. I was quite relieve when I went to Chronix Bay.”
“I for one never left Chronix Bay, period.” James replied.
They exited the terminal and headed for a series of cars parked nearby with stickers and cab service labels. One had a young native with thick hair smoking a cigarette while reading a paper and leaning up against the hood of the car. “Sorry, no service,” he scolded them in his thick accent recognizing them as Americans. The duo continued on and saw Broad Staffnight and his entourage inside of the terminal.
“James”, nudged Tina, “isn’t that the party from the terminal that pointed us out to the cops?”
“Yeah, and now they’re here, which can’t be a coincidence.” James said.
“They are after us. Let’s get as far from here as possible.” Tina smirked. They entered the back of a blue cab that was sitting with the engine running.
“We need to get away from here, now.” James yelled.
“Where to?” Asked the confused driver.
“Anywhere!?!?!?” Both of them yelled.
“Tourists?” The driver uttered as he shook his head as he had asked them to which way they wanted to go and both nodded frantically and yelled.
“Let’s go,” said Tina.
“And let’s go” repeated James.
“OK, tourists.” The driver replied annoyed as he pulled off and took them away leaving screech marks on the ground.
The blue cab pulled up to the outskirts of a tropical dry forest region. James and Tina could see large stone monuments and ancient temple ruins in the backdrop of the jungle and mountainous regions in the distance emitting smoke and fog covered by the glistening intense heat and sunlight. The driver explained in Portuguese that he could not continue.
“This is a tourist area but I will not go over there” yelled the man angrily in Portuguese.
“What did he say?” Asked James.
“He’s afraid to go there.” Tina explained.
“Can you take us to a town or something?” Asked James.
Tina spoke loudly in Portuguese translating to the angry looking cab driver.
“No go farther” the driver yelled in English after sputtering various curse words in Portuguese as he sat about impatiently and put out his hand expecting payment. The duo exited the car nodding to one another and took off running into the woods leaving the angry driver cursing under his breath in Portuguese “good thing this wood is cursed.”
CHAPTER 35
The duo trekked through the jungle uncertain of their surroundings and scared of their misfortunes if they suffer a fall or other disaster. They wandered through the bushes of leaves and muck underneath their feet and the hanging vines and branches coming down that seemed like endless threads to navigate through.
“I never thought the jungle would be so disgusting.” James commented frowning.
“Mother nature is a pain.” Tina joked laughingly.
“Remind me to laugh later.” James added sarcastically. Then suddenly the bushels of leaves and vines before them rustled to their shock and out popped a hairy figure and then multiple hairy figures in a clearing surrounding them.
“What are they?” Tina screamed looking at the figures which had snouts like wolves, hair all over their bodies, long tails, and paws like monkeys. They were nude, had long shaggy hair all over their bodies wet from the perspiration of the jungle climate, and walked upright like men dancing in a hunched over position as if stumbling to maintain their equilibrium. They circled around the duo as both seemingly worried and got closer in a frightened embrace. “What are these things?” Tina uttered.
“Beats me” said James. “
I think this is goodbye.” He whispered as the razor sharp claws of the head of the pack slashed within an inch of James’ face.
“Use your powers.” Tina yelled.
“I can’t” James spoke paralyzed with fear as he waved his hand to the head of the pack but nothing happened. The head of the pack growled ferociously as he revealed his fangs and drooling interior mouth. The others bellowed in a similar manner in support as they began to close in on the duo. Then suddenly without delay, a swishing noise was heard above through the trees and a singular figure emerged swinging in a couple of times and striking the head of the pack in the back of the neck and he dropped to the floor to the dismay of his followers.
“What the…?” James and Tina uttered bewildered.
The figure swung back and landed on the soft grass before them. It was a young blonde-haired woman with bright eyes and a fierce determination in her grit. She wore animal skins and furs that made her seem to blend amongst the wolf-monkeys and she held a long wooden staff that seemed to be a natural extension of her long legs and tall form with amazing fitness, physique and prowess.
“Wow, she is amazing!” Shouted Tina.
The woman without hesitation turned and performed a serious of roundhouse kicks and jumping assaults spinning through the air with her staff and maneuvering wildly as she seemed to control the air about her and her staff to land on the ground and pogo up each time and attack the followers of the pack until they were all knocked down. The duo had ducked down in fear as they tried to fight but were outmatched. James had outstretched his hand and with the power of his thoughts, a dead branch on the ground lifted up and hurled itself upwards towards one of the pack who was about to pounce on the female warrior from behind and it knocked him out and down to the ground hard. The female warrior acknowledged this strange gesture with a nod and continued on with her assault. When the last of the pack fell, the female warrior stood before them landing on her feet, her legs astride and staff about her. The pack slowly rose and began to run into the woods one after another.
The Time Stone Page 10
