by Ethan Bibile
“But, that was not your question, no it was not,” Agross’ crazed smile returned. “Gather round class, it’s story time!” Agross jested cruelly, gesturing to an invisible and non-existent classroom full of kids.
“Yes, the game I play is a fun one,” Agross began, enraging Quinn even more at the word ‘game’. “But it’s good to have some intel on your terrifyingly do goody two shoe enemies. So, I hired countless pirate ships from across the universe to capture people to bring to me for questioning. Questioning on what? Why thank you for asking Agross!” He chuckled to himself at his own little joke before continuing. “On T.A.S.P.A. I have the pirates bring them here for questioning, but very rarely I actually get anything out of them.”
Quinn was almost sick, completely bemused at these bizarre and twisted antics.
“Why though?” Quinn asked horrified. “Most of those prisoners knew nothing about T.A.S.P.A. I know nothing about them except their name and I’m looking for information! Why would you torture people for information when it’s obvious they don’t have it?” Quinn could feel emotions running wild through him, fear, anger, sadness. He felt like he was going to crumble at any given second from the flow of emotions.
“I don’t know,” Agross shrugged. “Why not? It’s fun, I guess. The destruction, the death, doesn’t it just fill you with warmth?” Agross said, gesturing outwards at Quinn. “Now, any other questions?” Quinn wanted to shoot Agross right in the chest. However, after Agross’s demonstration of his teleportation powers earlier he knew it would just be a waste of energy. So, he decided to bide his time with another question.
“Your henchmen, are they just more people that you’ve captured and turned into your men?” Quinn asked, really feeling emotions for the people he had seen with the metal plate against their necks, the thing that seemed to control them.
“Ah, yes,” Agross said, clapping his hands together and smiling. “Thank you, Mr Fenton, brilliant question, let's answer that class, why don’t we?” Agross jested, poking fun at Quinn, whom simply stared back at Agross, the hate flowing in between them. “No, my henchmen have not been captured by me, no,” Agross replied. “They all volunteer, every single one wants to join me! I’m surprised I don’t have a queue lining up outside my ‘evil lair’,” Agross wiggled his fingers as he referred to his base. “Yes, they do volunteer, but I’ve got to make sure they are trustworthy. So, I basically mind control them,” Agross shrugged to Quinn like they were discussing the most harmless topic in the universe. “As for the evil robots, they’re just the little soldiers.”
The way Agross smiled simply made Quinn sick. The facial features were being burned into his head even more clearly than they had been before, the face of his family’s killer branded in his mind’s eye. He felt sickness churning inside his stomach and he seriously began questioning if he had made the right choice to face Agross here and now with no training from T.A.S.P.A or help from Laura and Morgan. Morgan had always been right, and this was not an exception. Quinn realised that now.
“Why though?” Quinn said, looking at the floor, the fire had died inside him and he could feel his body broken. “Why rule the universe, what gain is there from that?”
“Sorry?” Agross asked, cupping a hand to his ear and turning it towards Quinn. “I can’t hear you, speak again?”
“WHY?” Quinn screamed out, his eyes stinging and becoming red. “WHY RULE THE UNIVERSE?!” If they had not already, his vocals cords had surely torn.
“That,” Agross said, and his sadistic smile died from his face. “Is incorrect,” Quinn’s face showed confusion beyond any level he had felt before. Agross didn’t want universal domination? Then what was all of this, the destruction, the death, the torture, what was this all about?
“I don’t want to rule the universe, Quinn. I want to destroy it.”
The words sunk deep into Quinn. Universal destruction. Everything, gone. Everything that existed would be dead. And all because of one crazed man who felt pleasure in people’s misery.
“This universe, I hate it,” Agross said, and his cruel, twisted evil happy grin had gone and he had turned completely serious, something that Quinn had believed to be impossible for him. “I hate every particle in this stupid universe. What good has it ever done me? No good, nothing in the slightest. So, I want to destroy it. Rip it apart piece by piece and then build up my universe from the remains of this horrible place!” Spit flew from Agross’ mouth, and if he hadn’t before he certainly looked crazed now. Quinn took a step back from him, now genuinely afraid.
“That’s impossible,” Quinn contradicted, and for a moment he thought Agross would run him through with a knife. “No one can destroy the universe, it’s impossible.”
And then Agross laughed. Not a chuckle. Not a giggle. But a full on laugh as if he had heard the universe’s funniest joke. As if Quinn Fenton was a famous comedian. The laugh shook Quinn to the core, seemingly shaking the whole place that they stood in. Agross doubled over, continuing to laugh.
“I must say, Quinn, that was quite hilarious,” Agross said, sighing as he caught his breath and stood up. He ran his hands down his pure black coat that seemed to be made of evil and darkness itself. “I must contradict you there because, yes, you can destroy the universe.”
From a pocket in his jacket, Agross pulled out a silver, sleek fob watch. He dangled the chain around his fingers, swinging it back and forth in joy. It sparkled ever so slightly, almost reflecting the beauty that was the stars above them. Quinn, however, was quite sure that this fob watch was anything but beauty.
“This, Quinn is what I like to call a Time Watch,” Agross said, smiling. Suddenly he was gone only to appear a millisecond later at Quinn’s side, causing Quinn to yell in surprise and jump away. However, before he could get far enough away, Agross snatched Quinn’s arm and flipped open the cover of the fob watch.
It was like all the air had been sucked from Quinn’s stomach instantly. He felt himself go cold inside, his entire body seeming to freeze up, yet he found he could still move. It was the strangest sensation Quinn had ever felt. His skin tingled almost with some strange feeling and Quinn knew that whatever was at work here was not normal. He turned to look at Agross, who was smiling at him. Quinn took a few steps back to get away, releasing his arm from Agross’ grip. Since he was so close, Quinn pulled out his gun from his pocket and attempted to pull the trigger, but he found that it didn’t work.
“What?” Quinn said in desperation, needing this one device to get him out of this situation. He pulled the trigger repeatedly, trying to get it to fire but it didn’t. He looked up at Agross, about to yell at him for whatever was happening when he realised what was really wrong.
Everything was silent. He couldn’t hear himself breathing, or Agross breathing, the shuffle of their clothes as it rubbed against their skin, or any noise that had come from the depths of the base. Quinn had barely noticed it as he had walked through the deserted corridors and entered the large open space. But now that it was gone, he noticed. Nothing had been more noticeable in his entire life.
“What did you do?” Quinn asked slowly, rounding on Agross, who was grinning wildly, swinging the fob watch back and forth, back and forth, one hand in his pocket as he casually watched Quinn struggle to figure out what had happened.
“You tell me, Quinn, let’s see if you’re smart,” Agross said with a wicked smirk on his face. A smirk that may as well be imprinted on his body.
Quinn looked around the room, trying to figure out what happened. Something was missing from the scenario, something was missing, and it seemed to have thrown the entire room off. Quinn tried breathing, but it didn’t seem to work. Frantically, he pressed his hand to his heart and found no beat from it. He began to freak out. Was he dead? Perhaps Agross had killed him, it seems like the psychopathic thing he would do. But perhaps not, as Agross was in the same boat as Quinn, and wouldn’t have just killed himself. Or would he?
Quinn’s gaze went over to the open
fob watch that Agross was swinging from the chain. Quinn stared at the hands of the Watch, which were broken. Or were they? Then the answer struck Quinn, so obvious he couldn’t believe he had missed it before.
“You froze time,” Quinn said softly.
“Haha!” Agross cried out in jubilation. “Congratulations, you’re a winner! You just won ten thousand ioas!” Agross began to cheer for Quinn, this very cheer being strange as it refrained from echoing around the room.
“You froze time. How the hell did you do that?” Quinn said, beginning to totally freak out. If he could breathe, he knew that the pace of his breaths would be at some crazy rate.
“How about I show you something a little more?” Agross said, smiling before he walked over to Quinn and grabbed his tan jacket. Suddenly, everything vanished, and Quinn felt like he was going to be sick. The ground, the sky, the frozen atmosphere all vanished around him. Suddenly, within a millisecond, everything reappeared, and Quinn collapsed upon the floor, urging himself not to throw up. However, he doubted he would be able to in his half-frozen state.
“Look up,” Agross said, his voice coming from somewhere next to Quinn. Quinn did as he was told, heaving his head up from looking at the ground and found himself confronted with an amazing yet terrifying sight.
They stood back in the hangar, which was mostly the same as it had been the last time Quinn had seen it. The major difference was that everyone in the room was frozen in time.
Quinn stood up and walked towards the pirate ship which was in the same place it had been when Quinn snuck into the base. Yet like everything it was frozen.
Quinn walked forwards as if in a trance, his mouth hanging open slightly in shock. Crew members were dragging prisoners through the hangar towards the doors, their horrified expressions plastered upon their face. Quinn walked up to one pair, a crew member with dark purple skin and several feelers upon his face and cuts that looked like gills. The woman was simply human as Quinn was. Spit flew from the crew members mouth, the individual droplets stuck in the air. Quinn’s finger hovered up next to one before touching it, finding that instead of being a liquid, it was solid. Not a solid as in ice solid, yet it seemed to have taken on the consistency of a brick wall. Quinn proceeded to touch the flying hair of the woman, which was stuck in place too, strands of hair all over the place. He tried to move one strand, yet to no avail.
“How…?” Quinn asked, his voice trailing off as he turned around to face Agross, who was standing there smiling like a maniac as he watched Quinn. “How have you frozen time…” He was stuck in disbelief, having no idea what to think, what to feel about this. How was this possible? It shouldn’t be, this shouldn’t be a power anyone should wield. Especially a teleporting lunatic.
“It’s all in this Watch,” Agross said, staring at it fondly. “This beautiful amazing Watch. Really, they are great, you should get yourself one. With the press of one button, you can freeze the entire universe!” Agross said with his trademark sadistic smile across his face. At the mention of freezing the entire universe, Quinn felt like he was going to throw up.
Suddenly he disappeared, and Quinn knew he was going to appear next to him. He braced himself as Agross appeared next to him and teleported them both back to the large room with the circular floor and glass ceiling.
Agross snapped the lid shut on the fob watch suddenly and Quinn felt a gust of air fly back into his lungs, seeming to push him backwards. He stumbled back, taking a much-needed breath of air, although he had been perfectly fine without it. The sounds that hit his eardrums created an orchestra of noise, despite not even being very loud.
Quinn stumbled back from Agross, who in turn walked away from him, pocketing the fob watch, the silver glinting as it disappeared.
“And now I’m sure you’re asking yourself, ‘Agross, what could a time stopping Watch possibly do with destroying the universe?’ Well now, I’ll tell you,” Agross returned to his teacher persona briefly, before becoming the crazed monster that he was.
“Separating every single moment, everything that has ever happened in the history of the universe is Time itself which is constantly moving. Pure Time that exists in a separate dimension which clings onto ours,” Agross began his story, Quinn urging himself to concentrate on this vital piece of information. “Now whenever someone stops time, the pure Time in the other dimension also stops moving. When time is started again, it begins to move again. Yet when it begins moving, it starts suddenly, and it rips, creating a hole. A small hole, yet a hole all the same. And whenever time is stopped and started, new holes appear, and old ones grow. Until one day, the holes will be so big, that my work will be done. The pure Time will begin to decay, breaking down completely, leaving the universe free from time. Due to this, every single moment will come crashing together, binding together making every single moment coincide with each other at the same time. But the universe won’t like that. No, no. Everything happening at the same time will cause the universes biggest paradox; causing the universe to break and everything that is in it, that was once in it, and that will be in it, to no longer exist. And thus, we have an empty universe.”
Agross’ eyes glittered upon sharing his plan with Quinn, overjoyed at what was going to become of the universe.
“And once that is done, once the universe is empty, I will come and begin to build from the time remnants, pieces of things that once were yet never happened. And my universe will arise!”
Quinn was horrified. The entire universe to be created in Agross’ image. The thought horrified him even though he only had a small taste of what Agross could do. It terrified him. Now that he knew of Agross’ plan he became even more terrified than he had already been before.
“So, I spread hundreds of these Time Watches throughout time and space, sending them to random points in time for random people to receive. And they, unknowingly, become a part of my master plan. They help me destroy the universe bit by bit. But then I hear you ask, why not do it yourself? Well, because by creating hundreds of Watches and spreading them throughout time, it sends T.A.S.P.A running around time and space like mice, trying to destroy these Watches. It’s like a game. And so far, I’m winning,” Agross hissed out the last sentence, his eyes wide and crazed, his psychopathic smile upon his face.
Quinn ran a hand down his face, his breaths coming out short and rapid, not sure of what to make of the entire situation. His world was spinning. It just seemed to be going faster and faster, not allowing Quinn to grab hold of it and make any sense out of it.
“But…” Quinn said as he grabbed onto one of the thoughts that came to mind. “You won’t be able to survive the destruction of the universe,” He shook his head and stared at the ground.
“Ah, well Quinn,” Agross said, grinning crazily, rubbing his hands together. “I guess that’s a little fact for me to know and for you to find out,” Agross said, smiling crazily. “It’s fun, being evil, so much fun. It’s better than being good. All of you people will suffer, and I, Agross, will rule the-”
“You won’t,” Quinn said, cutting Agross off. Agross whipped his head around to look at Quinn, his shoulder-length black hair flicking around. He had been having a moment and Quinn had just ruined it.
“Excuse me?” Agross said, talking as if how dare Quinn question his rule, how dare he even consider doubting that he would win.
“You won’t win,” Quinn repeated, this time more firmly. He lifted his gaze from the ground to Agross and stood tall, gun by his side as he stared at Agross directly into his eyes. “I know you won’t win because I’m here. All the way from the future. If I’m here, then you certainly won’t win.”
Yet again, Agross began laughing. First as a small laugh, before it seemingly exploded all around the room. His face scrunched up as he laughed, bending over in hysterics. He eventually stood up and looked at Quinn, not even bothering to wipe the stupid grin off his face.
“You don’t get it, do you?” Agross laughed, making a gesture towards Quinn with his
hands. “By destroying time, it will create a paradox. It doesn’t matter if you’re from the future because I’m changing time as it is. Once everything is destroyed, nothing will have existed. Not the past, the present or the future. I’ll survive as an eternal paradox, but I don’t care. Small price to pay for owning the universe,” Agross said, stretching his arms out, proud of his master plan. His grin showcased every single one of his teeth as he stared at Quinn with his sick and twisted smile.
“Aww… is whittle Quinn too mad to speak?” Agross taunted, his tone of voice changing to if he was speaking to a baby. He then suddenly laughed again and spun around. “I’m going to kill you Quinn, and then I’m to kill the rest of this stupid universe!” Agross cried out once he had stopped spinning. “I’m going to kill everyone just like I killed your precious family, I’m going to blast every planet from existence just like your beloved Nespritia!” Agross screamed, his true insanity on display.
Something inside Quinn snapped. He knew he was already broken, he wasn’t sure how he had made it this far. He had broken the second his family died. He had come to this time as a collection of puzzle pieces that could not be stuck back together to create the picture that was Quinn Fenton. Yet they had helped. Laura and Morgan. His two friends. Laura, she had changed him back into Quinn Fenton, she had done the puzzle, put the pieces back together in their right spots and she, of all the people in the universe, he managed to keep him together. And now he was facing Agross, his enemy, the man who was responsible for his destruction into millions of pieces. He was facing him without his friends who had managed to keep him together. Now he was simply a pile of pieces, no longer Quinn Fenton without Laura and Morgan.
Agross’ words taunted him, playing in his mind repeatedly. “I’m going to kill everyone just like I killed your precious family, I’m going to blast every planet from existence just like your beloved Nespritia!” The sentence rang in his head repeatedly, slicing his brain. In his mind’s eye, he saw the burning city of Filia. His mother’s and sister’s dead, buried bodies. His father pushing him out of the way and being crushed to death. Agross’ twisted, sadistic smile.
